[Q] Soft-bricked, trouble with Odin + USB - Epic 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've scoured the forum to an answer to my problem but I've not yet found any so hopefully you guys can help.
Somehow I managed to soft-brick my Epic 4g, just been having all sorts of problems. Anyway I'm able to get in download mode just fine so I should be able to restore my phone no problem right? Wrong.
The problem I'm having is that my computer won't freaking recognize my phone when it's plugged in. Here's what I'm doing:
1) Start Odin, have phone ready in Download Mode
2) Load up the PDA file
3) Plug USB cord in to Phone
Once I plug the cord in to the phone my computer says that it does not recognize the device (or that it's malfunctioned or some such thing).
I've tried everything to fix this! Here's a weird bit of success though:
This morning I turned on my phone, did the 3-button combo to get to clockwork recovery then plugged my phone in. The phone was recognized!! I rebooted, went to download mode and Odin recognized it! At this point I tried flashing my stock kernel and it failed. Now I'm no longer able to get in to recovery using the 3 button combo and my computer no longer recognizes my USB connection again in download mode.
Am I totally screwed here? What's up with the USB??
OH! Just wanted to add: I'm using Windows 7 x64 and I do have the correct USB drivers installed.

hmmm
Have u tried redownloading the samsung drivers? They really ***** out sometimes...

I have. I've actually gone through and tried the x86 and x64 drivers listed on the forums as well as the official samsung drivers.

Usually when Windows says the device is unrecognized or has malfunctioned it has to do with the USB port you're using not having enough power. The stock Epic USB cable also sucks because its long and skinny which leads to more power drop. Try using a better quality USB cable (I always use a blackberry cable when flashing) and connect it to a USB port on the back panel of the computer that comes directly off of the motherboard.
Some USB ports may work better than others - for instance on my Dell E series laptops I can't flash when using the USB ports on the left side of the machine, but the ones on the right work perfectly. The left side ones just don't deliver as much juice and this phone is a power hungry little guy.

Alright I got it working. I do think it had something to do with the cable. I kept swtiching back and forth between Samsungs and my old Motorola one. After a few reboots and reinstalls of drivers the Motorola one finally worked

I have had that same thing happen, tried an old moment cable and problem solved. After that went on ebay and bought some extras just to have on hand just in case. Also thanks about the usb port explanation, makes sense.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

Related

[Q] did i brick/break my phone?

Long story short, I get the phone-!-computer icon when I power-up. So I put the phone into download mode, fire up odin, and plug the phone into the computer. Except the computer doesn't make the new hardware detected sound, and odin doesn't show the phone. It also doesn't appear in the device manager under USB devices, so I can't try uninstalling and re-installing the drivers.
I've tried 3 computers (Vista 64, Vista 32, and XP Pro), all the USB ports on each computer, and 4 different USB cables (only one was stock Samsung). I've tried leaving the battery out overnight, going into d/l mode without the battery in, holding down the power button without the battery for 1 minute. None of that would get the phone to show up.
If it makes a difference, right before this happened, I was attempting to flash back to stock with Odin because I just flashed a new rom with CWM and it was acting weird. The first time I put it into d/l mode and ran Odin, it detected fine and began flashing, but odin froze and the phone turned black.
I rebooted the phone into download mode, and restarted Odin, and tried again. Then it froze again at a different point and screen turned black again, so I rebooted into download mode again, and that's when it wouldn't detect the phone anymore.
If you can get your phone into download mode then you're not bricked. It seems like you're having issues with the drivers for the phone and possible usb cable problems. The stock samsung cable causes issues. I bought a new usb cable and haven't had issues since
Sent from my superEPIC Epic 4G using XDA Premium App
Well its weird that he tried 4 different cables and three computers, all different OSs and it still wont show.......
You said that you took the battery out over night...... did you hold the power button down while the battery was out to discharge the circuits?
LOL... well I looked at the port on the phone under a big magnifying lens, and saw there was a small hair stuck in there. After much effort, I was able to get it out and now the computer is at least detecting it and saying "unknown device". I'm gonna try re-installing the drivers to see if that gets it to work.
theduce102 said:
Well its weird that he tried 4 different cables and three computers, all different OSs and it still wont show.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oops i guess I missed that part about the extra cables. You can uninstall and reinstall the drivers. The drivers are what allows the computer to interact with the phone but you're wording makes it seem like you think the drivers get downloaded into the phone (which they don't).
Sent from my superEPIC Epic 4G using XDA Premium App
SUCCESS!
goddamn hair!
eao1991 said:
Oops i guess I missed that part about the extra cables. You can uninstall and reinstall the drivers. The drivers are what allows the computer to interact with the phone but you're wording makes it seem like you think the drivers get downloaded into the phone (which they don't).
Sent from my superEPIC Epic 4G using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I knew that. The issue was the computer wasn't detecting the phone and so it wasn't showing up in device manager at all, so I had no way to uninstall the drivers. But it turned out to be the goddamn hair, so I'm up and running again
dwyw42 said:
LOL... well I looked at the port on the phone under a big magnifying lens, and saw there was a small hair stuck in there. After much effort, I was able to get it out and now the computer is at least detecting it and saying "unknown device". I'm gonna try re-installing the drivers to see if that gets it to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol nice. For some reason I didn't see this message before I sent mine. sorry about that
Sent from my Epic 4G using XDA Premium App
dwyw42 said:
SUCCESS!
goddamn hair!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome! Now go enjoy root access again!!!
Sent from my Epic 4G using XDA Premium App
I'm actually having this same issue, mine boots to the Samsung screen and makes the booting noises and everything but stays at the Samsung screen.
I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the USB drivers and have all the correct files for Odin but when I put it into Download mode and plug it in to the computer Odin doesn't recognize it and neither does my computer.
Well mine was definitely caused by a hair in the usb port. You might want to try using some electronics contact cleaner (available at radio shack or lowes in the US) to clean the contacts on the usb port if there's nothing visible preventing a good connection.

