Samsung Galaxy S9 screen turns off and on randomly after a firmware update (Troubleshooting Guide)

Being the most visible component, your Samsung Galaxy S9’s screen or display is often plagued with problem but majority of those issues aren’t really hardware-related. There is, however, one problem that may serve as a sign of a more serious hardware problem and that’s screen flickering wherein the display turns off and on rapidly. It might occur as seldom as twice a day or as often as every minute of your use depending on how serious the problem is.

Another problem I want to address in this post is when the screen turns off for a second or two and turns back on while you’re using the phone. The thing is that, the display won’t turn on if the phone is active unless, of course, you press the Power key once or if you initiate it. If the display blacks out on its own without apparent reason, then you should take time looking into the problem to know more about it and hopefully, fix it.

In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy S9 whose screen turns off by itself randomly. We will try to rule out every possibility to determine what the problem is and formulate a solution that may fix this problem. So, if you’re one of the owners of this device and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading as this article may 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 troubleshoot Galaxy S9 with screen that randomly turns off

 

Run your phone in safe mode – this is to know if the problem is caused by one of the apps you downloaded and installed. Graphics intensive apps or games have tendencies to make your phone’s display flickering or turn black for a few second. That’s the reason why you need to do this. In safe mode, all third-party applications are temporarily disabled so if one of them is causing the problem, then the screen should not turn off on its own while in this mode. Assuming the problem is fixed, then the next thing you need to do is find the app that’s causing the problem and uninstall it. That should fix the problem but after doing so, you should try reinstalling the app to see if the same problem occurs.

Wipe cache partition – if the problem still occurs even in safe mode, the next thing you should do is wipe the cache partition as there’s a possibility that the issue is with the firmware. So, you should begin looking into the system cache to know if it’s just due to some corrupt files because if it is, then wiping the cache partition will fix the problem. These files are temporary and get corrupted most of the time. Wiping the cache partition doesn’t actually just delete but replace them with new ones. After wiping the cache partition and the problem still occurs, then you have to reset your phone.

Backup of your files and reset your phone – there’s no guarantee that the problem will be solved by a reset but it’s the last thing you need to do to rule out the possibility that it’s just an issue with the firmware. So, if the problem is fixed after the reset, then you encountered a minor problem specifically on the firmware side but if the issue continues to occur after the reset, then it’s time you brought it to the shop as it could be a hardware problem especially if the flickering is really bad.

How to run your Galaxy S9 in Safe mode

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen appearing on the 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. When Safe mode appears in the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume down key.

How to uninstall a third-party app

  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.
  4. To display preinstalled apps, tap Menu > Show system apps.
  5. Tap UNINSTALL > OK.

How to wipe cache partition

  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 Android logo displays, release all three keys.
  4. An ‘Installing system update’ message will show for 30 – 60 seconds before the Android system recovery menu options appear.
  5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight wipe cache partition.
  6. Press Power key to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key to highlight yes, them and press the Power key to select.
  8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, Reboot system now is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

How to 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.

I hope that this troubleshooting guide have helped you one way or another. If you have other issues you want to share with us, feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.

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