[Q] Last update= dead Tablet - Galaxy Tab 10.1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Took an over teh air update while on a road trip this weekend and upon reboot, the screen is showing nothing but semi-random dithered pixels. Looks like the display is pointing at the wrong RAM or something.
Tried a hard reset. Nothing.
I would assume this was just a coincidental hardware failure and nothing to do with the update if I wasn't seeing other reports out there of exactly the same symptoms.
Spent 3 hours on live chat with Samsung (kept getting cut off and having to start all over again). They want me to send it back in - 4-5 days UPS ground there, 3-4 business days to fix, 4-5 days UPS ground back. So my one month old $500 product will be gone for 2 weeks getting fixed from the company's own SW update. (fun note - they do not appear to have actually updated any of their internal tools to support this device - I kept getting asked for a serial number then told what I provided was not correct -- even though it was the one printed on the box and the device).
Decided to see if maybe KIES could help (unlikely) and it can connect to the device and recognizes that it needs an update, but when I try to do the update, as soon as it goes to download the files, the device disconnects. Then when it reconnects, it does the same thing all over again - re-downloading the same files, losing connection, re-acquiring it, loop. loop. loop...
So basically, Samsung, epic FAIL. You really think this is how you go toe to toe with Apple?
Anyone have any advice on whether it might be possible to force the factory firmware back into this thing to see if it is indeed jsut teh firmware being horked instead of the video circuitry?

Do you have CWM recovery?

Most definately you can bring this back by flashing another kernel or ROM via Odin. If you already flashed CWM Recovery before, it's just a matter of clearing cache & dalvik cache. If not, flashing another ROM only takes 10-15 minutes if you are used to it. Or about an hour to read up and do your first flash (read the first post in the Android Development subforum. Come back here if it's not clear. Just make sure you pick the right kernel & ROM).
Mine did the same once with a previous update. It would start up eventually though (after several minutes). As mentioned in the previous post, if you can get into Recovery (hold Volume-Down and Power toghether until 2 icons appear), a wipe of the Cache and/or a factory reset will probably bring it back to life.
Samsung & software, it remains a troublesome combination .....
PS. If you have got it up and running, disable checking for new updates. Once an update has been downloaded, the Tab keeps bugging you with popups to install it, even though you tell it never to. 2 days ago, the update question popped right up on the spot i was to tab a link on a website, firing off the update instead. It immediately wrecked my Tab. Luckily i had CWM Recovery flashed earlier, so a clear cache & clear Dalvik cache solved it.

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A

Related

[Q] New GTab loved it for an hour then it crashed!!! HELP

I just received my new Gtab and wanted to test it before making any changes. After charging, I booted it and the first thing I noticed was that it did not enter setup as it was supposed to. I went through the steps in the manual and set up my network, etc. No problems. I checked for updates and got the message that it was up to date. I thought this odd since Viewsonic says there's an update that you should download immediately. I tried all the installed apps and then tried the update again. This time I got the message that an update was available so I downloaded it and then installed it. When this completed, the screen started to flash and I could get nowhere else. I rebooted and I get the startup screen and then the flashing. I can't get pass this because I can't use the touchscreen - it's blank and flashes every 10 seconds or so. Any suggestions????
When you use the Gtab for the first time, you will not get a setup screen like mentioned. I think this is because they tested at the factory and did the setup for you. If you revert back to stock rom and boot for the first time, the setup portion comes up and you have to make a few selections before you enter the rom for the first time.
I can't really comment on your situation with the update install since I am on vegan ginger rc1 and do not get the OTA updates. But when I first got my GTAB a few weeks ago, I did an OTA update to 3588 I believe, and it worked fine. Some of these updates take a while to configure before the first boot into the updated rom. Without seeing your problem I don't really have an answer for you but maybe you should power on and give the tablet some time to configure.
Same story
I assume you finally got your from woot, as I did. I had the same thing happen. I got the tablet back by booting into recovery, Volume up plus power, hold them, both until it turns on. Follow the directions to move the cursor and wipe cache, then factory reset, then apply update.zip. That should get you back in business.
Good luck.
Tom
Purchased from Tiger Direct. I tried booting into Recovery but I get the first message in the top left of screen and then screen goes blank except for the occasional flash!
I suggest you go under development sections and find the section on how to use nvFlash. Once you have it setup use nvFlash to restore back to stock.
nvFlash is a very powerful utility that has been made very easy to setup and use because of the devs here. It will come in handy when you start putting custom roms on your tablet(which I strongly recommend), and will help you recover from any kind of soft-brick.
Was it a brand new gtab or a returned used one?
Also you probally picked the wrong day for this because of the new update. Did you happen to notice the version before you updated?
If I was in your situation I would do an nvflash back to stock and start over.
Thanks for the suggestion. It is new and I managed to restore it back to stock and started over. Everything is running fine now but I know I'll need help from here as I mod on!

