The problem I have is with the galaxy z flip 3, it worked just fine inthe morning but after it ran outta juice and I charged it to a certain percentage, it stopped working properly, and got into an infinite boot loop, I tried forcing it to restart by long pressing volume down+power , but it didn't work, then I tried opening the recovery by long pressing on volume up+power and yet it also didn't work (I think that maybe it's because it was trying to boot at the time), so have you guys any solutions , please do help me cuz this phone really is important and with all honestly, isn't even mine XD, I'll be waiting for an answer
Your failsafe options are contact Samsung or do a factory reset (and then potentially contact Samsung).
If you can't boot it to anything, the only real option you have is to flash firmware, which likely won't help without wiping.
Unfortunately, not booting doesn't have a whole lot of options that don't wipe data without being rooted. Even then, you'd need recovery.
I see, then I may consider giving it to samsung, as long as they won't reset it, cuz the only reason why the phone is so important is because of the data, altough, isn't there any other way to acess recovery? Cuz I had this problem with the s10 before and I fixed it somehow (a certain Bixby key combination), but this time it seems there isn't any hidden combination.
Samsung is going to reset it. It's a required first step for them to do any work on it, even if the work has nothing to do with the software. What may help find a way to recover the data is starting with how it got to this point. Did you install anything new, change any important settings, or anything else that could have been a part of the issue? If not and it is an unexplained hardware failure, the data is likely gone already.
If it's something you might have installed or changed, it's possible that putting the phone in safe mode and undoing it may solve the issue and let you boot normally.
Booting into Safe Mode:
Make sure the device is powered off (charging is ok, as long as it is not currently trying to boot)
Hold the side key to power on and continue holding until "SAMSUNG" appears and the device vibrates
Immediately release the side key and begin holding volume down until boot completes
If the device has booted into safe mode, you will see a translucent "Safe Mode" in the bottom left
twistedumbrella said:
Samsung is going to reset it. It's a required first step for them to do any work on it, even if the work has nothing to do with the software. What may help find a way to recover the data is starting with how it got to this point. Did you install anything new, change any important settings, or anything else that could have been a part of the issue? If not and it is an unexplained hardware failure, the data is likely gone already.
If it's something you might have installed or changed, it's possible that putting the phone in safe mode and undoing it may solve the issue and let you boot normally.
Booting into Safe Mode:
Make sure the device is powered off (charging is ok, as long as it is not currently trying to boot)
Hold the side key to power on and continue holding until "SAMSUNG" appears and the device vibrates
Immediately release the side key and begin holding volume down until boot completes
If the device has booted into safe mode, you will see a translucent "Safe Mode" in the bottom left
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I just asked the original owner (my mother), and apparently she doesn't remember downloading anything new into it, and it just went crazy by itself, also something else I wanna note, I tried charging it and it booted into recovery all by itself, I taught it was weird but Still went and wiped the cache and then when I tried restarting it it suddenly ran out of juice once again, also, it's second display shows some weird curruption/bug or glitch-like lines. So based off of this, can you really find the origin of this problem and if there is really any hope of saving it's data XD. Thank you btw, and once again, I'll be waiting for an answer
There are hundreds of reasons it could do that, including a faulty board. Thanks to the removal of physical sdcard support, you'd need to get it to boot into something with at least adb support to pull anything off it. Stock recovery doesn't provide any ways to perform a decent backup, but it sounds like the only option that wouldn't wipe the device didn't work.
I see, alright, thanks a lot, I'll consider resetting it
It may be worth trying to flash firmware first. Go into it knowing it may reset the device or leave you needing to reset it, but it doesn't hurt to try if you run out of safer options.
