Custom-Designed Portage Building Marks 40% Increase in Space, Enhanced Ability to

Deliver Services to Both Local and Global Customers

KALAMAZOO, MI – (DATE, 2009) – Rapid Repair, the most well-known and reputable national online repair service for consumer electronics, announced today that the company has moved their headquarters building to Portage, Michigan. The company, formerly headquartered in Kalamazoo, now enjoys a 40% increase in space, an expanded retail area for local customers, and a customized physical layout that enhances the company’s ability to service global customers seeking iPod, iPhone, Zune and game console repair. Normal operations began on October 12 at the Portage location.

“This move marks a real milestone for Rapid Repair in our growth, and in the way we service our customers,” said Aaron Vronko, Service Manager at Rapid Repair. “And, with the new technicians and customer service representatives we are hiring as a result of the move, we’re thrilled to boost the local economy.”

The new headquarters has been designed to accommodate work on gadgets and technology yet to be developed. There is increased space for new product disassemblies, and the ability to serve more customers with an increased array of devices. The new customer service area is adjacent to Rapid Repair technicians to allow quick and easy consultation on even the toughest customer questions.

Rapid Repair is one of the longest-standing and most reputable sources for small electronics repair, specializing in iPod, iPhone, Zune and handheld and console game systems. Customers receive free diagnostic services on most items by completing the diagnostic service request form at www.rapidrepair.com and sending in their device for evaluation. A technician consults with the customer within 48 hours to provide an estimate and gain approval before any work begins.
Rapid Repair not only fixes iPods, Zunes, and iPhones with sound issues, liquid damage, hard drive problems and broken screens, but also customizes the devices with colorful screens and faceplates. For do-it-yourselfers, the company sells parts, accessories, and manuals, and includes professional installation of most parts at no extra charge.

For more information, visit www.rapidrepair.com.

About Rapid Repair
Rapid Repair is dedicated to the service, repair, and modification of all iPod, iPhone, Zune, and other small electronic devices. The national company specializes in small electronics repair, with quality workmanship, speed and efficiency, and offering customer service that is second to none. Rapid Repair is headquartered in a 4,300 square foot building in Portage, Michigan.

iPod and iPhone are registered trademarks of Apple. Other products and trade names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

The folks at Rapid Repair recently took apart a new PSP Go, and took a look at its insides.  The instructions are on their website complete with a bunch of pictures.  You can click on them and see all the details.  If you are doing a repair on your PSP Go (read this statement:  IF YOU ARE DOING A REPAIR, YOU WILL INVALIDATE YOUR WARRANTY), check there for the step by step on how to crack it open without busting it.

http://www.rapidrepair.com/guides/psp-go/psp-go-repair-guide.html

Earlier this year, reportedly faulty exploding iPhones in Europe caused a whole lot of finger pointing at Apple and its suppliers-but more often than not, iPhones get sent to the repair shop because of user slip-ups.

Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, an iPod and iPhone repair shop, and one of the first technicians to take apart the iPhone 3GS and write a repair guide, has seen his fair share of reasons why broken iPhones need emergency surgery. Here are his six favorites, along with advice on how to triage the problems:

1. “My iPhone went through the washing machine.”

Liquid is public enemy number one of the iPhone. One reader wrote to me that Apple refused to fix her broken iPhone because the Apple technician saw a red line on the base of the phone where the charger attaches. “It’s some kind of liquid submersion indicator,” she says, adding that her new iPhone was never exposed to water, rain or humidity. “They insisted I must have somehow submerged the iPhone in water, voiding all warranties.”

When an iPhone gets caught up in the washing machine, you’ll probably have to kiss it goodbye. “This all-too-common cause has a high mortality rate due to the thorough and prolonged penetration of the water,” Vronko says.

2. “I plugged my iPhone into my car charger, and it started to smoke.”

