[Q] Semi bricked i9505 - fresh ideas required , i'm out - Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

This may humor some of you as to the stupidity I have displayed in messing around with rooting\rom'ing my i9505.
Sadly tho it's resulted in me bricking/semi-bricking the phone and I am tearing my hair out trying to fix it.
What I did to get me here:
- Within TWRP (existing recovery/root at the time) I wiped all my data from the internal storage. This in effect meant that I had no roms nor any backups to recover from. Super Doh! *facepalm* moment of the centuary... :S
- For one reason or another the existing rom i was on would not boot. I was effectively stuck in a boot loop on the Samsung Logo
What I have tried doing to fix it (and failed miserably):
- I thought that by at least getting a rom onto the device and flashing it I would be back in business however this proved to be a challenge as the samsung USB drivers do not work with TWRP so I cannot adb push or sideload as I have no rom/backup locally.
- So I rooted with CWM which worked a treat with sideload. So I rom'd the phone...however...the following now happens
- I cannot get into existing/current ROM. Boot loop
- I cannot get into CWM (frozen with blue text in the top left) and have re-downloaded ODIN, CWM several times and tried to flash several times. No joy...
- I can flash with TWRP however as mentioned above the drivers do not work so I cannot sideload.
Any ideas how to fix - very very very much appreciated.
Don't need comments how dumb I have been - I am kicking myself more than you ever will.

r34l1ty7 said:
This may humor some of you as to the stupidity I have displayed in messing around with rooting\rom'ing my i9505.
Sadly tho it's resulted in me bricking/semi-bricking the phone and I am tearing my hair out trying to fix it.
What I did to get me here:
- Within TWRP (existing recovery/root at the time) I wiped all my data from the internal storage. This in effect meant that I had no roms nor any backups to recover from. Super Doh! *facepalm* moment of the centuary... :S
- For one reason or another the existing rom i was on would not boot. I was effectively stuck in a boot loop on the Samsung Logo
What I have tried doing to fix it (and failed miserably):
- I thought that by at least getting a rom onto the device and flashing it I would be back in business however this proved to be a challenge as the samsung USB drivers do not work with TWRP so I cannot adb push or sideload as I have no rom/backup locally.
- So I rooted with CWM which worked a treat with sideload. So I rom'd the phone...however...the following now happens
- I cannot get into existing/current ROM. Boot loop
- I cannot get into CWM (frozen with blue text in the top left) and have re-downloaded ODIN, CWM several times and tried to flash several times. No joy...
- I can flash with TWRP however as mentioned above the drivers do not work so I cannot sideload.
Any ideas how to fix - very very very much appreciated.
Don't need comments how dumb I have been - I am kicking myself more than you ever will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can u try flashing Stock firmware using Odin it should work and incase after flashing it does not boot go to stock recovery and wipe cache reboot

123hiten said:
Can u try flashing Stock firmware using Odin it should work and incase after flashing it does not boot go to stock recovery and wipe cache reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to say a big thanks. Your solution worked a treat. :good:
I take it I can now root as usual? Nothing else needed? ...apart from not trying to be stupid again

Related

[Q] Phone wont boot after attempting Voodoo Lag Fix

and I am not a happy camper right now. My phone is not bricked but I have tried everything imaginable to get it to boot up but no dice.
After I flashed the fix I couldnt boot past recovery and I couldnt but up into clockwork because I hate replace the update.zip with the the lag fix. So I used Odin to try to reflash back to stock without removing the lag fix (there was no way for me to).When Odin rebooted my phone and tried to wipe my data I realized it failed for some reason and then rebooted again. But it only got past the swirly S animation screen but the screen goes black after that. Cant get farther then that no matter what I do... Tried Odin multiple times but its the same result. Tried wiping data and cache manually through recovery but still not working.
Any suggestions?? Some quick facts that could help...
-I can get into recovery
-I can get into download mode
-I can use Odin
-Vibrant drivers are installed on my computer
-I have ADB installed
Ok I see theres a repartition option in Odin if I do that Im pretty sure ill be set if I check that since it will remove the lag fix but Ill end up losing all of my data. Is there any way for me to to copy the files in my internal sd card to my computer in the current state my phone is in??
Ok... tried mount USB storage but my computer isnt recognizing is it.
Nope, sorry. We don't really have a way to communicate with the file system unless the OS is booted and the proper drivers are loaded.
I guess if anything good comes of this it's that you know to back up often now though! You have to flash the "Eugene's Froyo that doesn't brick" rom, then flash back to stock JFD or JI6, but you sound pretty informed so you probably already knew that.
I see thats to bad, the Amon's recovery for the G1 allowed you to view files in it. But no I never knew that you should flash Eugene before going back to stock. I've flashed back to stock from Axura before with no problems before. Still this gives me some hope because Im sure the problem is the lagfix I tried and maybe it will play nicely with Eugene's ROM.
EDIT: And it worked!! Thanks bud just goes to show any little bit of info could make a difference Lost all my files though but oh well, lesson learned.

