Help Rooted S3 Charging Issue

[ntw007]

Hi,

I've rooted my S3 and am now running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. It's been rooted for a few months now and has been so nice to use. Lately the phone has had issues with charging as when I wake up in the morning after the phone has been charging through the night (as always) it will not wake up. The green light is on signifying that it's fully charged, but I have to long press the power button to turn it off and then on again. This works every time, but I have no idea why the phone will not come on each morning.

We all have problems opening the left eye of a morning, but my phone is supposed to wake me up, but the alarm doesn't sound either. The phone is basically dead until reboot!

This morning I woke up at around 2am and unplugged the phone and it came on as it should. I left it unplugged and went back to sleep. I woke up this morning (no phone alarm again) and the phone wouldn't come on - still unplugged remember and had been charged! Did the usual reboot and it works again.

Does anybody have any idea what the issue might be?

Any help appreciated!

 

[ntw007]

Okay, so I've cleared some cache and removed some apps and am going to remove the sd card tonight when I hit the hay. Maybe that will work. If not I will try safe mode and leave it in safe mode overnight to see if it may be an app causing the issue!

Any other thoughts on this problem still welcome though - and appreciated!

 

[ntw007]

Okay so that didn't work and no one on here is prepared to have any input!

New battery it is then -see if that makes any difference! I might let you know what happens!

 

[Jfalls63]

Did you delete anything that was pre installed (bloat)?
Could try booting into recovery and wipe the cache partition
What is your complete model number?

 

[ntw007]

Hi Jfalls63 thanks for replying.

I've cleared out the rubbish and wiped the cache from TWRP. It was okay for a few months after rooting the phone, just seems to be recently that its had an issue. I've removed apps that where installed recently and tried to get into safe mode to leave it overnight but that proved to be challenging.

My model is GT-I9300 with Android Revolution HD 53.0 build installed. Android version 4.3.

 

[Jfalls63]

You could check to see if there is a thread for that ROM at XDA . Might find someone else with similar issue and maybe a fix or updated version.
Only other trouble shooting steps I could think of would be
1. Flash back to stock for a few days and see if problem is with Rom or hardware
2. Do clean install of current ROM and see if problem persists.
3. Try a different custom ROM.
All are a pain to do but necessary to track down the problem

You don't have anything from Cheetah Mobile installed or any kind of battery saver or ram optimizer/task killer?

 

[SavageRobot]

I had a similar problem to yours, only was actually a little more annoying (IMO). The phone wouldn't wake up at all, the alarm would still go off, I couldn't turn it off or snooze as the screen wouldn't wake up and since the latest ROM had an incredible battery as the alarm kept going off for about 10 minutes every 10 minutes for three days!!! It was a Z1 so no battery to pull and the hard reset button had broken! It was awful, I ended up burying it under all bedding, pillows and towels I could find at the far end of the room until it finally died!
When it switched off and back on again it would work, until screen went to sleep again. So I flashed a few new ROMs etc and still same problem. I put it down to the phone being totalled and cut my losses and got a new one.

If your phone is actually on just not responsive I would suggest the battery would be fine and first things to try are Jfalls suggestions above, but in all honesty, I think it's more than likely time to get a new phone...

 

[ntw007]

Thanks for the replies, and yes it is time for a new phone, only I can't afford one at the minute. I'm on a sim only contract as it's cheaper and can't really afford the extortionate prices they charge for a new phone on contract or even in the shops.

I tried another battery and that seemed to do the trick - for now. I changed the battery last night and put it on charge and then left it as normal. It came on this morning when I hit the home button, but I don't recall the alarm going off, which is definitely set. But at least it woke up!

I don't have any task killer software installed (that I know of) or any Cheetah Mobile apps. I would be surprised if it was anything to do with the flashed ROM as it was running fine for months before this issue, so I'm hoping it was just a dodgy battery.

I'll let you know in a couple of days how it's going.

Thanks again for the input, much appreciated.

 

[ntw007]

Yep, seems it was the battery. My phone charged and woke up this morning, and more importantly it woke me up as well.

 

[ntw007]

Well, that didn't last long. My phone is doing the same thing again.
Could it be that the phone doesn't realise when the battery has been fully charged and so 'floods' the phone - overcharging if you like (if that's even possible).
I had to force the phone to restart this morning, as I did originally when this problem started.

