[Q] Frequent, Random Crash-Reboot - Verizon Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

In the last few days my S5 has started just locking up briefly and then rebooting. It doesn't do it from a particular app, only when using the camera, or any other specific symptom I can find. It will even lock up and reboot during a reboot sometimes. It's happened running various unrelated apps that don't have anything (apparent) in common, when running no apps, when closing apps, and when sitting all by its lonesome next to me while I'm doing something else entirely.
When it started I was running Safestrap with AllianceROM 1.1 installed on the boot partition. I wiped and installed AllianceROM 2.0 and it still does it. The only change I can think of that happened anywhere around the time the problem developed is I replaced a broken charging port cover (can't imagine how that would have messed anything up.)
One common symptom that may or may not be helpful: during the short unresponsive time during the crash before it reboots, one or two lines of "static" a few pixels tall running horizontally across the display will often (but not always) appear. It's happened when using the phone, when not using the phone, and during reboot from a previous crash. It's crashed while rebooting prior to the Safestrap screen displaying. It crashes and reboots with and without the SD card installed.
At this point I'm thinking the phone is just plain broken (still under warranty) and a replacement is in order. So my questions are:
1. Anyone seen this before and know a fix?
2. Is there anything I'm overlooking and should test before pursing warranty replacement?
3. Is there any reason to avoid a replacement unit (ie. would a new phone resist root/safestrap/etc)?
Thanks.

Sounds like you've covered everything but one.
Try returning the phone to stock and see if the problem persist. If it does then phone is ready to be exchanged.
If not, you'll know it is something other than a hardware issue.

c4manceph said:
Sounds like you've covered everything but one.
Try returning the phone to stock and see if the problem persist. If it does then phone is ready to be exchanged.
If not, you'll know it is something other than a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I suppose I ought to do that just to be sure. But to be absolutely certain that would require Odin'ing back to stock to get rid of the root, Safestrap, and all the trimmings, right?
So I need a nandroid backup of my current image so I can resurrect that if it doesn't work so I have a phone that only annoys me intermittently while I wait for the replacement. While if that does solve the problem I need my Titanium Backup files so I can gradually restore my apps/settings after redoing all the root, Safestrap, and custom ROM work.
Am I missing anything?

This is the method I would use to return to stock:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2784880
Sounds like you've got it covered.

Thanks. That link mentions repartitioning as being optional... under what conditions would it be advantageous? Is it just one of those "if you wanna be absolutely sure" things or are there cases where the partitioning has been changed and needs to be reset?

New symptom: twice now the phone has rebooted into Odin mode with the message "Could not do normal boot, mmc_read failed".
Doesn't look good... at least I've been able to reboot the phone to the OS each time. Once it even did it itself.

Sounds like internal memory failure. Do your best to ODIN back to 100% stock & do a warranty return.

I've been back to stock for a day without any spontaneous reboots.
I figure the next step is to root, install Safestrap, and then flash the AllianceROM and not restore my Titanium backups except those that are absolutely necessary (and taking a nandroid backup before doing any of those). Let it run for a day or two like that, see if the reboots stay gone and then slowly restore the backups a few at a time to see if one of them causes the problem to return.

Thanks for the update, I wondered if you were having any luck.

I'll keep this updated just in case anyone else has the same problem, so they can have a better idea how to resolve it.
Currently I've been running AllianceROM 2 for about 10 straight hours with no misbehavior. From stock I installed towelroot, Safestrap, then flashed the ROM according to instructions. Once that was loaded and the Play store done downloading everything I shut down, backed up via nandroid, and then used Titanium Backup to restore some key apps and data. Actually I restored more than a few, but not close to all. With the backup if the problem returns I have a clean restore point to use for a more conservative approach.
My plan going forward is that if nothing else goes wrong, I'll restore a few more backups as I need the related app, and after a week or so if things don't fall apart I'll go through and delete the entire contents of the Titanium Backup folder and re-backup the apps as they are in a stable state. Whatever was causing the problem seems to have died in the repartition/odin-to-stock/root-and-return-to-custom, or it's lurking in one of the unrestored backups.
Fingers crossed.

