Database Develop

[Q] Hard Brick without a reason?

I think its a hard brick, absolutely nothing happens to my phone. No Power, no nothing. Basically, i flashed back to stock eclair, and everythign was running smoothly. I used titanium backup to delete all user apps, and then restore them (from my other backup). Then i got rom manager, installed CWM, and rebooted into it. I then installed the 3 button fix. Went back into eclair, and transferred the cm7 file into the internal sd. Then i rebooted again into recovery... But this time, i realized i had to go out, so i pressed reboot phone. And now nothing works at all.
Any ideas?

try to build jig first, or go to ebay, search for "micro usb jig" and buy one.

supaphreek said:
I think its a hard brick, absolutely nothing happens to my phone. No Power, no nothing. Basically, i flashed back to stock eclair, and everythign was running smoothly. I used titanium backup to delete all user apps, and then restore them (from my other backup). Then i got rom manager, installed CWM, and rebooted into it. I then installed the 3 button fix. Went back into eclair, and transferred the cm7 file into the internal sd. Then i rebooted again into recovery... But this time, i realized i had to go out, so i pressed reboot phone. And now nothing works at all.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You tried button all the button combos and ADB? Also did you try plugging the phone in to give it a source of power? ... pull battery and try again.

Have you tried to hold volume down + power for DL mode?

How did you flash back to eclair and what from?

@Mengbo, my jig should be arriving in a few days. But i do have a bunch of resistors, il give that a shot.
@Coreym, Its been charging for hours (well im not sure, because it shows no signs) ADB doesnt work unless its connecting in debugging mode i believe, and the button combos dont work
@Studacris, its the method you told me because my phone is a 1012 build. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=979133
Any other suggestions? :S
EDIT : Just tried it with a jig, nothing happened.

may need to be JTAG'd. Couple guys doing that. Connexion2005 is debricking captivates and could probably help you as a last resort.

Hmm this is weird ... You used the rogers stock rom package first only right? That doesn't have bootloaders, then you flashed the 3 button fix with three gb bootloaders which should've bricked you right there ... But here is the weird part unless I've misread the sequence of events, you were able to boot into the OS after that, then booted into stock 2e recovery rebooted and thats where are now?

Yep, exactly. Also, how does the 3 button combo have GB bootloaders? I used to flash it to stock eclair all the time...

Oh wait I thought I read that you came from gingerbread at first, when you flashed to stock the first time. What were rom were you on when you first started?

Yeah, when i flashed back to stock, i was on GR-12 which is GB.
But then i successfully went back to stock, and eclair booted up just fine. Its after doing the whole CWM thing (on eclair) that this brick happened.

Ok that's what I thought. That's why this series of events is really weird. The way you flashed back to stock didn't contain bootloaders, so you still had the gb ones which is fine to run on eclair, but the 3 button fix contains only a eclair/froyo secondary bootloader no primary at all so it didn't overwrite the gb one, so a mix of a gb primary and eclair secondary should have bricked you right there no question. I have no idea how it booted after you flashed the 3 button fix.

Well that sucks. Any ideas on how to fix it? Is the JTAG fix the only option?

For the hell of it I've only heard this working once with a bootloader mix up:
remove battery
replace battery
DON'T PRESS ANY BUTTONS
insert jig
Now hold the volume buttons.
if that gets you to download mode use odin one click right away to restore both stock bootloaders, when that causes a bootloop because of your phone not liking one click, use the stock package you used before. But you need to use one click IF you ever get it in download mode. IF being the operative word, don't get your hopes up with this one.
Probably won't work but if it does, WIN!
Get a warranty replacement
(hint) kies
Otherwise if you don't have a warranty because it's used or whatnot jtag is the only thing that can fix it at this point.

haha, il give that a shot then. However, i sent my phone in (saying kies was the problem) about 2 weeks ago. Should i do the same thing again? Or would they catch on?

