Database Develop

Odin successful, but still stuck in boot loop

TL;DR - Stuck in boot loop, can't enter recovery mode, but can enter download mode. Odin says it is successful, but the phone is still in the boot loop.
I've had Cognition 2.3 for a few months now and decided to update to Cognition 4.3. I used the AIO toolbox 2.5 to Odin one-click back to stock, rooted, and flashed to 4.3. Everything went well and I restored all my apps with Titanium and loaded some music.
At some point later the screen was completely blank and the only way I could get any response out of it was to hold the volume buttons and power buttons. Instead of going into recovery, though, it would boot to the Cognition boot screen and hang indefinitely.
I was able to get it into download mode by removing the sim and battery and holding the volume buttons while plugging it into USB and replacing the battery. I ran Odin one-click again, it said it was successful, but the phone was stuck in either a battery screen or AT&T screen boot loop (depending on whether or not it was plugged into USB).
I've tried using regular Odin with both the ROM included with AIO 2.5 (JF6*) and JH2 (from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=10056254&postcount=36) to no avail. Every time Odin shows that it is successful, but it always ends up in a boot loop with no ability to enter recovery mode.
What can I do? Will getting a jig help me in any way?
*Edited for correct ROM

Use the normal ODIN (v1.7 or v1.8), a full stock JF6 ROM and PIT file. Make sure "repartition" is selected and if possible, do a master clear with ODIN first (though shouldn't be critical.........then start over with Cog 4.3 if that's your ROM of choice (good choice by the way).

I tried the JF6 ROM again with the same results (using http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=818439#8802897). It looks like AIO 2.5 used this ROM all along.
I can't master clear because I can't boot past the AT&T screen. The only way for me to get Odin (or Windows for that matter) to recognize the phone is by putting it in download mode. From what I understand you don't master clear from download mode.

bharden said:
I tried the JF6 ROM again with the same results (using http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=818439#8802897). It looks like AIO 2.5 used this ROM all along.
I can't master clear because I can't boot past the AT&T screen. The only way for me to get Odin (or Windows for that matter) to recognize the phone is by putting it in download mode. From what I understand you don't master clear from download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using the PIT file and selecting repartition?
When I get home today, I will upload the ROM and PIT that I use to flash to stock and see if that helps but you do need to use the PIT and repartion which will only help if you have a FULL copy of JF6 that reloads the bootloaders.

Just out of curiosity, what is your build number?

I am using the PIT and selecting repartition. I've done this every time I've tried Odin (besides when using one-click of course) Is the PDA.tar listed in that link not a full copy of JF6?
My build number is 1008.

May sound crazy, but you could try using a different computer. I ran into a lot of problems using odin on my pc. Switched to laptop (more ram and windows 7 64 bit ) with great success. Also make sure you have the right drivers. Your build# should allow you to use odin one click.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I've actually already tried it from both my PC (Windows 7 x64, 4 GB ram) and my laptop (Windows Vista x86, 2 GB ram). In both cases I used the drivers in the AIO toolbox 2.5 (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=944418)
Are those the correct ones? If not, could you point me to a resource with the latest drivers? There are quite a few versions floating around and I'm not sure which ones I should be using.
Any other suggestions?

Those should be the correct drivers
Also, make sure odin is completely open before connecting your phone.
That'd all I can think of.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I definitely did that.
Since I'm able to get into download mode, I should be able to un-brick it right? I can't figure out why Odin says it's successful but I still can't boot.
Does anyone else have any ideas?

You may have to give it a few minutes or so as I am uploading now but the link for the PDA and PIT is:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24576569/ATT%20ROM%202.1.rar
Try using this version of ODIN:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24576569/Odin3%20v1.7.rar
Hope this helps otherwise I am out of ideas except flashing a kernel with a recovery included through ODIN, going into the recovery and formatting and wiping absolutely everything and then reflashing JF6. But try the files I linked first.
Good luck.

It's been 30 minutes and the ROM link still isn't up. Is it working?
Also, I'd like to change what I said slightly. When using regular Odin 1.81 it says PASS when it's finished. When using Odin one-click it gets to the point of cache.rfs and then says removed. The box turns blue and says Reset. Meanwhile, the phone is busy rebooting indefinitely on the battery screen.
I'll try your ROM and Odin version as soon as the link works. Also, do you have a ROM with built in recovery that you would suggest? Thanks!

bharden said:
It's been 30 minutes and the ROM link still isn't up. Is it working?
Also, I'd like to change what I said slightly. When using regular Odin 1.81 it says PASS when it's finished. When using Odin one-click it gets to the point of cache.rfs and then says removed. The box turns blue and says Reset. Meanwhile, the phone is busy rebooting indefinitely on the battery screen.
I'll try your ROM and Odin version as soon as the link works. Also, do you have a ROM with built in recovery that you would suggest? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drop box seems to be running slow. So the JF6 that I am uploading may take a bit. The version of ODIN that You are running should be fine.
Try this Kernel. It's not a complete ROM just the kernel. If it works, you will have to flash a ROM too. Cognition is a good start. You can find it in the Dev section and actually, even if it's not the recommended way of flashing, I moght try flashing a custom ROM anyway just to rule out ODIN and your phone. If you can successfully flash a custom ROM then it's probably the version of JF6 that you are using.
Anyway, let's start with the kernel first:
Onix by existz:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=930679
make sure you download 2.0.3 "tar" file for ODIN
you know how to get into recovery after you flash right? From powered off, hold the up and down volume buttons and then power all at the same time for about 5 second......

Ok, so there seems to be some progress. I flashed the kernel and the phone rebooted to what I'm assuming is the Onix splash screen and hangs. The power button won't turn the phone off, but at least the softkeys do seem to respond, even if they don't do anything.
Odin now recognizes the phone in both download mode and at the splash screen. Although, to reach download mode I now have to take the battery out, whereas I did not have to before.
I'm still unable to enter recovery. The only way to get any response out of the phone at the splash screen is to hold both volumes and the power button, but the phone just reboots back to the splash. It also does this when attempting to enter recovery from a power off state.

bharden said:
Ok, so there seems to be some progress. I flashed the kernel and the phone rebooted to what I'm assuming is the Onix splash screen and hangs. The power button won't turn the phone off, but at least the softkeys do seem to respond, even if they don't do anything.
Odin now recognizes the phone in both download mode and at the splash screen. Although, to reach download mode I now have to take the battery out, whereas I did not have to before.
I'm still unable to enter recovery. The only way to get any response out of the phone at the splash screen is to hold both volumes and the power button, but the phone just reboots back to the splash. It also does this when attempting to enter recovery from a power off state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The three button combo should work to reset the phone when it's stuck as well as getting into recovery. It sounds like you aren't holding the buttons for long enough. If the phone is frozen, you have to hold the button combo for quite a while to get the phone to reset. Weh trying to get into recovery, push both volume buttons and then hold down the power button and don't let go till yoiu get past the AT&T screen.
If that still doesn't work, then try and load up the ROM and see if at least you can get a working phone back in the meantime. Like I said, I recommend Cog 4.3 but serendipity is a good choice too.

Awesome. I must have been holding the buttons for half a second too little. Now I can get into the Onix Recovery, but I'm getting:
"E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0) (No such file or directory)"
when trying to mount the SD card.
Searching around I've found these two threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=563298
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=792708
but I'm not exactly sure what to do with the information. I don't particularly want to go guessing at what to do next and ruin my progress. Could you give me a little guidance on what steps to take next?
From "adb shell mount /sdcard" I'm getting:
mount: can't find /sdcard in /etc/fstab

