yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] sgsboyo:
Well, so far as my phone situation is concerned, I got a call from the (Samsung) repair centre today to say the phone had been fixed and they were ready to take payment! Even though I had told them I wanted it returned to me unfixed the message never got through and they've gone ahead regardless.

I said I'd already told them I didn't want it fixed and they then checked their notes and said they'd go and see what they could do. I eventually phoned them back to say just leave it and I'd pay for it.

They've replaced the main board.

Surprise, surprise.

I think I may have a long fight on my hands but I think I'm going to collect as much detail as I can about different cases of the phone being fixed with the same problem, whether rooted or not etc.

Having had a chat with a nice guy at O2 just now he's confirmed there's nothing really he can do for me now except to tell me to go to O2 if I have any problems in future, but said that he'd heard of the SDS and main boards being replaced etc. He's an iPhone user...

I guess I'll just have to "take it on the chin". But I'm still quite determined to fight a little...!
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
How did they know it was rooted in the first place? If you have SDS, they can't tell.
[Galaxy S III General] sgsboyo:
It's many pages back in this discussion where I started to tell my story. The phone hadn't died. It was restarting and freezing and I was worried that it was going to die. So I sent it off to get fixed BEFORE it did actually die.

It might never have died. But who's to say that. As it was, it was unusable so might as well have been dead.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Oh ok.

I would always recommend triangle away + Immediate flash of stock ROM before returning any rooted device. They're going to reflash it before returning it anyway, so its not like you're saving yourself from having to re-root later on.

Sorry, I had no idea how many pages ago your story started.
[Galaxy S III General] sgsboyo:
No worries. It's been dragging on for four weeks now, lol.

I can't even remember if it was rooted when I sent it off because I've had it rooted and unrooted loads since I bought it, and I'd been flashing and reflashing with the latest firmwares throughout December (when 4.1.2 first appeared). But the reason I didn't go to any extreme measure to ensure it was looking like stock was because I thought the European Directive thing would cover it anyway (as discussed elsewhere on here).

As it turns out, the European Directive may well cover it, but Samsung are point blankly refusing to accept it. And that's the bit that I'm gearing up to fight them over. I may well burn out long before I get anywhere with it, but...
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Yeah I hear what you're saying. It's particularly annoying when they use the "rooted clause" to get out of warranty when its something that's obviously a hardware caused fault. I had also read somewhere that Samsung would fix all the SDS issues regardless of root.

It's hard to trust a companies word though.
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
If u have your data from the internal sd then you still have old main board. I had to reinstall everything from TB as even my nandroid backup wouldn't install properly.
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
Cause in the german boards we advised the users to "let the phone do what it wants" and to NOT reset the phone in the freeze state until it unfreezes itself. (5-25 minutes)

And in 90% we get positive feedback that the freezes are gone _much_ less or even are completely gone.

Even I had 5-10 freezes per day and since I gave the phone the chance to unfreeze itself I maybe have 1 freeze per week.

I can't say why, but I can say for sure that its worth a try.

I dumped a kernel log after unfreeze and you can see, that the kernel RESTARTS the eMMC. See here.

W/ 4587.514336 c0 mmc0: it occurs a critical error on eMMC it'll try to recover eMMC to normal state
....
V/ 4587.850296 c0 mmc0: recovering eMMC has been done

And if you analyse the Sudden Death fix, you can see that the fix puts the eMMC in a endless loop in a specific state. See here. Loc4030A jumps pemanently to Loc3040A. Endless loop.

So I assume cause of the fix the eMMC ends in a endless loop in some rare situations which causes the freeze until the kernel resets the eMMC.

Maybe the EXT filesystem marks this then as "bad" sectors and from then on it doesn't try to access them again. Maybe someone how knows more about filesystem can say something regarding this.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
This is one of the most informative posts I've come across in this thread! Thanks a ton!
[Galaxy S III General] zyclops1:
I opened the camara to shoot some craxy act's of my kitten,after shooting two.shots,device screen offed immediately,so power button,middle button,volume up and down not working(+back button and menu button)

So I removed the battery and re insert

The battety,device started no problems yet.

And shooted photos not saved.

