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[Q] [HELP] Soft Bricked i9505

I rooted my GS4 yesterday and had no issues at all until i tried to flash a MOD to obtain wireless hotspot, but what i didnt notice was the MOD was for a Sprint version GS4. I know know if thats exactly what made my phone brick but im pretty positive because it was during the reboot that the phone got stuck on the TMO screen and apparently remaining soft-bricked. I spent the rest of the night and all of today reading and researching how to fix it myself before coming here to ask for help, so please bare with me.
I have already attempted to flash the official stock firmware using Odin, but it displays an error everytime saying it failed and something about AUTH. Sorry if im sounding vague, i am on a back up phone to use the internet and forgot to right down the exact message.. Anywho, i tried wiping everything and redoing the process and i even tried to flash the appropiate PIT file that i found but it still displays an error and says failed because of some AUTH or SEC problem.
Ive been at this diligently for almost 12 hours. My brain is filled with all these suggestions and methods that i have tried to use to restore my phone back to factory, but none of them have worked. I can still get into recovery and all that, so im assuming that there is still good chance i could fix the problem?
Also i am starting to get myself more and more confused about whether the firmware i downloaded is the right one i need for my phone, it seemed so at first but now i see theres TONS of region codes that can determine the firmware version?
Sorry if im all over the place, but i just dont know which step to take next..
I appreciate any help that is given, and im even willing to pay (some) bucks or maybe even (btc) for someone to walk me through what i need to do or what im doing wrong.
Thanks in Advance

Have you followed every single thing in the return to stock thread? Including updating your drivers, using the USB cable that came with your phone, running Odin as admin, etc?

Toleraen said:
Have you followed every single thing in the return to stock thread? Including updating your drivers, using the USB cable that came with your phone, running Odin as admin, etc?
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No i havent tried that threads strategy, although i have done the same exact steps but only difference i see is that the firmware file name is:
M919UVUAMDL
While the one i was trying to use earlier was:
I9505XXUAMDM
This is where im getting very confused because i cant find a cut and dry way of knowing which firmware is the correct one..

koolbreez12 said:
No i havent tried that threads strategy, although i have done the same exact steps but only difference i see is that the firmware file name is:
M919UVUAMDL
While the one i was trying to use earlier was:
I9505XXUAMDM
This is where im getting very confused because i cant find a cut and dry way of knowing which firmware is the correct one..
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You do have the T-Mobile SGS4, correct? Any files with I9505 in the name are for the international version, which is what you flashed (not the right file). All of ours will mention SGH-M919, M919, or jfltetmo in the file name. Pull the one in the thread I linked above and push that.
Crossing your fingers while doing so couldn't hurt...
Edit: I'd recommend using the "Download UVUAMDL Official TAR" in that thread as well, not the "stock tar (original)", since the MDL is official.

Toleraen said:
You do have the T-Mobile SGS4, correct? Any files with I9505 in the name are for the international version, which is what you flashed (not the right file). All of ours will mention SGH-M919, M919, or jfltetmo in the file name. Pull the one in the thread I linked above and push that.
Crossing your fingers while doing so couldn't hurt...
Edit: I'd recommend using the "Download UVUAMDL Official TAR" in that thread as well, not the "stock tar (original)", since the MDL is official.
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Thanks so much, i feel stupid for not realizing the difference between the two haha. Im d/l the firmware from the thread you referenced as we speak so i definitely will keep my fingers crossed and let you know how it turns out!
Thanks again. Im not sure how to give a thanks on here or credit for you help but your help is definitely appreciated.

error post

If you can get into download mode i would suggest flashing stock with that then rerooting that way the program downloads all of the nessacary stuff on its own.

koolbreez12 said:
Thanks so much, i feel stupid for not realizing the difference between the two haha. Im d/l the firmware from the thread you referenced as we speak so i definitely will keep my fingers crossed and let you know how it turns out!
Thanks again. Im not sure how to give a thanks on here or credit for you help but your help is definitely appreciated.
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Welcome!
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium

Hard Bricked Phone, long story.

