Yet another thread about blinking red LED - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi there,
a few days ago I bought a second hand nexus 4 from ebay. (had very good experience with my second hand N9 that I am using right now) The description said it wouldn't start after a android update. So I thought, no big deal, just flash a new OS and everything will be fine. But as it turns out it seems to be a hardware problem. Plugging in the charger results in a red blinking light. When I hold down -vol + power and then plug in the cable I get to the bootloader (or fastboot, not sure how its called) but neither "start" or recovery mode works. When I do the same with the usb cable attached to my pc (desktop, so should provide enough power) most of the time phone turns off half a second after reaching the bootloader. Only randomly it seems to work. I managed to unlock the bootloader and flash the default rom again (took me like a 100 tries) but it does not change anything. I charged the phone on the wall the whole night, still no change. I have seen some posts suggesting to open the phone and unplug the battery, but unfortunately I don't own such a tiny screw driver. Is there anything I can do? Or did I just spend 70€ on a completely broken phone? =/

nobody? really?
is there nothing left I can try?

Jean_Luc said:
I have seen some posts suggesting to open the phone and unplug the battery, but unfortunately I don't own such a tiny screw driver. Is there anything I can do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy the tiny screwdriver. Better yet, buy one of those disassembly kits off eBay that has the T5 TORX, a small Phillips, and the plastic tools for prying things apart. They're only a few bucks (or quid, or whatever).

After opening the case and disconnecting and then connection the battery again the phone at least charges (white battery symbol while charging) and boots into android. But the upper part of the phone - I guess thats where the SoC is - get super hot really fast. At some point the phone resets, probably because of the heat. Is there something that can be done?

