My galaxy S freezes out of the blue, and i can't even turn it off. Sometimes i look to check the time, and noticed the phone is turned off. Both problems are only corrected by taking out the battery, and putting it back in...and then waiting for it to happen again!
Is this a software issue that 2.2 will fix? Should I exchange for a new one, or will all of them have the same problems, if bought from the same place? (Best Buy in Vancouver Canada)
either your battery is not good, or your got a defective phone
the new SGS out of the box works smooth
what is your firmware version?
type in
*#*#1234#*#*
Sounds like a bad phone. I got mine from one touch in delta and it has been perfect. Return asap and get yourself a working unit.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App
Thought you meant lag. Mine lags a lot (stock firmware) and sometimes "freezing" seems the word.
But no, that's not it. Perhaps you can try a hard reset and check your sdcard too, something isn't ok.
I'm actually experiencing the same issue. My phone goes black and seems to be happening more in low wireless connection areas. Like in a mall. With the the *# code I get I9000UGJG9.
if you have LAG issues, install the one click lag fix in the development area
problem solved
Its not LAG issues it a complete freeze issue. My phone goes black like standby mode and will not come out of it. The only fix is a battery pull or holding the power button for 6 seconds. The same issue as the op.
TDS1234 said:
Its not LAG issues it a complete freeze issue. My phone goes black like standby mode and will not come out of it. The only fix is a battery pull or holding the power button for 6 seconds. The same issue as the op.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is a factory defect
take it back, exchange it for a good one
this latest firmware is really good, you should not see anything like that
Allright will do. I figured as much I didn't want to bring it back I already purchased some apps. Guess I'll have to wait for my store to get some.
TDS1234 said:
Allright will do. I figured as much I didn't want to bring it back I already purchased some apps. Guess I'll have to wait for my store to get some.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you do not lose the Apps
once you log back into your Gmail account in your new phone, when you go into Android Market, they will remain in the Download section
those apps are saved in your Gmail account, not in the phone.
that's the cool thing about the android phones
so if you ever switch to say an HTC Android, or a Nokia Android, you can still re-install those apps (assuming they are compatible)
Oh sweet I wasn't aware of that. I sold a couple of the Galaxy S and I'm the only one with this issue as of yet. Hopefully it isn't a common one. I've been trying my best to convert Iphone buyers in most cases when I'm sold out to get this phone I just hope it delievers for my customers and they won't have the same issue as me.
Are u futzing with oclocking or changing CPU mode ? This causes hangs with black screen
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I believe this same thing just happened to me. Plug in my phone to recharge it (got it 2 days ago, so the battery still runs out quick) then tried to activate it and Lock screen wouldn't disappear when sliding.
mrfocus22 said:
I believe this same thing just happened to me. Plug in my phone to recharge it (got it 2 days ago, so the battery still runs out quick) then tried to activate it and Lock screen wouldn't disappear when sliding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you do know you don't just slide
you have to move the entire picture of the "slide" out of the phone frame for it to unlock
if you say only slide it partially, it will just bounce back and remain locked.
if you have thick fingers it wont work properly
you might be better off using the 3rd party unlock screens, specially the kinds that needs no sliding.
i have that issues nowadays too. randomly "freezes" on the black screen, i can call through my phone (ringing) but there's no notification / vibration or anything or sorts.
the only way is to reboot the phone and it'll randomly happen again after some time >.> and the call that i've just missed isn't showing on the call-log either.
i hope it gets better overtime or i'll just have to reflash!
ps. was fine before i tweaked my cpu settings in sleep mode, you might wanna disable that if you're using it.
Mine has the same problem and by the looks of things a lot of people have this issue. I called customer support and after sometime the rep admitted this and said it will be fixed in next build however I doubt that
Then there are probably lots of diff units out there. The phone shouldn't freeze unless you are using a beta/alpha firmware (pretty unlikely - i've tested more than 10 different firmwares without a freeze), or set the core clock of the cpu to a higher & unstable frequency (OC). people claim that their phone can do 1.2ghz - that's nice, but each chip has a different capability.
For about 2 months since I have owned this phone it has given me nothing but crap. I always kept my G1 in my pocket and I always dropped it, even had it in water 3 times! (never had any problems) The G2 however if I kept it in my pocket, dropped it, or open/closed the keyboard repeatedly the phone would shutoff! Very Very disappointed at first. I missed many calls and text messages.
So How come NOW I can drop it, open/close the keyboard repeatedly, and keep it in my pocket without it shutting off?
I did a little investigating of the battery and contact points on this phone, it turns out that there is room for play with my battery. SO every so often the contacts would lose connection with the battery!
TO fix this I put a small piece of folded paper along the top edge of the battery opposite of the contact point to the phone, it made a more secure and snug fit to the contact points.
The battery does get Hot so I do not recommend this as a permanent fix as it is now a small fire hazard.
BUT, to this day I have had ZERO problems.
I am sooooo now with my G2 any questions or other comments please leave them below.
