How to fix Samsung Galaxy S8 with Black Screen of Death – My Phone is On but the Screen is Black Samsung

Power-related problems are among the most commonly reported issues with the Samsung phone like the Galaxy S8 with the Black Screen of Death (BSoD) being at the top spot. This issues may occur due to minor firmware glitch or crash, some apps may have crashed and affected the phone’s performance and resulted to a system crash, a recent update may have corrupted some of the system caches and files and resulted to inconsistencies, and lastly, it might be due to physical and / or liquid damage. 

Unlike the real power issue wherein the phone is totally turned off and won’t respond when you press the Power key or connect to its charger, the BSoD may leave the phone powered on with all other hardware components working properly except the screen or the display. One sign to immediately know if it’s BSoD or not is when the phone sounds off when messages or calls are received or the LED notification light may flash every now and then. If you’re one of the owners of this phone and are currently bugged by a similar issue, a simple soft reset may not work in fixing the problem. Continue reading as this post will provide a way to fix that may actually help you.

Most effective solution to the Black Screen of Death (BSoD) on Galaxy S8

We have received hundreds of messages from our readers that own Galaxy S8 Samsung phone units and among the most common problems they reported is this. Some said the phone just turned itself off and would no longer respond when the power key is pressed or held. Others however, said that such problem occurred after an update but only the screen is powered down because the device still sounds off when messages and calls are received or a green light notification is present. That is actually the typical symptom of BSoD; the screen is black, the notification light is lit or flashes every now and then and the phone can actually receive messages or calls but the screen remains black.

Some of our readers said they were already in a state of panic especially those who just got the phone. Complicated as it may seem, this problem is actually very easy to fix provided that the black screen is not due to physical or liquid damage. To fix this, this is what you have to reset your Samsung phone by:

  • Press and hold Volume Down and Power keys together for 10 seconds.

This procedure is what we call Forced Restart. It simulates battery disconnect which the same effect as when you pull the battery out of the phone with removable power source. The device’s memory will be refreshed and that should be enough to bring the dead phone back to life provided the cause of the problem is just a system crash. However, if this fails to fix the problem, try doing this…

  1. Step 1. Press and hold the Volume Down button and don’t let go of it.
  2. Step 2. Press and hold the Power key while holding down the Volume Down button.
  3. Step 3. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds.

It basically has the same effect as the first procedure only that you press and hold the Volume Down button first before triggering the phone to power up by pressing the Power button. Bear in mind that if the Power key is pressed first, the phone would immediately react to it because it’s hard-wired to do so. When that happens, the Volume Down and Power combo will never be done correctly so the phone may not turn on since pressing and holding the Power key couldn’t do something about a firmware crash.

If this fails as well, then it’s possible the battery has been totally drained. So try doing this…

Step 1. Plug the charger to a working wall outlet.

Step 2. Connect the phone to its charger using the original cable.

Step 3. Allow the phone to charge for a few minutes regardless whether the charging symbol shows or not.

Step 4. After which, press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key together for 10 seconds.

After doing all these procedures and your Galaxy S8 is still not turning on, then the problem isn’t just one case of system glitch or crash. You have to do some troubleshooting procedures to see if you can fix this issue without going to the service center. Continue reading below as I’ve also prepared a troubleshooting guide for you.

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Troubleshooting Galaxy S8 with BSoD but won’t respond to Forced Restart

There are only three things you need to do to troubleshoot a phone with BSoD before you can decide to bring your Samsung phone to the service center. However, if you are not comfortable troubleshooting your device on your own, you better have someone to check it up for you. You may bring it to the tech if you want to have good support but for those who are willing to do some troubleshooting, here are the things you can do…

Check for signs of physical and liquid damage

It’s important that you should check your phone for possible damage caused by a drop on a hard surface or in water. For physical damage, you just have to look the case of your phone to see if there are significant scratches, dents or cracks. Any force that could cause devastating damage to the inside of your phone should leave a mark outside.

As to the liquid damage, check the Liquid Damage Indicator (LDI) which is located in the SIM card slot(or the SD card slot). If it’s tripped, it should turn red or purple, if not then it should remain white. I know your phone is water resistant but it’s not waterproof so there’s still a chance water or any sort of liquid will enter the device causing the Samsung Galaxy black screen issue and it’s common gateway is the USB cable or charger port. So, you also have to check to see if there’s moisture in there. Use a cotton swab or insert a piece of tissue paper in it to absorb the moist. Make sure to put it back properly once done. 

Run the phone in safe mode

We simply want to know if it’s still capable of booting up in its bare bones. When in this mode, all third-party apps are temporarily disabled. If one of them is causing the problem, then your S8 Samsung phone should be able to run into this environment without much of a problem so it’s really worth a try. Here’s how you do the download mode step:

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  3. When “SAMSUNG logo” 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.

Assuming you’ve successfully started the Samsung phone in this mode, the next thing you should do is reboot it in normal mode without doing anything to it…yet. If there’s an issue during the boot up, you can now rest assured the cause of the problem is a third-party app. You have to find that app and uninstall it:

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open 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 pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap the desired application.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Or, you can also just backup your files and data and then do the Factory reset considering it’s not easy to pinpoint which app is the culprit.

  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, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray since you don’t have a Home button on the S8.
  3. Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
  4. Tap Backup and restore.
  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. Tap the back button to the Settings menu and tap General Management > Reset > Factory data reset.
  8. Tap Reset.
  9. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your credentials.
  10. Tap Continue or click on Next.
  11. Tap Delete all.

If the phone doesn’t boot up in safe mode, then try the next step.

Try to see if the phone is capable of booting up in Data Recovery mode

It’s the fail-safe of almost all Android devices so even if your phone has a serious firmware issue for as long as the hardware is fine and that the firmware hasn’t been modified in any way, it should be able to start into recovery mode. If successful, wipe the cache partition first and if that won’t work, do the Master reset or hard reset to fix the black screen problem on your Android device. Wiping the cache partition will only erase those temporary Android data files. It will not affect the Android phone apps or your personal settings. 

Boot in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

  1. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  2. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  3. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  4. Press the Power button to select.
  5. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
  6. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  7. Press the Power button to restart the device.

Boot in Recovery mode and do the Master reset

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ download mode will show for about 30 – 60 seconds 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 button to restart the device.

If none of the presented solutions is able to fix the problem, your next step is to visit a local shop for further assistance. If you know how to use third-party repair tool for Android phones, you can also download them on a computer and see if that can help you fix your Samsung device. 

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1 thought on “How to fix Samsung Galaxy S8 with Black Screen of Death – My Phone is On but the Screen is Black Samsung”

  1. Is there a permanent fix to the BSoD or will my phone be plagued by this forever I have the s8+ I am plagued by the BSoD daily and takes an hour to fix every time. Should I just buy a new phone because it’s getting ridiculous

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