Database Users

[Q] S4 keeps rebooting

Hello all,
I have a S4 in my hands.
Now the history of the Phone is as follows:
Customer tried to take out the sim card by force. And broke the metal plate.
Yesterday I replaced the microsim/sim slot. Testing the full Phone and ready to go.
Today I go back to the end customer for the same device.
It keeps rebooting after the samsung galaxy S4 white screen. And keeps going.
This is what I tried:
Updating to newest rom - no luck
Plugigng in into pc by cable - keeps rebooting with only showing the battery icon.
Try to go in recovery mode - not possible
Going into download mode - works
The little smash trick of YouTube (smash to table gently with side of power button down) - don't work
Any suggestions?

So you are the employee that fixes phones and don't know what to do with a bootloop, but do know how to replace a simslot? I am somewhat confused..
A bootloop always has some cause.. check init.d script or so.
Code:
adb wait-for-device
adb shell chmod 000 /system/etc/init.d/*
at least get an adb connection and logcat,
Code:
adb wait-for-device
adb logcat -C
else you cannot say anything about the problem since you don't know the cause. (if debugging is disabled unpack boot.img and make changes in ram disk for enabling debugging/adb, then repack and reflash)
If download mode works just flash a custom recovery first, make a nandroid backup (make sure you secure the files whenever possible, since there is the nasty symlink "/data/media/" which is actually just /sdard. so if you wipe data manually it the nandroid backup will be gone), then try to do factory reset, if it doesn't work still, just reflash stock rom with odin + factory reset.
oh and for the record, the simslot being broken is not the cause of the bootloop, just that you know.

Hi,
When you say "updating to newest ROM" do you mean that you flashed stock ROM again via Odin? If not, then that's my suggestion for you, but first I'd try factory resetting it via stock recovery.
~Lord

Thank you for Your kind reply.
Yes indeed, I fix a lot, but I have and know my limits. . I've tried a lot to pass the boot loop.
But if it's not possible to fix it for me. Than its better to ask.
I will try a custom rom. And keep you informed. Thank you.

Installing a rom with odin din't help. I got na Green PASS but bootloop keeps running.
Installing CWM did not help allso, it give me a PASS, but I can't enter recovery.
So, how do I get acces to init.d ?

If recovery mode doesn't work and the device keeps rebooting, try to flash stock ROM with Odin and put the .PIT file after checking 'Re-Partition'

iJo09 said:
If recovery mode doesn't work and the device keeps rebooting, try to flash stock ROM with Odin and put the .PIT file after checking 'Re-Partition'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I will try.
Can you give me a link to a stock rom with a pit file including?

The Chaser said:
Thank you, I will try.
Can you give me a link to a stock rom with a pit file including?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROM and PIT file vary by model. What is the S4's one?

iJo09 said:
ROM and PIT file vary by model. What is the S4's one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have I9505

In this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2265477 you can find what you need. Flash the latest German XXUGNF1 firmware and use the .PIT file provided in the thread

iJo09 said:
In this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2265477 you can find what you need. Flash the latest German XXUGNF1 firmware and use the .PIT file provided in the thread
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just ready. got a green pass in odin. But still the same, and not able to go in recovery.
Maybe a hardware malfunction? Can I test that somewhere?

Retry with the same procedure a couple of times... if this doesn't solve problems, then it's an hardware fault

[Q] Factory Mode

I recently ran into difficulty wherein my emulated/0 partition was borked after using TWRP recovery. In an effort to fix it I reformatted a partition (no idea which one I just followed some terminal commands from someone with a similar issue) and now the phone displays a brief message about being in factory mode (comes on for two-three seconds then disappears) and shuts off WiFi. Once I enable it the phone is fine.
I have looked at the various fixes for this but when I went into the efs / factory mode folder the two files mentioned in all the fixes are not there. I created them and gave them owner information, but this does not help.
Any thoughts? Would a flash back to stock solve this?

Hopefully you didn't just randomly delete the EFS partition without backing it up first
--
Try flashing stock ROM with the correct PIT file

*Detection* said:
Hopefully you didn't just randomly delete the EFS partition without backing it up first
--
Try flashing stock ROM with the correct PIT file
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@*Detection* Will flashing the stock ROM replace the PIT file? Again, I don't know what partition was formatted. The factory mode overlay briefly displays then dissapears. The phone is fully functional and has not lost it's identity, just the annoyance of having to turn WiFi back on. Other than that, I do not know what other functions are limited (as it says on the factory mode overlay).

