Soft-bricked phone won't do anything - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey.... A friend of mine has a problem. She has a Galaxy S2 and it is stuck in an endless boot loop. She said it's running a stock rom and nothing funny was done to that phone. Being the nice person I am, I said "sure, it's an easy fix...just have to reflash it". Well....not so easy.
I can get the phone into recovery mode, but there's nothing I'm able to do productive on there except wipe the user data, which I didn't want to do. I thought I could install CWM through it to back it up, but it only allows files that are on the internal sdcard, not the external one. Argh.
So, I put the phone into download mode, but the computer does not recognize the phone. I've installed Kies, uninstalled, reinstalled, etc. I am doing this on OSX that is running a virtual machine in parallels. On my S3, Parallels detects the phone being in download mode....on the S2, it does nothing. Odin doesn't recognize anything.
OK, next....try it on OSX with Heimdell. Did that, nothing. Tried Android SDK and did a adb detect, and it didn't find the phone. Tried it on Linux on another laptop. Linux at least recognized it in dmesg as a Samsung Phone when it is connected, but doesn't do anything else with Heimdell or Android SDK.
My next trick I might try the usb jig, but I'm not sure if it's going to get me anywhere if the phone will go into the download mode by me forcing it. Another oddity is that the phone shows it charging, but it doesn't charge. For example, the screen still shows the battery at the lowest level.
Before I break out the soldering iron, I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions. Who knows, the phone just may be fubar'ed.

What kinda S2 is it?
Sent from the little guy

Do you have samsung drivers installed on your computer?

You dont need a jig because you said the phone goes into download mode anyway.
Mistahbungle posted a checklist to do when your phones not recognized by pc.
Check his previous posts and see if that helps....

theunderling said:
You dont need a jig because you said the phone goes into download mode anyway.
Mistahbungle posted a checklist to do when your phones not recognized by pc.
Check his previous posts and see if that helps....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I saw that list. Believe it or not, it's the usb port. I saw something later that said the usb port on these things can go bad. I've never ran into this before, but apparently, this is the problem.
After jiggling the connector around, I was able to reflash the stock on there, but unfortunately, it didn't fix the problem. I then put siyah on there and I was at least able to back everything up through CWM to the extsdcard.
So, I don't know if the flakey connector would prevent a boot, but who knows. I do know that it's not charging anymore and I can't get back into CWM, so maybe that was the last bit where I was able to get it backed up.

Related

[Q] Help with connecting Vibrant to PC

So after searching the vast horizons of XDA I haven't found an answer that really helped me. Nor have I found someone with this distinct issue. I have an unlocked Samsung Vibrant. I have not rooted it. I updated to J16 with that P.O.S. Kies Mini a few months ago. I hadn't noticed this problem until the last month or so but I haven't had time to sit down and curse at my computer long enough or offer supplications to Google until now. I've just been using Awesome Drop to get what few files I wanted onto my phone. I've had enough of that now. And...I also want to update it to Froyo but I can't do that if I can't get my computer to see my phone. I'm running a Toshiba Satellite A205 with Windows Vista 32bit.
I have checked the drivers and as far as I can tell, I'm using the right ones. I downloaded Kies Mini again today (I deleted it after I was finished with J16 because I wanted it as far away from me as possible) and it seemed to say something about downloading drivers as well. I tried plugging in my phone. Nothing new. So, I went in search of drivers again. I have searched and tried a few different ones but nothing has solved my problem.
The phone charges fine from my laptop. It hooks up immediately and charges without a problem. Unfortunately, my phone seems to regard the PC as a complex wall-wart. Debugging on/off, USB Settings on Mass Storage, Kies, or Ask on connection, it doesn't matter. It doesn't give me the option to "mount" as it has in the past. It doesn't do anything except charge. I've seen some people say it's a problem with their cables (I've only got one at the moment) but since my phone charges fine, how can it be a problem with the cable?
Only thing I hadn't tried was a factory reset. So, I sucked it up and tried that. Nope. No change. At this point I'm wondering if it's a hardware problem, not a software problem.
I'm out of ideas. Anybody else?
Well you can always root it, install ROM manager from the market, install clockwork recovery, download the ROM you want to install in flashable .zip format from your phone and flash away. A new ROM might fix your USB issue.
If you don't want to root it, see if you can get into download mode, and flash a new ROM using Odin. I would check with a different cable first, just to be sure that's not the problem though. It might save you some headaches.
If it was me, I would just root it and load a custom 2.2 ROM. I would also get Titanium Backup from the market and backup my apps and would do a nandroid backup from recovery before flashing anything new just to be on the safe side.
There's some good info on how to do most of that in this sticky post.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=849028

Cant unbrick Infuse!!!!!

So last night I was flashing Gingerbread onto my phone. Did everything I was suppose to do. Followed the write up on here from gtg465x. I back upped my current rom just in case something went south.
Well, it went bad. Go figure. Well it didnt flash the gingerbread rom. It stayed at the red, blue, green, and yellow X screen for about an hour before shutting off.
Well I went ahead and went into recovery and tryed to restore my old rom. Well It didnt work at all. All that happens is that the Samsung screen comes up then like thousands of different colored dots are everywhere on the screen . It just keeps cycling from Samsung to Colored dots.
Well I downloaded Odin. Also did everything in the "How-To" that gtg465x put together to get it back to stock. My phone goes into download mode but thats it.
I cant get it to go into recovery mode anymore. It will just go into download mode.
Well my phone is not recognized by both of my PC's. I have also tried 4 Cables, and uninstalled and reinstalled all the Samsung drivers.
Im pretty stuck here. I have no idea what to do anymore. Do I just have a nice paper weight now?
Hopefully the pro's can come out and help my Infuse.
Thanks.
You don't need to get into recovery mode (it could help, but it is not your only hope). Your device needs to be recognized by your PC while in download mode before anything else can be done.
Theonew said:
You don't need to get into recovery mode (it could help, but it is not your only hope). Your device needs to be recognized by your PC while in download mode before anything else can be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried multiple uninstalls and reinstalls on different Samsung drivers aswell as USB Cords. I have also used my other PC too and nothing.
Ive literally been on the computer all day with absolutely no luck at all.
Have went to the store to buy a new USB cable, Installed countless drivers, Etc.
I have no idea what else to do. My computer just wont recognize the phone whatsoever.
Any ideas at all guys???
banshee04 said:
Ive literally been on the computer all day with absolutely no luck at all.
Have went to the store to buy a new USB cable, Installed countless drivers, Etc.
I have no idea what else to do. My computer just wont recognize the phone whatsoever.
Any ideas at all guys???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll probably just have to carry it in under warranty .

Actually I'm pretty sure I bricked my phone now...

