S4 randomly shutting off and not turning back on. - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

A friend has an S4 GT-I9505. It was bought second hand few months ago.
Lately it has been acting up. Shutting down randomly but now it won't turn back on. We sometimes manage to get it back on, but no always.
It isn't the battery since I have inserted my battery into the phone and it still won't turn on. It won't turn on even when connected to the charger.
We figured it might be the power button so we took it to a guy to check it out. The guy took the phone apart looked at the button and said the button is ok.
He put the phone back together and it somehow worked without problems for a few days (up until now).
He said that the phone might be shorted somewhere. The thing that led him to that conclusion is that he noticed that when inserting the battery the phone would try turn on without pressing the power button.
He also said the boot might be dead because the phone won't go into recovery nor into download mode. Even if it manages to boot into them, it will turn off almost immediately sometimes.
The phone is running 5.0.1 GPE custom rom with Googy-Max kernel. No tweaks or mods.
I know this sounds a lot like a hardware problem. The only thing that makes me have doubts is that it works occasionally without any problems.

He looked at the power button. Honestly it's no surprise he didn't find anything wrong with the power button because the problem with the power button is inside the tiny metal casing making up the button, and it's something that can't be seen.
Get a second opinion from someone other than the guy you took this to. However, I believe this to be a power button issue, easily fixed by replacing the button.

As I said, He took the phone appart, took the motherboard-logic board, whatever you want to call it, out and looked at it. He also took that tiny metal casing that forms the power button out, leaving a tiny white "something" exposed. I guess that's what you're talking about
But I really hope you're right and it's the power button.
Edit: We were the whole time there while he took the phone apart and looked at it. So we saw everything he did. And he didn't do anything special except take it apart and put it back together and it somehow worked for a few more days.

I guess it really is the button. I managed to change the rom, kernel, bootloader. The phone booted up. I pressed the button once to lock the screen but nothing happened. 1 second after that the boot menu appeared. The next second the phone shut down and now it won't turn on again. Except for a brief moment to show the S4 screen and then turns off again.

Related

My G1 can't power on

Hello.
I've been a G1 user for about three monthes. It's really powerful and I can't live without it.
Unfortunately, My G1 can't power on since last week.
That day, I powered off my G1 as normal when I went to sleep. The next day, My G1 can't power on, only with a flash screen, then turn off immediately.
I tried to press "Power on" and "Camera", it can be boot into flashboot mode, but if I release the "Camera" button, it power off immediately.
I don't know why it became like this, I wonder whether a little water has entered G1.
I've recorded a video about my G1, Please give me suggestions, Thanks!
The video link: http://vimeo.com/6262827
BTW: I'm in China.
If you think it might be water damage you can look inside and see the water damage stickers and see if they changed colors. But most likely it looks like it might be hardware related.
I dropped my phone in a heavy rain storm and didn't know it. Went back and found it 15 minutes later when I realized I didn't have it. I had the same issue with it booting then turning off immediately.
I took out the battery, and slid the screen open then put it in front of a fan over night. The next morning it was fixed and working properly. Hope this works out for you.
Thank you for your replies!
I will have more research. Hope it will work soon.

Power button behaving funny on Focus ...