Is that a sign of S.D????? :(:(:(:(:(
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
<sarcasm>Yes.</sarcasm>

And please stop spamming.
[Galaxy S III General] cristian274:
Thanks a lot for your very useful information. So that it means XELLA can actually fix SDS?
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
See here, which versions can prevent SDS:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2091045

But if you already have a dead phone, then there is nothing to repair.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
We still don't know the exact final cause of SDS. This would be more of a preventative measure and best practice if experiencing odd symptoms on the run up to SDS.

It wouldn't have cured my SDS because it was left over night for several hours in a "dead state". These freezes may well be symptoms of SDS, but they are not the final ultimate symptom of death.
[Galaxy S III General] xONEalpha:
What happened:

I was working late while reading WhatsApp groups messages from time to time. I noticed the battery reached ~30% then decided to charge the phone. Few minutes later, all of sudden Samsung logo appeared, I thought it was restarting but it keeps freezing on that screen.

What I noticed:

1. Few minutes before it died, I noticed the performance was poor. I disabled "power saving" to unleash the processor and see what happen. My S3 looked as if it was gaining some power then losing it (works fine, then slows and almost freeze at some point). this is when I decided to leave it charging. I spent many years troubleshooting PCs, I'm new to PDAs but I felt that there's big thing happening (due to its strange behavior) and the phone will show that sooner or later!

2. I can't access recovery mode. Only download mode is accessible.

3. in download mode, product name is empty

I've tried to flash it but with no success so far. details here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2133661

is that the sudden death thing :confused: :(
[Galaxy S III General] emelsk:
Most definitely yes...
[Galaxy S III General] xONEalpha:
thanks for your reply

Now, what's next? I don't want to send it to Samsung since it had sensitive data even if it is not accessible. I prefer to be confident that everything is with me, and trashed by me if needed. what part need to be replaced or fixed? it seems that's hardware failure. will Jtag fix this issue?
[Galaxy S III General] camil:
I think you should sent it to samsung. It's the only way from my knowledge. Jtag won't fix it (but you can try if you have one). The motherboard need to be replaced, and therefore they can't look in your data since the eMMC is dead
[Galaxy S III General] blyx21:
What rom (stock or custom) are you using before sds?

Kernel? Recovery?
[Galaxy S III General] xONEalpha:
@camil

thanks, but how can I tell if eMMC is completely dead?

everything is stock except I rooted it for ProxyDroid to work. then I updated to 4.1.1 few months ago OTA after that I rooted it again for ProxyDroid. I checked if there's new update two weeks ago and there was 4.1.2 I guess, but I couldn't update because it's rooted. So, I was lazy and decided to update it later. however, you can see what happened now ..
[Galaxy S III General] camil:
from what you describe is a clearly SDS case, so eMMC is very dead
[Galaxy S III General] ajobbins:
There seems to be two different types of SDS, yes?

The one I have, where the phone will boot to the first logo screen but no further, can't get into recovery mode but can get to download mode, but in download mode the product name is missing and and the system status shows 'custom'. Can't flash via Odin because you get a PIT error. (Mine was 100% stock, no root, running 4.1.1 when it died at 226 days young.)

On the other hand, most people here seem to be reporting their phone is 100% dead. Won't respond or show anything at all.
[Galaxy S III General] philgalaxs3:
Thanks for all this information.

you got 90% positive feedback : how many total feedbacks did you get ?

For those (I am) not familiar with kernel log exam, could pls tell us what are the numbers on the left (4587.514336 ...).

Thks
[Galaxy S III General] DualJoe:
That's a time delta. W/ is Warning and /V Verbose.
[Galaxy S III General] sodeknetters:
The type of sds you got might be less likely to be reported here but I believe its a very common error.

Mine had the same and I have seen lots of them in the early stages of this thread
[Galaxy S III General] skibadee:
Quick question :

I am planning on putting a note in with my phone when it goes back for warranty repair. Basically I don't want them to just re flash it and not change the board, then possibly having to return it a 2nd time.

Is it ok to mention you have re flashed the stock rom with Odin, or does that invalidate the warranty as much as being rooted would, should I only have used Kies officially?
[Galaxy S III General] electrotune1200:
You don't even know what Odin is, or what it's used for.... And have no idea what root is in the slightest.

