Develop Bugs

OTA 4.3 bricked my device

O.K So I am new to Android just switched from the apple side of things.... DUN DUN DUN so, this is watsup, I downloaded doin rooted and downgraded firmware to 4.1.1 to unlock phone, well after unlocking phone the 4.3 ota popped up, I was half asleep inadvertanely upgraded now my phone is soft bricked I believe, I can get into download but not recovery, I have spent 3 days trying to figure this out, I have downgraded my firmware and it says pass on odin but then i get stuck in bootloop i'm guessing where it wont go past the "Samsung note 2" screen. please help me! its a very expensive paperweight and now i'm stuck with no phone, please help I have no idea what to do , all I want is a working phone I will get it factory UNLOCKED LOL!, I dont care, I just need help!

JONKEEFE said:
O.K So I am new to Android just switched from the apple side of things.... DUN DUN DUN so, this is watsup, I downloaded doin rooted and downgraded firmware to 4.1.1 to unlock phone, well after unlocking phone the 4.3 ota popped up, I was half asleep inadvertanely upgraded now my phone is soft bricked I believe, I can get into download but not recovery, I have spent 3 days trying to figure this out, I have downgraded my firmware and it says pass on odin but then i get stuck in bootloop i'm guessing where it wont go past the "Samsung note 2" screen. please help me! its a very expensive paperweight and now i'm stuck with no phone, please help I have no idea what to do , all I want is a working phone I will get it factory UNLOCKED LOL!, I dont care, I just need help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never had your issue before but I am hoping I'm leading you in the right direction I would Google how to reset back to stock there's a lot of vids on it on YouTube but here's what I think would fix your problem
Sounds like you need to download a factory image go into download mode plug it into Odin and use the factory image to reset it back to normal, word of advise, just root it and learn about ROMs 4.3 is over rated in my opinion 4.4.2 is the newest we have on the aosp side and it is awesome, I highly recommend beanstalk 4.4.2
Also I found this in another post not sure if it applies to you but I'm sure someone else can confirm or deny
"If you update to 4.3...you WILL have a locked bootloader...and currently no good way to root..
Additionally....your KNOX flag will trip and your warranty is toast...if you attempt to root...( as of today, and until the devs can fix Sammy's latest patch)...
Beyond that...you can never go back to 4.1.2 again...
Stay on a 4.1.2 bootloader without KNOX and then you can flash every rom we have along with a full return to stock if you want...
An update to 4.3 will stop any means of going back."
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

No I have done a ton of research and can't figure it out, I feel like i've tried everything. I keep trying to go to stock rom, used Keis, used Odin, Used Heindal, flashed stock recovery roms, flashed stock combo roms, have like 12 counts of custom binary downloads and KNOC WARRANTY VOID : 1 and in download mode in red at the top it says in Odin Mode and then Red in the bottom after it says (in Gray) KNox warranty void: 1 and
AP SWREV A2 it then says in red again unsupported version under those....

Roms? You need a stock image for it to work totally different
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2581321
HOW-TO Downgrade from 4.3 OFFICIAL MK6 to LJ2 4.1.1
Did you thank your Developer today?

Do not try this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jspex said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2581321
HOW-TO Downgrade from 4.3 OFFICIAL MK6 to LJ2 4.1.1
Did you thank your Developer today?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do NOT try this!!!!
I did, and i bricked my phone!!!!!! You gonna end up with expensive brick. I am noit able to do anything with my phone except for gettinh into download mode, where it says "knox warranty void:1".
Any idea what to do???

fuzio1963 said:
Do NOT try this!!!!
I did, and i bricked my phone!!!!!! You gonna end up with expensive brick. I am noit able to do anything with my phone except for gettinh into download mode, where it says "knox warranty void:1".
Any idea what to do???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You did the battery pull part as well? I think the trick is to have your fingers on the buttons first then slide the battery back in to force the recovery but until I try it myself I don't know for sure.
Did you thank your Developer today?