bharden said:
Awesome. I must have been holding the buttons for half a second too little. Now I can get into the Onix Recovery, but I'm getting:
"E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0) (No such file or directory)"
when trying to mount the SD card.
Searching around I've found these two threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=563298
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=792708
but I'm not exactly sure what to do with the information. I don't particularly want to go guessing at what to do next and ruin my progress. Could you give me a little guidance on what steps to take next?
From "adb shell mount /sdcard" I'm getting:
mount: can't find /sdcard in /etc/fstab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so I've never had to mount SD from those options so not too familiar with this problem but, i am going to guess that we shouldn't have to play with this right now. Onix will let you install a zip from your external SD, so i recomend finding a recovery flashable ROM (almost all custom ROMs come this way....it'll be a ZIP file) Again I recomend using Cog 4.3 or serendipity (both of these may change your kernel but it's ok because they will both have a custom recovery).
Follow these steps:
1. Remove your external SD and insert it into your computer.
2. Remove any files you want to keep and place them somewhere on your computer for future recovery (Titanium backups, music, pics, etc....)
3. Format your sd (FAT32 should be default)
4. Download the ROM of your choice, copy it to the root of your external SD using your computer
5. Replace the SD into your phone power up into recovery
6. From the Onix recovery menu select "advanced options"
7. Pick wipe dalvik/cache and confirm
8. Select go back untill you get to the first recovery menu
9. Select install zip from SD and NOT "install update.zip"
10. Navigate to your external SD (it should look something like "/extsd" in the file menu
11. Pick the zip you put on the external SD and confirm
12. Wait till the recovery indicates instalation done
13. Navigate back to the first recovery menu and select reboot phone
14. Sit back and relax, your phone will likely take 3-5 min to boot up the first time
If after 10 min of waiting you get no response from your phone, use the 3 button reset to get into the custom recovery and select advanced features again, format absolutely everything you can format (you'll have to do it one at a time) and do that. Then repeat the steps above.
Installing a custom ROM isn't normally this complicated but I am trying to eliminate as many variables as possible here that might cause complications with instalation.
Let me know how it turns out.

FYI: Continuum v4 has the Onix kernel in it (recovery is a blue color)

ROM Files
This is the link to the good JF6 stock ROM. You will have to download it and the ODIN version. All you need is the PDA.tar and the PIT that comes with the ODIN package in the thread. You can still use ODIN 1.8 once you get the PIT file out of the ODIN ZIP.
So, after all is said and done. When you feel like trying this:
1. Open ODIN
2. Phone into download mode (with phone off hold down both volume buttons and plug in USB)
3. Make sure phone is recognised by ODIN
4. Select PIT file that you downloaded
5. Select PDA file that you downloaded
6. Make sure "repartition" IS selected
7. Hit start and sit back and relax
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=818439
Again, let me know how it all works out.......

Ok, I'll try flashing Cog 4.3 after I get off this afternoon. I'll have to buy an external SD, but that's better than buying a new phone.
I skimmed those threads on the internal SD problem and it looks like there's either some corruption on the SD or it's not formatted correctly or something. How can I fix this problem? Doesn't the ROM need that internal SD card space? Or can it use the external SD card as a replacement? If it does need the internal SD card then won't the ROM fail to install if that SD is corrupted?
Thanks for all your help by the way. When Odin wasn't fixing the problem I was afraid it was completely bricked.

[Q] Have I ruined my in law's phone? Can anyone help me please?

