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Droid Bionic will not turn on

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Omikse

Newbie
Ok I have a new problem. I went to bed last night and everything was working fine with my bionic but when I when I woke up and tried to mess around with it I could not get it to work. I thought it was in sleep mode but when I pressed the power button, the little power light just started blinking at me. It was plugged into my computer all night but the computer was off, + it is a brand new extended life battery. I have tried unplugging it form the computer and removing the battery to see if this might help but when I put the battery back in and press power not even the light comes on. But when I plug it back into my computer the power light come on but no screen. When I press the power button after that, the power light blinks white at me. Does anyone know what the problem may be and if there is a fix for it. I can not even access the recovery screen.
 
Ok when I plugged it into the wall charger the motorloa symbol showed up so it is not the screen but when I press the power button a picture of a battery with a question mark showed up. The battery was a 80% full when I went to bed last night and should not have been discharged yet. Maybe the battery is bad?
 
Yes maybe it is.

The starting point for all these battery problems is to try charging with the OEM wall charger and OEM cable that came with your Bionic. This removes an awful lot of the variables.

... Thom
 
Unfortunatley I got this phone second hand and did not come with a wall chager. I have been using the cable for my Samsung Precedent which has the same connections. I guess I will have to send the battery back and get a new one. DAMN
 
Omikse said:
... + it is a brand new extended life battery...
Click to expand...
Was this a new OEM/Motorola branded battery? From a trusted retailer/source? Many sellers on ebay/Amazon etc are selling "New OEM style" or "New OEM compatible" batteries that are not Moto branded and quite frankly are junk.

Omikse said:
...when I put the battery back in and press power not even the light comes on. But when I plug it back into my computer the power light come on but no screen. When I press the power button after that, the power light blinks white at me...
Click to expand...
These are all telltale signs of either a completely drained battery or a bad battery.
 
You might also consider getting a real OEM cable and wall charger so that you have a standard for battery issues in the future.

... Thom
 
No it was not an OEM battery. I was trying to save money but I think I will get on that is now. And I will look for an OEM cable as well.
 
If you have a UL listed charger that works with another phone, it will likely work with the Bionic. I believe that the Bionic charger is 850 mA - if you have a charger that can plug in a USB cable, or just a charger with a micro USB end, that is higher than that (i.e., a 1 Amp charger would be fine), it will charge the Bionic. For example, I have am 850 mA Kindle wall charger from Amazon - this will charge the Bionic just fine.

Definitely don't plug a phone into a sleeping computer. What likely happened is that the computer's USB port was either draining the Bionic battery, or was supplying a charge that was way too low and ended up draining the battery rather than charge it. I'd say that computer connections are only for copying files to and/or from the device to the PC, or as emergency charging only.

[Source for the skeptical: AnandTech review of the Bionic, this page: AnandTech | Motorola Droid Bionic Review - Dual Core with 4G LTE. Important quote follows...]

While we’re on the subject of power, there’s also more to talk about regarding USB charging - any USB charger that implements the USB charging specification will work. The bundled Motorola USB charger supplies 850 mA (at the usual 5 VDC) which isn’t really a huge amount. I charged the Bionic numerous times off of 1A and 2A USB charging spec compliant chargers with no problem. It bears saying again that the age of proprietary Motorola chargers is long, long over.

The other unfortunate thing is that the Bionic’s ST-E 3.1 CPAC (combo PMIC and audio codec) doesn’t seem to pull the 1 or 2 A of current from those beefier chargers. The result is that you can actually discharge the Bionic while it’s plugged in if you’re doing the wrong thing. Thus far I’ve seen this discharing-while-plugged-in behavior in a number of different use cases. Using WiFi tethering and 4G LTE will do it, tethering 4G LTE over USB (500mA) will do it, and finally even doing things like RDP for a long period of time on 4G LTE will do it. The Bionic clearly can’t draw enough power from microUSB either when connected to a USB charging spec wall wart to power the phone and transact data on LTE, and as a result draws the current delta from the battery.
Click to expand...
 
... the point about Motorola chargers was quality control. I'm sure there are a lot of excellent chargers in use. There are also some really incredible bad ones.

Experience has shown that the chargers with Motorola logos on them (real logos and not fakes) are very reliable because of the stringent testing that was done on them before they were released from the factory.

The bottom line is ... establish a known reliable charging solution for yourself. Have a wall charger and cable that is guaranteed to be good. This will allow you to quickly solve charging problems when (nit if) they occur.

... Thom
 
I agree that there are some bad ones. I also say that if you use a UL listed charger, especially from a reputable company, that supplies at least 850 ma (or 0.85 a, which is the same thing) and has a micro USB connector, it will charge the bionic, especially one powered down. A Samsung, HTC, amazon, Apple, Motorola, LG, Asus, etc. wall charger will be fine.

The wall charger will list on it the output amperage and voltage. 1 amp or 2 amp will be fine as well, if that's what you have, until the proper charger arrives.

So, while the op is waiting for the charger that was ordered, a suitable replacement will be fine as well.

I also wanted to let the op know that the battery probably doesn't need to be replaced. The discharge happened because the phone was plugged in to a sleeping computer and that can cause a discharge with a normal battery. Charge the battery you have from the wall while powered off. The moto logo coming on during charge in that circumstance is normal. Wait for a full charge, which should take a few hours. I'll bet it will be fine.

And don't plug in to a computer for charging unless the computer is powered on and you have no other charging solution.
 
In this Case I do believe it is the Battery since Ihave had it plugged in to a wall charger since I made this post yesterday and it is still no powering on. Like you said , whenI do plug it in to teh wall charger, I do get the Motorola symbol om my screen and then a battery pops up with a question mark in the middle. The same thing happens when I try to hit the power button while it is still plugged in. When I un1 plug it fromt he wall charger, nothing happens. The wall charger I use is from Samsung with an input of 100-240VAC 50-60Hz 0.15A and an output of 5.0v yhen has a line with 3 dot under it 0.7A. This has worked with my Samsung Precedent with no problem although I do get a Non-supported battery message alot but that is because I so not have a Samsung battey in it. It does charge the phone.
 
Omikse said:
In this Case I do believe it is the Battery since Ihave had it plugged in to a wall charger since I made this post yesterday and it is still no powering on. Like you said , whenI do plug it in to teh wall charger, I do get the Motorola symbol om my screen and then a battery pops up with a question mark in the middle.
Click to expand...

Ok, that's a bad battery.
 
Ok so update on the phone. I got My new OEM Extended Battery yesterday and a Motorola Standard Dock/Wall Charger which arrived 2 days ago and plugged everything in to let it charge overnight. When I hooked it up the the Dock, the Motorola M showed up and when I press the power button the battery shows up saying it was charging. So when I woke up this morning I went to press the power button again and the battery symbol showed up saying it was 100% charged. I unhooked it from the dock and press the power button. Nothing happened. Held down the power button for 20 sec. Nothing happened. so I tried pressing Volume up/Volume down/Power, Nothing Happened. I know the screen still works since I see the Motorola M and the Battery Charge Level. The only thing I have not done was plug it into the computer to see if that might work. I am perplexed so anyone have any suggestions.

Edit: Just tried plugging it into my computer. The little white light at the top comes on so I press the power button and still nothing happens. It does not even blink at me now though. Does this mean the phone is bricked? I do not see how that is possible since I have not done anything to it except the correct updates to it.
 
I am just updating so I am going to recap some things here just to get everyone up to speed. I recenty got a droid bionic where I had to replace the LCD screen and battery since when I got it it did not have a battery with it. I got an NON-OEM extended battery and every thing was working fine for three days. In that time I was able to upgrade everyting to the latest software, fireware, and Android version (4.1.2 JB) but after those three days the phone would not power on. When I plugged it into my computer and tried, the white power light would just blink at me. when I unplugged it from the computer and tried it would not even come on. I thought it was the battery so I sent it back and got an OEM extended battery and a OEM dock/charger. When I got everything, I plugged it all in and the screen came on with the Motorola M logo and then showed me a picture of the battery at 5%, so I let it charger over night. In the morning I pressed the power button while still plugged into the charger, the phone light up saying the battery was at 100%. So I took it off the charger and tried to power up. Nothing happened. I plugged it into my computer and the white power light came on and stayed solid but still no power-up. I just tried the Volume Up/Down power while plugged into the wall charger and I can get to the recovery screen and try the normal boot up, I get the Motorola M Logo screen, I just now tried recovery and the little Droid just showed up with its stomach open with a red triangle and an ! in it and is just sittin there. And now it when back to the Motorola M Logo screen then the battery screen. Does this mean mine is bricked as well? Please some one help.
 
Omikse said:
I am just updating so I am going to recap some things here just to get everyone up to speed. I recenty got a droid bionic where I had to replace the LCD screen and battery since when I got it it did not have a battery with it. I got an NON-OEM extended battery and every thing was working fine for three days. In that time I was able to upgrade everyting to the latest software, fireware, and Android version (4.1.2 JB) but after those three days the phone would not power on. When I plugged it into my computer and tried, the white power light would just blink at me. when I unplugged it from the computer and tried it would not even come on. I thought it was the battery so I sent it back and got an OEM extended battery and a OEM dock/charger. When I got everything, I plugged it all in and the screen came on with the Motorola M logo and then showed me a picture of the battery at 5%, so I let it charger over night. In the morning I pressed the power button while still plugged into the charger, the phone light up saying the battery was at 100%. So I took it off the charger and tried to power up. Nothing happened. I plugged it into my computer and the white power light came on and stayed solid but still no power-up. I just tried the Volume Up/Down power while plugged into the wall charger and I can get to the recovery screen and try the normal boot up, I get the Motorola M Logo screen, I just now tried recovery and the little Droid just showed up with its stomach open with a red triangle and an ! in it and is just sittin there. And now it when back to the Motorola M Logo screen then the battery screen. Does this mean mine is bricked as well? Please some one help.
Click to expand...

With the Android guy on his back ... it wants you to hold down volume up/volume down and then release them to bring up the next menu where you can then select an item with the volume buttons and execute it with the power button.

... Thom
 
Thanks Thom, that got me through but I still can not power my phone on either unplugged or plugged into the wall charger. But while it is plugged into the wall charger I can get into the recovery screen. Any suggestion on this one?
 
Since you got past the guy on his back ... did you clear the cahe?remove all temporary data and that data might be your problem.

See ... Clear Bionic Cache ... on how to do it.

You could takke it tinto your Verizon store and have them look at the problem.

... Thom
 
Cleared the cache but still can not get it to power up either plugged in or unplugged. Since I do not have an account with verizon I do not think I can take it to them.
 
I think you are running out of possibilities ... do a Factory Data Reset (you saw where to call that when you called the cache clear) or try a different battery.

The FDR will remove your added apps and customizations. Not a big deal to many people unless they are into playing games and they loose their history.

If you still have the problem then I would assume a hardware failure. his is of course a guess on my part.

... Thom
 
Thom said:
Yes maybe it is.

The starting point for all these battery problems is to try charging with the OEM wall charger and OEM cable that came with your Bionic. This removes an awful lot of the variables.

... Thom
Click to expand...
I currently have a droid bionic and I did a factory reset and I tried switching between the extended battery and the standard battery and my phone isn't a black screen it will load past the Motorola symbol until the bionic symbol comes up and it stays on that screen and will not load any further any ideas?
 
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