My samsung Focus is about 1.5 years old.. I plan to switch carriers at the end my of contract since AT&T is giving me lots of dropped call at the new place we moved to.. The phone is obviously out of warranty, so I am looking to see if I can fix it myself.
The power button on my Samsung focus is behaving very funny lately. When I hit the power button with the phone awake, it thinks I did a "long press" of the power button and shows me the shutdown pull-down image! If I pull-up the image, the phone still reboots...
If I press the power button when the phone screen is OFF, instead of turning on the phone, it again shows the pull-down image, and the same behavior ensues - regardless of what direction I pull the image in, it shuts down the phone.
Some things I have already tried:
I have tried a hard-reset (camera+volume+power, and format the device), but the behavior continues.
I have removed my SD Card (I am using the AT&T approved one), performed hard reset, and problem continues
I have tried a different battery (from my wife's focus), and problem continues
At this point, I am guessing that most likely, the power button connector is loose.. but I am not 100% sure.. Any suggestions on things to try?
Seems like the spring in the power button is gone. I suggest when you want to press it, lean the phone to the right (with the power button towards the ground) so when you press it, gravity helps popping it back.
Or replace the power button.
EnderPsp said:
Seems like the spring in the power button is gone. I suggest when you want to press it, lean the phone to the right (with the power button towards the ground) so when you press it, gravity helps popping it back.
Or replace the power button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried the first trick... didn't seem to help..
Any tips on where I can find a replacement power button and how I can replace it?
See my response here (and the thread referenced in my second reply). Seems to be one of the issues that appear in time... And in another case it was the battery...
EnderPsp said:
See my response here (and the thread referenced in my second reply). Seems to be one of the issues that appear in time... And in another case it was the battery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks EnderPsp!
I have ordered a new battery for now to see if it helps.. its a non-OEM battery off eBay.. Don't want to spend too much without knowing if that is indeed the problem..
I can't find a power button replacement part anywhere... I went over the video and the instructions to reach the power button housing does not seem very bad.. definitely do-able if I can find a replacement part..
walletless said:
Thanks EnderPsp!
I have ordered a new battery for now to see if it helps.. its a non-OEM battery off eBay.. Don't want to spend too much without knowing if that is indeed the problem..
I can't find a power button replacement part anywhere... I went over the video and the instructions to reach the power button housing does not seem very bad.. definitely do-able if I can find a replacement part..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The button itself is plastic (you can find some on ebay), and I don't know how it works, actually (If it's a spring or otherwise).
I suggest you watch a take apart guide and maybe, just maybe it's just dirt, which you can clean.
You'll know more and afterwards please share the result with us.
EnderPsp said:
The button itself is plastic (you can find some on ebay), and I don't know how it works, actually (If it's a spring or otherwise).
I suggest you watch a take apart guide and maybe, just maybe it's just dirt, which you can clean.
You'll know more and afterwards please share the result with us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And now its completely gone... the power button won't respond at all.. the phone has been shut all day. If I take the battery out and put it back in, the SAMSUNG logo shows up for a few seconds and then the phone turns off again.. No way to turn it back ON using the power key..
I sat down to open the circuit yesterday only to realize that I don't have a #000 screwdriver... the smallest one I have is #00 which is too big for the 7 screws that hold the back panel
Off to Grainger today to see if I can find a 000 driver.. It can't get any worse now, so might as well open the phone!
Sure thing - I will update the post later with what I find...
walletless said:
And now its completely gone... the power button won't respond at all.. the phone has been shut all day. If I take the battery out and put it back in, the SAMSUNG logo shows up for a few seconds and then the phone turns off again.. No way to turn it back ON using the power key..
I sat down to open the circuit yesterday only to realize that I don't have a #000 screwdriver... the smallest one I have is #00 which is too big for the 7 screws that hold the back panel
Off to Grainger today to see if I can find a 000 driver.. It can't get any worse now, so might as well open the phone!
Sure thing - I will update the post later with what I find...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You didn't say if the same happens with the wall charger connected.
Now, If you're going out, try and drop near a phone shop. Ask them if they can help you test with one of their batteries, either for a Focus i917 or from a Galaxy S i9000
Good luck mate.
Dang i thought i was the only one with this issue...
Mine started acting up about 3 weeks ago and it was seriously annoying especially when driving. I would press the lock button to change songs, but it thinks i did a long-press and does the "slide down to power off" thing. Even if i swipe up, the phone would switch off.
Then today, i take my phone out my pocket to send a text and find it's powered off. Won't even switch on now
