Database Users

Not soft or hard brick...half brick??? Help!

Hi all....not a noob here, but nowhere near a dev, and I'm perplexed beyond reason here......
My phone was being all glitchy so I did a complete hard reset, flashed stock MDL ROM, flashed upgrade to MF9 (didn't want to wait for OTA), flashed cf autoroot then philz touch recovery and everything and was running great.
Then I went to flash CM10.2 and afterwards and didn't get a reboot, but didn't want to deal with the unrooting issue so I flashed a different kernel first (which I think may have been the problem.) I pulled the battery and attempted to reboot from being off. All hell breaks loose. It won't load no matter how I attempt a boot, (recovery, from "off") so I decided it may be best just to start the process over.
Odin flash back to stock MF9 thinking no biggie, then when I go to boot things get weird. No bootloop, but it takes awhile then boots but no "main screen" I have the status bar on the top, then when I go to shut down I can see the shut down menu, but nothing else. Blank face.
So....I'm totally lost at this point. I've tried stock kernel, stock ROMs, reboots galore, and I have no idea what component of the ROM is missing. I have no clue how to fix it!!!! Can someone more informed than I PLEASE help???
UPDATE - tried flashing crawjr's stock rooted odex - no dice. Still reboots through yellow logo to "blank" homescreen; I can hear touch sounds when I mess with the screen...it's like the ROM is running I just can't see it?
crawjr's ROM fixed after booting into recovery and factory reset. This can be deleted.

AT&T S4 formatted /system help

I found the guide to install Lollipop onto the S4 and decided to try. I had backed up everything with Titanium app, then backed up everything with Safestrap before continuing. I did a factory reset in SafeStrap but then also formatted /system..my phone rebooted and is now stuck in a boot loop with no SafeStrap screen.
Went into recovery mode and did another Factory Reset, this stopped the boot loop but now it is frozen at Galaxy S4 screen, I'm guessing because there's absolutely nothing there for the phone to boot into.
I am now trying to flash stock Kitkat using Odin but now I've come across another problem.
Booting the phone into download mode does not work either. I have tried two laptops, one of them worked with Odin before this mixup so the drivers are fine. Neither laptops detect the phone, so Odin never finds it for me to flash the stock rom.
Recovery mode is the same thing, the laptop never detects the phone for adb to work.
One odd thing is that when the phone is plugged in the phone is stuck at the empty battery with the loading circle but the circle is frozen. It never moves past this screen to the battery that shows the charge percentage.
Is there anything I can download to fix this problem using revovery's "apply update from external storage"?

My phone is SGH-i337 and before I messed everything up it was on 4.3 MK2. The only option I have is to use the Android Recovery. Where is the MK2 rom that I can flash using the recovery?

It should work. Wiping /system is unrelated to download mode.
- Different usb cable
- Different usb port
- Reinstall drivers
- Different pc
- Run Odin as admin

Run ODIN As an Admin it'll work

Thanks guys. As it turned out, two of my cables only charged and didn't have a data connection. The third was actually found by my PC. Flashed 4.4.2 onto it and have so many problems I want to go back to 4.3
I have a safestrap backup of my 4.3. Can I restore that backup without any complications since I am now on 4.4.2?

FlameBrand said:
Thanks guys. As it turned out, two of my cables only charged and didn't have a data connection. The third was actually found by my PC. Flashed 4.4.2 onto it and have so many problems I want to go back to 4.3
I have a safestrap backup of my 4.3. Can I restore that backup without any complications since I am now on 4.4.2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can restore it but you will have lot of problems maybe. What type of problems do you have in android 4.4.2? Can you dial *#1234# and tell me what appears?

Joku1981 said:
You can restore it but you will have lot of problems maybe. What type of problems do you have in android 4.4.2? Can you dial *#1234# and tell me what appears?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My main problem is that when I enable/disable wifi my phone freezes for 2 to 3 minutes and it never saves my network for auto connect. I have to input my WPA password every time. I've deleted wpa_supplicant.conf in both /system/etc/wifi and /data/misc/wifi like guides have stated but I still have the issues.
Also a few of my apps stop working randomly (opens, begins to load, then closes) and I need to uninstall/reinstall in order for them to work again.
A lot of apps like Transparent Weather Clock don't save my settings and go back to default after a few minutes.
I thought this was a permission problem but I did the "fix permissions" in safestrap and the problems are still here..

