yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
No. The only thing they showed me was some white discolouration on the board. Problem is after the so called replacement my phones a lot worse - battery life noore than 7 hours, frequent reboots, heating up a lot more. Pathetic performance and service from samsung. They seriously need to be a lot more professional.
[Galaxy S III General] manks:
Yep think that I'm going to have to go down this route. It's UK not India but only had one service centre look at it and they couldn't repair it anyway. I'm waiting for the guy that has it at the moment to get back to me for his view on whether it is likely to get rejected if i send to a service centre...will have to wait and see...

will watch this thread with intrigue...has anyone tried samsung on twitter?

---------- Post added at 09:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:34 PM ----------

Would it be worth everyone having a crack at sending an email along the same lines. Can you share the details with us?
[Galaxy S III General] JohnCorleone:
Just thought I would give my 2 cents here. I own 6 devices one being an unlocked international S3. Well one of my older devices my nexus S 4g just quit on me so I took it to a Sprint repair center. I was talking to the tech as he was working on my phone and when he got it opened up, the motherboard did have moisture damage. He told me that big swings in temperature and even keeping your phone in your pocket (body heat) can cause this over time. Well at first he said I would have to file an insurance claim but he ended up hooking me up because he had extra parts there. Since then I generally go with a case and holster with belt clip because they can find many reasons to make it the user's fault.

Sent from my HTC One X using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy S III General] Obagleyfreer:
Sure I think the more people that contact them the better.

I haven't heard anything back from Samsung UK or US yet... Not holding my breath to be honest.

I also emailed Samsung here in NZ, they have replied, but only saying they no nothing about it and there hasn't been anything like this happening here in NZ. It's probably just a matter of time.

As soon as I do, if I do, I'll post the reply.
[Galaxy S III General] dimi22:
If your phone bricks out of nothing

You dont lose only your phone

You lose your

Camera

Camcorder

Navigation

Maps

Mp3 player

Notes

Email

Samsung needs to clear up things very quickly i get very upset about this stupid brick problem
[Galaxy S III General] TeeJayEss:
That's exactly what is happening to mine - sometimes it goes for a day or so problem free, other times it freezes after just a few minutes after booting, occasionally it's frozen before I can even unlock it!

1.100 hardware here, expecting it to go any day, so am backing up regularly!

I'm ready to buy a Nexus 4 when it does let go, then will sell the repaired S3 once it's back...
[Galaxy S III General] Guardianofevil:
Excuse me but can someone be so kind and answer on my question that i wrote on previous page?
[Galaxy S III General] JepeP:
If you want to be sure to have your warranty valid you should leave the phone with original-FW, no root and no flashing at all.

When you have got the (real) "sudden death" your system-memory is not readable and any flash or root should not be detected, because nothing is accessible.
[Galaxy S III General] Angelus1984:
it is always a risk. When I asked Samsung Croatia, they told me that with rooting i'm voiding warranty. But then again, press wrote few times that Samsung is repairing free of charge even rooted phones.

It's all up to you, to take a chance or not. Maybe you should contact service center in your country and ask them.

Oh, and I wish all of you here happy New Year and that our phones will be alive in 2013.
[Galaxy S III General] celson:
After 174 days my S3 died. It was working normally when turned off the screen and S3 died. The indicator LED does not light up even more with the charger.
[Galaxy S III General] Marilize-Legajuana:
My GS3 arrived two days ago, will see if it die in summer 2013 :D

Here's a some parameters:

Phone: Made in Korea by Samsung

Battery: Made in Japan, assembled in China (2012.10.16)

Model number: GT-I9300

Android version: 4.1.1

RF cal: 2012.11.16

HW Rev: MP 1.100

Long Live Galaxy! :cowboy:
[Galaxy S III General] linas_ltu:
question about warranty

Just spent past 3 hours reading this thread. Horrible. I bought my galaxy s3 international version from a guy who bought it on amazon. The phone was brand new and I opened the sealed box myself. I do not have any purchase receipts, just that little warranty card which was inside the sealed box (it is not filled). Is my Galaxy covered by warranty without any receipt or filled warranty card? Thanks for help.
[Galaxy S III General] Guardianofevil:
thank you guys i'll think it trough;)
[Galaxy S III General] JH323:
S3 semi-death Hong Kong user

Hi all,

Seeing this wave of sudden deaths in this thread, I thought I'll post my story of my S3 semi-death.

