Database Users

[Q] Help with DVP - won't turn on

Hello. I created this account so I can finally ask some of my questions regarding this phone. I've had it since the January 6th shipping, and it's really been fine for the most part. I've the 8 gig version.
Anyway - within the last few weeks my phone has been refusing to charge on random occasions (it's really very random as to when it will charge and when it won't) - both plugged into the wall outlet via the USB power converter that came with my phone and plugged into my computer.
It's been pretty annoying, but nothing I couldn't work around. It would charge eventually.
However, last night I plugged it in to the outlet and it made the noise confirming it was plugged and started charging. This morning, I unplug it and it's non-responsive. It doesn't respond to anything. I have tried:
-turning it on with the power button; holding it down for an extended period and releasing
-taking out the battery
-plugging it in to my computer (which didn't recognize anything being plugged in)
-plugging it in to a different outlet with a different cable (phone came with two)
I've let it sit plugged in for three hours now and retried all of these things and still nothing... it's dead!
I'm not sure where to go from here? I guess I should have my husband call Dell.
Has anyone had any trouble with the sporadic charging?
Are there any solutions I've missed to get my phone to turn on?

You say you've let it sit for a while, was that plugged into a power source? Try that, it sounds like your battery has gone completely flat and probably needs to sit on a power source. Failing that definitely call Dell and get a replacement battery and charger and see if that fixes it, sounds like one of those items is your problem.

efjay said:
You say you've let it sit for a while, was that plugged into a power source? Try that, it sounds like your battery has gone completely flat and probably needs to sit on a power source. Failing that definitely call Dell and get a replacement battery and charger and see if that fixes it, sounds like one of those items is your problem.
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Click to collapse
Yes, it has been (and still is) plugged in that whole time. I edited my post
Yeah, something is wonky, I just cannot pinpoint it. My husband's will sometimes not charge, too. But, much less often than mine does.

charging issues
In the last 2 days my VP freezes while charging overnight. Restarts when I take out and replace battery. It will also freeze when I try to use any app while charging. I tried to use Dell chat to resolve issue but got bounced around. I even had an agent tell me my service tag wasnt valid. I'll try to call 800# when I have a free hour or so (I'm sure the call will take that long). The first two levels of support at Dell seem to have no clue regarding the VP it's very frustrating. P.S. what happens with all the apps I've purchased if they need to replace my phone?

ChristinaSim said:
Yes, it has been (and still is) plugged in that whole time. I edited my post
Yeah, something is wonky, I just cannot pinpoint it. My husband's will sometimes not charge, too. But, much less often than mine does.
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Click to collapse
Have you swapped batteries with your other DVP? Maybe replacement is the only option, hit up @dellcares on twitter, they have helped me in the past and bypass the whole waiting on hold nonsense with dell mobility.
@tbvnz: all your purchased appls will be reinstalled automatically if you installed them via the Zune software on your pc. The ones installed via the phone can be reinstalled from the MP on the phone, just hit the Buy button again and it will tell you its already been purchased and allow you to download it again.

Update:
I snagged my husband's battery and put it in my phone. My phone immediately came on and is now functioning. My computer recognizes it as being plugged in and it's charging.
And, my battery in my husband's phone works fine. It is fully charged and his phone is having no issues.
Certainly this is annoying (and did in fact happen to my husband a few weeks ago where his phone wouldn't respond until MY battery was put in his phone, but we chocked that up to the battery being dead {which it was}.) but at least my husband and I both have DVPs and can interchange batteries... I wonder what someone who didn't have that option would do.
Certainly confusing that removing and replacing my existing battery wouldn't turn the phone on, but my husband's would - even though both batteries are at full charge.
Thanks for the help! I'm not sure if I should contact Dell about it or not. Clearly it's subpar performance, but I've not been completely impressed by this phone in the nearly two months that we've had them, anyway.

