All the research I have done indicates that the Galaxy note2 was produced in 16/32/64GB models. I have a note 2 model GT-N7100 running android 4.1.2 that indicates it has 3.18GB storage on the phone with 2.38GB used. My phone is rooted (don't know if that affects the memory). I'm at my wit's end. I have to uninstall apps when I find a new one I'd like to try, and most other times there is not enough memory for apps to update. Sure could use some help. And just as a side note, I am 70 years old and my technological brain isn't firing on 8 cylinders anymore, so please be gentle. Thanks.
Art
I don't think that configuration exists. Verify your configuration by looking up the model number, and revision online. You may have some sort of error, bad RAM, or even some malware. Try resetting the device, after backing up your data of course.
Are you saying you have only 4GB in total, or that amount available? Perhaps you could find someone who could verify the configuration for you? Try a local phone store, or computer store. For someone who is familiar with devices, they should be able to find out within a few minutes of holding it in their hand.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
retired911 said:
All the research I have done indicates that the Galaxy note2 was produced in 16/32/64GB models. I have a note 2 model GT-N7100 running android 4.1.2 that indicates it has 3.18GB storage on the phone with 2.38GB used. My phone is rooted (don't know if that affects the memory). I'm at my wit's end. I have to uninstall apps when I find a new one I'd like to try, and most other times there is not enough memory for apps to update. Sure could use some help. And just as a side note, I am 70 years old and my technological brain isn't firing on 8 cylinders anymore, so please be gentle. Thanks.
Art
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like to know what modifications have been made to the device and whether you've been flashing custom ROMs on the device. Has the device been repartitioned somewhere along the way?
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
kieseyhow said:
I don't think that configuration exists. Verify your configuration by looking up the model number, and revision online. You may have some sort of error, bad RAM, or even some malware. Try resetting the device, after backing up your data of course.
Are you saying you have only 4GB in total, or that amount available? Perhaps you could find someone who could verify the configuration for you? Try a local phone store, or computer store. For someone who is familiar with devices, they should be able to find out within a few minutes of holding it in their hand.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for the reply and advice. I went to a phone repair shop as you suggested and they were puzzled that it showed only 3.18GB total available storage but when I told them that it was rooted they said that was likely the cause of the missing ram. They were a certified Samsung repair shop. I don't believe that. Who in their right mind would waste 12GB by rooting a phone. They also told me that since it is rooted, I can't unroot. In fact they treated me and my phone as though we had the plague.
Nobody here will touch this phone because it is not a North American version. I think the N7100 was made for Asia, but works fine here. I bought it used, already rooted and unlocked. What drew me to this phone is first, it is a reputable device, second, it has FM radio, and third, it has a large screen. If I could unlock the extra 12GB I'd be dancing the jig!
cheers
Art
Droidriven said:
I'd like to know what modifications have been made to the device and whether you've been flashing custom ROMs on the device. Has the device been repartitioned somewhere along the way?
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd love to be able to answer those questions, but I was looking for a used unlocked samsung and it was rooted and unlocked when I purchased it. I don't think it is partitioned as there is no indication (that I have found) of another "drive". In system/storage,device memory it says "total space" 3.08GB. Available 713MB . I do have a 32GB sd card installed but I can't move any apps on to it. I used to be able to do that with my previous phone. This phone still has os 4.1.2, and I have never flashed a custom rom although I'd love to one day.
cheers
Art
Sorry about that. Looks like you found a den of thieves and scum; more common than most people realise. Sadly 80% of the human race is inncompetent. Find someone else.
Find the help manual online, then read up how to reset the device. Try that. However if this is a hardware problem, you will be hard pressed to find someone with the skills to repair it. Now, if you went to a third-world country, and looked in the shacks, you would find people who not only would ,but could replace those bad RAM circuits for you. Sadly you live, like I do, in Western society. First world with money, but third world in competence, decency and common sense.
Bottom ilne, those guys in that store, out-right lied to you, ruinig their future of any business from you in the process, very incompetent.
Second choice? They really were just that useless. You will have to try again, or end up doing what I do; fix it yourself.
First, try resetting it.
Second, activate developer options and find out detailed information about the "expected" capabilities of your device.
Third, try and repair it yourself.
Fourth, replace your device, but keep that defective one to test people for honesty and competence.
I did look online for you, and none of those Samsung came with only 4GB of RAM, none that I could find anyhow. So, it is either software, or hardware. software is a 10 minute fix you can do yourself with a factory reset. Hardware is something that only an experienced electronics tech or serious hobbiest (with a reflow station) could do by reflowing the solder for the RAM, or replacing some chips on the main board. Good luck!
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
retired911 said:
I'd love to be able to answer those questions, but I was looking for a used unlocked samsung and it was rooted and unlocked when I purchased it. I don't think it is partitioned as there is no indication (that I have found) of another "drive". In system/storage,device memory it says "total space" 3.08GB. Available 713MB . I do have a 32GB sd card installed but I can't move any apps on to it. I used to be able to do that with my previous phone. This phone still has os 4.1.2, and I have never flashed a custom rom although I'd love to one day.
cheers
Art
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless it's a hardware problem, you can flash your stock firmware along with the PIT file for your specific model number via Odin and it should fix this.
The PIT file tells Odin how your partitions are supposed to be structured, it should put everything back the way it's supposed to be.
You can do a Google search for:
"PIT for (your model number)"
Or find someone that has a rooted device with your model number and have them.pull a copy of their PIT and have them upload it somewhere.
And yes, you can unroot the device, there two ways to do it, you should have a SuperSU app somewhere in app drawer, open it then open its app settings, look for a setting that says something like "cleanup for unroot and unistall", this removes the su binaries and uninstalls SuperSU, leaving no root, also, flashing stock firmware via Odin will remove root but root isn't the problem. Someone did this manually their self somehow and they used root permission to do it.
Other than flashing stock firmware via Odin, you'd have better luck fixing the device WITH root than you would without it. Root allows you to change everything, you can't change anything without root.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 06:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:00 PM ----------
kieseyhow said:
Sorry about that. Looks like you found a den of thieves and scum; more common than most people realise. Sadly 80% of the human race is inncompetent. Find someone else.
Find the help manual online, then read up how to reset the device. Try that. However if this is a hardware problem, you will be hard pressed to find someone with the skills to repair it. Now, if you went to a third-world country, and looked in the shacks, you would find people who not only would ,but could replace those bad RAM circuits for you. Sadly you live, like I do, in Western society. First world with money, but third world in competence, decency and common sense.
Bottom ilne, those guys in that store, out-right lied to you, ruinig their future of any business from you in the process, very incompetent.
Second choice? They really were just that useless. You will have to try again, or end up doing what I do; fix it yourself.
First, try resetting it.
Second, activate developer options and find out detailed information about the "expected" capabilities of your device.
Third, try and repair it yourself.
Fourth, replace your device, but keep that defective one to test people for honesty and competence.
I did look online for you, and none of those Samsung came with only 4GB of RAM, none that I could find anyhow. So, it is either software, or hardware. software is a 10 minute fix you can do yourself with a factory reset. Hardware is something that only an experienced electronics tech or serious hobbiest (with a reflow station) could do by reflowing the solder for the RAM, or replacing some chips on the main board. Good luck!
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not 4G of RAM, he's saying that it is saying he has a 4G internal sdcard instead of 16/32/64 GB, RAM and storage are two different things.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
kieseyhow said:
Sorry about that. Looks like you found a den of thieves and scum; more common than most people realise. Sadly 80% of the human race is inncompetent. Find someone else.
Find the help manual online, then read up how to reset the device. Try that. However if this is a hardware problem, you will be hard pressed to find someone with the skills to repair it. Now, if you went to a third-world country, and looked in the shacks, you would find people who not only would ,but could replace those bad RAM circuits for you. Sadly you live, like I do, in Western society. First world with money, but third world in competence, decency and common sense.
Bottom ilne, those guys in that store, out-right lied to you, ruinig their future of any business from you in the process, very incompetent.
Second choice? They really were just that useless. You will have to try again, or end up doing what I do; fix it yourself.
First, try resetting it.
Second, activate developer options and find out detailed information about the "expected" capabilities of your device.
Third, try and repair it yourself.
Fourth, replace your device, but keep that defective one to test people for honesty and competence.
I did look online for you, and none of those Samsung came with only 4GB of RAM, none that I could find anyhow. So, it is either software, or hardware. software is a 10 minute fix you can do yourself with a factory reset. Hardware is something that only an experienced electronics tech or serious hobbiest (with a reflow station) could do by reflowing the solder for the RAM, or replacing some chips on the main board. Good luck!
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By resetting it if you mean unrooting it, I'm afraid to do that as it will be locked to whatever provider it was before. Someone told me that to do a factory reset will accomplish the same thing or maybe even brick the device.
I looked on developer options and the only thing that makes sense to me that might help is "debugging", and to do that I need to do more research as I don't know what debugging is all about. I have seriously considered replacing the phone, and will probably do that but I am a stubborn cuss and want to learn. Keeps my 70 year old brain from becoming 80.
cheers
Art
Well, what about installing a new ROM then? Try something based on Android 4.4; a version many consider the best.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 10:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 PM ----------
Install ADB on your computer, get a new ROM for your Note 2, and try it. There is always a risk, that is how life works. The best Note version, in my opinion, is the Note 4. See if you can find one second-hand? Then you can tinker with your Note 2 afterwards and experiment. There are minimalist ROMS that would even work on 4GB.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
retired911 said:
By resetting it if you mean unrooting it, I'm afraid to do that as it will be locked to whatever provider it was before. Someone told me that to do a factory reset will accomplish the same thing or maybe even brick the device.
