Database Info

Reviving the Samsung Galaxy S 4G

I wanted to share my knowledge and experience from the past 2 days. Most of the help came from guides and posts on this forum so I wanted to give that back.
We were trying to root the SGS4G and because we're noobs we made the mistake of thinking it was a Vibrant. Got a Vibrant ROM and tried to flash it though Odin WITH re-partition checked. Everything we read said if you do either one of these things, you will brick your phone.
Sure enough we bricked the phone. It was trying to boot into the Vibrant ROM but was getting stuck on the word 'Vibrant' and then showing a whole lot of weird colored pixels. We then learned we'd made a massive mistake and that the phone wasn't a Vibrant after all.
We got a stock ROM for SGS4G and started trying to push them through Odin. Faced countless FAILS and freezes and finally it took us to the Recovery Mode and we tried the Restore option. It booted into a crippled SGS4G ROM. When it booted, it vibrated every 10 seconds or so and it had a null IMEI and unknown baseband.
We tried following a guide that wanted to change some text in the nv_data.bin but the numbers we were meant to be editing (0018810?) didn't exist in our nv_data.bin. So that didn't work for us.
In the meantime we tried to flash the stock ROM in Odin but kept getting FAILs and Freezes. With this step we lost even the crippled operating system and couldn't reach anything except the 'phone --!-- computer' screen. Luckily, this acts the same as download mode, so not bricked. We kept trying to push the stock SGS4G stock ROM (Froyo 2.2) several times and failing.
At one point we got a completely black screen, wouldn't turn on. Bricked again. We found this post on RootzWiki and it worked for us that time and brought it back from the black screen to download mode http://rootzwiki.com/topic/1820-how-to-unbrick-your-sgs4g/
Somehow we ended up at this guide here on XDA for fixing the "null/null" IMEI http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142829
We followed that guide. When you add the PIT file it automatically checks 'Re-Partition' in Odin, we didn't uncheck it. Bricked again. It was stuck on the Samsung logo and when we tried to get to download mode it got stuck on a black screen with the loading circle/lines and 2 computers were giving 'The USB device has malfunctioned' when we plugged it in. The unbrick guide above (RootzWiki) didn't help this time. We tried restarting the computer, let the phone rest without battery for half an hour, held power button for a minute without battery, still nothing.
Finally I accidentally pressed the power button (rather than the volume buttons to get into download mode) and it went to the samsung logo (as expected) and after that I was able to get into download mode. The key to this I think is to keep on trying powering on normally then try download mode over and over and eventually it should get unstuck and the computer should recognize it again.
Once I had it back in download mode, I followed this guide again BUT!!! I made sure to un-check re-partition and I did not check "Phone EFS Clear" (because I had tried that already before it was bricked and wanted to see if a straight ROM would work first). Everything worked perfectly, I got my IMEI and Baseband back, without modifying anything.
I don't know if this was a miracle, or if any of it will work for anyone else, but the moral of the story is don't give up even if you've done the absolute worst possible thing. I don't even think hardbrick exists on this phone after everything we were able to save it from.
Cheers

Hardbricks do exist on this phone but you have to try really hard to do it. A few people have managed it. Way to stick with it and recover your phone. I've done that more times than I can count.

hechoen said:
Hardbricks do exist on this phone but you have to try really hard to do it. A few people have managed it. Way to stick with it and recover your phone. I've done that more times than I can count.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't feel like i really hard bricked it until i saw the USB computer connection error "device pluged in malfunctioned" in more than one PC.
Then i really felt like its a hardware BIOS chipset level problem now but man...