[Q] Cant mount USB, get to DL mode

Hi Guys/Gals
ive done a bit of searching and have tried everything i could think of but still no DL mode, and cant mount USB
I started having a problem with my mic ... thought it might be the ROM so i wiped dalvik, problem was still there. Then did a factory reset, problem still there
Thought i would try a different ROM, but when i went to plug my USB in, my PC would promt me with a USB device not recognized window. I tried mounting USB via USB utilities - No Go. Tried with debugging mode off, still no go.
I have reinstalled the USB drivers, still no go.
The phone also turns on when plugged into wall power, or will not stay shut down ... hrmmm
Im curious if the mic and USB issues are related and it is a hardware malfunction.
Any tips, help, or advice would be GREATLY appreciated right about now.
Thanks XDA!
Welp ... got DL mode on my work PC. Will try to get back to factory and see if that resolves the USB and Mic issues.
Pretty weird considering I tried it a few million times.
Scratch that. Got DL mode, once, can no longer. Wtf is going on.
Holding volume+/- and inserting USB cable. Am I doing something wrong? Its sending me straight to CWM recovery everytime.
Tried to do a restore from a point but got an MD5 sum mismatch
FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
turn off phone
plug in usb
then reboot with finger combo
Problem is I plug in USB when the phone is pwrd off and it automatically starts to boot up.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
street954 said:
Problem is I plug in USB when the phone is pwrd off and it automatically starts to boot up.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so hold the vol up + down then plug phone
Tried everything.
Not a newb when it comes to getting to DL mode if the phone is opperating normally. (obviously if ive come from CM7, and ICS as an original vibrant owner, and was running a rooted SGS2)
Went ahead and ordered a new phone. Am going to spend the couple bucks on the DL mode USB plug, might be able to save something from the old phone.
Im pretty sure something happened to the phone that affected the ports on the USB and MIC at the same time. But we'll see once i try the plug ...
street954 said:
Tried everything.
Not a newb when it comes to getting to DL mode if the phone is opperating normally. (obviously if ive come from CM7, and ICS as an original vibrant owner, and was running a rooted SGS2)
Went ahead and ordered a new phone. Am going to spend the couple bucks on the DL mode USB plug, might be able to save something from the old phone.
Im pretty sure something happened to the phone that affected the ports on the USB and MIC at the same time. But we'll see once i try the plug ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wait have one last idea
if you have adb set up type in adb reboot download

