Samsung Brightside won't turn on (power button doesn't work anymore)
ps48
Newbie

Hi, I still have a Samsung Brightside, but lately it's acting erratic.  There is no physical or water damage.

What it's been doing is this:  when I slide out the keyboard to type with it, the screen turns white.  If I slide it back in, the screen remains white, rendering the entire phone unusable.  At this point I'm forced to turn off the phone by removing the battery.  This has been annoying since I liked using the physical keyboard to type in the past, but, I was still able to use the phone by using the touch screen to text instead of the keyboard, so that's what I've been doing for a really long time.  Lately, however, the power button has been getting harder and harder to use.  Sometimes I'm sitting there for several minutes, trying to press-and-hold the power button at different angles to turn the phone on, until I finally get the "right angle" and it finally turns on.  The frustrating part is it needs to be held down for like 5 seconds, so I have literally no way of knowing which exact angle/pressure point it wants, I just have to keep trying.  Up until now, I've EVENTUALLY been able to get it to turn on.  Since the power button has been getting weaker and weaker, I figure I should just never turn my phone off anymore.  Well, today when I pulled my wallet out of my pocket, the leather stuck against my phone and pulled the slide-out keyboard open while in my pocket, so, of course the screen turned white, rendering the phone unusable again, so I was forced to remove the battery again to turn it off.

And now it just won't turn on anymore at all.  Let me be clear that it is NOT the battery.  It's fully charged and the last time it was on, it was full, and even though this phone is old, the battery lasts a really long time (like seriously more than a week) while the phone is On, as long as I'm not using it constantly or using the camera on it.  If the phone is just sitting there On, but in energy saving mode where the screen is temporarily black until I press something, the battery seems to last forever.  But just to verify it's not the battery, when I plug it to my computer/usb or a wall charger, it will show the Verizon logo, then show the battery charging screen, and after 20-60 sec or so it will say that it's fully charged.  Anyway, this is all just to explain that I know for a fact that it's NOT the battery.  It's the physical power button.

I have tried taking the battery out, putting it back in and turning it on.  I've tried plugging it into a charger and turning it on while it's charging (which is what seemed to work best before...), and I've tried plugging it into a charger and removing the battery and trying to turn it on.  The power button just doesn't work.  It clicks down just fine, but the phone isn't turning on.

I don't care about my saving my photos or text history, I also don't really care about warranty as it's long since expired.  I do occasionally get VZW texts telling me I'm eligible for a new phone but this is not the point -- My issue is that I have dozens of contacts that I really need saved, and as far as I know, the only way I can get those numbers again is by actually turning the phone ON, which I cannot do because of the power button.  What do I do?  Is there any other way I can turn this phone on.  Thanks.

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3 Replies
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

We understand your concern to have your contacts back, and to have a working device. If the power button is not working, there may not be much we can do. Our best recommendations would be to try to connect your device to a PC or laptop to see if you can get the information out of the device. You can also try heading to one of our store locations near you to see if one of our agents can give some on-hands assistance. Find all stores around you at, VZW.com/Stores.

 

JavierMD_VZW

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boringusername
Master - Level 1

That is a very old phone. time to upgrade

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ps48
Newbie

I think you only read the title.  Can't get a new phone until I can turn my old phone on and retrieve all of my contacts.

Found a solution on my own.  Sent it to an electronics shops that works on laptops and phones.

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