Database Users

Please help me: Corrupt TMO Tab

Hello,
Please Help!! My stock (firmware but rooted) TMO Tab started locking up and then progressed into constant reboots, lockups and semi hard resets (I lose all screens and they are back to stock, email accounts are gone in stock client, but apps are still there and a lot of other information is still there like wifi, bluetooth setting/devices etc.) Also, sometimes, the device hangs on the Samsung logo on boot up and I have to power down holding the button for 10 seconds and then turn back on..
It is almost like I got a virus. I did a hard reset the other night, went to bed with about 80% battery and it was completely dead in the morning. Last night went to bed with 91% and it was dead in the AM. Something is wrong and draining my battery.
Tmo is not standing behind their product because I bought it without a contract and said Samsung would either refund me or send me a new one(which I knew it couldn't be right), and it wasn't. They said send it in for 10-14 days and they will send me a working model.
So given all the problems I am having which seem to be software related, which software should I install? Something I won't have problems with or will still allow me to accept future Tmo updates if needed or wanted.
Also I am upset over the email limit(one month unlike the VZ version etc) on the stock email client so a Euro version would be fine if it had that feature and I also am not using the Tmo network so a disabled 3G network for data is not a problem.
Thanks for your help and suggestions.
Best,
BC

Please help me...
Update: My Tab was stuck on the Samsung logo for the longest time this morning(like 3 hours). I did the volume up/power button and wiped but still was stuck. It finally booted up but I am sure it is going to lock up and I will have to go through the same thing hoping to get it to boot up.
What could've caused it? What should I do while i have it on? Should I update to the Euro software and if so, which one? There are so many choices and not sure which one to do. Also, would I be able to go back to the stock tmobile s/w if I can return it for a replacement?
One thing that i noticed in the apps is a folder called error 1.0.0 but I cannot uninstall it. Is this normal and does anyone else have it? The other thing is that I still have the same memory available as when I had all my apps, email etc in it. Like it didn't really erase everything.
Please help and point me in the right direction. I have been scouring the net for 4 hours now and I don't know which way to go.
Thank you,
BC

Perhaps you poked around in the files system and accidently removed something? I would go to the Roto Stock firmware package thread, and flash that to repair a corrupt file system. Only a guess on my part, but it won't do any harm.

Well I suppose but I don't recall messing around with anything. I was hoping that while I had to change or repair my software, I should put the best on that there is to offer.
What software do you use or recommend?
Thanks for the reply! This is driving me crazy! I have had to turn off and back on at least 15 times today trying to get it to work amd habe wiped like 5 times.
Do you think I should just try and get a replacement from tmobile?
Thanks,
Brian

Woah, slow down partner. Make a Titanium Backup to the external sd card then remove it. Flash Rotohammers stock T Mobile firmware. Reroot with SuperOneCLick. Reinsert the external SD and reinstate your apps with Titanium. If things are still wonky after that then it's probably a hardware problem.
EDIT: I'd flash using Odin 1.7. It's just easier than Heimdall to me. Personal preference I suppose.

halftonehero said:
Woah, slow down partner. Make a Titanium Backup to the external sd card then remove it. Flash Rotohammers stock T Mobile firmware. Reroot with SuperOneCLick. Reinsert the external SD and reinstate your apps with Titanium. If things are still wonky after that then it's probably a hardware problem.
EDIT: I'd flash using Odin 1.7. It's just easier than Heimdall to me. Personal preference I suppose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did the backup and reinstalled after one of the wipes but it keeps locking up and not booting up. I haven't had it on 1 time successfully yet today and it past 10PM...
The main reason I would like a different firmware is because I want the full functionality of the email client like in some of the other tabs and android devices.
Tmobile and i don't know who else (I read ATT) crippled the email and it doesn't have the option to have all email on the device which is great for short trips without the laptop.
What about some of Roto's other firmwares? Like i said previously, I am not using Tmobiles data or service so it doesn't matter. I also read that the browser and overall was really smooth.
Is it ok to root with z4root? I have the app on my sd card and that is how i've done it before.
Thanks for your suggestions and i appreciate all feedback. I have to do something because this device has become a paperweight.
Thank you,
BC

