[Q] Phone works but barely usable - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

OK so i have an I9300. for about a year now i think, maybe more.
And up until lately it worked relatively fine, but lately It started to gradually become unbearably crashy and annoying.
the camera very often crashes, leaving me with an "Unable to connect to camera" message, and only after a reboot does the camera work again. it used to happen scarcely, but now i can barely take 2-4 pictures before having to reboot.
Talking about rebooting, Not only do i get random reboots all the time, but after every reboot (not just the random ones) I get a UI crash after UI crash and the only way to fix it is by locking the screen and waiting,
Usage is extremely slow, to the point where launching whatsapp takes up to 5 seconds.
I amusing the cm11 nightlies but i get this with every ROM, I've tried updating cm11 and still nothing. wiping cache and data-also nothing.
the only escape now is full SD card format, but I'm scared to do that getting the same errors after it.
Could you help me figure out what's wrong with my phone? it's the only one i have and it's unusable.
I'm scared it's a hardware problem - that i cannot fix. but the signs are all there: the errors persist through formats (i formatted once about two months ago to no avail) and wipes and reflashes.
If you need any additional details about my system that i forgot to mention, ask me obviously!

I'm guessing you have an i9300 and running cm11? That's what's in you're post so I'll go with that...cm11 is not stable enough atm. That will Explain the reboots from time to time. Best thing for you to do at this time is as always...go back to stock with Odin. Test it. Same reboots?? Back up and format you're int SD and flash again stock firmware with Odin. Still rebooting?? Possible hardware issue.

Related

[Q] Phone keeps restarting randomly.

I looked at the similar threads and none them had to do with my phone. I think it has to do with the sd card as I have unmounted it and it doesn't seem to restart. Today it was restarting about ever 10 minutes. I looked at the log cat and it has no terrible faliures just a bunch of errors which seem to keep occuring but not restarting my phone afterwords. Some of these errors are parsing error in audiofilter.csv, write int failed to open sys class leds red brightness, console unable to post message :0 and a few other random errors. But the audio one and the console messages appear way more often. The sys class leds appeared only once. Is there something I can do to fix this? I just had the phone flashed with the ICS 2.3.7 Rom and everything seemed fine til today.
1) what phone are u using?
2) which kernel are u using?
3) which rom are u using?
4) did you install any new apps/scripts prior to the problem?
1. LG Optimus V
2. 2.6.32.9-v3.3 [email protected]# 1
3. ICSandwich2.3.7 - Final Edition [November 29, 2011]
4. Micdroid, 4shared, micdroid, rootexplorer, and updates for superuser.
Those are the only things I have installed when flashing this rom like the night before yesterday. Also the kernel is the one that the rom came with it seems like all roms I have used so far have this kernel I would really like a different kernel if possible. Other than that I really think it has to do with the sdcard. I have it unmounted and ever since then it has stopped restarting the phone. I have had this same problem with all roms no matter which one I use even when I first got the phone and didn't touch anything on it. The phone randomly restarts when the sdcard is mounted and when trying to play games that are on the sdcard the phone freezes. Is there anything I can do to fix this issue because I don't have a bunch of space on the phone itself to store games so they work and I can't keep the sdcard mounted as it will restart the phone there must be something that can fix this sdcard issue.
Are you using any ext partitions? seems to me as though the sd card is faulty, have you tried with another sd card? does the problem persist when the sd card is NOT mounted?
how about u try reformatting your sd card, after backing up the contents, then remount it.
"I think it has to do with the sd card as I have unmounted it and it doesn't seem to restart." First post. "Other than that I really think it has to do with the sdcard. I have it unmounted and ever since then it has stopped restarting the phone." Second post. So yes I have unmounted the sd card and the problem no longer presists. Just one thing that does happen even with the sd card unmounted which would be the web stops working. I have to turn off the mobile data for a second or so then turn it back on then it starts to work again. But this doesn't seem to happen too often. I will get back to you tomorrow on the reformatting the card as it is a little late and I am going to be going to bed soon.
Well it would seem like formatting the card didn't do anything for it and I have tried different ones they are all identical cards though. Also I have the issue of the phone shutting down entirely with no notice or anything. Like I could have it on to charge and later I go to it and find that it is off completely even though it is on the charger. I could have it where I can see it on the charger and keep an eye on it but it shows no sign of turning the screen on and telling me of it going to shut off. So is it that the phone gets overheated and shuts off with no notice or what?
This **** used to happen to me when I had go launcher... no root... no custom ROM, nothing, go launcher made me do my 1st factory reset... I woke up every night when it kept doing the boot sound... then I got bootloops... after 1 month, thought I give GO launcher another try... this time I had it rooted... so I just flashed cm7, did a full wipe, and now I am happy with it...
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
Well this rom doesn't have go launcher it has ics theme with magic locker which I think might be causing some issues.
I had the same problems with my Optimus One and 2.2, but I could stop it by not turning wifi off.
I know, it sounds completely unrelated and I didn't even want to try it at first but it stopped my phone from rebooting randomly. My device did "only" reboot once or twice a day, though.
Then it may not be the wifi either. It has to be something. I haven't had this many issues since I got the phone. I guess I will be flashing to a rom that hasn't given me little to no issues.
I have decided to reformat my phone with a different rom. Now I have BACKside-IHO-VM670-12072011 ([ROM+Kernel] Inferior Human Organs unofficial CM7.1) it has only restarted on me once within 2 days but the main problem is that even though I have wiped the battery stats and the battery is at 100% while on the charger and I am using it after 3 hours it seems to shut off like it is dead when I leave it for a minute. It just has a black screen and it won't power up. I have to remove the battery and put it back in and then it comes on and boots up and says it is still at 100%.

