Develop Bugs

My E4GT started smoking today

I was dropping my dad off at the airport in Canada and right when I cross the border we started smelling something like burning rubber. We drove 10 ft., paid the toll, and right after the smell got heavier and I saw smoke come from the phone. I immediately turned the phone off and checked for any burn marks, but found none. Pandora also froze and stopped playing music during this time. I had international roaming turned off, but I really hope Sprint and Samsung's way of preventing unwanted roaming doesn't involve combusting the phone. Yesterday, my entire screen turned yellow, out of the blue. I don't know if the two issues are related, but it seems like something's not right with my phone. The screen went back to normal after I turned it off and on, but that was an odd issue.
I just got home, re-flashed the stock EG30 kernel (I was using the stock EK02 kernel for about 2-3 days, it was during this time that I had the yellow screen and smoke), but I'm kind of paranoid about leaving the phone on. Since there's no physical damage to the phone, what are the chances that Sprint will replace my phone if I walk into a store? I leave my phone in the car when I go work out and I really don't want to walk out one day to see my car on fire.

Something tells me if you told sprint your phone started smoking and now doesn't work properly they would most likely replace it.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

I took my evo back to fix my power button and they gave me a brand new one, I had stock rom but had s-off
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

Alright, I flashed everything back to complete stock. Wiped all the data on my phone and packed it up. I'll stop by the Sprint store first thing tomorrow and see about getting it replaced. Should make for an interesting conversation, at the least.

Smoking Epic Touch is a recent upgrade which came via OTA. Many people complained our phones weren't exploding like the new iPhone 4S so Samsung threw a quick patch together.
I'll give it to Apple, they definitely beat Android to the punch on the newest smartphone feature, "explodiness."
sauce: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8922888/Exploding-iPhone-investigated.html

open the back cover, your battery might have some burn marks lol

Always look at battery temps if you are able. A quick one is Android Assistant. Ive hit 52C (125F) on my Epic and Epic Touch without smoking... so yours must've been quite a bit hotter.

expertzero1 said:
open the back cover, your battery might have some burn marks lol
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Click to collapse
There are no burn marks of any kind.
I just got back from the Sprint store and am unsatisfied with how things turned out. After waiting for 20-30 minutes I got a tech to look at the phone. After another 20 minutes, he came back and said that he took it apart and found no burn marks--which I don't disagree with since I turned the phone off at the first sign of smoke and checked for burn marks, myself. The next part is what had me scratching my head. He then proceeded to tell me that he 'cleaned' the phone and handed it back to me telling me that it's good to go and that I should "try to avoid making it hot". Haha, what? I was listening to Pandora with nothing else running on a stock (not overclocked) kernel, if the phone got hot enough to smoke from this what can I do that's not going to make it smoke again? This is where I became baffled. I just told you I saw the phone smoking yesterday and that the screen was acting up the day before that and you think using some rubbing alcohol or compressed air makes the phone safe to use again?
I asked to speak to the manager and after some talking she said that because I didn't have the extended warranty I'd need to pay $35 for a reconditioned phone. I declined as I expected them to just replace the phone.
I don't think that the manager or the tech were completely in the wrong to handle the situation the way that they did since there was no physical proof that the phone did indeed smoke. That being said, given that the phone showed no signs of physical damage (which the tech confirmed) and that it seemed to be working fine, wouldn't it have been better of them to save face and just replace my phone with no charge? It's entirely possible that I could be lying about the phone smoking, but if that were the case wouldn't something else be up? Why would I go out of my way to try and replace a phone that's working correctly? It's not like I wanted a different model phone, either. I just wanted a replacement GS2.
Sigh. I'm going to contact sprint customer support and explain the situation to them and see if they can give me a different answer. If that doesn't pan out I'll try contacting Samsung. Regardless, my opinion of Sprint has dropped a great deal.
EDIT: I just got off the phone with Sprint and the CSR waived the $35 fee. I'll pick up the replacement later today. Well, the CSR brought my opinion of Sprint right back up.

Check this out
http://tinyurl.com/7orbabm
.: sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch :.

