Hard bricked during CM9 upgrade from UCLD3 Leak?!

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avus_m3

Senior Member
Mar 21, 2009
142
25
Well, my phone is non responsive to anything I do and I am unable to get into download mode. I rooted the phone using this guide from creepyncrawley (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1311081).

For a complete device history:

I later installed a nightly of CM9. Everything worked great for the most part with the various nightly builds. I changed to the UCLD3 leak for awhile without hitch.

I needed something off of my stock rooted rom from the thread above so I did a restore...again no problems with the switch. I did have to fix permissions to open some apps.

I switched back to the UCLD3 leak to test data speeds with plans on switch to the new CM 9 nighlty. I booted into recovery and wiped data, cache, and dalvik. I went to install the CM 9 4/17 rom and it checked the rom and started the install. The progress bar never moved at all and after awhile the screen/phone turned off. Since then, the phone is completely unresponsive. I am unable to get into download mode, the cap lights do not turn on...nothing.

What happened...I have no clue. Is there any way I can fix this with the tools here?
 

dandrumheller

Senior Member
Jul 10, 2010
3,625
1,137
Southern Maine / Seacoast NH
Well, my phone is non responsive to anything I do and I am unable to get into download mode. I rooted the phone using this guide from creepyncrawley (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1311081).

For a complete device history:

I later installed a nightly of CM9. Everything worked great for the most part with the various nightly builds. I changed to the UCLD3 leak for awhile without hitch.

I needed something off of my stock rooted rom from the thread above so I did a restore...again no problems with the switch. I did have to fix permissions to open some apps.

I switched back to the UCLD3 leak to test data speeds with plans on switch to the new CM 9 nighlty. I booted into recovery and wiped data, cache, and dalvik. I went to install the CM 9 4/17 rom and it checked the rom and started the install. The progress bar never moved at all and after awhile the screen/phone turned off. Since then, the phone is completely unresponsive. I am unable to get into download mode, the cap lights do not turn on...nothing.

What happened...I have no clue. Is there any way I can fix this with the tools here?

This might be a stupid question, but... Dead battery?

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6
 

AJ Newkirk

Senior Member
Aug 19, 2007
1,652
3,959
Lexington, KY
d-h.st
Well, my phone is non responsive to anything I do and I am unable to get into download mode. I rooted the phone using this guide from creepyncrawley (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1311081).

For a complete device history:

I later installed a nightly of CM9. Everything worked great for the most part with the various nightly builds. I changed to the UCLD3 leak for awhile without hitch.

I needed something off of my stock rooted rom from the thread above so I did a restore...again no problems with the switch. I did have to fix permissions to open some apps.

I switched back to the UCLD3 leak to test data speeds with plans on switch to the new CM 9 nighlty. I booted into recovery and wiped data, cache, and dalvik. I went to install the CM 9 4/17 rom and it checked the rom and started the install. The progress bar never moved at all and after awhile the screen/phone turned off. Since then, the phone is completely unresponsive. I am unable to get into download mode, the cap lights do not turn on...nothing.

What happened...I have no clue. Is there any way I can fix this with the tools here?

You may want to try a jig, if you haven't updated the bootloaders.

Were you switching between these using nandroid backups?
 

avus_m3

Senior Member
Mar 21, 2009
142
25
This might be a stupid question, but... Dead battery?

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

Phone has been plugged in the charger for awhile now...nothing.

You may want to try a jig, if you haven't updated the bootloaders.

Were you switching between these using nandroid backups?

I only used a nandroid backup for restoring back to the stock rom. For everything else, I used CWM and a zip install.
 

AJ Newkirk

Senior Member
Aug 19, 2007
1,652
3,959
Lexington, KY
d-h.st
I'd try pulling the battery and leaving it out for 10-15 mins.

I find it hard to believe that you would brick your phone using a known good .zip file in CWM.

The bootloaders should be intact - so it should be recoverable.

Something else is at play here. Either it is hard locked-up or you have a hardware issue.
 

creepyncrawly

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2010
2,768
3,276
I'd also suspect battery or hardware.

Try to get into download mode with the battery out. Use the same sequence, vol+ and vol- then plug in the usb cable. The usb will supply the power. If it won't go into download mode that way then I would suspect hardware rather than battery.
 

c0ldburn3r

Senior Member
Nov 2, 2010
1,362
348
Wet Side of Washington
Did you flash ld3 using the one click odin or thru a cwm file?

