Galaxy Note 4 constant freezing & restarting!

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QCube

Member
Feb 17, 2014
12
0
Hi there,

So my galaxy note 4 is having some serious problems for the last couple of days and it's really starting to bother me. I've tried doing everything I can find online so far but to no avail I've had no luck at all. Basically, my phone constantly keeps freezing and restarting. It will crash for quite a period of time then restart itself, crash and restart. It probably crashes and freezes about 80-90 times a day? More if I'm trying to use it of course (It also resets itself when not using it).

I've tried everything, bought a replacement (genuine) battery and not fixed it. Got to the point where I seen online about doing a factory reset so I backed everything up to my computer, started the factory reset and when I was going through the setup of logging into google and samsung account, it continues to crash and freeze all over again. (It crashed & restarted whilst retrieving my apps from google, thus I had to reinstall my apps again manually after I finally got it setup again).

To make matters worse, I cancelled the insurance cover last month and only a few days ago this started happening. I've not dropped the phone or damaged it in anyway, screen is completely perfect too. It just constantly crashes and restarts on it's own. Get a phone call and it crashes, using google maps, crash. It's beyond unusable now. I still have 4 months left of the contract before I'm due an upgrade and I really don't think it will last me that long.

Can someone PLEASE help? Suggestions would be so helpful!!!

Thank you!

P.S Phone isn't rooted, only using Nova Launcher prime.
 

QCube

Member
Feb 17, 2014
12
0
Already mentioned in post above

Sounds like your battery is on its way out. Have you tried a new battery?

I've tried everything, bought a replacement (genuine) battery and not fixed it.

Earlier in the week I had an error I've not seen before. Phone restarted and went to black screen sort of looking at a recovery screen with android logo and in the centre of the screen was the message
"Kernal Panic" with some information on the top. This only has happened the one time and hasn't happened since. Took the battery out and restarted again...
 
Last edited:

ithehappy

Senior Member
May 5, 2008
5,549
1,930
Calcutta
Google Pixel 2 XL
Its rebooting 80-90 times in ONE day? Good god! Have the phone turned off then. Unnecessary pressure is being put on the phone mate!

Factory Reset isn't going to solve it anyway, its for tiny problems. Your system is somehow messed up badly.

Do what the above member said. Flash a stock ROM via Odin. But before that you need to completely wipe the phone. To completely wipe you need a custom recovery like TWRP. So flash it now, root the phone, then reboot into TWRP and use the Advanced Wipe section to wipe everything (external SD not needed), then reboot the phone in Download mode, and flash the latest stock ROM via Odin.
 

grizzylemon

Member
Jun 25, 2011
28
2
You are now part of a large group of us having the same issues. Several things have been tried. One thought is that the motherboard is faulty. Replacing it would be expensive. Download the app "wake lock" and set it to partial_wake_lock. Don't ask me why it works, but it does. Apparently the phone goes nuts when the screen tries to go off, the partial lock keeps it from crashing. That makes the phone usable, hopefully a permanent solution will become available. ;( The only time it goes nutty again is if the battery runs down and when I restart, the app is not running. Going back to the back and setting it to partial has allowed me to play games, etc for extended periods of time and no problems. It shouldn't be that way, and I really suspect the marshmallow update and then security update screwed it up, it was fine before that.
 

phonepie

Senior Member
Feb 18, 2016
125
24
usa
Hi there,

So my galaxy note 4 is having some serious problems for the last couple of days and it's really starting to bother me. I've tried doing everything I can find online so far but to no avail I've had no luck at all. Basically, my phone constantly keeps freezing and restarting. It will crash for quite a period of time then restart itself, crash and restart. It probably crashes and freezes about 80-90 times a day? More if I'm trying to use it of course (It also resets itself when not using it).

I've tried everything, bought a replacement (genuine) battery and not fixed it. Got to the point where I seen online about doing a factory reset so I backed everything up to my computer, started the factory reset and when I was going through the setup of logging into google and samsung account, it continues to crash and freeze all over again. (It crashed & restarted whilst retrieving my apps from google, thus I had to reinstall my apps again manually after I finally got it setup again).

To make matters worse, I cancelled the insurance cover last month and only a few days ago this started happening. I've not dropped the phone or damaged it in anyway, screen is completely perfect too. It just constantly crashes and restarts on it's own. Get a phone call and it crashes, using google maps, crash. It's beyond unusable now. I still have 4 months left of the contract before I'm due an upgrade and I really don't think it will last me that long.

Can someone PLEASE help? Suggestions would be so helpful!!!

Thank you!

P.S Phone isn't rooted, only using Nova Launcher prime.

