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[Q] PLEASE HELP!!! Cannot Boot Nexus S!!

Hi everyone,
I'm sorry I'm quite new to this, and I'm afraid I've gotten myself somewhat stuck with my Nexus S. Yesterday I managed to root it, install superuser, as well as clockwork mod. Today I wanted to try a new rom and after some attempts, it seems I no longer have any working roms on my phone. After much searching with no luck, I turn to you guys for your expertise.
So I am able to see fast boot upon pressing the volume up and power buttons, and am certainly able to choose recovery and get into clockwork mod. Within clockwork mod I can mount USB storage, so I can transfer roms to the internal SD card. I've tried 3 or 4 roms, some say they install correctly, others not, and after trying to boot after any installation I simply get stuck at the google screen with the lock image at the bottom. The only things I have "deleted" is wiped the data and cache. I have no idea, but I think I may have erased the bootloader image or something else that I should not have that is required.
I have a i9020a model (non-4g model I believe), can you pleeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaassee help me!! I just want to get back to gingerbread 2.3.6, and my phone back up and running the way it was. I've become quite nervous after some searching with some saying a resistor mod is needed on the hardware!!

Your okay cause you can get into fastboot and recovery so don't worry. Maybe the rom you downloaded is not for your phone. Did you make a nandroid backup before flashing the rom? If yes then go into backup and restore from clockwork recovery to go back to stock.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

If you can get to recovery, just flash the stock image FOR YOUR PHONE. Then you can go through and reroot..don't worry, you'll get the hang of it.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

So my phone is not "bricked" as they say?? I'm not in big trouble?
I did not make a nandroid backup What kind of image am I looking for and how do I install it on the phone? I know my phone is of the variant i9020a, but how am unsure of how much more specific I should be looking for.
Looking at the following post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1063664.
Should I try installing the Android 2.3.6/GRK39F/UCKF1 Radio/KA3 Bootloader option?

Choose the latest 9020a version of the FULL ROM, which is what you have already have eyes on.

I've tried installing the file I mentioned above, but I get a status 7 error when trying to install, and the install is aborted.
Could I get some more assistance please? Can anyone point me to a correct, full rom? Or perhaps I'm installing it incorrectly, could someone be so kind to outline the correct steps to a proper install?
Edit: I think the above mentioned file is for a GSM model, I'm sure I have the CDMA version.
Also, somewhat good news. I managed to install the oxygen rom, but for the 4g version and installed fine with no errors, but I have no service. What does this indicate, as I still want to restore back to a factory version (non-4g) of gingerbread 2.3.6.

What CWM version do you have? Is it 3.0.0.0?
Also, if you have no service, it's likely that you downloaded a ROM with an incorrect radio.
Edit:
If you have CWM 3.0.0.0, make sure to download the latest version, found in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=988686 (use 5023-cyan.img). You flash this the same way you did CWM previously, though in the terminal make sure you type out the 5023-cyan.img file name.
Next, download the stock ROM from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1063664. Simply look for your phone version, and you'll find the correct software variant.
Maybe you've fixed your phone already; if not, I hope this helps!
I wish you the best of luck. Oh, and through problems like these, you come to learn a lot more about your phone. That's what I've found, at least.

At the thread you mentioned above there is a version with a different radio, you might want to give that one a try.
You also said that you only wiped data and cache, so maybe you should do a full wipe before. Not doing that can sometimes lead to problems.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

To be brief, the phone is up and running as brand new! Thank you so very much everyone. It seems the error was with CWM, as I was able to install and boot a 4g oxygen rom on my phone, I went into rom manager, and at the bottom of the list was an option to upgrade to 5.x. Installed the CWM update, wiped everything and was able to install the factory rom, no issues, and everything works just as I remember
I have most certainly learned more about my phone, and I am going to look at it as a rather stressful learning experience rather than a mistake on my part.
But a sincere thanks to everyone once again, I posted this at like 4am here and had a response within a few minutes, I was pulling my hair out haha!

Flashing to stock rom will help you out. You can get stock roms from Internet simply by searching in Google...
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

[Q] NexusS (i9020T) hard bricked, at which step did I go wrong?

