Database Users

[Q] i9505 won't boot into recovery or Android after it was "washed"

Hello guys, after a extensive research I decided to post thia thread and ask for help.
I recieved this phone (i9505 international version) from my cousin after it was washed in a wash machine inside his pants pocket'.
He told me he had sent it to a repair shop to have it cleaned and repaired before he sent it to me.
I recieved it, charged it's battery on a externalismo charger, put it back and it turns on ok, but gets stuck on The boot screen with a little blue message on the top that says "recovery booting" and never changes from there.
So , i tried The obvious, downloaded a official ROM, and tried to flash it. Flash was sucessful but i still had the same problems with it getting stuck in The first boot screen with the little blue text at The top.
Then i tried flashing The ROM with a pit file to rebuild The partittions. Flash was sucessful again, no errors at all, but I still had the same problem getting stuck at The boot screen.
The I tried flashing a custom recovery.
Clockwork recovery got me a error screen after i flashed it saying something got wrong during flash ask me to flash again.
Reflashed The oficial ROM with the pit file, tried again, same error. Had to reflash again.
Then I tried twrp.
This time something went different. I was still stuck at The boot screen, but The blue text changed to a red/orange 3 line text saying something like "Recovery is not seandroid enforcing".
I've read that this hás something to do with a locked bootloader and knox security.
Also, I've read that some people had this problems when their /data partition got corrupted.
So, I could not clear or format the data partition because I can't get into the recovery. The pit file never touches /data, and I don't really know if flashing the oficial ROM is enough to fix any problems in /data.
I have no idea if the data on /EFS is still OK.
And I'm still stuck with this problem.
Does anyone have any idea what else I can try in order to unbrick this phone?
I think the 3 possible problems are:
Corruption on /data
Corruption on /EFS (still it should boot)
Something wrong with bootloader vs rom version or region or something with Knox security.
Oh, I Aldo tried flashing another modem/radio. Got the same "something went wrong while flashing, try again" error.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry if you find any typos, I'm fighting my word corrector (which is in pt-br) as I type this from my phone (n7000).
PS: flashed Samsung 4.4.2 zto (brazil) to the i9505

Another possibility is that the volume rocker shorted and when holding power it is also holding volume. Therefore booting recovery. I would check this by removing the volume rocker ribbon from the board and powering on. I know it sounds silly but could be the problem
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Free mobile app

I openned the phone a few minutes ago to check this. Acctualy the button is soldered into the mainboard. I wasn't able to disconnect it.
I get a new multimeter (mine broke a few weeks ago) and check the contacts, but I don't think this is the problem, because if it was just a problem with a key getting stuck it should still boot into the recovery and do something, but it's not the case, it gets stuck in the bootscreen before booting and never really enters the recovery.
and when I go into download mode, there is a screen that asks me to presse vol up to go into download mode or vol down to cancel, I acctually have to press vol up to enter download mode, so it's probably not the problem. Thanks for the sugestion tho'.

Strange Softbrick Water damage

Hello all,
I'm in a bit of a fix and really need some help,
After some water immersion my Samsung S4 ceased to function, as can be expected. EDIT: (BTW this is on the Canadian version I337 as best as I know)
I dried it in silica for an extended period of time and have reached the situation where the following is possible:
Plug in and have the battery logo appear
Fiddle with the cable and power button to get the logo to show up - and it gets stuck on it
Only powers up after cable is withdrawn
Go from there to enter ODIN mode with the power and down arrow, only after this mode has been entered and exited it becomes possible to access CWM
CWM can be accessed and searching for a zip to install shows me all directories on internal storage
Cleared cache and dalvik cache
Installed what I believe is the same ROM from the external SD card (Kangapop 2.5)
Went through all steps as normal for an allegedly successful install
Still however certain things are not possible:
Back up to external SD (crashes when reaching backing up system)
Starting the phone cold regularly without fiddling with charger and power button
Getting past the Samsung S4 logo to actually boot into the ROM
In the beginning both cameras were completely soaked with water but by now all has dried.
If I could just extract a few files I would be happy to wipe everything and try further or just leave it dead, any suggestions in the mean time?
Should I use ODIN to flash the ROM? Go back to stock ROM?
If only I could get ADB to work and pull some files off...

