[GUIDE]Unbrick a Hard Bricked SPRINT Galaxy S3 (Without JTAG)

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deBricker

Senior Member
May 4, 2012
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The Dreaming City, The Reef
OP EDIT: AS MANY OF YOU HAVE NOTICED, I HAVE MOVED ON TO A NEW DEVICE SINCE I POSTED THIS GUIDE. I CAN NO LONGER PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR SPRINT GS3 AS (1)I DO NOT HAVE THE DEVICE ANY LONGER AND (2)I HAVEN'T KEPT UP WITH DEVELOPMENT AND STOCK ROM RELEASES FOR THE GS3. SORRY FOR THE INCONVIENIENCE. THIS GUIDE CAN STILL BE OF HELP TO PEOPLE AS THE PROCESS HAS BEEN DRASTICALLY IMPROVED (LAST I SAW, YOU DIDN'T NEED A DUAL BOOT). PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SEARCH THIS THREAD FIRST BEFORE SENDING ME A PM ASKING FOR HELP. THANK YOU! :)

Okay. So I hard bricked (yes, I know a noob mistake... we all slip up some times ;) ) my S3 by flashing an Illusion ROM for the i9300. My device was totally unresponsive. No boot screen, no dl mode, no recovery... nothing. This is a total unbrick for those of you who have done the same as I did. There is already a thread on this by gTan64 but it seemed a little vague and it took me awhile to figure it out. So here is my version.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT GUARANTEE THIS TO WORK. DO NOT COME TO ME IF YOUR PHONE EXPLODES OR SOME HOW GOES INTO A WORSE STATE THAN A HARD BRICK (If that's even possible)

You should also add that this is for the Sprint S3 only. It was made using the aboot from my emmc dump which may or may not fail on other devices.
What you will need:
A 16GB SD (preferably a Class 10)
A hard bricked S3
A USB cord
A Linux/Windows dual boot computer (Or go use a Linux Live CD)
Stock tar for ODIN

This was all done on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and you will need to be familiar with Terminal and its processes.

You will need this file (thanks to billard412 for pointing this out to me and gTan64 for the DL link ) [gTan64's thread ]
http://www.mediafire.com/download/231uhy6l80jx74n/debrick_sph_l710.img.xz

Okay. Let's Begin.

Assuming that you are already on a Linux machine, here's what you need to do.

1. Make sure you have no external USB/HDDs attached to your machine. Insert your SD card to a reader. You will need to identify the letter of the SD card. You can do that by opening up Terminal and enter the following

>>>Sudo su
(Enter your password here)
>>>dmesg | tail
You only need to use the part that says "sd[your card letter]". That is the your SD card's letter. DO NOT USE THE ONE THAT HAS THE NUMBER. For example: sdc1 <<< That is a partition of the SD card, not the actual root of the SD card itself. If you use the wrong letter, YOU COULD WIPE YOUR HARD DRIVE.

Or go use GParted (Just look for it in the Applications drawer in Ubuntu) for an easier method.

2. Unzip the s3 unbrick file on to your desktop. Now go back to the Terminal. You should still have root privileges so there is no need to enter "Sudo Su" again. Enter the following.
WARNING: THIS WILL ERASE THE ENTIRE SD CARD.
>>>dd if=[drag the unzipped unbrick img onto the terminal] of=/dev/sd[your card letter]

This should write the img file to the SD.

3. After it's done writing the img, take out your SD card and put it into your phone. With the battery in the phone, insert the SD card, plug the phone into your machine, and try to boot to DL mode via the usual method. This WILL take several tries and possibly rewriting the img file to SD card again to work.

4. If you were lucky enough to boot to DL mode, boot back to Windows and then I suggest you go and download a stock MD4 (as of 18July2013) tar file and ODIN yourself back to stock and go on from there. Btw, if you don't ODIN back to stock, your phone WILL STILL BE BRICKED. This is because the phone is using the SD card to boot to DL mode.

I suggest that you keep that SD card as your "OH SH*T, I HBRICKED" rescue card.

If you were successful, don't forget to hit up that thanks button and buy me a cheap coffee! :D


LINKS:

STOCK Firmwares: http://samsung-updates.com/device/?id=SPH-L710
STOCK(Rooted or Unrooted Exe/.gz): http://www.sxtpdevelopers.com/showthread.php?t=233

Special Thanks to:
billard412 for linking me to the thread
gTan64 for the unbrick img
CNexus for helping me edit this guide and giving me advice.
And the many others whose usernames I've forgotten that have tried to help me in my quest for a solution for a Hard Bricked S3

If you know who you are, PM me and I'll add you to the Thanks list.
 
Last edited:

deBricker

Senior Member
May 4, 2012
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The Dreaming City, The Reef
This is the Original post on this method, it appears that there have been 2 successful attempts with this method. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=43305728

Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4
Been looking for that link. I saw this method last night. I couldn't make heads or tails out of it because it was so vague. I just revamped it a lil. His method says that you don't need to plug your phone in to the computer. I guess that's the only difference. Thanks!
 

CNexus

Senior Member
May 17, 2012
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~/android
I should probably add that to the title, but I can't seem to find the edit button for it (I haven't started a lot of threads)
Edit your post and it will be at the top (mobile). Click edit then advanced and it will take you to another screen where you can edit the title if on a computer.

Sent from my S3 on Sense 5 (you jelly?)
 
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CNexus

Senior Member
May 17, 2012
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That's why I included the information on how to get the SD card letter. (It took me a while to find it myself, but Google was my friend )
I suggest that you suggest for the user to install and use GParted to find the device block instead. People in a rush may accidentally flash this image to their hard drives and brick their computers (the irony).

Sent from my S3 on Sense 5 (you jelly?)
 
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jaymaj

Senior Member
Apr 6, 2011
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Buffalo, NY
Thanks

Thanks for this. Glad I'm not the only person who forgots to check ROMs properly before flashing.
You gave me hope that all is not lost yet.

Going to try this tonight.


And if this works I am going to push you to market this...
sell and ship a SD card to those silly brick makers.
 
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jaymaj

Senior Member
Apr 6, 2011
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Buffalo, NY
Question

Question OP, when you bricked, did phone respond at all?

Only output I get is when I plug phone in to charger without battery. Red LED
Other then that, no response. No buttons respond at all.

I created SD as stated. Verified image created on SD. Inserted SD into phone, installed battery.
I get no response when trying to power on, enter DL mode.

Any other info would be greatly appreciated.
 

billard412

Senior Member
Jan 9, 2012
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www.sxtpdevelopers.com
Question OP, when you bricked, did phone respond at all?

Only output I get is when I plug phone in to charger without battery. Red LED
Other then that, no response. No buttons respond at all.

I created SD as stated. Verified image created on SD. Inserted SD into phone, installed battery.
I get no response when trying to power on, enter DL mode.

Any other info would be greatly appreciated.
If memory serves me right, the op was in the same boat. Took a few attempts as well. Try to reformat and reflash the SD image.

---------- Post added at 05:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:05 PM ----------

do this work on windows
I believe this can be done with cygwin too
 
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