That story cracked me up. That is exactly why I spend days reading before I even root my phone. I made the mistake one time on my old G1 and it could not be revived.
Congrats on getting it working. (especially without flooding the q&a with redundant questions that have been described in detail several places )

hani1400 said:
I wanted to share my knowledge and experience from the past 2 days. Most of the help came from guides and posts on this forum so I wanted to give that back.
We were trying to root the SGS4G and because we're noobs we made the mistake of thinking it was a Vibrant. Got a Vibrant ROM and tried to flash it though Odin WITH re-partition checked. Everything we read said if you do either one of these things, you will brick your phone.
Sure enough we bricked the phone. It was trying to boot into the Vibrant ROM but was getting stuck on the word 'Vibrant' and then showing a whole lot of weird colored pixels. We then learned we'd made a massive mistake and that the phone wasn't a Vibrant after all.
We got a stock ROM for SGS4G and started trying to push them through Odin. Faced countless FAILS and freezes and finally it took us to the Recovery Mode and we tried the Restore option. It booted into a crippled SGS4G ROM. When it booted, it vibrated every 10 seconds or so and it had a null IMEI and unknown baseband.
We tried following a guide that wanted to change some text in the nv_data.bin but the numbers we were meant to be editing (0018810?) didn't exist in our nv_data.bin. So that didn't work for us.
In the meantime we tried to flash the stock ROM in Odin but kept getting FAILs and Freezes. With this step we lost even the crippled operating system and couldn't reach anything except the 'phone --!-- computer' screen. Luckily, this acts the same as download mode, so not bricked. We kept trying to push the stock SGS4G stock ROM (Froyo 2.2) several times and failing.
At one point we got a completely black screen, wouldn't turn on. Bricked again. We found this post on RootzWiki and it worked for us that time and brought it back from the black screen to download mode http://rootzwiki.com/topic/1820-how-to-unbrick-your-sgs4g/
Somehow we ended up at this guide here on XDA for fixing the "null/null" IMEI http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142829
We followed that guide. When you add the PIT file it automatically checks 'Re-Partition' in Odin, we didn't uncheck it. Bricked again. It was stuck on the Samsung logo and when we tried to get to download mode it got stuck on a black screen with the loading circle/lines and 2 computers were giving 'The USB device has malfunctioned' when we plugged it in. The unbrick guide above (RootzWiki) didn't help this time. We tried restarting the computer, let the phone rest without battery for half an hour, held power button for a minute without battery, still nothing.
Finally I accidentally pressed the power button (rather than the volume buttons to get into download mode) and it went to the samsung logo (as expected) and after that I was able to get into download mode. The key to this I think is to keep on trying powering on normally then try download mode over and over and eventually it should get unstuck and the computer should recognize it again.
Once I had it back in download mode, I followed this guide again BUT!!! I made sure to un-check re-partition and I did not check "Phone EFS Clear" (because I had tried that already before it was bricked and wanted to see if a straight ROM would work first). Everything worked perfectly, I got my IMEI and Baseband back, without modifying anything.
I don't know if this was a miracle, or if any of it will work for anyone else, but the moral of the story is don't give up even if you've done the absolute worst possible thing. I don't even think hardbrick exists on this phone after everything we were able to save it from.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wheooooooooowwww,..you just UNBRICKED mine, I know of the Battery pull etc...but the post you referenced
is MAGIC
This was not my first Rom nor Root on this phone, it weirdly happened while doing the GB starter....via ODIN, which i also used before..no clue what went wrong, oh well...
Thank you, thank you "i did"....Yohoooo

Yup i agree i like to read, reread then read as i do. This way i got a pretty good understanding of what I'm doing. Btw i have just started using one click and it is sooooo simple. I love it.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App

The link for fixing null/null IMEI is not working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142829

diavel said:
The link for fixing null/null IMEI is not working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142829
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=881162

Im still carrying this phone, stupid baseband unlock for iphone won't come out now I am carrying 2 phones, one as an ipod touch and the galaxy s! Good story, hope it can help others, but I am prepared to jump off of this bandwagon anytime now!

Having the oddest problems. Fear a brick.

I am on a Verizon Razr Maxx HD (xt926). This all started when I decided to cleanly flash the newest version of CM10.2. I had been running it before. I wanted to start from a blank slate, so I went into TWRP and did the format wipe. Installed the newest CM10.2 nightly and gapps. This went fine and I booted into the ROM and started recovering all of my stuff. I installed F-droid and AdAway, and rebooted for that. The phone never got past the Bootloader Unlocked warning screen. I turned it off and went into TWRP to try some things. I tried to fix permissions, but it failed, referencing something to do with fdroid. I wiped again and reinstalled CM, but I still couldn't get past the Bootloader Unlocked warning.
I booted into TWRP again and wiped what I could, and accidentally wiped my external SD, and I had no card readers lying around to get the ROM zips back onto it. I downloaded the Razr HD utility, used the batch file, and tried to flash the stock rom through fastboot, but it got stuck in some kind of loop and would not flash correctly. I then tried to do it manually, but got some sort of buffer error. I tried again, and it started ok but I never saw it actually finish flashing.
By this time I finagled the ROM zips onto the SD card and stopped the fastboot and booted into TWRP. I did another set of wipes, and rebooted into TWRP again. I flashed the CM and Gapps. The ROM booted fine from TWRP and I was able to start setting up my account again. I tried rebooting after the initial setup just to see if it was working correctly, and was met with the fastboot screen with fastboot reason: Flash failed. I rebooted into TWRP from there, and tried to boot normally, but it still brought me to the fastboot. I went to the boot menu and tried the normal boot selection, and now my phone is stuck on the Bootloader Warning screen and now it won't even turn off when I hold the power button.
I have no idea what is going on, or why I could get to the working ROM once but not again. Does anyone know anything that could help me?

Kopiok said:
I am on a Verizon Razr Maxx HD (xt926). This all started when I decided to cleanly flash the newest version of CM10.2. I had been running it before. I wanted to start from a blank slate, so I went into TWRP and did the format wipe. Installed the newest CM10.2 nightly and gapps. This went fine and I booted into the ROM and started recovering all of my stuff. I installed F-droid and AdAway, and rebooted for that. The phone never got past the Bootloader Unlocked warning screen. I turned it off and went into TWRP to try some things. I tried to fix permissions, but it failed, referencing something to do with fdroid. I wiped again and reinstalled CM, but I still couldn't get past the Bootloader Unlocked warning.
I booted into TWRP again and wiped what I could, and accidentally wiped my external SD, and I had no card readers lying around to get the ROM zips back onto it. I downloaded the Razr HD utility, used the batch file, and tried to flash the stock rom through fastboot, but it got stuck in some kind of loop and would not flash correctly. I then tried to do it manually, but got some sort of buffer error. I tried again, and it started ok but I never saw it actually finish flashing.
By this time I finagled the ROM zips onto the SD card and stopped the fastboot and booted into TWRP. I did another set of wipes, and rebooted into TWRP again. I flashed the CM and Gapps. The ROM booted fine from TWRP and I was able to start setting up my account again. I tried rebooting after the initial setup just to see if it was working correctly, and was met with the fastboot screen with fastboot reason: Flash failed. I rebooted into TWRP from there, and tried to boot normally, but it still brought me to the fastboot. I went to the boot menu and tried the normal boot selection, and now my phone is stuck on the Bootloader Warning screen and now it won't even turn off when I hold the power button.
I have no idea what is going on, or why I could get to the working ROM once but not again. Does anyone know anything that could help me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the solution in the last few posts on this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2465695

I hope you get more knowledgeable advice than mine but, were I in your situation, my primary goal would be to get back to STOCK. Forget CM and modding for now. Either through TWRP or through the recovery settings on the phone itself I'd get to where I could do a factory reset. If you're continuously able to boot into TWRP I don't see how your phone could be bricked. My experience is, if I can get a phone to do ANYTHING I've got a shot at figuring out how to get out of whatever mess I've created. I don't know if this could be a factor but I'd put in a different micro SD card too, in case there's something on the card you've got in there.

Just an update. So, I got it to go back to fastboot this morning and I tried using the Razr Utility to flash back stock and stock recovery, but I got a "Failed" line with the reason "Remote Failure". Not sure what that's about. When it reset it got back to the Cyanogenmod boot graphic, but it never started. I left it there for a good 12 minutes.
Right now it's sitting in TWRP. I'm going to let it charge to 100% (it was a little less when I tried all of this) and attempt it again at 100% battery. Thanks for the help so far!

