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Help My phone overheated and now the screen won't work

Poweranimals

Android Enthusiast
Apr 28, 2011
372
17
So I went to the pool today and it was 96 degrees out. I put my phone in my backpack thinking it would be safe but when I was done I took it out and the it was super hot. My screen now won't turn on. I know my phone is still on because it will vibrate when I get a notification and will occasionally be a slight white flash on the right side as well. It sucks because I can't even turn the phone off to let it cool down. I'm assuming it overheated but I don't know if the phone is toast or what. I guess I could drain the battery but that could take ages. Any suggestions on what to do?
 
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So I went to the pool today and it was 96 degrees out. I put my phone in my backpack thinking it would be safe but when I was done I took it out and the it was super hot. My screen now won't turn on. I know my phone is still on because it will vibrate when I get a notification and will occasionally be a slight white flash on the right side as well. It sucks because I can't even turn the phone off to let it cool down. I'm assuming it overheated but I don't know if the phone is toast or what. I guess I could drain the battery but that could take ages. Any suggestions on what to do?
is the phone cooled down now? might have been that it got hot and needed to cool down.
 
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is the phone cooled down now? might have been that it got hot and needed to cool down.
That's what I assumed but I think there might have been damage caused somehow because cooling down didn't resolve it. I actually put it in the freezer for a few minutes and it helped but not completely and only temporarily. I was able to shut it down at least though. I think I'm just gonna let it rest for now.
 
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Yeah, shutting it down and leaving it is probably best. I once had a laptop fail to sleep when I closed the lid, and after a couple of hours in a backpack it was too hot to touch, and needless to say would not start up or anything. Next morning it was fine. Hopefully your experience will be similar.

I've found that if I forget that I was running an app that keeps the display on and put a phone in a pocket it can get quite hot quite quickly, so I'm guessing that something like that happened here (if it was "super hot" it needs more than just ambient temperature, though hot weather won't help).
 
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If your phone heat up, there are two reasons it is happening itself or specific app causing it? Are you streaming a ton of video, or is the weather simply too hot? It's difficult to pinpoint just why your smartphone is heating up. When a phone gets too hot it slows down. In some cases, it may automatically shut down until it has cooled down.
 
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If your phone heat up, there are two reasons it is happening itself or specific app causing it? Are you streaming a ton of video, or is the weather simply too hot? It's difficult to pinpoint just why your smartphone is heating up. When a phone gets too hot it slows down. In some cases, it may automatically shut down until it has cooled down.
According to the op, it was inside a backpack in the sun at a pool.
 
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Be careful putting your phone in a freezer after it got baked like that in your backpack. Extreme temperature shifts cause condensation issues, and electronic components just don't mix with moisture too well. (Compounded by the water-resistant features of your S22 Ultra so those seals also hamper any air flow to dry up that moisture buildup.)
Keep in mind your phone was baking itself, it may have been 96 outside but inside that backpack if it was in direct sunlight those temps would much higher. By the time you put it in the freezer even though any phone doesn't have a lot of actual mass it's likely the phone was still pretty warm in the inside, with only the outside being cooled as that's the part exposed to your freezer. These kind of temperature extremes aren't a big deal with a frozen bagel but the electronics inside your phone don't have that same versatility. You're better off just letting the phone sit overnight so its internal and external temps all just balance out again on their own, and hope there's no permanent damage.
 
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Well guys, I appreciate the advice. So a little update. I turned on the phone this morning and no luck with the screen. I took it into a repair shop today and they were insisting that it probably needs a new screen. Of course they didn't have the screen in so they're ordering it. I guess now I have to play the waiting game.
 
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Well guys, I appreciate the advice. So a little update. I turned on the phone this morning and no luck with the screen. I took it into a repair shop today and they were insisting that it probably needs a new screen. Of course they didn't have the screen in so they're ordering it. I guess now I have to play the waiting game.

Replacement AMOLED acreen for a flagship Samsung device, that could be something like $200-$400 probably?
But from what you've described in your posts, it does sound like the AMOLED screen is duff.
 
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When you started your phone yesterday morning did you hear any of the typical startup and notification sounds? Hopefully you did, that's a tentative indicator the phone itself is still functional and it's just a matter the display isn't lighting up. If you didn't, be prepared that the display may or may not be the only problem -- extreme heat damage doesn't just selectively target the screen so permanent damage to other internal components is a possibility.

Do you have a good backup solution already set up?
 
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When you started your phone yesterday morning did you hear any of the typical startup and notification sounds? Hopefully you did, that's a tentative indicator the phone itself is still functional and it's just a matter the display isn't lighting up. If you didn't, be prepared that the display may or may not be the only problem -- extreme heat damage doesn't just selectively target the screen so permanent damage to other internal components is a possibility.

Do you have a good backup solution already set up?
Yeah, I was still getting notifications for it so it definitely seems to be an issue with the display. I have a backup but not a good one. The replacement screen is supposed to come in tomorrow though so here's hoping this inconvenience will be over.
 
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I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 that I still use mostly to play games. It started getting REALLY hot, especially during charging. I took it out of it's case, turned it completely off, and I even had the battery changed. Nothing seemed to resove the issue. Someone suggested that it could be an app that is aggrivating it and causing it to run all the time in the background. I tried to shut down apps and that didn't work. I finally did a complete wipe fo the device, and so far, no more over heating. My guess is that it is like someone said above...an aggrivating app causing the issue that is now gone. Good Luck.
 
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