[Q] Seeking a way to make a CDMA GNex a dependable phone? - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Simply stated, I am seeking a way to make this device a dependable phone, as I am stuck with it at the time being. I loved my original GNex, but what Verizon keeps sending me is garbage.
I have had quite a strand of bad luck with this device. I am averaging a warranty phone about once every six weeks. I have actually tried talking to Verizon about exchanging the phone for one of equal or comparable value, and they won't do anything. I am convinced that these certified like new devices are junk.
Issues that keep causing me to warranty the phone are:
- Charging Issues
The phone quits accepting a charge. I have replaced the battery.
- Phone Locking Up
Recently, while using apps, the phone has developed a habit of where it locks up, and the quits accepting input. It's like it goes to sleep, but it doesn't wake up. The only way to get it to function is to remove and reinsert the battery.
- Phone turning off on its own
Self Explanatory
- Radio Failure within the device
I'm not against rooting the device, I have kept them stock, and wouldn't know what to get, I just want to do something that will make this a dependable device and possibly solve any problems I may be having. They seem to be reoccurring problems with each handset they send me Any tips would be greatly appreciated as I have another one due to arrive tomorrow!

I don't think these refurbished headsets go through much, if any, testing before they are re-issued. What I would suggest is to begin with flashing a factory android image via the boot loader. There are plenty of guides to doing this. This step will ensure that any problems that you may be experiencing are not software related. A stock image reflag should do the job for the most part, but if you find yourself looking for more you can flash an alternate ROM, these won't solve any issues that you may still experience in a stock ROM however.

Related

3 button download/recovery mode saved my butt.

Within the 14 days return policy I took my Galaxy back after it bricked for no reason. I was almost stock other than unlocking it and running ADW. Too many things wrong with them so I gave it one more chance with a replacement. The new one has a working recovery/download mode so that's the biggie for me. The lag seems better and the GPS actually works. Great, I feel better. But I decided that I won't root it yet since 2.2 is coming soon. I'll let it flash as designed before digging deep.
Yeah, right. After noticing that the WiFI is still flaky at random times I turned it off again today when it wasn't passing any data. 3G still working so fine. But then the Market started to FC which I've not seen at all. I shut it down and rebooted again which is the fix for my WiFI. Well, it once again decided to brick just like the last one. I get past the logos and then just a black screen. She's bricked and I didn't even root it this time. Only thing not stock was ADW launcher instead of the Samsung thing that I don't like.
So I put her into recovery mode and did a factory reset. That fixed it and I setup all over again. Luckily with 2.1 you get a list of all your previously installed apps in Market the first time you enter so if you don't leve the app you can quickly install everything again. 20 minutes later I'm back in business except this time I'll stick with the launcher it came with, can't think of anything else that would cause this sudden bricking other than the wonder phone might be a piece of crap. I just don't know yet.
By reading the title I thought you meant that Samsungs new update to activate the 3 button combo had saved you. Having a phone with download mode enabled is quite hard to brick, you can always just put it into download mode and reflash with Odin.
That's the point, my replacement phone came with the update that Samsung is pointing people to. Labeled the same as the previous update but indeed has the button thing fixed. Until the next update comes along I'm not touching Odin or anything else, these phones have enough troubles as it is. I'm still concerned that mine bricked again simply by turning it on.
3rdcoast said:
That's the point, my replacement phone came with the update that Samsung is pointing people to. Labeled the same as the previous update but indeed has the button thing fixed. Until the next update comes along I'm not touching Odin or anything else, these phones have enough troubles as it is. I'm still concerned that mine bricked again simply by turning it on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is just my opinion but I don't think the phone would have come with the update, it would have just been an untainted unit that didn't exhibit this problem. Only a subset of new units were lacking the download and recovery modes and the fix released a couple of days ago was designed to correct that problem.
These modes are a standard feature of pretty much any Android device.
At any rate, good to hear that you have a fully functioning unit out of the box. I had to go to some length explaining and demonstrating the issue to the store from which I got my unit lacking these modes as well as my carrier until the fix came out and I fixed it myself.
I don't know either. I based my guess on the fact that Sam's fix happened to be an update that version matches what mine now shows. And my situation is a prime example why all phones need this mode. Not everyone would fix it the way I did but it only cost me 30 minutes and a few curse words because my pictures are all gone before I could get them off but I'm back up and running and that had to save somebody a few hundred dollars.
I'm still very nervous though, it did brick this morning without me doing anything. This time I don't even have NoLED or ADW but I can't leave it that way forever. My trusty Magic is way more tolerant of OS abuse.

HELP! My phone gets hot and restarts! Please look for more info inside!

Hello dear friends!
HTC let me down Kind of stupid phones indeed at least desire...
I have my phone for quite a time now, it is rooted with unrewoked, clockwork recovery and s-on. I flashed many different roms in the past and everything was brilliant. In a pas half-a-year or so I stayed with only one ROM - MIUI-Au. I kept updating it to the newer versions and so on and on. Never had any random reboot or something. At least maybe it was because of some strange app or something else. But now it started to reboot randomly and constantly!
Phone gets hot abit and it just reboots, and never comes to android homescreen again, until I put out the battery, hold it for few minutes, pop it back and then it boots. But as soon as start to play music, or run a game the phone gets hot abit and reboots again. and so on and on. I thought maybe it was a miui issue. So I tried to flash different roms, but guess what? None of the even boot! The main screen shows and with the same second it bootloops again and forever!... (
Even from recovery it sometimes reboots randomly. So i managed somehow to flash my miui back and it at least boots. But it is very unstable now, I barely can use my phone now
PLEASE WHO CAN HELP ME????
My warranty probably out of date, and my phone is rooted, I dont think HTC would accept it...
any thoughts? friends?
What have you set the CPU max to?