I looked on developer options and the only thing that makes sense to me that might help is "debugging", and to do that I need to do more research as I don't know what debugging is all about. I have seriously considered replacing the phone, and will probably do that but I am a stubborn cuss and want to learn. Keeps my 70 year old brain from becoming 80.
cheers
Art
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USB debugging is only to allow interfacing with the device via USB connection to PC, such as using adb/fastboot and other softwares used to interface the device while it's booted into system or recovery. It allows you to use software tools to debug the device, this is usually only used by developers when they are creating software for the device and are testing it or when using adb to push/pull files or capture logcats or any other adb commands.
Give me the model number of your Note 2 and I'll search for the stock 4.1.2 for your device or even a newer update if it's available and you want it, then I'll link you to all the tools and files you'll need to flash the firmware, it's similar to wiping and reinstalling windows on PC to return to factory version.
The term "Factory reset" in android is not the same as factory reset on PC. On PC it restores to exactly what was there from the factory. In android, it doesn't work like that, it only wipes the user space and doesn't touch system. Any changes to system will remain after resetting and only user data gets wiped, data you yourself put on the device such as apps you installed, pics you've downloaded or taken with camera. Factory reset in android DOES NOT remove root unless you're using SuperSU on systemless mode(systemless SuperSU is stored in /data partition instead of in system), your device most likely has SuperSU in /system partition instead of in /data partition, which means factory reset won't help you.
I'll help you get this fixed pretty quick if you give the info I need to help you.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
kieseyhow said:
Well, what about installing a new ROM then? Try something based on Android 4.4; a version many consider the best.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 10:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 PM ----------
Install ADB on your computer, get a new ROM for your Note 2, and try it. There is always a risk, that is how life works. The best Note version, in my opinion, is the Note 4. See if you can find one second-hand? Then you can tinker with your Note 2 afterwards and experiment. There are minimalist ROMS that would even work on 4GB.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would love to get a note 4 but it doesn't come with FM radio tuner, and that is a must for me! But I think I will take your advice and look for a new phone (with FM) and then tinker with my note 2
There is an app, called "Tunin radio" that will receive most popular stations, and even local stations. I use it all the time.
Also, most phones have radios inside, but they are locked, and disabled. Nearly every Android phone has this blocked feature.
An even better option is to get a multi-band radio receiver dongle for your device. Some can recieve far more than just FM, but also AM, SSB, HAM, Police Fire, even the audio part of TV. Look for device with n RTL2832U chip, and you'll also need an OTG adaptor to power it. There are several apps that you can find with minimal research, and several forums where people are very passionate about such devices.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
retired911 said:
All the research I have done indicates that the Galaxy note2 was produced in 16/32/64GB models. I have a note 2 model GT-N7100 running android 4.1.2 that indicates it has 3.18GB storage on the phone with 2.38GB used. My phone is rooted (don't know if that affects the memory). I'm at my wit's end. I have to uninstall apps when I find a new one I'd like to try, and most other times there is not enough memory for apps to update. Sure could use some help. And just as a side note, I am 70 years old and my technological brain isn't firing on 8 cylinders anymore, so please be gentle. Thanks.
Art
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Go to this link and choose one of the 4.4.2 firmwares that will have the correct language.
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/galaxy-note-/GT-N7100/
2) Look in this thread for information about PIT, which one you might need and how to use it.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1927983
3) Then do a Google search for:
"USB drivers for Samsung phones"
It'll give you several links, get those successfully installed on your PC.
4) Install Odin 3.10 on your PC from this link
http://www.droidviews.com/download-odin-tool-for-samsung-galaxy-devices-all-versions/
5) Charge your battery to full.
6) Boot to download mode (with the device off, press power+home+volume down, when you see the caution screen press up to go to download)
7) Open Odin on PC
8) With device in download mode, connect to PC with the stock USB cord.(if it connects correctly you'll see a blue or yellow #comm box and it will say ADDED! in the dialogue box, if you don't get this then try a different USB port, make sure drivers installed correctly, make sure it's stock cord, restart PC)
9) If successfully connected, click the AP button(some versions of Odin have PDA instead of AP, click whichever one you have), browse to where you stored the stock firmware that you downloaded, select it.
10) If you're gonna use the PIT file, find the tab that says PIT in Odin, place the PIT you're using there.( I suggest you do some research and ask questions in a few places before actually using the PIT and to figure out whether you need to use it or how safe it is to do it, sometimes using PIT can do more harm than good, it just depends on the state of your device)
11) Click START in Odin, if everything is in order and done corectly, it will flash, if successful, you'll get a green PASS and the device will reboot into a fresh clean install.
***NOTE***
This will probably wipe all of your data so if there are apps or contacts or pics or any kind of personal data that you put on the device that you want to keep then you'll need to backup that data, there are several ways to backup your data. Since you have root, you can use Titanium Backup from the PlayStore to backup the apps you've installed and their data, your contacts and any other things that you want to keep, also keep a copy of Titanium Backup and the backup that you create in Titanium Backup on your extsdcard to prevent it from being wiped during the flash. When the device reboots after flashing, you can reinstall the copy of Titanium Backup from extsdcard and then use Titanium Backup to restore everything that you backed up. After all of this, you should end up with a clean install of 4.4.2 and all of your personal data restored to the device.
If you need help anywhere in all of that, just let me know. I'll be glad to help you understand and learn.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 07:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:12 PM ----------
kieseyhow said:
There is an app, called "Tunin radio" that will receive most popular stations, and even local stations. I use it all the time.
Also, most phones have radios inside, but they are locked, and disabled. Nearly every Android phone has this blocked feature.
An even better option is to get a multi-band radio receiver dongle for your device. Some can recieve far more than just FM, but also AM, SSB, HAM, Police Fire, even the audio part of TV. Look for device with n RTL2832U chip, and you'll also need an OTG adaptor to power it. There are several apps that you can find with minimal research, and several forums where people are very passionate about such devices.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He can fix the one he has, it's fine for his purposes, no need to get another device.
Plus, in fixing this one, he learns something, which is what he's looking to do.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
I can't thank you all enough for all the help you've given me. I have a lot of homework ahead of me and look forward to the research. I'm going to read and study this thread again and research all the suggestions. But for now, the Penguins and Senators are going at it in game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals and I need to watch.
I checked, and the system says it's a GT-N7100 and so does the sticker behind the battery. Supersu is one of the apps on the phone. I have played with Supersu a bit but don't really understand it yet and none of my other apps were affiliated with it so I pretty much left it alone. Now on to hockey.
cheers
Art
retired911 said:
I can't thank you all enough for all the help you've given me. I have a lot of homework ahead of me and look forward to the research. I'm going to read and study this thread again and research all the suggestions. But for now, the Penguins and Senators are going at it in game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals and I need to watch.
I checked, and the system says it's a GT-N7100 and so does the sticker behind the battery. Supersu is one of the apps on the phone. I have played with Supersu a bit but don't really understand it yet and none of my other apps were affiliated with it so I pretty much left it alone. Now on to hockey.
cheers
Art
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flash with Odin, remember to store a copy of Titanium Backup app and the backup you create when you use it, place them both on extsdcard. Then for safety measures before flashing, remove the extsdcard and the SIM card if you have one, then flash, after flashing, put the extsdcard and SIM back in.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Some excellent offers and advice, and I apologize for my lazy assistance. [emoji14] I hope you get it sorted out. For me, I think that the price of losing 12GB or storage is not worth rooting the phone. But, others have done it sucessfully, and there is no reason you cannot do the same. I still suggest you find a Note 4 though.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!! I studied your instructions, I dived in and flashed my note 2. Odin said PASS! I now have Android 4.4.2. One problem remains. I now show 8GB total storage. system memory takes up 4.82gb. used space takes up another 1.55gb and misc files 1.3gb. Leaving me with 341 mb storage space. When I flashed I did not use the PIT file I downloaded. Should I reflash using the PIT file?
Just got another problem. The phone won't connect with my service provider.
retired911 said:
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!! I studied your instructions, I dived in and flashed my note 2. Odin said PASS! I now have Android 4.4.2. One problem remains. I now show 8GB total storage. system memory takes up 4.82gb. used space takes up another 1.55gb and misc files 1.3gb. Leaving me with 341 mb storage space. When I flashed I did not use the PIT file I downloaded. Should I reflash using the PIT file?
Just got another problem. The phone won't connect with my service provider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should probably use the PIT so that it will restore your partitions to their correct order and sizes.
To flash the PIT, do exactly like you did when you flashed your firmware, put the firmware in the AP slot, then find the tab that says PIT, place the PIT there, then find the "options" tab in Odin, select "re-partition", this option tells Odin to use the PIT, you don't need to mess with the other options, they are fine at their default settings, all you need to mess with is selecting re-partition.
To help with not connecting to your service provider, did you make sure the firmware was for your region? Did you make sure it's compatible with your network type and and it's signal bands? Networks are different everywhere so you need to flash a stock firmware that is compatible with your region and carrier. I was hoping that a region that uses the same language as you would work, but it looks like you'll have to use a firmware that is compatible with your network and then after flashing you can manually change the language the firmware uses, if needed.
Or maybe you can leave the firmware you have flashed then download a firmware that has a compatible modem.bin and extract that modem.bin and flash it on your device to replace the modem.bin you have. You might can even find a compatible modem available for download without having to extract it from another firmware.
Have you tried emailing or calling your service provider to ask them which stock firmware for your model is compatible with their network? They might provide you with what you need or at least tell you exactly what you need so you can find it yourself.
