[Q] Thing to do when getting a fresh Galaxy S I9000 - Galaxy S I9000 General

Hi,
I'm a new Android user and I'm getting the Galaxy S I9000 tomorrow.
I would like to know the tasks to perform to have a "nice" phone aka:
- which firmware to upload (where to get it if its not on the official samsung site)
- which fixes to run (lagfix app isnt needed if proper firmware is applied right?)
- which apps to install if necessary (not gadgets but the ones that are mostly imperative to get a good experience)
- which other steps to take (eg format the phone to another file system?)
- gps fixes (?)
thanks a lot

Depends if you want to void your warranty on the first day or not.
First thing would be to update to the latest official firmware with KIES (if you can get the damn thing to recognise your phone, mine doesn't anymore...) and see if you have any problems with lag or whatever. My phone didn't have any lag once I used a 3rd party task manager. Now I have installed loads of widgets and clocks and crap like that, my phone does lag quite often, but I don't let it bother me as much as with other people.
For me, rooting isn't something I would want to do with such a new phone, I would rather wait for the official FROYO 2.2 update, if that doesn't fix the niggles I have, then I will consider it.

i dont mind the warranty but as far as i could ready going froyo isn't especially a good idea right now if i want it to be sort of stable

I mean JH2(?) or whatever the latest official one you get from KIES, not the leaked FROYO builds from samsungfirmwares. You might want to wait a month before rooting or whatever anyway just in case there's any hardware problems that might not be apparent. Things like screen issues, bluetooth, etc. You don't want to discover a dodgy bluetooth module or something like that just after you have rooted/flashed it and can't claim on the warranty.

Tachikoma_kun said:
I mean JH2(?) or whatever the latest official one you get from KIES, not the leaked FROYO builds from samsungfirmwares. You might want to wait a month before rooting or whatever anyway just in case there's any hardware problems that might not be apparent. Things like screen issues, bluetooth, etc. You don't want to discover a dodgy bluetooth module or something like that just after you have rooted/flashed it and can't claim on the warranty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea but even if he roots.. unrooting it (especially with the one click app) is extremely easy/safe.

Well as far as I could gather, hackeclair seems to be a nice rom with most things fixed inside.
I wonder still how i switch the whole phone from vfat to ext4 (if that's possible) and how to backup the original firmware (yeah forum + search = sucks, results are never what you want lol)

bilboa1 said:
Well as far as I could gather, hackeclair seems to be a nice rom with most things fixed inside.
I wonder still how i switch the whole phone from vfat to ext4 (if that's possible) and how to backup the original firmware (yeah forum + search = sucks, results are never what you want lol)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the latest factory ROM JH2 has everything working properly, unlike what you read on the rest of the forum.

AllGamer said:
the latest factory ROM JH2 has everything working properly, unlike what you read on the rest of the forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks
the phone still use vfat tho right?
I'm a linux user, and i'm wondering why it's not on ext ,i'd fear data corruption and poorer performance
i know.. not much of android, learning every minute lol. Suppose will be easier when i get the actual phone tomorrow

bilboa1 said:
thanks
the phone still use vfat tho right?
I'm a linux user, and i'm wondering why it's not on ext ,i'd fear data corruption and poorer performance
i know.. not much of android, learning every minute lol. Suppose will be easier when i get the actual phone tomorrow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no exactly, it uses linux format, well at least if you are using the Performance hack dubbed as "one click lag fix"
but for people without lag to begin with, it's just a performance boost

As far as I understood the lag fix, its putting critical files into a ext3 ("linux format") image and leaves the rest on vFat, which fixes the lag, but it's hackish, and slower than if the whole phone was ext3 or ext4. also more corruption prone
I don't know how difficult it is to build a "own" rom, since switching to full ext3/4 would mean wiping the phone

I have never experienced this so called "lag" on my phone, and I have been using it for over a month. Makes me wonder just what exactly are they trying to do on their phones...