Which version is your note 4? verizon? att? tmobile? sprint? etc united states variant? other country? This helps find out if others that are having the same problem are on the same setup as you and more importantly tells me if I'm likely to have a problem with mine getting ready to come. :laugh:
 

QCube

Member
Feb 17, 2014
12
0
Its rebooting 80-90 times in ONE day? Good god! Have the phone turned off then. Unnecessary pressure is being put on the phone mate!
Factory Reset isn't going to solve it anyway, its for tiny problems. Your system is somehow messed up badly.
Do what the above member said. Flash a stock ROM via Odin. But before that you need to completely wipe the phone. To completely wipe you need a custom recovery like TWRP. So flash it now, root the phone, then reboot into TWRP and use the Advanced Wipe section to wipe everything (external SD not needed), then reboot the phone in Download mode, and flash the latest stock ROM via Odin.

80-90 times in one day is probably being generous. I've not actually counted how many times it restarts but If I need to use my phone I can guarantee it will be restarting a couple of times. Driving using navigation *Crashes* Inbound phone call *Crashes* get text message *crashes* all followed by the phone restarting. Practically unusable.

Which version is your note 4? verizon? att? tmobile? sprint? etc united states variant? other country? This helps find out if others that are having the same problem are on the same setup as you and more importantly tells me if I'm likely to have a problem with mine getting ready to come. :laugh:

Vodafone UK - Samsung Galaxy Note 4 / SM-N910F running Android 6.0.1

You are now part of a large group of us having the same issues. Several things have been tried. One thought is that the motherboard is faulty. Replacing it would be expensive. Download the app "wake lock" and set it to partial_wake_lock. Don't ask me why it works, but it does. Apparently the phone goes nuts when the screen tries to go off, the partial lock keeps it from crashing. That makes the phone usable, hopefully a permanent solution will become available. ;( The only time it goes nutty again is if the battery runs down and when I restart, the app is not running. Going back to the back and setting it to partial has allowed me to play games, etc for extended periods of time and no problems. It shouldn't be that way, and I really suspect the marshmallow update and then security update screwed it up, it was fine before that.

I'm gonna give this a go and hopefully it'll help! Thanks for the advice. Funnily enough, for a couple of months the phone has been prevented from the screen going off. I get a text or a notification and the screen would stay on until I hit the power button to turn it back off. Get a text in the middle of the night and I'd wake up to a boiling hot phone the next day, almost too hot to even keep in the hands. This literally frustrated me beyond belief and had to get a new battery and all sorts of complications. Also you mention the android update which made me think, I NEVER had this issue before I installed the security update for 6.0.1 - I put my money on something really stupid that's sincerely knackered my phone for certain!
 

ithehappy

Senior Member
May 5, 2008
5,549
1,930
Calcutta
Google Pixel 2 XL
While upgrading a phone, especially for major upgrades like from LP to MM, OTA method should always be avoided. You MUST do a clean flash of the ROM, otherwise you are bound to have problems. 80% of time people complain because they didn't flash the ROM cleanly, so whatever you want to do now, do it, but if it doesn't solve it (very likely it won't), then kindly flash the ROM via Odin after a full wipe. And if even that doesn't solve it then its hardware.
 

phonepie

Senior Member
Feb 18, 2016
125
24
usa
80-90 times in one day is probably being generous. I've not actually counted how many times it restarts but If I need to use my phone I can guarantee it will be restarting a couple of times. Driving using navigation *Crashes* Inbound phone call *Crashes* get text message *crashes* all followed by the phone restarting. Practically unusable.



Vodafone UK - Samsung Galaxy Note 4 / SM-N910F running Android 6.0.1



I'm gonna give this a go and hopefully it'll help! Thanks for the advice. Funnily enough, for a couple of months the phone has been prevented from the screen going off. I get a text or a notification and the screen would stay on until I hit the power button to turn it back off. Get a text in the middle of the night and I'd wake up to a boiling hot phone the next day, almost too hot to even keep in the hands. This literally frustrated me beyond belief and had to get a new battery and all sorts of complications. Also you mention the android update which made me think, I NEVER had this issue before I installed the security update for 6.0.1 - I put my money on something really stupid that's sincerely knackered my phone for certain!

Thanks for letting me know your version. Hopefully it wont affect mine since mine is US Verizon. But out of curiosity have you checked for even the slightest sticky button? I've had phones where a button started to get tacky and would cause it to keep the screen on or go on and off like what you're saying. May not even feel like a sticky button. Do they all click very responsive? or do any feel like they have a dull thud experience?
 

QCube

Member
Feb 17, 2014
12
0
Thanks for letting me know your version. Hopefully it wont affect mine since mine is US Verizon. But out of curiosity have you checked for even the slightest sticky button? I've had phones where a button started to get tacky and would cause it to keep the screen on or go on and off like what you're saying. May not even feel like a sticky button. Do they all click very responsive? or do any feel like they have a dull thud experience?

