[Q] Extremely wierd SGS3 Problem - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Okay first of all, I've scoured not only XDA but even Google for an answer to this problem to no avail. So if anyone has/knows of any thread that has the answer, please kindly reply or notify me so we can have this thread removed.
Here goes,
I'm experiencing a very unique (afaik) problem with my Galaxy S3. This started a few months back, when the phone started getting random reboots/ freezes and terrible battery life on ANY ROM/Kernel. I've tried CM, SlimBean/Kat, and even Stock and nothing worked. Finally I figured maybe the battery was shot. So a few days ago I went and got a new battery, and that's when it got weird.
I used the latest SlimKat after replacing the battery and after powering on the device, EVERYTHING seems perfect. It's really fast and responsive, battery drain while screen is on is extremely acceptable, things worked like new again. UNTIL I switched off the display, after 5 mins, I pulled out the phone and it was switched off. At first I thought maybe the initial charge wore down so I charged the phone to full, then powered it on. Again, everything went smoothly BUT, after switching off the display for more than 1 minute, the phone shuts off automatically.
I switched to the latest stock 4.3 ROM and restored everything to factory settings and it seems to have helped at first. As usual, everything is fast and battery doesn't drain so much BUT, after putting the phone to sleep, it takes 5-10 seconds for the screen to wake after pressing the power button, and even if it wakes up, it becomes EXTREMELY laggy and often freezes requiring a reboot. As usual, after a fresh reboot, everything becomes awesome again until I have to turn the display off for more than a minute.
I've tried everything, even installing an app that prevents deep sleep but the problem persists. It improved a little after flashing stock rom and reverting everything back so I'm really hoping this isn't a hardware issue. Is there maybe something else I can try, settings/software-wise? The phone is almost 2 years old and is already out of warranty.
I'm hoping it's not the sleep of death thing because the phone isn't exactly bricked. I can still use it for as long as it doesnt have to go into deep sleep (I turn it off before putting in my pocket and turn it on again when I need to browse/use the camera which is all it's good for in its current state.)
Also, the symptoms don't really fit the usual "Sleep of Death/Brickbug" Symptoms I've read about.

Hey, I remember having a similar problem. I formatted both my internal sd and external sd. Haven't had any problems ever since. Hope this helps.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

Already tried that. I did full wipes/formats on all my installs. I even tried not having an external SD inserted for the Odin installs. I tried not installing any app on the phone and it still gets messed up after going to sleep. As fresh installed AOSP or Pure Stock ROM. Odin flashes no problem so I'm really hoping nothing hardware-wise is messed up. I had to re-flash PIT after getting a new battery though, could I have messed something up there that would lead to this?

There is an app for that deep sleep syndrome, it's on playstore its calles brick check or something like that, if you cant find just google it.
And I dont think that could be software problem, BUT depends on what apps you used, flashes you made.
Hope it hepls

Well, i don't think its deith break, but i had the same essue with unofficial 4.3 and then at official 4.3 it worked well,
it may be a break in the motherboard or something.. as u tried every rome avilable it couldn't be softwear thing..

the app for emmc firmware is called 'eMMC check', you can find it on playstore
edit: does your phone heat up? or battery? did your display ever turned blue when waking up from sleep?
it could be also a short with your display/motherboard or other connectors or battery connector... and the protection kicks in
if you're good with tools and phone is not under warranty, you could disassemble it and reassemble/reseat the connectors
or, could be the power button shorting, if you decide to open it, examine the power button

@Eibram did you ever undervolt or overclock when using custom kernels or roms? Because it could be hardware damage.
Also, do as they tell you above, check if you have the insane f01 emmc chip. I know it's a common missconception going around that since 4.1.2 the SDS got fixed, but it didn't really get fixed since it's a firmware problem in the emmc patched through software which just makes it highly unlikely to happen (but not impossible).

I did some minor undervolting way back before JB came out but not since over half a year ago. I did the eMMc check and yes, I do have the inane chip.
Just an update, I re-flashed a PIT file and a rescue firmware and it seems to have helped a bit. It was running fine for over 12 hours aside from a random reboot just now.
I'm observing the phone right now to see wether the reboot was just coincidental. I really wish this is just a software thing.

Okay one more update, 2 days in and I've only experienced the one random reboot. It's still sometimes slow when waking up, but something around 2-5 secs sore not 5-15 seconds slow. I'm thinking that must be due to touchwiz bloat.

Related

[Q] Will your vibrant easily get hanged/not responding

I am from Hong Kong, using vibrant.
I found that my vibrant will get easily hanged/not responding, occasionally.
No matter which rom I flashed, stock, roms from eugene. (Applied/not Applied lagfix)
When my vibrant is not responding, the back of vibrant near the camara or next to the camara, will get hot and hotter.
After a long press of the power button, for a hard reboot of the vibrant, the vibrant will be fine again. However, the situation repeat.
So, I want to figure out that is there anybody encountering the same situation.
Thanks.
I have not had this exact problem, but I have had mine randomly go black. It's done it 3 times in the 4 days I have had it. When it goes black, you can't turn it on, power does nothing, and you have to pull the battery to start it again. I have never let it sit long enough to see if it gets hot.
I have heard mixed thoughts, some people claim it's hardware problem, some say its a firmware problem =/
I've seen my screen turn black with just the key backlights remain on. The device becomes and remains hot to the touch as if working very hard (drawing heavily on the battery and CPU) but it never responds again. Holding down the power button for a full five seconds resets it.
In my case, I typically see this happen while I'm trying to use Google Navigate (GPS) while also running Pandora (streaming radio) in the background. Often it works, but often it doesn't, especially on days with warm weather. I've monitored battery temperatures around 114 degrees F after rebooting.
I suspect it is related to the problems with the GPS (fixed to use supl.google.com) and very much hope it will be fixed with the promised OTA upgrade. Although I may have seen it a few times (very few times) without GPS. My other suspicion turns toward a process called mmcqd which seems to run heavily at times. Perhaps the lagfix will help with this "Multimedia Card Queue Daemon" process. ::shrug::
Just offering this as notes to compare. I'm curious if others see the problem with GPS disabled? Or if you notice the mmcqd process maxing your CPU?
I've noticed that when using GPS, only when the GPS gets confused.. say for instance that I'm driving, get out of my car with a Navi program still running and walk inside of a building/house.. bam, phone is dead with the buttons lit.. I've decided to not bother with GPS.
If you're having those types of issues try avoiding background sync with the forever sluggish stock eMail app, and don't load up the internal memory with a lot of junk.
having the same prob... cant find the solution .. do u have any?
This happens to me on my stock vibrant everytime I try to use the maps program. On the off chance I get it to start working, as soon as it shifts orientation to landscape mode the whole thing will lock up. Usually I have to remove the battery to get it to reset. As was said, it appears to be caused by the faulty gps, so I usually just leave mine off.
However, I haven't noticed it happening while doing anything else and I'm hoping the upcoming ota update fixes these issues. (Don't want to bother with rooting stuff until I'm on stock 2.2)
The solution is to install the leaked update that we should be getting officially very soon. No freezing, no serious lag (installing apps will lag almost any Android device), no black screen freeze ups, much improved GPS, I'm lovin' it.
I installed Cyanogen Mod7 on samsung vibrant, after reboot the set not started, only samsung logo shows but not booted further, plz give the solution.
heygrl said:
The solution is to install the leaked update that we should be getting officially very soon. No freezing, no serious lag (installing apps will lag almost any Android device), no black screen freeze ups, much improved GPS, I'm lovin' it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, did u get the update or solution?

Hardware or software glitch?

