[Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hurricane flow:
Hi,

Not sure if it's a right place to ask, but let it be my first post here. I own an S5 device, and it's sort of crazy. Let me explain.

Three months ago my device suddenly rebooted and got almost-soft-bricked in sense of being unable to boot to the operating mode normally: its display just got black after the splash screen, however I could tap the display and watch 1 FPS "live stream" using `adb screencap` at my PC. So the device was not dead and I could take out all private not synced data I needed (it was really hard once for an application that has the backup facility disabled in its application manifest) -- blind tapping everywhere. My first attempt to fix the device was re-flashing another compatible ROM having all important data backed up. Well, I got it bricked and could not boot anymore. The recovery mode was not available (the device just frozen if trying to enter the recovery), however I could enter the download mode.

Unfortunately, no reflashing helped, so I decided to let it be fixed by a repaire service (since an official Samsung service center in my country has rejected the repair request _with payment_ because the device was not intended for sale here -- well, "thanks Samsung"). Ok, the alternative service took the device and asked almost a half of the device price for the display replace. Honestly, I forgot to ask why there was an idea to replace the display if it worked perfect while it was waiting in the Download mode. Again, it just got black after the splash screen, but the display worked fine in the Download mode until the device was powered off or reset. So after a few days they gave it back to me, and the device was really good now -- it worked fine. They also re-fllashed the device to Android 6 (previously Android 5) and the device was unrooted. Well, that's fine to me.

But after a few hours of rooting, testing and re-installing the software and migrating the data back to the device, the device rebooted again being unable to boot to the "operating mode". Now it just got stuck at the Samsung S5 splash screen or rebooted in a loop. But after a long time (it might took more than a day; the battery seems to be inserted in the device and not pulled off) the device was able to boot normally and (this might be odd) upgrade the installed apps. If I remember, this was a cyan screen with two or three animated white gears. So about 150 apps were upgraded and the normal "operating" mode activated -- so I could use the device. Now after working a few hours, the device falls into a reboot loop / splash freeze coma again for undetermined time, and then, for unknown to me reason, the device woke up.

In short:

1) The device reboots or shuts down suddenly.

2) Instant rebooting does not work for whatever reason.

3) Just wait for some undetermined time without the device battery pulled off.

4) ... It boots again.

5) The upgrading process starts after the boot.

6) Working with the device until paragraph 1: "The device reboots or shuts down suddenly".

Now I don't know if it's a hardware or a software issue: the repair service guys didn't explain much, and now I'm feeling cheated for the replacement of the display that worked perfect in the Download mode that I gave half device price just because it was an idea of theirs. Yes, I have the repair warranty paper for their service, but I just would like to know the real context.

What I could be deservedly blamed for:

* I rooted the device after their repair in a wrong way.

* When I rooted the device, I removed most Samsung bloatware I used to remove earlier. I don't tend to think that I could kill some important software, though. But, to me, it's hard to believe that a software issue might cause such an odd device behavior (I mean the booting just after a certain period of time).

So... I would really and really appreciate getting the real issue behind the symptoms or just a hint spark of light to reveal possible root causes. And was I really cheated by the repair service?

* My device: Samsung SM-G900P S5, Sprint

* Firmware before the repair: stock, Android 5.0.x (?), root, most Samsung bloatware removed

* Firmware after the repair: stock, Android 6.0.1, root, most Samsung bloatware removed (yes, the bloatware list difference is significant now)

* The battery: seems to work fine and does not get drained when the device is in coma

Thank you!