How to unfreeze a frozen Alcatel Idol 5s (easy steps)

ByHarold Hisona

Being one of the entry-level devices with decent hardware specs, the Alcatel Idol 5s is popular to those who are in a tight budget. The thing about cheap phones is that you may encounter more problems with than when you’re using a premium phone but make no mistake, premium phones also encounter problems. Most of the time, the problems owners may encounter with their budget-friendly phones are often due to insufficiency of resources required to run a number of apps and services at the same time. That’s the reason why cheap phones may freeze and lag more than premium devices.

Among the most common issues reported by our readers could be a firmware issue. Some reported that their Alcatel Idol 5s no longer responds and has a black screen while others said theirs just turned off and won’t turn back on. Regardless of the symptoms you’re getting, the problem is the same and in this post, I will share with you the solution that we’ve been using to address issues like this. Continue reading to learn more about it.

Before we proceed, if you’re looking for a solution to a problem with your phone, try to browse through our troubleshooting pages to see if we support your device. If your phone is in the list of our supported devices, then go to the troubleshooting page and look for similar problems. Feel free to use our solutions and workarounds. Don’t worry it’s free. But if you still need our help, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

How to make a frozen Alcatel Idol 5s respond again

I know that this problem may leave an impression that it’s a serious hardware issue but in reality, it’s not. In fact, it could be just a minor firmware issue, at least, that’s what we have to assume before anything else especially if there are no signs of physical and/or liquid damage. With all that being said, here’s what I suggest you do about this:

First solution: Perform the Forced Reboot procedure

That’s right! A simple Forced Restart can fix this issue and make your phone respond again because most of the time this problem is due to a firmware or system crash. Such issue is minor but could render your phone useless because the device won’t respond when the power key is pressed or even if it’s connected to its charger. In other words, it makes the device seem like completely dead based on the symptoms. But assuming that your phone didn’t suffer from physical and/or liquid, then you can make your phone work perfectly again.

To do the Forced Reboot, press and hold the volume down and power keys at the same time for 10 seconds or more. You would know if it’s successful because your phone starts up after this. However, if the screen remains black and unresponsive, try doing the same procedure a couple more times or you may try this instead:

  1. Press and hold the volume down button first and don’t let go.
  2. Then, press and hold the power key while holding down the volume down button.
  3. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or so.

If the problem is as simple as a firmware crash, your Alcatel Idol 5s should already be booting up by now. After doing the second procedure and it still remains unresponsive, there’s a chance that the battery got completely drained as well. Perhaps the next procedure can help you.

Second solution: Charge your phone and do the Forced Reboot again

Second solution: Charge your phone and do the Forced Restart

The thing about battery drain issue is that it may also lead the phone to crash since some hardware components and services may not be properly shut down when the device runs out of juice. If a system crash can make the phone unresponsive, having a drained battery makes the problem even worse. But just like most of the issues, there’s always something you can do about it:

  1. Plug the charger to a working wall outlet. It’s imperative you use a wired charger.
  2. Using the original power / data cable, connect your phone to its charger.
  3. Regardless whether the phone shows it’s charging or not, leave it connected to the charger for 10 minutes, at least.
  4. Press and hold the volume down button first and don’t let go.
  5. Then, press and hold the power key while holding down the volume down button.
  6. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or so but this time while the phone is connected to its charger.

If the problem is indeed caused by a drained battery and resulted to a system crash, your phone should already be booting up by now but if not, then there could be an issue with the hardware itself. You need to bring it to the store or shop so that a technician can check it up for you.

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