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[HOW TO] [NO JTAG] unbrick / debrick hardbricked Samsung Galaxy S3

This should work on all Qualcomm Snapdragon based Samsung galaxy SIII's, if it doesn't, PM me the model and I'll try and find a solution.
WHILE THIS IS VERY LIKELY TO WORK FOR ANY BOOTLOADER/MODEM/FIRMWARE BRICKED PHONE, THERE IS NO UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE THAT THIS WILL WORK FOR YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT THERE ARE SOME BRICK STATES THAT THIS WILL NOT WORK FOR, but in my experience, almost all cases can be resolved by rewriting the sdcard with correct partitioning.
Disclaimer out of the way, let us begin.
Needed Materials and Files:
EDIT: if you have another phone or know someone else with the same phone have them run this and the output will be a debrick image you can use: busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/backup.bin bs=1M count=200 if it does not work then change the last number (count=) to something larger and try it. If you create an image please upload it so I can put it into a repository I'm creating
16GB or 32GB class10 microSD card
A hard bricked Samsung galaxy S3 US Cellular
The debrick image for your device:
[[Here is the drive image for a folder containing all the debrick images that I currently have uploaded, more will be coming: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B612qYHFMILfWUlMTTEwdUstcXM&usp=sharing ]]
If you have any images that I missed, please send me a link or, better yet, upload them to drive, make them publicly shared, and share them with me at [email protected], I will put them in this folder for all to use
US Cellular R530: ftp://sdbruington.us/d2usc/SCH-R530_ALIVE_MJA_200MB_16GB.bin
Sprint L710: http://www.mediafire.com/download/23...ph_l710.img.xz
AT&T I747: http://d-h.st/iEy
T-mobile T999: http://www.mediafire.com/download/gr...k_SGH-T999.img
---I did not upload these images, I have simply collected the links over time, please thank Cnexus for his help in finding these and
---helping me to originally unbrick my S3
Your computer
A card reader that will accept the card (another phone will not work as this is an image, and it needs to repartition the SD card)
Either a partition editor (I've heard that you can use dd or something on linux, but I haven't tried) or this: View attachment win32diskimager-v0.9-binary.zip
A wall charger (computer charging isn't as reliable)
Procedure:
1. Take the sdcard and insert it into your computer
2. Download the mentioned image and the software to put it onto the sdcard
3. Use your computer to pull the data already on the card onto your computer hard drive, as the sdcard will be wiped when the image is put onto it
4. use the software that you downloaded earlier to burn the image to the sdcard
5. Remove the battery from the SGS3
6. insert the sdcard into the S3
7. Put the battery into the S3
8. The S3 may boot automatically, or you may have to manually boot it by holding down the power button for 5< seconds
9. If the update that bricked your phone also messed up /system, then you'll have to coerce Odin mode to shove a stock firmware image to your phone, though I've had more than just SOME trouble with that in the past (in other words I haven't been able to get back to stock yet...), if you simply had a radio update or something go wrong, then proceed to the next step.
10. Do a victory dance with your phone in your pocket not the repair bench, or on second thought, make sure you don't drop it, don't create another problem.
11. After that, you can just use your device normally with the sdcard in it without worry of bricking it, though it will not be able to boot if you remove the sdcard;
the only known method of getting it to boot without the sdcard is reflashing stock firmware, which completely wipes the phone and resets everything back to complete stock. Also, Odin mode has, at least for me, objected when I've tried to flash the stock image back onto it, and even if Odin mode was sure of working, backing up ~16GB of data isn't a fast process, especially with the most reliable means being ADB. If you try to flash a stock image and it fails, your device will almost definitely come up with a version of dmode when you try to turn it on with the sdcard (still bricked otherwise) that says something about Kies update failure, the only way of correcting this that I've had success with is flashing an image that won't do much, such as the same recovery that you already had, over odin mode from that special dmode, as while that won't correct the actual brick, it will at least make you able to boot from the sdcard again. I will provide links to the stock images in a little while, once someone gets that far, as I will have to find all but the one from the US Cellular version.
I am currently looking for firmware images that will only flash the bootloader/modem, if anyone knows of an odin file that could do that, please let me know as soon as possible, in the meantime, I will try and create an update.zip that will flash the necessary files; as most bricks are likely cause by an update.zip that was meant for a different device, I am very confident that it can be fixed with another .zip file.---Stay tuned!
---Don't forget, that thanks button won't bite your finger off if you push it:fingers-crossed:
If any of the links are not fully functional, PM me to let me know, and if you have the link to another debrick image for another device, send me the link so I can include it here!
Please note: While there is a similar procedure for Xynos based S3's, they apparently require a physical modification that requires an amount of soldering, so it is most likely best for them to simply take them in for Jtagging and then just not brick them after that.
EDIT: here is the link to a full youtube tutorial that I made, just for those of you who like watching a video instead of getting lost in a written guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RTAbLBVfMI
EDIT AGAIN: I'm sorry about both of the mediafire links being down, I will try and find some more and upload them to my google drive, along with the others just to make sure they exist somewhere safe.I'm downloading the images now and uploading some that I already have, they will be available in this folder (https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B612qYHFMILfWUlMTTEwdUstcXM&usp=sharing) on google drive and will be available by email upon request
here is a sprint image that should work, sorry I haven't tested it http://www.mediafire.com/download/231uhy6l80jx74n/debrick_sph_l710.img.xz
for the t999 4.1: https://www.copy.com/s/xSAswQZbhQX8/t999_debrick.zip for the t999 4.3: https://www.copy.com/s/7ICfKXMC3ccr/T999_4.3_debrick.zip
I know this is becoming a mess of links but here is a link to an xda post that has t999 variant images http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2439367
here is a sprint 4.4 debrick image: http://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23329332407591176
If you want to get your phone to operate without an sd card in there for every boot, stay tuned, I'll have a guide to return to stock soon, though a quick google search shouldn't be that hard if you're desperate
I will clean up this guide in a little bit but currently I have school and such to attend to so it may not be immediate
I know this is getting unwieldy but (big thanks to youdoofus) I have a way to completely debrick and fix it so it doesn't require even the sd to boot.
"Restoring stock bootloader
1) You were able to boot into the ROM
2) Plug your phone into a computer and use MTP mode
3) Move the debrick file onto your internal sdcard (/sdcard/debrick.bin)
4) Disconnect your phone
5) Open up a Terminal Emulator on your phone and input this code
Code:
su
dd if=/sdcard/debrick.bin of=/dev/block/mmcblk0
6) Reboot"
Of course this should be modified for the different versions and types of debrick image as some are img, some are bin, I think there might even be an ISO hanging around somewhere
EDIT: As of October 10th I'm working on a tool that will get an image directly from a stock rom/tar and put it on the SDcard. This is pretty complex so it will probably take a little while, but it should make it easier to get images if all that's required is a stock tar.

