S4 Mini won't factory reset

[emilyinchile]

This morning, my S4 mini's screen became unresponsive - the buttons worked but no kind of touch-screen activity did. I put it down for a minute, and the screen went to black and never recovered. After waiting a few minutes, I took the battery out, waited a bit, put it back in and turned it on. It is now stuck in a cycle of vibrate -> show "Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini" screen -> vibrate -> black screen -> repeat.

Under the instructions of my cell provider, I tried to do a factory reset (volume up + power + home button). They said I would see the Android icon and needed to choose the first option. Instead, I saw a screen that asked me something about whether I really want to install a Custom OS. I chose "Cancel" instead of "Continue" because it wasn't the screen I was expecting. Now if I try to do a factory reset it shows me the "Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini" screen with "Recovery Booting..." in blue at the top, but it then enters its cycle of on/off/repeat. It never gets to the screen with the Android icon. I have tried keeping all three buttons held down and only keeping the volume up + home buttons held once I see that screen.

Does anyone have suggestions as to how I can fix this?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! First, have you tried a new battery? The battery might be failing and causing that kind of behavior.

Second, make sure you're following these steps to get into Recovery Mode. If you can, try wiping the cache partition, which won't erase any personal data. Then select Reboot System Now. Reset: Samsung Galaxy S 4 | T-Mobile Support

 

[droid2501]

I'm having a very similar problem. I have a Samsung S4 Mini on the Verizon network (SCH-i435). I restarted my phone this morning and it took a much longer than usual to boot. My screen showed the Verizon logo for about 5-10 minutes and when the phone finally booted I was greeted with the utility to set up the phone (pick language, setup email, etc. etc.). I was confused because I had done this already a few months ago when I bought the phone. I skipped the steps and I was greeted with the stock home screen (all my custom shortcuts and widgets were gone). All my marketplace apps were still installed, but some of them had been reset (had to reconfigure waze, winamp, etc), gmail still worked fine though. My best guess is that there was an OTA update or some security patch that reset everything. Finally I got things running again the way I liked them. I was using my phone and suddenly it went dead. I tried to restart it but nothing showed on the screen. Oddly enough the phone just vibrates for a few seconds over and over again, but the screen remains black. No matter what I do I can't boot it. The only way I could stop it from vibrating was to pull out the battery. Factory reset did not work for me either. Is there any hope to recover this phone? Thanks.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! That doesn't sound good. The first episode sounds like the phone did a full factory reset on its own, which should never happen unless there's some sort of catastrophic glitch in the firmware or hardware. That's why you had to set the phone up again. Your apps were still there because you presumably had the "Automatically Restore" option turned on in Settings>Backup & Restore, which automatically reinstalls most if not all of your apps from Google Play.

Have you tried a new battery? A bad battery wouldn't explain the random factory reset, but it might be associated with your current problem of not being able to turn the phone on. But if I had to guess, it's probably more to do with some hardware failure, maybe of the motherboard. That random factory reset might have been the first warning sign.

 

[Sammy Martin]

My samsung s4mini recently started showing some probs. The first problem it started to display was when i tried to dial a phone number to make a call the screen would zoom in, this happened for about a week and one morning when i woke up my battery was completely drained and when i did get to charge it i sent a few text messages and realize that they weren't going through and i wasn't receiving any messages either. I tried checking my settings, restarting the phone, removing the battery, and i finally decided to factory reset my phone but as i tried to reset it and get to the delete all button and i tap on it nothing happens. PLEASE HELP!

 

[David Rivera5]

This morning, my S4 mini's screen became unresponsive - the buttons worked but no kind of touch-screen activity did. I put it down for a minute, and the screen went to black and never recovered. After waiting a few minutes, I took the battery out, waited a bit, put it back in and turned it on. It is now stuck in a cycle of vibrate -> show "Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini" screen -> vibrate -> black screen -> repeat.

Under the instructions of my cell provider, I tried to do a factory reset (volume up + power + home button). They said I would see the Android icon and needed to choose the first option. Instead, I saw a screen that asked me something about whether I really want to install a Custom OS. I chose "Cancel" instead of "Continue" because it wasn't the screen I was expecting. Now if I try to do a factory reset it shows me the "Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini" screen with "Recovery Booting..." in blue at the top, but it then enters its cycle of on/off/repeat. It never gets to the screen with the Android icon. I have tried keeping all three buttons held down and only keeping the volume up + home buttons held once I see that screen.

Does anyone have suggestions as to how I can fix this?

I got the exactly same problem with my s4 , i would like to know if you still manage to fine a solution for your phone.

 

[gutf0005]

Seems I got the same problem as well (S4 mini GT-I9195 / stuck on Samsung splash screen). A factory reset/cache wipe didn't work, and I'm pretty sure the problem is with the batter as the phone has been abnormally hot lately. Do you think purchasing a new battery on Amazon would do the trick?

 

[me myself 34]

on my galaxy s4,mini it keeps turning on and off when i go into Android System Recovery and I try to hit reboot system now or EVEN wipe data/factory rest, but once I do it says error, and then it also says No Command and my little robot is laid down with chest open and a red warning triangle is there anything i can do to fix this problem thanks

 

[mustang7757]

on my galaxy s4,mini it keeps turning on and off when i go into Android System Recovery and I try to hit reboot system now or EVEN wipe data/factory rest, but once I do it says error, and then it also says No Command and my little robot is laid down with chest open and a red warning triangle is there anything i can do to fix this problem thanks

Hi welcome to AC!
You probably have to flash the firmware again looks like something got corrupt, but to find the correct odin or firmware is going be a challenge with a device that old. My suggestion would be move on from it .

 

[me myself 34]

ok thanks for your help it just had photos and stuff i wanted to save but hey thats life hope your safe and well

 

[mustang7757]

ok thanks for your help it just had photos and stuff i wanted to save but hey thats life hope your safe and well

If you had them backed up to google photos or something else you might see them there but on the phone only it's going be hard because most methods will require deleting data , Your welcome!

 

[B. Diddy]

Also, if there's an SD card, remove it and put it into your computer to see if any of the photos are on the card.