Develop Bugs

[Q] No ROMs taking, keep getting no MD5 message, phone close to bricked.

I apologize in advance if any of this makes you roll your eyes at my stupidity.
Good Afternoon
I have an ATT samsung galaxy s3, Because of the glitches with 4.3 I was experiencing I decided to install custom software on my phone. So I looked up guides and got everything I needed. I did manage to get root access, and verified with super user. I also installed TWRP and CWM because each kept giving me errors when I tried to install CM 11 onto my phone. I tried CWM first, and when that didn't work I tried TWRP. It says there was no MD5 information found when I try to install any mod. how ever I have used the md5 file checker program and the MD5 matches up to what was listed in this one for example.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2518998
Download:
CM 11.0 Unofficial Beta 7 for d2tmo and d2att
MD5: ef93957db1e6704f23f9015231a82826
So the MD5 matches, yet when I try to install it keeps giving me errors. I also tried other versions of CM that I found on here via links. Right now my phone has no OS as another guide I read some where also said to wipe system data (sorry if that was stupid, I was just following a guideline) And even more stupid, no I don't have a backup because in my naivety and stupidity I didn't think I'd need one as it seemed so simple from all the guides and videos I'd seen.
Yesterday a friend of mine knowledgeable with tech stuff took one of the original stock Image ROMs I'd downloaded and using linux and some program he managed to do some crazy stuff I can't even describe on here. All I saw was a lot of typing of command lines and it got my phone working again, how ever it wasn't exactly the stock image I guess because the phone would not make or receive calls/texts.
Since my phone was powering on again and the android OS was loading I figured I could connect it to my computer and use KIES to download the official latest update so my phone would be back on the legit software. But trying to do that...well broke my phone again. So I'm at a loss now of what to do. Right now I can still get to download mode on my phone, but when I try to get into recovery mode I get an error that "firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in KIES & try again." Which I've tried, and every time I try it gives me an error message.So I'm at a loss of what to do next.
So I'd like to get a working OS on my phone asap so I can get calls and texts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And being new I'm sorry if I broke any taboos or did not give some information that is typically given when describing a problem.

gvazquez82 said:
I apologize in advance if any of this makes you roll your eyes at my stupidity.
Good Afternoon
I have an ATT samsung galaxy s3, Because of the glitches with 4.3 I was experiencing I decided to install custom software on my phone. So I looked up guides and got everything I needed. I did manage to get root access, and verified with super user. I also installed TWRP and CWM because each kept giving me errors when I tried to install CM 11 onto my phone. I tried CWM first, and when that didn't work I tried TWRP. It says there was no MD5 information found when I try to install any mod. how ever I have used the md5 file checker program and the MD5 matches up to what was listed in this one for example.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2518998
Download:
CM 11.0 Unofficial Beta 7 for d2tmo and d2att
MD5: ef93957db1e6704f23f9015231a82826
So the MD5 matches, yet when I try to install it keeps giving me errors. I also tried other versions of CM that I found on here via links. Right now my phone has no OS as another guide I read some where also said to wipe system data (sorry if that was stupid, I was just following a guideline) And even more stupid, no I don't have a backup because in my naivety and stupidity I didn't think I'd need one as it seemed so simple from all the guides and videos I'd seen.
Yesterday a friend of mine knowledgeable with tech stuff took one of the original stock Image ROMs I'd downloaded and using linux and some program he managed to do some crazy stuff I can't even describe on here. All I saw was a lot of typing of command lines and it got my phone working again, how ever it wasn't exactly the stock image I guess because the phone would not make or receive calls/texts.
Since my phone was powering on again and the android OS was loading I figured I could connect it to my computer and use KIES to download the official latest update so my phone would be back on the legit software. But trying to do that...well broke my phone again. So I'm at a loss now of what to do. Right now I can still get to download mode on my phone, but when I try to get into recovery mode I get an error that "firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in KIES & try again." Which I've tried, and every time I try it gives me an error message.So I'm at a loss of what to do next.
So I'd like to get a working OS on my phone asap so I can get calls and texts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And being new I'm sorry if I broke any taboos or did not give some information that is typically given when describing a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same error happened to me yesterday and spent the whole day figuring it out. get into download mode. boot up ODIN and reflash your preferred custom recovery. after that, i couldn't find anything else to restore my phone with so i installed 4.3 leaked from here. doesn't matter which one you select. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2498233. place it on your sd card and head into recovery mode, wipe data/factory reset and cache. head to install zip from sd card and select the 4.3 zip you downloaded. reboot system and it should work. the at&t boot screen takes a while so be patient

MrHaPpY66 said:
same error happened to me yesterday and spent the whole day figuring it out. get into download mode. boot up ODIN and reflash your preferred custom recovery. after that, i couldn't find anything else to restore my phone with so i installed 4.3 leaked from here. doesn't matter which one you select. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2498233. place it on your sd card and head into recovery mode, wipe data/factory reset and cache. head to install zip from sd card and select the 4.3 zip you downloaded. reboot system and it should work. the at&t boot screen takes a while so be patient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all thank you for trying to help me, I hope you are having a good Thanks Giving.
I used the thread you linked to, and downloaded the version with out knox. I followed the instructions
transferred ROM and flashed kernel file to SD card
used odin to flash TWRP,
used twrp to flash rom and kernel file.
and it takes the file thankfully, there's only one issue. My phone can't make or receive calls/texts. Is yours able to?

I messed up and was playing with things That I had no business playing with and decided that I should do a restore of a backup (TWRP) I made as soon as I rooted the 4.3 OTA. well it has soft bricked my phone. it was a TWRP 4.3 Nandroid and has me messed up a little.
so far I tried My nandroid (no dice now a soft brick) cleared cache and dalvik, It was booting as far as the white at&t spinning thing,
Factory reset same on booting,
Tried a format of the internal sd this is where it gets sketchy it now goes as far as the second samsung screen(the one that says Samsung GALAXY S III)
4.3 OTA .zip (no dice TWRP wont flash it) same on the booting 2nd samsung boot screen
Tried the files in the link above and got a Hard brick
Used the debricking .IMG file and got TWRP and download mode back
Any suggestions?
Looks like I might need a JTAG/RIFF BOX for this one. If nothing else I spent many Hours of darkness discovering the darkness of android 4.3
If I get recovered from this and with a different rom like 4.1.2 I will be happy. the 4.3 OTA was very stable but I did miss wifi tether and the whole hardbrick thing was kind of a bummer. it would be real nice to have an ODIN file to fix this (AHEM samsung) or atleast perhaps stopped the progression of it to a hard brick.
New update
I got my phone booting up again however there is a catch. That unbrick.img file on my 16GB sd card is still required to boot the phone and I have no cell service what so ever. Tried to check apn settings because at home I sometimes get poor service and I run net10 so I was going to fix my apn and it says insert sim??? the sim is properly inserted???
Next Update
the bootloader I flashed apparently flashed to the external sd card? I flashed another one and it is booting from the internal sd. I had to flash a different modem the one in the bootloader/modem file I flashed from the link above didnt take? I got most everything sorted out, but im getting tired, it has been an all night adventure. its 08:23 est now
sorry for the delay in updating this I had to get some rest.

theramsey3 said:
I messed up and was playing with things That I had no business playing with and decided that I should do a restore of a backup (TWRP) I made as soon as I rooted the 4.3 OTA. well it has soft bricked my phone. it was a TWRP 4.3 Nandroid and has me messed up a little.
so far I tried My nandroid (no dice now a soft brick) cleared cache and dalvik, It was booting as far as the white at&t spinning thing,
Factory reset same on booting,
Tried a format of the internal sd this is where it gets sketchy it now goes as far as the second samsung screen(the one that says Samsung GALAXY S III)
4.3 OTA .zip (no dice TWRP wont flash it) same on the booting 2nd samsung boot screen
Tried the files in the link above and got a Hard brick
Used the debricking .IMG file and got TWRP and download mode back
Any suggestions?
Looks like I might need a JTAG/RIFF BOX for this one. If nothing else I spent many Hours of darkness discovering the darkness of android 4.3
If I get recovered from this and with a different rom like 4.1.2 I will be happy. the 4.3 OTA was very stable but I did miss wifi tether and the whole hardbrick thing was kind of a bummer. it would be real nice to have an ODIN file to fix this (AHEM samsung) or atleast perhaps stopped the progression of it to a hard brick.
New update
I got my phone booting up again however there is a catch. That unbrick.img file on my 16GB sd card is still required to boot the phone and I have no cell service what so ever. Tried to check apn settings because at home I sometimes get poor service and I run net10 so I was going to fix my apn and it says insert sim??? the sim is properly inserted???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into Settings, About Phone, Status and check to see if your IMEI and Serial Number are present. If you only lost your IMEI there's a guide on how to inject it back (I'm not sure where the guide is). However if you've lost your serial number and don't have a Nandroid that can restore it I don't know what to do.