Honestly, you shouldn't be surprised by a $35 fee considering you don't have TEP.
You have to remember,Samsung manufactured the phone, you could always go through them. Sprint just simply acts as a convenient go-between for things like repairs. That 35 is more or less for the convenience of not having to go through the manufacturer (which is always a pain). You could also pay 8 a month for the same convenience...sounds fair to me ..
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

squshy 7 said:
Honestly, you shouldn't be surprised by a $35 fee considering you don't have TEP.
You have to remember,Samsung manufactured the phone, you could always go through them. Sprint just simply acts as a convenient go-between for things like repairs. That 35 is more or less for the convenience of not having to go through the manufacturer (which is always a pain). You could also pay 8 a month for the same convenience...sounds fair to me ..
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
It seems fair to me as well. I pay it on both of my phones. When I had my Epic, I had a screen go bad and they not only replaced the screen, they Also replaced the keyboard and battery cover. It was like a brand new phone. I also got my Nexus wet and the camera broke. I called and they said to just bring it in. I don't know how it is when you don't pay the $8 a month but they always take care of me without any hassle. I will always pay it just because it makes things go so smooth if I have a problem
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

With regards to the replacement fee: I've been a cell phone user for close to a decade and I've never had a phone die on me, let alone begin smoking on me. So I have no prior experience dealing with replacing phones with manufacturer defects. After this experience though, I do have a new understanding of the process by which cell phones are replaced, so I won't be surprised by the fee the next time something like this happens and I go to a Sprint store, instead of the manufacturer, to remedy the situation.
Regardless, Sprint's over the phone customer service reps exceeded my expectations--they were friendly and quickly resolved the issue without making a big deal out of it, which I greatly appreciated.
I didn't get the replacement when I walked into the store, they told me they'd mail it to my house and that it'd arrive in about 2 business days. I'll post a final update after I receive the replacement.

I got the replacement re-certified phone today. It looks new, came in a generic box with no accessories. They didn't include a new battery, though. Which, I think, may have a chance of being the reason the phone was smoking in the first place.
Regardless, the phone seems to work fine. I'll use it completely stock for a few days to make sure everything's ok.

looks like ur phone needs an intervention

My ET4G smokes all the time but I think it has to do with the blazing fast 3G speeds of 0.8Mbps down and 0.2Mbps up...

Sound like your phone may need a patch to fix it...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

[Q] How do I short circuit my E4GT? (serious)

Long story short, I flashed a boatloader for the european version of the phone and my phone is bricked.
I want to know how to short circuit my phone without making it look intentional. I am not insured but I do have warrenty, if I short circuit the phone, will they be able to fix it in the sprint store? I am really hoping they don't. I just want a new phone. I was told that I was have to pay a $35 fee to get the phone fixed, what do you guys think? BEst way to short circuit this phone? (Not with water please)
UPDATE:
So my cuz and I went to the sprint store and his friend saw the phone and the first thing he asked if it was rooted, I said yeah. He couldn't fix it, but said he will take care of it when exchanging it and since I didn't have insurance, I had to pay the $35 warranty exchange. Furthermore, I added the insurance with the exhange, I am picking up the exchanged phone tomorrow because it had to be ordered.
Thanks a lot guys for the help.

This is why im glad i have insurance if i brick it its at the bottom of a lake. What warranty. As he said even download mode warns you of the possible warranty voiding. Least expensive option now is probably repair.

Besides the things I'd like to say about this situation, I'll say something else. It won't go into download mode? You could try getting a USB jig and see if that will force it into download mode. I'm holding back the temptation to say something really smartass. This was a very expensive lesson, huh? Sending it in to unbrick it, if all else fails, is your last resort. With a $500 phone, you can't afford NOT to get insurance for it?! Even if you had insurance, you wouldn't get a brand new phone.
I'm not trying to be a ****, so don't take it that way.

im referring to the 1 year warrenty that comes with the phone, it protections against defections in the phone. If I short circuit it, it will be defected... no more useless comments please, don't remind me of what I already know; I know that I should have gotten the insurance, enough said about that.
Would really appreciate it if someone could actually answer my question

newalker, would sprint be able to tell that the phone is rooted if i shorted out to the point that it wont turn on? was thinking about using a 9 volt battery to do so.

