Database Users

Touchwiz Update bricked my non-rooted Tab (static lines across screen)!

I decided to go ahead with the TW firmware upgrade. Everything seemed to be going fine until I tried to install it and it told me there was an error and I needed to hook it up to Kies first. I had already been using Kies with it on my Macbook for a couple weeks now so I went ahead and plugged it in. Kies recognized it as usual and all the information came up.
So I went on and tried to install again and it said it needed to reboot.
It reboots and comes to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 screen like normal (right before it starts the galaxy animation). Next thing I know it comes to a screen that looks like the attached images! I immediately unplugged it from Kies and shut it down. Every time I start it back up it does the same thing. I honestly have NO idea what to do. I can't even return it as it's past the 14 day period and I (stupidly) didn't buy Staples' bogus $160 insurance.
I was not rooted before. This was a stock tab that I bought at staples. It had the firmware 4.24 when I bought it, I think.
Please, any help is appreciated. I tried doing firmware recovery in Kies but the pop up comes up in Korean and I have no idea what it says...
Edit: More info. I'm not the only one with this problem. Two other people have posted on AndroidPolice about this. http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/08/04/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-wifi-touchwiz-ux-update-is-now-live/
The software is definitely running underneath all that mess but it's literally impossible to see what is going or to touch anything.

I guess this thread is about the same issue
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1203610

Thanks, I'm checking the thread out now. I probably should have searched more than just Google before posting but I freaked out when it happened.

No need to freak out . we have xda and dev to solve all our problems

i have exactly the same problem as you... what should i do now?

I get the same screen but after rebooting! pfft it's making me really sad :\

I'm sorry but I tried reading this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1171089 and couldnt understanding what should I do!
What CWM + my device is not rooted, all I could understand is that the thread contains instructions on how to root your device..
I just want my normal screen back!
Please tell me what to do in simple english :\

And now I did a wipe and the stripes are gone, but the screen is black instead :\ still not working. Please help me!

Are you sure you didnt sit on it?

Amal Kadi said:
I'm sorry but I tried reading this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1171089 and couldnt understanding what should I do!
What CWM + my device is not rooted, all I could understand is that the thread contains instructions on how to root your device..
I just want my normal screen back!
Please tell me what to do in simple english :\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haha i had the same problem go look at my threat that was posted above. in thier someone posted instructions on what to do the link you posted contains the download to the things needed heres a basic rundown of what you need to do
install clockwork recovery mod "CWM" to replace your bootloader.
download and install stock 3.1 and you should have your tab back to normal.
my help thread has the instructions to instal CWM

tonyurquiza said:
haha i had the same problem go look at my threat that was posted above. in thier someone posted instructions on what to do the link you posted contains the download to the things needed heres a basic rundown of what you need to do
install clockwork recovery mod "CWM" to replace your bootloader.
download and install stock 3.1 and you should have your tab back to normal.
my help thread has the instructions to instal CWM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I need to follow all the steps for rooting except the last one which is the actual rooting? Great thanx! Do I need to use Kies? My current computer is Mac but I guess I need to download those things to a Windows machine to make it work, right?
Thank you very much

I had the same problem. I upgraded the update on my non-rooted tablet and got the funked up video mess. Per instructions from Samsung support, I hard booted to the recovery menu (power+vol down, then power up, down on download screen) and did the factory wipe. After that I ended up with the black screen. I could tell things were working in the back but couldnt see a thing. I figured I would throw it on the Kies and it saw that there was a factory upgrade so I let the Kies run through it and it works fine now.
Dont know if this will help w/other but it worked for me.

[Q] Stuck in boot loop with no recovery Please Help

Hi guys long time lurker, first time poster.
Here's the story:
Was running CM 10.2 on my Galaxy S4 AT&T. Everything ran great etc. I decided to flash a new kernel. Upon flashing the kernel I received an error (I must have not done such great research before I did this) but figured nothing had changed since the flash did not go successfully. I proceeded to reboot my phone and lo and behold I'm stuck with a black screen and a constant vibration as if the phone is going to boot up but it doesn't. I immediately went to Odin as I have done when things go awry. After flashing stock firmware Odin says that everything went successful and my phone reboots. However it does not reboot to any screen (no splash screen, no Samsung logo absolutely nothing) just constant vibration and I'm back to square one I cannot boot into recovery I have tried the button combo many, many times but the phone just keeps on fake vibrate booting. The only screen I can get to is the download menu. The things I have tried so far:
1. Flashing back to stock firmware with Odin.
2. Flashing stock kernel by itself with Odin.
3. Tried to flash a custom recovery but since my phone is no longer rooted Odin was giving me a failed message.
4. Tried flashing stock recovery by itself with Odin.
5. Tried Kies but no success either.
I assume no files from a custom ROM will flash successfully as my phone is not rooted. So I guess my question here is am I bricked forever? Odin recognizes my phone and I have read that there is some hope if this happens but I have come to many dead ends searching for a solution to this problem. Have I exhausted my resources on this one or are there a few more things to try? If I left out any information I'll be more than happy to provide what I missed. Thank you in advance.

You flashed a kernel not for your device and have hard bricked your phone. Look up jtag and mobiletechvideos.com

jd1639 said:
You flashed a kernel not for your device and have hard bricked your phone. Look up jtag and mobiletechvideos.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. That is exactly correct.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Thanks guys. I actually went to AT&T and played dumb. Since the phone was still under warranty they just replaced it on site.

dmesserr said:
Thanks guys. I actually went to AT&T and played dumb. Since the phone was still under warranty they just replaced it on site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Replaced it with MDL or MF3? If MDL, you better block the OTA quickly, If MF3, you better do some reading.

[Q] I need to reset my GS4, but there's a problem.

Hey guys,
So once upon a time, actually about a month ago, I had this great idea to root and flash CM on my AT&T GS4 on 4.3. Well I used Kingo Root and it went fine. But then came the flashing part. I went through all of the steps to get CM, until I saw to the "Downloading" Odin Mode screen and quickly realized the tutorial I used, did not take into the account I had a locked bootloader.. (Thanks AT&T..) Well I finally got out of that and quickly unrooted because I was scared of causing more damage.
Then came along the 4.4 KitKat OTA update which I desperately want. 4.3 is a disaster on my GS4. Anyways, after it downloaded and started to install, it restarted to the Odin Screen!! And so I got out of that.. again.. And now I'm back on 4.3 with no current issues. Except that I figured a factory reset would help me. Once again, it took me to the Odin screen and apparently I'm not going to be factory resseting either..
I really want to go to the exact way I got it. So I can start fresh and get the 4.4 update. I had seen where you could go into the recovery screen and select to wipe all data, but I'm not sure and do NOT want to lose my phone because it works right now.
So any thoughts?

Kwwolves2012 said:
Hey guys,
So once upon a time, actually about a month ago, I had this great idea to root and flash CM on my AT&T GS4 on 4.3. Well I used Kingo Root and it went fine. But then came the flashing part. I went through all of the steps to get CM, until I saw to the "Downloading" Odin Mode screen and quickly realized the tutorial I used, did not take into the account I had a locked bootloader.. (Thanks AT&T..) Well I finally got out of that and quickly unrooted because I was scared of causing more damage.
Then came along the 4.4 KitKat OTA update which I desperately want. 4.3 is a disaster on my GS4. Anyways, after it downloaded and started to install, it restarted to the Odin Screen!! And so I got out of that.. again.. And now I'm back on 4.3 with no current issues. Except that I figured a factory reset would help me. Once again, it took me to the Odin screen and apparently I'm not going to be factory resseting either..
I really want to go to the exact way I got it. So I can start fresh and get the 4.4 update. I had seen where you could go into the recovery screen and select to wipe all data, but I'm not sure and do NOT want to lose my phone because it works right now.
So any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best way to prepare your previously rooted phone for the OTA official update is to Odin back to stock your current firmware.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2621279
Good luck.

John The Rhino said:
The best way to prepare your previously rooted phone for the OTA official update is to Odin back to stock your current firmware.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2621279
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, from what I have read, I think this going to help me.

Kwwolves2012 said:
Thanks for the reply, from what I have read, I think this going to help me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope it does. Either way post your results. Also if you need more help it's here on XDA. Good luck.

So far so good
John The Rhino said:
I hope it does. Either way post your results. Also if you need more help it's here on XDA. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has seemingly completely reset my phone to factory settings which is what I wanted. I have not tried the OTA update yet, but I will try to post the results of that after I see how it goes.

Kwwolves2012 said:
This has seemingly completely reset my phone to factory settings which is what I wanted. I have not tried the OTA update yet, but I will try to post the results of that after I see how it goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. Odin back to stock is the best way to go. Even if you decide not to take the official Kit Kat OTA update, you now have a fresh factory firmware installed. You can root, install Safestrap recovery & back up your stock rom (which I highly recommend) and flash custom roms, of which there is now some 30 + for our beloved MK2 S4. Either path you chose, you are going to be fine.

