Hello.
I have searched the forums about my issue, and although there are a lot of threads about phones rebooting, there was none about such exact problem as I am experiencing. I apologize if I missed a thread which tackled this problem.
Symptoms:
1. my galaxy S 4G reboots about every 3 seconds: it only gets to the very first "Samsung Galaxy S 4G T-mobile" logo, and reboot
2. it is possible to access boot menu (volume up+down), but only for a split second, and phone reboots again
3. rebooting starts as soon as in put battery in, no need to even press the power button
All that started by itself yesterday. I thought it was a mechanical fault with power switch, I opened the phone, unscrewed covers, cleaned everything, but found no mechanical issue. I switched batteries, tried starting the phone of plugged-in charger, on usb cable, took out sd card, sim card, put a different sim card in... and nothing helped.
Phone runs on Gingerbread 2.3, stock by T-mobile, never had any other roms on it. Device is rooted.
If anyone has an idea how to approach this issue, please let me know. Or reply with a link to somewhere I can read more. I was not able to find much on this...
Thank you!
Malarz
The phone sometimes does a reboot loop if u take the battery out of the phone without turning the power off. Just keep trying to turn it on, and eventually it would reboot properly. Take the battery out of the phone for a few minutes, put it back and try to turn it on again. Do this a few times to see if it boot back properly.
Hit the thanks button if it helps. It's my motivator to be more helpful.
gizmoscoop said:
The phone sometimes does a reboot loop if u take the battery out of the phone without turning the power off. Just keep trying to turn it on, and eventually it would reboot properly. Take the battery out of the phone for a few minutes, put it back and try to turn it on again. Do this a few times to see if it boot back properly.
Hit the thanks button if it helps. It's my motivator to be more helpful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for a prompt reply!
I did take out battery for a long time, well over one hour, and took out sim card and sd card as well. Unfortunately reboot loop started immediately when I placed battery back in the phone. That's what made me think it was a mechanical issue with power button.
I will try keeping battery out a few times again today.
One other thing: the phone had been in hot and humid environment for about 30 minutes before this happened. Not the first time for this phone to experience high humidity, though. However, I did not find any moisture inside the unit.
Malarz
I had this happened to my phone. Just wait it out and keep trying to reboot, it will come around. Take the battery out and put it back on. Keep on repeating this step.
Also, when the phone is on, try to hold the volume - + and power button at the same time to see if u can get into boot mode.
Also u can use hair blow dryer to blow dry area around the power button.
Hit the thanks button if it helps. It's my motivator to be more helpful.
Or, batt is dead...
You have a stuck power button. Take apart the phone and clean the power bottom with compressed air. Then rapidly push the button in and out for a while.
Resolution:
I took the phone apart, and checked the power button (which had been my first guess), and was seemingly all right.
The battery was also not the issue, as I tried 3 different batteries.
Having no other choice, I put the battery back in, and let the phone happily reboot at its own leisure. After over 20 reboots, the system came on. Then a few minutes later the device rebooted again, and the loop started all over. After a while it booted up again. This time I did not wait for the device to reboot by itself, and I switched the phone off with power button, and then turned back on, and it booted normally. Repeated this once more - normal boot again. One more power off, and I entered the boot menu and did factory reset. Once the stock reinstalled, everything would work perfectly - no more issues with boot loop.
So it seems to me as a software problem more than anything else.
Side note: for the last several weeks the phone displayed strange behavior, that is the screen would light up for no reason by itself, and quickly go off. Sometimes it happened once every few minutes, sometimes it happened several times a minute. Did it have anything to do with the boot loop? No idea. But it strengthens my hunch about a software issue, as that behavior also went away after factory reset.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but since I have not found a similar case anywhere in the forums, I though someone might find this interesting. I do not deal with phones except as a user, but some of you guys do it maybe professionally, so maybe this will be a curious puzzle for you to solve.
Malarz
It sounds like Gremlins....
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using xda app-developers app
Do you have notifications set up? It could notify that u have incoming messages such as a text or an email.
