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[Completed] Is my Galaxy S3 (i747M) memory damaged, is it bricked?

I previously posted in the local Galaxy S3 i747M section with the same problem, but now the issue is worse than before.
Here's my previous thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3-att/help/boot-loop-plugged-to-ac-twrp-wipe-data-t3070064
A note that I'm no stranger to flashing and the inner workings of Android architecture (ROMs and general hardware), . But for the sake of this issue, please feel free to treat me like a noob if you think it would help elaborate any procedures I should follow or troubleshooting steps I should take, or just throw ideas at me like the software dev that I am and expect me to figure it out on my own.
Some background:
Recently (around beginning of April), my phone began to exhibit strange behaviour - reboots when reading/writing from internal memory (not uSD card), unable to wipe /data partition in TWRP or CWM. I would also get bootloops when I was plugged into direct AC charging (no problems if plugged into a computer for charging, though).
When in TWRP, CWM, and Philz, I would not be able to wipe the /data partition or anything in it. Installing anything to /system also caused a crash (though wiping it didn't cause any issues). Doing a factory reset wipe would also cause the recovery to "crash" - the recovery would freeze up and the phone would reboot. I could not restore a NANdroid, I could not install a new custom ROM. In TWRP, if I opened up a terminal window and manually tried to repair the /data and /system partitions with the e2fsck command, it would still freeze up and crash.
At that point, I downloaded the stock 4.4 firmware image (I think it was NF2?) from Sam Mobile and flashed it via Download Mode + Odin. Booted it up and ran the phone stock for probably a week. Then, I carefully used Odin to flash a freshly downloaded (and MD5 verified) TWRP 2.8.6.0 TAR image and SuperSU. Flashed both via Odin just fine. From there, I mounted the microSD card - I didn't want to touch the internal memory for now - and copied over a fresh downloaded copy of a CM12 based ROM (also MD5 verf'd) to it. From there, still in TWRP, I successfully flashed a 4.4.x TouchWiz-based ROM.
Take note that at this point, doing anything to attempt to wipe /data still leads to crashing the recovery. Nothing I have done has resolved this issue. I left that issue alone, just happy to have a working phone.
That above procedure seemed to work. I could then use the phone for about 2 weeks. Then my phone started crashing again, same as before: only when I was doing something that was reading/writing the internal memory. E.g. music, podcasts, etc.
I followed the same procedure with Odin + stock firmware > reboot > Odin + TWRP + SuperSU > flash custom ROM. Worked fine again for 2 more weeks.
Here I am 1 month later, same problem as the last 2 times. This time, however, after flashing the custom ROM, it does not boot up now. My phone is at home because I cannot use it. Last night, upon trying to boot up S3rx and PAC 5.1, I literally let it sit at the boot animation for 1 hour, each, and neither got past the boot animation. I'm familiar with ROMs sometimes taking say 10 minutes upon very first boot on a clean flash, but I gave up after about 1 hour (in fact, 1.5 hours for PAC 5.1, which was my second attempt last night). It's to the point where I'm certain if I left my phone plugged into the AC, it would still be at the boot animation over 12 hours later.
I know of the NAND memory corruption issue that S3's had previously, and I did flash the stock firmware that came out at the time (I think it was an Lxx based bootloader+firmware). But that was years ago, end of 2012 if memory serves me correct.
Thoughts on what I am facing? What I should try and do next? Where to go from here? If this is a hardware issue that is beyond fixing with flashing things in fastboot/ADB/Odin, then I'll face defeat and look for a new phone. But if I can hang on to this phone for just a little bit longer...
Thanks!

Hi there
Please note the following sticky from the top of the Assist section,
> General discussion > XDA Assist > The Purpose of XDA Assist [Please Read]
As a senior member on XDA, I am quite confident that you know where your device section is (you already asked something there) and where to ask for help.
Thanks for understanding
Good luck

[Completed] Need help with my S3. It gets stuck in bootloop all the time.

I bought my S3 I9300 (INTL) when it first came out. Since then, it has been working perfectly fine. I rooted it a year ago and installed cm10 at that time as well. Afterwards, I had also successfully switched back to stock rom via my nandbackup.
A week ago, I did a nand backup via CWM and then decided to install CM 13 nightly. After that I had no serious issues (just small issues such as data connection not automatically turning on. Had to do it from settings) so I didn't update either. Two days ago just when I needed my phone the most, it turns off suddenly. Every time I try to turn it on, it can't go past the CM boot logo. I then put my phone on charge. I turned it on and it worked while it was charging. At 88% i take off the plug and the same thing happens again (bootloop). I then plug the charger back on and restart after going to download mode (to stop the bootloop). It then shows a charge of 5 percent. I charge again then I decided to quickly to a factory reset as I was in a hurry. Then while I was in my car, I let it restore the backup from my sdcard1. However, I noticed that it said "failed to restore /data". I did another reset and cleared cache etc but everytime it would say either failed to restore /data or /system. Doing an advanced restore didn't work either. Then factory reset again and downloaded CM 11 more stable version. I moved it from my tab (which I downloaded it with) to my phone via sd card. However, it fails to install. At 20% it restarts my phone back in to bootloop but this time a samsung bootloop as I already did a reset. Now my phone is unusable and bootloops every time I try to turn it on. Further note, the charging icon shows the cm13 charging icon.
Right now: Downloading stock rom from a different country because can't find mine.

Hi,
Try posting your question here:
Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting
The experts there may be able to help.
Good luck!

Help, flashing with ODIN3 or CWM doesn't do anything (Nexus GSM)

Hello guys,
within the last days my phone got really slow, so I decided to reinstall my OS (cyanogenmod 11) + some "optimization Tools".
At first everything worked fine...but at some point I probably did a mistake because atm my phone just makes an unhealthy sound and restarts, usually at the sim card unlock screen after some seconds (ODIN and CWM work fine).
I used CWM to delete everything and reinstalled Cyanogenmod(because thats the only ROM I have on my phone and I cant copy anything on it) ...but nothing happened -> same OS, same Apps, same Setting...and same problem
Then i tried out ODIN3....it took around 20 minutes to install my stock rom....but NOTHING changed, still cyanogenmod, still WA installed, still userdata...
Am I missing permissions to delete the files on my phone or what is going on ?
Any suggestions on how to fix it with cwm or ODIN ?
Thanks in advance

