Develop Bugs

how ro undo flash counter trip?

OK so I rooted using the toolkit because I wasn't aware of the flash counter issue. I was able to reset the counter using the counter fewer app but I was wondering if I flash stock unrooted build and then reroot using the flash tripping free method will I then be free of the flash counter or can this not be undone at this point?

I think the app triangle away will reset you back to 0 if you do like you say. But in not 100% as I haven't tried it. You should even be able to just flash a stock Rom root with toolbox then flash stock boot and recovery. Then reset the counter and remove su. Again I'm not 100%. Also if it's not your carriers official Rom it will still say modified in the download menu.

I suppose the counter is only an issue should I need a warranty claim on it?

speaking of which, is there a thread on how to revert the phone back to FULL stock? base radio with su removed, and flash counter reset

Cobra281 said:
speaking of which, is there a thread on how to revert the phone back to FULL stock? base radio with su removed, and flash counter reset
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Triangle Away works for this model now. And you can download stock Roms and Push it to the phone using odin.

mianghuei said:
Triangle Away works for this model now. And you can download stock Roms and Push it to the phone using odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://galaxys3root.com/galaxy-s3-unroot/how-to-unroot-t-mobile-galaxy-s3-sgh-t999/
A quick google search would've came up with that.

possible to return to all stock

is there a way to reset phone to stock after rooting. like return original recovery, rom and reset triangle. i was able to restore stock rom and reset counter bunt when i tried installing old recovery after the counter reseted again

urwifeismyslave said:
is there a way to reset phone to stock after rooting. like return original recovery, rom and reset triangle. i was able to restore stock rom and reset counter bunt when i tried installing old recovery after the counter reseted again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1st.download stock firmware. Flash via Odin
2nd. Reroot with Chainfire auto root then reset counter with Triangle Away.
3 th. UNROOT,superSU / setting/ full unroot.
Now completely stock.

how can i check the counter with out me triggering it to add a point

urwifeismyslave said:
how can i check the counter with out me triggering it to add a point
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will not increase counter if you only check.Btw, why you need to flash stock recovery again when you ready on stock ?

how do i check the counter? download mode right? i just wanna put everything back to stock and wait for updates that samsung put out. we dont have much dev support yet so not much roms to choose from unlike the 7100 model. i think i got everything to stock now just not sure about my counter. also when i click on software update nothing happens it wont stop searching. did i do something wrong with my phone. its not giving me an answer like no updates available or ur phone is up to date.

urwifeismyslave said:
how do i check the counter? download mode right? i just wanna put everything back to stock and wait for updates that samsung put out. we dont have much dev support yet so not much roms to choose from unlike the 7100 model. i think i got everything to stock now just not sure about my counter. also when i click on software update nothing happens it wont stop searching. did i do something wrong with my phone. its not giving me an answer like no updates available or ur phone is up to date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download mode check counter,yes. Go to system setting/about device/status/ at device status should be Offical not Modified.

simplelife said:
Download mode check counter,yes. Go to system setting/about device/status/ at device status should be Offical not Modified.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
everything is stock recovery and rom but it still says modified

urwifeismyslave said:
everything is stock recovery and rom but it still says modified
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you exactly do step by step I post #2 if so you won't have this issue. Device status must be Offical that reason why you can't get update.

i did the cf root unroot method with the triangle app and supersu. i downloaded stock rom and installed using odin.

Did you do a factory reset, since Odining back stock? If not try it.

Status: Modified after Stock flash / Unroot

So i have given up with my note 2's connection issues and going to send it in for an exchange. I flashed back to stock, used auto root then triangle away. Then unrooted and got the OTA. My device status is still modified though. Is there a certain order i need to follow? Would wiping through recovery and factory reset fix the problem? My phone isnt rooted and got the update, so im not sure what the problem is.
Also, the manager at tmobile who set me up with the phones told me that they will accept modified devices in a warrenty exchange. I also read that if your flash counter isnt tripped and your phone isnt rooted (ie my phone currently) that is also ok under the policy.
Anyone got any knowledge on this?

If your local store manager is cool with it, whats the problem? Fwiw though heres how I get a normal status. Run triangle away, open mobile odin pro and flash mr. Robinsons root injected stock firmware. Make sure to have wipe data checked and uncheck inject root or inject mobile odin. After that process youll have a rooted "normal status" device.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

Well the exchange will be done via mail. He said hes sent in devices that were flashed and didnt have a problem but i am skeptical. I dont want them to get it and then contact me stating the exchange is invalid and i have to pay the deductible for the refurb they send.
So as im official stock rom and recovery and triangled away, whats the quickest and easiest route to getting my modified status back to normal?

