Database Develop

[Q] Optimus black stuck on firmware update screen

The story so far...
Bought a new Optimus Black and gave it to my girlfriend for her birthday a couple of days ago. After playing with it for about an hour she put it down, I picked it up and decided to have a tinker. I installed Cyanogen mod 3.5.1 after rooting it with Gingerbreak. So far so good but I didn't really like the look of the ROM and the absence of a Market seemed like hassle so I used ClockworkMod to restore the backed up stock ROM.
It's still working fine but now I see there is an official update from inside the phone. I presume it's the upgrade to Android 2.3 so run it and reboot the phone. That's when it all goes wrong. I'm now stuck in the CWM recovery screen. I try all the options, following any online guides I can find that were supposed to have worked for people. I try restoring the backup, restoring cyanogen, clearing the cache, dalvik, everything but nothing happens and I keep booting back into the CWM recovery screen.
Next day I try the LGUnitedMobileDriver and the phone recovery option but despite trying several times I can get no further. A friend tried to use Odin to restore it but got no success. Finally, we tried restoring with a KDZ file with
KDZ_FW_UPD_EN, Windows Enabler and LG B2CTool and now the phone got stuck in yet another loop - a black screen with 'updating firmware'. The LEDs flash for a minute and it reboots and does the same again.
What's more, the phone will now no longer charge or turn on without being connected to the mains.
What are my options here?

Follow the tutorial given below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1275315

Thanks, but I've already tried that and it doesn't work. I'm forever stuck in the firmware update screen.

pickarooney said:
Thanks, but I've already tried that and it doesn't work. I'm forever stuck in the firmware update screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried the CS_EMERGENCY option in R&D TOOLS? Wait I'll find the link..
Here >>> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=18841596&postcount=8
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=18740082&postcount=45
The CS_EMERGENCY is the only thing worked, he used a german V10A ROM. If you managed to unbrick it, you can flash it again with your desired KDZ, or use CS_EMERGENCY and flash directly your desired KDZ. TRIAL AND ERROR.

Emergency c-section... nope, I will try that now!

Said that it will get stuck at 4% but it is still flashing. Just wait for the phone to reboot by itself.

It just crashes with a fatal error as soon as it gets to the second tab (downloading) on both PCs I tried it on. I tried several KDZ files with the same result.

Does anyone know if it's possible to physically change the ROM on this phone and if it would be worth trying that before binning the thing?

pickarooney said:
Does anyone know if it's possible to physically change the ROM on this phone and if it would be worth trying that before binning the thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it have warranty? Why not RMA it, I think it has a hardware problem now since you mentioned it doesn't charge anymore. Also, have you tried a different USB cable?

The warranty gets voided as soon as you root or mod a phone and it's probably as expensive to get it fixed outside of warranty as to buy a new one.

pickarooney said:
The warranty gets voided as soon as you root or mod a phone and it's probably as expensive to get it fixed outside of warranty as to buy a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the time they change the board right away if it can't boot (as many as I've read) board was changed and none just revived the OS. So they won't know you rooted it. Just specify that they should contact you first before making any changes.

gabwerkz said:
Most of the time they change the board right away if it can't boot (as many as I've read) board was changed and none just revived the OS. So they won't know you rooted it. Just specify that they should contact you first before making any changes.
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Click to collapse
true.. you can just tell them that you received an update and upon getting it the phone wont boot anymore.. just dont tell them that you rooted it or tinkered it in any way.. i'm sure you'll be able to get your warranty that way..

darkzorn said:
true.. you can just tell them that you received an update and upon getting it the phone wont boot anymore.. just dont tell them that you rooted it or tinkered it in any way.. i'm sure you'll be able to get your warranty that way..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's exactly what I did so we'll see in two weeks if I get a fixed phone free of charge

pickarooney said:
Well, that's exactly what I did so we'll see in two weeks if I get a fixed phone free of charge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fingers crossed for you !!!

pickarooney said:
Well, that's exactly what I did so we'll see in two weeks if I get a fixed phone free of charge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IT will mostly work..Good luck though and please do reply here and let us know if it worked..

[Q] [SOLVED] Boot looped, Can't use Recovery mode..

