[Q] Galaxy S2 possibly deadbrick, need advise - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi, I'm using an international based galaxy S2 I9100. I've been using PA roms for my S2 for quite a while, then I start to get the annoying problems because my google apps (like chrome, maps, etc) doesn't want to update properly because "storage not sufficient" issue.
So I decided to find a way to expand my S2 internal memory of 2GB and found a thread here about .pit files. Downloaded a modified .pit files to make the internal memory to be 6GB and the SDcard (ums) to be 8GB. Flashed the .pit files according to the instructions through odin (data wiping, cache wipe, delvik cache wipe).
When the flashing finished my internal storage did change into 6GB but my 8GB SD card (ums) is gone. I installed diskinfo and it shows that my 8GB was stated as unmounted.
Then I accidentally flashed another kernel without full wipe, so I tried to recover by re-flashing the samsung official stock rom.
After the md5.tar was finished being installed, I was stuck at the booting screen, it keeps playing the samsung logo over and over again.
Then I decided to download an original .pit files, thinking that the partition is the one who most likely makes it bootlooping. Once again because I'm a bit panicking, I didn't realize that I downloaded .pit file for I9100G not I9100. After flashing, the phone was supposed to reboot, but it just turned off and that's it...
I couldn't get it on, usb driver didn't work anymore (pc won't recognize). I've checked with samsung service center, they confirmed that the device still actually have electric current when we turned them on...but because of flashing rom and stuff the only service they offer is to change the mainboard, but the service lady was kind enough to let me know that I might still have a chance without changing my mb, and that is by trying jtag though they didn't provide it @ samsung service center.
I believe my device is in deadbrick situation and I worries that the most important thing is to actually fix the partition even if the jtag able to revive my phone. I've contacted some mobile phone service center in my town to check about jtag, but most of them gave a not so clear answer to some of my questions..
So I'm asking for some answers of my question from experts in xda forum :
1. Can JTAG / RIFF solve my S2 deadbrick problem & partition as well? And how do they really work?
2. Do you think due to what I did (mentioned above), there's some serious problem that JTAG/RIFF won't fix and if the answer is yes, what is the suitable fix?
Due to this problem I had a bad day, would be appreciated that negative comment is not given coz I know I probably did some stupid things above, but that's part of learning...so answers and good advise are welcome and will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Emtzzz

1 & 2) Nobody here could possibly answer your questions, because we don't have the phone in front of us with the JTAG equipment. Anyone here who tries to tell you otherwise is lying out their arse.
You're only going to know if it's JTAG'able or not when someone who does JTAG's has a look at it/tries to do it.

MistahBungle said:
1 & 2) Nobody here could possibly answer your questions, because we don't have the phone in front of us with the JTAG equipment. Anyone here who tries to tell you otherwise is lying out their arse.
You're only going to know if it's JTAG'able or not when someone who does JTAG's has a look at it/tries to do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I understand, that's why I'm hoping there's somebody in this forum who done JTAG or had similar problem with mine might be able to explain to me the solution to my situation...and if they're actually using JTAG as the solution they could probably let me know what to expect / ask from the one who's gonna do the jtag for me.

jtag flashes the bootloader.
If your nand is stuffed, you are looking at mobo change.
Sent from the little guy

