Well, not really didn't test with real bullets, but I yet to brick it to a degree it makes it hard to restore, i.e. resort to using windows to run ODIN to re-flash stock firmware.
Got really close to bricking it to that point today with the lag fix that uses EXT4.
The phone started FC while copying the data to a new ext4 formated partition, and it looked like it reloaded but the uptime never showed the full powerdown. So, on it came back up I was back to TW with a bunch of apps missing including the ROM Manager, and market
As suggested by a member here I manually boot it into clockworkrecovery (moved recovery-update.zip into /sdcard as update.zip and adb reboot recovery), once in CWMR I restored from the latest nandroid backup and volia! I am back.
Well, it goes back under the warranty replacement anyway because of the bad 3.5 mm jack
I hopethe replacement does not disappoint.
Odin froze up on me during a flash last night and I couldn't get the phone to power on at all. No recovery mode, no download mode...I couldn't even get the charging indicator to come on when I plugged in the USB. It was TOTALLY DEAD...no signs of life at all whatsoever.
After about an hour and a half of fiddling, I found that if I
removed the battery
removed SD card and SIM card
plugged into USB on the PC
held down vol-up and vol-down
popped the battery back in while holding vol buttons
unplugged from USB
I could get it to start in download mode. What a huge relief. After a few more tries I was able to get Odin to finish flashing the stock firmware. I was sweating for a while there.
Hear you man. I weary of odin I hope there will be a way to flash from linux in the future
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Related
In an effort to get back to stock I took things a step too far and now have a phone that won't power on. I had successfully rooted the phone and installed Rom Manager and flashed the clockwork recovery and immediately created a nandroid backup. Sometime later my phone started acting funny... usb connected/disconnected events when it was not plugged in, crashes, etc. I felt confident that this was a hardware issue (started after my daughter chewed on it when I wasn't looking). Anyway, I followed the instructions here in the dev forum (True Stock 2.1 firmware for vibrant) for the vibrant to get back to stock ( I apparently can't post the link because I'm new...) . So that I'd be able to try and get it replaced. I kept noticing that no matter how hard I tried clockwork was still installed... then I did the bad thing. I should have known better, but I made the rookie mistake and deleted the clockwork folder from the internal flash. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I did. Since then the phone doesn't seem to boot. I can get it into download mode to flash images from odin (battery out, battery in, volume up + volume down, connect usb and download comes on). And after a successful download it seems to restart ok. But if it crashes (which it is now prone to do) or is powered off it won't boot after that. Worse I can't get to the stock recovery either.
I'm hoping that someone who has a nice rooted stock phone with clockwork installed can just help me get a copy of that folder back and everything will be fine... if not I may just have to see if playing dumb with tmobile will get the phone replaced as is...
Thanks in advance for any help.
Are you talking about stuff in /sdcard? If so, that won't effect the boot. You could delete everything in there and not change anything. Some apps might not work as you will have deleted their data, but if you're flashing a stock ROM with Odin, that's fine.
Enable debug mode in the settings and use "adb reboot recovery" at a command prompt. That should get you to the stock recovery. Try a factory reset from there, that might help. If not, delete anything in /sdcard that's not supposed to be there and swap with TMobile as it sounds a hardware issue at that point. Don't forget to keep your external SD card if you've replaced it.
Is USB debugging on?
When you get the phone up, can you connect to it via ADB and then adb reboot recovery or adb reboot download?
Thanks for the suggestions. I did get the sdk installed and used adb to reboot into normal recovery, so it's not completely boned. Since I could use adb for resets I went ahead and followed the rooting process again and reflashed clockwork. The phone still won't boot on it's own. I'm starting to think whatever was going south with the hardware has continued to get worse. I'm going to use odin to get back to "true stock" again and try to use adb to reboot into recovery and do a factory reset suggested above and see if that helps.
Thanks again.
I went back to stock with odin, ran the factory reset, and still can't power up normally or into recovery. I can get into download though, load with odin, come up normally after the reset. I'm going to try giving it back to Tmobile in it's refusing to power up state and see if I can get them to swap it. It's as stock as I can make it so the problem should not be mine.
Thanks again for the help.
FWIW - i just installed Rom manager this morning, the premium version, and today experienced 5 force closures, one on google maps
before this i've had maybe one FC some 2-3 weeks ago - and like you i did a clockworkrecovery backup or nandroid backup
I was wondering if someone can give me a hand here.
