How to fix Samsung Galaxy J3 with black screen of death issue (easy steps)

The black screen of death (BSoD) manifests in different ways but the most common of them all is when the phone’s screen remains blank no matter what you do but the phone is actually showing signs that it’s powered on and still working. For instance, when messages or calls come in, you can hear the phone play the notification tone but the screen won’t turn on. The second most common sign of BSoD is when the phone seems completely dead.

Some of our readers with the Samsung Galaxy J3 have contacted us regarding this problem that’s why we have to address this once again even if we’ve already tackled similar issues in the past. This is for the benefit of our readers who reached out to us asking for help. So, if you’re one of the owners of this phone and are currently bugged by this problem, continue reading as this post may help you fix it.

For owners who are looking for a solution to a different problem, drop by our Galaxy J3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common problems with this device. Browse through the page to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work or if you need further assistance don’t hesitate to contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

Step by step guide to fixing black screen of death on Galaxy J3

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More often than not, the black screen of death is a result of a system crash and while it may seem like a serious problem, it’s actually not. You can fix it using the method I will share with you in a little while. However, if this problem resulted from an attempt to modify the firmware, then it’s most likely that the process failed or you may have installed a ROM that’s corrupt or lacking files. You may need to reinstall the stock firmware to be able to use your phone again.

But if this issue started for no apparent reason, then here’s what you should do to fix it…

If you’re using the original or the 2016 variant of this device, all you gotta do is remove the battery from the phone and then press the Power key for a minute. This will refresh your phone’s memory and may boot it up the moment you re-insert the battery and press the Power key.

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However, if you have the 2017 variant which has a non-removable battery, you just have to press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key simultaneously for 10 seconds. It’s called the Forced Restart and has similar effect as with the battery pull procedure. If the phone does not respond to this method, try to repeat the process but this press and hold the Volume Down button first and without letting go of it, press and hold the Power key. Keep both keys held for 10 seconds and see if the phone reboots.

Now, if your device doesn’t respond to this method, then you will have to try troubleshooting it. Don’t worry, I will walk you through every step of the way until we’ve exhausted everything.

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Troubleshooting Galaxy J3 with black screen of death

In this troubleshooting guide, we will try to determine what the problem is all about so that we can try to formulate a solution that might fix the problem and prevent it from happening again in the future. There are a few things you need to do to rule out every possibility. With all that being said, try to go through the procedures below…

Make sure it’s not due to liquid damage

As the owner, you should be the first one to know what happened to your phone and why it’s not responding at all. But there are times when issues like this just occur out of the blue so the first thing you need to check is the possibility that the problem is due to liquid damage:

  1. Look into the USB / charger port to find traces of water.
  2. Use a cotton swab to clean the area or insert a small piece of tissue to absorb the moist.
  3. You may also blow into it to get rid of any foreign materials that might have interfered with circuits.
  4. Check the Liquid Damage Indicator (LDI) to see if it’s tripped or not. Just remove the SIM card tray and look into the SIM slot to find a small sticker.
  5. If the LDI is white, then there’s no liquid damage but if it turned red or purple, it’s obvious that the cause of the problem is liquid.

In case it’s liquid damage, bring the phone to the service center to have a technician check it for you.

Try charging your phone to know how it responds

After making sure this problem isn’t due to liquid damage, you should try charging your device to see if it responds to that. It’s possible that this problem is just due to a drained battery that’s why your device isn’t responding no matter you do.

So, plug the charger in to a working wall outlet and connect your phone to it using the original cable. Regardless whether the phone shows the charging symbol on the screen or not, allow it to charge for at least ten minutes provided it’s not heating up. After which, try to turn it on to see if it responds. If still not, then do the Forced Restart once again but this time while the device is connected to its charger.

After this and the phone is still not responding, move on to the next procedure.

Attempt to boot your phone up in Safe mode

The most important thing at this moment is to see your phone power up its display and reach the home screen because if that’s the case, you can already consider the problem fixed. So, try running the phone in safe mode where everything is loaded except for third-party apps:

  1. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
  2. When ‘SAMSUNG’ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  3. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  4. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  5. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  6. Release the Volume down key when you see ‘Safe Mode’.

If the phone is still not responding to this procedure, then do the next one.

Try booting the phone up in Recovery mode

The Android system recovery is the fail-safe of phones running Android. The components will all be powered up but the user interface is not. Even if the phone has some serious firmware issues, it may still be able to boot up in this mode. It’s important that you do this procedure to know if the problem is with the hardware or not. If you can successfully boot your phone up in this mode, you can do a couple of things that have a significant impact and that’s to wipe the cache partition and Master Reset.

How to boot your phone in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

  1. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  2. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
  5. Press the Power key to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
  7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

How to do the Master reset on your Galaxy J3

Assuming you’ve successfully booted the phone up in Recovery mode, then it’s clear that the hardware is fine. At this point, the issue is reduced to not booting up instead of not turning on. You can fix it by doing the master reset but take note all your files and data will be deleted if you did this…

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
  4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
  6. Press Power button to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

However, the phone cannot boot up in this mode, then it’s time to bring it to the service center as it might be a hardware problem after all.

I hope that this troubleshooting guide can help you one way or another. If you still need our help, feel free to contact us anytime.

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