Freezing and booting issues... main board?

[k4zz41985]

Hi

Have just joined as have a problem with my s7. Please bare with me, it may be a bit of an essay.

Had my phone about a month... Tuesday just gone the phone froze while I was the amazon app and rebooted and got stuck in a bootloop. Took me an hour but finally got it back on. Unlike any of my other galaxy's freezing and playing catch up, any freeze, it automatically restarts (my husband's doesn't do this) . I ruled out it being the sd card as it continued to do so after removal. I wiped the cache partition and also performed 2 factory resets (the 2nd time it got stuck in a bootloop trying to reset the phone. It won't allow me to load in safe mode as it just freezes and reboots.

Of course, stupidly I decided to give it a couple of days so I could rule things out. I must have the worst luck because then while out, I took my phone out of my bag, it slipped and dropped onto the floor, smashing the back screen, thus as suspected, voiding my warranty (seriously could have cried) I spoke to Samsung Live support who said they would charge me for the back screen replacement but would look at the issue under warranty. Not what Samsung Repair said the next day. They said they couldn't verify that the smash didn't cause any problems with the phone. Fair enough I get that but I'm annoyed at is they telling me one thing on live chat and another in store. I get they probably aren't trained technicians in the call centres/live chat but they shouldn't give out false information either.
The technician said ( just looking at the screen) that the problem is the main board which will cost me £200 + £70 for the screen.

I said I had googled this issue and it seemed to be common and he said yes.... another annoyance, if they know there is a problem with the phones themselves then clearly they know it wasn't due to me dropping it? When I have phoned Samsung in the past, I have been told that they can tell whether an issue with the phone is due to user damage/knocks/impact etc from looking at the logs. The guy at the repair centre said he didn't have the tools to check that (pretty useless then really) Is this true or was I previously being bluffed? If they can then I'll most definitely be fighting to have this looked at under warranty and stipulating my right under the sales of goods act that the product is less than 6 months old and the onus is on them to prove the impact caused the damage (of course I know I need to pay for any damage caused by impact). I do have the phone insured for accidental damage under my house insurance but with a £200 excess, it's a lot of hassle for the sake of an extra £70 to pay out.

 

[nahoku]

I'm going to guess that right off the bat Samsung will reflash the OS first before doing anything else like changing the motherboard. That said, if your carrier can attempt a reflash for you locally, you might try that first before sending it off. Or, you can do it yourself if you know how to use ODIN and can get the correct firmware. Nothing to lose at this point if you're considering sending it to Samsung for a possible motherboard replacement. Might just be a corrupted OS. JMO.

It's unfortunate that the back screen broke, but from vids on youtube, it doesn't look like a difficult DIY. Amazon carries replacement back screens for around $30 (US)... not sure what it would cost where you are. Of course, if you do it yourself, destroying the IP68 rating is a huge possibility... something to consider.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Hi

Have just joined as have a problem with my s7. Please bare with me, it may be a bit of an essay.

Had my phone about a month... Tuesday just gone the phone froze while I was the amazon app and rebooted and got stuck in a bootloop. Took me an hour but finally got it back on. Unlike any of my other galaxy's freezing and playing catch up, any freeze, it automatically restarts (my husband's doesn't do this) . I ruled out it being the sd card as it continued to do so after removal. I wiped the cache partition and also performed 2 factory resets (the 2nd time it got stuck in a bootloop trying to reset the phone. It won't allow me to load in safe mode as it just freezes and reboots.

Of course, stupidly I decided to give it a couple of days so I could rule things out. I must have the worst luck because then while out, I took my phone out of my bag, it slipped and dropped onto the floor, smashing the back screen, thus as suspected, voiding my warranty (seriously could have cried) I spoke to Samsung Live support who said they would charge me for the back screen replacement but would look at the issue under warranty. Not what Samsung Repair said the next day. They said they couldn't verify that the smash didn't cause any problems with the phone. Fair enough I get that but I'm annoyed at is they telling me one thing on live chat and another in store. I get they probably aren't trained technicians in the call centres/live chat but they shouldn't give out false information either.
The technician said ( just looking at the screen) that the problem is the main board which will cost me £200 + £70 for the screen.

I said I had googled this issue and it seemed to be common and he said yes.... another annoyance, if they know there is a problem with the phones themselves then clearly they know it wasn't due to me dropping it? When I have phoned Samsung in the past, I have been told that they can tell whether an issue with the phone is due to user damage/knocks/impact etc from looking at the logs. The guy at the repair centre said he didn't have the tools to check that (pretty useless then really) Is this true or was I previously being bluffed? If they can then I'll most definitely be fighting to have this looked at under warranty and stipulating my right under the sales of goods act that the product is less than 6 months old and the onus is on them to prove the impact caused the damage (of course I know I need to pay for any damage caused by impact). I do have the phone insured for accidental damage under my house insurance but with a £200 excess, it's a lot of hassle for the sake of an extra £70 to pay out.

Samsung and only Samsung, can remove the OS and flash it back on again. They do this free for all their phones. It is very different than just reflashing and it can fix a lot of issues.

You might want to try that first, see if that fixes the issues and the check about replacing the glass.

 

[k4zz41985]

I did ask the guy at the repair centre to flash it and to check the logs and he said he didn't have the tools to do that and I would have to send to head office. Other than userface, I wouldn't even attempt to do any repairs myself. I took it to carphone warehouse this morning and they said they will fix any issues plus the screen replacement for a max of £170. They did suggest going back to Samsung regarding flashing the phone but at over 30 miles away, I can't be doing with going back and forward. I'll be putting a complaint in to Samsung.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I did ask the guy at the repair centre to flash it and to check the logs and he said he didn't have the tools to do that and I would have to send to head office. Other than userface, I wouldn't even attempt to do any repairs myself. I took it to carphone warehouse this morning and they said they will fix any issues plus the screen replacement for a max of £170. They did suggest going back to Samsung regarding flashing the phone but at over 30 miles away, I can't be doing with going back and forward. I'll be putting a complaint in to Samsung.

Well here is the issue since you mentioned carphone warehouse.. You have the Exynos version.

This reboot and bricking is an issue that has come up with several Exynos versions.

Now if that isn't your issue and something is corrupted, a reflash won't help. A reflash isn't likely to help the above issue either. I had an update mess up on one of my Samsung phones and it was corrupted. There were so many reflashes, finally I sent it to Samsung after they told me if there was something corrupted the OS had to be removed.

They did that, flashed it back on and it was fine. Even after fixing the screen you might still have issues, but then you can deal with Samsung about exchanging it or carphone warehouse. You could have the problem that has been showing up in the Exynos version. If you are, you might want to take it to Samsung after the repair, so this can be reported, because even a replacement could have the same issue. After an issue has been reported by enough users, it triggers an automatic investigation at Samsung and they start looking into it.