Database Users

[Q] Chances of recovery after "freezer" trick?

I've installed on a friends HD2 one of the WinMo 6.5 ROMs, as they're all better than the stock firmware.
This was around a year ago.
A few months ago he told me he's having problems accessing the net, and that the phone locks up every time.
So I've set up a Skype conversation and wanted to walk him through installing a new firmware (at the moment he wanted to try out WP7). I didn't think it's anything serious; WinMo tends to go a little wonky every once in a while.
So I walk him through the typical steps: Task29 + radio, MAGLDR. All this works fine. Then we proceed to install one of the many WP7 roms (to make sure it's a decent rom I tried it first on my own HD2; it was working fine). However, MAGLDR locked up when preparing and clearing the partitions for the system. I've walked him through the procedure a few more times (thinking he might be doing something wrong or it was a one time fluke; we are still talking via Skype, remember), but it was always the same.
I've then tried to walk him through Android installation, but the process, once more, halted when installing Clockwork Recovery (once more, clearing and preparing partitions).
Finally, with no more ideas, I did the SD card trick to reinstall the original OS. That worked fine, but at the end he said the phone still locked up.
Yesterday he came to visit me, and brought the phone with him. I attempted to install Android, and indeed... the furthest I was able to get was the GO GO GO screen when launching AD recovery, at which point the phone locked up. Earlier, it would lock up on the countdown (123456) throwing errors. I must mention that I was able to install Clockwork, but it took far more time than it should when preparing the partitions.
At one point, when redoing the whole thing over (Task29, radio) the phone vibrated 7 times and refused to cooperate when installing the radio.
At this point, after reading some posts, I decided to give the old freezer a try and... put the phone in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
It came out nice and cold, and to my surprise, I was able to install Clockwork, run it, install Android... and it's still working.
It's definitely warmed up since I took it out, and has been working all night (albeit with no SIM card). I was able to reboot it, enter AD Recovery, and all in all, it seemed rather stable. But if it's just a temporary thing, then my friend is more willing to buy a new phone rather than keep on fighting with this one (and since the phone is way past it's warranty, there's little point in taking it for repairs).
With all that said, what's the chance that the phone will now function properly? Could the freezer trick actually FIX the phone, rather than temporarily mask some underlying hardware issue?

the freezer trick is more of a fast solution, but it won't fix the problem.. there's a thread about how to solve this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=982454
I don't have overheating problems so I didn't bother trying it.

The freezer trick will only serve as an indicator that your phone is suffering from the thermal issues that are being addressed in the link that Dr.Move posted. I had another HD2 that wouldn't get past MAGLDR unless it was cold. Even then once it got warm it would shut off.

I have similiar problems with Shaamaan and I have another HD2, which works flawlessly and doesnt get stuck
while it might be either BAD BLOCKS, or the THERMAL problems as posted above, I am half tempted to put it into the freezer
I have warranty though, which I should probably warranty it before doign anything silly

Sorry for the late reply.
The thing is, after going through the freezer, the phone is now running smooth. Again, I don't have a SIM card for it (it's T-Mobile locked), but other than that, I was playing with it using my home WiFI and it didn't lock once. I've also rebooted it a number of time, entering the AD recovery mode without a problem.
I've taken a quick glance at the thread linked Dr.Move and... whoa, that looks scary. It's not even my phone, and I still wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. There's a certain level of finesse required with electronic devices of this kind; I can take a computer apart, but this?
Anyway, seems like I need to put a bit more stress on the phone. Any suggestions? Would running some of those Android performance tools be enough? Or do I specifically need a CPU stress testing tool like the one mentioned in that scary thread?
EDIT: I've found some stress tool on the store, and it's been running for 15 minutes now, reaching a temperature of 34 degrees and seems to stay there.

try to run games or stress tools while charging, this will heat it to over 40 Celsius, I got it over 42 before with no problems, but be cautious.

currently facing this issue as well
wonder if anyone else tried this and it worked, and what tips / concerns can be shared

Is it still fixed???

