Galaxy S3 stopped working unexpectedly, now only works when plugged in

[tim servo]

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere, but I didn't see anyone else with this exact problem.

I was messing around on my phone earlier while it was on the charger, it had plenty of juice, around 97% at that point. It was laggy, and one of the apps froze up. Then, all of a sudden, the screen went black and wouldn't turn on. I unplugged and replugged it back in, and got the grey battery icon, but turned to the green battery icon when I turned the screen back on. I held down the power button and the phone booted up, everything seemed to be fine, and the battery showed a charge of 100%. As soon as I unplug the charger though, the screen goes black and I'm not able to do anything. I've tried removing and replacing the battery, but no luck with that. It is absolutely dead when unplugged, the volume up, power and home trick doesn't do anything.

The phone is not old, only had it about 3 months now, and other than the lagginess mentioned earlier, it had been working flawlessly. Oh, and it's a Verizon phone, if that makes any difference.

 

[tim servo]

Huh, another development, while the phone is on the charger and I'm able to use it, the wifi and data won't turn on.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

That is odd. I've never heard of that. If you know anyone else with an S3, ask if you can try their battery, or see if the Sprint store will let you try the battery from their demo phone. A failed battery is the most likely explanation, I think.

 

[tim servo]

Yeah, through all the searches I did, I wasn't able to find someone else with the same problem. Took the phone to the Verizon store last night and after an hour of them futzing around with it and having the same result, including trying a new battery, they finally conceded that it should be warrantied. To add further frustration, we weren't able to back up any data before trying the hard reset. So now I'm waiting for a new phone to arrive and hoping for the best.

 

[ajl]

Not sure how relevant it is to your S3, but this recently happened to me and my S4. I like to think it was a battery issue. I simply unplugged the phone, and removed the battery overnight and left it in front of my open window. I put it back in, in the morning and it worked fine after that.

Hope that helped. Also wish you the best of luck in narrowing down your issue!

 

[tim servo]

Not sure how relevant it is to your S3, but this recently happened to me and my S4. I like to think it was a battery issue. I simply unplugged the phone, and removed the battery overnight and left it in front of my open window. I put it back in, in the morning and it worked fine after that.

Hope that helped. Also wish you the best of luck in narrowing down your issue!

Huh, I'll give that a try, certainly won't hurt anything. I would think that putting in the new battery at the Verizon store would do the same thing though. And my original battery appeared to be fine, no bulges or anything, and when connected to the charger, the battery showed 100%.

 

[ajl]

Huh, I'll give that a try, certainly won't hurt anything. I would think that putting in the new battery at the Verizon store would do the same thing though. And my original battery appeared to be fine, no bulges or anything, and when connected to the charger, the battery showed 100%.

Yeah, like you said, a new battery at the Verizon store would probably do the same thing. When researching online, I came to the conclusion that I might have really "worn out" my battery by letting it down to like 2-5% everynight. I'm not sure, again keep us posted on your findings.

Good luck!

 

[dfintegra]

I am having the same issue. I have been having a lag ever since the newest update. I will leave the battery out overnight and see if that helps and let you guys know.

 

[Lo La]

Same thing with my S3 it says full charge and only works while plugged in....i noticed between charger port and battery in back thiers a hot spot...AT&T is sending me a new battery but i think the peice of crap is fried had phone 7 months...before it did that phone got super hot while charging, thought it was gonna catch fire.

 

[FIBRO MOM]

Funny, my husband had the EXACT same thing happen to his S5...his phone is also only a few months old..he got a little crack across the screen just after buying it and of course AT&T wants to blame it on that :/ Do you have any cracks?

 

[Khia Hanifan]

Hi,

Mine does the same thing, I rebooted it but it didnt work.