Phone instantly reboots? - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshoot

I was listening to an audiobook when my phone suddenly died. It would not start back up, so I removed the battery. When I replaced the battery, the samsung logo would pop up but after about a second it would go black again. It will not start again until I remove/replace the battery, at which point it does the one second shutdown again.
At one point I got the phone to boot (no idea what I did differently) and I noticed that it got very hot around the camera area before going black again. A second time I was able to get into recovery, where I did a factory reset. Booted back up and it seemed to be okay, but then heated up very quickly and shut down.
Now, even if the phone is totally cool, I cant get past that 1 second of samsung logo. I'm really at a loss here, and totally screwed without my phone because I am traveling non-stop for the next 2 weeks. Does anyone know how I might try to troubleshoot this? Thanks

Possibly flash a new ROM and start over. That's what I would do

This EXACT situation happened to me yesterday! I was streaming from Google music, it was on the charger and things were fine. A call came in and the phone started vibrating like crazy and wouldn't stop. The screen went black and it kept vibrating. Finally it went off. On boot it will get to my lock screen and then crash after about 30 seconds. If I take the battery out and try again it lasts another few seconds after boot. If I leave it for a LONG time with the battery out and restart it I can get like 2 mins on the next boot without it crashing. The top part by the camera is getting hot on my phone as well. Recovery mode and download mode start fine and the phone doesn't crash. I have some data on the internal that I want to save so I tried to use Odin to flash the most recent build L720VPUFNG2 as that would just install the OS and not touch the data. On the next reboot things seemed to be working fine and I got maybe 5 mins out of the phone before it crashed again. I still don't have enough time to get the data off so I think I'm just going to say screw it and wipe it completely. You guys know of a way I can backup this app data using Odin or recovery mode? My phone is currently unrooted. I'm new to all this tinkering stuff. Phone is out of warranty now anyway.

Threw on a custom recovery, backed up all my data, did a full wipe, now I am good as new.

It worked for awhile but now it is back to rebooting itself. Any idea what could be the issue? I'm assuming at this point it is hardware related. Why can recovery and download mode run consistently without crashing but when an os is fired up it has issues? If it was a hardware issue shouldn't it not work across the board?

So I had Sprint replace my phone on the 8th. I have been using my same batteries (1 stock 1 Anker) and chargers (some stock some not) without issue the past 5 days. I rooted and installed xposed and some modules (original broken phone was never rooted and was completely stock). Things were going great until tonight when it started reboot looping exactly like the old phone. I switched battery and same proble. After I took the battery out and left it out awhile it fired back up but I'm afraid the problem will return. Is it possible that the battery or charger randomly are causing damage to the phone? I only have 14 day warranty on this replacement and need to figure this out.

I have no idea maybe try just using your stock battery for a couple days. See how that goes then use your other battery for a couple days and see what happens.

i7vSa7vi7y said:
I have no idea maybe try just using your stock battery for a couple days. See how that goes then use your other battery for a couple days and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it was one of the xposed modules causing the issue. I realized the rebooting seemed to happen whenever I pressed the power button. I had installed a power menu module so perhaps it was the cause. I restored from a nandroid and uninstalled that module and things seem to be working now. Hopefully that was the cause and this thing won't start acting up again after the return period.

killerz298 said:
I think it was one of the xposed modules causing the issue. I realized the rebooting seemed to happen whenever I pressed the power button. I had installed a power menu module so perhaps it was the cause. I restored from a nandroid and uninstalled that module and things seem to be working now. Hopefully that was the cause and this thing won't start acting up again after the return period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes a lot of sense. Have to be careful with those Xposed modules. Don't get too carried away installing so many at one time and playing with them and then rebooting. You'll have a hard time figuring out which one is causing it. I'm pretty sure you found your problem.

i7vSa7vi7y said:
That makes a lot of sense. Have to be careful with those Xposed modules. Don't get too carried away installing so many at one time and playing with them and then rebooting. You'll have a hard time figuring out which one is causing it. I'm pretty sure you found your problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly what I did I installed like 6 at once and things were working well for a few hours then disaster stuck. I think I won't play with this phone anymore as I am upgrading anyway and want to sell it in working order.