This is how I went from modified to normal:
1. Download root66 -old firmware, (mr. Robinson) and install via odin
2. dl, triangle away and reset counter, reboot, go to supersu and forget root apps by hutting # sign, go to settings, choose full unroot or something like that, turn off phone
3. Go into recovery, hold vol up, power n home button, release power button upon display
4. Do complete wipe of phone, reboot, status sld now reflect normal
5. Install OTA
6. If you want root again, recommend u use root66 (new firmware) to stay normal status
7.enjoy!
Note, this is how I did, theyre might millions ways to do it, but this is what worked for me!!!
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium

The phone should be here monday or Wednesday. Im gonna try a factory reset and wiping cache before I reflash another stock rom to see if that removes modified. I used chainfires autoroot and triangled away after flashing the stock rom. I think thats why it says modified. We'll see what happens when the phone comes in, thx for the reply
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

hellfirex11 said:
The phone should be here monday or Wednesday. Im gonna try a factory reset and wiping cache before I reflash another stock rom to see if that removes modified. I used chainfires autoroot and triangled away after flashing the stock rom. I think thats why it says modified. We'll see what happens when the phone comes in, thx for the reply
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It says modified it any app on the system is asking for root permission, do this:
#1. Flash a root66 odin
#2. Boot and intstall triangle away, run it follow the instructions
#3. After you reboot, uninstall triangle away.
#4. Go to super SU and go to settings and select Full unroot.
#5. boot into recovery (stock now) and do a factory reset.
There you go, this is the method I use for warranty purposes.

re: unroot
hellfirex11 said:
So i have given up with my note 2's connection issues and going to send it in for an exchange. I flashed back to stock, used auto root then triangle away. Then unrooted and got the OTA. My device status is still modified though. Is there a certain order i need to follow? Would wiping through recovery and factory reset fix the problem? My phone isnt rooted and got the update, so im not sure what the problem is.
Also, the manager at tmobile who set me up with the phones told me that they will accept modified devices in a warrenty exchange. I also read that if your flash counter isnt tripped and your phone isnt rooted (ie my phone currently) that is also ok under the policy.
Anyone got any knowledge on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I kinda had the same problem. Here's how i fixed it:
I have a t889, never really messed around with it, except to unlock it. Ive been a long time fan of xda though, so i decided it was time to start rooting, but was worried about voiding my warranty. Ive read all about resetting flash counters, using triangle away etc ect. but wasnt too awful sure about all of this.
In the end I decided to go with option 2 (strictly rooting my phone) found on this form:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1955423
Flashed through odin, no problems, worked great. Said this in download mode after rooting:
custom binary download: yes (1 count)
Current Binary: Samsung Official
System Status: custom
Decided to try and unroot it, in case i needed a warranty exchange once i went back wih tmobile. Flashed the normal stock rom downloaded through kies (so i KNEW it was straight from samsung ya know?). Again, no problem.
Went back into download mode...... saw this:
custom binary download: yes (2 counts)
Current Binary: Samsung Official
System Status: Official
alrighty then. rerooted using CF autoroot as per thread instructions. now i saw this is download mode:
custom binary download: yes (3 counts)
Current Binary: custom
System Status: custom
Used triangle away. Now i saw this in download mode:
custom binary download: no
Current Binary: Samsung Official
System Status: Official
I said to myself "YAY! now to simply remove the root by using supersu (settings, full unroot), and do a system/cache reset from recovery mode, like it says." Did that exactly like they say in the forum......... saw this:
custom binary download: yes (1 count)
Current Binary: custom
System Status: custom
me = NOT HAPPY at that point! So, i retried all the steps listed, thinking i did something wrong. Same results. Tried it a 3rd time, same thing..... finally about to through my pc, i searched the forums for some other fix.
Found THIS thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1975560
HOLY COW IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM!!!!!! After simply flashing the root66_TMO_T889UVALL4 rom with odin, my download mode now says this:
custom binary download: no
Current Binary: samsung official
System Status: official
Not ONLY is it consistently saying this thoughout MANY reboots, it also stays this way after a system/cache reset through recovery mode.
AND if you use the root66 rom, your phone is basically normal stock tmobile everything, with one huge exception... ITS ROOTED!!!! YAY! Now you can do whatever the heck u want, and if u have to send it in for warranty exchage, just use the system/cache reset from recovery mode and it wont chnce any of the values like i was having so many problems with! No need to use supersu to unroot and no need to use triangle away (although i still bought the app even if its just to support the devloper).
I hope this helps anyone who's running into the same problems I did. I cant thank the OP of the root66 rom (mrRobinson) anywhere NEAR enough for fixing my phone! Now i can uninstall the bloatware and CARRIER IQ that i hate, and not have to worry about screwing up my warrany exchange!