Hit the thanks button if it helps. It's my motivator to be more helpful.
Malarz said:
Resolution:
I took the phone apart, and checked the power button (which had been my first guess), and was seemingly all right.
The battery was also not the issue, as I tried 3 different batteries.
Having no other choice, I put the battery back in, and let the phone happily reboot at its own leisure. After over 20 reboots, the system came on. Then a few minutes later the device rebooted again, and the loop started all over. After a while it booted up again. This time I did not wait for the device to reboot by itself, and I switched the phone off with power button, and then turned back on, and it booted normally. Repeated this once more - normal boot again. One more power off, and I entered the boot menu and did factory reset. Once the stock reinstalled, everything would work perfectly - no more issues with boot loop.
So it seems to me as a software problem more than anything else.
Side note: for the last several weeks the phone displayed strange behavior, that is the screen would light up for no reason by itself, and quickly go off. Sometimes it happened once every few minutes, sometimes it happened several times a minute. Did it have anything to do with the boot loop? No idea. But it strengthens my hunch about a software issue, as that behavior also went away after factory reset.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but since I have not found a similar case anywhere in the forums, I though someone might find this interesting. I do not deal with phones except as a user, but some of you guys do it maybe professionally, so maybe this will be a curious puzzle for you to solve.
Malarz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hardware not software. You had a stuck power button. By forcing the reboot with the power button you unstuck it. If you don't believe it research Occam's razor. Glad you got it fixed(unstuck) though.:victory:
EDIT: Here are some other people who have had the same issue on samsung phones.
Stuck power button
Stuck power button
Stuck power button
If you need any more let me know. lol
Related
I have a rooted stock phone that stopped working for no apparent reason (no new ROM flashed, no configuration change). It starts, shows the Samsung logo, and immediately reboots. I tried to put it in download mode, when i hold the 3 keys I see the download logo showing up, but it reboots after a few seconds anyway. after a while it will start looping through the battery charge screen (which shows the battery as empty). I tried 2 different batteries with no change. Any idea how to get something working again?
That almost sounds like some sort of power issue. Have you left it sit turned off until the battery was full?
Yes, I left it overnight and it just keeps flashing the battery screen and then resets. I also have an external charger and used it to charge the battery, so it's not an issue with the battery actually being empty.
Have you been able to get the phone into download mode previously?
Have you have dealt with a boot loop and performed an Odin recovery previously? If not, remember it can take a few tries to get download mode to pop up.
If you can't get Odin to go, you might try flashing with Kies.
I am wondering if your phone met with some kind of disaster when you weren't around (trauma or liquid).
anyone747 said:
I have a rooted stock phone that stopped working for no apparent reason (no new ROM flashed, no configuration change). It starts, shows the Samsung logo, and immediately reboots. I tried to put it in download mode, when i hold the 3 keys I see the download logo showing up, but it reboots after a few seconds anyway. after a while it will start looping through the battery charge screen (which shows the battery as empty). I tried 2 different batteries with no change. Any idea how to get something working again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds almost exactly like the problem I had with my Sidekick. In my case, it turned out to be a bad battery and a loose ribbon cable on the motherboard. I'd check those two things.
This happened to me as well, and the three-button method to get into download mode wasn't working. For some odd reason, for me to get into download mode all I have to do is hold down the power button + track pad, and it goes right into download mode... Maybe slightly different model?
Try that - power button + trackpad
Bootloops.
Not a guaranteed fix by any means but for troubleshooting purposes you may want to consider making a USB JIG. It will most definitely help you figure out just how serious the problem is and if it IS software related with a way to get it working again you will need the JIG anyway so its worth a shot. If nothing else you learn a new skill and you're the proud owner of an incredibly useful tool that you can say you made yourself. good luck!
I know this post is kind of old, but it just happened to me last week (same circumstance, a rooted phone, but stock). I ended up just pulling the battery out and pressing the power button a couple times to hopefully drian it and letting it sit for 15 minutes, and then I put the battery back in and it worked again. I now have another rom flashed on it, I hate stock.
I know this forum is ancient, but I'm working on an E-Bay phone with this exact issue. I found the following thread the most useful and informative on the problem:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1996709
Hopefully this helps other.
what i did was hold the power volume and button between the menu n back with the left hand YES HOLD IT UNTILL THE PIT IS UPLOADED. then u can let go then slide in the vattery with the right.while checking off the flash bootloarders on the heimdall with it fixing my phone XD
I had this happen, I dissassembled the phone, and used an alcohol pad to clean the power button area, and manipulated the button a lot, let it dry, reassembled...it still bootlooped.
BELOW IS RISKY BUT WORKED FOR ME
So while the back cover was off (exposing the cicuit board but everything still connected) I inserted the battery and watched it boot loop...during this, I used a flathead screw driver to "short" the power button pins...this let it boot fully, and it has been fine since.
i smacked the phones power button a few times and it worked
I recently flashed CM9 (throwing that out there incase it is of some reasoning but I doubt it) and I've had my phone since November.
I flashed CM9 9/25 Nightly like 2 or 3 days ago (absolutely love it by the way, smoothest build/rom for the Skyrocket thus far) No problems with the Rom I might add, just my phone had just randomly restarted on its own twice while using it (nothing happened, just started right back up).
However the 3rd time, it randomly restarted and never booted back up. It vibrates and then reboots before it even gets to the Samsung screen and reboots/vibrates again (2 second intervals or so). The furthest it gets is like 5 seconds into the CM9 logo and then it'll reboot. It does the usual thin white line as it restarts and just gets stuck there. Can't get to Recovery for more than a few seconds before it reboots (not long enough for Touch to settle and do anything) and it won't get to Download Mode fast enough. Any ideas or any way to get data off /emmc? Don't want to lose a bunch of pictures/videos.
I have a replacement coming within the next days so I have about 2 weeks to either get lucky and get up long enough to save my data or somehow find a solution (doubt it). I already took it apart and swapped screens because I had busted the screen before and put the broken one in incase by some miracle the new one was causing it (no luck).
No water damage or anything to the phone, just randomly rebooted those times while texting or listening to music/what not and now it's pooped.
Any suggestions?
Tried without the battery (via usb/pc or AC source), without sim/microsd, etc. and nothing. Assuming I'm just SOL.
Edit: Side note, I got terrible battery life with this phone. I could only get 2 hours of screen-on time if I was LUCKY on Mobile and maaaybe 3 if I was on WIFI. The most I ever got was 5 hours on WIFI with a 3850mAh Extended Battrey (so even though it was a cheap battery, I'm thinking the phone had a problem from the get-go).
You Could Have A Stuck Power Button. To Fix That Try To Repeatedly Keep Pushing The Power Button Hard To Try To Unstick It. or try taking it apart and clean the power button
vincom said:
You Could Have A Stuck Power Button. To Fix That Try To Repeatedly Keep Pushing The Power Button Hard To Try To Unstick It. or try taking it apart and clean the power button
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was my first thought, didn't make a difference no matter how I did it. Appreciate the idea though.
[SOLVED] It is indeed the power button.
I took it apart again and thoroughly mashed the power button plenty and gave it a good few breaths of fresh air.
After that I realized that, I put it back together and realized that if I held the power button right after the phone vibrated it seemed to get to the CM9 symbol more often.
So I mashed the power button a ton more, shook the phone like hell and smashed it against my palm a few times and...it booted! I was able to get everything off of it and reset flash/counter/restore to stock all without ever touching the power button. Screen Timeout @ 30 and using ADB is your friend. Now just to see if it magically works till my replacement gets here lol.
hd2k10 said:
[SOLVED] It is indeed the power button.
I took it apart again and thoroughly mashed the power button plenty and gave it a good few breaths of fresh air.
After that I realized that, I put it back together and realized that if I held the power button right after the phone vibrated it seemed to get to the CM9 symbol more often.
