**Ultimate GS3 sudden death thread**

[saadxe]

Well no death of my gs3 but I have had 3 episodes in the past week where my phone has frozen requiring battery removal. Phone is total stock running jb

Did anyone have these symptoms before their phone went down?

Not in my case, totally random and unexpected.

 

[ph512]

I have now received both s3's back from the repair centre, but the CPW assistant has told my wife that no details of what was actually done to fix them was given - really disappointed with that. Glad to have them back though, but worried what caused the problem in first place.

I know when I had my previous phones (HTC Desire's) I'd played around with different ROMs, etc on both units to get a better experience (actually ended up on Gingervillian 3.3 to get aps2sd and loved the battery life too!) - Fortunately, when I got these S3's I had no need to root them because they did everything I needed them too -

SO HERE'S MY TWOPENNETH OF FRIENDLY ADVICE
With the experiences people are having with these going dead I would urge people to really think twice about rooting etc until the cause is determined and remedied, because if you find yourself in a similar situation to the many (and growing number) of effected users and you send it back and they tell you the warranty's void then there are going to be some very very very unhappy bunnies around (I would have cried to have to pay for two to be repaired :crying

GL all with getting your devices back - let's hope Samsung do something about it asap

 

[iArmghan]

I have now received both s3's back from the repair centre, but the CPW assistant has told my wife that no details of what was actually done to fix them was given - really disappointed with that. Glad to have them back though, but worried what caused the problem in first place.

I know when I had my previous phones (HTC Desire's) I'd played around with different ROMs, etc on both units to get a better experience (actually ended up on Gingervillian 3.3 to get aps2sd and loved the battery life too!) - Fortunately, when I got these S3's I had no need to root them because they did everything I needed them too -

SO HERE'S MY TWOPENNETH OF FRIENDLY ADVICE
With the experiences people are having with these going dead I would urge people to really think twice about rooting etc until the cause is determined and remedied, because if you find yourself in a similar situation to the many (and growing number) of effected users and you send it back and they tell you the warranty's void then there are going to be some very very very unhappy bunnies around (I would have cried to have to pay for two to be repaired :crying

GL all with getting your devices back - let's hope Samsung do something about it asap

I don't think Rooting is the cause of sudden death. My HTC ONE X died even it was not rooted. It is something to do with manufacturing, Some handsets turn out to be faulty from the day they were opened. As a electrical engineer i don't think charging current and voltage has anything to do with sudden death because output current and voltages are always 750mah and 5V. It might be the draining or leakage current causing motherboard to fry

 

[ph512]

I don't think Rooting is the cause of sudden death. My HTC ONE X died even it was not rooted. It is something to do with manufacturing, Some handsets turn out to be faulty from the day they were opened. As a electrical engineer i don't think charging current and voltage has anything to do with sudden death because output current and voltages are always 750mah and 5V. It might be the draining or leakage current causing motherboard to fry

No, you misunderstand me - sorry if I didn't explain that too well.
I don't thing rooting has anything to do with it either. What I meant was that until they sort whatever it is that is causing these issues then anyone who has rooted their unit (and obviously if they discover you've rooted it!) then your warranty will be void and you'll be getting a bill for the repair.

 

[clarkdb09]

And today my S3 died.. in the middle of the night the screen has lighted up and I checked WTF and it stack on start screen .. and this is it... I can not get in to the recovery mode and I tried to flash a ROM and it connects to the PC but the process stops saying fault... so death... I am from Slovenia and the phone is on original JB rom..

 

[iArmghan]

No, you misunderstand me - sorry if I didn't explain that too well.
I don't thing rooting has anything to do with it either. What I meant was that until they sort whatever it is that is causing these issues then anyone who has rooted their unit (and obviously if they discover you've rooted it!) then your warranty will be void and you'll be getting a bill for the repair.

Ok Got It Now

Isn't this thread is the scariest one and the one your mama told to stay away from hehehe I actually get this kind of feeling when ever i see this thread

 

[modmymobile]

I think its rather alarming to be honest. Can't Samsung do anything right? I had to sell my galaxy S II due to it having a faulty chip the brickbug. I was unhappy but thought all would be ok with the S III obviously I was wrong. I have returned to stock and unrooted for now for warranty purposes until the cause of this has been established. There seems to be far to many cropping up since the Jelly bean update. I would have a guess that its something to do with the software and not hardware related. The software causing a battery surge or something. It is funny how i had not heard any problems with ICS users?

