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Samsung Galaxy S3 not charging problem

Samsung Galaxy S2 water damageShort news bulletin to inform you that this morning my Samsung Galaxy S3 is not charging. This follows on from the same problem I had with the Galaxy S2.

The diagnosis for the S2 was water damage despite my assertion signed affidavit that it has never been anywhere near water.

It looks as if I’m going to have to get the S3 sent away for repair/analysis. Not good. All I can say is if the same diagnosis comes back  as for the S2 I’m going to be hounding Samsung. It’s too much of a coincidence or at the very least poor reliability in the design. Note this is already my second Galaxy S3 – the first had a headset connector problem.

The header photo is the “water” damage on the old Galaxy S2. Stay tuned for updates on this hot news item.

PS to make it easy for those who are interested I’ve pasted links to all the other posts that talk aboutSamsung Galaxy S2 and S3 problems:

http://www.trefor.net/2012/09/07/samsung-galaxy-s3-factory-reset-phone-not-charging-battery/
http://www.trefor.net/2012/06/17/headset-socket-on-my-samsung-galaxy-s3-is-not-working-audio-problem/
http://www.trefor.net/2012/07/06/water-water-everywhere-mobile-phone-water-damage-samsung-galaxy-s2-s3/
http://www.trefor.net/2012/09/26/galaxy-s3-mended-under-warranty-faulty-usb-socket/

Trefor Davies

By Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

34 replies on “Samsung Galaxy S3 not charging problem”

Danny, I’m afraid it will have to be sent back for repair. Please let me know the diagnosis. I particularly want to know if they say it is water damage.tref

I am having the same issue and posted about it on the android forums.
Today marked exactly three months since I got this phone and all of a sudden it has stopped charging… I am stuck at 42% for the last 36 hrs. Sometime it actually discharges while it is suppose to be charging. Wtf is going on samsung? So disappointed right now. And it overheats lime crazy too… I hope they givee me a new model or something arghh…

I’ve got the same problem with mine, only had it three days and it’s already broken!!!
Ridiculous!

I also had this issues with my Galaxy S2, samsung need to look at where they are getting their micro USB components!!

From the number of visits to my blog posts on the subject I imagine that Samsung are seeing a lot of returns because of this. I’d expect that to prompt them to review their supplier quality.

Having the same issue. I have had no issues with this phone at all up until a few days ago and I was one of the first people to get this phone on pre-order. The phone has been great, even had a couple of my friends get it cause I recommended it so highly. This phone is all I use for school and social/entertainment aspects–rarely even use my laptop anymore, until now! I am very frustrated. A few days ago I plugged my phone in at night, like I normally do, and in the morning it was only charged to 46%. WTF?? So I unplugged the cord and replugged and it charged just fine. But I noticed when I took it to work it had drained more quickly than normal, even though the phone was pretty much on stand-by most of the day. It got worse, yesterday within a half a day on standby it was dead and charging (when it doesn’t freeze) has been completely slow. Today, within a time span of only a couple of hours, the phone is totally DEAD! And when I say totally dead, it will not charge at all. No lights are coming on, the on button is not working, NOTHING! I read a forum where they said to remove the battery and put it back in, then keep it on the charger until the lights come on. Um, yeah, I am doing that right now and still getting nothing. Tried switching wall sockets, plugged it in to my computer, and it is dead as a door nail and I am not at all happy about it. Taking it up to Sprint today, let’s see what they have to say.

I just purchased a Sansung Galaxy s3 and sent to my daughter who is a student. She opened the pack fixed the SIM card and tried charging and ITS NOT CHARGING she is so disappointed.
I think its not a good mobile..

Dear Mr. Trefor,

I just picked up a Samsung s3 from Dubai GITEX and sent to my daughter in India. She is so disappointed that its not charging. Why do we have to face such silly problems from such a reputed mobile company. Its really very sand and hurting. Now the product has got only Local Warranty, how do I tie over this crisis.
Please advise.

Hi Guys,

I bought mine 2 days back from a U.A.E vendor namely Axiom mobiles. It was charging ok on the first day but then stopped charging at all today. I went back to the retailer and they promised to replace it. Have to go back to them tomorrow to get it sorted. Really breaks my heart that a new phone will have such problems and seeing the number of posts on different forums around the interweb seems like its a very common issue. Though i think it has to do something with software update but not a hardware issue.

