[GUIDE] Fix an unflashable or soft bricked GSII (I9100G/M/P/T VERSION INCLUDED!)

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Hello everyone!

This is a guide dedicated to noobs, so if you're not one, I would advise to stop reading now! (altough feedback would be great! )

Yes, there have been quite a few threads about fixing a soft brick. But what I'm writting now is another solution to a different kind of problem : unflashable GSII (which also works with a soft brick of course ), which is a soft brick and a corrupted NAND rw (read/write) function.

Just in case you don't know, a soft brick occurs when you flash a ROM or Kernel, and it doesn't go your way, thus bricking the "soft part", aka Software, of your phone. Therefore, it is easy to recover from. Now, regarding NAND rw (NAND's read and write function being the corruption) it means that it is an issue deeper than a soft brick.

It is obvious when you can flash a kernel, but you can't flash a ROM, because it can't properly read the NAND, but can flash a kernel. But you ask, why the kernel? Because flashing a kernel is a bit deeper than flashing a ROM. When you flash a kernel, you're changing/putting new instructions to the hardware, and when flashing a ROM, the instructions that are drewn are different and more "simple", so when flashing, ODIN will say "FAIL" instead of "PASS", or suddenly stopping the flash out of nowhere.

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IF YOU ONLY HAVE A BOOTLOOP

Wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache. IF THAT DOESN'T WORK, MOVE ON WITH THE GUIDE

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VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

I would like to first apologize for my absence. My past months have been super busy, and they don't seem to be ending anytime soon. And "anytime soon" meaning in a couple of years. And I'm actually glad that this is happening, since I've been working pretty hard to achieve the state I'm in.

This thread has evolved into something I've never imagined. Only because of YOU guys, we managed to turn a normal thread into a pretty popular and well used Guide, and it made me so happy and joyous of being apart of the XDA community. I feel proud in being a XDA nut. This whole success is just because of YOU guys.

As painful as it is to say this... I believe that I will be dropping support on this thread after the New Year, because a) I lost my Galaxy S2 in Paris in a taxi with no hope of getting it back when I went there 3 weeks ago and b) I'm probably getting a Galaxy Note 2 in the New Year, so this thread will be most likely ported and maintained over at the Note 2 forums.

I'm extremely sorry it has come this way, and I hope you guys will understand. In the following days I'll be updating the files to their latest versions, and will try to find new bootloaders and kernels, but without sources, I'm unable to do so. I'll update whatever I'll be able to

Regards and thanks to all of you that have supported me,

Rafael K.

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT #2

Please welcome neerajganga, your new thread maintainer (along with me)! He has been of great help, so I think he deserves this kind of announcement!

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Okay, so apparently people that come from ICS and try to recover it with the GB files make their phones nearly unrecoverable. So, now I've divided the guide in 2 sections : the GINGERBREAD VERSION and the ICS VERSION.

Due to popular demand, I have also added an I9100G Version, which is here!

I have also added the I9100 M/P/T versions. Now I support ALL I9100 variants.


But for the moment, I do not have the G/M/P/T .PIT, kernels or Bootloader, so if you have any of those version, only flash what is in the provided package.

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Let's start with the basic files, downloads and requirements

GINGERBREAD VERSION

1) You have to know the basics of ODIN and flashing (duh )

2) Just to be safe, please uninstall Samsung KIES. It usually interferes when flashing with ODIN. You must have the USB drivers from your phone, so don't uninstall them. Only uninstall the program KIES.
Just in case you don't have them, here are the Samsung USB drivers

3) Download ODIN, the tool that we'll use to flash all the things into our beloved Galaxy S II

4) Download the necessary files : the Recovery Package/ROM (password is samfirmware.com), the Kernel (password is intratech@XDA) and the Bootloader.

5) You must have WinRAR to unRAR the Recovery Package and to unzip ODIN.
You can also use 7zip, as sugested by jermitano

ICS VERSION

1) You have to know the basics of ODIN and flashing (duh )

2) Just to be safe, please uninstall Samsung KIES. It usually interferes when flashing with ODIN. You must have the USB drivers from your phone, so don't uninstall them. Only uninstall the program KIES.
Just in case you don't have them, here are the Samsung USB drivers

3) Download ODIN, the tool that we'll use to flash all the things into our beloved Galaxy S II

4) Download the necessary files : the Recovery Package/ROM [THIS PACKAGE ALREADY INCLUDES THE BOOTLOADER] (password is samfirmware.com) and the Kernel.

