Other carriers and variants are still a work in progress
If you have a variant of the T999 other than the original T-Mobile SGH-T999 please contribute to the community and help us recover other users
If you have updated to 4.3 via OTA or flashed 4.3 firmware you will need to make sure you get the 4.3 debrick image.
Linux and Windows instructions are now included. Video only covers Linux.
Updated debrick links with zipped image files for lower bandwidth usage
I know there are some "How to unbrick" guides out there however they do no refer to an actual brick where you are stuck in QHSUSB-DLOAD mode.
The following guide will get you back to where you should be able to odin everything back to stock.
What you need:
Bricked SGH-T999
16GB or 32GB microSD card (all data will be erased from this sdcard)
microSD card reader
Linux Live Disc, VM with Linux with direct hardware control or native Linux OS. (Should work with OSx as well however I cannot confirm as I do not own one) Windows can be used, instructions below.
Everything in the ODIN guide
One of the following images based on your S III Model
SGH-T999 ***NOT FOR 4.3*** Debrick Image Thanks to @Techlyfe for the emmc dump
SGH-T999 4.3 only Debrick Image
SGH-T999L Debrick image Thanks to @DJ_SpaRky for the new T999L dump
SGH-T999N Debrick We still need one for this device
SGH-T999v ***NOT FOR 4.3*** Debrick Image
SGH-T999v 4.3 only Debrick Image @cLogic for the T999v 4.3 upload
How to get it done:
Linux Instructions
Boot your Linux OS
Download the debrick image listed in the Item's needed list
Open terminal on your Linux OS
Insert your microSD card into the reader
Plug your microSD card reader into your computer
Run
Code:
dmesg | tail
you should see something that mentions where it is mounted via /sdX
*
Code:
dd if=/path_to_debrick.img of=/dev/sdX
again where X is the microSD card ignoring the partition numbers as they should be overwritten
I had to do this a couple times for the image to actually take
*
Code:
parted /dev/sdX print
If you will see Error about the GPT table being corrupt you can type "OK" and then you will be given an option to Fix/Ignore; type "Ignore"
should show approximately 23 partitions (IIRC)
Windows Instructions
Download win32diskimager
Download your debrick image
Unzip both items and run win32diskimager
Run win32diskimager
browse for your extracted debrick image
Select your microSD in the dropdown box
Click write
Instructions required for both
remove the microSD card from the reader
remove the battery, sim and external microSD card from your device
insert your debrick microSD into your phone
insert the battery and down your power button (at this point your phone might actually boot completely and you can recovery any software/data you want)
reboot into Download mode either via adb or Volume Down + Home + Power
Once the device is booted into bootloader remove the microSD card.
follow the directions in the ODIN thread and make sure you UNCHECK partition!
* requires su privileges
Here's is a flashable zip to get the first 128M of the emmc which is what we use to create our debrick.img. It will create the debrick.img then compress it is a .zip format. Idea given to me from DocHoliday77 and used his original zip from here.
If you upload them I will mirror and link them to this post
PIT Files for ODIN when coming upon the error "PIT Partition does not exist"
Thanks to the following:
@gTan64 for finding the fix while repairing their friend's phone.
@CNexus for Link to original thread here where I found the answer for this
@Techlyfe again for the SGH-T999 emmc dump
@DocHoliday77 for the odin guide and software
@Matt for being Matt
@jmcoffey for the SGH-T999L dump
And My wife for letting me mess with her phone (which in turn bricked it by overwriting the apm partition)
@deBricker for their thread another walkthrough
RESERVED
Reserved for screenshots and future usage
I can usually be found on IRC Freenode #teambuild #teamkang or #teamgelato
Looking forward to hearing someone's results!
I can say that I do not believethis currently will work on a T999L, T999N, T999V. None of their firmware is compatible with each other. For example, if you try to flash ones firmware to another, it will cause a device to hard brick. So until versions for each model are posted, I wouldn't try this on anything but the T999.
Thanks for posting OP. Hoping it works!
Sent from my SGH-T999L using Tapatalk 4
DocHoliday77 said:
Looking forward to hearing someone's results!
I can say that I do not believethis currently will work on a T999L, T999N, T999V. None of their firmware is compatible with each other. For example, if you try to flash ones firmware to another, it will cause a device to hard brick. So until versions for each model are posted, I wouldn't try this on anything but the T999.
Thanks for posting OP. Hoping it works!
Sent from my SGH-T999L using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent you a PM requesting the T999L emmc dump. If we can get all the T999 Variants in here then it would be awesome. Apparently the fallback boot on the S III when the bootloader is corrupt is externalSD so we just emulate the bootloader onto the microSD and it booted perfectly for me when I bricked my wife's T999
Wow
This is truly a great thing !
Cant wait to see other the emmc dumps and to hear of results . The benefits of something like This is 10+ :good::good::good:
Thank You.
Qverse said:
This is truly a great thing !
Cant wait to see other the emmc dumps and to hear of results . The benefits of something like This is 10+ :good::good::good:
Thank You.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can only wait until those in the Help/Q&A thread make it over this way. I'll try to get a video posted up later today.
