[Q] I think I bricked my phone, for reals. - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I was using Eugene's r3 hybrid rom and applied the Voodoo beta 1 lag fix. Needless to say, I ran into a bunch of problems and decided to Odin it back to stock. Long story short, I was re flashing with Odin for literally the 8th time, when, without thinking, I flashed just the .PIT and not the .PDA file.
The Result: the phone won't even turn on. The screen stays black no matter how long i hold the power button. I've tried just about every combination of plugging it in w/o the battery and reinserting it.
I bought this phone from Radioshack when it first came out, so I don't think they'll be open to exchanges (at least I don't think). Anyone know how I can fix this? Am I totally boned?

UPDATE
I never figured out what was wrong with it, so I called up "The Shack". The lady on the phone told me, verbatim, that I was "SOL".
So I called up T-mobile, and after 10 minutes, arranged for a replacement phone to be shipped.
So, I think I learned my lesson, and T-mobile has definitely gained points in my book.

Related

Phantom button presses! Is my phone broke?

Is my fascinate defective? Why does my back button randomly press itself? In fact, it seems like it's doing it as a long press sometimes since pressing the power button takes a random screen shot!
I've posted about this before, but this issue came from EB01. Surely others are experiencing such a thing!
This happened to me on stock DI01. I don't know why, but all of a sudden one day, it started doing those phantom presses. For me it was the back button and menu button. I also had a hard time long-pressing the home button to pull up the recent app list.
I have insurance through Verizon, so I just took it into the store, and they ordered a refurbished replacement for me. I didn't have to turn in my phone until the new one came.
It's a different story if you go directly to Samsung. Through them, you are without your phone for 6 days (2 days shipping there, 2 days repair, and 2 days shipping back), and no temporary phone is provided. I was only going to do that as a last resort, but Verizon actually came through.
The end result is that the new phone is definitely better, and I can tell there's a difference in the button response - not in a bad way, though. It's a more "solid" experience as opposed to the previous phone being more finicky.
I have this same issue as well, and have had it pop up on me well before EB01. It's not all the time, but it happens often enough that it's annoying as hell.
Anyone happen to know of a software based solution? Considering all of the rooting/etc. I've done to my phone, I don't know how feasible it is to get replacement hardware..
Skyh said:
I have this same issue as well, and have had it pop up on me well before EB01. It's not all the time, but it happens often enough that it's annoying as hell.
Anyone happen to know of a software based solution? Considering all of the rooting/etc. I've done to my phone, I don't know how feasible it is to get replacement hardware..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that if you were to odin back to stock (or any official OTA update) that they wouldn't know you'd ever been rooted.
Superclean 2.4 Voodoo - VA Green
I have the same issue. In fact, it just happened a few minutes ago. Sometimes it only had one phantom press, other times it will go spastic. When the latter happens I have to press the back button to make it stop.
I'm glad I'm not the only with this issue. Looks like I'm calling for a replacement tomorrow.
Sent from my SCH-I500
Joshuaboyzn said:
I believe that if you were to odin back to stock (or any official OTA update) that they wouldn't know you'd ever been rooted.
Superclean 2.4 Voodoo - VA Green
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I did. I was rooted and removed a bunch of the VZW bloat when I first started seeing it. I ended up flashing an Odin package for stock/unrooted DI01 onto the phone to make sure that rooting didn't cause the problem. It still ended up happening on stock. I took it in to Verizon and had them look at it, and they were none the wiser. It's been a couple of months now, and I've heard nothing about my returned phone.
Both the DI01 and DL09 Odin packages should be available in the development forum. Be sure to disable voodoo (if you are using it) before you use Odin.
Domush said:
I have the same issue. In fact, it just happened a few minutes ago. Sometimes it only had one phantom press, other times it will go spastic. When the latter happens I have to press the back button to make it stop.
I'm glad I'm not the only with this issue. Looks like I'm calling for a replacement tomorrow.
