Samsung may be on the verge of a random reboot controversy if a couple of reports prove to be accurate. A number of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus owners are taking to online forums to complain that their unit restarts spontaneously.
Smartphones usually reboot a few times when initially taken out of the box, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. The reboots appear to happen randomly with no clear cause rooted out yet. One user on Samsung’s US community site claims that their unit restarted 7 times in the first 10 hours, with the device freezing, shutting off, and then coming back to life in a few seconds.
The thread is now 26 pages long with a growing number of people citing different possible reasons for the recurring problem. Some Galaxy S8 owners say it could have something to do with microSD cards, stating that removing the card temporarily gets rid of the problem. However, even people who aren’t using them are reporting the issue.
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Others believe that the issue might be related to bugs in the Always-On Display/lock screen or power save tool. A Galaxy S8 user over at XDA Developers says that artifacts start showing up near the bottom of their handset before the entire device just restarts. It apparently occurs even in safe mode, eliminating the possibility that an app is causing the reboots.
The same person later got in touch with Samsung who supposedly told them to send it back to the retailers and ask for a replacement. A few owners claim that they’re still experiencing random restarts even after getting replacement units from T-Mobile and Verizon.
Samsung hasn’t said anything official about the matter yet. There’s no way to tell right now whether this is a small-scale issue or an indication of a much bigger problem. We’ll keep you updated as it unfolds.