Any ideas to diagnose my mobile phone?

That sounds like 'Ultra power saving mode'. Try Settings -> Power saving -> Ultra power saving mode = off

Theo

And how should poor Gordon even get to "Settings" if "nothing ... will let me get out of" that "black screen showing the date and time ..."?

I'd think Telstra (or Samsung) need to take ownership of the problem, and exchange Gordon's handset for a known good one. HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp

Correct..

There clearly is one tho.

It's a hardware fault and that isn't a theory, it's a fact.

You shouldn't have to return it to the store very often before they realise that there is a problem.

He does that when he gets it back from the store before he enters any of his details.

Are you sure that's always the case?

When I did a factory reset on my Galaxy S3 I had to go into Google Play and manually request each individual app to be downloaded again to the phone. I wish the process had been as you described because that would have made restoring the phone a lot easier.

Is there a setting somewhere that affects this behaviour after a reset?

Chris

Every 'phone I've simply reset has gone through this routine - but when I've replaced firmware, most of the time I've had to go in and manually re-download as you've said.

From what I can gather, Google notes the 'phone's ID (manufacturer and model), operating system version, carrier and Google account details - if even one doesn't match, it doesn't bother downloading the apps.

One thing that's never guaranteed is stored WiFi credentials - they may or may not be downloaded, and if not, you'll never gain access to them again.

As far as I can remember, there's a simple tickbox around the time it asks you for your Google account details when powering up after a factory reset. There should be two tickboxes, one asking if you want to keep this 'phone backed up, and the other asking if you want to restore data to it.

I have to admit, of the Samsungs I've used, I've immediately flashed custom ROMs onto - I can't stand Samsung's ultra-kludgy (in an attempt to make their 'phones as stupid as iPhones?) "TouchWiz" overlay. It may be that they've managed to screw the data restoration procedure up in the process?

AFAIK the restoration of your apps was only introduced in Kitkat. Or maybe it was Jellybean.

In my experience it works (as well as it ever does) on Samsung phones. Last time I used it it restored an app I hadn't had installed for over a year and failed to restore several I was using right up until my phone went for repair.

Thanks but I can't! There is nothing I can do that will allow me to access the phone including a factory reset. Surely the phone would not reboot after a factory reset in "Ultra power saving mode".

You may have provided a theory though. Is "ultra power saving mode" a hardware function? Is it possible that a pin on an IC or a bit in the processor is permanently set to "ultra power saving mode"?

You do that just after the Telstra Shop has given you back the phone, claiming that there is nothing wrong with it, before it goes into that useless mode again.

No.

Is it possible that a pin on an IC or a bit in the

No, if it was, it would be in that state when they hand you back the phone in the Telstra Shop and they would be able to see that the phone is unusable.

I'll check after Telstra's next attempt which they said will be a replacement phone.

How do you think it got into "Ultra power saving mode"?

Because it has a hardware fault. It could be anything really.

If it does that without you loading any apps on the phone after a factory reset by the Telstra Shop it has to be a fault.

If it only happens after you have loaded the apps you want on it, it could be one of the apps that is doing that.

I also have an S4 and had this problem. It turned out to be the wallet case I had the phone in.

It took me a while to work out what was happening, but if I opened the front of the wallet and folded it right around so that it was behind the back of the phone I would get the same screen as you are describing. I found there was a small magnet in the front cover of the case, when it was put against the phone the screen, or back cover, it would go into the mode you are seeing. I assume this is a feature of the phone for when it is used in the type of case that has a clear window over the top third of the screen, and then when you open the case the normal screen should re-appear. .

If you put any magnet near the screen it will go into this mode. If you have your phone in a case it would be worth trying the phone out of the case and seeing if that helps, if it still happens then maybe the magnetic sensor is faulty.

Cheers,

Guy Warren

Now this makes sense! However as the OP was cross-posted from one of two other groups he may not have seen it.

That'll teach him. (But probably not...)

You are right and I have not been taught. What lesson should I have learned? I did respond to the post by saying that my phone does not have a case and has not been near a magnet.

My news client deals with cross posted messages by showing it to me in only one of the news groups that I subscribe to. Doesn't yours? Of course it retains the list of news groups it is posted to so that a response from me appears in any of the groups that received the post.

I've got news for you. Your post replying to the one I replied to didn't show up in aus.electronics.

I still don't understand. The groups have been edited so this _only_ shows up in aus.electronics. Somebody has removed aus.comms and comp.mobile.android.

What is your objection to cross posting?

For me it is the fact that astraweb (and some others) will not allow me to answer multiple crossposts, it sometimes allows me to answer one or two if they are ones that I subscribe to,I have to delete most of the crosses before it will allow me to answer,for instance GOD and dr jai Maharaj ( both multiple multiple posters)on some other groups,and as I do not know which is their main group I do not try.

Eventually they did do that. It seems that Telstra policy is to not bother diagnosing the problem so they made two attempts to fix it by reflashing the OS. The policy is also is to give up on the third try and replace the phone. They didn't have a replacement so, after over 5 weeks and a dozen trips to the Telstra Shop, they replaced the S4 with an S5.