[Q] S3 Possibly Broken? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

My S3 has I think started dieing on me. It was mainly when playing games but can happen randomly now, especially more so when I play games (which I now don't!). The screen starts to 'flicker', the picture remains but it's like the light across the screen flickers and then if it crashes (most of the time) and I reboot the phone the battery is nearly non existent. If the phone doesn't crash/reboot the signal is gone so it stops being a phone until I reboot.
Is this a case that the phone is broken? I'm not going to repair if so but if it's something I can easily fix then I'd like to do so!
I've flashed a couple of different ROMs as I thought that may be the case at first but it's the same on all I've tried.
I had to get the USB repaired recently as it stopped charging so I'm wondering if the phone is just on it's way out, which is disappointing as I've kept it in mint condition and it's only like 18 months old!

Replace the battery first.

Thanks I'll give that a try!

Related

Please help! HTC HD2 keeps rebooting (soft reseting) out of it own

I don't know what the heck is going on with my HTC HD2, but the reboots are getting quite annoying.
Furthermore i noticed it happens when i utilize the cpu heavily.
Mostly with streaming video or playing games.
Have done multiple hard resets, rom updates and even custom roms but nothing seems to work.
Sometimes my phone even reboots(soft resets) after watching 5 whole seconds of youtube
So even directly after a hard reset the problem persists.
I'm totally confused right now(because i have tried everything i could do to fix this problem).
I am thinking could it be the battery not giving enough juice for the task? overheating ? or just faulty hardware?
what do you guys think?
because i noticed that the problem is happening more frequently over time.
Edit: it rebooted even in idle a moment ago (1th time) ???
Similar issue with youtube freeze and reset
I can validate your frustration. I am having problems with my HD2 freezing up as well and doing a soft reset on it's own. So the YouTube app opens up the HTC player and then it will play a few seconds and then freeze up. I also opened an MP4 movie file and view it with the HTC player and that also froze it. Last but not least, I have TomTom and that froze it after 15 minutes last night.
I have seen some postings that Tmobile and HTC will be releasing a new rom to fix some memory leaking issues so perhaps that might be it.
It started happening about a week ago for me. Please post any solutions you might find.
I am on:
OS v.5.2.21889
Mania v.2.5.20121412.1
ROM v.2.10.531.1 WWE
Radio v. 2.08.50.08.2
I have done some trail and error, played around with coreplayer and i noticed that when i set the video quality to FLV medium quality in the buildin youtube app in coreplayer i won't reboot that quick anymore, but after a couple of seconds it will eventually still reboot. If i set quality to high quality/high bandwidth i will reboot much faster (so this let's me think about some kind of memory leak/buffer overflow).
Furthermore luckly i don't have any problems with playing mp4 videos in coreplayer, i have tested this especially because of the youtube reboots, and it will keep playing for 1,5 hour without any problems, so maybe you could try coreplayer and see if that's a solution for your mp4 problem ?
But eventually it would be nice if these problems where sorted out so that the device will work like it is supossed to be
Already tried a TASK29 and a flashing a stock ROM from your SD card?
Ye, have tried task 29 (between each roms, i do use task to make sure that the phone is empty.) and when i went back to my 1.72 stock rom i did flash it from SD, but still no luck.
this happened to me today as i was logging onto the net. it did a full master reset.
Same thing happened to me after the unit froze. I pulled the battery, put it back in an it went into this continuous loop of starting up, going through the first couple of screens and then rebooting. What I eventually found to be the problem was that I had inadvertently bent one of the battery pins when I put the battery back in, not much but just enough to where it wasn't making contact. After I carefully straightened it out the issue was gone and it fired up as usual. I love simple fixes, of course this was after I task 29'd and reflashed which didnt correct the problem.
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lemonspeakers said:
dfhgjkhgfeghjn
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol ? xD frustrated ?
thompsd said:
Same thing happened to me after the unit froze. I pulled the battery, put it back in an it went into this continuous loop of starting up, going through the first couple of screens and then rebooting. What I eventually found to be the problem was that I had inadvertently bent one of the battery pins when I put the battery back in, not much but just enough to where it wasn't making contact. After I carefully straightened it out the issue was gone and it fired up as usual. I love simple fixes, of course this was after I task 29'd and reflashed which didnt correct the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm i only got the problem while i'm watching streaming video through 3g and on usb > active sync > pc data connection / some (cpu intensive) games
with wifi no problems at all, it plays youtube for more then a hour without a reboot, and i tested it multiple times to make sure), and booting is just fine without a single hickup
thompsd said:
Same thing happened to me after the unit froze. I pulled the battery, put it back in an it went into this continuous loop of starting up, going through the first couple of screens and then rebooting. What I eventually found to be the problem was that I had inadvertently bent one of the battery pins when I put the battery back in, not much but just enough to where it wasn't making contact. After I carefully straightened it out the issue was gone and it fired up as usual. I love simple fixes, of course this was after I task 29'd and reflashed which didnt correct the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thank you @thompsd. This was driving me crazy on my phone. I finally took it back to a TMobile store for replacement and they put me on the phone with support before they would issue a replacement. Of course I was bewildered when they had me take out the battery and put it back in (which I had done a zillion times) and the phone suddenly worked. The person on the phone told me that it was fixed because I had to keep the battery out for at least 90 seconds. This made absolutely no sense, but it was hard to argue with success. I walked out of the store with my head hung low in shame.
Tonight, sitting in an airport lounge waiting for a flight, I noticed that my phone was hung so I pulled the battery to reset it. When I put the battery back in and started it, the phone went into the reboot loop -- displaying the boot screen for a couple of seconds and then shutting down and rebooting. I pulled the battery for 90 seconds. 120 seconds, 5 minutes. No joy. Realizing that this solution made absolutely no sense in the first place, I decided to search around again.
I found your reply in this thread and looked at my battery contacts. One of them was bent. I straightened it out, put the battery back in and the phone booted right up. Now I realize that when I was on the phone with TMobile, I must have put the battery back in that one time in such a way that inadvertently straightened the pin.
Hi all,
I have (maybe) the same problem with my HD2 i.e. when it is "doing something", well not idle, it sometimes restarts itself and then usually will not get out of the cycle of crash/reboot untill I remove the battery and wait for a few minutes before starting it again.
This is always more frequent if I am using a serious application such as sat nav. It also has only happened when the unit is connected to power, either on my desk or in the car (different power sources), but disconnecting it from the power after the cycle has started doesn't help.
I have assumed from the symptoms that it is caused by overheating and so leaving it switched off for a period allows it to cool.
I have got a return packet from Vodafone to send it for repair but I am loath to do this as it is likely to take 10 days and I suspect I might either get a recon unit back or "no fault found".
Does anyone think this could be battery related? If so I would buy a 2nd battery and test it.
Cheers, Gordon
I can confirm having the same problem.
Using BattClock (which shows a.o. the battery temperature) I was able to establish that the resets and reset loops happen once the battery temperature exceeds 31-32°C.
Contacted HTC support and received reply that the phone qualifies for repair.
PS. My wife just suggested providing me with a cooler bag, so I can enjoy reset-free phone during summer heatwave...
I had similar behavior, but it was due to the new ROM release (4/28/10). I loaded the official T-Mobile release date ROM (2/19/10) and the problem went away.
L.B.
Yesterday my battery charge got very low and shut the phone down. When I turned the phone back on without charging it kept rebooting time after time. I tried plugging the charger in but that didn't help. I took out the battery and put it back in and that still didn't help. I finally caught it when it was rebooting and pressed volume down and got the phone in bootloader to at least stop the constant rebooting. I left the phone on the charger and after about 1/2 hour I pulled the battery and put it back in and the phone was fine.
I am not wanting this to happen again. Maybe I will go back to an older ROM.
if i have some luck i will receive my phone tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
i will let you know what has been repaired and if this solved the reboot problem.
today i received my phone back from the repair center.
The repair letter says that the display has being changed because it was not functioning anymore? (but when i sent the phone in the display was working like it should).
And the youtube problem is still there
Im having the same problem! i figure it was the battery overheating...or the rom or even probably a not compatible radio.....try to change all of these and is still restarting when ever it tries to connect to any data or internet usage. Ex. youtube, downloading of files from the internet, Remote Desktop even Microsoft My Phone still restarts.
even when i used to make/receive phone calls it would restart as soon as i picked it up to talk. but for this i had a solution witch as of now is working fine with out a problem.
if anybody else has this problem with the Receiving/making calls this should work.
1. Go to: Start/Settings/Connections
2. is the "TASK" tab choose "Manage Existing Connections"
3. In the "Modem Tab" has for options to choose from, normally is on "Auto", this was the problem. you would want to get it OFF AUTO.
4. Try all the other " voice Stream options Shown" and see witch one works for you without giving problems, and save. Im currently using "wap.voicestream.com." witch is the second option after Auto.
Well i hope this works for you guys if ur having similar problems, its actually work for me. GooD luck! hope this helps.
bitbank said:
I had similar behavior, but it was due to the new ROM release (4/28/10). I loaded the official T-Mobile release date ROM (2/19/10) and the problem went away.
L.B.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is it possible for me to know where can i get this ROM??
(official T-Mobile release date ROM (2/19/10).
this week i will receive my phone back for the 2th time.
Hopefully they have found the faulty component of the phone.
I will keep you informed

