So I have searched and searched for a solution to this problem, all over xda, google, and other forum's, but have not found any situation that is like this one and thus no solution as of yet.
Specifics:
Sgh-T999
Was running 4.3 JB
Power button has been removed.
No root, custom rom, or recovery. All stock.
Ok so I've been trying to fix my friends s3 but to no avail. First off, he had to remove his power button a while back because of issues with it sticking and bootlooping. Now, to power on his phone he just plugs it in while holding the volume down and home buttons. Where he enters the download screen and just cancels, which then restarts the phone. Problem solved.
Latley his phone had been running real slow so I suggested he back everything up and do a factory reset to bring it back up to speed. So yesterday he did a soft reset through the settings menu after backing it up. After everything was finished his phone will now only power up to the fourth boot screen, the flashing blue samsung logo, and then gets stuck there, the logo continuing to flash all yge while. He left it that way all day long. I'd say atleast 10 hours. Nothing ever changed. Took out the battery, sim, and ext sd, let it sit for a while restarted it through download mode again but nothing changed.
Once he gave it to me I tried booting into recovery mode but it hasn't been possible without the power button. I tried holding the volume up and home keys while plugging in but it just keeps vibrating every few secs with nothing on the screem, which i'm assuming it just keeps rebooting. Even if I could get into recovery mode, I wouldn't be able to select any of the options without the power button.
I tried re installing the firmware through kies as well as emergency firmware recovery, to no avail. Same problem.
Also used odin to flash the stock firmware but no luck.
I'm going to try and flash a custom recovery and/or custom rom and root the device but that will be my last resort.
He wants to take it to the tmobile store before I do anything that could risk it any further. Which they will likely tell him Its dead or to leave it with them for a few weeks and charge him an arm and a leg. If they can't do anything, then I will flash a custom rom first and go from there.
Are there any safer methods, before I start flashing, that anyone can think of?
Will a custom recovery even possibly work without the power button?
I wonder if it could be something to do with the bootloader?
It doesn't seem hard bricked since I am still able to get into odin mode but I just dont know where to go from here. Also, I'm not sure if ADB is on since he just did a factory reset. It was on before he reset but after resetting would the ADB go back to default?
Also when plugging into computer MTP driver will not install and kies just continues to show that its connecting.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just joined the community and have learned a great deal about alot over a short period of time thanks to yall!
Thanks!!!!!
I don't think it's possible to work with without a power button. You can use a touch recovery to work around not having a power button, but the problem will be booting to it. Does it not boot into recovery when pressing the volume down button?
No pressing home and down byttons while plugging in puts it to the download caution screen. Then from there pressing volume down button restarts the phone like normal. Pressing up just enters download mode. I'm wondering now though if I press the up and home keys when it restarts if it'll boot In recovery like that. Since the restart would basically be like pushing the power button to start it right? That's why it boots into download mode when plugged in and down and home buttons pressed maybe? I'll try and see what happens.
My mistake, I actually meant volume up ?
No volume up and home while plugging in just keep vibrating every few seconds with nothing on the screen like its in a boot loop and when I let go the charging screen comes up. And no problem your wrong comment gave me an idea.
And the method I just thought of worked! Pushing up and home buttons as soon as system restarts from download caution page will put you into recovery mode! This is the what i'm getting at the bottom:
E: failed to mount /data (Invalid argument)
Can't mount '/data'(invalid argument)
E: failed to mount /data (invalid argument)
E:Cant mount /data/log/recovery_log.txt
Can someone explain what the failed to mount message means at the bottom?
Now that i'm in I can't do anything but I guess next step would be to flash a custom touch recovery. Maybe Philz?
Is there anything I can do to address the failed to mount issue without flashing a touch recovery?
I think I've seen those errors before, but can't remember what fixed them. Try doing a search on this forum and see if you can find something. Flashing a custom recovery and rom may help, but can't say for sure. Not what your friend wants though
so of course t-mobile couldn't do anything. I flashed philz touch recovery. wiped cache and user data/factory reset. During factory reset it will not format anything but the cache. Keeps saying
Formatting /data....
