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unrecoverable soft brick even with USB JIG

so yeah i got my first replacement after the first time this happened... i tried flashing krylon360's rom with odin but got a fail at factory.rfs. keep in mind i am in no way shape or form a noob with odin, i have brought many of my buddies' devices back to life, but for some reason even though i use a USB jig ( which works in my captivate and personally tested and working on the SGS4g before the unrecoverable soft brick) any help please i dont want to have to send it back to t-mobile again... they already charge 10bucks just for shipping.

muleman said:
so yeah i got my first replacement after the first time this happened... i tried flashing krylon360's rom with odin but got a fail at factory.rfs. keep in mind i am in no way shape or form a noob with odin, i have brought many of my buddies' devices back to life, but for some reason even though i use a USB jig ( which works in my captivate and personally tested and working on the SGS4g before the unrecoverable soft brick) any help please i dont want to have to send it back to t-mobile again... they already charge 10bucks just for shipping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm I'd say if the USB jig didn't work, you're not soft bricked. That's a hard brick.
What kind of USB jig are you using?
Was it a ROM or a kernel you flashed? which one, version etc.?

Jig - verified WORKING before the flash attempt
tried to flash [ROM-ODIN]T959VUVKB5 Stock + Root By: krylon360
new sgs4g
new USB cable
opened Odin first, set file
plugged in phone got a good port connection
clicked "Start"
failed at factory.rfs
phone--!--comp screen
unresponsive to JIG

donation rewards for anybody that can help! lol this is depressing, my old captivate isnt this sensitive and has been through hell and back, but this SGS4g.... im dissappointed in.

Uninstall all the drivers for the phone make sure you have the right ones also, and try plugging it into a usb 2.0 slot then run it again, this seemed to work for me. I ran into the same issue I plugged in my jig but it gave me a black screen, but odin recognized it and I flashedthe kd1 update and it was fixed. Hope this helps

muleman said:
Jig - verified WORKING before the flash attempt
tried to flash [ROM-ODIN]T959VUVKB5 Stock + Root By: krylon360
new sgs4g
new USB cable
opened Odin first, set file
plugged in phone got a good port connection
clicked "Start"
failed at factory.rfs
phone--!--comp screen
unresponsive to JIG
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hold your horses... I got some news for you.
you can flash at that screen
try flashing mine again, or try white's ODIN image.

Along with what krylon said, maybe a bad download, try download file again
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA Premium App

will do thanks guys, ill try it tonight and let ya know how it goes for me.

i still dont get how odin gets a connection but the phone itself cannot with the jig... not logical but hey in the process of flashing now

krylon360 said:
hold your horses... I got some news for you.
you can flash at that screen
try flashing mine again, or try white's ODIN image.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
youre the man.... Thanks much

muleman said:
i still dont get how odin gets a connection but the phone itself cannot with the jig... not logical but hey in the process of flashing now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heimdall works at that same warning screen too. I've done it on my SGS4G.

I am confused..
sgyee said:
Heimdall works at that same warning screen too. I've done it on my SGS4G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the computer is not recognizing the phone being plugged in, how is ODIN going to be able to process? I don't know if mine SGS4G is irrepairable but when I plug it in to the computer, it will not even show up on device manager. The drivers have been installed in the past and I have used ODIN before.
When I try using ODIN now it won't work since it won't recognize the phone.
I have used JIG and simply will not buzz. It's pretty much as dead as if the phone is not even on.
Any help guys??

amishraa said:
If the computer is not recognizing the phone being plugged in, how is ODIN going to be able to process? I don't know if mine SGS4G is irrepairable but when I plug it in to the computer, it will not even show up on device manager. The drivers have been installed in the past and I have used ODIN before.
When I try using ODIN now it won't work since it won't recognize the phone.
I have used JIG and simply will not buzz. It's pretty much as dead as if the phone is not even on.
Any help guys??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If its currently in the state which I'm assuming..
-won't turn on, no sign of life period...
-plugging it in the wall charger won't even show the green battery status...
-won't get recognized when plugged into pc (or odin)...
-all combinations of buttons and battery pulling+usb cable plugging does nothing...
Yea I think its safe to say it went to a land far far away just like my friend's phone and only Samsung can revive it now.. Because I remember reading all the stories how everyone brought theres back to life so easily with the button combos or the jig usage, but those phones all at least showed a sign of life with that cable screen. But if its pitch black like I'm assuming then...

