yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] demlasjr:
Thanks for the suggestion. I had the phone with this issue for over a month. I had no time and I was waiting for Carbon app to be released in order to make some apps backups. I will reset it tomorrow.

Hope S4 will be soon released (and having the Exynos 5 Octa) to forget about the SDS issue (at least a while, maybe?)

"Flowed" from my Samsung GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
Do you have any of that contact info? Samsung US has been no help to me
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
Folks - if I buy a new 16gb s3 with mfr date beyond dec12 what are the chances of sds?
[Galaxy S III General] camil:
I say that the chances are low, but why don't you buy the 32 Gb model to be sure?
[Galaxy S III General] lockmunk:
woww u have custom binary counter n it didnt void the warranty??
[Galaxy S III General] Vrykyl:
Do you know what they repaired / replaced?
[Galaxy S III General] bligui:
Actually that is also sudden death just a different level mine had the same problem and my MB was swapped under warranty.
[Galaxy S III General] InfX:
This actually makes me think about writing some script to intentionally wear out the NAND flash by non-stop writing in order to get it replaced before the warranty runs out :(

How do i know if the NAND flash on my device is of those early batches or not? Actually using warranty services in Israel is a tough fight, next to impossible to win :(
[Galaxy S III General] Andrewtst:
I from Malaysia as well, I get same answer of motherboard faulty, need replacement.

I had exactly same situation like yours, mine was 1st batch white color.

Mine took 17 days before I get back my phone.
[Galaxy S III General] Ohamn:
Good idea!!

I just Tweeted my Swedish Samsung Twitter channel (https://twitter.com/SamsungSverige)

Lets se if they have the guts to give a proper answer/explanation!

I even gave them the link to this thread at XDA!! :angel:

Perhaps this will be an eye opener for them!!

WiIl keep you all posted of any answers from Samsung Sweden!

// Ohamn
[Galaxy S III General] random_username:
Yesterday I was taking pictures with my S3 and suddenly it froze for a few seconds and then it turned off, tried turning it ON again to no avail..

I stood there for a few seconds wondering wtf is wrong and decided to take out the battery... and when I went to remove the case the phone started booting.

I thought it might be the Otterbox Commuter case because its a tight fit and maybe the power button was pressed against the outer shell

Phone is not rooted stock JB 4.1.1

(158days old)

The reason I'm posting this is because maybe someone else experienced something similar before "Suddent death"

EDIT: So far the phone is working.... I will post again if something happens (hopefully NEVER)
[Galaxy S III General] Lynchy30:
Another one here, phone rebooted on its own, was fine for half an hour then switched itself off again and refuses to boot.

S3 stock 4.1 JB
[Galaxy S III General] thelastwilson:
175 days for me. June 12th to December 4th.

Was happily listening to a podcast, it finished I picked up the phone to select the next and found it to be rebooting. it never did.

not sure where it was made, battery says made in Korea assembled in Vietnam.
[Galaxy S III General] b0gd4n:
I just left mine at Carphone Warhouse.

The guy said he is going to send it for repairs under manufacture warranty, but obviously he did not had any idea about any flash counter or anything.

I hoppe I will not have to pay anything and get it fixed so that I can sell it.

I would like to get the i9305. Do you guys have any idea if that model has the same issues?

Thanks!
[Galaxy S III General] NorthernNoel:
Well mine suddenly died tonight :(

Had sent a text about half an hour before, it wasn't doing anything but dead when I looked. Tried my spare battery to no avail and not charging. Guess I'm without my S3 for Christmas :(
[Galaxy S III General] Vrykyl:
That sucks, welcome to the (miserable) club - its a hassle, but call Samsung UK directly on Monday, explain whats happened and that you know they know theres a common problem - they should sort you out too I hope

Number I called was 0330 7267864 - choose the option for mobile, then the first option for Galaxy S3 (odd they have only 2 options for mobile support - one for Galaxy S3, and one for "all other mobile handsets")...
[Galaxy S III General] whitebait:
There's a non premium number quoted on their site too: If you need to call us from overseas, or prefer not to use 0330 SAMSUNG, you can call +44 (0)1932 454358

I called them today and the chap I spoke to was very helpful, I explained I'd taken it to an authorised repair centre who confirmed they weren't able to reflash anything and it'd have to be sent off.

