I've spent a couple days searching, but there doesn't appear to be a relevant enough thread to help me here, so I've resorted to asking for help, hopefully you guys can help me figure this out.
I got my girlfriend a used Telus SGH-T959D (same thing as the T-mobile version pretty well) several months back. It was on stock 2.1 and worked fine but was very laggy compared to my rooted HTC Desire on oxygen 2.3.2. So I rooted it and installed a 2.2 rom with Voodoo sound control (but no lagfix), and she's been using it this way for months now. It was better than stock but still laggy. I can't remember what rom it was but it was based on Samsuck firmware, hence why it's still laggy I guess.
For some reason, when I originally rooted it I had trouble with CWM recovery not installing, I can't even remember now what exactly was happening, but I managed to get the rom installed without a proper custom recovery, so when I go into recovery it's just the stock Samsung recovery, with no options for nandroid backup, restore, flash zip from sd card, etc. Basically I can't do anything useful in recovery.
Anyways lately, worse and worse she has been getting the Android text message to wrong recipient bug. If you aren't aware of it, it causes messages you sent to go to a different person in your text message message list. No it is not user error.
So I decided to try and data wipe. After this there is basically no launcher when it boots up. The notification pulldown is there and working, and it shows the phone has a signal and wifi is turning on and working, capacitive buttons light up when you press them, but you can't do anything except grab the pulldown.
It won't connect to USB when booted up, phone shows a message that you must close running processes first, or something like that. But I cannot flash a rom from recovery anyways, since it only brings up a stock recovery.
I can get it into download mode, if I hold my tongue just right and try several times, but not sure what to try to flash with Odin. I already downloaded an ICS Passion rom, but then reading the tutorial saw that I must first download CM7 and install that, then upgrade the bootloaders to the GB ones, then flash the ICS rom. I would really like to at least upgrade to 2.3 and something not based on Samsung fw, but the main priority is to get it working again.
Anyways, whatever you guys can suggest to try would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Honestly bro, everything I'm seeing in Google makes it seem like that phone is more on par with the Galaxy S Fascinate than with our Vibrant. Although on the exterior they all look so similar... I dunno, maybe check out their forums and see if you get anymore help there?
Here's the link:http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=718
Goodluck!
The title of this thread looks similar to my problem with my Samsung Vibrant. So I would ask it here, too.
I'm not sure if I bricked my vibrant, it's still power up, only to to first screen, which has the words Vibrant (and) Samsung and stay there forever.
I first rooted my Vibrant successfully.
Then, I've followed the instructions below:
1. Download the latest version of the ROM from the original development page.
2. Transfer the downloaded zip file to the root of the internal SD card on your phone.
3. Turn off your phone and wait for complete shutdown (wait for capacitive button lights to go off).
4. Then, boot into Clockworkmod (CWM) recovery. To do so, press and hold these 3 buttons together: Volume Up, Volume Down, & the Power button till the screen turns on, then let go of the buttons. In recovery, use Volume keys to scroll up and down and power key to select an option.
5. Perform a full Wipe (this will not wipe your SD cards)
a. Wipe data / factory reset –> then Select Yes - Wipe data/Factory reset on the next screen.
b. Select “mounts and storage“, then select “format system” -> select “Yes” on next screen to confirm. Then, select “go back” to go back to the main recovery menu.
6. Now scroll to “Install zip from sdcard” and select it.
7. Select “Choose zip from sdcard”. Scroll to the file you transferred in Step 2 and select it.
8. Now confirm installation by selecting “Yes — Install **your_rom_file_name**.zip – The ROM will start installing.
9. The phone will reboot to recovery in the middle of the installation, then continue installing the ROM.
When I got to step 7, instead of running the zip file downloaded on step 1. I run the update.zip (something like that). And I couldn't get back to the CWM recovery screen anymore. Only I can boot it to the regular recovery screen, where it let you:
reboot the system
reinstall packages
delete all user data
delete cache data.
