Samsung Galaxy SIII - Sudden Death

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meow
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#759672 11-Feb-2013 18:00

scottjpalmer: Am I correct in thinking (without doing my own research) that the issue is most likely caused by a bug in the firmware writing to/reading from the memory so much (continuously while the device is on?) that the memory "wears out" after ~200 days rather than lasting 10 years plus as expected?

Actually that's a pretty good theory, I would say that is the case.

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ajobbins

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#759687 11-Feb-2013 18:24

scottjpalmer: Am I correct in thinking (without doing my own research) that the issue is most likely caused by a bug in the firmware writing to/reading from the memory so much (continuously while the device is on?) that the memory "wears out" after ~200 days rather than lasting 10 years plus as expected?

That is the leading theory on XDA forums, yes. But no one is quite sure.

The 4.1.2 update is 'supposed' to fix the problem, but there are increasing reports of users who have been on 4.1.2 for a while but still getting Sudden Death. It could be that they were on 4.1.1 for a period of time, which has largely worn out the NAND, but not quite to the point of failure - which comes eventually, even after the issue has been patched.

It could also however simply be that the particular chips that are vulnerable have a hardware defect. This theory is supported by the common 'age' (around 200-ish) days after activation that the devices seems to commonly die at.

From the dealings I have had with Samsung on this, they seems VERY aware of the issue - but each person I spoke with seems to be trying very hard to convince me (unprompted) that this issue was no big deal and was 'not happening anywhere near as much as is being reported'.

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mattwnz

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#759699 11-Feb-2013 19:17

So if you turn your phone off at night, that could delay this happening. I always turn mine off. So I will probably leave it in now, so if it has this flaw, it will hopefully fail within it's warranty period. But I guess even it it does fail outside the warranty period. Samsung will fix it without any problems. It is a little odd that it hasn't made the mainstream news, nor samsung issuing some form of product advisory about the problem.

MurrayM

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#759938 12-Feb-2013 10:23

mattwnz: Anyone having trouble with google maps after the 4.1.2 update? When I try to locate an address, it just hangs on 'finding address', and never loads the address, so can't use streetview. Clearing the cache doesn't help.

Just tried it myself and I have the same problem. Just hangs on "Searching for".

kiwitrc

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#759945 12-Feb-2013 10:29

MurrayM:
mattwnz: Anyone having trouble with google maps after the 4.1.2 update? When I try to locate an address, it just hangs on 'finding address', and never loads the address, so can't use streetview. Clearing the cache doesn't help.

Just tried it myself and I have the same problem. Just hangs on "Searching for".

Works fine for me but I am on a custom ROM, not that it should make any difference.

ajobbins

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#759962 12-Feb-2013 11:07

mattwnz: So if you turn your phone off at night, that could delay this happening. I always turn mine off. So I will probably leave it in now, so if it has this flaw, it will hopefully fail within it's warranty period. But I guess even it it does fail outside the warranty period. Samsung will fix it without any problems. It is a little odd that it hasn't made the mainstream news, nor samsung issuing some form of product advisory about the problem.

Mine didn't happen overnight. Worked for a couple of hours in the morning, and a little after 9am it died.

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michaelmurfy

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#760239 12-Feb-2013 16:16

ajobbins:
mattwnz: So if you turn your phone off at night, that could delay this happening. I always turn mine off. So I will probably leave it in now, so if it has this flaw, it will hopefully fail within it's warranty period. But I guess even it it does fail outside the warranty period. Samsung will fix it without any problems. It is a little odd that it hasn't made the mainstream news, nor samsung issuing some form of product advisory about the problem.

Mine didn't happen overnight. Worked for a couple of hours in the morning, and a little after 9am it died.