The call centre guy said he'd had quite a few of these lately and he'd get a package posted out so I could return my phone to them for repair. I asked about lead times and he said although they officially say 7-10 days, he reckoned I'd get it back before the new year. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
[Galaxy S III General] wshyang:
Does it wear out prematurely or some other failure? Even worn out NAND memory remains read-only for at least a year.
[Galaxy S III General] InfX:
Bad flash chips can die in some really exotic ways. Personally, we had an exotic issue with Intel flash chips (not sgs3 related in any way), powering them down during reclaim (erase), for example, because of the system going to deep sleep mode, had a relatively high chance of leaving the flash dead and NO LONGER READABLE. Yes, you read the caps part right, no longer readable.

I seriously doubt it is a simple premature wearing, even though wear leveling may actually work on the entire flash, not just empty regions. In this case, eventually, when the wear leveling can no longer store anything, some already stored data will be gone, so a data corruption after a premature wearing may happen after all.

PS: i am, obviously, just speculating, but the symptoms DO look like a dying flash.

PPS: i really hope i am lucky enough to never experience this first hand.
[Galaxy S III General] paua__:
What happened: Charged over night. Blue led blinking, but no reaction to anything whatsoever, pulled battery and re-inserted it. still no reaction, no led, no screen activity. No reaction when plugging in the charger, pulled battery, wait 30 min, re-insert batt, still no reaction.

What ROM/Firmware: Omega v34

What kernel: Perseus v28

OC or UV: OC 1,6ghz (stable since flash)

Where phone was made: Dont know? how do i check?

Where battery was made: Dont know? how do i check?

RIP June 21st - Dec 16th
[Galaxy S III General] r2001uk:
What happened: Phone was in my pocket, heard a noise and thought I had a call. Pulled it out to find it was bootlooping

What ROM/Firmware: Unrooted Stock JB via Kies

What kernel: Stock?

OC or UV: Nope

Where phone was made: No idea, wherever all the other international I9300s are

Where battery was made: Stock battery, so see above

Sucks for us all, but I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one experiencing this. I though I was going nuts. I've hardly used my phone today so I was racking my brain trying to figure out if it was my fault.

I must note though - my phone has been incredibly sluggish lately, with a lot of freezes. Started ever since I upgraded to JB. ICS was perfect, never has a problem. I'm not suggesting JB has anything to do with this, it's probably coincidental. Ever since upgrading though, it's been pretty unpredictable.

I've tried repartitioning in Odin and I'm currently downloading a stock firmware to hopefully breathe life back into it but I'm not holding my breath. I'll call either Samsung or that free repairs place tomorrow.

Edit: Fails to update the firmware. Reports that it's unable to write to various locations. Think it's pretty dead. Balls.
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
Wohooo,

this gets interesting!

In August 2012 a S3 owner in a german board reported to have a "stuck at bootlogo" cause he put his phone upside down in the pocket and the power button was stuck for a longer time!

After that he was not able to boot the phone and he was not able to boot recovery. The bootloader was loading, but the S3 denied to flash anything.

I tried to assist at the phone, but in each possible way flashing with odin was not possible. With repartition and pit, without repartition odin always stuck / gave errors at PIT operation.

This are exact the symptoms of the "half"-sudden death. Bootloader and download mode works, recovery is not able to boot and every try to flash fails.

That time I was wondering why a stuck power button killed the memory.

Now with your piece of information, could it maybe be that:

-Some early S3 have some internal hardware fault at the power button so that it gets electrical stuck internally and

-the permanent power button press maybe cycles and routine in the bootloader that maybe writes the flash each cycle and it writes the flash continously until the flash memory dies?

Sounds logical to me.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] Ohamn:
Mine was "resting" in my front trouser pocket, so I guess the power button could have got stuck/been pressed down for an extended time!?

