Power on S3 Mini without working power button

Question

A friend of mine has got an Samsung S3 Mini. Recently the power button broke (could not turn off screen by pressing the button). Now the mobile got accidentally turned off and wont turn back on, because the power button is broken. Is there any way to turn it on again? Like boot into recovery/download mode somehow? Or using some ODIN magic? I already searched a bit, but everything I found did not work.

I tried charging it, removing battery and inserting it again.

I read about a "Samsung JIG" which is used to boot the device into download mode. Could I turn it on from there?

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Okay my solution was to buy a cheap Samsung JIG from eBay (~2.5€). You can also build one yourself, but I did not have any resistors laying around at the time, so I just chose to buy on already made.

I plugged it into the mobile and after just a few seconds it turned on into download mode.

I then removed the jig, and connected my samsung s3 mini to my computer. I had to install the correct drivers and started odin. I did not find a way to simply boot my device, but I was able to create an emptpy .tar file to flash. I chose this file via the "BL" button in Odin. I made sure "Auto Reboot" was enabled and hit Start. It worked like a charm. Because the tar file I provided was empty it did not actually flash anything, but the device turned on.

I can now turn on the device whenever I need, using the jig and my pc.

One other problem I ran into is: How do I turn the screen off, having no working power button. The Solution: Apps. There are a number of apps out there which enable you to turn off the screen via many different methods. Choose one that fits you best :)

Answer 2

I had this problem with my Samsumg S3 Mini. The power button is not working and I looked for ways to turn it on all over the internet and nothing worked (didnt try the JIG thing). Trying different ways, I found one that may work for you too. It works every time, 100%.

First of all I put my phone to charge until it shows the battery icon charging, then you take it off and plug to another charger right away (It doesnt need to be real fast). Then my phone starts normally.

The weird thing is that the charge that makes it turn on does not charge the phone. Don't know if this is just an odd method that works only on my phone, but you can try some variations of this method and it may be helpful for someone.

Answer 3

When in download mode, connect it to Odin on your pc. There is the option to automatically reboot after flashing. If you are not able to hit flashing without an archive, try flashing something harmless.