I assume since this is the AT&T Galaxy S 3 section, you already know that I have the SGH-i747 model.
So I've been looking for a while, and I can't find anyone that has caused my same problem the way I did. I'll give the entire story: After having my S3 for a while, I decided to try rooting. I did it successfully, and got CyanogenMod installed. I don't know what, but I wanted to go back to touchwiz. I loaded a backup because it was exactly what I had before CM. fast forward about a month and a half, AT&T keeps bugging me about some update. It's the 4.3 update, I find out, after I installed it. Now, here's the confusing part. The SuperUser app was left over, but I have no CWM and no root privileges. I used this watch?v=yuBuD9aL12o (Paste after yt url) tutorial to root and get SuperSU, and it worked. The phone restarted many times in that entire process, and in the end it worked. One forum told me to install and apk called EZ-Unlock12.apk to unlock my boot loader. (I have included the exact APK if you want to look at it.) It just said successful and I closed out. Now, I wanted to flash CWM again with ODIN. I installed the drivers, and booted up ODIN. This is when it happened. I loaded up the CWM.tar.md5 file into ODIN, (not exact file name but you get what I mean), and it did it's verification and said it was good. I don't remember having my phone plugged in while doing this. I went to shut down my phone and put it in DL/ODIN mode. But now it has happened. I tried to bring my phone back up, but it didn't give ANY feedback. The only possible way to make it do ANYTHING is to plug it in without the battery, and i get the red light. I think it may have been that boot loader unlock program that messed it up, but I can't say for sure.
TL;DR I hardbricked my phone and don't know what went wrong.

Is that app for the verizon version of the s3? I believe the AT&T version of the s3 is the SGH-i747; however, your post refers to the sch-747 in the first line. From everything I have read, there is no way to unlock the AT&T s3 bootloader.
Not sure if this would help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2549068

audit13 said:
Is that app for the verizon version of the s3? I believe the AT&T version of the s3 is the SGH-i747; however, your post refers to the sch-747 in the first line. From everything I have read, there is no way to unlock the AT&T s3 bootloader.
Not sure if this would help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2549068
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I meant SGH-i747, sorry for any confusion.

Did you try the unbricking method I linked? I think that may be the only way to unbrick the phone since it appears that your bootloader has been corrupted. If the unbrick method doesn't work, you'll probably have to have it repair via jtag.

Were you able to get it back to normal state? I am in the same situation as you with the same problem and was wondering if i should go do the method someone provided or just go ahead and pay for a jtag service.

Stuck on Samsung boot screen

I rooted my old milestone many years ago but havee been keeping my devices stock ever since, until today that is. Today I decided I wanted to try to root my Samsung SGH-I747M with Telus and everything seemed to start off smoothly. Once installed the SuperSU stopped working. I tried fixs I had read online such as updating the app, but this did not work. I read on a forum that you could flash something to disable know to help fix the problem. When I tried going this avenue I was not able to reboot my phone. I tried restoring from a backup taken before flashing, but I havent done any of this in so long im not entirely sure the backup took properly. At one point I got a message saying no OS was installed but after restoring this seemed to go away. I apparently do not remember anything about rooting from my milestone and am hoping someone may be able to help me get out of this mess. I am currently downloading the stock firmware and I think I will try flashing it tomorrow. I also was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a thread on xda that went into a more detailed explanation of how rooting works, what specifically roms and flashing all is and does. Any help is greatly appreciated.

cdriver said:
I rooted my old milestone many years ago but havee been keeping my devices stock ever since, until today that is. Today I decided I wanted to try to root my Samsung SGH-I747M with Telus and everything seemed to start off smoothly. Once installed the SuperSU stopped working. I tried fixs I had read online such as updating the app, but this did not work. I read on a forum that you could flash something to disable know to help fix the problem. When I tried going this avenue I was not able to reboot my phone. I tried restoring from a backup taken before flashing, but I havent done any of this in so long im not entirely sure the backup took properly. At one point I got a message saying no OS was installed but after restoring this seemed to go away. I apparently do not remember anything about rooting from my milestone and am hoping someone may be able to help me get out of this mess. I am currently downloading the stock firmware and I think I will try flashing it tomorrow. I also was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a thread on xda that went into a more detailed explanation of how rooting works, what specifically roms and flashing all is and does. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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General section is most likely the best place for that.
Here's a How-to that should get you started: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2538991
And here is the Sticky index: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1725839 Lots of good guides and info in there!