My brother bought a second hand SGS2 (I9100), and it has some weird glitch affecting the battery reading.
Even though the phone is fully charged, when the phone goes to standby mode (sleep), after a few minutes, or seconds, it suddenly "thinks" that the battery is not charged, so it turns itself off. When you turn it back on, is says we need to charge it, but after 15 to 30 seconds, it reads the battery properly, and goes back to the right battery %. If the phone doesn't go to standby, then the battery glitch doesn't affect, it doesn't say it is not charged, and it can be used with no problems for hours.
I've reset it to factory reset, but it hasn't solve the bug. We have tried also changing for another battery (I have one as well), but is not that, the battery is perfect (both of them). We changed the ROM a couple times, also changed the Kernel and root it, but the issue does not go away.
Can anybody tell me with the info provided if it is a hardware issue (hope not) or if it can be on the software? I've searched the forums but didn't find others with the same issue.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give us to figure it out.
Run a battery calibration app
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
rahul1031992 said:
Run a battery calibration app
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
While you're at there, resetting the fuel gauge chip a few times wont hurt either.
ldve said:
My brother bought a second hand SGS2 (I9100), and it has some weird glitch affecting the battery reading.
Even though the phone is fully charged, when the phone goes to standby mode (sleep), after a few minutes, or seconds, it suddenly "thinks" that the battery is not charged, so it turns itself off. When you turn it back on, is says we need to charge it, but after 15 to 30 seconds, it reads the battery properly, and goes back to the right battery %. If the phone doesn't go to standby, then the battery glitch doesn't affect, it doesn't say it is not charged, and it can be used with no problems for hours.
I've reset it to factory reset, but it hasn't solve the bug. We have tried also changing for another battery (I have one as well), but is not that, the battery is perfect (both of them). We changed the ROM a couple times, also changed the Kernel and root it, but the issue does not go away.
Can anybody tell me with the info provided if it is a hardware issue (hope not) or if it can be on the software? I've searched the forums but didn't find others with the same issue.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give us to figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About 2 weeks ago, a guy reported a very similar (probably exact) problem.
After many troubleshooting, the problem was hardware related.
Visit the, thread, try all the proffered solutions, and if your problem is not solved, then it's a confirm hardware issue. : forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1843783&highlight=battery
Swyped from my Galaxy SII
Dont wanna sound rude or anything, but s2 is still not a cheap phone (for most of people atleaset) , meaning,
when ur buying smartphone 2nd hand, the seller will have to agree on me turning on phone, playing with it for 20 mins, check everything and so on..
Display, RAM, everything, meet somewhere where is wireless so you can download android system tester off market etc etc
Because i am almost sure this is HW problem mate. I suggest you call him right away, and hope he still has the same number
loop4444 said:
Dont wanna sound rude or anything, but s2 is still not a cheap phone (for most of people atleaset) , meaning,
when ur buying smartphone 2nd hand, the seller will have to agree on me turning on phone, playing with it for 20 mins, check everything and so on..
Display, RAM, everything, meet somewhere where is wireless so you can download android system tester off market etc etc
Because i am almost sure this is HW problem mate. I suggest you call him right away, and hope he still has the same number
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not rude at all! My brother review the phone, but didn't seem to have any issue at the beggining, started to fail like a week later.
We can return the phone at any time, is just that they don't have another one to give us right away, and most likely they'll take it for a review before we can get either a refund or another unit, so we wanted to explore all the options ourselves first.
I'm sure he'll be returning the phone soon as we pretty much ran out of options.
Jokesy said:
About 2 weeks ago, a guy reported a very similar (probably exact) problem.
After many troubleshooting, the problem was hardware related.
Visit the, thread, try all the proffered solutions, and if your problem is not solved, then it's a confirm hardware issue. : forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1843783&highlight=battery
Swyped from my Galaxy SII
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot Jokesy, you have been very helpful as I followed the thread and it is the exact same issue.
After a few days, the problem got even whorse as everytime is even harder to turn it on because it reads low battery. We can only turn it on, most of the time, through Recovery, as the key combination for Download Mode doesn't even respond. Sometimes doesn't respond at all. We just need to turn it on one more time to flash the stock ROM to return it.
ldve said:
Thanks a lot Jokesy, you have been very helpful as I followed the thread and it is the exact same issue.
After a few days, the problem got even whorse as everytime is even harder to turn it on because it reads low battery. We can only turn it on, most of the time, through Recovery, as the key combination for Download Mode doesn't even respond. Sometimes doesn't respond at all. We just need to turn it on one more time to flash the stock ROM to return it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! then it is a hardware problem too. Since you said it will be returned, I think it's the last option too.
Good luck and hope you get a normal unit

[Q] Refuses to charge, enter deep sleep, or disable wifi.-- New issue; help?

