Galaxy S8 battery issue, won’t charge normally, drains power fast, other issues

Hello everyone and welcome to our latest #GalaxyS8 article of the day. In this post, we bring you 4 more S8 problems send our way by some members of our community. These problems are all boot- and/or power-related so we hope you’ll get something out of the provided solutions.

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Below are specific topics we’re bringing for you today:

Problem 1: Galaxy S8 battery issue, won’t charge normally, drains power fast

Galaxy S8. I updated the latest Verizon update on October 3rd. For the past 3 days my phone will not hold a charge. I mostly use it to chat using AIM or Discord, do Facebook, and browse/post on an online forum. Before bed I’ll generally stream a tv episode. I have set my power management, cleared the cache, and performed the volume down+power button reboot. I went from very minimal use in a test my phone went from 100% to 21% in about 36 minutes. I took screen shots to track it.

Here’s the weird thing… I plugged in (original charger), charged to 36%, powered down the phone, and the power-down charging icon appears showing I was at 91%. Rebooted. In the time I’ve typed this I went from 90% to 86%. It should not be draining this quickly, but since that odd 36%-91% instance, I now wonder if it’s really the battery. Any ideas? Aryanun

Solution: Hi Aryanun. An issue like the one you’re having does not necessarily mean the battery is bad. Sometimes, it may mean there’s an operating system bug that causes Android to misread the actual remaining battery power so the first thing that you want to do in this case is see if it’s a calibration issue. To calibrate the phone’s ability to identify the true battery power level, you must do the following:

1. Use the phone by playing games or doing tasks to hasten power discharge, until the phone turns itself off.
2. Charge the phone without turning it back on.
3. Wait until the battery says it is fully charged to 100%.
4. Wait for an hour before unplugging the phone from the charger.
5. Use the phone until battery reaches 0% percent. The phone should turn off by itself.
6. Recharge the phone to 100%, wait for an hour before unplugging it again.
7. The battery should now be recalibrated. Observe how phone works.

Reset all software settings

Another good software trick that you can do to pinpoint where the problem lies (whether it’s software or hardware) is by wiping the phone via factory reset. Once you’ve performed a factory reset, all software settings will be returned to their previous state, which also means that bugs may well be eliminated or minimized. Since we know that all power management related functions of an S8 are fine in factory settings, it’s a good method to use to determine if the cause of the issue is due to bad hardware or not. Simply put, if your phone will charge and hold charge normally after a factory reset, it means a content (app) or an operating system bug that has developed may be causing the problem.

If the issue remains though and the phone continues to behave erratically during charging and battery level drops faster than normal, these can be signs of hardware malfunction. In this case, you’ll need to send the phone in for repair or replacement

Below are the steps on how to factory reset your S8:

1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
2. Turn off the device.
3. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
6. Press Power button to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until Yes — delete all user data is highlighted.
8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Problem 2: Galaxy S8 moisture detected error, won’t charge via USB port

After my phone got soaked, I retired to plug it in and got the moisture detected notification, and instructed to unplug it and wait until it was dry to charge it again. I did so, but they next time I plugged the phone in, it still would not charge. Instead, it got incredibly hot (within two minutes!), I smelled a mild burning metal scent and immediately unplugged it. Please note the phone did not show the moisture detected notification this time. The phone charges without an issue via wireless charging, but i can’t always charge it that way. This is going to be a major issue if it continues. — Melanie

Solution: Hi Melanie. Keep in mind that your phone may be water resistant but that doesn’t mean it’s completely protected from water intrusion. It’s not advisable to use your phone while swimming or exposing it to high-pressure water jets or sudden underwater movements. Its water resistant protection is effective against occasional splashes but that’s it. We don’t know what truly happened to your device but it’s obviously showing some signs of possible water exposure of internal components.

Normally, your S8 will warn you that there’s water or moisture in the charging port area by showing the “moisture detected” error. If there’s remaining moisture in the charging port, it may not give off the moisture detected error but will continue to prevent the device from charging. The burning smell of metal though can be a sign of something more serious, like the charging port being shorted or fried.

Try to shake the phone gently to dislodge some remaining water in the port and place the device near an indirect heat source, like the back of a TV. Do not place the phone near a fire, oven, direct sunlight, inside a hot car, or anything that emits too much heat to prevent damaging other components. Water generally evaporates on its own after a few hours so let your phone stand for a few hours. If the charging port continues to act up (won’t charge and makes burning metal smell), that may mean you have a bad hardware. You must contact Samsung so they can take a look at it.

Problem 3: Galaxy S8 can’t charge via USB port

Hi. Thanks before for your troubleshooting tips for Samsung S8. My phone is unable to charge via the USB port but it works well with the wireless charging dock. First I’m suspecting my USB port is broken, but I try to use the port using USB connector with USB flash drive it works fine and flawless. What kind of problem my phone is facing? Am I need to have full software reinstall in samsung service center? Thank you Henry.Soeratno

Solution: Hi Henry. There are three things that happen when you connect your phone to a computer:

1. It can charge,
2. transmit and receive data, or
3. do both

If your phone charges fine when it’s connected to the computer and is able to move files to and fro, then there’s no phone issue at all. The problem must lie with the charger and/or USB cable you’re using. In this case, you’ll want to get a new Samsung charger for your S8.

If your phone does not charge when it’s connected to the computer but still allows transfer or files, that can mean a phone problem. It can be a port issue or something in the motherboard so you’ll want to send it in so it can be properly checked. A hardware problem does not have a software solution so forget about doing something in your end.

Problem 4: Galaxy S8 won’t boot normally, can’t boot to Recovery Mode

My phone just keeps saying recovery booting in blue in the upper left hand corner. I can’t get past it. I can enter into download mode however. Odin mode high speed (red)  current binary Samsung official  system status: official frp lock: On  warranty void: 0x0  Qualcomm secureboot: Enable rp swrev: B4(2,1,1,1,1) k1 s3  secure download: Enable. Please help. — Trevor

Solution: Hi Trevor. We have no idea what events led to the problem you’re having so telling you what is happening is mere speculation. Failure to boot normally is usually the result of failed software modification or tampering so if you did try to root the device or flashed an unofficial software prior to experiencing the problem, your only way out may be to reflash the bootloader and/or firmware back to stock. Below are the general steps on how to reflash a bootlooader. Exact steps may be slightly different for your device so be sure to consult other guides so you’ll not end up with more mess than what you currently have. Reflashing the bootloader or firmware back to stock are not guaranteed to work in this case so if the phone remains stuck in its current state, consider replacing it.

1. Look for the correct firmware for your phone model and download it. Make sure that you select the right one. It should be the same exact firmware that ran previously on your device. We assume that you list down the firmware version somewhere. If you did not take note of it before, there’s a chance that you may pick the wrong one. As you may know now, using an incorrect firmware can cause complications so good luck with that.
2. Let’s now say that you have identified the correct firmware. You then want to download it to your computer. The firmware file should have a bunch of files in it like AP_, BL_, CSC_, etc.
3. Look for the file that starts with a label BL; this should be the corresponding bootloader file for this firmware. Once you’ve identified the bootloader file, copy it to your computer’s desktop or to any other folder that you can easily access.
4. Proceed with the rest of the flashing procedure using the Odin program.
5. In Odin, click on the BL tab and make sure to use the bootloader file you’ve identified earlier.
6. Now, make sure that the “Device Added” status and its “ID:COM box” has turned blue before hitting the START button. This will initiate the flashing of your phone’s bootloader.
7. Restart the phone once the procedure is finished.

 

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