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.
Related
Hello I am from Argentina, desperately need help.
I rooted my SGSII ICS 4.0.3 phone with CF Root LPJ everything went as expected. Odines PASS! and all but when my phone reboots it just turns off after logo screen with triangle.
I can get into recovery and download mode but that is all.
What should I do?
Might commit suicide if there is no fix.
Flash stock rom.
You can find it at sammobile.com.
elemenofi said:
Hello I am from Argentina, desperately need help.
I rooted my SGSII ICS 4.0.3 phone with CF Root LPJ everything went as expected. Odines PASS! and all but when my phone reboots it just turns off after logo screen with triangle.
I can get into recovery and download mode but that is all.
What should I do?
Might commit suicide if there is no fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get into recovery and download mode, you are only softbricked. It could be worse.
Please be more precise, I lack experience but I will understand.
Which stock ROM should I flash now?
Because I got a downloaded I9100UHLPS_I9100AROLP4_ARO but it is not LPJ.
I also managed to find Kernel_I9100XXLPJ at intratech. Would flashing this kernel fix it? Could it possibly mess my recovery mode and brick my phone?
Flash the same ROM again using Odin, do not flash the wrong kernel.
ARO is a good ROM, just flash it again, it will boot, then root with the cfroot for that ROM later.
What do you mean by the SAME rom? I got this problem flashing a CF-Root kernel not an entire ROM.
The ROM I had before was ICS 4.0.3 which I upgraded officially via Kies.
Should I flash ICS 4.0.3 UHLPS that is for my region? I9100UHLPS_I9100AROLP4_ARO
I'm pretty sure that's what Atifsh meant, yes.
Thank you all! Thanks given with the button for all!!!
I flashed stock ICS 4.0.3 for my country downloaded from sammobile.com and the phone recovered with no trouble! I got my soft bricked SGSII working again!
Is there anything I need to wipe now to make sure there is no crazy leftover from the CF-Root boot fail?
If it's working fine, then probably not. I mean, you could always backup your contacts, call logs, SMS, etc and your apps with Titanium, do a factory reset, and then restore contacts, call logs, sms and user apps/data only (do not restore system apps or data).
But if it's working fine now, I don't see the point.
I want you to do two things for me tho.
First, get kTool either from Google Play (it's free) or from Hellcat's thread on here. Then backup your EFS. Keep one copy on your external SD card in your phone, and keep another copy on your PC. Then I want you to do a Nandroid backup in CWRecovery.
That way if anything does ever go wrong, you should be able to recover/get up and running again easily without losing your stuff. For example, if your phone ever borked & you had to send it in for warranty service/replacement, you could restore that backup when you get your phone back/a new phone.
Do a backup at least once a week and certainly every single time before you flash a new kernel/rom or if you make major changes to your system.
I am afraid of doing anything with this phone now. First experience = soft brick.
Damn I almost die. Now I need to find a way to get out of this stock 4.0.3 ICS because it is ramming through my battery and is as slow as a potatoe.
4.0.4 is eMMC hard-brick possibly if I wipe after flashing.
Now I feel like an expert.
I also tried flashing cf root today and it softbricked my phone. Weird.... next time I try to root my phone, I wont be using cf root.
Which Kernel was yours? Leave it here logged for future brickers.
Mine was LPJ
Dear All,
My Galaxy S3 cannot connect to network after rom update. I have searched a lot but i could not figure out the problem since i have no problem with my imei. I can see correct imei, but no serial number no hardware revision and no signal when sim is inserted. without sim it can detect signals.
To figure out problem i need EFS.tar of some working I9300. If some one can provide me his efs backup in tar, i will be a big help for me.
ha ha ha ha ha! You really think someone is going to give you their efs?!
©®™ slappy
slaphead20 said:
ha ha ha ha ha! You really think someone is going to give you their efs?!
©®™ slappy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
muhammad.ali123 said:
Dear All,
My Galaxy S3 cannot connect to network after rom update. I have searched a lot but i could not figure out the problem since i have no problem with my imei. I can see correct imei, but no serial number no hardware revision and no signal when sim is inserted. without sim it can detect signals.