Perhaps someone can help. I've been trawling the net for answers to this issue, and have checked out a number of helpful threads, but it was something that still kept reoccurring for me. Today is the final straw - I just cannot get my phone to charge. I plugged it in last night at 40%, and after charging all night, and most of the day (save for when I unplugged it to restart, or remove battery), it's at 5% and falling.
Edit: After about 9 hours of intermittently restarting/removing battery repeatedly it's charging again. Didn't do anything new, and it'll doubtlessly repeat this fiasco again, as it tends to do.. So any suggestions are still more than welcome.
Issues I'm having:
Refuses to enter deep sleep - hangs at 384mhz.
Doesn't charge - even when shut down and plugged in.
///Keeps turning wifi on. (This is a new one that it's just started doing today. Enabling airplane mode does nothing. It just turns wifi back on.) - Edit: got it to stop doing this - didn't do anything other than restarting and removing battery a lot.
Things I've tried:
Silencing all the alerts.
Factory reset.
Uninstalling some apps I thought may have been doing it.
Disabling syncing.
Not using wifi.
Not plugging anything into the headphone jack.
Only plugging in/removing charger while the phone is unlocked.
Removing battery and waiting a few minutes.
Restarting repeatedly.
Other considerations:
I haven't changed anything. Stock ICS, updated OTA. It's under warranty.
Using original charger, and have never used any other chargers.
Side question - can anyone confirm that there are 4 pins in the charger, despite there being 5 indentations for them? I mean, in the bit that plugs into the phone. I know I saw a thread somewhere that detailed some info about the chargers, but I can't find it, and I'm wondering if my charger is off.
Any help or suggestions would be fantastic. This thing is frustratingly unreliable. I never know if I'm going to wake up to a useable phone or not.
Ugh ...
Thats a long list of broken features..
Did the phone get upgraded to ICS via kies or OTA ?
Is sounds like a bad firmware flash to me.
So if you are able, and the device will connect properly to PC, a kies restore may be in order here.
Otherwise, a warranty exchange is on the table as well ...g
gregsarg said:
Ugh ...
Thats a long list of broken features..
Did the phone get upgraded to ICS via kies or OTA ?
Is sounds like a bad firmware flash to me.
So if you are able, and the device will connect properly to PC, a kies restore may be in order here.
Otherwise, a warranty exchange is on the table as well ...g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OTA, and there didn't seem to be any issues with it. It began a few days after I upgraded to ICS, and as far as I know, I can't revert to Gingerbread without rooting (pardon - phone noob here), so will a kies restore actually help? Or would that be to try to reinstall ICS? (In case this is relevant, it's not consistent - sometimes I'll have up to a week with no problems.)
I'm keeping the warranty exchange as a last resort because it did work perfectly fine on Gingerbread. (Kind of hoping JellyBean will fix things..)
At any rate, thank you for replying and for your suggestion! I will dig around in Kies since that wasn't a route I've tried yet. Right now, it seems to be charging again so I'm going to let it get some power first. (And in case anyone is having similar problems, I didn't do anything to make it start charging other than what I've been trying on and off for the past 9 hours - just restarting, powering off, powering on, removing battery, etc repeatedly.)
Kies will push ICS to the device again ..but will often correct any data corruption from an OTA flash.
They were not always good downloads.
Kies will want to emergency restore the device, causing data loss.
It sounds like you may want to wait a bit longer, but I can't say how long on a JB update ..g
gregsarg said:
Kies will push ICS to the device again ..but will often correct any data corruption from an OTA flash.
They were not always good downloads.
Kies will want to emergency restore the device, causing data loss.
It sounds like you may want to wait a bit longer, but I can't say how long on a JB update ..g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aha, understood. Thanks for the warning re: data loss. I back up regularly but will double check that everything is saved before fiddling. Would try tonight, but it's gotten up to 20% and seems to have decided that that's the end of charging..
I believe, for my carrier, early Jan, so I may wait it out. (Though last time it kept getting bumped forward for a good few months.)
Sounds good ...
If you need further help, just revisit this thread.
We have a good bunch of note users here, that are happy to help out ....g
Even though it's been a long time, I hope that necroing the thread isn't too big a taboo. I thought I'd update this thread for any other poor sod who may be looking. (Not that my issues are over...) And if anyone has any more suggestions.. well, awesome.
I was unable to get Kies to actually connect to my phone, so the suggested solution did not work. After a few days of fighting Kies, I decided to just wait for JB. After JB, I was okay for a while, but then the draining started up again. This time I noticed that I had 4 processes running and eating up a ton of CPU. I don't recall what they were off the top of my head, but I think Media Storage, Download Manager, DRM Protected Content Storage and yet another. Force closing any one of them stopped them all, and stopped the drain, but they'd start up again. I'm not sure what triggered them, and a bit of digging showed that they are actually useful processes that I can't fully block, so.. for a bit I'd just check what processes were running if I noticed a quick drain, or used an app that alerted me when the phone was awake despite screen being turned off (not always reliable, sadly.) I couldn't catch it all the time, however, so that was really not useful. By the time I caught it, I'd have lost maybe 20% battery.
I read that those processes may be caused by a corrupted file in the internal "SD" or the external SD card. I hard reset, formatted the internal memory, removed the external and after that booted into recovery mode and cleared the cache, just in case.
Last night, after all this, the phone was still being flaky - holding at 1% on the charger for hours. As an added bonus, it now seems to run 4G incessantly, whereas previously it would only activate if I had an MMS coming in. (No data plan, I just have MMS capabilities.) I haven't even looked into that, because I'm just so sick of it all that I'm going to be trying to root today and see where that gets me.
Hopefully that will help anyone else who may be facing this..
Rooted (without screwups, woo), formatted internal memory, removed external micro SD card. Reinstalled my more "vital" apps, and got rid of some of the Rogers bloatware. Phone ran beautifully for a few days, then this morning I noticed battery drain and Media Storage was running at 50% CPU. Stopped it, and the drain stopped.
I didn't add my photos to the phone yet, except for a few albums that sync from Picasa Web Albums. I don't have any music or videos on there.
At this point, I'm debating a custom ROM but I have no idea if that will actually help with this issue? I'm a total noob when it comes to playing around with my phone, and it's only through sheer stubbornness that I gathered up the courage to root after weeks of researching. Another option is trying to find an app that just alerts me if one of those processes starts running so I don't have to keep checking what processes are active on my phone like some junkie. Does anything like that exist out there? I have a battery app that alerts me if the phone is awake with the screen off, but it doesn't always catch it - usually fails, in fact.
At this point, I'd love some help and feedback..