sabatheman said:
im referring to the 1 year warrenty that comes with the phone, it protections against defections in the phone. If I short circuit it, it will be defected... no more useless comments please, don't remind me of what I already know; I know that I should have gotten the insurance, enough said about that.
Would really appreciate it if someone could actually answer my question
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you fry the usb port theyll blame it on you using an aftermarket charger since your stock one is fine. You probably wont be lucky enough to even keep them from checking the rom status. You have a phone capable of being repaired by samsung soon you may have nothing.
The warranty covering defects was voided by a custom rom. The reason they wont honor it after rooting or custom rom is things such as overclocking. Many things can be done via software that would normally be replaced as defective.
If you cant make it so they never find out then all warrantys are null and void period. Truth and fact.

how do I get this 35 dollar exchange done sir? How can I get the 35 dollar exchange w/o them finding out I rooted the phone? :/ been such a stressful week, been bricked for a week. What's the BEST thing I can do right now in my situation?>

sabatheman said:
how do I get this 35 dollar exchange done sir? How can I get the 35 dollar exchange w/o them finding out I rooted the phone? :/ been such a stressful week, been bricked for a week. What's the BEST thing I can do right now in my situation?>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you haven't read these two threads, I'd suggest doing so. Neither thread has lead to a solution yet (other than getting the phone replaced).
help - I did something bad
I screwed up / Installing ICS for international SGS2
Good luck...

I will leave this here as well. This is the SGS2 i9100 USB driver. It is a rar file. You will need to extract it and install. See if Odin will recognize the phone after installing. Please report back....
http://db.tt/g8hP2llV
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

#1 --- Avoid Flashing Cooked ROMS on your phone...live with stock!!! I do and havn't had any problems at all..
Seems like there are more people complaining about all theses cooked ROMS and how they either work perfectly...or suck some way or another or have tons of glichs.
#2 --- Always, and I mean Always get $8 insurance on a Smartphone, in the long run this will save your ass...big time...
#3 --- People look at the 2 year contact price of the phone...not the really price of the phone (which is $549 I believe) and thats what gets them in trouble...ahhh my phones only $200 or less, I dont need insurance...yet if you break your phone you have a POS brick weight...that will now cost you over $500 to replace...or you could pay $8 a month and if something goes wrong, The Sprint Repair Center will fix it free...or replace it with a refurb unit....Even if you make a claim due to water damage or something, its still cheaper than the $500+ dollars you will have to fork out...

JohnCorleone said:
I will leave this here as well. This is the SGS2 i9100 USB driver. It is a rar file. You will need to extract it and install. See if Odin will recognize the phone after installing. Please report back....
http://db.tt/g8hP2llV
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your one smart guy John. You have helped me a several times with some responses to my questions and I really appreciate it. If your idea works you’ll make a quite a few people happy on here. Seen a handful of these issues with people flashing the Int versions. If this doesn’t work I would use the 9V battery idea and run it across the board.

sabatheman said:
If I short circuit it, it will be defected...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
edit,... not worth the time
This is why you READ, and READ some more!!!

I dare you to bring it to my store. Nothing gets passed a well trained tech. Your best bet is to go to an advanced exchange only store, the reps are not trained like the techs. Pay the 35 and call it a day. As for the microwave comment, solder points get a white residue on them after being microwaved, to a trained tech it looks like corrosion.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Sorry, not to be n [email protected]@hole here, because what happened to you really sucks, but if you screwed up your phone by doing something dangerous without doing proper research (ie: try to flash something designed for the European Galaxy S2 onto an Epic touch), why should Sprint eat the cost and give you a replacement phone? I mean you are basically asking for a way to cheat Sprint.
Something to consider. I really do feel for you and hope somehow someone comes up with a fix.

the best easy to do what ur asking and not get caught would be to take a fully charged 18v battery from a drill, 2 wires either stripped on both end or to make it easier put alligator crimps.on each end and hook the battery to the terminals on back of phone where battery usually touches and then hit the power button on your phone. it will leave no trace and even if it does get powered up its well enough outside the read parameters to where nobody can catch it. ive seen this done already to atleast 7 or 8 phones. have fun
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Pay to get it jtaged i don't know how many people have done this we are not illiterate? On topic leave it a a hit place my fiance forgot her phone in the car when it was hot really hot and it messed up.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

So sprint covers rooted phones but doesn't cover physically damaged phones......try telling the truth and not being an idiot and listening to almost anyone else here. 9v battery? Really?
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium

TheShackSpecialist said:
9v battery? Really?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wrong radio shack, 18 volt
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Aren't you able to add insurance on your phone at any time??
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Yes you can but it would look suspicious if the phone needed work shortly after the insurance kicked in.

Dead Screen =(

I went on a vacation trip to Vegas, Nevada for the weekend (I'm from New Mexico)
while traveling through Arizona, I was texting and suddenly my screen went black. I've done almost everything I can think of to revive it and no luck, the bottom keys are all responsive and I still receive calls and texts so it's clearly a hardware issue. Sprint has been pretty much less then helpful, I visited a Sprint repair center in Nevada and they couldn't fix it, I didn't think they'd be able to anyways so I didn't bother telling them it had a custom rom on it, but I figured they'd at least replace it. Then they told me I'd have to wait until I got back to my hometown to get it replaced. I have officially been without a phone for a week now. Today, I took it to my local Sprint store (the only Sprint store in 100 miles) where they were out of stock and ordered me another and said it could take up to two weeks. WTF! are you kidding me! Why the hell couldn't they replace the Damn thing in Nevada in the first place! I'm f****n pissed right now with Sprint and that's not good considering I've only been with them for a month. I'm glad they're going to replace it, they don't know it's modded yet but the screens dead so they won't find out until it's out of my hands anyways. I guess the point of this post is, has anyone else had a similar issue with a dead screen? Have any of you experienced this much trouble with Sprint? Just so you know the phone was never dropped, had never seen a drip of water, was in a case since day 1, was running blazer 4.0 el29 rom with e26 modem on it.

Shined a light? Maybe back light failed?, I mean c4 led light, sprint here replaces for me on the spot, "cant dial 911", or they gove a loaner.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

I feel your Sprint-related pain. If you want to check if it is just the display, try androidscreencast: http://code.google.com/p/androidscreencast/
You may want to flash the stock, un-rooted ROM before you actually exchange the phone as well. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1383678

tubasteve said:
Shined a light? Maybe back light failed?, I mean c4 led light, sprint here replaces for me on the spot, "cant dial 911", or they gove a loaner.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Must be nice, none of the Sprint centers I've been to so far have offered me a loaner, or to replace it on the spot, they basically shot me and ran away. It's definitely a dead amoled though, guess I'm just unlucky

Mattheyu said:
I feel your Sprint-related pain. If you want to check if it is just the display, try androidscreencast: http://code.google.com/p/androidscreencast/
You may want to flash the stock, un-rooted ROM before you actually exchange the phone as well. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1383678
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, couldn't find the stock rom though all this new stuff. Nice, Didn't know they're was a screen test, it's definitely a gonner though, guess I'll just wait for two weeks, in the meantime Imma go play in traffic.

Not sure why you don't just send it to Samsung, who said their turnaround time is six days, instead of waiting for Sprint.
1-800-726-7864 and they e-mail you a UPS label. Two days there, two days to work on it, two days back.

Mattheyu said:
Not sure why you don't just send it to Samsung, who said their turnaround time is six days, instead of waiting for Sprint.
1-800-726-7864 and they e-mail you a UPS label. Two days there, two days to work on it, two days back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried one time but I was waiting on the phone for a long time, maybe I'll try again and see if they'll work with me.

Hmmm. I called 1-888-987-4357, which is the number in the warranty book, and I had no wait time. Try that one instead.