If a jig doesn't work than the bootloader is most likely corrupted.
10 char this
 
Last edited:

avus_m3

Senior Member
Mar 21, 2009
142
25
I'd try pulling the battery and leaving it out for 10-15 mins.

I find it hard to believe that you would brick your phone using a known good .zip file in CWM.

The bootloaders should be intact - so it should be recoverable.

Something else is at play here. Either it is hard locked-up or you have a hardware issue.

That's what I thought. Like I said, it started the flash but then look like it hung. The progress bar did not move at all. After a bit the phone turned off. What is hard locked-up? I do remember when I first plugged the charger in after the phone died/suspended it did vibrate.

I'd also suspect battery or hardware.

Try to get into download mode with the battery out. Use the same sequence, vol+ and vol- then plug in the usb cable. The usb will supply the power. If it won't go into download mode that way then I would suspect hardware rather than battery.

Phone is basically new. I tried leaving the battery out and holding down the vol keys and plugging into USB. Screen does nothing.

Did you flash ld3 using the one click odin or thru a cwm file?

If a jig doesn't work than the bootloader is most likely corrupted.
10 char this

As I posted above I only used Odin from the original rooting. Everything else was CWM.

I guess I need to find out how to make a jig and try that as my only remaining option??
 
Last edited:

w1209

Member
Apr 19, 2012
9
2
Same thing happened to me earlier today when flashing the latest MIUI V4 from UCLD3 in CWM. It flashed without any errors, but upon hitting reboot the device shut off and would not respond to anything. Tried leaving battery out for an hour, tried USB jig, and several other tricks to try to boot into download. Sent the phone off to Mobile Tech Videos for repair :mad:

avus_m3 I think your bootloader is corrupt just like mine.... but how?!?
 

avus_m3

Senior Member
Mar 21, 2009
142
25
Same thing happened to me earlier today when flashing the latest MIUI V4 from UCLD3 in CWM. It flashed without any errors, but upon hitting reboot the device shut off and would not respond to anything. Tried leaving battery out for an hour, tried USB jig, and several other tricks to try to boot into download. Sent the phone off to Mobile Tech Videos for repair :mad:

avus_m3 I think your bootloader is corrupt just like mine.... but how?!?

That's not what I want to hear :(

I just don't understand how this can happen. Even if lets say worse case scenario the rom is screwed, my battery dies during the update or whatever...I should still be able to get into CWM or at least download mode right?
 

w1209

Member
Apr 19, 2012
9
2
It's very odd indeed considering MIUI doesn't have a bootloader included either, and according to CWM it flashed without any problems. The only other possibility I could think of is that the ROM got corrupted while copying onto the phone. I checked MD5 checksum after downloading onto my computer but not on my phone before flashing. Still, could a corrupt ROM without bootloader hardbrick the phone? I thought the SGS2 was supposed to be very hard to brick when not flashing something like a bootloader
 

dayv

Senior Member
Sep 7, 2010
685
135
If the boot loaders and param.lfs are intact you should be able to get download mode (as long as there are no hardware problems).

Recovery on the other hand is in the kernel on our phones so if the kernel did not flash properly it could cause recovery not to work.

I have read somewhere a while back where someone had their battery die during a flash and they had to get different battery altogether to get the phones to power back on - don't know if that is the case here. It was as though their battery would not charge in their phone after it died during the flash. But if you guys know someone close to you that have the same phone I would try their battery just to see. There could be some other hardware malfunction also.

I don't know if cwm recovery touches any of the boot loaders or the param.lfs in the nandroid backup/restore process. As far as flashing a cwm zip one needs to check the zip to make sure the zip dies not contain boot loaders or param.lfs - as long as the zip being flashed does not contain those then it should be pretty safe to flash.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA Premium HD app
 
Last edited:

mzaur

Senior Member
Nov 13, 2011
575
58
NJ
If a USB jig doesn't work, I guess call up Samsung and play dumb? Worst thing that will happen is they'll send your phone back to you. Sorry to hear about your bad luck :/

Here's an odd idea... you didn't happen to get water in it, did you?
 

nakedninja42

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2009
1,998
692
Bay Area, CA
I hard brick too! I can't get jig to work at all and can't connect to download mode. I was at ~40% battery and flashed AOKP coming from ld3. I hit reboot in recovery and the screen went black.