 

[UncleBeer]

I have now received both s3's back from the repair centre, but the CPW assistant has told my wife that no details of what was actually done to fix them was given - really disappointed with that. Glad to have them back though, but worried what caused the problem in first place.

I know when I had my previous phones (HTC Desire's) I'd played around with different ROMs, etc on both units to get a better experience (actually ended up on Gingervillian 3.3 to get aps2sd and loved the battery life too!) - Fortunately, when I got these S3's I had no need to root them because they did everything I needed them too -

SO HERE'S MY TWOPENNETH OF FRIENDLY ADVICE
With the experiences people are having with these going dead I would urge people to really think twice about rooting etc until the cause is determined and remedied, because if you find yourself in a similar situation to the many (and growing number) of effected users and you send it back and they tell you the warranty's void then there are going to be some very very very unhappy bunnies around (I would have cried to have to pay for two to be repaired :crying

GL all with getting your devices back - let's hope Samsung do something about it asap

Re: repairs: mine's not back yet, but I can see from the status page they did a "board swap". I imagine with paid techs on the clock, time is of the essence, and when they see a phone that won't even light up, they just swap boards without a second thought.

Re: rooting: I'm afraid I've also come to the same conclusion. If this expensive sucker is gonna die unexpectedly, I'd like some legal recourse: i.e.: warranty protection. The advantages of rooting / slick ROMs are attractive, but not worth having to buy a new phone again for.

 

[htcsnap93]

lol, people.

if your motherboard is dead they cant see if your phone is rooted.

on my sony x10i the motherboard died twice while rooted and custom flashed. got a new one back every time with standard warranty.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

 

[Indodraakje]

^ And that happened with me.

What happened: i was charging my phone next to me(a phone with Wanamlite Jellybean). middle in the night (around 3am) i woke up(don't know why) but my led was giving a signal i had a message. so i tried to open my phone. but failed... (phone was hot tho) so i pulled the battery and after 10 secs i put it back. but i couldn't power on. i tried a different battery and same story. i even "cooled down" my phone at the window for an hour. But no signal of life. so immed at 9am i called my provider so they can pick it up for repairngs. after a week i get it back with a new mobo in my phone and everything works again (and they didn't said anything about root... prob cuz they couldn't power it up either)

 

[UncleBeer]

lol, people.

if your motherboard is dead they cant see if your phone is rooted.

And not every incident can be traced to a dead motherboard. Read the thread.

600 euros is a hefty price to pay just to run Titanium BU or other root-necessary apps.

 

[divided by zero]

Not a death, but a very close scenario. Hope it's okay to post here.

I left my phone to charge overnight, as usual, only to find it in the morning with the screen on and the message saying "Charging paused. Battery temperature too high". When I reached for the phone, I realized it was so hot I could barely hold it. Of course I panicked and the battery was draining really fast afterwards - say, 10% within an hour on standby. I went to get it serviced since it's under warranty, but they "couldn't replicate the issue" so I got a new charger. Lo and behold, it's fine now... for now. No idea what I'm going to do if it happens again

 

[justruss]

I think mine just had sudden death syndrom

Terrible timing, as I'm three days away from going on a 2+ week trip.

Worse: It goes into Download mode, but simply will not boot into recovery. In Download mode Odin sees the phone, and I can start to flash a stock ROM... but no matter what I do I get a "PIT partition not found" warning (not sure the exact wording). Nothing takes. Nothing.

Worse: System Status says "Custom" but the system says stock, and custom something or other says "no". There's no counter, and it doesn't say modified. I've been using stock kernel in Omega (31 I believe). NO OC/UV.

This started after charging overnight (like some others). Was using Maps fine a few hours later. Had phone in my pocket, turned maps back on and total freeze. Home button wouldn't respond. Power button wouldn't do anything... except when I held it down to reboot. It powered off and then on... but never got past the first Samsung boot screen. I've tried millions of times to get back into recovery. Nothing. Download only (as described above).

Am I going to get warranty service refused? Any suggestions?

 

[spamtrash]

... "PIT partition not found" warning (not sure the exact wording). Nothing takes. Nothing.

