Is it dead?

[upnorth]

Not a real phone guy, more a computer/network geek. Samsung Galaxy S won't power up, just flashes a battery on the screen for a few seconds and then clears and dead. Just unplugged it from the charger so I am assuming the battery has a charge. 2nd time it has happened. Trying to figure out if I need to go get a phone or is something is wrong with the charger.

Thoughts?

[MuleShack]

How old is the battery? People say they are only good for about a year.

Did you pull the battery for a few minutes and then put back in?

If that doesn't work, stop at your nearest branch store and see if they have a new battery you could test it with to verify if it is bad battery or bad phone.

[CAMAN]

Do you have another charger you could try? I've had that happen before and turned out the charger was going bad.

If that doesn't do it pull the battery for 10 minutes to clear anything that may be hung up.

[nofishfisherman]

One last thing to try is to pull the battery and clean the contact points on the battery and the phone. I've had several phones where dust, dirt, pocket lint, or whatever will get in there and prevent a good connection from being made between the phone and the battery. It makes it look like a bad or dead battery when it happens.

Otherwise it could be the battery or charger is dead. If you have a car charger or another charger that works you could try that. Otherwise you could probably bring it in to wherever you bought it and ask if you could try a known good battery just to see if that is the issue.

[upnorth]

Well I borrowed a USB cable from someone at work and plugged it in and it came back on. Battery was still charged so that didn't go dead.

Yeah I had pulled the battery and cleaned the contacts several times. Also let it sit with the battery out for a several minutes. Hope it isn't an indication it is dying on me. Heading out on a trip overseas in a few days

[Whoaru99]

Is it a World (tri/quad band) phone?

Also, be careful with roaming data costs. I (well, the company) have been whacked with as much as ~$21/MB.

[upnorth]

I did go to AT&T and get an international Voice, Text and Data plan. Won't be outright free, but it does lower the costs for calls and I get 128 MB of data.

[Valv]

In 2008 I had AT&T. I went to Italy for a month to assist my father passing away. I had the International plan, and yes I did call home a lot, but nothing out of ordinary. When I got back the bill came and was around $ 975, even with all the discounts applied.

[SpecialK]

Turn off data roaming if you don't absolutely need it. My verizon was telling me I hit $150 10 mins after turning it on at the airport.

[upnorth]

Text is covered and 128 MB of data is covered, voice will still be about$.99 per minute. Was out of this world without it.