After a recent Samsung update my Galaxy S9 randomly shows a prematurely drained battery and shuts down without notice. When recharging, the battery indicator immediately returns to level at which it shut down – 53% or 80% etc. and then begins to charge at the usual rate until it reaches 100%. So it appears that the battery indicator is giving faulty readings and causing premature shutdown. Phone restart has also caused the battery to drain instantaneously.
I called Samsung and was told to take it to a repair shop for a free software reflash.The reflash made things worse. Much worse. The battery now also drains for real – taking an hour and a half to recharge – as well as still having the original problem of misleading battery charge indicator causing shut down.
The reflash wiped out all of the phone service provider programming so I had no mobil data. (It’s no problem to reprogram – just a pain.) To make matters worse, the software reflash configured my unlocked GSM phone as an AT&T phone (which it was not) with all the annoying AT&T chimes, messages, dialog boxes etc. that do not apply as I am not a direct AT&T customer. (I use Pure Talk, an AT&T reseller.) I asked the repair guy if he could reverse the software reflash and restore my phone to the state it was in when I brought it in. Apparently that cannot be done without a factory reset.
Finally, I purchased this unlocked Galaxy S9 GSM phone brand new in sealed packaging and sealed box about 7 months ago from a business on ebay. When I called Samsung a second time to inform of the problems after the reflash, the rep tried to tell me that their records show that the phone is out of warranty, that it is a Sprint phone and that I needed to send detailed proof of purchase – despite the fact that I established a new Samsung account with them at the time of purchase, it is not a Sprint phone, and it is not out of warranty. (Although 8 years ago my telephone number was ported from a Sprint device.)
I have been using Samsung phones for decades and have never had a problem. Needing some insight into dealing with defective phone with Samsung and also advice to see if I can fix this myself. This is my only phone so can’t be without it in quarantine.