[Q] Can't even call it boot cycle... - Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G

So, there I was, eating dinner while my phone read me a book.* And suddenly, it stopped. Because my phone crashed. And the amount of a boot cycle it can get through before crashing has been decreasing ever since. A complicating factor: when I still thought it was possibly a software issue, I booted into recovery, and attempted to re-flash the OS (currently it's on 10.2.1). It crashed partway through the process.
On the off chance this was a humidity issue (and not having a lot of time to mess with it) I opened up the phone, removed battery, sim, sd and the small screws in the main body of the phone, and left it in a dry well ventillated place. Now it will get as far as the initial "samsung" splash screen the first time I've reinserted the battery, and won't boot at all beside that. (It's possible that the power button was behaving weirdly, but the phone's behavior was generally so erratic that I can't say that with confidence.) Also, sniffing at the keyboard there is ever so faint a smell of burnt electronics... maybe. Maybe just platicizers. (I've noticed a bit of
This is the same phone that had screen issues (assumed to be related to a small amount of water** though subsequent evidence suggested a loose connector as an alternative hypothesis) around the beginning of February. It's been fine ever since, discounting the occasional weird usb connectivity issues that seem to be common with this phone.
I'm pretty happy to take the phone apart, but other than a general decase everything and look for loose connectors or other obvious trouble, I'm not even sure where to begin. (Also, I have about twelve hours to put in an order if I want Amazon to send by a new phone by tomorrow. Which is kind of silly, but this is swiftly and impressively dead. And otherwise it'd be no phone until Tuesday, which wouldn't kill me, but which would annoy me mightily.)
Any thought regarding common problem areas for this phone? I'm hoping to be able to leave the lab early today, which should give me some hours of working time. Well set up for tools, always happy to have things to take apart.
* Text to speech is awesome, once you get used to the robo-voice.
** Really, not a lot - none of the moisure stickers showed anything, and I don't think it got into the main body of the phone.

The de-casing was fun, and yet there isn't an obviously damaged component. It was pronounced dead at 6:20 yesterday evening.

R.I.p.
Sent from my SGH-T699 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

tylik said:
So, there I was, eating dinner while my phone read me a book.* And suddenly, it stopped. Because my phone crashed. And the amount of a boot cycle it can get through before crashing has been decreasing ever since. A complicating factor: when I still thought it was possibly a software issue, I booted into recovery, and attempted to re-flash the OS (currently it's on 10.2.1). It crashed partway through the process.
On the off chance this was a humidity issue (and not having a lot of time to mess with it) I opened up the phone, removed battery, sim, sd and the small screws in the main body of the phone, and left it in a dry well ventillated place. Now it will get as far as the initial "samsung" splash screen the first time I've reinserted the battery, and won't boot at all beside that. (It's possible that the power button was behaving weirdly, but the phone's behavior was generally so erratic that I can't say that with confidence.) Also, sniffing at the keyboard there is ever so faint a smell of burnt electronics... maybe. Maybe just platicizers. (I've noticed a bit of
This is the same phone that had screen issues (assumed to be related to a small amount of water** though subsequent evidence suggested a loose connector as an alternative hypothesis) around the beginning of February. It's been fine ever since, discounting the occasional weird usb connectivity issues that seem to be common with this phone.
I'm pretty happy to take the phone apart, but other than a general decase everything and look for loose connectors or other obvious trouble, I'm not even sure where to begin. (Also, I have about twelve hours to put in an order if I want Amazon to send by a new phone by tomorrow. Which is kind of silly, but this is swiftly and impressively dead. And otherwise it'd be no phone until Tuesday, which wouldn't kill me, but which would annoy me mightily.)
Any thought regarding common problem areas for this phone? I'm hoping to be able to leave the lab early today, which should give me some hours of working time. Well set up for tools, always happy to have things to take apart.
* Text to speech is awesome, once you get used to the robo-voice.
** Really, not a lot - none of the moisure stickers showed anything, and I don't think it got into the main body of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get a new battery for it....had this issue before and placing new battery in it fixed my bootlooping and not being able to flash or get past samsung screen...the samsung batteries have an overcharge feature which has been known for causing errors such as this...