Or boot up to the screen described at the beginning of this post.
So what should/can do to fix this problem?
I think my phone is t959 (it's t-mobile Samsung Vibrant)
Thanks for the reply. As far as I thought the only similarity between this and the at t fascinate was the name fascinate. There's is the i5000 and mine is the t959d? Should this post be moved over there? I found a thread there with someone having partly. the same issue as mine not being able to install cwm but its been there for days and likely will not be replied to.
I've spent a lot of time trying to fix messed-up installs. Seems to me that if for any reason you can't rrflash the rom, or reflashing and wiping doesn't work, just Odin-ing back to JFD and going from there is the best bet.
Well I was about to go ahead and download stock JFD and try flashing that but it appears that Mega upload has been shutdown by the FBI for fraudulent activity, and Rapid share is not working either. Maybe they're too busy because of the mega Upload shutdown or they were owned by the same people and have also been shut down. So now I'm not sure where to even find files that are safe to flash.
I just spent another hour on here and Android forums, and basically all the the threads are one or two posts, with no resolution to the OP, and none of the downloads links anywhere are working. I'm pretty patient but I'm ready to give up. Does anyone want to trade a soft bricked T959D in mint condition for any old beatup HTC that works? I've had my fill of Samsung's now.
No trade sorry but if you want to donate shoot me a pm.
Before you dump it, give me some time to look into this and I'll see if I can get you up and running with some files. Sammys are way user friendly unless you aren't doing something right, then you could always go back to stock.
Hold the phone. Haha. I'll get back to you.
You too ciditin
Thanks Woodrube, I will definitely wait patiently as long as I know I'm going to be able to sort it out eventually. I'm busy with schoolwork so even though I enjoy this kind of thing I hate spending hours upon hours on it just trying to get the phone operational again.
I've been spoiled by my htc desire, it's been almost foolproof to do anything after spending a short time reading a few FAQ's and there have been no close calls. Soon I'll probably try an ICS rom once they get a bit more stable.
I will definitely do a donate if you can help me get it going with a decent rom. I would love to have lag fix on it since my girlfriend is a bit annoyed at the lag.
Since I got my first Android phone in August 2010, I've rooted and rom'd an LG Shine Plus, LG Optimus One, HTC Desire, the T959D and Galaxy S2 T989D (sold after I got it on an early renewal). I also had to fix my sisters I9000M after a failed 2.3 update operation. So I'm no expert on this, but I've got a little bit of experience messing around with stuff. Just they all require different processes, different programs to do the job, so you have to relearn it for every new phone.
The Samsung's have been the biggest pain compared to the others, but I think it's mostly because the Canadian versions are always slightly different than the Tmobile version, but besides that Samsung always has several different versions of the same.
If I get this thing up and running again I will probably check out your GPS fix thread, cause the GPS on this phone would lock on but it was way out to lunch. Like 6 streets away from us out to lunch.
I found the way to fix my problem, hopefully it'll fix yours.
I was able to restore my stock.
Here is what you have to do.
WARNING!!! THIS WILL WIPE ANY DATA ON YOUR DEVICE, IT WILL REPLACE YOUR BASEBAND, KERNEL, RECOVERY AND OS.
DOWNLOADS:
ODIN application
512 PIT file - I can't post link so pm me
T-Mobile Vibrant JFD Image – I can't post link so pm me
USB Drivers from the Samsung Galaxy S – 32 Bit Windows Download \ 64 Bit Windows Download (again I can't post link, yet)
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Turn off your phone (remove battery, and usb cable to pc).
2. Plug usb cable to your phone (this is just for easy to connect to the PC in the next step), do NOT connect it to your pc just yet.
3. Get your phone into DOWNLOAD mode by holding the Volume Up, Volume down, and plug your usb cable to your PC. A yellow digging Android sign should be on the screen of your phone. This may take a few tries to get it right.
3. Launch ODIN.The third box dow from the top-left box should then say a COM port (the box under the top-left box should be yellow).
