Owners reporting their S3s are suddenly dying

[2298754]

http://gizmodo.com/5970513/

Some Samsung Galaxy S III owners are reporting their devices are suddenly being bricked. The phone simply won’t turn on again after it is charged overnight, or after the screen is turned off.

Users are reporting that the mainboards are the root of the problem and that the flash memory is becoming corrupted and failing, though the devices do seem to last somewhere between 150 and 200 days before dying. According to reports, Samsung is replacing them under warranty whether or not people have rooted the devices or installed non-standard firmware, but the company is allegedly using the same revision for the mainboards, suggesting the problem may simply come back in a few months again.

We first saw the issue on Reddit, where a thread has garnered over 350 points and more than 150 comments. The submission links to an XDA Developers discussion started last month that has 64 pages at the time of writing and 635 comments.

Samsung hasn’t officially acknowledged the issue, but users who have sent their devices in to repair centres say they have been told by multiple employees that the issue appears to be happening to many people as of late. That being said, it’s difficult to gauge how widespread the issue is, and the South Korean company likely won’t say.

Here’s a comment from a Reddit user who calls himself TurtleRecall:

It happened to my S3 last week and I’ve never rooted or installed anything other than the official 3UK Samsung firmware, first ICS then JB. Samsung haven’t officially acknowledged that there’s an issue, but both the guy I spoke to in the authorised repair centre and the chap in the Samsung warranty call centre have said they’ve seen this issue a lot lately.

Here’s another comment from an XDA user who calls himself Vrykyl:

Well my pre-paid envelope arrived from Samsung today – so my handset is going off in tomorrow’s post to be repaired (hopefully for free / under warranty). For those stressing about being rooted etc – relax, Samsung have told multiple people this issue is a hardware fault and they’ll fix it regardless of root.

We have contacted Samsung about this issue. We will update this article if we hear back.

Image via Kevork Djansezian/AFP/Getty Images

I got mine in early June, so I guess mine should die soon

 

[3bs]

I guess it's a good thing I sold my S3 last week

Is this happening with all versions of the S3?

 

[kevinof]

Happened to mine 2 weeks ago. Brought it in for repair and they replaced it there an then no questions asked.

 

[SomeDudeAsking]

Happened to mine 2 weeks ago. Brought it in for repair and they replaced it there an then no questions asked.

Where did you bring it into that they replaced it on the spot? Your phone carrier or a Samsung repair depot?

 

[vikingjunior]

Glad I bought a Motorola!

 

[jason2811]

Happened to mine 2 weeks ago. Brought it in for repair and they replaced it there an then no questions asked.

Where did you have it repaired? I'm thinking of switching from an iPhone to an Android and the lack of AppleCare+ and a brick-and-mortar stores worries me.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Hope this doesn't happen to me, but I'm not worried as number of incidents are low. Is it a certain batch or something?

 

[2298754]

Where did you have it repaired? I'm thinking of switching from an iPhone to an Android and the lack of AppleCare+ and a brick-and-mortar stores worries me.

If you have AT&T, you just call them and they overnight a replacement. You just put your phone in the box and mail it back.

 

[blackhand1001]

Where did you have it repaired? I'm thinking of switching from an iPhone to an Android and the lack of AppleCare+ and a brick-and-mortar stores worries me.

If your in the us your not effected as the us galaxy s3 uses an entirely different CPU and board.

 

[cynics]

This is going to have to become more widespread before it carries any weight.

Both the quoted users seem like average users with low to moderate usage. You'd think you'd hear more about this from heavy users that put more stress on the device.

 

[3bs]

This is going to have to become more widespread before it carries any weight.

Both the quoted users seem like average users with low to moderate usage. You'd think you'd hear more about this from heavy users that put more stress on the device.

I think I'm a heavy user and had 2-3 months worth with no issues.

 

[Technarchy]

The GS3 is still well within the warranty period for launch devices. I wouldn't be too to worried.

 

[kevinof]

I'm in Ireland so brought it to a local 3rd party repair centre that handles Samsung. From the time it died to having a replacement it was only 2 hours which was great.

I suspect the problem is with older handsets - ie initial batches. Either way Samsung have obviously sent out the word to replace them no questions asked.

Where did you bring it into that they replaced it on the spot? Your phone carrier or a Samsung repair depot?

 

[725032]

Appears if anti S3 posters are desperate to do anything to make up for the recent 5 issues.

 

[vastoholic]

Oh em gee. A few users reported it on the Internet. This must mean every single GS3 is going to be affected by it. This is the worst phone Samsung has ever made with such a software/hardware flaw like this.

/sarcasm

See how easy it is?

 

[adder7712]

My dad's S III hasn't died yet.

 

[jon3543]

This is going to have to become more widespread before it carries any weight.

Nonsense! Clearly deathgate is happening to everyone. Soon pockets of S3s will be banding together and marching on Samsung to angrily demand of their creator, "How long do I have?"