was messing around in cwm and formatted boot among other things i'm sure, because my phone wasn't able to be recognized by my pc due to what I believe was debugging not working... tried onecosmics ics and my debug just malfuntioned? Now I'm stuck at the Vibrant screen and although I can get into download without a problem, no computers recognize it... therefor I cannot odin. No CWM no nothing... just vibrant boot or download mode. Phones a year old, absolutely loved it and i messed up bad... If anyone can help me get her up and running through odin I will donate something to ya lol... Have all drivers needed just wont recognize... Geez I just can't leave things alone haha
thanks for reading and replying in advance
Make sure you are plugging the USB on the back end of your computer, closer to the motherboard. I never had any luck with ODIN when plugging into the front USB ports; seems not enough power goes to those.
Try a different version of ODIN. The link is available in a sticky around here somewhere. If you're entering download mode, all is not lost. I would try to click Start on ODIN just in case.
Try using the Toolbox. It has all the drivers, pit/tar files and Odin too. I use it all the time. I agree, if you can get anything to even show up on your screen, you are not "hard" bricked. Just have to find that sweet spot.
Remember that you don't have to have Download showing up on your screen, just a yellow COM box in Odin. Sometimes people forget that and freak out but I know you said it (the computer) doesn't recognize. Is this bc you are not seeing any Mass Storage devices? Just keep trying to get that little yellow box.
Edit:: Try to keep one thread on the subject so that you aren't getting confused.
I agree with the comments above.I recall going into DL mode and just hooking up the phone to the pc and it wasn't recognizing it but I flashed the 512 pit and it worked without the COM.
Try a different USB cable
You can always use linux, that's an option at this moment
I'm sorry for making two threads, didn't want people coming into the last thread and answering an old issue... I'm gonna keep trying...
I guess my days with the Vibrant are sadly over, although I can get into download mode, tried 2 cables, 3 computers... Can't get anything recognized or ODIN to work period... I'm 16 days past my tmobile warranty for the phone and they refuse to help me... onecosmics rom was the biggest mistake I made. I lost the ability to debug because of it, which is now my downfall. Nothing gets recognized and I believe it wont because debug is broken...
AIO couldn't help me... I would have much rather bricked my phone essentially than this because I would at least know where I stood and knew a Jig may work, this issue I'm having is just false hope... There are no answers anywhere that have a happy ending in my case, just threads that get left without a true method or answer, I have looked. I don't know if a Jig would work for a device that can boot in download mode but can't get recognized? I don't know anything, I just know I wish wouldn't have tried that rom and then lose my cool because of it.
We root and change ROMs because we can. We make our ****s faster or slower if we wish, i could run porn ,the newiest movies, dl songs.there is nothing better than freedom my bro
How about reinstalling the drivers while phone is connected to PC with Odin running.
And what buttons are you using to get into CWM?
I am using the standard 3 button combo for CWM cant get past vibrant logo just resets and does it again... I tried everything with odin no dice... Lol, it's my own damn fault truthfully lol... I was irresponsible in CWM due to a bit of anger and this is the result. shouldnt have formatted everything and reset. Dumb dumb dumb... especially after I knew debug was broke and disabled...
Yo are, you good finally
---------- Post added at 02:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 AM ----------
YO if you can't fix it nOOOb,don't waste our time.I /They have gave u great advice.
---------- Post added at 02:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:23 AM ----------
I say blow your phone up
Have you tried the jiggy yet? Last time, I was messing around with CWM and other ported GB and things didn't go well to the point where I got no download screen at all - just black screen after power up. Download finger combos didn't work anymore. I thought I hard brick it and about to be real brick. Since jiggy was only around $5, so I thought why not and got it off ebay (something like this one). After I hooked it in, boom I get download mode. I was so glad and didn't bother going forward anymore. I just load back old stock eclair rom with all the files in it then reload froyo.
If you odin it before, I assume driver still good. If it still good, IMO, you shouldn't try new driver. If you install other drivers over it, you can't tell if good one still there. Do you have another vibrant phone that you can hook in just too see odin and driver works good (in recognizing the phone)? This is to isolate issue if limited to your pc/odin/driver or limited to your phone only. If odin can recognize another vibrant phone, then everything on your pc is good and just need to get your phone in download mode. If your pc can't recognize other vibrant or other galaxy s phone, then it's likely your driver messed up and just need to uninstall all the sgs driver and reinstall only the one that worked for you before all this mess. I'm saying other galaxy s, because my pc was able to recognize my sister Verizon Fascinate phone and I can odin through it with the samsung driver i installed for my vibrant.
Just idea...
Thanks, but I have tried a million drivers to no avail lol... It's the ICS rom I flashed... It disabled my debug mode (although it said it was enabled). I believe with debug off, your phone is not recognized by ODIN... I can get into download mode, the only thing I need the Jig to do is get debug to be enabled lol, and I don't think it can do that?...
You ought to find another member near you and see if they can look at it. Sometimes another set of eyes can make a difference. You could also try mobiletechvideos.com. They do JTAG repairs (unbrick phones).
Penvision66 said:
Thanks, but I have tried a million drivers to no avail lol... It's the ICS rom I flashed... It disabled my debug mode (although it said it was enabled). I believe with debug off, your phone is not recognized by ODIN... I can get into download mode, the only thing I need the Jig to do is get debug to be enabled lol, and I don't think it can do that?...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying the "debug" inside the ICS rom? I don't think that matter, because I have ODINed mine to stock eclair rom before which has debug disabled by default if I remember correctly, then I just ODINed over other rom and it work...if that work, the debug setting shouldn't matter. Ok maybe driver...
If you strongly believe it is a driver, why not just try remove ALL samsung driver then start back with the one that work for you initially. Or use only driver from more trusted reliable site. Try one at a time. Or even reboot to safe mode and remove all the drivers. Don't install anything sparingly on your machines. Do you have another pc to try? Or have another friend with ODINed already installed w/ working samsung driver...so you reload eclair rom over it? You should have test it in VM or Virtualbox or Sandboxie.... If you can get into download mode, it should work...
Also make sure your machine is virus or spyware free. Spyware can affect other apps on your machine. If you haven't already have a good one, go to download.com and download Avast and Malwarebytes Antispyware. Then reboot into safe mode (F8), then scan virus and antispyware with both of the lattter programs. Anything it find, just delete them and keep scan until it finds 0 under safe mode. Then boot back normally and reinstall a good trusted samsung driver executable. That's what I would do if i were you.
This happened to me a while back onky thing different was my phone was working fine, but computer didnt recognize. Like others say COMPLETELY uninstall all samsung drivers, and I dont know if it will change anything for you but odin 1.7 and 1.1 didnt work for me but 1.3 was perfect, in other words try to get your hands on as many different odin files as possible, and if you have to heimdall has worked for me once before too
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
Have you tried nexus s or galaxy nexus drivers yet? Your running ics you might need them....
Sent from my T959 using XDA App
update to the ICS drivers, they are in the i9000 cm thread, also then connect your phone open odin with admin privileges, install usbdeview, run it in admin privileges and uninstall any driver that starts when you plug the phone in, then un plug and plug back in your phone, should work

S3 Bricked [Soft?]