after data wipe, phone boots to black screen, rooted but no CWM recovery - confused

I've spent a couple days searching, but there doesn't appear to be a relevant enough thread to help me here, so I've resorted to asking for help, hopefully you guys can help me figure this out.
I got my girlfriend a used Telus SGH-T959D (same thing as the T-mobile version pretty well) several months back. It was on stock 2.1 and worked fine but was very laggy compared to my rooted HTC Desire on oxygen 2.3.2. So I rooted it and installed a 2.2 rom with Voodoo sound control (but no lagfix), and she's been using it this way for months now. It was better than stock but still laggy. I can't remember what rom it was but it was based on Samsuck firmware, hence why it's still laggy I guess.
For some reason, when I originally rooted it I had trouble with CWM recovery not installing, I can't even remember now what exactly was happening, but I managed to get the rom installed without a proper custom recovery, so when I go into recovery it's just the stock Samsung recovery, with no options for nandroid backup, restore, flash zip from sd card, etc. Basically I can't do anything useful in recovery.
Anyways lately, worse and worse she has been getting the Android text message to wrong recipient bug. If you aren't aware of it, it causes messages you sent to go to a different person in your text message message list. No it is not user error.
So I decided to try and data wipe. After this there is basically no launcher when it boots up. The notification pulldown is there and working, and it shows the phone has a signal and wifi is turning on and working, capacitive buttons light up when you press them, but you can't do anything except grab the pulldown.
It won't connect to USB when booted up, phone shows a message that you must close running processes first, or something like that. But I cannot flash a rom from recovery anyways, since it only brings up a stock recovery.
I can get it into download mode, if I hold my tongue just right and try several times, but not sure what to try to flash with Odin. I already downloaded an ICS Passion rom, but then reading the tutorial saw that I must first download CM7 and install that, then upgrade the bootloaders to the GB ones, then flash the ICS rom. I would really like to at least upgrade to 2.3 and something not based on Samsung fw, but the main priority is to get it working again.
Anyways, whatever you guys can suggest to try would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Honestly bro, everything I'm seeing in Google makes it seem like that phone is more on par with the Galaxy S Fascinate than with our Vibrant. Although on the exterior they all look so similar... I dunno, maybe check out their forums and see if you get anymore help there?
Here's the link:http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=718
Goodluck!
The title of this thread looks similar to my problem with my Samsung Vibrant. So I would ask it here, too.
I'm not sure if I bricked my vibrant, it's still power up, only to to first screen, which has the words Vibrant (and) Samsung and stay there forever.
I first rooted my Vibrant successfully.
Then, I've followed the instructions below:
1. Download the latest version of the ROM from the original development page.
2. Transfer the downloaded zip file to the root of the internal SD card on your phone.
3. Turn off your phone and wait for complete shutdown (wait for capacitive button lights to go off).
4. Then, boot into Clockworkmod (CWM) recovery. To do so, press and hold these 3 buttons together: Volume Up, Volume Down, & the Power button till the screen turns on, then let go of the buttons. In recovery, use Volume keys to scroll up and down and power key to select an option.
5. Perform a full Wipe (this will not wipe your SD cards)
a. Wipe data / factory reset –> then Select Yes - Wipe data/Factory reset on the next screen.
b. Select “mounts and storage“, then select “format system” -> select “Yes” on next screen to confirm. Then, select “go back” to go back to the main recovery menu.
6. Now scroll to “Install zip from sdcard” and select it.
7. Select “Choose zip from sdcard”. Scroll to the file you transferred in Step 2 and select it.
8. Now confirm installation by selecting “Yes — Install **your_rom_file_name**.zip – The ROM will start installing.
9. The phone will reboot to recovery in the middle of the installation, then continue installing the ROM.
When I got to step 7, instead of running the zip file downloaded on step 1. I run the update.zip (something like that). And I couldn't get back to the CWM recovery screen anymore. Only I can boot it to the regular recovery screen, where it let you:
reboot the system
reinstall packages
delete all user data
delete cache data.
Or boot up to the screen described at the beginning of this post.
So what should/can do to fix this problem?
I think my phone is t959 (it's t-mobile Samsung Vibrant)
Thanks for the reply. As far as I thought the only similarity between this and the at t fascinate was the name fascinate. There's is the i5000 and mine is the t959d? Should this post be moved over there? I found a thread there with someone having partly. the same issue as mine not being able to install cwm but its been there for days and likely will not be replied to.
I've spent a lot of time trying to fix messed-up installs. Seems to me that if for any reason you can't rrflash the rom, or reflashing and wiping doesn't work, just Odin-ing back to JFD and going from there is the best bet.
Well I was about to go ahead and download stock JFD and try flashing that but it appears that Mega upload has been shutdown by the FBI for fraudulent activity, and Rapid share is not working either. Maybe they're too busy because of the mega Upload shutdown or they were owned by the same people and have also been shut down. So now I'm not sure where to even find files that are safe to flash.
I just spent another hour on here and Android forums, and basically all the the threads are one or two posts, with no resolution to the OP, and none of the downloads links anywhere are working. I'm pretty patient but I'm ready to give up. Does anyone want to trade a soft bricked T959D in mint condition for any old beatup HTC that works? I've had my fill of Samsung's now.
No trade sorry but if you want to donate shoot me a pm.
Before you dump it, give me some time to look into this and I'll see if I can get you up and running with some files. Sammys are way user friendly unless you aren't doing something right, then you could always go back to stock.
Hold the phone. Haha. I'll get back to you.
You too ciditin
Thanks Woodrube, I will definitely wait patiently as long as I know I'm going to be able to sort it out eventually. I'm busy with schoolwork so even though I enjoy this kind of thing I hate spending hours upon hours on it just trying to get the phone operational again.
I've been spoiled by my htc desire, it's been almost foolproof to do anything after spending a short time reading a few FAQ's and there have been no close calls. Soon I'll probably try an ICS rom once they get a bit more stable.
I will definitely do a donate if you can help me get it going with a decent rom. I would love to have lag fix on it since my girlfriend is a bit annoyed at the lag.
Since I got my first Android phone in August 2010, I've rooted and rom'd an LG Shine Plus, LG Optimus One, HTC Desire, the T959D and Galaxy S2 T989D (sold after I got it on an early renewal). I also had to fix my sisters I9000M after a failed 2.3 update operation. So I'm no expert on this, but I've got a little bit of experience messing around with stuff. Just they all require different processes, different programs to do the job, so you have to relearn it for every new phone.
The Samsung's have been the biggest pain compared to the others, but I think it's mostly because the Canadian versions are always slightly different than the Tmobile version, but besides that Samsung always has several different versions of the same.
If I get this thing up and running again I will probably check out your GPS fix thread, cause the GPS on this phone would lock on but it was way out to lunch. Like 6 streets away from us out to lunch.
I found the way to fix my problem, hopefully it'll fix yours.
I was able to restore my stock.
Here is what you have to do.
WARNING!!! THIS WILL WIPE ANY DATA ON YOUR DEVICE, IT WILL REPLACE YOUR BASEBAND, KERNEL, RECOVERY AND OS.
DOWNLOADS:
ODIN application
512 PIT file - I can't post link so pm me
T-Mobile Vibrant JFD Image – I can't post link so pm me
USB Drivers from the Samsung Galaxy S – 32 Bit Windows Download \ 64 Bit Windows Download (again I can't post link, yet)
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Turn off your phone (remove battery, and usb cable to pc).
2. Plug usb cable to your phone (this is just for easy to connect to the PC in the next step), do NOT connect it to your pc just yet.
3. Get your phone into DOWNLOAD mode by holding the Volume Up, Volume down, and plug your usb cable to your PC. A yellow digging Android sign should be on the screen of your phone. This may take a few tries to get it right.
3. Launch ODIN.The third box dow from the top-left box should then say a COM port (the box under the top-left box should be yellow).
4. In ODIN, load each file with its corresponding field:
___a. Click PIT and select *.pit file extracting from the 512 PIT file above.
___b. Click PDA and select the *.tar, stock JFD file.
5. Don’t check anything else, the other two boxes should be checked by default (Auto Reboot and Reset Time)
6. Hit “start.” Be patient for a couple minutes! (The bar under the top left box should show the progress, and on you phone, too)
7. You should have your Vibrant back in with stock configuration.
Good luck!
NOTE: COM3 worked fine for me. COM should not matter as long as you are using the correct drivers.
350Rocket said:
I will definitely do a donate if you can help me get it going with a decent rom. I would love to have lag fix on it since my girlfriend is a bit annoyed at the lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. I wasn't soliciting for a monetary donation, I was just going off that you wanted to trade. I can't trade but if you ever want to donate your phone then just PM me.
I have to agree with kawika that everything I have read has been that your model number is for the Fascinate. Easy tip off would be; does your phone have a sim card? It is probably a CDMA phone with no sim slot. I suggest getting the files you need from the Fascinate forums as I am almost positive that the T959 files will not work on the T959d. Since you have modded a I-9000m you know that they are slightly different than the I-9000. Same thing goes with this circumstance.
Good luck and sorry that there wasn't more I could do but it is just a different phone.
@Citidin - Good to see you got yours solved. If you have questions, please ask (in the correct thread for your question a this one will probably be closed out).
It definitely has a sim card and it's HSPA, I pulled the Sim card out and put it in my HTC Desire for her to use, and put my SIM card in this crappy little LG Optimus One that's too small for me to type on. So I guarantee it has a sim card and is nothing like the Verizon phones which will not work on any of the Canadian carriers AFAIK. I think nobody understands what the phone is, and that's why almost every thread with a problem like this ends in 0 replies. I think from now on I will stay away from Samsung's abortion phones that they sell in Canada. Or at least I will research community support before getting one.
Ours is called the Fascinate, but its completely different model # than theirs, it is the T959D. Just like how the new Telus galaxy S2x is the T989D, same phone as the T mobile T989_.
For some reason there seems to be a few posts in the Fascinate section, for Telus only, I think that only started because of confusion about what the phone was, but the phone has nothing in common with the Verizon CDMA version. Actually I think if you look up, just about every phone that Telus or Bell (same network basically) gets, is a phone that T mobile got first. HTC Amaze being another one. HTC Desire Z is the same as the Tmobile G2.
Sorry I misunderstood you about donating the phone itself. My last effort will be the JFD file that Citidin sent me a link to. Hopefully that gets it going. If not I will stash it away until I have extra time to try again.
Well once I got the JFD file downloaded and put phone in download mode, turned on Odin, realized the PC recognizes the device attached and being malfunctioned, so I cannot flash with Odin.
I tried Heimdall which I downloaded yesterday, but the program won't load as it says I'm missing a DLL file.
I tried Android flasher which I downloaded who knows when, and tried to just install a recovery image with it, but it gets stuck while pushing recovery image and the program locks up.
I decided to try my girlfriends Laptop instead of mine after maybe 40 failed attempts to get Odin to communicate on mine, and to my surprise it recognized it right away. I transferred my files, with the JFD to this computer and then flashed with Odin. It took about 2 minutes and it was up and running. I checked about phone and it said 2.3.3 firmware. Really confused I looked back at odin and realized I flashed the I9000M stock 2.3.3 firmware (KG3) that I flashed on my sisters phone back around xmas. I forgot I did that on this laptop.
Anyways it is working as it should except for the home button not working (which I had already read about in a thread about using I9000M or Vibrant roms on the T959D).
While it is unfortunately stock again, the 2.3.3 should fix the original problem of sending to texts to the wrong recipient, and it also seems a lot less laggy. I think I'll just let her try it as is and hope she is happy.
If you use the JFD file from the link I sent you, it should be the stock Tmobile Vibrant.
Similar problem
Sorry dont mean to hijack your thread but I think I am having a similar problem - posted in the wrong spot before so hopefully I am ok here...
Have a Vibrant and some how got crossed up on it.
I have been able to use Odin to update the phone, however after it says its done, it does a reboot as it supposed to, shows the samsung screen then just shuts down.
After about a hundred tries, someone pointed me to Eugene's no brick. I tried that and it will fix it so it will boot and go into recovery, but I can't seem to do much once I get there. My only options are to update, wide data and wipe cache. Can't get to the point where I can load an update onto the unit.
I tried wide data and reset, then reboot. It shows the samsung vibrant logo, then the splash screen, then the big S and then screen goes black and the cap buttons stay lit.
If I try to go back and load the stock pit and jfd file, it just goes back to not booting at all and shutting down after the logo
I cant seem to get it into recovery unless I do Eugene's fix
In one of my earlier attempts, I did check to repartition as direct in one of the other threads - been chasing this a while now!
Edit: It was originally a bell phone - does this matter?
If it was a Bell phone than it should be the I9000M. It sounds like your problem is a bit different than mine was. I was able to get into recovery mode and download mode just fine. I just didn't know which files to flash with.
I intended to flash the JFD that citidin sent me, but I accidentally use the KJ3 (latest I9000M 2.3.3 firmware). The I9000 and Vibrant roms are compatible with the T959D Telus Fascinate though, only problem being no home or search button.
It sounds like the Eugene thing (whatever that is, I'm not familiar) gets you into stock recovery. Like my original issue, you cannot flash or mount the sd card, or much of anything with the stock recovery.
Do you know that the file your flashing is compatible with your phone (the I9000M I assume)? More info that would probably help, is what firmware did you have on it before, was it JFD? What update did you try on it? Bootloader version - there are gingerbread bootloaders, and froyo bootloaders I think?
Have you tried different files other than the one that doesn't seem to boot up for you? I think most of the tutorials I've looked at, said not to check repartition. When i finally got this T959D working with the I9000 rom I did not check repartition and did not select a pit file, just the PDA, phone, CSC.
Yes it is a I9000M - I was trying to load the JFD tar file along with the 512 pit file. I followed a thread in the I9000 section and loaded a JPD tar file onto it, now it shows up as a I9000B - maybe I should stop
I can now get into recovery and or download (i think the steps are differant than hold both volume buttons - mine is holding the volume one way for recovery and the other way for download, along with home and power)
Wondering if I am in this bind because it isnt really what most are calling a Vibrant - maybe under Bell it is something else.
Bootloader? didn't know I had to do anything there
I just picked up the phone used from someone - I assumed it was stock and didn't do a good check to see what was on it.
I9000m is not the Vibrate but rather the Bell version of the Captivate. There is a dev section for the I9000m in the I9000 group.
I would definately stop what you are doing and read over there.
******
Also 350 you can re-map your keys to work but I am mobile now and cant search it for you. Reason being that the. Vibrant keys are laid out differently in, ahh can't think right niece where they are, but it is fixable. Just search key remap or remapping.
Thanks very much for the help - have to wonder why they cant call them the same names regardless of where they are sold - guess thats why they get the big bucks