Same here. The jig didn't seem to work - I still got the cell + comp but odin worked anyway and reflashed stock. It's probably better to run Odin off a desktop if you have one.

That screen scared the holy hell out of me a couple of days ago. I ended up having to re-install the samsung drivers for windows 7 and then odin picked the phone right up. The reason I *knew* the phone was recoverable from that screen was simple, though:
I read the screen. It wouldn't be telling you to try something in Kies if you couldn't do anything at that screen. So, I just kept ****ing around trying different things until it worked.
*I* have personally noticed that that screen tends to come up when you accidentally or inadvertently select "Re-Partition" on a rom/image that's not setup for it, or if for any reason your phone gets disconnected or powered off during the flashing process.

That screen scared the holy hell out of me a couple of days ago. I ended up having to re-install the samsung drivers for windows 7 and then odin picked the phone right up. The reason I *knew* the phone was recoverable from that screen was simple, though:
I read the screen. It wouldn't be telling you to try something in Kies if you couldn't do anything at that screen. So, I just kept ****ing around trying different things until it worked.
*I* have personally noticed that that screen tends to come up when you accidentally or inadvertently select "Re-Partition" on a rom/image that's not setup for it, or if for any reason your phone gets disconnected or powered off during the flashing process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this. I have been running into this screen while trying to install root from the 2.3.4 leak. I have had black screen, fuzzy screen, random pixel screen. In most cases I have been able recognize the phone using odin. A few of the key steps that I have used to get the phone recognizable in odin are:
1. If the computer says "usb not recognized" when initially plugging in the phone, uplug it and plug it back in. Most of the time when I do this the phone is recognized as samsung device.
1b: If odin now recognizes the phone after running through step 1 I will try to flash the files again. it will usually fail after trying to load the flash files on the first try. I have to mess around with this process a few times and I can usually get a successful flash.
2. I had an case when having to deal with this problem yesterday. I was running through steps 1,1b and not having success. Odin was hanging, (I forget which step). I let it sit for about 10 minutes and was still hanging. I unplugged the phone with odin still hanging pulled battery, powered on, plugged back in. Odin, which was still open and still trying to connect, continued its already started process after plugging it back in!!! This was an accident to still have the odin running and trying to connect, but after reconnecting the phone it successfully flashed!
*I* have personally noticed that that screen tends to come up when you accidentally or inadvertently select "Re-Partition" on a rom/image that's not setup for it, or if for any reason your phone gets disconnected or powered off during the flashing process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These kind of observations are especially helpful! I can concur that I get the same <phone..!..pc> error, when odin tries to flash and gets a write fail, however, I do not have the "re-partition" option set. I then have to run through my previously mentioned steps to try to get a successful flash.
My question is what can i do to keep odin from failing to write when flashing?? I have only been using PDA packages, with the exception of using discrete packages (pit,csc,phone,pda) when loading the 2.3.4 rom leak.
It seems like the flashing write error in odin in causing the <phone..!..pc> error quite often with different flash processes. Does anyone have a solution to what might be causing this write error and what can be done to prevent this whole cycle? If so I sticky or new thread might be useful for other users. It has caused to have to warranty my first phone, urrrg!

Scariest feeling ever........ Not seeing your phone come up on Odin.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA Premium App

Woops ahahahha. Was talkin to my friend. SOrry!