Error mounting /data!
Skipping format...
Formatting / cache...
Formatting / sd-ext...
E: unknown volume for path [/sd-ext]
Formatting /sdcard/ .android_secure...
Error mounting /sdcard/ .android_secure!
Skipping format...
Formatting /storage/sdcard1/.android_secure....
Data wipe complete.
Dalvik cache will not wipe either.
From their I located the PIT file for this device and re-partitioned with odin. Same problem.
Also tried cleaning to install new ROM which again would format everything except for /data and /scdard/. android_secure
Then flashed the stock 4.3 T999UVUENC2 ROM. No luck.
Now I'm right back to where I was before. Reflashed Philz touch recovery and here we are yet again.
I found this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30386564#post30386564 [HOW-TO] Unbrick your soft bricked Galaxy S III (+ bootloader brick), which looks like what I need but I can't find VRALEC/VRALF boot chain files for my device. I really need help so anyone reading this please reply if you know anything pertaining to this situation. I'm running out of ideas. Please any help would be greatly appreciated.
He's giving me permission to do whatever it takes to get his phone back up and running. Also I don't thing flashing a custom ROM is likely to work in this situation.
Related
Hey
So my mobile will start up and be normal for abit then it reboots and shows the green logo like updating then goes to a red exclamation mark in a triangle.
I can't seem to do anything except take the battery out and then start it up again and it will happen again.
The only thing i have done to it today was play around with sync the phone to my PC and installed Android Commander on my PC and was just trying to change rights on the notifications folder but it kept saying i had to root my phone..
So that s about it.. It seems to work okay when the USB cable is connected to my PC i have unmounted my USB card.
and have also tried holding the power buttong and pressing the volume button whilst turning it on.
any suggestions? thanks
I take it your Rooted.... Just take your SD card out, link it with your pc, put the Rom you were using before on it or a new Rom, put back in ya phone & access the recovery menu via the bootloader screen (if you don't know how Google it), now once in clockwork mod recovery just wipe the partitions, then into advanced & wipe the dev cache, then flash your Rom! Reboot then should be fine again. If this doesn't work follow the steps again & do a full wipe after the dev cache wipe & then you will be ok. If this still doesn't work.... Google the rooted stock Rom for your phone, download that & follow the steps again.
Hope this helps
Sent via TapaTalk from me pimped out Desire HD running my own custom style LeeDrOID Rom
I never rooted my mobile? well i wasnt trying to if thats what happened and i haven't changed the rom everything is stock since when i got it.
You can start your phone normally without sdcard and it wont reboot?
i haven't rooted my phone.
i can start the phone without the sdcard it eventually then just freezes.. If i leave it it will then go to that screen with the red triangle and exclamation
If i hold the power + volume up button then i get the option to reboot , wipe cache , wipe data factory reset and i think another option about an SD card
so yeah i guess the main thing is it keep on freezing and locks up on me..
its wierd but if i have the usb connected to my PC it doesn't seem to freeze or anything or lock up :S
okay so if i start the phone up holding the power and volume up button and select recovery then it takes me to the red triangle with exclamation mark.
down the button it says E:cant open /cache/recovery/command
and i have the options
Reboot system now
APply update from sdcard
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe Cache partition.
Ive done the reboot and it starts up but then freezes again
wipe data factory reset and everything else you can wipe (except sdcard) - you will loose all installed apps and you have to resign to your google account, but maybe this will help.
EDIT: wipe data & cache
The red exclamation mark is the stock recovery, in that you can get to a basic menu with power + vol up.
Trying to boot the phone with power + vol up will do nothing, you can get to hboot with power and vol down though.
That E: Can't mount cache error could be a sign of a bad emmc though, which is a hardware issue you would need a new/replacement phone.
