Hello kind and helpful people of XDA.
I am currently looking for some help regarding warranty on my recently diseased Galaxy S2 (SN: i9100GSMH).
Story:
I dropped it on a wooden floor while it was on. The OS kept chugging along, but would only open apps that was already in RAM after the incident.
Noticing trouble, I immediately thought a reboot would fix all my problems. Now it seems the internal memory is dead.
Now I'm trying to make it eligible for warranty, at least by removing the traces of root and unsafe kernel.
I figure that even though I'm sending it in because of a physical defect, they will send it back immediately because of the unsupported firmware.
Symptoms:
I can't enter recovery mode.
I can't boot the OS. It gets stuck on the Siyah kernel logo (big root giveaway, I want it gone).
I can't write to NAND neither through Odin nor Kies (Kies doesn't even connect).
I can enter Download Mode, but of course it shows that I have a custom binary installed. My install count is 1.
Do I have any options? I've heard of some JTAG method that would be able to at least reset the counter (as far as I understand). Is this true?
Regarding the warranty: I am not referring to the standard warranty.
I've paid big cash for a warranty/insurance that covers accidents. My brother dropped his LG Optimus X2 in the toilet, returned it to the exact same store with the exact same type of warranty and got a new one.
With a service like this at hand I really want to try anything to make it eligible for warranty(/insurance).
I have never used my root permissions in any harmful way. I only did it because of the AdFree app, and my favourite ROM DiLiDroid.
I've had great success with rooting and installing various software on my old SE Xperia X1 and HTC Desire (they aren't dead yet, and are my current backup phones),
so I thought it wouldn't hurt with the GS2. Seems I'm paying the price now :crying:
Thank you very much for your time!
If anyone can help me, I'll definitely buy you a beer or a cup of coffee!
Well, an usb jig will reset the binary counter.
About the siyah animaton boot....yakes, if your nand is damaged you'll have to brick it (with a pit file no one is gonna know what the hell you've done with your device).
Then again, have you even tried to make the pc to see the phone? It's worth the try.
Sent from the little guy
Nobody here can do or say anything about any warranty. Anyone claiming the same is lying to you.
If this warranty of yours covers accidents & you had an 'accident', send it in & see what happens. You're not going to get the certainty you're looking for from anyone on an internet forum.
If the phone won't boot, there isn't anything further you can do with it.
I've just read all the little details about my insurance.
It covers liquid damage, screen fractures and other physical accidents one time a year, so I guess I have to give it a whirl in the toilet.
Hopefully that will kill the traces.
The jig sounds like a must have for anyone tinkering with root. Thanks for confirming my theory.
I will definitely crawl the net for one. Special electronics 'equipment' is hard to come by here in Denmark, and I don't think I have the required solder skills to make one myself.
I do find this guide very helpful though: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1604707
This also sounds like the best way to go about this situation, as I can be totally honest about the reason for my phone not working anymore.
Thank you for your time!
If you're gonna flush it, do it right
S2 are hardcore muthaf***ers, they don't die easy. Make sure it doesn't boot after spending 2 days in a bucket of rice.
Sent from the little guy
I realize this as my device has been through some terrible things.
I've ordered a USB Jig, costing about 10$ in total, it should arrive on Wednesday.
If it works I'll be a very happy man as I won't have to lie about the actual defect.:victory:
Related
I did a stupid, stupid mistake of pulling the USB out as Odin crashed whilst performing the pit file update. Now, my phone won't turn on at all. I mean, AT ALL.
I've done everything I could.
I've ordered a USB Jig from Amazon, which I'm hoping MIGHT do the trick. However, I know "mobiletechvideos" offer their JTAG repair service if the Jig doesn't work.
1. Are they reliable at all? All their reviews are 5stars, like 49 out of 49.
2. I have warranty on this phone, but I've rooted it. Will Samsung bother with my problem or will they not mind/care?
3. Shall I send it to Samsung or shall I send it to Mobile Tech Videos?
Thank you.
Jig might work (tho very unlikely; I'm being honest with you here. But still try it anyway). Cross everything it does.
1) They're members here (I recall seeing posts by the guy who runs it on here months ago), and I've seen one or two people on here who have used them successfully (tho I'm sure there's probably a lot more than that).