Ok first it started with me upgrading to Jelly Bean 4.1.1 OTA, then phone started to "not detecting SIM and rebooting itself" (this happened like 5 times a day). Then one day it was in my coat pocket and I saw the notification light blinking but screen blackout (no button could wake it)...I did the "take battery out and reboot" thing and it could boot. The deaths then suddenly keep coming like 10 times a day and I either have to take battery out or hold power button until it rebooted.

So I took it to the Samsung repair centre in Hong Kong and they said it was SOFTWARE problem and they said they have upgraded my phone to "K4" (Build Number has been upgraded to JRO03C.I9300ZSDLK4)...the problem was kind of solved for 3 days but now the sudden death thing has appeared again....

Anyways just wonder if the battery has anything to do with it (currently on one where is "Made in Korea, Assembled in Vietnam) but I do have a spare which is "Made in Japan, Assembled in China"

Thanks!!
[Galaxy S III General] andromeda_nevel:
Mine died today.

It was not being charged but just laying on the table. I had read texts and email the hour before and I wanted to check the mail again when it appeared dead.

Pulled battery, tried to flash it (no PIT failure in Odin). It will go to download mode (unfortunately since it is rooted) but nothing else. On charger it gives a grey battery, without charger it gets stuck on boot screen.

Bought in June, 16GB blue model in the Netherlands. Will go back to the store tomorrow.
[Galaxy S III General] SlideMaster:
My S3 died December 31. while on stand by it just shutdown and blue LED keep flashing. tried to turn it on but nothing happens and can't go to download mode. i even remove the battery and turned it on but still nothing happens. my laptop wont recognize my phone and even if i plug the charger, still no sign of life. Technician told me that i could be a board problem. i just sent it to samsung service center. Unit was bought here in Singapore.
[Galaxy S III General] GavinZac:
This is incorrect. For a lot of people, the phone manages to go into Download Mode, but cannot be flashed (Odin fails with NAND chip errors) or even repaired with JTAG (trying to directly place the files on the NAND memory through hardware). This is indicative of a single chip failing.

I don't know what this is, but it doesn't sound like death. Death doesn't come 10 times in a day! But I would be prepared for returning it some day, because perhaps it is a symptom of something to come.
[Galaxy S III General] danielhtc:
For those that have had their handsets die have the had a weird smell afterwards? Like burnt out smell? Just curious.
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
LOL, yes it's more of strokes coming and sign of death on the way..

Pls also report your hw rev once you get it back. Mine is 1.15 now. Lets hope it doesn't last 7 months since the warranty is still continuing.
[Galaxy S III General] vadonka:
this is horrible!

i see my sgs3 becoming a time bomb. im using it and waiting when will be die.

i had a couple of unexpected cold reset recently, maybe this will predict the upcoming event?!

this is bad, im very upset about this..
[Galaxy S III General] blakamin:
Mine died this morning. Went to look at it to see what time it was (4am) and the screen wouldn't turn on. Unplegged the charger, pulled the battery but it still wont reboot. dead.

Phone made in vietnam

battery made in korea, assembled in vietnam.
[Galaxy S III General] Yellow_Racing:
Another one here, mine died today in my pocket and I can not turn it on at all not even get into download mode.

Phone made in Korea

Battery made in Korea

was running 4.1.2 leaked stock rom so warranty may be an issue?

Cheers Robski

Edit: Phone purchased in June on Aus release

16gb version
[Galaxy S III General] danielhtc:
How old was the phone? 16gb version? Was there lag before death etc?
[Galaxy S III General] Yellow_Racing:
sorry edited my post above danielhtc
[Galaxy S III General] danielhtc:
Cheers. Pretty sure flashing the leaked stock ROM shouldn't be an issue. Others have sent back rooted and custom romed phones and had them fixed.
[Galaxy S III General] jshashwat93:
My phone has been lagging and apps have been force closing since about 2 weeks now. Had my LED light blue while charging with no response just like all other reports on this thread. However, it did start again after removing the battery and putting it in again (maybe because i left it on charge for 30 minutes and came back to check hoping it had not died.. lol..) So after this incident only been charging via pc with the phone switched off. People who have got their phones already replaced can advice me if i should go to the service center now while the phone is working and tell them about the issue (even though it will work perfectly in front of them unless it freezes if they charge it for long, which is not sure either), or should i start charging it the normal way and take it to the service center once it dies? Really confused. Please suggest me
[Galaxy S III General] RevoWution:
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I can't for the life of me get the above code to work. Nothing happens when I enter it.