Who is your service provider and what country are you in? I'll see what I can figure out for you.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
How does one figure out which is the right version to download for my phone? There are changelist numbers, PDA and CSC numbers, all of which tell me nothing. When I flashed to the UK version, it turned out to be with T-Mobile, and the carriers listed were Bell and Telus. I am with Speakout, (a 7-11 product) which piggybacks on the Rogers network. I have a pay as you go account with no data. It works on the GSM network. I live in Calgary, Canada.
cheers
Art
I just flashed the phone again using the same firmware but this time adding the 16GB PIT file and repartitioning. Got a Pass from Odin but no change in the available storage. It still says I have only 8GB total storage. Thinking bad memory?
Related
There isn't a thread for this for our phone, so I thought I would make one seeing as i've tried it. A program called mobile odin https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.mobileodin.pro&feature=nav_result Will allow you to run odin from your device without connecting it to your computer. Its super simple to use and it works pretty well. My charging port is hosed so I can't connect it anyways. I was on ICS and needed to go back to GB. Had to use this app and got back on GB no problem. I don't see a free version of the app anywhere so depending on how much you use odin, 5 bucks might be a good investment.
Hmm I ran the program and sent the logs a few months ago and never heard anything back to get our device supported and still doesn't say it supports this device.
It takes 30 minutes to run the system dump to find out our device isn't compatible......after running the dump....and to find out it wouldn't work
Its not worth the hassle when you've only got 15 minutes to get the refund.
I'd like to see screenshots or something to show that this actually does officially work on our device ....considering its not on the list of compatible devices.
Thanks
I guess after 2 days without a response ....there's not going to be one?
To bad I was hoping that it was going to be worth the money
Too bad I'm stuck on ics as well got excited when I started reading this thread.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda app-developers app
??? Anything???
Or is this just a bogus post....and in the wrong section....should have went in themes and apps
A search would show that XDA members gets a lite version as with lots of other apps for free.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1347899
Ive run it.....it generates a dump file (mobileodin.txt) that you send in and hope that he incorperates your device in the next update .....and since it does this ...it basically is not suported as of yet.
So the op is saying it works.....but in fact it doesnt.
I would like to see some evidence that it works for him and like to know how it does on his device and not on mine.
Also with the lite version you have to dl a flash kernal specific to your device from that same thread....but since our device is not suported...you wont find one.
Y'all should do alot more reading before posting links to something that doesnt suport our device.
i did read that thread thuroughly....very thuroughly,even flashed a few flash kernals he added that were for the other models similar to ours in great hopes of getting this to work.
This is what you get....it does take about 30 minutes to generate the text file to send in
Oh magda623....are you there?
we are awaiting your reply.
Im sure there is hundreds of us that would like to have this running on our phones...please let us know how to make it work.
Ok ok i give up on magda to humor us on how it works on his device.
I urge everyone to use the link a couple posts up and dl the mobile odin lite,run it and send your mobileodin.txt to chainfire and plead with him to include our device....im sure he will eventually get our message.....after all he does say he is only working on samsung devices at this time.
****wouldnt it be awsome to flash back and forth from mtd to bml roms without ever having hook up to your comp!!!****
Lol am i seriously the only one that finds this to be something that would make life amazing on the sgs4g?
new ealsjur
Mobile ODIN did not recognize the device when I was on CM9
Something about flashing the phone from the phones makes me uneasy. What if you need to repartition using a pit or something, while the phone is on and in use.
Btw short I sent a dump file a long time ago and have been retrying ever since with no luck so far, maybe I'll make another dump today after work
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2
getochkn said:
Something about flashing the phone from the phones makes me uneasy...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've stayed out of this one for just that reason. It's bad enough to be messing with the underpinnings of an OS when you don't have true single-user mode, a "safe" boot, kernel, and emergency filesystem available, nor alternate boot media if things go really bad. Doing all that from user-land while the system is running all services sounds like just asking for trouble.
You can do most of what you are asking for in Recovery
Flash kernel/boot/recovery
Flash /system
Flash other run-time partitions
Flash modem
If you can't get into recovery, are you really able to run some Android program?
I'm not really seeing the need for this, except for people who have broken their USB connector and can't connect to a computer. Even then, when would you need ODIN? When things are so hozed up you need to start from scratch, yes, but if you have a broken USB, what are you doing flashing risky things?
If someone can show what this would do that you can't do in recovery, as well as a meaningful use case for it, I'll mull over how to do it. Basically, if an app can do it, a script in recovery sure should be able to as well.
I tend to think the reason we dont have support is because of the quirkiness of this phone.
I agree eollie ....I gave up on this a while ago...really it doesn't matter to me anyhow....I mostly thought it was a great idea.
I don't tend to have issues with flashing...or recovering.
And even if I did....I wouldn't be dumb enough to post here lmao.
There is already an active thread on B94M/B943 but none on N9589. I am hoping to start one.
I received mine a few weeks ago and still playing with it. It is still unrooted because I am waiting for my micro-sd to arrive. I installed ADB_usb_driver_120827_v3 and MtkDroidTools_v246 and seems to work fine. Mine is the 1GB/8GB version, came with Android 4.2.1 and bought it on ebay for US$230. Would have bought it from aliexpress (cheaper) but their payment system put me off.
I am not sure but I think this phone is manufactured by HUACHEN Technology Limited.
Mod Edit...link removed
Finally!!!!
dreamerman said:
There is already an active thread on B94M/B943 but none on N9589. I am hoping to start one.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2207989
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great!!! There was high time to create the own topic for this excellent phone!
vanaj said:
Great!!! There was high time to create the own topic for this excellent phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume you have the same phone? Have you tried a 64GB micro sd card? I read about someone on needrom who successfully used one. I am still waiting for my 64GB card to be delivered.
Revman said:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Dreamerman, I too just got the Star N9589 and am very happy with it. I was wondering what service provider you are going through? I been having a heck of time trying to get service for this phone. I found a person who left a comment on a N9589 they bought on Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/Star-MTK6589-Quad-core-Capacitance-SmartPhone-Grey/dp/B00BVUXQ2W . They got theirs working on a pre-pay service Net 10, I have tried both straight talk and net 10 and no luck so far. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to factory reset mine 3 times to get 3G working. Previously only getting 2G. Have you tried factory reset?
Issues discovered so far....
1. Sometimes the person I am speaking to reported hearing echos. This applies to both land line and mobile.
2. Speaker volume too low. I suppose this can be corrected via engineer menu.
I confirm this phone supports a 64GB micro-sd card (FAT32) although specs says upto 32GB.
dreamerman said:
I had to factory reset mine 3 times to get 3G working. Previously only getting 2G. Have you tried factory reset?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK good to know, what does factory reset do for the phone exactly? I was worried about only getting 2G speeds using GSM. I read up on a youtube channel that a guy is using AT&T with his N9859, so maybe this is what I will have to do. Was hoping to use a pre-pay service but not sure that is possible with this phone. Thanks for the heads up on the echoing issue..
---------- Post added at 06:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 PM ----------
dreamerman said:
Issues discovered so far....
1. Sometimes the person I am speaking to reported hearing echos. This applies to both land line and mobile.
2. Speaker volume too low. I suppose this can be corrected via engineer menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I did hear about audio on this phone being quiet, but you can correct it with in the settings/ audio panel.
---------- Post added at 06:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:49 PM ----------
dreamerman said:
I confirm this phone supports a 64GB micro-sd card (FAT32) although specs says upto 32GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats great, I noticed too when buying my phone that some of the specs were under-rated from what they really were. Interesting, guess its still a big plus the phone is better than what they show on the specs thus far!
Revman, factory reset means a fresh reinstall of your stock rom to original state from factory. You will loose all apps you install yourself and all customisations like wall paper etc. In my case, I also lost some Chinese apps that came with the phone which I didn't want so that is a bonus.
Antutu score when I got the phone is about 12000 but after factory reset it went up to 13140 so that is a bonus too.
Engineer menu is *#*#3646633#*#* but if you install free app Mobileuncle Tools from Play Store, you can get into the engineer menu from there. It has AppToSD built in.
Also if you are buying a 64GB card from ebay, be careful. I bought 4 over past 4 weeks and all has been fakes. Better buy from shops although cost more.
Revman said:
Yes I did hear about audio on this phone being quiet, but you can correct it with in the settings/ audio panel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not all. I also noticed that while conversing using speaker, besides the low volume, I hear crackling as if the reception is very poor. I miss out hearing a few words and coupled with low volume, it is almost unusable. When switch off the speaker to normal phone-to-ear mode, the reception is back to normal and the audio is clear. I contacted the ebay seller and will see what he says.
It is a great film, I love mine. Just wish I could get some good custom ROMs on it like Paranoid Android.
dreamerman said:
Revman, factory reset means a fresh reinstall of your stock rom to original state from factory. You will loose all apps you install yourself and all customisations like wall paper etc. In my case, I also lost some Chinese apps that came with the phone which I didn't want so that is a bonus.
Antutu score when I got the phone is about 12000 but after factory reset it went up to 13140 so that is a bonus too.
Engineer menu is *#*#3646633#*#* but if you install free app Mobileuncle Tools from Play Store, you can get into the engineer menu from there. It has AppToSD built in.
Also if you are buying a 64GB card from ebay, be careful. I bought 4 over past 4 weeks and all has been fakes. Better buy from shops although cost more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks clarifying on the factory reset. I'm sorry to hear about your eBay experience, I am always weary of ordering from there, I have had a lot of friends get ripped off. This goes to say I was also really worried about ordering this phone from china, but luckily everything went really well. I got this phone from Alibaba.com out of Hon Kong. Ordered 3 N9859 phones, there were no china apps in mine that I noticed, had all Google's apps as well as some other really cool ones like Microsoft Word. they came with phone folding covers, two batteries, head phones with built in radio antennas, wall charger, usb cable. I am extremely pleased with the quality of these phone, they are awesome!
