[Q] My Nexus S is DEAD, won't even turn on - Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I was using my Nexus S on Google Maps, with GPS turned on, as battery was low, (about 15%) I was charging it with a car charger bought from ebay. I turned my car off, and took my cell phone with me. I tryed to turn it on, but no success. Thought it was battery drain... but it woldn't charge anymore!!
Tryed:
1. Car charger
2. WAll charger (about 4 of them! Including the one that came with my wifes Galaxy S)
3. Charging the spare battery and inserting on my phone! (doesn't even vibrate on power buttom)
4. Connecting it to a PC (windows and ubuntu can't even detect that I have inserted a USB device!)
5. Leaving the battery out of the device for a night
6. Exchanging batteries with my wifes Galaxy S!
Anybody have ANY idea besides taking it back to bestbuy?
I hate to realise that I may be in deep sh*t
Thanks for any help!

Bad idea to be using cheap eBay car charger, probably incorrect voltage, screwed up your phone big time. It sounds like you've exhausted all your options. Could be a software issue if you haven't tried that yet, otherwise, yep, you're screwed.

What do you mean by software issue?
I have tryed turning it on Holding volume up key and nothing.
Kinda sucks!
Anybody know's when Will Galaxy S II will be released?
I don't want a Atrix with froyo

From what you describe, it looks like an hardware issue. There is virtually no way that you could inadvertently destroy the software in your phone by what you describe.
The most likely explanation is, that some voltage spike or isolation brakedown or whatever in the car charger fried the hardware of your phone.
However: It could also just be a unfortunate coincidence and there is no way for you to know for sure. (However, I wouldn't advise on using that car charger any more)
So my advise is to send your phone in under warranty and tell them not to do anything on it that will cost you money before speaking with you first.

I'm always worried something like this will happen.
But I agree with cgi. Definitely sounds like something you'll have to have fixed.

can't see what else you can do... i really think it's a hw issue.
i'm pretty sure it won't help (as you already tried another charged battery), but when i had a milestone, i was able to bring it back from the dead following this guide: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/te...oid-not-booting-odd-behavior.html#post1025466
but if you can claim for the warranty, you really should do.
just don't get bad ideas from the guide and good luck! =o)

return it. your ebay thing screwd up the voltage/charging component that directs the voltage form the micro usb to the battery.
wel thats what i asume.
so its a HW problem you cant fix.
sorry for your loss man.

You should never turn off the ignition or start your car with something plugged into your cig lighter socket. The sudden jolt of electric current can fry whatever electronic you have connected. I have a GPS that comes with a big warning "turn on ignition before plugging device into cig lighter socket" and "unplug before turning off the ignition".

zero383 said:
You should never turn off the ignition or start your car with something plugged into your cig lighter socket. The sudden jolt of electric current can fry whatever electronic you have connected. I have a GPS that comes with a big warning "turn on ignition before plugging device into cig lighter socket" and "unplug before turning off the ignition".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that only proves extremely bad engineering on the part of that power adapter maker and the attempt to pass on any problems from it to the user.
I never saw anything that asked to use it only with the engine running. Where I come from the majority of people uses manual transmissions. If every engine stall on a intersection would kill off a phone, then I think regulators would have done something about it.
Also it is just not realistic. How often would you just forget to pull out the plug?
It surely is not trivial to protect from overvoltage, but it is by no means very difficult, especially in an isolated environment like a car.
No one asks you to take out your radio before you start the car either.

It doesn't mean that you have to use it while the car is running. I think you're missing the point. What I meant was that don't have anything plugged into the cig socket while turning off the car or starting the car. I tested it with a multimeter. There's a huge fluxuation of current from the socket as you do those two things.

zero383 said:
It doesn't mean that you have to use it while the car is running. I think you're missing the point. What I meant was that don't have anything plugged into the cig socket while turning off the car or starting the car. I tested it with a multimeter. There's a huge fluxuation of current from the socket as you do those two things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do get the point, but maybe I wasn't clear enough. I know that the in-car power grid is not a very "clean" power source. I would fully expect to get voltage spikes (no idea what you mean with current fluctuation).
Consequently, every piece of hardware I would design to work off such a power source, would be specifically designed to work flawlessly in the face of these conditions. The radio (and every other electronic device) in your car proves that this is possible.
With a standard multimeter you can't even measure what's going on, since it is not fast enough, but even if it was, you couldn't follow it. You would need at least something that samples and holds the highest voltage value and then display it.
What I was trying to say is that the company sold you a defective by design piece of hardware and tries to transfer responsibility for it to you.