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
Thank you for response! Appreciate, really!! I didn't set it, I left everything by default I think! Because as i said, i even tried flashing different roms, not only miui.
What else could be? By the way, with stock froyo rom If I remember correctly, sometimes it became extremely hot, but I didnt get any reboots from that. But now, it gets just a little bit hot and it seems that this causes the reboot...
Now what I just noticed, I get reboots even when the phone is idle. And it is not even warm!
If its not getting hot then I'm confused lol. It sounds like a actual hardware fault. Sorry I can't help with this one
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
cluendo said:
My warranty probably out of date, and my phone is rooted, I dont think HTC would accept it...
any thoughts? friends?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try and get it taken back to stock if you dare.
The phone hasn't been out 2 years yet, which is how long the warranty is.
Thank you! But is there any possibility to fix it without HTC involvement? Maybe it is not hardware issue ? Can it be because phone is rooted and I flashed many roms to it ? I didnt try AOSP roms since reboots started, I will try to pop in Cyanogenmod or other and see if I will get reboots.
Would rerooting my phone and updating my recovery fix the problem?
and Note: yesterday I tried to S-OFF my phone, but I can't even do that with my unstable MIUI. It rebooted in the middle of the process..
I had a similar problem, apparently it's not uncommon on the early revisions. I sent mine to HTC and they replaced the mainboard.
Thank you for answer! But what if my phone is bought through a contractor?
Can just call HTC and ask the for repair? Or should I contact my contractor first ?
Just give them a call and they will try to help you out. I had a very good customer service experience with them when my desire had some issues.
They will require a proof of purchase though. If you managed to get the receipt from your "contractor" (I am unsure what you mean by a contractor), then there should be no problem.
Sorry for misleading word, I meant T-Mobile. I bought my phone under contract. I think I have a receipt. I even have whole box and stuff of the phone somewhere in my drawer.(just sayin ). So how is customer service of HTC? Poor, good ? I heard you need to tell them that you did a factory reset and that didn't help. Is that true. Also if I will unroot my phone, will they know it was rooted anyhow?
Ahhh....this overheating issue seems common. How they can release faulty phones?? No clue.
thanks for answers mates!
In Singapore, HTC service is really good. Phone was still under warranty.
It took me just one (real) call to confirm a repair order. The first call I was just checking to see what options were available to me.
The second call was an actual repair request. And the third call was me pestering them for a pickup date. heehee
In Singapore, repairs were done via courier. They picked it up and 1 working day later, they sent it back.
Naturally, you will probably need to impress upon them that you tried everything to fix your phone (which I hope you did which includes proving to yourself that it's not the ROMs fault).
You will definitely need to reset everything back to zero. In my case, I downloaded an RUU to totally reset everything back to STOCK, which included removing clockworkmod recovery. You WILL need to create a goldcard for this though so bear in mind that it's not exactly a case of a simple flashing procedure. At least not if you don't already have a goldcard.
Sorry if I overread it at some point, but you speculated at the beginning there could be some faulty app causing this, but you never meantioned performing a full wipe. Have you full wiped yet? Just to make sure it is indeed no software problem.
greets
Thank you for your answers. At the moment I have SuperNova classic ROM. ( 2.3.3 + Sense 2.1) But my phone crashes again and again, it is so annoying and causes me so much trouble.
I never tried a reset or unroot and return to original rom. Im just wondering now, would this help to remove or at least remove those reboots?
Today I was in my work and i was keeping my phone in my jeans pocket. it got hot as u would expect when keeping in pocket and suddenly it rebooten, then it went into a bootloop and started to bootloop 7 times in a row quickly. then again and again. It became very hot at that time.
For the interest, what exact hardware faults causes these reboots and why phone gets even hotter if you keep it on boot loop. If I keep phone cold, the rom usualy stays normal, without reboots. but as soon as I start using my phone, texting or calling for at least 5minutes of using it just reboots.
as I said- really annoying thing :S
I remember my happy times with miui, apps and no reboots Was fun!
cheers for helping!
I would give full wipe / factory reset a chance, and maybe RUU.
At least try it before sending phone to htc.
It is hardware problem, search forum. Fresh ROM without SD card, enabled WIFI and GPS, running G navigation, back of the phone is warm - restart after few minutes.
Maybe someone know how to read info form the phone right before reset? We could understand why the phone is reseting and hopefully add some patch.
Reboot-loop experience
Hey,
i had the same problem over the last few months: In the beginning my phone restarted only when it got hot, but it got worse over the last few weeks, in the end i was not able to use two apps at the same time (music and mytracks) or even to surf the internet longer than a few minutes. The problem did noticeably decrease when the phone was cool - tested by putting it on a fan or in the fridge. Yet, Skype was regularly killing it. As i really love my phone (and especially the AMOLED-Screen!) i did not want to resign. The battery cover contains some metal which is supposed to enhance heat dissipation - so i attached a little thermal pad to the hotter bottom of the phone to improve contact with the head spreader. Unfortunately it did not entirely fix the problem. Yes, it improved the situation a little, but it got even worse after a week or two - in the end i had to turn it in.
So i decided to take it to the Telekom-Shop. They were very kind and told me they would call the other day to confirm that the replacement would have been shipped. It took a few days longer, but i got a phone with the AMOLED-Screen! The employee said it was a used mainboard in a new case, completely refurbished. They only replaced the main unit, i kept the battery, sd-card, charger and so on. Now i have a working Desire again!
Terminator
Similar?
Hi i on the other hand have similar problem, qiute anoying one, my desire, cm7 hboot, s-off, insert coin cm7 rom, have phone freezing in diferent situations, sometimes its working sometimes just freezez and i need to get battery out and turn it one and sometimes several times in row to get it working again???? RUU and go to give phone in service? plaese advice?
