[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshootin] Amb669:
System Specs: Galaxy S4 Canadian i337m OTA 4.3 (jfltecan), carrier is Bell, stock Samsung firmware, stock kernel (use wicked rom 9.1 sometimes too)

WARNING:

lot's of reading so go grab a coffee and have a cigarette before you sit down to read this, you'll probly be here for awhile;)

The rom/fix in question: MDOB rom/i337m fix - here's a link to both.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2280556

first off i'd like to mention this phone was 100% perfect on stock Samsung rom 4.2.2 using Ktoonsez KT-SGS4 kernel for many months, until the day I installed this dreaded MDOB 4.2.2 rom and the "fix" that came with it

everything went bad on me back while I was running 4.2.2 stock unlocked boot loader and could never get it back to normal so this isn't a issue caused by 4.3 knox or 4.3 itself that i'm currently using. (i'm stuck on 4.3 roms but had this issue way before 4.3 existed)

i'm having an extreme amount of issues AFTER installing the MDOB rom, even after changing rom back to stock (flashed back to stock rom with ktoonsez kernel which is what I was using before I installed MDOB rom and phone has been royaly screwed ever since that day) more specifically I think it happened from the "i337M fix" that's included with the rom, either way after installing this rom I've never been able to get my phone back to normal.

everything runs fine except until I install a custom kernel (Ktoonsez KT-SGS4 kernel) then all hell breaks loose.

I don't blame the kernels or my current rom since I've ran this before for many months until the day i installed MDOB rom on my phone my phone was a dream machine.

issues since this rom has been installed include:

Issues:

A. RANDOM SLEEPS OF DEATH (phone shuts off or freezes)

B. random freezing while trying to turn on phone or enter recovery

C. some kernels won't work proper (specifically ktoonsez KT-SGS4 kernel) example gpu stuck at max while idle and downclocking when screen is touched with this kernel

D. wifi won't work with custom kernel on stock 4.3 rom without build prop edit to ro.securestorage.support, although it should

E. weak wifi and mobile signals

F. bad battery life

G. bad call quality

H. More that I can't remember off the top of my head

here's my flashing process, in attempts to remove as much as possible:

I know a few of these steps are probly pointless but hey can't blame me for trying.

step 1. enable usb debugging & unknown sources

step 2. install root & recovery

step 3. fresh boot phone let files settle so they can save (5mins or more) then plug into computer while turned on and delete everything

step 4. reboot into TWRP recovery (version 2.6.3.1) and clear everything, full advanced wipe, factory reset, format data than clear cache/dalvik afterwards just to be sure

step 5. remove SD card plug into computer and format to make sure there's nothing

step 6. install rom

step 7. (sometimes) clear cache/dalvik/permissions after rom install, although fix permissions seems to break my permissions rather than fix them or maby my permissions just break during flashing and I just can't fix them (haven't tested enough to be 100% sure)

i'm SOOO temped to try a full nand erase since i noticed there ARE still lot's files on my phone directory even after wiping, but i know that isn't a good idea;(

once stock kernel is back on my phone these issues are all gone.

Ktoonsez says it's not his kernel (used to work before, so i have no reason not to believe him), he says it's the rom well i'm on 100% stock Samsung rom (exception of kernel) and the rom was built to act the way it does so you can't really blame the rom so who do i blame??

until i went to go try wicked rom and flash back to stock I didn't realize these things were still on here, but now they emerge! wicked rom was giving me some (unrealated?) issue so i decided ima go back to stock so i flashed stock rom via odin (pc) and right away i noticed the 4G symbol, Samsung wallet, desktop not setup proper (no shortcuts) this ONLY happens when switching from wicked rom to stock rom on the first flash, i flash again everything looks how it should, and in order to get it to do this again i have to flash back to wicked rom and flash stock rom again and BAM it happens.

i knew my issue started on the same day that i installed this MDOB rom but after doing a full wipe and MANY "fresh" stock rom installs later i stopped questioning the rom and just lived with a crap phone that reboots itself all the time and has bad battery life, AS SOON AS I SEEN THE SAMSUNG WALLET bam it hit me like a truck, IT WAS THE MDOB ROM INSTALL.

UNLESS stock Samsung rom comes with wallet preinstalled and hidden on stock/wicked roms than the ONLY other way it coulda got on my phone is from the MDOB rom.