[Q] Official ICS update causing reboots

I know I know, I am very late to the party.
But anyway, I finally installed the ICS update a few hours ago.... and my phone won't stop rebooting now.
Its not a boot loop, because it does get into Sense UI and I can use it, but eventually after a few minutes, it will reboot all on it's own with no warning. I assume its loading my (rather large) list of apps from the SD card since I have never seen it reboot until it finally wakes up, realizes a SD card is indeed mounted, and starts populating my app list. I never saw that process finish from the few times I bothered to watch it.
I tried removing the SD card and now its no longer rebooting, so unless taking out the battery did something, I assume its likely the SD card.
Is there any way to tell what is causing it without reformatting my phone? I REALLY don't want to wipe out everything.
After some testing, I have found two issues with the update:
1. It seems that it is not any one specific app, but the NUMBER of apps on my SD-card causing the reboot. I have somewhere around 200-250 apps installed on it. So far I can put about 80 or so of them in .androud_secure and it will work fine, I do not know exactly what the braking point it, but I know that having around 140 apps causes it to reboot every 5 minutes, regardless of which apps are on there.
2. I can't load my text messages anymore. Any contact who I have had a long history of texting with, it just gets stuck saying "loading". I can still receieve messages, but since I can't actually open the message list anymore, I can't reply!
I would really like to avoid doing a factory reset if possible, is there anything I can do about this?
I was consideing just doing a SMS-backup and then flashing a custom rom, but I like the 3D feature and it seems like there is not a SINGLE custom rom out there that supports 3D, and many don't support 4G either.
Please, does anyone have any advice?

