Develop Bugs

Problems Updating OTA - Stock Non-Rooted

I am having an issue with updating a Red AT&T Galaxy Siii OTA. I am not rooted (and have never been rooted on this phone), running stock ROM, currently on baseband I747UCLG1. Everytime I try to update OTA manually, I get an error that says, "Communication Failed. The server is currently unavailable. Your device will automatically check for updates within the next 48 hours."
I have also noticed a few others in the update thread having the same issue, but I haven't seen a solution posted. That thread is mostly about issues with updating on a rooted phone, so I thought I would start a new thread focused on this issue.
I have tried the following:
1. Tried on more than one wifi network to eliminate possibility that there is any issue with my network.
2. Cleared the AT&T Update application cache and tried again - multiple times.
3. Did a full factory reset, and tried again.
None of these has resulted in me being able to update OTA. Are there any others out there like me? Has anyone found a solution yet?

robertlewisca said:
I am having an issue with updating a Red AT&T Galaxy Siii OTA. I am not rooted (and have never been rooted on this phone), running stock ROM, currently on baseband I747UCLG1. Everytime I try to update OTA manually, I get an error that says, "Communication Failed. The server is currently unavailable. Your device will automatically check for updates within the next 48 hours."
I have also noticed a few others in the update thread having the same issue, but I haven't seen a solution posted. That thread is mostly about issues with updating on a rooted phone, so I thought I would start a new thread focused on this issue.
I have tried the following:
1. Tried on more than one wifi network to eliminate possibility that there is any issue with my network.
2. Cleared the AT&T Update application cache and tried again - multiple times.
3. Did a full factory reset, and tried again.
None of these has resulted in me being able to update OTA. Are there any others out there like me? Has anyone found a solution yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was having the same exact problem. I even changed phones thru warranty. The new phone did the same thing. New SIM card didn't help. I had a guy at tech support to push the update to me.

I am having mine replaced under warranty as well. I hope it ultimately fixes the problem. What I don't want is to have to contact AT&T tech support every time there is an update and ask them to 'push' it to me - then have to explain the entire issue over again, and be forced to go through their trouble-shooting again which includes them insisting I do a factory reset.
Is there anyone else out there having this issue? I would like to get a sense for whether this is pretty isolated, or whether it's a bit more common.

IDK, co-worker with a Skyrocket has had the same issue, but he doesn't care about the update, so he hasn't bothered to get it resolved.
If I didn't have a red GS3, I could goof around and tell you that is what the problem is...
Actually, if it were me having the issue, I'd walk into AT&T and have their guys mess around with it. No telling why some have more issues than others.

robertlewisca said:
I am having mine replaced under warranty as well. I hope it ultimately fixes the problem. What I don't want is to have to contact AT&T tech support every time there is an update and ask them to 'push' it to me - then have to explain the entire issue over again, and be forced to go through their trouble-shooting again which includes them insisting I do a factory reset.
Is there anyone else out there having this issue? I would like to get a sense for whether this is pretty isolated, or whether it's a bit more common.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had the exact issue went to att yesterday and tried a new sim card, but that didnt work. i tried everything you did with no suck luck. the want to warranty out my phone but im not dealing with them again so i just rooted and flashed it. i also have the red one... maybe its just this color since it came out later with a different baseband version?

Not really a solution but you could install this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1902178 to be fully stock LH9 with Root. Or use the OTA zip from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1896773.

aboveusonlysky said:
i had the exact issue went to att yesterday and tried a new sim card, but that didnt work. i tried everything you did with no suck luck. the want to warranty out my phone but im not dealing with them again so i just rooted and flashed it. i also have the red one... maybe its just this color since it came out later with a different baseband version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, It's not just because it's red, regardless of their original baseband versions.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to update.

78c10 said:
No, It's not just because it's red, regardless of their original baseband versions.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mention in your signature that your phone is rooted. So, did you update OTA then root, or did you update after rooting through some other method? The challenge some of us are having is that we are not rooted, and cannot update OTA because of the 'server error' it gives us everytime we try.

