Database Users

[Q] Soft brick? Hard brick? Sort of firm'ish brick really

I've made a bit of a mess and I need help please. My s4 is softbricked, but as softbricks go, it's rather hard.
I have an early S4 i9505 bought from Carphone Warehouse (UK, unlocked, pre knox). I rooted it, installed TBackup, greenify and got it how I wanted it. Then I downloaded a stock firmware from Sammobile and tested to see if I could get it back to 'warranty' condition, which was a success.
Confident that I could obtain warranty if I needed it, I re-rooted it, installed TB and greenify, and it ran sweetly for months from that point onwards.
I read about the arrival of updates (and knox) and concluded I didn't need them. It was working, leave it alone.
Then out of the blue, my nice stable machine broke. I didn't change anything I was aware of to cause it.
No normal boot.
No recovery.
Download only.
Using Odin, I tried allsorts, eventually getting the same Sammobile firmware to run.
2 days later, it broke again, same as before, but worse!?
Then I tried all sorts of stuff downloading no end of things trying to get it to boot or even go into recovery. The most promising approach was to reload the firmware along with a .pit file, but still no joy. I've lost track of the other things I tried, but I've been doing it for a week, so a lot has been done. In desperation, I even tried downloading the latest firmware, so I now have signs of knox of the odin page.
I now have the following symptoms:
Booting into recovery brings up the blue 'booting recovery' message then just blackness.
Normal boot is exactly the same as above.
Unpowered conection to my laptop gives a 5 second boot loop featuring the buzz only.
I can reliably boot into download and download stuff with Odin and change the little Odin page status messages. After (foolishly) trying the latest firmware, these messages say
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME GT-I9505
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
Please can anyone give me some advice on what else I could try?
Thanks
Steve

Wrinklespots said:
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME GT-I9505
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
Please can anyone give me some advice on what else I could try?
Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If anything else is not working (especially, if you're unable to go to recovery) I'd call sammy service center. Your download mode says that you did not rooted your phone, and knox is untouched either.

spamtrash said:
If anything else is not working (especially, if you're unable to go to recovery) I'd call sammy service center. Your download mode says that you did not rooted your phone, and knox is untouched either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for looking spamtrash.
I was wondering if I could get away with that. It does look good from the Odin display, but the flash counter must have a pretty high number in it by now! Won't that show up somewhere?
Do you think it does actually have a fault on it, rather than just some software that's messed up and needs tweaking?
Thanks
Steve

Wrinklespots said:
Thanks for looking spamtrash.
I was wondering if I could get away with that. It does look good from the Odin display, but the flash counter must have a pretty high number in it by now! Won't that show up somewhere?
Do you think it does actually have a fault on it, rather than just some software that's messed up and needs tweaking?
Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Are you able to go to recovery mode?
2. Assuming that your previous communicates were taken from the screen in download mode - you're clean.
If answer for 1 is: NO, and assuming 2: do not bother the flash counter. Flash counter does not means you messed with custom ROMs, it just means amount of the ROM update tries. As they are unable to prove that the counter was not increased by failed KIES updates, you're safe.
To go deeper, service will have to flash and wipe your phone.
One thing: remove your sd card prior to giving/sending it out.

Try a different usb cable.I was in same boat as you (after stupidly thinking mobile odin pro liked modems).
Luckily I had an unused cable off my tab 3.

URGENT: Softbricked SGH-I337 AMF3 model.