Sent from my SCH-I500
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just hate the idea of getting a refurbished phone. I sure hope this is a software issue.
Doesnt verizon insurance go through asurion or something like that
Blue Super Froyo
Verizon should be quite familiar with this problem at this point. This problem ran wild on the OG Moto Droid. I've had family members return their phones and within the first year get replacements per warranty (factory defect).
The problem stems from either using a charger that doesn't have a USB module (aka doesn't require you to plug the USB data cable into a charger brick) or from improperly plugging in your phone (for instance, not putting the phone in a dock completely or having the USB connection slip partially). The unusual changes in voltage kill these smartphones and cause them to almost short-circuit, resulting in the "ghost" phenomenon. Many people have had this problem within the last couple of years and have found this to be the culprit. Just google "Ghost Droid" for more information.
WhiteRocks said:
Doesnt verizon insurance go through asurion or something like that
Blue Super Froyo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Verizon's insurance does go through Asurion. That's not what I did, however. I told Verizon I didn't want to make an Asurion claim (which comes with a $89 deductible). They said I could go through them for the Samsung warranty. They sent me the replacement and then I sent back my phone (like you do when you make an Asurion claim), but there was do deductible or charge for it.
Now, they might have only said this because I have the extra protection through them. I can't guarantee they will do this for everybody.
Zerg The Bear said:
Verizon's insurance does go through Asurion. That's not what I did, however. I told Verizon I didn't want to make an Asurion claim (which comes with a $89 deductible). They said I could go through them for the Samsung warranty. They sent me the replacement and then I sent back my phone (like you do when you make an Asurion claim), but there was do deductible or charge for it.
Now, they might have only said this because I have the extra protection through them. I can't guarantee they will do this for everybody.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your phone comes with a 1 year warranty from Samsung for hardware issues. Assurion picks up if the user damages the phone, like dropping it or water damage.
Update for anyone following this thread..
I got a replacement phone and restored via nandroid, ensuring identical software. The phantom button presses are gone! So, it seems the button presses are indeed a hardware failure, not software related. If you have phantom button presses, get a replacement phone and save yourself some grief.
Cheers
Sent from my SCH-I500
Ugh, I'm getting them too. Really don't feel like getting a fourth refurbished fascinate.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Dammit. I assumed it was software since this only started happening when I switched to froyo. The kernel is buggy and I figured this would go away once the devs bring us ones from proper source.
I guess my days of not safely removing from PC are catching up to me.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
The only thing I've noticed on my phone is my power/sleep button sometimes randomly takes screen shots instead of going to sleep, which I thought I read was the back key sticking, is this similar to what everyone is experiencing with these phantom button presses? Mine isn't backing out of programs or anything?
I've had these phantom button presses on mine on and off since I got the phone. Even before I rooted it. I always assumed it was because the soft keys were dirty/oily and were incorrectly registering touches. Wiping off my phone has always taken care of the problem.
My fascinate has infrequently done this over the last several months. Today, the stupid thing started pressing the back button every few seconds. Rebooted several times. No improvement. Switched kernels. No improvement.
I decided to try to see if this is software or hardware. Rebooted to CWR and left it setting on one of the options. Right now it has been setting for about 10+ min and no random back buttons have been pressed. My thinking is, if this is a hardware bug it should have selected the highlighted option since the back button is used as the select in CWR.
Anyone have any ideas?
I think I might try a clean reload starting from the stock ODIN when I get home.
Phone is rooted and running SC 2.9 Voodoo Kernel, voodoo disabled.
I have this issue really bad ever since upgrading to Gingerbread...
If I use Odin to flash back to the Stock Verizon 2.2 the issue disappears, but if I flash any gingerbread, doesn't matter if its VGB or one of the CM7 nightlies, the phone presses the back and menu button pretty consistently and also if you remove the battery for any reason at all, it loses or forgets a lot of apps that you may have installed (Live Wallpapers for instance) and also takes 3-5 reboots or power down cycles to finally boot up NOT in Safe Mode.