Same here, same symptoms, happened in front of my wife's and eyes face. We are fairly techy and understand our way around our devices. We also noticed the device crashed then would make it all the way to the home screen launcher and before catching signal the crash would cause a restart at that point I went in and did a cash swipe rebooted right back into recovery by itself then I unplugged the cable and it was acting as if it has a dead battery but when the cable was last plugged in during a couple of crash and then restarts all the way to the home screen I know the battery was at 70 something percent. My next step is going to probably be flashed the current firmware that just released on top of it as a dirty flash and see if I can get it to boot. If not then I'm going to do a hard reset and see if that works. When plugged in it automatically starts exhibiting symptoms as if the buttons are stuck. The devices in the OtterBox and it's fairly brand new I would say mint. Not dirty or any smudges either. all I'm saying is I'm one of those type of technicians that say yeah right when people say it just happened I don't know where but this actually happened I don't know when I was able to witness it. I'll come back and let you guys know what works and what doesn't. (By the way excuse my grammar I was voice typing while driving )
ariveraiv said:
Same here, same symptoms, happened in front of my wife's and eyes face. We are fairly techy and understand our way around our devices. We also noticed the device crashed then would make it all the way to the home screen launcher and before catching signal the crash would cause a restart at that point I went in and did a cash swipe rebooted right back into recovery by itself then I unplugged the cable and it was acting as if it has a dead battery but when the cable was last plugged in during a couple of crash and then restarts all the way to the home screen I know the battery was at 70 something percent. My next step is going to probably be flashed the current firmware that just released on top of it as a dirty flash and see if I can get it to boot. If not then I'm going to do a hard reset and see if that works. When plugged in it automatically starts exhibiting symptoms as if the buttons are stuck. The devices in the OtterBox and it's fairly brand new I would say mint. Not dirty or any smudges either. all I'm saying is I'm one of those type of technicians that say yeah right when people say it just happened I don't know where but this actually happened I don't know when I was able to witness it. I'll come back and let you guys know what works and what doesn't. (By the way excuse my grammar I was voice typing while driving )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello everyone just a quick update. Once I got home I plugged the device into a Samsung fast charger and Samsung OEM USB type-c cable and realize the device booted all the way to the home screen but register the same battery level as I mentioned above. Device was working as if nothing happened to it. So I updated all the apps on the Galaxy store then updated all the apps left over from the Google Play store, I then proceeded to check for a firmware update because I know the April update just released and installed the update with no issues. Updated the apps that needed to be updated again somehow there's always something and unplug the device from the power cable. Everything was working if no issues about half hour later the device cuts off and does not want to power on. FYI I already had my wife contact T-Mobile and get a warranty replacement we only paid $5.00 so my thoughts and conclusion on what's going on something happened to the battery or it's defective. Btw we only use Samsung OEM cables and equipment at home and in the car while connected through Android auto. it's only working while being plugged in it's not charging all the way even though it's registering it's charge level while the device is on.
Related
My phone runs perfectly fine until I enable Gps location. Once I enable GPS location, it freezes, then it reboots my phone and it slowly do a system check, then it continuously rebooting the lg logo screen. I tried taking out the battery and put it back in, even took out my battery for a day and it still does the same. I'm not sure if it's the hardware problem, but it's a pretty rare case, since I read most of the threads in forums, people said it can be fix once you pull out the battery, but somehow it's not working for me. Anyone knows the reason why? Btw, my phone is not rooted or used any 3rd party program.
Ah. Posted too soon. There's a master reset that I believe is Power and Volume Up. Try that.
Unfortunately, it's still not working. Is there any other possible way? Or else I have to call in and return it.
Try turning off the phone, then press power + vol down and hold it until you see the word android. This should do the factory reset.
efrem989 said:
My phone runs perfectly fine until I enable Gps location. Once I enable GPS location, it freezes, then it reboots my phone and it slowly do a system check, then it continuously rebooting the lg logo screen. I tried taking out the battery and put it back in, even took out my battery for a day and it still does the same. I'm not sure if it's the hardware problem, but it's a pretty rare case, since I read most of the threads in forums, people said it can be fix once you pull out the battery, but somehow it's not working for me. Anyone knows the reason why? Btw, my phone is not rooted or used any 3rd party program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like the permissions are not correct, or perhaps that your ROM was not flashed correctly. I have seem this problem happen numerous times due to bad firmware flashes or ROM issues. I would just download a new copy of the latest CM 7 ROM or whatever your favorite ROM is and flash it through CWM.