@cp6ija Sandisk SD card? If yes, smash it.
nvm
cant delete post so just posting gibberish

Signal Sporadically Drops After Kernel Mod.

Hey,
Before I go any further, yes I have checked for other threads relating to the issue I am experiencing an could not find any that were completely relevant to my situation (I know how annoying and time consuming duplicate threads get! haha).
So I am with Telstra (Australia) currently running the 4.1.1 (JRO03C) Build. It is rooted and (Currently) running leanKernel-4.0.0dev14-jb. Prior to this I was running Franco's kernel. More or less, after waiting for Franco to push out a stable build for his mod, I decided I would try out the LeanKernel that is included through his Updater (So much quicker than the recovery way, I love it!). However, I just had to be unfortunate enough to do this during that 12 hour window in which the Franco Kernel Updater was experiencing a bug when flashing LeanKernel. After installing and rebooting, the phone would not start. It would just sit there at the splash screen, I set to work resolving it but ran into issues where the boot-loader was saying that there was no 'Boot' or 'Recovery' partitions. This was peculiar because I could still access CWM. So I eventually fixed it by pushing the Stock Kernel to it Via Fastboot and re-applying all the Bootloader and Radio images. (Another small fact, regardless of what Kernel I flash to it, it still seems to say LeanKernel.)
Now, the phone worked fine and Dandy for a few days, I did not even loose my data in the process - Was exactly the same as before. However just out of nowhere it lost signal. I immediately try powercycling it - did not fix the issue. So I then cleaned the SIM card and all the usual but it still could not acquire said reception (I also swapped SIM with a friend and my SIM worked in his without fault). I proceed over the next few hours feverishly mixing and matching all kinds of Radio's, Kernels, Settings, Supposed Patches and Fixes to no avail. The signal would come and go seemingly at will. I also fully reset the device and that did very little to improve the situation apart from render the phone slightly more responsive. And the thing is, its not as if it is saying it still has reception - the representation bars literally disappear completely.
Im at wits end with it, I had a HTC Dream when i was at school and spent weeks upon weeks figuring out how to carry out the Basics of a PowerUser Equivalent (Rooting, ROM FLASH, Radio's, Kernels, Overclocks, Diagnosing Software errors - the works) but this one has me gob smacked. Any help would be greatly appreciated, please let me know if you guys believe I may have forgotten a step or something obvious (Hiding in plain sight haha).
Thanks!
THEfog
Anyone? Any feedback appreciated.
Fixed.
Alright, So I waited for somebody to reply to my question but it seems like everybody has better things to do. Eventually I resolved the problem.
I take no responsibility if you destroy your phone by disassembling it incorrectly.
I exhausted all possible software related troubleshooting, so I decided to tear it apart. After following the iFixit Guide for disassembling the Nexus (ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-Teardown/7182/1) to Step 7 and removing the Headphone Jack/Speaker Assembly, I then noticed that my Coaxial Antenna cable had been pinched by the plastic mounts that it sits in. Due to the way it had been pinched and where the mount was - I was confident in assuming that I must have dropped it one to many times (i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j345/THEfog101/WP_000002-edit.jpg) causing the plastic rails to compress the cable.
Due to the small size of the cable - it was beyond repair, however I did manage to get it partially working as a interim solution. I separated the plastic shielding from the cable and re-rolled the inner cabling to the best of my ability. I then re-applied the plastic shielding and sealed it in wax. After re-assembling the phone (i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j345/THEfog101/WP_000011.jpg) it was getting reception, however it did sporadically drop under heavy usage (Lots of Data Usage Etc).
I Hunted around for the replacement cable (Was a lot easier than I thought It would be) when I found a supplier in the US, it proudly stated it was for the global model so I was confident it would work with my Australian model (cellphone-repair-shop.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus-global-antenna-coax-cable/). It was a little bit more pricey than I thought, but it was still a heck of a lot cheaper than buying another Galaxy Nexus (~$500).
The Cable came (i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j345/THEfog101/IMG_20120828_171935.jpg) and I fitted it the next day, simply taking the old one off and replacing it with the one I received in the mail - nothing else needed to be done. Since fitting the new antenna the Nexus now receives full reception again does not suffer any drops in service. (i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j345/THEfog101/WP_000020.jpg).
I hope this helps any others that suffer an issue similar to this. Sticking it may not be a bad idea either - simply because I could not find any other DIY fix to this issue online.
P.S Sorry about the non hyperlinked URL's, it wont let me post them because I have not posted here 10 times, despite me having been a member for quite some time.
Thanks!
Nice job, you know your stuff. Glad you got it fixed.
PS: the posting limits are based on the number of posts you have, not the date you have registered at XDA.
Thanks, It was a good opportunity to learn a little more about the internals of the phone as well. But yeah, I figured that was the case when it kept em blazing that message across the top of the page in large obnoxious letters whenever I tried to post with URLs embedded haha

[Q] Sudden Death Syndrome on ATT GS3 i747?

The best part about spending 30 minutes typing a post is having your browser crash. Anyway, if you have any further questions because this is going to be a bit brief, let me know.
My background: Fairly well-versed in Android, custom ROMs, flashing, rooting, doing development work on Android, reading directions, decent google-fu and RTFMing. But I really need help on this one. The phone in question is my primary phone, which I actually like to keep as stock because I don't want anything mucking up on it. It's 20 months old (daily usage), running stock 4.1.1, which was rooted about 17 months ago with cf autoroot, which I needed for development purposes. For the past 10 months, I have been using an extended aftermarket battery, because when traveling and thusly using navigation, gtranslate, lots of messaging, and whatnot with a bright screen whilst outdoors, I was tired of having my phone leave me without a communications device at 8pm.
Recent changes to phone: Several weeks ago, before another bout of traveling, I did my usual *#197328640# perso256 disable (one of the reasons that I like keeping my phone at 4.1.1), and voila -- carrier unlock.