My S3 has the exact same problem. Would get stuck at the charging screen icon but wouldn’t spin as it does when it’s charging. I tried several chargers and a new battery but to no avail. Sent it back to Samsung UK, who returned it UNREPAIRED and blamed a rogue App in the Play Store for corrupting the OS. Not covered by warranty! Samsung are a joke. I will be taking this further Samsung!

I have the same problem. My s3 wont charge !!!it has not even been a month since i got it! I have my warranty but i did see a little amount of water on the back , when i took it out of the rubber casing.My question is if i send it back and they find water being the source of my issue will they fix it under warranty? or will they send it back?? and also CAN IT ACTUALLY BE FIXED??!!please answer me ,i feel like crying im soo depressed!!!! :'(

I guess if it is water damage that will normally invalidate the warranty. My problem was a faulty socket. They can usually repair damaged phones though it is expensive if you can’t get it through the warranty. All you can do is dry it, send it back and hope.

Exactly the same problem. After only having the phone for a few hours would not charge, seemed to repair itself and worked fine next day. Been ok since until last night, on charge 10hours and only charged 10% without charging any further. Restarted phone and again had repaired itself but for how long this time.
Not happy at all especially after seeing so many comments over the net from other s3 users having same problem…

Same problem here, i just got it 2 months ago from UAE, it stucked 44% and when i restart it after plug it to power sometimes it charge fine and somtimes it didnt charge. Also its charging from the USB normally.
Any ideas how to solve it as am no longer in UAE to get back to the vendor.

Just got replacement s3 as I dropped old one and screen shattered,now have a brand new s3and after 1 week it won’t charge and I tried 7 different charges,yet my old broken s3which I still have thank god charges off of them all .

Im having a similar problem. At first my S3 wouldnt charge off a mains charger but would charge off my laptop. now it wont respond to anything. Took it into t-mobile to have a look at it and they said it may be water damage even though the thing hasn’t seen a drop of water since ive had it. I’m sending it back to be checked but will be very angry if they dont do anything about it.

I have the exact same problem.
Last night my phone nearly died before putting it on the charger before going to sleep. I woke up several hours later to find that it hadn’t charged at all. Changed chargers. Now my phone has no charge in it at all. Overall, since last night i have tried two wall chargers and three pc chargers, also tried a different battery. I can’t even turn it on now to bring up the Samsung logo like it had earlier today.
I have to admit that after reading for several hours, there are heaps of people with the same problem…well at least similar. Before my phone died completely of power, i was able to get to the Samsung logo if i turned it on. There are hundreds if not thousands of posts with the exact same problem. Now that it is dead, i place the phone onto any charger and all i get is a white battery sitting still, not charging.
As i said earlier, there are heaps of people with the same problem. It seems that because my phone has stopped at the Samsung logo and wouldn’t go any further, there is ways of resetting the phone. Many people have done this and it has worked for them.
On the other hand, many of those that have found that their phone stopped on the battery logo and wouldn’t recharge, have either sent their phones off for repairs…some being told that it’s not under warranty because of water damage. Mine doesn’t have water damage. Or some have had it returned unfixed and they have gone out to buy another S3.
So you see, i have two problems that maybe totally relevant or not. I don’t know which way to go now. I live in Australia but purchased my phone from the UK, Even if i got it repaired here, there is a three week turnaround. If i reset my phone, it maybe working tomorrow?? Who knows.
Let me know if you have similar problems guys, as i am now of two minds

Cheers

Wife and I both have the S3.. her’s won’t charge (tried several different Samsung mains and car chargers) and mine is hit-and-miss. Lot’s of complaints on the web, not many fixes being offered… Samsung seems very quiet on the issue…

I had the same problem of my phone not charging. I’ve had the S3 for less than 2 months. Never close to water. The battery drained down one night and the next day, it would not charge or even show it was connected to the charger. It was a brick. It would not charge from different chargers, not from the wall socket or the UBS on my desktop. I read in another forum about taking the battery our blowing on the contacts to clean them, re-inserting the battery and then try charging. Well, it’s now charging off my desktop. I did notice the battery is not a real tight fit in its compartment in the phone. I have had a problem with other battery powered devices when using the cheap batteries that came with them and they were not a tight fit. I don’t know if this was the problem or not. I really like the phone but this charging (or battery) problem seems to be a real issue that Samsung should seriously address.

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