[Q] Android gets into a hotboot looping state for unknown reason

Hi.
My Galaxy S3 is frequently getting into hotboot looping state for no apparent reason. The only way to get it out of this state is to wipe the phone or restore a backup of the "data" folder only.
After that, it might work for a week, but it might not work for a day (not work = start to hotboot loop).
It happens when after the phone screen is locked, it doesn't wake up anymore. It doesn't answers to any calls (like if it's off) or notifications. Just dies.
Forcing a reboot (by holding the power button) or removing the battery ables me to reboot it, but enter in hotboot looping state. I can make it go thru the whole booting state and I see the homescreen (And that's weird because I'm supposed to see the lockscreen first). Some widgets animation works but the device doesn't answer to touch (two softbuttons vibrates when touched, they do vibrate but don't render anything on Android) and then hotboots. Keeps doing this forever. Booting into safemode USED to work, but it doesn't work anymore, I don't know why.
After wiping the device or restoring the Data backup, device turns on as expected (restoring data takes it back to working state exactly like it was before the backup, even the same lockscreen pattern). I've tried to leave a terminal running logcat to catch the error, but it doesn't write in realtime, so when the bug breaks out, the logfile is empty.
I even thought it could be the S3 memory issue with firmware, but I'm using the "fixed" kernels. Also, it is recoverable, and not permanently dead.
I suspect of some rogue app, but I have too many apps to just go through installing one by one (and waiting even weeks to install the other one). Is there any way I can get a postmortem logfile or make logcat write in realtime?
Thanks
GTMoraes said:
Hi.
My Galaxy S3 is frequently getting into hotboot looping state for no apparent reason. The only way to get it out of this state is to wipe the phone or restore a backup of the "data" folder only.
After that, it might work for a week, but it might not work for a day (not work = start to hotboot loop).
It happens when after the phone screen is locked, it doesn't wake up anymore. It doesn't answers to any calls (like if it's off) or notifications. Just dies.
Forcing a reboot (by holding the power button) or removing the battery ables me to reboot it, but enter in hotboot looping state. I can make it go thru the whole booting state and I see the homescreen (And that's weird because I'm supposed to see the lockscreen first). Some widgets animation works but the device doesn't answer to touch (two softbuttons vibrates when touched, they do vibrate but don't render anything on Android) and then hotboots. Keeps doing this forever. Booting into safemode USED to work, but it doesn't work anymore, I don't know why.
After wiping the device or restoring the Data backup, device turns on as expected (restoring data takes it back to working state exactly like it was before the backup, even the same lockscreen pattern). I've tried to leave a terminal running logcat to catch the error, but it doesn't write in realtime, so when the bug breaks out, the logfile is empty.
I even thought it could be the S3 memory issue with firmware, but I'm using the "fixed" kernels. Also, it is recoverable, and not permanently dead.
I suspect of some rogue app, but I have too many apps to just go through installing one by one (and waiting even weeks to install the other one). Is there any way I can get a postmortem logfile or make logcat write in realtime?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try flashing another ROM for S3 and doing a full wipe.
TenKoX said:
Try flashing another ROM for S3 and doing a full wipe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
I already did. It started to happen out of nowhere while I used the Android Revolution HD ROM, then after a few wipes and reinstalls with the same problem, I gave a shot to WanamLite ROM. Exactly same problem. Both are based on the original 4.1.2 Android.
I'm pretty sure it is being caused by some rogue app, because the only thing in common between those ROMs is that I "batch-install" all my apps back from Google Play.
So far, I'm suspecting about Vine (it's the last install that I remember since it started to have this issue) and I have already uninstalled it, but it might have been caused by some app update that broke hell to my phone.
If there were some kind of "black box" that I could retrieve after a crash, it could be the solution
GTMoraes said:
Thanks for the reply.