Ye Olde HD2 freezes

Hello,
I know, I know... old problem, yet there is still no definite answer to the question of continous random freezes. My HD2 is also experiencing them (worked fine for about 3 months, during which it never fell down whatsoever)
but!!!
I knew from a few days before the first freeze that something was wrong. The bottom of the phone was getting incredibly warm while heavily using the hardware (watching HD vids, browsing web etc.) Me being stupid did not think of it till today. So once again, knowing that my HD2 would freeze, I plugged it in to recharge the battery. This time - enlightened by the thought of old overheating problem - I put it right next to the opened window - it was -1 *C outside. Results? No freeze! Battery fully charged for the first time without a random reset! In my case this is definitely temperature-related problem, it could possibly not be just mine.
The question is: How to lower the temperature? I don't feel like using my phone in a fridge or moving to subpolar areas.
EDIT @28.02
So far my theory is correct. Once I kept the screen on for 10 minutes and was far enough away from the window, the phone restarted itself (and I was not abusing the hardware; I was, in fact, just writing a text message.) Normally it would shut down right after the attempt to load and stabilize the main screen, but since I put it right next to the window at the PIN window, it cooled down and now works fine again.
muodypl said:
Hello,
I know, I know... old problem, yet there is still no definite answer to the question of continous random freezes. My HD2 is also experiencing them (worked fine for about 3 months, during which it never fell down whatsoever)
but!!!
I knew from a few days before the first freeze that something was wrong. The bottom of the phone was getting incredibly warm while heavily using the hardware (watching HD vids, browsing web etc.) Me being stupid did not think of it till today. So once again, knowing that my HD2 would freeze, I plugged it in to recharge the battery. This time - enlightened by the thought of old overheating problem - I put it right next to the opened window - it was -1 *C outside. Results? No freeze! Battery fully charged for the first time without a random reset! In my case this is definitely temperature-related problem, it could possibly not be just mine.
The question is: How to lower the temperature? I don't feel like using my phone in a fridge or moving to subpolar areas.
EDIT @28.02
So far my theory is correct. Once I kept the screen on for 10 minutes and was far enough away from the window, the phone restarted itself (and I was not abusing the hardware; I was, in fact, just writing a text message.) Normally it would shut down right after the attempt to load and stabilize the main screen, but since I put it right next to the window at the PIN window, it cooled down and now works fine again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it is the battery, you could try an inexpensive replacement one from ebay.
Well, ebay is off the limits for me, but I will surely try some cheaper counterpart. It's been over a week and thus far my theory is proving to be correct - low temperature = no freezes.
The heat might also be caused by lots of stuff running in the background - have you checked this out as well?
Of course I did - Task Manager is one of the 3 apps on the main screen. I always make sure nothing is running, be it an app, or an unnecessary process.
But yes, some of the applications do increase the temperature, however I find that normal... well, as long as the heat does not make my HD2 shut down!
EDIT @ 09.03:
Waiting for a new batt to arrive. I just hope this is just some minor energy output problem and that's why my hd2 is overheating, leading to shutting down.
Got my new battery from a pretty decent company. Normally after turning off the phone and even reattaching the battery I'd have problems turning it on again (would have took me several attempts); however this time it went very smooth.
Any update on use with the new battery? I have the same overheating/screen lock problem with my HD2. Mine has done so after taking a call and having the phone up to my ear for several minutes.
Unfortunately it wasn't the battery. The most common circumstances in which my HD2 freezes is trying to use the internet, followed by playing music from the Sense player. The only thing left to do is to return it.
I declare HTC HD2 and the HTC tech support piece of junk.
Final edit:
Sold my HD2 and bought Desire HD. <3 Android!