[Q] Galaxy s2 won't boot into download mode for rooting

Hi guy's, I would just like to start off by saying that XDA is a wonderful site full of amazing information. It just so happens that the problem I'm having isn't anywhere on this website which leads me to think if I'm the only one who has this sort of situation. Basically what's going on is that I would like to root my T989, mainly to get rid of carrier bloatware, so I looked around the internet and YouTube videos and learned how to do it, the only problem is that I am failing at the first step of it which is getting it in download mode. I downloaded Odin3 v1.85, then while running Odin I held the volume up+down buttons and at the same time plugged in the USB cable, as soon as I do that the phone boots into a screen that is showing the battery being charged instead of going to the warning screen and Windows says that the device was not recognized and the USB has malfunctioned. I did install the Samsung ADB drivers for the phone, I also turned USB debugging on, and I tried three different computers all with the same results. Oh and if anyone wants to know, I am running Android 2.3.6. Can anyone please help me? I would really appreciate it if you guys could help me find a solution to this.
BTW this is my first thread on XDA
Paragraphs are your friend.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
PCLOVER93 said:
Hi guy's, I would just like to start off by saying that XDA is a wonderful site full of amazing information. It just so happens that the problem I'm having isn't anywhere on this website which leads me to think if I'm the only one who has this sort of situation. Basically what's going on is that I would like to root my T989, mainly to get rid of carrier bloatware, so I looked around the internet and YouTube videos and learned how to do it, the only problem is that I am failing at the first step of it which is getting it in download mode. I downloaded Odin3 v1.85, then while running Odin I held the volume up+down buttons and at the same time plugged in the USB cable, as soon as I do that the phone boots into a screen that is showing the battery being charged instead of going to the warning screen and Windows says that the device was not recognized and the USB has malfunctioned. I did install the Samsung ADB drivers for the phone, I also turned USB debugging on, and I tried three different computers all with the same results. Oh and if anyone wants to know, I am running Android 2.3.6. Can anyone please help me? I would really appreciate it if you guys could help me find a solution to this.
BTW this is my first thread on XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would remove the battery 1st and let it chill for a sec. Replace the battery, and hold vol - & + and then connect your USB cable. Do this in that exact order and you should have no issues.
Also if your PC isn't recognizing your phone I'd try a different USB cable. Sometimes that works.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
I had the same problem with my previous sgs2, i tried everything from uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, used a different usb cable, tried a different laptop and nothing fixed it, if your computer wont recognize the phone after trying everything you can think of, then do what i did and get a warranty exchange, after that my new sgs2 connected perfectly
Sent from Flip's SGS2
elflip88 said:
I had the same problem with my previous sgs2, i tried everything from uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, used a different usb cable, tried a different laptop and nothing fixed it, if your computer wont recognize the phone after trying everything you can think of, then do what i did and get a warranty exchange, after that my new sgs2 connected perfectly
Sent from Flip's SGS2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
remember that **** well lol.
TO OP:
There are a couple things you can still try, but chances are slim since you did try 3 different computers. It might have been possible that the installation of the drivers (when you plug in your phone) was interrupted somehow and it left an incomplete installation. You would need to download usbdeview and remove/delete/uninstall (forgot what term was used) everything android/samsung related.
Plug in your phone when it's on in the homescreen or something.. let it sit for like 5-10 mins for it to install everything.. there is like 5 things or so. Now try to go into download mode.
If that doesn't work, make sure you're using the t989 drivers.
if that doesn't work, then install kies
Try to mix and match USB wires and USB ports on the computer.
Teo032 said:
remember that **** well lol.
TO OP:
There are a couple things you can still try, but chances are slim since you did try 3 different computers. It might have been possible that the installation of the drivers (when you plug in your phone) was interrupted somehow and it left an incomplete installation. You would need to download usbdeview and remove/delete/uninstall (forgot what term was used) everything android/samsung related.
Plug in your phone when it's on in the homescreen or something.. let it sit for like 5-10 mins for it to install everything.. there is like 5 things or so. Now try to go into download mode.
If that doesn't work, make sure you're using the t989 drivers.
if that doesn't work, then install kies
Try to mix and match USB wires and USB ports on the computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I did all this, so op if you do all these also and it still doesn't work then to the warranty exchange
Sent from Flip's SGS2
what carrier do you use? there is a different way between tmobile and telus
Sent from my SGH-T989D using XDA

My GN 2 nearly totalled my desktop! WTF?

