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Samsung Galaxy S8 went completely dead, turned itself off and won’t charge anymore (easy steps)

ByHarold Hisona
1 Comment
  • Learn how to fix your Samsung Galaxy S8 that went completely dead and won’t respond when you press the Power key or connect to the charger.
  • Learn how to troubleshoot your phone that won’t turn on and unresponsive even to the Forced Reboot procedure.

Your Samsung Galaxy S8 turns on and runs because every bit of hardware component inside is working properly and assisted by the firmware that handles almost every feature and function in it. If the phone turns off by itself, that’s a sign that something not normal is going on either with the hardware or the firmware and we have received quite a lot of messages from our readers complaining about their S8 units that reportedly powered down by themselves.

Every problem in every user is unique which also means that even if the issue have similar signs and symptoms, the causes may be different unless of course it’s a known issue with the firmware which Samsung has to do something about. However, more often than not, power-related problems often occur depending on how the device is being used but based on our experience, such problem can easily be fixed provided it’s not a sign of a serious hardware problem. I want to share with you the solution to this problem so continue reading as this post may help you one way or another.

If however, you are looking for a solution to a different problem, drop by our Galaxy S8 troubleshooting guide for we have already addressed the most common issues with this phone. Find problems that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you need more help, then feel free to contact us through our Android issues questionnaire.

How to fix Galaxy S8 that turned off by itself and no longer charges

If the problem started without apparent reason or cause, then we can fix it because such issue occurs most of the time due to a firmware or system crash. Such problem may be due to some apps that are also crashing, corrupt system caches and/or data files or something else might have triggered it. It’s difficult to determine the cause of the problem is at this point but here’s one method that has already been proven to be effective and that is according to many of our readers we have already helped in the past:

  • Press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key simultaneously for 10 seconds.

Again, assuming there’s no problem with the hardware and that there’s enough battery left to power all components, your phone should be booting up normally by now. The simple procedure above is what we call the Forced Restart wherein it simulates battery disconnect and refreshes your phone’s memory. It has similar effect as with the battery pull procedure we often do to phones with removable batteries. However, if it didn’t work, try doing this…

  1. Press and hold the Volume Down button first and don’t let go of it.
  2. Press and hold the Power key while holding down the Volume Down button.
  3. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds.

It’s basically the same as the procedure above but we’re just making sure that you’re doing the procedure correctly. Pressing and holding the Power key first will immediately trigger the phone so you’re not really doing the combination right that’s you need to press and hold the Volume Down button and then the Power key. If the phone is still not booting up after doing this, then here’s another procedure you can do.

  1. Plug the charger into a working wall outlet.
  2. Connect your phone to the charger using the original USB cable, the one that came with the main unit.
  3. Regardless whether the phone shows the charging symbol or not, leave it connected to its charger for at least 10 minutes.
  4. After which, do the forced restart procedure by pressing and holding the Volume Down and Power keys together.

With this, we’re trying to do the forced restart while the phone is connected to a stable power source which is the charger. When the battery runs out, which is also possible in this case, the firmware and several of the hardware components may shutdown out of sync which may leave other services and functions to crash. Since the battery is totally drained and the system crashed, naturally, the phone won’t respond when you try to turn it on simply because there’s no battery that’s why we’re doing this. But if the phone continues to be unresponsive after this, then you really have to spend some time troubleshooting your device. Continue reading as I prepared a troubleshooting guide for you.

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Troubleshooting Galaxy S8 that went dead and won’t respond to Forced Restart

As I said earlier, every problem is unique even if most of the time they manifest similar symptoms that’s why our solution may work to other devices but may not work on others. If your unit won’t respond to the Forced Restart procedure, you have to spend a few minutes to try and troubleshoot it in a bid to determine what the problem is and hopefully find a solution for it. For those who are not comfortable doing some troubleshooting procedures, I suggest you immediately bring the phone to the service center so that a technician can check it for you. But for owners who are willing to do something about this problem, here’s what you should do…

Check for signs of both physical and liquid damages

It’s very important that you check your phone for signs physical and / or liquid damage because if one of them is the reason why your device no longer turns on, then there’s no point to continue troubleshooting. Whatever you do as long as the hardware is compromised, you won’t be able to fix the problem unless you open the phone but even that won’t guarantee the issue will be fixed.