fvnktion said:
I second this. I have been running into this screen while trying to install root from the 2.3.4 leak. I have had black screen, fuzzy screen, random pixel screen. ..... [cut] ......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue yesterday, when I tried to flash KD1 vanilla (stock) ROM
using ODIN, it failed the first 4 seconds, it boots into fuzzy looking screen and
that's it, every time I tried to boot it the fuzzy screen fades away to pitch black.
there is 2 possibilities that messed up the whole thing for me:
1) Bad ROM.. (i.e, can't be used with ODIN) although some members said it works
but don't know if there anything special to do before hand, if I want to downgrade.
2) Samsung Kies' fault, I installed just right before I used ODIN, and told me my
device is not registered.. hmm.
It could be both cases, but I suspect Kies the culprit, I had to uninstall it, and
uninstall the drivers came with it, installed the drivers found here in these forums,
and Odin recognized a COM port, although black screen on the phone, flashed
to KH1 and I am back to business. phew..
GB is awesome, but I can't stand the weak WIFI issue even with the latest KH1
I have to stand 3 feet away from my router to get a solid signal, with froyo
vanilla rom, I was able to connect like 50 feet away. but that's another problem
not for this thread.
Heh funny thing I read today in some thread, there is a conflict between Kies and
Odin after the incident happened. my fault for not reading a lot, jumping the gun
almost cost me the phone :/

Bricked... Read nearly every post available.

Is it possible to perm brick your phone? My phone got stuck somewhere in the middle of an Odin flash and I had to pull the plug. Since then I have been stuck at the "Phone...!....Computer" picture.
I can get the downloading "Do not turn off Target!!!" section with the cable plugged in and no battery. I also have it recognized by Samsung PSLite, but when I'm trying to flash the stock rom back on through PSLite it disconnects as soon as it goes to 0%.
Will it make a difference that I have Win7 64bit and the VIA drivers say 32bit on them? I'm pretty sure I have every other driver that's needed.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated. I'm a sad panda without my new phone :-(

Go to the dev section of this forum.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=14147928&postcount=3
Follows these directions exactly. Will recovery your phone for you.
Good part is, you are not bricked.

Yeah, I've been following a couple of forums that all show nearly the exact same directions. Been getting stuck on the same area...
I have very little knowledge of any of this other than following instructions (obviously not that well) but something tells me it has to be a driver issue.
The VIA drivers I installed say 32bit and my machine is Win7 64. Also, when I plug the phone in it is recognized by my computer with no errors. Once I start the install and it gets to "VIA download" I get the error - then my computer tells me the device was not recognized. I have to do a full reboot to get my computer to recognize my phone again.
Thanks for the directions

Hey man, if that isnt working for you (which I dont see how.) You can always call tech support and say your phone is not booting, even after you pull the battery out. Just say it stays stuck on the samsung screen. They will send out a new phone. Just saying but it should work regardless. Also try another USB port, see if that solves your issue and make sure you are using the OEM usb cable.

I'm assuming this will work for you. It did for me. I had the same screen.
Download first file.
Odin 1.82
Open Odin then hook up your phone and put into download mode with the battery out. Crucial part here. Put the battery back in. After flash the first file I linked you to but make sure you check the PDA option and do it through PDA only.
Should fix it I do believe.

If you follow that exactly like is says. from start to finish. forgetting that you have ever tried anything before. And still follow it. You will be fine. download everything it says download, and follow the instructions exactly.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.
I've been trying everything suggested on here except getting a newer version of Odin. When I get in tonight I'll keep trucking along with different tweeks.
The good news is I accepted defeat (Grrr!) and have a warranty replacement on the way. It kills me that I couldn't get this on my own.
I've even installed everything on my laptop with the exact same results. As soon as I get to the downloading portion where it shows 0% the phone disconnects and my computer tells me it is no longer recognized. This was in PSLite. Odin simply says FAIL when I try to flash that method.
I have a week to return the first phone. I'll use that time to get all my drivers in order and get this figured out.

After you put the phone into download mode when it was hooked up to the computer did you put the battery back in? I had the same screen as you and when I tried to use Odin it would just say it failed every time. Put the battery back into your phone after it is in download mode before you try to flash with Odin.

Also for PSLite I had to plug in the phone (in download mode) before starting PSLite (opposite of ODIN).