LOOOOL!
That's a good question ... They can't prove it wasn't kies, and to out right refuse a customer his warranty based on just speculation does not make good business sense.

Haha! I guess that's true. So i guess now my dilemna is, should i send it to Samsung and wait 2 weeks, or should i send it to mobiletechvideos, pay 50 bucks and recieve it back faster.
Do you know if the jtag would void the warranty for sure? (in a way that they would know its been voided)

Not sure, but if you're worried about that use the warranty while you still can cause the clock is ticking on that time limit...

^^ he's not kidding. Warrenty for all of us is almost up :/
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

That's funny, now I have a question: is the year warranty based on the initial release of the captivates so all of the warranties expire at the same time, is it based on build date of the phone, or is it based on original purchase date?
I'm guessing the first, which blows, but I'm not 100%

Stock 2.1 Vs. Stock 2.2

I've read flashing to odin (2.1) can cause problems if your phone came with stock 2.2.
I am wondering what all I need to know to (as safely as possible) flash a phone that comes with stock 2.2 or if there is any increased danger in flashing with the stock 2.2 phones.
I've done a few quick checks.. haven't come up with a lot of data to say "yay or nay" on the subject as to any of the major differences if there are any.

I had a replacement Captivate come stock with 2.2 and have had no problems. If you flash custom ROMS from 2.2 though you need to read about 3e recovery with no signatures. But if you ODIN back to 2.1 you shouldn't have a problem.
If you are new to all this my advice is to READ AS MUCH AS YOU CAN before you do anything to so you can keep from harming your phone.

Flashing Odin one click may cause you to button combo, and you can risk soft brick
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I'm not incredibly new to rooting/flashing.
I am however, experienced enough to double check and make sure of things before I jump in head first.
I am running CM7 on my own phone and just want to make sure nothing goes horribly wrong when flashing my girlfriends.
I had heard about losing 3 button combo and that was one of my major concerns.. I'll check out 3e recovery before I jump in.
Thanks.

[Q] Back to stock from Apex?

Im planning on making the switch from Apex to MIUI, and the thread said to go back to stock...
My question is, how exactly do i go back to stock? I dont think odin 1 click is an option because im on a 1012 build phone.. And last time i tried it, i hard bricked because it didnt flash a new kernel, so i installed eclair on a GB kernel, then flashed a new rom, and it broke...
So my question is, what are the exact steps to go from an apex rom, to stock, to miui on a build 1012 phone.
Thanks!

having no kernel wont hard brick you. thats corrupted BOOTLOADERS. and if it hard bricked you its a new phone right, or atleast you got that one jtagged. otherwise that was not a brick.

studacris said:
having no kernel wont hard brick you. thats corrupted BOOTLOADERS. and if it hard bricked you its a new phone right, or atleast you got that one jtagged. otherwise that was not a brick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhh, yeah, i meant bootloader, and yeah it was hard bricked, but i just sent it in for warranty before. I dont want to wait another 2 weeks lol. So, any idea on what to do?

So you got a new phone did you flash the new GB bootloaders or is it stock untouched since you received it from Samsung?
We need to find out if your on Froyo or GB. Go to your phone settings, go into about phone and tell us what your Firmware Version and build number are.