Hi everyone, I had a problem with my previous nexus s (I have since gotten a working replacement) and I was wondering where exactly I messed up so in the future I can avoid this
Here is what I did on my previous phone:
1. I flashed ics onto my device from the ota update package from androidcentral, it was 4.0.3. (This worked great and I had it on my phone for 2-3 months before I tried the next steps.)
2. I rooted my device successfully using the guide at nexusshacks.
3. I also flashed TWRP recovery (fastboot) and superuser using the above guide/links
4. When I would turn off my phone it would boot to a screen with a red triangle and an opened android bot. So what I would have to do is flash twrp recovery everytime I turned the phone on just to get it to work.
5. What I wanted to do was keep the stock rom but still have twrp recovery without it making me reflash it on every boot. So I clicked install and tried to flash the stock rom (update package from the link in step 1) with twrp recovery. It then turned off my phone and hard bricked it. I couldn't turn it on anymore and a new battery didn't fix it.
I was able to get a replacement now and I was just wondering at which step did I go wrong? I THINK that I should have wiped my cache before I tried to reflash the stock rom but maybe I'm way off base here. This is why I posted a question here so hopefully some of you guys can help.
I did think about posting in another thread, but I didn't wanna threadjack or anything... and his problem also seemed a bit different then mine. Also, sorry about not being able to provide the specific links it won't let me post them until I've posted 8 times.

I don't know for sure but team win recovery has been reported to corrupt the device's efs directory. I've even had problems myself using clockwork recovery. I've moved on to razor recovery and haven't looked back.
This is the most flash-friendly phone I've ever owned, and razor recovery rivals amon ra (which was awesome on my g1 and evo). I really think it may have just been the recovery you were using... Somebody correct me if i'm wrong.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

I had once corrupted one of the partition. I fixed to by flashing stock recovery and stock rom.
Use adam outler's unbrickable mod tool. It can be found in android development section.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA

Thanks for the replies.
That's interesting about twrp... I didn't know that. Truth be told, the only reason I went for it over other ones like clockwork mod was because the UI looked pretty nice and easy to use. Also the guide I followed at nexusshacks used that, so I wanted to stay consistent with it.
jishnu7, it's a little late for that now however as I actually have already received a working replacement from my carrier, but in the future if something ever does go wrong (hopefully not) I will definitely check that out.
The main thing I'm wondering is if it messed up because I tried to reflash the stock rom essentially over top itself (was hoping that by doing that, it would stop making me reflash twrp on every reboot) or if it was because I didn't wipe the cache before the flash.
Also, what I really wanted to do with my phone was to keep the stock rom but be able to overclock my cpu/gpu. I was hoping I could set different overclocks for different things (I've heard of kernels where you can downclock your phone when the screens off and have it overclocked slightly while you're using it, that would be something I'd like to have). I figured to install those kernels I would have to root my phone, replace stock recovery and install superuser so that's why I tried to do that. Once again, I'm pretty new to all this stuff for my phone.

Sorry to bump this thread again, but I would really like to know how I could avoid what happened to me for the future. I think it's because I flashed the stock 4.0.3 rom over itself (was hoping that by doing that twrp recovery would stay on the phone after reboot).
What I would like to do is install something like CM9 or AOKP and use the Matr1x kernel so I could undervolt or overclock my phone.

I seriously dont get how u hard bricked your phone...
the reason you are thinking is you reflashed stock rom without wiping cache, as per my experiece its not at all the reason
now, whats my experience??
...I have some fault with my nexus device and I'm working on it,,and I did everything I could do...one of the thing out of those things was reflashing stock rom without wiping,and i did it quite a several times...my device never hard bricked,,however it was soft bricked for many times,,and i recovered from it
so reflasing a stock rom over stock rom, over ICS, over some themed custom rom,will not hard brick your device, you must be missing something none of your steps sounds suspecious
P.S:- pulling out battey while flashing something like this sounds suspecious, never tried though

I'm not sure what happened either to be quite honest with you. Since giving it another shot now with my new fresh phone I have had great success!
I did everything I wanted to do all in one go. Rooted it, install CWM touch, install AOKP (went with milestone 4 cuz I heard newest build 29 has some bugs) + gapps and installed matr1x kernel 18.5 bfs.
The only thing I did different from last time was installing CWM touch (instead of twrp) and flashed aokp this time (instead of reflashing 4.0.3 over itself).