So things were going well for awhile and then the reboot loops started up again. I did some digging and read that apparently Samsung phones are notorious for sticking power buttons and the symptoms were exactly what I was experiencing. I watched some videos online how to open the phone and clean out the power button but it didn't make a difference. I then read that squeezing the connector for the power button with a pair of pliers sometimes does the trick. Not for me. So finally since I'm not under warranty, have no insurance, and the phone wasn't working anyway, I just ripped the white plastic part of the power button right off. Well, that seemed to do the trick. Phone immediately fired back up without issue and has been going strong. I glued a small thin piece of plastic where the old one used to be and I am back in action. If my little plastic piece solution eventually fails or breaks off I will consider soldering on a new button but so far so good.
If you have tried everything else, and are looking for last resort, try cleaning the power button with some alcohol, and if that fails, rip off that power button! Here is the video that gave me the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Glllc7bEJs and here are some other power button videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=s4%20power%20button&search_type=&aq=f&oq=

Related

[Q] Screen problem..anyone have an idea what is going on?

Ok, I have been waiting for this phone for a while now (Sero plan, had to wait to Oct 1st)
Finally get it and it is acting up, not a good first impression.
Phone seems to "freeze". The screen just becomes unresponsive. Nothing is reflected as being done but I think the phone is still operating because when I took out the battery and restarted the phone, my txt draft was different from when the screen locked up (I was randomly pressing buttons on the keyboard after the screen locked)
The screen does not black out, it just freezes randomly. I can't press any buttons to do anything, I can only power off the screen and power it back on in which case it comes back to the frozen screen. My only option is to then take out the battery. Anyone have this occur to them? I don't like the idea of having to go to a store for a replacement 2 days after I received the phone..
jordan1122 said:
Ok, I have been waiting for this phone for a while now (Sero plan, had to wait to Oct 1st)
Finally get it and it is acting up, not a good first impression.
Phone seems to "freeze". The screen just becomes unresponsive. Nothing is reflected as being done but I think the phone is still operating because when I took out the battery and restarted the phone, my txt draft was different from when the screen locked up (I was randomly pressing buttons on the keyboard after the screen locked)
The screen does not black out, it just freezes randomly. I can't press any buttons to do anything, I can only power off the screen and power it back on in which case it comes back to the frozen screen. My only option is to then take out the battery. Anyone have this occur to them? I don't like the idea of having to go to a store for a replacement 2 days after I received the phone..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I don't have a solution to your problem, but...
I'd do a factory reset before you take it back, back everything up, do the reset, and then restore it. A factory reset can work wonders for some odd problems.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8448259#post8448259
Easiest way to restore is to use Clockwork Recovery on a rooted phone. 1 option to back everything up, wipe all the caches in Clockwork, factory reset the phone, restore the backup in Clockwork. Shouldn't take more than 15 mins. See the developers forum on instructions on how to root and install Clockwork.
I agree your first step should be a backup/reset. If that doesn't fix the problem then swap it with a new one. I had serious freezing issues with my first Epic and eventually had to return it for a new one. Second one has run perfectly since.
zetterwing said:
I agree your first step should be a backup/reset. If that doesn't fix the problem then swap it with a new one. I had serious freezing issues with my first Epic and eventually had to return it for a new one. Second one has run perfectly since.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Freezing is a hardware defect. Backup. Wipe. Check it out.
i've noticed this freeze always occurs on my phone when my it's idle. It seems to only occur when I leave the GPS on and it appears to be searching causing it to freeze.

