How to fix Galaxy S8 calling issue: signal disappears when making a call

Hello Android fans! Today’s troubleshooting article covers 3 #GalaxyS8 issues. These are taken from reports we receive from some of you. If you can’t find any helpful information to fix your own S8 in this one, try to visit our other previously posted articles.

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.

Problem #1: What to do if Galaxy S8 won’t turn on after doing all troubleshooting

I want to apologize ahead of time, I’m pretty sure I know the answer but I was hoping you might be able confirm it or help me in a way I haven’t tried. I bought the Samsung Galaxy S8 brand new and paid for it in full but I didn’t buy the insurance. I always have a case on my phone except one time. That one time I dropped it on concrete. It did not seem to have any issues with it except the backing was pretty broken. And it worked for a few months after that even. Then one night I was checking my email and everything was okay and plugged in my phone and in the morning it was off and unresponsive. I have tried everything I’ve read anywhere. I was hoping that maybe there is anything else you couldn’t suggest I try. Please and thank you very much for all the help on this site!

Solution: If you’ve already tried everything, then we doubt there’s anything left for us to tell you other than send the phone for repair. As an end user, you are mostly limited to software troubleshooting only. If you’ve tried charging the phone using another cable or adapter or another wireless charger and still fails to power on, then there’s nothing more that you can do at this time. Let a professional check the hardware so you’ll be advised whether or not the phone can be repaired successfully.

Problem #2: Galaxy S8 won’t boot up after repair

The battery was quite weak and wouldn’t hold a charge with any use, giving me maybe four to five hours service before requiring a recharge. I decided to try replacing the battery before replacing the phone. Apparently that was a mistake. I followed the directions — of course one set of directions neglected one thing and another neglected another thing. I did the best I could. Upon starting the cell the screen was black though the blue light on the top was on. I tried the power button/volume down fix numerous times, as well as the power button in its own (the phone will not power off) . I tried the power button/volume up option. No change. In the first few attempts I saw the left side of the screen sort of light up in a pixelated blue, but that isn’t happening now. What is happening, which makes me want to throw the damned thing, is the first few notes of the startup signal plays over and over and over. I can’t stop it. I can’t turn the thing off. I don’t know how much battery is left. My questions include how do I get the cell to switch on and off, how do I get it to shut off, how to I get the screen to show (it seems like more than the black screen problem most sites offer info on), and what could I have done wrong?

Solution: In many cases, amateurs following DIY repair guides do more harm than good. Apparently, this is what happened to your device. While DIY repair may appear simple, a lot of things can mess up the system while doing it. Frankly, we don’t have an accurate answer to you on what happened. There’s a chance that the original problem goes beyond mere battery issue and involves a number of malfunctioning critical parts. Replacing the battery may not have fixed all damaged components. It’s also possible that you messed up the motherboard really bad. This can happen if a component is shorted or disconnected during repair. Even a shorted component can lead to a cascade of problems which eventually manifests in what you have right now. Your Android device follows a chain of processes in both software and hardware environments so if there’s missing parameter due to bad hardware, it may not boot up at all.

If you want to know if your S8 can still be repaired, we suggest that you get help from a professional who can physically check the phone and run hardware diagnostics on it. If you’re lucky and the issue is minor, you may still be able to use your phone without problems.

Problem #3: How to fix Galaxy S8 calling issue: signal disappears when making a call

Whenever I have service, I try to make a phone call and whether it’s the “3G” symbol or the “LTE” symbol, it instantly disappears and gives me a busy signal on the line. As soon as I end the call, service returns with 0 issue. I’m with Sprint, and as I understand it there are no local towers in my area, so my signal bounces off the closest neighboring towers which are Verizon (I think).

Related, when I’m “Roaming,” I can make a call, and up until a few days before the making calls issue I could receive them, but now unless I’m roaming no calls seem to come in/out. Any ideas what might be causing the problem?

I’ve tried soft resets, removing and reinserting the SIM, and talked to Sprint which entailed me going through several processes trying to reset various service/SIM components. At this point, even pointing me in the right direction would greatly help. Thanks for your time!!

P.S, all other aspects of service work fine, so long as it appears I have service.

Solution: An issue like this is better handled by your network operator as they have access to important information we don’t have. For instance, this voice calling issue may be caused by an on-going maintenance on their network, or a known bug with their service. This can also be caused by an activation issue on your account so only your carrier can help you with it.

As far as device troubleshooting is concerned, these are the only ones we can suggest that you do:

Cache partition wipe
Network settings reset
Changing of SIM card
Factory reset

How to wipe your phone’s cache partition

Wiping a device’s system cache, which is stored in the cache partition, is a maintenance step. So, even if you don’t have an issue, you want to do it to minimize the chance of bugs from developing. Here are the steps to do it:

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

Reset network settings

This is the logical second troubleshooting step in this case. Some network bugs are fixed by returning a device’s network settings to their defaults. Follow these steps on how to clear network settings:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap General Management > Reset settings.
Tap Reset settings.
If you have set up a PIN, enter it.
Tap Reset settings. Once complete a confirmation window will appear.

Replace the SIM card

This is a bit extreme but sometimes, texting or calling issues are easily fixed by asking for a new SIM from your network operator. You want to reserve this troubleshooting after you’ve factory reset the device.

Factory reset

We doubt the issue is device related so factory reset may not work at all. Still, you want to do this before sending the phone in or when your network operator can’t help and will recommend unit replacement instead.

To factory reset your S8:

Create a backup of your data.
Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
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).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.

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