• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

s3 going nuts while charging.

D

drewdaman

Newbie
hi all,

have a three day old problem with my s3.

i have:
samsung s3
Model: sgh-i747M
android 4.3 (OS has not been updated for months and is the latest and greatest).


issue description:
-car mode keeps going on and off only when charging.
-every time car mode toggle phone makes a binging sound that i have never heard before.
-once it starts turning car mode on and off the toggle starts to happen very fast: switches about once per SECOND!
-issue started three days ago.
-fixed issue the first two days by powering down, removing the battery, powering back on. on day 3, this is no longer working.

-happens as soon as i start to charge the phone.

-original charger that came with the phone (I have never charged the phone with a different charger until now for troubleshooting).

-tried a friend's charger- the same thing happened (also an original s3 charger).

-tried my charger in a friend's s3- no problem.

-with my own charger, i removed the part you plug into the wall and plugged it into my computer- this does not cause a problem and charging works fine. no car mode issues. So, the problem only occurs when it is plugged into a wall power outlet (with multiple chargers).

-initially, i thought it may be an issue with the part of the charger that plugs into the wall... but then why does my friend's phone work ok with my charger and why does my phone still have this problem with his charger (yet it has no problem when plugged into a computer- bizarre?)? may not be the wall part...

-found several posts that suggest pulling the battery and using canned air to clean the ports (cleaned earphone, battery and the charger itself). that did not help. This is really the only thing that I could find that was actually acknowledged as a solution by other posters (various forums).

-the only thing that was installed recently was a game called 2048 (by someone else).. i uninstalled that, shut down, pulled battery but the problem is still there. but even this was done over a week ago. the problem started 3 days ago.

-i would like to avoid a factory reset if possible. any other thoughts before going to that extreme?

-i didn't even know there was a "car mode" until this problem started to happen. have seen something called "driving mode" before though..
 
i had a similar problem on transform ultra weirdest damn thing experienced like you i never new about car mode.
now to be honest with ya i never figured out the actual culprit but here is my story..
now i was rooted so i factory reset didnt solve it, i unrooted phone went complete stock still didnt work, finally i used an aircan to blow lol the charger port and used a plastic piece to pick through the port and it finally worked phone went back to normalcy.now even though after the aircan seemed to fix it cant confirm it but worth a shot i guess.. thought at one point was an app forget which one that had caused problem because it had a car mode option
 
Thanks for replying. Yes, I tried it but may try it again in case some bit of dirt or something got missed. But I am not sure it will help because it works if i remove the wall charger and plug the same cable into usb on computer (yet if I use another S3 charger the same thing happens on my phone and if someone plugs their s3 into my charger the problem doesn't happen).

I have looked high and low. There are a few threads in a few places but nothing really conclusive. This is the only solution (air can) that many people have said worked.

But if anyone has other suggestions, I would love to hear them as well.

Thanks!
 
I just noticed I said in my original post:
"-happens as soon as i start to charge the phone."

This is poorly worded. What I should have said is this:
-I charge my at night.
-So far, when I plug it in the first time, it is ok for about 20-30 minutes.
-Random toggling starts to happen after 20-30 minutes.
-If I unplug the charger, the toggling stops.
-If I plug the charger in again after the problem has started (without pulling the battery or rebooting) it starts to happen right away.
 
day 4, usb charging is doing the same thing now.. car mode going crazy.

so for now, i powered it off to charge. but, even with it powered down, the phone is vibrating every few seconds (every five seconds or so). i don't think this is normal, but don't often charge with the phone turned off.

i also tried canned air again.
 
i remeber now that i was using tuner in radio app that has a car mode option and i thought maybe i turned it on from being in pocket. try going through your apps and see if any of them have a car mode maybe its enabled..start with most recently installed
 
bump..

i did not find any apps with car mode..

it went away for a while.. came back intermittently a few times but not enough for me to follow up again..

but now it's back with a vengeance... and is driving me crazy.. given the poor battery life on this phone, i have to charge it twice a day.. but with this issue i have to charge it with it powered off which really is not a good solution especially during the day..

anyone? any ideas at all?
 
So your friends S3 with the same charger works fine...? Did I read that right?

Okay, so here's a question.

Your car charger. Does your friends S3 charge fine on it?

Also when you tried your friends S3 on your charger...was it in the same outlet?

Have you tried charging it in your computer via USB just to see what happens?
 