[Q] Help with boot loop issue

ok, here comes the story.
i know you guys hate when we open new forums, but this here is a topic that i have been dealing with since about 2 weeks ago.
also, i wanted to thank you all for your help,ever since than...
the problem started as i said, few weeks ago. i have an s2, i tried to install a rom, and an error occued. the problem was know that i needed to factory reset and wipe the data from the phone in order to boot the phone. this was not possible due to an internal error (i got sucked), later on, i also discover that the problem i faced was due to the partions inside my phone.so, i tried to fix the partions, but i was unable,until i found a thread here dealing with the same problem on Note 2. so after a lot of work, i was able to repartion my internal memory (lost 6 GB) to fix partions 9, and 10. once that was done i was able to wipe data and factory reset.the problem was now that i was unable to install any rom using odin except CM10 which stucked also at the end of the process. but luckily for me i was able to get into the recovery of CM10 and i installed from the restriction remix rom. after wiping and factory reset, i was finally able to boot successively into the home-screen.
now, my phone seams to have swamped the internal and external memories. in the build in device manager of rr-rom, i only see my memory card labeled as internal. but this is not the big deal. the real problem is that this phone constantly keeps on restarting itself from time to time. so, it shut down from alone, tries to boot up, gets stucked at the logo, reboots itself several time in the same way, until in finally boots successively,
any help??
ah, i just wanted to add a funny fact, which is that on the day i fixed my phone,i accidently dropped it in the toilet (it fall from my pocket, no bad ideas please, it was fully at random from alone). i manged to save it also at that day. so, i some got a feeling that this phone just don't want to get repaired
Reinstall stock rom and start from scratch.
Sent from my GT-I9100
Well I have seen some ridiculous generic topic titles in my time (like "Help" and "Help please" etc) but this topic with its complete lack of a title just takes the crown as the most idiotic.

