yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] Schorse2008:
Is this a half-death / brick?

Hello,

one month ago my Blue 16GB Version restarted and since hangs on the I9300 Screen. There is a TWRP and Omega Rom on it. (probably a Version pre the Fix...)

I tried to reflash the rom but the recovery could not access the System Partition. Tried to format it, did not work, did not work for any partition. I then tried to flash with Odin, 1 Part Rom and 3 Part, but still nothing. Unfortunate I cant tell the exact error, but the S3 was recognized (no driver issue) but it also could not access the partition needed.

I then was sure it was the Sudden-Death symptom and sent it in. They are refusing to repair it b/c of the non original Samsung Software.

It is still at the repairfirm and i have to decied if i want to spend 220€ to fix it (I'm in Germany).

I then read about the Half-Death, since I can still get into Recovery and Download mode! But I read that with the half death it does not show the Model Name in the Download mode, now in my case it is still there (see Picture)! Have I been so stupid to sent it in when only I'm to dumb to operate Odin correctly? But still there are the messages with the write error to the Partitions, I'm just not sure...

I'm sorry that I can't give more exact info on the error in Odin since I don't have the phone here now. Should I just let it be sent back to me and try again? Thanks for any advice!!
[Galaxy S III General] yahyoh:
u r with half dead device which sucks :(:(
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
Can you elaborate any? I'm not sure I'm following what you're saying
[Galaxy S III General] aalvico:
@schorse2008 with a half death you can't flash anything by computer ... It doesnt recognize phone anymore. ..

maybe your phone was not really dead but not sure is possible to solve... Well if you have time you could try a data reset with cmw then try to flash the Rom with Odin (or support on bricked phones forums and Odin fully instructions) ... I would try before pay
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
I think if you had Sudden death or even half sudden death you could only get into download mode NOT Recovery and if it were truly a SDS Case it would NOT show your device name.... Maybe you bricked it some other way
[Galaxy S III General] sandwich888:
reset flash counter

Hi!

I have been struggling with the sudden death issue for like three weeks, and now this problem has become unbearable so I want to take my phone to service (I'm in Mexico and my carrier is Telcel) but when I'm in download mode my phone displays the following data:

Odin mode

Product name: Gt-i9300

Custom binary Download: yes (1 counts)

Current Binary: Samsung Official

System status: Official

im afraid that if i take it to service, they may tell me that my warranty is no longer vaild (because of the flash counter) , so I want to root my phone and reset the counter but I'm afraid that in the middle of the root-unroot process it may happen another incident of sudden death and this could brick my S3 , what would you do?

:rolleyes:
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
In a half sudden death case if you can access download mode it would look like the phone had been rooted anyway if it were me I would root and use Triangle away and make everything official and make sure you read everything ROOTSU has put in the 1st post because as of now if anything is wrong with your phone besides SDS your binary counter is tripped

---------- Post added at 04:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:22 PM ----------

@sandwich888 what SDS problems are you dealing with?
[Galaxy S III General] sandwich888:
SDS problems

Thanks for your quick answer! my S3 resets and freezes randomly, this happens while the phone is locked and also when im using it for daily activities (facebook, whatsapp, etc...), when this happens I reset the phone holding the power button for like 10 seconds but it can become really annoying (today I was using google navigation and i ended up lost because the phone froze and i had to wait for it to reset) :( thats why im reallly considering to take it to service :S
[Galaxy S III General] brendanvista:
I'm on my third brand new galaxy s3 that has hard bricked itself, without my doing anything. I'm really sick of sending this thing back. I noted that the international version has a jtag/unbrickle-like fix, where you short out a resistor, and then it flashes a bootloader off the sd card. But that won't work for the US (cdma) version. Does anyone have any other things to try before I send it in yet again?
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
Well your warranty is already voided for having a 1 next to binary count so if you want to take it in it might be a good idea to root run TA and the unroot IMHO
[Galaxy S III General] sandwich888:
i'm going to reset the counter

thanks, i think thats my only option, i'll let you know how that went, wish me luck!! :good:
[Galaxy S III General] theslashy:
Since yesterday my S3 powered down 3 times with black screen and only blue led flashing...

i was an Android REvolution HD 22.4, now going back to stock....just to be prepared^^
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Did it actually power down? Did you see the shut down animation? Only it sounds more like black crush / unable to wake screen than sds
[Galaxy S III General] Wazaa89:
SDS

Hi,

I have been watching this thread since 20/02/2013. That was the day my International SIII 16G version did not woke up when i pressed the power button that morning after charging. I bought my Phone 27/09/2012 so that makes it 147 days before he broke. I was running MIUI v3.22 based on JB 4.1.2. and tried a few different roms before.

The led was blinking blue because i had received a message or whatever and he was feeling A LOT warmer then usually. But i did not get it to wake up.

I decided to pull the battery and reboot. Guess what? That did not do the trick. I thought that maybe my battery was broken and tried a different power supply and a different wall socket, nothing helped. I tried to boot in download, recovery and normal mode but nothing worked.

Had to gave it up an go to work without phone. The next day i went to return it to the shop and they sent it to a service center where it is being analyzed and hopefully repaired.

I was wondering if i couldn't boot the phone in any mode possible would the service center be possible to see if the phone was rooted and had custom software running on it? Because nothing was working anymore.

Many people on this threat say they have a SIII with SDS but they are still able to boot in download or recovery but if i understand it correctly my phone is suffering from a complete SDS. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for your answer(s).
[Galaxy S III General] theslashy:
nope, no shut down animation, just went black and blinking blue led

then i had to press power and menu button very long to restart
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
Yours does sound like a full SDS if you tried the 3 button combo for download mode and couldn't get it then there will be no way to know if the phone was rooted
[Galaxy S III General] sale52:
Just wondering would the upgrade paperwork do if in case you need to repair your phone or do you need to have the receipt?
[Galaxy S III General] lockmunk:
dont need to bring the receipt or warranty card..s3 launched less than a year..so every s3 phone should have warranty...
[Galaxy S III General] offgrey:
It depends on how/where you bought the phone though. In my country, the Philippines, the manufacturers (any of them) won't accept a phone that doesn't have an NTC sticker (National Telecommunications Commission) because that means that the phone didn't pay for the proper taxes i.e., it's a gray market phone. People still go for gray market phones because they're a hella lot cheaper than getting it with local warranty.
[Galaxy S III General] kronnos:
Another case of sudden death.

My friend's blue s3 died on him 2 days ago. He went to an electrician an verified the battery and phones connectors with he battery and all was ok. He send it to warranty to change the motherboard.

His was 4 moths old, both from the release date here and it was pure stock.

I don't know other datasheet about the device since is not mine, but I thing is better to bring you another sad experience in this sad thread. .

Is outrageous that Samsung does not make something about this, but is probably a calculated risk in loosing market confidence instead of creating a worldwide panic in recognizing that the S3 has a ticking bomb inside.

All the best,
[Galaxy S III General] NorthernNoel:
Rung it into Samsung this morning. I had an option of taking it to a service centre 18 miles away but as they probably won't be able to do anything with it I've said I'll send it in. They were pretty good on the phone, estimated to take 7-10 working days but just waiting for the jiffy bag to post it in.

At the moment I've got my wife's old HTC Wildfire. Makes you appreciate how much tech has moved on. It was unusable in stock state, installed CM7 and overclocked to cope with the basics. I'll never complain about lag on my S3 again :p
[Galaxy S III General] Dubhghaill:
My story so far:

Contacted CPW online (where I bought it) and they told me to take it to my local store.

I went to my local CPW store and they said they could get it sent for repairs but it would take up to 28 working days and the replacement phone would be one that can only make calls (no email or internet) so that was no good for me. They told me to visit a bigger CPW store because they have better replacement phones

I took it to a bigger CPW store (Stratford Westfield) and they told me that they have no replacement phones and I have to call Samsung directly if I want it quicker than 28 working days. Apparently it takes 5 working days and they send you everything you need.

I phoned Samsung and they said I had to take the phone to a service centre and that the phone will just need a flash to be fixed, which should take an hour. This is obviously bollocks because the phone is completely knackered. It will be a bit awkward because there are none near work so I will probably have to take time off work.

