[Q] Bricked my phone... another one bites the dust - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

YUP. I "soft bricked" my t-mobile galaxy s (vibrant here in the us) or so I hope. The phone was rooted via z4 on the latest android t959uvji6 from t-mobile.
How did i do it? Brick my phone that is...
The 3d gallery was pissing me off by picking up everything on the phone. I tried clearing the default setting via the manage app but nothing changed so I decided to delete it. First backing up the apk and odex file from the system folder with titanium backup then deleted them from the system folder via root explorer. Rebooted the phone, pulled out the battery, waited for 30 seconds or so, popped in the battery and booted up the phone w/o any issues.
I tried installing the backup 3d gallery apk file and got the "app not installed" error on numerous attempts. Then tried simply copying it over again with ti backup and nothing happens. Gave up and said the heck with and went the factory restore route, got all the relevant apps installed and tried reinstalling the 3d gallery apk but resulting in the same "app not installed" error prompt. So I again copied over the apk and odex file into the system folder. Rebooted and nothing... phone does not boot into the home screen.
At this point here is what the phone is able to do.
It will boot up and display the default galaxy s animation, goes through it's array of colors then comes to a stop at all white letters then the screen goes blank and nothing happens - zip. nadda. i left it on for 12hrs like that - blank screen w/all the hard keys lit up.
What i did notice was win7x64 recognizes the phone after it gets into the blank screen of death as mass storage units.
So far i've tried booting into the recovery screen via the three button method and none of them works.
Did the karma-volume up-home-power twist - nothing
Did the karma-volume down-home-power roll - nothing
Did the karma-volume up and down-power jiggy - nothing
I tried the key combos for about 2hrs without any success then jumped into adb. After reading for a bit I realized that the phone was still rooted and the debug mode was enabled the last time i shutdown the phone (good'ol ti-backup)
For a while there adb did not recognize the phone at all but with an odd power cycling while spamming "adb reboot recovery" it was able to finally nab hold of the phone and jump into the recovery console. At first I thought it was pure luck so unplugged everything and tried it again - works every time if i did the odd out of sequence power cycle while spamming the adb console with "adb reboot recovery".
In the reboot recovery - deleted the user data and did the restore.
Here's where I think I really screwed up - now the phone is no longer in debug mode.
Long story short - is there a way to get into the recovery screen w/o debug mode on?
**quickly pulls on flack jacket**
but seriously any suggestions would be great

Wrong section bro. You probably won't get an answer here.

To answer your question. Yes, Remove Battery, Plug your phone to USB, Press and hold the volume down and the power button Put the batter back on. This should get you into download mode. Use ODIN to restore.

the usb jig trick did the work - now i have two phones!!!! (bought the nexus s yesterday) lol

Time to ODIN.
To access Download mode.
Unplug. press volume up and down togheter, and connect USB. VOILA!
If ODIN does not recognize it, plug and unplug again

chichu_9 said:
To answer your question. Yes, Remove Battery, Plug your phone to USB, Press and hold the volume down and the power button Put the batter back on. This should get you into download mode. Use ODIN to restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no!
Why the hell are people giving others ideas on how to get into download when their doing it wrong.
its JUST THE VOLUME BUTTONS, NOT THE POWER BUTTON ALONG WITH IT.
volume + power = Recovery, which in this case you probably cant get into
Volume - Power = Download mode, which everyone can get into unless if they somehow hard bricked, if its possible.

Related

Is my phone bricked?! (grey battery screen)

