Galaxy S6- Cell service dropped out, phone gets extremely hot around SIM card

[AC Question]

This maybe too detailed but -
My S6 active was working fine for a few months (got it used off swappa in very good condition) and then last week while on vacation I noticed I wasn't getting service, it was getting extremely hot and was draining the battery quick randomly one night. It seemed odd since 3 others in my family with the same service were getting good reception and I had gotten good reception in that spot for some time. I turned it off overnight with similar results in the morning. I popped the sim card in my backup S4 active to get by. At the time turning it on with out the card yielded similar results. I read wiping the cache may help so I tried that with no luck. I turned it off for the rest of my vacation knowing I may need to do a factory reset.

When I got home yesterday I turned it on without the SIM card and showed the triangular bars (instead of circle with a line through it) as I would expect and didn't get hot. Once the sim card was in it went back to behaving like it did (circle with line through it - no service, getting hot and draining battery quickly). I pulled off documents that I wanted and did a factory reset and initially it didn't seem to work but after about 15 minutes normal service popped up during the initial welcome/setup screens and worked all night just fine.

I reset the phone this morning and it again went back to acting how it was. I figured I could do a factory reset again but would be nice to not have to do that each time the phone is turned off ( if that is what brings these symptoms back). Just curious if anyone has experienced this or may have any ideas.

 

[Terror Byte]

Try taking out the sim and completely shutting down the phone, leave it off for a while until it completely coos down. you can also try installing 360 Security, it comes with a built in phone cooler. hope this helps

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Contact your carrier and ask for a replacement SIM, in case your current SIM is starting to fail. Personally, I would avoid apps like 360 Security, since they probably cause more problems than they claim to solve. We see a fair number of posts here about that particular app being glitchy as well.

 

[Brian Fitzpatrick1]

Thanks for the response. I may give this a shot... The same sim works fine in my S4 active which is weird.. something to try at least!

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you know if the phone is rooted or unrooted? Running the stock ROM?

 

[Brian Fitzpatrick1]

Its not rooted and I would assume stock rom.. not sure though on that. I did another factory reset (and now works fine again) and am just going to leave it on for the time being. If I have to reset it or turn it off in the future ill see if it happens again and maybe run to the ATT store and see what they think

 

[mikel_furrr]

Wow. This problem literally started yesterday for me. I was on a delta plane when the problem started. I got service though when I touched down in San jose. Woke up this morning, phone was fine. Went back to sleep and woke up again, phone couldn't find service and was losing a percentage point every couple of minutes. Very hot next to the SIM card slot. Now I have service with LTE, but still not connecting. I will be running by the ATT store this morning and will update.

BTW, created an account just to post this.

 

[mikel_furrr]

New SIM card didn't make a difference. The guy suggested going to best buy and they can do a soft reset. I haven't tried a factory reset, but I have nothing to lose trying it. Can't do it for another two hours though. Currently my phone "works" but very hot still. Very flaky in what it wants to do. Internet and/or service comes and goes.

 

[mikel_furrr]

Alrighty, looks like this has become a problem. The phone appears to be toast.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...N03olPcXPwO6bqiww&sig2=jQ0JL32sY7ZFwF-xIVftDw

 

[Brian Fitzpatrick1]

yikes. what sucks is i got mine off the second hand market so cant return or get any sort of partial refund. It seems to be working now (after my factory reset ) - at times it seems a little flaky but its a hell of a lot better then using my old S4. that thing has other issues. im gonna try to ride this as long as I can and just not turn it off. or maybe next time i do turn it off or reset it it'll come back on as normal. Fingers crossed. .

 

[mikel_furrr]

So an update after a week... My phone mostly works again. It still gets warmer than normal, it doesn't always get service and when it does, sometimes it doesn't work. The battery at times drains quickly then goes back to normal... It's honestly weird. Hardware doesn't just improve after deteriorating.

Good luck!

Edit: it really just works about half the time. Just enough to tease me but not broken enough to convince myself I need a new phone. Once I get back home, I will still be calling Samsung in hopes they will help out. I really like the S6.