Related

Home made car charger discharges!

Hello:
I built myself a car charger a while ago and it all seemed to work fine. A couple of times however my unit has 'died' after a particularly long journey in the car. I have recently discovered that it was actually getting flat enough to turn off and not turn on until charged; even though it was indicating it was charging.
Further experiments have revealed that if the battery in nearly full (eg 84%) and I use my car charger, the percentage of battery full increases over time indicating it is indeed charging.
However; if the battery is quite empty eg 24% - over time the battery charge decreases until the unit turns off, and needs to be attached to the mains to charge it - even thought it still indicates it is charging!
Soehere in the middle of the two battery states ( 84% - 24%), my charger seems uable to charge my XDA for some unknown reason, I suspected it could be due to current drain - a flatter battery may need more current to charge which the charger cannot provide, but the same situation occurrs even if the unit is turned of and therefore taking very little current from the car charger - obviously leaving nearly all the current available to charge the battery.
Any ideas why this should happen? I am completely stumped - I do not wish to buy a charger as my charging system also incorporates a connection to my GPS unit, and no commercially available chargers provide this at a reasonable price.
Any help or suggestions much appreciated.
BTW: The PDA will only charge if at least one of the pins 16,17,or 18 isconnected to ground and at least one of the pins 20,21 or 22 are connected to +5V. Otherwise, though the XDA may say it is charging, it will actually just drain the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
icarusbop,
Have a look at the charger I made for my XDA II, for use with the in-car kit I also made. The schematics are on my web site - follow the link from my signiature below.
This charger works 100%, and the state of the battery has no effect on charging performance. Mind you, it is capable of supplying > 2 Amps which is sufficient to fully charge the battery while watching movies, and the screen brightness turned all the way up. Charging times are the same as using the plug pack supplied with tyhe XDA II, if not a tad quicker.
The only draw back is the heatsink required for the +5 volt regulator. For the smallish one I have chosen (for the car kit - see pic on my site) it is capable of 2 Amps, but with a larger heatsink (see the first attempt pic of this charger) a full 5 Amps is easily achievable over extended use. It all depends on how much juice your set up requires.
Hope this helps.
Recrem...
I have the same issue but I have an original car kit which was working fine. After I upgraded to 2.06.00WWE i noticed that although when plugged into car kit it says charging, it actually discharges. Although I like this version, I'm in the car quite a bit and need the device to charge, and am thinking about rolling back to the latest rom from the club imate site.
It appears to be a software issue more than a hardware issue....
:?
update,
I've discovered that if charged to atleast 90% when plugged into car kit then it charges.
at some level below this (don't know where yet) it discharges.
welcome to the twilight zone
I haven't tested this with my car kit, and haven't noticed any problems when I had SE installed, although my wife said that her device wasn't charging while in the car, and when she got home after a fair drive, her battery was indeed flat!
I rolled back from 2.02 + 2.06 merged SE to my origional ROM of 1.66.00.WWE purely because some problems became more and more evident - like being unable to connect to ActiveSync unless I reset the device numerous times, and spontaneous hard resets. I have all the same software on my device now with the origional ROM and no problems...
We will be moving this week, and it would be a good test for my ROM and charger to see if it charges when below 90%....
Recrem...
microphone
Hi, did you manage to get the mic working on you carkit? I cannot get the mic working when connected with pins 1 and 5. sound output is working however!
Thanks,
Rob Boerman
Did you design and build your own car kit, or did you follow my design from my web site? I am curious if anyone has used the info I have posted there...
Haven't had a chance to try the mic. I only know it will require a good pre-amp to get it working, and I have been too busy to build one yet - perhaps when I have settled down into our new home after this week-end...
Recrem...
let me know
If you find time this weekend let me know
cheers,
Rob Boerman
All
Just to give my two-pennies worth...
I bought a USB cable when purchasing my O2 XDA II from the O2 shop. When using this cable, if the existing charge is below 85% then the device discharges when connected, however, if it is above 85% then it charges quite happily.
Get this.. if I use my USB CRADLE to charge (in the same USB port etc..) then it charges from below 85% without any problems whatsoever!
Is there a possibility that the USB cable and the USB cradle are wired differently? Are we missing a trick here?
My charging issue has deteriorated to the point that it dosn't charge at all in the car kit, it does charge in the pc usb hub and on mains. I down graded to 1.72.00WWE last night and tested it in the car kit this morning and it still discharged, so the software appears to have nothing to do with it.
I think the earlier statement by indecided may yeild results:
"The PDA will only charge if at least one of the pins 16,17,or 18 isconnected to ground and at least one of the pins 20,21 or 22 are connected to +5V. Otherwise, though the XDA may say it is charging, it will actually just drain the battery."
I will pull my gear apart this weekend and test it out. Possibly I've got a bad connection.
davidberrysmith said:
I think the earlier statement by indecided may yeild results:
"The PDA will only charge if at least one of the pins 16,17,or 18 isconnected to ground and at least one of the pins 20,21 or 22 are connected to +5V. Otherwise, though the XDA may say it is charging, it will actually just drain the battery."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[Theory] The pins are quite thin, it's hard to think you can push 2+ Amps thru one of them without melting it down (at least the insulation). Maybe this is the problem: if you need a big loading current - like when the battery is below 85% - and you don't have more than one pin pair connected to +/- 5V the phone is not charging, although it may say so.
Solution: connect ALL three of pins 16-18 to GND and ALL three pins 20-22 to +5V.
[/theory]
Solved my problem,...
pin 22 had come away from the circuit board. So I sweated it down and just for good measure sweated down all other connections as well.
Put the phone back together and threw it in the car kit, charge ingreased from 78%.
time to upgrade the os again.
:wink:
david... perseverance does pay off... cool.

