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Phone won't boot past "Galaxy S4" splash screen

So I recently purchased my AT&T Galaxy S4 with MDL baseband. I rooted and installed TWRP via motochopper. I then loaded Kangabean 4.2.2 and everything was great. Got notification for OTA update to 4.3 and decided might as well load Kangabean 4.3 as opposed to dealing with the OTA notification. I did so (after formatting internal SD and performing factory reset) and now my phone won't boot beyond the Galaxy S4 splash screen. I restored a nandroid backup of the original software and was able to boot the phone once, but couldn't load the custom rom again, nor can i load into the stock rom anymore either. Does it sound like my phone may have a hardware failure? Would attempting to restore through odin be the next logical step? I'm by no means an expert with these sort of things but my S2 has never given me any sort of grief when flashing various roms in the past. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Try a different kernel, also, pull the battery for 5 min, it will boot.

TheAxman said:
Try a different kernel, also, pull the battery for 5 min, it will boot.
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Click to collapse
Yeah I left the phone off with the battery removed all night - didn't want to boot this morning. I'm also noticing an oddity with TWRP - it's for some reason asking for a password on startup even though I've never set one. It also gives an error when attempting to wipe the phone or re-flash

id try odin

Don't Odin yet. If you can get into recovery see if you can flash a new recovery onto the phone. Try this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=41746967

jd1639 said:
Don't Odin yet. If you can get into recovery see if you can flash a new recovery onto the phone. Try this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=41746967
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Click to collapse
It will not let you past the password, been there, it will only do simulated flashes.
Odin is his only option.

So I managed to flash back to stock with odin. I was then able to re-root and re-install recovery. Something is still wrong here though. I was able to load kangabean 4.3, but when i installed the SIM card (kept it out to prevent OTA updates) the phone would no longer boot. I then re-flashed with odin, re-rooted, installed sim, THEN loaded the rom and it worked.... For a while. I had the phone plugged in to my laptop as i had recently transferred some ringtones to the internal SD. I powered down the phone. It seemed to shut the OS down but it then displayed a battery symbol with a rotating circular animation, as if it was trying to show that it was charging the battery. The phone froze in this state.
Another thing that I've noticed is that when this phone freezes, it gets warm. It also tends not to respond well until i've let it cool down. I'm now having difficulty booting the phone after re-flashing with odin. It loads to the white screen with AT&T logo and hangs (and gets warm). I plan to leave the phone alone with battery removed for the day and attempt to reboot or re-flash with odin later.
I find it odd that the rom that i flashed would stop working if i've flashed the rom with the sim removed from the phone, then introduced the sim to the phone after the flash is complete. Is this normal? I'm also unsure if my phone has faulty hardware, or maybe there's some sort of software glitch that's causing it to hang and overhead (like an infinite loop caused by faulty software).
I think if / when I can get it working with the stock rom again, I'll root it and run it for a while and see what it does. I never intended to run this phone with the stock rom as I prefer vanilla android.
I'm wondering if there's something wrong with the kernel. Perhaps I should re-download the ROM and re-install it. I'm not sure but I think the kernel is responsible for charging issues. Perhaps a bad kernel WOULD explain why the phone sometimes freezes at the "battery charging" logo? I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to do. I could try exchanging it through AT&T. If so, I hope they nave another one in their stock that has the MDL baseband as I know I'd be screwed with the current one...

Squidbert said:
So I managed to flash back to stock with odin. I was then able to re-root and re-install recovery. Something is still wrong here though. I was able to load kangabean 4.3, but when i installed the SIM card (kept it out to prevent OTA updates) the phone would no longer boot. I then re-flashed with odin, re-rooted, installed sim, THEN loaded the rom and it worked.... For a while. I had the phone plugged in to my laptop as i had recently transferred some ringtones to the internal SD. I powered down the phone. It seemed to shut the OS down but it then displayed a battery symbol with a rotating circular animation, as if it was trying to show that it was charging the battery. The phone froze in this state.
Another thing that I've noticed is that when this phone freezes, it gets warm. It also tends not to respond well until i've let it cool down. I'm now having difficulty booting the phone after re-flashing with odin. It loads to the white screen with AT&T logo and hangs (and gets warm). I plan to leave the phone alone with battery removed for the day and attempt to reboot or re-flash with odin later.
I find it odd that the rom that i flashed would stop working if i've flashed the rom with the sim removed from the phone, then introduced the sim to the phone after the flash is complete. Is this normal? I'm also unsure if my phone has faulty hardware, or maybe there's some sort of software glitch that's causing it to hang and overhead (like an infinite loop caused by faulty software).
I think if / when I can get it working with the stock rom again, I'll root it and run it for a while and see what it does. I never intended to run this phone with the stock rom as I prefer vanilla android.
I'm wondering if there's something wrong with the kernel. Perhaps I should re-download the ROM and re-install it. I'm not sure but I think the kernel is responsible for charging issues. Perhaps a bad kernel WOULD explain why the phone sometimes freezes at the "battery charging" logo? I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to do. I could try exchanging it through AT&T. If so, I hope they nave another one in their stock that has the MDL baseband as I know I'd be screwed with the current one...
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Click to collapse
TheAxman said:
Try a different kernel, also, pull the battery for 5 min, it will boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
//

