Galaxy S5 shuts down and goes into boot loop randomly

[wec123]

My Galaxy S5 running 6.0.1 marshmallow restarts during use and just gets stuck at the Samsung start screen. I always have to take out and reinsert my battery to get it to work again. It happens randomly while using various apps, never while idle. Always does it while updating apps. I've tried uninstalling a lot of apps to try to correct a possible software conflict, but that hasn't worked. I haven't downloaded any new apps in a long time anyway, this problem just started recently. It can't be a battery problem. My battery works just fine, even after removing/reinstalling it after the error it's still charged normally, and it doesn't ever get hot. I'm tempted to try a factory reset but other posts I've seen with a similar problem say that it doesn't help.

 

[ironass]

Try wiping your phone's cache partition as per #1.3 of S5 Update Problems - Dummies Guide to see if that resolves your issue. If not, do a Factory data Reset as per post #2 of the guide.

 

[wec123]

Wiped the cache, didn't work. Did a factory reset and still wont even boot up past the t-mobile screen. i looked up a samsung service location but it doesn't show any near me. called the hotline and they told me i had to send it in for repair. phones not even 2 years old, never dropped it or got it wet and they say i have to wait 9-11 business days, then theyll charge me whatever fee they decide the repairs worth. i guess i should try taking it into t-mobile. any suggestions? btw im never buying another samsung product again. i bought a samsung HDTV that had to be repaired twice too

 

[ironass]

Wiped the cache, didn't work. Did a factory reset and still wont even boot up past the t-mobile screen. i looked up a samsung service location but it doesn't show any near me. called the hotline and they told me i had to send it in for repair. phones not even 2 years old, never dropped it or got it wet and they say i have to wait 9-11 business days, then theyll charge me whatever fee they decide the repairs worth. i guess i should try taking it into t-mobile. any suggestions? btw im never buying another samsung product again. i bought a samsung HDTV that had to be repaired twice too

It is a pity that USA users only get a 1 year warranty as compared to 2 years in Europe. You could download and flash the stock Samsung firmware for T-Mobile (USA), below, to your phone in case you had a bad update. This will probably be the first thing that Samsung will try in any case. Just follow the instructions and video contained in the links of #1.11 of 42 Galaxy S5 models - Dummies Guide.

Model SM-G900T
Model name GALAXY S5
Country USA (T-Mobile)
Version Android 6.0.1
Changelist 7500527
Build date Thu, 07 Jul 2016 06:38:14 +0000
Security Patch Level 2016-07-01
Product code TMB
PDA G900TUVS1GPG2
CSC G900TTMB1GPG2

 

[wec123]

im going to try to take it to tmobile and see if they can fix it, maybe theyll tell me the same thing. i cant believe the warranty isnt the same. a $600 phone(that im still paying for btw) should work 2 years AT LEAST. people shouldnt be forced to buy a new smartphone every year. this phone was supposed to be the gold standard upon its release and we only got it about 6 months later. bought this one for my girlfriend and one for myself. her first one had a display glitch so we had to swap it immediately. this one was her replacement. mine works fine and im a far heavier user than she is. samsung really has poor quality control

 

[ironass]

The 2 year warranty for Europe is governed by our European laws. I have to say, I'm on my 5th Samsung, stock, Galaxy model over the years and find them very, very, good on service, updates and reliability. Cannot comment on the carrier minority variants. My S5 is from February 2014 and has had no issues at all... not bad for a 2 1/2 year old phone.

 

[wec123]

does it matter which version of odin i use to reinstall the firmware? the sammobile site says v3.11.1 but the forums instructions say v3.10.7. the latest version available looks like v3.12.3. dont know if it matters

 

[ironass]

does it matter which version of odin i use to reinstall the firmware? the sammobile site says v3.11.1 but the forums instructions say v3.10.7. the latest version available looks like v3.12.3. dont know if it matters

I am still using v3.11.1

 

[wec123]

I flashed the stock firmware and still it started doing the same thing. it never got past the tmobile screen. i dont know what else to do. what should be my next course of action?

 

[wec123]

Just a thought, i could try to reinstall firmware from an earlier version. i dont know which one i would use though: Firmware for Samsung SM-G900T - SamMobile

does the pda or csc have to match?

