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Dear SK4G XDA community, I bricked my girlfriend's phone and I don't know what to do

So you understand the magnitude of the situation, my very own well being is at stake here.
Anyway, so my girlfriend has a sidekick 4G and complains about it occasionally. So I suggested installing a custom rom on her phone (Smooth Maximus) as a remedy. I get the CWM on her phone, wipe, install the rom, and then as it boots for the first time it hangs on the boot screen (attached to this post) for almost 45 minutes before we decide to try again.
I try to get it to boot into CWM to restore, but it doesn't, it simply will go to that boot screen.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! A million thanks in advance!

Don't worry you can easily recovery from that state, most likely you forgot to check your mounts which causes a soft brick
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1186954
Follow the steps in my thread here or the KD1 version (doesn't matter) and start the process over just be sure to check your mounts before and after flashing the ROM
Sent from my SGH-T839 using XDA App

Hope you made a back up!
Sent from my SK4G

ayoteddy said:
Don't worry you can easily recovery from that state, most likely you forgot to check your mounts which causes a soft brick
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1186954
Follow the steps in my thread here or the KD1 version (doesn't matter) and start the process over just be sure to check your mounts before and after flashing the ROM
Sent from my SGH-T839 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you very much!
sadly it wont boot into download mode for some reason, it simply will flash the boot screen as I hold down Volume Down\trackball\power as if it powering off and on. I'm figuring the phone is now of another world.
does anybody know how samsung might price this repair?

doctor xylophone said:
thank you very much!
sadly it wont boot into download mode for some reason, it simply will flash the boot screen as I hold down Volume Down\trackball\power as if it powering off and on. I'm figuring the phone is now of another world.
does anybody know how samsung might price this repair?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can boot into download the way in thread doesnt work well
Just remove your battery
open odin and load the pit into the pit slot and the tar into pda
plug your phone in without the battery
while holding the vol down and trackpad put the battery in.
(this is an awkward hand postition but possible)
you will get into download mode

tylermaciaszek said:
you can boot into download the way in thread doesnt work well
Just remove your battery
open odin and load the pit into the pit slot and the tar into pda
plug your phone in without the battery
while holding the vol down and trackpad put the battery in.
(this is an awkward hand postition but possible)
you will get into download mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can vouch for this method - it's the ONLY way my phone will boot into download mode.

Someone else was having this issue too
Try this method to install that rom. I posted it in another thread. Hope it helps you out.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16923467&postcount=25

Possible Brick... Not booting past Samsung GS3 logo

Ok, here's where I'm at...
Rooted/Kexec installed
Flashed several ROM's over the last two weeks or so with no issue.
Never did a backup and restore.
Flashed a CM10 Invisitek(?) ROM today and didn't like it.
Before I flashed it, I made a backup of my XTC install.
Tried to restore that XTC and it failed.
Tried to restore again and it said that it passed and I rebooted.
Now, when you turn the phone on, it will boot up to Samsung Custom with a lock icon then flash the Samsung Galaxy SIII screen.
Once it flashes the second screen, it will go to a blank screen and that's it.
I've tried to get the phone into Download mode by pressing both volume keys, home and power at the same time and it boots as described above.
Any nudges in the right direction? :fingers-crossed:

Laramie1997 said:
Ok, here's where I'm at...
Rooted/Kexec installed
Flashed several ROM's over the last two weeks or so with no issue.
Never did a backup and restore.
Flashed a CM10 Invisitek(?) ROM today and didn't like it.
Before I flashed it, I made a backup of my XTC install.
Tried to restore that XTC and it failed.
Tried to restore again and it said that it passed and I rebooted.
Now, when you turn the phone on, it will boot up to Samsung Custom with a lock icon then flash the Samsung Galaxy SIII screen.
Once it flashes the second screen, it will go to a blank screen and that's it.
I've tried to get the phone into Download mode by pressing both volume keys, home and power at the same time and it boots as described above.
Any nudges in the right direction? :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since I'm in a similar situation have you tried using odin

joka10 said:
Since I'm in a similar situation have you tried using odin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't put it in download mode, so I can't use ODIN...

sorry i did see that lol what i ment to ask was can you get into the recovery

joka10 said:
sorry i did see that lol what i ment to ask was can you get into the recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I can't unless I'm missing something other than power/volume up and down/home button at the same time...

try this instead press all three at the same time volume up, home, and power

joka10 said:
try this instead press all three at the same time volume up, home, and power
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I've been doing.

Laramie1997 said:
That's what I've been doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a custom rom still on your sd card, try booting into recovery volume up+home+power and wipe data/ factory reset and then install zip from sdcard.choose your rom and flash.. that should be able to get you to boot up again. I had to do this when my phone would boot up and go blank after the sgs3 logo screen.

Do those two ROMs use different kernels? Because if that's the case, there's your problem. To my knowledge, CWM doesn't backup kernels, so restoring a nandroid wouldn't restore the kernel needed for that particular ROM to function. At least, that's how it was for my old Xperia Play. You needed to flash the new kernel before the ROM to ensure it would boot. With kexec, that's a little different.
But, I could be totally off base. Just throwing my limited knowledge out there for someone to maybe expound upon.

sorry you thru me off in your post above i thought you saying that you pressing all four my mistake but you can go here http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels= and for the channel use either #verizons3 or #verizons3-dev, they can also help you but of course stay on this thread to.

mustbepbs said:
Do those two ROMs use different kernels? Because if that's the case, there's your problem. To my knowledge, CWM doesn't backup kernels, so restoring a nandroid wouldn't restore the kernel needed for that particular ROM to function. At least, that's how it was for my old Xperia Play. You needed to flash the new kernel before the ROM to ensure it would boot. With kexec, that's a little different.
But, I could be totally off base. Just throwing my limited knowledge out there for someone to maybe expound upon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes sense and I overlooked that. Dam.
I wonder if there is a fix???

Laramie1997 said:
That makes sense and I overlooked that. Dam.
I wonder if there is a fix???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It makes sense for some phones, but it doesn't make sense that you're unable to get into download mode. Regardless of the incorrect kernel, you should be able to get into download/recovery mode. What is your device registered as when you plug it into your machine (such as QHSUSB_DLOAD)? Are you running Windows/Mac/Linux?

If your phone turns on you can get to Odin. Your best bet is making a usb jig. It's a special usb end that has 300k ohm resistor between two pins of the usb. When plugged in and the phone turns on it puts you directly into download mode. You can Google on how to make one from a usb cable and resistors from Radio Shack or mobiletechvideos.com sells them for $8.
Once in download/Odin mode you can re flash everything to stock.
Sent from my DROIDX using xda app-developers app

mikejr83 said:
If your phone turns on you can get to Odin. Your best bet is making a usb jig. It's a special usb end that has 300k ohm resistor between two pins of the usb. When plugged in and the phone turns on it puts you directly into download mode. You can Google on how to make one from a usb cable and resistors from Radio Shack or mobiletechvideos.com sells them for $8.
Once in download/Odin mode you can re flash everything to stock.
Sent from my DROIDX using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is your best bet if nothing else is working. I bought one from China on eBay last year for my GNex. I'm glad I've always got it.

Yea, I ended up having to jig it this morning when I got to the office and had access to my other tools. THAT got it into Download mode and allowed me to flash it back to stock. Bizzare evening for sure.
Thanks for all the help!

For the record...
To get into DOWNLOAD mode you hold home, power, and volume DOWN.
Volume up is for recovery.
Hope that helps.

I've seen the samething
joka10 said:
Since I'm in a similar situation have you tried using odin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen the same issue, I was on Senergy and then tried to test CM10, I didn't like it and I went back to Senergy and I flashed it like normal way, however my phone stack on Samsung logo, after 15 minutes pressing all buttons then I was finally able to get recovery, reflashed senegy and it was alright, I Had very less battery, it could be that but not sure..

maybe
Laramie1997 said:
That makes sense and I overlooked that. Dam.
I wonder if there is a fix???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah that's right

Same problem
I had this same problem for a AT&T gs3 but I think my battery died and when I plug it in it won't charge. How can I fix that charging problem and then the start up problem?

[Q] Stuck at Samsung Galaxy S3 boo screen

So i did my best to do my own research and downloaded all the files listed in [HOW-TO] Unbrick your soft bricked Galaxy S III on this forum and i haven't gotten very far. The phone will only get up to the splash screen and goes nowhere from there. I plug it in and it recognizes the phone and loads drivers and when i open ODIN 3 it detects it under the ID:COM port. But when i try and flash the "VARALEC.bootchain.tar.MD5" file it goes from "file analysis " to "setup connection" then stops. Any advice or help please?
boot screen, sorry.