Chances are you’ve fried iPhone circuits because of a power surge. The 12 volt electrical system of cars used primarily for headlights and interior lights was not designed to handle the loads of modern cars with their big stereos, myriad gadgets and electronic features. “It’s common to have power surges simply because we’re overloading a small capacity system,” Vronko says.

The good news is that the iPhone probably can be repaired cheaply, unlike the iPhone in the washing machine. In the iPhone, the dock connector acts as a kind of protective layer to the main board, and so a power surge will likely fry just the dock connector. You’ll need an inexpensive dock connector replacement, Vronko says. Of course, you’ll still have to go a couple of days without your iPhone.

A big power surge, of course, can make it to the main board. In these cases, it’s bye-bye iPhone. “It wouldn’t make economic sense to fix it,” Vronko says.

Vronko doesn’t make many recommendations about iPhone accessories, save one: Buy brand-name chargers because they’ll have a better fuse to protect the iPhone. A brand-name company will also be more likely to help you out if its product causes damage to your iPhone.

Also, if you’re intent on using a car charger, try not to have the iPhone plugged in when you’re starting or turning off a car. That’s usually when electrical spikes occur, Vronko says.

3. “I dropped the iPhone and the screen cracked.”

You may pull an iPhone from your pocket or bag 40 times in a day. Its thin shape and slippery plastic shell is a disaster in the making. I’ve probably dropped my iPhone once every other week, luckily on carpet, and thus had to replace the screen’s protective film or live with the scratches on the back. With a drop on concrete, though, it’s easy to see the potential for cracked screens.

A cracked screen is fixable, says Vronko. The combined LCD-digitizer screen module on the iPhone 2G will need to be replaced. On the iPhone 3G and 3GS, only the digitizer usually needs replacement, Vronko says.

4. “My iPhone won’t charge.”

When an iPhone won’t charge, consumer fears may turn to the highly publicized iPhone battery lemon phenomenon. More often than not, however, the problem is far less dramatic. “This is usually the result of a misaligned dock cable or a foreign object being forced into the dock connector, causing damage and requiring that this module be replaced,” Vronko says.

The advice is simple: take care when plugging the cable into the iPhone. Also, make sure it’s the right cable. Yes, people often try to force in a wrong cable into the socket.

Along these lines, some iPhone owners complain that their iPhone won’t charge fully-that is, the iPhone indicates a less-than-100 percent charge. Yet the problem might be that the chip on the battery and the chip on the device measuring the juice flowing back and forth are out of sync.

Vronko advises customers to run the iPhone completely dead and then charge it until it can’t take anymore charge. Repeat this process, “and this should sync up the chips,” he says.

5. “I tried to repair my iPhone myself, and now it doesn’t work.”

This common response often is accompanied with a bag full of parts and screws, says Vronko. Chances are, if you play Dr. Fix-It, you will do additional damage to the iPhone.

While we all took apart bikes or computers when we were kids, a person must know his limitations. Seek professional help when dealing with high-tech devices like the iPhone.

6. “My son (or daughter) says nothing happened, it just stopped working.”

There are just two kinds of parents, Vronko jokes: the parent who believes the teenager, and the parent who knows better. It’s a good bet that the son or daughter let water get into the iPhone, dropped it, or jammed the wrong cable into the iPhone dock connector.

Earlier this year, an 18-year-old French teenager complained his eye was injured when his girlfriend’s iPhone overheated and the device’s touchscreen shattered, according to a report by the AFP news agency.

After researching the case, Apple responded: The glass cracked “due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone,” and not internal heat, Alan Hely, a London-based spokesman for Apple Europe said.

After high volume of complaints it asks some users to install power-logging software

Continued complaints by iPhone owners about fast-draining batteries have prompted Apple to ask some users to install power-logging software on their smartphones in an effort to diagnose the problem, according to messages on the company’s support forum.

“Some of you may already have been informed via e-mail [by Apple], but for those of you that haven’t, I can assure you that Apple is trying to get to the bottom of this problem,” said a user identified as “mikefradette” Friday on a support thread dedicated to poor battery performance. “Let’s just say they have selected a beta group to help solve this issue.”

