Red Light on Samsung Galaxy

The Samsung Galaxy line of smartphones is one of very few to keep pace with Apple’s iPhone. While many Samsung Galaxy owners are more than happy with their devices (the author, JB, among them), not all are so lucky. Some Samsung Galaxy owners will even encounter a phenomenon known as the red light of death. When this happens, the powerful computer you carry around in your pocket becomes an expensive paperweight with a steadily blinking red light. While no Samsung Galaxy owner wants to encounter the red light of death, your fate is hardly permanent.

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What is the Samsung Red Light of Death?

The Samsung red light of death is simply an indicator from your device telling you that it has encountered a critical issue and that the operating system is failing to boot without experiencing a system crash. In short, the black screen and red light on your Samsung device indicate the device has died.

Don’t take the existence of this article as an indictment of Samsung tech, all electronic devices will fail at some point. Samsung devices are typically extremely reliable pieces of technology. Speaking from my personal experience: my Samsung hard drive, Samsung Smart TV, and Samsung Galaxy smartphone I have never encountered any issues, and each of those devices has exceeded my expectations. I’m hardly out of the woods yet though, my Samsung Galaxy has been used every day for nearly 5 years, and while there are certainly older devices in use around the world, a 5 year old smartphone is well past the halfway point for its life expectancy.

How can Gillware Help?

A professional data recovery laboratory like Gillware is able to recover contacts, text messages, photos, videos, and additional files from a vast majority of the phones that come through our lab. A flashing red light on Samsung Galaxy s7 results in data recovery that is no more challenging than our other casework, and your chances of successful data recovery are likely higher than the more extreme causes of data loss we encounter at Gillware (i.e. intense pressure and contaminants from dirty water with flooding or the high temperature, omnipresence of ash, and destructive power of fire).

The Blank – Blank – of – Death

The blank – blank – of – death is a recurring theme among computers of various form factors, manufacturers, makes, and models.

For example, when PCs running the Windows operating system encounter an issue while booting, the computer will present a solid blue screen (with an error message in small text). This concept is widely known as the blue screen of death.

The blue screen of death may well be the inspiration for the blank – blank – of – death’s that followed. One of which, while it is not overly relevant to consumers and products today, is the Xbox 360’s red ring of death. When I was in middle school, almost all of my friends had Xbox 360s, and Call of Duty multiplayer was almost always being played on them. Nowadays I spend my leisure time learning about networking and computer science, but back in those days I probably would have started to cry if I pushed the power button and saw a red ring (A green light surrounds the power button when the device is functioning as intended). If you feel the same way about about your Samsung S7 red light of death scenario, give Gillware a call today!

Takeaways on Samsung Galaxy Red Light Problems

The point is that you can fairly associate blank – blank – of – death terminology with scenarios and phenomena likely to leave your tablet, smart TV, refrigerator, desktop, laptop, gaming console, or phone unusable. The other takeaway you should glean from this article is to reach out to Gillware Data Recovery if you need to recover files from Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S8, or Samsung Galaxy S_ that has encountered the Samsung red light of death.

JB Larson
JB Larson

JB Larson is technologist passionate about researching data storage devices, educating clients about technology, and playing the piano when he's not working.

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