Develop Bugs

[Q] Past 30-days, but should I ask for a replacement?

So I notice the screen lifting up on the bottom left corner of my phone, and I can feel it moving around when I push on the corners. It's starting to concern me, and well... it shouldn't be happening; I don't appreciate paying for something that seems like it's going to fall apart.
Apparently this is a common problem... which is weird since people give Samsung so much crap.
Anyhoo... I'm past my 30 days (they ran out at the beginning of the month, new Sprint customer as of early Feb '11) what would happen if I took this back to Sprint's store? Would they just give me a new one, or make me go through HTC?
Hardware version 0003.

They should give you a refurb, as you still have warranty for 1 year for hardware defect just like that. Take it to the store-unrooted and all rooting files removed, and you should be fine.

teh roxxorz said:
They should give you a refurb, as you still have warranty for 1 year for hardware defect just like that. Take it to the store-unrooted and all rooting files removed, and you should be fine.
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Basically the only thing I'm concerned about is having to send my phone into HTC and having to wait to get one sent to me. You think they'll just switch it out in the store?

Ryjabo said:
Basically the only thing I'm concerned about is having to send my phone into HTC and having to wait to get one sent to me. You think they'll just switch it out in the store?
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Yea, they should just switch it out in the store. or worst case if they don't have one in stock, they'd order a refurb and you'd have it in a day or two, but you won't need to send it to HTC.

Maybe I'll just deal with it.
The problem I have is... I wouldn't accept a refurbished phone. It's just a pet peeve... I paid for a new phone, I want a new phone. I don't like the idea of buying a new one that's defective somehow and getting given a refurbished phone as a replacement. It might not bother some, but I'm just anal like that.
Then again... I haven't talked to Sprint about it, so maybe they would give me a new one.
EDIT: I'll un-root and flash back to stock tomorrow then take it to Sprint on Monday and see what happens.

duplicate post, sorry

Ryjabo said:
Maybe I'll just deal with it.
The problem I have is... I wouldn't accept a refurbished phone. It's just a pet peeve... I paid for a new phone, I want a new phone. I don't like the idea of buying a new one that's defective somehow and getting given a refurbished phone as a replacement. It might not bother some, but I'm just anal like that.
Then again... I haven't talked to Sprint about it, so maybe they would give me a new one.
EDIT: I'll un-root and flash back to stock tomorrow then take it to Sprint on Monday and see what happens.
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I've always had better luck with calling into sprint over the phone then dealing with the sprint store people

I got a HTC hero that was a referb, worried that the phone was trash I kept waiting for it to go bad. It never did, in fact I sold it on eBay some time later. Refurbs are hit and miss, you will know within a few days if its a keeper. If not raise hell and get another one!
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Anyone in NYC have a jig?

Does anyone in NYC have a jig to reset the binary counter? I had one but for the life of me can't find it and I have to take my phone into sprint to have the techs look at it. Anyone have one I can use for like 2 minutes just to reset my counter? I don't want to wait another week or so to get one from Hong Kong on eBay.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch

Flashing the full restore ROM/tar will erase the triangle, they might not even check the counter.

phatmanxxl said:
Flashing the full restore ROM/tar will erase the triangle, they might not even check the counter.
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I'm on the stock kernel so the triangle is gone My counter is up to like 20 lol. I just ordered one but dont know how long it will take to get here. I paid a little more and got it from a seller in Chicago so hopefully it will get here this week. How long are sprint trouble ticket numbers good for? They just issued me a ticket number today to bring it in.

Not sure, I guess you could say something came up. I do know they do keep a history of that stuff.

Does Sprint really check the counter? What was wrong with the phone?

[email protected] said:
Does Sprint really check the counter? What was wrong with the phone?
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I would imagine only in the more technically astute stores. In my area (central CT)?? No way. They barely understand anything beyond buzzwords and have been known to claim that installing a launcher from the market voids your warranty (talk to the supervisor to clear that up)...but in NYC? I'd imagine competition for those jobs to be a bit more fierce and the competency of the talent pool to be, on average, far higher than Loserton CT. So they might be aware...but typically people who know what that stuff means are usually one of us, so, you would only be guarding against someone who knows enough to be dangerous but not enough to be useful. That seems like a safe call.
I could be wrong.

