Database Users

[Q] Suddenly won't boot, help

I have a Galaxy S as shipped by Bell Canada. It doesn't have the 3 button download mode so I'm staying away from 3rd party roms for now.
It is unlocked and rooted. All has been well until today. I had it off for a while to use the SIM in another phone. When I turned it back on it asked for the SIM unlock code. I Dismissed that and checked the phone, all seemed well other than no SIM activation. I turned it off and removed the SIM and now it won't boot. I get the usual logo, the song, and for a long time the S logo. If I wait long enough it then appears to be off. If I press the back or menu key they will light up but that's it. I can't do anything else other than pull the battery.
I tried the hard reset with holding volume down and tap the power button. That only turns it back on with the same problem. The actual SIM is fine and working in another phone.
Is there anything I can do? If I could hard reset it I'd take it back to the store but I hesitate for now while it still contains my data.

this is a problem i have just posted about a couple of mins ago
but i can get it recovery mode and fatory reset with the vol up, home and power
then it will boot but obviously i have to then reset everything from scratch which is really annoying so anyone got any idea re this

lucky for you that you can get into recovery. Right now I'd be happy with a hard reset, it doesn't take long to rebuild the setup. I'd like to know who decided to remove the recovery mode, that's evil and keeps me from simply resetting the device.

its all the apps re downloading and installing them and resetting up accounts and swype and all that lot need a fix asap
do you know what version of andoid you are running

yes but at least you can get a working phone again, I can't without being able to get into any boot menus. Honestly it only takes 30 minutes to setup again from scratch. I'm on 2.1 and what I find at least on my HTC when it had 2.1 is that I setup the google account, let it sync contacts etc, then from Market Downloads I'll see listed all my apps that were previously installed. As long as I don't leave that screen I can install each app one after the other. Or a proper backup....
Any other magic key combos to reset this thing???

did you try hooking up to kies?

Yes but that does nothing since it never fully boots.

3rdcoast said:
I have a Galaxy S as shipped by Bell Canada. It doesn't have the 3 button download mode so I'm staying away from 3rd party roms for now.
It is unlocked and rooted. All has been well until today. I had it off for a while to use the SIM in another phone. When I turned it back on it asked for the SIM unlock code. I Dismissed that and checked the phone, all seemed well other than no SIM activation. I turned it off and removed the SIM and now it won't boot. I get the usual logo, the song, and for a long time the S logo. If I wait long enough it then appears to be off. If I press the back or menu key they will light up but that's it. I can't do anything else other than pull the battery.
I tried the hard reset with holding volume down and tap the power button. That only turns it back on with the same problem. The actual SIM is fine and working in another phone.
Is there anything I can do? If I could hard reset it I'd take it back to the store but I hesitate for now while it still contains my data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing happened to my phone, but a factory reset did nothing. The internal SD card gave out. Phone is now sent away for 3 - 6 weeks awaiting repair.

my phone did this to me today too, I was just about to post about this when I saw this thread.
So its an SD Card problem? theres no hope of getting it fixed without sending it in?

Yes I think it is the internal card meaning there isn't anything good enough to reset to. I walked the phone over to the store and I'll have to wait for new stock next week. Actually I'm lucky they will exchange it since I bought it outright which apparently is "against policy" even though they list a no contract full price. We'll see how it goes next week but overall I despise the telco industry in this country.

3rdcoast said:
Yes I think it is the internal card meaning there isn't anything good enough to reset to. I walked the phone over to the store and I'll have to wait for new stock next week. Actually I'm lucky they will exchange it since I bought it outright which apparently is "against policy" even though they list a no contract full price. We'll see how it goes next week but overall I despise the telco industry in this country.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i went to best buy today to try and exchange it, and apparently they only have a 14 day exchange policy with phones despite it saying 30 day on the receipt, anyhow i phoned samsung and they said i have to go through bell, even though im using the phone on telus, so that should be interesting.

So all the people that are having this problem have the Bell model?
Today i got mine off eBay, as soon a i turned it on, i get exactly the same thing.
It wont load into Android, i see that galaxy S logo and then black screen.
If i go into recovery i see "cant mount SD Card".
The more is search this forum the more i see that all the people with this problem are owners of the Bell i9000M model.
I seriously think they have some defect with the manufacturing line of the phone.
Have you guys installed any firmware on your phone before this happened?
mine is like that out of the box.

Mine is the same Bell model. There seems to be some issues with them which makes the lack of download mode even more dangerous. Right now it doesn't feel like the warranty is going to cover us for problems not our fault. I hope they replace it next week but if it still lacks download mode I'll remain nervous.