Related

WTF is wrong with this phone?

Hey guys.. So I've had my inspire for about 2 or 3 months now, and this thing is driving me apeshhh. Here is why...
For a few weeks now, the phone would randomly restart in the middle of doing something, always random. Sometimes while writing a msg in the stock facebook app. Sometimes when browsing market, sometimes when browsing using the web browser. Today I wanted to download Astro to see if the music I put on the phone went to external or internal SD. As soon as the download finished, the phone restarted. After it booted back up I looked through apps, and it never installed. I went back to market and searched it, pulled it up, and it shows installing.... let it sit for 5 minutes... nothing. Restarted, same thing. Pulled the battery... same thing... I can't cancel it, or try again. It will now no longer install anything else.
I figured maybe it needs to download something that it just doesn't have the network speed to use, and trying turning on wifi. IT WONT EVEN TURN ON. Under the settings menu to turn it on, it says error. When i tap on it, the error msg just goes off then comes back right away.
Anybody else experience this? I really wish SOMEBODY would come out with a decent f**king phone on the AT&T network.... I guess I can now add HTC to the list of people that can't build a decent phone. Just below Samsung... (What a POS line of phones they have released).
Anyway, phone is stock, not rooted, nothing turned off, completely stock.
How does the warrenty work now? I bought the phone outright, cash, $500... for this....
Thanks for any help.
Could be your phone mate. I've had this phone maybe about three months and haven't experienced those issues. Just might be a lemon you have. Where did you purchase the phone?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
I bought the phone at an authorized AT&T retailer store. The kind you find in common shopping strips.
Try to see if they will give you a replacement
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
GTIVRon said:
Hey guys.. So I've had my inspire for about 2 or 3 months now, and this thing is driving me apeshhh. Here is why...
For a few weeks now, the phone would randomly restart in the middle of doing something, always random. Sometimes while writing a msg in the stock facebook app. Sometimes when browsing market, sometimes when browsing using the web browser. Today I wanted to download Astro to see if the music I put on the phone went to external or internal SD. As soon as the download finished, the phone restarted. After it booted back up I looked through apps, and it never installed. I went back to market and searched it, pulled it up, and it shows installing.... let it sit for 5 minutes... nothing. Restarted, same thing. Pulled the battery... same thing... I can't cancel it, or try again. It will now no longer install anything else.
I figured maybe it needs to download something that it just doesn't have the network speed to use, and trying turning on wifi. IT WONT EVEN TURN ON. Under the settings menu to turn it on, it says error. When i tap on it, the error msg just goes off then comes back right away.
Anybody else experience this? I really wish SOMEBODY would come out with a decent f**king phone on the AT&T network.... I guess I can now add HTC to the list of people that can't build a decent phone. Just below Samsung... (What a POS line of phones they have released).
Anyway, phone is stock, not rooted, nothing turned off, completely stock.
How does the warrenty work now? I bought the phone outright, cash, $500... for this....
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back up your stuff and factory reset. If that doesn't work then either Root it and try a different ROM or get a replacement phone.
You might want to look at the thread in here about random shutdowns. It looks like the batteries on these phones can be the culprit. My phone randomly shutdown, sometimes restarted. I thought it was a ROM I had loaded at first. The problem got progressively worse no matter what ROM I used. It would do it maybe once a day & then within less than 3 weeks I have to keep it plugged in all the time. It happened when I opened a power-intensive app like navigation or a game. The battery is covered under warranty.
This issue seems to be rather uncommon, but it does exist.
Nothing compared to what Captivate owners went through.
Lemons do happen, but as suggested, I'd try another battery first. If that doesn't solve the problem, there shouldn't be any issue with getting a warranty replacement.
And that warranty replacement will, with near certainty, be a good one. Again, unlike the Captivate.