[Q] Need MAJOR HELP **A PHONE FROM HELL.*

Hi guys! I'm new around here, I've been lurking the forums for the past year or 2.
I originally had a i9000. Had it rooted, flashed & running 4.2.2 Hellybean, it was a dream, easiest android phone i've ever dealt with.
Today, I bring you a device that is so mind boggling and mysterious, it's ridiculous. Before you ask, yes I've searched and searched countless hours on end & sleepless nights. Trying to work out how to PERMANENTLY fix this device.
Straight up, I'm going to tell you what I've done, what I've tried, where the phone came from, model of the phone & all the useless stuff.
OKAY. Go.
I got the Samsung Galaxy S2 (i9100T) off a friend recently, about a month or two back. He didn't have a back cover for it, and the camera was all smashed up (back camera). It was running on 4.1.2 Vodaphone Stock DVLSH. It had a few issues when the phone got to me.
I wasn't sure if the phones battery was depleted, but I had to muck around with the phone for a couple of hours just to get the damned thing to turn on.
When I had got the phone to turn on, I kept getting "Warning! Battery Disconnected!" messages, this was frustrating. I eventually let the phone fully charged before I mucked around with it and ignored the warning.
When it was fully charged, I went straight to rooting it. I first rooted it by flashing CF-Root and then flashed a custom rom. (Xylon AOKP. 4.2.2)
From here on, the phone started to randomly restart, drop signal, lose battery after random restarts, get semi boot loops.
So I flashed a different stock (XWPL8) and got rid of the Samsung Galaxy SII i9100T boot logo and it was changed to Samsung Galaxy SII i9100.
After this, I then again rooted the phone but this time a different method and used Siyah kernel and flashed Carbon rom 4.2.2.
I still encountered the same problem as Xylon 4.2.2.
So I kept reverting back to stock, re-rooting & trying again.
I've tried countless methods.
POSSIBLE HARDBRICK RECOVERY DON'T TAKE MY WORD THOUGH: I've even managed to HardBrick the device (yes I mean hardbrick, i didn't even JTAG to bring it back... I flashed Dorimax Kernel at some point and it hardbricked it to all ****.) I spent a few days trying to unbrick it when finally I just plugged it into the charged and forced it to internally turn on (i believe) and let the battery deplete (the phone was hot even when i unplugged it. So I let the battery drain.) Yes I even battery pulled and tried to reboot it to see if I could boot recovery or download or the rom even before I tried any of this! (absolutely nothing.)
I took out my SIM card after a full day of letting it drain (just to be sure) plugged it in, took out the battery while the charger was plugged in, put the battery back in, unplugged the charger while holding power, and plugged it back in and I got the charging logo booted into download mode after 80% charge and flashed stock again.
Now the problem(s) with the phone:
SEMI-BOOTLOOPS: Every time i've rooted the phone and even flashed different roms just to make sure, it does a "semi boot-loop" I've searched everywhere for people with the same problem but found nothing on it.
What it does, is it turns on (boots the samsung logo.) turns off, turns back on, turns off, turns back on etc and then after about 2-8 times of doing is usually it boots to the ROM and the phone works for awhile.
RANDOM REBOOTS: I don't get these much anymore since I found a solution where someone had just folded up a receipt and pushed the battery up against the prongs because it had about .5mm movement off the prongs. This fixed most of the random reboots and don't see many anymore.
SLEEP OF DEATH!?!?!? OR JUST A BLACK SCREEN THAT DOESN'T TURN BACK ON!?: This one I'm not 100% sure what it is, I read it's the S.O.D (Sleep of Death). Which is common on 4.0.4 and was apparently fixed in later Android versions. But sometimes, when I lock my phone, or my phone goes to sleep, the screen stays black even after I press the home button or the power button, at first I thought just restart it by battery pull or holding down power like everyone says, yeah it works, my phone boots up and does a semi-bootloop and goes back on eventually, but one day I left it on in the mysterious S.O.D. and waited 5-10 mins pressed the power button and it unlocked... This one really has me baffled and it does it a LOT.
REALLY BRIGHT SCREEN AFTER REBOOT SOMETIMES!: Okay, so sometimes when the phone finally turns on, the screen is really bright, like the brightness is still on half, but it's a lot more noticeable on how much brighter it is, it's nearly like a white.
It's really really BRIGHT. Phone shouldn't be able to look/get that bright. After a reboot though it goes away and goes back to normal but this leads me to believe something to do with the battery just a hunch.