4. In ODIN, load each file with its corresponding field:
___a. Click PIT and select *.pit file extracting from the 512 PIT file above.
___b. Click PDA and select the *.tar, stock JFD file.
5. Don’t check anything else, the other two boxes should be checked by default (Auto Reboot and Reset Time)
6. Hit “start.” Be patient for a couple minutes! (The bar under the top left box should show the progress, and on you phone, too)
7. You should have your Vibrant back in with stock configuration.
Good luck!
NOTE: COM3 worked fine for me. COM should not matter as long as you are using the correct drivers.
350Rocket said:
I will definitely do a donate if you can help me get it going with a decent rom. I would love to have lag fix on it since my girlfriend is a bit annoyed at the lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. I wasn't soliciting for a monetary donation, I was just going off that you wanted to trade. I can't trade but if you ever want to donate your phone then just PM me.
I have to agree with kawika that everything I have read has been that your model number is for the Fascinate. Easy tip off would be; does your phone have a sim card? It is probably a CDMA phone with no sim slot. I suggest getting the files you need from the Fascinate forums as I am almost positive that the T959 files will not work on the T959d. Since you have modded a I-9000m you know that they are slightly different than the I-9000. Same thing goes with this circumstance.
Good luck and sorry that there wasn't more I could do but it is just a different phone.
@Citidin - Good to see you got yours solved. If you have questions, please ask (in the correct thread for your question a this one will probably be closed out).
It definitely has a sim card and it's HSPA, I pulled the Sim card out and put it in my HTC Desire for her to use, and put my SIM card in this crappy little LG Optimus One that's too small for me to type on. So I guarantee it has a sim card and is nothing like the Verizon phones which will not work on any of the Canadian carriers AFAIK. I think nobody understands what the phone is, and that's why almost every thread with a problem like this ends in 0 replies. I think from now on I will stay away from Samsung's abortion phones that they sell in Canada. Or at least I will research community support before getting one.
Ours is called the Fascinate, but its completely different model # than theirs, it is the T959D. Just like how the new Telus galaxy S2x is the T989D, same phone as the T mobile T989_.
For some reason there seems to be a few posts in the Fascinate section, for Telus only, I think that only started because of confusion about what the phone was, but the phone has nothing in common with the Verizon CDMA version. Actually I think if you look up, just about every phone that Telus or Bell (same network basically) gets, is a phone that T mobile got first. HTC Amaze being another one. HTC Desire Z is the same as the Tmobile G2.
Sorry I misunderstood you about donating the phone itself. My last effort will be the JFD file that Citidin sent me a link to. Hopefully that gets it going. If not I will stash it away until I have extra time to try again.
Well once I got the JFD file downloaded and put phone in download mode, turned on Odin, realized the PC recognizes the device attached and being malfunctioned, so I cannot flash with Odin.
I tried Heimdall which I downloaded yesterday, but the program won't load as it says I'm missing a DLL file.
I tried Android flasher which I downloaded who knows when, and tried to just install a recovery image with it, but it gets stuck while pushing recovery image and the program locks up.
I decided to try my girlfriends Laptop instead of mine after maybe 40 failed attempts to get Odin to communicate on mine, and to my surprise it recognized it right away. I transferred my files, with the JFD to this computer and then flashed with Odin. It took about 2 minutes and it was up and running. I checked about phone and it said 2.3.3 firmware. Really confused I looked back at odin and realized I flashed the I9000M stock 2.3.3 firmware (KG3) that I flashed on my sisters phone back around xmas. I forgot I did that on this laptop.
Anyways it is working as it should except for the home button not working (which I had already read about in a thread about using I9000M or Vibrant roms on the T959D).
While it is unfortunately stock again, the 2.3.3 should fix the original problem of sending to texts to the wrong recipient, and it also seems a lot less laggy. I think I'll just let her try it as is and hope she is happy.
If you use the JFD file from the link I sent you, it should be the stock Tmobile Vibrant.
