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] Boot Loop with no recovery mode

Ok so I'm new to the thread and basically to android tablets, so please forgive my ignorance if it should become prevalent.
I bought a Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 32GB wifi and had it for about one day. I performed a factory restore on the device in which it froze for about 2 hours. (this is probably the stupid part) I turned it off since it was not progressing after a long time and it booted up as a new device. After about 5 minutes of use, it randomly restarted and went into a boot loop. About every 15 or so boot screens, it sometimes boots up, then freezes and goes back into a boot loop. The longest it stayed active without resetting was about 10 minutes. After hours of research, I have done the following
Tried to boot into recovery to no avail. It just continuously pops up the device name screen
I have tried to flash the device with a stock rom in odin 3.9.
It recognizes the device but hangs at the Initialization stage. Sometimes it will give me a fail notice saying that it couldn't open the COM port
I've tried it on another computer, changed usb ports, powered on and off multiple times and nothing changes.
please let me know if i've forgotten anything. Any help will be appreciated.
Also I live in Japan, so if I can fix it myself that would be nice since this device isn't sold here yet, I'm not able to get support from a store. I'd like to avoid waiting a month sending it back to america, replacing it, and getting it sent back. Thanks in advance ^_^

Make sure you have the correct and latest Samsung drivers for your tablet.
If you have an SD card installed, try removing it and see if you can boot up and get it stable.

roninb30 said:
Ok so I'm new to the thread and basically to android tablets, so please forgive my ignorance if it should become prevalent.
I bought a Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 32GB wifi and had it for about one day. I performed a factory restore on the device in which it froze for about 2 hours. (this is probably the stupid part) I turned it off since it was not progressing after a long time and it booted up as a new device. After about 5 minutes of use, it randomly restarted and went into a boot loop. About every 15 or so boot screens, it sometimes boots up, then freezes and goes back into a boot loop. The longest it stayed active without resetting was about 10 minutes. After hours of research, I have done the following
Tried to boot into recovery to no avail. It just continuously pops up the device name screen
I have tried to flash the device with a stock rom in odin 3.9.
It recognizes the device but hangs at the Initialization stage. Sometimes it will give me a fail notice saying that it couldn't open the COM port
I've tried it on another computer, changed usb ports, powered on and off multiple times and nothing changes.
please let me know if i've forgotten anything. Any help will be appreciated.
Also I live in Japan, so if I can fix it myself that would be nice since this device isn't sold here yet, I'm not able to get support from a store. I'd like to avoid waiting a month sending it back to america, replacing it, and getting it sent back. Thanks in advance ^_^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, you rooted (void warranty) on a day old tablet on a platform that is new to you? I've been rooting Android devices for over 3 years now and have had mine for a week now without root. Don't get me wrong, I have a list of things I want that require root and it will be happening but I figured I should at least run it for a couple weeks to make sure no defects pop up before I void the warranty. Good luck to you!

Russbad said:
Make sure you have the correct and latest Samsung drivers for your tablet.
If you have an SD card installed, try removing it and see if you can boot up and get it stable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've installed drivers a few times. No go.
I'm on it now and the boot loop seems to have stopped, but I still get random restarts. But each time it restarts, it's from factory, so it doesn't save anything I download or any settings such as enabling debugging in the developer settings.
rkirmeier said:
Wow, you rooted (void warranty) on a day old tablet on a platform that is new to you? I've been rooting Android devices for over 3 years now and have had mine for a week now without root. Don't get me wrong, I have a list of things I want that require root and it will be happening but I figured I should at least run it for a couple weeks to make sure no defects pop up before I void the warranty. Good luck to you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't root, and I haven't voided my warranty. I can still get into download mode and my flash counter is still at 0. I never tried to root, I simply wanted to flash to stock, from stock.
[Edit] I'd also like to mention that Odin has not successfully done anything, Every time I tried to flash it was done with a stock ROM, and everything that has gone wrong has occurred on nothing but the stock ROM

Is it possible that I need a pit file for the device since no version of Odin will get past initialization? ....if so where can I get one for the this model?

roninb30 said:
I've installed drivers a few times. No go.
I'm on it now and the boot loop seems to have stopped, but I still get random restarts. But each time it restarts, it's from factory, so it doesn't save anything I download or any settings such as enabling debugging in the developer settings.
I didn't root, and I haven't voided my warranty. I can still get into download mode and my flash counter is still at 0. I never tried to root, I simply wanted to flash to stock, from stock.
[Edit] I'd also like to mention that Odin has not successfully done anything, Every time I tried to flash it was done with a stock ROM, and everything that has gone wrong has occurred on nothing but the stock ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are not rooted and you have a boot loop I'd be returning the device for a new one...

rkirmeier said:
If you are not rooted and you have a boot loop I'd be returning the device for a new one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to agree since you would have to wait for a while to get the replacement, however the device sounds to be defective. just my two cents as a developer, if you flash anything to the device, root, a new image, or even the factory software, Knox will be tripped and the counter will go from zero to a one. My advice would be to get a replacement for the defective one.
Developers don't need no stinkin' signature!
If I've been able to help you, please hit the "Thanks" button.

Huge 3rd.
Device should just plain WORK out of the box. There shouldn't have been a need to flash stock to begin with.

One last suggestion, factory reset from recovery. From complete power off, hold volume up+home button+power and after a few seconds let go until it boots into recovery. From there wipe cache, wipe davlik, and factory restore. Good luck!

Android.Ninja said:
I hate to agree since you would have to wait for a while to get the replacement, however the device sounds to be defective. just my two cents as a developer, if you flash anything to the device, root, a new image, or even the factory software, Knox will be tripped and the counter will go from zero to a one. My advice would be to get a replacement for the defective one.
Developers don't need no stinkin' signature!
If I've been able to help you, please hit the "Thanks" button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's unfortunate, but I have to suck it up and just pay the shipping back to Ameica....then again for it to come back. Just wanted to do everything I could before I had to send it. Thanks for the input though. I guess I learned quite a bit researching processes and terminology which will be helpful in the future. ^-^
Russbad said:
One last suggestion, factory reset from recovery. From complete power off, hold volume up+home button+power and after a few seconds let go until it boots into recovery. From there wipe cache, wipe davlik, and factory restore. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried many times. The device pretty much gives me the finger by going blank and repeatedly showing the boot up logo when I hold the buttons down.

rkirmeier said:
Wow, you rooted (void warranty) on a day old tablet on a platform that is new to you? I've been rooting Android devices for over 3 years now and have had mine for a week now without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I voided my warrant after having mine for about an hour (though not new to Android). I did all my random "OCD does it work as I expect/want" tests and it passed, so I rooted. Had it for one week now, and I absolutely love everything about this tablet.
roninb30 said:
Yeah, it's unfortunate, but I have to suck it up and just pay the shipping back to Ameica
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMO, it will be worth it. This is my fourth tablet, and is the first one I've not had buyer's remorse with. Luckily with the gift credit for Google I was able to get the non-Tegra equivalents of some of my favorite games, too.

ExtremeRyno said:
I voided my warrant after having mine for about an hour (though not new to Android). I did all my random "OCD does it work as I expect/want" tests and it passed, so I rooted. Had it for one week now, and I absolutely love everything about this tablet.
IMO, it will be worth it. This is my fourth tablet, and is the first one I've not had buyer's remorse with. Luckily with the gift credit for Google I was able to get the non-Tegra equivalents of some of my favorite games, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After doing research, I think that even if I get a new one, I want to root it. With the problems I've read about for kitkat 4.4.2 I need to know how to fix problems, and start with a fresh install of roms and know how to use custom recovery. I haven't done anything yet, but I was wondering...
Since I'm stuck in a boot loop with no stock recovery, can I flash a custom recovery to fix my issues, flash the stock rom that is on sammobile.com and then root after that? From what I understand this is a soft brick since I can still sometimes access the device. I worked out why I couldn't access the device with adb and now it shows the device as listed. It stays on long enough to where I could flash a recovery before it restarts itself. I'm not trying to do anything stupid, just getting information before I pay the shipping for it back to the states. I've checked the knox counter in download mode, and it is still set to 0, so I haven't voided the warranty yet.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

It's odd that a new device would not have recovery. I don't want to insult you, but just making sure we covered the basics, volume up+home+power gets you to recovery. The boot logo will flash about three times, make sure you're still pressing all three buttons, then let go after the 3rd flash of the boot logo then you should be in recovery. Volume down+home+power takes you to download mode, this is where you flash roms and recovery. I read in another post about someone not being able to get in recovery after numerous times, it turned out that he was hitting the volume down button instead of volume up. Just to be clear, if you do flash recovery, you will definitely trip knox, at this time there is no way around that.

Russbad said:
It's odd that a new device would not have recovery. I don't want to insult you, but just making sure we covered the basics, volume up+home+power gets you to recovery. The boot logo will flash about three times, make sure you're still pressing all three buttons, then let go after the 3rd flash of the boot logo then you should be in recovery. Volume down+home+power takes you to download mode, this is where you flash roms and recovery. I read in another post about someone not being able to get in recovery after numerous times, it turned out that he was hitting the volume down button instead of volume up. Just to be clear, if you do flash recovery, you will definitely trip knox, at this time there is no way around that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the skepticism. Yeah, I tried the button combination, usb in, usb out. I can power off the device completely only when it is plugged into power. When I hold the recovery combo from power on, the screen goes black with no flashing of the boot logo, looks as if it wants to go to recovery, and then then the boot logo comes up again, but just continues to the boot animation and continues the boot loop, even if i'm still holding down volume up and home buttons. It will sometimes boot up, then freeze after a couple of seconds, and return to boot loop. On rare occasions it will boot up, but turns me to setup like it's a brand new device. I can access everything for about 10 minutes, and then it will randomly restart and continue to boot loop again after that. I tried update/initialization in kies, but it would restart before the downloading and decompressing of binary could finish. It finished one time and then switch to a downloading screen (although it didn't say odin since you have to manually go there) but the update would freeze at 0 percent no matter how long I left the device there. It's all pretty lame ><

[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
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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.
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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?

A8 SM-A530F TWRP Install Failure

[SOLVED, ANSWER BELOW]
Hi
Yesterday I tried to install TWRP Custom Recovery on my phone. I have done it before succesfully on different models.
The installation went smoothly, and I managed to boot into TWRP quickly. However the touch screen went all funky. Every little button I had to press was a difficult process, and I could barely swipe the unlock mechanism. Using the keyboard to type 'yes' for certain functions was impossible. I tried everything from aluminium foil to special gloves..
I looked up methods how to fix this and this site came up multiple times. Some solutions offered however were too complicated for me to use, because I have no knowledge on the core electronics of my device.
I decided to just leave it at this and turn off my phone. I tried going to the menu to power my phone off, however it decided pressing a lot of buttons was a better idea. I have no idea what buttons were pressed during that moment of craziness, and now I can only get my phone into the download mode. If I try to acces TWRP, it boots up to the first screen, then immediately turns off, and does it again. I can shut that process off, by pressing the power button + volume down, and then using volume up+down+power button to go into download mode.
I have the version of Odin that matches my android 9.0 Pie version, not the latest, as the latest version of Odin did not even install TWRP the first time I tried this, but the matching yet older version did.
I tried reinstalling TWRP. No luck.
I tried flashing stock firmware. I get a Complete(write) Operation failure.
I have up-to-date USB drivers
I tried Samsung Smart Switch but it does not recognize my device. I tried reinstalling my USB drivers to no avail. I used different USB ports, and a different USB cable.
I have tried to look up any and everything that may relate to this issue but I have not succeeded in finding anything that fixes my issue.
When I started the process, OEM unlock and USB Debugging was turned on. It may or may not have turned off in that crazy moment, I can't tell
All of my data is backed up or not valuable to me. A factory reset, or wipe, or whatever, is something I'm okay with. I just want my phone back.
Thank you for your help
Greetings, Jaxus
[SOLUTION]:
I decided to go ahead and use the latest Odin anyway. It worked. My touchscreen issue has been fixed, and I can go back to rooting as I expected I should be able to. I apologize if I broke any social convention in my post.

SM-A530W
I just recently ran into same'ish TWRP issues and locked up totally upon a reboot with a SM-A530W. Here's why,apparently. https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-a8-2018/samsung-galaxy-a8-2018-guides-news--discussion/guide-root-install-twrp-samsung-january-t3760975 I got the "Only official released binaries are allowed to be flashed" message. Most certainly worth a read. Wow, 7 full days (168h) going unmolested, who would of guessed such.

Does Rooting work for Android 9?

I don't know what to do!!!
uwannabananababy said:
I just recently ran into same'ish TWRP issues and locked up totally upon a reboot with a SM-A530W. Here's why,apparently. https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-a8-2018/samsung-galaxy-a8-2018-guides-news--discussion/guide-root-install-twrp-samsung-january-t3760975 I got the "Only official released binaries are allowed to be flashed" message. Most certainly worth a read. Wow, 7 full days (168h) going unmolested, who would of guessed such.
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Click to collapse
I have the same phone and I've got a similar problem I've used every odor known to man the newest one to the oldest one I can no longer load TWRP I can't root it I can't do anything please tell me what I can do thank you in advance