Samsung Galaxy S8 became too hot and won’t turn on

This post is intended to owners of the Samsung Galaxy S8 whose phones started to heat up for no reason at all and won’t turn on. This kind of problem happens all the time and while we can say it’s an issue with the firmware, we have to make sure it’s not due to liquid or physical damage.

Overheating could be a sign of liquid damage. The S8 however, is dust and water resistant so it has at least, more protection when it comes to water damage. But the downside is that you become complacent thinking the phone is well-protected. One thing to note here is that the IP68 rating is actually not to make your phone “waterproof” so there’s still a chance liquid can enter into your device and mess it up. This should be the first thing we need to look into but before we move on, here’s the problem we received from one of our readers…

“Plugged my phone in last night like always. It was working just fine; took pics and video of my son and this morning my phone was hot and not turning on at all. I tried taking off the cover and it cooled off but still not turning on. Please help. I have a Samsung Galaxy S8.”

This troubleshooting guide will be based on this problem but if you are looking for a solution to a different problem, then make sure you drop by our Galaxy S8 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed many issues with this phone. If you need more help from us, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

Troubleshooting Galaxy S8 that became too hot and won’t turn on

Before we move on to our troubleshooting steps, I just want to say that safety is our first priority and that goes for the phone and the owner. I won’t suggest any procedure here that might damage the phone or compromise the wellbeing of the owner. With that being said, here’s what you have to do about this problem…

Make sure it’s not due to liquid damage

Before anything else, it’s imperative you take time verifying if the problem is caused by liquid damage or not because if it is, you may do more damage to your phone than fix it especially that this troubleshooting guide includes a step wherein you have to charge your phone. Here are the things you need to do to check your phone for possible liquid damage…

• Blow into the USB port to get rid moisture, debris and/or lint. If you have a can of compressed air, give it a blast.
• Use a cotton swab to clean around the area.
• Insert a small piece of tissue into the USB port to absorb moist.
• Remove the SIM card tray and look into the slot to find out if the Liquid Damage Indicator is tripped. If the LDI is still white, then there’s no sign of liquid damage but it’s a different story if it became red, pink or purple.

Find out if the phone still charges

After making sure your phone isn’t suffering from liquid damage, try to plug the charger to a working wall outlet and connect your phone to it. Here’s why you need to do this…

• It’s important that your phone still charges fine as there’s a possibility the problem is with the hardware.
• If it charges fine, it’s also important to make sure it’s not heating up as overheating may lead to more serious problems.
• If the phone charges, how long does it take to fully charge its battery.
• What happens if you try to turn your phone one while it’s charging.
• The device should at least show you the charging icon and lights up the LED indicator. If these signs don’t show, allow your phone to charge for ten minutes.

Do the Forced Restart procedure

Regardless whether the phone charges or not, if it still won’t turn on, then you better perform the Forced Reboot procedure. Doing so will have these benefits…

• It will refresh the phone’s memory as it will simulate battery disconnect.
• If the problem is due to a system crash, your phone may start up normally.
• To force restart your phone, press and hold the volume down and power keys together for 7 to 10 seconds.
• Try doing it while the phone isn’t connected to the charger, if it doesn’t respond, connect it to the charger and do the same thing.

Try booting the phone up in Safe mode

It is very much possible that one or some of the third-party apps you installed is causing the problem. If the procedures above don’t work, then you should try running your phone in Safe mode; it will temporarily disable all third-party apps. If one of them is the cause of the heating up and being unresponsive, then doing this procedure may bring your phone to life. This is how you boot your Galaxy S8 in safe mode:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

If the device successfully booted up in safe mode, then you’re already halfway to knowing and fixing the problem. The next thing you should do in this case is find the app that’s causing it and then uninstall it.

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

Try starting the phone up in Recovery Mode

You only have to do this if your phone won’t boot up in safe mode. The Android system recovery menu actually serves as the fail-safe for your device. Even if the problem is due to a serious firmware issue it may still be able to start in this mode and if successful, you can do a couple of things that have big impact on the firmware and might just fix the problem for you. The first thing you should do is wipe the cache partition to delete all system caches. If that doesn’t work, then you must try to do the master reset which will bring the phone back to its factory default settings. Here’s how you try to start your phone up in Recovery mode:

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. 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).

After doing all these procedures and your phone is still heating up and/or not turning one, then you should bring the phone back to the store so that the technician can check it. It’s possible that the problem is due to a serious hardware issue especially if the phone doesn’t charge and not booting up in safe mode and recovery mode.

I hope that this troubleshooting guide can help you with your problem.

Galaxy S8 posts you may also like to read:

• How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S8 that won’t turn on [Troubleshooting Guide]
• Solutions to Galaxy S8 won’t turn on and black screen issues
• What to do when your Samsung Galaxy S8 shows the Black Screen of Death [Troubleshooting Guide]
• Samsung Galaxy S8 Not Turning On After Charging Issue & Other Related Problems
• How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S8 that won’t charge [Troubleshooting Guide]