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HTC One M8 will not turn on

A

Andy HTC problem

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I have a HTC One M8. I tried to turn it on after leaving it in my cupboard, where it has been sitting for the last year. The phone would not turn on. Assuming that the battery must be flat, I plugged in the charger. Nothing happened, no charging light. I left it in this state for some time and then it started charging. A display on the screen showed the battery was flat and after an hour or so, it shows the battery to be 100% and the orange light has gone to green.

I then tried to turn the phone on and there is nothing.

By pressing and holding the power and volume button, I can get the phone to go into the boot up screen. I have tried the recovery and factory reset options but it is no different and still does not turn on. I have left the phone running in the boot up screen and it stays on for quite a few hours before the battery runs flat. I have tried this cycle a few times (charge/flatten) in the thought this might has some effect on the battery. No change.

I took the phone to a repair shop and they think it is a software issue but they said they could not get new software and that the phone can not be fixed. I have also bought a new battery but have not tried to fit this as it is quite a big job to do. I did not want to replace the battery if the old one is actually OK.

My questions are:-
1) Does this sound like it needs new software?
2) If YES, can someone guide me how to find the software and install it onto my phone.

I think that the phone software is 6.12.401.4

The phone was bought in the UK and was locked to EE (formally Orange). I bought a code from eBay to unlock it, which I did and it was working with an O2 sim card before it stopped working.

As mentioned, it was working perfectly and is 'as new' condition. When it went into the cupboard, it was 100% OK. When it came out (about a year later), it was in this, current not working state.

Andy
 
Hi Andy, welcome to Android Forums.

I have a 5 year old M7 and a three year old M9 which have had similar battery problems. The main difference to your M8 is that they have both been in daily use since purchase.

About 6 months ago the M7 started crashing at various stages of battery discharge, but continued to function perfectly provided it was permanently kept on charge. The M9 started exhibiting exactly the same symptoms about 2 months later. The M9 died completely just before Christmas but ironically the two year older M7 is still functioning perfectly whilst on permanent charge either by mains adaptor or external battery pack.

This has allowed me to make sure that all user data is regularly backed up to avoid any loss.

Both devices were replaced by HTC 10s just before the M9 died completely which both my wife and I are well pleased with - huge improvement on the M7 and significantly better than the M9.

Reading through your post, I'm not sure whether you have actually kept the M8 charging whilst trying to boot-up. If not then it may be worthwhile trying. Towards the end of the M9's life, as long as I waited until the charge indicator turned green then booted-up with the charger still connected it would function ok.

If it works for your M8 at least it will allow you to recover any data you may have in internal storage and will possibly give you a few months extra life and at the same time will mean you can consider replacing the battery.
 
Last edited:
If re-flashing was the recommended fix from that repair shop, I'd stop relying on them. The installed software (operating system and apps) on your phone is not doing anything sitting in a drawer for a year, it's completely inert and inactive and cannot 'degrade' or alter itself.
The odds are there's something wrong with the battery. Left for months without even a partial charge any smartphone battery will degrade at an accelerated rate, and left long enough will simply fail. The M8 being a 2014 model that's presumably the original battery so if it has completely failed at this point that's not surprising as it just hasn't been attended to properly. (i.e. daily usage).
https://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_(m8)-6074.php
As you already have a replacement battery I'd focus on replacing the battery more then re-flashing a stock ROM.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/HTC+One+M8+Battery+Replacement/41650
 
svim said:
If re-flashing was the recommended fix from that repair shop, I'd stop relying on them. The installed software (operating system and apps) on your phone is not doing anything sitting in a drawer for a year, it's completely inert and inactive and cannot 'degrade' or alter itself.
The odds are there's something wrong with the battery. Left for months without even a partial charge any smartphone battery will degrade at an accelerated rate, and left long enough will simply fail. The M8 being a 2014 model that's presumably the original battery so if it has completely failed at this point that's not surprising as it just hasn't been attended to properly. (i.e. daily usage).
https://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_(m8)-6074.php
As you already have a replacement battery I'd focus on replacing the battery more then re-flashing a stock ROM.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/HTC+One+M8+Battery+Replacement/41650
Click to expand...
 
Hello Svim..

Thanks for your the reply. I had thought the battery was most likely to be the issue. As far as the software is concerned, I was wondering if by going into the boot screen and trying the various options there (i.e. restore, factory reset etc.) could I have possibly now created a software problem. I have tried these options quite a few times. It looks the same as it always did with respect to not turning on and charging.

I do have the new battery and have looked at various videos to see how to change the battery. It is a fairly major job but if the conclusion is that the battery is the problem, then I will go and change it.

I did keep questioning the repair shop re 'could it be the battery'. They were adamant that my battery was good because it showed all the right signs whilst on charge, other than the time it takes to start charging each time. I don't really want to experiment with flashing a stock ROM if people believe this is unlikely to be the issue.