CYANOGENMOD 7 RC1
Class 10 4gb microSd
1500MAH battery
Hard rubberized black graphic case
Talk about going backward! I remember the old nokia 5160s that everyone and their brother had folded up paper in the batteries about 10 years ago! LOL
SySfS
Meh... I don't think anyone else has this problem. If they did then they probably exchanged it.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 running Cyanogenmod.
I have this problem.
I can't exchange it because I bought the phone on ebay.
If you search through the threads and on google, quite a few people experience this random freeze / shutdown where you have to do a battery pull.
I've tried flashing different roms, using only basic apps etc...
I don't think it's software related anymore, and if it is, it's too hard to diagnose. Many suggestions have been made, micro sd card slot, battery connections, software, weird app, different rom... I haven't tried removing SD card yet and my battery connection seems ok, it's pretty tight in there...
Don't know what the problem is and I wish someone could figure it out as it's frustrating to drop too much $$$ on a phone and have it act this way.
Random Reboots
I have a similar problem with my G2. It randomly reboots when its siting stationary on my desk or in my car.
This problem is made stranger though because it NEVER does this while I'm using it!! If I have it playing Pandora or Youtube - no reboots. But, like clockwork, if turn off the screen and set it on my desk, reboot... never fails... it will reboot 2 or 3 times then seems to be ok for a little while. Very annoying because I can't make or receive calls while its doing this.
Like others I've read plenty of posts on this but no working fix I can find. Some people say they returned their phone 2 or 3 times and still have the same issue. Some people say its related to signal strength but it does this will full bars or no bars.
I've tried custom Roms: CM6.1.1, CM7-RC1, & Virtuous 1.0.1 and the problem remains.
Does anyone know how to fix this? This is the only negative about an otherwise HOT little phone.
At least yours reboots! A lot of others just freeze (like mine)! And then you don't even know it.
I'm trying out another theory... Installed CM6 a few days ago. Had the same problem.
But I just started OC using CPU Tuner and the stock CM6 Kernel., the lowest option I have for clock speed is 700 something for some reason, so I just used that. So far, 36h, hasn't done it. I THINK, it might be related to the phone not getting enough juice for some odd reason - even on stock, so when you OC it and set a higher clock speed for idle, it might help. NOT sure yet but testing. Will post up if it "fixes" the problem for me.
My G2 was randomly shutting off a lot, usually right after I stuck it in my pocket. The solution? I exchanged it. The new one never does that XD
Possible fix for random reboot
I think I may have found a working fix for my random reboots. Credit goes to the OP.
I installed the Pershoot kernel and since then I haven't had a reboot and up until now it has rebooted like clockwork.
I'll see how it goes.
I had this problem while using the Red ChiChi/EVO batteries, but I believe my problem to be with the back cover. I might have dropped it and the cover got slightly tweaked, or perhaps it was the chichi battery, as it wasn't exactly a perfect fit. If a certain spot on it gets touched or pushed in, the battery loses contact with the pins and kills the phone. I have to pull the battery and let it set for a minute b4 putting it back in and powering up.
I used the same method, with a piece of folded paper on top for a while.
Perhaps its a different problem than the OP, but this only happened with my ChiChi batteries. With stock battery, it always seemed to be a good enough fit, and the corners kept it in place.
I ended up buying an extra stock battery for around $20, and now I carry 2 Stock batteries at all times.
Solution finally?!
I think I found the solution for my phone:
set OC profiles so the phone doesn't go below a certain mhz threshold.
On CM6 stock with CPU Tuner, it defaults to 700mhz lowest. Did not notice any increase in battery drain.
Uptime - 70 hours. Finally fixed!
//UPDATE: I did experience a freeze around the 100 hour mark, but so far that's the only one in the last week or so. In any case, it's doing MUCH better than before...
//OK I lied it still does it but so far just once or twice a week. Better than once a day.
So far there are apparently three problems/solutions:
- Micro SD slot loose connection / improper close - Check micro SD card slot
- Idle voltage too low, freezes phone / use OC kernel and set screen off speed higher
- Bad battery connection / manually fix
After many tries and diagnosing I think one issue is that on stock settings, the idle / screen off profile is set too low, which can freeze the phone (although I did have it freeze once while I was actively texting... not sure why). But 99% of the time it happened with the screen off. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, will keep phone on to see, but I don't remember it going more than 48h without freezing lately.
I have tried the following which did NOT fix the issue for me:
Micro SD check
Uninstall programs (skype, launcher pro, various others)
Revert to "stock"
CM6 "stock"
Checked Battery
Used stock battery / China battery
All those solutions still led to the random freeze / battery pull situation, but could potentially work for you.
2 G2's did the same thing. T-Mobile states known problem. After 14-hour shut down pulled mSDHC card and Sim and replaced battery which was drained in the off-state.
Solved problem and bought a Nokia N8.
Customer Service at T-Mobile and HTC is totally unconnected and unresponsive. Their answer wait for the FOTA.
Hope they don't send it to my Symbian ^3 jewel!
Was Shutting down multiple times a day - FIXED!