[Q] Nexus S Touchscreen not responding while charging

Hi everyone.
My Nexus S touchscreen has stopped working while charging. The charger is original, and I havent had any problems before this. The screen does work when charge it through my computer. Anyone have any idea what the problem might be? I updated to 2.3.4 around two week ago, but I've charged the phone after the update without the touchscreen dying.
I read about that problem a good number of times now, most often with third-party chargers, though. It seems, that the touch screen is very susceptible to interference on the power source (which is not really surprising, considering the touch sensor technology).
Maybe your wall adapter is just faulty or out of spec.
Something I just thought of: Do you have any power line communication devices? If so, try to unplug all of them and test again.
Try a few different power outlets, too, maybe even in different buildings.
If its not a real charger it won't work. Alot of these phones only will work with OEM charges from Samsung or Motorola chargers
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I would love to know what you mean by "real charger".
One of my chargers is very slightly over voltage (5.2V) and my touchscreen becomes erratic when I use it - I try to keep using it to a bare minimum. Personally I'd stop using that charger. You never know what long term damage it may be causing.
I really don't mean to challenge your measurement, more so since I don't know how you got it, but I find it anything but trivial to measure voltages to any degree of accuracy.
Since I can't afford laboratory equipment with accuracy in the ppm range, I am stuck with a cheap hand multimeter that is rated at 1% plus a few counts, but only inside one year from manufacture when stored the whole time in defined conditions. The next best thing would have been a 150 Euro version with about 0.5%. That means, that the least significant number in the reading is all but useless.
And we are not even talking about ripple, interference and forward leakage. Try measuring your charger's +5V and 0V to earth. You will probably see significant readings.
Anyway, what I am trying to say is: The average user will have to trust the rating on the label.
And the 5.2V you measured are still inside the specification range, which is 5V plus minus 5%, so from 4.75V to 5.25V, if I remember correctly.
If I felt adventurous and had the problem I might try decoupling everything a bit with some big ultralowESR capacitors near the phone. That should give a lowpass together with the cable resistance.
Hi guys,
I have also come across this behavior - I was charging my Nexus S using the supplied USB cable and the screen hasn't been responding nearly at all.
In my case, this was caused by the notebook charger - when I unplugged it (ran on battery), everything was fine again. Therefore I blame my charger to be a source of some sort of interference.
If you are on a laptop, maybe you could try that. If this is a case of the outlet charger, maybe it is not working properly (to be replaced?)
Hope this helps
same here... wt*
okay im using some Chinese charger but what is doing with the display ...