Hello all, I have a GS3 international GT-I9300
I'll try to go through the story as fast as I can and give as much detail so you guys can understand how I got here.
Bought the phone unlocked, I was stock, I rooted and then I decided to install a new ROM. I went with Resurrection Remix, it was working great. I did this on a desktop back home. They released a new update to RR so I did a OTA update with "Update Me" apparently the thing flashed but it didn't, the phone still worked but NFC wasn't working as well as having lost root access and some other stuff wasn't working correctly, but I lived with it.
I moved to Florida (home is in NY) and I have a laptop with me, for some reason my laptop used to be able to transfer files to my S3, but it wasn't doing it any more after a while. So it would just charge it. I was in a hotel room last week trying to tether via USB but the PC wasnt having it, it could not locate the phone. This week I moved to a different hotel with internet and decided I would flash stock on my S3 to get rid of all these bugs and get root again, I tried flashing stock through recovery and it wasn't going, so I tried flashing RR again (this time downloaded from the site RR site) and it worked. Still no USB connection but I had root back. I looked around my PC and apparently the Samsung drives are not installing or something on my PC. I installed Kies, but nothing, I tried a stand alone driver install and nothing, so I just gave up and bought Mobile Odin pro from Gplay to try to flash again.
Mobile Odin for some reason (I blame it on myself) wasn't finding/flashing stock so again I decided to try and flash RR and see what would happen. It flashed RR and turned on fine. Then I just decided to look for an NFC fix on XDA. Once I found my NFC fix (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=32029713&postcount=8367) I decided to just copy the files to the system folder, NFC still not working, rebooted and NFC still no working, so I figured I would try to flash the fix through mobile odin seeing as how I can't get my PC to pick up on the USB. I tried flashing but MO just kept bouncing it back and re-booting into RR. Tried again and no flash. So I decided to again try and flash stock. I tried going into Recovery, the phone shut off like it always does, came back on but stayed in the Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 logo and would not move. I shut it off again, tried turning it on again and still stuck on the galaxy logo. Now, if I leave the phone off and plug in the USB, it won't show the battery charging image, it will actually turn straight onto the galaxy logo again and stay there. I can get the phone into download mode, but like I said my pc won't recognize the drivers.
Now, here are my questions:
What happened?
Can this be fixed?
Am I an idiot?
If I can get the drivers installed on another PC as well as Odin (1.85), will the new PC "see" the S3 or are the drivers on the phone deleted as well? (if that sort of thing can happen, idk.)
I'm going to see if I can borrow a buddy's PC and download the drivers as well as odin to try and bring my S3 back to life, I just want to know, what happens if I can't get the other PC to pick it up ether because the drivers on the phone are deleted (if that's a thing) or what I can expect if it is connected.
What are the steps or guides to follow here? I just got it into Download mode and it says on the top of the screen:
ODIN MODE
Product name: GT-I9300
Custom Binary Download: Yes (2 counts)
Current Binary: Custom
System Status: Custom
sorry , i am sometime getting headache reading long english text so i just briefly look over.
your PC doesn't recognize your S3 ? is that correct ? hmmm , is it possible that your PC (Microsoft Windows I assume?) system is damaged due to something like virus or some reasons ? i have encountered that kinda problem before and be OK after i reinstalled the system.
If it's a soft brick, then it can defiantly be fixed. You might, however, lose your data along the process.
Be glad it's not hard bricked
It happened to me many times, USB error "unknown device" connected. Only fix for it was reinstalling Windows so better if you can use different PC or laptop. Install Kies and other USB drivers. Restart computer, download and run Odin v 3.0x. Flash your phone.
If this doesn't work then maybe your phone have a problem with USB port?
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app
djembey said:
It happened to me many times, USB error "unknown device" connected. Only fix for it was reinstalling Windows so better if you can use different PC or laptop. Install Kies and other USB drivers. Restart computer, download and run Odin v 3.0x. Flash your phone.
If this doesn't work then maybe your phone have a problem with USB port?
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget to delete kies as you only need the drivers
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll try to fix tit today, I didn't get a chance to do it last night. If anything I'll update you guys with what's going on.
Like I was saying, I'll try using a different PC to fix it. Now, if I can't get Odin to recognize the phone, what would be the next step?