Hi everyone.. after hours and hours of reading and studying on this website I really got myself into a mess and I just can't seem to climb out of it.. I desperately need some grade A help..
To be descriptive, I was trying to flash Serendipity 7, I was following the steps, used odin 3 1.7, I put all the files where they needed be, and followed it down to a tee, I pressed start, and then my phone goes into a boot loop... So I google around to look for solutions, and I thought I found one, well after I flash this "P-SBL.tar.md5" some tar file that is meant to fix the 3 button recovery mode issue. (Basically my cappy can't select anything in recovery mode due to it not having a "ok" button..) So I try it.. and not my recovery mode is littered with multi colored lines.. and I can't seem to get them to go away.
If anyone can help me I would forever be in your debt.. I would be happy just to go back to stock 2.2 if possible.. or perhaps advice on getting serendipity 7 to work.
I could make it happen if only I could get my recovery mode to work. D:
Please anyone help, I'm in dire need..
Thanks!

Search for "stock kb2 adam outler"
Then after you get back to stock, stay that way until you have done about 12 more hrs of research and reading. You were lucky that you didn't hard brick your phone, and you don't realize it. Don't just flash something because you"think"it will fix it. Know what you are flashing and what it will do to your phone. And you can call me an a#&h&$#if you want, but i believe most of the regular users here would agree me.

^
+ 100
Totally agree !!
suoh18, If....wow....whoa....dude don't be so trigger happy to flash. You were this " | " <---(that is a thin thin line by the way) to having a brick.

They need to get rid of that 3 button fix, its bricked more phones than I know, it should include both bootloaders and not just the one, I would contact Adam Outler like mrhaley said, to see if he can help, 3 button fix brick may require a jtag.

I know I was.. I was just reading what everyone was saying how easy it was.. it was my first flash and I guess it just back fired on me.. x_x
I really appreciate your help a ton, you have no clue how thankful I am.
I'm downloading what I need right now and I'm praying it works, thank you again so much.

^
Keep us posted on the end result.

I just used the program.. and it very well got my phone back on the right track. The boot looping stopped, it's back on the recovery mode that I can actually use, but after it loads it just goes to a black screen and keeps vibrating, I read that if it doesn't work the first time to check the flash bootloaders button. so I'm going to reboot one more time, then try that.
Thanks a ton guys, you really are great.
EDIT:
Which I think I need to do, because I still have a weird Galaxy S starting screen that appeared after I tried to flash serendipity.
EDIT 2:
Okay, After re-flashing the bootloaders it removed that screen that shouldn't have loaded, but I still get a black screen after the boot and nothing shows up..
I can enter and exit my recovery and download modes fine..
EDIT3:
Okay.. I went back into recovery mode and literally just wiped everything I could.. cache, user data, internal card, and after I rebooted again, viola it worked.
I'm so happy and I am seriously very appreciative. You guys are great and there has always been a reason why I respect this community so much.
Thanks again everyone that helped me, I don't know how much I can say it, but really, thank you so so so much, you are amazing.

[Q] Very bad brick situation

Hi everyone,
I have in the past switched roms on my Galaxy S before, therefore the issue of bricking my phone is something that doesn't intimidate me too much. However, this time i'm really stumped, and I turn to the gurus here at the forums, hoping a solution can be found.
I had just gotten my phone back from getting its screen repaired (which makes this especially irritating), and my carriers had flashed my phone back to their stock version of android, meaning gingerbread with a lot of bloatware. I decided straight away that I wanted to root my phone today, although I was away from my PC. I had my laptop with me (Macbook Air), but I had never done any flashing from it before, not to mention ever using Heimdall before (I had always flashed with Odin). I downloaded everything, and then I made my first mistake: I flashed a speed mod kernel (I believe it was a froyo kernel), and after reboot my phone wouldn't go past the splash screen. I could still get into recovery and download mode. Then I decided to try playing it safe, and I downloaded stock firmware packages for Heimdall fro the forums here. I tried flashing JVS on my phone, going exactly by the instructions written in that same thread that I found the packages, but the flash didn't succeed. Instead, I got an error message saying the PIT file didn't reach the end of the transfer (or something like that...) and the phone rebooted. After that attempt, the phone went black. Nothing works anymore except for download mode. Now I thought that as long as download mode works, I'll be ok, so I tried flashing different packages through Heimdall, and eventually when I got home I tried using Odin on my PC. The problem is, my PC doesn't recognize my phone anymore (even though the drivers are installed and I never had an issue with that before), so I'm pretty much stuck with a brick for now.
I really don't want to go back to my carrier again, and hope to get my phone back in working order without paying too much. I still think there's hope as long as download mode works.
Does anybody have any suggestions what I might be able to do? Since my PC doesn't recognize my phone (and therefore Odin doesn't either), the only semi-working option left is using Heimdall somehow, but as to how to use it, I'm in the dark.
I would really appreciate any help you guys can give me. Thanks a lot!
Aaron

first try reinstalling the drivers and try again. if you can get download mode, should be repaired.

Thank you very much!!!
I knew that download mode was a good sign, but I started freaking out as soon as Odin wouldn't recognize my phone, since it never has had that problem. Reinstalling the drivers did the trick, and flashing worked.
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. Again, thanks a lot!

commandozzz said:
Thank you very much!!!
I knew that download mode was a good sign, but I started freaking out as soon as Odin wouldn't recognize my phone, since it never has had that problem. Reinstalling the drivers did the trick, and flashing worked.
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. Again, thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are here to help.

[Q] Please help me, is my phone bricked?

I'm a complete noob in dire need of help. I wanted to root my phone, and read the 3 procedures mentioned in the sticky thread. The 2nd one (nvflash) seemed very well explained and was sure to work with 2.3.4 so I decided to use that. As I was in my friend's house I used his pc and installed the drivers while my phone was connected in apx mode. Then I double clicked the "install internal xp" batch file which resulted in a black window with some texts, but seeing this my friend freaked out and closed the window before the process was finished. I told him he shouldn't have done that. I then disconnected the phone and switched it on. It seemed to switch on properly. So I then switched it off again and pressed and held the power and vol down switches to see if I got cwm. This showed LG screen for a few seconds and then the screen went off.
Now whatever I try to do I can only see the LG screen for a few seconds and then the screens goes off. No power on, no recovery, no nothing. And I can only attempt to even power on once, after the screen goes off I must remove the battery before the power button does anything again.
I tried to freshly nvflashing the recovery many times, but it made no difference. Does this mean my phone is bricked? Please tell me how I can solve this as I'm really worried.

NVFlashing the recovery again *should* have worked. So we first need to make sure you're trying to start CWM the correct way.
1) Unplug phone
2) Remove battery for 10 seconds.
3) Insert battery
4) Hold volume-down, do not let go, keep pressing it.
5) Press power button, keep it pressed.
If/when you get the second LG-logo, bluish halo, you can release both buttons, not before.

Nope, that was exactly what I was doing to access the recovery. I tried it again just now and it didn't work.
It just displayed the regular LG logo and then the screen went off. I'm not sure the phone completely shuts down 'cause if I keep it like that it gets quite hot and I can't use the power button again to try to power up. Only removing and re-inserting the battery gives me another attempt.
Is there any chance this is a hardware issue?

Hardly any chance this is hardware related if it was working before the first NVFlash.
Good, next step will be to NVFlash a complete stock ROM. You will unfortunately lose any data you might have on it, but that's the price to pay.
Go here, follow the instructions precisely, skip installation of apx-driver. Report back.
http://www.modaco.com/topic/335474-25-mar-nvflash-stock-rom-release-v10b-dated-1300166062-15032011/

Ok, so I just download the 200mb file, connect in apx mode and double click flash.bat, right? And will this rom work regardless of country/region? I'm from India and was running stock 2.3.4 with v20* (can't remember the letter. God, I hate myself).

sean8000 said:
Ok, so I just download the 200mb file, connect in apx mode and double click flash.bat, right? And will this rom work regardless of country/region? I'm from India and was running stock 2.3.4 with v20* (can't remember the letter. God, I hate myself).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works, yes, but is the original Froyo. This is just a way to get the phone up and running again.
Later you have a few choices. Either install CWM, then install you ROM of choice, or upgrade it to the latest for your region by using the LG Update tool.
EDIT. Oh, and btw, it is better to open a command-window and type the flash.bat command. If there are any errors you will still have them on-screen.

Thank you for all the help and support. I didn't get a chance to flash the rom till now (being on a vacation without a smartphone sucks). But I'll try it asap and report back.

So, how did it go?

TrymHansen said:
So, how did it go?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't flashed it yet. I've decided to do it after I return home. I'm at my friend's house for 2 more days.

Ok, bad news. I flashed the stock rom you linked. The process went pretty smoothly. After the window got closed and the lg logo on the phone was visible 2 times, I unplugged it and installed the battery. But switching it on wasn't fruitful. It just displayed the LG logo for a couple of seconds and then the screen went off (just like before, only faster). I tried repeating the whole process, even tried to nvflash cwm once again, but nothing happened.
So is it a hardware issue? My phone is no longer in warranty period, so a hardware problem would be really bad...

So is it a hardware issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know.
What would be helpful is to get a copy of the output you get when you NVFlash, it's simply the only way to verify that the flash process went ok. If you have an aborted flash it of course won't work, and may display the behaviour you describe.
EDIT: Btw, early on there were some ROMs which refused to boot properly unless the baseband was of an early variety as well.
If you feel confident the NVFlash has been successfull, smartflash an old baseband as well, see if it boots then.

Its hardly a hardware problem. As you dont have the warranty anymore, and the bootloader is probably corrupted, i would recommend a Jtag service.
Please, dont be afraid of hitting thanks

gabriel2anjos said:
Its hardly a hardware problem. As you dont have the warranty anymore, and the bootloader is probably corrupted, i would recommend a Jtag service.
Please, dont be afraid of hitting thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now what's this "Jtag service"? (edit- I googled it and it seems to be a method of un-bricking stuff with specialized hardware or something, but I'm not sure I can have that done where I live)
Is there any way to fix the bootloader by myself?
@Trym- So, I should download a v10 baseband and flash it with this "smartflash" tool, right?

sean8000 said:
@Trym- So, I should download a v10 baseband and flash it with this "smartflash" tool, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, as a last-ditch effort. I haven't the slightest hope it'll help, but it can't hurt to try.

TrymHansen said:
Yeah, as a last-ditch effort. I haven't the slightest hope it'll help, but it can't hurt to try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I'll try that when I have the time.
So do you know anything about this corrupted bootloader thing? Does this mean my phone's hard bricked?

sean8000 said:
So do you know anything about this corrupted bootloader thing? Does this mean my phone's hard bricked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it is you're only the second person in this forum to ever brick his phone. Anything's possible I guess. Some flash cells may have been damaged the first time the power was yanked. But then we should presumably get some verification errors during flashing.
Anyway, I'm at my wits end, and I really do hope you get it up and running, but I don't have anything more to contribute. Good luck.

Corrupted bootloader means that your cellphone simply don't know what to do when you hit the power button, due to the damage. As the cell phone can't turn, the pc can't recognize it. If your cell phone were a samsung, you could try to use a jig to have acesso to the download mode. But I don't know if it would work for a LG. You could try anyway.
And if you live at big city, usually it's common to have some jtag services.
Please, dont be afraid of hitting thanks
Please, dont be afraid of hitting thanks

Ok, so I took the phone to the service center today. The guys there said its battery terminals are messed up. They said replacement terminals are not easily available, but they'll try to find some. And of course I'll have to pay for it. I guess it's still better than using the phone as a paperweight.
What do you guys think?

Good luck I managed to mess up my phone like you too. I'm from India. But the difference was that I was covered by warranty. I managed to get a bunch of hardware replaced and was up and running again.

[Q] Removed touch wiz woops!

Morning all,
I apologise if this is in the wrong section but I am new to the forum and in a bit of pickle.
Around a week ago I rooted my lovely new note 3 to hopefully one day install some nice new ROM to get rid of the horrid touch wiz and actually see the full potential of the phones power. However, for some silly reason while I was using titanium backup on my phone I thought it would be a good idea to uninstall touch wiz thinking it would magically go back to basic android however it didn't. It is completely broken now, woops. The first issue I had was it would boot up and stick to the Samsung logo and just glow so I thought it would be an idea to install stock ROM via ODIN to try and revert it back to normal. Once I downloaded the correct stock ROM it was uploading through download mode however at the last minute it failed with a ext4 error which I think it means it's bricked? Not sure, completely new to this. I am now a bit stuck as I am not 100% sure what to do next.
The phone will only boot into either the firmware upgrade has encountered an issue, basically Odin mode or download mode. I have tried recovering it through kies however it cant connect to it. It knows it is there as it will start searching for it when it's connected however says it can't find it.
My phone is a note 3 SN SN-9005. The system status is custom, reactivation lock is off, Knox kernel lock 0x0, Knox warranty void 0x1 and write protection is enabled.
Obviously I would like to get the phone back to normal, I don't care if it has to be completely wiped and brought back to normal I would like it to just work. I've been an complete idiot and fiddled with something I'm not 100% sure on and I would like to not have a 600 quid paper weight hehe.
I will greatly appreciate any help or feedback.