Odin... OdinOdinOdinOdin!
That was my problem. I was using silly PSLite instead of Odin.
Thanks again everyone for the help! Now to see if I can break her again...

mikepic said:
Odin... OdinOdinOdinOdin!
That was my problem. I was using silly PSLite instead of Odin.
Thanks again everyone for the help! Now to see if I can break her again...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually PSLite worked for me and not ODIN, but for others ODIN worked. I guess it is good to try both. Too bad both seems so flaky! Rooting on the OG droid was a breeze compared to the charge. The OG droid was indescructible.

elucid said:
Actually PSLite worked for me and not ODIN, but for others ODIN worked. I guess it is good to try both. Too bad both seems so flaky! Rooting on the OG droid was a breeze compared to the charge. The OG droid was indescructible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then go back to the OG Droid. It takes literally 10 min to root a Droid Charge. If you follow the instructions like we tell you to, its not hard at all.

dragonstalker said:
Then go back to the OG Droid. It takes literally 10 min to root a Droid Charge. If you follow the instructions like we tell you to, its not hard at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree rooting was really easy. Several people have had issues where they needed to restore using and ODIN and it complete fails (this is after using ODIN successfully to flash ROMS, recovery, kernels). See the end of this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1108115
You can blame it on user error, but I can assure you that I didn't do anything that should have caused my /data partiion to not mount. Sometimes things happen and the last thing you want is ODIN failing to flash when you have a brick on your hands.

Hope you fix your phone :] It always pains me to see one of these posts where someone has a bootloop or even a dreadful brick.

Question regarding odin (solved)

Ok I have looked at thread after thread and saw some similar issues but no real solution that has worked for me. Long story short, my brother tried updating his SGS4G and "says" the cable came out during update. Basically phone was stuck in communication with pc screen. After tons of trial and error button combos, jig, etc. I was about to give up as I couldn't get it into download mode. Well got bored so tried again and somehow got Odin to recognize the phone and started to flash the K1. Unfortunately, it failed before completing and now I can get the phone into DL mode but Odin nor the PC will recognize it. It sort of boot loops a couple times then loads up to home screen for a few seconds during media scanning then trips right back to Galaxy S 4g screen and starts the boot loop deal over again. I was able to check before it cut off and it has unknown baseband. Is there any other way to get Odin to recognize while in download? I have done all the steps then plug in phone etc. Odin just sits there and PC said usb not recognized. Tried 3 different PCs with XP, Linux, and Win 7. Is the baseband the issue for getting it recognized now? If I can ever get Odin to recognize I was hoping to manage a full backup to stock and then worry about the baseband issues but for now I am stuck and would have pulled all my hair out by now but I am bald. Any advice or pointing in the right direction would be great.
Edit: Thanks for the help. After tons of attempts I got Heimdall to recognize and got it flashed back to stock.. Still isn't recognizing all the time but hopefully it will enough to allow me to root it before I give it back to him. Thanks again I read and read and tried all sorts of stuff multiple times.

If you can get into download mode. Just start ODIN whether it recognizes phone or not and see what happens. And double check your settings are correct in ODIN. Make sure u have latest version as well. Or try Heimdall.
EDIT: Go ahead and tell us whether you were on FROYO or GB. And why were you flashing K1? And what is K1? KC1?
Are you using FB's GB Ext4 Starter Pack?

Odin can sometimes be a pain. If the computer gives you the "un recognized device" keep trying. Tried different cable and USB port and reinstalling drives and such? Lots of others have had luck using the one click.. Heimdel package. But, I'm an Odin fan... If you get any sign of life from PC while it loops, that's a start.
if you have adb loaded, have you tired to spam the reboot download command while the phone loops?? Its another way to see if it does/can get into download mode..

Did you get it working? If so mark the the title [SOLVED].

I'm in a little trouble here.