One last thought I had was whether I had created a back-up and where this might be. I have a SD card in the phone and would more than likely run back-up from the main menu. I am not bothered with the apps or contacts. The interest was really whether this back-up contained the phone software and if this was accessable somehow.

Thanks again.
 
tommo47 said:
Hi Andy, welcome to Android Forums.

I have a 5 year old M7 and a three year old M9 which have had similar battery problems. The main difference to your M8 is that they have both been in daily use since purchase.

About 6 months ago the M7 started crashing at various stages of battery discharge, but continued to function perfectly provided it was permanently kept on charge. The M9 started exhibiting exactly the same symptoms about 2 months later. The M9 died completely just before Christmas but ironically the two year older M7 is still functioning perfectly whilst on permanent charge either by mains adaptor or external battery pack.

This has allowed me to make sure that all user data is regularly backed up to avoid any loss.

Both devices were replaced by HTC 10s just before the M9 died completely which both my wife and I are well pleased with - huge improvement on the M7 and significantly better than the M9.

Reading through your post, I'm not sure whether you have actually kept the M8 charging whilst trying to boot-up. If not then it may be worthwhile trying. Towards the end of the M9's life, as long as I waited until the charge indicator turned green then booted-up with the charger still connected it would function ok.

If it works for your M8 at least it will allow you to recover any data you may have in internal storage and will possibly give you a few months extra life and at the same time will mean you can consider replacing the battery.
Click to expand...
 
Hello tommo47

Thanks for this info. I have tried to turn the power on whilst it is still plugged into the charger. The stock HTC charger. I wait until the battery charging icon shows 100% and the green light comes on. Normally 2 hours or so. Then I try the ON button and nothing happens other than the screen stays black and the charging light and battery icon disappear.

I am not worried about the data. If I could get the phone to eventually fire up into a normal set of menus so that I can make calls again, I would be happy. And as it is an old phone, I did not want to invest too much in the cost of the repair. I have bought a new battery (~£9) and will now also need a few of the necessary plastic tools to open up the phone.

If the conclusion is that it is the battery, I will have ago at taking it all apart to swap the battery.

Andy
 
Andy HTC problem said:
.....
One last thought I had was whether I had created a back-up and where this might be. I have a SD card in the phone and would more than likely run back-up from the main menu. I am not bothered with the apps or contacts. The interest was really whether this back-up contained the phone software and if this was accessable somehow..
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that even if you did do something like a Factory Reset, what that does is wipe the data partition clean, it does not do anything directly to the actual operating system. Your phone's internal storage is divided into different partitions, most are dedicated to the operating system and unless you root your phone you have very limited access to any of them. The data partition is where all your files and things, apps you install, and their settings get stored.
It's a common misconception that a Factory Reset 'wipes everything', the issue being if you were to clear the entire internal storage memory, the result would be your data gets wiped but also there would be no operating system either.
Regarding your phone contacts, what email service do you use and what did you have set up to sync your online account with your phone? (i.e. Calendar, Contacts, etc.)
 
Hello svim..

Thanks for this. I used the Microsoft Outlook app for my email and aCalendar+ for my calendar as I did not particularly like th stock HTC clients. For contacts, I used the standard HTC app.

Andy
 
I was asking about your email service (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, ISP or carrier based, etc.) not necessarily which email client/app was on your phone, and most importantly is you had things set up to sync your online account with your phone. If so, than losing your contacts on your phone is not that big an issue as your online account is the primary source. You simply need to sign into your account's webmail access to confirm your contacts are still there.
Of course there's also the point that it's been a long time since you even used this phone so is the content (like Contacts) even relevant?
 
Hello svim

My main email service is Outlook and this is where most of my phone contacts will be. I may have had a few on the phone and perhaps will have lost these. I have another phone (Galaxy) with all of my contacts on it so I can copy any that have been lost on the HTC phone.

The real job now is to try and fit the new battery without doing any damage to the phone and then seeing if I can get past the boot screen. A job for this week, I think.

Andy
 
Back to the phone saga. I have now fitted a brand new battery (was a very difficult job) and the phone is exactly the same as before with regard to what it will do.

To recap, I can charge the battery with all the usual signs of it charging. It shows an orange going to green light. There is an indicator on the phone showing the battery charging which eventually goes to 100%. You then push the ON switch and there is nothing. As before, I can get into the boot menu but none of the options there change the state of the phone.

So based on what the phone repair shop said, I thought I would attempt to load some new software. This will be my last go at fixing the phone.

The question is 'does anyone know where I can get the phone software from for a UK version'. The software on the phone is 6.12.401.4. And does anyone have a guide re how to install this software. This is new territory for me. If it helps, the boot screen says the phone is 'locked' and also shows S-ON.

Andy
 
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