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Verizon Knowingly activated my phone with a custom ROM

So my HTC VZ6900 (Vogue) was acting up two days ago and I could tell it was a software issue and has not done any real research on the device till yesterday! Here is my story...
HTC started acting up while at school on Monday and was not doing great. I tried a soft reset but nothing worked... Booo. I tried removing the battery and waiting a few minutes and it took an entire 90 minutes + to get past the WM 6.0 screen! Once it got to the today screen the touch feature was none responsive so I could not really access anything. Soft keys worked. Couldn't get anything and the phone would not connect to the network.
Tuesday morning I took it to the Verizon store before I went to work. I had brought my old phone because I was not sure what was wrong. I personally thought it was a software problem, and figured that if that was the case Verizon would hard reset the phone or at least give me a replacement. Wrong. The clown at the desk took my phone and word for word quotes here: "Ah, yeah this thing is dead you’re going to have to get a new phone. Oh! Wait you have insurance you can pay $50 and they will give you a replacement."
I am a studying to get a PHD in electrical engineering and my gut told me this was not the case... So I said no thank you to the insurance and ask him to switch my phone to my old phone that being my old envy which still works perfect. When I went to leave they tried to take my HTC touch to which I protested and they complied. To work I go...
Well it was a quiet day so I had lots of free time and decided to Google VZ6900 problems, after about 10 minutes of searching I came across XDA-Developers! Did a little searching and saw that some people had similar problems. Figured out how to hard reset my phone (This was not a problem all of my contacts were saved to windows live!). Phone resets and it’s like brand new. I had seen these ideas of Custom ROM's and decided to do a little reading. After about 20 minutes I decided that it would not be hard to upgrade my ROM, loaded coke loader and followed the Verizon directions, 20 minutes later BAM running WM6.5 custom ROM. Hm I began to wonder, will Verizon be so nice as to activate this for me? I know they love to lock everything down so that they will get paid. I walk back to the store at 430 and proceed to wait 25 minutes to talk to a different person. I was explaining that their Tech earlier had told me the phone was broken beyond repair and that in fact he had just been lazy and refused to even attempt to fix the phone. They did not like this one bit. They told me I would have reset to the original Verizon settings. Though what he intended was that I needed to run the Verizon ROM with its own customization. So I asked the guy if he could get the other Tech who had helped me earlier to come into the conversation and he was somewhat upset at this time, but complied.
"Hey your back, oh wow this is the new Windows Mobile Cool!"
"Yeah I spent the better part of the day fixing my phone, now switch my phone back"
"Um... I do not know if I am supposed to do that. Um."
"Remember this morning when you told me to file an insurance claim for a broken phone?"
"Yeah, don’t have to do that anymore but I cannot activate an unlocked phone"
"Yes but telling me to file an insurance claim for a broken phone when it was not actually broken is insurance fraud"
"Oh... well we are not supposed to do this but I'll make an exception"
Two minutes later that had it all up and running and I was out the door without any problems.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the information I used, it saved me a great deal of time!

[Q] Nexus S goes into some sort of fault state

My two months old Nexus S started to behave in a way that renders it pretty much useless - Freezing / Locked U
Freeze/Delay Between Menu and basically the phone is dead.
Very often when the screen is off, pressing power button powers up the screen with the screen lock, but the phone is not responsive so the screen just goes off again as it is impossible to slide to unlock it.
On top of that, leaving the phone with the screen off for a half an hour or so brings up some sort of warning sign and a small android (can see the screen shot here: http://yfrog.com/h3apmgqj) and the phone is effectively dead. The only thing to do in any of the two cases is remove and reinsert the battery, but that is no solution to anything. All this is while the battery is fully charged.
Did anyone experienced this before? resetting phone does not help.
Here is more info on this topic: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/label?lid=4e31a500f89fe575&hl=en

