Database Info

How to unbrick the soft bricked Captivate

NOTE:
So far this has been the only sure fire method I've found to 100% get around any brick situation regardless of firmware, etc. This only works for the captivate, not any other galaxy s variant.
Situations: phone-!-Computer / no download mode
Black Screen / RST_STATUS 0x0
Procedure:
1. Remove the battery, external SD card and SIM card.
2. Wait 10 seconds.
3. Open odin3
4. Connect usb cable.
5. Hold volume up + volume down + Power.
6. Insert battery.
7. Release POWER BUTTON ONLY.
You should now be in immediate download mode.
Please forgive me if this is duplicate some where, but I tried every procedure I could find on google to no avail, then accidentally found this method just before I was going to box it back up and see if my buddy at AT&T would make me eat it or not.
My situation was: Launched Odin3 to flash H3 firmware, died twice in the middle, and on the third time locked up half ways just at the beginning of factoryfs.rfs -- Then the phone did nothing. Blackscreen is all. Interestingly enough, while in the state if you hold volume up + power, it will give a hw diagnostic screen. Beyond that I could get no where. Just a black screen, no acknowledgement when connected to PC, no charging indicator, nothing.
If this is a dupe Im sorry but this method I could not find and hope to make it readily available to people who may think their phones bricked.
Update 12/22/2010:
How to BRICK the phone / WARNING!!!
If for whatever reason you decide to use Odin to flash a stock GTI9000 ROM and manually add the kernels and modems using a "pure" 2.2.1 sammy rom. BEWARE.
Researching a lot, it seems the consensus is that the sbl in the 2.2.1 versions of the GTI9000 has *hard* download mode crippled.. Meaning if there is a software screw up YOU CANNOT USE A USB JIG OR ANY OTHER METHOD OF GETTING THE PHONE IN DOWNLOAD MODE!!! To fix it you'll need a new one or JTAG to replace the bootloader.
As far as I can tell, beyond getting completely rid of the AT&T logo, there is no need to flash boot/sbl to get the "purity" of the 2.2.1 sammy roms.
Extract all files from the tar EXCEPT boot/sbl and re-tar and flash just those to avoid overwriting the stock captivate boot loader.
Also, it does not appear the boot/sbl from the captivate 2.2 leak suffers this same problem.
For any one iffy on bricking their phones, stay away from roms that remove COMPLETELY the AT&T logo on boot. This generally means the boot loader has been messed with any you may be screwed if you soft brick the phone. Most CWM roms dont overwrite the boot/sbl, but some can and do. Watch yourself.. if it the AT&T logo goes away COMPLETELY, I recommend flashing JF6 with One click while the roms alive using adb reboot download and try another rom.

thanks!
worked...took a few tries but some trick with this captivate to get it into download mode.. i was totally bricked too, diag screen with PC/Phone icons and exclamation mark. for me 1.) plug usb, 2.) hold power and vol up/down and connect battery (it fell out) and i was in download mode

I guess a similar procedure was on the odin3 one click thread, but there is something different in your procedure, it's not my case but it would be nice if some people confirms this as this may be useful and if it really works it should be included in odin thread

What worked for me was: Pull the battery, sim and micro sd card. Open odin on the PC. Insert the battery. Hold vol up and down then with the buttons held connect the usb cable. Just remember to plug in the usb cable with the vol up and down held in and odin must be open on the computer.
I also ran into the vol up plus power red text screen. Interesting to note that one of the fields will change depending if the usb cable is connected or not.

mine is dead
mi samsung captivate was working great but, suddenly it go black and only the touch bottom have light, when i plug it in the a/c it show is charging. i'm mac user and a read that i ned to use odin3 but it not work on mac. how i can unbrick the phone???
is rooted with one click lag
the dbdata was modif to
thats all
HEEEEELLLLLPPPPPP

Odin will not open on the mac?
Cant you use a virtual machine and use Odin on a Mac that way?
Or else take the odin 3 single click for JF6 and use on a friends Windows Computer.

Please help - unable to flash back with Odin3
I have pretty much tried it all at this point and am trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
I followed the directions just in case get to the big yellow triangle with the droid shoveling and the screen stays at "downloading, do not turn off target..."
Of course I had Odin3 open already but its not seeing my phone, USB drives are installed am using Odin3 ver. 1.30.
Any help would be appreciated, TIA!

