Samsung S8 - Black screen of death already? - Samsung Galaxy S8 Questions and Answers

Hi Guys,
got my S8 about 6 days ago. it's been working flawlessly and i've been really enjoying it.
Yesterday i took it out of my pocket and the screen wont turn on. it's completely black. i can hear it unlocking, i can even answer phone calls on it and talk, but again, can't see anything. I've tried hard resetting the phone (volume down & power button), it completely reboots, which you can hear the tune of it starting, but nothing. I've tried plugging it into the charger, still nothing.
I'm new to the samsung party, so i did some research naturally and found this was a common problem on the previous generations. Most cases were solved by removing the battery and reinstalling. however with this model, i can't do that. I've taken the phone back to at&t to get an exchange, and because i "preordered it," i need to go through customer service, which they are telling me i need to send the phone back, and because i do not have the original shipping box, i need to pay a 15% restocking fee to return the phone. THEN, they will take up to 5-7 days to send me a new phone. As you can tell, i'm a bit frustrated.
Any suggestions?

try holding down the power and the home virtual button (even if you dont' see it)

jonno95 said:
try holding down the power and the home virtual button (even if you dont' see it)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it, nothing. I can feel the phone giving haptic feed back and clicking as i click the virtual home button too. I held it for upwards of 30 seconds.

bryce_wsj said:
Tried it, nothing. I can feel the phone giving haptic feed back and clicking as i click the virtual home button too. I held it for upwards of 30 seconds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
darn. my brothers did that, and that is how he got it to power down. then it powered up normally
have you tried:
Vol up, bixby and power for recovery
Vol down, Bixby and power for download mode

jonno95 said:
darn. my brothers did that, and that is how he got it to power down. then it powered up normally
have you tried:
Vol up, bixby and power for recovery
Vol down, Bixby and power for download mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried all of that, however, i can't see the screen. So I'm not sure where i stand when i enter those modes. When the phone reboots normally, i have to enter my code manually the first time, which i can do, just by memory of the button placement on the screen, but as i said, can't see anything. I'm willing to try anything. At this point i'm just letting the phone sit idle and let the battery die, hopefully that will do something.

You have a month free of Samsung Premium - sign up for it, call samsung and they'll take care of it

ElBeaner said:
You have a month free of Samsung Premium - sign up for it, call samsung and they'll take care of it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i spoke with them. I need to make an appointment with a local best buy so a Samsung agent can run diagnostics.

bryce_wsj said:
i spoke with them. I need to make an appointment with a local best buy so a Samsung agent can run diagnostics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
final update, i was instructed to go to a corporate AT&T store. i did so and they swapped it no questions asked.

Happy Ending! Cheers

Great!
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Damn, I got the exact same behavior on my S8+ today! sitting in the couch watching Hockey and I got all excited after the Caps crushed Penguins tried to send a text to a friend but the screen won't turn on? Tried everything above but screen is black..SUCKS!

I just got the same thing ..tried everything ..however the download did work ..and a blue screen came up and asked if i wanted to download so i pressed yes ...so we will see what happens

A friend and I both had this happen within a week of buying the phone. What it turned out to be in both our cases is the screen was on the very lowest brightness setting. We did not set this. Somehow it happened spontaneously. Go to the darkest place you can find and you should be able to return your screen to a normal brightness. I have a feeling this is going to be a recurrent problem with a software fix in the future.

I had a similar issue. I set the power saving option and it looked like the screen turned black. Only after going to a dark room could I tell it was on. It was a new level of dark I never seen even if you consider setting the brightness to its lowest setting.

same here,
during typing screen freesh and black out.
as death as a door knop. nothing worked none of the mentioned options by Samsung relieved me from a black and dead screen.
its now being collected for repair,
lets wait and see

Same here also.
After 7 days of using it I picked it up to check for notifications just to see the black screen.
Never let it fall or anything.
Unfortunately I will not get a replacement from my dealer but a repair. Let's see if we get a BSOD-gate ****storm with this.