[Q] Botched ROM install. Please help!

Edit: Solved... probably
Trying to flash Eclipse ROM following this guide:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=54674079&highlight=guide#post54674079
I got stuck on a black screen. I was told to ODIN the nc2kernel but didn't know what that meant.
I was able to figure out how to use ODIN and get it to recognize the device by plugging it in to the computer and taking out the battery.
This video helped me figure out ODIN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qjZDouPMo
I put Beans' nc2kernel in the AP slot of ODIN v3.09 and hit start.
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23501681358549122
The phone rebooted to the Eclipse splash/loading screen but got stuck for a long time (30 + minutes)
I took the battery out, went back in to SafeStrap and did a factory wipe which preserved the internal SD data I think?, then re-installed the Eclipse ROM .zip from the downloads folder and let it reboot.
Suddenly, it worked!!! I'm still not entirely sure what just happened but my phone seems to be working again and I'm really happy about that. Hopefully anyone else new to this and totally lost like I was might see this and be helped.

pacerMike1978 said:
Edit: Solved... probably
Trying to flash Eclipse ROM following this guide:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=54674079&highlight=guide#post54674079
I got stuck on a black screen. I was told to ODIN the nc2kernel but didn't know what that meant.
I was able to figure out how to use ODIN and get it to recognize the device by plugging it in to the computer and taking out the battery.
This video helped me figure out ODIN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qjZDouPMo
I put Beans' nc2kernel in the AP slot of ODIN v3.09 and hit start.
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23501681358549122
The phone rebooted to the Eclipse splash/loading screen but got stuck for a long time (30 + minutes)
I took the battery out, went back in to SafeStrap and did a factory wipe which preserved the internal SD data I think?, then re-installed the Eclipse ROM .zip from the downloads folder and let it reboot.
Suddenly, it worked!!! I'm still not entirely sure what just happened but my phone seems to be working again and I'm really happy about that. Hopefully anyone else new to this and totally lost like I was might see this and be helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you figured it out, there's some helpful folks around here. We would have gotten you going.

thegamerdarkseid said:
Glad you figured it out, there's some helpful folks around here. We would have gotten you going.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I appreciate that and am glad to know there's a place to get help if I get stuck!
When I thought I bricked my phone I was super freaked out and wished I'd never started down this path but now that it's working... oh man, totally worth it. This ROM is everything I wanted it to be.
Everything about the Samsung skin was so ugly I almost didn't like using the phone at all. First I tried installing different launchers thinking that would be good enough but when I found out you couldn't circumvent their dialer when calling (the ugliest part in my opinion) I decided to give rooting a try. Maybe that's a stupid reason but I just really hated that dialer!
I just don't understand where Samsung is going with their interface design. Plus all the extra bloat they saddle the phone down with. Unless they take their future phones out of lockdown I don't think I'll be getting another non Nexus phone from them in the future.
Anyway, the amount of information on this forum is incredible and I'm really grateful for all the work everyone puts in to developing all these tools and methods. It's got to be a ton of hard work and then they just share them with everyone... amazing. I can't wait to read about all the other cool things people here are doing

Failed to flash GApps, soft brick, nightmare.. A novel with a solution.

