Help Stratosphere won't turn on!

[SilverFang]

My Samsung Stratosphere turned itself off sometime earlier tonight during dinner (fully charged right before we went out to dinner), and now is rebooting to the Samsung logo, and then turning back off, and rebooting (a couple times earlier it booted to the main android menu, but turned back off immediately afterwards) and when I plugged it into the charger it acts like it's charging and then turns off and acts like it's charging and over and over again, even when the battery indicates that it's at more than half full.

Does anyone know what's happening? (no custom ROMs or anything, it's all standard btw) I've spent the last couple hours trying to figure out to no avail. Thank you!

 

[acejavelin]

Hmmm... If you can't get it to boot all the way up I would suggest doing a factory reset via the stock recovery menu using the "Alternate Method" from this article: Hard Reset - Stratosphere

 

[SilverFang]

I went to the VZW store and they did a soft-reset and my phone was back to normal, hopefully it stays that way! The rep said that it might've been a power cycling issue with the software. Thanks acejavelin for responding. Thanks Verizon!

 

[SilverFang]

Hi everyone, the problem started happening again this afternoon. =(. I tried doing a soft-reset (took out battery and sim card and put it back in) and it wouldn't work. Please help!

 

[SilverFang]

Bump!

 

[acejavelin]

Bump!

You have been out of service for a week?!?!

I would have called Verizon tech support and gotten a replacement unit, it is still under warranty.

Basically, if you do a hard reset (ie. factory reset) and it still are having problems you have very few choices... assuming you are stock and a did a factory reset, if if you are still having problems this almost guarantees it is a hardware issue, and no amount of tweaking is going to fix that.

 

[SilverFang]

You have been out of service for a week?!?!

I would have called Verizon tech support and gotten a replacement unit, it is still under warranty.

Basically, if you do a hard reset (ie. factory reset) and it still are having problems you have very few choices... assuming you are stock and a did a factory reset, if if you are still having problems this almost guarantees it is a hardware issue, and no amount of tweaking is going to fix that.

No, it happened again lats night. I haven't done a hart reset yet, because I don't want it to be wiped yet. Would it possibly still be possible that it was a software issue?

 

[acejavelin]

No, it happened again lats night. I haven't done a hart reset yet, because I don't want it to be wiped yet. Would it possibly still be possible that it was a software issue?

You are not going to know until you do a factory reset... Once you do if the problem continues you need a replacement, if it goes away then problem solved, simple as that. There is a possibility that the filesystem or there is another software problem, but unless you are willing to install custom recovery and root your phone there isn't much that can be done (even then, there are no full ROM images available), but if you factory default and the problem is still there I would just get a replacement, it's super simple.

 

[SilverFang]

You are not going to know until you do a factory reset... Once you do if the problem continues you need a replacement, if it goes away then problem solved, simple as that. There is a possibility that the filesystem or there is another software problem, but unless you are willing to install custom recovery and root your phone there isn't much that can be done (even then, there are no full ROM images available), but if you factory default and the problem is still there I would just get a replacement, it's super simple.

Hi acejavelin, could you explain what that means about custom recovery and also their being no full ROM images available? Does that mean I can't root the phone to potentially fix the problem? Thanks.

 

[acejavelin]

Hi acejavelin, could you explain what that means about custom recovery and also their being no full ROM images available? Does that mean I can't root the phone to potentially fix the problem? Thanks.

Rooting can't really fix anything, it is a common misconception that "rooting" is some kind of magic, but all it does is allow applications to call the su binary (su is short for Switch User, not SuperUser) that allows them read-write access to areas of the filesystem they cannot normally get to.

Installing a customer recovery, such as CWM Recovery, is the first step in rooting your device since it allow unsigned ZIP packages to be installed which the stock recovery does not. The real issue here is that there is no full ROM image available, and custom ROMs for the Stratosphere are in short supply, once the FF1 update is installed the only non-stock ROM currently available is Dwitherell's stock/rooted ROM. I would suggest heading over to RootzWiki's Stratosphere forums for more information, that is really the only forum that has any real development or work going for the Stratosphere.

 

[SilverFang]

Rooting can't really fix anything, it is a common misconception that "rooting" is some kind of magic, but all it does is allow applications to call the su binary (su is short for Switch User, not SuperUser) that allows them read-write access to areas of the filesystem they cannot normally get to.

Installing a customer recovery, such as CWM Recovery, is the first step in rooting your device since it allow unsigned ZIP packages to be installed which the stock recovery does not. The real issue here is that there is no full ROM image available, and custom ROMs for the Stratosphere are in short supply, once the FF1 update is installed the only non-stock ROM currently available is Dwitherell's stock/rooted ROM. I would suggest heading over to RootzWiki's Stratosphere forums for more information, that is really the only forum that has any real development or work going for the Stratosphere.

I tried to do a factory reset, but the recovery mode screen always jumps away when I try to activate it (I press both Vol+ and Vol-, recovery mode screen comes up but goes instantly, then the phone goes into a boot loop again).

Can I follow this guide to try rooting it? Or is it not FF1 compatible? Is FF1 the update that came a month or two ago? Thanks.

[How To] Root and ROM your new Stratosphere! (7/28/2012) - Stratosphere - RootzWiki

 

[acejavelin]

I tried to do a factory reset, but the recovery mode screen always jumps away when I try to activate it (I press both Vol+ and Vol-, recovery mode screen comes up but goes instantly, then the phone goes into a boot loop again).

Can I follow this guide to try rooting it? Or is it not FF1 compatible? Is FF1 the update that came a month or two ago? Thanks.

[How To] Root and ROM your new Stratosphere! (7/28/2012) - Stratosphere - RootzWiki

To get to stock recovery to perform a hard reset, press and hold VOL DN+VOL UP+POWER from an off state, then as soon as the SAMSUNG logo show up, release the power but continue to hold down both VOL buttons, then the menu should appear shortly after than. Hard Reset - Stratosphere

 

[mulsa43]

My phone is on, I can hear it ringing/getting text messages...but the screen is solid black. I brought it in to the VZW store, and they ordered me a new phone. Does anyone know how I can pull my contacts/files off of the broken phone and transfer them over to the new one??

 

[DB1]

I've noticed some chargers don't work with the phone...

 

[DB1]

if your phone won't turn on, try cleaning the battery contacts with a rubber pencil eraser...

 

[acejavelin]

if your phone won't turn on, try cleaning the battery contacts with a rubber pencil eraser...

Do not use a rubber eraser to clean contacts, never, never, EVER!!!

Contacts have a very thin gold plating over an under layer of (usually) nickel, VERY thin, like a few microns thin, and an eraser has an abrasive in it, which can strip of that gold plating and expose the nickel... this usually works fine for a while, but the nickel will oxidize very quickly causing a bad connection. An eraser might get a connection working quickly, but it will only be temporary and leads to more problems down the road.

Your best bet is to use a commercial contact cleaner, such as DeoxIT D5 made by Caig Laboratories, and a lint-free cloth or pad. If this isn't available try using high-grade isopropyl alcohol (90%+, most drug stores carry it, it is usually only a few cents more than the regular 70% stuff) and a cotton swap to clean the contacts, then once it dries blow the contacts out with some compressed air to remove any lint. This method is not as good as using a commercial contact cleaner, but it is safe and often does the job good enough.