What the Hell's Wrong with This Samsung Galaxy Express 3 / J120A? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Longshot, but what the heck...
Recently we were given this thing, an AT&T Galaxy Express 3 SM-J120A UD. It powers up fine, and the screen doesn't appear broken in any way, but there's no image. That wouldn't be so confusing to me, except that it also shows absolutely no lights of any kind, not when powered on or when charging or any other time. There's never any vibration feedback either. The only sign of life at all is that the sound works fine when it's on. I haven't fully tore into the thing yet, but I've checked that the video cable is indeed connected and have tried removing/reattaching to no avail. What I can see of the cable doesn't appear to be damaged.
So... what the hell's wrong with this thing? Any ideas? If it were just a dead screen, why are the indicator lights and vibration also missing? It's almost like something's just unplugged, but I wouldn't think it would even power on if this were the case. <shrug>

Root successful...........but at&t?
I was able to root with firmware version J120AUCS3AQE1 but because mine is an AT&T phone the bootloader is "locked and signed" meaning it's never going to unlock........? I have the latest version of firmware that came out in may 2017 and it will be available to you as soon as I can post an outside web address............ Every Recovery image that I flashed caused everything to fail and a big triangle that said AT&T detected software on your device that is not allowed on our device so I guess this one is never really your own........ but you can Root with Kingroot and supersume pro to get rid of bloatware and such but other than that no custom stuff on this one.
If Kingroot keeps freezing just restart phone and keep trying it took me a long while to obtain root.

Related

[Q] Any fix for Intl. SGS3 frozen at boot?

Yesterday night my phone suddenly switched off and restarted in my pocket, as it sometimes happens. But this time the phone froze at the first Samsung logo. Same thing happens when I plug in the charger, the first charging icon appears without any more movement.
I rooted my phone of course and use MIUI JB at this time. Also, I cannot boot into CWM and ODIN does not recognize it when connected to my PC in download mode.
I got all the necessary drivers on my PC, just a few days ago everything with ODIN went fine aswell. Also i tried to restart my PC, still no better. KIES shut down in task manager of course
Had anyone have similar problem and knows a fix for that? It would be really appreciated!
looks like sudden death
do you mean like the thing where the motherboard gives up? so my only chance would be exchanging it, right?
You phone is dead. Take it to samsung or the carrier you bought it from. Considering you had it rooted and flashed...if you can get in to the download mode then your warranty is void cause the binary counter won't be 0. And if you are lucky enough that it is completely dead then you get a brand new one.
well, i got to download mode and interestingly it showed flash counter zero and that it had stock samsung firmware, which is strange since i had MIUI flashed. also there was a third thing showing something like "no information" or "unknown". but it might aswell have been under one of the other two headlines.
any ways i mailed it back, lets see what they will do.

Not charging when plugged in... Sometimes...