Are you using a custom recovery/ROM? That icon you posted isn't the stock image

Hi, no I do not - the image is actually from different phone but it looks exactly as it did on my Nexus S (little green guy with an exclamation mark). I never rooted my phone or done any custom mods to its system.
I actually sent it to Samsung and they are claiming that they found no problem, so they re-flushed the phone and are sending it back. I am seriously angry at samsung. It is arriving on the 11th so I'll let you know if that helped but I doubt it.
I believe this might be a faulty memory because I often received notification that the internal storage was unavailable or something of that nature as well, right before the problem would occur. Are the any tests I could perform for memory / storage?

just try to flash it back to stock
then do wipe data and wipe cache
see if that gets it back on its feet

Hey,
thank you, I thank that means I would have to root it first ehhh
Samsung told me they've done just that (flashed phone) so I am seriously hoping that my phone will work when it arrives on the 11th.
thanks!

Samsung supposedly is looking into this problem, please see link below:
http://www.google.com/support/forum...ad?fid=44db6d8e31129d4c00049e3b2a6db4d1&hl=en

Update:
I just received my phone from Samsung repair and of course, the phone is NOT fixed. On the side note, they also sent back my note that explains the problem meaning it was ignored completely.
I will be contacting @SamsungServic and calling but at this point I am not sure that they can fix the phone other then replace it.
Also,
I've spoken to Samsung and chat online and - yes they nice and throw back lots of promises and niceness back but they are NOT doing anything about it, for now at least.

I copy and paste the best answer on the google support topic to here:
I've been keeping a notebook to document my debugging of this problem. No app in particular is responsible, in my opinion. I have observed the phone lock up after a Factory Data Reset + USB wipe, and with no accounts configured. In fact, I have had it freeze after following this procedure:
1. Factory Data Reset + USB erase from Settings menu
2. Phone reboots.
3. Go through initial setup screens, skip account setup.
4. Power down phone.
5. Remove battery.
6. Remove SIM card.
7. Replace battery.
8. Power up phone.
9. Let phone sit for 15 minutes or more.
10. Phone freezes.
This is about as close to bare bones as I can get with this device.
I have also documented at least four freeze modes:
1. Phone is completely dark (both display and buttons). No combination of power button or other buttons can bring phone back. Battery removal required.
2. Phone display is dark, but the four "hard key" buttons are illuminated. No combination of power button or other buttons can bring phone back. Battery removal required.
3. Phone displays only a green android by a warning exclamation sign. Holding power button down, then volume up, then release volume up, will bring up the Android system recovery screen, from which phone can be rebooted.
4. Phone is frozen at the unlock screen. Sometimes this freeze occurs while swiping the unlock icon. No combination of power button or other buttons can bring phone back. Battery removal required.
I have observed the phone going from normal standby state (display and buttons dark) to state 2, and at other times to state 3, while it was sitting on my desk by the keyboard.
I'm just about ready to send it to Samsung. I just wanted to verify that the problem would be reproducible after a factory reset and without the SIM card.
I think it may be a hardware problem. It's also possible that part of the Android kernel or some device driver on my device has become corrupt. Unfortunately I can't reset the OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a factory reset from the stock recovery, too. Doesn't help either.
My phone arrived on Friday Samsung mobile repair in Texas. And like they did to ohter Nexus S devices from other users they will do the following to mine:
Reflashing the phone -> doing some functional tests ...
... and this is the crazy thing about it. The error we have is just appearing when the phone is in standby and because of this the phone passes the functional tests Samsung is doing at the end of the service. Phone goes back to user. A defective phone.
Some guy managed to keep the phone alive by setting the display turning off after 30mins. He is charging it twice a day
I got a reply from @SamsungSupport on twitter:
Thank you Fabian for again reaching out to us. We are aware of this issue as some of us have your same phone.
An evaluation is already being conducted to determine the fix. We don't have a timeframe of the resolution.
But understand it will be pushed to phones. We will advise once we have a timeframe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The support team is friendly and to me it feels like they try to do anything they could.
Funny: One guy got a replacement device. But then no one other. Just reflash...
I think they will do something but on the other hand I'm worried that they will do nothing. But time will tell....
Maybe it would help us if Google will be aware of the problem, too. Ok maybe they allready know it, but I don't know that.
So if some of you here do have some connections... please do us a favor and forward this topic or the link to the google support topic. Feel free to forward this topic to any website you think it would write a news about it. Maybe Google will throw a eye on it. My phone is 8 weeks old and yeah this so anoying. And of course all my friends who are iHippster are trolling me like hell.
It don't want to flame or blame Samsung\Google for this.But our phones are in warranty. The error hits only a few devices and so they should replace it. My 50cent about it... this is not a Google expierence they talked about...

