So my s3 has been having problems for months, kept shutting off randomly, then just over a week ago it got stuck on the bootup logo and wouldn't work at all. I plugged it into Kies and tried to restore it although it somehow failed and told me to try an emergency restore, although never told me any code and the device doesn't show up on the list of devices to emergency restore.... wtf.... So now it boots to an error saying "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue"
I think it still had a warrenty from the shop I bought it, but not from samsung (I got it from a used phone dealer with 1 year warrenty) but they are not in my city, so I'd need to have it shipped to them, wait weeks, and as it now has the appearance that I am the one who bricked it doing firmware upgrades (even though I used samsungs Kies software) I have a feeling they might just tell me to bugger off, after waiting weeks without my phone....
So I tried to flash it with odin using stock firmware but when I tried this I get the error "There is no PIT partition". As I know the next thing to do is download a .pit file, although I've also read this can permanently brick the phone and I am feeling a little out of my depth. So I wanted to ask the advice/opinion of the more tech savvy people here before I continue going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole.
-Would downloading a .pit file likely fix my phone?
-Is it really as easy to permanently brick it as people make it sound?
-Are there any safer options to try?
-Do you think I've probably already invalidated my warrenty anyway and have nothing to lose?
Thanks for any advice or opinions.
Your guarantee will still be valid. Stop messing with it and return it. Most likely the nand is bad and flashing a pit file will finish it off for good.
I wish I stole my HTC M9.
Related
Hi *.
My I9100 [soft]bricked. Today neerajganga was trying to help me with it [thanks!], but we ended up where we started.
In last month I had few /data corruptions - phone freezed and cleared everything after reboot [I'm guessing fsck failed to recover], I though it was WIUI/MIUI rom instability.
Last week phone freezed but after rebooting it was stuck on siyah kernel logo. Also couldn't get into recovery mode - stuck on samsung logo with yellow triangle. I found that thread, downloaded ICS rom, flashed everything. System booted. So I've flashed siyah kernel again and restored rom from CWM backup.
Two days ago phone freezed again [damn!]. But this time, even though Odin showed no errors while flashing, it still had siyah kernel and freezed on it's logo.
Today we spent with neerajganga over an hour trying to flash ICS rom, bootloader, modem, pit, etc. Later we tried GB versions. Nothing changed, still Odin "thinks" flashing went ok [progress bar on phone moves nicely] but after restart phone has yellow exclamation and freezes on siyah logo. Looks like phone cheats Odin about writing kernel/rom, while ignoring all data.
I'll try USB JIG as soon as I'll get my hands on it, but according to neerajganga it probably won't work because I have new ICS bootloader.
I'm guessing faulty nand memory is causing those problems. Phone is still on warranty, but I can't return it until I get back to stock kernel/rom. They would probably reject it and cancel my warranty. Or maybe I can somehow "nicely" brick phone into state where nothing can be seen...
Any ideas? I really need that phone to work [24/7 access to business e-mail :/]
NAND is stuffed. Some JTAG repairers can repair these now (like these guys, for example). Or repair by Samsung/authorised repairer & hope they either don't care or can't tell it's been messed with (otherwise you'll end up paying to have it fixed).
You've exhausted all possible fixes anyone here can off. 'Or maybe I can somehow "nicely" brick phone into state where nothing can be seen...' Accordingly, I've asked mods to close this thread. What you've asked there is straightup fraud.
"I really need that phone to work [24/7 access to business e-mail :/] " If I really needed a phone to work 24/7 for business, I would not be flashing non-stock firmware which is experimental in nature in the first place
Tried to install the rom XXLQ5, this is the last leak
And how's that supposed to help exactly ?
Thread closed
There isn't anything left to try here, and encouraging fraud isnot something we allow here on XDA.
Hey guys
1) Restarted my phone today using CM10.1 from a very recent nightly (within the past week).
2) On restart, phone froze and got kernel panic.
3) Restarted into CWM and tried to do a restore to an earlier backup I had made.
4) Half-way through the restore, I got ANOTHER kernel panic (never had that before)...
5) Only things I could do with the phone after that was enter download mode...nothing else...couldn't enter recovery mode anymore.
6) Went into download mode and flashed this CWM-Recovery (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1118693) and followed the instructions to the letter.
7) Odin 3.07 hung on NAND Write Start
8) Tried using Odin 1.3, and it seemed to flash correctly. It says completed no errors.
Phone will now not even start and is completely unresponsive...pressing any combination of buttons will not start the phone, and the phone is not recognized in Odin anymore...did I just hard brick it? Any other ideas?
Thanks,
Elliott
Service centre. Although if you can have someone who does JTAG's have a look at it to determine whether it can be JTAG'd without you giving them any money up front (I.E you only pay them if it can be JTAG'd), try that first.
Thanks that's what I thought.
Also, try a jig if you can get one. In all likelihood won't work, but stranger things have happened & you have nothing to lose.
Yeah thanks that's what I plan on doing. Any idea what I did wrong, though? I don't want it to happen again if I get it working with a jig.
Impossible to say. Not sure why you flashed that nondescript kernel/recovery in that situation tho given it probably wouldn't have worked even if the flash had been successful (You would probably have ended up with bootloop given recovery was obviously 'broken'). I would have flashed stock with Odin (And that's certainly what I tell people in your situation on here to do because it normally works).
But flashing recovery rather than a stock rom probably didn't break your phone, put it that way, so you didn't do anything 'wrong' per se. Just remember if you get into a similar situation again, go back to stock via Odin & start again (re-root your phone/restore a backup, flash your custom rom/kernel again, etc).
If the jig works (and don't get your hopes up or anything, we're talking a 1 in 10,000 chance, and that's probably being generous), flash stock with Odin (you wont have much choice).
Well...brought it to a JTAG specialist today and he couldn't fix it either...says it's very rare and he's had 5 out of 80 S2's like this happen without being able to fix them...
Bummer. Motherboard replacement in that case. If the phone's under warranty, take it to a service centre & say as little as possible. You might blag it for a warranty fix. No warranty ? You can still have a new motherboard put in by a service centre (more expensive option usually), or you can source a 2nd hand MB from a 'donor' phone (one with a broken screen that's otherwise OK, etc) & either swap it in yourself or pay a local mobile repair shop to do it (usually cheaper option).
@ OP By following what you flashed I noticed the date, we're talking about a 2 years old thread, a lot have changed since.
Not sure that was what bricked your device but I get that panic mode.
The other thing that it comes to mind is nand corruption, which has been quite common these days with people running custom.
I'm with bungle there, the best recovery package is going back to stock and start fresh.
I, on the other hand, wouldn't accept the situation you are on, I would spend a whole week trying to get that phone to boot again, whether a second opinion on a jtag, a new jig, another battery or any other thread on here at xda.
If the device gets hot near the rear camera and it won't even charge nor get warm around that area dismiss what I just said and proceed with the mobo replacement bungle suggested.
And of course, if you did something else to your device and didn't share it please, come clean so others don't freak out by reading this.
Sent from...this is not even my S2
Hey
Nothing else was done to the device...just what I stated exactly.
I caved today and bought a BNIB S3 because I couldn't go without a phone anymore...
Thanks for the help, guys
Elliott
Ather reading up a lot of years on xda, and able to fix a lot of things (Thanks!) i finally screwed up
Got a Galaxy S2/gt-i9100 from friend and it got stuck in a bootloop (no special cause, just got into it after a dead battery/reboot), (no recovery, just download mode)
Main problem was with flashing new/custom/stock bootloaders/firmwire/kernels Odin just wouldnt let me finish, and mostly got stuck at Nand write fail. (is this indication that internal memory is screwed, no flashing would work at all, or did i had an option?)
So i took the step to thick the repartition (Firmwire from sammmobile and pit file from droidevelopers) and hoped for the best.. after about 5 minutes i was pretty sure it got stuck again and disconnected tried to reboot and was going to try again..
now a black screen and not responding to anything -_-'
And i would like to know if a USB Jig could get it back into download mode or is the last resort to find a JTAG guy around? (can i verify if memory is really dead somehow?) Or any other options out there?
Unplugging during an Odin flash? That's nasty. 99.9% sure that'll be a new motherboard/jtag sorry. Last chance is to click my signature & look at the part for 'no download mode'... I pretty much guarantee it won't work though :/
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
Hello,
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2.
After reading this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2382579 I decided to root my phone.
So I went ahead and started with this step http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1118693 because I was unsure if I had a kernel with the MMC-SUPERBRICK-BUG.
After I flashed CWM-SuperSU-v0.97.zip using Odin version 1.85 and after the phone rebooted it was stuck at the "triangle screen" for a few seconds then the display went black and I couldn't do anything further.
Up to this point the phone was still accessible in download mode (volume up, power and center button). I believe this is called "download mode". Sorry but I am a complete noob with rooting phones, etc...
So I panicked and took the phone to a repair shop (big mistake). The guy ran it in download mode then tried to flash something onto the phone (I think he used all 4 fields: Bootloader, PDA, Phone and CSC.
Then, in the middle of the operation, Odin froze when writing "setting up connection". Then the phone died ! pressing the 3 famous buttons does nothing and the phone just stays dead.
I had to leave the phone there as the guy said they will try to bypass stuff and try to connect to the CPU directly (sorry again if this sounds noobish). I did update my modem firmware and my computer BIOS in the past... but I guess this one was more complicated.
At the shop, they asked me to check again in 3 days. I am lost here. I don't know what to do anymore.
Is the phone hard bricked ? Should they bear all expenses for what they did ? I would bring back my phone and try something like this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1878255 or even a stock flash but I am afraid I cannot do that as the phone isn't even powering up anymore after they tried to repair it at the shop.
Any advice is appreciated.
Nope. You borked it. You tried to flash custom firmware to the phone & obviously failed spectacularly at it. Instead of trying to flash it yourself via download mode (which you could easily have done unless the NAND was borked), you paid them to do it. Sometimes flashes go bad. Sounds like that's what happened in this case.
Reading between the lines they sound like they're going to try & JTAG it (or have someone else do it). And if that fails I presume they'll change motherboards. You could always get the phone back & take it to someone who does JTAGs if that shop doesn't themselves.
MistahBungle said:
Nope. You borked it. You tried to flash custom firmware to the phone & obviously failed spectacularly at it. Instead of trying to flash it yourself via download mode (which you could easily have done unless the NAND was borked), you paid them to do it. Sometimes flashes go bad. Sounds like that's what happened in this case.
Reading between the lines they sound like they're going to try & JTAG it (or have someone else do it). And if that fails I presume they'll change motherboards. You could always get the phone back & take it to someone who does JTAGs if that shop doesn't themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know I failed at it
Or maybe the shop technician is the one who broke it. At least when I had the phone with me I was still able to boot in Odin mode.
Do you think I could have recovered my phone if I had kept it with me and it was booting in download mode ?
I feel so pissed that I took it to that shop. I just wish I hadn't panicked and I had tried, instead, to fix it at home by asking for more help.
Anyway I still haven't paid them anything so far.
We agreed that they will pay for the motherboard because I brought in a working phone (that would power up at least). The owner of the shop was nice enough to agree that he would only charge me fees for installing new software on the phone (even if they have to change the motherboard) because he knows the phone was booting in Odin mode when I came in to the shop and his technician flashed the wrong firmware.
I also wrote down the board serial number so I can be sure they changed it (if they say they did that). So you are telling me the phone can still be fixed ? What does JTAG mean ?
Even if it is fixed I think I will be too scared to try and root it again. Unless I can understand in advance, step by step, what I need to do and what file version(s) I need to use.
Ok, I got my phone today in good working condition.
According to the shop, they had to replace an IC (I don't know what damaged the IC, I am assuming this happened when they tried to electrically jolt the phone) then JTAG it to get it to work again. They charged me a small fee (and they did end up bearing more than 50% of the expenses) because I brought in a phone that was booting in download mode and they take responsibility for what happened after that (flashing wrong files which caused the phone to completely stop booting).
Anyway, long story short, this was my first attempt to root a mobile phone and I learned my lesson.
I am running the following:
Model Number: GT-I9100
Android Version: 4.0.3 (which I will need to upgrade to 4.1.2 of course)
Baseband Version: I9100XXLPW
I know you will say read the sticky posts or the guides but the truth is, that's exactly what I did (you can see the links to the guide I tried to follow in my original post) and I still ended up failing at rooting/installing cyanogen on my phone right after installing Clockwork Mod.
The truth is I am scared to try again and mess up the phone. So this time I would rather be safe than sorry.
What can I do, this time, to safely root it and install a mod like Cyanogen.
Detailed steps are appreciated:
- Do I need to upgrade to 4.1.2 before rooting as 4.0.3 might have the superbrick bug ?
- How to backup the phone.
- Odin version to use, ClockWork Mod version to use, Cyanogen version to use
- How to connect the phone, how to reboot in download mode and all the necessary actions to avoid bricking my phone.
No spoon feeding aloud on XDA.better to read and learn how to do this and that but before you flash anything after learning how to do that learn how to fix it if it doesn't work. :thumbup:
andrewwright said:
No spoon feeding aloud on XDA.better to read and learn how to do this and that but before you flash anything after learning how to do that learn how to fix it if it doesn't work. :thumbup:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair enough, I figured I'd get that reply from someone and it's normal to be honest.
I decided not to try anything on my phone before I re-read the guides and be sure I know what I am doing.
I will also keep the phone running on stock firmware (after upgrading to JB 4.1.2) to check the battery consumption behavior which, I hope, will be fine since someone tampered with my phone's electronic components at the shop.
Long story short, stock phone just randomly blew up and I'm trying to re-install its stock Android OS. Phone has never been rooted before, it just started to reboot on its own and now I'm in a position where I can only access download mode.
I'm in Odin, with what I believe is the correct firmware for my device (SM-N950U1) and I just keep getting a "Secure Check Fail: system" when trying to flash. it via Odin. The Odin log says "FAIL! (auth) right after trying to write system.img.ext4 for a few minutes. The "Secure Check Fail: system" is the printout on the phone screen itself.
Any clues?
Bump! Anyone?
playbacktri said:
Bump! Anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see that you have not received an answer. That is upsetting. I am also struggling with this exact same issue on a g955u1. Have not found a solution. Did you end up solving your problem? If so, what did you have to do?
ap7x942 said:
I see that you have not received an answer. That is upsetting. I am also struggling with this exact same issue on a g955u1. Have not found a solution. Did you end up solving your problem? If so, what did you have to do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, I have not solved the problem. I've scoured the internet and other people asking the problem all have not had any answers either. My assumption is that the actual internal memory of the phone is corrupted and won't let me write past a certain point, or on certain sectors, or something and its not actually fixable via software. I think everyone else just stops at this point and its never resolved because there is no resolution hah.
Good luck, let me know if you ever figure it out...
playbacktri said:
Nope, I have not solved the problem. I've scoured the internet and other people asking the problem all have not had any answers either. My assumption is that the actual internal memory of the phone is corrupted and won't let me write past a certain point, or on certain sectors, or something and its not actually fixable via software. I think everyone else just stops at this point and its never resolved because there is no resolution hah.
Good luck, let me know if you ever figure it out...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This phone I am working on is for a customer of mine. Thankfully, they have given me an open ended time frame. I have been working on this for about a week trying to figure out whats going on.
The memory corruption thing you were talking about resonates with me, because prior to my customer bringing this in, they had attempted a couple factory resets trying to resolve the original issue which was all the system apps crashing. The phone would reboot like someone killed all the processes. Pretty much from the moment it reached the home screen, and it was not power related. The problem persisted after their factory resets within recovery mode. And then I hit the phone with Odin and ended up with a partial flash. Soft bricking the phone.
You saying that kinda reinforces what I was already thinking, that it might be a hardware issue. Im not sure.
5 minutes ago I was able to get odin to successfully flash BL, CP, and CSC. It even brought me back to the Samsung logo for a minute but hung there. That's the most success I have had with this thing. Ive flashed numerous firmwares and every single one of them fails on system.img.ext4. After it reboots, it boots directly into this altered version of download mode with an emergency recovery error.
I have flashed dozens of phones before without issue. This is the first time I have ever experienced this one. You could be right but I refuse to accept defeat in this case lol so im gonna keep trying and ill report back if I have success.
ap7x942 said:
This phone I am working on is for a customer of mine. Thankfully, they have given me an open ended time frame. I have been working on this for about a week trying to figure out whats going on.
The memory corruption thing you were talking about resonates with me, because prior to my customer bringing this in, they had attempted a couple factory resets trying to resolve the original issue which was all the system apps crashing. The phone would reboot like someone killed all the processes. Pretty much from the moment it reached the home screen, and it was not power related. The problem persisted after their factory resets within recovery mode. And then I hit the phone with Odin and ended up with a partial flash. Soft bricking the phone.
You saying that kinda reinforces what I was already thinking, that it might be a hardware issue. Im not sure.
5 minutes ago I was able to get odin to successfully flash BL, CP, and CSC. It even brought me back to the Samsung logo for a minute but hung there. That's the most success I have had with this thing. Ive flashed numerous firmwares and every single one of them fails on system.img.ext4. After it reboots, it boots directly into this altered version of download mode with an emergency recovery error.
I have flashed dozens of phones before without issue. This is the first time I have ever experienced this one. You could be right but I refuse to accept defeat in this case lol so im gonna keep trying and ill report back if I have success.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, that sounds very very familiar to mine. I don't know if you found my other threads where I was asking for help, but I woke up with a phone that wouldn't turn on. Finally found the key button combo to get it to soft reboot, then it would turn on and just crash in the middle of using it after anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. If i started to use the phone heavily it would just shut off instantly and reboot back up on its own.
After clearing the boot cache, then doing a factory reset, it finally just stopped turning on at all (just samsung boot logo loop)
So I hit it with odin, unsuccessfully for 2-3 days, and then out of nowhere it just finally took a successful flash. However, it still just bootlooped, so I did a factory reset again and it put it back to being toast.
Since then, not a single successful complete flash from odin. I too can do the BL, CSC and CP files but I can't flash the AP file as it is writing the most data and finally fails about 3-4 minutes into to writing the system image file.
Again...good luck, ha!