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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!

Cell phone ! PC-- HELP!!! trying to install 2.2

ok so i went to AT&T webiste to install 2.2. well not my phone is stuck on a black screen with the cell phone ! PC picture.. I have tried to hold teh volume keys and power etc.. nothing all i get is that picture.. What can i do to fix this tonite??

Buy a jig. You would have come to that conclusion already if you had bothered searching the forums.

Pull battery, sim, external sd. Put battery back in. hold just volume up and down, plug in usb. Do you get to an android guy with s shovel? If so you will likely recovery tonight. If not you will need a usb jig

mcord11758 said:
Pull battery, sim, external sd. Put battery back in. hold just volume up and down, plug in usb. Do you get to an android guy with s shovel? If so you will likely recovery tonight. If not you will need a usb jig
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^ This. People don't always need a jig. (most cases they won't). Try that first then if every way imaginable of doing that fails. Build a jig (if you know how, there's a thread around here somewhere) or buy one.

well now if anything was CLEAR on the steps to fix this i wouldn't be asking..
I get the android with the shovel sometimes, but when i started the mini keis the install fails.. wants me to do emergency recovery which i do then that fails. that is when i get the cell ! pc screen..
sorry if i am asking.. just new to this and this was my first post..

Forget kies for now, that is not going to help you now, you can get to that screen though correct?
Pull your battery, on the left side on the white sticker is your build number. Something like 1008. What is yours

This should help in many cases.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=944418
Flash stock software.

It might just be that you need a new usb cable because I had the same problem where it seem to get stuck when I tried to flash the new firmware and I got the same screen you got but I tried a different usb cable and it worked.

Come on mods do some modding

i think the build # is 1083
I just changed the usb cord. followed these steps:
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.
Get the android guy with shovel.. downloading etc..
I looked at the odin screen and it shows:
0:[COM7} in the ID:com
But feels like nothing is happening..

sorry sticker says CE1068!

Redjules8 said:
sorry sticker says CE1068!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no model 1068 or 1083

Redjules8 said:
ok so i went to AT&T webiste to install 2.2. well not my phone is stuck on a black screen with the cell phone ! PC picture.. I have tried to hold teh volume keys and power etc.. nothing all i get is that picture.. What can i do to fix this tonite??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're trying to upgrade to 2.2 from AT&T then you don't need to enter download mode or recovery mode. First make sure that USB debugging is unchecked.
Go to Menu>Settings>Applications>Development
Go back to Applications>USB Settings
(Recommended) Check ask on connection
Assuming you already have the drivers installed, open Kies mini as this is how to install the update. Plug in the USB cord, check the Kies (firmware update) button on the phone and wait for Kies mini to find your phone.
If it finds your phone it will do the rest. Just be patient. Good Luck!

bornjamerican said:
If you're trying to upgrade to 2.2 from AT&T then you don't need to enter download mode or recovery mode. First make sure that USB debugging is unchecked.
Go to Menu>Settings>Applications>Development
Go back to Applications>USB Settings
(Recommended) Check ask on connection
Assuming you already have the drivers installed, open Kies mini as this is how to install the update. Plug in the USB cord, check the Kies (firmware update) button on the phone and wait for Kies mini to find your phone.
If it finds your phone it will do the rest. Just be patient. Good Luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good one.. I like how you just gave him a bunch of advice he can't really use in a soft-brick situation, even after quoting him saying that he's soft bricked

I do this regularly (switching between roms and kernals). The easiest way I fix it is to use Odin3_v1.0 and just load some random pda/kernal/modem files in there and run it. When it gets into the OS, just turn it off and use Odin3 to put I897UCJF6-final-OCD-REV0 back on it. Works every time.

[Q] Need help with serendipity 7 soft brick

i have a samsung captivate (build 1012) that i recently soft bricked and so far i have found no way to get it into download mode to revive it. i have used odin one click and flashed other roms before and im not new to all of this, but this one is just not working out so well. it was on serendipity 6.4 and i wanted to update to serendipity 7 beta 2 so i downloaded all the files i needed and went into download mode to flash gingerbread. odin went just fine until it reached the step where it says "do not power off target" and then froze and didnt go any further than that. so i unplugged the phone and every button combination i know to put it into download mode to run through odin one click and it simply wont do it. it is stuck on the phone-!-pc screen and thats all it will do. i have tried the gb bootloader button combinations and froyo combinations. im about to just order a jig because it looks like thats all i can do. has anyone else had something similar happen? i need all the help i can get.