Jspex said:
You did the battery pull part as well? I think the trick is to have your fingers on the buttons first then slide the battery back in to force the recovery but until I try it myself I don't know for sure.
Did you thank your Developer today?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did that right.

I have the same issue..... Had 4.3 ota.... Flashed cwm thru odin. Restarted the phone, it will not boot past the "samsung galaxy note 2" screen. Flashed stock rom thru odin, still stuck at the samsung note 2 screen. I can get into download mode with no issues whatsoever. I cannot get into recovery mode, whether stock or cwm. Nothing. Can I flash another 4.3 or 4.4 rom thru odin? I just need my phone working again..... thanks gentlemen

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2581321
HOW-TO Downgrade from 4.3 OFFICIAL MK6 to LJ2 4.1.1
Do this it works. If it does get stuck on the second Samsung logo pull the battery,
Boot into Stock recovery, and do a factory reset.
It will boot the 4.1.1 stock ROM but it will have the MK6 bootloader. You can flash TWRP or CWM thru ODIN and flash other ROMs. 4.3 ROMs is all I have tried.
I've just spent hours doing this. It's almost impossible to brick this phone. If you do brick it you have done something really really fricking stupid.
I've done a lot of stupid ****, and I have always brought it back to life.

dicksteele said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2581321
HOW-TO Downgrade from 4.3 OFFICIAL MK6 to LJ2 4.1.1
Do this it works. If it does get stuck on the second Samsung logo pull the battery,
Boot into Stock recovery, and do a factory reset.
It will boot the 4.1.1 stock ROM but it will have the MK6 bootloader. You can flash TWRP or CWM thru ODIN and flash other ROMs. 4.3 ROMs is all I have tried.
I've just spent hours doing this. It's almost impossible to brick this phone. If you do brick it you have done something really really fricking stupid.
I've done a lot of stupid ****, and I have always brought it back to life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup! Fricking stupid------like upgrading from 4.3 to 4.4.1, then in recovery factory reset, and in ODIN trying to get back to 4.1.1 How stupid is that??? If YOU have done this, would you be able to reboot into recovery????? Try it.........

You probably did something wrong. Im the OP of the How to downgrade 4.3 MK6 to LJ2 and Ive done it many time over.

This is the problem i cant get into recovery mode only download, I flashed the firmware from sammobile and did all the steps but it literally wont let me into recovery to wipe the data, I'm stuck on the first samsung Galaxy Note II screen

Have you guys tried to flash cwm or twrp after flashing 4.1.1? Since all you can get into is dl mode try flashing a custom recovery them attempt the battery pull/recovery step.
Did you thank your Developer today?

Jspex said:
Have you guys tried to flash cwm or twrp after flashing 4.1.1? Since all you can get into is dl mode try flashing a custom recovery them attempt the battery pull/recovery step.
Did you thank your Developer today?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree. Get into DL mode flash TWRP from here.
http://goo.im/devs/OpenRecovery/t0lteatt
It should boot right into recovery.
---------- Post added at 07:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 AM ----------
fuzio1963 said:
Yup! Fricking stupid------like upgrading from 4.3 to 4.4.1, then in recovery factory reset, and in ODIN trying to get back to 4.1.1 How stupid is that??? If YOU have done this, would you be able to reboot into recovery????? Try it.........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally have done it five times in the last two days. Plus ODIN'd MA4.
Actually I've done it the correct way. I have no idea what you are referring to in your post.
From a non-bootable 4.3 OTA, because I installed a mod from the theme/apps section, I flashed the LJ2 in ODIN. It did not boot. I reread the OP and saw that if it didn't boot, do a factory reset.
I flashed it again in ODIN, probably did not need to, it hung.
I pulled battery, did the power/home/up and got to stock recovery. Factory reset it boots.
Testing different scenarios I got boot loops, reflashed LJ2 and did same procedure.
I found out later from Zen all I had to do was flash a recovery and it would fix the error saying I have an error in my firmware, I need to recover using Kies. There was no need for that.
I understand you all can't get to recovery try flashing a custom recovery from ODIN like suggested above.