Aaaaand just had a spontaneous reboot. Second time it's done it while scrolling the newsfeed in Facebook. (First time was pre-wipe to stock.) It's possible I just didn't have the restored stock version running long enough since this took over a day to happen.
So I'm restoring the backup and not restoring any of the Titanium Backup stuff. If it still reboots on its own after this, I'm considering it hardware and pursuing a replacement.

There's been another spontaneous reboot. At this point I'm pretty comfortable calling it a hardware failure. I believe the absence of reboots while the phone was Odin'd back to stock was a fluke and, had I given it enough time, I'd have seen a spontaneous reboot there as well. I'm going to forego testing this theory to expedite a resolution to the problem.
So my next step is to call Verizon and start the ball rolling on a warranty replacement. I'll Odin the phone back to stock just before turning it in, until then I'll let it run (as much as it does) the way it is.

The warranty replacement was easy. Went over the steps I'd taken (leaving out all the bits about root, custom Roms, and so on since it's none of their business) after spending about a half hour on hold between the initial customer support person and the actual phone tech guy. He kept saying, as I was telling him what I'd done, "yeah, that's what I was going to recommend next". Set me up for a replacement, next day air, and that's what I'm running now.
Wiped the old phone back to stock via Odin, set up the new one and restored every backup I wanted from Titanium backup. So far, no problems.
It's kinda neat how they send the replacement phones. No back cover, no battery, nada. You take all the stuff out/off of your old phone, use it to finish up the new one, and you're done. Put the old one back in the package, slap the return label over the previous label, and send it on its way. (Be sure to go to a FedEx store or something where you can get a receipt and so on to PROVE you sent it in case it gets lost, or you're paying for a new phone.)
It's clearly not a new new phone, it's a refurb, but aside from some minor scratches on the screen that a screen protector would make invisible, it's essentially new.

Still no sign of a spontaneous reboot, looks like this is fixed.

Related

Can't seem to wipe this Spring Galaxy Tab

I've been given a Galaxy Tab by my office to play with for a while for some various development projects we have coming up and to evaluate its use. Initially another employee had it, but he quickly lost interest.
Problem is, his Gmail account has been tied in as the primary account for the system, so I can't use my own Market apps, etc. No biggy, I'll just wipe it, right? First I tried a data wipe from recovery, but despite claiming to be successful after a reboot it's still got his account in there. So then I did Privacy/Factory data reset, but that mostly just reboots into Recovery where I do the same thing again and still fail to wipe his data off the device. I then pulled the memory card and formatted it and also reset with it out, but no improvement. I finally downloaded the stock image and flashed it with ODIN and STILL his account remains.
So... any thoughts on what I could be missing here? I just want this thing back to pure stock so I can put my own account in and work with it as though it were new.
I am having the EXACT same issue on a Verizon Tab...
No one has been able to help me.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=929999
Glad I'm not alone, but sorry to see you've not gotten anywhere either. This seem absurd...
Agreed. I thought I was the only one.. It just doesn't make sense.. I flashed mine using heimdall and still the same issue. The only problem is that mine force closes when you do anything.. So if I can't restore the software on this it's absolutely no good to me.
Yeah, same here. Nearly none of the apps functions now after the reset. This is absurd.
I'm in the same boat. It's very frustrating. Sprint was not able to help me. All he could do was walk me through the factor reset. I downloaded a Market app that bugged out something and now I'm getting quite a few force closes.
I just notice that if I merely restart this thing is loses all changes I made since I last restarted it, adding back any apps I uninstalled, removing accounts and WiFi settings I installed, etc. This is screwy. Wondering if there's a hardware problem with the flash memory.
TurboFool said:
I just notice that if I merely restart this thing is loses all changes I made since I last restarted it, adding back any apps I uninstalled, removing accounts and WiFi settings I installed, etc. This is screwy. Wondering if there's a hardware problem with the flash memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Listen to this, even more crazy than that... After my last unsuccessful wipe, I decided to just uninstall all of the applications. I just did another factory restore for the heck of it. Now ALL of the applications I uninstalled are back!.. AFTER the factory restore!
I think the only sure way to fix the problem is to get a zip file of the stock firmware and load it through the recovery screen.
Edit: since it put the applications back on there, I decided to try your situation. I uninstalled all of them, turned off the Tab and then back on. All applications are back.
sasiki said:
Listen to this, even more crazy than that... After my last unsuccessful wipe, I decided to just uninstall all of the applications. I just did another factory restore for the heck of it. Now ALL of the applications I uninstalled are back!.. AFTER the factory restore!
I think the only sure way to fix the problem is to get a zip file of the stock firmware and load it through the recovery screen.
Edit: since it put the applications back on there, I decided to try your situation. I uninstalled all of them, turned off the Tab and then back on. All applications are back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems incapable of now making permanent changes to the flash memory. This is really screwy and annoying.
I am having the exact same issues. We are all in the same boat.. I have a $30 reward if anyone can fix this..
Any updates from the others with this problem?
I received 2 more Tabs today for my sales reps. They both work fine as far as factory restore. I noticed that the bad one goes to the boot loader when I initiate the restore through the Android software. The new ones do not. They format and reboot back into the operating system. Sprint is going to exchange the bad one.
sasiki said:
I received 2 more Tabs today for my sales reps. They both work fine as far as factory restore. I noticed that the bad one goes to the boot loader when I initiate the restore through the Android software. The new ones do not. They format and reboot back into the operating system. Sprint is going to exchange the bad one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the comparisons. Mine also goes to Recovery mode when I initiate a data wipe, so clearly it's the same situation. I'll have to see how mine was acquired and whether an exchange is an option.