I've followed all these guides and haven't had any luck. I did use a CM 4.4 rom and some people are saying i need a debrick.img of a 4.4 to get it working again. i'm on an i-747. can you help?

derget1212 said:
I've followed all these guides and haven't had any luck. I did use a CM 4.4 rom and some people are saying i need a debrick.img of a 4.4 to get it working again. i'm on an i-747. can you help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need a debrick.img of a 4.4 to get it working, you need a debrick.img of the correct bootloader. If you bricked your phone by flashing an older bootloader after upgrading to the 4.3 bootloader, then you need a debrick.img with the 4.3 bootloader.

polobunny said:
You don't need a debrick.img of a 4.4 to get it working, you need a debrick.img of the correct bootloader. If you bricked your phone by flashing an older bootloader after upgrading to the 4.3 bootloader, then you need a debrick.img with the 4.3 bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do i find out the correct bootloader? i was using this rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2518998 for a couple months and randomly got hard bricked yesterday. any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for sharing this

derget1212 said:
how do i find out the correct bootloader? i was using this rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2518998 for a couple months and randomly got hard bricked yesterday. any help is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Explain your situation. Randomly bricked is very vague. Did you flash anything? Do you remember doing anything? It's important. Phones don't go and "randomly brick" unless of a HW problem, and to either confirm or eliminate that possibility we need more details.