Hi guys,
I figured I'll post again here since I think I bricked my phone.... I was trying to install Eugene's Vibrant6.zip and I got stuck on the Vibrant Logo with Samsung at the bottom. I tried to reset with both volume buttons and power button and got to grey battery and nothing else...
What I did prior to this was I formatted system and data on the recovery screen as per some posts here and it would just boot into a loop. Windows won't recognize a device and it just shows grey battery image and it doesn't seem to be charging. Anyone can help me?
EDIT:
Out and in the battery, plugged in to USB and it just loads the battery image and it's all grey color as if fully discharged and just stuck on it. Device is also not found in my system so I can't do any adb commands. If I just reset it without the cable it would just sit on the Samsung boot loop. Anything I can do?
UPDATE: Ok, some good news! I heard the sound as it connected via USB, I can see the 2 drives, but they read as Removable Disk and I can't access them...
adb reboot recovery or download
error: device not found
What if simply format the drives via Windows right click menu? Will that do any good or bad? What are my options here? Any help will be appreciated!
UPDATE: Well... looks like this is pretty much a dead phone.... I right clicked and selected Format in My Computer and it just says There is no disk in Driver F: Insert a disk and try again.
Can I a mount an image somehow via MagicISO? Or is there something simpler that I just can't figure out?
Again, thanks for your help!
Thanks.
Has anyone experienced this or am I the only one?
M5devil said:
Has anyone experienced this or am I the only one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I have never heard of this or witnessed it while flashing anything to my device. Obviously the battery screen signifies that the phone is off but is in charging mode and hitting the power button will boot the device up. (I'm sure you already know of this). Never heard of it being stuck at that screen after flashing. Hopefully you can get this solved soon. Good luck
M5devil said:
Hi guys,
I figured I'll post again here since I think I bricked my phone.... I was trying to install Eugene's Vibrant6.zip and I got stuck on the Vibrant Logo with Samsung at the bottom. I tried to reset with both volume buttons and power button and got to grey battery and nothing else...
What I did prior to this was I formatted system and data on the recovery screen as per some posts here and it would just boot into a loop. Windows won't recognize a device and it just shows grey battery image and it doesn't seem to be charging. Anyone can help me?
EDIT:
Out and in the battery, plugged in to USB and it just loads the battery image and it's all grey color as if fully discharged and just stuck on it. Device is also not found in my system so I can't do any adb commands. If I just reset it without the cable it would just sit on the Samsung boot loop. Anything I can do?
UPDATE: Ok, some good news! I heard the sound as it connected via USB, I can see the 2 drives, but they read as Removable Disk and I can't access them...
adb reboot recovery or download
error: device not found
What if simply format the drives via Windows right click menu? Will that do any good or bad? What are my options here? Any help will be appreciated!
UPDATE: Well... looks like this is pretty much a dead phone.... I right clicked and selected Format in My Computer and it just says There is no disk in Driver F: Insert a disk and try again.
Can I a mount an image somehow via MagicISO? Or is there something simpler that I just can't figure out?
Again, thanks for your help!
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Slow down for a second. Your phone is definitely not bricked. Ive been over the edge, and been able to bring my phone back to life.
To clarify, you flashed vibrant6.zip through clockwork mod, and then the phone got stuck on the samsung S? How long did you let it sit there?
It sounds like just your ROM is messed up.
Are you able to "get into recovery"? Holding both volume buttons while you power on the phone, without it being plugged into usb.
Do you have Odin? And have you ever used it?
Its totally frustrating when your phone gets messed up and you don't know what to do.
I flashed the stock ROM via Odin and then wanted to install Vibrant6.zip. For that I entered into a recovery mode via Clockwork and as someone in the other thread advised, I formatted system and also data, don't recall exactly. Then it looped to a standard recovery mode and I just rebooted the phone. This is where it got stuck... Vibrant in the center and Samsung at the bottom of the screen. To test it I left it like that from night till this morning. In the morning I woke up it was on the same boot screen.
Before that at night, after seeing it hand at the boot, I held both volume keys and power, waited for it to reboot, and immediately it showed a circular progress bar, but not moving just highlighted the 12 o'clock bar and second later I see the battery image all in gray and nothing else. It just sits on that grey static image without actually charging it (no green section or flashing dots)
Boot logo only appears if I am trying to reset without the USB cable. On the boot loop I plug in the cable and I hear the USB connecting it, I see the 2 Removable disks, but both inaccessible and adb commands don't recognize the device.
Very weird, as in turned off mode it's not charging at all.. just shows this grey battery image with a circle progress froze on 12 o'clock bar.
That's pretty much it.... I was never able to enter into recovery nor download via the buttons. It would just always reboot into this grey battery screen....
Completely helpless.... I did order a new battery from TMO, maybe the battery is fried and that's why it's not charging and just sits on this stupid static grey battery screen.
ArbitrageMan said:
It sounds like just your ROM is messed up.
Are you able to "get into recovery"? Holding both volume buttons while you power on the phone, without it being plugged into usb.
Do you have Odin? And have you ever used it?
Its totally frustrating when your phone gets messed up and you don't know what to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holding both volume keys and releasing power once screen goes blank, only show Vibrant logo again... I have tried this a million times
With USB cable it shows grey battery screen, without the cable just a Vibrant boot loop...
I'm assuming that you have the Samsung drivers installed.
Try the following steps:
Take out the battery and then put it back in but don't turn the phone on.
Plug it via USB.. does anything show up on the screen?
zephiK said:
I'm assuming that you have the Samsung drivers installed.
Try the following steps:
Take out the battery and then put it back in but don't turn the phone on.
Plug it via USB.. does anything show up on the screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have the drivers installed as I was able to locate my device and use adb commands to enter into recovery and download. Also Kies worked.
Doing what you asked simply load the grey battery image and nothing else with a progress bar not spinning. Just sort of hangs on this image and that's all.
Booting without the USB cable loads the Vibrant boot loop. Connecting USB at this boot loop state, would play a sound as if it connected to my windows, but I can only see Removable disks that are inaccessible and adb doesn't find the device...
Very strange.... trying to use the button keys to enter into recovery or download is no use, as that just won't ever happen, even when phone was working fine.
Any other suggestions? I would return the phone for replacement... but I am not sure how it would look with all the files still on the internal disk including root if I am not mistaken... I had only few hours of sleep because of this headache
M5devil said:
Yes, I have the drivers installed as I was able to locate my device and use adb commands to enter into recovery and download. Also Kies worked.
Doing what you asked simply load the grey battery image and nothing else with a progress bar not spinning. Just sort of hangs on this image and that's all.
Booting without the USB cable loads the Vibrant boot loop. Connecting USB at this boot loop state, would play a sound as if it connected to my windows, but I can only see Removable disks that are inaccessible and adb doesn't find the device...
Very strange.... trying to use the button keys to enter into recovery or download is no use, as that just won't ever happen, even when phone was working fine.
Any other suggestions? I would return the phone for replacement... but I am not sure how it would look with all the files still on the internal disk including root if I am not mistaken... I had only few hours of sleep because of this headache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure that you're doing the right things to get to download? I've been in this situation and I wasn't able to get into recovery but I was able to get back into download mode.
I believe if you return it back and they find out it was rooted, they will charge you for it. If not, it'll appear on your bill.
I'm sure that you're doing the wrong things to get into download mode. If something is appearing on your screen it is a soft-brick and you're not bricked.
1. Take out battery, put it back in. (to turn the phone fully off)
2. Don't turn it the phone on!
3. Plug the phone into your PC, do not hit the power button!
4. See if the phone shows anything on the screen (powers on its own when plugged in)
IF the phone screen does 'turn on' after being plugged in without you hitting the power button, so far so good.
5. Now while it's on like this, hold the volume up and volume down buttons.
6. Hold the power button as well as the volume buttons until the screen goes black.
7. As soon as the screen goes black, let go of the power button! But DON'T let go of the volume buttons!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A tip to get into download mode is to put the phone HORIZONTALLY (sideways) and it will make it a lot easier.
I am pretty much positive about it. I know a lot of people can easily enter into recovery or download modes, but I know many can't and I am one of them. It would just load the grey battery image instantly as I let go of the power button.
1. Take out battery, put it back in. (to turn the phone fully off) DONE
2. Don't turn it the phone on! DONE
3. Plug the phone into your PC, do not hit the power button! DONE
4. See if the phone shows anything on the screen (powers on its own when plugged in) FIRST THING THAT APPEARS IS A CIRCULAR PROGRESS BAR THAT CHANGES TO A GREY BATTERY IMAGE WITH A BAR IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. STATIC IMAGE, NOTHING ELSE.
IF the phone screen does 'turn on' after being plugged in without you hitting the power button, so far so good.
5. Now while it's on like this, hold the volume up and volume down buttons. DONE
6. Hold the power button as well as the volume buttons until the screen goes black. DONE
7. As soon as the screen goes black, let go of the power button! But DON'T let go of the volume buttons! DONE
THE STUPID GREY COLOR BATTERY IMAGE APPEARS AS BEFORE....
I'm thinking maybe battery is fried and that's why the grey color screen appears and not the usual screen where you see the battery charging...
After reading this thread it's clear that my handset is one of the new ones that have recovery/download modes disabled via the volume+power buttons.
So that pretty much covers it... I hope TMO will not ***** about the files that are on the internal sd that I am unable to access and remove... unless anyone else has any fresh ideals how to gain access to the disk
I think I might have a similar problem.
I accidentally deleted the touchwiz framework so I can't do anything ON the phone. It boots up, and gets me to the lock screen. As soon as I unlock, I am greeted with dozens of unending force closes.
I can get into both download and recovery mode, however, I have not been able to get ADB to recognize the device. I am attempting to push the stock ROM to the internal memory to flash over everything.
I'm not sure what to do to get ADB to work but it's driving me nuts!
Stuck at vibrant? I have a fix
Check out android Dev Section... I figured out how to access download mode or stock recovery mode when you are stuck at the vibrant screen!!!! BACK IN BUSINESS VIBRANT OWNERS!!!
i got the same problem and nothing seems to work
Try this out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1103706
Feels like I'm having same issues..
the previous post requires opening the phone and I don't have tools for that..
Here's my issue.
I can't get into Recovery or Download and computer won't see phone to Odin.
I've got drivers installed and AIO Toolbox as well as ADB(which won't work because of computer not seeing phone.
Using the manual option(vol+ vol- power), nothing works.
I've done all the tricks like unplug it then hold vol keys plug it insert battery..
When I do plug in the phone to to even just get a charge in it goes the the battery, but my is is frozen or something. doesn't turn green or have a charging animation. After about a minute or so it was start up and boot loop. I read something about a bad battery? I've got two of them and they seemed fine before..
Before all this I had to Odin and go to stock. I was attempting to get ics back but I was being lazy and trying to do as little as possible..bad idea. I was following slim ics install and flashed cm9 daily, slimics and commons..and now this..
I'm not sure what to do..I usually search around xda or google..10 hours later.. idk..Anyone able to give help please?
:crying:
eduardo_reflex said:
i got the same problem and nothing seems to work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... do i even have to say it?
droyd666 said:
Try this out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1103706
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this problem is most likely solved. After 2 years!
mylostlonelysoul said:
Feels like I'm having same issues..
the previous post requires opening the phone and I don't have tools for that..
Here's my issue.
I can't get into Recovery or Download and computer won't see phone to Odin.
I've got drivers installed and AIO Toolbox as well as ADB(which won't work because of computer not seeing phone.
Using the manual option(vol+ vol- power), nothing works.
I've done all the tricks like unplug it then hold vol keys plug it insert battery..
When I do plug in the phone to to even just get a charge in it goes the the battery, but my is is frozen or something. doesn't turn green or have a charging animation. After about a minute or so it was start up and boot loop. I read something about a bad battery? I've got two of them and they seemed fine before..
Before all this I had to Odin and go to stock. I was attempting to get ics back but I was being lazy and trying to do as little as possible..bad idea. I was following slim ics install and flashed cm9 daily, slimics and commons..and now this..
I'm not sure what to do..I usually search around xda or google..10 hours later.. idk..Anyone able to give help please?
:crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try asking another question. But I suggest using a USB jig. They usually work. Then odin
Sent from Mount Olympus via Hermes
Did you ever get it fixed man? I literally did the very same to mine a while back and It works like butter as we speak. It is fixable with a mini-usb jig or dongle. You can make your own with about $3 worth of parts from radio shack but I recommend buying one, it will be easier. I for the record made mine simply twisting together the resistors and though it was tough to touch the right pins it did eventually work and get me back into download mode.
Hopefully you already got it fixed though. If not I can help you out.

