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Samsung Galaxy S2 WiFi Issue

July 10, 2012

Gadgets

The SGS2 (GT-I1900 version) has a notorious hardware-related WiFi issue that requires a full replacement of the mainboard to fix. Coincidentally, users started reporting about this problem a few months after Samsung released the official Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update for the phone. Naturally, this has caused early ICS adopters to put the blame on Samsung for releasing a bad software update to the public. This theory is further strengthen by users who are still on Gingerbread (GB) and not experiencing this problem.

My SGS2 was about 11 months old when this problem became serious; WiFi totally stopped working. The symptoms however started to show around the 9th and 10th month, that was about a month after updating my phone to ICS. It started off with WiFi connection becoming unstable and difficult to connect. A few weeks later, the WiFi itself became almost impossible to turn on both via the widgets and phone settings screen. Instinctively, you would try to fix this by restarting or switching off your phone. It only worked for a while. Then I resorted to "factory reset" the phone, rooting, installing custom kernels and ROMs but nothing worked because the WiFi is totally dead.

I finally decided to turn my phone in for repairs at Samsung service centre about 3 weeks later because the phone is still under warranty. They confirmed the mainboard needs to be replaced. The faulty component was the button cell (called BAT500) leaking acid on the circuit board and the WiFi I/C that happened to be located adjacent to the battery was affected.

The SGS2 mainboard with the arrow showing the leaky battery BAT500.

Close-up of the leaky battery BAT500 and the WiFi chip on its left.

My phone is back to normal now. As soon as I got it back, I flashed it to GB. Well, we'll see.

Ultimately, the main culprit is heat but what leads to the problem could be a couple of things; ICS, 3^rd party apps, user usage behavior, poor battery built quality or maybe random defective products. Anyway, if your are one of those people with this problem and your phone is still under warranty, send it for repairs ASAFP!

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Not only a PHP dude on fire, Shaiful 'Holmes' is also very handy with his guitar and ukulele. Be careful ladies, this guy with a sweet drawl will be able to sweep you off your feet with his mesmerizing guitar pickings. Follow the homie on Twitter.

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43 Comments

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Jul 24, 2012

Dionisio says

Hi,

My SG2 have the same age, symptoms and behaviour. Now I'm just afraid that Samsung service here in spain will come up with something about water or moisture getting into the phone and refuse to fix it as I have read on some posts.

Anyway thanks for your blog. It explain really well what the problem is and I think it would be a good argument in case they refuse to replace the mainboard

I'll let you know.
Regards.

Reply
Jul 29, 2012

Madhawa says

I have the same issue in my i777.(at&t version of gs2).wonder this explanation fits to it as well.

Reply
Jul 30, 2012

Mark says

Same problem.. make update... wifi lock ... samsung refuse to repair me couse liquid infiltration... what can i do?

Reply
- Aug 1, 2012
  
  Shaiful Borhan says
  
  Yes I've read many reports saying Samsung claimed this as liquid damage and it wasn't covered by the warranty. This is really unfortunate and it gives Samsung a very bad rep too. Have you tried upgrading to ICS 4.0.4 btw?
Aug 2, 2012

Mark says

no... now i've to retire from assistance and see that .... i will not buy more samsung in my life.... i've same pics of this article and say me that i've insert this liquid inside.... before update the phone was ok.. thx samsung! let's see soon! (don't buy more samsung!)

Reply
Aug 3, 2012

jonathan says

thank you to this blog I was able determine the point of failure of my Wifi problem, tried upgrading and downgrading firmware to no avail, I opened my phone cleaned the battery part, fire it up, the wifi worked for couple of minutes then it's done
.

Reply
Sep 7, 2012

Priz says

i started having the same problem since yesterday

the phone's wifi gets stuck at turning on wifi
the phone gets heated up in jst 1 min

im using rooted s2 with custom rom
i still hav my warranty of abt 20days
i guess i cant take my rooted phone to samsung service centre
so how can i get back to unrooted stock version so as i can go to the service centre n show my phone ?

plz reply ASAP
its very urgent

Reply
- Sep 9, 2012
  
  Shaiful Borhan says
  
  Hi Priz,
  
  Just download the correct stock ICS firmware from the SamMobile website and flash it using Odin. At that point you phone should already be un-rooted.
  
