Develop Bugs

[Q] Soft Bricked or Hard Bricked? (Please, PLEASE help!!!)

I have a SPH L710 galaxy s3 (sprint). I recently flashed a Rom called hyperdrive 4.1.2 that was on it's RLS11. following the instructions (factory reset x2, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, wipe system), I then picked the features i wanted in the built in aroma installer and let the rom flash. When it was done I noticed i kept getting the message "the process com.android.phone has stopped". So i performed a clean install of my previous Rom which was Liquid Smooth.
A day or two later I noticed hyperdrive has released it's RLS 12, so i decided to give it another try. This time there was an option in the aroma installer for developer picks so i selected that, thinking my previous attempt i may have picked conflicting files in the aroma installer. The Rom worked fine for about a day. Then the next day while it was charging after the battery have completely died the night before. I noticed the phone had rebooted on its own, then it started going into a boot loop. I did a battery pull, and i noticed when i put it back in, before i could even hold the buttons to get it into recovery mode or download mode, the phone would vibrate and turn on by itself, without me pressing any buttons at all. After some trying i was able to have the buttons held so when i inserted the battery, i was already holding the buttons to try to get to recovery. When I did this it would say it was about to go into recovery, then the screen would go black. The same thing when I tried getting it into download mode, It would show the download mode screen, then go to a black screen. I Then did some research, after seeing no one else really having this problem, and noticing that since it was still seeing boot screens before the black screen, it shouldn't be a hard brick.
I decided to order a USB jig for my phone that came today. When inserted the battery with the usb jig the phone still turned on by itself, but it was able to go to download mode and it stayed at the screen. I used odin 3.07 to flash SPH-L710_MD4_1130792_Rooted_Nodata, which was a tar file you would use if you wanted to keep your user data. It took 10 minutes to flash but everything seemed to be a success, it rebooted my phone and everything seemed to be working fine. After about 20 minutes of my phone being plugged back into a charger and i was halfway through with downloading an app from the android market where out of nowhere my phone temporarily froze and then rebooted, to where it will show the samsung screen, then the samsung galaxy s3 screen, then just goes to a black screen. Now even with the USB jig, it will still power on by itself as soon as a place in the battery, go directly to download mode, but then go to a black screen within 3-4 seconds before i can do anything.
Has anyone ever encountered anything like this before? At first i thought it might be a stuck power button, but when I was able to flash through download mode with the USB jig that first time it makes me think it is bricked. Any help or insight would be GREATLY appreciated.

dubbz84 said:
I have a SPH L710 galaxy s3 (sprint). I recently flashed a Rom called hyperdrive 4.1.2 that was on it's RLS11. following the instructions (factory reset x2, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, wipe system), I then picked the features i wanted in the built in aroma installer and let the rom flash. When it was done I noticed i kept getting the message "the process com.android.phone has stopped". So i performed a clean install of my previous Rom which was Liquid Smooth.
A day or two later I noticed hyperdrive has released it's RLS 12, so i decided to give it another try. This time there was an option in the aroma installer for developer picks so i selected that, thinking my previous attempt i may have picked conflicting files in the aroma installer. The Rom worked fine for about a day. Then the next day while it was charging after the battery have completely died the night before. I noticed the phone had rebooted on its own, then it started going into a boot loop. I did a battery pull, and i noticed when i put it back in, before i could even hold the buttons to get it into recovery mode or download mode, the phone would vibrate and turn on by itself, without me pressing any buttons at all. After some trying i was able to have the buttons held so when i inserted the battery, i was already holding the buttons to try to get to recovery. When I did this it would say it was about to go into recovery, then the screen would go black. The same thing when I tried getting it into download mode, It would show the download mode screen, then go to a black screen. I Then did some research, after seeing no one else really having this problem, and noticing that since it was still seeing boot screens before the black screen, it shouldn't be a hard brick.
I decided to order a USB jig for my phone that came today. When inserted the battery with the usb jig the phone still turned on by itself, but it was able to go to download mode and it stayed at the screen. I used odin 3.07 to flash SPH-L710_MD4_1130792_Rooted_Nodata, which was a tar file you would use if you wanted to keep your user data. It took 10 minutes to flash but everything seemed to be a success, it rebooted my phone and everything seemed to be working fine. After about 20 minutes of my phone being plugged back into a charger and i was halfway through with downloading an app from the android market where out of nowhere my phone temporarily froze and then rebooted, to where it will show the samsung screen, then the samsung galaxy s3 screen, then just goes to a black screen. Now even with the USB jig, it will still power on by itself as soon as a place in the battery, go directly to download mode, but then go to a black screen within 3-4 seconds before i can do anything.
Has anyone ever encountered anything like this before? At first i thought it might be a stuck power button, but when I was able to flash through download mode with the USB jig that first time it makes me think it is bricked. Any help or insight would be GREATLY appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long did you let it set on the black screen because it takes a while to boot up the first time after flashing a ROM.