Galaxy S Fascinate, I was playing in odin and tried doing a nand dump. It just sat there for awhile and never completed. So I disconnected the cable and attempted to put in the battery and reboot normally.
However it just goes to a screen that shows a phone, a yellow warning and a computer. Assuming odin did not reboot the phone therefor did not close the connection.
Is there something simple I'm missing...
I am rooted running 2.1 update1 and also have clockwork recovery!
I got it back..
What I tried that did not work. Restoring boot through clockwork recovery and a full restore as well.
What worked. Just simply re-flashed clockwork mod through odin. I'm pretty sure I just needed that reboot command.
For future reference is there a way to send a reboot only command through odin?
This happened to me once.
To fix it, I unplugged the phone and removed the battery.
Then, I held the down volume, plugged it in, then inserted the battery.
I got the download mode screen, Odin saw it and I flashed as normal.
[tapatalk on android]
egg_head said:
This happened to me once.
To fix it, I unplugged the phone and removed the battery.
Then, I held the down volume, plugged it in, then inserted the battery.
I got the download mode screen, Odin saw it and I flashed as normal.
[tapatalk on android]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Guys!!!!! Back to... oops spoke too soon. Force close loop....launcher problems....Restoring backup with CW....BTW @egg_head how did you figure that out!?....still restoring backup...SCORE, GOLDEN!!!
So basically I rooted my vibrant, and realized it was hardware locked, as in recovery/download key combinations don't work.
I installed clockwork Mod recovery and backed up my system using the backup function. I then proceeded to flash the "Obsidian V2 - JK2 Official Froyo Based 2.2 - Team Whiskey" rom.
When that was done, I think I made a mistake by restoring the backup before restarting the phone before the first boot. Therefore, I am now stuck on the Vibrant/Samsung first boot screen.
I've researched a bit on how to get the phone into download/recovery mode on hardware locked models and none of the methods I found worked. A friend told me that apparently there was a method by using heat and a soldering iron....but if possible I want to avoid that unless its the last thing I can do to restore it.
Extra Info:
I had ADB turned off on phone before flashing ROM
It is samsung Vibrant Tmobile version, not Bell, and its hardware locked.
What I think the cause of the problem was that I restored a backup from 2.1 immediately flashing the v2.2 rom. Maybe I should have booted first into the new rom before trying to restore any backups...
When I plug my phone into the computer it starts charging (Battery icon with amount and animation of dots works)
I've tried using Droidexplorer as well but it doesn't detect my device.
My device makes the connection sound when connected to windows.
So hopefully, if you have any ideas for how this can be fixed with ODIN or how to get the phone back to the stock ROM, or even how I can force my phone into recovery or download mode without using a soldering iron then that would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance
just happened to me too. Please help!
I figured it out.
Its because I flashed a backup which was a 2.1 image when I had a 2.2 kernel installed. And that = death.
The soldering method isn't that bad, so i fixed the problem.
That`s what happened to me too. But i just recovered my wife`s phone. While holding volume keys i pluged usb and voila, got into download mode. That means it`s not fully bricked. Then just did the odin recovery and the phone is back to life.
Thanks to all the devs in this forum.
Unfortunately, that method wont work for hardware locked phones, so the soldering jig is the only possible way to force the vibrant into download mode if its hardware locked.
You can still get to download mode using adb even if the phone won't fully boot.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Possible, but if ADB on the phone itself was turned off before the soft brick would it still be possible?
Zeltex said:
So basically I rooted my vibrant, and realized it was hardware locked, as in recovery/download key combinations don't work.
I installed clockwork Mod recovery and backed up my system using the backup function. I then proceeded to flash the "Obsidian V2 - JK2 Official Froyo Based 2.2 - Team Whiskey" rom.
When that was done, I think I made a mistake by restoring the backup before restarting the phone before the first boot. Therefore, I am now stuck on the Vibrant/Samsung first boot screen.
I've researched a bit on how to get the phone into download/recovery mode on hardware locked models and none of the methods I found worked. A friend told me that apparently there was a method by using heat and a soldering iron....but if possible I want to avoid that unless its the last thing I can do to restore it.
Extra Info:
I had ADB turned off on phone before flashing ROM
It is samsung Vibrant Tmobile version, not Bell, and its hardware locked.
