Please can someone help me with a problem I’m having with my Samsung Galaxy s5.
I put my phone on charge before I went to bed and when I woke up it was still showing a red LED. I knew this was wrong because it should have had enough time to charge and turn green. I had not powered the phone off before putting it on charge and I plugged it into the same USB 3.0 charging lead I have been using for the past six months. I unplugged the phone and pressed the power button to light up the lock screen but it didn’t light up.
I’m thinking possibly something has either shorted or over heated and fried something either on the charging port assembly or one of the chips adjacent to the port while the charger was plugged in. It seems like only a trickle of power is getting through to the phone. When I plug a different USB 2 charging cable into the phone, without trying to power on, the charging icon appears but shows no charge at all in the battery.
I have also tried the spare battery I have but it’s still the same. I know the spare battery is 100% fully charged because I store it in a separate charging/storage box which shows a green LED when it is full. In fact the one which was in the phone at the time is also fully charged according to the charging box. Neither battery has got warm at all inside the phone. I’m confident both batteries are fully charged and totally fine and the problem isn’t with the batteries.
At this point I removed my sim card and also the MicroSD card. I needed the sim to use in my spare phone and I wanted to see if the sd card could be causing the issue but after again trying a normal reboot it made no difference.
I’ve tried several possible things I found on google but nothing has worked. Between each different thing I tried I had to remove the battery for 10 seconds and insert it again to get it out of the boot loop so I could try something else.
Initially when I tried booting into safe mode, then recovery mode and then download mode it brought up the screens for those but in each case after a few seconds the phone powered off and went into a boot loop so I couldn’t attempt any recovery options such as clearing cache etc. Now I cannot even get it to start any of those modes at all and all that happens is the phone does a little vibration, displays the Samsung logo and then just boot loops no matter what I try.
I have tried removing the battery and leaving the phone for a few hours then powering on again but it still just loops.
I have tried pressing and holding Vol-down when plugging it into my PC using a different USB 2 cable and windows acknowledged a phone was plugged in but said it couldn’t connect or recognise the phone and suggested the phone could have a fault.
I don't know if maybe my USB 3.0 lead has a fault that could have caused it or if there could have been some electricity spike while the phone was plugged in, or as I said a component has just fried.
I strongly suspect this is a hardware fault and not a software fault but as I’m not a phone engineer I have no idea about how to trace any possible hardware issues or what might have gone wrong. I would really appreciate any help or suggestions about what the problem might be as this has been a great phone for the last 2 years since I got it and I’d be sad to have to junk it and buy a new one.
Thank you.
I would not junk it yet......
You had mentioned that you go through a lot, just to get phone into Recovery ( " Initially when I tried booting into safe mode, then recovery mode and then download mode it brought up the screens for those but in each case after a few seconds the phone powered off and went into a boot loop so I couldn’t attempt any recovery options such as clearing cache etc. Now I cannot even get it to start any of those modes at all and all that happens is the phone does a little vibration, displays the Samsung logo and then just boot loops no matter what I try." )
OK, just my 2 cents here on this... Why not trying to goto Recovery by pressing and holding the Volume Down (vol-); Home button, and The Power button all at the same time. (yes, if you have a Recovery, and its works, you should be able to boot right into Recovery- >Now, (I would, cause I've been there..) I would also have a PC going with Odin open (Plus the Latest Stock Rom) ... If it works, you would flash the Stock ROM, to clean up anything, giving you all stock, but you can change that of course ...then go from there...
Second, if you can not still get to Recovery.... Have you tried a Stock USB Cable, only asking.... Obliviously something is a miss... with Power... IF phone is off, and you plug it to a power source ... then system has power, and these can power up with just the usb cable, without having the battery in..... Been there. Can add the simple fact, if using just a Micro SD cable, they can bend the Power Board. Believe me (Had to fix the Wife's S5 a few Frinkin' times....) That is why, I say using the Stock Cable, or even a USB 3.0 Cable (like the stock one) does help with power issues when the Micro has bent up the power board...
Will check back and see if this may have you to Recovery or fixed... sure hope this can help you out
Thanks for replying godofsalt.