GiantJay said:
How long did you let it set on the black screen because it takes a while to boot up the first time after flashing a ROM.
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Click to collapse
Well i just placed the battery back in, it started on it's own without my pressing anything again, and i've been timing the last 5 minutes. but it seems like it will stay a black screen indefinitely. unless i remove the back of the phone, or snap it back into place, or any kind of micro impact movements it seems, when I do that it vibrates like it's first being turned on, and shows the samsung screen, then the samsung galaxy s3 screen, then it will go black again.

See if your adb on your computer can recognize the phone while it's stuck on the black screen. You might be able to push a Rom or recovery over using that.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

You may want to just start fresh and lose your data with a different stock file. That kinda happened to me before on the gs2 and I found better results with a 100% fresh start. The no data always left me with a hangup or two after getting the phone to boot.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

topherk said:
See if your adb on your computer can recognize the phone while it's stuck on the black screen. You might be able to push a Rom or recovery over using that.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not picking it up on adb.

dante32278 said:
You may want to just start fresh and lose your data with a different stock file. That kinda happened to me before on the gs2 and I found better results with a 100% fresh start. The no data always left me with a hangup or two after getting the phone to boot.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After the first odin flash i was thinking the same thing. But that's the thing, it won't stay on the download mode screen long enough for me to even try to flash anything else through odin. I'm also noticing when connected to the charger, if i make a slight impact against the phone with my palm, the screen will briefly show the battery icon as if the phone is charging when it is turned off, then the screen will go black again. When it is unplugged, is when it will show the samsung screen, then the samsung galaxy s3 screen, then go black again.

That's weird...sounds like something is loose. Any kind of recent impact damage to the phone? Dropping it, throwing it at your cat, anything like that?

To me it sounds like maybe your power button is stuck "down"
If you didn't know, the power button has a fail safe reboot that happens after holding for about 10 seconds. So no matter what, if you phone is frozen or whatever, holding power more than 10s will cause it to reboot. That would also explain why its turning itself on as soon as you pop in the battery.

toolegit said:
That's weird...sounds like something is loose. Any kind of recent impact damage to the phone? Dropping it, throwing it at your cat, anything like that?
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Click to collapse
not recently, and if it was ever dropped, it would be in it's case... But i had noticed that while it was in it's power glove case, sometimes i would have to use more than normal pressure on the power button to get the phone to respond. I was wondering if something was stuck, just haven't read anything like that happening to anyone, and when I used the jig the first time the screen stayed on.

[Q] Not quite sudden death - but still a major problem

So I recently installed CM 10.1.2 on my S3, and everything worked perfectly for a few days. Yesterday though, my phone started acting strangely (lag when turning screen off, registering phantom input, etc) and began rebooting every few minutes. At some point, it ran out of battery - and now I can no longer boot past the CM loading wheel screen.
I can't boot to recovery, and I don't think my phone is taking charge (from my computer or a wall outlet), and the farthest I can get is the loading wheel - sometimes it only gets as far as displaying the Samsung logo, or the Galaxy S3 screen with the android dude at the bottom.
I'm still covered under warranty, and would love to take it to the store for a replacement (I've had battery issues prior to this), but the fact that it can get to the CM loading wheel means that they might figure out that I've rooted and whatnot. But I can't get to recovery to flash a stock image, so...what can I do?