UPDATE:
The S4 could not power up or charge at all with the old battery. Received new battery and it worked, tried Fonepaw recovery but it didn't worked, that ruined recovery to the point where it would only flash with the blue text for a moment as opposed to getting stuck like before.
I transferred the 6.0.4.4 CWM for the Canadian version I downloaded from here, now it just gets stuck on entering recovery.
The S4 cannot power up at all at the moment, probably because the new battery was barely charged and it couldn't charge while in the phone.
What should I do if I manage to power up again and get into Odin mode?

Verify the model number in download mode. If it says sgh-i337m, the phone is the Canadian version and you can flash a stock ROM from sammobile.com.

SM-N910F no Boot, constant restarting!

Hello,
The phone was updated to latest available firmware. This is when the problems started.. First off it would turn off after about two minutes and get quite hot, so I replaced the battery.
After battery replacement, it worked OK for a few days, then started getting hot again.. So i pulled battery and left to cool.
Now the phone does not boot at all, constantly rebooting, even when plugging in the charger. Screen flashes with battery charge symbol then reboots. I can however get into Download Mode..
This is what i receive;
ODIN MODE (HIGH SPEED)
PRODUCT NAME:SM-N910F
CURRENT BINARY: Custom
SYSTEM STATUS: Official
REACTIVATION LOCK: OFF
KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 0x1 (4)
QUALCOM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE (CSB)
RP SWREV: S1, T1, R1, A1, P1
SECURE DOWNLOAD : ENABLE
UDC START
I have no idea why it says Current Binary - Custom.. As far as I know the phone is Stock and I bought it new.
Hope someone can help me please!
Thanks!

*Update*
Played around with it this morning, managed to flash an older ROM in Download Mode... but upon reboot... stuck in bootloop
Any input how to get the phone working again please?
Much appreciated!

Bootlooping after flash the stock rom is to be expected sometimes.
What you have to do in that case, is boot in recovery (stock recovery) and perform a factory reset, then wipe user data and in the end REBOOT SYSTEM.
That may be caused by old data still in your phone, that prevent your phone from booting up.
I would also try and change my charger and cable, in case something in wrong there (apart from the batter) and the phone cannt charge it properly.
Even better, if you could use an external charger to charge your battery and then put battery back to it, just to make sure there is not something wrong in the charging process.
Have you tried to charge your phone, while be on RECOVERY? That could also help.
So, in conclusion
Make sure your battery is charged
Boot in stock recovery, factory reset and wipe data
reboot system.
Good luck

logosA said:
Bootlooping after flash the stock rom is to be expected sometimes.
What you have to do in that case, is boot in recovery (stock recovery) and perform a factory reset, then wipe user data and in the end REBOOT SYSTEM.
That may be caused by old data still in your phone, that prevent your phone from booting up.
I would also try and change my charger and cable, in case something in wrong there (apart from the batter) and the phone cannt charge it properly.
Even better, if you could use an external charger to charge your battery and then put battery back to it, just to make sure there is not something wrong in the charging process.
Have you tried to charge your phone, while be on RECOVERY? That could also help.
So, in conclusion
Make sure your battery is charged
Boot in stock recovery, factory reset and wipe data
reboot system.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed the Stock Firmware but upon reboot just back to bootloop... The only operation i can do is VOL Down + HOME + POWER to Download Mode
I am unable VOL UP + HOME + POWER.. it just reboots the phone!
Also battery does not seem to be charging while in the phone, because it turns itself on and then stuck in loop! so frustrating!
any more help appreciated?
Thanks !!

