How to fix Samsung Galaxy A3 with Black Screen of Death issue (easy steps)

Some of our readers with the Samsung Galaxy A3 reported to have encountered the Black Screen of Death (BSoD) issue. More often than not, it’s just a minor problem unless the phone got dropped on a hardware surface or in water which may have resulted to physical or liquid damage. Needless to say, you can fix it and bring the phone back to life.

The most common signs of the black screen of death are the following:

  • Blank and unresponsive screen
  • Unresponsive keys
  • Won’t turn on
  • Not charging
  • Sounds off when texts and/or calls are received

In this post, I will walk you through in fixing this problem as I will share with you the solution that has been used by many of our readers. While we are confident our solution will work, there’s no guarantee it will work to every BSoD issue out there but take time to try it.

For those who are looking for a solution to a different problem, drop by our A3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common issues with this phone. Browse through the page to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you still need our help, contact us anytime through our Android issues questionnaire.

A quick fix for Galaxy A3 with black screen of death

This problem can occur anytime and it’s very annoying. It will cause panic to some because clearly the phone will become an expensive paperweight if the owner doesn’t know how to bring it back to life. Among the most common causes of BSoD are the following:

  • Minor glitch in the system
  • System crash
  • Apps keep on crashing and affected the firmware
  • Serious firmware issue
  • Hardware problem

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Should you encounter this problem, here’s the first thing you should do and it may be the only thing you would have to do to fix it:

  • Press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key together for 10 seconds.

This is what you call the Forced Restart which simulates battery disconnect. It has the same effects as the battery pull procedure we often do to phones with removable batteries. It refreshes your phone’s memory and forces it to boot up.

If your phone doesn’t respond to it, then do this:

  1. Press and hold the Volume Down button first.
  2. Without letting go of it, press and hold the Power key as well.
  3. Keep both keys held for 10 seconds and your phone may boot up.

It’s possible that the battery got drained so if the device doesn’t respond to the first two attempts, try this:

  1. Plug the charger to a working wall outlet.
  2. Connect the phone to the charger using the original cable.
  3. Regardless whether it shows the charging signs or not, leave it charging for 10 minutes.
  4. Now do the Forced Restart procedure again but this time while the phone is connected to its charger.

After doing all these and your phone is still not responding, there are a few troubleshooting procedures you can do before you finally send it in for repair.

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Troubleshooting Galaxy A3 that won’t respond to Forced Restart

If you reach this point, there already is a possibility that this problem is more than just a firmware glitch or crash but I hope you would try troubleshooting it before having someone to check it out for you. However, if you are not comfortable doing it yourself, then I suggest you immediately bring the phone to the service center. Now, for those who are willing to troubleshoot their device, here’s what I suggest you do about this:

Try running it in Safe mode

It’s possible one or some of the apps is causing the problem that’s why it’s imperative you start the phone in Safe mode. In this environment, all third-party apps are temporarily disabled so if one of them is preventing the phone from turning on normally, then it should boot up in this environment.

  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 actually turns on, you can already consider the problem fixed and the next thing you should do is to find the app that’s causing the problem and uninstall it. I understand that it’s easier said than done but try to uninstall first the apps you recently installed:

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

On the other hand, if the phone is still not responding after an attempt to run it in safe mode, then try the next step.

Try booting the phone up in Recovery mode

What we’re trying to accomplish here is simply to know if the phone is still capable of booting up into the Android system recovery. Even if it has a serious firmware issue, it may still be able to boot up into this environment provided the hardware is fine. If successful, you can try wiping the cache partition and then reboot the device. But the moment the phone boots up in this mode, the problem is already fixed that’s why it’s important. Should the phone have issues booting up after wiping the cache partition, you proceed with master reset.

How to boot Galaxy A3 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 boot in recovery mode and do the Master reset

  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.

If all else fails, bring the phone to the service center so the technician can check it up for you.

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