Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) won't completely boot, how can I get it to boot?

[dspartan1]

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) won't completely boot

My Samsung Galaxy S4 for Verizon has recently developed an issue where it will not turn on properly.
Steps already taken:

• Disconnected the battery, held the power button down for a minute, popping the battery back in, used a known good battery
• Attempted to boot with just a charging cable (known good) without a battery.
• Attempted to boot with a charging cable and battery.

Plugging in a power cable results in a very warm and sometimes hot upper-mid section near the power button and camera. Only when a charger is connected with a battery, I can sometimes see the battery charging icon appear on the screen with a red LED indicator, but it goes away after 30 seconds from a cold start. The phone will not turn on at all from a hot start (I'm guessing it's overheating).

After searching for a solution online, I gathered that the power button may be stuck. I opened the back and checked continuity at the power button and its characteristics are the same as the volume buttons and good buttons as seen on power button repair videos. I also gave the button a few taps to clear any debris that may be causing the button to become closed unintentionally. The issue still persists.

The video for reference. Issue is similar but the fix will likely not work.

I'm guessing there's a short somewhere, but I don't want to go poking around just yet. Does anyone have any insight on this issue?

 

[shortwave8669]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) won't completely boot

My Samsung Galaxy S4 for Verizon has recently developed an issue where it will not turn on properly.
Steps already taken:

• Disconnected the battery, held the power button down for a minute, popping the battery back in, used a known good battery
• Attempted to boot with just a charging cable (known good) without a battery.
• Attempted to boot with a charging cable and battery.

Plugging in a power cable results in a very warm and sometimes hot upper-mid section near the power button and camera. Only when a charger is connected with a battery, I can sometimes see the battery charging icon appear on the screen with a red LED indicator, but it goes away after 30 seconds from a cold start. The phone will not turn on at all from a hot start (I'm guessing it's overheating).

After searching for a solution online, I gathered that the power button may be stuck. I opened the back and checked continuity at the power button and its characteristics are the same as the volume buttons and good buttons as seen on power button repair videos. I also gave the button a few taps to clear any debris that may be causing the button to become closed unintentionally. The issue still persists.

The video for reference. Issue is similar but the fix will likely not work.
[video]https://youtu.be/2l_6fwzuIwA?t=8m57s[/url]

I'm guessing there's a short somewhere, but I don't want to go poking around just yet. Does anyone have any insight on this issue?

Let's try to have you power off the phone with battery installed

Then you will press and hold in quick seccession
VOL Down (continue to hold)
HOME (continue to hold with VOL Down also)
POWER (press and continue to hold along with the VOL Down, HOME buttons) until you feel the phone vibrate or chirp and continue to press and hold all 3 buttons until you see the screen light up.

The screen will show a warning message related to the risk of installing a custom ROM.
At this point press the VOL Down button to choose the normal boot process.

This video may help to demonstrate the process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8TOJkBOZfs

Good luck

 

[dspartan1]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) won't completely boot

Thank you for your reply. I have booted up the phone with the battery installed and the VOL Down, Home, and power buttons depressed. I got to the ROM warning screen and hit VOL Down. The Galaxy S4 logo appeared for about 20 seconds and the Samsung and Verizon loading screens appeared, but there was serious lagging in the animations. The phone continues to get hotter the longer I leave it plugged in and the phone turns off by itself during the Verizon boot screen.

Could this be a hardware issue?

 

[shortwave8669]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) won't completely boot

Thank you for your reply. I have booted up the phone with the battery installed and the VOL Down, Home, and power buttons depressed. I got to the ROM warning screen and hit VOL Down. The Galaxy S4 logo appeared for about 20 seconds and the Samsung and Verizon loading screens appeared, but there was serious lagging in the animations. The phone continues to get hotter the longer I leave it plugged in and the phone turns off by itself during the Verizon boot screen.

Could this be a hardware issue?

Perhaps. Sounds as if the batt may have a short inside???

Let's try a similar process WITHOUT the batt at first.

Instead of pressing the VOL Down button try the process but with the VOL Up button.

1) VOL Up (press and hold)
2) HOME (press and hold with VOL Up)
3) POWER (press and hold along with VOL Up and HOME) until phone comes alive.

This will put you in recovery mode. Then use the VOL Up/ Down buttons to select Reboot System Now, and press the POWER button (which will act as the enter button). The phone should then complete a normal boot up. If the phone boots up normally leave it on for several minutes with the power cord in but batt out and see if heat is still an issue?

If the phone does not boot up try this process again but WITH the batt in the phone. Check for excessive heat.

If you have excessive heat with both this method and the previous method it suggests the batt has a problem or the phone hardware does.

The next step would be to drain the batt substantially and repeat process 1 and then process 2

 

[dspartan1]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) won't completely boot

Thanks again for the reply. I attempted to press VOL Up, Home, and Power with the phone plugged in and no battery and the phone did not turn on at all. With the same process but with the battery in, the phone just displayed the Galaxy S4 boot screen and froze there without any text on the upper left hand side or getting to recovery.

Again, I have attempted to use a known good battery and the situation does not change. Whenever the phone is plugged in, it quickly gets hot. Whenever a battery is inserted, the phone slowly gets hot. This must be a hardware issue...

 

[shortwave8669]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) won't completely boot

Thanks again for the reply. I attempted to press VOL Up, Home, and Power with the phone plugged in and no battery and the phone did not turn on at all. With the same process but with the battery in, the phone just displayed the Galaxy S4 boot screen and froze there without any text on the upper left hand side or getting to recovery.

Again, I have attempted to use a known good battery and the situation does not change. Whenever the phone is plugged in, it quickly gets hot. Whenever a battery is inserted, the phone slowly gets hot. This must be a hardware issue...

At this point I agree.

Before giving up all hope you may want to drain the known good battery and repeat the boot up process. Simly connecting a cheap LED bulb to the batt contacts will be sufficient.

This video explains how to drain the batt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAB6khykWE

 

[dspartan1]

Re: Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) won't completely boot

The battery has been drained. When the phone is plugged in with the battery, the phone does not boot at all with the board still warming up. I'm looking at parts to replace the main logic board. Hopefully that'll resolve the issue!