Phone problems

[Jazzy]

I've got a mobile phone which is about three and a half years old, and while it's occasionally been a bit temperamental, today it's being a lot worse, in that it won't turn on properly. I don't think it's that the battery's dead, because I'm fairly sure I left it charged when I turned it off. Also, even if the battery was completely dead, it ought to work correctly if plugged in to the mains-powered charger or the USB charger, and it doesn't. The animated charging picture shows up but freezes if I press the on button. The external display, which also correctly displays the animation up to that point, ends up frozen on the screen it should display if the cover's open.

If I don't have the charger in, nothing happens at all when I try and turn the phone on.

When I do plug the charger in, the animated charging picture and accompanying noise shows up later than it normally does, and then every minute or so the picture freezes, the screen goes black, and then it starts the connection noise and animation again, as if I've just plugged the phone in for the first time. It's not the socket, because it's doing it in all the sockets I've tried it in, and there's nothing wrong with the power supply to my room (power surges or dips, say) because my alarm clock is mains-powered only, and it's keeping time correctly. It goes off completely if there's a powercut, even briefly. I've tried taking the memory card out and it's still doing the same thing, and the sim card's also fine on its own, because I've put it in someone else's phone for now. If I do take the sim card out, the phone will turn on, briefly, but will then start turning itself off again.

Help? Anything I can try? I really don't want to have to buy a new phone, and even if I do, I'd like to be able to get the messages and contacts from my phone first. Currently, I can't, because they're stored in phone memory rather than on the sim. (I'm not especially attached to this one, it's simply that they're expensive and I'm a bit short on money right now.)

[Twofold Black]

Weird inexplicable phone problems are sometimes battery-related. The best thing would be if you know someone with a phone similar to yours who will lend you their battery for diagnostic purposes. If the phone behaves with someone else's battery in it, you have your culprit.

[Jazzy]

Unfortunately, it's a really unpopular phone (an o2 x3), so finding someone else with one would be quite difficult. Without the battery, the phone won't attempt to charge, either, so I can't bypass it that way.

If I could get it to turn on with the sim inside, I could connect it to my computer and use the USB cable to transfer my contacts and messages, but it won't even stay on long enough to connect with the sim taken out (this, however, could be because the computer won't connect to a phone without a sim).

[daisybell]

Could there be a problem with the battery connection contacts in the phone? Is there dust or dirt in there which could be obscuring the contacts, or on the battery? (though it seems unlikely that it would be that) If the problem was an issue with the wiring or electrical contacts in the phone I don't know what you'd do about it, though. If you know any geeky folks who have a multimeter then you could at least find out if there was a circuit there or not.

If it's the phone's firmware, then you're stuck, I guess, but if it was working fine before and then suddenly stopped working it would be less likely to be a software issue and more likely to be something physically wrong, I would think.

Have you tried going to an O2 shop or somewhere like the Carphone Warehouse? They might know if it's a common problem with that particular phone and if so, what works to fix it. They shouldn't charge you anything if you just tell them what the problem is and ask them if they know what's wrong.

[Jazzy]

I have a fluke meter at home, but I won't be there for another month yet, so I can't test that. I'd agree it's probably something physically wrong, but the only thing I can think of that I did differently yesterday to any other day was that I'd turned on the radiator behind it. If I'd dropped it or something, that would have made more sense.

I can try the o2 shop tomorrow but having googled it and found out that other people have had the same problem that it won't turn on with a sim in, I'm not too hopeful. I think I'll probably have to be looking for a new phone at the same time, blech. I really can't see a way to get my computer to recognise my phone at all in Linux, and in Windows the handset manager doesn't connect, most likely because of the problems with it turning off, so I don't even think I can get my contacts and messages off it.

[Kantark]

If you haven't already tried it, try powering the phone off the mains or USB without the battery connected. Possibly the battery could have failed and be upsetting the charging circuit or dragging the phone's power supply down a bit causing it to crash.

Most problems with phones that I've been able to fix have all centred around the battery contacts being dirty or worn (the phone switches itself off at random, especially when moved), these can usually be corrected at least temporarily with a fibreglass pencil and switch cleaner. This doesn't sound like your issue, though. The charger malfunctioning can also cause phones to crash or act oddly when on charge (my old Sony Ericsson K700i used to occasionally go completely bananas on charge until I realised the cable was faulty - wiggling it made the fault come and go). Again, I don't think this explains your problem if you've tried it on both the USB and mains charger.

If you're really lucky then all your contacts will be stored on the SIM and all your messages on the memory card, and you'll be able to read them in another phone or using a computer's card reader.

I have a fluke meter at home...

Jazzy, you're just made of win.

[Jazzy]

*grin* Why, thank you.

Unfortunately, the memory card is empty bar the mp3s on it, and the sim card only has a few contacts on it (though I'm less bothered about this than I was, because I've managed to rebuild most of my address book already). The messages are definitely not on the sim, apart from a couple which have randomly ended up there; I'm assuming the rest are on the phone memory because it's better than assuming they've been wiped at some point (the phone I've borrowed's been reset to factory defaults, but that shouldn't have deleted my messages). I'm off to town now, so I'll see if the o2 shop can help me with getting the messages off.

I've cleaned all the contacts with no luck, and considered taking the back off my phone but I haven't an appropriate screwdriver (the only ones I can get hold of here are Philips or flathead, and these are torx screws). Taking it apart isn't actually going to help, in all probability, because it's going to have to be a) a very obvious problem if I can spot it and fix it and b) something which can be fixed without access to wire, a soldering iron, etc. I think I just like the idea of taking it apart Taking the battery out prevents the phone from turning on when attached to either charger; I think it might be either a safety thing, or required to complete a circuit (it's the sort of phone where the battery actually makes up the back of the phone, rather than sliding in and having a cover on top).