ebrandwein
Newbie
and the phone promptly overheated a few minutes later. Sigh....
-
After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.
Help Overheating issues with AT&T Update
- Thread starter ebrandwein
- Start date
-
- Tags
- samsung galaxy s4
ironass
Extreme Android User
Oh, dear!
Start by wiping the cache partition as detailed in #1.2 of the Update Problems - Dummies Guide and see if that helps.
ebrandwein
Newbie
I'll try that. Thanks
ebrandwein
Newbie
No joy. Still getting very hot for no apparent reason.
ironass
Extreme Android User
Other possibilities are that...
1. You have a rogue or KitKat incompatible app running in the background as per #1.0 of the Update Problems - Dummies Guide. Install Android System Info, free from the Play Store, and let it run for awhile and then touch > Battery > Usages and it will list the functions and apps in order of those using juice.
2. You have one of the bad batteries as mentioned here. Samsung offer free checks and replacements.
It might be an idea to start thread on this as I would like to keep this for specific Bug Fix firmware releases.
ebrandwein
Newbie
Battery and phone are replacements from AT&T after my first s4 overheated so much that the battery deformed. I try to keep all my apps up to date so I find it unlikely that an app is doing this. It gets hot enough that I switched back to my old HTC One X. I know it is a very inferior handset but, with largely the same apps loaded, it runs cool. From what I see of people posting about S4 overheating issues, there doesn't seem to be a single nexus to the issue. I'm leaning toward the possibility of a design defect. Some issue in the way it vents heat away from its innards is just not right.
ebrandwein
Newbie
Ok. This weekend I did a full wipe of the phone and the sd card. I have since reloaded everything. I have even tried deliberately over stressing the phone. Nothing. Nice and cool. I now believe that the whole problem is the apps and data that the previous version of the os installed on the SD card. Kit Kat has apparently changed the way sd cards can be used to such a degree that old apps and data can really cause trouble. It was a pia to have to reload everything but, so far, it all seems good.
Canesfan
Android Enthusiast
Yeah, when I end up re-doing the whole phone, it'll be with a brand new non-Samsung one.
Hmmm. This thread interests me, as my S4 (on VZW) has been overheating quite a bit of late. I first believed it was doing this because I was driving in Arizona and, y'know, the poor thing was sitting in the car cradle in my windshield, getting all that Arizona sunlight. But when I returned to California (not cold, by any means, but not overly toasty), the phone overheated while driving here, too, which it had Never Done Before.
Questioning whether this is not, in fact, driving-in-hot-car related after all. (Still, I've been aiming an A/C vent right at the phone, which seems to help.)
Questioning whether this is not, in fact, driving-in-hot-car related after all. (Still, I've been aiming an A/C vent right at the phone, which seems to help.)
Mr. Lucky
Android Expert
Sorry for your trouble, but thanks for circling back with the solution (and I know the pain of doing a full reset).
freakshow85
Android Enthusiast
Adara, I wouldn't position my phone that way. You could probably fry an egg on a car dash depending on the circumstances. If it only overheats while driving with it there.. I would imagine that's the problem. Even worse if you have it charging.
freakshow85
Android Enthusiast
True. I would look into some vehicle mounts for phones. They can come with suction cups or clips to clip into a vent. I use the kind with clips in my truck and absolutely love it. Plus if you have working air conditioning, it will run that much cooler. If you are in the U.S., check them out at Newegg.
MYKEL61
Well-Known Member
freakshow85
Android Enthusiast
That's awesome, man. Hope ya like it and get some good use out of it.
ebrandwein
Newbie
I'm really quite amazed at the change though. Before the reformat, it would randomly overheat for no apparent reason and kill it's battery in the process. Since the reformat, no issues. I really tried to stress it too. Copied 450 songs to the SD card via the cable while simultaneously performing and Exchange sync and downloading or updating about two dozen apps. No heating or battery issues at all. Like a night and day change.
freakshow85
Android Enthusiast
Yes, that is one of those strange and hard to pin point problems. It is good that fixed it, though. I have been reading through many threads everywhere about batteries/charging/actual amperage used and given and have read a few posts with people's phones with symptoms like yours. They are usually unsolved. Everything can be fixed, I guess it is a matter of finding where to start.
Usually overheating like that is caused by runaway apps that are overtaxing the processor. You can download battery monitoring apps like GSAM and usually pinpoint the offending app or process that is causing the phone to overheat. Just a suggestion if you run into the issue in the future 
ebrandwein
Newbie
Usually overheating like that is caused by runaway apps that are overtaxing the processor. You can download battery monitoring apps like GSAM and usually pinpoint the offending app or process that is causing the phone to overheat. Just a suggestion if you run into the issue in the future
I was keeping an eye on running apps before the reformat. I don't think it was a runaway app so much as the way Kit Kat now works with SD cards. Removing apps and data that previously resided on the sd card and running them from main memory (Non-SD) is really the only significant change between my setup now and what it was before the reformat.
I have a feeling that after the OS upgrade, some apps or data remained in SD card folders that are now off limits to apps in Kit Kat. It makes sense to me that the machine might be fighting with itself if this was the case. That would explain the overheating and the battery drain. Things may have been happening in the background with legacy data on the SD card that shouldn't have been there. For a discussion of the new android SD card rules, see:
KitKat and SD cards — what's fixed, what's broken and what's misunderstood | Android Central
I have made several rather paranoid attempts to overtax the phone in the last few days to try to get it to overheat like it did before. So far, nothing I've thrown at it has tripped it up.
ironass
Extreme Android User
Have you tried a Factory Data Reset as per post #2 of the Update Problems - Dummies Guide?
itsallgood
Android Expert
ebrandwein;[URL="tel:6591208" said:
Your logic makes sense. I haven't had any problems with heat or battery drain, since upgrading to KK a few days ago. (I did at first, with one 3rd party app that I reinstalled.) I have around 290 apps, to which 77 of them, mostly games, stayed on the SD card after updating to KK. (I can still move apps to SD card too.) As far as I can tell, all my apps data is still there for the apps on the moved to SD card. So I guess my question is, why are some S4 owners able to move/keep apps on SD card after the KK update and others not able to? Just curious.
ebrandwein
Newbie
I'm guessing that there exists a relatively small number of apps that misbehave with the kit kat sd card rules. Unfortunately, I have no way of identifying them thus the need for a card reformat and hard reset. (By hard reset btw, I mean the one where you have to hold down the power and volume up buttons after having turned the phone completely off. Release those buttons when the small blue text appears on the upper left and then select factory reset from the menu). That rather drastic set of solutions was all I could think of that would absolutely remove any problem causing apps.