I'm running LiquidSmooth if that helps :(
[Galaxy S III General] hunchi:
S3 sudden death

Now also my S3 is dead.

What happened - Died whilst charging overnight (when I woke up, the LED was still green, but it did not wake up. When I removed the charger the LED still was green. I removed the battery and replaced it but the phone did not boot any more. RIP.)

Where phone was made - No Idea. Made by Samsung

Where battery was made - Cell made in korea, assembled in china.

What firmware you were running - latest original firmware by t-mobile germany (4.1)

Can you access download mode? - nope.

:-[
[Galaxy S III General] Rahulrao:
i think all s3's will die after 8-10 months of use..faulty chips
[Galaxy S III General] Yellow_Racing:
Lets hope the Note 2 has a better chip...:laugh:
[Galaxy S III General] shethsa:
You need to input it from the stock dialler
[Galaxy S III General] RevoWution:
I believe I am using the stock dialer. I have never used a 3rd party dialer from the Play Store.

Out of the long list of possible codes, the only code that works for me is *#06# LOL... :\
[Galaxy S III General] JepeP:
I wrote: when you have the (real) "SD" the system-memory ist not accessible , that means: no download/recovery.

When download/recovery works the Service-Center can access the system-memory and your warranty is probably void when you flashed/rooted your phone.

But this is not the "real sudden death", lets say this is the "half sudden death" (not all of the system-memory ist defective).

So, if you want to be absolutely sure that your warranty stays valid you should not flash/root your phone.

There are reports, that some service-centers in some countries repair phones (on waranty) that have been rooted - but I would not rely on this.
[Galaxy S III General] hlastras:
Mine doesn't smell at all.
[Galaxy S III General] vadonka:
My S3 produce many unexpected cold reset recently and power off too. I can power on my device, so it is not dead yet, but probably close too.

RF cal: 2012.8.17

HW Rev: REV0.1
[Galaxy S III General] chevli:
It only works on stock (samsung's own rom) dialar - not on any/many custom roms - they're like private manufacturer codes.
[Galaxy S III General] TeeJayEss:
I don't know if it's just a quirk of my phone, or whether it's related to this at all (my phone, bought in June, HW ver 1.100, is going through a period of random lockups and reboots, so I think it's on the way out), but I noticed the other day that when it's plugged in and charging off the mains adaptor, there is a slight but noticeable current coming off the SIM card metal housing.

I noticed it when it first started crashing, particularly when charging - I was checking if the phone was getting hot at all, and (you might chuckle at this) I brushed the back of the phone against my lips... they're more sensitive to temperature changes, honest! It was when my lips brushed the metal SIM card housing, it felt almost like a gentle pin-prick. Unplugging the charger, and it's gone.

Maybe it's normal, and I'm just earthing residual current or something, but for it to be felt by me, I'd have thought it would have to be significant in terms of the voltages and currents used by something as electrically sensitive as a phone?

I will dig out my multimeter later to see if I can get a value on it... but just wanted to share for now...
[Galaxy S III General] thedigger:
Just about to send my phone in, can someone confirm what hte moisture indicator is supposed to look like? Mine is white with purple xxx on it. Does this suggest it has been triggered - my phone has never been dropped in water.
[Galaxy S III General] whitebait:
Nope, that's how they look as standard. Yours hasn't been exposed to moisture. I'd suggest taking pics of the phone before you post it off, just in case anything untoward were to happen either in transit or when it gets to Samsung.
[Galaxy S III General] leijonasisu:
Phone was sent in for return on 20/12/12

My wife got an SMS from the DNA-store that I bought it from Today 2/1/13 that it was fixed.

Seems that it took ~13 days to be fixed. Considering it was Christmas/New Years etc. this is probably a pretty good time.