Dreamerman, thanks for the Engineer menu number, that will come in handy. I will maybe try Mobileuncle Tools as well. I seen a video on how to root the N9859 phone, go to Youtube & type N9859, you will see "how to root my N9859", just read the steps and software to use under the video. That also sucks about your experience with the speaker phone, I will let you know how mine works once I am set up with a service provider and can actually get to talk on it.
I also went down to AT&T today to see if they could run this phone on their service, he thinks it's not going to be problem. He said a girl came in not to long ago and she had something similar, they were able to get hers going. So I am seeking out all my options, hopefully I will have the phone up and going shortly. I will write in and tell who I got the phone working through once its activated.
Root success with this tutorial.
http://droidchina.com/forum/Thread-How-To-Root-MTK6589-Tutorial
Used driver ADB_usb_driver_120827 to connect to my device under debugging mode.
I also installed adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522 for good measure.
dreamerman said:
Root success with this tutorial.
Used driver ADB_usb_driver_120827 to connect to my device under debugging mode.
I also installed adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130522 for good measure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I will check this out, I have an at&t gsm sim in my phone from Net 10 at the moment, but phone is not reading the card. For what ever reason I can't get into mobile settings to change APN settings. So this is why I am thinking I might need to root the phone, so I can open everything up for full access. The Engineer code did work great for the phone and I was able to go into some deeper settings, but didn't fix my problem. I have 3 of these phone we are trying to get up and going, so will probably root them all, seems to be a better way to go anyways so we can have better apps, etc..
Also, when you first get your phone and plug it into your computer, it says it needs driver "MT65XX Preloader Driver". Found websites that had this driver "4 Share.com". Do you have a reference on where to get this driver so my computer will recognize the phone and I can transfer files etc.. thanks.
You can get the driver from here.
http://online.mediatek.com/Public Documents/MTK_Android_USB_Driver.zip
Phone Working on NET 10 & Found Working Driver
Phone is working 100%! I was able to get the phone working on a pre-pay plan through "Net 10"., You can go down to your local Radio shack and purchase a "Net 10 Bring Your Own Plan" for $9.99. Inside the package comes a T-Mobile Sim, At&T Sim and an AT&T Micro Sim. I am using the standard size AT&T GSM Sim out of the package, I discovered you must insert the sim backwards verses how you put them in on our Samsung phones etc. So now you only pay $45.00 a month if you are enrolled on the auto-inrollment through thier website, otherwise it's $50.00 month. You get unlimited talk, text and I believe up to 2GB of data before they throttle you. (Throttling is when they cut down your data speeds) 2GB should be more than enough for your typical user though.
To get your N9589 working with your computer I found the working driver with complete instructions here: (they wont let me post outside links yet, so this is what you do) Go to your Google Search, and type in: "How to install MT/MTK 65xx USB driver on Windows 7" . One of the top websites that pulls up is: DroidChina.com . click into this page and you will see instructions and the driver download towards the bottom of the page.
With out instructions any driver will be useless to you, so important you know the proper steps how to install. This is a Chinese Forum, but I assure you its 100% legitimate and working. You will have to sign up with the Forum, but worth it. I spent 3 days just trying to find the right driver for this phone, every place I found it wanted you to download their software and all their crap in order to just download the driver. With this forum, you don't have to do that, nor worry about malware or viruses.NOTE: the only thing I did different on the install is, where is says steps 4, 5, 6, the picture sample below, I just click on the folder called: "usb_driver" and it installed perfectly. I tried there way but my browser box didn't show the same folders theirs did.
Hope this helps you guys, I had a hell of a time getting information out there about this phone. I am very happy with the Star N9589, it's truely an amazing phone with an awesome 5.7" screen! Everything works great including the speaker phone, which I know Dreameran here on this forum, was having a problem with on his.
My next mission is to find out how to do a nandroid backup.
Update: I used different apps from Play Store to attempt full nandroid backup but all failed. The best tool for me is the one I already have ie MTK Droid Root & Tools. See tutorial in link below. My packed backup zip file is 1,039,621 kb and unpacked is 3,100,708,864 kb.
Happy
http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f60...-mtk-droid-root-tools-backup-unbrick-1666984/
My SanDisk 64GB Class 10 Mobile ULTRA Micro SD Micro SDXC Memory Card should arrive tomorrow. I bought it locally as I am sick of ebay fakes. I hope to have 2 partitions, one 32GB ext4 and the balance FAT32. Will be using either Gparted or free version of Partition Wizard (bootable ISO). After that I will install Link2SD.
UPDATE: I've done it. Partitioned my new shiny original 64GB C10 Sandisk micro sd card into 2 partitions; 15GB ext2 and balance FAT32 4kb cluster using MiniTool Partition Wizard bootable CD. Installed link2sd. Linked all non system apps to ext2 partition. All sweet. Spent several hours researching pros cons of ext2/3/4 and finally selected ext2.
After flash ROM my N9589 is hard bricked.
Pc message is S_FT_ENABLE_DRAM_FAIL (4032).
Same news about test point for unbrick?
tnx
pappuzio said:
After flash ROM my N9589 is hard bricked.
Pc message is S_FT_ENABLE_DRAM_FAIL (4032).
Same news about test point for unbrick?
tnx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that. Risk of breaking ROM is the reason I maintained my stock ROM. Have you tried reset factory? There are sites (mostly Russian or Chinese) out there with stock ROM. If yours is already bricked, there is no downside. Try them all. Good luck. BTW, have you tried needrom?
dreamerman said:
Sorry to hear that. Risk of breaking ROM is the reason I maintained my stock ROM. Have you tried reset factory? There are sites (mostly Russian or Chinese) out there with stock ROM. If yours is already bricked, there is no downside. Try them all. Good luck. BTW, have you tried needrom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone is a brick. I can't turn on and i can't reflash. I wait for test poit for hardware reset.
I'm not even kidding, everything takes a good 10 seconds to open. I can't scroll through settings because it takes 3 seconds to register my swipe.
It's a family members tablet and it has never been rooted, or flashed any custom ROMs. The 4.2.2 update came from Samsung and ever since then they've been complaining to me about how slow it is.
I'm having the same problem when trying to clear the cache through recovery - the dead android and 'error'!
I do NOT want to flash a new ROM because it involves resetting all apps and settings back to how they used to be. The owner hardly has any idea how to use it, so any changes will just freak them out.
Is there anything I can do to fix this thing?
eKulzz said:
I'm not even kidding, everything takes a good 10 seconds to open. I can't scroll through settings because it takes 3 seconds to register my swipe.
It's a family members tablet and it has never been rooted, or flashed any custom ROMs. The 4.2.2 update came from Samsung and ever since then they've been complaining to me about how slow it is.
I'm having the same problem when trying to clear the cache through recovery - the dead android and 'error'!
I do NOT want to flash a new ROM because it involves resetting all apps and settings back to how they used to be. The owner hardly has any idea how to use it, so any changes will just freak them out.
Is there anything I can do to fix this thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can root it and then try installing agni kennel from recovery
Sent from my GT-P3100 using Tapatalk
eKulzz said:
I'm not even kidding, everything takes a good 10 seconds to open. I can't scroll through settings because it takes 3 seconds to register my swipe.
It's a family members tablet and it has never been rooted, or flashed any custom ROMs. The 4.2.2 update came from Samsung and ever since then they've been complaining to me about how slow it is.
I'm having the same problem when trying to clear the cache through recovery - the dead android and 'error'!
I do NOT want to flash a new ROM because it involves resetting all apps and settings back to how they used to be. The owner hardly has any idea how to use it, so any changes will just freak them out.
Is there anything I can do to fix this thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root it and install an app called seeder .
It makes 4.2.2 super fast ..
Greetings;
Either it was a terrible custom Rom, or you didn't flash it properly.
If you wan't it to work properly consider that you will have to Backup your Applications; their Data and your Contacts as well if they are not syncronized with your Gmail Account.
Perform a "Clean Flash" whenever you Flash a Rom to prevent Issues, and use Odin (for PC - Never Odin Mobile) for such "Clean Flash).
Also Consider Researching Before Doing any Operation you are not familiar with.
What you should try:
0) Backup your Apps & Data;
1) Boot your Device under Recovery;
2) Under Recovery:
- Perform Factory Reset
- Clean Cache
- Reboot into Download Mode
3) Open Odin, under PDA Load you Stock Rom [MD5 file] (to revert your Device Settings to Stock).
4) Under Odin: Considering your Device is Recognized, Press Start.
Do NOT Disconnect USB Cable until Odin Displays "PASS" Message.
5) Reboot into " Download Mode " to Flash ClockWorkMod Recovery or CF-Root (or your Fav. Recovery).
6) Once Completed, Boot your Device into Recovery and Perform " Factory Reset ".
7) Test your System.
Let me know how it went.
Best Regards,
Richard
Any Joy
eKulzz: Did you have any success with the above suggestions? I am in exactly the same boat. I inherited the device (Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 5113 16gig) from a family member. I am not really sure precisely when it started to suck so bad....I am assuming, based on the internet posts, that it happened as a result of the 4.2.2 upgrade. It is taking literally minutes in some cases to load a web page. Flipboard is particularly bad. I have cleared cache, uninstalled or disabled every app the tablet will allow, done a full revert to factory, and nothing works. My wifi throughput goes down to miniscule rates (5, 10 , 15 kbps), although once in a while, for larger objects it will jump up to 5 or 10 mbps....so I know it can do it!). I have done IP traces, thinking it might be my internet provider, but the delays are after the TCP/IP response is returned. It seems to peg the CPU and wander off for 10 or so seconds, and then proceed to do the next TCP/IP request.......so if a page has lots of content, it can take minutes to load.
I am at the point that I either throw it away, try to revert to the original android version the tab was delivered with, or possibly go the other way and instally cyanogenmod, in which case it would be interesting to know the best version of android to install on this device, based on other people's experiences.