Related

[Q] Hoping for some assistance... HD2 not charging/powering on properly

Ok, I'll try to make this short and sweet and we'll see what happens. I spent the last 2 hours scouring this forum (pretty much the Bible for the HD2) and some other places and I'm still kinda dead in the water.
Here's the situation:
I just grabbed a used HD2 in excellent cosmetic shape. It was from a pawn shop, for $100 cash, and the device would power up at the pawn shop into Windows Mobile 6.5 just long enough to see Sense starting to load, then the battery would complain (probably hadn't had a proper charge in a long time I'm suspecting), then it would go into the "Goodbye!" routine.
Fair enough. So I get it home, and they included the HD2 USB adapter/charger, and I have my own 100% working microUSB cable. I verified the charger works by attaching it to my microUSB cable and then plugging it into my current phone (a cheapy LG 900g on NET10) and it works fine, no issues for power or data connectivity.
So I unplug the cable from the LG, plug it into the HD2, and attach it to my Belkin USB hub (powered, with nothing else attached to it, no other USB devices) and after a few seconds I get the orange charging light on the HD2. Note, it's still off, I didn't turn it back on after it shut itself off. So I let it charge for a few minutes, then I realize I should probably be better off using the actual dedicated HD2 charger, so I unplug the USB end from the USB hub, the orange light obviously goes out since it's now without that source of juice, then plug it into the HTC USB charger and...
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No orange charging light, no response when trying to power the HD2 up, absolutely nada. So now I'm frustrated. I disconnect the USB cable from the HD2, take off the back cover, remove the battery, wait about 1 minute, reinsert the battery (leaving the back cover off), attempt to power it up, no luck.
Plug the charger back in, and I can feel]/i] the tiny vibration motor just kinda "tick" ever few seconds; there's something going on in there, I'm certain. Repeat the unplug/remove battery/wait a minute/put it back together/plug it back in a few times, and then I get something:
The HD2 will vibrate and the screen will light up with the "Stick Together" graphic, for about 1/2 second. Then it's off again. Then it's on again, and off, and on, and off. It's a loop of some kind, but it's random. Sometimes the on/off happens every few seconds, sometimes it's 10, 15, 30, sometimes a full minute goes by before it'll "flash" then nothing again.
Now, the whole time this occurs, the orange charging light never ever comes back on again - it has not come on again regardless of whether I'm plugged into the USB hub or the HTC charger, it just doesn't light up anymore, so my current suspicion is that the battery itself is simply so "dead" it won't accept a charge of any kind - at least that's my current hope, as odd as that sounds. I can get a new battery, of course, it'll just take a few days to get one (ain't paying full price here in Vegas, will order something online).
I'm stumped. I check the contacts, they're fine, they were very very slightly bent but they're ok now. I don't know what else to do since it does seem like the battery could be the culprit. It'll sit here and just flash every so often - it's been plugged into the HTC charger for the past 30 minutes straight but, I'm not even seeing the flashes anymore (the past few minutes I've been typing this post).
Maybe the battery is to blame, I don't know, but I'm hoping that someone can say "Yes, that sounds like a completely toasted battery to me, get a new one" or whatever.
Any opinions? Anyone seen this particular behavior before? I do a search for "reboot loop" and what I find are people with HD2's that get stuck at the "Stick Together" screen and, well, that's not what's happening here - it shows that, for a 1/2 to 1 second on occasion, then nothing. The vibration motor kicks in when the flashes occur, as well.
It's like it wants to fire up but just doesn't have the power to do it - and since the charging circuit isn't kicking in (no orange light), well... that's my guess.
That's about it. If anyone has any advice, I'm reading.
Thanks, and have fun, always...
br0adband said:
Ok, I'll try to make this short and sweet and we'll see what happens. I spent the last 2 hours scouring this forum (pretty much the Bible for the HD2) and some other places and I'm still kinda dead in the water.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know what short means? p joking, just next time don't make it too long)
You won't get replies if your question is too long, because they won't bother reading it .
Anyway, back to topic.
Your battery has no juice, and for some reason the HD2 automatically boots when (no juice in battery and plugged into charger) .. you need to unplug cable, remove battery, plug in cable, wait for a minute or so, insert battery .
Firstly try the above which should stop the phone trying to start,, but two other things, firstly the battery pins bend real easily, so since you've been doing a few battery pulls, keep checking them. Second, a really REALLY discharged battery may have so little juice it wont start charging , in which case you can try the 'bare wire USB Lead charging method, where you get an old mini /micro USB lead, cut end off, bare red and black ,red to + black to - on the battery, into wall charger for around a minute, back into phone, real USB lead in, and hopefully it now has enough chrge to start booting and charging properly.
Turned out to be the battery itself - went back to the pawn shop, took the battery from the one I purchased and placed it into a known working HD2 still on the shelf (another as-is item) and attached the microUSB cable and charger, no dice: same exact issue.
Took the battery from the second HD2, put it into my HD2 that I purchased, attached the microUSB cable and charger, wham bam we're cookin' with fire now.
So I paid the guy $10 to let me swap the batteries and keep it hush-hush (I'm in there all the time buying used busted stuff anyway), came home, gave it a full night's charge and so far so good. Got NexusHD2-Gingerbread V3.0 NAND by tytung on it in about 10 minutes, and it's smooth as silk so far.
I appreciate the responses, thanks.

[Q][Updated]Bought A Used A500 With Some Problems, Need help trouble shooting!

