Very off topic - Mobile phone

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Mrs Pounder Esquire has a Samsung Galaxy GT S5360 mobile phone. When she turned it on today all that appeared on the screen is "Samsung". The power button needs to be held in for this to disappear, then it pops back up again. The phone can't be turned off permanently on the power button. I took the (charged) battery out and the little card and gave the card a wipe with a damp cloth. Still no good. I've pressed and held every button on the thing. Google is not much help, it seems that the phone needs have a working display to attempt any reset, or whatever. I know almost nothing about mobile phones. Is it knackered or is there some sort of fix? Mrs Pounder is not too fussed as she has other phones, I'm curious.

[Brian-Gaff]

Sounds like its sticking half way to powering up to me. Sounds like a hardware issue.

Brian

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Google suggested holding in 3 buttons - so I did. I'm now downloading "Odin" whatever that is. Nothing to lose.

[Tim Watts]

You've activated Recovery Mode - for emergency firmware flashing.

Reboot it again and see what happens...

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

It tells me that it is still downloading. 45 mins so far ..............

[Bill]

I wonder if that will come off your data allowance?

[Tim Watts]

It's not... It's waiting for you to run up a utility on your PC called Odin. You can just reboot the phone - nothing bad will happen.

[Tim Watts]

It won't because nothing is happening...

[Theo]

My guess is one of the volume buttons is stuck down, which the phone will detect when it boots and go into recovery mode. Give them a good prod then pull the battery and see if it shifts it.

Theo

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Well, I got fed up of waiting and stopped the download. I still got the "Samsung" logo, then the bloody battery died. I was assured that it was freshly charged. You just can't get the staff. It's on charge now and the screen is blank, no "Samsung" logo. So maybe something has happened. I read the part about downloading Odin onto my PC. As I don't have a suitable cable to fit the stupid phone I'm goosed. The phone did say that it was downloading. It was given to Mrs Pounder Esquire anyway, by a friend who gets a new phone every couple of years or so.

Cheers for the help.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

I'll try that. Thanks.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Dunno. I'm not even sure what data allowance is. Stupid phone! I had the same works phone for years. It got shoved into pockets, slapped onto the dashboard, sat on and it still worked.

[Tim Watts]

You could either locate the firmware (that's the hard bit) and use Odin to re flash the phone - or take it to a mobile phone stall and let them do it. Should not cost much.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

I did not realise that I had to download Odin to my PC . The "downloading" text on the phone screen fooled me. Like I said, I have little idea of mobile phones. I'll keep any eye out for a USB lead with an end that fit this phone. I likes to mess around. I still don't get why the phone says "downloading" when it's not. Thanks to you and all the other guys that replied.