So let's start this thread by saying I was stupid.
In my desperation to upgrade my ROM I went and flashed my Focus with the new Omnia engineering rom. Stupid yes but it flashed. The reason I did it was non of the Samsung focus retail Roms would flash with the WP7 flashing tool not even the jK2 ROM. Which is suppose to be the basic 7004 ROM.
Every time I flashed it would say "This Rom does NOT match the device" or "this device is NOt retail."
So let me just state I had the "RTM Mango" flash on my device already flashed and worked. I was trying to upgrade the firmware and radio stacks. The phone aways worked and was NOT a demo device.
I have tried to flash:
1. jK2 stock Rom same error as above
2. Rom for v1.4 won't work same error as above
3. Rogers Rom on my AT&T focus same error as above.
Basically the only rom that flashed was the engineering rom for the Omnia.
Now the phone boots (with a Omnia splash screen ) I can get it to download mode I can even use the phone just none of the buttons work! I really just want to get a Samsung focus rom back on don't care if it's not Mango at the moment.
My questions:
1. Anyone got an engineering rom for the focus seems to be the only Roms that can load on my device
2. Anyone got some advise to get it back to a Samsung focus rom?
I know I shouldn't have but it's done and can't cry over spilt milk.....
I would really appreciate the help.
I'm not sure what you mean by Jk2's rom, but have you tried the 1.3 version, not rogers?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1131022
this thread has rogers, att 1.4 and att 1.3, all for focus. Ive successfully flashed my 1.3 focus several times. Also, in this thread they talk about how flashing 1.4 is always iffy.
Best way to get back to a Focus ROM is probably to restore a backup that was taken when you upgraded the phone. I hope you can still connect the phone to the Zune software? If so, try that.
The Omnia has physical buttons, the Focus uses capacitive buttons only (for the front three). I'm not surprised the drivers are different.
Did you by any chance use a hack to get NoDo on the phone? The "debranding" hack shouldn't prevent flashing, but will result in you receiving a different ROM from the upgrade servers than was quite meant for your phone. Chris Walsh's update hack did not install the full set of update packages it should have, resulting in what has become known as a "Walshed" phone. Walshed phones, because they're kind of partway between updates, can't receive further updates. A tool was later released to fix a Walshed phone.
The fact that the Focus ROMs wouldn't flash but the Omnia onw would is quite odd; I'm not sure what would cause that.
If at all possible, I recommend restoring your phone to a retail configuration using a Zune backup, and them trying the official update path again. Only once you've exhausted your options there should you try anything else.
GoodDayToDie said:
Best way to get back to a Focus ROM is probably to restore a backup that was taken when you upgraded the phone. I hope you can still connect the phone to the Zune software? If so, try that.
The Omnia has physical buttons, the Focus uses capacitive buttons only (for the front three). I'm not surprised the drivers are different.
Did you by any chance use a hack to get NoDo on the phone? The "debranding" hack shouldn't prevent flashing, but will result in you receiving a different ROM from the upgrade servers than was quite meant for your phone. Chris Walsh's update hack did not install the full set of update packages it should have, resulting in what has become known as a "Walshed" phone. Walshed phones, because they're kind of partway between updates, can't receive further updates. A tool was later released to fix a Walshed phone.
The fact that the Focus ROMs wouldn't flash but the Omnia onw would is quite odd; I'm not sure what would cause that.
If at all possible, I recommend restoring your phone to a retail configuration using a Zune backup, and them trying the official update path again. Only once you've exhausted your options there should you try anything else.
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Click to collapse
Firstly thank you for the time you took to reply.
Yes the history of this device is quite a lengthy one. I did do a NODO hack to get it to NODO. I then used the internal MS bits leaked to the net to force it to Mango. I was picking up some funnies like no matter how quick or soft I pressed the back button it would go into multi tasking making the phone impossible to use.
So I looked and researched and found my firmware, bootloaders etc were way out of date. I flashed the Omnia rom onto the Focus in hope that it was the same phone but alas its to late now......
Ok so when I connect it to the PC Zune picks it up all dandy but as a new phone - Omnia not my old focus. Is there a way to trick it into thinking its my Focus?
The phone functions in the sense that it boots, I can use it just don't have any buttons to use it with. All the screen functions work perfectly.
I will download Walsh tool to un Walsh the phone and try again...
I really appreciate the help!
I don't think you can "trick" it into seeing it as your Focus, because from a software perspective, it just isn't. However, the restore points (backups) are tied to the hardware, not the software. To see if you can restore one, first check in Window Explorer at the path %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update\ and see how big the contents of that folder are. There should be hundreds of meg to a few gigs, depending on how big the backup is.
