Related
I apologize in advance if any of this makes you roll your eyes at my stupidity.
Good Afternoon
I have an ATT samsung galaxy s3, Because of the glitches with 4.3 I was experiencing I decided to install custom software on my phone. So I looked up guides and got everything I needed. I did manage to get root access, and verified with super user. I also installed TWRP and CWM because each kept giving me errors when I tried to install CM 11 onto my phone. I tried CWM first, and when that didn't work I tried TWRP. It says there was no MD5 information found when I try to install any mod. how ever I have used the md5 file checker program and the MD5 matches up to what was listed in this one for example.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2518998
Download:
CM 11.0 Unofficial Beta 7 for d2tmo and d2att
MD5: ef93957db1e6704f23f9015231a82826
So the MD5 matches, yet when I try to install it keeps giving me errors. I also tried other versions of CM that I found on here via links. Right now my phone has no OS as another guide I read some where also said to wipe system data (sorry if that was stupid, I was just following a guideline) And even more stupid, no I don't have a backup because in my naivety and stupidity I didn't think I'd need one as it seemed so simple from all the guides and videos I'd seen.
Yesterday a friend of mine knowledgeable with tech stuff took one of the original stock Image ROMs I'd downloaded and using linux and some program he managed to do some crazy stuff I can't even describe on here. All I saw was a lot of typing of command lines and it got my phone working again, how ever it wasn't exactly the stock image I guess because the phone would not make or receive calls/texts.
Since my phone was powering on again and the android OS was loading I figured I could connect it to my computer and use KIES to download the official latest update so my phone would be back on the legit software. But trying to do that...well broke my phone again. So I'm at a loss now of what to do. Right now I can still get to download mode on my phone, but when I try to get into recovery mode I get an error that "firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in KIES & try again." Which I've tried, and every time I try it gives me an error message.So I'm at a loss of what to do next.
So I'd like to get a working OS on my phone asap so I can get calls and texts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And being new I'm sorry if I broke any taboos or did not give some information that is typically given when describing a problem.
gvazquez82 said:
I apologize in advance if any of this makes you roll your eyes at my stupidity.
Good Afternoon
I have an ATT samsung galaxy s3, Because of the glitches with 4.3 I was experiencing I decided to install custom software on my phone. So I looked up guides and got everything I needed. I did manage to get root access, and verified with super user. I also installed TWRP and CWM because each kept giving me errors when I tried to install CM 11 onto my phone. I tried CWM first, and when that didn't work I tried TWRP. It says there was no MD5 information found when I try to install any mod. how ever I have used the md5 file checker program and the MD5 matches up to what was listed in this one for example.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2518998
Download:
CM 11.0 Unofficial Beta 7 for d2tmo and d2att
MD5: ef93957db1e6704f23f9015231a82826
So the MD5 matches, yet when I try to install it keeps giving me errors. I also tried other versions of CM that I found on here via links. Right now my phone has no OS as another guide I read some where also said to wipe system data (sorry if that was stupid, I was just following a guideline) And even more stupid, no I don't have a backup because in my naivety and stupidity I didn't think I'd need one as it seemed so simple from all the guides and videos I'd seen.
Yesterday a friend of mine knowledgeable with tech stuff took one of the original stock Image ROMs I'd downloaded and using linux and some program he managed to do some crazy stuff I can't even describe on here. All I saw was a lot of typing of command lines and it got my phone working again, how ever it wasn't exactly the stock image I guess because the phone would not make or receive calls/texts.
Since my phone was powering on again and the android OS was loading I figured I could connect it to my computer and use KIES to download the official latest update so my phone would be back on the legit software. But trying to do that...well broke my phone again. So I'm at a loss now of what to do. Right now I can still get to download mode on my phone, but when I try to get into recovery mode I get an error that "firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in KIES & try again." Which I've tried, and every time I try it gives me an error message.So I'm at a loss of what to do next.
So I'd like to get a working OS on my phone asap so I can get calls and texts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And being new I'm sorry if I broke any taboos or did not give some information that is typically given when describing a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same error happened to me yesterday and spent the whole day figuring it out. get into download mode. boot up ODIN and reflash your preferred custom recovery. after that, i couldn't find anything else to restore my phone with so i installed 4.3 leaked from here. doesn't matter which one you select. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2498233. place it on your sd card and head into recovery mode, wipe data/factory reset and cache. head to install zip from sd card and select the 4.3 zip you downloaded. reboot system and it should work. the at&t boot screen takes a while so be patient
MrHaPpY66 said:
same error happened to me yesterday and spent the whole day figuring it out. get into download mode. boot up ODIN and reflash your preferred custom recovery. after that, i couldn't find anything else to restore my phone with so i installed 4.3 leaked from here. doesn't matter which one you select. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2498233. place it on your sd card and head into recovery mode, wipe data/factory reset and cache. head to install zip from sd card and select the 4.3 zip you downloaded. reboot system and it should work. the at&t boot screen takes a while so be patient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all thank you for trying to help me, I hope you are having a good Thanks Giving.
I used the thread you linked to, and downloaded the version with out knox. I followed the instructions
transferred ROM and flashed kernel file to SD card
used odin to flash TWRP,
used twrp to flash rom and kernel file.
and it takes the file thankfully, there's only one issue. My phone can't make or receive calls/texts. Is yours able to?