Thanks guys for the help. I found out that you have to hold down first then power button for around 30 second and then the droid animation comes out. I was so close to returning it. Thanks!
I've got a rooted (Super SU, but the original root manager was Superuser) LG C800 that I was having problems with. To be specific, I installed some apps on to the system. Some of these apps would be Titanium Backup for root, Avast Mobile Security, ROM Tool Box Lite, Super SU, and a quite a few others. From day one they seem to be kicked right back to my S.D. card, but not all at the same time, and some would stay on the system. I read where I should move the apps back to my S.D. card and try to re-install them on the system minus the data. When I did, the phone went nuts. Now it stays in a restart mode but never fully boots up. Can I salvage it, and if so, please tell me how?! I have tried the hard reset/recovery boot where you hold down the power button, volume, and a few other keys, but it did not work. I'm a broke college student and can't really afford to buy a new phone. I used this one for everything including tethering it to get my assignments done at home and turned in on time. Please help! I'm open to suggestions....... My phone will be completely off. When I plug it into my computer, via U.S.B., it automatically turns it on whether I want it to be on or not. Then it starts off in "reboot recovery" mode, will boot all the way to the point to where the home screen would normally turn on, but then it starts in that "boot loop" all over again but never fully boots up before going back to the beginning of that "boot loop" yet again. I can't even get it to register on my laptop as being plugged in. The reason I took the apps I placed on the system off was because sometimes when I'd re-boot the system the apps would be on the system and sometimes back on my S.D. card without my involvement of any kind other than rebooting my phone. Is completing a Nandroid recovery or re-installation of my ROM even possible with my computer no longer recognizing it as even being plugged in? From what I can tell it won't be. Am I fighting a lost cause or is it salvageable?
Rooted myTouch Q 4G, a.k.a. LG C800
I believe it has a 2.3.4 GRJ22-perf, and then something like 2.6.35.7? I can't remember off the top of my head, and I can't pull it up on my phone anymore or else I'd double check.
Have you tried booting into recovery?
(More about my phone from the original post) Honestly.........I'm not what you may consider technologically inclined. I have however done about as much research online concerning this matter as any one person can do. I've looked it up on all major sites, and many smaller ones too, that post remedies for phone, or "human" if you'd rather, malfunctions. They all talk about still being able to reach a home screen or doing the whole holding the power and volume decrease buttons until I "reboot recovery" screen appears (if that's what you're referring to as doing a recovery reboot as). Don't forget the one where you hold hold the power and volume decrease buttons along with the "A" and "F" keys as well. I even tried one from here where you're supposed to push the genius button after the Android figure leaves the screen. My phone won't allow me to do either. Basically if it's online, I myself, or this girl that's been staying with me, have tried it without any results. On the initial boot the Android figure and the box with the arrow coming out of it show up and it boots until just about the point that it use to switch over to the home screen and it will start the whole "boot loop" over again. The thing is though that the Android figure and box aren't there any other time after the first boot, and with every boot loop it makes after that, the time is reduced from the beginning of the loop to the end when it starts all over again. The phone won't shut off unless I remove the battery and even though my laptop no longer recognizes the device, when I plug my phone into it or another power source and it's off, it automatically turns itself on and begins that boot loop all over again. there is one thing I have yet to try. I read on one site where I could download a custom ROM on my S.D. and then try reboot it, but it never makes it to the point in which the files on my S.D. card are ran, much less scanned. I am still 100% open to any and all suggestions in the diagnosis of this issue. I may record and place a video on one of the more popular "tube" sites to better show or further explain what's happening and then come back on here to post the link?! Feel free to reply back if it's possible you can help before I'm able to complete that later this evening. And thanks for any and all help in advance to everyone.