Tachikoma_kun said:
Depends if you want to void your warranty on the first day or not..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With all due respect, this is actually questionable. I haven't seen Samsung ever officially say that rooting or installing custom firmware voids the warranty, so any chance of showing where they say that?
For rooting, they are unlikely to care, because the change is quite basic. Generally, you can simply flash an official firmware before sending to a service centre anyway. Be aware that often companies charge if problems are caused by corrupt (or beta) firmware though, or there are signs of abuse. But this is generally the same with any media player company.. If you do hand them a phone which uses I9000M firmware, not I9000 though, they probably wont be impressed
Also, if the CPU is burnt out and there is evidence of overclocking, they may possibly be reluctant to accept it under warranty.
If Samsung were TRULY concerned though, they wouldn't have allowed access to USB debugging (which is a feature used only by people messing around, and developers). It is a grey area, and obviously, it makes sense to assume they will void your warranty. HOWEVER, the phones have no way of letting anyone know if they have been rooted before and tech support has better things to do than slow down their queue to aggrevate customers for something which rarely causes an issue.
Do keep in mind though, you can't trust every rom (some may be compromised), and if you don't need root, there probably isn't much sense rooting your phone.

Well i don't mind rooting it anyways
I'll probably need it at some point to toy with it too

bilboa1 said:
Well i don't mind rooting it anyways
I'll probably need it at some point to toy with it too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup, you will find a lot of cool software will not work if not rooted, for even something as simple as a backup program.

andrewluecke said:
With all due respect, this is actually questionable. I haven't seen Samsung ever officially say that rooting or installing custom firmware voids the warranty, so any chance of showing where they say that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the email I sent them regarding removing the stock apps:
Please note that this e-mail has come from an outbound response system.
Any direct response to this e-mail will not reach the customer care
inbox. If you do need to contact us again please click on the 'contact
us' link located at the bottom of the email or copy the following into
your Browser:
http://erms.samsungelectronics.com/customer/form/contact/contact_uk.html
Dear XXXX XXXX
Customer Reference: XXXXXXXX
Thank you for contacting Samsung Electronics regarding your mobile phone.
Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your enquiry.
With regard to your e-mail, you can remove the Samsung Apps from the screen; however you will not be able to remove them fromthe phone without voiding your warranty. To remove them from the front screen, please press the application and drag it to the bottom of the screen.
I hope this has been of some assistance to you. If you do have any
further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us quoting your 210-
reference number.
Kind Regards
Ana
Samsung Electronics UK
Customer Communication Centre
Tel.: 0845 726 7864 (All calls charged at Local Rate)
Homepage: www.samsung.com/uk
[Product] GT-I9000
I mentioned the apps can be removed by rooting the device, and asked if there was a way to remove them without rooting the phone.

Interesting, but in Apple resellers, they seem to officially say the same thing (but from what I've seen, it was never enforced).

well ive got the phone now (woohoo)
i flashed it to JH2 and it's better indeed but it's the wrong model (no big deal it just works)
i got some issues with flashing, have to use a short usb cable without an possible interference else it just fail in the middle.. the phone doesnt get bricked tho, even with bad flash u can still go in download mode and flash with odin.
then i flashed with the newest froyo, and i didn't find any bug, im not sure which bugs are being talked about with it.
moreover I tested the GPS before upgrading and it sucked. I tested it after upgrade and it was perfect accuracy and much faster lock, so it looks like this firmware also fixes gps somehow
That's it for now ;p

Related

T-mobile and HTCs view on rooting?