Well someone on craigslist is selling an A500 for $80, the only issues with it is the screen intermittently does not respond to touch and it wont charge over 12%. Doing a quick google search both of these problems might be easily fixable. So my question is, is it worth the $80 and if any one has any suggestions to try to fix those two problems. Thanks.
EDIT: Upon talking to them they said the charger cable has to be held at an angle to charge, so that could just be the cable or possibly the jack. I guessing it still doesnt charge past 12%.
Might have talked him down to $50 now, which makes the deal a little sweater if I can fix it for nothing!
I went ahead and bought it and looked at it for awhile lastnight but havent figure out whats going on but these are the problems its having.
1. It will not charge, if you plug it in it says the battery is 12 percent, if you remove the power cable it turns off.
2. Touch screen unresponsive at lockscreen, tried a factory reset it just sits there on the screen that says android system in the top left corner and you can see the back/home/wifi/power icons at the bottom of the screen.
3. The power cable fits very loose in the jack, I popped it open, lifted the jack out from where it sits and plugged it back in. It works just fine until you wiggle the power cable inside of the jack, at that point the device will shut off and if you keep moving the cable you can hear what sounds like a possible short, but only if you wiggle the cable inside of the jack. Somewhere over on the left side of the device you can hear little pops or kind of sounds like paper being crumpled.
I feel like maybe all of the problems are releated to the power issue. I have yet to get another power cable but I think thats where I will start and go from there (Just because I feel like it should not be sooo loose inside of the jack). If any one else has any suggestions I would love to hear them!
brock029 said:
I went ahead and bought it and looked at it for awhile lastnight but havent figure out whats going on but these are the problems its having.
1. It will not charge, if you plug it in it says the battery is 12 percent, if you remove the power cable it turns off.
2. Touch screen unresponsive at lockscreen, tried a factory reset it just sits there on the screen that says android system in the top left corner and you can see the back/home/wifi/power icons at the bottom of the screen.
3. The power cable fits very loose in the jack, I popped it open, lifted the jack out from where it sits and plugged it back in. It works just fine until you wiggle the power cable inside of the jack, at that point the device will shut off and if you keep moving the cable you can hear what sounds like a possible short, but only if you wiggle the cable inside of the jack. Somewhere over on the left side of the device you can hear little pops or kind of sounds like paper being crumpled.
I feel like maybe all of the problems are releated to the power issue. I have yet to get another power cable but I think thats where I will start and go from there (Just because I feel like it should not be sooo loose inside of the jack). If any one else has any suggestions I would love to hear them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A good universal charger is a good start. At least you rule that issue out.
Checking (visable) around the input jack will rule out anything else.
As far as 12%, I would say, EC PWR control. It's quite possible he fubarred the pwr ctrl with some really bad flashes. It happens. This would explain the unresponsivness at the screen.
A good flashing with a stock 3.0x rom might shake some life into it. Might have to do it a few times. Or even a 3.1 or 2x rom.
MD
Moscow Desire said:
A good universal charger is a good start. At least you rule that issue out.
Checking (visable) around the input jack will rule out anything else.
As far as 12%, I would say, EC PWR control. It's quite possible he fubarred the pwr ctrl with some really bad flashes. It happens. This would explain the unresponsivness at the screen.
A good flashing with a stock 3.0x rom might shake some life into it. Might have to do it a few times. Or even a 3.1 or 2x rom.
MD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ill try flashing it once I get home, it doesnt have CWM or anything on it so I am assuming I can do that through the stock recovery? and would this ICS one fix my problems? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1624908
And there doesnt seem to be anything wrong with the jack, but I don't get how the power cable would be too small for it. Its really loose, you barely move and it just slide out.
EDIT: Well you were right I follow this How to unbrick your tablet!!!!!!!!!!!!! - xda-developers got everything working fine except the power cable having to sit at the right angle to charge, but it did charge past 12%, now im off to get a new cable.
brock029 said:
EDIT: Well you were right I follow this How to unbrick your tablet!!!!!!!!!!!!! - xda-developers got everything working fine except the power cable having to sit at the right angle to charge, but it did charge past 12%, now im off to get a new cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great! You got a bargain of a tablet! Just needed a full rom flash with EC.
As with the charging port, I've heard of some others with the same issue, but be advised, you could break it for good if you go messing with it too much. I would guess the "prong" that sticks out a little on the side of the jack, got flattened in somehow. (I have a TV that mother in law did the same thing to). Now the jack has to be taped to the side to get proper contact.
THEN AGAIN if you have a soldering iron you could remove the port , find another at radio shack ,and re insert>solder the new port and now you have a new tablet for 50 bucks ,I had to do that for my Windows Phone 7 Samsung Focus phone , never had a problem since (that was for a usb port, the power port shouldnt be any different)
Vintage144 said:
THEN AGAIN if you have a soldering iron you could remove the port , find another at radio shack ,and re insert>solder the new port and now you have a new tablet for 50 bucks ,I had to do that for my Windows Phone 7 Samsung Focus phone , never had a problem since (that was for a usb port, the power port shouldnt be any different)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ill have to see if I can find the same port and just remove the wiring from it. If not I found the whole part for $25 online.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk 2

