Note 3 Lollipop caused WiFi failure and bootloop

[magigaj]

HI,

I have had a Samsung Note 3 since November 2013 and recently upgraded to Lollipop. It was working for a few days and when i set the alarm on Friday night it rebooted. When it came back up it started to go in to a reboot loop and would not stay on the home page more than 5-10 seconds.

After much trial and error, i factory reset the phone. It seemed OK when going through the initial settings and restoring backed up apps so assumed it was an app causing it. After a few more mimutes of restoral, the booting loop started again.

After factory resetting again and not restoring any apps, and working as a brand new device, it worked fine until i turned on WiFi to start getting the apps one by one to see which caused the problem. The bootloop started again. I was able to get back in to the phone to turn off WiFi inbetween reboots and when disabled, the phoen remains stable.

Have retested by not doing anything to the phone and just turning on wifi and as soon as anything to do with wifi is enabled (WiFi, screen mirroring, WiFi Hotspot, Download Booster) it reboots and get stuck in the loop until the offending item is turned off.

I have tried searching for similar issues but have not been able to find anyone with this same problem. Is this a faulty handset or is there anything else you can recommend to try?

Thanks

NB i have tried 3 different WiFi access points, and also where there is no WiFi signal in the open air, do not have Power saving turned on and do not have Auto Switch enabled.

[darknico]

i would be interested to find out what the fix will be, as a friend of mine at work has the same issue with his phone.
Hopefuly it's something simple as he isnt the best technically.

[hrym]

It's possible that the system cache needs to be cleared.   I think the keypress combination is Home+Power+Volume Up.   If it is, you'll get a menu.   Use the volume keys to move about and the power key to select.   I'm pretty sure there's an option that includes clearing the cache.

[magigaj]

Hi,thanks for responding but that is one of the things already tried. Getting to the recovery menu was the only way I could factory reset before I realised it was the wifi causing the problems. Any other suggestions or should I just take it to a store to see if they can repair?

[hrym · Accepted solution]

In this case, I might investigate Samsung repair centres.   My guess would be that the firmware needs to be re-flashed and it's possible that might be a quicker route.

[magigaj]

Turns out we have just had a new Samsung repair centre open in Reading so they took it in and reflashed and it now works fine - they said it was most likely a corrupted OTA download and always best to upgrade when connected to PC or Kies.

Thanks for suggestions

[hrym]

I must say I thought the OTA process verified the file before installing, but maybe it doesn't.  Also, I always do updates with the charger plugged in.   Updating is quite power-intensive, so the last thing you want is any kind of power glitch!

[magigaj]

Mines been fine since the reflashing. I was told by the repair centre that if the reflash didn't work then they would have to send it off for repair. There is a 2 year manufacturer's warranty with Samsung and they check s/n for manufacture date but as only out in sept/Oct 13 it should be covered.

Hope this helps

[Kadoma]

http://www.androidiani.com/forum/samsung-galaxy-note-3-n9005/518827-thread-problemi-bootloop-consigl...