Now, that's only going to be the most recent restore point. If you made backups of your earlier restore points, you can send the phone even further back, hopefully to before quite so many things get messed up. However, each time you do an update with Zune it overwrites the location where the previous restore point was. Note that if you installed any updates through a mecanism other than Zune, for example usign the WPSHIFT tool that was used for the beta, it probably took a backup but might have put it in a different location (often in TEMP, which hopefully you haven't cleaned out).
If you have Volume Shadow Copies enabled on your PC (Vista/Win7/any recent Server), you may be able to use the Previous Versions feature to pull an older restore point than the most recent one, or to recover a restore point if it was deleted for some reason. Be careful, though - old shadow copies are deleted as space is needed for other things, but they aren't deleted atomically; it's possible you'll pull only half of an old restore point or something equally silly (they're made up of hundreds or thousands of small files).
Once you've got your restore point, I strongly recommend making a backup of it by copying the folder! Then, connect your phone and start Zune, and go to Settings -> Device -> Update. It'll probably say there aren't any updates available, that's fine. In the same part of the window where it says that, though, there should be an option to restore a backup (it'll give the date of the backup and a restore button). If that button isn't visible, re-copy the restore point over the location where Zune expected to find it (%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update\), and check for updates again.
As for the un-Walshing tool, it probably won't do anything on your OmniaFocus. It may fix the problem if you successfully use a restore point (and get back to a pure Focus), though. There's a good chance that the last restore point you have will be from right before you began the Mango update process, in which case your phone will be back in its Walshed state, ready for un-Walshing using the tool.
I hope that helps. If you do decide to try flashing again (if you don't have a restore point, this is probably the only option), make sure you're using a ROM for your hardware revision of the Focus. There are two, the 1.3 revision (the first one released), and the 1.4 revision (released later, identical except it uses a different Flash memory chip internally and therefore has different drivers). If you bought your phone any time in 2011, it could be either a 1.3 or a 1.4. There are a few ways to check, but one of the best (since your software is currently messed up) is to look under the battery. There's a sticker that should say soemthing like "rev1.3/rev1.4". You need to match that revision number when selecting a ROM to flash, or (even if it works) you wouldn't be able to access the phone's internal storage.
It seems a little unlikely to me, but it's possible that Walshing your phone made it report itself as an Omnia, thus the reason you could flash that ROM (but not the Focus ones). I'd expect that to be based on lower-level hardware checks, though.
GoodDayToDie said:
I don't think you can "trick" it into seeing it as your Focus, because from a software perspective, it just isn't. However, the restore points (backups) are tied to the hardware, not the software. To see if you can restore one, first check in Window Explorer at the path %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update\ and see how big the contents of that folder are. There should be hundreds of meg to a few gigs, depending on how big the backup is.
Now, that's only going to be the most recent restore point. If you made backups of your earlier restore points, you can send the phone even further back, hopefully to before quite so many things get messed up. However, each time you do an update with Zune it overwrites the location where the previous restore point was. Note that if you installed any updates through a mecanism other than Zune, for example usign the WPSHIFT tool that was used for the beta, it probably took a backup but might have put it in a different location (often in TEMP, which hopefully you haven't cleaned out).
If you have Volume Shadow Copies enabled on your PC (Vista/Win7/any recent Server), you may be able to use the Previous Versions feature to pull an older restore point than the most recent one, or to recover a restore point if it was deleted for some reason. Be careful, though - old shadow copies are deleted as space is needed for other things, but they aren't deleted atomically; it's possible you'll pull only half of an old restore point or something equally silly (they're made up of hundreds or thousands of small files).
Once you've got your restore point, I strongly recommend making a backup of it by copying the folder! Then, connect your phone and start Zune, and go to Settings -> Device -> Update. It'll probably say there aren't any updates available, that's fine. In the same part of the window where it says that, though, there should be an option to restore a backup (it'll give the date of the backup and a restore button). If that button isn't visible, re-copy the restore point over the location where Zune expected to find it (%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update\), and check for updates again.
As for the un-Walshing tool, it probably won't do anything on your OmniaFocus. It may fix the problem if you successfully use a restore point (and get back to a pure Focus), though. There's a good chance that the last restore point you have will be from right before you began the Mango update process, in which case your phone will be back in its Walshed state, ready for un-Walshing using the tool.
I hope that helps. If you do decide to try flashing again (if you don't have a restore point, this is probably the only option), make sure you're using a ROM for your hardware revision of the Focus. There are two, the 1.3 revision (the first one released), and the 1.4 revision (released later, identical except it uses a different Flash memory chip internally and therefore has different drivers). If you bought your phone any time in 2011, it could be either a 1.3 or a 1.4. There are a few ways to check, but one of the best (since your software is currently messed up) is to look under the battery. There's a sticker that should say soemthing like "rev1.3/rev1.4". You need to match that revision number when selecting a ROM to flash, or (even if it works) you wouldn't be able to access the phone's internal storage.
