Database Users

[HELP!] Rescue this baby! Challenge Accepted!

Ok guys, I need your help. I picked up a T-Mobile HD2 from a friend for $40 who said "it won't boot". Being the experience Android user that I am I decided to give it a try, but I am at my wits end. Here is the sitch:
1. The phone is stuck at the "Stick Together" screen.
2. The bootload WORKS, to a point. It sometimes give a black screen when connected to the computer and a flashing tool is polling the USB.
3. I can flash all different WinMO roms from the bootloader, even HSPL, but still no boot.
4. Sometimes, when the ROM and SPL info come up in the bottom left, the phone will chug at the boot logo for a second, then strange graphical glitches start to appear on the screen. Similar to flashing an i9100 kernel on captivate, but not exactly.
This phone is a hackers dream, or more specifically my dream phone. Please help me get it back to working. I am not stingy; if there person who can get this to work and has a donation link... well... you know.
I have already:
Flashed the ship rom.
Used Task29
Flashed the current TMO rom.
Installed MAGLDR -> bootloader cannot make it to MAGLDR, even holding button.
EDIT: I also can't get it to recognize or flash roms from the SD card. All I have is a 4GB SDHC.

i can't figure out for sure if it's hardware or software that's been failing you. Since i'm more experienced with hardware i'll try to figure out a cause should the problem turn out to be hardware based after all.
1. nand memory corruption. the nand memory is made out of individual memory blocks, linked in a matrix mode and controlled by a memory ...controller (pretty logical i guess ). NAND memory is organized at a logical level in a way very similar to the classical electromagnetic drives (normal hdd's). I mean, blocks, sectors etc. If a memory sector gets damaged, it will produce something called a "bad" memory block. Again, similar to HDD's. But, different to HDD's where you can remap the memory regions and isolate bad blocks, you cannot do this to a flash chip inside a phone. At least not using standard tools or software. These tests are made only once by the manufacturer when the motherboard itself is being build. So, if your nand memory get's corrupted the phone itself won't "know" it since the individual damaged blocks can't be "marked" as damaged for the software to see and avoid placing data over there.
What happens is that you flash a rom, it may complete to 100% and from the bootloader "point of view" data was written over the flash memory. But when you attempt reading data from the damaged sectors, you'll get either nothing or corrupted readings. A more worse situation is when the boadloader itself resides over the damaged memory areas. If this is the case, even bootloader operations will behave erratic - bootloader lock-ups, freezes, strange screens etc.
I've seen phones with similar behavior that will react just like that. Sometime you can flash them, sometime not and when you flash them, they will stick to some random screen or simply freeze since the OS loading process halted with some random error when the corrupted data was read. I only managed to fix this by means of JTAG, a pretty low level debugging tool that requires a direct interface between the cpu and a pc. A memory diagnostic is loaded into the RAM memory and executes from there, it's purpose being to remap the NAND memory. It cannot be done from inside the NAND memory itself just like you cannot simply format the windows drive on a pc, while still being logged in on windows.
But, it's nasty business, service center kind of business.
2. CPU I/O failure. If you look into my signature here on xda, you'll find a link about hd2's cpu and overheating. That problem can in turn cause your problems - also saw this kind of stuff happening to a hd2. In fact is easier to determine if this is the cause. While i won't repeat myself again about how heat cause dilatation in the chip's soldering and how this affects the cpu operations, you can try a simple test. Place a sd card with some rom on it in the phone then place the phone in a bag, then place the bag in the fridge for about an hour. After that (while still keeping the phone in the bag and in the fridge interior) power on the phone, go to the bootloader and try to flash the rom from the sd card. Let the phone in the fridge during flashing and after it restarts. If you can't load a rom from the sd card, try using usb, the ideea is that the phone must remain as cold as possible during the whole process. Check to see if you notice any improvements - phone booting up, different errors or something different in any way from what you noticed so far. If this is the case, that topic from my signature would describe your problem in more detail. If not, we need to look further.
These should be my main suspects. Try to check #2 and reply with some results.

First of all, thank you for the information. I am actually very experienced reflowing PS3 and Xbox 360's, so I will try the refrigerator experiment, and if that succeeds I will disassemble the phone and reflow it in my reflow station. I find (seriously, not joking) that a reflow and (after cooling) a good 10 minutes in the oven on "warm" gets everything nice and settled.
Do you know if they used lead-free solder in the HD2? I'm not sure if phones also fall under RoHS.

yep, i think it's lead free, can't say for sure. But by the way it reacts to heat.. it seems so.
If you try the fridge/freezer, try to get the hd2 as cold as possible while preventing any condensation occurring on it - those transparent zip bags can help, that's what i use for example.

I had the EXACT same problem for a version that I bought off from a NY store (jr.com), it was a t-mobile version, tried everything, just to return it after 8 hours of my purchase.
Looking again for buying another hd2.
EDIT: looking online for hours and hours in vain, I concluded that it was a hardware issue due to some versions of the hd2 as someone explained earlier here.

I reflowed the motherboard and the phone now works.
I think its official, the"Stick Together" screen is the new RROD / YLOD.

good to hear. my hd2 was broken in the same way as yours. fixed it the same way, works as good as new even now.
Well, at least you know what to do if it happens again

Ideos x5 totally bricked

Hi there,
My phone not turning on not without battery and SD not with home and volume+ and power button not with both volumes and power nothing at all not even vibrating when charging I am not sure if it's the battery but it was charged before I rebooted once rebooted it didn't turn back on I am on aurora ics and cwm.
I didn't have any problems with it partitions might of been wiped but I guess this would leave me with access to bootloader or anything or a vibrate on charge at least it happened as I was formatting another device but put the wrong sd on ubuntu so I started to think it might be the battery except it was charged unless it decided to leak all the charge in no time.
Also it doesn't do anything on usb or charge connection no vibrate no led no light buttons no nothing just nothing.

Sounds like my issue...
If in fact you did format the whole 3.69gb partition, then you wiped the phone.
So far, my only recourse has been to attempt a JTAG and install a bootloader.
I'm thinking that maybe I can try some form of "wire trick", like the ones used on the HTC Sensation, but I don't want to blow it up by shorting something unrepairable.
If you find another solution, please reply as it would be helpful to others.

PoXFreak said:
Sounds like my issue...
If in fact you did format the whole 3.69gb partition, then you wiped the phone.
So far, my only recourse has been to attempt a JTAG and install a bootloader.
I'm thinking that maybe I can try some form of "wire trick", like the ones used on the HTC Sensation, but I don't want to blow it up by shorting something unrepairable.
If you find another solution, please reply as it would be helpful to others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope i didnt format 3.96 gb it was 3 mb and it was shown as linux cd gadget also it worked afterwards until i rebooted next day then blackness the thing is i cant seem to find a battery to try with so i need to try everything first

The one I have here wouldn't start charging the battery until I force-fed the battery directly. (use a 4-5v charger and directly charge the battery for a couple of minutes).
Mine worked, but I made the mistake of formatting the entire partition (3.69gb), so now the phone does absolutely nothing.

PoXFreak said:
The one I have here wouldn't start charging the battery until I force-fed the battery directly. (use a 4-5v charger and directly charge the battery for a couple of minutes).
Mine worked, but I made the mistake of formatting the entire partition (3.69gb), so now the phone does absolutely nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a bit confused here so now when you plug it you can do something to it since it's charging? I guess I never did the 3.69 thingy if I am not mistaken..So lemme ask you if I tried the wall outlet for example instead of the USB to tv or laptop would that help to start it? I am thinking of replacing the battery and see what happens that's if I can find it here in Turkey the Turks always into the newest phones so this one is ancient to them to find a battery for...

Mine is in the same state. But I know that in my efforts to get it to start again I accidently wiped the the entire partition. Can't turn it on, can't get a pink screen, not a thing and haven't beenable to find any solution. So I guess all I can do is sit back and check the postings to see if anyone else has the same issue and knows of a way to restore the boot partition.

Burtrum57 said:
Mine is in the same state. But I know that in my efforts to get it to start again I accidently wiped the the entire partition. Can't turn it on, can't get a pink screen, not a thing and haven't beenable to find any solution. So I guess all I can do is sit back and check the postings to see if anyone else has the same issue and knows of a way to restore the boot partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm thinking of trying to run MTTY 1.42 and talk directly with the qualcomm chip to send the boot files myself, but I need to know what I need and where it goes first.
I did this with the HTC Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) with some success.
That was on Windows XP though...not sure if it will run correctly on Win 7.