Judging from your post, you're not in download mode. Anytime you use Odin, your phone must be in download mode:
1) Turn your phone off completely
2) Hold Power button, Volume Down, and Home until the phone boots on and vibrates
3) Now you're in Download mode
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

SlimSnoopOS said:
Judging from your post, you're not in download mode. Anytime you use Odin, your phone must be in download mode:
1) Turn your phone off completely
2) Hold Power button, Volume Down, and Home until the phone boots on and vibrates
3) Now you're in Download mode
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So got past that part and got to the flashing. Flashed the bootloader first which passed then i tried to flash the unzipped Stock.vzw_root66.tar. twice so far it's given me a fail. I downloaded the torrent from scratch each time. Thoughts? Thanks for your help with that first step.

killerbunbun22 said:
So got past that part and got to the flashing. Flashed the bootloader first which passed then i tried to flash the unzipped Stock.vzw_root66.tar. twice so far it's given me a fail. I downloaded the torrent from scratch each time. Thoughts? Thanks for your help with that first step.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MD5 sum matches too...

first off why are you flashing a bootchain? that should only be used if your device is truly softbricked...meaning, it will not boot even after flashing back to stock with odin. also try the links in my guide(section 6). flashing the bootchain should only be a last resort because if something goes wrong during flashing, your device could hard brick.

droidstyle said:
first off why are you flashing a bootchain? that should only be used if your device is truly softbricked...meaning, it will not boot even after flashing back to stock with odin. also try the links in my guide(section 6). flashing the bootchain should only be a last resort because if something goes wrong during flashing, your device could hard brick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Thank you for your help and the guide. Made it back to stock safely ... now to wait for the OTA jelly bean update

killerbunbun22 said:
Thank you for your help and the guide. Made it back to stock safely ... now to wait for the OTA jelly bean update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See you in February.

[Q] Newly rooted phone stuck at T mobile Screen.

I completely followed all instructions on how to root the 4g blaze, after Odin, does a reboot the phone stays at the boot up screen? Any ideas, did I over look something?
R/S
Patrick

huwilerp said:
I completely followed all instructions on how to root the 4g blaze, after Odin, does a reboot the phone stays at the boot up screen? Any ideas, did I over look something?
R/S
Patrick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ALL questions in General Section.
To answer you.. try wiping data & cache in CWM.
If you don't have CWM, then you did do something wrong cause you needed to have that prior to rooting.
Sent from my Unicorns' Dust.

huwilerp said:
I completely followed all instructions on how to root the 4g blaze, after Odin, does a reboot the phone stays at the boot up screen? Any ideas, did I over look something?
R/S
Patrick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you install k0nane's root kernel over ICS? If so that's where you went wrong. There's a few threads here where others have done so and have been helped. Check those threads.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app

This is why I "thought" you needed 10 posts or thanks to even post in Dev.
Sigh..Oh well. Guess the search button is too hard to use.

chjema said:
This is why I "thought" you needed 10 posts or thanks to even post in Dev.
Sigh..Oh well. Guess the search button is too hard to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a question.... I used odin3 v 1.85 to root my gs blaze... after i went into a boot loop. after researching i found a thread on site that said to flash siyah??? well i did that and my phone went died..... wont turn on, tried every three button combo i can find, took battery out put it back in, held the volume buttons while putting the battery in and hooking it up to computer... nothing. so im gonna make an assumption that i hard bricked my phone... my question is: will a jig help me get to the download screen or recovery mode?
also i posted this here because it was the best match for my problem

laknbawill said:
I have a question.... I used odin3 v 1.85 to root my gs blaze... after i went into a boot loop. after researching i found a thread on site that said to flash siyah??? well i did that and my phone went died..... wont turn on, tried every three button combo i can find, took battery out put it back in, held the volume buttons while putting the battery in and hooking it up to computer... nothing. so im gonna make an assumption that i hard bricked my phone... my question is: will a jig help me get to the download screen or recovery mode?
also i posted this here because it was the best match for my problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JIG will not help hard brick. PM me and I can offer some help

[q] nexus 5 bricked in first 4 days sos

Alright i got 6 hours before tmbobile store opens and i can HOPEFULLY get an exchange, but not banking on it. btw im new to rooting so i wasnt familiar with the process, but regardless i have hard bricked my NEXUS 5. Title says the problem. I followed wwjoshdew's guide to rooting on youtube, and rooted successfully. But i could'nt for the life of me figure out how to create nandroid. I ended up realizing i didnt download cmw recovery mode and downloaded it from the play store. the app took me to a button that said flash recovery and i hit it and my phone asked for permission from unknown source, i hit ok and it shut down, on 70% battery life. Not turning on please help

Try to boot the phone into bootloader mode. Just hold volume down and the power button. From there try to cycle to recovery. You use your volume down to cycle through the options and power but as select. If you can boot into recovery and have that successfully installed then you can erase your phone and try to power it on from there. If you didn't successful install the custom recovery then you'll have the standard Android recovery. You can erase everything from that too.
These phones are hard to brick and not be able to fix it.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

ruben8448 said:
Try to boot the phone into bootloader mode. Just hold volume down and the power button. From there try to cycle to recovery. You use your volume down to cycle through the options and power but as select. If you can boot into recovery and have that successfully installed then you can erase your phone and try to power it on from there. If you didn't successful install the custom recovery then you'll have the standard Android recovery. You can erase everything from that too.
These phones are hard to brick and not be able to fix it.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't turn on dude. No matter what. I am new to roms but i know what a hard brick is.

You should really read the guides and stickied threads at the top of these forums. The guides are very noob friendly and you wouldn't have bricked your phone. There's one to reset your device to stock as well. There's really no need for this thread and on top of that there is a sticky that says no questions in the General forums.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Determine your phone is actually off. Plug your phone into charge, if a battery sign appears in the middle of the screen then your phone is off.
If your phone is off, hold down the volume down button with the power button to start the bootloader, press volume down twice and press the power button to enter recovery.
If your screen remains black and doesn't show a battery logo, hold the volume up, volume down and power buttons at the same time for a minute, then let go and hold down the power button. Which should hopefully start your phone.

FuMMoD said:
You should really read the guides and stickied threads at the top of these forums. The guides are very noob friendly and you wouldn't have bricked your phone. There's one to reset your device to stock as well. There's really no need for this thread and on top of that there is a sticky that says no questions in the General forums.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should have been around long enough to know that when newbies break their new toys they go nuclear and dismiss all the information around them.

BNNEBULA said:
Alright i got 6 hours before tmbobile store opens and i can HOPEFULLY get an exchange, but not banking on it. btw im new to rooting so i wasnt familiar with the process, but regardless i have hard bricked my NEXUS 5. Title says the problem. I followed wwjoshdew's guide to rooting on youtube, and rooted successfully. But i could'nt for the life of me figure out how to create nandroid. I ended up realizing i didnt download cmw recovery mode and downloaded it from the play store. the app took me to a button that said flash recovery and i hit it and my phone asked for permission from unknown source, i hit ok and it shut down, on 70% battery life. Not turning on please help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You bricked a Nexus?
Hold down Volume Down, Up, and Power to get into fastboot mode. Restore from Factory Image.
Normally, to root a nexus, I fastboot Team Win Recovery Project.
Anyways what you did simply could not HARD BRICK the phone.

zeekiz said:
You should have been around long enough to know that when newbies break their new toys they go nuclear and dismiss all the information around them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously lol. Even though the guides are right there in their faces.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

HELP SOS
FuMMoD said:
You should really read the guides and stickied threads at the top of these forums. The guides are very noob friendly and you wouldn't have bricked your phone. There's one to reset your device to stock as well. There's really no need for this thread and on top of that there is a sticky that says no questions in the General forums.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Nexus5 doesn't flash the Led light or enter bootloader and software . I was flashing the based CM kernel and i followed the instructions nicely, while using TWRP Recovery i pressed reboot system after the flash and the phone suddenly died. I connected it to the PC and the installing drivers popup appeared and it didn't install them, problem(QHSUSB_BULK) it only appeared once. And since that, phone is dead. PLEASE HELP!!!!

Yazan Abzakh171 said:
My Nexus5 doesn't flash the Led light or enter bootloader and software . I was flashing the based CM kernel and i followed the instructions nicely, while using TWRP Recovery i pressed reboot system after the flash and the phone suddenly died. I connected it to the PC and the installing drivers popup appeared and it didn't install them, problem(QHSUSB_BULK) it only appeared once. And since that, phone is dead. PLEASE HELP!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a link to the kernel you flashed? I think you done bricked it good.

Were you using this method?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3beFx-3Ic4
If yes,I think then all Nexus 5 users should be warned about CF's autoroot issues,because I see more and more topics related to this issue.