It seems a little unlikely to me, but it's possible that Walshing your phone made it report itself as an Omnia, thus the reason you could flash that ROM (but not the Focus ones). I'd expect that to be based on lower-level hardware checks, though.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply!
So looks like I am screwed. I looked for the backup and nothing on my machine even tried volume shadow copy and nothing in the Windows Phone Update folder.
I might have to try create a USB JIG to force a flash onto the phone. That should work right? That should flash which ever ROM I like regardless of the checks that things like WP7 Downloader do?
I would appreciate the guidance before I go ahead and build the USB JIG.
PS _ Anyone know what files are inside the backup folder maybe I can search windows for those and find the back up folder somewhere
The updates are usually stored here:
"C:\Users\%YOUR_USER%\Local Settings\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update\"
Either search for a "RestorePoint" folder (without quotes) or "Data.0.dat" "Data.1.dat" etc files
EnderPsp said:
The updates are usually stored here:
""
Either search for a "RestorePoint" folder (without quotes) or "Data.0.dat" "Data.1.dat" etc files
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Click to collapse
THANKS so much I FOUND a backup C:\PreMangoState
This is when I did the Mango upgrade using the "MS internal leaked" files.
Going to try this.
I am going to suggest you try the engineering ROM for the Samsung Focus: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1045968
day2die said:
I am going to suggest you try the engineering ROM for the Samsung Focus: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1045968
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THAT WORKED YOU ROCK
Now can I ask why only engineering ROM's are working and will I be able to get it to MANGO?
myphonerules said:
THAT WORKED YOU ROCK
Now can I ask why only engineering ROM's are working and will I be able to get it to MANGO?
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Click to collapse
So as soon as I plugged it in Zune found the phone and upgraded all the upgrades all the way to mango
Thank you once again. Do you know what the latest GSM firmware is?
I have similar problem except mine is stuck on the samsung logo screen so cannot connect to zune.
I am trying to flash this engineering ROM that seemed to work for you, but it keeps saying Error!! "This Device does NOT match with selected binary. Downloader will NOT do anything" and thus the flash will nto complete.
Any suggestions?
neibl said:
I have similar problem except mine is stuck on the samsung logo screen so cannot connect to zune.
I am trying to flash this engineering ROM that seemed to work for you, but it keeps saying Error!! "This Device does NOT match with selected binary. Downloader will NOT do anything" and thus the flash will nto complete.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried the retail roms (check the general forum there is a sticky with the retail roms) if you getting the error "This device does not match with the selected binary" with the flasher it could be one of two things:
1. Your device is not an engineering device and you need to use the right retail rom.
2. Which version of the WP7 Downloader tool are you using 7.05, 7.21 or 7.41?
For the retail ROM you should use 7.05
For the engineering ROM you should use 7.41.
7.41 comes with the new leaked Samsung OMNIA 7 ROM (Do a search for that rom) DO NOT FLASH (like I did ) the OMNIA ROM onto your focus it will not work.
The other question is if your phone is stuck on the "SAMSUNG" screen can you get it into DOWNLOAD mode (Turn the phone off, then hold CAM + VOL DOWN and POWER) It should then turn on and go into DOWNLOAD MODE. The WP7 tool will only see the phone is in DOWNLOAD MODE. From what you telling us with the error above you are getting into DOWNLOAD MODE but just confirm.
IMO if you can still get into DOWNLOAD MODE not all is lost.
I already have flashed the omnia ROM onto my phone that is why I am in this problem. I have reflashed the focus ROm but it is frozen on the logo screen no matter what I do.
Seems like this engineering ROM fixed it for the lad who created this post, so I might give it a try, what do you think?
Yes I can get the phone into download mode & also the format mode (it doesn't do anything though), I cannot connect the phone to zune because it freezes on the logo screen before launch. Also I have 7.03, 7.05, & 7.21 and have tried all of them thus far, did not know of the 7.41.
So 7.41 and flash the engineering rom? It sounds like you have some ideas, please share it would be greatly apreciated.
neibl said:
I already have flashed the omnia ROM onto my phone that is why I am in this problem. I have reflashed the focus ROm but it is frozen on the logo screen no matter what I do.
Seems like this engineering ROM fixed it for the lad who created this post, so I might give it a try, what do you think?
Yes I can get the phone into download mode & also the format mode (it doesn't do anything though), I cannot connect the phone to zune because it freezes on the logo screen before launch. Also I have 7.03, 7.05, & 7.21 and have tried all of them thus far, did not know of the 7.41.