At the time the phone was plugged in to my USB 3 lead which charges faster and all I can think is that perhaps there could be a fault with the lead or the higher ampage of using this lead caused a circuit to burn out.
I have around a dozen USB 2 leads and I've tried your idea with 3 different ones but none of them will fire up the phone at all with the battery taken out.
I am sure this is going to need some kind of replacement either of the charging port or the motherboard. I don't rate my chances of trying to do it myself and I don't think it will be economic to take it to a shop so I've found a better option by buying the same phone which is second hand but in good condition. That way I know I have all the additional accessories already for probably the same price any shop would charge to fix it.
In future I'll stick to using a decent USB 2 lead on the 1 amp charger I used to use before and hopefully this will not occur again.
G500F battery graphic/boot loop
Had the same problem a few days after installing a 9.0 Rom. My battery is brand new and all cables aren't too aged, so I thought this had to be a physical fault of some kind, but then I had the thought to flash an older bootloader and just like that my battery started taking a charge again and I could boot up. Switched to Flyme os for a while the went back to 9.0 again, with the lastest bootloader and the thing stopped working again. Don't know too much, but I'd try and flash a different bootloader to see if there's any difference. My device failed right at the Galaxy logo, then looped the charging graphic endlessly but would strangely go into download mode and not fail. Don't know if this helps, just thought I'd share my solution.
Thanks for replying henderia93.
My symptoms are very slightly different in that the phone couldn't maintain any of the modes I tried for more than a few seconds before going back to the boot loop again so there was no chance of trying any software fixes including flashing the ROM. Now it won't enter any of those modes at all. I'm certain that's due to only a trickle of power getting through to the main board, not enough to maintain any recovery modes, so there is just enough power for it to attempt to boot, but no more so it just keeps looping, most likely caused by something that has blown while on charge.
MarylinC said:
Thanks for replying henderia93.
My symptoms are very slightly different in that the phone couldn't maintain any of the modes I tried for more than a few seconds before going back to the boot loop again so there was no chance of trying any software fixes including flashing the ROM. Now it won't enter any of those modes at all. I'm certain that's due to only a trickle of power getting through to the main board, not enough to maintain any recovery modes, so there is just enough power for it to attempt to boot, but no more so it just keeps looping, most likely caused by something that has blown while on charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ha e taken so many of these a part... Like I may have mentioned, there is a Board, just for the USB (data and power (i still have 2 of them)).... In short, you really have to pretty much take the phone a part. Being very careful with the Screen, and the "Sticky" LEDs and the Home button. There is a lot to it actually.
Like I said, been there done that... Cheap to get, takes some time but it is possible to replace that board. It's a separate board different from the actual main CPU board.
I would have to find it, but I had a manual, for taking these a part.
godofsalt said:
I ha e taken so many of these a part... Like I may have mentioned, there is a Board, just for the USB (data and power (i still have 2 of them)).... In short, you really have to pretty much take the phone a part. Being very careful with the Screen, and the "Sticky" LEDs and the Home button. There is a lot to it actually.
Like I said, been there done that... Cheap to get, takes some time but it is possible to replace that board. It's a separate board different from the actual main CPU board.
I would have to find it, but I had a manual, for taking these a part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I've been looking for answers about this I've seen teardown videos for the s5 so I can see what the port assembly looks like with it's little PCB behind it. As I have a replacement s5 on it's way all I need to decide now is whether to keep the old handset for spare parts or see if I can follow the teardown video to try and install a new port assembly to get the phone working again as a spare.
MarylinC said:
While I've been looking for answers about this I've seen teardown videos for the s5 so I can see what the port assembly looks like with it's little PCB behind it. As I have a replacement s5 on it's way all I need to decide now is whether to keep the old handset for spare parts or see if I can follow the teardown video to try and install a new port assembly to get the phone working again as a spare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, me too, seen many vids on the tear down. I decided to go a bit more, IMHO, to have an actual manual, PDF, when I did my first one, many years ago. So, can read, and use photos wisely. Seen too many Utube crap, where the break it, destroy it..... crazy!
Well, at this age, not too sure what to do my self. In our case, our present service is cheaper to Keep these. Grandfathered in, and we pay a but less, than going to any other carrier. Plus, these newer phones are not cheap at all.
True, it up to you. hope all goes well.
Sorry I am a novice so please excuse my question.
Are you assuming that the usb port is shorting even when no usb cable is inserted? As you put a fully charged battery in with no change it would seem that the act of charging is not involved.
Have you tried a voltmeter to check the voltage at the battery charging pins?
Have you tried to check the voltage at the two pins commonly used for a wireless charging adapter (to the upper left of the battery) to see what the voltage is?
Sorry if I am off base.
Related
Caveat - This is my son's phone, and only the recent observations are my own. I can't be sure he didn't do something to munge it up, though I am fairly certain he has not tried to flash it (I haven't either). In any case . . .
I bought an unlocked SMT5600 on eBay about 6 weeks ago. It worked great for about 3 weeks, then went on the fritz. It started by only booting to the red-green-blue OS screen. Removing the battery did nothing to reset it. It was still doing this when I retrieved it from my son. When I finally had time to look at it four days later, it booted once or twice to that screen, but then stopped doing even that. I have since done research online and not seen a similar situation. Other observations - there is no change if I swap out the battery for one that I know is charged. After replacing the battery, when I insert the charge cord (wall plug, not USB to PC) the power light flashes red briefly, then goes black and never comes on again.
Of course the eBay seller is telling me I'm SOL at this point. Before the problems began, I actually bought three more of these phones from the same seller and none has had any problems. My son is not into modding or installing programs, and tells me he has done neither. I think this is likely the case, but it is conceivable he or a friend might have tried something. So I am looking for assistance/direction in what to try next. Although I don't think I have the correct torx to disassemble it right now, I am willing to get the right tools and give that a go to avoid a $150 paperweight.
Thanks, mastman
booting to loader screen
I had this problem, turned out to be a faulty / stuck camera switch
check it clicks well, to check for stuck,
if it clicks well you will need to open the phone to check it with a meter.
not sure why its gone dead now, but sounds a little like a over flat battery.
Ive fixed these in the past by using a 300mah 3v suply for 20 secs at a time to bring it back up to a level the phone will charge.
please be very carefull li-ion cells are very dangerous, try useing a known good battery first in the phone to check its charging
good luck
j
My SMT5600 choked as it was being flashed, now it won't charge nothing, just a paperweight. Is there anyway to resurrect it? At all?
Thanks
Update 1
I've discovered that if I plug in the phone, I am shown a gray battery with a progress wheel. In the past, the phone has gone less and less far into the boot process before shutting down. Thinking about it again, perhaps it's a power issue. I've ordered a new battery and usb board on Amazon, total 15 USD. I've already disassembled the phone and I'm waiting for it to arrive. FWIW I do see some physical damage to the inside "tongue" insomuch as two of the pins are just floating with no plastic. That is to say the plastic is broken off and missing.
Original Issue
Hello everyone:
I bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 (AT&T Branded) SGH-I337. I thought it was working. When I insert the battery, it boots up about 1/10th of time, but only about halfway. Occasionally it does the same thing when inserting a USB cable (I don't recall if it was to a PC or a power supply). If I can get it to boot, I CAN get into recovery or download, but it shuts off the same way. Someone took a look at it from a repair shop and said it may be a software issue.
I have tried disassembling the phone and using canned air on the power key, though it didn't seem to be the issue in the first place.
I saw a video from thailand on youtube where a person put in a microsd card, connected a power supply to the battery terminals on the phone, then connected a usb cable. The phone booted. I think the idea was that the original firmware would now have to be installed. Any idea what this is or how to do it?
Thanks for any help!
*** Sorry missed your update!!!***
Would you have another battery to try 1st before dismantling it? They are very cheap to buy
No, but I bought a battery and usb board for a total of $15, so if either works great. Does the battery cause this issue at times?
Just replaced the usb board and battery. Still only boots to a point. No idea what to try next. Any input appreciated.