spongdangly said:
Go into Settings, About Phone, Status and check to see if your IMEI and Serial Number are present. If you only lost your IMEI there's a guide on how to inject it back (I'm not sure where the guide is). However if you've lost your serial number and don't have a Nandroid that can restore it I don't know what to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?

gvazquez82 said:
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.

theramsey3 said:
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will give that a shot, but what's an APN, sorry. And how do I create one, and is it needed for me to do so?

gvazquez82 said:
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be, I'm working right now so I don't have time to fine the guide on how to inject your IMEI. If I remember correctly it involves using QPST. If you have an old (or any) working Nandroid backup that should fix the problem.
FYI, make sure you don't use the guide for the international S3 as it has different hardware and folder structure/contents.
As for the APN, it should automatically fill itself in since it reads it off the SIM Card (I might be wrong).

theramsey3 said:
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it and it work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
67 texts just came in. Sir, I thank you oh so kindly. You have made this gloomy rainy day oh so joyous.

No problem. Glad I could help you.
The real credit should go to -Mr.X-, loserskater and anyone else(no disrespect there were alot of files) whose stuff I tried to flash lastnight thank you all in the dev community who contribute.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

So I guess the next question, do I try again to install kit kat on my phone.
I've already made bucks of my existing working phone haha....but I'd still like to have kitkat in place. I believe the issue of my phone not reading MD5 confirmations would still be in place, does anyone know how to remedy that situation?
At the same time I'm more than happy to leave my phone as is.

gvazquez82 said:
So I guess the next question, do I try again to install kit kat on my phone.
I've already made bucks of my existing working phone haha....but I'd still like to have kitkat in place. I believe the issue of my phone not reading MD5 confirmations would still be in place, does anyone know how to remedy that situation?
At the same time I'm more than happy to leave my phone as is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure you can turn off MD5 checks in TWRP. Probably in CWM too. Sorry if this has been mentioned. Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Just skimmed through.
2nd, there is a major difference between an IMEI that reads 0 and an IMEI that shows unknown. If it shows an unknown simply reflash your ROM and modem and you will be good to go. Sometimes a reboot is all you need. If your IMEI is showing a 0 on the other hand its gone and will require that it be injected back in which is a messy situation that usually results in tour phone being stuck on EDGE.
3rd, as someone mentioned on the previous page, restoring a working nandroid will NOT reinject your IMEI if it shows up as 0. No amount of flashing anything will get it to come back. Not even stock. It needs to be reinjected manually.

flexfulton said:
Pretty sure you can turn off MD5 checks in TWRP. Probably in CWM too. Sorry if this has been mentioned. Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Just skimmed through.
2nd, there is a major difference between an IMEI that reads 0 and an IMEI that shows unknown. If it shows an unknown simply reflash your ROM and modem and you will be good to go. Sometimes a reboot is all you need. If your IMEI is showing a 0 on the other hand its gone and will require that it be injected back in which is a messy situation that usually results in tour phone being stuck on EDGE.
3rd, as someone mentioned on the previous page, restoring a working nandroid will NOT reinject your IMEI if it shows up as 0. No amount of flashing anything will get it to come back. Not even stock. It needs to be reinjected manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you know of a good stable kit kat like ROM I could use for the s3? And any speculation as to why the ROMs werent taking for me?

[Q] Recovery bootloop after Odin/Kies/Heimdall STOCK flash, only boots to DL mode

