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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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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Click to collapse
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] Nexus 4 turns off when unplugged with plenty of battery remaining

I was recently on vacation taking a "Photo Sphere" with my Nexus 4 and suddenly my phone just turned off. It didn't power down, it just suddenly was off. I felt the back of my phone and it was particularly hot right in the center of the phone. Since that event, my phone is highly unreliable when unplugged and will continue to immediately turn off when I either try to use the phone's camera, or sometimes: try to make a phone call, watch a video, and other random things. After the phone has powered off, it gets stuck in a reboot loop. The phone is bootable and works reliably when it is plugged in. When I am able to successfully reboot the phone, when plugged in, I can see that the battery has plenty of charge remaining. The phone will work for hours or minutes after it has been unplugged as long as I am doing very little with it.
Things I have tried so far have been rebooting into safe mode and formatting my phone with the stock Android 4.4.2 image. Both of these things have not worked out.
I'm trying to determine if I need a new phone if there is something else. Is there anything that would be indicated by a crash log and if so, how would I access that log.

Think it is a hardware issue
I can't help but think that this is a hardware issue. So, I just bought a new HTC One (M8). It is a fantastic phone. I am going to keep my glitchy Nexus 4 as a development/test device.

My Galaxy S5 won't start up... (black screen)

Hi everybody
I have a problem with my Galaxy S5 (no custom rom, official)
I normally used my phone, I locked it. But, after about 10 mins I tried to unlock my phone, but nothing happens
I tried to reboot, nothing happens. I tried take out and put the battery - nothing happens. So I searched on Google and tried some keys combinations, but nothing happens. My phone has about 80% battery. I tried to charge it in the charger, but nothing is happening (black screen, no notiffication light). Also I tried to put off my SIM and SD Card, but nothing happens
Do you have some skills in it? Can you help me?

Few days ago, I faced the same problem..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2853472
Then I'd to take it to the Samsumg store.. And they return it back in 2 days and said me it was a software problem..

I wanted to do a recovery reset, but i can't boot my phone anymore, also the Kies doesn't see anything, so. Did you really think that is a software problem? Because my phone won't vibrate at boot. So maybe it can be a hardware prob :/
EDIT: Phone started blinking red light... (nottiffication), I tried to charge it, but nothing...

Mate as mentioned early, same problem I faced..
It'll be better, if you return it to Samsung customer care..

You seem to be saying that the problem occurred unexpectedly. So presumably this isn't subsequent to a flash error, newly installed app or a trauma (dropping the phone, etc).
First ensure that your battery is charged, plug in the phone to a charger as well and try turning it on. If at all possible, borrow a battery from a friend's S5 or go to a store and borrow a battery for 30 seconds to confirm that the battery isn't the issue.
If the problem persists, then remove the cable and battery. Then put the battery back into the phone and press and continue to hold in this order, the volume down key, then menu key, then power key. Hold all three until the screen powers up (about 5 seconds). If this doesn't work.. the most likely problem is a damaged power key - try pressing hard or "wiggling" it to see if that makes a difference.
If you still can't start the phone, then see if a local cellular repair shop has a "jtag jig" that you can borrow. Or you can buy one on Ebay for a few dollars. When this jig is plugged into the USB socket, the phone should automatically restart.
If all of the above fails (which is unlikely), you would seem to have a hardware problem or unknown origin. Which would be very unusual. If your phone is under warranty, make a claim. Otherwise get an estimate to repair it.
.

If I hold all 4 buttons at the same time and connect the phone to PC, PC recognises the phone for a few seconds. Well, maybe not recognises, I cant see it, but it plays the same sound as if connected flash drive to pc. However, everytime it disconnects within a few seconds...

I´m in the same case, but I was flashing the Galaxy S5 with the four files ROM and the pit file using Odin3.09. All the process ended well, but after rebooting there apeared one Screen sayin something like "Some files at this phone are encripted and there can´t be modified......." so I did a manual reboot and take off USB cable and from this moment the phone don´t do anything but giving a sound when I plug USB to computer cable and I can see new COM --> Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008, and there repeat a loop.
I´m still looking for a solution, but it gives me that there is time to change phone.

Possible Fix
This thread is old but idk if this was ever solved, so in case anyone else ever has an issue like this. My Gf is still rocking this phone so i've had a little experience with it. The phone wont turn on or charge. I got it to work by sticking a flat head screw driver and prying it fairly hard against the bottom of the battery (the side closest to the charge port) and forcing the battery harder against the metal contacts. While pushing the battery I turn on the phone and it starts right up and continues to run even after letting the pressure off. I've noticed this happens every few times i take the battery out, but this method has never failed for me turning the phone back on. Hope someone finds this helpful.

kimo hands said:
This thread is old but idk if this was ever solved, so in case anyone else ever has an issue like this. My Gf is still rocking this phone so i've had a little experience with it. The phone wont turn on or charge. I got it to work by sticking a flat head screw driver and prying it fairly hard against the bottom of the battery (the side closest to the charge port) and forcing the battery harder against the metal contacts. While pushing the battery I turn on the phone and it starts right up and continues to run even after letting the pressure off. I've noticed this happens every few times i take the battery out, but this method has never failed for me turning the phone back on. Hope someone finds this helpful.
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Click to collapse
weird, youd think that bending the tabs out to force contact with the battery better would do the same trick fwif

[SGH-I337 AT&T] Unmodified, Stock SGS4 boot loops, freezes, graphical bugs HELP!