PoXFreak said:
I'm thinking of trying to run MTTY 1.42 and talk directly with the qualcomm chip to send the boot files myself, but I need to know what I need and where it goes first.
I did this with the HTC Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) with some success.
That was on Windows XP though...not sure if it will run correctly on Win 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
help me i have the same issue....

service
May be best option is to take it to service center.

Bricked beyond repair?

So. I have used the unbrick tool several times before because sometimes I want to go back to out of the box factory. Locked bootloader, the whole nine. Well, it failed, so I unplugged it to try again, and no matter what I do, I can't get my computer to recognize that it's connected to the computer. I've been trying the holding volume up while plugging it in while in test mode. Like I said, I've used it before. I made sure I had plenty of battery life before I tried it, so I know the battery isn't dead. Do I need to look into getting another phone, or has anyone had a phone brick this badly and know how to fix it.

Just to rule out the obvious, have you tried different cable and computer?

gabriwinter said:
Just to rule out the obvious, have you tried different cable and computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. I've tried both of my laptops. Works perfectly on both for my s8+, but won't register my OP5 at all. I plug it in and nothing even shows up in device manager on both laptops.

godraistlin said:
Yeah. I've tried both of my laptops. Works perfectly on both for my s8+, but won't register my OP5 at all. I plug it in and nothing even shows up in device manager on both laptops.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not very familiar with windows, you could try booting a Ubuntu livecd and typing in a terminal: dmesg
Then plug in the phone.
see if you can find any reference to the device being connected within the kernel messages.

How did you brick your OP in the first place? Does it still charge?

Z-Blade said:
How did you brick your OP in the first place? Does it still charge?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It bricked in the middle of using the unbrick tool. It literally doesn't do anything. No charging, no vibrations. Nothing.

gabriwinter said:
I'm not very familiar with windows, you could try booting a Ubuntu livecd and typing in a terminal: dmesg
Then plug in the phone.
see if you can find any reference to the device being connected within the kernel messages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
device descriptor read/64, error -32
That's the error I got. Problems with USB communication.

The fact it does not even charge sounds like a hardware issue. Even when its bricked it should at least charge.

godraistlin said:
device descriptor read/64, error -32
That's the error I got. Problems with USB communication.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an EPIPE error, this means the device is not answering the USB protocol requests and the pipe is broken.
In my experience this has always been due to a faulty cable, but in your case I'm afraid the device is juts not behaving as it should.
Next step would be to troubleshoot the hardware; This is not my area but maybe someone experienced can help out indicating what should be the next steps.
It may be that some small hardware parts could be replaced or the damage could be more severe.

Did you power down the phone then hold the power and volume down buttons at the same time to try and boot directly into recovery? If you can boot into recovery and have TWRP you could format the data on your phone using TWRP. That would erase everything on your phone except TWRP. Your computer would recognize your phone as an external hard drive and you could copy and paste a full ROM zip onto the phone memory and flash it with TWRP. If the tool you used installed the stock recovery I'm not sure what your options are but being able to boot into recovery would be a sign that your phone isn't actually hard bricked. Using automated tools to flash your phone is a really bad idea. It is much safer to flash manually.
I think there is close to zero chance that you have a hardware issue based on what you described. I've never heard of anyone hard bricking an OP5 so I think your phone is recoverable. If you can't figure it out a competent phone repair shop should be able to get you up and running again.
There's also One Plus tech support but if you try to get help from them I would probably just tell them your phone got borked after an update. If you tell them the entire circumstance they probably won't even try to help you.
Good luck.

Did you try holding power button for >40 seconds?

godraistlin said:
So. I have used the unbrick tool several times before because sometimes I want to go back to out of the box factory. Locked bootloader, the whole nine. Well, it failed, so I unplugged it to try again, and no matter what I do, I can't get my computer to recognize that it's connected to the computer. I've been trying the holding volume up while plugging it in while in test mode. Like I said, I've used it before. I made sure I had plenty of battery life before I tried it, so I know the battery isn't dead. Do I need to look into getting another phone, or has anyone had a phone brick this badly and know how to fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's totalled then one plus will have no idea what is wrong either, send it back mate.

