[Q] Lost EFS potentially - Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So after flashing a few things, something went wrong big time. Phone barely makes it to the lock screen and when it does, it says System is not responding and then automatically reboots. In that brief time I see the dreaded no signal icon.
Have tried restoring stock firmware via Odin and it still leads to the same lock screen issue every time (used this very same file to restore to stock before without any issues). To add salt to the wound, my SD card got corrupted (stupid SanDisk I should have learned from past experiences) which is where I kept my EFS backup. This is on a N900W8, with Knox tripped 0x1 so no chance of warranty.
Do I have quite the expensive paperweight on my hands here now? It seems so but hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel for me

VinceThePrince said:
So after flashing a few things, something went wrong big time. Phone barely makes it to the lock screen and when it does, it says System is not responding and then automatically reboots. In that brief time I see the dreaded no signal icon.
Have tried restoring stock firmware via Odin and it still leads to the same lock screen issue every time (used this very same file to restore to stock before without any issues). To add salt to the wound, my SD card got corrupted (stupid SanDisk I should have learned from past experiences) which is where I kept my EFS backup. This is on a N900W8, with Knox tripped 0x1 so no chance of warranty.
Do I have quite the expensive paperweight on my hands here now? It seems so but hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity, did you have the new bootloader or the old and did you try to dowgrade the firmware?
If you did it might be part of the problem...
Reflash MJ7 in ODIN and that should fix it but you will now have new bootloader that will trip Knox counter when rooted.

ultramag69 said:
Out of curiosity, did you have the new bootloader or the old and did you try to dowgrade the firmware?
If you did it might be part of the problem...
Reflash MJ7 in ODIN and that should fix it but you will now have new bootloader that will trip Knox counter when rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I have not tried downgrading, the Odin firmware I use was always the latest MJ4

Since you've tripped KNOX try this link it'll fix your efs issues.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=47014662
It does work, bailed me out and many others. You'll have to go with a custom recovery though to be able to use it. Just boot into download, install custom recovery then flash the zip fix and you're sorted.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Related

Locking up straight out of the box

Just got my new i9500, turned it on and with in minute it locked up then rebooted (no sim or mem card at this stage).
Did't think much of it at the time. Went ahead and rooted it & flashed Omega rom.
Unfortunately it continues to lock up & reboot every few minutes of use. Looks like it is faulty and will have to go back for warranty. My concern is the rom counter and warranty. Will flashing a stock firmware with odin put the counter back to zero?
Flashing stock with odin will not reset Samsung's rom counter. From my understanding, there are ways to reset the counter, but you have to be very careful because it has the potential to really mess up the phone. If you flash back to stock rom and stock recovery and relock the bootloader, you will be able to exchange it wherever you bought it without an issue (assuming you are still within the 14 day period most carriers give you). No one will look that deeply into the software of the phone until it gets back to Samsung. And even then, it is not guaranteed they will check that. I'm not saying it won't happen, but the odds of you having any issues are slim.
KTM690 said:
Just got my new i9500, turned it on and with in minute it locked up then rebooted (no sim or mem card at this stage).
Did't think much of it at the time. Went ahead and rooted it & flashed Omega rom.
Unfortunately it continues to lock up & reboot every few minutes of use. Looks like it is faulty and will have to go back for warranty. My concern is the rom counter and warranty. Will flashing a stock firmware with odin put the counter back to zero?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash a Stock Firmware using Odin below is the link u can find a firmware of ur cell
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2265477&highlight=stock+firmware
after flashing a firmware again reset the device from ur cell
and i9500 has hidden counter mostly so u cant see how many flashes u have got however there isnt any way to reset also for now may be we have to wait till chainfire gets one for i9500 .. Once u flash a stock firmware it will show official hopefully they will replace it
Make sure its saying official on download mode and also in abous us / status / device status all should be official of whatever samsung writes
I have flashed a genuine firmware but it still says "Custom" when I boot into download mode.
Any ideas how to get it back to official & reset counter?

[N9005] Boot looping + unknown baseband

Hi,
After flashing the MJ6 ROM with the Universal root de la vega method (I have the old bootloader from MJ1) and flash the MJ4 modem, the camera and and wifi were not working, I tried to downgrade the modem to MJ2 with Odin to give a try.
However now I'm facing several boot loops (on first notification model screen) and when the Note succeed in corectly booting, I have an FC from system process, and some others applications.
I tried to check the phone parameters and saw that baseband was "unknown", but didn't succeed to see the screen where the IMEI is displayed because the phone is rebooting automaticaly when I try to access to this screen.
The phone is very instable : sometimes I'm not able to access to parameters with the tactil button.
In all cases the phone is auto rebooting after several minutes.
I tried several things withoot result :
- Wipe cache + factory reset
- Flash several modems
- Flash MI7 stock ROM with Odin
> no change
Actually I have :
- baseband unknown
- boot looping
- no wifi
- no sound
- no root
- acces to download mode and stock recovery is OK.
As someone have some cloues to help me?
Crystal7_Magic said:
Hi,
After flashing the MJ6 ROM with the Universal root de la vega method (I have the old bootloader from MJ1) and flash the MJ4 modem, the camera and and wifi were not working, I tried to downgrade the modem to MJ2 with Odin to give a try.
However now I'm facing several boot loops (on first notification model screen) and when the Note succeed in corectly booting, I have an FC from system process, and some others applications.
I tried to check the phone parameters and saw that baseband was "unknown", but didn't succeed to see the screen where the IMEI is displayed because the phone is rebooting automaticaly when I try to access to this screen.
The phone is very instable : sometimes I'm not able to access to parameters with the tactil button.
In all cases the phone is auto rebooting after several minutes.
I tried several things withoot result :
- Wipe cache + factory reset
- Flash several modems
- Flash MI7 stock ROM with Odin
> no change
Actually I have :
- baseband unknown
- boot looping
- no wifi
- no sound
- no root
- acces to download mode and stock recovery is OK.
As someone have some cloues to help me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure your Knox warranty void has been tripped... Flash the MJ6 stock firmware. You have the new bootloader now anyway, that's why you are in the bootloop.. I had the same problem and when I checked and found warranty void triggered I figured can't hurt.
Flashed stock MJ6 firmware. Baseband comes back, all thos little things not working get fixed. I then flashed CF-root as the warranty void was 0x1...
It seems if you flash the Modem.bin file you are stuck, you need to flash the MJ6 firmware to fix....
ultramag69 said:
I'm pretty sure your Knox warranty void has been tripped... Flash the MJ6 stock firmware. You have the new bootloader now anyway, that's why you are in the bootloop.. I had the same problem and when I checked and found warranty void triggered I figured can't hurt.
Flashed stock MJ6 firmware. Baseband comes back, all thos little things not working get fixed. I then flashed CF-root as the warranty void was 0x1...
It seems if you flash the Modem.bin file you are stuck, you need to flash the MJ6 firmware to fix....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same pb ..... and flash MJ6 full and now it's OK .... so I rooted ... Knox 1 ....but everything OK I am happy
Ok, but normaly I always have the old bootloader because I do not have flash the MJ6 stock > It has been modified with universal root de la vega before flashing with Odin, and my flag is still on 0x0.
> So normaly the MJ6 I flashed should not contain the new bootloader.
It will be troublesome for me if flashing a stock MJ6 is needeed as I do not want to trigger the Knox flag.
I always have the solution to return my Note to my seller for refund, so I'm seeking for a way which do not trigger Knox
ultramag69 said:
I'm pretty sure your Knox warranty void has been tripped... Flash the MJ6 stock firmware. You have the new bootloader now anyway, that's why you are in the bootloop.. I had the same problem and when I checked and found warranty void triggered I figured can't hurt.
Flashed stock MJ6 firmware. Baseband comes back, all thos little things not working get fixed. I then flashed CF-root as the warranty void was 0x1...
It seems if you flash the Modem.bin file you are stuck, you need to flash the MJ6 firmware to fix....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LIPA said:
I had the same pb ..... and flash MJ6 full and now it's OK .... so I rooted ... Knox 1 ....but everything OK I am happy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finaly I have decided to flash the MJ6 stock ROM and everything go ok.
I still have my knox 0x0 but will trigger to 0x1 if I try to root by now : hard decision.
Thanks for your help you two
Crystal7_Magic said:
Finaly I have decided to flash the MJ6 stock ROM and everything go ok.
I still have my knox 0x0 but will trigger to 0x1 if I try to root by now : hard decision.
Thanks for your help you two
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mate, I modified with root de la vega myself but it seems the new bootloader got through....
Where can I find the MJ6 firmware
ultramag69 said:
Mate, I modified with root de la vega myself but it seems the new bootloader got through....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will be strange, because I succedeed to root the Note withoot triggering Knox
You have to be sure that you do not have take update from OTA or official stock ROM when you was on ROM before MJ3 (if you take stock MJ3 bootloader is altered)
yazzie said:
Where can I find the MJ6 firmware
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can find it on Sammobile website (create an account is needed to access to download section)
