Galaxy s3 wont turn on just vibrates please help!!

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Schettini

Member
Apr 21, 2010
30
0
Phone worked fine until the other night when mid text the screen just turned off. now i tried to turn it back on and it simply vibrates when power button is pressed however the screen will not boot. i cannot boot into recovery or even download mode and by pulling the battery and plugging it into the pc i get a red LED like it is charging but it goes off after a few seconds or so. So yeah i need help! :(
 
TomTcom

TomTcom

Senior Member
Mar 27, 2011
1,192
535
Schettini said:
Phone worked fine until the other night when mid text the screen just turned off. now i tried to turn it back on and it simply vibrates when power button is pressed however the screen will not boot. i cannot boot into recovery or even download mode and by pulling the battery and plugging it into the pc i get a red LED like it is charging but it goes off after a few seconds or so. So yeah i need help! :(
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Did you have wifi on when this happened?

Have you tried the actual hardware button combo to get into recovery?

Perhaps pull the battery greater than 30 seconds or a minute then try powering it back up.

Pull the battery and then plug it in without the battery to see if you can get to "download mode" I believe it's called.

What ROM?
 
C

chipsharpdotcom

Member
Mar 8, 2011
20
3
Indianapolis
FWIW, I had something similar to his happen to me today. It turned out that despite showing a full charge on the battery, the battery simply ran out. I plugged it into a charger for a while and it fired right up.

To be clear the symptom I was experiencing was that my screen shuttered and then my whole phone died. When I tried to pull the battery or power on in any way, I'd get a short vibration pulse and then it would die again. I also cycled through the different key combinations trying to connect it to my computer, but with no success. Once I saw the red led charging indicator, I knew I wasn't bricked, so I just left it on the charger and let it continue to do the vibration pulse repeatedly until it had enough charge to display the on-screen charging indicator. Once I had that, I let it go a while longer and then tried to power it on and BOOYA! We're back in business.

Sometimes the solution to a tough problem is to simply do nothing. Who knew?
 
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AbrogateAnon

New member
Dec 28, 2011
3
0
31
Milwaukee
Battery?

chipsharpdotcom said:
FWIW, I had something similar to his happen to me today. It turned out that despite showing a full charge on the battery, the battery simply ran out. I plugged it into a charger for a while and it fired right up.

To be clear the symptom I was experiencing was that my screen shuttered and then my whole phone died. When I tried to pull the battery or power on in any way, I'd get a short vibration pulse and then it would die again. I also cycled through the different key combinations trying to connect it to my computer, but with no success. Once I saw the red led charging indicator, I knew I wasn't bricked, so I just left it on the charger and let it continue to do the vibration pulse repeatedly until it had enough charge to display the on-screen charging indicator. Once I had that, I let it go a while longer and then tried to power it on and BOOYA! We're back in business.

Sometimes the solution to a tough problem is to simply do nothing. Who knew?
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Click to collapse

Thank you so much, I almost pooped a donkey when this happened to me. Could it be a sign of a failing battery?
 
M

mc045

New member
Dec 11, 2012
2
0
Edmonton
Same issue - power button culprit?

Hi,

I am having the same issue. My bud has the same phone and I swapped batteries, still boot loop. It seems after some research that the problem is the power button contact not opening. I have seen two videos now where people de-solder or snap the power button off (after metering it) and softboot the phone via their PC to recover their data...

I will be switching out my board for my friends tonight to see if his button panel will do the same thing...

Long troubleshooting process for this one.
 
A

aamir123

Senior Member
Dec 24, 2010
1,014
142
It might be a power button issue when restarting and showing galaxy s3 screen tap on power button with a lil force like you would on a table. Then don't touch power button when up

Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
 
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KaB_88

Member
Aug 23, 2013
7
0
mc045 said:
Hi,

I am having the same issue. My bud has the same phone and I swapped batteries, still boot loop. It seems after some research that the problem is the power button contact not opening. I have seen two videos now where people de-solder or snap the power button off (after metering it) and softboot the phone via their PC to recover their data...

I will be switching out my board for my friends tonight to see if his button panel will do the same thing...

Long troubleshooting process for this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

How did that end up working for you?
 
O

oussamanew

New member
May 22, 2014
1
1
Thank You

FWIW, I had something similar to his happen to me today. It turned out that despite showing a full charge on the battery, the battery simply ran out. I plugged it into a charger for a while and it fired right up.

To be clear the symptom I was experiencing was that my screen shuttered and then my whole phone died. When I tried to pull the battery or power on in any way, I'd get a short vibration pulse and then it would die again. I also cycled through the different key combinations trying to connect it to my computer, but with no success. Once I saw the red led charging indicator, I knew I wasn't bricked, so I just left it on the charger and let it continue to do the vibration pulse repeatedly until it had enough charge to display the on-screen charging indicator. Once I had that, I let it go a while longer and then tried to power it on and BOOYA! We're back in business.