It is so amazing that this can happen....and it doesn't seem like an isolated case....the vendor just seems to have effectively bricked a major part of their customer base, and won't admit or do anything about it. You can be sure my next purchase will not be Samsung!
However, in Samsung's defence, almost the same thing happened with my Nexus 7 2012 WIFI tablet. The android 5.1 upgrade has made it almost as bad as the Samsung. I wasted days following threads and screwing around, but only achieved minor gains...it is still not really usable. Again, no mea culpa from Google.... I find it amusing that there is such furore when a new release of android comes out and there is such outrage if peoples devices are not supported, or not upgraded fast enough. My point of view now is that I don't want to see an upgrade on any device I have that is working acceptably.....I think there is such pressure from users for upgrades that the vendors are not testing enough and not asking themselves if the upgrade is actually improving usability for the device....
Rick
Have you tried downgrading?
Go sammobile website, Download the Rom version for your device, and follow the procedures i wrote previously.
(Dont forget to erase cache(s)).
Also check for flash counter. You may need to reset it.
Let me know how it went - with detailed info.
Best regards;
Richard
Tried Downgrade
rgxHost said:
Have you tried downgrading?
Go sammobile website, Download the Rom version for your device, and follow the procedures i wrote previously.
(Dont forget to erase cache(s)).
Also check for flash counter. You may need to reset it.
Let me know how it went - with detailed info.
Best regards;
Richard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I gave it a try. Got stymied with the USB drivers. I installed them, but the PC (windows 10) will not recognize the USB device, so Odin does not see the tablet.
I got the drivers from the Samsung web site, and also tried another set, but no luck. I am pretty sure they are the correct drivers...., and were installed successfully, so I am not sure whether it is a Windows 10 thing or a driver problem. The PC sees the device when you plug it in and remove it, but reports it as an unrecognized device. I tried re-booting the PC, just in case.
Anyway....it has pretty well stopped me in my tracks.
Rick
Update
Rickster22 said:
I gave it a try. Got stymied with the USB drivers. I installed them, but the PC (windows 10) will not recognize the USB device, so Odin does not see the tablet.
I got the drivers from the Samsung web site, and also tried another set, but no luck. I am pretty sure they are the correct drivers...., and were installed successfully, so I am not sure whether it is a Windows 10 thing or a driver problem. The PC sees the device when you plug it in and remove it, but reports it as an unrecognized device. I tried re-booting the PC, just in case.
Anyway....it has pretty well stopped me in my tracks.
Rick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update: Tried installing the USB drivers from Samsung on a 32 bit windows XP netbook I had lying about. Same result. The tablet is reported by the OS as an "unrecognized device" when I plug it in, and Odin does not see it.
I guess it could be my cable....but it is the only one I have, and since Samsung uses a non standard cable, I would have to buy a new one to find out. I definitely am not going to do that....talk about good money after bad. I have spent about 10 hours on this.
Interestingly, I ran into a guy at a party last night that is experiencing the same slowness on a galaxy tab 2 7" . Seems too coincidental! We were wondering if it could be related to slow SD ram with bad memory locations degrading over time, and possibly a change in android 4.2.2 garbage collection or memory management.
I think the outcome of this is that Samsung is an undependable vendor, that I don't want to invest any more time or money in. No future product I purchase will be from them.
Rickster22 said:
Update: Tried installing the USB drivers from Samsung on a 32 bit windows XP netbook I had lying about. Same result. The tablet is reported by the OS as an "unrecognized device" when I plug it in, and Odin does not see it.
I guess it could be my cable....but it is the only one I have, and since Samsung uses a non standard cable, I would have to buy a new one to find out. I definitely am not going to do that....talk about good money after bad. I have spent about 10 hours on this.
Interestingly, I ran into a guy at a party last night that is experiencing the same slowness on a galaxy tab 2 7" . Seems too coincidental! We were wondering if it could be related to slow SD ram with bad memory locations degrading over time, and possibly a change in android 4.2.2 garbage collection or memory management.
I think the outcome of this is that Samsung is an undependable vendor, that I don't want to invest any more time or money in. No future product I purchase will be from them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your guess is right, that's the cable issue, I have changed 3 cables already for my tab 2. I bought a cheap USB cable, and that worked same like the original one.(not suggesting you do the same)
Now, about the slowness, it's an every user issue who are on stock rom, yes, Samsung messed up things with ics/jb and a cheap emmc, but you can stop it before the bug hits the stock user and make the tab a hard bricked tab. few users have reported this already. they were on stock, never went custom, still their devices started slowing and eventually bricked or worse, rendered a read only device.
it's that time already, when I would want to see every tab user who are running on stock to take their tabs in their hands and start flashing the custom rom before the tab hits the brick. Good Luck
billysam said:
Your guess is right, that's the cable issue, I have changed 3 cables already for my tab 2. I bought a cheap USB cable, and that worked same like the original one.(not suggesting you do the same)
Now, about the slowness, it's an every user issue who are on stock rom, yes, Samsung messed up things with ics/jb and a cheap emmc, but you can stop it before the bug hits the stock user and make the tab a hard bricked tab. few users have reported this already. they were on stock, never went custom, still their devices started slowing and eventually bricked or worse, rendered a read only device.
it's that time already, when I would want to see every tab user who are running on stock to take their tabs in their hands and start flashing the custom rom before the tab hits the brick. Good Luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks very much for your feedback....nice to know I am not alone, and not losing it! If it is happening to all Samsung Tab 2 users, and the product is basically destined to become useless after a few years of use, and Samsung did not warn users of this limitation when they purchased.....seems like the kind of thing class actions are made of!
As a newbie, I would like to clarify your comments a bit to make sure I end up doing the appropriate thing. When you say that every Tab user should start flashing the custom ROM, I assume you are not talking about the Samsung provided ROMS for 4.1.1 (P5113UECLK7_P5113XACCLK7_XAC) or an updated Samsung 4.2.2. It sounds like doing that will not resolve the issue. Are you talking about Cyanogenmod? and if so, what version of Cyanogenmod and Android OS would be appropriate? .........I wouldn't mind giving it one more kick at the cat, if someone knowledgeable says there is a little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel!
Thanks for your assist!
Rick
Rickster22 said:
Thanks very much for your feedback....nice to know I am not alone, and not losing it! If it is happening to all Samsung Tab 2 users, and the product is basically destined to become useless after a few years of use, and Samsung did not warn users of this limitation when they purchased.....seems like the kind of thing class actions are made of!
As a newbie, I would like to clarify your comments a bit to make sure I end up doing the appropriate thing. When you say that every Tab user should start flashing the custom ROM, I assume you are not talking about the Samsung provided ROMS for 4.1.1 (P5113UECLK7_P5113XACCLK7_XAC) or an updated Samsung 4.2.2. It sounds like doing that will not resolve the issue. Are you talking about Cyanogenmod? and if so, what version of Cyanogenmod and Android OS would be appropriate? .........I wouldn't mind giving it one more kick at the cat, if someone knowledgeable says there is a little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel!
Thanks for your assist!
Rick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I meant Custom ROM(cynogenmod) and not stock official builds as they have fixed the trim related problem present with the old stock official ROMs, that's causing the slow downs and eventually causing the tab emmc card to die.
Check here for this emmc bug
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/EMMC_Bugs
that's one reason, cheap emmc is second (although both users have been hit with the emmc bug but c'mon a person who had never rooted or flashed a custom ROM on his tab ever got hit with this was very disappointing for stock users)
If you check other threads in help and troubleshoot you will see numerous users on stock having more brick issues than the custom ROM users. I have been here from long and have been watching over on all the issues. both have equal share of risks.
See this case here too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-2/help/gt-p3100-boot-loop-recovery-information-t3307456
So, if you're planning to choose custom ROMs, take a tour of the General sections for guides and Android development section for ROMS.
Most of the ROMs of our TAB 2 developer Android-Andi, CCD and tuxafgmur are fine and near stable(with updates) (don't go below KK versions)
I can't say when it happed. Evidently, it has been on my phone for a long time. I can remember seeing some of this funny crap months ago when I first rooted my phone. One of the mods here has a surfaceflinger hack that will take over your entire system. Your accounts will get hacked. First it was my Google drive. There was a zip file in there that I did not place. It said it was a Metro PCS Note5 zip. It was shared to my drive by someone else, and I could not remove it. So any time I did a factory reset and logged into my Google account, it would be loaded onto my phone. I finally got that cleaned up, but they had moved to my OneDrive storage with the same thing under a different file name. This hack is so smooth, that your phone won't even hesitate. It is disguised as Android OS, but if you check the battery stats, it says surfaceflinger. It is located in your data partition. It is a add on script, and it will eventually infect about 20 more apps with add on scripts. It will load up tons of /data/data along with a recovery from boot script, and..... I just discovered a little too late that there is a script that will destroy your device if you remove it the wrong way. I think the name of it is sec_device_destroy but I can't be sure. I saw the code in a system log file, but I do not know what it is yet. I am 100% positive that some of you have the same problem, you just don't know it. I'm gonna start taking apart every singe file in the development threads until I find it. As for now.... My device is stuck in a infinite bootloop. It won't recover from ODIN, and I have a new LED llight that is white. I can answer any questions and provide screenshots, and system logs if anyone wants to help uncover this beast. It is super legit. Best Android hack I've ever seen. It does every thing. Who is gonna help me locate this b.s? My Note 5 is useless now. Somebody here has it, I assure you, and when you discover it, you should ask for help. If you don't remove every bit of it, the device will not boot again. I'm gonna keep playing with mine, but I'm pretty sure it is toast. ( EDIT---> I was able to get to boot again by flashing TWRP and using the wipe option to repair each partition. I had to change them to exFAT then back to EXT4 to get them to mount.)