I want to start off by saying that I kept digging my own grave because I'm stubborn. I have looked and tried everything and will try again after posting. There are messages and phone calls that I need to get to for college and this has really made me a bit stressed/ depressed.
I recently got an S4 SGH-I337 from AT&T and upgraded to 4.4.2 KitKat. I decided to root it and flash a rom (first phone I ever decided to flash a rom on, bad decision on my part). Everything was fine and dandy until I decided to install TWRP Recovery, it then killed all access to the recovery menu. I was still able to get into the phone via download menu (removing battery). I then decided to factory reset everything. I followed all the steps and images down to the letter.
I tried this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2502003 (Fails on Odin, every single time)
Afterwards, I would get the message: "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue..." (Kies does NOT work since it doesn't even appear on the list when I hit emergency recovery. I even tried Firmware Upgrade.)
Then I used this on Odin: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2404970
It worked but it gave me the message "System software not authorized by AT&T has been found on your phone." I decided to download and use this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=49687770 due to him solving his issue (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=52837496&postcount=203)... It voided my warranty and is back to "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue..." Still cannot use Kies as nothing shows up when I hit emergency recovery. What voided my warranty was a stock image.
Kies and Odin don't work. I have no idea what to do. I'm honestly scared to tell my dad and way too stubborn to actually tell him about it. Hahaha. Since I voided the warranty, I really have no idea how much AT&T will charge, I don't want him wasting money. All my money sadly went to school. These are the files that I accumulated during my googling: http://puu.sh/ayQwm/e8d232b4b0.jpg
Code:
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME: SGH-I337
CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official
SYSTEM STATUS: Custom
KNOX KERNEL LOCK: 0x0
KNOX WARRANTY LOCK: 0x0
KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 0x1 [B](Was 0x0)[/B]
CSB-CONFIG-LSB: 0x30
WRITE PROTECTION: Enable
eMMC BURSRT MODE enabled
If there are info you need, I'll do what I can to tell you. Note, I can't get into my phone, but what I can do is get into Odin mode... I appreciate it if you can help, I'm very new to this.
*I do NOT know what the 4.4.2 version is, so I have no power over that. I didn't memorize it at all and am just going by what the Box says: I337UCUAMF3

Read the return to stock section of http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2616221

I found it earlier and downloaded the NB1 Rom. It worked. Thanks for helping though. I'll find the thank you button somewhere. :good:

[devs help needed] g900f stuck in an unbreakable bootloop enigma

Hi to all,
sorry to use the bold character but it's REALLY an unbreakable enigma. It regards My fiancee Galaxy s5 g900f no brand ITV and that one of another user.
The thread in wich we found to be in the same situation is T H I S.
The phone was never touched, modified or altered in anyway as my fiancee doesn't even know what "root" or "rom" means. It was bought in november 2014, used with whatsapp, facebook and two games.
It was updated using wifi OTA to lollipop BOA3 ITV. Update was successful, she didn't wipe data as there were only 4-5 apps on it and the phone was working normally. It stayed this way for more than one month, no problems at all.
It was never touched in anyway, never diverted from the original. A very noob utilization to clarify.
At mid April one day when the phone was on the table in standby , we saw it rebooting. Then worked normally.
The day after it, two more reboots while doing anything , on the third one it appeared "SET WARRANTY BIT KERNEL" and BEGAN TO BOOTLOOP.
The bootloop starts right after "Samsung Galaxy s5 powered by android " and never ends.
Sometimes it gets stuck at "set warranty bit kernel".
THE PHONE ENTERS DOWNLOAD MODE always when pressing vol down,home,power.
IT DOESN'T ALWAYS ENTERS RECOVERY MODE. Sometimes gets stucked in "booting recovery. Recovery is not selinux enforcing. Set warranty bit recovery"
Me and one other guy on androidforums have tried everything:
-1. wipe cache, data and dalvick from stock recovery (it was difficult to enter it but done multiple times)
-2. flashing with ODIN stock images (OFFICIAL ITV FOR ME) . Kitkat and Lollipop officials. ALWAYS GREEN LIGHT PASS!
2.1 Updating bootloaders when going from kitkat to lollipop and viceversa.
2.2 Checking repartitioning using the right ITV PIT files.
2.3 wiping before and after that.
-3 flashing from KIES in FW UPGRADE MODE and emergency mode.
-4 flashed custom recovery. It gets stuck multiple times but the other guy managed to boot into Philz, formatting every partition,
-5 installing CYANOGENMOD 12 but it loads the cyanogen bootanimation for 1 sec, then bootloop.
With lollipop it gets stuck on the samsung bootloader logo.
With kitkat it gets to samsung bootanimation (led and audio working) but never ends.
ONE TIME IT MANAGED TO ARRIVE TO "upgrading android applications 1 of 1" for 2 seconds then bootloops (and it was data clean! so what app is it upgrading?!?)
the status in Odin mode is
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME: SM-G900F
CURRENT BINARY: CUSTOM
SYSTEM STATUS: CUSTOM
REACTIVATION LOCK(KK): OFF
KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 0*1 (1)
QUALCOM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE (CSB)
RP SWREV: S1, T1, R1, A1, P1
SECURE DOWNLOAD : ENABLE
UDC START
But it was never modified with anything! and it stays this way after an original rom flash! (shouldn't be at least reporting "official" ?)
SAMSUNG SERVICE IN ITALY REFUSED TO REPAIR IT SAYING THAT WARRANTY IS VOID DUE TO CUSTOM MODS.
Don't know what to do. I've tried almost everything.
WE BEG FOR YOU HELP , PLEASE.
P.S. sorry if I have mistaken the thread section or the title

