[Q] S-View Cover and Restarts - Absurd situation, logical conclusion? - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello all,
So, ever since I updated to 4.4.2 KitKat a few months ago my phone would randomly restart 1 out of 2 times when opening the S-View flip cover.... A few moments after locking the screen when PowerAmp was playing, or if a WhatsApp message was received when the screen was asleep... This could also be reproduced simply by being on a call for longer than a minute..
As you can imagine I grew desperate, full TitaniumBackup followed by a wipe of the phone and restoring apps one by one ended up with the same results (Unless I started in Safe mode that is....) I considered going back or trying third party firmware.. But alas, Knox bootloader scares me of bricking my device.
One day however, after being accustomed to this attitude from my phone I removed the S-View flip cover to clean it, and to my surprise.... The phone has been working flawlessly for 24 hours, I've tried all the things that could cause it to restart before (Except unlocking by opening the S-View, obviously as it's not on the device...) And it's rock solid stable...
My conclusion: The S-View flip cover (100% original I dare say, bought it with the phone...) is problematic from KitKat onwards, or at least it is on my phone....
I have searched and searched and found nothing relevant (most posts relating to the S-View issues talk about the Note 3); but alas maybe someone else has had this problem or heard of something similar...
Any feedback?
Thanks

Related

8525 Dead? NO! Wait yes?

Okay here's my fun little scenario that I searched for and hadn't come across anyone with the same scenario. Phone was working fine one day and next it would only display a white screen, thought something went wrong with the software. Tried a reset, tried a hard reset, tried a flash started getting some screen showing and then distorting and whiteing out also on startup would get crackled sound. Tried a few more resets and so on. Removed the battery for 3 seconds-20mins-8plus hours still having a problem. Distortion gets worse when pushing the battery in the back it seems and will eventually just go to white screen. Now I had bought a new battery recently and just for kicks threw it in, seemed to eliminate my problems. Except now as I just for kicks again am charging my old battery in the cradle along with the phone and the new battery it seems to be having similar issue although it hasn't been nearly as bad as before. Now I just took the "bad" battery off the charger and it seems to be just fine in the cradle at this moment, nevermind it's flickering again. Is more poor little Hermes on it's death bed, please tell me no. I paid $200 on it being used from a company who only warranties it for 14 days, I am almost at 30 now. I bought an warranty with it being used and all however they wont help me untill I reach 60 days I guess so I may be out of luck for 30 days before I might get it fixed or my money back. Sucks too because I switched to the $40 data plan with AT&T about 5 days ago and now I guess will be paying for something I can't really use. Okay it seems as though with random pressure on the back seems to cause it. I'm leaning towards some sort of a battery contact issue perhaps? What should I do to clean/fix the contacts?
For those that wonder why I just seemed to rant about my broken phone and seemingly figured out the problem on my own and are wondering why I am still posting all of it the answer is simple: To benefit someone else who may be experienceing the same problem or who may read it and have the problem down the road they will know what they should do. That and it's late and I'm tired
the screen issue is known to be caused by the D-pad connector coming undone
Okay I had run into that as a possibility however would that affect the sound to make it crackle? Also in experimenting some more this morning with the "old" battery in place it seems to be much much more sensitive to pressure, almost to the point of holding it in the palm of your hand causes the screen to go nutty and wash out to white screen and come back etc.. However with the new battery in its much more stable and I need to apply more pressure in order for it to reproduce these symptoms. I know you've been a member for longer than me and you also work for AT&T however my gut feeling is something else may be the culprit here. I tried recording a video using my backup phone last night except I couldn't seem to get it uploaded to show what the screen is doing. Oh well I really want use of the phone but I also don't want to void the warranty, namely my extra warranty which I can't file a claim for the next month.