Well, Ive been flashing roms for a while now and I have an issue with my captivate.
Lets start in the beginning. I had my captivate on THS ICS rom and It was going great. But my captivate isn't that great anymore. The power button is broken, but I was able to go around that. (Sidenote: It turns on when I plug in the battery.) Anyway, I wanted to go back to stock because I did have the right bootloaders. (I couldnt get into download mode with the button combination. I thought it was the bootloaders fault. Im I wrong?) I wanted to switch to I9000 bootloaders but I had to start fresh. But before all that, I noticed that while I was on ICS rom, I was unable to go to download mode. I used to before, but it magically disappeared (I know it didnt, I know I did something to it but I don't quite remember when it happened.) So I was unable to flash a new rom, if I wanted to.
A couple of days ago, I bought a jig and it worked! It took me straight to download mode. So I decided to get my Captivate and make it go back to stock. So I opened Odin, it found my Cappy and I clicked start. But, it stopped at factoryfs.rfs. I waited a half hour and nothing. So I unplugged it and now it won't turn on. But it can still go into Download Mode and be seen by Odin but it just wont finish. I tried both odin one click and the regular odin. I looked everywhere for more than six hours and nothing came up. Please guys, if anyone knows what I can do to fix it, please reply.
I might have missed something, but just ask if you need any more info. Please help me.
Edit: I forgot to add this:
While I was on the ICS rom, I switched over to CM7 to see if the process of going back to stock would be easier. Thats when I tried to flash stock. It didnt work as well as I thought it would.
And I knew that I didnt have I9000 bootloaders because I installed the Icy Glitch kernel and each time I tried to have DIDDLE on it would go to deep sleep mode and I was unable to wake it back up.

As long as you can get to download mode you are fine. Try flashing a different stock from. Or using Hiemdell

I've tried both odin and Hiemdell. But with Hiemdell, it would always tell me that I dont have the drivers installed. So, it installs it for me. Even with the drivers installed, it keeps telling me that I dont have the proper drivers installed.

I have had this exact problem, where a bricked captivate can get into download mode but when restored to stock through a one-click, it freezes on the factoryfs.rfs. However, in my case after freezing at this stage, the phone was completely inoperable, and could not even enter download mode, so I am suprised yours could.
What works for me is to remove the battery, wait for a few seconds, put the battery back in, use the usb jig to enter download mode, and then WITHOUT the phone plugged into the pc, download and open this one-click file http://http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731989.
Once the odin one click is open, plug the usb cable into the pc, and then into the phone. This one-click has never failed me. Hope this helps.

Ok, now it passed. I don't know what I did but now its back up and running. But now it boots up into recovery. I can't select anything because my phone's power button is broken. What do I do?

Juiceboy125 said:
Ok, now it passed. I don't know what I did but now its back up and running. But now it boots up into recovery. I can't select anything because my phone's power button is broken. What do I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on the CWM recovery you're in, you can sometimes use the search capacitive key to do the same thing as the power button will do.

I had the same problem you had with Odin stopping on flashing a file, turns out I was using a third party USB cable. I switched to the USB cable provided by Samsung when I bought my cappy and problem solved. Hope that helps.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA

Finally!
Well, I got my Cappy up and running again. While I was stuck in the CWM I just decided to install Gingerbread using a One click and it worked. Now I'm back to CM9. Thanks guys for the suggestions. I guess I just needed to wait and double check everything.

[Q] download mode keeping rebooting?!

My sidekick was soft bricked so i used odin to recover it. now when i plug it in it goes immediately to the download mode screen and is recognized by odin. problem is is it restarts after min or so. odin starts flash modem passes, kernel passes, but while flashing the factoryFs, it gets to 53% and the phone restarts and it fails. it does this in oneclick odin and also in odin3. any help would be much appreciated. the phone wont work unless plugged in and it restarts every min.

Have you used Odin before?
If not, try downloading a new recovery image for your device.
You'll have to use the ability to search the interweb to get yourself one. Go get it.

Try reinstalling drivers for your phone on your OS. Reinstalling JRE (Java Realtime Enviroment) backup and clear your sdcard, then do as you have been doing before and let me know if you can get somewhere, thanks!
Sent from my SGH-T839 using XDA

yes, ive used orin before with no problem. my little girl plugged my phone while it was flashing and causing it go to the phone-!-computer screen. I was able get it out of that but now its doing what i stated earlier. i been lookin for the image you mentioned but it seems all the links but so far all the link are bad or have the fbi warning on it. imma keep trying to look for it though.
Ive reinstalled the drivers several times, changed usb ports, i only have one usb cord that i could get to work so im stuck s far as that goes. not sure how to do the jre but ill google it, in all the threads i read on here your the first to mention jre. i havent had a sd card in the phone since it messed up, should there be? i let you know if it works. thanks