Hello.
A year or two ago I purchased this Samsung Galaxy S2 GT i9100 from Ebay, which came to me in Chinese. I changed it to english, eventually, but I could never get it to update firmware, which was a minor contrivance. I continued using it for a long time, with some reservations.
Though two days ago, I finally got around to giving a workaround a shot, which didn't work. I tried another, and another; and nothing worked until I gave up and then all of a sudden, kies decided it would update the firmware out of the blue - without me actually doing anything.
Go figure.
Anyway, the phone started working great until I did some updates on my apps, I lost my "Navigation" app which I am told, most likely got put back into google maps (as it was a part of it) and the phone has crashed twice, frozen for several seconds several times and been quite slow in general since. I googled a bit and found that the culprit was likely the /data/logs - but I cannot get to them as the phone isn't rooted. I deleted some apps to make room on the phone, as it was 1.8/2gig (wouldn't let me update half of my apps at one point!), bringing it down to 1.4 but that had very little affect on the phones performance, and I still have half a dozen Gigs left on the USB. So the logs seem to be the culprit at this point.
Further googling indicated to me that I should err on side of caution and factory reset the phone, but I was unsure whether I should do it before or after rooting the phone, which caused me to find out about this "brickbug".
And I also found out, by an "eMMC brickbug checker" app, that I have a:
Type: VYLOOM
FwRev: 0x19
Brickbug? YES. Insane Chip.
Which leads me to asking you guys what the best process for me to go about this is, considering that I need to not brick my phone as I return to university in two days, but cannot continue with phone locking up and crashing?
Should I skip on the factory reset and just root phone, and if so which process is best, there are so many?
If further info, which update etc, is needed to select proper method I require, please let me know how/where to find it, and I'll post it asap.
Thank you in advance,
Don.
Whether you have a susceptible chip or not is largely irrelevant; the brick bug is triggered by running rooted stock 4.0.4 & doing a factory reset, anything else & you're fine.
I'm not sure why you think rooting the phone is going to fix the problems you're describing ? I'd only be rooting the phone if you have a specific reason to do it. Also, if you absolutely cannot be without your phone, don't root or flash anything to it ever. Sometimes stuff goes wrong, and you simply can't completely remove that risk regardless of what some people on here might tell you (even tho that risk is very very small for a given flash).
So...If I were in your situation, first up a factory reset. If that doesn't help, find Hopper8's 'Odin troubleshooting' guide stickied in the General section, download the 3 part firmware linked in the thread, flash it with Odin. This will wipe your phone. I'd then download a stock rom for your country/carrier from Samfirmware (anything but 4.0.4) & flash that with Odin. This will give you a clean installation & should resolve your issues. If it doesn't, you're probably looking at either something on the app side not playing nice, or a hardware issue.
If you want to root the phone or flash a custom rom from there, that's up to you, but be mindful of the potential for stuff to go wrong. So far as methods to do these things go, this stuff has been/asked answered thousands of times here over the past 2.5 yrs. We have stickied threads near the top of Q&A & also a thread with a multitude of guides/tutorials stickied near the top of the General section. If you do go down this path, taking as much time as you need to read/learn/understand methods on your own (as opposed to someone regurgitating a bunch of steps you don't understand the consequences of) before you do anything should limit the chance of 'accidents' happening.
Related
Hi everyone,
I've been an android user for a long time and I just bought a SGS3 on ATT, I was ready to start flashing until I saw this thread, and now I don't even want to root.
I've read all the threads I could find on this issue and they all said slightly different things, so I'm looking for a concrete answer to this question:
Are any devs working on this, and if so are they making progress toward a real solution in the future? (I ask this because I've read some people saying this may never be fixed)
I appreciate your responses, and I hope they do find a solution so I won't be stuck on stock forever.
Also: If I do lose my IMEI, does everything still work except 4G?
1. root
2. triangle away
3. if it messes up, return and say 'i dunno wtf happened, it just happened randomly'
4. ????
5. profit
6. YOLO
Hey all, before I say my problem, firstly I have no idea if this is the right section in the forums so apologies in advance, secondly, I have held out for 3 days trying to work out various issues before I posted. I probably did just miss one thing or misread another but no matter how much I look, no idea what as new to this. Thanks in advance for your help.