[Q] NEXUS 4 WATER DAMAGED? PLease Help

Hello everyone,
I was going for a swim in the pool three days ago and have forgotten to put my Nexus 4 in my duffel bag. The phone was submerge along with my swimming short for over 30 seconds :crying:. I dried off the phone, opened it up to removed the battery, and dried it off with a hair blow dryer for five minutes continuously. Then I put my phone in a bowl of rice. Its been two days hoping that the moisture is gone, I plugged it to a wall charger and have gotten the "blinking red light of death". Next, I removed the battery and charge the phone with out it, giving me a boot loader screen with the green android and the Google logo. But putting the battery back and turning it on only giving me that annoying blinking red light. I hope all the phone component is still good. So at this stage can you guys tell me if the battery is dead and would purchasing a new battery resolve this issue? Any input to resolve this red blinking light would be helpful, thank you for reading.
This worked for me:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/general/final-fix-nexus-4-red-light-death-t2250454
tommyga said:
This worked for me:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/general/final-fix-nexus-4-red-light-death-t2250454
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have charge twice and installed the battery back and still get the blinking red light. As you have done this before, how did you go about doing it? Was the battery suppose to be "hot" when its being charge? Did you soldered the charging cable "hot and neutral" to the battery positive (+) negative (-) as shown in step 7?
dante510 said:
I have charge twice and installed the battery back and still get the blinking red light. As you have done this before, how did you go about doing it? Was the battery suppose to be "hot" when its being charge? Did you soldered the charging cable "hot and neutral" to the battery positive (+) negative (-) as shown in step 7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure the battery was hot during the process #7..
I took some old phone charger, cut the two wires apart (the positive and negative), and just made them touch the relevant spots on the battery (no soldering was made).
Did you wait more than 15 minutes during this charging?
tommyga said:
I'm not sure the battery was hot during the process #7..
I took some old phone charger, cut the two wires apart (the positive and negative), and just made them touch the relevant spots on the battery (no soldering was made).
Did you wait more than 15 minutes during this charging?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. I also used an old lg charge with the right amount of Voltage ouput. I think it was 5 Volt or something and just split the cable, made it touch the relevant spots and used it electrical tape to secure the the charging charging cable making sure that the wire made contact with the positive and negative spot. Im not sure which cable was positive or negative, so I had to swap cable around and recharge every 15 minutes trial. I know my connection looks messy but thats the best i could do to make sure the make contact at the charging point on the battery. Is this how you do it? lol
[/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH]
Basically it seems fine.
There are two more things I recommend trying:
1. Try charging it for 30 minutes.
2. When plugging the battery back, just plug it, and don't screw the two screws of the battery.
Try these two things - and keep updating if the red light still shows
tommyga said:
Basically it seems fine.
There are two more things I recommend trying:
1. Try charging it for 30 minutes.
2. When plugging the battery back, just plug it, and don't screw the two screws of the battery.
Try these two things - and keep updating if the red light still shows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried charging twice with 30 minutes cycle on each attempt, and have installed the battery back to the phone without the screw of the battery. I tried turning the phone on by holding down the power button for 10 seconds, but there was no Google logo splash screen. The same thing happen on my second attempt, no Google or boot-loader screen. I plugged in the wall charger and let it sit for over two hour and still cant turn it on, only the blinking red light. Removing the battery, charging directly from the cable, and holding the power volume button down at the same time gave me a boot-loader screen and Google logo but the phone immediately shut off. Any ideas what else I could try? Could you tell me about where my phone is damage base on the picture from my earlier post?
If you see Google's logo, your phone can run fine. The problem is probably the dead battery. Consider replacing it with a new one.
sky0165 said:
If you see Google's logo, your phone can run fine. The problem is probably the dead battery. Consider replacing it with a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks i just order a new one yesterday, just thought I give it a shot instead of buying a new phone. Lets hope its as you say. Thanks for your input.
Ordered a new battery, and it booted up fine. The important thing is that the blinking red light of death is gone so far.. thank goodness! Looks like the battery shorted out when my phone was submerge in the water. There is one small yellow streak line on the bottom right of the screen now but I can live with that. Glad nothing else is damage Thank you for all of your help! Cheers!