Related

New here and need some help

Hello,
I reciently rooted my samsung galaxy s2. I tried a few roms so i could get used to the system or restoring etc. However i encountered a problem whilst having a peek at an alpha jellybean rom, where i noticed that my CWM app on the phone had vanished? I attempted the restore using the 3 button combo and found that i kept recieveing E: can't mount/ E: can't cache messages whilst on the restore screen. i could find my latest restore on my sd card however it wouldnt restore. I believe the CWM was removed from my phone which caused it to not work. I was then stuck in a bootloop. no matter what i done, boot to a stock rom via odin, try the different CF roms i and try to put CWM back on to the phone? I read a post on here from someone who had the same problem, who was told it looked as though there is a problem with the partitions. i followed a tutorial and used odin to put Latona 20110114.pit on the phone. it said i would get a blank screen once this has done and i needed to remove then place the battery back in the phone then put it into download again. This didnt happen!! I done as instructed and now my phone wont go into recovery mode, download mode or even boot loop. I fear i have completely bricked my phone so i am trying to use oneclick heimdall to sort it however my PC keeps saying i need admin rights to install it which i have.
Can someone please help me out. I am new to this so please go easy on me.
many thanks
If you have no signs of life from the phone, it's probably cactus.
You might as well try a jig (but unlikely to work; still try one tho). Only option is service centre & hope they can't tell/don't care you've been messing with it & fix it under warranty or JTAG repair by a 3rd party repairer, at your cost obviously; will be cheaper than having Samsung/an authorised repairer fix it if they refuse warranty service which they're quite within their rights to do.
edinsam said:
i followed a tutorial and used odin to put Latona 20110114.pit on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First result of searching suggests that's meant for the I9003. Good job.
HA
Hello,
Awe well then. never mind eh, whats done is done! Its totally bricked so i thought i would chance my luck by sending it back to O2 for repair. I was reading the only other way to get the phone running again was to take it to bits and hook it up for some stock flashing. so heres hopping they sort it!
lesson learnt!!!

Need assistance on bricked S3

I have a SGH-I747M 4.1.1 Galaxy S3.
I used the Unified Toolkit and rooted/installed CWM, backuped and ready for a new ROM.
As I was installing this custom ROM (Pardus HD), and error popped up and it was aborted, (still in the CWM main menu)
but having only the said custom ROM zip file in the internal memory,
I figured I just shut down and download a fresh copy of the ROM.
and put it in an external SD card then power on the phone back into recovery.
Only thing is it wont power on anymore, the screen is just black, plugging in USB and computer just makes connected/disconnected noise.
(Devices say its "Qualcomm HS-USB DQLoader 9008")
Also tried taking out putting in the battery.
(I know my mistake is I never re-installed the backup) I've run out of ideas, please help.
I have a very similar problem. I had my battery checked thinking that could be the problem. My battery shows that is no good. I tried a new one and still nothing. I can't help but think if it were a missing program it would still come on at least. Lucky for me its covered under insurance. I'd still like to know what happened and if I could fix it.
I'd like to know too if I could fix it myself, other than ''the jig'' or a repair service. currenty trying to revive it still
edit: currently trying this Heimdall thing, goodluck to me...
Have you checked the battery? If I wasn't sending mine back on an insurance claim I would take it apart. I have a Motorola that has a fuse next to the battery under the back of the case. Seems dumb, I know but how could changing the rom "short" out my battery. Dumb again I always thought bricking was only being able to bring up recovery.
I think the battery is fine, as CWM was still running after the error.
That's pretty much what happened to me. Maybe we got to the same problem 2 different ways. Hope you get it figured out.
THIS IS GT-I9300 SECTION..
c'mon there was an stickie on top of this section for you..
HERE.. http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1705
Your problem is that you flashed a rom for gt-i9300 (International) and you have some U.S. variant of s3. That in most cases bricks the phone.
Probably time for a service center visit.