-Nipqer
cheers deleting the cache has fixed it
I'm new to the android community but not new to tinkering with gadgets so naturally the first thing I looked into after getting my SGH T989 was how to root it. Unfortunately, I seem to have screwed something up.
I followed one of the many guides on how to root it and I initially had installed clockworkmod v5.8 something. From there I was able to access recovery mode but when I tried to install zip from sd card, it would let me select the super user zip file but after that it said something along the lines of "This action cannot be done" and I could only choose from the "No"s.
Thinking that I had maybe flashed the CWM wrong, I tried to reflash it via Odin. Everything passed on Odin's side but now I can't access recovery mode at all. My phone boots normally whether I hold down the two volume keys and power key or not. I read somewhere that maybe flashing a different recovery method and then flashing back would help but I can't seem to find another recovery method, all I can find is Odin. Any suggestions?
Anyone? Can anyone at least point me to a download link of another recovery method other than clockworkmod so maybe I could try flashing over it then reflashing clockworkmod? And would I flash it via Odin the same way?
FIXED
Okay I did two things and the problem was resolved, although I'm not sure which issue was at fault here.
First, I did a factory reset of the phone (just through the normal settings menu, since my phone was never rooted).
Second, I learned (from watching a video) that to boot to recovery mode, the volume up and down key must be continued to be held down even after the vibrate from pressing and holding the power button. Previously I had let go of all three buttons at once once I felt the vibrate. I'm not sure if this was the issue or not since the first time I accessed recovery mode I did it by releasing all three buttons upon vibrate.
Anyways, phone has been rooted, I have superuser app, backup has been created, now looking for ROMs. Cheers!
yoft1 said:
Okay I did two things and the problem was resolved, although I'm not sure which issue was at fault here.
First, I did a factory reset of the phone (just through the normal settings menu, since my phone was never rooted).
Second, I learned (from watching a video) that to boot to recovery mode, the volume up and down key must be continued to be held down even after the vibrate from pressing and holding the power button. Previously I had let go of all three buttons at once once I felt the vibrate. I'm not sure if this was the issue or not since the first time I accessed recovery mode I did it by releasing all three buttons upon vibrate.
Anyways, phone has been rooted, I have superuser app, backup has been created, now looking for ROMs. Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep you only let go of the power button, you can even continue to hold the power button, but the main thing is to hold the +/- until "SAMSUNG" disappears
Here's what I did, you are correct.
I too was in a situation where my Samsung Galaxy S II AT&T i777 handset REFUSED to boot into CWM recovery mode. This stubbornness was AFTER I installed an Ice Cream Sandwich ROM (my SGS II is rooted and unlocked).
I tried EVERYTHING, including booting in various modes using ICS CWM menu.
I tried renaming ROMS "update.zip" and placing the ROMS in the internal memory and the microSD card root directory.
And I tried doing the manual pressing of keys, which is the original way of doing a "hard reset" from the old G1 days in 2008. I would press the volume up key, while pressing the home and power on keys. Nothing.
After I entered a Google search "my SGS II will not boot to CWM recovery mode" I came to your thread.
I read that you were hold down BOTH the volume up and down, not as I was doing, and as some say, the "volume up."
For about 15 seconds I held down at the same time "volume up/down" (both), the home key and power on key (my phone was off). Voilà!!! It went into recovery mode. I wiped all data, including the cache, said to install zip from SD card, and installed a new ROM (that was NOT named "update.zip" like it had to be on the G1).
So anyone doing a search, that may be the issue, you have to hold down BOTH the volume up and down at the same time, not just the volume up key. Again, that's what worked on my phone, the Samsung Galaxy S II AT&T i777. Maybe it is different on HTC handsets.
Thanks to the OP!! To think I spent about 8 hours on this issue, read the OP's post and five minutes later I had a new ROM on my phone. or is it
SanFrancisco said:
I too was in a situation where my Samsung Galaxy S II AT&T i777 handset REFUSED to boot into CWM recovery mode. This stubbornness was AFTER I installed an Ice Cream Sandwich ROM (my SGS II is rooted and unlocked).
I tried EVERYTHING, including booting in various modes using ICS CWM menu.
I tried renaming ROMS "update.zip" and placing the ROMS in the internal memory and the microSD card root directory.
And I tried doing the manual pressing of keys, which is the original way of doing a "hard reset" from the old G1 days in 2008. I would press the volume up key, while pressing the home and power on keys. Nothing.
After I entered a Google search "my SGS II will not boot to CWM recovery mode" I came to your thread.
I read that you were hold down BOTH the volume up and down, not as I was doing, and as some say, the "volume up."
For about 15 seconds I held down at the same time "volume up/down" (both), the home key and power on key (my phone was off). Voilà!!! It went into recovery mode. I wiped all data, including the cache, said to install zip from SD card, and installed a new ROM (that was NOT named "update.zip" like it had to be on the G1).
So anyone doing a search, that may be the issue, you have to hold down BOTH the volume up and down at the same time, not just the volume up key. Again, that's what worked on my phone, the Samsung Galaxy S II AT&T i777. Maybe it is different on HTC handsets.
Thanks to the OP!! To think I spent about 8 hours on this issue, read the OP's post and five minutes later I had a new ROM on my phone. or is it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok..I've got another issue..my s2 wont boot into recovery even if i hold vol +&- and from power menu too..I've tried to reboot recovery from terminal emulator..and from my rom manager apk..still nothing...any help...
I've tried also flashing recovery using Odin...but still nothing
cysiek said:
ok..I've got another issue..my s2 wont boot into recovery even if i hold vol +&- and from power menu too..I've tried to reboot recovery from terminal emulator..and from my rom manager apk..still nothing...any help...
I've tried also flashing recovery using Odin...but still nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried to ADB into recovery from a computer?
i flashed recovery using Odin..and it worked i can get to recovery using key sequence...(vol + vol - and power) but now i cant even install zip from sdcard or internal sd
i finally could get into recovery but when i try to wipe data/cache it freezes on formatting cache
I can get into recovery but my phone is not starting please help sgh t989
Sent from my Hol U19 using XDA Free mobile app
Hello.
I own a Note II which lately seemed to have some problems.
In the last few months, it used to restart somewhat spontaneously (it seemed that it rebooted when its processor or RAM were too busy, but this wasn't a rule). During one night it probably rebooted and next morning I found it stuck on the first boot screen (the one with "Samsung Galaxy Note II").
When stuck on the boot screen, if I press the power button for a few seconds, it turns off. If closed, it gets to the boot screen and gets stuck there when I press the power button. When plugged to power, it gets stuck at the screen with the empty battery that has a loading icon in the middle.
I manage however to get it into recovery mode, however, in this situation, it can't be seen by the PC, unless I put it in adb sideload mode. When stuck on the logo screen, it is seen as mtp device.
In the recovery mode screen, there are many errors (can't/failed to mount /efs, /system, /cache, /cache/recovery/last_recovery, /data, /data/log/recoverylog.txt, /cache, /cache/recovery/log, last_log, last_install.
In Windows, the PC doesn't recognize the model, however, in a virtual machine that runs Linux, it is correctly seen as Note II when in adb sideload mode, but Linux is not able to mount its storage.
I have also deleted cache, tried Samsung Kies and Note II Toolkit.
What I would like to do is recover the data on it. Do you think it is possible, and if yes, how?
Thank you.
Sounds like a failed memory chip to me.
any answer now?
i want get ROM-not2-7100
Can you make it more clean and what do you want ? I want help to you but i dont understand what are you talking about So can you have acces to twrp ?
same problem
hi
i have same problem
i can go download mode but cant go recovery mode
using odin to flash twrp and cwm it said pass but problem exist
DarkMountain said:
Can you make it more clean and what do you want ? I want help to you but i dont understand what are you talking about So can you have acces to twrp ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I don't have access. What I want is to recover the files on it, if possible.
This may be a problem with the power button. if you can go into download by pressing only the menu button + volume down is because the power button is always pressed.
eton3 said:
This may be a problem with the power button. if you can go into download by pressing only the menu button + volume down is because the power button is always pressed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I need to use the power button too.
calindiaconu said:
No, I don't have access. What I want is to recover the files on it, if possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry i think your partitions broked. I think you cant recover your data. There is has only one solution. Odin and Format....
My device too has pc cant detect my phone. I tried different cable without samsung usb drivers. Pc succesfully detected the my device.
By the way i installed lg usb driver because of someone's phone is lg and they need format.
I think there's no way to recover your data now.
BTW what recovery are you using?
Hello,
my wife got a S21 FE (SM-G990B/DS VD2). Yesterday it started to reboot over and over out of a sudden, showing the samsung logo first, followed by the knox logo, then shutting off and on again. Tried several guides to enter Recovery or Download Mode. The only thing that worked was entering download mode by pressing Vol up, down and power while a USB-Cable is plugged in, but as soon as i press the vol up button to pass the "warning screen", it shows some phone specs for a couple of seconds, shuts off and starts bootlooping again. After some hours, the phone once entered recovery mode when it lied next to me for about an hour. Tried to wipe cache, but just got an error I can't remember right now. Hoped it fixed itself when it made it to recovery and just rebooted to see if it works again, but then it just keept bootlooping again.
Since then I couldn't figure out why it once booted to recovery on it's own nor why I can't force it to enter recovery by pressing vol up + on.
Still hope it's just a faulty update or bug, but feels very much like it's a hardware related issue. Replacing the phone won't be an issue, but I'd really want to save data on the phone as my wife didn't make any backups and really wants to keep the photos.
As I just found guides that included recovery or DL-Mode, which are both no valid options for my case, I'd be thankful for any ideas to fix the phone or at least gain access to files before replacing it.
So.. did anyone come across similar issues and found a solution to revive the phone or are there any "unpopular" ways to recover samsung phones out of this state?
Edit:
Turned off completely overnight, booted once to system, looped again and now it's working like nothing ever happened. Got no clue what caused it or why it is working again. Saved everything for the case it happens again.
Wouldn't trust that device anymore, but my wife wants to keep it.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I would just like to reply here and add my own potential fix and also would like confirmation that it would work.
So I have a SM-G996B in a boot loop which returns a 'fs_mgr_mount_all' error. Possible to reboot into recovery mode, cleared cache and restarted bootloader etc with the same boot loop. Powered off and connected to PC for Download mode for ODIN recovery but upon pressing volume up, it then restarts again so Download mode recovery is impossible.
I know however that Developer options and USB debugging was enabled on the device as well as unlocked boot loader. I was able to download the correct original stock OS based on the PDA , CSC and Android version.
I have then installed the latest ADB software on my PC and Samsung USB drivers.
By then rebooting into recovery mode, I have the option of 'Apply update from ADB'. I have then confirmed the device connects using the ADB devices command.
I would like to clarify one thing however. I want to keep the user data at all costs. By using the stock firmware and renaming as update.zip, will it use the HOME_CSC and not the CSC file? If not would it work if I open the zip and remove the CSC before re-zipping to make sure?
Thanks
Reebee said:
Hello,
my wife got a S21 FE (SM-G990B/DS VD2). Yesterday it started to reboot over and over out of a sudden, showing the samsung logo first, followed by the knox logo, then shutting off and on again. Tried several guides to enter Recovery or Download Mode. The only thing that worked was entering download mode by pressing Vol up, down and power while a USB-Cable is plugged in, but as soon as i press the vol up button to pass the "warning screen", it shows some phone specs for a couple of seconds, shuts off and starts bootlooping again. After some hours, the phone once entered recovery mode when it lied next to me for about an hour. Tried to wipe cache, but just got an error I can't remember right now. Hoped it fixed itself when it made it to recovery and just rebooted to see if it works again, but then it just keept bootlooping again.