The volume rocker and power button feel really loose but this isn't really something new. Something I have noticed is when I take the cover off the back, the battery barely stays in itself. If holding screen upwards and battery cover off then It doesn't hold the battery which made me possibly think that perhaps the battery does not situate properly and doesn't deliver enough power (or too much) but this was just one of my theories into why the hell my phone is acting this way.

Edit:
Forgot to add I'm running the security patch 01/08/2016
 
Last edited:

phonepie

Senior Member
Feb 18, 2016
125
24
usa
The volume rocker and power button feel really loose but this isn't really something new. Something I have noticed is when I take the cover off the back, the battery barely stays in itself. If holding screen upwards and battery cover off then It doesn't hold the battery which made me possibly think that perhaps the battery does not situate properly and doesn't deliver enough power (or too much) but this was just one of my theories into why the hell my phone is acting this way.

Edit:
Forgot to add I'm running the security patch 01/08/2016

Are you able to wedge a folded small piece of paper between the bottom edge of the battery and the phone to make the battery fit tighter? I mean it's not good to have a loose battery. But I can't see how that would cause the screen to stay on. If anything I would think it would cause the phone to shut off or reboot.
 

grizzylemon

Member
Jun 25, 2011
28
2
80-90 times in one day is probably being generous. I've not actually counted how many times it restarts but If I need to use my phone I can guarantee it will be restarting a couple of times. Driving using navigation *Crashes* Inbound phone call *Crashes* get text message *crashes* all followed by the phone restarting. Practically unusable.



Vodafone UK - Samsung Galaxy Note 4 / SM-N910F running Android 6.0.1



I'm gonna give this a go and hopefully it'll help! Thanks for the advice. Funnily enough, for a couple of months the phone has been prevented from the screen going off. I get a text or a notification and the screen would stay on until I hit the power button to turn it back off. Get a text in the middle of the night and I'd wake up to a boiling hot phone the next day, almost too hot to even keep in the hands. This literally frustrated me beyond belief and had to get a new battery and all sorts of complications. Also you mention the android update which made me think, I NEVER had this issue before I installed the security update for 6.0.1 - I put my money on something really stupid that's sincerely knackered my phone for certain!

Let me know how it goes. There are other threads about same issue. Most of us have tried reflashing, wiping everything, custom roms, going back to stock, trying to downgrade, taking out the sim card, taking out the sd card, not having both in at same time, brand new battery, I think even putting the battery in the freezer momentarily, etc. etc. Nobody seems to have had any real luck with it, except those who were under warranty and got a new phone, or are capable and wiling to exchange some hardware. I just find it odd that it happened all of a sudden after updates and recently to many people.. :( Still, I keep coming here hoping someone will have great news. Mine started with marshmallow, but definitely got worse with the security update.
 
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himuslg123

Senior Member
Jul 9, 2012
303
88
Let me know how it goes. There are other threads about same issue. Most of us have tried reflashing, wiping everything, custom roms, going back to stock, trying to downgrade, taking out the sim card, taking out the sd card, not having both in at same time, brand new battery, I think even putting the battery in the freezer momentarily, etc. etc. Nobody seems to have had any real luck with it, except those who were under warranty and got a new phone, or are capable and wiling to exchange some hardware. I just find it odd that it happened all of a sudden after updates and recently to many people.. :( Still, I keep coming here hoping someone will have great news. Mine started with marshmallow, but definitely got worse with the security update.
why don't you reflash you device with supported PIT file and stock F.W ?
 

duh-rel

Member
Apr 22, 2012
21
1
Hi there,

So my galaxy note 4 is having some serious problems for the last couple of days and it's really starting to bother me. I've tried doing everything I can find online so far but to no avail I've had no luck at all. Basically, my phone constantly keeps freezing and restarting. It will crash for quite a period of time then restart itself, crash and restart. It probably crashes and freezes about 80-90 times a day? More if I'm trying to use it of course (It also resets itself when not using it).

I've tried everything, bought a replacement (genuine) battery and not fixed it. Got to the point where I seen online about doing a factory reset so I backed everything up to my computer, started the factory reset and when I was going through the setup of logging into google and samsung account, it continues to crash and freeze all over again. (It crashed & restarted whilst retrieving my apps from google, thus I had to reinstall my apps again manually after I finally got it setup again).

To make matters worse, I cancelled the insurance cover last month and only a few days ago this started happening. I've not dropped the phone or damaged it in anyway, screen is completely perfect too. It just constantly crashes and restarts on it's own. Get a phone call and it crashes, using google maps, crash. It's beyond unusable now. I still have 4 months left of the contract before I'm due an upgrade and I really don't think it will last me that long.

