Ever heard of a wireless charger 'zap'ing a phone and killed it?

[cronos]

I think that's what just happened with my wife's Galaxy S6.

The phone wasn't (and has never been) dropped/bumped/etc and was never in contact with water, ever. It's been working perfectly fine for about a year. My wife simply left it on the charger at about ~20% charge (like she's done hundreds of times before), and I came in maybe five minutes later, picked it up to check if she probably has an update that she hasn't done (like I've done dozens of times before), and I found that the screen simply won't turn on (blue notification light still blinking). The phone obviously wasn't on, as calls/messages couldn't come through. The only indication of life is the blinking blue light.

I tried all kinds of methods holding down all possible button combinations I found on the web, sometimes for a minute at a time, to force the phone to turn off or restart, with no success. I thought I'd just wait until the battery runs completely off and then charge and restart it, but it took a week(?) until the notification light finally turns off. And then that's it, I plugged it in the charger for several hours, and it won't turn on at all anymore. It's now completely dead.

No warranty, as this is an international S6 from eBay. Never been burned before buying international phones off of eBay, but I guess this time we'll just have to eat it.

I don't know of anything else to possibly blame for this sudden death except for the wireless charger. Maybe some kind of freak electrical surge? This is the charger she was using. She's been using this charging pad for more than two years (previously with an S4) without a problem.

 

[Crono]

Never had a phone completely die that way, but I did have a Nexus 5X screen die randomly (display went full white) on me with only aux cable connected.

I guess a surge could take it out, but the phone and charger is supposed to have some, limited protection. It could be some other random failure, though, not related to wireless charging. Too bad about no warranty, as that's the kind of situation where it's not the user's fault (like a drop would be) and you would hope Samsung would pick up the tab for repair.

 

[JeffMD]

No. For starters, be it the phone backing or the charger shell, there is plastic between it and the phone. Plastic doesn't carry enough electrons to create any kind of "zap".

Second, most qi chargers are simply a normal usb charger (first generation uses .5 amps) that plugs into the coil base via usb. Any kind of over voltage would start with a malfunctioning wall unit.

 

[cronos]

Yeah, you guys are probably right. I was thinking along those lines as well. I was just trying to find *something* to blame for this and that's the only thing I can think of.

I guess it's just terrible luck then. It really is absolutely baffling. It's been performing fantastically for the past 10 months (I just checked and it turns out I only bought it last September), she put it down, and poof, it's gone.

 

[core2slow]

sht happens, but yea, i dont think it's the wireless charger that killed the phone.

 

[swanysto]

Yeah, you guys are probably right. I was thinking along those lines as well. I was just trying to find *something* to blame for this and that's the only thing I can think of.

I guess it's just terrible luck then. It really is absolutely baffling. It's been performing fantastically for the past 10 months (I just checked and it turns out I only bought it last September), she put it down, and poof, it's gone.

Did you try taking it to a place that can fix it just to see how much it would cost? Maybe it is a simple fix that could cost a lot less than buying a new phone.

 

[sm625]

You are subjecting your sensitive electronic device to a very high strength source of radiated emissions. This was historically considered a bad practice. I dont know why anyone would want to willfully do it even when the device is "supposedly" designed for it.

 

[sweenish]

Yet here I am with my N5 which has been charged wirelessly for the better part of 3 years now.

"Radiated emissions?" It's just electromagnetic waves. By your loose wording and obvious lack of understanding, cellular signals and WiFi are "radiated emissions." And you've been exposed to "radiated emissions" since you were born, thanks to the radio.

 

[corkyg]

and you can add "landlines" and TV to that list as well, thanks to microwave transmissions which have side lobes.

 

[JeffMD]

So it killed itself during a charge cycle? even usb wont charge/power it?
Was the QI option added via thirdparty or was it always part of the phone?

 

[cronos]

Did you try taking it to a place that can fix it just to see how much it would cost? Maybe it is a simple fix that could cost a lot less than buying a new phone.

I certainly did. As I understood that there's no warranty whatsoever for this (Samsung refuses to honor any warranty claim in the US for any phone that wasn't sold by the carrier), I took it to this local place that fixes stuff that my friends have been recommending. After about three days they called me to pick the phone up as they couldn't get it to turn on after trying everything they could think of (including replacing the battery and the screen that they had in stock).

The guy said it's the first time he's ever seen anything like this. He said when someone came in with a broken phone, after he opened it up it's usually pretty obvious what the cause was (even if the customer didn't admit that it was dropped or dunked in water, for instance). He said this one had zero damage that he could see, from the inside or the outside, it's just dead.

So it killed itself during a charge cycle? even usb wont charge/power it?
Was the QI option added via thirdparty or was it always part of the phone?

The Galaxy S6 supports Qi wireless charging natively.

It was put on the wireless charger as normal (around 23% or so battery), and five minutes later when I picked it up no matter what I did the screen won't turn back on (blinking notification light was still up at that point). After that, nothing anyone tried would wake the phone up, including all kinds of button combinations, draining the battery and trying to power it up with a regular charger, and who knows what the guy at the repair place did to try to get it to turn on.

 

[nerp]

Yet here I am with my N5 which has been charged wirelessly for the better part of 3 years now.

"Radiated emissions?" It's just electromagnetic waves. By your loose wording and obvious lack of understanding, cellular signals and WiFi are "radiated emissions." And you've been exposed to "radiated emissions" since you were born, thanks to the radio.

And all of this is dwarfed by the sun.

 

[holden j caufield]

I've heard of phones being placed on a car dashboard giving out soon after because the heat was too much. My phone after playing pokemongo and charging gets really warm. So I only half charge it, wait a few hours and then charge it again. I never leave it on the dash either as the sun heats up a phone way too fast. Good luck.

 

[tommy2q]

Your AMOLED screen is not working.. charger was not the cause

 

[cronos]

Your AMOLED screen is not working.. charger was not the cause

I think most here ended up agreeing that despite my choice of title, the charger wasn't the cause here.

It is very possible that this started with the screen failing, but some kind of power failure must also happened. Otherwise, holding down button combinations to force reboot will restart the phone (though not displaying anything). This is the first thing I tried when I noticed that the screen won't turn on, and nothing happened.

 

[Chocu1a]

that certainly sucks. Maybe sell it for parts?

 

[Kk17]

Well.. i mite be a bit late.. bt da same thing happnd to me... i was chargin my s6 edge on da original samsung wireless charger wen suddenly da fone jst turned off by itself and never turned bck on... tried restarting and all... bt it never turn bck on... so i hd to get all da internals replaced for half da price i bought da fone for :| ... (i bought da fone wen it was jst released so half da price is quite a big amount)... i am pretty shure it was becuz of da wireless charger bcuz ive taken care of my fone really well.. i believe da wireless charger heats up da fone too much or sth... n nw i stopped using it .. n i recommend other ppl to do so too..

 

[gorcorps]

Well.. i mite be a bit late.. bt da same thing happnd to me... i was chargin my s6 edge on da original samsung wireless charger wen suddenly da fone jst turned off by itself and never turned bck on... tried restarting and all... bt it never turn bck on... so i hd to get all da internals replaced for half da price i bought da fone for :| ... (i bought da fone wen it was jst released so half da price is quite a big amount)... i am pretty shure it was becuz of da wireless charger bcuz ive taken care of my fone really well.. i believe da wireless charger heats up da fone too much or sth... n nw i stopped using it .. n i recommend other ppl to do so too..

Uh... Can I buy a vowel?