What to do about your Essential PH-1 that won’t turn on [Troubleshooting Guide]

The Essential PH-1 is one of the phones that really built some hype prior to its release. It’s a pretty phone with impressive specs but it received mixed reviews from experts as well as its owners. But we’re not here for that. We’re actually here to provide support to our readers who might have issues with this device and based on experience, the most common problems users often encounter are power-related.

So, in this post, I will tackle the issue involving the Essential phone that won’t turn on or unresponsive. I know some would immediately decide to bring the phone back to the store if they encounter some issues and I think that’s your best option. However, there are a few procedures you can do to try to see if the problem can be fixed on your own or if the phone needs immediately technical attention. So, if you have this problem with your phone and are willing to do the basic troubleshooting, then read on. Otherwise, bring the phone back to the store.

Now, before we actually do some procedures here, if you are looking for a solution to a different problem, then try to visit our Essential PH-1 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most commonly reported issues. Try to find problems that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work or if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

How to troubleshoot Essential phone that won’t turn on

Our troubleshooting will be centered on bringing the phone to respond or turn back on. We just have to do a few troubleshooting procedures here and if it still refuses to come back on, then it’s the time to bring it back to the store and probably negotiate a replacement.

Step 1: Charge your Essential phone

Assuming you were able to use the phone for weeks or days before this problem started, then there’s a reason to believe this problem is caused by something. However, if the phone won’t turn on out of the box, there’s a possibility it’s a manufacturing defect. But I want you to try charging the phone to see how it responds.

• If it charges normally and actually shows the charging signs especially the battery symbol with lightning bolt, then the phone might work after the battery gets some charge. Allow the device to charge for at least ten minutes before turning it on.
• If the phone heats up when connected to its charger, immediately remove the charger and bring it back to the store. Do not try troubleshooting a unit that heats up fast while charging, it’s dangerous. Let the tech check the device for you.
• If the phone doesn’t show the charging signs and you’re using the original charger and cable, then bring it back to the store and have it replaced.

Step 2: Try to do the Forced Reboot procedure

Assuming your phone doesn’t respond to charger and won’t turn on, try doing the Forced Reboot as the firmware may have crashed for some reason. Press and hold the Volume Down and the Power keys together for 15 seconds. If it turns on, then I believe the problem is solved by now, otherwise, try doing the next steps.

Step 3: Attempt to boot it up in Recovery mode

We simply need to know if the phone is capable of powering its hardware or not. At this state though, we cannot start it up in Safe mode simply because it won’t respond when the Power key is pressed so we’ll have to try starting it up in recovery mode.

• Press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys together for at least 30 seconds.

If the phone turns on and shows you a black screen with blue, red or yellow texts, then you’ve successfully brought the phone to start in this mode. You may continue your troubleshooting by wiping the cache partition or doing the factory reset. You can highlight options from that screen by using the volume down button and select an option by pressing the power key.

On the other hand, if the phone refused to turn on even in this mode, then you have no other option but to bring it back to the store and negotiate a replacement from your provider.

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