Not sure if there's anyone left who browses this forum, but I guess it never hurts to try. If there's a better place to post this nowadays, please let me know!
I have been using my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch for about 9 years now. I never messed around with rooting or installing any custom stuff.
I don't remember what version of Android it was using; I'd assume it was whatever the latest official version was.
Last night, I was reading an ebook on my phone; nothing out of the ordinary. Phone seemed fine. Battery was at about 75% or so.
And then, for no discernible reason, the phone froze and became unresponsive. I tried rebooting, and when I did, a screen came up asking for a "PIN or password to access the encrypted device memory" or something like that.
I had never seen anything like that screen before.
I tried restarting again, but this time, the phone just straight up would not power on. The device's status/power light was a steady blue, not blinking.
If I held down the power button for about 5 seconds, the light would briefly turn off and then go right back to the steady blue. The phone's screen remained blank.
I tried using a different battery, but it made no difference. The phone simply wouldn't boot at all and would not give any indication that it was accepting a charge. I tried holding down the volume buttons and home button in addition to the power button, but it made no difference. Couldn't even get the Samsung splash screen.
I tried connecting it to the USB port of my laptop and desktop PC. Neither device could detect the phone.
So, I'm left wondering, did my phone just suddenly "brick" itself or experience a sudden hardware failure? Is there anything I can do to salvage my phone?
Thanks.
Related
Well, something very odd just happened to my samsung focus (at&t) when I rebooted it. After the samsung screen shows, a pure red screen shows up for about 2 seconds and then it goes black. when I push the power button (or hold it) it simply goes back to the red screen again! Naturally, I thought to battery pull which simply put it back onto the samsung screen only to then go back to the red screen again.
I then thought 'maybe this is some sort of glitched state that it is in (it does seem to be stable in this state of redness, the capacitive buttons seem to give haptic feedback when pressed and the power button turns the screen off and on) so I decided to battery pull again and then connect it to my pc to see if it would detect that the phone was in this special "mode". after the battery pull, the phone booted back as normal??? It had about 89% power according to the battery percentage app when I rebooted??
it is fine now, but WTF was that anyway??
EDIT: ok, now it gets weirder, I got it to go into this state and quickly connected my usb cable to the computer and... zune pops up and it goes to that screen with the phone wanting to sync, but the phone being grayed out?? when I dragged a picture to my device, IT STARTED TO SYNC WITH DEVICE! It didn't even get an error and, after a successful reboot to the actual phone, THE PICTURE WAS ON MY DEVICE??? oh, and btw, it boots insainly fast when it is in redscreen mode...
i am now seriously confused beyond all hope
happened to my omnia 7 yesterday.
Just as well since i was going to flash the new rom anyways (and i did.. hasnt happened yet)
I think...it happened when i took my sim out.. i put it in and dont think it happened.
Might have to do with samsung. Other than Dell, Samsung has proven to be the weakest OEM in terms of hardware/software/firmware reliability.
I had this after I tried the 16Bit gradient hack. Setting the values back to 16 solve the red screen problem.
Wow... Ur right! Thanks for the fix =D
Sent from my mailbox
it is related to the 16 bit banding reg hack. It has been discussed/mentioned in that thread several times...
Has happened to me 3 or 4 times in the last month, ever since I changed the values to fix the banding on my Samsung Focus.
Just yank the battery and restart, hasn't been a continuous problem for me, and definitely a small trade-off to get rid of banding, IMO.
Same over here
Now that you mention it. I have the same RSOD problem with my Omnia 7 after the 32 colour bit hack. In my case it will happen after I have switch the phone off for the night and switch it back on in the morning. It's fine when the phone is switched off and on again.
So i've looked around and no one that i've seen has the same exact problem as i do. Here's my post in another forums about my problem.
Here's my story about my Galaxy s2 for T-mobile. My phone randomly turned off 2 days and whenever i tried to turn it on, it would restart and basically never get pass the blue loading bar screen. Second, i found out about this boot loop sequence and i was able to do a factory wipe.