http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/?model=SM-N9005&pcode=0#firmware
After flashing the MJ6 stock firmware to recover my baseband, I have juste noticed that wifi is not properly working.
> Wifi is blocked on activation
> Sometime the Note succeed to activate wifi and show me networks which are available, however when I'm trying to connect to one of them I got a freeze then wifi go back to activating statuts.
Any explanation?
SM-N900W8 Boot Loop
Has anyone else resolved this issue. Phone was rooted with "CF-Auto-Root-hltecan-hlteub-smn900w8" and used TWRP 2.6.3.0. Upon doing a restore with TWRP, the phone is now in this crazy loop. Phone boots but always fails prior to seeing home screen. Tried going to SamMobile and restoring original Rogers firmware with no resolution.
Any help is most appreciated.
ultramag69 said:
Mate, I modified with root de la vega myself but it seems the new bootloader got through....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks a million. i had the same problem, following my ordeal with samsung on region sim lock.
i tried the mj6, it seemed too work, for now.
will root it and see how that goes. thanks once again
Ahmads001 said:
thanks a million. i had the same problem, following my ordeal with samsung on region sim lock.
i tried the mj6, it seemed too work, for now.
will root it and see how that goes. thanks once again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flashed the stock MJ6 then you have the new anti-root bootloader. ANY attempt to root will end in Warranty void being triggered...
Unfortunately this is a problem that hasn't been fixed yet. Just a heads up to let you know you will probably trigger the warranty void.
Then again Designgears is back developing RDLV again so it might be updated soon... :fingers-crossed:
ultramag69 said:
If you flashed the stock MJ6 then you have the new anti-root bootloader. ANY attempt to root will end in Warranty void being triggered...
Unfortunately this is a problem that hasn't been fixed yet. Just a heads up to let you know you will probably trigger the warranty void.
Then again Designgears is back developing RDLV again so it might be updated soon... :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks again for usual insight.
unfortunately, the bootloop problem was back after a restart yesterday. took several loops (about 30 mins) before it started up. i had to reflash with the latest stock N9005XXUDMJ7_N9005OJVDMJ4_KSA. now im scared to restart the phone for any reason, since i cant tell if it will entre bootloop again - it gets worse with every reset.
Since the knox already tripped 0x1, i still desire to root it ASAP.
So,
1. how do i get rid of this bootloop menace, PERMANENTLY
2. how do i safely root the phone (SM-N9005)
will appreciate a lot of help.
Ahmads001 said:
thanks again for usual insight.
unfortunately, the bootloop problem was back after a restart yesterday. took several loops (about 30 mins) before it started up. i had to reflash with the latest stock N9005XXUDMJ7_N9005OJVDMJ4_KSA. now im scared to restart the phone for any reason, since i cant tell if it will entre bootloop again - it gets worse with every reset.
Since the knox already tripped 0x1, i still desire to root it ASAP.
So,
1. how do i get rid of this bootloop menace, PERMANENTLY
2. how do i safely root the phone (SM-N9005)
will appreciate a lot of help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As Knox is tripped use cf-autoroot found in the original android developement section of the Note 3 forum. This will give you root...
I would also try a different region rom, I used MJ7 from the UK. It didn't cause any issues.
I had bootloops and found going to wifi, clicking on menu button, advanced.& unticking "Scanning always available" seemed to fix my bootloops but this was for my MJ1 firmware.
Otherwise can't really help anymore tonight. Gotta go to work tomorrow and its 2am here in Oz....
ultramag69 said:
As Knox is tripped use cf-autoroot found in the original android developement section of the Note 3 forum. This will give you root...
I would also try a different region rom, I used MJ7 from the UK. It didn't cause any issues.
I had bootloops and found going to wifi, clicking on menu button, advanced.& unticking "Scanning always available" seemed to fix my bootloops but this was for my MJ1 firmware.
Otherwise can't really help anymore tonight. Gotta go to work tomorrow and its 2am here in Oz....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, and good morning.
will be back later (sorry some of us -docs- dont actually have the 'day/night' thing).
will try the wifi thing, and see what happens.
once again, thanks
Same problem here :
- Supposed to be MK2 rom (N9005XXUDMK2) and was rooted
- Recovery and download mode are OK
- Flashed several time with ODIN, including modem.bin from the same archive
- Obviously Knox is 0x01
But phone is still unuseable ....Boots up, pass the intial setting. Then error message about system not responding and reboot ...
Any help would be appreciated
Follow this it'll fix it http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=47014662
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
You saved my day !!! Thanks
Crystal7_Magic said:
After flashing the MJ6 stock firmware to recover my baseband, I have juste noticed that wifi is not properly working.
> Wifi is blocked on activation
> Sometime the Note succeed to activate wifi and show me networks which are available, however when I'm trying to connect to one of them I got a freeze then wifi go back to activating statuts.
Any explanation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem
You solved your problem?
Thanks
sbdz said:
I have the same problem
You solved your problem?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Unfortunately for you no, I made a swap with a brandnew one with the seller.