dicksteele said:
Agree. Get into DL mode flash TWRP from here.
http://goo.im/devs/OpenRecovery/t0lteatt
It should boot right into recovery.
---------- Post added at 07:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 AM ----------
I personally have done it five times in the last two days. Plus ODIN'd MA4.
Actually I've done it the correct way. I have no idea what you are referring to in your post.
From a non-bootable 4.3 OTA, because I installed a mod from the theme/apps section, I flashed the LJ2 in ODIN. It did not boot. I reread the OP and saw that if it didn't boot, do a factory reset.
I flashed it again in ODIN, probably did not need to, it hung.
I pulled battery, did the power/home/up and got to stock recovery. Factory reset it boots.
Testing different scenarios I got boot loops, reflashed LJ2 and did same procedure.
I found out later from Zen all I had to do was flash a recovery and it would fix the error saying I have an error in my firmware, I need to recover using Kies. There was no need for that.
I understand you all can't get to recovery try flashing a custom recovery from ODIN like suggested above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was trying to say: even I have done this step-by-step, after battery pull out, I still canNOT boot into recovery! Even i flashed recovery into my phone via odin, after flashing 4.1.1 It just shows Galaxy Note II screen.......what is it, you are NOT getting??

fuzio1963 said:
I was trying to say: even I have done this step-by-step, after battery pull out, I still canNOT boot into recovery! Even i flashed recovery into my phone via odin, after flashing 4.1.1 It just shows Galaxy Note II screen.......what is it, you are NOT getting??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can honestly say that I will be done trying to help you with this. What YOU are not getting is we are trying to help YOU fix YOUR mistake.
I understand it is frustrating when you hit a snag that leaves your phone in soft brick form but as EVERY OP states you are doing these things AT YOUR OWN RISK. Getting angry and impatient with those that are trying to help will get you nowhere fast.
Good luck fixing your phone and I really hope you get this figured out.
Did you thank your Developer today?

fuzio1963 said:
I was trying to say: even I have done this step-by-step, after battery pull out, I still canNOT boot into recovery! Even i flashed recovery into my phone via odin, after flashing 4.1.1 It just shows Galaxy Note II screen.......what is it, you are NOT getting??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm getting from every post I have read that you've done in multiple threads, you don't desire any help.
That's what I get.
EDIT : Damn Jspex beat me to it.
EDIT 2: OP, I'll PM you and give you my contact info and see if we can get you going.

As to not let one person ruin the OPs chances of fixing things here is a good way to get into recovery that does take a little know how. Its always good to know the basics of adb anyway when modding android devices.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1853159
Did you thank your Developer today?

Jspex said:
Last resort:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1853159
Did you thank your Developer today?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your device is not being recognized try a different USB port.
Or from the command prompt;
type "adb kill-server"
then type "adb devices", adb will restart on port 5307.
No quotes of course