Not sure what the hell is going on, but I may have to just Odin back to Verizon stock 2.2, root it and live with the bloatware
Oh, and this issue is persistent from my original Fascinate to the refurbished replacement that Verizon just sent me. So either they sent me a refurbished phone that has the exact same symptoms or its an issue with Gingerbread and the Fascinate.
Any suggestions?
Anybody? Bueller?
Could my stock Samsung 16gb memory card be causing this? That's the only thing that was carried over from my old phone that had the button press issues to the new refurbished one.
Has anybody made that correlation?
Bump,
Googling about this problem, it seems this is a wide spread problem with Fascinate and few other Samsung phones. No one knows of the real problem nor a fix.
It is unacceptable for Samsung not handle this problem which sounds like it's hardware related for this long.
Any more input guys?
I was about to buy the Samsung Fascinate myself but this sounds like a major problem to me.

[Q] Samsung Vibrant Doesn't Start

I was just upgrading my vibrant t959 firmware 2.2 froyo, while upgrading there is a message appears that its failed and there after i remove usb cable and battery after that i was trying to put my phone in Download mode. but My phone Doesn't starts. So would anybody help me what to do, my phone doest start no screens, nothing
Have you tried getting into recovery or download mode? and what exactly were you doing?
Here we go again!!!
OK, looks like another possible Hard bricked scenario using KIES again!!
I'm assuming you were using KIES, because you didn't say anything about ODIN or Heimdall program during what you say was an up grade scenario!!
Ok, first of all, if you plug in the charger, do you see any LED's at the bottom or any signs of life to the phone, IF NOT = Very probable HBrick
Now before you give up, make sure you do every possible senario, to get it to at least turn on in some type of fashion, Whether it be DL mode, Recovery mode, and so on!!
There are different combinations that can get the phone into DL or recovery mode!! Read and research what they are in the Bible, its got everything!!
Link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=99126
LinK: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=954509
Also make sure you have your tools ready, meaning ODIN 1.71 and up, also Baywolfs AIO program is very good at getting phones into DL mode and reflashing it back to stock JFD, where you can at least rebuild your phone.
Now if everything totally fails to even get an LED or any signs of life to your phone, then either you Trully HBricked, and you have 2 optons.
1st Call TMO and tell them you were just talking on it, PERIOD do not say you were flashing with KIES, or they will immediately tell you its a Samsung problem, and you will be W/O your phone for about 3 +_ weeks, after sending it to Plano,TX where they will attempt to JTAG it.
As long as you just stick with the senario of it just died, Period and it wont turn on Period, I tried pulling the battery back out, and power it on Period, and end with a it does absolutely nothing, it seems totally dead, then they will RMA it for you, if you choose insurance for a month itll only cost ya $5.00 for Overnite shipping, and youll have a new phone in about 24 to 36 hours, TMO is very quick to get out of a replacement if they can pass the buck to Samsung, otherwise, its off to Samsung in Plano,Tx and your screwed for a long time, YOUR CHOICE!!
Or send it to josh at: http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/samsung-vibrant-jtag-brick-repair/
he does very good turn times, and is very professional.
Just remember, make sure your phones really HBricked, a soft bricked phone turns on in some type of mode, and is then recoverable by YOU!!
If it doesn't do a ****ing thing, NO LIFE to it, then most likely the BL.bin and the SBL.bin files got corrupted and it will not turn on no matter what you do, and that's a HBricked situation, and only JTAGing it will get it to power back on again, short of a burned out CPU or worst = HW failure!!
MOD's We need a sticky about forewarning people about the dangers of using KIES, there's been a rash of HBricked phones lately using this POS from Samsung!!