[Q] Red Light - Charging without back?

So, I plugged my Nexus 4 into a generic car charger and it went black instantly. The battery was at about 92%. With the hope that a proper AC or computer USB charge connection would bring up the white battery icon and fix things, I stopped by an out of town T-mobile. The manager tried the button battery-reset (up volume + power for 60sec) and I googled alternatives and tried the - enter recovery by pressing those buttons for 15sec off the charger and connecting while still holding down the buttons - trick. Neither worked.
The manger seemed familiar with that and the other button pressing tricks, and said that really, my only real hope would be to reset/replace the battery, but that would void my warranty. However, although the T-mobile site claims my Google bought phone is under warranty (and I've been paying for it each month), technically, it isn't. Under them or Google (any more). So, I purchased the tools to open the phone, as well as a replacement battery. In the interim, I tried to use all the button combos and various charging connections to get it to come back to life. I *did* manage to get it charging the old battery. I know because the blinking red light turned constant for an hour or two, and the battery got warm. I can only guess that the battery was too damaged to keep the charge however, because I could never get it to turn on during or after. My best guess is that the software battery reset allowed the phone to send a charge to the battery - at least once.
After getting my tools and replacement battery, I managed to get the phone open (with great effort - I think there must be a difference between batches there). I removed the old battery connection and looked to see if I could get the charge icon with it unattached and on the charger. I couldn't. Reconnecting the old battery didn't seem to make any difference.
I was about to go through the process of prying up the old battery when I realized that you can actually connect the new battery to the board connector without getting the old one out. So I did that. Leaving it charging like that for awhile didn't do anything, so I decided to do another software battery reset and I'm letting it sit on the charger overnight. All of this has been without reattaching the back.
So my major question is - does anyone know for sure if the phone actually charges the battery with the back off? I know there are important circuits there - which seem to shut down the phone after the battery or google image when not detected (at least that's my deducement after reading posts). But are those connections also used in charging? The Qi goes though the back to the charger function, so perhaps that connection has to be there? I would like to try and find out though beforehand. It took 2 hours and two mangled guitar picks to get it open the first time, and the second may be just as trying. (And believe me, towards the end, I was not concerned with being gentle.)
I am also curious about the four prong battery connection. I've seen the post about charging the battery using external sources by connecting to the two outer pins. Does that mean the two inner pins constitute a second circuit between the charged battery and the phone? And if I find another 3.8v battery fully charged, I could perhaps connect that to the phone instead by wires and get it booted into recovery? As to why I'd want to do that, I don't recall the last dated CM version I had installed, so finding that in their folder plus pulling off everything from /data... assuming I replaced this with another Nexus 4, I might be able to save myself a lot of setup hassle.
In terms of the red light... it actually seems to be an error code. When triggered, it blinks 7 times, and on the eighth stays lit for a bit before repeating.
cetkat said:
So, I plugged my Nexus 4 into a generic car charger and it went black instantly. The battery was at about 92%. With the hope that a proper AC or computer USB charge connection would bring up the white battery icon and fix things, I stopped by an out of town T-mobile. The manager tried the button battery-reset (up volume + power for 60sec) and I googled alternatives and tried the - enter recovery by pressing those buttons for 15sec off the charger and connecting while still holding down the buttons - trick. Neither worked.