Hey Guys,
I've purchased my G2 from ebay so was not able to return it. So I've been trying to fix this problem for ever.
I have not found anything that works until now (knock on wood).
I installed the Cyanogenmod (cm_vision_full-32.zip) and updated my older CM version. The phone has not shutdown once in 4 days, which is a first.
Note: my GPS does not work with this version. I'm about to try a clean wipe to see if it will activate. I'm guessing however that the shutdown issue is 100% tied to the GPS so if I'm successful the problem will return. If a wipe does not work I'll try new radios.
I'll update any progress.
-Pappi23
lost800 said:
I have this problem.
I can't exchange it because I bought the phone on ebay.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Caveat emptor.
I know. Live in Canada and only way to get the phone.
Me too, although my phone is at uptime: 211 hours right now
CM6 with cpu tuner with the settings posted above... basically make sure it never underclocks below 700 mhz.
Latest Thread Update :
16/04/2013 ---- Added Rob's DFG trick Method for new comers to save searching for it .
04/03/2013 ---- Added XXEMB1 as Most reliable freeze free build .
01/03/2013 ---- added advice on kernels with SDS Fix .
26/02/2013 ---- Added links to LagFix (fstrim) premium ,and DFG.
Now that the Galaxy S3 Sudden Death Syndrome has supposedly been fixed by the Update 7 by Samsung patched for Kernel and Recovery ,
There is some poping up posts about the Galaxy S3 freezing with lockups,Lockscreen not responding that requires pulling out battery
and ending up with unsual rebooting and bootlooping which is a very awkward and annoying issue, especially the Q&A section which contains
a lot of angry S3 users reporting this problem ; Ex
Galaxy S 3 keeps freezing every 5 mins (50+ freezes a day)
Galaxy S3 keeps freezing
Well i decided to make this thread in the benefit of spotting the problem and to make sure we have accurate causes and eventually elaborate a solution to this disturbing problem.
Share your experiences down by posting the ROM, the Kernel, the Recovery and the Bootloader that you are on right now, so we can filter the answers and relate them with the freezing problems on The Galaxy S3.
Reported Issue Reasons :
1) - Facebook app for Android.
2) - Google Chrome Browser.
3) - Some Samsung Based Android 4.1.2 builds/Roms causing freezing.
4) - In Some cases, Media Scanner causing lockups.
5) - In Some cases, Swiftkey Flow Bêta causing freezing.
Possible Direct Reason :
Originally Posted by : Rob2222
The freezes are caused by the sudden death fix. On that kind of freezes the phone unfreeze itself after 5-25 minutes.
The phone freezes when writing data to an affected eMMC block.
An eMMC block is affected, when it's internal block pararameters (as f.e. write count for that block) are in such a state, that these parameters trigger a corrupted block without SD-fix (4.1.1) or trigger a freeze with SD-fix (4.1.2).
When a phone is hitting an affected block with a writiing operation is completely unpredictable.
So these freezes can occur on almost each situation on the smartphone when it writes data.
But you have indeed a higher chance to trigger a freeze when writing much data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possible Current Solution :
I. If the phone freezes, wait until it unfreezes itself. I think this is the important part.
II. The DFG "Dummy File Generator" is only used to trigger the freezes.
III. I think you could also just wait for the freezes to be triggered by all-day-use, but this would be very impractical to wait 20 minutes to
unfreeze when you need the phone.
IV. So we write dummy data with DFG to provoke the freezes.
Highly Recommended Advice :
The write access to an affected block without Sudden Death fix seems to damage the data on this block which _can_ lead to a sudden death.
Because of that I would recommend to stay with KERNELS that have the Sudden death fix included, even if it could cause freezes.
Reported Most Stable " Freeze Free " Build/Rom :
XXEMB1 and all Custom Roms based on this build.
Dummy File Generator :
Alternate Working Solution :
LagFix (fstrim) Premium
Rob's Dummy File Generator Method to solve persistant freezes on the Galaxy S3 :
Rob's DFG Method , Please take a moment to thank him for his contribution to solving this problem.
Let me repeat it again:
Whoever has problems with freezes, please try this at least and give positive or negative feedback here. We have good experience with this method to sightly reduce and/or completely eleminate the freezes.
No, this means that the problems occur when writing the eMMC, not reading.
Try to wait for the phone to unfreeze (5-25 minutes) it seems that it helps and the freezes get less.
If you have that kind of freezes, that are caused by the SD-Fix your phone will unfreeze after that time without reboot.
To provoke the freezes you can also empty your internal storage as much as possible and then use the dummy file generator (generate all) to fill the internal memory 1-2 times.
After each run you can simply delete the dummy files with the delete button.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...nomunomu.dummy
Free up 8GB or more to have enough free space on internal memory.
If you have 8 GB free internal space, write 2 times dummy files. 2x8GB are 16GB. The internal wear leveling algorithm spreads these writes over the whole 16GB physical chip area.
There is a good chance that writing EACH sector on the eMMC resets/averages out the internal block data (f.e. write counters) that trigger the Bug and the Fix (Freeze).