Ender:
Plugging the phone in does NOTHING. The screen remains black.
Reinserting the battery causes the SAMSUNG logo to appear on-screen but again, goes black after 4-5 seconds.
Holding down the power/lock button has no effect, it's unresponsive.
I'm so pissed off this is happening 6 months before my contract is up. -_-
Don't know what else to say... I hope you still have warranty?
EnderPsp said:
Don't know what else to say... I hope you still have warranty?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not extended no... :/
I've managed to get it into "download mode" now though, and my laptop recognises it as "SAMSUNG CDMA Technologies"... Huh?
---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:45 PM ----------
If i have it plugged into my laptop,
hold vol down, power, and camera while inserting the battery i get to the hard reset screen. But then that disappears in the same 4-5 second window.
Ok, it's working again... I left the battery out for a few hours (literaly about 3), then pressed hard on the power button, and placed it (the battery) back in the phone.
Let it turn on and then back off by itself, then pressed hard on the power button.
pressed the button normally, and it booted up no issues. So far works fine.
I expect this issue is partly the power button, and something else unknown
EnderPsp said:
You didn't say if the same happens with the wall charger connected.
Now, If you're going out, try and drop near a phone shop. Ask them if they can help you test with one of their batteries, either for a Focus i917 or from a Galaxy S i9000
Good luck mate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes' same thing with wall power. New battery arrived and did not help. Went to a local cellphone repair and the guy said main board needs replacement.. he suggested to buy another phone since repair will be more expensive.. he said that he needs to remove soldering on the board reinforce an auxillary power button battery and resolder it in.. no guarantees and will cost atleast $150
Jfran71 said:
Ok, it's working again... I left the battery out for a few hours (literaly about 3), then pressed hard on the power button, and placed it (the battery) back in the phone.
Let it turn on and then back off by itself, then pressed hard on the power button.
pressed the button normally, and it booted up no issues. So far works fine.
I expect this issue is partly the power button, and something else unknown
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lucky you!! This seems like a common problem with several Samsung phones based on a quick google search
Also bummed that this happened with 6 months remaining ...Now I am somewhat stuck since I want to switch from AT&T due to call issues with several months remaining.. and dont want to buy one till wp8 is out...
Just for fun... I am going to find a 000 screwdriver and try to re-jig the power button.. nothing to loose with the phone refusing to start anyway!
For what it's worth, my power button had been getting increasingly creaky over the course of the last few months, and although not sticking, was requiring ever more pressure to operate. Also, the sound of rusty bedsprings every time I went to use my phone was getting somewhat embarrassing.
I found the sturdiest piece of paper that I could wedge in between the button and the rest of the phone, put a bit of PB Blaster on the paper, and wedged the paper in. The button has since been as good as the day I took the phone out of the box for a couple of months now.
*Edit: Should probably mention that the paper isn't supposed to stay in there - it was just used to apply the lube without soaking the phone.
Jfran71 said:
Ok, it's working again... I left the battery out for a few hours (literaly about 3), then pressed hard on the power button, and placed it (the battery) back in the phone.
Let it turn on and then back off by itself, then pressed hard on the power button.
pressed the button normally, and it booted up no issues. So far works fine.
I expect this issue is partly the power button, and something else unknown
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So its working completely fine now? No issues? I'll try that but im not hopeful.
I've been having the same issue, started yesterday. There appears to be no issues with the actual button itself, it doesnt appear to get stuck or anything to cause this, even without the external shell and just compressing the sensor itself.
walletless, you said that you tried reformatting it and everything? Damn. I was expecting it to be a software issue. I'll mess with the button mechanism a bit and see if theres anything weird with it
Phone is dead
re-jigging and cleaning around power button did not help.. I ended up ordering a chinese knock-off of HTC Note instead
Does any have this problem, but on a normal stock rom?
I was thinking it might be just custom roms, I don't think that would have anything to do with it
Its worth a shot though
titanhydro said:
Does any have this problem, but on a normal stock rom?
I was thinking it might be just custom roms, I don't think that would have anything to do with it
Its worth a shot though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone died last month. I only installed updates that came through Zune up to 7.5. I went into AT&T and they told me too bad because it was out of warranty. I called Samsung, and they wanted me to 'volume down, camera, power' reset my phone, which didn't work. Samsung told me to send it to them for $70 because I was out of warranty.
Instead I entered a developer competition for a Lumia 800 and won. Now I just have a dead focus, and a new 800. I'd still be interested if anyone finds out a way to fix the focus problem.

