i910 all screwed up from cheap Chinese charger!! Help!!

[Guest SuzukiDan]

When I first got my Omnia i910 I purchased an accessory pack on ebay consisting of screen protectors, a wall charger, and a car charger.

Recently I was using the car charger when suddenly my phone acted like the battery was low. It automatically turned the phone off as if the battery was dead - yet the phone was plugged in, and 5 minutes ago before I plugged it in, my battery was at 50%. So I know the battery wasnt truly low..

Next the phone started acting screwy, and the power button wouldnt turn it off so I pulled the battery out. Upon placing it back in the phone, I unplugged it from the charger and it started to boot showing the Omnia logo, then immediately goes black and reboots showing the omnia logo again, similar to if the battery was totally dead.

So I plugged it back in and it got further into windows, but before I could make a call or anything it shut down on its own. The black & white charging battery icon showed up, then after a minute of this it had an X on the battery with a message under it, something like "Overtemp Pause" .. uh oh..

So I unplugged everything till I got home, plugged it into my normal wall charger. It was able to boot up to windows and acted normal, but the battery was at like 2% and it was not taking any charge. It said "charging" but the indicator never went up for an hour or two. When I try to do anything the requires any power, like making a call or texting, it complains the battery is low again and shuts the phone off.

Other mysterious behavior is the power button now starts the phone / shuts it down instantly after pressing it - before all this, I had to hold my power button for a few seconds to startup / shutdown. Also when I plug the battery back in it start up on its own, or tries to anyway... without me hitting the power button. Odd..

Finally .. I got a new battery on eBay, from a certified seller.. its an official Samsung battery not some knockoff. And the phone is still acting all screwed up - now it wont even load windows at all it just shows the "Omnia" logo then reboots over and over , plugged in or not..

So... whats the deal here? Is my phone dead for good? Its not a huge deal EXCEPT that I have over 1000 pictures stored on the "My Storage" that I really, REALLY do not want to lose! Is there anything I can do or try to get the phone to work? If not, how about getting my pics off the internal memory??

Thanks in advance!

[Guest chopperthedog]

Your post sounds like the "The death of my i760 after getting that stupid samsung cradle charger". But I could never pin it on the charger. I suspected that keeping the phone in my shorts pocket while working and sweating subjected my i760 to a high moisture environment. So charger/humidity? I don't know. But it is uncanny the details you describe, I lived.

I notice you don't mention attempting a hard reset. Did it on mine. And I transfered contacts via active sync and started to put phone back the way it was and 20 minutes in it freaked again. Repeated last sentence with same results. And 3rd reset remains on VZW screen R.I.P.... You might get a little life with a reset. And retrieve pics.

I feel for you.

good day.

[Guest SuzukiDan]

Your post sounds like the "The death of my i760 after getting that stupid samsung cradle charger". But I could never pin it on the charger. I suspected that keeping the phone in my shorts pocket while working and sweating subjected my i760 to a high moisture environment. So charger/humidity? I don't know. But it is uncanny the details you describe, I lived.

I notice you don't mention attempting a hard reset. Did it on mine. And I transfered contacts via active sync and started to put phone back the way it was and 20 minutes in it freaked again. Repeated last sentence with same results. And 3rd reset remains on VZW screen R.I.P.... You might get a little life with a reset. And retrieve pics.

I feel for you.

good day.

Wow that sucks. Thanks for the suggestion. I noticed if I leave the phone turned off and plugged in, the charge screen flashes on and off, sometimes it says "Battery Disconnected!" then flashes black and starts charging again.. wierd ..

So If I let it sit like this for an hour or so, I was able to get it to boot to windows while plugged in. I quickly turned it to airplane mode to save power and started transferring my pics. Surprisingly the phone worked fine for this and the battery stayed at about 5%. However once finished, I tried to unplug the phone and it immediately complained about a critical battery, then shut itself down 5 seconds later.

So it would seem the phones battery management hardware, or charging / power supply module is fried. I doubt theres anyway to service this even with some amatuer soldering skills.

Now the question is, replace it with what? Omnia II? Meh.. I'm definitely addicted to flashing now and loved the Omnia, just wished it was about twice as fast with a better touch screen. Anything like that exist?

[Guest Billus]

Wow that sucks. Thanks for the suggestion. I noticed if I leave the phone turned off and plugged in, the charge screen flashes on and off, sometimes it says "Battery Disconnected!" then flashes black and starts charging again.. wierd ..

