[Q] Stuck in boot screen. Tried everything. - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

While flashing my phone, I apparently softbricked it and I haven't been able to enter download mode to flash back to stock.
Here, I list the chronological actions I took before it softbricked and all the ways I've found across this and many other forums to get into that mode:
1) On my 2.1 Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, I downloaded z4 through my dropbox account and universally rooted the phone.
2) Downloaded ROM manager and installed CWM Recovery. Got ICS Euphoria through my dropbox account.
3) Booted into recovery. successfully created backup. wiped data/cache.
4) Began to flash new ROM. It loads up, I see the Team Passion ASCII logo, I believe, for about two seconds and then it reboots into the screen with Vibrant/Samsung in white text over a black background.
Methods I've tried and that have proven to fail me:
1) Battery out. SD out. SIM out. Hold BOTH volume buttons. Reinsert battery. Boots same screen. (no other response.)
2) Battery, SD and SIM out. Hold both volume buttons, home button, power button. Reinsert battery. Same screen. Release after black screen. Reboots same screen. (no other response.)
3) Battery, SD, and SIM out. Hold vol down or vol up + power. Reinsert battery. Boots same screen. (no other response.)
4) Battery, SD and SIM out. Hold both volume buttons. Plug in USB from PC. Reinsert battery. Boots same screen. (no other response.)
5) ODIN method. I've downloaded the PIT, PDA(tar file) files. Loaded up Odin3 and put them in their respective places in the UI.
Battery out. Hold both volume buttons. Plug in USB. Battery in. Boots same screen. (no other response.)
Again, I've scoured for answers across this and many others forums including youtube videos for hours and I'm at my wits end with no other options and nowhere left to turn.
I am usually a full on DIY guy, so I have never had to post anything before, anywhere and I'm usually pretty good at finding information if it's out there.
PLEASE.
Can somebody help me?
EDIT: after awhile of messing around, I managed to get it into the dashed circle loading symbol screen and eventually the download mode but after two times of successful download mode, turning it off and trying again, now I only get that dashed circle loading screen. My hands are in the air. I give up. I'm just going to order another with the $150 I don't have.

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corpsedog said:
While flashing my phone, I apparently softbricked it and I haven't been able to enter download mode to flash back to stock.
Here, I list the chronological actions I took before it softbricked and all the ways I've found across this and many other forums to get into that mode:
1) On my 2.1 Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, I downloaded z4 through my dropbox account and universally rooted the phone.
2) Downloaded ROM manager and installed CWM Recovery. Got ICS Euphoria through my dropbox account.
3) Booted into recovery. successfully created backup. wiped data/cache.
4) Began to flash new ROM. It loads up, I see the Team Passion ASCII logo, I believe, for about two seconds and then it reboots into the screen with Vibrant/Samsung in white text over a black background.
Methods I've tried and that have proven to fail me:
1) Battery out. SD out. SIM out. Hold BOTH volume buttons. Reinsert battery. Boots same screen. (no other response.)
2) Battery, SD and SIM out. Hold both volume buttons, home button, power button. Reinsert battery. Same screen. Release after black screen. Reboots same screen. (no other response.)
3) Battery, SD, and SIM out. Hold vol down or vol up + power. Reinsert battery. Boots same screen. (no other response.)
4) Battery, SD and SIM out. Hold both volume buttons. Plug in USB from PC. Reinsert battery. Boots same screen. (no other response.)
5) ODIN method. I've downloaded the PIT, PDA(tar file) files. Loaded up Odin3 and put them in their respective places in the UI.
Battery out. Hold both volume buttons. Plug in USB. Battery in. Boots same screen. (no other response.)
Again, I've scoured for answers across this and many others forums including youtube videos for hours and I'm at my wits end with no other options and nowhere left to turn.
I am usually a full on DIY guy, so I have never had to post anything before, anywhere and I'm usually pretty good at finding information if it's out there.
PLEASE.
Can somebody help me?
EDIT: after awhile of messing around, I managed to get it into the dashed circle loading symbol screen and eventually the download mode but after two times of successful download mode, turning it off and trying again, now I only get that dashed circle loading screen. My hands are in the air. I give up. I'm just going to order another with the $150 I don't have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...well, let's see. There is a lot to respond to, so I'll do my best to be as clear as possible...But, first and foremost, you need calm down and relax because from what you are describing, you don't seem to be in too bad of shape in regards to getting your phone up and running again.
The first thing I'd like to note is that it seems as though your first problem was trying to flash an ICS rom straight from 2.1. You really should have referred to Wood's awesome "How to update to ICS thread" which can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1464423
You never want to jump right into tweaking with your very expensive toys without reading EVERYTHING humanly possible about the subject, because nobody wants a $200 paperweight. With that being said, let's now try and figure out how exactly to fix this problem. I'm not sure what you mean by "dashed circle loading symbol" but you did mention that you were able to get into download mode, which is good.
It looked like such:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
right?
What key combination did you use to get into DL mode? (There are different ways). My point being, is that if you can get into DL mode, you should be okay...try and get there again and from there use the AIO toolbox to assist in your recovery: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=954509
So, to review...first get into DL mode again, next plug your device into your computer while in DL mode, make sure AIO toolbox is installed, and that you have the proper drivers installed, and while still in DL mode (as pictured above) and connected to your computer via usb cable, use AIO to flash back to stock. From there, follow Wood's ICS upgrading guide CAREFULLY to get yourself up and running an ICED out device.
Good luck.