Squidbert said:
.
Another thing that I've noticed is that when this phone freezes, it gets warm. It also tends not to respond well until i've let it cool down. I'm now having difficulty booting the phone after re-flashing with odin. It loads to the white screen with AT&T logo and hangs (and gets warm). I plan to leave the phone alone with battery removed for the day and attempt to reboot or re-flash with odin later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're on the stock AT&T rom and you're getting stuck on the AT&T boot logo try the following:
Power off your phone and hold down Volume Up, Center Home, and Power buttons together.
Once you see the Galaxy S4 splash - Keep holding down Volume Up and Center Home buttons but let go of Power button.
Choose the wipe datafactory reset. This will wipe your phone completely but it should boot after.
Hope that helps.

Well I've been toying around with this thing and much to my surprise, I have CM10 running stable w/o any issues booting! I think I would prefer to run Kangabean 2.05 (android 4.3) though. Assuming that the kernel could be a likely cause of the OS not booting, could someone recommend a suitable kernel for that rom? It appears to come packaged with the "KT" kernel...
Another thought i had was perhaps TWRP wasn't adding the loki feature to the roms that i was trying. I upgraded from 2.5x to 2.6. Hasn't seemed to have made a noticeable difference though.
Would the fact that CM10 runs absolutely flawlessly with no issues booting at all possibly help narrow down why the other roms that I'm flashing only load up the first time but fail at the "Galaxy S4" splash screen on subsequent reboots? Admittedly I'm a relative noob to roms and such but up until now i've been able to muddle my way through things and eventually figure them out. I'm not having the greatest luck with this one!

Squidbert said:
Well I've been toying around with this thing and much to my surprise, I have CM10 running stable w/o any issues booting! I think I would prefer to run Kangabean 2.05 (android 4.3) though. Assuming that the kernel could be a likely cause of the OS not booting, could someone recommend a suitable kernel for that rom? It appears to come packaged with the "KT" kernel...
Another thought i had was perhaps TWRP wasn't adding the loki feature to the roms that i was trying. I upgraded from 2.5x to 2.6. Hasn't seemed to have made a noticeable difference though.
Would the fact that CM10 runs absolutely flawlessly with no issues booting at all possibly help narrow down why the other roms that I'm flashing only load up the first time but fail at the "Galaxy S4" splash screen on subsequent reboots? Admittedly I'm a relative noob to roms and such but up until now i've been able to muddle my way through things and eventually figure them out. I'm not having the greatest luck with this one!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP does not now and has never added LOKI to any ROM or Kernel. Only OUDHS CWM auto-LOKIs. You have to use A pre-LOKIed Kernel or flash the LOKI DokI script to LOKI anything with TWRP. You can do a search to find the LOKI DOKI script and how to use it.

fatah
hi my phone is galaxy s4 at&t i337 rooted but not installed recovery the phone was working good suddenly i deleted at&t software updater after that the phone rebooted it's self and then stuck in at&t boot logo won't bootup please help
TheAxman said:
Try a different kernel, also, pull the battery for 5 min, it will boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

galaxy s4 i337 stuck on at&t bootAnimation
i tried everything but still same please help my phone is not booting up

fatahmusse said:
i tried everything but still same please help my phone is not booting up
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Click to collapse
Flash the stock firmware.

samsung galaxy s4 i337
thank you i flashed to mf3 everything is ok

fatahmusse said:
thank you i flashed to mf3 everything is ok
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Click to collapse
Glad to hear

[Q] Reboots after Lollipop

Verizon Note 3 here, I received the Lollipop ota today and thought no harm in taking it as I was already stuck without root on 4.4.4.
It worked ok for the first couple minutes, then a reboot, then same thing, about 5 minutes and a reboot. Sometimes ~2 minutes, seems using it in any situation made the reboots happen. I did a factory reset thinking that would clear things up. Unfortunately now it is even worse, as it's rebooting anywhere from the first touch to the screen, to about 15 seconds of activity, literally dozens of reboots.
I downloaded the update on my pc and installed via Odin hoping that the ota was just corrupted or some bad luck like that. Nothing changed at all.
It will idle after booting just fine, I just can't do much of anything, every touch of the screen feels like a roll of the dice. Every few reboots or so I can make it to settings maybe but haven't been able to actually change much of anything, not that it would seem to matter here.
I've flashed via Odin twice, cleared the cashe many times, factory reset 3 or 4 times. Am I screwed here? What else to try?
*UPDATE* I flashed back to 4.4.4 with Odin and no more issues. It appears that my device alone is completely incompatible with the new firmware.