Good to hear you are up and running. You could keep an eye on the situation and contact Dell for a replacement battery if it occurs again.

Thanks. Yep, I'll contact them the next time it happens. Anyone else had this problem??

ChristinaSim said:
Thanks. Yep, I'll contact them the next time it happens. Anyone else had this problem??
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My brother and I have experienced the same behavior on both of our phones. Most recent was his this past week, exactly as you described. It would not turn on via the power button, so I swapped his battery with mine and his booted right up. When I tried his battery in my phone it showed a full charge. That has happened to me one or two times, randomly.

ChristinaSim said:
Thanks. Yep, I'll contact them the next time it happens. Anyone else had this problem??
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Arcarsenal said:
My brother and I have experienced the same behavior on both of our phones. Most recent was his this past week, exactly as you described. It would not turn on via the power button, so I swapped his battery with mine and his booted right up. When I tried his battery in my phone it showed a full charge. That has happened to me one or two times, randomly.
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Click to collapse
I've seen that behavior in my DVP (picked it up two weekends ago) and I can tell you how to work around it.
What seems to be happening is some kind of bug when you have it connected and charging and try to turn on/off the phone. If you notice, when it seems unresponsive, the hardware keyboard will probably still light up. This is because it's actually on but the screen just doesn't get any output/input.
What I did was this:
1. Disconnect your phone from the charger.
2. Slide the hardware keyboard down so you can see whether it is lit up (on) or not.
3. Hold down the power button until the exact moment you see the keyboard go dark (off). You have to be quick because it will try to turn right back on a few milliseconds later if you still have the power button depressed, leaving it still non-responsive.
4. Wait a few seconds, and press the power button as normal to turn it on. This time you should see the Dell logo, etc. and everything will be fine.
I've gotten into the habit of either leaving it on or turning it off before I connect it to my charger (it's my alarm clock so it's on almost all the time).
Hope that helps.

my DVP won't turn on either...
Hi - i'm glad i found this post because i've had my DVP for 3 days now and its frozen about 5 times and this morning wouldn't turn on or seem to take a charge. it was fully charged when i put it down last night and this morning there was nothing.
i've stuck it into a wall outlet for now and i guess i'll just wait for it. don't know what else to do. don't know anyone else around with the same phone, so that battery swap isn't an option. pretty funny that you realized to do that and that it worked.
anyway, i feel better now that i've complained about it. thanks.

Did you try pulling the battery and then booting it up? If that doesn't work, after a pull just leave the battery in the phone and let it charge. After 20 minutes you should see it power on.

So it's continued to happen with my phone whenever I have it plugged in to the wall with the brick that came with the phone. Annoying! Basically I cannot have it plugged in next to my bed; it can only charge on my computer. So much for using it as an alarm!
I will try the power down and reboot with the keyboard out. I know what you speak of with the flashing keyboard. I hadn't tried to see if mine is flashing while the phone is 'dead'.

[Q] Didn't even flash or root yet and my 32 grey GT died last night...

Didn't even flash or root yet and my 32 grey GT died last night. It had been working great and was getting ready to flash pershoots kernel this weekend. Last night I plugged in after shutting it down like I do every night. Today when I went to turn it on nothing. I tried holding down the power button for a while and still nothing. I tried holding down volume buttons with power for extended period still nothing. I even tried plugging into different outlet to see if something happened with outlet and maybe drained the battery overnight. Luckily I got it from Fry's two weeks ago on Friday right when they came out and Fry's has a 15 day return policy but this makes me a little concerned... and that's cutting it a little too close.
Has anyone heard of things like this happening with the GT? I'm thinking I may need to see if they'll still sell me the extended warranty. I babied this thing and hadn't even flashed anything on it yet. I'm a little concerned about the reliability of the hardware... I'm not usually the one with the needle in the haystack device that goes bad but who knows... I'm already in withdrawal without it.
Is there anything else I can try before I take it back? Maybe try plugging it into the computer instead to see what happens? I can't really see what else I could do since this thing doesn't have a removable battery. If it won't power on I can't imagine there's much I can test with the SDK dev tools from the PC using the usb cable?

plugged it in with usb...
I do hear the sound of a device being plugged in on win7 when I plugged GT in and got the driver message in tray. GT still won't turn on. When I hold down the power button every about 6 seconds my windows machine machine makes the same sound you get when plugging in a usb device in addition to an extra sound at the end.
[email protected] well I guess it's going back tomorrow.

