Hi all, need some advice,
In the last couple of weeks, my S4 has been behaving erratically; first it started slowing down, with apps crashing randomly. Then, it began to spontaneously reboot (the blue light would come on and the menu and back buttons would light up first). Then, it began to hang on reboots. Finally, it started totally freezing during these reboots at the VZW splash screen. Total brick. It is frustrating to say the least, particularly since, in addition to being my phone, music player, and commute companion, it is (was) my alarm clock too!
Anyway, yesterday during one of these reboots, I was able to get it into Safe Mode once to remove a couple of my recently-installed apps, hoping they were the conflict. No joy. Now, I can't even get the phone into safe mode. I also tried erasing the user data as well (home-power-up volume button combo). No joy. The phone charges just fine, BTW, using the car charger or wall charger.
The phone is unmodded, not rooted, and basically stock.
So now, I have a phone that is an awesome light (boy that splash screen is BRIGHT!), but that's about it. I would love to do a total wipe and reinstall at this point just to have it working again, but I'm stumped. Any ideas?? Thank you so much in advance!
-Jason
Oh no! Let's work on getting your awesome S4 to be more than a pretty flashlight again, JPG123. It certainly seems as if you're on the right path. Safe Mode is a great way to get into your phone and purge a few things. If it stopped rebooting when you did happen to get it into Safe Mode, that does indicate the reset you were trying should get your phone back to normal too. Sometimes getting into the recovery screen is tricky though, as it's not as simple as just holding the 3 keys you mentioned.
The phone has to be completely powered down to start with. Then you'll need to press and hold the Power button & Volume up key & Home key for quite some time. You'd let go of only the power button when the phone vibrates but keep holding the Volume & Home key until you see the Android logo. Once that little green guy appears, you can let go of all the keys. You'll need to use your volume keys to highlight and power key to select wipe data/factory reset, then Yes -- delete all user data and last but not least to reboot the system now.
Please keep us posted if that helps.
JenniferH_VZW
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My phone is having this exact same problem. I have gotten it to the safe mode menu and done a wipe of everything to no avail. my next thought was to try and use the options provided here to redownload the drivers: http://www.theandroidsoul.com/drivers-installation-guide-for-samsung-galaxy-smartphones-and-tabs/
does this sound like a safe bet? is there anywhere i can get the drivers here?
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