[Q] S4 Boot Loop

Hey everyone,
Have a problem with a phone that I am not able to solve for the life of me.
Model: GT-i9505
SSN: -i9505GSMH
Originally, the S4 would hang on the Samsung splash screen, since I've attempted to fix this (see below) the S4 tries to boot into recovery mode if you turn it on, but it just hangs forever. It can boot into download mode without problem, and I'm able to use Odin to write to it.
I've tried
- installing custom recoveries, both TWRP and CWM, which to my knowledge installed no problem, but it wont boot into either.
- flashing stock firmware
- flashing stock firmware & pit file
- This fix from Legija though it didn't work. And I did install the Qualcomm drivers first, which was an effort all of its own. Suggested it might be an eMMC problem, I don't know how I would be able to replace that, and instructions for bringing it back from this made little sense.
None of this has worked, and I'm not sure what I could try to get it back up and running. It doesn't matter if it's rooted, running a custom rom, or both, it just needs to work. I've Googled the **** out of this problem, no resolve, so I'd be greatly appreciative of any advice or direction anyone can provide.
Thanks,
Oz
re: stuck
ozmund said:
Hey everyone,
Have a problem with a phone that I am not able to solve for the life of me.
Model: GT-i9505
SSN: -i9505GSMH
Originally, the S4 would hang on the Samsung splash screen, since I've attempted to fix this (see below) the S4 tries to boot into recovery mode if you turn it on, but it just hangs forever. It can boot into download mode without problem, and I'm able to use Odin to write to it.
I've tried
- installing custom recoveries, both TWRP and CWM, which to my knowledge installed no problem, but it wont boot into either.
- flashing stock firmware
- flashing stock firmware & pit file
- This fix from Legija though it didn't work. And I did install the Qualcomm drivers first, which was an effort all of its own. Suggested it might be an eMMC problem, I don't know how I would be able to replace that, and instructions for bringing it back from this made little sense.
None of this has worked, and I'm not sure what I could try to get it back up and running. It doesn't matter if it's rooted, running a custom rom, or both, it just needs to work. I've Googled the **** out of this problem, no resolve, so I'd be greatly appreciative of any advice or direction anyone can provide.
Thanks,
Oz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see you have done a lot of stuff but have you tried to go into recovery and do a "Factory Reset"
and restart the phone? - About 50% of the time this simple method works.
So copy a cwm/twrp flashable zip file onto your internal sdcard, do a factory reset, wipe system,
wipe cache, wipe dalvik cache then flash the zip file rom which is on your internal sdcard and see
if that does the trick.
Give it a try.
Misterjunky said:
I see you have done a lot of stuff but have you tried to go into recovery and do a "Factory Reset"
and restart the phone? - About 50% of the time this simple method works.
So copy a cwm/twrp flashable zip file onto your internal sdcard, do a factory reset, wipe system,
wipe cache, wipe dalvik cache then flash the zip file rom which is on your internal sdcard and see
if that does the trick.
Give it a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I can't get into recovery, it just sits there with the blue text up the top left forever. Thoughts?
Same here
cant get into recovery either. But see the blue letters in upper left corner then reboots.... HELP
ozmund said:
Unfortunately, I can't get into recovery, it just sits there with the blue text up the top left forever. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HELP!! I have the same problem. Do you already have a solution for this?
drummerako said:
HELP!! I have the same problem. Do you already have a solution for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. I took the battery out for a long time and it seemed to resolve itself, but the phone was still bust and had to be sent back.
ozmund said:
Nope. I took the battery out for a long time and it seemed to resolve itself, but the phone was still bust and had to be sent back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was in a boot loop and fix it with kies emergency firmware flash, you try that:good:

[Q] Help a noob, cannot boot after trying to flash stock rom

So I'm pretty desperate and I apologize if similar info was posted somewhere else. I've been researching several hours but couldn't find anything.
I originally installed CM11 and decided to experiment with a different rom TriForce ROM [TouchWiz]. I put the zip file on my SD card and booted into clockworkmod it gave an error of bad zip. I tried different usb port to transfer the zip, downloaded it multiple times with no result. So I decided to try a different rom Stock_Rooted_Deodexed_MF9_Rom.zip. The installation finished but the phone would not boot.
Recently I flashed the stock rom from odin, it finished successfully but still not boot, Galaxy sreen lights up quickly and that's it.
rmngorelov said:
So I'm pretty desperate and I apologize if similar info was posted somewhere else. I've been researching several hours but couldn't find anything.
I originally installed CM11 and decided to experiment with a different rom TriForce ROM [TouchWiz]. I put the zip file on my SD card and booted into clockworkmod it gave an error of bad zip. I tried different usb port to transfer the zip, downloaded it multiple times with no result. So I decided to try a different rom Stock_Rooted_Deodexed_MF9_Rom.zip. The installation finished but the phone would not boot.
Recently I flashed the stock rom from odin, it finished successfully but still not boot, Galaxy sreen lights up quickly and that's it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restore from nandroid backup. I hope you made one. Try going into recovery do a factory reset and wipe all cache and data and what not and then install a ROM from Odin.
rmngorelov said:
So I'm pretty desperate and I apologize if similar info was posted somewhere else. I've been researching several hours but couldn't find anything.
I originally installed CM11 and decided to experiment with a different rom TriForce ROM [TouchWiz]. I put the zip file on my SD card and booted into clockworkmod it gave an error of bad zip. I tried different usb port to transfer the zip, downloaded it multiple times with no result. So I decided to try a different rom Stock_Rooted_Deodexed_MF9_Rom.zip. The installation finished but the phone would not boot.
Recently I flashed the stock rom from odin, it finished successfully but still not boot, Galaxy sreen lights up quickly and that's it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you're using roms for your version of your phone. the MF9 bootloader is really old and probably wont install anymore. My phone did this before and I thought I bricked it, but I kid you not I took the battery out and removed the SIM card and rebooted and it booted up just fine. May not work for you, but I suggest you go back to update stock firmware then try again. If you're using the triband model, there's a post around here somewhere with confirmed roms that wont brick your device. I'm currently using the Google Play Edition Stock ROM and it's working GREAT.
Link for new firmware (NG5 Firmware): https://mega.co.nz/#F!0JdRkIZR!AqqKdbvba_Hpg5VrCmrbPw
i7vSa7vi7y said:
Restore from nandroid backup. I hope you made one. Try going into recovery do a factory reset and wipe all cache and data and what not and then install a ROM from Odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I restored to this stock ROM before and everything worked well. Currently I can't boot into recovery, Samsung flashes once and that's it, that's why I'm desperate the only thing I can do is boot in to download mode for odin.
silentdeath631 said:
Make sure you're using roms for your version of your phone. the MF9 bootloader is really old and probably wont install anymore. My phone did this before and I thought I bricked it, but I kid you not I took the battery out and removed the SIM card and rebooted and it booted up just fine. May not work for you, but I suggest you go back to update stock firmware then try again. If you're using the triband model, there's a post around here somewhere with confirmed roms that wont brick your device. I'm currently using the Google Play Edition Stock ROM and it's working GREAT.
Link for new firmware (NG5 Firmware):
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it matter that I can't get into recovery to clear the cache first before trying new roms?
silentdeath631 said:
Make sure you're using roms for your version of your phone. the MF9 bootloader is really old and probably wont install anymore. My phone did this before and I thought I bricked it, but I kid you not I took the battery out and removed the SIM card and rebooted and it booted up just fine. May not work for you, but I suggest you go back to update stock firmware then try again. If you're using the triband model, there's a post around here somewhere with confirmed roms that wont brick your device. I'm currently using the Google Play Edition Stock ROM and it's working GREAT.
Link for new firmware (NG5 Firmware):
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I'm doing something foolish but every time I try to download files from the link you gave I get a decryption error so I can't download them zip or original.
rmngorelov said:
I restored to this stock ROM before and everything worked well. Currently I can't boot into recovery, Samsung flashes once and that's it, that's why I'm desperate the only thing I can do is boot in to download mode for odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just hold home power and volume up. Right when you see text at the top left let go. You have to have the right timing
i7vSa7vi7y said:
Just hold home power and volume up. Right when you see text at the top left let go. You have to have the right timing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After almost eight hours of troubleshooting I finally got it to work.
I've tried flashing clockworkmod several times to see if I could get into recovery with no result so I gave up on that and I flashed the newest stock rom I could find L720VPUFNG2_L720SPTFNG2_SPR and it was still not booting. Than I thought maybe twerp would make a difference and god almighty it finally booted! I felt as if I gave birth to a child after eight hours of labor!
Now I'm extremely paranoid about touching anything because it took me forever to do this. Does anyone know why flashing twerp would make such a difference? I know this sort of stuff can get extremely complicated but I'd like to try to understand.
I hope my foolish agony contributed to this community if not in any other way except by the comedic relief caused by my ignorance.
rmngorelov said:
After almost eight hours of troubleshooting I finally got it to work.
I've tried flashing clockworkmod several times to see if I could get into recovery with no result so I gave up on that and I flashed the newest stock rom I could find L720VPUFNG2_L720SPTFNG2_SPR and it was still not booting. Than I thought maybe twerp would make a difference and god almighty it finally booted! I felt as if I gave birth to a child after eight hours of labor!
Now I'm extremely paranoid about touching anything because it took me forever to do this. Does anyone know why flashing twerp would make such a difference? I know this sort of stuff can get extremely complicated but I'd like to try to understand.
I hope my foolish agony contributed to this community if not in any other way except by the comedic relief caused by my ignorance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends what recovery you had and what version. I personally like Philz touch recovery but TWRP is good. Now wipe and flash a ROM my friend or restore a backup
rmngorelov said:
After almost eight hours of troubleshooting I finally got it to work.
I've tried flashing clockworkmod several times to see if I could get into recovery with no result so I gave up on that and I flashed the newest stock rom I could find L720VPUFNG2_L720SPTFNG2_SPR and it was still not booting. Than I thought maybe twerp would make a difference and god almighty it finally booted! I felt as if I gave birth to a child after eight hours of labor!
Now I'm extremely paranoid about touching anything because it took me forever to do this. Does anyone know why flashing twerp would make such a difference? I know this sort of stuff can get extremely complicated but I'd like to try to understand.
I hope my foolish agony contributed to this community if not in any other way except by the comedic relief caused by my ignorance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im having similar issues. which version of TWRP worked for you?
thank you
fearthemarchx said:
im having similar issues. which version of TWRP worked for you?
thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend flashing the newest one here using odin
http://teamw.in/project/twrp2
Then once you are able to boot into recovery go to wipe and perform both factory reset and format data. Then install whatever rom you like, I used Sprint Galaxy S4 SPH-L720 VPUFNAE (Androdi 4.4.2) found here
http://galaxys4root.com/galaxy-s4-stock-firmware/ (or maybe find a newer stock rom if this one gives you errors)
Just copy the zip file to the phone, boot into twrp, do wipe factory reset again, select install then select the zip in whatever directory and you should be good to go. Make sure you do a back up in twrp once you get the phone to boot so you can always revert to stock.
I hope I was thorough enough that some of the information was useful. Let me know if you need any more help.
only certain recoveries will stick. ive tried the most recent twrp, with no luck. only a few versions of philztouch work.
Sent from my LGL34C using XDA Free mobile app
fearthemarchx said:
only certain recoveries will stick. ive tried the most recent twrp, with no luck. only a few versions of philztouch work.
Sent from my LGL34C using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Format with philztouch that works then try flashing a new stock rom with odin. That should bring everything back to stock including the recovery.
ive tried. when i flash rom via odin i only get a blue "recovery booting" at the top of boot screen. even when i only power on, not into recovery. im going to attempt to flash rom provided in previous post via philz.
Sent from my LGL34C using XDA Free mobile app
fearthemarchx said:
ive tried. when i flash rom via odin i only get a blue "recovery booting" at the top of boot screen. even when i only power on, not into recovery. im going to attempt to flash rom provided in previous post via philz.
Sent from my LGL34C using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're in download mode when you flash from odin right? If you your getting an error flashing, try a different stock rom after reformating/resetting to factory (it's crucial to clear the cache before trying a different rom). I had to try a few roms before I found one that worked.

