Develop Bugs

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.
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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.

[Q] Strange screen issue

I have been having an issue with my screen. Randomly the screen will become unresponsive. I will be playing a game or something and the screen will not respond to my presses, even the buttons at the bottom dont work. If I hit the power button to turn off the screen and wait a second it will become responsive again. This happens while the phone is in my hands so I dont think it is the grounding issue. The other strange thing is sometimes like if I am typing a text it will start doing things on its own like typing a bunch of random letters and such. Or if I am on the homescreen it will try and resize widgets and slide to the next screen.
Anybody come across this issue or know what I can do to fix it? I am running Cyanogen right now but it happened on Fresh as well all with the stock kernels.
Thanks

Yes, I have that issue as well... When I first got the phone it was a rare occurrence, but over time it seems to have gotten worse and worse. It always seems to be worse if it's plugged into the charger, too.
I decided to do something about it today, so I just flashed the stock (rooted) Sprint OTA on it, and am planning to take it to the Sprint store to see if they will replace it under warranty if I can demonstrate the problem.
I'm heading there now. When I get back, I'll post what they say about it here.

Just got back from the Sprint store...
The technician spent about 20 minutes looking at my phone, then returned it to me saying "You're right, that's pretty annoying." and said that they would replace it under warranty for free. He ordered one and said I could come get it on Monday. I know I'll get a refurbished phone, but I figure a refurbished phone that works is better than a new phone that doesn't.
It would seem that it's a hardware problem, and you'll probably also have to get yours replaced, too.

ah bummer, thanks for posting that at least now I know. I just need to figure out how I can make the issue occur so I dont waste my time at the sprint store.

Just an update, they replaced the phone and I have not seen this issue since. I've nandroided the fresh rom I was using before back onto the phone, so it is definitely a hardware issue. Just take the phone into a service center and get them to exchange it and you should be good.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Sprint techs, are the stock restore files you have the exact same as is available to

Took my phone in yesterday to a third party repair center for an issue. Agent said they would reinstall the os. I said it would not fix the problem because I have done that myself. I noticed if they did "reinstall" the os they didn't wipe the usb storage as a fresh start for troubleshooting. Techs, have you ever tested or md5'd a stock tar that we have versus a stock image file you have at work?

oscarthegrouch said:
Took my phone in yesterday to a third party repair center for an issue. Agent said they would reinstall the os. I said it would not fix the problem because I have done that myself. I noticed if they did "reinstall" the os they didn't wipe the usb storage as a fresh start for troubleshooting. Techs, have you ever tested or md5'd a stock tar that we have versus a stock image file you have at work?
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Oscar - I'm not a tech but I have a partial answer for you..
There have been users (Garwynn I know has done this) where they have taken a "leaked" tar versus an OTA, extracted and did a side by side comparison and they have matched.
That being said, if there was ever an "internal software" set, I'm sure it would have shown up by now. Meaning, what you get here, is what they'd have.
Don't forget that the official software which is ICS isn't going to wipe internal like the JB leaks would on install unless the option (re-partition) is checked in Odin, and I'd assume that is what was used.
Was the "issue" fixed by them?

Rebooting? Don't know yet. It kinda began to act like it was going to do it last night but when I watched it, waiting for it when I was sure it was going to happen, it didn't.

The techs use odin and the exact same official tar files we have here. They onky habe the OTA builds tho and not all the leaked builds we get
I like to break stuff!

Yes, they match. (Sorry, my reference couldn't give me any text to confirm that but it has been.)
It's why I've been trying to snag a GS3 MA6 and GN2 MA7 from them.... but I'm hearing they may not have it either.
What wi-fi config do you have?
And try this:
1) Back up everything.
2) Remove MicroSD card.
3) Factory Reset. (Yes, ##786# if you can and are on Sprint.)
You want to nuke your internal storage.
4) Flash FL24 Stock Restore one click.
Result (software-wise) should be a phone as if you turned it on for the first time.
This is your "control" in an experiment, the one case that should not cause any issues whatsoever.
If it reboots here it's no longer software and means you should get the phone looked at.
If it doesn't then start putting stuff back on slowly.
The goal would then be to see if by slowly re-introducing things to catch the offender.