I can wipe/delete/factory reset/flash with twrp & odin on pc all I want, my roms are still messed up after FRESH installs. I believe there is still left over files from this rom/fix, I didn't think there would be anything until I noticed when i'm flashing from wicked rom back to complete stock rom using odin on pc I experience things from MDOB rom (while It should be 100% stock after odin (pc) flash, but it's not)

after the first flash from going from wicked rom back to stock I always experience the following "bug" i'll call it a bug since these things ALL HAPPEN AT THE SAME TIME: once I flash AGAIN all these symptoms go away until I go back to wicked rom and flash back to stock rom than right there after this first flash going from wicked rom BACK TO stock ALL these symptoms come back until I flash stock firmware AGAIN, a second time (even though I just flashed it)

Symptoms:

1. Samsung wallet appears in my apps (this was only EVER on my phone once, when I had the MDOB rom on my phone), this thing shoulda never somehow appeared back on my phone in any way shape or form after ditching the MDOB rom, but again is comes back after the first flash going from wicked rom to stock rom.

2. I get the 4G icon from MDOB rom (not the LTE icon I SHOULD have while on stock, when on wicked rom I have a little LTE icon with a tiny 4G above it, the only time I've ever had just a 4G icon (without LTE) like this is when I had MDOB rom on my phone (which is the only other rom I've run other than wicked rom and stock rom).

3. this icon ONLY shows up after the FIRST flash from wicked rom back to stock, once I install stock AGAIN than it returns to it's normal LTE icon.

4. now i'm not just *****in about an icon here, this is just a part of my problem (indicator if you will), when my rom is "bugged" after first install from wicked rom to stock rom my wifi works normal how It used too. but once corrected (flashing again) AND using custom kernel on STOCK firmware it breaks my wifi 100% broken until I use this little build prop edit fix, set ro.securestorage.support = true to false, bam wifi now working but the rest of my problems are still there (wifi used to work 100% on custom kernels and everything until MDOB rom touched my phone and left this "bug" behind)

5. when this 4G icon appears after this "first" flash back from wicked rom to stock rom I also experience something else, my wifi button works during first boot setup and auto enables itself and I have no issues with my wifi connecting (as soon as I see this toggle on I already know once my phone locks onto the network it's gonna give me a 4G icon and not an LTE icon like it should and sure as shiznit it does, as soon as I get my icon back to how it's supposed to be (LTE icon) all of a sudden wifi won't auto connect on a first boot anymore, never, 100% never. (back before installing MDOB rom I used to auto connect 100% of the time on first boot) like it does now only when it's "bugged" out.

6. apps are missing, when this "bug" appears there's no app shortcuts on the desktop of my phone by default after fresh flash like there should be, sometimes they appear on first flash once in awhile (some apps might not even be installed? or just shortcuts missing, have yet to verify)

7. it feels like the phone flashes way too fast (second flash takes longer, I think?) and more/all? apps get installed on second flash, and Samsung wallet get's REMOVED (how'd it even get there? other than bein left behind from MDOB rom, same with the 4G icon, that icon isn't in either of the two roms I use so how does it get there? and ONLY at the same time the wallet magically appears and the rest of this stuff)

8. when this 4G icon appears my phone seems to be great except for the fact that I know my rom didn't install properly since i'm still missing apps ect, once I flash again, apps appear, Samsung wallet DISappears, 4G icon gets replaced with LTE icon and everything is A-OK until custom kernel is installed, remember this is NOT the kernels fault as it ran 100% perfect for many months ON THIS PHONE until the day this MDOB rom was installed, and it's had these issues ever since.

some of the things I've tried:

- Countless wipes, including full advanced wipe, restore to factory, data wipes

- Ton's of fresh installs of BOTH versions of 4.2.2 - now doing same with 4.3 and wicked rom 9.1

- Tried wiping using TWRP and odin mobile (flashed mobile odin via TWRP, it works incase anyone didn't know)

- Tried flashing roms using odin (pc) v1.85, v3.07, v3.09

- Downloaded new copys of roms from new sources to make sure my roms weren't corrupted in anyway

i'll hopefully edit this post and get some pics up soon and simplify my text to help you guys better understand my situation and i'll also add a list of things I've tried to fix this problem when i have time.

any thought would really be welcome, there's sooo many of us s4 users with random sleeps of death, i'm sure if we could fix this it would help out a lot of S4 users.

thanks, dustin