Help S3 keeps rebooting by itself.

[OscarBlanco]

Hi everyone.

I heard about the insane chip thing recently, when I looked up what could be happening to my phone which keeps rebooting by itself every two hours or so.
Sometimes it freezes right after it starts up. Yesterday it seemed it had formatted itself, because all apps seemed to be gone, and the desktop had reset itself (though strangely the wallpapers for the lock and regular screen where still there, and so where all my pics and contacts). But on restart, everything came back.

So, anyway, I installed the eMMC check app. And indeed, I have the insane chip.

My phone is a GT-19300 international version.

Chip:
Type: VTU00M
CID: 15010056545530304df1e9f55c657f6b

OS version: 4.1.2
Kernel: 3.031-789635
SMP PREEMPT Fri Jan 4, 2013


I've read about rooting, but honestly I don't want to do it. Neither look for an unofficial 4.2.2 OS (I've read posts from people that had formatted and installed that OS, and they keep having problems).

Is there any simple solution?
I've heard that the OS I have is good enough to at least have the phone not DIE on me... but the constant restarts can't be a good sign! And frankly, it's quite annoying and a hassle!

Thanks for any help!

 

[nickdalzell]

the 'chip thing' aka sudden death is a faulty power button and would cause your phone to turn off and back on, not randonly reboot. mine randomly reboots a lot if i'm out in extreme heat/humidity enough to steam the glass of the screen--it seems very susceptible to it. another cause is overheating (the Android kernel is designed to reboot in the event of a CPU overload) or a rogue app chewing more RAM than Android can free (known as an Out-of-Memory (OOM) panic)

i have noticed also a faulty SD card will cause a panic (reboot) if you're playing music on it and it loses connection even for a millisecond, the reader in the phone is not very well made and seems to lose its connection to it rather easily, as evidenced by how mine skips music like a bad CD if i move around enough that the case is flexed.

 

[damewolf13]

Hi, Oscar.
I have moved this into the S3 forum in hopes that someone with the same issue can help you.

 

[funkylogik]

The easiest way to deal with it is just let the reboots happen and when it freezes, leave it until it reboots. Aparently it will happen less and less. It did for my brother.
Also i read that samsung will swap the motherboard on s3s with the insane chip even outside the warranty. i cant confirm that though :thumbup: