Database Users

[Q] How to tell if I tripped flash counter?

Hi.
I recently unrooted my girlfriend's Sprint S4 and she wants to trade it in for a new S4 via insurance because the screen is cracked but how can I tell if I tripped the flash counter and if Sprint would be able to tell that it was at one time rooted? Or will I be alright? How can I tell/what do I need to do?
Thanks!

Go to your About phone in settings and then click status and scroll to the bottom and see if it says custom or official that is the first thing that sprint might see that it has been rooted. Also check your bootloader and see if it says custom/official and all this can be reset with triangle away except for the KNOX count but i dont think that will matter as long as the rest has been reset.

If you're filing an Assurion claim, I've returned 2 rooted phones running custom software and never had a problem. A cracked screen isn't caused by rooting.

[Q] Galaxy S5 freezing

Basically,
I have an unrooted device(I had it rooted but quickly re-flashed it with stock firmware later)and ever since that(not sure,maybe even had it before)my s5 keeps freezing and glitching when rapidly locking and unlocking lock screen.
It takes like 3 or 4 times to lock and unlock fast-ish to make it freeze up for 20 secs.Another thing that happens is instead of freezing on lockscreen it stops asking to unlock,and I get t see the homescreen ,and sometimes when I see it I cant tap or do anything on it,usually if I see the home screen no matter if I can or cant do anything my device will lock itself again in 30 seconds and if I unlock it again immediately it will show me the homescreen ,but I wont be able to do anything on it.To avoid this I just unlock and lock my device slowly.
How do I fix this bug.Should I flash stock firmware again?I have already done factory reset.

GioXmen123 said:
Basically,
I have an unrooted device(I had it rooted but quickly re-flashed it with stock firmware later)and ever since that(not sure,maybe even had it before)my s5 keeps freezing and glitching when rapidly locking and unlocking lock screen.
It takes like 3 or 4 times to lock and unlock fast-ish to make it freeze up for 20 secs.Another thing that happens is instead of freezing on lockscreen it stops asking to unlock,and I get t see the homescreen ,and sometimes when I see it I cant tap or do anything on it,usually if I see the home screen no matter if I can or cant do anything my device will lock itself again in 30 seconds and if I unlock it again immediately it will show me the homescreen ,but I wont be able to do anything on it.To avoid this I just unlock and lock my device slowly.
How do I fix this bug.Should I flash stock firmware again?I have already done factory reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you rooted your device did you trip knox? Go into download mode and check if knox is 0×0 or 0×1 if its 0+1 then you tripped it and that's not that good. Tripping knox can give you problems coz of security reasons.if you tripped knox already then just flash another rom with knox removed that will solve the problem but only flash another rom if knox has been tripped .if it hasn't been tripped then take it to Samsung they wouldn't know if you did it because knox isn't tripped

whlzibos said:
When you rooted your device did you trip knox? Go into download mode and check if knox is 0×0 or 0×1 if its 0+1 then you tripped it and that's not that good. Tripping knox can give you problems coz of security reasons.if you tripped knox already then just flash another rom with knox removed that will solve the problem but only flash another rom if knox has been tripped .if it hasn't been tripped then take it to Samsung they wouldn't know if you did it because knox isn't tripped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes,knox is 0x1 sadly,it probably is not possible to return it to 0x0,but is there any way to keep the official samsung rom?I want to keep it as stock GS5 as possible,and with the ability to update

[Q] Reading the custom binary counter

Hello all, I've got a AT&T S4 sgh-i337 with the locked mk2 bootloader. Bought new, still under warranty (well.. supposedly
I'm trying to go back to bone stock to return it; I think I did because when going into odin download mode, I see the following:
PRODUCT NAME: SGH-I337
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
I did lots of reading and found some info I don't completely understand (go figure haha). I read that even when the S4 does not DISPLAY the binary counter, said counter is still there and reviewed when the phones are returned.
My 2 questions are...
1) if the custom binary counter is indeed there, is there an adb shell command I can run to READ the counter?
2) if the binary counter is there and I need to reset it... will the triangle away method work with my locked (and "unlockable" mk2 bootloader? -- under supported devices for triangle away, I see "Samsung Galaxy S4 AT&T SGH-I337 UNLOCK BOOTLOADER".. I'm afraid they meant to say "UNLOCKED" bootloader... in which case, I'd be out of luck.
Thanks a bunch!
R

No one knows? any info or guidance? Thanks

The following is just my opinion.
Both Samsung and AT&T offer a 1 year warranty on the Galaxy S IV phones. Since you are on MK2, I would guess your phone is at least 1-1/2 years old, so any worry about the warranty is pointless, since the phone is no longer under warranty.
You want to return the phone to AT&T? If that is the case (you don't state where) then the likelihood of anyone checking any of the counters is extremely unlikely, let alone any hidden counter, if it exists.
In my opinion, I wouldn't worry about it. Just flash it back to full stock, whichever version you can put your hands on, and you'll be fine.

creepyncrawly said:
The following is just my opinion.
Both Samsung and AT&T offer a 1 year warranty on the Galaxy S IV phones. Since you are on MK2, I would guess your phone is at least 1-1/2 years old, so any worry about the warranty is pointless, since the phone is no longer under warranty.
You want to return the phone to AT&T? If that is the case (you don't state where) then the likelihood of anyone checking any of the counters is extremely unlikely, let alone any hidden counter, if it exists.
In my opinion, I wouldn't worry about it. Just flash it back to full stock, whichever version you can put your hands on, and you'll be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply creepyncrawly! Much appreciated.
I was going to return it to Samsung as I bought it refurbished at BB a couple months back.. I believe they honor the 1hr warranty on factory refurb phones (but I might be wrong)
Anywho.. I kept working on it, testing new stuff, different stuff and finally was able to get everything working nicely by forcing it to take the I337UCUFNB1 upgrade.
Thank you again, cheers!