Since I got it back, no reboot in over 24 hours yet. If it does then I will try without a tpu case in case that is possibly holding down the power key. If that doesn't help then I will try garwynn's suggestion.
it was doing it when I was running Samsung batteries but that case had a whole cut out for it on the power button so that may not be what is causing it. I am doing voice to text so this post made look a little retarded. Possibly something got screwed up with the radio? The pound pound 786 pound is resetting something I forgot what its called but I know what you're talking about. It is possible that that reset flushed out something that was snafu'd.
Out of all of the things that I tried that was not 1 of them so there may be something to this something got corrupted along the line somewhere.

oscarthegrouch said:
Since I got it back, no reboot in over 24 hours yet. If it does then I will try without a tpu case in case that is possibly holding down the power key. If that doesn't help then I will try garwynn's suggestion.
it was doing it when I was running Samsung batteries but that case had a whole cut out for it on the power button so that may not be what is causing it. I am doing voice to text so this post made look a little retarded. Possibly something got screwed up with the radio? The pound pound 786 pound is resetting something I forgot what its called but I know what you're talking about. It is possible that that reset flushed out something that was snafu'd.
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Get widgets like system tuner and battery monitor pro to keep an eye on your bsttery and cpu temps if they get over 140°F battery snd 120°F cpu then tthe phkme will hot boot to clear its memory so thd the temp can drop
I like to break stuff!

Never been hot when a reboot happens. Has anyone ever hear of phones rebooting when their provisioning (don't even know if that's what ##786# does) is messed up? I'm going to run this for a week on stock FL24. If it doesn't happen within a week then I don't think it will happen.

I had a reboot earlier tonight. I have the log when it happened but I guess I'm not going to post it since nobody has said anything about it. I did the full stock rooted md5 with odin of gb27 and did a nvram reset and updated prl/profile. I went to gb27 after I got home after work and the reset happened earlier during work on the reinstall that the third party repair center did with fl24. I'm wondering if maybe the power button is getting weak. When I push it without a case on, its snap sound isn't as loud as the volume buttons. It's possible the case could be sometimes holding in the button slightly or not releasing it when I push the power button through the tpu case. I could send it in but I don't have the time to go to a corporate sprint store repair center and wait on it right now. Unless it gets worse, I will try and rough it out until my upgrade june 1, trade it in towards the g4 and pay the difference. The screen has noticeable burn in anyways. Although, if I took it in and told them about the button, I might get a refurb with a better button and screen and could keep it as a backup phone.

oscarthegrouch said:
I had a reboot earlier tonight. I have the log when it happened but I guess I'm not going to post it since nobody has said anything about it. I did the full stock rooted md5 with odin of gb27 and did a nvram reset and updated prl/profile. I went to gb27 after I got home after work and the reset happened earlier during work on the reinstall that the third party repair center did with fl24. I'm wondering if maybe the power button is getting weak. When I push it without a case on, its snap sound isn't as loud as the volume buttons. It's possible the case could be sometimes holding in the button slightly or not releasing it when I push the power button through the tpu case. I could send it in but I don't have the time to go to a corporate sprint store repair center and wait on it right now. Unless it gets worse, I will try and rough it out until my upgrade june 1, trade it in towards the g4 and pay the difference. The screen has noticeable burn in anyways. Although, if I took it in and told them about the button, I might get a refurb with a better button and screen and could keep it as a backup phone.
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I say take it in. Open enrollment for TEP right now so good any way you go.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

Yep. It's the power button alright. It started flaking out today without a case but it didn't reboot. Gonna have to get up early sometime and head over to the corporate repair place and spend some time there. That's one store you can never get in and out of quickly. Going to have to see if I can make an online appointment, if they still do that, for this place.

garwynn said:
I say take it in. Open enrollment for TEP right now so good any way you go.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
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How often is the open enrollment for TEP?

This is the first I can remember, but I have bad memory. I've had it since I started getting smart phones because replacing them was too expensive. I've read stories from so many people about something happening to their phone and they didn't get insurance. The repair cost was way more than they would have paid if they enrolled in the plan in the beginning.

Finally took the phone in. Glad it rebooted a few times while there. Long story short, they ordered me a replacement and it might take up to a week to get it. No problem since I have a backup smartphone to use.

oscarthegrouch said:
Finally took the phone in. Glad it rebooted a few times while there. Long story short, they ordered me a replacement and it might take up to a week to get it. No problem since I have a backup smartphone to use.
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Glad to see it will be replaced!!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

[Q] Phantom screen presses

Is anyone aware of a fix for phantom touches on the T-Mobile S4 ?
I've been searching the net, and either there aren't any reports of this for the S4 yet, or I'm using the wrong keywords.
On my black S4 I'll get the occasional double letter when typing. I use Thumb Keyboard.
My wife, however, has a white S4 and hers seems to go nuts. She's using the same keyboard, but it still does it with the stock board as well.
It'll register multiples of phantom presses, not all in the same location either.
This was a problem for our Sprint SGSIIs.
Any ideas? Can it be corrected, or does it have to be replaced like the SII?