I have now managed to flash a Stock 4.4.4 firmware with Auto Reboot, F. Reset Time and NAND Erase All ticked... Still no joy!
Once the firmware is installed the phone reboots then back to bootloop

iamserver2016 said:
I have now managed to flash a Stock 4.4.4 firmware with Auto Reboot, F. Reset Time and NAND Erase All ticked... Still no joy!
Once the firmware is installed the phone reboots then back to bootloop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
look what you have to do:
download this (windows ) application and install it on your windows pc.
This is the application that will allow you to search and download the latest stock rom for your phone.
It connect to Samsung servers and in very little time you will have a new stock rom on your pc.
choose samfirm 3.06
extract it on a folder on your PC and run samfirm.exe
in the opening menu type
SM-N910F(or T/V/W etc your phones model)
REGION..... xxx (your region code)
these 2 you can find in a sticker under your battery if you open the phone and take off the battery, if you already dont know that
tick '' BINARY NATURE''
(If you dont tick BINARY...'' you will get the whole stock rom in one file xxxx.tar.md5 to flash it in the oding using the AP tab)
CHECK UPDATES>DOWNLOAD
THIS WAY YOU WILL GET THE LATEST STOCK ROM FOR YOUR PHONE/REGION
Binary nature means the rom split in 4 files
1. BL- bootloader
2.AP - rom
3. CP - modem
4. CSC - Customer support code(region/country)
This is what a stock rom is consist of
this kind of rom is also called REPAIR ROM, because you can use it to repair your phone.
If you look in odin you will find exactly these 4 entries.
So you can put each in the appropriate box and flash them all and so have a stock rom.
UNtick autoreboot, tick NAND ERASE ALL
push start
Wait until rom flashes and ODIN SAYS COMPLETED
take off your battery and wait 2-3 seconds.
Put it back in and press and hold power+ volume UP + home
Wait untill see samsung logo appears but not let go buttons
AFTER Samsung logo goes and come again, let the buttons.
You will boot to stock recovery.
Navigate with volume buttons and perform FACTORY RESET and then Wipe user data
Then REBOOT SYSTEM.
PS make sure you have oding == or newer than 3.13.3
take it from here:
https://odindownloader.com/download/odin3-v3-13-3
*****DONT LAUGH ON THIS
before do all the above
TAKE OFF THE BACK COVER OF YOUR PHONE , your sdcard, your battery and sim
Put your phone in a zip bag and put it in your freezer for 5 minutes
Take it off the freezer, put battery and sim card on it and do what I have wrote above
Hopefully it will solve your problem and everything will go as we all wish to.

logosA said:
look what you have to do:
download this (windows ) application and install it on your windows pc.
This is the application that will allow you to search and download the latest stock rom for your phone.
It connect to Samsung servers and in very little time you will have a new stock rom on your pc.
choose samfirm 3.06
extract it on a folder on your PC and run samfirm.exe
in the opening menu type
SM-N910F(or T/V/W etc your phones model)
REGION..... xxx (your region code)
these 2 you can find in a sticker under your battery if you open the phone and take off the battery, if you already dont know that
tick '' BINARY NATURE''
(If you dont tick BINARY...'' you will get the whole stock rom in one file xxxx.tar.md5 to flash it in the oding using the AP tab)
CHECK UPDATES>DOWNLOAD
THIS WAY YOU WILL GET THE LATEST STOCK ROM FOR YOUR PHONE/REGION
Binary nature means the rom split in 4 files
1. BL- bootloader
2.AP - rom
3. CP - modem
4. CSC - Customer support code(region/country)
This is what a stock rom is consist of
this kind of rom is also called REPAIR ROM, because you can use it to repair your phone.
If you look in odin you will find exactly these 4 entries.
So you can put each in the appropriate box and flash them all and so have a stock rom.
UNtick autoreboot, tick NAND ERASE ALL
push start
Wait until rom flashes and ODIN SAYS COMPLETED
take off your battery and wait 2-3 seconds.
Put it back in and press and hold power+ volume UP + home
Wait untill see samsung logo appears but not let go buttons
AFTER Samsung logo goes and come again, let the buttons.
You will boot to stock recovery.
Navigate with volume buttons and perform FACTORY RESET and then Wipe user data
Then REBOOT SYSTEM.
PS make sure you have oding == or newer than 3.13.3
take it from here:
https://odindownloader.com/download/odin3-v3-13-3
*****DONT LAUGH ON THIS
before do all the above
TAKE OFF THE BACK COVER OF YOUR PHONE , your sdcard, your battery and sim
Put your phone in a zip bag and put it in your freezer for 5 minutes
Take it off the freezer, put battery and sim card on it and do what I have wrote above
Hopefully it will solve your problem and everything will go as we all wish to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your instructions and reply!! Unfortunately, this has not solved my issues with the phone. I am reluctant to try the freezer method tbh lol.
I might buy a new motherboard.