Simonna said:
Were you using this method?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3beFx-3Ic4
If yes,I think then all Nexus 5 users should be warned about CF's autoroot issues,because I see more and more topics related to this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe the issues you're seeing, appears to be failed emmc, is related to chain fire's auto root. Cf is probably the most popular method to root and it's a coincidence. I've seen these failures with other root methods too.
I think the op flashed a kernel not for his device.

jd1639 said:
I don't believe the issues you're seeing, appears to be failed emmc, is related to chain fire's auto root. Cf is probably the most popular method to root and it's a coincidence. I've seen these failures with other root methods too.
I think the op flashed a kernel not for his device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not a developer so bear with me. I'm just a guy in mpls with a completely stock N5 from Google Play that encountered similar issue as the original post. There was no damage or water issue, or other problem prior to going dead. It had about 50% battery and maybe 15 minutes after reading an email it was dead when I looked at it again. It just simply turned off while in my pocket. I could not get it to power on or enter bootloader or a recovery screen. After a week of trying to charge via USB and the original wall charger and countless attempts to hold power and volume buttons without success, I decided to pop the back off and disconnected the battery. I put it back together, but that made no difference either. Google play will send me a new phone, but I'd like to get it fired up and extract the last week or so of pics. Any ideas? Again, I am a complete noob and this 3 month old phone has not been modified in any way, other than auto updates from Google play. Thanks for any assistance or guidance.

elf1967 said:
I am not a developer so bear with me. I'm just a guy in mpls with a completely stock N5 from Google Play that encountered similar issue as the original post. There was no damage or water issue, or other problem prior to going dead. It had about 50% battery and maybe 15 minutes after reading an email it was dead when I looked at it again. It just simply turned off while in my pocket. I could not get it to power on or enter bootloader or a recovery screen. After a week of trying to charge via USB and the original wall charger and countless attempts to hold power and volume buttons without success, I decided to pop the back off and disconnected the battery. I put it back together, but that made no difference either. Google play will send me a new phone, but I'd like to get it fired up and extract the last week or so of pics. Any ideas? Again, I am a complete noob and this 3 month old phone has not been modified in any way, other than auto updates from Google play. Thanks for any assistance or guidance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, your phone doesn't turn on at all?

jd1639 said:
I don't believe the issues you're seeing, appears to be failed emmc, is related to chain fire's auto root. Cf is probably the most popular method to root and it's a coincidence. I've seen these failures with other root methods too.
I think the op flashed a kernel not for his device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. No symbols, no battery icon, no vibrate, etc.

elf1967 said:
Correct. No symbols, no battery icon, no vibrate, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm afraid there's nothing you can do. It would have to at least get into recovery or bootloader to have a prayer.

jd1639 said:
I'm afraid there's nothing you can do. It would have to at least get into recovery or bootloader to have a prayer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - was just hoping it was not a hardware failure given the posts about difficulty bricking N5. Any chance if I bought a new battery that came charged it would fire up or replacing the motherboard an option?
p.s. I am not the original poster so not sure if I ticked someone off or not, sorry if I did. Just looking for assistance

elf1967 said:
Thanks - was just hoping it was not a hardware failure given the posts about difficulty bricking N5. Any chance if I bought a new battery that came charged it would fire up or replacing the motherboard an option?
p.s. I am not the original poster so not sure if I ticked someone off or not, sorry if I did. Just looking for assistance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sure sounds like a hardware failure. Doubt a different battery would help. And don't worry about being the original op. This thread is old

jd1639 said:
It sure sounds like a hardware failure. Doubt a different battery would help. And don't worry about being the original op. This thread is old
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get the unknown device driver when hooked up USB to computer (QHSUSB_BULK). Think it is worth waiting a few weeks prior to returning it to see if there is a way to access the flash memory via a driver download? Searches for help showed similar unknown driver problem workable on samsung and HTC last year (QHSUSB_DLOAD)

elf1967 said:
I get the unknown device driver when hooked up USB to computer (QHSUSB_BULK). Think it is worth waiting a few weeks prior to returning it to see if there is a way to access the flash memory via a driver download? Searches for help showed similar unknown driver problem workable on samsung and HTC last year (QHSUSB_DLOAD)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you won't be able to. The memory doesn't mount like a sd card would. For the future use something like drop box or Google drive too backup your photos as you take them.