My father in law bought a new phone SGS on O2 and I offered to unlock it as I have unlocked my husbands last week (he's was on O2 as well but in 2.1 or 2.2.1 version I think-froyo?)
Before I continue may I say I know you guys out there know so much more than me and I really need your help. I really tried to help unlocking this phone and for hours I searched and read things like reboot, download mode, recovery mode, flashing, JKV and so many other words and letter that I could not understand. Very few I understood in the end but may have messed up badly (?).
Please, I need help and please treat me as if I were your mum or even grandma. Step by step in simple normal English please.
My father in law's version is 2.3.3
I tried unlocking it the way I unlocked my husband's but didn't work. After looking for hours I thought that the best way to do it would be to downgrade from 2.3.3 (gingerbread (?)) to 2.2.1 (froyo (?)) and then unlock it.
I found this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1089989
and tried to follow it.
I downloaded EZRom and EZboot-Froyo-1.0.tar.md5 from the same post.
I followed:
•Download the right version from section above
•Reboot your phone into Download mode
•Connect your phone to computer
•Run EZOdin
•Select EZboot-Froyo-1.0.tar.md5 or EZboot-GingerBread-1.0.tar.md5as a PDA file in EZOdin
•Check the "Phone Bootloader Update" checkbox
•Click Start
I waited for the phone to turn off and feel the little vibration but didn't. Instead it just froze at the first screen when you turn on the phone. The black background with white letters: Samsung Galaxy...
I waited and waited and as nothing was happening I then I took the battery out. Put it back in and tried turning it on. I wouldn't it would just stop and that same screen, the black and white one.
I reread
•Wait until phone reboots and make it reboot into Recovery
SO then I remembered in the many threads I read about the recovery mode so 3 clicked vol up + button at them bottom and turn on bottom.
It gives me a few options. When I click on reboot all it does is show me the black and white screen again and nothing else. ah!!!
I took the battery off and put it back on many times, I also selected the fatory reset option and tried different buttons but nothing. Please help me.
I'm happy to phone any of you guys to help me and guide me even if it's just to put the phone back to what it was before, turning on normally, etc. I'm feeling really sad and a bit stressed as these days are supposed to be a nice time to spend with my little ones and family.
Anyway, please ask me anything.
Thank you so much in advance. I really hope I didn't do anything wrong and I'm just stuck because I'm ignorant in this matter. Thank you

I was never a fan of EZ-stuff.
That said, think you can easily solve that flashing your phone with odin and a proper rom. At this point i am unclear about what bootloaders you have on your phone since you've tried a downgrade.
Without getting into further details (sorry, at work atm). You can get tutorials easy for all of this around this forum.
I'd get Odin, get a proper stock rom from samfirmware with bootloaders included and flash it fresh from start with that. Doesn't really matter if it's froyo or ginger as long as it includes bootloaders.
You'll be left with a working phone at this point.
From here, if you still want to try to unlock it, i'd flash a kernell that would get me root (like the ChainFire one) since i find this the safest and easiest way of getting root on your phone and do a backup of your EFS partition (preferably saved in your computer or wherever outside your phone). This is very important, if you lose of mess up with this part of your phone it will be a pain.
Now, there are several ways of unlocking this phone, the only one i found to be most reliable (but not the easiest one) is to manually edit the nv_data.bin file (located in your EFS partition in hexadecimal.
There's a tut right here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=761045&highlight=unlock

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply although you are working!!! Really appreciate it.
I'll try your suggestion but I don't know how to choose the right stock rom with bootloader from samfirmware. I went to the website and registered but don't really know what to do.
I know you are working so might not be able to help me, may be someone else?
Here's where I am. Update. I found a list of firmware. This is the last one on Samfirmware.com.
Europe Samsung I9000 Firmwares.
I9000XXJVS ##
512.PIT
2.3.5
2011 September 8
CSC = I9000OXAJVS
DOWNLOAD
Things I need: (I think)
-Download a firmware (should I use the lastest one?) or 2.2 or 2.3.3? . Is there one better than the other? or is it my choice? How can I choose the best one for me?
-Odin. I have OdinMultiDownloader v4.03 in my desktop. Is that the best thing to use or should I use Ezodin. I don't know what the difference is.
-(Do I need to download or do anything else?)
Things I should do:
-Put phone in download mode
-Plug it to the laptop
-Open Odin (or Exodin?)
-click PDA. Choose the fie I downloaded-firmware.
(-after this I don't know what else I should do or tick or untick)
Am I in the right track or completely off it?
Thank you again to anyone taking the time to read this.

Download Jvt From sammobile. com, you need Odin on your PC (1.7 or 1.8) plus Samsung drivers. Read there flashing guides carefully, check you have download
Mode, battery charged > 50% etc
There is also a video on youtube which shows you how to upgrade to jvt.
Sent using TCP/IP

Sounds like you've got the boot-loop problem, which means that you most likely "soft-bricked" the phone. Don't worry, this isn't that big of a deal and can be fixed with relative ease. I agree with the posters above, a clean flash with Odin will probably fix your problem and get you out of the boot-loop.
I'll go into a bit more detail with some steps (feel free to correct me if I missed anything)
1. Download Odin 1.85 here.
2. Head over to Samfirmware.com and grab the latest firmware for the phone. I recommend Gingerbread 2.3.5 (JVT).
3. Make sure your computer has the proper drivers installed so it can communicate with your Samsung Galaxy GT-I9000. If you've flashed the phone before with your computer then you probably have the drivers installed, but here's a link for them just in case: Samsung USB Drivers
4. Enter download mode on your phone, depending on your firmware, it could be Vol down + power + home OR Vol up + power + home. Pull the battery out, pop it back in, and hold those three buttons until the phone turns on.
If you can't enter download mode with the 3-button hold method, then you might have to do so via ADB with the command "reboot download".
Getting into download mode is pretty critical, as you cannot progress further without it.
5. Once you're in download mode (should see a triangle with an Android shoveling stuff in it), plug your phone into your computer's USB port and open Odin. In Odin, press "Reset" on the right hand side. Odin should be able to detect your phone (this is indicated by a yellow box on the left side). I'm using a PC, so inside the yellow box I see something like this: 0:[COM9]. On a Mac it probably says something different, but as long as you see the yellow box appear then it's all good.
If you don't see the yellow box, then there's no communication between your phone and the computer, which means that you may have to reinstall the Samsung USB drivers.
6. With the contents in the firmware package that you downloaded from Samfirmware.com extracted, load them onto Odin accordingly.
PIT: use s1_odin_20100512.pit
PDA: JVT (sometimes the PDA is labeled CODE instead)
PHONE: JVT (sometimes labeled as MODEM instead)
CSC: use HOME-MULTI-OXAJVT (should be about 9.5 MB in size)
Since your father-in-law's phone was originally 2.3.3, you shouldn't have to alter the bootloader with Odin, so leave the bootloader field empty.
7. Once you've loaded up all the necessary files, make sure Re-partition and Auto-reboot is checked. Leave the rest of the checkboxes as it.
8. Press Start. This should initialize the flashing of the new firmware. After the phone has been flashed, it should reboot automatically and should hopefully be able to get past the Galaxy S black and white logo (aka. boot loop).
9. The phone should be in working order now. I used this method to unlock my SGS: SIM Unlock on the SGS. With this method, your phone needs to be rooted, so head on over to ChainFire's thread here to install his kernal which is already rooted.
Flashing firmware can be pretty scary since nobody wants to end up with a brick that costed $400 and it seems like so much can go wrong, but hopefully the steps I've provided helped. Good luck!

[Q] No Downloading mode

Hi
I bought my unlocked samsung captivate recently and it had pre installed continuum rom on it. I tried to install CM7 on it, but things went downhill pretty fast after that.
This is what I did:
- Read the thread "read before flashing" got the cm7 mod and got the phone into downloading mode using the volume buttons and usb
- Then I read that I can use ROM Manager and used that to first backup and then selected the cm7 package in the install rom (I checked all 3 boxes to wipe data, both caches)
- After it rebooted it showed the Cyanogen screen but after that it kept going in loops - restarting and installing (for 3 seconds hardly)
- I put the phone again in the download mode (it went to the mode fine)
- After that, when I removed the USB cable or the battery I forgot which one : it booted back with random dots on black screen
Here is what I have tried:
- The 3 button combos and everything else just shows a blank white screen or a black screen with random dots
- I have installed the heimdall suite and installed the drivers using that
- my phone is recognized as "USB mass storage device" but nothing else works
- I have also tried the Odin method to detect the phone but it doesnt get detected
- I know about the USB jig but it will take 3-4 days before I can procure the mini usb jig
Please let me know what else I can try to get to download mode (I sincerely hope there is still a method left). As you all can see this is my first post here, so please let me know what other details I can provide.

