Samsung Galaxy S3 frozen on start screen... HELP PLEASE!

[caelya]

Hi, I have been having similar issues with my Samsung Galaxy S3. I am in Australia, the phone is a GT-I9300 and my carrier is TPG (but I didn't purchase through TPG, bought an unlocked second hand phone which had been working fine up until now). Not sure what firmware it was running... and it's not rooted.

Just in the past few days the phone kept restarting on its own... and then last night it has gotten stuck on the flashing Samsung logo and will not progress past that. It occasionally 'vibrates' but nothing happens. It will stay on that screen until the battery runs flat.
I don't think it's a power button issue, as when I pulled out the battery and reinserted it didn't restart itself. Don't have a Samsung store in my area and most phone shops only do parts replacement it seems.

I can get into recovery mode and Download mode (haven't done anything on Download mode though). Wiping Cache and rebooting hasn't helped.
I've tried the battery pull, the Sim card pull.. don't have the SD card in it so nothing to back up either Haven't done a factory reset since I don't want to lose photos... I know I'm dumb for not backing up... but I am really loathe to lose my photos. Kies won't recognise/can't connect to my device.

GSDer mentioned that using Odin to load stock firmware may preserve my photos/data (I'm aware it's not a guarantee though). I've read through the forums, but still feeling a bit lost when it comes to Odin so here are my questions:
If I want to try going through Odin to reload stock firmware, what do I need? What version of Odin is best - will the version affect the process/phone? When I looked for the stock firmware (keeping in mind my region, model and carrier a stated in the forums) - I could only find one for Australia, GT-I9300 but no carrier specified. Since my phone isn't locked to a carrier should I be going with (what appears to be) the generic GT-I9300 for Australia? (code was ASX I think). Do I just select the software 4.3 (I saw Australia ones for both 4.3 and 4.2 or something) - does the version matter?

Thanks in advance.

edit: region code was XSA actually.

 

[Vegano Guy]

Hi!

What's happened here is that your power button is jammed. Maybe try wiggling it to loosen it.

Otherwise, you'll need to open the unit and disable it.


Josh,

 

[Larsa88]

Re: Samsung galaxy S3 frozen on start screen... HELP PLEASE!

i just spoke to samsung re my s3 the tried soft reset and then said i need to do i hard reset, but i can see you have recommended odin which will hopefully keep contacts etc, i have another problem to, running out of space, so when i come to pattern lock it says "currently unable to download, please try again later" and the little icon in top right is there which means low space, so will i be able to run the odin and i have the gt-19300 in uk on orange originally
thanks

 

[snowplow10]

I could not get the Samsung screen to unfreeze. I did everything multiple times and always same result. When I removed my SD card and SIM card, then did "reboot", it worked!! Hope this helps

 

[KherrMojien]

Re: Samsung galaxy S3 frozen on start screen... HELP PLEASE!

hello.. i have a problem with my s3 phone.. hp sudden stuck and can on back.. when try to boot, at first it can and now its not pass the s3 model and some time the screen when white. ill try to boot it but its seem hard to do.. because the only way to go into it just use SD CARD option. my ubs is broken and cant connect with pc at all. FYI i charge use external battery only. now reallyy need ur help to fixed this..
when boot its come out with error in mount data / cache recovery...
thanks...

 

[Hippyeattingchippy]

Re: Samsung galaxy S3 frozen on start screen... HELP PLEASE!

First question: Have you rooted the phone, or tried to root it? Don't worry, no one from your carrier or Samsung is watching, so don't feel you need to hide anything. If you did attempt to root, and that's when this happened, please post a link to the process you followed. Also, what version of the S3 do you have (e.g., International, Verizon, etc.....)

Before doing a factory reset, let's try a couple of other things. Have you tried a battery pull? Leave the battery out for several minutes, then put it back in a try to boot. This probably won't solve the problem, but it's easy to try and non-destructive, and you could get lucky.

If that doesn't work, let's try clearing cache. Can you boot into recovery? Turn the phone completely off; pull the battery if necessary, then put it back in. Don't turn the phone on. Press, at the same time, and hold down the Volume UP, Home and Power buttons. Hold them until you see the Samsung logo, then release all three buttons (Don't release them when the phone buzzes--that used to trick me every time). If you release the buttons too early or too late, it won't boot into recovery, and will probably freeze up again. If this happens, just turn the phone off and try again.

If you can get into Recovery, you'll see a menu with several options. Use the volume buttons to select the one to clear cache, then press the power button. When it's done, select the option to reboot the phone, and hope for the best. Let us know what happens.

My screen has frozen only when booting into recovery, only just tried to root through odin 3.07