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3GS randomly freezes up; won't turn on

B

Betelgeuse

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 14, 2008
90
0
So, I've had the iPhone 3GS since launch day and have generally been very happy with it. However, twice since I've gotten it, I've had a problem where it refuses to turn on. It will be in standby mode (i.e. screen off), and I'll go to wake it up as usual (using the power button or the "Home" button) and it won't come on. Thinking that I've turned it off, I'll then hold the power button, but still no response. As far as I can tell, the only way to get it do anything is to hold down the power button and home button together for several seconds and it will finally power on (i.e. show the Apple logo and go through the standard restart sequence). Note that I have not turned the power off in either of these situations; I've just put it into standby.

Something I just noticed after re-powering it on is that the battery indicator seems to be much lower than it should be given its charged state earlier and the time that has elapsed. Perhaps it was running some piece of software that was causing it to lock up?

Any insight here? Have others had problems like this? Any idea on ways to test what the problem is?
 
I had a similar problem with my 1st gen iPhone. Take it in and complain. You might have to do it several times though unless the problems happens while you are there. I also found that calling AppleCare seems to be more forgiving than the genuis bar, they can give you a number to take to the genuis bar and then they're required to replace it for you.
 
Similar Problem

I had something like this happening to my 3GS. I'm on my third replacement currently, and I have to wonder if this is something I'm doing?
 
Next time this happens, try to hold your screen up to a light and see if your slide-to-unlock screen comes up. If this is the case, your backlight is not coming on, but your screen continues to operate...except you just can't see it without the backlight. This has happened to me before and is apparently a known issue with the current OS. Usually, you can still slide to unlock and your screen will come up again.
 
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