**Ultimate GS3 sudden death thread**

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Obagleyfreer

Senior Member
Jun 29, 2012
2,019
844
Wellington
**** SAMSUNG HAVE APPLIED A SUDDEN DEATH FIX VIA A SOFTWARE UPDATE****

STOCK KERNEL: XXELKC AND NEWER

STOCK RECOVERY: XXELKC AND NEWER

ALSO ANY CUSTOM KERNEL AND RECOVERY THAT ARE BUILT FROM THE UPDATED SOURCES. THERE HAVE BEEN CASES OF SDS ON DEVICES THAT HAVE UPDATED BUT TO WHAT EXTENT THE DAMAGE WAS AT ALREADY BEFORE FLASHING WE DON'T KNOW.



WHO'S AFFECTED?
It seems that at the moment the only devices that have suffered from SDS are the 16GB version with:
eMMC: VTU00M
FW Rev: 0xF1


To check your eMMC version download eMMC Brickbug Check from Google Play.
What you want is the eMMC version and the FW Rev.



THE FIX
Samsung have now released a Sudden Death Fix via a patched Kernel and Recovery in latest firmware. Firmware Version: XXELKC

Simply update OTA or download XXELKC firmware (or newer) from sammobile.com and flash using Odin.

You need both the stock recovery and kernel installed for it to work properly, or a custom kernel and recovery built from the updated sources
ie Latest Perseus Kernel and PhilZ Recovery are examples



LINKS
For more info about SDS, who could be effected and how to fix check out this awesome thread by rootSU

For a detailed look at how the fix works check out this thread here.


WARRANTY
For those of you in Europe who have rooted your phone it appears that this doesn't void warranty. Check this thread for more info.
Also this website could prove very handy for anyone with a European or UK handset that has died.
 
Last edited:

DeadSOL

Senior Member
May 8, 2011
3,151
1,793
34
Okay, here's what just happened to me:

I went to sleep in the night with my phone's battery at around 29%. I just woke up and my phone's home button wouldn't respond. Then, the power button wouldn't respond! I took the battery out and put it back in. It still wouldn't respond! So, I plugged the charger in and then it showed me that it had begun charging. I turned the phone on and as soon as it reached the lock screen, it turned itself off. It did that twice more so I decided to let it rest. Now, it turns on. (>_>)

Apparently, 29% of its battery was somehow consumed last night. I really don't know how!!!! My wifi was on,it seems, but around 30% battery drain in just a few hours?!! That's insane! I'm on stock DL4. Not even rooted!


So it's not a "death" case, per se, but I had a really bad scare. :(
 

UncleBeer

Senior Member
Jul 11, 2008
381
24
What happened: Went to bed, left phone on charge, woke to the green "fully charged" light, but no response to buttons. Pulled the battery to make it reboot, and now nothing. Neither download nor recovery modes, no charging light, nothing. It's off for repairs.
What ROM/Firmware: Wanam's J5 (which I'm convinced had nothing to do with it.)
What kernel: stock
OV or UV: Nooooo
Where phone was made: No idea
Where battery was made: stock; no idea
 

Shug69

Senior Member
Jun 18, 2012
209
44
Seems like a weakness somewhere on the motherboard. Mine died on charge about a month ago. No led no nothing bought in late May. New motherboard working fine. Hoping the problem is identified and fixed now and I don't have the same **** again in three months time.
 

ph512

Member
Mar 15, 2011
12
8
My story started last Tuesday night. My S3 was working fine: used it as satnav getting to work for night shift and used it a few times at work until I checked it at approx 9:30pm (about three hours into shift) and it was dead - nothing would make it respond.

Got home next morning and my caring wife asks me if it's still the same - I dishearteningly relied that it was. Then she announces that hers was now dead! She had been using hers normally the night before, as I had. She had plugged it in to charge overnight and when she woke in the morning the green light was on, but she couldn't turn it on - she did battery pull, etc, but nothing would revive hers either.

Clearly something has killed our S3's, but not spontaneously as we were in different places at the time of failure. Mine had been happily charging whist I traveled to work and it had over 80% the last time I had noticed / used it before it died - my wife's just died on the charger overnight at our house.

Two dead S3's in the space of 9 hours and I have no idea why...
Both were stock unrooted international models purchased from carphone warehouse at the same time. Both had the recent JB update too (I did both via Kies when it was released).

