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How to fix Samsung Galaxy A5 that’s overheating due to possible liquid damage (easy steps)

ByHarold Hisona

The Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) like the flagships is water-resistant as it has the IP68 certification. However, that’s not a guarantee that your phone would no longer suffer from liquid damage. In fact, we did receive some complaints from our readers who reported that their device started to heat up or overheat after being splashed with water.

In this post, I will tackle this problem for the benefit of our readers who reached out to us seeking for assistance. We will try to look into every possibility and rule out each one of them until we can easily determine what the problem is or what caused the phone to overheat. I understand it’s probably due to liquid damage but we’ll have to do some procedures to know for sure.

But before we actually move on to our troubleshooting, if you have other issues with your phone, then visit our Galaxy A5 troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed some of the most common problems with this device. In case you need more help with your problem, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

Few easy steps to troubleshoot Galaxy A5 that overheats

Overheating is no simple matter but there are times the phone heats due to some minor issues with apps or the firmware itself. This post is dealing with overheating that’s possibly caused by liquid damage but we shouldn’t stop there because it could be something else. Here’s a few easy steps you can do to try and fix this problem…

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Confirm if there are signs of liquid damage in your phone

This must be the first thing you should do because if you can confirm that the phone is actually overheating due to liquid damage, then there’s no point in doing more troubleshooting procedures; the only way to deal with it is to clean the phone from the inside. Follow this simple procedure to verify if there’s indeed a sign of liquid damage in your phone…

  1. Look into the USB / charger port because it often harbors moisture especially if your phone got splashed with or dipped in water.
  2. Use a cotton swab to clean around the area or insert a piece of tissue paper to absorb the moist.
  3. Blow into the hole to get rid of any foreign objects or if you have a can of compressed air, give it a blast or two.
  4. You also need to check the Liquid Damage Indicator (LDI) of your device to know if it’s tripped or not.
  5. Remove the SIM card tray and look into the slot to find a small sticker; if it’s white, then the problem may not be due to liquid damage but if it turned red, pink or purple, then it’s positive your phone is suffering from liquid damage.

If the phone has signs of liquid damage, then bring it to the service center so the technician can clean it up for you. A device that still powers on (even if it overheats) despite having signs of liquid damage can still be fixed. On the way to the tech, just keep the phone turned off so the problem won’t get worse.

However, if there are no clear signs of liquid damage, continue your troubleshooting as you may be able to fix the problem all by yourself.

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Reboot your Galaxy A5 in Safe mode

Assuming that your phone doesn’t show any signs of liquid damage, the next thing you should do is disable third-party apps to know if the phone still heats up after doing so. It would take you forever to disable apps one by one. There is, however, one way to disable them all at once and that’s by running your phone up in Safe mode:

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

Once the phone started up in this mode successfully, continue using your device like you always do to know if it still overheats. If it does, move on to the next step but if it doesn’t, then it’s clear that your downloaded apps (at least, some of them) have something to do with this problem. If you suspect an app or two, try uninstalling them to see if the problem gets fixed. This is how you uninstall an app from your A5:

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display preinstalled apps.
  4. Tap the desired application.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

If finding the culprit isn’t as easy as it’s supposed to be, then backup your data and then do the factory reset:

  1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
  2. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  3. Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
  4. Tap Backup and reset.
  5. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  6. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  7. Use the back key to move back to the Settings menu and tap General management.
  8. Tap Reset > Factory data reset.
  9. Tap Reset.
  10. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
  11. Tap Continue.
  12. Tap Delete all.

Reset all settings in your phone

You only have to do this if your phone still heats up while in safe mode. This procedure will bring the phone back to its default settings and if the problem is due to some messed up or incorrect settings in your device, this should take care of the problem. None of your files and data will be deleted if you do this so there’s nothing to worry about…

  1. From a Home screen, swipe up or down from the center of the display to access the apps screen.
  2. Navigate: Settings Settings icon > Backup and reset.
  3. From the Reset section, tap Reset settings.
  4. Review the info then tap RESET SETTINGS.
  5. If presented, enter the current PIN, password, or pattern.
  6. To confirm, review the info then tap RESET SETTINGS.

If the phone is still overheating after this, then you will have to resort to a reset before bringing the phone to the service center.

Backup important files and do the Master Reset

After doing all the previous procedures and the phone is still heating up, there’s no guarantee that the problem would be fixed by a reset but I personally encountered overheating issues that got fixed by a reset before so I still suggest you do this. Besides, if the problem still persists after the reset, the next thing you should do is bring the phone to the service center so it would serve as a good preparation since all your personal stuff will be deleted.

Now, prior to the reset, make sure that you remove your google account from your phone so that you won’t be locked out and after which, follow these steps to reset your device:

  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 Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds, then ‘No command’ before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  7. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  8. When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

I hope that this troubleshooting guide can help you one way or another. If you have other concerns you want to tell us about, feel free to contact us.

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