[Q] Defective NAND after 50% - any uses for it? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a Galaxy S3 16GB, and it seems I have been hit by the sudden death bug.
Phone got into a bootloop after 6 months of usage.
I did a KIES Firmwar recovery, and it failed at 60%.
I assume the NAND is defective there and cannot be written.
I just now tried to flash the 4.1.2 stock ROM through odin, and it fails again after flashing ca. 50% of system.img
Any idea of how this could be still remedied somehow?
eg. repartitioning to only use 8GB?

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lurbi said:
I have a Galaxy S3 16GB, and it seems I have been hit by the sudden death bug.
Phone got into a bootloop after 6 months of usage.
I did a KIES Firmwar recovery, and it failed at 60%.
I assume the NAND is defective there and cannot be written.
I just now tried to flash the 4.1.2 stock ROM through odin, and it fails again after flashing ca. 50% of system.img
Any idea of how this could be still remedied somehow?
eg. repartitioning to only use 8GB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not the SDS..
Re-flash the device and all should turn out well.
CyanogenModded Very China-like, from my Samsung Galaxy S III
LG Familyguy59/Beatsleigher

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familyguy59 said:
That's not the SDS..
Re-flash the device and all should turn out well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How??
Kies stops after 60%, and Odin also stops after flashing 50% of system.img!!
It seems as if both cannot write past a defective NAND sector!!

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lurbi said:
I have a Galaxy S3 16GB, and it seems I have been hit by the sudden death bug.
Phone got into a bootloop after 6 months of usage.
I did a KIES Firmwar recovery, and it failed at 60%.
I assume the NAND is defective there and cannot be written.
I just now tried to flash the 4.1.2 stock ROM through odin, and it fails again after flashing ca. 50% of system.img
Any idea of how this could be still remedied somehow?
eg. repartitioning to only use 8GB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey.. that happened to me on Thursday... I was updating my S3 to XXEMC2 and halfway through it failed while writing system.img After almost crapping my pants, I unplugged it, used a different version of Odin, got back to download mode and it flashed fine...

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lurbi said:
How??
Kies stops after 60%, and Odin also stops after flashing 50% of system.img!!
It seems as if both cannot write past a defective NAND sector!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, stay calm. When you write things like "How brah???!!! IT NOT WORKING!!!!!" it just feels like you're attacking me verbally. Which I most certainly hope you're not.
Now. Check these few steps, then report back:
Do you have all necessary drivers installed?
Is your device fully charged?
Are you using USB 2.0 or 3.0?
What operating system are you using?
When flashing via Odin: Is Kies completely shut down? (No processes must be running!)
Are you flashing a ROM which is designed for your device?
What version of Android were you using before this happened?
Do you have a custom recovery installed?
Answer these questions before you start speculating.
---------- Post added at 12:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:36 AM ----------
joancolmenares said:
Hey.. that happened to me on Thursday... I was updating my S3 to XXEMC2 and halfway through it failed while writing system.img After almost crapping my pants, I unplugged it, used a different version of Odin, got back to download mode and it flashed fine...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Kies isn't exactly the most... precise of flashing tools. Let's put it that way

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familyguy59 said:
Yeah, Kies isn't exactly the most... precise of flashing tools. Let's put it that way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only use KIES for backups... I can never update through it (it says my device cannot be updated with kies)... What scared me was that I was flashing with odin when it froze... that's why I almost crapped my pants...

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joancolmenares said:
I only use KIES for backups... I can never update through it (it says my device cannot be updated with kies)... What scared me was that I was flashing with odin when it froze... that's why I almost crapped my pants...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need. It's happened so often to me..
Sammys are pretty much un-brickable. I've seen one entire person in the XDA-forums that has managed to brick his device and that, that got me scared.
But.. nah. I've pulled the battery in the middle of a flash via Odin and recovery, I've pulled out the USB cable while flashing and nothing has ever happened.
But what I guess this guy's doing wrong is either using USB 3.0, or Kies is open in the background, where it shouldn't be. In fact, it shouldn't be anywhere on the hard drive :laugh:

