Is my Galaxy Note 3 dead? Is there still hope?

[SMN9005]

Hi Everyone! I have a galaxy note 3 SM N9005 32GB. I've started facing a very weird problem recently that I cannot find described anywhere in quite the way I'm experiencing it.. My note 3 powered off by itself after running out of charge last night. Ever since then, the only thing that happens when I plug it in to charge is that the screen stays black and the phone only vibrates once. No charging LED indicator, nothing on the screen at all, just a black screen like when the phone is off. In order to get it to vibrate again, I have to do a power drain before connecting it back to a charger. There's nothing on the screen at all. Can't boot into recovery or download modes and it's not detected by a computer. Have tried multiple cables (USB 3.0 and 2) and have 2 batteries which were working fine till this happened.

Any idea of what's going on? And if I can back up any data from it like contacts and messages? Thankfully, I had transferred almost every app I could to the micro SD card (128GB Sandisk) and was able to at least recover my notes from colornote, but I digress. What is going on in my phone?

Additional info - the battery is probably still charging when I plug it in. I think this because the phone and the battery warm up after being plugged in for a little while just like they used to when the phone was working.

Even more additional info - I don't know if this is relevant, but I recently upgraded to the most recent OS version available. I think It's a 5.0 or something but I can't remember exactly. Also, the front camera stopped working some time after the upgrade. And 2 days before this, 2 apps refused to update for some reason. I don't know if this could be related.

TL;DR - Note 3 N9005 ran out of charge and is now almost dead with black screen and no LED but vibrates only once after plugging in or pushing the power button. To get it to vibrate again, a power drain needs to be done. The battery is still charging because it gets warm when plugged in.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Both batteries you've tried heat up when you're trying to charge? Are you able to test those batteries on a different Note 3?

When you power on and get the single vibration, wait a few minutes, then try calling your cell phone from a different line. Does it ring? I'm just wondering if the screen has failed, but the phone itself is still booting up and working.

 

[SMN9005]

Man! That's one hell of an idea! I never thought of that.

 

[SMN9005]

Bad news! It goes straight to voicemail. I guess this means the phone really isn't booting up

 

[Rukbat]

Leave the phone off. Plug in the charger. Leave it charging overnight.

If it still shows no charge, you could have brought it down below precharge level (I had an LG battery that was low enough to have registered about -200% if it could have run the phone enough to give an indication - it was just over 2 Volts). See if there's a repair shop that has an external charger that will charge it for you - most of them do a precharge, so they'll charge the battery unless it's totally flat (in which case an eFuse inside blows and the battery is junk).

I've battered my Note 3 pretty badly, both hardware and software-wise, and it can take a pretty good beating. Just killing the battery shouldn't cause the phone any problem unless the battery starts leaking all over the battery compartment.

 

[SMN9005]

Thanks Rukbat! I really hope that's the case. I was especially worried after reading about a particular hardware issue with the nand memory which apparently bricks the device as soon as it tries to write to the defective memory chip. I'm sure I'm not describing that properly, but you get the idea. I've plugged it into the charger and am hoping for the best.

 

[SMN9005]

Quick Update: Bad news again, There has been no change even after continued charging for over 8 hours. Phone still vibrates just once when trying to power it on. Screen, buttons and LED stay dark.

 

[SMN9005]

Any more ideas?

 

[B. Diddy]

Ugh. I'd guess it's a problem with either the charging port or (more likely) the motherboard. You'd have to either send the phone to Samsung (probably not worth it if not under warranty) or bring it to a local repair shop.

 

[supersteel96]

U want to sell this mobile