[Q] Recovery Mode is broken. Phone won't boot properly.

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Baurblades43

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2013
65
1
Eugene
I'll first list specs of my phone so it gives you some information you might need to help me solve my problem.

Verizon Galaxy S4
Android 4.3 MK2

Download mode works properly. Phone will not turn on unless it is plugged in via micro USB. Recovery mode boot loops.

(Recovery mode) I hold volume up and power after I plug in the micro usb to turn the phone on, and it shows the samsung logo, and the blue text pops up in the corner and says "Recovery Booting". After about 2 seconds of it showing that, it'll just black screen and repeat this boot loop of the samsung logo popping up and the blue text as if I have the recovery keys held down.

What led up to all of this is, my phone crashed and it turned off and tried to reboot, and crashed during the reboot. That's where I ran into the problem with the phone not turning on unless it was plugged in(battery is fully charged). At that time, if I plugged it in and didn't touch any keys, it would vibrate, and then a battery icon with a gray circle loading thing would pop up in a frozen picture. Then after about 8 seconds, it'd black screen and boot loop that. I couldn't get into Recovery at that time, but download worked fine. So then I googled a little and I flashed something onto my phone using Odin and Download mode. The file is supposed to make the default boot sequence go to recovery mode. This worked, but since Recovery mode is broken, it doesn't work entirely. After this, I didn't do anything for a day, and then I read some posts and tried flashing both a Wipe and No-wipe stock firmware MK2. Both of which did not work, since still, the phone was defaulting its boot to the broken recovery mode.

So as far as I know, the only way to do anything to the phone is through Odin and Download mode since nothing else works. I'm really hoping I'll be able to fix this, because I'd rather not pay $100 for a new phone :/

Basically what I'm asking for is what I should do next.. My only last thought is(If its possible) to wipe the phone using Odin, then putting the stock firmware back onto it. (The wipe of course getting rid of that stupid file that makes it go into recovery mode.
 

decaturbob

Senior Member
Mar 30, 2011
2,492
842
Decatur
I'll first list specs of my phone so it gives you some information you might need to help me solve my problem.

Verizon Galaxy S4
Android 4.3 MK2

Download mode works properly. Phone will not turn on unless it is plugged in via micro USB. Recovery mode boot loops.

(Recovery mode) I hold volume up and power after I plug in the micro usb to turn the phone on, and it shows the samsung logo, and the blue text pops up in the corner and says "Recovery Booting". After about 2 seconds of it showing that, it'll just black screen and repeat this boot loop of the samsung logo popping up and the blue text as if I have the recovery keys held down.

What led up to all of this is, my phone crashed and it turned off and tried to reboot, and crashed during the reboot. That's where I ran into the problem with the phone not turning on unless it was plugged in(battery is fully charged). At that time, if I plugged it in and didn't touch any keys, it would vibrate, and then a battery icon with a gray circle loading thing would pop up in a frozen picture. Then after about 8 seconds, it'd black screen and boot loop that. I couldn't get into Recovery at that time, but download worked fine. So then I googled a little and I flashed something onto my phone using Odin and Download mode. The file is supposed to make the default boot sequence go to recovery mode. This worked, but since Recovery mode is broken, it doesn't work entirely. After this, I didn't do anything for a day, and then I read some posts and tried flashing both a Wipe and No-wipe stock firmware MK2. Both of which did not work, since still, the phone was defaulting its boot to the broken recovery mode.

So as far as I know, the only way to do anything to the phone is through Odin and Download mode since nothing else works. I'm really hoping I'll be able to fix this, because I'd rather not pay $100 for a new phone :/

Basically what I'm asking for is what I should do next.. My only last thought is(If its possible) to wipe the phone using Odin, then putting the stock firmware back onto it. (The wipe of course getting rid of that stupid file that makes it go into recovery mode.

are you an unrooted stock ROM??
 

Mistertac

Senior Member
Oct 22, 2013
4,759
2,749
Springfield, Ma
I'm sure someone smarter then me will know exactly what is going on here but things I'd try in the mean time is another Odin file possibly. I believe Surge has said that if MK2 file doesn't work to try the MJ7 full wipe/Re-Partition one. At this point what you got to lose?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 

Baurblades43

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2013
65
1
Eugene
I'm sure someone smarter then me will know exactly what is going on here but things I'd try in the mean time is another Odin file possibly. I believe Surge has said that if MK2 file doesn't work to try the MJ7 full wipe/Re-Partition one. At this point what you got to lose?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

I believe I've already done this? I'm not sure. I'll have to check once I get home later in the day.
 

naveen6252

Member
Oct 6, 2013
34
3
29
New Delhi
Use sp flash tool and install another recovery. That will surely work. Just download sp flash tool and drivers for your device and install these files in your pc. After that download recovery.img and scatter file.txt for your device. First load the scattered file.txt using sp flash tool, now uncheck all the tick box except the recovery. Now click on recovery and select the recovery.img which you have downloaded. Now take out your phone's battery and connect it via usb cable. Make sure you have installed your phone's drivers. Click on download button on sp flash tool. If not works then remove the usb cable and reconnect again. You will see a green circle saying its done. Click on ok. And try to get into recovery again.