I messed up and was playing with things That I had no business playing with and decided that I should do a restore of a backup (TWRP) I made as soon as I rooted the 4.3 OTA. well it has soft bricked my phone. it was a TWRP 4.3 Nandroid and has me messed up a little.
so far I tried My nandroid (no dice now a soft brick) cleared cache and dalvik, It was booting as far as the white at&t spinning thing,
Factory reset same on booting,
Tried a format of the internal sd this is where it gets sketchy it now goes as far as the second samsung screen(the one that says Samsung GALAXY S III)
4.3 OTA .zip (no dice TWRP wont flash it) same on the booting 2nd samsung boot screen
Tried the files in the link above and got a Hard brick
Used the debricking .IMG file and got TWRP and download mode back
Any suggestions?
Looks like I might need a JTAG/RIFF BOX for this one. If nothing else I spent many Hours of darkness discovering the darkness of android 4.3
If I get recovered from this and with a different rom like 4.1.2 I will be happy. the 4.3 OTA was very stable but I did miss wifi tether and the whole hardbrick thing was kind of a bummer. it would be real nice to have an ODIN file to fix this (AHEM samsung) or atleast perhaps stopped the progression of it to a hard brick.
New update
I got my phone booting up again however there is a catch. That unbrick.img file on my 16GB sd card is still required to boot the phone and I have no cell service what so ever. Tried to check apn settings because at home I sometimes get poor service and I run net10 so I was going to fix my apn and it says insert sim??? the sim is properly inserted???
Next Update
the bootloader I flashed apparently flashed to the external sd card? I flashed another one and it is booting from the internal sd. I had to flash a different modem the one in the bootloader/modem file I flashed from the link above didnt take? I got most everything sorted out, but im getting tired, it has been an all night adventure. its 08:23 est now
sorry for the delay in updating this I had to get some rest.
theramsey3 said:
I messed up and was playing with things That I had no business playing with and decided that I should do a restore of a backup (TWRP) I made as soon as I rooted the 4.3 OTA. well it has soft bricked my phone. it was a TWRP 4.3 Nandroid and has me messed up a little.
so far I tried My nandroid (no dice now a soft brick) cleared cache and dalvik, It was booting as far as the white at&t spinning thing,
Factory reset same on booting,
Tried a format of the internal sd this is where it gets sketchy it now goes as far as the second samsung screen(the one that says Samsung GALAXY S III)
4.3 OTA .zip (no dice TWRP wont flash it) same on the booting 2nd samsung boot screen
Tried the files in the link above and got a Hard brick
Used the debricking .IMG file and got TWRP and download mode back
Any suggestions?
Looks like I might need a JTAG/RIFF BOX for this one. If nothing else I spent many Hours of darkness discovering the darkness of android 4.3
If I get recovered from this and with a different rom like 4.1.2 I will be happy. the 4.3 OTA was very stable but I did miss wifi tether and the whole hardbrick thing was kind of a bummer. it would be real nice to have an ODIN file to fix this (AHEM samsung) or atleast perhaps stopped the progression of it to a hard brick.
New update
I got my phone booting up again however there is a catch. That unbrick.img file on my 16GB sd card is still required to boot the phone and I have no cell service what so ever. Tried to check apn settings because at home I sometimes get poor service and I run net10 so I was going to fix my apn and it says insert sim??? the sim is properly inserted???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into Settings, About Phone, Status and check to see if your IMEI and Serial Number are present. If you only lost your IMEI there's a guide on how to inject it back (I'm not sure where the guide is). However if you've lost your serial number and don't have a Nandroid that can restore it I don't know what to do.
spongdangly said:
Go into Settings, About Phone, Status and check to see if your IMEI and Serial Number are present. If you only lost your IMEI there's a guide on how to inject it back (I'm not sure where the guide is). However if you've lost your serial number and don't have a Nandroid that can restore it I don't know what to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
gvazquez82 said:
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
theramsey3 said:
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will give that a shot, but what's an APN, sorry. And how do I create one, and is it needed for me to do so?
gvazquez82 said:
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be, I'm working right now so I don't have time to fine the guide on how to inject your IMEI. If I remember correctly it involves using QPST. If you have an old (or any) working Nandroid backup that should fix the problem.
FYI, make sure you don't use the guide for the international S3 as it has different hardware and folder structure/contents.
As for the APN, it should automatically fill itself in since it reads it off the SIM Card (I might be wrong).
theramsey3 said:
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it and it work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
67 texts just came in. Sir, I thank you oh so kindly. You have made this gloomy rainy day oh so joyous.
No problem. Glad I could help you.
The real credit should go to -Mr.X-, loserskater and anyone else(no disrespect there were alot of files) whose stuff I tried to flash lastnight thank you all in the dev community who contribute.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
So I guess the next question, do I try again to install kit kat on my phone.
I've already made bucks of my existing working phone haha....but I'd still like to have kitkat in place. I believe the issue of my phone not reading MD5 confirmations would still be in place, does anyone know how to remedy that situation?
At the same time I'm more than happy to leave my phone as is.
gvazquez82 said:
So I guess the next question, do I try again to install kit kat on my phone.
I've already made bucks of my existing working phone haha....but I'd still like to have kitkat in place. I believe the issue of my phone not reading MD5 confirmations would still be in place, does anyone know how to remedy that situation?
At the same time I'm more than happy to leave my phone as is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure you can turn off MD5 checks in TWRP. Probably in CWM too. Sorry if this has been mentioned. Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Just skimmed through.
2nd, there is a major difference between an IMEI that reads 0 and an IMEI that shows unknown. If it shows an unknown simply reflash your ROM and modem and you will be good to go. Sometimes a reboot is all you need. If your IMEI is showing a 0 on the other hand its gone and will require that it be injected back in which is a messy situation that usually results in tour phone being stuck on EDGE.