The only common element I consider could be a cause is the charger we use in our house (but as mine died some time later after being used for several hours away from my house I really don't see any technical explanation for it).

I'm baffled - Carphone warehouse faults tracker now says they have fixed them both and they are awaiting dispatch to our store for collection - maybe they can then offer soom explanation of thefaults / causes.

Either way I reckon I'll bin the "common" charger as a "just in case"!
 

Obagleyfreer

Senior Member
Jun 29, 2012
2,019
844
Wellington
That's really odd that both yours and your wife's phones suddenly died at around the same time.

Do you share a charger?
Can let us know some details about both phones, where phones and batteries were made etc

It appears, from what I can gather, that it is a hardware fault. The ROM and kernel don't seem to matter. People's phones are dying regardless of which ROM they're running.

At least CPW have fixed both your phones for you :)

Maybe you could ask if they have had a few customers bringing back dead phones?

It'll be interesting to know what their technicians say about it.




Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
 
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Ausboy 2011

Senior Member
Oct 31, 2011
2,208
497
this is happening a lot to people... I hope Samsung do something about this!!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
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dervish666

Senior Member
Jun 22, 2008
76
4
What happened: Used as Satnav, it was charging on a 1A car charger, battery probably pretty full. Brought it in tried to turn it on and nothing happened. Had a white pulsing LED, after battery pull no reaction.
What ROM/Firmware: CM10
What kernel: Can't remember
OV or UV: Nope
Where phone was made:
Where battery was made: Standard battery but I do use a Anker battery as well, can't remember if it was in the phone at the time.


On the bright side, I have just got it back from Samsung who repaired it without question. They have also given me a 32GB model instead of the 16GB I had before. :D

Very happy dervish. :D
 

tqgia2

Senior Member
Apr 26, 2011
246
53
Melbourne
I know it is a hassle, but could people please post where their phone came from (language which was default on phone might be good, for example mine was Greek). Might allow us to isolate a particular region/batch
 

ph512

Member
Mar 15, 2011
12
8
I know it is a hassle, but could people please post where their phone came from (language which was default on phone might be good, for example mine was Greek). Might allow us to isolate a particular region/batch


My 2 S3's were purchased at the same time from mobiles.co.uk (CPW) - English language by default, unlocked and with no network branding. I had not tampered with these devices in any way. They are totally stock handsets running JB (updated via Kies). They were only used with the Samsung chargers too. Mine had approx 100 apps on it, but my wife hardly had any on, just about twenty or so.

I'll update this page once I get them back so we can share the causes / fixes in my case
 

Calpol

Member
Nov 11, 2012
8
0
What happened:

Phone was charging on Zenis dock. Checked it at 95% and returned 1 hour later to find it stuck on Samsung boot screen. Had to remove battery to unfreeze it. Phone would not boot and stuck on Samsung screen. Would only boot into Download mode but would not accept any relash of OS via Odin. Reflash attempts met with Invalid PIT partition fault. Tried to reflash a PIT as advised on XDA but with no success. On connection to charger phone displayed grey battery graphic.

Handed into Samsung service centre who confirmed battery was completely dead and that new battery allowed phone to turn on but no ability to reload software. Phone now has been sent to Samsung in the UK

What ROM/Firmware:Stock T Mobile 4.1
What kernel: STOCK
OV or UV: Nope
Where phone was made: UK model bought in June 2012 from Mobiles.co.uk
Where battery was made: Dont Know

Phone is English language version and has run fine for months. It was updated via OTA to 4.1 about 2 weeks ago when Tmobile released the ROM. since then I re-rooted it but have never flashed any other ROM.
 

Isadora

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2009
980
167
London
What happened: Picked up phone after its usual overnight charge , was showing the normal green "full charge" light but phone was completely dead - black screen, no download or recovery mode via key combo, no response to jig.
No self-reboot, freeze or anything that would indicate a problem prior to phone dying.

What ROM/Firmware: official UK ICS, (can't remember the firmware number now, but whatever the latest official UK unbranded was by mid-October)

What kernel: stock (rooted with cf-root)

OV or UV: Nope

Where phone was made: just says "made by Samsung"! UK sim-free, received 16th June

Where battery was made: Original Samsung battery. Made in Korea, assembled in Vietnam

Anything else that could be of use:
Always left my phones and other toys to charge overnight, been doing the same with the S3 since getting it on 16 June, using the Samsung charger that came with it. No longer doing that with the S3 just in case!
Phone came back with new innards, battery is the one the phone went in with.