Basically, wanted to flash some custom firmware to my phone, I have been having many issues with backing up on Kies, seems to be something related to my USB's and my computer, it keeps failing during the backing up of programs. I ended up giving up on this, made a titanium pro back up of System files and of programs, also made a Nandroid backup, both on my internal phone memory I believe. Have root access, installed busy box and such, backed up some other stuff using EFS Pro, now I am completely confused, I have followed a few guides dotted around the internet, tried to install some custom firmware, it was Carbon Rom 4.2 I believe. I went into the CMW menu, wiped data/factory reset, wiped partition cache, and wiped dalvik cache, installed the rom from my internal phone memory, as it would not find it on the memory card when I tried, and now after two attempts of it seemingly doing it, on rebooting the phone, I go back to the Samsung firmware.
I have tried to read up as much as I can but obviously I am missing something here and no amount of guides or google searches have hinted at my problem, could anyone help? I know people asking constantly for information on how to put on custom firmware will be irritating, but I have genuinely taken this as far as I can alone Cheers
Now after formating something under mount/system, my phone is stuck on the logo screen, reinstalling the ROM does not work either, no idea what to do now
reflash rom, wipe data and voila.
Hey, thanks for the reply. By reflash rom, which way do you mean, am pretty confused still. The rom I download basically bricked my phone, I don't know why, I think to recover it I use ODIN and get my stock software, so is that what you mean? Or can I somehow use my Nandroid back up..?
deancolt45 said:
Hey, thanks for the reply. By reflash rom, which way do you mean, am pretty confused still. The rom I download basically bricked my phone, I don't know why, I think to recover it I use ODIN and get my stock software, so is that what you mean? Or can I somehow use my Nandroid back up..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a Nandroid restore that or flash your original firmware via Odin .
Never restore system files after a firmware change with TB .
jje
Ok here is the situation now, I have made things 100 times worse, I possibly should not of been doing it this late... I followed guides exactly though and there is definitely something not working right with this phone, I just don't know what, all I know is its very temperamental with connecting to computers and will fail doing the custom firmware flashes half the time, no matter what I use, even using the stock ROM i got from samimobile has caused many problems. It might be me, I don't know, but in my frustration followed some advice on a forum and I think I formatted the mount/system. SO obviously I lost both my back up's. My fault and can live with that, phone was bricked and had to do that to get past it I think..
But now no matter what kernel I use and have tried quite a few including my original one, I am unable to connect to my home wifi. It definitely is not the wifi, it worked just fine before I flashed the phone and has been working with it for 4 months, now whenever I set up the phone its constantly stuck in this obtaining network ip infinite loop. No fixes I have used have helped at all so far Sorry to keep asking stuff, I am just literally at the end of my tether, was up until 7am messing with it to no avail.
Just to reiterate a point, the reason I wanted custom firmware was because the phone was crashing randomly and just dying on me and also the speaker had lost like 90% of the volume when I wanted to play music, also it would not connect to my computer with ease, now obviously before I did anything it had issues. So that is why I feel something might be wrong, not saying I did not break anything myself, just the process of flashing the firmware has been pretty straight forward once I did it a couple of times, it has just been failing and bricking every other time, so I am not sure what the problem actually is, did I miss a step, did I mess it up? If not what has. Please helps guys. Regards.
I formatted the mount/system. SO obviously I lost both my back up's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
formatting system wouldn't touch your backups
deancolt45 said:
Just to reiterate a point, the reason I wanted custom firmware was because the phone was crashing randomly and just dying on me and also the speaker had lost like 90% of the volume when I wanted to play music, also it would not connect to my computer with ease, now obviously before I did anything it had issues. So that is why I feel something might be wrong, not saying I did not break anything myself, just the process of flashing the firmware has been pretty straight forward once I did it a couple of times, it has just been failing and bricking every other time, so I am not sure what the problem actually is, did I miss a step, did I mess it up? If not what has. Please helps guys. Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Usual reply if you did not know what and why and had never bothered to read the faqs and guides before flashing .Then its nearly always user error .
Best take it to a service centre and pay for a repair .
jje
edinghn are
Close thread please
Found out something really handy
Hi guys,
TheGS3 has 1 huge trick when u got stuck in firmware, CSC, etc.
Especially when u used some super usefull toolkit (like me)
I used the Galaxy S3 Toolkit, option4 (ALL in ONE) just push enter 2 times
1 to start and the last one to exit...
Got all the issues i read on hundreds of pages searching for the solution.
Accidentialy i found this morning (its 4:45am right now and busy with it since 15:00)
Start Kies, connect GS3 with USB kabel and when it says not connected take out USB
Dont plug in USB for a while...
In KIES go to Tools and irmware upgrade.. Remember, DONT plug in USB
It will ask u for your model nr which is printed on sticker in baterycover
Confirm and it will ask u S / N' which is printed on same sticker
It will start downloading firmware and u will be guided through update progress
Good Luck to y'all.. Time to go to bed.......
Full story: Sold my phone, tried unrooting, soft brick, went back to stock, flashed Cameleon ROM 3.0.2, starts acting weird (more frequent freezes and reboots, vibrates for about 5-10 seconds when it's been off for a while), charge and boot up this morning, and now phone refuses to connect to any network. IMEI's not blocked or anything. TriangleAway formatted my internal SD, so no backups. Also said the battery was at 100% every time I rebooted, even though it was ~85%. Clean flashing CM10.1 didn't help. I've searched everywhere and nothing seems to help. Warranty's out long ago. I'm incredibly frustrated and desperate for a solution
Who knew running low on battery could cause this?
Running on low battery didn't cause it, tho it could be a simple case of needing a new battery. Might want to try that first, tho it does sounds like the USB board is on the way out. This gets discussed here all the time, search for these threads & read them very carefully. There's 4 different revisions of the board; you need to order the same one that's currently in the phone or your phone may not work properly. Other than that, it's quick/cheap to replace yourself.
So if a new battery doesn't do it, replace the USB board.
Edit - Re: the phone not connecting to networks, how do you know for certain the IMEI isn't blocked ?
MistahBungle said:
Running on low battery didn't cause it, tho it could be a simple case of needing a new battery. Might want to try that first, tho it does sounds like the USB board is on the way out. This gets discussed here all the time, search for these threads & read them very carefully. There's 4 different revisions of the board; you need to order the same one that's currently in the phone or your phone may not work properly. Other than that, it's quick/cheap to replace yourself.
So if a new battery doesn't do it, replace the USB board.
Edit - Re: the phone not connecting to networks, how do you know for certain the IMEI isn't blocked ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, I don't know for certain. I used AMTA's checker, and apparently it's not blocked.
I'll try repairing the board. In the meantime, I'll contact the police to find out about the IMEI. Thanks!
Something similar happened to me, try to flash your device with an official ROM, preferable Android 2.3 root your device, then search the GB's Modem or baseband, find the one compatible for your network or country and then you need to flash it via CWM recovery of course you need to be rooted, do a full wipe before you flash anything. Doing this you device should be fully functional and then you can install any Custom Rom. Hope that helps..!
Phone specs first
Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-i9100
Rooted
CWM
Hardcore speedmod
android 4.1.2 jb
PC is windows 8
I remember i had turned the usb debugging on in dev options
so last night i tried to install cyanogenmod on my device with the cyanogenmod installer for PC and Android.
I was having a bit of usb problems with noticing that my pc did detect the phone, but i couldn't see the phone in
"my computer" file. I thought it would soon fix by itself(i dont know why) and also noticing that detecting device in cm installer
took a lot of time. So when it finally detected the phone it started installing the CM. Although after coming to the
"installing operating system" point, it stopped and said "we couldn't talk to your phone" and having this blue CM guy standing in the screen
of my phone. I tried again several times with rebooting my pc and phone. To the phone appeared again this blue cm figure just standing there.
When i would go and try again on pc it said the "we couldn't talk to your phone" text again. So i gave up with the installer and thought that would be better to flash that CM with Odin. At this point i couldn't access my phone(except for download mode and recovery) of course because it had screwed up the system. I tried to search internet for some usb problem fixes and there were some solutions on changing something in your
device settings and dev options, i cant go there, so for now thats not an option. I started following a tutorial in youtube on how to install cm with odin and root your device. My first question here is that should i install everything and start from scratch (Gapps,CM and kernel) or just the CM ROM? And the problem here is that when i started following the tutorial and came up to the part of having to move the Rom,kernel and gapps to the phone's sd card, i realised that wouldn't work because i cant see the phone on my pc, for now that's the problem number 1. My pc says "unknown device" ( i think thats what it means, see im translating) when i try to plug my phone in. Got any solution for this so we could move on to step 2?
And btw this is in a bit of a hurry, as i really have to get this phone working today.I need it! :crying:
And yeah i did read the other threads about PC not recognizing the phone but those solutions there require the phone to be turned on and changing something there. So basically my phone is bricked and cant connect to pc with usb, i have tried another pc too with 2 usb cables but the phone wont show up under "my computer"
Get stock firmware from Samfirmware, try & flash with Odin. Problems with flash ? Find Hopper8's 'Odin troubleshooting' thread stickied in General; try as much of the stuff in that thread as you need to in order to get a successful flash of stock firmware & a clean slate (I.E a working phone, getting the phone back to this state should be your only thought at this point), then you can try reflashing a custom rom/whatever from there if you want to.
If you do have problems with the stock flash, make sure you actually do everything in the thread, or your phone will stay busted. These things are fixed with perseverance & doing everything possible, there is no easy fix.
Also, please don't post about the same issue twice, there was no need for you to make this thread & post to the other thread as well.
MistahBungle said:
Get stock firmware from Samfirmware, try & flash with Odin. Problems with flash ? Find Hopper8's 'Odin troubleshooting' thread stickied in General; try as much of the stuff in that thread as you need to in order to get a successful flash of stock firmware & a clean slate (I.E a working phone, getting the phone back to this state should be your only thought at this point), then you can try reflashing a custom rom/whatever from there if you want to.
If you do have problems with the stock flash, make sure you actually do everything in the thread, or your phone will stay busted. These things are fixed with perseverance & doing everything possible, there is no easy fix.
Also, please don't post about the same issue twice, there was no need for you to make this thread & post to the other thread as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So just flashing the stock rom? Does the firmware need to be specifically from that region you live in?
Got the Odin detecting my phone now so that's one step further. Huge thanks for helping me!
itsFreezy said:
So just flashing the stock rom? Does the firmware need to be specifically from that region you live in?
Got the Odin detecting my phone now so that's one step further. Huge thanks for helping me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, for me. I never tried to flash stock rom using other country. So, I don't know what will happen if I do so. Maybe you will get some problems with calls, messages, etc..?
So now i have tried to flash 3 different ROM's and everytime i get stuck for a while in the SetupConnection step and after about 2 minutes it just says all threads completed succeed 0/1 failed and cant open the serial (COM) port. I am on download mode on the phone.
Then you need to go back to Hopper's thread and try everything suggested in the thread, including multiple PC's if necessary.
I did say your phone will stay busted in my PP if you didn't do everything in that thread as many times as you need to (looks like the prophecy is being fulfilled). There is nothing else that isn't in that thread that can be suggested in these situations, that thread is the Bible.
Only you can fix your phone in this situation, we can't do it for you. I've given you the tools to get it done, it's up to you whether you do & how long your phone stays in its current state.
Huuuge thanks to you !
MistahBungle said:
Then you need to go back to Hopper's thread and try everything suggested in the thread, including multiple PC's if necessary.
I did say your phone will stay busted in my PP if you didn't do everything in that thread as many times as you need to (looks like the prophecy is being fulfilled). There is nothing else that isn't in that thread that can be suggested in these situations, that thread is the Bible.
Only you can fix your phone in this situation, we can't do it for you. I've given you the tools to get it done, it's up to you whether you do & how long your phone stays in its current state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already said this, but thank you for helping, i got it working! I flashed in a cwm kernel and stock rom.You really dont know how
grateful i am! It was kinda stupid to go and try install cyanogenmod without backing up, but that's not going to happen in the future.
Also i think i needed this to happen, i mean it still was a very good lesson to understand the basics of odin flashing and kernels,roms and rooting.
I really thought for a while that i had lost my phone. Hopper8's thread really helped!
Good man. And yes, you're right, having this sort of thing happen early on can be a really good learning experience & give you the knowledge/confidence to recover from just about anything (had a not dissimilar experience to yourself about a week after I got my S2 2+ yrs ago, I learned a helluva a lot in the two days my phone was borked) that happens in future.
Don't forget to thank Hopper's OP in his thread if you haven't already.
I apologize up front if this is has been previously asked. I found lots of helpful info on here searching through old threads but being a bit of a luddite I was a bit confused exactly which situation applied to me. I live in China and recently bought a s3 I9300I and attempted to root it using the chainfire method from the video on this site. Odin declared success but when the phone rebooted it just went back to download mode with a message at top saying, "Could not do normal boot, ODIN MODE." Turning it off and on, removing battery and retrying Odin flash produce no results. The most important thing of course is just to get the phone back to functioning but I'd also like it rooted if at all possible. I read that using Odin to install a custom kernel would root it and I would not be at all opposed to a good custom kernel. I read something about a binary counter that may need to be reset but that seemed to require doing something with the actual phone functions which don't seem to work. Odin still recognizes it when I plug it in and attempts to let me redo the rooting but it just shows a progress bar then reboots right back into download mode. Sorry if this is basic stuff but I'm kind of terrified of bricking this thing and am just not sure what the best course of action is here. Thanks for any help you can offer.
Chinese stock firmware is different to the international, there is a special thread in general forum on rooting etc.
Do you have a link to that thread? I have looked and cannot find anything that seems specific to this problem.
Please. Searching for "China" or "Chinese" gets me absolutely no relevant results. If this has already been covered can someone please direct me to the thread. I really need to get this phone working and am at a loss. Thanks.