5) You must have WinRAR to unRAR the Recovery Package and to unzip ODIN.
You can also use 7zip, as sugested by jermitano

I9100G VERSION

1) You have to know the basics of ODIN and flashing (duh )

2) Just to be safe, please uninstall Samsung KIES. It usually interferes when flashing with ODIN. You must have the USB drivers from your phone, so don't uninstall them. Only uninstall the program KIES.
Just in case you don't have them, here are the Samsung USB drivers

3) Download ODIN, the tool that we'll use to flash all the things into our beloved Galaxy S II

4) Download the necessary ROM (they are Gingerbread 2.3.6) : Africa (Iraq), Asia (Malaysia), Europe (Open Austria), Middle East (Saudi Arabia). (password is samfirmware.com)

5) You must have WinRAR to unRAR the Recovery Package and to unzip ODIN.
You can also use 7zip, as sugested by jermitano

I9100M VERSION

1) You have to know the basics of ODIN and flashing (duh )

2) Just to be safe, please uninstall Samsung KIES. It usually interferes when flashing with ODIN. You must have the USB drivers from your phone, so don't uninstall them. Only uninstall the program KIES.
Just in case you don't have them, here are the Samsung USB drivers

3) Download ODIN, the tool that we'll use to flash all the things into our beloved Galaxy S II

4) Download the necessary files : the Recovery Package (Open Canada) (password is samfirmware.com).

5) You must have WinRAR to unRAR the Recovery Package and to unzip ODIN.
You can also use 7zip, as sugested by jermitano

I9100P VERSION

1) You have to know the basics of ODIN and flashing (duh )

2) Just to be safe, please uninstall Samsung KIES. It usually interferes when flashing with ODIN. You must have the USB drivers from your phone, so don't uninstall them. Only uninstall the program KIES.
Just in case you don't have them, here are the Samsung USB drivers

3) Download ODIN, the tool that we'll use to flash all the things into our beloved Galaxy S II

4) Download the necessary files : the Recovery Package (UK - Orange) GINGERBREAD VERSION / Recovery Package (UK - Orange) ICS VERSION (password is samfirmware.com).

5) You must have WinRAR to unRAR the Recovery Package and to unzip ODIN.
You can also use 7zip, as sugested by jermitano

I9100T VERSION

1) You have to know the basics of ODIN and flashing (duh )

2) Just to be safe, please uninstall Samsung KIES. It usually interferes when flashing with ODIN. You must have the USB drivers from your phone, so don't uninstall them. Only uninstall the program KIES.
Just in case you don't have them, here are the Samsung USB drivers

3) Download ODIN, the tool that we'll use to flash all the things into our beloved Galaxy S II

4) Download the necessary files : the Recovery Package (Australia - Telstra) GINGERBREAD VERSION / Recovery Package (Australia - Three/Vodafone) ICS VERSION (password is samfirmware.com).

5) You must have WinRAR to unRAR the Recovery Package and to unzip ODIN.
You can also use 7zip, as sugested by jermitano

And that is it! Let's get down to business

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If your GSII has the folowing symptoms :

• Bootloop
• Stuck on GSII logo, but already removed the battery to try to fix it
• Enters Download mode and Recovery mode

It means that you are soft bricked and is easy to solve.

But if your symptoms are the mentioned above, PLUS the symptoms below

• Enters Download mode but does NOT enter recovery mode (usually means a NAND rw corruption)
• Doesn't flash
• Bad flash in odin (FAIL after flashing, or the flashing suddenly stops)

Then it means that you have a bigger issue, such as the aforementioned NAND rw corruption.

It's time to open up ODIN and start reviving your phone!

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First of all, let's just have a quick glance of how ODIN looks like, and where we should put the files :



As the picture clearly shows, the green rectangle is where you can tick. Those 2 which are ticked must remain that way. And the red one is well... Where you SHOULDN'T touch

ONLY FLASH WITH RE-PARTITION TICKED AND A PIT FILE IF YOU ARE SURE
THAT THE FLASH WILL SUCCEED.