Now, to check your phone for physical damage, look for scratches, cracks and dents because any force that could render the phone useless will surely leave a mark on the outside. If the phone looks flawless or with only minor scratches, then physical damage may not be the reason why it’s not turning on anymore.

As to the liquid damage, it’s a bit complicated and the phone is actually prone to this kind of damage because many owners use the phone when in water. Well, that’s the purpose of IP68 rating but you should know that it’s only for water resistance and not waterproofing so water can still find its way into your phone given the right circumstances.

  • Look into the USB or charger port as it often serves as the gateway of liquid. If you can find moisture in there, you may use a cotton swab to clean the area or insert a small piece of tissue in it to absorb the moist.
  • Also check the Liquid Damage Indicator located inside the SIM card slot. Remove the SIM card tray and look into the slot to find it. If it’s white, then it’s not tripped and it means there’s no liquid damage. However, if it turned red or purple, then it’s positive that water or any sort of liquid found its way into your phone.

If there are signs of either physical or liquid damage, there’s only so much you can do about your phone. The best thing to do is bring it to the service center so that the technician can do what needs to be done. However, if the phone is free from physical and liquid damage, continue troubleshooting.

Try running your Galaxy S8 in Safe mode

When in safe mode, all third-party apps and services are temporarily disabled so if one or some of them is causing all these problems, your phone should be able to boot up in this mode normally. When the phone successfully boots up in this mode, then consider the problem fixed already or at least it’s downgraded from not turning on to just a booting issue. To run your device in this environment, follow these steps:

  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.

Assuming the phone actually boots up in this mode, the next thing you should do is reboot your phone normally to try to see if it can. If it’s stuck somewhere during the boot process, turn it off and reboot back into safe mode. Then try to uninstall apps you suspect are causing the problem:

  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.

On the other hand, if you don’t have a clue which of the apps is causing the problem and if you think it would be a lot quicker and more convenient to backup your files and data and just do the reset, then do it to give your device a fresh start.

  1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
  2. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  3. Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
  4. Tap Backup and restore.
  5. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  6. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  7. Tap the back button to the Settings menu and tap General Management > Reset > Factory data reset.
  8. Tap Reset.
  9. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your credentials.
  10. Tap Continue.
  11. Tap Delete all.

However, if your Samsung Galaxy S8 also refuses to boot up in safe mode, then there’s one more thing you can do.

Try booting the device in Recovery Mode

This is your last resort and if the phone fails to boot into this mode, you will have to bring it to the service center. But the thing is that the Android system recovery serves as the fail-safe for all Android device so even if the phone has some serious firmware issues for as long as the hardware is fine, it should be able to boot into this mode. If you can bring the phone to start into this environment, you may try rebooting it using the “Reboot system now” option and if it’s stuck during the booting process, boot back into this environment and wipe the cache partition. If the fails as well, then you have no other choice but to do the Master Reset which will of course delete all your files and data but brings your device back to its factory default settings. Here’s how you do those procedures:

How to boot Galaxy S8 in Recovery Mode and wipe cache partition

  1. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  2. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  3. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  4. Press the Power key to select.
  5. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
  6. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  7. Press the Power key to restart the device.

How to boot Galaxy S8 in Recovery mode and do the Master Reset

  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).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  7. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  8. When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

If everything else fails, you may bring the device to the service center. But I hope that this troubleshooting guide can help you one way or another. If you have other concerns you want to share with us, feel free to contact us any time.

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One Comment

  1. I have tried all your troubleshooting and unfortunately nothing has worked on my Samsung Galaxy S8. My phone just froze then went off and hasnt come back on except for the red light on the top left of the phone. The phone has remained like this ever since. The phone remains unresponsive but the light remains on. I cant access anything on the phone.
    My phone has been out of service for a week now and I would greatly appreciate any further advice/solutions that you can provide.
    Many Thanks

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