What I think the cause of the problem was that I restored a backup from 2.1 immediately flashing the v2.2 rom. Maybe I should have booted first into the new rom before trying to restore any backups...
When I plug my phone into the computer it starts charging (Battery icon with amount and animation of dots works)
I've tried using Droidexplorer as well but it doesn't detect my device.
My device makes the connection sound when connected to windows.
So hopefully, if you have any ideas for how this can be fixed with ODIN or how to get the phone back to the stock ROM, or even how I can force my phone into recovery or download mode without using a soldering iron then that would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a suggestion:
1:Open ODIN
2:Connect USB cable to computer (not phone)
3:NOW, connect USB to phone
4ress POWER, VOL. UP, & VOL. DOWN at same time and HOLD (yes i read that ur hardware locked but just try )
5:Wait for first Vibrant logo to appear, and as SOON as it dissapears...release ONLY the POWER button. Keep hold on both volume buttons.
Uh sorry if this didnt work but atleast it was worth a try.
*words in caps are keypoints, im not angry
roguly said:
Just a suggestion:
1:Open ODIN
2:Connect USB cable to computer (not phone)
3:NOW, connect USB to phone
4ress POWER, VOL. UP, & VOL. DOWN at same time and HOLD (yes i read that ur hardware locked but just try )
5:Wait for first Vibrant logo to appear, and as SOON as it dissapears...release ONLY the POWER button. Keep hold on both volume buttons.
Uh sorry if this didnt work but atleast it was worth a try.
*words in caps are keypoints, im not angry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work....it only keeps bringing up the battery charging screen and won't even boot to vibrant screen.
Zeltex said:
Possible, but if ADB on the phone itself was turned off before the soft brick would it still be possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That I'm not sure on, but worth a shot.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Can you please link me to an article on the soldering method? I couldn't find anything on google.
Well as I said earlier, I just did the soldering method and forced my hw locked vibrant into download mode and restored with Odin. Unless you modify your hardware or flash something special to get rid of the hardware lock, the volume/power key combinations don't work.
Edit:
gonintendo said:
Can you please link me to an article on the soldering method? I couldn't find anything on google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the guide. Its pretty hard to mess up so don't worry.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=819551
I have a question about using this method:
once boot the phone by odin, is the phone going back to a
fresh state or with all the saved contacts/apps backed up
with Titanium Backup?
I am having trouble to boot the phone when I tired to restore to 2.1 update1.
Rooted, backed up with TB, then flashed to Obsidian V4, Froyo 2.2.
Now I want to restore to 2.1 so that I can get all my contacts back.
Thanks for help.
roguly said:
Just a suggestion:
1:Open ODIN
2:Connect USB cable to computer (not phone)
3:NOW, connect USB to phone
4ress POWER, VOL. UP, & VOL. DOWN at same time and HOLD (yes i read that ur hardware locked but just try )
5:Wait for first Vibrant logo to appear, and as SOON as it dissapears...release ONLY the POWER button. Keep hold on both volume buttons.
Uh sorry if this didnt work but atleast it was worth a try.
*words in caps are keypoints, im not angry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but something that has worked for me many times is this:
-Take battery out
-connect phone to the power chord (best to do it while connected to the computer)
-hold both the volume up and down buttons at the same time
- insert the battery into the phone while still holding buttons
You should see download mode pop up and you're ok to release the buttons after that. Now you're free to odin it up.
villaparv said:
I have a question about using this method:
once boot the phone by odin, is the phone going back to a
fresh state or with all the saved contacts/apps backed up
with Titanium Backup?
I am having trouble to boot the phone when I tired to restore to 2.1 update1.
Rooted, backed up with TB, then flashed to Obsidian V4, Froyo 2.2.
Now I want to restore to 2.1 so that I can get all my contacts back.
Thanks for help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By restoring with Odin, all your stuff will be wiped out, but think on the positive side, at least you don't have to carry a broken phone around with you all the time now. Unless you put your backups on the external SD card, not internal 16gb memory, then maybe take out the SD card before restoring.....
And as a precaution to those who don't want to end up in the same situation as me, don't use nandroid to backup and restore a 2.1 backup when you flashed a 2.2 rom.