iamserver2016 said:
Thank you for your instructions and reply!! Unfortunately, this has not solved my issues with the phone. I am reluctant to try the freezer method tbh lol.
I might buy a new motherboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, I thought so.
I have been there you know.
I strangled almost a year trying to fix my damaged Note 4 (910f) which had the emmc bug.
Finally, although I did manage to flash arom (many actually), the only thing that solve the problem was to replace my motherboard.
Take look to some extremely actions, until motherboard replace, just to have an idea what we are talking about.
Its hard, its not 100% effective, but since your phone is still managing to even power up and go to recovery, or download mode, its not that damaged my mine was.
Also keep in mind, this is temporary, eventually, emmc will be complete damage(depending of the use), so motherboard will be to permanent solution only
Good luck my friend
https://forum.xda-developers.com/no...ebrick-img-t3488114/post71178231#post71178231
https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/help/note-4-freezing-restarting-t3348821
https://forum.xda-developers.com/no...ebrick-img-t3488114/post71184710#post71184710

logosA said:
yes, I thought so.
I have been there you know.
I strangled almost a year trying to fix my damaged Note 4 (910f) which had the emmc bug.
Finally, although I did manage to flash arom (many actually), the only thing that solve the problem was to replace my motherboard.
Take look to some extremely actions, until motherboard replace, just to have an idea what we are talking about.
Its hard, its not 100% effective, but since your phone is still managing to even power up and go to recovery, or download mode, its not that damaged my mine was.
Also keep in mind, this is temporary, eventually, emmc will be complete damage(depending of the use), so motherboard will be to permanent solution only
Good luck my friend
https://forum.xda-developers.com/no...ebrick-img-t3488114/post71178231#post71178231
https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/help/note-4-freezing-restarting-t3348821
https://forum.xda-developers.com/no...ebrick-img-t3488114/post71184710#post71184710
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying again and with all the help/knowledge! :good: much appreciated!!
I am currently trying the freezer method but only with battery? Does it have to be full device?
Next stop, new motherboard... I feel defeated.
Thanks!

iamserver2016 said:
Thanks for replying again and with all the help/knowledge! :good: much appreciated!!
I am currently trying the freezer method but only with battery? Does it have to be full device?
Next stop, new motherboard... I feel defeated.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have to freeze the phone.
Not battery, not sim card, not sdcard.
The thing is that in Note 4, CPU and emmc are one under the other, so overheating of the CPU, trying to flash the emmc, is making their contacts lose, so flashing is failing.
Keeping the phone cold, dont let that happen and eventually(maybe), flashing and booting up, which is the most heat producing process, completes and then phone can continue easier.
As I have already told you, this is a big MAYBE and not a final solution.
Changing the motherboard will be.
Took me 15 days to manage to boot it up for the first time.
Manage to keep it with broken motherboard almost a year, then one day, I saw smoke coming out of the usb when charging it. That was the end.
New board and charging port has made my Note 4 like new.

Turned this phone into a brick and I need to fix it!