oile said:
Hi to all,
sorry to use the bold character but it's REALLY an unbreakable enigma. It regards My fiancee Galaxy s5 g900f no brand ITV and that one of another user.
The thread in wich we found to be in the same situation is T H I S.
The phone was never touched, modified or altered in anyway as my fiancee doesn't even know what "root" or "rom" means. It was bought in november 2014, used with whatsapp, facebook and two games.
It was updated using wifi OTA to lollipop BOA3 ITV. Update was successful, she didn't wipe data as there were only 4-5 apps on it and the phone was working normally. It stayed this way for more than one month, no problems at all.
It was never touched in anyway, never diverted from the original. A very noob utilization to clarify.
At mid April one day when the phone was on the table in standby , we saw it rebooting. Then worked normally.
The day after it, two more reboots while doing anything , on the third one it appeared "SET WARRANTY BIT KERNEL" and BEGAN TO BOOTLOOP.
The bootloop starts right after "Samsung Galaxy s5 powered by android " and never ends.
Sometimes it gets stuck at "set warranty bit kernel".
THE PHONE ENTERS DOWNLOAD MODE always when pressing vol down,home,power.
IT DOESN'T ALWAYS ENTERS RECOVERY MODE. Sometimes gets stucked in "booting recovery. Recovery is not selinux enforcing. Set warranty bit recovery"
Me and one other guy on androidforums have tried everything:
-1. wipe cache, data and dalvick from stock recovery (it was difficult to enter it but done multiple times)
-2. flashing with ODIN stock images (OFFICIAL ITV FOR ME) . Kitkat and Lollipop officials. ALWAYS GREEN LIGHT PASS!
2.1 Updating bootloaders when going from kitkat to lollipop and viceversa.
2.2 Checking repartitioning using the right ITV PIT files.
2.3 wiping before and after that.
-3 flashing from KIES in FW UPGRADE MODE and emergency mode.
-4 flashed custom recovery. It gets stuck multiple times but the other guy managed to boot into Philz, formatting every partition,
-5 installing CYANOGENMOD 12 but it loads the cyanogen bootanimation for 1 sec, then bootloop.
With lollipop it gets stuck on the samsung bootloader logo.
With kitkat it gets to samsung bootanimation (led and audio working) but never ends.
ONE TIME IT MANAGED TO ARRIVE TO "upgrading android applications 1 of 1" for 2 seconds then bootloops (and it was data clean! so what app is it upgrading?!?)
the status in Odin mode is
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME: SM-G900F
CURRENT BINARY: CUSTOM
SYSTEM STATUS: CUSTOM
REACTIVATION LOCK(KK): OFF
KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 0*1 (1)
QUALCOM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE (CSB)
RP SWREV: S1, T1, R1, A1, P1
SECURE DOWNLOAD : ENABLE
UDC START
But it was never modified with anything! and it stays this way after an original rom flash! (shouldn't be at least reporting "official" ?)
SAMSUNG SERVICE IN ITALY REFUSED TO REPAIR IT SAYING THAT WARRANTY IS VOID DUE TO CUSTOM MODS.
Don't know what to do. I've tried almost everything.
WE BEG FOR YOU HELP , PLEASE.
P.S. sorry if I have mistaken the thread section or the title
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
facing exactly the same problem , any Devs kind enuff to enlighten us on this ?

No one could help?

Looks like a broken NAND(The 16GB storasge of the device) chip to me... It should be replaced with a new one to fix the problem. Repartitioning it won't fix it at all and 1 thing you've done wrong is flashing it with custom ROMs after it broke. You should have claimed warranty first before you tried the custom ROMs solution.
Now the only solution to this is approach samsung again and ask how much would it cost you replacing your S5's NAND. Nothing can be done here software wise. The explanation you made points only to this problem.
Being stuck in "Samsung Galaxy s5 powered by android" only means that the kernel won't even load at all and you flashing the kernel with stock & CM version and still encountering this issue only means it's a NAND problem.

