iPhone is dead, will not charge

I have an iPhone 4s running on iOS 8.1.3. I've owned it for about 2-3 years now and have taken good care of it physically and hardware wise. But recently my phone had died. I plugged it in to the charger no problem right? I come back about 20 minutes later to see nothing had changed... I tried adjusting the cord, trying to power down the device, rebooting, safe mode, and just letting it sit without the cord and retrying to charge it. Nothing worked; the phone just kept blinking the red battery logo even of 1 entire day of charging. What is there to do?

Solution 1:

There are a few possible things that could have happened. I've ordered them (and their solutions) below from most to least likely.

Explanations:

1. You have a faulty cord.

   • It has become frayed on the inside.

   • One of the metallic connectors is dirty.

2. Dust or dirt has collected in your charging port.

3. Your wall outlet is not functioning correctly.

4. You have a hardware problem.

   • Your charging port has become disconnected internally.

   • Your battery is defective.

Many of these cause your device not to charge. Thus, powering on your device does nothing.

Solutions:

1. Get a new cord.

   • Manually repair the wire by soldering the frayed ends together and using a heat-shrink to put everything back together. (You probably just want to buy a new cord.)

   • Clean the dirty connectors.

2. Clean out your charging port with a folded index card, toothpick, plastic card, etc.

3. Call an electrician.

4. Take your device in to get fixed. (Hopefully, you have a warranty.)