Freezing problems on Samsung Galaxy S3

bmett

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My wife and I recently upgraded to the Samsung Galaxy S3 but we are also test-driving the new iPhone 5 for a 2 week trial period. We need to make a decision by this Wednesday as to which phones we will keep. Until this morning we have both been leaning towards going with the Galaxy S3, but am now questioning that decision because of some problems I've been running into.

This morning my phone has frozen up on 3 separate occasions. The phone freezes when I am not using it and the screen is black. When I try to turn it on, the Galaxy S3 is completely unresponsive. I have to remove the battery for the phone to turn back on again.

What is frustrating is that I continually had the EXACT same problem with the first generation Galaxy phone on t-mobile. Because of this problem, there were a few times when I overslept because of the phone freezing without my knowledge.

Has anybody been able to properly address this issue so far?? If so, please let me know. From my experience over the last week and a half, the Galaxy S 3 is a more enjoyable phone to use than the iPhone 5, but unfortunately i won't choose the Samsung if this uncertainty hangs over me. Thanks...
 

funkylogik

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do you have a security app installed mate and have you sideloaded any apps?
and can you remember what apps you installed around the time the freezing started that your wife didnt install?

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)
 

bmett

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do you have a security app installed mate and have you sideloaded any apps?
and can you remember what apps you installed around the time the freezing started that your wife didnt install?

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)

No, I don't believe I have a security app installed unless it was already pre-loaded with the phone (Verizon). Also, we haven't side-loaded any apps and I believe my wife and I have the same apps so far (we've only downloaded Advanced Task Killer, Speed Test, and Facebook). We both primarily use our smart phones for emailing, web browsing, navigation, and picture/video taking. Nothing too fancy...

Also, it has been at least a few days since I've downloaded a new app. I was on the CNN website right before the 1st freeze...
 

funkylogik

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have you tried uninstalling the task killer?
they really arent needed these days mate

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)
 

bmett

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have you tried uninstalling the task killer?
they really arent needed these days mate

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)[/QUOTE

I just uninstalled the task force killer app but that didnt help very much. My phone just crashed again 10 minutes ago. I was checking my fanstasy football scores, then the screen sleep mode came on because i wasnt actively using the phone. I picked up the phone a couple of minutes later and everything was frozen again. This is the fourth time I've had to take the battery out in 6 hours. Wow!
 

funkylogik

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thats not good man :(
can understand why youre losing faith and all i can recommend is factory resetting the phone which will no doubt fix this but i realise the damage has been done to any loyalty now and dont blame you for choosin the iphone im sorry to say :beer:

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)
 

r3ddawn

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Just to verify it's not an app, please factory reset the phone. Sign in with your google account if needed, and DO NOT install any other apps, no task killer, etc.. Basically allow the phone to be factory with the apps it comes with and use it for a full day as is. Setup your alarms etc, and see if it freezes.. If you go a day without a freeze, slowly start to add one or two apps you use from the market, but no more then one or two, so that you can verify if it is an app that is causing the issue. There is no need to install ANY task killer, the phone already comes with a task manager, so use that. If you follow these steps, allowing the phone to be factory then slowly adding in an app or two, you will find what, if anything, is causing the freeze up for you. Post here as you go through the process..
 

funkylogik

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totally R3, thats what id do but as the op is swithering between s3+ip5, thats gona be one big PITA and probably the dealbreaker :(

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)
 

ThinkDinc

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I think this is a bug with the stock browser and the latest update (specifically Verizon). If youre using the stock browser and you push the power button before closing the stock browser or going to the home screen, the phone will crash. You will not be able to get the screen back on unless you do a battery pull. To test this you can run chrome or try making the phone sleep with and without leaving the stock browser open. If this is the bug youre getting then having the stock browser on while putting the phone to sleep will intermittently cause the screen to black out. It seems like its a memory leak issue or something to do with how the stocm browser keeps the radios on standby in the latest update. Please complain to your carrier and Samsung to fix this in the next update.
 

bmett

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I think this is a bug with the stock browser and the latest update (specifically Verizon). If youre using the stock browser and you push the power button before closing the stock browser or going to the home screen, the phone will crash. You will not be able to get the screen back on unless you do a battery pull. To test this you can run chrome or try making the phone sleep with and without leaving the stock browser open. If this is the bug youre getting then having the stock browser on while putting the phone to sleep will intermittently cause the screen to black out. It seems like its a memory leak issue or something to do with how the stocm browser keeps the radios on standby in the latest update. Please complain to your carrier and Samsung to fix this in the next update.

Thanks everybody for the help. I installed Google Chrome and I haven't run into any additional problems with the phone freezing. Chrome seems like a better browser too.