**Ultimate Galaxy S3 Unusual Freezing Thread**

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

[q](STUCK) MULTIPLE ISSUES

Hey guys.
there are several major problems with my device.
first of all, lets see what we have here.
Exynos powered SM-N900 note 3 device
About 2 months old
rooted with CF- Auto Root
4.4.2 N900XXUDNA6_N900SERDNA6_SER firmware
that was the situation of device when the first problem showed itself.
Whiel i was watching video from an sd card, suddenly ı realised even if the device is on charge, (wall type) the battery percentage was dropping. when ı saw that, ı stopped watching the video, put down the phone and went to sleep. (it was 15 % at that time)
after 8 hours of proper sleep, I took my phone and saw that it was just 60%.
then ı began searching for slow charging issues. tried exactly everything about it, no luck. ( 5 different brands of different cables, 3 different brands of wall chargers, 2 different original note 3 batteries. tried both for AC and USB charging.)
All of them gave me the same result of charging current of 300 mah.
then ı tried all the wipe options, (wipe from recovery, factory reset from the settings menu, flashing another firmware which is CAC-N900XXUDNA8-20140210150816. ) still no luck. and things started to get worse.
a pain in the ass lag showed up, I'cant even use the camera. its like it comes and goes, but most of the time its there.
slow charging still continues, sometimes it does not charge at all,(had to reset couple of times) and when it charges, it's always 300 Mah and shows in the battery section as USB all the time ( even if I'm charging with the wall charger) ( already tried cache wipe for this, didn't make any difference.)
When I plug it to the PC, it does not recognize the device as a usb device, nor Kies, but ODİN does. (thankfully).
got this really weird screen, and some other screens close to it. (the screen actually faded away like in the picture ı uploaded. waited for it to go out for 10-15 seconds when ı pushed the wake button, the screen came itself just like nothing else happened 10 seconds ago!)
those are my problems, and the device is rooted, there is no warranty issue, so that means I'm stuck. it's not my first android device, and i consider myself just above average android user, but my hands are tied for this. any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!!

Really? No one can answer that?

rompinpumpkin said:
Really? No one can answer that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did u try charging when mobile is off?if not give a try

Thanks for the reply.
Yeah I tried that. It kind of shortens the time of charging, but still, there are also other problems and some way ı think all of them are connected. That can be a solution only for slow charging, but the other issues still there.

rompinpumpkin said:
Thanks for the reply.
Yeah I tried that. It kind of shortens the time of charging, but still, there are also other problems and some way ı think all of them are connected. That can be a solution only for slow charging, but the other issues still there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may all your problems linked each other possible, try to uninstall third party apps you have installed, may some app is causing all the problems.

jdomadia said:
may all your problems linked each other possible, try to uninstall third party apps you have installed, may some app is causing all the problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm afraid that is also not a solution, because i already performed a full wipe and flashed a clean firmware, which cleared all 3rd party apps, still problems go on.
appreciate the effort though!

rompinpumpkin said:
I'm afraid that is also not a solution, because i already performed a full wipe and flashed a clean firmware, which cleared all 3rd party apps, still problems go on.
appreciate the effort though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read carefully & flash from below link, hop u will get your all problems sort out.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2519897

jdomadia said:
Read carefully & flash from below link, hop u will get your all problems sort out.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2519897
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you suggesting EFS back-up /restore?
By the way, i have fresh brand new issues!!
now device doesn't close, if i close it and connect it to a charger, it reboots itself to recovery mode!!!
ı discovered something about the lag issue. if i run the cpu enough, (like playing games) lag goes out. when ı quit the game, it turns back!!
I opened up cpu monitor from the developer options, everytime lag shows up, i see from the cpu list this thing:
irq/563-sii8240
I think this causes all of my problems.
any ideas???

rompinpumpkin said:
are you suggesting EFS back-up /restore?
By the way, i have fresh brand new issues!!
now device doesn't close, if i close it and connect it to a charger, it reboots itself to recovery mode!!!
ı discovered something about the lag issue. if i run the cpu enough, (like playing games) lag goes out. when ı quit the game, it turns back!!
I opened up cpu monitor from the developer options, everytime lag shows up, i see from the cpu list this thing:
irq/563-sii8240
I think this causes all of my problems.
any ideas???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EFS backup is very IMPORTANT, no Idea about what u say about CPU

jdomadia said:
Read carefully & flash from below link, hop u will get your all problems sort out.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2519897
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jdomadia said:
EFS backup is very IMPORTANT, no Idea about what u say about CPU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the importance of the EFS, just couldn't figure out the relevance.

rompinpumpkin said:
I know the importance of the EFS, just couldn't figure out the relevance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like a problem with a interrupt of the video driver. I read you already flashed a other firmware, correct?

up

Have you installed any apps to monitor battery drain? I use GSAM Battery Monitor and every time I start to see weird things with my battery, I have a look to see which app is running wild. Removing the app usually sets my phone back to very good battery life. The other day HD Widgets updated their app and all of a sudden I was dropping battery life about 15% per hour when hardly using the phone. HD was the culprit, removing it put me back to normal again. This happens often when companies update their apps.
One other thing, does you phone run hot? In the notification screen, you can see the current temp of your phone. If your battery is draining fast, it will run hot.

Thank you for the feedback. I downloaded the app, here are my first results. Do you think its normal that my kernel alone 74% ? I recently turned into cvm recovery, any ideas for alternative kernels?
SM-N900 cihazımdan Tapatalk kullanılarak gönderildi

Battery problem after installing LOS

After many weeks of hesitation I finally took the plunge, unlocked my bootloader (using DrakenFX's guide) and installed LineageOS. The process went smoothly except for the part where my battery is now hosed.
Basically, regardless of how much charge the battery has, the phone doesn't seem to read the level accurately. It doesn't matter whether the phone is turned off (while showing the battery symbol/charging indicator), in recovery mode, or booted to the OS. It might at one moment read 63%, then 1% the next. The interesting thing is that when I boot the phone to TWRP with a fully charged battery, disable the screen timeout and crank the brightness to 100%, it will take 3 days for the battery to discharge even if TWRP is reporting 1% battery, as if TWRP reads the battery as being full regardless of the level it's reporting.
However, if I boot to the OS with a fully charged battery, the OS will read 63% at first (it's always 63%), then within a few seconds will drop to 1% and the phone will shut down (every time). So far I've tried battery calibration apps, draining the battery in TWRP until it shuts off, then leaving it on the charger for 6+ hours (read somewhere that's supposed to reset the battery counter) and, of course, wiping cache/dalvik cache/system/data/internal storage and re-flashing not only LOS, but several other ROMs/kernels as well. I also tried different chargers/cables/power sources, etc. Still FUBAR.
Can anyone offer any insight as to what I may have done to cause this? Is my only option at this point to re-lock the bootloader, go back to stock and send it in for warranty service? I've been dealing with this for 2 weeks now, and the phone is basically a paperweight unless plugged in. Any suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.

That really sucks. it sounds like the battery is toast. try flashing the stock rom to see what happens? Perhaps a hardware issue was happening before you did that but it didn't show until after you took the plunge. Happened to me with the HTC One m8. Had speaker issues a day or two after I unlocked the BL and I know unlocking the bl didn't cause it, so i was mad.

twilighttony said:
That really sucks. it sounds like the battery is toast. try flashing the stock rom to see what happens? Perhaps a hardware issue was happening before you did that but it didn't show until after you took the plunge. Happened to me with the HTC One m8. Had speaker issues a day or two after I unlocked the BL and I know unlocking the bl didn't cause it, so i was mad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery was great right up to the point where I wiped/flashed LOS the first time. I'm wondering if it was caused by a combination of A) the battery not being fully charged during the initial unlock/wipe/flash process (it might actually have been at 63%, but it was plugged in) and B) having wiped cache/dalvik cache/system/data/internal storage before the first install.
Going back to stock is my next step. I've been avoiding it because, for one, I don't think it's gonna fix the problem, and two, even if it does fix the problem I'm back to dealing with ZTE's maddening software, which is what drove me to LOS in the first place. Sigh...