Hope it's ok to push after 8 hours :c

Help needed to install the stock rom back

Hi,
First I want to say that although I am not a total newbie, I can be considered as a newbie. I have windows 7 32 bit. I am starting from the beginning.
Until about 1.5 years ago, I was used to connect my phone to Kies and do a "firmware upgrade and initialisation" after feeling that it is time to do so in order to speed up the phone back. Does it speed up the phone back? I'm not sure, but as a guy that still formats his pc from time to time maybe it's a habit.
But about 1.5 years ago when Kies told me that my phone is not supported any more I couldn't do that. Then I made some search and found out cm.
I first installed cwm 6.0.4.3 to my phone by heimdall 1.4.0 then installed cm 10.2.0 and gapps-jb-20130813. I thought it would be good and my phone would be faster since I wouldn't have the unnecessary att apps. It also supported Turkish whereas the stock only supports English and Spanish.
I actually liked it at first except for some parts. Then a few months later the phone switched its language to English itself and started to behave abnormally, so I switched back to latest att stock rom by using odin3-v1.85.
Then about 3 months ago my phone got some water inside when I was under the rain with my phone in my pocket and my pocket not being sealed enough. The phone at first said please insert sim card when it was actually inserted, then I noticed it got wet. I immediately turned it off and removed the battery. Then opened it up and let it dry for a few days.
The phone got back to normal except for a single issue. When I charge the battery the screen behaves abnormally. The abnormality increases with time during the charging, I thought it is related with the phone getting warmer during charging. After the phone turns the screen off after timeout, It does not always turn it on after I press the power button. It starts at first by turning on after a few trials up to not being able to turn on during the charging process. When I unplug the charging cable, I can turn the screen on after a few trials. The phone gets back to nearly normal after 10-15 minutes. Although the screen does not turn on it still responds, for example I can answer a call. And sometimes the screen turns on with being upside down and flickering but responding as if its not upside down.
I hope I could describe the problem well. So this may be a hardware or hopefully a software problem. So I decided to first go back to factory settings. The problem with the screen continued. Then I installed the stock rom by odin. The problem continued but I noticed that the two applications I installed after resetting to factory settings remained in the phone. odin either not installs the rom or installs it by copying files, not formatting the system partition. I thought maybe formatting and reinstalling stock would solve the problem with the screen.
I made some research and noticed that I could actually increase the system partition, which is awesome since I always encounter filled memory problem when I try to install an app so I uninstall some apps to install the new ones. If I manage to repartition the system drive, it also has to format it.
Then I installed the stock rom using the pit file someone uploaded (6GB system partition), I did it but got an error from cwm upon first boot saying something like "unable to mount F", when I ignored the error the phone seemed to turn on but got stuck with att sign. When I pull the battery and turn it back on the phone got stuck at the same place without an error from cwm. Then I installed the stock rom with the original pit file, now the phone turns on but I still have previous apps. I repeated thes a few times (6gb pit file, original pit file) but nothing changed.
Then cm came to my mind, it would format the system drive. I repeated the same procedure I did 1.5 years ago. The phone turned on. I noticed that the internal sd drive had the previous folders,so I wiped the sd drive with cm. Everything was fine but the problem with the screen continued which stated that the it was a hardware problem. There was no reason to stay with cm so I installed the stock rom.
The phone asked a password from me since it had encrypted folders ???. I didn't provide a password, I think it did not recognise the sd drive wiped by cm.
I couldn't install cwm 6.0.4.3 with heimdall, it gave an error at the end. I decided to install a recovery with odin so I installed twrp 2.8.7.0.
I installed cm with 6gb pit, with original pit, installed stock rom with 6gb pit, with original pit with random order and how many times I don't remember that I brought the phone to a state that it won't boot. It turned on with odin mode though. Even the twrp did not recognise the drives. So I wiped all with ext4 format.
Now I have cm with 6 gb system but I want to go back to stock rom. cm drains up my battery. I also noticed that I really got used to the stock rom. I would appreciate it if I have 6 gb system like now. But if I have to reduce it back to 2 gb I don't care.
Can someone please help me?
Sorry for the long post, I wanted to state the problem as good as possible.

Not getting even a single reply probably means I am facing a really extraordinary problem.
I'll try to reformat the partitions. Maybe the OS thinks the unrecognised partition as encrypted. I previously made them both FAT.
Can someone please tell me what should be the filesystems of the system and the internal sd? Are they the same or different?

bloodcurdler said:
Not getting even a single reply probably means I am facing a really extraordinary problem.
I'll try to reformat the partitions. Maybe the OS thinks the unrecognised partition as encrypted. I previously made them both FAT.
Can someone please tell me what should be the filesystems of the system and the internal sd? Are they the same or different?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could be wrong but Ext4 is the most common filesystem so try that

S7 Keeps (randomly) rebooting

Hi Guys,
My S7 (SM-G930F, Netherlands PHN device) randomly reboots. I cannot use my phone anymore because it reboots somewhere between 5 seconds to max. 2 minutes after it reboots.
What did I do to try to fix it:
1. clear cache + full wipe via the recovery mode.
2. downgrade to stock (PHN via Sammobile and ODIN install) Android 6 rom (and after that upgraded to Nougat 7).
3. Fully charge battery and let it drain down all the way.
- My device is not rooted but original Samsung
- My device does not have a single scratch nor it ever fell down
It looks like a hardware problem to me or am I missing something?

I had the same problem with the Galaxy A5 2017. Couldn't fix it, decided to return it, and even the carrier couldn't fix it so they gave me a new one which didn't have the problem. So, if you're still under warranty, return it.

Hi @sanderh
I had the same problem with my G930F for a week. I left it off for 5 days. After that time I turned it on and it's fine now. Two months without reboots :victory:

No reboots to this day :fingers-crossed:

After one year the restarts returned. This happened while updating to Oreo. I left the phone switched off again for 5 days but the problem remained.
When I made a backup files from phone to PC, I noticed that everything works when the MicroSD card is removed. No reboots. I decided to change SD card - it worked. Formatting the memory card also helped so... I'm enjoying again with the working phone