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Xenoism said:
Hmmm...well, let's see. There is a lot to respond to, so I'll do my best to be as clear as possible...But, first and foremost, you need calm down and relax because from what you are describing, you don't seem to be in too bad of shape in regards to getting your phone up and running again.
The first thing I'd like to note is that it seems as though your first problem was trying to flash an ICS rom straight from 2.1. You really should have referred to Wood's awesome "How to update to ICS thread" which can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1464423
You never want to jump right into tweaking with your very expensive toys without reading EVERYTHING humanly possible about the subject, because nobody wants a $200 paperweight. With that being said, let's now try and figure out how exactly to fix this problem. I'm not sure what you mean by "dashed circle loading symbol" but you did mention that you were able to get into download mode, which is good.
It looked like such:
right?
What key combination did you use to get into DL mode? (There are different ways). My point being, is that if you can get into DL mode, you should be okay...try and get there again and from there use the AIO toolbox to assist in your recovery: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=954509
So, to review...first get into DL mode again, next plug your device into your computer while in DL mode, make sure AIO toolbox is installed, and that you have the proper drivers installed, and while still in DL mode (as pictured above) and connected to your computer via usb cable, use AIO to flash back to stock. From there, follow Wood's ICS upgrading guide CAREFULLY to get yourself up and running an ICED out device.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thanks for the reply.
The thing is now, I can't seem to get it back into DL mode no matter what I do.
No manner of button combinations work. Taking out the battery, holding vol +/-, inserting battery and plugging USB up used to do it but now I get nothing. It seemed to work once or twice while in Odin, but during download mode, I still had no yellow COM5 connection and so I would close it, power off the phone and start over. After that second time, it just didn't show up anymore and now all that happens is what looks like a circle with dashes making up the circumference that would typically highlight in a cylindrical fashion while waiting for, say, a youtube video to load, but this symbol doesn't move. It's just frozen in place and the phone only reboots into that screen with the USB in if I power off/on.
thanks again for the reply. I did order a new phone, but I'd love to fix this one and use the other as a backup if possible.
EDIT: Also, I apologize for my rash behavior and bad attitude. I just lost a lot of sleep over this and I had a lot to do today. Haha. I'm sure you've all been there with these issues. Thanks for putting up with me, though.

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Worst case scenario you can send it to www.mobiletechvideos.com . For $40 they will do a JTAG fix and unbrickable mod.
Just to be sure, do you have a stock front facing camera?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium

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samsgun357 said:
Worst case scenario you can send it to mobiletechvideos. For $40 they will do a JTAG fix and unbrickable mod.
Just to be sure, do you have a stock front facing camera?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I'm pretty sure I only have the T959. No FFC.

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corpsedog said:
No, I'm pretty sure I only have the T959. No FFC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol OK have just seen a lot of that lately.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium

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Update!
Success!
I managed to get it into DL mode again after buying a new USB cable and preparing to make the jig for it.
Now a new issue has come up.
I tried the one-click unbrick java app and have been getting the (phone-!-pc) icon and was prompted to install the USB drivers but they failed to install.
Any ideas?
Thanks so much for your help thus far.

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USB debugging mode?
Okay, so after a few more tries and using different apps to install the drivers since Heimdall seems to think they 'are not properly installed', whatever that means, I've come to the point of using PDANet and once installing the drivers again, I was prompted to enter debug mode but.. how am I supposed to do that when all my phone can do is boot loop and enter download mode?
EDIT: After messing around some more, I found USBDeview which allows me to see all USB devices that are either connected or disconnected.
Samsung USB Composite Device and Samsung Mobile Modem both show up in the device manager and under USBDeview they list as connected.
The only thing Heimdall/OneClickUnbrick says after clicking 'unbrick' is "The USB drivers are not installed properly. Attempting to install." and then upon opening Zadig, selecting Samsung USB Composite Device and the Windows 32bit drivers for my Vista OS, the install fails.
Odin just doesn't recognize it at all. Nothing special.
Why aren't they recognizing my phone?
FINAL EDIT: I don't exactly know how I did it and over the painstaking processes that I've been through, I'm groggy, uncollected and somewhat irritable but I finally managed to flash the stock ROM back onto the phone and I am back in business. Thanks everyone for any and all of your help. It was much appreciated!

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Good to hear that you are back from the brink. Believe me we have all been there.
Read my ICS install guide (linked above) and if you need any files, they should all be in the Repo thread in the Dev section. Above all, read, read and when you are ready, read just a bit more. That way you will have some foundation for when you are ready to flash and not be reading at the same time as doing.
As fundemental as this sounds, I always suggest it because it gives you a better sense of troubleshooting. I suggest you download some 2.2 ROMs and kernels and try going from 2.1 to 2.2 by using CWR update.zip method, and then Odin back to JFD (2.1) and try another. Do this a few times and you will inevitably run into some issues like the differences of key combos between Froyo and Gingerbread Bootloaders, differences between Voodoo and non-Voodoo kernels,... This will tremedously help when you do take the jump to ICS/JB and the very real possiblity of doing something wrong.
And FWIW, the way you could have gotten out of the predicament in your OP was to re-flash the ROM.zip over itself. 90% of the time that cures the initial flash bootloop on ICS ROMs.
Good luck and if you need anything search first (this device is almost 3 years old, so most problems have already happened/solved) and then ask.

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That's awesome corpse! If you need anything don't hesitate to pm me or ask the community if you can't locate the answer.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda premium