Others reported that technical support representatives had asked them to install Apple software that logs application usage and power consumption. Apple technical support has also used an 11-item questionnaire in its discussions with users in an attempt to figure out the cause of rapid battery drain, including questions are about Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and e-mail use.

“There’s still no smoking gun,” said Aaron Vronko, the CEO of Michigan-based Rapid Repair, an iPhone repair shop. “But the processor in the iPhone 3GS can use 50% more power in some situations than its predecessor. I’d bet that Apple missed some key interactions between the iPhone’s software and the processor in the last update that causes it to over-utilize the CPU, especially since [the complaints] came after the software update.”

Vronko was referring to the iPhone 3.1 update that Apple shipped two weeks ago.

Most of the users grousing on the Apple support forum who identified their iPhone’s model said they were using the 3GS, although some said they had seen battery life drop off on their iPhone 3G smartphones as well.

In fact, complaints about battery consumption started in June, when “http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135181/iPhone_users_harangue_Apple_over_battery_life?”>Apple rolled out the iPhone 3.0 software.

The clamor grew even louder after users installed iPhone 3.1, and shows no sign of abating. One thread on the topic, which debuted Sept. 10, has more than 570 individual posts, and has been read by over 40,000 people, an extremely high number for Apple’s forum.

“I’m glad this is an actual problem. I thought I was just going crazy,” said “iPhil” Monday afternoon on that well-trafficked thread. “After [iPhone] 3.1, battery sometimes doesn’t even last an entire day with no additional talk than I had using 3.0.”

“The day after I installed the 3.1 firmware, everything changed. I have to charge the iPhone in the middle of the day to be able to have enough battery to get home,” added “help with iPhone.”

“Same problem here,” reported “cathjock12345″ on the same thread Monday. “The battery was completely drained after about 1 hour of Internet use, 10 text messages, and 2 quick (5 minute-ish) phone calls over the course of 5 hours. Unacceptable.”

“I think this is exactly the kind of thing you’d see from an unexpected software interaction with the processor,” argued Vronko today.

But Apple’s doing the right thing by asking iPhone owners how they’re using their smartphones, and requesting that some install logging software.

“Some of these [people] are probably heavy application users, though they may think they’re light users,” said Vronko. “But [the logging software] is likely looking not just at the applications being used and the power consumption, but recording down to the last processing thread what’s occurring.”

Vronko was optimistic that Apple would get to the root of the problem. “Diagnostics like that should make it pretty easy for them to narrow it down,” he said.

Rapid Repair is generally in the business of fixing iPods. But when Microsoft released the slick little Zune HD music player on Sept. 16, Rapid Repair promptly tore one apart to take a look at its insides. The Zune HD’s most highly touted features are its touch-screen—which Rapid Repair advises against marring up with fingerprints, once you pull it off its frame—HD Radio, a Web browser with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, wireless connectivity, a Quickplay feature that offers shortcuts to favorite apps, and support for 720-pixel HD movies, TV and videos. The 32GB model is capable of storing 8,000 songs or 10 hours of HD video from the Zune Marketplace. In all, Rapid Repair found the Zune HD to share a few features with the Apple iPod Touch and Nano, and applauded its very replaceable parts—perfect for butter-fingered users.

Please see link below for full video of teardown.

Wiens runs iFixit, a tech company that can be described as eccentric, to say the least. The staff of 20 engineers and college interns specializes in disassembling gadgets while documenting the process with photographs and writing. The end result of their work is an unofficial, illustrative instruction guide on taking apart and repairing each gadget. Their stated goal is to help consumers avoid the hefty costs of professional repairs or buying new products.

But it’s also a savvy marketing strategy in an increasingly competitive slice of what the tech industry calls “teardown culture.”

Some other companies, including RapidRepair and iSuppli, run similar businesses taking apart products. Hardware hackers, too, disassemble hardware as a hobby to learn how to tweak their devices into the gadgets of their dreams.