polobunny said:
Explain your situation. Randomly bricked is very vague. Did you flash anything? Do you remember doing anything? It's important. Phones don't go and "randomly brick" unless of a HW problem, and to either confirm or eliminate that possibility we need more details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like i said, it was totally random. My phone froze and rebooted yesterday. It got to the Samsung logo so i thought everything was okay. I fell asleep and woke up to a bricked phone. After all of my attempts, I got one debrick.img to show something on my screen and it shows "BOOT RECOVERY MODE". Odin sees my phone and tries to fix the PIT and the Bootloader but it always fails. From what i gather, it seems to be a hardware issue.

derget1212 said:
Like i said, it was totally random. My phone froze and rebooted yesterday. It got to the Samsung logo so i thought everything was okay. I fell asleep and woke up to a bricked phone. After all of my attempts, I got one debrick.img to show something on my screen and it shows "BOOT RECOVERY MODE". Odin sees my phone and tries to fix the PIT and the Bootloader but it always fails. From what i gather, it seems to be a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whoa whoa there, if your phone still boots in either recovery or download mode, then you don't need to use a debrick.img.
If you have a custom recovery, you can flash your custom rom. If you don't, you can flash a stock ROM using ODIN in download mode.

polobunny said:
Whoa whoa there, if your phone still boots in either recovery or download mode, then you don't need to use a debrick.img.
If you have a custom recovery, you can flash your custom rom. If you don't, you can flash a stock ROM using ODIN in download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is hard bricked. Without the sd with a debrick.img installed, I get no response at all. And I've tried all the i747 debrick.img files I could find here with no success.
I can get to boot recovery mode with one .img I could find but boot recovery os different than recovery mode. It's essentially useless and Odin doesn't like it.

derget1212 said:
Like i said, it was totally random. My phone froze and rebooted yesterday. It got to the Samsung logo so i thought everything was okay. I fell asleep and woke up to a bricked phone. After all of my attempts, I got one debrick.img to show something on my screen and it shows "BOOT RECOVERY MODE". Odin sees my phone and tries to fix the PIT and the Bootloader but it always fails. From what i gather, it seems to be a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really sounds a lot like the BRICKBUG to me, anyone know how to tell if a chip is insane without it working? And did you have the 4.3 bootloader? If you got that you should have been safe, but if you didn't then the kernel may have burned out the chips from the "bug" (it really doesn't seem too much like a "bug", more like an issue worthy of recall)
Sorry I don't know exactly what's wrong off the top of my head

derget1212 said:
It is hard bricked. Without the sd with a debrick.img installed, I get no response at all. And I've tried all the i747 debrick.img files I could find here with no success.
I can get to boot recovery mode with one .img I could find but boot recovery os different than recovery mode. It's essentially useless and Odin doesn't like it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you get ANY response at all, then the debrick image is doing its job; what you need is a stock image, I'll try to find a link for you to use. Try using Kies or something, alternatively, as if you have the serial number you can apparently flash it quite cleanly, all data on the phone will be lost though, as it effectively wipes the eMMC.

polobunny said:
You don't need a debrick.img of a 4.4 to get it working, you need a debrick.img of the correct bootloader. If you bricked your phone by flashing an older bootloader after upgrading to the 4.3 bootloader, then you need a debrick.img with the 4.3 bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly

This image gets you in the clear if the ONLY thing screwed up is the boot partition, meaning modem/firmware/bootloader, it does NOT get you fixed if you got your rom F***ed up, and do not expect it to, this will get you into dmode so you can use odin or something like fastboot to flash a /system image or a FULL stock rom if you want to get your bootloader fixed without the SD card being in all the time.

dreamwave said:
If you get ANY response at all, then the debrick image is doing its job; what you need is a stock image, I'll try to find a link for you to use. Try using Kies or something, alternatively, as if you have the serial number you can apparently flash it quite cleanly, all data on the phone will be lost though, as it effectively wipes the eMMC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if anyone can find the correct debrick.img i need to use, i would greatly appreciate it. I have tried Kies and Odin without success. They can see the phone but seem not to be able to access it. I can't flash anything via odin or get to the CWM recovery or download mode. this is a really weird screen i haven't seen before.

derget1212 said:
if anyone can find the correct debrick.img i need to use, i would greatly appreciate it. I have tried Kies and Odin without success. They can see the phone but seem not to be able to access it. I can't flash anything via odin or get to the CWM recovery or download mode. this is a really weird screen i haven't seen before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any way at all to get into dmode? What is windows recognizing it as?

