yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] Theshawty:
I understand the worry, guys. I mean, I would think twice too before trusting anything published by Sammobile. They've been wrong on so many accounts before that everything they write should be taken with a bucket of salt.

http://www.sammobile.com/2013/01/02/galaxy-s3-sudden-death-to-be-fixed-by-firmware-update/
[Galaxy S III General] nicoroldan1:
No solution here in Argentina

Hi everyone, my SGS3 died about two months from now and i'm still with no solution. I've sent muy phone to a Samsung official repair centre and they won't accept my phone because I bought it abroad.

I'm really pissed off, I've sent 3 e-mail complains and call Samsung by phone and they do not accept my phone, they said that their policy is not to accept phones from another country. Am I wrong or Samsung is a multinational country? Samsung from Argentina is a diferent company than from other part of the world?

I'm still waiting for a solution from Samsung, the problem is a faulty hardware, it's not MY fault, is theirs and they do not take responsibility of the problem.

If anyone can offer a solution I will be very thankfull, I don't want to throw my phone to the trash.

Sorry for my english.
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Nobody else has experienced this?
[Galaxy S III General] DJ Palmis:
I believe that We can't know what Samsung has discovered and/or how They'll fix it.

I mean: Maybe they just send an 0xC0FFE word at address 0xFF0000..

Or maybe they send a new binary to eMMC.

Who knows?

I believe that if We have rumors on this upgrade that means that Samsung is on a good way..
[Galaxy S III General] InfX:
I totally hope so. For now i'll keep assuming it's a wear leveler issue and keep running my device with the external sdcard mounted "on top" of the internal one, decreasing the eMMC write load quite a bit, hoping this would slow the ticking of this time bomb enough to wait for Samsung to defuse it :)
[Galaxy S III General] linas_ltu:
the same in Lithuania

The same situation is in Lithuania, as I got a reply from their Facebook Samsung Lithuania account. Pretty much the same answer was from a Samsung Lithuania website... If you have a receipt or filled warranty card you should fight for your consumer rights harder. It is international warranty... All in all, dissapointed with the level of costumer support by Sammy, nothing to be compared with HTC (as far as I have experienced).
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
In my case, the first time I had a hardware issue (it didn't die), I had to send it to the company I bought it from on Amazon (I live in NYC, and the company was in Germany). I had to pay $80 to ship it to them and they sent it to Amazon. However now I have the same problem that was fixed before (no audio in calls only and the modem reboots). I really hate that I have to ship it to Germany again for it to fixed. Not just having to pay again, but also that it's going to take another month to get it fixed.

Samsung US told me to contact Samsung Europe because they don't have the parts (the US model has different hardware). Samsung UK told me that if the phone was bought in the UK or any EU country, it will be fixed in the UK or any EU country. However like I said I had to pay to ship it to Germany and wait a month to get it back. It really sucks, because, as much as I hate HTC right now for their stance on bootloaders (I used to love HTC), my friend who has an International One X and lives in Washington state had his repaired by HTC for free, and with no hassle. That's the way it should be.
[Galaxy S III General] GavinZac:
Where did you buy it from?
[Galaxy S III General] omgbuffguy:
Samsung has acknowledged the fault. And are fixing it with a software update. He's the link

http://bgr.com/2013/01/02/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-fix-279600/

Also would anyone be able to extract that file of fix from it so others can install it over different roms?

Good luck with repair guys!

Sent by GT-I9300 SuperNexus
[Galaxy S III General] Obagleyfreer:
Seems a little odd to me that it is a software bug causing this.
[Galaxy S III General] 123shree:
Yep, it does seem a little odd.

How come only 16gig models are mostly affected by the so called 'software bug' and not the 32/64 gig models? As far as I know all 16/32/64 gig models use the same bootloader.
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
There could be an issue with the 16GB eMMC chip and not the 32/64GB one.
[Galaxy S III General] Obagleyfreer:
I did start to analyse the data and tried to come up with some common factors. However the more data collected the more random it all seems.

There is nothing in common with country of purchase, ROM (ICS AND JB, stock and custom) although 98% of people were on JB. I'm also pretty sure this all started after JB release, but it could be coincidence.

I don't have enough info to figure out if purchase date matters, most are bought 'around' the release date but some aren't.