I've had mine for about 3 months with none of these issues. HTC phones for me have been great. Even their customer service and support if their products. And I have had Samsung,motorolla, and LG none at the same level of build quality. If you continue having problems get in touch with the HTC support they will help if not let u know if you can get a replacement.
Sent from my Inspire 4g running ClearDroid 1.1.2
I am a former captivate owner. That phone was so bad that it destroyed it's own internal memory. Every app continously force close, every process, upon startup one day. Restored a backup, got nothing, reflashed, got nothing, mounted it and formated it then ran a memory checking utility on my computer with it, and it showed like 46% of the sectors being bad, after then 2nd test somewhere in the high 50s. I promtly punched in the screen and folded the phone in half, and tore it into 2 pieces... So i think that may be why I'm relatively patient with this phone.. (that was also my 3rd captivate replacement). (Debating using a picture of the phone as-is in a DIY to fixing captivates and post it in that forum... get all your frustration out and buy a new phone.. ha ha.)
I will call HTC and see talk to a rep, maybe they know more about the problem and will be able to determine whether the phone or the battery is at fault.
Also, factory reset did not fix the wifi problem. Instead of immediately going back to error under it's status, and spent about 10 seconds trying to connect, then came up with error. This leads me to believe it's hardware related.
I will most likely push for a replacement phone then. I do have a concern with that though... My phone has never gotten wet, and only has a small indication of falling out of my pocket while sitting in a stadium chair (maybe a 12 inch drop onto concrete). Will this void my warrenty? The scar left behind is hardly noticeable, but if they looked for it, it will be seen. Another thing is, when I pull my battery cover off, there are 2 screws along the side, one is covered by a sticker that reads VOID, black sticker with white text. Is that some kind of indicator of water damage? I'm more familiar with white stickers turning red or pink from water damage... and as said, this phones never been wet.
Thanks again for the help.
At&t is usually good about replacing defective phones and will be faster than dealing with htc. You obviously have experience with at&t warranty having owned a captivate.
GTIVRon said:
I am a former captivate owner. That phone was so bad that it destroyed it's own internal memory. Every app continously force close, every process, upon startup one day. Restored a backup, got nothing, reflashed, got nothing, mounted it and formated it then ran a memory checking utility on my computer with it, and it showed like 46% of the sectors being bad, after then 2nd test somewhere in the high 50s. I promtly punched in the screen and folded the phone in half, and tore it into 2 pieces... So i think that may be why I'm relatively patient with this phone.. (that was also my 3rd captivate replacement). (Debating using a picture of the phone as-is in a DIY to fixing captivates and post it in that forum... get all your frustration out and buy a new phone.. ha ha.)
I will call HTC and see talk to a rep, maybe they know more about the problem and will be able to determine whether the phone or the battery is at fault.
Also, factory reset did not fix the wifi problem. Instead of immediately going back to error under it's status, and spent about 10 seconds trying to connect, then came up with error. This leads me to believe it's hardware related.
I will most likely push for a replacement phone then. I do have a concern with that though... My phone has never gotten wet, and only has a small indication of falling out of my pocket while sitting in a stadium chair (maybe a 12 inch drop onto concrete). Will this void my warrenty? The scar left behind is hardly noticeable, but if they looked for it, it will be seen. Another thing is, when I pull my battery cover off, there are 2 screws along the side, one is covered by a sticker that reads VOID, black sticker with white text. Is that some kind of indicator of water damage? I'm more familiar with white stickers turning red or pink from water damage... and as said, this phones never been wet.
Thanks again for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those stickers are intact right? As long as their intact and not "punched in," which would indicate a screwdriver has penetrated in order to get the phone open, you should be good, as far as that's concerned.
Uhh well bad luck for you... I dont think this is a common problem...
Im guessing the iphone is on top of your list xD
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App