Hi, so, I got this phone from a friend, and he told me that the phone was working prorperly, but after someone factory resetted it, he wasn't able to set it up. Constant force close pop-ups where showing up while setting it up, and you weren't able to accept terms and conditions (button grayed out). Also, one thing I noticed. The phone got into "Factory Mode". Idk what that is, but it wouldn't let me to enable wifi or bluetooth. That little Factory mode thingy got me really confused. Also, I wanted to boot into recovery mode, and I wasn't able to do so. After turning the phone off, and doing the key combo to boot into recovery, the phone rebooted itself (very showrtly after doing the startup vibration) and after that, it seemd to get into recovery, but it stayed at the android logo with an exclamation sign and after 3 seconds it rebooted itself to system.
After that I said, "well, last thing to try is flashing stock rom again". And I did so. Using the Frija software to download the latest version of android for this phone (and using the corect CSC for this phone (CTI)). I used odin 3.12.7 (wich I knew it works because of previously using it with other phones) to flash the stock rom again. I made sure that only Auto-reboot and F.reset time were checked, and started flashing. After it finished, it got to the samsung logo, but got stuck there. Nothing happened (I left the phone there for like 30 min). I decided to hard-reboot the phone and try to factory-reset it, but after shutting it down, it started to be really hard to make the phone turn on. I had to unplug the battery and wait like 10 mins to try again, and I still wasnt able to boot into recovery mode. It just got stuck at the "Galaxy Core 2" logo.
After that first boot, the phone never got passed the "Galaxy Core 2" logo. Just stuck there. After that, things just begun to get worse. It was also hard to get the phone to get into download mode, most of the time it just stayed at a blackscreen (im not shure if the phone ever turned on, but it never vibrated) and did nothing. I decided to try other versions of odin. Tried with 3.09 and 3.04. Nothing, and after every flash, it got harder and harder to make the phone boot.
At this point, I can hardly get the phone into download mode, and if I do so, sometimes I get the odin complete write operation failed error, wich the only way that I've found to solve it is to reboot again the phone into download mode.
I know that the battery is working, I have another core 2 (same exact model) and battery is ok. At this moment I don't know what else to do. Please, help me to get this brick of a phone back to working conditions, I dont want my friend to buy a new phone just to use it to recive calls and charge it.
Some extra notes:
As i've read, sometimes this can be caused by the replacement of the digitizer/screen. This phone seems to have one or both of them replaced, since I can see glue residues on the corners of the glass, where it touches with the plastic frame.
If there is anything hardware related thing to try, I can try to open the phone. I have some experience doing so.

EDIT: As I continued reading through this forum, I found out that some people had luck with Odin3_v3.13.1_3B_PatcheD, so I decided to try it out and see. Still, nothing changed. As today, I can only use this phone to charge the battery (it dosent actually show the percentage, only the battery icon with a loading icon inside) and boot into download mode
Although, I have to say that after flashing the stock rom with that version of odin made the phone not that hard to start in download mode. I think that it could be something that got corrupted on the eMMC module and it has to repartition it all again...? Does anyone know how to do so?
Regards

Well, tried almost everithing I know. Downloaded rom again with binary nature, tried with odin version 3.12.7, 3.13.1_3b patched and 3.13.3, but nothing. Extracted the PIT file from the CSC file, did repartition, NAND wipe, and nothing changed. I have to say that its certaily easier to get the phone in download mode, but thats almost it. One thing to note, when i select the NAND wipe, it dosent seems to do anything. I mean, in odin Log screen some things appear related to NAND wiping and such, but its really fast and there are only 2 or 3 lines dedicated to that. Is that OK?
Anyway, please, any recoomendation or thing to try would be great, since this phone is now trash, it dosent matters if it starts to get worse, or even unusable (more than it is rn).
Regards

troubleshooting, bricked overnight

Hi!
I used my S7 Edge for a couple of years and now I am afraid it may have died on me. As always, backups of f.e. pictures are not up to date.
During the night, it lay on my Qi charger. When I took it in hand, the screen was extremely dark and stuck in the "loading Lineage" screen. I tried to reboot. It was stuck on the "Samsung Galaxy" screen.
I wanted to boot into recovery and wipe the cache and see if it works again. But I can't boot into recovery mode. No matter if I connect it to a USB cable, the button command does not work.
Switching the device off also isn't possible. The only way to switch it off is disconnecting the battery (I have opened it to do so).
The only thing I can do is booting into download mode (so I know my volume up button works...).
Several times the screen was stuck on the "empty battery" symbol - which did not change no matter how long I had it in the charger. I can't really replicate how I got to the battery screen. I installed another battery just to see if if by some magic this would change something, but nothing changed about my issue. No boot possible and no booting into recovery.
I thought to myself: Well, maybe if I reinstall TWRP I can get into Recovery again. But when I try Odin I get the error message: "there is no PIT partition"
I know you will want additional info:
sadly, I cant' say which version of lineage I had running. I would have to look into my phone - which I can't.
I installed Lineage a couple of years ago, the phone was rooted and had TWRP recovery. I changed my USB port and Audio port several months ago.
But everything was running fine - I did not change or do anything recently. It happened overnight.
Do you have any ideas what I can do? I am brooding for two days now over this issue and I am at the end of the line here.
Did my memory just die on me? Is it an unfixable hardware issue?
Or software-related and potentially salvageable?
thanks in advance for anybody that bothers with my problem.

