**Ultimate Galaxy S3 Unusual Freezing Thread**

Have you experienced Unsual Permanant or partial freezes on you Galaxy S3 GT-I9300?

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FDisk80

FDisk80

Senior Member
Jun 17, 2012
1,060
364
DJCarlos said:
I just turn on the phone again.
Ok i will update to th XEMC3
but i am reading the thread http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1646610

sorry to be such a newbie. But i have never used odin.
the instructions say:

Instructions For Flashing Firmware:

Extract the firmware
Open the included Odin
Turn off your device
Put your device into Download MODE (Home + Volume Down + Power)
Click PDA and select *.tar.md5
Then finally click START!

so i asume that i have to download the I9300XXEMC3 to my computer.
then download the odin provided in the post.
then connect my phone to the computer
and do the others instructions.

or, i should download odin and the firmware to my phone and do all directly into the phone?

again, sorry to be such a newbie.
and thanks for the answers.

---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:04 PM ----------

do i have to to the " changing CSC"
i have never have heard of this before.

(odin i have heard because i regulary read the forums, even i always stock on the stocks roms)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

You download everything to your computer. No need to change CSC.
 
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D

DJCarlos

Member
Feb 27, 2009
39
1
Ok ;)
thanks for the replys.
i am downloading the 2 files. i am also using kies to make a backup just in case.

thanks again!
 
J

juliantyj

New member
May 2, 2013
3
0
Feedback on approach

Just to report in, had severe freezing problems all of a sudden two nights ago while installing some apps from google play store. was running on 4.1.2, build number was EMA something (Can't recall now, basically wasn't XXEMC2)... , unrooted, original set

Then tried to reboot & factory reset several times, still didn't help.

Finally found this solution, thanks very much to Rob2222. Initially tried DFG twice with multiple freezes for over two hours. Something didn't add up. Finally realized that I needed update firm ware to XXEMC2, and did DFG and now seems to be stable. Have done a collective 20 GB dummy file, so far hasn't frozen on me yet. :eek:

Hope this helps.
 
FDisk80

FDisk80

Senior Member
Jun 17, 2012
1,060
364
juliantyj said:
Just to report in, had severe freezing problems all of a sudden two nights ago while installing some apps from google play store. was running on 4.1.2, build number was EMA something (Can't recall now, basically wasn't XXEMC2)... , unrooted, original set

Then tried to reboot & factory reset several times, still didn't help.

Finally found this solution, thanks very much to Rob2222. Initially tried DFG twice with multiple freezes for over two hours. Something didn't add up. Finally realized that I needed update firm ware to XXEMC2, and did DFG and now seems to be stable. Have done a collective 20 GB dummy file, so far hasn't frozen on me yet. :eek:

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I don't understand why people insist updating to XXEMC2 when there is XXEMC3. :confused:

Edit: EMD2 was just released.
Code: 
PDA: I9300XXEMD2
CSC: I9300XXEMD1
Modem: I9300XXEMC2
Changelist: 1071725
 
Last edited:
J

juliantyj

New member
May 2, 2013
3
0
FDisk80 said:
I don't understand why people insist updating to XXEMC2 when there is XXEMC3. :confused:

Edit: EMD2 was just released.
PDA: I9300XXEMD2
CSC: I9300XXEMD1
Modem: I9300XXEMC2
Changelist: 1071725
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Well, I'm quite the noob, so I just followed the software update. And the latest version available in my region (SEA) is XXEMC2. XXEMC3 isn't available OTA, and though the link is available, am not too confident that I can do all the steps right, from rooting to flashing to etc etc etc... :p
 
FDisk80

FDisk80

Senior Member
Jun 17, 2012
1,060
364
juliantyj said:
Well, I'm quite the noob, so I just followed the software update. And the latest version available in my region (SEA) is XXEMC2. XXEMC3 isn't available OTA, and though the link is available, am not too confident that I can do all the steps right, from rooting to flashing to etc etc etc... :p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

You don't need to root to update your firmware. It's one click with odin.

Edit:
MD2 if anyone interested:
https://mega.co.nz/#!aMQVRDpb!B06QSXdvjoQwWgb9RQBYVBP5qIF8tibYJL--ASPEOPw

Thanks to syamsoul for uploading.
 
