• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Non-rooted S3 won't boot

jp76

Newbie
My non-rooted S3 for AT&T did something very weird today: I was using Google Maps for navigation somewhere, exited out of the app, put the phone in my pocket, and minutes later it was stuck at the "Samsung Galaxy SIII" boot screen and would go no further. Several attempts to reboot and battery pulls yielded no results.

So, I called AT&T support and they had me try a data wipe/factory restore. This seemed to work as the wipe process finally loaded and I was able to do a factory restore. Phone was working well for a few minutes as I had a chance to send a couple texts, remove some of the stock shortcuts, and setup Wifi. I then started to setup my MS Exchange account and then the phone rebooted and stopped at the "Samsung Galaxy SIII" boot screen again! Several attempts to do another wipe were unsuccessful, in that it won't get me to the reset menu.

Any thoughts on what else I can do with my stock, non-rooted phone? I did update to JB a month or 2 ago and the phone was running great until today.

Thanks!
 
Hmm, that is odd. Have you tried to get into the stock recovery to reset it?
Press and hold home, then press/hold volume up, then press/hold power until a screen comes up, then let go of all 3.
If it continues to happen, check your battery contacts or perhaps another member will have an idea short of bringing it back to the store:)
 
Hmm, that is odd. Have you tried to get into the stock recovery to reset it?
Press and hold home, then press/hold volume up, then press/hold power until a screen comes up, then let go of all 3.
If it continues to happen, check your battery contacts or perhaps another member will have an idea short of bringing it back to the store:)

It gets odder (is that a word??)...anyway...I was trying the home, volume up, and power sequence again when I gave up and just left the battery out for a few minutes, plugged the phone into my laptop, fired up Kies, and then turned the phone on. Guess what...this time it booted and it kept the changes I was in the middle of doing when it rebooted...very weird...I think I've got a zombie phone. LOL

Think I'll leave it plugged in and charge up the battery and see what happens.
 
Update...well...she ain't working right still. Thought I had it fixed, but the phone has rebooted 4 times since then and it's a roll of the dice if it comes back.

AT&T is less than helpful...they won't send me a new phone yet. They want me to get a new SIM card from a store first. Grrr...
 
Update...well...she ain't working right still. Thought I had it fixed, but the phone has rebooted 4 times since then and it's a roll of the dice if it comes back.

AT&T is less than helpful...they won't send me a new phone yet. They want me to get a new SIM card from a store first. Grrr...

Walk into the nearest AT&T store & shove the phone up the nearest associates a**! Seriously, I'd try to go talk with someone in person about the issues & bring the phone- I've always had better luck getting a response to issues at a physical T-Mo store. I think it's a lot harder to dismiss someone's problems if they are standing right in front of you...
 
I has a problem like that awhile back. What I did might help. I simply connected it to my pc through a usb cable, made sure the pc saw it, the turned it off, then back on. For whatever reason, it solved the problem.
Not saying it'll help you, but what have you got to lose.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the responses.

I will be going to an AT&T store tonight and will politely "shove the phone up the nearest associates @$$". LOL.

I don't buy the whole, "you need a new SIM" thing either, but I guess I need to jump through their hoops first to get a replacement device. I hate first-level tech support sometimes.
 
Thanks for the responses.

I will be going to an AT&T store tonight and will politely "shove the phone up the nearest associates @$$". LOL.

I don't buy the whole, "you need a new SIM" thing either, but I guess I need to jump through their hoops first to get a replacement device. I hate first-level tech support sometimes.

Don't think there's a "polite" way to do that LOL...good luck!
 
Back
Top Bottom