I had the same issue with my previous Samsung Galaxy Express, it turns out that this issue was caused by the power button being worn out and stuck as if it was pressed down. If you look on YouTube you can find some temporary fixes to allow you fully boot your phone. Although ultimately if this is the issue then you will have to get the power button replaced.
So, I plugged my Nexus 4 into a generic car charger and it went black instantly. The battery was at about 92%. With the hope that a proper AC or computer USB charge connection would bring up the white battery icon and fix things, I stopped by an out of town T-mobile. The manager tried the button battery-reset (up volume + power for 60sec) and I googled alternatives and tried the - enter recovery by pressing those buttons for 15sec off the charger and connecting while still holding down the buttons - trick. Neither worked.
The manger seemed familiar with that and the other button pressing tricks, and said that really, my only real hope would be to reset/replace the battery, but that would void my warranty. However, although the T-mobile site claims my Google bought phone is under warranty (and I've been paying for it each month), technically, it isn't. Under them or Google (any more). So, I purchased the tools to open the phone, as well as a replacement battery. In the interim, I tried to use all the button combos and various charging connections to get it to come back to life. I *did* manage to get it charging the old battery. I know because the blinking red light turned constant for an hour or two, and the battery got warm. I can only guess that the battery was too damaged to keep the charge however, because I could never get it to turn on during or after. My best guess is that the software battery reset allowed the phone to send a charge to the battery - at least once.
After getting my tools and replacement battery, I managed to get the phone open (with great effort - I think there must be a difference between batches there). I removed the old battery connection and looked to see if I could get the charge icon with it unattached and on the charger. I couldn't. Reconnecting the old battery didn't seem to make any difference.
I was about to go through the process of prying up the old battery when I realized that you can actually connect the new battery to the board connector without getting the old one out. So I did that. Leaving it charging like that for awhile didn't do anything, so I decided to do another software battery reset and I'm letting it sit on the charger overnight. All of this has been without reattaching the back.
So my major question is - does anyone know for sure if the phone actually charges the battery with the back off? I know there are important circuits there - which seem to shut down the phone after the battery or google image when not detected (at least that's my deducement after reading posts). But are those connections also used in charging? The Qi goes though the back to the charger function, so perhaps that connection has to be there? I would like to try and find out though beforehand. It took 2 hours and two mangled guitar picks to get it open the first time, and the second may be just as trying. (And believe me, towards the end, I was not concerned with being gentle.)
I am also curious about the four prong battery connection. I've seen the post about charging the battery using external sources by connecting to the two outer pins. Does that mean the two inner pins constitute a second circuit between the charged battery and the phone? And if I find another 3.8v battery fully charged, I could perhaps connect that to the phone instead by wires and get it booted into recovery? As to why I'd want to do that, I don't recall the last dated CM version I had installed, so finding that in their folder plus pulling off everything from /data... assuming I replaced this with another Nexus 4, I might be able to save myself a lot of setup hassle.
In terms of the red light... it actually seems to be an error code. When triggered, it blinks 7 times, and on the eighth stays lit for a bit before repeating.
cetkat said:
So, I plugged my Nexus 4 into a generic car charger and it went black instantly. The battery was at about 92%. With the hope that a proper AC or computer USB charge connection would bring up the white battery icon and fix things, I stopped by an out of town T-mobile. The manager tried the button battery-reset (up volume + power for 60sec) and I googled alternatives and tried the - enter recovery by pressing those buttons for 15sec off the charger and connecting while still holding down the buttons - trick. Neither worked.
The manger seemed familiar with that and the other button pressing tricks, and said that really, my only real hope would be to reset/replace the battery, but that would void my warranty. However, although the T-mobile site claims my Google bought phone is under warranty (and I've been paying for it each month), technically, it isn't. Under them or Google (any more). So, I purchased the tools to open the phone, as well as a replacement battery. In the interim, I tried to use all the button combos and various charging connections to get it to come back to life. I *did* manage to get it charging the old battery. I know because the blinking red light turned constant for an hour or two, and the battery got warm. I can only guess that the battery was too damaged to keep the charge however, because I could never get it to turn on during or after. My best guess is that the software battery reset allowed the phone to send a charge to the battery - at least once.