Similar problem
Sorry dont mean to hijack your thread but I think I am having a similar problem - posted in the wrong spot before so hopefully I am ok here...
Have a Vibrant and some how got crossed up on it.
I have been able to use Odin to update the phone, however after it says its done, it does a reboot as it supposed to, shows the samsung screen then just shuts down.
After about a hundred tries, someone pointed me to Eugene's no brick. I tried that and it will fix it so it will boot and go into recovery, but I can't seem to do much once I get there. My only options are to update, wide data and wipe cache. Can't get to the point where I can load an update onto the unit.
I tried wide data and reset, then reboot. It shows the samsung vibrant logo, then the splash screen, then the big S and then screen goes black and the cap buttons stay lit.
If I try to go back and load the stock pit and jfd file, it just goes back to not booting at all and shutting down after the logo
I cant seem to get it into recovery unless I do Eugene's fix
In one of my earlier attempts, I did check to repartition as direct in one of the other threads - been chasing this a while now!
Edit: It was originally a bell phone - does this matter?
If it was a Bell phone than it should be the I9000M. It sounds like your problem is a bit different than mine was. I was able to get into recovery mode and download mode just fine. I just didn't know which files to flash with.
I intended to flash the JFD that citidin sent me, but I accidentally use the KJ3 (latest I9000M 2.3.3 firmware). The I9000 and Vibrant roms are compatible with the T959D Telus Fascinate though, only problem being no home or search button.
It sounds like the Eugene thing (whatever that is, I'm not familiar) gets you into stock recovery. Like my original issue, you cannot flash or mount the sd card, or much of anything with the stock recovery.
Do you know that the file your flashing is compatible with your phone (the I9000M I assume)? More info that would probably help, is what firmware did you have on it before, was it JFD? What update did you try on it? Bootloader version - there are gingerbread bootloaders, and froyo bootloaders I think?
Have you tried different files other than the one that doesn't seem to boot up for you? I think most of the tutorials I've looked at, said not to check repartition. When i finally got this T959D working with the I9000 rom I did not check repartition and did not select a pit file, just the PDA, phone, CSC.
Yes it is a I9000M - I was trying to load the JFD tar file along with the 512 pit file. I followed a thread in the I9000 section and loaded a JPD tar file onto it, now it shows up as a I9000B - maybe I should stop
I can now get into recovery and or download (i think the steps are differant than hold both volume buttons - mine is holding the volume one way for recovery and the other way for download, along with home and power)
Wondering if I am in this bind because it isnt really what most are calling a Vibrant - maybe under Bell it is something else.
Bootloader? didn't know I had to do anything there
I just picked up the phone used from someone - I assumed it was stock and didn't do a good check to see what was on it.
I9000m is not the Vibrate but rather the Bell version of the Captivate. There is a dev section for the I9000m in the I9000 group.
I would definately stop what you are doing and read over there.
******
Also 350 you can re-map your keys to work but I am mobile now and cant search it for you. Reason being that the. Vibrant keys are laid out differently in, ahh can't think right niece where they are, but it is fixable. Just search key remap or remapping.
Thanks very much for the help - have to wonder why they cant call them the same names regardless of where they are sold - guess thats why they get the big bucks
I have a TF201 that I don't know the history on. It turns on to gears and a red triangle exclamation. The weird thing is if I tilt it, half of the screen shows android start and setup.
I figured I could find the stock rom and flash it using MicroSD, however looking everywhere I can't find a true stock rom. I can find stock roms that are modified to unlocked devices, but not true stock.
When I try to do a wipe, it says 9.4.2.7 at the top I noticed. I don't know if that helps.
Suggestions?
EDIT:
Good source for firmware
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1429873
So I found them on ASUS's site. I had no idea they were under Android on there.
However, I can't get adb to find a device on the computer because I only have two icons holding volume and power (Wipe Data, Android).