But teardown businesses don’t make money tearing down these gadgets, taking pictures of their insides or offering manuals. Rather, iFixit and RapidRepair both sell the parts for consumers to order and perform their self-repairs. And if customers are too afraid to do their own repairs, RapidRepair offers their professional services for a fee.

Photographing and documenting the teardown process, then, is mostly a marketing tool for these businesses to gain media attention and exposure in an effort to attract customers. IFixit, for instance, regularly sends tech publications (including Wired.com) their teardown observations and free photographs for use in articles.

Playing the “time zone game” with iFixit’s 2007 New Zealand flight gave the crew a head start of 27 hours before the iPhone was released on the U.S. West coast, where Wiens lives. But they still faced a number of challenges.

First, they had never been to New Zealand, so they had no office to work in and knew nobody who could help them. They couldn’t just set up shop in a hotel room, either: They needed lots of space, light and a fast internet connection to upload high-resolution photos documenting their process. Fortunately, the owner of a copy shop was generous enough to offer his facility for their use.

They got to work on the toughest part yet: disassembling a brand new product whose innards nobody, except Apple’s engineers, knew anything about. It turned out the first-generation iPhone didn’t even have screws to get inside. The team was momentarily stumped on just how to take apart the iPhone.

Then — eureka! They found they could pop off the black antenna shield and pry off the metal back.

“That was monstrously difficult,” Wiens said in a phone interview. Surprisingly, his team didn’t break the device, though its metal band was slightly bent after they reassembled it.

Marketing aside, why are geeks so fascinated by looking at the chips, wires, ribbons and glue — the hideous part of a gadget — when the gorgeous part is on the outside?

It’s quite simple: By peering into these gadget’s “souls,” you learn their secrets. A teardown of the new iPhone 3GS (the top photo in this article), for example, revealed the handset has an underclocked processor, presumably to preserve its battery life. And when iFixit disassembled the iPod Touch released in September 2008 (shown above), the company found a hidden bonus: an apparently unused Bluetooth chip, whose functionality Apple would later unlock in summer of 2009.

Aaron Vronko, CEO of RapidRepair, added that teardowns serve as a check on a company’s claims. Apple’s Steve Jobs, for example, recently said the latest (third-generation) iPod Touch lacks a camera because the gadget’s focus is gaming. However, iFixit’s teardown of the new iPod Touch found a small compartment that would be perfect for a camera.

“I don’t believe Steve’s explanation,” Vronko said. “I think in six months tops we’ll see an iPod Touch with a camera.”

The more interesting facet of looking inside is the opportunity to see forward, Vronko said.

“Teardowns give us insights on what’s coming up on technology and what kind of technologies people are choosing to integrate,” Vronko said. “It’s cool to see first hand the progression of design.”

A clear observation from teardowns is they keep getting more difficult, as gadgets progressively become smaller, more complex and more tightly packed with components.

Andrew Bookholt, a Cal Poly student studying mechanical engineering and an iFixit intern, flew to Newark to pick up a fifth-generation iPod Nano for teardown. He described the process of tearing down the camera-equipped iPod Nano as “a pain.” Copious amounts of glue held together the miniature device, and the click wheel was not removable and had to be popped out. It was so hard, in fact, Bookholt broke the Nano on his first attempt.

But Bookholt’s hard work (and iFixit’s money) was worth it, because the Nano’s guts spilled some fascinating hints on what’s to come.

“Apple is integrating everything more and more toward the iPhone-sized computer that will do everything,” Bookholt said. “I think they’re just going to shrink everything down, and maybe eventually have a Nano have all the capabilities of an iPhone, plus more. The trend is going toward an all-in-one device that has a lot of functions.”