Last edited:
J

juliantyj

New member
May 2, 2013
3
0
FDisk80 said:
You don't need to root to update your firmware. It's one click with odin.

Edit:
MD2 if anyone interested:


Thanks to syamsoul for uploading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


Thanks for the link.

Am a little concerned, I read on the ODIN 3.07 for S Galaxy 3 that it "may" increase ODIN flash count, hence may void warranty. I'm still on warranty, so may not be too keen to put it at risk nw. Unless I'm reading outdated info. If you have the link to the latest ODIN, that would be great!

Thanks FDisk80
 
FDisk80

FDisk80

Senior Member
Jun 17, 2012
1,060
364
juliantyj said:
Thanks for the link.

Am a little concerned, I read on the ODIN 3.07 for S Galaxy 3 that it "may" increase ODIN flash count, hence may void warranty. I'm still on warranty, so may not be too keen to put it at risk nw. Unless I'm reading outdated info. If you have the link to the latest ODIN, that would be great!

Thanks FDisk80
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

odin version got nothing to do with flash counter increase. If you worried about warranty don't mess around with it to much.
 
P

pimp4lyphe

Member
Apr 17, 2013
5
0
Paranoid Android still has some freezing issues. Not half as frequent as the old stock ROM I was running b4 though. Plus I started seeing a random reboot once a day since yesterday.

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

maurinet

Member
Jul 8, 2010
12
9
maurinet said:
This started about a month after I installed XXEMR2 in order to update the JKay Deluxe framework. It became unbearable and I decided to try something, these were the most logical steps for me to try first and it seems to have done it.
First I restored to the original firmware of my carrier, (4.0.4) even though I bought my phone unbranded, just to have the right settings of the network, you know, frequencies and whatever. Then you have two options, you can either log into the phone and do an OTA (over the air) update to 4.1.2 if it's available in your area/carrier, or you can flash a different firmware. I didn't trust XXEMR2 anymore so I flashed XXEMB5. It has now been 48 hours and no freezes, it seems to be back to normal, although I don't want to be too optimistic, I have my fair amount of experience with Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It's been a while since I did this, the phone works perfectly. SOLVED! :good:
 
C

Captainchris1

New member
May 3, 2013
2
0
Only Freezes with 2 apps

This is my 1st post to be gentle!

I have the S3 I9300 and is totally stock
1 month ago my phone started to freeze and it was driving me nuts and did some searching and found this thread. (thankfully)

So I tried loads of tips from it
*reset to factory settings
*turned off the wifi thing
*clear cache programme
*deleted chrome (disabled it can’t delete it)
*Uninstalled chrome to phone

This has helped once done the above it doesn’t crash ACCEPT when I use my phone for tracking my cycling.

I use Mapmyride or google tracks ( I have tried both separately) and approx. 40 mins into my cycle my phone stops working and freezes, the blue light flashes on the front and that’s it.
The phone will come back on in approx. 15-20 mins…. But my logging stopps then started again (see this on the map) I can hold the side button down and then the phone restarts

Just thought I’d put this up if anyone else has this issue, annoying as I listen to music plus track my route home but I now don’t track it and just listen to music…. Annoying as I never had this issue, what changed ive no idea!

Wondering as it uses GPS is it something to do with that or is it something to do with it writing information to the disk?? Im not very technical either sorry ;-(
 
T

TS-TS

New member
Apr 4, 2013
3
0
try delete facebook.
have you tried rob's method with the DFG(1st post).

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

Captainchris1

New member
May 3, 2013
2
0
TS-TS said:
try delete facebook.
have you tried rob's method with the DFG(1st post).

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse


Sorry did delete facebook too forgot about that, i don't use facebook (probably the only person on the planet)

I'll check Rob's method too... but i don't wanna Jinx it as it's stable at the moment, untill i use those two apps....

but in for a penny in for a pound!
 
Allewar

Allewar

Senior Member
May 3, 2013
261
121
I tried DFG method on my S3, since it was frozing every single minute.
It seems to have some effect cause my phone stop the freezes for a day, but then it back to frozen again.

So the method has some kinda of effect, but it's not permanent.
I'll try to flash XXEMC2 on my phone today and see what happens. Also I bought Lagfix to try it too.