Hello everyone!
My parents contacted me asking for help with some phone issues that I thought would be minor but this is now something I have to submit to you guys because I just don't know how to tackle this issue;
I've got an unmodified, completely stock AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 that has been owned since launch. My parents were initially complaining about how the phone stopped charging and wouldn't turn on. I thought, "Easy, dead battery, it's been 3 years so how could it not? It might not be delivering enough voltage for the SoC..." but i'm not sure that's the full story which is why I want your guys' opinion since this place is a wealth of knowledge.
Things that are known:
When you charge the phone, the basic "battery charging indicator" that is shown when Android is not booted into or powered on freezes, or sometimes does not detect a battery so does not even turn on. Doing battery pulls seems to change how the phone responds. This is what my parents were experiencing. I thought, either dead battery, dead micro-USB cable, AC adapter, or charging circuit within the phone. Since this was obviously a big job, I took the phone back home for this weekend to play with and now this is what i'm experiencing.
So I got the phone to charge using one of my AC adapters for some reason, despite using the supposed broken charging cable to transfer data successfully without corruption using my own phone (LG G2) to confirm if it was just the cable. So now the SGS4 has a battery that is 100% charged, I turn on the phone and tried various methods to get the phone to boot successfully back into android. The first obvious one was to boot into safe mode using PWR, letting go of PWR, and then pressing VOL UP. It booted ONCE or TWICE successfully into safe mode into android, it shut off after 5 seconds being into the system due to low battery. This was BEFORE I was able to successfully charge the battery to 100% with my AC adapter but has failed to boot since.
Now since I've been failing to get into safe mode as when I boot the phone up, the phone freezes or has graphical glitches at the Samsung post/splash logo as seen here:
After some desperation, I considered using KIES/Odin to reflash, but mostly I tried going into download mode to see if the phone would even go into it by doing PWR + VOL DOWN. It did get into download mode but it froze/restarted forcing a battery pull and ever since then I keep getting occasional error messages such as "System software not authorized by AT&T has been found on your phone.", or this screen with a Samsung logo and an open padlock. I notice sometimes that when I'm at this open padlock screen, it sometimes begins to boot into the system but quickly freezes when it plays the boot jingle:
At any rate, I ordered a new battery but I fear this might be EMMC corruption or just something I don't quite understand. The phone has valuable information that I have to recover despite my parents CANCELLING a backup of the phone, they failed to heed my due diligence and are now freaking out about the data (photos, contacts, etc). I just need the phone to boot so I can make a nandroid backup, export the contacts, transfer media off the phone and wipe this thing and start anew. However i've already let them know that it might not be possible. The most important thing is to get this thing out of this soft-brick?
Please help because I have no idea where to steer this ship from here on out aside from waiting to receive that new battery and hope these instability issues are caused by low voltage. I had an SGS2 which had the crazy EMMC bug so I'm hoping its not EMMC corruption.
Thanks for your time everyone! I'll update this thread to reflect new information as I play around with the phone.
Edit: Here is a video, I go through a lot of the same information posted in this thread but here it is.
https://youtu.be/EXUKU68CyQQ

Possible loose connection inside the phone? Was the phone every bumped, dropped, or exposed to moisture?

audit13 said:
Possible loose connection inside the phone? Was the phone every bumped, dropped, or exposed to moisture?
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Click to collapse
Not that I know of. I'm going to check the water damage stickers if I can to ensure that's not the case but i've been told it was sudden. It had been dropped once before but had been working fine for quite some time up until recently.

Maybe the effects of the drop and manifesting themselves now?