So 7.41 and flash the engineering rom? It sounds like you have some ideas, please share it would be greatly apreciated.
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Click to collapse
Ok so you need to download the latest Samsung Omnia 7 ROM it will have the WP7 Downloader 4.21. Thats the only one that will flash the engineering ROM onto the device.
Zune will not pick up the phone till it completely boots so Zune wont help you in this case. You have to try and fix it using your WP7 downloader(s).
This is the link I used to get the Downloader: http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2011/10/15/update-your-samsung-omnia-7-to-the-latest-i8700xxki3-firmware-now/
Good luck!
Engineering ROM did not work, still frozen on samsung logo screen, something is definitely broken on the phone that will not let it get past this point and I have no idea. Seems like no one else knows either as no one has been able to solve this for over 7 months.
If anyone thinks they can solve this please suggestions are welcomed. If you need more details please let me know. If someone can fix this I'd be willing to paypal them real cash no joke.
Much thanks to myphonerules for helping!
If I call samsung and complain will they tell me i'm out of luck? I got the phone off ebay so its not covered by anything.
neibl said:
Engineering ROM did not work, still frozen on samsung logo screen, something is definitely broken on the phone that will not let it get past this point and I have no idea. Seems like no one else knows either as no one has been able to solve this for over 7 months.
If anyone thinks they can solve this please suggestions are welcomed. If you need more details please let me know. If someone can fix this I'd be willing to paypal them real cash no joke.
Much thanks to myphonerules for helping!
If I call samsung and complain will they tell me i'm out of luck? I got the phone off ebay so its not covered by anything.
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Click to collapse
You sure you don't have a DEMO phone? Has it ever worked on a GSM network?
No its not a demo phone, i used the phone with my AT&T SIM card for few days. Then i put in a 32mb microsd card and after 24 hours it reset into a gimped mode with only 15 mb where i couldn't do anything and had no at&t apps on it strangly also. I flashed the samsung omnia 7 ROM onto the phone and would not load past the omnia 7 load screen. Then I flashed the focus ROM (it wasn't available originally) back and it would not load past the samsung screen. By this point I really just think the phone is completely done.
Any suggestions? or think its garbage?
I'm debating buying a focus with broken screen off ebay and using the screen from this one to replace it and bam pretty much new phone.
Is there a way to get a convert a non retail focus to retail? Is there a retail ROM available for the focus that can be flashed on the non retail version?
Related
So my friend got her a window phone 7 from Craigslist tmobile (htc 7) and she can't erase whats on her phone , I think is because it used to be a display phone for the tmobile store, reason I think that is because it let us reset everything but all the stuff comes back again, and I saw an animation playing like the display phones, is there anyway she can erase everything on it ? Like a regular phone , thanks
Flash a retail ROM onto it. If it's actually the same hardware (should be, but it's possible it's not) then this should get it working just fine. Check the device-specific forum for ROMs that are available, and read the flashing instructions carefully - you don't want to mess anything up.
You could also try flashing a custom ROM, if you want to get a few cool features at the cost of needing to mess with the secondary program loader (bootloader, essentially).
GoodDayToDie said:
Flash a retail ROM onto it. If it's actually the same hardware (should be, but it's possible it's not) then this should get it working just fine. Check the device-specific forum for ROMs that are available, and read the flashing instructions carefully - you don't want to mess anything up.
You could also try flashing a custom ROM, if you want to get a few cool features at the cost of needing to mess with the secondary program loader (bootloader, essentially).
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Click to collapse
So is it like root for android ? Or jail breakin? Mm how long could it take cause I only see her at work , and I would need to take my laptop right ?
No and No, it's not like either of those. It's simply re-installing the OS that would have come with the device if you'd bought it at a store. Make sure the ROM matches - if it's a HD7, the code name is Schubert. If it's a 7 Pro, Gold. If it's something else, look it up.
For what it's worth, there's a non-trivial risk that the phone is stolen (display phones don't typically get sold, much less sold on CL). I also make no promises that its hardware is the same internally, which means it may never be usable as a normal phone. If you want to try, though...
I think flashing a full ROM takes something like 30 minutes, though I've never done it myself. You need to download the ROM and have the RUU (ROM Update Utility) installed on your PC. Reboot the phone, holding the Volume Down button to put it into Secondary Program Loader mode (SPL, which allows you to modify the ROM). Connect the USB cable to the PC; the SPL screen should say USB at the bottom after the PC automatically installs some drivers. Total time thus far ~2 minutes. Then run the RUU, select the ROM to flash, and give it time.
GoodDayToDie said:
No and No, it's not like either of those. It's simply re-installing the OS that would have come with the device if you'd bought it at a store. Make sure the ROM matches - if it's a HD7, the code name is Schubert. If it's a 7 Pro, Gold. If it's something else, look it up.