Thanks for sharing.

EvangelineX said:
Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem, I hope it helped!

derget1212 said:
I've followed all these guides and haven't had any luck. I did use a CM 4.4 rom and some people are saying i need a debrick.img of a 4.4 to get it working again. i'm on an i-747. can you help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you bricked the /system partition AND the boot partition you will need a stock rom as well, just use Odin or something if possible after using a 4.3 image, a 4.4 image is more or less the same as a 4.3 as far as I know, I mean I bricked mine after using cm11 by flashing the wrong rom, it's just that the rom you tried tried to flash a 4.1 bootloader, and thus tripped the eFUSE or something in the Knox bootloader, what you need is a 4.3 unbrick image, as 4.4 didn't really change the modems/bootloader from 4.3, and the unbrick image isn't really that much more than a collection of pieces from the boot partition that are used as an autoboot by the phone when the eMMC fails to load properly.

This is pretty neat..
does it always work?
It's nice to have such a recover method whenever something like this happens to you.

halfdead1993 said:
This is pretty neat..
does it always work?
It's nice to have such a recover method whenever something like this happens to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it will work on basically anything, as in I haven't seen a case that can't be cured at least somewhat by this, I think it works like an alternative boot, as if the bootloader on the eMMC is corrupted, it seems to remove the boot flag, thus making it so that the phone does not detect a bootable partition, the unbrick image has a partition layout mirroring the one that is supposed to be on the phone, so it is used as the boot partition but then redirects control back to whatever is on the eMMC after the bootloader, think of it as a liveCD on windows, just one that hands control back to the system after it has gotten past booting the BIOS.

Bootloop 2013 Moto G Boost Mobile XT1031 8GB

Hey guys!
To start, I want to say what an amazing place XDA is and how much information and knowledge you can get from here and how awesome the moderators are. I don't think I could ever find another amazing and/or helpful community such as those found here! Thanks to all who have helped me out with my Android issues!
Now to my issue and I apologize ahead of time if there is another thread (or related thread) found in the forum.
As the title states, I have a 2013 Motorola Moto G XT1031 Boost Mobile device. I had upgraded it to Lollipop 5.0.2 or 5.1 when it came out (I can't remember which one it was) and I had then decided to root it. I can say that I believe I was successful in rooting the device because I was able to install Supersu and use RootChecker to verify the install. Everything was going okay until i decided to research and eventually install a custom recovery and attempt to install a custom ROM. Well, let's just say that the recovery install was a bust...
In doing my research for a custom recovery, I found that TWRP had a custom recovery for my phone and apparently for my firmware via TWRP's app on the Play Store. So, I searched for my device in their in-app search for a custom recovery, downloaded it and installed it from the app. Now, my gut told me that this probably wouldn't work and that I should probably be installing a custom recovery via CLI. Nope. I didn't do this. Instead, like I said, I installed a custom recovery from the app itself. That screwed things up for me. I have no idea if it was the install, but my phone began to act incredibly strange. When in the TWRP recovery, my screen had this line that would continuously scroll from top to bottom. It wasn't a completely solid line, but it was transparent, almost like an empty thermometer glass stick was going down the screen. It was weird and not normal. I figured the phone's software was partially broken. It only did this in the TWRP recovery. Nowhere else did this happen. It was slightly annoying.
Later on I decided to install a custom ROM. Again, I did the necessary research to find out if there were any ROMs available for my phone (using XDA of course and others) and found that there were a few out there. So, I downloaded one (wish I could remember which one) and attempted to install it...keyword there. After attempting the install, my phone would not boot. Like at all. Dead. So back to the drawing board I went to try and reverse the damage. Using XDA (ironically) and a plethora of other sites, I tried to resurrect my phone and bring it back to life. After countless hours of trying and trying and trying and more and more research, I just gave up. The phone is dead. Great. $170 spent on a phone to break it a year later.
It's been roughly 4-5 months since I have attempted to redo the process and after another minor attempt, somehow I was able to remove the root completely, including the custom recovery and ROM. I don't know what the heck I did, but it worked....sort of. The phone is now stuck in a bootloop on the logo and sometimes the "bootloader has been unlocked" screen when try and factory reset the phone from the default recovery. When trying to reinstall the stock firmware, I read everywhere that I need the phone to have USB-debugging set and to have this and that. I have this and that installed on my PC, but obviously cannot enable USB-debugging which is needed for ADB and fastboot to recognize my device.
So, my question for anyone who would like to help me out is this: what are my options? Is the phone recoverable? Is there any way I can get ADB/fastboot to see my device and finally install the stock firmware on the phone? I have the proper drivers installed and ADB/fastboot are on my PC. Any help would be amazing, even if you have to tell me to junk it.

blckdragn22 said:
When trying to reinstall the stock firmware, I read everywhere that I need the phone to have USB-debugging set
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is incorrect, where did you read that? To reinstall the stock firmware using fastboot, you must be able to boot to the bootloader menu only.

I heard this from a few websites actually, although I could never find a situational fix for my phone. I am trying to restore back to Lollipop without a custom recovery, because within the past hour I found out TWRP was never fully removed when I tried booting into recovery from the AP Fastboot menu when doing to power+vol down option. The TWRP logo shows for about 10 seconds and then the phone tries booting normally, showing the unlocked bootloader warning.
So, yes I can boot into the bootloader menu all day long with no problems. It's just an selection I make doesn't get me anywhere. My question I guess now is: how do I go about reinstalling stock firmware via the bootloader menu. I have Minimal ADB and Fastboot installed on my PC. If I need the full ADB, I can download that. And of course I'd need the firmware, too.

You can find stock firmware images in this thread, there's also a link to an installation guide there:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g/general/index-moto-g-falcon-factory-firmware-t3110795

_that said:
You can find stock firmware images in this thread, there's also a link to an installation guide there:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g/general/index-moto-g-falcon-factory-firmware-t3110795
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thread had the firmware I was looking for thank you. I believe I have the flashing stock firmware process down, I hope. I'l refer to the guide if I need help. Thank you so much!

_that said:
You can find stock firmware images in this thread, there's also a link to an installation guide there:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g/general/index-moto-g-falcon-factory-firmware-t3110795
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am trying to follow the steps listed here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2542219&page=35 and for some reason I cannot run any of the commands pertaining to the sparsechunks. This is what I get:
Is there anything you could tell me about that?
Edit: I was able to figure what the issue was when trying to write the sparsechunks. I had to insert a "." after 'sparsechunk' because that is how the file is named in the folder. However, now I am getting a new error, but it takes place on the phone screen. Every time I attempt to write a sparsechunk, it will initiate the process of doing so, but on the phone I'll get what appears to be an error saying, "Image is too large" in pink lettering. Why does this happen? Each sparsechunk file is at least 4MB less than the max-sparse-size according to the ADB and my phone, which is set to 256MB. Is there any way to change that?

blckdragn22 said:
However, now I am getting a new error, but it takes place on the phone screen. Every time I attempt to write a sparsechunk, it will initiate the process of doing so, but on the phone I'll get what appears to be an error saying, "Image is too large" in pink lettering. Why does this happen? Each sparsechunk file is at least 4MB less than the max-sparse-size according to the ADB and my phone, which is set to 256MB. Is there any way to change that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check which sparsechunk files you have and make sure you flash all of them in ascending order. If it still fails, copy/paste the contents of your command prompt window (no screenshots please).

_that said:
Check which sparsechunk files you have and make sure you flash all of them in ascending order. If it still fails, copy/paste the contents of your command prompt window (no screenshots please).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try that. There was a ...sparsechunks.0 as well apart from sparsechunks.1, sparsechunks.2 and sparsechunks.3. Shall I include that, too?
And adding the screenshot was an amateur mistake. My bad.

@_that this worked like a charm. Phone is 100% working ans usable now. Incredibly helpful. Thank you so much!