IFixit’s Wiens has been taking apart gadgets for six years, and he said his favorite observation is the inadvertent harmony between rivals such as Apple and Microsoft. The two are fierce competitors, Wiens said, but once you look inside their gadgets, many of them are made by the same people. The Zune HD and the iPhone, for example, were both made by Foxconn, a major manufacturer in China.

“You’ve got these arch nemesis devices, and they’re the culmination of years of effort by Microsoft and Apple,” Wiens said. “But they’re being assembled and shipped out of China by the same company. At the same time you know the product managers at Apple and Microsoft hate each other’s guts.”

Click through to the next pages for more photos of naked gadgets (all SFW, or safe for work, unless your coworkers are easily shocked by wanton destruction of consumer electronics).

My first assumption was that it was time for a new computer. Ours was about five years old, relatively ancient in technological years.

But then I started thinking — should I be so quick to assume that computers and the other gadgets of modern life, like iPods and game systems, are always ready to retire after two years, or three or four? For economic and environmental reasons (repairing is better than replacing), shouldn’t I look into the possibility that we could salvage our computer?

I decided to call Adam Sanderson, chief executive of Computer Overhauls, based in Manhattan. I interviewed Mr. Sanderson about four years ago for a column and have since hired him occasionally for emergency computer problems.

Mr. Sanderson remotely peeked into my computer and confirmed my worst fears — the hard drive was dying.

We could go out and buy a new one. Or, he suggested, we could ship or bring in the tower that contains the hard drive and he would replace it for about $150 — far less than the cheapest desktop we could buy. Prices can be higher for more powerful hard drives and up to about $200 for laptops.

“We would clean out the whole machine, reinstall everything fresh and it would be like a brand-new computer,” he told me.

But then my software wouldn’t be upgraded, would it?

No, Mr. Sanderson told me, but you may not really need to.

“It depends on what you’re using the computer for,” he said. “If you’re surfing the Internet and doing e-mail, which is what the bulk of people do, then you’re only using 5 to 10 percent of the actual power of your computer anyhow. Most people don’t need upgraded software.”

The turnaround is about 48 hours, he said, and comes with a three-year guarantee.

On the other hand, he said, if you are going to work on video editing or movie production, you probably want the newest software available. Also, any computer older than seven years should probably be replaced if it’s having difficulties, he added.

Mr. Sanderson also repairs iPods and iPhones, and his business is booming.

“There’s definitely a huge surge in the amount of repairs” in this economic climate, he said, as people choose to keep what they have rather than spend twice as much on the newest model.

Once I started looking into it, I found a surprising array of repair options, ranging from specialized experts to a community of techies who offer free advice online.

Rapid Repair, for example, based in Kalamazoo, Mich., “tries to serve an underserved population,” by fixing game systems like Nintendo Wiis, PlayStations, Zune MP3 players, iPods and iPhones, said Aaron Vronko, service manager for Rapid Repair.

The company, which does not repair computers, was founded in 2004 and fields about 500 requests a week, Mr. Vronko said. In general, he advised, repairs make sense if they can be done for less than half the cost of a new item.

“If you have a $200 gadget and you can repair it for $80 or $90, the customers sees value in saving over $100,” he said. “There’s a certain feeling you get buying something new, but saving money is also good.”

Suppose, for example, that your 30-gigabyte iPod with video has some problems. If the device is still under warranty, you send it back to Apple. If the warranty has lapsed, you can still send it to Apple and it will cost $129 to repair or $59 for a new battery, which is often the problem.

At Rapid Repair, the highest repair cost would $90, but often runs less if the trouble is minor. The company also offers to replace batteries for $20.

“About half our customers buy the parts and do their repairs themselves,” Mr. Vronko said. He suggests, though, that once the item is about five years old, it’s probably not worth fixing.

What if the product is still under warranty, but something that isn’t covered breaks, and you want to get someone to fix it for less than the manufacturer will charge? You need to check if the repair company is authorized by the manufacturer. If it is, then typically the repair can be done and the warranty remains valid if other problems crop up.

