Bought the RM-938 model 32gb unlocked, phone bricked in a day

[themadpoet1]

I bought this phone unlocked and new on ebay. I updated the software the first day I got it and took it to AT&T to put a sim card in it the next day and I was playing music on it on the way to work, and then all the sudden the phone just shut off on its own. I haven't been able to turn the phone on at all, not even with the volume down+power button function. The only thing it does is vibrate once after 10 seconds but nothing comes up on the screen. Is there any way to bring this phone back to life? Will I need Nokia Software Recovery Tool?

 

[gordonfink]

Is it fully charged? the vibrate but no response is a sign of a dead battery.

 

[RumoredNow]

If you ran the battery to zero it puts the phone in a coma.

Use teh factory charger and plug it in to AC and wait several hours. The chip in the battery will wake up, the phone will boot and then start taking a normal charge. Let it charge to 100% before using it or unplugging it. Then continue as normal.

 

[themadpoet1]

Shouldn't I rule out the battery being a probable cause, because I charged it the night before, the phone was at 75% battery life at the time the phone shut off and died. I'm sitting here with the phone plugged into my computer using nokia software recovery tool and it still won't snap out of it. I just think this phone is bricked because of some other reason. I could try plugging it into the wall for awhile to see what happens.

 

[RumoredNow]

Will it boot?

If so check for something draining the battery rapidly by looking through Battery Saver.

If not, you could try the wall charger wait thing since the phone isn't going anywhere just now. If the plug in and wait wakes it then you may have misremembered the battery percentage or used it more rapidly than you thought. Happens all the time when getting a new phone - we have a tendancy to poke and prod and explore and download and so on until... Whoops, ran it dry.

Or, it may indeed have an issue and if you can get it recognized by Lumia Software Recovery Tool and reflash stock, that would not hurt anything.

 

[themadpoet1]

It won't boot at all. I had the battery full when I started using it and it was at 75% when it died. I can't even get an exclamation mark on the screen. Thing is that I noticed the brightness on high was super bright and I went to brightness profile and the high brightness was almost as low as it goes...I wonder if the display itself actually died on this phone. It's almost like the display went super nova.

 

[themadpoet1]

Update:

Your guy's advice seemed to work about leaving it plugged in. It came back from the dead all the sudden after I held the power button for 3 seconds, and it had 7% battery. I'm currently charging it up some more. The only thing is, how could it have died instantly after charging it up fully over night, when it had 3/4ths of the battery left? I hope this is just some stupid Microsoft glitch and not a defective battery.

 

[bmetelsky]

Hopefully just a "glitch" that won't happen again. :smile:

 

[RumoredNow]

Since it is so new... Flash it again with the Lumia Software Recovery Tool. Just to make sure you have a clean install and before you get a lot of data you don't want to loose.

​You said you updated it, but I'm not sure if that is a clean install or OTA.

 

[gordonfink]

I'm surprised that happened if it's new, but sometimes you have to completely deplete and then recharge a new battery, a couple of cycles, to calibrate it.

Use it til zero, plug it in overnight to charge to 100%,then do it again. 2-3 cycles should calibrate it, so you hopefully don't go through that again.

As others said, also check the battery saver, to see what is eating it.

 

[themadpoet1]

Woke up at the crack of noon with a full battery - let's see how it holds up today. I still think this is the greatest phone ever made.

 

[gordonfink]

Hope it goes well - that is a great piece of hardware

 

[themadpoet1]

The phone died again today on the way to work with 75%-80% battery left. I noticed that the music player started displaying errors and wouldn't play the music, and that's when I attempted a restart, and that's when it wouldn't turn back on. Happened both times. I wonder if a software recovery would fix this phone.

 

[maclancer]

The phone died again today on the way to work with 75%-80% battery left. I noticed that the music player started displaying errors and wouldn't play the music, and that's when I attempted a restart, and that's when it wouldn't turn back on. Happened both times. I wonder if a software recovery would fix this phone.

Use the recovery tool to wipe the phone and install a fresh OS and Firmware.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

I'm surprised that happened if it's new, but sometimes you have to completely deplete and then recharge a new battery, a couple of cycles, to calibrate it.

Use it til zero, plug it in overnight to charge to 100%,then do it again. 2-3 cycles should calibrate it, so you hopefully don't go through that again.

As others said, also check the battery saver, to see what is eating it.

you should never completely discharge an LiOn battery. They don't like it.

 

[worldspy99]

The phone died again today on the way to work with 75%-80% battery left. I noticed that the music player started displaying errors and wouldn't play the music, and that's when I attempted a restart, and that's when it wouldn't turn back on. Happened both times. I wonder if a software recovery would fix this phone.

Yup you should start fresh using the Recovery Tool and perhaps not use Preview For Developers for a bit...

 

[BaritoneGuy]

Make sure you're not using any other charger with it. I misplaced my 635 charger and charged it with a Note 2 charger. Next day it said 100% but was at 20% an hour and a half later. Haven't had that issue since using its original charger.

Except that it wasn't the charger. If it said 100% then it would be a background process causing the issue. I have a myriad of devices that use micro USB to charge and the only difference is the amount of time it takes to charge. 100% is 100% regardless of the charger.

in fact what we call a charger is actually a power adapter and not a charger. All the charging circuitry is actually in the device itself.

i am not disputing what you say, just that the facts around what caused it are different.

 

[realwarder]

you should never completely discharge an LiOn battery. They don't like it.

Totally agree with this and think people who are always into 'recalibrating' the battery are just reducing their battery life.

A single charge cycle should make a phone work for life unless there are other issues. Battery Saver should really be 'charge me' if you want longevity of your battery.

Some interesting docs for WP and batteries are:

https://dev.windowsphone.com/en-US/OEM/docs/Phone_Bring-Up/Battery_charging_in_the_boot_environment

 

[themadpoet1]

Last night I used Nokia Software Recovery and recovered the original software. Then I used developer's preview to get Denim, which I've done the last time as well. I haven't used it much with Cyan, but could Developers Preview Denim be screwing up this phone? How could I get denim with an unlocked 1520 without using DP? Today on the way to work for the 3rd day in a row, I tried to play music, xbox music came up with errors and said it couldn't play, so i proceeded to reboot and it wouldn't turn on again. I'm going to restore the phone again and see if it does this without the developer's preview. This is bad because I like the live app folders on the start screen with Denim.

 

[christenmartin]

Last night I used Nokia Software Recovery and recovered the original software. Then I used developer's preview to get Denim, which I've done the last time as well. I haven't used it much with Cyan, but could Developers Preview Denim be screwing up this phone? How could I get denim with an unlocked 1520 without using DP? Today on the way to work for the 3rd day in a row, I tried to play music, xbox music came up with errors and said it couldn't play, so i proceeded to reboot and it wouldn't turn on again. I'm going to restore the phone again and see if it does this without the developer's preview. This is bad because I like the live app folders on the start screen with Denim.

Same thing happened to mine when I was using developer preview for 8.1. Glichy and got hotter then 💩. Burnered up my front camera. Moral of the story don't use developer preview with 938.