vortexface said:
So I recently installed CM 10.1.2 on my S3, and everything worked perfectly for a few days. Yesterday though, my phone started acting strangely (lag when turning screen off, registering phantom input, etc) and began rebooting every few minutes. At some point, it ran out of battery - and now I can no longer boot past the CM loading wheel screen.
I can't boot to recovery, and I don't think my phone is taking charge (from my computer or a wall outlet), and the farthest I can get is the loading wheel - sometimes it only gets as far as displaying the Samsung logo, or the Galaxy S3 screen with the android dude at the bottom.
I'm still covered under warranty, and would love to take it to the store for a replacement (I've had battery issues prior to this), but the fact that it can get to the CM loading wheel means that they might figure out that I've rooted and whatnot. But I can't get to recovery to flash a stock image, so...what can I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best shot is to either borrow someone's S3 battery or buy a battery pack. Use that to restore your phone back to stock (unroot) and then you can go to the store for replacement.

alltechinside said:
Your best shot is to either borrow someone's S3 battery or buy a battery pack. Use that to restore your phone back to stock (unroot) and then you can go to the store for replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So turns out battery isn't the issue, I used a wall charger to get it to full charge. I can get it to the download mode confirmation screen, and can press volume up to confirm - but my phone reboots soon after that.
Recovery isn't really possible either, I can see the blue text in the upper right but my phone reboots after that as well.
My phone will often show an empty battery icon with a little refresh icon in the middle; does this indicate that it doesn't see the battery as charged (even though it is)?

vortexface said:
So turns out battery isn't the issue, I used a wall charger to get it to full charge. I can get it to the download mode confirmation screen, and can press volume up to confirm - but my phone reboots soon after that.
Recovery isn't really possible either, I can see the blue text in the upper right but my phone reboots after that as well.
My phone will often show an empty battery icon with a little refresh icon in the middle; does this indicate that it doesn't see the battery as charged (even though it is)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone started having the same problem yesterday and I tried my friends battery but it still doesn't work.

mtmodi said:
My phone started having the same problem yesterday and I tried my friends battery but it still doesn't work.
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Click to collapse
Yeah I've been doing some research into the issue...
I've noticed that my phone automatically boots when I put the battery in, and that it'll do a quick vibrate when plugged in to a power source (outlet or computer) but won't turn on.
Apparently the phone isn't supposed to boot automatically when the battery is put in, and this could be the source of the random reboots - I think if I can get the rebooting under control, I'll be able to get into download mode and fix it all. But I'm not sure how to do that. Maybe the power button has gone bad, as it also doesn't usually respond when I try to use it to turn on.
If there is a problem with the power button, does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?

vortexface said:
Yeah I've been doing some research into the issue...
I've noticed that my phone automatically boots when I put the battery in, and that it'll do a quick vibrate when plugged in to a power source (outlet or computer) but won't turn on.
Apparently the phone isn't supposed to boot automatically when the battery is put in, and this could be the source of the random reboots - I think if I can get the rebooting under control, I'll be able to get into download mode and fix it all. But I'm not sure how to do that. Maybe the power button has gone bad, as it also doesn't usually respond when I try to use it to turn on.
If there is a problem with the power button, does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine does the exact same thing where I have to pull the battery and when I put it back in it automatically starts up and when I go to download or recovery it turns off before I can do anything

Sounds like power button issue.
I was having the same issues (random reboots, boot loop, powering on when battery put in, reboots in download mode and recovery)
This is not an easy fix. I ended up pulling the power button out and just setting my screen to time out after 15 seconds. Sucks but it works now.
If I ever need to turn off or hard reboot, I stick a pin in the power button hole and push down on the button.
Really turning me off on purchasing future Samsung phones
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

The power button is a common issue for these phones.

[Q] Phone shut off now stuck in permanent death loop

Hey all, I have a S3 i747 on rogers. I have had it for a couple years everything working fine and great, I rooted it after I bought it and it worked no problem. A week or two ago it suddenly shut itself off while I was using it. I didn't think much of it, then later that day again it turned itself off.
This time, it automatically tries to reboot but as soon as the logo appears it instantly turns itself back off again. It's not that it gets to a certain point, it's like there's a time limit on how far it can progress through the boot sequence, I estimate about 4-5 seconds. No matter what I try I cannot get it past this cut off time.
I have tried download mode, recovery mode, battery tricks (found on obscure sites), etc etc etc and still its stuck in this death loop. Im fine with buying a new phone, but I had not made a contact back-up for 6 months (no, I wasn't syncing with google) and have lost many, many new contacts as well as certain files and pictures that I wouldn't mind getting back.
Also, if I am very fast I can get the first page of recovery mode to pop up, but then the "time limit" hits and before any selections on the menu can be made it automatically reboots. If I leave the battery in, it will try every few minutes to boot repeatedly until the battery is completely zapped.