Hi folks, long time reader, first time noob answer seeker.
I'm no stranger to rooting, flashing, hacking about and such - I even spend most of my day as a software engineer, and I've finally given up on this one - so here I am (rock me like a hurricane), please be kind.
SM-900T - It was rocking pretty darn well on Jedi Elite which I had flashed over rooted stock 4.3 MI7 - then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly. Thinking it was no biggie, I thought I could just reflash to stock and call it a day. Thirteen or so flashes later, I gave up on 4.3 and figured I'd just take the thing up to 4.4.2 NB4 by upgrading everything to 4.4.2 via Kies.
That's when I first ran into the bootloop issue, read a lot about it, and managed to get it up(ish) on stock, rooted, with Philz 6.X... Couldn't flash a ROM to save myself and wound up with another soft brick.
Flash forward to Friday - decided to start from scratch again - attempted to flash stock 4.4.2 from Kies, from Odin, From Heimdall... Nothing seems to be able to get me out of the current state it's in:
Only boots to download mode. Flashes seem to work fine, but on that first reboot where it tries to go to stock recovery to finish up on the device itself, it never gets there - boot loops trying to load recovery no matter how it wants to get there. If I pull the battery and start up (either straight to system or by cancelling out of download mode), it boot loops trying to load system. Boots fine to download mode, where I attempt to flash again with the same results.
Yes, I've tried Odin 3.0.9, 3.0.7, 1.8.5, Heimdall on Mac, Heimdall on Windows, Kies on Mac, Kies on Windows - repartition via PIT and not. Installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled all software and drivers multiple times, tried multiple cables on multiple USB ports.... Most of the time it looks like it's going to be fine (sometimes the flash fails, usually through Kies), but never surivives that first reboot after the flash.
Every answer I've seen says to do the things I've already done or cannot do (flash stock via Odin, pull the battery and boot to stock recovery and do a factory reset - which I'd LOVE to do, but can't). No problem recognizing the sucker on the PC/Mac
Next step: try flashing a N9005 ROM...
Any other thoughts? I do have another N900T that's working but has a blacklisted IMEI, and I've been tempted to swap the IMEIs a last resort (although either I'm too dumb to make it stick, EFS pro says it succeeds in writing the IMEI after I do a EFS format, but it doesn't stick.... Either I'm missing something, or I need a UART cable) - is there a way of swapping just the radio hardware or just the internal storage? OR, is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?
Failing any of these options, perhaps I'll wait for an Odin-flashable 4.4.3 if such a thing exists - or, hope to get lucky and swap it out at a store praying they don't see I've tripped Knox.

Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Coming from you...
noobtoob said:
Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.

bondidave said:
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I do have a few ideas... Got done questions though.
1. Do you have an external SD card?
2. It goes all the way through flash on 4.4 even with heimdall?
3. Is there anything you have left out? Even the smallest detail can help, and by the op you are detail oriented, so I just need to know.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

... is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but I don't have the details handy.
All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring.
If that doesn't work then let 'noobtoob' walk you through booting with the removable sdcard. Your second N900T will be needed to write the data to the sdcard. If this works then you can 'dd' write stock partitions to an sd card with #2 then 'dd' write them in #1.
If either of those works then unroot and take it in for warrenty exchange.
Frank

bondidave said:
... then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This also indicates data corruption, and this is what started it all. Since you have tried various cables and computers that leaves the device, probably the USB port.
Frank

probably the USB port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.
Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.
Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.
Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)
Thanks again guys

bondidave said:
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.
Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158
I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.
Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.
Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.
Frank

Frank Westlake said:
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.
This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158
I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.
Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.
Frank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was for hard brick method and no one has verified it works on 4.4 KK yet. There is an image in there though. My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response. Located here you will find the kkunbrick.img. There is still a problem flashing anything through heimdall after updating to the 4.4 bootloader, so there is no way to tell if the phone actually took the recovery. I have had to switch to Odin for everything afterwards, and in personal experience 3.07 works best with my phone.
@bondidave I was thinking skipping the sd-card trick for now, and trying just a few other things first. Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.
Also if you have an external find the efs fix zip and have handy on an sd-card, do the same steps above except the nandroid restore. Basically if we can get into a recovery we should be ok. I had a similar issue when it was just booting over and over into download mode and this was how I fixed it. I have never used the efs fix zip, but many others swear by it. I was able to recover fortunately enough.
Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.
As far as making a complete system backup of your current phone, I highly recommend against it, unless you just want to extract information from it and not re-write it. This could definitely cause some system corruption on a new device.
If none of these methods work, then try and have them swap it under warranty.

Frank Westlake said:
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yessirreeebobbyjimmy, tried several copies from several different places - that and Kies is a moron and redownloads it every time anyways.

noobtoob said:
My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I download these things just to have them handy if something fails.
Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think he got that far into installing 4.4, but I recommend not using anything that was saved after this problem began. If the problem was caused by corruption then the restore will reinstall the corruption.
Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the problem is bad USB or other bad hardware causing corruption during transfer then the SD-card boot will get past that, then transferring the rest of the partitions by SD-card will continue to be corruption-free. He could then trade-in the phone.
But you are right -- he should try everything else before the SD-card boot. Because if something else succeeds then maybe the hardware is fine, and if he went immediately to SD-card boot he wouldn't know that.
Frank

Thanks for the advice guys - I'm going to try the backup from my other phone, then the efs fix, then the sd-card boot... I'll report back, wish me luck.

A nandroid previous failure, or a ROM install from external SD card was all I meant.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.