The manger seemed familiar with that and the other button pressing tricks, and said that really, my only real hope would be to reset/replace the battery, but that would void my warranty. However, although the T-mobile site claims my Google bought phone is under warranty (and I've been paying for it each month), technically, it isn't. Under them or Google (any more). So, I purchased the tools to open the phone, as well as a replacement battery. In the interim, I tried to use all the button combos and various charging connections to get it to come back to life. I *did* manage to get it charging the old battery. I know because the blinking red light turned constant for an hour or two, and the battery got warm. I can only guess that the battery was too damaged to keep the charge however, because I could never get it to turn on during or after. My best guess is that the software battery reset allowed the phone to send a charge to the battery - at least once.
After getting my tools and replacement battery, I managed to get the phone open (with great effort - I think there must be a difference between batches there). I removed the old battery connection and looked to see if I could get the charge icon with it unattached and on the charger. I couldn't. Reconnecting the old battery didn't seem to make any difference.
I was about to go through the process of prying up the old battery when I realized that you can actually connect the new battery to the board connector without getting the old one out. So I did that. Leaving it charging like that for awhile didn't do anything, so I decided to do another software battery reset and I'm letting it sit on the charger overnight. All of this has been without reattaching the back.
So my major question is - does anyone know for sure if the phone actually charges the battery with the back off? I know there are important circuits there - which seem to shut down the phone after the battery or google image when not detected (at least that's my deducement after reading posts). But are those connections also used in charging? The Qi goes though the back to the charger function, so perhaps that connection has to be there? I would like to try and find out though beforehand. It took 2 hours and two mangled guitar picks to get it open the first time, and the second may be just as trying. (And believe me, towards the end, I was not concerned with being gentle.)
I am also curious about the four prong battery connection. I've seen the post about charging the battery using external sources by connecting to the two outer pins. Does that mean the two inner pins constitute a second circuit between the charged battery and the phone? And if I find another 3.8v battery fully charged, I could perhaps connect that to the phone instead by wires and get it booted into recovery? As to why I'd want to do that, I don't recall the last dated CM version I had installed, so finding that in their folder plus pulling off everything from /data... assuming I replaced this with another Nexus 4, I might be able to save myself a lot of setup hassle.
In terms of the red light... it actually seems to be an error code. When triggered, it blinks 7 times, and on the eighth stays lit for a bit before repeating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I RAN INTO A SIMILAR PROBLEM
I found that holding the power button for a while allowed my nexus 4 running stock Lollipop 5.1 to boot back up.
Have considered that you may have a faulty USB port ?
Just pop the old battery out install the new one plug in the charger and it will charge. You can boot up without the back on. The back contains the antennia.... and the NFC circuit board.
Good luck
Blacksmith5 said:
I RAN INTO A SIMILAR PROBLEM
I found that holding the power button for a while allowed my nexus 4 running stock Lollipop 5.1 to boot back up.
Have considered that you may have a faulty USB port ?
Just pop the old battery out install the new one plug in the charger and it will charge. You can boot up without the back on. The back contains the antennia.... and the NFC circuit board.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, still no luck. I ended up putting the new battery in and closing it up to try the Qi charger, but all I can get is either 7 or 10 red blinks followed by a short solid light. No white battery charging symbol or anything else.
When you say a faulty USB port, what are you referring to? The cable works (though I've also tried my Nexus 7 one too) and even though it won't boot, my computer does recognize that something is there when I plug my phone into it (it just can't figure out what's plugged in - which is normal). I want to say that it's trying and failing to charge the new battery. At this point, I think the charger messed up more than just the battery.

