Galaxy s4 virus?

[chaosrapture]

Hey guys,

I am having a really strange problem with my galaxy s4. I've recently been on a trip to Tunisia, and my phone has been performing flawlessly for around five months. Half way through my holiday I encountered a weird issue (used wireless in two different hotels), my down volume key and power button stopped working.

After pulling the battery out of the phone and rebooting, a message came up warning me that installing a custom OS can be dangerous etc. press volume up to download and volume down to restart. The volume down key still did not work, so I pulled the battery out and left it for half an hour, tried again and the custom OS screen still appeared.

I could boot the phone into safe mode, but couldn't get the phone to boot normally. I tried doing a format from within safe mode, but the issue still occured. I couldn't boot into recovery mode either so I decided to hit the volume up key to see if it was responding (during the custom OS stage), the button didn't respond the first few times, but after the third try, the download initiated. Convinced it was a virus I stopped it instantly via pulling the battery out, and tried to enter recovery mode again, this time it worked. So I formatted the phone again, and everything appeared fine.

Not long after however (a few hours) the buttons failed to work again, and after rebooting the same thing happened. So i followed the same steps (it appears starting the download and stopping it enables the ability to reformat), and once the phone was working again, I ran a deep file virus scan with AVG pro. No threats found.

After downloading only trusted applications (whatsapp, facebook etc.) I thought i'd hold off installing anything to see if the error occured again, but just now the buttons failed to work, and yet again the custom OS screen has appeared.

Do you guys think that it is an embedded virus? if so is there anything I can do about it like a low level format to try and delete the virus? or should I be looking at a warranty replacement.

Sorry for the long winded explanation, just trying to give the most information possible.

Thanks in advance!

 

[UJ95x]

Hey guys,

I am having a really strange problem with my galaxy s4. I've recently been on a trip to Tunisia, and my phone has been performing flawlessly for around five months. Half way through my holiday I encountered a weird issue (used wireless in two different hotels), my down volume key and power button stopped working.

After pulling the battery out of the phone and rebooting, a message came up warning me that installing a custom OS can be dangerous etc. press volume up to download and volume down to restart. The volume down key still did not work, so I pulled the battery out and left it for half an hour, tried again and the custom OS screen still appeared.

I could boot the phone into safe mode, but couldn't get the phone to boot normally. I tried doing a format from within safe mode, but the issue still occured. I couldn't boot into recovery mode either so I decided to hit the volume up key to see if it was responding (during the custom OS stage), the button didn't respond the first few times, but after the third try, the download initiated. Convinced it was a virus I stopped it instantly via pulling the battery out, and tried to enter recovery mode again, this time it worked. So I formatted the phone again, and everything appeared fine.

Not long after however (a few hours) the buttons failed to work again, and after rebooting the same thing happened. So i followed the same steps (it appears starting the download and stopping it enables the ability to reformat), and once the phone was working again, I ran a deep file virus scan with AVG pro. No threats found.

After downloading only trusted applications (whatsapp, facebook etc.) I thought i'd hold off installing anything to see if the error occured again, but just now the buttons failed to work, and yet again the custom OS screen has appeared.

Do you guys think that it is an embedded virus? if so is there anything I can do about it like a low level format to try and delete the virus? or should I be looking at a warranty replacement.

Sorry for the long winded explanation, just trying to give the most information possible.

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like the volume and power buttons are stuck To go into download mode (where it warns you about a custom OS) you hold down the volume button, home button and power button. If you're just turning your phone on like you normally would it shouldn't go into download mode.

 

[chaosrapture]

Oh, So that custom OS screen is the download mode? That's all starting to make sense, I'm surprised I didn't look at it that way earlier (never had to use download mode before). Looks like it may be a warranty replacement after all.

Thanks for your help

 

[UJ95x]

Oh, So that custom OS screen is the download mode? That's all starting to make sense, I'm surprised I didn't look at it that way earlier (never had to use download mode before). Looks like it may be a warranty replacement after all.

Thanks for your help

Yeah, you should go tell them. You didn't root or anything before right? You should be covered

Posted via Android Central App

 

[debsteroonie]

Hi, i have the same problem. My S4 was new in end july 2013. In October in the middle of my stay in Lille France the same thing happened. I got a new sim card, no help, i did a avg scan, no problem. I rebooted and uninstalled all apps ( and i only had basic apps). Still no help. Sometimes the keyboard sticks. Sometimes the phone turns itself off. Recently the new software came and now I have KNOX security warnings that are harmless but annoying.
My vendor said to leave it with him and he will send it to samsung. That will take a month.
I can see no other solution.
Thanks

 

[TeaToxTime_com]

Hi, I had the same problem with my S4. Whenever the phone goes off and I try to turn it back on the annoying 'Warning' Custom os comes on and I couldn't turn my phone on.

I read a few articles and discovered that it has to do with your volume button. I dropped my phone a few days ago and read that if the volume button is stuck that this happens. So I went to the kitchen and go a sharp knife, put the blade to the side of the volume button and pulled it up on both ends, to my amazement, the phone turned on!!! (make sure its plugged in because whilst that warning is on the phone doesn't charge)

Now I have to go and get my volume button looked at because it is a stuck volume key that causes this. It must be a secret sequence that the phone companies use to change an os. I also read that Knox program can cause it, nevertheless, the volume button release worked.

Hope that helps.