bconfer said:
I did the backup and reinstalled after one of the wipes but it keeps locking up and not booting up. I haven't had it on 1 time successfully yet today and it past 10PM...
The main reason I would like a different firmware is because I want the full functionality of the email client like in some of the other tabs and android devices.
Tmobile and i don't know who else (I read ATT) crippled the email and it doesn't have the option to have all email on the device which is great for short trips without the laptop.
What about some of Roto's other firmwares? Like i said previously, I am not using Tmobiles data or service so it doesn't matter. I also read that the browser and overall was really smooth.
Is it ok to root with z4root? I have the app on my sd card and that is how i've done it before.
Thanks for your suggestions and i appreciate all feedback. I have to do something because this device has become a paperweight.
Thank you,
BC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey dude you sound nervous as hell man, relax. as long as you can get your phone in to download mode. you will be ok. flash rotos tmobile stock firmware. if it works hooray! if not flash rotos jme 4

Still out of commission
I am not nervous, just annoyed as hell.
I flashed the stock tmobile firmware, booted it up and it crashed after about 10 minutes and I am back stuck on the samsung logo. I haven't been able to get it to boot up for about 5-6 days. I have wiped many times and no dice.
Should I wipe cache partition? Try the JME software?
Thanks for your help!
BC

[Q] Persistent bootloops

Hi folks.
So after a sleepless night and a lot of guessing and clicking around with no luck, I finally decided to ask for help.
The story:
Yesterday, I decided to open up my lovely N4 to perform the thermal pad mod (that can be found on these forums), as it was going really hot around the CPU at time and it seemed like a good solution.
Now, I'm no stranger to disassembling microelectronics without breaking them (few weeks ago, I successfully resoldered a broken power button in my old T989 that I've been using before N4).
What couldn't let me sleep at night:
And here is where the problem emerged. After re-assembling my sweet little phone (yes, i did it perfectly right), I tried to boot up and all i could see was an endless and really annoying bootloop, but as the device booted up, I did not worry much. While doing some research, I read that there's people experiencing bootloops with 4.3, so I thought that after disconnecting the battery, it just might've had happened on its own (I was using stock 4.3 with faux kernel before the nightmare started)
At this point, I booted into recovery and tried to flash the rom over, but unfortunately nothing positive happened. Then I tried factory reset and flashing different roms, also with no luck. This is when things started to get really frustrating, as no matter what I flashed, the bootloop was (and is) still there. But then I tries to restore a backup that I did right after getting my N4, back in November, and it WORKED. Why do i still have a problem then? Because it was 4.1 and OTA was giving me error every time I wanted to flash the update, so I kept flashing till i get some results. And then one of the N4 toolkits wiped my entire internal memory and I ended up with only being able to use sideload. Then I tried ALL of the N4 toolkits that can be found in here, to wipe everything and bring my phone back to everything stock, but the bootloader is locked so it cant do it, and it cant unlock it because I cant boot into the system.
Conclusion:
The phone works fine, and it proved it. But no matter what I try to flash (other than the old backup), the persistent bootloop is still there smiling at me like an a****le.
Any ideas?

[Q] Galaxy S4 won't boot past recovery (urgent)