You got the sleep of death. This is a honeycomb bug that i have personally experienced in the xoom, transformer, and the GT. The way to fix it is to unplug the GT, press the power button down by itself and hold it until the you see the screen turn on and startto boot up. It may take 15 seconds or more.
If that doesnt work, plug it into the wall outlet and try the process again. If that fails also, unplug it again and try the process once more.
That combination seems to work for everyone. The only exception would be if the battery is completely drained. You would need to plug it into a wall charger for a few hours and let the battery charge, and then try the process again.
I dont know why this hasnt been fixed by google yet, its really annoying. I thought 3.1 would fix it but it didnt.

you should have post this on the general thread, but why dont you return it for a different one? problem solve...

Android Development is not for your Questions or Problems Please post in the correct forums
Moving to General

I think you got the battery drained .. for some odd reasons the android has leaky power consumption even when shutdown on occasions ..
Charge it up for a while .. wait .. correction LONG while ..
Hope that is the problem

Exactly the same problem, I have tried the hold power button but it is not working... any other work around?
Please Help

I chatted with a rep from Samsung last knight and he told me that I needed to leave the Tab charging for at least 6 hours and then try again... so I'll let you know if that did the trick... hope it does...

I've actually had this happen on two different 32GB Galaxy Tabs (the original one I purchased and its replacement). After powering the device down it would not boot up.
In both cases it happened about 3 days after receiving the tablet and with 80-90% battery charge remaining. I tried additional charging, holding the power button down for an extended period of time, and attempting to boot into download mode - everything failed to bring it back to life.
I'm not sure what triggers this condition my only suspicion was that it may have something to do with enabling encryption on the device. On the second tablet I didn't have time to do much customization or install many apps but it ended up dying shortly after enabling encryption.

Wow. This happened to me yesterday with my 16gb from Sprint. Had come unlocked,yesterday 3 days in, died. I tried all the suggestions above to no avail.
Took it to corporate today. Now waiting on replacement.
bumming*
Hope next one is unlocked
Edit**** worked. Lol. Guess I didn't try it again today after I tried charging it last night.
About 15 to 20 seconds and she's back!!! Excellent! ! Thank you so much.
Not sure now whether to replace it.
With another.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

Screen "garbled" ~ DEAD story

So one morning I woke up to turn on my Nexus 7 (16gb wifi) only as usual and found that the screen put out some random lines or garbled. The kind of stuff you see on a TV without an input. Did a restore of complete stock and still same thing. I then left it there for about 3 days to drain complete battery. When I get to it the next 3 days, before I plug it in to recharge, I held down POWER+VOL DOWN and plug it in. Now it goes into recovery, and I did a POWER OFF, waited few seconds and Power it up to turn on as normal...amazingly the sucka came back to life.
Phew...I thought I have to RMA it.
Thought I throw it out there in case someone has the same issue.

Had this happen exactly to me today while watching Netflix. Had it working fine for 4months. All of a sudden I'm stuck on the glowing X. Every so often after restarting it, I would go into the 'static tv' screen. Still haven't been able to resolve it. Been trying to solve it all day.

Use the search feature. Your problem has been posted about and the solution given repeatedly. Good luck!