A major problem
I rooted my Samsung galaxy s3 via the odin software and chainfire.. but then I realised that my warranty has been lost! When I checked my apps, there were two apps installed after rooting. CWM manager and supersu.. I opened the supersu and clicked 'cleanup for full unroot'. I thought this will unroot my phone but it didn't. The software update was showing that my phone has been modified. I don't know what to do now.. I tried installing supersu again from the playstore but it says that it requires root access. please help regarding this major problem.. I want to get the stock firmware and my warranty back! Please help me! Thanks! Email me [email protected]

Triangle Away

Do you need to use triangle away when you first root your phone? Or can you just use it when you need to return the phone back to stock? I want to root and if I need to return my phone for warranty I want to be able to put the phone back to stock with 0 flash counter.

later not needed right away

hold on but.....
dpshptl said:
Do you need to use triangle away when you first root your phone? Or can you just use it when you need to return the phone back to stock? I want to root and if I need to return my phone for warranty I want to be able to put the phone back to stock with 0 flash counter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U can just hold on on if u need to return it for service, u don't have to use it rite now since u most likely will be flashing roms and u will be triggering ur counter everytime u flash or root ur device.
ONE THING TO KNOW ABOUT TRIANGLE AWAY, IS THAT AS FAR AS I KNOW ( I DON'T KNOW ANYONE THAT HAS TRIANGLE AWAY WORKING AFTER THE 1ST JB UPDATE ) TRIANGLE AWAY WON'T WORK ON OUR DEVICES PAST JB, SO IF U NEED TO RESET YOU COUNTER U NEED TO ODIN BACK TO ICS STOCK ROOTED AND THEN USE TRIANGLE AWAY.
sorry about the caps, just tryin to make my point clear, if anyone has triangle away working on JB please feel free to post about it.:laugh:

Mr_Jay_jay said:
U can just hold on on if u need to return it for service, u don't have to use it rite now since u most likely will be flashing roms and u will be triggering ur counter everytime u flash or root ur device.
ONE THING TO KNOW ABOUT TRIANGLE AWAY, IS THAT AS FAR AS I KNOW ( I DON'T KNOW ANYONE THAT HAS TRIANGLE AWAY WORKING AFTER THE 1ST JB UPDATE ) TRIANGLE AWAY WON'T WORK ON OUR DEVICES PAST JB, SO IF U NEED TO RESET YOU COUNTER U NEED TO ODIN BACK TO ICS STOCK ROOTED AND THEN USE TRIANGLE AWAY.
sorry about the caps, just tryin to make my point clear, if anyone has triangle away working on JB please feel free to post about it.:laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not even close to the truth.

Aerowinder said:
This is not even close to the truth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and u say this because? I mean I'm just talking on my experience with triangle away and JB It didn't work, I would use it and it would reset but once I restarted the counter would go back to "1" and honestly I'm not the only one, so please if u know the rite answer please explain, just calling me a liar is not helping anyone at all.

Mr_Jay_jay said:
and u say this because? I mean I'm just talking on my experience with triangle away and JB It didn't work, I would use it and it would reset but once I restarted the counter would go back to "1" and honestly I'm not the only one, so please if u know the rite answer please explain, just calling me a liar is not helping anyone at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not calling you a liar. I simply stated that your post was not factually accurate. TriangleAway does indeed work as intended on even the new MD5.
Using a custom recovery will cause your flash counter to trip on newer JB builds. This may be what you meant, but the issue is not related to TA. It's a bootloader "feature". You can witness this yourself by resetting the flash counter, then rebooting into download mode. Count will be 0.