So now I'm using my old broken HTC Desire which doesn't have a working USB socket. Yay.
[Galaxy S III General] cyberdroxxx:
Mine freeze after I responded to a push message from ad carrier to download something.

Nothing happened when I pressed all buttons and touch screen. Pulled the battery out and reboot.

After reboot the home screen freeze and all buttons and screen did not respond.

Tried a few more remove battery reboot cycle but still got no luck.

Luckily mine can get into download mode and volume up button working in download mode.

I downloaded stock fw from sammobile for my region and reflash with Odin after doing cleaning wipe.

Everything is working well now. All buttons and screen respond well.

Of course I lost all my apps and data because I did not have a valid backup.

I am just curious!

Could it be because of the Enyxos exploit http://www.xda-developers.com/android/no-odin-root-exploit-found-for-exynos-4412-and-4210/ that samsung is or was not aware of.

Using it as "A tool" used to sell more new release models like the current Galaxy Note 2.
[Galaxy S III General] whitebait:
If you're stuck in a bootloop and can get into download mode, check if the product name is blank (further details on what you'll see on that screen further up the thread). If it is, it's knackered and will need to be sent off. Call Samsung back and tell 'em the repair centre says it's a hardware issue. They'll raise a ticket, get a jiffy bag sent out to you and you can post it off to them. They didn't ask me for any reference number or anything from the repair centre.

That's what I'd do anyway :)
[Galaxy S III General] Williz:
What happened: Left phone on charge overnight whilst I slept as usual. Woke up in the morning around 7:20am and the phone worked fine. Went back to sleep and woke up around 12 (noon). Phone's led for charging was on but it was unresponsive. Did a battery re-insert to fix it and the phone wouldn't charge nor turn on after that.

What ROM/Firmware: Ultima 6.0

What kernel:Siyah 1.8

OC or UV: None

Where phone was made: Unsure

Where battery was made:Unsure
[Galaxy S III General] naireh:
My death S3 is not rooted stock JB 4.1.1

(161days old)

July 7th - December 14th

Spain
[Galaxy S III General] jmsant:
Mine died overnight. Woke up this morning at 10 since my S3 is my only alarm. Thanks Samsung, lost quite a bit of money this morning.

Unlocked white i9300 bought on June. CM10.1.
[Galaxy S III General] igruberger:
Mine died yesterday in the afternoon. I was playing F-Sim with my son and left the phone on a table afterwards. When I picked it up to use again... nothing!... It was dead! I tried to put it in download mode, hard reset, remove the battery, charge it, replace the battery by another... nothing worked. Since I bought it in Vivo Store (Brazilian Carrier), I went to their store, hoping they could replace the phone by another. They only do it one week after purchase, no exceptions. They suggested a visit to Samsung Service Center. To make things worse, seems that Samsung tech support in Brazil (where I live) treats everything different from other places... I had to leave my phone in a service center, so they can evaluate what repair they will perform. Basically no chance of receiving a new one instead. I bought a premium phone in order to have a f*** repaired phone to live with...

What ROM/Firmware: Vivo stock ROM - JB (upgraded online one month ago)

What kernel:Siyah Vivo stock kernel

OC or UV: None

Where phone was made: Brazil

Where battery was made:China (assembled in Korea)
[Galaxy S III General] Paulb_:
Well one benefit of having my Samsung under reapair for Sudden Death Syndrome is that I am currently not affected by the root exploit on my old Desire.
[Galaxy S III General] NorthernNoel:
I miss my old Desire now. Wish I hadn't sold it as it would have made a better backup phone than the Wildfire I'm currently using. Ironically my Desire went for warranty repair last Christmas, don't know what I'm doing to them!

One thing I noticed about the S3 was that I was having problems with audio cutting out for a few weeks up to it dying. I'd put it down to something not right in the JB update and had been putting off a wipe. I'm now beginning to wonder if it was actually a warning to the fact it was dying?
[Galaxy S III General] t_a_x_2:
I was scared yesterday, it keep having forced closed on touch wiz, had to make a factory reset on the phone to have it working again.

i9300

wanamlite 4.1.2 deodexed stock but rooted
[Galaxy S III General] corb06:
Seems to be purely hardware related. Since its always mother boards being replaced.

