This article was published on January 2, 2013

Samsung reportedly planning firmware update to address suddenly dying Galaxy S III devices


Samsung reportedly planning firmware update to address suddenly dying Galaxy S III devices

Last month we reported some Samsung Galaxy S III owners were seeing their devices suddenly die after being charged overnight or simply after the screen was turned off. Until now the company has been fixing the devices, but it is now reportedly prepping a software update to prevent the bricking in the first place.

Although Samsung has not revealed the exact cause of the sudden device failure, a spokesperson reportedly told the Dutch site Tweakers that the root cause is in a firmware bug that is easily solved. Furthermore, “only a very limited number of Galaxy S III models with 16GB memory,” are said to be affected.

In our previous coverage, we wrote about what Samsung Galaxy S III owners were seeing:

Users are reporting that the mainboards are the root of the problem and that the flash memory is becoming corrupted and failing, though the devices do seem to last somewhere between 150 and 200 days before dying. According to reports, Samsung is replacing them under warranty whether or not people have rooted the devices or installed non-standard firmware, but the company is allegedly using the same revision for the mainboards, suggesting the problem may simply come back in a few months again.

Based on the hundreds of comments from users, as well as the fact that the issue happened regardless of the OS on the device, our impression was that this was likely a hardware issue. Yet if this latest information is accurate, it would appear Samsung has figured out a way to address it on the software side.

When exactly this update will be released is not clear, but naturally it will be rolled out as soon as possible. We have contacted Samsung about the issue again for confirmation. We will update this article if we hear back.

Image via Kevork Djansezian/AFP/Getty Images

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