How can I force shut-down my phone when there's a lock pattern and the screen isn't working?

[Dark Penguin]

(Semi-urgent, because the dysfunctional phone is currently hogging Bluetooth)

Hello all.

For no reason I can figure out, almost my entire screen stopped responding. The screen still displays properly, but I can see a slightly darker area occupying most of it, and this is the area that's mostly or entirely unresponsive. A similar thing happened a few months ago, but that time I was aware of some exposure to moisture which could have caused it.

I'm hoping this problem will resolve on its own after a day or two, which is what happened the last time. But I'd like to be able to use my spare phone (same model, but no contract), for internet where I have a wi-fi connection, including audio and video, as well as downloaded audiobooks and podcasts. The problem is that Bluetooth is currently enabled on the nonworking phone, so I can't use my headsets on any other device.

I did some browsing on my PC tablet, and found what seemed like a great tool to control my phone from there. I downloaded and scanned the install file, and did the install, waited for everything to finish... only to find a $49.00 price tag at the end of all that.

Is there another PC-compatible program I can use, that's free or at least not so expensive?

Or what else can I do? I need to be able to use my Bluetooth headsets on other devices, and I need to use the 128Gb external storage card that's in the broken phone.

What would happen if I just popped the cards out of the phone while it's running? Would that even work to shut down the phone? I'm thinking it wouldn't, because that wouldn't affect the internal storage card. (You can boot a phone without a SIM card; it'll just display a warning and then you can use any apps or data on your interan storage card.)

If I can't do that, and there's no other way to turn off this phone, I can't think of anything else than to place it in a watertight container and putting it in the farthest corner of the back yard. We just entered the dry season here, but there could still be condensation or dew overnight. By keeping the broken phone far away from the living areas of our house, at least then I could use my headsets on other devices. Or maybe lock the phone in my mailbox, which is a community mailbox stand just over a football field length away from the house.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Have you tried longpressing the power button? That usually simulates a battery pull.

 

[Mooncatt]

You should be able to put your headset back into pairing mode and then pair it to the backup phone. If it supports multiple pairings, then it should connect to the last connected device by default, which should be your backup phone for the time being unless the broken one gets into range first. If that becomes a problem, then there should also be a way to reset the headset to delete the old pairing all together. The broken phone may still try to connect to it, but the headset would then reject it.

Pulling the SD card without turning the phone off or using the un-mount option in settings has a risk of corrupting the card and losing data. If you can't accept the risk, then you'll have to wait until the battery runs down and the phone shuts itself off. If you have a way to block the cell signal, that can speed up the process because it'll increase radio power to search for a better signal.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Plug a computer mouse into your phone and you'll be able to control it.

 

[B. Diddy]

As Golfdriver97 mentioned, press and hold Power for about 30 seconds to force a shutdown. If it's a Samsung phone, you might have to press and hold Power and Vol Down together for about 30 seconds.