I would just avoid step 2 at all cost.
The nexus s hacks dude is a tool.

Help! boot loop

ok so i rooted a few weeks ago and downloaded the usual apps. super user titanium back up and clock work mod. tried to flash a rom with clock work mod and got the e:signature verification failure message. found a post for a kernal that made clock work mod actually work so i tried to flash a rom. zSimplyAOKPV5_Dark to be exact. now it sticks on boot screen. i have searched for hours and cannot find a way to fix my problem. its my first rooted android and first attempted rom flash and i botched it right off the rip. please help?

Depending on what you did beforehand, you have some options.
If you have backed everything up previously, just flash back to stock with one of the one-click stock roms in the Development section (they're in a sticky).
If you haven't backed everything up, try holding V+/V-/power until it reboots. If it doesn't take you to recovery, you can try to flash a kernel (most likely one that would match the version of android/rom you were running prior to this flash) and see if it lets you into recovery. You'll have to flash it with either Odin or Heimdall, after rebooting into download mode (power off, hold V+/V-, insert USB).
If that doesn't work, though, the stock flashing would probably be your best and/or only bet.

it wont allow me into recovery though i can get to download mode by pulling the battery and pressing just the volume +- and plugging in the usb. i was trying to flash an ics slim rom. thanks for your very speedy response.
i have now tried to flash a stock rom however it is not working from there even with the stock kernal. now it is hanging on the at&t screen.
ok i got it. seems the kernal i flashed to help cwd work properly was the culprit. now i dont know how im going to flash this ics rom im looking at without it.

phoenixfriend said:
it wont allow me into recovery though i can get to download mode by pulling the battery and pressing just the volume +- and plugging in the usb. i was trying to flash an ics slim rom. thanks for your very speedy response.
i have now tried to flash a stock rom however it is not working from there even with the stock kernal. now it is hanging on the at&t screen.
ok i got it. seems the kernal i flashed to help cwd work properly was the culprit. now i dont know how im going to flash this ics rom im looking at without it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash corn kernel if you have stock gingerbread
Sent from my SGH-I897

The utility in my signature can help you flash the Corn Kernel so that you will have CWM.

I have corn kernal and odin 3 on the computer at home. Ill do that tonight. Any suggestions on a good stable rom for a noob? Preferably ics. I hated posting for fear of being flamed as a noob. My wife keeps making fun of me for it so I kinda have to get it done. I want to fix hers also. Its a great little phone it just seem a bit buggy to me. Very laggy. Thanks for all the help.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA

Maybe start with a KK4 based rom such as Legend and then move up to ICS after that. I only say that because there is a bug in ICS that could render your internal SD unusable. It's rare, but when it happens you will not be happy.

Still unable to get corn kernal to flash. I've tried a few of your guys fixes but I'm gonna have to get some other updates to my computer first.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA

My phone fail flashed and I can't get into Recovery, can someone help me?

I don't know what to do next, and I need my phone. I can answer any questions, but I wouldn't know what to start with. Can someone help??

Quick questions to answer:
1. What Rom were you on prior to flashing?
2. What Rom were you flashing to?
3. What do you see on your screen?
4. Do button presses give any reaction?

1. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1136128 v5.0, it's Gingerbread.
2. I was flashing to CM7, but it didn't flash, so I did what was probably a mistake and went straight for http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1625619&page=1.
3. I see "DevilKernel" Samsung Galaxy S.
4. If I hold down the volume and power buttons, the DevilKernal boot screen will flash. If I keep the power button held down it resets, if I don't it just flashes and nothing else.
By the way, thanks.