I already did. It started to happen out of nowhere while I used the Android Revolution HD ROM, then after a few wipes and reinstalls with the same problem, I gave a shot to WanamLite ROM. Exactly same problem. Both are based on the original 4.1.2 Android.
I'm pretty sure it is being caused by some rogue app, because the only thing in common between those ROMs is that I "batch-install" all my apps back from Google Play.
So far, I'm suspecting about Vine (it's the last install that I remember since it started to have this issue) and I have already uninstalled it, but it might have been caused by some app update that broke hell to my phone.
If there were some kind of "black box" that I could retrieve after a crash, it could be the solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you wipe data, your apps disappear, so I think this is not the problem.
Do another full wipe and DON'T restore your data. Just download again from Google Play and see if the problem appear again.
TenKoX said:
If you wipe data, your apps disappear, so I think this is not the problem.
Do another full wipe and DON'T restore your data. Just download again from Google Play and see if the problem appear again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
I started doing this the first time, but it still crashes it. And as I was wasting too much time with this, the backup option came as a option to not have to click to download over 200 apps one by one. Also, it once happened during a long holiday, and I was in a friend's ranch with no decent internet connection for downloading. All my apps were gone and I was stuck with a default phone for five days.
The backup is exactly the point where I finish downloading all the apps and they're installed. There are no cracked programs or adapted (e.g. Nexus camera). Every single app is obtainable from Play Store, so it's pretty fresh
Funny (actually sad) thing is that it's a system-wide error that a wipe solves it. If I don't wipe data and reinstall the same ROM (which under normal condition is no big deal), it doesn't get past from boot screen.
The worst is it happens instantly. It's working now, but then it crashes. Bam, gone. Few hours ago I was texting my gf and I left the phone for a while, waiting for her answer. After some time I knew something was off, picked up the phone and it was pretty warm (first signal), with the LED blinking some Facebook notification. Tried to wake up but it is in coma. I force a restart and it hotboot loops like I described on first post
It -only- happens when screen is locked. I disabled the screen lock for now to see if it's a workaround, but I'm not holding my breath
It could be a hardware malfunction if it can carry through all the roms you flashed and even when you tried a fresh install without your apps it still happened.
WildfireDEV said:
It could be a hardware malfunction if it can carry through all the roms you flashed and even when you tried a fresh install without your apps it still happened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's pretty much discarded. Wiping data instantly solves it. It did indeed run for 5 days with no external app without a single problem.
But also it ran over one week with external apps without a problem. I've executed some memory integrity tests and they all reported a-OK.
I'm kinda ruling out the "rogue-app" issue. I thought that recovering "data" from NAND backup was the /sdcard/android/data. But it's deeper than that. Now I don't even have a lead.
Phone already crashed today, without Vine and lockscreen, so that's not the problem. I really need to get some logs out of him. Just need to know how. Only if it could write a realtime log, so I could pull through ADB.
My last resort will be a fresh-fresh android installation, default S3 i9300 ROM, with only essential apps. Already have it triggered for the next crash.
If it goes rogue even this way, I'm running triangleaway and returning it (will be a profit too, the silver border is stripping).
This time around, I'm trying running it without a external sdcard (several files were being corrupted in it, don't know if it's due to force restart by removing battery, or some real issue on the card)
It's a problem within the Facebook social app or Youtube.
I've managed to run the phone flawlessly for weeks without signing in on Facebook, suspecting it might be it.
Today I logged in on Youtube app accidentally, and had to login on Facebook app to retrieve some info. Three hours later, phone went mad again.
I don't know which app caused it, but I think there's some relation to Facebook due to a greater ~involvement~ (couldn't find a proper word.. forgot it) with Android.
I've changed ROMs, launchers, system versions.. but not Kernel. I'll try another kernel and report on Boeffla main thread to see if there's some known bug