Didn't notice until I got home from work during lunch. I threw a fit in the hallway to my dogs delight!!! They were actually quite scared! :D

Will take my phone to the repair center tomorrow and hope that they have a spare MB lying around!!!! :p

// Ohamn
[Galaxy S III General] DeHAWK:
Deleted...stupid app...
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
Coz they've stopped selling it because people are buying 16gig + an sd card which is cheaper.
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
@shethsa

Buy an S3 and enjoy it don't wast a extra hundred $$ on a 32gb your right way cheaper to get a sd card
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
Thx. But I've just gone thru an energy sapping episode of getting a refund for my sds'd s3 and I can't live with the uncertainty again.
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
It seems without a Samsung statement everything about SDS is Uncertain who's to say if the new OxF7 firmware chips don't experience sudden death 6 months down the line SORRY nobody really knows 100% but the chances of it happening to two of your S3 is very very low so your call
[Galaxy S III General] ponepo:
The chances are low but, in my case, I have a mobo's mfr date (RF Cal) from december 12, and a "fabulous" VTU00M with Date: 11/2012 and FwRev: 0xf1, just one of the last 0xf1. This month, Samsung changed to the 0xf7.

IMHO, I think the IMEI can give a better idea to ask for a phone that is more safe. Mine is 35495... and I think that with an IMEI greater than that, for example, 3550..., you will get one that can be 0xf7.
[Galaxy S III General] owl74:
My s3 is 3558 and my note 2 is 3550.... both are 0xf7
[Galaxy S III General] Wis76:
Ok, the phone has been behaving normally since I've used the dummy file creator.

Till now.

I've tried to download an app from Google Play and it said "error -24" or "no space available" (or something like that).

I've rebooted the phone, cleared the cache and dalvyk, and tried to restore a backup of the app through Titanium: total freeze again.

I'm starting to lose hope and patience, here.
[Galaxy S III General] yahyoh:
lucky man :good: :D

my note2 3536 :/
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
The seller won't touch your S3 unless it came from them.
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
I meant contact info for Samsung in Europe where I need to send this phone to get it fixed.
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
I know that when I had my S2 and we had the brick bug scare we waited for an official statement from Samsung and the S3 came out and it fizzled away do you guys think we will here(from Samsung) if this Sudden death problem is truly fixed? Or will it get lost in the hype of the S4?
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
I'm angry that the only place you hear about at all is on hear. I spent 500 dollars October 1st and 2 weeks ago I'm talking on the phone and it's working great like always. 10 minutes later I pick it up to use and it doesn't work. Can't take an unbranded phone into a USA store to get it fixed, much less an unbranded international version.
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
I'm also in USA with international GT-I9300 it is a pain can I ask what firmware you were running when the phone crapped out? Where did you get your phone from that will help? Samsung US only deals with dual core models
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
I got the phone from an Ebay seller who purchased it from an Amazon seller/dealer. Ebay guy has been very helpful. He contacted the the Amazon seller but they said they don't keep specific records if country of origin on the phones. However he said he thought it was Spain. The pamphlet and chat on book that came with it are in Spanish so he is probably correct. I'm going to try and get the Amazon Sellers info from him so I can contact them directly. I also got the phone number for Samsung UK and will call them on Monday morning. My biggest regret now is not buying that damn square trade warranty through Ebay. But there has to be someone who can tell me someplace I can ship this thing to to get it fixed. I don't care if I have to pay, I just want my phone working again. Thank goodness I still had my Captivate.

And Firmware, I have no idea and now have no way to even check
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
Goodluck.... My phone came with a Spanish and English two separate pamphlets maybe Try to PM product F(red) I think he was from USA and bought from Ebay/Amazon and found the source of his phone..... Hope everything works out its a shame to spend that kind of money on these phones for this Sh#t
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
I'm contemplating just buying a nexus 4. Screen size pretty much the same and less headache.
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
someone mentioned that a while back and was told to look in Nexus 4 thread, everything isn't all rosey there either and it has no ext SD or removable battery.
[Galaxy S III General] owl74:
To those looking for an authorized repair samsung center in UK/europe, look in my Note 2 SDS thread. I posted a link in the op.
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
True there but at only 350 I can live with that I think. Heck, it will probably break in 6 months too. Damn technology, lol. You know what still works perfectly though. My 20 year old home phone, lol.
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
bring back the brick :D
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
So I took the plunge with a new s3 16gig. First app downloaded was emmc and.... It's a sane chip! Ofx7. Praying now.
[Galaxy S III General] Beatsleigher:
Hmm.. Well. I was just flashing a new nightly of CM 10.1 and now the phone won't recognize any SD card and won't boot up?

