Database Users

Possible Brick

I just got a replacement Galaxy S4 today. I didn't even bother to check what ROM it was on because I didn't think to pay attention. I flashed CWM with a tool (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2297033) and CWM booted fine. I went to install the Paranoid Android 4.3 beta, and all went as planned. I rebooted, and it just hung on the Paranoid Android boot screen. If I then turn the phone off and reboot, it get stuck on the Samsung locked screen. I'm praying I didn't brick this thing for good, but reading about the MF3 headaches, I'm not so sure. Can anyone offer some insight? I can't access USB in CWM either.
Edit: The box says SW-VER: 1337UCUAMDL; does that mean I'll be able to odin to stock?

geokhentix said:
I just got a replacement Galaxy S4 today. I didn't even bother to check what ROM it was on because I didn't think to pay attention. I flashed CWM with a tool (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2297033) and CWM booted fine. I went to install the Paranoid Android 4.3 beta, and all went as planned. I rebooted, and it just hung on the Paranoid Android boot screen. If I then turn the phone off and reboot, it get stuck on the Samsung locked screen. I'm praying I didn't brick this thing for good, but reading about the MF3 headaches, I'm not so sure. Can anyone offer some insight? I can't access USB in CWM either.
Edit: The box says SW-VER: 1337UCUAMDL; does that mean I'll be able to odin to stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are on AT&T MDL firmware you should be able to ODIN to stock, do a factory reset and take it from there. I suggest you do a lot more reading before you touch anything else. You can start by reading the "pinned" threads in the General section. Everything you need you will find there. Good luck

You need to flash Loki doki after each custom ROM if you're in CWM or any non auto loki'd recovery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

djpharoah said:
You need to flash Loki doki after each custom ROM if you're in CWM or any non auto loki'd recovery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What he said...you are not on mf3 dont worry about that...if you were on mf3 you wouldny have been able to even get a recoveryjust odin to stock and start over...either find and use the "loki doki" zip (google can find it) and flash it after every rom flash or use the auto loki recovery which pretty much runs the loki doki script every rom rom flash for you right before it reboots
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

mg2195 said:
What he said...you are not on mf3 dont worry about that...if you were on mf3 you wouldny have been able to even get a recoveryjust odin to stock and start over...either find and use the "loki doki" zip (google can find it) and flash it after every rom flash or use the auto loki recovery which pretty much runs the loki doki script every rom rom flash for you right before it reboots
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tool he linked contains auto-loki CWM so I'm not sure that's his problem.
Definitely ODIN back to stock with this procedure:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261573
Using the MDL download you can find here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2263533
And try again! Make sure you read the stickies in the general forum too.

[Solved]Need help after formatting internal storage! Soft Brick

I truly need the community's help on this one. Trying to fix a rom that I was using, I decided to wipe everything to reflash it. However, some how I read the thread wrong. Using TWRP, I formatted the "internal storage" thinking that was going to fix my Rom problems.
Now, I can't boot into the Rom or any rom, unless I wipe everything and restore one of my back ups. I restored a back up and it booted, but my data is jacked and phone service is not operable. I thought maybe a reboot will fix it, and now my phone is stuck at "Samsung Galaxy S 4". It doesn't move from there.
What should I do? How do I get it it continue the boot into the rom after a regular reboot? How do I get my radio back?
It's funny to me because I usually never get this careless with my phone. So I can laugh about it but damn I have to figure this one out!
Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am by know means an expert but I think you may have to start here with the firmware files then try and flash your backup http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2338919
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4

Thanks Chief, let me try that!

Thanks Chief. Unfortunately, that didn't work. I used Odin to flash the Firmware files and let it reboot. I'm still stuck at the Samsung Gal...boot screen. Let me try manually going into recovery and restoring.
Any other ideas? Anyone?

Kenjari said:
Thanks Chief. Unfortunately, that didn't work. I used Odin to flash the Firmware files and let it reboot. I'm still stuck at the Samsung Gal...boot screen. Let me try manually going into recovery and restoring.
Any other ideas? Anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried flashing the complete odin ROM? You can find the all in one somewhere on the dev thread, it has rom, kernel, firmware and the rom all in one as it came from samsung. That should take care of your problem. It will wipe everything, or I think there was also a thread somewhere with odin flashables that didn't wipe data or internal sd but I can't seem to find it right now.

ifly4vamerica said:
Have you tried flashing the complete odin ROM? You can find the all in one somewhere on the dev thread, it has rom, kernel, firmware and the rom all in one as it came from samsung. That should take care of your problem. It will wipe everything, or I think there was also a thread somewhere with odin flashables that didn't wipe data or internal sd but I can't seem to find it right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. I'm on the target. I'm currently waiting for this tar that will unroot the phone. It is MDL but I will update and reroot. I hope this does the ticket. I'm going to use Odin to flash it or unroot.

Well strike two. That didn't work either. I downloaded a unrooted MDL tar and connected to Odin. When through the entire process and it rebooted. It still is stuck at "Samsung Galaxy S4".
I read on the Nexus 7 that I might have to reflash a system.img and boot.img? Someone else had a similar experience on the N7 and had to download it via flashdrive and then install via recovery. I'm not saying that's the case but I wonder if I need to reflash a boot.img or something.
Please help. Not sure where to go at this point. Unrooting didn't help.

Try downloading this file extract the tar and flash that in PC Odin. (don't check repartion!).
That is the full stock MF9 firmware, boot, recovery, kernel and ROM.
Then maybe use CF Autoroot, then goomanger to get twrp and flash one of your nand's

Progress made.
leaderbuilder said:
Try downloading this file extract the tar and flash that in PC Odin. (don't check repartion!).
That is the full stock MF9 firmware, boot, recovery, kernel and ROM.
Then maybe use CF Autoroot, then goomanger to get twrp and flash one of your nand's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
leader, chief, ifly4,...I'm making progress.
leader, actually I flashed a previous version, the MDL via Odin. At first it didn't boot as stated in my previous post. I decided to wipe and factory reset. """"Bingo"""" it booted. Now I'm on MDL and unrooted. However, I transferred my phone over to a previous device so I can't update profile and prl. I'm going to activate the phone and see if it works. For some reason I can't can't seem to get a radio signal on it. It shows the be O with the slash in the middle. This is what it looked like before I deactivated it and lost everything before.
I post back with results. Not quite solved yet.
Thanks leader and everyone else.

Sound like your on the wrong firmware/baseband. what does your modem/baseband say?

Yeeessssss
leaderbuilder said:
Sound like your on the wrong firmware/baseband. what does your modem/baseband say?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It says L720VPUAMDL. I actually got it going. I had to change it from WCDMA to CDMA and reset. Now I'm unrooted. and going. However, leader, is there away to update the modem/baseband before I root? Or should I root then flash the MF9 Modem?

if you got MDL to activate you can jst take the OTA update to MF9. It will update it all.
Then use CF-Autoroot to gain root. After that same - install goomanager from Playstore and use it to install TWRP.

leaderbuilder said:
if you got MDL to activate you can jst take the OTA update to MF9. It will update it all.
Then use CF-Autoroot to gain root. After that same - install goomanager from Playstore and use it to install TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome. Hey thanks again leader for helping me out. I'm usually never careless with these things. I use SACS rom but decided to try Miui. From some reason every time I flash Miui, I get the "Roaming Indicator Off" thing along with two signals. Reading the thread it suggest to format the internal. Why oh Why did I try that step. The rest is history....
Thanks again. Learned a lot with this process.

Glad you got it working.
There is a 'thanks' button too.

leaderbuilder said:
Glad you got it working.
There is a 'thanks' button too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No doubt. I got to remember that!
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4

Glad to hear you got it going.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4

leaderbuilder said:
Try downloading this file extract the tar and flash that in PC Odin. (don't check repartion!).
That is the full stock MF9 firmware, boot, recovery, kernel and ROM.
Then maybe use CF Autoroot, then goomanger to get twrp and flash one of your nand's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!

[RESOLVED]Recovery help

RESOLVED:
- Flashed a stock firmwire image from Sammobile using Odin. (AMDL)
- Did a factory reset in the stock recovery TWICE to get it to finally boot.
- Rooted with motochopper
- Installed TWRP
- Back to Task650.
Okay, so I'm a bit stuck. I was running the newest Task650 rom and KT's 9/17 kernel.
I updated to the 10/20 kernel as soon as it was released and it bugged my phone. Blew up everything, glitched my DPI and colors. It was unusable, however the weirdest part is that my custom recovery was removed so I can't seem to flash the old kernel to get my device back to normal.
I tried using odin but it just keeps failing, so I really am unsure what to do now. If I could get the previous kernel back onto it, it would be fine.
Any help? I can't seem to find a .tar.md5 file for TWRP or clockworkmod to flash a new recovery in Odin. I tried Philz .tar.md5 files but it fails as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

As long as your not MF3
try goo manager for TWRP
or
Try ROM manager just to flash CWM
Note: do not use ROM manager for nothing else if you didn't already know.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using xda premium

jball said:
As long as your not MF3
try goo manager for TWRP
or
Try ROM manager just to flash CWM
Note: do not use ROM manager for nothing else if you didn't already know.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cannot use the Google Playstore.. my entire screen is over scaled and impossible to navigate.

So no use of DPI settings.can you use ADB or terminal emulator
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

when you say you tried odin, are you saying you tried flashing the stock rom (MDL), tried flashing a custom recovery tar, or both? what error is it giving?
unfortunately i think kt accidentally uploaded a 4.2.2 kernel and thats what you downloaded. check out his thread and see what anyone else in your situation may have done already to remedy this. good luck

Can you reroot by flashing an autorooter through download mode? Doing so might enable you to flash kernels again.
Is factory reset an option?

xBeerdroiDx said:
when you say you tried odin, are you saying you tried flashing the stock rom (MDL), tried flashing a custom recovery tar, or both? what error is it giving?
unfortunately i think kt accidentally uploaded a 4.2.2 kernel and thats what you downloaded. check out his thread and see what anyone else in your situation may have done already to remedy this. good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I managed to get the latest stock firmwire (AMDL 4.2.2) off of Sammobile. I did successfully flash the stock .tar.md5 image through Odin, using the PDA slot. Phone seemed to restart and boot right up, but now gets stuck at the AT&T logo. It makes the boot sound and than BAM; frozen.
Now I am truly stuck. Seems flashing the stock image didn't work.. unless I did it wrong through Odin but I doubt it. These are the steps I took,
- Start Odin
- Connect phone in downloaded mode
- Click PDA (select the I337UCUAMDL_I337ATTAMDL_ATT.tar.md5 file)
- Wait for it to confirm the firm, than hit start.
- After waiting about 5 minutes it's successful.
Am I doing ANYTHING wrong?

Te3k said:
Can you reroot by flashing an autorooter through download mode? Doing so might enable you to flash kernels again.
Is factory reset an option?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a factory reset in the stock recovery after you flash with Odin. It'll get you past the boot loop.

jd1639 said:
Do a factory reset in the stock recovery after you flash with Odin. It'll get you past the boot loop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did a Factory reset in the stock recovery, wiped all data etc. Still gets stuck at the AT&T logo.
EDIT: Did it twice and it worked!

Br4nd3n said:
Did a Factory reset in the stock recovery, wiped all data etc. Still gets stuck at the AT&T logo.
EDIT: Did it twice and it worked!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long have you given the boot? The first boot can take a long time. 5 minutes or more isn't unheard of.

jd1639 said:
How long have you given the boot? The first boot can take a long time. 5 minutes or more isn't unheard of.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gave it about 2 hours the first time.. knew it was stuck. However I did the factory reset twice in a row, and it finally booted. Just did a quick root through Motochopper, installed TWRP and now I'm back and running on Task650 :good:

Good deal
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

Br4nd3n said:
Gave it about 2 hours the first time.. knew it was stuck. However I did the factory reset twice in a row, and it finally booted. Just did a quick root through Motochopper, installed TWRP and now I'm back and running on Task650 :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:good:

[Solved] Phone Borked: no system on MK2

Was testing kn0x0ut on our device when I ended up flashing an empty system image. I was on MK2 and attempted to use the MJ6-MJ9 method of flashing just enough files to pass the OTA checks. They didn't flash, and now it says my PIT is broken. I have recovery, and the data partition is in place as on a normal boot it loads to black screen with a blue LED. I can use adb, but there is no root so I can't restore my system. Any suggestions? I'm busy today so I won't be able to reply much, but I can gladly give more information.
EDIT: The system apparently isn't empty. The partition got flashed at some point and appears to have MF3 files.
However, there is still no root and it boots up to nothing but a black screen with blue LED still. I can't get the small update from cache that the MJ6-MJ9 thread mentions. Also, attempting a recovery boot results in the Secure Fail: Kernel screen. Recovery is fixed with the MJ6 recovery file.
FIXED: I was able to get it working following the instructions again. Not sure what the exact issue was with the first time i tried, but flashing the MJ6 recovery makes recovery boot again. I had to flash the two emergency tars, flash the recovery tar again, and then boot into recovery. It then applied the update from cache and on next reboot i went back in and used the sideload.

Have you tried ADB sideloading the update through the recovery?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Supreme Dynamite said:
Have you tried ADB sideloading the update through the recovery?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't go through since it fails the file check.

Possible help
Hey there, I Gorked my i337 at&t version on Thanksgiving day! I was able to go to this thread and just used Odin to flash the two .tar files and then was able to sideload the mk2 update. Boom phone was back to 4.3
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2526964&page=19

joshzdad2013 said:
Hey there, I Gorked my i337 at&t version on Thanksgiving day! I was able to go to this thread and just used Odin to flash the two .tar files and then was able to sideload the mk2 update. Boom phone was back to 4.3
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2526964&page=19
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what i've been trying to no avail. The first small update from cache never happened and now it's broken even more.
EDIT: Recovery is booting after flashing the MJ6 recovery, surprisingly. Will attempt instructions one more time and report back.

I beleive i just said screw it since I knew I was boned! I then just flashed recovery-mj6.tar.md5 not even sure if it worked. Then flashed the mf3-emergency-part-1.tar.md5 then the mf3-emergency-part-2.tar.md5 and finally I beleive I tried the side load of my mk2 full update file and it worked.

joshzdad2013 said:
I beleive i just said screw it since I knew I was boned! I then just flashed recovery-mj6.tar.md5 not even sure if it worked. Then flashed the mf3-emergency-part-1.tar.md5 then the mf3-emergency-part-2.tar.md5 and finally I beleive I tried the side load of my mk2 full update file and it worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good job man you had me on the seat of my pants reading this.
ROOTED ATT MK2 using Tapatalk

Problems with ODIN'ing stock recovery

I am currently on the unlocked MDL bootloader, and I am running KANGAKAT 7.0, which is a KitKat 4.4 ROM. My phone is also encrypted, which means that I cannot flash updates due to CWM/TWRP not supporting encryption.
The solution proposed by other users has been to ODIN the stock MK2 recovery onto my phone, use the stock recovery to factory reset my device, then re-flash TWRP and then my new ROM.
However I'm having a problem with these steps. I am able to successfully ODIN the stock MK2 recovery to my device, however whenever I try to boot into recovery, I get the yellow triangle screen stating that I'm running software that is not authorized by AT&T, and stating something to do with my kernel in the top left of the screen.
Is there a step that I am missing? I followed the instructions @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1506697

It looks like that file is for the s2 skyrocket, not the s4. You'll probably have to flash the complete mdl firmware in Odin
Edit, if you're still rooted try flashing twrp 2.8.3.0 image file in flashify from the play store. http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2/jflteatt
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

jd1639 said:
It looks like that file is for the s2 skyrocket, not the s4. You'll probably have to flash the complete mdl firmware in Odin
Edit, if you're still rooted try flashing twrp 2.8.3.0 image file in flashify from the play store. http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2/jflteatt
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, they're instructions for the S2 Skyrocket, but I just used the general procedure and not the file, I used the stock recovery listed here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=49687791&postcount=3
You make an interesting point though, if I ODIN the entire stock MDL ROM, that could work. I'm just going to write over it with another ROM anyways, so what I restore to shouldn't matter. I know this is probably a dumb question, but flashing the stock MDL ROM isn't going to affect my MDL bootloader is it?
I can get TWRP 2.8.3.0 with or without Flashify, but that app is very convenient, thank you for the tip =)

ChrisG683 said:
Yeah, they're instructions for the S2 Skyrocket, but I just used the general procedure and not the file, I used the stock recovery listed here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=49687791&postcount=3
You make an interesting point though, if I ODIN the entire stock MDL ROM, that could work. I'm just going to write over it with another ROM anyways, so what I restore to shouldn't matter. I know this is probably a dumb question, but flashing the stock MDL ROM isn't going to affect my MDL bootloader is it?
I can get TWRP 2.8.3.0 with or without Flashify, but that app is very convenient, thank you for the tip =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing the mdl firmware in Odin will still give you the mdl bootloader. But it'll want to update after you flash so flash another custom rom or freeze the update files before it does so.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

@ChrisG683 Be sure to turn your wi-fi off and remove your SIM card, that way it can't update. You can put any apps you think you might need on an SD card and install them without having to go to the play store. Once you get things frozen or removed then you'll be good to go. :good:

Thanks guys, I'll be sure to keep that in mind once I get things sorted out.
The newest thing I've figured out is that the MDL stock recovery does not give me the "yellow triangle" error, and it presents me with the option to wipe my device. (I grabbed it from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2429406)
Now I'm just making sure I have a stock MDL ROM ready to ODIN in case I screw up my device =). Hopefully this all works out.
Edit:
Looks like everything went beautifully. The MDL stock recovery wiped my /data partition perfectly, and I was able to reboot into a fresh and clean copy of KANGAKAT 6.0. Then I was able to use a terminal to flash TWRP, did a factory reset, flashed KANGAPOP 1.4, and now you can add me to the list of proud Lollipop users =)