Database Info

Some Captivates Unable to Use Three Button Recovery

It appears that some newer Captivates being sold suffer from not being able to reboot into download or recovery mode using the three button (VOL UP + VOL DOWN and PWR) combination. These phones will not respond to these key combinations. If you have one of these phones, you have a significantly higher risk of bricking your phone irreversibly since you cannot three button reboot into download mode from a failed flash.
The first two Captivates I used did not have this problem. The two Captivates I got this week both DO have this problem. Others who have purchased their Captivate recently (in the past week) have discovered this problem as well. This indicates it may be more common in newer Captivates.
A number of Galaxy S I9000 have experienced this problem and they have put pressure on Samsung Canada via Facebook to fix the problem. For those affected, I suggest we do the same for our Captivates:
http://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobile?v=wall
Examples of Captivates that can't use three button recovery:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8066648
and from I9000 users:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=765703

Asked and answered my own question. Relevant information condensed into the post above.

Pretty sure you can still do it... try this
shut down your phone, plug in the usb cable and wait for the battery to come up, then do the key combo.

I call user error. How and why stop key combos? I wouldnt think it would happen.

smokestack76 said:
I call user error. How and why stop key combos? I wouldnt think it would happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've went through 2 cap's also, both cannot do it. I have to use ADB to kick into recovery. Also, in the SRE thread another user had the same issue. All bought within the last week..

Thanks for the heads up. I was planning on swapping mine out because it isn't consistently detecting my SIM card; looks like I should wait for a bit and see if this is a temporary issue.

I swapped mine so its the so called newer one. And i can still use the buttons just fine. Even tried with another one today and still worked fine. So i dunno.

To clearify some issues. Power off. Hold power and BOTH volume buttons down. Thats the key here. Once the att screen comes on wait. Dont do anything. The screen turns off. THEN the screen comes back on. Thats right twice. THEN release the power button. ONLY the power button and continue holding the volume up AND down. You will see recovery menu.

thats exactly how we are doing it. its the download that is having issues though, not recovery. thats holding both vols, pluggin in USB. it should go to Download mode, but it doesnt.

Ok just tested. Same thing with usb plugged in takes you to download.

Make sure odin is up and running. And usb is plugged in when u power off. Not sure if its needed but thats how i tested it.

Worked fine here plugging in a usb after powed off.

If this does not work for you please post a system dump. Or pm me for more help. Kinda wonder why so many users have these issues :-(

I was having these problems as well.. When I first got that phone I tried to boot it into recovery mode, and it wouldn't work.. THe only way I was able to get it into recovery mode was through quick boot.
So while I was flashing the SRE v 1.2.2a somehow it got stuck in a loop of installing the files over and over..
I tried putting the phone into download mode via every button combination people suggested.. I literally am not exaggerating that I spent 4 hours trying over and over..
Today i sent it back rma.

Take your phone back if 3 button recovery mode does not work
malfuncion said:
I've went through 2 cap's also, both cannot do it. I have to use ADB to kick into recovery. Also, in the SRE thread another user had the same issue. All bought within the last week..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is my suggestion. Take your phone back if it does not do the 3 button recovery mode. Otherwise you will sooner or later brick it and not be able to recover:cool. Take it from someone who has bricked one that could not do the 3 button recovery mode. I lucked out and got a new phone that does do the 3 button rec now LOL. Test the phone in the store to ensure it can go into recovery mode.

smokestack76 said:
To clearify some issues. Power off. Hold power and BOTH volume buttons down. Thats the key here. Once the att screen comes on wait. Dont do anything. The screen turns off. THEN the screen comes back on. Thats right twice. THEN release the power button. ONLY the power button and continue holding the volume up AND down. You will see recovery menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did this for about 2 hours on both devices. No joy. If you follow the links I posted in the first post, you'll see that a number of I9000 devices have this problem and now a couple of ours do as well. It has to do with the way they are flashed from the factory.
I can certify (unless I have gone completely mental) than I am doing it the right way. I had two Captivates before this that I could put into download and recovery easily using the vol up + vol down + pwr combo. The last two, no way. Also cannot do the vol up + vol down then plug in USB with ODIN running and ready to get out of brick mode (i.e. computer -!- phone). Which means once bricked, always bricked.
I've attached build info for the device. JF6, built 8.11.2010, hardware is REV0.4.

