How to fix Samsung Galaxy J5 (2018) is blank and not responding issue
One of the common problems for any smartphone is a blank screen or not responding screen issue. In this post, we walk you through the troubleshooting steps that you can do. If you’re looking for solutions for this issue, follow our troubleshooting steps below.
Problem: How to fix Samsung Galaxy J5 (2018) is blank and not responding issue
Hey. My daughters Samsung J5 2018 screen has gone completely blank. I’ve followed the instructions given by yourselves but it’s staying the same. It’s vibrating and made a noise but that’s about it. Is there anything else I could try?
Solution: In order to fix this problem, you must do a number of troubleshooting steps to know where the problem lies. Since the phone vibrates, that means it’s not a No Power issue. You may be able to fix this problem on your end. Here’s what you need to do:
Forced reboot. If you haven’t tried restarting the phone yet, you should ensure that you simulate the effects of a “battery pull.” There had been many cases wherein Android has simply encountered an error when booting up. Sometimes, the entire boot up sequence gets interrupted but can go away after a system reboot. Try to do the following to see if you can fix the issue:
- Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
- From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Wait for up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.
Charge the device. It’s possible that the battery may need topping up at this time. Make sure to allow it to charge for at least 30-60 minutes before you try to power it back on. Also, make sure to use the USB cable and adapter that came with the phone and not just any other accessory.
Calibrate Android and battery (optional). If your phone charges up fine but the problem returns after a short time, consider calibrating the battery. Here’s how:
- Drain the battery completely. This means using your device until it powers down by its own and the battery level reads 0%.
- Charge the phone until it reaches 100%. Be sure to use original charging equipment for your device and let it charge up completely. Do not unplug your device for at least two more hours and also don’t use it while charging.
- After the elapsed time, unplug your device.
- Restart the device.
- Use your phone until it completely runs out of power again.
- Repeat steps 1-5.
You can skip this troubleshooting step if your J5 (2018) fails to charge or does not appear to power back on.
Try restarting to Safe Mode. Safe Mode in Android is a different software environment that only allows third party apps to run. This is one of Samsung’s diagnostic tools in trying to figure out if a problem is due to a bad third party app. In your case, it can also be a way to see if regular Android mode is buggy causing it to fail to boot up. To boot to safe mode:
- Turn the device off. If you can’t turn it off normally, let the battery drain first. Once the phone is off, charge it for at least an hour. Don’t attempt to power it on while charging is not done.
- Then, press and hold the Power key.
- When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key. This should be a good sign. Continue with the rest of the steps below.
- 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.
If your phone boots up to Safe Mode fine, this means that there’s either a problem with the software or with a third party app. To know if it’s a software issue, continue with hard reset or factory reset via Recovery Mode.
To identify if it’s an app issue:
- Boot to safe mode.
- Check for the problem.
- Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
- After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
- If your S9 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.
Boot to Recovery Mode. Like Safe Mode, Recovery Mode is another alternative software environment initially meant for use by Samsung engineering team only. As it became available to the general public, it has been routinely used to address a range of software problems. In Recovery Mode, Android need not run so it’s a useful tool to know if there’s any OS-level problem that prevents the system from booting up. Here’s how to boot your phone to Recovery Mode:
- Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
- 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).
If you can successfully boot your phone to Recovery and the screen works as it should, then the most likely cause of the problem is software-related. From there, proceed to these:
- 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.
Get professional help. There’s only so much that you can do as an end user. Should nothing help and none of the suggestions above work, contact Samsung and let them check the hardware.