I was doing just firmware upgrade
HI, During upgrading i have wrong ODIN software which was for t959V that is for samsung galaxy s4g, and i use that odin software and .tar file was correct for vibrant and i start the process thats why i got this, but now my phone doesnt show any screen, i tried hard so many thing to put into Dmode and Rmode but nothing worked out for me, battery is fully charged and even though there is nothing comes on screen, its completly dead. Please Do Me some trick to fix this

[Q] HTC Radar 4G stuck in reboot loop - Please help!

Hey, guys, I know there are a lot of these issues with a lot, if not all, of the HTC smartphones, but I've only seen a few of these for the HTC Radar, and they all seem to give the same answers. Hopefully my explanation of the problem will help!
So, I got the phone thanksgiving weekend 2011, so I've had it for about a year. One day around the beginning of April this year, my phone randomly began a restarting loop, where it would gradually restart itself from a blank white screen over and over, then it went to the HTC screen over and over, and then periodically switched between the HTC screen and the black "Windows Phone" load screen over and over again. I tried taking off the battery cover and leaving it for a couple of minutes and then hours, but I put it back and it just kept rebooting. I was left without a phone for about two days.
On the second day, I put it on the charger and left it in my dorm while I was in class all day, and when I came back, it was rebooting still, but I noticed that it always made it to the "Windows Phone" logo loading screen and then restarted. After about 4 reboots, it went back to normal and I was able to use the phone. After the next couple of months, it stopped doing it in such a long period of time, but the battery usage went up almost 30-40% than what it used to be. Once in a while, it would reboot once, but then it would be back to normal.
This time, in late October, it started the reboot thing again, but this time, only going up to the HTC screen and looping that. I tried taking the battery cover off again and leaving it for hours, but same problem now. So I decided to leave it off for a day. By this time, I had my HTC Desire HD as backup, but it was unlocked, and at the time when I bought it, I didn't know anything about HSDPA numbers, so I could use my T-Mobile SIM, but no mobile network, since it's a Telus/AT&T phone.
I tried charging it, but this time, it lasted for a whole week. After rebooting over and over, it would last 3 hours, then stop because the battery would die out. So I just left it, and left it, and weeks went by, and my warranty had long since expired, so I couldn't go to HTC about this. I even called them to see what I could do, and they told me to do a Factory Reset, well... here is a list of the things I tried:
- IMAGE CRC: At first I didn't know what this was, and so I looked it up. After finding out what it was, I tried it, and I got two numbers: BL CRC-0xD19F79E1 and OS CRC-0x4CC706B. I looked those up on the internet and got nothing. I restarted the phone, and nothing happened at all. (If there was something else I was supposed to do here, please tell me!)
- Factory Reset: This was the LAST thing I wanted to do, but I had no choice and I tried it, hoping the error would be fixed. So I scrolled down to it, everything seemed to be normal, it gave me a warning, and I clicked it ... I was very suspicious of this, because as soon as I clicked "Factory Reset", it said "Reset complete. Press Volume Down to restart". I mean IMMEDIATELY after. Now, I KNOW that Factory Resets take much longer than an instant to actually have happened. But I restarted anyway. ... Nothing, still. I tried it several times after that, only to get the same result.
Those are the two options I tried, besides looking on the internet... if I can avoid buying a new Radar, I would like to, at all costs, because the next time I have a decent amount of money, I would like to save it for something else. Is there anything else I could try to resolve this issue, or at least gain more information on the problem?
Thank you all very much for reading my post!
BladedYouth said:
Hey, guys, I know there are a lot of these issues with a lot, if not all, of the HTC smartphones, but I've only seen a few of these for the HTC Radar, and they all seem to give the same answers. Hopefully my explanation of the problem will help!
So, I got the phone thanksgiving weekend 2011, so I've had it for about a year. One day around the beginning of April this year, my phone randomly began a restarting loop, where it would gradually restart itself from a blank white screen over and over, then it went to the HTC screen over and over, and then periodically switched between the HTC screen and the black "Windows Phone" load screen over and over again. I tried taking off the battery cover and leaving it for a couple of minutes and then hours, but I put it back and it just kept rebooting. I was left without a phone for about two days.