Galaxy s5 won’t boot up

Please can someone help me with a problem I’m having with my Samsung Galaxy s5.
I put my phone on charge before I went to bed and when I woke up it was still showing a red LED. I knew this was wrong because it should have had enough time to charge and turn green. I had not powered the phone off before putting it on charge and I plugged it into the same USB 3.0 charging lead I have been using for the past six months. I unplugged the phone and pressed the power button to light up the lock screen but it didn’t light up.
I’m thinking possibly something has either shorted or over heated and fried something either on the charging port assembly or one of the chips adjacent to the port while the charger was plugged in. It seems like only a trickle of power is getting through to the phone. When I plug a different USB 2 charging cable into the phone, without trying to power on, the charging icon appears but shows no charge at all in the battery.
I have also tried the spare battery I have but it’s still the same. I know the spare battery is 100% fully charged because I store it in a separate charging/storage box which shows a green LED when it is full. In fact the one which was in the phone at the time is also fully charged according to the charging box. Neither battery has got warm at all inside the phone. I’m confident both batteries are fully charged and totally fine and the problem isn’t with the batteries.
At this point I removed my sim card and also the MicroSD card. I needed the sim to use in my spare phone and I wanted to see if the sd card could be causing the issue but after again trying a normal reboot it made no difference.
I’ve tried several possible things I found on google but nothing has worked. Between each different thing I tried I had to remove the battery for 10 seconds and insert it again to get it out of the boot loop so I could try something else.
Initially when I tried booting into safe mode, then recovery mode and then download mode it brought up the screens for those but in each case after a few seconds the phone powered off and went into a boot loop so I couldn’t attempt any recovery options such as clearing cache etc. Now I cannot even get it to start any of those modes at all and all that happens is the phone does a little vibration, displays the Samsung logo and then just boot loops no matter what I try.
I have tried removing the battery and leaving the phone for a few hours then powering on again but it still just loops.
I have tried pressing and holding Vol-down when plugging it into my PC using a different USB 2 cable and windows acknowledged a phone was plugged in but said it couldn’t connect or recognise the phone and suggested the phone could have a fault.
I don't know if maybe my USB 3.0 lead has a fault that could have caused it or if there could have been some electricity spike while the phone was plugged in, or as I said a component has just fried.
I strongly suspect this is a hardware fault and not a software fault but as I’m not a phone engineer I have no idea about how to trace any possible hardware issues or what might have gone wrong. I would really appreciate any help or suggestions about what the problem might be as this has been a great phone for the last 2 years since I got it and I’d be sad to have to junk it and buy a new one.
Thank you.
I would not junk it yet......
You had mentioned that you go through a lot, just to get phone into Recovery ( " Initially when I tried booting into safe mode, then recovery mode and then download mode it brought up the screens for those but in each case after a few seconds the phone powered off and went into a boot loop so I couldn’t attempt any recovery options such as clearing cache etc. Now I cannot even get it to start any of those modes at all and all that happens is the phone does a little vibration, displays the Samsung logo and then just boot loops no matter what I try." )
OK, just my 2 cents here on this... Why not trying to goto Recovery by pressing and holding the Volume Down (vol-); Home button, and The Power button all at the same time. (yes, if you have a Recovery, and its works, you should be able to boot right into Recovery- >Now, (I would, cause I've been there..) I would also have a PC going with Odin open (Plus the Latest Stock Rom) ... If it works, you would flash the Stock ROM, to clean up anything, giving you all stock, but you can change that of course ...then go from there...
Second, if you can not still get to Recovery.... Have you tried a Stock USB Cable, only asking.... Obliviously something is a miss... with Power... IF phone is off, and you plug it to a power source ... then system has power, and these can power up with just the usb cable, without having the battery in..... Been there. Can add the simple fact, if using just a Micro SD cable, they can bend the Power Board. Believe me (Had to fix the Wife's S5 a few Frinkin' times....) That is why, I say using the Stock Cable, or even a USB 3.0 Cable (like the stock one) does help with power issues when the Micro has bent up the power board...
Will check back and see if this may have you to Recovery or fixed... sure hope this can help you out
Thanks for replying godofsalt.
At the time the phone was plugged in to my USB 3 lead which charges faster and all I can think is that perhaps there could be a fault with the lead or the higher ampage of using this lead caused a circuit to burn out.
I have around a dozen USB 2 leads and I've tried your idea with 3 different ones but none of them will fire up the phone at all with the battery taken out.