So, I tried using the Razr Utility to flash the system, kernel, radio and for system it was unsuccessful (something about too many threads or strings, something to that effect), but the rest said OK. Now my phone doesn't seem to turn on. My computer still makes the device plugged in sound when it's plugged/unplugged, but I cannot get the screen to show anything or seem to turn on the phone.
Is this it? Is it... bricked!? ;-;
Edit: I ordered the Factory Adapter as a last resort sort of thing. This is lame.
Edit Edit: I've seen the boot logo since my last edit! But... it's not coming back and I still can't even bring up the bootloader. I don't know why it will sometimes turn on or sometimes not. In any case, I'm now hopeful that not ALL is lost.

Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!

cellzealot said:
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the plan! One odd thing happening now... My phone's screen isn't showing anything, so I assumed it was off. I left it unplugged and went to see a movie..... and the phone is still warm. This leads me to believe the phone is still drawing power, for some reason... God this is weird. I'll wait for the adapter and try again. Thanks for the help!

cellzealot said:
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
according to the packaging on mine from tbh a chinaman made it, just sayin

Yes, we designed them and contracted through our US supplier who produced all of our cables who, in turn, had them produced in China according to our specifications. There is no longer any injection molded plastic production done in the US that can work at this small scale for affordable rates.
Sorry...that's the way the world works these days.

cellzealot said:
Yes, we designed them and contracted through our US supplier who produced all of our cables who, in turn, had them produced in China according to our specifications. There is no longer any injection molded plastic production done in the US that can work at this small scale for affordable rates.
Sorry...that's the way the world works these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for making it either way, better to have and not need.
havent had to use it so far

bweN diorD said:
thanks for making it either way, better to have and not need.
havent had to use it so far
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome! They are definitely the best $10 investment you can make in any Motorola phone.
Next time you want to invest many thousands of dollars of your own money in a wild, hairbrained scheme to help a bunch of anonymous people on the internet fix their phones that they recently finished destroying themselves, let us know...we have just the plan!

cellzealot said:
You're welcome! They are definitely the best $10 investment you can make in any Motorola phone.
Next time you want to invest many thousands of dollars of your own money in a wild, hairbrained scheme to help a bunch of anonymous people on the internet fix their phones that they recently finished destroying themselves, let us know...we have just the plan!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how many thousands, and whats the plan?

I got the Factory Adapter and used RSD Lite to flash stock. And it works! Yay! It's starting up reliably and everything.
Except... it won't start up without the cable attached, and the battery icon has a big question mark on it. It also won't connect to the cell network (but does connect to WiFi). What do I do now?
Edit: So I noticed that while the battery status said "Unknown", it did go from 2% to 3% charge level when I plugged it in normally for a little. My plan at the moment is to try leaving it plugged in for a while and then try taking the OTA update to see if that fixes everything. Good plan?
Edit Edit: Never mind! I just had to let it charge for a bit. It seems to be back in working order, now! Thank you so much for all the help everyone!

That is exactly what is supposed to happen. Congrats on fixing your phone!
The factory cable/adapter does not charge the device but powers it directly, allowing it to boot no matter what state the battery is in or even without a battery at all.
You cannot charge in bootloader, which is why the cable/adapter is so valuable. Once the device can boot/charge normally then you are all set.