Seems like everyone is with the Bell model but my questions is:
Have you guys installed another firmware than the factory one which caused this to happen?
Are you running Stock?
We need to try and narrow this down as i am seeing too many posts about this issue, and they are with the Bell model.

clubtech said:
Seems like everyone is with the Bell model but my questions is:
Have you guys installed another firmware than the factory one which caused this to happen?
Are you running Stock?
We need to try and narrow this down as i am seeing too many posts about this issue, and they are with the Bell model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i put new firmware on it last week, can't remember what it was but it was upgraded through kies so it's one samsung pushed to me, not a froyo unstable one.

bigc_13 said:
i put new firmware on it last week, can't remember what it was but it was upgraded through kies so it's one samsung pushed to me, not a froyo unstable one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. if it was pushed to you via Kies i assume you were running stock JH2.
So it just stopped booting out of the blue?
To the OP: have you install any firmware on your device before this happened?

clubtech said:
Seems like everyone is with the Bell model but my questions is:
Have you guys installed another firmware than the factory one which caused this to happen?
Are you running Stock?
We need to try and narrow this down as i am seeing too many posts about this issue, and they are with the Bell model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't flashed any 3rd party roms. I did do the official update via Keis which even at the store today they reminded me that I should do the update.. That update seemed to go well and has been working for over a week until I turned it off for an hour. It still isn't clear if the disabled 3 button mode is hardware or software related but we all seem to have that in common too. So before they dismiss the whole thing and we get hosed over technicalities such as unlocking it should be clear that there are clear defects in these phones as far as I can tell.
I want to be comfortable that I'm not left out of hundred of dollars just because I choose to buy it outright and not be tied to contracts. Samsung has to play nicely because it is their phone. Bell has to play nicely because they are bringing them in and distributing to retail. What carrier I use should be irrelevant because the problems are not related to usage.
FYI, the clerks went off for conference to decide if I somehow got the phone against policy. Either they trust my story or I got mine moments before they got the memo about not selling outright.

clubtech said:
Thanks. if it was pushed to you via Kies i assume you were running stock JH2.
So it just stopped booting out of the blue?
To the OP: have you install any firmware on your device before this happened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, stock JH2 from Kies. Not rooted. Boots to Galaxy S logo, then black screen. Mine is sent in for repair... Almost two weeks now.
Seeing more and more of this being posted. There is obviously some issues with this phone.

clubtech said:
Thanks. if it was pushed to you via Kies i assume you were running stock JH2.
So it just stopped booting out of the blue?
To the OP: have you install any firmware on your device before this happened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Our posts crossed..
Yes I believe mine had the JH2, the official keis offered firmware. I was looking forward to the biggie update at the end of the month so wasn't about to risk bricking before then. Irony stepped in anyway.
I'm a bit nervous until I get a new one. At that point if the 3 button mode still doesn't work I'll remain nervous that I'll get another potential brick.
edit-> yes, I simply shut it down for an hour or two to use the SIM in another phone to test that phone. At next boot it died. I knew something was wrong when the logo stayed up for much longer.

I have the 3 buttons enabled so it is not related to the 3buttons being disabled, however when i boot into recovery it clearly displays an error that it can not find the internal SD.
There is definitely something wrong with the Bell Galaxy S corrupting itself.
I bought mine from an eBay seller, he is saying the phone booted fine when he shipped it but when i opened the box today i only got this black screen after logo.
Gladly the seller will take it back.
Maybe this is why there are shortages everywhere in Canada. I hope the caught this up and are fixing it with the new batch.

[Q] GS5 900F Clock/Time bug?

As per usual, I get the weirdest bugs/faults with my devices!
Just got a new S5 32GB from Singapore (900F variant). Was on holiday there, and they don't have that version in Australia where I live. Anyway, I tested the heck out of the thing while I was there, as the warranty is only valid in Singapore, and I wanted to tease out any hardware faults early.
When I was changing the SIM card once, I noticed that the system time had lagged a significant amount while the phone was off. In fact, if you turn it off and take out the battery for long enough, the time can change to several days in the past! To the best of my knowledge, modern phones, like PCs, keep accurate time even with the phone battery removed. I have confirmed this with my old S3, as well as other Samsung phones at the store.
After several visits to the local service center in Singapore, I finally convinced them to change the mainboard. After the repair, the problem was still present.
Has anyone else experienced this? Or can they test this? I keep the Auto time Update settings always off, and have done that for all my phones.
Changing of the main board would seem to exclude a hardware issue, but then there were some questions as to whether the main board was actually replaced by the repair center. The online tracking of the repair order ended in 'unable to be done due to request cancelled', which made me *really* suspicious, and the IMEI and serial numbers remained the same. Have never dealt with Samsung in Singapore before, so not sure how things work there. That's another story though, I suppose...

