Bricked My Nexus / Bad USB Connection - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

I just wanted to share what happened before it was bricked so others could possibly avoid it (and because I didn't think I could brick a Nexus...).
Yesterday my USB connection began failing intermittently. It would charge, but the computer would not always recognize the device. On Windows 7, I got an error message saying that the device had malfunctioned and that I should try reconnecting it. On OSX, Android File Transfer could not find my device. Unplugging and plugging back in got the computer to recognize it about 20% of the time.
I went back to stock using fastboot, but I had to battle with it for several hours because of how unreliable my USB connection was. On stock I still had the problem, but I wondered if I had just gotten unlucky during flashing since I had so many failed attempts. Then I decided I would try again with Odin since it just takes one flash to go back to stock. Unfortunately, my USB connection failed again during the Odin flash. I pulled the battery (this could be the true problem but I couldn't get the flash process to start over otherwise) and at this point my phone was bricked. The screen showed an image with a phone and a computer with an exclamation point between them. I couldn't get to my bootloader and couldn't try any other fixes because my computer would no longer recognize my phone at all.
Long story short, if your phone's USB connection begins to malfunction then don't use Odin.

Sorry to hear that. This is something I learned (second hand, thank god) when I had my Galaxy S1. Odin can simultaneously be the best and worst tool you use.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

ericaraj said:
I just wanted to share what happened before it was bricked so others could possibly avoid it (and because I didn't think I could brick a Nexus...).
Yesterday my USB connection began failing intermittently. It would charge, but the computer would not always recognize the device. On Windows 7, I got an error message saying that the device had malfunctioned and that I should try reconnecting it. On OSX, Android File Transfer could not find my device. Unplugging and plugging back in got the computer to recognize it about 20% of the time.
I went back to stock using fastboot, but I had to battle with it for several hours because of how unreliable my USB connection was. On stock I still had the problem, but I wondered if I had just gotten unlucky during flashing since I had so many failed attempts. Then I decided I would try again with Odin since it just takes one flash to go back to stock. Unfortunately, my USB connection failed again during the Odin flash. I pulled the battery (this could be the true problem but I couldn't get the flash process to start over otherwise) and at this point my phone was bricked. The screen showed an image with a phone and a computer with an exclamation point between them. I couldn't get to my bootloader and couldn't try any other fixes because my computer would no longer recognize my phone at all.
Long story short, if your phone's USB connection begins to malfunction then don't use Odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a chance it's not totally bricked, that happened to me on an other samsung device while i was flashing with odin. U pulled the battery too early.i also had that black screen with the yellow pc and exclamation mark, try another usb port in ur pc and try to flash again with odin, if not, take the battery out and keep it out for a while (i don't know, 30min for example) then try odin again... u should be able to enter download mode somehow despite the screen u got now.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

ericaraj said:
I just wanted to share what happened before it was bricked so others could possibly avoid it (and because I didn't think I could brick a Nexus...).
Yesterday my USB connection began failing intermittently. It would charge, but the computer would not always recognize the device. On Windows 7, I got an error message saying that the device had malfunctioned and that I should try reconnecting it. On OSX, Android File Transfer could not find my device. Unplugging and plugging back in got the computer to recognize it about 20% of the time.
I went back to stock using fastboot, but I had to battle with it for several hours because of how unreliable my USB connection was. On stock I still had the problem, but I wondered if I had just gotten unlucky during flashing since I had so many failed attempts. Then I decided I would try again with Odin since it just takes one flash to go back to stock. Unfortunately, my USB connection failed again during the Odin flash. I pulled the battery (this could be the true problem but I couldn't get the flash process to start over otherwise) and at this point my phone was bricked. The screen showed an image with a phone and a computer with an exclamation point between them. I couldn't get to my bootloader and couldn't try any other fixes because my computer would no longer recognize my phone at all.
Long story short, if your phone's USB connection begins to malfunction then don't use Odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your phone is not bricked. This happened to me on my Vibrant countless times. Not it's basically trial and error to get it to show up on Odin, but use a reliable USB connection, like another port on your PC or something. Trust me, you're fine. I was ****ting myself when this happened for the first time, but it's just like download mode, you can still restore to stock.
rayiskon said:
There is a chance it's not totally bricked, that happened to me on an other samsung device while i was flashing with odin. U pulled the battery too early.i also had that black screen with the yellow pc and exclamation mark, try another usb port in ur pc and try to flash again with odin, if not, take the battery out and keep it out for a while (i don't know, 30min for example) then try odin again... u should be able to enter download mode somehow despite the screen u got now.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even if he can't enter download mode, if Odin recognizes the phone while the screen with the exclamation mark is up, he'll be fine.

