Need help un-bricking my soft-bricked GS3 - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III

First off, I have a Verizon GS3 (SCH-I535). As of this morning, it was running the new 4.3 standard (no root, no unlocked bootloader, no custom recovery). I didn't like some of the UI changes in 4.3, and since I wanted to try custom ROMs out anyways, I figured now would be as good a time as any.
After doing hours of research, I was able to successfully get my phone rooted and TWRP installed (using the GooManager app). I had the AOKP d2vzw rom (milestone 1) downloaded and on my phone. I then tried to use GooManager to install the ROM. The phone rebooted into download mode, then gave an error message. I think I didn't properly unlock the bootloader.
After that, the phone wouldn't boot to a ROM at all. I've been trying to install stock ROMs using ODIN and was able to get the stock recovery back, but now all I can get to is the stock recovery and the Download Mode. Whenever the phone boots normally, I get the message, "System software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone . . ."
The biggest issue I've had is that it seem like nothing will install properly using ODIN. When trying to flash TWRP, it fails after NAND Write Start!!. When trying to flash a bootloader, it'll give a write/fail after aboot.
At this point, I'll be happy just getting it back to a working ROM. Any help would be appreciated.

WhiteRabbit44 said:
First off, I have a Verizon GS3 (SCH-I535). As of this morning, it was running the new 4.3 standard (no root, no unlocked bootloader, no custom recovery). I didn't like some of the UI changes in 4.3, and since I wanted to try custom ROMs out anyways, I figured now would be as good a time as any.
After doing hours of research, I was able to successfully get my phone rooted and TWRP installed (using the GooManager app). I had the AOKP d2vzw rom (milestone 1) downloaded and on my phone. I then tried to use GooManager to install the ROM. The phone rebooted into download mode, then gave an error message. I think I didn't properly unlock the bootloader.
After that, the phone wouldn't boot to a ROM at all. I've been trying to install stock ROMs using ODIN and was able to get the stock recovery back, but now all I can get to is the stock recovery and the Download Mode. Whenever the phone boots normally, I get the message, "System software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone . . ."
The biggest issue I've had is that it seem like nothing will install properly using ODIN. When trying to flash TWRP, it fails after NAND Write Start!!. When trying to flash a bootloader, it'll give a write/fail after aboot.
At this point, I'll be happy just getting it back to a working ROM. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you are on 4.3, you can't unlock your phone anymore. That means no AOSP roms, but you can still use custom touchwiz roms based on 4.3. You're softbricked and you have to use this thread to fix it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2586319
After that completes, you can use this to root.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2565758
Once you're rooted, this is the only recovery you can install, don't flash any other recovery.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2605648
Read up on all the threads, 4.3 is completely different then 4.1 was.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Extra Info:
With Odin, I have made sure Kies is uninstalled. I've also tried multiple USB cables, including the ones the phone came with, and I've tried almost every USB port on my computer. Whenever Odin fails, it's in the exact same spot every time, which makes me think it's a software issue, not a hardware issue.
EDIT:
I was actually able to get the stock.vzw-root66 ROM installed by Odin without any errors. The phone rebooted immediately, then showed the android robot with the blue spinny thing in his chest, then the phone went back to the same Verizon error message.

BadUsername said:
When you are on 4.3, you can't unlock your phone anymore. That means no AOSP roms, but you can still use custom touchwiz roms based on 4.3. You're softbricked and you have to use this thread to fix it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2586319
After that completes, you can use this to root.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2565758
Once you're rooted, this is the only recovery you can install, don't flash any other recovery.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2605648
Read up on all the threads, 4.3 is completely different then 4.1 was.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked like a charm! Thank you. I admit I am fairly new at all of this and did a ton of research beforehand, but I apparently did not research the differences between 4.1 and 4.3. You saved my butt!

WhiteRabbit44 said:
This worked like a charm! Thank you. I admit I am fairly new at all of this and did a ton of research beforehand, but I apparently did not research the differences between 4.1 and 4.3. You saved my butt!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TW 4.3 discussion thread has most info consolidated in one place:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2575661
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4

Related

Can I Odin back to a stock rooted rom?