Here is another option. Let’s say you have a technologically savvy friend who is willing to help you figure out your computer’s problem. But she lives in California and you live in London.

There are a variety of services and software that allow you to remotely control a computer. I checked out a company called CrossLoop, which offers two options. You can download software from the company’s Web site that allows you to remotely gain access to another computer system — either MacIntosh or Microsoft Windows — and diagnose the difficulty.

To protect security, said Mrinal Desai, co-founder of CrossLoop, each time you and your friend use the software, you must type in a randomly generated 12-digit code that is changed for each use. And both of you have to do it within two minutes.

Or, if you don’t have a friend willing or able to help, you can hire one of the 14,000 experts listed on CrossLoop’s site. They are posted with their experience, prices, customer ratings and where they are located — which can be anywhere in the world. CrossLoop takes 15 percent of the experts’ fees.

Mr. Desai says that his company does not vet the experts, but rather, like eBay, the online community weeds out the bad ones through reviews and ratings.

And if you like your expert, you can return to him again and again. “He becomes your I.T. guy,” Mr. Desai said.

Want an even broader base to draw on for repairing just about anything? Try FixYa.com. If you have a problem with your lawn mower, computer, toaster or car, you can tap for free into the 250,000 “enthusiasts,” as FixYa’s founder, Yaniv Bensadon, calls them.

And if one of the enthusiasts is especially helpful, and well, enthusiastic, that person can be promoted to premium expert. For $20 you can have a live chat with your expert; for $13, you can have a one-time e-mail exchange; or, if you have a lot of fixing to do, you can sign up for a $10 monthly unlimited e-mail exchange.

So, back to me and my failing computer. In the end, we decided that because the computer was five years old — with a sticky keyboard and a few other problems as well — we would opt for a new one.

I’m still getting used to it, so it’s nice to know that there’s a world of experts at my fingertips, just waiting to help.

What: Fast repairs for electronic devices
Who: Ben Levy and Aaron Vronko of RapidRepair.com
Where: Kalamazoo, Michigan
When: Started in 2004
Startup Costs: Approximately $1,500

Four years ago, when Ben Levy broke his iPod after tinkering with it, he began searching online forums for a solution. What he discovered, however, was that many people were in the same boat and Apple’s warranty often didn’t cover certain repairs, or they were very costly.

He and his friend Aaron Vronko, 25, decided to purchase a few broken iPods and teach themselves how to fix them. Before long, they were offering low-cost repairs on iPods and other small electronic devices. As demand for their services grew, Vronko and Levy, now 28, officially launched RapidRepair.com in 2004 with $1,500 from their personal savings.

Today, the site handles more than 500 repairs a week from across the nation and 65 countries worldwide, with customers mailing in their broken products to be serviced within 24 to 48 hours. The 15-employee Kalamazoo, Michigan-based company also boasts some offerings unique to its name: It is the first to offer color modifications for iPods and is the creator of the iVue clear panel, which is available for several iPod models.

“[The biggest challenge for us] was making the transition from a small group of friends getting paid to do what interests us to a medium-size professional organization of co-workers with divergent interests, skills and priorities,” says Vronko.

With 2008 sales projections at more than $3 million, Vronko sees the company evolving in the next few years to meet the rapid changes of the technology market and says its success is largely due to the low cost of launching the site.
“We wouldn’t have been able to open a store in Kalamazoo and be supported by a walk-in customer base,” says Vronko. “Being an online business has allowed us to reach a larger customer base and has gotten us to the status we are at today.”

1. Books

Like new parents, though, most iPhone owners have no idea how to care for their new iPhone. So here are some tips to keep the iPhone in tip-top condition, many of them courtesy of Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, an iPod and iPhone repair shop, and one of the first technicians to take apart the iPhone 3GS and write a repair guide.

1. Audio Problems: Clean the Screens

At the bottom of the iPhone, there’s a speaker on the left and a mic on the right. If you can’t hear anything or if someone can’t hear you, most people fear the worst: internal damage in the sound system. But there’s a good chance that the holes are merely clogged with debris, Vronko says.