Just wanted to clarify that gTan64 was the one who originally discovered this method while trying to fix a friend's bricked Sprint S3. He didn't actually brick his own S3
And to elaborate, it's not so much a fail-safe but more of a built-in feature that allows these phones to boot from an sdcard because you can do this even if your phone isn't in QHSUSB_DLOAD mode
CNexus said:
Just wanted to clarify that gTan64 was the one who originally discovered this method while trying to fix a friend's bricked Sprint S3. He didn't actually brick his own S3
And to elaborate, it's not so much a fail-safe but more of a built-in feature that allows these phones to boot from an sdcard because you can do this even if your phone isn't in QHSUSB_DLOAD mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I almost had all the details correct I will edit the OP to properly state that when I get back to a PC
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
KAsp3rd said:
The image listed here is from the SGH-T999
I CANNOT confirm that it will work with the SGH-T999L version.
I know there are some "How to unbrick" guides out there however they do no refer to an actual brick where you are stuck in QHSUSB-DLOAD mode.
The following guide will get you back to where you should be able to odin everything back to where you need to be.
What you need:
Bricked SGH-T999
16GB or 32GB microSD card (all data will be erased from this sdcard)
microSD card reader
Linux Live disc or VM with Linux with direct hardware control (Should work with OSx as well however I cannot confirm as I do not own one)
Debrick Image || Mirror Thanks to @Techlyfe for the emmc dump
Everything in the ODIN guide
How to get it done:
Boot your Linux OS
Download the debrick image listed in the Item's needed list
Open terminal on your Linux OS
Insert your microSD card into the reader
Plug your microSD card reader into your computer
Run
Code:
dmesg | tail
you should see something that mentions where it is mounted via /sdX
*
Code:
dd if=/<path_to_debrick.img> of=/dev/sdX
again where X is the microSD card ignoring the partition numbers as they should be overwritten
I had to do this a couple times for the image to actually take
*
Code:
fdisk -l /dev/sdX
should show approximately 29 partitions (IIRC)
remove the microSD card from the reader
remove the battery, sim and external microSD card from your SGH-T999
insert your debrick microSD into your phone
insert the battery and down your power button (at this point your phone might actually boot completely and you can recovery any software/data you want)
reboot into Download mode either via adb or Volume Down + Home + Power
follow the directions in the ODIN thread and make sure you UNCHECK partition!
* requires su privileges
Thanks to the following:
@gTan64 for bricking their Sprint S III causing this thread to start
@CNexus for the answer and the link to the original thread where I found the answer for this Link to original post here
@Techlyfe again for the SGH-T999 emmc dump
@DocHoliday77 for the odin guide and software
@Matt for being Matt
And My wife for letting me mess with her phone (which in turn bricked it by overwriting the apm partition.
If someone has the SGH-T999L or SGH-T999V and wants to post the emmc dumps of those the instructions are as follows
busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/debrick.img bs=1M count=128
If you upload them I will mirror and link them to this post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does it have to be on linux can i run it through command cmd on windows?
artojeda1988 said:
does it have to be on linux can i run it through command cmd on windows?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has to on Linux or using Cygwin
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
This is great news! I'm excited to hear confirmation.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 4
KAsp3rd said:
The image listed here is from the SGH-T999
I CANNOT confirm that it will work with the SGH-T999L version.
I know there are some "How to unbrick" guides out there however they do no refer to an actual brick where you are stuck in QHSUSB-DLOAD mode.
The following guide will get you back to where you should be able to odin everything back to where you need to be.
What you need:
Bricked SGH-T999
16GB or 32GB microSD card (all data will be erased from this sdcard)
microSD card reader
Linux Live disc or VM with Linux with direct hardware control (Should work with OSx as well however I cannot confirm as I do not own one)
Debrick Image || Mirror Thanks to @Techlyfe for the emmc dump
Everything in the ODIN guide
How to get it done:
Boot your Linux OS
Download the debrick image listed in the Item's needed list
Open terminal on your Linux OS
Insert your microSD card into the reader
Plug your microSD card reader into your computer
Run
Code:
dmesg | tail
you should see something that mentions where it is mounted via /sdX
*
Code:
dd if=/<path_to_debrick.img> of=/dev/sdX
again where X is the microSD card ignoring the partition numbers as they should be overwritten
I had to do this a couple times for the image to actually take
*
Code:
fdisk -l /dev/sdX
should show approximately 29 partitions (IIRC)
remove the microSD card from the reader
remove the battery, sim and external microSD card from your SGH-T999
insert your debrick microSD into your phone
insert the battery and down your power button (at this point your phone might actually boot completely and you can recovery any software/data you want)
reboot into Download mode either via adb or Volume Down + Home + Power
follow the directions in the ODIN thread and make sure you UNCHECK partition!
* requires su privileges
Thanks to the following:
@gTan64 for bricking their Sprint S III causing this thread to start
@CNexus for the answer and the link to the original thread where I found the answer for this Link to original post here
@Techlyfe again for the SGH-T999 emmc dump
@DocHoliday77 for the odin guide and software
@Matt for being Matt
And My wife for letting me mess with her phone (which in turn bricked it by overwriting the apm partition.
If someone has the SGH-T999L or SGH-T999V and wants to post the emmc dumps of those the instructions are as follows
busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/debrick.img bs=1M count=128
If you upload them I will mirror and link them to this post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was searching for this emmc dump all last week, sent my phone out to get jTagged, get it back today and now I stumble across this :laugh:
Thank you very much kind sir for hooking us up!!
