Well, if a hard reset is my only option I guess I have no choice. Before I try this though I have a new discovery and a few questions.
When my WiFi "dies" on my phone, I am still able to access my router via 192.168.1.1 in the browser. So the phone is connected to the router correctly, but internet connection is lost entirely. Other WiFi devices such as my dads Samsung Stratosphere phone and my Acer netbook are still able to function perfectly fine over WiFi at the same time.
After some experimentation, I found that airplane mode no longer fixes the problem. I also noticed that if I connect to the router, and change my transmit channel it temporarily fixes the problem and my phone regains its net connectivity. However, this only lasts for about 15 minutes to an hour, then I have to change router channels again. It doesn't seem to matter which channel though. I changed it from channel 1 to channel 7, and it worked. Then after it "died" again, I changed it from 7 back to 1, and it started it working again. So I don't think its a problem with the router at all, considering other devices still function the entire time. I just found it interesting that changing the channel on the router "fixes" the problem for a short period of time.
Lastly, I have a few questions. If I do a hard reset on my phone, how do I go about backing up my contacts or text messages or any other possibly savable data from the phone before I reset it? I want to lose as little data as possible.
EDIT: I take that back, it seemed to be a fluke on being able to access my router with "dead" WiFi. Just tried it again after WiFi conked out and now I can't even access the router directly. Disabling WiFi however, the LTE connection works just fine.
EDIT 2: Switched channels on router again, didn't fix it this time. Can't seem to get connected to WiFi at all regardless of settings.
EDIT 3: I also should mention that my phone is rooted. So is there anything I would need to do before I see about getting it exchanged for a replacement?
EDIT 4: Hard reset my phone, still unable to connect to router. Other devices connect fine however. After hard reset though, I noticed I still have the Superuser app installed. How can I get my phone back to factory settings so I can exchange it?
EDIT 5: Unrooted my phone, Superuser gone, pretty much as far as I can tell it looks completely like it was when I got it. How easy is it to exchange this for another one? Are they going to ask any specific questions or will it be fairly pain free to get a replacement?