yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] sgsboyo:
I have sent them an email tonight as follows:

<<Although I have already phoned yourselves regarding this issue and given the go ahead to fix the phone (with me paying for the repair), I have now decided that I intend to seek legal advice on my consumer rights because under the European Guidance I believe my phone IS covered by warranty. My phone, although rooted, was running Stock Samsung Firmware (no modifications, other than the root) and as such should have performed satisfactorily. The root was only in there as a means of backing up via a Google Play Store app (titanium backup) which gives better backup possibilities than Samsung's Kies software (which is dreadful). The phone was not modified in any other way. But it wasn't performing satisfactorily. It was crashing (i.e. freezing) every time I used it.

But I am aware that this was not unusual to just my device. I have read in online forums of other people with the same problem - often in the run up to their phones suffering from a term commonly known as "Sudden Death Syndrome". Because I was fearful that that was what was going to happen to my phone too, I decided to contact Samsung as soon as I possibly could after my phone started showing signs of this problem in order to get it fixed BEFORE it actually died. The alternative option was for me to continue using the phone until it did actually die (in which case you wouldn't have been able to tell it had been rooted anyway).

As far as I am concerned, it makes no difference that the phone was rooted, it is up to you to prove that having it rooted caused the problems that I was seeing (and since other folk have complained of the same problem with no root on their phones, I'm certain that the root WASN'T the cause of the problem). Since the software that was running in the phone is Official Samsung firmware it should have been operating as it was meant to do.

I am very disappointed that you have taken this stand when I am aware that countless of the first Galaxy S3 devices that were sold last May/June have died due to faulty hardware. I have been an avid user and recommender of your high-end Galaxy S phones (Galaxy S, S2 and S3) but this whole situation has left a very sour taste in my mouth :( >>

I have also sent a detailed email to teh FSFE people here in the UK asking them if they can give me any help with this...

Hopefully it'll turn out satisfactorily (although I'm not really that optimistic).
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
Sounds like a good email hopefully they will read it and change their minds it seems its Samsung fault this is happening to a $600 plus phone and they are concerned about charging you MORE $$$$

Galaxy S3

Omega Rom V37
[Galaxy S III General] Kangburra:
I know that printer manufacturers do not refuse warranty if the printer has been damaged by third party ink as it is very costly to legally prove it was only the ink that caused the problem.

I think Samsung would find it very difficult to prove rooting the phone caused the problem, legally you should get a warranty repair.
[Galaxy S III General] alexsmith2709:
I work in the ink refilling business and as with any company, they try and blame someone else first and if the consumer gives in, great they get your money and win, its only when the consumer fights back they have to give in and repair the problem as they should. ( I actually have a copy of a letter from HP somewhere explaining the refill/remanufacture of inks and toners does not void their warranty).

I believe this to be the case with Samsung. Why spend their own money on a repair when they can fool an unknowing consumer into paying for it.
[Galaxy S III General] chrizhaynes:
mine did an hour after updating to xella but it had been crashing and freezing alot 3-4 weeks prior. people say nand chip was probally already damaged to much for the fix to work. well i hope so and it is a good fix. they did.nt do a board change they gave me a new one.
[Galaxy S III General] owl74:
well that is an excellent letter and I hope they change their mind about the repair.

But do you mind telling us where you sent the phone for repair?

cheers
[Galaxy S III General] sgsboyo:
I sent it to Intercity Mobile Communications Ltd in Birmingham (UK) as that's where I was told to send it to (phoned Samsung and they arranged for the repair to be authorised and sent me an addressed jiffy bag to send it in).
[Galaxy S III General] Cdjones187:
Have had my 9300 since middle of june. Still kicking. Has anyone thought of comparing the revision # that is located on the back of the battery cover?