[Q] I need some help please

I'll try and give as much info as possible so that hopefully this is easy to figure out.
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy s3 sch-r530u the US Cellular version. I didn't see a US Cellular forum and read someplace that it's the same as the at&t one so that's why I'm posting in here.
About a month or so ago I rooted and installed cyanogenmod with the installer and it installed I believe 11.1 maybe 11.2. The Android version my phone said it was I'm pretty sure was 4.4.2. Today in about phone in the settings I got a new version available message so I tried to do an update, which I was understanding that it was a cyanogenmod update and not a stock update but maybe I was wrong.
Right after the update my phone would boot to the boot screen with the blue robot guy on it and freeze basically. I was able to get into CWM and also into download mode. I did a little looking around and went into CWM and did the factory reset/wipe and cleared the cache and dalvik and that changed nothing.
Then I tried to flash the cyanogenmod 10.2 from inside CWM because I read someplace that it fixed the problem for someone else and it just failed when I tried. I also tried to fix via Kies and it isn't accepting my serial number for some reason. Then I found the teamuscellular website and grabbed both roms that say are stock roms and tried to flash both of those (not at the same time) via Odin and when I did the first one I got the something happened during firmware upgrade error.
I eventually fixed that by flashing the pit file with Odin and now I'm back to being stuck on the blue robot boot screen. When I try to flash either stock rom from teamuscellular in Odin they fail at some point and then I have to reflash the pit file again.
Somewhere along the line I couldn't get into CWM anymore and had to reflash that and I now have the philz touch 6.09.2 version of that.
I currently can get into both CWM and Download mode but for the life of me nothing I try works. When I go into Download mode what reads in the top left corner is this
odin mode, in red letters
Product name: SCH-R530U, in white letters
Custom binary download: Yes (4 counts), in white letters
Current Binary: Custom, in white letters
System Status: Custom, in white letters
Qualcomm Secureboot: Enable, in grey letters
Waranty bit: 1, in red letters
Bootloader Ap Swrev: 1, in grey letters
When I try and flash a rom and it fails I get some other line of text in red but I forget what it says
Any help is greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance
EDIT - Also a number of places directed me to samsungs updates websites to get the stock mod for my phone but there isn't one there for the SCH-R530U.
Also I'm looking at the how to guide for unbricking and I see something there about the status 7 error, which I do believe I got when I tried to flash the 2 teamuscellular stock mods but I don't remember for certain. I know one thing I didn't try was updating my bootloader.
I've also tried fixing with the simple upgrade tool and it fails also.

OK so I went ahead and tried the simple upgrade tool again to see the errors it gave me and in the bottom left corner of the program it had gone through a few things and failed when it said ABOOT.
And also at that same time on the download mode screen it added this line in red text at the bottom of the list in the top left corner on my phone screen
SW REV CHECKFAIL: FUSED1>Binary0

Based on a quick search, your phone supports CDMA and the AT&T version is GSM so they are not identical.
Your phone has the 4.3 bootloader with knox security. Since you flashed a custom recovery, it tripped the knox counter which voids any existing warranty.
The 4.3 bootloader cannot be downgraded to an older version and attempts to do so, either in download or recovery, may brick the phone.
In order to flash the phone in Odin, you would need to have a full and completely stock 4.3 ROM and not just a OTA update of the 4.3 ROM.
I suggest that you upgrade your recovery to the latest version and flash a custom ROM to try and get your phone functioning.

audit13 said:
Based on a quick search, your phone supports CDMA and the AT&T version is GSM so they are not identical.
Your phone has the 4.3 bootloader with knox security. Since you flashed a custom recovery, it tripped the knox counter which voids any existing warranty.
The 4.3 bootloader cannot be downgraded to an older version and attempts to do so, either in download or recovery, may brick the phone.
In order to flash the phone in Odin, you would need to have a full and completely stock 4.3 ROM and not just a OTA update of the 4.3 ROM.
I suggest that you upgrade your recovery to the latest version and flash a custom ROM to try and get your phone functioning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. What exactly should I be looking for when you say I should upgrade my recovery? If I remember right I thought I removed that stupid Knox crap or maybe I just disabled it I forget exactly.

Thequass said:
OK. What exactly should I be looking for when you say I should upgrade my recovery? If I remember right I thought I removed that stupid Knox crap or maybe I just disabled it I forget exactly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try and fix your phone by updating your recovery to the latest version of CWM for your phone. Then, download an install a custom ROM for your phone.
If you are not sure of what or how to do upgrade your recovery, don't do it until you have done some research and really understand the process.
As with any software change, there is no guarantee you won't brick your phone in the process.

Yeah I understand, I just wanted to make sure you meant CWM. So you think I should try reflashing a 4.3 custom rom over a 4.4? It was running 4.4.2 totally fine for a month ish.

If you want to install another ROM, I recommend doing a full wipe, including the system, cache, Davik, and data, before installing the new ROM.
I have switched between older and newer ROMs without a problem on my i747m.