Serious issue...

Hi there; Could do with some help please I seem to have a series issue with my Samsung Galaxy S2 today. It started this morning; I noticed the screen was randomly turning on; for no reason what so ever. It only does it when the phone isn't charging, if the data cable or the charger is plugged in; it doesn't do it.
Its on version KE7. I have tried a factory reset, and that hasn't sorted the issue. Therefore I seemed to think it was a hardware fault, however with it not being an issue when plugged in I wondered why it might be doing it.
Tap to speak also kept coming up for no apparent reason, I say kept coming up, doesn't happen all the time, but did come up about 6 times today, when I hadn't pressed anything, which would suggest the bottom centre button could be stuck or sticky, however that seems fine; and its not been near any moisture and has been a hot day.
The phone has not ever been rooted; so no issues there.
The phone battery dies very quickly within about 4 hours with the screen turning on all the time; and the phone will randomly freeze up completely, and I have to remove the battery to reset the phone.
Anybody got any ideas? Really could do with some help
Thanks
Rich
Update: It is plugged in charging now; and the MTP Application has come up; like the data cable is plugged in. That seems very odd to me...
Don't be afraid to send it back. These things aren't cheap even if you're paying through your contact, you're entitled to get what you paid for.
Your specific issues may be down to more than one thing. My screen lights up when I've read my gmail on a different device and it needs to clear the notification. Nothing too worrying about that. The other stuff does sound like some sort of shorting though and people have been given replacements for less serious issues.
I'm tempted to get mine swapped because the wifi often won't pick up an IP address and the gps won't get a fix if the phone gets too hot. Relatively minor compared to your issues.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Yeah I think its going to have to, I've tried playing about with settings, giving it time to cool down; pretty much everything I can think of, I really can't think what it could be, it seems to be many issues rather than just one, with it only being a month old, I expected slightly more.
Love the phone, did brilliantly yesterday; used it for lots of things; then today it just suddenly went, took it of charge, and it played up the whole way through.
Given up with it now, will take it back and see if I can get it fixed, I have 24 month warrenty with my contract.
Thanks
Put your original firmware back on if you can before attempting a warranty claim .
jje