So I'm having a strange issue. I've already checked multiple threads, here and on other forums, most notably this one: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-2/263592-note-2-wont-charge.html
I read every post and no one has my exact issue. So here's the story:
I smashed my screen to bits on concrete, but I have the insurance so Asurion sent me another one. I'm not certain it's refurbished but It did not come in the same packaging my original one from the VZW store did so I'd say it probably is.
I made a backup of my rom using TWRP (Clean Rom VZW Edition - JB 4.1.1)
Then I got my new phone out and checked it and it was running the vramc3 version, so i tried to root/unlock/install recovery via the NoYou exploit. This failed due to driver issues, then after that was sorted out, failed again due to a partitioning issue. ("error: partition 60 blah blah...") So I tried to odin back to stock without realizing the newest firmware had to be flashed using the alternate stock rom for unlocked bootloaders (even though mine was not unlocked) so i flashed that and it worked, i was on the original stock firmware again. however the older version of the exploit for the stock firmware did not work (i'm assuming because the bootloader wasn't actually rolled back even though the firmware was) so i downloaded the ota updates and got back to vramc3 and tried the NoYou exploit again and it worked, so i had root, recovery, and an unlocked bootloader.
Because my old phone and new phone have different serial numbers, I modified the folder name and .log file entries of the TWRP backup of the old serial number to be the new phone serial number. This worked and my phone was restored. For 3 days it charged just fine, and then last night and all throughout today, I've been testing it after noticing it doesn't charge when connected to an a/c outlet, and does not recognize a connection to my pc..... SOMETIMES. Sometimes it works right away, other times it takes 10 minutes of being plugged in before it recognizes it. and other times it'll sit for an hour and never figure it out. All without me moving it around too, i really don't see how it could be a cable connection issue. I tried my old phone on the old and new samsung official a/c charges and both work flawlessly every time, so i'm certain the cables are good.
So i did some more testing. I tried doing a factory reset with the rom still installed. Still had charging issues. I tried wiping everything except my external sd card and installing the latest version of the rom which is based on the vramc3 update (fresh install, not using my backup), still doesn't always charge...
I didn't yank the cable out, drop the phone, or mishandle it in anyway in the past 3 days, and the leads for the usb connection on the phone don't appear to be damaged. I also tried moving the cable around the connection while plugged in to see if something wasn't making contact and it didn't make a difference. I also now have 2 batteries, both hold a charge perfectly fine, and charge perfectly fin in the old phone so I don't think it's related to them either, and I have tried the new phone with both batteries. So here's the question....
Is this a firmware issue, or a usb port issue? I still have the old phone and if it's a usb port issue i'll just swap it with the old one, but i'd prefer not to take it apart until someone more qualified to speak on the matter tells me that it's the problem, haha.
And if it's a firmware issue, what the hell do i do? since I have recovery operational, i was going to try a few other roms just to see if anything changes while i'm waiting for replies.
Pleeease help, as you can probably tell by the length of this post, this is driving me insane.
TallgeeseIV said:
So I'm having a strange issue. I've already checked multiple threads, here and on other forums, most notably this one: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-2/263592-note-2-wont-charge.html
I read every post and no one has my exact issue. So here's the story:
I smashed my screen to bits on concrete, but I have the insurance so Asurion sent me another one. I'm not certain it's refurbished but It did not come in the same packaging my original one from the VZW store did so I'd say it probably is.
I made a backup of my rom using TWRP (Clean Rom VZW Edition - JB 4.1.1)
Then I got my new phone out and checked it and it was running the vramc3 version, so i tried to root/unlock/install recovery via the NoYou exploit. This failed due to driver issues, then after that was sorted out, failed again due to a partitioning issue. ("error: partition 60 blah blah...") So I tried to odin back to stock without realizing the newest firmware had to be flashed using the alternate stock rom for unlocked bootloaders (even though mine was not unlocked) so i flashed that and it worked, i was on the original stock firmware again. however the older version of the exploit for the stock firmware did not work (i'm assuming because the bootloader wasn't actually rolled back even though the firmware was) so i downloaded the ota updates and got back to vramc3 and tried the NoYou exploit again and it worked, so i had root, recovery, and an unlocked bootloader.
Because my old phone and new phone have different serial numbers, I modified the folder name and .log file entries of the TWRP backup of the old serial number to be the new phone serial number. This worked and my phone was restored. For 3 days it charged just fine, and then last night and all throughout today, I've been testing it after noticing it doesn't charge when connected to an a/c outlet, and does not recognize a connection to my pc..... SOMETIMES. Sometimes it works right away, other times it takes 10 minutes of being plugged in before it recognizes it. and other times it'll sit for an hour and never figure it out. All without me moving it around too, i really don't see how it could be a cable connection issue. I tried my old phone on the old and new samsung official a/c charges and both work flawlessly every time, so i'm certain the cables are good.
So i did some more testing. I tried doing a factory reset with the rom still installed. Still had charging issues. I tried wiping everything except my external sd card and installing the latest version of the rom which is based on the vramc3 update (fresh install, not using my backup), still doesn't always charge...
I didn't yank the cable out, drop the phone, or mishandle it in anyway in the past 3 days, and the leads for the usb connection on the phone don't appear to be damaged. I also tried moving the cable around the connection while plugged in to see if something wasn't making contact and it didn't make a difference. I also now have 2 batteries, both hold a charge perfectly fine, and charge perfectly fin in the old phone so I don't think it's related to them either, and I have tried the new phone with both batteries. So here's the question....
Is this a firmware issue, or a usb port issue? I still have the old phone and if it's a usb port issue i'll just swap it with the old one, but i'd prefer not to take it apart until someone more qualified to speak on the matter tells me that it's the problem, haha.
And if it's a firmware issue, what the hell do i do? since I have recovery operational, i was going to try a few other roms just to see if anything changes while i'm waiting for replies.
Pleeease help, as you can probably tell by the length of this post, this is driving me insane.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This topic can be closed now. I looked up a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfvOTFssDMM) of the swapping process and saw how easy it is, so i just went ahead and tried it, and it totally worked, so now it's charging fine again. Thank you to anyone who viewed this and hopefully this can help someone in the future.
I didn't read all of that. I was at a concert last night. But here what I know about the not charging thing.
In my experience
1.all the good galaxy phones do it.
2. Its not that it wasn't charging. Its that vzw turned the power up on the modems. If your in a low service or weak signal area your phone will actually drain the batter faster then you can charge it.
So if you notice this is happening. Switch your phone into airplane mode. Or turn off mobile data and let it charge for a while.
I have read about a few case's where the usb ports where disconnected. But I think the crazy fast radio battery drain is way more common.
I don't know if its the same for other carriers but I know a note guy a s4 guy and 2 other note 2 guys we all had the same problem with it.we are all Verizon too.
The original modem flash helps a lot but the 2nd one that went out ota is stronger in weak signal areas so we all use it and turn off our data if it gets to much.

