Phone locking and freezing

[themaverick1953]

My Galaxy S4 started locking up and freezing for up to 30 seconds or more at a time and occasionally restarting. I have reset but still the same. I have been on to Samsung and all they suggest is their repair centre. Anything else I can try or is it bricked?

 

[B. Diddy]

Try wiping the cache partition: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-27777

 

[themaverick1953]

Try wiping the cache partition: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-27777

When I press vol up power and home sometimes it vibrates and sometimes it doesn't. When does and I release the power key nothing happens it stays on the home screen. Sometimes the phone works fine for a few minutes but its soon locking up or going to a black screen with no response except to battery removal.

 

[B. Diddy]

Does this also happen in Safe Mode? https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-27781

 

[themaverick1953]

Struggling to even get it to start now, even after removing battery.

 

[themaverick1953]

Got into safe mode. Now what?

 

[B. Diddy]

Safe Mode temporarily disables any 3rd party app, so it's a way to determine if the problem is due to something you installed vs the system itself. Use it in Safe Mode for a while and see if the phone freezes. If it does, then it's either a firmware or hardware issue. If it doesn't freeze, then something you installed is probably causing the instability -- you'd have to uninstall apps one by one until the problem goes away.

If the problem happens in Safe Mode, then you could try reinstalling the firmware using Kies: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...amsung-emergency-recovering-samsung-kies.html

 

[themaverick1953]

Even though I have reset it 4/5 times?

 

[B. Diddy]

The thing about factory resets is that the phone will often automatically reinstall a lot of your apps. If you're sure the phone didn't reinstall any app from the Play Store, and it's in a completely pristine factory state, then you're right, Safe Mode won't help.

Reinstalling the firmware could help, though, if the firmware is corrupt. Factory resets still use the copy of the firmware on the phone, so if that copy is corrupt, the reset doesn't help.

 

[themaverick1953]

How do I reinstall the firmware ? I have looked at Kies but nothing happens when I try emergency recovery. My phone doesn't even show up in the Kies software despite windows recognising it is attached. I'm close to buying another phone as we are going away soon and will need one then.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm not directly familiar with Kies, so I can't help troubleshoot that process very well. Another option would be to use Odin to reflash the stock firmware: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...w-flash-stock-rom-via-odin-new-interface.html