[Galaxy S III General] E:V:A:
"Secret Codes" and Hidden Features

Hacking for "Secret Codes" and other hidden phone features.

Skill Level: Easy

Posting

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Do NOT post general questions/requests on how to do

this or that, they will not be answered, simply

because we don't know yet. Rather try to find out

by yourself and share your results.

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Purpose

To find all "Secret Codes", special properties and other hidden phone features

and settings, used in the GT-I9300. The secret codes are not so secret, but

are often used to activate and manipulate many settings, such as debug modes,

network connections, factory test modes etc. It is an unfortunate choice of

words but we will stick to this definition nonetheless for simplicity, since

it is also used in the source code by Samsung and AOS. Do not confuse secret

codes with VSC (Vertical Service Codes), USSD (Unstructured Supplementary

Service Data) or other MMI (Man Machine Interface) codes.

Although there are many "standard" codes common to many Samsung phones, they

do vary to some extent. This is because their functionality often depend on

the particular hardware, in particular the baseband processor (aka radio, DSP,

BP or CP) and the multiplexer chips that switches the various internal USB

paths, for example between MHL, BP and AP.

This is an informative reference thread on these features. If you have

relevant additional information you'd like to share, please post it here.

Background

From the Samsung Galaxy S2 experience we have gained the following

understanding when it come to the Factory/Service Mode menus and the

PhoneUtils applications. We are still to work out if this is still true for

the SGS3.

But first it is worth to note, that due to the more complicated, but better

organized phone applications in ICS, the way to enter secret codes have

changed from GB versions. Now all secret codes have to be prefixed with

"*#*#", followed by <code> and post fixed with "#*#*". [Note-1] However,

according to the GT-I9300 Service Manual, there are two codes that should work

without post- and pre-fixes. They are *#1234# (version) and *2767*3855#

(Factory reset! It will wipe your phone instantly, NO warnings, no going back,

no way to cancel.) [Note-2]

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Newbie Practice Box

Go to your phone dialer and "dial" the following string:

*#*#197328640#*#*

This will trigger the Service Menu.

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This same effect can be accomplished directly on the command line, with a

direct URI broadcast call to the application receiver via:

[SIZE=2]am broadcast -a android.provider.Telephony.SECRET_CODE -d android_secret_code://1111[/SIZE]

Second, it is essential to know that the actual program code (read

assembly/machine code) for the Engineering / Service Mode menu, is actually

located in the baseband processor firmware. What you actually see when you

enter this menu, is just a java based wrapper application, that make direct

function calls through various entry points, in the baseband kernel/firmware.

What does it mean? When you enter a specific "secret code", the wrapper

application (e.g. ServiceMenu.App) deciphers the code to a particular menu

entry in the baseband processor, where it is executed and whose result is

output to the wrapper application.

Third. Apart from hardware differences, because of the baseband firmware

dependance, the set of working secret codes will differ somewhat from your

location, depending on:

Your Modem firmware

Your AOS version (ICS 4.0.1, 4.0.4 etc.)

Your CSC version (Regional codes)

Special Notes

[Note-1] This can be seen in the handleSecretCode() function in the SpecialCh****quenceMgr.java code.

[Note-2] These need testing and confirmation since they clearly contradict [Note-1].

[Note-3] Apparently the Samsung Galaxy S3 will come in at least two versions:

The GT-I9300 (FCC-ID: A3LGTI9300 )

The SCH-I939 (FCC-ID: A3LSCHI939 ) [Possibly the LTE version]

References

[1] "[GUIDE] Noobs guide to extract Galaxy S3 stock firmware(.img)"

[2] "[All Stock Firmwares] I9300XXALE8 (4.0.4) - Kenya (OJV) [19-05-12]"

[3] "[HOW TO][Windows]Extract Deodex Sign and Zipalign an official ROM"

[4] "[GUIDE] dsixda's Android Kitchen - Now with SGS2 support (Windows/Linux/Mac)"

[5] "[REF] Unpacking and repacking stock rom .img files"

[6] "[Tool] Yaffey - Utility for reading, editing and writing YAFFS2 images" (code is here)

[7] "[TOOL] Auto Bloat Remover Tool For GS III!"

[8] "[GUIDE][TOOL] Guide To Create You're Own De-Bloat Tool/APK Installer/For Any Device"

Keywords: Secret, Codes, Hidden, Service, Factory, UART​