[Q] Possible Nexus 7 SSD failure after 1 year - anyone else?

I've had my 16GB N7 for about a year. After some initial experimentation with ROMs I went back to stock and left it there. The device isn't used too much, generally streaming music and for web browsing.
About a month ago the device began locking up and rebooting maybe once every few days. This seemed to happen most when video was played or music was streamed. I didn't do anything about it, just ignored the trouble and made a mental note that I ought to wipe the device and start fresh.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I picked up the device and it was displaying the "Google" bootloader screen. As I watched, the screen went blank for a moment, then the bootloader screen again. This repeated 5 or 6 times before I force-powered the device off and on. This time it got past the bootloader screen to the Nexus 'X' screen, then to the lock screen, and then froze and rebooted. From that point on, the device would boot to the lockscreen, crash, and reboot - eventually ending up just loading the bootloader over and over, never showing the 'X', just the 'Google' logo.
So I flashed TWRP and did a factory reset, cleared the cache, etc. No difference. Device was completely unusable. Crash on lockscreen.
I wiped all partitions and did a restore from factory images. This bought me a week. Crashes began on day 2, and by day 8 the device was back to looping on the "Google" bootloader screen.
I wondered if maybe there was some problem with Google's factory image (unlikely, but worth a shot. I did a full wipe and installed CM10.1M1. This bought me about a week of use.
As it stands now, the device gets past the bootloader, gets to the CyanogenMod' splash screen, spins for a while, freezes, reboots, repeat.
So, two different ROMs, same random crashes escalating into a completely unusable system within about a week of light use. No abuse, no water damage, no drops, this tablet has been babied.
Questions:
Am I special, or has anyone else seen this behavior?
Is there any way to determine the health of the SSD?
Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here?
What should I do now?
Thanks.
Hey, just to ask you mate.
Does this happen alot in Chrome?
I have an Issue, caused by different things but always the same causes :
Either multiple tabs open
Video playing in full screen
Trying to close a tab with a video/flash in it.
My Tablet FULLY and I mean FULLY Crashes, so I have to hold power to restart.
Then all back to smooth silky nexus.
I hope this isn't a sign that I'm going down the same road you are.
Does this sound a similar issue?!
Definitely can't be the SSD, as there is none. What you mean is the NAND Flash, but without actually seeing it troubleshooting this via a forum isn't especially feasible. Heck, it could very likely be the SoC, but who knows?!
Unless you were handed a pre-release model, your period of ownership is closer to six months than it is a year (the N7 has been on the market for roughly 7 1/2 months). This is good news for you, as it's still covered by warranty. Restore to stock and RMA it.
The symptoms you describe could be caused by any number of root causes.
If you have any time left on the warranty, I would strongly encourage you to return it to pure stock (including stock recovery), relock the bootloader, factory reset... and get the RMA process started.
Those eMMC flash memory chips are supposed to have a wear-leveling controller, but I suppose that doesn't preclude problems from occurring, nor does it guarantee the controller algorithms are implemented in a bug-free fashion. It is sort of impossible to know if the OP's troubles are common or rare; there have been a few similar-sounding reports here, but there are millions of devices in circulation.
The OP's post surely motivates me to have a pure-stock ROM backup waiting in the wings. Any hint of the same kind of trouble on my N7 while the warranty is still good, and it's going back to Asus under RMA.
good luck
you're not alone
This clearly is a common problem as now my tab has started doing the exact same thing 2 years after a motherboard replacement however unfortunately I have bootloader 4.23 and therefore can't flash anything to my device. My question is what exactly causes it?