Omnia 7 screen/battery bug

Hello XDA, i've heard (and know) that you guys are quite good with phones, and was hoping someone would be able to help me out, i can't find anybody with the same problem.
So here it is:
Since i've been skiing, often when i lock my phone the screens keeps on coming on and staying on the lock screen, and just won't turn off, so it's an obvious baterry drainer and pontentially dangerous for the screen, so i've resosrted to putting a black background image.
Also when the battery gets "critically low" my phone comes up with the message and also vibrates, but keeps on repeating in, just doesn't stop !
I've also noticed that when this problem occurs when i go into battery saver in options the second box constantly flashes as does the estimate remaining time and time since last charge.
My battery is now really bad when this happens, but supprisingly is ok when this doesnt happen.
Has anybody else had this problem, or something similar? and could someone give me some advice (factory reset? which i don't really want to have to do :/ )
Thank You
and my phone is generaly a bit buggy when this happens, like suddenly turning off etc.
Since this happened after skiing, I'm guessing your phone got a bit wet, probably around either the power button or the battery (or both). You can try drying it out by putting it in some warm dry rice (an excellent dessicant) but that's something you do within minutes of it getting wet, not days, if you want to avoid permanent damage.
You could also try taking the battery out and carefully inspecting it, comparing it with the battery from another phone, etc. If it appears damaged in any way (swollen, discolored, corrosion on the contacts, etc.) you could try replacing the battery and seeing if that helps. You could also replace the phone, of course, but you'll probably have to buy it at retail price unless you've got insurance that covers liquid damage.
You could try a factory reset before replacing the phone, since you'll lose all your data anyhow, but this doesn't sounds nearly as much like a software problem as it does like a hardware problem. However, getting your data off is actually possible, using a tool like WP7 Root Tools (which is really awkward to use for backup, but it can be done). If you wait the next however-long for Heathcliff74 to release a version of Root Tools that supports elevating other apps, you'll be able to use a data backup tool that I wrote last year and am modifying to work via any full-permissions access.
Thank you for the reply.
The same problem actually happened in November also, but quickly went back to normal, but it's been a week now so it's getting a bit annoying.
I just rang samsung and she obviously said do a reset, so i think i'll do this but this will erase everything, i would just like to keep my contacts and messages tbh.
Havn't got time do research that yet but i'll look after, unless someone points me to something first, and i'll post back.
Thanks
You can make a backup of the phone before hard-reset. That way, if the reset doesnt' fix anything, at least you can restore the backup and be back where you were before deciding on your next step.
I can't get the Backup program to work, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1103011
Keep getting "Le format de la chaîne d'entrée est incorrect."
And if i try the in the command prompt i just get a an error saying "updatewp.exe stopped working"
is there any other way of backing it up?
Thanks

[Q] Trying to control Android phone from browser, BIG problem.

Few days ago, my phone got screwed by water.
I have a Droid Incredible, rooted with the latest CM9 and has TSF Shell on it as the launcher.
Anyways, the LCD Display does not work anymore. I know the digitizer works, because I can unlock my phone. I have memorized a little on my phone. Now, I can turn up and down the speakers, lock it again, answer or decline phone calls, that's a good thing. This morning my LCD display worked but now it does not. There is some kind of backlight however hence the bottom 4 touch buttons still work to get to home, back, menu, and search.
Now this is what I want to do, considering money is tight, and I'm not getting another phone until late next month.
I want to install AirDroid on my phone, and set it up to work with my browsers, whether on my laptop, tablet, or ipod, so I can remotely control and view it.
That's the problem.
Issue one: I have no clue how to install applications DIRECTLY, to the Sd Card itself. I can put the apk on there but with no sights of how to do this, I'm a bit lost. I have however remembered where the install button is when I want to install a third party application.
Issue two: If I can get past Issue one, my second issue is on HOW, I would set it up. I would probably need to install it on my mother phone and track movements, since she has the same phone as I. I'm not sure however how well that would work.
Some extra information, I dropped my phone into a 12 foot pool and had to dive down to get it. It survived, as I put it in dry rice for exactly about 40 hours. Everything was waterlogged. The camera has water trapped inside, the battery compartment dripped and dripped, the display had water literally inside of it, which took the longest to dry out. I took my phone apart thinking it may be a loose connection of some sort but I made sure it wasn't, and it's still not working great.
Sometimes, I can catch the Droid Incredible boot flash for a couple seconds and that's it. There was obvious signs oh screen damage this morning as I was using it and there were a few digital lines horizontally on the screen.
My question is, how would I be able to do this? It's possible I'm sure, I just don't know how it would work.