I am yet to go and actually get my phone. (Phone is in wife's name and she's working) but when I have it back this afternoon I will post:

As to what was fixed (if they even stated so)

What ROM/etc. that was put on my phone after it was fixed

What parts of my phone were replaced/if it was completely replaced or just repaired

Anything else that may or may not have changed

How much it cost if anything, (at this stage I am 99.9% sure it'll be free)

It's a real shame to come back to this thread after almost 2 weeks and see triple the amount of pages than what was here earlier. It seems that there really must be a typical fault in the design of these phones...
[Galaxy S III General] funb0b:
Just remember to time and date stamp any pic's of the indicator.

sent from my GT-I9300 back from the Dead (SDS) now with HW Rev.1.5
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
Those of you who bought their phones in June get ready as its highly likely that your phones will die. Back up your ROM on external SD along with photos or other stuff you have in internal SD. Don't worry about being rooted or having custom ROM if the phone is totally dead they will just replace the mainboard. I was on omega 35 ROM but they just my s3s main board . BTW mine didn't smell also when it died.
[Galaxy S III General] leijonasisu:
Mine didn't smell like anything either. I got mine in July. So yes I would say that those who bought theirs in June/July you should definitely expect them to die sometime soon. If not then you are incredibly lucky and I would still say that as every day that goes by the chance of your phone dying will drastically increase.
[Galaxy S III General] GavinZac:
The phone is dead. Recovery doesn't appear at all. Download appears but does not work. Service-Centre can see the "BIOS" (to use a computer analogy) but not the system-memory. If the system memory worked, the JTAG repair process would work. It doesn't.
[Galaxy S III General] thedigger:
Cheers, done and emailed the pic to myself. I'm dropping it into a SC later, but this may be useful as a backup
[Galaxy S III General] RevoWution:
Ah damn. LOL.

Is there any way of finding out the hardware revision (HW) other than the service menu? :)
[Galaxy S III General] houser789:
Mine died too

What happened: Phone was charging during the night. Turned it on once during the night to check the time - everything was fine then. In the morning it was off and dead. No way to turn it on again. Just brought it to the Vodafone service center and they will send it in for repair under warranty. The guy said that this was a known problem with the S3. He sait he has seen "too many" phones come back since 2-3 weeks and I was the second person today who brought in an S3 with this problem. He said all were charging when the problem occurred.

Where phone was made: South Korea

Where battery was made: Japan

What firmware you were running: 4.1.1 Stock international

Can you access download mode? No

Should have my phone back in 2 weeks or so.....
[Galaxy S III General] JepeP:
Again: when download appears its not the complete sudden death (SD).

SD means OS is not readable.

When you can "see" the BIOS its not the complete sudden death.

The NAND / eMMC are not completly defective, only most parts of it.

"Sudden death" means "no reaction on anything at all" (the meaning of the word "death")

If your OS is still there and accessible, also your Custom-Counter (number of flashes) is visible, if its not Null your warranty may be void.

---------- Post added at 02:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:58 PM ----------

Where do you live?

Country, Town?
[Galaxy S III General] x3chaosmasterx3:
Will Samsung replace the phone even when it is rooted? I heard some people's rooted phone don't get replaced....
[Galaxy S III General] OrangeRafi:
from Sammobile

Galaxy S3 sudden death to be fixed by firmware update

Samsung Benelux reported to Tweakers.net that Samsung is busy to fix the ”sudden death” problem of the Galaxy S III. Many Galaxy S III devices stopped working because of a firmware bug. Samsung says they want to bring an update as soon as possible. Samsung even reported to tweakers about the HMTL code to reset Galaxy S III devices. This way is no longer possible.

source: http://www.sammobile.com/2013/01/02...ixed-by-firmware-update/#.UOQyFuttoyY.twitter
[Galaxy S III General] MadsBen:
Mine was running Omega ROM (remove bloatware) and was replaced without question. They replaced the mainboard and updated the software.
[Galaxy S III General] leijonasisu:
But (unless I am wrong) this means that Samsung thinks that it's an issue with their firmware? What about custom roms? Aren't they different firmwares? Or is this an issue inside of every single ROM that no matter if they are customized by people and then rereleased etc. that there is still a way for them to die?

So this is Samsung saying that it is not a hardware issue (which is what we all have been getting replaced when we get our phones back) and that it is simply a firmware issue?