If the phone freezes while writing the dummy data (it propably will), just let the phone do what it wants. It will continue to work after 2-25 minutes for each freeze.
This unfreeze after 5-25 minutes seems to have a positive effect.
You can have more than one freeze while doing this. Just let the phone do what it wants. If the dummy file generator crashs cause of a freeze, just restart the App.
When your finally able to write a amount of 16GB data (2x8GB dummy files) in subsequent runs without freezes you have a good chance that your freezes are gone for now or maybe even forever.
You need to write a minimum amount of 16GB data (or more) with this procedure! If you write less data, you didn't even need to thest this DFG method.
The idea behind it:
The SD-Fix causes freezes when writing eMMC blocks in a specific eMMC block parameter state. There parameters are for example the block write counter. Just some few blocks are affected, but when they get written, the SD-Fix freezes the eMMC. Now it seems to have a positive ("healing") effect to wait for the eMMC to unfreeze itself, which happens after 5-25 minutes. For all day use this is not very practicable. So we write just some dummy data to the eMMC to trigger the freezes when we do have the time to wait for the unfreeze. Thats all.
-- From the forums I monitor I get 80-90% positive feedback that the S3 gets again long-time-stable (usable) with this DFG-method.
I got from 10-15 freezes/day to only 1 single freeze in the last 2 weeks without factory reset.
-- Some people needed to write 60-80GB of data until the phone became stable.
In the hardest case (only 1 case) I know, someone wrote about 1TB (1000GB) of data and then the phone became finally stable. He didn't got warranty so DFG was his last resort and after that it finally got stable.
In most cases 20-60GB written data should be enough to get back the phone on a stable state.
If youre familiar with odin, you can also flash XXEMB5 or newer firmware, cause it seems this includes a new, better SD-Fix that doesn't casue freezes anymore. DFG is not needed in this case.
PIT File :
nhariamine said:
Now that the Galaxy S3 Sudden Death Syndrome has supposedly been fixed by the latest update 7 by Samsung patch for Kernel and
Recovery ,There is some poping up posts about the Galaxy S3 freezing and ending up with unsual rebooting and bootlooping which is a
very awkward and weird and annoying issue, especially the Q&A section which contains a lot of angry S3 users reporting this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a shame that this post has been mostly ignored in favour of the "SDS" one, but I do actually believe both issues are related. My I9300 is running stock - always has been - and suffered with "proper" SDS last November.
The initial symptoms were that my previously perfectly-behaved phone would would randomly FC apps that didn't before, and some of my photographs and video taken on the phone suddenly became corrupted and unusable.
Finally, one Saturday morning, I woke up to find the phone stuck in a boot loop, going from the "Samsung Galaxy S3" black-and-white boot scree to the first blue sweep of the Samsung logo, then reboot. It would power-off and power-on and I could enter ODIN or recovery modes fine, but it wouldn't boot any further.
I managed to get my photos and stuff off the phone through USB in recovery, and decided to wipe and flash the same stock ROM via ODIN.
This process failed - it couldn't partition the device correctly. None of the flash counters were reading anything so I popped it into my local Vodafone shop where they said it just needed the firmware popping back on and they'd have it ready in an hour.
I went back and they said they hadn't been able to load the software and it would have to go off for repair. *sigh*
It came back about 5 days later with a repair report stating that they'd replaced the "main board" - presumably because of the eMMC lockup bug.
It was only after this that the whole "Sudden Death" news came about and I realised what had happened to my phone. The eMMC check app says that my new controller is the same "faulty" version so I've been waiting with baited breath for "safe" official firmware.
The update system threw XXELL5 my way just before Christmas, and I thought that was that, but a coule of weeks ago the phone started hiccuping again. I knew I'd seen this before and my heart sank.
Last week another update was available, this time XXELLA. Since then, all hell has broken loose on my phone. It is locking up about 5 times a day. Initially, I was rebooting it manually (by holding in the power button). Tuesday morning I was woken by my wife saying "shouldn't you be up by now?" - glanced at my phone and it was frozen on the black-and-white boot logo - no alarm! Arrggh! It's dead!
Powered off, back on again and it booted fine. Hmmm, this isn't quite the same as before then. Having seen the advice about leaving it when it's locked, I've been doing that religiously and, so far, it's always woken up again by itself, but it's definitely indicative of a fault somewhere.
I've tried to check what's happening with adb logcat (I'm not rooted - fully stock - so can't see dmesg) and there is always some sort of I/O error when the freeze happens - often an sqlite database. Then, a couple of days ago, three photos and one video suddenly became corrupted.
I've realised that there are two issues, and only one of them has been "fixed".
The main problem, I believe, is that the flash memory is dying quite rapidly. We all know that flash memory has a limited write life, and wear levelling is supposed to extend that life beyond the typical lifespan of a device (say 5 years for a PC SSD drive?). For some reason, the flash in these devices is wearing out MUCH more rapidly.