I was thinking if anyone knew about htcs and t-mobiles view on rooting
Well, if they wanted you to do it, than they wouldn't be patching off the root access or the app. So I would reasonible believe they don't want you to. Another thing is they do not warranty work on rooted devices
What do you mean they do not warranty work on rooted devices
Meaning a rooted device loses its warranty if its sent in rooted, if its been flashed back then it still has its warranty...
I doubt Google and HTC care if we root our devices, they don't loose out, and they sell rooted phones any way (ADP1 and I think the ION is rooted too). I guess the only reason google would care is app piracy...
M..N said:
What do you mean they do not warranty work on rooted devices
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you root your phone, kiss good bye to your warranty. It really doesn't matter though, if it's a hardware issue you can unroot and they'll never know, and if it's bricked you can say it was update that bricked it.
Has anyone in the uk replace their phone successfully
M..N said:
Has anyone in the uk replace their phone successfully
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean?
I mean has anyone in the uk replaced a bricked phone caused by the new spl without any problems
HTC aren't going to bothered with what people do, neither are Google really. It's the network operators which want to tie people to their crap and have you pay for it.
The issue is with the warranty and if you broke it, Asus, for example, aren't bothered what OS you run on their hardware, but if you flash a bad BIOS then it's your fault. ATI, nVidia, Gigabyte etc encourage overclocking but won't honour warranty if it causes damage.
Google are likely to secretly want rooted phones as more network operators mangle the OS to suit themselves in the future and push their own services over Googles.
M..N said:
I was thinking if anyone knew about htcs and t-mobiles view on rooting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is that T-Mobile doesn't want rooting because it allows tethering.
Tethering generally causes an increase in data usage, and an increase in bandwidth use by the phone. This can impact T-Mobile cell towers and other T-Mobile customers if too many tethered phones are sucking up bandwidth on a particular tower.
gridlock32404 said:
Well, if they wanted you to do it, than they wouldn't be patching off the root access or the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My recollection is that that bug was patched because it allowed any app to gain root access for itself, not just the end user. Hopefully I don't need to explain why that's a bad thing. The patch didn't specifically patch out root access for the user because root access for the user was never a design feature to begin with.
M..N said:
I was thinking if anyone knew about htcs and t-mobiles view on rooting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you really want to know the official views of these companies, email or call them. Most of the members of xda-dev are not employed by/affiliated with either company, and as such it is impossible to tell if they're telling truth, passing along unverified rumor/hearsay, or just making bs up.
gridlock32404 said:
Well, if they wanted you to do it, than they wouldn't be patching off the root access or the app. So I would reasonible believe they don't want you to. Another thing is they do not warranty work on rooted devices
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also look at it like they don't care if you do it but they don't want a one click solution that will allow every freakin retard out there to do it. Think about it how many stupid questions do we get from people who used the one click vs ones who did it manually.
Also having an app with that kind of access to the phone means ANY app can have that kind of access to your phone including the bad evil kind you dream of making gridlock.
The problem with rooting is this;
Some very small number of people understand the system and can be fully self-sufficient with full root access.
And then you have the others, who want root for whatever features come with it... and some of them start messing with things they don't understand and end up in a huge mess... and then send it back for warranty work because their device doesn't work right any more. This means MUCH more support from the retailer/manufacturer. The other side of this is that if you have a whole lot of people trying things like cyanogen's latest unstable mod and show it off to a whole lot of people, and it crashed like nuts, then the people who see it don't necessarily understand that it is due to running crazy experimental stuff and instead think that 'droid itself is junk.... which is incorrect.
So preventing root access means that you have a simpler, more consistent, and more reliable environment, which means a better platform reputation and lower overall support costs.
lbcoder said:
The problem with rooting is this;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's another point of consideration. While I know I just wrote about the unverifiability of some posts on xda, i'm going to have to do a complete 180 and do just that. I can't confirm since I'm not a handset maker (nor do I work for one), but i'm quite confident in believing that in order to acquire Google's consent and software support to create a Google Experience phone, root access has to be restricted from the end user. Again that's all speculation.
lbcoder said:
The problem with rooting is this;
Some very small number of people understand the system and can be fully self-sufficient with full root access.
And then you have the others, who want root for whatever features come with it... and some of them start messing with things they don't understand and end up in a huge mess... and then send it back for warranty work because their device doesn't work right any more. This means MUCH more support from the retailer/manufacturer. The other side of this is that if you have a whole lot of people trying things like cyanogen's latest unstable mod and show it off to a whole lot of people, and it crashed like nuts, then the people who see it don't necessarily understand that it is due to running crazy experimental stuff and instead think that 'droid itself is junk.... which is incorrect.
So preventing root access means that you have a simpler, more consistent, and more reliable environment, which means a better platform reputation and lower overall support costs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good breakdown.
StanSimmons said:
My guess is that T-Mobile doesn't want rooting because it allows tethering.
Tethering generally causes an increase in data usage, and an increase in bandwidth use by the phone. This can impact T-Mobile cell towers and other T-Mobile customers if too many tethered phones are sucking up bandwidth on a particular tower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dunno about in the US, but this would most likely be T-Mobile UK's problem.
The terms of the contracts say that you can't tether with the standard net package, you need to upgrade to the next one (extra £10 instead of £5) to be able to use your 3G/HSDPA connection on the PC.
Problem is, with phones like the G1 how would they know? If it was something like an old Sony Ericsson W810 they would know straight away due to the amount you were downloading but on a G1 you can view full webpages anyway, download images etc and programs via the market. So really they have no way of knowing if you're tethering of not. Hence they want to try and stop tethering from being an option.
Fingerlicken, why would I Target a system I use, if I let out any kind of evil it would be against an Iphone.
Why does Linux have so little viruses, cause most of the hackers use linux
gridlock32404 said:
Why does Linux have so little viruses, cause most of the hackers use linux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wha? I think you have your cause and effect mixed up. Also, this thread is getting off topic.

Avoid JI6 update.