I should also note that I tried airplane mode, safe mode, and removing the sd card with no improvements.

After hours of messing with this thing and nearly giving up, not half an hour after I post here for help, I seem to have found a solution, although hopefully not a permanent one. The problem was happening when I would touch the screen, not scrolling ever, but making selections. On a whim I turned off sound and bam, no crashes.
I would still love it if someone had some insight about this problem, or better yet a solution.
I'm not sure yet if it is just the keypress sound that is killing it, or all sounds. I never did have any issues with the stock keyboard clicks now that I think of it, only the menu press sound. In any case it's not every time it made the sound, just half the time or so. Anything anybody could add to this would be appreciated.
*Edit* Not a solution, but it did help.

Well it's not as stable as I'd hoped. More like before the first factory reset now, but still not good at all. The various sounds definitely trigger crashes quickly(menu options, volume pings, mp3 songs from sd card), but regular silenced menu presses do sometimes as well still. Phone also bootloops several times often before it can get booted stable and 100% always crashes immediately if I try to unlock the screen in the first 5-10 seconds after booting up. Not sure if I'll be able to call or text as it's too late to test that atm. I'll update tomorrow, any insight appreciated.

I would say a bad download but I don't remember if ODIN checks MD5 sums (pretty sure it does). I would do a full wipe and reflash the stock image with odin

I am 100% stock not rooted never been rooted 5.0 vzw and I have had a couple of reboots. Never ever had one on this phone before. My old note 3 was rooted but I got this replacement after the root exploits had all been closed.

ehh not all have been closed

What is the root exploit for Verizon Note 3 with 5.0?

recDNA said:
What is the root exploit for Verizon Note 3 with 5.0?
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Click to collapse
None at the current time but CVE-2014-8609 seems like it could be some use

I spoke too soon when I said the phone was usable now. At best 5 minutes of light use as anything seems to crash it now. I did get a fresh image and used it with Odin with exactly the same result which makes me think its my phones hardware or something. Just seems crazy that it was working just fine before the update. The reason I pushed to 4.4.4 and lost root is because my phone suddenly started an issue where it would crash when making or receiving calls. It wasn't caused by any new apps or anything, just out of nowhere. I tried everything then updated as a last resort, carelessly I went to 4.4.4 instead of staying at 4.4.2 and lost chance of root, but it solved the problem I was having. I wonder if the issue is related somehow.

I was able to odin back to 4.4.4 and it's working fine so far, I assumed that you would not be able to revert back like the last ota and just tried it as a nothing to lose last effort. This is very important news to anybody that is having major issues with 5.0. Maybe, just maybe I'll try it again if they make an update patch for reported issues.
But for now, 4.4.4 it is for me.

VZW Note 3 update to Lollipop
I just finished the Lollipop update and my phone is working great for the past 30 minutes. Seems a little slower then usual but have had no issues besides my phone locking up after downloading the update, may have been due to my phone running down to 14%, but after removing the battery for 20 secs and putting it back on, phone came back on, I plugged into charger and started the update. Will post later if I have any issues.

I have been trying unsuccessfully through odin to downgrade but it keeps failing in odin, I downloaded the official firmware from sammobile.

Just curious if u r tried reinstalling newer odin? Try different USB port and cable. At this point maybe even try different pc if u have access to 1

I believe this isn't an average ''soft brick''. Some kind of unsolvable brick?

Do you see all the threads about restoring a ''bricked'' N910C from CM13 to stock?
Well they all require you to have a functioning CM13 ROM in the first place.
I do not have that.
My N910C refuses to boot past logo no matter what the ROM is, CM or Stock or anything else. I have tried installing COMPLETE firmwares with PIT files and repartitioning, but all this still leads to the same bootloop screen.
I even took my phone to some guy who has a box shaped device that supposedly formats all phone hardware data to factory setting. Nope that didn't work. Still bricked.
The only thing that changed since all my failed trials is the release of Polands 6.01 MM for the N910C. Will flashing that even be of any use? What on earth am I supposed to do except getting a $100 motherboard replacement.
Also, this all didn't start because I was thick headed enough to roll back my android without knowing the consequences. The ''unofficial'' CM13 actually crashed while the flash-light was on, and started bootlooping by itself, forcing me to look for other ROMS.