  Next you need to reset the binary/download counter to 0 by using something that's called a USB jig. Basically you would plug this USB jig into the phone and restart into download mode. If everything goes well, the screen should tell you the counter has been reset. When I did it last time it wasn't that straightforward as the counter refused to reset itself. I had to flash a GT-1900M bootloader via Odin to make it reset. Then I reflashed the GT-1900 bootloader, which is my phone's model, to restore to stock. Flashing bootloaders won't affect the binary counter.
  
  Hope this helps.
Sep 10, 2012

Priz says

thnx fr the reply Shaiful sir,

but im still unclear about some things

wat do u mean by

just download the correct stock ICS firmware from the SamMobile website and flash it using Odin.

"At that point you phone should already be un-rooted."

means my phone is rooted now
all i gotta do is flash the firmware using odin
tat way it ll automatically get unrooted or
do i hav to unroot it 1st and then flash the firmware, if yes... then how to unroot?

another thing, wat ll happen if i wont use the jig?
doesnt the triangle away app does the same thing as the jig?

Reply
- Sep 10, 2012
  
  Shaiful Borhan says
  
  Hi Priz,
  
  You need to register an account at the SamMobile website and download the correct version of the stock ICS firmware based on your phone model (GT-I9100/GT-I9100G/GT-I9100M etc) and country. This file is the stock Samsung firmware which is not rooted. Then simply flash the file using Odin and yes it will get un-rooted automatically. You don't need to un-root the phone beforehand.
  
  As long as you can reset the binary counter to zero (including the triangle too), then you're good :)
Sep 14, 2012

zzz.meow says

This blog enabled me to find out why my wifi cannot work. I had the same leakage from BAT500 and it corroded 4 out of 5 resistors, which are used for pull-ups for wifi sdio control lines. After the corroded resistors were replaced (with 23.7 kOhm 0201) and BAT500 removed, the wifi is able to work again.

Reply
- Sep 17, 2012
  
  Shaiful Borhan says
  
  @zzz.meow Thanks for the information. So I assume you didn't send your phone to Samsung and had it fixed DIY? You can really do wonders with knowledge of electronic :)
- Oct 6, 2012
  
  Hanzi says
  
  thanks to this blog I've convince myself that it is a hardware problem rather than a software :(
  
  I've found that I have the same problem with the BAT500 just want to check if you got any tutorial on how you replaced the resistors? or where you purchased the (23.7 kOhm 0201).
  another question, you say you have removed the BAT500 would the board function properly without this part?
Sep 17, 2012

Olivier says

Thnaks for you comments. I have the issue and I thought that it was causing by a bad software update i got from kies...I ugrade to ICS without success.. Now the phone was a gift and I cant send it back to samsung...how to fix the issue..how much could it make ? This is not good for samsung..I ve never been on water with my phone....

Reply
- Sep 20, 2012
  
  Shaiful Borhan says
  
  @Olivier Sorry to hear about your phone. You could still send it back to Samsung even without the official documents or warranty card. They would simply treat your case like a normal phone that has been out of warranty so any repairs done will be charged. I think a full motherboard replacement could take up to USD250. Or if you know of any reputable phone repair shop or person you could try checking with them as well. Like one of the commenters stated above he had his phone fixed by only replacing the faulty components instead of the whole mainboard. It would be awesome if you could find someone who could do that, and surely way cheaper too.
Sep 17, 2012

zzz.meow says

Yes, it was fixed DIY with help from a friend who have experience in doing rework for surface mount components. I did not replace BAT500 (left it empty) because any replacement could suffer the same leakage after another few months of usage. Hopefully Samsung fixed the problem permanently on the current revisions of the mainboard.

Reply
Oct 23, 2012

Keitaro says

Thanks if found your article very helpful on my part. Just wanted to ask after you notice that your Wi-Fi is totally out, do still see a MAC Address of your Wi-Fi? mine is i9100G, I see the MAC Address but my Wi-Fi is totally cannot detect anything, one you add a SSID of my router it said "Out of range". I have open my unit since it is already out of warrant, but I didn't see any leakage coming from the battery.

Reply
Oct 24, 2012

Ronald says

My friend's I9100G also having this problem...
When turn wifi on at the Notification bar,the wifi signal bar just got faded green color...
Cant even turn on wifi at the Setting...

Reply
Oct 31, 2012

Felipe Zanoni says

Same problem here after 16 months of use.
I have detected high temperatures of 53ºC. Maybe that's the problem.