Hi Prinny, thanks for replying. No, my phone does not charge properly with any charger. my charger works fine on other s3s. i have tried usb charging, multiple outlets. same thing. with usb, sometimes it is the same thing (car mode popping on and off) but other times, windows makes that binging sound when you connect a device every few seconds.. it's like you're connecting and disconnecting..

i tried this too to no avail:
Fixed Droid Charge stuck in Desk/Car Cradle mode - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com
 
I'd hate to say it...but to ME it sounds like a defective charging port...

I know with my Note when I had it, I had some similar issues, and then the charging port died all together. :/

Your best bet at this point would be to try a warranty repair/replacement I'd say :(
 
Yeah.. I would agree with that at this point.. But I was hoping someone may have a trick up their sleeve... I am out of warranty unfortunately.. So it will likely just be a new phone after I throw it at a wall lol.. Thanks for replying though! I will check if possible to just change the port and if it is prohibitively expensive...
 
Well drew. You could try it yourself. The part is relatively cheap. However as a warning to those who attempt to do it, be careful. I've tried before and caused even more headaches by killing the signal. You could call a repair shop and see how much they'd charge as well
 
drewdaman said:
hi all,

have a three day old problem with my s3.

i have:
samsung s3
Model: sgh-i747M
android 4.3 (OS has not been updated for months and is the latest and greatest).


issue description:
-car mode keeps going on and off only when charging.
-every time car mode toggle phone makes a binging sound that i have never heard before.
-once it starts turning car mode on and off the toggle starts to happen very fast: switches about once per SECOND!
-issue started three days ago.
-fixed issue the first two days by powering down, removing the battery, powering back on. on day 3, this is no longer working.

-happens as soon as i start to charge the phone.

-original charger that came with the phone (I have never charged the phone with a different charger until now for troubleshooting).

-tried a friend's charger- the same thing happened (also an original s3 charger).

-tried my charger in a friend's s3- no problem.

-with my own charger, i removed the part you plug into the wall and plugged it into my computer- this does not cause a problem and charging works fine. no car mode issues. So, the problem only occurs when it is plugged into a wall power outlet (with multiple chargers).

-initially, i thought it may be an issue with the part of the charger that plugs into the wall... but then why does my friend's phone work ok with my charger and why does my phone still have this problem with his charger (yet it has no problem when plugged into a computer- bizarre?)? may not be the wall part...

-found several posts that suggest pulling the battery and using canned air to clean the ports (cleaned earphone, battery and the charger itself). that did not help. This is really the only thing that I could find that was actually acknowledged as a solution by other posters (various forums).

-the only thing that was installed recently was a game called 2048 (by someone else).. i uninstalled that, shut down, pulled battery but the problem is still there. but even this was done over a week ago. the problem started 3 days ago.

-i would like to avoid a factory reset if possible. any other thoughts before going to that extreme?

-i didn't even know there was a "car mode" until this problem started to happen. have seen something called "driving mode" before though..
Click to expand...

I had this same annoying problem after installing Zedge...
Turn off Auto Update in More... About... Software Updates... Solved it for me.
 
Different variation on the same old problem I had with my S3. I've posted a similar response in other threads.

My charging port was messed up. I brought it to a place called CPR (Cell Phone Repair) and the guy verified my charging port was the issue. He said it was extremely common for S3s. $100 to replace. I opted to buy an external battery charger (about $6 on Amazon) and a couple of extra batteries (about $10/each on Amazon), and all of my issues went away. When my battery is dead, I swap it for a fresh one. $26 and no more worries. My S3 is awesome again, and I don't even care if I don't get to upgrade to an S5 now.
 
My charging was going slow. I switched to another cable and that fixed it. Two weeks ago charging started acting up again. I got worried I wouldn't be able to charge it. I went on eBay, found a US dealer and got two batteries and a charger for $15.46 shipped. The charger appears to be working better lately, but now I have two extra batteries and a charger if needed in the future. I do change the batteries sometimes during the day and it is nice to just stick in a full battery. :)
 
I just started having this same problem with my S3, but it doesn't have anything to do with actual charging. The battery starts thinking it's getting charged on and off along with the Hands Free Mode freak-out, but it hasn't been on a charger in hours. It also opens an Accuweather/ Calendar background image or something when it does this. I haven't nailed down exactly where it comes from, either. I can't pinpoint anything new or different that has caused this. It's happened using 2 different launchers, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom