The Samsung Galaxy S24
handymanny's profile

Tutor

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2 Messages

Thursday, December 6th, 2012 2:31 AM

Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean - Issues

If you goto Edit Pages from Menu Button and click Edit Page.. Then if you try to remove a page from the group of screens (pages).. it says TouchWiz Error and also no updates for Camera found in this release and also other issues associated with the relese.. I am not sure maybe ATT released the Jelly Bean out of the blue.. I call this a Toilet paper Release...

Tutor

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7 Messages

11 years ago

After upgrading to 4.1.1 about a week ago, I have been having frequent hangs and reboots.

 

Several times I have heard the phone rebooting as I drove away from either my house or when leaving work.  Based on this, I have found that I can sometimes reproduce the problem by turning off wireless... after turning off wireless I may get back to the main screen, after which the phone hangs and eventually reboots.  It is not every time, but it happens more times than not.

 

Contributor

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1 Message

11 years ago

Im having the same exact issue with my phone.. it's annoying plus it seems battery drainage has increased a lot since the upgrade

 

Tutor

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7 Messages

11 years ago

After continual reboots that seemed to be tied with changes in the network (such as dropping off wireless, and when driving across remote areas in central Illinois and having my phone reboot while driving down the interstate), I finally gave in and did a factory data reset.  

 

I put all of the apps back on, and to the best of my knowledge, Senator, I am back to the same logical configuration that I had prior to the reset... and my reboot problems have stopped.  I have not had a reboot in four days, and my phone had been rebooting multiple times a day.

Tutor

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7 Messages

11 years ago

My problem has surfaced again when I have wireless enabled.  It locks up if I turn off wireless manually so I can recreate the problem, and as I transition away from a wireless network it also hangs/reboots.  This happens with multiple wireless networks, including not only my home network and work network, but ATTWIFI spots as well.

 

I now so wish I had not upgraded.  Sure, I can turn wireless off, which seems to prevent the current problem, but that just drives my data usage up.  If I turn wireless back on, I reboot multiple times a day.

 

I would rather go back to ICS or switch to a different phone at this point.

Teacher

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23 Messages

11 years ago

After having tried everything under the sun, I was finally resigned to the idea that I might have to replace the hardware and turn it in for a refurb.  The local store rep suggested that I work with the AT&T Device Support folks, who would be able to reflash the phone.  i.e. Emergency Recovery (which I tried a couple times) is not the same in that it leaves remnants of old apps around.  After the reflash, all was rock solid for a few days.  I began trickling in my apps, one by one.  

 

Life was good until I started running the last app that I installed. I loaded Pocketcast and downloaded a couple of podcasts.  All was quiet until I got in my car, paired with my Satechi Soundfly and started listening to a podcast.  10 minutes into my ride and the phone reboots.  Got to work and the phone rebooted a couple more times.  I uninstalled Pocketcast and "unpaired" the Soundfly with no success....the phone rebooted 5 more times in the next couple hours. Brought it back to the Device Support folks who reflashed it again.

 

All is quiet.  I'll run it without Pocketcast for another week and then pair it with the Soundfly...maybe listen to some music.  If all stays quiet, I'll know it's the app;  if not, I'll know it's the Soundfly.  If not for the fact that it was stable when it was ICS, I'd start suspecting the onboard bluetooth.

 

In any case, I'll post my findings over the next week or so.

Teacher

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23 Messages

11 years ago

...am back with an update. 

 

Reflashing worked temporarily...but status returned to random reboots.  I have since replaced the phone twice with no success. But I now think that I'm closing in on the problem components.  I don't believe there's a silver bullet.  Rather, there are multiple targets.  I turned off wifi and bluetooth.  I then enabled bluetooth and paired only to my headset for phone calls (no media streaming).  It's been over 10 hours with no reboots or freezing (where reboots every 2-3 hours was typical). 

 

So...In summary....When ICS, all was stable.  When updated to JB, random reboots and freezing.  Reboots occurred on several wireless routers.  After reflashing and unit replacement, only the last actions have stabilized the phone...turn off wifi and no bluetooth media streaming on Satechi Soundfly (although my Nexus 7 works fine with it).  I believe the issue to be a firmware problem and only an update will resolve assuming that Google and/or Samsung acknowledges it.  I'm especially concerned that this be resolved soon since turning off wifi as a workaround can put a strain on my data plan.

Tutor

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7 Messages

11 years ago

To recap with similar problems as Rickalodeon, my device was stable with ICS.  Following the upgrade to JB I also had the reboots and freezing.  Mine was definitely tied with wireless, as I could simply turn wireless off and have the freeze.  Moving out of an area with wireless could also cause a freeze/reboot.

 

I got to the point of running without wireless at all, and then my device was stable -- no freezes or reboots, but I expect to use wireless for at least some of my data.  I would think that ATT would rather that I use wireless to have less bandwidth used on their network as well (minus their incentive to have me pay for more data).

 

I have elected to run through the reset scenario one more time to see if I can isolate the problem with a particular app or change.  Before doing a reset, I uninstalled applications that had been installed to see if removal of any application fixed the problem... but that did not work.  I also tried several wireless fix-it programs, and none worked.  

 

My device went through a reset at the end of last week.  For the moment I am trying to minimize changes and tracking everything I do, testing wireless at most steps along the way to see if the symptoms change.  I have done a group of changes every day to spread the changes, and rebooted once each day to get a clean start after a bunch of changes.  So far so good...

  • device reset
  • installed and using Chrome for the browser
  • added wireless access to the same three systems that were used before
  • Updated Google apps (search, Play*)
  • Updated ATT bloatware (messages, navigator, MyATT) but not using most of them for the moment
  • Updated Samsung apps
  • Updated remaining apps like YouTube, YP Local Search, Flipboard, most of which I do not use anyway
  • For work, put Good back on and configured to receive corporate email.

It has only been a few days, but things are stable.

 

Unfortunately, it feels like the slightest change (not necessarily installing/updating a package) could trigger the freezes again.  I am going to hold off on installing most of the other apps for a while to see if things remain stable.

 

Although this is Android, if it was a wider spread problem I would think we would be seeing broader reports on the scenario that ATT/S3.  It is disappointing that either ATT or Samsung would allow their wireless implementation to be impacted somewhere along the line if this is tied to applications doing something at some point.  I am no longer using the device to its full potential for concerns that the freeze/reboots will come back.  This is definitely something that ATT or Samsung need to address.

 

I will post an update once I have more observations.... 

Teacher

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23 Messages

11 years ago

marker_this.....We are now connected in this universe in that I have experienced and gone down the very same road as you.  I have also come to the conclusion that wifi is the culprit.  I did the slow trickle of apps into a new phone, but reached the spontaneous reboot problem within a couple days of receiving a new phone.  Here are some of my observations:

  • wifi acts differently and reboot frequencies are inconsistent depending on the access point. 
    • At work (802.1x EAP) the inbound side is always lit up and reboots occur most frequently (2-3 per hour) 
    • At home (Uverse 2Wire router with WPA2) the inbound side is always lit up and reboots were less frequent than at work (1-2 per hour)
    • At sister-in-laws (Linksys router with WPA2) both sides acted normally and reboots occurred but very infrequently.
  • I added another access point to my home network to play with security settings:
    • Unsecured - no reboots but froze when I turned off wifi
    • Unsecured with MAC filtering - same as Unsecured
    • WEP - same as Unsecured
    • WPA and WPA2 - reboot frequency same as usual (1-2 per hour)

 

My last test was with Wifi alway on.  i.e. "Never" sleeps.  i.e. If it never goes to sleep or has to reconnect, the rebooting stops.  However, if I wander out of range, it will freeze.  If I resist the temptation to force reboot, it will reboot on its own.

 

At this point, I feel like my options are:

  • go with Never Sleeps and let it reboot between reconnections
  • turn off wifi, increase data plan limits
  • hope for 4.1.2 or 4.2 to fix wifi bug
  • root phone and update to 4.2 myself
  • throw in the towel and go with another phone

 

 

Teacher

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23 Messages

11 years ago

Update:  Just when I think I've tried everything, I find yet another component to consider...my SIM card.  I found a buried post on the web that spoke to this possibility.  As I look back on this thread, I see some reference to SIM card errors.  I may be grasping at straws, but here's my latest test...

  • watched carefully as I turn off wifi.  Just as the 4G indicator pops up, the phone freezes.  A couple minutes later, it reboots.  Turned wifi back on...all is fine.  Turn wifi off again with same freeze/reboot experience.  Repeated this 5 times...exactly the same results each time.  I even tried a "Forget" of the wifi network connection..same results....as soon as wifi is unavailable, it freezes during the transition to 4G.
  • I have a new and refurb S3.  The refurb had the same reboot problems as the new one.  Connected it to wifi without the SIM card.  No issues.  Did the drive into work with both phones.  The SIM card equipped phone did what I expected...rebooting when I left home and shortly after connecting to wifi when at work.  The phone without the SIM card never skipped a beat...playing a podcast all the way.

Hypothesis:  Wifi stability varies from router to router (work, home, in-laws).  If the wifi loses connection for a moment, the phone attempts to go back to 4G, the phone freezes and reboots.  The phone comes back, connects back to wifi and keeps going until the next momentary connection incident.

 

Any thoughts?  Does this sound far fetched?  With nothing to lose, I'm going to see if AT&T will replace my SIM card.

Teacher

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23 Messages

11 years ago

Update:  Replaced SIM card.  No success.  (Was able to recreate the problem right in front of the AT&T rep, who couldn't understand it either).

 

I've even gone into Service Mode and restricted cell data to 2G and 3G...still no success.

 

Called Samsung....after over an hour of hold time between two calls, I got in touch with Level 2 who will be sending me instructions for me to send them one of my S3's for evaluation and repair.

 

I can't wait to see what they find....or if they do find something, if they'll tell me what it was (I'm assuming they won't be able to explain how 3 phones that I've had in my possession could have the same problem).

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