My wife's rooted Samsung Galaxy S3 (vzw) has been acting strange lately. It has been asking to update and then locking into a screen that says "System software not authorized by Verizon..." I can successfully reset the phone, as well as get into Odin, but I cannot get into recovery mode to flash a new rom. (The first and only rom I flashed on her phone was stock Touchwiz about 8 months ago.)
I'm kind of a noob at this stuff, so I'm not sure what to do. First, I'm not sure why this is happening in the first place. My research shows that it can happen when you don't unlock the phone properly, but I'm virtually certain I did. In any event, what next? I have read that I should Odin back to stock. Is it appropriate for me to attempt to Odin back to a rooted stock rom? Is that even possible? For example, can I Odin back to this rom (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2332840)?
eyc said:
My wife's rooted Samsung Galaxy S3 (vzw) has been acting strange lately. It has been asking to update and then locking into a screen that says "System software not authorized by Verizon..." I can successfully reset the phone, as well as get into Odin, but I cannot get into recovery mode to flash a new rom. (The first and only rom I flashed on her phone was stock Touchwiz about 8 months ago.)
I'm kind of a noob at this stuff, so I'm not sure what to do. First, I'm not sure why this is happening in the first place. My research shows that it can happen when you don't unlock the phone properly, but I'm virtually certain I did. In any event, what next? I have read that I should Odin back to stock. Is it appropriate for me to attempt to Odin back to a rooted stock rom? Is that even possible? For example, can I Odin back to this rom (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2332840)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the files that you use to odin with are a different extension (.tar) than what you flash with (.rar)...so you can only use cwm/twrp to use that rooted image. I recommend using odin to get back to stock, then using the root one click method that was recently stickied...that will get you up in running and able to use roms quickly
Yes its possible but first try to install a custom recovery. Download goomanager and then install open recovery script from the menu options. Then you should be able to boot into twrp and flash a new rom
Sent from my XT912 using xda app-developers app
eyc said:
My wife's rooted Samsung Galaxy S3 (vzw) has been acting strange lately. It has been asking to update and then locking into a screen that says "System software not authorized by Verizon..." I can successfully reset the phone, as well as get into Odin, but I cannot get into recovery mode to flash a new rom. (The first and only rom I flashed on her phone was stock Touchwiz about 8 months ago.)
I'm kind of a noob at this stuff, so I'm not sure what to do. First, I'm not sure why this is happening in the first place. My research shows that it can happen when you don't unlock the phone properly, but I'm virtually certain I did. In any event, what next? I have read that I should Odin back to stock. Is it appropriate for me to attempt to Odin back to a rooted stock rom? Is that even possible? For example, can I Odin back to this rom (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2332840)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are Verizon Stock rooted and have SU and busybox installed without disabling updates, that will occur whenever Verizon rolls out an OTA. if you want the update, ODIN back to stock and take the updates before rooting. If you don;t want updates then find the thread on disable Verizon OTA and that will stop the update request.

[Q] Help! Rooted phone with Custom Mode, ROM Manager Bricked

Hey guys,
I just got my phone and it updated to 4.4 pretty much out of the box. I still wanted to root so I used a method I found on here (will find if necessary) which is supposed to not trip the KNOX by putting the phone into "Custom Mode." Everything went fine until I tried to use ROM Manager to install CM.
When I boot I get the message "System software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone. Please turn off your phone and go to the nearest Verizon Wireless store for help." I've tried reflashing using Odin, clearing the cache and factory resets, but I get the same error every time.
I'm currently downloading another stock ROM which might work, but I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem?
Thank you!
mortified21 said:
Hey guys,
I just got my phone and it updated to 4.4 pretty much out of the box. I still wanted to root so I used a method I found on here (will find if necessary) which is supposed to not trip the KNOX by putting the phone into "Custom Mode." Everything went fine until I tried to use ROM Manager to install CM.
When I boot I get the message "System software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone. Please turn off your phone and go to the nearest Verizon Wireless store for help." I've tried reflashing using Odin, clearing the cache and factory resets, but I get the same error every time.
I'm currently downloading another stock ROM which might work, but I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are permanently stuck on the TW 4.3 OTA because the bootloader is signed with special keys that prevents:
-installing a custom recovery
-flashing custom roms/kernels
-downgrading your software below 4.3
If you can boot into download mode, do this 4.3 soft brick method.
With TW 4.3 OTA, all you can do is root using a tool called: Saferoot.
If you have 4.3 stock firmware you can root and that's it, no custom recovery, no custom rom, kernel, nothing, and just a heads up there are like 10 threads where people don't read and have done what you have, you need to flash the Odin 4.3 image for you phone to work again, never take an ota, enjoy your locked down device now
Sent from my SCH-I535 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
SlimSnoopOS said:
You are permanently stuck on the TW 4.3 OTA because the bootloader is signed with special keys that prevents:
-installing a custom recovery
-flashing custom roms/kernels
-downgrading your software below 4.3
If you can boot into download mode, do this 4.3 soft brick method.
With TW 4.3 OTA, all you can do is root using a tool called: Saferoot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worked perfectly! Thank you so much!
mortified21 said:
Worked perfectly! Thank you so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My pleasure but all the thanks is owed to ThePagel, make sure to post your success in his thread. The more people that report their success with that method, then the less fear someone else may have in using that should they suffer the same experiences. :victory::good::good:
If you need any updates on the state of TW 4.3 then keep this discussion thread bookmarked.
I did the same thing today. The 4.3 update installed by itself!!! So i rooted it using Saferoot,
i installed rom manager, clicked the Install rom from sd card and i got that message. it will repeat that message and it wont boot. So i went into Odin mode and hit the volume down button to restart it. And after that it booted normally.
So basically i am stuck with 4.3? and is there 4.4 out for our phones yet?
also forgot to mention, it says my OS is custom when i first realized it updated.
AURMEND said:
I did the same thing today. The 4.3 update installed by itself!!! So i rooted it using Saferoot,
i installed rom manager, clicked the Install rom from sd card and i got that message. it will repeat that message and it wont boot. So i went into Odin mode and hit the volume down button to restart it. And after that it booted normally.
So basically i am stuck with 4.3? and is there 4.4 out for our phones yet?
also forgot to mention, it says my OS is custom when i first realized it updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once you successfully updated with 4.3, you stuck with 4.3, there is no going back or flash anything and 4.3 is the latest factory rom for now. There's no 4.4 yet for our phone. There is custom 4.4 but only for people who didn't take the 4.3 update. Since they still have unlocked bootloader so they could load any custom rom.
buhohitr said:
Once you successfully updated with 4.3, you stuck with 4.3, there is no going back or flash anything and 4.3 is the latest factory rom for now. There's no 4.4 yet for our phone. There is custom 4.4 but only for people who didn't take the 4.3 update. Since they still have unlocked bootloader so they could load any custom rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dang this sucks. I have no idea how it installed automatically then. I was listening to music the whole time. And I was trying to get a custom 4.4 after the update...
AURMEND said:
Dang this sucks. I have no idea how it installed automatically then. I was listening to music the whole time. And I was trying to get a custom 4.4 after the update...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep! sucks big time!!

[Q] HELP! I've really messed up this time: flashing/installing bootloader/recovery