I wonder how many phones that breaks each day? They sold 30M, but maybe 1 million is broken?
[Galaxy S III General] Criminal23:
Not in detail. They wrote "changed faulty parts"

I think they changed mainboard.

(Wondering a little bit, because imei and mac adress are the same as before the sudden death)

I think that the prob is a samsung home made hardware problem. Bought my S3 in July.

So its absolute uninteresting if somebody flashed a nother firmware or sthng. Firmware is not the prob!

So nobody should pay for repair!

Criminal23
[Galaxy S III General] tommy2601:
From past 1 weeks my phone is showing all signs of imminent death frequently my screen is going blank not responding to any buttons battery pull out Is the only solutIon...so today I unrooted it and installed stock firmware for my country and I am waiting for my phone to die on me...it's really petty that we have to live under constant threat of its extinction after paying a premium price for it.
[Galaxy S III General] b0gd4n:
Is there a way of finding out the MoBo revision number?
[Galaxy S III General] Ohamn:
Update.....

Today I went on my 100 mile trip to my "nearest" service station and handled in my precious.

Unfortunately the designated service center was not a dedicated phone service station but a "general" electrics one.

The really helpful guy even tried to get in recovery mode to no avail.

(I had to show him how it's done on the S3!!! ;) )

But it only could be put in download mode, just like when i tried a thousand times at home.

They could not give me an estimation of how long the repair will take.

"Don't expect anything before Christmas!!" :silly:

Well, the phone is where it's supposed to be and I just have to wait!

I'm using my old HTC Diamond 2 at the moment and it's ****ing ridiculous how bad that phone is.

I really loved that phone "Back in the days", but now it sucks sweaty balls!!

I WANT MY S3 BACK!!!! :laugh:

Will keep you posted guys and dolls!

// Joacim
[Galaxy S III General] Wazaa89:
That was one of the first things i tried, booting it in download or recovery. It even did not respond to plugging it into the wall. No led, nothing.

Even if they hook it up to some sort of computer or take it apart and test the parts seperatly?

Your response is getting my hopes up on getting a full MotherBoard replacement and hopefully with a sane chip. Sure hoping to get it back soon. Life without a smarthphone is not easy.
[Galaxy S III General] rajataghi:
The questions helped me too. :P
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
This is not sds or half sds. Does not mean it isn't symptom but we don't know for sure. Things like this always worth return to stock to monitor
[Galaxy S III General] yours.genesys:
@wazaa89,

My s3 16g died exactly the same way. It was bought on 28.6.2012, died 15.01.2013. I came back in the evening at plugged it in to charge (standard wall charger, not a pc). About an hour later I saw the led flash blue, probably because of an email. I tried to turn it on but it wouldn't respond. I took the battery out and that was it. After it would not turn on, no download mode. Dead as a dodo. Since it was bought in Vienna, the repair centre in my country didn't accept the warranty and wanted to charge me ~230€ to replace the motherboard. So I took it back to Vienna. The nice folks at samsung service plaza in Praterstrasse replaced the MB for free. I now have 0xf7...
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
If it were True sudden death like mine you're phone would have no power. No nothing. Death is death, lol.
[Galaxy S III General] htnprm:
A quick note on my SGS3 SDS experience.

I purchased a SGS3 second hand (Auction) in New Zealand in July last year. The seller spun me a story about how the receipt had personally identifiable information so they didn't want to give me a copy of the receipt. Seemed plausible if unlikely, but it would appear the phone was probably part of a scam where sellers will sign up for a contract with fake ID thereby getting a 'free' phone, sell the phone and reneg on the contract. I've not been able to get hold of the seller.

So my SGS3 experienced the typical SDS about a week ago. Fine one day. Left charging. Found it in the morning with the blue indicator light on, but unresponsive to power button. All typical SDS.

I tried to check on a warranty repair at the store the one was 'apparently' bought from, based on the price sticker on the box. However the IMEI on the box does not match the IMEI on the phone, so I'm screwed.

I contacted Samsung to see if there was any leeway in their policy around a receipt for a warranty repair, and when I mentioned SDS, the Samsung guy practically started screaming at me:

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SDS! THIS IS NOT A KNOWN/ACKNOWLEDGED MANUFACTURED FAULT. RUMOURS/SPECULATION ON INTERNET SITES DOES NOT EQUAL A KNOWN/ACKNOWLEDGED MANUFACTURED FAULT!!!1111!!ONEONEONE!!!!"