So I mashed the power button a ton more, shook the phone like hell and smashed it against my palm a few times and...it booted! I was able to get everything off of it and reset flash/counter/restore to stock all without ever touching the power button. Screen Timeout @ 30 and using ADB is your friend. Now just to see if it magically works till my replacement gets here lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know its sounds too simplistic as to blame a sticky power button and users dismiss the idea because they'll blame themselves, a bad flash, or the rom, but a reboot at a 8-10sec interval is the power button internal switch making contact, sometimes its an easy fix or sometimes it takes more than a few tries, or taking it apart to clean the internals
My phone goes anywhere now from 10 seconds to a full day without having a reboot with continuous vibration at 2 second intervals. Flashed to stable ROM's so that's definitely not the issue. I've had this phone since Christmas 2011 so I'm assuming I don't have warranty? You guys just unscrewed the screws and got into the internals I'm assuming?
So, tonight I just turned my screen on and then off real quick to check if I have any messages and set my phone down. Then I look down and see the Samsung logo. I'm a bit confused and notice that the Samsung logo keeps showing for 1-2 seconds going black for 1-2 seconds and then back to the Samsung logo for 1-2 seconds, over and over. I pull the battery and then when I put it back in, the phone starts doing it again before I touch any buttons. Clearly something is causing my power button to be "on" continuously. This seems to be a relatively common problem from doing some searching, but most of the posts I find seem to be full of people responding who fail to understand the problem. People seem to think that this is a boot loop and that it can be fixed by going into download mode. This is clearly not the case, the problem is obviously with the power button since the phone automatically starts up and keeps doing this as soon as the battery is reinserted regardless if no buttons are pushed or all buttons are pushed. Has anyone managed to fix this problem? I'm thinking I'm going to have to take the infuse apart and see if the button is stuck or if there contact occuring somewhere it shouldn't be. Any help would be appreciated.
Yeah, i have this problem. First what i did, i'd hit gently the power button a few times and it seemed to work. But after a few days it got worse, till the point it wouldn't work. I decided to open up the phone myself, and trying to manipulate the small power button. Apparently it worked, but i decided not to use the power button anymore, i wake the phone by touching the volume +/- buttons and i turn it off with a widget i downloaded from the playstore. This problem seems to be on every infuse i'm saving up some money to buy another phone, since i won't be able to sell this one with this problem.
Sent from my Infuse4G using Tapatalk
Here is a video of a screen replcement- not what you are doing but it shows you how to take the phone apart. Hope this helps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WS5I0SpL6c
Thanks for the link. I took it apart using that and cleaned everything and just clicked the power button a whole bunch and its working again for now.
Pony Express said:
Here is a video of a screen replcement- not what you are doing but it shows you how to take the phone apart. Hope this helps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WS5I0SpL6c
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice one, bro.
z3ddicus said:
So, tonight I just turned my screen on and then off real quick to check if I have any messages and set my phone down. Then I look down and see the Samsung logo. I'm a bit confused and notice that the Samsung logo keeps showing for 1-2 seconds going black for 1-2 seconds and then back to the Samsung logo for 1-2 seconds, over and over. I pull the battery and then when I put it back in, the phone starts doing it again before I touch any buttons. Clearly something is causing my power button to be "on" continuously. This seems to be a relatively common problem from doing some searching, but most of the posts I find seem to be full of people responding who fail to understand the problem. People seem to think that this is a boot loop and that it can be fixed by going into download mode. This is clearly not the case, the problem is obviously with the power button since the phone automatically starts up and keeps doing this as soon as the battery is reinserted regardless if no buttons are pushed or all buttons are pushed. Has anyone managed to fix this problem? I'm thinking I'm going to have to take the infuse apart and see if the button is stuck or if there contact occuring somewhere it shouldn't be. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It happens that to one of my infuse before and i send it so Josh @ http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/ he replaces my power buttons and services is amazing and shipping is fast.
Hey guys,
My phone shut off unexpectedly today and now won't turn back on. When I try to power it on I see the Google logo for a couple seconds and then it'll just shut off again. I tried holding the volume up/down buttons to access the bootloader, but right after I get to the screen it just restarts itself again.