Worse: System Status says "Custom" but the system says stock, and custom something or other says "no". There's no counter, and it doesn't say modified. I've been using stock kernel in Omega (31 I believe). NO OC/UV.

...Any suggestions?

As long as it can go to download mode, and if it says PIT not found... there are some chances still. You can try THIS, but please use thumbnails in linked post to verify what you should mark in Odin this time. Same, please use the Odin version which is visible on the thumbs...
Good luck.

---------- Post added at 09:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:25 PM ----------

And not every incident can be traced to a dead motherboard. Read the thread.

600 euros is a hefty price to pay just to run Titanium BU or other root-necessary apps.

It would be, sure. But, first of all, any normal firewall would require root access to do job with iptables (like DroidWall), then Ad blocker would require it as well. Not to mention to control permissions of some of my favourite apps by Samsung, like AdService, ContextAwareService, RemoteControls, just to mention a few. Same time, when I want to have an animated wallpaper from Google Play, I do not think that it needs permission to view my contacts, full internet access, dialer, exact location etc. By "just to run Titanium BU" you mean: freezing/uninstalling bloatware?

secondly: who stops you from insuring your phone? In my example, it is a free add-on to my bank account, but even the paid version is as expensive as few EURO per month only. Therefore, if you can afford 600, I think that a few is not too big effort?

 

[UncleBeer]

secondly: who stops you from insuring your phone? In my example, it is a free add-on to my bank account, but even the paid version is as expensive as few EURO per month only. Therefore, if you can afford 600, I think that a few is not too big effort?

My phone is insured, and in the EU. It's possible you've misread your policy. Additional insurance covers theft, damage such as dropping, water damage, carelessness, etc. but things normally covered in Samsung warranty (hardware & software faults) are sent to the service center to see if you've deliberately screwed up your phone. i.e. rooting, et. al.

 

[spamtrash]

My phone is insured, and in the EU. It's possible you've misread your policy. Additional insurance covers theft, damage such as dropping, water damage, carelessness, etc. but things normally covered in Samsung warranty (hardware & software faults) are sent to the service center to see if you've deliberately screwed up your phone. i.e. rooting, et. al.

OK, but, sorry, could you please answer one question:
IF you know you have messed with phone so it CAN be not accepted under the warranty, AND you HAVE theft insurance:

WHO is stopping you from using a 5kg hammer on your brick, and then claim it under careleness?
Alternatively, you can allow to speak by the phone your fishtank occupiers, they would be happy to discuss few items with Nemo Dropping it from some skyscrapper could be spectacular as well and can add plenty of good feelings to your claims. Not to mention that you can "ask" someone to stole it by placing it in the club and going to toilet for 20minutes...

In simple words: you have faulty phone, which is insured - claim it.

 

[UncleBeer]

WHO is stopping you from using a 5kg hammer on your brick, and then claim it under careleness?

That would be blatant fraud, and my conscience is worth more to me than 600 yos. Obviously an outdated concept though, from what you've written.

 

[sachilleas]

So, all the cases of sudden death have to do with overnight charging?

 

[ph512]

So, all the cases of sudden death have to do with overnight charging?

No, not in all cases. One of mine was on charge, the other wasn't

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

 

[justruss]

As long as it can go to download mode, and if it says PIT not found... there are some chances still. You can try THIS, but please use thumbnails in linked post to verify what you should mark in Odin this time. Same, please use the Odin version which is visible on the thumbs...
Good luck.

Tried, but failed again. I followed instructions exactly. This is what I get from Odin (the version from the thumbnail, the one that came in the download) in the Message field:

<ID:0/005> Added!!
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> BOOTLOADER_I9300_REV00_user_low_ship.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> CODE_I9300XXDLJ4_368423_REV00_user_low_ship.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> MODEM_I9300XXDLID_REV00_user_low_ship.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> CSC_BTU_I9300OXADLJ4_368423_MULTI_user_low_ship.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/005> Odin v.3 engine (ID:5)..
<ID:0/005> File analysis..
<ID:0/005> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/005> Initialzation..
<ID:0/005> Set PIT file..
<ID:0/005> DO NOT TURN OFF TARGET!!
<ID:0/005>
<ID:0/005> Re-Partition operation failed.
<ID:0/005> Added!!
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)


Any thoughts?