From what I gather from trolling on both XDA and the Tmo forums this update is bricking phones regardless of root, voodoo, ocfl, kernel perhaps people should avoid the update pending a more in depth investigation of what exactly is going on. If gps is needed flash the JI2 files found here and that should hold you over for now. This is a worse problem than the ones that came in the captivate and the sprint galaxy s.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I updated manually through odin and it worked just fine. I first went back to stock and started fresh. Gps test found six birds and locked on four thats the best I ever had sitting in front of my doorstep in a heavily wooded area. It would usually find at the most two and would not lock to any. So far so good.
Only speaking for myself.... I flashed it and it's fine. I hope this isn't just a bunch of people freaking out that phone stays at the Galaxy S splash screen for a while and remove the battery or something, thereby f*cking up something. But I don't doubt you.
How to fix your phone and apply the update:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=803492
My concern comes from the overwhelming amount of people that seem to have that problem I for one I'm going to play it safe and wait til a stable rom based on this release is well released.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Bernardos70 said:
Only speaking for myself.... I flashed it and it's fine. I hope this isn't just a bunch of people freaking out that phone stays at the Galaxy S splash screen for a while and remove the battery or something, thereby f*cking up something. But I don't doubt you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wasn't hanging on the Galaxy S splash screen. It was hanging at the Vibrant screen. The logcat clearly shows an endlessly looping segfault.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8525623#post8525623
I have an excerpt of the log, which is similar to another user who had the same issue.
Points of commonality so far with another user who had stock + root + brick is we both disabled the boot sounds + titanium backup + rom manager.
yespinosa said:
My concern comes from the overwhelming amount of people that seem to have that problem I for one I'm going to play it safe and wait til a stable rom based on this release is well released.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering that the people who contribute to the XDA and T-mobile forums represent a fraction of the installed base, "overwhelming" may be an overstatement.
"Lots" of people also report successful installs.
i flashed through odin, so did my roomie, and his friend got the ota. everything went smoothly. i think that we are not hearing nearly as many people that the update went well compared to those who have had issues. we all had root, blackbar mod, mobile ap, captivate camera, and i had gps from ji5. no problems. do a nandroid and put it in a safe place then go for it.
Worked fine for me as well.
yespinosa said:
From what I gather from trolling on both XDA and the Tmo forums this update is bricking phones regardless of root, voodoo, ocfl, kernel perhaps people should avoid the update pending a more in depth investigation of what exactly is going on. If gps is needed flash the JI2 files found here and that should hold you over for now. This is a worse problem than the ones that came in the captivate and the sprint galaxy s.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only people who should probably avoid the JI6 OTA, are people who fail to understand they have a responsibility for their own potential grief when they mod their phones in ways T-Mobile and Samsung cannot easily account for.
Granted we should hold T-Mobile's butt to the fire if their OTA is indeed soft bricking or hard bricking bone stock unmodified phones, but I don't see any clear evidence of this at all. And it's not too surprising either, as very few people who come here have bone stock devices, and fewer still are willing to revert to bone stock simply to test.
Rather what I see are people utilizing these wonderful forums to do wonderful things to their phones without having to have developed anything remotely approaching a keen understanding of what they've actually done. It's ridiculously easy to mod these phones without having the first clue what you're doing. This leads to many mis-perceptions which easily turn into noise.
There is a level of responsibility you have to take upon yourself if you're going to participate actively in modifying your device. For some it's just easier to deny this responsibility and quest for someone to blame. That may not always be the case, but it's clearly taking place with some few people over this OTA.
Agreed. We are an incredibly tiny segment of the universe of smartphone users out there. The vast majority of people buy an iPhone or Android make calls, sync their contacts and calendar, surf the web, email and text. If you started talking about rooting or jailbreaking they'd look at you like you're insane. The people rooting and modding their phones are a tiny minority, and we assume all the risk when we do it because this is not normal and customary use of the phone. Most people use their phones stock, and people who don't are assuming the risk of things going bad.