Fings crossed.

obs.: Sorry about my english. I'm from Brazil :laugh:
 
P

philip_1

Member
Feb 26, 2007
7
5
Samsung released and update, just installed it!Some people reporting that after installing no freezing anymore!
 
A

aymen_a22

New member
Jul 9, 2009
3
0
freezing

Please could someone clarify what I need to do.

My phone has the build number - JZO54K.I9300XXELLA

I am running andoid 4.1.2 with the baseband version I9300BUELL1 and I have a 32gb micro SD installed.

My phone is freezing at least once a day and I only have minimal apps installed and I only really use the following:

Facebook
Google Chrome
Swiftkey
Whatsapp

I have tried a factory reset with no luck and I have read about SDS and using the Dummy File Generator. I believe my firmware has the SDS fix so it should not loop on boot however I am unsure what I should be doing with the DFG app.

I have backed up my phone on KIES and was planning to run the DFG. I don't really know what I am looking for in the app and what I should do, I read that it should be done at least until 16gb has been written (two times).

Could anyone point me in the write direction? Also will this void my Vodafone Warranty?

Cheers
 
A

aymen_a22

New member
Jul 9, 2009
3
0
ambasada said:
Update to last stock firmware !
This will solve your problem.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks for the quick response.

Where would I find that firmware and what code would it be? I thought the last version did not include the SDS fix which could potentially brick the phone.
 
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    nhariamine
    Latest Thread Update :

    16/04/2013 ---- Added Rob's DFG trick Method for new comers to save searching for it .
    04/03/2013 ---- Added XXEMB1 as Most reliable freeze free build .
    01/03/2013 ---- added advice on kernels with SDS Fix .
    26/02/2013 ---- Added links to LagFix (fstrim) premium ,and DFG.


    Now that the Galaxy S3 Sudden Death Syndrome has supposedly been fixed by the Update 7 by Samsung patched for Kernel and Recovery ,

    There is some poping up posts about the Galaxy S3 freezing with lockups,Lockscreen not responding that requires pulling out battery

    and ending up with unsual rebooting and bootlooping which is a very awkward and annoying issue, especially the Q&A section which contains

    a lot of angry S3 users reporting this problem ; Ex

    Galaxy S 3 keeps freezing every 5 mins (50+ freezes a day)

    Galaxy S3 keeps freezing


    Well i decided to make this thread in the benefit of spotting the problem and to make sure we have accurate causes and eventually elaborate a solution to this disturbing problem.

    Share your experiences down by posting the ROM, the Kernel, the Recovery and the Bootloader that you are on right now, so we can filter the answers and relate them with the freezing problems on The Galaxy S3.

    Reported Issue Reasons :

    1) - Facebook app for Android.
    2) - Google Chrome Browser.
    3) - Some Samsung Based Android 4.1.2 builds/Roms causing freezing.
    4) - In Some cases, Media Scanner causing lockups.
    5) - In Some cases, Swiftkey Flow Bêta causing freezing.

    Possible Direct Reason :

    Originally Posted by : Rob2222

    The freezes are caused by the sudden death fix. On that kind of freezes the phone unfreeze itself after 5-25 minutes.

    The phone freezes when writing data to an affected eMMC block.

    An eMMC block is affected, when it's internal block pararameters (as f.e. write count for that block) are in such a state, that these parameters trigger a corrupted block without SD-fix (4.1.1) or trigger a freeze with SD-fix (4.1.2).

    When a phone is hitting an affected block with a writiing operation is completely unpredictable.

    So these freezes can occur on almost each situation on the smartphone when it writes data.

    But you have indeed a higher chance to trigger a freeze when writing much data.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Possible Current Solution :


    I. If the phone freezes, wait until it unfreezes itself. I think this is the important part.

    II. The DFG "Dummy File Generator" is only used to trigger the freezes.

    III. I think you could also just wait for the freezes to be triggered by all-day-use, but this would be very impractical to wait 20 minutes to

    unfreeze when you need the phone.

    IV. So we write dummy data with DFG to provoke the freezes.

    Highly Recommended Advice :

    The write access to an affected block without Sudden Death fix seems to damage the data on this block which _can_ lead to a sudden death.

    Because of that I would recommend to stay with KERNELS that have the Sudden death fix included, even if it could cause freezes.

    Reported Most Stable " Freeze Free " Build/Rom :

    XXEMB1 and all Custom Roms based on this build.

