This post is simply to document my recent experience with a malfunctioning battery in the hope that it may help someone is a similar situation one day.
For just over 12 months I have been the proud owner of a T-Mobile MDA Vario. Over that time I have successfully applied several custom ROM upgradess. And then one day some months ago, my phone started behaving strangely:
The initial symptom was the screen going white, or sometimes it would have flickering lines. I worked around this by cycling standby off then on. Generally the phone would be OK for another day, or perhaps another hour or so.
The next symptom that started to occurr was the battery status would change dramatically. The phone would display a full battery one minute then down to say 10% the next. Restarting the phone would see the battery status return to 100% or whatever it was on previously.
The final symptom was the phone would re-boot itself, particularly after a phone call, and sometime even when receiving a phone call.
It was at this point I decided it was time for a warranty repair. However I was running a 2.26 custom ROM. I decided to downgrade it back to the most recent T-Mobile factory ROM (2.21). This is were things went really wrong. Part way through the downgrade the phone rebooted! I could not get past the boot loader (RSOD - rainbow screen of death)! I tried everything, and many different ROMS's. Sometimes it would get to 60% through the upgrade, other times the RSOD would flash repeatedly on then off every few seconds. The battery had a full charge so I could not understand what went wrong.
I took the phone to a "specialist" in London's Chinatown. They spent a good hour on it and couldn't solve the problem. They told me they even rang to the guy who founded xdadevelopers forum! No luck.
So, with my phone stuck on the RSOD sceen, with IPL proudly displaying as 2.26, I boldly walked into T-Mobile on Oxford St and checked the phone in for warranty repair. I told them I was trying to install the latest T-Mobile ROM when it went wrong (the truth - only I didn't say upgrade or downgrade ).
A week later I got a phone call to say my phone had been repaired! The warranty repair sheet said something like "base unit replaced". Sure enough, it was a brand new phone, only the battery and the battery cover were the same as before! Interestingly, the repair sheet clearly stated "battery tested - passed".
Unfortunately the story does not end here. I took my phone home, unlocked it, and quickly went about installing the latest AKU 2.3 custom ROM..... and you guessed it.... RSOD!! I couldn't believe it! What had "I" done wrong! How was I going to take the phone back again!
Well, at this point, I thought about all the steps I had been through, and recalled the original problem. The battery! Even though it often reported say 90% sometimes it would drop to 10% then 0% then back up to 60%! If this was happening during an upgrade then that would explain it. Fortunately a college I work with ahs the same phone. I borrowed is battery, ran the upgrade and hey presto... it worked!!
So, the message is this - if you have problems with an upgrade, consider your battery may be faulty and you need to get a new one!
Spoonter
P.S. Love this forum, you guys rock! Moski's ROM's are the best and thanks to everyone for your postings and ideas and everything!! Happy Christmas and all that!!!
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Hi,
I have a Qtek9090 which I upgraded yesterday to Helmi BA WM2k5 AKU2.6 Beta (v.1.1.2 Beta).
Everything went fine and I do like it (apart from the usual problems with WiFi, BT,...).
However I got into a shock-state when I turned it on this morning after leaving it in the craddle during the night for charging:
It would turn on, but the screen was completly f..ked up!!!
I did a Softreset -> screen still messed up
I did a Hardreset -> screen still messed up
I did reflash the upgrade -> screen still messed up
I took out the battery for half an hour and put it back -> still the same
After many resets and so on, suddenly I got the color stripes again and the phone booted normaly. I did not even loose any data.
Next I put it to charge again and after a while (the screen went off meanwhile), I turned it on and guess: scrambled screen again.
This time, I did the Reset this way: battery-notch off, kept the Softreset pressed and simultaneously put the battery-notch on again.
Is this a known problem (shouldn't be - I searched the forum!)?
Why does this happen?
Any ideas???
Also, I have these questions:
- What is this selection one has to do after the upgrade for (2. and 3. item YES)? What should the first item be: YES or NO? Can this be the cause for my problem?
- Would it be wise to downgrade again? (In case this is a defect -> so I can try to claim warranty, if things get worse...)
- What is the patch for energy management for? Where can I download it, as the link in the Wiki does not work? (Has this to do with my problem?)
Thanks,
vma
The problem remains.
It does not seem to depend on the charging, but happens when the device is turned off for some time.
When I turn it on it will either work fine, or funtion with a wild flickering screen.
Arrggghhhh!!!
Am I the only one with this problem?
Cheers,
vma
Hi,
Some month have passed on this issue. The reason I did not post about it, was because I had to send my BA for repair and one never knows if the "enemy" is listening... Now the warranty has expired anyway and mey BA is fully working.
It may have been a coincidence, but one day after the upgrade the screen went mad and totally messed up. Only 1 Hardreset in about 100 tries would bring it back to normal for some period of time and even reflashing it with WM5 or 2003SE would not make it work normal again.
The screen would get messed up suddenly for no particular reason, normally during a standby.
At the end I had to send it in for repair, which was actually a good thing, as I complained about the loose stylo and bad working hardkeys, all within warranty.
I got a new key-pcb, backside and they reflashed the device with 2003SE.
I am almost sure that I must have done something wrong with the upgrade to WM5.
Strangely I was able to flash 2003SE onto it, though it did still not work properly: hours with messed screen and sometimes out of the blue I would turn it on and the screen was OK again for a few hours.
Could it be a bad cable connection, which got repaired as well? Was it just a software problem?
One of the things I was in doubt with: when you enter this menu to format the device, the instructions say to switch two options, but the menu on my device had three options. Sorry - I do not exactly recall the details.
Anyone with an idea, why my device went mad?
As a side-note: while WM5 was great, while it worked during the one day it worked. I specially liked to be able to turn the device completly off or being able to remove the battery without loosing data.
However: not having my beloved BA fo two weeks made me reconsider doing experiments on it. Since I have it back I did not reconsider flashing it again.
But I would like to understand what had happend...
Cheers,
vma
May I assume from the lack of replies, that this was a pure coincidence on my device?
Nobody else experimented this weird problems after upgrading to WM5?
I am considering upgrading my phone again, essentially because I am tired of being afraid of discharging the battery and thus losing all data...
Cheers,
vma
So, all yesterday, I was having problems getting service anywhere I went. Towards the end of the day I got no service anywhere. So... put my phone on the charger all night, woke up and... Nothing.
Phone wont turn on, battery pull won't work, can't get into bootloader. Orange light turns on when I plug into charge.
I was running the stock HTC ROM with a couple programs installed. Google maps, iContact and Soft Key Changer. Thats it. Had no problems until now.
I called the company I got if from said bring it back they will get me a new one (just got it last Sunday). I can't get Activesync to see the phone so reflash is not a possibility.
They won't be able to turn it on at the store, this thing is gone. But if someone somewhere sees its a new ROM when they send it back (if they can get it on), am I screwed? I think I'd just say the guy in the store did it cause he had is last...
from what I understand you void the warranty by using a different rom.
xconradx said:
So, all yesterday, I was having problems getting service anywhere I went. Towards the end of the day I got no service anywhere. So... put my phone on the charger all night, woke up and... Nothing.
Phone wont turn on, battery pull won't work, can't get into bootloader. Orange light turns on when I plug into charge.
I was running the stock HTC ROM with a couple programs installed. Google maps, iContact and Soft Key Changer. Thats it. Had no problems until now.
I called the company I got if from said bring it back they will get me a new one (just got it last Sunday). I can't get Activesync to see the phone so reflash is not a possibility.
They won't be able to turn it on at the store, this thing is gone. But if someone somewhere sees its a new ROM when they send it back (if they can get it on), am I screwed? I think I'd just say the guy in the store did it cause he had is last...
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Try a different battery or a different charger first.
brynwall said:
from what I understand you void the warranty by using a different rom.
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Thats what I understand too. However, you can't get the thing on, no connections - nothing. They won't be able to tell at the dealer for sure. And I think in this state it goes to the junk pile cause I can't get any connection on it period.
From my dealing with Cingular and having to exchange my 8125/Wizard, they always include the statement regarding voiding your warranty if you load unauthorized rom images on your phone.
That being said, I have sent back many bricked 8125's for various reasons (none of which were bad rom images), and I never had an issue with them actually noticing that I had a custom rom loaded on it.
Of course every carrier is different, but judging from my experiences, I think you'll be fine.
NotATreoFan said:
From my dealing with Cingular and having to exchange my 8125/Wizard, they always include the statement regarding voiding your warranty if you load unauthorized rom images on your phone.
That being said, I have sent back many bricked 8125's for various reasons (none of which were bad rom images), and I never had an issue with them actually noticing that I had a custom rom loaded on it.
Of course every carrier is different, but judging from my experiences, I think you'll be fine.
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Cool, thanks man. I think I'll be fine too. I feel that the issues has nothing to do with the ROM, as the ROM has been working fine for a few days now with no glitches except for the service problem yesterday. I wont mention the ROm of course, but the thing does not turn on in any way whatsoever. The only thing that happens is when you plug in the power you get a orange light up top.
Thanks for your help, I'm glad they haven noticed even on working phones with different roms.
It sounds like it could be as simple as a power issue. Either charger or battery.
But I had the same thing happen to a Razor once. Bricked at the bootlloader screen and would not take a charge from that point on. My carrier (AT&T) had told me the device was beyond repair (translation: they had no clue at the store). Ended up having to borrow a charged battery to re-flash the device.
Haha, I bricked a razr once too, and was able to revive it with via a number of things (barely). I was trying to change the boot screen. Those phones are fun to mess with - at least you could get into the boot loader most of the time even if it was near death.
I'll try a different battery when I get to the store.
I went to the store just now, they changed the battery and... nothing she tried my battery in a new phone and it worked, so the battery is fine, but my phone is f*cked.
I am replaceing tomorrow.
Have been reading all the forums and had used the info here to put a custom ROM on my T-Mobile Wing. Unfortunately my Wing is now suffering a hardware problem and has to go back for a warranty replacement. This could obviously be a problem if it has a non-standard ROM on it. Because of this, I went ahead and grabbed the RUU_Atlas_TMO_US_4[1].10.531.3_4.1.13.37_02.83.90_Ship.exe file via the threads and attempted to reflash my phone.
I am running the flash attempt from a physical Windows XP system. My phone is fully charged. I have an active partnership set up with the phone and active via ActiveSync. I start the flash process and the phone reboots into bootloader mode as expected. The flash process gets to 1% then the phone reboots into regular mode again and the RUU reports that the flash failed.
Am I missing something?
Update: apparently I was missing something. I had read the thread indicating the phone reboots at 1% and 30% (though mine only rebooted at 1%), but I assumed it would go back into the boot loader automatically which it didn't. On a hunch I tried forcing it into the boot loader and the RUU continued. Weird.
Have you HardSPLed your phone before? If you have, you have to bypass the SPL... Rumor goes, flashing the stock RUU WITH USPL will do this for you. I haven't tried it so I don't know if this will work or brick the device.
I had my phone picked up for warranty this very day. It was running Itje's latest ROM before the 6.1 update, but it totally died on my the other day. So now I'm hoping they won't mind too much about the hard-spl ing and the flashing and the overclocking *cough*
Good luck restoring your phone though. Maybe they won't care, I'm hoping for that
I basically took ivanmmj's advice and wrote a lil guide, I hope it gets sticky'd. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=364543
DaMyth said:
I basically took ivanmmj's advice and wrote a lil guide, I hope it gets sticky'd. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=364543
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Glad to hear it worked. ^_^ I think that's the second account I hear of it working, so it must be something that DOES work.
Not to raise the dead but good thing I found this thread, worked or me too. Anyone know anything about the warranty replacements tmobile sends out? I'm assuming a refurbished model but anyone know the type o condition they are in?
The model that I got as a replacement, oh so long ago, has been working like a champ since I got it. It looked brand new, but then again, the original had problems not too long after I first got it, when the Wing was still a pretty new device.