[Q] Battery problem and connect to pc problem

Hello,
I have a very big problem with my Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300.
The problem started when my battery ran down very very fast. I can use my phone for no longer than maybe 6 hours, and that is in stand by. If I want to charge my phone till it's completely full it might take two days on the charger as well, even when my phone is off. I tried to reset my phone to factory defaults, but that didn't fix the problem. I even bought a new battery, hoping that would solve the problem, but even no luck with that. The phone also becomes hot in the bottom. Now I wanted to bring it back to the store for warrenty but there lies the next problem, my phone is rooted.
I know it is possible to unroot the phone, and it's nog too hard to do. But every time I connect my phone with USB to my computer, my computer doesn't recognize it. I get the next error message "USB device not recognized". I tried different cables, I tried on an other computer, but still I get the same error. I also tried the S3 of a friend on my computer and with his phone I do get a connection. So I know there is nothing wrong with the drivers on my computer or something like that. There must be something wrong with my phone.
Now the problems won't stop here because there is even a third problem. Like I said before I have rooted my phone, but I can't use SuperUser. When I start SuperUser it says "The SU Binary needs to be updated. Continue?". Then when I press continue I get the message "Installation failed !". I can't use CWM as well. I wanted to use Triangle Away before bringing it back for warrenty, but I can't use it because I can't use SuperUser.
If some one would have an idea to unroot my phone without using USB so I can bring it in for warrenty. Or find a way to get my USB port running again, I think that would fix my problems.
I spend a few hours trying to fix these problems, but now I've come to a point I don't know what to do anymore, I hope anyone of you is willing to help me. I'll be for ever gratefull.
Grtz Nathan...
Hi.
If i was you, i would try to install a official version, using Odin.
Also, my advice is not to use the original charger, Even chinese have better one´s...
Did you install Kies and drivers on your PC? Check that too.
Consider install leaked 4.2.2 version of Rom, since it uses Odin to do it.
I hope i gave at least some clues....
Mord0rr said:
Hi.
If i was you, i would try to install a official version, using Odin.
Also, my advice is not to use the original charger, Even chinese have better one´s...
Did you install Kies and drivers on your PC? Check that too.
Consider install leaked 4.2.2 version of Rom, since it uses Odin to do it.
I hope i gave at least some clues....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply,
I forgot to mention that I have the official ROM installed, I only rooted it. But even if I would want to install a new ROM, my computer doesn't recognize my phone throug USB. So I can't install a ROM using Odin unless my USB port is running again.
I tried several chargers already, I don't think the problem lies in the charger because the battery drains very fast when it's of the charger.
I did install Kies and drivers, I even uninstalled them and reinstalled them again a couple of times. I even tried it on different computers. And the Galaxy S3 of a friend of mine does make a connection. So I don't think the problem lies there.
droogje said:
Thanks for your reply,
I forgot to mention that I have the official ROM installed, I only rooted it. But even if I would want to install a new ROM, my computer doesn't recognize my phone throug USB. So I can't install a ROM using Odin unless my USB port is running again.
I tried several chargers already, I don't think the problem lies in the charger because the battery drains very fast when it's of the charger.
I did install Kies and drivers, I even uninstalled them and reinstalled them again a couple of times. I even tried it on different computers. And the Galaxy S3 of a friend of mine does make a connection. So I don't think the problem lies there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hummm....
Did you try hard reset? Definitely without USB recognition, you can`t go to next stage....
In setup did you check optinos like USB debugging?
At this moment im out of options....maybe a poweruser can help you better:highfive:
Mord0rr said:
Hummm....
Did you try hard reset? Definitely without USB recognition, you can`t go to next stage....
In setup did you check optinos like USB debugging?
At this moment im out of options....maybe a poweruser can help you better:highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly do you mean with hard reset? If you mean powering on with home button and volume up button pushed, and then select "wipe data/factory reset". Then yes, I tried that.
In setup I did check USB debugging. The thing is, when I power on with home button and volume down button, I enter download mode. But even in download mode my computer does not recognize my phone. I'm not sure, but I think the computer should.
I'm really stuck here :crying:

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