Another BSOD here.
Less than 7 days of normal use, screen seems to be deade. I have haptic and sound feedback. Even the alarms are ringing all day long and I can't turn them off.
Now I'm waiting for the vendor to collect it since I requested a return due to defect.

I FINALLY understand what is going on with Samsung Black Screen of Death-- how it happens and what to do.
First off the bat -- IT'S A DESIGN FLAW IN PHONE! Here is what occurs to induce the Black Screen.
1.) As you lift the phone to your ear, the top of your ear touches the screen. The screen "understands" this to be your finger drawing down the "notifications" bar.
2.) If your ear comes off of the screen, when you place the surface back to hear, the screen "understands" this to be a 2nd time pulling down on the screen.
3.) At this time, your screen brightness "slider bar" is sitting smack dab in the middle of the screen. This 'slider bar' controls the brightness, from very bright to the screen turned off. Slide to the left, screen gets dim. Slide to the right, screen gets brighter.
4.) If your ear next touches the screen, it is almost always on the left side of the screen - no matter whether you are left or right-handed. The Samsung S8 + interprets this 3rd contact to the screen as you "instructing" the phone to turn the screen intensity to "off".
5.) You now have the "Black Screen of Death".
You can simulate this with just using your finger on the screen. Pull down the notifications bar ONCE. Then do it a SECOND TIME. You will now see the screen intensity "slider bar" before your eyes. It is the one with the half sun / half moon icon on the left side of the bar. If you move the little blue bar with your finger, going right to left, you will see the screen go dark.
These are the exact same movements your ear traces on the screen as you use your phone to answer a call or to talk on the phone. 3 accidental touches and the screen is BLACK and you don't understand how it happened.
This is a design flaw in the software. Samsung needs to change how the sllder bar controls screen intensity.
If you go into a very dark place, there will still remain a very faint glow from the screen. All you have to do is 2 finger swipes down, then with your finger push the slide bar back to the right- and VOILA -- you can see the screen again.
Hope this helps everyone until Samsung fixes the problem.

Chuck_Daytona said:
I FINALLY understand what is going on with Samsung Black Screen of Death-- how it happens and what to do.
First off the bat -- IT'S A DESIGN FLAW IN PHONE! Here is what occurs to induce the Black Screen.
1.) As you lift the phone to your ear, the top of your ear touches the screen. The screen "understands" this to be your finger drawing down the "notifications" bar.
2.) If your ear comes off of the screen, when you place the surface back to hear, the screen "understands" this to be a 2nd time pulling down on the screen.
3.) At this time, your screen brightness "slider bar" is sitting smack dab in the middle of the screen. This 'slider bar' controls the brightness, from very bright to the screen turned off. Slide to the left, screen gets dim. Slide to the right, screen gets brighter.
4.) If your ear next touches the screen, it is almost always on the left side of the screen - no matter whether you are left or right-handed. The Samsung S8 + interprets this 3rd contact to the screen as you "instructing" the phone to turn the screen intensity to "off".
5.) You now have the "Black Screen of Death".
You can simulate this with just using your finger on the screen. Pull down the notifications bar ONCE. Then do it a SECOND TIME. You will now see the screen intensity "slider bar" before your eyes. It is the one with the half sun / half moon icon on the left side of the bar. If you move the little blue bar with your finger, going right to left, you will see the screen go dark.
These are the exact same movements your ear traces on the screen as you use your phone to answer a call or to talk on the phone. 3 accidental touches and the screen is BLACK and you don't understand how it happened.
This is a design flaw in the software. Samsung needs to change how the sllder bar controls screen intensity.
If you go into a very dark place, there will still remain a very faint glow from the screen. All you have to do is 2 finger swipes down, then with your finger push the slide bar back to the right- and VOILA -- you can see the screen again.
Hope this helps everyone until Samsung fixes the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't the S8 have a proximity sensor like the iPhone to determine that the phone is being held up against someones ear?

