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How to unfreeze a frozen Samsung Galaxy A3 (easy steps)

ByHarold Hisona November 7, 2019August 31, 2023 August 31, 2023

The Samsung Galaxy A3 has some decent hardware specs and build but from time to time, you may encounter ome hiccups here and there like any other phones. Some of our readers have contacted us because their units seem to have been frozen and no longer respond. Many of them reported that their devices just turned off without any apparent reason or cause and wouldn’t turn back on. They won’t even respond even if they’re connected to their chargers. We feel compelled to address this problem since our readers reported it.

In this post, I will help you fix this problem with your Galaxy A3. I will share with you the solution we’ve been using to make unresponsive or frozen phones respond again. The thing about it is that it could be a very minor firmware or app-related issue or it could be a very serious hardware problem especially if the screen turned black out of the blue without any obvious reason. If you’re one of the owners of this device and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading as this article may be able to help you one way or another.

Before anything else, if you have other issues with your device, try to browse through our troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed several issues with this device. Odds are that we’ve already published a post that tackles similar problems. Try finding issues that have similar symptoms with what you currently have and feel free to use the solutions we’ve suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you still need our help, then fill up our questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

How to fix Samsung Galaxy A3 that won’t respond

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This kind of problem may seem like a very serious hardware issue but in reality, it’s actually just a minor issue with the firmware. At least, that’s what it always is with the problems I encountered. You can immediately tell if it’s serious or not if it occurred without obvious reason. However, if this problem started after the phone got dropped on a hard surface or submerged in water for a long time, then you must immediately bring the device to the shop or back to the store where you bought it.

Assuming this occured on its own without any apparent cause, here’s what you should do to fix it:

First solution: Do the Forced Reboot

Most of the cases I personally encountered were due to a system crash. A crash may occur from time to time and while it’s a very minor problem, it will leave your phone unresponsive and may seem to be having a serious hardware issue. If you don’t know what to do about it, you would panic and many of our readers actually brought their devices to the shop only to be charged for a problem that they could fix on their own. If ever you encounter this problem problem with your Galaxy A3, this is what you have to do:

Press and hold the volume down button and the power key at the same time for 10 seconds or more.

If this is just due to a system crash and if there’s enough battery left, your device should already be booting up by now. However, if it doesn’t respond to it, try doing this instead:

Press and hold the volume down button first and don’t let it go.
Press and hold the Power key while holding down the volume down button.
Keep both keys held down together for 10 seconds or more.

After doing these procedures and your phone is still not responding, it’s possible that the battery got drained completely. Try doing the next procedure.

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Second solution: Charge your phone and do the Forced Restart

After doing the first solution and your phone is still not responding, it’s possible that the battery has been drained. A battery drain is not really an issue but the thing is that if the hardware and firmware haven’t been properly shut down because you were using the phone when the battery ran out, it may result to a system crash and then you add the fact that the battery is empty. Naturally when your phone crashes, it won’t respond to normal reboot procedure so you really have to do the first solution but then if the battery is drained, the device still won’t respond. To address this, here’s what you should do:

Plug the charger to a working wall outlet. It’s imperative you use the wired charger.
Using the original power / data cable, connect your phone to its charger.
Regardless whether the phone shows it’s charging or not, leave it connected to its charger for 10 minutes or more.
Press and hold the volume down button and don’t release it.
Then, press and hold the power key while holding down the volume button.
Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or more.

If your phone stopped responding due to a firmware crash and/or battery drain, it should be booting up as of this moment but if it’s not, then it’s time to bring it to the shop or back to the store so that a technician can check it up. But before you actually do that, try running it in recovery mode and try doing the master reset. Well, that is if it can boot up into that 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).
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.

I hope that we’ve been able to help you one way or another. If you have other concerns you want to share with us, feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.

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