Battery drain, locked out, screen flicker, and odd boot icons

[PeterKelly]

I've had my S7E for about two months and was very happy. I'm not a heavy user and would reach the end of the day with 60%-70% life remaining.

However, without any changes, all of a sudden a few days ago my battery began to drain fast and needed recharging before I went to bed (I use the wireless station normally). So I looked up the solutions and followed them all. Finally, in a fit of desperation, I acquired Package Disabler Pro. None of my efforts worked.

Then, despite my being reasonably careful, my phone locked completely. Whether I disabled the wrong thing I don't know, but I had to use 'Smart Switch' via my PC to do a complete factory reset. I got my phone back on, but the odd behaviour is now even odder.

Boot up takes quite a bit longer and there is a new screen, which appears as a lock that opens, surrounded by a split green and blue circle. Also, if I do a 'cache clearing' from the recovery screen, I see a red warning appear at the bottom, but it disappears too fast to read.
The battery drain is as bad as, if not worse than, ever.

I thought, though, I would allow the phone to completely flatten, despite the warnings to charge, and maybe recalibrate the battery (could that be faulty?). However, as the battery got low, the screen began to flicker. First, just turning off and on again, but then just coloured noise, appearing like a TV without a signal.

What I'd like to know is, could my phone be faulty and would this be limited to the battery? Is the screen faulty? What is that 'opening lock' when booting and where did it come from?

Please be gentle with me as, although I'm intelligent, I'm a relative beginner and don't really have a great interest in delving into the mechanics of things. I prefer items just to work and only learn what I need to, but this is too big and complex a subject to find answers readily.

 

[Talderon]

In all honesty, this sounds similar to the issues I had with my Note Edge before I did an insurance replacement for an S7 Edge.

The Note Edge has a removable battery and I was able to get another OEM battery and try to swap it out and see if that was the issue. I did factory resets and all of that and still had the same issue. Reboot Loops, strange icons and massive battery drain. In the end, nothing I did would fix or even help the issue. After working with AT&T Care and having my issue escalated and working with their Tier 2/3 technical staff, it just came down to the phone having some kind of hardware issue.

I would work with your carrier to see if there are any options for you to possibly swap out the unit. Since is does not have a removable battery, you are kind of out of luck on that troubleshooting step.

One other suggestion I might suggest is to do a full wipe and reset without your SIM or SDCard in the device. Set it up in Wireless and see how it behaves. I would also suggest your flatten and wipe your SDCard just in case something is living there that should not be.

My suggestions above are long shots, but something else to try if you feel like it.

Good Luck!

 

[PeterKelly]

Thanks for the quick reply and I did briefly try it without the SD card.

As it turns out, because I bought this retail from Amazon, I have decided to 'cut and run', because they are prepared to take it back.
Fortunately, I'm in a position to get an immediate replacement under my own steam, so to speak, and I'll have the new one tomorrow.

One very curious event occurred, though, within the last hour. I had just charged the phone to 100% and tried it without the SD card, but it lost 3% within the first 5 minutes. I then received the phone call from Amazon customer services and spoke to them for 25 minutes, at which point the state of charge was...96%! In the half an hour since then the battery has dropped to 86%.

I'll be curious as to an explanation, but I'll have a new phone tomorrow, so it will only be for reference and maybe help to others.

 

[Talderon]

Thanks for the quick reply and I did briefly try it without the SD card.

As it turns out, because I bought this retail from Amazon, I have decided to 'cut and run', because they are prepared to take it back.
Fortunately, I'm in a position to get an immediate replacement under my own steam, so to speak, and I'll have the new one tomorrow.

One very curious event occurred, though, within the last hour. I had just charged the phone to 100% and tried it without the SD card, but it lost 3% within the first 5 minutes. I then received the phone call from Amazon customer services and spoke to them for 25 minutes, at which point the state of charge was...96%! In the half an hour since then the battery has dropped to 86%.

I'll be curious as to an explanation, but I'll have a new phone tomorrow, so it will only be for reference and maybe help to others.

WOW, that is REALLY strange. I'm glad you were able to get it swapped out. I hope this one works better for you!

Also, one thing I always do before setting up a new device (from back in my Root/ROM flashing days) is to get into the device far enough where you can do a factory reset to just make sure it's clean and shiny before I stuff my stuff into it.