Ok, so I have done something incredibly stupid. I had been using Paranoid Android on my Galaxy S2 with no issues, then we got new phones in work so I moved to a company phone, Galaxy S4 and ported over my old number. I also used the external SD card I had bought for the S2 with the S4 (not planning to use the S2 again). When I was tidying up the SD card I noticed the zip files for paranoid android so deleted it without thinking.
Now, however, I want to give the old phone to my sister, but it wont turn on at all. I know the battery is fully charged, I have tried holding down vol+power+home etc. and nothing. Have I completely bricked it? Is there anything I can do?
I should add that I can access another unrooted Galaxy S2, is that any use? Could I flash a recovery to the external SD on that and then swap the card to the bricked phone?
So no download mode.Did you tried vol up+ho
me+power to access the recovery?
Your options are:-
1) A jig.
2) Possible JTAG; this is the cheapest/most stress-free option after #1 (which will cost a few bucks on little e big B), but....Don't get your hopes up it will work, many phones in this situation are not JTAG'able. If you can find someone who will attempt a JTAG for you & you only pay if it's successful, knock yourself out. I wouldn't be paying on the basis of it costing me money upfront whether it works or not though given the next (and overwhelmingly most likely option).
3) Motherboard replacement - irrespective of warranty status, a Samsung service centre should replace the board for you with a new one. This will be somewhat expensive. How expensive will normally be dependent on what phone techs charge for labour in your country.
You also have the option of sourcing a 2nd hand board (cheaper) online; I believe KeithRoss39's 'Replace USB board thread' in General has a list of online S2 parts suppliers to get you started, a Google search will yield others, and then taking the phone & board you've sourced to a local mobile repair shop (non-Samsung service centre) & paying them to swap the boards for you (assuming you don't have the necessary skills to do this yourself). This will be significantly cheaper than the new board option in most cases.
So, in summary, the enormously more likely fix (that will actually work) is #3, with #'s1 & #2 a lot less likely to succeed, though definitely still try #1 unless you're not fussed about spending the money to do #3 right away, and possibly try #2 with the caveat I mentioned.
Edit - Also/before you ask 'what happened/why did it crap itself', nobody here can give you any indication of that. There's obviously something major hardware-wise going on, and without the phone open in front of us, it's impossible to give you a meaningful answer to that question. And though it's a natural question to ask in this circumstance, it's kinda irrelevant - the phone has a hardware fault of some kind, it needs to be diagnosed by someone qualified & fixed. That's the best we can give you.
Extra edit - Actually, as well as trying to get into both 'modes' over and over and over as TheImpossibleEnemy excellently suggested, find Hopper8's 'Odin troubleshooting' thread stickied in General, and try the 'jump start' method where you try to boot the phone with just the charger/minus the battery detailed in his thread. Like #1 & #2, very unlikely to work, but given the alternative/money involved with that, you absolutely try it.
Thanks guys. Yes I ried vol up+home+power to access the recovery, no luck, no response from the phone. I won't be able to get resistors till after the weekend but I'll make a jig then and try that. As regards Options 2&3, the phone is very old now and I have a brand new one so I'm not willing to pay anything significant to get it sorted. I'm only bothered because a) my sisters phone broke so I was going to give her this for the time being and b) I'm worried I might have old photos on the phone I didn't backup
Unfortunately, unless you are able to get the phone to boot, you won't be recovering anything from it. Motherboard replacement means you get a new EMMC, and the only (very) remote possibility of extracting data from that without having the phone work somewhat normally, is a data recovery company which specialises in pulling data from dead HDD's. Fairly unlikely this is possible though (I've never seen anyone post they've been able to get this done in the 2.5 yrs I've been here), and if it is possible, expect it to be very expensive relative to the other fixes.
Crap, that's what I assumed. Thanks anyway. I'll try the jig after the weekend and post back here.
There's a thread in General which has people offering to share their jigs, take a look - there might be someone near you with one, which will might save you at least a couple days/a week/whatever waiting for a little e big B delivery.
Good luck.