Lorettaa said:
I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad something good came out of my frustration!
Here's a quick update: I've done everything but the boot from SD card with no luck (and actually thought I had hard(er?) bricked it for a while after trying to copy over a few images from the other phone - turns out it needed to stay with the battery out for at least 20 minutes).
Good news - walked into a TMO brick-and-mortar last night, showed the guy my endless bootloop, and a replacement is on its way to my house for an affordable $20 warranty service fee.
At this point, I'm thinking the internal flash memory is just bad - as a software engineer, I'm ok with chalking this one up to a hardware issue (as much as I was hoping that my first post on XDA would result in some new profound solution to a longstanding issue common to a few folks).
Oh well - new Note 3 on it's way, and a new S5 shortly behind it (didn't hold out much hope on TMO hooking me up, so I ordered an S5)... let the battle of the Samsungs begin!
Thanks again to you guys who helped out - and the whole XDA community in general, I am very grateful.

Finally you made it fix and enjoy the battle between your phones

Well, sucks it couldn't be fixed, but glad you got a replacement on the way. It pretty much sounded like the partitions were well over written before we attempted anything, but always worth a shot.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Yes, but I don't have the details handy.
All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring. :good:

[Q] Huawei U9200 Ascend P1 soft-bricked

Hello,
My Ascend P1 seems to be soft-bricked, the phone turns on and I can access CWM Recovery... or so it seems. It all started when my phone's battery died and right after that, I put it to charge and left it alone for around 4 hours. When I came back, it hadn't charged at all, I tried to turn it on and it would get past the Huawei Logo and pass to the LiquidSmooth ROM launcher screen, however, it would just freeze and restart the phone. It fell in what I heard is called a bootloop.
I did some research here and there and found a lot of tutorials about how everything is done from the scratch. I did the basics, clear cache, dalvik-cache, factory-reset, etc, but when I tried to install the ROM from the SDCard, the installation finishes way too fast (15 seconds at most), almost as if it did nothing (which I believe it's true).
I also tried to install a new recovery through a tool called Shaume, it seemed to be working at first; I installed it (which took probably like 3 seconds to install), it launched the "new recovery" and everything about seemed to work just fine, however, when I first did this I had forgotten to put the ROM in my SD Card so I took it out, put the ROM in it and to make sure, I restarted the phone. After it restarted, it went back to the old CWM I had installed (this one has no touchscreen features) and it seemed as if everything I had done was for naught.
I just don't know what to do anymore. I tried to take a look at the logs after trying to format /data, /cache and such, and the most notable thing I saw there was "rm: can't remove '/data/dalvik-cache/' read-only file system", this same "read-only" happened referring to some of the applications I had installed before.
I am no expert in this matter, as I myself have never even rooted/flashed ROMs (the phone was already rooted/flashed when I got it). At least, through all of the research I've done it seems that as long as the phone is able to get to the Recovery, it's not something that cannot be fixed.
I really hope you can help me fix this.
Thanks in advance!

I'd try to Flash Stock firmware before trying again.
I am requesting to have this thread move to the right forum so that the right experts may be of help.

Oh, I'm really sorry. I'm totally new in this forum and thought this was the correct section for this thread.
Sorry, again. And thanks for your help.

I like some solution?
SairoJ said:
Oh, I'm really sorry. I'm totally new in this forum and thought this was the correct section for this thread.
Sorry, again. And thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried with all tutorials and I have not accomplished anything

Sprint galaxy s3 e:failed to mount /es (invalid argument)

Hey guys, been reading through the threads and not really finding a clear answer or solution to this problem. This is a completely stock sprint sph-l710. I started getting this box with yellow lettering overshadowing the primary display of which I've learned indicates the phone is in 'factory mode'. I thought performing a factory reset would fix this but it did not. I noticed when you boot the phone in recovery mode I see the efs error. I am thinking the underlying issue is with fixing the efs problem. Now that I have reset the phone I no longer have data network access, im guessing because of this factory mode. I am new to this and not real understanding of the lingo everyone uses. From what I've read Im worried im going down a rabbit hole if i start tinkering. I am looking for clear instructions to repair what I think is corrupted software (I'm guessing the operating system software). The instructions I've seen seem to skip steps that are probably rudimentary to everyone else but leaves me without a starting place. I have downloaded oden but i am not certain again without precise instructions that I am not going to permanently mess up my phone.. there appear to be a number of variations of this device and i want to make sure the instructions I get will work on mine. I will take any advise on getting this resolved. I am not opposed to rooting the phone either if that fixes the problem (no idea how to do this, never tried, but some threads on here I think I can follow to do it safely). With that said, different threads also seem to indicate (emphasize 'seem to') that team win recovery can fix this but there are no clear responses regarding my issue of a solid fix. Thank you for any help

