Have been using 4.4.2 Alliance Rom for a year - suddenly stops at first logo

[dsteinschneider]

I've been running rooted with Alliance Rom build 32 for about a year with zero problems. The phone battery ran low last night and the phone turned off. When I turn it on it stops at the first logo. I can't get into Philz
recovery. It will go into downloader mode. I tried using Odin to revert to the stock MJ9 I started from when I used Casual. It flashed successfully (stock pit and MJ9) but still gets stuck at the the first logo and won't go into recovery.

SD card is removed. I haven't made any modifications to the phone for the past six months except adding a few well known apps from the store.

Any advice on how to get back to where I can load recovery and proceed to reinstall would be greatly appreciated.

PS.

I would have bought a new phone last year but it seems all the ones I like are bootloader locked. I can live without the stylus (would love a new note though...). Any recommendation on a replacement for the Note 2 would be much appreciated.

 

[mattnmag]

I've been running rooted with Alliance Rom build 32 for about a year with zero problems. The phone battery ran low last night and the phone turned off. When I turn it on it stops at the first logo. I can't get into Philz
recovery. It will go into downloader mode. I tried using Odin to revert to the stock MJ9 I started from when I used Casual. It flashed successfully (stock pit and MJ9) but still gets stuck at the the first logo and won't go into recovery.

SD card is removed. I haven't made any modifications to the phone for the past six months except adding a few well known apps from the store.

Any advice on how to get back to where I can load recovery and proceed to reinstall would be greatly appreciated.

PS.

I would have bought a new phone last year but it seems all the ones I like are bootloader locked. I can live without the stylus (would love a new note though...). Any recommendation on a replacement for the Note 2 would be much appreciated.

If you're looking for a newer phone that lets you unlock the bootloader, you might want to check out last year's Nexus 6 or the newer Moto X Pure Edition. The Nexus 6P from Huawei also looks nice and I'm keeping an eye on it as my next potential phone. The Nexus 5x from LG should also have a boo that can be unlocked.

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Hopefully, you didn't flash the stock Verizon MJ9 4.3 firmware back onto your phone. If so, then you have locked your bootloader with no way to unlock it.

I'm thinking that you're probably getting confused with needing to flash Beanstown106’s modified MJ9 firmware (which doesn't return the phone to stock or contain the 4.3 bootloader). See one of my previous posts ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=58541771 ), which discusses a similar issue and has a link on how to flash the stock recovery back onto the phone if you'd like to try that rather than restoring the phone back to stock 4.1.2.

You could also just Odin restore the phone back to Verizon factory stock 4.1.2 and run Casual again to start fresh. See Droidstyle's restore guide here: ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34891181 ) to get instructions on how to flash back to 4.1.2.

Once back on 4.1.2, you need to go into the stock recovery and wipe cache /factory reset to make sure everything is wiped off the device for a fresh start. (Odin doesn't wipe everything in it's flashing process).

If you restore back to stock 4.1.2, then be careful not to let your phone take an OTA because if it gets updated to 4.3+, then you won't be able to unlock the bootloader any longer.

I usually remove my Sim card when restoring to stock 4.1.2... just to ensure I don't accidentally take an OTA update before I get it rooted again. (You can skip the initial phone Setup screen with the method in this YouTube video - https://youtu.be/qekEpn1Bufc ). It says it's for the S3 but works on the Note II as well. Once you get back into the phone and enable USB debugging in Developer options, you should be able to run Casual again. The phone doesn't have to be activated or on wifi to do this.

Once Casual is successful, it's safe to put the Sim card back in because I don't believe an OTA can install successfully with a custom recovery installed.

Good luck.

 

[dsteinschneider]

I
Hopefully, you didn't flash the stock Verizon MJ9 4.3 firmware back onto your phone. If so, then you have locked your bootloader with no way to unlock it.

All the ROM's and tools are from threads here so pretty sure I'm using Bean's modified MJ9. I was on Beans 4.3 for over a year before I went to the Alliance ROM.

You could also just Odin restore the phone back to Verizon factory stock 4.1.2 and run Casual again to start fresh. See Droidstyle's restore guide here: ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34891181 ) to get instructions on how to flash back to 4.1.2.