ok so I am basically screwed then. I just called AT&T and they wont warranty the device. Do I have to call samsung? I got that number: 18889874357.
AT&T didnt even know what a recovery mode was, they wanted to walk me through the factory reset on the phone itself.
Has this issue been confirmed with Samsung?

Called Samsung this morning- actually just got off the line. I spoke to about 3 people, then finally got to level 3 support. They stepped me through the same steps I have read everywhere- the 3 button reset. He actually had me try it a few different ways too. After a second, he put me on hold to see if there is some other way to put the phone into recovery or download mode, but after 5 minutes he came back and had no good news. He had a couple things he googled but they didnt work- of course. He basically resolved the call with "I don't know what to do..." So I then asked if this is an RMA'able problem and he said he didnt think so since the phone functions fine but put me on hold again for another 5 minutes. Finally he came back and said he can setup an RMA to do a factory reflash. It is a 2day air to send it to them, then a flashing, and a 2day back. Should take about a week or so. He suggested I maybe go to AT&T and possibly get it replaced that way first so I will head over to corporate this evening. If that doesnt work then I'm sending it off to Samsung...

I had much difficulty getting into recovery. But it turned out to be a matter of timing. Using the usb cable plugged in seems to change the criteria and made it easier to get into recovery.
What I do now. Phone is off. Wait at least 10 sec after shutdown to ensure it is fully off. In low light you may see a small amount of light coming from the screen then it goes black.
Press both volumes then the power button and hold till the att screen pops up. After att screen is on (the initial screen not the animation) for one or two second. Release power then volume quickly. If that doesn't work try it as design gears describes with the usb cable.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

Dani897 said:
What I do now. Phone is off. Wait at least 10 sec after shutdown to ensure it is fully off. In low light you may see a small amount of light coming from the screen then it goes black.
Press both volumes then the power button and hold till the att screen pops up. After att screen is on (the initial screen not the animation) for one or two second. Release power then volume quickly. If that doesn't work try it as design gears describes with the usb cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried umpteenth different timings. Now that I have one of my original Captivates back, the difference is clear. I can get it into recovery/download 100% of the time. On both the new ones, 0% -- as in never. It's gonna be a fun conversation at the AT&T store trying to tell them that:
1. The phone is broken because I can't get it to switch into a mode mainly reserved for engineers.
2. I will test the replacement they give me for the same problem and return it if doesn't work.
3. Repeat step 2 until I find one that works.

[Q] Liquid Thunderbolt Problem

Hello. First and foremost i am noob, but i fee like i've given this site a fair scrub for my situation and i haven't found anyone in a similar situation. I have an htc thunderbolt, I am not sure about any of the software versions, but i am on verizons network. I recently rooted my phone. The rooting process went fine. I then went on to install the latest version of liquid thunderbolt using rom manager. The install seemed to go fine. IT go to the point where a graphic loaded on the screen. I think its the liquid thunderbolt loading graphic. It's like this vortex-like thing with a bunch of lightening in the middle and then a water drop surrounded by lightening. Either way it's been stuck on this screen for the past 4 hours. What should i do? Is my phone what htey call bricked? If so can i recover from it? Should i just yank out the batter?! PLEASE HELP!

What you are describing is happening to me right now as well. Have you found out any new information. btw My tb has been rooted for 4 months with no troubles. last night i put clockwork mod/rom manager on it went through the process step by step then selected a new rom I think it was from liquid thunder. Now no mater what i do the phone boots up to the htc screen and then to rotating screens just like you described. that's it nothing else. it will not power off without to pulling the battery. i have pulled the sd card. it will not boot into hboot. press down vol. then the power.
thanks,
Jarrad

Hi, this is Jarrad's wife and I have fixed his phone. I was asleep last night when he did this to his phone and he has been up all night working on it. He even went as far as to make me breakfast in bed in order to soften the blow I guess with regard to the information he was about to tell me about his brand new very expensive phone, since he knew it would piss me off. So anyway he had the phone off for about an hour and a half on the charger and stopped messing with it. After he told me his story of what he did to the phone I decided to take a look at it. He told me that when you go into recovery you push and hold the power button and the volume down button at the same time but, this is not true or at least its not what I did to get him to the recovery screen. I was going to turn it on but, forgot he said it had a problem, so after holding down the power button ALONE for about 5 seconds I then pushed the volume down button and held them both together and boom the recovery screen came up. Now it was not a fluke because he then used the wrong recovery option and locked it up again. So, again a pressed the power button ALONE for about 5 seconds and then added the pressing of the volume down control button and boom back to the recovery screen. I hope this works for you the way it worked for me. Good Luck.
Jarrad's Wife Liz

Phone keeps restarting before Samsung logo

I recently flashed CM9 (throwing that out there incase it is of some reasoning but I doubt it) and I've had my phone since November.
I flashed CM9 9/25 Nightly like 2 or 3 days ago (absolutely love it by the way, smoothest build/rom for the Skyrocket thus far) No problems with the Rom I might add, just my phone had just randomly restarted on its own twice while using it (nothing happened, just started right back up).
However the 3rd time, it randomly restarted and never booted back up. It vibrates and then reboots before it even gets to the Samsung screen and reboots/vibrates again (2 second intervals or so). The furthest it gets is like 5 seconds into the CM9 logo and then it'll reboot. It does the usual thin white line as it restarts and just gets stuck there. Can't get to Recovery for more than a few seconds before it reboots (not long enough for Touch to settle and do anything) and it won't get to Download Mode fast enough. Any ideas or any way to get data off /emmc? Don't want to lose a bunch of pictures/videos.
I have a replacement coming within the next days so I have about 2 weeks to either get lucky and get up long enough to save my data or somehow find a solution (doubt it). I already took it apart and swapped screens because I had busted the screen before and put the broken one in incase by some miracle the new one was causing it (no luck).
No water damage or anything to the phone, just randomly rebooted those times while texting or listening to music/what not and now it's pooped.
Any suggestions?
Tried without the battery (via usb/pc or AC source), without sim/microsd, etc. and nothing. Assuming I'm just SOL.
Edit: Side note, I got terrible battery life with this phone. I could only get 2 hours of screen-on time if I was LUCKY on Mobile and maaaybe 3 if I was on WIFI. The most I ever got was 5 hours on WIFI with a 3850mAh Extended Battrey (so even though it was a cheap battery, I'm thinking the phone had a problem from the get-go).

You Could Have A Stuck Power Button. To Fix That Try To Repeatedly Keep Pushing The Power Button Hard To Try To Unstick It. or try taking it apart and clean the power button

vincom said:
You Could Have A Stuck Power Button. To Fix That Try To Repeatedly Keep Pushing The Power Button Hard To Try To Unstick It. or try taking it apart and clean the power button
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was my first thought, didn't make a difference no matter how I did it. Appreciate the idea though.