N910C stuck in frustrating bootloop

Hey wassup. So yesterday I rooted my phone and tried to install CM13 on it. Took a few tries since the rom I got was corrupted but I got it to work. Then I noticed it was guzzling the battery like lemonade (this EXACT same thing happened on my previous S4 too) so I gave up on it and decided to revert back to the stock rom. Everything went well... NOT. I downloaded the stock firmware (3gigs... zzz) and I flashed it with Odin and the phone restarted. The little android robot from the default unrooted recovery popped up and it had below it this: "Installing system update..." and then out of the blue it said "Erasing" and it's gear started rotating backwards. THEN, when it finished the normal Samsung Galaxy Note 4 logo popped up, went away and then CAME BACK AGAIN FOR LIKE 500 TIMES AND COUNTING. AOSP roms work just fine, it's just that touchwiz ones won't work whatsoever (even tried sixperience, no luck)... What should I do? I already lost my S4 due to this...
install TWRP custom recovery, boot up in recovery format system dalvik cache and internal storage then try flashing stock with odin hopefully it will work.
Try to remove battery first.from tsoch recovery wipe data cache and see if it works
dork997 said:
install TWRP custom recovery, boot up in recovery format system dalvik cache and internal storage then try flashing stock with odin hopefully it will work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been there, done that. Nope, still refuses to work :/
bumpity bump bump
Did you backup your efs partition before you flashed cm13? If not you corrupted your efs and your phone is a wifi tablet now because you cant use your modem.
travis82 said:
Did you backup your efs partition before you flashed cm13? If not you corrupted your efs and your phone is a wifi tablet now because you cant use your modem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this never happened to me with my old s2 or s4
why is it happening now ?
Didn't backup. Now it just won't even work with odin. Whenever I try to just flash anything with it goes off and says 0 successes and 0 fails. What I did notice though was that whenever I installed a stock rom it starts this "Installing system update" with the android robot twingling it's antennaes and then out of nowhere it's blue bar goes away and it says "Erasing" then... bootloop. Now odin won't even work (explained above). Should I just give up and send it in for repairing? Or can ANYONE send me the twrp restore file, please...
Peontikos_Desmos said:
Didn't backup. Now it just won't even work with odin. Whenever I try to just flash anything with it goes off and says 0 successes and 0 fails. What I did notice though was that whenever I installed a stock rom it starts this "Installing system update" with the android robot twingling it's antennaes and then out of nowhere it's blue bar goes away and it says "Erasing" then... bootloop. Now odin won't even work (explained above). Should I just give up and send it in for repairing? Or can ANYONE send me the twrp restore file, please...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Same problem
Any ideas !!!
Hey,
I have the same problem it turns out after flashing, i cant remember, maybe dytto note 4 rom, it got stuck in continous bootloops and the only way it is working for me is when its charging. I know it sounds crazy but its the only way for me, ive tried installing stock different countries firmware and bunch of custom rom with no luck. I sent it to the place where i bought the phone and made myself look dumb asking why it is like that and i told them i had not do anything. After only a week they phoned me and said it was rooted (i did get the root out when i gave it but they somehow knew it was... later i understood that it is all about that stupid Know thing) and refused to cover my warranty. They said that the only way i can get it to work is to pay 300$ for new chip :,(
senon said:
Hey,