I claimed the warranty repair before trying custom rom. I haven't had the possibility to try custom roms at all because the phone is not mine. But xtaeyeon who has the same problem did and cyanogenmod didn't boot.
Now, being you so kind giving your advice, is there any possibility to restore broken sectors on the nand? Or is there a way to have the nand chip only replaced? Do you know any repair center that can do that without buying a new motherboard?
It is so strange that it came out of nowhere exactly the same problem for me, xtaeyeon and another guy on a Spanish forum who changed the board to have it repaired.

As we are on different countries I couldn't tell if there's such a way for you to do that. Here in our country local phone technicians buy broken phones and salvage their parts to repair phones such as this. Hence if you were here I could say yes there's a way to fix it without having to replace the board.
Next is you said that you didn't flash custom ROMs on that device then why not claim for a warranty repair then? Is it out of warranty already? If it's still under warranty then I suggest you return it for replacement to them. You have every right to have it fixed for free and if they say that warranty is void because you modified the software then insist that you didn't and have a real technician from samsung decide.
As for restoring broken sectors... I don't think this is the problem at all. Cause if it is the filesystem configured on the NAND should have isolated the bad sectors automatically and allocate the files to good sectors indeed. I believe that the NAND chip here is totally broken like when you transfer files in there the file you transferred gets corrupted.
oile said:
I claimed the warranty repair before trying custom rom. I haven't had the possibility to try custom roms at all because the phone is not mine. But xtaeyeon who has the same problem did and cyanogenmod didn't boot.
Now, being you so kind giving your advice, is there any possibility to restore broken sectors on the nand? Or is there a way to have the nand chip only replaced? Do you know any repair center that can do that without buying a new motherboard?
It is so strange that it came out of nowhere exactly the same problem for me, xtaeyeon and another guy on a Spanish forum who changed the board to have it repaired.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Samsung said it is out of warranty because of Knox 0x1 and "custom" condition of binary and system. But it was never Flashed with anything different than the lollipop ota.
I don't know what to do. If it really is the new motherboard, my fiancé cannot afford it cause the Galaxy s5 was a gift. :/

oile said:
Samsung said it is out of warranty because of Knox 0x1 and "custom" condition of binary and system. But it was never Flashed with anything different than the lollipop ota.
I don't know what to do. If it really is the new motherboard, my fiancé cannot afford it cause the Galaxy s5 was a gift. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you live in the EU the knox thing is irrelevant, they're required to service you anyway by law.
You have a right to flash the OS of your choice in EU. Sometimes they try to get rid of customers, basically they have an unofficial policy of avoiding giving you free service when possible. You just need to literally tell them you won't take no for an answer (this makes miracles happen) and that you won't leave until you get the service they owe you.
But if you live outside of EU, well, then I don't know.

help please!!!!

I have a s7 edge I got through sprint. I flashed smg935u firmware, a couple weeks later, took it to cell store to have them unlock it, and they did. custom with unlocked symbol. I had problems with texting, couldn't change apn settings, so they told me to flash back to the sprint firmware. I was on smg935u android 7.0, and my dumb ass wasn't paying any attention and tried flashing to smg935p android 6.1. so now my phone is soft bricked and stuck in a bootloop. someone please help me. what can I do? I have tried various firmwares with both odin 3 12 3 and odin princecomsy. this is pretty much the extent of my knowledge. someone please help me get this working again. I keep getting the sw rev check fail abort fused 4 binary 2 and its hard to even get into download mode. I can not get into bootloader mode at all.
odin mode high speed
product name smg935u
current binary Samsung official
system status custom
fap lock off
warranty void 0x0
qualcome secure boot enable
rp swrev b4(2,1,1,1,1) k1 s3

Shanedavid30 said:
I have a s7 edge I got through sprint. I flashed smg935u firmware, a couple weeks later, took it to cell store to have them unlock it, and they did. custom with unlocked symbol. I had problems with texting, couldn't change apn settings, so they told me to flash back to the sprint firmware. I was on smg935u android 7.0, and my dumb ass wasn't paying any attention and tried flashing to smg935p android 6.1. so now my phone is soft bricked and stuck in a bootloop. someone please help me. what can I do? I have tried various firmwares with both odin 3 12 3 and odin princecomsy. this is pretty much the extent of my knowledge. someone please help me get this working again. I keep getting the sw rev check fail abort fused 4 binary 2 and its hard to even get into download mode. I can not get into bootloader mode at all.
odin mode high speed
product name smg935u
current binary Samsung official
system status custom
fap lock off
warranty void 0x0
qualcome secure boot enable
rp swrev b4(2,1,1,1,1) k1 s3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know sometimes if you let the battery go dead then after charge boot into bootloader, make sure you got a good tar file for your stock phone it may be a bad tar file if you are getting errors.

