Database Info

[Guide] How to fix roaming/wont activate problem after flashing 4.2.1 rom

***ONLY VERIZON GS3***
A lot of people have been having problems with flashing CM10.1 and the SlimBean 4.2.1 beta. This guide will tell you how to fix the data. At first it looks like you lost your IMEI, but you probably didn't. It is a simple fix.
What you will need:
Odin: http://samsung-updates.com/Odin307.zip
Stock Rom: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wjaifmod7d78lt0/stock.vzw_root66.tar
Instructions:
1. Go into Odin put the stock rom into the PDA part and make sure the check mark next to it is checked.
2. Boot into Download mode by hitting Volume Down + Power + Home
2. Make sure only "Auto Reboot" and "F. Reset Time" are checked under options (if not you can seriously mess up your phone).
3. Flash the stock rom using Odin.
4. Once it says pass in Odin take your phones battery out and boot into recovery by hitting Volume Up + Power + Home.
5. Hit wipe data/factory reset (your phone should restart)
6. Hit the bottom left then right then left then right then volume up to pass activation.
7 Then type *2767*3855# into the phone once you set it up (you shouldn't have to press call).
Now you phone should be fixed, and you should be able to root, unlock your boot loader and try again.
Tip:
When flashing SlimBean 4.2.1 beta 1 and CM10.1 use a dirty flash over a 4.1.1 or 4.1.2 rom.
- Dirty flash is when you don't clear your data before you flash.

thanks
Trying this now, I have been working all day to fix this.
I first ran into problems yesterday, cm10 ran out of room, removed a bunch of stuff( my back ups). Did some flashing and reverting and such. Now i seem to be stuck in roam mode.
Questions: What is the point of step 5?
It just says to load into recovery then next step is once the phone is loaded.
There is no step 6.

Haigot said:
Trying this now, I have been working all day to fix this.
I first ran into problems yesterday, cm10 ran out of room, removed a bunch of stuff( my back ups). Did some flashing and reverting and such. Now i seem to be stuck in roam mode.
Questions: What is the point of step 5?
It just says to load into recovery then next step is once the phone is loaded.
There is no step 6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I'll fix that I was in a rush to get this finished before work.

This works!
But if you are still interested in CM10.1 you can still flash it with data working!
I decided to go out on a limb and tried going from ICS (VRALG1_odex) rooted/unlocked (after using provision code and getting data back) to CM10.1. To my surprise I found I flashed fine and had data!
I highly suggest using this ROM (http://www.sundergaming.com/downloads/sch-i535/tw/VRALG1_Odex.zip) as it uses its own UI when flashing it from recovery and will keep both ROOT and UNLOCKED BOOTLOADER when installing.
My guess is the problem seems to lie somewhere between a tw rom 4.1.1 JB and cm10.1

Luckly I don't have to deal with this and everything rolled over perfectly for cm10.1

Wow, I wished you had posted this before I returned my phone to the store for a warranty replacement!
Would have saved me a few days of agony, flashing and re-flashing that's for sure. Thanks for sharing though! It's good to know there is a fix for this.

You don't have to do this. This happened to me. Flash cm10.1 without any g apps. This will take u past the activation screen. Go into settings and change mobile network settings to SIM and automatic. Reboot phone. Make sure you have data, phone, and sms. Boot into recovery and flash away. U should have everything back on whatever Rom u choose.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

When you boot into recovery, just reboot?
and when i typed in the number, it didnt do anything....

P8ntballa57 said:
When you boot into recovery, just reboot?
and when i typed in the number, it didnt do anything....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I posted this in general and android development because I wasn't sure witch one it was, and when I fixed that I forgot to fix it here but I did now.