The white screen or black screen can be download mode. The image might have gotten corrupted. I recommend reflashing to stock an reinstalling either heimdall or regular samsung drivers. You can't have both since one mess the other one up.

Check my sig. Link to a thread on how to get download mode.

Hi
Thanks a lot for the prompt response. Something weirder than the last 5 hours happened:
- I connected the phone to the comp and launched kies just to try. It didnt do anything but it was recognizing the device
- I tried for it to connect left it for 10 minutes. Disconnected the phone since nothing was happening
- Then I disconnected again and powered off/battery out. Then connected usb then connected to comp and let go of the volume buttons (which I was holding before connecting to the USB)
- Win7 installed some driver and then somehow....somehow....it was detected in the "Odin3 One-Click Downloader and Drivers CAPTIVATE ONLY" - it showed added
- After this I just clicked on it and all went smoothly from there on
- Now I am on the At&t stock firmware
Can anybody explain/think why this worked? Was it just a miracle ?
Also, any suggestions as to :
- what I did wrong the first time round which I can avoid this time when I install the mod.
- why was the cyanogen mod installation stuck in the reboot/install loop?
- Once I am in the download mode what is the safest mode to exit it? Battery out? USB out?
- Should I use ROM Manager or is it not a good software?

Sometimes you just get lucky. Most likely kies repaired the drivers, restarting phone got the ball rolling. I guess. Just be happy it worked.

I can't speak as what exactly went wrong, and I haven't used CM7 in a long while BUT Rom Manager is trash for our Galaxy S phones. =( sad truth but don't waste your time with it.

Thanks, yeah I am definitely happy that it worked but now I want to try and understand the things I did wrong so that I can do it correctly this time.

Don't use Rom manager next time. Do it from CWM (update.zip) or a kernel that has it baked. Do it manually is the best advice I can give you.

could you guide me to where i can read what a cwm is?

CWM= Clockwork recovery mod. What version of android are you running?

prbassplayer said:
Don't use Rom manager next time. Do it from CWM (update.zip) or a kernel that has it baked. Do it manually is the best advice I can give you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Rom manager sucks. I would use odin to flash one of the leaked gingerbread builds, and then flash a custom kernel, also with odin (boogs kernel comes to mind), which has clockworkmod built in. Place the cyanogenmod install file, along with google apps, on the internal sd card. Then it's just a matter of holding power and both volume buttons until the phone reboots, when you see the white at&t screen release the power button but keep holding the volume buttons. You should eventually come to a black screen with green writing if memory serves me correctly, this is clockwork mod. I actually don't remember what color the writing is, but it should say CWM recovery at the top. choose the options to wipe data/factory reset (navigate with volume keys, select with power key), wipe cache, then go into advanced, and wipe the dalvik cache. once this is complete, go back to the main cwm menu, and select "install from sd card", then just find the cyanogenmod zip, select it, and let it go. it will reboot once to repartition to the mtd file format, and then it will automatically continue the install. Welcome to CyanogenMod. Use the same method to flash the google apps package. It sounds more complicated than it actually is.

