Associate
Anyone with a mmc_fail Note 4 tucked away in a drawer might want to try this
A few people on XDA and Reddit are saying it fixed the problem.
A few people on XDA and Reddit are saying it fixed the problem.
**** The Official Note 4 thread ****
- Thread starter hellarda
- Start date
Soldato
Jolly thread revival,!
Still using mine and no problems so far but could be useful - I've only skipped through the video/info so I might be restating the obvious but from the looks of what he is doing that suggests the problem is something along the lines of BGA solder failure.
Associate
That's what it looks like to me as well. If anyone does try this find another teardown video as the one in the link doesn't emphasise the care needed to remove the screen.
My Note 4s are still fine and I also have a 4 year old Exynos model (N910C) as well which is supposed to be unaffected by the problem.
I don't want to jinx myself but it looks to me like Samsung are using a lot of software "hacks" to do thermal management and generally make up for some hardware design flaws with the Note 4 and people using custom ROMs (that probably don't have these limits) and/or using mods that remove other thermal limits like the camera ones are probably making up a significant number of the people seeing these failures due to more frequent thermal cycles and more extreme thermal cycles that are pushing the weaknesses with the phone's hardware.
Soldato
I sold mine onto Mazuma. Miss it terribly to this day 
Great to see folks with the phone still - may they serve you well! *touches wood*
Great to see folks with the phone still - may they serve you well! *touches wood*For me it is close to the perfect phone as far as anything that is possible with current tech goes - good screen with enough resolution and no silly aspect ratio or curved edges or notches, decent enough battery life, 3.5mm headphone jack!, removable battery, good enough performance and though I don't use it a lot the stylus support, etc.
Soldato
Yep. I'm hardly a fan of Samsung devices but I respect their build quality. The Note4 was something else though - it always remained snappy under the stock OS. Even my dad fell in love with it and the stylus when I gave it to him as a hand-me-down. The screen was as good as my S8+ and I recall drooling at my 7hr SoT out of the box during the first 6 months of use. Hell even that camera was superb.
Wish they'd done a bit more work with the camera though - really potent sensor but under some conditions the image would come out with a chalkiness to it (which my Note 1 doesn't) and/or some obvious compression artefacts in places (which again my Note 1 handled fine in the same circumstances) but it was also capable of some really good images as well. Likewise the audio chip is pretty decent but let down by 1-2 little issues especially there seems to be some software resampling or something that isn't quite allowing full performance out of it.
Soldato
That would be Samsung's horribly aggressive sharpening algorithms that would be quite visible in low light shots. I hated that with a vengeance. I believe the Note3 had the same algorithm too.
Associate
I wouldn't really say that's true myself. The Note 4 has usual mobile suite of thermal management. Kernel level thermal protection at the high level, then skin temperature management services and an IPA driver to manage power usage. There some questions about how Samsung set these up (poorly in some cases), but what they are doing is all pretty standard stuff and you'll find the same in basically every phone from the last 4-5 years.
A lot of custom ROMS/kernels disable the eMMCs syncing and CRC checking and I have always wondered if that goes some way to causing these issues honestly. It's never been a good idea but the masses want anything that increases their crappy Android benchmark of choice (*cough*AnTuTu*cough*) so the 'devs' put the changes in to be popular. Some do also disable some of the thermal management stuff which isn't good either, but personally I think the disabling of the eMMC safety features is the biggest issue.
We still have 2 Note 4's in our house and both going strong. Still happily run pretty much anything we need no problems and got them tweaked up pretty nicely these days
Soldato
It's definitely possible that custom kernels sped the process up. Still happened with stock phones though, mine had the board replace at 13 months i think.
hmm the s8/s8+ were a big step up. They supported HDR and dci-p3, for starters.
hmm the s8/s8+ were a big step up. They supported HDR and dci-p3, for starters.
Even laptops have fairly aggressive heat management and you'll be surprised how early they'll start to throttle the CPU or GPU to protect the life of the hardware. This isn't a Samsung thing, it's everyone. People want the fastest hardware and the smallest size and sometimes that's done with thermal management by software.
The Note 9 has a massive heat pipe and that probably still throtttles too.
The Note 9 has a massive heat pipe and that probably still throtttles too.
Associate
If anyone is interested in attempting a fix on a mmc_fail Note 4 then I've recently replaced a motherboard on a Note 4 with a used one bought on AliExpress for £30. All the motherboards on sale there are from used Note 4s and are unlocked (money back option if there's any problems).
It's surprisingly easy to replace the motherboard with the only 'difficult' part being to remove the screen from the middle chassis but even that is just a matter of working at it slowly and carefully with the right tools. The cameras and sensors are easy to swap over as well. There's a few guides but this is the main one I used.
Because the motherboards can be any age and have had a lot or a little use they may also fail in time but at £30 I reckon it's worth a try. I ran a CheckMEND on the motherboard I fitted and it came out clean.
I'm on the lookout for otherwise decent condition Note 4s but with failed motherboards for spares.
It's surprisingly easy to replace the motherboard with the only 'difficult' part being to remove the screen from the middle chassis but even that is just a matter of working at it slowly and carefully with the right tools. The cameras and sensors are easy to swap over as well. There's a few guides but this is the main one I used.
Because the motherboards can be any age and have had a lot or a little use they may also fail in time but at £30 I reckon it's worth a try. I ran a CheckMEND on the motherboard I fitted and it came out clean.
I'm on the lookout for otherwise decent condition Note 4s but with failed motherboards for spares.