On the second day, I put it on the charger and left it in my dorm while I was in class all day, and when I came back, it was rebooting still, but I noticed that it always made it to the "Windows Phone" logo loading screen and then restarted. After about 4 reboots, it went back to normal and I was able to use the phone. After the next couple of months, it stopped doing it in such a long period of time, but the battery usage went up almost 30-40% than what it used to be. Once in a while, it would reboot once, but then it would be back to normal.
This time, in late October, it started the reboot thing again, but this time, only going up to the HTC screen and looping that. I tried taking the battery cover off again and leaving it for hours, but same problem now. So I decided to leave it off for a day. By this time, I had my HTC Desire HD as backup, but it was unlocked, and at the time when I bought it, I didn't know anything about HSDPA numbers, so I could use my T-Mobile SIM, but no mobile network, since it's a Telus/AT&T phone.
I tried charging it, but this time, it lasted for a whole week. After rebooting over and over, it would last 3 hours, then stop because the battery would die out. So I just left it, and left it, and weeks went by, and my warranty had long since expired, so I couldn't go to HTC about this. I even called them to see what I could do, and they told me to do a Factory Reset, well... here is a list of the things I tried:
- IMAGE CRC: At first I didn't know what this was, and so I looked it up. After finding out what it was, I tried it, and I got two numbers: BL CRC-0xD19F79E1 and OS CRC-0x4CC706B. I looked those up on the internet and got nothing. I restarted the phone, and nothing happened at all. (If there was something else I was supposed to do here, please tell me!)
- Factory Reset: This was the LAST thing I wanted to do, but I had no choice and I tried it, hoping the error would be fixed. So I scrolled down to it, everything seemed to be normal, it gave me a warning, and I clicked it ... I was very suspicious of this, because as soon as I clicked "Factory Reset", it said "Reset complete. Press Volume Down to restart". I mean IMMEDIATELY after. Now, I KNOW that Factory Resets take much longer than an instant to actually have happened. But I restarted anyway. ... Nothing, still. I tried it several times after that, only to get the same result.
Those are the two options I tried, besides looking on the internet... if I can avoid buying a new Radar, I would like to, at all costs, because the next time I have a decent amount of money, I would like to save it for something else. Is there anything else I could try to resolve this issue, or at least gain more information on the problem?
Thank you all very much for reading my post!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May be it is a Hardware problem. Why you don't try to put HSPL and to cook custom rom ? I do this on mine few days ago and now the phone is more useful than before. I cooked HD2O ROM and till now working fine for me. When you change bootloader with HSPL may be it will work out if it is a Software problem. Also you need to change Radio Firmware other wise the device can not boot. When I am doing HSPL a few times phone just loop restarts and not start but after I do everything like it was in treads here and flash new radio the phone is working fine now. But may be there is a Hardware problem.
Tonyco1 said:
May be it is a Hardware problem. Why you don't try to put HSPL and to cook custom rom ? I do this on mine few days ago and now the phone is more useful than before. I cooked HD2O ROM and till now working fine for me. When you change bootloader with HSPL may be it will work out if it is a Software problem. Also you need to change Radio Firmware other wise the device can not boot. When I am doing HSPL a few times phone just loop restarts and not start but after I do everything like it was in treads here and flash new radio the phone is working fine now. But may be there is a Hardware problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for responding! So just to be clear, how exactly do I go about flashing a ROM on the Radar, and a new radio? On Android phones, its much easier to root the device or simply place the ROM folder in there and make it work. I have no experience with doing this to a Radar, as I was previously led to believe that this was impossible. Should I just browse this forum?