Sounds like my boot loop of death. Where everything was Odin flashed and still wouldnt load. Quick question when you were on Odin did you select the band erase all option? And do you still have acesss to recovery? Was all this weird stuff going on when you firmware was load? Did anything strange happen while in recovery? And why didn't u send it back to sprint)
---------- Post added at 10:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 PM ----------
If I was in your shoes I would select the band erase all and repartition option. Re download stock firmware from sammobile, go back to Odin to root and add twrp, select the erase button again to flash moar ROM and see what happens. If it's a hack like u said then I'd use my insurance
The potential for having your personal security and financial disaster that something like this could cause is why i stopped rooting.
Rumning other none store apps is like letting a guy you dont know come over and say "hey, i have these cool mods i can do to your car's brakes! I take out a few parts, replace others with parts I made in my garage, and load my own software into your anti-lock brake system".
Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
You can't blame no one if your phone gets fried or blown up, you take the risk at your own discretion . No one force you to flash anything. To avoid any problems don't flash anything your not sure what's going to happen. If i see someone post a s7 edge port, I'm not gonna flash it until i get some good feedback or take one for the team and hope it don't destroy my phone. Goodluck fixing your phone don't seem like it's too hard to fix depending your experience . I would help but it's too time consuming helping fix a phone i can't even see or test out.
Sent from my SM-N920P using XDA-Developers mobile app
I'm really sorry that this happened to you. But @bonebeatz1234 is right. There is a disclaimer at the beginning of every rom, feature add-on, theme, kernel, etc. The whole point of Q&A & replys are so you can find out if something is "okay" to flash. There are so many known developers that have built stuff for so many devices. Its rare to find something on XDA that is "unsafe." I can't even remember ever finding anything that is "unsafe" or nearly as bad as you are describing. Especially for the Sprint Note 5. I'm assuming you have a SM-N920P do to the fact that you're posting it here. There have only been a few roms for this device & maybe a couple handfuls of add-ons. The one or two things I've seen that have caused problems with this device, they were removed with-in a few hours. You weren't very clear on where you got this hack at all. Are you saying it was something you downloaded from one of the Sprint Galaxy Note 5 threads? You are a Senior Member. So, I'm assuming you know what you are talking about. I believe that it is very possible you did get it from some place on here. But, in order for me to believe that, I have to also believe that it is just as possible that it could have came form anywhere else on the web via public WiFi connection, email, file download, text message, USB connection or at least 100 other ways. @DAvid_B made a point about the risk of rooting your device. Although the risk can go up for threats. The same rules apply for rooted device as they do for non-rooted devices. BE CAREFUL! Use software to protect yourself, read reviews, don't be the guinea pig. If you are like me & are addicted to putting yourself at some (if even the smallest) amount of risk, HAVE INSURANCE! Most if not all people have to agree that it's worth the $11 a months & $200 deductible to have as much fun as we all do. Its a hobby. People spend more money on model airplanes, playing golf & hunting. I haven't had to file a claim in over 6 years. I say all that to say this... Anyone that see's this thread & decides its too much of a risk to root, I promise you, IT ISN'T! The advantages out way the risk by about a 1000! The members of XDA are here to help with any issues you may have. There are VERY FEW things that are UNFIX-ABLE! And when I say "very few" I mean little to non! When I say little to non, I mean NONE! AT ALL! Even the problem he described IS FIXABLE! Like he stated, ask for help. @Sleepycloud, I pray you get this resolved. Even if you have to Odin back to stock & backup/wipe your Google Drive & OneDrive account, I know you can fix this. Please don't think that I meant any disrespect for posting this. I just want people to know this is extremely rare & only a one in a million chance it could happen.
Sleepycloud said:
I can't say when it happed. Evidently, it has been on my phone for a long time. I can remember seeing some of this funny crap months ago when I first rooted my phone. One of the mods here has a surfaceflinger hack that will take over your entire system. Your accounts will get hacked. First it was my Google drive. There was a zip file in there that I did not place. It said it was a Metro PCS Note5 zip. It was shared to my drive by someone else, and I could not remove it. So any time I did a factory reset and logged into my Google account, it would be loaded onto my phone. I finally got that cleaned up, but they had moved to my OneDrive storage with the same thing under a different file name. This hack is so smooth, that your phone won't even hesitate. It is disguised as Android OS, but if you check the battery stats, it says surfaceflinger. It is located in your data partition. It is a add on script, and it will eventually infect about 20 more apps with add on scripts. It will load up tons of /data/data along with a recovery from boot script, and..... I just discovered a little too late that there is a script that will destroy your device if you remove it the wrong way. I think the name of it is sec_device_destroy but I can't be sure. I saw the code in a system log file, but I do not know what it is yet. I am 100% positive that some of you have the same problem, you just don't know it. I'm gonna start taking apart every singe file in the development threads until I find it. As for now.... My device is stuck in a infinite bootloop. It won't recover from ODIN, and I have a new LED llight that is white. I can answer any questions and provide screenshots, and system logs if anyone wants to help uncover this beast. It is super legit. Best Android hack I've ever seen. It does every thing. Who is gonna help me locate this b.s? My Note 5 is useless now. Somebody here has it, I assure you, and when you discover it, you should ask for help. If you don't remove every bit of it, the device will not boot again. I'm gonna keep playing with mine, but I'm pretty sure it is toast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are willing to send me the phone, I could probably fix it for you and send it back. I know it's hard to trust people these days so it's totally up to you.
bonebeatz1234 said:
You can't blame no one if your phone gets fried or blown up, you take the risk at your own discretion . No one force you to flash anything. To avoid any problems don't flash anything your not sure what's going to happen. If i see someone post a s7 edge port, I'm not gonna flash it until i get some good feedback or take one for the team and hope it don't destroy my phone. Goodluck fixing your phone don't seem like it's too hard to fix depending your experience . I would help but it's too time consuming helping fix a phone i can't even see or test out.
Sent from my SM-N920P using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not mad. Lol Not at all. I am a true geek to the heart. This is fun stuff to me. You learn more when you are challenged beyond your current skillset. I'm just putting everybody up to the fact that there is something malicious here in the threads. I have a strong feeling of where it came from. I already to apart the "Stock" .tar and found 3 extra files in it. A param.bin file, a carrier .img and a PIT file. I am one hundred percent sure that when I take that PIT file apart later that I will be able to confirm my suspicions. According to the thread here by @tdunham in this thread; http://forum.xda-developers.com/spr...sprint-galaxy-note-5-sm-n920p-partition-There are 19 partitions. I believe that I have 24 or 25. I'll have to get back with y'all on this one. Can anybody confirm that this partition table is still viable for Marshmallow? I'll post screenshots in about an hour or two for everyone to examine. I would love some help on this. I have never removed partitions before and my knowledge on how to go about it is limited. I'm reading, but most of it is unrelated garbage. If anyone has a link that will help me educate myself and remove these partitions, I would be super thankful.
MrMike2182 said:
If you are willing to send me the phone, I could probably fix it for you and send it back. I know it's hard to trust people these days so it's totally up to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is pretty awesome of you bro. I am pretty sure I have correctly identified the problem. I have 4 or 5 extra partitions. This is why it keeps coming back, and that is why ODIN and Smart Swithc does not fix it. They are only going to see the 19 partitions they are supposed to see and they will not even look anywhere else. I bought a root partition app on Google Play for $9.99 and that is how I saw the extra partitions. This has been on my phone for a long time. A very long time. Like 6 months, but I never knew it. I can remember seeing about 5 USB folders that I could not open. They are labeled as external usb storage. I'll post screen shots later. So now that I know what the problem is, I see a bright side coming soon. lol
Sleepycloud said:
That is pretty awesome of you bro. I am pretty sure I have correctly identified the problem. I have 4 or 5 extra partitions. This is why it keeps coming back, and that is why ODIN and Smart Swithc does not fix it. They are only going to see the 19 partitions they are supposed to see and they will not even look anywhere else. I bought a root partition app on Google Play for $9.99 and that is how I saw the extra partitions. This has been on my phone for a long time. A very long time. Like 6 months, but I never knew it. I can remember seeing about 5 USB folders that I could not open. They are labeled as external usb storage. I'll post screen shots later. So now that I know what the problem is, I see a bright side coming soon. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some times when a Samsung device gets bricked you need whats called a PIT that can reflash the partitions. It's on here somewhere or I have one.
MrMike2182 said:
Some times when a Samsung device gets bricked you need whats called a PIT that can reflash the partitions. It's on here somewhere or I have one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have one. It doesnt work because a PIT file will only reset the factory image partitions. When there are additional partitions, it does not touch them. I have one extended partition after boot. Everything gets rearranged under /sys/dev/block/8:0 have you ever heard of that? Me neither. Lol I need to disect this and remove the script after a fresh flash before the first boot. Something tells me that it would be easier to deal with then. Ill post some pics from my computer here in a bit. I dont have the option on my phone
Here are some pics of the new extended partition and the logical partitions within.
Sleepycloud said:
I have one. It doesnt work because a PIT file will only reset the factory image partitions. When there are additional partitions, it does not touch them. Inhave one extended partition after boot. Everything gets rearranged under /sys/dev/block/8:0 have you ever heard of that? Me neither. Lol I need to disect b this and remove the script after a fresh flash before the firsy boot. Something tells me that it would be easier to deal with then. Ill post some pics from my computer here in a bit. I dont have the option on my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen some pretty crazy partition set ups the HTC Desire for instance has over 20 partitions and all of them have close to 200MB of free space on them that you can't even use! Talk about a waste of space lol.. But /sys/dev/block/8:0?!?! The fuuu... What kind of partition is that?!
Damn, your phones using almost all the ram/memory that you have.. Are you running a lot of apps or something else that's memory intensive?