TnT Lite issue

I had installed TNT Lite v 4.3.0 a couple of weeks ago and it was working pretty good. But today my tablet has gone into a bad state. Every app that I run results in FC. Even the ADW launcher EX that I had selected default is crashing. It then gives me the options: ADW Laucher, ADW Launcher EX, and the regular Launcher. The plain ADW Launcher also fails, but fortunately the regular Launcher still works so I can access the apps.
But unfortunately almost every app that I am trying fails. The only one that doesn't fail is the Web browser. The Settings starts and I can access Applications menu but once I choose say System Applications, after that if I try to choose some other option such as Installed Application, it crashes as well.
Last night however when I started the tablet the battery was probably down and while it was powering it up, it turned off and then restarted by itself and then turned off, without reaching the lock screen. I don't know if it has something to do with all this.
What do I do now? Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks.
A well known issue.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=896395
This is why I'm an advocate of people doing the partitioning right before they flash their first custom rom. This way, they won't have to wipe everything later on.
I could only wonder why people aren't mentioning this in every custom rom thread.
Thank you so much. Will try it out tonight.
Unfortunately it seems I have run into a worse issue (without even doing anything yet). Now when I power it on, it starts and shuts off within a few seconds, just shows the birds for like 5 secs and bang, black screen.
The tablet is fully charged (if I put it on charge the light turns green in no time). Looks like the battery is dead.
You might be dropping into APX mode. Do you know how to use nvflash?
Thanks for the reply. You are absolutely right. After multiple tries it did boot up and I was able to install clockworkmod and it all worked great. It wiped off everything but I could live with that. And I turned it off and back on and it was working fine.
But then it went back into the same mode - shutting off immediately after turning on. I decided to return this tablet thinking that it is bad. But before I would do that I thought to restore it or else Viewsonic won't honor the warranty. So I started reading the thread about restoring the tablet to stock using nvram flash. In that procedure it requires me to put the tablet in APX mode and that's when I thought that maybe it is going into APX without pressing the volume - button.
Anyway I was successfully able to flash nvram. Or so it said. I still have the output from the batch file. But now my tablet is totally bricked. It does not boot at all. No pretty birds for me.
I hope there is some way out of it. Please help.
Edit: After re-flashing and using a different file, it seems to have made it a little better. At least I am seeing the birds again. But the original problem of shutting off, or going into the APX mode without pressing Volume button, has returned. All I am getting is the birds for a few seconds and then black screen. I will continue to retry, and if I see it booting up successfully to the stock, this thing is going back to the factory.
1) What image did you use to nvflash?
2) What happened when the flash was finished? Did it boot normally at least once?
3) Does the screen just stay dark all the time now?
1) First time nvflash_gtablet_46_2010112600.zip and after that it did not boot at all. Only black screen. I flashed it couple of times, no avail. Later I flashed nvflash_gtablet_2010110500.zip. This at least recovered it enough that it shows the birds, but soon after the screen turns black. I have confirmed that it is going in APX mode. If I have USB cable connected to my PC, the PC reports discovering the NVIDEA APX device.
2) It hasn't booted normally since I flashed nvram.
3) No I get the birds, but after that it turns dark.
Ok. Using Bekit's 1105 image...
1) Replace part9.img with the recovery.img out of the clockworkmod installation zip.
2) Put the tablet into APX mode.
3) Type in the command to start nvflash but before you hit the enter key hold down the Volume Up key and continue to hold it down until the flash finishes.
4) The tablet should boot into clockworkmod recovery.
5) Repartition 2048 and 0
6) Clear everything (cache, data and dalvik)
7) You might need to re-nvflash at this point.
Thanks for your response. I tried it. Did not work. When you say Replace part9.img with the recovery.img, does it mean copy recovery.img into the NVFlash directory and rename it to part9.img or leave it as recevery.img. I renamed it to part9.img and backed up the original part9.img to part9.img.tmp. The size of recovery.img and the original part9.img are very different. I am confused. Please help.
K J Rad said:
Ok. Using Bekit's 1105 image...
1) Replace part9.img with the recovery.img out of the clockworkmod installation zip.
2) Put the tablet into APX mode.
3) Type in the command to start nvflash but before you hit the enter key hold down the Volume Up key and continue to hold it down until the flash finishes.
4) The tablet should boot into clockworkmod recovery.
5) Repartition 2048 and 0
6) Clear everything (cache, data and dalvik)
7) You might need to re-nvflash at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that is exactly what I meant.
Are you sure you're holding the volume UP key? Birds and then black screen is APX mode which is normally entered by holding volume DOWN.
Well it goes into APX mode even if I don't press any Volume button at all. That is the problem I am trying to fix. When I press power button (without touching the volume button) the birds come and then black screen. And this is APX mode because if I am connected to the PC it brings up an NVIDIA APX device on the PC.
Now if I press the Volume UP button along with the power button, nothing happens, not even the birds come up.
So the fact that the recovery.img (3.7k) is much smaller than part9.img (16k) is ok? Or I am doing something wrong.
Any ideas?
I was thinking about formatting the gtablet. Please let me know if this is the right move, or there is something else I could try first.
shah123 said:
Well it goes into APX mode even if I don't press any Volume button at all. That is the problem I am trying to fix. When I press power button (without touching the volume button) the birds come and then black screen. And this is APX mode because if I am connected to the PC it brings up an NVIDIA APX device on the PC.
Now if I press the Volume UP button along with the power button, nothing happens, not even the birds come up.
So the fact that the recovery.img (3.7k) is much smaller than part9.img (16k) is ok? Or I am doing something wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A little more than "It did not work" would be helpful.
What step failed? Please tell me what happened after each step.
Did you get into CWM and repartition?
Did you get everything cleared?
What happened when it rebooted?
What was the original filename of the image you tried to flash?