I can confirm this worked for me!
But, I couldn't get passed the activation screen in order for me to dial the code to reset phone so what I had to do was tap on the bottom of the screen as follows= Tap Left -Tap Right- Tap Left- Tap Right- then Volume up to get out of activation screen then was I able to dial the code to reset my phone. Thank you for this guide op!!!!

i wish i would have seen this yesterday. after trying to flash CM10.1 and getting stuck in roaming for a day in a half, i had to return mine to Costco and get a new one.

zaccat4 said:
Tip:
When flashing SlimBean 4.2.1 beta 1 and CM10.1 use a dirty flash over a 4.1.1 or 4.1.2 rom.
- Dirty flash is when you don't clear your data before you flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so just to make sure if im on CM 10.0 stable, if i flash the CM 10.1 without wiping or doing a factory reset, i wont go into roaming mode again? I apologize for possibly repeating you but ive had alot of trouble with this.

Ryan92019 said:
so just to make sure if im on CM 10.0 stable, if i flash the CM 10.1 without wiping or doing a factory reset, i wont go into roaming mode again? I apologize for possibly repeating you but ive had alot of trouble with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not necessarily. I did this and I was stuck in roaming but all I had to do was go into wireless settings/mobile network settings and make sure my preferred network was set to LTE/CDMA
you can do all this while your phone is trying to activate.

Anyone have an idea for a better file hosting site?

Will this work on a US Cellular phone?
This site has no section for US Cellular.

nmeseth said:
Will this work on a US Cellular phone?
This site has no section for US Cellular.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you have to get a file for your phone or else you could hard brick it.

zaccat4 said:
No you have to get a file for your phone or else you could hard brick it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got a stock ROM for USC, if I use that will these instructions work?

nmeseth said:
I just got a stock ROM for USC, if I use that will these instructions work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im not sure if the number will work either, it may just be a Verizon thing.

I tried flashing 4.2.1 ROM just to check it out before putting my phone back to stock for a replacement and it borked my network. I tried the method mentioned in the OP and it works great, thanks.

Thank you so much.....you saved my butt and now my phone is working again. Guess I should stop flashing a new rom every couple weeks.

[Q] help needed to unroot GT-N8013EAYXAR

I rooted my Galaxy Note 10.1 about a year ago. I want to bring it back to original unrooted factory settings. I assume that I need to remove the following apps:
SuperSu
SuperUser
Titanium Backup
Triangle Away
I ran the triangle away program and now when I hold down the power and volume down buttons until I get to an Odin screen, it appears that I have no counter problems, it all shows "official", which I guess is good.
I am not sure what steps I need to take next. Should I be uninstalling the above software in any particular order? After that, how do I go about getting the original stock software reloaded again? There is nothing critical on the device that I am worried about from a backup point of view and I know that I can have all of my apps recovered from Google Play.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Run TA flash stock rom via Odin and factory reset is the basics .
Check custom in download mode and in settings about device Status .

What do you mean by "TA", Titanium Backup? In any event, It appears that I was successful in removing SuperSu and all of the other root related apps and I was able to get back to the stock rom. I would, however, like to understand your approach for future reference in case I decide to root again and then need another return path back to stock.
Thanks

bookbean said:
I rooted my Galaxy Note 10.1 about a year ago. I want to bring it back to original unrooted factory settings. I assume that I need to remove the following apps:
SuperSu
SuperUser
Titanium Backup
Triangle Away
I ran the triangle away program and now when I hold down the power and volume down buttons until I get to an Odin screen, it appears that I have no counter problems, it all shows "official", which I guess is good.
I am not sure what steps I need to take next. Should I be uninstalling the above software in any particular order? After that, how do I go about getting the original stock software reloaded again? There is nothing critical on the device that I am worried about from a backup point of view and I know that I can have all of my apps recovered from Google Play.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

kkretch said:
Here is the latest factory firmware for GT-N8013 (WiFi - USA) N8013UEUCMI3_N8013XARCMI3_XAR.zip if you need it.
It maybe better to get a 10 GB free storage account on pCloud before downloading as you could then just do a transfer (much faster) and have the file on your own account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My tablet is rooted and currently running JZO54K N8013UEUCMA3. Can anyone tell me if I can use this firmware to flash my tablet back to stock?