The less they know the better.
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
Best to feign complete ignorance of anything and everything. Tech support usually doesn't appreciate tech advice from "consumers".
[Galaxy S III General] sak500:
Just tell them you've heard that the main boards of SDS phones are getting replaced and want the same thing and not just new firmware.
[Galaxy S III General] alexsmith2709:
I phoned Samsung to get an update on my repair today (as some of you know i had the sudden death which left me with no power at all). They have replaced the main board with no questions asked and its on its way back to me all done under warranty.

If there is any paper work with it when i get it (either today or tomorrow) i'll keep people that want to know updated on what exactly was done.

I had UltimaROM installed and used Odin to flash 3 or 4 times so if they were going to complain about void warranty they would have had the chance.

This is good news for all worried they cannot get a repair under warranty.
[Galaxy S III General] philgalaxs3:
Thks, but what is the unit ? 4587.850296 - 4587.514336 = 335*960 is it miliseconds ?
[Galaxy S III General] Joan1346:
Information Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300 Sudden Death

Hello, I was reading that the sudden death of the GS3 only affects device with a manufacturing date of March to July of 2012.

Then came the firmware 4.1.2 XXELLA with android in the month of November and December and that supposedly with this would be corrected this problem in the device according to reports Samsung.

In my country Dominican Republic released the Android 4.1.2 Firmware ( I9300UBELL6-1356928576 ) and i would like to know if this is corrected with the sudden death of my S3 because I do not want that happening to me at 5 or 6 months that this problem occurs.

This are my data from my cellular phone please confirm the information:

AP: I9300UBELL6

CP: I9300UBELL1

CSC: I9300DORELL1

RF CAL: 2012.7.29

HW REV.: MP 1.100

Model Number:

GT-I9300

Android Version:

4.1.2

Baseband Version:

I9300UBELL1

Kernel Version:

3.0.31-767276

se.infra@SEI-75 #1

SMP PREEMPT Mon Dec 31 13:32:27 KST 2012

Build Number:

JZO54K.I9300UBELL6
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
The unit is seconds. I think since kernel boot.

If you analyse it, maybe check the complete log I have linked in that post.

@JOAN1346:

Yes, this firmware contains the SD-Fix already, so you should be safe.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] avrupali17:
perseus 29.1 koruma sağlar mı
[Galaxy S III General] philgalaxs3:
Is that Turkish ? :confused: I have thanked u by mistake ... would know where u are ...

---------- Post added at 06:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------

So seconds and miliseconds afer the dot ?

I had a look on the log : several lines like :

c0 mmc0: cmd_strt_bit not released for 11sec ! does this match freezes ?
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
No, these freezes are typically around 5-25 minutes in frozen state.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] rand0m_insanity:
Mine lasted hours. It was pretty annoying and scary back then. It happens so randomly, but these random freezes happen exactly when I badly needed to use my phone.

So I sent my device for repair and it took several visits and hours of wasted time to convince them that the freezes were in fact hardware related, not software. (They flashed and reflashed my phone with stock firmware for like three times!)

It was unlucky that during the times I sent my phone for repair, I couldn't get it to freeze in front of them. They probably thought I was some noob dude who got his first smartphone. Lol

Anyway, in spite of me letting the phone "unfreeze" itself, it still would freeze on me. It was unacceptable. So if you guys experience the same thing, I would suggest that you guys have the board replaced while still under warranty. Nobody knows how the defective chip affects the phone down the line with the patch/fix in place.
[Galaxy S III General] :
SGS3 Sudden Death, manufacturing date ?

Hello,

This is total confusion!

For the moment I've only read that devices that have a risk of sudden death

are those the EMMC chip type VTU00M 0x1f, never depending on the date of manufacture of the device.

Who can clarify and give details please

thank you
[Galaxy S III General] anirmj:
Dead S3

Hey guys...

Add me up as another one who got on the "Dead S3" bandwagon. Had a rooted S3. Was working fine without any issues. After close to 100 days, one fine day I went to sleep and when I woke up, my S3 had boot loop. Tried everything under the sun to restore, but failed. Finally took it to the service center and they replaced the board. Had to pay for it (as I was unable to install stock rom etc. due to the glitch).

