Note 4 is frozen

[Casey Cheung]

I have a Samsung Note 4 by AT&T that I stopped using years ago. It was in storage with the battery pulled out. The other day, I tried to see if it still works. I put the battery back in and charged it for awhile. The phone powered on okay, I was able to scroll around the menus for a couple minutes. I tapped onto the photo album app, then the phone mysteriously did a restart on its own. But the phone now keeps flashing the "Samsung Note 4" screen constantly every several seconds, goes dark, and flashes the same screen again and is totally stuck on this loop. The phone literally kept doing this overnight until the battery drained. I tried removing the battery and reinstalling but this doesn't work. Any ideas how to resolve this?

 

[Rukbat]

Leave the phone off and charge the battery for about 4 hours (and hope the battery is still good - even "new" batteries were made back in 2014, so they won't be in the best shape).

 

[Casey Cheung]

Unfortunately, my old Note 4 phone is doing an endless reset loop for the past few days non-stop. I'm at a point now of smashing the phone to tiny bits...literally.

 

[mustang7757]

Unfortunately, my old Note 4 phone is doing an endless reset loop for the past few days non-stop. I'm at a point now of smashing the phone to tiny bits...literally.

Can you get into recovery ?

 

[Casey Cheung]

No, cannot do a single thing with the phone, it's completely non-responsive. I've never experienced this problem before.

 

[mustang7757]

No, cannot do a single thing with the phone, it's completely non-responsive. I've never experienced this problem before.

Can you pull the battery and before installing back hold the up button and power same time ?

 

[Casey Cheung]

Hmm, I haven't tried that yet. That may take a bit of extraordinary finger dexterity on my part, I might need a second person to help me do that. Will update again on this later.

I already tried letting the phone do its endless reset until the battery runs dead, but that doesn't work either.

 

[mustang7757]

Hmm, I haven't tried that yet. That may take a bit of extraordinary finger dexterity on my part, I might need a second person to help me do that. Will update again on this later.

I already tried letting the phone do its endless reset until the battery runs dead, but that doesn't work either.

Ok let me know.

 

[Casey Cheung]

Okay, here's an update. The main culprit was the battery. Must be too old and dying because it goes from 77% charged down to 45% in a few short minutes. Replacing with a different battery helped to snap the phone out of the constant reset loop. I swapped out the battery and replaced with another Samsung battery that I bought from Amazon a few years ago, but the same problem occurs. I realize the batteries are more than a few years ago. But here's another rub. My GF also bought exactly the same phone for herself and her mom at the same time as me from the same AT&T retail store. Both of their phones also experienced the same problem of dying battery life within a year, which is why I bought a few extra Samsung OEM batteries from Amazon back then. How is it possible that all 3 Samsung Note 4 phones purchased at AT&T at the same time all have the same problem of poor battery life? I was thinking of maybe using this phone for wifi only, but I don't really feel like buying any more replacement batteries for this phone. Maybe I should just trash the thing.

 

[mustang7757]

Okay, here's an update. The main culprit was the battery. Must be too old and dying because it goes from 77% charged down to 45% in a few short minutes. Replacing with a different battery helped to snap the phone out of the constant reset loop. I swapped out the battery and replaced with another Samsung battery that I bought from Amazon a few years ago, but the same problem occurs. I realize the batteries are more than a few years ago. But here's another rub. My GF also bought exactly the same phone for herself and her mom at the same time as me from the same AT&T retail store. Both of their phones also experienced the same problem of dying battery life within a year, which is why I bought a few extra Samsung OEM batteries from Amazon back then. How is it possible that all 3 Samsung Note 4 phones purchased at AT&T at the same time all have the same problem of poor battery life? I was thinking of maybe using this phone for wifi only, but I don't really feel like buying any more replacement batteries for this phone. Maybe I should just trash the thing.

Even having brand new battery from few years ago they probably no good , they have a certain shelf life also. It's either try new from online or going to move on from that phone .

 

[methodman89]

There are a few good posts here about how to keep your battery in good shape. Leaving it dead in a drawer for years is not one of the recommendations.