I337 extreme lag, random reboots, no recovery

Recently bought a new out-of-the box Galaxy S4 I337 from Amazon. Had i known how much trouble it would give me, i would have picked something else. When i first turned the device on, it was almost totally unusable due to lag and random reboots. Software version was 4.4.2. I used Odin to flash a rootable NB1 onto the device. Still had lag and random reboots. Upgraded to lollipop using this guide: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4-att/help/guide-att-samsung-galaxy-s4-sgh-i337-t3383078 and still have lag and random reboots. Also, the first time i upgraded to lollipop, i installed safestrap not knowing it wouldn't work on lollipop. Obviously, my recovery disappeared. When i figured out what was going on, i did a fresh install of lollipop. I got recovery back, but today when i tried to boot into recovery to wipe the cache, i discovered it had mysteriously stopped working again. If i attempt to boot into recovery, it just skips to the Samsung logo. I didn't install safestrap or any other custom recovery this time.
When i turn the phone on, either it hangs at the AT&T white splash logo and refuses to load at all, or advances to the lock screen. I have disabled animations and every widget i could on the lock screen and yet when i attempt to unlock the phone, it usually freezes. If i repeatedly swipe the phone for thirty seconds or so, it unlocks but it is still frozen and i have to continue swiping to prevent it from locking again. Eventually i'm able to navigate the phone normally, until it randomly reboots or freezes. Sometimes i see an error message that Touchwiz home, Process System, or SystemUI has stopped working or is not responding. This is always accompanied by a freeze. Also, choosing an option in the dialogue that comes up when i press the power button (shut down, reboot, etc) invariably causes the device to soft reboot. Other times a soft reboot happens totally at random, even if i'm not doing anything. Anybody have any idea what's going on or did Amazon just sell me a dud? All of these issues have been happening since before i rooted the device or upgraded it, except for the disappearing recovery mode.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Sounds like a data factory reset is in order. First you need recovery back so I would odin the latest firmware for the phone that can be flashed in odin. If it's still messing up then get Amazon to replace it.
Since you have safe strap though, try booting a TW based rom like Thor ROM or Golden eye ROM. That may fix some things.

StoneyJSG said:
Sounds like a data factory reset is in order. First you need recovery back so I would odin the latest firmware for the phone that can be flashed in odin. If it's still messing up then get Amazon to replace it.
Since you have safe strap though, try booting a TW based rom like Thor ROM or Golden eye ROM. That may fix some things.
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Click to collapse
Just wanted to bump this to thank you for your reply. Never got the phone to work but i was able to get it back to stock and return it. I got a refurbished S5 instead.

Touch screen response delay / lag after flashing back to stock

I've been given an OP2 64GB as a project from a friend to try and return to stock and working. It was running a custom ROM which wasn't working particularly well, so I did the full reload to stock 3.0.2 via the Qualcomm download described here by @fareed_xtreme which downloaded okay, booted up, and the touchscreen seemingly didn't work. I've come across that before where there's been driver or firmware mismatches, but then I realised that if I held my finger on the screen for between 2 and 4 seconds, it'd start responding, right up until I let my fingers up off the screen. I could do multiple scrolls by adding a second finger to the mix, and it'd keep responding until I let go, at which point I'd have to hold down for another 2-4 seconds to make it do anything. The digitiser is fine, I enabled the overlays in dev tools (painfully clicking item by item!), and it shows the traces fine. They don't show up at all as screen presses until said delay happens, which is very odd. It also responded fine in the recovery, which was plain odd.
After a while, I tried returning it to 2.2.0 courtesy of @fareed_xtreme's other guide, which then worked fine, booted up, had 2.2.0 installed, touchscreen worked fine. Did notice the baseband version claimed it was unknown, though I'm unsure if this was related to me having no SIMs in it. It did initially offer me an OTA upgrade to the latest Marshmallow, which I allowed it to do, and promptly had the same issues again.
I've tried flashing various ROMs - Resurrection Remix etc, to find they've got the same problem. Any Marshmallow-based ROM seems to suffer from this weird input lag. The capacitive buttons are fine, it's just the display. Also, weirdly, it works if I touch the screen just as I wake the phone with the power button - so I can hit the power button and immediately swipe the lockscreen off, but then it reverts to the previous behaviour.
I've tried re-flashing the firmware for the various ROMs (matching with the installed ROM obviously). I've also repeatedly wiped the system/data/cache partitions etc, and have backups of EFS via TWRP saved off the phone. I also spotted two threads on the OnePlus forums describing this exact issue here and here, both with no solution. I also noticed people have had similar issues long ago when they tried installing H2OS and then returning to stock, without doing the full qualcomm download, but they seemed to be mostly solved with the full ROM reload and a cache wipe.
My next step is to flash back to 2.2.0, and incrementally upgrade with the OTAs, see if it works, but I suspect the second I make the jump to 3.0.2, I'll lose the touchscreen again. I've left it OEM unlocked, and got TWRP and original recoveries available.
To be honest, worst case, I just reflash the phone back to the final 2.x version, at least it actually works then, but... I'd really love to know why I can't fix this, and what the actual issue is, if anyone out there knows. There doesn't seem to be much on here in the way of people experiencing the issue - either that, or my search-fu has repeatedly failed me. My gut feeling is something kernel/driver related, but I don't understand why it wouldn't get fixed with the full firmware download via QC.
Help me, XDA, you're my only hope!

