One of the worst ways to end the year is to have your fully functional phone suddenly become unusable. That’s exactly what’s happening to Galaxy S22 users after updating to One UI 6.1.1. Many are dealing with bootloops, stuttering, freezing, and random crashes.
To make matters worse, service centers are diagnosing the issue as a fried motherboard. Since most S22 units are out of warranty, you’ll pay for repairs all on your own. Given that the problems seem to stem from the update itself, frustration is growing, especially since this isn’t the first time One UI 6.1 has caused these issues.
One UI 6.1 issues may be an Exynos problem
Samsung initially released the One UI 6.1 update for the Galaxy S22 series in South Korea in early May 2024. The rollout was paused within a day because of a bug. After resolving the issue, the update resumed in South Korea and later expanded to Europe with the firmware version S90xBXXU9EXE1.
Samsung then released a newer One UI 6.1.1 update around September, and it still had a bumpy rollout. This time around, the issue goes beyond minor bugs. Observations have led to the conclusion that units with the Exynos 2200 chip sold in Europe and Asia are mostly affected.
Models that were released to the USA and other countries use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and don’t seem to have any issues so far. It’s no surprise considering that Samsung makes the Exynos chips, and they haven’t had the best track record lately. In comparison with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, they’re underperformers.
Service centers are no help as they’ve identified the cause of the problems as motherboard failure. Meanwhile, Samsung’s support team advises you to get a complete replacement. That’s not something you want to hear, considering that it costs over $400 to get the said replacement. Samsung is yet to release a statement on the matter, and there’s not much you can do, unfortunately.
Related: Samsung Polishes One UI 7 With Second Beta Update
There’s still hope for your phone… sort of
Before now, there were rumors that Samsung initially did not plan to bring AI features to the Galaxy S22 series. Later on, they changed their mind and rushed the updates. Since it wasn’t properly optimized for the S22’s hardware, it caused problems that eventually led them to pull it back.
While they did refine the update, it only matters to you if you bought your Samsung Galaxy S22 in a specific country, like India. Your phone will get updates meant for that country, which can cause problems if you’re using the phone in another country, like the UK. Your warranty won’t work outside the country where you bought the phone, since it’s linked to the original region.
In a desperate search for solutions, one user found a YouTube video that may get you out of the boot loop. The first method you want to try is to place the phone on its side with the power button facing up. Then you’ll repeatedly jam the button as it may be stuck and partly responsible for the loop.
If that doesn’t work, you want to plug your charger to the phone. Then hold the volume down and power buttons together until you see the Samsung logo. It’s worth watching the video and trying the steps yourself. Who knows? You might just be lucky enough to save your phone from a costly repair.