Problem Solved - for me at least
Well, the problem is solved for me, and I thought I would share what I found out here in hopes it helps someone else.
First, I had the phone replaced under warranty. It appears to be a brand new phone. When I received the new phone, I started it up, went through the normal startup stuff - entered my Google account information, it backed up my info and settings. Before I loaded any apps, I went straight to the update screen, and tried to check for an update. I again got the 'communication failed' error. Bummer.
So, then, I did a factory reset on the new phone, but this time instead of entering the initial Google account info on the startup screens, I skipped through all of the initial screens, got to the home screen, then went straight to the update screen - and this time it worked! So, it must be something to do with the initial screens, and entering Google account information that caused the problem.
Then, I got to thinking - perhaps this might work on my old phone too. Since I just got the warranty phone today, I still had my old phone (which needs to be sent back). So, I did a factory reset on it, skipped all of the initial screens where it asks for Google account information, and it still didn't work on the old phone. So, I'm not sure what the original issue was.
By the way, after the update installed on the new phone, and I went through and entered all of the Google account settings, and then checked for the update again, and there was no error.
So, perhaps this might be helpful for others?

[Q] Phone deactivated?

I was running latest paranoid android and I wiped cache/dalvic cache after flashing Cerberus in recovery and when the phone booted up it was asking me to Activate (sprint service) my phone. I've never seen this with flashing roms and was wondering if this is a known issue with flashing roms on the S3 or something that can randomly occur from time to time.
Anyone have experience with this before? I had been running Paranoid Android for less than 24 hours but initially didn't have any problems whatsoever.

Itll do that sometimes depending on the rom. Usually does it after a factory reset and installing a cm based rom. Its just asking you to add your google account... you should be fine
sent from my thumbs

youdoofus said:
Itll do that sometimes depending on the rom. Usually does it after a factory reset and installing a cm based rom. Its just asking you to add your google account... you should be fine
sent from my thumbs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This didn't have anything to do with my Google account. I guess I should have been more specific, I mean that my phone is deactivated on Sprint's network as in I can't make phone calls and all the info is missing in about phone. Phone number, PRL and such. I am flashing back to stock right now and hope this fixes it. Will probably give paranoid another go but this doesn't sound like a common issue because I haven't been able to find anything by searching.

When you get back to stock it'll probably reactivate itself. If not (although you can do this regardless just in case), ##72786# in the dialer should set you straight. If I'm not mistaken the screen you're referring to should be gone when you boot stock regardless. Its a bug. Doesn't work for a sprint phone but still buried in the rom

Ahhh... could try manually flashing your modem after the install too
sent from my thumbs

billard412 said:
When you get back to stock it'll probably reactivate itself. If not (although you can do this regardless just in case), ##72786# in the dialer should set you straight. If I'm not mistaken the screen you're referring to should be gone when you boot stock regardless. Its a bug. Doesn't work for a sprint phone but still buried in the rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Soon as I flashed the stock rom it tried to activate and initially failed and prompted me to reboot. Second attempt it was successful and then I immediately flashed back to PA and it is working. Going to give it another shot and keep the stock rom on my sd card this time in case I get stuck in a pinch.

I jumped the gun, phone activated fine but signal drops in and out randomly and will not connect to 3g. Just reflashed to stock again and everything seemed fine but signal was still back in and out. Checked under status and PRL read "0" tried updating to no avail so did the dialer code and it did the activation and all is right in the world again, or at least for the moment.
Just trying to figure out why when I flash Paranoid all my settings just disappear
*edit*
Just flashed back to PA this third time after fully making sure that the phone was working and had 3G data and all was right with the world (my phone). Will update if it goes South again but as of right now the phone is behaving properly. Maybe it just wasn't working right the first time and I didn't notice since I was on wifi. Only thing that keeps me from thinking that is I didn't get the Activation message until 12 hours or so after I had flashed and had been using the phone. /shrug

I still think flashing a modem in recovery after installing PA would yield a poisitve result
sent from my thumbs

youdoofus said:
I still think flashing a modem in recovery after installing PA would yield a poisitve result
sent from my thumbs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do you flash a modem? I am new to this and this is also a problem that I am having with the same rom. I tried searching for a fix and this is where i landed.
Thank you,
and sorry if i am breaking forum rules

[Q] Need to downgrade, how?