mmc_read failure Note 4 n910w8 Rogers!!

Here is the story,
I flashed Marshmallow on my note 4 n910w8 via odin (I had 5.1.1). After it was done I noticed that the phone got laggy and warm. It would sometimes not boot/restart or it would shut down after it freezes for sometime. I would get the download page with mmc_read failure in red, I would pull out the battery and try again.
What I did:
*Unrooted the phone through SuperSu and flashed Twrp throughout (because it gave other errors and I had to do it again and again after each attempt)
*I tried flashing through twrp but I got the "no md5" error
*Flashed the stock ROM 6.0.1 with PIT since it gave the PIT error on odin
*Wiped cache/data/factory reset multiple times.
*I used both Kies and Smartswitch and was not successful (either read or write failure)
*Flashed the stock 4.4.1 (the original, It could not boot up once) so I returned to the stock 6.0.1
*The phone boots up 3 out 5 times and I was able to watch a full movie on Netflix and browse the web and google maps. But as soon as I locked it, It shut off and did not power up (until i took out the battery and let it cool down).
Where I went:
*A Samsung repair agent here in Montreal said that most of the time it is the Mob and that it would cost 300-400$ CAD to replace
*I went to other repair shops, a few hinted that it might just a matter of reprogramming the Mob and that it involved a risk of bricking the phone for good.
N.B: It is not under warranty and I'm not on contract, It is my own phone.
My question(s): Is there something else I could try? Is there someone who fixed the issued (Assuming it is not hardware) maybe and unbrick fix or something? And also, it there anyway to thoroughly wipe out the old installations so I could start anew?
Also I consider myself pretty knowledgeable. Or I at least learn quick. Do not hesitate to suggest something coarse for me to try. Worse comes to worse, Ill sell it on eBay for part, since it it in mint condition.
It's definitely a hardware issue, trust me.
But all the problems can be bypassed by rooting your device and installing Wake Lock app from the playstore and activate PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK, enable the notification and start on boot. This will fix all the lag and the crashes.
This will not, however, fix the boot problems. So if your device ever runs out of battery or turns off, booting it is gonna be a hassle still as before. If you ever get stuck trying to boot it properly to homescreen however, I discovered a foolproof method for that with 10/10 success rate.
I know it might sound weird, but I'm seriously not trolling you. Take out the battery and place the phone & the battery in your fridge for at least 5 minutes until your device gets cold. Put the battery back in and boot into 'download mode'. You'll notice that it'll goes into download mode perfectly. Take out the battery again and just boot normally. You'll be back into homescreen in no time. This is how I know it's a hardware problem, lol.
With these alternative fixes, I'm hoping that I can keep my phone alive for at least another 2 years. Better than forking out another $500~ for a new device imho.
The Sponge said:
It's definitely a hardware issue, trust me.
But all the problems can be bypassed by rooting your device and installing Wake Lock app from the playstore and activate PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK, enable the notification and start on boot. This will fix all the lag and the crashes.
This will not, however, fix the boot problems. So if your device ever runs out of battery or turns off, booting it is gonna be a hassle still as before. If you ever get stuck trying to boot it properly to homescreen however, I discovered a foolproof method for that with 10/10 success rate.
I know it might sound weird, but I'm seriously not trolling you. Take out the battery and place the phone & the battery in your fridge for at least 5 minutes until your device gets cold. Put the battery back in and boot into 'download mode'. You'll notice that it'll goes into download mode perfectly. Take out the battery again and just boot normally. You'll be back into homescreen in no time. This is how I know it's a hardware problem, lol.
With these alternative fixes, I'm hoping that I can keep my phone alive for at least another 2 years. Better than forking out another $500~ for a new device imho.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for your reply, I take it you have the same problem? I will try Wake Lock. And also I'm way ahead of you in the freezing game. Leave for 10mins in the freezer and you can basically flash anything. Also, do you a custom ROM would help?

