yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] Htc_One_X:
Hi Guys,

I work for a major electronics repair company Called SBE and i thought i'd confirm i have seen a increase in galaxy s3's coming in from customers,HTC,Regenerist,P4u,CPW Etc withe the dreaded sudden death issue.

After a few sample phones, we have seen that the USB connector and controller can die pretty fast if the device is charged frequently and or synced with pc, this is an isolated case and is normally remedied with a anew mainboard, I work on Htc lines and repair / refurbish all models etc..I have even seen the fixes for Onex wifi issues being developed and implemented, even seen the new 8x coming in for repair... If i can dig some more information i will, securities tighter than a ducks arse so no promises, how ever good old pen and paper helps.
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
What happened: Went dead overnight while charging

What ROM/Firmware: stock JB (India)

What kernel: Stock

OC or UV:no idea

Where phone was made: no idea

Where battery was made: no idea

So a familiar story of these threads - phone charging overnight, green light in morning showing fully charged, but no response from power button - completely dead. Took it to service center who says its water logging and will cost $140 (Rs 8,000) for repairs as water logging is not covered under warranty. Shelling that out today to him & getting my phone back. Complained to Samsung India CEO, whose office had the decency to call back and they're 'trying to do something about it'. Not sure why this happened as it certainly wasn't water logging while charging overnight. Currently, out of pocket by 20% over & above the cost price of the s3 bought only 6 months ago. :(
[Galaxy S III General] Nees3:
No one thought of this yet i guess, but the part they replace, is it replaced by the same part, but just a working one, or a revision with better parts?

Else, in about 6 months, everyone who had theirs already repaired, might be in for a surprise...

Everyone should push this into the media, using Twitter, spam the hell out of it, to demand what hardware-versions are faulty, so people can take action, backup their stuff, have a backup-phone ready... @SamsungMobile Tweet them!

And that we finally know, that what they fix, is a better part and will not break in a few months AGAIN!

---------- Post added at 02:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:17 PM ----------

This means all smartphones, you know one you dont need to charge almost every day? :)
[Galaxy S III General] Madarox:
Hey,I got 2 concerns if you don't mind.

1-I leave my GS3 charging overnight almost every night but it's always powered off.Do you think that having it powered off can reduce the chances of dying/mobo damage ?

2-Can anyone who experienced this get into download mode ? I just want to make sure samsung won't know my device is rooted lol.
[Galaxy S III General] nani67:
am using the phone from september 16..

am on 4.1.2 for a month i guess.. got updated via kies..
[Galaxy S III General] HassanM:
Yes Samsung did fix the Exynos Exploit Issue (aka Sudden Death) in XXELLA and later Firmwares....
[Galaxy S III General] satishp:
The exynos exploit bug and the sudden death issue are two entirely different issues. The exynos expliot bug would allow a hacker to gain complete root access to your device and modify or even soft brick your device as per his choice. This issue affected all Samsung phones having an Exynos processor variant which includes the Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3, Original Note and the Note 2. This issue was fixed by Samsung in the later builds.

The sudden death issue is caused by a buggy firmware (low level machine code) on the emmc of devices, specifically, a 16GB VTU00M chip with firmware revision 0xf1. The phone dies when trying to write data to an affected block. Samsung has issued a temporary fix to avoid sudden death but this is not a permanent solution. It causes a device freeze or lock-up when attempting to write to an affected block. For devices which have undergone a lot of writes before the fix, the users experience persistant freezing which may last from 2min to even an hour. The new update XXEMB5, starting from XXEMB1 is said to resolve this issue, but some are still experiencing these freezes.

The ultimate fix to this issue is changing the PCB of an affected device to a newer hardware revision which has emmc with an updated firmware revision 0xf7
[Galaxy S III General] HassanM:
Thanks for clarifying... By the way what do u mean be PCB?
[Galaxy S III General] maurinet:
This started about a month after I installed XXEMR2 in order to update the JKay Deluxe framework. It became unbearable and I decided to try something, these were the most logical steps for me to try first and it seems to have done it.

First I restored to the original firmware of my carrier, (4.0.4) even though I bought my phone unbranded, just to have the right settings of the network, you know, frequencies and whatever. Then you have two options, you can either log into the phone and do an OTA (over the air) update to 4.1.2 if it's available in your area/carrier, or you can flash a different firmware. I didn't trust XXEMR2 anymore so I flashed XXEMB5. It has now been 48 hours and no freezes, it seems to be back to normal, although I don't want to be too optimistic, I have my fair amount of experience with Samsung.
[Galaxy S III General] satishp:
Printed Circuit Board a.k a the motherboard. :)
[Galaxy S III General] SLDarKprince:
Didn't ya reinstalled your rom.
[Galaxy S III General] p4r4z1t45:
UPDATE

Yesterday took the phone to a service center and they said that software is to blame, so they re-flashed my phone AGAIN. It worked great for 4-5 hours and I though that probably they patched this bug until it stared freezing again. It's not so intense as it used to be but still very annoying. Took to the service center again, showed them that it's probably not a software that's faulty so they'll send the phone to a higher level shop to inspect the freezing problem. The guy told me that they will probably change the PCB. I'll probably call them tomorrow just in case to inform that it was already re-flashed before, so that it would not return with the same HW. Update to follow after easter :)
[Galaxy S III General] DangerM55:
Samsung rejected repair of mine because the screen had been replaced in the past. Okay, that's understandable... But it's been sent back unusable!