The "faulty" eMMC controller obviously had a problem when dealing with faulty flash cells and would get stuck in a permanent loop, bricking the device. As far as I'm aware, the "fix" that has been applied prevents this permanent loop. The system still needs to try and handle disk errors with the flash memory, but it's not a permanent freeze any more and eventually (once it's finished dealing with flash faults - often unable to recover the problem) the system will break out of the freeze and carry on as before.
Sometimes this means that an app has bombed out as it couldn't read it's data correctly, but most people would either have forcibly rebooted their phone, or not notice as that app would just restart next time they used it. Sometimes, however, it means that something more important has crashed due to the disk I/O problem, resulting in the phone needing to spontaneously reboot itself.
What this boils down to is - yes, I believe that there has been a fix applied for the "faulty" eMMC controller getting stuck in a permanent, irretrievable loop. But no, I don't believe the actual original problem has been addressed - namely that the flash memory is dying at an unacceptably fast rate for ... well ... who knows what reason.
I do have a theory on that too. Recently a friend of mine was looking to change his laptop hard drive for an SSD. I investigated for him and decided that the Samsung 830 series would be his best bet, if he could get hold of them. And why not the newer 840 series? Well - that's purely because the "consumer" version of the 840 uses Samsung's latest triple level cell flash memory. Newer, faster, cheaper to manufacture almost certainly but ... more importantly in this case ... less resilient. How does 1000 write cycles grab you? They claim that the wear levelling algorithm in the drives mean that their lifetime is still pretty reasonable, but I'm not convinced in the real world.
Any idea what flash they use in the S3? I have no idea, but I betcha it's something (a) cheap and (b) new(ish).
I'm now at a bit of an impasse with my phone, however. When I returned it for repair last year it was properly frozen. No-one could do anything to fix it, the flash wouldn't format or write firmware - the only recourse was replacing internal hardware (or the entire phone).
This time, however, it works ... sort of. I'm occasionally losing photos I've taken and occasionally finding it's locked up and occasionally having to wait for it to recover. No repair centre has the time to "live with" my phone for half a day, waiting to see what happens with it - and even if they did, they'd blame a rogue app or "something left over from the upgrade" - they'll just factory wipe it, maybe flash the firmware and send it back again "repaired".
It's tempting to "lose" it and pay my insurance excess ... but even then, I won't know when the problem will strike again - but that's the thing ... I'm certain it would be back.
I used to love this phone. Now I can't rely on it. I can't rely on it storing the photos I take with it. I can't rely on it ringing when someone calls. I can't rely on texts getting through to me on time. I can't even rely on it waking me up in the morning.
It's sat next to me now,lying on the desk with the screen all shiny and black. I have no idea if it's fine, or frozen. Is someone calling me right this second? I have no idea. Oh, there we go - pressed the lock buton - it's awake. I shouldn't have to check my phone every ten minutes to see if it's working or not.
*sigh* sorry - rant over.
Suffice to say, that's my take on it. If I thought it would help diagnose something "fixable", I'd root and see what dmesg is doing, but I'm convinced this is hardware and I'm also certain that Samsung aren't going to take the blindest bit of notice.
I'm pretty sure there will be more and more people complaining that their phones are misbehaving over the next few months, but it's vague enough of a problem that the "repair" will be wiping - just long enough to take them over the first year warranty...
QorbeQ said:
It's a shame that this post has been mostly ignored in favour of the "SDS" one, but I do actually believe both issues are related. My I9300 is running stock - always has been - and suffered with "proper" SDS last November.
The initial symptoms were that my previously perfectly-behaved phone would would randomly FC apps that didn't before, and some of my photographs and video taken on the phone suddenly became corrupted and unusable.
Finally, one Saturday morning, I woke up to find the phone stuck in a boot loop, going from the "Samsung Galaxy S3" black-and-white boot scree to the first blue sweep of the Samsung logo, then reboot. It would power-off and power-on and I could enter ODIN or recovery modes fine, but it wouldn't boot any further.
I managed to get my photos and stuff off the phone through USB in recovery, and decided to wipe and flash the same stock ROM via ODIN.
This process failed - it couldn't partition the device correctly. None of the flash counters were reading anything so I popped it into my local Vodafone shop where they said it just needed the firmware popping back on and they'd have it ready in an hour.
I went back and they said they hadn't been able to load the software and it would have to go off for repair. *sigh*
It came back about 5 days later with a repair report stating that they'd replaced the "main board" - presumably because of the eMMC lockup bug.
It was only after this that the whole "Sudden Death" news came about and I realised what had happened to my phone. The eMMC check app says that my new controller is the same "faulty" version so I've been waiting with baited breath for "safe" official firmware.
The update system threw XXELL5 my way just before Christmas, and I thought that was that, but a coule of weeks ago the phone started hiccuping again. I knew I'd seen this before and my heart sank.
Last week another update was available, this time XXELLA. Since then, all hell has broken loose on my phone. It is locking up about 5 times a day. Initially, I was rebooting it manually (by holding in the power button). Tuesday morning I was woken by my wife saying "shouldn't you be up by now?" - glanced at my phone and it was frozen on the black-and-white boot logo - no alarm! Arrggh! It's dead!
