Help Black screen, phone won't force restart.

[Android Question]

I've had a samsung galaxy s7 for maybe 9-10 months now, it's in good shape, and I don't get day to day issues with general use. However, multiple times have I gotten the glitch where the screen goes black and I must force restart the phone to get it to work again. Normally, I wouldn't mind, it isn't a hassle, but last night, the screen went black, and I've tried to force restart it several times and held keys for minutes, but the force restart isn't working. The volume keys are responsive and I can hear the sound/ringer, like the power key isn't being pressed with either. The lights on the bottom for tab/back also flash when I press home or power, but there's no response when I press keys together. I currently also have a constant green light signaling the battery is fully charged, but no change in phone. It's been ~6 hours with no change, my alarm went off, and I've seen the light blink signalling notifications, and I don't know what to do since no restarts seem to be happening. Please help!

 

[Hadron]

From what you've said the simplest explanation that would be consistent with your observations would be if the power button has failed (whether a hardware failure or some very strange software problem, possibly an evolution of whatever the original glitch is, I can't say).

If the power button doesn't respond then since you can't remove the battery the one other way to force a restart is to let it run flat. That will be ok if it's all software, if it's actually the button hardware that's gone I don't know whether you'd be able to turn it on again. So if you are tempted to try that then are you backed up? If not, I'd try to do so before letting it run down, just in case (though hopefully this is all software).

Unless, of course, you have USB debugging enabled? If you have the connect to a computer with adb installed and use "adb reboot" to restart it.

If the touchscreen is still working (even if the display is off) you may be able to control the phone using that, and connect it to a TV via an MHL lead in order to see the display. Depends exactly what the fault is. Note that Samsung use a different MHL connector to most, so if you want to try this but need to buy one make sure you check compatibility. Obviously not a fix, but would make backups simpler, and could help enable USB debugging if you don't have this on.

In any event I'd suggest backing up and then getting the phone fixed/replaced under warranty.