Samsung S7 motherboard busted

immusic

Does anyone know if it is possible to recover pictures from an S7 if it cannot be rebooted?

The phone overheated at the weekend because of the Covid Tracker app, and it seems to have blown out something on the motherboard.
None of the usual reboot procedures will get it started (it's completely dead - no lights, vibrations, anything), and when it's left on a wireless charger, it appears to be charging ok. I also had the phone checked in a repair shop and they tried it with a new battery just to be sure and it still wouldn't reboot, so they recommended that I have the motherboard replaced.

If I follow their advice, I'll have lost everything from the phone (yes, I know I should have backed it up before, but I never had a days trouble with it so wasn't anticipating any such immediate failure), so I am wondering if anyone knows if there is any way that photos can be recovered from it first, or if motherboards can be repaired rather than replaced?
When it's connected to a computer, the computer doesn't pick it up, so I can't retrieve anything from it that way.

There are the last photos I took of my dad before he died on it, which is mainly why I'm so anxious to try and recover them.

darth_maul

immusic wrote: »

Does anyone know if it is possible to recover pictures from an S7 if it cannot be rebooted?

The phone overheated at the weekend because of the Covid Tracker app, and it seems to have blown out something on the motherboard.
None of the usual reboot procedures will get it started (it's completely dead - no lights, vibrations, anything), and when it's left on a wireless charger, it appears to be charging ok. I also had the phone checked in a repair shop and they tried it with a new battery just to be sure and it still wouldn't reboot, so they recommended that I have the motherboard replaced.

If I follow their advice, I'll have lost everything from the phone (yes, I know I should have backed it up before, but I never had a days trouble with it so wasn't anticipating any such immediate failure), so I am wondering if anyone knows if there is any way that photos can be recovered from it first, or if motherboards can be repaired rather than replaced?
When it's connected to a computer, the computer doesn't pick it up, so I can't retrieve anything from it that way.

There are the last photos I took of my dad before he died on it, which is mainly why I'm so anxious to try and recover them.

My S7 died yesterday very same, and I suspect same reasons, now I have managed to get mine to boot a few times by removing battery, connecting charger, then when battery symbol comes up, reconnecting battery,
will then run for a few minutes before dying again.

immusic

Thanks, I'll give that a try too later and see what happens. Did you contact Samsung to see if they can help?

I forgot to say in my OP that I bought mine online, so Samsung won't arrange to have it repaired as it's a non-eu model apparently

immusic

Update! To my great relief, I have been able to recover pictures from Google Photos, so all is not lost after all.
If I manage to get the phone repaired, I know which app I definitely won't be installing!