Ok. I'll definitely wipe everything as I did in the past maybe there's one that I'm missing somehow. I wipe everything and somehow the blue robot boot screen is still there.

Thanks for all of your help. Your suggestions definitely led me in the right direction. I ended up finding a modified stock 4.3 with the bootloader file removed and since it seemed like my issues were related to that I figured what the hell I'll try it, I was almost at the point of going and getting a new phone anyhow. Because it wasn't completely bricked I wanted to try everything I could though and this worked!!!
Thanks again!!

[Q] Galaxy SIII SGH-I747 strange softbrick?

So This is my first time posting on any forum site for help, and i was refereed to XDA by my roommate. so what happened is a few months ago i asked my roommate to root my galaxy s3 SGH-I747, after he rooted it through odin and all seemed well, BUT we never could get the phone to recognize the root and was still unable to access any root functions. so after a few different attempts we gave up. i assumed that my roommate had removed the root (bad call) but never gave it any thought. a few days ago at&t started bugging me with a software update. i just hit ignore and it would pop up again in a few hours and the icon would never go away. so i gave in and started the update. i didnt pay the phone any attention while it "updated" but later that morning i went to turn it back on and it would get to the Samsung screen then the next screen but after that it goes black and vibrates. i showed it to my roommate and he informed me that it was never restored back to official frimware like i had previously assumed. and that it never should have received the update bc it was still on a custom frimware. we tried flashing the stock frimware back on the phone and every time it would fail the nand write. i believe it was updated to 4.4.2 before i received the update from AT&T and we tried many different ways too restore it i even tried the recovery in Kies 3 but all it says is "connecting" then connection failed. so far nothing has worked. i believe that the update contained android 5.0 and maybe that is the reason none of the other ways we tried worked. i have been researching for hours trying to find a similar case but nothing matches, and i cant find a single working solution that doesn't involve possible making it worse. i can access both the recovery and download modes. please any information or help would be greatly appreciated.

Flash a custom recovery such as Philz Touch via Odin, install cm10.2 via your custom recovery. This should get the phone booted so you can determine the bootloader version on your phone. The NAND error is due to the fact that you are trying to downgrade the bootloader in Odin. Don't flash anything with Odin until you determine the bootloader. Doing so could hard brick your phone.

audit13 said:
Flash a custom recovery such as Philz Touch via Odin, install cm10.2 via your custom recovery. This should get the phone booted so you can determine the bootloader version on your phone. The NAND error is due to the fact that you are trying to downgrade the bootloader in Odin. Don't flash anything with Odin until you determine the bootloader. Doing so could hard brick your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
firstly, thanks for the fast help. i did as you advised and flashed philz touch 6.15.4 which is the latest version from what i understand. that worked flawlessly. the problem now, is with cm10.2 every time ive tried to install it i get an error in /storage/sdcard1/cm-10.2.0-d2att.zip.
im sure im doing everything correctly. any ideas?

Try flashing an older CM11 ROM for the d2lte.

audit13 said:
Try flashing an older CM11 ROM for the d2lte.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks so much man youve been a big help that worked.

Would like to return phone to Normal State

I ended up having to use CF auto-root, I was able to update cwm from within it.
After I tried rooting (didn't notice the guide I was using was 3 years old until it was too late) my phone got the "KERNEL IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING" and "SET WARRANTY BIT: KERNEL" . And it would not ****ing start up. My phone was 4.4.4 and I was trying to flash some 4.2.2 or later stuff onto it I guess, it messed my phone up. The only one and I mean ONLY one that would work was the 4.2.2 auto-root.
I was on kies before all of it and now kies won't even read my phone. Any way I can get my phone back to normal now, and possibly try the rooting again? It's slow and laggy now, my SD card won't be read, and my wifi doesn't work. I'm quite miserable but at least my phone works.. I have root access now so maybe I can fix it from within the phone? I appreciate the help!
EDIT: I tried getting cyanogen rom onto it and it got all messed up again after that, wouldn't get past cyanogen loading animation so I had to figure out how to fix it again for another 3 hours -.-