SII key/in-call audio problem after JB update

Hi friends, i am asking for help regarding my gt-i9100 unit.
This phone was given to me as a gift, and so i happily accepted it. i noticed that it ran
on gingerbread (not sure what version though). after a while i checked for update via wi-fi
and i got a message that a new update is available. so i happily downloaded it.
this is where the problems started.
after downloading the update i got stuck on the loading screen for the update (the white screen with the loading bar in the middle)
but it never progressed after a day (yes i waited that long). after googling about it i found a workaround via the recovery mode. i wiped the cache and did a factory reset.
after that the phone worked fine again.
then i got the message to update again, same thing happened. i tried googleing again and found out about odin and flashing roms.
i'm not an expert so please do comment on what i did.
-turned on the USB debuggin thing.
-downloaded odin.
-downloaded firmware (philippine version as i am fron the philippines) from sammobile.
-powered down the phone, entered recovery mode
-flashed the rom with odin-it said PASS and failed=0 so i think i did nothing wrong.
-after that voila i now have jellybean 4.2.1.
i thought it was fine, until i noticed one thing, the keys (the 3 buttons-home, back, menu) all lit up fine, but didn.t work.
well actually the home button worked, but it now appears to be a back button.
and when my girlfriend called me, i can't hear a thing, although music plays fine.
my girlfriend also told me that she cannot hear me, so i think there' s something wrong there.
i believe this is a software issue, but i'm not an expert.
i want to take it to the samsung center but it is still closed until the end of the holiday center.
also i'm trying my best to keep me from spending cash on this phone (taking it to the service center is my last option).
i have followed similar steps on different threads but to no avail. maybe i'm just doing something wrong.
i need your expert opinions.
any help will be appreciated. thanks guys in advance!

Fairly new phone getting stuck on Odin after failed Samsung Update

IDK if this is the correct area for this, but Imma try here anyways. My friend upgraded his old S8 to the S21 5G about 2-3 months ago and has been having problems since a Samsung firmware update said his device had an error that needed to be repaired and had pronmpted min to check for an update, which it apparently found, and he had attempted to download and install it while he slept. Well, he woke up to find that his phone was now on the Odin screen for some reason. He took it to a T-Mobile tech center and they were able to get past the Odin screen by doing a Soft-Reset (Power+Vol Down, then Power=Vol Up after the device shut off) and it had worked for about a month. Queue the current issue... He's right back where he started, supposed device error, update found, attempted download and install while he slept, and waking up to the Odin screen. Only this time, doing a Soft-Reset does nothing. We've tried multiple tech centers and they all say the only solution is a full firmware reinstall, or to send the device in to be serviced, either way, that's the cause of the next issue. He has never used a Cloud service of any kind to back up anything on his device, and in doing a reset or service, he'll lose everything on his device, which includes numbers of recent friends and co-workers, photos that had been transfered from his old S8 to the internal storage since the S21 doesnt have Sd/Tf support, and a ton of other important infot hat he can't just lose in the process. Is there anyway to figure out how to potentially install a firmware w/o losing all the internal storage or some off-device program that could remove them. I have tried many different programs that say they can do what we're trying to do, but none have worked or have been up-to-date enough to even support the S21. I'll attach a couple files to show what I recorded of the kernel and the boot screen issue from my phone of his phone.

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