After reviewing all the replies, which won't work for you.
Way back in 2016, I faced the same issue with my op3. My issue was fixed by one of my friend by detaching the battery and reinstall the battery so that the board can boot. If that doesn't work for you, then suggest you to please check the type c connector funtionality.

dladz said:
If it's totalled then one plus will have no idea what is wrong either, send it back mate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent it back. They said the main board needed to be replaced. They fixed it under warranty. Just picked the phone back up today.

GAMIT PRUTHVI said:
After reviewing all the replies, which won't work for you.
Way back in 2016, I faced the same issue with my op3. My issue was fixed by one of my friend by detaching the battery and reinstall the battery so that the board can boot. If that doesn't work for you, then suggest you to please check the type c connector funtionality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent it back. They said the main board needed to be replaced. They fixed it under warranty. Just picked the phone back up today.

gabriwinter said:
This is an EPIPE error, this means the device is not answering the USB protocol requests and the pipe is broken.
In my experience this has always been due to a faulty cable, but in your case I'm afraid the device is juts not behaving as it should.
Next step would be to troubleshoot the hardware; This is not my area but maybe someone experienced can help out indicating what should be the next steps.
It may be that some small hardware parts could be replaced or the damage could be more severe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent it back. They said the main board needed to be replaced. They fixed it under warranty. Just picked the phone back up today.

jhs39 said:
Did you power down the phone then hold the power and volume down buttons at the same time to try and boot directly into recovery? If you can boot into recovery and have TWRP you could format the data on your phone using TWRP. That would erase everything on your phone except TWRP. Your computer would recognize your phone as an external hard drive and you could copy and paste a full ROM zip onto the phone memory and flash it with TWRP. If the tool you used installed the stock recovery I'm not sure what your options are but being able to boot into recovery would be a sign that your phone isn't actually hard bricked. Using automated tools to flash your phone is a really bad idea. It is much safer to flash manually.
I think there is close to zero chance that you have a hardware issue based on what you described. I've never heard of anyone hard bricking an OP5 so I think your phone is recoverable. If you can't figure it out a competent phone repair shop should be able to get you up and running again.
There's also One Plus tech support but if you try to get help from them I would probably just tell them your phone got borked after an update. If you tell them the entire circumstance they probably won't even try to help you.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent it back. They said the main board needed to be replaced. They fixed it under warranty. Just picked the phone back up today.

Wet Phone, Won't Boot, Need to Recover Pics/Vids of Newborn Son

Long story short my phone was in a pool long enough to shut itself off. I assumed it would never come back to life but I got all the water out of it that I could by shacking it and such and then started the drying process.
The only reason I'm trying to recover the phone is because it appears I turned off Google Photos backup 4 months ago (it was trying to backup when I didn't want it to) and forgot to turn it back on and now I've got 4 months of pics/vids of my 8 month old son on there that are currently "lost". That's half of his life so clearly I'd like to recover these.
So I dried it for 3 days, charged it to 100%, and powered it up. Motorola logo displayed for a few seconds and then it went to a screen that said:
Your phone didn't start up successfully, use Software Repair Assistant on computer to repair your device.
Connector your device to your computer to get software repair assistant.
AP Fastboot Flash Mode (Secure)
Failed to verify hab image boot
Failed to validate boot image
ERROR: failed to pass validation. backup to fastboot
Fastboot reason: Fall-through from normal boot mode
I downloaded the software repair assistant and when I connect my phone to the computer it is recognized by the computer and the software also recognizes it and starts the "finding phone information" process where it identifies the phone type and such (presumably). Problem is it just sticks at this and never does anything else. I left it connected for over an hour while it did this. I tried a few more times with the same result.
So my questions are does anyone know what the errors mean, how do I fix them, and if they can't be fixed without a factory reset (or at all), what's the best path to trying to recover the pics/vids? I considered attempting a factory reset and then using a recovery program/app but if there are any methods that don't involve first deleting the files via a factory reset and then requiring a recovery attempt, I'd love to try that first.
Thanks for your time.