2) That's the luck of the draw. Nobody on here can answer that for you. In the 8 mths I've been coming here, for people who haven't been able to go back to stock/reset the flash counter & sent their phone into Samsung/an authorised repairer it seems to be about 50/50. That is, half seemed to have been denied warranty service (which is quite reasonable; messing with the phone does void your warranty) and half have got warranty service because whomever fixed it either didn't care or couldn't tell it had been messed with.
3) Should you send it to Samsung or have it JTAG'd ? Having it JTAG'd will almost certainly be cheaper than having it repaired by Samsung outside warranty. There is always a possibility that it can't be JTAG'd (we've seen people on here who have sent phones to be JTAG'd & for whatever reason it couldn't be done). What you could do is send it to Samsung (play dumb obviously; the less you say the better), and if they say they're not going to fix it under warranty (you've got no comeback on this btw, so don't bother arguing the point), ask them for a quote. If it's cheaper than the JTAG repair, get them to fix it. If it's not, have it JTAG'd.
Essentially, whether or not you get it done under warranty will probably be determined by how messed up the NAND is after you pulled the plug. So yeah, send it in & pray ;-)
MistahBungle said:
Jig might work (tho very unlikely; I'm being honest with you here. But still try it anyway). Cross everything it does.
1) They're members here (I recall seeing posts by the guy who runs it on here months ago), and I've seen one or two people on here who have used them successfully (tho I'm sure there's probably a lot more than that).
2) That's the luck of the draw. Nobody on here can answer that for you. In the 8 mths I've been coming here, for people who haven't been able to go back to stock/reset the flash counter & sent their phone into Samsung/an authorised repairer it seems to be about 50/50. That is, half seemed to have been denied warranty service (which is quite reasonable; messing with the phone does void your warranty) and half have got warranty service because whomever fixed it either didn't care or couldn't tell it had been messed with.
3) Should you send it to Samsung or have it JTAG'd ? Having it JTAG'd will almost certainly be cheaper than having it repaired by Samsung outside warranty. There is always a possibility that it can't be JTAG'd (we've seen people on here who have sent phones to be JTAG'd & for whatever reason it couldn't be done). What you could do is send it to Samsung (play dumb obviously; the less you say the better), and if they say they're not going to fix it under warranty (you've got no comeback on this btw, so don't bother arguing the point), ask them for a quote. If it's cheaper than the JTAG repair, get them to fix it. If it's not, have it JTAG'd.
Essentially, whether or not you get it done under warranty will probably be determined by how messed up the NAND is after you pulled the plug. So yeah, send it in & pray ;-)
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Thank you for that response. Very helpful! According to a currency converter, I'll be looking towards £40 to have it JTAG'd and for them to send it back.
However, I'm not too sure how much it'll cost for me to send it. The SII box isn't that heavy lol.
No probs ;-)
If you look at what they (MobileTech) charge you for return international shipping (this is obviously on top of the cost of the repair; read this carefully), that should give you a bit of a guide as to what it will cost you to post the phone to the US from the UK. So yeah, with the exchange rate nicely in your favour I think you'll find them repairing it will be much cheaper than Samsung repairing it outside warranty.
Good luck, and post your experience back on here when you're done. Will be good for other people in the same situation to have a recent reference/someone who has been in the same situation.
BlurrOVO said:
Thank you for that response. Very helpful! According to a currency converter, I'll be looking towards £40 to have it JTAG'd and for them to send it back.
However, I'm not too sure how much it'll cost for me to send it. The SII box isn't that heavy lol.
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Click to collapse
MistahBungle said:
No probs ;-)
If you look at what they (MobileTech) charge you for return international shipping (this is obviously on top of the cost of the repair; read this carefully), that should give you a bit of a guide as to what it will cost you to post the phone to the US from the UK. So yeah, with the exchange rate nicely in your favour I think you'll find them repairing it will be much cheaper than Samsung repairing it outside warranty.
Good luck, and post your experience back on here when you're done. Will be good for other people in the same situation to have a recent reference/someone who has been in the same situation.
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I dont think the Jig will work , unless you have a gingerbread OS .. deffo wont work on ICS ive tried it ,, you should have the option to boot the phone in two ways ,, which im sure if you look at the tech side on this site you should get all the help you need ,..,, i dont know how true it actually is but ive been told its near on impossible to hard brick a SGS2 phone .. but do have a good look around to find the solution.
can you charge your phone? i believe i had in the past not been able to boot my phone no matter what i did... until i plugged it in so that the "charging" icon showed up and then I could connect it to my computer usb
Near impossible to hard brick an SGS2 is it ? Then how do you explain the half a dozen or so (on an average week; sometimes more) hard bricks we see here in Q&A ? It can & does happen. It is far from impossible.
The OP knows his options, the jig was suggested as a last resort which is pretty standard on here regardless of anything else. On (very) rare occasions it has been known to get a phone that otherwise can't be made to get into download/recovery modes or boot into download mode. It was made clear to & acknowledged by the OP this was unlikely to work.
The OP has a handle on the situation (this thread was done & sorted a week ago). He understands the phone is only going to be fixed by JTAG. The issue was whether he got Samsung to do it or a 3rd party repairer.
The one thing that has me curious tho; why quote my post ?
RapmasterUk said:
I dont think the Jig will work , unless you have a gingerbread OS .. deffo wont work on ICS ive tried it ,, you should have the option to boot the phone in two ways ,, which im sure if you look at the tech side on this site you should get all the help you need ,..,, i dont know how true it actually is but ive been told its near on impossible to hard brick a SGS2 phone .. but do have a good look around to find the solution.
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So, first of all, sorry for not replying or anything, I actually hadn't signed on XDA ever since I had my phone bricked.
Good news, I got my SII back today from T-Mobile, fully repaired!
I ordered the Jig, didn't work. So..
I bought the phone off a friend, who had got it on a contract from T-Mobile, so he did me the favour in ringing T-Mobile and inquiring whether the phone was eligible by their repair service, which it was. The phone was sent around the 6-9th of July, (free post, they sent a carrier parcel bag all for free) and it come back today.
So, if anyone manages to hard-brick their phone, you know my method works
I hard bricked my S2 as well (sad times) but all I did was ring my service provider and they fixed it for me. They said the hardware was faulty and fixed it for free!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium
If I helped you press thanks!
I just bought this thing today.
Get home and install CWM and Root.
Try to install LiquidSmooth.
Now it won't turn on. I plug in to my PC while it's "off" and i hear windows "connected" sound then the "disconnected" sound and repeated "you need to format D: " every 5 seconds.
Tried booting in to recovery and ODIN mode and nothings working.
I seriously was so ****ing excited to get this and now I have a ****ing 5" paperweight.
What the ****.
Brand new phones need to be on the charger for several hours on the first charge. Perhaps you flashed when the battery was too low. Just plug into wall outlet using the factory charger for several hours.
Well I bought it used but it was working when I bought it. It was on stock and I decided it needed jellybean... Now its problems all the way.
I mounts and repeatedly asks to be formatted so my fingers are crossed that its fixable.
I am a long time Note user and I have flashed 20+ times. Recently I flashed LiquidSmooth and it hard bricked my phone too. Exactly the same issues you describe. I had it insured so I took it to Geeksquad(bestbuy) for repair. They simply replaced it.
Looking here today it seems like I could have bought an adapter to get into download mode.
Part 5: De-brick
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1586223
Sounds like you may have flashed a version of the rom that was for a different phone. If that is the case and it is showing no signs of life you will most likely need JTAG. mobiletchvideos has a service its about 60 bucks and he has a good reputation.
So apparantly it is easy to make your own jig using simply a microusb connector and 3x100ohm or 1x300ohm resistor. Can get a 5pack of 100ohmers for $1 at radioshack and will find a microusb connector i can solder up and hope for the best.
which liquid smooth rom did u use for the n7000 or i717
imranh101 said:
So apparantly it is easy to make your own jig using simply a microusb connector and 3x100ohm or 1x300ohm resistor. Can get a 5pack of 100ohmers for $1 at radioshack and will find a microusb connector i can solder up and hope for the best.
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100Kohms not 100.
that is a total 300,000 ohms compared to your 300
Quite the difference
Also the tolerance on certain samsung devices vary so you may need a 1kohm in there as well , i have a captivate I built the jig for that jig also works on my note. Bit on my brother in law's sgs2 (which a jig is supposed to reset the flash counter as well as force dl mode) it does nothing.