[SOLVED] It is indeed the power button.
I took it apart again and thoroughly mashed the power button plenty and gave it a good few breaths of fresh air.
After that I realized that, I put it back together and realized that if I held the power button right after the phone vibrated it seemed to get to the CM9 symbol more often.
So I mashed the power button a ton more, shook the phone like hell and smashed it against my palm a few times and...it booted! I was able to get everything off of it and reset flash/counter/restore to stock all without ever touching the power button. Screen Timeout @ 30 and using ADB is your friend. Now just to see if it magically works till my replacement gets here lol.

hd2k10 said:
[SOLVED] It is indeed the power button.
I took it apart again and thoroughly mashed the power button plenty and gave it a good few breaths of fresh air.
After that I realized that, I put it back together and realized that if I held the power button right after the phone vibrated it seemed to get to the CM9 symbol more often.
So I mashed the power button a ton more, shook the phone like hell and smashed it against my palm a few times and...it booted! I was able to get everything off of it and reset flash/counter/restore to stock all without ever touching the power button. Screen Timeout @ 30 and using ADB is your friend. Now just to see if it magically works till my replacement gets here lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know its sounds too simplistic as to blame a sticky power button and users dismiss the idea because they'll blame themselves, a bad flash, or the rom, but a reboot at a 8-10sec interval is the power button internal switch making contact, sometimes its an easy fix or sometimes it takes more than a few tries, or taking it apart to clean the internals

My phone goes anywhere now from 10 seconds to a full day without having a reboot with continuous vibration at 2 second intervals. Flashed to stable ROM's so that's definitely not the issue. I've had this phone since Christmas 2011 so I'm assuming I don't have warranty? You guys just unscrewed the screws and got into the internals I'm assuming?

Hardware problem?

I bought an used infuse the other day to fix and sell to a friend. The owner said it was bricked, but I've since gotten it into recovery mode, download mode, and a normal power on. It goes into a bootloop most of the time though, the endless bootloop people seem to be getting when the power button gets stuck.
I've completely disassembled the phone and I can't find the problem. The power button (the white one on the inside) moves completely freely. I've tried booting up the phone with the back housing off so the power button is bare but it still bootlooped. The only way I can get it to boot up is to repeatedly hit the back of the phone onto my hand as its booting up. Even then, the phone will only stay on for 30 seconds or so once it boots. I've read of people fixing this by simply throwing the phone on the ground, but is there a better way to fix this? What could be the problem?
Edit: I think I may try this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2235435&highlight=bootloop
It could be a weak connection on the mobo somewhere.
Edit 2: Yep! I re-soldered the connection around the power button on the back of the motherboard and the phone is working. Got it reset and now I'm running it without the second power button thing in the case.

Nexus 5 Button Problems

Hi guys,
After many years of use, my Nexus 5's power button is starting to give way. It only responds to maybe 50% of clicks. I haven't had any bootloop issues though (hopefully never).
I saw some videos online, of some people using various ways to clean and use tweezers to "squeeze" the button (after dismantling the phone). I was wondering if people were generally successful here, or should I order a new button and try resoldering?
Thoughts?
Thanks.

I was successful in fixing the power button issue on 1 of 4 phones by cleaning, banging, and squeezing. The solution worked for about a month so I would up having the button replaced at a cell repair shop.

I had the same problem and i just soldered a new button, i had never soldered before and it's working perfectly even after a few month.

I ordered a OP 3t last week, and this weekend my current main phone broke. Unlucky. But I still have my Nexus 5 as backup.
Suddenly my Nexus kept rebooting. Unlucky again. I was hoping that my AOSP 7.1.1 flash didn't go well, thus a software issue. I flashed that ROM the evening before so it was possible. But starting TWRP was impossible because it kept rebooting.
Never had any power button issues, and I went from zero to full problems
No way I could get the power button working again. The most promising was the "scratching" method, I was able to finish the boot. But after stopping 2 seconds it rebooted.
I tried the crazy method and I removed my power button physically from the mainboard. Well, removed... Broke it off carefully is a better term
When shutdown I need to have a computer with fastboot to boot my phone.
After I was able to boot into my phone again, I now have remapped the volume up key to power: gpio-keys.kl
Since I didn't have a power button to "select" menu items in fastboot, adb commands are required to boot into TWRP.
It's not a journey, it's an adventure!