Random Power Off & Boot Loop Galaxy S4 GT-I9505

I Am Phooka said:

Hi,
Do you have a link to the info? was it on an official samsung site?

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I have read about it on many sites, here is the official samsung italy help comunity and you can read the answer by a Samsung operator telling a customer to bring the phone to a customer service point... (last post)

Here another italian link with a snap of samsungs answer on facebook...

Here another article, this time in english.. which links back to this article..

Hope this helps! :good:

CheesyPeas said:

I too am having this exact problem; I'm glad to hear it is not only me, not that it helps any of us.

I posted in another thread, but the symptoms everyone here are describing are exactly what I am seeing:

- Sudden battery drop from anything (it's happened to me before about 5 minutes after unplugging from the wall socket) to zero; then phone goes into a loop unless I plug it back into the mains socket
- When plugging into the mains socket with this issue, sometimes the battery is empty and sometimes it shoots straight back up to where it was
- Plants Vs Zombies 2 is the sure-fire way for me to reproduce this issue
- examined logs (although not sure if the right one) using CatLog; nothing obvious (in fact the last line on one of the logs is litterally cut halfway through)
- Wifi connection details lost occasionally

I have reflashed about 4 other (4.3) ROMs (and I tried a 4.4 GE one too) and they all seem to do the same; I am wondering if it is something to do with the non-Knox modems required to flash the 4.3 ROMs as I don't think I had this problem before updating to 4.3. I don't have the time or patience to revert back to a 4.2 ROM to test this though.

I can go for a couple of days without this happening, but fire up PvZ2 and here we go again.

I too have a new battery on order (allegedly genuine from a well-known auction site), so I will update this thread when that arrives to see if it makes any difference.

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I picked up a new battery yesterday (Made is Korea - SN starts AA) and my problems have gone for now.
I managed to play several levels of PvZ2 last night and only lost a few % of battery.

I hope this is of some help to some of you.

Just went to pick up a new battery (SN AA****) for FREE. It's a known problem with the battery with SN BD****.
Just go to a local Samsung shop and they change it immediately free of charge (if you have your bill of the purchase with you)

Definitely caused by the faulty battery!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app

Possible cause for some loops might be the SD

I lately got some reboot loops on my I9505 (4.2.2 still).
The first few times I wiped it all and started from scratch but it was getting annoying.
I noticed some users stating that removing the SD will fix it and it did, although it does not help if most of your stuff is on the SD card.
The next thing I wanted to investigate is what on or with the SD might have caused the troubles.
a) no damaged sectors or problems found with Windows tools
b) all data could be copied on the HDD
c) SD could be formatted and all previously sved things copied back on the SD
Still once the SD was in and the phone started it was stuck again, but at least a faulty SD was ruled out.
And here comes my first mistake:
I checked the SD and all looked fine, so I wasted a few hours on useless tests.
Much much later I finally found the culprit: one of the ASEC files had been corrupted!
The are stored in a hidden folder ".android_secure" on the SD.
Once the phone get's stuck in this loop the SD will suffer some sort of damage to the data structure caused by the faulty ASEC file.
I turned the phone on without the SD,
formatted the SD again (with the tool from SDCARD.org) and put all data back on,
mounted the SD and checked the menu.
One program was greyed out and claimed it was not installed.
Unmount again, deleted the corresponding ASEC file and restarted the phone - success!
No more loop and after WiFi was eneabled the missing app received an update and was woking again too.

I do realise this problem is not always the cause of the dreaded reboots and loops we might get, but checking for corrupted files with the instructions above might save you a lot of time investigating.
Another thing I noticed is that for some reason the stuff from the SD loads much faster (on the phone) if the SD was formatted in the phone and not in the card reader on the PC.
As possible cuses for thes file corruption I can point to apps crashing and modifications to programs with Lucky patcher or similar while parts of the program are still active in the background - even if it is just the notification part.
I hope this info might help some people here to get their phone working again or maybe even to find a fix for the problem altogether.

I Am Phooka said:

Guy's this is definitely a battery problem and is well known by Samsung. If you go to the Samsung site under support it will give you your nearest Samsung service centre or you can call 0330 7267964 if your in the UK and they will tell you where it is. Just tell the guy on the phone that your battery is swollen slightly. Take your phone to the service centre and they will replace it free of charge with a better battery. All Samsung phones are under guarantee for TWO years. I did not need to take a receipt with me or anything as the phone hasn't been out two years.

