Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini Crashes

[Benjay1974]

Hello
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini (model GT-I8190, Android Version 4.1.1) and as of about 3 weeks ago it will crash intermittingly when I am using it. I have had the phone for just over a year.The battery will be well charged prior to it crashing. I will be using the phone and then it crashes. The phone will switch off and then will turn on again (by itself) and when the home screen appears the battery will show that its on 0%. This of course then causes the phone to turn off and then turn on again and so on....the only way of stopping this cycle is by taking the battery out (to stop the cycle) or by plugging in the adaptor. Indeed if the phone is plugged in then it never malfunctions and the phone works ok.

There is no ryhme or reason as to when it will crash - it just does it.

Also the battery charge has started to drop quite significantly - It sits on my desk at work and yet i cannot get through the day without re-charging it. When i was in the O2 shop the other day it dropped 12% in 5 mins.
It usually crashes when I am using apps that in the past have worked fine but today it crashed when it was updating an app.
I have deleted apps that I have added recently in case it is anything to do with them.
I have backed up everything and have restored factory settings.
I have not dropped it or got water on it etc.

The problem still exists.
I took it to o2 who want to send it off. Is it simply a battery issue? It could be a battery issue but I dont want to spend money on a new battery for the problem to persist.
I am not especially good at IT but has anybody got any good ideas?

Thanks

Ben

 

[sensiwoman]

Hello Ben,

Unfortunately, I don't have a solution to your problem, but I'm replying to this because I'm experiencing the very same problem with my device Samsung Galaxy S3 mini (GT-I8190). My phone crashes mainly when there is no wifi around (I have noticed that I don't have this problem very often at home, nor when it is being charged).
But when I'm at work (with no wi-fi around) and I want to send a message or open an app, the phone switches off and on again, with a serieus drop in the battery charge (not 0% however, but about 30 % lower) ...

I'm quite desperate, because there doesn't seem to be a solution to this problem ??
I hope more people will reply to these posts and come up with some ideas about what to do with it.

I bought this phone about 1 year ago as well and I'd need to send it to the online shop to know what the problem is, however, I'm a bit reluctant to do so, because it would mean that I'd have to miss my device for a few weeks (at the least)...and the problem might still not be solved afterwards ...

Connie

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central, both of you, and sorry to Benjay1974 that no one ever responded to your initial question. I would suggest two things:

1. Remove the battery, lay it flat on a table, and try to spin it. If it spins freely, then the battery is bulging in the middle, which means it's failing. This is a sure sign that you need a new battery.

2. Try wiping the system cache partition using these instructions: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ing-into-recovery-mode-galaxy-s2-s3-tab2.html. You won't lose any personal data, and clearing out the cache partition can sometimes correct various bugs like yours.