2.2 roms will flash a 2.2 froyo kernel to your device and then the 2.1 backup will flash a 2.1 image to it, therefore causing your phone to brick.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
And again, no method by pressing the physical hardware keys will work on Hardware locked model vibrants. Even taking the battery out or plugging in the USB won't work as these functions have been "disabled" by the lock. I'm pretty sure the soldering method is the only effective way to force your phone back to download mode and to restore to factory conditions. I've spent at least 39882884385820384872 different combinations with the battery pulling, USB plugging, holding key combinations and they don't work.
Zeltex said:
So basically I rooted my vibrant, and realized it was hardware locked, as in recovery/download key combinations don't work.
I installed clockwork Mod recovery and backed up my system using the backup function. I then proceeded to flash the "Obsidian V2 - JK2 Official Froyo Based 2.2 - Team Whiskey" rom.
When that was done, I think I made a mistake by restoring the backup before restarting the phone before the first boot. Therefore, I am now stuck on the Vibrant/Samsung first boot screen.
I've researched a bit on how to get the phone into download/recovery mode on hardware locked models and none of the methods I found worked. A friend told me that apparently there was a method by using heat and a soldering iron....but if possible I want to avoid that unless its the last thing I can do to restore it.
Extra Info:
I had ADB turned off on phone before flashing ROM
It is samsung Vibrant Tmobile version, not Bell, and its hardware locked.
What I think the cause of the problem was that I restored a backup from 2.1 immediately flashing the v2.2 rom. Maybe I should have booted first into the new rom before trying to restore any backups...
When I plug my phone into the computer it starts charging (Battery icon with amount and animation of dots works)
I've tried using Droidexplorer as well but it doesn't detect my device.
My device makes the connection sound when connected to windows.
So hopefully, if you have any ideas for how this can be fixed with ODIN or how to get the phone back to the stock ROM, or even how I can force my phone into recovery or download mode without using a soldering iron then that would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
had the exact same problem only diff is that i was kinda doing while snoozing off
nd when i was in recovery mode i deleted ALL USER DATE nd stuff.
right now i followed most of the comments nd now i'm on DOWNLOAD mode connected to the computer i'm still trying to find out how to use ODIN to fix my phone think u can help me a lil.
I was going to use the EC05 to EI22 update.zip file posted here to get myself some gingerbread goodness, but I have a couple questions plus I ran into a problem.
Questions (have asked in multiple threads but because of the frenzy over gingerbread release it's like trying to talk at a heavy metal concert: I am fully stock ec05 EXCEPT for having done root so that I could do wi-fi hotspot (from advice given in this thread a little while back - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1236669). Will this interfere with doing the EI22 update or do I need to back it out? I want to say I recall someone mentioning the update would go fine and I'd just have to re-root.. but looking for specifics.
Problem: I put the update.zip onto my SDcard, reboot my phone..... and it's just sitting there staring at me, Samsung boot logo as bright as ever, for about 20 minutes now. I had been trying to do the vol-down, camera, power key set to get into service mode, but it never got past this boot screen - yanked the battery and SDcard and trying again and it's still just sitting here.
Help?
--update--
Leaving it off, plugged in the power and rather than getting a proper charging display with the battery and charge meter/status - it has a blank battery with the radial spokes that would normally be rotating just sitting there. What happened to my phone? O_O
tigerknight said:
I was going to use the EC05 to EI22 update.zip file posted here to get myself some gingerbread goodness, but I have a couple questions plus I ran into a problem.
Questions (have asked in multiple threads but because of the frenzy over gingerbread release it's like trying to talk at a heavy metal concert: I am fully stock ec05 EXCEPT for having done root so that I could do wi-fi hotspot (from advice given in this thread a little while back - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1236669). Will this interfere with doing the EI22 update or do I need to back it out? I want to say I recall someone mentioning the update would go fine and I'd just have to re-root.. but looking for specifics.
Problem: I put the update.zip onto my SDcard, reboot my phone..... and it's just sitting there staring at me, Samsung boot logo as bright as ever, for about 20 minutes now. I had been trying to do the vol-down, camera, power key set to get into service mode, but it never got past this boot screen - yanked the battery and SDcard and trying again and it's still just sitting here.
Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pull your battery..
Boot back into stock recovery and do a full wipe/reset
Reboot.
Should be fine
Paul627g said:
Pull your battery..
Boot back into stock recovery and do a full wipe/reset
Reboot.