n00bsville0123 said:
The battery was great right up to the point where I wiped/flashed LOS the first time. I'm wondering if it was caused by a combination of A) the battery not being fully charged during the initial unlock/wipe/flash process (it might actually have been at 63%, but it was plugged in) and B) having wiped cache/dalvik cache/system/data/internal storage before the first install.
Going back to stock is my next step. I've been avoiding it because, for one, I don't think it's gonna fix the problem, and two, even if it does fix the problem I'm back to dealing with ZTE's maddening software, which is what drove me to LOS in the first place. Sigh...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally don't think installing Los caused the problem for the simple fact that battery functions are controlled by the kernel which is Linux based (doesn't seem like it correlates but hear me out) just like the los kernel, and that part wouldn't have changed too much, if at all. I think it is a hardware issue. I have seen weirder coincidences happen when doing things like this.

I'd try clean flashing LOs or RR again (a fresh download) and see if that fixes it? Maybe even a complete format to make sure all traces of the last install are gone.
Something may have gotten corrupt the first time, possibly?

tele_jas said:
I'd try clean flashing LOs or RR again (a fresh download) and see if that fixes it? Maybe even a complete format to make sure all traces of the last install are gone.
Something may have gotten corrupt the first time, possibly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far I've tried 4 different ROMs and 3 different kernels, and each time I'm wiping cache/dalvik cache/system/storage/internal storage before flashing. I'm actually on RR now. I'm re-locking the bootloader and going back to stock today. I guess we'll see how good ZTE's warranty service is.

absolute garbage os. this is why i never upgrade software

had android 7
i did a factory reset to see if it would fix some issues. it didnt
so said after 2.5 years of owning phone maybe ill update to new android version. maybe that will alleviate some stresses i have from this poop phone.
wow what garbage went to android v8. nonstop bugs.
garbage new "enhancements". makes my blood boil
this is why i never update things unless its absolutely broken and no choice. i dont believe in updating and only believe in clean installs.
power button stops working randomly. i cant turn off the phone. only can take the battery out.
boots into safe mode and i need to reboot again. switches my keyboard from ms swipe back to the garbage oem one horrible keyboard that oem one
keeps harassing me to update even though ive tried to stop notifications reminding me. maybe im doing something wrong. i went into developer mode and have automatic updates turned off. but after v8 it doesnt work
everything lags like crazy. horribly slow
when it gets to 22% battery it shuts off. im using oem batteries only. i had aftermarket when it was new but they would shut off randomly so got rid of rhem. i have 4 oem. 2 newish
still same issue where i have no signal(no internet /data) at times in vertical mode and turn it horizontally signal bars increase and phone works again
gui is absolute crap. new colored buttons in settings like its a clown show. i absolute have no resprct for designers who feel they need to hide everything together to make it "seem" like its uncluttered. like rhe garbage new facebook gui. hiding everything with tons of clixks to get to it. tons of bugs there as well
no photo editing app is there
no 2nd screen is on when i have my phone off so if i want to see the clock i have to trun it on ot double tap. double tap doesn't work on first try. only 2nd time.
no editing bittons in 2nd screen
absolute garbage os. now to factory reset again and never to update again
i hope lg's phone section goes rhe way of bb/htc/ms/nokia. they just create garbage phones. and will never forgive for the bootloop issues in my g4 and hence why their markwt share is down the shets. feckem. let me rot.