Bought a Nexus 5 about 6 months ago USED. It has been amazing. I got the latest OTA a week ago or so, not sure if that has anything to do with current issues.
About 2 days ago started randomly restarting. Today, it shut down and has been in continuous loop restarting. I see "Google" and maybe even the boot dots loading, then it is off. Three seconds later, starts again and repeats. Never makes it all the way into Android system. I let it sit for a while and when I pick it up, without touching any buttons, it repeats all of this. I suppose it is probably dead in general, but I don't know. Do you guys have any ideas? Again, I bought it used and from a ma/pap store who said they buy 100 in bulk, which made me skeptical, but they also had a 60 day guarantee and it was amazing the first 60 days and even after. It has been error free for 6 months, so I don't know if this is just a random issue or if the previous owner dropped it in a lake and I got lucky, or what. FWIW the damn thing has been in a case and never dropped, so it isn't anything that I have done I don't think. Thanks for any help.
edit: never rooted, never messed with, always been stock
Another user reported some instability since the last OTA update.
Flashing the full factory images did the trick.
a friend of mine gave me his nexus 5 to repair and its doing something similar. He had ir rooted and on latest 5.1.1 (i think). Either way, he said it was randomly locking up and rebooting. When i got it it had the red blinking light when plugged so i got a new battery. That got fixed but then the constant bootloop showed itself. I flashed TWRP (many versions, 2.6.3.1; 2.7.1.1; 2.8.7.1; the one that worked best was 2.7.1.1). So, once in twrp wiped, pushed cm 12 snapshot, flashed it, pushed gapps, falshed, pushe supersu flashed. Started the system. That precise order of things (ie: pushing flashing, then pushing something new and flashing it) was what gave me best results to actually boot up at least once. Once booted up and logging in and everything to cm i had some sort of stability (even rebooting and powering off) but i think that everything went wrong when i plugged the phone to the computer and it was back to bootloops and not even getting to the recovery. Flashed everything again. Didnt work. Had to leave the phone sit for a while (without the back casing) before trying again, in order, before getting any success. Im starting to think of ovrheating but it doesnt even get that hot...
Dunno if you guys have any ideas on this. Or if i can give you mor details to help us out.
Regards!
Looks like I'm having a similar problem to what is described here, as well as http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/bootlooped-dont-how-to-enable-debugging-t3215951
I've had one of my Nexus 5 phones running OmniROM 5.1.1 for some time now, very stably. After trying out the Marshmallow preview and going back to that ROM, I started having spontaneous hard reboots and hard crashes. The phone would often boot loop before even getting to the OmniROM boot animation. It was also very recalcitrant about entering and staying in the boot loader, rebooting spontaneously shortly after rendering the boot loader screen. I was occasionally able to "grab" control long enough to get it to boot into TWRP, from which a boot to Android seemed to usually get it out of the loop and into running Android.
I've flashed back the boot loader and baseband from factory-stock 5.1.1 LMY48M (HHZ12h and 2.0.50.2.26) using the flash-base.sh script from a freshly downloaded and extracted hammerhead-lmy48m. Things appeared to be OK last evening and this morning, but things got worse today.
Now the phone is in a state where it is not responsive to the power button when unplugged. I can hold it down for 30 seconds with no response.
If I plug in USB, it spontaneously starts rebooting, not showing more than about two seconds of the Google boot loader screen. If I hold the down-volume button, I can get the boot-loader screen, but no matter how fast I try to be, I can't select anything more than "Restart bootloader" (or "Power off") option before it spontaneously reboots (to boot loader).
As far as I know, the battery had a significant charge before this started happening.
I see the same behavior if the phone is connected to a USB charging source, rather than a USB port.
I've tried pulling the SIM, but that doesn't change the behavior.
adb wait-for-device never returns, so poking it over adb doesn't seem to be an option.
fastboot devices also doesn't see the phone, for the brief time the boot loader is running.
Any suggestions on how to get this into the boot loader so I can at least re-flash it?