[Q] Bottom half of screen not responding to touch

I had an exam and removed the battery for my phone for the duration. When I put it back in, the bottom half of my screen stopped responding to touch. The screen itself is unharmed and uncracked. The S Pen still works flawlessly. However, the bottom half of the screen ("above" about 890 pixels on the Y axis) simply does not respond to normal touch. In addition, the volume buttons no longer change my notification volume. They still work for music volume, just not touch volume. When I long-press the power button, the power menu sits at the very top of the screen and has black covering the whole bottom of the screen for some reason. When I receive calls, the buttons are right at the top. Because of this, this seems to be some sort of software issue, but I have no idea what would cause it. Has anyone with more experience with Samsung devices seen this before? Multiple restarts and battery pulls have done nothing.
EDIT: In case anyone else encounters this, it had something to do with my case. I think my phone thought it was a smart cover for some reason. I enabled and disabled smart cover and then removed and replaced the case. It's working fine now.
EDIT: Never mind, that was a coincidence. The issue is DEFINITELY that the phone thinks it has a smart cover on it, but it has nothing to do with my own case.
gilros said:
I had an exam and removed the battery for my phone for the duration. When I put it back in, the bottom half of my screen stopped responding to touch. The screen itself is unharmed and uncracked. The S Pen still works flawlessly. However, the bottom half of the screen ("above" about 890 pixels on the Y axis) simply does not respond to normal touch. In addition, the volume buttons no longer change my notification volume. They still work for music volume, just not touch volume. When I long-press the power button, the power menu sits at the very top of the screen and has black covering the whole bottom of the screen for some reason. When I receive calls, the buttons are right at the top. Because of this, this seems to be some sort of software issue, but I have no idea what would cause it. Has anyone with more experience with Samsung devices seen this before? Multiple restarts and battery pulls have done nothing.
EDIT: In case anyone else encounters this, it had something to do with my case. I think my phone thought it was a smart cover for some reason. I enabled and disabled smart cover and then removed and replaced the case. It's working fine now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had much the same problem. While the S-Pen was able to make selections that the touchscreen wouldn't, other S-Pen functions such as Air Command and being able to start an Action Memo wouldn't work. Waiting for an extended period of time (like 24 hours) and all of a sudden it started working again. However, while I was waiting, rebooting - even performing a factory reset - didn't' fix it! I just now rebooted it and it's not working again, and it's not in a case.
Where do you find the option to enable and disable Smart Cover? On the Note 2, it was (apparently) under Security / Device Administrators, but I don't find it there. The only option I could find was in Accessories / S View Cover / Automatic Unlock but changing this setting (including rebooting between settings) hasn't solved it.
hiroller173 said:
I've had much the same problem. While the S-Pen was able to make selections that the touchscreen wouldn't, other S-Pen functions such as Air Command and being able to start an Action Memo wouldn't work. Waiting for an extended period of time (like 24 hours) and all of a sudden it started working again. However, while I was waiting, rebooting - even performing a factory reset - didn't' fix it! I just now rebooted it and it's not working again, and it's not in a case.
Where do you find the option to enable and disable Smart Cover? On the Note 2, it was (apparently) under Security / Device Administrators, but I don't find it there. The only option I could find was in Accessories / S View Cover / Automatic Unlock but changing this setting (including rebooting between settings) hasn't solved it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, it was just coincidence that it randomly stopped happening when I enabled and disabled the auto-unlock feature with Smart Cover. My phone started doing it again and I've been unable to repair it. I went to Verizon and they wiped my phone before telling me I'll just have to get it replaced with a refurbished one. Very frustrated. Shame there aren't any AOSP based ROMs yet (like CyanogenMod)-- they'd probably fix it since the cover thing wouldn't be a feature.
Bump.
Anyone know of the APK which would handle S View Cover behavior? If we were to disable that I imagine the problem would go away. I'm still not totally sure of the origin of the issue, but it seems to come from a combination of hardware and software problems. The hardware sensor thinks I have the case on, so the software changes things around. When I call people, I get the S View Cover style call screen. If I change the toggle in accessory settings to automatically unlock the phone when opening the cover, hitting the lock button automatically unlocks the phone as though I had no lockscreen. However, when this is disabled, the lock screen is NOT in the S View Cover form-- it looks stock. This confuses me.