Powered off, back on again and it booted fine. Hmmm, this isn't quite the same as before then. Having seen the advice about leaving it when it's locked, I've been doing that religiously and, so far, it's always woken up again by itself, but it's definitely indicative of a fault somewhere.
I've tried to check what's happening with adb logcat (I'm not rooted - fully stock - so can't see dmesg) and there is always some sort of I/O error when the freeze happens - often an sqlite database. Then, a couple of days ago, three photos and one video suddenly became corrupted.
I've realised that there are two issues, and only one of them has been "fixed".
The main problem, I believe, is that the flash memory is dying quite rapidly. We all know that flash memory has a limited write life, and wear levelling is supposed to extend that life beyond the typical lifespan of a device (say 5 years for a PC SSD drive?). For some reason, the flash in these devices is wearing out MUCH more rapidly.
The "faulty" eMMC controller obviously had a problem when dealing with faulty flash cells and would get stuck in a permanent loop, bricking the device. As far as I'm aware, the "fix" that has been applied prevents this permanent loop. The system still needs to try and handle disk errors with the flash memory, but it's not a permanent freeze any more and eventually (once it's finished dealing with flash faults - often unable to recover the problem) the system will break out of the freeze and carry on as before.
Sometimes this means that an app has bombed out as it couldn't read it's data correctly, but most people would either have forcibly rebooted their phone, or not notice as that app would just restart next time they used it. Sometimes, however, it means that something more important has crashed due to the disk I/O problem, resulting in the phone needing to spontaneously reboot itself.
What this boils down to is - yes, I believe that there has been a fix applied for the "faulty" eMMC controller getting stuck in a permanent, irretrievable loop. But no, I don't believe the actual original problem has been addressed - namely that the flash memory is dying at an unacceptably fast rate for ... well ... who knows what reason.
I do have a theory on that too. Recently a friend of mine was looking to change his laptop hard drive for an SSD. I investigated for him and decided that the Samsung 830 series would be his best bet, if he could get hold of them. And why not the newer 840 series? Well - that's purely because the "consumer" version of the 840 uses Samsung's latest triple level cell flash memory. Newer, faster, cheaper to manufacture almost certainly but ... more importantly in this case ... less resilient. How does 1000 write cycles grab you? They claim that the wear levelling algorithm in the drives mean that their lifetime is still pretty reasonable, but I'm not convinced in the real world.
Any idea what flash they use in the S3? I have no idea, but I betcha it's something (a) cheap and (b) new(ish).
I'm now at a bit of an impasse with my phone, however. When I returned it for repair last year it was properly frozen. No-one could do anything to fix it, the flash wouldn't format or write firmware - the only recourse was replacing internal hardware (or the entire phone).
This time, however, it works ... sort of. I'm occasionally losing photos I've taken and occasionally finding it's locked up and occasionally having to wait for it to recover. No repair centre has the time to "live with" my phone for half a day, waiting to see what happens with it - and even if they did, they'd blame a rogue app or "something left over from the upgrade" - they'll just factory wipe it, maybe flash the firmware and send it back again "repaired".
It's tempting to "lose" it and pay my insurance excess ... but even then, I won't know when the problem will strike again - but that's the thing ... I'm certain it would be back.
I used to love this phone. Now I can't rely on it. I can't rely on it storing the photos I take with it. I can't rely on it ringing when someone calls. I can't rely on texts getting through to me on time. I can't even rely on it waking me up in the morning.
It's sat next to me now,lying on the desk with the screen all shiny and black. I have no idea if it's fine, or frozen. Is someone calling me right this second? I have no idea. Oh, there we go - pressed the lock buton - it's awake. I shouldn't have to check my phone every ten minutes to see if it's working or not.
*sigh* sorry - rant over.
Suffice to say, that's my take on it. If I thought it would help diagnose something "fixable", I'd root and see what dmesg is doing, but I'm convinced this is hardware and I'm also certain that Samsung aren't going to take the blindest bit of notice.
I'm pretty sure there will be more and more people complaining that their phones are misbehaving over the next few months, but it's vague enough of a problem that the "repair" will be wiping - just long enough to take them over the first year warranty...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm really sorry for the issues you've been living with mate, sure thing is that what you said about memory lockups and blocking writing
firmware is totally true except mine doesn't freeze which is strange, mine is the affected model and is shown in eMMC brick bug check ;
-VTU00M
-06/2012
-Yes, Insane Chip.
The poll i made is permanant, but you have to post down Rom and kernel and recovery and bootloader to be more accurate to spot the problem and maybe some DEV can fix it as soon as possible.
Thanks for sharing ur experience with us mate.
I am totally stock jellybean not rooted etc. Was having bad problems with phone freezing and lagging so started uninstalling things to try and fix. I found the problem was chrome, I had chrome, chrome to phone and chrome beta on took them all off now running silky smooth again.
Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2
kiwiflasher said:
I am totally stock jellybean not rooted etc. Was having bad problems with phone freezing and lagging so started uninstalling things to try and fix. I found the problem was chrome, I had chrome, chrome to phone and chrome beta on took them all off now running silky smooth again.
Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First ever user to report Chrome as one source of the problem, thanks mate, if any other symptoms occur and have anything to do with freezing, let us know ok !
I made a similar thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2127443
TL;DR?
Phone started to freeze too much,every 5-10 mins.
Unrooted went to total stock after a megawipe.
Phone died after 2 days.
GOt 16 GB motherboard replaced with 32 gb.
I dont get it, you have a 2 year warranty. If it happens, and im sure the vast majority wont have any issues, take it for warranty.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 06:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:49 PM ----------
eggman89 said:
I made a similar thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2127443
TL;DR?
Phone started to freeze too much,every 5-10 mins.
Unrooted went to total stock after a megawipe.
Phone died after 2 days.
GOt 16 GB motherboard replaced with 32 gb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This though seems vere interesting. Ive read that a few mention their board got replaced by a 32gb. Which prolly doesnt have the bug. So im guessing samsung is very aware of this bug.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
This though seems vere interesting. Ive read that a few mention their board got replaced by a 32gb. Which prolly doesnt have the bug. So im guessing samsung is very aware of this bug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose that freezing problem is occured when a device is severly damaged even when on safe kernel and recovery, as much as i hate to admit it i think freezing S3 is the last symptom before SDS. Let's hope it's not.
nhariamine said:
I suppose that freezing problem is occured when a device is severly damaged even when on safe kernel and recovery, as much as i hate to admit it i think freezing S3 is the last symptom before SDS. Let's hope it's not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got 16gb Motherboard replaced with 32gb.
So it may not be as bad as it seems :cyclops:
nhariamine said:
I suppose that freezing problem is occured when a device is severly damaged even when on safe kernel and recovery, as much as i hate to admit it i think freezing S3 is the last symptom before SDS. Let's hope it's not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if this is true in every case (freezing S3 is the last symptom before SDS) since I have 4 or 5 freezes on 2 consecutive days about 2 months ago. After that the phone runs normally, not a single freeze since then. And another thing my SGS is the 32 Gb model which is supposed to be safe from SDS (it has a different version of eMMC)
thank goodness for this thread.
this phone has been killing itself up to 3 times in 10 minutes. i really dont know what the hell is going on with this.
i will try uninstalling chrome and see if it helps..
my phone is bone stock running 4.1.2 with the latest firmware updated just today.
data connection is maybe the problem
Hey guys,
i have these freezes too since i updated to 4.1.2.
but in my case it's only when i have mobile data connection or w-lan connection turned on. If i turn off any data connection, it works the whole day without freezing!
It's for two weeks now and today i decided to install CyanogenMod 10.1 to try if this solves my problem.
I'm about to synchronisize my apps (does it automatically when entering google account and choosing "restoren from my account") and the first freeze occured (W-Lan on). But this time the light of the touch keys is full functional. When i touch the screen, the background light of the touch keys turns on. But power button, volume up/down and the touchscreen are frozen.
What I've done:
- rooted and installed CWM
- Cleared Dalvik cache
- wiped all other cache partition and stuff
- installed CyanogenMod 10.1 nightly build 20130208
- factory reset and so on like described in the manuals for installing CFs
Original data of my phone before installing CyanogenMod:
Galaxy S3
AP: I9300XXELL4
CP: I9300XXELL4
CSC: I9300DBTELL1
Android Version:
4.1.2
Kernel-Version:
3.0.31-566833
[email protected]#1
No Branding.
So it is a bit confusing that this only happens with data connection turned on.
I've also read some threads with analytics of the update code and the SD fix so i am well informed now and think it's because of the eMMC bug where it tries to repair the corrupted sectors and freezes while doing this (cause after ~20 minutes everything is fine like nothing happened).
Has anyone an idea or a solution now besides sending it to the local dealer and change it for warranty reasons?
Thanks,
Dark Smile
Odp: **Ultimate Galaxy S3 Unusual Freezing Thread**
It happened to me once, about 2 weeks ago, just after the release of the new firmware LM2. So I have flashed back with PC Odin to the previous LLA but the problem persisted. The phone was freezing after about 5 minutes of use. Forced reboot was needed.
So then I flashed some older 3 files-low level firmware (can't remember what one) in PC Odin nd then back to LM2 again, and everything is alright since then.
Strange...
Wysyłane z mojego Nexus 7 za pomocą Tapatalk 2
After 2 Freezes it's running stable for the moment... i'll watch it over the weekend and give feedback.
Mine is freezing lots now.
First time it went to o2 repair (UK) they claimed they had fixed it, pretty sure they just did a factory reset (which I had done already 3 times). So when I collected it, it froze within 2 minutes.
I'm tracking this repair publicly at http://myo2repair.wordpress.com so you can check out how this sort of thing pans out.
Problem is it can be intermittent, so you could get a couple of hours without a freeze. So it's gone back to repair and they say no fault found. So a bit stuck now.