Nexus 5 D820(E) 32 GB
Edit:
WaxLarry said:
In my opinion your problems seems power button's related.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying to see how I can "clean" or "clear" the power button now.
Edit:
Paul22000 said:
This morning my Nexus 5 was turned off all of a sudden after not having used it for 20-30 minutes. I held the power button and nothing. I plugged it into power and the "Google" screen appeared. It then went into a reboot loop on and off, on and off, on and off. I held the Volume Buttons and it went into fastboot, but then boot looped out again and again. Searching on Google yielded that this was indeed a common problem. [...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit: Repeatedly pressing the power button seems to have temporarily allowed a boot to Android.
In retrospect, I had noticed over the last few days that the phone didn't seem to respond properly to the power button, either "ignoring" it, or when a second press got things started, it would unexpectedly come up with the long-press-volume menu.
One link on how to replace the power switch yourself is http://protyposis.net/blog/replacing-the-nexus-5-power-button/
Ok @jeffsf keep going on this thread. I had the same damn experience, that ended with RMA. LG said that the problem is related to some tension change in the power button. After the RMA I used the phone totally stock and never had a problem. Two months ago I switched to blu_spark kernel and some weeks after i noticed some problem. When I pressed the button to lock the screen, phone locked itself and then screen turned on, sometimes showing the shutdown option. So i understood that something was happening to the power button. I tried to overvolt with a +5mV on general offset and since then i never had problem. If you can enter recovery or bootloader i suggest you to flash some kernel with volt change support and then overvolt the general offset... and keep finger crossed
jeffsf said:
Looks like I'm having a similar problem to what is described here, as well as http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/bootlooped-dont-how-to-enable-debugging-t3215951
I've had one of my Nexus 5 phones running OmniROM 5.1.1 for some time now, very stably. After trying out the Marshmallow preview and going back to that ROM, I started having spontaneous hard reboots and hard crashes. The phone would often boot loop before even getting to the OmniROM boot animation. It was also very recalcitrant about entering and staying in the boot loader, rebooting spontaneously shortly after rendering the boot loader screen. I was occasionally able to "grab" control long enough to get it to boot into TWRP, from which a boot to Android seemed to usually get it out of the loop and into running Android.
I've flashed back the boot loader and baseband from factory-stock 5.1.1 LMY48M (HHZ12h and 2.0.50.2.26) using the flash-base.sh script from a freshly downloaded and extracted hammerhead-lmy48m. Things appeared to be OK last evening and this morning, but things got worse today.
Now the phone is in a state where it is not responsive to the power button when unplugged. I can hold it down for 30 seconds with no response.
If I plug in USB, it spontaneously starts rebooting, not showing more than about two seconds of the Google boot loader screen. If I hold the down-volume button, I can get the boot-loader screen, but no matter how fast I try to be, I can't select anything more than "Restart bootloader" (or "Power off") option before it spontaneously reboots (to boot loader).
As far as I know, the battery had a significant charge before this started happening.
I see the same behavior if the phone is connected to a USB charging source, rather than a USB port.
I've tried pulling the SIM, but that doesn't change the behavior.
adb wait-for-device never returns, so poking it over adb doesn't seem to be an option.
fastboot devices also doesn't see the phone, for the brief time the boot loader is running.
Any suggestions on how to get this into the boot loader so I can at least re-flash it?
Nexus 5 D820(E) 32 GB
Edit:
Trying to see how I can "clean" or "clear" the power button now.
Edit:
Edit: Repeatedly pressing the power button seems to have temporarily allowed a boot to Android.
In retrospect, I had noticed over the last few days that the phone didn't seem to respond properly to the power button, either "ignoring" it, or when a second press got things started, it would unexpectedly come up with the long-press-volume menu.