As to really getting to the bottom of it, I guess only someone at Samsung might be able to tell us why so many S3 are committing suicide...



Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
 
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midyat47

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2010
141
9
Did you guys tried a electric shock?
Maybe your gs3 back to life? :D

Hit thanks when its okk :thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
 

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romeo57

Senior Member
Mar 16, 2012
181
5
Miri
What happened:
I just flashed Wanam 4.2 ROM. Booted up normally. Then i proceed to install TiBu, and restore apps + data. After 10mins, I came back just to check the progress. It was dead.

What ROM/Firmware: Wanam 4.2

What kernel: Stock

OV or UV: Nope

Where phone was made: It wrote, "Made in Korea by Samsung"

Where battery was made: "Cell made in Korea, Assembled in Vietnam"



I sent my device to service centre, they repaired it within 2 working days.



Sent from my GT-I9300
 

UncleBeer

Senior Member
Jul 11, 2008
381
24
Then i proceed to install TiBu, and restore apps + data.
This is a stretch, but I wonder if Titanium could have anything to do with the bricking. I had an auto-backup scheduled in the middle of the night, after which the phone died. I don't know there's a connection, but interesting you mentioned TiBu.
 
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ph512

Member
Mar 15, 2011
12
8
This is a stretch, but I wonder if Titanium could have anything to do with the bricking. I had an auto-backup scheduled in the middle of the night, after which the phone died. I don't know there's a connection, but interesting you mentioned TiBu.

Neither mine nor my wife's phone had Titanium backup installed - not saying it wasn't that in your cases, but wasn't in mine
 

Obagleyfreer

Senior Member
Jun 29, 2012
2,019
844
Wellington
I'm not sure if it's relevant but I checked the stock charging voltages on my S2 and it's a Wall:650Mah, USB:450.
The default on S3 is the same for USB(450Mah) but the wall charging voltage default is apparently 900Mah!

I know the battery is higher capacity but my S2 has a 2100Mah Samsung battery in it and charges just fine @ 650Mah.
Maybe 900Mah is just too high?

I'm no electronics expert so I could be talking rubbish but it's an idea.....

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
 

Password1234

Senior Member
Sep 1, 2012
126
22
Cape Town
I'm not sure if it's relevant but I checked the stock charging voltages on my S2 and it's a Wall:650Mah, USB:450.
The default on S3 is the same for USB(450Mah) but the wall charging voltage default is apparently 900Mah!

I know the battery is higher capacity but my S2 has a 2100Mah Samsung battery in it and charges just fine @ 650Mah.
Maybe 900Mah is just too high?

I'm no electronics expert so I could be talking rubbish but it's an idea.....

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Where did you check the stock charging voltages bro? I experienced something almost to this effect except that I woke up this morning and the menu and return keys were lit up (screen was off) , tried pressing some buttons but nothing responded. I then long pressed the power key and then it booted up normally and since has been working ok. Was so worried and paranoid at the time! I'm from South Africa if it's any use. Just to make sure these scares/sudden death issues are not just in one continent/country.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
 

Obagleyfreer

Senior Member
Jun 29, 2012
2,019
844
Wellington
Where did you check the stock charging voltages bro? I experienced something almost to this effect except that I woke up this morning and the menu and return keys were lit up (screen was off) , tried pressing some buttons but nothing responded. I then long pressed the power key and then it booted up normally and since has been working ok. Was so worried and paranoid at the time! I'm from South Africa if it's any use. Just to make sure these scares/sudden death issues are not just in one continent/country.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Well it's not very scientific but I use Siyah Kernel on both my S2 and S3 and just checked the default settings on there.

Actually Gokhan states that the stock charging voltage for a wall charger on the S3 is 1000Mah! (Siyah default). But another member on here (an electronics professional) said it's 900Mah so I just went with that.

It might be over kill but to be on the safe side I have lowered the voltages in Stweaks down to 900Mah and 450Mah and I am only charging my phone through USB until we figure out what is causing this problem.