Update: Have gotten the phone back in my actual hands, and tinkered more with the problem. Have noticed that after a battery pull, the system time seems to default back to certain points in time (this time, 2118hrs, 18th July 2014).
Can anyone try a battery pull (leaving the battery out for a few minutes) with Auto Time Update off to see if this happens to their S5?
Thanks!

URGENT : Changing CSC for warranty OR Help with Thick transparent Grey lines

Hello everyone,
Yesterday around the same time, I was browsing my FB on the mobile app when all of a sudden I got these thick transparent grey lines on my screen. At first I thought there was some glitch with the phone so I closed everything and restarted my phone. To my horror, when the phone booted up the lines were still there. I went on a research frenzy on what this was and how I could fix it. I still dont fully understand what it is since everywhere I went no one knew the cause nor the problem except that turning my brightness to max makes the lines dissappear and that they got their units fixed or replaced by Samsung.
So, naturally my next step was to call up Samsung and I did. I spoke to a lady who told me I first needed to register my phone by sending a text to a number she gave with my IMEI (This is in Kenya, EastAfrica).
I did what she asked and to add to my pain, it was unsuccessful, saying my IMEI is wrong. Now she suggested this might happen if the phone is not from the region.
The problem is that I bought the phone here in May at the full retail price, just not from Samsung, I downloaded the phone info app to check my region and CSC and it showed it as Iran with a multi CSC that included Africa. This was obviously not going to work if I took it to Samsung to get fixed so I downloaded the AFR/Kenyan firmware from Sammobile and flashed it via opinion including the HOME_CSC I got with. Reboot, wiped and booted it and now my CSC shows up as Turkish even though I got the Kenyan firmware :/
Now my questions are;
Can anyone tell me if there's a fix for my initial screen problem?
If not,
Please guide me on how to get my region show up as AFR or KEN? Obviously root is out of the question since I need to be covered by warranty because a screen replacement is equivalent to $300 here and I spent $700 when I got the phone in May
Any help provided would be greatly appreciated

No, i think your phone is not from Kenya. That's why she can't detect your Imei. like in my case, I bought my phone in my country and change csc to another country, but i can use my warranty since my imei is registered in my country

Shouldn't it still be covered if it's a multi CSC? Also is there anyone who faced an issue like this and got through it?

I am in the same boat. I bought mine from abroad and has multiple csc including my country. I think it's the same device sold in the region. However, when I messaged local Samsung about my grey line screen problem, they didn't even answer it. Suck Samsung.
Good news is that my screen grey line started to disappear a bit this morning after about 3 week. it is less grey not completely disappear but less notable than before. I hope it will disappear completely some day.
I don't want to replace the screen, one is it is expensive and another big reason is it might loss water resistance after repair. SO I live with it using twilight.

Today grey line is completely gone. Just hope it's gone forever.

Found a complete solution here.
Works like a charm.
http://wp.me/p8uGsf-4

No IMEI & 2 hours battery life on stock phone after it turned off

Last week, my phone turned off while I was using when it went had 15% battery, nothing out of the ordinary since it's a Nexus 6p. The issue were after turning it back on:
- no SIM card are recognized, I tried 2 that work in other phones
- The settings tells me no IMEI and the phone app crashes when I type *#06#
- The battery last from 2 to 3 hours because of Android OS
The phone is stock, I just did a factory reset that hasn't changed a thing.
Also, it's still under warranty but in Australia and I live in France, so I'm really asking you guys if you know a way to fix it so I don't have to send my phone at the opposite of the globe and wait months to get it back.

Calvein said:
....Also, it's still under warranty but in Australia and I live in France, so I'm really asking you guys if you know a way to fix it so I don't have to send my phone at the opposite of the globe and wait months to get it back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like one or both of your EFS partitions may be corrupted. If you have a TWRP backup of those partitions- or a mate that does, try restoring them. If not, you can try formatting the modemst1/modemst2 partitions and letting them rebuild. It also appears you have a degraded battery (not the OS), so you'll need a new battery as well. Many people are not having any luck solving #1, and if you can't solve that first, there is no sense putting a battery in the phone. If your warranty is through Google or Huawei, it should not depend on where you are currently located.

Thanks for the reply, I don't have no TWRP backup unfortunately.
Concerning the warranty, it's still under warranty but it's just that I have to send it to Australia, which is a pain.

Calvein said:
Thanks for the reply, I don't have no TWRP backup unfortunately.
Concerning the warranty, it's still under warranty but it's just that I have to send it to Australia, which is a pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, where did you purchase it in Australia... a brick and mortar store? I think you missed the part about formatting the EFS partitions using fastboot. Yeah, it's a pain but your phone is useless as a phone now. What do you have to lose?