Nobody near me unfortunately, but thanks. I wonder how difficult it would be to construct a working S2 from the two I have, one being bricked, and the other working but with a cracked screen. Might be an idea
switch the screens and that's it!:good:
The only problem with that one is it's most likely something on the MB has crapped itself; given the size of the components concerned, no tech worth their salt would attempt a fiddly replacement of individual components on the board given most electronics is 'modular' (everything is made up of 'boards') these days, and it takes no time/no stress for someone who knows what they're doing to simply swap a board.
Having said that, over the last 6-12 mths, we've seen threads/posts by people claiming they've been offered a fix where just the 'power IC' is replaced on the board. I've not seen a single person post & say they've had that repair done successfully in that time though, and you can easily end up with the situation where it's something else on the board that's buggered/as well, so you end up needing the board replaced anyway, or someone attempting the repair stuffs the board up because their soldering skills aren't up to scratch.
If the easy stuff you can try yourself doesn't work & you definitely want to keep the phone, replacing the board in the first instance is the (almost; assuming nothing else is wrong) guaranteed fix.
Edit - But yeah, you can definitely have a stab at trying the good screen on the dead phone on the good phone with the dead screen as per TheImpossibleEnemy's great suggestion. Doesn't get you your data, but it might just get you a working phone for pretty much nothing. Search for the service manuals on here (they've been posted from time to time here) or Google; these have full parts lists & diagrams/pics with run-throughs of the most common repairs (replacing screen is one of those from memory).
Great, thanks guys. I'm an electronic engineer so I'd be pretty handy at this stuff. Just wondering what the easier swap would be, moving mb from one phone to another, or screen from one to another.
Replacing the screen would be easier.
Really? I had a look over a guide for replacing the screen, and one for replacing motherboard. The motherboard replacement actually looked easier to me. Have you experience with doing this yourself?
Never had to
Just my opinion,because to access the mobo one would have to remove the screen first.
The choice is yours of course,as you are some kind of engineer,it should be easy for you to do it in both ways.
I'll take it apart later and see what looks easiest. Will update here
I have some experience with taking the S2 apart.
The way to take apart the phone is to take the back off of it......
This will reveal the circuitry on top of the screen and the circuitry fitted to the rear housing. You will be able to access the motherboard before you access the screen. Adding the *good* motherboard to the *good* screen will be the easiest option for you......
See my guide here....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2335961
You'll find a link to a video that shows a step by step procedure for stripping an S2. You'll also find links for part suppliers......
Sent via my Markox/Gustavo_s powered KitKatted S2
Related
Hello kind and helpful people of XDA.
I am currently looking for some help regarding warranty on my recently diseased Galaxy S2 (SN: i9100GSMH).
Story:
I dropped it on a wooden floor while it was on. The OS kept chugging along, but would only open apps that was already in RAM after the incident.
Noticing trouble, I immediately thought a reboot would fix all my problems. Now it seems the internal memory is dead.
Now I'm trying to make it eligible for warranty, at least by removing the traces of root and unsafe kernel.
I figure that even though I'm sending it in because of a physical defect, they will send it back immediately because of the unsupported firmware.
Symptoms:
I can't enter recovery mode.
I can't boot the OS. It gets stuck on the Siyah kernel logo (big root giveaway, I want it gone).
I can't write to NAND neither through Odin nor Kies (Kies doesn't even connect).
I can enter Download Mode, but of course it shows that I have a custom binary installed. My install count is 1.
Do I have any options? I've heard of some JTAG method that would be able to at least reset the counter (as far as I understand). Is this true?
Regarding the warranty: I am not referring to the standard warranty.
I've paid big cash for a warranty/insurance that covers accidents. My brother dropped his LG Optimus X2 in the toilet, returned it to the exact same store with the exact same type of warranty and got a new one.
With a service like this at hand I really want to try anything to make it eligible for warranty(/insurance).
I have never used my root permissions in any harmful way. I only did it because of the AdFree app, and my favourite ROM DiLiDroid.
I've had great success with rooting and installing various software on my old SE Xperia X1 and HTC Desire (they aren't dead yet, and are my current backup phones),
so I thought it wouldn't hurt with the GS2. Seems I'm paying the price now :crying:
Thank you very much for your time!
If anyone can help me, I'll definitely buy you a beer or a cup of coffee!