Will read something like "GI9300 2ND V3 >PC< #2-1"
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
Mines same except last part is #20-1. Even if u bought it in June is still from initial batch. Don't know about your usage of device over the last6 months. Mine was from May and died in Dec so just don't get your hopes up yet.
[Galaxy S III General] ajobbins:
Took my phone in to the Samsung service centre here in Melbourne today. They reckon they have never seen this issue before..... *cough*yeah right*cough*
[Galaxy S III General] SiriusCybernetik:
Great letter, very well structured and formulated. I hope this will inspire others who may not be that much at ease at writing letters of complaint.
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
I think yours is good advice, after reading your post I did some reading in N$ threads and there are definitely some issues there that make me feel happy I don't have one. As you also say you do get the negative ones that cloud any real issues that arise.

Personally I'm not alarmed about S3 as I know I'll get mine fixed or replaced if it fails so I've done what I can going by this threads and can do no more so not really bothered about it, certainly not over-reacting as others seem to be but thats just me and understand others need to vent to get their anxiety levels down
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
Check out the note 2 India forum - a bunch of happy guys out there! Including me.
[Galaxy S III General] owl74:
thanks

there's another authorised Samsung repair centre here...
[Galaxy S III General] eyezknowz:
how to flash to safe stock

i have sds on my phone with omega v40 rom, yank555 kernel, philz latest touch recovery. how can i flash to a safe rom if download mode isnt safe to use with odin. I have been told i need to flash a stock rom based on xxell or any stock 4.1.2 and that i cant do it with cwm as it doesnt flash bootloader. I have read a lot of threads here and still not clear. can anyone help please. also is triangle away safe to do or mobile odin as phone randomly freezes or reboots. thanks in advance.

from another noob :D
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
You have cross posted on 2 threads the same question and you were given good instructions on Omega thread so follow that and you'll be fine. Read the first post here and follow links as it will answer all your questions
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
Hi

I was running on Omega v38 past few days, and my phone was running great.

Few days back my phone got totally stuck once, but a reboot fixed it.

Today I upgraded to Omega 40, and my phone started to freeze every few mins.

So I megawiped, and reinstalled it.

My phone got frozen in the set up screen itself.

Megawiped and installed Foxhound.it ran great for few minutes and gets frozen every 5-10 mins.

So I mega wiped and reinstalled Omega 38.

Same problem. Even during searching for Titanium backup, the phone got frozen.

By frozen, I mean the screen won't respond or turn off.

Only a reset would solve the issue.

I've also noticed that the phone is getting too hot during it.

Any fix?

Could it be an indication to SDN issue?
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
Did you flash one if the new recoveries as per first post?
[Galaxy S III General] jay_m3:
He said he can get on download mode
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
Triangled Away

Flashed Stock Rom

Still the problem persists.

Even in Safe Mode.

This is ridiculous now.

Phone freezes up in startup half the time :(

Might be a hardware problem..who knows :(
[Galaxy S III General] tommy2601:
People having the same issues as ur on note 2 got it resolved by flashing a rescue firmware thru odin (it contain both the pda and pit tar files should flash it with repartition ticked in odin)

Check the forum if there is any rescue firmware for sg3 and try ur luck with it.
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
This is the issue I'm having :(

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxTHGZh8M8SyUEJ6YTBwQUE3VGs/edit
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Thanked you by accident.

That has nothing to do with SDS. You may have a defective digitizer if it happens on every ROM/kernel.
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
But the power button and capacitive buttons and home button die too.

So it's not digitizer.
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Yes, but the phone itself continues to function. SDS is caused by eMMC corruption and eventual failure. This is signified by complete freezes, reboots, and data corruption and loss. In your video, your devices continues to function even though it's not accepting input.
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
Hmm..you're right.

So you think it's a Hardware fault then?

I'll go and give it to Service Center then,
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Like I said, try flashing another ROM and/or kernel. If that doesn't work, try flashing a stock ROM. If that doesn't work, I think it's safe to say it's a hardware problem. I read of one other person on here with a similar problem who had to take it to a service center.
[Galaxy S III General] flight23:
@Eggmann: How long is that video you are watching in your clip? Cause in a german forum a member got nearly the same issue. His phone freezes like yours e.g. when he is listening to some mp3s, but the music continues to play for some time and then the phones stucks completely.