dameware said:
I ended up having to use CF auto-root, I was able to update cwm from within it.
After I tried rooting (didn't notice the guide I was using was 3 years old until it was too late) my phone got the "KERNEL IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING" and "SET WARRANTY BIT: KERNEL" . And it would not ****ing start up. My phone was 4.4.4 and I was trying to flash some 4.2.2 or later stuff onto it I guess, it messed my phone up. The only one and I mean ONLY one that would work was the 4.2.2 auto-root.
I was on kies before all of it and now kies won't even read my phone. Any way I can get my phone back to normal now, and possibly try the rooting again? It's slow and laggy now, my SD card won't be read, and my wifi doesn't work. I'm quite miserable but at least my phone works.. I have root access now so maybe I can fix it from within the phone? I appreciate the help!
EDIT: I tried getting cyanogen rom onto it and it got all messed up again after that, wouldn't get past cyanogen loading animation so I had to figure out how to fix it again for another 3 hours -.-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4-tmobile/general/firmwares-official-mdl-mk2-nb4-t2816508
Download the NH7 or NK2 firmware (both are 4.4.4) and flash it using ODIN. Not sure why Kies isn't seeing your phone, it should, but ODIN should work. You may have to flash, pull battery, flash again, all without rebooting, for it to take.
This will get you back to stock. Then, if you want to root, get the CFAutoRoot for the phone, this will flash a non-stock recovery to give you root. This will give you the SEANDROID messages you were seeing. Use Triangle Away, if you want to get rid of them.
Rob

rlichtefeld said:
Go to this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4-tmobile/general/firmwares-official-mdl-mk2-nb4-t2816508
Download the NH7 or NK2 firmware (both are 4.4.4) and flash it using ODIN. Not sure why Kies isn't seeing your phone, it should, but ODIN should work. You may have to flash, pull battery, flash again, all without rebooting, for it to take.
This will get you back to stock. Then, if you want to root, get the CFAutoRoot for the phone, this will flash a non-stock recovery to give you root. This will give you the SEANDROID messages you were seeing. Use Triangle Away, if you want to get rid of them.
Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It won't read it because my phone is now too old of a device for the program (2.2.2 or whatever). Thank you very much I'm trying all this right now, finally a firmware download that doesn't take 6 hours because of horrible servers!
I will update on if this works or not, I'm guessing it will

I am having a similar situation. I used CM installer to root my S4 then the screen went white and the Installer stopped working. I tried to reset but only got the same Enforcing and warrant messages and the CyanogenMod loading screen.
I am trying to get to recovery mode by doing power+home+volume up button. I got into there and seeing a menu of commands. What should I do now? Will factory reset get me back into original state or I need to install a zip?

Lopakas said:
I am having a similar situation. I used CM installer to root my S4 then the screen went white and the Installer stopped working. I tried to reset but only got the same Enforcing and warrant messages and the CyanogenMod loading screen.
I am trying to get to recovery mode by doing power+home+volume up button. I got into there and seeing a menu of commands. What should I do now? Will factory reset get me back into original state or I need to install a zip?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT:
Done and done! It all worked out, thank you thank you!
Now to try cyanogen and my device will be back to beast mode.
Just do what he says and you should be fine; factory reset never did anything for me :/

Failed to mount /data and frozen after factory reset, HELP!