Greetings, I wonder if somebody can solve the following problem. I'm from Venezuela and I bought this model GT-I9192 in December 2013 when the update came out this year it was updated from 4.2.2 (JellyBean) to 4.4.2 (KitKat). I almost never use the camera of this phone and then I noticed that every time I opened the camera app I would get "Warning: Camera Failed". Thinking it was the update I proceeded to install the Cyanogenmod rom 11 for this model, but continued with the same problem. The flash works every time I turn the flashlight application. I took it to a technician telling me that the problem was not hardware but software. This is where my troubles began. I do not remember which firmware was installed. I tried to install several firmwares 4.2.2. but without success all with flashing failures. However, I could install version 4.4.2 of Trinidad and Tobago but with the same camera error. Hopefully someone can help me with this problem. I would like to know exactly what firmware should download to install? Thank you very much.

nelson2006 said:
Greetings, I wonder if somebody can solve the following problem. I'm from Venezuela and I bought this model GT-I9192 in December 2013 when the update came out this year it was updated from 4.2.2 (JellyBean) to 4.4.2 (KitKat). I almost never use the camera of this phone and then I noticed that every time I opened the camera app I would get "Warning: Camera Failed". Thinking it was the update I proceeded to install the Cyanogenmod rom 11 for this model, but continued with the same problem. The flash works every time I turn the flashlight application. I took it to a technician telling me that the problem was not hardware but software. This is where my troubles began. I do not remember which firmware was installed. I tried to install several firmwares 4.2.2. but without success all with flashing failures. However, I could install version 4.4.2 of Trinidad and Tobago but with the same camera error. Hopefully someone can help me with this problem. I would like to know exactly what firmware should download to install? Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I registered here just to answer your question.
My Android expertise is very limited but I try to learn from past experience. If I understand correctly, your want:
1. the camera should work.
2. the phone should function properly.
If you do not remember your original firmware, do not worry as it does not matter. Once your upgraded to KK, Knox (google it) kicked in to prevent you from downgrading to JB. That's why all flashing efforts to downgrade failed. So, you can keep your phone with KK if the phone works except camera. In case you want to downgrade to JB, I am sure that able XDA members can help you with that. I am unaware if such methods exist.
Now, to see if the camera works there are several methods. I encountered the same problem with my wives i727 Skyrocket which has JB 4.1.2 installed. One day the camera suddenly failed with the error "Warning: Camera Failed". The flash-light worked flawlessly so I was a bit perplexed. I researched and found several remedies:
1. From application manager, clear cache/data of the camera app and restart phone - Tried this several times, did not work.
2. Perform factory reset- Thought I'd use it as a last resort as the phone had gigs of data in it.
3. Uninstall apps (last installed app uninstalled first and so on) - I uninstalled the last installed app and restarted the phone. Voila! The camera was back. I have no explanations why but it just worked.
Let us know how it goes, good luck!

On the i9195, it is possible and easy to downgrade to JB since there's a 4.2.2 firmware which is similar to the 4.4.2 firmwares, but I don't know about the i9192.
Be careful with this;
If you know what you are doing, get the CWM recovery, format system/data and flash a 4.4.2 firmware again. If that didn't fix it, I suspect that it's a hardware problem and it's having problems with the software, but there should be something wrong with the hardware, for sure.
Good Luck.

snipar said:
I registered here just to answer your question.
My Android expertise is very limited but I try to learn from past experience. If I understand correctly, your want:
1. the camera should work.
2. the phone should function properly.
If you do not remember your original firmware, do not worry as it does not matter. Once your upgraded to KK, Knox (google it) kicked in to prevent you from downgrading to JB. That's why all flashing efforts to downgrade failed. So, you can keep your phone with KK if the phone works except camera. In case you want to downgrade to JB, I am sure that able XDA members can help you with that. I am unaware if such methods exist.
Now, to see if the camera works there are several methods. I encountered the same problem with my wives i727 Skyrocket which has JB 4.1.2 installed. One day the camera suddenly failed with the error "Warning: Camera Failed". The flash-light worked flawlessly so I was a bit perplexed. I researched and found several remedies:
1. From application manager, clear cache/data of the camera app and restart phone - Tried this several times, did not work.
2. Perform factory reset- Thought I'd use it as a last resort as the phone had gigs of data in it.
3. Uninstall apps (last installed app uninstalled first and so on) - I uninstalled the last installed app and restarted the phone. Voila! The camera was back. I have no explanations why but it just worked.
Let us know how it goes, good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haved tried the first two steps and no luck at all. Maybe this weekend I'll try the third one. Thank you for the reply.

snipar said:
I registered here just to answer your question.
My Android expertise is very limited but I try to learn from past experience. If I understand correctly, your want:
1. the camera should work.
2. the phone should function properly.
If you do not remember your original firmware, do not worry as it does not matter. Once your upgraded to KK, Knox (google it) kicked in to prevent you from downgrading to JB. That's why all flashing efforts to downgrade failed. So, you can keep your phone with KK if the phone works except camera. In case you want to downgrade to JB, I am sure that able XDA members can help you with that. I am unaware if such methods exist.
Now, to see if the camera works there are several methods. I encountered the same problem with my wives i727 Skyrocket which has JB 4.1.2 installed. One day the camera suddenly failed with the error "Warning: Camera Failed". The flash-light worked flawlessly so I was a bit perplexed. I researched and found several remedies:
1. From application manager, clear cache/data of the camera app and restart phone - Tried this several times, did not work.
2. Perform factory reset- Thought I'd use it as a last resort as the phone had gigs of data in it.
3. Uninstall apps (last installed app uninstalled first and so on) - I uninstalled the last installed app and restarted the phone. Voila! The camera was back. I have no explanations why but it just worked.
Let us know how it goes, good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RoyaLKurTx3 said:
On the i9195, it is possible and easy to downgrade to JB since there's a 4.2.2 firmware which is similar to the 4.4.2 firmwares, but I don't know about the i9192.
Be careful with this;
If you know what you are doing, get the CWM recovery, format system/data and flash a 4.4.2 firmware again. If that didn't fix it, I suspect that it's a hardware problem and it's having problems with the software, but there should be something wrong with the hardware, for sure.
Good Luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried that too and nothing. I also suspect that the problem is a hardware issue. Thank you for the reply.

nelson2006 said:
Tried that too and nothing. I also suspect that the problem is a hardware issue. Thank you for the reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem, in fact is a fault in the hardware problem. If it's still under warranty, request a new phone.

Random Restart Issues

I have been having issues with my Note3 ever since the kit kat update back in April. It worked flawlessly on Jelly Bean and I had no issues for over 3 months. I updated to kit kat via Kies with everything completely stock. Since then I get completely random reboots, it could happen when launching an app or even unlocking the screen, and it happens 2 or 3 times a day. So far I have tried 2 factory resets, clearing dalvik cache, and replacing the battery with an Anker replacement. I have tried turning off auto-updating of apps, and turning off wifi scanning. I have also tried running the phone with no apps installed. So far nothing has worked.
I have read several posts with people blaming the stock kernal for these reboots, but there is no definitive solution to this problem. I am looking for any and all help the community has to offer.
Some additional info:
Running latest stock rom- rooted via effortless method
Stock Recovery
Knox is still 0x0
No sd card in phone

Since you have no issues doing a factory reset, I recommend the following:
1.). Backup all the data you need
2.) Download the newest carrier available firmware for you from sammobile.com
3.) Flash via Odin
4.) Once finished and phone has rebooted, return to stock recovery and perform another data wipe
That will 100% fix your issues, sounds like maybe a corrupt system partition or libs

icenight89 said:
Since you have no issues doing a factory reset, I recommend the following:
1.). Backup all the data you need
2.) Download the newest carrier available firmware for you from sammobile.com
3.) Flash via Odin
4.) Once finished and phone has rebooted, return to stock recovery and perform another data wipe
That will 100% fix your issues, sounds like maybe a corrupt system partition or libs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll give this a try. Last night I uninstalled a bunch of bloat ware with titanium backup to make sure it's still not an app issue. If it reboots again I'll reflash the firmware. Since I'll. Be flashing stock it shouldn't trip knox right?

No, latest firmware complete stock will not trip Knox, as long as you're either doing a parallel upgrade NF9 > NF9 or NB4 > NF9. A downgrade will either fail or trip.

For anyone reading this, i tried to reflash the stock nf9 kernal to see if that was the issue, but i got a restart about 4 hours later. I am going to reflash the firmware via odin and report back.

I am having this issue for a long time. i have done everything, and finally i gave up, as i think it is a hardware issue. what make me confuse is the problem start since the day i upgrade to kit-kat. with every firmware come out i have a new problem. the latest "NF9" my phone just hang and black screen untill i press the power button for 30 second, then will restart. what make crazy is that it shuts off at night, and when i woke up i miss the alarm.

I'm sad to report that the reflash didn't work. I reflashed the NF9 firmware using odin about 4 days ago and it was fine for awhile, but I got 2 reboots today. I'm not sure what is causing this, but I am still open to suggestions. I don't think its hardware related since it didn't do this before kitkat. I still have my samsung warranty until february I believe, so if worst comes to worst then ill have to send it in, but i'm not sure what they will do about it.

The only thing I havent tried is replacing the sim card. Could a sim card cause a reboot issue like this?

i have already done it, even the SD card, still same problem.

Is there some kind of log feature in android that logs crash events or errors somewhere so i can maybe figure out what the problem is?

by the way i think i have solve my problem by updating busybox and supersu. i had to install busybox to system/xbin. and since that day i haven't encounter any restart or freez. almost 2 week. i hope that fix your problem as well.

makki666 said:
by the way i think i have solve my problem by updating busybox and supersu. i had to install busybox to system/xbin. and since that day i haven't encounter any restart or freez. almost 2 week. i hope that fix your problem as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not have busybox installed, and SuperSU is up to date. Also, the restarts happen with or without root ie without SuperSU. I still dont think its an app problem.
Just an update for anyone reading this. I have installed SetCPU to manage cpu clock speeds. I have had it installed for about a week and have not had an update with my custom profiles. It seems the restarts occur when cpu speed is at about ~675MHz. Not sure if its hardware or software yet. Any help is appreciated!

Update. I sent my phone in to samsung for repair. It looks like they just reflashed the firmware. After having it up and running again for 15 minutes the phone rebooted again. I contacted samsung and they recommended sending it in again. I'm not sure if it's worth it to send in again or if i should break my warranty and flash a custom rom. Any suggestions are welcome!