To figure out problem i need EFS.tar of some working I9300. If some one can provide me his efs backup in tar, i will be a big help for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but without a proper backup, you almost certainly won't be able to recover the efs folder. That's why backing up the efs folder is so critical before you begin any flashing procedure. It contains information unique to your device, without which, you have basically a very expensive media player.
donalgodon said:
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but without a proper backup, you almost certainly won't be able to recover the efs folder. That's why backing up the efs folder is so critical before you begin any flashing procedure. It contains information unique to your device, without which, you have basically a very expensive media player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does this means that even if have another efs folder it will be no use to me?
I have my EFS folder intact and it has all files in it. but there is some problem with any file, that does not allow to register to network.
That's quite unfortunate, backing up my EFS folder was the 1st thing I did after getting my phone to avoid this kind of issues (prior rooting, of course).
By the way, was it an official OTA update or was it manually injected?
Any piece of information you can bring about the issue may help people here to figure out a way to help you.
How sure are you it is the EFS that's the problem? If you can see the folder and it has files in it, why are you looking at EFS being the problem? I'd have thought with a corrupted EFS you wouldn't have a file structure to be looking at, but I may be confused as to what an EFS is/does)
Have you tried using CWM to Factory Reset, wipe data and Dalvik and then run your Rom again?
Have you tried downloading and flashing a stock ROM for your phone?
VulguM said:
That's quite unfortunate, backing up my EFS folder was the 1st thing I did after getting my phone to avoid this kind of issues (prior rooting, of course).
By the way, was it an official OTA update or was it manually injected?
Any piece of information you can bring about the issue may help people here to figure out a way to help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Infact there was an OTA update but it failed to install from stock recovery mode. After reboot there was a message to use kies or contact service.
So i used. But kies showed that it cannot updte this phone ( because CSC was XXX ) so i used firmware inatialization method to download firmware by entering model and serial number in kies.
After update i was stuck in this situation,
Have you flashed a stock Rom with Odin to try and rectify?
Journyman16 said:
How sure are you it is the EFS that's the problem? If you can see the folder and it has files in it, why are you looking at EFS being the problem? I'd have thought with a corrupted EFS you wouldn't have a file structure to be looking at, but I may be confused as to what an EFS is/does)
Have you tried using CWM to Factory Reset, wipe data and Dalvik and then run your Rom again?
Have you tried downloading and flashing a stock ROM for your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i am also confused about this.
Befor touching EFS folder i did factory reset, wiped data, delvik , re installed different official and custom roms. But it did not solve my issue.
I focused my attention to efs because all my symptoms are similar to people who have lost their imei. But my imei is O.K
You have any other suggestions.
slaphead20 said:
Have you flashed a stock Rom with Odin to try and rectify?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed LE8 and LH1 via odin , but it did not help
If your IMEI is intact its not generally an EFS issue.
Asking for someones EFS backup is generally a no no, and it wouldn't work anyway.
My understanding, from reading what Odia posted (who is generally considered the expert on this sort of thing) is that the EFS is in part encrypted with the devices ID, so if you use someone else's EFS on your device, it will fall back to the generic IMEI which would be worse.
Try flashing a full odin firmware and go from there.
veyka said:
If your IMEI is intact its not generally an EFS issue.
Asking for someones EFS backup is generally a no no, and it wouldn't work anyway.
My understanding, from reading what Odia posted (who is generally considered the expert on this sort of thing) is that the EFS is in part encrypted with the devices ID, so if you use someone else's EFS on your device, it will fall back to the generic IMEI which would be worse.
Try flashing a full odin firmware and go from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried using LE8 and LH1 from samfirmware.
Is there any other full odin firmware?
I'm a little confused here. If I am reading this correctly, the phone works OK except it will not connect to a network and so doesn't work as a phone any more. Is that correct?
If so, maybe you're flashing the wrong thing - you might need to flash Modem firmware not ROM. Now I might be even more confused than I think I am, but it seems to me all the Comms stuff will require the modem side of things to be correct. It's possible I think) to have flashed a ROM that could be incompatible or which corrupted your modem side of things.
Keep in mind I am still learning this stuff, but recently I thought I'd get ready to flash a JB ROM by flashing a kernel that was supposed to be for JB - there were others there with a warning NOT to use with JB so I figured I should get one suitable for JB - long story short I had a non-starting phone and had to work from scratch with PC Odin to get everything working again.
So, I am guessing that the ROM you are flashing also needs a kernel and Modem flash. I'm also hoping if I am wrong someone more experienced will tell me why
My guess is also you'd need to flash kernel, then ROM, then Modem, and make sure they are all to whatever version o Android you are wanting to have.
