We have some readers that own the Alcatel Idol 5S that contacted us about a problem wherein their devices reportedly turned off by themselves and would no longer respond or turn on. The screen are said to be black and unresponsive. The same is true with the buttons. Needless to say, those units seem to show that there is a serious problem with their firmware or worse, their hardware.
The Idol 5S has a non-removable battery so we cannot just pull the battery out and place it back in and see if the phone responds to that. But this isn’t the first time we encountered this problem and we know for a fact that while it may seem like a very serious issue, you can actually fix in on your own without any help from a technician. I will share with your the solution that we’ve always been using to address this problem so continue reading.
For smartphone owners who found our site while trying to find a solution, try to see if your phone is one of the devices we support. If it is, then visit the troubleshooting page for that device, browse through it to find issues that are similar with yours and feel free to use our solutions and workarounds. However, if you still need our help after that, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.
How to fix your Alcatel Idol 5S that won’t turn on
More often than not, this problem is a manifestation that the firmware in your phone has crashed. It often leaves an impression that it’s kind of a hardware issue but it’s actually not. In fact, you don’t have to do some really complicated troubleshooting procedures. Just a couple of solutions and you can make your device work perfectly again. With that said, here’s what you should do…
First solution: Forced Restart your Alcatel Idol 5S
It’s very easy and safe to do but also very effective in dealing with issues like this or ones that result in a firmware crash.
- Press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key of your phone at the same time for 10 seconds or more.
If the problem is indeed due to a system crash, then it would turn on and boot up successfully. Such combination will simulate battery pull and forces your phone to start up. It will then refresh your phone’s memory and address issues that may have caused the system to crash. However, there’s no guarantee the problem won’t happen again in the future but, at least, you already know what to do should the same problem bug you again.
If, by any chance, your phone won’t respond to the combination, try doing it a couple more times to make sure you’re doing it right. If it still won’t respond after that, then you should try this…
- Press and hold the Volume Down button and don’t release it.
- While holding it down, press and hold the Power key and keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or more.
It’s basically the same as the above only that we’re trying to hold the volume down button before the power key as doing otherwise won’t result to the Forced Reboot.
Second solution: Charge your Idol 5S and force reboot it
When the battery is too low, some services and functions are stopped by the system to give way to apps that are used by the user. And when the juice runs out, there could be some services and hardware components that aren’t properly shut down. As a result, a drained battery may also cause the firmware to crash. Sure, you can make your phone respond with the Forced Reboot but if there’s not enough battery left to power up the phone, then you still have an unresponsive phone. Here’s what you need to do about it:
- Plug the charger to the AC outlet. Make sure the outlet you’re using is working.
- Using the original cable, connect the phone to the charger.
- Regardless whether the phone shows it’s charging or not, leave it connected to its charger for ten minutes.
- Now, press and hold the volume down button and the power key at the same time for 10 seconds or more but this time while the device is connected to its charger.
If the problem isn’t with the hardware, your phone should be working properly now. However, after doing these things and your Alcatel Idol 5S continues to be unresponsive, then it’s time to bring the device to the service center.
I hope that our solutions work for you. If you have other concerns, feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.
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