I also had the same problem and sent my phone into Samsung. They only re flashed it, which didn't fix the problem. I immediately called Samsung to inform them that the issue was not fixed and they just told me to send it back for "double checking." Do you think it is better to send it back in or just wait for fix to emerge?

I will be sending it back and demand replacing the phone, also making sure they just don't re-flash again. I guess anything but re-flashing could work.
Remember that I've mailed my phone with one page letter explaining the problem. Their response was flashing the phone and sending it back - with my letter.
Here is note from the support team:
----------------------------------------
Original Problem:
Technical Inquiry
Phone Freezing / Locked U
Freeze/Delay Between Menu
Problem found:
NO TROUBLE FOUND
SW,PRL,OTSL RESET
Solution:
Passed All Functional Testing
--------------------------------------
@Samsungservice did not even acknowledge it officially that this is a problem.

Yeah i wrote a letter too explaining the issue and how to recreate it (the first time). They told me that it passed their quality assurance inspection after re-flashing it, which must be very poor because my phone shut off again 15 minutes after receiving it. Just dropped it back off at UPS today. Can they replace the phone because of this issue? I know one person had success, but it doesn't seem anyone else has.

Nexus S faulty
Samsung may not be able to reproduce it after reflashing; as this issue does not seem to occur when connected to a PC/computer via USB. Their automated testing could be over USB.
Looks like more and more people are facing this issue as the day goes by.
Search for "Nexus S fault state" on google and you'll find the google support forum thread discussing it

Guys,
Did anyone have tried to flash a custom rom to see if this will solve the problem ?
cheers !

No, but this problem is not ROM related.

discr said:
Samsung may not be able to reproduce it after reflashing; as this issue does not seem to occur when connected to a PC/computer via USB. Their automated testing could be over USB.
Looks like more and more people are facing this issue as the day goes by.
Search for "Nexus S fault state" on google and you'll find the google support forum thread discussing it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured that was why they couldn't recreate the shutdown. Made sure they knew that it has to be unplugged. Mine always shuts off within 10-15 minutes if untouched.

I have same problem.Only remove battery helps. I have been having nexus s for 2 and half months and this problem just came last week. I don't know how to solve it. I tried reflash firmware but didn't help.

welcome to the club. you have to send it to USA to get it serviced (make a extreme detailed problem description and make sure the support worker writes it down 1:1 into their ticket system). they provide a 2day ups shippment label, BUT only to locations in USA.
I can recommend FedEx. They helped me a lot with this duty stuff for shipping to USA. That's not so easy . I paid €50 to get it shipped to a friend of mine in USA.
You have to send only the foreparts of the device. No battery and back panel, no charger and so on. But they will give you all informations at the end of the service request.
or: wait for a hotfix. which maybe never will come.

Update:
I just mailed my phone again... they told me they do not replace phones (not sure what that means yet). The Rep was arguing that if I want the phone replaced then I need to talk to T-Mobile - it does not make any sense.
Anyway, I explained the problem as much as I could and did not mail any notes this time as they obviously do not care for it. But I made sure he included every detail in his notes.
I am very skeptical but still hoping....
Also,
About the part when the phone does not freeze when plugged in or charging. I had my Nexus S charging overnight and it was frozen in the morning.

