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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 went completely dead, turned itself off and won’t charge anymore [Troubleshooting Guide]

ByHarold Hisona November 1, 2019September 1, 2023 September 1, 2023

Ever since we started providing support to our readers way back 2012, one of the most common issues we encountered with almost all Galaxy models is when the phone just turns itself off without apparent reason and no longer responds when the user tries to turn it back on. Such is the case with some of our readers who own the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. We often refer to this problem as the “black screen of death” because the device actually becomes unresponsive when this occurs.

There were cases that we’ve actually fixed the problem but we also have readers that we referred to technicians because even after doing some troubleshooting procedures, their phones continue to be unresponsive. I will tackle this problem again in this post and this time, we’ll try to determine the cause and the problem itself. Then, we’ll try to formulate a solution that may bring the phone back to life.

Now, before we move on to our troubleshooting guide, if you are looking for a solution to a different issue, make sure you drop by our Note 8 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common problems reported by owners of this device. Try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you need further assistance from us, don’t hesitate to contact us through our Android issues questionnaire.

Troubleshooting Note 8 that went dead and neither turns on nor charge

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There are times when a seemingly complicated problem is actually just a minor hiccup. We don’t need to jump to some complicated procedures when troubleshooting a possible black screen of death problem. Instead we’ll work our way up following a systematic step-by-step method. This is what you need to do about it…

Verify there’s no physical or liquid damage

For a phone that went completely dead, this is this first thing you should do. As to the physical damage, you can easily spot some dents or scratches on the outside. If the phone fell on a hard pavement or floor, the screen might crack or break. If there’s no sign of physical damage, try liquid damage.

The first thing you should look into if you’re trying to find out if your phone is suffering from liquid damage is the USB or charger port. Your Galaxy Note 8 is water-resistant but it’s not waterproof so it’s always possible that liquid is the cause of this kind of problem.

Upon checking the USB port and there’s no sign of liquid, try to check the Liquid Damage Indicator to know if water has found its way inside your device. Remove the SIM card tray and look into the SIM slot; look for a small sticker. If it’s still white, then there’s no liquid damage however, if it turned red, pink or purple, then it’s confirmed that there’s liquid damage. Either it’s physical or liquid damage, you should bring the phone to a tech.

On the other hand, if your Note 8 doesn’t have any signs of both physical and liquid damage, then move on to the next step.

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Do the Forced Reboot procedure

The Note 8 packs a really impressive hardware but it’s still not free from minor firmware-related issues like system crashes. If the firmware crashed for some unknown reason, you may also get the black and unresponsive screen, then your phone won’t charge; it’s because the firmware isn’t responding.

Unlike previous models of Galaxy devices that have removable batteries, you cannot do the battery pull procedure with your Note 8. However, you can simulate battery disconnect which basically has the same effect as with the battery pull. To do this, press and hold both the Volume Down and Power buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds. If the problem is indeed just due to a system crash, then your phone should boot up normally after properly doing the forced restart procedure.

If the phone doesn’t boot up after attempting for the first time, then do it again just to be sure you’re doing it right. Remember, there’s a different effect if you pressed the Power key before the Volume Down button. You should press both simultaneously or you can try pressing and holding the Volume Down button and without letting go of it, press and hold the Power key.

Try charging your phone

I understand the phone may not charge even if you connect it to its charger if its firmware crashed but we need to confirm. So, connect the AC adapter to a working wall outlet and connect the phone to it using the original cable. Leave the phone be for 5 minutes and if the charging signs aren’t showing up after that, then do the forced reboot procedure once again but this time while the phone is connected to its charger.

It’s possible that the battery got completely drained and the system crashed just before the phone died due to lack of power. By pressing and holding the Volume Down and Power keys while the phone is connected to the charger, you’re actually forcing it to restart and use its charger as the source of power instead of its battery. If it successfully turns on after this, then allow it to fully-charge its battery and this might be the end of the problem. After all, the main problem here is that the phone went completely dead but now it’s up and running.

However, if it still won’t turn on after doing this procedure, do the following two procedures to know if your phone is still capable of powering up its hardware.

Attempt to turn it up in Safe mode

Another possibility that we have to consider at this point is the fact the third-party apps (or any app for that matter) may also cause this kind of problem especially if some of them keep crashing. Applications that you downloaded and installed will run only in normal mode, if one or some of them is causing the problem, then you should be able to boot your device in Safe mode wherein all third-party apps are temporarily disabled. Follow these steps to see if your phone can still boot up in safe mode…

Turn the device off.
Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
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 the phone successfully boots up in this mode, then next thing you should do is find the apps that cause the problem and uninstall them.

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Apps.
Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
Tap the desired application.
Tap Uninstall.
Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Try to boot your phone up in Recovery mode

You need to do this if your phone couldn’t boot up in safe mode and remained unresponsive when you tried to. In recovery mode, all hardware components are powered up but the Android interface and all other files and apps will not run. The purpose of this procedure is for us to know if your phone is still capable of running in this mode because if so, you can actually do a couple of things that might just fix the problem; you can try wiping the cache partition and do the Master reset.

How to run Note 8 in recovery mode and wipe cache partition

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 cache partition’.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

How to boot Note 8 in recovery mode and do the Master reset

You only have to do this if your phone successfully run in recovery mode but couldn’t successfully boot up after wiping the cache partition. Take note your files and data will be deleted if you can successfully do this procedure…

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 the phone can’t boot up in recovery mode, then bring it back to the store to have the tech check it out. If you still need our help, then contact us.

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