N2A said:
I've been given an OP2 64GB as a project from a friend to try and return to stock and working. It was running a custom ROM which wasn't working particularly well, so I did the full reload to stock 3.0.2 via the Qualcomm download described here by @fareed_xtreme which downloaded okay, booted up, and the touchscreen seemingly didn't work. I've come across that before where there's been driver or firmware mismatches, but then I realised that if I held my finger on the screen for between 2 and 4 seconds, it'd start responding, right up until I let my fingers up off the screen. I could do multiple scrolls by adding a second finger to the mix, and it'd keep responding until I let go, at which point I'd have to hold down for another 2-4 seconds to make it do anything. The digitiser is fine, I enabled the overlays in dev tools (painfully clicking item by item!), and it shows the traces fine. They don't show up at all as screen presses until said delay happens, which is very odd. It also responded fine in the recovery, which was plain odd.
After a while, I tried returning it to 2.2.0 courtesy of @fareed_xtreme's other guide, which then worked fine, booted up, had 2.2.0 installed, touchscreen worked fine. Did notice the baseband version claimed it was unknown, though I'm unsure if this was related to me having no SIMs in it. It did initially offer me an OTA upgrade to the latest Marshmallow, which I allowed it to do, and promptly had the same issues again.
I've tried flashing various ROMs - Resurrection Remix etc, to find they've got the same problem. Any Marshmallow-based ROM seems to suffer from this weird input lag. The capacitive buttons are fine, it's just the display. Also, weirdly, it works if I touch the screen just as I wake the phone with the power button - so I can hit the power button and immediately swipe the lockscreen off, but then it reverts to the previous behaviour.
I've tried re-flashing the firmware for the various ROMs (matching with the installed ROM obviously). I've also repeatedly wiped the system/data/cache partitions etc, and have backups of EFS via TWRP saved off the phone. I also spotted two threads on the OnePlus forums describing this exact issue here and here, both with no solution. I also noticed people have had similar issues long ago when they tried installing H2OS and then returning to stock, without doing the full qualcomm download, but they seemed to be mostly solved with the full ROM reload and a cache wipe.
My next step is to flash back to 2.2.0, and incrementally upgrade with the OTAs, see if it works, but I suspect the second I make the jump to 3.0.2, I'll lose the touchscreen again. I've left it OEM unlocked, and got TWRP and original recoveries available.
To be honest, worst case, I just reflash the phone back to the final 2.x version, at least it actually works then, but... I'd really love to know why I can't fix this, and what the actual issue is, if anyone out there knows. There doesn't seem to be much on here in the way of people experiencing the issue - either that, or my search-fu has repeatedly failed me. My gut feeling is something kernel/driver related, but I don't understand why it wouldn't get fixed with the full firmware download via QC.
Help me, XDA, you're my only hope!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest you to open a ticket with OnePlus Support (Live Chat). Inform them of the touchscreen scenario (Do not mention about the Quallcomm Flashing or they may start giving you a hard time for taking matters in your own hands). They will schedule you for the process and hopefully, they may be able to resolve it possibly with a newer Stock Reset.

Cheers, I'll give them a shot!

Unfortunately got no dice there - they reflashed it with OnePlus2_14_A.27_161227 (annoyingly, didn't get the decrypted files due to a screwup with my file mirroring), but still had precisely the same issue, up-to-date, no working touchscreen. If I can't get it working, it's not the end of the world, it's more annoying me that I can't figure it out... suggestions of a ROM to flash that might work would be most welcome!