Sorry but I am not buying that story.. everyone has had this issue whilst charging and then waking up the next morning. Only a handful are having their phones die whilst say.. in their pocket or whatever and NONE hare just having them drop dead whilst they are using them. This seems to be a hardware issue or charging issue. Either due to an overcharge or some sort of chip meltdown or whatever. The point is, this does not seem like a firmware issue at all...

Unless there is some sort of psycho exploit in the android OS in general that not even 150,000 highly skilled developers/modders/crackers here on XDA have been able to found but now that Samsung is aware of... I find this very hard to believe... that a software issue could stop us from even at least flashing our phones ever again until we send them back for warranty.
[Galaxy S III General] Nees3:
Samsung response on the Sudden Death issue

Tweakers.net reported about the issue and it seems they got feedback from Samsung.

They claim they are aware of the issue and it is only a small amount of 16GB devices affected (I read ALL 16GB models...)

And they can fix the issue with a FIRMWARE UPDATE since it is a FIRMWARE BUG, what the cause is, they wont say...

And when the update will be released, they dont know, but it will be asap...

You can read it and google-translate it yourself if you want, it's dutch! But atleast a bigger-tech-newssite made a report about it.

Link: http://tweakers.net/nieuws/86386/samsung-komt-met-update-voor-probleem-defecte-galaxy-s-iiis.html
[Galaxy S III General] delsus:
Could be a bootloader bug which would explain why it causes a hard brick, and custom roms keep the pre installed bootloader.
[Galaxy S III General] offgrey:
That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm sincerely hoping that this is really just a firmware bug. But if it is, how can only some 16gb models be affected? Why not the whole lot? Or even the 32 and 64gb ones too?
[Galaxy S III General] delsus:
Unless it just hasn't been seen on those yet, lying dormant waiting to strike, I we still have no idea what actions cause it so it could always be a factor.
[Galaxy S III General] offgrey:
Okay, I'm just basing my "it only affects a small amount of devices" assumption on the Dutch article. Given that though, is it possible still that it's only a firmware bug?
[Galaxy S III General] yahyoh:
seems only 16 GB affected ( maybe its bug with NAND firmware :rolleyes: )
[Galaxy S III General] delsus:
When they were flashed at the factory something could have messed up with a small amount of phones, from personal experience flashing stock roms through Odin I have seen messed up CSC (shown as unknown) and random reboots all the time solved by flashing it again with the same package, and known good packages can cause errors as well.

So it is possible.
[Galaxy S III General] Isadora:
Well assuming Samsung have found the reason and it is indeed software related, then I hope that a fix is out soon... My phone died after 4 months and I got it back with a shiny new motherboard just over 2 months ago. I would *really* like to avoid sending it off again for repairs in some 2 months time :p (or maybe 4 if I'm lucky!)
[Galaxy S III General] Dean-xXx:
In the new 4.1.2 ROM, bootloader is changed and exynos exploit is fixed, so lets hope now after flashing the new one phones will stop dying around.
[Galaxy S III General] offgrey:
Thanks for the knowledge, bro! :D I've personally never experienced any problems when it comes to flashing. They always come out all right the first time. I guess I'm just lucky :silly:
[Galaxy S III General] whitebait:
Really? What are the changes?
[Galaxy S III General] nfribeiro:
:fingers-crossed:
[Galaxy S III General] yahyoh:
ask Samsung :p
[Galaxy S III General] whitebait:
Haha, ok. So how do you know the bootloader's changed and the exploit's been fixed?
[Galaxy S III General] yahyoh:
i think via chainfire app :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S III General] the_nicnic:
Hello,

I bought a white GS3 16GB on the expansys website on the 6th June 2012 and on the 14th of November, my GS3 stopped working and wouldn't reboot or start properly !

So I made use of the warranty and took it in a Samsung approved service centre, in France called AlloPSM, http://www.allopsm.fr/index.php.

A week later, the service called me back and asked me to come to give me a quotation for the repair.

To my surprise, in order to repair it, I was asked to pay because, as my GS3 is rooted, it voids my warranty.

So, I'd like to to know if it is normal to pay because even if I admit that my phone was rooted the problem is not related to the rooting but a fault which doesn't anything to do with it.

Can I request to be reimburse because of this hidden defect.

Several french customers did get a free repair inspite of the phone being rooted.

Thank you for your answer !

Cordially