I couldn't imagine getting swapped out on the spot! I find it hard to believe any sprint retail would keep refurb stock to swap out when someone was needing an exchange...him, perhaps it corporate? They have powers indirect could only dream of! Or, at least can see more than the last payment made in pre cash LOL
If they get the order in before 5, it should be there next day. If their on back order, it can take 7 to 10 business days, but usually takes 3 to 5.
Maybe its a regional thing

tubasteve said:
Shined a light? Maybe back light failed?, I mean c4 led light, sprint here replaces for me on the spot, "cant dial 911", or they gove a loaner.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no backlight on an amoled display.

kurtiskobain said:
I couldn't imagine getting swapped out on the spot! I find it hard to believe any sprint retail would keep refurb stock to swap out when someone was needing an exchange...him, perhaps it corporate? They have powers indirect could only dream of! Or, at least can see more than the last payment made in pre cash LOL
If they get the order in before 5, it should be there next day. If their on back order, it can take 7 to 10 business days, but usually takes 3 to 5.
Maybe its a regional thing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True but I've heard several people who bricked they're phone and took it to a sprint service center and said they swapped it for a new one because they couldn't fix it, they said they were completely out of new epic 4g touch's here so I'd have to wait which is fine but up to two weeks? that's bs, I called *2 for a rep and they said it should only be 3 to 5 but it varies by store.

[Q] Does anyone have any experience with TEP and faulty phones?

I've had my Epic 4G Touch for well over a year and a month ago I noticed the power button was starting to feel "spongy". It still worked but it lacked that crisp feeling when you pressed it down and released it. This afternoon however, after flashing FI27, my power button no longer works whatsoever. I doubt it was the ROM and more due to the amount of times I've held this button down for recovery access, download mode, etc.
So the power button doesn't work, phone starts automatically when I remove the battery and put it back in. Otherwise the phone is in near-perfect condition and its not rooted.
Anyone know if TEP is going to cover this for free? I've looked online at some resources for TEP and everything is vague or above my level of reading between the lines.
Thanks in advance.

I just had this happen to me last week actually. Just plug the charger in and it'll wake up the phone. Set it back to stock unrooted and bring it into Sprint. They'll either try to fix it or give you a new phone. I had a replacement phone that night for $0.
You might have to pull the battery a few times, but you still should be able to get into download mode

Sounds like the internal button is either stuck or broken, if you take it to a repair center they might be able to fix it for you. However idk what cost would be if any, I dont keep any for of "insurance" on my phone, if i break it I swap to one of the others I have til I buy a new one. I tend to keep my phones mint and don't want to pay for a refurbished one when i have a bunch laying in a drawer.
We are legion, for we are many.
Sent from the DarkSide of the GalaXy with a MEK device

Iczer said:
I just had this happen to me last week actually. Just plug the charger in and it'll wake up the phone. Set it back to stock unrooted and bring it into Sprint. They'll either try to fix it or give you a new phone. I had a replacement phone that night for $0.
You might have to pull the battery a few times, but you still should be able to get into download mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on FI27 w/ the newest AGAT kernel but just in case I used Chainfires' Triangle Away to get rid of the yellow triangle at boot. Outside of volume down + power button I don't know another way to get into download mode and since my power button is inop I'm kind of stuck.
Do you know of another way to get back into download mode? I have the self-extracting Odin file for EL29 just waiting to erase all evidence of root.
EDIT: Nevermind. Turns out the button is just stuck. I put the battery back in while holding volume down and it gave me download mode access. That solves one problem, lol.

If your capable, you can crack it open and clean the internal button. If its just sticky that should fix it. While you're in there you can look for actual damage which will tell you to go ahead and take it in for repair.
We are legion, for we are many.
Sent from the DarkSide of the GalaXy with a MEK device

-EViL-KoNCEPTz- said:
If your capable, you can crack it open and clean the internal button. If its just sticky that should fix it. While you're in there you can look for actual damage which will tell you to go ahead and take it in for repair.
We are legion, for we are many.
Sent from the DarkSide of the GalaXy with a MEK device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't even begin to know how to do that, though I'm sure YouTube has a couple videos detailing how-to. I'll give it a looksee and if it doesn't scare me away I'll give it a shot. If its something I can do, might as well.

Does it still work now after booting back up? Mine didn't work but for some reason if i hit volume up+power i could get into download mode. But when it was actually booted, it wouldnt work at all, nor would it work inside CWM. Weird thing is when I took it into Sprint the touchscreen started having issues too. So that's probably another reason why I just got a replacement.