3rd, as someone mentioned on the previous page, restoring a working nandroid will NOT reinject your IMEI if it shows up as 0. No amount of flashing anything will get it to come back. Not even stock. It needs to be reinjected manually.
flexfulton said:
Pretty sure you can turn off MD5 checks in TWRP. Probably in CWM too. Sorry if this has been mentioned. Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Just skimmed through.
2nd, there is a major difference between an IMEI that reads 0 and an IMEI that shows unknown. If it shows an unknown simply reflash your ROM and modem and you will be good to go. Sometimes a reboot is all you need. If your IMEI is showing a 0 on the other hand its gone and will require that it be injected back in which is a messy situation that usually results in tour phone being stuck on EDGE.
3rd, as someone mentioned on the previous page, restoring a working nandroid will NOT reinject your IMEI if it shows up as 0. No amount of flashing anything will get it to come back. Not even stock. It needs to be reinjected manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you know of a good stable kit kat like ROM I could use for the s3? And any speculation as to why the ROMs werent taking for me?
Hi there guys of XDA,
I have a major problem with my NOTE 2, after playing around with some ROMs, Cyanogenmod 11 4.4 NIGHTLY, 10.2 4.3 and Omni 4.4.1 NIGHTLY. I used CWM to load these ROMs with SUPERsu?. This is the first time i have flashed any ROMs onto my phone.
CM 11 was the first ROM i flashed on my NOTE 2 and that's when it started it couldn't detect my sim, It doesn't show me my IMEI number and my Baseband version. I didn't make a back-up of the stock because i didn't need one.
Now i'm stuck with a phone i can only use on Wifi is there anyone that can help? or if its happened to someone else? how did you sort it out?
Also can i restore this through KIES?
shirazi15 said:
Hi there guys of XDA,
I have a major problem with my NOTE 2, after playing around with some ROMs, Cyanogenmod 11 4.4 NIGHTLY, 10.2 4.3 and Omni 4.4.1 NIGHTLY. I used CWM to load these ROMs with SUPERsu?. This is the first time i have flashed any ROMs onto my phone.
CM 11 was the first ROM i flashed on my NOTE 2 and that's when it started it couldn't detect my sim, It doesn't show me my IMEI number and my Baseband version. I didn't make a back-up of the stock because i didn't need one.
Now i'm stuck with a phone i can only use on Wifi is there anyone that can help? or if its happened to someone else? how did you sort it out?
Also can i restore this through KIES?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this exact issue last week when flashing Kitkat AOSP ROM. Even restoring back to 4.3.1 no network connection was available, except for WiFi. Restoring your EFS will not even work. You just have to re-root your phone.
Not to worry, your phone is OK, perfectly OK. But just quite a bit of work needs to be done. Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2032849
1. Download original stock firmware for your country and telco
2. Download mode that firmware back to your phone using Odin
3. Download mode to install recovery, this will re-root your phone above steps will un-root your phone
4. Re-flash ROM of your choice, not Kitkat for now
After all i've gone through, and as much as i want to try Kitkat, i think this issue is recovery-related. Both TWRP and CWM needs updating for Android 4.4. I will wait until then.
All the best!
Gandicela said:
I had this exact issue last week when flashing Kitkat AOSP ROM. Even restoring back to 4.3.1 no network connection was available, except for WiFi. Restoring your EFS will not even work. You just have to re-root your phone.
Not to worry, your phone is OK, perfectly OK. But just quite a bit of work needs to be done. Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2032849
1. Download original stock firmware for your country and telco
2. Download mode that firmware back to your phone using Odin
3. Download mode to install recovery, this will re-root your phone above steps will un-root your phone
4. Re-flash ROM of your choice, not Kitkat for now
After all i've gone through, and as much as i want to try Kitkat, i think this issue is recovery-related. Both TWRP and CWM needs updating for Android 4.4. I will wait until then.
All the best!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx for getting back to me at least someone can help. After i followed the things you told me to do. It didn't put the stock ROM back on there so i'm stuck with omni.
After Odin loaded everything to the phone it just keeps going into recovery mode? is that normal or am i doing it wrong because the link you posted up doesn't mention anything about that :-s and i followed everything that link said to do.
shirazi15 said:
Thanx for getting back to me at least someone can help. After i followed the things you told me to do. It didn't put the stock ROM back on there so i'm stuck with omni.
After Odin loaded everything to the phone it just keeps going into recovery mode? is that normal or am i doing it wrong because the link you posted up doesn't mention anything about that :-s and i followed everything that link said to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mate, firstly this is the hard way of recovering from "Unknown Baseband" issue. Finally the simple solution was only to download and install an app called SELinux Mode Changer from PlayStore. Then using that app, change SELinux from Enforcing to Permissive resolved everything related to IMEI, EFS, and Unknown Baseband. So hard way I did; i didn't know any better then.
By the way the link is correct. Start from the procedure from the line that says "Installation Instruction [Mobile odin is now have support for NOTE2]"
You must be in download mode (Vol Down, Home, & Power button all pressed together) to flash the Stock ROM using Odin. But where is your status now? If in recovery, can you re-install a ROM? If u r able to reboot back up to OMNI, just install the SELinux app and u will be good to go.