If I put a SDcard in the tablet like on a TF300T and go into RCK, it doesn't work. Android goes belly up with red triangle. Is it the name i'm using? I tried update.zip, the stock firmware name, and EP201_768_SDUPDATE like I use on the TF300T.
Also, when it's hooked up and I type fastboot device, all I get is waiting for device.
I don't know if this is because it needs to be in a debug USB mode, but I can't get there to check. It does recognize the tab on the computer when I plug it in though.
Ok, so I fixed it.
I downloaded US_epaduser9_4_2_7Updatelauncher.zip
I then put it on a MicroSD card formatted Fat32 and renamed it EP201_SDUPDATE
Then I put it in the tablet and held volume down and power until it prompted to go into RCK and no more dead android, it took and loaded.
EDIT:
DIDN'T WORK (
It loaded like it was going to work, but I am back to the gears and the red triangle.
FUUUUU.JPG
haha, I feel like I am in here by myself. However, I want to document all of this in case somebody else runs into the problem I ran into and they're a rook too.
I fixed it. I wasn't sure what ROM was originally on it and when holding volume and power I noticed the 9.4.2.7 so I assumed that was it. However, I tried that ROM and it seemed like it was going to work but kicked the gear and triangle.
I then figured what the heck and tried the newest rom I could find. The 10.4.2.18?? I think it was. Whatever is the newest on the link I put in the first post.
It ran, and rebooted and Wahla, worked.
It's important to note my directions of FAT32 and the EP201_SDUPDATE as it took me a while to realize those had to be in place properly for the MicroSD card update to work.
Verizon Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE (sch-i905)
So I got this tablet from a friend who said it was bricked, said I could have it if I got it working. So I plug it in and it turns on no problem, strange. wiped tablet and added a couple apps. Got busy at work and the tablet drain power. That's when I got to see it bricked, but still not sure why it booted for a bit for me.
Symptoms:
Boots to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 splash screen (not the animated one after), sits there for ever.
Boots to Odin update mode
When booting to recovery I get a blank, back lit screen and nothing ever.
I've tried:
-Pushing clockwork mode to fix recovery
-I've had a hell of a time finding stock firmware for some reason (it isn't on sammobile), but I did find one eventually. I pushed it to the tablet via Odin, and it was successful, but rebooted to blank black back-lit screen. Have to hard boot and hold power buttun until I see the splash screen to get that far. I followed the guide on rootzwiki reposted on icsforums - www icsforums com/forum/showthread / 13525 (sorry new member can't post links)
-Followed another guide that involved draining battery completely, no go.
I don't care what firmware I end up on, or if I can use LTE (I won't anyway)
I'm a network engineer so I'm tech savy, but not heavy on Android OS. I'm looking for anything else I can try. I saw another method involving heimdall suite, but can't find the files for my model.
Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated.
@Juicebox4242
I had this problem on my gt-p7510...
What I ended up doing was wiping my sdcard..I must have had something corrupt in my file system or a kernel issue( still not sure which )..
Since you have no recovery..I think you can use odin to repartition ( I CAN NOT STRESS ENOUGH THAT THIS IS JUST A GUESS )..I have not tried it..but i will search after this post to confirm..I also believe there is a way using ADB..again not sure..
I just wanted to post this so you would know somebody was looking and to maybe give you a couple ideas to follow up on...I'll search around and see what I find
Edit...I believe ADB will only work with usb debugging checked...But you can flash a stock rom in odin with re-partition checked..you need a .pit file....I think...
Edit...Here is a link to a stock rom thread for you're device..It seems to have helped a couple people with their soft-bricked devices..just follow directions in OP..no repartition checked. I cant even find a .pit file to do a re-partition with for you're device..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1342995 Let me know if this works for you..
Thanks for the post!! Really appreciate it.
That firmware is the one I found in the end and tried. Odin pushes it ok, but then still doesn't boot. In fact after pushing that firmware it boots to backlit blank screen, but when hard reset boots to splash screen.
I tried a pit file I found that I thought was the right one, but it failed when I used that so it must have been wrong.
