Phone keeps crashing even after wipe and reflash

[killerz298]

I had my S4 (not rooted, stock rom) on my dock streaming google music. A phone call came in and the phone started vibrating like crazy and wouldn't stop. The screen shut off and the phone was still vibrating. Finally it stopped and was shut off. When I try to start it a few things happens. It will sometimes boot to my lock screen and the screen goes black and I think it is powered off. Sometimes it will get past the lock screen and then die shortly after. After like 2 or 3 times of that it won't even boot. It loads the Samsung screen but never gets to the Sprint screen or boots. If I leave it for some time shut off with battery out it will go back to booting to the lock screen then dying etc... Recovery mode and download mode can stay on forever without shutting down. I wiped the entire phone, used ODIN to flash most recent stock rom, and the phone rebooted and worked for a time. A few hours later it started random reboots every 10 mins or so. Now it is back to instant crashing and rebooting. Any idea what could be the issue? I'm assuming at this point it is hardware related however why can recovery and download mode run consistently without crashing but when an os is fired up it has issues? If it was a hardware issue shouldn't it not work across the board? Are there any recovery utilities I can try to do hardware diagnostics?

 

[Rukbat]

If it's a hardware issue with the Android partition, it would only affect the normal boot, not the recovery boot.

Since it's still under warranty, why are you wasting all that time and effort? Bring it to Sprint for a "repair or replace session".

 

[killerz298]

Who said it was still under warranty? It is no longer under warranty unfortunately (at least not through Samsung. I can still get coverage from my credit card). Also, I had a hardware issue with my phone earlier this year and Sprint said they couldn't do anything for me. I had to mail it to Samsung's warranty center in Texas and the entire process took 21 days. You are the second person recently who said that they received warranty service at Sprint store. Are you guys mistaken or am I just missing something?

 

[killerz298]

So I had Sprint replace my phone on the 8th. I have been using my same batteries (1 stock 1 Anker) and chargers (some stock some not) without issue the past 5 days. I rooted and installed xposed and some modules (original broken phone was never rooted and was completely stock). Things were going great until tonight when it started reboot looping exactly like the old phone. I switched battery and same proble. After I took the battery out and left it out awhile it fired back up but I'm afraid the problem will return. Is it possible that the battery or charger randomly are causing damage to the phone? I only have 14 day warranty on this replacement and need to figure this out.

 

[killerz298]

So things were going well for awhile and then the reboot loops started up again. I did some digging and read that apparently Samsung phones are notorious for sticking power buttons and the symptoms were exactly what I was experiencing. I watched some videos online how to open the phone and clean out the power button but it didn't make a difference. I then read that squeezing the connector for the power button with a pair of pliers sometimes does the trick. Not for me. So finally since I'm not under warranty, have no insurance, and the phone wasn't working anyway, I just ripped the white plastic part of the power button right off. Well, that seemed to do the trick. Phone immediately fired back up without issue and has been going strong. I glued a small thin piece of plastic where the old one used to be and I am back in action. If my little plastic piece solution eventually fails or breaks off I will consider soldering on a new button but so far so good.

If you have tried everything else, and are looking for last resort, try cleaning the power button with some alcohol, and if that fails, rip off that power button! Here are some other power button videos: youtube/results?search_query=s4%20power%20button&search_type=&aq=f&oq=