The Galaxy Note5 (#GalaxyNote5) is not exactly Samsung’s latest and fastest smartphone out there but millions of them are still in active circulation. That said, there’s a lot of Note5 users who are still using it although some of them may now be understandably starting to experience problems. One of the common Note5 problems and the one that we’ll address today is the No Power (won’t turn on) issue. If you happen to have a Note5 with the same situation, this post should help enlighten you what you need to do.
Today’s problem: How to fix a Galaxy Note5 when the screen is black and won’t turn on
Hi! So I’m having problems right now trying to turn on my phone. Its a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and I didn’t leave it on my charger last night so now the power is completely drained. I tried charging it for a couple of hours (8 hours as of right now) to see if that could solve the problem but it hasn’t. I’ve also tried wireless charging. When I put my ear to the speaker I can hear buzzing sounds, so I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not, but I thought I was better off mentioning it. I’ve tried holding the power button the home button and the volume up button as well as the power button with the volume down button, but nothing happens. There is no light for the LED to indicate that it is charging, but again the buzzing indicates that the wires are working. I can also see the light from my wireless charging device so I know the cables aren’t the problem. And just a heads up, I don’t remember what Android version I’m on as I rarely ever worry about updating my phone (since it usually auto-updates without my permission to begin with). Any help would be great! — John
Solution: Hi John. There’s a number of possible reasons why your Note5 does not appear to be booting up or powering on at this time. Let’s discuss each of them to give you an idea where the problem lies.
Battery may had been fully drained
In many instances, the main reason why phones may fail to power back on is due to an empty battery. The thing is, we don’t think this is what’s causing your own issue right now. If it’s simply due to a uncharged battery, you shouldn’t be here with us. There’s a chance that it’s more serious than a simple charging problem. Here’s why.
Lithium-based batteries like the one in your phone does not normally fully go empty. Even if your phone’s battery indicator is saying the battery level is 0%, there’s still a tiny amount of power left to ensure that its circuits remain powered and ready to receive a new charge. In other words, the battery is not supposed to go totally drained. If, in an unfortunate situation that it becomes empty, the battery becomes unusable. It won’t charge at all no matter how long you’ll leave it plugged in. For smartphones with non-removable battery pack like your Note5, this is a death sentence because it will now require a trained technician to remove the dead battery and replace it with a new one.
So how do you know that the battery has become fully empty? There’s no direct way to know that unless the battery is physically removed from the phone and tested by a technician. An obvious sign that you’ll observe on your phone though is the fact that it won’t turn on at all, no matter how long you charge it.
Bad charger
Another reason why your Note5 no longer powers on right now can be a charger issue. We won’t dwell on this factor for long though since you’ve already tried to charge the phone wirelessly without any difference. That means that the cause of the problem is not a bad charging cable or charger since the phone won’t also charge wirelessly.
Screen not working
If your Note5 shows a flashing or solid LED light, that can mean that you may have a screen issue. In other words, the phone is not really dead although the screen is. If the phone was dropped or if it got wet before it failed to power on, there’s a chance that the screen may had sustained some damage. Unfortunately for this situation, you’ll still need to send the phone is if you want to fix the issue permanently.
Boot to alternate Modes
Another possible reason why your Note5 appears dead right now may be caused by an unknown Android bug. There may be an app preventing it from booting up or interfering with its functions. It’s also possible that the operating system may had become corrupted for some reason, causing the phone to lose its ability to boot up.
This suggestion can only work if you’ve already established the fact that the phone is not totally dead. If it doesn’t have any LED light, not making any sound notifications (any sound), or not vibrating, don’t waste your time doing any of the hardware button combinations.
How to restart your Note5 to safe mode
To check if there’s a bad app blocking your phone from booting up, you can try to restart it to safe mode. If your phone restarts to safe mode but won’t boot up at all on normal mode, you have a third party app issue. To boot to safe mode:
- Turn off your Note5. If you can’t turn it off normally, let the phone drain its battery until it turns itself off. This is important. If you can’t power on the device, you can’t boot it to safe mode at all. Once the phone has been turned off, charge it for at least 30 minutes before turning it back on.
- With your Note5 off, press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
- When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
- Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
- Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
- Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
- Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
How to boot your Note5 to Recovery Mode
Recovery Mode will allow you to clear the cache partition and factory reset the device. Again, we want to emphasize that you must turn the phone off for this to work. If there’s no way for you to check whether or not the phone is off.
- Turn off your Note5. If you can’t turn it off normally, let the phone drain its battery until it turns itself off. This is important. If you can’t power on the device, you can’t boot it to this mode at all. Once the phone has been turned off, charge it for at least 30 minutes before turning it back on.
- Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
- Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
- Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
- The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
How to boot your Note5 to Download Mode
Download Mode or Odin Mode lets you flash the firmware. In this troubleshooting article, your aim is not to flash your phone but to check if it can turn back on.
- Turn off your Note5. If you can’t turn it off normally, let the phone drain its battery until it turns itself off. This is important. If you can’t power on the device, you can’t boot it to this mode at all. Once the phone has been turned off, charge it for at least 30 minutes before turning it back on.
- Press and hold the Volume Down and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
- Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
- You’ll know if you’re successful in booting your device to Download mode because it will show “Downloading … “ on the screen.
Get professional help
Remember, the main aim of this suggestion is to check whether your phone’s operating system is buggy. If it stays off, or won’t turn on at all, stop wasting your time doing any of them. There’s a slim chance that your device has a software bug anyway. The most effective way to permanently fix your issue is by letting a Samsung technician physically check the device. That means sending the device in if any of the solutions above won’t work.