[RESEARCH|MT8127] Bootloader hack ideas for LeapFrog Epic

I dunno, but I thought maybe I could make a separate thread about a possible way to poke into the LeapFrog Epic's preloader so it could accept unsigned images. LeapFrog won't spill the beans for us, as their staff (falsely) claims to know next to nothing about it, so unless we somehow managed to social-engineer them into giving us a signed ROM or an unlocked bootloader, our only chance is to patch it so it would ignore the lack of digital signatures.
What I've done so far is to run a strings check on the preloader and uboot binaries - fastboot seems watered down somehow as it lacked references to "oem unlock" and so on, but none of that Amazon Fire-style failsafe seems present from what I can tell.
Preloader: http://pastebin.com/H9QbzqC0
lk: http://pastebin.com/kSxRKYna
Boot files from the latest firmware revision are attached here, so if anyone is interested, please please please let me know so we can fix bricked units and finally port TWRP to this underrated kids' tablet.

blakegriplingph said:
I dunno, but I thought maybe I could make a separate thread about a possible way to poke into the LeapFrog Epic's preloader so it could accept unsigned images. LeapFrog won't spill the beans for us, as their staff (falsely) claims to know next to nothing about it, so unless we somehow managed to social-engineer them into giving us a signed ROM or an unlocked bootloader, our only chance is to patch it so it would ignore the lack of digital signatures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bumping the thread.
Would also like to know is this is possible
If I may ask, how did you extract the strings from preloader and lk? Did you use a hexeditor or there is another app?

Gibz97 said:
Bumping the thread.
Would also like to know is this is possible
If I may ask, how did you extract the strings from preloader and lk? Did you use a hexeditor or there is another app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this utility to do a strings dump off an Epic ROM:
http://split-code.com/strings2.html
It did turn up some interesting stuff but I was wondering if a binwalk or perhaps an IDA disassembly analysis would do wonders so we can finally poke into this tablet.

blakegriplingph said:
I used this utility to do a strings dump off an Epic ROM:
http://split-code.com/strings2.html
It did turn up some interesting stuff but I was wondering if a binwalk or perhaps an IDA disassembly analysis would do wonders so we can finally poke into this tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tool but I cannot seem find a way to use it.
 @gursewak.10 or @smartmanvartan please chime in to help us because they were able to hack the preloader of k4 note and lk of RCA Viking Pro respectively

I also know a friend who is willing to donate a spare Epic, if that helps.
As for using Strings2, the following batch script should work:
Code:
@echo off
strings2 %1 > test.txt
pause
Just drag a binary to be analysed into the batch file, and a resulting text file with strings and stuff should be generated.

Hello friend
You need to tweak lk to unlock bootloader . i am giving you my phone's both files(.you can easily compare them.
on unlocked bootloader u can flash unsigned images via write memory option of SP flash tool .
Try HxD hex editor

gursewak.10 said:
Hello friend
You need to tweak lk to unlock bootloader . i am giving you my phone's both files(.you can easily compare them.
on unlocked bootloader u can flash unsigned images via write memory option of SP flash tool .
Try HxD hex editor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, I can flash the preloader to my leapfrog via SPFT, but not anything else. Write memory works, and I can flash stuff one at a time to it, but I couldn't get the tablet to force itself out of flash/download mode and into normal mode. There's no reset button, and not even taking the battery off does the trick.

However, on my working Epic, I can alter the demo system image, flash it back using Write Memory and still end up with a working device, just as long as the preloader isn't messed with in any way. Right now I am at a loss as to how to revive my other Epic, short of taking it apart and shorting KCOLO and GND. It also didn't help that the testpoints aren't labeled at all. :/
Also, I did a quick logcat while running the FOTA utility, and I managed to get a few URLs off the said logs. Problem is that while the ZIPs may be of some use, they're incremental and there doesn't seem to be a full scatter/zip image to restore a faulty unit. There definitely needs to be a way to patch the bootloader so we can do whatever we want to it, but is there any one of you guys who are experts when it comes to MTK modding?

Any more ideas?

Anyone, please?

Bumping in case there's anyone interested in poking into this.

Now this is interesting let us see what we can do.