I'm fairly convinced after the Captivate OTA fiasco that you put your phone at real risk of not being able to get successful OTAs if you flash custom ROMs or kernels. The deepest I'm willing to go is rooting and lagfixing, but even then I know I'm playing with uncertainty.
masterotaku said:
The only people who should probably avoid the JI6 OTA, are people who fail to understand they have a responsibility for their own potential grief when they mod their phones in ways T-Mobile and Samsung cannot easily account for.
Granted we should hold T-Mobile's butt to the fire if their OTA is indeed soft bricking or hard bricking bone stock unmodified phones, but I don't see any clear evidence of this at all. And it's not too surprising either, as very few people who come here have bone stock devices, and fewer still are willing to revert to bone stock simply to test.
Rather what I see are people utilizing these wonderful forums to do wonderful things to their phones without having to have developed anything remotely approaching a keen understanding of what they've actually done. It's ridiculously easy to mod these phones without having the first clue what you're doing. This leads to many mis-perceptions which easily turn into noise.
There is a level of responsibility you have to take upon yourself if you're going to participate actively in modifying your device. For some it's just easier to deny this responsibility and quest for someone to blame. That may not always be the case, but it's clearly taking place with some few people over this OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 to one of the most cogent comments I have ever seen here.
One footnote about the risks for ordinary end users: If T-Mobile's OTA process bricks a stock phone, apparently the carrier's typical procedure is to replace the phone. If the phone is not stock, the customer is probably on his own for a remedy. Pottery Barn rules are real. Smarphones are not cheap, and having your phone number tied to this handheld computer (or at least the carrier) by contract makes device failure harder to cope with.
Kubernetes said:
Agreed. We are an incredibly tiny segment of the universe of smartphone users out there. The vast majority of people buy an iPhone or Android make calls, sync their contacts and calendar, surf the web, email and text. If you started talking about rooting or jailbreaking they'd look at you like you're insane. The people rooting and modding their phones are a tiny minority, and we assume all the risk when we do it because this is not normal and customary use of the phone. Most people use their phones stock, and people who don't are assuming the risk of things going bad.
I'm fairly convinced after the Captivate OTA fiasco that you put your phone at real risk of not being able to get successful OTAs if you flash custom ROMs or kernels. The deepest I'm willing to go is rooting and lagfixing, but even then I know I'm playing with uncertainty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've flashed this phone more times than I can count at this point. Soft bricked it at least a dozen times. But all that self imposed grief has got me to where I am now, where I can (hopefully) reliably recover from just about anything. I still cross my fingers every time I crank up Odin3 v1.3, but I no longer visibly sweat!
We're fortunate in that these phones are surprisingly difficult to hard brick for the most part, and that given a bit of legwork one can recover from nearly any bad scenario.
It's better to flash stock ROM and then JI6 ROM manually like me and it works for me like a charm !
d01100100 said:
It wasn't hanging on the Galaxy S splash screen. It was hanging at the Vibrant screen. The logcat clearly shows an endlessly looping segfault.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8525623#post8525623
I have an excerpt of the log, which is similar to another user who had the same issue.
Points of commonality so far with another user who had stock + root + brick is we both disabled the boot sounds + titanium backup + rom manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then I don't know if what I'm about to tell you or not, but I have and use Titanium Backup and ROM Manager. Odin went through smoothly. That leaves the boot sound as the culprit. Had a couple of things metamorphed as well as mobile AP and the GPS files from JI2 installed, if that helps.
Bernardos70 said:
Then I don't know if what I'm about to tell you or not, but I have and use Titanium Backup and ROM Manager. Odin went through smoothly. That leaves the boot sound as the culprit. Had a couple of things metamorphed as well as mobile AP and the GPS files from JI2 installed, if that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even though you installed ROM manager, have you used it to install Recovery? Did you have a current ROM backup update.zip file created on your internal sdcard?
I'm just gonna throw my 2 cents in here...i did the update over an edge network and everything was fine..I have rooted then unroot and the ocl
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