This is somewhat urgent because I am leaving the country for two weeks on Friday, and need a working phone. I am not sure what happened today, but my Sprint Galaxy S4 (SPHL720TBK) wouldn't connect to WIFI at my house. My tablet would, so I know it was a phone issue. I rebooted then was going through settings, and just checking things. The phone rebooted itself, and when it came back up, it went through a couple of screens, one of which asked about activation. It seemed like it was installing an update from Sprint, which it had been trying to do for a week or so. But it kept failing, saying it didn't have enough space for the download, despite there being several GB free internally and on the SD card. (I figured it must be because it was rooted). After a couple of additional screens on which I could only answer OK, the phone rebooted again, and that was it. It would not boot again. I decided to power off the phone and deal with it tonight. I can boot into recovery, and connect with Odin. I can boot to recovery and connect with ADB (in sideload mode). I know I could just do a factory reset, but unfortunately, I do not have a full backup since the end of January, and I would rather not lose everything. The phone was running v 4.4.2. I had rooted the phone several months ago with CF Auto Root using CF-Auto-Root-jfltespr-jfltespr-sphl720.tar.md5, so it was essentially stock, but rooted. Is there anything I can do to get the phone back on its feet that will not lose everything? Or anyway to copy data from the phone with it in this state? Any assistance will be VERY much appreciated! Thanks!

Fixed it myself
andrewt2323 said:
This is somewhat urgent because I am leaving the country for two weeks on Friday, and need a working phone. I am not sure what happened today, but my Sprint Galaxy S4 (SPHL720TBK) wouldn't connect to WIFI at my house. My tablet would, so I know it was a phone issue. I rebooted then was going through settings, and just checking things. The phone rebooted itself, and when it came back up, it went through a couple of screens, one of which asked about activation. It seemed like it was installing an update from Sprint, which it had been trying to do for a week or so. But it kept failing, saying it didn't have enough space for the download, despite there being several GB free internally and on the SD card. (I figured it must be because it was rooted). After a couple of additional screens on which I could only answer OK, the phone rebooted again, and that was it. It would not boot again. I decided to power off the phone and deal with it tonight. I can boot into recovery, and connect with Odin. I can boot to recovery and connect with ADB (in sideload mode). I know I could just do a factory reset, but unfortunately, I do not have a full backup since the end of January, and I would rather not lose everything. The phone was running v 4.4.2. I had rooted the phone several months ago with CF Auto Root using CF-Auto-Root-jfltespr-jfltespr-sphl720.tar.md5, so it was essentially stock, but rooted. Is there anything I can do to get the phone back on its feet that will not lose everything? Or anyway to copy data from the phone with it in this state? Any assistance will be VERY much appreciated! Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since I didn't spark enough interest for anyone to offer advice, had to spend most of the afternoon/evening fixing these problems myself. Everything seems to be working, so I thought I would pass along key parts of this hard-learned lesson in case anyone else finds himself in such a situation.
First I booted into adb sideload mode, which is all I could do anyway. I installed philz_touch_6.23.9-jflte.zip and the aromafm.zip. I was then able to boot into a "normal" recovery mode. Aromafm was troublesome, and I eventually had to manually put the zip into place for it to work consistently. These are both WONDERFUL , and I highly recommend them both. Thanks very much to the creators! I used the file manager to find the files that I didn't want to lose, and used ADB to pull the files over to my PC. (ADB pull <source> <target>) Then I did a full wipe and factory reset. That did little other than delete all my data, which I had already copied anyway. The phone still would not boot past recovery.
I tried to use ADB to install a new ROM, but got a variety of errors. My phone being an L720T, there are not many ROM's available, at least not for which I could find functioning links. I finally found a TAR, L720TVPUBNG5_L720TSPTBNG5_L720TVPUBNG5_HOME.tar.md5, and used ODIN v3.09 to install that.
I still need to go back and re-root the phone, and install lots of APPS and restore data, but at least I have a functioning phone, and I can do the rest on my plane ride tomorrow.
I found the information I needed in a variety of posts here on xda developers, and would not have been able to get through this without all the helpful advice posted to other threads. So thanks to all of you for the wealth of information available here!

Huge problem S4 not working anymore..