Just what happened with me :(

mattwnz

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#760244 12-Feb-2013 16:23

ajobbins:
mattwnz: So if you turn your phone off at night, that could delay this happening. I always turn mine off. So I will probably leave it in now, so if it has this flaw, it will hopefully fail within it's warranty period. But I guess even it it does fail outside the warranty period. Samsung will fix it without any problems. It is a little odd that it hasn't made the mainstream news, nor samsung issuing some form of product advisory about the problem.

Mine didn't happen overnight. Worked for a couple of hours in the morning, and a little after 9am it died.

What I meant to say was that it looks like the longer the phone is on for, the more likely it will occur, as when the phone is off it wouldn't be 'wearing' out the memory. So if you turn it off for 8 hours overnight, it may take a 1/3 longer for it to exhibit problems.

If it is only affect 16GB ones, couldn't it be faulty memory too that could be contributing to it, which doesn't wear as well?

jeffnz

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#760283 12-Feb-2013 17:08

mines virtually on 24/7 and has been since I bought last July. I don't use the charger supplied as I have a spare battery and charger so just replace when flat and i have had no problems whatsoever but philosophical that if it happens it happens.

Given all the discussion on XDA and the Dev thread about it nothing has yet been established as being the cause nor indeed the cure.

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#761620 13-Feb-2013 11:14

Mine is not playing up as bad but its dropping calls 90% of the time anywhere between 3-10mins into a conversation.
Freezes for about 30 secs unresponsive to anything then call is gone.

ipsi

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#770490 26-Feb-2013 14:14

Had mine die the other day - got stuck on the boot screen. Couldn't even get into recovery mode. Currently with 2Degrees for repair/replacement, so we'll see how that works out. Not sure if that's real SDS or something else entirely.

EDIT: Prior to that, it didn't freeze, as such, but it would spontaneously reboot at times. Since it typically got slower and slower before rebooting, I'd always assumed it was just leaking memory or something, but maybe it was more sinister than that...

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NZtechfreak

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#770514 26-Feb-2013 14:48

ajobbins:
mattwnz: So if you turn your phone off at night, that could delay this happening. I always turn mine off. So I will probably leave it in now, so if it has this flaw, it will hopefully fail within it's warranty period. But I guess even it it does fail outside the warranty period. Samsung will fix it without any problems. It is a little odd that it hasn't made the mainstream news, nor samsung issuing some form of product advisory about the problem.

Mine didn't happen overnight. Worked for a couple of hours in the morning, and a little after 9am it died.

Mine also (or my fiances really, she inherited it after me - at least she has a good selection of temp phones to choose from - N4, HTC Butterfly or Huawei Ascend D Quad XL).

Strange for me, as a hardcore tinkering and modder the first time I have ever had an unrecoverable phone (over like 6 years and multiple OS environs) and it is a stock device. Fortunately for me it is the first time in years I have purchased one locally (first in queue at the launch in Auckland).

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Damager

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#770798 26-Feb-2013 23:06

Mines virtually on 24/7 as well. Still runs fine, no lags, freeezes or random reboots. 05/12 build.

- Telstra HTC Touch Pro2 - Energy ROM WM6.5.5 20 Oct/Cyanogen Mod Froyo 2.2 - R.I.P
- AT&T Galaxy S Captivate 16GB on XT (now with brother)
- Samsung Galaxy S2 on XT- Runs ICS 4.0.3 Resurrection Remix 9.2
- Business Hours - Work In The Electricity Industry, After Hours - DJ/Turntablist - Will Scratch Vinyl For Free'
- What's next??? S3?

ipsi

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#771791 28-Feb-2013 16:05

Just received mine back today. Away for 4 days (handed in Sunday afternoon, received back Thursday morning), no problems with the repair. Technically a brand-new phone since they obviously had to replace all the insides, but those insides are inside my still slightly-scuffed housing/screen.

Overall, pretty pleased with the service from 2D. :)

zxr400

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#774859 5-Mar-2013 10:25

Have had the same issue on my phone. Was using it, put it down for 30 minutes, dead. Wont take a charge, wont turn on. Have returned to place i purchased it from for warranty replacemnt.

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