Aerowinder said:
I'm not calling you a liar. I simply stated that your post was not factually accurate. TriangleAway does indeed work as intended on even the new MD5.
Using a custom recovery will cause your flash counter to trip on newer JB builds. This may be what you meant, but the issue is not related to TA. It's a bootloader "feature". You can witness this yourself by resetting the flash counter, then rebooting into download mode. Count will be 0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what u're saying is that my custom recovery is to blamed? I can say that statement is partially true. Wait.. u think I havent tried to reset my counter while on JB before?? I'm telling it didn't work why don't you go head and try to reset your counter and show that it did work.
check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxpL46-Zd0A&feature=youtu.be

Mr_Jay_jay said:
So what u're saying is that my custom recovery is to blamed? I can say that statement is partially true. Wait.. u think I havent tried to reset my counter while on JB before?? I'm telling it didn't work why don't you go head and try to reset your counter and show that it did work.
check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxpL46-Zd0A&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's correct. Having a custom recovery will always trip the flash counter to 1 after every subsequent reboot. If you use Ta and reboot, you'll see 0. But the next time you reboot and don't use Ta you will see 1. It doesn't matter what ROM you run or how you've rooted in the end, the custom binary (TWRP / CWM) will Always trip the counter.
That being said if you don't want to continously trip the counter you're going to need to go back to stock recovery.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

TheLastSidekick said:
He's correct. Having a custom recovery will always trip the flash counter to 1 after every subsequent reboot. If you use Ta and reboot, you'll see 0. But the next time you reboot and don't use Ta you will see 1. It doesn't matter what ROM you run or how you've rooted in the end, the custom binary (TWRP / CWM) will Always trip the counter.
That being said if you don't want to continously trip the counter you're going to need to go back to stock recovery.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do Agree with his statment, however while I was on any ICS rom even with custom recovery, TA would work even after a reboot, so my counter would stay at "0" it wasnt after I upgraded to JB when the TA would reset after reboot. I will upload a video of doing TA on ICS and everything just to prove I'm not just arguing just because. but it will have to wait til l8er tonite.

Mr_Jay_jay said:
I do Agree with his statment, however while I was on any ICS rom even with custom recovery, TA would work even after a reboot, so my counter would stay at "0" it wasnt after I upgraded to JB when the TA would reset after reboot. I will upload a video of doing TA on ICS and everything just to prove I'm not just arguing just because. but it will have to wait til l8er tonite.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no need for a video. I understand what you are saying, and I'm telling you, it's because of the bootloader. Not TriangleAway.

I am on 4.1.1 and TA 2.90 works FINE, the Counter shows "0" after a bunch of reboots, and "Allow tracker to run" is checked...
The ONLY time the counter trips is when/if I boot into the recovery or downloader modes.
I guess some structure of the setup makes a difference. I am using Root66 SGHT999 Build JR003L.T999UVDLJA with a T999UVDMD5 Baseband

bobolinko said:
I am on 4.1.1 and TA 2.90 works FINE, the Counter shows "0" after a bunch of reboots, and "Allow tracker to run" is checked...
The ONLY time the counter trips is when/if I boot into the recovery or downloader modes.
I guess some structure of the setup makes a difference. I am using Root66 SGHT999 Build JR003L.T999UVDLJA with a T999UVDMD5 Baseband
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kool. maybe that's a good workaround. thanks. but in my case still won't work.. but then again i'm 4.1.2. thanks!

Mr_Jay_jay said:
U can just hold on on if u need to return it for service, u don't have to use it rite now since u most likely will be flashing roms and u will be triggering ur counter everytime u flash or root ur device.
ONE THING TO KNOW ABOUT TRIANGLE AWAY, IS THAT AS FAR AS I KNOW ( I DON'T KNOW ANYONE THAT HAS TRIANGLE AWAY WORKING AFTER THE 1ST JB UPDATE ) TRIANGLE AWAY WON'T WORK ON OUR DEVICES PAST JB, SO IF U NEED TO RESET YOU COUNTER U NEED TO ODIN BACK TO ICS STOCK ROOTED AND THEN USE TRIANGLE AWAY.
sorry about the caps, just tryin to make my point clear, if anyone has triangle away working on JB please feel free to post about it.:laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can avoid using Odin and flash old firmware (excluding system / kernel) directly via heimdall or dd (which can be nicely bundled into an update.zip), avoiding the whole mess of needing Odin/Windows and having to backup+restore your system.
I think I'll make an update.zip just to flash the oldest firmware onto our phones -- I just made one that flashes the latest UVDMD5 firmware. The ROM shouldn't make a difference as far as trying to clear the flash counter really, it's the firmware that would be blocking that.
Also, flashing ROMs through CWM Recovery (and probably other custom ones) avoids tripping the flash counter. If you can root your ROM and dd the recovery directly to your eMMC, it avoids tripping the flash counter. Then you can use CWM Recovery to flash things without tripping the counter as well.
Remember, these are just computers with Linux + kernel modifications + custom Java VM running on them, essentially. It's good to become comfortable with UNIX commands like dd.