[Q] Custom rom install history - Samsung Warranty Service - i9505

Hi.
I can't find answer to this. I know that triangle away delete the number of installed custom roms but does they have any way to check that i had custom roms? I know the issues with samsung and warranty policy so i want to be sure that i can fight back if they refuse to fix my phone because of knox. (overheating) If they do this, this will be my last samsung phone.

Triangle Away worked when all the S4 had was the flash counter, but it doesn't do anything when it comes to the Knox flag. Once the Knox flag is tripped by installing a custom recovery, it stays tripped. There is no way to reset it. So Samsung has an easy way to check.
If warranty is a concern, there are ways to root that do not trip the flag. However, you're stuck with Touchwiz.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Triangle Away worked when all the S4 had was the flash counter, but it doesn't do anything when it comes to the Knox flag. Once the Knox flag is tripped by installing a custom recovery, it stays tripped. There is no way to reset it. So Samsung has an easy way to check.
If warranty is a concern, there are ways to root that do not trip the flag. However, you're stuck with Touchwiz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh i know it (i used to change firmware on old sony ericsson phones). I can lie about the knox since some people get it changed by samsung tools, thats why im asking if they have any other way than knox, like under bootloader. My phone is overheating because of hardware problem, i want to be prepared for service reject (stories about rejecting repair of defective screen etc.).

They might not even check the flash counter. You can give it a shot. The worst that might happen is that they send it back (Unless they repair it without consulting with you and charge you for it).
My phone also gets pretty hot when playing games and the phone is charging at the same time. It burns my finger if I keep it in one place, literally.
I guess that's how they intended it to work..

@VanHelsing091: I misunderstood your question. Sorry about that. As GDReaper points out, they may not even check for a tripped Knox flag. If they don't, there's really no way we know of that they can tell if the device has had a custom ROM flashed.

@GDReaper
But mine is getting 50 degrees on main screen, watching photos etc. over 65 while doing anything else, over 70 while charge and using chrome even on locked cpu clocks under 1300mhz.
@Strephon Alkhalikoi
Thanks. If they refuse to repair my phone on warranty because of knox - that will be a lie (damaging phone by custom rom... sure, without touching OC in kernel tools), so i wanted to be sure if i can lie too about phone history, it happened before triggering knox anyway.
Im hoping for the best and good service, if not then i may start one of those big posts about company vs user. Thanks again.

mmc_read failed

Anyone know what to do? In order to charge/turn on/restart my phone I constantly have to pull out the battery which isn't good. I've attempted downgrading and upgrading via Odin, which now voided my warratny even though I wasn't rooted. I'm quite mad also because I did a backup which didn't backup everything. My WhatsApp has not chat history, and I have 8GB of data missing. I've spent £290 replacing this phone's motherboard and now this happens...
Is this a hardware failure that I can't avoid?
I was told over the phone it could cost about £120-£190 to fix in store due to no warranty (knox 0x1, despite no root).
Thanks

UnhappyN said:
Anyone know what to do? In order to charge/turn on/restart my phone I constantly have to pull out the battery which isn't good. I've attempted downgrading and upgrading via Odin, which now voided my warratny even though I wasn't rooted. I'm quite mad also because I did a backup which didn't backup everything. My WhatsApp has not chat history, and I have 8GB of data missing. I've spent £290 replacing this phone's motherboard and now this happens...
Is this a hardware failure that I can't avoid?
I was told over the phone it could cost about £120-£190 to fix in store due to no warranty (knox 0x1, despite no root).
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shameful bump. Anyone can help please?

UnhappyN said:
Anyone know what to do? In order to charge/turn on/restart my phone I constantly have to pull out the battery which isn't good. I've attempted downgrading and upgrading via Odin, which now voided my warratny even though I wasn't rooted. I'm quite mad also because I did a backup which didn't backup everything. My WhatsApp has not chat history, and I have 8GB of data missing. I've spent £290 replacing this phone's motherboard and now this happens...
Is this a hardware failure that I can't avoid?
I was told over the phone it could cost about £120-£190 to fix in store due to no warranty (knox 0x1, despite no root).
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Upgrading/downgrading via ODIN does not void warranty in ANY CASE.....your knox should still be 0x0 as long as you are flashing Official unrooted firmwares from sammobile (maybe you installed a custom recovery and that tripped knox)
2)Your problem is most likely a hardware failure many devices have reported issues with mmc.
3)Since you have already spent £290 on replacing this phones motherboard i suggest you change your phone rather than spending more money on it (what if the fix does not solve this issue, who knows if your replaced motherboard is faulty?)

I guess I'll have to buy a new phone then... Thanks..

Bought a new one off Amazon. Note 4 again, was considering waiting for the 5... Even if they replace the phone, it can just fail again right?
I will need to talk to my provider also, I'm still on contract until November.