It seems that this issue is worldwide, it's not specific to country, Android firmware version, Kernel etc

It seems this is totally random and can happen without warning to anyone, scary stuff.
 

MattBooth

Senior Member
Jan 4, 2011
8,402
13,710
36
Bradford
mattbooth.dev
What happened: Used as Satnav, it was charging on a 1A car charger, battery probably pretty full. Brought it in tried to turn it on and nothing happened. Had a white pulsing LED, after battery pull no reaction.
What ROM/Firmware: CM10
What kernel: Can't remember
OV or UV: Nope
Where phone was made:
Where battery was made: Standard battery but I do use a Anker battery as well, can't remember if it was in the phone at the time.


On the bright side, I have just got it back from Samsung who repaired it without question. They have also given me a 32GB model instead of the 16GB I had before. :D

Very happy dervish. :D

I hope mine breaks and I get a free 32GB model!!
 

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  • 85
    **** SAMSUNG HAVE APPLIED A SUDDEN DEATH FIX VIA A SOFTWARE UPDATE****

    STOCK KERNEL: XXELKC AND NEWER

    STOCK RECOVERY: XXELKC AND NEWER

    ALSO ANY CUSTOM KERNEL AND RECOVERY THAT ARE BUILT FROM THE UPDATED SOURCES. THERE HAVE BEEN CASES OF SDS ON DEVICES THAT HAVE UPDATED BUT TO WHAT EXTENT THE DAMAGE WAS AT ALREADY BEFORE FLASHING WE DON'T KNOW.



    WHO'S AFFECTED?
    It seems that at the moment the only devices that have suffered from SDS are the 16GB version with:
    eMMC: VTU00M
    FW Rev: 0xF1


    To check your eMMC version download eMMC Brickbug Check from Google Play.
    What you want is the eMMC version and the FW Rev.



    THE FIX
    Samsung have now released a Sudden Death Fix via a patched Kernel and Recovery in latest firmware. Firmware Version: XXELKC

    Simply update OTA or download XXELKC firmware (or newer) from sammobile.com and flash using Odin.

    You need both the stock recovery and kernel installed for it to work properly, or a custom kernel and recovery built from the updated sources
    ie Latest Perseus Kernel and PhilZ Recovery are examples



    LINKS
    For more info about SDS, who could be effected and how to fix check out this awesome thread by rootSU

    For a detailed look at how the fix works check out this thread here.


    WARRANTY
    For those of you in Europe who have rooted your phone it appears that this doesn't void warranty. Check this thread for more info.
    Also this website could prove very handy for anyone with a European or UK handset that has died.
    40
    Just took a look at the diffs and i have to admit, i don't nearly get what this does. What are those "movi commands"? Where can one find a data-sheet to decode the magics? :(

    BTW, just took the kernel image from the WanamLite v5.3 CWM zip (that's what i am currently running), un-gz-ed it, and actually found the "movi operation is failed" error string in there. Good for me, i guess ;)

    AndreiLux, thanks A LOT for your research.
    You won't. These are HIGHLY proprietary to Samsung's storage people.

    I'd hazard a guess that it does - but I'd certainly like someone like Entropy to weigh in.
    Bah, I wish I could see what you quoted. As far as safety goes:
    90%+ chance that the change in Update7 is the fix.
    75% chance that XXELLA/4/etc have the fix (It's possible, but highly unlikely, that the string VTU00M would appear in the kernel without the fix.

    Is there a way to check if I already have any bad blocks on my eMMC?
    This isn't about bad blocks - this is about a firmware bug where a data structure gets suddenly corrupted. You can really only know "is it working" or "is it dead". The one exception seems to be that some people see odd performance issues just before death, similar to the issues people see when using PIT workarounds for Superbrick.

    Just as I said above, the low-level details of what's going on are HIGHLY proprietary to Samsung.
    The patch additionally checks that the firmware date is 2012/04/13 and only applies the commands then.

    So you need type: VTU00M revision: 0xf1 and internal firmware date of 2012/04/13 for the bug to have an effect. The date which eMMC brickbug checker reads is the production date as it seems.

    So there might be phones with VTU00M/0xf1 out there which are not affected, I don't know if that makes sense in regard that if the revision would even be the same then.
    Yeah. I'm wondering if we should add some printk()s to check what the date is. I'm curious if there are other dates floating around.

