Dead Galaxy S3

Chris2Point0

Member
Dec 4, 2013
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I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 that has recently died. It was working fine one day and dead the next. I tried removing the battery and replacing it... NOTHING. I tried the Volume Up, Home, Power Button... NOTHING. I also tried tapping around the Power Button just in case it was stuck... NOTHING. Even when I plug it in to charge it I get NOTHING. The only response I get from it is when the battery is removed and I plug in the charger, I get a red status light.
Samsung tech support says that it is dead and needs to be sent in for repair.
What I was wondering is, can I swap the motherboard from a damaged (cracked screen S3 from eBay) into my phone and fix the problem?
or
Can I swap the ENTIRE guts of the eBay phone into my existing S3 body?

Thanking You in Advance
Chris
 
Welcome to Android Central! I can't answer the motherboard question, but I just wanted to clarify--did you try a different battery? Take your old battery and try spinning it on a flat surface--if it spins freely, that means it's bulging in the center, which is a sign that the battery is dead.
 
What carrier are you on? If it's a GSM provider, I think you should be able to swap the internals as long as the donor phone is for the same carrier, If it's a CDMA phone, you'd need to make sure you know the ESN of the donor phone so you can have the carrier do an ESN swap and activate the new phone. Again, you'd need to be certain the donor phone is from the same carrier and hasn't been reported as stolen..
 
I have a AT&T phone and the donor phone is also AT&T.
As far as stolen, I am not sure. The seller on eBay just lists it as "broken screen" "Powers up".
 
Sure sounds like 'sudden death syndrome', which Samsung should cover under warranty.
Did you ask them about what the repair costs would be?

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM 10.2 using Tapatalk 4
 
I was 15 Days Out of Warranty and they said I would have to pay for the repairs. From what I hear it will cost$200-$300 to fix it.
 
I have a AT&T phone and the donor phone is also AT&T.
As far as stolen, I am not sure. The seller on eBay just lists it as "broken screen" "Powers up".

If it turns out to be stolen, and you can't get iy activated, Ebay should reimburse you. But that's less of a concern on a GSM device, like AT&T, than on Sprint or Verizon.
 
It worked!
Saved myself $200-$300 in repairs.
I swapped my motherboard for the broken phones motherboard and it works perfectly again.
 

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