soft bricked - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

my latest isue with the samsung sgh-1337 that i have been posting various questions about. i got my new sd card and moved mt titanium bkups from the internal storage including the "update.zip" that i had made and tested with removed bloatware and handful of user apps that i installed and converted over to system apps and included to the update zip. i removed a couple user apps i no longer needed. i read while browsing these forums that the "touchwiz" app is not needed and provides little features, ect. I removed this then rebooted the phone and was going to make a frswh update zip and leave it in the internal storage. the phone then did not want to boot and kept freezing at a blank dark screen. i tried to again do a sytem restore which allowed me to one of the many times i rebooted and kept getting stuck in boot loops or the blank screen. even after the one succesful reset it still stuck at a blank screen.i then tried flashing with oden with the stock replacement rom for this specific model from:androidmtk.com/download-samsung-stock-rom. again i have had the same unsucessful results with oden as follows from odins log:
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/009> Added!!
<ID:0/009> Odin engine v(ID:3.1205)..
<ID:0/009> File analysis..
<ID:0/009> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/009> Initialzation..
<ID:0/009> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/009> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/009> SingleDownload.
<ID:0/009> boot.img
<ID:0/009> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)
<ID:0/009> Removed!!
<ID:0/009> Added!!
is this due to a locked bootloader? what can i do to fix this? also have the current version of samsung drivers installed.

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different phone and different problem than above phone....the bkrd to how this happened with s3mini being stuck in download/oden mode...installed twrp app from playstore and let it pick the proper rom ect and due its thing but once it rebooted it has been stuck in oden mode
if anyone has seen i have been posting questions and problems with 3 phones that i have the s4 and 2 s3mini sm-G730A with 4.4.2. i was unable to find the oem rom for this but have tried the one for the s4 that also has 4.4.2 along with various others all that fail with the same error as follows from oden log:
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/009> Removed!!
<ID:0/009> Added!!
<ID:0/009> Odin engine v(ID:3.1205)..
<ID:0/009> File analysis..
<ID:0/009> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/009> Initialzation..
<ID:0/009> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/009> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/009> SingleDownload.
<ID:0/009> boot.img
<ID:0/009> FAIL! (Auth)
<ID:0/009>
<ID:0/009> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)