TeflonTeffy said:
Hey all, I have a S3 i747 on rogers. I have had it for a couple years everything working fine and great, I rooted it after I bought it and it worked no problem. A week or two ago it suddenly shut itself off while I was using it. I didn't think much of it, then later that day again it turned itself off.
This time, it automatically tries to reboot but as soon as the logo appears it instantly turns itself back off again. It's not that it gets to a certain point, it's like there's a time limit on how far it can progress through the boot sequence, I estimate about 4-5 seconds. No matter what I try I cannot get it past this cut off time.
I have tried download mode, recovery mode, battery tricks (found on obscure sites), etc etc etc and still its stuck in this death loop. Im fine with buying a new phone, but I had not made a contact back-up for 6 months (no, I wasn't syncing with google) and have lost many, many new contacts as well as certain files and pictures that I wouldn't mind getting back.
Also, if I am very fast I can get the first page of recovery mode to pop up, but then the "time limit" hits and before any selections on the menu can be made it automatically reboots. If I leave the battery in, it will try every few minutes to boot repeatedly until the battery is completely zapped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it still keep rebooting even in download mode? If not then try reflashing your stock rom.
Or maybe try booting up without an sd and without a sim card.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

Also make sure to not hold the volume and home keys too long when going into download mode, once the phone vibrates you should be able to let go. I made the same mistake on my phone and then noticed i had been pressing the volume and power keys while download mode was starting, causing it to select cancel. If not though you are probably looking at some sort of internal hardware issue that may be causing the reset to trip or causing the phone to believe it should be shutting itself off at that moment. This is all purely speculation, but hope it helps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Florad77 said:
Does it still keep rebooting even in download mode? If not then try reflashing your stock rom.
Or maybe try booting up without an sd and without a sim card.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
zoomonkey90 said:
Also make sure to not hold the volume and home keys too long when going into download mode, once the phone vibrates you should be able to let go. I made the same mistake on my phone and then noticed i had been pressing the volume and power keys while download mode was starting, causing it to select cancel. If not though you are probably looking at some sort of internal hardware issue that may be causing the reset to trip or causing the phone to believe it should be shutting itself off at that moment. This is all purely speculation, but hope it helps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't even make it into download mode, or recovery mode. Like I said, its as if the phone has a built in time-limit for how long it is going to load, the absolute farthest I can get is the first page of recovery mode and then boom it instantly resets before I can even make one selection, and I did this like 100 times in a row so I got very fast at getting into recovery mode. As per 2nd quote, yes I am releasing the buttons as I am supposed to to get into the appropriate mode, but the "time limit" hits and just reboots no matter what.
I've tried booting up without sim and sd card, but it still doesn't make it any further.

Dead boot look i747
Fix a fix for it? I have the same problem.
TeflonTeffy said:
I can't even make it into download mode, or recovery mode. Like I said, its as if the phone has a built in time-limit for how long it is going to load, the absolute farthest I can get is the first page of recovery mode and then boom it instantly resets before I can even make one selection, and I did this like 100 times in a row so I got very fast at getting into recovery mode. As per 2nd quote, yes I am releasing the buttons as I am supposed to to get into the appropriate mode, but the "time limit" hits and just reboots no matter what.
I've tried booting up without sim and sd card, but it still doesn't make it any further.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I would put my money on a bad power switch/button.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Yes, it acts like a stuck power button, a common problem with galaxy s phones.
If it auto starts when you insert the battery, that's a sure sign the power on circuit is active.
When my Captivate did this, I opened the back & carefully tapped it on a table edge to try dislodging any debris.
I then followed teardown instructions, inspected the switch assembly & blew it out with forced air.
The problem ended & never returned. I honestly don't think there was a physical defect in my phone's switch; more likely a residual charge on the mainboard.
Root causes vary as do solutions for the problem. Inexpensive switch replacement is a good one too.
Since then I have used a couple of apps to reduce the need for the gs3 power button.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