...He also went off spinning how software updates come from Google, not Samsung, and tried splitting hairs around major revision updates and point releases and who originated the updates. I didn't buy it. He was basically trying to fob me off. He also went in to detail how they are under no obligation to do anything at all, as their warranties are by country and without a receipt they could not prove that the unit was purchased in NZ. Basically I believe Samsung staff have a directive to:

1) Not acknowledge anything

2) Service devices covered by warranty

...and that's it. My options at this stage include:

1) An out of warranty repair most likely costing NZ$367 to replace the main board

2) Try to find someone selling a main board or device with a cracked/broken screen for less than $367 and repair it myself

3) Decide if I really want to spend any money on a device I'll have no warrant on or whether I go for a Nexus 4.

...So lesson learned is, if you buy and expensive item and want a warranty, don't do it unless you get a receipt.
[Galaxy S III General] droidchoice:
Root = no warranty ??

:( :mad: My SGH-!747MBC bought in early August was stock and rooted.It was on charger, turned off. It would not boot.No powering on into any recovery, not recognized by any computer. I swapped cables, chargers .Nothing worked .The dealer also verified nothing would work as well.I paid $30 to send it to Samsung Repair Center here in Canada. So today after having the phone for 2 weeks they finally sent me a response and update.

:mad: They are saying "UNAUTHORIZED SW MODIFICATION(PHONE ROOTED)''MAINBOARD DAMAGE ", $30 ASSESSMENT FEE IS APPLICABLE IF NO RESPONSE OR DECLINED ESTIMATE. " Otherwise they want me to pay $395.50 to have it repaired !.

How is it possible to determine root if the phone will not power on ? My current plan is to pay for the return, then try to power the phone on .If it doesn't power up I may ask the local Bell Rep to see if he can get it fixed under warranty.A problem I may see is Samsung has all my account info as they requested it for warranty verification.If he can or will not fix the situation, I'm considering a court case against since the hardware is faulty.

Aside from the criticism of the mistakes I've made, any suggestions or ideas what my future plan should be ?

Thank you for any and all help.

---------------------------------------

UPDATE/B]

This morning Samsung called me. In broken English-French the script jockey told me that I had the same 2 options as the above email.She said the root had broke the mainboard. She read everything word for word from the previous email.She could not explain how software had broke the mainboard.

I'm considering have the phone sent to me as is after paying the service charge for examination. It would be cheaper now to buy Galaxy Nexus 4 unlocked than pay for the repairs.

This will be my last Samsung product ever.
[Galaxy S III General] htnprm:
@Droidchoice

I guess the challenge you face is, what are Canada's laws around subjects like rooting. You'll note in Europe it has been said phones will be serviced whether rooted in not. If I understand correctly (Not sure if it is now or soon will be) it is illegal to root phones in the US where it was previously legal. So probably important to understand Canada's laws around rooting phones and warranties, the details of the warranty itself. If you have a copy of the warranty and it says "Void if you modify the software" or something, you're probably screwed.

As for how they know its rooted, you're probably in a tough spot. You could probably say "Show me proof that it is rooted" and they would probably say "We don't have to show you. Now pay up if you want it fixed". New Zealand we have relatively strong consumer protection laws, and in theory if Samsung said it was rooted and wouldn't honour the warranty and wouldn't prove it is rooted, I could probably take them to a disputes tribunal or something like that. But yeah, not sure what your options are there.
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
Well I bought a Nexus 4 last week to use while my S 3 is in England hopefully getting repaired and I gotta say I think when I so get the S3 back I may just sell it. This Nex4 is simply awesome.
[Galaxy S III General] htnprm:
The decision would probably be a lot easier if the Nexus 4 had removable storage. The local 16GB of storage on my S3 is full of video and photos and I have a 32GB microSDHC card full of music. Will have to pair that down to fit on a Nexus 4.
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
My fix for that is 500GB free on box and 5GB free on dropbox for my photos and 250 GB free on Amazon cloud for my music