Sprint Galaxy S3

I just got the Galaxy S3 on Friday and it's pretty messed up. After awhile of using it it'll freeze and keep rebooting itself and the only way to temporarily fix it is to do a battery pull. Also when it starts messing up I'll start getting error messages like "Unfortunately, maps has stopped", "Unfortunately, the process android.process.acore has stopped" etc. The phone is practically unusable. Also I've noticed that the battery seems to be draining awfully fast OR the percent meter is way off.

Btw, is it normal for the screen to be using 53% of the battery using the automatic brightness setting?

I'm a former Blackberry user and so far the Android hasn't made a very good impression. Did I just get a bad Galaxy S3?

Sounds like it... my S3 is working flawlessly so far and i'm loving it! I am coming from an HTC Evo 3D and the improvements are fantastic so far :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sailorgalaxy [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Did I just get a bad Galaxy S3?

---

Short answer: Yes
Longer answer: Take it into Sprint and get a replacement. Mine works awesomely. Battery life on anything stock and unrooted that isn't a RAZR MAXX will be less than a day. That's just the norm.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by j_grouchy [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Short answer: Yes
Longer answer: Take it into Sprint and get a replacement. Mine works awesomely. Battery life on anything stock and unrooted that isn't a RAZR MAXX will be less than a day. That's just the norm.

---

This

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC forums

When you see your screen using 53% of your battery life.
Thats ok. What your seeing is a percentage of the battery life that has been used. It has to equal 100%. You can tap on that and see the minutes it was on.
Also you might need to hard reset your device if your having that many issues. Thats what they will do first at a service center..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IAmSixNine [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

When you see your screen using 53% of your battery life.
Thats ok. What your seeing is a percentage of the battery life that has been used. It has to equal 100%. You can tap on that and see the minutes it was on.
Also you might need to hard reset your device if your having that many issues. Thats what they will do first at a service center..

---

I took it to a service center while it was having its issues (and had froze) and you're right, that's the first thing they did. It didn't help at all, though. As soon as it came back on it started doing the same old stuff.

I'm supposed to get a replacement whenever they get their shipment of S3s in. Hopefully that's soon. :P

Sounds like a corrupted install of the operating system. OR part of the memory sectors has gone bad..
Most of the techs follow a plan for diagnostics.. In your case i would have used ODIN to put a stock image back on the device and see if that corrected it. IF not then its memory hardware issue, well more then likely..

I got my new phone yesterday evening and so far so good...

EDIT: I have a question, though. What is the biggest microSD card that the S3 can support? I'm just curious, I don't need oodles of space. :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sailorgalaxy [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

I got my new phone yesterday evening and so far so good...

EDIT: I have a question, though. What is the biggest microSD card that the S3 can support? I'm just curious, I don't need oodles of space. :P

---

It will take up to a 64 GB card. You should reformat the card to FAT32 before using it for best results. The method for doing this can be found at this site (Help & How to). It's easy. Remember that this phone does not allow you to move apps to the card (unless you root), but stores your photos, music, videos, etc. So, if you keep a lot of this stuff on your phone, make sure to get a card that can handle the load.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ntchwaidumela [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

It will take up to a 64 GB card. You should reformat the card to FAT32 before using it for best results. The method for doing this can be found at this site (Help & How to). It's easy. Remember that this phone does not allow you to move apps to the card (unless you root), but stores your photos, music, videos, etc. So, if you keep a lot of this stuff on your phone, make sure to get a card that can handle the load.

---

FAT32 format sucks for me because I can't put 4gb files or higher on it. Only good if you're rooting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GrooveRite [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

FAT32 format sucks for me because I can't put 4gb files or higher on it. Only good if you're rooting.

---

Or trying to install a in update manually. :D I have never had a single file in excess of 4gb. If I need to load a movie that's bigger than 4gb on this phone I can always load it to my internal sd.

If I were the type who liked a bunch of movies on my phone, I would just pick up an extra sd card for movies only. As it is I have yet to load a movie bigger than 4gb.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GrooveRite [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

FAT32 format sucks for me because I can't put 4gb files or higher on it. Only good if you're rooting.

---

Or trying to install a in update manually. :D I have never had a single file in excess of 4gb. If I need to load a movie that's bigger than 4gb on this phone I can always load it to my internal sd.

If I were the type who liked a bunch of movies on my phone, I would just pick up an extra sd card for movies only. As it is I have yet to load a movie bigger than 4gb.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skunkape60 [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Or trying to install a in update manually. :D I have never had a single file in excess of 4gb. If I need to load a movie that's bigger than 4gb on this phone I can always load it to my internal sd.

If I were the type who liked a bunch of movies on my phone, I would just pick up an extra sd card for movies only. As it is I have yet to load a movie bigger than 4gb.

---

You know I could have sworn that I read your last post somewhere earlier today... I mean it was exactly that post. ;-)

Sent from my X-Band Modem... TY Genesis

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skunkape60 [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Or trying to install a in update manually. :D I have never had a single file in excess of 4gb. If I need to load a movie that's bigger than 4gb on this phone I can always load it to my internal sd.

If I were the type who liked a bunch of movies on my phone, I would just pick up an extra sd card for movies only. As it is I have yet to load a movie bigger than 4gb.

---

I've been running into a lot of Xvid movies that are in the 4gb and over recentlym, unfortunately. x264 files in 720p tend to be below 4gb but can't be played on my PS3 or Xbox. Transcoding the file through my media server hasn't been great so I've been sticking with Xvid which tend to be higher in file size. I tend to carry them in my phone so when I'm over say my brothers or parents house, I can play the movie in all its 720p glory. Now 1080p, don't even get me started there, lol! I had no idea that there was no size limit in the internal sd....thats good to know!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GrooveRite [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

I had no idea that there was no size limit in the internal sd....thats good to know!

---

I'm not entirely sure about that. But when you format your sd card with your phone, it formats to exfat. So it would make sense that the internal sd is also formatted to exfat.

Other then my inability to keep from dropping my phone, mine works well. With the cracked screens and all. I am on my third S3 and my wife made me get an otter box defender for it, lol.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skunkape60 [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

I'm not entirely sure about that. But when you format your sd card with your phone, it formats to exfat. So it would make sense that the internal sd is also formatted to exfat.

---

No, it's not. The internal storage is formatted as ext4, which is the default filesystem for most Linux distributions and Android.

Code:

---

u0_a38@android:/ $ cat /proc/mounts | grep msm_sdcc
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 ro,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs /efs ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,discard 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist /persist ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem /firmware vfat ro,relatime,fmask=0177,dmask=0000,allow_utime=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 0

---

The only partition formatted as VFAT is the firmware partition.

The reason Touchwiz formats the cards to EXFAT instead of something less proprietary (ext4), is because Samsung knows that 90% of its customers use Windows. If you were to take an ext4-formatted card out of the phone and put it in an SD Card reader, Windows won't detect it. Windows will not detect any filesystem that M$ did not create themselves. However, if your card is going to stay in the phone, your best bet is to download a small Linux live CD and use that plus an SD Card reader to format your 64GB card to ext4 on your computer. Then, you don't have to worry about stupid 4GB file limitations, and it will still work in CyanogenMod.

So, can people please stop recommending to format 64GB cards as FAT32 and recommend using ext4 instead? It just makes more sense considering the unnecessary limitations of FAT32 compared to ext4. Why would you want to cripple a $90 SD card with something like FAT32 when you can use ext4 and unlock the card's full potential?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EndlessDissent [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

No, it's not. The internal storage is formatted as ext4, which is the default filesystem for most Linux distributions and Android.

Code:

---

u0_a38@android:/ $ cat /proc/mounts | grep msm_sdcc
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 ro,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs /efs ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,discard 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist /persist ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem /firmware vfat ro,relatime,fmask=0177,dmask=0000,allow_utime=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 0

---

The only partition formatted as VFAT is the firmware partition.

The reason Touchwiz formats the cards to EXFAT instead of something less proprietary (ext4), is because Samsung knows that 90% of its customers use Windows. If you were to take an ext4-formatted card out of the phone and put it in an SD Card reader, Windows won't detect it. Windows will not detect any filesystem that M$ did not create themselves. However, if your card is going to stay in the phone, your best bet is to download a small Linux live CD and use that plus an SD Card reader to format your 64GB card to ext4 on your computer. Then, you don't have to worry about stupid 4GB file limitations, and it will still work in CyanogenMod.

So, can people please stop recommending to format 64GB cards as FAT32 and recommend using ext4 instead? It just makes more sense considering the unnecessary limitations of FAT32 compared to ext4. Why would you want to cripple a $90 SD card with something like FAT32 when you can use ext4 and unlock the card's full potential?