You won't get the best feedback for a 9005 model here. We are the 900A version stuck on AT&T. Yes, however, we have plenty of intelligent people here. It's best to post your question here in the main Samsung Galaxy Note 3 thread next time:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-3/help
Next, since you've voided your warranty as Knox being 0x1 - you're pretty much screwed for a refund or replacement based on PRESENT development from what I have read all over the AT&T threads. Understand this. Now, that being said, did you install a custom recovery or have your original recovery?
Here's my input/help. Forget about ODIN. You don't need that if all you did was remove your touch wiz.
Take out your battery, put it back in and hold VOLUME UP, POWER, and HOME together until you reach a recovery. Then if it's the stock recovery, wipe your cache partition, then wipe data/factory reset. Then reboot and you're good back to starting over. Check with a rooting application to see if you still have or not. If not, then obviously reroot
Also, don't ever do anything like that again without thinking what it could do, lol . Always tread carefully whenever you are new to something. Just my two cents for you. If you came here to root and learn it, don't be afraid to ask questions about applications and expanding your knowledge. No one will ignore you if you ask a simple question in the right manner/thread.
Good luck!

Thank you for the feedback. I have defiantly learnt from my mistake with this one. I have usually been lucky diving into things blindly hehe. I have tried to put it into recovery mode however it just vibrates like it should and then comes back up to firmware upgrade issue with the two computer screens an a attention sign in the middle. Is there anyway to get recovery mode back.

apdnote said:
Thank you for the feedback. I have defiantly learnt from my mistake with this one. I have usually been lucky diving into things blindly hehe. I have tried to put it into recovery mode however it just vibrates like it should and then comes back up to firmware upgrade issue with the two computer screens an a attention sign in the middle. Is there anyway to get recovery mode back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish you had come here when you deleted touchwiz only instead of playing with Odin. Looks like you messed it up even further and have to now use Odin to reinstall your firmware. I'm about to go to sleep, but do this.
1) Take out battery and put it back in. Then press and hold VOLUME DOWN + HOME + POWER at the same time until you reach DOWNLOAD MODE.
2) Follow the steps here and use your odin or latest odin (shouldn't matter):
http://www.androidrootz.com/2013/10/how-to-unrootunbrick-galaxy-note-3.html
Oh, and google is your friend. It's how I learned things over the years...READING, then tinkering....you're welcome .

I wish I did as well. I will try this when I get back from uni this evening and post back results.
Thank you again.

apdnote said:
I wish I did as well. I will try this when I get back from uni this evening and post back results.
Thank you again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're very welcome, bro.

opasha said:
You're very welcome, bro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used what you have said to do and downloaded the correct firmware however when I try and install it via odin in download mode I get a FAIL(SIZE!) message at the end. Its not an ext4 error anymore but im worried at what is going on now. I have tried searching it up on google however nothing has come up. Looks like ive completely broken it... ='(

apdnote said:
I used what you have said to do and downloaded the correct firmware however when I try and install it via odin in download mode I get a FAIL(SIZE!) message at the end. Its not an ext4 error anymore but im worried at what is going on now. I have tried searching it up on google however nothing has come up. Looks like ive completely broken it... ='(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have the 9005 right? I think you have the wrong file to odin. What is the exact model number of your phone and where are you located in the world? (reason I ask is there are different regions to choose from)

agent929 said:
You have the 9005 right? I think you have the wrong file to odin. What is the exact model number of your phone and where are you located in the world? (reason I ask is there are different regions to choose from)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SSN: SM-N9005GSMH
S/N: RF1D96B6ELB
United Kingdom Vodafone.
Im sure I downloaded the 9005 for samsung in the uk but I wil try again from a different site that specficly says what country and code.
If not would you be able to post me a link to the exact one?
Many thanks

Thank you so much everyone for your input. I hunted out the correct EU snapdragon firmware and booted it on, emptied the cache and restored to factory settings and its finally running! Only took 2 days hehe but at least its working. Thanks again everyone

Good to hear!

apdnote said:
Thank you so much everyone for your input. I hunted out the correct EU snapdragon firmware and booted it on, emptied the cache and restored to factory settings and its finally running! Only took 2 days hehe but at least its working. Thanks again everyone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your welcome, don't forget to hit the thanks button for anyone that helped you!

apdnote said:
Thank you so much everyone for your input. I hunted out the correct EU snapdragon firmware and booted it on, emptied the cache and restored to factory settings and its finally running! Only took 2 days hehe but at least its working. Thanks again everyone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I am using same SSN. Can you please confirm the working rom download URL? Appreciate your help.
Thank you.