I just can't decide.. Sudden death or did I just break something? Trying to download ROM via sideload doesn't work either...

Lol. I don't know what to do :S
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
Well think you did something wrong. If you can get into recovery it isn't sds so restore backup and try again. If you can't get into recovery try download and use Odin .
[Galaxy S III General] raffav:
Hello,

i have a international and today found my phone freezes on green led full charged, i tried to remove bat but now dont torn on any more, so i think my phone is SDS

i will put in authorized repair samsung center because is still in "warranty", but my phone ia rooted, can they discovered that? or have a chance to they make a replacement ?

Sorry for bad English
[Galaxy S III General] philgalaxs3:
@raffav : If your phone can NOT boot at all, there is no way to see if it was rooted ...
[Galaxy S III General] raffav:
when a phone get a SDS What the samsung do, do something like a jtag repair or do a board replacement ?
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
Do some reading or use search function plenty of examples on xda and depends on your telco
[Galaxy S III General] djluis48:
So i just bought an i9300. I checked the emmc, and its the cursed VTU00M Rev. 0xF1. The phone was already on 4.1.2 XLLA, With the fix. Should i worry about a possible SDS?
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
No just enjoy it
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
"Possible", yes. Probable? No.
[Galaxy S III General] SiriusCybernetik:
Are those no-PIN reboots happening after several days of up-time and while using chrome?

I have this kind of reboots for almost 2 month now while using chrome with multiple tabs open and after not having restarted my phone for a few days.

Most of the time it happens while copy-pasting. I think this is related to chrome.
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
Go to Terminal and type "su", enter, "reboot", enter. If you're not asked for a PIN it means direct reboot calls to the system bypass that security check.

(And hence it's not Chrome that's causing the bypass).
[Galaxy S III General] SiriusCybernetik:
I am not sure to get your message right.

I didn't say that it was chrome that was rebooting my device.

All I said was that I suspected chrome to be responsible for causing the system instability that made my phone decide to make a hot reboot.

This is a valid claim, since it IAS the only application where I could observe this kind of behaviour.
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
This was in reference to the no-PIN reboot, which Chrome was causing. I thought someone was worried about how Chrome was being able to bypass that requirement. My bad.
[Galaxy S III General] Dark Smile:
AW: **Ultimate GS3 sudden death thread**

After a new factory reset and latest cm10.1 nightly it appears that it only freezes when I'm getting a Facebook notification. Disabling Facebook synchronisation and notifications (also for messenger) it only freezes about 2 times a day (whatsapp makes it crash too) but much better than before...

MfG Dark Smile
[Galaxy S III General] flattervieh:
Hello everyone. I think it's allready answered in the thread, but i couldn't find it after reading like 20 pages.

My problem is, i have a GS3 too and emmc check tool tells me i have a insane chip too.

Type: VTU00M

FwRev: 0xf1

But i have actually CM10 nightly 20121216 installed. Is there the possibility, that the GS3 can brick with that ROM too?

Or is the fix, that was provided by Samsung, included in a later release of CM10 or CM10.1?
[Galaxy S III General] djluis48:
Just to be safe, i would upgrade to a newest Nightly. Just im case.
[Galaxy S III General] flattervieh:
Thanks for the info.

I'm actually thinking about upgrading to CM10.1.