My 1st gen Vibrant, advice

Hello,
I really love the screen on this phone, the hardware capabilities (720p rec, etc.) and although newer and better processors in phones are coming out I like this 1 enough to hold me over for a long time.
so here is my issue:
I purchased my vibrant about 2 weeks after came out, and the biggest problem I faced initially was the problem with the gps. At this point I have not even use gps is the first month I bought it, instead I just use google maps in follow the directions it gives me.
Since that time, I have rooted my phone. I was really happy to get the first update that was rolled out, even though it was rooted. I have heard of all the difference solutions to fix the gps but is it really worth the effort to practically void my warranty even further than rooting it by opening it up and trying to solder whatever antenna is in there.
Now I know my phone is covered under samsung warranty. I should also mention the other big problem I have with it is the battery life. If I can fix these 2 issues I would love the phone forever.
here's my question:
is it feasible and worth the effort to get my phone returned back to samsung so that the battery and gps are of the newest generation?
does anyone have experience doing this and how willing is samsung to work with me?
Finally if I do end up getting a replacement then I know I will have to un root my phone before I send it to samsung. I'm not stupid but I just haven't flashed any roms before. if I did get my phone back to stock settings, then would I lose all of the applications and I paid for and all the customization I have done to the phone (contacts, accounts, data)?
also just curious but I haven't received the 2.2 over the air update yet am I even going to get it since my phone is rooted? I figure I may as well try 2.2 before I actually send in the phone.
I know these are a lot of questions but I really like this phone and I want to get it to work.
thank you and I appreciate any suggestions or advice for me.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
New and old Vibrants alike have GPS problem.
I don't have an answer to all your questions, but what I can tell you is that you should not wait for your phone to update to 2.2 because it is an over-the-air update.
Follow these instructions if you want to update your phone:
http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/Samsu...-upgrade-to-Android-2-2-Froyo-now/td-p/678871
As far as I've heard the newer ones after 10/10 don't seem to have the same problem. It may be worth it to take it to the store and show them how bad the GPS is. They may exchange it for you. I'd unroot and go back to stock first.
That won't address the battery issue, but that's generic to most of these newer phones. You can do tweaks to get more life out of them, but that seems to be about it.
if I unroot and go back to stock is it going to erase my applications and contacts, and settings?
I bought it online so I would have to send it back to letstalk.com, I'll have to check out the return policy.
thanks for the replies.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
You will not lose your paid apps, they are tied to your google account. Use titanium backup before you unroot your phone to backup all your data, including app data. When you get your new phone, you will have to reroot and then you can restore everything from titanium.
You can try to get a warrantly replacement from Samsung rather than using letstalk, I think it's a pain to exchange with them, but I'm not sure.
As said above, Titanium backup will handle it. I have my phone from someone on this board, so I had to go directly with Samsung. Once I could get the tech support person to understand the phone just didn't work it was easier. Don't know how that would go with the GPS. Mine was for the phone not working as a phone, ie, no connection to the network.
zharptitza said:
As far as I've heard the newer ones after 10/10 don't seem to have the same problem. It may be worth it to take it to the store and show them how bad the GPS is. They may exchange it for you. I'd unroot and go back to stock first.
That won't address the battery issue, but that's generic to most of these newer phones. You can do tweaks to get more life out of them, but that seems to be about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find that to be incorrect. My Vibrant has a 11.01 (2011 January) build date on it and the gps is horrible. I've tried every rom, but I do notice the gps being a little more better with certain roms.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Here is my story:
I phone up t-mobile and say my GPS doesn't work. They made me go through a four day dance trying stuff, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
They then replaced it with a brand new phone.
And they charged me $10 shipping & handling for the new phone.
Before the phone never could reliably get and hold on to a GPS lock; afterwards it locks in seconds and never drops.
Hmm, threads I had seen were saying it was better. I have an older one that I just fixed myself. I was hoping they'd gotten their act together and fixed their antenna construction. Its such a simple thing to fix, you'd think they'd do it at the plant.
False
zharptitza said:
As far as I've heard the newer ones after 10/10 don't seem to have the same problem. It may be worth it to take it to the store and show them how bad the GPS is. They may exchange it for you. I'd unroot and go back to stock first.
That won't address the battery issue, but that's generic to most of these newer phones. You can do tweaks to get more life out of them, but that seems to be about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
False, I've personally used Vibrants made after 10/10 and the GPS is no better than ones produced earlier.
There is no change in hardware, and it has never been proven that a hardware revision on the GPS was made on phones manufactured after 10/10. Just speculation and rumor.
SamsungVibrant said:
False, I've personally used Vibrants made after 10/10 and the GPS is no better than ones produced earlier.
There is no change in hardware, and it has never been proven that a hardware revision on the GPS was made on phones manufactured after 10/10. Just speculation and rumor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I think I've got to agree on this one.
In the gps case, I really think it is really a hit or miss issue. My gps works pretty decently but my hubby's doesn't work at all. Even when we were both stock, I could lock on some birds but his was never able to. On top of that, when I flashed Nero onto my phone, my gps got even better. Granted, I don't think it would ever see a thing if it was working on standalone; but with wireless networks on, this thing would (and has) pinpoint(ed) me on a moving train accurately.
Aside from firmwares (now), the only difference between them was the build dates: his - 07/10, mine - 09/10.