If you’re experiencing sound degradation, Vronko gives this advice: try putting a dab of strong rubbing alcohol— 90 percent alcohol—on an old tooth brush and use the brush and a can of compressed air to clean the holes. But don’t use too much alcohol. You don’t want any liquid to find its way into the speaker or mic, says Vronko. The potential of liquid getting into the phone would make anyone nervous, so proceed at your own risk.

2. Cracks in the Casing, Scratches on the Glass

A common problem with the iPhone 3G: cracks would appear around the dock connector and headphone jack where the plastic is the thinnest. Apple is apparently aware of the problem because many iPhone owners report that Apple Geniuses are adept at evaluating the crack and quick to replace a unit. With a crack near the dock connector, for instance, a Genius will examine the area with a lighted scope and likely swap the SIM chip into a new iPhone.

Vronko recommends a hard case for your iPhone, as well as a thin skin protector on the glass. Although the iPhone glass is fairly scratch resistant, it’s defenseless against keys in a purse or pocket. Don’t be afraid to replace the hard case and skin protector regularly, Vronko says, because they wear out.

3. iPhone Over-heating

An iPhone shouldn’t be exposed to extreme temperatures—100 degrees Fahrenheit on the high end, 40 degrees on the low end—because that will quickly degrade battery performance. If your iPhone is heating up, try to determine if it’s heat from the iPhone itself or reflected heat from the sun

Turn off a hot iPhone and let it sit for a couple of hours. If the iPhone emits heat while off, then it’s likely a serious problem. Don’t turn it back on, just take it straight to an Apple store. “This could only be a runaway chemical reaction in the battery cell,” Vronko says.

If the phone continues to produce a lot of heat when turned on, it might be time to head to the Apple store to get it checked out: you might be holding an iPhone lemon.

4. Crashing Apps: Leave a Little Headroom

If Apps are crashing or Web pages freeze up Safari, it could be a memory problem. Don’t fully load your iPhone. Leave at least a half gig of headroom to handle spikes in memory use, Vronko advises.

But also be mindful of trends. If a certain application keeps crashing, it could be a problem with that particular app. If a certain Web page continues to freeze Safari, it could be that the page is too big. Most major Web sites have a mobile version that requires less memory.

Either way, reboot the iPhone, because this will ease the burden on the memory. “People underestimate the fact that the iPhone is really a computer,” Vronko says. “If it starts to act up or operates slowly, it’s a one-minute process to reboot it.”

5. Car Charger Safety

Vronko doesn’t recommend car chargers as a primary means of charging. The 12 volt electrical system of cars used primarily for headlights and interior lights was not designed to handle the loads of modern cars with their big stereos, myriad gadgets and electronic features.

“It’s common to have power surges simply because we’re overloading a small capacity system,” Vronko says, “and this can fry the [iPhone] main board.”

If you’re intent on using a car charger, try not to have the iPhone plugged in when you’re starting or turning off a car. That’s usually when electrical spikes occur, he says. Only buy brand-name chargers, Vronko advises, because they’ll have a better fuse to protect the iPhone. A brand-name company will also be more likely to help you out if its product causes damage to your iPhone.

6. Battery Woes: Chips May Be Out of Sync

Some iPhone owners complain that their iPhone won’t charge fully—that is, the iPhone indicates a less-than-100 percent charge. Yet the problem might be that the chip on the battery and the chip on the device measuring the juice flowing back and forth are out of sync.

“Run the iPhone completely dead, charge it until it can’t take anymore charge, run it down fully again, and this should sync up the chips,” Vronko says. “Do this every month or two.”

If your iPhone is experience real battery drain, there are ways to improve battery life (albeit they aren’t very user friendly). Check out these three tips for iPhone battery life: Try disabling power-hungry features, buying a battery pack, or getting it tested at an Apple Store to make sure it’s working within normal parameters.