---

Good info and thanks! So when I'm ready to root my phone, ext4 will be my best option!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EndlessDissent [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

So, can people please stop recommending to format 64GB cards as FAT32 and recommend using ext4 instead? It just makes more sense considering the unnecessary limitations of FAT32 compared to ext4. Why would you want to cripple a $90 SD card with something like FAT32 when you can use ext4 and unlock the card's full potential?

---

Can you suggest a program or a way to format the sd card to ext4?

Like you said, most of us use Windows and can't format to ext4 with Windows tools.

BTW... many people still use card readers as its has faster transfer speeds. Again ext4 doesn't work for them.

I suggest fat32 because it can be read by just about anything.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GrooveRite [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Good info and thanks! So when I'm ready to root my phone, ext4 will be my best option!

---

For the most part, I think so. I have no idea how common it is for people to mount their MicroSD cards on their PCs in a card reader, but I have never done so. I don't even own a MicroSD reader and have never seen a need outside of formatting the SD card. For me, once it's formatted and in my phone, it stays there. If you are like me, then ext4 should work just fine.

Note that if you use a ROM with USB Mass Storage mode, like CM10, it may be a problem if you choose to use UMS mode, but if you're using Windows, you should be able to use MTP mode without a problem. For folks like me who don't use Windows, MTP is a pain to get working, and non-Windows operating systems aren't as selective about their detectable filesystems, so UMS mode should work fine with ext4.

Why does Microsoft have to make everything difficult? If they would just support non-MS filesystems in the first place (and ext4 is open source, so it can't be too difficult for MS engineers to add, and there aren't any license fees or anything), we wouldn't have to worry about whether the card was formatted to ext4 or FAT32 depending how each person uses his/her phone and/or SD card. We could just format it to ext4 and be done with it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GrooveRite [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

FAT32 format sucks for me because I can't put 4gb files or higher on it. Only good if you're rooting.

---

That's correct. But a majority of the folks coming to these forums do root. I agree. For you it makes sense not to have to format to fat32. I suggest it because it works in almost everything and very few people will need to deal with file sizes over 4gb. And for times we do, we have the internal sdcard.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GrooveRite [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Good info and thanks! So when I'm ready to root my phone, ext4 will be my best option!

---

If you can find an app that will format your card to ext4 and never plan on using it in your computer's sdcard reader yes it makes perfect sense.

I looked around a little but it's late. Tomorrow I will try and find a way to format the external sdcard to ext4.

I can't find an Android app that will do it, unfortunately. I found an app called SDParter that does exactly what we need, but it seems to be specifically for the Galaxy Prevail. I installed it, but it won't open. It gets root permission and force closes. I'm not sure if that's because of device incompatibility or just a buggy app.

The best way, if you have an SD Card reader, is to download a live Linux distribution, like [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...], and use that to partition your SD card. I would recommend the USB option if you have a spare stick, because it is much faster, but either is fine. It should recognize the card fine when you put it in the reader. Just be careful that when you format the disk, you double check that it's the right disk, otherwise you could format your hard drive and lose everything.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EndlessDissent [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

I can't find an Android app that will do it, unfortunately. I found an app called SDParter that does exactly what we need, but it seems to be specifically for the Galaxy Prevail. I installed it, but it won't open. It gets root permission and force closes. I'm not sure if that's because of device incompatibility or just a buggy app.

The best way, if you have an SD Card reader, is to download a live Linux distribution, like [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...], and use that to partition your SD card. I would recommend the USB option if you have a spare stick, because it is much faster, but either is fine. It should recognize the card fine when you put it in the reader. Just be careful that when you format the disk, you double check that it's the right disk, otherwise you could format your hard drive and lose everything.

---

That's a real PITA for most of the users here. GParted is a bit much just to format an sdcard. IMO... Loading using a live Linux distribution is probably over 60% of these guys heads and less you are going to run a support thread for it and be there to answer everyone's questions please don't suggest it.

I found a simple app and solution that I think will work fine for most users. After work I will test it and provide a download link and guide for those wanting to go the ext4 route. Which is a good option for many.

I do appreciate the heads up on the ext4. I didn't realize that it was an option on the external sdcard.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skunkape60 [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

If you can find an app that will format your card to ext4 and never plan on using it in your computer's sdcard reader yes it makes perfect sense.

I looked around a little but it's late. Tomorrow I will try and find a way to format the external sdcard to ext4.

---

I never take my micro sd card out of my phone so this is def my go to option. I have to look into this ext4 format myself and see if its doable for my uses, which I think will be once I root. For now, exfat is more than adequate for me.