Zeab said:
My tablet is rooted and currently running JZO54K N8013UEUCMA3. Can anyone tell me if I can use this firmware to flash my tablet back to stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like Sam Mobile has the firmware data base working again so go to this link http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/2/and use the firmware checker to download your file.
I believe my file is correct but as sammobile site is back up I'm deleting my link.

problem with up rom
Hiu guys,
Please help me
last time i used N8013 with revolution hd 10.1, till now i tried up new rom on xda but it's not working, its was hand up at samsung logo, and then i tried re setup CMR Download HighOnAndroid v1 ClockworkMod Recovery 6.0.1.1 and then re up rom revolution again, but it till stop at samsung logo, then i find one rom stock on samfirmware KIES_HOME_N8013UEALI3_N8013XARALI3_1081475_REV00_u ser_low_ship.tar but its has a problem ( factory mode has unabale working) and auto turn off wifi, so i dont know how to turn back my best tab before.
Please help me.
Thanks all.

Reflashed Stock ROM after soft brick. System Status is still Custom

Hello,
Recently soft bricked my Note 3 when trying some Google Wallet mods. Wasn't aware of KNOX and tried to flash CMW via Odin to try fix my issue but ended up setting the KNOX Warrenty flag to 0x1. I have since reflashed my stock rom but i noticed when i went back into Download mode, system status and Current Binary are still set to custom. i have performed a factory reset and nothing has changed it. Am i doing something incorrect with the reflashing or is this due to KNOX?
Thanks,
VLEX

vlex26 said:
Hello,
Recently soft bricked my Note 3 when trying some Google Wallet mods. Wasn't aware of KNOX and tried to flash CMW via Odin to try fix my issue but ended up setting the KNOX Warrenty flag to 0x1. I have since reflashed my stock rom but i noticed when i went back into Download mode, system status and Current Binary are still set to custom. i have performed a factory reset and nothing has changed it. Am i doing something incorrect with the reflashing or is this due to KNOX?
Thanks,
VLEX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you must be wipe factory data and wipe dalvic chace after reflashing in recovery mode and reboot system now again
if I help you pleaae click thanks button

Knox flag is a permanent flag, it's a fuse in the CPU that once blown can't be reset (at least not without a Samsung internal tool). Everything will still look and work properly but the status will forever be marked as custom/Knox 1.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

CalcProgrammer1 said:
Knox flag is a permanent flag, it's a fuse in the CPU that once blown can't be reset (at least not without a Samsung internal tool). Everything will still look and work properly but the status will forever be marked as custom/Knox 1.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bugger . Would TriangleAway work with resetting the flash counter? ive used that previously on my S3.

Nope, this is a new system altogether. The older phones used a flash counter stored in flash memory so as long as you could find the flash counter's location, you could reset it. E-fuses are basically just that, fuses. They come from the factory in one state and are permanent. Also known as one-time programmable read-only memory (OTP ROM). When you trip the Knox counter it blows a permanent fuse in the CPU. Now some users reported that they had their Knox counter reset at a store - there could be another section of the OTP memory used for some other value that tells it which OTP location (which "fuse") is the one holding Knox flag status and by burning another fuse could reset the counter, at least until every fuse has been blown (usually there are many hundreds of KB OTP memory so it's a big number, depends how they've programmed everything, also the knox status is only 1 or 2 bits - kernel and recovery flags).
That said nobody knows how exactly it works, we don't have source code for bootloader so right now there's no known hack. If you look in this forum there's a bounty of over $2000 for anyone who manages to figure it out as it's obviously something people want. Personally I don't really care, I blew the knox flag soon after I got it so I could flash a recovery and kernel.