[Q] Update on Furious at AT&T- NOT A RANT

Long story short; I sent the phone to a former NTSB investigator who confirmed what I already knew. Thermal damage.
The refurbished phone that they sent as a replacement was FULL of issues, so I had to have it replaced, as well. The camera would not focus, the sound recorder only recorded static, it wouldn't retain my preferences that I set in the phone, and randomly reverted to the default ringtone.
When I called back to get it replaced; I was greeted by a VERY friendly, helpful, and understanding representative who told me that the original claim WAS NOT handled properly. She overnighted a new phone and battery and asked me to return the original phone to a different address for examination. She agreed that they would probably just take one look at it and claim that it was physical damage. She reversed the charges for the replacement - even though I had the "Premium" insurance on it. She also noted that I had a written report with photos to verify that it was a manufacturing defect - with the obvious caveat that if there really was physical damage that I would have to pay the deductible. Naturally; I used my Sony video microscope to take photos of every angle of the phone, the edges, etc. - to prove that there wasn't so much as a single blemish anywhere on the phone that they could construe as being "physical damage" - aside from the obvious darkening to the inner plastic from the internal heat, and it was isolated to the rear of the display.
I got back in town early yesterday and the newest replacement was already waiting. I charged the battery and fired it up. So far; so good. Works like a champ. Bear in mind, it's been less than 24 hours...
Oddly; I didn't start having issues until AT&T forcefully crammed the firmware update down my throat. And, no; I had done no modifications - such as rooting or work-arounds to either phone. So; I actually have a legitimate question: Have any of you experienced any phantom issues with your S4's, post firmware (FM3, I think) update? I know that it gave me a message: "Updating Camera Firmware", and the camera would no longer focus. I took copious photos and videos with it and have saved them for reference. In the videos; you can see that the camera is constantly zooming in and out of focus - even though it was stationary, aimed at a fixed subject, and at a very reasonable distance. Many of my downloaded programs also no longer worked, or would freeze up for no apparent reason. They all had worked perfectly prior to the update, as well as on my previous Motorola Atrix HD. They still are working perfectly on the Atrix HD that I passed down to my kids, after I unlocked it, rooted it, and installed the Pac-Man 4.3 ROM. When I got the first replacement S4; it kept prompting me to download the firmware update, and I kept denying permission - in the event that I felt frisky enough to do some fancy footwork on it later down the road. One morning I woke up and it had a message on the screen: "Software Update Successful!" After I angrily cleared that screen, it gave me the message about updating my camera firmware. Now; I'd only had it a day or so, so I can't verify that everything was working properly before - it just seemed to be OK.
My next question is: Is there any way to block them from updating this phone, and constantly bombarding me and forcing me to install useless "bloatware" that I'll never use and only uses up more of my internal memory. I have the 32GB S4 so it's not a huge issue, but it's obnoxious, at the very least that they think that they know better than I do what I want to be installed on my phone. I can hide them, uninstall the updates and put them out of sight, but they're there, none the less, and I don't want them! Yeah; I know I agreed to their terms, but that just seems downright controlling and unfair. And, by the way; even if I do hide them, and uninstall the updates; they magically reappear in a few days and it seems like I'm constantly receiving messages prompting me to update them. Even if I decline; they download anyway. Sort of a "Wash, Rinse, Repeat" scenario.
OK; after my last nasty rant, I expect (and deserve) some nasty feedback, but I'd really appreciate any suggestions or insight to these issues. Any similar experiences? I'd been foaming at the mouth waiting to get this phone, but it seems like it's been one terrific headache after another. I've only owned Motorola phones (since 1985) until now. Motorola now seems lackluster compared to the newer models or I'd have never jumped ship. Now; it seems like I made a $700.00 mistake. I really hope I'm wrong and just unfamiliar with other manufacturers equipment. Save me from myself!
Thanks, everyone!
Nukesnooper
The Samsung updates are kind of like the old "Window Updates needs to restart, postpone for X hours." But if you leave it there, then it will reboot by itself. Kind of like this updated by itself. The only way to avoid updates is rooting the phone and freezing or deleting that service, or of course, changing ROMs. (But I believe you're on MF3 firmware now so..)
Other than that, can't say much as I have the T-Mobile variant.
If you have MDB or MDL firmware do this. It will stop AT&T updates. I would freeze anything that even looks like a Samsung updater also.
Link Here
Thanks!
~wolverine~ said:
If you have MDB or MDL firmware do this. It will stop AT&T updates. I would freeze anything that even looks like a Samsung updater also.
Link Here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the next obvious question is: "How?" I don't want to root the phone yet, but didn't think you could freeze any of their apps without rooting or modifying the stock firmware. I'm afraid to do any mods to it until I know it's going to be a stable device - and hence; not taking any chance of voiding my warranty. Sorry for what's probably a dumb question, but I'm new to modifying phones.
Also; what is the best way to sterilize the phone that I'm returning of contacts, remnants of uninstalled programs, etc?
Added: It already has the MF3 update installed. Grrr!
Thanks again!
NS
nukesnooper said:
Also; what is the best way to sterilize the phone that I'm returning of contacts, remnants of uninstalled programs, etc?
Added: It already has the MF3 update installed. Grrr!
Thanks again!
NS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A factory reset from settings/accounts/backup & restore will wipe out all that. I would think it would be safe to do that with MF3, but I'm no expert. You might want to get other opinions also.
ptguca cross
~wolverine~ said:
A factory reset from settings/accounts/backup & restore will wipe out all that. I would think it would be safe to do that with MF3, but I'm no expert. You might want to get other opinions also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great until I went to confirm that I was going to delete everything in my brain and give them a pint of virgin blood; then it asked for a "New Password" and wouldn't give me anything but a numeric keypad. Huh??? Sup wid dat? It wouldn't delete ANYTHING until I confirmed my "password" which isn't numeric at all, but gave me no other options. I'm going to try booting it up from "off" and see if there's a way to do it from there. FEAR.