[Q] [N00b alert] Phone says unrooted when it /is/ rooted

First off, I'd like to say my S2 is the Virgin Mobile version (model i9210) so I'm not sure if it's okay for me to post this in this forum or not. Feel free to move it where it should be, I won't be offended.
Edit: Originally had posted this in the Samsung Galaxy S2 forum, but it was nicely moved to this forum in hopes that it would be seen more~ So to clarify, my phone is the Virgin Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2, running Android 4.1.2, model number SPH-D710.
The ROM I have is BiftorROM-V8-JB-XWLSN-NoWipe.
Onward. This is my first Samsung phone AND my first Galaxy, and when I decided to root my phone, I had no idea how much different it would be from my past phones. How I didn't completely brick this phone, is nothing short of a miracle. I had trouble with some ROMs so someone eventually linked me to a Sprint stock ROM, saying it was compatible with my phone.
Since then I've been using that ROM, despite having a Virgin Mobile phone, with no problem. Recently I noticed an app I use (SD Maid) was listing my phone as unrooted. It was weird but I ignored it, because the app still worked. Even later, I noticed other apps that require root access were not working correctly, so I decided to download a root checker.
Status: Unrooted
Well, then. I'm not sure how this happened, or what's going on, but I figured again, it was no big deal because my ROM was running perfectly and I had no desire to change my ROM or anything else soon. Last night my phone started acting completely different. Lagging like crazy, and when I tried to unlock my phone, it would take a good 15 seconds just for the screen to turn on and my lock screen to start functioning normally. Then another 20 seconds or so for the screen to register my touch and actually unlock my phone. I tried disabling all lockers, but my screen would just turn black and I would still have to wait.
A friend suggested that I simply go through the process of rooting as though my phone really were unrooted and just hope that fixes it, but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. If my phone wasn't operating so slowly this wouldn't be as big of a problem, but it is, and I'm pretty afraid that I'll mess my phone up somehow.
I once found a forum with the topic the same as mine but I haven't been able to find it since, so I'm hoping someone here could point me in the right direction. Do I go through the root process, maybe try just reflashing my current ROM? I've also thought about just doing a system restore on my phone and see if that helps. Thanks in advance.