You can simply install Wanam xposed and you can set status to official in there, it works in Stock kernel only, you can install now any custom rom you want but install after stock kernel and you always will be official.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

56665952 7718
BlueChris said:
You can simply install Wanam xposed and you can set status to official in there, it works in Stock kernel only, you can install now any custom rom you want but install after stock kernel and you always will be official.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ill give that a try. Ill report back.
CalcProgrammer1 said:
Nope, this is a new system altogether. The older phones used a flash counter stored in flash memory so as long as you could find the flash counter's location, you could reset it. E-fuses are basically just that, fuses. They come from the factory in one state and are permanent. Also known as one-time programmable read-only memory (OTP ROM). When you trip the Knox counter it blows a permanent fuse in the CPU. Now some users reported that they had their Knox counter reset at a store - there could be another section of the OTP memory used for some other value that tells it which OTP location (which "fuse") is the one holding Knox flag status and by burning another fuse could reset the counter, at least until every fuse has been blown (usually there are many hundreds of KB OTP memory so it's a big number, depends how they've programmed everything, also the knox status is only 1 or 2 bits - kernel and recovery flags).
That said nobody knows how exactly it works, we don't have source code for bootloader so right now there's no known hack. If you look in this forum there's a bounty of over $2000 for anyone who manages to figure it out as it's obviously something people want. Personally I don't really care, I blew the knox flag soon after I got it so I could flash a recovery and kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i flagged mine a few days after buying but as i mentioned earlier, i wasn't aware of the added security. Well, hopefully someone can get around it. Whoever it is will defiantly get a nice pay cheque from it

Safe Way to Downgrade from LL to KK SM-N900

:good: you may know that when u flashed a new firmware mean you'll flash a new bootloader with protect boot you'll MOD EDIT when you flash something wrong with that bootloader you're phone will completely dead my experience of my two device xperia Z1 and Samsung Grand 2 :cyclops: there only one way to unbrick it is to go to phone repair service change motherboard (because we cannot write any programme on it anymore)
Now if you flash LL you want to Downgrade KK
DO NOT CHECK AUTO REBOOT IN ODIN PROCESS !!
Download this clear warranty bootloader :
http://www.mediafire.com/download/d0fw56n3ucj66oh/BL_HA3GZS_CLEAR_WARRANTY_BIT-4.tar
if you flash it success but not see any change of bootloader logs you have to flash it again it'll work
LL bootloader be like :
PRODUCT NAME : SM-N900
CURRENT BINRAY : CUSTOM
SYSTEM STATUS : Custom
REACTIVATION LOCK(KK) : OFF
Secure Download : Enable
KNOX WARRANTY VOID : x
AP SWREV :A4
IF YOU SEE CHANGE OF BOOTLOADER LOGS YOU CAN FLASH KK Firmware without any risk and you're device will reset knox to 0 auto unless you're root or install custom recovery :laugh:

Wow...BRILLIANT GUIDE...that means my note 3 is long ago dead and what I am typing on is a BLOODY GHOST or ZOMBY?
Bcoz I don't know how many times have I reverted to kit kat after flashing lollipop...only first time I had to flash lollipop bootloader and it's still there..it allows me to switch back and forth both android versions...Can't say about knox warranty Bcoz I never cared...but it's nothing that terrifying as ur guide says Bro.
Sent from my beloved Galaxy Note 3

one week ago i flashed the LL for my N900 and i revert back to KK with latest firmware but nothing happen .. all went well .. and the successful almost every time when i tried ..

unisol107 said:
Wow...BRILLIANT GUIDE...that means my note 3 is long ago dead and what I am typing on is a BLOODY GHOST or ZOMBY?
Bcoz I don't know how many times have I reverted to kit kat after flashing lollipop...only first time I had to flash lollipop bootloader and it's still there..it allows me to switch back and forth both android versions...Can't say about knox warranty Bcoz I never cared...but it's nothing that terrifying as ur guide says Bro.
Sent from my beloved Galaxy Note 3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@UniSol
Would you please share the steps to revert back to Kk ? Can I just restore KK back up to revert to KK form android L safely ?

Micheal86 said:
@UniSol
Would you please share the steps to revert back to Kk ? Can I just restore KK back up to revert to KK form android L safely ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah buddy...just restore from recovery your kitkat backup and you are good to go. Unless u flash kitkat bootloader again...you can safely switch between lollipop and kitkat...i had NL4 bootloader installed which allows switching...dont know about NL8 bootloader.