After getting my tools and replacement battery, I managed to get the phone open (with great effort - I think there must be a difference between batches there). I removed the old battery connection and looked to see if I could get the charge icon with it unattached and on the charger. I couldn't. Reconnecting the old battery didn't seem to make any difference.
I was about to go through the process of prying up the old battery when I realized that you can actually connect the new battery to the board connector without getting the old one out. So I did that. Leaving it charging like that for awhile didn't do anything, so I decided to do another software battery reset and I'm letting it sit on the charger overnight. All of this has been without reattaching the back.
So my major question is - does anyone know for sure if the phone actually charges the battery with the back off? I know there are important circuits there - which seem to shut down the phone after the battery or google image when not detected (at least that's my deducement after reading posts). But are those connections also used in charging? The Qi goes though the back to the charger function, so perhaps that connection has to be there? I would like to try and find out though beforehand. It took 2 hours and two mangled guitar picks to get it open the first time, and the second may be just as trying. (And believe me, towards the end, I was not concerned with being gentle.)
I am also curious about the four prong battery connection. I've seen the post about charging the battery using external sources by connecting to the two outer pins. Does that mean the two inner pins constitute a second circuit between the charged battery and the phone? And if I find another 3.8v battery fully charged, I could perhaps connect that to the phone instead by wires and get it booted into recovery? As to why I'd want to do that, I don't recall the last dated CM version I had installed, so finding that in their folder plus pulling off everything from /data... assuming I replaced this with another Nexus 4, I might be able to save myself a lot of setup hassle.
In terms of the red light... it actually seems to be an error code. When triggered, it blinks 7 times, and on the eighth stays lit for a bit before repeating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I RAN INTO A SIMILAR PROBLEM
I found that holding the power button for a while allowed my nexus 4 running stock Lollipop 5.1 to boot back up.
Have considered that you may have a faulty USB port ?
Just pop the old battery out install the new one plug in the charger and it will charge. You can boot up without the back on. The back contains the antennia.... and the NFC circuit board.
Good luck
Blacksmith5 said:
I RAN INTO A SIMILAR PROBLEM
I found that holding the power button for a while allowed my nexus 4 running stock Lollipop 5.1 to boot back up.
Have considered that you may have a faulty USB port ?
Just pop the old battery out install the new one plug in the charger and it will charge. You can boot up without the back on. The back contains the antennia.... and the NFC circuit board.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, still no luck. I ended up putting the new battery in and closing it up to try the Qi charger, but all I can get is either 7 or 10 red blinks followed by a short solid light. No white battery charging symbol or anything else.
When you say a faulty USB port, what are you referring to? The cable works (though I've also tried my Nexus 7 one too) and even though it won't boot, my computer does recognize that something is there when I plug my phone into it (it just can't figure out what's plugged in - which is normal). I want to say that it's trying and failing to charge the new battery. At this point, I think the charger messed up more than just the battery.
Hello everyone!
My parents contacted me asking for help with some phone issues that I thought would be minor but this is now something I have to submit to you guys because I just don't know how to tackle this issue;
I've got an unmodified, completely stock AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 that has been owned since launch. My parents were initially complaining about how the phone stopped charging and wouldn't turn on. I thought, "Easy, dead battery, it's been 3 years so how could it not? It might not be delivering enough voltage for the SoC..." but i'm not sure that's the full story which is why I want your guys' opinion since this place is a wealth of knowledge.
Things that are known:
When you charge the phone, the basic "battery charging indicator" that is shown when Android is not booted into or powered on freezes, or sometimes does not detect a battery so does not even turn on. Doing battery pulls seems to change how the phone responds. This is what my parents were experiencing. I thought, either dead battery, dead micro-USB cable, AC adapter, or charging circuit within the phone. Since this was obviously a big job, I took the phone back home for this weekend to play with and now this is what i'm experiencing.
