Galaxy S4 does not power on except when plugged in, but does not stay powered on

FormableEmu6011

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Apr 10, 2025
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This is a long shot, but here goes.

I have a Galaxy S4 (model SPH-L720 if that matters) that I've had for several years that recently stopped powering on. I noticed that it would power on if I plug it in to a charger, but it only shows the battery icon for a few seconds before powering off and back on again, in an endless loop. I have, however, been able to load into the operating system by first going to the recovery menu and then restarting the device. Something I noticed is that the battery shows it's at 100% and charging, but will then power off after a few minutes at most while plugged in, or it will immediately turn off if I unplug it. I have tried the following:

- using different batteries
- testing the batteries on another device, on which they power the device and charge normally
- factory resetting
- manually flashing the operating system
- using different chargers and cables
- taking apart the device entirely and inspecting the motherboard, ribbon cables, and contact points
- cleaning contact points with isopropyl alcohol
- ensuring the power button is not stuck, and properly presses down

I have searched through the forum through a variety of different keywords and, while I found several relevant threads, most were unanswered or the steps provided in them did not work to remedy the issue, many of which were the aforementioned troubleshooting steps. I even came across one that said it could be due to some pressure-sensitive switches on the top right of the back needing to be bent back a bit, which also did not work.

The device doesn't have anything important on it, so I wouldn't be too heartbroken if there is genuinely nothing else I can do, but I'd still like to be able to get it working again if there's a chance.
 
Your motherboard has gone kaput. If the battery has already been swapped and the processor still goes into a loop, there's definitely hardware that's not functioning correctly (which the way these are made, requires a full board swap rather than just a component repair).
 

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