Since then I couldn't figure out why it once booted to recovery on it's own nor why I can't force it to enter recovery by pressing vol up + on.
Still hope it's just a faulty update or bug, but feels very much like it's a hardware related issue. Replacing the phone won't be an issue, but I'd really want to save data on the phone as my wife didn't make any backups and really wants to keep the photos.
As I just found guides that included recovery or DL-Mode, which are both no valid options for my case, I'd be thankful for any ideas to fix the phone or at least gain access to files before replacing it.
So.. did anyone come across similar issues and found a solution to revive the phone or are there any "unpopular" ways to recover samsung phones out of this state?
Edit:
Turned off completely overnight, booted once to system, looped again and now it's working like nothing ever happened. Got no clue what caused it or why it is working again. Saved everything for the case it happens again.
Wouldn't trust that device anymore, but my wife wants to keep it.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Similar issue with same phone. In a bootloop after trying to root. None of the button combinations have worked for me, for the past several days.
Tried powering the phone off for the whole night.
When connected to the PC shows phone is in recovery mode via adb (blank screen though).
Want to know how to get into DL-mode, guaranteed.
Got to DL mode by pressing vol up + down + power + usb cable connected in PC and phone. However, couldn't do anything there, but maybe you can
Also, phone is still working and I still have no clue what was the problem and what fixed it.
The randomly went into boot loop. I followed this guide suggested by @blackhawk in this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/mystery-stuck-at-boot-screen.4518803/, still no use.
I tried the following things:
1. Connected the device with pc and pressed the volume up and power button to get to recovery mode(no response ).
2. Performed soft reset by pressing volume down and power button(still went back to boot screen).
3. pressed tried to get to recovery mode by pressing power button and volume down after the screen went blank pressed volume up and power button to try get to recovery mode(went back to boot screen).
PS:
The device was working fine until it went into this button in a bizarre fashion.
The device has only play store approved apps.
No attempts were made to unlock bootloader or flash custom rom.
Battery is known to be good right? No rear cover bulging? If any doubt, replace it. A fair amount of power is needed to boot.
Otherwise...
Try to get it to go into safe mode, if that fails...
Factory reset from recovery menu. If that works the data user partition was corrupted likely by a 3rd party app or malware.
If that fails reflashing the rom is the only thing left to try. If that fails it's a hardware failure.
blackhawk said:
Try to get it to go into safe mode, if that fails...
Factory reset from recovery menu. If that works the data user partition was corrupted likely by a 3rd party app or malware.
If that fails reflashing the rom is the only thing left to try. If that fails it's a hardware failure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all thanks for the response it really means a lot
The response to the points mentioned:
1. The device looks healthy with no rear cover bulging.
2. I am unable to get to the recovery mode at all, any combination of button I press gets me back to the boot screen.
3. my laptop is not recognizing the device so i am not sure how to go about reflashing the rom.
cheekyrascal said:
First of all thanks for the response it really means a lot
The response to the points mentioned:
1. The device looks healthy with no rear cover bulging.
2. I am unable to get to the recovery mode at all, any combination of button I press gets me back to the boot screen.
3. my laptop is not recognizing the device so i am not sure how to go about reflashing the rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. Sorry to hear of all the trouble you're having.
If you can't access recovery mode ie boot menu you have big problems. Try to do it again plugged into the PC; the newer ones need this to access recovery mode on the Android I think.
Make sure the button sequence and timing are correct. Sometimes I goof it twice in a row
Try removing SD and sim cards. Does charging show on the display? Make sure it's at 70% or more.
Otherwise could it be a failure on one of the buttons? A cable may loose? I don't think a C port failure would cause this but not sure if that's always true. Unless dropped or water damaged mobos rarely fail but this is a possibility.
Maybe someone here has a better plan...