EDIT : I am now offering a $100 reward via PayPal to anyone that can offer me a solution to this problem. If you do not have a PayPal account, I will mail you a check for $100. Those are my only methods for payment. I am 100% serious about this by the way. From what I'm told, Nandroid backups are stored on the internal SD card, so even once the replacement phone arrives, I could not restore the nandroid backups on the (currently) broken phone over to the new one. I absolutely HAVE to get to those backups, and it is well worth $100 to me. NOTE : to be eligible for the reward, you MUST read the entire thread. I have already exhausted many common solutions to problems like this one, and am getting tired of getting offered the same advice over and over. If you fail to read the thread and offer me a solution that I have already attempted, I will not give you the $100 reward, even if you later are the one that comes up with the solution to my problem.
Please delete my other threads, I can't edit the title on them and they are outdated now.
This is my situation in a nutshell.
Downloaded Obsidian v2, wiped and flashed it. (this is my girlfriend's phone) - she did not like 2.2, so I wiped data/cache and attempted to restore the nandroid backup I had made. After hanging on 'restoring data' for 30 minutes I rebooted the phone, and now I'm here. The phone boots to the Vibrant logo only, I can get absolutely no other logos to show up no matter what I do. I realize now that I needed to flash a 2.1 kernel prior to restoring the Nandroid backup, but on my Droid, when I restore a nandroid backup that includes the kernel, so I did not know this step was necessary.
I have downloaded Odin but I have NEVER used it, so I am completely lost there as well. As far as I know, I simply need to download Odin, and then follow one of the many methods to access download mode. I have tried about 15 different methods of holding the buttons on the phone, plugging in the USB cable at the right time, etc. etc. etc. None of the methods work. The phone boots up to the Vibrant logo each and every time, no matter what. I downloaded and installed the Kies software so the drivers should be installed.
What do I do now? The phone is not hardware locked because I've used the buttons to access recovery many times. Is there a step I'm missing when it comes to Odin or do I just download it and open it? PLEASE give me instructions as if I am a child, because obviously whatever I'm doing is not working. PLEASE no vague instructions. I do not know how to use adb, odin, or basically how to do anything at all with this phone. I am a Droid user, and after I get her phone back to the way it was I will never attempt to hack it again. Thank you.
edit : also, yes I have pulled the SD card/SIM card.
I'm ready to give up on this.. is it possible to return this phone to T Mobile for a replacement, and if so, will her nandroid backups and titanium backup info be stored on her SD card? Then I could just root her new phone and restore the nandroid backup and be done with it. I promise, once I find some kind of solution, I am never hacking a Vibrant again. Far too complicated to hack non-stock google phones.
use Odin 1.3 or maybe higher
velocity92c said:
I'm ready to give up on this.. is it possible to return this phone to T Mobile for a replacement, and if so, will her nandroid backups and titanium backup info be stored on her SD card? Then I could just root her new phone and restore the nandroid backup and be done with it. I promise, once I find some kind of solution, I am never hacking a Vibrant again. Far too complicated to hack non-stock google phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm at work but do a search for odin 1.3 which worked for me. There is a thread that had all the files you need to get the phone back to stock kernel and all. If you haven't resolved the problem by tomorrow I'll try to find the thread for you or post the files if I can from my computer.
I'm already using 1.3 and I've already downloaded the all in one pack of files I need. Still can't get past the Vibrant screen to use Odin. I'm guessing since nobody has responded back with a way to fix this that I'm hosed, so can I take the phone to a TMO store and get a new one?
Download Mode
velocity92c said:
I'm already using 1.3 and I've already downloaded the all in one pack of files I need. Still can't get past the Vibrant screen to use Odin. I'm guessing since nobody has responded back with a way to fix this that I'm hosed, so can I take the phone to a TMO store and get a new one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried turning the phone off then while holding the volume down button only, have odin running and plug in the usb cable to the phone? It should power on into download mode like that.
Email me [email protected]
The best phone in the world
I have literally tried every possible combination of holding down buttons, powering up, usb cable in, out, etc. etc. I searched the forum and tried at least 30n different "surefire" methods. Odin always sits there and does nothing, and the phone just goes to the vibrant screen.
jaliscojorge said:
Have you tried turning the phone off then while holding the volume down button only, have odin running and plug in the usb cable to the phone? It should power on into download mode like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to build an extremely ghetto Jig, which is just a 301kohm resistor going across pins 4 and 5 of a microusb plug. It sounds hard but its really not that bad, and unfortunately its the only way to get your phone into downloader mode if its hardware locked, like mine is.
