yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] clintyboy12:
Wish I had checked here...

Hi all

My SGS3 died completely back in Oct... I left on charge over night (as usual) and even though thru the night I saw the blue LED flashing when I awoke in the morning and tried to power on it was completely unresponsive and the base was really hot (by the home key and charge point).

Rather than go through Vodafone I contacted Samsung UK directly - they gave me details of a 'local' service centre (Mitcham) who would be able to fix it. As I had accidentally cracked the screen just a couple months prior to that I was confused why they would send me to a different service centre but I guess there are different levels of service centre. The one I used for the screen repair must have been for minor repairs and chargeable work. The one I used in Mitcham obviously did a lot of TV work as well as mobiles and had more engineers available on site.

Anyway I took it in and was hoping for a quick turnaround like I had with the screen repair (same day!) but no such luck. After the engineer trying with a different battery and charger he said that it was dead and needed to go back to Airnovo - the central Samsung service centre I would presume.

Well after being there over a week (I am sure the guy forgot about it as I called in 4 days as requested and was told it was still not back!) I chase down Airnovo and find out that they won't fix it because there was evidence it had been opened by a non-Samsung service centre!!! :mad:

After several phone calls to Samsung UK (who were superb actually) I got my point across that I had only ever taken to a Samsung certified service centre. They sent through the pre-paid envelope and I returned it. During this time we were due to move house. I told the Samsung service centre but really expected my phone to go to my old house and / or go missing. I should NOT have worried - the phone turned up on my first day in our new house, as good as new, even with the same plastic screen protector (although the corner had been peeled back so wasn't on properly, minor gripe ;) )

Good luck to those that have this issue. Highly recommend a chat with Samsung tech support, I am sure they must be getting used to dealing with these issues by now (esp judging by the length of this thread!)

Here are the details for my device:

SGS3 bought early June 2012.

FW rev: 1.3 (can't remember what it was before)

ROM - stock

Model# GT-i9300

Kernel Ver: 3.0.31-672976
[Galaxy S III General] optimusPRIME:
I think ; in your case some emmc partitions are corrupted,exept recovery.

And that's why u r able to boot in recovery but emmc unable to mount corrupted partitions..
[Galaxy S III General] badelie:
Hi,

I'm wondering if mine is a sudden death case. I bought my S3 (I9300) in August 2012. Always updated to the latest firmware, even earlier than UK firmwares were out and currently on the latest 4.3 stock firmware. Rooted (cf-auto) with stock recovery and kernel. Used it continuously for 2 years and again for the past few weeks as my new phone was stolen. It was on and working yesterday, left it at home for around 8 hours and it is dead now. No response to connecting the charger or trying to turn it on. It has a power button issue, so it went into a bootloop just before I was leaving. I sorted it out and allowed it to boot normally before I left.

From what I read sudden death shouldn't happen with this firmware? Or are there any developments on that? It is clearly out of warranty and I don't care for a wiped phone. The data can be useful but I suspect it is lost?

Thanks for your insight and help.
[Galaxy S III General] Instable_Fox:
sudden death

Hey,

so here's my problem:

It suddenly went off.

When i try to boot it, it only shows the white "Samsung Galaxy s III" logo.

Can boot into recovery and into download mode.

Tried already to wipe cache and dalvik cache.

Also when it's off and i plug it in it shows the battery load/search but not the loading icon.

Any ideas how to save it?
[Galaxy S III General] miniminus:
ive got a similar S3 here...

will go into download mode, and recovery mode, so can/have delete cache, parition, and delvik, and tried diferent/basic roms, which seems to install with no errors...

but boots up to the Samsung animated logo, and stays there !

what else could i try ? is there a way of formatting/reflashing boot-loaders, or the other partitions ??

anyhelp would be great ....
[Galaxy S III General] optimusPRIME:
Google it "i9300 PIT File"

Flash it in Odin under Bootloader Tab...

Mate...do some search on google how to flash it in Odin..