[Q] Yet another Nook not holding charge and hanging at the boot screen

Google shows me I'm not even remotely alone in my trouble, but with the way tech works every problem is at least a little unique. I'll give a rundown of what I've down and whats happened up to this point.
First, I bought it used from Amazon. Very Good condition from a seller with 99% or whatever satisfaction. I think I've bought from them before, actually. So while this isn't a new device, I know I wasn't scammed. It was also factory reset and I'm assuming it wasn't rooted, though admittedly I have no idea how to check on a Nook.
Second, when it arrived the first thing I did, naturally, was turn it on. Plugged in the Nook to my computer, it booted up just fine, I registered, and loaded one a few ebooks with Calibre. The books opened up, they looked great, we were golden.That was when I noticed the battery indicator in the top didn't have a number on it. It was solid black with a ?. I thought that was weird, so I tried rebooting the device. That was when I was hit with an update, it downloaded and installed then rebooted. Here's when it all went to crap.
Third, I can get into the device. If I hold the power button and wait a bit it takes me to the homescreen where I'm met with a 0% Battery warning saying to plug it in or the device will shut off. Waiting for this message do disappear seems to give me normal access to the device, except the battery indicator is still just ?. This still happens now, after about 10 hours of charging.
Fourth, plugging in the device to anything be it wall charger or computer causes the device to reboot back to the Read Forever screen. Even if the device is completely powered off. It just hangs at the boot screen and goes nowhere. If I hold down the power button, or power + n, all it does is flash the screen to blank and then goes back to the boot screen. If I unplug it and hold down power it goes back to the previous problem.
That's everything I know. I seem to have the proper Nook micro USB cable, but the adapter is a little white Chinese looking thing so I know it's not the official. So I've switched to my Nexus 5's micro USB cable since I know it works and plugged it into my PC. The charging indicator is on, but thanks to my minor colour blindess I'm having a hell of a time deciding if it's orange or green. It's either green, orange, or yellow for sure though. Right now I'm going to go to sleep, let it charge through the night. I've had a similar problem happen to my Nexus 7 where it wouldn't turn on, and a nightlong charge seemed to fix it so who knows, this thread might be useless in the morning.
In the more likely event that it's still very useful, any help would be appreciated. And please try to keep it simple. I'm not new to technology or Android in phone/tablet form and all the associated hairpulling, but this is literally the first time I've ever dealt with an ereader. I'd like to get this solved at home, since I don't have a warranty and the price to ship this thing back to the seller would make this end up costing more than a new one would have since I'm Canadian and the seller isn't.
Thanks in advance.
Edit: After a night of charging, still 0%.

This, unfortunately, is the sign of a factory buggy (for lack of a better word) device. I doubt there's any hope. Sorry about that.
Keep me updated.

I think that there might be software to blame. My Motorola Defy also had that sort of weird battery behaviour after one of factory resets. Since then I have to install a patch written by one of XDA members every time I make a reset. But it works. Unfortunately I have no idea if it can be helpful in this case. (I'm refering to this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=34590229&postcount=1 )
Nonetheless I would seek some slight hope in disconnecting and reconnecting the battery.

Alright, so. Progress report:
I tried the 8 failed boots trick to reset the device back to the original firmware. This brought me back to square one. The device worked, I could load books on to it via USB, and read them. But the battery indicator was just a question mark. Going into the settings revealed that the battery was at 100%, or at least claimed to be. But hey, I could read on it so I figured I was alright.
Now, a couple days later, I just woke up to find it with a new problem. Pressing the little N button to wake it up isn't doing anything. It won't respond to holding the power button down and my computer wont pick it up when it is plugged in. The charging light still comes on but I don't know how much it can be trusted.
I'm going to let it charge for a bit, but I'm beginning to think the battery is just toast.