What happened: Things were going swimmingly for a few weeks, when one day, I was out and about, typing something into google translate, and the screen just went black. It was early midday, and the phone was at 90% battery (extended battery life ftmfw). Every now and then, when doing serious multitasking (and, mind you, since the early days of owning this phone, as well as through the entire life of my GS1, which still works, by the way), my GS3 would occasionally reboot of its own accord. I thought nothing of this, except it just being a hallmark of samsung phones, and a minor inconvenience, at worst. This time, however, it failed to power back on. I removed the battery, held in power button in an attempt to discharge any residual power, and put the battery back in. Nothing. Panic. No ssung logo, no vibration, no lights, nothing. Just the black screen staring back at me. There was no moisture, and no trauma to the phone... nothing, save for a ridiculous sinking sensation.
Symptoms: Phone completely unresponsive. I tried a charged stock GS3 battery, and the symptoms are the same. If I plug the phone in without a battery, the led lights up red for a time, and that's it. Even though I haven't modded this phone at all, with the exception of the rooting almost 2 years ago, I tried everything I could think of and read online. vol up + power + home. vol down + power + home. Leaving the battery out for a while. So much reading through these forums and some others online. When I plug it in in windows (even though I primarily use linux), I get the QHSUSB_DLOAD problem, so I do not think it is a problem with the power button? Or maybe the power button can be permanently depressed or something that would cause this? Anyway, I've installed QHSUSB_DLOAD windows drivers, but don't want to start flashing things until I know there isn't another longshot option to get this to work. I even loaded up linux and ran pblclear, which allegedly attempts to knock HTC phones out of being stuck in QHSUSB_DLOAD mode. Didn't work, but figured it was worth a shot, and seemed relatively harmless.
Why I don't even know if it's SDS: The reason I'm asking this is because I'm completely at a loss. SDS appears to affect i9000s after 150-200 days, OR when people incorrectly flash a ROM, or something happens during flashing or modification. My phone is an ATT i747 has been fully operative for 600+ days, and I haven't done any flashing, rooting, whathaveyou in nearly two years (and it was just that simple autoroot that I ran once).
What I'm wondering: I really want to get this phone working, because of hundreds of images, notes, data, etc. that I have accrued over the past few years. Most of my videos and larger files were on my sd card, but literally hundreds of memories and works in progress that I would do insane things for were saved to the phone. I'm an idiot for not backing it up, but I wasn't doing anything to the phone, so wasn't expecting such a catastrophe. Will JTAG work? What about a debricking microsd image? Most of the ones I can find are for 4.1.2 or 4.1.3 -- are there any for 4.1.1? I'm nearly certain 4.1.1 is my version, because IICR 4.1.2 and 4.1.3 don't even have the perso256 disable menu, and it's why I had not upgraded to them. It seems like the microsd rewrites would wipe the contents, and then I would have to quickly attempt a recovery on the data? Or have there been any cases with similar failures that are something else dying on the board? To be perfectly honest, if it appears to be an issue with the board, it's not beyond my ability to perform BGA rework and remove the emmc entirely, and transplant it onto a new board, but I would ///really/// like to avoid that.
Thanks for reading... :angel:
Edit:
Additional information: I forgot to mention that I have found pages such as this samsung-galaxy-s3-sgh-i747-i747m-repair-dead-boot-1755452 [I'm afraid you'll have to google it because I can't post links if you want to look TT^TT] which have files that say, for example, "Samsung SGH-I747 Repair Boot Supported" if using JTAG. So, if there aren't suggestions about how I can fix my phone with an sdcard unbrick, or something else, does anyone know whether or not doing a boot repair will unbrick a phone without wiping the ROM itself? Thanks again~~
Top5a said:
The best part about spending 30 minutes typing a post is having your browser crash. Anyway, if you have any further questions because this is going to be a bit brief, let me know.
My background: Fairly well-versed in Android, custom ROMs, flashing, rooting, doing development work on Android, reading directions, decent google-fu and RTFMing. But I really need help on this one. The phone in question is my primary phone, which I actually like to keep as stock because I don't want anything mucking up on it. It's 20 months old (daily usage), running stock 4.1.1, which was rooted about 17 months ago with cf autoroot, which I needed for development purposes. For the past 10 months, I have been using an extended aftermarket battery, because when traveling and thusly using navigation, gtranslate, lots of messaging, and whatnot with a bright screen whilst outdoors, I was tired of having my phone leave me without a communications device at 8pm.
Recent changes to phone: Several weeks ago, before another bout of traveling, I did my usual *#197328640# perso256 disable (one of the reasons that I like keeping my phone at 4.1.1), and voila -- carrier unlock.
What happened: Things were going swimmingly for a few weeks, when one day, I was out and about, typing something into google translate, and the screen just went black. It was early midday, and the phone was at 90% battery (extended battery life ftmfw). Every now and then, when doing serious multitasking (and, mind you, since the early days of owning this phone, as well as through the entire life of my GS1, which still works, by the way), my GS3 would occasionally reboot of its own accord. I thought nothing of this, except it just being a hallmark of samsung phones, and a minor inconvenience, at worst. This time, however, it failed to power back on. I removed the battery, held in power button in an attempt to discharge any residual power, and put the battery back in. Nothing. Panic. No ssung logo, no vibration, no lights, nothing. Just the black screen staring back at me. There was no moisture, and no trauma to the phone... nothing, save for a ridiculous sinking sensation.