Mordred said:
@*Detection* Will flashing the stock ROM replace the PIT file? Again, I don't know what partition was formatted. The factory mode overlay briefly displays then dissapears. The phone is fully functional and has not lost it's identity, just the annoyance of having to turn WiFi back on. Other than that, I do not know what other functions are limited (as it says on the factory mode overlay).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The PIT file will repartition the phone, then the stock ROM will be flashed
Load them both into ODIN at the same time
Try flashing just the stock ROM first, could just be something messed up
If the phone works, and has an IMEI, then the EFS partition sounds like it's safe (Back it up ASAP)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2705524

Any ideas on how to rid of the factory mode overlay? If not I will flash stock then rebuild again.

Not had any experience with factory mode before, so no unfortunately
There is a thread about Demo Mode kicking about

*Detection* said:
Not had any experience with factory mode before, so no unfortunately
There is a thread about Demo Mode kicking about
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries and thank you for the replies. I will give it one more time.
Any thoughts on TWRP borking up the emulated/0 partition? Seems to happen everytime I do a backup (or soon thereafter).

Not had any problems with TWRP, flashed it on about 4 different ROM builds and it's worked fine each time
Sure you're flashing the latest?
I use TWRP Manager from G Play after rooting with CF Auto Root to flash it on mine

*Detection* said:
Not had any problems with TWRP, flashed it on about 4 different ROM builds and it's worked fine each time
Sure you're flashing the latest?
I use TWRP Manager from G Play after rooting with CF Auto Root to flash it on mine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am, 2.8.0
I will give this app a try though.

Mordred said:
I am, 2.8.0
I will give this app a try though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like 2.8.6.0 is the latest
https://dl.twrp.me/klte/
But the TWRP Manager app will install the latest anyway

*Detection* said:
Looks like 2.8.6.0 is the latest
https://dl.twrp.me/klte/
But the TWRP Manager app will install the latest anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, that is what I am running. I could not remember the last digit without going back into recovery.

@*Detection* What are the lines of text that display when you first boot into recovery on your phone? I am curious because mine says something about not running seanandroid, or something to that effect. They dissapear pretty fast but I think that is what is in red text.

Mordred said:
@*Detection* What are the lines of text that display when you first boot into recovery on your phone? I am curious because mine says something about not enforcing selinux, or something to that effect. They dissapear pretty fast but I think that is what is in red text.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, just means you're running custom

@*Detection* After I revert to stock, assuming everything goes back OK, can I then obtain root and re-flash my custom ROM and then do a restore from the backup I am making now? Would this (the restore) defeat the purpose of what I am doing?

"secure check fail : pit"
This is what I get when I try to repartition with an extracted pit for this phone. Any ideas how to make it work?

Really old modem and bootloader, what are my options from here?

It's been a while since I've flashed anything; at least a year, though more likely two. Whatever I have now I'm guessing is a rom called stock(ish)v06, since that's what is listed in my bootloader. I guess the modem (baseband?) is NAE, and I'm still using a very old version of TWRP (2.6.3 according to my signature, haven't checked).
Obviously, the development that still exists for this device has moved well past me. But given how temperamental my device has been lately, I want to give flashing something newer a shot before buying a new device.
Trouble is, I'm not sure how to go about flashing roms and finding the right modem/firmware when everything I have is so out of date.
Suggestions?

beerindex said:
It's been a while since I've flashed anything; at least a year, though more likely two. Whatever I have now I'm guessing is a rom called stock(ish)v06, since that's what is listed in my bootloader. I guess the modem (baseband?) is NAE, and I'm still using a very old version of TWRP (2.6.3 according to my signature, haven't checked).
Obviously, the development that still exists for this device has moved well past me. But given how temperamental my device has been lately, I want to give flashing something newer a shot before buying a new device.
Trouble is, I'm not sure how to go about flashing roms and finding the right modem/firmware when everything I have is so out of date.
Suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download latest fully stock firmware so you will have latest bootloader and modem from http://www.sammobile.com
which is Lollipop, then flash latest TWRP. If you like stock, there is a stock deodex ROM, there is the awesome Wicked X (heavily modified Lollipop stock), or if stock is not your thing you can get CM12(Lollipop) or CM13 official(Marshmallow)
Sent from my SCH-R220

mattzeller said:
Download latest fully stock firmware so you will have latest bootloader and modem from http://www.sammobile.com
which is Lollipop, then flash latest TWRP. If you like stock, there is a stock deodex ROM, there is the awesome Wicked X (heavily modified Lollipop stock), or if stock is not your thing you can get CM12(Lollipop) or CM13 official(Marshmallow)
Sent from my SCH-R220
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want to make sure I understand what you're telling me to do, so a few clarifying questions:
1) I am meant to be updating TWRP first, then using it to flash stock firmware to update the bootloader and modem, and then flashing a rom of my choosing?
2) Why is that method preferable to using Odin to update the modem?
3) If I flash this newer official firmware, am I going to lose root?
4) In flashing the newer firmware, won't my bootloader lock, making it not possible to flash a new rom?

beerindex said:
I want to make sure I understand what you're telling me to do, so a few clarifying questions:
1) I am meant to be updating TWRP first, then using it to flash stock firmware to update the bootloader and modem, and then flashing a rom of my choosing?
2) Why is that method preferable to using Odin to update the modem?
3) If I flash this newer official firmware, am I going to lose root?
4) In flashing the newer firmware, won't my bootloader lock, making it not possible to flash a new rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) No, use Odin to flash full stock that you downloaded from sammobile.com, you cannot flash full stock from recovery.
2) Because some if not most newer ROMs require you to be on Lollipop bootloader.
3) Yes you will lose root, but this flashing of stock firmware is to update your bootloader and modem so you can flash the newest ROMs. The lack of root doesn't matter since you will be flashing latest TWRP via Odin and modified ROMs soon after.
4) if you have Sprint L720 the bootloader isn't locked. Check I'm 'about phone' to make sure you have an L720 and not another variant of S4
Make sure Samsung drivers are installed on your computer.
So your flashing steps go as follows:
1) Download everything you need first:
a) Full stock from http://www.sammobile.com to your computer
b) Latest TWRP tar file to your computer
c) The custom ROM of your choice (and correct gapps if AOSP or CM based) saved on external SD card on your phone since it will be flashed via recovery.
2) Turn phone off completely. I pull the battery then put it back in then boot directly to download mode: power + volume down. (Rebooting to download mode doesn't always allow a proper flashing)
3) Start Odin (uncheck reboot and reset time) and then plug phone into computer.
4) If COM lights up green in Odin click AP and select the file you downloaded from sammobile (it will be PDA instead of AP if you are using an older version of Odin) and click OK or start (I don't remember which it has)
5) If it flashes successfully pull the battery and then put it back in and turn the phone on normally. It will take a while to boot, like 15-20 minutes possibly. Flashing stock myself I have seen it say it was successful and it wasn't and the fix for me was to leave reset checked and let it do it's thing.
6) Once you have booted into your newly flashed stock OK3, do step 2 and 3 again, so you can flash TWRP.
7) When you go to flash TWRP in Odin uncheck reset time and DEFINITELY have reset unchecked (if Odin reboots your phone TWRP doesn't stick). Do step 4 again except this time select the TWRP tar file. Once it flashes successfully pull battery put it back in and boot directly to recovery (power + volume up) from there do a backup if you want, if not you can flash the custom ROM and gapps if necessary that you downloaded earlier.
Sent from my SCH-R220