Okay. So we all know the d2vzw isn't perfect.
Right?
Mine recently has slowed to a grinding halt. Really nothing worked, the battery lasted maybe 30 minutes of usage (and maybe 10 hours standby), and the boot time was unbearable. So, I decided to try flashing and installing CyanogenMod 12, mainly because I have read that it breathes new life into the phone. But, alas, I am not cut out for this sort of gig alone, as I have discovered.
I come to you all today to ask for some help, or links to help. My recovery mode has been completely messed up, and I don't know what to do.
My questions are: 1. Can I still install a fresh OS, be it CyanogenMod, AOKP, or anything else? 2. How or why?
For more information, here is a timeline of what exactly I did to the phone.
-Bought the GS3
-Owned for ~1.5 years
-Updated to 4.4 KitKat
-Noticed battery life started sucking, as did speed
-Decided to root/flash/install
-Rooted using Towelroot V3
-Tried flashing ClockWork Mod via Odin, but Odin couldn't connect or something. No yellow box.
-Tried flashing CWM via terminal and rebooted into recovery
-Got the message "System Software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone. Please turn off your phone and go to the nearest Verizon Wireless store for help." when entering recovery mode
-Managed to get around that by quickly pressing the volume-up button a few times while booting
-Installed BusyBox
-Got a new Splash Screen that says "Samsung" then at the bottom an unlocked lock that says "Custom"
-Tried using Flashify to flash CWM
-Same error message when booting into recovery
-Tried flashing CWM Touch with Flashify
-Same issue
-Tried using SafeStrap
-Says "Install Successful" but the state still says "Not Installed"
-Tried using EZ-Recovery from Google Play Store
-Didn't work
And that's it so far. The phone works, however recovery mode does not, and I still have all the slow and battery problems.
I have no idea where to go from here.
If you have any more questions, just ask! If you have any suggestions, please let me know!
Thanks!
lordkennedy99 said:
Okay. So we all know the d2vzw isn't perfect.
Right?
Mine recently has slowed to a grinding halt. Really nothing worked, the battery lasted maybe 30 minutes of usage (and maybe 10 hours standby), and the boot time was unbearable. So, I decided to try flashing and installing CyanogenMod 12, mainly because I have read that it breathes new life into the phone. But, alas, I am not cut out for this sort of gig alone, as I have discovered.
I come to you all today to ask for some help, or links to help. My recovery mode has been completely messed up, and I don't know what to do.
My questions are: 1. Can I still install a fresh OS, be it CyanogenMod, AOKP, or anything else? 2. How or why?
For more information, here is a timeline of what exactly I did to the phone.
-Bought the GS3
-Owned for ~1.5 years
-Updated to 4.4 KitKat
-Noticed battery life started sucking, as did speed
-Decided to root/flash/install
-Rooted using Towelroot V3
-Tried flashing ClockWork Mod via Odin, but Odin couldn't connect or something. No yellow box.
-Tried flashing CWM via terminal and rebooted into recovery
-Got the message "System Software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone. Please turn off your phone and go to the nearest Verizon Wireless store for help." when entering recovery mode
-Managed to get around that by quickly pressing the volume-up button a few times while booting
-Installed BusyBox
-Got a new Splash Screen that says "Samsung" then at the bottom an unlocked lock that says "Custom"
-Tried using Flashify to flash CWM
-Same error message when booting into recovery
-Tried flashing CWM Touch with Flashify
-Same issue
-Tried using SafeStrap
-Says "Install Successful" but the state still says "Not Installed"
-Tried using EZ-Recovery from Google Play Store
-Didn't work
And that's it so far. The phone works, however recovery mode does not, and I still have all the slow and battery problems.
I have no idea where to go from here.
If you have any more questions, just ask! If you have any suggestions, please let me know!
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I have bad news, your bootloader is locked if you took the OTA to Kitkat version 4.4.2 NE1. You can't flash custom roms or even a custom recovery (twrp, cwm, philz) your limited to safestrap as a recovery and approx 3 roms that are TW) touchwiz based)
Safestrap should work and your going to be on the lookout for roms in the development section that say BL(bootloader locked) if you have anymore questions feel free to post them
Sent from my Nexus 5
ShapesBlue said:
Well I have bad news, your bootloader is locked if you took the OTA to Kitkat version 4.4.2 NE1. You can't flash custom roms or even a custom recovery (twrp, cwm, philz) your limited to safestrap as a recovery and approx 3 roms that are TW) touchwiz based)
Safestrap should work and your going to be on the lookout for roms in the development section that say BL(bootloader locked) if you have anymore questions feel free to post them
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I feared. Thank you for letting me know! So, even though it's locked up, can I revert what I did? I still would like to send the phone into Verizon for some trade-in money when I upgrade.
Thanks again!
lordkennedy99 said:
That's what I feared. Thank you for letting me know! So, even though it's locked up, can I revert what I did? I still would like to send the phone into Verizon for some trade-in money when I upgrade.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can. You can Odin back to that same version which should bring it back to stock kk with the 4.4.2 update
Sent from my Nexus 5
ShapesBlue said:
Yes you can. You can Odin back to that same version which should bring it back to stock kk with the 4.4.2 update
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, great! Do you know of a place to get the ROM and some instructions for flashing? Also, I couldn't get Odin to connect to my phone. Is there something I need to do before flashing to make it connect correctly?
Thanks!
lordkennedy99 said:
Okay, great! Do you know of a place to get the ROM and some instructions for flashing? Also, I couldn't get Odin to connect to my phone. Is there something I need to do before flashing to make it connect correctly?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do but if it's not connecting to Odin that may be a problem. I've yet to see a device that won't connect to Odin
Sent from my Nexus 5

Nothing will flash anymore...