[Q&A] [ROM]【4.4.4】Google Play Edition 【KTU84P】- 09/30/2014

[Q&A] [ROM]【4.4.4】Google Play Edition 【KTU84P】- 09/30/2014
Q&A for [ROM]【4.4.4】Google Play Edition 【KTU84P】- 09/30/2014
Some developers prefer that questions remain separate from their main development thread to help keep things organized. Placing your question within this thread will increase its chances of being answered by a member of the community or by the developer. Thanks for understanding and for helping to keep XDA neat and tidy! :smile:
gpz1100 said:
I gave up trying to calibrate my compass. I have issues with it in any rom including stock TW. Some of these chips are just broken.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After trying many of the suggestions on this thread to fix the compass (my GPS lock is fine), I thought I might have messed up the hardware somehow. However, last night I flashed the 7/12 KT GE kernel, and the compass now correctly points in the right direction.
Germany?
Hi Dan (or whoever else reads this). Love the ROM! It's amazing. Do you know if it will work in Germany? I went to Mexico a few months ago, and the latest build at the time would not get reception anywhere. Flashing a TW ROM solved the problem, but I would much rather use yours.
Thanks!
TheSt33v said:
Hi Dan (or whoever else reads this). Love the ROM! It's amazing. Do you know if it will work in Germany? I went to Mexico a few months ago, and the latest build at the time would not get reception anywhere. Flashing a TW ROM solved the problem, but I would much rather use yours.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well in case anyone is curious, this ROM gives me great cell service (full signal on Vodaphone.de) but no data in Munich. I tried airplane mode, disabling/enabling data roaming several times and setting the network mode to GSM preferred, but no luck. Flashing the latest release of Hyperdrive ROM allowed me to use data. Oh well.
flashing google edition on verizon s4 on nc5
I'm a noob and can't figure out if i can use safestrap to flash the dandvh google play edition rom.
verizon galaxy s4 on nc5 build, rooted with towel root and running safestrap 3.75
Viper Audio Working?
Does anyone else use Viper Audio with this rom? I find that the audio driver frequently stops processing when I stop playing music and then come back and play again. It will start processing again if I reboot the phone or even kill the Viper gui process. I've tried installing it as a user or system app but hasn't seemed to matter. Anyway, just curious if anyone else was having the same kind of results.
Hi everyone, hoping you all can help me with a problem I'm having with my phone. First, some specs:
ROM: Danvdh GPE 9/30
I am one of those lucky MDK users, I got the phone in May 2013 and rooted early
I had been running the NC5 modem for a while now with no issue. The problem started after I flashed the NG6 modem (from Surge1223's thread) in TWRP. Just fyi, here are the steps I took to flash the modem. Within TWRP, I flashed the zip file, cleared Dalvik/cache, then rebooted.
Almost immediately I started getting random reboots. It rebooted twice, then seemed to settle down, so I decided to wait a day or so to see what my phone would do. Sadly enough, it started rebooting again, so I gave up last night and reflashed the NC5 modem in TWRP using the same method as before. The phone was fine after that, until this afternoon. About an hour ago, my phone froze, and rebooted, but the screen cut off at the Samsung custom padlock boot screen. It seems to be off at this point, but I can't power on the phone without pulling the battery. After pulling and replacing the battery, the phone powers on by itself, but again cuts off at the Samsung boot screen, about 3-4 seconds into the boot process. I've tried booting into TWRP and download mode, with the screen turning off and the device seemingly freezing after 3-4 seconds. I'm at a loss as to what to do at this point.
I'm at work right now, but when I get home, I will see if Odin3 can make some sort of contact with the phone. Any help in the meantime would be greatly appreciated!
Sounds like you may have a bad dl. Re download. Turn phone off. Then boot into TWRP and reflash the modem zip. Not the non-halos.zip.
Alxoom33 said:
Sounds like you may have a bad dl. Re download. Turn phone off. Then boot into TWRP and reflash the modem zip. Not the non-halos.zip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would love to, but I can't.
I put a video up on Youtube showing what the phone is doing right now. I don't have 10 posts yet, so I can't post links, but if you go to youtube.com then add "/watch?v=3ey5xD9LodY" at the end of the URL, you can see what the phone is doing.
It is the only thing the phone will do. I've tried doing a hard reset by holding the power button, but nothing happens. All I can do is pull the battery and start this process again. If I hold the correct button combos, I can begin to boot into TWRP or download mode, but the phone cuts off/freezes like clockwork after 3 seconds.
I tried to get Odin3 to recognize the phone, but my desktop doesn't recognize that anything is plugged in when I connect my phone to it, so Odin3 by extension doesn't see anything.
Did you install the Samsung apps on your computer? You need them for the computer to recognize your phone.
To hard boot into recovery you need to hold power button and volume up at the same time, then let go of power button once blue writing appears on upper corner of phone.
Sent from my Xoom Wifi using Tapatalk
I'm sure I have. I've been able to send adb commands to the phone in the past. Now however, my PC doesn't even see that a device has been connected to it (nothing shows up in the device manager, not even an unrecognized device).
The phone will no longer charge when I plug it into an AC adapter either (or at least the LED no longer lights up indicating it's charging).
I have tried booting into recovery several times. Each time, it will begin to boot into TWRP, the blue text, "RECOVERY BOOTING...", will display, then immediately afterwards, the screen will cut off and the phone will freeze, just like in the Youtube video I posted.
I'm afraid the thing is bricked...
So, I was talking to a friend about what's been going on with my phone. During the conversation, I started goofing around and smacking the back of the phone like 4-year-old me would an NES to try and make it work (ah, good times...). Believe it or not (and I did not touch the power button while doing this), the phone powered up and successfully booted!!!
It showed only 2% battery life, so I connected it to the AC adapter, but then a few seconds later the phone died again.
This occurrence leads me to believe there is something wrong with the battery, and leads me to another question. Can the S4 (or any other smartphone) run solely on USB power?
My roommate has a Galaxy SIII, I read the SIII battery can be used in the S4, so I will test the phone out with his battery when he gets back tomorrow, and update you then.
marioluigi64 said:
So, I was talking to a friend about what's been going on with my phone. During the conversation, I started goofing around and smacking the back of the phone like 4-year-old me would an NES to try and make it work (ah, good times...). Believe it or not (and I did not touch the power button while doing this), the phone powered up and successfully booted!!!
It showed only 2% battery life, so I connected it to the AC adapter, but then a few seconds later the phone died again.
This occurrence leads me to believe there is something wrong with the battery, and leads me to another question. Can the S4 (or any other smartphone) run solely on USB power?
My roommate has a Galaxy SIII, I read the SIII battery can be used in the S4, so I will test the phone out with his battery when he gets back tomorrow, and update you then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried a different USB cable/transformer? It sounds like you might just have a charging issue. Not enough juice to get it started.
Allowing a battery to cool down will give it more usable power, which as it heats back up will deplete again. This sounds like your situation... Power off for a few, restart it has enough to begin booting, then depleted again.
The phone cannot run on USB alone it needs the battery to sustain it's operation.
I have tried 3 USB cables, 2 AC adapters, and 2 PCs.
When this started on Friday, my phone was hooked up to my PC at work and showing about 50% battery, but it's possible something went wrong with the battery and it's stopped delivering any significant amount of power or accepting a charge.
So it turns out it wasn't the rom or new modem that was the problem, my battery has decided to kick the bucket. I tried my roommate's battery in my phone and it booted right up as if nothing was ever wrong! Strange that an OEM battery would just die like that, but I suppose that does happen from time to time. Thanks for the help!
matycakes said:
Does anyone else use Viper Audio with this rom? I find that the audio driver frequently stops processing when I stop playing music and then come back and play again. It will start processing again if I reboot the phone or even kill the Viper gui process. I've tried installing it as a user or system app but hasn't seemed to matter. Anyway, just curious if anyone else was having the same kind of results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use it, and I've never had any issues with it. I would recommend reinstalling, but you've probably tried that already. Are you using the latest version of the app?
TheSt33v said:
I use it, and I've never had any issues with it. I would recommend reinstalling, but you've probably tried that already. Are you using the latest version of the app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have tried reinstalling it, and I am using the latest version of the app. The fact that you haven't had any issues is encouraging. I'll continue to troubleshoot and see what I can find.
I keep getting this (in CWM touch)
Flashing Google Play Edition
Android 4.4.4
Enjoy!
format() expects 5 args, got 4
E: Error in /storage/sdcard1/danvdh-GE-4.4.4-09-30-2014-VZW.zip
(status 7)
installation aborted
Is it just a bad DL?
EDIT: Tried a new DL, same issue. I want to get this fixed asap
Is cm11 theme manager included in this rom?
brd912 said:
Is cm11 theme manager included in this rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not.