My best guess at the moment is either a faulty batch of boards or something to do with the battery/charger.

I'm keeping a close eye on this thread and gathering info.

It could be about time to go to Samsung with it and see what they have to say.
[Galaxy S III General] zuperpailon:
I see some people who's device is T-Mobile branded... which pops up a question for me

does this happens on every model?? i got the International version...
[Galaxy S III General] PjotrFias:
Yes, unfortunately international SGS3s are also affected.
[Galaxy S III General] Isadora:
Mine was on official ICS when it died. My post is somewhere on the first couple of pages of the thread.
[Galaxy S III General] jumbobombo:
Reading this thread makes me regret buying S3... I hope it doesn't happen to me :o
[Galaxy S III General] edugmax:
Just died...

I'll try to describe everything that happened.

Thanks for helping!

What happened: Since yesterday (11/27) my phone freezed a couple times, so I removed the battery and turn it on without any problem. Two hours ago I was searching something using Google Now and it stopped working again, I rebooted using the power + home buttons but it freezes on boot screen. The same thing happens when I try to boot into Recovery mode. The download mode is working, I tried to install the stock firmware but I Odin fails, the Odin message is at the end of the post.

I bought my Galaxy SIII in June, the day it was released in Brazil, I installed a custom ROM (AOKP) in the same night. Until yesterday I've never had any problems with my phone.

I usually charge my phone during the night but always with the original charger and cable, I've never connected a different USB cable on it. The only thing I've ever connected to the phone are my headphones and MHL.

What ROM/Firmware: Omega v33.2

What kernel: Probably Stock (I don't remember changing it, if I did it was in June)

OC or UV: No

Where phone was made: Brazil

Where battery was made: Cell made in Korea, assembled in China

Odin message:

<ID:0/004> File analysis..

<ID:0/004> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/004> Initialzation..

<ID:0/004> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/004>

<ID:0/004> There is no PIT partition.

<ID:0/004> Added!!

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)
[Galaxy S III General] PjotrFias:
Wait, is the "There is no PIT partition." message normal?
[Galaxy S III General] edugmax:
Salt Estalyme

I don't think so. I've founded one topic about it here in XDA, they tried other Odin versions and PIT files without success. I'm downloading the original carrier firmware from samfirmwares to see what happens.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1785481

The Odin flash guide says that ".PIT refers to the partition information table you only need it if you screw up your partition table or if the firmware specifically requires it because of a change in the partition table layout. It's very likely you may never have to use this." and "DO NOT PUT .PIT FILE AND DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT TICK REPARTITION.".

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1671969

---------- Post added at 09:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:16 PM ----------

I've just tried with the original firmware(1,13GB), much larger than the one I tried before (137MB), without success...

Odin message:

<ID:0/004> Added!!

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> I9300UBALE6_I9300ZVVALE6_I9300UBLE6_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/004> Odin v.3 engine (ID:4)..

<ID:0/004> File analysis..

<ID:0/004> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/004> Initialzation..

<ID:0/004> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/004>

<ID:0/004> There is no PIT partition.

<ID:0/004> Added!!

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

Phone message:

Downloading...

Do not turn off target!

ODIN MODE

PRODUCT NAME:

CUSTOM BINARY DOWNLOAD: No

CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official

SYSTEM STATUS: Custom
[Galaxy S III General] PjotrFias:
I just checked this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_8Tga_yKywc

It's unrooting guide and the PIT message is different. So, is it possible that pit info is corrupt?
[Galaxy S III General] edugmax:
I think that is possible! I searched in some forums and apparently the problem is with the product name, but I can't find how to solve this problem... I really don't know what to do. :(
[Galaxy S III General] PjotrFias:
Maybe you can get some help here: xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1742668
[Galaxy S III General] edugmax:
Thanks, I have to go out now but will try it later!