It's been a long night and I'm at a complete loss as to what to look for next...
Around 9PM last night, my phone randomly rebooted... it's done this a few times before, and i thought nothing of it. When it finally booted back up, I was at the "choose your language" setup screen. WTF.
I lost literally EVERYTHING.
FYI, this was on stock rom, and I didn't even have the OTA(s) because I was rooted and was content with 4.4.2
Well, since all my data was gone, I figured it was about time to see what I could get with a custom ROM. The phone's been sluggish lately, so I figured a bloat-less upgrade would help.
Long story short, I loaded the 5.1 firmwares for VZW, and the HBOOT as well, and flashed GPE_5.1 on it. It took it like a champ, but refused to boot. I tried changing the kernels during the GPE install, but none of them worked. Some would loop, some would kick me into recovery, and one would just stall and the animation would run forever. No worries, I'm sure I can go to a stock 5.x rom! But that's a big NOPE. I just get "installation aborted" with no reasoning or errors in CWM (I had TWRP at one point as well, and it didn't get me anywhere either) Or I get "symlink: some symlinks failed" ... it depends what rom i'm flashing.
I've tried stock and custom, rooted and not... literally nothing will take.
ALSO, in my attempts to remedy the problem, I tried to reflash the firmware, but fastboot starts that there's not enough space. A quick google search pointed to "not enough ram in the PC" which is BS because it's done it on 2 different systems, both with 16GB ram, one running Win8.1 and the other Win7.
To top it all off, somehow I relocked the phone (but i still have S-OFF) and without being able to boot into the OS, I can't unlock it with SunShine/Firewater.
Hopefully, someone can point me in the right direction...
Welp... It's working now...
Not 100% sure what I ended up doing that worked, but I was able to run the unlocker via creating a new unlock_code.bin from htcdev and ran that with the all in one toolkit.
From there, I was able to use the toolkit to flash a stock ruu rom (I flashed the 5.0.1 RUU, but when it booted, I was still in 4.4.2)
It apparently didn't like somwething in the boot order other than the ROM itself.
I'm now running S-OFF, relocked but rooted 5.0.1 after it took several OTAs. Not sure how many more OTA's are pending, but it just keeps prompting me lol...
At this point, I'm just happy it's booting, stock or not. I don't even know what recovery I'm running at this point...
Did you update your recovery??? To the latest one
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Bricked? This shouldn't be happening.

Here's a basic rundown of what happened. I completely rooted my Galaxy S III i535 on 4.4.2, and i installed SafeStrap (A Version of TWRP) since the Verizon S3 has a locked bootloader.
So here's what I tried to do. Using SafeStrap, I backed up my stock rom. And i selected another ROM slot. Using this, i tried experimenting by installing a ROM for another Carrier (They say not to do this, but i have in the past with success, so i thought it mightve worked)
(KEEP IN MIND, THE STOCK OS WAS STILL INSTALLED AND I EVEN HAD A BACKUP)
So, it didnt work and stopped halfway. I rebooted the phone, and Hard bricked.
Doesnt boot up, does not turn on, will not boot recovery or download, or any sign of some boot at all.
And, i get the qhsusb_dload sign on my pc.
Can anyone point me in the right direction, or at least tell me the cause of this problem? Thanks.
CrimsonKatsuro said:
Here's a basic rundown of what happened. I completely rooted my Galaxy S III i535 on 4.4.2, and i installed SafeStrap (A Version of TWRP) since the Verizon S3 has a locked bootloader.
So here's what I tried to do. Using SafeStrap, I backed up my stock rom. And i selected another ROM slot. Using this, i tried experimenting by installing a ROM for another Carrier (They say not to do this, but i have in the past with success, so i thought it mightve worked)
(KEEP IN MIND, THE STOCK OS WAS STILL INSTALLED AND I EVEN HAD A BACKUP)
So, it didnt work and stopped halfway. I rebooted the phone, and Hard bricked.
Doesnt boot up, does not turn on, will not boot recovery or download, or any sign of some boot at all.
And, i get the qhsusb_dload sign on my pc.
Can anyone point me in the right direction, or at least tell me the cause of this problem? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution may be a debrick image. They are designed to boot the phone from an external sdcard and from there reinstall the stock rom/firmware. I haven't searched yet, but check the general and development threads, possibly the stickied summary thread.
Check this thread

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