I get restarts because the modem crashes... its a known issue apparently

gtharea said:
I get restarts because the modem crashes... its a known issue apparently
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cant believe its taken over a year for this issue to get fixed. Im almost positive its a software issue since it never happened on jelly bean. It's strange that not a lot of people have this problem though. A lot of people must have already flashed custom roms I may send it in again since I still have knox 0x0 and see if they do anything else besides reflash the firmware this time. If they only do a reflash again i will just flash a new rom and hopefully everything will be fixed

Final Update:
I sent my phone back to Samsung, apparently my issues were a hardware problem. This time they replaced the "PBA assembly" aka the mainboard. I have had the phone back for almost two weeks without a single restart. I believe my restart problems are over. I hope this information helps anyone with similar issues. I would recommend sending it to Samsung for warranty repair if you are still under warranty. :good:

_bhaves_ said:
Final Update:
I sent my phone back to Samsung, apparently my issues were a hardware problem. This time they replaced the "PBA assembly" aka the mainboard. I have had the phone back for almost two weeks without a single restart. I believe my restart problems are over. I hope this information helps anyone with similar issues. I would recommend sending it to Samsung for warranty repair if you are still under warranty. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem but already tripped knox so iffy on sending it in. Funny thing is I did the external sd write fix and the phone has not rebooted since, going on 3 days.

meoshe said:
I had the same problem but already tripped knox so iffy on sending it in. Funny thing is I did the external sd write fix and the phone has not rebooted since, going on 3 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would get reboots even without an SD card put in the phone, so I don't think that would have helped me. I havent had a reboot since I've had the device back

OEM Refurbished TMO S4 Boot Loop / Boot Lockup / Intermittent Sound / Sound Crashes