What is the point of wireless charging?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand the fuss about wireless charging. Why did Nokia choose this function to focus on in their marketing? I cannot understand why no one is commenting on this. Please, if I am wrong, someone correct me on my argument below. I don't actually own a charging plate, so maybe I don't fully GET the benefits of using one. Anyway...
In my opinion, there's very little difference between so-called wireless charging and conventional charging, . You still need a wire. The Fatboy pillow charger etc, needs a wire. That means you are still restricted with regard to your chosen location of charging. There are no less wires. The phone doesn't suddenly charge ten times faster on a charging plate. What is the fuss about. I am all for improvement in technology in terms of enhancement of user experience.
Yes, we hope that one day, tube/ train arm rests, car dashboards or plane seats (for example) might have charging plates built-in, so we can charge whilst we're on the move. However, right now, it really does all seem like a bit of gimmickry
You can just put your phone down on the plate... and it will charge.. you
don't need a ugly cable laying around your desk... and when your phone rings
you can just grab it without thinking about taking of a cable because it's to short...
I near feature there will be charging plates in coffee shops and restaurants.. maybe trains and so on...
There is also this JBL Speaker with NFC and wireless charing.. you can just
put your phone on it and it will charge and automatically connect via NFC and bluetooth...
For me wireless charing is not a must... but it is a nice feature to have...
In near future there will be more possibilities with this technology....
Maybe in 6-7 years our smart phones will have a full blown OS like Windows 8... and a the power storage of a modern laptop... And your most of us won't need a desktop PC anymore...
You just put down your phone on a connection plate... and it charges and connects to your 24" Monitor with a full blown OS....
Wireless charing is maybe a little bit a gimmick now... but big things start small... and innovation is driven by combining different technologies to create something new... and my opinion is... wireless charging will be very important in near feature...
It's all about to make your battery last without having to connect it every time to this stupid charger...
You could have a suitcase or a jacket with a extra battery and a "charging pocket" just slide in your smartphone in it's pocket and it could charge...
AW: What is the point of wireless charging?
whmcal said:
Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand the fuss about wireless charging. Why did Nokia choose this function to focus on in their marketing? I cannot understand why no one is commenting on this. Please, if I am wrong, someone correct me on my argument below. I don't actually own a charging plate, so maybe I don't fully GET the benefits of using one. Anyway...
In my opinion, there's very little difference between so-called wireless charging and conventional charging, . You still need a wire. The Fatboy pillow charger etc, needs a wire. That means you are still restricted with regard to your chosen location of charging. There are no less wires. The phone doesn't suddenly charge ten times faster on a charging plate. What is the fuss about. I am all for improvement in technology in terms of enhancement of user experience.
Yes, we hope that one day, tube/ train arm rests, car dashboards or plane seats (for example) might have charging plates built-in, so we can charge whilst we're on the move. However, right now, it really does all seem like a bit of gimmickry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it's gimmnicky right now...
But many good things have started this way... It's a start and i'am looking foward to things to come..
In russia some cofe shops already have charging plates...
Also for me NFC seems pretty gimmnicky right now just like wireless charging... It just needs time...
I think wireless charging is pretty pointless. But I think devices like that JBL speaker are cool! I really wish cars would have something like that.. Where you could just place your phone on the pad/plate/whatever and it was use NFC to negotiate a Bluetooth/WiFi connection and connect it to the cars entertainment WHILE charging. That would actually be an improvement over just plugging into a corded USB connection, since only music and files can be shared that way (not phone functionality).
nandesho said:
I think wireless charging is pretty pointless. But I think devices like that JBL speaker are cool! I really wish cars would have something like that.. Where you could just place your phone on the pad/plate/whatever and it was use NFC to negotiate a Bluetooth/WiFi connection and connect it to the cars entertainment WHILE charging. That would actually be an improvement over just plugging into a corded USB connection, since only music and files can be shared that way (not phone functionality).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is already possible to achieve with wireless charging, NFC and bluetooth...
But NFC and Wireless charging are pretty new.. it will take some years until such devices are market ready and enough people have this functions on their phones...
A USB port was nothing special to build it in in a car... but i took car manufacturer ages to do it... if there are enough people to find this helpful and useful it will get reality...
So no phones with wireless charging and NFC... No plates in coffee shops and cars... It was the same with most technologies...
I remember the time when WIFI was pretty useless in a laptop... because there where almost no wifi hotspots.. back then a lan port was essential...