    Dummy File Generator :



    Alternate Working Solution :

    LagFix (fstrim) Premium



    Rob's Dummy File Generator Method to solve persistant freezes on the Galaxy S3 :

    Rob's DFG Method , Please take a moment to thank him for his contribution to solving this problem.

    Let me repeat it again:

    Whoever has problems with freezes, please try this at least and give positive or negative feedback here. We have good experience with this method to sightly reduce and/or completely eleminate the freezes.


    No, this means that the problems occur when writing the eMMC, not reading.

    Try to wait for the phone to unfreeze (5-25 minutes) it seems that it helps and the freezes get less.

    If you have that kind of freezes, that are caused by the SD-Fix your phone will unfreeze after that time without reboot.

    To provoke the freezes you can also empty your internal storage as much as possible and then use the dummy file generator (generate all) to fill the internal memory 1-2 times.
    After each run you can simply delete the dummy files with the delete button.

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...nomunomu.dummy

    Free up 8GB or more to have enough free space on internal memory.

    If you have 8 GB free internal space, write 2 times dummy files. 2x8GB are 16GB. The internal wear leveling algorithm spreads these writes over the whole 16GB physical chip area.

    There is a good chance that writing EACH sector on the eMMC resets/averages out the internal block data (f.e. write counters) that trigger the Bug and the Fix (Freeze).

    If the phone freezes while writing the dummy data (it propably will), just let the phone do what it wants. It will continue to work after 2-25 minutes for each freeze.
    This unfreeze after 5-25 minutes seems to have a positive effect.
    You can have more than one freeze while doing this. Just let the phone do what it wants. If the dummy file generator crashs cause of a freeze, just restart the App.

    When your finally able to write a amount of 16GB data (2x8GB dummy files) in subsequent runs without freezes you have a good chance that your freezes are gone for now or maybe even forever.

    You need to write a minimum amount of 16GB data (or more) with this procedure! If you write less data, you didn't even need to thest this DFG method.


    The idea behind it:

    The SD-Fix causes freezes when writing eMMC blocks in a specific eMMC block parameter state. There parameters are for example the block write counter. Just some few blocks are affected, but when they get written, the SD-Fix freezes the eMMC. Now it seems to have a positive ("healing") effect to wait for the eMMC to unfreeze itself, which happens after 5-25 minutes. For all day use this is not very practicable. So we write just some dummy data to the eMMC to trigger the freezes when we do have the time to wait for the unfreeze. Thats all.

    -- From the forums I monitor I get 80-90% positive feedback that the S3 gets again long-time-stable (usable) with this DFG-method.
    I got from 10-15 freezes/day to only 1 single freeze in the last 2 weeks without factory reset.

    -- Some people needed to write 60-80GB of data until the phone became stable.
    In the hardest case (only 1 case) I know, someone wrote about 1TB (1000GB) of data and then the phone became finally stable. He didn't got warranty so DFG was his last resort and after that it finally got stable.
    In most cases 20-60GB written data should be enough to get back the phone on a stable state.

    If youre familiar with odin, you can also flash XXEMB5 or newer firmware, cause it seems this includes a new, better SD-Fix that doesn't casue freezes anymore. DFG is not needed in this case.

    PIT File :
    View
    11
    Q
    QorbeQ
    nhariamine said:
    Now that the Galaxy S3 Sudden Death Syndrome has supposedly been fixed by the latest update 7 by Samsung patch for Kernel and

    Recovery ,There is some poping up posts about the Galaxy S3 freezing and ending up with unsual rebooting and bootlooping which is a

    very awkward and weird and annoying issue, especially the Q&A section which contains a lot of angry S3 users reporting this problem.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse


    It's a shame that this post has been mostly ignored in favour of the "SDS" one, but I do actually believe both issues are related. My I9300 is running stock - always has been - and suffered with "proper" SDS last November.

    The initial symptoms were that my previously perfectly-behaved phone would would randomly FC apps that didn't before, and some of my photographs and video taken on the phone suddenly became corrupted and unusable.

    Finally, one Saturday morning, I woke up to find the phone stuck in a boot loop, going from the "Samsung Galaxy S3" black-and-white boot scree to the first blue sweep of the Samsung logo, then reboot. It would power-off and power-on and I could enter ODIN or recovery modes fine, but it wouldn't boot any further.