iCaptivate said:
Your phone is not bricked. This happened to me on my Vibrant countless times. Not it's basically trial and error to get it to show up on Odin, but use a reliable USB connection, like another port on your PC or something. Trust me, you're fine. I was ****ting myself when this happened for the first time, but it's just like download mode, you can still restore to stock.
Even if he can't enter download mode, if Odin recognizes the phone while the screen with the exclamation mark is up, he'll be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a feeling that it wasn't truly bricked, but since my phone's USB driver (or whatever aspect of USB data transfer) was malfunctioning I couldn't do anything about it. I think of it this way: if in that state my phone had a 5% chance of being recognized by Odin, and if my phone already had less than a 20% chance of being recognized before the soft-brick, then I had a 1% chance or less that it would even show up in Odin and even lower odds at a successful flash. Regardless, Verizon agreed to send me a warranty replacement.

iCaptivate said:
Your phone is not bricked. This happened to me on my Vibrant countless times. Not it's basically trial and error to get it to show up on Odin, but use a reliable USB connection, like another port on your PC or something. Trust me, you're fine. I was ****ting myself when this happened for the first time, but it's just like download mode, you can still restore to stock.
Even if he can't enter download mode, if Odin recognizes the phone while the screen with the exclamation mark is up, he'll be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here with the vibrant. IIRC there was a special way to get your phone to recognize Odin when it happened. Something like plugging in the phone to the computer and then pulling the battery. Odin even worked when I borked a flash and the screen wouldn't even turn on. I would think the nexus could be brought back similarly.
But if the USB port is on the fritz I'm not sure I would want to bring it back.

As far as I'm concerned Odin is the worst thing you can hook up to your devce. No single program has bricked more devices than Odin.
______________
Just Flash It !!!

on my old SGS1 there was chance get back bricked device by method called "JIG"..(its hardware way get back download mode) but i dont study it more...

I don't think its bricked, I once restore my phone from a black screen that Odin still recognized as download mode. The drivers can get iffy, do you have a third comp that you can install fresh drivers on. Also is your USB jack on the Nexus loose? Sometimes it really is due to your PC's USB connection. I also had issues with cheap blackberry cables and had to use higher quality ones.
Did you try going into download mode by connecting it to the PC while with battery removed and hold (whatever buttons to boot it into download mode), then insert the batteries. Or try entering using a jig.
Also a bit lazy of me (on phone), but can someone point me to where to get Odin images for the Nexus?

try to use another cable to connect ur phone to pc
just flash stock via odin, it's not bricked.
My s2 sometimes has that problem when i flash stock

eksasol said:
I don't think its bricked, I once restore my phone from a black screen that Odin still recognized as download mode. The drivers can get iffy, do you have a third comp that you can install fresh drivers on. Also is your USB jack on the Nexus loose? Sometimes it really is due to your PC's USB connection. I also had issues with cheap blackberry cables and had to use higher quality ones.
Did you try going into download mode by connecting it to the PC while with battery removed and hold (whatever buttons to boot it into download mode), then insert the batteries. Or try entering using a jig.
Also a bit lazy of me (on phone), but can someone point me to where to get Odin images for the Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate the advice but I no longer have that phone. My replacement should come today.
With regards to the drivers, I was referring to the drivers on the phone not on the computer. I honestly don't know if there are USB drivers on the phone (I would think there are) or even if those drivers were causing the malfunction.
The first thing I'm doing this afternoon is plugging my replacement phone into my computer. If the new one doesn't work right then I'll have to make a trip to the Apple store because the problem will almost certainly be my laptop. I'll also owe a big apology to Verizon.

Related

[Q] Epic 4g Touch not recognized by computer

Hi all, having a problem with my new Epic 4g Touch.
I rooted it, then after having some other problems, tried to flash back to stock via Odin. Not sure if I did something wrong, but in the middle of the flash, Odin had an error. Now the phone won't boot.. it goes straight to the [phone]....[!]....[computer] screen with the text "Firmware upgrade encountered." It goes to the same screen when I try to boot into recovery. It also goes to this screen when the phone is off and I plug it in (ie, there is no battery charging screen).
I can get into download mode, but I can't get my computer to recognize that the phone is plugged in. I have tried multiple computers, different USB ports, different cables, re-installing drivers on the computer, but no matter what I try, the computer never makes any indication that the phone is plugged in. Kies won't see it, Odin won't see it, nothing in device manager, no alert sound when plugging/unplugging, nothing.
I am afraid I have a soft brick on my hands and I might have to take it back to the Sprint store or send it to Samsung (used a USB jig to reset bin count to 0). Anyone have any idea how to get the computer to see it again so I can just try flashing it again?
SAME PROBLEM, PLEASE HELP, PLEASE. If you fixed yours tell me how.
Anyone come up with successful suggestions to this issue? I think I'm now in the same boat after going back to stock. I can't get any computer/cable combination so see the device, which keeps me from using Odin to fix it. Thanks!
I've gotten in that mode before. It does it whenever the phone has been opened in the special mode for updating (which is done by ODIN during the flash process and is a step beyond ODIN D/L mode), but that mode is not closed down properly. It'll do that even if you flash an unused partition like recovery.bin, so it has no bearing on whether your ROM is actually bricked or not. It is just the default behavior when the special flash mode wasn't close down properly.
USB jig restored functionality.
That is assuming you weren't flashing a GSM ROM by mistake.

