help fix infinite boot loop and corrupted recovery

[wdouglascampbell]

Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-i777 in infinite boot loop.

When I turn on the phone it proceeds past the Samsung logo screen and after a while ends up at the AT&T Rethink Possible screen where it proceeds to reload that screen over and over again in what appears to be an infinite loop.

When I hold down Vol Up & Vol Down and Power, the phone displays the Samsung logo, appears to power cycle and display the Samsung logo again and appears to enter recovery mode. When the phone enters recovery mode, it displays a number of error/status messages as follows:

E:failed to mount /cache (Unknown error: 0)
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/command

-- Copying media files...
E:failed to mount /cache (Unknown error: 0)
E:copy_cache_media:Can't mount /cache
your storage not prepared yet, please use UI menu for format and reboot actions.
Meida files copy failed.

# MANUAL MODE #

-- Updating application...

E:failed to mount /data (Unknown error: 0)
E:install_application_for_customer:Can't mount /data

your storage not prepared yet, please use UI menu for format and reboot actions.
copy application failed.

-- Appling Multi-CSC...
Installing Multi-CSC
Can't access to '/system/csc/ATT/system/'.
Successfully applied multi-CSC
E:failed to mount /cache (Unknown error: 0)
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/recovery_kernel_log
E:copy_kernel_file :: Can't open /cache/recovery/recovery_kernel_log
E:failed to mount /cache (Unknow error: 0)
E:Can't mount /cache/reocvery/log
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/log
E:failed to mount /cache (Unknown error: 0)
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/last_log
E:failed to mount /cache (Unknown error: 0)

The above messages don't display at once but seem to display after a few presses of the Vol Up button.

After the error messages have all displayed, I see the following at the top of the screen:

Android system recovery <3e>

Enter: Power Key. Select : Vol UP / Vol Down
reboot system now
apply update from sdcard
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache parition

BUT even though I can use the Vol buttons to navigate the choices, pressing the power button has no affect to select them.

At the moment, I would just like to get back to a working phone. I have attempted to use Odin to flash the UCKH7 stock rom that I found in this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1286432. It indicates that it does so successfully but it doesn't change my phone situation.

Because I saw the errors about the various partitions I also though maybe I should try re-partitioning with a PIT file. This was probably not a good idea but I was not aware at the time that it may have been a bad decision.

What should I try to fix this situation and get my phone working again?

Thanks!

 

[creepyncrawly]

I'm assuming you are able to boot the phone into download mode, since you flashed Entropy's UCKH7. I suspect that you have memory corruption, and not memory damage. That old UCKH7 from that thread contains only the system and kernel, and not the other files you need to do a full install, so I'm not surprised it didn't boot.

If you flashed the UCKH7 pit file, it probably didn't do any damage, but it would not clear the corruption by itself.

The first thing I would try is to flash a full stock distribution in Odin, without pit, and see if that clears the problem. You can find the files you need in the Download Repository. See the link in my signature. I would suggest flashing the latest stock firmware full distribution, which is I777UCMD8 (Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean). It's the next to last item at the bottom of the page. The original UCKH7 Full stock distribution is there also under the heading I777UCKH7-CL503881 Stock Binaries.

If the above does not resolve the issue, all is not lost. Post your results back here and I wil post how to clear the corruption. Good luck.

 

[wdouglascampbell]

FIXED!

Yes. You assumed correctly. I suspected (or maybe it was hoped) that it was just memory corruption and not damaged but couldn't find what to do.

After following your advice of downloading the latest stock firmware full distribution and using Odin to flash it.

After flashing and booting, I kept getting stuck at the AT&T logo screen. I booted back into recovery mode and saw that it was still unable to mount the /data partition and it didn't seem to let me wipe the /data partition. I then went through a series of reboots and even re-flashed again. Finally, I entered recovery and got distracted. When I came back to the phone, I discovered I was able to get the power button to select the Wipe Data Partition. I wiped data and cache and then I re-flashed one more time.

After this my phone finally booted all the way.

Thank you so much for your help. It is really appreciated.