For what it's worth, there's a non-trivial risk that the phone is stolen (display phones don't typically get sold, much less sold on CL). I also make no promises that its hardware is the same internally, which means it may never be usable as a normal phone. If you want to try, though...
I think flashing a full ROM takes something like 30 minutes, though I've never done it myself. You need to download the ROM and have the RUU (ROM Update Utility) installed on your PC. Reboot the phone, holding the Volume Down button to put it into Secondary Program Loader mode (SPL, which allows you to modify the ROM). Connect the USB cable to the PC; the SPL screen should say USB at the bottom after the PC automatically installs some drivers. Total time thus far ~2 minutes. Then run the RUU, select the ROM to flash, and give it time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip I really appreciate it , I am try tomorrow I saw about phone and compared to online it looks the same, I'll try tomorrow and let you know
So i upgraded to 7.10.8773.98 aka Tango without realizing i would lose inter-op unlock capabilities. So now, i cant have homebrew apps anymore which i really liked. is there any way that i can go back to an older version? i dont have a backup anywhere either.
Thanks
PS: I have a Samsung Focus Flash so it worked with WPH's windowbreak project
Question 1: what happened to your backup?
Question 2: did you not read the info on how to preserve your until on Tango?
That said, if you really did nuke your backup, you're SOL. We don't yet know of any other way to downgrade a Samsung gen2 phone, nor of a way to interop-unlock a fully up-to-date one. It's possible to carry an unlock forward, but that's it.
Q1: So for like a month, i switched from windows phone to android to try it out. i was using the s2 but didnt really like it much. but when i switched, i deleted zune thinking i wouldnt need it. so i uninstalled zune. so since i uninstalled zune, my backup is now gone.
Q2: Question 1 answers it lol. but i had resetted my windows phone after i came back to it because the sim wouldnt be recognized. thats where i lost my interop-unlock
if i deleted zune, is there any way of getting my old backup back? like is it laying on my computer somewhere or no?
yj121 said:
if i deleted zune, is there any way of getting my old backup back? like is it laying on my computer somewhere or no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
had you done it straight away its possible that you could have "undeleted" it, however it would have been a pure pain in the arse even if you did it straight away as its hundreds of files, all of which would have lost their name. leaving it for any length of time would have more than likely let the OS overwrite some of it.
Sorry mate, your stuck
thanks anyways
Actually, I'm not certain that deleting Zune will also nuke the backup image. It's stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update. Reinstalling Zune, or re-connecting your phone to Zune, may have wiped it though.
If you're running Vista or Win7, you may be able to recover the backup folder using the "Previous Versions" feature. Check for Previous Versions of your %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft folder, and see if you can find the Windows Phone Update folder. If so, restore it (just the WPU folder, not everything else) and see if it works.
A month is a longish time for that many files to sit undisturbed in the volume shadow copy stash, but if you have a very large hard drive or don't do a lot of disk writes, it's quite likely they're still there. I have Previous Versions of some files that go back for three or more months.
its empty
lol can some1 give me their backup? without any person stuff on it? i just need the old firmware, nothing else
Also, is there any way i can trick zune into thinking that i have an older version on my windows phone thus upgrading to like 8107 or 7740 or something? or is there any way that i can get the firmware online (instead of from the appdata thing on my computer) and download it and use that?
You can't use backups from other devices, the backup is device specific, your device your backup.
I'm not exactly sure how the updates work but I suspect it checks file version numbers an since we can't mess about with system files unless we have custom roms, which would negate this problem in the first place, I don't think it is possible to fool it to install an older firmware
Sent from my Lumia 900 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
I beleive the version info for updating actually comes from the registry (DeviceTargetingInfo). I've been meaning for some time to try messing with that, and since I need to re-flash my phone anyhow, I might just do so (I have an HTC, so this is possible for me). It's a dangerous registry key to mess with, though, and of course editing it requires interop- or root-unlock.
HI guys, I'm hoping you can help me with a problem that's led me to start threatening my galaxy ace (S5830i) with a hammer.
Actually it's not the phone's fault it's purely my own stupidity, but none-the-less I'm here for help because I've spent all day and night trawling the net, trying to figure out how to proceed to resolve my issue on my own but I simply cannot make sense of the conflicting information I'm finding.