So If I let it sit like this for an hour or so, I was able to get it to boot to windows while plugged in. I quickly turned it to airplane mode to save power and started transferring my pics. Surprisingly the phone worked fine for this and the battery stayed at about 5%. However once finished, I tried to unplug the phone and it immediately complained about a critical battery, then shut itself down 5 seconds later.

So it would seem the phones battery management hardware, or charging / power supply module is fried. I doubt theres anyway to service this even with some amatuer soldering skills.

Now the question is, replace it with what? Omnia II? Meh.. I'm definitely addicted to flashing now and loved the Omnia, just wished it was about twice as fast with a better touch screen. Anything like that exist?

Get a Samsung Galaxy S. The touch screen on that phone is amazing. I barely touch the screen and it responds; no seriously, i place my finger just a teeny weeny bit over the screen, not even touching it and it responds.

It's a great phone. If you like Windows Mobile, you'll definitely like Android. Flashing custom roms, themes, change the fonts, notification bar etc etc. Great, great phone. Beats my old Omnia hands down.

Here's where you'll find the most active community. Have a quick browse through: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=656

Often, there will be links that go to and from Modaco so it is quite a big community.

Edit: You say twice as fast? Try 10, no 20 times faster at least. The Omnia II is rubbish and Windows Mobile is a dead platform, don't expect any new apps or community involvement in the next year and thereafter. It's a three way battle between iOS 4, Androind and Windows Phone 7. Palm, Symbian and Blackberry are in the distant 4, 5 and 6.

Edited September 11, 2010 by Billus

[Guest SuzukiDan]

Get a Samsung Galaxy S. The touch screen on that phone is amazing. I barely touch the screen and it responds; no seriously, i place my finger just a teeny weeny bit over the screen, not even touching it and it responds.

It's a great phone. If you like Windows Mobile, you'll definitely like Android. Flashing custom roms, themes, change the fonts, notification bar etc etc. Great, great phone. Beats my old Omnia hands down.

Here's where you'll find the most active community. Have a quick browse through: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=656

Often, there will be links that go to and from Modaco so it is quite a big community.

Edit: You say twice as fast? Try 10, no 20 times faster at least. The Omnia II is rubbish and Windows Mobile is a dead platform, don't expect any new apps or community involvement in the next year and thereafter. It's a three way battle between iOS 4, Androind and Windows Phone 7. Palm, Symbian and Blackberry are in the distant 4, 5 and 6.

Thanks for the advice, but I'm having trouble with finding which galaxy S you mean - apparently theres several versions.. Samsung Fascinate, Vibrant, Captivate... but they all say they are a "Galaxy S" as well. So whats the deal? What are the highlight differences, and which one do you have?

[Guest Billus]

Thanks for the advice, but I'm having trouble with finding which galaxy S you mean - apparently theres several versions.. Samsung Fascinate, Vibrant, Captivate... but they all say they are a "Galaxy S" as well. So whats the deal? What are the highlight differences, and which one do you have?

Yeah, I understand your confusion. I believe you live in the states? The Vibrant, Facinate, Captivate are the names given (as well as branded) by the Telco's. Fascinate on Verizon, Samsung Captivate on AT&T, Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile and Samsung Epic 4G (the one with the keyboard a.k.a. Samsung Galaxy S Pro) on Sprint.

Since I live in Australia, I've got the Galaxy S i9000 which is the unmodified and unbranded Galaxy S by Samsung. They all use the same hardware though some have more tactile buttons than others. Really, it comes down to who offers you the better plan.

If you compare it to other phones, I wouldn't rely on synthetic benchmarks which show that Snapdragon powered phones are more powerful than the Hummingbird used on the Galaxy S. Most of these benchmarks are written and optimized for the Snapdragon platform. When it comes to games or anything graphical, the GPU on the Galaxy S limits the frame rate to the refresh rate used on the screen which is 56hz. In saying that, the best way to compare this phone when in comes to graphics is by using Gameloft's Real Football 2010 which indecently has no framelock. The Desire, Nexus One and all other HTC phones can play this game without any trouble, fully playable, silky smooth. On the other hand, this is what happens when it's played on the Galaxy S - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0DxP0sk5s0. As you can see, it plays not at 30fps, but 56 as it is limited by the refresh rate. The Galaxy S also has no problems running a PS1 emulator as well as GBA, SNES etc with the sound perfectly in sync.

What really convinced me to go with the Galaxy S was the screen. Comparing the Desire to the Galaxy S side-by-side and you won't want a Desire. The Super AMOLED looks amazing. The few bugs with the Galaxy S have been ironed out in the Froyo beta (from Samsung via Kies) and have made general improvements to the speed of the phone and the battery life. This phone will easily last two years with the big boys with an active community and great hardware (source code has also been made public by Samsung). This baby is a pleasure to use and surpasses the Omnia in every way. Texting on this phone is super easy. I seriously can't praise this phone enough.