If you use this method please respond with your results as to show users that it has worked for you. If you would like to help with this for other variants of the S3 please inform me and I'll work with you to get what we need.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
KAsp3rd said:
What you need:
Bricked SGH-T999
16GB or 32GB microSD card (all data will be erased from this sdcard)
microSD card reader
Linux Live disc or VM with Linux with direct hardware control (Should work with OSx as well however I cannot confirm as I do not own
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't mind me, I'm just adding a link to ubuntu live cd to make the resources easier to access for those who need to try this. I hope that is OK with you. If not, I'll remove it.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD#How-To_LiveCD_Ubuntu
BTW, I did not quote the entire OP lol, just the list
do i have to have a sd card reader or can i use a program to write it to my sd card
I would probably add the file to my sd card via the computer, and go from there.
HolyGhostBoy1 said:
do i have to have a sd card reader or can i use a program to write it to my sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What hardware do you have to use to copy to the image?
Sent from my One using Tapatalk 4
i have hardbricked t999v and can test this if i get debrick image
Fixed.But it don't write any data to sdcard.
Hope you can make a video soon
liongvn said:
Fixed.But it don't write any data to sdcard.
Hope you can make a video soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you explain what you mean by your statement?
Related
Background:
I thought I would try to install stock 4.3 leak for i747, forgetting that I had i747M! I totally HARD bricked my phone.. not a whimper, except the familiar recognition of a new device type on windows.. but no charging, booting, or even response.
I turned to the 'Unbrick via SD Card' thread from the Sprint S3 forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=43305728
I managed to find a debrick.img for the i747M. With that in hand, first using the method utilizing Cygwin, I was able to boot into Download Mode. Hurray! I downloaded the Stock 4.1.2 i747M Bell Image, and fully restored the phone using ODIN.
All seemed great until I removed the debrick SD card, and rebooted. Dead again. With the SD card in, I can reboot. I have tried restoring multiple times, writing a new PIT from another i747M, reinstalling the bootloader... nothing. If the SD Card isn'tin the phone, it's bricked. I am happy my phone is up and running, but it's nasty not having my 16 Gig SD card available, and also, I really need to ensure the battery doesn't die! Can anyone suggest what might be going wrong? Shouldn't I simply need to flash the stock image, and be good!?!
Thanks!
Can you get into Download / recovery mode w/o the SD card ?
Did you try the stock image from this thread ? :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2363882
dwolder said:
Background:
I thought I would try to install stock 4.3 leak for i747, forgetting that I had i747M! I totally HARD bricked my phone.. not a whimper, except the familiar recognition of a new device type on windows.. but no charging, booting, or even response.
I turned to the 'Unbrick via SD Card' thread from the Sprint S3 forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=43305728
I managed to find a debrick.img for the i747M. With that in hand, first using the method utilizing Cygwin, I was able to boot into Download Mode. Hurray! I downloaded the Stock 4.1.2 i747M Bell Image, and fully restored the phone using ODIN.
All seemed great until I removed the debrick SD card, and rebooted. Dead again. With the SD card in, I can reboot. I have tried restoring multiple times, writing a new PIT from another i747M, reinstalling the bootloader... nothing. If the SD Card isn'tin the phone, it's bricked. I am happy my phone is up and running, but it's nasty not having my 16 Gig SD card available, and also, I really need to ensure the battery doesn't die! Can anyone suggest what might be going wrong? Shouldn't I simply need to flash the stock image, and be good!?!
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the.teejster said:
Can you get into Download / recovery mode w/o the SD card ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, no. Hard Bricked without the SD card
the.teejster said:
Did you try the stock image from this thread ? :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2363882
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hadn't tried this one. I used the one from SAMMOBILE. I'll try this one right now.
Thanks!
dwolder said:
Unfortunately, no. Hard Bricked without the SD card
I hadn't tried this one. I used the one from SAMMOBILE. I'll try this one right now.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to maintain ROOT access be sure to grab the root.zip and flash AFTER you flash the image and BEFORE you reboot.
As an FYI, the 16Gig Bell image worked great for me.
the.teejster said:
If you want to maintain ROOT access be sure to grab the root.zip and flash AFTER you flash the image and BEFORE you reboot.
As an FYI, the 16Gig Bell image worked great for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried everything.. flashing the recommended version above from internal disk won't work. Flashes of Odin compatible versions complete, and still need the SD card in. I have rooted, installed Clockwork recovery, tried to install the firmware from internal drive... it would fail. Install from ODIN (Samsung Recovery) it succeeds, but won't boot without the SD Card in. (Familar QD Loader). I just don't get it. I might have to go to ADB level, and see if I can have any success there?
dwolder said:
Tried everything.. flashing the recommended version above from internal disk won't work. Flashes of Odin compatible versions complete, and still need the SD card in. I have rooted, installed Clockwork recovery, tried to install the firmware from internal drive... it would fail. Install from ODIN (Samsung Recovery) it succeeds, but won't boot without the SD Card in. (Familar QD Loader). I just don't get it. I might have to go to ADB level, and see if I can have any success there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You my friend as you said are HardBricked, need to be flashed by jtag. I tried on a friends to use a debrick image to fix, but in the end I have to use the riff box to fix it. You may also have luck with this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2439367 but remember to replace the file/files with the proper ones for YOUR phone.
Good Luck
dwolder said:
Background:
I thought I would try to install stock 4.3 leak for i747, forgetting that I had i747M! I totally HARD bricked my phone.. not a whimper, except the familiar recognition of a new device type on windows.. but no charging, booting, or even response.
I turned to the 'Unbrick via SD Card' thread from the Sprint S3 forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=43305728
I managed to find a debrick.img for the i747M. With that in hand, first using the method utilizing Cygwin, I was able to boot into Download Mode. Hurray! I downloaded the Stock 4.1.2 i747M Bell Image, and fully restored the phone using ODIN.
All seemed great until I removed the debrick SD card, and rebooted. Dead again. With the SD card in, I can reboot. I have tried restoring multiple times, writing a new PIT from another i747M, reinstalling the bootloader... nothing. If the SD Card isn'tin the phone, it's bricked. I am happy my phone is up and running, but it's nasty not having my 16 Gig SD card available, and also, I really need to ensure the battery doesn't die! Can anyone suggest what might be going wrong? Shouldn't I simply need to flash the stock image, and be good!?!
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the exact same issue, took all the same steps you did, and had all the same frustrations. The last thing I tried though was to dd the debrick img to the internal memory of the phone via a terminal session running from my sdcard booted phone. figured I had nothing left to lose. It worked. I got the phone booted to download mode without the card in and restored my phone. I will add that I am no expert so this might be the worst idea ever. but my phone has been running since the 31st.
Bradkirk said:
I had the exact same issue, took all the same steps you did, and had all the same frustrations. The last thing I tried though was to dd the debrick img to the internal memory of the phone via a terminal session running from my sdcard booted phone. figured I had nothing left to lose. It worked. I got the phone booted to download mode without the card in and restored my phone. I will add that I am no expert so this might be the worst idea ever. but my phone has been running since the 31st.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you make the connection to the phone memory.. ADB? I brought mine to the shop. They said two groups tried to fix it and couldn't. I am going to keep trying (glutton for punishment).
dwolder said:
How did you make the connection to the phone memory.. ADB? I brought mine to the shop. They said two groups tried to fix it and couldn't. I am going to keep trying (glutton for punishment).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
forgive me, I'm no expert but I'll try to list what I did.
booted the phone via SD card and restored a backup so that I was running a rooted custom 4.3 ROM. I also had the terminal emulator program installed on the phone. so everything worked great at this point except I needed the SD card in the phone to boot.
the image I used for the SD card boot is a 16GB (version not file size) Bell I747M dump of a stock phone, called debrick.img. Sorry I cant remember where I got it but it was here on XDA. To get it on the SD card to begin with I used the terminal emulator on my old i9000(m) and the dd command.
So, to reverse the process I opened the terminal emulator on my SD booted, running I747M. typed: su <enter> to give the app superuser access (allowed root access when prompted) then changed to the directory on the sd card containing the debrick.img file just to save me typing the full path in the command. the internal SD of my phone is found at /dev/block/mmcblk0 as opposed to mmcblk1 for the external SD.
so , moment of truth. I used; dd if=debrick.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 <enter> This was the part I mentioned could be the worst idea ever because from what I think I understand, you are writing directly to the boot partition of the SD and could completely screw up all the partitions and whatnot.
after that, crossed my fingers and turned the phone off, pulled the SD card out and luckily booted right up into download mode. Used Odin to get back up and running. Hope that helps or at least doesnt make anything worse for you.
help me please
hey friend, you could climb the debricked.img of i747m to a download server or give me the link where obtubiste, I'm going through a hard brick on the terminal for the same reasons as you, please appreciate what you really so
aisakblack said:
hey friend, you could climb the debricked.img of i747m to a download server or give me the link where obtubiste, I'm going through a hard brick on the terminal for the same reasons as you, please appreciate what you really so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2345860&page=18 2nd post down has the link I used. Reading the whole thread would be a good idea.
It worked for me
Bradkirk said:
forgive me, I'm no expert but I'll try to list what I did.
booted the phone via SD card and restored a backup so that I was running a rooted custom 4.3 ROM. I also had the terminal emulator program installed on the phone. so everything worked great at this point except I needed the SD card in the phone to boot.
the image I used for the SD card boot is a 16GB (version not file size) Bell I747M dump of a stock phone, called debrick.img. Sorry I cant remember where I got it but it was here on XDA. To get it on the SD card to begin with I used the terminal emulator on my old i9000(m) and the dd command.
So, to reverse the process I opened the terminal emulator on my SD booted, running I747M. typed: su <enter> to give the app superuser access (allowed root access when prompted) then changed to the directory on the sd card containing the debrick.img file just to save me typing the full path in the command. the internal SD of my phone is found at /dev/block/mmcblk0 as opposed to mmcblk1 for the external SD.
so , moment of truth. I used; dd if=debrick.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 <enter> This was the part I mentioned could be the worst idea ever because from what I think I understand, you are writing directly to the boot partition of the SD and could completely screw up all the partitions and whatnot.
after that, crossed my fingers and turned the phone off, pulled the SD card out and luckily booted right up into download mode. Used Odin to get back up and running. Hope that helps or at least doesnt make anything worse for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your method worked for me. Very clever and thank you. I did have to do some modifications of the partitions to fit the 145MB debrick.img file. I also had to mount it as a 2nd partition from the sdcard. Once, was in dowload mode without original debrick sdcard, I flashed the clockworkmod recovery then restored one of my previous back thus retaining root.
Mind sharing the i747m Debrick.img?