Juicebox4242 said:
Thanks for the post!! Really appreciate it.
That firmware is the one I found in the end and tried. Odin pushes it ok, but then still doesn't boot. In fact after pushing that firmware it boots to backlit blank screen, but when hard reset boots to splash screen.
I tried a pit file I found that I thought was the right one, but it failed when I used that so it must have been wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same problem as you, except sometimes I can't my tablet to boot. I know it is a software problem because before I was messing with recovery yesterday, everything was working just fine. All I wanted to do was restore to factory settings and instead ended up bricking the device... If you find / know the answer, please do share.
Juicebox4242 said:
Verizon Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE (sch-i905)
So I got this tablet from a friend who said it was bricked, said I could have it if I got it working. So I plug it in and it turns on no problem, strange. wiped tablet and added a couple apps. Got busy at work and the tablet drain power. That's when I got to see it bricked, but still not sure why it booted for a bit for me.
Symptoms:
Boots to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 splash screen (not the animated one after), sits there for ever.
Boots to Odin update mode
When booting to recovery I get a blank, back lit screen and nothing ever.
I've tried:
-Pushing clockwork mode to fix recovery
-I've had a hell of a time finding stock firmware for some reason (it isn't on sammobile), but I did find one eventually. I pushed it to the tablet via Odin, and it was successful, but rebooted to blank black back-lit screen. Have to hard boot and hold power buttun until I see the splash screen to get that far. I followed the guide on rootzwiki reposted on icsforums - www icsforums com/forum/showthread / 13525 (sorry new member can't post links)
-Followed another guide that involved draining battery completely, no go.
I don't care what firmware I end up on, or if I can use LTE (I won't anyway)
I'm a network engineer so I'm tech savy, but not heavy on Android OS. I'm looking for anything else I can try. I saw another method involving heimdall suite, but can't find the files for my model.
Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ever get this fixed? I've had the same problem for months. I just gave up and put it away. I recently fixed a Galaxy Tab 2 and now I want to see if anyone else was able to fix this i905 not booting issue.
did anyone know the solution of this question
I have a SM-T827V which has been working great, up until last night. At that time I pulled it out and opened the magnetic cover which normally wakes the screen. This time, nothing. I thought maybe the unit had turned off for some reason or hadn't been properly connected to the charger so the battery had died, so I held the power button to turn it on. The tablet vibrated and the "Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 powered by Android" screen appeared and sat for what seemed like at least a minute or two. At that point the device went black, vibrated again, and the same screen appeared. It kept doing this in a cycle, endlessly.
After a little online searching it seems that this is not a completely unusual problem with the Tab S3 and the recommended solution is to reflash the firmware. So I downloaded Odin 3.14.4 and the most recent Android 9 firmware from Sammobile.com, installed the Samsung USB drivers and put the device into Odin mode. Following provided instructions I ran Odin, selected the firmware files in the appropriate places (I used HOME_CSC rather than just plain CSC as I was hoping to retain my settings and apps) clicked Start and Odin went to work. It ran through some text output and ended with "<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 1 / failed 0)" and the tablet rebooted. It vibrated and came up with a black screen with "Recovery booting...." in blue lettering at the top. Progress! Except now it just boot loops to that screen instead of the Samsung logo one.
I tried re-flashing with CSC instead of HOME_CSC. Same results. Tried booting with the SIM and SD cards removed. Same results. Tried re-flashing with the SIM and SD card removed. Same results. So, am I SOL or is there something else I can try?
Thanks in advance!
Anyone? This tablet is just over two years old and I'm not really in a position to replace it so I'd really like to get it working.
davel23 said:
Anyone? This tablet is just over two years old and I'm not really in a position to replace it so I'd really like to get it working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't see it earlier.
Another thing to try is flashing with older Odin version as somewhere I read that 3.13 is recommended for Android 8 and 9 while 3.14 is for Q.
Flashing several times one after another is worth a try as well.