I am sure this is going to need some kind of replacement either of the charging port or the motherboard. I don't rate my chances of trying to do it myself and I don't think it will be economic to take it to a shop so I've found a better option by buying the same phone which is second hand but in good condition. That way I know I have all the additional accessories already for probably the same price any shop would charge to fix it.
In future I'll stick to using a decent USB 2 lead on the 1 amp charger I used to use before and hopefully this will not occur again.
G500F battery graphic/boot loop
Had the same problem a few days after installing a 9.0 Rom. My battery is brand new and all cables aren't too aged, so I thought this had to be a physical fault of some kind, but then I had the thought to flash an older bootloader and just like that my battery started taking a charge again and I could boot up. Switched to Flyme os for a while the went back to 9.0 again, with the lastest bootloader and the thing stopped working again. Don't know too much, but I'd try and flash a different bootloader to see if there's any difference. My device failed right at the Galaxy logo, then looped the charging graphic endlessly but would strangely go into download mode and not fail. Don't know if this helps, just thought I'd share my solution.
Thanks for replying henderia93.
My symptoms are very slightly different in that the phone couldn't maintain any of the modes I tried for more than a few seconds before going back to the boot loop again so there was no chance of trying any software fixes including flashing the ROM. Now it won't enter any of those modes at all. I'm certain that's due to only a trickle of power getting through to the main board, not enough to maintain any recovery modes, so there is just enough power for it to attempt to boot, but no more so it just keeps looping, most likely caused by something that has blown while on charge.
MarylinC said:
Thanks for replying henderia93.
My symptoms are very slightly different in that the phone couldn't maintain any of the modes I tried for more than a few seconds before going back to the boot loop again so there was no chance of trying any software fixes including flashing the ROM. Now it won't enter any of those modes at all. I'm certain that's due to only a trickle of power getting through to the main board, not enough to maintain any recovery modes, so there is just enough power for it to attempt to boot, but no more so it just keeps looping, most likely caused by something that has blown while on charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ha e taken so many of these a part... Like I may have mentioned, there is a Board, just for the USB (data and power (i still have 2 of them)).... In short, you really have to pretty much take the phone a part. Being very careful with the Screen, and the "Sticky" LEDs and the Home button. There is a lot to it actually.
Like I said, been there done that... Cheap to get, takes some time but it is possible to replace that board. It's a separate board different from the actual main CPU board.
I would have to find it, but I had a manual, for taking these a part.
godofsalt said:
I ha e taken so many of these a part... Like I may have mentioned, there is a Board, just for the USB (data and power (i still have 2 of them)).... In short, you really have to pretty much take the phone a part. Being very careful with the Screen, and the "Sticky" LEDs and the Home button. There is a lot to it actually.
Like I said, been there done that... Cheap to get, takes some time but it is possible to replace that board. It's a separate board different from the actual main CPU board.
I would have to find it, but I had a manual, for taking these a part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I've been looking for answers about this I've seen teardown videos for the s5 so I can see what the port assembly looks like with it's little PCB behind it. As I have a replacement s5 on it's way all I need to decide now is whether to keep the old handset for spare parts or see if I can follow the teardown video to try and install a new port assembly to get the phone working again as a spare.
MarylinC said:
While I've been looking for answers about this I've seen teardown videos for the s5 so I can see what the port assembly looks like with it's little PCB behind it. As I have a replacement s5 on it's way all I need to decide now is whether to keep the old handset for spare parts or see if I can follow the teardown video to try and install a new port assembly to get the phone working again as a spare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, me too, seen many vids on the tear down. I decided to go a bit more, IMHO, to have an actual manual, PDF, when I did my first one, many years ago. So, can read, and use photos wisely. Seen too many Utube crap, where the break it, destroy it..... crazy!
Well, at this age, not too sure what to do my self. In our case, our present service is cheaper to Keep these. Grandfathered in, and we pay a but less, than going to any other carrier. Plus, these newer phones are not cheap at all.
True, it up to you. hope all goes well.
Sorry I am a novice so please excuse my question.
Are you assuming that the usb port is shorting even when no usb cable is inserted? As you put a fully charged battery in with no change it would seem that the act of charging is not involved.
Have you tried a voltmeter to check the voltage at the battery charging pins?
Have you tried to check the voltage at the two pins commonly used for a wireless charging adapter (to the upper left of the battery) to see what the voltage is?
Sorry if I am off base.

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