Help: Thunderbolt Died...want to put memory into a replacement phone

[stevereecy]

Hey gurus,

Hope you can help me with this. My wife's Thunderbolt died overnight. No charging light, no response at all. She had subjected it to the washing machine, but it worked fine for a month after that. Maybe the (finally) water got to it, I don't know. It worked normally for a month after the washing machine incident.

So I'm a diligent guy. I ordered a new battery and tried that. I tried removing the battery for the night. I tried removing the memory card and the sim card for a night. Still nothing. I think it's dead.

So, we have pictures on the phone we want to keep. And my wife likes the phone. She KNOWS the phone. So I'd like to do a brain transplant.

I'd like to order a replacement phone off of ebay and then swap out the memory card and the sim. I know how to physically swap them out. But after I do that, what next? Will my replacement phone fire up and work like the old one, or is there more to it than that. Do I have to take it to a service facility to complete the swap? Are there any precautions I need to take first?

I understand I can do some sort of hard reboot, and I thought about doing the following:

1. Take the memory out of my replacement phone and put it in the my old phone.
2. Then try a hard reboot.
3. Swap the memory chip back.

should that work?

What do you suggest? Seems my cheapest course of action is to buy a working Thunderbolt off Ebay for $50...am I wrong?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Steve

 

[srkmagnus]

Hey gurus,

Hope you can help me with this. My wife's Thunderbolt died overnight. No charging light, no response at all. She had subjected it to the washing machine, but it worked fine for a month after that. Maybe the (finally) water got to it, I don't know. It worked normally for a month after the washing machine incident.

So I'm a diligent guy. I ordered a new battery and tried that. I tried removing the battery for the night. I tried removing the memory card and the sim card for a night. Still nothing. I think it's dead.

So, we have pictures on the phone we want to keep. And my wife likes the phone. She KNOWS the phone. So I'd like to do a brain transplant.

I'd like to order a replacement phone off of ebay and then swap out the memory card and the sim. I know how to physically swap them out. But after I do that, what next? Will my replacement phone fire up and work like the old one, or is there more to it than that. Do I have to take it to a service facility to complete the swap? Are there any precautions I need to take first?

I understand I can do some sort of hard reboot, and I thought about doing the following:

1. Take the memory out of my replacement phone and put it in the my old phone.
2. Then try a hard reboot.
3. Swap the memory chip back.

should that work?

What do you suggest? Seems my cheapest course of action is to buy a working Thunderbolt off Ebay for $50...am I wrong?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Steve

If the Thunderbolt is not starting on its own and there is no sign of life after a new battery replacement, then it's probably safe to say that its not ever going to restart. Also, if the pictures are on the internal sd card then its also best to say that those are forever gone as well. If you can't boot the device then there is no way of retrieving those images.

If you have pictures on the external sd card then yes, you can try and insert that into the new device and retrieve what you can from there, if possible. The new phone, if in good condition, should boot up and can be setup just as you had the prior Thunderbolt before being damaged. I f you have specific questions once you receive the device don't hesitate asking as we are here to help.

And by the way, welcome to the forums!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums!
Chris pretty much covered it. If it won't start after the replacement battery, it is dead.

 

[stevereecy]

If the Thunderbolt is not starting on its own and there is no sign of life after a new battery replacement, then it's probably safe to say that its not ever going to restart. Also, if the pictures are on the internal sd card then its also best to say that those are forever gone as well. If you can't boot the device then there is no way of retrieving those images.

If you have pictures on the external sd card then yes, you can try and insert that into the new device and retrieve what you can from there, if possible. The new phone, if in good condition, should boot up and can be setup just as you had the prior Thunderbolt before being damaged. I f you have specific questions once you receive the device don't hesitate asking as we are here to help.

And by the way, welcome to the forums!

Thanks. I guess when you are saying "external card", you are referring to the easily accessible one that sits next to the battery, is that correct? Are pictures normally stored there, or are they stored in the interal card?

Second question: If I just slide my external card and the simm card in the new phone, will it work? Or will there be some kind of conflict requiring me to get the fine folks at Verizon involved? Does it make sense to even consider swapping the simm card?

Thanks again....I know only enough to be dangerous.

Steve

 

[dpham00]

Swapping sim card and microSD card is no problem. It depends on how you had it set up.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II via Tapatalk 4

 

[r007]

Thanks. I guess when you are saying "external card", you are referring to the easily accessible one that sits next to the battery, is that correct? Are pictures normally stored there, or are they stored in the interal card?

Pictures by default are normally stored on the external SD card; so you should hopefully be good to go there!

I would like to note though, all the apps and their settings will be lost. All apps will have to be re-downloaded. Some of them might keep settings on the SD card, but I found most don't (e.g., when I have switched in the past, I lost save files for games, settings, etc.)

Second question: If I just slide my external card and the simm card in the new phone, will it work? Or will there be some kind of conflict requiring me to get the fine folks at Verizon involved? Does it make sense to even consider swapping the simm card?

I have switched phones before and this is all that I had to do. Your new phone will communicate with Verizon and let them know of the change.

 

[stevereecy]

Thanks for your help guys. I ordered the "new" phone. We didn't have that many apps, so we should be good there. It's the pictures we are concerned about...we didn't change settings, so should be OK there too. Very much appreciate the help.