I FOUND A RECOVERY FROM THIS!!
I just got the Black Screen of Death for the first time after owning the phone for 2 weeks - pretty alarming when the phone is unresponsive, you can't reboot with the power button, and you can't pull the battery. (Coming from an S5, this is my first phone with a non-removable battery). Even though I knew my phone was fully charged, I tried plugging it in, and didn't even get the red LED. Not good.
After a little Googling, the solution I found that worked for me was: Press and hold Down Volume + Power at the same time for 7 seconds.
This brings you to a screen with some options, the first being to reboot like normal.
Volume toggles up and down between the options, but be sure not to choose option 2, which is a factory reset!
The Bixby button selects, so I just clicked on option 1, and I was back in business.
This apparently does a "simulated battery disconnect". Assuming it was some sort of firmware crash, this should bring you back to life. It did for me. There are other suggestions on the page if it doesn't work, but I was back to life after step 1. Hope it helps...
http://thedroidguy.com/2017/05/sams...ck-screen-death-troubleshooting-guide-1072353

Related

[Q] screen no longer working

Phone was working with no issues until the other day. I was viewing a web page and noticed the text didn't look quite right, it seemed to be shimmering. Then a bit later on switching to the camera app the screen was just a lot of green flashing lines, pressing home button worked and then starting the camera again it would either be the same or would work properly. Then later that evening after using the phone fine opening the s cover the screen would not come on but the menu and back buttons would light up, pressing the power button a couple of times would make the screen appear. Then that stopped working as well, and no even then back and menu buttons don't light up. the phone still seems to work as plugging in the headphones and pressing the button on them starts my music playing, but I can't get the screen to turn on at all.
The phone has never been dropped has been very well looked after and is immaculate , there are no scratches on the screen and I can't see any cracks (from a pressure break) either.
Any ideas?
this might sound like im trolling, but did you try turning it off and on again?
seriously, your screen is probably broken. send it to sammys customer service or whereever you bought your phone and let them check and/or repair it

[Q] touch screen sensitivity

Is sensitivity adjustable? My phone is constantly calling people on my contact list, or texting them paragraphs of jibberish. And jumps around from screen to screen "on it's own".
When I take it out of the case,it's awake, and it's on any one of who knows what page. And my apps are moved around, like I held my finger on one of the apps on my home page and dragged it to another page (panel)
When I turn the phone on, or take it out of the case, almost always the big weather and time app is gone from my home page. I have to find it, and drag it back home.
Before I put my phone in my belt case, . . . because I'm having this problem . . .
1). I turn off all apps. (Hold the select button down a few seconds. Then swipe off all open apps.)
2). I make sure it's on the main desktop page, and put it to sleep. (Press OFF button for a second. Screen is black) So the page that should come up when I wake it up should be my home page. And if it's accidentally bumped or presses the awake button while in my case, (?) it should be on home page, not on message page, or phone page. Or trying to log me into Google!
But it's getting turned on, and apps selected, etc. while it's in the case. Sometimes it's actually turning off, then back on. I hear it chiming during the bootup.
The case was made for the phone. Fits perfectly. Leather. And there's no way I'm bumping the side of the case, hitting the on button.
When it does this, sometimes it's on my messaging/texting page, and somehow selects someone to text. And is either recording whatever it's "hearing", or it types long paragraphs of jiberish text.
Any ideas? TIA! Wayne
does it do it on it's own?
When left overnight untouched, or left on table for awhile?
As far as I know the only way to physically wake the phone up is either press side power button or center home button and maybe the case is causing the phone to wake and register commands. Another possibility is voice commands, are those on?
otherwise there is a program that causes all the trouble. Once you know whats causing the issue, the fix should be simple.
I think screen sensitivity can only be adjusted up, for glove use, but that makes me think you suspect case being at the root of this, so either try different case, or lock the screen with password or something more difficult to activate by accident.
My friend "butt call me" at least 3 times from his iphone, but I never had this issue with Note3 since I have to press one of the buttons and then properly swipe the screen, within few seconds, not easy to do accidently .
And judging from your post, do you have your screen lock set to nothing ? So it's easy to wake the phone and do unintended touches, even in a case.
Sent from my N9005
Thanks
RE: And judging from your post, do you have your screen lock set to nothing ?
So it's easy to wake the phone and do unintended touches, even in a case.
Thanks for the reply. As far as I know I don't have my screen locked to anything.
No idea actually.
What I did find is that the sensitivity feature was turned on. I turned that off.
Then I turned off the voice function.
Tried that. No better.
So I set a password. That works. BUT . . . now I can't find where I turned off the voice rec.
And I've really tried finding it. Now I can't use voice for texting. The mic icon is gone from
my text menu.

