How to fix Samsung Galaxy J5 with black screen of death issue [Troubleshooting Guide]

More often, the black screen of death (BSoD) is characterized by a blank display that’s unresponsive to touch. But aside from that, you can see that there is a blinking or pulsing light above the screen and more often it’s blue, which is a sign that you might have some unread messages or notifications.

Samsung Galaxy J5 black screen

We have received quite  a lot of reports from our readers who own Samsung Galaxy J5 units who said that their devices has these symptoms. There were also those who reported their device only have black screen but without the blinking light. It might be the same case as with BSoD but we do suggest that we troubleshoot your phone as using our troubleshooting guide for Galaxy J5 that won’t turn on.

In this post, I will walk our readers through troubleshooting their devices with the black screen of death issue. We will consider every possibility and rule them one by one until we get to the point wherein it would be a lot easier to determine what the problem really is. This way, we can try to formulate a solution that not only fixes the problem but also prevents it from happening again in the future.

Before anything else though, if you have other issues with your device, then visit our Galaxy J5 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed several common problems with this phone. Odds are that there are already existing solutions to your problems so just take time finding issues that are similar with yours. If you can’t find one or if you need further assistance, feel free to contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. Please provide us with as much information as possible so that it would also be easier for us to troubleshoot the problem. Don’t worry as we offer this service for free, so all you have to do is give us sufficient information about the problem.

How to troubleshoot Galaxy J5 with black screen of death

Problem: Hi. I just found your website while trying to find a solution to the problem I have with my Galaxy J5. I hope you will help me with my problem because I’m already so worried about this phone as it won’t turn on. I mean the screen is black and the phone won’t turn on when I press the power key. But there’s blue light that keeps blinking as if I have messages I haven’t read. Is my phone still powered on? Why is it that it won’t respond? Help me please. Thanks.

Troubleshooting: You know what, we can only do so much about a phone that won’t respond so there are a few steps in this troubleshooting guide and we’re hoping that one of them could fix this issue. Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Remove the battery from your phone

I understand you can see there’s blinking blue light at the top of the screen and the phone might actually still be powered up but the operating system isn’t responding. If you’ve used old computers, it’s basically the same as when the computer hangs and you’re stuck on a screen because it doesn’t respond anymore. What we usually do is unplug the power cord and then plug it back in and turn the computer on.

Since we’re dealing with a phone here, we only have to remove the battery to cut it off from its power source and then we’ll try to start your phone up again. But there’s a little more steps…

  1. Remove the back cover of your phone.
  2. Pull the battery out.
  3. Press and hold the Power key for a minute to drain stored electricity in some components.
  4. Place the battery back in and secure it with the  back cover.
  5. Turn the phone on.

If your phone actually turned on after this, then problem solved. Otherwise, try the next step.

Step 2: Charge your phone for 5 minutes

Let’s just rule out the possibility that the phone won’t turn on due to drained battery. So, connect it to its charger that’s plugged into the wall outlet that works. Leave it charging for 5 minutes regardless whether it responds immediately when you connect it or not. Be mindful, however, of its temperature. If you notice the phone heats up while charging, remove the charger immediately and at this point, don’t continue your troubleshooting. Instead, bring the phone to the shop and let the tech handle the problem for you. It seems like it’s a hardware-related problem.

However, if the phone doesn’t heat up, leave it charging for a few minutes and then attempt to turn it on. If still no, the next step might help.

Step 3: Attempt to start your phone up in Safe mode

This step is used to rule out the possibility that the problem is caused by one or some of the third-party apps you installed. You have to boot your phone in safe mode to temporarily disable all third-party elements so that you can isolate the problem immediately.

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
  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’.

If you’ve successfully brought your phone up to start in safe mode, then problem solved. At least you can now rest assured the problem isn’t with the hardware. Usually we suggest finding the apps that are causing the problem but that would take forever to finish especially if you already have hundreds of apps in your phone. So, I suggest you just backup your files and data and then reset your phone to fix this problem.

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Backup and reset.
  4. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  5. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  6. Tap Factory data reset.
  7. Tap Reset device.
  8. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
  9. Tap Continue.
  10. Tap Delete all.

Step 4: Attempt to start your phone up in Recovery mode

You only have to do this procedure if your phone didn’t boot up in safe mode. When it comes to firmware issues, your phone has a fail-safe that will allow users to actually still do some general troubleshooting procedures. That fail-safe is the Recovery Mode and even if your phone has a serious firmware problem for as long as the the firmware wasn’t tampered or modified, there’s still a chance  you can boot it up in this mode. And if successful, you can try wiping the cache partition and doing the reset.

How to start Galaxy J5 in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

  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 cache partition.’
  6. Press the Power key to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
  8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

How to start Galaxy J5 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.

I hope this fixes the problem because if not, then seek more help from a technician.

Connect with us

We are always open to your problems, questions and suggestions, so feel free to contact us by filling up this form. This is a free service we offer and we won’t charge you a penny for it. But please note that we receive hundreds of emails every day and it’s impossible for us to respond to every single one of them. But rest assured we read every message we receive. For those whom we’ve helped, please spread the word by sharing our posts to your friends or by simply liking our Facebook and Google+ page or follow us on Twitter.

TheDroidGuy Mailbag

🛠️If you have questions, check our Help section for details on how to submit your questions.💡


Posts You Might Like

1 thought on “How to fix Samsung Galaxy J5 with black screen of death issue [Troubleshooting Guide]”

Leave a Comment