Cheers!
shirazi15 said:
Hi there guys of XDA,
I have a major problem with my NOTE 2, after playing around with some ROMs, Cyanogenmod 11 4.4 NIGHTLY, 10.2 4.3 and Omni 4.4.1 NIGHTLY. I used CWM to load these ROMs with SUPERsu?. This is the first time i have flashed any ROMs onto my phone.
CM 11 was the first ROM i flashed on my NOTE 2 and that's when it started it couldn't detect my sim, It doesn't show me my IMEI number and my Baseband version. I didn't make a back-up of the stock because i didn't need one.
Now i'm stuck with a phone i can only use on Wifi is there anyone that can help? or if its happened to someone else? how did you sort it out?
Also can i restore this through KIES?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you try what i did? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2567862&nocache=1
good luck.
"Just sharing my experience in solving this issue. Hopefully it will help solve those who have similar issues.
I flashed a file which messed up my EFS partition. I had a backup and tried to use the available programs to restore my EFS using my backup. None worked. I even brought it to the samsung store, but they said they would change the motherboard and reprogram, and replacement and service would cost more than half the cost of a new N7105. I purchased the phone in another country. The people who had stores to repair phones gave up on my phone. They also offered to replace the motherboard for US$175.00.
My phone was originally under a DMB2 rom (from Singapore I think). I flashed a DMC3 rom, and used this for five months, until i encountered the problem.
I initially gave up and got a note 3. But i could not believe the phone was junk and people in XDA (as I observed) do not seem to give up.
After two weeks, i found the solution below, which brought my phone to working condition.
1. I flashed the stock rom N7105ZHDMI2_N7105ZZHDMI2_TGY from sammobile.
2. I flashed a pit file using Odin. The pit file is found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2137008
This restored the baseband. But IMEI was no longer NULL. However, it was still 0.
3. I downloaded and used the EFS Pro from this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1308546
Before using EFS Pro, make sure you dial *#7284# and change the setting of Qualcomm USB Settings to
"RMNET + DM + MODEM"
I will not hurt your phone if you do, but EFS Pro will just not work. If you don't do this, the EFS Pro will display "Phone not responding" or something similar.
NOTE: I couldn't find the option with RMNET, but i used the option that also had an "RM*** + DM + MODEM".
After the phone is read, change back the IMEI to what it was originally.
Dial *#7284# again to change back to "MTP+ADB".
It's all working now.
Hope this is able to help someone. Now i have two working versions of Note.
Thanks to the authors of the program i used, and the people who uploaded the files used.
Cheers!
shirazi15 said:
Thanx for getting back to me at least someone can help. After i followed the things you told me to do. It didn't put the stock ROM back on there so i'm stuck with omni.
After Odin loaded everything to the phone it just keeps going into recovery mode? is that normal or am i doing it wrong because the link you posted up doesn't mention anything about that :-s and i followed everything that link said to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
karlonicolas said:
can you try what i did? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2567862&nocache=1
good luck.
"Just sharing my experience in solving this issue. Hopefully it will help solve those who have similar issues.
I flashed a file which messed up my EFS partition. I had a backup and tried to use the available programs to restore my EFS using my backup. None worked. I even brought it to the samsung store, but they said they would change the motherboard and reprogram, and replacement and service would cost more than half the cost of a new N7105. I purchased the phone in another country. The people who had stores to repair phones gave up on my phone. They also offered to replace the motherboard for US$175.00.
My phone was originally under a DMB2 rom (from Singapore I think). I flashed a DMC3 rom, and used this for five months, until i encountered the problem.
I initially gave up and got a note 3. But i could not believe the phone was junk and people in XDA (as I observed) do not seem to give up.
After two weeks, i found the solution below, which brought my phone to working condition.
1. I flashed the stock rom N7105ZHDMI2_N7105ZZHDMI2_TGY from sammobile.
2. I flashed a pit file using Odin. The pit file is found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2137008
This restored the baseband. But IMEI was no longer NULL. However, it was still 0.
3. I downloaded and used the EFS Pro from this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1308546
Before using EFS Pro, make sure you dial *#7284# and change the setting of Qualcomm USB Settings to
"RMNET + DM + MODEM"
I will not hurt your phone if you do, but EFS Pro will just not work. If you don't do this, the EFS Pro will display "Phone not responding" or something similar.
NOTE: I couldn't find the option with RMNET, but i used the option that also had an "RM*** + DM + MODEM".
After the phone is read, change back the IMEI to what it was originally.
Dial *#7284# again to change back to "MTP+ADB".
It's all working now.
Hope this is able to help someone. Now i have two working versions of Note.
Thanks to the authors of the program i used, and the people who uploaded the files used.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, thanks!
For all others that might face "unknown baseband" with 4.3 to 4.4 flashing of ROMS, SELinux Mode Changer app from Playstore will fix that problem. Install the app and set SELinux from Enforcing to Permissive.
i hope your problem is fixed.
i'm not too familiar with CM roms, as i have been using stock since gingerbread. but you have to first do a full wipe before flashing from CM to stock. did you do that? perhaps you can go to recovery, do a full wipe, include Dalvik and Cache. Then go to bootloader and flash your rom.
by the way, my chipset is qualcomm yours may be exynos. if so, then i'm not confident about this solution because i have tried this several times, but only on note 2 LTE.
good luck!
Hi folks, long time reader, first time noob answer seeker.
I'm no stranger to rooting, flashing, hacking about and such - I even spend most of my day as a software engineer, and I've finally given up on this one - so here I am (rock me like a hurricane), please be kind.