Update:
Also, I've contacted @SamsungServic via Twitter and asked if their team recognized it as a problem, but I've got no response.
On the other hand if you report the problem to them, they will respond that they will look into it - which means nothing, but if enough people asks the same question them they will have to.
-thanks

I've got some sort of responce via Twitter from @SamsungService, here is what they wrote back:
@SamsungService
Thank you for reaching out to us. We are aware of this issue as some of us have your same phone. An evaluation is already being conducted to determine the fix. We don't have a time frame of the resolution, but understand it will be pushed to phones. We will advise once we have a time frame. Thank you. ^Mary
@Keinam
Does this mean we should stop sending our phones back for repair and just wait for your OTA update? If it happens?
@SamsungService
Many issues can be resolved with warranty service. Regarding the issue you've referred to,It is my understanding that a fix if being worked on which would be sent out OTA. ^Mary

[Q] Hard Bricked? Sidekick 4g

Soo I have a big problem,
My sidekick 4g suddenly shut off and directly went into Download Bootloader. It would only stay in that window for about 3 seconds then restart. So I tried doing Odin but it would never stay in download mode long enough. After a while, the phone stopped turning on and now it does not even charge. I believe I have hard bricked the phone. When I leave it on the charger. I see no indication that it is charging but the battery gets warm. Is there any hope for me to fix this phone?
Please let me know ASAP. Thanks!

helodavelo said:
Soo I have a big problem,
My sidekick 4g suddenly shut off and directly went into Download Bootloader. It would only stay in that window for about 3 seconds then restart. So I tried doing Odin but it would never stay in download mode long enough. After a while, the phone stopped turning on and now it does not even charge. I believe I have hard bricked the phone. When I leave it on the charger. I see no indication that it is charging but the battery gets warm. Is there any hope for me to fix this phone?
Please let me know ASAP. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the device even show up as a USB vendor/product id? See that with `lsusb` on Linux or the Device Manager on Windows.
It might be worth trying ayoteddy's FOOL PROOF WAY TO GET INTO DOWNLOAD MODE here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1186954
Perhaps if you trigger the phone to enter download mode that way, it won't just continually reboot...
Beyond that, I think you'll be looking at hardware-level fixes. If the phone isn't literally fried, it can almost certainly be repaired with JTAG. But that would involve a JTAG interface which I am guessing you don't already have.
You might be able to find someone who will JTAG for you for free, or for a fee. A local phone repair shop might have this capability.
If you're damn good with a soldering iron, or have a friend who is, there's also AdamOutler's "UnbrickableMod":
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1347984
That mod is not for the feint of heart, you need to take the phone almost entirely apart and do soldering work within the area of a grain of rice... but it is possible.
But all the options assume that the only problem with the device is a bad flash -- damaged boot loader, bad kernel/recovery, etc. The way you describe your phone's demise, a hardware failure certainly seems like a possibility.
Good luck, I hope your device is not dead.
FWIW, SK4G goes for ~$100-200 on eBay these days depending on condition. Locally you could probably find lower prices.

Wow thanks for all the info but i tried ayoteddy. Since the phone doesnt even power on , i cant do what teddy says. And no, after a few failed odins, the comp doesn't even see the phone. But that's also because the phone doesn't turn on. I even put a charged bat. Still no go

helodavelo said:
Wow thanks for all the info but i tried ayoteddy. Since the phone doesnt even power on , i cant do what teddy says. And no, after a few failed odins, the comp doesn't even see the phone. But that's also because the phone doesn't turn on. I even put a charged bat. Still no go
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really sounds like a hardware failure.
If you are committed to trying everything to rescue your particular device, you could double down and try a new battery. You risk wasting whatever money you spend on it, of course.
If I recall correctly, the SK4G can't operate properly without some battery current, even when plugged into USB. And the other symptoms seem to leave the door open on battery problems -- sudden power down, brief signs of life which eventually cease, hot battery. The sudden failure of a lithium battery would hardly be unusual.