Galaxy S4 - A couple of questions!

Hey guys from XDA, I joined this forum a while back to download the S6 port firmware to S4, as I rooted my phone during that period and was excited to try out new things: I wanted to talk to the developer (Albe95) about some question, since I was (and still am) a bit afraid that any mistake would make my phone a useless brick.
Things went smoothly, he helped me and I thanked him for that, playing with my new ROM. Eventually I stopped browsing XDA but I came back to ask this, since a lot of people talk good about you guys.
After a couple of months I wanted to try out the famous CyanogenMod, which looked really cool and, since I knew what to do already, installed it with no problems whatsoever.
What to say? It's actually stable but I want to make my phone new again at the same time.
Now, my phone has a few problems which I'm aware of, but I don't know any fix to them, so here's a few questions that I'd appreciate if you could answer them.
N°1: when I first rooted my phone I remember I flashed a rooted stock rom (I vaguely remember that, so I might be wrong) whom Android version was 5.0.1 to root it. After done such, I noticed the rear camera (the one mostly used to take selfies, hehe) would crash whenever I switch to it in the Camera app. I just went on with it since I'm not really a selfie-obsessed kind of person but still I don't mind the occasional mirror . After a while, I installed the firmwares I listed above and I still get those problems. I'm afraid that it might be due some hardware-level problem, and I need to get it to any technichan/support center or try and fix it myself, perhaps buying the kit for the rear camera complete of screwdrivers and other parts. So, is there anything I can do, software-ly, to fix it? If not, what's the best option I have? Would it be hard to eventually fix/replace the camera?
N°2: ever since I bought this telephone (from mid-2013, the year it released), due to various falls/smashes etcetera its silver part (of which I'm not aware of its proper name) is damaged, some small parts are even gone and it just ruins the phone's look. I have no issue with that, but is it possible to replace it, and if it is, can you tell me its proper name (so I can buy it online and eventually try and replace it by myself)? If you still didn't get what part I'm talking about, I'll be glad to clarify. I'm not a native speaker, so I guess that you might find some trouble with my grammar or spelling.
N°3: whenever I start the phone, I always read the following text, coloured in red and yellow: "KERNEL IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING - Set Warranty Bit : kernel". I know I rooted my phone ergo I violated KNOX's counter, but is there anyway to just remove that party? It's a bit annoying also.
Well, thank you guys for reading and I hope you have a nice day!
1) Flashing an actual stock rom might fix your problem.
2) I think it's called bezil. Bezel and midframe also works. It can be replaced.
3) There is no way to remove it, except by using official firmware.
Thanks man, really appreciated! About the third answer though, just to clarify, you mean stock rom by official firmware right?
kasert778 said:
Thanks man, really appreciated! About the third answer though, just to clarify, you mean stock rom by official firmware right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I mean the stock touchwiz rom that Samsung made.
Any modification to the bootloader (like flashing a recovery) will give you that message. It's basically like a warning.
GDReaper said:
Yes, I mean the stock touchwiz rom that Samsung made.
Any modification to the bootloader (like flashing a recovery) will give you that message. It's basically like a warning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot mate, you helped me a lot. Have a good day!

Categories

Resources