Calvein said:
Last week, my phone turned off while I was using when it went had 15% battery, nothing out of the ordinary since it's a Nexus 6p. The issue were after turning it back on:
- no SIM card are recognized, I tried 2 that work in other phones
- The settings tells me no IMEI and the phone app crashes when I type *#06#
- The battery last from 2 to 3 hours because of Android OS
The phone is stock, I just did a factory reset that hasn't changed a thing.
Also, it's still under warranty but in Australia and I live in France, so I'm really asking you guys if you know a way to fix it so I don't have to send my phone at the opposite of the globe and wait months to get it back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a similar issue this past weekend.
Something on my phone got corrupted and it would not recognize the SIM and if it did, bluetooth would not work.
I finally broke down and did a full wipe of everything and flashed the stock OS.
Phone is fine now.
I think my problem was related to a restore from TWRP across devices.

note 4 died. good battery.rooted.service did nothing since it was rooted

so, this phone died for me in 2017, and have been in a drawer since then. then i thought why not ask. so long story short if i remember correctly: bought it new. i rooted it since all the cool kids do that. then i did some update i think. and then in the winter of 2017 in beginning it just started behaving weirdly for me and then it turned off and all kinds of shenanigans. cant restart using different methods, sometimes it blinks, sometimes that bios menu comes up. blabla. so i tried to send it to the local repairshop that the seller used. but since i had it rooted they refused to fix it. so now i have a phone that costed 600 euro + 70 euro in service cost and it doesnt work. and then its been in a drawer since then.
i took it out, had it and the battery in a freezer for a while like some has said on internet didnt work.
anyway. does anyone here know any tips? if i want to flash the room can that be possible? or is this a lost cause? was this a common problem with note 4? i loved it and it crushed my heart when it stopped working. i still have a few months of pics etc on it from back then that ive never been able to get out. i attached it to the computer now and the computer makes a sound but nothing more.
any tips?

darknessviking said:
so, this phone died for me in 2017, and have been in a drawer since then. then i thought why not ask. so long story short if i remember correctly: bought it new. i rooted it since all the cool kids do that. then i did some update i think. and then in the winter of 2017 in beginning it just started behaving weirdly for me and then it turned off and all kinds of shenanigans. cant restart using different methods, sometimes it blinks, sometimes that bios menu comes up. blabla. so i tried to send it to the local repairshop that the seller used. but since i had it rooted they refused to fix it. so now i have a phone that costed 600 euro + 70 euro in service cost and it doesnt work. and then its been in a drawer since then.
i took it out, had it and the battery in a freezer for a while like some has said on internet didnt work.
anyway. does anyone here know any tips? if i want to flash the room can that be possible? or is this a lost cause? was this a common problem with note 4? i loved it and it crushed my heart when it stopped working. i still have a few months of pics etc on it from back then that ive never been able to get out. i attached it to the computer now and the computer makes a sound but nothing more.
any tips?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds to me like either dead emmc or misconnection.
If it's just? misconnection there are tips (increasing the pressure by cardboard).
Can you access download mode?
Sometimes it shows there "dead emmc".
I somewhere read about a testing app.
Gotta search.
Where in Europe are you?
In the German Android-hilfe forum there is a member who fixes that.
Either exchanging the emmc or resoldering it.
If the chip is dead probably the data are lost.
afaik flashing the stock ROM deletes data.
It's a known problem, yes.

bmwdroid said:
Sounds to me like either dead emmc or misconnection.
If it's just? misconnection there are tips (increasing the pressure by cardboard).
Can you access download mode?
Sometimes it shows there "dead emmc".
I somewhere read about a testing app.
Gotta search.
Where in Europe are you?
In the German Android-hilfe forum there is a member who fixes that.
Either exchanging the emmc or resoldering it.
If the chip is dead probably the data are lost.
afaik flashing the stock ROM deletes data.
It's a known problem, yes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent feedback and assessment @bmwdroid . Thank you for sharing.
I only wish to add that there is a way to flash Samsung firmware while keeping user data. Of course, this method wouldn't be effective when it comes to emmc hardware failure so Im posting it for general information purposes only.
If you have downloaded the firmware for your Samsung Galaxy device you’ll find 2 CSC binaries with *.tar.md5*extension (namely CSC and Home_CSC ) inside along with BL, AP, and CP.*CSC*and*HOME_CSC*are necessary for different purposes, and you have to choose one or the other depending on your goal.
CSC –*If you flash the CSC file, it’ll perform a*factory reset*of your Galaxy device and wipe all data while installing a new firmware to bring your device to the same*state as it was when you purchased it. Go with CSC if you want a*clean installation.
HOME_CSC*–* On the other hand, if you want to*keep your Samsung phone’s data and settings*even flashing the stock firmware, you can select the HOME_CSC file.