I have the same problem it turns out after flashing, i cant remember, maybe dytto note 4 rom, it got stuck in continous bootloops and the only way it is working for me is when its charging. I know it sounds crazy but its the only way for me, ive tried installing stock different countries firmware and bunch of custom rom with no luck. I sent it to the place where i bought the phone and made myself look dumb asking why it is like that and i told them i had not do anything. After only a week they phoned me and said it was rooted (i did get the root out when i gave it but they somehow knew it was... later i understood that it is all about that stupid Know thing) and refused to cover my warranty. They said that the only way i can get it to work is to pay 300$ for new chip :,(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ffs i'm not paying another phone's worth in a ****ing motherboard. I tried:
-Flashing the stock bootloader, fails at sboot.img:NAND Write start fail
-Flashing the PIT file, just... wont flash. Successes 0/Fails 0
-Flashing the stock AP file, bootloop
-Flashing the CP and the CSC stock files, serial(com) port cannot be opened.
****ing garbage. For some reason my phone's the only exception to the rule that phones able to boot into download mode are salvageable. It's going in for a repair and if it's more than $50 I'm not rooting again even at gunpoint.
Quick update:
I found a toolkit that has a flash stock boot image option. Had to recover to my cm13 backup to enable usb debugging. Will post results
Nothing of course...
try this step by step,
1. Download stock firmware THE LATEST ONE (n910c v5.1.1) from sammobile.com
2. Download newest Odin and Samsung USB; installed Samsung USB
3. I am assuming you have installed twrp recovery. Boot to twrp recovery and do a full wipe; wipe all!
4. Boot to downloading mode and install stock via odin. That is it.
Ps.... in case of failure, make sure you have installed Samsung USB! Or just reconnect usb cable with other usb ports untill it is working.
Never flach cm if doesn'T HAVE a efs backup if not you will stuck with cm
Oliva.raiders said:
1. Download stock firmware THE LATEST ONE (n910c v5.1.1) from sammobile.com
2. Download newest Odin and Samsung USB; installed Samsung USB
3. I am assuming you have installed twrp recovery. Boot to twrp recovery and do a full wipe; wipe all!
4. Boot to downloading mode and install stock via odin. That is it.
Ps.... in case of failure, make sure you have installed Samsung USB! Or just reconnect usb cable with other usb ports untill it is working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, crap I already sent it in for repairing but if the fuqing robbers decide to change the motherboard instead of doing anything to it and charge me 500$ to do so I'm getting it back and I'm trying this one. Already did but it wouldn't hurt retrying... BTW FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DOES SOMEONE HAVE A TWRP BACKUP FILE ON STOCK TOUCHWIZ? JESUS
radium56ad said:
Never flach cm if doesn'T HAVE a efs backup if not you will stuck with cm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there absolutely NO workaround?
i had the same issue, this is how i solved this (you won't like it):
-deleted efs partition
-restored 5.1.1 coj5 via odin
-then took it to a samsung repair center to restore the imei
paid them like 50 bucks...that sucks. after this im backing up efs folder before flashing a rom.
radium56ad said:
Never flach cm if doesn'T HAVE a efs backup if not you will stuck with cm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JuanWilliman said:
i had the same issue, this is how i solved this (you won't like it):
-deleted efs partition
-restored 5.1.1 coj5 via odin
-then took it to a samsung repair center to restore the imei
paid them like 50 bucks...that sucks. after this im backing up efs folder before flashing a rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh that's nothing man. The fuqing scammers told me the whole freaking board had to be replaced...
There's one thing I've noticed though that's PROBABLY gotta be the culprit. Whenever I install a touchwiz rom, the phone boots up fine for once, shows the robot with the "Installing system update" and then it goes off with "Erasing" followed by the bootloop. Could anyone please elaborate on this? I have a feeling this is what's causing this ****fest