But given the symptoms it sounds like you flashed a rom for the international note... I which case a jig will do nothing And bobby's(RQuiett) answer is the only course of action.
Any idea on what AT&T would do if I went to a local store and told them "I bought it off a friend and was using it and there was an OTA update and it just stopped working!"?
Don't do that. You messed up. Take your lump and pay the price for your mistake.
What you are proposing is fraud. Plain and simple.
This is a result of something YOU did, not a flaw or defect in the manufacturing of the hardware nor a result of an official software update, Which aren't even done OTA anyway you have to use kies.
That is what makes carriers and manufacturers want to lock down devices, do you want at&t to go the way of Verizon and force locked bootloaders on every device?
Not to mention... If you "bought it from a friend" they would care less about your problem.
imranh101 said:
Any idea on what AT&T would do if I went to a local store and told them "I bought it off a friend and was using it and there was an OTA update and it just stopped working!"?
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Click to collapse
Just based on the" bought it from a friend" phrase, they'd say "sorry.... you wanna buy a new one?" lol
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Welp... Mobiletechvideos repair is ordered... Will be shipping it out tomorrow... if I ship it out at like 10-11AM tomorrow morning what time do yall think I might get it back? I'm guessing next Monday?
I'm putting money on 4:17 pm Tuesday.
TUESDAY? How damn long does it take for them to open the package plug in a jtag and click a button? Shipping isn't that slow!
imranh101 said:
TUESDAY? How damn long does it take for them to open the package plug in a jtag and click a button? Shipping isn't that slow!
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Patience. You are purchasing a service from someone who has other orders to fill. Plus no one knows anything about when mobiltechvideos will do the work other than mobiletechvideos.
Obviously a lot longer than it takes to load a rom on a card and brick it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2
I read where Samsung is going to start doing something to start making their phones harder to brick and more user friendly for us. They need to do like computer motherboard makers and add a 2nd bios or the likes. People like us do like to play with our phones. So, yes I will be happily making a warranty claim and waiting for my repaired or replaced phone.
I wish mobile motherboards to become like computer boards.
Never go for htc...crap hardware
Sorry. Patience is a bit thin when I've just bought a phone for 250 Then had to pay another 50 and wait a week to use it.
sholsten said:
I read where Samsung is going to start doing something to start making their phones harder to brick and more user friendly for us. They need to do like computer motherboard makers and add a 2nd bios or the likes. People like us do like to play with our phones. So, yes I will be happily making a warranty claim and waiting for my repaired or replaced phone.
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Are you kidding me dude?
"it's their fault I'm stupid and can't read I have no problems committing fraud and having it fixed on their dime"
They are already pretty hard to brick ff just follow instructions and only flash things built for this device... When trying to make something idiot proof you'll always Just find a bigger idiot.
So maybe the question from the title is a little bit unclear.
The problem that i had with my phone is that one day, i got a message that a new android version appeared(4.1.2)...and obviously i clicked to download it. After the download and install when it was time to enter in my new version, a screen where a password was required appeared, saying something that my phone is encrypted, and a pass is needed to make i work...Problem is that i didn't have a previous password...
So anyway i restarted the phone...and android didn't even brought me to that screen...it just wouldn't load...So i decided to take matters in my own hands (not the best decision i made that day)...
I searched online how to do that...i found about odin..installed it ...and then tried to install android...Problem is that odin gave me errors when trying to upload the kit or something (i was in download mode with the phone)..when odin gave errors i either disconected the cable from the phone, or in some cases i got pissed off and removed the battery...
My question is...could i have broken my phone permanently by doing that ? Like i don't know...in a way..that neither an expert could fix it?
Thanks
You can scramble the NAND so badly it has to be replaced if a flash goes bad/you flash something you shouldn't be flashing (or if you do dopey things like pull a USB cable in the middle of a flash), and the way that's done is by replacing the motherboard, so you can certainly cause damage that costs money to repair, but it can pretty much always be repaired one way or another.
I seriously doubt you could bork a phone completely beyond all repair via firmware/software & without physically damaging components.
No physical damage was made to the phone...
Assuming all the alien language things that you said ...so the worst case scenario...do you have any idea how much a new motherboard would cost?