So now the million dollar question is..... What is it gonna take to remove this b.s. from my phone. Removing the folders does not work. They get reinstalled upon every boot. I need to find the script(s) and where they are hidden, and delete them, then remove the partitions form the logical folder. I am tempted to just wipe the logical partition it its entirety then create a whole new partition table based on my unrooted Note 5. However, I am going to wait until I get some solid feedback from one of y'all. Who has an idea of what I need to do here. Repartitioning with a PIT file does not work. IT does not touch these extra partitions. I think they are labeled, sdb, sdc, and sdd.
I'm just gonna go ahead and let the world know who the piece of crap is. Here... go take a look for yourself. Download the "stock" tar and extract it, then extract the .tar itself. You'll find the extra files there. It contains a param.bin file, a carrier.img, and a modified PIT file that will give you the crap on my phone. If I could be my hands on this dude, I would choke him until he was purple. This has been a major pain in my ass for over 3 months now. My accounts were hacked, all of them, files were deleted, and I had no privacy what so ever. Here... This is where it came from. http://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/general/project-noble-firmware-pit-file-galaxy-t3179529
Sleepycloud said:
So now the million dollar question is..... What is it gonna take to remove this b.s. from my phone. Removing the folders does not work. They get reinstalled upon every boot. I need to find the script(s) and where they are hidden, and delete them, then remove the partitions form the logical folder. I am tempted to just wipe the logical partition it its entirety then create a whole new partition table based on my unrooted Note 5. However, I am going to wait until I get some solid feedback from one of y'all. Who has an idea of what I need to do here. Repartitioning with a PIT file does not work. IT does not touch these extra partitions. I think they are labeled, sdb, sdc, and sdd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deleting them is not going to work no matter which way you remove them they'll come right back after a reboot and the only way to stop that from happening is to flash a custom kernel/boot that's got write protection off. If you don't have that they just keep coming back no matter what.. All the apps are usually always in these 2 places /system/apps and /system/priv-apps
---------- Post added at 11:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 AM ----------
Sleepycloud said:
I'm just gonna go ahead and let the world know who the piece of crap is. Here... go take a look for yourself. Download the "stock" tar and extract it, then extract the .tar itself. You'll find the extra files there. It contains a param.bin file, a carrier.img, and a modified PIT file that will give you the crap on my phone. If I could be my hands on this dude, I would choke him until he was purple. This has been a major pain in my ass for over 3 months now. My accounts were hacked, all of them, files were deleted, and I had no privacy what so ever. Here... This is where it came from. http://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/general/project-noble-firmware-pit-file-galaxy-t3179529
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd report this to one of the moderators if I was you so they can check it out and remove it if it's harmful to people's devices I don't think xda would be happy hosting that type of ****!
MrMike2182 said:
Deleting them is not going to work no matter which way you remove them they'll come right back after a reboot and the only way to stop that from happening is to flash a custom kernel/boot that's got write protection off. If you don't have that they just keep coming back no matter what.. All the apps are usually always in these 2 places /system/apps and /system/priv-apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hava already tried that. These are add on scripts. They work on any kernel. I have to delete the partions themselves but I'm not exactly sure which ones or how to do it without bricking my phone. I'm gonna move slow on this one until I am sure that II have the right solution. I'm certain it is the sda, sdb, sdc, and sdd partitions that need to be deleted. First I need to know if this partition table is still valid for Marshmallow. http://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/general/sprint-galaxy-note-5-sm-n920p-partition-t3190326 Once I know that, I can proceed. Is this PIT still the same in marshmallow?
Sleepycloud said:
I hava already tried that. These are add on scripts. They work on any kernel. I have to delete the partions themselves but I'm not exactly sure which ones or how to do it without bricking my phone. I'm gonna move slow on this one until I am sure that II have the right solution. I'm certain it is the sda, sdb, sdc, and sdd partitions that need to be deleted. First I need to know if this partition table is still valid for Marshmallow. http://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/general/sprint-galaxy-note-5-sm-n920p-partition-t3190326 Once I know that, I can proceed. Is this PIT still the same in marshmallow?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that PIT is fine but if I were you I'd try to flash a different kernel because I had the same problems with apps returning after a reboot and the only way to stop that from happening again was to flash the custom kernel. That stopped them from coming back. <----This was on an HTC device so maybe Samsung is different?
This b.s. has my ADB disabled somehow. Even when I open the IOT Menu and switch from MTP to MTP+ADB it still does not work. It does work upon a fresh flash if I let the stock recovery update the system image then immediately go back into download mode before it boots up. After that, I have no ADB capabilities. Would that be a build.prop issue?
So was my advice useless oo?
djhulk2 said:
So was my advice useless oo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. It was pretty good, but I already have a good Note 5. I'm trying to learn more about Android bro. I wanna fix this one, not replace it. Give me some more solid ideas!!! I'm open to suggestion. Thank you.
I need help from someone a lot smarter than me. First time poster, but no stranger to rooting. (If I break some protocol, please correct me, I want to be a good citizen.)
Background (can be skipped)
I bought a Note 20 Ultra 5G (model #SM-N9860F) from a guy for a steal of a deal. Now I know why. Before buying we started it up and made a phone call, so I figured most everything else would be fine. Took it home and started messing with it, only to find it laggy and exhibiting other odd behaviors. So I went to check for updates before loading it up with my stuff.
But there was no Update button. I tapped "Software Info" and the next thing I saw made me read it three times. It showed, "Android version: 5.1."
Issues
So...
The phone functions but with lag and issues. SIM is recognized, then unrecognized. SIM cannot be used for data (though wifi is fine).
Not kidding, Kingo Root says it was able to root this Snapdragon phone. Root Checker Basic confirms it as rooted.
Using all the various key combinations posted all over the Internet, I cannot get into Download mode. I've tried for days.
Rebooting into Recovery shows Chinese options. (After many days of messing with it I finally found a way for it to show the English list...happy to share how I got there if anyone cares.)
The phone does connect to a Windows PC successfully via USB and can share files to internal and external memory.
Interestingly, the 500GB of internal memory only shows a fraction of it as available. Wondering if Android 5.1 just can't recognize that much space.
Bottom line
I am unable to get into Download mode. When I do get to where I think Download mode should be, the green Android guy is lying down with the words "No command" underneath. Therefore I can't use Odin, or a paid service, or Samsung Smart Switch...even tried the old Kies, since it has Android 5.1 on it. ALL of them require me to get into Download mode, and it just won't go.
Plan B?: I've heard repeatedly that rooting a Note 20 Ultra is (nearly?) impossible. Since multiple apps on my device insist I successfully rooted it, I was hoping I could use the TWRP app (it's installed) to flash something that could help. But I don't know what that would be, or if it would help at all. TWRP doesn't recognize the .zip, .tar, or any other files I've found and copied to the device. Maybe it's looking for a .img? I'm just not sure, and I don't even know what to look for.
Additional info
I've attached a few screen shots and photos.
I'd be ever so grateful for anyone's guidance. Again,
How can I get into Download mode? Seems that would get me back on the paths I know better.
And/or what can I flash using TWRP on what appears to be a rooted device? Would that even help?
Thank you!
kbtraveler said:
I need help from someone a lot smarter than me. First time poster, but no stranger to rooting. (If I break some protocol, please correct me, I want to be a good citizen.)
Background (can be skipped)
I bought a Note 20 Ultra 5G (model #SM-N9860F) from a guy for a steal of a deal. Now I know why. Before buying we started it up and made a phone call, so I figured most everything else would be fine. Took it home and started messing with it, only to find it laggy and exhibiting other odd behaviors. So I went to check for updates before loading it up with my stuff.
But there was no Update button. I tapped "Software Info" and the next thing I saw made me read it three times. It showed, "Android version: 5.1."
Issues
So...
The phone functions but with lag and issues. SIM is recognized, then unrecognized. SIM cannot be used for data (though wifi is fine).
Not kidding, Kingo Root says it was able to root this Snapdragon phone. Root Checker Basic confirms it as rooted.
Using all the various key combinations posted all over the Internet, I cannot get into Download mode. I've tried for days.
Rebooting into Recovery shows Chinese options. (After many days of messing with it I finally found a way for it to show the English list...happy to share how I got there if anyone cares.)
The phone does connect to a Windows PC successfully via USB and can share files to internal and external memory.
Interestingly, the 500GB of internal memory only shows a fraction of it as available. Wondering if Android 5.1 just can't recognize that much space.
Bottom line
I am unable to get into Download mode. When I do get to where I think Download mode should be, the green Android guy is lying down with the words "No command" underneath. Therefore I can't use Odin, or a paid service, or Samsung Smart Switch...even tried the old Kies, since it has Android 5.1 on it. ALL of them require me to get into Download mode, and it just won't go.
Plan B?: I've heard repeatedly that rooting a Note 20 Ultra is (nearly?) impossible. Since multiple apps on my device insist I successfully rooted it, I was hoping I could use the TWRP app (it's installed) to flash something that could help. But I don't know what that would be, or if it would help at all. TWRP doesn't recognize the .zip, .tar, or any other files I've found and copied to the device. Maybe it's looking for a .img? I'm just not sure, and I don't even know what to look for.
Additional info
I've attached a few screen shots and photos.
I'd be ever so grateful for anyone's guidance. Again,
How can I get into Download mode? Seems that would get me back on the paths I know better.
And/or what can I flash using TWRP on what appears to be a rooted device? Would that even help?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you got what you paid for, it's probably a fake Note20 Ultra.
From what I can tell, the model & build numbers conflict, they're from different models of the Note 20 Ultra, that's why I think it's a fake.
Even the model number doesn't look right, it has a hybrid Chinese/European model number........
KOLIOSIS said:
Sounds like you got what you paid for, it's probably a fake Note20 Ultra.