    I managed to get my photos and stuff off the phone through USB in recovery, and decided to wipe and flash the same stock ROM via ODIN.

    This process failed - it couldn't partition the device correctly. None of the flash counters were reading anything so I popped it into my local Vodafone shop where they said it just needed the firmware popping back on and they'd have it ready in an hour.

    I went back and they said they hadn't been able to load the software and it would have to go off for repair. *sigh*

    It came back about 5 days later with a repair report stating that they'd replaced the "main board" - presumably because of the eMMC lockup bug.

    It was only after this that the whole "Sudden Death" news came about and I realised what had happened to my phone. The eMMC check app says that my new controller is the same "faulty" version so I've been waiting with baited breath for "safe" official firmware.

    The update system threw XXELL5 my way just before Christmas, and I thought that was that, but a coule of weeks ago the phone started hiccuping again. I knew I'd seen this before and my heart sank.

    Last week another update was available, this time XXELLA. Since then, all hell has broken loose on my phone. It is locking up about 5 times a day. Initially, I was rebooting it manually (by holding in the power button). Tuesday morning I was woken by my wife saying "shouldn't you be up by now?" - glanced at my phone and it was frozen on the black-and-white boot logo - no alarm! Arrggh! It's dead!

    Powered off, back on again and it booted fine. Hmmm, this isn't quite the same as before then. Having seen the advice about leaving it when it's locked, I've been doing that religiously and, so far, it's always woken up again by itself, but it's definitely indicative of a fault somewhere.

    I've tried to check what's happening with adb logcat (I'm not rooted - fully stock - so can't see dmesg) and there is always some sort of I/O error when the freeze happens - often an sqlite database. Then, a couple of days ago, three photos and one video suddenly became corrupted.

    I've realised that there are two issues, and only one of them has been "fixed".

    The main problem, I believe, is that the flash memory is dying quite rapidly. We all know that flash memory has a limited write life, and wear levelling is supposed to extend that life beyond the typical lifespan of a device (say 5 years for a PC SSD drive?). For some reason, the flash in these devices is wearing out MUCH more rapidly.

    The "faulty" eMMC controller obviously had a problem when dealing with faulty flash cells and would get stuck in a permanent loop, bricking the device. As far as I'm aware, the "fix" that has been applied prevents this permanent loop. The system still needs to try and handle disk errors with the flash memory, but it's not a permanent freeze any more and eventually (once it's finished dealing with flash faults - often unable to recover the problem) the system will break out of the freeze and carry on as before.

    Sometimes this means that an app has bombed out as it couldn't read it's data correctly, but most people would either have forcibly rebooted their phone, or not notice as that app would just restart next time they used it. Sometimes, however, it means that something more important has crashed due to the disk I/O problem, resulting in the phone needing to spontaneously reboot itself.

    What this boils down to is - yes, I believe that there has been a fix applied for the "faulty" eMMC controller getting stuck in a permanent, irretrievable loop. But no, I don't believe the actual original problem has been addressed - namely that the flash memory is dying at an unacceptably fast rate for ... well ... who knows what reason.

    I do have a theory on that too. Recently a friend of mine was looking to change his laptop hard drive for an SSD. I investigated for him and decided that the Samsung 830 series would be his best bet, if he could get hold of them. And why not the newer 840 series? Well - that's purely because the "consumer" version of the 840 uses Samsung's latest triple level cell flash memory. Newer, faster, cheaper to manufacture almost certainly but ... more importantly in this case ... less resilient. How does 1000 write cycles grab you? They claim that the wear levelling algorithm in the drives mean that their lifetime is still pretty reasonable, but I'm not convinced in the real world.

    Any idea what flash they use in the S3? I have no idea, but I betcha it's something (a) cheap and (b) new(ish).

    I'm now at a bit of an impasse with my phone, however. When I returned it for repair last year it was properly frozen. No-one could do anything to fix it, the flash wouldn't format or write firmware - the only recourse was replacing internal hardware (or the entire phone).

    This time, however, it works ... sort of. I'm occasionally losing photos I've taken and occasionally finding it's locked up and occasionally having to wait for it to recover. No repair centre has the time to "live with" my phone for half a day, waiting to see what happens with it - and even if they did, they'd blame a rogue app or "something left over from the upgrade" - they'll just factory wipe it, maybe flash the firmware and send it back again "repaired".