Shodex said:
Alright, so. Progress report:
I tried the 8 failed boots trick to reset the device back to the original firmware. This brought me back to square one. The device worked, I could load books on to it via USB, and read them. But the battery indicator was just a question mark. Going into the settings revealed that the battery was at 100%, or at least claimed to be. But hey, I could read on it so I figured I was alright.
Now, a couple days later, I just woke up to find it with a new problem. Pressing the little N button to wake it up isn't doing anything. It won't respond to holding the power button down and my computer wont pick it up when it is plugged in. The charging light still comes on but I don't know how much it can be trusted.
I'm going to let it charge for a bit, but I'm beginning to think the battery is just toast.
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Click to collapse
Hi, I just went through something similar 48 hrs ago. The NST is frozen, stuck at reading forever. Before that, the battery icon had a '?', and the device info said battery status was "unavailable". Plugging in to charge had a solid green light.
I read around, and what worked was to open the case, and disconnect the battery. Google said to wait 30 mins, I waited 1. Re plugged in, put it to charge. The LED turned to orange, and 15 mins later, the NST booted. All good now.
Total cost: set of TORX scredrivers (you need a T5).

ghane0 said:
Hi, I just went through something similar 48 hrs ago. The NST is frozen, stuck at reading forever. Before that, the battery icon had a '?', and the device info said battery status was "unavailable". Plugging in to charge had a solid green light.
I read around, and what worked was to open the case, and disconnect the battery. Google said to wait 30 mins, I waited 1. Re plugged in, put it to charge. The LED turned to orange, and 15 mins later, the NST booted. All good now.
Total cost: set of TORX scredrivers (you need a T5).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, so. No T5 but I managed it with a teensy weensy flathead. Unlugged the battery, left it that way for about 20 minutes, plugged it back in, then left it to charge. 15 minutes later I came back and viola, it works and the battery is reporting it's remaining juice. Thank you very much, that seems to have done the trick.
You know, this might be the first time I ever managed to have a tech problem solved entirely by a forum.

Shodex said:
Okay, so. No T5 but I managed it with a teensy weensy flathead.
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Click to collapse
You realise that that voids the warranty you get from XDA?
Shodex said:
You know, this might be the first time I ever managed to have a tech problem solved entirely by a forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I knew the Internet would be useful for something, one day

ghane0 said:
You realise that that voids the warranty you get from XDA?
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Click to collapse
It's a used device, there was never a warranty.

Looks like the problem is fixed. Great! Sorry I was inactive.
Later!

Phone suddenly wont turn on

I woke up this morning after realizing my alarm on my phone didnt go off. When I went to check my phone, I found that it won't turn on.
I tried the Volume Down + Power for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 1 minute. I also tried safemode Volume Up + Power for 15 sec, 30 sec, and 1 minute.
Tried connecting to the computer to see if I could adb reboot it but the phone isnt being detected by adb. I can hear it connecting and disconnecting constantly from windows.
I put the phone on the charger last night at about 60% charge, so it should have had enough battery to sit unused for a few hours but it was only about 6 hours later that I noticed it wouldn't turn on.
Right now I am just hoping the battery bugged out and drained so the phone is sitting on the charger charging up but there's no signs of life. My phone has been fine for a month with the September patches and fine before that. I havent taken the october patch yet.
My phone is a little bit over 2 months old.
What else can I do and what would have caused the phone to suddenly not turn on?
Update: Phone has been charging for about 2.5 hours. It is charging at a constant 11mA (0.11A) and has taken in about 220mA. The screen still hasn't came back on. Email sent to Essential a few hours ago, no reply yet.