From what I can tell, the model & build numbers conflict, they're from different models of the Note 20 Ultra, that's why I think it's a fake.
Even the model number doesn't look right, it has a hybrid Chinese/European model number........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Koliosis,
Yeah, thanks, that has crossed my mind, and that's why I posted those images. If it's fake it's a really good one, but I am aware I could have to chalk that up to experience.
Still, why in the world would a fake have Android 5.1 on it? And it works(-ish)! Isn't that still bizarre? Anything that can be done to force it into Download mode or to flash something with TWRP to at least get an OS from the modern era?
Thanks again...
kbtraveler said:
Hi Koliosis,
Yeah, thanks, that has crossed my mind, and that's why I posted those images. If it's fake it's a really good one, but I am aware I could have to chalk that up to experience.
Still, why in the world would a fake have Android 5.1 on it? And it works(-ish)! Isn't that still bizarre? Anything that can be done to force it into Download mode or to flash something with TWRP to at least get an OS from the modern era?
Thanks again...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There should be several threads/tutorials here that show how to flash firmware using Odin (& of course,includes how to get into download mode).
Before you try that out,have you tried to use Samsung's Smart Switch program on your PC?
Given the information you've posted,it's difficult to determine which model you have,which makes matters worse since we don't want to make a bad situation worse.
I'd start with the Samsung Smart Switch, hopefully it'll be able to determine the make of your phone & flashing stock firmware should be a breeze. (If it's indeed a genuine Samsung Device).
KOLIOSIS said:
There should be several threads/tutorials here that show how to flash firmware using Odin (& of course,includes how to get into download mode).
Before you try that out,have you tried to use Samsung's Smart Switch program on your PC?
Given the information you've posted,it's difficult to determine which model you have,which makes matters since we don't want to make a bad situation worse.
I'd start with the Samsung Smart Switch, hopefully it'll be able to determine the make of your phone & flashing stock firmware should be a breeze. (If it's indeed a genuine Samsung Device).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes sir, and that's my problem. I've rooted and changed ROMs on a dozen devices or more in the past (thanks to XDA!!), always using Odin. But this phone simply will not go into Download mode at all. Using every key combination I can find I either wind up with the Chinese recovery selections I mentioned or I get that "No command" screen with the Android lying on its back.
So far I've tried these PC apps:
Odin (several versions)
Smart Switch
Kies
FixPPO (https://android.imyfone.com/android-issues/android-no-command-error/)
DroidKit (https://www.imobie.com/android-system-recovery/fix-android-no-command-error.htm)
Some, like Odin and the paid options, require Download mode - which isn't working for me - so those apps can even tell I've plugged a phone into the USB port.
Just to put it out there, when the phone is booted into the OS and attach it to the PC, Windows recognizes it's connected but Smart Switch does not. That supports your point that it may not be a Samsung device, but I wondered if it could also have something to do with Smart Switch coming after 5.1 was old.
I just wondered if somebody who didn't know what they were doing somehow downgraded this phone to Android 5.1 before I accept it as a full loss. Still hoping...
kbtraveler said:
Yes sir, and that's my problem. I've rooted and changed ROMs on a dozen devices or more in the past (thanks to XDA!!), always using Odin. But this phone simply will not go into Download mode at all. Using every key combination I can find I either wind up with the Chinese recovery selections I mentioned or I get that "No command" screen with the Android lying on its back.
So far I've tried these PC apps:
Odin (several versions)
Smart Switch
Kies
FixPPO (https://android.imyfone.com/android-issues/android-no-command-error/)
DroidKit (https://www.imobie.com/android-system-recovery/fix-android-no-command-error.htm)
Some, like Odin and the paid options, require Download mode - which isn't working for me - so those apps can even tell I've plugged a phone into the USB port.
Just to put it out there, when the phone is booted into the OS and attach it to the PC, Windows recognizes it's connected but Smart Switch does not. That supports your point that it may not be a Samsung device, but I wondered if it could also have something to do with Smart Switch coming after 5.1 was old.
I just wondered if somebody who didn't know what they were doing somehow downgraded this phone to Android 5.1 before I accept it as a full loss. Still hoping...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes since you tried Kies (given the stated Android version).
Can you download/sideload any apps that may help identify the phone (& check for Knox 0x0) such as this one:
Phone INFO+ (SAM) - Apps on Google Play
All-in-one INFO and TOOLS for Samsung devices.
play.google.com
AIDA64 - Apps on Google Play
Hardware and software information utility for Android devices
play.google.com
I wish I had more to offer,it's been years since I've dealt w/a rooted Samsung (Note 5).
Hopefully,others will chime in & offer a solution.
FWIW,Definitely following this thread, I'm interested in how things work out, hopefully for the better.
Aah i made an account just to respond to you
i had an iPhone 7 Jet Black replica with android 5.1 once upon a time, same symptoms- 8GB actual storage but will show 128GB when connected to PC
So here are my two cents: These devices won't be recognized by samsung tools as they are not having motherboards made by samsung. I would recommend that you check actual specs from AIDA64 and you will find out which company has made the motherboard or device, mine had strange MediaTek processor though. And hopefully you will find some chinese websites where people are talking about how to flash firmwares in these phones but i recommend not to do that, i had to lose my device as it got bricked.
Well, that's exactly why I come here. I'd never come across that AIDA64 app, and I've attached screen shots. I've never heard of a "Kirin," but sure enough, it's Huawei. Dang it!
@priteshsolanki, hate to hear about your experience. Thanks for the heads up.
So...does Huawei have a Smart Switch equivalent, lol? And by the way, even if I got this working, would Huawei have enough hardware in this bugger to be able to listen in and send data back to Mother China?? I don't know how that kind of thing works...
kbtraveler said:
Well, that's exactly why I come here. I'd never come across that AIDA64 app, and I've attached screen shots. I've never heard of a "Kirin," but sure enough, it's Huawei. Dang it!
@priteshsolanki, hate to hear about your experience. Thanks for the heads up.
So...does Huawei have a Smart Switch equivalent, lol? And by the way, even if I got this working, would Huawei have enough hardware in this bugger to be able to listen in and send data back to Mother China?? I don't know how that kind of thing works...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is strange, i think The AIDA64 app is being fooled here too! To find which company has made it, Its gonna be same experience as finding father of an orphan child which just had permanent memory loss
Its not Kirin, its not huawei.. why?-
So its showing ARMv7 32bit processor, which is definitely not Kirin 1020. because kirin 1020 is a high end processor itself too and uses 5nm technology and Cortex A78 architecture! (While yours is showing stone age 28nm with Cortex A7)
Then there is Platform MT6799. When i look up for that, its again showing totally different company- MediaTek chipset "Helio X30 (MT6799)" which is a deca core processor but what we got here in your details is a Quad core processor.
What we know about your processor:
- its Cortex A7 @1301 MHz and has 28nm manufacturing process
(can't be 5G at any cost)
- From above details it seems like an ancient processor which came out somewhere around 2012, probably thats why its running 5.1.
- The performance is equivalent to high end Android Jellybean device, but definitely not suitable for using in 2022
- The storage and RAM amount shown there are just to fulfill fantasies, dont expect it to be reliable. Its probably a 1 or 2GB Ram with 4 or 8GB storage.
- The software in the phone is really fantastic, i have never thought that a clone can be so perfect that even Apps like AIDA64 will have a hard time finding the facts!
Now coming to the main questions:
1) Can it be upgraded?
90% no based on research i have done in google, this phone is totally non existent for google. for remaining 10% you can expect the rom maker to contact you in DMs after seeing your thread here and offer you an upgrade lol
2) Should you use any file syncing tools with it?
Quick answer: Syncios app is your best bet to sync data between phone and back, but only luck can help you find actual firmware of the device
Slightly long answer: So according to our findings all these data shown in phone settings fake, and syncing apps back in 2011-12 i think its going to give you hard time finding a working one. Android 5.1 in todays time is not something you should be using as daily driver for sure. I suggest you to just treat it like a toy.
About my iPhone 7 back in the day, i bought that one for some 60USD but it was worth it, had some kind of apple music app which never required login but was able to stream any songs for free. so ive used that one out for music only.
I really wish there was a better way to put it, but you can try one last dry hope at needrom website to see if they have any details about this device.
kbtraveler said:
But there was no Update button. I tapped "Software Info" and the next thing I saw made me read it three times. It showed, "Android version: 5.1."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like has been said, sounds like you got a fake, Software info is one of the first things I would have checked before buying, not after you have bought it and then start having issues. Unfortunately you only really have yourself to blame. like is quite often said if the deal "seems to good to be true" there are reasons why.
@samorgs60, you are very right. I've taken many chances like this one on many electronic devices, and to my recollection, this is the first time I got burned. It's kind of like speeding: I don't always obey the speed limit to the letter (number?), so in the past when I got what I believe was an unfair speeding ticket - I was accused of going faster than I was - I dealt with it my accepting it as a balance in the universe for all the times I should have been busted.
@priteshsolanki, what a catch! Wow. That is kinda amazing, and would explain why it has 5.1 on it. I'm actually astonished at the quality of the device in every way, other than the obvious.
So I hate to ask this, but...isn't it true that carriers (I won't mention mine by name here) make offers for value against a new phone if your current phone simply 1) turns on and 2) does not have a cracked screen? That kinda seems to describe what I've got right now. Not interested in misleading on purpose, but what is the likelihood this would qualify as a trade-in? If they took it initially, what's the likelihood of it coming back to haunt me (the carrier contacting me about it not being a Samsung)?
Really appreciate the help, guys!
It sucks that you got a fake. If you paid with PayPal or Credit, I'd file a claim/dispute and try to return for a refund. Carriers usually log the IMEI of trade ins and if it doesn't match the model or is blacklisted in any way, the trade will be denied.