S4 Boots into a black screen

Duane Hwang

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Hey there!

I'm using a samsung S4, got it in august 2013, don't have any custom ROMS or anything of the like installed, but recently, the battery has been causing a lot of issues with the duration of which it can be used despite having a full charge.

Despite having no apps besides spotify, myfitnesspal and a game, the battery has been Excessively draining for some reason, there are various incidences whereby it is connected to the charger but is losing battery instead of being charged. There was once when it showed 0%; and when I plugged out the charger, the phone automatically shut itself down, it drains at a rate of 2% every minute when on airplane mode and watching youtube videos with wifi being on about 20% brightness. I have tried restoring it to default factory settings which worked about a year ago, but when I tried it several months ago, the battery life still remained miserable but it was never to this extent.

Now, I can't even boot the phone up, it starts itself automatically when I put in the battery, I have tried booting into recovery mode but as soon as the blue message in the top left hand corner appears, the phone shows a black screen. Also tried clearing the RAM by holding onto the power button for three minutes without a battery and memory card.

I was considering that it might be a screen issue however the phone is unable to charge whilst in this "booted" mode and my computer doesn't not recognize it as a device, as if it's turned off.

I also realized that my mother who uses the same phone as me has a slightly different looking OS on her phone ( she would never download custom ROMs) despite my failing to update my phone's OS several times as it said on Kies and on the phone itself that my phone was already on the latest available version.
 

itguyjax8430

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Mar 15, 2013
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Hey there!

I'm using a samsung S4, got it in august 2013, don't have any custom ROMS or anything of the like installed, but recently, the battery has been causing a lot of issues with the duration of which it can be used despite having a full charge.

Despite having no apps besides spotify, myfitnesspal and a game, the battery has been Excessively draining for some reason, there are various incidences whereby it is connected to the charger but is losing battery instead of being charged. There was once when it showed 0%; and when I plugged out the charger, the phone automatically shut itself down, it drains at a rate of 2% every minute when on airplane mode and watching youtube videos with wifi being on about 20% brightness. I have tried restoring it to default factory settings which worked about a year ago, but when I tried it several months ago, the battery life still remained miserable but it was never to this extent.

Now, I can't even boot the phone up, it starts itself automatically when I put in the battery, I have tried booting into recovery mode but as soon as the blue message in the top left hand corner appears, the phone shows a black screen. Also tried clearing the RAM by holding onto the power button for three minutes without a battery and memory card.

I was considering that it might be a screen issue however the phone is unable to charge whilst in this "booted" mode and my computer doesn't not recognize it as a device, as if it's turned off.

I also realized that my mother who uses the same phone as me has a slightly different looking OS on her phone ( she would never download custom ROMs) despite my failing to update my phone's OS several times as it said on Kies and on the phone itself that my phone was already on the latest available version.

When you plugged the phone in to charge while it is off does the screen come with a battery like it is charging? You could just need a new battery, the batteries only last a year or so before needing to be replaced.
 

Duane Hwang

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Yes it does have that green battery icon when it's turned off and charging, I replaced my battery with the one belonging to my mother ( as we both use the same phone) and I was able to boot both phones despite switching batteries however when I switched them back, I was unable to boot my phone again, later when I tried booting using my mother's battery however, it was unable to boot again, I feel that it's a phone issue rather than battery one
 

itguyjax8430

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Yes it does have that green battery icon when it's turned off and charging, I replaced my battery with the one belonging to my mother ( as we both use the same phone) and I was able to boot both phones despite switching batteries however when I switched them back, I was unable to boot my phone again, later when I tried booting using my mother's battery however, it was unable to boot again, I feel that it's a phone issue rather than battery one

You could always try hooking it up to Samsung KIES and doing an emergency recovery. That will do a factory reset of the phone so make sure you have what you need backed up.
 

Duane Hwang

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Yeah I tried that, I get the little blue message in the top left hand corner of my screen as it loads in the loading screen and it says entering recovery mode and then it boots into a black screen again
 

itguyjax8430

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Yeah I tried that, I get the little blue message in the top left hand corner of my screen as it loads in the loading screen and it says entering recovery mode and then it boots into a black screen again

Hmm, did you try this with your mother's battery installed in the phone?
 

Duane Hwang

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Just tried it, says recovery rooting in blue at the top left hand and it goes to the same black screen. Also, the phone turns itself on the moment a battery is inserted, it this normal?
 

itguyjax8430

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Just tried it, says recovery rooting in blue at the top left hand and it goes to the same black screen. Also, the phone turns itself on the moment a battery is inserted, it this normal?

No that is not normal, there could be some kind of short in the phone. It didn't get dropped or wet recently did it?
 

Duane Hwang

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I dropped it a few times over it's lifespan but not recently. I sometimes clean the screen with a wet tissue to get off smudges (just a tissue with a few drops of water, nothing too heavy) but that's about it, didn't drop it into water or anything
 

itguyjax8430

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I dropped it a few times over it's lifespan but not recently. I sometimes clean the screen with a wet tissue to get off smudges (just a tissue with a few drops of water, nothing too heavy) but that's about it, didn't drop it into water or anything

It sounds like it could be some kind of short in the phone to me. If the phone boots up as soon as you put the battery in there is something defiantly wrong.
 

itguyjax8430

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Mmm okay, do you think it will be expensive to fix if i turn it in to a samsung service center? Anything I can try on my own?

I can't really think of anything you can do. Not sure how much the service center will charge you, do you have insurance through your carrier?