TechNut* said:
I have pretty much tried it all at this point and am trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
I followed the directions just in case get to the big yellow triangle with the droid shoveling and the screen stays at "downloading, do not turn off target..."
Of course I had Odin3 open already but its not seeing my phone, USB drives are installed am using Odin3 ver. 1.30.
Any help would be appreciated, TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best way to get download mode is use adb and type adb reboot download.
Or follow the volume up/down held with odin open on the computer, then you plug in the usb cable to the computer.

askpcguy said:
What worked for me was: Pull the battery, sim and micro sd card. Open odin on the PC. Insert the battery. Hold vol up and down then with the buttons held connect the usb cable. Just remember to plug in the usb cable with the vol up and down held in and odin must be open on the computer.
I also ran into the vol up plus power red text screen. Interesting to note that one of the fields will change depending if the usb cable is connected or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you thank you thank you. i had a totally dead no boot or anything and this worked, i was going through the whole returning the phone senerio in my head

mattbeau said:
Thank you thank you thank you. i had a totally dead no boot or anything and this worked, i was going through the whole returning the phone senerio in my head
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just sharing the info! Makes you think twice about trying something else don't it?

does not seem to work because as soon as my battery touches the contacts it goes to the diag screen. do I have to release the power button in super human speed times there?
looked at all threads here, looked elsewhere -- there are some that are not fixable. Wanted to add that in case others come here and think that they might be the only ones that can't get it to work.
Ended up sending mine off to Samsung to reset today. :/

I love you! I called AT&T to send me documentation to sign and it was going to cost me 125 dollars to get it replaced even with warranty. And you fixed it !

i have tried just about every single method detailed in these forums, and nothing works.
Trying what OP suggested just sends me to the battery charging animation screen.
Anybody have any ideas ?

file analysis
I keep can get to the download screen and I hit start and it does the same thing everytime it just does File analysis i cant figure what i am doing wrong here somebody please help me

I think the issue was it had something to do with 64 bit windows 7 i just re did the stock rom one click solution and it worked fine

thekurrgan said:
NOTE:
5. Hold volume up + volume down + Power.
6. Insert battery.
7. Release POWER BUTTON ONLY.
You should now be in immediate download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I don't have a Captivate yet but am doing research on it and hopeful of getting one. I am confused about one thing.
Every where that I have read about how to enter Recovery mode or Download mode on the Captivate using the 3 button method, it says holding down both Volume UP + Volume Down (plus Power button) will enter Recovery mode. But you say it enters Download mode which is confusing to me. As I recall, to enter Download mode you must press the Vol Down only (plus Power button). Could it be because the phone won't go into Recovery mode, it goes into Download mode instead? Am I missing something?
Thank you!

Download mode is for updating the phone's firmware.
Remove battery, plug in the usb cable to the phone, open ODIN on the computer (need usb drivers installed before hand) on the phone hold volume up and down then plug the phone into the computer. Your phone will say DOWNLOADING. This method works even if you run into problems and the phone refuses to boot properly.
Recovery mode is for installing Update.zip. The method is tricky but involves holding volume up/down and power, the phone will show ATT then go black. It will repeat that but after the second time it goes black let go of power.
If that doesnt work, android debug tools ADB reboot recovery will work even better.
Or root the phone and use Clockwork Rom manager to boot into recovery, just press the menu item.

askpcguy said:
Download mode is for updating the phone's firmware.
Remove battery, plug in the usb cable to the phone, open ODIN on the computer (need usb drivers installed before hand) on the phone hold volume up and down then plug the phone into the computer. Your phone will say DOWNLOADING. This method works even if you run into problems and the phone refuses to boot properly.
Recovery mode is for installing Update.zip. The method is tricky but involves holding volume up/down and power, the phone will show ATT then go black. It will repeat that but after the second time it goes black let go of power.
If that doesn't work, android debug tools ADB reboot recovery will work even better.
Or root the phone and use Clockwork Rom manager to boot into recovery, just press the menu item.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you askpcguy! I understand the difference between Download and Recovery modes.
So the procedural difference here is having the battery in + Power button, versus battery not in (use USB cable instead) and no Power button. Can the phone get power from the PC via the USB cable? This seems to differ from what the original poster said about download mode. Perhaps OP could edit his original post for clarification? Or am I still missing something? Thanks to all

The phone does get power from the USB cable.
The difference is one procedure uses the USB cable (download mode) and the other does not (Recovery mode).
The volume up+down method does not use the power button, the phone is powered on into download mode once you plug in the USB cable.
We say pull the battery to get the phone powered off. If a firmware flash stalled or doesn't complete, pull the battery and try again!