mattzeller said:
1) No, use Odin to flash full stock that you downloaded from sammobile.com, you cannot flash full stock from recovery.
2) Because some if not most newer ROMs require you to be on Lollipop bootloader.
3) Yes you will lose root, but this flashing of stock firmware is to update your bootloader and modem so you can flash the newest ROMs. The lack of root doesn't matter since you will be flashing latest TWRP via Odin and modified ROMs soon after.
4) if you have Sprint L720 the bootloader isn't locked. Check I'm 'about phone' to make sure you have an L720 and not another variant of S4
Make sure Samsung drivers are installed on your computer.
So your flashing steps go as follows:
1) Download everything you need first:
a) Full stock from http://www.sammobile.com to your computer
b) Latest TWRP tar file to your computer
c) The custom ROM of your choice (and correct gapps if AOSP or CM based) saved on external SD card on your phone since it will be flashed via recovery.
2) Turn phone off completely. I pull the battery then put it back in then boot directly to download mode: power + volume down. (Rebooting to download mode doesn't always allow a proper flashing)
3) Start Odin (uncheck reboot and reset time) and then plug phone into computer.
4) If COM lights up green in Odin click AP and select the file you downloaded from sammobile (it will be PDA instead of AP if you are using an older version of Odin) and click OK or start (I don't remember which it has)
5) If it flashes successfully pull the battery and then put it back in and turn the phone on normally. It will take a while to boot, like 15-20 minutes possibly. Flashing stock myself I have seen it say it was successful and it wasn't and the fix for me was to leave reset checked and let it do it's thing.
6) Once you have booted into your newly flashed stock OK3, do step 2 and 3 again, so you can flash TWRP.
7) When you go to flash TWRP in Odin uncheck reset time and DEFINITELY have reset unchecked (if Odin reboots your phone TWRP doesn't stick). Do step 4 again except this time select the TWRP tar file. Once it flashes successfully pull battery put it back in and boot directly to recovery (power + volume up) from there do a backup if you want, if not you can flash the custom ROM and gapps if necessary that you downloaded earlier.
Sent from my SCH-R220
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the very detailed response. This totally clears up my questions. I'll charge my phone this evening and give it a shot in the morning when my battery is at 100%. :good:

beerindex said:
Thanks for the very detailed response. This totally clears up my questions. I'll charge my phone this evening and give it a shot in the morning when my battery is at 100%. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Feel free to post back here or PM me if you have any more questions or problems, it wouldn't be the first time walking someone through the process via pm here or other methods
Sent from my SCH-R220

Paying to get this fixed

My s7 edge got stuck at boot screen so i reflashed stock rom and rerooted then restored the backup i had, it said fail because of low memory while restoring the system and now when i try to reflash the stock rom on odin it says model dismatch fail.
If someone could help me fix this I'm willing to pay something decent, but not a whole lot lol

Re-download the stock rom and flash it

Meboyzram said:
Re-download the stock rom and flash it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did that lol thats when it says "model dismatch fail"

Do you have custom recovery?

Do you have a custom recovery?
Do you have the right and the newest Odin Version?
Did you try it with another transfercable or USB-Port?
Do you have the newest samsung drivers?
Did you have any Odin problems like this before?
My suggestion:
Just do a full wipe on your phone. Downlad the newest Odin Version. Get your device into download mode (maybe try different transfercables or USB Ports and the newest samsung drivers) and see if it works now.
If yes, flash the right Bootloader and Modem for your device and then flash the rom you wanted to flash.
If this didnt work, (and you have a custom recovery) try to reinstall the rom without any backups via the recovery at first and check afterwards, if the device is now recognized by Odin.
Good luck

JustAnotherAndroid said:
My s7 edge got stuck at boot screen so i reflashed stock rom and rerooted then restored the backup i had, it said fail because of low memory while restoring the system and now when i try to reflash the stock rom on odin it says model dismatch fail.
If someone could help me fix this I'm willing to pay something decent, but not a whole lot lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess you still have twrp installed.
1. Step: go to TWRP and wipe everything except your SD-Card
2. Step: enter download mode on your device and then plug your usb in (maybe try a different usb-port or even another computer, or another usb cable)
3. Step:Flash the newest bootloader & modem in one step.
4. Step: Enter TWRP again and flash the firmware.zip via the installation process

I dont have TWRP, but i got it fixed, somehow my roomate got it, thanks anyways guys

So all he got was my phone to turn on, im still having this model dismatch fail issue..

Maybe You're trying to flash wrong firmware? What model did You buy?(check box) and what firmware did You download?
If nothing works then download 7zip. And remove all files from that tar.md5 file and leave system.img only. And then try reflashing it.
This way no matter what device You connect it should force flash this image file. Although it might be dangerous (a tiny little bit) so first make sure that You have proper firmware for Your model.

ProtoDeVNan0 said:
Maybe You're trying to flash wrong firmware? What model did You buy?(check box) and what firmware did You download?
If nothing works then download 7zip. And remove all files from that tar.md5 file and leave system.img only. And then try reflashing it.
This way no matter what device You connect it should force flash this image file. Although it might be dangerous (a tiny little bit) so first make sure that You have proper firmware for Your model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've used these files multiple times before i did what i did, ill give that a try, if it works, i owe you.