Am I making sense or am I talking through my proverbial?
have you try to use another micro Sim, it can be micro Sim reader o your Sim.
I got my phone repaired from a third party repair centre,
They used SPT box to repair the efs folder. Now i have signals and it can connect normally.
It cost my $60 for repair.
Thanks to every one for helping me out in the repair.
Hey guys!
So once again I find my self asking for help.
So my phone decided to forget it's IMEI so I started following THIS guide.
The guide asked me to return to stock to somehow get the IMEI back.... so I followed THIS guide.
The problem is that after I flashed the phone I got stuck in the "Samsung Galaxy SII I9100" screen (where one gets the yellow triangle)
SO I thought to myself , meh it's a boot loop....so I followed some steps that had previously saved me.
But ever since the first flash I've not been able to access ANY sort of recovery, be it CWM or the normal android one.
I have access to download mode but that's it really....
Please help!
If you've got no recovery & the only option you've got is download mode, flash a stock rom. Then do a factory reset if you need to/assuming you get recovery back.
Then you can restore a backup/re-root your phone/flash whatever kernel or rom you want.
MistahBungle said:
If you've got no recovery & the only option you've got is download mode, flash a stock rom. Then do a factory reset if you need to/assuming you get recovery back.
Then you can restore a backup/re-root your phone/flash whatever kernel or rom you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your quick reply.
Here's the thing. I got the stock rom from here and it's the first thing I flashed as a kernel yet it got stuck in the first screen.
I doubt i made a mistake here (because I checked with my phone´s "about" ) but Maybe I got the wrong version? (would it stop working if so?) .
Get one for your country/carrier from Samfirmware & try that (Be careful if it's 4.0.4 & don't do a wipe until after you've flashed a 'safe' kernel).
Success! I got recovery mode.....
(used Cf Root)
Now how do I go to stock?
If you've got CWM, try flashing whatever kernel you were using before you started having problems (You haven't been using Rom Manager by chance, have you ?). If you still don't have any joy, try flashing whatever rom you were using in CWM.
If we're talking stock recovery but the phone still won't boot normally, still flash a stock rom in Odin.
Nope, no ROM manager.... I had what seemed like a stock ROM , just with a different baseband to work in the UK (it's a mexican phone).
Anyways i'm back to square one..... I tried flashing the stock kernel that I looked for in Samfirmware (the mexican, just in case...) and it's still stuck in boot loop... and again I have no access to recovery...... tried flashing CF to no avail....
argh <.<
You need to try flashing the entire stock rom in that case.
MistahBungle said:
You need to try flashing the entire stock rom in that case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it will be the same? or is there a different place to get the ENTIRE stock rom?
I got the one you mentioned from sammobile... will this include the phone / csc/ things?
by the way..... will it get out of the boot loop?
thanks for your patience...
Go to Samfirmware & search for an entire stock rom (which will have kernel, modem & CSC) for your country if there's an unbranded one, or get one specific to your carrier if there isn't unbranded.
Will it get you out of bootloop ? You'd think so, but without knowing exactly what caused your phone to throw a wobbly in the first place, it's hard to say definitively. But at the moment, you don't really have any other option given your phone won't boot normally & all you have is DL mode.
Edit - I've checked Samfirmware, there's 3 for Telcel; 2.3.6, 4.0.3 & 4.1.2. You can probably skip the GB one & choose either of the other two
And you're welcome
MistahBungle said:
Go to Samfirmware & search for an entire stock rom (which will have kernel, modem & CSC) for your country if there's an unbranded one, or get one specific to your carrier if there isn't unbranded.
Will it get you out of bootloop ? You'd think so, but without knowing exactly what caused your phone to throw a wobbly in the first place, it's hard to say definitively. But at the moment, you don't really have any other option given your phone won't boot normally & all you have is DL mode.
Edit - I've checked Samfirmware, there's 3 for Telcel; 2.3.6, 4.0.3 & 4.1.2. You can probably skip the GB one & choose either of the other two
And you're welcome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, finally finished the download.