Issues after Portico Update

Hi everybody,
i've owned my Lumia 920 for about two months now, and i am (used to be) in love with it. Great hardware, great software, all those issues other people had, with the freezes, the random reboots... i had none. my phone was perfect.
Then i got Portico delivered OTA to my phone last week, and i thought 'great, this is gonna make the phone even better'. i was especially looking forward to the 'keep wifi on when screen is locked' option. I updated my phone (took maybe 20 minutes?), and my brilliant phone was gone. What i'm stuck with since is a collection of all the problems i had been reading about:
random reboots
random freezes needing a soft reset to be usable again
the phone is constantly warm, sometimes really hot, even when i'm not using it
battery life is about half of what it used to be pre-Portico
data connection is constantly dropping, be it 2g, 3g, or lte. if have to switch flight mode on and off again to get a data connection every hour or so
i was playing a game the other day, while charging the phone (original charger and everything) when the phone suddenly died because of an empty battery. so, the phone was using more current than could be supplied by the charger. that never happened, even with the exact same game, before portico
Again, i had none of these issues before the update. Right now i regret having updated to the "bugfixing release" of WP8, because all that did is to introduce all the bugs it was supposed to fix.
Does anybody else experience the same behavior, or maybe have some ideas on what i could do to try and fix them? I didn't do a hard reset yet, i am hoping to fix my issues without wiping the phone.
Thanks in advance for any help or tips
I havent been having the reset problems etc, but I have noticed that since updating, I have had probably half as good battery life. It is really annoying me cos I was so happy that it would last for ages even under heavy use, now it will only make it through the day comfortably with minor use. Im doing a complete discharge, and then recharge and see how that goes. So glad im not having the other problems that people are having though. Actually also disappointed that the camera is still not very sharp. Video is great, stills are average. Why have such lame performance on such a (supposedly) good camera
I haven't had experienced these issues yet. It might be something wrong when update comes OTA.
Only my problem is crackles in the case. I can live with them for now...
I've also been having problems with Portico, I haven't had issues with reboots, but my battery life is terrible. It used to go 15-16 hours on a charge, now I can barely get 7 hours.
Also, weird problem I've been having, when the battery gets too low that the phone automatically shuts itself off...when I plug it in, it takes about an hour to turn back on. It's really worrying me, because I never had this problem before. If anyone else has noticed this, please let me know.
Is there any battery diagnostic for the phone?
Thanks!

[Q] Battery "discharges" out of the blue

Hi,
My wife's been complaining about her sgs3, i9300a phone a lot lately, so I've been taking some time of to have a long hard look at it.
the phone in itself works quite well, it is somewhat guarded (she tends to drop it a lot but most of the time it's actually in it's case) and we've switched the screen once (well, not the screen, the top half of the phone to be exact)
the phone used to have a stock 4.1.3 (I think) samsung rom on it for the past year, it's been working well untill a couple of months ago I think and it does still function properly on light use
so what is the issue?
if you'll start a game, or anything that'll cause the phone to heat up - the screen would flicker a bit (not always) and the battery will suddenly report to be down to 0%, shutting down the device right after.
this sudden discharge is obviously not real, as the minute I connect it to a charger and boot up the phone it shows it's last charge before the phone was shut down - however the issue keeps on repeating itself over and over again.
If the phone is connected to a wall charger (or a pc via USB cable) this doesn't happen.
I've been trying to install a kitkat on the device (it have been working slowly so she needed an upgrade) yet the issue persists.
I've been reading around the Internet, some claim it's a faulty battery issue so I'm ordering one from eBay, however - I can't shake the feeling it might some other faulty hardware, perhaps a memory chip gone bad? as I can't see the connection between a bad battery and a flickering screen.
Truth to be told - I'm not a fan of android, or samsung, so I don't know much of the history of problems with it (if there is any) and I've been hoping that there is someone around here who might encountered (or heard) about my issue and would be able to shed some light for me.
thanks in advance!
Change the battery first, replacing the motherboard isn't worth it.
boomboomer said:
Change the battery first, replacing the motherboard isn't worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah... I'm planning on stealing my boss S3's battery for some testing later on today if he'll ever decide to show up...
perhaps shouldn't have told him that beforehand
I did hope someone encountered and fixed/learned about this problem as the device has 2 years of history at least...
if it'll come to motherboard switching I'll just force the little lady to switch to a real phone such as an HTC, or maybe go to WP
It was the battery..
Perhaps I should've guessed it by the fact it was REALLY hard closing the case... but it was only after I saw a normal battery that I noticed the real difference.
so for future reference to whomever might meet the same behavior - my battery was about 1.5 the size of what it should be and was quite round,
better call those Samsung representatives and get a replacement before it explodes
Anyone has experience with those 4200Mhz batteries? worth the money or should I just get a genuine one (it cost about the same in here, like 4$ more), the reviews are quite mixed.

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