If system.img by itself will flash successfully and Your phone won't boot then add slowly more files to that tar file (boot.img, recovery.img etc)
You could also try looking for a pit file for Your phone and then flash it with it. Pit file usually fixes most problems even broken partitions.
And make sure that You put that tar file in AP/PDA.
If nothing above works then send me screenshots of ODIN and the file that You're trying to flash. Maybe I'll notice something. But I hope You'll fix it

JustAnotherAndroid said:
Yes, I've used these files multiple times before i did what i did, ill give that a try, if it works, i owe you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I tried, and i get some invalid file error
These are the files that are in the AP one
https://gyazo.com/a72785631ad62d412a8c40eb464d3126

I found out my problem, i was still uing the modified version of odin that i used to root my phone

[sm j730f] Bootloader fail and TWRP boots into black screen

Greetings everyone,
I decided to post my problem with my phone after searching the entire internet for similar problem but with no luck. Anyway I used to play around with my Samsung j7 pro for 2 years, I managed to flash twrp and thus many other custom roms, until last week when I recklessly flashed a sboot.img.tar file through Odin in order to fix cellular network in a rom I flashed earlier, this alone bricked my phone refusing to get past the Samsung logo, so like I do always, I tried to restore my phone by flashing the stock firmware (9.0) which I always keep on my PC, but surprise, the phone refuses to go through the process and gives me this error:
sw rev check fail bootloader device -1 binary 6
(same with 8.0 and 7.0 firmware)
I searched the internet for same error but with no luck, because I understand it's a mismatch between device bootloader current version and the firmware bootloader's, that they should be the same or higher, meaning you can't downgrade, I get that! but I never seen device with negative figure (-1) what that's supposed to mean? my device bootloader used to be on 6, how did it managed to jump to minus one ?
then I tried to flash TWRP to see if I could flash a rom and get around it, so I did, but when booting into recovery the screen goes black, I thought first the phone turned off, but not really, because TWRP seems to work with screen completely black, I knew that because I accidentally touch the screen and I sense vibration, I managed to reboot the phone via twrp just by guessing the buttons location (screen always black) in order to prove that TWRP is working with screen off. I tried to flash multiple TWRP versions but the same problem, no screen just touch, by the way there is nothing wrong with display hardware because it shows Samsung logo at start and also can boot into download mode just fine.
I hope someone could help me overcome this big of an issue, because I tried everything.

Where did you find such sboot.img.tar file?

death.by.confusion said:
Where did you find such sboot.img.tar file?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...ow-to-fix-sim-cards-didnt-read-j730f-t3939685

Michelyn50 said:
Here
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...ow-to-fix-sim-cards-didnt-read-j730f-t3939685
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, can you try installing any custom rom, blindly(since you said the screen is black when you boot in recovery).
Second, can you try flashing stock firmware without the BL part in Odin?

death.by.confusion said:
First, can you try installing any custom rom, blindly(since you said the screen is black when you boot in recovery).
Second, can you try flashing stock firmware without the BL part in Odin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried blindly many times flashing any custom rom but with no luck since it's really hard predicting the buttons location on the screen, I probably need another phone replica with working twrp to mimick the exact moves.
For stock firmware, I manage to install it without BL but when booting it's just stuck on the Samsung logo, and when booting into stock recovery nothing just black screen, and booting into download mode it seems that the installation didn't change the binary -1, since I could see it on the screen

death.by.confusion said:
First, can you try installing any custom rom, blindly(since you said the screen is black when you boot in recovery).
Second, can you try flashing stock firmware without the BL part in Odin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a screenshot when I try to install stock firmware (with BL)
https://m.imgur.com/a/9vuFqTX

Can you try flash other sboot files from the link you gave me? Try to flash some sboot file, and then make full flash of your stock firmware.
If not, maybe you can try flashing sboot with heimdal https://www.glassechidna.com.au/heimdall/

I have the same issue, any help or advice?

Flash último bootloader e modem CP
Flash Any Custom ROM

Did you flash misc partition ?
If your device keep booting in blackscreen, you need to erase misc partition.
Here, is the guide for erasing MISC partition: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...omi-redmi-note-9-xiaomi-redmi-10x-4g.4209299/
The guide is for REDMI NOTE 9, so if you try to perform the method 1, you can cause more damages to your device.
Please, follow METHOD 2 only !
If TWRP is not working perfectly, obviously you need to flash stock rom recovery.img.
Good luck