Note 3 sm-n9005
Hi. I installed the leak android 5.0 onto my note 3. I let it on about 85% charge and when i woke up only 60% chargin was left. Now this is not usual as on my kitkat it only use to drain about 3 to 4% in whole night.
I tried to revert back to 4.4.2 but offcourse it gets stuck on the samsung screen and then restarts over and over. Just wanted to know if there is a safe way to get back to 4.4.2 on the sm-n9005 without tripping the knox?
Btw i am now back to android 5.0 so currently running fine.
Just curious to know the way to get back to 4.4.2.
any advise would be greatly appreciated.

aqi1992, you'll need to do a factory reset and a partition wipe from the recovery menu (power off, hold volume UP+home+power buttons to enter). After that it'll boot fine but you'll have to reinstall everything.

Hi. So basically i will need to do the above before flashing the stock 4.4.2?
That means once i have wipes the cache and factory data reset it then after i dont let it restart and straight away flash it with 4.4 2 stock?
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

aqi1992 said:
Hi. So basically i will need to do the above before flashing the stock 4.4.2?
That means once i have wipes the cache and factory data reset it then after i dont let it restart and straight away flash it with 4.4 2 stock?
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I was stuck where you are now. I had flashed 4.4.2 successfuly but it wouldn't boot. So I did what I mentioned in my previous post (AFTER flashing) rebooted, and everthing was fine.

Ok. I get it. I did try factory data reset but didnt do partition wipe. I will try that and feed back on it.
One last question, will i be able to get ota if i put stock 4.4.2 when android l comes out?
My knox is not tripped yet.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

I expect you will be, but I wouldn't know for a fact.

Well thank you. I will give android 5 a couple of more days and if it still drains battery then i might revert back.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

Right on.

no one
no one will downgrade to that fail kit kat

Fail kitkat?! Now that's subjective.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

q8peace said:
no one will downgrade to that fail kit kat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rofl
As per my experience (read about it here), at least I'm downgrading.

I have to say that i have tried android 5 on my oneplus. I have had note 4 which i recently sold and currently using the note 3 with android 5.
The thing is i wont call kitkat a joke or neither i think the colors here are bad looking. I think the samsung implementation is much better than plain android. But again hey thats just me.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Free mobile app

Tried to wipe cache partition and factory data reset but no luck!
WhiskeyCobra said:
aqi1992, you'll need to do a factory reset and a partition wipe from the recovery menu (power off, hold volume UP+home+power buttons to enter). After that it'll boot fine but you'll have to reinstall everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey i have just tried above and it doesn't work.
The phone goes to either samsung logo or sometimes even before that it's just in bootloop. It went to the upgrading android only once when it was stuck on 72 out of something and i had to restart it but after that it never worked.
Also when i flashed android 5 i also flashed the .pit file that came with that. and also the bootloader file so it might be the bootloader file that is initiating this problem.

first attempt at this seemed to be going ok. after flashing with odin i tried to restart manually (think i pulled battery cause i couldnt reboot via PB).
immediatley went to recovery mode to flash new rom. didnt wipe nothing but flashed ketan k12 rom, and got stuck at samsung logo. went to reboot and got weird red screen (of death) i thought but continued on into download mode, where i saw the change you mention. Anyways cause of the many reboots i did to see if the dam thing was stuck i reverted trying to flash kit kat via odin (didnt work). went back to download mode after more failed attempts to boot correctly, i decided to flash lollipop back onto my phone via odin. still didnt reset factory in recovery, and now im back to square one lol.
so my guess is that i messed up cause i didnt factory reset for a new rom, but answer me this please... is it normal to have that red screen cause i didnt restart download mode correctly. you did mention not to have it check, so how am do i restart correctly? thankyou in adavnced (unless i figure it out before your reply LOL).

unisol107 said:
Yeah buddy...just restore from recovery your kitkat backup and you are good to go. Unless u flash kitkat bootloader again...you can safely switch between lollipop and kitkat...i had NL4 bootloader installed which allows switching...dont know about NL8 bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@UniSol
Thanks. It works. I had NL4 bootloader installed.
Now I just want to know that can I flash any other KK rom through CWM with this above said bootloader safely, as I did earlier when I had KK bootloader installed ?
Thank you once again for your suggestion.