KYT said:
Is anyone aware of a fix for phantom touches on the T-Mobile S4 ?
I've been searching the net, and either there aren't any reports of this for the S4 yet, or I'm using the wrong keywords.
On my black S4 I'll get the occasional double letter when typing. I use Thumb Keyboard.
My wife, however, has a white S4 and hers seems to go nuts. She's using the same keyboard, but it still does it with the stock board as well.
It'll register multiples of phantom presses, not all in the same location either.
This was a problem for our Sprint SGSIIs.
Any ideas? Can it be corrected, or does it have to be replaced like the SII?
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Click to collapse
This sounds like a bad digitizer. Which means hardware failure.
However there are steps to try first to make sure it's not just a correctible software glitch.
If you're only having the problem when using the keyboard that's a very good sign that tells me it could be a software problem. To test that theory go into the settings and find Manage Apps. Then go to the keyboard and clear cache and data. See if that makes it better.
If you have the pahntom touches everywhere you're going to have to take a more "nuclear" approach. If you can back up your user data on the white phoen that is going bonkers, do a full factory reset. See if that fixes it.
If that still fails, you can use Odin to reflash the original stock ROM to teh phone and make it exactly like it came out of the box, even if you've done OTA updates.
That's the most thorough thing you can try without rooting it and installing a custom ROM.
If none of those work, it's a hardware glitch and you'll need a new one.

Skipjacks said:
This sounds like a bad digitizer. Which means hardware failure.
However there are steps to try first to make sure it's not just a correctible software glitch.
If you're only having the problem when using the keyboard that's a very good sign that tells me it could be a software problem. To test that theory go into the settings and find Manage Apps. Then go to the keyboard and clear cache and data. See if that makes it better.
If you have the pahntom touches everywhere you're going to have to take a more "nuclear" approach. If you can back up your user data on the white phoen that is going bonkers, do a full factory reset. See if that fixes it.
If that still fails, you can use Odin to reflash the original stock ROM to teh phone and make it exactly like it came out of the box, even if you've done OTA updates.
That's the most thorough thing you can try without rooting it and installing a custom ROM.
If none of those work, it's a hardware glitch and you'll need a new one.
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I'll give these a shot, and report back with my findings.

wiping the keyboard data seems to have helped out
additionally, my wife noticed that when her hands were clean and dry this didn't happen, she uses lotion a lot so when she used it again, the phone started acting up again.

KYT said:
wiping the keyboard data seems to have helped out
additionally, my wife noticed that when her hands were clean and dry this didn't happen, she uses lotion a lot so when she used it again, the phone started acting up again.
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Click to collapse
That'll do it. The lotion could be conductive, which will cause multi touches on the digitizer once a lotion layer builds up
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app

Wasn't the lotion. There was no lotion on its skin, alas phantom touches again...
My wife could hold the phone in her hand, and watch the keyboard keys register presses.
I called T-Mobile, they said they could replace it with a refurb or they'd called Samsung and get the warranty process started.
I didn't want to replace a brand new phone with a refurb. Samsung provided a 2-day shipping label, it was dropped off at UPS today.
Standard operating procedure: 2 days there, 5-7 business days with a tech, 2 days back to us.
Since we just switched from Sprint to T-Mobile, I don't have any backup phones, so we got a loaner from a T-Mobile retail location.
It's a slider feature phone, wife is none too pleased. Going through Samsung isn't costing us anything other than the $53 deposit on the phone.
We'll see how it goes when the phone makes it back.