I promise you thing thing if nothing else, I have tried my very best to read around a hundred other forums, pages, and how 'to's but I'm finding that I have no resolution that I can work with because either:
- The tutorials turned out to be for the S5830 - not the i model - when I got to the forum
- The youtube videos all seem to be spoken in accents I cannot understand or not explained clearly, or are too technical
- Links I go to to get apk files etc are broken, wrong or leading me up another path I cannot follow
- Software does NOT look on my screen as it does on tutorials or websites (SDK for example)
- The people explaining the resolution type with such poor English I cannot understand what they're actually saying
- The solutions that work for others are too technical or advanced for me to understand and I'm finding it difficult to learn as I go (apart frm the root instructions which I found quite easy)
Anyway, I'll start at the beginning:
I have a samsung galaxy ace (S5830i) running:
- Gingerbread 2.3.6
- Baseband version S5830iXXLK1
- Kernel version 2.6.35.7
- Build number GINGERBREAD.XXLK3
I've already rooted it so I have superuser access, and I managed that perfectly well on my own
I installed titanium backup and somehow I managed to uninstall the stock email that comes with the phone. I think this is my problem because I now cannot download anything from google play, nor can I add a new gmail account to do so, so I'm stuck in no mans land not able to use googleplay (because my gmail account is now missing from my phone) nor can I seem to figure out how to get th apk file directly into the phone so that I can start fresh.
I'm also absolutely stuck on how to flash the phone and start again because nothing I seem to read is explaining it in simple clear terms that a layman can understand. When I do find a simple explanation, I find it's only for the non 'i' version of the phone, or if I find a simple instruction it's zip files for the rom do not contain all the files I need to use with odin v1.5
Also, there are conflicting explanations on flashing the rom on different forums/sites so I dare not use one over the other because another one contradicts it. I do not want to ruin my phone as right now it still basically works for now as a phone.
In my phone menu, the gmail icon is still there, just not the icon/app that said "email". The icon is now missing from my menus and with it there is now no way to use the play services without a gmail account on the phone.
When I click the gmail icon, it stats to open and then just shuts off quickly, not opening gmail, so I'm pretty sure all this is due to me deleting the email app using titanium backup.
Make sense?
What I'd really be grateful for is if on of you guys could help me out and explain in very simple terms what I need to do to either install the apk directly (preferred) so that I can add a gmail account to the phone and get access to google play again, or failing that a simple how to flash the rom with stock gingerbread, together with links to software that's known to be bonafide.
I am literally being driven mad going around in circles on forums and sites to keep going back to square one.
Any help will be very gratefully received. Or I'm afraid this may mean I'm going to smash my new phone int a wall and never use a smartphone again, because obviously I'm too stupid to play around with them on my own.
I really appreciate your help if someone would be able to invest a little time here.
Thanks very much for your time, guys
Jobeeey
additional info
Right, these are the instructions I found on this forum, but I'm unclear if I'm approaching this right..
Flashing s5830i with Odin v1.85
1.Turn off the phone and put it in Download mode by pressing Power+Volume Up+volume down.
2.Open Odin v1.85.Run as Administrator!.
3.Put the files in Odin and don't touch the settings
4.If it's a one-file firmware put it in PDA section.
If it's multiple put the files in the correct section.
5.Click start and don't touch the phone!Don't turn off computer and don't unplug the phone!It will reboot automatically and the first boot will take some time,so don't panic!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found a rom (which is a single file) and if I'm reading this right I place that in the PDA section of Odin after installing the usb drivers onto my pc (done that and windows recognizes my phone in the sense that it isn't now hassling me for drivers every two seconds).
Ok.. so I seem to have got the correct rom for my specific ace model.. and the instructions seem to be that I now:
1) Connect usb cable
2) Boot my phone into download mode (I can do that I think).. but at what point do I press vol down to download a new os.. before or after pressing start in Odin?
3) Open Odin and add file as in my attached screenshot (I can do that)
4) Click 'start' in Odin
5) Wait for my phone to reboot
And that should be job done, the phone should be flashed with the stock rom again and that should get me back on track, right? Or am I about to screw up my phone and ruin it even further?
Thanks for reading. I hope someone can advise if I'm doing this right as I've seen other forums say that I should tick the 'Re-partition' box, and other that say I shouldn't, and this one says nothing about it at all.
This is one of the tings that's confusing me, and once I'm now flashing a phone for the first time it's flippin scary to do it on my lonesome!
This is what I mean..
I've just tested going into download mode with odin ready, and the phone gets there (vol up+down + power on).. but each time it gets into download mode it seems to disconnect from odin and no com port is open. I get the windows device disconnected/connected beeping and the connection seems to sever.
What the Fffff...
This is exactly what I'm talking about.. nothing seems to be working like it's meant to be and I'm getting nowhere with any instructions I can find after god knows how many hours researching this.
:crying:
update (lol)
Mornin all,
So, just in case anyone finds this useful..
The flashing problem is kind of irrelevant now because:
A) Odin (tried several versions) simply will not stay connected to my phone when it boots into download mode, and having checked many tutorials for this it sees that this is a problem some of us cannot get past.
