Android Officially updated galaxy advance. Phone bricked. Beware

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aquaticbullet

aquaticbullet

Galvanizer
Hi all,

So my relative who lives in Oman gave her Samsung Galaxy advance to me last december as she upgraded. I had no use of the phone so kept it as it is. Recently felt need of a backup phone so started using it. I kept on getting a notification for an official samsung update. I got irked after somedays and hit the bar.
The file downloaded through wifi (~9 MB) and the phone shut down and started in recovery mode and installation started. However, after its completion the phone switched off and never started. Tried to start in recovery mode but to no avail. Atlast had to go to the samsung showroom where they also servie the phone and they said it is bricked because of the update. They even told me that many users have faced such issues.
I was shocked to hear that as I am a power user and have rooted, flashed custom roms ample of times on my phone but have never faced such issue. :eek::eek:
Now I have to shell out ~2k for replacement of power IC unit and what not.:( I really cant comprehend why should a customer pay if he/she is updating phone officially. If there are such issues the manufacturers should not provide OTA update. Who is to blame here ??

So guys before updating your phones please be sure of what you are doing. From now onwards I have made it a point to get it updated through service centre OR root it and then tinker around.

Also the retailer told me that a customer came in with his lumia 720 to update his phone and when the guy at the shop tried to update it the motherboard went kaput. And then it was the retailer who had to bear the loss.
 
Even if you update a phone through official channels after the warranty period is over and if something unfortunate happens during the process, you'll need to shell out money to get it repaired. A friend's acquaintance damaged his S2's internals (can't rem exactly what) while updating to official OTA JB and he to pay a hefty sum to get it repaired from the ASSC. It had been just 2 months since his warranty had expired. Due to this fact alone, quite a few I know have refrained from updating their devices due to warranty period being over.
 
aquaticbullet said:
So my relative who lives in Oman gave her Samsung Galaxy advance to me last december as she upgraded.
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Just so its clear here, you're referring to the galaxy S advance ?

Releases are dependent on the country some times. You said Oman, is the update for India & Oman the same. Are there any differences.

For instance i'm not aware of GDR2 for the 720 having being released for India yet. It is for other countries. Coming any time now till the end of sept. If you update the wrong one then there might be issues.

aquaticbullet said:
Now I have to shell out ~2k for replacement of power IC unit and what not.:(
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I don't understand why you have to do this either.
 
blr_p said:
Just so its clear here, you're referring to the galaxy S advance ?

Releases are dependent on the country some times. You said Oman, is the update for India & Oman the same. Are there any differences.

For instance i'm not aware of GDR2 for the 720 having being released for India yet. It is for other countries. Coming any time now till the end of sept. If you update the wrong one then there might be issues.


I don't understand why you have to do this either.
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Even if the phone is from Oman the software update will be relative to the same region AFAIK. Else the update would not have even shown up as notification.
Had to get the phone serviced because I need it. I cant go the the service centre as I dont have bill or box (it's in oman)
 
Have owned several Samsung phones ... have updated .. rooted .. and have even switched between multiple custom roms as well over the past few years ...and yes .. I to have managed to brick my brothers moms and my phones several times .. but theres always a solution ... Heck if you can unbrick an Apple iPhone 4 .. when the company themselves tell you we cant replace it since its not from a local region and you cant get a replacement for a then valued 34500 phone .. you do have to get creative ...try and rule out any possible software related issues( with Samsung phones firmwares are different from different countries ... not coz of any software being different but its all about the bandwidth as a power user im sure your aware of this fact) .. and if its a hardware issue .. getting the parts at whole sale prices isnt an issue and general repair for cheap can be done at any reseller if you like more help on the matter .. your welcome to PM me .. and ill do my best to guide you further ^^
 
No. I didnt try anything else.
Did a quick search on XDA but could not find any relevant info. Had a time crunch so went directly to service centre.
 
aquaticbullet said:
But the thing is how can a software update damage hardware ?? :confused:
@Rahul++ your 2 cents please
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Yes it is an issue with Samsung mobiles , EMMC bug . Even I lost my AT&T Samsung S2 , Nothing helps the motherboard gets cooked up . No jig , no XDA , no debricking helps as motherboard is poof . The only option is motherboard/IC change
I am commenting on possibility of this happening as people think it cannot happen . On xda & playstore there is even an app to check whether your mobile is part of the affected series . I dont know whether EMMC bug or any other thing affected his mobile but check these threads .
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.vinagre.android.emmc_check&hl=en
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1709054
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2224029
Imagine when it was not documented and people started losing mobiles , all hell broke loose . People blaming ROM dev and dev blaming users for improper flash and mud slinging . It was xda dev Entropy512 who found it and documented it and made Samsung recognize it .
I have a dead S2 so was tracking it . Samsung screwed people big way . If you are in warranty saved , if not pay for motherboard change . If its a US set again screwed as all US samsung models not same as Indian models .
I had to request one of our users who was US to drop another AT&T in Samsung service centre and reship it to me in India .Thanks to the user it get saved , Samsung US repaired it free . Samsung service centre is not aware and cannot find out whether you were rooted or had CWM . So burnt my hands twice . After that most devs have removed or blacklisted that specific firmware or files which activate this emmc bug . It is present only or Samsung official firmware/updates as most devs/ROM dev have removed it
 
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That was a long read. From what i can gather to trigger the problem, one needs to have a faulty eMMC chip and the OS update must perform a mmc_erase. This bug got triggered during ICS updates. JB or 4.1.2 and greater releases have the fix already.

What isn't clear to me is what needs to be replaced here, it seems like the main storage chip has a problem and that is the chip that needs to be replaced. However, OP is told to change the 'power IC chip' so i'm not sure whether this was the same problem but it seems related. An OS update perm-bricked the phone resulting in a IC replacement. That too, an official update.

Here is a thread and another that discusses the issue. Did not expect this from samsung (!)
 
My Samsung Galaxy R died because of this. eMMC brick bug affected a lot of Samsung Phones.
Dunno about others, but even HTC ones had a similar issue.
 
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