SM-900T - It was rocking pretty darn well on Jedi Elite which I had flashed over rooted stock 4.3 MI7 - then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly. Thinking it was no biggie, I thought I could just reflash to stock and call it a day. Thirteen or so flashes later, I gave up on 4.3 and figured I'd just take the thing up to 4.4.2 NB4 by upgrading everything to 4.4.2 via Kies.
That's when I first ran into the bootloop issue, read a lot about it, and managed to get it up(ish) on stock, rooted, with Philz 6.X... Couldn't flash a ROM to save myself and wound up with another soft brick.
Flash forward to Friday - decided to start from scratch again - attempted to flash stock 4.4.2 from Kies, from Odin, From Heimdall... Nothing seems to be able to get me out of the current state it's in:
Only boots to download mode. Flashes seem to work fine, but on that first reboot where it tries to go to stock recovery to finish up on the device itself, it never gets there - boot loops trying to load recovery no matter how it wants to get there. If I pull the battery and start up (either straight to system or by cancelling out of download mode), it boot loops trying to load system. Boots fine to download mode, where I attempt to flash again with the same results.
Yes, I've tried Odin 3.0.9, 3.0.7, 1.8.5, Heimdall on Mac, Heimdall on Windows, Kies on Mac, Kies on Windows - repartition via PIT and not. Installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled all software and drivers multiple times, tried multiple cables on multiple USB ports.... Most of the time it looks like it's going to be fine (sometimes the flash fails, usually through Kies), but never surivives that first reboot after the flash.
Every answer I've seen says to do the things I've already done or cannot do (flash stock via Odin, pull the battery and boot to stock recovery and do a factory reset - which I'd LOVE to do, but can't). No problem recognizing the sucker on the PC/Mac
Next step: try flashing a N9005 ROM...
Any other thoughts? I do have another N900T that's working but has a blacklisted IMEI, and I've been tempted to swap the IMEIs a last resort (although either I'm too dumb to make it stick, EFS pro says it succeeds in writing the IMEI after I do a EFS format, but it doesn't stick.... Either I'm missing something, or I need a UART cable) - is there a way of swapping just the radio hardware or just the internal storage? OR, is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?
Failing any of these options, perhaps I'll wait for an Odin-flashable 4.4.3 if such a thing exists - or, hope to get lucky and swap it out at a store praying they don't see I've tripped Knox.
Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
Coming from you...
noobtoob said:
Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.
bondidave said:
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I do have a few ideas... Got done questions though.
1. Do you have an external SD card?
2. It goes all the way through flash on 4.4 even with heimdall?
3. Is there anything you have left out? Even the smallest detail can help, and by the op you are detail oriented, so I just need to know.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
... is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but I don't have the details handy.
All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring.
If that doesn't work then let 'noobtoob' walk you through booting with the removable sdcard. Your second N900T will be needed to write the data to the sdcard. If this works then you can 'dd' write stock partitions to an sd card with #2 then 'dd' write them in #1.
If either of those works then unroot and take it in for warrenty exchange.
Frank
bondidave said:
... then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This also indicates data corruption, and this is what started it all. Since you have tried various cables and computers that leaves the device, probably the USB port.
Frank
probably the USB port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.
Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.
Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.
Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)
Thanks again guys
bondidave said:
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.
Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158
I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.
Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.
Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.
Frank
Frank Westlake said:
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.
This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158
I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.
Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.
Frank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was for hard brick method and no one has verified it works on 4.4 KK yet. There is an image in there though. My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response. Located here you will find the kkunbrick.img. There is still a problem flashing anything through heimdall after updating to the 4.4 bootloader, so there is no way to tell if the phone actually took the recovery. I have had to switch to Odin for everything afterwards, and in personal experience 3.07 works best with my phone.
@bondidave I was thinking skipping the sd-card trick for now, and trying just a few other things first. Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.
Also if you have an external find the efs fix zip and have handy on an sd-card, do the same steps above except the nandroid restore. Basically if we can get into a recovery we should be ok. I had a similar issue when it was just booting over and over into download mode and this was how I fixed it. I have never used the efs fix zip, but many others swear by it. I was able to recover fortunately enough.
Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.
As far as making a complete system backup of your current phone, I highly recommend against it, unless you just want to extract information from it and not re-write it. This could definitely cause some system corruption on a new device.
If none of these methods work, then try and have them swap it under warranty.
Frank Westlake said:
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yessirreeebobbyjimmy, tried several copies from several different places - that and Kies is a moron and redownloads it every time anyways.
noobtoob said:
My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I download these things just to have them handy if something fails.
Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think he got that far into installing 4.4, but I recommend not using anything that was saved after this problem began. If the problem was caused by corruption then the restore will reinstall the corruption.
Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the problem is bad USB or other bad hardware causing corruption during transfer then the SD-card boot will get past that, then transferring the rest of the partitions by SD-card will continue to be corruption-free. He could then trade-in the phone.
But you are right -- he should try everything else before the SD-card boot. Because if something else succeeds then maybe the hardware is fine, and if he went immediately to SD-card boot he wouldn't know that.
Frank
Thanks for the advice guys - I'm going to try the backup from my other phone, then the efs fix, then the sd-card boot... I'll report back, wish me luck.
A nandroid previous failure, or a ROM install from external SD card was all I meant.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.
Lorettaa said:
I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad something good came out of my frustration!
Here's a quick update: I've done everything but the boot from SD card with no luck (and actually thought I had hard(er?) bricked it for a while after trying to copy over a few images from the other phone - turns out it needed to stay with the battery out for at least 20 minutes).
Good news - walked into a TMO brick-and-mortar last night, showed the guy my endless bootloop, and a replacement is on its way to my house for an affordable $20 warranty service fee.
