Black screen of Death (BSoD) issue is not new and it occurs not just in Samsung devices but to all android platforms. If the problem started after the update, it's not far that the firmware was ruined during the process or the files and data had been corrupted and caused the BSoD issue is happening. The good thing is, this type of problem is just a minor issue and you can easily fix it through simple procedures without the help from the tech. However, if your phone was dropped or has liquid damage, then there's no point of performing any methods but immediately ask help from the tech for your phone might have a hardware-related issue. But if you're sure that your device has hardware issue, then proceed and perform these methods:
Step 1: Perform battery-pull procedure
This method will refresh phone's memory and close all running apps in the background. So, if a glitch in the system is causing the issue, then your phone will surely fix it after this step. Remove the battery and press and hold the Power button for 7 seconds to release all electricity in the hardware components. After that, place it back the battery and turn on your Galaxy S4. If the device still not responding, move to the next method.
Step 2: Charge your phone and restart it in Safe Mode
To be sure that the battery is not empty all you need to do is to charge your phone for several hours until full regardless if the device is responding or not. When the time elapse, try to restart your phone in safe mode to eliminate the suspicion that a culprit is not causing the issue. It will disable temporarily all downloaded apps and the pre-installed ones left running in the system. If your phone boots up in safe mode, obviously there's an app you need to find and uninstall to resolve the issue. Follow these steps to boot your phone in Safe mode:
- Turn your phone off.
- Press and hold the Power button.
- Once the Samsung S4 logo appears, release the Power button.
- As soon as you release the Power button, immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
- Continue holding the Volume Down button until the phone has completed the reboot process.
- If can read 'Safe mode' at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
But if safe mode procedure is not helping and your phone still unresponsive, then proceed to the next method.
Step 3: Reboot your phone in Recovery Mode
Since, the device still happening even in safe mode the last option that you can do is to boot your device in recovery mode. Meaning, you have to power up all hardware components of your S4 without loading its android interface. If the device boots up, you can immediately wipe the cache partition to eliminate the suspicion that corrupted files and data triggered the problem. To boot it in recovery mode, follow these steps:
- Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power buttons.
- Release the Power button when the phone vibrates but continue to press and hold the Volume Up and Home buttons.
- When the Android System recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home buttons.
- Using the Volume Down button highlight 'wipe cache partition.'
- Press the Power button to select the option.
- The phone will automatically restart once cache and data are wiped out.
However, if restarting in recovery mode failed to boot the device, the best thing that you should do is to bring your Galaxy S4 to the shop and let the tech check it for you.