General section is most likely the best place for that.
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The Only problem is I already attempted to follow this and my phone will no longer boot up. Also I tried navigating through the stickies. couldn't find much info for my device. I will be trying to flash the stock firmware tonight but I want to have a clear understanding on what flashing is and what the difference is between os firmware kernel and rom and such BEFORE flashing this firmware tonight. I hope someone will be able to help.

cdriver said:
The Only problem is I already attempted to follow this and my phone will no longer boot up. Also I tried navigating through the stickies. couldn't find much info for my device. I will be trying to flash the stock firmware tonight but I want to have a clear understanding on what flashing is and what the difference is between os firmware kernel and rom and such BEFORE flashing this firmware tonight. I hope someone will be able to help.
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Well that info is already in the Sticky Index. Understanding what you're doing (or about to do) is really important but you gotta start reading, it's all there.
OS, firmware and ROM are the same thing.
When your phone boots, it basically goes: Bootloaders -> Kernel -> ROM (OS).
The kernel has pretty much all the "underground" controls (RAM, Mhz, governor, scheduler, BT, Wifi, etc).
I won't write everything but those are the basics.
Also, having a Canadian variant of the S3 (that's what the M is for), doesn't change much other than flashing bootloaders and stock ROM (which you'll wanna use the Canadian variant bootloaders and Telus ROM for stock). Everything else is basically the same.

Also, having a Canadian variant of the S3 (that's what the M is for), doesn't change much other than flashing bootloaders and stock ROM (which you'll wanna use the Canadian variant bootloaders and Telus ROM for stock). Everything else is basically the same.
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Sweet I will definitely check that out. So I did flash twrp to my phone. Is it possible that I flashed the version say for the i747 but not the m version and that is why the phone wont move past the samsung screen? Also should I attempt to get rid of twrp before flashing the stock firmware. This should answer all my questions and then I will explore the stickies some more.

cdriver said:
Sweet I will definitely check that out. So I did flash twrp to my phone. Is it possible that I flashed the version say for the i747 but not the m version and that is why the phone wont move past the samsung screen? Also should I attempt to get rid of twrp before flashing the stock firmware. This should answer all my questions and then I will explore the stickies some more.
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If flashing a stock ROM, flash the Telus one. If flashing a custom ROM, it doesn't matter (I747 or M variant), as long as it's D2LTE.
Your recovery doesn't change anything to flashing with Odin, it will overwrite it.

Flashing the stock firmware fixed my problems. Thanks for all of your help and I will definitely be checking out the links that you sent me before trying to root again tomorrow.

GS3 model confusion

So my dad bought a GS3 and it shows that it's a t999 model in the settings. It's on UVDMD5 has the UVDMD5 radio as well. I was going to odin flash to the new 4.3 root 66 but it threw out an error. I looked at the phone and in download mode it shows it's a i-747 so I'm super confused right now. I also have an s3 myself and when I remove the battery and check my phone it shows model: sgh-t999 and also shows t999 in download mode as well. On the new phone my dad purchased it shows model: GT-T999 where the battery goes. So yeah I'm pretty confused. I managed to flash the tmo twrp and flashed superuser zip and rooted it sucessfully but I wanted to update it to 4.3 but now I'm not even sure what firmware to flash

Looks like yet another frankenphone. Wish I knew where these things were coming from!
Its hard to tell you what to do, but if it currently had MD5 on there, you probably need to stick with T999 firmware. Well, maybe....
Install terminal emulator and enter this:
getprop ro.bootloader
This will tell you what the firmware is. You cant judge by the rom or baseband.
Anyway, almost every time ive seen these things, the recommendation is usually to see if you can return the device. Theres just too many questions and things that dont match up. If you plan on using it as is, and never care about updates and such, I guess it might be ok, but otherwise theres just too great a chance for future problems!
For starters, there's no such thing as a GT-T999. And If download mode says its an I747, id guess youre using the I747 base firmware/bootloader. However, your system and baseband are from the T999 firmware, so we can be pretty confident that flashing I747 firmware will not work. But you probably can only flash I747 firmware because thats what your bootloader appears to be! Very confusing, very messed up, I know! Its highly possible, judging by the GT-T999, that it might be a chinese knock-off.
It may or may not help, but install Phone Info - Samsung app. Then let me know what it tells you. I dont think theres going to be a lot we can do though, but ill be glad to take a look anyway.