At this point, I'm thinking the internal flash memory is just bad - as a software engineer, I'm ok with chalking this one up to a hardware issue (as much as I was hoping that my first post on XDA would result in some new profound solution to a longstanding issue common to a few folks).
Oh well - new Note 3 on it's way, and a new S5 shortly behind it (didn't hold out much hope on TMO hooking me up, so I ordered an S5)... let the battle of the Samsungs begin!
Thanks again to you guys who helped out - and the whole XDA community in general, I am very grateful.
Finally you made it fix and enjoy the battle between your phones
Well, sucks it couldn't be fixed, but glad you got a replacement on the way. It pretty much sounded like the partitions were well over written before we attempted anything, but always worth a shot.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
Yes, but I don't have the details handy.
All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring. :good:
Hi. I've been running rooted ZVA deodexed for months with no problems, but today my phone suddenly started getting very warm. I rebooted and I could no longer get any kind of connection (mobile or wifi), I would get "headphones unplugged" message, followed by a forced reboot within a few seconds. I immediately flashed the newest ZVC tot successfully and then finally realized I was not getting a connection due to my number, esn, meid, etc being "unkown" along with my msl obviously not working.
I tried ##72786# and a whole bunch of other things, which obviously didn't work. So what are my options other than calling Sprint or taking it into a store? FWIW, I'm fairly sure my info has was unkown prior to flashing ZVC. I remember reading about people getting replacements fro Sprint after updating to ZVC from ZVA stock. Was their issue similar to mine? Thanks in advance to any tips/info
I've been out of the service and repair game for quite some time now, but if your MSL is not working to manually program and/or ##scrtn# won't grab your information OTA, I would re-tot and see if that helps. Otherwise, whatever caused the overheating could have caused board-level damage, which could have hosed your system outside of the realm of repair.
I know you are trying to avoid having to go to the Sprint store. However, your best bet would be to take it to a service center for replacement if you have TEP. If not, you could try contacting LG for a warranty replacement.
\m/ said:
I've been out of the service and repair game for quite some time now, but if your MSL is not working to manually program and/or ##scrtn# won't grab your information OTA, I would re-tot and see if that helps. Otherwise, whatever caused the overheating could have caused board-level damage, which could have hosed your system outside of the realm of repair.
I know you are trying to avoid having to go to the Sprint store. However, your best bet would be to take it to a service center for replacement if you have TEP. If not, you could try contacting LG for a warranty replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I'll probably pop into a store tomorrow if I can't get anymore info from here. When I say it was getting warm, I'm talking 42-43C, which is far from hot imo. Also, the MSL & SCRTN are not working because my ESN/MEID/Phone number are all missing. I'm pretty sure it all disappeared at the same time (before the tot), but I didn't mod or change anything since January. Anyway, thank you.
did you, at any point, make a backup of your efs ? if so, restore it and see if that helps
jcwxguy said:
did you, at any point, make a backup of your efs ? if so, restore it and see if that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I never did the method mentioned here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2451390
But, I just looked through some of my TWRP backups I have on my NAS and there's and EFS folder with efs1.emmc.win, efs2.emmc.win, etc. inside. I must have backed this up when I initally got the phone. Should I tot back to ZV7, root, install TWRP, and restore this? Thanks so much either way
Yeah. Try that. (Can't hurt)
Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk
jcwxguy said:
Yeah. Try that. (Can't hurt)
Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG I was awake all night lol, but I fixed it!
I did tot for ZV7, ZV8, and ZVA several times but it kept doing screensleep death within 30 seconds after boot up aka there was no time to root or do anything. Then i went back to ZVC tot and initially became frustrated. I couldn't root with my PC, get into stock recovery, or even factory reset. It would simply reboot and never enter recovery. Then after several attempts to root, including manually, I tried it on my Macbook Pro and it worked.
So I'm rooted, using flashify to flash TWRP, followed by pushing zv8_aboot.img, but again I cannot get into recovery when I attempt to via flashify. I keep trying this, along with # reboot recovery, power/vol button, but cannot get into any kind of recovery lol. For the hell of it, I download goomanager, check reboot to recovery and I'm finally in TWRP. Problem is that I don't have EFS stuff on my phone lol, so now I reboot, add it, try again from goo manager and once again I can no longer get into recovery.
I repeated the whole process flashify, zv8_aboot.img, goo manager, and I'm back in. I restore EFS and it restores all of my info lol. It took forever, but I'm happy because it finally worked.
Thanks again for the suggestion jcwxguy! I'm going to go take a nap
glad it worked. fwiw, you downgrade aboot first, then flash twrp using flashify, not other way around.
also to get into recovery, hold volume button down then press and hold power button (holding down both buttons until it starts to enter recovery)
That's what I meant, I'm just tired lol. I did try the usual vol down/power button method but it wouldn't work. Not even reboot recovery would in adb shell. It just booted back up into system. I swear lol.
That said, I can get into recovery flawlessly non stop now. Thanks again
Moderators, please forgive me in not in the right place...
Came home from a glorious week of camping and decided to check out some 4.4.4 ROM's on my phone...
Already running older version of C-ROM, so backed up and flashed the KK 4.4.4 version. That's where it the wheels came off my bus..
Phone booted so damn slow, then there were hundred's of FC's, rendering the phone unuseable. Rebooted, cleared Dalvik and Cache but same difference. The phone died, the battery would NOT charge! No matter what! Try as I may...NO GO!!! For hours! Feared it was that issue wherein the S3 motherboard dies and the phone has to be replaced by Samsung. Kept trying...finally get the phone to boot into TWRP. Whew!!! Still the phone kept complaining that the battery was dead. WTF?!
