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

[styles420]

Yeah, the Odin flash of a stock/stock rooted tar

From reading your post, I understood that you were saying to Odin a boot.img and recovery, and then flash a rom to get the phone going again and bypass the stock tar flash altogether

Which part of the stock tar contains the boot loader? That should be the only part that is always required for this to fix the hard brick, right?

Even if it turns out that both the rom and recovery are still corrupted (soft brick), restoring the boot loader includes download mode, which can be used to flash a custom recovery - I would save time by flashing the recovery with the boot loader (easy to do with heimdal), since if it isn't broken then it will just be overwritten with a duplicate copy. But the rom component is considerably larger, so skipping it would save time (and fewer components flashed in Odin means fewer components that can fail during an Odin flash).



Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

 

[godslam]

A very special thank you to DeBricker and gTan64 for these guides. The process worked on a Hard Bricked S3.
I have been playing around with my bricked S3 for about a week, bricked due to the stupidity of flashing an international rom.

Few things I noticed:

A 2G and 8G Sd card were no good. The Boot image creates a partion table that must mirror the internal memory.
When I finally flashed the image on a 16G Class 10 card the process worked perfectly.

(Please note DeBricker does suggest that in the OP)

After inserting card, I noticed that the power button needed to be held down to restart phone.

The phone will boot into recovery when started. It will actually let you flash a ROM if its in Internal Memory. Please note that this will work, except the boot table is still on the SD card. Again, as stated, you need to reflash a STOCK ROM via ODIN. Basically start fresh. If you do not, the phone will not work without the BRICK-FIX SD.

But the process works to get you into a soft brick state, without JTAG or replacing your phone.

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

May I ask you what brand of SD card you used?

 

[jaymaj]

SD Card

May I ask you what brand of SD card you used?

SanDisk Ultra 16 GB MicroSDHC Class 10

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009QZH7D8/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[godslam]

SanDisk Ultra 16 GB MicroSDHC Class 10

Thank you very much. I picked up a Class 10 Polaroid one, but it doesn't seem to work.

 

[godslam]

I've been trying this for hours now and I still can't make any headway.

Here's the steps I've done.

1. Download and unzip file. Extract image.

2. Write image to SD card.

3a. Place SD in phone, place battery in, plug phone in, hold Volume Down + Home + Power
3b. Place battery in phone, place SD in, plug phone in, hold Volume Down + Home + Power

4. Nothing shows up on screen, but I can hear the phone being recognized if I'm plugged in while on Windows.

 

[Ragnar]

Well battery should be in place sd card in plug phone to computer then try to boot phone into download mode. This should boot into download mode from the SD card... Then put your computer into windows mode and use odin to flash the rom. It says this could take several tries even rewriting the image to the SD card.

Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

 

[godslam]

Well battery should be in place sd card in plug phone to computer then try to boot phone into download mode. This should boot into download mode from the SD card... Then put your computer into windows mode and use odin to flash the rom. It says this could take several tries even rewriting the image to the SD card.

Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

Yeah, basically all the things I've been doing.

I've re-imaged the SD card a few times and pulled the battery, cord and card multiple times.
Maybe this is just karma catching up with me? =P

 

[zerogear88]

Look up a Samsung download jig works every time (the best thing about Samsung )

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus not my sony ion using xda premium

 

[godslam]

Look up a Samsung download jig works every time (the best thing about Samsung )

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus not my sony ion using xda premium

I actually got it working.

I didn't realize that I had to remove all partitions and let dd do that part on its own.

(Either I missed it in the reading or it was something that most people just "got" automatically.)

I was going to go for a jig next though.

Thanks for your response. =)

(And thanks will be going to all who helped with this whole process as soon as I'm back on Windows.)

 

[Ragnar]

Glad you got it going but a jig would not help with the S3 in this case. Jtag until this method had been the only way to recover.

Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

 

[jaymaj]

Yes, getting the partitions correct is the key. Check the partition table after the flash to make sure multiple partitions were created.

As a reminder to all, your SD obviously get wiped. It gets completely repartition. But it's well worth buying a $10 card to keep as a brick backup.



Sent from my Wicked S3 using xda app-developers app

 

[deadlydecision]

I tried this method and still nothing is showing up. I have made sure to write the image more than once and it is still not working? Any advice? Is it required to connect the phone to USB after putting the SD card in?

 

[dragonhart6505]

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)



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



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.



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!


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.

any chance this would work on S960L?
on the sticker under the model number, it says SPC-L710

anyone could link a similar bootloader image for S960L?

 

[miraculousboy]

i need help please

let me start of by thank you all million times. you guys saved a brand new gs3..
i spent over 3 hours easily to find answer to my problem before posting here but had no luck
well, the phone is debricked as long as SD card in it. i tried to load the kernel and stock rom and odin gives me a green pass but as phone is still stuck at galaxy siii sreen. and my recovery menu is showing stock even though i didnt put stock rom back on it.
i guess i am not loading some thing right.
could some one who's done it before post some after post ops procedure for after getting the debricking the phone
thanks alot

 

[TheKenRob]

Hey CNexus devout follower, I bricked, (duh, after download of TWRP 2.6) been at this 4 days finally got it to load to sd card as mmcblk (don't know if that's good or bad) put card in nothing. Tried Odin nothing, took battery pack out switched USB ports Q load pops up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ragnar]

let me start of by thank you all million times. you guys saved a brand new gs3..
i spent over 3 hours easily to find answer to my problem before posting here but had no luck
well, the phone is debricked as long as SD card in it. i tried to load the kernel and stock rom and odin gives me a green pass but as phone is still stuck at galaxy siii sreen. and my recovery menu is showing stock even though i didnt put stock rom back on it.
i guess i am not loading some thing right.
could some one who's done it before post some after post ops procedure for after getting the debricking the phone
thanks alot

You have to Odin the stock rom tar. That's the only way the partitions will be corrected on your phone. Right now it's booting on the SD card. If you don't Odin a full stock non rooted tar your not accomplishing anything. There's no need to odin a kernel.

Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

 

[CNexus]

let me start of by thank you all million times. you guys saved a brand new gs3..
i spent over 3 hours easily to find answer to my problem before posting here but had no luck
well, the phone is debricked as long as SD card in it. i tried to load the kernel and stock rom and odin gives me a green pass but as phone is still stuck at galaxy siii sreen. and my recovery menu is showing stock even though i didnt put stock rom back on it.
i guess i am not loading some thing right.
could some one who's done it before post some after post ops procedure for after getting the debricking the phone
thanks alot

I'd suggest to Odin the corresponding PIT file for your account if storage to completely repartition your device.

Hey CNexus devout follower, I bricked, (duh, after download of TWRP 2.6) been at this 4 days finally got it to load to sd card as mmcblk (don't know if that's good or bad) put card in nothing. Tried Odin nothing, took battery pack out switched USB ports Q load pops up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Are you on linux?

dd if=debrick.img of=/path/to/sdcard/device (not mount point which would be /media/something something)

 

[TheKenRob]

Yes new issue I finally got it to load and turned it on. Problem is it boot directly into TWRP 2.3.3.0 and there is nowhere for me to go from there. Thank you for the fix btw. But as i say I'm now back with this ish. So I'm sitting in TWRP with nothing to boot up

 

[miraculousboy]

You have to Odin the stock rom tar. That's the only way the partitions will be corrected on your phone. Right now it's booting on the SD card. If you don't Odin a full stock non rooted tar your not accomplishing anything. There's no need to odin a kernel.

Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

that sure did it, appreciate it.
existing problem is i cant turn on wifi thu
i am rooting and installing custom rom (clockwork) as we speak to see if it fixes the problem.
i was going to upgrade the root to clockwork 6.0.3.6 but cant find any instruction how to chane the img to tar thu
any ways thanks a lot

 

[TheKenRob]

Can't get to ODIN because well I'm in TWRP