Hope you a good luck..
[Galaxy S III General] tetakpatak:
[MENTION=4506008]miniminus[/MENTION] if you flash only the PIT file like this guy wrote you, your phone will be dead forever.

tetakpatalked from 1+One
[Galaxy S III General] miniminus:
i did have a good search around, an found this thread

http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s3/help/solved-pit-bricked-dead-problem-gt-t2535367/page10

an as you can read, i did a ful format, and re-install of "factory" files ...

of which it has altered some things, dont get as many error about files/locations.

but am still having "error cannot mount /efs"

which KaosMaster suggests is a EFS partition error/curruption, that can only be done via a proper box/lead :(

here http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=61716165&postcount=95

cheers for any help thou ! .. MIck ...
[Galaxy S III General] Gantoz:
I have a S3 GT-I9300 that might be experiencing the sudden death syndrome.

it happen just a hour ago, everything was running normal, battery is 80% charged, then all of a sudden it turn off on its own.

i have try all kinds of permutation of turning the device back on, but it won't power.

i try plugging it to a computer via usb and still won't power on.

Took battery out press the power button to discharge all power in the phone, waited 10 mins, plug it back in, and still won't turn on.

Anyone can verified whether it is the sudden death syndrome, and is there any way to revive the phone?
[Galaxy S III General] Beneter:
Fix SDS Reboots with TRIM

Hi all,

I have a i9300 with insane chip (SDS - Sudden Death Syndrome). When doing a clean install of a new ROM I always had random freezes or reboots. I have always provoked them with DFG (Dummy File Generator). And after running it a few times, I never (or only a long time after) had issues. The DFG workaround always seemed to work for me.

But not this time....

Environment:

Samsung Galaxy S3 International (i9300) with insane Chip (SDS)

Wiped -> Flashed three-parted Stock ROM with PIT in Odin 3 -> CF Auto-Root -> Flash TWRP 2.8.6.1 -> Wipe everything -> Clean Flash

ROM: BlissPop-v3.6-i9300-OFFICIAL-20150714-1120 (Reported as 1031 under about the phone)

Kernel: boeffla-kernel-4.0-alpha7-CM12.1-NG-i9300 (With MGH CM12 INTELLIACTIVE V3 Profile)

Symptoms:

When running DFG, at some point the phone suddenly reboots (without shutting down). Sometimes it was hung in a bootloop afterwards (i exited after letting it loop about 6h). Sometimes it rebuilds the cache on startup (Optimizing App 1 from 100...). I considered everything of this as normal behavior when having the SDS.

The strange thing this time was: I normally had to run DFG for three or four times and had a stable system afterwards. This time (yesterday) the phone rebooted randomly every time on each and every run. I tried over 30 times and never got a stable system. Sometimes it crashed at 30 %, sometimes at 100 %, then again at 15 %. Totally random.

Thinking this was odd, I googled a lot and found nothing specific. Until I had the idea...

Idea:

What if deleting the DFG File after the reboot doesn't work as expected? What if the storage cells get scrambled by over provisioning and somehow the one bad cell is used again and again and can't be masked as bad by the kernel, because it has to be used somehow...

Solution:

After running DFG, letting it reboot and deleting the File (by Settings -> Apps -> Dummy File Generator -> Delete Data) I ran the TRIM command with Trimmer (fstrim).

When I run DFG afterwards it runs all the way through until the last bit and then suddenly reboots. So I guess the kernel uses the bad cell as last resort. IT ****ING WORKS FINALLY! :D

To verify my success I repeated the Cycle (DFG -> Reboot -> Delete -> TRIM -> DFG) three times. My phone only reboots when writing the very last available bit.

So I really hope this helps you if DFG doesn't work as expected, like with my phone.

tl;dr

When Dummy File Generator (DFG) does not seem to help you do:

Run Dummy File Generator -> Generate(FULL) on internal memory

After finished or reboot, delete Data at Settings -> Apps -> Dummy File Generator -> Delete Data

Run TRIM command with Trimmer (fstrim)

Repeat until your Phone only freezes / reboots when DFG filled nearly 100 %

Enjoy your stable ROM

Greets

Beneter
[Galaxy S III General] -zalo:
thanks, very useful information!!!
[Galaxy S III General] HighFlyerPL185:
So what you are saying is that the first post solution is a security measure against SDS, and once it happens, no software/kernel updates will bring it alive?

My device seems to charge/power up but only via recovery mode and through PC USB. It won't charge in the socket. eMMC app says that I have an insane chip.
[Galaxy S III General] dria:
Hi

I got motherboard replaced on my note 2

Am I safe now from SDS?
[Galaxy S III General] Davidzior:
Hello.