[Guest SuzukiDan]

Yeah, I understand your confusion. I believe you live in the states? The Vibrant, Facinate, Captivate are the names given (as well as branded) by the Telco's. Fascinate on Verizon, Samsung Captivate on AT&T, Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile and Samsung Epic 4G (the one with the keyboard a.k.a. Samsung Galaxy S Pro) on Sprint.

Since I live in Australia, I've got the Galaxy S i9000 which is the unmodified and unbranded Galaxy S by Samsung. They all use the same hardware though some have more tactile buttons than others. Really, it comes down to who offers you the better plan.

If you compare it to other phones, I wouldn't rely on synthetic benchmarks which show that Snapdragon powered phones are more powerful than the Hummingbird used on the Galaxy S. Most of these benchmarks are written and optimized for the Snapdragon platform. When it comes to games or anything graphical, the GPU on the Galaxy S limits the frame rate to the refresh rate used on the screen which is 56hz. In saying that, the best way to compare this phone when in comes to graphics is by using Gameloft's Real Football 2010 which indecently has no framelock. The Desire, Nexus One and all other HTC phones can play this game without any trouble, fully playable, silky smooth. On the other hand, this is what happens when it's played on the Galaxy S - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0DxP0sk5s0. As you can see, it plays not at 30fps, but 56 as it is limited by the refresh rate. The Galaxy S also has no problems running a PS1 emulator as well as GBA, SNES etc with the sound perfectly in sync.

What really convinced me to go with the Galaxy S was the screen. Comparing the Desire to the Galaxy S side-by-side and you won't want a Desire. The Super AMOLED looks amazing. The few bugs with the Galaxy S have been ironed out in the Froyo beta (from Samsung via Kies) and have made general improvements to the speed of the phone and the battery life. This phone will easily last two years with the big boys with an active community and great hardware (source code has also been made public by Samsung). This baby is a pleasure to use and surpasses the Omnia in every way. Texting on this phone is super easy. I seriously can't praise this phone enough.

You are right, this is an amazing phone - only problem is they are still really new and since I'm on pageplus, I cant get a Verizon discount so I need to buy out of pocket- making a $400-$500 phone a little too much for me.. =(

Now looking at the LG ALLY for a possible android phone.. looks like those can be had for about half as much.

[Guest Billus]

You are right, this is an amazing phone - only problem is they are still really new and since I'm on pageplus, I cant get a Verizon discount so I need to buy out of pocket- making a $400-$500 phone a little too much for me.. =(

Now looking at the LG ALLY for a possible android phone.. looks like those can be had for about half as much.

Wouldn't it be possible to get the phone $0 upfront on a plan? Mines only costing $49/m over 24 months (2 months free) with Optus Australia and our telcos are known to be expensive... Perhaps look at another service to go with if you can.

I would recommend against the LG Ally and if you do have to go for a cheaper phone. I wholeheartedly recommend a Motorola Droid (aka Milestone) instead. Hardware is still pretty good (much better than the LG) and the OMAP processor can, I believe, reach from 650mhz to 1ghz since it is a underclocked cpu (rooting + overclocking). Another reason to go with the Milestone is that it has Froyo (Android 2.2) and I believe has a much more active community. Another alternative is the HTC Legend which has the aluminum body. When looking at a cheaper phone, always, always ,make sure you ask whether or not the screen is capacitive. You do not want another resistive screen once you've tried a capacitive.

Either way, you'll be much happier with any of these devices compared to the Omnia.

[Guest SuzukiDan]

Wouldn't it be possible to get the phone $0 upfront on a plan? Mines only costing $49/m over 24 months (2 months free) with Optus Australia and our telcos are known to be expensive... Perhaps look at another service to go with if you can.

I would recommend against the LG Ally and if you do have to go for a cheaper phone. I wholeheartedly recommend a Motorola Droid (aka Milestone) instead. Hardware is still pretty good (much better than the LG) and the OMAP processor can, I believe, reach from 650mhz to 1ghz since it is a underclocked cpu (rooting + overclocking). Another reason to go with the Milestone is that it has Froyo (Android 2.2) and I believe has a much more active community. Another alternative is the HTC Legend which has the aluminum body. When looking at a cheaper phone, always, always ,make sure you ask whether or not the screen is capacitive. You do not want another resistive screen once you've tried a capacitive.

