iphone 4S stopped working when fully charged and it will not turn on. what should i try?

Is this an iOS5 issue or are we just seeing a ton of screwed up 4S's??? I've had the exact same problem but I don't want to trade mine in only to get it replaced by another messed up 4S. Kinda makes me want to go back to my Droid....

I just had the same issue and had been using Siri an hour or two prior to the phone freezing, but at the time it quit working it was just in my purse after I had used it for a phone call. Holding the two buttons worked for me, too, and so far it seems to be working normally again. I wanted to also note that the back of my phone seemed warmer than usual when it stopped working, so I'm wondering about the battery theory. I'll stop into Apple this evening and run this past someone there to see if they are aware of this issue. 😕

Have had my iphone 4S for about 2 weeks now, and no issues until today when I had this problem. Used Siri about 40 minutes prior to the phone shutting off and not powering back on. Approx. 60% battery life. Siri did have a hiccup and canceled on me though when I used it, but I do not know if that is the cause. I did notice that it happened after moving from a Wifi area to a 3G area also. But I'm not sure what the issue could be. I know I don't want to have to continue to do this though. Thanks for the headsup via this thread about the reset fix. Seems to be up and running now.

Had the same issue - iphone 4S simply died and would not come back on. Not even remotely close to water. Was able to revive it by pressing home and power button simultaneously. First the antenna was faulty, and had to swap a brand new phone with a service replacement to take care of that, then Siri did not work over the weekend and Monday this week, and now this. Hopefully all these fixes are coming out soon, but frustrating in the meantime.It is hard to get by without a working phone!

I have the same problem, my iphone4s is about 1 week plus old. I just finished sending out a text message 2 days ago n did not look at it, when I checked 15 mins later, the phone had stopped working and it could not restart. The telco taught me how to reboot it. Then today, again it stopped working, and I rebooted it.

I wasn't on Siri on both occasions so I don't think it is a related issue. The phone felt quite warm, the telco only told me the reason is because the iPhone 4s is ' unstable' . I wonder if I should take it for an exchange since it seems to stop working quite often and I am worried if there are any inherent issues,

The same thing happened to me and your advice worked. Thank you! For everybody: just hold Home and Start button at the same time. It should reboot after few seconds.

I had the same problem of the 4S phone shutting off randomly while on standby from the day the phone arrived. After several weeks and no software upgrades, I contacted Apple by phone who suggested trying a restore. It seemed to help for two weeks, but then the phone did it again. I made an appointment with the Genius Bar just to find out if this was hardware or software. They did a phone check and gave me a new phone within 5 minutes saying it should not be doing this as a brand new iPhone. So far so good on the new phone. The tech did say he had never heard of this problem nor seen it. I found that hard to believe since the forum is monitored and a colleague at work had the same problem. I might suggest switching the phone while still under warranty. The restore from back-up worked seamlessly.

The same thing just happened to my 4S. Thanks to the advice I managed to reboot it, but all the corners are now blurred. They are white and make a border around my screen. How can I get this to go away?

This issue of the iPhone 4s going blank just happended to me this morning also on my 32GB phone. Thank you for the quick fix.

I noticed one other thing after applying the Power/Home Button quick fix, which is that the Wi-Fi stopped working. When going into Settings to check, the Wi-Fi status indicated "No Wi-Fi". I then preformed a powerdown/power-up of the phone which resolved the Wi-Fi issue. This has me wondering if maybe the phone not working issue might be tied to the Wi-Fi receiver and heat related possibly?

Since I am still in my 30 day grace period, I am going to take the phone back and exchange it.

Ok, mine scared the sh*t out of me also. Mine was fully charged, still plugged into the charger and not being used. Suddenly say only a * astrick in the center of the screen. Wouldn't turn on or off, even when I plugged it into the computer.

Read the above about doing a hard boot. That worked, but now I'm worried. What caused it and will it happen again? This is my 3rd iPhone (3gs, 4, and now this 4s). Never had this happen before.

Just got off the phone with Tech Support. They indicated it's not uncommon, BUT if it continues, may have to go to the store for a replacement.

Now THAT doesn't give me a lot of faith in this phone! At least now there is a record of it malfunctioning, and I will stay on top of this.

Just happened to me for the first time on my 4S, 32G. Shut down during a phone conversation, started getting hot, and wouldn't start back up. Phone was fully charged. I looked at several of the recent posts and rebooted as most suggested by holding down the power button and home button at the same time for approx 30 seconds. It booted back up. I haven't had to run that drill since my 5th generation IPOD. I have not noticed anything not operating correctly yet since re-booting, apps, etc. Just for the record, I did in fact used Siri just moments before making my call...in case that has anything to do with it. I got this phone on the first day it was available. Its only just happened this once..Hopefully not again.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. This just happened to me as well. I thought it shut down for good. After reading all these posts, I rebooted just like everyone said and it seemed to work. My apps seem to be just fine. Hopefully, this won't be a recurring thing for all of us.

same thing just happened to me. I was in the middle of a text and battery was fully charged and the screen just faded to black and that was that. Reboot won't work and the phone doesn't show up in itunes. Apple is sending me a new phone. This one is less than a month old.

This is definitely NOT a battery issue or isolated to Siri alone. My battery(1 week old phone) has been performing perfectly and this clearly is a glitch in the "Auto-Lock" or timeout feature. I was looking at the Calendar app trying to plan something and the screen locked after a few minutes. Upon clicking the home button, the issue being discussed happened and I couln't figure out how to turn the phone back on until I read in here to hold both the home and power buttons for 30 seconds. Worked just fine and all my apps are exactly the same. I experienced the same issue with my 2nd generation iPod nano which never turned back on. I turned it on for the first time in 2009 even though it was manufactured back in 2004. It worked for a few months and Apple couldn't do anything to fix it- the Apple store said it was to old. I love Apple products....when they work consistently.

Same thing happened to my wife's two month old 4s. Pressing the power button or plugging it in did nothing to revive the phone. Will shortly try pressing both power and home buttons for 30 secs as suggested.