[Q] CWM on new Blu Life Play

Hi all,
I've spent a good two hours trying to figure this out. Generally I'm pretty good at these things, but there just isn't that much action or information on the Blu Life Play when things go wrong (L100a)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2370987
In reference to the above link, I followed all instructions to a T. My phone is rooted just fine, all that is working perfectly. However, once I tried installing CWM using the first method, mobileuncle, not only did it fail, but it also entirely broke my recovery mode! Whenever I try to boot into recovery (vol+/power) I get a black screen until the phone eventually reboots itself.
I then tried method two using the flashing tool, SPFT. I used something similar pretty often, ODIN, with my old Samsung Epic. Again I run into a problem: I can't keep the phone connected long enough to allow SPFT to finish flashing the recovery. As instructed, I plug in the USB cable with the battery out, my computer chimes to let me know it has recognised the device, but- Three seconds later, it chimes again to let me know it has disconnected.
SPFT follows suit, detecting and starting the flash then getting interrupted 2 seconds later.
My phone is still able to boot, it is not bricked. However, it is very distressing to have no access to a recovery mode.
Help?

I have the same issue. Got my phone replaced under warranty and the new one I got yesterday will not boot to recovery. Only black screen. Hopefully we can figure out the issues.
issact said:
Hi all,
I've spent a good two hours trying to figure this out. Generally I'm pretty good at these things, but there just isn't that much action or information on the Blu Life Play when things go wrong (L100a)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2370987
In reference to the above link, I followed all instructions to a T. My phone is rooted just fine, all that is working perfectly. However, once I tried installing CWM using the first method, mobileuncle, not only did it fail, but it also entirely broke my recovery mode! Whenever I try to boot into recovery (vol+/power) I get a black screen until the phone eventually reboots itself.
I then tried method two using the flashing tool, SPFT. I used something similar pretty often, ODIN, with my old Samsung Epic. Again I run into a problem: I can't keep the phone connected long enough to allow SPFT to finish flashing the recovery. As instructed, I plug in the USB cable with the battery out, my computer chimes to let me know it has recognised the device, but- Three seconds later, it chimes again to let me know it has disconnected.
SPFT follows suit, detecting and starting the flash then getting interrupted 2 seconds later.
My phone is still able to boot, it is not bricked. However, it is very distressing to have no access to a recovery mode.
Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

zironia said:
I have the same issue. Got my phone replaced under warranty and the new one I got yesterday will not boot to recovery. Only black screen. Hopefully we can figure out the issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, it's good to hear I'm not alone in this. lopestom has been friendly enough to correspond with me about it and he suspects it's a new model of the same phone. I sent him a screen cap of the factory settings screen (VOL-/POW)
In the end we might be out of luck until more people get their hands on the new version of the phone.

[Q] Can I root a n8010 stuck in odin bootloop (tried everything else )

Hi all..or anyone out there
I have had the seemingly strange bootloop problem on my stock note N8010...which stuck on the dreaded "samsung galaxy note 10.1" and only has odin feature working. (and no factory reset options because I think the poor old tab is crammed to bursting with apps, files and cache and so had a meltdown) poor thing.
so anyway I check these sites of techie wonder and wisdom and followed every logical option..starting with the simple ones
first ran power down and tried to boot up (x3) with no joy, then take apart the tablet to disconnect / reconnect the battery and boot up (x3) still no change.
So went and got the firmware from samwares (both jelly bean and kitkat) to then flash through odin....tried and failed first because of dodgy cable, but the then got a new one...and joy of joys (at first) odin recognised my tab and the firmware flashed across with pass..but then auto rebooted straight back into the dreaded samsung 10.1 again....so tried different versions of odins... and tried other global n8010 firmware...but funnily and frustratingly then all fully download and pass in odin (and the andoid logo and green download status bar on the tablet seems to shown that downloading is and has fully taken place.... but the darn thing still wont boot up past the samsung galaxy note 10.1
Sadly coming to the ends of my tether (of so many nearly there false hopes, high and lows) and very little cash to send it to the Sami tech bods doesnt help matter....I then read and tried the (supposed) last resort pit file/firmware option...first with kitkat (as apparently that worked for someone somewhere) and then tried with jelly bean..again each time itAlways passes in odin.... but auto reboots into the dreaded bootloop logo .... to haunt and torment me.. Aaaaagh!!!!.....I would not mind if it said action failed (for once) like some others seem to experiencet...but it always passes in ODIN????
So.....have come to the semi ignorant conclusion it is either the bootloader section of the tablet or the original software that is messed up or some internal hardware component has a fault.
but was wondering if there is anthing left to try...or would it potentially be possible or worth trying to root a tablet in this condition?
As although I have not ventured into the wild worlds of rooting.....I am now pretty confident of messing with this tablets mind..and have little to lose...so any further ideas and help would be great.