Despite the troubles I was pretty confident the Galaxy S 3 was going to beat out the iPhone 5, but this evening the GPS went out and it drained almost all of the battery power searching for a signal (it still can't find one after numerous attempts). it seems like a never-ending disaster with Samsung - I'll see what happens in the morning and might return all three of the Galaxies we've been test-driving. What a shame... The iPhones that we've been using would be our second choice but at least we haven't run into any hiccups like we are with the Galaxy S 3. Damn.
 

funkylogik

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sorry to hear that man. there really does seem to be a lot of bugs that are related to specific carrier models.
its a pity it has probably put you off android for a long time.
good luck mate :beer:

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)
 

akin67

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I havea Galaxy S3 as well and I notice mine freezes often when I am listening to Sirius Satellite Radio. I may take the phone back to Verizon as well.
 

Dilbert Prince

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I sorry guys but am having the exact problem with my galaxy S3 and surprisingly it is the 2nd device, the first one was replaced due to my continuous complaints. now it starts again and that is like just after 3 weeks of the new device. am also having an unknown icon at the top left corner that looks like a no oxygen cylinder safety sign. Since am getting this problem am not able to use my blue tooth and or able to control my divice with the hands free. am going to make another call to figuer out what this problem is and or see if my carrier will swap me for the iphone 5..
 

Marper

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I've had the same issue since purchasing the phone and it has only gotten worse. On my second device as well and Just frustrated. In addition, whenever I have wifi "enabled" but not connected to a WAP and try to use the phone, checkin or any app that needs to fetch data from the internet/network via 4G, the phone is extremely slow and the app usually stalls. When making a call the call disconnects or I run into the problem of people on the other end not hearing me as if I lost coverage, but I'm still in a 4G area with 4 bars and green 4G. Anyone seeing this same issue ?
 

Lars Nielsen

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I happened to come across this thread tonight because I was having the exact same issues with my Verizon S3. I also had an AT&T S3 as well. Because of these problems I bought an iPhone 5, and have not had any problems. And no problems that I have been reading about on many of the Apple/Mac forums. My S3 would go black also after the update I got in September. I also had 3g to LTE hand off problems, and also if I held the phone down low, putting it in my palm, my signal would drop from -91 to -109 at the worst. Verizon ended up replacing my phone 4 times before offering me a Razr Maxx. They also replaced my sims card many times. Verizon also did a test on my phones and found that while reading in 3G my phone was actually in 4GLTE/ and visa versa. They said Jellybean could fix this, but they did not know. However I got good battery life. My AT&T phones signal was never consistent even though I live near and work near many different towers. And the battery life with the exact same settings was 4 hours on average less.
 

Dhibian Jabbir

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I have discovered that there is a problem with the Wifi.
If you have a i9300 phone and you have the freeze issue you should try this.

1. Remove battery (power off device)
2. Reinsert Battery and power on.
3. While you are able to access the phone go to settings.
4. Switch Wifi to off.

Exit back to home screen.

This should fix your problem. Good luck.
 

trucky

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I have discovered that there is a problem with the Wifi.
If you have a i9300 phone and you have the freeze issue you should try this.

1. Remove battery (power off device)
2. Reinsert Battery and power on.
3. While you are able to access the phone go to settings.
4. Switch Wifi to off.

Exit back to home screen.

This should fix your problem. Good luck.

So... what happens when you want or need to use WiFi?
 

Chris Murphy1

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I know how you feel I'm so sick of this stupid problem. I've already had them send me another phone and the new phone is doing the same thing the old phone does. I'm so fed up with it that I'm thinking about canceling everything I have between my cell phone bills and my 2 phones 1300 dollars invested in this phone and it freezes. a little customer service would be nice. but no such luck because I have to go to Verizon order to get anything done. it just surprises me because we live in this 21st century and were having problems with standard phones nowadays technology supposed to move forward not backwards I mean I like all the features of the Samsung Galaxy has but if they don't work what's the sense I have a iPhone 5 and my girlfriend has not had a problem with it so far and she's had it just as long as I've had my phone. So I think I'm going to purchase an iPhone 5 and run this f****** thing over with my Jeep that works every single day start up with no problem runs I beat the s*** out of it why can't they make phones like Jeeps.
that's a product that sells itself
 

Chris Murphy1

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I was just reading my post and I realized if I was the CEO of Samsung and I saw all these posts I'd feel like a crook that I took some buddies money and I gave him a piece of s*** device furthermore an unhappy customer is the worst kind of customer and I would do everything to make the customer happy so he doesn't go around telling his friends and everybody he knows about the crappy device that he purchased. Even as I speak with this s voice device it screws up if you stop talking for more than 10 seconds it won't continue 2 read out what you're saying which makes it useless and more aggravated. You think the CEO of Apple doesn't respond quickly to his customers well I can vouch that he does because my brother had a problem with his cell phone it I phone 4 had to just go to an Apple store and they fixed it right there no 4 days waiting for a phone no losing all of your pictures of your daughter so I think the decisions been made for me