I have one and ironically I'm also a Sprint Tech in a store in Brooklyn. If it were me, as long as my manager wasn't listening, I'd tell you to unroot it and bring it back. Some techs know everything (those who are also on XDA), some are just taught to look for the SuperUser app, and some are just plain stupid. The reason they're anal about not servicing rooted phones is, besides liability, the store will get charged at least $350 if you try and swap it out through warranty (called an AE - Advanced Exchange). Those who are REAL assholes will open an eTicket on your phone (standard procedure for servicing a phone, you basically just choose the problems from a list and type a few sentences) and choose "Software Modification", which, from then on will blacklist your phone from being serviced by a Sprint store.
Where are you located?
PS I ordered this and it works: http://www.amazon.com/SainSmart-Dongle-Samsung-Captivate-Vibrant/dp/B0053H73JQ

Product F(RED) said:
I have one and ironically I'm also a Sprint Tech in a store in Brooklyn. If it were me, as long as my manager wasn't listening, I'd tell you to unroot it and bring it back. Some techs know everything (those who are also on XDA), some are just taught to look for the SuperUser app, and some are just plain stupid. The reason they're anal about not servicing rooted phones is, besides liability, the store will get charged at least $350 if you try and swap it out through warranty (called an AE - Advanced Exchange). Those who are REAL assholes will open an eTicket on your phone (standard procedure for servicing a phone, you basically just choose the problems from a list and type a few sentences) and choose "Software Modification", which, from then on will blacklist your phone from being serviced by a Sprint store.
Where are you located?
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I'm around the flat iron district (by baruch college) I'm bringing in because its been overheating a lot and some other funky things. I once turned my phone off and when the charging animation came on the entire screen was snowy like a TV with no signal. It constantly pauses charging because its getting too hot, it lowers the brightness when it gets got (often) and I've even had the temperature warning on the charging animation while the phone was off.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch

I was too chicken s#*t to get a bunk one so I ordered one that actually says Epic Touch in the title. I paid a bit more but I should have it in 2 days tops. $7.19 and the guy is an XDA guy
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I was too chicken s#*t to get a bunk one so I ordered one that actually says Epic Touch in the title. I paid a bit more but I should have it in 2 days tops. $7.19 and the guy is an XDA guy
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

You can make your own fairly easily using the Samsung cable and a few dollars of parts from RadioShack.

or just check the development section on how to remove the triangle and reset the odin counter, takes less than 5 minutes

expertzero1 said:
or just check the development section on how to remove the triangle and reset the odin counter, takes less than 5 minutes
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The triangle is the easy part, I havent seen how to manually set the counter. My jog will be here by saturday, I'll just wait if I cant figure it out by then

yeah me to, I ended up buying one from a guy from SC off ebay, it was very expensive at $7, but piece of mind, and buying at least "soldered" in america. lol was worth it to me

graffixnyc said:
The triangle is the easy part, I havent seen how to manually set the counter. My jog will be here by saturday, I'll just wait if I cant figure it out by then
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Just have phone powered off. Plug in the jig and it powersphone into the volume down+power mode and automatically resets it
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

JohnCorleone said:
Just have phone powered off. Plug in the jig and it powersphone into the volume down+power mode and automatically resets it
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
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Thanks, I knew how though. I had one before, just misplaced it. It came today and I used it. I brought my phone into sprint and they are going to order a replacement for me due to constant overheating (gets up to 125F) when I went to show them the brightness limited to prevent overheating of course it let me crank it up but when I touched the slider the whole screen went red for a second(which is odd) so good thing they saw it do that. When it happened she even went "ohhh yeah we might need to replace that" they ordered a replacement for me but its back ordered so they said by the end of the week they will have it for me.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch

Funny story.. so I misplaced my first jig and couldn't find it when I actually needed it. So I order another one (pay 5 bucks more than the first one because it shipped from within the us not Hong Kong) so I used the replacement yesterday and worked great. Today I get dressed to go run to the store to get coffee, put my sneakers on and was like "what's in my shoe?" I stick my hand in there and pull out my original jig. Hahaha figures I'd find it after I no longer needed it. So now I have two
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch

graffixnyc said:
Funny story.. so I misplaced my first jig and couldn't find it when I actually needed it. So I order another one (pay 5 bucks more than the first one because it shipped from within the us not Hong Kong) so I used the replacement yesterday and worked great. Today I get dressed to go run to the store to get coffee, put my sneakers on and was like "what's in my shoe?" I stick my hand in there and pull out my original jig. Hahaha figures I'd find it after I no longer needed it. So now I have two
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch
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that made me LOL

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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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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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

Samsung warranty on ICS freeze issues

I was curious what experiences all have had with Samsung's tech dept. I am sending in my phone for warranty due to wifi issues and freezing screen which happens when it feels like it. Also having to reboot or pull battery after phone calls won't hang up properly. They just freeze everything.. Tech suggested they need to do some software settings to cure the issue.
This sucks because after a few replacements I actually got a screen that has none of the lines and blobs that my previous phones were having. I tried the SGS3 and had the same freeze and wifi issues so returned that one. No luck with the phone gods lately I suppose.
What kind of actual turn around do they have?