Iczer said:
Does it still work now after booting back up? Mine didn't work but for some reason if i hit volume up+power i could get into download mode. But when it was actually booted, it wouldnt work at all, nor would it work inside CWM. Weird thing is when I took it into Sprint the touchscreen started having issues too. So that's probably another reason why I just got a replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works fine outside of the power button. I have recovery and download mode access, touchscreen is operable and nothing out of the norm seems to be going on. It's disturbing to say the least.

Wtf I got this issue after flashing Fi25 rom? Maybe its a bug? It had been working days before and spontaneously stopped working.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

This power button problem just happened to mine friday i took it to a repair store they were rude and refused to fix it told me i needed to use my insurance... so i made a call and within 15 min and only 1 transfer (shockingly) to customer care they sent me out a replacement at no cost i received this afternoon and currently trying to put a custom rom on it.. i had the same issues as you and it was hardware related a smack against a table resolved it atrandom and that phone was also stock..
I have been with sprint nearly 10 years and with several calls to customer care you can get alot done.. if one rep dont help call back and deal with another.. I have been 4 months past due with nearly an $800 bill at one point and still no restrictions i have also have a few older phones and some windows phones replaced at no charge in the past but that took a little more work then this one...Ive was even able to get them to credit my account $300 instead of using my 2 upgrades on phones... just call be polite if that dont work try again with another rep..
btw the sprint store i took it to didnt note it on my account if they tell you you must goto a store kindly refuse saying you dont have time.. if the battle seems endless ask for a supervisor twice..

Where did you call to? Was your phone cracked or physically damaged? Shiii I want a free phone too!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

tonyec7 said:
Where did you call to? Was your phone cracked or physically damaged? Shiii I want a free phone too!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's things like that that make it harder for others who actually need replacements to get them.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

revamper said:
It's things like that that make it harder for others who actually need replacements to get them.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read my comment, i need a replacement as well, by lock/power button isnt working either.

I went to my local Sprint store this afternoon and apparently I don't have TEP on my phone. Last month I had an upgrade but I'm happy with my E4GT so I let my wife use it so she could get the EVO LTE. We did this through Best Buy Mobile. My wife has a friend that works there so it's where *she* does all her cellphone business. For some reason my TEP was cancelled on my E4GT upon upgrade and unbeknownst to me for the last month and a half I've had no insurance. :/
I called Sprint customer support and explained what happened and in 3-business days TEP will be reinstated on my phone, no charge, and all will be well in the world. The guy at the Sprint store also said had I had TEP this issue would be fixed via direct-exchange at no-cost to me.
I also tried fixing it myself but I got scared when the couldn't separate the screen from the case and gave up before I borked it.