RANDOM FREEZES!??!?: Sometimes the phone will just randomly freeze, I can be doing something and it'll just freeze, it won't turn off, I still get picture on the screen but it's frozen and I can't do anything until I either battery pull or reboot it by holding down the power button.
Before anyone asks, yes, I Factory Reset from recovery, Wipe Cache & Dalvik Cache before, I flash a new rom etc.
- My GApps matches with my Android versions each time.
- The ROMs I have flashed are compatible with my phone.
- And I've made sure everything I have done is completely compatible with my phone and android version.
What I think!:
SEMI BOOT-LOOPS:
This one, I don't think much of, it's got me baffled. It could be something to do with the Boot-Loader, could be something to do with a bad flash (but I've even tried double flashing a single rom.)
the eMMC could be damaged in a certain way that it causes these self proclaimed "semi boot-loops"
RANDOM REBOOTS:
This one, I've pretty much fixed with the help of lurking the internet over and over for hours, so this indicates a battery problem, will be replacing it this week. (Yes I'm aware that this battery problem could be causing everything else to play up and that it could all be due to the battery but can we leave the battery out of this just for now so I have more options on how to fix it.)
SLEEP OF DEATH!?!?!? OR JUST A BLACK SCREEN THAT DOESN'T TURN BACK ON!?:
I believe that this could be due to either a high load on the CPU (maybe not so much high but a really low load that it goes into a state of nothing for awhile.) It drops into a mode where it's turned off (something bigger than deep-idle.)
REALLY BRIGHT SCREEN AFTER REBOOT SOMETIMES!:
I haven't changed voltages or messed with any voltages on my phone, but I believe that it does indeed have something to do with the CPU & GPU voltages or even the BATTERY Voltages either undervolting or being to high.
RANDOM FREEZES!??!?:
I think this one is something to do with my phone not liking the voltages stock set to it.
I read that somewhere Freezing the System Alarm Clock can fix the random reboots, so I've done that and also pushed the battery up with a bit of receipt so it touches the prongs completely.
Anyway, right now, the phone is on Stock Kernel with CWM Recovery6, with PacMan's 4.3.1 Nightly release on XWLP8 Baseband and it still does this all.
I know i'm asking for a lot of help and I'm probably going to get yelled at by Devs or forum mods or some body because I've done something wrong.
But if it doesn't belong here, move it please.
IT TRULY IS A PHONE FROM HELL.
-Thanks, Just another man who wants to fix silly problems for fun.
Youve said "dont mention get a new battery".What if that is the problem.
Maybe the phone has water damage, or it needs that hawkerpaulls scripts run.
Youve just got to try free stuff, then maybe splash a bit of cash I.e battery.
Nothing software/firmware-side is fixing this. Phone has major hardware issues going on. I wouldn't bother beyond trying the 'free stuff' TheUnderling mentioned.
erm - I'm agreeing with you on this 'phone from hell!' also agree with @theunderling and @MistahBungle - it doesn't sound like its worth fixing if the free stuff doesn't work - sounds like it would probably be cheaper to buy a second hand s2! Don't think dori kernel had anything to do with your 'hard brick' - I've been running dori for some time including the experimental builds, dori tests everything himself as do his team of testers - the 'd team' and I have never known him to release anything that even soft bricks let alone hard bricks.
Good luck :cyclops:
Hey guys thanks for the speedy replies! I love waking up to instant replies!
theunderling said:
Youve said "dont mention get a new battery".What if that is the problem.
Maybe the phone has water damage, or it needs that hawkerpaulls scripts run.
Youve just got to try free stuff, then maybe splash a bit of cash I.e battery.
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Sorry, I was half asleep when writing all this! I am getting a new battery this week! But I wanted to have a go at trouble shooting it but crossing out the battery from the list of problems seeing as it's being replaced this week @theunderling
MistahBungle said:
Nothing software/firmware-side is fixing this. Phone has major hardware issues going on. I wouldn't bother beyond trying the 'free stuff' TheUnderling mentioned.
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It may sound like it @MistahBungle but I have faith and I come down to being very patient with technology even when I do reach ticking time bomb mode. I believe I can fix it if I just get the right help !
If the new battery doesn't do anything, It might be the logic board and i'll just go buy a new one.
Jimsilver73 said:
erm - I'm agreeing with you on this 'phone from hell!' also agree with @theunderling and @MistahBungle - it doesn't sound like its worth fixing if the free stuff doesn't work - sounds like it would probably be cheaper to buy a second hand s2! Don't think dori kernel had anything to do with your 'hard brick' - I've been running dori for some time including the experimental builds, dori tests everything himself as do his team of testers - the 'd team' and I have never known him to release anything that even soft bricks let alone hard bricks.
Good luck :cyclops:
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@Jimsilver73 It really is!
I'm not the most wealthy person or have money to just throw at things like new phones etc etc. I'd love to see what I can do on my side and try and trouble shoot every problem for even the simpilest of DIY Solutions. I get a kick out of mucking with phones and computers.
Your probably right, but I was thinking that does Dori kernel keep stock voltages or does it change the voltages at all? Because it just managed to Hardbrick its self a few hours after flashing it which was odd, which led me to suspect that my phone didn't like the Dori Kernel & Carbon Rom Combination!
@theunderling I will try that Hawkers script by the way!
Is this the one? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2100558
Phone having no back cover and camera smashed suggests that there is a physical damage to the phone, i wouldn't even try battery to this one, it may just kill the new battery if there is some kind of water damage, tho you seem like having fun trying to repair it Yes, that's hawkers script, use it and couple of ROMs, (ICS,GB etc) to see if there is a software problem. If you can dissamble it, you can check if there are some contact problems between pieces.
Hi @Dakura thanks for the reply!
The camera isn't smashed completely, but at fist I thought that the camera would be screwing up the phone in someway.
I know for sure as well that there is no water damage, and the phone was just sitting around he lost the back cover randomly after he had bought an iPhone 4S.
I can disassemble it, I just need to find my little screw driver I use for stand-off changing on PC cases.
I read somewhere that the proximity sensor has a bit to do with things, so seeing as the back cover isn't on, that maybe dust got into it while it was in his draw and that's the reason for screen-offs? because the phone is still responsive. I can receive calls & text messages just the screen is black and doesn't come back on.
The warning in 4.0.4 "Warning! Battery Disconnected!" leads me to think that in versions above 4.0.4 (4.1.2 for example) don't have warnings and the phone just turns off.
**major update**
@Dakura @theunderling @Jimsilver73 @MistahBungle
Hey guys, so I've just taken the back CASING not the cover. Off the phone.
I've been looking for breaks in solder points on the Logic Board and around it.
- The Camera ISN'T smashed it was the lens on the case..
- Looks a tad dusty.
- Semi Boot-Loops have disappeared! booted the phone with the case off and the semi boot loops are gone tried booting multiple times each time with success!
- No breaks on the logic board from what I can see as far!
- For some reason the Camera app would not connect to the Camera. "Can't connect to Camera!" maybe the camera flex cable isn't in properly.
- First boot with case off, battery gave false reading of -1021032418914 (something along those lines). That's usually caused by a lose battery correct me if I'm wrong?
- Everything seemed a lot more responsive and working.
Hmmm.
So removing the screws and taking the back casing off made the Semi Boot-Loops go away.
Maybe a part of the back casing was pushing on the Logic board and shorting it out?
Maybe the screws torque where messing with it (e.g. on a HDD with computers the simpliest change in toque on the screws in the HDD can screw the HDD.)
But the torque of the screws where very loose.
Any ideas are much appreciated!!
Yep, probably a short-circuit or dust problem or displacement somewhere around there. What you said proves that somehow the phone was physically damaged. You may need to actually disassemble all the pieces, inspect them and put them all back together, and it still may not work, for now, try cleaning the dust and tighten the screws, fasten the board.
@Dakura thanks for the help today Dakura!
Finally got around to putting everything back together after an evaluation, made the flex-cables all snug and tightened up the screws a lot!
The phone appears to be working now.
at 100% it even vibrates now when i tap things it never used to.
I couldn't quite locate the problem, but I have a feeling that one of the flex cables could have come loose but only just enough to generate fluctuation of power between full and under to keep the phone on.
Hopefully the phone stays stable!
@theunderling thanks for recommending me HawkerPauls Nuke script, I'll be using that every time I re-rom my phone from now on!
Will update the thread on a possible fix for anyone else with this problem.
It's always good to run through every possibility and solution to fix problems before going out and blowing money.