I tried it some weeks ago, but i had some troubles with some Bugs. But i think they are fixed now.
[Galaxy S III General] aalvico:
Bad news from Samsung service center... Cancelled warranty saying it was rooted but was not. 350 USD to fix
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
...what...They're obviously not familiar with the issue. I would dispute it in any way possible. Call Samsung and explain to them; I'm sure they documented the issue internally. These service centers are AUTHORIZED REPAIR CENTERS, not directly affiliated with Samsung. When I sent mine in for a separate, unrelated to SDS repair, I sent it to the seller in Germany, who sent it to a repair center called Komsa. This is not owned or operated by Samsung, only authorized to do repairs by them. So the repair center you sent it to must have just checked the bootloader and seen "CUSTOM" next to system status where it normally says OFFICIAL. Idiots.
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
At least in India, there's a Samsung city/regional head who oversees these svc centres and tends to be a little more responsible. And he reports in to a svc manager at the country hq. These svc managers are truly responsive and I've had a generally good response from them. Those are the guys you need to reach out to. You can do it via their website in the ceo section for feedback. Initially a couple of call center guys will get back saying it's outside their policy etc. But just keep on persisting that your problem isn't solved and hopefully a svc manager will call you. All the best.
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
All you have to do is keep swear up and down that you didn't root your phone (true), and you don't even know what that means (white lie). What's the point of the bootloader security flag if they're just going to call you a liar right away? Tell them you want their service center information because you're going to report them to Samsung if they refuse to budge. FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS.
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
I thought this happens to Every half dead SDS the system status changes to custom and product name is blank shouldn't they know that by now if there is No Product name then the system status is messed up to which equals SUDDEN DEATH
[Galaxy S III General] Dark Smile:
Update from me:

Current Firmware: CM 10.1 Nightly 20130218

Reactivated Facebook Notifications and Synchronisation. Also the Messenger.

After crashing right 2 minutes after that no more crashes or freezes till now.

Only a few times while opening whatsapp it closed it instantly saying it was stopped because of no response (looks like a good thing because then it could not run into freeze).

Hope it goes on like that.

Cheers!
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
It does, but the idiots must not know that yet.
[Galaxy S III General] aalvico:
Yes, service center assume it was rooted because of the status and they said can't do anything different because just follow Samsung instructions that didn't report that it can happen with Sds and to complete the comedy Samsung said they need to follow what service center said so also cannot do anything. I am still trying. But there is more if I decide to pay to fix, no guarantee they will use 0xf7 because there is no official problem with Oxf1 and to complete my carrier has no 4.1.2 so they will update with the fantastic 4.1.1 (maybe 4.0.4 if I asked). By now service center will ask to Samsung to fix by courtesy (which has a huge probability of be denied).
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
It's a catch-22:

The service center is supposed to go by what Samsung says for situations like SDS (Samsung is supposed to update service centers on findings such as this), but Samsung has to listen to the service center because they have no way to look at your phone directly, and so they'd rather assume the service center is correct in saying that your device was tampered with.

I say make a big deal out of it. Talk to Samsung. Tell them you will never buy another Samsung device again and that you're going to the press and various websites to tell them about how you're being treated. And you're going to tell all your friends and family to just buy from other companies.
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
... Including apple!
[Galaxy S III General] nikki702:
I just spoke to the repair centre, my phone has been repaired they said the main board has been changed and its on the way back to me. I just hope it dont die again :)
[Galaxy S III General] silentwitness1:
i have a query my phone is currently on 4.1.2 and its been hanging a lot(SDS fix) for the last few days i have sent it to the repair center and they have not managed to do anything all they keep doing is re flashing 4.1.2 and giving it back to me. So if i were to take it and flash 4.1.1 would the phone die due to SDS?
[Galaxy S III General] louca:
This is a very good question. I'm in the same situation. Now I want that my smartphone die, so I can take it to repair center and have what I need. I flash 4.1.1 firmware, what I have to do to have "sudden death"?
[Galaxy S III General] camil:
you'll just have to wait :)
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
I think YES!

I know 3 cases where people did a downgrade cause the freezings in 4.1.2.

All 3 phones "died" within a week, one of them died within 30 minutes.

2 cases are reported here in this thread.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] Aero_med:
That's what I did and it died within 4 days.

It will work smoothly till its death though..

Good luck to us all, never buying Samsung again.