Dammit. If it ain't one thing, it's another. One of my boy's phone wound up with the notorious "Brick" bug, where the phone works for about 150 days and then suddenly becomes as useful as a brick; ie. dead. The took the phone to the TMobile people and they helped him factory reset, which lost all his files, and then upgraded to the 4.12 version (from 4.04) but the thing is still spotty. It seems to work for a few hours and then quits again. I'm dreading it, but it seems like I'm going to have send it in to Samsung and get a replacement. <_< Anyone else have experience with this problem? Appreciate any comments and other suggestions.
Yikes, that's no good. The problem I've been having with my phone, is that after texting for a while, the entire conversation box disappears, along with all my conversations with other contacts. I have to restart my phone, cause my messages don't send. Hope your son's problem gets fixed.
Thanks, Person. Do you have a Galaxy S3 too? The thing was, as soon as his phone went bad, he made a comment about the S4 being out. I told him don't even think about it as I had paid full cash (ie no plan activation) for these phones because I didn't need the data plans (we have wifi everywhere we go). I need about another 6 months on them to break even.
My suggestion is just to do a complete factory restore via Kies software. Or maybe flash another ROM on it and see if it still have that issue. If so, I would say contact Samsung for warranty repair. I never had that issue on my SGS3 (AT&T version) with the exception of occasionally rebooting on itself due to freezing during some apps.
Yeah, he did the whole factory reset thing with the reps at the Tmobile store. I don't think he backed up his files so they're probably toast. Anyway the reps have done this almost on a regular basis with s3's so they're familiar with the problem. Apparently, it's a problem with one particular chip, which isn't on all S3 models. Both of my boys have the S3, both bought at the exact same time from the same dealer; one had the problem chip and the other didn't. There's an APP (called the eMMc check) that one can download to see if your phone has the bad (what the app calls "insane") chip or not. You can download it free at the APP link on your phone.
Hmm... didn't know about the bug at all for SGS3, thought it was only affecting phones with Exynos chip.
Check the warranty before you start flashing diff roms. Especially if you will probably be sending it back for a replacement.
Personally I think sometimes the best way is to take it back and get Samsung to fix it. Sure it may take a little while but in the end at least you make sure that the problem does not come back. So it could be better to just do that. I know of a few friends who have had problems with the S3, not with the brick bug but with other problems. I think when you got it at the start they were just not built that well. With regards to the S4, I don't actually see a difference when using them side by side. The S3 is hardly a sluggish phone and apart from the change in design and internal changes, there is really no difference in real life usage. I think the phones have now got to the stage where they are no real large differences as the software simply does not utilise the full capability.
Yeah, I think that's about the best bet, is to have Samsung send us a replacement. The missus had a friend who had a self induced damage problem with her phone and as soon as she sent her's in, a replacement came in the mail a few days later. I guess they're into keeping customers happy.