Ok, here's what happened:
The first bootloop you were seeing with CM7 is actually a normal occurrence. You usually have to flash CM-based roms twice to get them to "take" (the first time sets up MTD over BML, the second time installs the rom).
What you're seeing now is the devil kernel trying to load up the CM9-based system, but not having all the parts in place.
Thankfully, you're not in that bad of a place. The easiest thing to do right now is to grab an Odin- or Heimdall-based one click Gingerbread stock package without bootloaders. There's a sticky in the Development section that has them, or you can grab the one in my signature.
Flash the one-click, go to recovery, and flash either CM7 twice or TWICS twice.
That should fix you up.

When I tried flashing the CM7, it said it failed. I'm not sure what went wrong. The TWICS I planned on flashing twice, but it got stuck.

Hard to say - it could be something as simple as a bad download of the flash file.

But you think if I Odin it and try TWICS again it'll work?

It should. Doing the Odin one-click will reset everything back to a factory state, which should remove all the obstacles that would normally stand in the way of a successful installation.

Hey man, for that ROM, this theme will work, right?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1095911
I don't know anything about themes. Or this, apparently. I also got into Recovery and installed it twice, I don't really know what's going on.

So you're now fully set up with TWICS, or you're saying that it's still misbehaving?
Also, that theme should work - I had a CM7 theme that I was able to use with a CM9 rom's theme chooser. Wasn't 100%, but it generally worked.

I'm not sure WHAT is going on. The ROM seems to be working fine, I am reinstalling my apps from Titanium Backup and a "Low on space" popup is here, but that makes no sense since it's the same phone, it's a smaller ROM, and a 32gig SD Card. I also just got a text message that was "rejected due to low space".
What is going on??

It seems my phone always is unable to continue once Super Monkey Ball 2 tries to be backed up.

Look around in the cm7 thread for the dbdata full issue. I think there were some suggestions for how to deal with it in there.

[Q] Would Samsung fix my bricked phone?

I bricked my unlocked Captivate (bought on Amazon for $240 - I was avoiding a data plan) trying to get Ice Cream Sandwich on it. The phone was rooted.
Initially, the phone was only loading a Samsung splash screen when I tried to get it into normal mode. However, recovery mode was working; it would boot into Clockworkmod. Which is a bad thing considering they would easily tell I had messed with it!
So, I loaded the phone into Download mode and tried to flash the stock ROM using Odin. Odin said "failed" and now my phone was completely soft bricked, and the infamous "[phone]-----/!\-----[computer]" screen was showing up. Download mode worked though. I tried to flash all types of stock and custom ROMs to no avail. Now, recovery and normal modes don't work while Download mode does.
So, I called Samsung and told them it wasn't working; they told me it was still under warranty and I could send it in for repairs.
My question would be: will Samsung repair my phone, or will they find out I messed with it and refuse to do so? Also, if they find out, how much will I have to pay them to fix it?
Getting a new phone is out of the question... I might just buy

If there is an odin flash counter on download mode, they will figure it out if you have messed with it. If there's not, make a good story. Was it on 2.3.6 already when you bought it?

If you can get into download your not bricked. The screen you see is kernel panic. You will have to flash a proper kernel to get it to boot back up.
Sent for a corner cell in Arkham

Yeah, you can still fix it. No need it to bring to samsung

Has anyone sent a bricked phone in to Samsung before?
I tried flashing stock Captivate Gingerbread kernels to no avail. I googled and googled, and I tried everything I found. Including Odin and heimdall.
It was running Gingerbread 2.3.5 when I updated it myself to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3. It was running beautifully. Then I tried to recover my backed-up data, which worked, but then I tried to reboot the phone and it wouldn't boot.
And no, I don't remember seeing any "flash counter." Would they still be able to tell?
Has anyone sent a bricked phone in to Samsung before? If so, what were the results?
Also, how much do you think Samsung would charge me to fix it if they found out and voided the warranty? Hopefully less than $50? And they would charge me for shipping too, right?

