Galaxy S8 Plus - "Black screen of death".

[The_Sentinel]

Good evening - Urgent help required for my 'dead' phone!

I have had my S8 Plus from new and up until yesterday, I have never had a problem with it.

I was using the phone (which had approx. 75% battery capacity) when it suddenly turned itself off.

The Samsung start-up screen appeared for about a second and then nothing, the phone was absolutely dead.

I've tried both the 2 button and 3 button fixes, but without success, also the phone will not charge now.

I need to be able to retrieve 100% of the phone content prior to entrusting it to someone for repair, as I can't risk losing anything at all.

Does anyone know of a Recovery Software package that I can use to retrieve all the content from my 'dead' phone  to my PC?

Please note: the phone  has not been 'rooted'.

Thanks in advance for any help with this issue.      

[Robin999]

Hi,

If you've already tried a hard reset, then it's not worth trying again. The phone needs to be powered up anyway.

Can't recall if the S8 was wireless compatible. If so try a wireless charger. If it charges then maybe look to the cable / charger being at fault or worse the charging port. Check the port too as a matter of course. Look for any dust or debris. Did the phone get hot before it died?

Try a boot to recovery mode.

Plug into a working pc or laptop. (Note: does the charging circle show up on the phone).

Follow instructions in the link below

https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-i-clear-the-cache-on-my-device/

Try wiping the cache partition and then reboot. Note there's also a factory reset option there, but you'll need a recent backup if you need your stuff back again.

If that doesn't work or you can't boot to recovery, then for now, just leave the phone plugged into the pc / laptop for several hours.

Report back with your findings.

[The_Sentinel]

Hi,

Thanke for you prompt response. 
I have tried the phone with several chargers and leads without success. Also tried it connected to USB on a few of our laptops and my Desktop PC. No luck.

Can’t try wiping the cache or rebooting as the phone will not power up. The phone also ‘died’ when 75% charged.

I’m really looking for suggestions for Recovery Software packages for a completely dead phone.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[The_Sentinel]

Hi again,

This morning's update with the S8+ black screen issue.

Last thing last night i decided to try charging the phone after it had been completely dead for the past two days and had refused all attempts to charge it from several different sources..  To my surprise, the phone buzzed and started to charge. I left the phone on charge all night.

I checked the phone first thing this morning and saw that the green light was on. Pressed the 'power on' button and the phone started up and progressed to the full 'home screen' status, showing 100% charge.

i swiped to the 'Apps' screen, but the screen was frozen. There was no response from touching any of the App icons. The phone then shut down, displayed the Samsung start-up screen briefly and then went to a black screen, i.e. completely dead again. 

I tried the '3 button fix' and the phone displayed the blue / white Android screen, with the message "Installing system update". The phone then just froze at this stage and and has been in this state for the last 2 hours.

At the moment, I have left the phone plugged in to the charger, with the frozen Android screen displaying 'Installing System Update'  I'm not sure where to go from here. To be quite honest, it's driving me nuts as I have no phone and this issue is taking up a lot of my valuable time.

Has  anyone had a similar experience with the S8+ and can suggest what I should do next please?

Thanks in advance.  

[Robin999]

Well that's something I guess. Leave it plugged in and let it play out.

[The_Sentinel]

Hi again.

I managed to get out of the frozen Android screen situation. Got the Samsung start-up screen back up, but then the phone froze on that screen.

I’ve taken the phone to a repair shop now for it to be checked. Their initial feeling is that it’s a circuit board issue. I’ll know more in a couple of days.

I’ve retrieved the SD card from the phone, so some of my data will be on it. My concern is that other data may be stored on the phone’s internal storage (e.g. Samsung Notes files etc). Can this and other data be recovered from a dead phone’s internal storage? 

[Robin999]

Hi,

Sorry to hear that ☹️

Notes might be backed up to Samsung cloud (along with other stuff) if you enabled it? Have you got another Samsung device?

[The_Sentinel]

Hi,

Not sure if Samsung Cloud was enabled or not on my S8. Very remiss of me I’ll agree!
My youngest son has a brand new Samsung phone. Not sure what model it is though.

[Robin999]

You could use that to put your Samsung account in and see what happens.

Samsung Cloud has a website, too, if you want to check what's backed up.

https://support.samsungcloud.com/#/

[The_Sentinel]

Thanks for the info. My son’s phone is the S24 Ultra. Will check out your suggestions. Thanks again.