This started as a beg for help thread, but since the GS4 is coming up on 3 generations old, help is quite slow, yet does still exist as of this edit (3-20-15).
None the less, I will try to explain what happened so that people searching for similar problems might find this thread and resolve their issues.
I soft bricked the phone flashing PacMan. ... The instructions CLEARLY stated that you need to flash the rom, then flash GApps. Well, I forgot to Flash Gapps because I was so excited that I had a successful root and new rom to test that I finger ganged the phone.... The phone booted just fine and worked just fine, but I did not have ANY google apps, and went into a panic... LESSON #1 DO NOT PANIC......
What I failed to realize is that Android Lolipop (at least PacMan's version) requires the user to select options in the developer section of the settings menu to enable you to boot into your custom recovery after you have flashed your custom rom.... I DID NOT KNOW THIS and the information was NOT readily available. So what happened was I panicked and tried to flash another recovery which was apparently NOT the correct recovery for my phone.. (the cascade of errors began here). My phone was soft bricked and NOTHING I did would get me out of it.
So, after at least 50 attempts using Odin to try and flash a good recovery, re-root the phone, whatever I could think of, I finally got out of soft brick, and back to a working phone, yet still no google apps, and no recovery (or so I thought).
By this time, I had asked ....no. begged for help on 2 or 3 different threads to no avail when what I thought was a brain storm came to me.... I googled and located the google play store apk, and google play services apk and thought that if I could just get these 2 things installed, I would be able to log onto the google play store and download the apps I need and all would be right with the world....... Yeah.... Remember the cascade of errors thing I mentioned a few lines up ^^^ ?
Once I installed those 2 apk's and rebooted the phone, I was in nag screen hell with no way out, no custom recovery (remember...or so I thought) and no way to access ANYTHING on the phone because literally the second I hit "ok" on the nag screen, it would immediately pop back up...This "nag screen" was the one that pops up and tells you that "google play services has stopped working".. I came inches away from launching the phone against the wall and buying another one... something... anything but a Samsung GS4.
So here we are, 14 hours (of actual face in the phone, Odin, XDA, Google, YouTube) frantically searching for ANY solution.....and NOTHING presented itself, when I decided to take a step back and walk away from it for a couple of hours.......
The next thing I tried was pounding my way through the nag screen... Literally hitting the "ok" toggle to clear the screen, while instantly trying to hit any other button on the screen to get me into the settings menu, because during my little self imposed time out, I had an epiphany.... of sorts..... What really happened is that I remembered seeing a "factory reset" toggle in the settings menus somewhere.....and I was determined to find it........ SO....... 13,386,329 clicks of the "ok" button later, I managed to engage the factory reset switch at the exact right moment, followed by another 4,388 presses of the "ok" button to get to the "confirm" button.......... and like a beacon from heaven...... My phone rebooted, and factory reset, and the #%g^7**&^|@# nag screen was GONE !!!!! Oh my GOD it was GONE !!!!!!! After recovering from my full blown conniption, catching my breath and feeling like a raver must feel after a good night of Molly and glow stick euphoria, I had a working phone again..... almost.
What I did next was go immediately to Odin, re-root the phone, install a DIFFERENT rom, and the latest version of TWRP and like another beacon from the gods I had a wonderfully functional phone with all of the google apps I needed.... and all was good with the world........Pretty much....
I am nearly certain that I cost myself 5 years of healthy living with the stress I imposed upon myself throughout this ordeal ---- The following are lessons learned. Hopefully they save you from madness...
(1) Do NOT use a USB hub to connect your phone to the computer. The phone MUST be connected directly to a USB port on your machine.
(2) Understand the workings of the rom you are going to flash BEFORE you flash it.
(3) DO NOT PANIC
(4) DO NOT randomly install apk's just because you think you are smarter than a 5th grader, and you are so mad your phone doesn't work, you are going to try anything regardless of how retarded it might be.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST and actually probably the MOST IMPORTANT thing to do is locate, download and CONFIRM GOOD a stock firmware for YOUR phone BEFORE YOU ROOT or flash a new rom..... If you get to brick he11 like I did, you will spend more time searching for the tools to get back to zero than you can imagine. You will be revved up, angry with the world, and your google fu will fail you......miserably I might add......
Get all of your ducks in a row BEFORE you root, and before you flash a new rom. That means finding the stock firmware and opening it up in Odin with your phone connected to CONFIRM you have a good firmware to go back to should you fail miserably.... Your very sanity could depend on it...

Team Scream said:
Does anyone have and is willing to share a stock Galaxy S4 rom so I can go back to stock on my phone? I am currently soft bricked and completely dead in the water...
I need to be able to flash the rom using Odin since that is the ONLY way I can communicate with this phone right now....I can flash whatever recovery I want using Odin, but I cannot boot into that recovery once successfully flashed with Odin. It boot loops and goes back to the completely useless PacMan 5.02 rom I flashed previously that repeatedly shows the "google play services has stopped working" screen.... and no number of attempts to clear it by hitting ok will get me to a working desktop
I bricked my phone by flashing PacMan and forgetting to flash GAPPS before rebooting, then trying to install google play services apk and google play store apk manually because I could not get back into recovery for whatever reason....
I have spent the ENTIRE day searching for a stock rom that I can flash with Odin so I can at least get back to zero with this S4 which is actually a brand new phone for me....
PLEASE do not link me to mediafire or rapidgator downloads because I have tried every one of those that google will reveal.. I need one that YOU know is good, and will work. NONE.... NOT ONE of the files I have been able to find online are legitimate .tar files... They ALL unzip with errors and I have tried them on multiple computers.....Multiple download attempts and NOTHING... I have literally been at this for 10 hours now and really need some love.
On a side note, if I can pull the stock rom from my wifes brand new S4 without screwing up her phone, PLEASE tell me how to do that. She literally picked up her brand new replacement S4 today...
Any help is genuinely appreciated... PLEASE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.php?dir=Files/Devices/Samsung Galaxy S4 (SPH-L720)/Stock ROMs