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familyguy59 said:
Do you have all necessary drivers installed?
Is your device fully charged?
Are you using USB 2.0 or 3.0?
What operating system are you using?
When flashing via Odin: Is Kies completely shut down? (No processes must be running!)
Are you flashing a ROM which is designed for your device?
What version of Android were you using before this happened?
Do you have a custom recovery installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx for your answer.
Sure I do not want to attack you
And I am quit calm, as I have a seconds S3, that I am using right now.
It would be just a waste if the first one could not be revived.
so here the answers:
1) Yes, all drivers installed (just rooted my seconds s3 with the same odin install und computer)
2) fully charged
3) USB2
4) WinXP
5) yes, no process is left (killed kies and kiestray before)
6) yes (GT-I9300)
7) 4.1.1
8) not any more. Kies FW recovery has overwritten it with stock recovery

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lurbi said:
Thanx for your answer.
Sure I do not want to attack you
And I am quit calm, as I have a seconds S3, that I am using right now.
It would be just a waste if the first one could not be revived.
so here the answers:
1) Yes, all drivers installed (just rooted my seconds s3 with the same odin install und computer)
2) fully charged
3) USB2
4) WinXP
5) yes, no process is left (killed kies and kiestray before)
6) yes (GT-I9300)
7) 4.1.1
8) not any more. Kies FW recovery has overwritten it with stock recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries, I'm always glad to help
Wait.. Are you German? (The 'und' gave it away.)
But in the meantime:
Ok. Looking at what you've written, try going into recovery (Stock will do, I guess) and try wiping the entire device. Cache, Data, everything it allows you to wipe.
Once you've done that, go to your computer and hit WIN+R, so that a window like this turns up:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Then you can type the command that is in the picture
Hit enter and go to 'startup' and 'services'. Once there, un-check EVERYTHING that has to do with Kies. (I mean, it's ok if you want to use it for something, but it really doesn't have to start with the computer and just make everything slower than XP already is, right?)
Then restart your computer and try flashing the device again, but this time with this version of Odin.
Once you've done all that, report back and I'll report later on (It's like 01:16 and I've got school in about 7 hours :x)
I hope I could help you and I hope this gets your device up and running again!

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Indeed ... I am austrian.
Regarding wiping.
Not possible, recovery just shows "Fimware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again",
This message comes up with normal bootup, and also on recovery.
Download mode works.
I will try later on a different computer where no Samsung SW was ever installed.
But keep in mind, that
1) it flashes for a few minutes, before it allways stops at the same location (on this particular phone).
2) When the problem occured it could not mount /cache in recovery -> this was the reason why I tried to format the flash via Kies
3) This particular install of Odin has no problems with the second S3 phone!
Will report back after I tried Odin on another computer.
I am 99% sure that it will stop at exactly the same spot again

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Perhaps redownload the ROM you are trying to flash? It might be a corrupt download...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

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Here is the confirmation.
I tried it on a completely virigin (no Samsung SW ever installed) WinXP PC.
I used your Odin archive: Odin3_v3.07_SGSIII.zip
with this official ROM:
I9300XXEMA2_I9300ATOELL1_ATO.zip
PC did not recognize the Phone, so I installed the Samsung USB drivers from the Odin thread here on XDA.
Started the flash process, and it blocks at EXACTLY the same place. (after having a bit more than 50% flashed ....
LOG:
<ID:0/008> Odin v.3 engine (ID:8)..
<ID:0/008> File analysis..
<ID:0/008> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/008> Initialzation..
<ID:0/008> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/008> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/008> tz.img
<ID:0/008> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/008> sboot.bin
<ID:0/008> system.img
<ID:0/008> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)
So we are back at square one ... anything that can be done if flash has a faulty cell?

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yes. the motherboard can be replaced. that's the only possible solution

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Glebun said:
yes. the motherboard can be replaced. that's the only possible solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx
Sad

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Samsung will do that for free

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Glebun said:
Samsung will do that for free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, they will not.
As the device was rooted.
This is completely unrelated to the HW fault ... but enough for them to refuse to fix it.

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no, not necessarily. worth a shot

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Glebun said:
no, not necessarily. worth a shot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely!
This is why I had multiple shots with Samsung, the reseller and a consumer advocacy group.
Result was negative

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again, not necessarily. it depends on where you live, but there were a couple of people with a similar problem and samsung replaced the mobo for free with a triggered counter.

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Glebun said:
again, not necessarily. it depends on where you live, but there were a couple of people with a similar problem and samsung replaced the mobo for free with a triggered counter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well ... I tried everything.
Consumer advocates told me that the only thing I could do was sue them ...
that I did not want to do as the risk would be very high for me as well ...