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

The black screen of death (BSoD) not only occurs to high-end device but also to entry-level and mid-range phones like the Samsung Galaxy J5. In fact, we have received quite a lot of complaints from our readers who have encountered this problem. That’s the reason why we have to address such issue from time to time to help out those who are in need of our help.

 

Since we started providing support in 2012, we’ve already seen devices that just froze on their own without apparent reason and more often than not, they became unresponsive that they won’t even respond when plugged in to charge. In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy J5 that has the so-called “black screen of death.” So, if you own this phone and are currently experiencing a problem that may have the same symptoms, then read on as this post may be able to help you.

But before we jump right into our troubleshooting, if you have other issues with your phone, make sure you drop by our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed a lot of issues with this device. Try to find problems that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

Troubleshooting Galaxy J5 that has a black screen and not responding

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It is imperative that you take time to troubleshoot your phone to know if the issue can be fixed with you not asking any help from a technician. There’s nothing wrong with having your device checked by some professionals, we just want you to go through the hassle of explaining what the problem with your phone is not to mention the time you may spend waiting for your phone getting fixed without the guarantee that the problem is solved. That said, if you want to troubleshoot your device, then here’s what you should do…

Step 1: Perform the soft reset procedure by pulling the battery out

The Galaxy J5 has a user-removable battery so a soft reset is very easy to do; just remove the back cover and pull the battery out. In doing so, you are actually refreshing the phone’s memory by draining electricity stored in some of its components. But the trick here is to press and hold the Power key for a minute; this is what we call a soft reset as the memory will be refreshed without having any of your files and data deleted. Obviously, this procedure is safe so try to do this and see if the phone boots up just fine.

Assuming the problem remains, i.e. the phone still has a black screen and won’t respond, then move on to the next step as it might have something to do with the battery.

Step 2: Try charging your phone to see if it responds

I would assume at this point in our troubleshooting that you properly placed the battery back, i.e. its connectors touch those of the phone’s, because if you’re not sure, then double-check.

In this step, you just have to plug the charger (the original one with the original USB cable) to a wall outlet that works, then connect the cable to your phone. Two things are supposed to happen now; the charging icon should show on the screen and the LED indicator at the top of the screen should be lit up. If these charging signs show, then your phone is charging fine; leave it plugged in for ten minutes. After such time, attempt to turn the phone on but if it still won’t respond, move on to the next step.

On the other hand, if the phone doesn’t show the charging signs, then it means your device isn’t charging and the reason why it’s not responding is may be because there’s not enough battery left to power up its components and load its hardware. In this case, you should read our guide on how to troubleshoot the J5 that’s not charging.

Step 3: Physically check the Power key to see if it’s stuck or damaged

Assuming that the phone is charging normally but won’t respond when the Power key is pressed, then we should look into the possibility that the Power button might be stuck or damaged. When you press it, it should snap properly and you can actually feel it pushing your finger back. Such is the sign that it’s not stuck, however, checking if it’s damaged or not is the tech’s job, although you can also check it on your own but with risk of voiding your warranty.

Just try to press it many times to see if it works just like before and if it does, then move on to the next step, otherwise, you should let the tech handle the problem for you.

Step 4: Attempt to boot the phone in Safe mode

At this point, we must assume that the phone is charging fine and that the Power key is neither stuck nor damaged yet the phone refuses to turn on and still has the black screen of death. The next thing that you should do is try to see if the device can boot up successfully in safe mode because if it does, then it’s obvious that the cause of the problem is a third-party app or some of them may have crashed and caused the system to fail. You have to find those apps and uninstall them one by one starting from ones you installed when the problem first occurred. Here’s how you uninstall an app from the J5:

  1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Applications.
  4. Tap Application manager.
  5. Tap the application in question.
  6. Tap Uninstall.
  7. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

If you’ve already installed a lot of apps on your phone and it’s difficult to find the culprit, then it would be easier and a lot quicker to just backup your files and data while you’re in safe mode and then do the reset.

  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.

You may then restore your files and data after this.

On the other hand, if the phone cannot boot up in safe mode, then move on to the next step.

Step 5: Attempt to boot your phone in recovery mode

This is the last resort. If the phone cannot reach the Android system recovery screen, then you should have a tech fix the problem for you. However, if it has successfully booted up in this mode, then there are a couple of things you can do to try and fix the problem; first, you can try wiping the cache partition, which deletes and replaces all system caches and second, you can do the Master reset, which reformats both the cache and data partitions. Here are the steps on how to boot in recovery mode and wipe the cache partition:

  1. Turn off your Galaxy J5.
  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.
  10. It will take a little longer for the phone to reboot after this procedure but wait until it reaches the home screen before using it.

And here are the steps on  how to 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.

Again, if the phone cannot boot in recovery mode, let the tech handle the problem for you.

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We are always open to your problems, questions and suggestions, so feel free to contact us by filling up this form. We support every Android device available and we are serious in what we do. 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.

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7 thoughts on “How to fix Samsung Galaxy J5 black screen of death [Troubleshooting Guide]”

  1. My j5 prime not working ; only black screen ;Ring goes but sounds no come out what a reason; please advice.

  2. For me it was just dead non of the buttons responded whatsoever but I just removed the battery and after that it worked again. o-O

  3. Phone switches on but the screen is still black so cant see what to do. Any advice? Thanks.

  4. It s kind of tough to press any tab if you screen is black death. No logo nothing. So how the heck I should see anything on a black screen?

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