Seems like the link from the post you linkd us to is not working, clicking download does nothing :/ currently have a bricked Bell S3 and need a debrick.img
Bradkirk said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2345860&page=18 2nd post down has the link I used. Reading the whole thread would be a good idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me, I really need that link to be working:good:
I flashed a kernel on my GS3 (I can't link to the kernel bc I downloaded it on my phone and history hadn't synced) and when I rebooted, my device won't turn on AT ALL. I tried every possible key combination, it didn't work. I've tried different batteries, different chargers, nothing at all. What the heck can I do?? I need my phone for life.
It's still not working, but when I pull the battery out and then plug it in to a charger, the red LED light comes on for about 30 seconds and stays lit, and then turns off. So I guess it's a good sign the hardware isn't completely fried…I just ordered a USB Jig…I'm praying that will save it.
You're hard bricked. You can try the debrick sdcard method, but without knowing the exact kernel you flashed, I cannot tell you if there's a chance of it working or not.
So you don't remember what kernel it was, where you got it or what device it was supposed to be for?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
DocHoliday77 said:
You're hard bricked. You can try the debrick sdcard method, but without knowing the exact kernel you flashed, I cannot tell you if there's a chance of it working or not.
So you don't remember what kernel it was, where you got it or what device it was supposed to be for?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cannot remember. I thought it was a GS3 kernel but obviously it wasn't.
Can you link me to a sdcard method I can do via Windows or Mac? I don't have access to a Linux computer.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2549068
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
DocHoliday77 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2549068
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I got it turned on but I need more help: I installed the .img onto my SD card and got the phone to boot if the SD card is in it. I got to recovery – can I flash a nandroid backup to restore my phone to working condition?
Don't know. I doubt a ROM or nandroid will do any good. This is why you need to know exactly what you flashed. Otherwise we can't tell what partition got overwritten. Your best bet is to flash stock firmware with Odin. 4.3 firmware is in the General section. If that doesn't fix it you'll have to somehow find the kernel you flashed again...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Okay, I got this working in a few very simple steps for my AT&T GS3 (I'm on a Mac). Credit to the link above for the links and ideas for this how-to.
1. Download Raspberry Pi builder (a tool which you will use to put the debrick IMG on your SD card) from here: http://alltheware.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/easiest-way-sd-card-setup/
2. Download the unbrick file for the AT&T GS3 - https://www.mediafire.com/?md8s29piyovz95q
3. Open the Raspberry Pi builder and select the downloaded unbrick file; check the box for your SD card in Raspberry Pi builder and uncheck other boxes. Follow the instructions, and it'll be good to go in about a minute or two.
4. Eject the SD card, take out the battery in your bricked GS3, stick the SD Card in. Put the battery back in, then hold down power key, volume key down, and home key. Hold for about 5 seconds. It'll vibrate and boot up just like normal. However, you can't start up the device without the SD card in it. So, here's what you do. Reboot to recovery with the recovery SD card still in the phone.
5. If you have an extra microSD card, use that. Now, take the SD Card out. Reformat it in Disk Utility on your computer to FAT32.
6. Download the 4.3 Bootloader for the AT&T GS3 here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwl5u_08zLyDVmxEazJ4YkZkalU/edit?usp=sharing . Put that on your SD card.
7. Stick the SD card back into your phone (remember, recovery should be up and running on your phone still).
8. Go to your Recovery settings, unmount your SD card, and then remount it. (This is easy in TWRP: Mount > uncheck MicroSD card > recheck MicroSD card > choose "MicroSD card" in dropdown menu; idk about CWM).
9. In Recovery, navigate to the 4.3 Bootloader you put on the SD card in step 6. Flash it. Reboot. You should be good to go.
DocHoliday77 said:
Don't know. I doubt a ROM or nandroid will do any good. This is why you need to know exactly what you flashed. Otherwise we can't tell what partition got overwritten. Your best bet is to flash stock firmware with Odin. 4.3 firmware is in the General section. If that doesn't fix it you'll have to somehow find the kernel you flashed again...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And I flashed "Aufa's kernel v33 - Kernel 3.4.101 SmarMax/intelliplug/ondemand+ - it was actually a Nexus 4 kernel, hence my bricking. But (see above) got it fixed without Odin.
Glad you figured it out! The reason I suggested Odin is because it flashes about 10-12 partitions at once so if you don't know exactly what you need it has a greater chance of including it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Not having been blessed with a Gigantic Brain, I have hard bricked my SGH-I747 many times trying to merge modems and ROMS from other build into my unlocked S3.
I am savvy enough to utilize the tools those Gigantic Brains such as DocHolliday77 and his partial system dump scripts left for us to bring our devices back from the dead. You can find the scripts with this link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=53610184&postcount=268
My understanding is that the baseband version must match the baseband of the debrick.img, as well as the version of Android, so I am leaving links for my debrick file used to resurrect my SGH-I747 after I upgraded to Lollipop 5.0.
I tried the smaller partial system dumb image files and it worked as it had on my earlier bricks
I then used the following commands with a terminal emulator after placing the debrick.img file on the phones internal memory and was then able to recycle the 16GB micro SD card using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition.
su <enter>
dd if=/sdcard/debrick.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0<enter>
Please use my debrick .img running Android 5.0 on the NE4 baseband.
I will be uploading larger debrick.img all the way up to 1.5GB and will post the links when ready.
Let us know if it works for you and if successful do the polite thing, click thank you.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3xoeaa21trtzxdq/Lollipop_5.0_I747UCUFNE4_debrick.img?dl=0
it works! thanks!
i start my s3, but i can't find file with terminate emulator in my sd card.
i saw that the name of file is diferent than "debrick.img" and i try to enter full name of that file "Lolipop_5.0......._debrick.img" that u posted, but it was again same
can you help my about that, and i also need help with minitool partition, because i can't format my sd card, pc show my that sd card is write protected, what i need to do?
thanks a lot
So, yea, i bricked my S3... it happened when I was installing a custom ROM HOLD UPP!! It was a ROM that was for my device, and it wasn't caused by flashing the ROM. I formatted /system by accident (yea, I was using TWRP), but the strange thing was, it allowed me to boot once. before I actually went into the 'bricked' state. When I realized I formatted the /sdcard directory, where the custom ROM was stored (yea, call me an idiot), I rebooted so I can reboot to use the browser to download the ROM, but it stayed at this screen, except it didn't say "I9300"
d38v16rqg5mb6e.cloudfront (dot) net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Samsung-Galaxy-S31 (dot) jpg
Then I realized that TWRP had an MTP feature so I can transfer the ROM from my computer. So I transferred the ROM, flashed it, and yes, I did a full NANDroid backup, and stored it on my PC. After I clicked reboot, it got into the bricked state. the only signs of life, is when the LED turned red when I plug it in, but that only happens when I take the battery out first, and the phone gets warm when I plug it in.
So I need to know how to unbrick, without a 16 GB SD card. i only have a 2 GB SD. Is there a method to debrick using SD cards less than 16 GB? Is there a way to transfer the boot files to the phone? The phone, when I plug it in to the computer, the computer actually recognizes it, but as qhsusb_dload. what does that mean?
Yea I tried to be as specific as possible, but if you need any more info, ask.
Do you have an i9300? I ask because this forum is for the i747/i747m.
audit13 said:
Do you have an i9300? I ask because this forum is for the i747/i747m.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no its a I747M rogers.
It sounds like you found the debrick thread so I won't go into that. To answer your questions though, aside from that debrick method, the only other option is a jtag repair. There may be a shop near you that can do this, but if not you'll have to send it somewhere.
As for the size of the SD card for the debrick.img, I think I remember hearing once or twice that an 8gb card worked, but I still question if that was true. The idea behind it is the SD card is supposed to be the same size as the devices internal storage, so nothing less than 16gb will work. Can't hurt it to try of course, but don't get your hopes up is all.
QHSUSB_DLOAD = Qualcomm Hi Speed USB Download
It's a definite indicator that a device is hard bricked.
For future reference, I recommend NEVER wiping /system. When you flash a rom that's the first thing that happens anyway, so doing so manually has zero benefit, but all the risk of ending up with a device that has no O/S to boot into.
Sorry to hear that happened. Good luck with it though!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
MhikeiMPC12 said:
So I need to know how to unbrick, without a 16 GB SD card. i only have a 2 GB SD. Is there a method to debrick using SD cards less than 16 GB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Debricked mine just yesterday.
The procedure recommends to use a class 10 16GB micro-SD card only, but I managed with a class 4. I really think you ought to try with your 2GB card, as the debrick image is only 80MB. The worst that could happen is that it simply won't boot off the SD card.
In all my browsing on XDA I couldn't make sure to find a certified I747M debrick image, so I made one from my wife's rooted S3 (I747MVLUFNE6) following instructions from this post, and used it to boot mine (I747MVLUFNK2). I used Win32DiskImager (link to it is in the post) to get the image on my SD card. After I got it to boot, I downloaded the stock firmware for my device and used Odin to flash it. It worked just as they said.
I recommend you use Win32DiskImager to backup your SD before writing the debrick image : this will save you 1) copying the files manually and 2) looking for some tool (e.g. SD Formatter) to restore it to its former size (after writing the image, Windows will think the capacity of the SD card is 80MB!).
If you need a I747MVLUFNE6 or I747MVLUFNK2 debrick image, PM me.
Best of luck :good:
Hello,
First you will need to download correct ATT ROM, and when you install that ROM, you will need to select correct option in ODIN.
To me its look like, you get stuck in boot...
Are you ATT customer?
Let me know, I will post link for Original ATT ROM.
placroix74 said:
Debricked mine just yesterday.
The procedure recommends to use a class 10 16GB micro-SD card only, but I managed with a class 4. I really think you ought to try with your 2GB card, as the debrick image is only 80MB. The worst that could happen is that it simply won't boot off the SD card.
In all my browsing on XDA I couldn't make sure to find a certified I747M debrick image, so I made one from my wife's rooted S3 (I747MVLUFNE6) following instructions from this post, and used it to boot mine (I747MVLUFNK2). I used Win32DiskImager (link to it is in the post) to get the image on my SD card. After I got it to boot, I downloaded the stock firmware for my device and used Odin to flash it. It worked just as they said.
I recommend you use Win32DiskImager to backup your SD before writing the debrick image : this will save you 1) copying the files manually and 2) looking for some tool (e.g. SD Formatter) to restore it to its former size (after writing the image, Windows will think the capacity of the SD card is 80MB!).
If you need a I747MVLUFNE6 or I747MVLUFNK2 debrick image, PM me.
Best of luck :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed the image through my firends phone instead of a sd card reader
so my friend has a kyrocera rise, so i inserted my sd inside, and it showed up the sd card in my pc, and flashed the img, but it didnt work. yea i think the theory about the sd card having to be the same size as the internal storage is true. im going to try writing the img using the reader instead. yea i already backed up the few files i had so that wasnt an issue!
andoridone said:
Hello,
First you will need to download correct ATT ROM, and when you install that ROM, you will need to select correct option in ODIN.
To me its look like, you get stuck in boot...
Are you ATT customer?
Let me know, I will post link for Original ATT ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to be rude or anything, but i know what to do about soft bricks. I'm not in that situation. and i have a i747M. that means its Canadian. i also stated earlier it is from rogers. what does having to be a at&t customer have to do with anything, if this is a 2012 phone? The warranty is gone already.
DocHoliday77 said:
It sounds like you found the debrick thread so I won't go into that. To answer your questions though, aside from that debrick method, the only other option is a jtag repair. There may be a shop near you that can do this, but if not you'll have to send it somewhere.
As for the size of the SD card for the debrick.img, I think I remember hearing once or twice that an 8gb card worked, but I still question if that was true. The idea behind it is the SD card is supposed to be the same size as the devices internal storage, so nothing less than 16gb will work. Can't hurt it to try of course, but don't get your hopes up is all.
QHSUSB_DLOAD = Qualcomm Hi Speed USB Download
It's a definite indicator that a device is hard bricked.
For future reference, I recommend NEVER wiping /system. When you flash a rom that's the first thing that happens anyway, so doing so manually has zero benefit, but all the risk of ending up with a device that has no O/S to boot into.
Sorry to hear that happened. Good luck with it though!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea i wiped /system by accident. but, it allowed me to reboot AFTER i wiped /system, which was weird, and i thought you were supposed to wipe /system. I wonder why the option to wipe /system is there anyway? Also, i flashed the rom already, so wouldnt the /system be written to the parition already? i thought there was a /boot partition..
I can get my hands on a 16 gb sd cad by sunday, but i was just looking for a unbrick method for a 2 gb sd card. Even if it means i have to keep the (2gb)sd in my pone in order for it to boot, i was looking for a temporary method to unbrick my phone.
MhikeiMPC12 said:
Yea i wiped /system by accident. but, it allowed me to reboot AFTER i wiped /system, which was weird, and i thought you were supposed to wipe /system. I wonder why the option to wipe /system is there anyway? Also, i flashed the rom already, so wouldnt the /system be written to the parition already? i thought there was a /boot partition..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a very common mistake. I see it happen way too often. I don't know where or why it got started, but some folks always recommend wiping /system. (Maybe it was required on a specific older device and they carried over to others).
tbh, I can't think of any situation where it's beneficial, so I don't know why is still included in recovery options.
Not sure why it would've booted that one time. I've seen that happen before, but only when flashing the firmware, not just a rom.
If the flash was successful after transferring the new rom via twrp, then you are correct that that the /system partition wouldn't be empty anymore. Maybe the rom was corrupted during the download or transfer?
The boot partition is actually where the kernel is located.
MhikeiMPC12 said:
I can get my hands on a 16 gb sd cad by sunday, but i was just looking for a unbrick method for a 2 gb sd card. Even if it means i have to keep the (2gb)sd in my pone in order for it to boot, i was looking for a temporary method to unbrick my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I mentioned before, don't get your hopes up using the 2gb card. But by all means give it a shot! Can't hurt anything to try.
Someone mentioned the class of the SD is important. It is recommended to use a class 10, brand name card, but it's not required. I've seen class 4 cards work where class 10 cards failed. I believe it has to do with the transfer speed if the individual SD card. Some class 4/6 cards can actually read/write much faster. Just like some class 10 cards just don't perform as advertised.
Still, the most successful ones have been class 10's, which is why I think many consider it a requirement. Many lower class ones do often fail, but not all. Just something to keep in mind...
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
ok thanks. Did anyone report success using a 2 gb card?
Not that I've ever heard. But I doubt many have even tried. I've only seen a couple of reports that it worked with an 8gb card, but as I think I mentioned before, I'm not quite convinced that it was even true.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
MhikeiMPC12 said:
Even if it means i have to keep the (2gb)sd in my pone in order for it to boot, i was looking for a temporary method to unbrick my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing stock firmware to my phone after booting off the SD card into download mode restored the phone's bootloader, but I knew that it was the bootloader I'd messed up.
The posts I've read about debricking this way seemed to mention that the phone would use the bootloader from the SD card, but would finish the booting process from the phone's storage.
If it's really /system you wiped, I wonder what your phone could finish booting from.
placroix74 said:
Flashing stock firmware to my phone after booting off the SD card into download mode restored the phone's bootloader, but I knew that it was the bootloader I'd messed up.
The posts I've read about debricking this way seemed to mention that the phone would use the bootloader from the SD card, but would finish the booting process from the phone's storage.
If it's really /system you wiped, I wonder what your phone could finish booting from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think it was because it was given a direct command to be booted into recovery, instead of being booted into system. :silly:
Im worried when i use the 16gb sd card, THAT wont debrick my phone! All i did was formal /system by accident, and it booted again AFTER i deleted system.