[Q] Soft brick? Hard brick? Sort of firm'ish brick really

I've made a bit of a mess and I need help please. My s4 is softbricked, but as softbricks go, it's rather hard.
I have an early S4 i9505 bought from Carphone Warehouse (UK, unlocked, pre knox). I rooted it, installed TBackup, greenify and got it how I wanted it. Then I downloaded a stock firmware from Sammobile and tested to see if I could get it back to 'warranty' condition, which was a success.
Confident that I could obtain warranty if I needed it, I re-rooted it, installed TB and greenify, and it ran sweetly for months from that point onwards.
I read about the arrival of updates (and knox) and concluded I didn't need them. It was working, leave it alone.
Then out of the blue, my nice stable machine broke. I didn't change anything I was aware of to cause it.
No normal boot.
No recovery.
Download only.
Using Odin, I tried allsorts, eventually getting the same Sammobile firmware to run.
2 days later, it broke again, same as before, but worse!?
Then I tried all sorts of stuff downloading no end of things trying to get it to boot or even go into recovery. The most promising approach was to reload the firmware along with a .pit file, but still no joy. I've lost track of the other things I tried, but I've been doing it for a week, so a lot has been done. In desperation, I even tried downloading the latest firmware, so I now have signs of knox of the odin page.
I now have the following symptoms:
Booting into recovery brings up the blue 'booting recovery' message then just blackness.
Normal boot is exactly the same as above.
Unpowered conection to my laptop gives a 5 second boot loop featuring the buzz only.
I can reliably boot into download and download stuff with Odin and change the little Odin page status messages. After (foolishly) trying the latest firmware, these messages say
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME GT-I9505
CURRENT BINARY Samsung Official
SYSTEM STATUS Official
KNOX KERNEL LOCK 0x0
KNOX WARRANTY VOID 0x0
CSB-CONFIG-LSB 0x30
WRITE PROTECTION: enable
eMMC BURST MODE enabled
Please can anyone give me some advice on what else I could try?
Thanks
Steve
Wrinklespots said:
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME GT-I9505
CURRENT BINARY Samsung Official
SYSTEM STATUS Official
KNOX KERNEL LOCK 0x0
KNOX WARRANTY VOID 0x0
CSB-CONFIG-LSB 0x30
WRITE PROTECTION: enable
eMMC BURST MODE enabled
Please can anyone give me some advice on what else I could try?
Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If anything else is not working (especially, if you're unable to go to recovery) I'd call sammy service center. Your download mode says that you did not rooted your phone, and knox is untouched either.
spamtrash said:
If anything else is not working (especially, if you're unable to go to recovery) I'd call sammy service center. Your download mode says that you did not rooted your phone, and knox is untouched either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for looking spamtrash.
I was wondering if I could get away with that. It does look good from the Odin display, but the flash counter must have a pretty high number in it by now! Won't that show up somewhere?
Do you think it does actually have a fault on it, rather than just some software that's messed up and needs tweaking?
Thanks
Steve
Wrinklespots said:
Thanks for looking spamtrash.
I was wondering if I could get away with that. It does look good from the Odin display, but the flash counter must have a pretty high number in it by now! Won't that show up somewhere?
Do you think it does actually have a fault on it, rather than just some software that's messed up and needs tweaking?
Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Are you able to go to recovery mode?
2. Assuming that your previous communicates were taken from the screen in download mode - you're clean.
If answer for 1 is: NO, and assuming 2: do not bother the flash counter. Flash counter does not means you messed with custom ROMs, it just means amount of the ROM update tries. As they are unable to prove that the counter was not increased by failed KIES updates, you're safe.
To go deeper, service will have to flash and wipe your phone.
One thing: remove your sd card prior to giving/sending it out.
Try a different usb cable.I was in same boat as you (after stupidly thinking mobile odin pro liked modems).
Luckily I had an unused cable off my tab 3.