[Q] [q] battery charge indicator incorrect after water damge and restore

Hello,
I have searched and searched this forum to find any threads or posts that describe this problem. I have found lots of similar ones, but none like this, so that is why I have started a new thread. If I missed this topic somewhere, I apologize for not having found it.
My wife and I both have Skyrockets (GSII - I727). Stock AT&T ROM (not rooted), but both unlocked. Mine got partially wet last week (toilet incident, would rather not elaborate, but I will answer the first question everyone asks - yes it was a "clean" toilet ) Anyway, I immediately liberally rinsed all ports with alcohol and warmed gently with a hair dryer. After drying I powered up, and everything worked, except the battery percentage display (with a variety of completely fresh and fully charged batteries), would only show in the 50 - 68% charge range, and the phone seemed to die at about the rate one would expect commensurate with those numbers. Put it in a bag of rice for 2 days. No better.
So, after reading here and watching several YouTube videos, I completely disassembled the phone. cleaned all ports, ribbon connectors, mother board, etc. with CRC electrical contact cleaner spray using the spray tube and a very gentle toothbrush. I paid special attention to the micro USB charging port, and all other contacts and circuits that seemed to be related to charging, though I am by no means an electrical engineer or technician, so a lot of it was guesswork. I made sure all was dry and new looking. All contacts intact, no visible corrosion or bridging, and reassembled the phone perfectly (pretty proud of myself for not breaking anything in the process!)
The phone still works great, except for the battery percentage display issue. I have tried everything I've read on this forum about recalibrating the battery meter - discharging fully and then charging up. With the phone on, with the phone off, every permutation I can think of. I tried clearing the cache and rebooting. Still, the maximum the display will read is 68% and that's it, and the phone behaves and dies like it has a battery that is only 68% full, even though I know I am putting 100% charged batteries into it. I have verified this by putting the same batteries into my wife's identical phone and it displays 100%.
If my phone we're lasting as long as it normally would with a fully charged battery, I wouldn't be so bothered by the display being inaccurate, but that is not the case. I've downloaded CPU SPY and some other apps to see if my phone is using an unusual amount of battery resources, but it is not. So, that's the story.
I am not afraid of rooting the phone, and I have no warranties left so I don't care, it's just that from what I've read here on the forum, people with somewhat similar issues have not benefitted from rooting and then running apps or programs that are only available to rooted phones, so I would prefer not to go down that time consuming route, if all I'm going to do is hit another dead end.
So, any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Ron M.
This may sound dumb, but did you try a factory reset?
sireniankyle said:
This may sound dumb, but did you try a factory reset?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your post sireniankyle. Not a dumb question at all, and actually the answer is no. I have certainly considered it, but I haven't done it yet for 2 reasons.
The first is that from all the research I've done, trying to find others who had similar experiences (I have yet to find anyone with the IDENTICAL problem), they have all without exception reported that factory reset did not solve their problem.
Second, because of my previous experiences with doing a factory reset, it seems that no matter how well I am backed up, that it turns into a very time consuming process in getting the phone tweaked and with all the applications and setting back to where I had them. So, I've been holding out and saving factory reset as one of the last resorts.
The other last resort is to root the phone, because apparently there are some apps that might be able to reset the battery counter that will only work on a rooted phone. However, again in my research thus far, I haven't identified anyone with a rooted phone with a similar problem who has had succeeded in solving the problem.
Perhaps this weekend if/when I have the time and patience I will attempt one or both of the above. It's just that I have such low expectations of success that am reluctant to start down those paths.
If you, or anyone else on this forum can point to any experiences where these methods actually worked for someone in this same or similar situation, I would very much appreciate if you could direct me to the appropriate thread.
Thanks again very much for your input, and your further assistance and suggestions would be most appreciated.
Best regards,
Ron
No problem. I just try to help out where I can.
I can't say that I have had any of these issues. I understand the issues with backing up, but if you install twrp, you can create an entire backup of your phone. I've done it many times before without issue, and if resetting it doesn't work, you can still go back to your original set up.
It seems like you may be a pioneer in this particular issue. I hope you figure it out. Both for yourself, and for others who have this problem in the future.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Free mobile app
sireniankyle said:
No problem. I just try to help out where I can.
I can't say that I have had any of these issues. I understand the issues with backing up, but if you install twrp, you can create an entire backup of your phone. I've done it many times before without issue, and if resetting it doesn't work, you can still go back to your original set up.
It seems like you may be a pioneer in this particular issue. I hope you figure it out. Both for yourself, and for others who have this problem in the future.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again sireniankyle!
I used to like being a "pioneer", but as I get older now I just want my stuff to work, and don't have the time or the patience to go where no man has gone before Nevertheless, I absolutely hate to admit defeat, and now that you've turned me onto twrp (do I have to root first to use it?), then perhaps that will make the experiment less time consuming, so I may try this weekend if time allows.
In the meantime, the phone continues to function normally in every other way. I simply carry a couple fully charged batteries in my pocket throughout the day, which are of course 100% charged via my wall charger, but show as 58% as soon as I put them in the phone, and then die at approximately the rate one would expect from a 58% charged battery! Weird huh?
Best regards,
Ron
Was given a Skyrocket the other day which suffers from the same kind of problem (had massive water damage), but the battery percentage is stuck at 0%. So of course it will not even boot up. (Fully charged the battery in a wall charger.) Only thing the power button will do is vibrate the haptic feedback given at first power on, no screen activity. Funny thing is it'll go into Download mode perfectly normally and sit on the Odin mode screen till I assume the battery dies. However it will not go into Recovery mode. Plug in a USB charging cord to charge block or a port on a PC and the phone powers on and works perfectly fine, though forever stuck at 0% battery.
So the only thing I can think of to quickly get around this is without solving the problem, if in fact it can be, is to get a charging case. Like such, for example. http://http://www.ebay.com/itm/XPAL-Galaxy-S2-Skyrocket-PowerSkin-Case-i727-Extended-Battery-Gel-Cover-OEM-New-/310903753323 Had one similar before for another model and when installed it shows as if the phone is charging. So in theory will work for me, though powered strictly by the cases battery. Should work for you even better as you'll get the cases battery life then your own 58% worth of battery life. Edit, just realized when the last post was made, you probably have a new phone and moved on by now.
**I'm going to try to craft myself a homemade powered case yet, have tons a batteries kicking about.