Which means that you CANNOT have a damaged USB, corrupted drivers and such.

When recovering from a soft brick, it is recommended, not mandatory, to have Re-partition ticked with a .PIT file. So you must be extra careful when you are using a .PIT and Re-Partition. And obviously, the red box is the one where you can't and don't want to mess with

But where are the files going, you say?

.PIT -> PIT
APBOOT -> BOOTLOADER (or PDA if flashed alone)
CODE -> PDA
MODEM -> PHONE
CSC -> CSC

***If you have a 1 file .tar package, then flash it in PDA***

There is only 1 way to recover a soft bricked phone. How to recover from a NAND corruption? We'll get on that later on

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Recovering a soft bricked phone

1) Grab the Recovery Package, and you'll see a bunch of .tar files. Take a look at the names. You'll see CODE, MODEM, CSC and .PIT. Put each one in its place.

2) Turn off your phone. Enter Download mode by presing Volume Down + Home + Power button.

3) Plug in your phone. It will show you, in a yellow box in ODIN, ID:COMx (x being the number displayed, sometimes displays 7, sometimes displays 9)

Now here, take a breath

First try flashing WITHOUT the .PIT and re-partition. And only if it DOESN'T WORK OR FIX then you flash with the .PIT and Re-Partition ticked.

4) Once ready and done all your prayers, press Start. Wait patiently. It usually takes 5 minutes to flash.

Have you done everything correctly until now? Then...

Congratulations on recovering your phone!

You deserve some cake afterwards, and some rest

Now, if your problem is the NAND rw coruption, and wasn't fixed by the above fix, then follow these steps :

5) Download the Kernel. Flash it in PDA. Without ticking Re-Partitioning

6) Successful? Nice, hope is still present.

7) Flash the recovery package, following steps 1-4 This should fix your issue. If it does not, then :

WARNING : FLASHING A BOOTLOADER IS DANGEROUS. FLASH WITH EXTREME CAUTION.

8) Download the Bootloader. Flash it as PDA or Bootloader in ODIN. Without ticking Re-Partitioning

9) Flash the Kernel, as in step 5

10) Flash the recovery package, like in steps 1-4 And that will fix any of your issues

11) After you have recovered your phone, I advise you to have your phone completely up to date by browsing and downloading the firmware for your version through SamMobile!

I hope that this guide was helpful, and if it was, hit the thanks button!

Credits mainly go to Intratech, for his amazing gallery of ROMS and files

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Disclaimer

This is to be used as educational information. I am not liable of any damage that may occur to your phone.

Awesome guide! Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

Download mode is Volume Down. I think you miswrote that. Thanks for the write up.

Originally Posted by interfreak

Awesome guide! Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

Thanks! I think I'll post this in Q&A... I feel it's more appropriate there.

@Robotapocalypse Thanks for the headsup!

Good work, should be stickied.

Our Mutual Friend should thank you, but he'll probably rant at you for not posting this before

Thanks a lot. Very good post.

very nice! was looking for this to post to our threads on my home country...

btw...may i suggest 7zip as well...i guess its the best unzipper for packages from xda

---------- Post added at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:26 PM ----------

Originally Posted by B3311

Good work, should be stickied.

Our Mutual Friend should thank you, but he'll probably rant at you for not posting this before

nyahahaha...i think it makes the 3 of us...was that the tool?

Originally Posted by jermitano

very nice! was looking for this to post to our threads on my home country...

btw...may i suggest 7zip as well...i guess its the best unzipper for packages from xda

---------- Post added at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:26 PM ----------



nyahahaha...i think it makes the 3 of us...was that the tool?

He was, is and always will be

Good call for 7zip.

Originally Posted by B3311

Good work, should be stickied.

Our Mutual Friend should thank you, but he'll probably rant at you for not posting this before

Thanks! I'm gonna post this in Q&A section, because it's where I've found that this would be of bigger use, and so I'd like to have it stickied
Our mutual "friend"... lol, that guy...

Originally Posted by jermitano

very nice! was looking for this to post to our threads on my home country...

btw...may i suggest 7zip as well...i guess its the best unzipper for packages from xda

---------- Post added at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:26 PM ----------



nyahahaha...i think it makes the 3 of us...was that the tool?

Alright, adding 7zip to the OP

Where is the OP?!?!