One link on how to replace the power switch yourself is http://protyposis.net/blog/replacing-the-nexus-5-power-button/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got a notification for this post since you quoted me. I'm not sure if you're having the same problem but I'll tell you what happened to me, just in case. I called T-Mobile and they referred me to the nearest 3rd party phone repair shop. I went there and after an evaluation, the repairman told me the power button on my phone was indeed broken. They replaced it for $55.
The story doesn't end there though. I took my phone home and a few hours later I tried to use bluetooth and it didn't work. I took it back and found out that unfortunately, when the guy replaced the power button, he inadvertently broke the bluetooth. There's no way to fix bluetooth without replacing the motherboard entirely, which would cost $200. I'd rather buy a new phone at that point since my Nexus 5 was getting old. He refunded me, which was nice. At least the power button worked so I could use my phone. Bluetooth isn't as valuable as being able to you know, turn on the phone, so at least it was a net gain.
After that, I purchased a Nexus 6 and rooted it so I could use double-tap-to-wake (along with the automatic screen on when you pick up the Nexus 6). I also use the following app in order to turn off the screen by swiping up from the home button (I don't care about losing the shortcut to Google Now): Screen Off and Lock
I can now literally go weeks without using the power button on my Nexus 6. (I literally only use it when tap to wake sometimes becomes unresponsive which is rare.)
Bottom line: I will never buy another phone without tap to wake functionality! :good:
A local repair shop here indicated that one sometimes does changing the power switch resolve the issue. They have seen situations where the issue appears to be one of the power-management ICs. Just something to be aware of when examining the potential cost of a repair and who you would have do the work.
Hey everyone, I'll start by saying I'm new to these forums, so go easy...
I've had an S7 (Verizon SM-G930V) for probably 3 years, recently it randomly glitched/locked up (screen had strange color bars through what I was looking at) phone restarted and then was stuck in a boot loop. It's never been wet or dropped hard and is in really good shape. I shut it off and attempted to re-start with the same results... Got a new S20+ so I at least have a device, but I'm determined to get the lost month on the old S7 back since I had a backup from early Feb.
I tried a new battery since that was mentioned, didn't change anything, however in messing with trying to get the phone to boot have discovered a few strange message screens and behavior...
1. Phone will eventually stop responding to key presses, have to pull battery connector, wait, then it will re-boot, but every time the blue 'Recovery Mode...' is displayed. If I touch nothing, it will boot and start 'installing updates' but eventually lock and restart. At one point it made it as far as the Verizon screen, then died.
2. I can get the phone to to into the recovery menu and it will respond to commands. I've tried restart normally, boot to safe mode, and shut down phone normally, all of which result in the same restart and recovery mode message and then the lock during the update.
3. I have successfully made it to the download mode screen a few times, but don't have the knowledge of what needs to be done there and which files I would need to upload to it to make that work. (phone was totally stock rom) It had recently updated to the latest version available from Verizon which I think was 8.0?
4. Now I have found a new error screen which I have not seen before... The little Android guy has X's in his eyes and a large yellow sign with ! in it says 'No Command' and then the phone restarts? It also during that finally responded to being plugged in via USB charging, however normally it shows no signs of charging other than being warm and actually charging the battery (verified with a meter)
5. When the phone is on, it gets warm quite quickly (it's still split open and the tin covers are warm, but not hot)
Hopefully someone can help out. I wouldn't say there's anything too critical on there, but there are some pics I'd really like to have back :crying:
Thanks everyone!
bigblkyj said:
Hey everyone, I'll start by saying I'm new to these forums, so go easy...
I've had an S7 (Verizon SM-G930V) for probably 3 years, recently it randomly glitched/locked up (screen had strange color bars through what I was looking at) phone restarted and then was stuck in a boot loop. It's never been wet or dropped hard and is in really good shape. I shut it off and attempted to re-start with the same results... Got a new S20+ so I at least have a device, but I'm determined to get the lost month on the old S7 back since I had a backup from early Feb.
I tried a new battery since that was mentioned, didn't change anything, however in messing with trying to get the phone to boot have discovered a few strange message screens and behavior...