After i factory wiped the data etc off the phone, i was able to use it until it ran out of battery, but then after i found out it ran out of battery, it wouldn't let me turn it back on, it wouldn't get pass the loading screen, once again. On the other hand, i am able to go to recovery mode or download mode, but the phone shuts off before i can even try and click on the options i want.
Today, i found out that if i kept pressing power button consecutively on the phone, I'd be able to go to my home screen and basically act as if nothing ever happened, it'd function as a new phone! I then had the nerves of turning off my phone just to make sure it finally works now, but my hopes were crushed and now the pressing the power trick does not even work anymore. It would probably work one out of 10-15 times, and in the end it'd still restart. I am using a gingerbread galaxy s2. My friend tried using the usb jib on my phone, and it worked but whenever he tried to plug in the usb, the phone would just restart. I am extremely frustrated with this, and if you can help, please do so because it's important that i fix this phone. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
Hi there, thank you for the welcoming me to the forums. No, my phone is not rooted, it has always been gingerbread etc i never tried rooting because i never knew how:/ I believe this started when i was just browsing around facebook, so i'm not entirely sure what happened... Uhmm i tried going to download mode through the volume keys and power button when it's connected to usb to the i think it's odin3? and it'd be in the download mode but as soon as the computer says it's connected, the phone would just turn off again and bam, it's like nothing ever happened. My phone does charge when it's plugged in, but it doesn't show it's being charged but i remember my battery was dead last night and i charged it till today and now it's got power. ANd no i don't have a warranty:/ i really hope you can help me
Sounds like a faulty power button. Check out Mobiletech video for thier power button repair service.
http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-t-mobile-power-button-repair/
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
I know there are already a LOT of topics concerning this - I have read through them all frantically, trying to find a solution before turning to asking myself.
So, here's exactly what happened, and what I've tried.
My phone was just fine, running perfectly, nice battery life. I had been running CarbonROM for about 2 months, without any issues, didn't change anything recent to this problem occurring. So one night I was at a party, and didn't have an available charger, so my phone ran out of power completely. The next morning when I came home, I set it to charge, the LED lit up, as far as I remember at least. In the evening I turned it on, and I got to the SIM pin-code unlock screen. I entered the PIN, and my phone turned off. No crash screen or anything, it just went straight out. I figured that maybe it hadn't charged properly, so I let it charge for a few more hours, and then tried again - same thing happened. I instantly tried to turn it on again, but this time nothing happened at all. I held the power button down for at least 1 minute, to no avail. When I put in the charging cable, the LED doesn't light up.
So, as I said, I have been reading around on this forum and other places, trying to find a solution. Some people said holding down the power button and volume up and down at the same time for 2 minutes would fix it, it didn't. I have tried several times. Most recently someone said I should connect my phone to my PC with the USB cable, and then hold down the power button and volume down. This time, something did happen. But not on my phone's end. I have done this 2 times, with the same result. At exactly 7 seconds, my computer turns off, as if I had "choked" it by holding down the power button on the PC. This seems really odd to me, since the phone can't even turn on, so I don't see how there can be any connectivity.
I hope someone here has a solution, knows why it happened, or can at least guide me in replacing any part if needs be. I hope not, though.
Bump
Should I just send it in for a repair? I have an idea that doing so will be very expensive...
Two days ago, my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S3 dropped out of my coat pocket as i was running for the bus. I picked it up and saw the screen was cracked along the top left and bottom left hand side. Everything was working for the past two days and i figured i'll just wait till Christmas to get a new phone. This morning i took my phone off the charger and turned it on. The Samsung logo flashed, and then the boot animation for Slimrom (the custom rom i'm currently running on) flashed for about a second but then the screen went black. I did a battery pull but the weird thing is whenever i put my battery back in, even without touching the power button, it boots up by itself but then the screen goes black again. I can access TWRP and download mode but they both go black after a few seconds as well. I was able to successfully turn on my phone and have it fully function for about 15 minutes after putting it back on the charger, but it quickly blacked out again. It also keeps randomly booting up by itself which is weird. Im guessing this is a problem with the screen itself, but could it be a software issue because the device keeps booting up by itself? If it is the screen, will i have to buy a new one or is it not worth it? I've also tried using a different battery and i have the same issue so it can't be that. Any help is appreciated!