Samsung S4 VE I9515 wont turn on

Hello,
So let me give you a brief so you'd know everything - a few days ago, I'm gonna call it day 1, I walked under light rain with the phone in my pocket, it worked until the night of
Day 2 - started to lag a bit, it was like I was running some heavy apps and like the ram was insufficient. Restarted the phone, everything seemed normal.
Day 3 - Phone went off while was browsing. So I have to make a note here. I was running cm13 with android m and twrp 2..something and there were occasional reboots by itself rarely prior to Day 1. Also, I was using a supercharger (or whatever it is called, it is a charger that charges faster) for about a month.
So when the phone went off while I was browsing, it started by itself and stuck on the android loading. I restarted, cleared dalvik and regular cache - still stuck on boot. Flashed many times, changed the recovery to twrp, and still was stuck on rebooting and occasionally it didn't turn on. There were random occurrences of errors on flashing roms, which never happened before (for example, "cant mount system or data"). Within the time passing by, the phone started not to turn on when I tried to. By this time rarely got stuck on the first boot screen saying with the text "Samsung S4". Yesterday, Day 4, the phone never turned on, except one time. I don't remember doing anything special. I just pressed and held the power button and it turned on, but went off shortly after the android boot animation appeared.
Also there was times on Day 3, when I was trying to boot into the system, it got stuck on the android booting animation.
On and prior to Day 3, while I was charging, whenever it is on or off - I had the indicator light for charging. Now when I plug it in to charge - nothing happens.
To skip any unnecessary questions, I will make a short QA.
Q: Did you tried to boot into recovery/bootloader?
A: yes, nothing happens
Q: Any sign of life on adb while connected to a pc??
A: no
Q: Is battery dead?
A: I don't think so, but actually I'm not that sure. When I connect a separate led light to it, the led lights up Whatever, if it was a faulty battery when I plug the phone on the charger, it should've worked fine.
Q: Why don't you just buy a new phone?
A: I was planning to buy a new one, but after just 4 months when I have to renew my contract. I don't want to buy a phone off contract.
Q: Are you stupid, if you can't manage to fix it by yourself, why don't you give it to a repair?
A: I truly believe that the professionalism of repairers doesn't exist in my country via old experiences with them.
So in the worst scenario I will loose time by trying to fixing it and for 4 months I will use my old android phone.
In the best scenario, my almost 2 years old phone will revive.
Also, I have a multimeter - I can check the electricity. Just tell me what to check.
Thanks.

edbr said:
Hello,
So let me give you a brief so you'd know everything - a few days ago, I'm gonna call it day 1, I walked under light rain with the phone in my pocket, it worked until the night of
Day 2 - started to lag a bit, it was like I was running some heavy apps and like the ram was insufficient. Restarted the phone, everything seemed normal.
Day 3 - Phone went off while was browsing. So I have to make a note here. I was running cm13 with android m and twrp 2..something and there were occasional reboots by itself rarely prior to Day 1. Also, I was using a supercharger (or whatever it is called, it is a charger that charges faster) for about a month.
So when the phone went off while I was browsing, it started by itself and stuck on the android loading. I restarted, cleared dalvik and regular cache - still stuck on boot. Flashed many times, changed the recovery to twrp, and still was stuck on rebooting and occasionally it didn't turn on. There were random occurrences of errors on flashing roms, which never happened before (for example, "cant mount system or data"). Within the time passing by, the phone started not to turn on when I tried to. By this time rarely got stuck on the first boot screen saying with the text "Samsung S4". Yesterday, Day 4, the phone never turned on, except one time. I don't remember doing anything special. I just pressed and held the power button and it turned on, but went off shortly after the android boot animation appeared.
Also there was times on Day 3, when I was trying to boot into the system, it got stuck on the android booting animation.
On and prior to Day 3, while I was charging, whenever it is on or off - I had the indicator light for charging. Now when I plug it in to charge - nothing happens.
To skip any unnecessary questions, I will make a short QA.
Q: Did you tried to boot into recovery/bootloader?
A: yes, nothing happens
Q: Any sign of life on adb while connected to a pc??
A: no
Q: Is battery dead?
A: I don't think so, but actually I'm not that sure. When I connect a separate led light to it, the led lights up Whatever, if it was a faulty battery when I plug the phone on the charger, it should've worked fine.
Q: Why don't you just buy a new phone?
A: I was planning to buy a new one, but after just 4 months when I have to renew my contract. I don't want to buy a phone off contract.
Q: Are you stupid, if you can't manage to fix it by yourself, why don't you give it to a repair?
A: I truly believe that the professionalism of repairers doesn't exist in my country via old experiences with them.
So in the worst scenario I will loose time by trying to fixing it and for 4 months I will use my old android phone.
In the best scenario, my almost 2 years old phone will revive.
Also, I have a multimeter - I can check the electricity. Just tell me what to check.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probabily the rain damaged a part of your hardware. Did you solve?

If the battery is dead, the phone won't work.
The battery needs to have at least a bit of charge in order for the device to work, even if it is plugged in.
If the battery can't hold the charge, and the device uses more power than it gets, it turns off. I speak from experience.
These devices don't seem to work without a battery. Power goes to the battery, and the phone takes the power from there. Power doesn't go straight to the phone.
Anyway, I don't think a bit of light rain hurts the devices, especially if it was in your pocket. I walked through rain with my device in the pocket many times and no problem.
It looks to me that the hardware is failing. I don't believe that a faulty battery can cause a bootloop. I also don't believe that the power button causes a bootloop.
What I suggest would be:
1) Try going back to stock ROM.
2) Maybe try to get an S4 with a broken screen and switch the motherboards.