sflagg73 said:
I was curious what experiences all have had with Samsung's tech dept. I am sending in my phone for warranty due to wifi issues and freezing screen which happens when it feels like it. Also having to reboot or pull battery after phone calls won't hang up properly. They just freeze everything.. Tech suggested they need to do some software settings to cure the issue.
This sucks because after a few replacements I actually got a screen that has none of the lines and blobs that my previous phones were having. I tried the SGS3 and had the same freeze and wifi issues so returned that one. No luck with the phone gods lately I suppose.
What kind of actual turn around do they have?
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I got mine the next day and have no more issues with it...i had freezing also...the new one is from Korea...the old one was from China.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Cool, glad to hear they are quick. They don't give you the same phone back ? Finally found one without lines and blobs. The freeze issue is a bummer. Did your new phone have issues with lines and blobs in the screen?

If you are talking about sending the phone directly to Samsung, they generally will send the same phone back to you, repaired. You're looking at 1-2 weeks turnaround.
If talking about T-Mobile, and doing a warranty claim, which it looks like the other commenter was, they will send you a refurbished replacement within 24-48 business hours, depending on how late the order is placed. Those are hit or miss, I went through 6 warranty exchanges in just over a month, all with varied issues. 6th replacement is "good enough" for me, was tired of the hassle anyway.
(Edited for auto correct errors)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda premium

sflagg73 said:
Cool, glad to hear they are quick. They don't give you the same phone back ? Finally found one without lines and blobs. The freeze issue is a bummer. Did your new phone have issues with lines and blobs in the screen?
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My screen is fine and yes it was warrantee exchange but i was lucky and got a new one...date code 7.12
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Android Revolution said:
If you are talking about sending the phone directly to Samsung, they generally will send the same phone back to you, repaired. You're looking at 1-2 weeks turnaround.
If talking about T-Mobile, and doing a warranty claim, which it looks like the other commenter was, they will send you a refurbished replacement within 24-48 business hours, depending on how late the order is placed. Those are hit or miss, I went through 6 warranty exchanges in just over a month, all with varied issues. 6th replacement is "good enough" for me, was tired of the hassle anyway.
(Edited for auto correct errors)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda premium
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Yeah same here, refurbs are definitely hit or miss.. I got 3 in a row with multiple bad pixels, one with the FFC offset and crooked before I called back and had an over-the-phone total flake-out and they gave me a early upgrade offer for the SGSIII, which I refused because at the end of the offer they tried to drain me of cash with a 25% off retail offer and extending my contract another 2 years after the upgrade if I chose to accept it. LOL

Screen Defect appeared at 31 days

Hi all -
Trying to figure out what to do.
Just today, I now have a small pink blotch at the bottom of my screen. It's about the size of half a penny. It started out dim, and has gotten a bit brighter. Or maybe I'm just noticing it more.
I've tried playing with screen settings, I did a battery pull, and even a factory reset. It's still there. 99.9% sure it's a hardware issue. I have a case for my phone, it has been babied, and never dropped.
The problem is that today is day 31. Figures.
What options do I have? I really don't want to do the "warranty exchange" and get someone else's used broken phone. I've done that process once before and it was horrible. The junky phone they sent me was even worse than my original.
Thanks!

do a warranty exchange through samsung, not your carrier. takes longer but you get a new phone, not a refurb.

TRusselo said:
do a warranty exchange through samsung, not your carrier. takes longer but you get a new phone, not a refurb.
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Hmm, that's a good idea. I never thought of going directly through Samsung.
Thankfully, I didn't need to. I went back to the corporate store that I originally bought my phone at. The same guy that I bought the phone from ended up helping me too. I have to say, I went in ready to fight, but he immediately took care of it, and gave me a new phone. I was in and out in 15 minutes. I don't know whether he bent the policy, did me a favor, calculated the days wrong, or if there's a grace period, but he was very helpful.
I really have to hand it to them... this is the first time AT&T customer service has EVER impressed me.

TRusselo said:
do a warranty exchange through samsung, not your carrier. takes longer but you get a new phone, not a refurb.
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damn, i didn't know i could do a warranty exchange through samsung either... is that possible? seriously i doubt this is true. but if so please tell me how to proceed thanks!

If it is a manufacturer defect you can contact your carrier and they will be able to take care of it. I see it happen all the time in my store and although the retailer cant handle it, your carrier can.