It's got some diagnostic menu thing showing up which I cant get rid of and the IMEI has been wiped!

Anyone got any idea what to do to get rid of this?

Wish i'd not bothered sending it off!
[Galaxy S III General] BLEK0TA:
My chip is in emmc bug chip insane from 05/2012. Im running on xxella. On % how big risk od SDS im on?
[Galaxy S III General] mrm43:
It depends on how long you've been using it without xxella. When did you buy yours? Wear and tear may have happened already if it has been used longer without those sds fixes. So you just have to wait and see.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
We really don't know if that's how this bug works or not. All we have are guesses so we cannot answer the original question with any degree of certainty.
[Galaxy S III General] Manindra29:
I'm from India and I've got the 16 GB International version. My device is about 8 months old. I was running official 4.1.2 and rooted. Recently, my phone suddenly began to freeze every hour or so. Sometimes it would recover if left alone for around 20 minutes and at other times, manually restarting was the only option. After visiting some forums, I realised the potential issue. And the emmc brick bug app confirmed my nightmare!

Here's what I did:

1. Backed up all my important data and apps.

2. Flashed stock 4.1.2 firmware (thanks sammobile!) and flashing stock room didn't solve the freezing issue(just as others had reported). I did this just to remove root.

3. Took it to my nearest Samsung service centre. Explained the engineer my issue clearly telling them it's probably a mother board problem. He seemed to understand. They said I'd have to submit my phone and it would take 3 days.

4. I got a call 2 days later that my device has been repaired. I was glad they did it sooner than expected.

5. While taking my phone back I asked them what they had fixed. They said they had updated the phone to the latest software. I was like, seriously dude, after explaining to you all the SDS stuff that's what you do? Anyways, within 20 mins of use, it froze again.

6. I explained them again (another engineer this time) about sudden death and emmc problem. He said they will inspect the hardware thoroughly. I came back empty handed.

7. Got a call few days later that my phone's been fixed. I asked over phone what they had fixed exactly. They said they had replaced the LCD panel. I thought , maybe, maybe it might be the panel/touch-screen. Went to pick it up, used it for 5 mins and bam! It froze again! This time I was furious. After lots of shouting at the guys and the manager, they finally agreed to replace the mother board. I came back empty handed, again.

8. Finally got my phone back today after 10 days at the service centre. Have been using it for more than 12 hours without any hiccup. The emmc app now displays Sane chip and NO sudden death.

I was lucky to encounter the problem while the device was within warranty. I wasn't charged anything for the repair. But the customer service was very very disappointing.

I hope my account helps anyone facing a similar issue. And if you're from India, well you understand the rest.
[Galaxy S III General] natthewife:
Can I just ask.....may be a silly question, but is this a known fault in i9350 lte version? Or did they do something in version upgrade to fix this from occuring?
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
They've had mine over a month
[Galaxy S III General] dalibertine:
Have you logged into the Samsung website to check the status? What does it say?

What did you say over the phone? About the fault?
[Galaxy S III General] adriancs:
My i9300 also suffered SDS syndrome last week. Sent it in to Samsung's Service Center in Malaysia where I live, and the mainboard was swapped out and returned to me the next day. During the visit, the customer service lady also asked me if I was having problems with the included charger and USB cable, and if I did, to bring them in for a swap. I don't know if mine are faulty, since I use various USB ports at work and at home to charge my phone with other cables, but I did bring both items when I went to collect my phone and they were swapped with new (?) ones when I received my phone back.
[Galaxy S III General] invinciblecc:
Oii wanna ask this I am on everything patched

That is patched recovery patched kernel since a long time now say about 2 months so

Is it confirmed that charging night long does not result in SDS

Can I charge my device night long now that I am on patched recovery and pathced kernel

Please tell
[Galaxy S III General] avi.laza:
I don't see how is the charger or the usb cable related to the sds problem, strage ....
[Galaxy S III General] invinciblecc:
Its not about charger or cable being related the centre must have reports about charger being faulty like some here are facing it that the phone won't charge even if it is on charger so the representative offered to change cord and charger top
[Galaxy S III General] kumquat_s:
Wondering if anyone can give some advice as I am not exactly well-versed in this issue. I have read a lot of information about SDS but some of it seems to be conflicting.