This member thinks that these kind of freezes are caused by the sds-fix, ehich send the emmc into an endless loop when it hits a kind of corrupt action. He also thinks that the musics keeps playing because some amount of data is still cached in ram or something like this.

Could you please test the following: When your phone starts freezing, wait and watch whats happening: Stops the current activity after a short while? Then please wait a little bit longer (up until 20-25 minutes) and look if your phone starts running by itself again. Thats what we could see here (my S3 has this also), if the phone freezes, it works again after about 10-20 minutes.
[Galaxy S III General] sgsboyo:
Edit: Further update on my situation. Have had no reply from Samsung to the email I sent yesterday so today I phoned them again. They repeated that rooting voids the warranty. I asked if they'd got my email and he said that was a different department that would've got the email and he'd put me through. He eventually came back to me saying that he couldn't get me put through because the line was continuously engaged. He gave me a direct call number then and I said I'd phone them myself. Needless to say every time I tried the number was engaged. Who am I to even know whether it was an actual number that I should be trying to get through or if it's just a number they give out to a line that's permanently "off the hook"?

I'm seriously pissed off with their ****ty customer "service" attitude. But the fact is there's bugger all I can do about it :(

Before I phoned them today I went online and chatted to an O2 guru who I explained the problem to and they've agreed to take the phone in to be checked by their engineers. So I've got to get it sent back to me from Samsung. I never asked the guy at Samsung to send it back to me while I was on the phone to him because I was hoping that I'd be able to speak to whoever got my email from yesterday and get a decent result to the problem.

I'm tempted to just leave it for now and wait for it to be sent back to me again. I have bought myself a GS2 to fill in the void caused by the lack of smartphone in my life (had ordered it BEFORE I got word that they were refusing to fix my S3 under warranty otherwise I might have gone for a different brand of phone!) so I'm not in so much of a hurry to get my S3 back again (except that I want to get it sent to O2). Hopefully O2 will fix it for me anyway when I get it back from the Samsung repair centre. If not, I do not intend letting the matter drop.

Sadly, I haven't had any response from my email to the FSFE folks yet either.

It's just a bit annoying when you feel you've got rights and they are point blankly refusing to acknowledge that. GRRRR!
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
When you do get it back use Triangle away then unroot it and play dumb lol.... But hopefully they fix it first for FREE.... GOOD LUCK

Galaxy S3

Omega Rom V37
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
I've watched an entire episode of TV show (40 mins) like that.

None of the buttons or touch were working, but the video kept playing on.

However even after downgrading to ICS I still have the issue, so I think the damage is permanent.
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
Yup!

My cell is another victim of this syndrome.

As I posted , it was hanging up every few minutes.

Now its not even booting up!

Completly dead now

No recovery, no download mode no nothing!

Time to visit SC!
[Galaxy S III General] AxelCM1:
Firm?

Enviado desde mi GT-I9300 usando Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
Official 4.1.2 (with Supposedly SDS fix) :-S
[Galaxy S III General] 101gamzer:
I have exact same chipset and revision no: now what should i fo?
[Galaxy S III General] philgalaxs3:
All is in post 1 (4.1.2)
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
Delete please
[Galaxy S III General] blakamin:
And now my mrs one has died, same as mine, was charging and screen wouldn't start, pulled battery, dead.

was running ELLA too...
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
@blakimin do you guys have any warning signs or did they both just die were you running Stock Ella? Can you enter download mode
[Galaxy S III General] MaynHard:
Dead after a damn phone call...

Past days kept freezing while using facebook...

(EMA Omega v.40 + Siyah 1.8.6)
[Galaxy S III General] drakester09:
Siyah had the fix since 1.8.7... You should have updated knowing about SDS.
[Galaxy S III General] nirpannu:
samsung refusing to repair

Hi, i've had my handset since aug 2012. 4th Jan 2013, i put it on charge and after a few hrs i wanted to check my messages but the phone was blank and flashing the blue light. So i restarted my phone and thats the last time i used my phone. I called samsung and they gave me an option of sending it to them by post or bring it to a walk in repair center, which i did to save time. My s3 was booked in on the 8/1/2013, was told it would take up to 2 weeks to repair.

