Hello
I am totally new to android, i just bought my s3 couple of days ago.
There are still some questions where i cant find the answers.
I just rooted my phone, odin, cwm, super SU no problem, i did a nandroid backup just in case. Backed up some apps with titanium backup.
I thought about backing up my efs. But i cant find the option in cwm.
Now i read something about bricking. And apparently there are soft and hardbricks. So softbricks are the bricks, which wouldnt let you start android but let you access the recovery mode right ?? And hard bricks are the bricks where the phone doesnt respond to anything.
I want to know what causes which brick. Is it true that the s3 has a separate partition only for the download mode, which makes it really hard to hardbrick since you cant mess with this partition? And why do some people still encounter hardbricks, when for example the flash custom roms ?
Shadowspsp said:
Hello
I am totally new to android, i just bought my s3 couple of days ago.
There are still some questions where i cant find the answers.
I just rooted my phone, odin, cwm, super SU no problem, i did a nandroid backup just in case. Backed up some apps with titanium backup.
I thought about backing up my efs.
But i cant find the option in cwm.
>>>>
Nitrality app on the market many custom roms do an auto backup of EFS .
Now i read something about bricking. And apparently there are soft and hardbricks. So softbricks are the bricks, which wouldnt let you start android but let you access the recovery mode right ?? And hard bricks are the bricks where the phone doesnt respond to anything.
I want to know what causes which brick. Is it true that the s3 has a separate partition only for the download mode, which makes it really hard to hardbrick since you cant mess with this partition? And why do some people still encounter hardbricks, when for example the flash custom roms ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Softbrick generally firmware or files conflict but more usual is not following the instructions . Mostly recoverable by recovery mode or download mode .
Hardbrick no recovery and no download mode often a NAND problem
Cause is mostly users totally ignoring the instructions and flashing the wrong firmware for the phone or messing with PIT files .
Custom rom it should be almost impossible to hard brick a phone by flashing one
However it becomes more common as more and more users want an instant fix and refuse to read the instructions and its beyond them to read the custom rom thread for known faults fixes etc .
jje
Shadowspsp said:
Hello
I am totally new to android, i just bought my s3 couple of days ago.
There are still some questions where i cant find the answers.
I just rooted my phone, odin, cwm, super SU no problem, i did a nandroid backup just in case. Backed up some apps with titanium backup.
I thought about backing up my efs. But i cant find the option in cwm.
Now i read something about bricking. And apparently there are soft and hardbricks. So softbricks are the bricks, which wouldnt let you start android but let you access the recovery mode right ?? And hard bricks are the bricks where the phone doesnt respond to anything.
I want to know what causes which brick. Is it true that the s3 has a separate partition only for the download mode, which makes it really hard to hardbrick since you cant mess with this partition? And why do some people still encounter hardbricks, when for example the flash custom roms ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mess around with my android phones a lot but never had a soft or hard brick. My old nexus one had a soft brick after repartitioning the internal memory. The only hard brick I heard of with the S3 was someone who flashed a wrong firmware on his us/canadian version of the S3 (flashed rom which was intended for the international version). Others than that you need to really try hard to hard-brick your phone I guess
Shadowspsp said:
Hello
I am totally new to android, i just bought my s3 couple of days ago.
There are still some questions where i cant find the answers.
I just rooted my phone, odin, cwm, super SU no problem, i did a nandroid backup just in case. Backed up some apps with titanium backup.
I thought about backing up my efs. But i cant find the option in cwm.
Now i read something about bricking. And apparently there are soft and hardbricks. So softbricks are the bricks, which wouldnt let you start android but let you access the recovery mode right ?? And hard bricks are the bricks where the phone doesnt respond to anything.
I want to know what causes which brick. Is it true that the s3 has a separate partition only for the download mode, which makes it really hard to hardbrick since you cant mess with this partition? And why do some people still encounter hardbricks, when for example the flash custom roms ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install Rom Toolbox from Google Play to backup you EFS folder, it will make 2 files (1 .img and 1 .tar file). Store both files on to your pc for safekeeping.
JJEgan said:
Softbrick generally firmware or files conflict but more usual is not following the instructions . Mostly recoverable by recovery mode or download mode .
Hardbrick no recovery and no download mode often a NAND problem
Cause is mostly users totally ignoring the instructions and flashing the wrong firmware for the phone or messing with PIT files .
Custom rom it should be almost impossible to hard brick a phone by flashing one
However it becomes more common as more and more users want an instant fix and refuse to read the instructions and its beyond them to read the custom rom thread for known faults fixes etc .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks !
There is one thing i still dont really get, you said some users flash a wrong rom for their phone can cause a hardbrick.
This root method simply installs ClockworkMod Recovery to the recovery partition and installs Superuser zip file, very safe to do. *With Galaxy S2, recovery partition was part of the kernel and was a bit dangerous but with Galaxy S3, Samsung has made recovery parition separate from the kernel, making it much safer just like how Galaxy Nexus works
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So why does flashing a wrong rom cause a hardbrick, does installing a custom rom changes files in this separate partition? If the recovery partition is untouched, doesnt it mean you can always access recovery mode even if you flashed some junk onto your phone?
Shadowspsp said:
Thanks !
There is one thing i still dont really get, you said some users flash a wrong rom for their phone can cause a hardbrick.
So why does flashing a wrong rom cause a hardbrick, does installing a custom rom changes files in this separate partition? If the recovery partition is untouched, doesnt it mean you can always access recovery mode even if you flashed some junk onto your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, if people flash the wrong PIT file it messes up the partitions on the phone and they are no longer accessible. That is called a hard brick. Can only be fixed in a service center. In post 4 is info about backup of the EFS folder.
Shadowspsp said:
Thanks !
There is one thing i still dont really get, you said some users flash a wrong rom for their phone can cause a hardbrick.
So why does flashing a wrong rom cause a hardbrick, does installing a custom rom changes files in this separate partition? If the recovery partition is untouched, doesnt it mean you can always access recovery mode even if you flashed some junk onto your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong rom its usually flashing non SGS3 firmware or flashing SGS3 firmware on USA version.
Taking firmware from another forum and flashing it in error .
As said very very hard to hard brick this phone .
jje
Shadowspsp said:
I want to know what causes which brick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only real type of brick is hardbrick. the expression soft brick was invented for situations where you cannot access recovery but are able to restore access to recovery with download mode, or some sort of trick.
If something goes wrong, you can end up with either type of brick. There is no way to predict what will happen if you give the phone a reason to brick, really. In general the main causes for bricking are:
1) Flashing stuff that is not right for your exact phone model
A mistake that has been made by a number of USA SGS3 users, who wanted a ROM made for the international model. Unfortunately the result was usually; Bricked, as in hard brick. To prevent this is is smart to familiarize yourself with the manufacturer version number (in our case GT-i9300 or GT-i9300T) with all phones you ever want to flash anything on, and check if the code corresponds.
It's the same **** in every model range. Flash something for another version and you're in trouble.
2) Corrupted downloads
Sometimes http file transfer doesn't get the files you want to flash across error-free. Usually, this will only give weird errors, for instance a bootloop. Sometimes you may end up with softbrick. If you have a really bad day; Brick. To prevent this it is very important to look for the MD5 checksum of each file, and check if the file is still exactly the same at your end. There is a free app in the market that allows you to do this while booted in android, so you can easily check it right after any download is finished.
3) Powerloss while flashing
Again, usually you can revert to working order with download mode. Still it is very risky. To minimise the chance for this to happen, make sure you only start flashing with your battery at least about half full, and have the battery installed complete with cover, etc. Some people use 30% as the limit. It depends a bit on the size of the ROM you want to backup and/or flash. Backing up and flashing one of those nice 700MB samsung roms might eat into your battery quite a bit.
There may be more reasons but these are afaik the 3 main ones. All easily preventable.
Flashing ROMs for years and found it safe to do so.
Until last week...
there is another hardbrick which I actually experienced on my second device, a Galaxy S2:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1756242
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/hard-brick-bug-on-galaxy-s-ii-and-note-leaked-ics-kernels/
Unsafe kernels/libraries on newer ICS-Roms are obviously able to destroy the system partitions, including the bootmanager, so a hardwarechange is necessary to revive the phone.
Until now, no information available, if our S3 is immune against this one. Several other devices are affected!
Related
I've had my GS2 for a little while now and before i starting flashing roms and kernels i'd like to know what are the most common ways of soft and hard bricking the phone.
Being a noob i figure if i find out how its done i can make sure i dont make the same mistakes.
Thanks
Goooober said:
I've had my GS2 for a little while now and before i starting flashing roms and kernels i'd like to know what are the most common ways of soft and hard bricking the phone.
Being a noob i figure if i find out how its done i can make sure i dont make the same mistakes.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simple its users not following the instructions usually they cannot be bothered to read and flash with ignorance rather than knowledge . Those who take time to read and understand do not have problems .
SGS2 brick is usually 99% recoverable .
jje
Yep,JJe is totally 100% right.I had never bought a Samsung device before(quite different to root and manage that HTCs after all),but after 2 days of heavy reading,I was already rooted and stuff.That's all you need.There was only one time that my phone seemed unrecoverable,but even then,it just needed flashing a stock rom with a factory reset.