Warrior1988 said:
Now this is interesting let us see what we can do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You happen to have an Epic with you? Please let me know if you need more than just the firmware images. I've tried contacting LeapFrog regarding this issue to no avail. They did give my friend and I the kernel sources, but it's no use as the bootloader has to be unlocked for custom boot or recovery images to be used.

Is anyone willing to test if SP Flash Tool 5.1532.00 works on the Epic? I managed to flash a complete system image to a bricked Epic but I was unable to revive it as it has been bricked prior due to a botched preloader flash. The ROM's on my main Epic discussion thread, but one should take note to flash just the boot, recovery and system images and see if the device still works.

im also poking around in this since my volume up button doesnt work in bootloader mode
i have a figo gravity x55l
i can also upload the stock rom files that can be checked if needed

SP6RK said:
im also poking around in this since my volume up button doesnt work in bootloader mode
i have a figo gravity x55l
i can also upload the stock rom files that can be checked if needed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you able to muck around with LK or sbchk using IDA Pro or some other tool? Makes me wonder if merely deleting /system/bin/sbchk would disable boot-time checks or if there's more to it than just that.

blakegriplingph said:
Are you able to muck around with LK or sbchk using IDA Pro or some other tool? Makes me wonder if merely deleting /system/bin/sbchk would disable boot-time checks or if there's more to it than just that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i tried hex editors but lk.bin isnt decoded for my rom so half of my lk file is not showing me anything exept weird characters but i can see some of the other half.
if you delete the file...will it brick?...will it even boot?

GREAT NEWS I MANAGED TO GET ROOT WITHOUT UNLOCKING THE BOOTLOADER ALL YOU NEED IS TO
1.download your firmware and extract it
2.extract the boot.img from the firmware and put it on your phone REMEMBER WHERE YOU PUT IT SINCE YOU WILL NEED THIS!
3download magiskmanager install it and open it.
4click install and choose the boot.img it will install magisk into it
5.put it back in your firmware folder on your pc
6 look for a file that says Checksum_gen and run it
7 once that completes use spflash tool and load your scatterfile and flash JUST THE BOOT.IMG wait for the reboot and you have root!
THANK YOU DEVELOPERS OF MAGISKMANAGER!

SP6RK said:
GREAT NEWS I MANAGED TO GET ROOT WITHOUT UNLOCKING THE BOOTLOADER ALL YOU NEED IS TO
1.download your firmware and extract it
2.extract the boot.img from the firmware and put it on your phone REMEMBER WHERE YOU PUT IT SINCE YOU WILL NEED THIS!
3download magiskmanager install it and open it.
4click install and choose the boot.img it will install magisk into it
5.put it back in your firmware folder on your pc
6 look for a file that says Checksum_gen and run it
7 once that completes use spflash tool and load your scatterfile and flash JUST THE BOOT.IMG wait for the reboot and you have root!
THANK YOU DEVELOPERS OF MAGISKMANAGER!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What device are you referring to? Is this for an MT8127 tablet?

blakegriplingph said:
What device are you referring to? Is this for an MT8127 tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have a figo gravity x55l ? and it is not a tablet
it is a mt6753 great phone btw!
im a starting developer and got this phone so i can learn from my mistakes of course?
but this should work on any device that you can get a hold of its boot.img from its firmware

Successfully Flashed BNTV450 Stock Rom on BNTV460 Nook 7 (2018) Tablet

Greetings my tech peoples.
Just wanted to let everybody know I successfully flashed a BNTV450 Stock Rom on a BNTV460 Tablet. As I said in a previous post, I bricked the little guy trying to get root (it got stuck in a bootloop after I patched Magisk to the boot-sign img and then flashed it) so I thought, why not be creative and see what you can do with the little guy.
Now there are problems. A **** ton of problems. It isn't what I would call functional. Screen keeps going Red on the borders and flickering. Start thing crashed. But I can get in and finagle to developer options and such. Flashboot and ADB still working though. Keep in mind I flashed with SP Tool via scatter file.
But hey - it can be done!!!!
Also, just for note, I've also been able to flash a boot img of the 450 over an installation of the 460 stock rom - did that unlocking the device. Honestly, that caused less problems but I wasn't able to get root. Also, it naturally erased my unlocking but fret not, I've unlocked the thing 3 times in the 12 hours I've had it.
This is my first nook device, and my first timed dealing with new android, Oreo. But I just wanted to give the hope out there.
Hopefully better news in the coming days.