How to knox zero and go back to stock??

Need a little bit of help here from the geeks
i'm on a custom rom. device is N910C trying to flash a stock image from odin. it simply fails while flashing system.
this is happening first time with samsung. i flashed 100's of mobile's but never stoped because of knox. or may be I never flashed a knox voided mobile before.
so, are there any helping hands here?
tried to flash BOC3 and BOB4 same error like when the bar reaches at arround 90% it fails
go to a samsung service center and pay $300 for a new phone board. it will come with a knox flag set to 0x0.
I don't think your problem has anything to do with Knox. Try a different port, cable, and/or computer. Try using Kies 3.

[Q] Unable to remove custom padlock stock lolipop

I have tried everything I can possibly think of in a short period of time, and need an answer in a hurry. The phone (Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N-900V) was rooted back when kitkat was the main OS using geohot's towelroot (or possibly kingo root I can't remember which i used after I got the phone and upgraded from ICS). I have 2 of these exact same phones, used the exact same rooting method, and unrooted by uninstalling the superuser app, rebooted, and installed the OTA update to lolipop. My phone works fine, (the one I'm typing from) however, my other phone decided to take a dump. It's a software bug between the samsung firmware and the new lolipop OS. It was working for several months, then all the sudden it wouldn't recognize/register the APN. Now it doesn't see anything just about with the phone. Not even the IMEI from the phones serial number. The sim card has been replaced twice and has worked for a matter of a few hours, however, upon restarting the phone, it goes back to no service, and nothing is registered or recognized. I reflashed the phone with the stock 5.0 Lolipop using Odin several times to no avail. My phone (one I'm using now) once did this months ago, and I was able to access the service menu and reregister the SIM card and phone has worked fine since. With this other phone, I can't get into the service menu at all because nothing is registering. So, after reflashing 4 or 5 times, factory reseting from both the OS and from recovery booting, it still has the same issue. Here is my question. It used to be when I reflashed, the custom padlock would disappear. I'm getting a new phone tomorrow, and I need to get rid of the custom padlock before I return the old phone. I can use Odin, or whatever but it has to be something, I can do while it stays stock. The knox counter has not been tripped, and the flash counter is not tripped nor showing anything on the download mode. Everything lools, and feels stock, except that custom padlock. Is there a way to get rid of that custom padlock unrooted, by reflashing? I even used a pit file to repartition, but that didn't work either. Need help A.S.A.P.!
I would just hard brick the phone just before returning it...they will just throw it out at that point and your secret will be safe.
Hard Brick
xxperrin said:
I would just hard brick the phone just before returning it...they will just throw it out at that point and your secret will be safe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You thinking maybe a NAND erase?
Hard Brick
I've thought about flashing the wrong rom too but dunno if that will work 100%. I either need to fix it, or make it 100% unrecoverable. Any advice?

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