KennyG123 said:
http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.php?dir=Files/Devices/Samsung Galaxy S4 (SPH-L720)/Stock ROMs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man thank you! THANK YOU! I really appreciate it... I woke this morning to find this reply after leaving my computer running all night for another corrupted downloaded image file.... I have my fingers crossed !!! THANK YOU
P.S. how do I know which one of those files I actually need? I have no idea what the difference is in each of those folders.... Forgive me for noob but I really am pretty noob at this.....

I just looked at the link to help you and noticed that Wilco stops at the NAE baseband. A lot of phones are on the NG2 baseband and if you have a 720T, it could be even a different baseband. Go to settings, "About Phone". Look for" "Baseband" and "Model Number". Write that information down. Once you have that, the last three characters are what is in the list in the link KennyG123 sent you. (For example, I have the original S4 so I have a SPH-L720 and my baseband is L720VPUFNG2 (or NG2 for short. Which was not on that list.) If it is not on the list, go to www.sammobile.com and search for your model number (For example, I am on the SPH-L720. If you just bought your phone from Sprint, you probably have the SPH-L720 or SPH-L720T). You can download the tar file from there. It is a little slow but it will get it done for you. The tar file for both phones are here in this forum if you want to search but going to Sammobile would probably be a little easier from the sounds of it.

dyandell said:
I just looked at the link to help you and noticed that Wilco stops at the NAE baseband. <snip>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey brother, thank you so much for the help and reply. I might have forgot to mention that I cannot get into the phone to read the model # or get any information from it at all. The nag screen telling me that google play services has stopped working is so persistent that I can't do anything with the phone once it boots.
Is there a way to brute force wipe the phone so that the only thing left when that process is done is a custom recovery like TWRP or Philz or anything other than stock?
If so, would you be so kind as to point me in the direction of a tutorial that would help me get through that process.... I am either not using the right search terms or I am just too old to be good at this and should have stayed home when the rooting lessons were being handed out...
Anyway, I genuinely appreciate your help... Thank you so much !!

Ok I was able to pound my way through the nag screen to the settings menu and eventually got to the baseband and model #
baseband: L720TVPUBOA3
model #: SPH-L720
I have tried 3 times to download the only version I can find on the sammobile.com website using the baseband to search and the file fails to download after getting about 2/3 complete.... I have tried it on 2 separate computers from 2 different locations now...... This is horrifying ...... Every single force that can be working against me, is working against me.
Ugh...... If you have a link to a method I can use to force wipe the phone without a stock rom, but with a recovery I can boot into to flash a rom I have on my external SD card, I would love to see it...... im losing my mind here...
<<<<<<<< EDIT>>>>>>>>>
I was also able to pound my way into the settings menu and do a factory reset which removed the google play nag. From there I was able to root around in the developer options folder where I discovered that in order to be able to boot into recovery, you need to select the "boot options" tab and allow the device to boot into recovery....
I know this device is old now and most people have moved on, and I am pleased that there are some people who stick around here to keep this device alive. I only wish that someone would have advised me to check the boot options selection when I indicated I could not boot into recovery... That would have saved me 2 days of manic obsessive he11....... This was complete he11...... But I am on the other side of it now, and have reflashed another rom... I am back among the living.

Team Scream said:
Ok I was able to pound my way through the nag screen to the settings menu and eventually got to the baseband and model #
baseband: L720TVPUBOA3
model #: SPH-L720
I have tried 3 times to download the only version I can find on the sammobile.com website using the baseband to search and the file fails to download after getting about 2/3 complete.... I have tried it on 2 separate computers from 2 different locations now...... This is horrifying ...... Every single force that can be working against me, is working against me.
Ugh...... If you have a link to a method I can use to force wipe the phone without a stock rom, but with a recovery I can boot into to flash a rom I have on my external SD card, I would love to see it...... im losing my mind here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprint phones have always been able to downgrade and thinking that has not changed. You should be able to Odin the last one listed on the link I gave you...NAE...then your phone should boot...you can then take the Sprint OTA if you like then root and recovery as normal. Then you can get to the stuff on your SD and flash. The only issues I remember popping up these days is if you mismatch the modem and OS...which wouldn't be the case if you Odin'd NAE.