Fatal flashing addiction

Hello astute folks on XDA!! My name is Brian and i'm a flash-a-holic. I'd like to share with you my experience that ultimately lead to me fubaring my beloved captivate.
I've flashed everything under the sun on this phone from roms to different kernels to modems. You name it, i flashed it with great success (after researching, never flashed on a whim.) UNTIL... Yesterday.. lol.. I was running a leaked 2.3.4 gingerbread rom and i noticed the problem first starting while trying to connect my phone to my computer via usb. The two didn't communicate when for the last 6 months, every single time i plugged in, my computer and phone recognized each other every single time. So that was my first clue that something aint right. Next thing i did was power the phone off. Went to turn it back on and NOOOOPPPEEEEE!!! Nothing!!!!! Held all three buttons and the little grey circular icon came on (the one that is initially in the battery icon when the phone is powered off but it's plugged in) but immediately shut off. Nothing turned my phone back on, but i was able to get into download mode. So thats what i did. I used odin3 oneclick to go back to stock eclair thinking that that will start everything all over, erase the bad/corrupt files and so forth. Flash was successful. Got back to stock eclair and got stuck in MTP initialization (you know, the screen in which you get if your debugging mode wasn't checked.) But it hung on that screen. No buttons would allow my to exit so, I pulled the battery. Then, the same damn thing.. I could NOT get the phone to power back on. Lesson learned for me. (today i learned that going back to stock is NOT a fresh install.) Used odin again, but this time unplugged my cord BEFORE i got to the eclair boot screen. As i'm peering at this home screen, i noticed that my USB connecting notification was flashing on, off, on, off yet my cord was unplugged. At this point i called tech AT&T tech support because i knew i was screwed. (i told them i tried to update to the 2.2 they provided on website and the phone cut out, lol).. I spent an hour on the phone and got no where other than determining that my phone is farked and they are gonna send me out a replacement (which will take 4 to 6 days) because luckily it was under warranty still. Tech support couldn't get my phone to turn on, but i could, lmao.. So... here i am stuck with a phone where usb debugging mode is buggin out!!!!!!! To wrap this story up, what i did was got back into download mode and flashed gingerbread bootloaders and a kernel and voila!! So long as i don't turn my phone off, i have a fully operational phone until my new cappy arrives in the mail in 4-6 days. (Dicks.. If i had been ordering a new phone, i'd have the option for next day shipping but thats another story.)
TLDR: Flashing too much will get you in a bad situation. Stick with a rom/modem/kernel setup that suits your needs because your next flash could be your last depending on the components in your phone.
EDIT: MAKE IT KNOWN THAT I HOLD NO ONE RESPONSIBLE OTHER THAN MYSELF FOR THE FUBARING OF MY CAPPY!!!!!!!!!!

Ok!?! This is not a question, this should be in the general thread if anywhere.
Could a moderator please move this.

Things break...and ppl make mistakes... I'm still trying to figure out which one happened in your situation.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

That's a common hardware issue with the captivate. Happened to me twice. Its just the USB port spassing out thinking tthe cable is constantly getting plugged in and unplugged and freezing tthe phone with its craziness. Both times it was replaced under warranty. I'm paranoid it'll happen again now that I'm out of warranty.
Sent from my i897 running MIUI 1.8.12 with TalonMTD kernel.

speedy_11 said:
Ok!?! This is not a question, this should be in the general thread if anywhere.
Could a moderator please move this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oops, my bad!! It needs to be somewhere as a precaution to those that think flashing is completely harmless
EDIT: upon further contemplation, it really is a question of what went wrong
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

I am a flash addict as well
i have flashed all froyo based roms on my cappy !
Can anyone confirm that excessive flashing may risk my phone?

Doubtful that excessive flashing had anything to do with this. Just be sure to do all necessary wipes and take all the required steps before you flash a rom and you SHOULD be okay. You are always taking a risk when you flash your phone regardless of how many times it has a positive outcome.
Sent from my i897 running MIUI 1.8.12 with TalonMTD kernel.

Thanks for the quick response....!
now i dont need to worry

xijar said:
Doubtful that excessive flashing had anything to do with this. Just be sure to do all necessary wipes and take all the required steps before you flash a rom and you SHOULD be okay. You are always taking a risk when you flash your phone regardless of how many times it has a positive outcome.
Sent from my i897 running MIUI 1.8.12 with TalonMTD kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm 99% sure my board failed because of cheap, unreliable components. However, that 1% is still in the back of my mind that it could have been from something I flashed. I suppose I'll never know.
Sent from my fubared, soon to be replaced cappy running GT-I9000 gb rom using XDA Premium App