I've got two resistors damaged.
I removed the BAT500 to avoid any other damage.

Now I'm going to replace the resistors and see if it works.

Reply
- Nov 12, 2012
  
  Leo arellano jr says
  
  Hi, have you found any online store for the resistor? I also need to change some.
Nov 1, 2012

Mayank says

Hi All,

I need to understand this if the root cause off the problem is heat how to we fix that. I just got my phone like a mt back. And i have been noticing the heating problem for some time now. I took my phone to the service center and they told me there was nothing wrong with my phone. And heating up is normal with S2.
I have read that an software upgrade can help is it true or if you have some other solution please advice.

Thanks Mayank

Reply
Nov 1, 2012

Ronald says

My Friend's SG Gversion finally died...
So pls repair ur phone when u have this wifi problem...

Reply
Nov 14, 2012

aditya says

Finally got the solution
install ics 4.0.4 from here
http://www.adityandroid.com/2012/10/update-galaxy-s2-i9100-to-android-404.html?m=1

Reply
Nov 15, 2012

Joseph says

Here is the complete service manual guide for Samsung Galaxy S2

http://www.easyphix.com/guides/Samsung-GT-i9100-service-manual.pdf

Reply
Nov 21, 2012

shan says

Samsung only look into the sale of device n dint care abt the f*ing users .....

Reply
Dec 20, 2012

zapplerepair says

most of samsung product really good this type of battery leakage problem is not common
same as the button water corrossion which can be easily clean and work normally again,
most of the time software problem can be easily solve with software upgrade

for spareparts that need to change like lcd touchpanel or the flexicable
http://www.zapplerepair.com/samsungrepair.html

Reply
Jan 1, 2013

Adriano says

Wow. Two things are impressing: 1) That my google search "samsung galaxy s 2 wifi unstable" gave me this website as a the 3rd result . I expected to browse a million websites before getting decent info. 2) What a great website. So clear, so informative, so efficient.

I have exact teh same issue with my Samsung S 2, 1,5 years old, will see if I get it fixed under guarantee., which is 2 years according to the Dutch Samsung website.

Thank you!

Adriano

Reply
- Jan 2, 2013
  
  Shaiful Borhan says
  
  Hi Adriano,
  
  Thank you for the wonderful words and Happy New Year :)
  
  Good to know your phone is still under warranty. Yeah you should send it in quickly because if the problem is at the early stage they might be able to fix it without replacing the whole board and not try to void the warranty by saying things like "water has got into the phone".
Jan 11, 2013

Mike says

For other people who might be Google’ ling for answers to their wireless woes…
I experienced the same issue with my Samsung Galaxy s2 whereby wireless would not toggle on or off, and for that reason, not only could I no longer connect to my wireless router but I couldn’t get into the wireless settings on the phone either. This happened about a week after I upgraded to ICS 4.0.3, which could have been a coincidence or not. Also of note was the fact I noticed the rear of the phone, around the camera lens area, got a lot warmer than usual before the wireless function finally ceased to work (other people have also made this comment).
I suspected hardware failure as described here which proved to be correct after taking apart the phone last evening (unable to return under warranty). Sure enough, the BAT500 (deemed to be a capacitor rather than a button cell battery since specifications mentions 70000uf (microfarads) for this component; button cells are rated in mAh). Fluid that had leaked from this component had basically dissolved 3 out of 5 resistors. Actually one of these may not have been a resistor due to its position on the PCB (could have been a capacitor). Unfortunately, I could not get access to a circuit diagram to tell us exactly what these components were (or specifications) and subsequently, after cleaning the PCB (which removed said resistors) opted to replace with a block of 20kOhm resistors. I should say now that this was a little of a ‘makeshift’ repair but considering the tools available and the extremely small size of the circuitry we did pretty well. To give you an idea, a friend of mine who did all the soldering work spent approximately 3hrs under a microscope with a 20x lens – it wasn’t easy, which is why I suspect a lot of technicians would straight away opt to replace the whole main board. It’s definitely not a DIY task for everyone, I was just lucky I know somebody who is experienced in PCB design and manufacture and has a lot of gear.
The block of resistors I mentioned was super clued to the PCB in the space previously occupied by the BAT500 (used a dremel to remove in the end as couldn’t seem to get enough heat into the solder without possibly damaging other components). We couldn’t simply replace the corroded resisters as the copper traces had also been eaten away – we had to create an entirely new circuit using the finest (as in smallest) wire we could find (which incidentally looked as big as a garden hose under the microscope by the way!).
Anyway, after reassembly wireless was working again so we felt somewhat triumphant to say the least. It was quite late in the night by this time so I neglected to get a photo of the repair (it would be quite hard to get a detailed enough photo anyway). Phone seems to be functioning normally, haven’t yet noticed excessive battery drain or a weaker wireless signal – more time will tell.