I have what's probably a unique situation, though I hope not. For background info, I bought two I747s, one white and one blue, each with issues, but I intended to put parts together to end up with one good one.
When I did a factory reset on the blue one via the recovery menu, it returned a bunch of errors along the lines of "failed to mount /data." Then when it rebooted it would hang on the Samsung logo. Back in recovery mode it returns more of the same errors just booting into recovery mode, and factory reset still returns more of the same errors and doesn't fix anything. I flashed 4.3 with Odin in an attempt to fix it, but I got the boards mixed up, and that one had 4.4 on it, not 4.1 like I thought. I'm pretty sure it's hard bricked now (that whole can't downgrade thing) because it's unresponsive to everything. Though my computer does recognize that it's plugged in, more on that later.
So I figured, fine, I screwed up, I'll just use the other board with 4.1 on it from the white phone. Except when I did a factory reset on that one, it did the exact same thing! Same errors, same problem stuck at the Samsung logo. Except this time I'm not flashing sh*t until I know exactly what I need to do to fix it. In another post where the guy had the same issue with 4.1.1, it was solved by flashing 4.3 with Odin. And another post where the guy had no idea what version he had, he just knew it was lower than 4.3, his problem was also solved by flashing 4.3, But since my last efforts failed miserably, I'm very reluctant to try it until I get some knowledgeable input. I don't remember exactly which version is on there, it's 4.1.something. I'd also prefer not to upgrade beyond 4.1 because I'd like to unlock it and from what I'm reading you can only do it for free if you're on 4.1. So I guess I need a link to an Odin flashable 4.1 package?
As for the poor blue phone that used to have 4.4.something, and was mistakenly flashed with 4.3, I've heard about JTAG but I don't quite understand it, and I'm not sure it would work in my case since a lot of what I'm reading says that bricking which occurs from downgrading is often unfixable. However, Windows recognizes that a device is plugged in when I attach it via USB. It shows up in the Device Manager as QHSUSB_DLOAD. I am currently researching more on this and the method of booting from an SD card, except I don't have an SD card reader at the moment.
Any assistance, advice, links, information, and plain ole encouragement are always welcome and appreciated.

For the phone running 4.1, flash any stock rom in Odin. After flashing, boot into recovery and perform a factory reset, then boot the phone and use the free method to sim unlock. The important thing is to have the stock 4.1.1 dialler in order to access the hidden menu options?
For home hard bricked phone, you will have to try the debrick image method. If it doesn't work, a jtag service should be able to force flash a rom to the phone.

Wow, that was like a crazy fast reply!
What if the phone is 4.1.2? Can I still flash 4.1.1? I'm on the hunt for a 4.1.1 stock rom now.

Yes, you can flash 4.1.1 from 4.1.2.

audit13 said:
Yes, you can flash 4.1.1 from 4.1.2.
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Apparently not always. I downloaded and flashed 4.1.1 with Oden 3.07, it rebooted, showed the android image like it was updating, progress bar finished, and then it just went blank. Now both phones are in the same condition of being hard bricked and showing QHSUSB_DLOAD in the device manager.

This is strange. I have downgraded approximately 10 i747m phones from 4.1.2 to 4.1.1, unlocked using the free method, and re-flashed back to 4.1.2 after unlocking.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2371897
What options did you check in Odin? Where did you get the 4.1.1 ROM? I ask because the stock ATT 4.1.1 rom was apparently removed from sammobile.com.
How did you confirm that the phone was running 4.1.2?

I checked only auto reboot in Odin.
I found this link sammobile.com/firmwares/database/SGH-I747/ in this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3-att/help/downgrade-att-running-stock-4-4-2-rom-t3170938 , 7th post
The download was going absurdly slow, so I googled the exact file name being downloaded which was, I747UCDLK3_I747ATTDLK3_ATT, and found a google drive link at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_UTWXKFnZoNVFdSVjJEZlMwZjA/edit which was the first result after searching for the file name if that link doesn't work. I'm downloading the slow one now to compare it to the one I got from google drive.
I'm unsure if the phone was 4.1.1 or 4.1.2, that's why I asked if it's possible to flash 4.1.1 on top of 4.1.2. I was only trying to do a factory reset originally and had no intentions of flashing anything. I just wanted to wipe out all the crap on it from the previous user so I had only glanced at the version out of curiosity to see if it was unlockable via the free method. I remember it was 4.1.something.
I have an SD card reader on order. Hopefully I'll be able to unbrick one of them.
Do you, or anyone else, have any idea why a simple factory reset would cause errors like I described and then hang on reboot? At that point both phones were 100% factory and I hadn't done anything to them except put a battery in them to power them on. I've done a factory reset on four other S3s and this didn't happen.

