Samsung Galaxy S3 Problems

Sonics2k wrote: »

The issue cannot be pinned down to a specific batch of S3's though, nor even a specific batch of the motherboard itself.

It's a seemingly random occurance that cannot be detected without an app or being sent off.

The only way Samsung could have removed them all is if they recalled every single S3 in the world that was made more than 9 months ago. Which was about 30 million at the time.

The -vast- majority of S3 owners will never experience this problem.

They could have been proactive and rolled out an app to detect the fault and put a procedure in place for repair or replacement for the defective products. But they didnt probably because they were hoping most people with the defective phones would simply think it was wear and tear and upgrade to the S4.

Sonics2k wrote: »

Should maybe read up on this whole thing.

Samsung came out and admitted to the problem the moment it was confirmed and offered to replace the device immediately for anyone with it.

Anyway, the app can give false readings quite often. It said mine was fine when it wasn't, and when I tested it on our demo one at work it said it was damaged, which it isn't.

Actually I did google the issue and on no discussion board or website did I see that Samsung are offering replacement phones. I see articles saying they will replace the motherboard which considering the device is under warranty is really just our original rights on purchase. Fair play if they are replacing the phones but can you point me to a link that says they will replace the phone.

heyheyhey1982 wrote: »

Will finemenders replace the motherboard if you insist its tge problem ?

In my case, they spent a few days looking at it, decided they weren't qualified to repair a "level 3" fault, sent it to some other crowd in Dublin who replaced the board, then it went back to fone menders to be "cross checked" and updated, before being sent back to me. So, no, fone menders won't do it because they're not qualified to do it. But they'll handle the case for you.

Tbh, if you could just go straight to whoever they sent it to, you'd be much better off.

After it was "checked" by them, it was sent back to me with firmware that was 4 months out of date. I contacted Samsung directly and they said it should not have been sent out with such old software, especially seeing as how the new software was part of the fix. Samsung suggested sending it back to fone menders to get the latest version flashed. Needless to say, I wasn't going to have that. I found a new firmware update online and did it myself.

Limerick man wrote: »

My S3's battery life is crap.

I could plug it out at half seven and come 5 o clock it could nearly be dead. And I might have used it for a max of ten mins during the day.

Any idea?

Lots of things could be causing that. It sounds like unusually high battery drain. Get the better battery stats app and see of that helps identify the culprit.

Have you done the normal things like turning screen brightness down, turning off Bluetooth, GPS, wifi and 3G when they're not needed? Also, google plus and google now have a tendency to be doing lots of sh*t in the background unless you're really on top of how you use them.

waynegalway wrote: »

Lots of things could be causing that. It sounds like unusually high battery drain. Get the better battery stats app and see of that helps identify the culprit.

Have you done the normal things like turning screen brightness down, turning off Bluetooth, GPS, wifi and 3G when they're not needed? Also, google plus and google now have a tendency to be doing lots of sh*t in the background unless you're really on top of how you use them.

If I turned all those of it would render the phone useless?

waynegalway wrote: »

Arguably . But why have them on if you're not using them. Try an app called juice defender. It cuts out the wifi and 3g when the screen is off, and turns them back on a soon as you wake the screen up. Works wonders.

I'll chance that and report back tomorrow. Thanks.

Although, if I was chatting to someone on facebook, would i have to constantly check to phone to see if a message has come through?

Downloaded that juice defender and the battery seems to be at around 65% where as it would normally be almost dead!

Thanks for that, I'll see how it lasts the evening and tomorrow.

So turned off my Galaxy s3 today for an exam.

Went in, sat the paper. Turned it back on, and it isn't detecting my sim card.

I tried restarting, cleaning the sim ect. Anyone else got recommendations

Edit. Other sims also not working. My sim works in other phones.

Yep, thats a hardware fault. Will need to be replaced.

Do a factory reset just in case but that sounds like hardware.

Its a defect so you dont need to claim insurance, they're legally obliged to repair or replace, which will mean a new motherboard or a new phone.

I suppose if the SDS hit the right part of the system partition it could prevent the OS from interfacing with the SIM. Just a guess though. Try this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.vinagre.android.emmc_check

Using the EMMC check app from play, you can see if your eMMC is the VTU00M 0XF1 (affected chip).

Please note:

1) this app is for the S2. Use it ONLY to check the version.

2) nothing you see in this app will change once you apply a fix. It simply gives you the version. If you expect 0xf1 to change to something else, you are mistaken. Only replacing the motherboard will do that.

Further to this, Technical (rooted) users who don't mind flashing a kernel and running terminal commands can additionally check their firmware date, to see if they are 100% accurately affected (returning result "2"). Please can people who do this, post their result along with their production date (date of manufacture) found in the EMMC check app?

I dont know a huge amount about the SDS(mines safe, phew) but basically the memory controller can just bite the bullet at any time. AFAIK some users get problems before it goes though, this may be a symptom of that.

In any case, you want the phone replaced. Hopefully they can do an on the spot swap for you but its probably going to have to be verified by the service centre first. They have a habit claiming faulty phones are fine, so you may have to fight your corner. Good luck.

I've backed up my contacts to my google account & did a lot of tidying over the last few days. So now iv a list of phone contacts & a duplicate list associated with my google & they are each linked. Is there anyway to get around the prompt when selecting a contact to send a text? It basically asks which number i want to use & i see the same one twice? I'm wondering if i just delete everything off the phone & just have a list from google, but will deleting the phone list wipe google? Should i just break the link? Is there any point to having them linked if they are the same?

EDIT: i seperated one contact to check & when i go to sent a message i now see it twice on the list. Contacts list when adding to a text bascally shows all contacts for all locations/accounts including email addresses, thats annoying

EDIT 2: sorted, i just deleted everything from the phone side. Now i just have one set of google contacts.

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Ok, this could be more an android problem but it's on a sg3.
So my galaxy started freezing randomly and restarting on its own last week, with the odd error message saying that Googleapps or google+ or Android processes have stopped. It also seems to be forgetting any wifi networks and have to rescan.
I've just uninstalled the most recent apps I've installed and I'll see how that affects it.
Anyone else having this issue and also any good back up app recommendations for an unrooted phone?