Restored the back up I had made...accidentally grabbed another backup from december of last year (Cyanogenmod), so had to recover my C-ROM back instead...RESTORE FAILS! Tried a few times but still failed. Tried to re-flash the latest C-ROM, but STILL fails...everything I'm trying fails.
I read the output and see an error, "Unable to wipe /system" ...found a thread where a user, using TWRP, had the same error with their ROM they were trying to flash. Eventually, the fix was to delete the make_4fs (or whatever it's called) from /sbin directory. Did so and was able to flash my Cyanogen, but could not restore my C-ROM backup. That STILL fails, however, no error in the live output while it's restoring. Just ends up Failing at the end of the restore process. The live logs indicate that it's using the 2fs (or whatever it's called), which was successful in flashing my Cyanogen ROM...why will it not restore my C-ROM back? :crying:
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
kojam said:
Moderators, please forgive me in not in the right place...
Came home from a glorious week of camping and decided to check out some 4.4.4 ROM's on my phone...
Already running older version of C-ROM, so backed up and flashed the KK 4.4.4 version. That's where it the wheels came off my bus..
Phone booted so damn slow, then there were hundred's of FC's, rendering the phone unuseable. Rebooted, cleared Dalvik and Cache but same difference. The phone died, the battery would NOT charge! No matter what! Try as I may...NO GO!!! For hours! Feared it was that issue wherein the S3 motherboard dies and the phone has to be replaced by Samsung. Kept trying...finally get the phone to boot into TWRP. Whew!!! Still the phone kept complaining that the battery was dead. WTF?!
Restored the back up I had made...accidentally grabbed another backup from december of last year (Cyanogenmod), so had to recover my C-ROM back instead...RESTORE FAILS! Tried a few times but still failed. Tried to re-flash the latest C-ROM, but STILL fails...everything I'm trying fails.
I read the output and see an error, "Unable to wipe /system" ...found a thread where a user, using TWRP, had the same error with their ROM they were trying to flash. Eventually, the fix was to delete the make_4fs (or whatever it's called) from /sbin directory. Did so and was able to flash my Cyanogen, but could not restore my C-ROM backup. That STILL fails, however, no error in the live output while it's restoring. Just ends up Failing at the end of the restore process. The live logs indicate that it's using the 2fs (or whatever it's called), which was successful in flashing my Cyanogen ROM...why will it not restore my C-ROM back? :crying:
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried using ODIN to restore back to stock? If you can get the phone up and running, you may be able to restore from your old backups.
Bass_Man25 said:
Have you tried using ODIN to restore back to stock? If you can get the phone up and running, you may be able to restore from your old backups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks bud.
Oh, I got the phone up and running on the Cyanogen dated dec/2013.
ODIN? Never thought of it. Been such a long time. I do need to get stock on here so I can all the latest official radios etc, then put custom ROMs.
Been such a loooooong time since used ODIN though. Shouldn't be hard to get back on the horse.
Thanks for the suggestion!!!
any idea why this happened? anyone?
as an fyi, I tried to put the lastest SlimROM on but same difference. (i'm really pressed for time always. so I decided this is the quickest thing to try). seems the only thing that will flash is my Cyanogen from December. Strange...
Will have to give ODIN a try if I can ever get the time some day..
Odin shouldn't be a much longer process. Start flash, walk away. When you return 10 minutes to a few hours later, it'll be sitting there waiting for you, all nice and stock!
Anyway, one thing I dont recall seeing you tried is a factory reset. Chances are, that's what caused all your FC. Roms will always take a while on first boot. But all those FC were likely due to incompatible data. Then you may have encountered more data corruption as the system worked overtime trying to resolve all those conflicts.
Its purely a theory, but there's a good chance you will never be able to find exactly what caused all of your issues. Dont lose sleep over it is my best advice! A couple of tips though....
Never wipe/format system! Had you been able to successfully do so, and then nothing would still flash, there would no longer be an o/s to boot into! All roms will format your system partition as the first step in the flash, so there's just no need to do this manually. Most flash failures occur before the flash actually starts, meaning if there's a problem, most times you'll still be able to reboot normally.
Update your firmware. If its been a while since taking an ota or updating via Odin, you're probably on an older firmware build which is known to cause problems with many more recent roms. Most simply will not flash if not updated.
Also, by flashing your up to date firmware in Odin, you will likely fix any corruption which may have occurred on some of those partitions. Good chance you'll be able to flash whatever you want after an Odin firmware update and factory reset.
Hope that helps! Good luck!
DocHoliday77 said:
Odin shouldn't be a much longer process. Start flash, walk away. When you return 10 minutes to a few hours later, it'll be sitting there waiting for you, all nice and stock!
Anyway, one thing I dont recall seeing you tried is a factory reset. Chances are, that's what caused all your FC. Roms will always take a while on first boot. But all those FC were likely due to incompatible data. Then you may have encountered more data corruption as the system worked overtime trying to resolve all those conflicts.
Its purely a theory, but there's a good chance you will never be able to find exactly what caused all of your issues. Dont lose sleep over it is my best advice! A couple of tips though....
Never wipe/format system! Had you been able to successfully do so, and then nothing would still flash, there would no longer be an o/s to boot into! All roms will format your system partition as the first step in the flash, so there's just no need to do this manually. Most flash failures occur before the flash actually starts, meaning if there's a problem, most times you'll still be able to reboot normally.