[Q] Stuck in a boot loop - now just stuck

Hi has uploaded ICS 3333, and it worked for a few weeks then today when it in airplane mode I took it out my pocket and it was in a bootloop mode.
Samsung --> Semaphore
So decided that I would retry installing ICS starting with 2.3.6 using ODIN but it crapped out, and now it's only allowing me to go into download mode. It said failed, retried a few times but I did not record the exact error (aaah)
As it is allowing me to get to download mode thought that would be ok, but when I connect it to the PC, it is not recognised at all now. So ODIN does not seem to work..
Im sure you are going to say just install a specific driver or something, but I don't what it would be. The PC recognised the mobile earlier, but just not now.
Update: Now the Phone is fully dead, and does not appear to be charging at all. So maybe dead because the battery is flat.
I've updated ROm's a few time's and always had the recovery mode to recover things and even have the USB item which should allow to move into download.
Any idea's folks.
thanks in advance... Bill
I was following this initially
1st Install this - this flashes Andoid 2.3.6 first
I downloaded I900XXJVU_I9000OXAJVU_OXA.rar
Disconnect your phone if it’s connected to PC. Then Switch it Off. Wait 5-6 seconds for vibration to confirm complete switch off.
Now, put the Galaxy S in “Download Mode” — press and hold these keys together: Volume_DOWN+Home+Power until a screen saying ‘Download Mode’ comes up.
Open Odin (from step 5) — Odin3 v1.7.exe.
Connect your phone to PC now. You should get the message “Added! !” under the Odin’s message box in the bottom left. If you don’t get “Added! !” message, than probably there is a problem with drivers. Make sure you’ve drivers installed (links given above under heading ‘Pre-Installation thoughts’).
Now, in Odin, select these files at respective tabs (for visual help, see the screenshot at step 11 below):
a) Click the PDA Tab, and select CODE_I9000XXJVU_CL851880_REV03_user_low_ship.tar.md5 (from step 3.1)
b) Click the Phone Tab, and select MODEM_I9000XXJVU_REV_00_CL1092175.tar.md5 (from step 3.3)
c) Click the CSC Tab, and select GT-I9000-CSC-MULTI-OXAJVU.tar.md5 (from step 3.2)
d) Click the PIT Tab, and select s1_odin_20100512.pit (from step 2)
Make sure the ‘Re-Partition’checkbox in ODIN is selected. Also, Auto Reboot and F.Reset Time checkboxes should be selected too. Leave everything else on Odin untouched.
Double check everything said in step 10 and 11 above. Your Odin’s screen, after selecting all the files and ticking and not-ticking the checkboxes, should look like this:
Screen capture can be found at weblink
Now, hit the START button to begin the flashing process. When it finishes, your phone will automatically reboot, upon which you can unplug the cable. Plus, you’ll get a PASS (with green background) message in the left-most box at the very top of the Odin. ***I got a fail here***

read that kies is different from usb drives. Not 100% sure that would be the issue as could connect previously with ODIN, which I think means the drivers are ok.
Next question that I have, if the battery has gone flat, and it does not appear to be charging either with USB or wall mounted, where do I go from here...
Im not a total newbie, and have been on DarkyRom for most of the versions, just this boot loop has got me big style... Can anyone give me a few idea's of what to try...

You might try a direct battery charger for which you won't need your battery to be in phone and one charged you can try the usual things as flashing through odin.

Try to install another driver..since i use ics for my sgs..pc wont recognise my phone..i install s2 or nexus driver ( mtb driver ) and it works perfectly as before..

If you have flashed ICS then you will need to install the GNexus drivers that are contained here
Try and get your hands on a external charger as erpurohit has suggested or borrow a friends battery
Flashing back to stock or Darky's 10.2 should get your phone going again

Thanks folks for responses (did the button as well).
Did not need extra charger / battery. Sat it on charger all night with no change... So tonight when I came in tried one more time to put into download mode and it worked..
Tried connecting it to ODIN and it worked fully so installed Gingerbread stock and away the baby went.
Not sure root cause, but was not drivers.
Won't be installing ICS until it becomes more stable and does not put phones into boot mode without a simple way out.. (never say never though)
Cheers Anyway..

How I un-soft bricked my Samsung SGH-T679 and restored recovery mode

By soft bricked, in my situation, I mean that the only mode I could successfully enter on my SGH-T679 was ODIN download. Recovery and normal boot both locked up no matter how long the phone was allowed to run. Or it reported that firmware failed and to use Kies but Kies failed to recognize the phone.
How I bricked it
I was given one of those fitness wrist bands for Xmas, but it's from a startup company and their app only works in 4.3 or higher. So I got adventurous and tried CM 10.2. I got CM to run but couldn't get Google services to work. I finally gave up and started to revert to stock. When I had my first problem at 2am, I should have gone to bed and finished after a good night's sleep because I soft bricked it. At first, I was running flashes from my internal SD card and could only get it to flip between stock recovery and CWM recovery, it wouldn't take full stock flash. Finally, one CWM recovery flash failed and my recovery mode got stuck so it only showed the hat and gear icon and at the bottom of the screen it said "CWM 6.etc..." and never went further. But I could still get to ODIN download mode.
And that's when I got really stupid. I messed with things I didn't understand in ODIN. Did you know that if you try to run ODIN Multidownloader 4.43 using the "Debug Only" and "MD5 Ram Check" options that you can fully soft brick a T679? If allowed to run for a while (10-20 minutes is sufficient), then after forcing the phone to restart, it will result in the screen about firmware failed please use Kies for recovery (but then Kies can't see the phone because the recovery is bricked).
Long story short, after hours of trying this and that, I finally found a webpage that said you can download the CWM recovery via ODIN. That would have worked if I hadn't gotten the wrong version (resulting in lots of screen flickering), but it proved to me that I might be able to fix the recovery using ODIN.
Here's the walk thru of how I restored my stock recovery and ultimately got back to stock ROM:
Software required:
A zip software that can handle TAR files (I used PeaZip)
Go to this wiki http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Exhibit_4G and scroll down to "Flash to stock via ODIN", you need the software discussed and read thru the "STEPS" section just below that
You can first try using ODIN as described in the wiki. But if that doesn't work, you can try what I did...
Restoring stock recovery
If you haven't already, unzip the uvlg3.odin.zip file that you got via the wiki link above
From the .tar file that was in the zip, extract recovery.img and then put it inside a new TAR file (call it something easy like recovery.tar) (depending on your zip program, use "add", do not use "convert", you need the .img file inside the .tar file)
Refer to the wiki link above for more help on ODIN but basic steps are:
- Run ODIN as admin (not sure if it matters if you disable auto-protect on your antivirus software but I followed that recommendation)
- Using "OPS" button, select the Ancora.ops file that you extracted from the zip file
- You may have to recheck the "One Package" box to be able to then select your recovery.tar using "One Package" button
- Press "Start" and cross your fingers
You hopefully have now restored the stock recovery to your phone.
Further steps
I went a step further. I extracted the entire .tar file (not just the recovery image) and put each item into its own new .tar file. I used ODIN to individually load each item. I did first try to load the full file but I now think mine was failing to load system (which is pretty critical, especially if you followed directions that included "format /system"). (Note, the preload file might not work, didn't for me ; I found several posts about it and the general answer was to ignore it.) One trick to this is to watch and push the Vol Down and Home buttons when ODIN reboots the phone so you go back into download mode. Oh, and change the reset time to 30 seconds (I tried 1 but ODIN changed it to 30) so you don't wait as long on "reset". I'm not sure if it would have made my first normal boot go faster if I'd gone to recovery mode between ODIN downloads. I do know it took my phone several minutes on the first normal boot. I'm sure those of you who have bricked phones can appreciate the feeling of waiting for the stupid startup jingle and the relief when it actually plays.
Oh, and save yourself some bother by rebooting 2 or 3 times before you try to do much w/ your phone once you get back to stock ROM (or some other ROM). I was a little freaked because my wifi didn't work but after some googling, I learned Android can require a couple reboots before all services (especially wifi) load properly (which makes me wonder if I should try CM 10.2 again with more reboots... am I a glutton for punishment enough to try???).