[Q] Galaxy S4 hardbrick

Hey,
This is my first time posting here and really using the site. I have the Sprint Galaxy S4 and just updated to the SlimKat official build 7 and had no initial problems. A day later it starts to reboot constantly and would stay on for a couple minutes. Now it is stuck in a bootloop and will shut off even when going into download or recovery mode. When plugged into a computer the computer won't even recognize the phone and the phone will not turn on. The only time the phone will even start to boot is when it is not plugged into wall/computer and on battery. I have no idea what to do now.
That's a tough one. Usually with a soft brick, if you can make it to recovery, your phone can be saved but since you can't... I hope you get it working!
Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app
puresublimie said:
Hey,
This is my first time posting here and really using the site. I have the Sprint Galaxy S4 and just updated to the SlimKat official build 7 and had no initial problems. A day later it starts to reboot constantly and would stay on for a couple minutes. Now it is stuck in a bootloop and will shut off even when going into download or recovery mode. When plugged into a computer the computer won't even recognize the phone and the phone will not turn on. The only time the phone will even start to boot is when it is not plugged into wall/computer and on battery. I have no idea what to do now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to sprint galaxy s4 thread. All answers there. You need Odin 3.09 then stock ng2 tar. To flash through computer.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app
I already have odin and the tar files for stock. When plugged into my computer it will not even register that it is connected and so I can't use odin to flash it.
The same thing is happening to me. I get to the Galaxy S4 splash screen, then it shuts off. Even if I try to boot into recovery
I'm going to pile on in here as I seem to be having a similar issue. I had my S4 (not rooted, stock rom) on my dock streaming google music. A phone call came in and the phone started vibrating like crazy and wouldn't stop. The screen shut off and the phone was still vibrating. Finally it stopped and was shut off. When I try to start it a few things happens. It will sometimes boot to my lock screen and the screen goes black and I think it is powered off. Sometimes it will get past the lock screen and then die shortly after. After like 2 or 3 times of that it won't even boot. It loads the Samsung screen but never gets to the Sprint screen or boots. If I leave it for some time shut off with battery out it will go back to booting to the lock screen then dying etc... When I press the buttons to get into recovery it says recovery is loading and then the screen goes black. I swapped batteries and that didn't do anything. I tried pressing the menu button or the home button to try and boot safe mode and it just loads normally not that I think that would help anyway.
Any ideas on things I can try next? What is this odin thing? Would that work for me?
---------- Post added at 07:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:16 PM ----------
Ok... I can get into recovery now and will try a factory reset. Are you sure you are going into recovery correctly. Apparently I was not. Hold volume up power and menu button and when the phone vibrates let go of power only.
Before I do a hard wipe is there any way to get data off the internal memory from recovery mode?
So I got a custom recovery installed, reinstalled stock rom, things worked ok for awhile. Then it started random reboots every 10 mins or so. Now it is back to instant crashing and rebooting. Any idea what could be the issue? I'm assuming at this point it is hardware related. Why can recovery and download mode run consistently without crashing but when an os is fired up it has issues? If it was a hardware issue shouldn't it not work across the board?
So I had Sprint replace my phone on the 8th. I have been using my same batteries (1 stock 1 Anker) and chargers (some stock some not) without issue the past 5 days. I rooted and installed xposed and some modules (original broken phone was never rooted and was completely stock). Things were going great until tonight when it started reboot looping exactly like the old phone. I switched battery and same proble. After I took the battery out and left it out awhile it fired back up but I'm afraid the problem will return. Is it possible that the battery or charger randomly are causing damage to the phone? I only have 14 day warranty on this replacement and need to figure this out.
So things were going well for awhile and then the reboot loops started up again. I did some digging and read that apparently Samsung phones are notorious for sticking power buttons and the symptoms were exactly what I was experiencing. I watched some videos online how to open the phone and clean out the power button but it didn't make a difference. I then read that squeezing the connector for the power button with a pair of pliers sometimes does the trick. Not for me. So finally since I'm not under warranty, have no insurance, and the phone wasn't working anyway, I just ripped the white plastic part of the power button right off. Well, that seemed to do the trick. Phone immediately fired back up without issue and has been going strong. I glued a small thin piece of plastic where the old one used to be and I am back in action. If my little plastic piece solution eventually fails or breaks off I will consider soldering on a new button but so far so good.
If you have tried everything else, and are looking for last resort, try cleaning the power button with some alcohol, and if that fails, rip off that power button! Here is the video that gave me the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Glllc7bEJs and here are some other power button videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=s4%20power%20button&search_type=&aq=f&oq=

Never seen this before!

