Galaxy S6 edge won’t turn on, white solid LED light, turns off when not charging, other power issues

Hello and Welcome to our new #GalaxyS6 troubleshooting episode for the day. This post covers some power- and boot-related questions. We hope that you’ll find our solutions helpful.

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Below are specific topics we’re bringing for you today:

Problem 1: Galaxy S6 edge won’t turn on, shows white solid LED light

I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. I had it hooked up to the charger all night, woke up the next morning, saw that the battery icon was full and green. When I went to turn it on, the whole screen went black and I have not been able to get it running again since. I tried all the troubleshooting there is, still nothing. The only thing that happened is a solid white LED light. Now it won’t even do that anymore. — Asher

Solution: Hi Asher. The white LED light may or may not be clue on what’s happening. In Samsung devices, there are only three system generated LED lights: Blue, Red, and Green. Below are the meaning of each color:

Blue LED

  • Pulsing: the device is turning on or off.
  • Blinking: there is an unread notification (missed call, message etc) or during voice recording.

Red LED

  • Glowing: connected to a charger and charging.
  • Blinking: connected to a charger but not charging, or when low on battery.

Green LED

  • Glowing: connected to a charger and fully charged.
  • Blinking: fully charged.

That your phone was showing a solid white LED may be a sign that a third party app may be causing the failure to boot issue.

Consider booting the device to Recovery Mode to see you can factory reset it. Here’s how:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Make sure that the phone is turned off. The indicators of a powered on S6 includes LED light, sound, and vibration. If you can’t see any of these in your phone, it must be powered off. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to boot to Recovery if your phone is actually turned on. If the phone appears to be powered on at this time and you can’t turn it off, wait until the battery is fully drained.
  3. Press and then hold the Home and Volume Up keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  4. When the Samsung Galaxy logo shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
  5. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
  6. You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

If your phone remains unresponsive or won’t boot to Recovery Mode at all, try to use another known working charger to charge it. If that won’t make a difference either, have the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem 2: Galaxy S6 edge turns off when unplugged from charger

Hi. i have the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. i have had this phone for nearly two years and I’ve never had a problem. i don’t always get access to wifi so i don’t always update my software very often. My software is currently not updated due to it failing. Everytime i try this has never been a problem. my phone has still worked fine till now.

My phone currently only works when plugged into a charging port. If i take the charger out, it will switch off and if i go to switch my phone on it crashes at the Samsung logo screen. Sometimes it comes on to home screen but it switches off after a couple of minutes. How do i resolve this problem? please??? — Amber Irvine

Solution: Hi Amber. Try to see if it’s just a matter of a battery issue that needs recalibration. Sometimes, Android may lose track of the true battery levels so you can help it by recalibrating the battery detection system. Here’s how:

  1. Use the phone by playing games or doing tasks to hasten power discharge, until the phone turns itself off.
  2. Charge the phone without turning it back on.
  3. Wait until the battery says it is fully charged to 100%.
  4. Wait for an hour before unplugging the phone from the charger.
  5. Use the phone until battery reaches 0% percent. The phone should turn off by itself.
  6. Recharge the phone to 100%, wait for an hour before unplugging it again.
  7. The battery should now be recalibrated. Observe how phone works.

If you’re lucky and battery calibration is the fix, the phone should be back to its working order.

If the issue remains after battery recalibration though, the next logical step is to wipe the phone clean. This is done by performing a factory reset. This drastic troubleshooting step is meant to return all software settings back to their known working defaults. Here’s how:

  1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
  3. When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
  4. Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, ‘wipe data/factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
  6. Press the Vol Down button again until the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted and then press the Power key to select it.
  7. After the reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.

If the phone continues to exhibit the same problem after doing a reset and when there are no apps installed, there may be a problem with the battery, the power management IC, or the motherboard in general. To check, you must submit the phone for a hardware examination by Samsung or by an independent technician.

Problem 3: Galaxy S6 showing black screen issue after charging

I charged my phone on my partner’s charger for a couple of hours this morning. It showed that it was full but when I went to turn it on, nothing happened. The green light when I took it off charge and there has been a black screen since then. I’ve tried to reboot but nothing happens. I’m worried about losing my photos and videos. Could the memory board be blown by using a charger. — Rena

Solution: Hi Rena. Your phone has a built-in mechanism to prevent to overcharging so we don’t think that’s a reason why it’s not turning on at all. If the phone was working normally before and you did nothing different prior to experiencing the trouble, the possible causes can be anything.

To start your troubleshooting, you should try a restart normally. The phone may have become unresponsive or frozen. To soft reset it, follow these steps:

  1. Press and hold the Power button.
  2. Tap Restart.
  3. Tap Restart again to confirm.

If you can’t get it to power on, consider doing a soft reset. Here’s how:

  1. Press and hold the Power and Volume down buttons for 12 seconds.
  2. Use the Volume down button to scroll to the Power Down option.
  3. Press the Home key to select.

If you are positive that the phone still turns on (as it still vibrates, makes a sound, or shows a lit LED light), then you may be able to power it back on by booting to Recovery Mode and doing follow-up steps like a cache partition wipe or factory reset (will delete your files).

Keep in mind that if you can’t turn the phone on, your files are good as good. If our suggestions in this article won’t work at all, you’ll most likely end up in a service center.

To prevent losing files in the future, make it a habit of creating a backup regularly. Smartphones and storage devices can fail anytime. You only have yourself to blame if you’ll lose your data in the future again.

Problem 4: Galaxy S6 lags and reboots randomly when using a new clear case from Spigen

Hello. I have a weird problem. I wonder if you come across this.

I recently switched my phone case, from an original Samsung Clear View Case to one from Spigen. I noticed that with my new case – my phone lags WHILE charging. When I say lag, response is very bad, my touch activities does not always register. Recently, it even reboots my phone randomly. How could this be? Does my phone have a power leak and a rubber/glass casing is causing some kind of power circulation problem? In case it’s important, this is the case I’m using now: https://www.spigen.com/collections/galaxy-s6-edge/products/galaxy-s6-edge-case-neo-hybrid-cc.  I’m trying a different case now to see if I still experience the same problem.  — Rafferty Uy

Solution: Hi Rafferty. We’re not familiar with this case and it’s our first time to receive a report that it may be causing power-related problems. It’s really easy to know if your suspicion is correct. Simply take it off and observe how your S6 charges and works. If the power problems won’t occur, then that case must be causing the device or the battery to overheat. To prevent damage to other hardware components, an S6 can turn itself off if internal temperature reaches a certain level. Overheating of this type does not usually occur together with slow performance or lag problems so if your phone continues to show both symptoms (overheating/random reboot and lag) even when the case is not used, there must be other reasons for the trouble such as an operating system glitch or a hardware malfunction.


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2 thoughts on “Galaxy S6 edge won’t turn on, white solid LED light, turns off when not charging, other power issues”

  1. I have the exact same problem. tried all standard diags. no boot, no screen activity, just a white constant led. i changed the battery last year, and when this happened I switched the battery to a new one (and tried old one also) – no change.

  2. Hello, i have had a problem a few months ago where my S6 Edge kept rebooting randomly and i eventually had to factory reset to fix it , and just yesterday the same thing happened once again!
    It kept rebooting like mad and i just about managed to back up everything before so i decided for another factory reset, only this time my phone wont turn on after iv factory reset it. I try and turn it on but it just reboots then theres a black screen with white LED and the only time it powers off is when the battery dies out.
    Can anyone please help me resolve this issue as i am desperate..

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