[How To] Recover From a Hard Brick (SM-900A Only)

[Phatboyj420]

Yea, root is required in order to dump any partitions.


Its a working method for every device that has needed an unbrick image made. the first 200MB contain the bootloaders and all the core partitions, after that it loads the kernel and rom. if you were to copy the entire mmcblk0 you would fill your sdcard up pretty quickly and all you would do is effectly make a duplicate of your device, apps, rom etc.


if sbl and aboot havent been broken then it doesnt try to load from the sdcard slot.

#!/sbin/sh
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard

that alone should be enough to dump the entire contents of mmcblk0 to a 32gb or larger sdcard. you would then have a "backup" of your phone if you ever then broke it compeletely or found issues with emmc/nand problems (similar to the sgs2 stuff where emmc's were dropping dead)


so long as you have root it will work fine, i merely packaged it up in a flashable zip rather than telling people adb commands because many dont know how to use it. so people flash teh zip and upload the files for me, makes it easy .

i think i answered all your questions, but feel free to quote me and ask more if you have any . i dont follow this thread so i wont notice if you merely just reply.

More ADB Shell ?'s

#!/sbin/sh
mkdir -p /sdcard/Unbrick_Files/;
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/Unbrick_Files/200MB.img bs=4096 count=50000
[COLOR="DarkOrange"];busybox gzip /sdcard/Unbrick_Files/*
;mv /sdcard/Unbrick_Files/200MB.img.gz /sdcard/Unbrick_Files/Unbrick_IMG.gz[/COLOR]
[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"];chmod -R 777 /sdcard/Unbrick_Files[/COLOR]

1.) Are the Highlighted portions above necessary especially the permissions as my understanding is the permissions should already be maintained within the.img so is it actually necessary to chmod the .gz also what does the bs=4096 count=50000 relate to specifically

I made an unbrick.img, "using your guidance" from my wifes Galaxy S4 ZOOM SM-C105A Using only the following

#!/sbin/sh
mkdir -p /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/;
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img bs=4096 count=50000

and ended up with 166.22 MB .img Does this sound right or should it be exactly 200MB as per the shell script I also made one from the following

#!/sbin/sh
mkdir -p /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/;
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img bs=4096 count=50000
;busybox gzip /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/*;
mv /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img.gz

and ended up with a 25.18 MB .img.gz can .gz files be extracted via 7zip?

also the first time I ran it with the chmod on the end and all was processed except for the chmod line it failed for whatever reason
but I still ended up with the same size .img.gz

#!/sbin/sh
mkdir -p /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/;
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img bs=4096 count=50000
;busybox gzip /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/*;
mv /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img.gz
;chmod -R 777 /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files

2.) I know you have to use a 32Gb or bigger when making the unbrick sdcard with the unbrick.img

but Does the size of the extSdCard matter for the dumping of the unbrick.img as I used a 16GB class 10 for my above trials is this exeptable
as I would then take the produced .img and put it on a 32 or 64GB card via the instructions in the first post or with alcohol 120% .img software



You have been out right amazing with your willingness to answer basic questions I cannot thank You enough

 

[shabbypenguin]

More ADB Shell ?'s

#!/sbin/sh
mkdir -p /sdcard/Unbrick_Files/;
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/Unbrick_Files/200MB.img bs=4096 count=50000
[COLOR="DarkOrange"];busybox gzip /sdcard/Unbrick_Files/*
;mv /sdcard/Unbrick_Files/200MB.img.gz /sdcard/Unbrick_Files/Unbrick_IMG.gz[/COLOR]
[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"];chmod -R 777 /sdcard/Unbrick_Files[/COLOR]

1.) Are the Highlighted portions above necessary especially the permissions as my understanding is the permissions should already be maintained within the.img so is it actually necessary to chmod the .gz also what does the bs=4096 count=50000 relate to specifically

the blocksize portion tells it we want 4kb chunks instead of 1 byte at a time, while the count lets it know how many "chunks" to grab. in this case 4kb X 50000 = 200000kb = 200MB. the permissions are maintained within the image but not the image itself.

I made an unbrick.img, "using your guidance" from my wifes Galaxy S4 ZOOM SM-C105A Using only the following

#!/sbin/sh
mkdir -p /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/;
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img bs=4096 count=50000

and ended up with 166.22 MB .img Does this sound right or should it be exactly 200MB as per the shell script I also made one from the following

size does vary but it should be fairly close, i wonder why such a big difference.

#!/sbin/sh
mkdir -p /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/;
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img bs=4096 count=50000
;busybox gzip /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/*;
mv /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img.gz

and ended up with a 25.18 MB .img.gz can .gz files be extracted via 7zip?

also the first time I ran it with the chmod on the end and all was processed except for the chmod line it failed for whatever reason
but I still ended up with the same size .img.gz

the ; arent beginning of new lines, they are actually at the end of teh lines. it basically tells teh script to finish what it was doing before trying to move onto the next line. chmod part isnt truly needed, but on my zip it puts it to internal sdcard, so since permissions matter there (no such thing on a fat32 sdcard) i need to have the zip be viewable by teh user who flashes it, since the script is all run by root the file it creates sometimes doesnt show up without that line. gzip can be extracted with 7zip,

#!/sbin/sh
mkdir -p /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/;
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img bs=4096 count=50000
;busybox gzip /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/*;
mv /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files/200MB.img.gz
;chmod -R 777 /storage/extSdCard/ZOOM_Unbrick_Files

2.) I know you have to use a 32Gb or bigger when making the unbrick sdcard with the unbrick.img

but Does the size of the extSdCard matter for the dumping of the unbrick.img as I used a 16GB class 10 for my above trials is this exeptable
as I would then take the produced .img and put it on a 32 or 64GB card via the instructions in the first post or with alcohol 120% .img software



You have been out right amazing with your willingness to answer basic questions I cannot thank You enough

if you are dumping a smaller image then it doesnt matter so long as you have enough space

 

[Jonnyaces187]

just hard bricked my smn900a today trying to flash odin files for kk and laptop crashed now cant even get to download mode or anything even tried a dongle. going to give this a shot but i feel this is a little over my noobed head. never used virtual box or anything. just know how to flash roms and stuff never really had to do anything this hardcore. any pointers or advice. im soooooo screwed without my note. much appreciated

 

[Phatboyj420]

just hard bricked my smn900a today trying to flash odin files for kk and laptop crashed now cant even get to download mode or anything even tried a dongle. going to give this a shot but i feel this is a little over my noobed head. never used virtual box or anything. just know how to flash roms and stuff never really had to do anything this hardcore. any pointers or advice. im soooooo screwed without my note. much appreciated

What build were you on

Otherwise read the last five or six post above your's it should give you everything you need to know

but you will have to start with an unbrick image from the same build you were on if you were on MJ5 I can offer you my .img

if on MI9 take the one from the OP if other than you'll have to have someone running your same build make you an.img of that build

---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------

a unbrick.img just get's you to download mode so you can use odin to install a firmware tar made for your phone. you can do this with a USB Jig Dongle, you can make your own or buy one very cheap ( I made mine from this guide )



the dd is a complete backup of your phone

is the jig actually necessary to get to SDcard mode for the Note 3 or were you reffering to it being nescary for my S4 ZOOM

I have both phones but I dont know if the S4 zoom , "has an Exynos 4212 chip" even has SD-card Mode or how to get to it if it does because development is seriously lacking for that device

I actually have one of the jigs you linked to left over from my GS 2

EDIT:

I just realized I don't even know if " mmcbl0 " is the right patition to copy from for the S4 ZOOM any Ideas how to figure it out
as I stated above " development is seriously lacking ", therefore impossible to find info

 

[carl1961]

What build were you on

Otherwise read the last five or six post above your's it should give you everything you need to know

but you will have to start with an unbrick image from the same build you were on if you were on MJ5 I can offer you my .img

if on MI9 take the one from the OP if other than you'll have to have someone running your same build make you an.img of that build

---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------



is the jig actually necessary to get to SDcard mode for the Note 3 or were you reffering to it being nescary for my S4 ZOOM

I have both phones but I dont know if the S4 zoom , "has an Exynos 4212 chip" even has SD-card Mode or how to get to it if it does because development is seriously lacking for that device

I actually have one of the jigs you linked to left over from my GS 2

EDIT:

I just realized I don't even know if " mmcbl0 " is the right patition to copy from for the S4 ZOOM any Ideas how to figure it out
as I stated above " development is seriously lacking ", therefore impossible to find info

even though the jig was for another samsung, it still worked to boot my Note 3.

turn your phone off, while it is off plug in the jig you have. it should boot your phone to download mode ( if the jig has 300K ohn's across pin 4+5)

but I also have the unbrick.img on a 4 MB sdcard, but how do you test it LOL, I read it only works if bootloader is broke

 

[shabbypenguin]

What build were you on

Otherwise read the last five or six post above your's it should give you everything you need to know

but you will have to start with an unbrick image from the same build you were on if you were on MJ5 I can offer you my .img

if on MI9 take the one from the OP if other than you'll have to have someone running your same build make you an.img of that build

---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------



is the jig actually necessary to get to SDcard mode for the Note 3 or were you reffering to it being nescary for my S4 ZOOM

I have both phones but I dont know if the S4 zoom , "has an Exynos 4212 chip" even has SD-card Mode or how to get to it if it does because development is seriously lacking for that device

I actually have one of the jigs you linked to left over from my GS 2

EDIT:

I just realized I don't even know if " mmcbl0 " is the right patition to copy from for the S4 ZOOM any Ideas how to figure it out
as I stated above " development is seriously lacking ", therefore impossible to find info

sdcard booting is only been confirmed afaik on qualcomm based devices, so the s4 zoom may be SOL.

 

[Phatboyj420]

sdcard booting is only been confirmed afaik on qualcomm based devices, so the s4 zoom may be SOL.

Just found this so I atleast have Hope it is for the SM-C101A

http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/10324915-post7.html

I have the SM-C105A but they both have the same Exynos 4212 chip so I would think that it would/should work the same as long as i use the .img for mine specifically

Now to figure out the difference between the .img and the ..sdc images so I can make my own

" I think they might be almost the same just the.sdc is used to work specific with there atf flash box & software "

Otherwise it looks identical to the qualcomm method, with the added step of shorting the TP resistor 351

I'd love to figure this out for my device as it's seriously lacking in dev and I'd love to contribute

Thanks again for your gracious help


EDIT

NOTE: The following information does not pertain to the Galaxy Note 3 SM-N900A or any other Qualcomm device

I just watched an xda developer tv video of Adam Outler
he made a switch that can be pushed to short the resistor and hung it out of the housing of the device "pretty nifty"
I'll find the link and post Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLKxE_Fd5f8&list=PLgLZvFga2ml66isAUIXx2d-RwjNVPECpQ&index=1
about 2 min 35 sec in basically for all 2013 exynos devices this should work so you could theoreticaly have one rom on your phone and a different one on your sd and dual boot back and forth

 

[shabbypenguin]

Ouch, seems like way too much work for me . i prefer jsut sticking an sdcard in and it boots. qualcomm has been doing this since at least the msm8960 chipset but some older ones even have it. the poor dev attention is probably due to lower specs, niche market and exynos 4412, a truly hated chipset :/. i recently had my second run in with it on the galaxy light rooting and porting twrp/cwm to them, first time was on the note 2 and getting cm to boot on it. i dont envy anyone that has to work on it. however the nice thing is the kernel is pretty expansive so it honestly wouldnt be terribly difficult to get cm booting and somewhat mostly working if someone sat down and took a crack at it. people with the most experience with it afaik is sbrissen and slick_rick as cm maintainers for the note 2 series.

 

[Phatboyj420]

Ouch, seems like way too much work for me . i prefer just sticking an sdcard in and it boots. qualcomm has been doing this since at least the msm8960 chipset but some older ones even have it. the poor dev attention is probably due to lower specs, niche market and exynos 4412, a truly hated chipset :/. i recently had my second run in with it on the galaxy light rooting and porting twrp/cwm to them, first time was on the note 2 and getting cm to boot on it. i don't envy anyone that has to work on it. however the nice thing is the kernel is pretty expansive so it honestly wouldn't be terribly difficult to get cm booting and somewhat mostly working if someone sat down and took a crack at it. people with the most experience with it afaik is sbrissen and slick_rick as cm maintainers for the note 2 series.