Connecting to power (AC or USB) causes it to constantly reboot over and over, it just shows the Google logo for a couple seconds and then restarts again.
Any ideas on what I can do?
rosscarrothers said:
Hey guys,
My phone shut off unexpectedly today and now won't turn back on. When I try to power it on I see the Google logo for a couple seconds and then it'll just shut off again. I tried holding the volume up/down buttons to access the bootloader, but right after I get to the screen it just restarts itself again.
Connecting to power (AC or USB) causes it to constantly reboot over and over, it just shows the Google logo for a couple seconds and then restarts again.
Any ideas on what I can do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Provide more information for a starter - stock? unlocked bootloader? rooted? third party recovery? rom and if yes which?
If it's stock I'd RMA it.
If not what did you do immediately before the problem started?
try holding the power button for > 2 seconds which should turn it off completely, leave it on a wall charger for at least a couple of hours then turn it back on - I doubt it'll fix the problem but it's a simple thing to try...
Clancy_s said:
Provide more information for a starter - stock? unlocked bootloader? rooted? third party recovery? rom and if yes which?
If it's stock I'd RMA it.
If not what did you do immediately before the problem started?
try holding the power button for > 2 seconds which should turn it off completely, leave it on a wall charger for at least a couple of hours then turn it back on - I doubt it'll fix the problem but it's a simple thing to try...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything on it is stock, no ROM, not rooted. I had just taken it out of my pocket to check the time, put it back in my pocket and then felt it vibrate, took it back out to see it at the Google logo and haven't been able to get it started since. There was one or two times when it got past the Google logo and started to show the start up animation (the four colours bouncing around or whatever it is) but then it shut off again.
I tried holding the power button to completely turn it off, but plugging it into the wall charger just causes it to repeatedly attempt to boot like I mentioned earlier. I'll leave it for a while and hope for the best
Sounds like the mobo is bad. Most likely will have to rma it.
rosscarrothers said:
Hey guys,
My phone shut off unexpectedly today and now won't turn back on. When I try to power it on I see the Google logo for a couple seconds and then it'll just shut off again. I tried holding the volume up/down buttons to access the bootloader, but right after I get to the screen it just restarts itself again.
Connecting to power (AC or USB) causes it to constantly reboot over and over, it just shows the Google logo for a couple seconds and then restarts again.
Any ideas on what I can do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a case on? The case could be faulty.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
jd1639 said:
Sounds like the mobo is bad. Most likely will have to rma it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe not. Sounds like a stuck power button to me.
OP does the phone just endlessly repeat this cycle? If so it's rebooting itself do to a stuck power button. One other users already reported similar issues and his power button was indeed stuck. Mash the power button hard for a minute to see if you can unstick it.
theesotericone said:
Maybe not. Sounds like a stuck power button to me.
OP does the phone just endlessly repeat this cycle? If so it's rebooting itself do to a stuck power button. One other users already reported similar issues and his power button was indeed stuck. Mash the power button hard for a minute to see if you can unstick it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got it!
Thanks so much, really wasn't looking forward to waiting for weeks while the RMA went through. The button didn't appear to be stuck - it was still clicky - but after mashing it for a minute it started up normally and appears to be fine now.
Did you flash any ROMs or anything previously?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
scottdouglasdick said:
Did you flash any ROMs or anything previously?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
brother the issue is gone, as mentioned "sticky power button" was causing it. read the thread before posting. btw thanks for effort anyway... haha
:laugh::silly:
Hi all. Sorry to reopen an old thread (but xda suggested I check here before making my own thread).
I think we have the exact same problem with a Nexus 5. Unfortunately, bashing the power button doesn't seem to be helping (and makes me feel slightly silly .
Anyone know how much effort it would be to take it apart to get to the part that's stuck? Any good instructions?
Thanks.
Weird, I have the same issue starting a few hours ago. I updated to the Oct 17 beta of Cataclysm then a hour later it happened. But was told it sounds like the power button issue.
