Samsung plans firmware update for 'dying' Galaxy IIIs

Korean electronics giant Samsung is working on a firmware fix for a bug that caused some Samsung Galaxy S III devices to suddenly die on their owners.

 

Tech site The Next Web cited an article posted on Dutch-language site Tweakers that said the cause of the problem lies in a firmware bug.

 

"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," The Next Web quoted the Dutch site article as saying. However it said there is no indication on when the update will be released.

 

Last December, several Galaxy S III owners claimed their devices suddenly got bricked and would not turn on anymore after being charged overnight.

 

Some said their devices were bricked simply after the screen was turned off.

 

But The Next Web in December quoted some users who sent their devices to repair centers as saying employees said the issue appears to affect many people recently.

 

It also cited reports indicating Samsung is replacing the affected devices under warranty, whether or not people have rooted the devices or installed non-standard firmware.

 

"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," The Next Web said.  — ELR, GMA News