You wouldn't want to share your scatter file and your stock firmware would you? Trying to recover a 450 that won't boot past Nook screen. I cannot unlock it because the volume key does not respond. I have been able to flash 1.02, 2.04, and 2.05 boot and recovery images from ipdev's thread with no change. Also got a 1.02 system.img from him but that did not seem to fix it either. I do not have adb access at this moment either so cannot logcat.

toasterboy1 said:
You wouldn't want to share your scatter file and your stock firmware would you? Trying to recover a 450 that won't boot past Nook screen. I cannot unlock it because the volume key does not respond. I have been able to flash 1.02, 2.04, and 2.05 boot and recovery images from ipdev's thread with no change. Also got a 1.02 system.img from him but that did not seem to fix it either. I do not have adb access at this moment either so cannot logcat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the 450 firmware I used:https://mega.nz/#!Ds5lTCRD!MT8za1cUYOfEkSXGZB57gIsWr12ogWs9YotDoHZLwQ4
Scatterfile is in there. Keep in mind I got it from an unverified source - use at your own risk just in case it has that piece of software in the OS that B&N knew about which you can read about here: https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/22/the-new-barnesnoble-nooks-come-with-free-malware/

Articul8Madness said:
This is the 450 firmware I used: blob:https://mega.nz/f22bf6cb-5617-4e8d-9bea-5126793db71d
Scatterfile is in there. Keep in mind I got it from an unverified source - use at your own risk just in case it has that piece of software in the OS that B&N knew about which you can read about here: https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/22/the-new-barnesnoble-nooks-come-with-free-malware/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The link just defaults to the mega home page for me. Am I missing something?

toasterboy1 said:
The link just defaults to the mega home page for me. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry bro, it kept redirecting weirdly. I reposted the link in the previous post and it should work.
Here is also the site I got it from: https://www.xsfirmware.com/nook-bntv450-mt8163-android-6-0-firmware-flash-files/

Back up and running. Thank you.

toasterboy1 said:
Back up and running. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No prob dude.

If spflash tool is working, but you have not a correct scatter file. You can use "Wwr_MTK tool" to read back the whole emmc and read partition table from preloader, the tool will make scatter file and full image copies of the firmware partition by partition

I did this, but now I can't log into the B&N account, and if I try to open nook settings, it asks me to log in, and again, it doesn't let me...

Did I brick my friend htc u12+?

I've been trying to help my friend get her phone at up with a custom ROM but boy did things change since when I was doing this.
I managed to unlock the bootloader, boot into twrp (without actually installing it, only the temporary version) sand then I accidentally deleted her stock rom and now I can't seem to flash a new one.
Not 100% sure if I managed to root it. Also I'm confused by these slots. On slot b it complaints that there is no OS and slot a I'm not even sure the bootloader is unlocked on.
Can someone please give me some tips on how to troubleshoot and see if I can save this phone?
Thank you!

On A/B devices slot A by default is where device's Android OS is housed, slot B by default is where Android OS updates ( temporarily ) get stored.
If you can access device by means of Fastboot then you can try to flash device's Stock ROM applying the flash-all.bat what typically is to be found in the Stock ROM's ZIP-file.

Finally had time to look at this.
I managed to download a RUU exe (which I hope is the right version, I really am not sure, the only clue I have is SDM UFS) and am working on extracting the rom.zip from it.
What worries me is that I'm sort of stuck in Fastboot and can't seem to reboot to download. It also says
SECURE BOOT - PRODUCTION
DEVICE STATE UNLOCKED
and in the bottom it says:
*** Software status: Modified ***
This device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and will not boot.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO TRY AND HELP ME UNDERSTAND!

Ok, I got it back into download mode, found the right RUU. Couldn't find the flash-all but am writing boot and system now.
Hoping it works!

Did flash boot and system and can start into something that looks like android but nothing works, I can't enter settings and there seem to be no apps installed. What do you think I have missed?

Hey, how'd you get your phone into Download mode? I'm having the same issues and seem to not be able to do anything with no real answers in sight. Thanks!