[Q] Reboots every evening after getting 4.2.2 update

OK, this is really weird - after getting the 4.2.2 update, my phone reboots itself every night, not 100% sure it's exactly the same time, but it's been while sitting in my pocket or on the table, not even in use. At first I assumed it was Zooper, which I had installed right after the update, but I disabled it yesterday and got the reboot again tonight.
I even checked my Tasker to make sure some auto-reboot profile hadn't installed itself!
Any hints about how to diagnose this? Do I have no choice but to remove apps one by one? Most of the apps I run are the same ones I run on my TF300 tablet which also has 4.2.2, so don't know if it could be an app.
Did it again tonight and it is the exact same time - 9:19pm It's also interesting is that this is about the time of day I did the update to 4.2.2 It's like some daily thing going on. It must be some new app applied by default by the update, I've disabled some of the obvious new apps.
Does anyone know if I do a factory reset will it go back to 4.1 (which worked fine for me), or will it stay at 4.1?
PhysicalEd said:
Did it again tonight and it is the exact same time - 9:19pm It's also interesting is that this is about the time of day I did the update to 4.2.2 It's like some daily thing going on. It must be some new app applied by default by the update, I've disabled some of the obvious new apps.
Does anyone know if I do a factory reset will it go back to 4.1 (which worked fine for me), or will it stay at 4.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the Factory reset will erase all ur Apps and will stay in 4.2.2 ......
Looks like this update has really screwed up my phone. After a couple of more nights of trying to disable more apps, and trying to catch the error with logcat (nothing that makes any sense in the log, no error or crashes preceding the reboot) I decided to factory reset.
It rebooted again tonight, about 24 hours after the factory reset.
Also, intermittently now the power button will not suspend the phone, though I can hold it and reboot, I don't know any other way to put it to sleep.
Looking at the log some more, the only thing that gives any hint is that there was Location Services activity before the crash. Googling around about my problem showed there was a bug in Location Services early in 4.2 but the claim was that it was fixed. I guess tomorrow night I'll try turning off Location Services as well.
PhysicalEd said:
Looks like this update has really screwed up my phone. After a couple of more nights of trying to disable more apps, and trying to catch the error with logcat (nothing that makes any sense in the log, no error or crashes preceding the reboot) I decided to factory reset.
It rebooted again tonight, about 24 hours after the factory reset.
Also, intermittently now the power button will not suspend the phone, though I can hold it and reboot, I don't know any other way to put it to sleep.
Looking at the log some more, the only thing that gives any hint is that there was Location Services activity before the crash. Googling around about my problem showed there was a bug in Location Services early in 4.2 but the claim was that it was fixed. I guess tomorrow night I'll try turning off Location Services as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The update may have screwed up somewhere in the middle, you could try to re-ruu your phone or unlock the bootloader and flash a custom rom, also the thing about the power button not putting the phone to sleep or doing anything than reboot on long press happened to me on each and every custom rom and I never did any OTA, got my phone, unlocked bootloader and flash away from sense, my hboot is still the one that it came with, but for me that thing happens really randomly, like once every 1 or 2 weeks, and when that happens for me the volume buttons stop working also till reboot, I was thinking I was the only one facing it so I kinda decided not to talk about that as I saw no one say anything about it, but I am also one of those for who the phone turns off exactly when my phone goes to 6% battery whatever I do, on whatever rom I am and even in the recovery, so I was thinking that maybe vodafone modified something on it, that's an other reason I didn't say anything about the buttons becoming unresponsive...
So what I would recommend is to re-ruu your phone or go to a custom rom (or if none solves anything the phone may have some kind of hard brick).
Just to help out anyone else who ever has this problem.
It was not location services.
I can see clearly in two logs an HTC process crashing. This seems to cause a cascade that leads to reboot.
I contacted HTC tech support, they suggested I boot up in a recovery mode and try to wipe data cache. They were surprised to find that attempting to do that caused a reboot.
So as Ranomez suggests above, they want me to re-do the update with the RUU when they release it, which they said would be "soon" last weekend.
On the other hand, my battery life after this update is fantastic, so I've decided I can live with this to not have to worry about recharging by mid-afternoon!

Galaxy SIIX SGH-T989D crashing issues

Hi,
I'm looking for some general advice and troubleshooting for my phone's issues. My phone started crashing very often, sometimes at complete random, as well as when I was using it fairly heavily (any app that froze my phone for a second before loading before the crashing would now crash my phone). Sometimes it would reboot fine, other times it would bootloop once or twice before reloading fine. I previously tried doing a factory reset, removing my external microSD card, and updating everything via Kies and nothing worked.
I got bored and rooted my phone, did a full wipe, and flashed the latest Infamous update. The problem was still there but it wouldn't crash as often while using it because my phone could handle higher app activity but it's still there. Oddly enough, after flashing Infamous, it often fails to reboot and so I have to do a battery pull before turning it back on, otherwise it won't even vibrate after holding the power button.
I'm just wondering if you guys have any idea what the issue could be. Is it likely still something I can fix? Is this potentially a battery issue or is it a hardware issue?
Thanks so much!
jasonale said:
Hi,
I'm looking for some general advice and troubleshooting for my phone's issues. My phone started crashing very often, sometimes at complete random, as well as when I was using it fairly heavily (any app that froze my phone for a second before loading before the crashing would now crash my phone). Sometimes it would reboot fine, other times it would bootloop once or twice before reloading fine. I previously tried doing a factory reset, removing my external microSD card, and updating everything via Kies and nothing worked.
I got bored and rooted my phone, did a full wipe, and flashed the latest Infamous update. The problem was still there but it wouldn't crash as often while using it because my phone could handle higher app activity but it's still there. Oddly enough, after flashing Infamous, it often fails to reboot and so I have to do a battery pull before turning it back on, otherwise it won't even vibrate after holding the power button.
I'm just wondering if you guys have any idea what the issue could be. Is it likely still something I can fix? Is this potentially a battery issue or is it a hardware issue?
Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So when your phone have become unstable , in what condition it was ? did you ever flash it before ... so my s2x did the same thing afer a update with odin on 4.2 ... so i have reflashed it and evrything was working good after

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