Sent from unnamed ROM using xda premium app
 

riker147

Senior Member
Jul 11, 2011
1,139
355
Use sp flash tool and install another recovery. That will surely work. Just download sp flash tool and drivers for your device and install these files in your pc. After that download recovery.img and scatter file.txt for your device. First load the scattered file.txt using sp flash tool, now uncheck all the tick box except the recovery. Now click on recovery and select the recovery.img which you have downloaded. Now take out your phone's battery and connect it via usb cable. Make sure you have installed your phone's drivers. Click on download button on sp flash tool. If not works then remove the usb cable and reconnect again. You will see a green circle saying its done. Click on ok. And try to get into recovery again.

Sent from unnamed ROM using xda premium app

If he's using Safestrap, it most likely means he can't flash a recovery image. He could brick his phone.
 

Mistertac

Senior Member
Oct 22, 2013
4,759
2,749
Springfield, Ma
Was just going to say that. I don't know much about that flash tool myself... Is it an alternative to Odin? From the little I read... You can flash an entire rom or just something in particular to repair a phone. Either way I don't think the OP should try that method. Stick with Odin.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 

cbmggm

Senior Member
May 1, 2011
709
402
Scottsdale AZ
If he's using Safestrap, it most likely means he can't flash a recovery image. He could brick his phone.

+1, the only safe option is to flash a clean factory image via Odin. Otherwise say hello to your new doorstop if you mess with Recovery on MK2 locked bootloader

Flash new image >> 15-25 minutes
Root >> 2-3 minutes
SS >> 3-5 minutes
HD RLS15 (for example) >> 15 minutes

In about an hour or so phone is back up and running. No brainer..........
 
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Baurblades43

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2013
65
1
Eugene
+1, the only safe option is to flash a clean factory image via Odin. Otherwise say hello to your new doorstop if you mess with Recovery on MK2 locked bootloader

Flash new image >> 15-25 minutes
Root >> 2-3 minutes
SS >> 3-5 minutes
HD RLS15 (for example) >> 15 minutes

In about an hour or so phone is back up and running. No brainer..........

The thing is.. I've tried flashing new images before, and all its doing is overwriting my old one, but the stupid factory thing I flashed makes the default path the broken recovery so I don't think this will work.
 

cbmggm

Senior Member
May 1, 2011
709
402
Scottsdale AZ
The thing is.. I've tried flashing new images before, and all its doing is overwriting my old one, but the stupid factory thing I flashed makes the default path the broken recovery so I don't think this will work.

Are you sure you flashed the full wipe tar file? I've successfully used this method numerous times.
http://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23269279319198294

Make sure you download to PC first then copy to your external SD card on your phone.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
 
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Baurblades43

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2013
65
1
Eugene

Baurblades43

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2013
65
1
Eugene

I followed the directions for everything as they were given and I got the same result I've gotten after flashing anything. Everything works fine, then the big blue "RESET" icon appears on Odin, then the phone reboots, I get samsung logo, and then the blue "recovery booting" text shows up.. and then the screen blacks out, and boot loops that same thing.
 

Oishikatta

Senior Member
Mar 16, 2014
194
97
I followed the directions for everything as they were given and I got the same result I've gotten after flashing anything. Everything works fine, then the big blue "RESET" icon appears on Odin, then the phone reboots, I get samsung logo, and then the blue "recovery booting" text shows up.. and then the screen blacks out, and boot loops that same thing.

Make sure you're using the Full Wipe image (SCH-I545_VZW_1_20131212083410_mwx72ql56g_fac.zip), and have extracted it to a .tar.md5

Also download the JFLTE_USA_VZW_16G.pit (assuming you have the 16GB version of the S4).

Put the .tar.md5 in the AP section and the PIT file in the PIT section.

Leave the other checkboxes in Odin at their defaults.

Take a screenshot at this point, click Start, and then take another screenshot when it completes or gives an error.
 

Baurblades43

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2013
65
1
Eugene
Make sure you're using the Full Wipe image (SCH-I545_VZW_1_20131212083410_mwx72ql56g_fac.zip), and have extracted it to a .tar.md5

Also download the JFLTE_USA_VZW_16G.pit (assuming you have the 16GB version of the S4).

Put the .tar.md5 in the AP section and the PIT file in the PIT section.

Leave the other checkboxes in Odin at their defaults.

Take a screenshot at this point, click Start, and then take another screenshot when it completes or gives an error.

Alright. I did a lot between your post and now. All of the information for everything I did is underneath each picture thats posted. So read them carefully.

http://imgur.com/3c4YZoz,CjiLmlY,Gfjx7Tc,TO1xSMV#0

EDIT: I looked up the battery icon problem and I found some interesting news. After all of the struggling with the darn phone, this is a common problem with this phone on 4.3. Its an overheating issue to the PBA(Motherboard I think). Thanks everyone for the help, I'm just gonna send it in and get a new phone.
 
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