mnasledov said:
Also, flashing ROMs through CWM Recovery (and probably other custom ones) avoids tripping the flash counter. If you can root your ROM and dd the recovery directly to your eMMC, it avoids tripping the flash counter. Then you can use CWM Recovery to flash things without tripping the counter as well.
Remember, these are just computers with Linux + kernel modifications + custom Java VM running on them, essentially. It's good to become comfortable with UNIX commands like dd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you might be a tad off on this ......
just booting into recovery when you use anything other than a stock recovery will trip the flash counter. the ONLY way that counter won't trip is when you use a stock recovery. At least that's been the case with all of the doings on my rooted gs3 and Note 10.1

bobolinko said:
I think you might be a tad off on this ......
just booting into recovery when you use anything other than a stock recovery will trip the flash counter. the ONLY way that counter won't trip is when you use a stock recovery. At least that's been the case with all of the doings on my rooted gs3 and Note 10.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? I mean I'm no authority on this, so I could be wrong but I based this off my findings last night. I was in Download mode quite a few times and got to see my Flash Counter which was at 3. I've gone into recovery dozens if not hundreds of times by now on this device as well as flashed dozens and dozens of things ...
Even if it was just an 8-bit counter that overflowed, I'd need to have flashed over 256 things which I don't think I've reached yet and it would be totally silly if Samsung made the counter so easy to defeat that an 8-bit numeric overflow would bring it back to 0.
Can anyone else chime/weigh in? I'm curious now. I heard that using dd is supposed to avoid the flash counter. As a software engineer, I'd think there has to be some hook to trip that counter and that hook would belong to whatever firmware is on the phone for flashing (i.e. the stock recovery) and that if any other software gains control of the phone, all bets are off.

bobolinko said:
I think you might be a tad off on this ......
just booting into recovery when you use anything other than a stock recovery will trip the flash counter. the ONLY way that counter won't trip is when you use a stock recovery. At least that's been the case with all of the doings on my rooted gs3 and Note 10.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know who told you all of that or where you read it but you are wrong.
The only things that trip the flash counter is when you flash a custom rom or a custom kernel.
Simply booting into stock or custom recovery will not trip the flash counter at all.
Think about it, that's why it's called a FLASH counter, it counts the number of rom and kernel flashes. LOL

Misterjunky said:
I don't know who told you all of that or where you read it but you are wrong.
The only things that trip the flash counter is when you flash a custom rom or a custom kernel.
Simply booting into stock or custom recovery will not trip the flash counter at all.
Think about it, that's why it's called a FLASH counter, it counts the number of rom and kernel flashes. LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It trips whenever I boot into TWRP though. Maybe some phones are different?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

re: unlocked?
TheLastSidekick said:
It trips whenever I boot into TWRP though. Maybe some phones are different?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps since I have an unlocked phone it might make a difference?
I have a Galaxy S3 AT&T I747 Unlocked phone and am using it with Tmobile service.

That makes sense actually lol as it says I have an SGH-T999 and mine isn't unlocked. Probably the model of the phone acts slightly differently with Ta and recoveries.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

In my case My counter won't move from "1" no matter what I do, Restart to download or Recovery ( TWRP), or flash a new rom which I do alot, only way it goes from 1 to "2" is when I do something to my phone and I need to odin back to stock and re root(which I did for research) ... it's then it gets trigger again.

[Q] Sending S3 back for insurance coverage. Need help getting rid of flash counter.

I've had my S3 for about 9 months. When I bought it from AT&T I also purchased the $10/month accidental insurance coverage. I'm glad I did now, because my phone's screen somehow got a hairline crack in it right across the center.
AT&T doesn't do the insurance themselves. Its handled through a company called "Asurion". The person at AT&T says I just call them, and they send me a new (refurb probably) phone, and then I send mine back. I don't know how picky they are about root and flash counters, but I want to try to be safe here.
Here's my problem: I've bought Triangle Away and it works perfectly, but I'm not clear on how to get back to stock and ALSO have the flash counter at 0.
I can reset the counter with root just fine, but then when I flash the stock boot image through odin to unroot, It shows up as a flash on the flash counter.
This is what I've done so far:
1- I was running CM10.1 IIRC
2- I downloaded and flashed the stock ICS build that my phone came with using odin and the S3 unified ToolKit
3- when I started the phone up, AT&T software update had me download and install JB 4.1.2
4- I rooted via ToolKit/Odin so that I could use triangle away
5- triangle away was successful in resetting my flash counter and system status
So right now I have my S3 on stock firmware with the flash counter and everything reset just fine, except its rooted. HOW DO I UNROOT MY DEVICE WITHOUT TRIPPING THE FLASH COUNTER AGAIN?
Thanks for any help! I'm sure I'm missing something simple.