After losing my patience, i called the repair center on the 25/1/2013, i was told my phone was with samsung level 3 repair center. I called samsung and i was told its fixed and sent back to the drop in center and i could collect it soon. come monday, my phone was not there, so i waited till Wednesday 30/1/2013 and called samsung. they informed me that the phone can not be repaired under warranty due to physical damage to the motherboard. they said the saw scratches on the lower part of my phone, near the mic. I did drop it once about 3 months ago, it wasnt a hard drop and it was in a leather cover. I am very careful with my phone.

Now i am left without a phone on a expensive contract, they are not giving me anymore details regarding their report, i've written and spoken to many people in samsung and they are following the engineer's report. Now they want me to pay for the service charge just because it was not under samsung's warranty. When i spoke to someone at the drop in service center, he thinks its due to water damage. I am not getting a proper answer.

I am just a basic phone user, but i know for a fact my phone did not stop working for a drop that was 3 months ago or neither did i have any water damage. Could you all guide me please
[Galaxy S III General] eRPeeX:
You can over volt your main board with .i.e. a 9 volt battery or an old fan from your PC. So service centre can not see what your firmware was.
[Galaxy S III General] bond_1982:
Sudden death fixed by software update?

Hi all, I want to verify if this happened to anyone before.

I had sudden death exactly 5 months after using my GS3. I dropped it the next day to Samsung and after a few days they say that it needs a new motherboard and that I'll have to wait for it to be available because it is out of stock. However, today 3 weeks later, they tell me that my phone is ready, and they tell me that they didn't change the mother board and only a software update 4.1.2 fixed the problem. Is this possible? I have now

Baseband version: I9300XXELLA

Kernel version: 3.0.31-748978 se.infra@SEP-64 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Dec 26 15:40:05 KST 2012

Build Number: JZO54K.I9300XXELLB

Does that make any sense?
[Galaxy S III General] philgalaxs3:
that make sense if your phone was not affected by SDS but by a soft problem..
[Galaxy S III General] bond_1982:
I had all SDS indications, suddenly phone wouldn't respond to anything, not even charger....nothing. When I took it to Samsung, they tried to revive it using software update, but it didn't.

Their diagnoses was that it needs a new motherboard, then suddenly they say that they officially got the 4.1.2 update from Samsung on 31st Jan, and they could fix it!!
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
It's possible since we do not know the actual cause of the SDS. Its possible that they use factory methods to reflash the firmware on the emmc then update the ROM etc too, however generally they swap out the motherboard as this is quicker and easier. Since we do not know what the actual damage that is done when having SDS, we cannot rule anything out.

If it really was SDS though, its doubtful they fixed it with flashing 4.1.2. They would need to address the firmware on the emmc (not part of the ROM) at the very least.
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
What you can do is download eMMC check app from google store. It will show you the chip version. You said your phone was about 5 months old so if the info shows the chip version which is from recent batch then you'll know they replaced the board ;)
[Galaxy S III General] eRPeeX:
You also get another Mac address by replacing your motherboard.
[Galaxy S III General] bond_1982:
Unfortunately, I can't remember the original mac address. But very good idea, thanks ;)

0xf1....seems like the old one. However, does the date denote anything? cuz it says 09/2012. And I bought my phone in Aug/2012. So, maybe they put an old mother board?
[Galaxy S III General] skibadee:
In the last week mines been resetting itself in the night, turning off in my pocket and today was off with the blue notification flashing, had to pull the battery.

Is it worth doing a factory reset or is this the SDS setting in?

Is it a case of letting it die completely or are Samsung fixing them at this stage?

Thanks

Edit:

Decided to reflash stock to remove root and did wipe data + cache, incase it had to go back under warranty.