PinkElf said:
Hi!
I used my S7 Edge for a couple of years and now I am afraid it may have died on me. As always, backups of f.e. pictures are not up to date.
During the night, it lay on my Qi charger. When I took it in hand, the screen was extremely dark and stuck in the "loading Lineage" screen. I tried to reboot. It was stuck on the "Samsung Galaxy" screen.
I wanted to boot into recovery and wipe the cache and see if it works again. But I can't boot into recovery mode. No matter if I connect it to a USB cable, the button command does not work.
Switching the device off also isn't possible. The only way to switch it off is disconnecting the battery (I have opened it to do so).
The only thing I can do is booting into download mode (so I know my volume up button works...).
Several times the screen was stuck on the "empty battery" symbol - which did not change no matter how long I had it in the charger. I can't really replicate how I got to the battery screen. I installed another battery just to see if if by some magic this would change something, but nothing changed about my issue. No boot possible and no booting into recovery.
I thought to myself: Well, maybe if I reinstall TWRP I can get into Recovery again. But when I try Odin I get the error message: "there is no PIT partition"
I know you will want additional info:
sadly, I cant' say which version of lineage I had running. I would have to look into my phone - which I can't.
I installed Lineage a couple of years ago, the phone was rooted and had TWRP recovery. I changed my USB port and Audio port several months ago.
But everything was running fine - I did not change or do anything recently. It happened overnight.
Do you have any ideas what I can do? I am brooding for two days now over this issue and I am at the end of the line here.
Did my memory just die on me? Is it an unfixable hardware issue?
Or software-related and potentially salvageable?
thanks in advance for anybody that bothers with my problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, try to flash the stock firmware otherwise I really don't know :/

I guess I will lose my data when I install stock firmware, don't I?
What I ask myself is: Is the reason for not being able to boot into recovery that my device always thinks my battery is empty?
Is the fact that I can boot into download mode a sign that my memory and/or motherboard is still intact?

PinkElf said:
I guess I will lose my data when I install stock firmware, don't I?
What I ask myself is: Is the reason for not being able to boot into recovery that my device always thinks my battery is empty?
Is the fact that I can boot into download mode a sign that my memory and/or motherboard is still intact?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using Lineage OS? If yes, then definitely yes. On my Xiaomi, I couldn't get into fastboot mode or into recovery, I don't know why and somehow I got there, I don't even know how I think I held the power mode for a long time and when the phone turned on I held the volume up button to get into recovery finally succeeded on the umpteenth attempt and from recovery I restarted the phone in fastboot mode and flashed the stock firmware. And yes, being able to boot your phone into fastboot is a good sign. It would be worse if it wasn't possible.

I am still stuck with the problem. I can boot into download mode. I can't find a way to boot into recovery.
Is there anything I can do in download mode?
If I find the lineage version I originally installed on my device, could I install it via ODIN and get my phone back without data loss? I have only ever installed ROMs via TWRP.
Just an idea, but as of now I get the error "could not find PIT partition" anyway while trying to reinstall TWRP.

PinkElf said:
I am still stuck with the problem. I can boot into download mode. I can't find a way to boot into recovery.
Is there anything I can do in download mode?
If I find the lineage version I originally installed on my device, could I install it via ODIN and get my phone back without data loss? I have only ever installed ROMs via TWRP.
Just an idea, but as of now I get the error "could not find PIT partition" anyway while trying to reinstall TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can use download mode to install the firmware via Odin. Look

That means giving up hope for my personal data...
But even if I want to do this, I run into the problem, that I can't install anything due to "could not find PIT partition"...