I have seen an issue very similar to this before. It turned out to be a loose connection inside the phone. Might want to disassemble and reassemble carefully to ensure that the connections are secure. Youtube has dis-assembly videos to guide you. You don't have to completely disassemble the phone, just til you reach the main board and secure the connections to it. If you don't feel like you can hand the task of dis-assembly you could always search for a local phone repair business, or even computer repair shop (they often do some phone repairs). Hope this helps

Hey there, I am trying to fix a SK4G with the exact same problems... download mode will show up, but then the screen will go blank again. I'm gonna look into what blk2dr suggested... did you ever fix yours, OP?

root? so Warranty it, not saying its the most "ethical way"
out of curiosity what was the last, well as samsung would put it, hac...ERRRR unsupported warranty voiding modification known to us as upgrade/flash eg. via cwm odin rom app add on modem kernel etc. that was done to the ol SK? or is it just straight up faulty craftsmanship from samsung...nooooo on a SK4g??? is that possible? lol moving a rom around from folder to root of sd once (zip prev passed md5 check) my 2nd or was it 3rd t839 had a lil hiccup that i didnt realize at the time made my custom Roms zip like 47kb smaller then it previously was and should of been, when flashing is 2nd nature and ur just moving it within the same sd card its already checked out on the md5 sum and ur dealing with a 200+/-mb file, whos gonna notice that minor change? to make a really long story just kinda long, into voodoo cwm flash, let it marinate... phone ran great for 4 days, then i decided i was going to clear cache davlik fix permish and reboot...yea went into cwm wiped wiped and half way thru fix permish phone crashed rebooted back into recov, when i tried to reboot sys it had your same exact issue. DL mode for just a second...then all black yet slightly backlit screen. could never get it to stay long enuff to odin back to stock, fullproof DL mode was a no go and of course the battery died, wouldnt recharge. i played dumb went to tmo store dude tesed phone with new batt my batt in other sk etc etc...anyways he charged my battery up enuff it flared back into dl mode for a few sec...my fix? hours and days headin into weeks of jackin with this thing i went with my cure all root REUPwarranty fix...flash a bad freakin bootloader thru odin and kill it once ad for all, DL mode only needs to be on about 4 sec, not long enough to go back to stock rom but long enuff to kill that B. prefered bootloader is i9000 haha works like a champ everytime to every rooted phone that had issues i needed a warranty exchange on(only been 4) seeing how i get a new phone every 3months on avg and always pay full price the ratio is tiny. yeah i know the trickle down effect raising costs from manufacture in long run yadayada. all is true, but i figure ive been kicked in the groin so many times by samsung,lg,moto,htc etc they can eat 1 every now and then. as a tmo employee in 07/08 i paid 500 upfront for the mda that got back ordered for 6 months had 2 bad dead spots in the touch screen within a month and screen went completely white in 3mnths. some employee/warranty fine print screwed me out of a new phone. and dont even get me started on the sidekick. 399 bucks for a phone that basically got abandoned 3 months later cuz it was junk compared to what it should be and breaks in high quanities. theyll still tax u 20 bucks and make u keep ur old battery and cover charger etc so im not losin any sleep, for real kill it for good, run it to the store get ur new err rebuilt refurb SK4g in 2 days then save up for a t989 s2 dl gmote/spashtop and poweramp on ur SK4g and let her roll as a wireless keyboard/mousepad for ur pc and let the voodoo and Pamp rock as a killer mp3 player. thats all the T-urd-839 is really good for anyways, oh yea and a mediocre bt controller for playin games on my S2's lol do the warranty, its samsung/TMOs fault for lettin this junk product get released, abandoning it and overcharging so many of us. Just do it, do it lol

pull battery, connect usb, hold power, volume up, volume down, camera, and tackpad and insert battery. It should FORCE the phone into download mode.
try it lol~

LG G5 T-Mobile Won't Turn On

My wife's phone randomly turned off yesterday and we just ignored it. Today, it would randomly restart and/or turn off at least 3 times the whole day. When we have it plugged in to charger, it would randomly turn off and restart. Then we have to pull the battery out to turn the phone on. But now, the phone won't even turn on anymore. I have a G5 (w/ Verizon) and we tried swapping the battery packs and her phone won't turn on. Just to be sure, I plugged her battery to my phone and it started, though it displayed a "Module not compatible with Verizon"
Anyone else running into similar issues?