It is hard to tell from what you say that it was purely hardware. Definitely sounds like the issue locked up the phone more then it did mine the two times I experienced it but it definitely wasn't performance friendly to me either. It seemed to settle down for,me intermittently then act up again. I never lived with it for too long since there's a warranty center i can do a walk in exchange at less than a mile from my house.
PS. I would flash stock jf6 then update via kies if possible before you send iit in to avoid being charged $500 for voiding the warranty. If kies wont work flash jf6 and find the jh7_ota.zip file floating around the forums to flash stock jh7 In cwm then remove cwm. There is a zip file that restores stock recover. I can provide these files if you can't find them not sure if they still have active dl links.
Sent from my i897 running MIUI 1.8.12 with TalonMTD kernel.

Accidental post. Please delete.
Sent from my i897 running MIUI 1.8.12 with TalonMTD kernel.

xijar said:
It is hard to tell from what you say that it was purely hardware. Definitely sounds like the issue locked up the phone more then it did mine the two times I experienced it but it definitely wasn't performance friendly to me either. It seemed to settle down for,me intermittently then act up again. I never lived with it for too long since there's a warranty center i can do a walk in exchange at less than a mile from my house.
PS. I would flash stock jf6 then update via kies if possible before you send iit in to avoid being charged $500 for voiding the warranty. If kies wont work flash jf6 and find the jh7_ota.zip file floating around the forums to flash stock jh7 In cwm then remove cwm. There is a zip file that restores stock recover. I can provide these files if you can't find them not sure if they still have active dl links.
Sent from my i897 running MIUI 1.8.12 with TalonMTD kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I started before, the phone is fully functional with gingerbread other than the occasional usb flickering..Only problem I have with it really is if I turn the phone off, it won't turn back on unless I hold power and volume up, enter cwm and then select reboot now.
Before I send it back, I'll odin back to jf6 first with oneclick. Without cwm on the phone, lol, it absolutely won't turn on by just using the power button. I made sure of this before I even called the warranty department and explained my dilemma
The nice thing is that I can use the phone while I wait fire the new one to arrive AND I can flash and experiment with everything now without worries!!!
Sent from my fubared chappy running GT-I9000 GB rom using XDA Premium App

I am also a flash-o-holic and I think that if you flash with odin lots with repartition checked or are enabling/disabling voodoo lots, it can mess up your phone. Has happened to me twice, just sent my phone today for the second time. Both times this happened to me it happened when successfully flashing back to stock with 512.pit and repartition checked. On boot up it stalls at the "S" screen and never goes past it and in recovery I get some errors like:
error: can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
error: can't mount sdcard
I flashed many different firmwares with different pit files and different android versions but all conclude the same, stuck at the "S" boot screen.
I have determined that the partition tables were messed up and I tried to fix it by putting parted on my phone and trying to repartition it from the shell. Both times I get the "unable to write to /dev/block/mmcblk0 - I/O error!" Also, from CWM Recovery I try repartition sdcard but it also comes up with an error. The last time I sent it into Samsung repair they had to replace the main board to get it working properly again. Think it is definitely a good idea to find a rom / kernel / modem you are happy with and stick with it for a while.

[Q] FASTY III problem/question

HI!
Just recently signed up so I can't seem to post this question in the FASTY III forum....I kind of understand why xda has this policy about new members not being able to post int he developmental forums...but still...
I recently moved from FASTY II to III...ran into a bunch of issues but I managed to resolve most of them by going through the forums. What I am having trouble with is my inability to get to the Recovery menu. I have tried to go there thru the shutdown menu, by doing the button holding trick, and even from ROM Manager... none of those seem to work for me. Very frustrating... All those mentioned attempts only bring up an ATT screen which wont go away until I reboot the phone into a normal start....
So why am I unable to enter Recovery mode?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

nycmon said:
HI!
Just recently signed up so I can't seem to post this question in the FASTY III forum....I kind of understand why xda has this policy about new members not being able to post int he developmental forums...but still...
I recently moved from FASTY II to III...ran into a bunch of issues but I managed to resolve most of them by going through the forums. What I am having trouble with is my inability to get to the Recovery menu. I have tried to go there thru the shutdown menu, by doing the button holding trick, and even from ROM Manager... none of those seem to work for me. Very frustrating... All those mentioned attempts only bring up an ATT screen which wont go away until I reboot the phone into a normal start....
So why am I unable to enter Recovery mode?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in terminal emulator type su and then reboot recovery maybe it work
or may be you just flashed unsupported recovery

nycmon said:
HI!
Just recently signed up so I can't seem to post this question in the FASTY III forum....I kind of understand why xda has this policy about new members not being able to post int he developmental forums...but still...
I recently moved from FASTY II to III...ran into a bunch of issues but I managed to resolve most of them by going through the forums. What I am having trouble with is my inability to get to the Recovery menu. I have tried to go there thru the shutdown menu, by doing the button holding trick, and even from ROM Manager... none of those seem to work for me. Very frustrating... All those mentioned attempts only bring up an ATT screen which wont go away until I reboot the phone into a normal start....
So why am I unable to enter Recovery mode?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been having the same problem recently, but not just with this rom. I have flashed many roms to my device, but it appears that almost everytime i try to flash something now, the same exact thing happens as the OP. any information on what is wrong or how to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

When you boot up...do you guys get a scrambled screen that looks like white noise?
that's caused by froyo bootloaders on a gingerbread ROM.
Not all That familiar with fasty though...dunno of the jump from 2 to 3 was froyo to ginger, just a guess.

studacris said:
When you boot up...do you guys get a scrambled screen that looks like white noise?
that's caused by froyo bootloaders on a gingerbread ROM.
Not all That familiar with fasty though...dunno of the jump from 2 to 3 was froyo to ginger, just a guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes this happens, but i am usually still able to use the rom after i wait for awhile. Recently it just gets stuck at the ATT logo screen and does nothing else.

HERE is a package containing JUST the ginger boots.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A GOOD PHONE/PC CONNECTION, FLASHING BOOTLOADERS IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRULY HARD BRICK

studacris said:
HERE is a package containing JUST the ginger boots.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A GOOD PHONE/PC CONNECTION, FLASHING BOOTLOADERS IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRULY HARD BRICK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just tried it with a solid connection and it almost instantly said failed in the red box. now i cant turn it on or get to download mode so im pretty sure it is hard bricked. is there any way you can help me with this?
EDIT: False alarm, i can still get to download mode so i can ODIN back to stock, but i do not know if i should risk it again

Whew that was close.
You can flash to stock using a bootloader less package, that way if it fails it can't hard brick.
Then if that works, find an entire stock gingerbread package with bootloaders included, and flash that instead of just the bootloader one click. this again, will involve risk, but full Odin package seem to work better on some phones than one clicks do.

I tried to flash the bootloader again and it succeeded. i then proceeded to try and flash Fasty KK4 v1.1 and once again i was stuck at the ATT logo. For some reason with every rom i flash, when the logo pops up, it starts dim and then get bright. After it gets bright, it stays that way and it is a real pain not being able to use custom roms anymore.

If you have the GB bls just make sure you follow LL's instructions in the OP for Fasty. I had the same issue, but it was me mistake for not following the istructions properly

studacris said:
When you boot up...do you guys get a scrambled screen that looks like white noise?
that's caused by froyo bootloaders on a gingerbread ROM.
Not all That familiar with fasty though...dunno of the jump from 2 to 3 was froyo to ginger, just a guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i DO get a very colorful white noise screen whenever it boots up ...the screen goes away once it fully reboots....I wondered about it but just assumed it was a quirk of the FASTY III package...
Is Rom Manager a froyo based app?

