Galaxy Note 8 Owners Report Their Devices Won’t Charge or Turn On

Apple isn’t the only company running into battery woes. Another smartphone maker is currently in the midst of its own battery-related issues — and it isn’t the first time, either.

A handful of Samsung Galaxy Note 8 owners are reporting that their devices have stopped working and can no longer hold a charge once their batteries drain. Reportedly, they aren’t able to even turn on their Note 8 devices if their devices shut down after reaching 0 percent battery life, according to anecdotal reports on various forums and tech site SamMobile, which first broke the news.

One user claimed that his father had four Note 8 devices shutdown and fail within a one-month period. Another user said he ran into similar battery problems on his previous device, a Galaxy S8, before experiencing the battery issue on his Note 8.

It doesn’t bode well for Samsung, whose Note 7 had attained a fiery reputation for exploding batteries — and was ultimately discontinued. Thankfully, this time around, the battery problem doesn’t seem to be a safety hazard or even necessarily an issue with the battery at all. Instead, it seems to be a power management issue (which, coincidentally, echoes Apple’s own battery controversy).

In response to the issues, a Samsung spokesperson told Engadget that it has received a “very limited number of reports which could be associated with the power management circuit.” Samsung representatives are urging affected users to get their Note 8s replaced — if they are still covered under warranty.

If the problems are tied to a power management issue, the culprit could be the fact that a small amount of energy needs to remain in a battery to power the device’s onboard charging controls. To get around that, you can try the following.

Plug your phone into a charger for 10 to 15 seconds at a time, with an interval of about 30 seconds apart. After about 20 minutes or 100 attempts, you could generate enough charge to kickstart your device.

Of course, if you have a Galaxy Note 8 device, the best course of action is to make sure it’s never drained to 0 percent battery and wait for Samsung to rollout a solution.