Any ideas from anyone else getting the issue?
Same experience
Just to add my experience as I go. This afternoon I received an error that my SMS data could not be downloaded. Upon sliding down the notifications I was unable to control much. I ripped the majority of my hair out over this.... My pen works flawlessly everywhere though. I eventually discovered it works fine on the bottom half as you described. I have to run to some appointments, but I'll touch back after I try a few things.
gilros said:
Bump.
Anyone know of the APK which would handle S View Cover behavior? If we were to disable that I imagine the problem would go away. I'm still not totally sure of the origin of the issue, but it seems to come from a combination of hardware and software problems. The hardware sensor thinks I have the case on, so the software changes things around. When I call people, I get the S View Cover style call screen. If I change the toggle in accessory settings to automatically unlock the phone when opening the cover, hitting the lock button automatically unlocks the phone as though I had no lockscreen. However, when this is disabled, the lock screen is NOT in the S View Cover form-- it looks stock. This confuses me.
Any ideas from anyone else getting the issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gilros said:
Any ideas from anyone else getting the issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it was caused by the battery insertion or backplate replacement. Perhaps too much pressure or an uneven pressure damaged the circuitry, which is now loose and causing the intermittent error.
Or perhaps it was a static discharge from the battery.
Both cases seem to me to be warrenty items.
SGH-I717/SM-N900V/XDA Premium
Uh oh... I'm rooted and on Verizon. There isn't a way to unroot yet is there?
Frank Westlake said:
Maybe it was caused by the battery insertion or backplate replacement. Perhaps too much pressure or an uneven pressure damaged the circuitry, which is now loose and causing the intermittent error.
Or perhaps it was a static discharge from the battery.
Both cases seem to me to be warrenty items.
SGH-I717/SM-N900V/XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thematt917 said:
Uh oh... I'm rooted and on Verizon. There isn't a way to unroot yet is there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the only thing necessary to unroot is to flash the stock ROM. The download is linked from the de la Vega post.
SGH-I717/SM-N900V/XDA Premium
I realized had about 3 days left on my Best Buy (elite+) 45 day return. Swapped for a brand new one :good: with no issues!
Frank Westlake said:
I thought the only thing necessary to unroot is to flash the stock ROM. The download is linked from the de la Vega post.
SGH-I717/SM-N900V/XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gilros said:
I had an exam and removed the battery for my phone for the duration. When I put it back in, the bottom half of my screen stopped responding to touch. The screen itself is unharmed and uncracked. The S Pen still works flawlessly. However, the bottom half of the screen ("above" about 890 pixels on the Y axis) simply does not respond to normal touch. In addition, the volume buttons no longer change my notification volume. They still work for music volume, just not touch volume. When I long-press the power button, the power menu sits at the very top of the screen and has black covering the whole bottom of the screen for some reason. When I receive calls, the buttons are right at the top. Because of this, this seems to be some sort of software issue, but I have no idea what would cause it. Has anyone with more experience with Samsung devices seen this before? Multiple restarts and battery pulls have done nothing.
EDIT: In case anyone else encounters this, it had something to do with my case. I think my phone thought it was a smart cover for some reason. I enabled and disabled smart cover and then removed and replaced the case. It's working fine now.
EDIT: Never mind, that was a coincidence. The issue is DEFINITELY that the phone thinks it has a smart cover on it, but it has nothing to do with my own case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same issue. I ve been trying to understand why this happened but no luck. I tried everything from updating to reseting. I first noticed it when i took the battery out as well. but the problem kinda fixed it self so i thought the phone has a spaz or something. but when i removed the battery again it happened again.
I took it to the people i bought it from and all they can say is cause there were a couple of scratches on the side of the case that it may not fall under warranty...
i was pretty angry cause its only two months old and the warranty is for a year. and the problem started happening while i was overseas so its been like that for almost a month. hopefully the sales guy is just talk cause its not up to him its just his "opinion" as he put it.
Did they explain to you why this happened? or if this is a common issue?
Hope your new phone is ok
I have this problem intermittently also. Exactly as described above.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
any updates on this? im having the same problem now with my tmobile version. it fell facedown and the extended battery i had it in fell out. im going to try putting an aosp rom on it when i get home from work.
Timely post! I gave up. Verizon sending me a warranty replacement to arrive today.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
I have the solution!
Please. Let me know it worked for you, so people that doesn´t like to post and only read can solve this problem.
The Problem:
The half bottom screen is not working. Including the back button, the option button and the home buttom. they only work if you use the S Pen. Except for the home button. The volumes button do not work either. So the Solution is this..
take off the battery while the phone is on. YES, do not turn off the telephone and the take off the battery. Just take off the battery while the phone is on. It should work. I hope this is the solution.
One more thing. Do not allow your phone to dried up the battery completly so this wont happen again. It is better to turn it off before it dries up.!
Please let me know if it worked for you! I will let you know if this problems start again and if was only an coincidence.Hopes it not!
This tough me a good lesson! never buy a Phone from not trusted retailer, it is better to pay the full price a good store. The people that sold me the phone has a crappy warrraty like if the screen it cellphone is complete off they wont allow me to use the warranty and my phone had faulty battery conecction so it was off. then I paid 100 dollars to be repaired then this problem.
Ok, guys please let us know if it worked so people start saving their phone
Just happened to mine as well
Hard reset didn't work, on the phone with support trying to request a replacement now.
Finally Solved!
Hi
I had same problem
I did everything u said like:
mega wipe and changing rom
custom roms
taking out battery when it's on ( I Did this but I don't know It had any effects on my phone or not!)
taking out external card
But I still Had the Problem
Solution:
But I had a flip cover and I separated that from phone and thanks God,surprisingly It's Fixed and it works like a charm!!! after that I used my original cover and there is no problem till now.
Good Luck
Had the same problem of touch not working.
I tried everything as suggested by the members but my Note 3 is still not working right.Touch not responding all of a sudden in the bottom part of screen after i removed the battery for sim change. Please suggest something.
luas_13 said:
I tried everything as suggested by the members but my Note 3 is still not working right.Touch not responding all of a sudden in the bottom part of screen after i removed the battery for sim change. Please suggest something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't gone back to refresh my memory but it seems to me that all these occurrances were caused by removing the back cover. Try removing it and the battery and firmly press on every spot with your thumb. First place the device face down on table padded with a single layer of a blanket. Remove the SIM and SD card and firmly reinsert. Press the back cover on and try it, then return it for warranty if it is still bad.
Frank
I also was faced with this issue today at the start of my morning BUT I FOUND A SOLUTION
I have a Sprint Galaxy Note 3 N900P Stock ROM/ no root, no mods/custom kernels/boots etc...
My device side effects were
The bottom half of my screen was not responding to my fingers,
When you press the Power Button, The options appeared on the top section of the screen instead of being the center
When I press the volume up/down keys, The volume would raise and lower, But the screen that pops up and shows you the volume had increased or decreased didnt show up
Only way to use device was with S Pen
Basically all the issues everyone listed, I had them.
Now my solution; if the issue is a hardware issue.
After dissembling my phone to see what each hardware part of the phone controls, I've come to the conclusion that there was an issue with my USB Dock Connector section of the phone. I uploaded a image pointing which connector controls it. I tried to just wipe and clean it up a bit because mines had some residue on the underneath of it. Then I plugged it back in and it started back to work %100. After I tried restarting it a few times and shaking the device up, it still works; Although I am still going to order a replacement USB Charging Port with flex cable just in case.
fixed.
This is the definitely the hardware problem.
most likely happen if u ever dropped ur phone to the ground ----------- and reboot ur phone some what later time. (can be days or months).
Temp Solution to this problem is...
face down your phone to the flat floor or a table, gently hit the back, strong enough to shock the devide, but not that strong to crack your screen.
one other simple way is to drop your phone to the floor, screen is facing down, from about 30 cm high from the floor.
"simply, hit your device like you used to fix your ur old TV. "
that is just a temp. GL.