So far had no freezes or reboots.

My history is:

I updated to initial JB and then 4.1.2 (always stock) without wiping my phone on any occasion in the past. I was using cf auto root (cf root before). My emmc IS the version vulnerable.

Could people like me with XELLA + CFAutoroot + latest SU who still got reboots/freezing/black screens with flashing notification light (needing a battery pull), simply needed a factory reset?

Will update if I get more hangs in next few days.

Edit again :P

Had 2 freezes requiring a reboot twice in last 15 mins :( warranty claim it is then...
[Galaxy S III General] eRPeeX:
Your router knows that.
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
August is 8th month so even if you bought your phone in august the MB would have been a few months prior. 9/12 means september 2012 revision board. congrats you have new mb in your phone. Those lying samsung guys :D

If you really want to mess with them call them and tell them that this is new board and how come they said they didn't change it LOL.

BTW mine was from May and then they replaced the MB in Dec and it's also 09/2012 and 0xf1
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Honestly, when I had to send mine the first time (not for SDS, but for a separate hardware issue), they asked me to write down any issues I had with the device. I mentioned some stuff I knew was working fine to see what would happen. They wrote back saying that they fixed the related issue and that they checked out the other (fake) issue and found no problem. So I would specifically mention making sure the motherboard is the newest revision.
[Galaxy S III General] lawonga:
Guys, I'm scared. I haven't had syndromes yet and I'm on the patched recovery and kernel but I'm still scared. :(
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
If you get a FREEZE with a Firmware that contains the Sudden Death Fix, try to NOT REBOOT the phone. The phone will most likely recover itself from that freeze after 5-25 Minutes _without_ restart needed!

Most user that have done that can say the the freezes become less or are gone completely. Including me.

Please don't ask me why, yet. Maybe the eMMC works internal and correct data structures in that time or maybe EXT filesystem marks that sector and doesn't use it again. I dont know it (yet).

BR

Robert
[Galaxy S III General] philgalaxs3:
Is there something someone can do for you ?

---------- Post added at 12:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:00 AM ----------

Could be 25 Minutes ? :confused:
[Galaxy S III General] Netskyliner:
I flashed directly last Wanamlite MA2 based rom coming from a very old version.

I am I done with sudden death risk?

Envoyé depuis mon GT-I9305 avec Tapatalk
[Galaxy S III General] bond_1982:
Thanks again, it's very confusing. I'm trying to see the router tables now. But also, the moment I entered the my car, I found a bluetooth connection request from the car. My phone's bluetooth was invisible, and the phone was paired to the car before! I asked them for a report of what has been done! Thanks again, now that my phone is working again with minimal damage of lost data I can start forgetting about SDS and go on with my life, and start bashing those apple fanboys again hehehehe :)

Thanks for your efforts guys, keep it up :)
[Galaxy S III General] skibadee:
I've booked mine in for a Warranty repair but it hasn't crashed since the 2 times within 15 mins of each other (about 18 hours ago) that I reported in my last post.

Not sure whether to cancel the warranty repair or still send it (I haven't had the jiffy bag yet) ??

Has anyone sent theirs in with it being reported as unstable (but not dead) and had the MB replaced?

I'm concerned I'm going to send it off and have no phone for a week, then get it back with the same MB, if they don't see it crash on them???

Edit: just crashed after receiving an email. Glad I didn't cancel repair :)
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
Yes, these freezes that are caused cause of temporary eMMC unaviability can take until 25 minutes. But somewhen the kernel restarts the eMMC and the device is working again without reboot.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
Just curious: why do you advise against a reboot?
[Galaxy S III General] offgrey:
I second this. Thought I got SDS (I had only been using the phone for a month before XXELLA was released. I immediately updated) just today. The screen wouldn't turn on no matter what physical button I pressed. Blue notification light of death and everything. Panicked and held the power button down for a minute or two, eventually turned screen on. Disclaimer: May or may not have been SDS, I probably (and hopefully?) will never know.