As mentioned previously the phone is not hardware locked. I've accesssed recovery several times with the standard methods. Just got back from Tmobile and it will be a week before the new phone gets here. There has to be a way to fix this. Someone please help?
This is pretty weird because if the phone is not hardware locked, there's no reason that you can't get into download mode.
Just to be clear, so are you saying when you hold vol up + vol down ONLY, you will get vibrant screen?
Or when you hold volup + vol down THEN plug in the usb, it goes to Vibrant screen?
You need to be in download mode to use Odin, not recovery mode. Have you ever gotten into download mode via hardware? Was 'usb debugging' enabled? If so, go into download mode and follow Eugene's Froyo that doesn't brick.
I don't know how I can be anymore clear that the phone is not HWL and I cannot access download mode. I'm not trying to be an ass, it's just a very frustrating situation. I know you need to be in download mode to use Odin. I cannot get to download mode or this would be a cinch.
And to the poster before ^ this one, the phone goes to the Vibrant screen regardless of what button combination I press, or whether or not I hit any buttons at all. I've literally tried every combination possible, many many times.
I'm ready to throw this phone out the window. I have a hard time believing I am the only one to ever have this issue. It seems as though the answer to most problems is download mode + Odin but that does me no good.
Is there literally nothing else I can try?
From what I understand email thegreat520 he is supposed to be the guy to talk to I've heard it from a few posts
Still flashing
I know it can be frustrating, but excuse me for starting with the basics...
have you followed this youtube guide? I put it in the sticky because it was very helpful in my opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnY7P14JSWQ
Here is another way I have not seen before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9LYLoK1Qog
and why not post another
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqxearzXrVY
I had the same issue search my post I used a froyo Rom when the phone 1st came out I download then something went wrong will flashing a new Rom I tried and tried odin did not work bc NO download mode I had got my phone the day it came out I just sent it back to tmobile pm ill explain how
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Same issue
Used download mode many times, then did the same exact thing you did with the obsidian ROM. Now i cant get into download mode at all.
The method that worked 100% of the time previously (holding both volume buttons and then plugging the phone in while odin is runing) does not work. Tried a bunch of different methods and nothing.
There has to be a way to get around this.
OP, please try the method in the general sticky. It seems to fix the HWL issue.
WOW!
Without even plugging anything in, I:
1) Turned phone off
2) Held Vol. Down + Home button + Power
And that got me into download mode. I will proceed to try flashing back to stock now.
I have tried all the methods in the videos, and the issue is not related to the phone being HWL. It is not HWL. I have used the buttons to access the modes before. So please give me something unique to try besides a button combination, because none of them work. Am I literally the only one in the world that has ever had this problem before? I will paypal someone 50 bucks if they can help me fix this and that's not a lie. Her new phone won't be here for weeks and she is currently without a phone. Maybe I'm doing SOMETHING wrong but it is definitely not a button combination. I have literally tried them all, including with the USB cable in and out, and plugging it in at certain times during the process. Don't you normally get a charging icon when you plug the phone into the computer? All I get is the vibrant screen. Even if the phone is off, if I plug it into a computer without hitting any buttons, it turns on and goes to the vibrant screen. 50 dollars via paypal. You can't beat that. If you don't have paypal I will mail you a check, and no this is not a joke.
So I'm pretty much screwed huh? Can someone tell me if nandroid backups are stored on the SD card on the Vibrant? I will just wait til the new phone gets here and put the old SD card in the new phone and restore it if so.
i was trying to root a phone for someone and after odin completed it said it had failed.
the phone is a telus samsung t959d running froyo.
I followed the instructions from (I would post the url for the link but i am not allowed to.)cyanogenmod's wiki, after it failed I rebooted the phone and it got stuck on the screen in the attached pic. I have tried to boot back into download mode to no avail. From the screen it's stuck on I cannot get any tool to register the device as being present, adb, heimdall, zdiag, etc... I even tried fastboot out of desperation.Before I used odin I tried to get the phone to boot into the bootloader but it only ever went to either recovery or a normal boot and I tried every button press combo I could think of and found and nada.
Even running adb reboot bootloader just made the device boot normally. I think that if I could get it to boot to fastboot usb i could then try fastboot. I am new to rooting devices and have successfully rooted my HTC EVO3D and got s-off and simlock removed for any carrier. So I do know how to follow instructions properly, why flashing the recovery.bin failed I don't know and every fix I seem to find says BOOT TO DOWNLOAD MODE. if I could do that I wouldn't be having this problem lol. Anyway can someone please help me figure this out. Thanks. ANd if you need any further info please let me know. I don't want to have to give my friend my phone due to a software issue.
And YES I did pick PDA not anything else.
machv5 said:
i was trying to root a phone for someone and after odin completed it said it had failed.
the phone is a telus samsung t959d running froyo.
I followed the instructions from (I would post the url for the link but i am not allowed to.)cyanogenmod's wiki, after it failed I rebooted the phone and it got stuck on the screen in the attached pic. I have tried to boot back into download mode to no avail. From the screen it's stuck on I cannot get any tool to register the device as being present, adb, heimdall, zdiag, etc... I even tried fastboot out of desperation.Before I used odin I tried to get the phone to boot into the bootloader but it only ever went to either recovery or a normal boot and I tried every button press combo I could think of and found and nada.
Even running adb reboot bootloader just made the device boot normally. I think that if I could get it to boot to fastboot usb i could then try fastboot. I am new to rooting devices and have successfully rooted my HTC EVO3D and got s-off and simlock removed for any carrier. So I do know how to follow instructions properly, why flashing the recovery.bin failed I don't know and every fix I seem to find says BOOT TO DOWNLOAD MODE. if I could do that I wouldn't be having this problem lol. Anyway can someone please help me figure this out. Thanks. ANd if you need any further info please let me know. I don't want to have to give my friend my phone due to a software issue.
And YES I did pick PDA not anything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I kept reading other threads and sadly I din't pully the battery first before disconnecting the usb and repartition may have been checked as I see that it does the as default for my version. Also i turned off ODIN as I was hoping a reboot of my computer might help. I will keep trying to find an answer till someone gets back to me. this post may not even show up if I can't do a second post if no one has replied first.
Everyone was a nub at one time wasn't it FUN hahahahahaha sob cry
machv5 said:
I kept reading other threads and sadly I din't pully the battery first before disconnecting the usb and repartition may have been checked as I see that it does the as default for my version. Also i turned off ODIN as I was hoping a reboot of my computer might help. I will keep trying to find an answer till someone gets back to me. this post may not even show up if I can't do a second post if no one has replied first.
Everyone was a nub at one time wasn't it FUN hahahahahaha sob cry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried a jig and that didn't work. There must be some way of getting the device to give up on completing a task i no longer can give it due to ODIN being shut off.
Why is it that the "how to root/unlocks" never have the "if x fails then do these steps etc..." Had the how to had "pull the battery before disconnecting USB and don't reset or shut off ODIN" I wouldn't be in this mess. I realize that it's user beware but a few important steps like that in case of a fail would go a long way to you guys not shaking your heads. Instead of "silly nub hahahahahaha". No offence but I get that a lot and try to remember that when I teach someone how to use a computer. I am new at phones not at everything.
Further Developments Please can someone help?
I was giving someone a new memory card and they had a Samsung SGH-I896 it has an EB575152VA battery and the one I have the T959D has an EB575152VU battery. I exchanged my battery for hers by accident somehow and when I plugged my phone in it didn't go to the phone triangle computer logo screen it booted to recovery and said it couldn't charge the battery and kept rebooting to recovery. I got my battery back and it booted back to the phone triangle computer logo again. Grrrr....
The other thing I saw while the recovery screen was an error message that said
Code:
E:/data/fota not accessible
(may not be 100% accurate I don't have the battery to check right now but can get it again if need be) anyway I now see that there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. i have the correct stock firmware for the device I tried flashing it while in recovery but the phone kept rebooting before anything got done. My question is how can I get the dang phone to stop asking for Odin and go to recovery so I can flash stock firmware and ROM back to it? As I cannot as far as I know give it what it wants because I reset Odin and nothing seems to see that the phone is connected to the computer. I am going to try the other battery on a full charge to see what that does.