I just found an topic about it and apparently it's really hard to fix... there is a Samsung confidential pdf explaining and I need also an normal i9300.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1916796

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1731255
[Galaxy S III General] PjotrFias:
Well, if you think about it, there is little chance that the fix is as simple as providing the missing pit file. If it was service centers wouldn't replace whole boards.
[Galaxy S III General] NatTheCat:
There is only one step really.. Pray to God
[Galaxy S III General] Obagleyfreer:
The measures I'm taking in hopefully helping to prevent a dead S3 are:

1. Siyah Kernel and decrease charging voltages to minimum ( wall charger: 800mAh, USB 400mAh)

2. Under volt GPU and CPU 50mAh

3. Trying to only charge on USB and if I do use a wall charger then I use my old SGS1 charger that runs a max of 0.7 amps (much less than S3 charger) and I always unplug when it's charged, never left over night.
[Galaxy S III General] sidthegreatest:
I have had two instances where the hardware buttons have stopped responding. The touch screen works fine, but the hardware keys don't. Once, I removed the battery to reboot and the other time, I long pressed the reset key to reset. Is this indicative of the phone about to have the same problems as above or is this a new issue altogether ?

Running Omega 4.1.2
[Galaxy S III General] ScoopyDoopy:
Is this a solution

The guy in this thread seems to have recovered from this position by flashing a darkyrom (whatever that is) http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2018370
[Galaxy S III General] PjotrFias:
Wait, if this works that means that this is a software problem. Again.
[Galaxy S III General] ksirc:
This just happened to my phone this morning. Went to sleep with around 60% battery left on my phone. I tried to use it when I woke up but screen wouldn't switch on. Tried charging from pc, plugged in to oriinal charger, remove battery still nothing. I tried my mates batteries and still nothing.

I got my phone back in July unlocked from Virgin Mobile AU. I was running latest Omega rom for almost a month now. No over/under voltage and just stock kernel. When I called Samsung for warranty claim, they don't sound surprise at all and as if this is pretty much a common thing. I don't leave my phone overcharge at all. One thing I noticed yesterday is it was running hotter than usual after playing games. Also the UI seems to be a bit sluggish at times that I had to reboot to make it all smooth again. Oh well I'm back to my good ol' N900 for a few days for now...hope it doesn't take that long to repair.
[Galaxy S III General] alex_herrero:
What happened: No more turning on, no recovery (TWRP) nor download mode, I was charging overnight, as I did with all my devices (see signature) for the last 10 years.

What ROM/Firmware: CM10

What kernel: CM10's original

OC or UV: No

Where phone was made: China

Where battery was made: 4300 mAh Chinese

I was charging overnight with a Motorola FMP5839A universal micro usb wall charger, with 100-240V, 50/60Hz 0,15A input, 5,0V550mA output.
[Galaxy S III General] iridaki:
Already done! Flash via Odin and you'll have the new (hopefully) fixed bootloader.
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
The previous new bootloader showed red mark on top left of screen if you rooted or installed CWM recovery. I went back and flashed old bootloader to avoid that. I'd still continue with old one and see if the new replaced MB is also susceptible to whatever they claim is FW issue.
[Galaxy S III General] iridaki:
You'd rather run your phone on a potentially faulty bootloader than see a small red exclamation mark for 1 second while rebooting? :confused::silly:
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
You can't use TriangleAway on the new bootloader?
[Galaxy S III General] insty:
I am just wondering if anyone, who has a cracked screen and has suffered the Sudden Death, has been able to get their phone repaired under warranty through Samsung?

My phone provider today said they won't repair the phone unless I pay $295 due to a tiny crack in the screen. I spoke to Samsung and they have advised to get the phone back from my provider and to send it to them (I am hoping that they won't say the same thing).
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
Mine's replaced board so i don't care. I guess it's upto individuals choice.

No it doesnt work.

BTW: The poll shows (as of now) out of 100 users 55 have had their s3 die.
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
What's the hardware revision of the faulty board?
[Galaxy S III General] Alf0903:
My Mexican S3 died as a christmas gift

My S3 died on dec, 25th, my story developed as follows:

I bought my S3 on aug. 23th, died on dec. 25th at the age of 124 days, it is/was a blue 16GB branded (TELCEL), it was on 4.1.1 I9300UBDLJ2, rooted with latest CWM, stock kernel, it wasn't charging at the time of its dead, and I've always used stock charger and left it overnight (everynight).

Around 22:00 Dec. 24th I did some whatsapp messaging, the battery was about 40-50%, at around 02:00 Dec. 25th I took it out of my trousers pocket, it felt hot, and the blue notification led was on, I tried to wake the phone up by using the power, and home button, and no success, I took the battery out, reinstalled it and still nothing, I connected the phone to the stock charger (mine is 1 amp), and left it charging the rest of the night/morning, at around 9 a.m. I unplugged the charger and couldn't get it to boot, tried every combination of buttons I knew about and nothing, not even donwload mode.

After reading ALL this thread (took me 3 days), I read a lot of ppl had seen strange behaviour on their phones prviously to its dead, in my case It was rebooting by itself, some apps FC including touchwiz (several times a day), the FC's were so comun that I tried rebooting the phone on a daily basis, this weird behaviour began around 2 weeks before it died.

I took it to my providers customer Service (TELCEL) and after 01:30 hrs., they told it has to be shipped to Mexico City to have it fixed, and it will take 20 days to get it back.

This is my first android and also my first samsung, and I assure you it is going to be the last one, as soon as I get it back I am gonig to sell it.

Happy new year to all of you!!!

P.S. Some one asked about american phones that had died, I think mine one is the first Mexican post about an actual dead, but there is at least 1 from Chile, 1 from Peru, and a couple from Brazil.

P.S. 2 Sorry for my english!
[Galaxy S III General] fenstre:
I had this issue for three months, but it has gone away. In this post I describe what I did prior to the problem vanishing. I'm not at all sure why this fixed the problem! Maybe it has something to do with chip firmware that was changed or updated when I restored an old copy of stock-4.0.4 and toggled everything.

By the way, this was a common problem in the CM9/CM10 threads. I think it's only come up once in the CM10.1 thread.
[Galaxy S III General] browy:
We don't know what causes sudden death yet and whether it has anything to do with HW rev.

Samsung has released the patch for this issue but hasn't announced the cause, only that it is a "firmware bug that can be easily solved with a small update". Just flash the new boot loader and you should be fine: http://niekske.myftp.biz:81/ajaxplorer/index.php#1
[Galaxy S III General] iArmghan:
I heard triangle away app doesn't work with new boot loader... :(
[Galaxy S III General] aghazi:
Via Odin? Also can we flash this on top of CM builds, like CM 10.1?
[Galaxy S III General] vasp3690:
Hopefully that would be the case.

Anyone knows if any i9305 models have been affected? Too soon I guess for them
[Galaxy S III General] browy:
Did you clicked on the url that I posted? In the very same folder there's also a text file named "how to flash boot loader". Do you mind reading that?

I know. There's already a thread taking about this issue in the general forum.

For me a red mark at boot doesn't annoy me as much as the possibility that my phone might suffer sudden death some day.

Sent from my GT-I9300
[Galaxy S III General] fylim:
My s3 international version just died after 6 months of use. Died after charging overnight.

Prior to this, there had been symptoms of hangs (boot screen showing Galaxy SIII / battery) after overnight charging. Yesterday after having like that, resetting could revive it anymore.

Mine should be one of the early batches. I am from Malaysia.
[Galaxy S III General] pingling:
Funny how Samsung treats all the problems as firmware bugs. I guess they are trying hard to avoid admitting any of their phones have hardware bugs - otherwise they might be forced to exchange all the faulty units. This was already the case with GPS on i9000 (Galaxy S) where the promised fw fix never came, black blotches in video on N7000 that was supposed to be fixed in ICS... Now the magic fix for GS3. My wife has just bought GS3 and it has the 1.500 hw revision. I wonder if it these new boards already have the fixed eMMC fw.
[Galaxy S III General] pRo_lama:
[KIES]I9300XXELLA 4.1.2->EXYNOS BUG FIXED!!S3 SUDDEN DEATH FIXED!!Jan.02,2013

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2077844
[Galaxy S III General] aghazi:
Yes, checked that after I replied the post. Text file answers the Odin question only. Anyways, you could have saved some time by replying with one word "Yes" instead of replying with 27 words. Thanks anyways.

Anyone else on using this bootloader with CM10.1?
[Galaxy S III General] ulats07:
it happened to me last weekend ,sent to Lowyat sc ,and they replaced the motherboard ,they didnt agreed with the 'sudden death' issue ,they simply said that this is my fault ,because of the software i installed in the phone.
[Galaxy S III General] STELIOSFAN:
I'm using the old bootloader (manually flashed to remove the red mark).

QUESTION

If i flash the new bootloader (that is rumored to fix the sudden death issue) via odin, do I loose root or something else? Or I just flash and then everything is in place as it used to? (custom rom, root, cwm, etc)?

Thank you
[Galaxy S III General] -A-P-M-:
Looks like vulnerability because of exynos bug is fixed, but how do we know if sudden death is fixed ? News from yesterday (http://www.sammobile.com/2013/01/02/galaxy-s3-sudden-death-to-be-fixed-by-firmware-update/) says that sudden death will be fixed by firmware update, which means that Samsung knows where the problem is and they will fix it with a software update. If XXELLA would include fix for sudden death, I think they would inform us...

IMO latest events related to Samsung got very bad publicity - first, devs are leaving Samsung because of closed sources, Samsung promised they will release them until end of 2012, but they didn't; second vulnerability because of Exynos bug and now sudden death problem.
[Galaxy S III General] vadonka:
samsung doesn't officially announced yet that the sudden death problem is fixed. they still working on the fix. this latest update not sure will fix the sudden death problem only the exynos mem bug.
[Galaxy S III General] :
I wonder how the OP decided that there is a sudden death fix... :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S III General] jay_m3:
after any rom flashing you will be automatically with unrooted device
[Galaxy S III General] STELIOSFAN:
but this is only the bootloader... If i flash the bootloader ONLY, i will loose root and mess up my rom ?
[Galaxy S III General] 123shree:
No, you won't loose root and mess things up.
[Galaxy S III General] christhorn:
UK - rooted S3 died, now fully repaired under warranty

My launch day S3 died mid-December and it's now been repaired under warranty. My girlfriend's phone (also bought on launch day) died last night whilst on charge. She woke up this morning to find it's notification light glowing red, but completely unresponsive.

What happened: On charge after a day's use, using original Samsung UK wall charger and Samsung USB cable, with the screen off. Went to wake it up and no response. Swapped out battery with a nearly new genuine Samsung S3 battery and still nothing. No lights or booting at all.

Where phone was made: Korea

Where battery was made: Korea

What firmware: WanamLite 3.8, Jelly Bean

Access download mode? No

Purchased from: Carphone Warehouse, Vodafone network, phone was delivered on launch day in UK

My phone died on 7 Dec and got to the designated repair centre on 13 Dec. I received the repaired phone on 20 Dec - two weeks after the fault occurred. As with other cases, the main board was replaced.

Android was updated to 4.1.1 at the repair centre, and has since been updated OTA to 4.1.2 - it runs like a dream.

*#12580*369# shows the following on my repaired phone (didn't get the chance to try it on my girlfriend's phone before it died):

AP : I9300XXELLA

CP : I9300XXELLA

CSC : I9300XAELLA

RF cal : 2012.11.13

HW Rev : MP 1.400
[Galaxy S III General] InfX:
So goes the claim XXELLA btl fixes the issue :(

EDIT: sorry, this is on the REPAIRED phone, my bad.
[Galaxy S III General] TeeJayEss:
Short of physically replacing something, firmware updates are the only other option Samsung have, so:

a) given you can fix (workaround) some hardware issues via software (firmware) and microcode updates

b) would you rather your phone be fixed by sending it off for 2 weeks to have hardware replaced, or be fixed with you there and then via a firmware update?

So yes, of course they treat all problems via firmware updates first.
[Galaxy S III General] STELIOSFAN:
actually no, because he checked it AFTER the repair
[Galaxy S III General] InfX:
Indeed, i've noticed it few seconds after posting, see the "EDIT" line. Sorry.
[Galaxy S III General] Blackbeard_:
Will updating to the new XXELLA rom with Samsung Kies using this method:

Also update the bootloader to the new one which fixes sudden death issue?
[Galaxy S III General] chevli:
I still believe this is still a hardware issue however they (might) have found a way to prevent it from happening with the software update. If it wasn't a hardware issue, it would also be happening on 32gb/64gb models.

I guess it is the next best thing from getting it physically repaired but maybe it might be worth waiting for the handset to die if you are still under warantee so they can give it a proper fix (and possibly an upgrade to 32gb model), Depends how much you need your phone.

I don't think there is a way to reset your flash counter on the new FW so it might be worth running Triangle away on your current FW and then waiting for it to die or flash the new FW.