I'm soon to flash and I have a dumb question....
should I unpackage the file or flash it to the kernel as is? (its a.zip)
if I extract it it contains the .tar.md5 and SS_Dl.dll
Extract the tar.md5, flash it in the PDA section of Odin. Delete the .dll
MistahBungle said:
Extract the tar.md5, flash it in the PDA section of Odin. Delete the .dll
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just before I break anything.... since this wasn't working just yet (and your explanation explains alot haha)
I got CWM again and I restored my previous mod /build whatever its called......
So I have a working device again. The question then is...... (and completely changing subject) IS there a way to resolve the no IMEI problem from this point?
I dail +#06# and get a blank imei thing.......
Any suggestions?
Forget the code. Check your IMEI in settings/about phone. If it's not 0049-----, then you're fine. If it is & you don't have an EFS backup, there are a bunch of threads on here which claim to be able recover your IMEI; you need to read them (No idea whether these methods work as I've never had to use them & never will because I make EFS backups). Either that or service centre who can fix the IMEI.
Edit -Also, I'm, rather confused. You claim you have nothing but download mode, yet all of a sudden have CWM working ? Sounds like you've left a lot of details/a lot of what you've been doing out. Bit of a waste of my time answering your posts in the end really.
MistahBungle said:
Forget the code. Check your IMEI in settings/about phone. If it's not 0049-----, then you're fine. If it is & you don't have an EFS backup, there are a bunch of threads on here which claim to be able recover your IMEI; you need to read them (No idea whether these methods work as I've never had to use them & never will because I make EFS backups). Either that or service centre who can fix the IMEI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol I guess im screwed haha:
IMEI: Unknown
IMEI SV: unknown
Baseband Version Unknown:
--- Atleast I have the build numbers and kernel version info haha
Thank you for your help and patience! I'll see what I find!
Hello!
Today I decided to go back to the stock ROM of Samsung S3 (international).
So, I downloaded the original from sammobile :
http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/3/?download=16458
Went into the Download mode of my phone:
With Odin3 (v3.07) I loaded the .tar.md5 file which I just downloaded. (by the PDA ofcourse).
Then my phone restarted and just follow the steps as you just get your new Samsung S3, like account configuration etc etc etc.
Did the tutorial to reset the flash/binary counter, just worked.
After this, I was planning to install Whatsapp again,
THEN noticed I had no network signal , except WiFi .
Probably there was no signal when the phone already got started.
I checked *#06# for the IMEI, and there it is.. the 004999xxxxxxxxxx / 08 .
So, I've checked some topics and tried a thing that should repair the IMEI.
But no success!
When I installed CyanogenMod, they didn't told me to backup the EFS folder (or I just didn't see that at all!)
So, I followed this topic:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1264021
Didn't worked.
I'm root again btw on the stock ROM.
Then I noticed I've a backup of my phone BEFORE CM. Made it with the CWM itself, which I moved later to my computer.
So, I moved that one back to my phone. and when I go to CWM Recovery and select Restore
It says:
Couldn't open directory.
No files found.
So, checking for that error, someone came up with moving the backup files to
/data/media/Clockworkmod/backups/
Did not work!
What to do?
I'm questioning myself now, even if the restore is going to work, will the IMEI be restored too?
EDIT: Monday it will be shipped to Samsung.
- Back to stock
- Reset flash/binary counter
- Unroot
- Wipe cache and back to factory
Couldn't get rid of the 0049 IMEI and 0000000 S/N
I'll keep this post up to date when I hear something.
No CWM does not backup efs....I suggest you go here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2393289 because they will close this thread soon due to this question being asked many times before
I've seen that topic indeed, then I will put it back with flash/binary count to No , and the status to Normal.
Hope Samsung will fix it then when it just doesn't work.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23869279/Temp/xxemg4.zip
Flash via CWM. If you don't want to flash it via CWM you can also extract "modem.bin" file and flash as MODEM through your Odin.
JustArchi said:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23869279/Temp/xxemg4.zip
Flash via CWM. If you don't want to flash it via CWM you can also extract "modem.bin" file and flash as MODEM through your Odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply!
I've set everything back to stock and reset the counter/binary to No , and the rest Samsung official again.
Today I went to the shop where I bought my phone, and they're going to sent it to Samsung.
Forgot to mention here that my S/N is also 0000000.
Let's hope that they will repair it.
I've red a news article, that Samsung has a new policy.
They now also repair rooted devices and even when a custom ROM was installed.
I'll find out when I got a message from the service centre.
When I know something, I'll post it here.
Thanks again anyway!
Should have tried your modem.bin
I've red a news article, that Samsung has a new policy.
They now also repair rooted devices and even when a custom ROM was installed.
Doubt that but just in case do let us know if Samsung reject warranty .
JJEgan said:
I've red a news article, that Samsung has a new policy.
They now also repair rooted devices and even when a custom ROM was installed.
Doubt that but just in case do let us know if Samsung reject warranty .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do :good:
Did you read the IMEI / EFS post on the general forum?
I had a similar problem... to make the story short before CM 10.1.3 I was on stock MG4, after CM I decided to go back to my carrier's stock ROM (needed to send my phone for repair, USB port was faulty) and I noticed the IMEI problem. What happened is that Samsung decided to change the efs format with MG4 (July 13th) so any rom prior to that won't be able to read the efs.
If your rom is prior to that then you need to flash a newer modem (MG4 or later) so it can work properly.
jmvelazquezr said:
Did you read the IMEI / EFS post on the general forum?
I had a similar problem... to make the story short before CM 10.1.3 I was on stock MG4, after CM I decided to go back to my carrier's stock ROM (needed to send my phone for repair, USB port was faulty) and I noticed the IMEI problem. What happened is that Samsung decided to change the efs format with MG4 (July 13th) so any rom prior to that won't be able to read the efs.
If your rom is prior to that then you need to flash a newer modem (MG4 or later) so it can work properly.
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Yeah, I must have red over that... But I tried fixing it spending about 10-12 hours on it, cuz of searching and read it carefully.
I had no EFS backup, stupid that the CWM Recovery didn't backed that up , and of course, stupid of myself :silly:
I will now wait if Samsung is going to repair it under my warranty.
If not, they will probably call me about fixing it for a price.. (If the article isn't true about repairing rooted / flashed devices)
Update 15-11-'13
Phone is repaired under warranty!
They reprogrammed the phone and did a software update. I'm not sure if this is the 4.3.
Can pickup my phone monday, because the shop doesn't receive delivery on saturday -_- ..
But at least, it should be working fine now.
Hey, messed up my phone and could really use some help:
I own a Galaxy Note (GT-N7000). Suddenly the IMEI went null/null and baseband unknown. Tried many things to recover from this but nothing seemed to work. I left the phone with the latest stock rom (Jellybean 4.1.2)
I then installed EFS Professional (rooting the phone first and installing BusyBox) and could connect to the phone with EFS Pro. I tried doing baseband and IEMI repair, and though the log showed it had successfully restores from .bak files in /efs partition, IMEI and baseband were still null.
So then I totally screwed it, hitting the "format EFS partition" by mistake (it was 3am by then) and didn't make a backup first. The phone wouldn't boot, so I flashed the latest stock rom again and now it continually loops when showing the Samsung logo when I turn it on. I can turn it on in download mode and recovery mode. When on recovery mode, it says /efs partition not found so I guess that makes sense.
The question here would be: is there any way I can fix it without sending it to service? Some options that sound possible:
- Flash the phone with some other custom ROM that would repartition the whole phone, thus creating an /efs partition again
- Use some nice software to recover the /efs partition
I'm sure that if a service can fix it, there should be a way I could do it as well.
I know my IMEI number (it's in the sticker on the back of the phone) so there should be a way to restore it into de efs partition, right?
Thank you all and forgive me if I've made some noob comment on this post...just doing my best
javigoile said:
Hey, messed up my phone and could really use some help:
I own a Galaxy Note (GT-N7000). Suddenly the IMEI went null/null and baseband unknown. Tried many things to recover from this but nothing seemed to work. I left the phone with the latest stock rom (Jellybean 4.1.2)
I then installed EFS Professional (rooting the phone first and installing BusyBox) and could connect to the phone with EFS Pro. I tried doing baseband and IEMI repair, and though the log showed it had successfully restores from .bak files in /efs partition, IMEI and baseband were still null.
So then I totally screwed it, hitting the "format EFS partition" by mistake (it was 3am by then) and didn't make a backup first. The phone wouldn't boot, so I flashed the latest stock rom again and now it continually loops when showing the Samsung logo when I turn it on. I can turn it on in download mode and recovery mode. When on recovery mode, it says /efs partition not found so I guess that makes sense.
The question here would be: is there any way I can fix it without sending it to service? Some options that sound possible:
- Flash the phone with some other custom ROM that would repartition the whole phone, thus creating an /efs partition again
- Use some nice software to recover the /efs partition
I'm sure that if a service can fix it, there should be a way I could do it as well.
I know my IMEI number (it's in the sticker on the back of the phone) so there should be a way to restore it into de efs partition, right?
Thank you all and forgive me if I've made some noob comment on this post...just doing my best
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Click to collapse
something like a stock odin flash would fix it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261598 as long as it flashes a pit file
then once that works, see if efs pro will let you manually set the imei.
if not, then make sure you are stock, and make sure you use triangle away or something and then send it in.
Lgrootnoob said:
something like a stock odin flash would fix it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261598 as long as it flashes a pit file
then once that works, see if efs pro will let you manually set the imei.
if not, then make sure you are stock, and make sure you use triangle away or something and then send it in.
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Thanks for the help! I'm downloading the AT&T stock rom from the thread you provided and will let you know how it works after flashing it
javigoile said:
Thanks for the help! I'm downloading the AT&T stock rom from the thread you provided and will let you know how it works after flashing it
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Whoaaaa You should STOP ASAP! You can't flash the AT&T firmware via Odin since you have the international version.
es0tericcha0s said:
Whoaaaa You should STOP ASAP! You can't flash the AT&T firmware via Odin since you have the international version.
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I'm from Argentina, this phone is from Movistar carrier. Right now I have the latest stock rom from Movistar flashed, but the rom available does not have any PIT file, so I can't get my efs partition restored and the phone does not boot in normal mode (only download and recovery mode).
As far as I can remember, any phone that works with AT&T in the US works just fine in Argentina with Movistar. I've brought some iPhones from AT&T (not unlocked) and they worked without a problem.
I believe that I have the international version, but what could happen if I flashed the AT&T stock rom?
Thanks!
javigoile said:
I'm from Argentina, this phone is from Movistar carrier. Right now I have the latest stock rom from Movistar flashed, but the rom available does not have any PIT file, so I can't get my efs partition restored and the phone does not boot in normal mode (only download and recovery mode).
As far as I can remember, any phone that works with AT&T in the US works just fine in Argentina with Movistar. I've brought some iPhones from AT&T (not unlocked) and they worked without a problem.
I believe that I have the international version, but what could happen if I flashed the AT&T stock rom?
Thanks!
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It's either going to fail at trying to install the modem and do nothing, or it'll make it worse. In no way is it going to help anything.
You should be able to find your firmware here:
http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/
Thanks. I had already downloaded the Movistar stock rom from Sammobile and this time I tried flashing it (using Odin) together with the PIT file and though it said something in the result log about using pit file for mapping, result was the same...still stuck with a bad efs partition that makes the booting loop again and again...
Any thoughts? How can I fix my efs partition? Any help is much appreciated.
Not sure there would be much more to do on your own without the official backup without special tools like SPT, Octopus Box, SRS, etc, but those cost more than the phone, so would have to find a shop that has the equipment and is also competent at using them. Many of the major software tools have repos with files like you need and the correct way to load them. I'd love to have one for my shop, but requests to fix stuff like this don't come often enough to justify the expense when there are more pressing matters...
On another forum they were saying that you can use the efs backup from another clean phone because it does not actually contain the IMEI, so if you could find one of those... I tried to download a couple for you yesterday to test but they either failed to open correctly or didn't pass the md5 validity check in Odin, which is why I didn't repost.
I didnt mean flash the rom I linked. That was an example. sorry guys.
Lgrootnoob said:
I didnt mean flash the rom I linked. That was an example. sorry guys.
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Desperate times call for desperate measures
I'm still working on restoring the /efs partition, even with a null IMEI, at least to be able to use the phone with wi-fi for other purposes (if I can't find someone to flash a good efs.img and restore the IMEI completely).
Right now it's still a brick. Will post update soon.
Thank you all!
javigoile said:
Desperate times call for desperate measures
I'm still working on restoring the /efs partition, even with a null IMEI, at least to be able to use the phone with wi-fi for other purposes (if I can't find someone to flash a good efs.img and restore the IMEI completely).
Right now it's still a brick. Will post update soon.
Thank you all!
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Click to collapse
I found some links.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1724415
http://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13564
http://imadn2008.blogspot.com/2013/01/fix-boot-loop-for-samsung-galaxy-note.html