Overheating/Bootloop/Black Screen problem solved but...

Hey, I had been stuck with the issues as mentioned shortly after I upgraded to Nougat via ODIN (SM-G935F/probably Netherlands, Unlocked, no root, no mods). The phone would work fine and then suddenly start overheating and resultant bootloops and black screens when in certain standard apps like Google photos and Facebook. This would happen with no fixed pattern, sometimes everyday, sometimes once a month). I did cache clears and full resets but the problem would reappear. Phone stopped getting OTAs as well, although it got a few in the beginning. Security patches. Recovery typically showed updating and didn't progress.
Finally I decided to flash another latest stock ROM via ODIN. Now a few days have gone by without a sign of the previous troubles (God, I hope it stays like this).
My question after this long story, is this possibly a hardware problem, in which case I'll sell it off before it reappears. Or could it just be a software glitch solved by the new ROM, in which case I'd like to keep the phone. Which is more likely, I really want to keep the phone as the S8 upgrade is not worth the money for me, in my opinion.
waqar747 said:
Hey, I had been stuck with the issues as mentioned shortly after I upgraded to Nougat via ODIN (SM-G935F/probably Netherlands, Unlocked, no root, no mods). The phone would work fine and then suddenly start overheating and resultant bootloops and black screens when in certain standard apps like Google photos and Facebook. This would happen with no fixed pattern, sometimes everyday, sometimes once a month). I did cache clears and full resets but the problem would reappear. Phone stopped getting OTAs as well, although it got a few in the beginning. Security patches. Recovery typically showed updating and didn't progress.
Finally I decided to flash another latest stock ROM via ODIN. Now a few days have gone by without a sign of the previous troubles (God, I hope it stays like this).
My question after this long story, is this possibly a hardware problem, in which case I'll sell it off before it reappears. Or could it just be a software glitch solved by the new ROM, in which case I'd like to keep the phone. Which is more likely, I really want to keep the phone as the S8 upgrade is not worth the money for me, in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a bad flash. The new flash removed the issues, so you're good to go.
Guess what guys, the problem returned after about 3-4 weeks. Appeared randomly while using FB. Phone went into bootloop and overheating again, and even when it restarted properly, it would go into the same cycle when I started using apps like messaging, whatsapp and facebook.
I booted in recovery and cleared the cache after about 25 reboots. One thing I noted was that recovery initially showed an update running, which got stuck first, and then completed after another reboot and entering into recovery. Has been stable for the past 24 hours now, like it never happened. I can't figure out what the issue could be, since now I can do whatever I want and it won't overheat like before or reboot.
Feels like a software issue since it disappears like it was never there. Hardware rarely does that. Is there a possibility that storage of some sort is bad at some point, and when data is written over that point, the problem appears. I'm shooting in the dark but can't figure it out otherwise.
Yup.
Seems you have memory issues.
Go to Samsung service and replace memory chip.