Yes. Today I had about 30 app updates to do in Google Play. I set it to update all while here at work, put it in my pocket, and went to take care of some tasks here in the building. The next time I pulled it out about an hour after that, I noticed the phone was off. It wasn't hot or overheating, and the power button doesn't respond regardless of how long I hold it in. Recovery mode also doesn't start up. I removed/reinserted the battery multiple times to no avail.

My phone did the same thing! It just froze one day and I had to battery pull to get it working again. Then later on it froze and started resetting over and over again. Finally it froze, shut off, and never worked again no matter what I did. It might be a bad batch of these phones. I am now on my fifth phone. The other three had dead pixels. I hope my fifth phone won't have any of the previous phones issues.

DarkMage619 said:
My phone did the same thing! It just froze one day and I had to battery pull to get it working again. Then later on it froze and started resetting over and over again. Finally it froze, shut off, and never worked again no matter what I did. It might be a bad batch of these phones. I am now on my fifth phone. The other three had dead pixels. I hope my fifth phone won't have any of the previous phones issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on my second one, but now I'm past the 14 day return window. How do I go about getting this replaced? Can I take it to my local Tmobile store or do I contact LG? Should I be concerned about pictures and data being retrieved off of the phone if I ship it off somewhere in exchange for a replacement device? I know it's pessimistic to say, but if I wanted to return the device due to these defects for a full refund and go with a different phone, is that possible at this point?

I'm in the UK on EE and I've also had this problem with both my original LG G5 and the replacement. The phone display would randomly disappear then it would be impossible to switch it back on using the power button and recovery mode didn't work either. The only way to make it work again was to plug it into the charger.
Luckily I was within the 14 days and have returned them both. The second is awaiting assessment by their engineers but I've lost faith and am going with the Samsung Galaxy S7 instead.

woodie said:
I'm on my second one, but now I'm past the 14 day return window. How do I go about getting this replaced? Can I take it to my local Tmobile store or do I contact LG? Should I be concerned about pictures and data being retrieved off of the phone if I ship it off somewhere in exchange for a replacement device? I know it's pessimistic to say, but if I wanted to return the device due to these defects for a full refund and go with a different phone, is that possible at this point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I called T-Mobile and told them my phone was dead. Saying it was dead allowed me to avoid all the tech support questions and they sent me a new phone with 2 day shipping. I was surprised how quickly they sent the new phone to me. I don't think there is any way they will give you a full refund if you are outside of the 14 day window but you are still well within the warranty period so I would keep bugging them till you get a phone you are fully satisfied with.
In addition you can use the LG backup app to save all apps and the associated data. After everything is backed up wipe the phone that way you keep your data with you on an SD card. I couldn't wipe the data off my dead phone but I doubt it could be retrieved anyway.

woodie said:
I'm on my second one, but now I'm past the 14 day return window. How do I go about getting this replaced? Can I take it to my local Tmobile store or do I contact LG? Should I be concerned about pictures and data being retrieved off of the phone if I ship it off somewhere in exchange for a replacement device? I know it's pessimistic to say, but if I wanted to return the device due to these defects for a full refund and go with a different phone, is that possible at this point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you call t mobile and tell them about yiur problem they will send you a new one try it
Sent from my SM-G935T using XDA-Developers mobile app