Screen won't turn on after being turned off for a while

After I press the power button to turn off the screen and leave it like that for a certain period of time (sometimes several hours, sometimes an hour), the screen won't turn back on and I'm forced to hold the power button to restart the device.
It started doing this half a year ago, I first thought that it was somehow caused by my ROM (Archidroid 3.1.4), but I flashed LineageOS 14.1 last night and the problem still persists.
It seems to happen most often while it's charging, and after rebooting it, the battery is never at 100% percent (despite being plugged in the entire time before the reboot), it usually sits at around 92% or lower than that.
On Archidroid, the battery menu showed that during the period of... it being frozen I guess, only WiFi is on, stuff like cellular data is labeled as not active and the phone never wakes up either. On LineageOS, the battery graph just shows the device during that time period as if it was turned off.
If there's any LED that's been flashing before the device "freezes", it sometimes stops flashing or is permanently on until I reboot the device. For whatever reason, enabling touch to wake and setting it to be permanently active makes the device function for longer before having to be rebooted. Also, at times, the phone works for a day or two perfectly before freezing again. Also, the phone is usually hot when I grab it and try to turn on the screen and see that I can't.
I'm starting to believe that it's a hardware failure, maybe something related to the screen?
The problem is custom roms/kernels in general. Even the stock roms suffer to some extent but not as bad and you can wake the phone up by covering the proximity sensor.
Beamed in by telepathy.
shivadow said:
The problem is custom roms/kernels in general. Even the stock roms suffer to some extent but not as bad and you can wake the phone up by covering the proximity sensor.
Beamed in by telepathy.
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Hmm, how exactly does the ROM/Kernel cause this issue? I'm curious.
Also, where exactly is the proximity sensor and how do I cover it up? By hand or something?
Thanks.
I'd love to be able to tell you exactly why but I honestly don't know. All I know is I had the exact same issues with custom roms and kernels on my s3 but now it's stock rooted and only has that issue in phone calls.
The proximity sensor is 1 of the 2 dots between the earpiece and the front facing camera lens. Just cover them up for a few seconds with a fat finger or thumb and when you let go the screen "should" jump back into life. If it doesn't then you have to reboot the device.
I think you were halfway there with "hardware bug" but I think it's a "software interfacing with the hardware bug", not necessarily a hardware bug on its own.
Beamed in by telepathy.
shivadow said:
I'd love to be able to tell you exactly why but I honestly don't know. All I know is I had the exact same issues with custom roms and kernels on my s3 but now it's stock rooted and only has that issue in phone calls.
The proximity sensor is 1 of the 2 dots between the earpiece and the front facing camera lens. Just cover them up for a few seconds with a fat finger or thumb and when you let go the screen "should" jump back into life. If it doesn't then you have to reboot the device.
I think you were halfway there with "hardware bug" but I think it's a "software interfacing with the hardware bug", not necessarily a hardware bug on its own.
Beamed in by telepathy.
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The problem started happening a few months after I flashed Archidroid, so I'm guessing something in the meantime managed to mess it up.
I tried covering the proximity sensor with my thumb, but it didn't work. It didn't even work while the phone was working normally. :/
Is the problem maybe caused by Kernel settings?
Have you changed the cpu clockspeeds?. The minimum the cpu can scale down to is 200mhz. If you haven't changed the cpu clockspeeds then the problem is the same one that I encountered that did my head in for months trying to find a fix, to no avail, so much that it put me off custom roms and kernels completely for any device.
The only "fix" is to use a stock rom/firmware and stop at rooting it, that's all. If you change to another custom rom or kernel all you'll do "is plaster over the cracks".
So your choice is put up with it or go back to stock.
Beamed in by telepathy.
shivadow said:
Have you changed the cpu clockspeeds?. The minimum the cpu can scale down to is 200mhz. If you haven't changed the cpu clockspeeds then the problem is the same one that I encountered that did my head in for months trying to find a fix, to no avail, so much that it put me off custom roms and kernels completely for any device.
The only "fix" is to use a stock rom/firmware and stop at rooting it, that's all. If you change to another custom rom or kernel all you'll do "is plaster over the cracks".
So your choice is put up with it or go back to stock.
Beamed in by telepathy.
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I've messed with clockspeeds only AFTER I started experiencing the issue, I even tried setting the minimum clockspeed to 1000 MHz to make sure the Kernel doesn't somehow "sleep" because of the low CPU frequency, but it didn't help.
But if that's the case, then I guess I'll just put up with it. I'm way too used to Android 5.1.1 and 7.1 by now to make the change back to Android 4.3. Shame that nothing can be done to fix this though.
Thanks for your help, appreciate it.
No problem, it is definitely the issue I experienced with my s3 that I couldn't solve for months on end. It's not worth chasing shadows.
Underclocking will make the problem worse but eventually you'll get to a point where every single time the phone turns the screen off it'll immediately crash and you'll find it unresponsive, needing a reboot.
I remember conferring with a dev of a certain kernel to attempt to resolve the issue but even the dev was perplexed by it. That's why I say it's a halfy half hardware/software issue.
It's a shame though, the s3 is a good phone even by today's standards but due to the lack of ram it struggles with newer versions of Android. Anything past 4.3 has issues, probably because they're not stock.
Beamed in by telepathy.
shivadow said:
No problem, it is definitely the issue I experienced with my s3 that I couldn't solve for months on end. It's not worth chasing shadows.
Underclocking will make the problem worse but eventually you'll get to a point where every single time the phone turns the screen off it'll immediately crash and you'll find it unresponsive, needing a reboot.
I remember conferring with a dev of a certain kernel to attempt to resolve the issue but even the dev was perplexed by it. That's why I say it's a halfy half hardware/software issue.
It's a shame though, the s3 is a good phone even by today's standards but due to the lack of ram it struggles with newer versions of Android. Anything past 4.3 has issues, probably because they're not stock.
Beamed in by telepathy.
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I personally never had many problems with 5.1.1 or 7.1.2 ROM's, the 7.1.2 ROM I flashed a few days ago actually made my phone faster.
Unfortunately, as of last night, my phone is officially dead. Left it to charge and when I came back, the screen had millions and millions of colors scattered on it, as if someone smashed it with a hammer. Rebooted, screen turned into this white and grey zig-zag pattern and the only way to shut it down is to remove the battery. Can't boot it into recovery or download mode and my computer does not recognize the phone when I plug it in using USB.
My S3 has served me well for the last 5 years, but I think it's time for me to put it to rest and look for a new phone. Again, thanks for your help, at least now I know that the issue I had was unfixable and now it doesn't even matter anymore
The device is now dead but it is not related. That is now hardware failure of the gpu.
If you're looking for an easily moddable device you should stick with Samsung but get an international variant of whatever model if available. If you want a nice phone that is cheap nowadays go for an htc m9. If you want an outright monster of a device take a look at the new htc's. Sense launcher is just awesome once you get used to it as it makes the phone too easy to navigate.
Beamed in by telepathy.

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