What version of clockworkmod do you have installed?
Have you ever used ROM Manager?
All of this is important and no one can help you if you don't provide enough information.
Oh, I am sorry. Here are the answers to the questions you asked:
What step failed? Please tell me what happened after each step.
Ans: Out of the 7 steps you provided, the steps 1, 2 and 3 worked fine. It is the step 4 that failed (and of course I can't proceed with the steps anymore). In other words I cannot go into clockworkmod recovery.
Did you get into CWM and repartition?
Ans: No I was not able to do so. If I press power and Volume Up key at the same time, nothing happens, screen remains black, not even birds come up.
Did you get everything cleared?
Ans: I believe you are referring to step 6. No, I could not get to that step.
What happened when it rebooted?
Ans: Nothing showed up. Because when Volume Up is pressed while it is powered on, nothing shows up on the screen.
What was the original filename of the image you tried to flash?
Ans: Actually first time nvflash_gtablet_46_2010112600.zip (and this is before you provided the 7-step recipe - see post #6, 7, 8 of this thread) and after that it did not boot at all. Only black screen. I flashed it couple of times, no avail. Maybe that was my mistake. I chose a wrong file. Later I flashed nvflash_gtablet_2010110500.zip. This recovered it enough that it shows the birds now, but soon after the screen turns black (goes into APX mode).
What version of clockworkmod do you have installed?
Ans: v08
Have you ever used ROM Manager?
Ans: No. What is it?
I really appreciate your help.
What happened at the end of step 3?
Did you start holding the volume UP before you pressed the return key for the nvflash? If not... go back and do it again.
Did you continue to hold it until the flash was happening? You must continue to hold it down for at least 5 - 10 seconds after the flash starts.
When the flash was done did it say "Recovery Key detected" on the screen? If it didn't say this that is an indication that you didn't hold the volume UP key long enough.
If all of the above was done correctly and did happen but you didn't get to clockworkmod then what did you get? Did it look like stock recovery?
It sounds to me like you did the nvflash then tried to reboot into recovery.
Its unbelievable. Tonight when I powered it on it started booting up normal instead of going into the APX mode. I was glad. The stock UI came up, but some of my apps like Quadrant, File Expert etc were still there. It also notified me of the Update 3588. So I downloaded it and started installing it. Pretty soon it rebooted itself (sooner than I thought - I don't know if the remaining installation was supposed to happen after the reboot).
But instead of booting up into 3588 it is unfortunately gone back to the same old issue - the birds followed by black screen - aka APX mode. It never booted up after that. No matter how many times I tried to reboot, it goes into APX mode just like before. I don't know what caused it to complete bootup. One thing I noticed was that the battery was totally drained when I started tonight. I don't know if the drained battery somehow took it out of the APX mode. But now it has a little bit of charge because of hooking up to power supply. I have disconnected the power supply and will leave it in APX mode over night and try it again tomorrow when the battery would be totally drained and see if it boots up fully.
To answer your questions though:
What happened at the end of step 3?
The screen went black and after that it stayed black. No CWM.
Did you start holding the volume UP before you pressed the return key for the nvflash? If not... go back and do it again.
Yes, I did.
Did you continue to hold it until the flash was happening? You must continue to hold it down for at least 5 - 10 secondsafter the flash starts.
Yes, I continued to hold it all the way until the flash completed and the screen went black and quite some time after that.
When the flash was done did it say "Recovery Key detected" on the screen?
I don't think it did.
If it didn't say this that is an indication that you didn't hold the volume UP key long enough.
So I guess I need to give it another try. Tomorrow I will try to reboot the tablet again and if it continued to go into APX I will do the nvflash one more time.
If all of the above was done correctly and did happen but you didn't get to clockworkmod then what did you get? Did it look like stock recovery?
A black dark screen. No CWM or stock recovery.
It sounds to me like you did the nvflash then tried to reboot into recovery.
No at the time of nvflash I held the Volume UP button and nothing happened. Since then I have been trying to bootup or put it in CWM Recovery but only thing the tablet wants to do is go into APX mode.
So I guess my theory of "drained battery takes it out of the APX mode" is correct. I tried to reboot the tablet several times but it just kept on going into the APX mode until the battery was completely drained. And then it started booting up normally but it went into some installation (probably the stock 3588 that I had downloaded in the previous successful bootup). And then the green android with the exclamation sign came and the exclamation sign was rotating for a second or two and then stopped. And it looked like it was hung. I waited for a minute or two but nothing happened, so I pressed one of the buttons, I don't know if it was Menu or Back button, and all of a sudden clockworkmod recovery screen came up.
I have attached the picture of the screen. It still shows the green android with the exclamation sign in the middle of the screen, along with the CWM Recovery.
One other thing I noticed and I am not sure if it is normal is that if I choose say Reboot System Now from CWM menu and it shows like 10 entries with many No's and only one Yes. I can only use the volume Up + button to go down, if I try to go up using volume Down - button it does not go up. Is that normal? Is the only way to go is go down using Voume Up button in CWM menus? I have a feeling that my Volume Down button has gone crazy and it is not functioning properly and that is what is causing it to go into APX mode at the startup as well.
Anyway I first attempted "Apply SDCARD:update.zip" hoping that it might continue with the stock 3588 installation, but that failed. You can see the messages in the picture. Then I tried the Factory Reset and it was successful. I then rebooted the tablet. But now again it keeps on going up into APX mode. I will have to wait until tomorrow for it to completely drain battery again and then try to reboot again.
Any ideas? I know it is overwhelming and the behavior is very weird. At this point I am trying to bring it back to the stock firmware so that I can get this tablet replaced under warranty.
There are quite a few things that are not acting normal from what I see here.
Did you try to repartition 2048 and 0? If not, I would start with that then I would format everything and re-nvflash a stock ROM onto it. That might clear things up. If not you could be looking at a hardware reset.

