i just got an i-mate sp5, it had a broken screen but i replaced it and now i cant figure out how to get the thing to work. when i plug it in without a battery there is a red led that lights up, but when i put the battery in the light turns off. does this mean that the phone is charging?


also if i put the battery in without having the phone plugged into the charger, the phone turns on by itself, displays a blue i-mate splash screen, and then it turns off. this is without me pressing the power button or any other buttons. is the phone normally supposed to behave like this? pressing the power button never seems to do anything and this is the only way i have ever been able to get anything to display on the screen.

i feel that there may be some software issue and i have tried plugging the phone into my pc, but since it only goes to the splash screen and then shuts down there is no way for my computer to detect the phone. any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.

It sounds like the battery is dead, and not charging when you plug it in. It could be a short in the battery pins or something. Try cleaning the pins and the contacts on the battery and see if it will charge then. Alternately, you could try finding an external battery charger and charging the battery to see if the phone will power on with a full battery.

yeah thats what i thought originally. the battery i got the phone with was completely dead i believe. when i first tried to charge the phone, the light stayed red and i thought thats just what it did when it was charging. but after about an hour i tried to turn it on and nothing happened, then i took the battery out and the red light stayed on. i hooked that battery up to a direct voltage to charge it for about a minute, and put it back in the phone and the light went out. the phone remained plugged in with no lights on at all for about 20 minutes, and then the red light came back, after which the battery was completely dead again.

i figured the battery was completely shot so i ordered a new battery and tried that, but again im getting the no-light situation. i read elsewhere that there is supposedly an amber light that indicates charging? i am not getting any light at all.

i am afraid that if i leave the phone charged in with this new battery that i will eventually get another red light and the phone is going to kill my new battery. what should i do? any suggestions? is there any method of being able to turn the phone on without a battery in it? why does the splash screen come on when inserting partially charged batteries without pressing any buttons? does this action always happen with these phones? any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

by the way- i tried cleaning both contacts on the battery and the phone to no avail.

That's a very strange situation indeed. The odd behavior indicates some type of hardware problem associated with the charging. The red light should come on when it's charging, then turn to green when it is done. I'd leave it on the charger with the battery in it for a long time and see if it will turn red again (you want it to do that, it indicates it's charging), then eventually green. If you can get to that, you may be able to try a hard reset to see if it will eventually boot.

When I plug in my SP5m without a battery, none of the LEDs light up. When I put the battery in the light turns amber if it's charging or, green if it's fully charged already. I think the amber light could be mistaken for a red light. It's a reddish-yellowish light that some might call red and others might call amber. I originally thought my phone was showing a red light, but since it's always this color or green, I figure what I call red is what the user manual calls amber.

My phone will not turn on by itself. It requires a semi-long press of the power button. My phone will not turn on when it's plugged into either AC or USB - without a battery installed.

You're phone is not behaving normal at all, when compared to mine (which works fine). The question you have about your phone's splash screen showing up when you insert the battery, but don't press any buttons, is not normal behavior and I think Smeg is offering you good advice.

Have you read the info on how to do a hard reset? I'd try being very ready to do the hard reset (after you've charged the new battery for the recommended 14 hours (or, whatever it is they recommend). When you insert the battery either it's going to work right (meaning do nothing until you've actually turned the phone on), or it will power itself on. If you see it's going to power itself on like it's been doing, let it go and it will turn itself off again and then remove the battery to make sure it's off. Then go ahead and re-insert the battery WHILE you're pressing and holding the two outer keys (the two rice keys). The must be held down simultaneously. See if that can kick it into hard-reset mode. You press and hold the two rice keys WHILE the phone powers on and UNTIL you see a black screen that instructs you to press "0" to perform the hard reset. If you don't perform this correctly, when the phone is working right, it'll just go into full boot mode and go all the way to the homescreen. If it's done right, it will do a hard reset.

Good luck!

ok, i really dont know what to do now. its been plugged in all day and there is no light that comes on. i can only get a red light to turn on if i take out the battery. pressing the power button has no affect on the phone at all. the only way the screen will light up is if i put the battery in.

if anyone with a sp5 (not sp5m) could please tell me what color the indicator lights are when:

a. the phone is plugged in without a battery

b. plugged in, powered off, charging the battery

this would help me out a lot! i am trying to see if its the battery or the phone itself thats broken.

i tried the hard reset by holding down the 2 outer buttons while putting the battery in, and it still is just powering up to the splash screen for about 5 seconds and then powering off.