I now understand the precedural difference.
Thank you askpcguy!

[Q] Samsung Captivate bricked.

ok...so i rooted my phone tonight. Downloaded busybox...everything was going great. So i dl the Odin Froyo update...and halfway through...the USB cable came out. Now...When i try and turn it on it shows an icon of a phone...exclamation point and a PC..
I can get the phone into dl mode..but when i connect it to Odin...it just says "File analysis...for hours....nothing happens. I have dl the stock Rom from XDA and tried that. Both Odins recognize my phone (Ie they show up in yellow) But nothing ever happens with the update. So now what? Am i bricked.

I wish I could help, but I almost had the same thing happen. I can tell you the prob with the cable connection is the cable, mine was. I ordered a couple online and trashed the factory cable. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Search for One-Click Odin back to stock.
Remember to access download mode you have to pull and replace the battery, hold both vol. buttons, and while holding, plug in the cable.
If Odin recognizes the phone, then there *most likely isn't a problem with it.

Ditto, Pull battery, sd card and sim, put battery back in, follow directions to the letter, start oden first, then install cord while holding down both up and down vol. buttons.

[Q] HELP! I think I bricked my Sidekick 4g

I recently started looking into rooting my phone and was trying to use Odin to flash Clockwork Recovery mod into my Sidekick 4g. In the middle of downloading the program shut down. I unpluged the phone from the computer and got a black screen with an image of phone+!+computer. So i rebooted into download mode, opened odin, and plugged the phone into the computer. Clicked start and it reset. Then it went into a reboot loop, alternating between the boot up logo and a white screen with 2 blue lines. I thought i could reset it again with odin so i did, and now i have a black screen that only has the back light on if i press the power key or plug it in the computer via usb. Now odin wont even recognize my device. Neither would adb devices. If i hold volume down and power key for a few seconds the back light flashes on and off once then completely off. Can anyone please Help?

kcheung331 said:
I recently started looking into rooting my phone and was trying to use Odin to flash Clockwork Recovery mod into my Sidekick 4g. In the middle of downloading the program shut down. I unpluged the phone from the computer and got a black screen with an image of phone+!+computer. So i rebooted into download mode, opened odin, and plugged the phone into the computer. Clicked start and it reset. Then it went into a reboot loop, alternating between the boot up logo and a white screen with 2 blue lines. I thought i could reset it again with odin so i did, and now i have a black screen that only has the back light on if i press the power key or plug it in the computer via usb. Now odin wont even recognize my device. Neither would adb devices. If i hold volume down and power key for a few seconds the back light flashes on and off once then completely off. Can anyone please Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it sounds like there is a chance your device is bricked beyond repair i did that to mine by flashing the wrong stuff with Odin, and i had no choice but to get a new one. all i could get was a slight backlighting when pressing buttons, no DL mode, no boot logo, nothing.
btw, Odin isn't used to root the phone or to install Clockwork Recovery(at least as far as i know). Odin is a tool to use if something goes wrong somewhere and you need to restore your phone from a soft brick.
also, just so you know, this post should go in the General section of this forum.

try an alternate way to go into download mode:
take the battery out
connect the phone via usb to the computer
while pressing vol down + power + trackpad insert the battery
try it a couple of times, if it doesn't work, sorry

tweeklulz said:
try an alternate way to go into download mode:
take the battery out
connect the phone via usb to the computer
while pressing vol down + power + trackpad insert the battery
try it a couple of times, if it doesn't work, sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I vouch for the effectiveness of this method of getting into recovery. Saved me last night
Also if you can get it into download mode you can most likely recover it. Follow the instructions below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1088413

I think this goes in the general section bro.

had VERY similar issues 2x.
I had to repartition with Odin, then drop the image.
The image drop didn't work, but after I reparted, (repart failed at the end, but it was good enough to redrop the image, after restarting the whole thing over again) all was good.