Making a call, screen blacks out, stays out

Hello everyone, first of all I did a search on this topic, but either I am too stupid to do a proper search or there hasn't been any problem like mine yet.
I also did a little video, check it out.
https://youtu.be/lB3gYQUyL_8
Whenever I get a call or make a call myself (and the moment I press the dial button) the screen blacks out. This may be a solid and reasonable feature when holding
your phone to your ear to not accidently start any other app with it. The problem is that the display stays dark no matter if I put it to my ear or not. It is like the sensor is registering some
sort of object in front of it and therefore gets into "ear on the phone-display shutdown mode". First I thought the sensor was messed up, but then it still seems to differentiate between
daylight and nighttime, because the screen gets darker when covering the sensor with my finger and lights up when I remove it from that spot.
______________________
When accidently having called someone and I want to stop the call, the display had turned black of course, so no way to shut down the call. So I start pressing buttons, like the middle menue button,
and I get to the desktop screen. Still need to shut down the call, so I want to go to the infopanel (upper slide down menue) and the moment I start moving my finger down, to enter the call panel, it immediatly gets dark again.
But there are times when I can access the upper infopanel (without the screen turning black) and see my call being there, but the instant I press on the entry the screen turns black.
Only solution is to quickly remove the battery to shut down that call.
______________________
I have put on a display protector, but it doesn't cover any sensors really.
The problem started with installing CyanogenMod11 and persisted with the latest CyanogenMod12.
Any idea what I can do?
My current install:
Cynaogenmod-Version:
12-20150407-Nightly-jfltexx
Model:
GT-i9505
Android Version:
5.0.2
Baseband:
i9505XXUGNG8

[Q] Unkown touchscreen/text problem

Hello everyone, I have been searching constantly for any information on a problem that suddenly started today with my galaxy s4, and this is going to sound very odd for sure. For no apparent reason, i pulled the phone out of my pocket, hit the power button, and everything that is supposed to be white is pink. The touch screen will work for a split second, just long enough to get the phone unlocked, and then is all together unresponsive. On the home screen, once again, everything that is supposed to be white, (text, notification icons, time, ect) is bright pink. All the buttons are responsive, but the touchscreen does nothing. Upon hitting the power button to turn the screen off, you can see the pink disappear and the screen change back to normal for just a moment before it goes off, same when it powers on, which is why i can manage to get the phone unlocked. Anyone hear of anything like this?
You have either a loose connector or some other hardware failure.

Please Help! Broken screen

So I managed to drop my phone a couple of weeks ago and crack the screen. The screen itself has remained fully functional despite a couple of purple lines down it and progressively worse flickering. It;s gradually started becoming more unresponsive and tonight it seems to have had enough. The stay on screen still display the time and if I press the lock key it will show me my lock screen and my notifications, I can swipe and remove these and if drag them down to read them further.
However, when I actually unlock my phone to go to my home screen, the phone screen goes black - I know the phone has unlocked because I can hear the sound effects when I press apps but everything remains black and I can't get the screen to come alive again until I lock the phone. If I double tap the home button, it will quick launch my camera and that works. So essentially the screen still works but won't show me my home screen or any apps (apart from camera), it's essentially blacked out until I lock it again.
I'm getting it repaired but am not able to do so for a few days. Any ideas how I can bring the screen back to life when I unlock the phone? I tried restarting a few times, leaving it turned off for a while and emergency mode - none of which worked.

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