Finicky LCD? Other problems too

So i've been having a lot of issues with my N5 lately, mostly small stuff like general slowness, poor battery life, not surprising on an almost 3 year old phone. I also lose cell service way too frequently (not an issue with my carryer, all my friends are on the same network and are fine). Camera won't focus anymore (though im pretty sure this was my fault, probably broke it while taking it apart). I'm pretty sure the battery connector on my motherboard is damaged. I've had many problems with the battery reading its temperature as -30 C (battery heath "cold"), i've replaced the battery 4 times now and i still get that problem every now and then. Pushing on the connector fixes it temporarily, so im pretty sure some pin is bent slightly out of place and i don't know how to fix that. It recently started having this issue where just moving or bumping the phone the wrong way would cause the phone to shut off. Probably an issue with the battery connector again. I tried fiddling with it but it didn't do much.
The other day i turned it on and the LCD was backlit, but black except for one single vertical white line. Rebooted and it looked normal. Few hours later i got really pissed off with it for shutting off in the middle of an important text and threw it at the wall (not the best idea i know). Screen was already cracked so i didn't really care. Ever since then the LCD has been a real pain in the ass. i can turn the phone on but there's nothing on the screen. Ii get haptic feedback when the Google logo would up, and the notification LED is flashing like i have a message. The backlight is on and pushing hard on the cable connecting the motherboard to the daughter board i can see it start to turn on, (Google logo, few seconds of boot animation) but then back to black (while still backlit).
I can post photos if it would help diagnose/fix this, my phone is my main camera and i don't want to bother anyone if i don't have to.
Anyone know any tricks that might squeeze another mouth out of this dying phone? Any response is appreciated, Thanks!
The issues could have been related to the power button or physical internal damage. My suggestion: replace the screen with a cheap 3rd party screen if the internal components are still working. This will give you more time with your existing phone and allow you to have a working backup.

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