I troll here a lot for information, as I fix devices for friends for free, so if I'm posting up for help here it means I've run out of internet solutions and energy. Mods, I've spent a week searching and reading through threads, no single thread solved my issue which is why I'm posting up; please move the post if it better fits elsewhere.
The Phone: T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 SGH-M919
Current Firmware: M919UVUFNK2 Stock T-Mobile (M919UVUFNK2_M919TMBFNK2_M919UVUFNK2_HOME.tar.md5)
Current Bootloader: M919UVUFNK2 (also verified with getprop ro.bootloader)
Current Baseband: M919UVUFNK2
PDA: M919UVUFNK2
Hardware Revision: REV0.7
Current Android Version: 4.4.4
Current Kernel: 3.4.0-2437203 [email protected] #1 Mon Nov 17 19:20:38 KST 2014
Current Build: KTU84P.M919UVUFNK2
Device/Product: jfltetmo
CSC Code: TMB
Firmware CSC: (blank)
Active CSC: TMB
Product Code: SGH-M919XXXTMB
GPS Works: Yes, verified
BT Works: Yes, verified
WiFi Works: Yes, verified (all bands, secure and unsecure)
Sound Works: Randomly, causes issues. When it does work it is crystal clear
Network Radio Works: Yes, verified
Battery: 2 new batteries, one OEM and one Rav
IMEI/ESN: Free and clear, verified to be a TMO device by TMO
Error Messages Seen (if any): "Process system isn't responding"
Odin Versions Used: All 3.x up through 3.10.6
Alternate ROM Tries: Candy5 v2.1.0 jfltetmo
Alternate Recovery: TWRP 2.8.4
Odin "Double-Flash w/o Auto-Reboot" Used: Yes, multiple times (even triple and quadruple times)
FSCK Used: Yes, no issues detected
The Story:
I was presented with a challenge, fix a phone which just came back from the manufacturer. Sadly, not the first time I've had to clean their mess up. It was sent in under warranty because of screen bubbles, and returned with an OEM LCD, and a new battery. And, before anyone asks, the manufacturer refuses to take a look at it again. It's now out of warranty (by a month or so) and they said it worked fine when it left their hands. Yes it did, but only for a few weeks. From the time they shipped it back out until it crashed, nothing had changed on the user's end, no software additions or anything.
Appeared to only need re-flashing. After it booted and reached the unlock screen it seemed fine. If you unlocked the phone, it would immediately freeze up. When it did this it would usually be frozen for about a minute or two and then reset itself. Most of the time it would return to the lock screen, sometimes it would hang on the T-Mobile flash screen. One time I was able to get in but once it started syncing messages it locked up again. It had the latest firmware (M919UVUFNK2).
I used OEM recovery to wipe the cache and return it to factory fresh. It quickly booted up to the lock screen and everything seemed fine, I swiped and moved around the menus like normal. Sound was random though, sometimes it would work, sometimes not. Wifi, Bluetooth, Data .. everything worked like it should. I began to notice, however, that anytime something tried to use sound (ringer, notification, changing the volume) the system would lock up and stutter somewhat. Eventually it got to the point where it would just hard-lock every time sound was used. So I wiped it fresh and clean again--I wiped it several times in a row infact, just to be sure.
Again, everything seemed fine but sound would be random, and sound always seems to trigger issues. A few times I immediately muted all audio as soon as I factory-reset and rebooted the phone, in order to see if that mattered. One of those times it locked up within 2 minutes of use, and the other times it locked up eventually. It seems to last longer when audio is muted, but I wouldn't correlate that directly because it's not easy to scientifically prove.
In order to see what might be going on I went to install CatLog from the sdcard, but that needs root to work properly. I tried using SuperSU and CF-Auto-Root (jfltetmo/sghm919) to no avail. What happens when either of these methods are used: They run flawlessly and say everything is good, but upon rebooting the phone locks up at the Tmo flash screen. No matter what I do, rooting causes it to lock, and when it's locked the phone gets ultra hot as if the CPU is stuck in a loop.
After re-flashing the stock rom umpteen times and getting the same issues, I tried finding a PIT file to no avail. Gave up on that. For giggles I tried previous TMO stock roms. I realize that you normally can't do this, and some advise against it, but when you're up a creek it sometimes doesn't hurt to try, and I've had this work on other phones in the past. I tried ll of them actually, in chronological order of release so as to simulate upgrading:
These wouldn't flash to the phone at all:
M919UVUEMK2
M919UVUAMDL
These flashed/took and actually worked without an issue, they just all eventually locked up like NK2:
M919UVUFNH7
M919UVUFNB4
M919UVUAMDB
I re-flashed NK2 another 20 times or so, still producing the same problem. Decided to try 5.x out in case that might solve something. So far I've only tried 1 rom for it, Candy5. Several times I was able to get it to boot and use it just fine. One time it actually lasted almost 2 days. Since I'm talking about Candy, the folks did a fine job with it, I really like the layout/aesthetics. Free plug there.
Sadly, it crashes under Candy as well. Same problem as with NK2. Boot crashes, boot loops, sound issues. I've since sucessfully reverted to NK2. Presently it's sitting on my desk receiving emails, downloading apps and working just fine. I have all audio disabled. It's been going for about an hour. (edit, right as I posted this it crashed and rebooted itself)
My Theory:
Theory 1: The reason I want to re-PIT is because I theorize something in the filesystem, somewhere, has taken an epic dump. The more the phone is used the quicker it crashes--this happens almost every single time, and battery/CPU temps are normal. After a certain amount of use/time, the phone craps itself. Storage use isn't always sequential, so something is mapped as good when it isn't, and when it's put to use it dies. One way I correlate this with sound is that perhaps the system doesn't cache the soundbyte, so when it goes to read the file it craps.
Theory 2: Same as above, but instead of storage, the problem is bad RAM causing the same data corruption/issue. No easy way to solve this. I will be stress-testing the RAM chips tonight. Update: I stress-tested the CPU and RAM using some available apps, and ran it for quite a long time. Didn't seem to cause or exacerbate the issue any.
Closing:
Anyone have any ideas? I thought maybe re-PITing the thing may help, but couldn't find any files on it. The only other TMO S4 I have access to is a friend's who doesn't want it rooted (a requirement to read a PIT file I've been told). I appreciate any advice/input on this matter. Would be nice to get this thing going.

Did you pay for the repairs using a credit card? If so call the card company and contest the charge since it wasn't fixed properly.

It's not my device, and as stated in the post, it was repaired under warranty at no cost to the consumer.