Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 Failed to mount /efs - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello a few days i restored my galaxy to factory settings from inside the own phone settings everything was working fine until a couple days ago the phone started to rebooting every now and then
Right now is stuck on the samsung logo after you turn it on and in the recovery menu i got this error
E: failed to mount /efs (invalid argument)
I try to wipe the cache date and even doing a wipe from the recovery menu but nothing when the phone turn on and gets to the samsung logo it stays there a while and reboots again
I try doing this instructions from this post from another forum
The key for me was selecting the second item in the Tools menu (Firmware Upgrade and Initialisation?) - it seemed to bypass that whole 'connecting' process and just went to work. Here's the writeup that I put together (I need to insert the Kies screenshots that I captured).
- if you don't already have the Kies software installed on your PC, download it (just search Google) and install it. The first time it runs it'll update itself to the latest version so make sure you run it once before proceeding.
- put your phone in Download mode: with the phone completely off, press and hold the Volume Down and Home and Power buttons simultaneously, and release them all when you see the Samsung splash screen
- connect the phone to your PC with the USB cable that came with the phone
-- if you've never had the phone connected to your Windows-based computer before, you'll see messages about installing drivers, etc - just wait until this is done (may take 5 or 10 minutes) [I don't know what happens if you have a Mac - it probably just works]
- in the Kies software, select the second item in the Tools menu and just follow the prompts to enter the model number (in CAPS) and IMEI/Serial Number (both found under the battery - it's ok to remove the battery at this point)
- the Kies software should start downloading the correct firmware for your phone from the Internet; once that's done (depending on your Internet connection speed) it'll begin downloading that to the phone (this probably takes 10 minutes or so)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I manage to do all the steps but nothing now the phone turns on and it gets stuck on the samsung logo but this time it doesn't reboot it just stays there and in the recovery menu still have the same error
Does anyone have any solucion or a guide that explaings well how can i fix this?
I have seen other guides that saids i need to either root the phone and install a custom recovery menu but since the phone doesn't boot i have no clue how to do this
Edit: A few moments ago i tried doing this as well (i cant post the complete youtube link)
watch?v=xJMJLdzHaAY
The phone now turn on but i have a black box with some yellow letters i'm guessing is the called safe mode is there anything i can do from here?
Been honest i'm completely lost here

Can someone please give a valid link to download?
Edit: Sorry, wrong post.

You can try flashing a recovery (cwm official is best) via odin but most likely you'll need to flash a stock rom, definitely if the cwm flash doesn't solve it.
Beamed in by telepathy.

shivadow said:
You can try flashing a recovery (cwm official is best) via odin but most likely you'll need to flash a stock rom, definitely if the cwm flash doesn't solve it.
Beamed in by telepathy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there any tutorial on how to that for the I9300? because i to be honest without a tutorial i dont have a clue on how to start doing this, i will actually prefer a stock rom is by stock rom is a official firmware from samsung