Once back on 4.1.2, you need to go into the stock recovery and wipe cache /factory reset to make sure everything is wiped off the device for a fresh start. (Odin doesn't wipe everything in it's flashing process).

If you restore back to stock 4.1.2, then be careful not to let your phone take an OTA because if it gets updated to 4.3+, then you won't be able to unlock the bootloader any longer.

4.1.2 sounds like a better idea - I have that also.

Thanks your advice here is just what I was looking for in my effort to get this phone running again.

 

[dsteinschneider]

Update: I can still go into Download mode but cannot get a computer to recognize the phone now.

Not one of three computers, numerous cables including one out of the Galaxy Note 2 box and all the tricks I could find like pulling the battery while connected helped.

The first day of this problem (stuck at first logo) I was able to connect to the phone with Odin. I flashed the following:
1. sch-i605-16gb.pit
2. CI605_I605VRLJB_I605VRALJB_CL414933_HWID04_HW_Rev0406_low_ship_user.tar

Would something like http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/help/guide-how-to-make-usb-jig-reset-binary-t1604707 help?

Should I look into the JTag guys on ebay?

Thanks,

 

[mattnmag]

Update: I can still go into Download mode but cannot get a computer to recognize the phone now.

Not one of three computers, numerous cables including one out of the Galaxy Note 2 box and all the tricks I could find like pulling the battery while connected helped.

The first day of this problem (stuck at first logo) I was able to connect to the phone with Odin. I flashed the following:
1. sch-i605-16gb.pit
2. CI605_I605VRLJB_I605VRALJB_CL414933_HWID04_HW_Rev0406_low_ship_user.tar

Would something like http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/help/guide-how-to-make-usb-jig-reset-binary-t1604707 help?

Should I look into the JTag guys on ebay?

Thanks,

I don't know if a USB jig would help the computer recognize the phone again.

Since you tried 3 different computers and still couldn't get it recognized... I'm wondering if something got fubared when you Odin flashed the VRLJB stock Rom. So when you go to Device Manager in the computer, the computer doesn't even show anything connected at all?

I don't know that it would be worth the time, but (on the computer that last worked for your phone), you could try uninstalling the Samsung Drivers, and then use a program like DevManView to totally uninstall all Android related drivers. Restart the computer afterwards and then reinstall the Samsung USB Drivers (from here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SCH-I605) . Then connect your phone back to the computer in Download Mode to see if it will reinstall the drivers and recognize it.

If the computer still doesn't recognize the phone after all that, then I'm out of ideas.

 

[dsteinschneider]

I'll try the devmanview driver cleanup (love nirsoft utils!) and install the driver in your link on the orginal pc which I use for flashing ROMs. If that doesn't work I'm going to look into sending it out to a JTag guy although they claim if you can get into download mode after they perform their magic that they were successful.

 

[dsteinschneider]

Went with the LG G4 which I'm very happy with. As far as getting the Note 2 running again I've been thinking l might buy a used Verizon Galaxy Note 2 motherboard on ebay rather than sinking a lot of time into trying to... should I say "unbrick" it.

 

[Droid_Nut]

If you ran casual first, it will not connect to the samsung driver, until you uninstall the USB services from the device manager, and then run find new hardware.

But maybe this will not help considering you already tried 3 machines?

 

[dsteinschneider]

I may have had the Samsung driver on all 3 machines. Good suggestion - I'll post back if it works.

Related question. I see you are running CM 12.1 - do you have standby battery drain issues? My 4.4.2 Alliance 32 would drain the battery down to 0 if I didn't plug it in at night even though I might still have 1/3 charge.

 

[Droid_Nut]

I may have had the Samsung driver on all 3 machines. Good suggestion - I'll post back if it works.

Related question. I see you are running CM 12.1 - do you have standby battery drain issues? My 4.4.2 Alliance 32 would drain the battery down to 0 if I didn't plug it in at night even though I might still have 1/3 charge.

Right, it was in the Adam Antler video, for casual. Once you use the casual on USB, the samsung driver will not work until you uninstall and reinstall USB system.

I can get almost 3 days out of a phone battery with little or no use. The one I am using could make it a day and 1/2, but I charge that one every night because I do not need and down time just in case.

I am using the nightly build, 12.1-20151222 12/22/15, I am not sure how the other builds are, or even the stable build for that matter?