Anyway,most common bricks,eh?Well,a damaged /efs partition will render your phone unusable as,well,a phone.That's why a backup is always recommended/required.Other stuff that'll brick your phone...Well,sometimes,if Kies is running in the background,it will block Odin and the latter will stop flashing and,if it happens in the right(or wrong) moment,your phone will get ****ed up,especially when flashing a bootloader.Also,flashing a .PIT file and repartitioning without knowing you need to do so will probably damage your phone badly.
If you manage to brick it,just make sure the damage is so bad that Samsung won't be able to detect root etc.
the most common would be, flashing something you shouldn't
could be a wrong rom, kernel, having no bootloaders
but if you read carefully the instructions you and your phone will survive
"being an idiot"
Soft bricking: bad rom or kernel flash, boot loops due to framework problems.
Hard bricks: flashing a bad pit, or rom from a different phone eg i9000.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Not reading is THE way to brick your phone.
want to jump to the solution without taking the steps
Don't jump while flashing as that can brick it!! Always take the steps slowly it's safer! http://media.xda-developers.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
Hello everybody,
I use the Cyanogenmod Nightlys on my SGS3. Because I wanted to do a reset, I formatted Cache, System, data, and preload. I deleted all the files from the Internal SD. I thought I could restart my phone and have my Cyanogenmod. But nothing work.
I hope you can help me...
Put your phone in downlaod mode and reflash a Stock rom with odin.
the2rrell said:
Put your phone in downlaod mode and reflash a Stock rom with odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
You cannot format everything and delete everything and expect there to still be something..
Thank you for the very fast help. I asked because I didn't want to do anything that fully brick my S3. Sorry for my bad enlish.
My advice is to stay out of rooting and falshing custom roms if your knowledge of the device is in such a poor level you don't know to use odin to go stock..
johku12 said:
My advice is to stay out of rooting and falshing custom roms if your knowledge of the device is in such a poor level you don't know to use odin to go stock..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't know that either and I've flashed tons of custom ROMs successfully. This website is surely for people to learn as well as for developers to discuss things with each other; no need to tell somebody to quit rooting just because they made a mistake.
That is a kinda strange statement.
Odin/Heimdall is the only way to root the S3. You expect him to gain knowledge of the rooting/flashing procedure without actually doing it?
I didn't want to do anything that fully brick my S3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's really hard to hard-brick your phone so that it won't even go to download mode anymore. Flashing custom Roms -and especially CM9- won't cause this.
However you WILL need an efs backup, since that part of your phone could easily get lost and is not possible/very hard to recover.
Not sure how to delete this, if a mod could please delete as I think this is probably better off in the i9305 Q&A..
I have a few questions all related to avoiding bricking by doing something stupid..
Where does CWM happen in the boot process, is it before the rom is booted?
I guess my real question is, if I decided I wanted to play around with porting ROMs to the i9305 (from i9300) and I stuffed up something majorly that resulted in me not being able to use the phone, will I be able to still get into CWM and restore a NANDROID backup or reinstall a stock i9305 rom?
Is there any possibility of a ROM wiping CWM and me losing access to recovery and my phone?
How hard is it to really brick a phone if you have CWM installed, what would a person need to do? (or more importantly what should someone NOT do if they dont want to end up with a paperweight)
Thanks in advance for your help.
report the post if you want it to be moved
How hard is it to really brick a phone if you have CWM installed, what would a person need to do? (or more importantly what should someone NOT do if they dont want to end up with a paperweight)
Basic reason is EYES = refusing to read FAQS and GUIDES installing wrong firmware etc .In other words 99% users fault .
jje
Hi guys,
Ok so I have managed to get my GT-I9300 (inter) network free stuck in a boot loop, after trying to put it back to stock I somehow lost my EFS folder and now get an error "E: Faild to mount EFS (invalid argument)"........yes everyone face palm as Im another one of them. However I have got a copy of my EFS folder that I made with Ktool, but its at this point im stuck.
Im really sorry to be posting another about this issue but after spending hours searching I can't find an answer, lots about people not having a back up but nothing for those that have.
What i need to know is how do I get the back up onto my phone?
I have the stock firmware and the back up EFS folder, but Im stuck as to what to do to "mount" the EFS and replace all this. I have downloaded EFS prof but the phone won't connect to it, it also won't connect to the Kies package either.
I admit I am a noob and should of stuck with the crayons rather than messing with things that i didn't really know, but its done now and i would really love to get your help (in simple talk if possible).