[Q] I think I'm hard bricked

Ok, first of all, I take full responsibility and made some really stupid mistakes. I consider myself an experienced Android user and have been flashing ROMs and radios since the OG Droid.
I am, however, new to Samsung/Touchwiz, and made an error I'm trying to determine if I can repair.
I have not flashed any custom ROMs on the Note 2, but I was unlocked/rooted with CASUAL. I was having some issues with my proximity sensor and my capacitive button lights, and decided to ODIN back to stock. Here is where I screwed up, I think. Instead of flashing like normal, I think I want a completely clean slate, and I checked Nand Erase. I know, please don't bash me, the brick sitting on the table is punishment enough. I was thinking of erasing backups, as in Nandroid (Nand) backups.
Well, everything flashed as normal and the phone bootlooped. No biggie, booted into Recovery, and it gave the warning it couldn't mount the /data partition. I did a factory reset from stock recovery, and everything seemed fine. The phone booted correctly, but it wouldn't activate on Verizon. It finally allowed me to skip set up, and I found the dreaded "Unknown" IMEI.
No, I didn't have a back up of the IMEI. I began reading and studying on ways to fix this, and it seemed simple enough, but I couldn't get QPST to recognize my phone so I could repair the IMEI. The computer could see it on COM5, but QPST kept saying No Phone.
I tried a few other methods, including EFS Professional and NV Item Reader/Writer. But everything said it couldn't communicate with the phone. I made sure I had it in the correct mode in the Phone Util hidden menu, checked USB cables, ports, and drivers a hundred times, with no joy.
Then on a whim, I checked my /efs folder with ES File Explorer, and the contents are empty. Not sure how I erased all the contents, but now I'm pretty sure I'm screwed.
I wanted you to know my steps, before I started asking questions.
1. If I can get another working Note 2, is it possible to use a copy of that phone's /efs folder on mine? If I can get QPST to work, I could then use it to inject the correct IMEI back into the folder.
2. Is there anyway anyone here could upload their /efs folder so I can try it?
3. Any suggestions on QPST and getting it to recognize my phone?
4. Am I just completely hardbricked and out of luck?
Thank you.
I know there are other similar threads, and I have searched...a lot. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm missing anything.
Also, I've found some IMEI repair services online that will fix a missing or corrupt IMEI for about $25 plus shipping. Does anyone know of a reputable repair service for this issue? I'm getting somewhat desperate to get this fixed. I'd be willing to pay someone here to fix it as well if you have the know-how and equipment.
Thank you.
Hi,
There are success stories on this issue in xda...would suggest you to read xda articles on this issue.
Thanks,
Nikhil Dhand
[email protected]
Hope your problem is solved
Thanks,
Nikhil Dhand
Email/chat: [email protected]

[Q] eMMC problem useless phone?

Hey guys been searching for hours and hours and I really need someone to tell me whether I should keep trying to just throw my phone in the can
Somehow my GT-i9100 locked up while running and app and when I took the battery out and restarted it was stuck on the Samsung Logo.
I accessed the recovery menu and wiped cache...didn't work and the phone wouldn't be recognized by the computer nor would it charge when plugged to the wall outlet.
I decided to flash a new stock rom *Previously had the latest version of official ICS on my S2" and I proceeded to select the format/wipe to factory option.
It stayed there then it turned of and now it's a complete total brick! wtf.
I've read quite a bit and it has all the symptoms of an eMMC failure.
Is there any way I can save my phone? Will a jig work to force it into download mode?
I'm supposing the pit file fix requires the phone to boot in recovery.
If you can help me out I'll really appreciate it.
Thanks.
If you have no download mode or recovery/the phone won't boot at all, a jig is highly unlikely to do anything - but try one anyway given they only cost a few bucks. You might get lucky.
Likewise a JTAG more than likely won't be possible, if you can have someone who does JTAG's take a look at it on the basis of no payment unless a JTAG can be done, again you may as well try it.
Most likely fix is motherboard replacement - new one by Samsung service centre (most expensive option) or 2nd hand one by you/a local mobile repair shop (less expensive option).
If your phone was rooted at the time you did a wipe & the stock rom you were running was 4.0.4, then yes, it's probably the brickbug. But if your phone wasn't rooted and not running 4.0.4, then it could have been a whole host of things that caused it to brick (I can't help but feeling there's a bunch of info missing here).
MistahBungle said:
If you have no download mode or recovery/the phone won't boot at all, a jig is highly unlikely to do anything - but try one anyway given they only cost a few bucks. You might get lucky.
Likewise a JTAG more than likely won't be possible, if you can have someone who does JTAG's take a look at it on the basis of no payment unless a JTAG can be done, again you may as well try it.
Most likely fix is motherboard replacement - new one by Samsung service centre (most expensive option) or 2nd hand one by you/a local mobile repair shop (less expensive option).
If your phone was rooted at the time you did a wipe & the stock rom you were running was 4.0.4, then yes, it's probably the brickbug. But if your phone wasn't rooted and not running 4.0.4, then it could have been a whole host of things that caused it to brick (I can't help but feeling there's a bunch of info missing here).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Phone was not rooted, I forget if the last official ICS upgrade for the phone was 4.0.4 it may well be, but I did the wipe from the stock recovery menu. I honestly didn't expect it to brick this way I wasn't even modding it. But I'll try to get someone who jtags I love this damn phone.
Only one confirmed case of brickbug happening to someone wiping from stock recovery, you are not another case.
Cross your fingers it's JTAG'able, will be relatively cheap (tho manage your expectations, far more unlikely that JTAG is possible than likely) compared to the alternatives.

[Q] Device bricked? (Stock flashing already tried)

Hello,
Before anybody gives me the "Use search" or "Here's this link, it solves everything" : I tried all of that !
I read countless number of posts, I tried many things !
So here is what I have :
- Samsung Galaxy S II (GT-i9100) not booting (Stuck at Logo + recovery mod not working (Download mode is))
- Can flash (Tried many different ROMS
- Stock ROM "Ice Cream Sandwich XWLP7 (4.0.3)"
- Stock recovery mod not working but ClockWorkMod's one works when I put it
What I tried :
- Tried to delete data/reset user factory
- Tried to put different versions of CyanogenMod's ROM
- Tried to put different versions of Stock ROM
- Used a stock pit file to repartition using Heimdall
I'm out of clue, if somebody has an idea what I can try ...
Thank you very much !
Edit : Forgot to say, I have access to adb interface
Given you say you've tried 'everything', what exactly do you expect anyone here to suggest ? Motherboard replacement; new one by Samsung service centre (expensive option), 2nd hand one you source online & either swap yourself or pay a local mobile repair shop to swap (cheaper option).
MistahBungle said:
Given you say you've tried 'everything', what exactly do you expect anyone here to suggest ? Motherboard replacement; new one by Samsung service centre (expensive option), 2nd hand one you source online & either swap yourself or pay a local mobile repair shop to swap (cheaper option).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answer, I hope I didn't get too patronizing in my post
So basically my phone is bricked? Can't do anything about it?
Yeah, you did. And that's why I gave you that response.
Right...Now that we have that out of the way, search for Hopper8's 'Odin troubleshooting' thread. I don't think the link to 3 part firmware in the thread is live anymore, but the first thing I'd be doing is trying to hunt down any I9100 3 part stock firmware (not 4.0.4 though) & flashing that. Rationale being as it will wipe your phone, maybe it will remove remnants of what was previously on the phone & which may be causing problems. It's a longshot, but worth trying given the alternatives.
I'd also keep flashing stock firmwares (as many different ones as you can download), and go through all the troubleshooting steps in Hopper's thread. There's always a chance something simple/obvious is being overlooked which is tripping you up, which is easy to do if you've been at it for ages & have had no joy getting it fixed.
If after having done those things the situation hasn't changed, take it to someone who does JTAG's, and if they're prepared to have a look at it on the basis of 'you only pay them if a JTAG is possible' (I know a couple of repairers near me who do this, YMMV though), try that. It's unlikely to work/be possible, but worth trying.
If it isn't JTAG'able, then you either look at motherboard replacement as per my PP, or a new phone, as it's obviously a case of NAND corruption.
The 3 part firmware in hoppers guide is good........I'm hosting it now.....
Try the mediafire link before the dropbox one......
This might be my S2, or it might be my W...but it's definitely CM
Good news Might grab a copy myself in case it ever goes AWOL.
No probs MB.....that's what it's there for....
This might be my S2, or it might be my W...but it's definitely CM
Thank you very much for the 3 part stock firmware but it didn't solve my problem :x
I still have the phone not booting and the recovery mode bootlooping
I'll try option 2, I downloaded a bunch of stock firmwares from Sammobile and will flash my phone over and over
But I'm starting to get the impression that it's not gonna work...
I'll start asking around me if anybody has a not-working SG2 to get his motherboard
Definitely keep trying, but yeah unfortunately, you might want to start looking for that 2nd hand board.

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