So this is my sad story..
I bought a second hand Samsung S4 (i337M Telcel) Unlocked, the day i got it, i tested in front of the seller everything was nice and smooth.. So i payed..
I was very excited and i proceed to make the Root proccess, at beginning i was having issues with the drivers and Odin, then i was able to fix it..
Anyways long story short i ended up with the ROOT, CYANOGENMOD CM11, and PHILZ 6.. The first day was working fine my cellphone.. (I must say i rooted in my life at least 4 devices even an S4 i9500 all of then with success and not a single problem.. Using them form months and even gears.. The latest was a Moto E..)
Ok so the i337M was working good since the first morning with the root, but in the afternoon it just turned off one time.. Was weird but i didnt pay much atention..
The second day i was listening music and suddenly it turned off, and since then the cellphone is not able to keep on for more than 10min..
Some times i can load the complete OS and ofter 2 min it turn off sometimes at the Samsung S4 logo turn off something i must say is that the Device every single time i turn it on, on the Samsung S4 screen says "kernel is not seandroid enforcing" in red letters, some people say it happens when the root process is not made correctly some says it normal because its rooted..
I already installed from Odin the Stock ROM from SamMobile, and the problem is exactly the same.. A friend of mine told me it could be the Logic Card AKA Motherboard.. But i want to believe its just a software problem.. Cuz' before i rooted cellphone was working..
- Download mode: Works like a charm not a single problem and basically its the only way i keep trying different options to install on the phone..
- Discovery mode: With CWM sometimes works good, sometimes it just turn off, with Philz runs good not turning off or something and its how i was able to wipe data, cache, dalvik, factory reset to the cellphone..
Im thinking in starting over like pretending i didnt do anything to the cellphone, try again the root, the rom, the PHILZ (dont know how to call it).. and hope for the best..
Any advice or reliable links where i can download the correct files for my S4 i337M.. You are basically the last reliable source i have to fix my S4 if you give up with me, then i must admit my cellphone has passed away ..
Hope you can help me thanks in advance and have an excellent day!!:laugh::good:

The first troubleshooting step (to determine if the issue is hardware or firmware related) is to flash back to stock with Odin. Since you have completed this step and find that the problem is still present, this suggests that it is a hardware problem.
I have seen a custom kernel cause sleep of death, which makes the phone appear to have turned off. But in those cases, flashing the stock kernel fixed the problem.
Perhaps you should see if you can return the phone to the seller for a full refund.

creepyncrawly said:
The first troubleshooting step (to determine if the issue is hardware or firmware related) is to flash back to stock with Odin. Since you have completed this step and find that the problem is still present, this suggests that it is a hardware problem.
I have seen a custom kernel cause sleep of death, which makes the phone appear to have turned off. But in those cases, flashing the stock kernel fixed the problem.
Perhaps you should see if you can return the phone to the seller for a full refund.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply.. I still dont know how but with Philz recovery, i was able to make a full wipe, i mean it deletes everything every single folder previously made was erased, and i can tell you that because i have a folder called ROOM where i places my ROM, Kernel, etc.. So i can flash them in discovery..
So i erased everything and then proceeded to install via Odin the Stock Rom and guess what it works like a charm, not a single problem.. So, so far the cellphone is ok.. I tested for two hrs.. Now i tried to install a custom ROM and its doesnt load from the Samsung S4 screen jaja... But im still having acces to discovery and download mode so thats ok..
Just two advices.. Never ever download files from Youtube ****y links.. Always go to the source.. Youtubers are assholes.. Real help and information comes from real people that knows what they are talking about like this forum and also updated and real ROM's come from the main source not Mega o Linkbucks...
Other advice embrace your self to do it.. Study every single question you have in Android, from KERNEL to ROM and ROOT.. Isn't that difficult..
One more question, Which ROM with Lollipop would you suggest to install i have the i337M?

SUNDR1V3R said:
So i erased everything and then proceeded to install via Odin the Stock Rom and guess what it works like a charm, not a single problem.. So, so far the cellphone is ok.. I tested for two hrs.. Now i tried to install a custom ROM and its doesnt load from the Samsung S4 screen jaja... But im still having acces to discovery and download mode so thats ok..]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May I make a suggestion? Now that you have the phone working, can you possibly just use it for a week without doing anything to it? Don't try to root it or do anything other than text, make phone calls, and install a few programs. This will establish a baseline of behavior for your device, so you'll be able to tell when its behavior is out of the ordinary.
I understand your desire to make it your own. I got my S4 brand new from AT&T and said that I would wait at least a month before rooting it or changing roms, in case there was a problem and needed to return it. I had good intentions, but I couldn't stand it anymore and rooted it after only 3 days! It will take a lot of patience, but you really need to use it for more than a few hours to make sure that the hardware is okay.