Even though I had rooted it, but I never played around with the cpu/gpu settings. It was a manufacturing defect (as legitimate users are also facing the same issue), but I had to pay for it because of the root.

Samsung should have replaced the board within warranty, by accepting the manufacturing defect, but instead I had to pay for their error. This has severely eroded my faith in the company. I will definitely look at other brands next time that I purchase a mobile, before blindly jumping in to Samsung..
[Galaxy S III General] Aklesunio:
1) Do all galaxy s3's with eMMC : VTU00M and FW Rev: 0xF1 have sds?

2) Is it really necessary to update my recovery? I have the updated kernel as I am running omega v38.

Thanks
[Galaxy S III General] samydroid:
I feel sorry for what happened with you. How did they figure out that it was rooted? And all android manufacturers would refuse to repair your set under warranty if its rooted, no matter which brand you choose.
[Galaxy S III General] aalvico:
I thought that after sds was not possible to access the memory to know what had there... so from where samsung get the information?

Edit:

I just answering myself thinking is one of that cases that is possible to go to download mode after sds ...so if necessary is there a way to make it completely not work (without destroy ;) )
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
Read the first post and follow the links its all explained there
[Galaxy S III General] sgsboyo:
Join the club. I'm seriously p*ssed off that I had to pay to get mine fixed. And my next phone may very well be another brand (and so will my future TVs etc).

---------- Post added 7th February 2013 at 12:13 AM ---------- Previous post was 6th February 2013 at 11:32 PM ----------

Galaxy S, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3, 19" Samsung TV, 26" Samsung TV, 32" Samsung TV, Galaxy Tab GT-P7510, plus my latest Samsung purchase (another S2 to tide me over while I've been without my S3). All the Samsung items I've bought over the past decade or so.

Got a reply to my email I sent them last week saying they are sorry for the problems I've had, they hoped to keep me as a valued customer, their decision stands (ie that my warranty is void) but they look forward to my continued custom. Well, I'm sorry but I wouldn't count on it, Samsung. And I'm aware that me boycotting their products is neither here nor there to a company the size of theirs, but I'm not giving my hard earned dosh to a company who thinks that little of their customers.

Will have to investigate what's available next time my mobile contract is due for renewal next year.

:mad:
[Galaxy S III General] :
hi guys,

In this thread we learn many things, but the situation seems still has me confused.

Today we know if the devices are only those keys are chip vtu00m 0x1f, because I also hear of date?

A do we understand what happens in the process of sudden death?

Is what we can say today that the latest firmware XXELLA,

protects devices against incrimnines bug sudden death, without any problem, such as freeze problems?

Thank you for trying to make a synthesis that can help to understand this problem.

Thanks
[Galaxy S III General] :
VTU00M firmware date

I've just discover this thread :

"The patch additionally checks that the firmware date is 2012/04/13 and only applies the commands then.

So you need type: VTU00M revision: 0xf1 and internal firmware date of 2012/04/13 for the bug to have an effect. The date which eMMC brickbug checker reads is the production date as it seems.

So there might be phones with VTU00M/0xf1 out there which are not affected, I don't know if that makes sense in regard that if the revision would even be the same then. "

emmc brickbug ckecker said to me:

Type: VTU00M

Date: 08/2012

CID: 150-------

Fwrev: 0x1f

Yes Insane Chip. Really ?

Is what I acts as a real affect?
[Galaxy S III General] Rob2222:
Yes, you are affected. 08/2012 is PRODUCTION date, NOT firmware date.

BR

Rob
[Galaxy S III General] :
Thank's
[Galaxy S III General] T0xic4u:
AW: **Ultimate GS3 sudden death thread**

@toni84200

we made a test and found out, that every tested device with VTU00M & 0XF1 had internal firmware 13.04.2012.

So I'm really sure that every VTU00M 0XF1 is affected.

Taper di Tap with my S3 @206 days
[Galaxy S III General] mikey_sam:
s3

does the current batch of the s3 's suffer from the sudden death too? does it make sense to buy one now?
[Galaxy S III General] samydroid:
Yes, it does make sense. My bro recently bought S3 and its emmc's firmware is 0xf7 which isn't affected by SDS.
[Galaxy S III General] KillerElohim:
One more for the clube....