1. Phone will eventually stop responding to key presses, have to pull battery connector, wait, then it will re-boot, but every time the blue 'Recovery Mode...' is displayed. If I touch nothing, it will boot and start 'installing updates' but eventually lock and restart. At one point it made it as far as the Verizon screen, then died.
2. I can get the phone to to into the recovery menu and it will respond to commands. I've tried restart normally, boot to safe mode, and shut down phone normally, all of which result in the same restart and recovery mode message and then the lock during the update.
3. I have successfully made it to the download mode screen a few times, but don't have the knowledge of what needs to be done there and which files I would need to upload to it to make that work. (phone was totally stock rom) It had recently updated to the latest version available from Verizon which I think was 8.0?
4. Now I have found a new error screen which I have not seen before... The little Android guy has X's in his eyes and a large yellow sign with ! in it says 'No Command' and then the phone restarts? It also during that finally responded to being plugged in via USB charging, however normally it shows no signs of charging other than being warm and actually charging the battery (verified with a meter)
5. When the phone is on, it gets warm quite quickly (it's still split open and the tin covers are warm, but not hot)
Hopefully someone can help out. I wouldn't say there's anything too critical on there, but there are some pics I'd really like to have back :crying:
Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If what you've described is correct, all of the solutions involve flashing the stock firmware which will of course wipe the device.
Were your photos not stored in a folder on the SD card?
There is a chance you can recover the device using Samsung Kies with the emergency recover option but if you've encountered the "no command" screen it's not looking good.
Unfortunately I did have an SD card installed, but I normally kept my camera pics on the phone's memory, since I have had an SD card fail as well and lost everything on there.
So this took an unexpected turn yesterday pretty much right after posting this... I've been messing with the phone, unplugging the battery each time, and have managed to get into different menus which kept making me think that something still had to be working if I could do that. Well, after leaving the No Command message on the screen it magically booted into the Recovery menu with (finally) the option to wipe the cache partition, which I did and rebooted normally. Believe it or not, it booted normally and into the OS like nothing ever happened?!
I instantly plugged it into my PC and ran Smart Switch which started taking a backup! About 25% though the device restarted again and was really warm to the touch on the RF covers inside. Bummer...
So I figured heat was now the issue for some reason... I waited for it to cool and then reinstalled the SD card and figured, if I could get it to boot long enough, the SD card is a quicker transfer and I'd just use ES File Explorer to try and do a photo dump to the SD card and see how far it would get. It actually made it all the way through and gave me enough time to grab some other stuff before getting hot and restarting again.
I believe the overheating is being caused by my opening of the device though... Currently I have the antennas removed and the speaker so that I'm able to quickly access the battery connector (which BTW seems to be the trick here to this working) But inadvertently, without the larger wireless charging coil in place, it relieved the pressure on the motherboard and broke the thermal paste connection between the chipset and the copper heatsink (I didn't tear it down further to check, but I can hear the 'sticking and peeling' when you press down on it).
I think what I'm going to do is apply pressure with a chip clip or something similar (non conductive) and see if I can grab a backup again before it restarts. After the cache wipe the phone seems to understand that it's plugged in and charging now which is a new thing as well...
Sorry for the long winded posts, but if this at all helps even one person with the same situation as I have, maybe that'll be worth getting lost in here
Good day, this would be a pretty lengthy post. I'd like to describe my experience clearly since I don't know what I possibly skipped over as I am very positive that my efforts have been correct basing on prior XDA forums. I even made this account solely for posting this to ask for help formally along with archiving this problem I'm having for those having a similar experience.
I've been working on my mom's phone this whole day and there are fruits of my current hard work. I am immensely stressed and despairing with my situation.
The Problems
Infinite boot looping
Can't access the recovery menu (power, volume+, even with home button)
Can access the ODIN / Download menu
Can't turn off either (holding down power button has no effect)
What I've done so far
I read XDA forums about similar experiences. Can't really access the recovery menu so I've factory reset.