[SOLVED] Hard bricked, maybe?

I've read up on a lot of threads about hard and soft bricking. I think I my phone may have somehow hardbricked, but i don't know how for sure, as my situation doesn't really match what I've read on either case. Pretty much, it has randomly gone all black screen on me once or twice over the last week. This morning I noticed it did it again. To get it back on, I usually have to pull the battery. This morning, though, it wont boot back up. The "Galaxy S4" screen shows for a second or two, and then immediately goes black again. I tried recover, and the blue text on the top left corner shows, but again the screen goes black after a second or two at the Galaxy S4 screen without making it to recovery. Download mode? Same thing. It goes through the steps, and after a second or two of the "Press volume down to cancel, up to continue..." or whatever message, it goes black. If I'm fast enough, I can press volume up and get it to the "Downloading... do not turn off target." screen. but it immediately goes black again.
Each of these times it goes black, none of the buttons respond, the power button doesn't work, and I have to pull the battery again.
One thing to note is that every time, no matter how long i leave the battery out, it immediately tries to boot when I put the battery in. It's almost acting like the power button is stuck down, but it isn't. I can press it and it clicks normal. I haven't dropped it or anything, and the last rom I flashed was the Super S4 rom about 2 weeks ago or so.
Any ideas? I'm a bit worried about sending it back in as it's been rooted and flashed, and i'm obviously not able to unroot and get it back to stock.
Taking the advice of my oh-so-wise girlfriend, I smacked my phone on my desk a couple of times, and it seems to work now I'm guessing the power button really was stuck despite it clicking, and this un-stuck it?
iamonyx said:
Taking the advice of my oh-so-wise girlfriend, I smacked my phone on my desk a couple of times, and it seems to work now I'm guessing the power button really was stuck despite it clicking, and this un-stuck it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol I've heard of this happening before with the power button being stuck. Thus not allowing the phone to boot up.
One time I had a screwed up an S3 and it was whack. Kind of like your situation, what I did was take the battery out had it plugged into the computer and held the power button down for 30 seconds and it vibrated. So i poped in the battery and it worked.
Now while the button inside may be stuck or sticking.. I would HIGHLY suggest not smacking it on a desk. The LCD display IS glass. I have a habit of giving my phone a good old smack on the back.. I feel like I'm 'burping my baby'. The soft tissue of your hand is typically enough to dislodge any sticky hardware.. without running the risk of a cracked LCD.. or worse.. a cracked digitizer... :0
Power button stuck
I had the same issue and I also thought I had hard bricked my phone. It was acting like a stuck power button but I could still feel the small click when I pressed the button. The solution that I found was taking out the battery and lightly (I mean lightly not near enough to cause and damage) tapping directly on the power button. I have had this problem several times now with my S4 and this has worked every time so far.

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.

Phone Won't Boot

Hello,
So my Nexus 6P turned off randomly and then would not turn back on. It would come on and show Google and sometimes even let me enter my pin to start the phone. But it constantly would freeze during start up and just shut down. I got into the recovery and factory reset my phone and now it won't even turn on. I hold the power and it doesn't do anything. I've tried the boot loader and such but it won't turn on at all. Any ideas on what I could do? Thanks!
edlovereze said:
Hello,
So my Nexus 6P turned off randomly and then would not turn back on. It would come on and show Google and sometimes even let me enter my pin to start the phone. But it constantly would freeze during start up and just shut down. I got into the recovery and factory reset my phone and now it won't even turn on. I hold the power and it doesn't do anything. I've tried the boot loader and such but it won't turn on at all. Any ideas on what I could do? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you may have more than one problem, but many have been able to get a dead phone to start by holding the power button down for a very long time, sometimes 2 minutes or more. If it doesn't start, fully charge it and try the power button again. Assuming you are stock with a locked boot loader.... you didn't mention.
My phone is stock with a locked boot loader. I held the button for over 5 minutes and got nothing. I'm wondering if Google would be willing to help me out. Unless anyone has other ideas
It's hopeless. Don't waste your time trying to revive. Contact Huawei regardless of date of purchase.
If it won't power on it's either not charged, a bad power button, or something with pcm. Which is on Motherboard.
Most common scenario is a bad power button because it's most used breakable part. That won't allow the board to receive power or not enough power if it's shorted.
Dunno if you've poked around the interwebs some more regarding this, but I've been slammed with the N6P bootloop error (which appears might be part of your problem) and I found a stop-gap solution. If you feel like you've got nothing to lose, you can try what I've done: Make sure the phone has a little charge, hold it with a hot mitt from your kitchen, and blast the back of your N6P in the region between the camera lens and the fingerprint sensor with a hairdryer. Doing so will trip the big cluster off, which is the source of the bootloop problem. If you can get it to boot to the Google logo, applying the heat for the right amount of time (maybe not too long.. 2-4 minutes tops) may cause it to make it to the spinning color graphics and beyond.
I've been able to resurrect my phone doing this, but only to back it up and do very simple tasks. The moment I do something processor-intensive (Waze, YouTube, etc) it immediately crashes and bootloops again. The only solution beyond this is to unlock your bootloader, download EX Kernel manager and use it to completely disable the big cluster. Then your phone will likely be reliable, but extremely hobbled.
I bought from Best Buy about 16 months ago, so both Google and Huawei have been utterly useless, which is infuriating. Shenanigans like this are criminal. This is my 3rd Nexus phone and I'm considering abandoning Android altogether after this experience.

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