timbow4 said:
Hey guys, been reading through the threads and not really finding a clear answer or solution to this problem. This is a completely stock sprint sph-l710. I started getting this box with yellow lettering overshadowing the primary display of which I've learned indicates the phone is in 'factory mode'. I thought performing a factory reset would fix this but it did not. I noticed when you boot the phone in recovery mode I see the efs error. I am thinking the underlying issue is with fixing the efs problem. Now that I have reset the phone I no longer have data network access, im guessing because of this factory mode. I am new to this and not real understanding of the lingo everyone uses. From what I've read Im worried im going down a rabbit hole if i start tinkering. I am looking for clear instructions to repair what I think is corrupted software (I'm guessing the operating system software). The instructions I've seen seem to skip steps that are probably rudimentary to everyone else but leaves me without a starting place. I have downloaded oden but i am not certain again without precise instructions that I am not going to permanently mess up my phone.. there appear to be a number of variations of this device and i want to make sure the instructions I get will work on mine. I will take any advise on getting this resolved. I am not opposed to rooting the phone either if that fixes the problem (no idea how to do this, never tried, but some threads on here I think I can follow to do it safely). With that said, different threads also seem to indicate (emphasize 'seem to') that team win recovery can fix this but there are no clear responses regarding my issue of a solid fix. Thank you for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odin will flash the factory firmware for you. Get firmware from sammobile. Look for sph L710 device, and firmware with NJ2 in the name. Put phone in download mode, (power off then hold power+home+volume down) plug in phone to pc. Wait till Odin says added. Click AP in odin, select firmware you downloaded, click start. When it's done, unplug phone, remove battery, put it back in and reboot.
This may not fix your efs partition, but it's the first thing to try.
Odin
I found the thread for nj2 firmware here

issue still persists
Hey Madbat, thank you so much for reaching out to me and giving me the advise. Installing the firmware through odin was really easy. Thank you for that! However, it did not fix the issue. When the phone came back up it still has the exact same problem. I am going to attach a couple pictures to show you what i am seeing... Really appreciate your time and help!
hell, sorry it says im a new user and wont let me post the pictures...

timbow4 said:
Hey Madbat, thank you so much for reaching out to me and giving me the advise. Installing the firmware through odin was really easy. Thank you for that! However, it did not fix the issue. When the phone came back up it still has the exact same problem. I am going to attach a couple pictures to show you what i am seeing... Really appreciate your time and help!
hell, sorry it says im a new user and wont let me post the pictures...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I never had that issue. Maybe someone else will chime in with experience on the efs partition. That's not a triband s3 is it? (Sph l710t?) T at the end means triband. Second thought, I don't think the firmware would have flashed if it was triband.
How did you wipe your efs?

Its not a tri band. Just SPH-L710. Wish this forum would let me post the pictures of what my phone is doing.. Since the firmware doesnt correct the issue I would think then its a problem with the operating system itself. I have been scouring the web and have found various threads specifically about efs repairs but they entail doing things that seem awful complicated. And i dont know if those things work on my model phone. Maybe rooting the phone gets deep enough to over write or repair the issue. Is there not a way to restore the operating system itself maybe or is that what a replacement ROM does? I am thinking of trying my hand at rooting the phone and seeing what happens. One thread indicated TWRP would backup and restore the EFS file. Im thinking if it backs up a corrupt efs file what good is that, maybe it fixes it too. Found an excellent video on XDA for rooting the S3. Hopefully it or I dont make it worse. Love to get this one fixed but i guess the reality is the phone is old. Thank you for the input

timbow4 said:
Its not a tri band. Just SPH-L710. Wish this forum would let me post the pictures of what my phone is doing.. Since the firmware doesnt correct the issue I would think then its a problem with the operating system itself. I have been scouring the web and have found various threads specifically about efs repairs but they entail doing things that seem awful complicated. And i dont know if those things work on my model phone. Maybe rooting the phone gets deep enough to over write or repair the issue. Is there not a way to restore the operating system itself maybe or is that what a replacement ROM does? I am thinking of trying my hand at rooting the phone and seeing what happens. One thread indicated TWRP would backup and restore the EFS file. Im thinking if it backs up a corrupt efs file what good is that, maybe it fixes it too. Found an excellent video on XDA for rooting the S3. Hopefully it or I dont make it worse. Love to get this one fixed but i guess the reality is the phone is old. Thank you for the input
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Backing up and restoring it won't help. You already installed a new operating system ( that's what the firmware is).the efs is part of your radios. If I remember correctly it contains your imei and other important things specific to your phone.
You may be out of luck there dude. Don't know how you wiped your efs.
Rooting this phone is simple. Just flash TWRP with Odin. Download the Twrp image from their site. Same as flashing the firmware, only you select recovery instead of AP in odin and select the Twrp image.tar instead of the firmware tar.
https://dl.twrp.me/d2spr/
Use the top on the page. (Newest)
And then use twrp to flash either SuperSU, or Magisk.
Done.
Flashing a custom rom will not fix your issue. You need a working efs. Flashing any operating system will not fix it (you already flashed the whole operating system).
Twrp can restore an efs, but only if you have a working one to backup first. You were right about backing up yours now and restoring will do nothing.
Has it ever been activated?