A new battery will cure your shutdown problems. Its nothing to do with the ROM etc. By the way they don't check what ROM you're running or whether you have void Knox they just change the battery. Here is one reply from Samsung support UK::highfive:

Q:
Is it true that samsung is offering free battery replacement for s4 users who are affected by battery swollen and reboot loop issues ?
Anonymoushyd on Galaxy S4 3 weeks, 2 days ago
My s4 battery is draining too quickly and after switching it off and turning it on it constantly restarts but doesnt reach touchwiz home. Done a factory reset but no use. I saw online that samsung said that it would replace the battery for free for affected owners
Was this helpful?YesNoreport

Answer:
Samsung E-Support 3 weeks, 1 day ago
Hi,

Due to the nature of the troubleshooting required in order to resolve the issues which you are currently experiencing we would recommend that you contact our Technical Support Team for further assistance on 0330 7267964.

Thanks

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the number is actually 03307267864 but yep this works... spoke to the lady on the phone and she said take it into my nearest fixit place and they will replace the battery free... its a known issue... I called the fixit place fyi and they said that the phone would have to be under 6months old as the battery is only covered by the accessory warranty (which I would have argued had my phone not been 5 months old) but as its an issue I am sure they would replace it... now the samsung lady said that independent fixit places would be ok without proof of purchase (although I was asked to bring mine in, but I only have a proof of contract starting which should suffice) mobile phone shops where you bought the phone would prob need it... lets hope this works (btw my battery is also a Chinese made one)...

Only reboot problem

Same problem here. For me is only the reboot problem. But, strange, after I install a new rom official or unofficial the phone working without reboot between 5 - 8 hours, then start to reboot more often like one hour or so. The longest up time that I achieve was with latest nightly Cyanogen mod (approx. 20h). I bought also a chinese spare battery because was coming with a separate charger and was convenient but the same reboots. I have 2 questions:

1. It worth to invest in another original samsung battery?
2. It is possible to know that it's a hardware or software problem? (the phone works flawlessly otherwise)

Thanks in advance.

I Am Phooka said:

Hi,

check your battery stats in settings. If there is a sudden and random power off then it is a hardware problem ie: the battery. thi si a know samsung fault and if you call the service centre in Birmingham they will register your phone and you can get a free replacement battery at your local repair centre so it shouldn't cost you anything.:good:

Phooka

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In the meantime I changed back to last cyanogen nightly. Now I have 56h uptime, no reboot, stock battery. Maybe it's a software problem of stock rom ?

Boot problem

Same problem here, random reboots and not booting unless its plugged in the outlet, lost wifi passwords and just before shutting down lost mobile/data.
Contacted Samsung Netherlands by chat and indeed its a wel known problem.
Had to provide adress and some phone and battery details and a new battery will be brought to my adress. great service no doubt about that.
so stop waiting time and contact samsung no matter what country you live in and ask them about this problem.

I Am Phooka said:

Hi,
Not sure what is happening to my phone. I have had stock 4.2.2 rooted with CF auto root for months and had no problems. A few weeks ago my phone started to randomly shut down, not properly just complete power off in an instant. It would then start to reboot and get to the Samsung S4 logo screen before powering off again and trying to reboot and then gets stuck in a constant loop. At first I was able to just reinstall CF root with Odin and it would start up OK. I could also get it to start by re-installing Philz recovery.

Now though, that doesn't work so this morning I installed JB 4.3 I9505XXUEMK8-PRE-ROOTED-KNOX-FREE-ODEX-FULL.tar.MD5 and it says that it is rooted and everything seems to be OK but after an hour or so it has started to randomly shut down again. If I attempt to go into recovery (stock) and clear the cache partition it will reboot normally and run for a while until I use an app and do it again. Am I doing something wrong here or is my phone just knackered?

Phooka

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Hi,

Any luck with your problem? I seem to have the same problem... Only difference is that my phone is not rooted yet.

I did have a swollen battery and had it replaced, still no luck in the phone working.

Thanks

I think resolved

Still problems ...

Fixed a similar issue.

Hi!

I had the exact same problem of my Galaxy S4 (GT I9500) being stuck in a boot loop.

It kept powering on as soon as I inserted the battery without pressing the power button at all.

I found numerous google results focusing on replacing the power button in a DIY manner but that seemed too much work.

So I just inserted the battery and the phone started with the endless loop again.

I first tried pressing the power button on it's lower half and then it's upper half just to know if it was permanently pressed in. The lower half of the button seemed okay but the upper one seemed a bit less "pressable". So with one of my nails, I just tried to gently pull out the top half of the button from above. (Make sure you don't scratch the silver off your power button).

And Voila! The infini-boot loop stopped happening.

I might replace the power button later, but for now, I'll just be using the lower part of the power button for as long as possible.

Hope this helps someone.

Regards.