I had an alarm app give me an alarm last night but I was busy in another app and dismissed the alarm in a way that the sound was still going. The only thing I thought to do was to do a reboot of the phone. I gave it a few minutes and when I pulled it from my pocket I noticed that it had not rebooted. So I held the power button for a few seconds and waited for that vibrate then the "Custom" screen.
Nothing.
Held the power button for about 30 seconds.
Nothing.
Good battery, at least 75% before this happened. No sweat. I have a spare battery that I know is 100%. When I put that one in, the phone immediately did a vibrate and gave me the "Custom" screen. Then dead. Power button did nothing.
Pulled the battery and upon insertion, I got that vibrate again. But this time I held Volume+ and I get that tiny blue bootloader message at the top of the screen for a half a second. Then dead. Tried it again and this time did Volume-, this time I got download mode for half a second. Then dead.
Tried all this with power plugged in and get even less. Nothing.
Connected it to a PC (OEM cord straight into the motherboard) and got nothing. No charging LED, no sound from the PC upon plugging. Nothing new showed up in Device Manager.
Did I just do the "Low Effort Brick" method just by rebooting? I have had this thing for a few years, running CWM then TWRP. Several ROMs in the past, xposed, done it all and never once even had a boot loop. Now I have a brick because I rebooted a phone that had been VERY stable for weeks (on Dan's GPE ROM)?
I am not so concerned about the device, I actually ordered a LG G4 already. What I REALLY want is the autobackup of Tasker that is in the internal storage. I know I have a TiBu of everything on the microSD and a TWRP is on there too. But both are a few days old and I have made many changes to Tasker in the past few days. Tasker updates a backup every time you leave the app, so I know I have a very recent file in there. But how do I get it?
It's not bricked. The power button on some S4's are janky. Mine did the same thing for a while. You can try smacking the power button on the corner of a desk or something but otherwise either just keep pulling the battery and trying, try opening it and cleaning the switch, or try replacing the switch.
It's hardware issue with power button. I've got the same issue with my S4. The only solution is to replace the button.
Good advice. Found a few YouTube videos that are pretty close the issue that I have. I shall do some work on this this weekend. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
Hell yeah. Effin HELL YEA. Found a few YouTube walk through videos and got down to the switch. Using my ever-awesome Simpson 260, I was able to determine that the power switch was bad. I exercised it a few dozen times and then it went open. Roughed everything back together (without screws) and got a boot.
Immediately made a TiBu of everything. I will also make a TWRP as soon as that is done. Now I have to source a power switch. I should have no problem replacing the switch. I have a fantastic solder station at work and a 20X magnifier. This shall be my crutch until the LG G4 arrives.
Thanks again for the advice. Proof again that this is a real community.
Side note: I went to AT&T to get my old Vivid back into action to replace my S4. When I mentioned that the device was rooted, they replied with some statement that my "jailbreaking" the device is what caused the failure. I asked if she knew what rooting was, and she said "yeah...jailbreaking". I asked her if she knew what an "unlocked bootloader" was and she just glazed over, mouth open. When I told her that the device has been rooted for years with no problem, she insisted that the problem happened when I "jailbroke" it.

Nexus 6p - bricked?????