Phone won't turn on

Sometimes my I5500 won't turn on.
This has already happened 2 times (with two different firmwares I5500XWJPL and I5503TTLPJP9). The phone shows absolutely no signs of life - screen is black, no sounds, nothing.
I tried everything: pressing VolumeDown+Center+Power, VolumeDown+Home+Power, with or without battery/SIM/charger/SD. Tried removing battery for 30 minutes, charging battery in external charger.
Sometimes when charger is connected, it shows green battery on the screen, but still won't boot.
Last times I spent several hours fiddling with it until it finally turned on..
Can someone tell my if there is a fast way to revive the phone next time this happens?
Maybe your arm11boot is damaged, but still partly working. You need replace that partition. I saw arm11boot partition image in one Russian FW. I can't remember actual name. You can try that, but caution. You might brick your phone compleatly!
sorry for reviving this thread.
but I got the same problem now. Tried to use ROM Manager to install CWM Recovery (following a blogpost explaining how to install a Custom ROM on the SG5). Might have accidentally clicked a different CWM Rec. version than I thought I did. However, ROM manager showed a message, telling me that CWMR was installed correctly.
So I wanted to boot into CWMR up to flash my device with the latest CyanogenMod 7 port from MADTeam. Used the "boot into recovery" option from ROM manager for that purpose. The next thing I know is my phone not reacting to anything.
Tried all methods mentioned afore (Vol- + Home + Power / Vol- + Center + Power, with/w.o. SD card and/or battery inserted). Screen keeps being off, no sign of life, phone wont even do anything when plugged to my PC or a charger.
The phone has been rooted properly before and was running Stock 2.1. Houston, we've got a problem.
Rigardi said:
sorry for reviving this thread.
but I got the same problem now. Tried to use ROM Manager to install CWM Recovery (following a blogpost explaining how to install a Custom ROM on the SG5). Might have accidentally clicked a different CWM Rec. version than I thought I did. However, ROM manager showed a message, telling me that CWMR was installed correctly.
So I wanted to boot into CWMR up to flash my device with the latest CyanogenMod 7 port from MADTeam. Used the "boot into recovery" option from ROM manager for that purpose. The next thing I know is my phone not reacting to anything.
Tried all methods mentioned afore (Vol- + Home + Power / Vol- + Center + Power, with/w.o. SD card and/or battery inserted). Screen keeps being off, no sign of life, phone wont even do anything when plugged to my PC or a charger.
The phone has been rooted properly before and was running Stock 2.1. Houston, we've got a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take your battery out, put it back in and turn your phone on, then it will boot up into recovery mode. I also have this problem from time to time, sometimes it boots into recovery, sometimes not and i have to remove/replace the battery.
I actually thought that this might be a useful feature for say - if you wanted to upgrade a friends phone to cyanogenmod in the pub, for example.
did try that. now even had the battery removed for about an hour. put it back in. still no reaction on pressing the power button or one of the combinations that should put it into recovery or download mode. no sign of life when plugging the phone to my computer or the charger.
I do fear the worst, though I dont know how ROM manager was actually able to brick the phone that badly.
Rigardi said:
did try that. now even had the battery removed for about an hour. put it back in. still no reaction on pressing the power button or one of the combinations that should put it into recovery or download mode. no sign of life when plugging the phone to my computer or the charger.
I do fear the worst, though I dont know how ROM manager was actually able to brick the phone that badly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In that case then this also happened to me - While exploring the rom manager application after first ever flashing my phone i accidentally selected the wrong phone model from the 'flash clockworkmod recovery' option and my phone was gone forever. Perhaps your problem is similar.
(Luckily it was under warranty and they replaced it. The method worked so well in fact it happened 'accidentally' a second time i acquired a 3rd i5500 out of the box )
bought mine already used, so no chance for a warranty replacement :/
gonna give it a shot with a usb jig now, maybe i can get the thing into d/l mode with that, so I can revive it with odin.
Rigardi said:
bought mine already used, so no chance for a warranty replacement :/
gonna give it a shot with a usb jig now, maybe i can get the thing into d/l mode with that, so I can revive it with odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what about the Emergency DLoad Mode, which is not the Download Mode? Did you try it?
