Chosen Solution

So, my Galaxy S4 is totally unresponsive. It won’t turn on or even charge. The backstory: The phone was working perfectly after a new battery. I tried resetting the phone using the volume-down-home-and-power-button method. However, I read incorrectly and held all 4 buttons down (power, volume up, volume down and home). Now the phone is just black; it won’t turn back on or do anything. The only thing it does do is show up as a recognized device on my PC. I have never connected it to the PC before, so Windows installed some form of driver. Whenever it’s connected or disconnected from the computer, the PC makes the regular Windows sounds as if the phone is recognized—but nothing pops up.

The power button on my S4 started acting up, so I took the battery out. When I put the battery back in it wouldn’t come back on. I would get a second of the start-up screen and the vibration and then it would shut down. When plugged into a computer it, the PC wasn’t recognizing it and the charging light wouldn’t come on either. I spoke with a co-worker of mine who had an S3 at one point and told me how she fixed the problem when that happened to her. Apparently, you have to bang on it. I know it sounds stupid, but the power button is stuck and you have to get it un-stuck. People have broken their phones doing this, so please be careful. I banged mine on a softer surface—a 3 ring binder set on a desktop. And I didn’t bang on it with the screen side down because I didn’t want to shatter the screen. I cupped my hand over it so the screen wouldn’t make contact with anything while I was beating on it. Lastly, I tapped the side of the phone (where the power button is at) onto the desktop a few times at kind of an angle (not flat with the countertop), and avoiding the power button itself—and it worked!!!! So, my advice is to gently beat on it! LOL

I had the same problem. Phone turned off and wouldn’t turn on or charge. I took out the battery, held down the power on button for 30 seconds, put battery back in, and powered on again. Worked like a charm.

The first thing I would try would be to use Samsung Kies to reset the device. You will likely loose all of your data but it won’t be of much use if the phone won’t turn on at all. Also are you getting a charging icon when the phone is plugged into the charger? Have you tried simply taking the battery out and holding the power button for 30 seconds or so then putting the battery in and trying it again?

power ic on the phones are blown , you need to replace the part for the phone to get power or charge your battery . its not a software problem its hardware .

I had the same problem as everyone else. I tried the hold 3 button resets etc with no luck. I pulled out my volt meter and read 4V on the battery so I knew the battery had a charge (not totally dead). I then measured the (+) and (-) leads on the phone and saw that it was still registering 1V with the battery out. It was slowly bleeding off voltage (dropping to .98, .97, etc). I took a piece of metal and shorted the 2 pins to totally discharge the capacitors in the phone. That way I was guaranteed that all power inside the phone was exhausted. I powered up the phone like normal and everything worked. I think it was a glitch or something that put the phone in an unusable state. Just pulling the battery and reinserting is not long enough to exhaust power from the phones internal circuits. If you are uncomfortable shorting the pins out on the phone, Id pull the battery and leave it out a long time - 15 to 30 min. Like I said the power internally was slowly bleeding off. If you dont have patience, you can get the voltage to 0 instantaneously with a paperclip or some other piece of metal across the pins ON THE PHONE. NEVER SHORT THE PINS ON THE BATTERY!! NEVER SHORT THE PINS ON THE BATTERY!! should I say it again? NEVER SHORT THE PINS ON THE BATTERY!! I hope this helps someone.

Bro I had the same problem but wat I did was I put my charger in the phone and I pressed the on and off button so many times until the battery with the circle in it as soon as u get to tht point keep pressing it then the battery will come back with a little bit of green init wen u get to tht part thn u have to hold the on and off button until the Samsung galaxy s4 pops up wen u get there ur done ur phone will work if it shuts off again and u have the problem do wat I sed over again

im haveing the same problem and i looked it up i think its either your battery or your phone screen burnt.

Hi, My phone did the exact same thing. Was working perfectly and then nothing. I tried the volume button, home button, power button thing and it did not work. I took it to a T Mobile corporate store and they pronounced it old, outdated and in need of replacement. I had no choice, I have no other phone so I was going to buy a phone. She took my drivers licenses and I was getting ready to buy. As I was waiting, I kept holding the buttons and amazingly it came back to life. Works fine. A different forum suggested holding them for 15 seconds, another 30 seconds. I held mine for more like 2 minutes so don’t give up and perhaps it just needs a car ride to a cellular store.

I got mine working, tried my friends battery in mine and it turned on, same thing happened to his phone. Try that before anything else

try taking the battery out and putting it back in

I had yhe same issue with my wife’s fone. I took the battery from my s3 and put it in the s4, put a folded piece of paper to keep the battery from moving.I held the power, home and down button at the same time. The fone turned on and works. I hope this helps.

Turn your phone off Hold Volume Up + Lock Button + Home button until you see something on the screen then release Using the volume up and down buttons to navigate select wipe data/factory reset (this deletes all your files, be warned) If this doesn’t solve your problem then you need to do this: Download Odin Go to Sammobile and search for the official firmware for your device. Make sure Odin recognizes your device, it should appear in the box located in the bottom left of the program Where it says “PDA” locate it to install the .tar file you just downloaded from Sammobile (your firmware) Make sure re-parition is not checked Click start This should solve all your problems but in the mean time will reset all your data so make sure your issue is software related before doing this

I had this problem and I just kept playing with it. When i would take out the battery and put it back in I would get that quick vibrate like it was gona turn on, but then it wouldnt. And when i plugged in the charger, nothing happened either. So i took out an put in the battery again, and when the vibrate came, I plugged it in. The I would get the charging symbol, but then it turned off again. So I kept doing that and same thing. Then I tried the 30 second thing with the battery out, and when I put it in, the Galaxy logo thing came up, but then it turned off. Then I did the vibrate thing again, and when i plugged it in, it was charging. Then I held the power button and it turned on.