My thoughts exactly except that my understanding of the qualcomm functionality is that it actually overwrites the emmc with what is on the sdcard where as the exynos boots directly from the sdcard. The later would be preferable IMO. but I totally agree with you on how to get to sd-mode it looks to be a B**** "on the exynos"

Would you be able to point me in the right direction for getting twrp on the ZOOM and would I have to run it through Safe-Strap because of the newer Bootloaders

Also how to go about finding the partition breakdown on my SM-C105A ZOOM 4212 Exynos is there something i can run in ADB etc.

did you watch the vid above where he put the switch in for shorting the resistor

 

[webster04]

.
.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[Phatboyj420]

the blocksize portion tells it we want 4kb chunks instead of 1 byte at a time, while the count lets it know how many "chunks" to grab. in this case 4kb X 50000 = 200000kb = 200MB. the permissions are maintained within the image but not the image itself.


size does vary but it should be fairly close, i wonder why such a big difference.



the ; arent beginning of new lines, they are actually at the end of teh lines. it basically tells teh script to finish what it was doing before trying to move onto the next line. chmod part isnt truly needed, but on my zip it puts it to internal sdcard, so since permissions matter there (no such thing on a fat32 sdcard) i need to have the zip be viewable by teh user who flashes it, since the script is all run by root the file it creates sometimes doesnt show up without that line. gzip can be extracted with 7zip,


if you are dumping a smaller image then it doesnt matter so long as you have enough space

Will the following give me a Complete .img written in 4kb chunks or is there an alternative way of doing the same or is sizeing not advisable at all when making a complete backup .img

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/Unbrick_Files/Full_GN3.img bs=4096

I'm trying to make a complete .img and I ended up with a 29.1GB .img on a 64GB SDcard the first time after running only

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/Unbrick_Files/Full_GN3.img

"I would have thought it should have been bigger as per our past discussions on needed Sdcard size per emmc size"
If our emmc is truley 32GB my .img should be 32GB+ in size correct?

Thanks in advance

Edit:

I just realized after extracting the 200mb image made with your script that the image inside the .gz file does not have the .img extension is this normal if so does it have to be this way to work or will the .img files i've made work as well ("Like in my code examples above where I just dumped to the.img then zipped them with 7zip")

Sorry for all the questions

 

[shabbypenguin]

Will the following give me a Complete .img written in 4kb chunks or is there an alternative way of doing the same or is sizeing not advisable at all when making a complete backup .img

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/Unbrick_Files/Full_GN3.img bs=4096

I'm trying to make a complete .img and I ended up with a 29.1GB .img on a 64GB SDcard the first time after running only

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/Unbrick_Files/Full_GN3.img

"I would have thought it should have been bigger as per our past discussions on needed Sdcard size per emmc size"
If our emmc is truley 32GB my .img should be 32GB+ in size correct?

Thanks in advance

Edit:

I just realized after extracting the 200mb image made with your script that the image inside the .gz file does not have the .img extension is this normal if so does it have to be this way to work or will the .img files i've made work as well ("Like in my code examples above where I just dumped to the.img then zipped them with 7zip")

Sorry for all the questions

things are rated for a certain storage but have a smaller than that actual real life storage, due to oems claiming 1000KB is a MB, 1000MB is a GB when its actually 1024. so size changes happen as well as you are probably looking at windows explorer telling you that rounded up size, if you were to click on properties for it it would tell you the actual size.

as for your .img sounds like you have windows set to hide known file type extensions (its how its done by default).

 

[Phatboyj420]

things are rated for a certain storage but have a smaller than that actual real life storage, due to oems claiming 1000KB is a MB, 1000MB is a GB when its actually 1024. so size changes happen as well as you are probably looking at windows explorer telling you that rounded up size, if you were to click on properties for it it would tell you the actual size.

as for your .img sounds like you have windows set to hide known file type extensions (its how its done by default).