Well, an usb jig will reset the binary counter.
About the siyah animaton boot....yakes, if your nand is damaged you'll have to brick it (with a pit file no one is gonna know what the hell you've done with your device).
Then again, have you even tried to make the pc to see the phone? It's worth the try.
Sent from the little guy
Nobody here can do or say anything about any warranty. Anyone claiming the same is lying to you.
If this warranty of yours covers accidents & you had an 'accident', send it in & see what happens. You're not going to get the certainty you're looking for from anyone on an internet forum.
If the phone won't boot, there isn't anything further you can do with it.
I've just read all the little details about my insurance.
It covers liquid damage, screen fractures and other physical accidents one time a year, so I guess I have to give it a whirl in the toilet.
Hopefully that will kill the traces.
The jig sounds like a must have for anyone tinkering with root. Thanks for confirming my theory.
I will definitely crawl the net for one. Special electronics 'equipment' is hard to come by here in Denmark, and I don't think I have the required solder skills to make one myself.
I do find this guide very helpful though: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1604707
This also sounds like the best way to go about this situation, as I can be totally honest about the reason for my phone not working anymore.
Thank you for your time!
If you're gonna flush it, do it right
S2 are hardcore muthaf***ers, they don't die easy. Make sure it doesn't boot after spending 2 days in a bucket of rice.
Sent from the little guy
I realize this as my device has been through some terrible things.
I've ordered a USB Jig, costing about 10$ in total, it should arrive on Wednesday.
If it works I'll be a very happy man as I won't have to lie about the actual defect.:victory:
So maybe the question from the title is a little bit unclear.
The problem that i had with my phone is that one day, i got a message that a new android version appeared(4.1.2)...and obviously i clicked to download it. After the download and install when it was time to enter in my new version, a screen where a password was required appeared, saying something that my phone is encrypted, and a pass is needed to make i work...Problem is that i didn't have a previous password...
So anyway i restarted the phone...and android didn't even brought me to that screen...it just wouldn't load...So i decided to take matters in my own hands (not the best decision i made that day)...
I searched online how to do that...i found about odin..installed it ...and then tried to install android...Problem is that odin gave me errors when trying to upload the kit or something (i was in download mode with the phone)..when odin gave errors i either disconected the cable from the phone, or in some cases i got pissed off and removed the battery...
My question is...could i have broken my phone permanently by doing that ? Like i don't know...in a way..that neither an expert could fix it?
Thanks
You can scramble the NAND so badly it has to be replaced if a flash goes bad/you flash something you shouldn't be flashing (or if you do dopey things like pull a USB cable in the middle of a flash), and the way that's done is by replacing the motherboard, so you can certainly cause damage that costs money to repair, but it can pretty much always be repaired one way or another.
I seriously doubt you could bork a phone completely beyond all repair via firmware/software & without physically damaging components.
No physical damage was made to the phone...
Assuming all the alien language things that you said ...so the worst case scenario...do you have any idea how much a new motherboard would cost?
Varies widely depending on country/how much labor costs in your country. Samsung don't sell new motherboards on their own, you can either pay an authorised service centre to put a new one in (most expensive option, you normally keep your existing IMEI), or you can get a 2nd hand board from a broken/'donor' phone (How much you'll pay for one again highly variable depending on how much someone wants for their busted phone, search eBay/Google) & either swap it into your phone yourself, or if you're not confident with that sort of thing pay a local mobile repair shop to swap the boards for you (least expensive option, your IMEI will change to that of the phone the board came from).
Edit - If what I said in my PP was 'alien', I'd suggest you shouldn't have been messing with your phone in the first place & should probably avoid same when you get it fixed as well.
Teshte said:
So maybe the question from the title is a little bit unclear.
The problem that i had with my phone is that one day, i got a message that a new android version appeared(4.1.2)...and obviously i clicked to download it. After the download and install when it was time to enter in my new version, a screen where a password was required appeared, saying something that my phone is encrypted, and a pass is needed to make i work...Problem is that i didn't have a previous password...
So anyway i restarted the phone...and android didn't even brought me to that screen...it just wouldn't load...So i decided to take matters in my own hands (not the best decision i made that day)...
