How I accidentally killed my Note7 while preparing for the recall.....

[Android Optimizer]

This is a bit of a sad story.
I decided to do a full-on factory reset just now in order to prepare for the recall so that I don't have to do it at the last minute.
I backed up everything that I needed and did the factory reset.
Everything seemed to go well until the phone rebooted. It kept freezing in the boot animation screen and then rebooted. Over and over and over and over again. Eventually, it managed to get into the "Android is starting" screen, only to freeze and go back into a reboot loop.
It did it for 5 minutes until it randomly decided to kill itself. While it was doing so, I kept pressing the power button to no avail. It had a mind of its own and kept rebooting until it died.
Power button gave no response. Waiting for it to cool and then pushing it again also yielded nothing. Risking the devil and trying to charge it also gave nothing. It's as dead as a dodo at that point.
I was in quite a panic at that point. I wasn't sure if I should return the phone in working condition as this particular one is now dead and I didn't do anything that would cause it to do that (it has not been rooted, nor did it have a custom recovery or anything). All I did was do a factory reset and it just did that.
Called up Samsung support only for them to give me a bit of a relief. I don't have to return the phone in full-working condition and that I am able to request a loaner if I don't have a spare. I didn't really care much about the latter as I have a spare phone, but the former was especially relieving, as my phone just died while doing something that's standard procedure for any phone return.

I just hope that my replacement won't give me quite a scare....

The moral of your story for many of us seems to be we should hold off on factory resetting until we take our phones in for exchange.

I'm still worried now.
As the Note is still pretty darn warm, even though it's supposedly "off".

On my previous phone (an HTC One m8) I had a similar scare not long after I first got it. I went to access it to find it had a error message about Google+ not responding/crashing when I pressed the the power button to bring it out of sleep. Next thing I new the phone had looked like it shut itself off (it still had a large amount of battery at the time of the error message 86% or 68% if I recall correctly. I'd held the power button down to reboot it, and nothing seemed to be happening. I then realized that I could just barely make out the faint markings of the Verizon boot screen frozen on the screen. I held down the power and volume buttons (what was the method of the forced reboot for that phone) for what felt like a century before the phone powered down. Then I held them down again for what felt like another century before the phone started up again. I never had a problem with the phone after that...

From what I recall hearing the way of force rebooting the Note7 is a bit different from other phones. Instead of just holding down the power and volume buttons apparently you have to hold the home button (fingerprint reader) as well. (I haven't tried to reboot my phone by the power + volume method myself, so I don't know for sure if the home button is actually a necessity or not). Since you said your phone was still warm after the fact I'm suspicious it was not really off. If you're battery hasn't completely died by down and turned off the phone (bringing it to a cool state) you may want to try the hold down numerous buttons method to see if anything happens. (Usually I hear that your supposed to hold down the buttons for 7 seconds, but it always seems like I've had to hold them down for 10 seconds or more on my devices before they powered off/ restarted).

I've had a handful of Android tablets (and a PlayStation Vita) that if you let their battery reach all the way to zero, and shut themselves off they would not turn back on again until fully charged. The Note 7 may be the same way where if its ran down to zero on the battery it may not boot again until the battery has been fully charged.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Power button gave no response.

Were you trying to simulate a battery pull?

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

Were you trying to simulate a battery pull?

Yep

 

[ggrr8t]

I am very curious as to how and where one would get a loaner.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Yep

On the Note 5 it's power and the home button. Curious if it's the same on the 7?

 

[Kelly Kearns]

On the Note 5 it's power and the home button. Curious if it's the same on the 7?

It is power and home? I couldn't remember that when my Note 5 went nuts and the Samsung reps at Best Buy didn't know that either. I thought it was power and down and I could only get it to reboot or go into download mode. I finally got recovery after exiting download but it took several times and that only happened because the phone seems to power down for just literally a second, when exiting download.

I tried everything to shut it down so I could boot into recovery.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

On the Note 5 it's power and the home button. Curious if it's the same on the 7?

I wish I could test it, but it's dead.

However, I tried on a few other devices and holding down the power button simulates a battery pull. However, those don't have physical home buttons.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

Aaannndddd my backup phone died a few hours ago.

My luck is really bad....

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I wish I could test it, but it's dead.

However, I tried on a few other devices and holding down the power button simulates a battery pull. However, those don't have physical home buttons.

I think so far with all Samsung phones it has been the power plus home. I know it has been another button with the power button, just holding the power button won't do it.

 

[bohwat]

How I accidentally killed my Note7 while preparing for the recall.....

rather than your note7 accidentally killed you... O

 

[The Phone Company]

I'm still worried now.

As the Note is still pretty darn warm, even though it's supposedly "off".

And this right here is justification for Phones to have MANDATORY Removable Batteries.

The end.

 

[Android Optimizer]

However, those don't have physical home buttons.

The fingerprint reader (which is a physical button) is supposed to be the home button on the Note 7 phones.

 

[felloffthetruck]

Is it still dead or has it come alive?

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

Is it still dead or has it come alive?

Still dead

 

[Android Optimizer]

Aaannndddd my backup phone died a few hours ago.
My luck is really bad....

Died because your battery ran out? Died for some unknown reason? (You put any new apps on both of them that might be an issue?)
What are you going to do now, for a phone?

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

And this right here is justification for Phones to have MANDATORY Removable Batteries.

The end.

Ah yes, let's end where people are handling potential explosive batteries themselves... sounds like an excellent plan. Smh

 

[toenail_flicker]

Ah yes, let's end where people are handling potential explosive batteries themselves... sounds like an excellent plan. Smh

People do it now. Who's to say one of them won't have an issue.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

Died because your battery ran out? Died for some unknown reason? (You put any new apps on both of them that might be an issue?)
What are you going to do now, for a phone?

It keeps randomly rebooting, then won't turn on. Charging it yielded nothing.

Eventually, I managed to coax it back into life by keeping it in the freezer, but it wouldn't last for long.

I'm going to ask for a loaner. I could use my HTC One M7, but the battery is pretty poor on it and the camera is unusable.

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

People do it now. Who's to say one of them won't have an issue.

Not with a known offender like the Note 7. This isn't an issue with LG phones.

 

[donm527]

#brickgate as it's known was getting news but guess has taken a backseat to #explodegate

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 #Brickgate: Crash, Bootloop And Brick Complaints Start To Plague Exynos-Powered Variant

Died because your battery ran out? Died for some unknown reason? (You put any new apps on both of them that might be an issue?)
What are you going to do now, for a phone?