If I can't get it working tonight I going to AT&T in the morning :(

---------- Post added at 11:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 PM ----------

If the boot loaders and param.lfs are intact you should be able to get download mode (as long as there are no hardware problems).

Recovery on the other hand is in the kernel on our phones so if the kernel did not flash properly it could cause recovery not to work.

I have read somewhere a while back where someone had their battery die during a flash and they had to get different battery altogether to get the phones to power back on - don't know if that is the case here. It was as though their battery would not charge in their phone after it died during the flash. But if you guys know someone close to you that have the same phone I would try their battery just to see. There could be some other hardware malfunction also.

I don't know if cwm recovery touches any of the boot loaders or the param.lfs in the nandroid backup/restore process. As far as flashing a cwm zip one needs to check the zip to make sure the zip dies not contain boot loaders or param.lfs - as long as the zip being flashed does not contain those then it should be pretty safe to flash.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA Premium HD app

Using the odin one-click I tried to flash using Mobile ODIN, it only flashed the param.lfs (this was before the helpful instructions from entropy on how to extract properly). Don't know if that has any effect on my problem.
 

dayv

Senior Member
Sep 7, 2010
685
135
I hard brick too! I can't get jig to work at all and can't connect to download mode. I was at ~40% battery and flashed AOKP coming from ld3. I hit reboot in recovery and the screen went black.

If I can't get it working tonight I going to AT&T in the morning :(

---------- Post added at 11:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 PM ----------



Using the odin one-click I tried to flash using Mobile ODIN, it only flashed the param.lfs (this was before the helpful instructions from entropy on how to extract properly). Don't know if that has any effect on my problem.

Not sure, but if your param.lfs got corrupted that could be your problem.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA Premium HD app
 

w1209

Member
Apr 19, 2012
9
2
Same exact thing happened to me as dayv, except I was flashing to MIUI. Coincidence between the three of us that we were flashing FROM LD3 or not? Sorry to hear about your phone as well. Lesson learned is to wait for other to flash before you? :D
 

AJ Newkirk

Senior Member
Aug 19, 2007
1,652
3,959
Lexington, KY
d-h.st
Same exact thing happened to me as dayv, except I was flashing to MIUI. Coincidence between the three of us that we were flashing FROM LD3 or not? Sorry to hear about your phone as well. Lesson learned is to wait for other to flash before you? :D

Yes....coincidence. I have flashed form UCLD3 to AOKP (and CM9) & back more than a few times without issue.
 

creepyncrawly

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2010
2,768
3,276
@avus_m3, w1209, and nakedninja42:

With three similar hard bricks, there is a patern. We should gather as much information as possible. What package did you use to put UCLD3 on the phone immediately before the bad flash? Also, exactly what parts did the AOKP or MIUI package that resulted in the bad flash contain?
 

w1209

Member
Apr 19, 2012
9
2
I used the latest version posted in the thread (I think there is only one LD3 package?): hxxp://goo.im/devs/task650/SGH-I777/Task650_I777_UCLD3_signed.zip
(not allowed to post links yet)

Same for MIUI: hxxp://goo.im/devs/ktoonsez/downloads/miuiandroid_I777-2.4.13b.zip
(not allowed to post links yet)

I know for sure that the MIUI MD5 checksum matched after downloading to my computer. Will see what the MD5 checksum is of the file on my phone after I get it back from MTV. If it is the same there is a definite pattern. If not it was just bad luck and my fault for not verifying it on phone before flashing
 

dayv

Senior Member
Sep 7, 2010
685
135
Same exact thing happened to me as dayv, except I was flashing to MIUI. Coincidence between the three of us that we were flashing FROM LD3 or not? Sorry to hear about your phone as well. Lesson learned is to wait for other to flash before you? :D

Just to be clear this did not happen to me directly - just responded as I remember reading somewhere about a battery dying during a flash and that person needing to get another battery to get their phone back to life - again the battery may not have anything to do with what happened hear.

