How to fix Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge screen that turns on and off randomly [Troubleshooting Guide]

We received requests for assistance from #Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (#S7Edge) owners who are complaining that the screen of their phones randomly turn on and off. This issue doesn’t necessarily mean that your device is suffering from a complex hardware problem but that is one of the possibilities. We need to determine what the cause of the issue is to know what to do in order to fix it. Ruling out one possibility after another is the best thing to do.

Below is a troubleshooting guide you can use to try to fix your S7 Edge that has screen issues. Basically, what you have to do is rule out the possibility that an app is causing the screen to randomly turn off. If that’s not it, then go after the firmware as it also plays a big role in keeping the display turned on. Lastly though, if you think the problem is with the hardware, then you may need help from a technician who can do more tests to determine if the problem can be fixed without replacing the entire display panel.

Read on to understand more about this issue and learn how to troubleshoot your device when it occurs. If you have other problems, however, try to visit our Galaxy S7 Edge troubleshooting page for we have already addressed hundreds of problems reported by our readers. Find issues that are similar to yours and use the solutions or troubleshooting guides we suggested. If they don’t work or if you need more help, then contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire.

Troubleshooting Galaxy S7 Edge that randomly turns its screen on and off

Before we jump right into our troubleshooting, try to read the problem sent by one of our readers whose phone randomly turns off the screen without apparent reason.

“Hi droid guy! I am hoping you can help me with the problem with my phone. It’s a Galaxy S7 Edge phone and the problem is that randomly, the screen turns off by itself and then turns back on. This problem may occur any time of the day and the first time I encountered it, it only happened two times in a day then it became more frequent by the day. I am not sure what happened to it but I am certain I didn’t drop it nor submerge in water. There was, however, an update that I installed about a couple of weeks ago but it was a small update and I don’t think it was the one that caused the problem. I am not making any conclusions here but I just don’t think an update that small can cause a problem this serious. Can you help?”

Now that we’ve established that this problem has to be addressed immediately as it disrupts the phone’s normal operation not to mention it’s very annoying, here are the steps you need to do to troubleshoot your device.

Step 1: Force Restart your Galaxy S7 Edge

When the screen turns off without apparent reason and the device becomes unresponsive, then there’s a possibility that it’s just a simple system crash. Yes, it happens more often than you thing wherein the phone becomes unresponsive and the screen blank because the firmware has stopped working properly or many of the core services crashed.

Therefore, it is necessary to do the Forced Restart procedure as it can immediately address minor firmware and hardware related glitches that may lead to this kind of problem. Just press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys together for 10 to 15 seconds and the phone should reboot provided it still has enough battery to power its components and run core services and apps.

It might be the only procedure you have to do to fix this problem but there’s no guarantee. So, if the problem persists, it’s time to go after the apps to know if they have something to do with this problem.

Step 2: Boot up your Galaxy S7 Edge in safe mode

This is not a solution but rather a method you can use to know if your downloaded apps have something to do with the screen problem your phone is currently experiencing. When you start your device up in this mode, all third-party apps will be temporarily disabled leaving only the pre-installed ones to run. Therefore, if the problem gets fixed in this mode, it must have been caused by one of the apps and that’s what you need to find and uninstall.

1. Press and hold the Power key.
2. As soon as you can see the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7 EDGE’ on the screen, release the Power key and immediately hold the Volume Down key.
3. Continue holding the Volume Down button until the device finishes rebooting.
4. You may release it when you can see ‘Safe mode’ in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Safe mode is actually a diagnostic state and once the device has booted up successfully in this mode, all you have to do is observe to know if the problem still occurs and if not, then you have to find the third-party apps that are causing the problem and uninstall them. However, if the issue still occurs, then we might be facing a potential complex firmware issue.

Step 3: Reboot your phone into the Recovery Mode and wipe cache partition

Assuming the problem still occurs even if the phone is in safe mode, the firmware might have some issues. One of the most common causes of performance and hardware related issues is when the phone uses corrupt system caches. We need to delete those files so that the device will create new ones that are completely compatible with the current firmware but since we cannot individually or discriminately delete each file, we have to completely wipe off the entire cache directory. That’s why you need to boot up your phone into the Recovery Mode and wipe the cache partition, here’s how…

1. Turn off the phone.
2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
6. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
8. Wait until your phone is finished wiping the cache partition. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Once the phone has successfully rebooted, observe your phone again and see if the issue remained because if so, then you have no other choice but to reset your device.

Step 4: Do the Master Reset to bring the phone back to its original settings

If you reached this point, then everything you have done may have failed. Therefore, to rule out the possibility that the problem is caused by a firmware issue, you need to bring the phone back to its original settings and you can easily do so by resetting your phone. However, you need to backup your data before doing the procedure:

1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key. NOTE: It doesn’t matter how long you press and hold the Home and Volume Up keys, it won’t affect the phone but by the time you press and hold the Power key, that’s when the phone starts to respond.
3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds. NOTE: The “Installing system update” message may show on the screen for several seconds before displaying the Android system recovery menu. This is just the first phase of the entire process.
5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
6. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
8. Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

The reset might take care of the problem for you but then again, there’s no guarantee. So, if the problem still persists after the reset, then the problem might be with the hardware. In this case, you need a technician that could perform further troubleshooting procedures to determine what the problem really is.

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