    No, the date shown in the eMMC app is the production date, the internal firmware date is something else and not possible to read out through normal methods.
    Correct, although we could add a printk to kernels to print out the info.

    eMMC app gives me: 05/2012
    but checking via the SSID gives me: 2012/06/09.
    So two different dates, but none of them is the internal firmware date, correct?
    Correct.

    Most phones died over night after charging. Since there are many defective chargers, can this be related to a faulty charger? For example, I have my sgs3 for about 6 months and a few days ago charging became very slow (didnt charge fully after whole night). I used HTC's charger and charging is nornal again. Ive seen that many sgs3 owners got problems with charger. Can some faulty chargers start charging very skow and others give too much electricty which burns internals?

    Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
    No. Seriously - READ. It is at this point unambiguously an eMMC firmware failure that has NOTHING to do with the charger.

    The ONLY connection with charging is this: CHARGING HOLDS A WAKELOCK. This means the device will do various tasks in the background that it wouldn't do in deep sleep, some of which perform I/O cycles on the eMMC.

    The patch to the MMC driver discovered in the Update 7 sources released by Samsung performs a procedure that is nearly identical to the fix for another mmc firmware bug in a different samsung device.

    The patch also includes some character strings which can be searched for in the binary kernel of XXELLA, as when code is compiled, strings are left as they are.

    The kernel from the XXELLA firmware DOES include these strings, so it's probably safe to assume that the kernel includes the code that performs the in-RAM fix to the mmc firmware.

    The fact that some people have reported that they've experienced SDS on the XXELLA ROM is interesting - none have confirmed 100% that they had the XXELLA kernel running (to the best of my knowledge). This means that for some reason they may have been running another kernel that doesn't have the patch.
    So far all of them were running other kernels.

    It's just like the people who claimed they Superbricked on stock recovery. Turns out that in their eyes, fakeflashing CWM from stock recovery was still in some twisted way stock recovery... It wasn't.

    I'm still confused. Some posts say lla kernel is safe others say you need Perseus. So which one is it

    Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
    Perseus is 90% guaranteed to be safe (I'm not claiming 100% without a detailed technical explanation from Samsung. Even then I'm not claiming 100%, just like I refuse to guarantee that nonsecure erase is safe on Superbrick-vulnerable devices even though Samsung claims it is... As a result anything I release has eMMC TRIM/ERASE completely disabled for those devices.
    ELLA/4/etc are 75%+ guaranteed to be safe - since we THINK they have the same patch

    If i understood it correctly, we have an assumption? that because similar code is implemented in kernels for similar problems in other samsung phones, so that means we have the same problem in S3.
    If this is true then all or almost all 16GB phones are affected, as i didnt saw a phone with different emmc.(maybe some new phones have newer revision?)
    We are talking then for millions S3's that are going to die?
    Maybe this code then doesnt have to do anything with the "SDS issue" and is more of a precaution or even testing trying to figure out the problem from Samsung?
    Samsung's storage guys have a wide variety of chips/models. VTU00M 0xf1 is primarily seen in I9300 units, and almost all 16GB I9300s except very recent ones have it. Some other devices have it, but it isn't nearly as prevalent in other devices. My Note 10.1 has MAG4FB I think (need to check again...) In addition, there appears to be some additional identifying information beyond VTU00M 0xf1 that we haven't had time to collect data on yet (and developers need to make kernel patches to even allow this data to be collected...)

    I think that it's combination is the solution.

    according to this from 1st post:

    ...Kernels >v31 and beyond stock LLA are now the only truly protected ones.

    Can someone confirm this?
    the key in that post is the word "now". That post was made yesterday - the patch has been making the rounds and is getting integrated

    Have you searched for it in older kernels? Why wouldn't that string appear also in those? If it does, then this means nothing.
    That's something that needs to be checked... However if it appears in older kernels Samsung was violating the GPL with them as I'm fairly certain it is nowhere within the source.

    Nothing can fix an SDS because the phone is already dead. :D
    But to prevent it, yes it seems. One of those at this moment.
    Just like Superbrick.

    Samsung haven't fixed the super brick bug yet :p

    Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
    On a small subset of affected devices they have - I9100s in HK apparently have Jellybean and that has their official fix. But so far, nearly all affected devices are still on ICS and they only put the fix in JB kernels.

