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Help Extremely buggy Galaxy S4

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gordyvision

Lurker
I recently bought a Sprint Galaxy S4 and it's showing some of the strangest behavior I've ever seen on an android phone. I've been doing searching around the internet and nobody else seems to have these issues. I'm going to try to load a new rom on the phone, but I'm doubtful it's going to fix very much. If anybody on this forum has ideas on what these issues point towards. I'm really looking for any information.

Issues I've seen so far:
  • Eternal downloading or runs into error 495 while downloading (only some) apps
  • Home button acts exactly the same as Back button (the phone can't tell the difference)
  • Presses back button randomly without any input sometimes (seems to be when it gets hot)
  • Seems to restart itself every once in a while

Like I said, I'm going to try to load a new rom on the phone. I've factory reset it twice, cleared the play store cache. It seems to me sometimes the phone will be able to download apps, and sometimes it will just "download" forever, it just depends on the time. I haven't been able to download titanium backup yet but I've tried multiple times.

I think for me...the biggest problem is the home button issue. I'm not a picky person and I wouldn't be posting on this forum except I kind of need the functionality of going home and switching between apps. Has anyone seen this before?

Since there's no physical damage to the phone at all I'm starting to think the previous owner just messed with the phone too much and once it got too buggy they decided to sell it. Which sucks for me.

If anybody needs more information feel free to ask.
Software version: L720VPUFNAE
Android 4.4.2

Thanks,
gordyvision
 
gordyvision said:
I recently bought a Sprint Galaxy S4 and it's showing some of the strangest behavior I've ever seen on an android phone. I've been doing searching around the internet and nobody else seems to have these issues. I'm going to try to load a new rom on the phone, but I'm doubtful it's going to fix very much. If anybody on this forum has ideas on what these issues point towards. I'm really looking for any information.

Issues I've seen so far:
  • Eternal downloading or runs into error 495 while downloading (only some) apps
  • Home button acts exactly the same as Back button (the phone can't tell the difference)
  • Presses back button randomly without any input sometimes (seems to be when it gets hot)
  • Seems to restart itself every once in a while

Like I said, I'm going to try to load a new rom on the phone. I've factory reset it twice, cleared the play store cache. It seems to me sometimes the phone will be able to download apps, and sometimes it will just "download" forever, it just depends on the time. I haven't been able to download titanium backup yet but I've tried multiple times.

I think for me...the biggest problem is the home button issue. I'm not a picky person and I wouldn't be posting on this forum except I kind of need the functionality of going home and switching between apps. Has anyone seen this before?

Since there's no physical damage to the phone at all I'm starting to think the previous owner just messed with the phone too much and once it got too buggy they decided to sell it. Which sucks for me.

If anybody needs more information feel free to ask.
Software version: L720VPUFNAE
Android 4.4.2

Thanks,
gordyvision
Click to expand...

Hello and welcome to Android Forums gordyvision! :)

As the phone is pre-owned and you appear to be having some unique problems with it, I would suggest downloading the stock firmware for your model and flashing it via Odin by following the instructions in the link #1.5 of 28 Galaxy S4 models - know yours?.

Here is the stock firmware download you will need...

Model: SPH-L720
Model name: GALAXY S4
Country: Spint (cdma)
Version: Android 4.4.2
Changelist: 481102
Build date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:07:34 +0000
Product Code: SPR
PDA: L720VPUFNAE
CSC: L720SPTFNAE
MODEM: L720VPUFNAE

For good measure, I suggest a Factory Data Reset prior to flashing. Hopefully this will sort you out and put your phone back on track.
 
I didn't see this until this morning, I concur with Ironass (you can trust anything he says) completely. I doubt that there is anything physical that the previous owner could do to cause the home button to physically act differently. Since you are rooted and playing the "ROM Swap" game, you really don't know what you are dealing with in terms of what changes/mods have been done. Going back to stock will allow you to make sure the phone is what it is supposed to be and also allow you to change/mod the way you want. Nothing that you describe (at least to me) sounds like hardware issues.

Good luck,
 
Hey guys, once again I appreciate the help. I loaded the firmware on there and the home button still acts exactly the same as the back button. Is there any more information I can give you?
 
gordyvision said:
Hey guys, once again I appreciate the help. I loaded the firmware on there and the home button still acts exactly the same as the back button. Is there any more information I can give you?
Click to expand...

Just to confirm, you did a Factory Data Reset, (to get rid of any apps and mods the previous owner may have left), and you flashed the stock Samsung firmware mentioned previously. After that and before any apps were installed, the Home button was behaving as the Back, soft key?

If that were the case, I would be erring to a hardware fault as this issue, to the best of my knowledge, is unique on this, or any, stock firmware. Perhaps there has been water/moisture damage in the past. I would recommend getting the handset professionally checked out, by Samsung, if possible.
 
That's correct, I factory reset the phone and loaded the firmware on.

That's my experience too...I haven't seen anybody else with this problem.

Thanks for your time, I'll see if I can get it checked somewhere.
 
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