I am sure you can just flash the latest stock .tar with Odin. If you are sending it back it doesn't hurt it. That would be easiest I think.

grenefroggie said:
I am sure you can just flash the latest stock .tar with Odin. If you are sending it back it doesn't hurt it. That would be easiest I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thank you for the swift reply.
That's what I've done, but you can still see that I've tampered with it because at that point when you enter download mode, you will see "CUSTOM BINARY DOWNLOAD: Yes (1 counts)"
Is there any way to eliminate that?

Jeoster said:
First of all, thank you for the swift reply.
That's what I've done, but you can still see that I've tampered with it because at that point when you enter download mode, you will see "CUSTOM BINARY DOWNLOAD: Yes (1 counts)"
Is there any way to eliminate that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually just had to send my S3 back in. The best way to do it is flash a stock odin that's rooted, download triangle away, run it again, and then immediately unroot/remove triangle away and then boot into download mode to check. It should be fine, and then just send it back.
Follow this guide to root without tripping flash counter, credits to the OP of this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426
Good luck!

Boxy52 said:
I actually just had to send my S3 back in. The best way to do it is flash a stock odin that's rooted, download triangle away, run it again, and then immediately unroot/remove triangle away and then boot into download mode to check. It should be fine, and then just send it back.
Follow this guide to root without tripping flash counter, credits to the OP of this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
How do I unroot without tripping the flash counter though? That's my real problem.

versed testype
OK so I think I've got it.
-I used triangle away
-I uninstalled triangle away
-I flashed the stock boot image through odin (which I think was unnecessary)
-I unrooted through the SuperUser app
Now my phone shows this on the download mode screen
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME: SGH-I747
CUSTOM BINARY DOWNLOAD: No
CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official
SYSTEM STATUS: Official
QUALCOMM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE
and the app "root checker basic" shows no root access.
I'm going to turn it off and on a few times and use it for a bit then re-check to make sure the flash counter stayed put. I've had issues where the flash counter mysteriously comes back even though I never flashed anything, but I have my fingers crossed.
is unrooting via the button in SuperUser suffient? seems too easy. I never knew you could unroot that way.

Easy out. Smash it to the point it won't come on.
I filed a claim today through asurion and am facing the exact same problem.
When I send back the phone, it will be a zip lock baggie of pieces after I ran over it
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I ran over mine a few times lol.. No flash counter no problem lol
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

__

I returned my broken i747 to assurion with synergy rom still on it. That was months ago and I've never heard anything from them.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Jeoster said:
I've had my S3 for about 9 months. When I bought it from AT&T I also purchased the $10/month accidental insurance coverage. I'm glad I did now, because my phone's screen somehow got a hairline crack in it right across the center.
AT&T doesn't do the insurance themselves. Its handled through a company called "Asurion". The person at AT&T says I just call them, and they send me a new (refurb probably) phone, and then I send mine back. I don't know how picky they are about root and flash counters, but I want to try to be safe here.
Here's my problem: I've bought Triangle Away and it works perfectly, but I'm not clear on how to get back to stock and ALSO have the flash counter at 0.
I can reset the counter with root just fine, but then when I flash the stock boot image through odin to unroot, It shows up as a flash on the flash counter.
This is what I've done so far:
1- I was running CM10.1 IIRC
2- I downloaded and flashed the stock ICS build that my phone came with using odin and the S3 unified ToolKit
3- when I started the phone up, AT&T software update had me download and install JB 4.1.2
4- I rooted via ToolKit/Odin so that I could use triangle away
5- triangle away was successful in resetting my flash counter and system status
So right now I have my S3 on stock firmware with the flash counter and everything reset just fine, except its rooted. HOW DO I UNROOT MY DEVICE WITHOUT TRIPPING THE FLASH COUNTER AGAIN?
Thanks for any help! I'm sure I'm missing something simple.
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I download the upgrade tool from Samsung it flashes from download mode, every time it boot and sees the custom recovery it will trip the counter.
So I run triangle away pull the battery put the phone in download mode and run the Samsung file when it is done do factory reset and all should be good no root and flash counter at zero.