{ brvsn ~ CM7 on GT-I5500 ~ Tapatalk }
how do I access emergency d/l mode?
UPDATE
I actually CAN get download mode (or what I assume it to be) running by pressing Vol- + Menu + Power (while Vol- + Home + Power wont do anything, nor does the USB jig that arrived today). Took me some time to discover this, as this doesnt seem to be the usual 3-button-combination used. BUT: while the phone is now recognized by my PC, it wont show anything on the screen.
Odin (tried 4.28 and 4.43 on both win7 x64 and x32 and everyting related to Kies shut down) does now detect my phone. However, it always gets stuck at "Setup Connection" when I try to flash the stock rom or CWMR. Tried different approaches (from starting DL-mode with the phone being connected to my PC to separately starting DL mode and then connecting, starting it up with the battery already being in place, starting it up with sliding the battery in place while holding the 3 buttons etc.), none of them gets me further so far.
Another hint I found was setting the Baud-rate of the Samsung mobile modem to 203400, but this, unfortunately, didnt change anything.
Anyone got a lead on how to get Odin finally started properly?
Rigardi said:
UPDATE
I actually CAN get download mode (or what I assume it to be) running by pressing Vol- + Menu + Power (while Vol- + Home + Power wont do anything, nor does the USB jig that arrived today). Took me some time to discover this, as this doesnt seem to be the usual 3-button-combination used. BUT: while the phone is now recognized by my PC, it wont show anything on the screen.
Odin (tried 4.28 and 4.43 on both win7 x64 and x32 and everyting related to Kies shut down) does now detect my phone. However, it always gets stuck at "Setup Connection" when I try to flash the stock rom or CWMR. Tried different approaches (from starting DL-mode with the phone being connected to my PC to separately starting DL mode and then connecting, starting it up with the battery already being in place, starting it up with sliding the battery in place while holding the 3 buttons etc.), none of them gets me further so far.
Another hint I found was setting the Baud-rate of the Samsung mobile modem to 203400, but this, unfortunately, didnt change anything.
Anyone got a lead on how to get Odin finally started properly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ops, sorry: I miss your previous message!!
Now I got it and read this last post.. let some time to think about it, I'll replay soon.. but, generally speaking, at this point there's not so much you can do..
If you can get it into Download or Recovery mode, then you should be fine.
Sent from my GT-I5500 using XDA App
Rigardi said:
UPDATE
I actually CAN get download mode (or what I assume it to be) running by pressing Vol- + Menu + Power (while Vol- + Home + Power wont do anything, nor does the USB jig that arrived today). Took me some time to discover this, as this doesnt seem to be the usual 3-button-combination used. BUT: while the phone is now recognized by my PC, it wont show anything on the screen.
Odin (tried 4.28 and 4.43 on both win7 x64 and x32 and everyting related to Kies shut down) does now detect my phone. However, it always gets stuck at "Setup Connection" when I try to flash the stock rom or CWMR. Tried different approaches (from starting DL-mode with the phone being connected to my PC to separately starting DL mode and then connecting, starting it up with the battery already being in place, starting it up with sliding the battery in place while holding the 3 buttons etc.), none of them gets me further so far.
Another hint I found was setting the Baud-rate of the Samsung mobile modem to 203400, but this, unfortunately, didnt change anything.
Anyone got a lead on how to get Odin finally started properly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
download mode is Vol - / Central Button / Power..
Im aware of that. However, Vol- + Menu + Power is the only key combination that the phone will react upon.
Anyway. Brought it to a mobile phone shop on friday, called them on monday and according to them, the phone should be fixed by tomorrow, wednesday. Seems like ROM manager has done damage that cant be undone without knowing how to handle a JTAG device. But at least its not completely broken. Learning that will cost me 25 Euros, though.
One final update to this: Got the phone back today, they were indeed able to fix it.
Conclusion:
While installing a non-fitting CWM-Recovery through ROM Manager will make your Galaxy 5 unfixable via Odin, it still can be saved by making proper use of a JTAG.
Rigardi said:
One final update to this: Got the phone back today, they were indeed able to fix it.
Conclusion:
While installing a non-fitting CWM-Recovery through ROM Manager will make your Galaxy 5 unfixable via Odin, it still can be saved by making proper use of a JTAG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... for only 25 €!!!
{ brvsn ~ CM7 on GT-I5500 ~ Tapatalk }

Help! Can't boot into download mode.