I am new at all this and want to get it fixed. I cannot afford to send it off to a service center and besides that I want to do it myself as I want to become a developer and droid technician. I would gladly donate to anyone but am still trying to get Google to accept my pay-as-you-go credit card and I don't have PayPal either. Which is really frustrating when it comes to giving back. I posted a Q&A on how to without PayPal or CC but as of the last time I checked no one has gotten back to me about it.
The CyanogenMod guide is flat out WRONG. I've tried to change it, but anything I do is reverted in an instant. I also tried to use it to install the ROM only, ended up bricking my phone and it took me hours to unbrick. That's how I became acquainted with XDA.
So, to get this straight:
1. you're using the stock USB cable
2. you remove the battery
3. you hold volume down
4. you plug in the usb cable
5. after a few seconds, you release volume down
6. the screen does not display a yellow triangle with an android
Posted from my Galaxy Tab with CM10
MultipleMonomials said:
The CyanogenMod guide is flat out WRONG. I've tried to change it, but anything I do is reverted in an instant. I also tried to use it to install the ROM only, ended up bricking my phone and it took me hours to unbrick. That's how I became acquainted with XDA.
So, to get this straight:
1. you're using the stock USB cable
2. you remove the battery
3. you hold volume down
4. you plug in the usb cable
5. after a few seconds, you release volume down
6. the screen does not display a yellow triangle with an android
Posted from my Galaxy Tab with CM10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is correct. If you think that my idea below is a bad one or if I downloaded the wrong firmware package please let me know and /or you have a fix that will work? ty
I have though come up with an idea that may work. I am going to charge the "wrong" battery in erm the right phone lol and then use it to trick the device into booting into recovery instead of the cellphone triangle computer (CTC, for want of a better acronym) The I896 battery ends in a V not an ? (sorry can't rem don't have it on me) from the I896 model I think it is, plugging it into USB with the power off sends it to recovery with the "battery cannot be charged " message instead of the CTC screen.
I tried it but the charge in the battery was too low and rebooted. I am hoping that with a full charge (as long as I don't power on the phone first as this will make it go to CTC logo again.
I am hoping that I can install the update.zip that I made by first unzipping the T959UVJFD_firmware.tar I downloaded then unpacked and then repacked into an update.zip as I don't think that it will read the package as a tar file and if it's not called update.zip The recovery is still stock. If I get the phone working I am not going to try unlocking and rooting it again. I will just post two separate adverts one as a carrier locked device and the other one (higher of course to cover buying the unlock from Telus) as carrier unlocked and then I will buy the unlock code if the blah blah you get the drift. sorry for rambling on.
oh and I can't rem if I said this or not, In recovery it "E:/data/fota not accessible" I don't know what that means yet I have been busy with other things and haven't looked it up yet.
Since you can get into at least some version of recovery, your bootloader is intact and you should be able to unbrick it. You ought to be able to get into download mode using a download jig. You can get one on ebay for a few bucks or you can make one yourself. There's a guide floating around here somewhere that lets you make one from a microusb cable.
Posted from my Galaxy Tab with CM10
This may turn out a bit long...
My s2 has been playing up in one way or another for a few months now such as freezing, turning itself off and kept going into drive mode by itself then last week all my messages deleted and I couldn't send or receive any more and then the next day it turned itself off and I can't get it back on properly. It turns on, goes onto the Samsung Galaxy S2 screen then onto the O2 welcome screen then to the screen with the flashing S then just goes between that and the O2 screen over and over again. Been looking for help the last few days and the main thing I could find was to go into recovery mode and restore it but I can't do that because my home key doesn't work. So nor could I do the second thing I read could help which was to go into download mode and flash it. I didn't even know anything about recovery mode, download mode, flashing, rom, odin or anything else until last week. My phone is exactly as I bought it. I then read about a usb jig which would force it into download mode which I got today and it didn't do anything. I actually couldn't care less about the phone, I would love to just smash it to bits! BUT is there any chance I will ever be able to do anything get it back on just once so I can get my photos and videos off it? I've connected it to the computer but it comes up as an Android Modem so that I can't get the files off that way and it won't connect through Kies either. I know sending it to be repaired would end up with it coming back totally wiped so no point doing that. I normally wouldn't be so bothered it's just there's pictures of my daughter's first birthday and holiday and videos of her first steps. Is there anything else that can be done? Thanks.
There's a 0.000001% chance the phone will boot normally & your stuff will be intact if you can get into download mode & flash a one part stock rom. The more likely scenario is you'll need to flash a 3 part rom which will wipe the device.
