White light of death?

[phillygator]

So I was on a road trip the other day and was using my Razr as a GPS. I happened to notice the phone was down to 30%, so I plugged in the car charger (not an official Razr charger). Immediately the phone shut down, and powered back up.

HOWEVER, the phone only got to the red M Dual Core technology screen before shutting down again. At that point the phone became completely unresponsive, so I took it to the Verizon store. The two salesmen played around with it, trying different button combinations (power + vol up, etc...). Nothing worked. Since the indicator light showed nothing while plugged in they told me the phone was fried.

When I got home today I tried plugging it into my computer and a solid white light comes on but the phone still wont boot. I also tried the wall charger and a certified Razr car charger, but I get nothing.

I've looked around online for answers but no one seems to have answers that work for me. Any direction would be much appreciated.

 

[jhev1]

Something similar happened to me the other day when my battery was at zero. Was at my desk so I plugged into the PC to charge (too lazy to go to bedroom where real charger is). Got the white light. Let it sit there for a while, still had white light, then finally went to real charger. Let it charge up a bit, works fine now. Not identical situation, but similar. Maybe your battery is fried.

 

[jhev1]

And if you keep the razr, replace warranty, etc, invest in the car dock. It's really well done.

 

[FoxKat]

First, the example you described is indicative of a meter that is out of calibration with the battery. There are plenty of examples just like this which prove my claims. You will want to perform a battery meter calibration or "training".

First, power the phone completely off. This is done by pressing and holding the power button, and then selecting "Power off". Next, plug in the stock Motorola charger and stock USB Charger cable. Three phone will boot to Charger only mode and display a large battery icon and percentage of charge. In Gingerbread the icon is a green liquid that swishes back and forth. In ICS, it's blue and just rises and falls.

Let it charge completely to 100%. To check levels, press either volume button briefly.

Once it reaches 100%, (up to 3 hours for the RAZR, 5.5 hours for the MAXX), disconnect and power up. Use the phone as you normally would, but when the battery reaches 15% and the "Low battery" warning appears, power the phone of again and repeat three charge with power off to 100%.

In the future, you should perform the meter training about every 2-3 months. Also, if the phone is replaced, make sure you charge to 100% BEFORE you power the phone up and activate it.

Finally, DO NOT allow the phone to reach 0% and power off on its own.

Note, i am moving this thread to the Smartphone Battery Discussion forum, but a link will remain here as well.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[phillygator]

@ FoxKat...my problem involves the phone not turning on at all, not battery calibration. The only time I get a response of any sort from the phone is when I plug into computer, and even then it's only a solid white notification light.

 

[FoxKat]

@ FoxKat...my problem involves the phone not turning on at all, not battery calibration. The only time I get a response of any sort from the phone is when I plug into computer, and even then it's only a solid white notification light.

Sorry Phillygator, I did understand your situation, and my answer was really an answer to both you and the post after yours from jhev1. The reason the phone won't turn on any longer IS likely related to an improperly calibrated meter (not improperly calibrated battery), as just the fact that it went from 30% to nothing in the blink of an eye tells me the battery was much deeper discharged than the meter was indicating at the time. This is the typical cause for the White Light of Death.

It is recoverable in most instances, and once recovered if the meter training procedure outlined by me is performed you shouldn't have any trouble from there forward.

Of course, the issue at hand for you (not for jhev1) is that you can't get it to begin the charging process at all. This is most likely because the battery is so deeply discharged that when plugged in it's pulling more current than the charger is able to supply, and so the phone is left saying "hey, what about me?". If the battery is using all 750mAh of current from the charger, then the phone gets into a power war with the battery and doesn't receive the necessary levels of voltage and current it needs to perform the initial short boot process to go into Charge Only mode with power off. The white light is a symptom of this problem.

There have been many solutions described for this, from using a higher powered charger such as a car adapter (typically 1,000mAh), or an iPad adapter (typically 2,100mAh - 2.1A), using the Factory Programming cable (which bypasses the charging circuit), or direct charging the battery by removing the back cover and connecting stripped leads from the charger directly to the positive and negative terminals of the battery.

There have also been some "tricks" to fool the phone into the Charge Only mode by first getting it into AP Fastboot mode but those are hit and miss.

I will say this, the battery is likely fine and in all likelihood isn't in need of replacement. The same typically holds true for the phone.

 

[FoxKat]

@ FoxKat...my problem involves the phone not turning on at all, not battery calibration. The only time I get a response of any sort from the phone is when I plug into computer, and even then it's only a solid white notification light.