Symptoms: Phone completely unresponsive. I tried a charged stock GS3 battery, and the symptoms are the same. If I plug the phone in without a battery, the led lights up red for a time, and that's it. Even though I haven't modded this phone at all, with the exception of the rooting almost 2 years ago, I tried everything I could think of and read online. vol up + power + home. vol down + power + home. Leaving the battery out for a while. So much reading through these forums and some others online. When I plug it in in windows (even though I primarily use linux), I get the QHSUSB_DLOAD problem, so I do not think it is a problem with the power button? Or maybe the power button can be permanently depressed or something that would cause this? Anyway, I've installed QHSUSB_DLOAD windows drivers, but don't want to start flashing things until I know there isn't another longshot option to get this to work. I even loaded up linux and ran pblclear, which allegedly attempts to knock HTC phones out of being stuck in QHSUSB_DLOAD mode. Didn't work, but figured it was worth a shot, and seemed relatively harmless.
Why I don't even know if it's SDS: The reason I'm asking this is because I'm completely at a loss. SDS appears to affect i9000s after 150-200 days, OR when people incorrectly flash a ROM, or something happens during flashing or modification. My phone is an ATT i747 has been fully operative for 600+ days, and I haven't done any flashing, rooting, whathaveyou in nearly two years (and it was just that simple autoroot that I ran once).
What I'm wondering: I really want to get this phone working, because of hundreds of images, notes, data, etc. that I have accrued over the past few years. Most of my videos and larger files were on my sd card, but literally hundreds of memories and works in progress that I would do insane things for were saved to the phone. I'm an idiot for not backing it up, but I wasn't doing anything to the phone, so wasn't expecting such a catastrophe. Will JTAG work? What about a debricking microsd image? Most of the ones I can find are for 4.1.2 or 4.1.3 -- are there any for 4.1.1? I'm nearly certain 4.1.1 is my version, because IICR 4.1.2 and 4.1.3 don't even have the perso256 disable menu, and it's why I had not upgraded to them. It seems like the microsd rewrites would wipe the contents, and then I would have to quickly attempt a recovery on the data? Or have there been any cases with similar failures that are something else dying on the board? To be perfectly honest, if it appears to be an issue with the board, it's not beyond my ability to perform BGA rework and remove the emmc entirely, and transplant it onto a new board, but I would ///really/// like to avoid that.
Thanks for reading... :angel:
Edit:
Additional information: I forgot to mention that I have found pages such as this samsung-galaxy-s3-sgh-i747-i747m-repair-dead-boot-1755452 [I'm afraid you'll have to google it because I can't post links if you want to look TT^TT] which have files that say, for example, "Samsung SGH-I747 Repair Boot Supported" if using JTAG. So, if there aren't suggestions about how I can fix my phone with an sdcard unbrick, or something else, does anyone know whether or not doing a boot repair will unbrick a phone without wiping the ROM itself? Thanks again~~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same thing just happened to my 20 month old att s3.i unlocked the bootloader and flashed a twrp recovery.the phone was on 4.1.1 and rooted.
now just a lifeless phone
thorur said:
same thing just happened to my 20 month old att s3.i unlocked the bootloader and flashed a twrp recovery.the phone was on 4.1.1 and rooted.
now just a lifeless phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did it die closely after the unlocking/flashing? Or a long time after? Or was the unlocking/flashing an attempt to save the phone? Ever get it fixed? I'm so anxious!
I never heard of qualcomm chips doing this. There is a app called emmc brickbug check on the market though it won't be of much use to you now.....but it allows you to check the mem. Controller chip and check if its a "sane chip" and allows you to probe the memory for any bad sectors.....its really quite a nice app
Sent from my ATT Samsung Galaxy SIII using TapaTalk
crazymonkey05 said:
I never heard of qualcomm chips doing this. There is a app called emmc brickbug check on the market though it won't be of much use to you now.....but it allows you to check the mem. Controller chip and check if its a "sane chip" and allows you to probe the memory for any bad sectors.....its really quite a nice app
Sent from my ATT Samsung Galaxy SIII using TapaTalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, thanks for the input! Makes me feel a better hopefully the emmc isn't completely fried. I just really want my files, and am continually irritated at myself for having been so stupid to not make backups.. although I have phones from 10+ years ago that have never completely died in such an unexpected manner. It's quite the agonizing wait for a JTAG programmer to come in the mail. If I can manage to get it to boot from SD, which I haven't been able to do so far, do you think it's logical for me to simply reflash the bootloader/CWM, then attempt boot? It shouldn't erase files, right?
You can try a bootloader and recovery flash which might yield results.....and the plus side of that is that it won't wipe the memory unless you format the /data partition or you do a full Odin restore with ROM kernel and everything
Sent from my ATT Samsung Galaxy SIII using TapaTalk
crazymonkey05 said:
You can try a bootloader and recovery flash which might yield results.....and the plus side of that is that it won't wipe the memory unless you format the /data partition or you do a full Odin restore with ROM kernel and everything
Sent from my ATT Samsung Galaxy SIII using TapaTalk
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I've also searched everywhere for a debrick image for 4.1.1 AT&T... anyone know where I can get one? All I can find are ones for 4.1.3 =\
EXACT same problem here, let me know if you find anything
(Btw, my phone also had the "power button stuck down" issue, but your phone will vibrate when you put the battery in if this is the issue.)
If I'm not mistaken you will be able to Odin to 4.1.1 while using the 4.3 SD card debrick (again this is just guessing)
Sent from my ATT Samsung Galaxy SIII using TapaTalk
I've tried the SD card debricks for 4.3, and still nothing happens. Yea, I also don't get vibrate. As a long shot, I actually installed the qualcomm drivers and ran the qdload.sh script to attempt to send a signal which kicks the phone out of that mode (works on some... I want to say, HTC, phones), but, yea, I think the emmc just failed somehow. I'm hoping that the failure is just in the bootloader segment, and that by jtag reflashing the bootloader area, I should be able to boot. Either that, or even if one of the memory sectors died, hopefully it's not the one with my data partition. I still can't believe this ! Out of all the electronics I've ever used, aside from a hard drive or two, I've never had something like a phone just kick the bucket with no warning. gha !