Took it apart, tried to fix it. If plugged in I can get into the bootloader, but then it reboots again. I've tried tapping it on a hard surface, and it gets seems like it almost fixes it because it'll connect to my laptop but then reboots again.
Could it be the battery? It was fully charged but then died as I was deleting hundreds of photo's in Dropbox to move photo's over from my phone because it was full.
I too am running into this same issue. My screen cracked so I replaced the digitizer with some success. In the process I damaged the battery and needed to replace it. When I got the new battery and replaced it my phone is now unusable.
When unplugged: I turn on the phone and it's running the ANDROID animation then turns off.
When plugged in: I turn on the phone, the ANDROID animation runs then the phone restarts and continues the process over and over again.
I then flashed the phone with Marshmallow and the same thing happens. Except now that I flashed it I get the Android icon with the spinning gear. So; I flashed it back to 5.1.1, but the same result.
Could I have physically damaged something inside or is it a battery issue? Thanks for any insight.
I've had this phone for about 2 months now, and from the beginning, it's had an issue where it would randomly freeze, restart, and get stuck in a boot loop for random amounts of time. Sometimes it would be fine after 2 minutes, sometimes it would need 10. I kept thinking this was a firmware issue - the phone WAS rooted with TWRP installed, but none of my past phones have had this issue and hardly anybody online seems to have had it, either - and just thought that maybe installing a custom ROM would fix it, but never got around to doing so.
3 days ago, my S7 went into a boot loop again, so I just decided to put it down and let it do its thing. After 20 minutes, however, it still wasn't booting, so I booted into TWRP, and cleared the cache and Dalvik cache. Another 20 minutes later, I went into panic mode and started doing Nandroid backups of my stuff. I decided that I had no other choice but to commence with finding a ROM to replace stock. In the meantime, I just plugged it in and let it keep looping, hoping against hope that it would just fix itself like it always did.
About half an hour later, I was ready to install the ROM I'd decided on. I went and picked up my phone, but all that I saw was the screen was black, and the blue notification LED was lit up. I tried holding Vol- + Power to start booting it into TWRP, but nothing happened. The phone didn't vibrate, the screen didn't change, and the LED stayed lit. I tried holding every button combination possible, for even as long as a minute, but the phone refused to respond. I tried plugging it into my computer, but Windows didn't detect anything.
Skip to today, and the phone's battery has long since died(the LED isn't lit up, so I can only assume...), and I just decided to plug the phone in for the hell of it just to see if maybe it would maybe work again. To my astonishment, 2 minutes later, the battery icon came up on the screen, but the charging animation wasn't there. When I held Vol- + Power, the phone actually responded and restarted! Though, it wouldn't boot past the Galaxy S7 splash screen, and when I tried to boot it into TWRP, it went back to being a brick. I let it sit for about 10 minutes, plugged it in, and this time tried to get it into Download Mode, and it worked!
I downloaded the Switzerland version of the G930F firmware, flashed it in Odin, and everything seems to have worked. Odin says it succeeded, but when the phone tried to restart, it got to the splash screen, and after a few minutes, the screen went black again. When I plug it in now, the Galaxy S7 screen will come up, but now I can't seem to get into Download Mode anymore(though, it DOES still seem to respond to me pressing Vol- + Power).
Does anyone have any idea what's going on? I can only seem to find 3 or 4 other threads on various forums about this problem, but none of them have any answers. People just keep saying the usual "Hold Vol- and Power to make the phone restart", but in case I haven't made it clear, THAT ISN'T WORKING.
And before you suggest that I return it to where I bought it for a replacement or refund: I bought this phone on eBay from a seller who said it was in pretty much mint condition. When the phone arrived, there was not a dent or scratch anywhere on the phone, even around the charger port, so I have no reason to believe he was lying. When I asked him about any possible problems with the phone's operational stability the other day, he says he tested it for about 2 weeks, and that he didn't notice anything.
Sounds like a hardware fault, not much else you can do other than flashing stock and factory resetting, which you've done
Considering it had a fault from day 1 it sounds like that fault finally caught up with it
Likely scenario if sent for repair, new motherboard replacement needed