Prior to this, every once in awhile when i changed a battery out and turned the phone on it would have a pop-up screen tell me something was bad and the phone needed to be reset (something along those lines) and i always just turned the phone back off and on and it booted up fine each time. That may have been an indicator that something, file or system file maybe was corrupted. Then a few week ago when it booted up it started doing this whole thing. Prior to me factory restoring the phone here recently it was completely functional but since the restoration it will no longer connect me to the network. If you goto settings and click on some system features it will turn the network on for that specific function (temporarily) but does not give me any other access. It tells me that the network works but it being blocked (maybe because of the factory mode issue). The wifi works and i can make and receive calls. Still manageable but very annoying. Im going to try your instructions with installing TWRP. If i am successful then maybe i can also get into the system files and possibly restore the broken one.. Thanks again

update
So I have successfully rooted the phone by intstalling TWRP ver 3.2.1 and using TWRP to flash SuperSU ver 2.82. I also installed root explorer to get access to system files. I gained access to the EFS folder and it is empty. So now I'm not understanding if the folder is completely empty how does the phone still work at all? More research led me to a XDA developer that put together a program called EFS Professional which is supposed to backup and restore efs or imei data. Really slick program, basically takes the complication out of locating and backing up the EFS information yourself. (I would include a link but I still cant..) It includes an ADB shell and the ability to make some changes to the phone including directly turning off factory mode . It also had me install an application called BusyBox Pro which is also a very handy tool for getting access to system files. What I don't understand is that the EFS Professional program seems to locate the efs information on my phone and backups it up and then restores it from said backup however when I look at the efs folder its empty. Perhaps not all the efs information is located in the efs folder. And of course since that folder is empty the function of turning factory mode off fails because it cant find the files. I have found a few threads that has very simple instructions once you have super user access you can go right into the efs folder to factory mode and simply turn it off. Mine is empty.. So again the problem continues. Possibly with access to the ADB shell and more help from folks on here I can figure out a way to restore my efs information. I don't know if the efs information can be used from a another same model phone, I'm guessing not if it has a specific imei identification. Im working hard on this but still unsolved. I know way more at this point then I did but I think I still know just enough to be dangerous. Thankfully my phone is still functional at this point..

Soft Bricked LG G3, trying to get LineageOS on it. (Success!)

I was needing a new phone and saw a Linus Tech Tips video where he took an LG G3 and put LineageOS on it. So I thought I'd try it out for myself following his guidelines at https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1058206-lg-g3-lineageos-tutorial/
I bought an LG G3 D851 (T-Mobile version) off EBay for this. It's my first Android phone (yes, experimenting on my first Android Phone), I've always used Windows phones. This is what I've done to the LG G3 so far:
I reverted back to KitKat. Everything seemed to have gone just fine.
Then I downloaded the the Full Purple Drake Root and ran that after I figured out that .gz files are a compressed file and that can be decompressed. Everything seemed to have worked fine.
Then I downloaded the TWRP app on the phone and tried to backup the recovery via the TWRP app, which I'm not sure if it worked correctly. But anyhow.
Now that I'm writing this I see I missed this step:
number seven: Select the TWRP file we copied over earlier in the app, flash it to recovery, and then reboot to recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I just didn't understand what was meant by flashing it over and has just copied it to the phone's memory which I later wiped.
Well then I went into TWRP recovery and tried to do a recovery backup, which it seemed to do just fine. I rebooted and tried copying it over to the computer, which seems to not have worked. I just have an empty folder on my computer as we speak.
Then back in the TWRP recovery, I selected Wipe>Advanced Wipe, and select Dalvik, Cache, Data, Internal Storage, and System – then swipe to wipe.
Then I downloaded the latest version and nightly of LineageOS zip file and the Opengapps zip file but then had a hard time figuring how to get them to the phone.
I figured out that I could stick them on an SD card and slip it into the LG G3 that I'm working on and could see the files from the TWRP recovery menu.
So I tried to install the LIneageOS zip file several times and it didn't work. I'm guessing it's because I forgot to flash a certain file to TWRP recovery and am not sure how to do that, especially now with the phone only booting into recovery mode with the TWRP menu since it's wiped clean and will just display the LG logo and turn the LED different colors if I try to normal boot the phone.
Well I still want to try to fix the phone and go for LineageOS. I spent nearly all night working on it so I may give it a rest for a few days. But any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Now that I think about it, I didn't do what I mentioned ok #4 above about flashing the TWRP recovery because TWRP recovery was installed with the full Purple Drake root. However, the Linus Tech Tips instructions point to them rooting the phone with the lite version of Purple Drake (root only) and then flashing the newest version of TWRP recovery. So I wonder if my problem has to do with my having the latest version of TWRP recovery on my phone.

Ok. So I think I'm making progress, although that's just a feeling I have since I'm not suite what I'm really doing.
Anyhow the error code was something like "Unknown Error, Error Executing Updater Binary in Zip, Zip is for LG G3 D851, this phone is...(blank)". So I found an article in DroidThunder.com talking about this very problem. It suggested unzipping the rom on my computer and looking for the updater-script file and erasing some lines that apparently only have to do with verification. Then re-zip and retry.
Now I'm getting a "No MD5 file" message followed by an "Error flashing zip" message.
Edit: After reading this I take it I have an older version of TWRP, that is, v2.7.1.0, whereas the newet versio (for this phone?) is apparently 3.3.1-0. That seems to have an effect on this. I wonder if it's possibly to flash a newer version of TWRP onto this bricked phone. Anyhow, I'll have to look into that later. It's time to call it a day.

So recently I've been focusing on these two threads:
[GUIDE] LG G3 D851 Unbrick Qualcomm 9008 Fully Working... Unbrickable D851! by Omar-Avelar
And:
[GUIDE][FIX][DISCUSSION] LG G3 Hard Brick Recovery by l33tlinuxh4x0r
But I can't get either of them to work. I guess the only other thing would be to try to find a ROM, preferably the original KitKat that came with the phone, and hope and pray that I can get TWRP recovery v2.7 to install it.
I have the original as a tot file. But as far as I understand, I need a zip file that's set up for TWRP recovery.
Anyhow, trying to get this phone running hasn't been easy and has made other problems. Now every time I turn on my Surface 3 I have to go through BitLocker authentication. Hopefully turning bcd Test Signing off will stop that. But I'm getting to the point that I'm feeling like giving up.

Well that's it. Last night I found a zip file for the original Marshmallow ROM for my G3. I got it onto the SD card, went into TWRP recovery, saw it install, restarted and...
Now it's hard bricked. I cannot even get into TWRP recovery. The screen won't show a thing. I tried several times to get it into any mode possible, normal boot, TWRP recovery boot, download mode, and that jumping the pins trick, and I can't get it to where I can do something with the phone.
So I'm giving up on all this rooting, custom recoveries and custom ROM stuff. It all seems like a good idea, and I'd love to be a part of it all. But I take it this isn't for me. So I give up.
Thanks to all who have worked on this and have made the helpful forums about these phones! Maybe if I were more competent I would have figured it out.

Well, I said I was giving up. But maybe not. I did give up trying to recover the phone from being bricked and sent it out to a JTAG shop. For about $40 the phone is supposedly fixed and on it's way back.
But when it's back, do I just leave it alone this time, or should I try to get Lineage OS back on it again? Well, this is something that I haven't made my mind up yet. I see where I had made several mistakes when I first tried to get LineageOS on it. Maybe I know enough now that it won't happen again. But at the same time there's no guarantee that I won't me it up again, and have to pay some $40 again to have it unbricked.

SUCCESS!!!
So I got my phone back with stock Marshmallow working. Then I carefully went through every step on the Linus Tech Tips site, including installing the latest version of TWRP, and the next thing I know I'm running LineageOS 16 on my phone!
This is great! It's my first Android Phone and I've got it setup just about perfect! The only thing I kind of miss is Wi-Fi calling. But that didn't work so well on the Alcatel Window's phones I had anyway. But I got all the apps and most of the music I need installed and am ready to go! I also have two batteries, and the original isn't too bad, so I might carry that around as a backup until I'm sure how much battery I'll be using.
I'll be coming back and thanking all the ones who's posts and work have helped me individually. But if you read this and are one of those who have worked on TWRP, LineageOS and anything else that has helped me, Thank You!