Also, thanks for all the tips and stuff, guys and gals. Tell me if you figure out anything, and I'll let you know if I get it fixed with jtag.
OK plz let us know how it goes! I don't want to sound rude but your phone would be the only snapdragon I have ever seen fail....and I've been using snapdragons since the s1 on a HTC wildfire s
Sent from my ATT Samsung Galaxy SIII using TapaTalk
crazymonkey05 said:
OK plz let us know how it goes! I don't want to sound rude but your phone would be the only snapdragon I have ever seen fail....and I've been using snapdragons since the s1 on a HTC wildfire s
Sent from my ATT Samsung Galaxy SIII using TapaTalk
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ZOMG SO RUDE > haha, j/k ;P Yea, no problem, dude/dudette! I know how it feels reading threads with no followup... I'm actually surprised that people have come out of the proverbial woodwork mentioning having similar problems to me ! It really sucks spending inordinate amounts of time reading threads and not arriving at a definitive conclusion... so, yea, I especially want to let people know if there is a fix, and/or how I did it.
So, with regard to what you said about the snapdragons not failing... yea. This is rekking my mind, tbh, because I've just never had a device insta-fail on me like this (aside from some old computer hard drives that were server backed up, but yea that's essentially par for the course on that medium [yay for S.M.A.R.T.]). Especially a device that I'd only had for less than 2 years, and though my GS3 has heavy usage, I treat it very well (no drops, water, etc.)... so, yea.
Also, a minority of people with whom I have spoken via the æther have also experienced similar emmc failures on i747s, as well ! Which I was not expecting. It's still insane, though, to believe that, out of such a small percentage of phones that could potentially experience SDS, and then which ones actually do experience it... and then to not even have an i9000 and /still/ experience it on an i747... I feel as though I've won the lotto. Except ****ty.
I'm waiting on parts to come in, then surgery will commence.
Did you try going into download mode? If you can so that then the phone is fine. Another thing is try reflashing stock Odin which will erase msgs and stuff but not music or pics unless u tick "repartition".
Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk
Open serial port...OK
Connecting to the RIFF Box...OK
Firmware Version: 1.37, JTAG Manager Version: 1.56
Selected Resurrector: [Samsung I747 V1.0.5095.46594]
Connecting to the dead body...OK
Detected dead body ID: 0xhexhereisOK[redacted] - CORRECT!
Set I/O Voltage reads as 1.81V, TCK Frequency is 1 MHz
Resurrection sequence started.
Establish communication with the phone...OK
Initializing internal hardware configuration...OK
Uploading resurrector data into memory...OK
Starting communication with resurrector...OK
Detected an Initialized FLASH1 Chip, ID: 0x0015/0x0100 (000000, 0x000400000000 Bytes = 16.00 GB)
Detected an Initialized FLASH2 Chip, ID: 0x0015/0x0100 (000000, 0x000000080000 Bytes = 0.50 MB)
No Resurrection Data is available for the eMMC Chip with Capacity = 16.00GB
WARNING!!! Using Resurrection Data for the eMMC Chip with Capacity = 14,68GB
Flashing the dead body...
ERROR: DCC Loader has reported Error Code = 0x51 (0x000000). Trying to recover...OK
ERROR: DCC Loader has reported Error Code = 0x51 (0x000000). Trying to recover...OK
ERROR: DCC Loader has reported Error Code = 0x51 (0x000000). Trying to recover...OK
ERROR: Stopped due to multiple communication errors. Terminating at 0x0003AB3FBE00
Had to reduce the speed to that 2MHz/1MHz to get communication to work. So, 0x51 is a DCC power failure problem... but it is able to detect the initialized chips. So.. not really sure how to proceed at this point. I haven't checked the signal quality on my NRST line, which apparently can cause problems. Some people have increased the voltage from 1.8 to say 1.9, but doing something like that requires me to actually make my own resurrection file, which I haven't had the time to do yet.
Anyone seen a problem with something like this before?
The 000000 is somewhat unsettling, as the chip is apparently supposed to report some ID#? Although, the failures that I'm getting don't seem to be the typical ones that happen when the emmc becomes completely toasted.
Oh, yea... I can't seem to figure out wth is up with --> WARNING!!! Using Resurrection Data for the eMMC Chip with Capacity = 14,68GB
Like..... ??? I think I'm using the most up to date resurrector?!
EDIT: Dumping out the entire contents of the emmc (haven't had errors so far, but it will take a while at 1 MHz), into a bin file (this avoids the bad sectors in the bootloader).
Does anyone know what to do with the resultant *.bin file? I think that if I got another surrogate GS3, I'd be able to write that onto the phone, essentially cloning my dead phone. I'd like to avoid having to do that, though -- does anyone know how to write one of DCC bin jtag file dumps into a readable file system?

Marshmallow broke my phone so I...

Installed CyanogenMOD and it still resets, locks up and has other performance related issues.
I did an OTA update to Marshmallow originally. This corrupted my SD card and then caused about 10 resets a day, ranging from when I was using it lightly to heavily or even when it was sleeping/screen off. If I woke it up it would reset or I could feel it reset when it was in my pocket.
First thing I did was a factory reset. I tried other tricks such as swapping out the battery, SD card (or none at all), clearing cache, etc.... Nothing worked. So I tried installing CyanogenMOD, and I failed. But I got the phone back to BPA1. I updated back to marshmallow via my computer and the Verizon software updater.
About a day later the resets and lockups came back. I kept it light of apps but did slowly begin to reinstall some of my usuals (from the play store).
I had some more time so I tried installing Cyan again and was successful. It took a long time to load and optimize but it worked. I used gapps mini and the only step I did not follow in the guide was I did not install xposed.
