Bricked S4

Marthinus100

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
938
Hi guys, had the wife's phone (Galaxy S4) sent in for screen repairs. Got it back and it kept restarting,so I did the Home button + Volume down and Power key and it went to a mode and said downloading do not turn of target. Well phone was plugged in to PC via usb cable and left alone. Hour or so later I got a dead phone. Wont do anything.

Is it repairable? Just spent R1400 on a new screen so really want to get it going again.
TIA
 

Old_Liver

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2012
Messages
837
Hi guys, had the wife's phone (Galaxy S4) sent in for screen repairs. Got it back and it kept restarting,so I did the Home button + Volume down and Power key and it went to a mode and said downloading do not turn of target. Well phone was plugged in to PC via usb cable and left alone. Hour or so later I got a dead phone. Wont do anything.

Is it repairable? Just spent R1400 on a new screen so really want to get it going again.
TIA
My first suggestion would be to try get the battery charged, or put a battery with some juice inside.
And attempt to flash it again using Odin when it's downloading mode.

Unfortunately you will lose all data if it works though.
 

Necropolis

Executive Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2007
Messages
8,401
My first suggestion would be to try get the battery charged, or put a battery with some juice inside.
And attempt to flash it again using Odin when it's downloading mode.

Unfortunately you will lose all data if it works though.

Yeah - plug it into a wall charger for a while and see if that makes a difference.
 

Jet-Fighter7700

Honorary Master
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Messages
31,618
^^^ this,

also I noticed when I fixed my s4 mini, the phone appears "dead"
until you charge it for a long time, at least an hour or more until you see something appear on the screen,

if after that it still does not work, board might be fried, needs a new main board, good news its its very easy to swap around...
if you have another s4 phone to swap boards from.
 

Lupus

Honorary Master
Joined
Apr 25, 2006
Messages
50,972
Hi guys, had the wife's phone (Galaxy S4) sent in for screen repairs. Got it back and it kept restarting,so I did the Home button + Volume down and Power key and it went to a mode and said downloading do not turn of target. Well phone was plugged in to PC via usb cable and left alone. Hour or so later I got a dead phone. Wont do anything.

Is it repairable? Just spent R1400 on a new screen so really want to get it going again.
TIA

Out of interest why did you go into download mode and not recovery mode? You hold the Volume up, home button and the power button, from there you can do the whole clearing cache and seeing what is up.
 

Marthinus100

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
938
Hi guys thanks for the replies so far, will charge it again to see if I come right. Lupus at the time I totally forgot there was a difference between Volume up and Volume down. Not something I mess with ever. Was desperate to get the damn thing going.
 

Lupus

Honorary Master
Joined
Apr 25, 2006
Messages
50,972
Hi guys thanks for the replies so far, will charge it again to see if I come right. Lupus at the time I totally forgot there was a difference between Volume up and Volume down. Not something I mess with ever. Was desperate to get the damn thing going.
Aaah yeah I guess that happens, try the plugged in for awhile and hopefully it comes on. Still think the S 4 was a cracker of a phone once the teething troubles were done.
 

airborne

Honorary Master
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
18,067
S4 is an amazing phone, even by today's standards I rate it highly, lightweight, decent camera, fast enough. But why pay R1400 for a new screen when that's typically more than a whole 2hnd S4 in good condition costs?

Also did you ask the repairer about the restarting issue, if it started doing that right after getting it back from repair they probably stuffed something up?
 

Marthinus100

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
938
Airborne, my location is somewhat isolated, and to get a phone repaired here privately, well beggars cant be choosers. Probably could have taken time and looked for other repair shops.

The repairer just told me to do a factory reset at home, and that's where I messed up.
 

pinball wizard

Honorary Master
Joined
Feb 9, 2010
Messages
34,358
If it starts in bootloop, or you can start in recovery or download mode, then it's not brick. Get odin, new firmware from sammobile and flash.
 

HunterGR

Expert Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2011
Messages
2,140
Had the same issue with my S4 last night, would not boot at all, got it into recovery mode , rooted it and installed Nougat 7.1.2

Running like a dream now
 

rubber_otter

Expert Member
Joined
May 25, 2009
Messages
2,033
Hi guys, had the wife's phone (Galaxy S4) sent in for screen repairs. Got it back and it kept restarting,so I did the Home button + Volume down and Power key and it went to a mode and said downloading do not turn of target. Well phone was plugged in to PC via usb cable and left alone. Hour or so later I got a dead phone. Wont do anything.

Is it repairable? Just spent R1400 on a new screen so really want to get it going again.
TIA

I see two problems here.

1. Getting it to the "Downloading" screen is right. But you need to have Odin with the firmware loaded ready. The phone is in download mode, but you still need to initialize the upload from the PC.
2. The USB port on your PC puts out a very low amperage. It will barely charge a phone on a good day. As above, plug the phone into a wall charger for a couple of hours.

I can offer to help over teamviewer, but you would need to confirm the exact model number. S4 GT-I9500 is probably the most common variant.

PM me if you need help.
 
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