Best, Mike.

Reply
Jan 11, 2013

Mike says

P.s. If anyone did want to know what replacement part we used: manufacturers code is "CAY16-203J4LF" and datasheet can be had here (http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/54/CATCAY-5693.pdf).
We only used 3 of the 4 resistors on this component.

Reply
Jan 11, 2013

Shaiful Borhan says

@Mike,

As someone with a very limited electronics know-what, I really didn't know that the BAT500 was actually a capacitor. On an unrelated note, I experienced a bad cap problem in the ECU of my 12 years old car about 2 months ago which pretty much damaged the components around it as well. Thank you for this very informative post. Cheers!

Reply
Jan 12, 2013

Bruno M. says

Same problem with my SGS2 here in Brazil...out of warranty!
Awaiting a response from Samsung.
:-/

Reply
- Feb 14, 2013
  
  Eduardo YC says
  
  Bruno, estou com o mesmo problema, quando tiver alguma resposta da Samsung me avise.
  Você entrou em contato direto com eles ou através de algum site?
Jan 17, 2013

Daniel says

I went to the samsung outlet in Goa just before Christmas to upgrade to ICS, they told me that Jellybean was available & upgraded it to Jellybean. Things worked fine, I was on 3G there. Came home to Pune & started using my WiFi from the 3rd of Jan & my WiFi went kaput a couple of days later. Yes, I too felt that the phone was getting hotter than usual. My Galaxy S2, the GT I9100 is 18 months old & out of warranty. I took it to the service center here in Agartala where I'm posted & they tell me that the main board would have to be replaced costing around Rs 8ooo/-. This was after loading ICS & doing a factory reset. My question is that if I do spend 8K on repairs & the new main board is put what is the chance that it will not go kaput again. So should I repair it or just get a new phone.
Daniel.

Reply
Jan 20, 2013

Ramesh says

I'm using galaxy s2. I can't turn off wifi.then I try to off but still scanning.pls solve problem.

Reply
Feb 8, 2013

israel says

Hi, I was not experiencing any problem but as soon as i opened the S2 y saw the bat500 leaking! I ripped appart the bat500 cell/capacitor and now i feel a litle more safe. Too bad that Samsung made this mistake.

Reply
Feb 20, 2013

R says

If anyone decided to sell their faulty S2 pls email me...
Malaysia only yea...
Thanks...

Reply
Feb 28, 2013

JEYSONN says

I'm from Brazil and the same problem occured. I opened and saw that the BAT500 leaked acid on the circuit board. My SGS2, the GT I9100, is 17 months old and out of warranty. Has samsung said anything about it?

Reply
Mar 5, 2013

Jon says

I'm just another sucker with the same problem as described previously by everyone else. Samsung dosn't want to know. (Galaxy S2 GT-19100T Android 4.0.3) I might try to fix myself as new mainboards in NZ are same cost as new phone!

Reply
Mar 9, 2013

dirtyworm says

i remove bat and not work ...
what i do now ?

Reply
Mar 10, 2013

R says

Try to repair the contact of the wifi chip heat the Bat500...

Reply
Apr 19, 2013

MagnumChaos says

Hello,

Some words of optimism: I fixed it myself in minutes, cleaning the area with a small brush and a few drops of isopropyl alcohol.

My warranty expired and I decided to take my chances before sending my SGS2 to a service center. I was probably lucky, since the apparent leakage was small but evident.

The inspiration came from this post: http://www.htcmania.com/showthread.php?t=428412

Best luck!

Reply
May 22, 2013

Eduardo says

I had the same problem here, after 2 years it suddenly only showed "turning on" for the wifi.
Opened, saw the leaked supercap, 3 resistors became ashes.
When I decided to leave it as is, just cleaned with some isopropyl alcohol, when turned on, it was working and very stable.
Only problem is that battery life is awful.

Reply