Varies widely depending on country/how much labor costs in your country. Samsung don't sell new motherboards on their own, you can either pay an authorised service centre to put a new one in (most expensive option, you normally keep your existing IMEI), or you can get a 2nd hand board from a broken/'donor' phone (How much you'll pay for one again highly variable depending on how much someone wants for their busted phone, search eBay/Google) & either swap it into your phone yourself, or if you're not confident with that sort of thing pay a local mobile repair shop to swap the boards for you (least expensive option, your IMEI will change to that of the phone the board came from).
Edit - If what I said in my PP was 'alien', I'd suggest you shouldn't have been messing with your phone in the first place & should probably avoid same when you get it fixed as well.
Teshte said:
So maybe the question from the title is a little bit unclear.
The problem that i had with my phone is that one day, i got a message that a new android version appeared(4.1.2)...and obviously i clicked to download it. After the download and install when it was time to enter in my new version, a screen where a password was required appeared, saying something that my phone is encrypted, and a pass is needed to make i work...Problem is that i didn't have a previous password...
So anyway i restarted the phone...and android didn't even brought me to that screen...it just wouldn't load...So i decided to take matters in my own hands (not the best decision i made that day)...
I searched online how to do that...i found about odin..installed it ...and then tried to install android...Problem is that odin gave me errors when trying to upload the kit or something (i was in download mode with the phone)..when odin gave errors i either disconected the cable from the phone, or in some cases i got pissed off and removed the battery...
My question is...could i have broken my phone permanently by doing that ? Like i don't know...in a way..that neither an expert could fix it?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Long story short, Yes your device could be "Broken" in such a way that the only option is to replace the motherboard. You atleast tried reading and doing something, dude there are several thread regarding this matter try different strategies, try out your luck, ask questions, but don't get your hopes too high.
Sorry pal, I wish you the best of all the luck in this tiny planet of ours.
Edit : sorry I was too late, I actually started the reply almost after you posted it but I went away had a coffee then completed it.
Edit: lol to actually make a phone completely unrecoverable you might need a sledgehammer, no software related issue in the world can completely damage an electronic device(unless that software was related to triggering a nuke).
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Hello!
I really hope you guys can help me. I tried to flash a recovery with Odin, and now my phone won't do anything. Its screen stays black, regardless of whether I try to turn it on, or go to recovery or download mode.
Here's some background as to what I did and what I was trying to do:
I had CheckROM RevoHD V6 with CWM Recovery (v5 I think) on my phone.
I wanted to install Cyanogenmod v 10.1.3-RC2.
I followed this guide: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_i9100
However I couldn't get Heimdall to work, so I got Odin v3.07.
I used this guide with the supplied PIT file (this may have done me in).
In the attachments you can see the Odin output.
I waited a good 4-5 minutes, but my mobile wasn't restarting or anything, so I disconnected it, but couldn't get it to boot.
And as I've said before, now I only see a black screen, regardless of the buttons I push. I've tried removing and then replacing the battery, but still doesn't work.
I've read that the USB-JIG is the last resort, but that you need to at least have the screen turn on and display a logo for it to work. Is this true, or can I still in my phone's state of brokeness use it?
And if I can use a jig, this one would be a good one to get, right?
Thanks for any help!
Jig has a 0.000000000000000000000001% chance of working, but try it anyway. If you can afford to be without your phone for as long as the jig takes to arrive, try it, but if you want it fixed sooner than later - service centre. You don't flash PIT's. Ever. This is most likely the cause of your busted phone.
Yeah. PIT is the cause of most phone bricks. I don't want to lead somebody to misinformation, but I heard that you use PIT file only for 3-file stock software when you want to start again with clear fully wiped phone. This is the only situation I heard when PIT file is used.
About your problem. You can buy USB JIG. Like the user above has mentioned you have really low chances to get it working. Your last resort in this case is to try and leave the phone on warranty in samsung repair service. Many people suggest that you should say that your phone turned off during update with Samsung KIES software and has never turned on again even though it has been written on your computer screen that installation has completed succesfully. This might help and they will replace motherboard for free. If not buy new phone. Anyway be patient and wait for more answers.
Dammit. Well thanks for the replies and tips. I hope there is someone who has another tip.