Perhaps someone could suggest an app that stops the phone from trying to charge when 100% charge has been reached?

It seems to be related to charging in some way.

Any help (as always) much appreciated!

 

[ntw007]

UPDATE - should anyone still care lol.

I removed an app called Samsung Link and downloaded an app called Battery Protector and ran it. This morning my phone woke up as it should, which leads me to believe that the link app was the culprit! It's an app for linking to my satnav via bluetooth (which was switched off BTW) and seems to be constantly looking to link.

My battery app told me that the voltage was 4.309 this morning but was set by default to warn me if the voltage went over 4.3. Not sure what any of this means but it seems to be okay considering it was on charge all night and probably sat at 100% charge for a few hours.

Hopefully this has resolved the issue and I will have no more problems. I probably won't update this thread again either way, as I don't think anyone is particularly interested anymore lol.

 

[ntw007]

I'm back...with bad news! My phone was on 78% battery life last night at about 8pm, which is obviously good being as it was on all day, but this morning the little b*#@ar% wouldn't come on!!

I'm out of ideas and it's starting to annoy me now! On top of that, after I restarted it, it later turned off on it's own, and I hadn't noticed this until I felt it burning my leg in my pocket (exaggeration but it was hot and turned off).

Any.....any ideas what's going on with my crappy phone??

 

[Jfalls63]

You could always flash back to stock as suggested earlier. Would help to determine if a software or hardware issue.

 

[ntw007]

Yeah that is probably my best option, I just can't be bothered with all the backing up, wiping, installing, syncing...blah blah blah that goes with it.

It was okay for a few months as well so I can't see why the OS would be the cause. Is there anything else that I could try first that anyone knows of?

 

[ntw007]

I'm back....again....and still annoyed!

I wiped the phone, factory reset it, and rightly or wrongly, downloaded the same ROM again and flashed that back onto my phone. Reason? I did try a couple of others but they weren't very ntw007 friendly!

How do I flash back to stock ROM?

 

[Jfalls63]

Can find the stock firmware for your country/carrier here.
http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/GT-I9300/
Create a free account. Free download is slow but trusted site for stock firmware.
Instructions for flashing are at the bottom of the download page.

 

[ntw007]

Thanks jfalls63, although I did find it earlier after posting and am in the process of sloooowwwlllyyy downloading it.

When flashing a rom, does the data partition get formatted first, or is it a 'dirty' format? I'm just wondering if something maybe lingering on that.

 

[Jfalls63]

Should be a clean install back to out of the box condition.

 

[ntw007]

That's what i did last night, though it wasn't the stock ROM. Still the phone likes a lay-in in the morning and not wake up!
It sometimes even just sleeps when left for a long period like it goes into a deep sleep or something and can't come out of it's coma!

Can't think of anything else it could be apart from two dodgy batteries!

 

[ntw007]

Done!

All my icons are still there though and the data like SMS and WhatApp messages, so it looks like it just copied the rom over the top of the one that was there!

'Unfortunately, Clock has stopped working' keeps popping up though - reboot i think!

 

[SavageRobot]

Done!

All my icons are still there though and the data like SMS and WhatApp messages, so it looks like it just copied the rom over the top of the one that was there!

'Unfortunately, Clock has stopped working' keeps popping up though - reboot i think!

Did you wipe cache / Dalvik? Sometimes if something stops working like that just go back into recovery and wipe those two. you won't lose any data clearing caches. but it usually is recommended (although now and then not necessary) to do full factory wipe when flashing new firmware.

 

[ntw007]

Hi SavageRobot, yeah I've wiped the cache / Dalvik several times, infact I've removed my SD card and wiped everything now, even the system partition and then re-flashed a rom back onto the phone. Also, I bought a new battery and tried that, but it still did the same thing.

I've had to take the plunge and invest in a new phone - Samsung Galaxy S7 (poor me! lol). Although it's a great phone, I'm still too curious as to whats happening with my S3 to just leave it at that. I need to know whats wrong with it!

I'm pretty sure it's not software, I know it's not the battery (tried 3 - one being brand new), which leaves another hardware issue. Could it be that the phone is being drowned in power because it doesn't know when to stop charging? Could it be that I've just used the phone to death and the insides are now beginning to fail?

I hope we can get to the bottom of this somehow - be handy as a backup phone.