DocHoliday77 said:
Looks like yet another frankenphone. Wish I knew where these things were coming from!
Its hard to tell you what to do, but if it currently had MD5 on there, you probably need to stick with T999 firmware. Well, maybe....
Install terminal emulator and enter this:
getprop ro.bootloader
This will tell you what the firmware is. You cant judge by the rom or baseband.
Anyway, almost every time ive seen these things, the recommendation is usually to see if you can return the device. Theres just too many questions and things that dont match up. If you plan on using it as is, and never care about updates and such, I guess it might be ok, but otherwise theres just too great a chance for future problems!
For starters, there's no such thing as a GT-T999. And If download mode says its an I747, id guess youre using the I747 base firmware/bootloader. However, your system and baseband are from the T999 firmware, so we can be pretty confident that flashing I747 firmware will not work. But you probably can only flash I747 firmware because thats what your bootloader appears to be! Very confusing, very messed up, I know! Its highly possible, judging by the GT-T999, that it might be a chinese knock-off.
It may or may not help, but install Phone Info - Samsung app. Then let me know what it tells you. I dont think theres going to be a lot we can do though, but ill be glad to take a look anyway.
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Yes it was super confusing! It's so weird. I did the getprop ro.bootloader and I got I747UCALI5. I'm kinda scared to odin anything since I really have no idea what model I actually have so I just ended up flashing the latest PA rom & so far everything seems fine

Yup, its exactly as I expected! I747 bootloader/base firmware with T999 system and modem. These are not things that should work together and it also means there is no safe way to update your firmware. LI5 sounds like its really old btw. But tbh, I dont know if its even a real build number! I can say you will not be able to run TW kk roms and might not be able to run 4.3 ones as well. CM/aosp, im not sure about, but I know they were known to be really buggy on older firmware.
If it is an option, I strongly suggest seeing if you can get a refund. May I ask where it was bought from? I think whenever we run into these we need to start letting people know not to purchase from those sellers. For one, to protect folks from having this happen to them, but also to try and discourage this type of business practice (if you even want to call it that!). Its almost as bad as people who sell devices and then report them lost!
---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------
Just checked and LI5 is a real build, but it is old. 4.1.1

DocHoliday77 said:
Yup, its exactly as I expected! I747 bootloader/base firmware with T999 system and modem. These are not things that should work together and it also means there is no safe way to update your firmware. LI5 sounds like its really old btw. But tbh, I dont know if its even a real build number! I can say you will not be able to run TW kk roms and might not be able to run 4.3 ones as well. CM/aosp, im not sure about, but I know they were known to be really buggy on older firmware.
If it is an option, I strongly suggest seeing if you can get a refund. May I ask where it was bought from? I think whenever we run into these we need to start letting people know not to purchase from those sellers. For one, to protect folks from having this happen to them, but also to try and discourage this type of business practice (if you even want to call it that!). Its almost as bad as people who sell devices and then report them lost!
---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------
Just checked and LI5 is a real build, but it is old. 4.1.1
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Just asked my dad & he said he bought it from a pawnshop which isn't surprising why there is so much confusion about the model lol. Would having an old bootloader cause problems? I was able to flash the latest PA beta but I haven't encountered any issues as of yet

I dont use non touchwiz roms, but I do remember they all started requiring certain bootloaders nrcsuse they were encountering too many bugs on older ones. I dont know any details though.
Id imagine youll encounter issues flashing any rom thst has the assert check. It checks to make sure you have a certain bootloader, and most here will be checking for T999 builds. Since yours has the I747 bootloader, it may cause trouble flashing certain roms.
That and you wont be able to easily or safely update the firmware...
Not sure theres much that could be done since it came from a pawn shop though.