Wrong Rom: A Cautionary Tale

I'd like to share with you all my tale of rom flashing gone horribly wrong. It's really only important for 2 pieces of misinformation that I've seen kicking around the forums. First, the story.
I had already rooted my Telus Galaxy S3 (SGH-i747M), but was still running stock. I started looking around for compatible roms running JB, but didn't have much luck (finding ones that support the Canadian version is not easy). At the same time, I had to update and reset my old Galaxy S2 for a relative who was taking it off my hands. I found a JB rom that was available for both the S2 and S3, from the same dev. I decided to try both out, downloaded them and copied the respective files to the S2 and S3, but quickly realized that the S3 version didn't support my Canadian phone. No problem, I'll leave the S3 as rooted stock.
I proceeded to flash and install the rom on my S2. Everything seemed to be going fine until the first reboot after flashing. The phone appeared to be completely dead. I tried putting the phone into download mode but it was completely dead and would not even show signs that it was plugged into a power outlet. Then, horror. Both my S2 and S3 are in Otterbox Commuter cases. They look very similar. At 1 in the morning in a dimly lit room, they look identical.
Yes. Like an idiot, I had installed the incompatible S3 rom to my Canadian S3. I had, in fact, hard bricked my phone. I set aside my grief for 10 minutes and got the S2 done, as that was the original goal of this adventure. That worked fine. Of course.
For the next several hours and most of the following day, I searched and searched. I ended up on the posts talking about QHSUSB_DLOAD and how I'd screwed myself. No hope. Only option is either JTAG service or, and this brings me to misinformation #1, sending it back to Samsung. Why send a rooted and screwed phone back to Samsung? Well, the argument was that in all likeliness they wouldn't be able to tell and would probably just get it up and running anyway, perhaps with some nominal fee. Also, and here comes misinformation #2, there was a good chance that they would have to fix the problem in order to verify it.
Thankfully, in my only intelligent move in the last year, I had opted to choose the extra device protection offered by my carrier. Which meant, if it wasn't covered under warranty, I could get a brand new phone at a significantly reduced rate. But it did mean I had to send it in to Samsung first. And so, I walked into a carrier store and simply stated that it wouldn't power up. I neglected to mention the whole "I'm an idiot and accidentally installed an incompatible rom at 1AM". At the end of the day, they don't care anyway.
So I waited for almost 3 weeks before getting an update from my carrier. Samsung had looked at it and had a quote. I called the store to find out the cost. The phone needs a new mainboard. $350+ (I remember it being more than $350 but less than $400). Ah, no thank you. I politely declined and contacted the company providing the device protection. No problem, phone would be in my hands in 2-3 business days. I just need to send the damaged phone back when I get it from Samsung.
When the phone did get back from Samsung (within 24 hours, I might add), it came with a note to the carrier indicating that the phone had been rooted. The store manager actually made a good point too. If they were able to get it up and running to figure out it was rooted, why did it need a new mainboard? In all likeliness, they just wanted to teach me a $350+ lesson in voiding the warranty. So, what did I learn from this experience?
1) If you are rooting multiple phones, don't leave them all laying around in identical cases in a dimly lit room at 1AM.
2) Don't root phones in a dimly lit room at 1AM.
3) If you royally mess up your bootloader and it won't boot up, Samsung can still boot up that phone.
4) If that same phone is rooted, Samsung can not only tell, but ensure that the phone remains in it's screwed state for return.
5) They might just try and teach you a $350+ lesson; my guess is this ultimately depends on who looks at it (just like walking into an Apple store and walking out with a replacement, prior to Applecare+).
If anyone is curious why I didn't JTAG service the phone, it's simply because I can't afford to wait that long without a phone and the cost difference between JTAG and my device protection plan is not significant.

I think the are full of it.. I bet they did not even boot it up.

It would be possible for them to boot into download mode using a JTAG device, flash a working bootloader and at the very least load up a recovery environment terminal to check for root access. This is assuming of course they couldn't do this directly from their JTAG skipping having to fix the bootloader. Even so whats to stop them flashing a non working bootloader back to the device after they found what they are looking for. Not only would this not take very long, for the chance at turning 350 bucks work of profit vs a warranty fix im sure the techs are required to do this. This of course doesn't justify the obvious fact that a replacement motherboard is completely ridiculous. I'm of the opinion that it isn't right to cheat the manufacturers by getting warranty replacements on user created errors, however if they are attempting to gouge the end user instead of just charge them to fix the problem then i say all's fair. Lets face it, its not as if they don't take these warranty devices, especially the hard bricked ones, and simply fix the software, repackage and sell them again.

Exactly. I sent it in and fully expected some kind of charge, like labor, to get it working again. But not almost $400.

Yea, that is pretty lame. Its no different than a damaged led lens, which they charge the full LED assembly price of $175 instead of just fixing the problem. I just did this today on my phone for $20 and an hour or so of my time.

Wow that sucks. At least your other phone still works.
sent from my rooted galaxy 3.6

Noob question:
Did you use Triangle Away? If they can just boot up the device and find if you have root access, is the point of Triangle Away just aesthetics?

I think that is more or less an easy give away the uneducated rep at the sales counter can look for.

i must confess i've rooted my phone dozens of times, and i can say that over 80% of those were in the dark after midnight.

Yeah, me too. It only takes one mistake though ...

yes rooting is such another .apk on the phone and certainly does not void the hardware warranty... Obviouisly they should charge you for software issues which you did.. did you get the phone back and have someone else jtag and fix it?