 

[wec123]

ok sorry to post so much in one night but here's what happened. i decided to wipe the cache and try booting again. it went all the way though android install and brought up the setup options screens. i got to the "EULA" screen and it rebooted again. got to the same screen and it rebooted once or twice more. so i wipe the cache AGAIN, and i got all the way through the entire setup, and the phone was working fine for about 5 minutes. i decided to tinker a bit and just see if it could send a text. i opened the messages app and it rebooted AGAIN. so now its back up and running, and im not touching it the rest of the night. it seems like there's been significant progress, however the issue still exists. Apart from any further advice you might have, would you agree with my assessment that this is surely not a hardware problem but definitely a software problem? i was just hoping to get some reassurance that i can fix this myself, even if i have to try to do it 100 different ways.

 

[ironass]

It certainly does seem like an issue with your phone that is not hardware related. My advice at this stage is to do a FULL WIPE+FACTORY DATA RESET as per post #2 of S5 Update Problems - Dummies Guide and take the time to check out your phone as per #2.5 of the guide.

 

[wec123]

ok since i already did the factory reset, reinstall firmware, and wipe cache, ill use it for a little while and see if there's any particular actions that make it reboot. so far just that one occurrence when opening the messages app. ill report my results and if there are further problems i might try another cache wipe and then ultimately another factory reset

 

[ironass]

ok since i already did the factory reset, reinstall firmware, and wipe cache, ill use it for a little while and see if there's any particular actions that make it reboot. so far just that one occurrence when opening the messages app. ill report my results and if there are further problems i might try another cache wipe and then ultimately another factory reset

Ensure that it is a FULL WIPE+FACTORY DATA RESET as often it can be the SD card causing the issue particularly if you have moved apps or data to it as moving apps to SD card leaves the app data on the phone which can cause issues when updating to Marshmallow and if you have a slow or counterfeit SD card. Just trying to cover all angles as you may find, as I have in other posts, that it is not a particular app that seems to cause the issue. To check your SD card, install SD Insight, free from the Play Store.

 

[wec123]

ok will do. theres no sd card anyway. the phones didnt come with them, which i thought was weird since every other phone ive had for the past 10 years did.

 

[Neal Evans]

I have the same exact problems and results. I traced the problens to the last major firmware and O/S (6.x). First, the battery life went from all day to 6-8 hrs, then WiFi would be on/off intermittently, then rebooting at startup, and now camera fails. The only way I get the phone functioning is to perform the wipe cache and/or remove the battery for five minutes. I have performed a factory reset and cache wipe with short-term results and the reboot on startup returns. Everything was working on the 5.x O/S.

 

[wec123]

I wanted to revisit this thread with and update on the status of my girlfriend's galaxy s5. After getting it working again, it lasted about a week or two without the problem recurring. I haven't pushed it too hard, and removed all but a few apps, but over the past couple months it's just gotten worse and worse. Now it seems to be back to the state where it just won't work at all again.

The only way I get the phone functioning is to perform the wipe cache and/or remove the battery for five minutes.

Tried that and even restarted in safe mode and it only lasted about 2 seconds after fully booting up before it rebooted again. It's running G900TUVS1GPG2 firmware. Really getting frustrated with this thing. Really don't want to keep factory resetting and reloading apps and stuff. would appreciate any advice if there's any more to be had. Big thanks to ironass for all the great help already.

Quick note: my coworker also has the same model (G900-T) on the same carrier (T-Mobile). Her's started bootlooping this past week too. The one I use still hasn't experienced a problem, but it's only a matter of time I figure. Garbage product. On the bright side it's not as bad as a battery exploding on your crotch. SAMSUNG=BAD PRODUCTS, BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE.

 

[wec123]

i reinstalled the latest firmware released this month (G900TTMB1GPI1) and immediately had the same problems. so i went back and reinstalled the previous firmware that i used that solved the problem temporarily (G900TTMB1GPG2). It rebooted into bootloop in the middle of setup. im really confused, this version reasonably well for a short while but now its useless. i have no idea what the next step is. i just wanted to add that i brought up my disappointment with a supervisor(?) at samsung support with this very common error. the response they emailed me was, "I have checked all the resources available at our end and I do not see any reported issues of Galaxy S5 phones stuck on the boot loop". way to show your customers you really care

 

[brandroid_h]

I had this happen as well. I had to plug a charger in to get the thing to start. Once i did, my battery was displaying at 18% but it had been in the 60s previously. After a few minutes I was able to start it normal. Exact same thing happened the next day. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I have a bad battery and changed to a different one. (Really hoping the phone lasts until the S8 comes out.)

 

[Harre Potter]

What if I can't even boot into recovery mode?? I get stuck on the opening Galaxy S5 logo, then loops. Can't boot in recovery, Safe Mode, or normal.

Thoughts?