Exact same here. Never flashed, totally stock N8010. My wife hadn't used it for a couple of weeks. So she grabs it again and it was off. booted to nothing but the boot logo. Nothing worked except Download mode.
Flashing stock roms has Odin reporting success, but it still won't boot up. Trying re-Partition does give a fail as soon as I press start.
And we aren't alone. It appears there are quite a few of these cases. I have no idea how to solve this.
I have done a bit of rom flashing on my old galaxy S (the first one) and bootloaders and such usually were included in a ROM. Rooting was done with Recovery or an app and I think it was also possible with adb, IIRC (it's been a while).
It's my wife's Note and she's starting to scope out mini iPads...

Same problem with GT-N8010
I am also having the same problem.
I tried to upload a new ROM via ODIN. All was successful from the ODIN app (PASSED). but stuck on the boot screen. Power and Vol up does not work (it appears to but then crashes out to the boot screen again) so no way to do a hard factory reset.
Volume down/power does work and allows you to get to Odin mode. but as above, uploading a new ROM does not seem to work.
This is an un-rooted GT-N8010 with the stock ROM when I purchased it back in 2013 I believe.
Come on guys, give us some ideas.
Thanks
Gene

Sounds like wrong model firmware flashed as that's the usual bootloop problem .
Try Odin firmware flash wait to passed then remove battery for a short while and replace and try recovery mode .

In my case there is no incompatible firmware issue... The tablet just stopped working one morning and that was that.
Can't comment on the other posters though.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using XDA Free mobile app

Gene_uk said:
In my case there is no incompatible firmware issue... The tablet just stopped working one morning and that was that.
Can't comment on the other posters though.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My wife's the same. Never done anything to it. No idea how to remove the battery. I let the battery run down once, then recharged it, made no difference.
That was before trying to flash the new firmware. My Note says N8010 on the back, it says so in the download mode. I got a firmware from SamMobile for the N8010. Don't know what else I can do.

Widdly said:
My wife's the same. Never done anything to it. No idea how to remove the battery. I let the battery run down once, then recharged it, made no difference.
That was before trying to flash the new firmware. My Note says N8010 on the back, it says so in the download mode. I got a firmware from SamMobile for the N8010. Don't know what else I can do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having same problem here ... tried flashing different firmwares along with PIT file - still no luck ..
stuck on samsung galaxy note screen .. cannot get recovery mode
Any help guys?

Recovery Help

So I've gotten back an old TF300t that I had originally rooted and rommed and all that good stuff long ago before handing it over to someone else and I'm not sure what exactly was done in the meantime but I can't seem to get the recovery to work now. It boots into recovery but the screen is split into two halves one on top of each other and it does not recognize any touch input, the screen also flashes off every few seconds. It is on the 4.2 boot loader and It appears to be some version of TWRP installed currently but any attempts to install another recovery do not seem to do anything(I've tried clockwork, newer TWRP and a "Kang" TWRP that was recommended in the most popular rom). I haven't seen anything like this before but I don't have much experience with ASUS stuff and my current phone is a super locked down Verizon S5 so I'm quite a bit out of practice.
Does anyone have any thoughts on how I might fix this odd issue? Or even what the cause is for that matter. The tablet works fine otherwise though being stuck on the kit kat rom is kind of annoying. A solution that can be done from the tablet alone would be ideal as the USB cable seems to have gone bad and I only have a wall charger on hand but I can get a replacement cable if this is fixable.
EDIT: NEVERMIND...after manually loading another TWRP recovery I was able to fix the issue and now have a 6.0.1 rom running from that, when I tried to install the Kang recovery I got the same thing with the split screens though not sure what I must be doing wrong. A mod can delete this thread if they wish.