Sometimes the solution to a tough problem is to simply do nothing. Who knew?

Thank you So much.I was in the point of going to buy another Phone!
 
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badgertheman

New member
Nov 26, 2008
3
0
My vibrating brick was caused by dead batter too!

Came back here just to write this!

I was ready to toss the phone in the toilet... and then saw this thread.

Exactly my situation, got the phone to charge for a bit (on wall-USB, not PC-USB), trickled in a % or two of battery life and now I'm back in action!
 
T

totbl

Senior Member
Oct 1, 2014
263
14
I'd say just leave it plugged in. I've had this happen to me in the past. You should try a new battery.
 
C

Catxnova

Member
May 4, 2015
7
0
Please help!!!

my phone got stuck on recovery booting..
it says Samsung and then at the top in tiny blue letters it says recovery booting and it just vibrates for a while..it was stuck on odin and i used the odin program to reboot it and something went wrong and now its stuck like that..i hope its not bricked.. please help:confused::crying::rolleyes: Screenshot_2015-05-04-13-17-48.jpg
 
B

boone7

New member
Apr 8, 2009
1
0
I second the dead battery

My phone was plugged in and battery showed a full charge. In fact it had just woken me up with the alarm. When I went to take it off the charger (100% battery on the meter, mind you), it turned off instantly. Attempts to turn it on only resulted in intermittent vibrations with no display. I tried plugging it in and charging light would come on for a few seconds, then turn off. Same as if no battery was in it.

I tried all of the usual recommendations like boot into recovery mode using Vol Up + Home + Power button, tried removing battery/charger and holding power for 30+ seconds, etc. None of it helped.

Fortunately this was a battery I had purchased about 3 months prior. I still had my original which I threw in the phone and it booted up instantly. The battery that had been there was fairly new and had worked without issue until it just died on me. My original is now back in place and working.

Don't overlook your battery! Your phone may very well be okay.
 
T

TopGun904

Member
Jun 20, 2013
42
10
A new message for other GS3 users having this problem (2016)

SOLVED! as in a few minutes ago as of this post

I was sure that I just experienced the sudden brick of death because of all the signs pointing to it. I couldn't boot to any mode nor get it to recognize on a computer.
It wasn't the battery since it was still 50% full-- tried taking it out of the phone and straight turning it on with a USB cable. I got the red LED indicator for a short moment but that too shut off, so it definitely wasn't the battery.
After reading the comment about the power button I thought I should give it another go.

Solved my problem a few minutes ago by pressing down really hard on the power button!
I also gave my phone a mild whack on the back where the logo is/should be if that contributed anything.
My phone almost gave me a heart attack. Try this and see if it works for you. :good:
 
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    C
    chipsharpdotcom
    FWIW, I had something similar to his happen to me today. It turned out that despite showing a full charge on the battery, the battery simply ran out. I plugged it into a charger for a while and it fired right up.

    To be clear the symptom I was experiencing was that my screen shuttered and then my whole phone died. When I tried to pull the battery or power on in any way, I'd get a short vibration pulse and then it would die again. I also cycled through the different key combinations trying to connect it to my computer, but with no success. Once I saw the red led charging indicator, I knew I wasn't bricked, so I just left it on the charger and let it continue to do the vibration pulse repeatedly until it had enough charge to display the on-screen charging indicator. Once I had that, I let it go a while longer and then tried to power it on and BOOYA! We're back in business.

    Sometimes the solution to a tough problem is to simply do nothing. Who knew?
    View
    2
    A
    aamir123
    It might be a power button issue when restarting and showing galaxy s3 screen tap on power button with a lil force like you would on a table. Then don't touch power button when up

    Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
    View
    1
    EtherealRemnant
    EtherealRemnant
    Sudden death brick? First I've heard of that issue. Hope you have insurance!

    Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
    View
    1
    O
    oussamanew
    Thank You

    FWIW, I had something similar to his happen to me today. It turned out that despite showing a full charge on the battery, the battery simply ran out. I plugged it into a charger for a while and it fired right up.

    To be clear the symptom I was experiencing was that my screen shuttered and then my whole phone died. When I tried to pull the battery or power on in any way, I'd get a short vibration pulse and then it would die again. I also cycled through the different key combinations trying to connect it to my computer, but with no success. Once I saw the red led charging indicator, I knew I wasn't bricked, so I just left it on the charger and let it continue to do the vibration pulse repeatedly until it had enough charge to display the on-screen charging indicator. Once I had that, I let it go a while longer and then tried to power it on and BOOYA! We're back in business.

    Sometimes the solution to a tough problem is to simply do nothing. Who knew?

    Thank you So much.I was in the point of going to buy another Phone!
    View

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