BladedYouth said:
Thank you very much for responding! So just to be clear, how exactly do I go about flashing a ROM on the Radar, and a new radio? On Android phones, its much easier to root the device or simply place the ROM folder in there and make it work. I have no experience with doing this to a Radar, as I was previously led to believe that this was impossible. Should I just browse this forum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes just browse this forum but only section about Windows Phone 7 Development and Hacking. You will find DFT exclamation of how to install HSPL. In mine it was very easy because I not receive Country ID fail my phone was buy in Europe. If you receive Country ID error you need to proceed with goldcard it is explained there but first proceed without goldcard if it work it is very easy. Also when you proceed SPL2.05 it is not clear in the topic but you need to be in bootloader so you should start your phone with VolUp and VolDn keys pushed this is not explained in the topic and I waist a lot of time till figured out. After that just download one of the 7.8 ROMs here in Radar section and write it down. Also download new radio and use some RUU to put it on the phone before the ROM other wise the phone can not boot. Try and after that if you have problems write down here.
MY RADAR TURNED BACK ON! I don't know exactly what happened, but after a couple of reboots, the battery indicator flashed and then it rebooted twice until finally turning on the full amount.
Tonyco1 -- Thank you very much for staying with me and replying to my request! Although what you suggested is not needed for my booting issue, I'm going to try it anyway to see if I can actually boot 7.8! Thank you again.
BladedYouth said:
MY RADAR TURNED BACK ON! I don't know exactly what happened, but after a couple of reboots, the battery indicator flashed and then it rebooted twice until finally turning on the full amount.
Tonyco1 -- Thank you very much for staying with me and replying to my request! Although what you suggested is not needed for my booting issue, I'm going to try it anyway to see if I can actually boot 7.8! Thank you again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK but you need to but some custom ROM my phone turn back on when I put custom ROM a lot of features and works really good.

[Q] New Here: Seeking Help w/ Rebooting S4's.

Hello:
So, the bottom line up front is I need help solving a problem with my now third, new Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4--it keeps restarting on its own, at random times, but most often after I lock the screen.
To go in more depth, if you think you may know the solution: I purchased the S4 when it first came out, some time in 2013 (not sure specifically, but it was new) and it worked just fine for 13 months (1 month past the warranty of course); this was back in August, when I got the latest Android update pushed to my phone from Verizon (4.4.2). A couple of weeks later, I would occasionally get overheating warnings that would very quickly disappear (like within a few seconds), and then the device started restarting itself... I cannot predict when it will restart, it's random, but like I said above, it usually happens most right after I lock the screen by pressing the right side button once. I started looking around on the internet for a solution then, but only found a couple of videos from earlier in 2013 where people were having battery problems (Google search has been letting me down more and more as the years pass). One day while at work, I was listening to Pandora as I always have with the phone in my front pocket, as I always have. A few hours later when I got home, not having taken the phone out of my front pocket since those last few hours at work, I went to answer a text message I had received; when I unlocked the phone, the screen was black, except for a small bit of white showing through some cracks UNDER the LCD, UNDER the screen protector, INSIDE my Otterbox Defender... the phone appeared to be working still, but the screen and touch screen did not. At that point I was pretty damn irritated and tried to find answers for a week with no luck... I called Verizon, they sent me on a goose chase to Samsung, who sent me back to Verizon, who got me in a conference call with Samsung and then left the call, and then Samsung ultimately said I would need to pay for repairs to the phone... SO... I went back to Verizon who again said I would have to talk to Samsung, but instead I just settled to giving Asurion (my phone insurance through Verizon, whom I pay an extra $9 monthly) $99 as a deductible to get a replacement S4...
Two days later I receive a brand new S4... spend hours setting it up the way I had my prior one... wasting tons of my valueable time to do so and bandwidth from my Concast ISP and the data cap they've decided to give us... one week later, the phone starts restarting itself... and this one did it more often than my prior one... EVERYTHING is up to date, minus a good amount of useless bloatware apps I never use from Samsung, like "Watch On," which I ignore... but everything necessary, I update. So, I go back to Asurion, who quickly ships me a 3rd S4...