[Q] Black Screen w/ Time at top of screen?

more and more often my wife's S4 will turn into a black screen with the time at the top of screen...this will happen at random times she says, checking texts or looking at gallery pic's.
she has a generic phone case with a magnet to close the full cover (not a windowed cover.) BUT, like me, she leaves this full cover open (bent backwards and the magnet holds it that way) ALL of the time. i'm thinking the phone decides to go into Sview mode or something?? is there a way i can turn this feature off, or fix this problem another way??
BTW, she is running Android 4.4.4
thanks for any insight! --- art
bump?
Seems like you should be able to turn it off somehow. However, it might be a software issue in the case a data factory reset should fix it. If it's a hardware issue then I would take it to my provider or Best Buy to look at it.
i removed the case yesterday and it hasn't happened ... yet! hopefully that fixed it. thanks for the reply Stoney!

Note 4 screen locking up intermittently

Hi all
[Originally posted this in the Verizon Note 4 forum accidentally, so apologies if you've seen it already]
My Note 4 screen has started locking up (i.e. continuing to work in the background and the screen is still responding to system events (SMS notifications etc) but it is not responding to touch.
I have tried several factory resets, after which the screen stays responsive for about 3 or 4 pages, then locks up again.
Background: the phone was rooted about a year ago, to get around the SD card restriction, and has worked fine up until the last week. I gave the phone to a friend who put CWM-based recovery manager and the latest Samsung Android 5.1.1 on it. After setting the phone up successfully and downloading all my apps on to it and getting everything running perfectly, I used CWM to back up the OS image onto the SD card.
Phone worked great for about a day, then started freezing. Wiping the caches / restoring / factory resets and all permutations of these have so far proved ineffective...
I took the phone in to a repair shop last night, the guy reckoned the problem was down to a poor screen replacement, and they hadn't used the correct bonding cement, and that the screen had separated from the LCD such that capacitance couldn't do its thing.
However if this were the case, the screen would not work at all, even briefly after a system reset.
The repairer is simply dismantling and rebuilding the phone to see if it's a loose/dirty connector somewhere. He's not going to try to fix it with firmware/software.
Any pointers or suggestions gratefully received
Vaughan
I was getting stutters like this, and after a month my phone started shutting down when I hit 50% or so. I replaced the battery off eBay, and that cleared the problem up. I think sine quickcharge 2.0 batteries fail faster than they should, but a Sammy battery is only $6.50 or so, so I don't mind buying one more often fir the quickcharge benefits.
Maybe try a new battery?
Samsung original screen replacements always come with AMOLED+Touchscreen.
If the guy only replaced the touchscreen you have a fake one and yeah i don't need to tell you about chinese replica's quality.
I myself work at a smartphone repair shop and we only use original products to get the best quality for our customers. It's more expensive that way i know but thats better than putting sh*t in there ands the customer needs to come back with the phone.
SquirtingCherry said:
Samsung original screen replacements always come with AMOLED+Touchscreen.
If the guy only replaced the touchscreen you have a fake one and yeah i don't need to tell you about chinese replica's quality.
I myself work at a smartphone repair shop and we only use original products to get the best quality for our customers. It's more expensive that way i know but thats better than putting sh*t in there ands the customer needs to come back with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that Mr Cherry..
So it's the dodgy glass doing it? It's definitely not the genuine Samsung part as it gets covered in grease as soon as you touch it.
The weird thing is, if it was the glass then I'd assume it wouldn't work at all; whereas when I do a factory reset it works for a short while then stops...
Baffling.

S5 top bar random presses!

Got my phone more than a year ago. Had some issues with the damn camera in the first place so I took it to the shop and it was replaced. Then the screen flicker, took them 3 visits for them to finally decide to change the screen. All these were covered by my warranty of course.
Got the marshmallow update around 2 weeks ago and I noticed the phone has been acting weird. Don't know exactly how to put this.
SKIP TO QUESTION
For example if I go to the camera mode and tried changing it from front to back camera or vice versa, I can't until I remove the battery and restart again. It feels like there is a permanent press on the icon you need to change this.
Coincidentally, the position of this icon also lies at the same spot of the whatsapp call icon. So my whatsapp makes random calls to friends.
In short the top part of the screen is randomly clicking itself (don't know if to call it that). I can't swipe downwards on the notification panel without S health opening up too.
Tried formatting the phone but that didn't work. I will probably give it another go and stick with lollipop but I think it is an hardware issue. Anybody else having this problem?
Would have taken it back to the shop but warranty expired few months back.

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