Thursday, March 23, 2017

Samsung Gear S2 Won't Turn On - How I fixed it

I was a reluctant buyer of a smartwatch. I got the Gear S2 refurbished a few months ago and I ended up really liking it. Unfortunately, I had one charger die and had to replace it. Otherwise, it has been all good.... until yesterday. I grabbed my watch off the charger and it was dead. It wouldn't even turn on. The charger indicator LED showed blue as if it were charging. I went watch-less for the day. Upon returning home, I tried the following steps which brought my Gear S2 back to life:

  1. Remove any protective backing from the watch (I had a protector skin on it)
  2. Plug the charger into a computer USB (low voltage) port
  3. Place the watch on the charger
  4. Wait 2-3 minutes
  5. The watchface should light up and show that it is charging
  6. Let it fully charge (will take awhile)
  7. Take it off charger and power on
  8. Back to normal! Charge with regular power adapter again as needed
Essentially, my watch refused to charge on the regular power adapter. It would only "trickle-charge" on the lower voltage power source. I think it was in some sort of protective anti-overheating mode as it had been very hot when I pulled it off the charger when it wouldn't power on. The low voltage charge must have been "allowed" by the software whereas the higher voltage charging was being restricted. Just my theory...

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