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Help My Samsung Galaxy S3 won't charge properly.

S

sunsetglow

Lurker
When I plug my Samsung Galaxy S3 into the AC adapter it will charge on and off randomly, especially when I move it. Last night, I turned it off and plugged it in before I went to sleep and when I woke up in the morning it said it was 100% charged but when I turned it on it said it only had 42% charge. I tried plugging it into my laptop to charge but it kept connecting and disconnecting by itself so it's a problem with either the USB cable or the phone or battery itself, not the actual adapter. Any ideas on why this is happening or what I should do about it?
 
If moving it is making it go on or off it's the plug interface to the phone connection. Try moving it slightly side ways as you plug it in.
 
It's sounds like it's either the connector in the phone or the cable. Try a different cable and then you'll know. Hopefully it's just the cable.
 
Are you using the factory charger cable that came with the phone? If so that might be your problem. I also had problems charging mine until I went and bought a different cable.
 
Had this problem just now and that's how I ended up here after a search on Google.

I managed to get around it on my own just before reading but decided to create an account and share my experience.

The OEM cable seems to be bad as Stephen noted. I had problems with my cable so me and my wife were sharing hers, and it hers went bad just now.

On my phone it wasn't even charging at all (0% battery, was on a call and it was plugged in).

If you look at the connector on the cable, the part with just metal (opposing the contacts) should be a little ovalized. If so, hold the phone facing yourself and plug the cable in. Force it down, so that the contacts will touch. If it shows the phone charging then yes, it's your cable.

Simple fix: Bend it back in. I used the end of a door key and placed the connector on a hard surface and put a little pressure on the bent side. Be careful not to put to much pressure.

Worked like a charm!
 
My first s3 burned out my charger. It just wouldn't charge anymore. Verizon said it was because I was leaving the charger plugged no the wall and they sent me a new one. A few months later (2 weeks ago) the new charger LITERALLY burned out. Like caught on fire when I plugged it into my computer to charge. So I got a new charger again and Verizon sent me a new phone. In the few days it took for my new s3 to show up, I tried to charge my old one with my new charger. I also ordered a new battery, since Verizon wasn't sending one. So now I have a new phone, a new charger, and a new battery... And it still won't charge. I plug the charger into the wall then into the phone but it doesn't work. Sometimes flipping the charger over on the socket fixes it, sometimes moving sockets, sometimes wiggling the phone end of the charger around a bit... What's going on here?
 
I am posting this as a solution for my phone which would not charge and what i found out worked for me.

1. some cables don't work between phones, for example my wifes galaxy duos charger doesn't work with my s3.
* Use only the original charger. I think possibly some aftermarket cables can possibly screw up the charge port. Best not to wiggle things.................. If you start wiggling because you don't have the right charging cable then you probably cause the problem.

I have just opened up my s3 (out of warranty as I already replaced the screen) and re-soldered the mini- micro usb jack. There are about 8 very small solder points to the main board, there is probably a space less than a 1mm between each solder point.

2. I just lightly res-soldered the points not adding solder but just allowing the solder to heat up and re-set on the micro usb jack inside the phone ensuring none were joining to the solder point beside. In the soldering process I used a very bright light and a fine point solder tip to help, I don't have very still hands, but did enough to re-heat each point at the end of the connection where it touches the motherboard of the phone.
I have been charging for a day now and seems to work.

On bootup it would state "usb connection detected" or "usb cable connected", not sure whether this is related, but it no longer gives this message on boot up. This would infer some kind of bridge, but I did not see anything abnormal in the soldering process, I did however air compress the usb jack and did a general clean to ensure nothing was bridging..

Michael.
 
As others have suggested the cable that comes with the samsung aint the greatest. I had charging issues about 6 months after purchasing the phone, I swapped the USB cable with an old one I had (kept same plug) & hey presto no more charging issues
 
Have you tried de fluffing the port on your s3. Get some air in a can and blow it out. Or use something small and thin to prize out the fluff. Or you could get a wireless charging kit. I've just got 1 from eBay for
 
I was frustrated with the same problem. My fix was easy: I went onto eBay and ordered a new cable. It cost $1.00 INCLUDING SHIPPING. As soon as I plugged it in my phone not only charged to 100% but it did so in 1/10 the time the original cable did when it worked. An additional bonus: the new cable fit nice and snug and it was 3 feet long compared to about 2 feet on the OEM cable. Life is good boys and girls!
 
I'm having the same exact problem. It will charge just fine up to 100% and then if I leave it on the charger (as I do while I'm sleeping) it starts beeping occasionally and when I wake up it's no longer still at 100%.. It's down to 94% or another number. It beeps and beeps until I unplug it. I used to be able to keep it plugged in all night and just remove it from the charger in the morning and it would be at 100%. This just started happening. It holds the charge throughout the day and I've tried different chargers and it does the same thing. Does this sound like the USB port on mine?? (Not the charger)?? I have a cover over the USB port (Otterbox Defender) so I don't think it's gotten too much "fluff"..

Help!
 
Benr271...mine was acting exactly the same way. I'm no expert but I felt that the original cable may have not fitted quite properly into the phone. Seemed very loose. I purchased a new cable on eBay and haven't had a problem since. I bid $1 but was outbid. Within minutes the eBay seller emailed me the option to buy the same cable for only one buck. That included shipping. It's a no brainier dude. Get yourself a new cable. Here's the sellers info: beyondhuangmj on eBay
 
Thanks CMe2!


I ended up last night blowing the port out with canned air. I also bought a new "Rocketfish" wall charger from Best Buy and amazingly enough, I've had good luck on the last 2 charges. So, possibly it was just "fluff" in my port!! Fingers crossed that's all it was/is! Yeah.. it was happening with two of my chargers, but both are extremely old. The new one seems to work! Whew!

Thanks again!
 
both this model as well as two other Samsung phones would stop charging or never start, and would beep and send off multiple messages saying 'unable to charge non-supported battery, see user manual' and i've done some looking into that error and normally it should only happen with cheap third-party batteries, but in all the cases where it happened with OEM batteries it was almost always a dying charger. the three phones i had all came with very unreliable Samsung chargers. i just use the ones for my Nexus tablets and everything is fine. a shame Samsung can make a great phone but ship a horrificly failure prone charger with it.
 
sunsetglow said:
When I plug my Samsung Galaxy S3 into the AC adapter it will charge on and off randomly, especially when I move it. Last night, I turned it off and plugged it in before I went to sleep and when I woke up in the morning it said it was 100% charged but when I turned it on it said it only had 42% charge. I tried plugging it into my laptop to charge but it kept connecting and disconnecting by itself so it's a problem with either the USB cable or the phone or battery itself, not the actual adapter. Any ideas on why this is happening or what I should do about it?
Click to expand...

This is the exact same issue I'm having, and I can't fix it. My phone will charge all the way, but before it does I have to turn it off and turn it back on in order for it to charge at 100%, or else it just doesn't charge at all. When I have it turn off and charging, it reaches the 100%, but when I turn it on, it is only around 45% charged. Does anyone know what is happening?
 
I bought a samsung s4 zoom not even a yr ago from Samsung Company itself so I could buy 1 unlocked plus it was cheaper (brand new & never used). My phone has always charged in 30 min or less whether or not I was using it & it lasted all day. Lately I can literally have phone on charger for 4 hrs and it has only charged maybe 14%. I have made sure that no apps are run'n in background, I deleted app mngrs I had installed think'n that might be the issue & nothing seems to work! Help please??!??
 
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