FlameBrand said:
My main problem is that when I enable/disable wifi my phone freezes for 2 to 3 minutes and it never saves my network for auto connect. I have to input my WPA password every time. I've deleted wpa_supplicant.conf in both /system/etc/wifi and /data/misc/wifi like guides have stated but I still have the issues.
Also a few of my apps stop working randomly (opens, begins to load, then closes) and I need to uninstall/reinstall in order for them to work again.
A lot of apps like Transparent Weather Clock don't save my settings and go back to default after a few minutes.
I thought this was a permission problem but I did the "fix permissions" in safestrap and the problems are still here..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reflash the STOCK ROM android 4.4.2 and don't use safestrap or other app. Simply flash it. Dial *#1234# and tell me what appears for solve your problems.

Joku1981 said:
Reflash the STOCK ROM android 4.4.2 and don't use safestrap or other app. Simply flash it. Dial *#1234# and tell me what appears for solve your problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sorry! lol completely forgot to tell you that. After dialing that SuperSU pops up in the Apps section
The wifi problem existed even before I rooted, right after I flashed the stock 4.4.2

FlameBrand said:
Oh sorry! lol completely forgot to tell you that. After dialing that SuperSU pops up in the Apps section
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Supersu pops up...... press BACK button then and tell me what appears :highfive:

Joku1981 said:
Supersu pops up...... press BACK button then and tell me what appears :highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh sorry.
AP: i337UCUFNB1
CP: i337UCUFNB1
CSC: i337ATTFNB1

FlameBrand said:
Ahh sorry.
AP: i337UCUFNB1
CP: i337UCUFNB1
CSC: i337ATTFNB1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, exist one update for your device that maybe solve ur problems. It's called I337UCUFNJ4 android 4.4.4 oficial (more info about HERE). And the link for download it is: HERE
- Lil guide for install this update:
1. Move the .zip file update (2400258.zip) in your phone on the micro sd memory.
2. Turn off your cell and go into STOCK recovery.
3. Proceed to select "apply update from external storage".
4. Look for 2400258.zip file and select it.
5. I hope the update is applied and finally be in Android 4.4.4 Kitkat.

Joku1981 said:
OK, exist one update for your device that maybe solve ur problems. It's called I337UCUFNJ4 android 4.4.4 oficial (more info about HERE). And the link for download it is: HERE
- Lil guide for install this update:
1. Move the .zip file update (2400258.zip) in your phone on the micro sd memory.
2. Turn off your cell and go into STOCK recovery.
3. Proceed to select "apply update from external storage".
4. Look for 2400258.zip file and select it.
5. I hope the update is applied and finally be in Android 4.4.4 Kitkat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downloaded the zip, went into stock recovery and tried updating. It gave an error "error code 7" in /tmp/ I forgot the exact zip that gave an error but it showed the error twice. Phone rebooted and now it's wiped all my data and on stock 4.4.2..so it didn't update.

FlameBrand said:
Downloaded the zip, went into stock recovery and tried updating. It gave an error "error code 7" in /tmp/ I forgot the exact zip that gave an error but it showed the error twice. Phone rebooted and now it's wiped all my data and on stock 4.4.2..so it didn't update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Wipe all
2. Reflash I337UCUFNB1: HERE through ODIN.
3. Factory reset your device.
4. Tell me how it works.
5. Forget the update 4.4.4 atm then (You can look for it via FOTA later).
6. Good luck :highfive:

Joku1981 said:
1. Wipe all
2. Reflash I337UCUFNB1: HERE through ODIN.
3. Factory reset your device.
4. Tell me how it works.
5. Forget the update 4.4.4 atm then (You can look for it via FOTA later).
6. Good luck :highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I factory reset then tried the NB1 to NJ1 OTA update in the 4.4.4 root thread. It updated just fine in recovery and now there is no more wifi issues. Thank you very much for all the help.

Need Help

I looked around and couldn't find a solution for this.
I flashed to the GPE ROM upon getting my new S4; everything went smoothly and the ROM worked. However, when I went to activate it with Ting this evening, I learned that I should have activated on stock firmware then flashed the custom ROM. I used ODIN to attempt to restore to stock and I ended up at a screen that said something along the lines of "Firmware upgrade has encountered an issue". I rebooted several times into download mode, but this message appeared every time I tried to boot to either revovery or Android. Conveniently when I went to see the error to provide the exact wording, it booted straight to the GPE ROM.
I still need to restore to a stock ROM though to activate on Ting. What is the process for this (even a link to a thread/post I overlooked will do)?

FlinderMouse said:
I looked around and couldn't find a solution for this.
I flashed to the GPE ROM upon getting my new S4; everything went smoothly and the ROM worked. However, when I went to activate it with Ting this evening, I learned that I should have activated on stock firmware then flashed the custom ROM. I used ODIN to attempt to restore to stock and I ended up at a screen that said something along the lines of "Firmware upgrade has encountered an issue". I rebooted several times into download mode, but this message appeared every time I tried to boot to either revovery or Android. Conveniently when I went to see the error to provide the exact wording, it booted straight to the GPE ROM.
I still need to restore to a stock ROM though to activate on Ting. What is the process for this (even a link to a thread/post I overlooked will do)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try a factory reset and then install stock ROM

i7vSa7vi7y said:
Try a factory reset and then install stock ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you point me in the right direction for that? Everything I have tried so far seems to fail...
Edit: I got back to the NAE stock rom, but I can't downgrade the modem from NG2 back to NAE...
Edit2: I didn't need the correct modem to activate, I guess. Flashing back to GPE, will update this again.
Final Edit: Once I activated on the stock ROM, everything seems to work perfectly on the GPE. Thanks for the suggestion, i7vSa7vi7y!

SOLVED - Stuck on boot screen From trying to go from Lollipop to KitKat

SOLVED - Doing a factory reset from the stock recovery seemed to clear it up.
I updated to Lollipop via Chainfire's "update without losing root" instructions and that went well (no issues). However I was not happy with a couple things and decided I wanted to let my phone live out its life on KitKat. I thought I could just flash the: "G900VVRU1ANK2_G900VVZW1ANK2_G900VVRU1ANK2_HOME.tar.md5" file however the phone is stuck on the boot screen.
I have searched for "unbricking" as that's what most call it, but I only see everyone saying to flash the ANK2 file.
Please let me know what I am missing.
Thanks

Root went wrong and restoring original firmware made no difference.

Hi everyone, just tried to root my i9507 S4 for the first time. Went really awful. I used the Chainfire Auto Root from his website for Android Lollipop (this one to be precise) and attempted to get it up and running through the included Samsung Odin. It booted in successfully and I could reach the home screen. I had SuperSU and could open it - but I think something stopped working along the way and everything crashed at once after just a few moments (whether I opened SuperSU or not). Google Play didn't open. I attempted to do a full-install from SuperSU, which got rid of SuperSU but the problems remained, awesome. Rebooting now changed nothing. So I went to Sammobile and downloaded the correct firmware (this one), and I attempted to restore with Odin using the same method as I did rooting. Everything seemed to be going to plan with Android "updating" and the like, and SuperSU is still gone, but the same problem remains. As expected all of my data remained. I'm tempted to do a full-reset at this point but I'd like you guys' opinion first. I'm new to all this - as you have probably guessed! - so please be nice-ish (I deserve some of the flack I'm sure). Thanks guys

Just attempted clearing cache thru recovery (stock) - no changes.

Full wipe then install firmware with Odin.

Through recovery I presume?

Do this: open Odin, uncheck everything except f reset time. Flash ROM. When you see the word reset in the Odin status window, remove USB cable from the phone, remove battery, replace battery, boot into stock recovery, perform a data/factory reset, reboot.
This method will wipe all of your data.

audit13 said:
When you see the word reset in the Odin status window, remove USB cable from the phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would this not brick the device? Thanks though.

You only see the word reset if the firmware was flashed. I do this for the note 1, note 2, note 3, s2, s3, and s4.