Galaxy Note suddenly shutting down

[Carlos Herrero]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. After a couple of years of use, I decided to buy a new battery because the old one did not hold charge as it should have. With the new battery, however, the phone would suddenly shut off, without warning and without rebooting. I thought it was a problem with the new battery. Maybe it failed to make proper contact. So I bought a second new battery. Exactly the same happens. I cannot replicate the problem, but I have some observations as to the circumstance in which it happens:

1. I believe that the screen must be on for the phone to shut down. It does not turn off by itself on my pocket or when the lid is closed.

2. It has nothing to do with moving the phone. I can have the phone lying flat on a sturdy surface, swicht it on, and then try to do something like opening an app or something without taking the phone off the surface, and the phone might shut down.

3. Once it has shut down, I cannot immediately turn it on. What I used to do until yesterday was to remove the battery and put it back on, and then it would turn on as if nothing had happened. Yesterday I realised another interesting fact: if after shutdown I plug the charger in, there will be a three-step process: first, i'll see on screen the icon for charging an entirely depleted battery (though the battery might be 70% or so), so I unplug/plug the charger, I get to the second step: the phone will display the “not charging” icon (i.e. a battery with a yellow triangle on it); unplug/plug to get to the third step: I will see the icon showing that the battery is (say) 70% and then i will be able to switch the phone on.

4. I believe that when it is connected to the charger the phone will not shut down, but I am not so sure of this (I have been observing how the fact that is plugged affects the phone’s behavior since yesterday only)

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[rock526]

My wife and I each had a Note 4 for about 18 months. They both started exhibiting this behavior. Apparently, there is a component on the motherboard that is prone to overheating (just Google "Note 4 overheating"). When it reaches a certain temperature, the device shuts down and restarts. The issue for me became chronic and eventually the phone would not boot into full operating mode but would just endlessly reboot. We returned both phones to T-Mobile and got new (refurbished) Note 4s that are working fine for the moment.

 

[Carlos Herrero]

Thanks for your reply, Rock526. But my predicamente seems to be different: my phone shuts down, but never reboots. On the other hand, if the reason for shutting down is some sort of precautionary measure because of overheating, rebooting would not make much sense!

 

[AZgl1500]

My Note 4 died about a month ago: a Klutz laid it on the dash of the truck while it was charging, in full sunlight.

It took a full month to find a replacement battery to see IF the phone survived, and only the battery was dead...

Well, the battery arrived today, I placed it in the phone, plugged in the charger.....
about 30 minutes later I feel to see if anything is hot/warm.

The rear camera is Very Hot to the touch.... ?? that is not an area where I would suspect the charge regulator to be located??

When the charger was plugged in, the usual Android figure displaying "charging" did not show up.
after I noticed it getting hot, I tried to power it on.... no luck, it is still dead...

Looks like I am going to shop for a new Note 4...

 

[touringhaggis]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. After a couple of years of use, I decided to buy a new battery because the old one did not hold charge as it should have. With the new battery, however, the phone would suddenly shut off, without warning and without rebooting. I thought it was a problem with the new battery. Maybe it failed to make proper contact. So I bought a second new battery. Exactly the same happens. I cannot replicate the problem, but I have some observations as to the circumstance in which it happens:

Did you get the second replacement battery from the same source as the first? If so you could try a different vendor. I am currently using a replacement battery from Anker which I found on Amazon. This battery has been working like a champ for the last five months or so.

1. I believe that the screen must be on for the phone to shut down. It does not turn off by itself on my pocket or when the lid is closed.

2. It has nothing to do with moving the phone. I can have the phone lying flat on a sturdy surface, swicht it on, and then try to do something like opening an app or something without taking the phone off the surface, and the phone might shut down.

3. Once it has shut down, I cannot immediately turn it on. What I used to do until yesterday was to remove the battery and put it back on, and then it would turn on as if nothing had happened. Yesterday I realised another interesting fact: if after shutdown I plug the charger in, there will be a three-step process: first, i'll see on screen the icon for charging an entirely depleted battery (though the battery might be 70% or so), so I unplug/plug the charger, I get to the second step: the phone will display the “not charging” icon (i.e. a battery with a yellow triangle on it); unplug/plug to get to the third step: I will see the icon showing that the battery is (say) 70% and then i will be able to switch the phone on.

4. I believe that when it is connected to the charger the phone will not shut down, but I am not so sure of this (I have been observing how the fact that is plugged affects the phone’s behavior since yesterday only)

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ok, it would make sense that the phone would shut down most frequently with the screen on, as this component (and also the CPU) draws the most power from the battery.

When I plug in my charger (with the phone turned off) I also see an empty battery icon which is displayed for as long as the screen is on (I have a 2 second timeout set). After I press the home button to re-activate the display, I see the correct level within the charging display. So, it could be that your behavior is more normal than you think. I am not sure what the yellow triangle actually means, but I have seen it when my Note 1 was charged after sitting unused in my office for a very long time. Perhaps this is also a symptom of a somewhat less than trustworthy battery supplier.

One other thing comes to mind. I assume you bought the replacement battery(ies) for a reason. Was the phone also shutting down with the stock battery, or was it just not holding a charge the way it used to? If it was also shutting down, this would tend to excuse the replacement batteries and point to a hardware problem.

Additionally, perhaps booting the phone into safe mode for a while may be a good idea. It could be that some rogue app is causing the shutdowns, although I have not heard about such an app.

Sorry about all the guessing here, but I hope some of my musings will help you along the way.

Regards,
Eric.

 

[Carlos Herrero]

Thanks Eric! You are right concerning the empty battery icon followed by the charging icon. THat seems to be normal behaviour. What might be a clue as to what my probem is is that after the phone has shut down I cannot turn it back on without (a) removing and replacing the battery or (b) plug the phone in. Any of them will do, however.
I bought the replacement battery for what I took to be normal battery wear. General issues such as not holding its charge, or suddenly moving from, say, 21% to 0, and the like. The phone never shut down on its own with the original battery as it does with the new ones.
Yes, I bought the batteries through different vendors. But I live in Chile, and Chile is not a big market, so they may both from the same provider.
Following your advice, tried safe mode, but it did not solve the issue.

 

[touringhaggis]

Hi Carlos,

Yes, the 20% to off behaviour that you experienced with the original battery is indeed evidence of an old battery that needs replacing (in my case when I took a picture with flash at 40% my phone would shut down). Also, the safe mode test should have ruled out hardware or software problems. So you did need a new battery. The question is if you bought a good replacement or if you ended up with something worse.

I would try to find someone else with the same phone and borrow their battery to see if that would get rid of the problem. If this is not an option try to order a genuine Samsung battery from overseas (I know this will be difficult because as far as I know Samsung are always out of stock, but perhaps someone in the States can point you in the right direction). If all else fails then you can always try this.

Good luck...

Regards,
Eric.

 

[AZgl1500]

I have a Note 4 that just failed... pulled the battery and it measured 0.00 volts.

I ordered up two new Samsung "labeled" spares.
both of them measure exactly, 0.00 volts

new batteries nearly always have some residual capacity in them, so I don't know if I bought two more duds, or if the phone is actually dead. Wish I knew someone close to me with a Note 4 to help me out.