    It's tempting to "lose" it and pay my insurance excess ... but even then, I won't know when the problem will strike again - but that's the thing ... I'm certain it would be back.

    I used to love this phone. Now I can't rely on it. I can't rely on it storing the photos I take with it. I can't rely on it ringing when someone calls. I can't rely on texts getting through to me on time. I can't even rely on it waking me up in the morning.

    It's sat next to me now,lying on the desk with the screen all shiny and black. I have no idea if it's fine, or frozen. Is someone calling me right this second? I have no idea. Oh, there we go - pressed the lock buton - it's awake. I shouldn't have to check my phone every ten minutes to see if it's working or not.

    *sigh* sorry - rant over.

    Suffice to say, that's my take on it. If I thought it would help diagnose something "fixable", I'd root and see what dmesg is doing, but I'm convinced this is hardware and I'm also certain that Samsung aren't going to take the blindest bit of notice.

    I'm pretty sure there will be more and more people complaining that their phones are misbehaving over the next few months, but it's vague enough of a problem that the "repair" will be wiping - just long enough to take them over the first year warranty...
    View
    6
    N
    nhariamine
    QorbeQ said:
    It's a shame that this post has been mostly ignored in favour of the "SDS" one, but I do actually believe both issues are related. My I9300 is running stock - always has been - and suffered with "proper" SDS last November.

    The initial symptoms were that my previously perfectly-behaved phone would would randomly FC apps that didn't before, and some of my photographs and video taken on the phone suddenly became corrupted and unusable.

    Finally, one Saturday morning, I woke up to find the phone stuck in a boot loop, going from the "Samsung Galaxy S3" black-and-white boot scree to the first blue sweep of the Samsung logo, then reboot. It would power-off and power-on and I could enter ODIN or recovery modes fine, but it wouldn't boot any further.

    I managed to get my photos and stuff off the phone through USB in recovery, and decided to wipe and flash the same stock ROM via ODIN.

    This process failed - it couldn't partition the device correctly. None of the flash counters were reading anything so I popped it into my local Vodafone shop where they said it just needed the firmware popping back on and they'd have it ready in an hour.

    I went back and they said they hadn't been able to load the software and it would have to go off for repair. *sigh*

    It came back about 5 days later with a repair report stating that they'd replaced the "main board" - presumably because of the eMMC lockup bug.

    It was only after this that the whole "Sudden Death" news came about and I realised what had happened to my phone. The eMMC check app says that my new controller is the same "faulty" version so I've been waiting with baited breath for "safe" official firmware.

    The update system threw XXELL5 my way just before Christmas, and I thought that was that, but a coule of weeks ago the phone started hiccuping again. I knew I'd seen this before and my heart sank.

    Last week another update was available, this time XXELLA. Since then, all hell has broken loose on my phone. It is locking up about 5 times a day. Initially, I was rebooting it manually (by holding in the power button). Tuesday morning I was woken by my wife saying "shouldn't you be up by now?" - glanced at my phone and it was frozen on the black-and-white boot logo - no alarm! Arrggh! It's dead!

    Powered off, back on again and it booted fine. Hmmm, this isn't quite the same as before then. Having seen the advice about leaving it when it's locked, I've been doing that religiously and, so far, it's always woken up again by itself, but it's definitely indicative of a fault somewhere.

    I've tried to check what's happening with adb logcat (I'm not rooted - fully stock - so can't see dmesg) and there is always some sort of I/O error when the freeze happens - often an sqlite database. Then, a couple of days ago, three photos and one video suddenly became corrupted.

    I've realised that there are two issues, and only one of them has been "fixed".

    The main problem, I believe, is that the flash memory is dying quite rapidly. We all know that flash memory has a limited write life, and wear levelling is supposed to extend that life beyond the typical lifespan of a device (say 5 years for a PC SSD drive?). For some reason, the flash in these devices is wearing out MUCH more rapidly.

    The "faulty" eMMC controller obviously had a problem when dealing with faulty flash cells and would get stuck in a permanent loop, bricking the device. As far as I'm aware, the "fix" that has been applied prevents this permanent loop. The system still needs to try and handle disk errors with the flash memory, but it's not a permanent freeze any more and eventually (once it's finished dealing with flash faults - often unable to recover the problem) the system will break out of the freeze and carry on as before.