galaxy alpha issues

Hi everybody i am asking for advice on trying to repair a phone for a family member the phone is a galaxy alpha F variant UK stock rom, factory unlocked and unrooted the problem started after finishing a call the handset was left un attended and when it was later picked up the screen was black but does not appear broken aywhere and does not appear to respond to touch
i have tried un successfully to get it into recovery or download modes the handset turns on and the blue lights come on and you can hear the start up tone but see nothing on screen, it also charges and i have tried a new battery, odin does recognise a device but as i cant get it into download i cant flash a stock rom which i have already downloaded.
So my question is, is there any software that i can download to diagnose whether or not the screen is dead or whether it is a f/w issue or is there a way around this where i can use a different tool to get into the handset and flash a new stock rom in case the current f/w is corrupted
Thanks in advance for any useful help and advice
Please understand that i am a newb to this so if i have made some mistakes or my questions have been answered elsewhere previously i do apologise
I think it seems pretty obvious that the problem is the display itself
Hi BigHands,
I faced a problem having the exact same symptoms as yours twice in the last few month: screen was staying black but phone reacted to some "external" actions (ON/OFF), blue light.
Not sure what happened exactly, but removing the battery and trying to restart the phone finally brought the device back to life after trying more than than 10 times!!!
So in my case, the display was probably not the (only) root cause.
Really weird however that I needed to reboot the phone >10times to make it work: usually when software is screwed either one single power cycle will bring the device back to life or it will never power up again!
Anyways, a FW issue is still a possibility considering the number of bug this phone has (for the price it was sold, that phone is definitely the worse gadget I ever owned!)... But it seems there is a bunch of FW updates on going on this model accross the world, so there is still a little hope things might improve... Samsumg may have woken up; who knows...
JF

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