Team Scream said:
Ok I was able to pound my way through the nag screen to the settings menu and eventually got to the baseband and model #
baseband: L720TVPUBOA3
model #: SPH-L720
I have tried 3 times to download the only version I can find on the sammobile.com website using the baseband to search and the file fails to download after getting about 2/3 complete.... I have tried it on 2 separate computers from 2 different locations now...... This is horrifying ...... Every single force that can be working against me, is working against me.
Ugh...... If you have a link to a method I can use to force wipe the phone without a stock rom, but with a recovery I can boot into to flash a rom I have on my external SD card, I would love to see it...... im losing my mind here...
<<<<<<<< EDIT>>>>>>>>>
I was also able to pound my way into the settings menu and do a factory reset which removed the google play nag. From there I was able to root around in the developer options folder where I discovered that in order to be able to boot into recovery, you need to select the "boot options" tab and allow the device to boot into recovery....
I know this device is old now and most people have moved on, and I am pleased that there are some people who stick around here to keep this device alive. I only wish that someone would have advised me to check the boot options selection when I indicated I could not boot into recovery... That would have saved me 2 days of manic obsessive he11....... This was complete he11...... But I am on the other side of it now, and have reflashed another rom... I am back among the living.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you got it fixed! I have had my phone for over a year now and never heard of a boot options tab. I guess you learn something new every day.

Also glad you got it fixed. But let's keep this open in case someone else has the same or similar issue.

KennyG123 said:
Sprint phones have always been able to downgrade and thinking that has not changed. You should be able to Odin the last one listed on the link I gave you...NAE...then your phone should boot...you can then take the Sprint OTA if you like then root and recovery as normal. Then you can get to the stuff on your SD and flash. The only issues I remember popping up these days is if you mismatch the modem and OS...which wouldn't be the case if you Odin'd NAE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well not being able to leave well enough alone, I locked my phone up again.
Because I was able to get out of soft brick without needing a stock firmware, I never bothered downloading NAE from the link you provided.
Turns out after 2 separate downloads (one using Chrome and one using Firefox) I have determined that the md5.tar files on that site http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.php?dir=Files/Devices/Samsung%20Galaxy%20S4%20%28SPH-L720%29/Stock%20ROMs are worthless.... BOTH downloads failed in Odin before I could even get out of the gate....
They failed the md5 check that Odin performs and would not allow me to continue.... IS there something I am missing?

Team Scream said:
Well not being able to leave well enough alone, I locked my phone up again.
Because I was able to get out of soft brick without needing a stock firmware, I never bothered downloading NAE from the link you provided.
Turns out after 2 separate downloads (one using Chrome and one using Firefox) I have determined that the md5.tar files on that site http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.php?dir=Files/Devices/Samsung%20Galaxy%20S4%20%28SPH-L720%29/Stock%20ROMs are worthless.... BOTH downloads failed in Odin before I could even get out of the gate....
They failed the md5 check that Odin performs and would not allow me to continue.... IS there something I am missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remove the .md5 extension at the end and try again.

KennyG123 said:
Remove the .md5 extension at the end and try again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet baby Jeezes please tell me that is not all I had to do.... I spent 4 hours staring at the screen downloading files last night .... I waited 4 hours and finally could not stay awake any more but I finally got the OA3 firmware from SamMobile downloaded successfully. I left the .md5 extension and it is now flashing via Odin as I type this.... I could have saved myself a few more hours of misery if I had known you can remove the .md5 extension..... This learning curve is hard on an old man like me hahaha!
Thanks Kenny
<edit> Ahhhhh.... the sweet smell of success !!! I am now booted back into a stock phone!!!
Man I hope this thread can help save someone else from the anguish I have put myself through with this thing....

Team Scream said:
Sweet baby Jeezes please tell me that is not all I had to do.... I spent 4 hours staring at the screen downloading files last night .... I waited 4 hours and finally could not stay awake any more but I finally got the OA3 firmware from SamMobile downloaded successfully. I left the .md5 extension and it is now flashing via Odin as I type this.... I could have saved myself a few more hours of misery if I had known you can remove the .md5 extension..... This learning curve is hard on an old man like me hahaha!
Thanks Kenny
<edit> Ahhhhh.... the sweet smell of success !!! I am now booted back into a stock phone!!!
Man I hope this thread can help save someone else from the anguish I have put myself through with this thing....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sure it will! Glad you got it working and glad I helped! Some versions of Odin don't care about the md5 extension and others barf it up. With the way your luck went....well...don't buy a lottery ticket this week...hahaha.