DocHoliday77 said:
I dont use non touchwiz roms, but I do remember they all started requiring certain bootloaders nrcsuse they were encountering too many bugs on older ones. I dont know any details though.
Id imagine youll encounter issues flashing any rom thst has the assert check. It checks to make sure you have a certain bootloader, and most here will be checking for T999 builds. Since yours has the I747 bootloader, it may cause trouble flashing certain roms.
That and you wont be able to easily or safely update the firmware...
Not sure theres much that could be done since it came from a pawn shop though.
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Yeah this whole situation has been odd. I'll advise my dad to avoid pawnshops from now on lol. Whenever I was in download mode I noticed the flashcount had shown 3 and I ended up using triangle away to reset it when I was still on 4.1.2 for the moment. Before I rooted it or anything it already had supersu installed but I don't think the phone was actually rooted cause everytime I would open supersu it would tell me to update the binary and it would fail each time and any other root apps I installed were denied root. The phone still had stock recovery as well. I honestly thought it was a t-999 up until I was going to flash the nc2 update and it failed and that's when I realized hey this isn't really a t999. I ended up flashing twrp instead and flashed the supersu zip to get root. I flashed paranoid android afterwards and when I went to about phone i noticed everything changed from t-999 to I747 including the modem. It was weird. I ended up reflashing att twrp just to be safe, I flashed the latest modem from at&t, and I crossed my fingers & bravely flashed a zip that updated my bootloader to the latest one for the I747 and it actually worked which was a huge sigh of relief. I reflashed paranoid android afterwards and so far no issues. Now that I updated everything I might end up just flashing a touchwiz rom from the at&t forums. Thanks for your help though, I greatly appreciate it! :good:

Q Rom

So im with at&t so our latest is 4.4.3.... I currently cant run 4.4.4 because i lack the firmware and im s-on... So where can i find a 4.4.3 base rom? Every thread posted is for 4.4.4 which borks wifi without proper firmware... So im pretty much stuck with having to deal with aosp... Im really sick of the bugs on aosp but if i have to remqin stuck then i guess i havent a choice
EDIT... just realized that i'm on 4.4.2... at&t is starting to fall behind on updates for this m8... looks like ill seriously be sol if i cant get this resolved because i really want to use a stock rom but i can't because they're failing to update this device... when i had the samsung galaxy s5 they made sure they kept that phone updated a lot... this is just ridiculous lmao

PureLife90 said:
So im with at&t so our latest is 4.4.3.... I currently cant run 4.4.4 because i lack the firmware and im s-on... So where can i find a 4.4.3 base rom? Every thread posted is for 4.4.4 which borks wifi without proper firmware... So im pretty much stuck with having to deal with aosp... Im really sick of the bugs on aosp but if i have to remqin stuck then i guess i havent a choice
EDIT... just realized that i'm on 4.4.2... at&t is starting to fall behind on updates for this m8... looks like ill seriously be sol if i cant get this resolved because i really want to use a stock rom but i can't because they're failing to update this device... when i had the samsung galaxy s5 they made sure they kept that phone updated a lot... this is just ridiculous lmao
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You are far from stuck. Pay the $25 to use SunShine S-Off and always have the newest. Simple as that.

xunholyx said:
You are far from stuck. Pay the $25 to use SunShine S-Off and always have the newest. Simple as that.
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Okay I will. So then which firmware would I install ? There are so many and I'm far from understanding what firmware is for my at&t m8

E
PureLife90 said:
Okay I will. So then which firmware would I install ? There are so many and I'm far from understanding what firmware is for my at&t m8
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Download this. Rename it to 0P6BIMG.zip (the first is a zero not an "o"). Place it on the root of your SD card. Boot into fastboot. Enter hboot. Sit back and let your phone do its thing. Reboot. Profit!
Once you are S-Off, follow these instructions and you will have the latest firmware available for your device.
EDIT: Once you are done, delete the zip from your extSD. Otherwise, every time you enter hboot, the firmware will try to update again.
Also, if you have any problems flashing the firmware, feel free to PM me, and I will help you out.
THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION FOR EVERYONE TO PM ME. Post in the Q&A, and someone; maybe me, maybe someone else; will help you.

Will I need super cid or do I just flash it?