[Q] ICS to GB Problems

Hello guys this is my first post so forgive me if I don't have the terms down to key.
I've recently flashed to the Codename Android ICS rom and while it's a beautiful rom my battery life after 4 cycles or so hasn't improved past 8 hours a day. I was previously getting decent life on Blazer so I want to revert back to GB. After doing my research on the million topics of reverting from ICS to GB, I thought I would give it a shot. Right now I still have the Codename Android rom, FC22 Kernel, and the EL26 modem. I followed sfhub's well written guide using the EL29 one-click modem program. I had my phone in download mode and recognized by my computer, but when I clicked the start button ODIN almost instantly showed a red fail box and as far as I know the cable is fine and the computer never lost power. Fearing the worst I quickly unplugged my phone and restarted it and luckily still booted into the rom fine and everything seemed normal. However my phone is no longer recognized by my computer, in download mode or not. The phone charges and my computer makes the device recognition beep, but one second later it makes the device unplugged beep and this keeps continuing and the phone is never fully recognized. I still want to revert to GB so I installed mobile odin to cut out the pc part. Before I do anything I want to make sure I have the right files downloaded (EL29 or 26 files), and that mobile odin will work fine on ICS to get me back to GB without breaking my phone. With all the brick stories lately, I want to make sure I have everything down.
Any help will be appreciated.
I would try a different USB port on the computer. I used to have problems with my Samsung moment where out would stop seeing the phone but changing the port let it redetect. Reinstalling the drivers or trying a different PC to see if it detects the phone could point you to which end is the problem.
Sent from my Epic 4g Touch running Blazer 4.1 using xda premium
I tried different USB cables and computers, but still having the problems. My girlfriend also has the E4GT, albeit all stock, and I plugged it into my computer and everything recognized correctly. I have the mobile Odin application installed on my phone and I just want to make sure I flash the correct files from the ICS Codename Android rom to get me safely back to GB. Seeing one red fail box from Odin has me on the cautious side.
Ok re download the el29 stock root one click first. Get rid of the one you have. Now download Calkulins format all and download auto root eg39-el29. Make sure you have system debugging checked. (settings /applications or settings/developer options) That is why your computer is most likely not recognizing. If it is checked then check your drivers. Go in to recovery. Run calls format all av few. Times. Pop o out the battery when its finished and go to Odin download mode. Flash one click rooted el29. Reboot. Check USB debugging again and connect usb but don't go into usb mode. Start auto root el29 cwm rogue to get recovery. Reboot. After successful reboot flash blazer offer whatever el29 rom you.like. Hope i helped.
Thanks for the reply Tinmetal. I checked my phone and I have Android Debugging and USB Debugging Notify checked. I also tried reloading the drivers on different computers, switching cables, and rebooting the devices. I'm pretty sure the connectivity problem came from the failed Odin flash, which I still don't know what went wrong.
I looked more into when I connect the phone to the computer and I recognizes the device, but before the drivers are applied the device gets disconnected. This lead me to a USB cable or port problem, but I tried every combination and still had the problem.
Do you still feel that Calkulin's wipe all is necessary being on a ICS rom, I read that flashing the cache's while on ICS can cause problems. I extracted the .tar files for the stock root el29, do you expect any problems if I use mobile Odin?
kal727 said:
Thanks for the reply Tinmetal. I checked my phone and I have Android Debugging and USB Debugging Notify checked. I also tried reloading the drivers on different computers, switching cables, and rebooting the devices. I'm pretty sure the connectivity problem came from the failed Odin flash, which I still don't know what went wrong.
I looked more into when I connect the phone to the computer and I recognizes the device, but before the drivers are applied the device gets disconnected. This lead me to a USB cable or port problem, but I tried every combination and still had the problem.
Do you still feel that Calkulin's wipe all is necessary being on a ICS rom, I read that flashing the cache's while on ICS can cause problems. I extracted the .tar files for the stock root el29, do you expect any problems if I use mobile Odin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out this thread...bricked my phone http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525495
First of all yes you should ruin Calkins format all. Its not the same as using the recovery wipe. Next i would try to run sfhub's E4GTAUTO EL29EL29 auto root. You don't have to be in DOWNLOAD MODE OR USB MODE. IF YOU'RE HEARING THE CONNECTION SOUND THEN YOUR PC IS RECOGNIZING THE DEVICE. IF e4gtauto doesn't connect to your device i would uninstall kies and all Samsung drivers from the device manager on your computer and reinstall with just the sprint drivers. Put in a search for the sprint drivers here on xda and it should come up. If you can't find the sprint drivers hit me back and I'll post them for ya
Alright I have an update hopefully this will help someone who may be experiencing the same problems. My phone was working perfectly fine the day before. I woke up this morning and my phone was completely uncharged even on the charger overnight and would not turn on or charge (PC or wall outlet). I tried different cables and usb ports/wall outlets and I didn't do any flashing at all for a while and I was still on Codename ICS with USB not working. The blue light kept flashing and when I tried to go into download mode I got the "Low Battery, No Download" in red letters.