I have non-rooted, EU GS3 16gb. Bought last July.

Within the last two weeks it has started to experience SDS symptoms. I know have to hard reset the device 20+ times a day often straight after one another.

I have the XXELLA firmware which according to the first post on this thread should be the fix (for my non-rooted device), but obviously I am still having issues. According to SamMobile I can perhaps get I9300XXEMA2. Is this the next suggested step? Sorry for asking what is a seriously noob question, but if I apply this firmware manually do I lose the data on my phone?
[Galaxy S III General] nm8:
yes you can flash that using PC Odin. You will not loose warranty after flashing it as it is stock firmware without modification.

---------- Post added at 08:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 AM ----------

That's one helluva customer service.
[Galaxy S III General] avi.laza:
first of all you probably have a good Samsung service in your country , not that great in Israel....
[Galaxy S III General] BLEK0TA:
Im using sgs3 from 15. june 2012.

On xxella running about 2 months. Without any problem.

Maybe sds is depended on country made. My is made in korea and no problem(only big black ink . Maybe sds are prefered on made by Samsung or made in Vietnam. Who knows? Like i read nobody. Sds is all about theory.
[Galaxy S III General] al2ping:
Is there any solutions to SDS?
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
Sure. Use any 4.1.2 Firmware (or newer) to prevent SDS.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
Update

And still going in circles. Below is the email I received this morning.

Dear Mr White

I have received the following reply from our service centre

Hi Ian

The handset is from the USA, so doesn’t have a European Warranty for us to continue our assessment under warranty.

We need to return the handset unrepaired, to America, for a fee of £28. Please can you ask the customer to contact us to make payment?

Thanks

Regards

Ian M

Customer Support Centre

T: 0330 SAMSUNG (7267864)

F: 0330 7260001

E: uk.help@samsung.com

W: www.samsung.com

Samsung Electronics

Customer Support Centre

PO Box 479

GATESHEAD

NE9 9BJ

Registered number: 03086621

Registered address: Samsung Electronics (UK) Ltd, Samsung House, 1000 Hillswood Drive, Chertsey, Surrey. KT16 0PS United Kingdom
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Such BS. So what they're saying is,

"Your phone DOES have a 2 year warranty, BUT we're not going to honor it because YOU are not European."

Funny though; when I needed a repair on mine (which was from Germany, even though Samsung told me it was from the UK, though warranty-wise it wouldn't have mattered), I contacted the original Amazon seller, shipped it to them, and they sent it to a repair center on my behalf. And I paid $80 to ship it there and had to wait a month. The repair center repaired it and the seller shipped it back to me at their expense, overnight.
[Galaxy S III General] avi.laza:
Besides installing safe kernel + recovery and hope for the best.....nothing really.
[Galaxy S III General] RohanM:
yes..... never use samsung again....... :angel:
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Yes this has always been the case on any electronics device. If I buy something from outside Europe (phone, MP3 player, TV) I have no warranty. Warranties do not cross econimic boarders and this has been the case for as long as I remember. This is what has put me off buying US devices (Such as Zunes) which were not available here.

Yep, doesn't matter because of the European Economic Union (EU), most of Europe is seen as one super-state, without real boarders

This is pretty much the only way. They should still have the original proof of purchase. If a POP is not required, shipping it to a friend or a willing aid in the country is a possible second chance.

My advice to Scott (which I already gave) is to ship it back to a friend in the UK if they can get Samsung to allow it to be sent in. The only issue is, if they have history of this device tied to the serial / IMEI from recent events.

---------- Post added at 07:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:31 PM ----------

Not helpful
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
I'm the opposite. I'm in the US and bought the European version. The upside is US electronics only have a 1 year warranty most of the time and my i9300 has a 2 year warranty. It never made sense to me that carriers make you sign a 2 year warranty but only guarantee the phone for a year.

If I decide to get the S4 several months from now, I might just buy the US model since most of Europe is also getting the Snapdragon model (the launch model - i9505 is the Snapdragon S600 model). I would normally only buy the Exynos version for the GPU, but the S600 is sufficiently powerful, and I don't feel like having to ship across continents anymore.
[Galaxy S III General] nm8:
I remember reading it from somewhere that they know the origin of the phone because of the IMEI number...
[Galaxy S III General] UncleBeer:
Au contraire. This is a fault which Samsung has yet to publicly admit to, which has cost many of us a lot of grief and annoyance.

We aren't powerless, though, as ultimately we'll all vote with our wallets. Which is what I'll do next time I choose a smartphone. :D
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
The comment made by the offender does not help the person asking for a solution to sds to.protect their existing s3

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------

...the origin isn't the problem. Its the fact now that the originating country now possibly has a record that the device is outside of warranty.