Help! Bootlooping out of the blue for NO reason

So... For no explainable reason my phone has gone into a bootloop, simply from me attempting to restart the phone.
Details of anything I can think of that might be related are below. I need a genius to help me A) figure out WHY this happend, B) help me figure out if there is a way to (non-destructively) get out of this bootloop (i.e. NOT having to do a factory reset), and / or C) tell me if there is a way that I can perform a full system backup using ADB, Fastboot or Odin with a phone that can't get past recovery or bootloader without going into an endless bootloop. I'm not a lazy guy and normally take the time to research problems and figure them out on my own, however at present this is my only activated phone, it's almost 11pm, I have to be up and out the door at 6am tomorrow, I will be judging competitions all day and will not have any opportunity to do anything about this until late tomorrow... In the meantime, I need a functioning PH1!!
My PH1 is the Sprint variant and I have not rooted it nor have I unlocked the bootloader. The only thing I have "done" to the phone is to sideload the latest OTA, NMJ32F (the day it came out, over a week ago, and it's functioned perfectly since that update). My phone has been in use throughout the day today with no difficulties. I went into a building with very spotty service for several hours this evening. On the way home, I noticed that I was stuck in 3G service, despite being in an area I know has good 4G/LTE coverage. I also noticed an unidentified icon on the status bar, a rectangle, which was located (I believe) to the right of the battery icon. It looked like a rectangle, perhaps representing a screen, or a phone? IDK. The other item of note is that I did sign into the guest account on my phone so that my daughter could use the stopwatch for timing competetion events without tampering with anything. She didn't drop it or get it wet or anything along those lines... she used it to time events, returned it to me in perfect shape. I logged out of the guest account, back into my account, rebooted to try to get the phone back into 4G service, and boom, I'm stuck in a frigging bootloop for no apparent reason.... And I'm about to lose my mind over this.
I CAN get into download mode and into recovery mode by holding the appropriate button combinations when it loops, but from there whether I power off and power on again or whether I select reboot from recovery menu, it continues to loop...
Well folks, still strange, still unexplained, but I had to bite the bullet and factory reset, just can't afford to wait. I'm still open to any thoughts on what might have gone wrong though I suspect we'll never know. This phone has been a bit buggy from day 1, things like BT randomly shutting off, VoLTE wouldn't stay enabled, etc... Hopefully this is the last time this happens. Still love the phone though!
So I am running O beta rooted and last night this happened to me. I ended up going into fastboot and starting OS through there and I had no issue with the reboot bootloop. However, last night I went to bed with a phone @ 75-80% and woke up 6 hours later with a dead phone. Charged and rebooted this morn and everything seemed normal today. It was super wierd
Had to return mine for this very reason. Less than a week in service and went into boot loop. The reboot happened after it lost all battery power (corrupt filesystem?). Several factory resets did nothing to fix it. Removed the SIM. The phone was also fully charged. Did not try ADB as it was brand new and a return was the safest easiest option.
ccopelan said:
Well folks, still strange, still unexplained, but I had to bite the bullet and factory reset, just can't afford to wait. I'm still open to any thoughts on what might have gone wrong though I suspect we'll never know. This phone has been a bit buggy from day 1, things like BT randomly shutting off, VoLTE wouldn't stay enabled, etc... Hopefully this is the last time this happens. Still love the phone though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any issues since factory resetting? I'm having the same issue. Not sure if i should just return the phone or not.
chray1 said:
Any issues since factory resetting? I'm having the same issue. Not sure if i should just return the phone or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am stuck with the same problem, and this is my second phone already. This one doesn't stay on long enough even for an attempt to factory reset. I will send it back again, but I have no hope. Time to cut my losses and move on. Going to Pixel. And I sooo wanted Essential to succeed!
fhlutiis said:
I am stuck with the same problem, and this is my second phone already. This one doesn't stay on long enough even for an attempt to factory reset. I will send it back again, but I have no hope. Time to cut my losses and move on. Going to Pixel. And I sooo wanted Essential to succeed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
interesting.
If it's your second phone, have you looked at what applications you install?
The probability of getting two bad phones is pretty slim unless there is a major manufacturing flaw.
Not saying it can't happen, but it would be unusual.
Could it be due to Encrypted Data partition?
It once happened to me on a Huawei Mate 2 which I encrypted data and battery dead, then bootloop.
If that's due to corrupt encrypted partition, there seems only other recovery mode can help you get some files back.

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