Two days later I receive that third, brand new S4... spend hours setting it up the way I had my prior one... and now, this one is also restarting itself randomly. Interestingly, when I visited family for Thanksgiving, it restarted itself over and over and over much more frequently than when I'm at my place... at my family's place, they have very poor reception, and my phone usually has to work more to try to get the signal... IDK what the deal is, but maybe that information can be helpful to y'all.
Other things to note:
1) When I check the "RAM manager" by holding down the home button and then choosing "Task Manager", the phone is always using at least 800MB of 1.77GB of RAM... even when I choose "Clear memory" and it tells me 30 something apps have been closed... it jumps right back up to 800-900MB of usage.
2) I've tried factory resets on all three phones; with the first one where the screen cracked inside, I hooked the phone up via HDMI... within a couple of days, the restarting begins.
3) With the first replacement I received, I could not sent text messages with the default messenger app... and shortly after trying, it would restart.
4) I have used the same SIM card with all three phones since the issue began, when I first got the 4.2.2 update... I do not suspect the SIM card is the problem, but I'm also not savy with the phone... I know my way around it, but I'm not in the know.
5) I thought maybe it started because of some apps I had been trying, so I had deleted them, and the problem still persists.
6) I constantly have a Pebble Bluetooth smart watch connected to the phone... I have since I got it last Spring (2014).
7) I have never rooted the S4, overclocked it, underclocked it, or modded it in anyway because I do not know how, and I was afraid of what could happen in the future with whatever ROM I did flash onto the device if Verizon tried to push an update to it... I just don't know anything about the whole process, and I'm assuming it requires a lot of know how and babysitting of the device... I just want it to work.
8) I've replaced the battery twice; it doesn't seem to be the problem.
9) I've cleared the cache through the boot manager thing gotten to by holding a combo of buttons on the device while it's rebooting... it did not help.
Edit: 10) Today while I was listening to Pandora in the car, the audio began to skip and scratch, and then it paused for a moment, and then the phone restarted itself.
11) I forgot to mention that the reboot process itself is very fast compared to a manual restart performed by me... the phone will go black, the Samsung color rings will show a second after that, the logo appears then, the screen flashes the red Verizon logo, and then the devices is ready to be used... it's less than 10 seconds.
I've been searching around on the internet for about two months now while dealing with the problem and I can't find anything useful. Does anyone here know what my issue is and how I can fix it? Is there a way to pull error logs / information from the S4 somehow to give to someone to diagnose, like DxDiags on PC? I don't know how to read that stuff myself, but I know it can be very useful... I just don't know how to find that info inside of these very locked down ****boxes we call smartphones...
I truly appreciate any help I can get--sorry I can't offer anything in return; if I can't find a solution, I'm just going to go to my backup phone from 2011 (Droid X), and I will definitely never purchase another Samsung device, especially after they blamed me as the cause of the problem without even seeing the phone...
Thanks.
The problem is with the NG6 software build, and "probably" not with your phone. Go to Settings>About Phone> and see what Baseband Version is on your phone. If the last 3 letters are NG6, that's probably the problem. There is a new OTA update (as of 12/1).....Baseband Version ending in NK1, which corrects the rebooting problem. Either install the new update, or go back to the NC5 baseband version and that should solve your problem. Both NK1 and NC5 can be rooted if you desire.

Stock Verizon GS4 randomly shutting off and bootlooping

Hello everyone,
I have a stock Verizon Galaxy S4 that is having some issues and wont stay on and sometimes gets caught in a bootloop. I have been able to get into recovery and wipe cache / do a factory reset, but the phone keeps doing the same thing; reboot, sometimes start but then reboots again. I have had it for almost 2 years and thought it was the battery, so I bought another one and the phone still does the same thing. If I boot into safe mode, it lasts a little longer that way, but will eventually turn off and get caught into the bootloop again.
