[Q] Really messed up phone, OTA Failed [Help Needed]

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Bleedin_Sarge

Member
Dec 21, 2013
48
6
unxthallows.com
Okay, I've tried everything I can think of, and I've managed to really confuse my phone and myself.

I took the 4.4 OTA update, and about halfway through it failed. The phone would not boot currently, upon booting the colors would go all jacked up with bars and lines. So..okay thats not good. Knowing some of the security features by hitting them head on in Odin, I finally settled for flashing only the AP image. Which gave me a booting 4.3 system with no wifi.

I tried to manually run the OTA in recovery at this point, and it fails with "error 7 /csc/contents.db has unexpected contents" I think that it what it said because this phone runs through the update pretty fast. However, it fails to update the system, but formats my data and cache.

So now I have what I assume is the 4.4 BL and 4.4 Baseband, running a 4.3 system with no wifi.

Is there any way to fix this csc issue so that it will update to a full working 4.4 system.

Phone: SGH-I537 (AT&T S4 Active)
BL: Assuming 4.4 BL since the 4.3 one will not flash due to "fuse..." error of sorts
BB: xxxxxNC9
AV: Android 4.3
 

Bleedin_Sarge

Member
Dec 21, 2013
48
6
unxthallows.com
Okay, So I managed to get my device working on 4.3 again. Obviously you cannot reflash the boot loader due to samsung's security mess; but you can still flash CSC, Phone, and PDA back down to the 4.3 versions and it will boot up and run. This has worked once so far, but after I applied the 4.4 update again, back to square one. I'm thinking AT&T has sent me the incorrect update file via their OTA updater.

Edit: I have no audio now...

Edit 2: Took the AT&T OTA again to see if it would fix...forget it. I'm stuck with 4.4 BaseBand (with audio thankfully), Android 4.3 system, and no wifi again.
 
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gatoraid84

Senior Member
Jan 12, 2012
450
162
Jacksonville
Okay, So I managed to get my device working on 4.3 again. Obviously you cannot reflash the boot loader due to samsung's security mess; but you can still flash CSC, Phone, and PDA back down to the 4.3 versions and it will boot up and run. This has worked once so far, but after I applied the 4.4 update again, back to square one. I'm thinking AT&T has sent me the incorrect update file via their OTA updater.

Edit: I have no audio now...

Edit 2: Took the AT&T OTA again to see if it would fix...forget it. I'm stuck with 4.4 BaseBand (with audio thankfully), Android 4.3 system, and no wifi again.

How did you get audio back

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using xda app-developers app
 

Bleedin_Sarge

Member
Dec 21, 2013
48
6
unxthallows.com
How did you get audio back

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using xda app-developers app

If you have not messed up the phone already, do not try this. It will get you stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Use odin to flash the 4.3 BaseBand. (I did this while flashing the 4.3 system also...) After that is done, take the 4.4 update. Then flash the 4.3 system ONLY from odin. You'll wind up with a 4.3 phone using the 4.4 baseband. But it fixed some issues for me. You'll get your audio back, but wifi will be broke again. I no longer have a modded s4a to mess with, my sustained water damage. So I was swapped for a new one. You should have an ML2 build, and an NC9 BaseBand.

It seems that the 4.4 update completely breaks the graphics subsystem and also updates you to a half baked BaseBand. And going to AT&T wont help you, even though it is their update that did this. Be very careful when updating to 4.4, it could leave you with a heavily confused phone. Also, the 4.4 update did not contain a boot loader far I could see by manually running the update. I'm assuming that is how I am able to still boot 4.3 after the failed 4.4 update. If you need any more information from my rough road with their broken OTA, just ask.
 
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