So I got the phone to charge using one of my AC adapters for some reason, despite using the supposed broken charging cable to transfer data successfully without corruption using my own phone (LG G2) to confirm if it was just the cable. So now the SGS4 has a battery that is 100% charged, I turn on the phone and tried various methods to get the phone to boot successfully back into android. The first obvious one was to boot into safe mode using PWR, letting go of PWR, and then pressing VOL UP. It booted ONCE or TWICE successfully into safe mode into android, it shut off after 5 seconds being into the system due to low battery. This was BEFORE I was able to successfully charge the battery to 100% with my AC adapter but has failed to boot since.
Now since I've been failing to get into safe mode as when I boot the phone up, the phone freezes or has graphical glitches at the Samsung post/splash logo as seen here:
After some desperation, I considered using KIES/Odin to reflash, but mostly I tried going into download mode to see if the phone would even go into it by doing PWR + VOL DOWN. It did get into download mode but it froze/restarted forcing a battery pull and ever since then I keep getting occasional error messages such as "System software not authorized by AT&T has been found on your phone.", or this screen with a Samsung logo and an open padlock. I notice sometimes that when I'm at this open padlock screen, it sometimes begins to boot into the system but quickly freezes when it plays the boot jingle:
At any rate, I ordered a new battery but I fear this might be EMMC corruption or just something I don't quite understand. The phone has valuable information that I have to recover despite my parents CANCELLING a backup of the phone, they failed to heed my due diligence and are now freaking out about the data (photos, contacts, etc). I just need the phone to boot so I can make a nandroid backup, export the contacts, transfer media off the phone and wipe this thing and start anew. However i've already let them know that it might not be possible. The most important thing is to get this thing out of this soft-brick?
Please help because I have no idea where to steer this ship from here on out aside from waiting to receive that new battery and hope these instability issues are caused by low voltage. I had an SGS2 which had the crazy EMMC bug so I'm hoping its not EMMC corruption.
Thanks for your time everyone! I'll update this thread to reflect new information as I play around with the phone.
Edit: Here is a video, I go through a lot of the same information posted in this thread but here it is.
https://youtu.be/EXUKU68CyQQ
Possible loose connection inside the phone? Was the phone every bumped, dropped, or exposed to moisture?
audit13 said:
Possible loose connection inside the phone? Was the phone every bumped, dropped, or exposed to moisture?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that I know of. I'm going to check the water damage stickers if I can to ensure that's not the case but i've been told it was sudden. It had been dropped once before but had been working fine for quite some time up until recently.
Maybe the effects of the drop and manifesting themselves now?
Let me start from the begining.
So the other day I plugged my phone into USB in order to charge it (I had to keep it close to me hence why I didn't plug it into the wall charger). The phone was charging, showing up as a media device on the lappy, etc. I was doing stuff on the computer then I heard it vibrate so I went to see what it was. The blue notification light was on (facebook notification most likely) and when I pressed the Menu button the screen didn't come on. I also tried the Power button but same thing. So I decided to restart the phone. Since then, it hasn't turned back on.
I tested the battery in another device and it's working perfectly fine. Neither recovery nor download mode work. I tried to do some of the tests people recommended for sudden death, like plugging it into usb and leaving it for a while, trying to kick start it (putting battery in while holding the recovery buttons) - you name it, i've done it. I even went to the lengths of taking off the back cover to see if theres any crap that got in there, maybe a loose connector, anything burnt - nothing. Unfortunately, I don't have a multimeter to see if there is a charge running through the board. Looks like sudden death to me, the only thing is - I rooted the phone on the 1st day I got it and I don't live in the country where I bought the phone so sending it over for warranty repairs would be a pain in the ass. What can I do? I would greatly appreciate your help, if you manage to help me fix my baby, I will ENSURE to send you a donation for a nice, big, cold beer (or maybe a few).
Looking forward to any answers! I really need my phone, I use it for work.
It seems like a hardware issue... you need to take it to a local store to scan it's hardware.... maybe something gone wrong while charging which made something be destroyed inside it..... hope its not the motherboard.....
it happens sometimes, when charging current fluctuate, it destroys the charging circuit and in result it damage the whole current circuit, local repair shop can solve the issue.