Hi all,
Hopefully this wasnt covered before- I used the search function and it didnt return any results, at least not for my specific scenario.
I've had this 6p for about 18-20 months roughly. Been my best phone by far, and I've been very happy with it(normally i replace my phones every 8-12 mos because I need the latest and greatest lol).
About six months ago I threw PureNexus on there with I believe Flash kernel. Worked flawlessly, and I've been really happy with it.
About a week ago, it powered off on its own but i had it in my back pocket so I just assumed it was an accidental reboot. However, this morning, I woke up, threw it on the charger for about 30 minutes, got to about 60%, and unplugged it. While I was using the browser, it froze up for a minute then shut down. No bueno. Cannot get it to power back on. No power light while charging. I did what others have had luck with, holding power, and/or power/down for several minutes, still nothing.
I reached out to Project Fi, and they want a 500 dollar hold to send me out a refurb replacement. I know they release the funds in approximately 12 days but we had a recent death in the family and I just cannot afford to have 500 bucks locked up, especially right now. Spoke w a supervisor, apologized, but said nothing they can do.
On a whim, I plugged it into the pc, and it DOES detect it but its the dreaded QHSUSB_BULK under 'other devices'. So that tells me its at least got power, but, I'm unsure if just trying to use adb(i havent in a while, not since i did the initial rom install but im sure i can find instructions) to attempt to throw the base image back on there, will work, or which direction to go.
I found this but I dont think its for my specific phone but thought maybe there was a set of instructions for this particular phone similar to these:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/fix-fix-qhusbbulk-cm12-t3059518
I have seen several reports of this error happening when flashing the wrong rom, or using the wrong image, but never just all of a sudden when its been running like a champ.
any thoughts? thanks in advance.
Nexus 6p is plagued with issues like shutting down at certain percentages and the dreaded bootloop of death. You could get in contact with Google heard even people out of warranty having success. Could also have a shop replace the battery in some cases that fixed the shutdowns.
If it doesnt boot up at all I can't help you. If you can get to bootloader, flash stock image, un-root, re-lock your phone. see if it boots. I had to do all this, this morning. Phone would just shut off at 80%, reset and hang at the google sign. I could only get to into the main system with a hard reset every time. then it would reset and lock up. So i reverted it to stock and we will see how it goes. So far its been 6 hrs and no random resets and its in full use.
Yea, the problem is, I cant. Its not even a boot loop. Just looks like its dead. Held the power button down for roughly 10 minutes out of desperation.
The odd thing is, if i plug it into my pc it shows how i mentioned in my initial post. So it must have juice even though the power light/etc isnt on and it doesnt show charging.
Last hope I think i have is to run it out of battery leaving it on the table, then hope somehow when i plug it into charge, that resets it somehow since it was dead, and maybe clears whatever the issue is. Very odd considering it was working fine until this.
Your phone is stuck in the EDL mode when its detected as QHSUSB__BULK. There are solution for this but i dont know if this solution is combined with data loss or not and i try to find that out recently. I also still dont know how to fix that with linux.
Here two howtos:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/guide-how-to-bring-to-life-dead-nexus-t3581948
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/howtos-debrick-nexus-6p-stuck-edl-9008-t3552838

I am about to go crazy with this evil phone. j320a variant with complete stock firm

Ok, so this all started about a week ago. My dad has had this phone and for the most part has enjoyed it. The other day he calls (from the house phone) to let me know that his phone doesn't work. I was expecting the typical black screen so hold all the buttons to force a reboot and boom hero for the day.
God no. This phone would suddenly not boot properly at all. I mean I had trouble getting stock Recovery mode to even come up or download mode. I bought a new battery thinking it could help. Twice now I have managed to use ODIN to reflash stock firmware of 7.1.1 . Both times the phone would be fine and suddenly it would turn off and bam the same thing over again. Firmware screwed and it doesn't want to turn on reliably. Recovery mode would display all sorts of errors with mounting /efs and dm verity errors....
This must be a hardware problem right? I don't know what else to think at this point. Is it possible the restore of his backup from sammy cloud is corrupting it? I am willing to try this one more time and not restore any of his files or is it hopeless? Is there something fried?
And just for the record, I am not new to ODIN/Rooting/Custom Roms/ etc but at no point EVER has this damn phone been attempted to be rooted or anything. I hope someone has something positive to share or just put me out of my misery so I can destroy this f******* phone into a thousand pieces.
Has anyone ever had an issue where the plastic back cover is somehow causing the phone to short out or overload which makes it freeze or turn off? I swear this back cover is the cause of all of this. Last night i reflashed everything and really just forgot to put the cover on. It stayed on all night without a single issue. I rebooted and powered down multiple times and it turned right back on. Then I put the back cover on and what do you know, difficulties with powering on and freezing.
On the top right above the sim/microsd slot there is that spot with metal looking conduction material or something and it is also at the bottom near the charge port. What are those things? At this point the phone has become a pet project and I just have to have the answer. My dad already got a new phone lol. Any ideas?

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