    Sometimes this means that an app has bombed out as it couldn't read it's data correctly, but most people would either have forcibly rebooted their phone, or not notice as that app would just restart next time they used it. Sometimes, however, it means that something more important has crashed due to the disk I/O problem, resulting in the phone needing to spontaneously reboot itself.

    What this boils down to is - yes, I believe that there has been a fix applied for the "faulty" eMMC controller getting stuck in a permanent, irretrievable loop. But no, I don't believe the actual original problem has been addressed - namely that the flash memory is dying at an unacceptably fast rate for ... well ... who knows what reason.

    I do have a theory on that too. Recently a friend of mine was looking to change his laptop hard drive for an SSD. I investigated for him and decided that the Samsung 830 series would be his best bet, if he could get hold of them. And why not the newer 840 series? Well - that's purely because the "consumer" version of the 840 uses Samsung's latest triple level cell flash memory. Newer, faster, cheaper to manufacture almost certainly but ... more importantly in this case ... less resilient. How does 1000 write cycles grab you? They claim that the wear levelling algorithm in the drives mean that their lifetime is still pretty reasonable, but I'm not convinced in the real world.

    Any idea what flash they use in the S3? I have no idea, but I betcha it's something (a) cheap and (b) new(ish).

    I'm now at a bit of an impasse with my phone, however. When I returned it for repair last year it was properly frozen. No-one could do anything to fix it, the flash wouldn't format or write firmware - the only recourse was replacing internal hardware (or the entire phone).

    This time, however, it works ... sort of. I'm occasionally losing photos I've taken and occasionally finding it's locked up and occasionally having to wait for it to recover. No repair centre has the time to "live with" my phone for half a day, waiting to see what happens with it - and even if they did, they'd blame a rogue app or "something left over from the upgrade" - they'll just factory wipe it, maybe flash the firmware and send it back again "repaired".

    It's tempting to "lose" it and pay my insurance excess ... but even then, I won't know when the problem will strike again - but that's the thing ... I'm certain it would be back.

    I used to love this phone. Now I can't rely on it. I can't rely on it storing the photos I take with it. I can't rely on it ringing when someone calls. I can't rely on texts getting through to me on time. I can't even rely on it waking me up in the morning.

    It's sat next to me now,lying on the desk with the screen all shiny and black. I have no idea if it's fine, or frozen. Is someone calling me right this second? I have no idea. Oh, there we go - pressed the lock buton - it's awake. I shouldn't have to check my phone every ten minutes to see if it's working or not.

    *sigh* sorry - rant over.

    Suffice to say, that's my take on it. If I thought it would help diagnose something "fixable", I'd root and see what dmesg is doing, but I'm convinced this is hardware and I'm also certain that Samsung aren't going to take the blindest bit of notice.

    I'm pretty sure there will be more and more people complaining that their phones are misbehaving over the next few months, but it's vague enough of a problem that the "repair" will be wiping - just long enough to take them over the first year warranty...
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse
    I'm really sorry for the issues you've been living with mate, sure thing is that what you said about memory lockups and blocking writing

    firmware is totally true except mine doesn't freeze which is strange, mine is the affected model and is shown in eMMC brick bug check ;

    -VTU00M
    -06/2012
    -Yes, Insane Chip.

    The poll i made is permanant, but you have to post down Rom and kernel and recovery and bootloader to be more accurate to spot the problem and maybe some DEV can fix it as soon as possible.

    Thanks for sharing ur experience with us mate.
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    Wis76
    R: **Ultimate Galaxy S3 Unusual Freezing Thread**

    I did the dummy file creation twice and now the phone seems to be working fine again.
    I don't know how the Samsung fix works, nor why the problem seems to be solved now. Anyway, the procedure seems to work, thank you very much.
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    nhariamine
    kiwiflasher said:
    I am totally stock jellybean not rooted etc. Was having bad problems with phone freezing and lagging so started uninstalling things to try and fix. I found the problem was chrome, I had chrome, chrome to phone and chrome beta on took them all off now running silky smooth again.

    Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    First ever user to report Chrome as one source of the problem, thanks mate, if any other symptoms occur and have anything to do with freezing, let us know ok !
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