random_person1308 said:
I tried flashing stock Captivate Gingerbread kernels to no avail. I googled and googled, and I tried everything I found. Including Odin and heimdall.
It was running Gingerbread 2.3.5 when I updated it myself to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3. It was running beautifully. Then I tried to recover my backed-up data, which worked, but then I tried to reboot the phone and it wouldn't boot.
And no, I don't remember seeing any "flash counter." Would they still be able to tell?
Has anyone sent a bricked phone in to Samsung before? If so, what were the results?
Also, how much do you think Samsung would charge me to fix it if they found out and voided the warranty? Hopefully less than $50? And they would charge me for shipping too, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You recovered your apps thru TB? If yes, Didn't you read that you're not supposed to restore apps from titanium from GB to ICS? Might cause problem like this. No flash counter, they're not gonna notice this. Have you tried flashing again stock GB rom?(not just a kernel but a rom) And when you flashed that GB kernel, was that after you flash an ICS rom? Remember, when you're on ICS, you must use ICS kernel and not GB kernel. If it didnt work Just make a good story! Tell them you updated it through kies and updating was interrupted. Im pretty sure 2.3.6 is out on captivate. If they tell you its your fault for updating it, ask them why did they put update on kies when you can't even use it. Plus, they didn't warn you not to update it.

cessprin00 said:
You recovered your apps thru TB? If yes, Didn't you read that you're not supposed to restore apps from titanium from GB to ICS? Might cause problem like this. No flash counter, they're not gonna notice this. Have you tried flashing again stock GB rom?(not just a kernel but a rom) And when you flashed that GB kernel, was that after you flash an ICS rom? Remember, when you're on ICS, you must use ICS kernel and not GB kernel. If it didnt work Just make a good story! Tell them you updated it through kies and updating was interrupted. Im pretty sure 2.3.6 is out on captivate. If they tell you its your fault for updating it, ask them why did they put update on kies when you can't even use it. Plus, they didn't warn you not to update it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I used Clockworkmod to recover data. It worked, and then I hit "reboot system now," and the phone wouldn't boot.
I already shipped the phone off, but thanks for the help, I really appreciate it! If Samsung doesn't fix it I know what to do now!

Ok, so I've been doing some research over the past few weeks and I figured out what I did wrong. I inadvertently tried doing a Nandroid restore (i.e. - restoring the whole system) instead of just apps. And I didn't wipe data first. That's why it was failing to boot. Why I couldn't flash the stock kernel from Odin; I have no idea.
As for the phone; Samsung fixed it free of charge (all they had to do was a reset...) and sent it back to me.
After getting it back, I rooted and installed Clockworkmod recovery using Corn kernel version 7.05. Geeve420 has an excellent guide over on androidforums.com. Then I flashed Cyanogenmod9 RC2, then Slim ICS version 4.2. It's running smoothly, though in 24 hours I have had 1 freeze (I did a battery pull and restarted) and a few force closes.
I also installed that Google Now app (the thread on XDA is called "The Google Now for ICS Project"). In other words, I went from being a complete n00b to getting JellyBean software on my phone! All I did was follow the directions, step-by-step, and it worked.
Thanks to all who helped!

random_person1308 said:
Ok, so I've been doing some research over the past few weeks and I figured out what I did wrong. I inadvertently tried doing a Nandroid restore (i.e. - restoring the whole system) instead of just apps. And I didn't wipe data first. That's why it was failing to boot. Why I couldn't flash the stock kernel from Odin; I have no idea.
As for the phone; Samsung fixed it free of charge (all they had to do was a reset...) and sent it back to me.
After getting it back, I rooted and installed Clockworkmod recovery using Corn kernel version 7.05. Geeve420 has an excellent guide over on androidforums.com. Then I flashed Cyanogenmod9 RC2, then Slim ICS version 4.2. It's running smoothly, though in 24 hours I have had 1 freeze (I did a battery pull and restarted) and a few force closes.
I also installed that Google Now app (the thread on XDA is called "The Google Now for ICS Project"). In other words, I went from being a complete n00b to getting JellyBean software on my phone! All I did was follow the directions, step-by-step, and it worked.
Thanks to all who helped!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good for you then Try not to mess with it again. Haha. Do a lot of reading if you're a little hesistant. Plus, asking before doing so is not problem. We have a lot of helpful xda members here to guide you. Goodluck!