It's been running for about 12 hours and has hanged, locked up and rebooted on me multiple times. Chrome even locks up (it will stop resounding, I'll get the message asking if I want to wait or close at the same time it starts responding again.)
When it reboots, it still takes forever and even optimizes apps (that I assume have already been optimized). I've seen two boot screens for it, one the little alien guy and the other with gears turning. It did the gears the second time I booted and then I haven't seen them again.
I'm not sure what my next step should be. Maybe I'll try reflashing Cyanogen. I have a feeling it's a hardware issue at this point, but I'm open to ideas. Are there any good diagnostic tools that could help my situation?
The phone is out of warranty and I'm sure that now that I've installed Cyanogen, the warranty was voided anyway. It's a shame because this phone was perfect up until the marshmallow update. I probably had 5 lockup/boots in the year or two I've had it.
Why are you using cyanogenmod in the first place. The support for that has ended. Go to the lineage os nougat thread and use that instead.
HORIZONx720 said:
Why are you using cyanogenmod in the first place. The support for that has ended. Go to the lineage os nougat thread and use that instead.
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Click to collapse
Admittedly, I did not even know about lineage until my phone was wiped with no OS. I did a quick Google search for it but could not find a Verizon note 4 mod. Now that I am not pressured to find a fix, I'll research it a bit more. Thank you.
I tried EmotionOS and NSeven, but both share the same error.
Emotion FCs random processes sporadically and then when my cell/data switches to Searching, it crashes multiple processes until the UI (trebuchet is default for Emotion?) and/or settings FCs and I have to restart. I am also stuck on 3G on that platform. I'm guessing network connectivity / switching is the root of the problems.
Nseven installed and right at the Welcome Screen where I pick my language, Google Play Services started crashing. I only had the option to click OK and then every 5 seconds after that, it kept crashing. I set up the phone, restarted and Google Play Services started crashing again. I am in the process of restoring back to Emotion, as it is the most stable platform so far.
I tried a new SIM card, hoping this was the problem but to no avail.
Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm guessing its hardware at this point, but since it happened on an OTA Update and I can reproduce the same errors every time, I'm hoping there's still an option left for a fix.
Holy crap. As I was typing this and restoring Emotion, it fully installed and booted. I have 4G! I don't know if that will fix the FC issues, but I have regained a little hope!
I'm still getting FCs and restarts. The more I use it the more it happens, but at least with EmotionOS, It's more limited. Only about 3 or 4 a day compared to 10-20.
I'll try one more flash and I guess tough it out until my contract is up in April.
I can't help you with EmotionOS (haven't tried it yet), but if you want to stop the Google Play Services crashing in NSeven you can make your way to Settings - Applications, then select Google Play Services - Permissions and give it all permissions. It's a bit of a chore to get there when the warning pops up every five seconds, but it will stop once you do that.
So my plan is up and I'm probably switching away from Samsung after this incident. Looking into the pixel or XL. If the v20 is out for Verizon, I might get that but I'll see what looks good when I go to the store today or tomorrow.
I think I've narrowed down my issue to a heat issue. I fixed the 4g and Google play crashes but my phone still locks up or apps start a cascade of crashes. If I power down, I can't restart the phone. If I restart, it powers down but does not turn back on. I remove the battery for 10+ seconds, put it back in for 10+ seconds and it won't turn back on. I'll leave the battery out for minutes to an hour and its a crap shoot.
I can only boot normally or to download mode. TWRP no longer loads. I tried reflashing it and I get a no pit fail. I'd probably look into fixing this but at this point it's not worth it.
What I discovered works is putting the battery and phone on a cool surface, putting the battery back in and placing that on a cool surface and then try to boot up. However, neither my phone nor the battery feel warm to the touch. So that indicates to me something is either off in the sensors, preventing it from turning on or more likely it's a power issue or at least a hardware issue, preventing a constant current or something along those lines. Dips in power could explain apps crashing and the system inexplicably turning off. It would also explain why I can't turn it on easily.
It's really a shame because I liked this phone so much and if the new note was out, I might give it the benefit of the doubt. But last night my Samsung tablet decided to install the updates I've been putting off because they're the same ones that broke this phone. So timing wise, I'm done with Samsung and will try a new brand. Only issue I see with pixel is it doesn't have a removable battery so hopefully I don't run into this issue on that device!
Thanks for all the help xda. If it was a solvable problem, I'm sure I could have fixed it with your help.
Final entry.
I got the v20, and spent a day trying to get my note back to factory. I thought I was doing something wrong, but eventually flashed a kernel, recovery, bootloader and then full Rom (I think it was BPA1 but it could have been CPF3, I don't have it in front of me). I was getting error after error, no PIT partition, mmc check fail, use the Samsung Recovery Assistant, and a few others (again, it's not in front of me so I may have gotten it wrong). The big one was a write disk failure when I was trying to flash the full Rom. I fixed that by flashing kernel, bootloader, recovery, then sticking the battery and the phone on the freezer for ~5 minutes before trying to flash the full Rom.
I updated via USB after that using recovery assistant. Probably completely unnecessary, they just needed to get to the factory reset screen, but when I bought my phone, I couldn't trade in the note because i couldn't turn it on. They gave me $86 for it. Anything less and i would have considered just taking a hammer and microwave to it. Good riddance!
Still a little sad, I loved this phone right up until marshmallow dishonored and killed her.
trickyvinny said:
Final entry.
I got the v20, and spent a day trying to get my note back to factory. I thought I was doing something wrong, but eventually flashed a kernel, recovery, bootloader and then full Rom (I think it was BPA1 but it could have been CPF3, I don't have it in front of me). I was getting error after error, no PIT partition, mmc check fail, use the Samsung Recovery Assistant, and a few others (again, it's not in front of me so I may have gotten it wrong). The big one was a write disk failure when I was trying to flash the full Rom. I fixed that by flashing kernel, bootloader, recovery, then sticking the battery and the phone on the freezer for ~5 minutes before trying to flash the full Rom.