    Just did a emmc check and I found out that my fwrev is oxf7 and the date is 11/2012... But I got the same chip like otherss... :(

    So am I on a safer side?

    Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
    Unknown. Often flaws like this are firmware-dependent.

    For example:
    VYL00M/KYL00M/MAG4FA fwrev 0x19 = Superbrick + 32kb-of-zeroes bug
    VYL00M/KYL00M/MAG4FA fwrev 0x25 = 32kb-of-zeroes bug only (immune to Superbrick)

    However for the above, we had confirmation from a trusted source (A Google engineer) that 0x19 had a bug with the symptoms we were seeing and that HE had seen it in GNex prototypes, and that 0x25 was "fixed" in regards to that bug (Superbrick). A fix for the bug in 0x25 is what led us to him.

    Theoretically if you have the same chip, you are candidate for sds sometime.... :(
    Not necessarily. I would put the status as "unknown". If you have VTU00M 0xf7 you're much less likely to have problems than 0xf1 - but with something like this guarantees cannot be made.

    Also: The fix patch was merged to CM10.1 source last night. So today's nightly should be safe. If it's not - no one is safe.
    30
    Will my i9305 die too, or only the i9300 is afected?
    If you have VTU00M fwrev 0xf1 flash, you are probably at risk. I9305 is too new to tell

    In today's SamMobile article, they say is a firm bug!!?????? In other words, sammy firm only have the bug?? If I use (no because my phone deaths on 12/27) aosp rom and custom kernel, bug not affect my device???
    No. In fact, there's nothing that indicates there is a bug in the bootloader/kernel/system firmware yet. Given the behavior of the problem and Samsung's past history, it's likely a bug in internal eMMC firmware (which can, at best be field-patched if it only involves a few bytes of microcode - major changes are not possible in the field.) This upcoming update likely contains a workaround for that eMMC bug.

    Look at the Superbrick bug - There was no underlying "bug" in any of Samsung's firmwares, except that they didn't block commands that would trigger a known bug in the underlying flash memory. Now, in any hardware without that bug, issuing secure erase commands is fine. The workaround for the bug is simple: Don't send secure erase commands to the damn chip.

    Is it true that all 16gigs phone will die soon one day?

    Sent from a better Galaxy designed for humans!
    Unknown. Right now any device with VTU00M flash is at risk - but how high the risk is we don't know.

    but Samsung says that will fix the issue with fw update.....or not?

    there is no fw going to write to the NAND?
    No one knows yet. If it's done in the kernel, we'll know EXACTLY what/how they fixed it and how to apply the fix to custom firmwares. If it's the bootloader, we won't know unless they explicitly states that they changed the bootloader to fix it. If it's in /system (HIGHLY unlikely) we might see something.

    Most likely place they'll fix this is the kernel with a variant of the Sumrall patch from last spring, OR an alteration to the MMC code in order to avoid doing something (we don't know what) that the chip doesn't like (this would be similar to how Superbrick is worked around). So far, every time Samsung has ever fixed or worked around an eMMC bug/defect, it's been in the kernel and not the bootloader. So everyone flashing this new bootloader is just making it more likely they'll be denied warranty support if their device dies.

    Yes the current btu release (today)apparently has sudden death fix via the bootloader.

    I recommend updating via pc odin as mobile odin won't fix the bootloader, Im already on samsung 4.1.2 release at christmas just downlaoding todays release.
    Bull****. You have ZERO evidence to substantiate this claim.

    so we can only wait for the new bootloader from Samsung .... :crying:
    And why do you think it's the bootloader? There's no evidence to say WHERE the fix will be applied because there isn't even any information about HOW the failures are occurring. Right now, I'd say it's most likely going to be a kernel fix.

    Yes but its like a chain reaction: if one component or sector dies mostly the other ones will follow. Freezes and hookups are those signs of hardware failure.

    As long if those symptoms doesnt apair you dont need to worry too much

    Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
    If it's a wear leveller bug, there's a possibility fixed wear leveller firmware might "repair" damage to the internal data structures.

    Can someone please explain... if it's a wear leveler, and thats a part of eMMC (as opposed to software-only wear leveling), how is it even possible to update it? Can one possibly update the eMMC microcode ?!
    Search before posting. I posted an example of how this has been done to Samsung eMMC chips in the past only 1-2 days ago. (Search this thread for Sumrall...)

