[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] TerraOne:
Stock S3 with the same gsiff DEMON problem

Intentional spelling - this bug is a real torturous demon, very random and gets my phone extremely hot to the touch.

I'm not a root user and don't know much about Android because I just got the phone when VZW released it, but I registered to let y'all know it's happening on fully stock/unrooted phones as well.

I've tried the following to prevent gsiff from terrorizing my phone, but to no avail/relief. I finally gave up and filed a defective claim since rooting it doesn't seem to make any difference for y'all and gsiff.

GSIFF still happened again despite the following:

~STOCK/UNROOTED S3 (32GB pebble blue model)

~GPS on and off

~Bluetooth on and off

~WiFi on and off

~Mobile Data on and off

~Auto brightness on and off

~Motion Activation on and off (including palm/hand motions)

~Static/Picture Wallpaper and Live Wallpaper

~Power Saving on and off

~Accounts Sync on and off

~Location Services on and off (unchecked each, then all)

~Security features enabled and disabled

~Backup services on and off

~Legacy keyboard and several others from the Play store tried (most wouldn't work/froze up the phone)

~All S-Voice/Voice-related features disabled

~All Samsung WiFi-related features (kies, NFC, Tethering, S-Beam, Direct, etc) disabled

~All Sound on and off

~All third-party apps uninstalled

Bonus clues about this issue:

1) It rarely happened while just sitting at home, but it HAS happened at home before - usually early in the morning, after I've had WiFi set to stay off except when plugged in and slept for the night. However, during those times, gsiff didn't burn up the phone's processor doing stuff. It appeared in Watchdog's alerts but "behaved," only showing a few MB's of activity

2) Likes others have reported, I can tell when GSIFF_DAEMON has gone berserk because the screen will freeze unresponsive, then black out, then return to the lock screen as if it has rebooted. I think others here call that the "hot boot"

3) It always happens when I leave home, such as when I go to class on campus, which makes me think it has something to do with something between Mobile Data/4G and Wifi connections. It's as if switching from one or the other triggers the hot boot and gsiff-runaway with the processor.

4) I've gotten messages like "Unfortunately, TOUCHWIZ HOME has stopped" and "Unfortunately, Contacts has stopped" (but usually the former) before the hot boot and gsiff demon appearing.

This morning was the last straw. Battery drained from 90% to less than 50% in little over an hour while I was in class and the phone was scary-hot.

The Verizon rep said mine was the first they've had returned feeling that hot. Replacement is being overnighted, hope it doesn't suffer the same issue because I'm sick of worrying about this phone day and night, trying to find an answer to the battery drain and gsiff issue. I came from a broken-down/barely-working blackberry to the S3, thrilled to finally get a "real phone" that works, only to be plagued with what is apparently a lemon that is happening to far too many people here, but not enough that Samsung/Verizon/et al cares to address it - yet anyway.

Edit:

Also, while gsiff_daemon was running wild this morning and my phone felt like a hot potato, i switched off GPS, wifi, and mobile data but gsiff remained in CPU usage activity, still churning the processor despite toggling everything off. Absolutely nothing would stop it except rebooting the phone, and then it would just happen again as I drove somewhere else.