Either way, you'll be much happier with any of these devices compared to the Omnia.

Thanks! That is very informative! I did not know the motorola droid made such a formidable platform if modded.

The USA plans are not that cheap - I am looking at $75-80 for a data phone plan on Verizon, other providers are about the same if not more.. This is why I use pagepluscellular as they are only $30 a month, only problem is I am limited to 50mb of data a month! So Having a phone that can be modified to disable background data use like most droids do, is critical. My omnia was very good at conserving data. 50 mb would last me a month no problem if I just limited myself to manual email updates, manual google maps searches, manual quick webpage lookups and pic messages.

I know of people who blindly activated droid phones on page plus and used up their 50mb in about 1 hour.. lol ..

[Guest yugoport]

Yeah, I understand your confusion. I believe you live in the states? The Vibrant, Facinate, Captivate are the names given (as well as branded) by the Telco's. Fascinate on Verizon, Samsung Captivate on AT&T, Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile and Samsung Epic 4G (the one with the keyboard a.k.a. Samsung Galaxy S Pro) on Sprint.

Since I live in Australia, I've got the Galaxy S i9000 which is the unmodified and unbranded Galaxy S by Samsung. They all use the same hardware though some have more tactile buttons than others. Really, it comes down to who offers you the better plan.

If you compare it to other phones, I wouldn't rely on synthetic benchmarks which show that Snapdragon powered phones are more powerful than the Hummingbird used on the Galaxy S. Most of these benchmarks are written and optimized for the Snapdragon platform. When it comes to games or anything graphical, the GPU on the Galaxy S limits the frame rate to the refresh rate used on the screen which is 56hz. In saying that, the best way to compare this phone when in comes to graphics is by using Gameloft's Real Football 2010 which indecently has no framelock. The Desire, Nexus One and all other HTC phones can play this game without any trouble, fully playable, silky smooth. On the other hand, this is what happens when it's played on the Galaxy S - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0DxP0sk5s0. As you can see, it plays not at 30fps, but 56 as it is limited by the refresh rate. The Galaxy S also has no problems running a PS1 emulator as well as GBA, SNES etc with the sound perfectly in sync.

What really convinced me to go with the Galaxy S was the screen. Comparing the Desire to the Galaxy S side-by-side and you won't want a Desire. The Super AMOLED looks amazing. The few bugs with the Galaxy S have been ironed out in the Froyo beta (from Samsung via Kies) and have made general improvements to the speed of the phone and the battery life. This phone will easily last two years with the big boys with an active community and great hardware (source code has also been made public by Samsung). This baby is a pleasure to use and surpasses the Omnia in every way. Texting on this phone is super easy. I seriously can't praise this phone enough.

Dont want to highjack the thread, but i´m thinking in replacing my omnia, but i use a lot 3 things in my phone, phone function, gps(tomtom and igo ) and camera.. what is your opinion about the last 2, i read that the galaxy S doesnt have flash, how are the photos in low light environment?? and gps software, anything close to tomtom, and its reception?? i´m in doubt between the galaxy and xperia x10.. thanks in advance..

Edited September 14, 2010 by yugoport

[Guest Billus]

Dont want to highjack the thread, but i´m thinking in replacing my omnia, but i use a lot 3 things in my phone, phone function, gps(tomtom and igo ) and camera.. what is your opinion about the last 2, i read that the galaxy S doesnt have flash, how are the photos in low light environment?? and gps software, anything close to tomtom, and its reception?? i´m in doubt between the galaxy and xperia x10.. thanks in advance..

Don't get the Xperia unless you want a slow phone with outdated software/OS (Android 1.6!). CoPilot and/or Google Navigator (which is free) works well as a GPS replacement. I'm sure IGO will release a version for high-res phones (currently only for 320*240 screens and high end Motorola devices).

Screen quality is easily the best on the Galaxy S. Durability is also great. Just today, screwed up whilst mucking around doing some tight carving down the hill on my mini-longboard and apart from killing my palms, elbow and shoulder and internal orgins (badly winded for a couple of minutes), my phone that was in my skinnies, felt the fall and roll as well. Only deeply scratched the corner of the hump but to call it "cheap" plastic like some reviewers call it is inaccurate. It is a light, strong plastic and no other part of my phone was damaged. I was worried the screen would have cracked but nothing. It's a very well built phone and far better built than the Omnia. I'd say it easly beats the Desire.

Froyo is being or has been released for the Galaxy S (leaked version through Kies) so the phone is well updated by Samsung. I'd highly recommend this device over anything else. You can easily change the UI of the phone if you don't like Touchwiz.