Try this...plug it into the STOCK Motorola home charger and Motorola cable (if you don't have a car adapter), and if you see the white light flash, that's a good sign. Let it sit for at least a half-hour (maybe an hour). Even without the charging circuit activated, there is some indication that the battery may be receiving a "trickle" of current, possibly enough to very slowly replenish it to levels necessary for the charging system to kick into gear. I remember reading somewhere in Motorola's vast database that this can work to recover a deep-discharged battery, and eventually the phone will awaken on its own, boot into Charge Only mode (large animated battery), and then proceed to charge under the standard smart charging system.

To check it's progress, while still plugged in briefly tap either volume button and release. Within about 3 seconds, if the charging system is working you should see the large animated battery icon and that's proof that the phone is in good shape again. If after the hour or so, you still get nothing, disconnect, wait 10 seconds, and reconnect. It may do the same brief flash of white light, but this time it may also then go to the red M logo, followed by the Charge Only animated battery.

Good luck! :biggrin:

 

[DamianD]

On my old Motorola V3i only way that works in this case was to connect/disconnect/reconnect the charger as long as it takes to begin to charge. It could be 1-2minutes or 10. But it always worked for me.

 

[ruca]

So I was on a road trip the other day and was using my Razr as a GPS. I happened to notice the phone was down to 30%, so I plugged in the car charger (not an official Razr charger). Immediately the phone shut down, and powered back up.

HOWEVER, the phone only got to the red M Dual Core technology screen before shutting down again. At that point the phone became completely unresponsive, so I took it to the Verizon store. The two salesmen played around with it, trying different button combinations (power + vol up, etc...). Nothing worked. Since the indicator light showed nothing while plugged in they told me the phone was fried.

When I got home today I tried plugging it into my computer and a solid white light comes on but the phone still wont boot. I also tried the wall charger and a certified Razr car charger, but I get nothing.

I've looked around online for answers but no one seems to have answers that work for me. Any direction would be much appreciated.

What did you end up doing? I had the EXACT thing happen to me last night, and went through the 'power button + volume button' to no avail - and the white death light is coming up ONLY when plugged into my computer, but it has been plugged in for about 4 hours and nothing has happened. Very curious to see if you were able to fix this, I was told by the Verizon rep on the phone that I had no options. Thanks =)

 

[phillygator]

What did you end up doing? I had the EXACT thing happen to me last night, and went through the 'power button + volume button' to no avail - and the white death light is coming up ONLY when plugged into my computer, but it has been plugged in for about 4 hours and nothing has happened. Very curious to see if you were able to fix this, I was told by the Verizon rep on the phone that I had no options. Thanks =)

I wish i could give you a great answer, ruca, but basically I had to ditch my bricked Razr and get a new phone. I ended up with a Razr Maxx which, quite frankly is fantastic, but it still cost me $350 in the end. I was on vacation and needed a phone, so verizon had me over a barrel.

Good luck.

 

[Mr.Nobody]

Not a battery issue for me

Ok i have read the previous post and have a similar issue. let me explain what happened and what i have tried maybe someone can help.

I was in the car with the wife's phone and the battery was low (10-15%) The phone was playing music for my kids and i went to plug it in and it shorted out for a lack of a better term. I plugged to non-standard charger and phone went out. I could not turn it back on. We then got home and i plugged it into the stock charger overnight 10 hr charge. In morning still nothing. I tried the volume up and down with the power button with no luck.

Because i have the same phone (droid bionic) i switched my fully charged battery into her phone. Still nothing. I then plugged it into my computer and i would get the white light. Since i did not think it was the battery i pulled it out while still pluged in and the light stays on. Is there something i can do to the phone or is it just a brick now?

 

[vazersecurity]

I had the battery die when there was no bootable OS on the device. I was getting ready to flash the official firmware and I had the device plugged into my computer forgetting the device has no power management when it is in the bootloader, and thus the device doesn't charge. What I did was I took off the back cover carefully and carefully peeled away the back plate from the battery with a screw driver. Then I took a micro USB cable I had laying around and cut off the end and separated the wires that were inside the casing. Then I got a voltage meter and tested the individual combinations. For me, and red was positive and black was negative and I jacked them to the battery connector. I unscrewed them with a really small flat head screwdriver I had laying around because I didn't have a torque 6 lying around that small. And I revived the device. The battery connector was towards the bottom of the device and it labeled the positive and negative sides for me. Good luck hope this helps.