[Q] SPH-L710 reboots in recovery Battery, power button issues possible

I have read the other posts regarding the rebooting issues of the Sprint Galaxy S3 variant, but I seem to have a touch more difficult problem. My phone constantly resets and seems to be getting worse. It now will reset in the middle of recovery. I was able to wipe the cache and dalvik and then it started resetting even more frequently in recovery and made reloading the rom impossible. It even resets in the download screen. So it makes it impossible to use Odin and other applications. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I have a few possible options that I am pondering. The following is what led up to this if you need some background:
A week ago, I noticed that my battery suddenly was not charging when wifi was on. I turned it off thinking it was some glitch and reset the phone and plugged it in to charge. It said it was at 100 % some hours later. then I turned it back on again and within a couple minutes, it said it was at 22%. So I hard reset and then plugged it into the wall, but it was still not charging. I had go somewhere,so I plugged it into the car charger and enabled fast charge. I turned on my data and all the sudden it rebooted, lost my wifi password, but when it came back on, it was charging properly. So I thought it was just some odd glitch. Charged properly for days.
Then I noticed the phone starting to randomly reset maybe once very other day when texting. I was actually going to put on a new rom tomorrow thinking maybe my old one had become corrupt. Then it suddenly increased drastically tonight to where it was starting to reset constantly. I thought maybe the button was stuck, and pulled off my otter case to make sure it wasnt being pressed down oddly, but it continued. Then I went into recovery and was able to wipe the cache and dalvik before it got really bad and now it won't even let me stay in recovery for any length of time. I almost got a rom loaded when it reset and its been resetting faster than ever. Becoming unresponsive to button presses as well. Even when I could get into the recovery, it would keep showing "swipe screen to open," as the power button was apparently continuing to activate or the phone was trying to reset itself. And yes, I have tried a battery pull several times and then tried to get into recovery, only to be booted out right as I see the recovery screen if I get there.
So that is my problem. I can't flash odin or anything else as the phone just keeps resetting. Part of me thinks to get a new battery and try to see if that doesn't solve my issue, as maybe the battery is causing the phone to reset? But part me is also thinking maybe the power button has gone sticky suddenly? It won't charge it seems as the red light will not come on and it keeps resetting before the battery charging icon can even come up. Any help or advice would be appreciated. I am leaning towards the battery going bad suddenly and shorting out the phone. I now have the battery, which last I saw was at 48% (It was charging when this happened), out of the phone and am waiting till morning to hopefully pick up a new battery. But I would appreciate any insights into this issue.
Thank you very much

Same issue
I'm having the same issue described above with the S3 constantly rebooting. I can get into download mode but it restarts a few seconds into the flash. I have tried a different battery but that did not solve the problem - I am also thinking it's a power button issue... any suggestions?

mawamd said:
I'm having the same issue described above with the S3 constantly rebooting. I can get into download mode but it restarts a few seconds into the flash. I have tried a different battery but that did not solve the problem - I am also thinking it's a power button issue... any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just had my phone replaced for same reason ( Thank god for insurance) Download mode would last about 5 seconds, Recovery would do the same. I managed to get a stock restore with flash counter reset to boot as i was walking into the Sprint store for the techs to look at this lol.. Same exact thing happened on my S2. Power button is done. If you have INS call and get it replaced (Took me about a week for new phone)

I read some post on possibly using Samsung Kies to flash a new ROM, but that was for the international version. I would be curious if anyone has ever tried this or if its possible to replace the power button with a part replacement? I have ordered an S4 but this time I will make sure to use the home and left touch pad more often to unlock the phone and save wear on the power button. I wold still be interested f anyone has found a fix for this.

mawamd said:
I'm having the same issue described above with the S3 constantly rebooting. I can get into download mode but it restarts a few seconds into the flash. I have tried a different battery but that did not solve the problem - I am also thinking it's a power button issue... any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So after looking around, I am pretty convinced this the power button,as people describe on this question. If you don't have insurance, I see there are selling replacements or you can pay someone to replace and fix the power button fairly affordably on ebay. I might go the second route, as I want it fine right and the man had a 100 percent rating positive, and I dont really know what I am doing lol. Thanks everyone for your answers.

s2 bricked it self?