I have experience in this area but not with Samsung devices. Is the bootloader unlockable, and if so have you unlocked it. Also, have you gotten any software on your computer to recognize your phone?

i have unlocked it and i do have the 64 bit drivers for my phone (im running windows 7 64 bit) and i have always been able to do this but i think odin screwed up my ability to get into download mode because of my build number :/

What Screen do you get when you power on? Phone ! Computer? Or something else?
Sent from my Galaxy S Firefly 3.0

Can you get any sign of fastboot protocol support, or Koushs Clockworkmod recovery. You said you have installed the drivers, but when you plug it into your computer does your computer recognize your device as anything. Sorry about this whole situation
Hey i found this. I have not the slightest clue if it will help you but i will post it here just in case.
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.
Make sure to try this a few times if it does not work imediately.
I hope it works and wish for the best

yeah i get the phone ! computer screen, thats all it will do no matter what combination i try

Try this
Here is another thing to try as button combinations, removing the sdcard and sim seem to be the only possible way out of this
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. Ju..st remember to plug in the usb cable with the vol up and down held in and odin must be open on the computer.
With your current luck this will probably not work but anything is worth a try

From the Phone ! PC screen I've flashed stocked roms. If Odin can see your phone from this screen you don't need to enter download mode because your technically already in an alternate download mode. In theory you should be able to just Flash to stock from the Phone ! PC screen.
Sent from my Galaxy S Firefly 3.0

Does Odin recognize it and did you fix it?

Well I never got the buttons to work :/ but I made a jig from a few resistors and my baby is back once again haha
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I do have one other issue though, I still want to flash serendipity 7 but when I try it odin freezes on "do not turn off target" after setting pit file. Any advice? Its the odin version that comes with serendipity 7. I believe 1.72 or something
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

[Q] phone brick

it all started when i wanted to try the Stock Deodexed T959VUVKG4 with Root, and i went to the red recovery i had, voodo recovery, and i did all the unmount, mount, and all that good stuff.I flahsed the room waiting for the process to finish but i got stock on the galaxy logo. when i went back to the post, i read that recovery didnt work for some reason, so i decided it was time for me to restore my phone using odin, but my pc doesnt recognize my phone anymore, whenever i plug in the cable to the pc, its like nothing has happened, i have installed all of the usb drivers ive seen on the web, but nothing seems to work, any suggestions???/

Did you forget to disable voodoo in CWM and then reboot to un-convert the file system before you started flashing?
to get into download mode, are you sure you are holding both volume up/down buttons down while you plug in the usb?

the kg4 doesnt have the bootloaders, so you should be able to get into download mode using the three button combo.

i disabled voodo lagfix but i did not reboot the phone instead i flashed the room right after. and i am holding both volume up/down buttons down while i plug in the usb and i see the download pictures and everything

and what do i do if my pc doesnt recognize my phone???

djj.p said:
and what do i do if my pc doesnt recognize my phone???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had an issue where my pc would not recognize my phone in download mode after flashing the original 2.3.4 posted by chadster. I finally got it to recognize it by installing all the drivers used with heimdell. Hope that helps.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA Premium App

ive tried that but the only driver that my pc recognizes is my wireless driver.thanks for the help everybody.

ok. drivers are sometimes a problem. restart the computer and then reinstall the drivers. then plug your phone into a different usb port from what you had it and go into download mode. let me know if that works.

i will try again with Heimdall to see if it works

Can you try taking the battery out for 30secs open odin plug the usb in the phone hold vol up and down then slap the battery in while still holding keep holding it and if a com sign comes up in odin flash it even if screens blank
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA Premium App

it doesnt work

i still have the same problem with the usb drivers, does anybody know how to fix it?

Try uninstalling all your phone's usb drivers, then go to the device manager in system properties, right click on your USB controller, and uninstall the device. Then reboot your pc, and let windows find and reinstall the USB controller. Then reinstall the samsung usb drivers, and see if that works.

I had the same issue once.
I had the same issue before and was able to fix it by rebooting the phone and letting GB boot up. I then turned on debugging mode and plugged the phone into the pc. I then installed the hemi drivers and windows installed the device and everything worked after that. From what I've found, after you flash GB, sometimes it wont recognize the device anymore, so putting the phone into debug mode after booting seems to force it to use the correct drivers. Hope this helps!

I'd try the fevers then hold up and down and put USB cord in
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App

Can't enter download mode anymore

I have rooted and flashed my phone before, but now I am completely unable to get into download mode. None of these methods have worked:
Put in battery, Hold Vol Down + Vol Up and plug in USB
Hold Vol Down + Power and plug in USB
Leave battery out and hold vol down + vol up, plug in USB
Basically I've tried all the methods on the forums and wiki.
This started happening after I used the one click stock Heimdall.. I want to go back to CM.
ADB does not detect my phone so I can't use the adb reboot download option.
SuperOneClick does not detect my phone so I can't root and use CWM.
I am on 2.3.6 which may(?) have a different button combo from what I read.
Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Try reinstalling your drivers

pisherthefisher said:
Try reinstalling your drivers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried 2 different computers and have uninstalled/reinstalled drivers twice. Even completely uninstalled Kies and reinstalled Kies to try. It always says "Please connect your mobile phone".
In the Kies menu I go to Menu > Update Drivers and it stays at 0% forever, but in the previous install process it implies drivers were installed already so maybe that's why.
Thanks for your suggestion

Take battery out, put battery in, vol + and - and USB? You didn't mention that one.

Do you know that it's possible that your phone may be in download mode but the screen is black?

I usually take battery out, plug in usb, hold volume buttons & then drop in battery. Try using your wall charger instead of the computer, it still should go download mode. Try a different cable too.

getochkn and champ1919: just tried those methods on 2 different cables including my wall charger. The phone just boots up into Gingerbread instead of going to download mode.
Another weird thing I just noticed: My phone will not go into a standard "charge" state. If it's turned off (whether through power off or removing battery) and I plug it in, it just boots up.
I wasn't aware DL mode could be a black screen but that's not happening either.

You might have to buy/make you a jig then.

If you pull the battery and put it back in without a usb cord attached does the phone stay off or does it boot up by itself?

hechoen said:
If you pull the battery and put it back in without a usb cord attached does the phone stay off or does it boot up by itself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does stay off, but if I plug in the USB it boots.
Just bought a USB jig on ebay (can't solder) so hopefully that will fix it for me (should have probably just done it earlier considering I've spent a few hours on it now LOL)

wcpyro said:
It does stay off, but if I plug in the USB it boots.
Just bought a USB jig on ebay (can't solder) so hopefully that will fix it for me (should have probably just done it earlier considering I've spent a few hours on it now LOL)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this first. lol I've never used it but it should work.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jakar.rebootwidget&hl=en

App won't do, he's not rooted.

Good catch. I missed the stock heimdall part.

So I got my USB jig, and it got me into download mode right away (yay!)
But I'm still not able to root.
Heimdall simply waits for my device to connect.
Zadig shows "Unknown Device" with USB ID 0000 0000 and gives error Driver Installation: FAILED (Resource already exists)
I tried using the usbdeview tool to remove all Samsung and Android USB drivers, and the same results.
Superoneclick hangs after starting ADB server.
Kies is still not working.
I have tried 3 different USB cables.
Windows now says: One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it.
Is it possible the USB port on my phone only works for charging now? Guessing there's nothing even Samsung can do as I purchased it used over a year ago. It's so weird as the phone is otherwise perfect.

You have to uninstall all the drivers you have again and reboot the pc, then get into download mode plug it in and then try to run a heimdall one-click. I think it should figure out the driver situation on it's own.
If not then run zadig. But don't use kies drivers for heimdall or vice versa or you'll be back in driver hell

TwitchyEye said:
You have to uninstall all the drivers you have again and reboot the pc, then get into download mode plug it in and then try to run a heimdall one-click. I think it should figure out the driver situation on it's own.
If not then run zadig. But don't use kies drivers for heimdall or vice versa or you'll be back in driver hell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried this, didn't work. Still not recognized, and zadig just shows unknown device. Thank you for your help..

I'm with twitchy on this one, sounds like driver issues. Sometimes it gets labeled as a serial gadget.... have you tired the usb port change? Even the one on the back of the pc?

champ1919 said:
I'm with twitchy on this one, sounds like driver issues. Sometimes it gets labeled as a serial gadget.... have you tired the usb port change? Even the one on the back of the pc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it is a driver issue I haven't been able to resolve it so far with Kies, Cclean, Heimdall, Zadig, Mini Kies, or the official samsung drivers on 2 different computers. I've also tried several different ports on my PC and laptop.

Have you tried plugging in the phone in download mode, going into device manager and deleting whatever drivers it has for the phone?