I took out my gf's battery from her US Cellular gs2 which is basically the same except no WiMax. Put it in my phone and it worked booted up, albeit with really weird touch issues (my battery didn't work/charge in her phone if anyone was wondering). Thinking I had no other choice at this point I used Mobile Odin to flash my phone back to GB in el29 with sfhub's .tar file. Surprisingly everything seemed to work. I am currently back on gb el29 without root (all stock) and I put my battery back in and it wouldn't turn on. I put the charger on and it took about 10mins of charging without the phone on and then I turned it on with it working. I unplugged the charger and it is holding a charge pretty well. However, I am still experiencing the same USB problems. When I plug the phone into the PC it recognizes it and I get the mtch-usb?? (sorry I'm not at home to be exact) on my notification bar, but I cannot get into USB debugging. My PC keeps beeping device recognized then beeping device unplugged and I don't see any activity on device manager. Any explanations, questions, or help would be appreciated?
It sounds to me, unrelated to ODIN, you coincidentally had USB port problems when you were doing this flashing.
Have you tried blowing compressed air into the USB port to dislodge any particles that might have gotten stuck?
I just blew some some compressed air into the phone and it didn't change much. When I plugged it in this time the installing drivers bubble came up and installed "Gadget Serial", which turned into Samsung CDA... My phone's USB connections were working perfectly before I tried my initial ODIN back to the el-29. When I tried that ODIN ran for a good 2 seconds before having the red fail box. I think I set everything to directions, but something happened that caused the failure (slight cable disconnection, bad USB port...) but I have no exact idea what caused that initial red fail box i"m only speculating. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. After that failure thought my phone couldn't maintain a USB connection. sfhub are you aware of a bad ODIN flash compromising the USB connection, even if ODIN ran for only around 2 seconds, I don't know if it even had enough time to unpack the .tar files.
Mobile Odin el26+cwm. Hold power+volume up and reboot into recovery. Run Calks format all, flash ROM and reboot.
EL26+CWM kernel:
http://db.tt/0QJkleJR
Sent from Nocturnal Venum v1 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
kal727 said:
sfhub are you aware of a bad ODIN flash compromising the USB connection, even if ODIN ran for only around 2 seconds, I don't know if it even had enough time to unpack the .tar files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ODIN OneClicks are purposely arranged to flash recovery.bin first before anything else for just the situation you described. Recovery.bin is basically the *unused* recovery partition so losing it would have no detrimental affects on the phone. The leaked tar releases from Samsung/Sprint are arranged differently and flash the bootloader as the first item. If something went wrong there, I suppose USB could be compromised.
I just don't see how a compromised recovery that is unused could affect your USB and that is the basis of my suggestions.
That's exactly what I was thinking. I never used the modified ICS recovery, because of the problems people were having. I guess either the USB cable wasn't plugged in all the way or some kind of hiccup caused the failed ODIN attempt.
I have more information on my current USB connection. It says USB Connected, MTP-Connected on the notification bar. I've made sure USB debugging is on, but that is as far as my connection gets for either my phone or PC. Other than that notification on my phone I get no activity from my phone, or from Odin, the Samsung drivers, or Windows recognizing the phone.
For anyone new I've tried all the common fixes: switching cables, PC's, usb ports, and every variation of restarting PC/Phone and re-installing drivers, wiping data to factory settings(while on gingerbread), and blowing out the USB port.
Can you open an "adb shell" session to your phone when it is booted into android?
When you are going to ODIN DL mode, do you start ODIN first, then boot to download mode, or do you boot do download first, then start ODIN?
Are you using software to reboot to download mode or Power+VolDown.
Is it actually getting to download mode or not getting there?
I got confused when you said something about not being able to get into usb debugging. Can you change toggle that setting in the configuration? On GB ROMs if you enable USB debugging, it also disables MTP and switches you USB Mass Storage mode.
If you want you can try a ##786# reset from the dialer. It will reset NVRAM and your Android User Data. You'll need your MSL which you can get typing "getprop ril.MSL" in a termina or adb shell.
Mobile Odin might be your only choice if your pc doesn't see your phone. I have flashed from AOKP ROM numerous times using mobile odin and flashing the el26+cwm GB kernel. Just hold power+vol^ to boot into recovery as soon as phone starts to reboot. Just wipe everything and flash new ROM.
Sent from Nocturnal Venum v1 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
killaphatboy: I just successfully used Mobile Odin today to go back to gb, but my USB problems continued.
sfhub: Another thing I never mentioned was that before I went to ICS about a week ago Google Voice kept auto-starting and enabling Car Mode, that quickly went away when I flashed another rom so I didn't initially think it caused a problem.
Also sorry for the confusion. I could always cleanly get into download mode without any errors using Vol Down+Power. However no matter which sequence of starting Odin/plugging in USB cable/and going into download mode, the result is the same which the PC recognizes the phone, but gives the disconnected beep a second later. Can you link me a adb shell thread, I think I know how to set it up but 'adb devices' can't find any devices. Once in a while an installing drivers bubble pops up in in Windows for a split second before the device is disconnected. I caught the processes and found out that there are two drivers that install even though I have no recognition through Odin and no functionality through windows. The first is 'SAMSUNG Mobile USB CDC Composite Device' and the other is 'SAMSUNG Mobile USB Modem #2'. Both install and says Ready to use but I have no further recognition through Windows or Odin.
kal727 said:
sfhub: Another thing I never mentioned was that before I went to ICS about a week ago Google Voice kept auto-starting and enabling Car Mode, that quickly went away when I flashed another rom so I didn't initially think it caused a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Enabling of car mode is a common symptom that has been reported when the USB port on the phone is starting to malfunction. Other people have reported the same thing when their USB port was on the way out. Sometimes cleaning out the port helped, sometimes not.