Sounds like an issue with the power button, it probably got stuck somehow either when you dropped it, or after you dropped it. Do a simple search for power button and you will find ways to fix it!
Holy crap i didn't even think of that! It makes total sense since every time i even tap my power button, even for just a second, it turns on. I've read around that clearing the cache or a factory reset could work. Is this true?
Unlikely, unless it's a software issue but it's always a possibility. Slam the phone against something to try to get the power button back into place, or open it up and try to see if you can fix it yourself, or replace it
The problem seems to be gone. I haven't had any issues for two days now. All i did was press the power button really hard multiple times. Thanks for you help man!
I have an idol 4s and last night before bed, around 11:30pm, it decided it was a good time to windows update. I looked over and I saw the reboot and the gear icon, so although I knew I had about 50% battery I plugged it in and continued to read my book while waiting for it to finish.... except after the progress bar got to the end my phone never turned back on.
Despite several attempts at holding the power button to get it to come on, or plugging and unpluggin the power , all I get is the White Alcatel Idol4S boot screen, followed by the pink TMobile Logo.
Then, coincidentally as I'm writing this I plug it in again (coincidentally into my pc at work if that makes any difference) and it finally gets passed the windows logo and it shows the message at the top something about finishing up or whatever.
But as I recall, this happened on the last update, whenever that was too. Any idea what the heck is going on? Has this happened to anyone else?
RobbieRobski said:
I have an idol 4s and last night before bed, around 11:30pm, it decided it was a good time to windows update. I looked over and I saw the reboot and the gear icon, so although I knew I had about 50% battery I plugged it in and continued to read my book while waiting for it to finish.... except after the progress bar got to the end my phone never turned back on.
Despite several attempts at holding the power button to get it to come on, or plugging and unpluggin the power , all I get is the White Alcatel Idol4S boot screen, followed by the pink TMobile Logo.
Then, coincidentally as I'm writing this I plug it in again (coincidentally into my pc at work if that makes any difference) and it finally gets passed the windows logo and it shows the message at the top something about finishing up or whatever.
But as I recall, this happened on the last update, whenever that was too. Any idea what the heck is going on? Has this happened to anyone else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cannot tell much from what you are describing, but my best advice is to let it do what it needs to do and finish.
Just plug it in and leave it alone. Possibly you interrupted the update/upgrade process, but who knows? Unless it hangs there for hours and hours I try to never touch my windows phones to force a soft reset unless I absolutely have to.
Yeah, so it happened again last night. Just as I was going to bed, I saw the black and white screen with the gears rotating, so I just plugged the phone into power and went to bed... but making sure to turn on my other device so I'd atleast have an alarm to wake up to. 8 hours later nothing. If I plug in power or unplug power, I'll see the tmobile splash screen and then nothing else.
[edit] Not sure how relevant this is. But when I plug it in to power. The white led near the camera turns on as usual. But after a while it turns off, which leads me to believe that the device is literally turned off because as I recall, genreally speaking, it is not possible to plug in a windows phone device and not have it charge. What makes it interesting though is that even though the led is turned off, I still see the device in "This PC" when it is connected. I just can't browse the device storage of course. So as soon as I disconnect, it is not visible on my windows 10 pc until I plug it in again. I finally long pressed the power button, and unlike earlier when I would just remove and reconnect usb power, this time, the White Alcatel/windows 10 branding showed up, THEN the pink tmobile logo. And finally it booted up.
Mine's been doing the same since the start of the year... I have to keep rebooting till it finally "works" again... takes about 45-60mins of rebooting.