I updated via USB after that using recovery assistant. Probably completely unnecessary, they just needed to get to the factory reset screen, but when I bought my phone, I couldn't trade in the note because i couldn't turn it on. They gave me $86 for it. Anything less and i would have considered just taking a hammer and microwave to it. Good riddance!
Still a little sad, I loved this phone right up until marshmallow dishonored and killed her.
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Click to collapse
I know a lot of people are blaming software, but I'm fairly certain that the problems in many cases are caused by failing hardware. I went through many of the same trials and tribulations with my Note 4 (except I never rooted the phone). I finally contacted Samsung Customer Support and sent the phone in for repair. They replaced a lot of the hardware including the motherboard and returned the phone in "like new" condition. I've been using it for a few weeks now and the performance is flawless.
I was planning to get either the V20 or the G6 if I wasn't able to get the phone fixed. How do you like the V20?
I'd agree that it's most likely hardware and having to put everything in the freezer for it to when confirms it for me although I have no real expertise to say so. But I'd argue that the update created the hardware issue, it was night and day with the update. It was working 100% and then directly after the update to marshmallow, it started having catastrophic issues. Oh well, it's nice not having to pull the battery every hour or so.
V20 is pretty nice. Having used EmotionOS for a few months the switch to the Nougat was pretty smooth. The xda forums for it are a little more limited but I didn't start messing with my phone until it broke and I'm hesitant to try with a new phone given my limited knowhow.
To be honest it's not a big difference in day to day usage from the note 4. Which I like!
+ I never used the finger print scanner but really like it on the v20. I didn't bother with a screen lock before but now I'm protected and have a just as quick access.
-the grip is too slick, I feel like I will drop it. The note had that rougher back which I liked better. A case or a replacement cover should fix that though.
+ I like this top menu screen, I have quick access to a few select apps or can turn the flashlight on or whatever. I'd like it more customizable, I find I switch screens too much when trying to just pull my top menu down. If I could put everything on one tab and combine their special buttons (ie the flashlight button) with apps, it would be perfect.
-the back button and menu button are switched. I can probably customize that but I don't yet know how and by the time I figure it out, I will have relearned that habit. It actually is probably a better placement for how I hold the phone but I'm a big fan of choices.
+ upgraded camera, sound, storage. I don't notice the screen size difference, but it is a lighter phone.
-bloatware
All in all its a good shift from the note 4. I'm happy to be off of Samsung and still have the same basic user experience.
trickyvinny said:
So my plan is up and I'm probably switching away from Samsung after this incident. Looking into the pixel or XL. If the v20 is out for Verizon, I might get that but I'll see what looks good when I go to the store today or tomorrow.
I think I've narrowed down my issue to a heat issue. I fixed the 4g and Google play crashes but my phone still locks up or apps start a cascade of crashes. If I power down, I can't restart the phone. If I restart, it powers down but does not turn back on. I remove the battery for 10+ seconds, put it back in for 10+ seconds and it won't turn back on. I'll leave the battery out for minutes to an hour and its a crap shoot.
I can only boot normally or to download mode. TWRP no longer loads. I tried reflashing it and I get a no pit fail. I'd probably look into fixing this but at this point it's not worth it.
What I discovered works is putting the battery and phone on a cool surface, putting the battery back in and placing that on a cool surface and then try to boot up. However, neither my phone nor the battery feel warm to the touch. So that indicates to me something is either off in the sensors, preventing it from turning on or more likely it's a power issue or at least a hardware issue, preventing a constant current or something along those lines. Dips in power could explain apps crashing and the system inexplicably turning off. It would also explain why I can't turn it on easily.
It's really a shame because I liked this phone so much and if the new note was out, I might give it the benefit of the doubt. But last night my Samsung tablet decided to install the updates I've been putting off because they're the same ones that broke this phone. So timing wise, I'm done with Samsung and will try a new brand. Only issue I see with pixel is it doesn't have a removable battery so hopefully I don't run into this issue on that device!
Thanks for all the help xda. If it was a solvable problem, I'm sure I could have fixed it with your help.
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I have had the exact same problem with my note 4. It wouldn't last 30 seconds at a lock screen from a cold battery before it would start boot looping, and the longer you left it in, the worse it got. Google told me I needed a new battery from several other forums and places I read. So I ordered one and replaced with a genuine Samsung one direct from them, and it didn't change anything.
I figured out it was heat related and I had it sit on an ice pack and it would run and work fine as long as the ice pack held out, about 2 hours. I've down graded, flashed, rooted the boot loader, installed a recovery console, flashed to different versions, all have the same problem. So I've kind of reserved myself to the fact it must be a hardware problem. Perhaps it was caused by the update, but nothing software change wise seems to be able to fix it. Did wake-loc fix as well. I've spent the last week with mine trying everything in the world and every evening having it on the ice pack hooked up trying whatever I could think of or read up on doing, and basically as soon as it warms up, it starts doing it again.
Heres a pic; http://imgur.com/a/5L64V
In my experience, it gets worse and worse. The day I bought my v20, I tried to trade it into Verizon but couldn't even turn it on in front of the rep. I thought I had timed the new phone perfectly but still wanted the $80! Fortunately I got it working after the weekend and just stuck everything in the freezer before I walked to Verizon.
trickyvinny said:
In my experience, it gets worse and worse. The day I bought my v20, I tried to trade it into Verizon but couldn't even turn it on in front of the rep. I thought I had timed the new phone perfectly but still wanted the $80! Fortunately I got it working after the weekend and just stuck everything in the freezer before I walked to Verizon.
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Just out of curiosity, what phone did you wind up going to?
The LG v20 and so far so good!

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