Anyway, one of the methods to resolve this was to wipe the cache and clear all data etc, which I did, and now my phone is stuck on the "pres the android" screen, and my phone will no longer get past that. Tried pressing clockwise in all four corners but still nothing.
No probs.. so we move on to a new step of trying to split the roms via cygwin, but guess what? Every single time I try to download the cygwin files, that freezes at about 98% and will not download, no matter which mirror I select.
So, this is what I call a curse that isn't going to be lifted by me no matter hat. It's not not meant to be.
Therefore, what I'm going to do is take it to a local shop that unlocks mobiles and give it to them to flash back to stock rom for me.
If that doesn't work, do you know what I'm gonna do?
Nothing. Because there's nothing you can do when the processes do not follow the same progress as they do in the tutorials.
I hope other novice S5830i users save themselves all his time and trouble and don't bother following the same process and become locked out of their phone at the touch android screen.
Update
Yipee,
Right, I stumbled across a solution that worked for me.
What I did was get my 2gb msd card that came with the phone and slapped MindCR v1.0.12 on the card and whacked that in my phone (this bypassed not being able to get a new rom on the sd card as it wasn't unmounted before the crash, so my pc wouldn't recognise the date to put it on via the pc).
Then I updated the rom from that 2gb card (vol up + menu + power to get into recovery mode) and it took it a few minutes to update the firmware and give me back the full use of my phone, and with a shiny new os on it. Whoop!
I didn't bother with CWM as I'd forgotten to add it before flashing, but it worked none-the-less and I'm now back in business (wiped it manually).
As it turned out this version of MindCR works really well so far as I can tell. I realise there are updated roms now but I've come to the conclusion after the scare I had that if you're not entirely sure what you're doing, it's best to leave it alone if it ain't broke.
SO.. now I have a phone with what seems to be a better os than the stock and less bloatware on it, no phone problems I can see after thorough testing... and from what I can tell it turned out to be better than it was before the disaster.
And I learned a bit in the process. Like for example, don't feck around removing apps from smartphones with titanium unless you've backed them up and you're prepared to stress out for over 20hrs wondering what to do about it.
And, also, don't expect much help from a forum because you may not always get it. << That' not a dig at xda by the way. It's just a BIG forum so your threads may not be seen by the right person before they get buried in past pages.
Hope my little journey helps another unsuspecting S5830i user who comes across the thread.
Hi, first time poster hoping for some help with my first encounter with Red Eye at bootup. I have a stock phone. I don't really care about the phone but my wife really wants the pictures off it. It doesn't have an SD card or cloud backup and the pictures are on internal memory. I am able to get into the boot options (like AP fastboot) but I do not know what the options will do for me exactly. Can I choose an option that may fix the phone but will not wipe the memory? Is there any possiblity a PC can see the phone at the Red Eye screen if I connect with USB(would a certified Verizon data cable help?) Would actually opening the phone and doing some sort of mod get me any closer to retrieving pictures? I am a complete novice at this kind of thing and only have experience with PC hardware and software and the like.
GLE3 said:
Hi, first time poster hoping for some help with my first encounter with Red Eye at bootup. I have a stock phone. I don't really care about the phone but my wife really wants the pictures off it. It doesn't have an SD card or cloud backup and the pictures are on internal memory. I am able to get into the boot options (like AP fastboot) but I do not know what the options will do for me exactly. Can I choose an option that may fix the phone but will not wipe the memory? Is there any possiblity a PC can see the phone at the Red Eye screen if I connect with USB(would a certified Verizon data cable help?) Would actually opening the phone and doing some sort of mod get me any closer to retrieving pictures? I am a complete novice at this kind of thing and only have experience with PC hardware and software and the like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
none of those options will be of any direct help, however fastboot may be used to try and fix it later.
first,
- do you know what caused it to become like this?
- is it bootloader unlocked? if you dont know what that is, there will be some dialogue on the fastboot screen. status code=0 locked or similar.
- do you know what version it was on? if you dont know, did you always update when available? would likely mean latest version.
- do you have a windows pc available, with a usb 2 port, and a cable to connect the phone to it?
edit,
ultimately, this is where we are headed, if you want to take a look at it. specifically the "rsd flasher". i was going to go another route, but this is probably a more direct option.
the rsd flasher will take you to another site, and is made by samuri. im not real familiar with his tool, but know its good. just will save me time in having you tear the fxz apart and flash certain things.
**note, im not sure if this phone was made for multiple carriers, this will only be relevant when getting the correct fxz file. samuri will know more about this than i would.
bweN diorD said:
none of those options will be of any direct help, however fastboot may be used to try and fix it later.
first,
- do you know what caused it to become like this?
