Problem with Gear S3 - will not turn on

[sparkz]

Recently my Gear S3 stopped turning on. It charges ok and shows the status whilst in the charger. The home button also responds whilst in the charger. But as soon as I pick it up, after showing fully charged, it becomes non-responsive - no display no response from buttons.

I can do a reboot via the power button and it says rebooting and then nothing. I did once very briefly get a watch face displayed, for about a second, and then as in other times, nothing. The bluetooth is discoverable any more so I assume this means it isn't actually running properly behind the non-responsive appearance. I also tried the recovery reboot if that is any different but nothing. In fact none of the boot menu options does anything.

Before this happened, it used to turn itself off frequently but I was always able to just power it back on again. I don't know if that was a precursor to this problem. I also noticed the battery consumption is much greater than it used to be when I got it.

Is this now a dead watch? Only just over 3 years!

[AsadM]

Hi @sparkz. Hope you're doing well. Can you please give more information on this? Does the watch respond when you attempt to charge it?

[sparkz]

Hi AsadM

Thanks for your reply. We're in lockdown but surviving thanks! Hope you're staying safe.

When I place it in the charger, it acts as normal. Showing the charging symbol and then how much charge it has. The home button also responds when in the charger - I press it and it shows how much charge. When I take it off the charger, even when at 100%, nothing. No display, no response from the bezel or buttons. Put it back on the charger and again it shows charging straight away. 

The only thing I can do is a reboot but that doesn't seem to achieve anything. It just goes straight into a blank display and no response from buttons. I can also do the boot with options (by pressing the power button multiple times) but none of those options produce any different outcomes.

[AsadM · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the information. Have you tried powering on the watch while it's still on charge?

[sparkz]

Brilliant AsadM. That worked!

I was able to get it to come on as normal. It did disappear again after tapping the watch face in the middle. I did the reboot in the charger again and changed the watch face back to a Samsung one and all is fine now. It would appear a buggy watch face was the cause of the problem.

Thanks again, I'll have to remember that workaround.

[Bonnie2004]

Hello Asad,

My S3 gear wont turn on despite being 100% charges. Any tricks on how to turn it on?

[Ricardo0408]

Greetings,

My Samsung Gear S3 is the Same. 
Its charging normally but after I take it off from the chargen and tried to turn it on it doesn't open.
It only goes to the name Samsung Gear S3 frontier then that's it. 
I also tried rebooting by pressing the on button but it reboots but still the same. 
now i cannot use my Gear. 

[Beepill]

My gear s3 frontier did the same thing yesterday. It rebooted by itself while I was outdoors and it never turned back on after the reboot screen. When I got home I charged it and it showed 100% charge and tried rebooting while on the charger. Nothing happened. Nothing happens when I try to reboot now. Buttons and bezel don't work. The watch worked fine for 23 months and suddenly stopped working. 

[Ricardo0408]

Dear Beepill,

I tried to reset but i did not change anything. I gave up and just send it to the service center. actually i am really disappointed. I took care of my watch more than my phone but this happened. Anyway I am just waiting for the repair by the Samsung service center. 

[Beepill]

I'm so ticked off about it that I don't feel like giving samsung any more money rn. Did they say how much the repair would be?