Should be fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No joy.. all these steps started with no AC power, no SD card, and pulled battery, with at least a minute of full lack of any form of power:
insert battery, power on: sits staring at initial 'samsung' boot display
insert battery, plug in AC: gets blank battery meter as described and won't boot
no battery, plug in AC: gets blank battery meter as descrobed and won't boot
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1052813
1. Use this to get back to EC05
2. Rename update to update.zip and place in root of SD card
3. Boot into stock recovery and flash update.zip
I was having the same problem with the OTA. So I odined back to EC05 and then applied EI22 via update.zip in stock recovery. Same result, stuck at boot screen.
BLARGH. I was hoping to not have to wipe my phone. Oh well, here goes nothing. Will post results as I get them. Thanks for the assist, guys.
I have seen confirmed reports of users booting back into stock recovery and doing a full reset/wipe then rebooting with no problems.
Had to cheat to get into download mode. Page says no battery, only USB cable - soon as I plug that in though it gets stuck on the battery meter screen and won't go further.
I had to use the battery and boot into download mode that way, THEN connect the USB cable and so far it seems to be functioning as planned.. keeping my fingers crossed.
--update--
Odin completed and phone booted fine. inserted SD card - tried updating but it is refusing, complaining of low battery. Guess I'll have to let it charge for a while and try again.
Can you boot into download mode? You might have to ODIN/Heimdall EC05 and start from scratch again.
Edit: Ignore this... I don't know why your reply wasn't on the page when I replied...
I was running CWM 3.1.0.1 which gave an error when trying to apply update.zip (looks like it failed a checksum check on recovery).
Thinking it was CWM causing the issue and I needed to revert back to the stock recvoery, I took the stock recovery from this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1027904&highlight=rerfs
and renamed it recovery.zip and applied it via CWM.
After rebooting, my phone is having the same symptoms as tigerknight:
insert battery, power on: sits staring at initial 'samsung' boot display
insert battery, plug in AC: gets blank battery meter as described and won't boot
no battery, plug in AC: gets blank battery meter as descrobed and won't boot
Unfortunately, I cannot boot into recovery mode anymore either. It seems to get hung on the same "Samsung" screen as when trying to boot normally.
I'm going through the de-bricking process now. <sigh>
I let my phone charge for a little and then the update.zip ran just fine. I didn't actually lose much data thanks to stuff being on my SD card, but I need to go through and recall what apps I used regularly now.. mostly work related stuff so not a whole lot, thankfully.
Yay for EI22 and VERY snappy handling compared to before off of just completely stock image!
Hello all,
I'm in a bit of a fix and really need some help,
After some water immersion my Samsung S4 ceased to function, as can be expected. EDIT: (BTW this is on the Canadian version I337 as best as I know)
I dried it in silica for an extended period of time and have reached the situation where the following is possible:
Plug in and have the battery logo appear
Fiddle with the cable and power button to get the logo to show up - and it gets stuck on it
Only powers up after cable is withdrawn
Go from there to enter ODIN mode with the power and down arrow, only after this mode has been entered and exited it becomes possible to access CWM
CWM can be accessed and searching for a zip to install shows me all directories on internal storage
Cleared cache and dalvik cache
Installed what I believe is the same ROM from the external SD card (Kangapop 2.5)
Went through all steps as normal for an allegedly successful install
Still however certain things are not possible:
Back up to external SD (crashes when reaching backing up system)
Starting the phone cold regularly without fiddling with charger and power button
Getting past the Samsung S4 logo to actually boot into the ROM
In the beginning both cameras were completely soaked with water but by now all has dried.
If I could just extract a few files I would be happy to wipe everything and try further or just leave it dead, any suggestions in the mean time?
Should I use ODIN to flash the ROM? Go back to stock ROM?
If only I could get ADB to work and pull some files off...
UPDATE:
The S4 could not power up or charge at all with the old battery. Received new battery and it worked, tried Fonepaw recovery but it didn't worked, that ruined recovery to the point where it would only flash with the blue text for a moment as opposed to getting stuck like before.
I transferred the 6.0.4.4 CWM for the Canadian version I downloaded from here, now it just gets stuck on entering recovery.
The S4 cannot power up at all at the moment, probably because the new battery was barely charged and it couldn't charge while in the phone.
What should I do if I manage to power up again and get into Odin mode?
Verify the model number in download mode. If it says sgh-i337m, the phone is the Canadian version and you can flash a stock ROM from sammobile.com.