You could try ADB to get into download mode, but you're going to need to be motivated to learn how to use it (plenty of tutorials on XDA/elsewhere; search). If that doesn't work for whatever reason, try fixing the home button.
Being a former betting man though, I don't like your chances of recovering data.
MistahBungle said:
There's a 0.000001% chance the phone will boot normally & your stuff will be intact if you can get into download mode & flash a one part stock rom. The more likely scenario is you'll need to flash a 3 part rom which will wipe the device.
You could try ADB to get into download mode, but you're going to need to be motivated to learn how to use it (plenty of tutorials on XDA/elsewhere; search). If that doesn't work for whatever reason, try fixing the home button.
Being a former betting man though, I don't like your chances of recovering data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying. I don't have a clue what a one part or three part rom are sorry! Doesn't look good then. I'm so annoyed. I had planned to sort through my files and get them backed up last weekend because I knew this would end up happening and the stupid phone died on Thursday! I don't think fixing my home button would help because the volume button didn't work much either, it's a wreck to be honest! Had a quick look at ADB, looks complicated but I'll have a proper look later on as a final hope otherwise I'll just have to accept my files are gone for good
Just an update...tried to get into download mode with adb but it doesn't find my phone. Is this because it only comes up as an android modem by any chance? Think I may have to give up hope. At least I will learn from this and back things up a lot more often!
Hi guys, sorry if I posted this at the wrong place.
I have a Lenovo s860 and it went into a bootloop. It was stock and all so I thought that I can have my files recovered if I just bring it to a service center so they can get the files first before wiping it or maybe even fixing the bootloop without wiping the device. Well, the thing is, the guy at the service center screwed up and now, when I try to turn it on, I still see the boot screen (Lenovo, powered by Android) but the next screen is like an television with bad signal.
I'm familiar with rooting and flashing ROMs, I've tried it on my Galaxy S2 (yeah I know, it was way back), but I think things are still more or less the same: I need to be able to boot into recovery mode in order to root the device. However, when I tried the Power Button + Volume Up, or any combinations of the Power Button and the Volume Buttons, it just goes straight to the dead screen, I get no response whatsoever.
I also tried to check if adb can detect it, however, it didn't seem to be able to do so. I'm using a MacBook Pro so I know I don't have to install any drivers, I also code Android Apps so I have a background on this.
I think my only option would be to flash the ROM on this dead device but I don't know how to do that. I've also seen some posts that suggest doing some things (I forgot the specifics) while the battery is drained, so what I'm doing for the mean time is to leave the phone open and let it drain which might take ~2 days.
Does anyone know how to flash a ROM on a bricked device? Thanks for any leads.
I only want my Wogiz WX40 to work properly again. It somehow got into a booting loop and I spent many hours figuring out how to flash it due to drivers acting unexpectedly, incorrect instructions for my device and so on.
I finally got it to flash with stock software I got from needrom using SP Flash Tool. However 1) none of the bottom keys work now and 2) it looks as if the resolution is set too high for the device and I think there is also some slowness when using the phone. I have tried clicking upgrade firmware and formatting the entire flash and using different versions of the software and the result is always the same - the bottom keys not working in particular makes it unusable. I tried downloading the stock rom from another location but after downloading it said I needed a password.
So what is the next thing I can try? I'm at my wit's end here and just want it to work again. Thanks for all help.
Anyone know what I should try? For example what custom RAM + firmware might I want to try? At this point I don't care what it is as long as it works. It's a MT6580 device if that helps.
God, I FINALLY got it working.
In case there's anyone else that runs into this: My mistake was getting the stockrom from needrom, every one of those roms for this phone is bad. Get the rom from shareas.us and use SP Flash Tool to flash it, and even then you have to try to get the one that isn't password protected with no password. Leave the battery in, turn the phone off, use option "format + download" in the software and click download BEFORE you connect the phone, NOW connect the phone and after a little while it will start downloading. Disconnect the phone when it's done and switch it on, it will take a REALLY long time to boot up the first time but it should then work.
That's what came from hours of trying to get it to work. The tutorials etc. online are so confusing, even some incorrect instructions like saying I should take out the battery that are completely false and I would never have gotten it to work if I paid more attention to them. I don't ever want to go through something like that again. I finally have my phone back.