We live in the Philippines and this phone is open line, so I went with those requirements while searching stock ROMs.
I downloaded the stock ROMs of the phone model via galaxyfirmware.com which was positively shared in the forums.
Did trial and error with it and eventually got the right one. I have formed a level of understanding with the filenames and eventually knew which is compatible.
Used Odin3 to Flash the BL, AP, CP, CSC, and even go Nand Erase and got the PIT file inside the CSC (Opened it using winrar)
The flashing is actually successful and quite fast to be honest.
The phone reboots itself and shows that it is still sadly boot looping.
Also, despite the several files used for the Flash, still can't access the Recovery Menu.
With that said, I have also tried using Frija which automatically downloaded the stock ROMs based on the model name and CSC type. Placed it in ODIN again and no changes, still boot looping.
I also can't put the TWRP I got here because of the FRP Lock, which can be undone via the settings of the phone. But since it's boot looping, I can't really do much about installing a custom ROM.
Currently, my dad is letting the phone drain its battery, since we can't really turn it off. The phone model doesn't have easily detachable battery as well, unlike the old days.
For some additional notes of what happened prior to this incident
My mom was just playing with her phone as her usual days went on. That day, she installed a new hotel-themed game she saw on Google Play. As I assume that it's from the app itself and not on some shady apk website, I saw no problem with it and didn't think it was the cause of all this. I went with the theory anyway and with the flashing, using CSC instead of HOME_CSC (which apparently saves the existing data on the phone from wiping), and even used the Nand Erase in the end. It's still stuck at boot looping.
I would appreciate anyone's reply to this discussion. I am truly desperate to fix this for my mom. If worse comes to it, I'll save money to buy her a brand-new phone.
You don't have a working android, so you won't remove the RFP. TWRP will not help you with this.
The symptoms you describe indicate a defective power button.
You manage to enter download mode because the power button is constantly on.
Because of the constantly on power button, you have no way to turn off the phone. Bootloop can also be the result of a constantly on power button.
To sum up, you should fix the power button.
1. The easiest way is to blow with compressed air and press the edge of the button with your fingernail, rapidly releasing the pressure. Perhaps the fuzz has blocked the button. Unfortunately, this rarely works.
2. Take the phone to a local service center.
Hi ze7zez! Me and my dad greatly appreciates your insight and we were definitely enlightened on this angle.
We didn't really think that the power button was stucked pressed on because you can clicking sounds when you press on it. The phone never had problems with the buttons along the 6 years it accompanied us, perhaps its age does start to show.
We're going to look into it tomorrow. Thank you very much! You gave us the idea that it may be shorted inside or some sort. Thank you again!
A bit of update.
I pried open only the back case of the phone so I can see and clean up the power button. I used tools specifically for it and made no damage on the phone during the process.
We couldn't really see anything busted from there. The buttons on the circuit still do the neat clicking sounds on it. Battery still looks the same.
Testing out the theory that the power button was stuck on:
We tried to only press and hold the volume down and power button. It didn't go to the download menu. We needed to press down all three together to access it. It is confusing since we believe it would be a power button issue too, as the phone instantly turns on by itself when plugged to a power source (it's completely drained by now and we still can't turn it off manually)
Perhaps it's an internal circuit problem with the power button? It's confusing with the fact we still have to press on it to access the ODIN menu if it was like "on" the entire time it's looping.
Thank you in advance for further insights.
Try restarting by pressing home, power and volume up all at once.
Hi Pranav2406,
I have tried that as well in order to access the Recovery menu to factory reset, but no luck.
We have given up on repairing the phone and went out yesterday to buy a new one in a rush.
We will still send this broken phone to a repairman.
If he fixes it, I'd ask what he did on it so I can post an update on this problem as well.
It's better to let the expert troubleshoot it.
I do suspect the problem in the phone's hardware. I'm pretty confident with all the stock ROM flashing I've done so it's not a software problem.
Thank again for everyone's insights.
Perhaps this case is too much for an amateur to fix.