[Q] How does wireless charging works?

This might look like a stupid question. But I really wanted to know how is a phone charged without a wire connection. I mean you need to pass electrons while charging right? There must be a layer of air(No matter how slight) in-between the charger and the device which has a resistance of about 10^13 to 10^16 ohms. So how does the electrons passes through this layer?
Induction
Krazhil said:
Induction
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I just got it. The process is something like an electric transformer. Just one part of it is on the charger side, and the other is inside the Cell phone. So ain't we wasting a lot of power through the process. I mean efficiency is never 100%, is it?
I believe the wasted power is related to the coil's material (the less resistive, the less dissipated power).
So yes, efficiency could never be 100% because there's no material with 0 resistivity.
Slazur said:
So yes, efficiency could never be 100% because there's no material with 0 resistivity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mentioned compared with the wired charger. It's wastage r8? And it's not really wireless(got a cable between the charger and wall socket) so what's the point?
I can't recall correctly, but there will be a little bit more of wasted power compared to wired charging (due to the air's permeability to let the electromagnetic field produced by the coil "flow")
Well yes, it's still wired, but the joke is to not plug the phone.
Personally, I always charge my phone on the same spot when I'm home, so it certainly could come in handy.
Slazur said:
Well yes, it's still wired, but the joke is to not plug the phone.
Personally, I always charge my phone on the same spot when I'm home, so it certainly could come in handy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you are keeping the charger plugged into the wall socket all the time? If not than I still didn't get the point why if yes you are wasting a lots of energy of over the day. I thought we are looking for an energy efficient world. I'm I wrong?
I do support if it's built inside a cars dashboard or something like that. Just to put the phone on your dashboard and it's charging. But in case of home still wired is better. Though if it was something like wifi that could work from a distance would make a good point. You know what I mean....

[Q] Phone not charging, USB burnt

RESOLVED (Kinda)
Hello!
My VZW i535 just started giving me issues. I should preface this by saying that it is rooted and I do have a CM11 nightly flashed (will try to get specific version when I can, which may be awhile). I've had this installed for probably over a month now without problems. I also understand that charging issues are very common but nothing I could find is the same as my issue.
I noticed my phone was overheating (as it has frequently since purchased) with about 30% battery today, so I plugged it in after doing a reboot and all seemed well. About 15 minutes later I hear it beeping, giving the signal the battery is below 15%. It was actually at 5%, and the bottom of the device was extremely hot, as well as the end of the Samsung cable included with it, so I unplugged it and found that the metal part of the cable was mostly black and there was a strong electrical burning smell.
I tried two other USB cables, both in the Samsung AC adapter, and in the USB ports of several devices. With any cable in the adapter, it would say "charging" but would not actually charge, but with the computer USB ports it wouldn't say or do anything at all.
The battery is at 2% now and the device is powered off so that I can quickly do something if need be, but I can't do much. I ordered some replacement batteries with a charger, due for arrival by Friday 1/3, since I assume that the damage to the USB interface is permanent.
Is it likely that this was caused by the software? Or is the charger faulty? Any advice, in general? The warranty has expired, but I do have insurance on it if for some reason it would be better to just get a new device. I can't restore it to stock until I get replacement batteries; is that what you recommend?
Thanks so much!
Sounds like a hardware i ssue. Look inside ur usb port on the device to make sure it did not get burn. Wen ur battery comes in put it on and try to charge it with new cable. If it doesn't charge then it will ur USB port. I know some 4.4 roms give wonky bat stats but it shouldn't burn out ur cable or usb port at least i think it shouldn't. If u believe is a software issues flash a different version of the rom a previous build or a whole different rom. But with 2% battery i don't think u would be able to. Good luck
After playing around with it a bit, the USB interface on my phone definitely appears to have taken damage from the heat. It only charges when powered off, must be completely still, and charges relatively slowly.
What I would recommend for people with a similar problem is to do as I have done and purchase extra batteries with an external battery charger like the set I got for around $17 on Amazon.
My only guess for what caused this is that something faulted in the cable or AC adapter and caused a severe overheat issue. If anyone has anything else to say about that, please let me know so I have a better idea of what happened. I will mark as resolved soon.

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