The reason I went with the PIT file as well is because I did it the first time around, flashing the first recovery. So I thought it wouldn't harm this time.
No miracle fixes. If the phone won't even bootloop, you've got zero chance of fixing it yourself. It's unlikely to even be JTAG'able. A Samsung service centre certainly wouldn't attempt one given a motherboard replacement is quicker/easier for them to do (not to mention they make a nice profit margin on the labour/parts). Having mentioned motherboards, you could also source a 2nd hand one from a 'donor' phone with a broken screen & either replace it yourself or pay a local mobile repair shop to do it (will be cheaper than paying a service centre to put a new one in).
Also, if you're lucky, service centre may not notice or care that you've been messing with it/you broke it & might fix it under warranty. Tho anyone here who tells you that's a certainty is lying to you. It's a crap shoot, you might get it, you might not. Obviously if you have no warranty that's irrelevant.
Damn. I was afraid of this. I've contacted Samsung support, but I'm pretty sure they won't do anything since I'm 3 months out of guarantee.
And now I'm looking for replacements as well.
Always seems to be the way unfortunately (this kind of thing happening just after warranty expires). If you've had the phone a while (e.g since it was released), yeah, maybe a new phone might not be a bad idea. But still, get the jig, try it, see what happens. Nothing to lose except a couple of bucks for the jig.
Thanks. Will do, since it's only 4€. And it might come in handy if I replace my phone with an S3, S4 or Note 2.
I feel your pain. I did the exact same thing earlier this year. I didn't think I was still covered by the warranty but when I took it in to the service center they fixed it for free even replacing the main board (I think). Your as well to take it in on the off chance their record still show it as under warranty.
Thanks for the support. Unfortunately the service centre is not close to me, so I'm awaiting a reply from Samsung support and hope they allow me to send it to them.
At least I was just smart enough to make a backup of the files before. So nothing lost on that end, I can get all my contacts, messages, etc. back.
Ok, so I have done something incredibly stupid. I had been using Paranoid Android on my Galaxy S2 with no issues, then we got new phones in work so I moved to a company phone, Galaxy S4 and ported over my old number. I also used the external SD card I had bought for the S2 with the S4 (not planning to use the S2 again). When I was tidying up the SD card I noticed the zip files for paranoid android so deleted it without thinking.
Now, however, I want to give the old phone to my sister, but it wont turn on at all. I know the battery is fully charged, I have tried holding down vol+power+home etc. and nothing. Have I completely bricked it? Is there anything I can do?
I should add that I can access another unrooted Galaxy S2, is that any use? Could I flash a recovery to the external SD on that and then swap the card to the bricked phone?
So no download mode.Did you tried vol up+ho
me+power to access the recovery?
Your options are:-
1) A jig.
2) Possible JTAG; this is the cheapest/most stress-free option after #1 (which will cost a few bucks on little e big B), but....Don't get your hopes up it will work, many phones in this situation are not JTAG'able. If you can find someone who will attempt a JTAG for you & you only pay if it's successful, knock yourself out. I wouldn't be paying on the basis of it costing me money upfront whether it works or not though given the next (and overwhelmingly most likely option).
3) Motherboard replacement - irrespective of warranty status, a Samsung service centre should replace the board for you with a new one. This will be somewhat expensive. How expensive will normally be dependent on what phone techs charge for labour in your country.
You also have the option of sourcing a 2nd hand board (cheaper) online; I believe KeithRoss39's 'Replace USB board thread' in General has a list of online S2 parts suppliers to get you started, a Google search will yield others, and then taking the phone & board you've sourced to a local mobile repair shop (non-Samsung service centre) & paying them to swap the boards for you (assuming you don't have the necessary skills to do this yourself). This will be significantly cheaper than the new board option in most cases.
So, in summary, the enormously more likely fix (that will actually work) is #3, with #'s1 & #2 a lot less likely to succeed, though definitely still try #1 unless you're not fussed about spending the money to do #3 right away, and possibly try #2 with the caveat I mentioned.
Edit - Also/before you ask 'what happened/why did it crap itself', nobody here can give you any indication of that. There's obviously something major hardware-wise going on, and without the phone open in front of us, it's impossible to give you a meaningful answer to that question. And though it's a natural question to ask in this circumstance, it's kinda irrelevant - the phone has a hardware fault of some kind, it needs to be diagnosed by someone qualified & fixed. That's the best we can give you.