Just odin in that screen it will work pull the battery and plug ur phone in connected to the computer and odin regular its not brick I had this happen to me twice and twice I odined back to stock. Make sure all three boxes are checked
Sent From My Rooted Sidekick 4g XDA Premium App

Thanks, I ened up getting the phone replaced

NET TIME U KNOE
Sent From My Rooted Sidekick 4g XDA Premium App

Datlilboricua said:
Just odin in that screen it will work pull the battery and plug ur phone in connected to the computer and odin regular its not brick I had this happen to me twice and twice I odined back to stock. Make sure all three boxes are checked
Sent From My Rooted Sidekick 4g XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DarksteelBlade said:
I vouch for the effectiveness of this method of getting into recovery. Saved me last night
Also if you can get it into download mode you can most likely recover it. Follow the instructions below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1088413
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone also showed the "phone - ! - PC" icon so I thought it was done for as well. Between these two threads, specifically tweeklulz post above, I was able to recover my phone!
Prior to starting the ODIN process,power on your Sidekick to that wretched brick screen. From there plug your phone to your phone via USB then immediately remove the battery. That horrible brick screen will still be there, but just run the ODIN process anyway.
Thank you all for your input! This saved my phone and I am a 9million% NOOB to developing and mods. LOL

kcheung331 said:
Thanks, I ened up getting the phone replaced
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im having the same issue now, guess ill go replace the phone too..
i tried odin, and once i click start, the phone doesnt even show download mode anymore, and it wont boot.
When i press power, dimmed lights come up on the background and when i connect it with usb, same thing..

Look back at the Odin threads again. I doubt your phone is (permanently) bricked.
Sent from my SGH-T839 using XDA App

heart attack
THANKS DOOD almost had a heart attack.
Datlilboricua said:
Just odin in that screen it will work pull the battery and plug ur phone in connected to the computer and odin regular its not brick I had this happen to me twice and twice I odined back to stock. Make sure all three boxes are checked
Sent From My Rooted Sidekick 4g XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

We do have UnBrickable Mod on this device now. You just remove a resistor, create a bridge and then use the Ultimate UnBrickable Resurrector to upload Download Mode to the device any time you want.. It takes a bit of skill, but hey.. Nothing to have a heart attack about.

kcheung331 said:
I recently started looking into rooting my phone and was trying to use Odin to flash Clockwork Recovery mod into my Sidekick 4g. In the middle of downloading the program shut down. I unpluged the phone from the computer and got a black screen with an image of phone+!+computer. So i rebooted into download mode, opened odin, and plugged the phone into the computer. Clicked start and it reset. Then it went into a reboot loop, alternating between the boot up logo and a white screen with 2 blue lines. I thought i could reset it again with odin so i did, and now i have a black screen that only has the back light on if i press the power key or plug it in the computer via usb. Now odin wont even recognize my device. Neither would adb devices. If i hold volume down and power key for a few seconds the back light flashes on and off once then completely off. Can anyone please Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I jus got my sidekick 4g for my birthday and rooted it. Tried installing Smooth Maximus X and softbricked my phone. I get the lady telling me something about the software invalid or something. Yes I am a noob and i am trying to Odin my phone back to stock but the links for the Odexed arent working properly. So I need major help as i dont want to lose my phone and i would really love to be able to use the softwares u guys have provided. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME!!!!

The KD1 odin links work

Galaxy S 4G Issue

I hope i'm in the right board for this, if not i'm sorry, but i've run into a major issue recently.
While working on installing MIUI on my Galaxy S 4G from Tmobile I hit a point where it turned offand absolutely nothing is happening. I don't remember when exactly this happened but I think it was after something with odin.
It's not detected by Kies or anything, it's just off and nothing can get it to turn back on. I left it on the charger and went to sleep last night, this morning it still isn't doing anything.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

In the state that it's in, I believe the phone will still boot into Download Mode, even though nothing appears on the screen. Odin will still recognize the device if it is booted into download mode.
Just open the back cover and remove the battery. It is also recommended you remove the SD card and SIM card. Put the battery back in, and connect the usb cable while holding the power up button, and plug it into your computer. Open up Odin and it should recognize the device still. If it doesn't, try these steps again until it does.
Since you were trying to flash MIUI, we should be safe to assume you're running Gingerbread on your SGS4G, so you can download a stock, Odin flashable ROM from here. Flash that using the PDA in Odin, let it reboot, and you should be fine again.
If you have any further questions that need answering, refer to the SGS4G community.

pudgybunnyBry said:
In the state that it's in, I believe the phone will still boot into Download Mode, even though nothing appears on the screen. Odin will still recognize the device if it is booted into download mode.
Just open the back cover and remove the battery. It is also recommended you remove the SD card and SIM card. Put the battery back in, and connect the usb cable while holding the power up button, and plug it into your computer. Open up Odin and it should recognize the device still. If it doesn't, try these steps again until it does.
Since you were trying to flash MIUI, we should be safe to assume you're running Gingerbread on your SGS4G, so you can download a stock, Odin flashable ROM from here. Flash that using the PDA in Odin, let it reboot, and you should be fine again.
If you have any further questions that need answering, refer to the SGS4G community.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the help, currently i'm attempting to get Odin to recognize it with no success. I've gone through the process about 3 times and will continue till I hopefully get some results. If it makes any difference I don't hear the sound of windows detecting a new USB device anymore like i use to when I would put it into download mode.

