• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Odd Behaviors

C

Chillmark

Lurker
Good Evening, and thanks for taking the time to read this...

I've been mucking about reading on this an other forums trying to get an answer to two of my problems, but I don't understand the answers! Hopefully someone here will be able to help in plain english...

Anyway there are two issues I'm having with my phone. First of all the phone has been randomly going black recently. No buttons work, there's no image on the screen whatsoever, and I can't even restart it with the power button. The only thing that works is taking the battery out and putting it back in. Then it restarts normally.

This leads me to my second issue. I noticed when I was forced to restart the other day that when I do restart, my boot screen now says Samsung Custom and the is an image of an unlocked padlock.

I'm not sure if this is related or not but I've never noticed it before. I looked online and found reference to this problem, but they were using words and making suggestions I simply did not understand (unroot it, flash it)...like I said, I'm not real knowledgeable about this stuff.

So are these connected? If they are separate, does anyone have any suggestions as to what may be happening?

Thanks ahead of time, I really appreciate it!

-Chillmark
 
Welcome to the forum Chill :beer:
Did you buy the phone new or used?
What carrier version is it?

It sounds like the bootloader has been unlocked/its been flashed with something custom (lots of blabla technical stuff lol)

P.s, instead of pulling the battery out, you can just hold in the power button for 10-15 seconds to force a reboot :thumbup:
 
Need to wait for someone on Verizon to see this (im on a european version, mine is rooted and flashed with who knows what lol but we dont get that message while it boots)
Is there a yellow triangle while it boots?
It sounds like you could "flash" it with official "firmware" (operating system) to fix it but id prefer someone with the exact same device to guide you through that.
what android version is it on now?
Could you post a screenshot of settings, about phone?
 
I wonder if wiping the cache through recovery might help. You can try it painlessly, but it may not fix your problem.

You do it getting into recovery (hold power, vol up, and home at the same time - let go of them after you see the Samsung logo). Then, use the vol down button to go down to Wipe Cache. Select Wipe Cache with the power button. Note: don't select factory reset/wipe data by accident, or you'll lose all of your data.

Once that is done, select reboot now with vol keys, and select by pushing power button.

I don't honestly know if this will help you or not, but it sometimes fixes these mystery problems.
 
Sounds more like the recent 4.3 update didn't work right (it rarely did - everyone with an S3 has a different problem or different set of problems). That could also me the cause of the first problem. (Go to settings/General/About device and see what your Android version is. If it's 4.3, bring it in to a Verizon repair center and ask if they can reflash it for you because, obviously, the OTA didn't work right. Be VERY polite, but firm. (Verizon is tougher to deal with, but I had AT&T replace a phone they did that to.)

The lock and Custom don't matter - if that were the only problem, I'd advise you to live with it. But the locking up is something the phone shouldn't be doing. If it's a bad OTA (over the air update), the reflash should fix both problems.
 
I've attached a screenshot here. Let me know if you need more info. My battery is about dead so I'll try the above flash thing when I get home from work.

Again, thanks for all your input!
 

Attachments

  • unnamed.png
    unnamed.png
    35.3 KB · Views: 35
Whoa, looks as if you are still on ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) 3 updates? since then.
Have you ever been prompted for an OTA (over the air) update?
 
Hi

I just poked around and found the software update screen, but no, the phone has never asked me to update a thing. I do have fine wireless here at work but not at home, so I'm updating like a sono***un right now. I heard the 4.3 update stinks though...should I stop at the 4.2?

-Chill
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom