S3 died. Samsung says warranty voided due to root. 8 days to decide answer

[meyerweb#CB]

For a more relevant example than Stuxnet, the sudden death issue with the world-market GS3 can apparently be prevented with a firmware update.

 

[macbook5]

Wow, I think after reading this post, I have just changed my mind on rooting too. I am going to go to Kijiji and buy a used cheap Android phone either rooted or will try to root myself.

 

[bboy2143]

Rooting is fine. Just know what you are doing as a superuser on your phone. (installing the kernels, ROMS, etc.)

 

[loonie01]

Here is the problem
http://phandroid.com/2012/12/21/samsung-galaxy-s3-mainboard-failure/

 

[Joel Prada]

Hey, I'm having the exact same issue and Samsung sent me the same estimation of repair. I wanted to know what you ended up doing and how things worked out for you. Thanks!

 

[Silverknight]

before you send your phone in for warranty service just flash a stock rom and un-root it before you send it out.
Here's how to unroot the S3.
[GUIDE] How-To Completely Unroot Your Galaxy SIII |Zero Flash Counter|"Normal" Status - xda-developers

 

[arobherweck]

I little bit of information for you... I used to be a cell phone technician a couple of years back. Cell phones, smartphones do not use software. They use firmware. Firmware is intertwined with the hardware which is why rooting voids the warranty. It technically changes the firmware to allow you more access to your phone.

 

[brick2245]

Unfortunately, with Sudden Death Syndrome there is no access to the device to unroot it. I'm actually in the same boat... well besides the warranty part.

 

[brick2245]

I have two questions. Has anyone had success with mobiletechvideos.com. They stated they can replace the emmc to fix Sudden Death syndrome. Secondly, is it possible that since it is a hardware failure, that Samsung will be unable to tell the phone was rooted? If so, I may just try my luck and act stupid, and then try mobiletechvideos if Samsung declines the repair.

 

[Jack Fenwick-Wilson]

I have soft bricked my galaxy s3 sgh-1747m about 5 months ago. Samsung made me pay 150 dollars (yes, it was rooted). I rooted it again and hard bricked it. I sent it to Samsung and they replaced it with no fee. I don't know if they didn't notice root, noticed it but forgave me, or if the tells lady was forgetful. Anyway, I hard bricked it again and am sending it to Samsung. Will update on what they do.

 

[Joey Sullivan]

I have soft bricked my galaxy s3 sgh-1747m about 5 months ago. Samsung made me pay 150 dollars (yes, it was rooted). I rooted it again and hard bricked it. I sent it to Samsung and they replaced it with no fee. I don't know if they didn't notice root, noticed it but forgave me, or if the tells lady was forgetful. Anyway, I hard bricked it again and am sending it to Samsung. Will update on what they do.

Why aren't you people using TriangleAway after rooting?!

They are checking using the ODIN download mode, by pressing and holding voldown, home, and power buttons on bootup. It will tell them if the bootloader has ever been flashed (including if you just rooted, without installing a new rom). TriangleAway is the only play-store App that can reset all this information, making it very difficult or impossible for them to tell if your device has been rooted.

If you guys are sending in hard-bricked phones, then obviously it is too late to unroot. You would think that if the device can't turn on, then surely they cannot check the root status either? But almost all sudden death syndromes in the GS3 are a result of faulty DRAM. So all they have to do is swap out the DRAM on the mainboard, and all of the sudden your phone is working 100%, in its original state, rooted and flashed too, and thats when they find out if you rooted it before it broke.

Now you could threaten a class action lawsuit against them, because this sudden death syndrome is huge, and affecting many many devices. It's what happened to Microsoft with their Xbox 360 red ring of death syndrome; they feared a class action lawsuit, so they extended the warranty by 5 years, even if your warranty was already expired, and they became much more lax in accepting repairs on 360's with voided warranty stickers (basically as long as you made some attempt to hide the fact that you cut the sticker, during this extended warranty period, they wouldn't care and would repair it anyway). If you can make Samsung just as afraid, then you might get them to accept returned Galaxy S3's with this particular DRAM sudden death syndrome, even after an expired warranty, even on a rooted phone.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I have soft bricked my galaxy s3 sgh-1747m about 5 months ago. Samsung made me pay 150 dollars (yes, it was rooted). I rooted it again and hard bricked it. I sent it to Samsung and they replaced it with no fee. I don't know if they didn't notice root, noticed it but forgave me, or if the tells lady was forgetful. Anyway, I hard bricked it again and am sending it to Samsung. Will update on what they do.

Why aren't you people using TriangleAway after rooting?!

More importantly, why aren't you learning from your mistakes? After three bricks, I strongly suggest you stay away from rooting all together.

 

[tenuva]

Hi, could you attach original samsung answer (pdf file) ?

 

[Areeque Tasneem]

So what did you end up doing?

- - - Updated - - -

I have two questions. Has anyone had success with mobiletechvideos.com. They stated they can replace the emmc to fix Sudden Death syndrome. Secondly, is it possible that since it is a hardware failure, that Samsung will be unable to tell the phone was rooted? If so, I may just try my luck and act stupid, and then try mobiletechvideos if Samsung declines the repair.

So what did you end up doing?

 

[rushhh1]

Hey Jack Fenwick-Wilson. what happen to the second time you sent it in with hard brick? Did they change you or fix it for free?

I hard brick my phone as well by rooting it but it under warranty. Before I saw this post I was thinking of send it in and wonder if they would notice if I root it and they would change me to fix it.

 

[GSDer]

Welcome to the forums!

and wonder if they would notice if I root it and they would change me to fix it.

They certainly have the tools and technical skills to determine if the phone was rooted; whether they decide to make an issue of it is something I can't speculate on.

Is your phone completely dead, or will it boot into Recovery mode or Download mode?
With the phone completely off, if you connect a charger do you see the battery graphic showing the current battery level and charging activity?
Have you tried using a debrick image to recover the phone?

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[f_simon]

Hey Everyone,

looking for some advice and help. I was having the exact same problems as the original poster and I sent my phone in to samsung last week. they just sent me an estimate back saying it will be $350 to repair for a defective motherboard. It was purchased from Bell and with Bell still on the original release date so approx summer 2012, so it is out of warranty. It is a non-tampered phone. It has never been rooted. What options do I have for repair? Although out of warranty it is a defective motherboard. It could have been there since day 1. How am I to know its been defective until problems start occurring. Even if I decline repair they want to charge me $30 because of the estimate. I feel it may be a firmware issue as it only started happening once i upgraded the OS to kitkat from samsung and then progressively got worse to the point it wouldn't hold a charge or charge at all had to use a wall charger and sometimes would randomly restart or not turn on at all.

any advice and help would be appreciated.