SGS3 failure during odin flash; stuck

So I somehow during my flashing adventures got to the point where my sgs3 would no longer recieve 4g/3g signal but only 2g. I reverted to stock rom, still had the issue (4.0.4), and it wouldn't let me upgrade to jelly bean, it told me "unable to connect to network" when I tried system update. So i took to the fixing my imei number, which apparently did something as I was then able to connect to the server and upgrade to jelly bean, with one problem; I was still getting 2g. I continued to try to use the rest of the guide (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1801997) but on jelly bean my computer would no longer recognize my phone through odin or qpst, etc, but I could view the files. I could do nothing to get it to bring up a port I could connect to. I downloaded/installed/uninstalled/installed the driver many times and still couldn't get it to connect. Like an idiot I tried through odin to flash back down to 4.0.4 so I could reestablish connection and continue fixing my 2g signal, but it quit halfway through and said "Can't open the serial(com) port" and didn't flash, so whenever I tried to turn on my phone i got the firmware upgrade error and telling me to connect to kies and use recovery mode, which I did. However, Kies wouldn't recognize my phone through it. It's drivers never connected, and it just sits there saying connecting. Samsung's help/support over the phone was literally WORTHLESS ("indian accent" Take da battery out ov your phone, sir. Wait 10 seconds. Put it back in..... They literally told me at one point "Go into menu, settings..." me-" In my phone?" him "Yes that is correct" me "Thats my problem dude, I CANT TURN IT ON") and I currently have a ups label to ship it in to get repaired, but I want to know if there is anything I can do before sending it in and waiting 5-7 days without a cell phone. Thanks in advance to help
Odin the stock4.1.1 software pre rooted or not.. My phone froze at samsung screen but just reboot and it will be fine
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Did you even read the post...? haha it's not that simple, or otherwise I would've fixed it.
make sure you are using the samsung cable that came with your phone.
I don't have the cable that came with my phone, but that has never stopped me before and I don't see why It would affect my computers ability to recognize my phone if it was perfectly capable of doing such before.
So, the system won't detect anything when you plug it in, not even after a reboot?
Well, there are a couple things you can try.
First, uninstall Kies and the Samsung USB drivers.
Reboot.
Install the drivers in my signature (they are older ones, but stable - unlike the newer ones).
If that doesn't work, try a new cable and USB port on your system.
If that doesn't work, it's bad hardware.
This will end with you flashing a stock image, probably.
Aerowinder said:
So, the system won't detect anything when you plug it in, not even after a reboot?
Well, there are a couple things you can try.
First, uninstall Kies and the Samsung USB drivers.
Reboot.
Install the drivers in my signature (they are older ones, but stable - unlike the newer ones).
If that doesn't work, try a new cable and USB port on your system.
If that doesn't work, it's bad hardware.
This will end with you flashing a stock image, probably.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The computer makes the sound when I plug in my phone, so it recognizes it. I just can't access the com port and use odin. I'm trying what you gave me right now
milesmarrero said:
The computer makes the sound when I plug in my phone, so it recognizes it. I just can't access the com port and use odin. I'm trying what you gave me right now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't suppose the device qhsusb_dload is detecting?
Aerowinder said:
So, the system won't detect anything when you plug it in, not even after a reboot?
Well, there are a couple things you can try.
First, uninstall Kies and the Samsung USB drivers.
Reboot.
Install the drivers in my signature (they are older ones, but stable - unlike the newer ones).
If that doesn't work, try a new cable and USB port on your system.
If that doesn't work, it's bad hardware.
This will end with you flashing a stock image, probably.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh **** yes! Man you're the bomb! Those worked perfectly! Thanks, if I could thank you a thousand times I would! Thank you, odin worked fine that time!
milesmarrero said:
I don't have the cable that came with my phone, but that has never stopped me before and I don't see why It would affect my computers ability to recognize my phone if it was perfectly capable of doing such before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you got the problem solved. The reason I said to use the samsung cable is that I was able to root and flash my first rom with a non samsung cable then after that it wouldn't work unless I used the samsung cable.