Thw phone is so unstable i did a factory reset again thinking it would go back to v7 on my phone but that garbage v8 is burned into my rom on thw phone such a huge mistake ive not made in a long time
How do i get back v7 android? Help me out please
Do i need a seperate pc? Internet? What files please? This android 8 is absolute garbage
Completely ruined my familiar experience with the phone too much un your face with tons of nonsense popping up nonstop
Any guidance appreciated

rocketman122 said:
had android 7
i did a factory reset to see if it would fix some issues. it didnt
so said after 2.5 years of owning phone maybe ill update to new android version. maybe that will alleviate some stresses i have from this poop phone.
wow what garbage went to android v8. nonstop bugs.
garbage new "enhancements". makes my blood boil
this is why i never update things unless its absolutely broken and no choice. i dont believe in updating and only believe in clean installs.
power button stops working randomly. i cant turn off the phone. only can take the battery out.
boots into safe mode and i need to reboot again. switches my keyboard from ms swipe back to the garbage oem one horrible keyboard that oem one
keeps harassing me to update even though ive tried to stop notifications reminding me. maybe im doing something wrong. i went into developer mode and have automatic updates turned off. but after v8 it doesnt work
everything lags like crazy. horribly slow
when it gets to 22% battery it shuts off. im using oem batteries only. i had aftermarket when it was new but they would shut off randomly so got rid of rhem. i have 4 oem. 2 newish
still same issue where i have no signal(no internet /data) at times in vertical mode and turn it horizontally signal bars increase and phone works again
gui is absolute crap. new colored buttons in settings like its a clown show. i absolute have no resprct for designers who feel they need to hide everything together to make it "seem" like its uncluttered. like rhe garbage new facebook gui. hiding everything with tons of clixks to get to it. tons of bugs there as well
no photo editing app is there
no 2nd screen is on when i have my phone off so if i want to see the clock i have to trun it on ot double tap. double tap doesn't work on first try. only 2nd time.
no editing bittons in 2nd screen
absolute garbage os. now to factory reset again and never to update again
i hope lg's phone section goes rhe way of bb/htc/ms/nokia. they just create garbage phones. and will never forgive for the bootloop issues in my g4 and hence why their markwt share is down the shets. feckem. let me rot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery issue, i know for me at least was an issue with the OEM batteries. Even brand new ones will shut off at decent a % left, The best i can say for that is go for an aftermarket battery. (if you really want to), I have a power button issue as well, Try putting a small piece of paper in the back of your phone, right above the SD card slot, (double folded usually works for me) That might solve your issue as well.
Your phone booting into recovery/safe mode etc sounds like a bad system install to me. Factory resetting unfortunately won't fix that. If your phone is rooted you can just reinstall your system via recovery. If not, if you have a computer handy, you can download a tool from LG called "LG Bridge". Plug in your phone via usb and click recovery to reinstall your system.(it will wipe everything. if you have an SD card take it out for safety)
The lag could be due to overheating, mine lagged at first on android 8 but quit. The lag could also be due to the bad install of the system as well.
Hopefully you could find some help. This is a great phone in my opinion. Working great for me!

Download the nougat KDZ from here and flash back. I tried oreo as well and was not too happy. Plus it's missing the patched camera libs.

broke the phone. punched it and snapped it in half. great relief. I should poop on it and send it back to lg
soon will be getting librem 5 and dsiconnect from google. feck all their tracking. no drive no gmail no maps/waze. nothing to do with them anymore. people dont realize how much information they readily give out. cc fingerprints private emails. all contacts/family. whatsapp and fb too. no fb. whatsapp is going as well.

rocketman122 said:
broke the phone. punched it and snapped it in half. great relief. I should poop on it and send it back to lg
soon will be getting librem 5 and dsiconnect from google. feck all their tracking. no drive no gmail no maps/waze. nothing to do with them anymore. people dont realize how much information they readily give out. cc fingerprints private emails. all contacts/family. whatsapp and fb too. no fb. whatsapp is going as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lmao Broke it, I've done that.

i brought a new battery ages ago .. 4500 , put into the phone .. its been fine, no issues .