Extra edit - Actually, as well as trying to get into both 'modes' over and over and over as TheImpossibleEnemy excellently suggested, find Hopper8's 'Odin troubleshooting' thread stickied in General, and try the 'jump start' method where you try to boot the phone with just the charger/minus the battery detailed in his thread. Like #1 & #2, very unlikely to work, but given the alternative/money involved with that, you absolutely try it.
Thanks guys. Yes I ried vol up+home+power to access the recovery, no luck, no response from the phone. I won't be able to get resistors till after the weekend but I'll make a jig then and try that. As regards Options 2&3, the phone is very old now and I have a brand new one so I'm not willing to pay anything significant to get it sorted. I'm only bothered because a) my sisters phone broke so I was going to give her this for the time being and b) I'm worried I might have old photos on the phone I didn't backup
Unfortunately, unless you are able to get the phone to boot, you won't be recovering anything from it. Motherboard replacement means you get a new EMMC, and the only (very) remote possibility of extracting data from that without having the phone work somewhat normally, is a data recovery company which specialises in pulling data from dead HDD's. Fairly unlikely this is possible though (I've never seen anyone post they've been able to get this done in the 2.5 yrs I've been here), and if it is possible, expect it to be very expensive relative to the other fixes.
Crap, that's what I assumed. Thanks anyway. I'll try the jig after the weekend and post back here.
There's a thread in General which has people offering to share their jigs, take a look - there might be someone near you with one, which will might save you at least a couple days/a week/whatever waiting for a little e big B delivery.
Good luck.
Nobody near me unfortunately, but thanks. I wonder how difficult it would be to construct a working S2 from the two I have, one being bricked, and the other working but with a cracked screen. Might be an idea
switch the screens and that's it!:good:
The only problem with that one is it's most likely something on the MB has crapped itself; given the size of the components concerned, no tech worth their salt would attempt a fiddly replacement of individual components on the board given most electronics is 'modular' (everything is made up of 'boards') these days, and it takes no time/no stress for someone who knows what they're doing to simply swap a board.
Having said that, over the last 6-12 mths, we've seen threads/posts by people claiming they've been offered a fix where just the 'power IC' is replaced on the board. I've not seen a single person post & say they've had that repair done successfully in that time though, and you can easily end up with the situation where it's something else on the board that's buggered/as well, so you end up needing the board replaced anyway, or someone attempting the repair stuffs the board up because their soldering skills aren't up to scratch.
If the easy stuff you can try yourself doesn't work & you definitely want to keep the phone, replacing the board in the first instance is the (almost; assuming nothing else is wrong) guaranteed fix.
Edit - But yeah, you can definitely have a stab at trying the good screen on the dead phone on the good phone with the dead screen as per TheImpossibleEnemy's great suggestion. Doesn't get you your data, but it might just get you a working phone for pretty much nothing. Search for the service manuals on here (they've been posted from time to time here) or Google; these have full parts lists & diagrams/pics with run-throughs of the most common repairs (replacing screen is one of those from memory).
Great, thanks guys. I'm an electronic engineer so I'd be pretty handy at this stuff. Just wondering what the easier swap would be, moving mb from one phone to another, or screen from one to another.
Replacing the screen would be easier.
Really? I had a look over a guide for replacing the screen, and one for replacing motherboard. The motherboard replacement actually looked easier to me. Have you experience with doing this yourself?
Never had to
Just my opinion,because to access the mobo one would have to remove the screen first.
The choice is yours of course,as you are some kind of engineer,it should be easy for you to do it in both ways.
I'll take it apart later and see what looks easiest. Will update here
I have some experience with taking the S2 apart.
The way to take apart the phone is to take the back off of it......
This will reveal the circuitry on top of the screen and the circuitry fitted to the rear housing. You will be able to access the motherboard before you access the screen. Adding the *good* motherboard to the *good* screen will be the easiest option for you......
See my guide here....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2335961
You'll find a link to a video that shows a step by step procedure for stripping an S2. You'll also find links for part suppliers......
Sent via my Markox/Gustavo_s powered KitKatted S2