I too have a problem with the sudden death sundrome. I have given away my phone to a service, where they performed a clean install of an 4.3 Android. After about two months the problem has returned. It looks like this: after hitting the function button on the right side of the phone id reacts as it would be pressed and held (shows reboot/turn off menu). Something like this sometimes also happens after pressing the HOME button.

Reboots are random or sometimes they being triggered by plugging/unplugging a charger or a headphones. Reboot looks like regular SDS- SAMSUNG logo->offline->Samsung logo->offline and it goes like that sometimes for a couple minutes.

Ps. Sorry for my bad English- I'm from Poland.

Cheers.
[Galaxy S III General] Android_Vzla_01:
Please... help... My I9300 Death after a white screen with points...

I read solutions in which Odin is used, but if the phone does not start, how to proceed?....

Replace the eMMC necessary, mandatory and only solution?

Thks...
[Galaxy S III General] greglarson:
Amazing talk on this issue at 34C3!

If you are interested in GS3 and eMMC hacking you will love this talk.

Oran Avraham gives great history, explanations and hacking details on this problem.

Talk: 34C3 - eMMC hacking, or: how I fixed long-dead Galaxy S3 phones.

https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-8784-emmc_hacking_or_how_i_fixed_long-dead_galaxy_s3_phones

Original youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrsJvlij6V4

Improved audio link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY7OlY0OW2Q
[Galaxy S III General] .NetRolller 3D:
Rather late in the game, but I have had a look at some eMMC firmware images for the chips commonly found in S3s.

KLMAG4FE4B-B002 (MAG4FB, commonly found in I9305) and KMVTU000LM-B503 (the infamous VTU00M) share the same firmware! MAG4FB 0xFC and VTU00M 0xFC differ only by the last 16 bytes of the firmware image, and MAG4FB 0xF7 is binary identical to VTU00M 0xF7.

So, MAG4FB 0xF1 is likely vulnerable to SDS! (assuming it even exists - I've only ever seen 0xF7 and 0xFC, but some people on other forums are reporting 0xF1)
[Galaxy S III General] aldrin3010:
Do you mind sharing the 0xf1 firmware? I followed the guide and the firmware I pulled from my phone has a different checksum than the sample checksums provided in the guide.
[Galaxy S III General] saadxe:
Not in my case, totally random and unexpected.
[Galaxy S III General] 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
[Galaxy S III General] iArmghan:
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
[Galaxy S III General] ph512:
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.
[Galaxy S III General] 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..
[Galaxy S III General] iArmghan:
Ok Got It Now :)

Isn't this thread is the scariest one :P and the one your mama told to stay away from hehehe :P I actually get this kind of feeling when ever i see this thread :D
[Galaxy S III General] 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?
[Galaxy S III General] UncleBeer:
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.
[Galaxy S III General] 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.
[Galaxy S III General] 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)
[Galaxy S III General] UncleBeer:
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.
[Galaxy S III General] 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 :(
[Galaxy S III General] 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?
[Galaxy S III General] spamtrash:
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 ----------

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?
[Galaxy S III General] UncleBeer:
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.
[Galaxy S III General] spamtrash:
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:D 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.
[Galaxy S III General] UncleBeer:
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. :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S III General] sachilleas:
So, all the cases of sudden death have to do with overnight charging?
[Galaxy S III General] ph512:
No, not in all cases. One of mine was on charge, the other wasn't
[Galaxy S III General] justruss:
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?
[Galaxy S III General] Nees3:
There are not 10 million users on this forum that own that device. But a big amount of tweakers is here, an their devices die.

Many other that don't even know what root is, just go to the store "sir, it does nothing, i dont know what is wrong", then get it repaired and move on...

There are cases in france, tailand, spain... and when SamsungUK tells a caller that HE already had a few lately, wonder what the other people working at that call center have had that he didnt know of and all have the same issue... just die in a timeframe of less then 6 months. Other vendors have also said they have had cases. So globally, there will be more and more that we don't know of...

Every day people tell their device is dead, just like that.
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
If this turns out to be an epidemic then I can probably hope for some refund of my 140 usd which I was forced to pay in India as the svc center unilaterally decided it was a case of water logging.