Stinger2300 said:
Long story short my phone was in a pool long enough to shut itself off. I assumed it would never come back to life but I got all the water out of it that I could by shacking it and such and then started the drying process.
The only reason I'm trying to recover the phone is because it appears I turned off Google Photos backup 4 months ago (it was trying to backup when I didn't want it to) and forgot to turn it back on and now I've got 4 months of pics/vids of my 8 month old son on there that are currently "lost". That's half of his life so clearly I'd like to recover these.
So I dried it for 3 days, charged it to 100%, and powered it up. Motorola logo displayed for a few seconds and then it went to a screen that said:
Your phone didn't start up successfully, use Software Repair Assistant on computer to repair your device.
Connector your device to your computer to get software repair assistant.
AP Fastboot Flash Mode (Secure)
Failed to verify hab image boot
Failed to validate boot image
ERROR: failed to pass validation. backup to fastboot
Fastboot reason: Fall-through from normal boot mode
I downloaded the software repair assistant and when I connect my phone to the computer it is recognized by the computer and the software also recognizes it and starts the "finding phone information" process where it identifies the phone type and such (presumably). Problem is it just sticks at this and never does anything else. I left it connected for over an hour while it did this. I tried a few more times with the same result.
So my questions are does anyone know what the errors mean, how do I fix them, and if they can't be fixed without a factory reset (or at all), what's the best path to trying to recover the pics/vids? I considered attempting a factory reset and then using a recovery program/app but if there are any methods that don't involve first deleting the files via a factory reset and then requiring a recovery attempt, I'd love to try that first.
Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't help you with the problem of getting your pictures, but I can tell you the "Software Repair Assistant" isn't going to help... It hasn't been supported for years on any model, probably 5+ I guess. It is just left over code that Moto hasn't removed from current devices that's saying that.
Most likely you eMMC chip is corrupt, that's your internal storage... If it took a dip in a pool, that's the worst possible place it could happen to get wet, chlorine and other chemicals in the water literally eat away the silicon internals of the phone. You would have better if to drop it in a muddy River or lake than a "clean" pool.
Honestly, at this point if the device won't boot and the bootloader is locked, your chances of recovery if any data is near zero.

you could try booting into fastboot, go to stock recovery and then adb pull

munchy_cool said:
you could try booting into fastboot, go to stock recovery and then adb pull
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like you need to know the exact file name for each file for that. Is that correct or can you somehow view a list of available files to pull?

Stinger2300 said:
Looks like you need to know the exact file name for each file for that. Is that correct or can you somehow view a list of available files to pull?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you have enough space on your computer and you do
adb pull /sdcard .
that should pull all contents of internal storage to computer

munchy_cool said:
if you have enough space on your computer and you do
adb pull /sdcard .
that should pull all contents of internal storage to computer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I'll give that a try after I get the SDK Manager updated. Thanks.

Well, I can't believe it but I hadn't messed with the phone since Wednesday (when it wouldn't boot) and when I plugged it into the computer and turned it on today it booted!
I was able to pull 24gb of pics/vids/texts without any "tricks" and the only thing that doesn't seem to work on the phone (for now) is the camera (constantly get camera app has stopped errors and no camera apps will open) and the screen has some interesting artifacts like it's got a little water in between the screen layers. I'm using my old Moto X for now and I'm ordering a Moto X4 (waterproof) to replace it.
Either way, I can't believe it actually came back to life and I'm so damn happy right now! Thanks for your help even if I didn't end up needing to use it.

Stinger2300 said:
I was able to pull 24gb of pics/vids/texts without any "tricks" and the only thing that doesn't seem to work on the phone (for now) is the camera (constantly get camera app has stopped errors and no camera apps will open) and the screen has some interesting artifacts like it's got a little water in between the screen layers. I'm using my old Moto X for now and I'm ordering a Moto X4 (waterproof) to replace it.
Either way, I can't believe it actually came back to life and I'm so damn happy right now! Thanks for your help even if I didn't end up needing to use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
awesome news. see you in the x4 forums

Stinger2300 said:
Well, I can't believe it but I hadn't messed with the phone since Wednesday (when it wouldn't boot) and when I plugged it into the computer and turned it on today it booted!
I was able to pull 24gb of pics/vids/texts without any "tricks" and the only thing that doesn't seem to work on the phone (for now) is the camera (constantly get camera app has stopped errors and no camera apps will open) and the screen has some interesting artifacts like it's got a little water in between the screen layers. I'm using my old Moto X for now and I'm ordering a Moto X4 (waterproof) to replace it.
Either way, I can't believe it actually came back to life and I'm so damn happy right now! Thanks for your help even if I didn't end up needing to use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means it was still wet underneath/around the nand chip (where data is stored) causing the images from the stock firmware not to write (and subsequently fail) good thing you didn't fry it, anything less than a week of drying is pointless really and probably only survived due to the excessive shaking and such. Really the best thing to have done would have been to leave it on a car dash for a week. Camera would have dried out and still been working (betcha got what looks like stains on the sides/top/bottom of the screen)
In the future, non removable battery phones when dropped in water long enough to soak through, DO NOT CHARGE IT FOR AT LEAST A WEEK, DONT TURN IT ON FOR A WEEK. If you wanna be as safe as possible, that is.

