Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
W10 Pro PC

I was moving files off the phone (32 GB memory) to make some space as it
was almost full.
The main culprit seemed to be WhatsApp pictures.
Anyway, I had moved off around 2-3,000 files and started getting
unspecified errors.
Tracked it down to a couple of files by moving files in small chunks.
However I then kept getting errors.

Decided to reboot PC and restart phone.
Looked for an option to eject the phone but there wasn't one so I just
unplugged the phone from the USB cable.

The screen was locked up black.
No buttons worked.

I looked up on t'Internet and did the force power reset thing with the
power and volume down buttons.
However all I get is the initial splash screen and it hangs.

The software power off also powers the phone on again.
There seems to be no obvious means just to power it off.

Can't get it into diagnostic mode (volume down held, touch power button).

Any idea where to go from here?

I am suspecting some kind of memory corruption so the whole thing may be
toast but I'm reluctant to remove the SIM card and memory card with the
phone still powered up and in an unknown state.

Any experience of this, and possibly a fix?

Cheers

Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

On Saturday 16 December 2023 at 18:24:39 UTC, David wrote:
> Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
> W10 Pro PC
>
> I was moving files off the phone (32 GB memory) to make some space as it
> was almost full.
> The main culprit seemed to be WhatsApp pictures.
> Anyway, I had moved off around 2-3,000 files and started getting
> unspecified errors.
> Tracked it down to a couple of files by moving files in small chunks.
> However I then kept getting errors.
>
> Decided to reboot PC and restart phone.
> Looked for an option to eject the phone but there wasn't one so I just
> unplugged the phone from the USB cable.
>
> The screen was locked up black.
> No buttons worked.
>
> I looked up on t'Internet and did the force power reset thing with the
> power and volume down buttons.
> However all I get is the initial splash screen and it hangs.
>
> The software power off also powers the phone on again.
> There seems to be no obvious means just to power it off.
>
> Can't get it into diagnostic mode (volume down held, touch power button).
>
> Any idea where to go from here?
>
> I am suspecting some kind of memory corruption so the whole thing may be
> toast but I'm reluctant to remove the SIM card and memory card with the
> phone still powered up and in an unknown state.
>
> Any experience of this, and possibly a fix?
>
> Cheers
>
>
>
> Dave R
>
> --
> AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

I had one of these, but eventually managed a return under SoGA 1893 as somehow in 2017 Samsung had disabled 4G, Wi-Fi and internet calling.

0. leave it running until it goes flat, then remove cards.

1. Does the phone have a micro SD card inserted, if so remove it and try again, read the card on something else.
2. What is the state of the battery? This phone is probably six+ years old and the battery may be on its last legs...
3. What sort of SIM is in it? Again remove it and try without one (S7 will come up and even make VOIP calls with no SIM).
4. Does it make any difference if the phone is plugged into a charger?
5. If the phone won't run, can you still see the files using it as a USB drive from your PC?

As it happens even the S7 has back up to Samsung, so key stuff can simply be downloaded into a new phone, which IMHO you are overdue for as this phone is long out of support. This worked in the Samsung Shop when my S7 was effectively replaced by an S8 in early 2018. Did this S8 to S23u this year and also for a mate's business phone (S9 to S22u) last year and it works well.

David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
> Any idea where to go from here?
>
> I am suspecting some kind of memory corruption so the whole thing may be
> toast but I'm reluctant to remove the SIM card and memory card with the
> phone still powered up and in an unknown state.
>
> Any experience of this, and possibly a fix?

It sounds like the flash is poorly, and doing stuff with files has made it
poorlier. A few years before that the Note 4 had a thing where the eMMC
would just die one day, and the phone would refuse to boot. Of course the
flash is soldered, so swapping it out isn't easy.

What do you want to do with it? Do you want to recover files from it, or is
the primary goal to revive it?

It might be possible to get at it with a debugging interface via 'fastboot'
and/or 'Odin' (the latter is a Samsung thing) but it won't be
straightforward - most of those involving writing stuff to the flash, which
is already dicey.

If I google 'S7 Edge dead flash' (or 'dead ufs') there are various things.