I searched online how to do that...i found about odin..installed it ...and then tried to install android...Problem is that odin gave me errors when trying to upload the kit or something (i was in download mode with the phone)..when odin gave errors i either disconected the cable from the phone, or in some cases i got pissed off and removed the battery...
My question is...could i have broken my phone permanently by doing that ? Like i don't know...in a way..that neither an expert could fix it?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Long story short, Yes your device could be "Broken" in such a way that the only option is to replace the motherboard. You atleast tried reading and doing something, dude there are several thread regarding this matter try different strategies, try out your luck, ask questions, but don't get your hopes too high.
Sorry pal, I wish you the best of all the luck in this tiny planet of ours.
Edit : sorry I was too late, I actually started the reply almost after you posted it but I went away had a coffee then completed it.
Edit: lol to actually make a phone completely unrecoverable you might need a sledgehammer, no software related issue in the world can completely damage an electronic device(unless that software was related to triggering a nuke).
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Hi all,
I'm new on this forum so I hope i'm not being rude or something.
I had a custom rom on my S2 and wanted to flash the neatrom. I flashed a new kernel first and flashed the wrong one ( stupid!) and now my phone is completely out.
I don't have access to either recovery or download mode.
Please tell me there's something that can be done...
thanks
Belgarion
Keep trying to get into download mode (home/volume down/power) Try a jig (Unlikely to work, but try one anyway. You never know your luck).
Still no response ?
Service centre or local mobile repair shop. Or it may even be JTAG'able (tho I suspect motherboard replacement is necessary). With respect (and I really do mean that), you're not telling us everything you've done/haven't given us enough information, but I suspect it probably doesn't matter given your phone is likely borked.
when the battery is in the phone, it heats up. So I guess something is trying to work in there right?
Well, i've changed Roms many times.
Right before it got "borked?" i had the a Rom based on the chinese OS, can't find the name again xD My phone told me it didn't have the right version of CF root so it wasn't rooted. Because of that I tried to Flash a new Kernel and I went for the DorimanX, but I took the wrong version of it, the 9.x.
Now you've I told it all
Heating up & no response = dead motherboard. As I said, knowing/not knowing 'it all' doesn't matter in your case. You can either take it to an authorised repairer/service centre for a new motherboard (normally more expensive option), or you can source a 2nd hand one from a 'donor' phone (broken screen/etc but otherwise OK); search online - eBay/Google/etc which you can either swap yourself if you're confident or take to a local mobile repair shop if you're not confident (least expensive option).
If the phone is under warranty, you could always play dumb & send it to a service centre, you never know, you may get lucky & they may fix it gratis. But don't assume they will like many people do; these people sometimes end up disappointed because an authorised repairer/Samsung is under no obligation to repair/replace the phone at their expense given you broke it.
At least now I know I'm ****ed
Thanks for answering so fast
Have a great day/night ^^
Honestly, try a jig & keep trying to get into download mode/recovery. There's also a trick you can try to 'jump start' the phone without the battery using the charger (I believe King Rat was the last person to post this a few mths ago search his posts). Also, connect it to a charger & leave it for as long as it takes to charge from empty/overnight. You could also try another battery (at least you'll have a spare when you get it fixed), but getting warm & no response is normally a bad sign.
These methods are probably unlikely to work, but you have nothing to lose by trying them over & over & you may get lucky.
Hello every-xdadeveloper-one~ here i would like to ask questions about my S2 GT-i9100g
My phone is dead. No download mode, recovery mode, usb connection, odin recognition, kies detection, charging, turning on, nada. Meaning in whatever it is, it is not responding to anything.
I would like to ask some professional help here in xda; what has happened to my phone? Is it the emmc? power supply failure? or anything related to it? i really need to know any related things that i'll be dealing with before going to the last step, service repair. it is working fine, i have rooted, unrooted, cyanogenmod and stock, cwm and stock, but none of this has given any problems until one day when it is charging, it suddenly turned off forever.
Please tell me any related things of what has happened.
note: i used a few PIT files when flashing before this, and i'm not sure which is which for the mobo. and few months back before the s2 is totally dead, it keeps on turning off by itself even when full battery, but still workable.
Probably the EMMC, but without having the phone in front of us with the tools to diagnose it, nobody here can tell you this for certain. Fix will be motherboard replacement (assuming you intend to keep this phone & not get a new one).
Take it to a Samsung service centre (more expensive option), or source a 2nd hand motherboard online & either swap the boards yourself, or pay a local mobile repair shop to do it (cheaper option).
Well i just bought a phone from amazon and got it monday it had half battery when i got it so i put it on the charger A hour later it was dead so dead that it wont even charge i tryed diffeent plugs different chargers still nothing what could it be ???
^^^
What model; I.E sticker on the phone chassis under the battery, what does it say ?
I guess it is :crying: Heard there is a workaround that maybe the balls beneath the emmc is like problematic? Maybe i need to reheat it a few seconds and cool it instantly to MAYBE get it able to turn back on? Changing a new board is not an option as important work flowcharts are in the internal storage. I guess service repair of the emmc is needed. Hmmm.
Is it possible that wrong PIT files be the culprit that made all this?
You won't be recovering any data regardless of how you proceed.
You can't 'repair' the EMMC, and it's not feasible to just replace the EMMC (and even if it was, your stuff is on there which means you lose it anyway), replacement of the board is how you proceed. Even if it was possible to replace just the EMMC, you'd probably end up paying 3-4 times the cost of having the entire board replaced due to the cost of labour (swapping a board takes 10 minutes).
If a PIT was the problem, the problem would have occurred immediately after the PIT flash I.E you would have flashed the PIT, and the phone wouldn't have booted immediately after. It's a simple case of component failure, which happens with all electronics all the time. I'm always surprised by how people on here seem to find this incredible. Stuff breaks, simple really.
The only possible very rough chance you have of recovering any data is a company who specialises in recovery of data from dead HDD's, they may be able to help, though very unlikely. If they are able to help, expect this to be very expensive. I have not seen a single post from anyone who has contacted one of these companies & been able to recover data from a phone in this state in the over 2 yrs I've been here.
Thank you for the info. Now i guess the only choice to do, is to repair(replace the mobo), or go buy a brand new s2(or higher models). I will check if there is any way to retrieve the data inside, and i dont mind the cost. :good:
Hi Guys,
I have hard bricked my SGS2 I9100 as .pit file flash failed. Now there is no download/recovery/normal boot. It is completely dead, not detected on any PC by USB/Odin. It gets hot and there is slight vibration while charging. There is no response for USB Jig.
Samsung service center told there is motherboard issue and they don't repair it, they straight away replace it for $150 which I am unwilling to spend now.The phone has gone through the hands of many good technicians but all dismissed the chance of repair saying its an major hardware issue and components are out of stock/ unwilling to do it.
A repairman said he tried to JTAG it but from what he says is that eMMc chip didn't respond to Riff Box. I am not sure whether he correctly tried it on a Riff Box or any other box.
My questions are,
Q1) Should I once again try to JTAG it through other source ? Can any one tell me what's difference does it make to either JTAG it on Riff Box/Medusa/Z3X/GPG & Other Boxes ?
Q2) Does replacing the eMMc flash chip & power IC with new one increases the chances to revive the phone ?
Q3) If I were to replace the IC's from where could I buy it in "India" or should I buy it from aliexpress.com ?
Q4) Are the below IC models correct for I9100:
eMMc Flash IC: KMVYL000LM-B503 or KLMCG8GE2A-A001 (I am unable to
find this chip KLMCG8GE2A-A001 to buy if it is for I9100) source: mobiletechvideos.com
Power IC: MAX8997
Q5) Is there any other method apart from replacing IC's/JTAGGING through which I can repair my I9100 ?
Awaiting your responses. :fingers-crossed:
Long story short - replace the motherboard or buy a new phone.You already tried everything.
Only a few people had successfully replaced the eMMC chip.As it's very hard to do.Resoldering these kind of chips is simply impractical.
TheImpossibleEnemy said:
Long story short - replace the motherboard or buy a new phone.You already tried everything.
Only a few people had successfully replaced the eMMC chip.As it's very hard to do.Resoldering these kind of chips is simply impractical.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree to your point. But still I want to take a chance with the eMMc/Power IC replacement option. At my end I am looking for a proficient technician who can do precision soldering, what I want from this forum is, has IC replacement worked for any one of you guys and if yes can you mention the detailed steps for the same. Because on GSM Hosting forums a lot of guys have replaced the IC's and got their S2 working. But because of technical issue of minimum 10 post for a new thread I cannot ask there. This forum is my only hope to find proper solution to my problem.
You won't see anyone post those steps because I've never seen anyone on here post they've had someone do this repair successfully. I've seen a number of people post here (particularly over the past 6 mths & particularly in some countries) that they've been offered this fix, but not a single one has posted & said they had it done & it was successful.
Why ? Because no tech with any competence would attempt this for a couple of reasons:-
1) It would be a pain in the arse to try. It would be very fiddly/take a long time. Small electronics these days is mostly 'modular' & replacement of tiny parts just doesn't happen anymore; 'boards' are replaced because it's quicker/easier for the tech, and cheaper for the customer. Even if these fixes were possible, you'd pay more than what a motherboard replacement would cost. And even then you're probably relying on someone with questionable technical ability telling you it is possible when people who really know what they're doing & talking about just wouldn't bother.
2) You have no way of knowing yourself whether you're being told the truth about this 'power IC' nonsense actually being the problem. What happens if you try this fix, only to find out the NAND is actually corrupted (which it is 99.999999999999999999999999% of the time; you are not the exception here); this means you pay for the fix which has no chance of working, and then you pay again for a motherboard replacement or new phone.
By all means sit in this thread for months & months with a non-working phone waiting for the information you're after to be posted, but it never will be for the reasons I've mentioned. If it was me, I'd want my phone working ASAP because I need a phone.
MistahBungle said:
You won't see anyone post those steps because I've never seen anyone on here post they've had someone do this repair successfully. I've seen a number of people post here (particularly over the past 6 mths & particularly in some countries) that they've been offered this fix, but not a single one has posted & said they had it done & it was successful.
Why ? Because no tech with any competence would attempt this for a couple of reasons:-
1) It would be a pain in the arse to try. It would be very fiddly/take a long time. Small electronics these days is mostly 'modular' & replacement of tiny parts just doesn't happen anymore; 'boards' are replaced because it's quicker/easier for the tech, and cheaper for the customer. Even if these fixes were possible, you'd pay more than what a motherboard replacement would cost. And even then you're probably relying on someone with questionable technical ability telling you it is possible when people who really know what they're doing & talking about just wouldn't bother.
2) You have no way of knowing yourself whether you're being told the truth about this 'power IC' nonsense actually being the problem. What happens if you try this fix, only to find out the NAND is actually corrupted (which it is 99.999999999999999999999999% of the time; you are not the exception here); this means you pay for the fix which has no chance of working, and then you pay again for a motherboard replacement or new phone.
By all means sit in this thread for months & months with a non-working phone waiting for the information you're after to be posted, but it never will be for the reasons I've mentioned. If it was me, I'd want my phone working ASAP because I need a phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyways.. I have given my phone for eMMc replacement let us see what it turns out to be. Thanks for your input Mistah. Will post back once I get my phone.
One more thing MistahBungle, as you have mentioned NAND corruption thats the exact issue I faced in Odin, does it means the flash chip is dying or as I read it its stuffed beyond recovery.. what exactly is NAND corruption and is there any solution for it apart from mobo change ?
Arjune said:
Anyways.. I have given my phone for eMMc replacement let us see what it turns out to be. Thanks for your input Mistah. Will post back once I get my phone.
One more thing MistahBungle, as you have mentioned NAND corruption thats the exact issue I faced in Odin, does it means the flash chip is dying or as I read it its stuffed beyond recovery.. what exactly is NAND corruption and is there any solution for it apart from mobo change ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It means the chip has been 'scrambled' due to a bad flash, which means nothing can be written to or read from the chip anymore, which is why your phone won't boot, the (for the sake of simplicity, the tech version is available with a Google or XDA search) 'pre-boot' stuff/OS/etc lives on it, without that = dead phone.
Only solution is to replace it, and as we've said, replacing just that chip isn't feasible, so the whole board is replaced.