But it does look like this happened to two people after flashing away from ld3 leak - though it just may be coincidental hardware issues. we will see if there are more people who have trouble after flashing the leak.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA Premium HD app
 

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  • 7
    Just thought I'd post an update on my hard bricked phone:
    Josh from Mobile Tech Videos got a chance to look at my phone today and according to him the eMMC chip is toast. He was unable to recover it using JTAG. Could it just have been a coincidence that several people hard bricked around the same time or did flashing have something to do with the eMMC chip becoming defective?
    Will take my phone back to an ATT service center as soon as I get it back. I don't think I will have much of an issue getting a replacement

    Right now, the general consensus is:
    With the exception of I9100 leaks and kernels built from I9100 update4 sources, Samsung ICS kernels for Exynos4 devices have a SERIOUS bug that causes them to do permanent damage to the eMMC chip. This is most likely to occur when doing a major erase operation (such as a wipe in CWM, but a wipe/factory reset in stock 3e recovery is likely to be just as dangerous)
    This includes kernels from:
    All Epic 4G Touch ICS leaks
    All GT-N7000 (International Note) ICS leaks
    The UCLD3 I777 leak (probably all of the I777 ICS leaks)
    Anything built from the Korean SHW-M250S/K/L bases - this is why there was just a rash of hardbricks with SiyahKernel 3.1rc6 - it was based off of the Korean M250L sources.

    Right now the suspicion is that it is due to this:
    https://github.com/Entropy512/kerne...59551eaf5afc3d68f2da96b0249937bd5e13#L10R1881

    Samsung attempted to fix it with:
    https://github.com/Entropy512/kernel_galaxys2_ics/commit/d069cc5cb9f0fd9409ea10d4037e4c0e68701b8e

    but they only disabled TRIM and not ERASE (which are related)

    Unfortunately there's no way to test this without risk of hardware damage... you can't declare something fixed unless you can reproduce the problem - but you can reproduce this problem once per device repair. So really only Samsung can declare it fixed - but then they'd have to actually interface with the development community.
    3
    Just wanted to chime in from the ET4g community to confirm this is exactly what happens to us on ICS leaks. As stated above it only occurs when flashing on a CWM repack kernel. Mobile ODIN is safe. It Is permanent hardware damage. Nothing will fix it, but I believe that some bricks (ones that will boot to download but can't get past data.img in odin) can have low level repartitions set to avoid the factory data partition. Never done it myself and can't find the link.

    Sorry to hear you guys have same bug. I just wanted to confirm it happens in CWM ICS as stated above. To flash or nandroid we Odin or mobile Odin a repacked GB kernel and flash from that CWM.

    Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
    Yup. It may only affect a small percentage of users, which is why we get dangerous posts from idiots like virus1x of "it's safe for me so it's safe for you" - For example, gokhanmoral was able to wipe multiple times with siyahkernel 3.1rc6 (which was based off of the SHW-M250L update4 sources), but when he released it, multiple users hardbricked. Task650 was able to flash multiple times without trouble - but others hardbricked.

    It may only be 2-3% of users that will hardbrick - but that's still WAY too high considering that a properly working kernel has 0% chance of hardbricking unless you do something really stupid, and even then, until this recent rash of broken ICS kernels, JTAG recovery could resurrect you for $50 or so.
    2
    Well, my phone is non responsive to anything I do and I am unable to get into download mode. I rooted the phone using this guide from creepyncrawley (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1311081).

    For a complete device history:

    I later installed a nightly of CM9. Everything worked great for the most part with the various nightly builds. I changed to the UCLD3 leak for awhile without hitch.

    I needed something off of my stock rooted rom from the thread above so I did a restore...again no problems with the switch. I did have to fix permissions to open some apps.

    I switched back to the UCLD3 leak to test data speeds with plans on switch to the new CM 9 nighlty. I booted into recovery and wiped data, cache, and dalvik. I went to install the CM 9 4/17 rom and it checked the rom and started the install. The progress bar never moved at all and after awhile the screen/phone turned off. Since then, the phone is completely unresponsive. I am unable to get into download mode, the cap lights do not turn on...nothing.

    What happened...I have no clue. Is there any way I can fix this with the tools here?

    This might be a stupid question, but... Dead battery?

    Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6
    2
    Cm9 its the devil. You should see how many bricks over in the epic 4touch section. Cm9 needs to be pulled and tested thoroughly. We know they aren't responsible... Well they're right they know about it and release it anyway. That is irresponsible.

    You're ridiculous. Why are you on XDA. You shouldn't even be flashing anything to your devices with the level of intellect that you've shown here. The poop I took this morning made more of a difference here on XDA then you did in your post. :D
    2
    Hmm, odd, that's the most likely way to hose you...

    Either way, do NOT flash anything or nandroid anything using the CWM-repacked UCLD3 kernel. Do NOT restore any Nandroids made with that kernel. Heimdall/Odin something else FIRST.