I agree take baby steps, week stock, week root, week recovery. Figure out if its hardware or one of the steps is causing it.

Galaxy S4 GT-i9505 Install ROM loading issues. Help please

G'day all,
Hoping someone can help. (firstly I've searched on here over and over and some things have really helped, but can't find this issues on here)
Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-i9505 (originally with Vodafone rom)
Back story, I managed to put google rom via WINTEAM at some point in time (I don't recall how I did this now) this file - crdroid-6.0.0-20151208-jfltexx.zip (I still have this but not a md5 file)
Anyway, I wiped it under settings and basically stuffed it right up. Loops on WINTEAM (this part I had found in search and downloaded Odin3 v3.13) and Samsung Rom and a couple of others.
I9505XXUHOJ3_I9505VAUHOJ1_I9505XXUHOJ3_HOME.tar.md5
I9505XXUHQK1_I9505MAXHQK1_I9505XXUHQK1_HOME.tar.md5
I9505XXUHOL3_I9505TELHOL2_I9505XXUHOL3_HOME.tar.md5
CF-Auto-Root-jflte-jfltexx-gti9505.tar.md5
The last one actually fixed up the google install but was hoping to place the original Samsung ROM back on and now it doesn't help at all when I run again.
The top 3 are Vodafone, Telstra and Max a forum had suggested (from a page on here somewhere). All of these say pass in Odin3 when installing onto phone. But once it gets to the Samsung with what looks like dots shooting out from the word it never gets past this at all.
When I power up the S4 phone, to get to download screen. I have volume up to download or volume down to restart phone. Some places I've read say to select wipe, I don' t have this option at all.
I saw an option to install s8 rom to s4 which I would like to do, but the how to do that requires working software first and install TWRN or something like that.
I'm not sure if this will run fast or ok on this phone, but it isn't a MD5 file either.
I would like Samsung ROM back on as it (for me cleaner than google or maybe just what I've been used to). I'd like to give to my youngest child as their first phone.
I also had tried to place zip files and also unzipped files on the SD card on the phone, nothing worked for me as it looks like it is expected ODIN3 to work.
At this stage of the day, I would just like to have it functioning again with anything that works.
Any advice on what to do now would be greatly appreciated, also I'm truly sorry if this problem has been documented, I really did try to do my research first before putting this up here. I've been on this for weeks now

So quick update. through more research, I have managed to install TWRP and now have access to additional utilities through WINTEAM. I've now tried to install ROM through the Micro SD card.
I think it comes up with a mount error, but has rebooted and still stuck so can confirm just yet.
I've managed to go through the entire process of installing the PurifieD+ROM+v3.5.zip through the micro SD card in the phone. Asked me about all the options etc during the install. There didn't appear to be any errors at all. Asked to reboot. etc....
I even had sound on the bootup, Now I have the Samsung word on the main screen with a blue backlight just flashing. Been like that for nearly 10 minutes. Not looking good.
Have I got bad memory or am I doing something wrong?

I managed to do a wipe after I did an install and it booted up find. I had no WiFi but than installed the vodafone install that should be the original and all works now.
The amount of time I had been working on this, I really didn't think I was going to get it going. I honestly thought I had some hardware error going on.
In the end it runs now, I can setup and had to my child

so I've managed to now use several different ROMs but now I can't root the phone (it should be able to, has been before)
When I run Motochopper I get this error
error: only position independent executables (PIE) are supported.
Seems to happen no matter what rom I've installed. I can't seem to find an older rom running android version 5.01 now
Any help on how to root this. Would be great

Now says it has been rooted, but I do not get the teamwin boot menu option at all. more like just a text style menu for wiping and loading other roms.