Can someone PLEASE help? Suggestions would be so helpful!!!

Thank you!

P.S Phone isn't rooted, only using Nova Launcher prime.
Aside from the previously proposed wake lock solution, members in the T-Mobile Note 4 threads have experienced limited success with a downgrade to LP from MM.

From my reading, these issues seem to be common across all Snapdragon models, not to say it Exynos is excluded (I don't frequent Exynos threads).

why don't you reflash you device with supported PIT file and stock F.W ?
I tried that and it didn't work for me. The only surefire solution is a replacement device, but even then there's no guarantee the device won't start acting up in the future.
 

dams102

New member
Sep 21, 2016
3
0
pls help stuck in download mode

this is the issue I'm getting...I did a complete data wipe using twrp...now stuck on this screen...cant even push files...device not recognized in adb or fastboot mode....
what to do...??
imgur(dot)com/a/gKPaL
 

hathertonwood

Member
Aug 20, 2016
6
0
Well a new motherboard was the only thing that fixed it for me, replaced under the 2 year warranty but I had to wait a while for parts. What is interesting is that the phone is much faster, the battery life much better than when it was new. Also it now barely gets warm using google maps - before it got quite hot. It would be very interesting to find out what percentage of Note 4's have been going down with is problem - mine was a fairly early one - was Samsung rushing to beat Apple two years ago and a bad batch of parts used? I don't know -we need some answers on what is the problem to be sure.
 

ithehappy

Senior Member
May 5, 2008
5,549
1,930
Calcutta
Google Pixel 2 XL
Just a personal experience and thus advice, please don't keep flashing bunch of stuffs every other day. The more your eMMC gets used more chance of your phone getting messed up. This is how my Note 3 died, kept flashing this and that, and did the same on Note 4 too, but have now stopped. I don't know whether there's an endurance rating on these eMMCs used or not but this is what I think, I could be wrong, please quote me in that case.
 

duh-rel

Member
Apr 22, 2012
21
1
Well a new motherboard was the only thing that fixed it for me, replaced under the 2 year warranty but I had to wait a while for parts. What is interesting is that the phone is much faster, the battery life much better than when it was new. Also it now barely gets warm using google maps - before it got quite hot. It would be very interesting to find out what percentage of Note 4's have been going down with is problem - mine was a fairly early one - was Samsung rushing to beat Apple two years ago and a bad batch of parts used? I don't know -we need some answers on what is the problem to be sure.
Wow, that sounds promising. I'm sending mine for replacement, and although I'm not getting a new MB installed, hopefully the incoming unit will be similar in performance to yours.
Just a personal experience and thus advice, please don't keep flashing bunch of stuffs every other day. The more your eMMC gets used more chance of your phone getting messed up. This is how my Note 3 died, kept flashing this and that, and did the same on Note 4 too, but have now stopped. I don't know whether there's an endurance rating on these eMMCs used or not but this is what I think, I could be wrong, please quote me in that case.
Your reasoning sounds plausible, but my phone suffered similar issues and I only flashed my unit 2-3 times in the 14 months I had it. :(
 

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    80-90 times in one day is probably being generous. I've not actually counted how many times it restarts but If I need to use my phone I can guarantee it will be restarting a couple of times. Driving using navigation *Crashes* Inbound phone call *Crashes* get text message *crashes* all followed by the phone restarting. Practically unusable.



    Vodafone UK - Samsung Galaxy Note 4 / SM-N910F running Android 6.0.1



    I'm gonna give this a go and hopefully it'll help! Thanks for the advice. Funnily enough, for a couple of months the phone has been prevented from the screen going off. I get a text or a notification and the screen would stay on until I hit the power button to turn it back off. Get a text in the middle of the night and I'd wake up to a boiling hot phone the next day, almost too hot to even keep in the hands. This literally frustrated me beyond belief and had to get a new battery and all sorts of complications. Also you mention the android update which made me think, I NEVER had this issue before I installed the security update for 6.0.1 - I put my money on something really stupid that's sincerely knackered my phone for certain!

    Let me know how it goes. There are other threads about same issue. Most of us have tried reflashing, wiping everything, custom roms, going back to stock, trying to downgrade, taking out the sim card, taking out the sd card, not having both in at same time, brand new battery, I think even putting the battery in the freezer momentarily, etc. etc. Nobody seems to have had any real luck with it, except those who were under warranty and got a new phone, or are capable and wiling to exchange some hardware. I just find it odd that it happened all of a sudden after updates and recently to many people.. :( Still, I keep coming here hoping someone will have great news. Mine started with marshmallow, but definitely got worse with the security update.