Ae3NerdGod said:
That means it was still wet underneath/around the nand chip (where data is stored) causing the images from the stock firmware not to write (and subsequently fail) good thing you didn't fry it, anything less than a week of drying is pointless really and probably only survived due to the excessive shaking and such. Really the best thing to have done would have been to leave it on a car dash for a week. Camera would have dried out and still been working (betcha got what looks like stains on the sides/top/bottom of the screen)
In the future, non removable battery phones when dropped in water long enough to soak through, DO NOT CHARGE IT FOR AT LEAST A WEEK, DONT TURN IT ON FOR A WEEK. If you wanna be as safe as possible, that is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, hopefully I'll never have to use it!
Yes, it looks like stains on the bottom portion of the screen.

Phone stuck in update mode after mmc error

Hello,
This morning, I got the dreaded mmc error for the first time on my Note 4 after the phone was unresponsive and I rebooted it. After a few minutes, I pulled the battery, replaced it, and left the phone off for the day. This evening, I tried to boot it again to backup data, and now it always goes straight into recovery mode with the message, "Installing system update...". Of course, there are no more system updates for the phone. Using the recovery button combination does the same thing. How can I try to boot normally again? I can go into download mode fine, so maybe I should try flashing the stock ROM with Odin/Heimdall? I'm afraid of wiping my data though, would that do it? Anything else I should try? Thanks!

maybe this
https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/help/100-fix-galaxy-note-4-emmc-error-random-t3859448

I saw that video, but I'd rather try something else first before I resort to taking apart my phone. Is there a way to flash the stock recovery without wiping the data?

Ezzelin said:
I saw that video, but I'd rather try something else first before I resort to taking apart my phone. Is there a way to flash the stock recovery without wiping the data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you just want to get out of the mmc loop, remove the battery when it gets stuck. If that doesn't work. Remove the battery, put phone in freezer for 20 minutes and retry.
But once you have this error show, there is no non-hardware fix that works permanently. Wake Lock apps will prolong the inevitable, but it comes down to a crappy chip connection of the Emmc chip.
Samsung used to replace mobos under warranty --- but even that didn't fix the problem.
The best theory about the problem I've heard is that in 2014 Samsung (and other manufacturers) made the move from using lead-based solder to lead-free (all tin) solders, which -- over time -- resulted in connection faults. I have other non-Samsung gear from the same era of manufacturing that exhibits similar mysterious ailments that were solved by addressing physical connections inside the machines.
That video -- the one where you stick a piece of cardboard (or better, metal foil) between the casing and the Emmc chip's location on the board is the only thing I've found that actually works. I first (skeptically) tried it on a phone that would only boot or return from a screen off, after a freezer session and that had been tossed in the junk drawer for months.
If you get nowhere else with suggested software fixes (and I didn't go the root route -- too many variables and maintenance/compatibility issues) I'd recommend considering giving that video a shot. It's not as tricky as it sounds -- but pay attention to the thickness. I made the first tries too thick and the digitizer connection didn't 'click' when reassembling.
Now I'm trying to solve another Samsung phone problem: SD card corruption.
There's a lesson -- and incidentally, several class-action lawsuits -- to be learned from the Samsung Note Emmc chip issue. Many Note lovers didn't move to Note 5's and above because they wanted to hang onto the replaceable battery and external SD option. Samsung, like everyone else, is following the path blazed by Apple to try and make user-based maintenance/upgrading/repair and third-party repairs a thing of the non-profitable past. And this aint right. Designing obsolescence serves the shareholders, only to a point, at a real hit to brand trust equity.
I think we're rapidly approaching that point out here.

I tried the freezer trick, but it still does the same thing. I'm not even getting to the point where the mmc error happens, because it goes straight into the system update mode. I've never been able to boot it since the initial error.