[Q] My Galaxy S7 won't boot or charge, tried the various suggestions

Never dropped it or got water in it. Never tried to change the OS or anything like that either.
It started freezing and a soft reset would get it back up. Started happening more often and eventually none of the suggested resets would work and even when charging with the phone off it would freeze. I eventually managed to get it into the recovery boot (just the once) and it said E:/ failed to mount over and over. When i pressed a button it froze again and since then i haven't been able to get any response. Not even the little battery symbol or red light when it's on charge. It seems completely messed up and essentially a brick right now.
Any ideas? I can get it repaired via my UK network provider (O2) which would take a couple of weeks but would really like to back up and factory reset my stuff if possible as i have lots of personal data on my phone including passwords to peoples websites (i'm a web developer). As well as the ordinary things your girlfriend wouldn't want ending up on the net. My online banking and everything is on there. There's pictures with some famous people at Glastonbury and also some brilliant sporting events i was at that i'd never be able to get the vids/pics back.
With the failed to mount error, would that mean they'd have to factory reset it regardless of what happens and i'd have no chance to back it up either? I'd really rather not lose my files but i also don't want some random guy snooping through my stuff.
Thanks in advance for any replies guys!

Have you tried a different charging method?
From PC with a different USB lead for example
Leave it connected overnight and see how it is the next day

Thanks for the reply.
My girlfriend uses my charger to charge her blackberry as she lost hers and it works fine. I also tried leaving it for a few hours connected to the laptop using the USB connection from the original charger with no response whatsoever. My mother has as Samsung too... given the points i just told you, is it worth trying to borrow another charger still?
I'd reluctantly be happy even if i have to factory reset to save me having to wait for ages to get it back.

No, sounds like you can rule out the charger being the problem
Sounds like something inside the phone has fried, possibly the charging port if you can't even get an LED on, but considering the errors leading up to the fault it sounds more like the motherboard has died, which, unless you saved anything to external SD (MicroSD), contains the Internal storage where all your files are
More than likely, Samsung will just replace the board rather than fiddling around trying to repair that one, so unless it is something else at fault you can probably relax about them snooping, it'll end up in the recycling bin to be melted down for it's gold contacts never to be powered up again
I can't think of anything else you can try to get life out of it tbh other than opening it and charging the battery another way / replacing the battery with a charged one, but warranty is gone after that and not even sure how you would go about switching batteries tbh, if you can
If it is already out of warranty, you could find where the battery terminals connect to the motherboard, and put an alternate power source to them matching the battery voltage etc (Removing the battery first), might give you time to remove / erase / copy

Thanks again for the reply.
So you think the motherboard just progressively died? I hadn't mentioned this but a while ago i accidently left the phone on the radiator for a short while whilst working. It worked fine afterwards and when i asked on another forum they said if any damage was going on it would have restarted or gave an overheat message (which it didn't).
I guess i'll be sending it off to my network provider (O2 UK) then, it's still in warranty (just) so they should fix it or send me a new one. I've seen so much stuff on amateur porn sites of videos or pictures that probably weren't meant to be "released", leads me to having a fear about my girlfriend ending up on them. And like i said, passwords are stored on there to some websites i create for people so its not just my personal data but theirs. I don't really know how these businesses are run, i'd imagine they'd want to get as many phones done as possible... but knowing me if i was doing that job i'd probably have a snoop where i could lol.

powlesy6 said:
Thanks again for the reply.
So you think the motherboard just progressively died? I hadn't mentioned this but a while ago i accidently left the phone on the radiator for a short while whilst working. It worked fine afterwards and when i asked on another forum they said if any damage was going on it would have restarted or gave an overheat message (which it didn't).
I guess i'll be sending it off to my network provider (O2 UK) then, it's still in warranty (just) so they should fix it or send me a new one. I've seen so much stuff on amateur porn sites of videos or pictures that probably weren't meant to be "released", leads me to having a fear about my girlfriend ending up on them. And like i said, passwords are stored on there to some websites i create for people so its not just my personal data but theirs. I don't really know how these businesses are run, i'd imagine they'd want to get as many phones done as possible... but knowing me if i was doing that job i'd probably have a snoop where i could lol.
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If the phone powered on when you sent it in then no doubt somene would have a snoop, but if it is DOA they won't waste their time, they'll be getting thousands of phones a day to go through, yours will just be another number: Press power > Nothing > test with some USB device > Nothing > open > replace motherboard > test > working > job done
Something like that I would imagine
For future reference, get a MicroSD card for your replacement and save all media to that, then you don't have this problem if it dies