Any ideas on what the cause is and possibly how to fix it? The is completely stock and has never been rooted, unlocked, or anything like that. I looked in the forums, but it looks like they all have to do with flashed roms and non-stock options, which is why I am posting a new thread.
All help is appreciated. Thank you.
It sounds like your power button may be on its way out. I had the same issue with my phone. Couldn't get it to boot past the splash screen. If your is intermittent it may or may not be this issue. However if the problem gets worse, its more then likely the cause. After a lot of use the insulation inside the power button can wear away causing a short. If you google it there are several articles describing symptoms to help figure out if that is indeed the problem. If you run in to a boot loop, pull the battery and reinsert it. If the phone powers on without pressing the power button, that is your problem.
Sent from a Shaftamle Galaxy S4
"Thanks Button" is always appreciated!
149ThemedGoogleKeyboards!!!!!!
Eclipse ROM fatness!
MyColorScreen
I know it has been a few weeks but I wanted to provide an update. I have a friend who runs a cell phone repair shop. I took it to him and they did all sorts of tests and such, so we replaced the power button. After replacing the button, the phone still did the same thing.
I would pull the battery, but the phone would not turn on by itself. I would power on the phone like normal and would make it to the splash screen in which the phone would then power off. At that point, it would not try to restart, but rather would act like it was on and the phone / battery would get really hot. I would pull the battery and start again, with the same result.
Any other ideas? My friend, the co-owner of the business, and myself are all out of ideas.
Thanks!
Edit: Also I called Verizon and Samsung to see if I could work out a warranty through either of them. Since the phone is almost 2 years old, we all know the answer to that. Sammy wanted $70 just to look at it, let alone additional charges to fix it if the problem wasnt what they thought it was.
poda13 said:
I know it has been a few weeks but I wanted to provide an update. I have a friend who runs a cell phone repair shop. I took it to him and they did all sorts of tests and such, so we replaced the power button. After replacing the button, the phone still did the same thing.
I would pull the battery, but the phone would not turn on by itself. I would power on the phone like normal and would make it to the splash screen in which the phone would then power off. At that point, it would not try to restart, but rather would act like it was on and the phone / battery would get really hot. I would pull the battery and start again, with the same result.
Any other ideas? My friend, the co-owner of the business, and myself are all out of ideas.
Thanks!
Edit: Also I called Verizon and Samsung to see if I could work out a warranty through either of them. Since the phone is almost 2 years old, we all know the answer to that. Sammy wanted $70 just to look at it, let alone additional charges to fix it if the problem wasnt what they thought it was.
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I have to say I'm shocked its not the power button. My only other suggestion would be to flash the stock firmware to the device using Odin. It could be a software problem. Your guess is as good as mine. However flashing the stock image is definitely cheaper then hassling with Sammy or big red. Not that voiding your warranty would matter at this point but make sure you flash whatever firmware your on right now. If you go backwards you may run into a problem since your phone has the Knox boot loader. Check out the i545 android development section here at XDA for tutorials on how to do so. There are a few of them out there. I'm not completely familiar with that process since I'm still on MDK firmware. But there are plenty of knowledgeable guys that can help you on those threads if need be. Good luck!
Sent from a Shaftamle Galaxy S4
"Thanks Button" is always appreciated!
149ThemedGoogleKeyboards!!!!!!
Eclipse ROM fatness!
MyColorScreen
Well, I ended up selling it for $130 to some one for parts. I made full disclosure of what the phone was doing and even showed the buyer exactly what it was.
My father had an older Droid X2 that we are using for the time being. Our contract ends in less than 30 days in which we will be moving to T-mobile anyways. I get literally zero signal where I work and my wife gets very limited service where she works. However, the T-mobile service is excellent in both our respective buildings and in the Phoenix metro area where we live.
I appreciate your thoughts on trying to resolve this. One of the many reasons why I love XDA and the community.

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