xNotta said:
I woke up this morning after realizing my alarm on my phone didnt go off. When I went to check my phone, I found that it won't turn on.
I tried the Volume Down + Power for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 1 minute. I also tried safemode Volume Up + Power for 15 sec, 30 sec, and 1 minute.
Tried connecting to the computer to see if I could adb reboot it but the phone isnt being detected by adb. I can hear it connecting and disconnecting constantly from windows.
I put the phone on the charger last night at about 60% charge, so it should have had enough battery to sit unused for a few hours but it was only about 6 hours later that I noticed it wouldn't turn on.
Right now I am just hoping the battery bugged out and drained so the phone is sitting on the charger charging up but there's no signs of life. My phone has been fine for a month with the September patches and fine before that. I havent taken the october patch yet.
My phone is a little bit over 2 months old.
What else can I do and what would have caused the phone to suddenly not turn on?
Update: Phone has been charging for about 2.5 hours. It is charging at a constant 11mA (0.11A) and has taken in about 220mA. The screen still hasn't came back on. Email sent to Essential a few hours ago, no reply yet.
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I have the same problem the screen does not turn on, it only has sound when notifications arrive, but there is no human power to turn on the screen, you have had answer of essential

GEOVANNI MTZ said:
I have the same problem the screen does not turn on, it only has sound when notifications arrive, but there is no human power to turn on the screen, you have had answer of essential
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I contacted essential and they are going to cover it under warranty. No explanination for what caused this issue.

xNotta said:
I contacted essential and they are going to cover it under warranty. No explanination for what caused this issue.
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Click to collapse
I'm from Mexico, but I do not know if my equipment is still guaranteed, is there any way to check if it has a guarantee? because I do not want to have a nice paperweight.

GEOVANNI MTZ said:
I'm from Mexico, but I do not know if my equipment is still guaranteed, is there any way to check if it has a guarantee? because I do not want to have a nice paperweight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Phones purchased in the US come with a 1 year warranty.
I would assume Mexico would get a similar warranty.
You will need your original proof of purchase.
Contact Essential and explain your situation, they will probably be able to come up with a solution for you.
https://support.essential.com/hc/en-us
Click the “?” In the lower right corner and send them an email that explains your situation.
Couldn’t find a Mexico support link. Even using my VPN set to Mexico, it gave me the US support page.

I thank you for your attention, I let it be completely discharged and I have connected it to charge right now and on ... I am happy !!!!

Same problem here, actually my phone was on but screen would not come out of wake. Screen would brighten slightly when combination of buttons pushed,
This happened to me after about two weeks of use, first time it happened I was able to make it come alive by playing with buttons. Than about a week later after having it charging it would not become active.
Emailed Essential with problem, they sent out a replacement unit.
First time I had problem, I was on PIE non rooted, when it finally died I was stock rooted PIE. I don't think rooting had anything to do with problem since it happened even before root. Network Sprint

good morning to all, I hope and can help my team last night when I was watching videos after 2 hours the screen froze so I decided to force a reboot with which I thought the problem would be solved, but to my surprise it was not like that, the phone when turning on did not give imangen only the screen cleared so I knew it had been turned on, but never gave an image, I let it completely discharged thinking that with that it would be fixed and nothing, I put it on and when I turn on the same thing happens it clears the screen but it does not give an image, try the button convention and nothing that solves it, someone has had the same problem? the phone and try tentadilla unlock and put music in spotify so the touch and sound work, also frame and enter calls as well as calls by messenger! help
Attached images

gramicko said:
Same problem here, actually my phone was on but screen would not come out of wake. Screen would brighten slightly when combination of buttons pushed,
This happened to me after about two weeks of use, first time it happened I was able to make it come alive by playing with buttons. Than about a week later after having it charging it would not become active.
Emailed Essential with problem, they sent out a replacement unit.
First time I had problem, I was on PIE non rooted, when it finally died I was stock rooted PIE. I don't think rooting had anything to do with problem since it happened even before root. Network Sprint
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for more than I try to turn it on with the combination of buttons, only a flash appears on the screen !!! what did you do?

Go to Essential support
GEOVANNI MTZ said:
for more than I try to turn it on with the combination of buttons, only a flash appears on the screen !!! what did you do?
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Click to collapse
I filed trouble ticket at the Essential support web page, then they requested I send copy of receipt, IMEI etc.. Then a day later a new phone was mailed to me. Pretty efficient I must say,