Thats just it i don't have it set to hide known file types it only removes the .img extension when I use the MV portion of you script.

If I do everything but the last portion, " MV & CHMOD Portion"" I end up with a "image.img" inside of the ".gz " like I should.

So from what your saying about the size I shouldn't actually need a 64GB card as the image is only 29.12 GB* a 32GB card should infact work for a complete dump

What about this, is this advisable/recommended, "The bs=4096 part at the end of the code" when making a full dump or no?
"How would you do the following, Chunk size ETC."

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/extSdCard/Unbrick_Files/Full_GN3.img [B][COLOR="DarkOrange"]bs=4096[/COLOR][/B]

One last ?
Is mmcblk0 the default emmc partition for, all android devices, all Samsung android devices, or is it device specific, carrier specific. ETC.

Thank You,
your knowledge has been indispensable

 

[Yeag3r24]

So i hard bricked my at&t Note 3 when i was in Odin. Looked like Odin froze so i unplugged it half way thru and tried to get back into download mode and NOTHING! Black screen ... can't get into download mode, power device on or nothing. Never bricked a device in all the years i've been rooting and tried everything. Unfortuantly, i still can't get this to work on Linux system and just want to know im doing things right. I placed the img on sd card and inserted it with thumb usb and that's fine. When i type in dmesg | tail i get this ...

[email protected] ~ $ dmesg | tail
[ 1548.786072] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1548.786079] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1548.790452] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1548.790461] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1548.791624] sdb: sdb1
[ 1548.794337] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1548.794347] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1548.794355] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 1549.170010] FAT-fs (sdb1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.
[ 1956.468460] perf samples too long (2506 > 2500), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 50000

I know my card is sdb1 and tried typing in the rest of the commands. When i type in second command sudo dd if=/<path_to_debrick.img> of=/dev/sdX i get this ...

[email protected] ~ $ sudo dd if=/<path_to_debrick.img> of=/dev/sdb1
bash: path_to_debrick.img: No such file or directory

Really no idea what im doing to not get this work but i'm sure it's something simple. I just want to get back into download mode and then i'll be straight and can Odin my files to recover. Unfortuantely i can't get back in download mode!

Also i am using a SanDisk Elevate 32GB sd card on my 32 Note 3 so i know the cards not the problem. It's brand new and reads fine otherwise.

Please let me know if i'm doing anything wrong as i've been working on this for 48 hours and just need my phone back! lol

Thanks ... I really appreciate it!

 

[carl1961]

So i hard bricked my at&t Note 3 when i was in Odin. Looked like Odin froze so i unplugged it half way thru and tried to get back into download mode and NOTHING! Black screen ... can't get into download mode, power device on or nothing. Never bricked a device in all the years i've been rooting and tried everything. Unfortuantly, i still can't get this to work on Linux system and just want to know im doing things right. I placed the img on sd card and inserted it with thumb usb and that's fine. When i type in dmesg | tail i get this ...

[email protected] ~ $ dmesg | tail
[ 1548.786072] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1548.786079] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1548.790452] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1548.790461] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1548.791624] sdb: sdb1
[ 1548.794337] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1548.794347] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1548.794355] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 1549.170010] FAT-fs (sdb1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.
[ 1956.468460] perf samples too long (2506 > 2500), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 50000

I know my card is sdb1 and tried typing in the rest of the commands. When i type in second command sudo dd if=/<path_to_debrick.img> of=/dev/sdX i get this ...

[email protected] ~ $ sudo dd if=/<path_to_debrick.img> of=/dev/sdb1
bash: path_to_debrick.img: No such file or directory

Really no idea what im doing to not get this work but i'm sure it's something simple. I just want to get back into download mode and then i'll be straight and can Odin my files to recover. Unfortuantely i can't get back in download mode!

Also i am using a SanDisk Elevate 32GB sd card on my 32 Note 3 so i know the cards not the problem. It's brand new and reads fine otherwise.