[Q] Having trouble with "RECOVERY IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING" message

Alright, I'm at my wit's end and I've searched the web far and wide. Tonight I thought I'd root, recover and MOD my S5 (have done so before with the S3 and Epic many times).
Ran into a series of problems, but here is where I'm at presently:
I got Philz touch recovery working fine. I used it to install [MOAR][NE5] v2.2 / The Next Level / Wicked Sick / Endless Customization which noted a couple errors (didn't say which) but overall seemed to call the installation a success.
Then I go to restart and I get the Samsung S5 splash, followed by dark screen and reset vibration, the following message:
(blue) RECOVERY BOOTING
(red) RECOVERY IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING
(yellow) SET WARRANTY BIT: recovery
which then kicks me back to Philz touch.
Any idea what I can do? I'm glad I can at least get to recovery (and download mode). Hopefully at worst putting stock on the SD and installing that from Philz would solve the problem... but I'm a little pessimistic since the ROM I just installed doesn't seem to work. Thanks for any help, I really appreciate it.

put the stock rom this why i dont mess with my 599.99 phone

You can always Odin back on stock and start over, or flash a different rom.

sersdf said:
Alright, I'm at my wit's end and I've searched the web far and wide. Tonight I thought I'd root, recover and MOD my S5 (have done so before with the S3 and Epic many times).
Ran into a series of problems, but here is where I'm at presently:
I got Philz touch recovery working fine. I used it to install [MOAR][NE5] v2.2 / The Next Level / Wicked Sick / Endless Customization which noted a couple errors (didn't say which) but overall seemed to call the installation a success.
Then I go to restart and I get the Samsung S5 splash, followed by dark screen and reset vibration, the following message:
(blue) RECOVERY BOOTING
(red) RECOVERY IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING
(yellow) SET WARRANTY BIT: recovery
which then kicks me back to Philz touch.
Any idea what I can do? I'm glad I can at least get to recovery (and download mode). Hopefully at worst putting stock on the SD and installing that from Philz would solve the problem... but I'm a little pessimistic since the ROM I just installed doesn't seem to work. Thanks for any help, I really appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have heard that philz doesn't work right with all base bands and ROMs, that may just be hearsay. Did you do a full wipe before you flashed the ROM?
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app

Yea, TWRP has been the most reliable for me, not for everyone though and vice versa.

emanuelrv said:
put the stock rom this why i dont mess with my 599.99 phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair enough. I actually was happy with just root to remove the bloat but I think I deleted something critically by accident while removing Sprintzone crap.

metalfan78 said:
You can always Odin back on stock and start over, or flash a different rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, I might try a different recovery (TWRP) first, but if that doesn't work you're right. Thanks.

metalfan78 said:
Yea, TWRP has been the most reliable for me, not for everyone though and vice versa.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, no luck there either (can get into TWRP and flash the ROM but same boot problem). Got a bad feeling I'm bricked, but will try to flash stock through Odin :-/ Thanks

If you can get into recovery or download mode you are not bricked. Odin is your best bet.

What firmware was your phone running? It is possible you don't have the correct firmware installed for the ROM. You could also try reflashing the ROM. Don't worry about the warning you are getting, that shows up because your recovery is not stock.
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app

drteeths said:
What firmware was your phone running? It is possible you don't have the correct firmware installed for the ROM. You could also try reflashing the ROM. Don't worry about the warning you are getting, that shows up because your recovery is not stock.
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NE5. Hmm, that makes sense, perhaps that was the problem. Ultimately, I Odin-ed to NK4 which solved matters (well, unbricked anyways).

Well good news for you is that MOAR 5.0 has been released.
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app