Help Yet more S4 woes... CPU Performance and SD card

[RhysLlewellyn]

Hi all.

I've had my Galaxy S4 (UK unlocked, unrooted), using Nova Launcher for about 2 months now. It was all pretty smooth sailing up until a few weeks ago.

After having taken some pictures a few weeks back, I got my first taste of the dreaded "SD card has unmounted" and "Blank SD card". I am now seeing these and other SD card related pop-up warnings CONSTANTLY. Not sure if my photos and music are safe or not. Sometimes I can see them in the library, sometimes I can't. Don't really know if any pictures I'm taking anymore are saved or not.

I've recorded some video which is VERY choppy and bad quality, which I assume is also SD card related? I've also had the phone heat up the entire screen and go from what is usually an exceptionally good battery life to losing 15% battery in a matter of 10 minutes literally!! The heat starts radiating from just below the camera lens where the SD card is housed.

This was on a 32 GB Class 4 Sandisk microSD card (I know, I've read all about them!!!) so I thought I'd found the culprit. Despite the fact that this card works absolutely flawlessly on my old phone, I ordered a Samsung 64 GB Class 10 card just to be ultra safe on the side of compatibility.

As soon as I inserted the new card and booted up, all seemed fine... I then plugged in the USB lead to my computer (Win 7) and used Media Player to sync a few albums across and it crashed Media Player and the new memory card is now corrupt.

I've tried re-formatting the card from within the phone. This simply causes my phone to freeze and eventually restart itself. I've tried re-formatting on my PC using exFat and FAT32, but the progress bar just sits there doing nothing for hours. So I guess I'll have to send that back too?!!

On top of this, I find even very basic games struggle A LOT on this phone. Some basic 3d racing games struggle rendering graphics and very jerky and obviously I'm very shocked at this considering the processing power.

I do love everything else about this phone despite this, so I'm going to get a refund and buy another one (which is now also cheaper, so that's a bonus) and give Samsung one more chance.

If there was another choice of a 5" screen, removable battery and SD card space and as well supported as this phone then I would be looking elsewhere.

Is there anyone at all that has no troubles with this very annoying SD card issue? My brother has a Galaxy S2 and he says if he rests his phone too "hard" on a table, i.e. normally, his card unmounts and there's numerous threads about the S3 SD card issues.

Any other suggestions? Thank you

 

[Shocky]

Sorry to hear your having these issues.

Please run Quadrant or 3dmark(disable the demo before running) from Google Play store and post results just to check your phones performance is where it should be.

Can you tell us what games you are having trouble with? that would be a start as we can test that ourselves.

Class 4 microsd card should have been enough for the video recording so you shouldn't have needed to change cards in the first place. Sandisk may have dodgy batches but when they work they perform very well.

The Samsung sdcard could be faulty, that's always a possibility but considering the problem you had with the Sandisk card it could also be the phone.

Can you tell use where you got the Galaxy S4 and the sdcard from? have you installed any updates recently? Under about device in settings can you tell us the last three letters of the baseband version?

 

[Tsepz_GP]

Haven't had any of those issues, but WRT the Gaming, have you made sure your S4 isn't in Power Save mode? The other day I played GTA3 on mine and noticed stuttering and freezing, so I rebooted it and on boot up it reminded me that Power Save was on, felt like an idiot, lol

 

[RhysLlewellyn]

Hi Shocky, thanks for your very helpful reply, now that's service!

I wasn't sure what Quadrant is as there's quite a few listings in the Play Store so I've downloaded 3dmark...

Under Ice Storm my result is 10,984 and it says my device appears to be working normally but there was most definitely choppy parts where it looked like it was struggling?? Maybe I'm just asking too much?

And under Ice Storm Extreme (which again is undoubtedly annoyingly jerky)... my score is 6602.

I don't really play very many games but the few that I have done, it's mainly Carmageddon which showed definite lag and far from smooth and Cubed Rally Redline (which is free and caused major lag, you'll laugh when you see the graphics! lol). But yeah in both cases, I'm getting lots of short pauses/lags every 30 seconds or so. That said, when I'm scrolling up and down through webpages I sometimes get it then, too. Also, now that I think about it, I also get the same lag every now and then when playing back DVD quality (Standard definition) Mpeg2 files from the memory card (back in the days when my memory card actually worked) with MX Player.

I'm wondering whether it's all SD card fault related and the overheating is definitely cause for concern which I'm pretty sure is SD card related.

As far as the new Samsung SD card goes... I'm just gonna have to send it back and hope it was a faulty one, I guess? But as you say, given my problems, I suspect the phone is the cause.

I bought the phone from ASDA Direct and the SD card from a reputable dealer on Amazon with good reviews on the card.

The last 3 letters of the baseband version say "MDM" and I don't recall having any OTA updates to the phone since I purchased it a few months ago.

Is everything looking normal? Once again, thank you for your time, I really appreciate it

 

[RhysLlewellyn]

Haven't had any of those issues, but WRT the Gaming, have you made sure your S4 isn't in Power Save mode? The other day I played GTA3 on mine and noticed stuttering and freezing, so I rebooted it and on boot up it reminded me that Power Save was on, felt like an idiot, lol

Thanks for your suggestion, Tsepz. I've checked and it's definitely off and I also regularly restart my phone and flush out all running processes on a regular basis.

 

[dunamis]

I also have some random stuttering problem when playing game (hill climb & ski safari). I've not had any lagging issues with the phone itself in general usage. But have concerns that the phone needs to be replaced but don't know if anything is wrong or just something to live with....

I made sure power saver mode is not on..and also running NOVA Launcher.

Sorry in my ignorance I don't know how to post pictures of benchmark test...but it came out "12094"

I would really like to know if something is wrong with my phone to replace or how to further test the phone for problems...hate to do it cause of the Spigen Glass screen protector that is on will be lost...lol

 

[Shocky]

Hi Shocky, thanks for your very helpful reply, now that's service!

I wasn't sure what Quadrant is as there's quite a few listings in the Play Store so I've downloaded 3dmark...

Under Ice Storm my result is 10,984 and it says my device appears to be working normally but there was most definitely choppy parts where it looked like it was struggling?? Maybe I'm just asking too much?

And under Ice Storm Extreme (which again is undoubtedly annoyingly jerky)... my score is 6602.

I don't really play very many games but the few that I have done, it's mainly Carmageddon which showed definite lag and far from smooth and Cubed Rally Redline (which is free and caused major lag, you'll laugh when you see the graphics! lol). But yeah in both cases, I'm getting lots of short pauses/lags every 30 seconds or so. That said, when I'm scrolling up and down through webpages I sometimes get it then, too. Also, now that I think about it, I also get the same lag every now and then when playing back DVD quality (Standard definition) Mpeg2 files from the memory card (back in the days when my memory card actually worked) with MX Player.

I'm wondering whether it's all SD card fault related and the overheating is definitely cause for concern which I'm pretty sure is SD card related.

As far as the new Samsung SD card goes... I'm just gonna have to send it back and hope it was a faulty one, I guess? But as you say, given my problems, I suspect the phone is the cause.

I bought the phone from ASDA Direct and the SD card from a reputable dealer on Amazon with good reviews on the card.

The last 3 letters of the baseband version say "MDM" and I don't recall having any OTA updates to the phone since I purchased it a few months ago.

Is everything looking normal? Once again, thank you for your time, I really appreciate it

The performance looks spot on, 3dmark is a stress test so it's not meant to run perfectly but still on the Galaxy S4 it should be fairly smooth. A score of anything between 10800 to 11800 is normal for the Galaxy S4 so your a bit on the lower end but it's okay, also MDM is the latest firmware for the UK so that's fine.

I see what you mean about Cubed Rally Redline, it's pretty basic but both games seem smooth here, I can't see any lag at all and I'm definitely not getting an lag when playing video files or browsing the web.

I'm using an updated firmware not yet available in the UK but it shouldn't make this kind of difference so I suspect there's an issue with your phone. I would try a factory reset first to see if that helps but if your still noticing general lag or stuttering in games and apps for no reason it looks like you need a replacement.

I would be very reluctant to put another sdcard in that phone, the sdcard issue is probably related.

 

[RhysLlewellyn]

The performance looks spot on, 3dmark is a stress test so it's not meant to run perfectly but still on the Galaxy S4 it should be fairly smooth. A score of anything between 10800 to 11800 is normal for the Galaxy S4 so your a bit on the lower end but it's okay, also MDM is the latest firmware for the UK so that's fine.

I see what you mean about Cubed Rally Redline, it's pretty basic but both games seem smooth here, I can't see any lag at all and I'm definitely not getting an lag when playing video files or browsing the web.

I'm using an updated firmware not yet available in the UK but it shouldn't make this kind of difference so I suspect there's an issue with your phone. I would try a factory reset first to see if that helps but if your still noticing general lag or stuttering in games and apps for no reason it looks like you need a replacement.

I would be very reluctant to put another sdcard in that phone, the sdcard issue is probably related.

Thanks Shocky. Well I think I've decided that since a factory reset is a bit of a pain in the bum, especially after getting everything just how I like it, I might as well at least start fresh with a new S4.

My plan is to order another one tomorrow, keep my fingers crossed and return my current one for a full refund when the new one turns up and return the Samsung SD card in the meantime.

 

[dunamis]

my Ice Storm Extreme score 6560
Ice storm score 10627

what does these things mean? if there something wrong with my phone and I should get it replaced? or just some app is causing the glitches and stutterings and i should do a hard reset for clean install??

thanks anybody for your help

 

[Shocky]

my Ice Storm Extreme score 6560
Ice storm score 10627

what does these things mean? if there something wrong with my phone and I should get it replaced? or just some app is causing the glitches and stutterings and i should do a hard reset for clean install??

thanks anybody for your help

Did you run the benchmark while your phone was charging? Normally the Galaxy S4 GT-i9505 should score around 11700, the only reason it scores lower is due to thermal throttling usually so it can vary allot

Lowest I've scored is around 10800 and I'e run it a few dozen times.

Are you getting stuttering in all games? Ski Safari works perfectly here and it has relatively simple graphics so you should't have any issues.

Again try a hard reset, if your still having problems I'd consider a replacement.

 

[dunamis]

Did you run the benchmark while your phone was charging? Normally the Galaxy S4 GT-i9505 should score around 11700, the only reason it scores lower is due to thermal throttling usually so it can vary allot

Lowest I've scored is around 10800 and I'e run it a few dozen times.

Are you getting stuttering in all games? Ski Safari works perfectly here and it has relatively simple graphics so you should't have any issues.

Again try a hard reset, if your still having problems I'd consider a replacement.

No it wasn't plugged, and I suppose that it does make a difference?...and by hard reset, you mean "FACTORY DATA RESET" from Backup and reset in setting?

 

[Shocky]

No it wasn't plugged, and I suppose that it does make a difference?...and by hard reset, you mean "FACTORY DATA RESET" from Backup and reset in setting?

Yes it makes a huge difference to benchmarks, you ever played a game while your phone was charging? it gets hot and the hotter it gets the more it will throttle the CPU speed.

Yes, factory reset either from in Android or via recovery.