It is definitely possible to flash 4.1.1 over 4.1.2 because the bootloader could not be downgraded until the mjb version.

That's what I've been reading. So where did I go wrong? Any idea why a factory reset would screw up like that?

Did you confirm the bootloader before flashing?

audit13 said:
Did you confirm the bootloader before flashing?
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No, because I had no intentions of flashing it when I tried to do a factory reset. Then after that went bad it wouldn't boot, and I don't know how to check the boatloader when a phone will only go into recovery mode.

Where did you see reference to 4.1? It's possible that the modem or baseband was 4.1 but the bootloader was 4.3.

Under about device and then Android version. The one where if you tap it a lot you get the jellybean android that pops up. It wasn't the baseband version because that's a much longer number with the model number in it.

That screen doesn't tell you the bootloader.

As I said, I didn't check for the bootloader version before I ran into trouble because I only wanted to do a factory reset and I didn't intend to flash anything. I wouldn't imagine that it would have a different bootloader than the OS version unless that can happen without any user intervention because the previous owner was only concerned with selfies and games. She certainly didn't modify anything.

I cant explain what happened. This has never happened to me after flashing about 10 phones.

I believe it has something to do with the errors that were produced while trying to do a factory reset. What bothers me is that both phones did the exact same thing. Normally I'd say it was something I did, except that I didn't do anything but put a battery in them, boot up, find lots of junk installed, and then attempt a factory reset. On the first phone, I rebooted into recovery and tried it from there. On the second phone I tried it from inside the OS. Same results on both. The phones ran fine before that.
Any advice on how to do the boot from an SD card, or how to do the JTAG thing? I've been reading a lot but the information jumps around a lot. I'm comfortable with soldering and have an IT background if that helps.

It's possible that the recovery was corrupt or the partitions were corrupt.
Whenever I factory reset a phone, I always boot into recovery to do that, not from within the ROM.
Sounds to me like you did nothing wrong.
Did the previous owner have the phone from the time it was new?
Edit: for the phone that you flashed with 4.1.1, Odin said "pass" in the status window and the it auto rebooted?

audit13 said:
Did the previous owner have the phone from the time it was new?
Edit: for the phone that you flashed with 4.1.1, Odin said "pass" in the status window and the it auto rebooted?
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I don't know for sure if she had it from new. Yes, for both phones Odin said pass in the window and then it rebooted. I had walked away when Odin finished with the first phone. I came back and it was dead. The second one I watched and it showed the android with the wireframe in his guts and the progress bar which moved across, and then it just went blank.
There were error messages about the partitions when I did the factory reset IIRC. Perhaps the recovery or the partition was corrupted like you said. It's just odd that both had the exact same identical problem with the exact same results. That's why I think that it must have been something I did, except that I didn't DO anything other than initiate a factory reset.

I took an i747m and reflashed stock the Telus 4.4.2 ROM.
In download mode, you should see the green Android guy with the words "Downloading...Do not turn off target" and a blue progress bar moving from left to right.
I did not check reset in Odin. Once it finished flashing the ROM, I removed the USB cable, removed the battery, replaced the battery, and booted the phone. I the Android guy with the wire frame for a few seconds, the screen went blank, and the phone started up with the Samsung logo.
Since you were getting errors with mounting the different partitions, you may have needed to flash the PIT and PDA files but I can't really say for sure as I have never encountered this problem.
I normally verify everything before I use Odin because phones that I have been given to fix have had all sorts of weird configurations.
You'll have to try the debrick guide. of use a jtag service. You could also do what I did and that is to look for people with phones that have a damaged screen and buy they at a steep discount.