So I've finally decided to root my S3 and run CM9, as from what I hear it's very stable now. Only problem is, I seem to have fallen at the first hurdle!
I've been following the SGS3 full update guide on the cyanogenmod wiki.
I powered off the handset, booted into download mode, opened zadig.exe in the drivers folder of the heimdall suite, selected options>list all devices, selected "Gadget Serial", clicked "Replace Driver". A message popped up saying it was successful. The guide simply says to power off the device and reboot into download mode again. However, after this I could not power off the device. The power button wasn't working and I got no response from pressing any of the buttons on the device. Eventually I decided to open it up and remove the battery and then try to boot into download mode again.
Now, it doesn't boot into download mode at all. Every time I hold the volume down and home buttons, I then connect the micro USB and nothing happens at all - it just begins charging. The phone can boot normally and appears to be functional apart from this, but this is stopping me from being able to root. Anyone know what could be the problem?
Thanks!!
Just tried factory reset and still no dice.
Has anyone come up against this before?
And, just to be sure, you are holding down the power button when you press volume down & home on a powered off GS III, right? Since you say you're rooted, you can boot into download mode from the phone itself:
Grab https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm&hl=en
Run su reboot download
Yup, I was. Seems that after enabling USB debugging after factory reset, the problem has resolved itself. Thanks for your help anyway

Jiayu G4 (God I hate to title it like this, but yes) stuck in bootloop

How the problem occurred
So a year or two ago I bought a Jiayu G4A/T/Whatever they're calling it and safely got it here. I've used the stock ROM for a bit but I wanted to get rid of the bloatware that was still on it, so I eventually ended up with a properly rooted phone with a ROM from Jiayu.es (Everything worked, have ClockworkMod as recovery, accessible via Mobileuncle Tools), which was essentially a stock Kitkat rom made to work for the phone. Now I got sick of the ROM and recently saw the new EMUI version on Huawei's P8 Lite, so I figured I'd look around for a tailored ROM running that, and ended up at "jiayu-emui-3-0-stable" from Needrom.
What I did
1. I downloaded a ROM from Needrom with identifier "jiayu-emui-3-0-stable" (I can't post external links)
2. Backed up my important files following a guide from androidcentral titled "[Guide] How to Backup and Restore Apps and Data when installing new ROMs" that I can't link,and did a full backup using CWM
3. Placed the ZIP on my internal SD card, went into recovery, wiped data/cache (not dalvik, since it wasn't described in the instructions, I think this might be a probable cause) and installed the new ROM from ZIP
4. Rebooted the phone and now it's stuck in the boot loop I mentioned.
What the problem is
Bootloops aren't that much of a problem usually, except this one is... I can't get into recovery mode. From there on it'd be cake, since I made the right preparations, but I can't get into it. While connected to my PC it keeps powering on, showing a splash screen from Jiayu.es briefly (which shouldn't be present anymore) and powering off after 10 seconds, only to come back to the splash screen.
What I've tried
I've unplugged it, removed the battery, waited to get a full power cycle and tried to hold my buttons in these combinations: [power button + volume up], [power button + volume down] - but neither work. It just keeps going with the boot loop. I can succesfully power it down, and when I plug it in from there it shows the low battery image. At the moment of seeing that I thought I could connect to it using ADB / Fastboot, but no luck there either. It keeps saying no devices found, and with fastboot it keeps on <waiting for device>.
My questions
What exactly can I do if there is no way for me to get into recovery mode? Are there any alternatives? How can I get my device to be recognized by ADB? Is that even possible? Why is this bootloop any different from others?
Update from the massive Q&A thread:
ZipAddict said:
Is it booting up on its own too after being off? This happened to wifes phone and it turned out the power button was stuck. I took a pencil and hit the power button with the eraser a few times and it worked then. Her case mustve dislogded it. I will keep my fingers crossed for u. If not send me a private message and i will look for an answer tomorrow and get back with u
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply!
Yes, it does. I took the battery out and let it lay disassembled for a night, after which I cleaned it a little and re-inserted the battery. With the case back on, nothing happened, so the power button wasn't stuck for sure. When I powered it back on with the power button (no USB attached) it showed the emblem for ~8 seconds and powered off. It then buzzes to show it's powered on again and up comes the splash screen again. Could it be that the ROM was just a rebooting falsehood? Why would it disallow me getting into recovery mode? I really hope there is something that can still force the device into recovery mode / interact with it somehow while in this state.
Oh, I also tried to see if the volume down button was broken but all the contacts seem intact, plus, they worked an hour before I started switching roms.

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