[Q] Brand New Note 3 problem

Hi guys, I have a weird problem and I need your advice.
My brand new galaxy Note 3 Sm-N900T is having screen blackouts....
Its like after the screen timeout the screen goes off and then when I press the power button it doesn't go back on again.
Or if I turn the screen off it doesn't go back on again... the buttons are working the sounds are on, I can answer calls and everything but the screen is black.
If I play with it (pressing power or home buttons) for a while it comes back on. Sometimes the phone restarts (rarely, I think because i press power button).
I have tried everything from playing with settings to wiping the cache and resetting the phone few times.
It looks like its a software issue to me, or maybe sensor.. but i think that when power button is pressed the screen should turn on regardless of sensors.
I do have the custom S-Case but I had the issue even before I got that.
Now.. I have few choices :
1. Go to t-Mobile and get a replacement.. probably refurbished, not a fact that the problem will away because I heard of lots of people having this issue ...
I of course do not want to do that.. I have this phone for less than a month.
2. Wait for KitKat....
3. install some kind of custom rom and see if problem goes away.
If anyone can help, Id really appreciate it.

I would do an exchange.. you paid good money for it and a defect is a defect, I wouldn't depend on a 3rd party patch for this
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

?
go to the store for change this defective note.

This may be jelly bean bug... Lots and lots of people report the same problem...
If I replace my piece I will probably get a refurbished one with a great chance of having this or some kind of another problem......

Keda_P said:
This may be jelly bean bug... Lots and lots of people report the same problem...
If I replace my piece I will probably get a refurbished one with a great chance of having this or some kind of another problem......
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sucks man.
I know on my htc onei have the purple camera problem but everything else was fine. they had to send me 2 replacements because the first one had a yellow screen and worse camera then mines.
Tmobile doesnt even check there replacement. Most of the time there phones that people traded in. And all they do with those is a power on check.
Now if you just got the phone and within the 14 exchange you can take it to the store and get a brand new one.

Had it for more than 2 weeks now.. since i was always playing with it i did not notice the problem .. (the screen was always on).
I called Samsung and Tmobile. I told tmobile that samsung said i have a defective phone. so Tmobile is sending me a "Like new" phone meaning that someone returned it within 14 days. I get to check it and if i dont like it i will just send them their phone back. and suddenly mine doesnt do the problem for 30 minutes lol.. maybe it got scared. Personally i think that KitKat would fix it.

Any force closes? I had this problem too untill I stopped using the crapy My Magazine bloatware, which was also sometimes force closing...
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

No, no force closes, but one time it was funny, a little bit of status bar appeared from the bottom and on top it was a little bit cutoff.... like someone slid the screen up few pixels.
And whatever was cut just came from the bottom. Its weird... for $700 phone it should be flawless... I hope they dont send me crap phone and i hope they dont send my phone to someone else.
How can i get rid of it to see if that was the problem?

My phone works perfect and I had if since the first week they came out. .. It's not a jellybean thing you phone has a problem. ..
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

djtheraven said:
My phone works perfect and I had if since the first week they came out. .. It's not a jellybean thing you phone has a problem. ..
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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I figured id try to reflash (not data reset, but reflash via Kies) so far so good no problem.
The whole thing looks like soft prob, not hard.
If it comes back Ill let you know. This could be a nice fix if works.

I'm in nyc, and my local store called the warrenty center and got me a brand new SGS2 one time. It still had all the blue plastic in the sim card and sd card slots, and plastic on the screen. So I'm know they can request it, just depends on your store if they are willing.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Keda_P said:
I figured id try to reflash (not data reset, but reflash via Kies) so far so good no problem.
The whole thing looks like soft prob, not hard.
If it comes back Ill let you know. This could be a nice fix if works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My sgs2 had problems out of the box. After I installed custom ROM they went away. It does happen. Restored stock via Odin, still no problems. Sometimes the software doesn't flash correctly from the manufacturer.
Sent from the phablet of the year!

noobtoob said:
My sgs2 had problems out of the box. After I installed custom ROM they went away. It does happen. Restored stock via Odin, still no problems. Sometimes the software doesn't flash correctly from the manufacturer.
Sent from the phablet of the year!
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Well, I dont know what to think anymore... Looks like the problem persists but happens so rare that without the past I wouldnt notice it.
This makes me believe that with KitKat it will probably disappear. If soft changes cause this to go away or be less it means (to me) that the phone is not defective. New phone is still on the way, to bad I did not purchase it at local store... I did it online, so there is no one to yell at.
It will arrive on Feb 6th so I have plenty of time to test my phone, with some luck KitKat will roll out during this time and then I will be able to definitely see. And if new phone is cool I have the option of exchange anyway .
Thank you all for your help, keep posting, its an interesting issue.

:/
Phone went worse and worse everyday ... now the S-Pen "Air Command" doesnt pop up, several weird disfunctions...
Waiting for the replacement.