No. I have to send it back in to the company I have device protection through. But I have a new S3 already. JTAG would probably work, but it would take too long and isn't much cheaper than getting the new one.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2

And yeah your full of it lmao. I had a galaxy s3 that just stopped working after being left in charger a night. Took it.to a rsi (Samsung official customer service and service center here in dallas Texas) and they said the motherboard was ruined. And it was stock non rooted. And it was covered under warranty and they had to create a new imei for the phone. So $350? Yeah right
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium

Sorry, I'm full of it? Your phone is non rooted, so your point is completely moot. Your phone legitimately died. Mine was screwed because of my own fault of flashing the wrong rom. There was and is nothing wrong with the motherboard on this phone. They were just trying to teach me a $350 lesson in rooting/voiding my warranty. But thanks for your insightful comment.

JTAG
bionemesis said:
Sorry, I'm full of it? Your phone is non rooted, so your point is completely moot. Your phone legitimately died. Mine was screwed because of my own fault of flashing the wrong rom. There was and is nothing wrong with the motherboard on this phone. They were just trying to teach me a $350 lesson in rooting/voiding my warranty. But thanks for your insightful comment.
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happened to be last night,only option was to JTAG it so sent it to MTV Mobile Tech Videos,sucks ass....will se how long i am in Texas and sent it to Bryan Texas.Hopefully Get it back albeit in one piece by Wednesday Meanwhile i have no Phone.

This is not to offend anyone or cause a flamme war.
But I don't think people should be lying to Samsung or any carrier, that 1. Your phone isn't bricked/rooted and 2. That you have no idea of what's going on and it just wouldn't turn on.
You as a user should hold all responsibility for a bricked device. Should they charge you 400$? Damn right they should.
That's one of the many reasons why Samsung and many other carriers either ship their devices with locked bootloaders or don't release source code. And don't say the whole "I played 500$ for my phone I get to do what I want," yeah you're completely right. But let's say you're changing your cars oil and the person being the n00b that they are decides to mix synthetic oil and convention oil in the engine. Oh no you're screwed. You dont take your car to the dealership saying "I don't know what happened the engine just won't turn on," THEYRE GOING TO KNOW lol, and expect to get a free car or not get charged for your miss hap. C'mon. If you screw up at least be responsible to pay some kind of fee to get it fixed. I despise folks who "try to play the system" because of them phones will be locked down in the near future. Now its illegal to carrier unlock your device unless its paid for because of folks like that. I understand the OPs mistake. Yeah I've done it. But I paid to fix my mistake. Be responsible people. We're grown ups here. Same with flashing stuff. Do a little reading before you start a thread on how you "bricked your phone" but its really stuck in a boot loop.
Just my 2¢
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

I couldn't read all of that I must have a terrible attention span these days.
But I did read that you were with telus, not at&t; but of course its morally wrong to lie to at&t but the way I see it is I pay them $2000+ over the course of my contract for this phone and if I want to take advantage of their warranty system to save $300-400 (a small fraction of what they're making off of 1 customer) and try my best to get a free replacement you can bet your ass I will.

Heisenberg420 said:
I couldn't read all of that I must have a terrible attention span these days.
But I did read that you were with telus, not at&t; but of course its morally wrong to lie to at&t but the way I see it is I pay them $2000+ over the course of my contract for this phone and if I want to take advantage of their warranty system to save $300-400 (a small fraction of what they're making off of 1 customer) and try my best to get a free replacement you can bet your ass I will.
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Click to collapse
I see were you're getting at but you pay ATT for a service, not a phone. Those 300-400$ are for Samsung, which is different. They're kind of giving you a discount. Phone cost 700$ but they'll kindly replace it for 300$ they're being lenient about it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

bionemesis said:
If anyone is curious why I didn't JTAG service the phone, it's simply because I can't afford to wait that long without a phone and the cost difference between JTAG and my device protection plan is not significant.
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Click to collapse
JTAG costs $50 and has a two day return.

Did you try a jig to force the phone into download mode.?