Hard bricked... without a good reason!

I've owned my SGII since release, went through a few roms, never had any issues. I have been running liquidsmooth for a month or two, without much issue. Although, lately stablity has dropped off a little. Nothing bad, just a freeze every few days and other minor hiccups.
Then something bad happened.... Last night I was using the phone and it turned off. Then it wouldn't boot. Battery pull, and rebooted but no joy. Then I booted to recovery (TWRP, but I'm not sure which version) and found that it said something along the lines of "E: could not mount /system", along with lots of other similar failure to mount messages. Oh well, I guess I'll just wipe it and flash something new. Any attempt to wipe would hang and then the phone would turn off after a few minutes.
Then I went to flash the stock setup from odin (using the howto from the dev section) , but it too would fail every time. I even tried different builds from samsung's official roms, but they all would fail to install on the phone. I read every thread I could find, and the next thing to try seemed to be an emergency recovery through Kies. That also failed, except it left my phone hard bricked. I can't get into download or anything, nothing shows in the device manager, just completely dead... I made a USB jig, but no luck there either.
I'm completely frustrated... I don't know what to do now... Buy a MB from ebay? The phone was flawless before all this. Any suggestions? I'm using a blackberry pearl for now, I can't let that happen.
Have you tried the Jig on another Samsung phone so you know the one you made physically works?
Some people have managed to get into DL Mode by pulling the battery, SIM, SD, etc. For 5 - 10 minutes then connecting it to the pc with Odin running b4 inserting the battery to enter DL Mode.
Otherwise mobiletechvideos has a really good reputation and turn around time for JTag service.
There is a chance its a hardware problem, and hopefully another member on here can shed some light on the possibility of it being a HW issue or not..
Cheers,
Chris
Thanks for the suggestions. I don't have another samsung phone to try the jig with, but I'll see if I can get a friend to let me hook up this crazy looking thing. I got the resistors set up to 299K, hoped that would be close enough, but perhaps not.
I tried that plug-first-battery-second trick to get into DL mode, but that's not working either.
I looked at the jtag service too, but my fear is that I have corrupted memory. In that case, I wouldn't get a refund if I still couldn't get to a fully healthy boot. It seems odd though... not like it's a common trend for this particular model (that I've seen).
Just seems so strange that it happened for no apparent reason... before it was hard bricked I was able to USB mount the internal storage and access and transfer almost all the contents, except for one folder. I wonder if that one part of the memory caused all the problems?
Again, thanks for the suggestions. I'll keep plugging away at anything that might help, and in the mean time I guess I'll keep my eyes out for broken phones or some way to salvage a board.
If im not mistaken, a hard brick should show up in you device manager as the board itself when connected.
Does anything show in you device manager when its connected? And have you tried using a different PC which has never had Kies installed on it, where you just install the drivers for the T989?
Odin tends to fail at the modem or due to the presence of a .PIT
I got myself out of a brick which started over the a very similar issue, but due to a bad flash.
After 5 hrs of getting nowhere (I was using a Jig) I would get Odin to recognize the phone (My Screen was NOT displaying the DL Mode screen, It was going into DL Mode but other than Odin recognizing it, there were no signs of life!) after enought tries but flashing to stock would fail. I ended up taking a shot at flashing the stock kernel using 512.Pit from a T959, Reflashing the same Kernel, then flashing recovery. I don't advise anyone do this as that PIT file is NOT for a T989, and it may have been BS luck not the use of that PIT file that did the trick.
But I did get it back running %100
Good tips, thanks! Were you using the jig to get the phone into the black screen download mode?
I hadn't tried another PC, although I did make sure any Kies processes were disabled. I just tried another computer, but still nothing gets recognized. Oddly enough, not even the basic "hard brick" USB driver shows up in the device manager.
Thanks for the additional ideas.
This happen to me before, I just cleared cache and Davik then rebooted recovery then flashed another Rom.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
Unfortunately for me, since data, cache, and system couldn't be mounted, I couldn't successfully clear them.
KLR Rico said:
Good tips, thanks! Were you using the jig to get the phone into the black screen download mode?
I hadn't tried another PC, although I did make sure any Kies processes were disabled. I just tried another computer, but still nothing gets recognized. Oddly enough, not even the basic "hard brick" USB driver shows up in the device manager.
Thanks for the additional ideas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would put the jig in with the battery and everything still removed, and alot of trial and error trying things like battery first then connecting the cable with Odin always being already running. Then doing the reverse, etc.
When I did get Odin to recognize the phone, one thing I learnt is when it would detect, it only ever happened after having killed and reopened Odin. I have no explanation on why using "End Task" after each attempt to connect and opening Odin again made a difference but it did.
Have you had a look at the QPST thread? I would ask one of the members contributing to it about why you would or would not see the board. And you could always try installing the boards drivers manually, or enable "Show hidden devices" in your device manager.....
Did you contact the guys at mobiletechvideos and explain the details?
You were able to boot to recovery, so it sounds partition related. But I would try just to flash the stock UVLH1 kernel and recovery with Odin vs full stock rom if you do get it to detect. And if it does detect with Odin eventually do not let it reboot or loose power. Just Kill Odin, unplug the cable if you need to, Start Odin again and reconnect the cable. Once in DL Mode it will stay in DL Mode as long as you have the reboot option in Odin unchecked, etc.
Also if you can get the battery charged fully somehow, your best shot is with a fully charged battery.
Chris