With the last rom, from germany, root. Yesterday start to slow down, today work fine, all the sudden is dead!!! Yeeee

Doesn´t turn on, already change the batt...is dead!!

Thank you Samsung....
[Galaxy S III General] Thin_Bezel:
Looks like everything is going fine now :)
[Galaxy S III General] SimonCraddock:
Similar story. Loosing confidence in Samsung now.
[Galaxy S III General] Kangburra:
Loosing? As in, not tight, I think you mean losing but you never know.
[Galaxy S III General] wednesday13:
Why isn't Samsung issuing a recall? I bet more than 60% with 16gb I know experienced this issue, so what more outside xda?
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
Think about it before making that sort of statement. How would you do that and why. Isn't it better to find a fix and repair as required. If it was your business would you cause unnecessary panic and ruin your reputation, I don't think so. If it was something that was dangerous that would be another matter .
[Galaxy S III General] Kangburra:
Agreed, car manufacturers can't risk it, phone manufacturers can. Also a lot of people might not know it was not their fault and therefore replace it at their expense.
[Galaxy S III General] Volsfan:
Just got mine back from the Thai service center with a new board. Now I have the x7 firmware. Covered under warranty even though i was rooted.
[Galaxy S III General] eggman89:
Got my dead 16gb S3 back from Service center.

They replaced the Motherboard with a new 32 GB one.

Took about 3 days.
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
Lucky b*stard :p
[Galaxy S III General] jshashwat93:
What about people like me who got SD once after 6 months of using the phone, got it replaced with a new MB but of the same affected firmware? After 6 months what am i supposed to do when i do not have warranty anymore?
[Galaxy S III General] pickandwhammy:
Be one of the ~0.1% whom Samsung doesn't even give a damn about.
[Galaxy S III General] jeffnz:
I'm not sure i understand your point and why, if they supplied you a faulty replacement, knowingly, it wouldn't be covered.

The point I was trying to make is that a recall is totally impractical given the numbers that could be at risk, also it isn't really known if the patch has fixed it or exactly what happened.

Frustrating as this may be to some I fail to see that anything would be gained by a recall except more frustration and those that have an app or mod that causes FC's and rush off to get it replaced finding that because its custom rom they aren't covered.

Posting these type of comments only causes anger and achieves little, just wait and see what transpires as there are a lot of people on here working for free to better understand what is/has happened and how to fix it if at all
[Galaxy S III General] wednesday13:
Of course from if I was Samsung, I won't issue a recall because it would be a big loss to revenue. I won't release sources since only xda community demands for it which is a small chuck of sales.

I would focus more on releasing new phones since I'm selling like hotcakes right now.

Bad business practices, cheap labor, how will I pay lower taxes. I would do that to maximize profit.

What I'm taking about is why they don't identify which chips are affected (already identified on the brick check app) and issue a recall. Isn't that easy?
[Galaxy S III General] offgrey:
They could do that, but a software update that gives a workaround for the issue is so much easier to do than recalling all the affected phones they've sold. The only issue I have with them is the fact that not all of their service centers are in the know regarding SDS. There are still service centers which claim that it's a user-caused problem and then claim that it invalidates their warranty. If they had been replacing Mobos without questions if it shows the symptoms of SDS at their own cost then I'd actually be defending Samsung for how they've handled this problem all the way.
[Galaxy S III General] Northern-Loop:
Well you are in the sudden death thread :p Semi bricks and bricks due to flashing roms shouldnt be in here.

The sudden death fault is you are reading emails/using the phone - Put it down and it will never come back on.
[Galaxy S III General] Ohamn:
That's exactly what happened to me.

It worked just fine (Youtubing like mad) working a little, phone went into lock screen, screen off, tried to wake the phone up to no avail.

Perhaps I should have stated this in my first post! :o

// Ohamn
[Galaxy S III General] Northern-Loop:
If you didn't flash anything then sounds like yours is about to die but its holding on....only just :p
[Galaxy S III General] b0gd4n:
is the lte version suffering from this as well?
[Galaxy S III General] MalboX:
We are a few in this situation (whitebait, Vrykyl, Ohamn, myself...).

Not sure if this is "pre sudden death syndrome" but it is definitely same "death" result ;)

I hope Samsung will accept all our phones in warranty.