It will definitely happen again when it's returned. They say after 3 attempts they will give me a refurb device. Samsung themselves give you a brand new sealed device as a replacement. Recommend going through Samsung if in same predicament.
Yes mine also got replaced by a 32 gb one from samsung india today
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
good news.
after updating today (and uninstalling google chrome) my SGS3 is no longer freezing itself every few minutes!
will report if it starts doing it again. If you dont see me post, assume all is good now.
freeze after 4.1.2
I've had constant freezes when I upgraded to 4.1.2. I tried many versions. all the same.
I rolled back to 4.1.1 and the phone is freeze free for one week now.
Mine started to behave strangely and then started to freeze constantly. Didn't happen after an upgrade, just started happening out of the blue.
So I wiped it completely and flashed it with the latest wanamlite rom (I was on a rooted stock rom before).
Now it only freezes once every few days (still it NEVER used to freeze before, ever).
I think it might have some connection to the facebook app. I've noticed it only freezes shortly after I have been using the facebook app.
SiggiJarl said:
Mine started to behave strangely and then started to freeze constantly. Didn't happen after an upgrade, just started happening out of the blue.
So I wiped it completely and flashed it with the latest wanamlite rom (I was on a rooted stock rom before).
Now it only freezes once every few days (still it NEVER used to freeze before, ever).
I think it might have some connection to the facebook app. I've noticed it only freezes shortly after I have been using the facebook app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far, users are reporting Chrome and Facebook as one of the sources of the freezing in Galaxy s3.More to come, Share ur experiences down
Hello,
Forever pretty much I've been experiencing issues with my nexus 6p. I got it second hand but it seemed fine when I got it. Now, however, after a little inactivity, I find that unlock my phone will cause it to crash or reboot instantly. Its right after it unlocks that it does this. It's not every time but it happens a lot. It also sometimes happens a little bit after unlocking the phone after inactivity. Its like when it needs to drain more power from the battery than its used to it will just crash on me.
The only real thing that prevents this is keeping the phone on charge. Then again, it has happened before where it will still die on me. I've replaced pretty much everything on the phone with the exception of the charging board and the main board. So stuff like the screen and battery have been replaced (+more). Not sure what is causing it. I've had this issue before on stock android but at the moment I'm running the final version of Resurrection Remix on Nougat.
How would I go about troubleshooting this?
Nexus Radical said:
Hello,
Forever pretty much I've been experiencing issues with my nexus 6p. I got it second hand but it seemed fine when I got it. Now, however, after a little inactivity, I find that unlock my phone will cause it to crash or reboot instantly. Its right after it unlocks that it does this. It's not every time but it happens a lot. It also sometimes happens a little bit after unlocking the phone after inactivity. Its like when it needs to drain more power from the battery than its used to it will just crash on me.
The only real thing that prevents this is keeping the phone on charge. Then again, it has happened before where it will still die on me. I've replaced pretty much everything on the phone with the exception of the charging board and the main board. So stuff like the screen and battery have been replaced (+more). Not sure what is causing it. I've had this issue before on stock android but at the moment I'm running the final version of Resurrection Remix on Nougat.
How would I go about troubleshooting this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good observation. It is true that the reboot happens because of higher performance. It is caused by the four higher performance cores of the CPU starting to work. There is a fix.
What it does is to shutdown those four cores and you will be able to use only four of the lower performance but power efficient cores.
Follow the link :
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/guide-fix-nexus-6p-bootloop-death-blod-t3640279
Sorry for my late reply...
Thanks for the solution, but it seems like a very drastic trade-off for a fix. Is there nothing I can try to fix this like a system or boot.img patch that does something other than disable cores?
Either way, thank you.
Nexus Radical said:
Hello,
Forever pretty much I've been experiencing issues with my nexus 6p. I got it second hand but it seemed fine when I got it. Now, however, after a little inactivity, I find that unlock my phone will cause it to crash or reboot instantly. Its right after it unlocks that it does this. It's not every time but it happens a lot. It also sometimes happens a little bit after unlocking the phone after inactivity. Its like when it needs to drain more power from the battery than its used to it will just crash on me.
The only real thing that prevents this is keeping the phone on charge. Then again, it has happened before where it will still die on me. I've replaced pretty much everything on the phone with the exception of the charging board and the main board. So stuff like the screen and battery have been replaced (+more). Not sure what is causing it. I've had this issue before on stock android but at the moment I'm running the final version of Resurrection Remix on Nougat.
How would I go about troubleshooting this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My 6p just recently encountered the same symptoms as yours. Only way to keep it from rebooting is keeping it plugged in. I've found something that has worked for me so far, maybe it will work for you too. It seems like disabling the Doze feature has fixed this problem for me. I'm not rooted, so I used adb command to do so. Here is a link for the instructions. Hope this helps you too. In the instructions,
it show you how to enable, but can be used to disable with one simple change.
https://windroidwiz.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/android-noroot-force-enable-doze-to-extend-battery-life-of-your-phone/