Why won't my S3 update from OS 4.2.2?

[Guntherx]

S3 Won't Update from 4.

(I can't seem to edit the thread title but it is meant to say 4.2.2 - sorry)
So after my other S3 died I bought a refurbished replacement
It's using 4.2.2
I need to update it however have had no luck.
The phone want let me update to a newer OS via the phone alone. It will download the update which is about 480mb and then tells me it cannot complete it.

Also tried via Kies and 90% of the time the laptop showed error messages saying that the USB couldn't be recognised then would tell me to install drivers, or that drivers weren't installed properly.

The laptop would not recognise the phone unless it was set to transfer photos rather that as a multimedia device.

On two occasions I managed to get the phone to actually connect to Kies and after waiting 40 minutes for the updates to install the first time I received an error message after the update looked complete, saying the phone had been disconnected (i hadn't touched it during this time though I think my cat may have :/) so it didn't work.

The second time I did the same upgrade as above however afterwards Kies gave me a message saying it needed to do an emergency software recovery which ran for three hours but never went beyond 0%. During this time the phone displayed the standard android logo and updating message but the blue bar did not progress at all. After three hours the laptop overheated and shut down.
Now the phone displays the message 'firmware upgrade encountered an issue. please select recovery mode in Kies and try again'
When I go to start recovery mode in Kies it tells me to switch the device to recovery mode and reconnect but the phone won't actually let me go into recovery mode.

I downloaded an app to check whether or not the phone is rooted, which a few sites have said can affect this and it apparently isn't.

Also tried restarting the phone and laptop between trying to connect to Kies but it didn't make a difference. I did two factory resets also, as reccomended online.
I've spent most of the last 13 hours trying to upgrade it. It's nearly midnight now and I have lost count of all the things I have tried, and now it won't do anything, I'm at a loss.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Rukbat]

Re: S3 Won't Update from 4.

1. Is the phone rooted? An update is supposed to fail if the phone is rooted. Updating a rooted phone cab brick it.

2. If it's not rooted, and it's running the stock ROM (you can't update a custom ROM, unless whoever wrote it supplies an update file), and you're in the US, bring it in to a Best Buy store, go to the cellphone area and look for the Samsung rep. (Light blue polo shirt with a Samsung logo.) Ask if they can please flash the update for you. (Back everything up first, just in case - see Backing up an Android Device.)

 

[Guntherx]

Re: S3 Won't Update from 4.

1. Is the phone rooted? An update is supposed to fail if the phone is rooted. Updating a rooted phone cab brick it.

2. If it's not rooted, and it's running the stock ROM (you can't update a custom ROM, unless whoever wrote it supplies an update file), and you're in the US, bring it in to a Best Buy store, go to the cellphone area and look for the Samsung rep. (Light blue polo shirt with a Samsung logo.) Ask if they can please flash the update for you. (Back everything up first, just in case - see Backing up an Android Device.)

I downloaded an app to check this and it says it is unrooted.
Unfortunately I'm in Australia but I'll have a look into seeing if there's anything similar to this I can do here, thankyou. It has nothing on it so backing up isn't a worry, even if I needed to I couldn't do it anyway.
Thank you