Rooted note 4 sporadic charging and no longer connects to odin

I've been rooted for several months and life was good. My charging suddenly stopped working. I'd restart the phone a couple time and it would work. Then it wouldn't work again. Went back and forth like this for a while, till finally I figured it wasn't the plug or connector (all would either work or not work, based on restarting phone, messing with battery while plugged in), but likely something more related to the software/system updates. Tried reflashing with odin to go back to stock, but can't connect. I can put my phone in download mode, but odin doesn't recognize it. I've tried every port on 2 different computers with probably 6 different cables. Tried different versions of odin. I can get the phone charging most of the time when plugged into the wall or computer, but can't be seen by odin. I've checked debugging and just did manual resets, losing all my data, but accomplishing nothing. Is there any way to go back to stock without odin? Some way to install from micro SD or something I'm not thinking of to get me connected to odin? I'm at a loss for what to do or understanding what in the world went wrong in the first place.
Additionally, I thought I'd mention the phone WILL NOT shut off either. When I power down, it restarts. I remove the battery, and as soon as I put it back in, the phone boots up again.
Based on your last paragraph, there is probably a hardware issue with the phone or micro-usb port. Load a stock rooted ROM through twrp, then unroot and bring it to a service store.
Try cleaning or blowing out the USB port. I've seen phone with lots of pocket lint packed in the USB port that exhibit the same symptoms.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
And the plot thickens...
Tried blowing out the port. The connection seems to still be there as I can maintain power without the battery when plugged in... just can't get any computers to recognize it as a device. Took the phone to the local sprint store to see if they could do some kind of hard reset with it. Their hardware couldn't connect either. The employee tried to do a soft reset and now my phone can't escape "recovery booting." The android logo blinks with "installing system update" under it but it doesn't boot and I can no longer get into recovery mode. I can still enter download mode, but odin still doesn't see my phone. The guys at sprint really kind of screwed me there. At least I had a functional phone before they messed with it. Is there any way to put a boot program on the sd card and boot from there? If so, any ideas where to find one? I've tried searching, but as the phone is so new, there isn't a lot of help I can find in the forums. Additionally I contacted Samsung, but they won't touch it due to knox being tripped. On my backup S3 for now.
Well I threw in the towel. Sprint is replacing it with remanufactured one. If they didn't offer to replace it, I'd have kept working on it, but case closed for now.

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