As far as I remember, Windows doesn't make a sound when booting into Download Mode. I just realized I made an error in my previous post. You need to be holding the volume up button when you plug it into the computer. In some cases you will need to hold the power button at the same time. Try giving it the volume up + power on button when you plug into your PC. Make sure you're holding the button combo long enough for the SGS4G to power on and into Download.

Moved to General Q&A.

[Q] Verizon S3 root through ODIN, phone won't power on

As it says in the title, I went through the steops in the following thread to root my phone: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2046439
I followed it to a T, and when it came to rebooting my phone, it said to take out the battery, then put it back in (keep in mind, ODIN said it was successful in doing what it's supposed to do). I unplugged the usb from my phone and took out the battery. I waited a minute then put it back in, now it won't power up. I've scoured the net to find a way to get it to turn on, and everything i've tried failed. The battery was at 95% when I started the process, so it's not a dead battery (i've even let it sit and charge for a bit too on a wall charger). I've tried getting into download mode and various other key combinations while trying to power on the phone, still nothing. I've held the power button while doing key combinations for 30-60 seconds like a post on one of the forums I read suggested, still nothing. Any ideas?

xbongox said:
As it says in the title, I went through the steops in the following thread to root my phone: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2046439
I followed it to a T, and when it came to rebooting my phone, it said to take out the battery, then put it back in (keep in mind, ODIN said it was successful in doing what it's supposed to do). I unplugged the usb from my phone and took out the battery. I waited a minute then put it back in, now it won't power up. I've scoured the net to find a way to get it to turn on, and everything i've tried failed. The battery was at 95% when I started the process, so it's not a dead battery (i've even let it sit and charge for a bit too on a wall charger). I've tried getting into download mode and various other key combinations while trying to power on the phone, still nothing. I've held the power button while doing key combinations for 30-60 seconds like a post on one of the forums I read suggested, still nothing. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So to confirm, you got to step 3, you flashed the custom recovery in the PDA slot with ODIN, waited for the green "PASS" to appear, pulled the battery, and are now bricked?

Also wondering; does the LED turn on? My first attempt at rooting my GS3 the device would boot to a black screen, but the little LED would turn blue. It was also pretty finnicky about booting into download; make sure you have the volume button pressed down first. If you can get it back into download, I would flash a stock recovery via ODIN, and try again (If you're not too traumatized).

corbn89 said:
So to confirm, you got to step 3, you flashed the custom recovery in the PDA slot with ODIN, waited for the green "PASS" to appear, pulled the battery, and are now bricked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct

gseyffert said:
Also wondering; does the LED turn on? My first attempt at rooting my GS3 the device would boot to a black screen, but the little LED would turn blue. It was also pretty finnicky about booting into download; make sure you have the volume button pressed down first. If you can get it back into download, I would flash a stock recovery via ODIN, and try again (If you're not too traumatized).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The LED doesn't turn on no matter what. As of today, for some reason it turns on for a minute when I plug in the charger (it lights up orange), but then disappears after a few minutes

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1840030
If you can get it into download mode again, you can flash the stock Verizon ROM.
I've soft bricked mine quite a few times, this has worked 100% of the time.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

jlikes08 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1840030
If you can get it into download mode again, you can flash the stock Verizon ROM.
I've soft bricked mine quite a few times, this has worked 100% of the time.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I'll see if I can get it to turn on and go to download mode to try that. I'll post up what happens.

Also, did you check the md5's of the files you downloaded and make sure they matched the md5's in the guide. It sounds like you may have flashed a bad download.

Sorry to say it, brother, but it's borked. Been there, did that.... See here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1770341
I had to take it to Josh at Mobiletechvideos.com
He JTAG'd me back to life.
Methinks you're going to need to do that also... Sorry
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app