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Help Software Update DESTROYED my S3.

E

emmy_kiko

Lurker
So a couple of months ago I got the notification that a software update was available for my SIII. Of course I decided to do it. Except that not only did it destroy my phone, it destroyed my sim card and SD card as well. It eventually revived itself but now every week, it decides to shut down and not work for hours. The screen freezes, the vibrations from the keypad stop, I haven't been able to open certain apps since the first crash. I had to do a factory reset and lost everything and the damn thing still dies on me. The way I deal with it is just leave it somewhere for a few hours and it eventually does fix itself.

I know everyone will say just get a new phone, but I can't afford to fork out a few hundred dollars for one, and vodafone don't give you a new phone unless you upgrade and pay the difference. I get that SIIIs are a little outdated now but this is BS. My phone has been frozen for the past two days and I feel like android/samsung almost owe me because this is actually their fault. If I didn't do the update, my phone would still be perfectly functional.
Has this happened to anyone else? How did you fix it somehow or is all help lost for me?
 
Hi Emmy Kiko and welcome to Android Forums!

You might start with Vodafone, whom I assume is your provider. They may be able to reflash your phone with pre-update software and a new SIM. Not sure how an update took out your SD card, and I'm not confident that they'll help you there.

(Lesson learned: remove your SD card, update the phone, and re-install it.)

You can also contact Samsung. You can find contact info here:

Samsung

I hope this helps. Good luck!

It's great to have you here :)
 
Hi there, emmy_kiko. Welcome aboard! :)

Sorry to hear you're having such a serious problem with your phone.

I've moved this to the Galaxy S3 board; if any fellow owners have experienced something similar, they may be able to offer some help.

I hope you get this straightened out soon.
 
Now it has happened to my wife's phone as well. A few months ago my S3 did an update and ceased to work. I was told it could not be fixed. Sure enough today my wife's phone gets an update and goes south...again told we need to upgrade as the phone cannot be fixed.
I begin to think this is a Samsung setup.
 
When you did the update and the device upgraded everything can I ask did you do a factory data reset . this will kill all the old data and bugs that the device has downloaded and get rid of them to make room for the new data . OLD DATA AND NEW DATA DON'T MIX . try a reset and tell us if it worked .
 
Find your carrier's factory image and flash it with Odin. I can almost guarantee this will solve your problem.

You will lose all the data on the phone so make sure you back it to a pc.
 
wetbiker7 said:
Find your carrier's factory image and flash it with Odin. I can almost guarantee this will solve your problem.

You will lose all the data on the phone so make sure you back it to a pc.
Click to expand...

Flash the correct image you wanted to say . op may go and flash the wrong image (new update ) . flash the old image and don't except update . . wetbiker is correct
 
BRAINZ2013 said:
Flash the correct image you wanted to say . op may go and flash the wrong image (new update ) . flash the old image and don't except update . . wetbiker is correct
Click to expand...

If the OP has already accepted the 4.4.2 update, that is the image he will need to stay with. It is my understanding that Knox will not allow reverting to the older image. It will brick the phone. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The reason I said to flash his carrier's image is because I'm only familiar with the NDC and ND8 updates. I should have been more specific and said to flash his carrier's latest 4.4.2 update. There is a very good possibility his OTA was corrupt when he flashed it and that is why he's having issues now.

I have read where many people accepted the OTA update and experienced major issues. Manually flashing the 4.4.2 update with Odin solves the issues the majority of time.

I would also like to mention that phones accepting the OTA update, then experiencing problems, is a known issue. The update has even bricked some phones. I have read where carriers have fixed those issues but the phone had to be sent in. Using Odin is a much quicker way for the OP to do it himself. Unfortunately, some people are not comfortable using Odin.
 
wetbiker7 said:
If the OP has already accepted the 4.4.2 update, that is the image he will need to stay with. It is my understanding that Knox will not allow reverting to the older image. It will brick the phone. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...
This is basically true you can still flash custom roms that are using an older version of android though.

If you grab an older tar and flash it via odin you will be hard bricked. Flashing an older bootloader or modem will also result in a hard brick. Keeping current bootloader/modem and flashing an old stock system image will also result in a brick.
 
hatredg0d said:
This is basically true you can still flash custom roms that are using an older version of android though.

If you grab an older tar and flash it via odin you will be hard bricked. Flashing an older bootloader or modem will also result in a hard brick. Keeping current bootloader/modem and flashing an old stock system image will also result in a brick.
Click to expand...

Yep. I would say that 99% of the older ROMs can be in used with the 4.4.2 update. There are only a few which state in their ROM OP that they are baseband dependent.

ROMs are safe to flash because they do not contain a bootloader or a modem.

Once the 4.4.2 update has been flashed the user must then stay with the new bootloader and modem as you mentioned. Failure to do so will result in a brick as you also mentioned. :)

Boost and Sprint phones are the only two i know of which have interchangeable modems. Boost/Virgin Mobile (NDC) can be flashed on a Sprint (ND8) device and vice versa. The only requirement is that the phones must be running a custom kernel or data will not work.
 
wetbiker7 said:
If the OP has already accepted the 4.4.2 update, that is the image he will need to stay with. It is my understanding that Knox will not allow reverting to the older image. It will brick the phone. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The reason I said to flash his carrier's image is because I'm only familiar with the NDC and ND8 updates. I should have been more specific and said to flash his carrier's latest 4.4.2 update. There is a very good possibility his OTA was corrupt when he flashed it and that is why he's having issues now.

I have read where many people accepted the OTA update and experienced major issues. Manually flashing the 4.4.2 update with Odin solves the issues the majority of time.

I would also like to mention that phones accepting the OTA update, then experiencing problems, is a known issue. The update has even bricked some phones. I have read where carriers have fixed those issues but the phone had to be sent in. Using Odin is a much quicker way for the OP to do it himself. Unfortunately, some people are not comfortable using Odin.
Click to expand...
I need some help: what is involved in flashing an image? I need step by step instructiions

JM
 
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