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Help Help! Won't start.

J

Janosime

Lurker
Hello, last night when I tried to turn on my AT&T S3 my power button did nothing. I tried charging my phone, but all three of my chargers had no effect on my phone, and all three worked charging my girlfriend's Sprint S3. When I try removing and replacing my battery, my phone briefly starts up, showing the Samsung logo, then the splash for the Galaxy SIII, then promptly shuts down. I tried switching batteries with my girlfriends S3, hers worked normally and mine continued to only try to boot up when replacing the battery, and shutting down after the SIII screen. I tried starting it in reboot mode, and I get the "recovery booting..." message on the Samsung screen, it goes the SIII splash again, then shuts down. When I try to boot it in download mode I get the warning screen, then shuts down before I can do anything. Again, all the same responses with my battery and my girlfriends battery, and both batteries work in her phone.

In short, my phone will not boot at all using the power button, and removing and replacing the battery only gives me about 5-10 seconds to do anything before it shuts down. Please help me, I took it to an AT&T store and the guy pretty much plugged it into a charger, said it's out of warranty, and tried to sell me a new phone, which I can't afford.

Thank you very much for your time.
 
That's weird.
Has it been dropped or water damaged recently? That includes being in sweaty pockets.

Sounds like your battery pins are shorting out to me.
 
Can you get into recovery mode? Try you g/Friends fully charged battery press volume up and hold + the home key and hold, then the power key and hold. When (If?) the phone shows signs of life release all three. From recovery try a factory reset and try rebooting. This, if it works will wipe your phone (except for your media) and make it as it was out of the box.

I have to say though I don't think it'll work, but at this point you have little to lose.
 
Never any water damage, and I have a protective case and still have only dropped it two or three times, and never recently. It's rarely in my pocket, usually on a table or desk at home or work.
 
dynomot said:
Can you get into recovery mode?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think I called it reboot mode but same thing, vol-up power and home button, I get "recovery boot...." text on the samsung home screen, but the phone turns off because I can do anything with recovery. Both batteries are charged at this point.

Thanks for your suggestions and help, if you need me to try anything else please don't hesitate to make suggestions.
 
Man i cant think what the problem is but it sounds like a hardware one since it wont even stay in download mode :( nothing to suggest tbh other than save up a bit n buy a Moto G or send it to samsung and see what price they quote for a repair :beer:
 
kwmetalfan said:
Sounds like SDS, sudden death syndrome, the power button went out on ya.
Click to expand...

SDS has nothing to do with the power button, only affected international s3s and got fixed by firmware updates ages ago lol.
Dont confuse the thread with things like that unless you really know what youre talking about mate ;) :beer:
 
Janosime said:
But I'm able to use the power button to see the beginnings of download mode or recovery mode, so it seems the power button works....?
Click to expand...

When you try to turn it on, it trys to turn on for a few seconds and then, does it just turn off or keep trying to reboot itself until you pull the battery?
 
It simply goes from the Galaxy SIII logo screen to a black screen, and never continues on. The only way it tries to boot up at all is once I reinsert the battery. Trying to charge my phone with no battery in it causes the light to glow red for about 5 seconds before flickering off and then staying off.

I missed the question about plugging it into my pc. I tried plugging it into my computer but nothing happened, no prompts, no messages, and my phone didn't respond at all. I wouldn't know how to run recovery mode through my pc.
 
Its really not looking good pal :( if the power button was getting stuck when you tried to boot, it would just force a reboot over and over
 
Well I don't think the power button is stuck...it just seems unresponsive. I guess it could be stuck. I guess it's just broken, been fiddling with it and looking at fixes all day, I guess I should give up. Thanks for trying.
 
Nothing to lose by sending it to samsung. Ive never had to but i think theyl diagnose it and offer a price to fix it. if its too expensive or not worth it, get them to send it back and sell it for its screen.
Hopefully someone has a better suggestion but since it wont stay in download mode, theres nothing you can really do software-wise :(
Good luck :beer:
 
Mine is doing the EXACT same thing as I type! Did anyone figure this out?? This just happened all of a sudden while im sitting here at my desk working.
 
funkylogik said:
SDS has nothing to do with the power button, only affected international s3s and got fixed by firmware updates ages ago lol.
Dont confuse the thread with things like that unless you really know what youre talking about mate ;) :beer:
Click to expand...

Actually, bad power buttons have been popping up here and there still. If I used the wrong term I apologize, but the issue I was referring to is hardware related.
 
jaime1982 said:
Mine is doing the EXACT same thing as I type! Did anyone figure this out?? This just happened all of a sudden while im sitting here at my desk working.
Click to expand...


OK so quick follow up. Later after I posted this I pulled the battery out while it was going through this "boot loop cycle" and waited a few mins. Then In a last attempt to turn it on I put the battery back in and hit power. After a second It magically turned on and went back to normal for the rest of the night and most of today.

Now Im back at work tonight, I plug in the same charger I have had here for over a year and the same symptoms start all over again. What the heck could be causing this? Im getting POD here!
 
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