Of course they can tell from the imei where the device originated. Otherwise why bother?

---------- Post added at 10:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 PM ----------

I so nearly bought a zune but warranty crushed it. I also nearly bought an android moto with keyboard (cdma +gsm) but same deal

I'm.never buying exynos again. I'd have a snapdragon s4, but not exynos. But not without warranty
[Galaxy S III General] scottcwhite:
Where my problem is is that the phone is not from USA. It is from Spain. I bought from an EBay seller who bought from an Amazon store that imported it. But Samsung UK cant explain how that is part of the EU but doesn't cover my phone. I even went all far as to offer to pay them any amount of money if they would just fix it. And they still won't touch it. Below is the reply I sent back. Guess I'll hear some crap again on Monday.

" Ian – This is the same issue that has been discussed for a month now that is getting me so depressed. See the attached photos and below. The phone IS NOT FROM USA. The I9300 International is not manufactured for the US in any of the 50 States. It has a quad core chip in it. You cannot get the quad core in the US. As you can see the manual is in Spanish (Spain is part of the EU). The phone itself states under the back cover it is an I9300. Your customer service took my IMEI number and specifically told me to ship it to ANOVO. That cost me $125 US dollars. Please help as there has to be a better solution to this problem that shows Samsung does give good customer service. Between the phone, accessories, and shipping I’ve spent near $1000.00 US dollars. This is my work phone and not having it has made things quite difficult for me."

*
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
The thing is for us here in USA we will be getting the Exynos this time and the international will have the Snapdragon chip for the S4 So I might get another international phone all of my Galaxy phones have been the international variants and warranties are hard to claim but the best custom roms are built for these international models in my opinion
[Galaxy S III General] Product F(RED):
Actually, we're getting the Snapdragon S4, as is the UK and most of Europe. Most of the developed countries are also getting it. The launch model is the S4 model. The Exynos with LTE is, as usual, saved for South Korea. I don't really care anymore. The Snapdragon S600 is plenty powerful. I game on my phone and that's why I wanted the Exynos with the PowerVR chip; it's benchmarked just above the iPhone 5 in the graphics department. The S600 is all-around above the Exynos 4412 (the one in the i9300), but not as big of a leap as the newest Exynos. I don't care anymore though honestly. I might even skip the S4, or buy it late into its life.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Yes we know.

---------- Post added at 12:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 AM ----------

They're not and this is precisely why I wont buy another exynos based samsung. They're so closed source...

Look at all the snapdragon based s3's... fully working cyanogen etc. International? Nope.
[Galaxy S III General] RohanM:
Well after spending so much money on phone & getting such BS issue what u expect from me ???

I will never go sammy again. it's my choice & also suggest others to stay away from sammy.

Look at SONY, they admitted their xperia Z sudden death issue in just 1 day after getting notified the same & also quickly release the update for the same.

But sammy has not even having guts to admit the issue. wtf.....
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
But it doesn't help someone right now. No one cares what phone you get next and people will make their own minds up about buying samsung again or not. Quit trolling and only post if you have something constructive to say.

Its like...

"How do I make sure my wife doesn't have an affair?"

"Simple, make sure your next wife is ugly"

See how not helpful that is?
[Galaxy S III General] RohanM:
only this to say for u........... stick wid ur plastic......which even cant do multitasking with that 4 cores & 1 gig ram......... :cyclops:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2177303
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
I wont buy samsung again, but not because of this reason. Because of exynos sources. Multi tasking works fine but that's off topic. Please try to set aside some time between your pointless posts to grow up a little bit and stop posting irrelevant rubbish. You havent quite learned how to use forums yet. They can often be used to your advantage. You don't HAVE to try and annoy everyone

Anyway, one of the benefits of not having children is the ability to choose when or when not to have pointless conversations so with that, I take my leave.
[Galaxy S III General] RohanM:
"Multi tasking works fine" ahh u r kidding or u dnt have a S3 then !! stop bluffing mate.

Multi tasking sucks on S3 & i dnt need to prove that... be practical...
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Bye
[Galaxy S III General] RohanM:
Truth is hard to digest for u i guess...... we r not fighting but only debating... try to accept facts.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Ha ha. Yeah OK. Lets keep it in your thread then and stop spamming this one.

Truth isn't hard to digest. I just don't like talking to you
[Galaxy S III General] RohanM:
Then stop quoting my replies every time. i was also not talking to u.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Well several weeks using MB3 so I can safely say the freezing has stopped. Looks like the updated sds fix works a treat. It was freezing constantly on MR2.
[Galaxy S III General] Kjc99:
Rootsu has his own SDS thread and it's very informative and I'm pretty sure he does have an S3 haha
[Galaxy S III General] barrymossel:
Totally agree. People not owning a Samsung phone yet, should know Samsung doesn't admit the problem. Really shameful.