No, ROM manager is poop. Not implemented on galaxy devices properly, and won't work past eclair, and even them it was severely limited to just downloading an update.zip to your sdcard...which you could put there manually with out having to root...
FORGET ROM MANAGER EXISTS

studacris said:
No, ROM manager is poop. Not implemented on galaxy devices properly, and won't work past eclair, and even them it was severely limited to just downloading an update.zip to your sdcard...which you could put there manually with out having to root...
FORGET ROM MANAGER EXISTS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? Rom Manager helped me a lot until this Fasty III installation....even in my previous rom Fasty II it worked fine and did great for backing up and restoring backups....saved my asss a few times with those restores lol....But if this program doesn't work for fasty III what comparable program can I use?
Also I still can't intorecovery mode...nothing works...I even tried using ADB and Droid Explorer....nothing seems to get it into recovery mode...
Am I going to have to flash back to stock ROM and try reinstalling fasty iii again? This seems all so tedious lol...
OR is there a way for me to flash back to Fasty II without having to go back to stock rom? or without having to access the recovery screen?
Thank you^

All that backing up and restoring you did with ROM manager can be done in cwm recovery and that's what you should use from now on. No app needed at all.
Follow the instructions I've already provided in this thread. You'll either need Odin to flash the gingerbread bootloaders,
or to go back to a froyo firmware, first flash a froyo kernel with Odin and THEN the froyo ROM. stock isn't needed.
Recovery in a gingerbread kernel is completely inaccessible with froyo bootloaders.

studacris said:
All that backing up and restoring you did with ROM manager can be done in cwm recovery and that's what you should use from now on. No app needed at all.
Follow the instructions I've already provided in this thread. You'll either need Odin to flash the gingerbread bootloaders,
or to go back to a froyo firmware, first flash a froyo kernel with Odin and THEN the froyo ROM. stock isn't needed.
Recovery in a gingerbread kernel is completely inaccessible with froyo bootloaders.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the info!
Looks like fasty III is a GB based mod after all...I guess I should read up more on the rom before installing lol....I did not expect the dev to go from froyo to gb -_-
I was thinking of using your previous post for the one click gb bootloaders only....but it seems a little iffy and I can't afford to hardware brick the phone lol...
Makes me wonder tho...is it really THAT risky to flash bootloaders? It would make things simpler if i could just flash the gb bootloaders and go from there....

the whole flash should take less than a minute, where the actual writing takes only a few seconds...but if you were to lose communication in that awful window then it would be bad day.
But that is a small window, and if you have never had connection issues you should be ok if Odin tends to be iffy, you van try heimdall I've heard that works better for some.

Still haven't tried flashing the bootloaders because i'm scared of the possibility of hard bricking my phone... If worst case scenario was to happen and it gets hard bricked....are there any options to restore that phone? or is it just paper weight after?
Also until I flash those bootloaders there is no way to back up my phone or anything?
Thanks for all ur help btw!

another issue i am having is that the phone seems pretty laggy after installing this rom...even with tegra overclock premium and tweaking it up to 1252mhz 1275mv 1100mv setting...it still seems laggy when opening sms etc....is this just the results of a bad rom install? also battery life seems crappy....even after doing the battery recalibration...of course i couldn't wipe the battery stats since i cant get into recovery...

Hard bricks are recoverable by a hardware modification known as unbrickable mod, search for user Adam outler, or go to mobiletechvideos.com they both offer this service if you're not a soldering expert.
Battery recalibration does NOTHING the stats are reset everytime you charge to 100, and besides that they don't calculate your current battery level, just what's been using it, its what's used in settings> about phone> battery use. It has nothing to do with extending battery life.

oh lol...i have been reading all these threads where people are talking about how much their battery life improved after they did the recalibration and stat wipe ....well anyways I am going to attempt the bootloader flashing...I hope everything goes well! after that I want to try reflashing the fasty III ROM...
Do you have any recommendations as far as a good ROM for teh captivate? One that doesn't lag and has good gps & battery life? I would appreciate any help you can give.
Thanks!