Why does my Galaxy S5 mini keep crashing?

[AC Question]

Galaxy S5 mini keeps crashing

Bought 10/9/14 The S5 mini keeps crashing but only when its in my pocket. The first issue I had was using the built in torch app. it worked for a quick on / off but when I really needed it for a few mins I couldn't turn it off. The screen button didn't work, nor did powering the phone down, only battery removal stopped it. The light got very hot as well.

After a number of missed texts as the phone was dead in my pocket, I did a factory reset. I recharged the phone, loaded Sudoku, Talon (twitter app), Tasker though no apps, Velis Auto Brightness and Zooper. I've Disabled Google play as it kept starting on its own and using Data. I then left the phone on the table with mobile data off & WiFi only on when needed. I only used it a little to check twitter twice a day, check my diary played some sudoku send a few texts etc. minimal stuff. The phone lasted 5d 21h before the battery reached 20%. everything was fine. Charged it back to 100% & the following day put it back in my pocket (battery 98%) and found it had frozen again after 5h 40m. the notification light was pulsing slowly in Blue & the screen had "Samsung" written on it. Only the battery removal equivalent (Down Volume, Home & Power keys pressed at the same time) rebooted the phone.

It seems like it doesn't like being confined for long periods. Could it be getting hot? Or perhaps some random keypresses are making it go into fault mode.

Any ideas on why this is happening?

I'm waiting for Samsung to let me know how long a repair / replacement will take. Their repair agent said 3 - 5 weeks which is nearly as long as I've had it!

Regards

JT

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Galaxy S5 mini keeps crashing

Welcome to Android Central! Which Google Play app did you disable--the Play Store? Google Play Services? Don't disable the latter, because it's pretty important for the normal functioning of the phone. If you're concerned about data usage, consider toggling off mobile data when you don't need it.

Two things you may want to try:

1. If you have an SD card inserted, try unmounting it (in Settings>Storage), removing it, and rebooting. A corrupt card can cause various problems.
2. Boot into Safe Mode, which prevents all 3rd party apps from starting up initially. Some apps or combination of apps can cause instability, so Safe Mode can help troubleshoot. If things work fine initially in Safe Mode, then start opening apps one by one, waiting a while between each one. If the problems start again, then it's probably related to the most recently opened app.

Since the phone is less than a month old, you might not want to waste much more time and contact your wireless store or Samsung for a replacement.

 

[JiffT]

Hi

No I disabled the Google Play Music I think it was. Even though I closed it with the back button it just kept restarting. I don't use Google music or anything web based. I have 149 CD's on my SD card which is enough for anyone and use the Samsung Music app.

I've unmounted the SD card & checked it for errors on windows and it says its OK. Its a new 64Gb Samsung card and has worked fine storing photos & playing music etc so I doubt that is it, but I'll give it a try.

The problem with the issue is that it doesn't happen very often so I won't know if its been fixed for a week or a month. As I said I did a test with the exact same configuration but just leaving it on a desk unless I needed to use it. It worked fine for over a week. Yet first time I put it back in my pocket it crashed (after a few hours). Today its been fine though its been in my pocket all morning (different pair of trousers though not tightish jeans!) I won't know if the phone will be OK until it does it again when I know it isn't.

Had the same problem with my car which suddenly had a flat battery but only once in spring & once in autumn. It was found to be a software problem where the auto lights didn't turn off if the car ignition was turned off at a precise light level. Easily fixed but difficult to diagnose.

I suspect either its getting too hot in my pocket (does it have a temp sensor to shut down?) or its something like the light sensor reacting with an accidental button press combination. Any idea what would cause a crash where the blue notification light pulses slowly and it says samsung on the screen. The pulse was like the shutting down pulse you get when turning it off.

I may go back to the supplier to ask for a new one but am worried that it'll just happen again. It'd be interesting to know if some sensor of button press combination could cause the issue.

regards

JT

 

[B. Diddy]

That's a tough one to figure out. The fact that it happens only in pocket suggests that the home button is being pressed accidentally, and then something else is being activated that freezes the phone. You could consider blocking the home button from waking the phone, but that requires root: How To Disable Home Button from Waking Up Galaxy Devices | NaldoTech.

There's an app called SlideLock Locker that is supposed to have a feature that blocks the home button, but apparently it doesn't work on the S5. Wouldn't hurt to try, though.

 

[JiffT]

Thanks for the reply. Have now sent it back to Samsung for repair. On the day the repair envelope arrived from Samsung, after an hour in my pocket I found the phone dead. it wasn't like before with Samsung on the screen with the notification light pulsing, it semed dad. I thought it was strange as it appeared to have a reasonable battery the night before. I put it on charge and nothing happened, no charging light etc. After a while I took the charger out, took the back off and found the battery would push in about 1/4 mm. I put the back on pressed the power key and the phone started with 21% battery.

I'm wondering if the battery being a bit loose could cause all of my problems? Perhaps if just one of the contacts fails at a time it would crash but leave the screen with Samsung on it and if a different one failed it would just stop completely. I've never been sure why it has 4 contacts I assume its different voltages or something.

I'll report back when the repair is done (or not).

JT

 

[JiffT]

Hi Had the phone back for two weeks now. They said they updated the software (its now Android 4.4.2 though I thought that's what it was when I got it). I've used it without any additional software for 2 weeks and had no problems. Amazingly Google Play Music doesn't activate continuously like it did before. I leave WiFi & Data off unless I need them & get 5 days use to 20% battery. I don't use it much as a phone more as a digital notebook / diary etc.I'll start loading software soon & see what happens. Tasker & Talon will be the first I'll see what happens then.

I'll report back if issues appear again.

JT

 

[JiffT]

Well all was fine up to my last post. I started using the phone normally & Installed Talon (for twitter). The charge before didn't last long (2 days) which thought was down to using the calculator & stopwatch a lot. However the next two charge cycles only lasted 2 days with little use. So I backed up, did a factory reset & reinstalled the backup. I unchecked auto updates, forced stop of Google play music (Why does it keep starting on its own?) & turned off WiFi & Mobile Data. I didn't sign in to Google or Samsung accounts. I then took charger out on 100% charge. its now lasted 2 days & still has 81% battery. Again I'm not using it much, just checking the time, texts, used the phone once & looked at contacts. So not a realtime test but it certainly helped the battery a lot. I'll start to use the phone normally (for me) in a day or two & see if things start to go downhill again.

Here's my graph of the data