GS3 gets very hot, very quickly

[FriedEggBeater]

Hey All,

I'm trying to figure out if I have a hardware problem here, and wondering if you can compare my results against your own handsets. After about 10 minutes of "intensive" web browsing (reading articles, clicking new links briskly) the phone becomes VERY warm. After about 3 minutes of playing Grand Theft Auto 3, the phone becomes very, very hot. Additionally, GTA3 performs quite poorly (probably 10-25 FPS on default settings, with frequent stutters). I'm wondering if this is par for the course. Has anyone else's experience been similar?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hey All,

I'm trying to figure out if I have a hardware problem here, and wondering if you can compare my results against your own handsets. After about 10 minutes of "intensive" web browsing (reading articles, clicking new links briskly) the phone becomes VERY warm. After about 3 minutes of playing Grand Theft Auto 3, the phone becomes very, very hot. Additionally, GTA3 performs quite poorly (probably 10-25 FPS on default settings, with frequent stutters). I'm wondering if this is par for the course. Has anyone else's experience been similar?

I will admit, my phone gets warm when I am using it heavily, but I think you may have a problem that requires either Sprint or Samsung's intervention. Here is my suggestion. Go to a Sprint store, and while walking in, play GTA3. The walk in should get it warm enough to recreate the problem.

 

[The WheelMan]

What do you have running in the background? I had something similar happen to me once the other day. I'm not sure what caused it (I wasn't playing games), but I did remove the HootSuite widget, and I had switched clocks in the One More Clock Widget, but I switched back to my previous clock. Haven't had that happen since. Can't be sure that was the problem though.

 

[Almeuit]

My phone under heavy load / data gets pretty warm but nothing that burns me or causes concern.

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC forums.

 

[sydewayzsoundz]

My phone gets so hot it shuts off charging....If I am running my gps and say Sirius at the same time, it gets so hot that charging stops and I get a voice notification that my battery is over heating....It happens with every ROM I use...Anybody figured it out?

 

[Vladabeast]

My phone actually gets pretty hot just going on twitter, instagram, flip board and just regular apps I don't know why

Sent from my Galaxy SIII

 

[TheAndroidDewd]

It happens to me all the time it gets hot when I do anything I just try to ignore it since I got my galaxy s3 for free after me and my mom had enough with my hit gs2 and im just ignoring the heat but one thing you can do is root it and set the cpu lower and that might help the temp

Sent From My Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[cb2367]

I experienced this issue as well recently. I had only Google maps running and had my phone connected to the charger. A message was displayed stating that charging had been paused due to high battery temp. I've only noticed the phone getting very warm when I have it charging and Google maps is running. It's the first time though that I've seen an alert that the battery temp is high.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[fxchyella]

This phone gets hot on every firmware and custom ROMS. I have removed all bloatware from /system/apps still it goes hot like anything. I am a flasher and flash almost all S3 phones like USSC, VZW and SPR but this phone gets hot beyond normal levels. At last I am on Slim 4.2.2 and theres some respite.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Heat is generally caused by one of more of several things: heavy cpu use (which is frequently true of action games), heavy radio use, especially in areas of low signal strength or use of multiple radios at the same time (especially the GPS radio), and charging.

For example, my phone always gets very hot when I'm using the GPS to navigate and have the phone plugged in. The GPS and cellular radios are both transferring lots of data, the cpu is very active, both of which are draining power out of the battery, and the charger is pushing power into the battery.

If you're using an online game, not only is the cpu heavily used, but so is the radio. If you're doing this in an area of poor signal strength, the phone is ramping up the power to the radios to maintain a connection, which uses even more power.

But in normal use, I don't find my S3 gets even warm, much less hot. If fxchyella's phone is hot in routine (not heavy) use, then something's wrong. You should be looking at what apps and processes are running in the background.

 

[BrandonEnr7]

I also had this experience with my previous phone. My dad has it happen with his S4. The more powerful the phone, more processing power, more heat produced.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Golfdriver97]

I will admit, I have a few higher powered games. But, when I start feeling my device getting a little warm, that is my cue to stop.

Sent from a Slim 4.3 S3

 

[grapkoski]

I also had this experience with my previous phone. My dad has it happen with his S4. The more powerful the phone, more processing power, more heat produced.

Posted via Android Central App

Sounds exactly like the first generation of MacBook Pros... that baby would BURN after prolonged use.

 

[Tony Myers]

When I don't have a signal mine gets hot. I guess because it is scanning for a signal? We cannot get a signal (Sprint or otherwise [Roaming]) at a friend of ours house so when we go over I shut it off until we leave. If I leave it on it gets very hot and the battery drains very fast.

 

[sydewayzsoundz]

My phone gets so hot it shuts off charging....If I am running my gps and say Sirius at the same time, it gets so hot that charging stops and I get a voice notification that my battery is over heating....It happens with every ROM I use...Anybody figured it out?

My phone does the same thing yo...using the same apps...M.O.A.R seems to be the best, while it still gets hot, its not as hot as with say Wicked Sensations..

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Modern cell phones adjust the power sent to the cellular radio depending on signal strength. With a strong signal, the radio doesn't need much power to maintain a connection. When the signal gets weaker, the radio draws more power to stay connected. When the signal drops to zero, power usage goes to maximum to try to find a signal. More power = more battery drain and more heat.

If you know you're going to have no signal for a while, you might consider turning the cellular radio off (put the phone in airplane mode and, if you have a WiFi connection, turn WiFi back on).