Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Charging problem Samsung Galaxy Tab 3

Last year I bought Queenie a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and it's been problem free for a year.  So this year I decided to get myself one and I bought the Tab 3.  The new version. 

I took it out of the box and plugged in the charger.  The screen sort of blinked a faint light then dark faint light then dark.  I thought it was charging after all night on the charger, when I turned it on it only had17% charge.

I discovered that it would only charge when it was turned on.  That didn't seem right.  So I went onlineto find information on how and when it should charge, and finally after a lot of searching found others were having the same problem.  

The tablet should charge when not turned on and a green battery symbol should appear on the screen.  There's no mention of this in the start up guide so that's why I'm posting this.  It should look like this:
If it doesn't look like that it's probably not charging. The problem would be that if you couldn't turn it on, then you wouldn't be able to charge it.  Mine came with enough charge to turn on, but I could see it going totally dead then not being able to charge.

I took it back to Walmart and they exchanged it no problem.  That's one reason I like shopping there.    Plus I bought the $28 two year replacement coverage which I figure on something like this is worth having.

It's a great little device for internet however.  It boots quickly, it wasn't that expensive and it's easy to travel with.

4 comments:

Jules said...

That's a good little post about the issue you had. I hope lots of people are able to find it if they need to!

don said...

They should explain it better in the start up guide.

Anonymous said...

I agree, it's an excellent post. This information is not found anywhere. Thank you for sharing.
I noticed with my Galaxy Tab 3 8" that whenever it's powered off and plugged in, the screen remains off. The battery charging progress only appears when I press the home button.

don said...

Yes the screen will time out when it is charging and powered off. Then you can refresh the screen and see the battery symbol to check status by pushing the home button when it times out.

If you get a battery symbol when you plug in the charger and the tablet is off, then it is charging. after a few minutes the screen will time out but it is still charging. It's when you don't ever get the battery symbol, and tablet is off that you have a problem.

It's just like the samsung phone I had. I guess they expect everyone to know this.