Hmmmm sounds like you accidentally flashed very old 6.0.1 firmware back when it bootloader version 2 (which they eventually updated to version 4 so you can't go backwards) so I would just completely charge the phone and go into recovery and do a facorty reset then try flashing the latest Sprint 7.0 firmware and you should be good

I'm sure you're tired of hearing this...

Not getting much response in the Q & A section, so I'll try here:
So I tried to root using an old youtube tutorial (which I since have learned is a bad idea), now it's stuck in a boot loop. Tried to factory restore from boot menu, didn't work. Took my S7 SM-G930V to Geek Squad at Best Buy, and the Samsung guy basically told me he couldn't fix it and neither would Samsung, as a punishment for trying to root. Maybe if he comes into the ER needing life-saving treatment, I'll tell him I won't help him as punishment for doing one of the stupid things I see every day.... I was just going to throw the damn thing away and buy a new phone, but he pissed me off, so now I want to fix it just to spite him.
Tried kies (said to use smart switch), smart switch (unsupported device), and Odin, all fail. Used the links for the correct firmware here. Tried Verizon's software assistant... also fails. During flash with Odin, it gets about 3 seconds into the bar that goes across the bottom of the phone, then Odin says failed. I'm on android 7.0 snapdragon.
I can get it into download mode, but flashing fails nearly immediately. In download mode, at the top left it says: "ODIN MODE (HIGH SPEED), PRODUCT NAME: SM-G930V, CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official, SYSTEM STATUS: Official, FRP LOCK: OFF, QUALCOMM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE, AP SWREV: B4(2,1,1,1,1) K1 S3, SECURE DOWNLOAD: ENABLE
Also, I wrote down the Build # and baseband in case they help... Build #: NRD90M.G930VVRS4BRA1 Baseband: G930VVRS4BRA1
Im sure you experts need additional more specific information, so ask away. And thank you!

ERDOC76 said:
Not getting much response in the Q & A section, so I'll try here:
So I tried to root using an old youtube tutorial (which I since have learned is a bad idea), now it's stuck in a boot loop. Tried to factory restore from boot menu, didn't work. Took my S7 SM-G930V to Geek Squad at Best Buy, and the Samsung guy basically told me he couldn't fix it and neither would Samsung, as a punishment for trying to root. Maybe if he comes into the ER needing life-saving treatment, I'll tell him I won't help him as punishment for doing one of the stupid things I see every day.... I was just going to throw the damn thing away and buy a new phone, but he pissed me off, so now I want to fix it just to spite him.
Tried kies (said to use smart switch), smart switch (unsupported device), and Odin, all fail. Used the links for the correct firmware here. Tried Verizon's software assistant... also fails. During flash with Odin, it gets about 3 seconds into the bar that goes across the bottom of the phone, then Odin says failed. I'm on android 7.0 snapdragon.
I can get it into download mode, but flashing fails nearly immediately. In download mode, at the top left it says: "ODIN MODE (HIGH SPEED), PRODUCT NAME: SM-G930V, CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official, SYSTEM STATUS: Official, FRP LOCK: OFF, QUALCOMM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE, AP SWREV: B4(2,1,1,1,1) K1 S3, SECURE DOWNLOAD: ENABLE
Also, I wrote down the Build # and baseband in case they help... Build #: NRD90M.G930VVRS4BRA1 Baseband: G930VVRS4BRA1
Im sure you experts need additional more specific information, so ask away. And thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe try using a different variant of the s7 firmware(like att) and see if it flashes with the prince comsy version of odin.
Edit: nvm guess you figured it out.

Dude believe it or not, I just did the exact same ****ing thing. Somebody please help me. Same phone. Same video. WTF. Please somebody with a heart, help us.

Chances are you flashed the root kernel for Marshmallow. Here is the root kernel for Nougat. https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=745425885120714389 Try flashing this and seeing what happens.
---------- Post added at 11:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------
If that doesn't work, follow this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/ve...sungpay-norootrequiredtoinstallorrun-t3748755. It will put you on the modified BRA1 build. You'll lose all your data in the process, so I would try flashing the Nougat root kernel in Odin first.