Help Phone won't charge, no lights

[UnplugMe]

This is my mother's phone. Suddenly it won't take a charge for no apparent reason. She is a light user (in her 70's) and takes very good care of it. Bought the phone in October 2011. So, do I just buy a new battery and assume this one is dead? How do I know if the phone itself is bad? Thanks for any tips.

 

[Guizmo]

This is my mother's phone. Suddenly it won't take a charge for no apparent reason. She is a light user (in her 70's) and takes very good care of it. Bought the phone in October 2011. So, do I just buy a new battery and assume this one is dead? How do I know if the phone itself is bad? Thanks for any tips.

Hello UnplugMe,

I have had this problem twice in the two years I have been using the phone.

My battery wasn't defective, I used a free App on Android Market(I don't remember the name of it) to check my battery. Basically the app recharged the battery and listed the current mAh the battery was reporting when fully charged. The BST-38 battery of this phone is a 970mAh battery. In my case, it reported around 900 mAh, so my battery was still in a good state.

To solve my problem, I tried another USB cable, tried another USB plug, none of which worked. I then removed the battery from the phone for a couple of minutes (2-3) and put it back in. Then pluged the phone to the AC adapter and the red light finally turn on.

I've only had twice the issue and I solved this issue this way both times. When I plug the phone to the AC adapter, the phone is turned off, I do not turn it back on after replacing the battery in it.

To me, this looks like a firmware/driver issue.

 

[Sam-SonyXperia]

This is my mother's phone. Suddenly it won't take a charge for no apparent reason. She is a light user (in her 70's) and takes very good care of it. Bought the phone in October 2011. So, do I just buy a new battery and assume this one is dead? How do I know if the phone itself is bad? Thanks for any tips.

Is this intermittently working or is there no response at all?

 

[UnplugMe]

Thanks for the replies.

There was no response at all. I wound up buying 2 new batteries and an external charger, and also a new OEM charging cable/USB adapter for the phone, all in all it cost me almost a hundred dollars.

The old battery charged in the external charger, I then put it back into the phone.

I had used the charging cable to charge another smart-phone once, and wondered if I fried it somehow. I did notice the original cable has a big barrel on it (I think it's a surge protector or something?). My other phones don't have those.

I still don't know the cause but the external charger worked on the battery.

Edited to add:

I do remember reading not to power the phone ON while charging. If I remember correctly it said ON or OFF but don't change status while charging. I had warned my mom about that.

I'll remind her of it. But when I got the phone to "fix," it was completely dead, so I have no idea whether it was on or off. I don't think she changed the state, however. But if the battery went dead before the phone was powered down, maybe it caused the problem? Seems kind of fussy, if that's the case.

 

[Sam-SonyXperia]

That is a strange one indeed. I'm am just curious to know if is was the cable or the phone's connector that is the cause of the problem. I am pleased that at least you have a way around this for now though.

 

[TooLateForANam]

Isn't failure of the usb port a common issue on Sony Ericson phones?

Does the usb port work for data transfer to a PC?

 

[UnplugMe]

Sorry, I'm in a different state than Mom so I can't test the USB port right now.
Will update when I get back there to visit.

I left her with 3 charged batteries and the external charger, with instructions to let them die all the way before a recharge.

(I read that you're supposed to fully charge and discharge 3 times, then they keep a longer battery life. I figure it can't hurt to try it.)