Dead Phone

[mrdave570]

My V20 just died. It was working fine. Never had a problem. I was charging it. About an hour later, I find it cold and black. I took out the battery and changed it twice. The button on the back isn't starting it. I can't even do a factory reset. Its completely dead. Any ideas how to start it?

 

[mrdave570]

Well, I took my V20 into a cell phone repair store this morning and they can't fix it. It appears that my phone got fried during a lightning storm last night. It was charging and plugged in while I slept and I recall seeing lightning and hearing thunder at around 2AM. I still owe a lot of money on it with AT&T. I am shocked over this loss. A lot of info is on it and the data can't be transferred to a computer. Some pics are probably on Google cloud but not recent ones. This really sucks. Should I send it into LG anyway? I need a phone for business and personal.

 

[OLD_HATCH]

Phone has a 1 year warranty so if you purchased recently you can start the RMA process.

 

[Mooncatt]

Phone has a 1 year warranty so if you purchased recently you can start the RMA process.

That only covers factory defects. Being fried by a lightning strike isn't likely to be covered (another good reason not to charge overnight). If he has insurance that covers accidents, they'd what he'll need to use.

As for sending the phone to LG for repair, that's certainly an option and they should be able to fix it. But it also means zero chance of recovering your info because they will wipe the phone as part of the process. You may not have any option to recover data now, but just giving that heads up in case you wanted to investigate the option further before sending it in.

 

[mrdave570]

OK, so I called LG and they will replace the motherboard and wipe out the data on the old one. There is no point in sending it to LG. They need 2 weeks at least. I need a phone soon. I did not have insurance on it as its over 18 months old. I am going to try to buy a good used one near where I live because I have gotten used to replacing batteries when I get low. I have 4 batteries here and the phone I see online locally for sale is in decent shape. I will use it until my payments on the dead one ends in 11 months. Lessons learned are to never charge a phone while sleeping again and to use my cradle more often and charge my phone less often. Also must always use a power strip from now on even though they aren't perfect.

 

[huntnyc]

Hope it works out for you. I use the LG external battery charger so rarely if ever plug my phone in to charge it.

 

[flyingkytez]

Well, I took my V20 into a cell phone repair store this morning and they can't fix it. It appears that my phone got fried during a lightning storm last night. It was charging and plugged in while I slept and I recall seeing lightning and hearing thunder at around 2AM. I still owe a lot of money on it with AT&T. I am shocked over this loss. A lot of info is on it and the data can't be transferred to a computer. Some pics are probably on Google cloud but not recent ones. This really sucks. Should I send it into LG anyway? I need a phone for business and personal.

My Samsung TV got damaged from a lightning storm before. I didn't use a surge protected power strip. The capacitors got fried. I recommend getting one for your important electronics, and also never use a cheap brand USB cable or charger plug as that will destroy your device as well. I'd check the other electronics around the house as well.