    Minor eMMC microcode updates can be done at runtime. It's fairly safe since it apparently patches the firmware after it has loaded into volatile memory (and hence a power cycle removes the patch if it's misapplied). This is what the Galaxy Nexus patch for VYL00M/KYL00M/MAG4FA fwrev 0x25 did.

    Major eMMC microcode updates can't be done so easily, which is why the underlying Superbrick flaw was never fixed.


    [KIES]I9300XXELLA 4.1.2->EXYNOS BUG FIXED!!S3 SUDDEN DEATH FIXED!!Jan.02,2013

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2077844
    Don't make definitive claims you have no evidence to support.
    27
    Hi all,

    Assuming that there is no NAND degradation or similar and that SDS come for something specific, why over 90% of the deaths have come from the fourth month onwards? Why have not failed at 4 days or two weeks, for example? What is the secret component involved over time to fail?

    We will likely never know the specific secret component, but with knowledge of the behavior of eMMC, how it behaves, and how Samsung eMMCs have failed in the past, we can guess.

    The wear leveller keeps track of what memory blocks have been used and what haven't, and relocates blocks periodically to spread wear across the device. For example, if you write to the fourth block of the eMMC repeatedly, internally it'll map the fourth block to the 100th, then maybe the 150th, then 200th, etc...

    At some point, after a long time of operation, the wear leveller might reach a corner case where a bug is triggered - my guess would be an integer overflow or a signed vs. unsigned issue. For example, it's working with the 32767th instance of block 5, and tries to increment a counter to 32768 - but instead, gets -32768 instead because something is treating an unsigned int as signed. The next time it tries to work with that counter, BOOM - it crashes. Again, we don't know the exact nature of what's happening, but it's likely something along these lines.

    It's very similar to what happened with Superbrick on the GS2 - if you issued a secure erase command to erase memory that was in a certain specific state (I can't talk about what the exact state is, sorry... And no, there's no way to tell if the memory is in that state unless you're Samsung or you've Superbricked it.), the wear leveller would crash and leave behind corrupted data structures - any attempt to access these structures again would crash the wear leveller again. The symptom to the user was any attempt to access affected regions of the eMMC would cause the chip to hang.
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    Entropy512, thank you.
    How can you explain users that had XXELLA stock rom, and still suffered from SDS? There are more than one report of it.
    I have yet to see any such reports... The one report I've seen of an XXELLA failure was XXELLA system + Siyah.

    You are being unecessarilhy harsh here, especially considering that you are addressing people who are under the fear that their expensive phones will die on them suddenly. AdreiLux seems to be more skeptical regarding the possibility of the fix depending on the new bootloader as well. Calling names surely doesn't make you look smarter than the "idiots" who took a step -granted maybe rushed- towards a probable fix of a dreadful issue. And you may know much more than the average joe here, but you still have ZERO evidence that the new bootloader doesn't do anything at all that contributes to fixing the SDS, so you may have as well been nicer. Just my 2 cents.
    I have all of the evidence I need - I now have kernel source for a complete eMMC firmware patch. The fix is in the kernel, not in the bootloader. It's being patched in the EXACT same way as the GNex 32kb-of-zeros fix patch, which had zero bootloader involvement.

    The fact is that flashing a bootloader is a fundamentally dangerous operation, and flashing a bootloader with known regressions in functionality is 100% reckless and stupid.

    The fact is that Samsung has NEVER fixed a problem like this in the bootloader before. There was ZERO evidence pointing there. There was plenty of evidence (the GNex VYL00M/KYL00M/MAG4FA 0x25 patch) pointing to the fix being in the kernel when it came out.

    How come you knew that SDS is related to eMMC (and specifically version VTU00M) before samsung released their code? What led to this assumption?
    All of the symptoms and behavior pointed this way.
    1) Some devices were exhibiting "Superbrick-ish" behavior where certain eMMC regions were working and others were inaccessible
    2) It was ONLY happening on 16GB devices - this is the most obvious piece of evidence. If it weren't the eMMC, it would have been seen on 32/64GB devices
    3) It would be the third time in one year Samsung has ****ed up their wear leveller, their quality control is clearly crap in this regard.