Softish Brick Recovery i9505 int

Hi,
My i9505 Intl (Australian Telstra LTE) SGS4 has been rooted for a year at least now, and recently (a few months) had TWRP recovery and CM13 installed and everything was going great. I loved CM!
Anyway I had done a few nightly patches of CM and all seemed good and then a week ago I installed the most recent nightly (possibly this one cm-13.0-20160819-NIGHTLY-jfltexx-recovery.img ). Well the subsequent reboot put the phone into a boot loop. So I thought no problem just boot to recovery and install my recent Nandroid back up. So did that but in my haste didn't clear cache or data. The nandroid reinstall seemed to go ok but a subsequent boot hung at the CM logo (I think it was a while ago now) and I couldn't boot to recovery, just hung with the blue text.
So I fired up Odin and booted to download and reflashed with TWRP. Boot to recovery still didn't work however I could still boot to download.
Tried different USB ports, different versions of Odin, re installed drivers to no avail. Also tried CWM, TWRP and Philz recovery and once I did get it to boot to recovery with Philz. THIS TIME cleared cache and data and loaded a good copy of CM that I had on my SD card. Again stuck in boot. Couldn't get back to recovery.
Tried loading the orginal samsung firmware and they I was stuck with a Samsung logo boot looping. Ditto recovery just hung at the logo and the blue text "recovery booting".
Rinse and repeat a few times and now the phone has started to become difficult to get into download or recovery. If I leave it with the battery out for a while it seems to come good again.
Odin when flashing a new recovery either hangs half way though or completes and says everything is OK. Full blue bar on the phone.
Rebooting however still leaves me in the boot loop.
There is no mention on Odin of any issues with the partition however I have d/l a PIT file from one of samersh72's posts but am not sure if it is the correct one for my Int phone or indeed if I need to use it as Odin doesn't seem to report any partition errors.
If any one has any suggestions I am very receptive to ideas right now.....
Thanks
Did you perform a factory wipe after flashing stock before booting the rom for the first time?
audit13 said:
Did you perform a factory wipe after flashing stock before booting the rom for the first time?
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I did a factory wipe and then installed CM from my SD card but that is the only time I have able to get into recovery since the first time when I reloaded my nandroid backup
Did you try flashing recovery without selecting auto reboot? Once flashed, remove USB cable, remove battery, replace battery, try to boot into recovery.
audit13 said:
Did you try flashing recovery without selecting auto reboot? Once flashed, remove USB cable, remove battery, replace battery, try to boot into recovery.
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Yup tried that, as I realised that the auto boot might be overwriting the custom recovery...........however as a new development I haven't been able to boot to download or even the stuck recovery since yesterday.
I think it has now moved to a full hard brick
Is still turns on? You have a USB jig to try?
audit13 said:
Is still turns on? You have a USB jig to try?
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No I don't have one but I have all the makings of one so i'll put one together and give it a go. Though I have to say that I am not that hopeful as I can't even get a peep out of it now.
A jig may be the last solution before sending it for repair or replacing the motherboard.
audit13 said:
A jig may be the last solution before sending it for repair or replacing the motherboard.
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Thanks Audit, Ill let you know how I get on. Just looked at some replacement motherboards and they don't seem too common for the LTE version used here in Australia AND USD60......pretty much get a working phone locally here on ebay for that and I get the rest of the parts too.
Have you tried already flashing a stock rom as a tar file from sammobile?
justgamer01 said:
Have you tried already flashing a stock rom as a tar file from sammobile?
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Yup did that as well!
Ghostdog1 said:
Yup did that as well!
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I'm not sure if it will work! But try emergency recovery with Smart Switch!
justgamer01 said:
I'm not sure if it will work! But try emergency recovery with Smart Switch!
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Click to collapse
With Smartswitch I get the same outcome as with Kires
"GT-I9505 does not support initialising. Please contact our service centre."
But on the plus side it is actually responding to button presses today. I will pick up some 100K resistors tomorrow and finish off my USB jig. See how that goes.
Well it appears to have finally died fully. No response to any button or combination of button presses. Made up a USB jig but without some response to a boot that won't work either.
Thanks to Audit and Justgamer for your advice. Think it is time to draw a line under this one and move on. Maybe a new Nexus when they drop?

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