I've been using my S2 as a music player for a while. and its been running Liquidsmooth 2.10. and its worked just fine for ages.
my s4 was damaged, so i was using my s2 as a backup. it worked fine for a week or more, then suddenly one day, it just just killed it self. nothing was changed as far as rom/kernel or anything. i was just typing a text and all of a sudden the screen flickered, and the camera flash went off a couple times, the screen turned back on and the off again. then it just turned off.
i have not been able to get it back on since. it will show the SII logo for a few seconds then turns off. then proceeds to vibrate once every 2 seconds endlessly. thats all i can get out of it. it wont go into download mode or recovery or anything because as soon as i put the battery in, it tries to boot itself.
anybody have any ideas what is goin on here?

autonami said:
I've been using my S2 as a music player for a while. and its been running Liquidsmooth 2.10. and its worked just fine for ages.
my s4 was damaged, so i was using my s2 as a backup. it worked fine for a week or more, then suddenly one day, it just just killed it self. nothing was changed as far as rom/kernel or anything. i was just typing a text and all of a sudden the screen flickered, and the camera flash went off a couple times, the screen turned back on and the off again. then it just turned off.
i have not been able to get it back on since. it will show the SII logo for a few seconds then turns off. then proceeds to vibrate once every 2 seconds endlessly. thats all i can get out of it. it wont go into download mode or recovery or anything because as soon as i put the battery in, it tries to boot itself.
anybody have any ideas what is goin on here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like the power button may be stuck which is a known issue with this phone. Here is a thread on the issue:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1931310

autonami said:
I've been using my S2 as a music player for a while. and its been running Liquidsmooth 2.10. and its worked just fine for ages.
my s4 was damaged, so i was using my s2 as a backup. it worked fine for a week or more, then suddenly one day, it just just killed it self. nothing was changed as far as rom/kernel or anything. i was just typing a text and all of a sudden the screen flickered, and the camera flash went off a couple times, the screen turned back on and the off again. then it just turned off.
i have not been able to get it back on since. it will show the SII logo for a few seconds then turns off. then proceeds to vibrate once every 2 seconds endlessly. thats all i can get out of it. it wont go into download mode or recovery or anything because as soon as i put the battery in, it tries to boot itself.
anybody have any ideas what is goin on here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've come to find out if the phone crashes this will happen, it's normal behavior believe it or not. If you will be patient and wait for about 7 to 10 minutes, the phone will finally reboot. The next reboot will be normal time again. This might be the device's way of protection, IDK.

cwyman said:
Sounds like the power button may be stuck which is a known issue with this phone. Here is a thread on the issue:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1931310
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, this did the trick. but i think it may have been more so the volume up button. there is a metal piece that surrounds the volume button on the board, somehow it was coming off, pushed it back on and mashed the buttons a bunch, came right on.

autonami said:
...it will show the SII logo for a few seconds then turns off. then proceeds to vibrate once every 2 seconds endlessly...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is almost certainly caused by a bad/stuck power (on/off) switch. It's a very common problem on all the US-carrier Galaxy S2 models. (Sprint, Boost, Virgin, Telus, T-Mobile, AT&T, etc. I don't think Verizon sold the SII)
You can check the switch by gently touching the physical switch (plastic cover/"button" removed) with a toothpick/pen/etc. As a "snap-action" switch, it shouldn't activate until you hear/feel it "snap" closed. If it's activating with a light/slight/tiny touch, the switch is bad. On my Sprint GS2, even the slightest brush against the power button caused it to wake the phone. Sometimes it would stick "on", and then the phone would reboot. I bought a new switch, soldered it in, and have no problems since.
If you don't have insurance coverage and are out of warranty, you can replace the switch yourself. Several eBay sellers offer replacement power switches for the SGH-T989 Galaxy S2. (about ten bucks)
Or, if you don't have mad soldering skills, several offer mail-in repair service as well, and most seem to have great feedback.