I’m having all the same issues that everyone on this forum is having. It’s been 2 days and after reading many forums, troubleshooting with the manufacturing website and cell service carrier, and going to the Verizon store (where they said the phone was dead, which I believe they just wanted me to buy a new phone so they get their commission), I gave it one last shot with a suggestion from an S3 forum.

  1. Remove battery.
  2. Hold power button for a minute to drain any left over battery.
  3. Bang/hit phone up against the table with gentle force (yes I know .. an oxymoron) several times. I just banged it up against the heel of my hand. I didn’t want to cause any cosmetic damage to my phone.
  4. Reinsert battery.
  5. Power up. This procedure sounded weird to me, but I was desperate to try anything. I didn’t want to have to shell out money for a new phone. It’s been a day, and everything is working fine. It’s worth a shot trying this method. If it helps, AWESOME! If it doesn’t, I’m sorry and good luck in trying to find a remedy other than just buying a new phone.

Just had this happen to my VZW Galaxy S4. I tried banging the phone method & IT WORKED!!!! I banged it on my dish TV remote since it has the raised soft touch buttons. I was banging the phone PRETTY HARD. Guess what ever shortage was happening got fixed. Seems to be a time tested ultimate fix it recipe! Good luck to those who’re having the same issues. Can’t wait for my upgrade in June to go back to iPhone!

Might be that brightness was accidentally adjusted… Had the same issues after making a call on a perfectly good phone, while in the sun. After hanging up seemed like phone had no power, only because the brightness somehow decreased to the minimum level. View phone in a darker room and should be able to see screen and go into settings and adjust brightness.

This happened to me twice. Both times, the charger caused the battery symbol on the top right of the screen to have an x through it, which I always shrugged off. This question has already been answered but this is how to prevent it.

I connected to my laptop, the empty, black and white battery sign showed up on the screen. But that was not showing up when I connected with charger. So I waited. After about 8 to 10 minutes it started to charge the battery. I didn’t turn on the phone until the battery was about 10% charged. Then I disconnected from the laptop and connected to the charger, and it was than charging as it usually does.

open it up. remove battery. push al buttons for 10 seconds to release any current in the device. open device up. remove al flex cables and leave for 20mins. refit all flex cables, insert a new or full charged battery and power on, or use volume up, power and home to get to firmware screen…. if nothing leave on a WALL charger overnight, don’t use USB to PC charger.

What you guys have to do is take it to your carrier and they will do a system maintenance on it which will then fix your phone see what happened was your phone crashes and then you have to get it refurbished so all your doing is getting the software repaired and your phone refurbished hope this helps you guys

Try the smack method hit the power button a bunch make sure it has a charge and smack it against your knee(not too hard don’t break the phone) it fixed my s4 with similar problem

It may have to do with the power button sticking. If you take the battery out and then put it back in, it vibrates and then shows the galaxy symbol but only for a second then turns off for good. No light for when it’s plugged in either. If this happens you can no longer use your phone. BUT! If you like your phone enough and don’t want to pay to upgrade it you’ll have to take apart and remove the power button. It’s not that hard though. The reason that you have to remove the power button is because it is stuck (pushed down) and you can’t unstick it and will constantly turn your phone off because it’s stuck. Here’s a video on youtube that shows you how. You’ll just need a tiny screwdriver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqPma5uj… You’ll have to download an app so that it can turn the screen shop because you won’t be able to without the power button.

The strangest thing happened with mine. For a while, mine was also bricked. I’d get the flashing blue light when trying to power it back on, but that was it. After many attempts I gave up, sealed it in the recycling bag and planned on shipping it away. I even, reluctantly, went out and got an S6 (which I hated and sold it a couple months later). When the time came for me to post my S4, for some strange reason I figured, why not give it one more shot. So I ripped open the package, pushed the power button, and it loaded up as if nothing had happened to it at all. THANK GOODNESS!!!! The only thing that I can think of is that there must have been some moisture in there that had fully aired out over the months of it sitting in a draw idle. I’ve had my S4 back up and running now for a few months.

well, have you tried leaving it on charge for a few minutes? if that doesn’t do anything, hold all buttons down at the same time until logo appears on the screen. (this applies to all phones). take it to a phone shop/contact a phone shop, to see the problem or get it replaced. if you don’t want to do that, the case might be that the phone is completely flat in which case it certainly wont turn on and the screen wil be completely black which the solution is to charge it. hope this helps,, it worked for me:)

Your charger port may be broken so try charging with wireless see if that works Update (01/22/2017) Try looking at teardowns to see if its the wires are misplaced or change the battery

Hello every one I show new method for this problem on YouTube Link video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6PmabkYZln…

no charging charging problem