yea Ive also heard its draining bats like crazy
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Samsung Galaxy S III (new flagship Android phone from Samsung)
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yea Ive also heard its draining bats like crazy
PwnCakes193
Member
Whatever you do, DO NOT INSTALL ATT 4.3 UPDATE.
It puts something called QFuse on your bootloader that hard bricks your phone if you ever have an issue and have to downgrade :/
It puts something called QFuse on your bootloader that hard bricks your phone if you ever have an issue and have to downgrade :/
I've had my GSIII for about 3 months now, and is my first smartphone. A gift from my younger brother, who was working retail at a local Target store at the time and was able to finagle a dealer-exclusive AT&T discounted line. After some initial issues (had to swap out SIMs because the initial phone number was Texan and I'm in Cali) I've been enjoying the phone immensely.
However, something neither of us was expecting happened after he gave his two weeks and left the store: the service to my phone was inexplicably cut. I figured it had something to do with his leaving the store, though neither of us could explain why since we were paying the bill on-time. In any case, Bro suggested I should try getting the phone unlocked so I can use a non-ATT&T service with a comparable service and data plan to the retailer discount line I had before. After filling out an ATT&T online form we were approved and ATT&T sent us an unlock code. But it didn't work. Maybe the code was already used? We sent out for another, and the same code was emailed to us. At this point Bro took it upon himself to call customer service. I wasn't privy to all the details but it seems all they did was give him the runaround, saying they would call or email him back once they found out why the phone wouldn't accept the unlock code.
That was a month ago. And there my phone sits, unused. Wi-Fi works, at least. Can't make calls, though. I suppose I can just sign up for a new service under ATT&T, but my bro advises against it because I'll be paying double for the same service I had before; and he says we can get a better deal elsewhere. I'm new to the smartphone game and I don't know what I can do to salvage the situation. I post this here in the hopes that someone may be able to help or have an idea what I should try. Phone specifications:
SGH-i747
16 GB
Android 4.1.2
I'm not sure what other info would be necessary. And, oh yeah, ATT&T are now charging 300 bucks for breaking contract even though they were the ones who dropped our service. Yeah, this is why I kept out of the smartphone game until now.
tl;dr An officially-sanctioned ATT&T unlock code doesn't work for my SIII i747 model, what are my options?
However, something neither of us was expecting happened after he gave his two weeks and left the store: the service to my phone was inexplicably cut. I figured it had something to do with his leaving the store, though neither of us could explain why since we were paying the bill on-time. In any case, Bro suggested I should try getting the phone unlocked so I can use a non-ATT&T service with a comparable service and data plan to the retailer discount line I had before. After filling out an ATT&T online form we were approved and ATT&T sent us an unlock code. But it didn't work. Maybe the code was already used? We sent out for another, and the same code was emailed to us. At this point Bro took it upon himself to call customer service. I wasn't privy to all the details but it seems all they did was give him the runaround, saying they would call or email him back once they found out why the phone wouldn't accept the unlock code.
That was a month ago. And there my phone sits, unused. Wi-Fi works, at least. Can't make calls, though. I suppose I can just sign up for a new service under ATT&T, but my bro advises against it because I'll be paying double for the same service I had before; and he says we can get a better deal elsewhere. I'm new to the smartphone game and I don't know what I can do to salvage the situation. I post this here in the hopes that someone may be able to help or have an idea what I should try. Phone specifications:
SGH-i747
16 GB
Android 4.1.2
I'm not sure what other info would be necessary. And, oh yeah, ATT&T are now charging 300 bucks for breaking contract even though they were the ones who dropped our service. Yeah, this is why I kept out of the smartphone game until now.
tl;dr An officially-sanctioned ATT&T unlock code doesn't work for my SIII i747 model, what are my options?
The unlock code they gave to me to unlock my wife's phone didn't work either and it seemed fairly common issue. What's worst is if you try it too many times the phone become permanently locked to AT&T if what people say is true. It's been a few months but there are other ways to unlock it. Quick Google search come up with a lot of threads about inputting some secret code but I remember that code doesn't work with AT&T variant. Try the secret code method and see if it works here. I'll post the other link if I come across it again but don't bother with AT&T's code if it doesn't work.
Eh... I saw this post too late. After I left the message above I (stupidly) checked for a software update (I hadn't turned on the phone for a while, I was curious). Once it found one the phone went straight into upgrade mode. I couldn't back out. Left the phone to charge and download (very slowly) the 600MB+ file and went to work as I was already running late. Just came back and allowed the phone to finish upgrading to Android 4.3, then I saw that link you posted. Looked it over and tried the unlock method for 4.3 firmware but it didn't take. I wonder if the downgrade version would have even worked for me before the update, as it seems this particular S3 is finicky as all hell to unlock.
Thanks for the reply, though.
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
I mean, the thing isn't even an old year yet. Is it just due to how I've been using it?
Are there 3rd party ones with extra juice that I don't need to buy a case for?
The Faceless Master
Member
since it hasn't been a year yet, carry it into a carrier branded store and complain somewhat nicely about the battery life, they may just give you a free replacement battery. this advice may only work in the US.
stay away from 'extended' batteries that are the same size. you can get two batteries that are the same size/capacity as the original and swap if you want, or a larger one with a replacement (larger) back panel.
Dead Prince
Banned
4.3 just got pushed to sprint this morning
Oh nice, looks like it started getting pushed on Tuesday afternoon. Glad it finally hit, I'm curious to read the impressions on androidcentral and here. I expect it'll probably be the last official update. Funny timing for me, since I flashed Cyanogenmod 10.2 last Thursday and am loving it.
which cm10.2 did you flash? every time I decide to try it, I have nothing but issues, it's either camera can't switch to memory card as storage or the sd card keeps getting unmounted for no reason. (installed from clean wipe) Then of course having to give up sbeam and scalendar, which imo are much better than aosp, sucks as well.
I used cm-10.2.0-d2vzw.zip (the latest stable Verizon release). I had similar problems when I flashed CM 7 on my Droid X a few years back, so I expected something to go wrong, but it's been great so far, no real problems for me. I never really used s-beam or s-calendar, so giving up the Samsung things wasn't a big deal for me.
Hm ya that's the one I tried just last week too and had the same issues. Oh well, I'll wait until 4.3 bootloader is defeated.
HammerOfThor
Member
So I just updated to 4.3 and now every text I send has a "CB# *my number*" in the footer.
What does this mean?
What does this mean?
HammerOfThor
Member
yea, I noticed verizon has been having it set as defaulted to on on various phones recently.
Old Gimlet Eyes
Member
Have a gs3 on sprint and haven't been able to update to the latest just from the phone. Are they still rolling through update out or is my best bet to use Kies and update that way?
The Faceless Master
Member
you could do that.. or use ODIN.
Zoe
Member
My phone is always on the verge of running out of space due to my Google Music cache, so I finally changed it to save to the flash card. But it's still reporting the app as taking up 8GB, supposedly leaving me with only 500MB free on the device.
Is this going to give me problems with it thinking I'm out of space when I'm really not?
Is this going to give me problems with it thinking I'm out of space when I'm really not?
A lot of people have worse battery, wifi issues. Plus the bootloader is locked again, which will prevent you from going to custom firmware later. Personally, I would skip it for now.
HammerOfThor
Member
Yeah, the battery is a lot worse, and the phone is far from fluid, its so choppy. I honestly can't stand it. I'm so glad I'm due for an upgrade soon.
Also, how the hell do i stop my camera's flash from flashing whenever I get an email? I went into the accessibility settings and Flash Alerts or whatever it is called is turned off. Yet I still get that annoying flash no matter what.
I think I've read from different people having similar issues. It sounds like a bug. Didn't read into how and if it's fixable.
Updated my phone. All was fine except recently I've been having crazy wifi issues. It doesn't even connect anymore to places where I KNOW the wifi works. Are we supposed to be just ok with this or is Samsung working on a fix? Its pretty ridiculous I have to rely on paid data because of a manufacturer's error.
rocketknight
Member
Mine seems to have gone fine, aside from losing root.
The Faceless Master
Member
wait about 3 hours to be sure
BoboBrazil
Member
Sounds like you soft bricked the phone somehow? Are you rooted? Did you install the rom intended for your service and device? Sounds like you installed the wrong kernel for your device. You need to boot into recovery and reinstall.
thetechkid
Member
So people are saying that the OTA 4.3 update locks the bootloader forever, is this true?
My phone's battery isn't holding a charge, it will drop really fast and I have to charge it during the day. The phone is also crashing a lot lately, sometimes I'll go into the Facebook app and it will crash and hang the phone making it impossible to do anything unless I do a hard reset since I can't even touch the option for restart/shutdown. Is all of this because of a faulty battery or is the second part of my problem unrelated?
So, no more custom ROMs on it?
You can install 4.3 custom roms without installing bootloader. But once you are on the new bootloader, no.
I have the new firmware and it runs great. I like how texts pop up on the lock screen so you can just glance at it real quick and see who it is. My battery seems to be lasting longer since the update, although I did tinker with the brightness yesterday, I turned it down a lot and that probably helped.
The Faceless Master
Member
sounds like two different issues. try a hard reset first.
this. get a custom rom with the new bootloader and KNOX removed.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Is your wi-fi totally not working? Mine is merely flaky. I wopuld love to have a way to fix it.
EDIT: We'll find out, I just did it.
EDIT: We'll find out, I just did it.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
My phone is fine, we'll see if wi-fi is any better.
Lol did it work?
Mine is crazy flaky. It works only about 20% of the time which is ridiculous.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Hard to say, but I haven't had any random disconnects. I will have to give it a day.
It was laggy like crazy too, let's see if that is better.
It was laggy like crazy too, let's see if that is better.