So I installed the latest Samsung drivers on my Win 7 desktop with the intention of using mskippen's Note 2 toolkit to do a nandroid backup of my phone. After rebooting the behemoth I plugged in a USB cable into an open port and then plugged in my phone. The screen of the Windows machine went black and the cooling fan kicked into high gear! I couldn't even do a three finger salute (ctrl-alt -del) to get to the boot menu. I had to YANK the power cable!! I rebooted and tried again, same result. WTF!
Has anyone ever seen this happen before?
Before you suggest reinstalling the drivers - I rebooted the desktop one more time and plugged the phone in even before the computer had a chance to initialize the USB controllers (I.e, during POST) and the exact same thing happened. Seems my phone is out to literally assassinate my desktop. But here's the kicker - I've successfully plugged this phone into the computer before. So what is going on?
Anyone?
Mudge
Hmmm...
iCurmudgeon said:
So I installed the latest Samsung drivers on my Win 7 desktop with the intention of using mskippen's Note 2 toolkit to do a nandroid backup of my phone. After rebooting the behemoth I plugged in a USB cable into an open port and then plugged in my phone. The screen of the Windows machine went black and the cooling fan kicked into high gear! I couldn't even do a three finger salute (ctrl-alt -del) to get to the boot menu. I had to YANK the power cable!! I rebooted and tried again, same result. WTF!
Has anyone ever seen this happen before?
Before you suggest reinstalling the drivers - I rebooted the desktop one more time and plugged the phone in even before the computer had a chance to initialize the USB controllers (I.e, during POST) and the exact same thing happened. Seems my phone is out to literally assassinate my desktop. But here's the kicker - I've successfully plugged this phone into the computer before. So what is going on?
Anyone?
Mudge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a short circuit, try a different cable, try a different USB port (preferably one on the back of the computer).
FYI, USB ports are hot during POST (otherwise your keyboard would never allow you to get into the BIOS).
-Mike
mcapozzi said:
Sounds like a short circuit, try a different cable, try a different USB port (preferably one on the back of the computer).
FYI, USB ports are hot during POST (otherwise your keyboard would never allow you to get into the BIOS).
-Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I swear I've used that same cable before to plug the phone (successfully) into the desktop, but you may be right. I'll try a different cable. Scared the s**t out of me, let me tell you.
mudge

Nexus 7 not recognized by PC?

Hi all, I've been lurking the forums since bout September of 2012. I haven't really been posting here, mainly just gathering ROMs, kernels, help etc.
Anyways, my Nexus 7 isn't being recognized by Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or even Ubuntu. this leads me to belive this is caused from the tablet. I have installed numerous drivers, but with no luck. Recently, I noticed when I boot into recovery, and the tavlet uis on the Google screen, my computer recognizes it as, "Unknown Device." Soon after it passes the Google screen and boots into TWRP Windows can't detect it anymore. My tablet says it's connected via AC, not USB - which is probably why I can't transfer files. I have MTP checked, and I tried PTP too. I've tried enabling and disabling debugging with no luck still. I'm using the OEM charger for the device, and I have tried using multiple cable with no dice.
"So a new possible way of fixing this after having contacted Asus support. They had me turn of my Nexus 7 and then hold the Volume Up + Power button for 30 seconds and then hold only the power button for 60 seconds. I was told this is to remove static from the mother board. USB Charging, USB Transfer, and Wireless Charging (which is what made me notice the issue) now work. The only problem I have now is that the cord that came with the tablet seems to be a bit loose and will cause it to stop charging when I don't just let it sit on a table."
That was suggested on a different forum, but that didn't work for me neither.
ADB nor fastboot cannot see my device as well.
Any help?
have you tried plugging the cable in to a different usb port?
What drivers are you using? Try the generic USB ones here, which I use with no problem at all: http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html
For best results, go to Device Manager first, set it to show all hidden devices, then delete (not just disable) any previous drivers you may have installed.
"They had me turn of my Nexus 7 and then hold the Volume Up + Power button for 30 seconds and then hold only the power button for 60 seconds. I was told this is to remove static from the mother board."
I feel like hitting my head against a brick wall when hearing such advice.
timrock said:
have you tried plugging the cable in to a different usb port?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've tried USB 3 ports, and USB 2 ports with no success.
Pandae said:
What drivers are you using? Try the generic USB ones here, which I use with no problem at all: -snip-
For best results, go to Device Manager first, set it to show all hidden devices, then delete (not just disable) any previous drivers you may have installed.
"They had me turn of my Nexus 7 and then hold the Volume Up + Power button for 30 seconds and then hold only the power button for 60 seconds. I was told this is to remove static from the mother board."
I feel like hitting my head against a brick wall when hearing such advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotta love Asus' tech support.
Try Nexus Root Toolkit, it has a nice walkthrough that shos you how to first uninstall any existing non-working usb drivers. Then just try its options one by one and you'll have working drivers in minutes.
I gave up even trying to get my original N7 and my N7 (2013) to be recognized by any PC. What I do instead is use a free app of the day I got from Amazon a while back called Wifi File Explorer. Run the app and you can access the file system from your PC. Upload, move, copy and create folders.
It's worked for me for a while now. I'm sure there are other free apps that will do the same.
[MOBILE] Nexus 7 (2013)
VertzxD said:
Yes, I've tried USB 3 ports, and USB 2 ports with no success.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you also tried usb ports on the back of the PC? Those are directly on the motherboard, whereas usb ports on the front of a PC are almost always via a usb hub connected to the MB. I know of instances where this makes a substantial difference (device being recongnized or not). You might try it (if you haven't already).
Edit : also try disabling AV software and possibly firewall. But admitedly I have personally never had any issues regarding device not recognized due to this.
This was my solution.

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