Thats good to know, should only have to last me a month or two seeing how tmobile in their infinate wisdom lost the cell tower near my house a few months ago and contract is done on the 29th.... hello tilt!! (or touch pro )
I have a 6 or 7 month old Kaiser branded by AT&T. I got seperated from it late last week, so it ran it battery down till failure. When I went to recharge the phone, it started attempting to boot, staying at the AT&T globe screen and then appearing to boot again, (black screen and momentary vibrate.) With a bit of searching I found the suggestion of boot to loading screen and leave it there to charge. After 6 hours, the battery has a measured voltage of 4.17V so that should be enough, but the phone continues the booting loop.
I tried hard resetting with the two keys and stylus. The phone acted like a normal hard reset with the questions, but when it tried to boot, it continued the reboot loop.
My question, do you think I should attempt to reload the stock AT&T ROM?
I'm new at this so there's a large learning curve. If you guys think this is a low probably solution, then I'll sent it back / buy another one and save the long learning curve. I use this for business so I could spead the learning curve time writing software I get paid for writing.
Thanks,
Bernie
your phone got damaged from battery drain? is that possible?
i think your phone has another problem... i really dont think the battery drain was the reason...
can you go to bootloader if so try flashing new ROM (you will loose data) but again you said you have performed hard reset (partial HR) so your phone is clean!
if you want send your phone back - yes you need to get stocked ROM and stocked SPL back
BernieHunt said:
I have a 6 or 7 month old Kaiser branded by AT&T. I got seperated from it late last week, so it ran it battery down till failure. When I went to recharge the phone, it started attempting to boot, staying at the AT&T globe screen and then appearing to boot again, (black screen and momentary vibrate.) With a bit of searching I found the suggestion of boot to loading screen and leave it there to charge. After 6 hours, the battery has a measured voltage of 4.17V so that should be enough, but the phone continues the booting loop.
I tried hard resetting with the two keys and stylus. The phone acted like a normal hard reset with the questions, but when it tried to boot, it continued the reboot loop.
My question, do you think I should attempt to reload the stock AT&T ROM?
I'm new at this so there's a large learning curve. If you guys think this is a low probably solution, then I'll sent it back / buy another one and save the long learning curve. I use this for business so I could spead the learning curve time writing software I get paid for writing.
Thanks,
Bernie
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If you already have Hard-SPL installed and it is a version capable, you may try to put the Rom with a Radio onto the Micro-SD card and re-flash the phone that way. I had an issue where i got a boot loop and it turned out that flashing the radio fixed the issue. I hope you at least had a current backup prior to the hard reset because as of now, there is no way to retrieve it
No worries on the backup, it's backed up daily and I only use it as a data carrier. The only drag of the reset is the time of reloading apps.
I agree it may be more than just software issue due to dead battery, but I have to try everything I can. I've back on my old Moto smart phone and it's just not the same, hahahaha.
Now back to studying Kaiser ROMs and how to.
Bernie
As a follow up for anyone who runs across this in the future. I flashed the original AT&T rom and the problem still exists. I spoke to tech support yesterday and they are mailing out a new/reman replacement. So the problem appears to be terminal.
Thanks guys for trying to help.
Bernie
Ok folks I've had my phone for a few months. I had some minor reboot/shutdown issues when I first received the phone (I know dumbass why didnt you exchange it then). But I installed an early Cog Rom and problems went away.
Now recently when I fully charge my phone - every time it goes to sleep I have to boot it back up.
To make sure it wasn't ROM related - I had completely wiped the phone and went to stock OTA and didn't have ANY applications installed on it.
Sure enough - charged back up to 100% and phone starts failing. After it gets down to about 70% the phone will stay up and working.
Before I make that call to AT&T - wanted your input on if this is something that can be fixed or am I fubard? - Thanks.
There are several different threads in the general section about this. General consensus seems to be that it can be caused by app or battery issues, but that most are a hardware problem with the phone. I mailed my phone off for return/exchange yesterday, thankfully i just squeaked in under the 30 day return policy. You'll probably have to go through AT&T or Samsung warranty department
Figured as much - just was double checking before I wandered over to the warranty center here in town to get a hopefully working refurb.