How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus with black screen and blue blinking lights [Troubleshooting Guide]

When your Samsung Galaxy S8+ becomes unresponsive, has a black screen but with a light blinking at the top of the display, it’s what we call the black screen of death (BSoD). There’s another variation to this problem wherein the phone’s screen is black but without the blinking light but it’s more likely a power issue. Needless to say, this problem might just have something to do with the firmware and not the hardware but we won’t know for sure unless we try to troubleshoot the phone.

In this post, we will try to troubleshoot your phone and I will walk you through every step of the way. We will try to look into each possibility and rule them out one by one so that we can try to determine what the problem really is. Once we have that information, we can already try to formulate a solution that might fix the problem and prevent it from happening again in the future. If you own a phone like this and are currently experiencing the same problem, continue reading below as this post may be able to help you.

Now, before we go to troubleshooting, if you are currently experiencing a different problem, try to visit our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common issues owners encountered with their device. Find issues that are similar to yours and feel free to use our solutions or troubleshooting guides. If they don’t work, however, and if you need further assistance, contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. All we need is information so we can help you. Don’t worry, it’s free.

How to troubleshoot your Galaxy S8+ with black screen of death issue

Problem: Hi. what should I do about my phone that won’t respond, has a black screen but there’s a blue light that keeps blinking? It’s an S8+ smartphone and this issue started yesterday but since I was so busy, I haven’t contacted you guys or my provider about it. I just need your opinion on this and maybe you can provide some info as to how to fix this. Anything from you would be appreciated. Thank you.

Troubleshooting: The black screen of death isn’t really a common problem but it happens from time to time and anybody who owns an Android phone may be able to encounter it. But the thing is it’s not important how it happens, what’s necessary is for you to know what to do when it occurs and that’s the purpose of this post. That being said, here’s what I suggest you do when your S8+ encounters the black screen of death…

Step 1: Try to do the Forced Reboot procedure

If your phone has a black screen but also got the blinking lights at the top of the screen, it might be just a sign of a system crash and in which case, it’s a minor problem that you can fix on your own without any intervention from a tech.

The forced reboot procedure is actually the same as the battery pull procedure, which we often do to phones with removable battery that also encountered the system crash. Your Galaxy S8 doesn’t have a removable battery so all you can do is press and hold the Volume Down and the power keys together for 7 to 10 seconds and your phone may reboot. If, however, your phone doesn’t reboot successfully, then the next step might help.

Step 2: Try running your phone in safe mode

After the first step and your phone still doesn’t start normally, then it’s time to try booting your phone in safe mode to temporarily disable all third-party apps. If successful, one or some of the apps you installed is causing the problem. It’s necessary you can isolate the problem as early as now so that you can try to formulate a solution that might fix this problem and prevent it from happening again in the future.

This is how you start your phone in safe mode:

  1. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  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.

Assuming your phone successfully booted up in this mode, then it’s clear one or some of the apps you installed has something to do with this problem. The next thing you should do is update apps that need to be updated:

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Play Store.
  3. Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu > Settings then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
  4. Choose one of the following options:
    • Tap Update [xx] to update all applications with updates available.
    • Tap an individual application and then tap Update to update a single application.

If you’re already suspecting some apps to be causing this issue, then proceed to clearing their caches and data or even uninstalling them to find out if they really are the cause.

How to clear apps caches and data on Galaxy S8+

  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 Storage.
  5. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
  6. Tap Clear cache.

How to uninstall applications from your Galaxy S8+

  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.

On the other hand, if your phone couldn’t boot up in safe mode, then try the next step.

Step 3: Try booting your phone up in Recovery Mode

Assuming your phone could not successfully boot up in safe mode, then you should try starting it up in recovery mode. This will power up your phone’s hardware but won’t load the usual interface. If it’s just an issue with the firmware, then it should be able to boot up successfully without much of a problem. If successful though, you can try doing a couple of procedures and that’s to wipe the cache partition and master reset. Both are effective in fixing almost all issues as long as they’re not that complex so try to go through the steps below.

How to start your phone up 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 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 key to restart the device.

How to run phone 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’ 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 key to restart the device.

If all else fails, then bring the phone to the shop and have the tech take a look at it.

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13 thoughts on “How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus with black screen and blue blinking lights [Troubleshooting Guide]”

  1. Thank God, I’ve had the black screen for like 8 hours and I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix it. Didn’t know it was that easy

  2. Thank you so much for this site. I had the black screen of death and the very first suggestion worked to fix it!

  3. ive just got a second hand galaxy s8 plus put my apps on it and i thought it was nearly flat, so i went to put it on change and now it wont turn on. i have a blue flashing light, the phone has a new screen install 4 days ago. when i plug the phone into my laptop it makes sounds, i can here it ringing but nothing happens. the screen is constantly black, pushing vol down and on off button the phone vibrates but stays black, blue light comes on and of and the phone vibrates but still nothing, any help would be gret thanks

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