- is it bootloader unlocked? if you dont know what that is, there will be some dialogue on the fastboot screen. status code=0 locked or similar.
- do you know what version it was on? if you dont know, did you always update when available? would likely mean latest version.
- do you have a windows pc available, with a usb 2 port, and a cable to connect the phone to it?
edit,
ultimately, this is where we are headed, if you want to take a look at it. specifically the "rsd flasher". i was going to go another route, but this is probably a more direct option.
the rsd flasher will take you to another site, and is made by samuri. im not real familiar with his tool, but know its good. just will save me time in having you tear the fxz apart and flash certain things.
**note, im not sure if this phone was made for multiple carriers, this will only be relevant when getting the correct fxz file. samuri will know more about this than i would.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, thanks your reply! I've been to other sites that were not helpful even to this point! To answer your questions:
bweN diorD said:
- do you know what caused it to become like this?
- is it bootloader unlocked? if you dont know what that is, there will be some dialogue on the fastboot screen. status code=0 locked or similar.
- do you know what version it was on? if you dont know, did you always update when available? would likely mean latest version.
- do you have a windows pc available, with a usb 2 port, and a cable to connect the phone to it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly sure what happen to the phone. My wife tells me one minute it was charged at 26% and working fine, the next moment it was 'dead'.
It is locked with a status of 0
My Wife says if the phone had automated updates(if stock phone is configured that way) then yes she has all the updates. If updates require manual intervention then it's probably not updated.
Yes, I have a Windows PC with 2 USB ports and a generic data cable that fits the phone.
I'm looking at the post you linked too now... Thanks again for your help!
GLE3 said:
First off, thanks your reply! I've been to other sites that were not helpful even to this point! To answer your questions:
Not exactly sure what happen to the phone. My wife tells me one minute it was charged at 26% and working fine, the next moment it was 'dead'.
It is locked with a status of 0
My Wife says if the phone had automated updates(if stock phone is configured that way) then yes she has all the updates. If updates require manual intervention then it's probably not updated.
Yes, I have a Windows PC with 2 USB ports and a generic data cable that fits the phone.
I'm looking at the post you linked too now... Thanks again for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem
its likely your phone is fully updated, but since we arent 100% sure, its going to be best to go with the most current file. reason being, because you are locked, you can only flash = or forward. if you try to flash back, it will either not work, or bootloop. usually not work.
it would probably be best if you continued this in @SamuriHL's thread for the rsd flasher. he is very helpful, will likely be able to quickly point you to the most current file, and will be able to answer any questions about the tool where i wouldnt.
Hello,
I wanted to share what I had to do in order to fix my phone after it took the July 27 OTA update. The update somehow corrupted my display and the white portions of the display were now pink and red. A google search has info and pics on this display problem so I won't elaborate on it. The first thing I tried was power cycling the phone, the red and pink remained. The next thing I tried was factory reset the device, that didn't work either. I simply wanted to revert back to the previous firmware and hopefully that would fix it. I liked the new firmware features, but that pink screen had to go! I foolishly flashed the US unlocked firmware (XAA) from SamMobile site with Odin. The pink screen probem was fixed but this definately was not the firmware that came on this phone. Gear VR didn't work, Samsung pay was borked, and there were all types of problems with the software.
At this point I called Samsung Tech Support. The guy was really nice and after a bit of explaining he offered to have the phone flashed at no cost to me. However I would have to send the phone in to be repaired and I would be without my device for a week at least, maybe 2 weeks. I thanked him and hung up. Why couldn't he simply make the firmware available to me so I could fix this without having to send it in and be without my phone for over a week. Not really a acceptable solution. I went online and did some reading. That's when I found the fix!
To anyone who is having problems and would simply like to get back to original factory firmware Samsung has a program called " Smart Switch ". It's available as a App for your phone or as a PC software program. The phone app helps sync devices, but the PC program can do much more. I'm not going to go over in detail how to use the software because a google search has videos and tutorials on how to use it. For me I was able to enter my phone model and serial number and Smart Switch went and downloaded the "correct factory firmware" and installed it to my phone. Now I have the latest firmware (7/27) full factory install and the pink / red display problem is gone. So what I'm getting at is if you are having problems after taking the OTA update like I did, you can try using Smart Switch and install the complete factory firmware from scratch to your device. Make sure to follow instruction on how to use the program, I had to put the phone into download mode for it to work for me. Also be sure you understand about "Google lock" before flashing your phone. This program claims it can un-brick a Samsung phone, and will also over-write a rooted phone to get it back to stock. I'm sure Smart Switch has been discussed before, but for a new Samsung user (like myself) it sure got me out of a bind!