Please let me know if i'm doing anything wrong as i've been working on this for 48 hours and just need my phone back! lol

Thanks ... I really appreciate it!

have you tried a USB JIG?

I made one for my phone just in case, and with phone completely off, when I plug it in, my phone boots itself to download mod

 

[Yeag3r24]

have you tried a USB JIG?

I made one for my phone just in case, and with phone completely off, when I plug it in, my phone boots itself to download mod

No i have not tried the jig because it looks like id need to solder in order to do it and don't have those tools. If you could message me on an easy way to make the jig, i'd appreciate it. Really just want to burn the img to my sd card cause it looks like it would work that way and would love to figure out what i'm doing wrong. Again, please PM me with info on making jig if i don't have use a solder gun. Appreciate it and hope to get this unbricked ASAP! Any other help from members would be awesome! Thanks guys. :good:

 

[carl1961]

No i have not tried the jig because it looks like id need to solder in order to do it and don't have those tools. If you could message me on an easy way to make the jig, i'd appreciate it. Really just want to burn the img to my sd card cause it looks like it would work that way and would love to figure out what i'm doing wrong. Again, please PM me with info on making jig. Appreciate it and hope to get this unbricked ASAP! Any other help from members would be awesome! Thanks guys. :good:

You could just temporary twist tie the parts together without soldering
trick is finding a plug with pins 4+5 with wires

or buy a cheap one

as for the image, since we have root maybe I can do a brick.img for you and just use Win32 Disk Imager to write to sdcard

so let me get to reading how to dump a brick.img

 

[Yeag3r24]

have you tried a USB JIG?

I made one for my phone just in case, and with phone completely off, when I plug it in, my phone boots itself to download mod

You could just temporary twist tie the parts together without soldering
trick is finding a plug with pins 4+5 with wires

or buy a cheap one

as for the image, since we have root maybe I can do a brick.img for you and just use Win32 Disk Imager to write to sdcard

so let me get to reading how to dump a brick.img

Sweet thanks! I actually deleted my windows xp os and installed Linux Mint because using linux virtual box was too slow but i can just reinstall my windows xp with my disc if you can successully do so! Thanks again.

 

[Yeag3r24]

So i got the img to write onto sd card but still can't get into download mode when i hold the buttons. No signs of life still. This is what i got after i wrote the image

PaulMichael paul # dd if=/home/paul/Desktop/debrick/Unbrick_SM-N900A.img of=/dev/sdb1
400000+0 records in
400000+0 records out
204800000 bytes (205 MB) copied, 72.2845 s, 2.8 MB/s
PaulMichael paul # fdisk -l /dev/sdb1

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb1'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdb1: 31.9 GB, 31910789120 bytes
1 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1947680 cylinders, total 62325760 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1p1 1 61071359 30535679+ ee GPT

Any help would be appreciated. I even tried it twice with no luck. Also my new 32gb sd card won't read now when i put it reader into usb. No pop up or anything? Thanks guys.

***Edited*** also i was on MJ5 then did the Unofficial "Jump from Jellybean to kk" and was on DynamicKat ... which image would i need then? And if someone has it can they send it to me please!

 

[tbaybucs]

So i got the img to write onto sd card but still can't get into download mode when i hold the buttons. No signs of life still. This is what i got after i wrote the image

PaulMichael paul # dd if=/home/paul/Desktop/debrick/Unbrick_SM-N900A.img of=/dev/sdb1
400000+0 records in
400000+0 records out
204800000 bytes (205 MB) copied, 72.2845 s, 2.8 MB/s
PaulMichael paul # fdisk -l /dev/sdb1

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb1'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdb1: 31.9 GB, 31910789120 bytes
1 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1947680 cylinders, total 62325760 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1p1 1 61071359 30535679+ ee GPT

Any help would be appreciated. I even tried it twice with no luck. Also my new 32gb sd card won't read now when i put it reader into usb. No pop up or anything? Thanks guys.

***Edited*** also i was on MJ5 then did the Unofficial "Jump from Jellybean to kk" and was on DynamicKat ... which image would i need then? And if someone has it can they send it to me please!

exactly my situation please post if you find a solution