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William asked: “I’m having problems with my iPad Air. It’ll be fully charged and it’ll just go dead on me. I’ll plug it in, it’ll come back on and say it has 100% charge. Sometimes when I’m in a cold room it’ll go dead quicker, if I’m in a warm environment, it stays on. What exactly is going on with my iPad?”
William, it sounds like your battery is just done for.
The iPad’s battery is not user replaceable, but it can be replaced. Your options are to either do it yourself buying the parts online and taking the iPad apart, to take it to a third party repair shop, or to send it back to Apple.
Doing it yourself is possible, but it will take some work and some patience. Using the right tools will make it easier, but it will take some time and it will involve handling some delicate connectors, so make sure you’re up to the task before you open the case. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not for everyone either.
Third party repair shops will typically be a little bit cheaper than Apple, and they’re everywhere, but check and see how much money they want first. Apple charges $99 to replace the battery, and sometimes they’ve been known to send a new iPad instead. That’s not the most likely scenario if you have an original Air because they’ve been out for a while, but at least Apple will stand by their repair.
If the third party shop charges you close to what Apple would, it may be a better idea to send it to them, having said that, there are some repair shops that will charge nearly half of what Apple does, and then your risk becomes more reasonable to take.
Whichever way you go, it really sounds like your battery is ready to be retired and you may need to consider either a new battery, or a whole new tablet.