Theo

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 11:13:00 -0800, notya...@gmail.com wrote:

> On Saturday 16 December 2023 at 18:24:39 UTC, David wrote:
>> Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge W10 Pro PC
>>
>> I was moving files off the phone (32 GB memory) to make some space as
>> it was almost full.
>> The main culprit seemed to be WhatsApp pictures.
>> Anyway, I had moved off around 2-3,000 files and started getting
>> unspecified errors.
>> Tracked it down to a couple of files by moving files in small chunks.
>> However I then kept getting errors.
>>
>> Decided to reboot PC and restart phone.
>> Looked for an option to eject the phone but there wasn't one so I just
>> unplugged the phone from the USB cable.
>>
>> The screen was locked up black.
>> No buttons worked.
>>
>> I looked up on t'Internet and did the force power reset thing with the
>> power and volume down buttons.
>> However all I get is the initial splash screen and it hangs.
>>
>> The software power off also powers the phone on again.
>> There seems to be no obvious means just to power it off.
>>
>> Can't get it into diagnostic mode (volume down held, touch power
>> button).
>>
>> Any idea where to go from here?
>>
>> I am suspecting some kind of memory corruption so the whole thing may
>> be toast but I'm reluctant to remove the SIM card and memory card with
>> the phone still powered up and in an unknown state.
>>
>> Any experience of this, and possibly a fix?
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>>
>>
>> Dave R
>>
>> --
>> AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64
>
> I had one of these, but eventually managed a return under SoGA 1893 as
> somehow in 2017 Samsung had disabled 4G, Wi-Fi and internet calling.
>
> 0. leave it running until it goes flat, then remove cards.
>
> 1. Does the phone have a micro SD card inserted, if so remove it and try
> again, read the card on something else.
> 2. What is the state of the battery? This phone is probably six+ years
> old and the battery may be on its last legs...
> 3. What sort of SIM is in it? Again remove it and try without one (S7
> will come up and even make VOIP calls with no SIM).
> 4. Does it make any difference if the phone is plugged into a charger?
> 5. If the phone won't run, can you still see the files using it as a USB
> drive from your PC?
>
> As it happens even the S7 has back up to Samsung, so key stuff can
> simply be downloaded into a new phone, which IMHO you are overdue for as
> this phone is long out of support. This worked in the Samsung Shop when
> my S7 was effectively replaced by an S8 in early 2018. Did this S8 to
> S23u this year and also for a mate's business phone (S9 to S22u) last
> year and it works well.

Thanks - a lot of useful info.

I have left it to run flat.

I've removed the SIM and SD carrier so there is no card in the phone.
The SIM card is in an older S5 and working for the moment.

If the phone is plugged into the charger it shows a charger icon but then
won't do the "soft power off/on" I've been trying to use.

It doesn't show up as a USB device on the PC.
[It was working like this when it went bit up.]

Are you saying that the contents are automatically backed up to Samsung
without any user action?
If so, do you have to buy a new Samsung handset to retrieve the data?

At the moment it seems dead as a very dead dead thing.
It was sticking at the initial splash screen.
A couple of times it got as far as the pulsation Samsung logo (which is
normally shown during boot up) but no further.

Not much on the phone which isn't also elsewhere.

Most photos have been backed up to the PC.

We would now just like to see if there is anything worth retrieving if it
will come back up.
Absolutely no confidence in using it long term.
It had reached the stage of "why upgrade when it is doing all we need?".

So looking to replace.

Cheers

Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

On Sunday 17 December 2023 at 17:44:32 UTC, David wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 11:13:00 -0800, notya...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > On Saturday 16 December 2023 at 18:24:39 UTC, David wrote:
> >> Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge W10 Pro PC
> >>
> >> I was moving files off the phone (32 GB memory) to make some space as
> >> it was almost full.
> >> The main culprit seemed to be WhatsApp pictures.
> >> Anyway, I had moved off around 2-3,000 files and started getting
> >> unspecified errors.
> >> Tracked it down to a couple of files by moving files in small chunks.
> >> However I then kept getting errors.
SNIP

> Thanks - a lot of useful info.
>
> I have left it to run flat.
>
> I've removed the SIM and SD carrier so there is no card in the phone.
> The SIM card is in an older S5 and working for the moment.
>
> If the phone is plugged into the charger it shows a charger icon but then
> won't do the "soft power off/on" I've been trying to use.

Charge long enough for it to be full
>
> It doesn't show up as a USB device on the PC.
> [It was working like this when it went bit up.]

Not good.

>
> Are you saying that the contents are automatically backed up to Samsung
> without any user action?

By default.

> If so, do you have to buy a new Samsung handset to retrieve the data?

Not entirely sure, if you have a Samsung account you may be able to log in and retrieve docs, pictures, music etc..

OTOH If you want to use the settings then obviously yes.

>
> At the moment it seems dead as a very dead dead thing.
> It was sticking at the initial splash screen.
> A couple of times it got as far as the pulsation Samsung logo (which is
> normally shown during boot up) but no further.
>
> Not much on the phone which isn't also elsewhere.
>
> Most photos have been backed up to the PC.
>
> We would now just like to see if there is anything worth retrieving if it
> will come back up.
> Absolutely no confidence in using it long term.
> It had reached the stage of "why upgrade when it is doing all we need?".
>
> So looking to replace.

Depending on your budget then get a top of the range S23 Ultra or if less affluent an A54 5G.

> Cheers
>
>
>
> Dave R
>
>
>
> --
> AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64