Rather than someone typing out the instructions again why not follow the guide in general stickies on how to return to stock?
Once the phone boots again you can root and copy the efs backup onto the phoen again.
Cheer, will look there. Hadn't found that section in my search, will give it a go and keep my fingers crossed
boomboomer said:
Rather than someone typing out the instructions again why not follow the guide in general stickies on how to return to stock?
Once the phone boots again you can root and copy the efs backup onto the phoen again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gone through the stickies, and followed the steps to return to stock. But due to the EFS issue its still stuck in bootloop, I flashed the stock recovery tar and then the stock rom.
Mmmmm I need to get the efs off the pc onto the phone again without having to have the phone boot
Obvious question, did you do a factory reset in recovery? Also, did you go from an EMG rom back to an earlier version when flashing stock?
You shouldn't need to flash a recovery, a stock rom downloaded from sammobile includes everything you need.
The only way to restore the efs folder in recovery would be to flash a custom recovery, like Philz, and then use AromaFM to copy the files to the phone.
Hi, yes tried the reset but it did nothing still stuck on bootloop. Erm EMG?? I had just put "I9300_Omega_v46.1_XXUFME7_md5_1C591CA15E556884E4B6AFC89E5A682F" on and then went back to stock.
Odd, a full stock flashed using odin should solve the efs mounting problem.
Did you remove kies before using odin? Did odin give any errors?
If in any doubt use this guidance to flash your stock rom, read it carefully and follow each step exactly:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1671969
Which stock rom are you trying to flash?
Im using this one BTU-I9300XXEMG4-20130724164355, I didnt remove Kies didn't know that could cause a problem. Thanks for the link will check that over, I'm just a bit gutted that I backed up as always and I'm still getting the issue ahhhhhhh.
boomboomer said:
Odd, a full stock flashed using odin should solve the efs mounting problem.
Did you remove kies before using odin? Did odin give any errors?
If in any doubt use this guidance to flash your stock rom, read it carefully and follow each step exactly:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1671969
Which stock rom are you trying to flash?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You my friend are my hero (also the guy that wrote the guide)................followed the steps and the phone has booted no problem......I can not add my imei back with ktool once rooted again!!!!!
Glad to hear it worked, flashing a full stock rom often fixes the imei problem but if not then you have your backup to restore.
Easiest way to root is CF Auto Root, make sure you follow the guide exactly.
boomboomer said:
Glad to hear it worked, flashing a full stock rom often fixes the imei problem but if not then you have your backup to restore.
Easiest way to root is CF Auto Root, make sure you follow the guide exactly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might just take a break from messing, the misses gives me the dead eye every time I pick the ohone up now :crying:
One last question to you sir, the firmware of the guide has put me on 4.0.4, and its not letting me update off Kies. Is this because the build is old or not official. If I download the most upto date firmware off sammobile will I have to up date the kernal again too??
model number - GT-I9300
Android version - 4.0.4
baseband - I9300xxle8
Kernel version - 3.0.15-554452-user
build number - IMM76D.I9300XXALE8
cheersagain
Kernel is included
Ideally you should have used the guide to flash the EMG4 rom you'd already downloaded. Don't leave it long on that old firmware as it doesn't protect against SDS.
Oh, don't use kies as it's a waste of time.
boomboomer said:
Ideally you should have used the guide to flash the EMG4 rom you'd already downloaded. Don't leave it long on that old firmware as it doesn't protect against SDS.
Oh, don't use kies as it's a waste of time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well its all gone a bit strange to be honest, after getting the phone to boot finally I went ahead and flashed the newer firmware I9300XXEMG6_I9300PHNEMG2_I9300CEEMG2_HOME.tar.md5 . The phone went straight back to bootloop!!!
So currently re doing what i did to get it running in the first place, problem is that leaves the phone in factory mode and the ktool says it is restoring my efs but it doesnt seem to do anything!
so after more grief off her im stuck again.
I have writen down PDA:ME7 PHONE:ME7 CSC:ME7 (eur) which i think is off the last working firmware but not sure which one it is!
Now you can get the phone to boot the problem is mostly done. You should find several threads in this forum on restoring the efs and factory mode (the two are related) also about bootloops with corrupt efs partition.
Well tried all of what i can and understand, still nothing! Stuck with the 004999010640000/01 imei, its out of factory mode and everything works bar the network connection. Managed to restock and set counter to No, all official and ready for warrenty fix....that is unless anyone has any ideas.