Also. I'm a noob at Ubuntu and all the "of=/dev/block/mmblk1". I thought it was as simple as
1. insert 16gb SD card and open Win32DiskImager
2. select the debrick.img and flash it
3. insert the SD in the phone and attempt to start it in download mode
BTW i heard that the CPU varient (exynos, quallcom) matters when u debrick the device. i have a SGH-I747M rogers so what CPU variant do i have?
MhikeiMPC12 said:
Also. I'm a noob at Ubuntu and all the "of=/dev/block/mmblk1". I thought it was as simple as
1. insert 16gb SD card and open Win32DiskImager
2. select the debrick.img and flash it
3. insert the SD in the phone and attempt to start it in download mode
BTW i heard that the CPU varient (exynos, quallcom) matters when u debrick the device. i have a SGH-I747M rogers so what CPU variant do i have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have a dual core Qualcomm processor. As long as you are using the correct debrick image, or correct bootloader, modem, or ROM when flashing the processor worries take care of themselves.
You could use either method to flash the img to the sdcard. Win32diskImager could be used on Windows PCs. dd is a command line tool used in Linux to do the same. Brasero would be a GUI tool used in Linux if using the command line concerns you. Using the GUI tools you need to be sure you are 'burning' the image to the media instead of copying the image file. The same would apply to making a bootable usb thumb drive to create a live Linux drive.
MhikeiMPC12 said:
Im worried when i use the 16gb sd card, THAT wont debrick my phone! All i did was formal /system by accident, and it booted again AFTER i deleted system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, it sometimes does not work. More unfortunate, there is no way to know if it will without trying it.
Earlier though, you described a classic hard brick. Red light, QHSUSB_DLOAD.... this method has fixed bricks just like yours plenty of times. More have succeeded than failed. But as I said, it doesn't always work. I think it's definitely worth trying though.
I am convinced that 90% of the failures were due to two things: the sdcard and/or user error. (Mostly the SD though.)
When you do try this method, keep in mind that many people don't get it to work the first few tries. So if it doesn't work, don't give up right away. Try at least 3 or 4 times. This actually happened to me twice! I did everything exactly the same way but it failed until my 3rd or 4th try! No idea why, but I have experienced this firsthand.
Let us know if you have any other questions!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
MhikeiMPC12 said:
Im worried when i use the 16gb sd card, THAT wont debrick my phone! All i did was formal /system by accident, and it booted again AFTER i deleted system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SD card won't debrick your phone on its own : it will only allow you to boot into download mode. Successfully flashing stock firmware (which contains a bootloader) from download mode will.
DocHoliday77 said:
When you do try this method, keep in mind that many people don't get it to work the first few tries. So if it doesn't work, don't give up right away. Try at least 3 or 4 times. This actually happened to me twice! I did everything exactly the same way but it failed until my 3rd or 4th try! No idea why, but I have experienced this firsthand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I saw those warnings, too. Maybe I was just lucky it worked on the 1st try...
BTW, where did you find a I747M debrick image to flash on your 2GB SD? The only ones I could find were for I747 (US)...
I had hard bricked my gs4 on tmobile and want to know if anyone has an debrick image for the sgh-m919 as i cant find one anywhere. The phone is hard bricked and i think it was caused by a galaxy s3 verizon bootloader unlock and i was in the os at the time.
3609a said:
I had hard bricked my gs4 on tmobile and want to know if anyone has an debrick image for the sgh-m919 as i cant find one anywhere. The phone is hard bricked and i think it was caused by a galaxy s3 verizon bootloader unlock and i was in the os at the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello all. I am new here to this forum and hope I do not screw up my first post.
I did make a debrick image using busybox and my rooted working SGH-M919 UD, But I am not sure if it really works.
Partition 0 shows Fat16 12.47 MB
Partition 1 shows Fat16 51.53 MB
Those 2 and the other Linux partitions seem to have all of the files needed for a restore. (part9 13.63 MB Linux, part15 2.70 GB Linux, Part 17 2.02 GB Linux)
Is a sgh-m919 even capable of booting from a SD card ?? If so what do you need to do to make it boot from the SD card ?
I do not want to share a debrick image that can not work.
These phones are not worth much, But the challenge is fun.
Thank You for the use of this great forum.
Don_L
Don_L said:
Hello all. I am new here to this forum and hope I do not screw up my first post.
I did make a debrick image using busybox and my rooted working SGH-M919 UD, But I am not sure if it really works.
Partition 0 shows Fat16 12.47 MB
Partition 1 shows Fat16 51.53 MB
Those 2 and the other Linux partitions seem to have all of the files needed for a restore. (part9 13.63 MB Linux, part15 2.70 GB Linux, Part 17 2.02 GB Linux)
Is a sgh-m919 even capable of booting from a SD card ?? If so what do you need to do to make it boot from the SD card ?
I do not want to share a debrick image that can not work.
These phones are not worth much, But the challenge is fun.
Thank You for the use of this great forum.
Don_L
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have came to the conclusion, That if a m919 is in USB QDLoader 9008 Mode, It can not boot using a SD brick image, Because the boot loader is dead.
It seems that the only chance of recovery is using USB.
Why some people post that a SD card can be used for a Hard Brick is beyond me.
The SD card boot seams to only work for a soft brick.
If you have a phone in USB QDLoader 9008 Mode, Do not waste your time trying a SD Debrick image. Restore it using the USB port.
I did enjoy the Fire Drill.
73