Update your firmware. If its been a while since taking an ota or updating via Odin, you're probably on an older firmware build which is known to cause problems with many more recent roms. Most simply will not flash if not updated.
Also, by flashing your up to date firmware in Odin, you will likely fix any corruption which may have occurred on some of those partitions. Good chance you'll be able to flash whatever you want after an Odin firmware update and factory reset.
Hope that helps! Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's up, Doc? Sorry for that...
I downloaded Odin this morning. I should have gotten the link from XDA. The site i got it from looked official, however, tons of endless pop-ups after I installed it. Freak!!!
Then found the xda links. Not sure which version to get because i didn't see which one handles the S3. The latest version (3.09) should, no?
As well, where do i get the stock ROM from? Forgive me for all these questions. Been extremely busy with work these past few months. No time to play around with my phone everything. I'm forgetting more than I know.
A full wipe was done. In TWRP, system was check (it's always checked) automatically when wiping to flash a new ROM.
Thanks again!
Everything you need is in my sig. Go to the firmware thread and the stock or root66 firmware listed there us what you flash in odin. Version 3.09 is fine btw.
DocHoliday77 said:
Everything you need is in my sig. Go to the firmware thread and the stock or root66 firmware listed there us what you flash in odin. Version 3.09 is fine btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
S.O.S!!!
kojam said:
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downloaded the rooted firmware from your link and the ODIN (3.09)...
Flashed the firmware (making sure to get the correct one for WIND)...ODIN did it's thing...got a green pass...the phone rebooted...got the Samsung symbol, little swoosh animation, and the accompanying sound effect that goes with the swoosh-thing...THE PHONE NEVER BOOTED UP AN O/S!
Did it at about 11:30 last night, left it, got up this morn, and phone STILL in same status!
Found out that site where I downloaded the firmware had an issue last night. They posted this morn, apologizing to people about a D.O.D attack that may have caused dropped downloads. I downloaded the firmware again this morn, flashed with ODIN, got a pass....SAME THING!!! Phone
Had to quickly pack up my laptop to bring with me to the office. Will try the official, non-rooted firmware to see if I can get it to go.
Problems' that my team went from 12 to 2 people...my partner's off today...and I got a LOUD MOUTH across from me who WILL NOT leave me alone, no matter what I say or do. LOL.
Any suggestions?
In the words of George Costanza:
"I'm BACK, babyyyyyyy!!!!!"
The official firmware worked!
Phone's back online. Thanks for all your help. Will have to see about rooting later...as well, want to see how the battery operates on stock firmware. I've tried EVERYTHING under the sun to preserve batt life and NOTHING worked!!!
Tried EVERY KERNEL noted to be good on battery life, tried TONS of apps that were supposed to help, turned off as much as I could, etc....
batt still not good. I give up. Every diagnostic app says batt is very good. I dunno...
Earplugs! Lol! I definitely feel for you about your work status! Been there!
About the firmware though, if the download had been corrupted, it would've failed the initial check done by Odin. You are probably ok. Dont worry just yet!
If it is hanging up at the Samsung screen, you probably just need to factory reset. Almost always fixes this. (It happens due to incompatible data left from your previous rom)
This will wipe internal sdcard though, so if you haven't backed up yet, the next thing to fo is flash TWRP via Odin. You can then use its built in file manager to copy whst you need first. Or you can then flash an insecure kernel and use adb if you're familiar with that.
The Doc is in!
if the download had been corrupted, it would've failed the initial check done by Odin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's EXACTLY my thought too. That was really perplexing...
I am up again...
Facotry Reset? How do I do that if stuck at the Samsung splash though?
Now that i know the official firmware works, maybe i'll, try again with the rooted firmware, try to factory reset when stuck, and continue to flash TWRP as you described above. Don't mind factory resetting. I've taken everything I need.
Oh!!!!
I noticed that all the apps I had before flashing the firmware are STILL on my phone. I would have thought that they would have been wiped out completely when lord ODIN was doing her thing.
....and battery life is STILL pretty bad...
Phone's been charging...became fully charged...unplugged it..it was down to 84% after only about 30/mins.
Will see how it goes after doing the factory wipe.
Again, how do i do a factory wipe if stuck at the Samsung swoosh after I re-flash the rooted firmware ?
Maybe your battery is dying. it happens. That would explain a big drop from the start.
To factory reset if you're stuck at boot up, turn the phone off, then boot up into recovery. Hold volume up, home and power. After it vibrates, release power only, continue holding the other two until you see recovery booting up.
If stock recovery is installed, choose factory reset.
In TWRP (probably similar in cwm) go to Wipe and choose factory reset there. In TWRP and CWM, factory resetting does not wipe your internal sdcard. Stock recovery will.
And as for Odin, it doesn't actually touch the user data partition, so all your apps and data are preserved. This is great when just upgrading from one build to the next, but is the reason a factory reset is required if coming from a non touchwiz rom.
---------- Post added at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:53 PM ----------
How old is your battery? The S3 is at the age where people who bought it when it was first released will start to notice the battery is beginning to degrade.
You can also get an app called Better Battery Stats here on xda (paid version in the play store). Its the goto utility for investigating problems with battery drain. Run it for a day after a full charge and then check its logs for persistent wakelocks. The app thread should explain its use better than I can, but if you are having trouble you can always post your bbs log here for one of us to look over. (This isnt my strongest area, but there are a few others around that may also be able to help. )