This thread answers all the efs questions, if you have now flashed an EMG stock then the efs partition is probably corrupt. As you have a backup this shouldn't stop you from getting it working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2393289
In particular, this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=44734012&postcount=99
boomboomer said:
This thread answers all the efs questions, if you have now flashed an EMG stock then the efs partition is probably corrupt. As you have a backup this shouldn't stop you from getting it working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2393289
In particular, this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=44734012&postcount=99
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for all your help, I had followed these as best i could but no joy. I think I've 100% killed it. Like I say managed t get it back to stock and use the fantastic triangle away package....thus phone is as untouched......so swallowed the I told you so pill off her and took it to the service centre (which happens to only be 3miles from my house bonus). They did all the checks and accepted it under warrenty, down side i just have to wait up to two weeks its return!!!
Lots of lessons learnt, I origionally just wanted to delete the bloat ware and got carried away, thinking I was not a noob and some sort of phone god the roming followed.
Thanks again for all your help, I will read so much more about what to do if I do go down this line again.
Hello guys! I don't ever get the need to post in a thread or comments, but this time I'm entangled in some pretty confusing stuff, I'd like help with please.
I bought a used GS3 GT-I9300 and tried to install a custom rom on it. One thing lead to another, a problem after every problem and now I'm at a dead end :\
Last time I was able to boot into a ROM, was via restoring through nandroid backup. But the IMEI had become "unknown". I searched it around to find that this was a problem with the EFS folder. Luckily I had a backup of the efs part before hand! But I can't even utilize the backup! -_-
The Problem is, whatever I flash via odin (no matter which stock rom), I end up stuck at the "Samsung Galaxy SIII" screen. I have a backup of the efs, but if I go through philz recovery, it's not able to find my backup. I've tried every guide at there, and been searching about a whole day and now I give and ask for help from you guys with experience. What am I supposed to do, to get to a point where I can use my phone? Really sad after attempting so many things. NEED ASAP HELP PLEASE! :'( Thanks in advance.
hammadfozi said:
Hello guys! I don't ever get the need to post in a thread or comments, but this time I'm entangled in some pretty confusing stuff, I'd like help with please.
I bought a used GS3 GT-I9300 and tried to install a custom rom on it. One thing lead to another, a problem after every problem and now I'm at a dead end :\
Last time I was able to boot into a ROM, was via restoring through nandroid backup. But the IMEI had become "unknown". I searched it around to find that this was a problem with the EFS folder. Luckily I had a backup of the efs part before hand! But I can't even utilize the backup! -_-
The Problem is, whatever I flash via odin (no matter which stock rom), I end up stuck at the "Samsung Galaxy SIII" screen. I have a backup of the efs, but if I go through philz recovery, it's not able to find my backup. I've tried every guide at there, and been searching about a whole day and now I give and ask for help from you guys with experience. What am I supposed to do, to get to a point where I can use my phone? Really sad after attempting so many things. NEED ASAP HELP PLEASE! :'( Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Start with the simple things first... Do you boot into recovery after flashing with odin and factory reset this is the most common thing that people don't do and this solves most bootloop issues.
Sorry if you have tried that but you really need to give a small brief list of eactly what you have tried to do because saying (quote) "attempting so many things" does not help us to narrow down what is wrong otherwise people will be suggesting things you have already tried.
Question makes no sense, if you can't find the backup in philz then you aren't using it correctly or the backup is in another format. You'll need to understand the basics before you go any further.
Search for people who've extracted the efs backup on their pc then copied all the files across, follow their example.
tallman43 said:
Start with the simple things first... Do you boot into recovery after flashing with odin and factory reset this is the most common thing that people don't do and this solves most bootloop issues.
Sorry if you have tried that but you really need to give a small brief list of eactly what you have tried to do because saying (quote) "attempting so many things" does not help us to narrow down what is wrong otherwise people will be suggesting things you have already tried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate. Well I've done that. Separately tried clearing cache alone and rebooting (didn't work). Then also tried factory reset (via TWRP) that didn't work either. Then I tried factory reset + clearing cache which didn't work too. No matter what stock rom I flash via odin, or a custom ROM via recovery, My phone does not proceed ahead from the "Galaxy S III 3G" Logo.
boomboomer said:
Question makes no sense, if you can't find the backup in philz then you aren't using it correctly or the backup is in another format. You'll need to understand the basics before you go any further.
Search for people who've extracted the efs backup on their pc then copied all the files across, follow their example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you maybe give me the link for that please? I didn't even intend to backup efs, this is something which luckily happened accidentally haha.
In hope for seeing if I made a efs backup, I searched the internal storage + SD card of my phone and narrowed it down to 3 rar files:
1. efs_01Jan2012-0001.tar.gz (52KB)
2. efsbackup.tar (5.05MB)
3. efsbackup.tar.gz (62KB)