Related

[Q] broke Galaxy S by wiping cache and dalvik cache

Hi all,
I think I broke my Galaxy S (I9000). I hope you can help me somehow. Here is the history of things I already did/tried
- my phone was working and had cyanogenmod 9.1 installed
- I wanted to give my phone a little speedup and wiped the cache and dalvik cache partition (did this before and it worked before)
- after this, phone was in a boot loop (even the battery loading animation rebooted over and over)
- the download mode still worked, but no recovery menu appeared!
- as given on cyanogenmod homepage in the install guide I flashed ClockworkMod Recovery using heimdall
- after that, recovery worked again
- I copied the cm9.1 zipfile on my phone to flash it, wiped the whole phone (factory reset), but flashing fails at some asserts (even though I disabled asserts) that seem to check that the target device really is a Galaxy S (I9000) (unfortunatly, I do not have a screenshot and cannot provide one now)
- I also had a ClockworkMod backup I tried to recover, but it fails at restoring /system (unfortunatly, I do not have a screenshot and cannot provide one now)
- so I thought, maybe I can use a regular firmware and flash it with Odin3 (1.87) to make things working at least a little
- started odin, selected firmware and started, but Odin3 got hung at some early point, so I closed Odin after ~10 minutes (see screenshot odin.jpg)
- when I now start my phone, only two symbols appear which kind of signal a problem with a connection to a (PC-)host which I have never seen before (see screenshot startscreen.jpg)
I tried a lot, but now I am out of ideas. Can you help?
Robert
missing attachments
Missed the attachments. Here they are.
Robert
Turn off phone, remove usb cable from pc if it's connected, remove battery, wait around 10 seconds, while battery is still not in the phone press the button combination for download mode. While u still holding the button combination for download mode, force reinsert the battery. Now phone should go into download mode automatically. Connect cable to pc and phone and flash stock Rom via Odin. Good luck
Worked! Great! Phone is back in download mode. Unfortunatly my work pc does not detect the Samsung composite device so I have to wait until I am back home. I hope Odin is working then. As given, it did not when I last tried.
Can you tell me what kind of mode this is, when those two symbols appear?
Robert
It's not any mode, it just an indication that earlier download mode flashing via Odin failed or interrupted by user.
U probably need to kill Kies process via Windows task manager before flashing with Odin because it's known to interrupt Odin, make it hung at setup connection.
Hi,
brought my phone into download mode again and this time odin flashed succesful. However, Kies was never installed on this computer so I have no idea why it worked now.
After flashing the phone rebooted, but stated several errors. They are similar to those which appear on reflashing with the cm91 zip via recovery mode ( "unable to mount ... (file exists)" ). I have made a screenshot and attached it. You have an idea how to help?
I have tried both the 512 and the 803 pit file, same results.
Thanks,
Robert
Tried to re reboot after those errors, but the S-Animation of the stock rom during boot never ended.
Robert
I took another stock firmware, JVI, which contains also a CSC and PDA image. Flashing worked, phone booted, Works!
I will see how to come back to my cm91, but a great step forward .
Thanks,
Robert
Made it back to cm91 . Thank you for your support.
Here are the steps ...
- applied I9000XWJVI.zip with 512 pit and repartition (2.3.3 based german stock firmware)
- applied I9000XWJW6_I9000DBTJW2_DBT (2.3.6 based german stock firmware)
- applied cf-root-xx_oxa_jw4-v4.4-cwm3rfs.zip as this clockworkmod recovery is able to disable verifications before appling a zip
- applied cm91 zipfile
- restored my backup
Robert

[Q] Bricked Android need assistance

I rooted my phone successfully, tweaked a couple roms successfully as well. The last rom I tweaked was I think something to do with init.d. After I tweaked the rom, I restarted my phone and bam... that $H1T stood stuck at the boot animation loop a.k.a BRICKED.
I downloaded odin and some tars, but before that I deleted partition erased in recovery mode holding up and power button. I went to download mode using down and power button. I failed 9 times using odin, and then eventually I got the box screen to display "PASS" with a green color. I restarted the phone and it had a different model lol. However my phone still did not get back to the way its suppose to start up. I tried using new files for ODIN, and everything seemed about right until it said: Wait about 2 minutes, it was the last step I think and I was actually waiting 15 minutes, so I got anxious and unplugged it and restarted my phone and it shows a different model instead of SPH-D710 it shows GT-19100 and goes straight into recovery mode.
All I can do is scroll up and down using volume buttons but I cant hit the (ok button) which is the (power button) to attempt the action I want. I have a boost mobile samsung galaxy S2. Also Odin, Kies and my Computer does not recognize my phone anymore through usb. I tried usb samsung drivers update, and I even tried a bunch of different versions of ODIN including a different computer. My downloads folder is literally packed with a whole bunch of tool aid kits for my phone lol. OH and by the way before I used odin I did end the process of Kies in the task manager so yup. I do not know what else to do, I tried different computers I think I am pretty much PHUCKED over now. Unless someone has another solution.
I do not understand why I cant enter nothing in recovery mode all of sudden, I can only move up or down. I can only go into either recovery mode or download mode. In recovery mode it says:
Deleting Cryption Meta Data
-- Copying media files...
Successfully copied meida files.
# MANUAL MODE #
-- Updating application...
Successfully updated application.
-- Appling Multi-CSC...
Successfully applied multi-CSC.
If it shows I9100 on the boot screen instead of SPH-D710 you've obviously used firmware for the I9100 on your device, and there's a fair possibility you'll be making a trip to a service centre.
Find stock SPH-D710 firmware, flash that with Odin. Where ? No idea, like most people here know almost nothing about this model; try the usual haunts - Samfirmware, AndroidFirmwares.Net, Samsung-updates.com, Google search),.

[Q] I-9300 bootloop and no recovery

Hello,
I have a S3 which is stuck in a bootloop at the samsung logo.
when i turn it on it shows the logo for some seconds then the screen goes black and the logo re-appears.
i can not boot into recovery mode, but download mode is working without a problem every time.
i tried flashing stock firmwares with odin and also tried kies emergency firmware recovery. the flashing always went without any problem, but it had effect. whatever i try, i am never able to boot into recovery and still stuck in the bootloop.
in some tries after flashing the screen just shows the samsung logo forever, but after rebooting it once it then is stuck in a bootloop again (shows the logo - screen goes black - shows the logo...)
i also tried flashing TWRP and CWM via odin, but again i can never boot into recovery mode.
what should i try next?
thx alot for any helpful comment
Varjo said:
Hello,
I have a S3 which is stuck in a bootloop at the samsung logo.
when i turn it on it shows the logo for some seconds then the screen goes black and the logo re-appears.
i can not boot into recovery mode, but download mode is working without a problem every time.
i tried flashing stock firmwares with odin and also tried kies emergency firmware recovery. the flashing always went without any problem, but it had effect. whatever i try, i am never able to boot into recovery and still stuck in the bootloop.
in some tries after flashing the screen just shows the samsung logo forever, but after rebooting it once it then is stuck in a bootloop again (shows the logo - screen goes black - shows the logo...)
i also tried flashing TWRP and CWM via odin, but again i can never boot into recovery mode.
what should i try next?
thx alot for any helpful comment
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can Try this:
1.) Pull out battery
2.) Put it in again
3.) Press Vol up + home + power
4.) When the Samsung Logo appears let it off
I think you press the Buttons too long.
I had the same problem!
S1ay3r666 said:
I think you press the Buttons too long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i really tried everything, it's not working. btw with i am stuck at the very first image, where it says "samsung Galaxy sII GT-I9300".
i dont think it's just the way i press the buttons because i can reach it on my s1 and s2 without a problem, it's just not working on this device.
could some setting like "nand erase all" in odin help? in other threads there is sometimes mentioned that the internal file system might be screwed up and in those cases a simple odin reflash does not help anymore...
Nand erase will usually hard brick it. Try the rescue firmware from general forum, sticky thread. Follow the guide exactly as it includes a pit file.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
boomboomer said:
Try the rescue firmware from general forum, sticky thread. Follow the guide exactly as it includes a pit file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx, but i already did that (multiple times) and flashing via odin always succeeds. then the phone reboots and is stuck at the first samsung galaxy s.. screen. twice i managed somehow to get into recovery (after flashing cwm6) but it then randomly rebooted.
and i dont think that the power button is stuck because when i am in download mode it is perfectly fine it never reboots itself unexpectedly.
Had a similar issue on my tab2 p3100. It all happened when I tried flashing a custom recovery from rom manager.
A bad flash of anything related to recovery or bootloader could be a probable cause.
I remember a knowledge share on one of the threads describing this issue and as mentioned on it all I had to do is this:
1) switch off the device and plug in the charger. This would light up the display showing you the charging status. The status has to show if at least your bootloader part of the phone is fine.
2) plug out the charger and immediately press the three buttons (home + vol up + power) get into recovery mode. This step has to work and help you get to recovery mode.
***Note : the interval within which this step has to be performed is too short since the display would turn off immediately as soon as you plug out the charger. A bit tricky too so you have to be fast. If this misses getting you into recovery, pull out the battery and put it back again. Repeat step1 and 2 again.
3) upon successfully getting into recovery, perform wipe data, cache and select reboot phone from option available on recovery again.
Allow the device to boot. This could take a while since you have performed a data wipe and may prompt for first time set up.
I was able to restore functionality on my tab after these steps and like ppl learn from their mistakes, I then learnt that recoveries and bootloaders are things that needs to be done with a pc only.
Worth a try if you have tried other alternatives and found no go. may help. Who knows..
all the best.
thats also not working. i tried to get into recovery since two days now...
i also tried the steps from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/help/solved-pit-bricked-dead-problem-gt-t2535367
but again, after i flash the cf-root (successfully) the phone does neither boot into recovery by itself nor can i do it by hand...
its crazy... in download mode i can see the model number (GT-I9300) and i thought as long as the model number is there and i can enter download mode there should be a way to recover the device.
but i cannot think of anything to try that i have not done yet
If the rescue firmware didn't help then it looks like the emmc chip is damaged.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
boomboomer said:
If the rescue firmware didn't help then it looks like the emmc chip is damaged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there a way to make certain of this? how can i tell if it is really a hardware damage and not just a software brick?
i just dont want to let the phone go, it looks still so shiny
is there anything else that could cause the phone not booting into recovery mode after flashing custom recoveries?
Varjo said:
is there a way to make certain of this? how can i tell if it is really a hardware damage and not just a software brick?
i just dont want to let the phone go, it looks still so shiny
is there anything else that could cause the phone not booting into recovery mode after flashing custom recoveries?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/gala...-help-t2737707
Same here, still didn't found how to fix it.. I guess our motherboard just died..
Howewer I have a solution that "almost" worked for me.
Get a stock firmware in odin and turn on Nand erase and T-flash
When it's done phone reboots and you'll see just "Downloading..." mode when you turn it on.
Then got to Kies and Select firmware recovery...
Enter s/n and model name and wait for the flash to complete.
With it , I got past boot logo and actually booted into android but the phone crashed because I guess I have a memory issue..
Well , gl. If you don't find anything else helpful , try going with this method..

[Q] Is my phone fixable?

I have an S3 GT-I9300 and about a week ago it started refusing to turn on. It was fully charged, and I'd get LED indicators for messages, emails etc, but none of the buttons would switch on the screen, neither would unplugging the cable. The only way to fix it was to remove the battery, and after removing it one time, it refused to boot, sticking at the Samsung logo screen. Recovery mode wouldn't work, I tried resetting to factory settings, and wiping the phone, but it kept sticking (I think at cache), and wouldn't boot whatever I did.
I tried to update the firmware through Kies, which just froze at 94% every time. I also tried Odin, which again froze about the same point. So I tried following this guide, but when the phone restarted it tried looking for files on an SD card (which I don't have), so no luck. I tried repartitioning, but it keeps failing and if I try to flash the phone it now fails with "there is no PIT partition". I can't remember at which point it started happening, but although I can still get into download mode, switching the phone on any other way gives me a glitched screen something like this.
Is there any way at all to fix this phone at this point?
@edwards87: I'm confused about your description: no recovery mode, but factory reset? A root tool for rescue?
If you can boot into download mode, download actual firmware and Odin from sammobile.com (all new, delete old stuff) and try to flash it.
rp158 said:
@edwards87: I'm confused about your description: no recovery mode, but factory reset? A root tool for rescue?
If you can boot into download mode, download actual firmware and Odin from sammobile.com (all new, delete old stuff) and try to flash it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can get into download mode (power + home + vol down), but can no longer get into recovery mode (power + home + vol up). When I could get into recovery mode right at the start, none of the recovery options did anything because it said there were missing files or directories.
I've tried several firmwares from sammobile through different versions of Odin and they all froze at the same place towards the end. Now none of them go anywhere because there's no PIT partition.
Then my next step would be a 3part-firmware +PIT-file.
rp158 said:
Then my next step would be a 3part-firmware +PIT-file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally found a 3-part firmware but I get the same problem - repartition operation failed.
@edwards87: sounds like broken internal storage. Can't help you, sorry.
I need a pit file for galaxy s3 i9300 16GB please help me

Recovering data from brick I9300

Hi, I'm completely new on all this mobile/android stuff, also sorry my poor English.
Out of nothing my phone bricked and I just wanted to recover my files from the internal storage.
Why I've tried so far: to install a custom recovery using Odin. Installation process were OK, I guess, judging by Odin and phone messages (on phone download mode you can read "custom binary download: YES (3 counts)". That's 3 because I've tried twrp-2.8.6.1-i9300 (tar) twice and recovery-clockwork-touch-6.0.4.4-i9300 (tar) once.
Where I'm stuck: I cannot see the options to access these recoveries form the recovery mode, just the already existing options (reboot, apply update, ...).
Thanks you for any help!
Vinicius
First of all flash chainfire auto-root. You can download it from here: https://download.chainfire.eu/229/CF-Root/CF-Auto-Root/CF-Auto-Root-m0-m0xx-gti9300.zip
Then try again to flash TWRP. If it will go ok, you can copy from recovery data from internal storage to sd card
Hi There,
I am in a similar predicament.
I have a Galaxy S3 (purchased in 2012) and a few weeks ago, the phone started to automatically switch off (when I locked it) and I would have to hold the power button for about 15-30 seconds for it to switch back on.
I checked the power button(to see if it was broken and pressing down all the time) but it seemed to be fine as whenever I pulled the battery, the phone would NOT come on unless I held the power button.
About 1 week ago when i tried to turn my phone on, with the power button, but it would get stuck on the samsung logo screen (it was frozen, not looping).
I was still able to enter both recovery and download mode. So I tried wiping the cache but it did nothing.
Then I tired flashing the ROM with ODIN and it passed but it also did nothing (tried flashing multiple times all with "PASS" as well as wiping the data cache in conjuction with the flashing but to no avail).
Tried flashing it again with BL and it also passed, but now whenever I try to enter Recovery Mode or Turn the phone ON it would display a White Scrambled Screen which probably means eMMC failure.
How do I retrieve the information on the phone ?
N.B;
- I do not care about fixing the phone, only want the information
-I cannot enter Recovery Mode, BUT I can enter download mode.
-When I connect S3 to PC it is detected (In Device Manager it states "Samsung Mobile USB CDC Composite Device")
-I did have my phone password protected before this happened using the Pattern Password (you have a 3x3 Dot grid in which you can use to draw a line(s) which will function as a password)
-My phone is an S3 GT-I9300
-Never interfered with the ROM or software on the phone before this (was running the official android software from Samsung which I believe was Android Version 4.3).
-I am not very versed with computer programming so please use simple words to help me
As previously stated. flash cf-autoroot and then flash twrp, both via odin. Then you should be able to access twrp (hold home and vol+/- (cant remember which, opposite from download mode) and press power once.
If you can get to twrp you can use its built in file manager to move your data to an sd card.
If no twrp its what is technically known as f*cked.
I wish I stole my HTC M9.
shivadow said:
As previously stated. flash cf-autoroot and then flash twrp, both via odin. Then you should be able to access twrp (hold home and vol+/- (cant remember which, opposite from download mode) and press power once.
If you can get to twrp you can use its built in file manager to move your data to an sd card.
If no twrp its what is technically known as f*cked.
I wish I stole my HTC M9.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
How would I flash cf-autoroot and thenflash twrp (I have no clue what this means lol).
Also what is twrp?
bossman111 said:
Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
How would I flash cf-autoroot and thenflash twrp (I have no clue what this means lol).
Also what is twrp?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Short and sweet: TWRP is a popular recovery system; cf-autoroot is the preferred method for rooting some samsung devices by member Chainfire
I could lay out all that here again in detail, but it's safe to say you are better off in the long run if read up on that stuff by yourself...
Check the excellent threads I linked in my signature! Trust me, it's not as complicated as it seems.

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