[Q] Recovery bootloop after Odin/Kies/Heimdall STOCK flash, only boots to DL mode

bondidave · Apr 14, 2014

Hi folks, long time reader, first time noob answer seeker.

I'm no stranger to rooting, flashing, hacking about and such - I even spend most of my day as a software engineer, and I've finally given up on this one - so here I am (rock me like a hurricane), please be kind.

SM-900T - It was rocking pretty darn well on Jedi Elite which I had flashed over rooted stock 4.3 MI7 - then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly. Thinking it was no biggie, I thought I could just reflash to stock and call it a day. Thirteen or so flashes later, I gave up on 4.3 and figured I'd just take the thing up to 4.4.2 NB4 by upgrading everything to 4.4.2 via Kies.

That's when I first ran into the bootloop issue, read a lot about it, and managed to get it up(ish) on stock, rooted, with Philz 6.X... Couldn't flash a ROM to save myself and wound up with another soft brick.

Flash forward to Friday - decided to start from scratch again - attempted to flash stock 4.4.2 from Kies, from Odin, From Heimdall... Nothing seems to be able to get me out of the current state it's in:

Only boots to download mode. Flashes seem to work fine, but on that first reboot where it tries to go to stock recovery to finish up on the device itself, it never gets there - boot loops trying to load recovery no matter how it wants to get there. If I pull the battery and start up (either straight to system or by cancelling out of download mode), it boot loops trying to load system. Boots fine to download mode, where I attempt to flash again with the same results.

Yes, I've tried Odin 3.0.9, 3.0.7, 1.8.5, Heimdall on Mac, Heimdall on Windows, Kies on Mac, Kies on Windows - repartition via PIT and not. Installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled all software and drivers multiple times, tried multiple cables on multiple USB ports.... Most of the time it looks like it's going to be fine (sometimes the flash fails, usually through Kies), but never surivives that first reboot after the flash.

Every answer I've seen says to do the things I've already done or cannot do (flash stock via Odin, pull the battery and boot to stock recovery and do a factory reset - which I'd LOVE to do, but can't). No problem recognizing the sucker on the PC/Mac

Next step: try flashing a N9005 ROM...

Any other thoughts? I do have another N900T that's working but has a blacklisted IMEI, and I've been tempted to swap the IMEIs a last resort (although either I'm too dumb to make it stick, EFS pro says it succeeds in writing the IMEI after I do a EFS format, but it doesn't stick.... Either I'm missing something, or I need a UART cable) - is there a way of swapping just the radio hardware or just the internal storage? OR, is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?

Failing any of these options, perhaps I'll wait for an Odin-flashable 4.4.3 if such a thing exists - or, hope to get lucky and swap it out at a store praying they don't see I've tripped Knox.

noobtoob · Apr 15, 2014

Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

bondidave · Apr 15, 2014

Coming from you...

noobtoob said:
Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.

Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.

noobtoob · Apr 15, 2014

bondidave said:
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.

Well, I do have a few ideas... Got done questions though.

1. Do you have an external SD card?
2. It goes all the way through flash on 4.4 even with heimdall?
3. Is there anything you have left out? Even the smallest detail can help, and by the op you are detail oriented, so I just need to know.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Frank Westlake · Apr 15, 2014

... is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?

Yes, but I don't have the details handy.

All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring.

If that doesn't work then let 'noobtoob' walk you through booting with the removable sdcard. Your second N900T will be needed to write the data to the sdcard. If this works then you can 'dd' write stock partitions to an sd card with #2 then 'dd' write them in #1.

If either of those works then unroot and take it in for warrenty exchange.

Frank

Frank Westlake · Apr 15, 2014

bondidave said:
... then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly.

This also indicates data corruption, and this is what started it all. Since you have tried various cables and computers that leaves the device, probably the USB port.

Frank

bondidave · Apr 15, 2014

probably the USB port.

Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.

Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.

Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.

Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)

Thanks again guys

Frank Westlake · Apr 15, 2014

bondidave said:
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.

OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.

Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.

This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158

I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.

Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.

Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.

Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)

You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.

Frank

noobtoob · Apr 15, 2014

Frank Westlake said:
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.

This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158

I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.

Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.

You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.

Frank

This was for hard brick method and no one has verified it works on 4.4 KK yet. There is an image in there though. My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response. Located here you will find the kkunbrick.img. There is still a problem flashing anything through heimdall after updating to the 4.4 bootloader, so there is no way to tell if the phone actually took the recovery. I have had to switch to Odin for everything afterwards, and in personal experience 3.07 works best with my phone.

@bondidave I was thinking skipping the sd-card trick for now, and trying just a few other things first. Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.

Also if you have an external find the efs fix zip and have handy on an sd-card, do the same steps above except the nandroid restore. Basically if we can get into a recovery we should be ok. I had a similar issue when it was just booting over and over into download mode and this was how I fixed it. I have never used the efs fix zip, but many others swear by it. I was able to recover fortunately enough.

Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.

As far as making a complete system backup of your current phone, I highly recommend against it, unless you just want to extract information from it and not re-write it. This could definitely cause some system corruption on a new device.

If none of these methods work, then try and have them swap it under warranty.

bondidave · Apr 15, 2014

Frank Westlake said:
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values

Yessirreeebobbyjimmy, tried several copies from several different places - that and Kies is a moron and redownloads it every time anyways.

Frank Westlake · Apr 15, 2014

noobtoob said:
My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response.

I download these things just to have them handy if something fails.

Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.

I don't think he got that far into installing 4.4, but I recommend not using anything that was saved after this problem began. If the problem was caused by corruption then the restore will reinstall the corruption.

Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.

If the problem is bad USB or other bad hardware causing corruption during transfer then the SD-card boot will get past that, then transferring the rest of the partitions by SD-card will continue to be corruption-free. He could then trade-in the phone.

But you are right -- he should try everything else before the SD-card boot. Because if something else succeeds then maybe the hardware is fine, and if he went immediately to SD-card boot he wouldn't know that.

Frank

bondidave · Apr 16, 2014

Thanks for the advice guys - I'm going to try the backup from my other phone, then the efs fix, then the sd-card boot... I'll report back, wish me luck.

noobtoob · Apr 16, 2014

A nandroid previous failure, or a ROM install from external SD card was all I meant.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Lorettaa · Apr 16, 2014

I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.

bondidave · Apr 18, 2014

Lorettaa said:
I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.

Glad something good came out of my frustration!

Here's a quick update: I've done everything but the boot from SD card with no luck (and actually thought I had hard(er?) bricked it for a while after trying to copy over a few images from the other phone - turns out it needed to stay with the battery out for at least 20 minutes).

Good news - walked into a TMO brick-and-mortar last night, showed the guy my endless bootloop, and a replacement is on its way to my house for an affordable $20 warranty service fee.

At this point, I'm thinking the internal flash memory is just bad - as a software engineer, I'm ok with chalking this one up to a hardware issue (as much as I was hoping that my first post on XDA would result in some new profound solution to a longstanding issue common to a few folks).

Oh well - new Note 3 on it's way, and a new S5 shortly behind it (didn't hold out much hope on TMO hooking me up, so I ordered an S5)... let the battle of the Samsungs begin!

Thanks again to you guys who helped out - and the whole XDA community in general, I am very grateful.

Lorettaa · Apr 18, 2014

Finally you made it fix and enjoy the battle between your phones

noobtoob · Apr 19, 2014

Well, sucks it couldn't be fixed, but glad you got a replacement on the way. It pretty much sounded like the partitions were well over written before we attempted anything, but always worth a shot.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

jacqueline robert · Apr 19, 2014

Yes, but I don't have the details handy.

All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring. :good:

[Q] Recovery bootloop after Odin/Kies/Heimdall STOCK flash, only boots to DL mode

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