EDIT: Updated 4/11/11
HOW TO UN BRICK YOUR FASCINATE NOW THAT YOU HAVE BRICKED IT
So you think you bricked your phone? The first thing you need to do is CALM DOWN, no need to panic, the odds are great that following this guide will fix you right up.
Since there seems to be an abundance of posts in the Q&A and General Forums asking for help fixing, unbricking, their Fascinates, I decided to try to make a one stop walk through for odin and heimdall with links. Most of us "flash addicts", Developers, and testers have found the Samsung Galaxy Phones are nearly impossible to truly brick without causing physical damage to your phone, in almost all cases it is possible to get it working again.
My intent is to make it easier for anyone needing this, to find everything they need to get a working STOCK phone. This will not have custom roms, modems, kernels, themes, or anything else you may want. This will give you detailed instructions on, how to turn your brick back into a working phone, after you turned it into a brick.
I did not make any of these programs or files, however after several times of having to recover my brick, or Non Working Fascinate, whichever you prefer, I know the steps, and I know everything here works. Just ask my wife, she hears "DAMN I just bricked it again" at least twice a week, I am a hands on kind of learner. Without trying to insult anyone's intelligence, but some are more technically inclined than others, I will try to make this so anyone can follow it.
USUAL WARNING: Everything here is done at your own risk. I an not responsible in any way. Doing any of this is your decision, I am just providing a collection of information. All credit for everything here belongs to others, who are also not responsible in any way.
My Phone wont boot at all, is stuck at logo, or I cant do anything with it is it a paperweight?
Most likely, no, so lets get to fixing it. All download links necessary for each process will be posted at the bottom of that walk through.
Your Friend odin
Everything except for the pit file in odin
MUST be done in the
PDA slot, if not it will not work requiring you to odin again, or possibly have to use heimdall (covered later in this thread) to fix that. After you download odin, I use v1.7, others say v1.3, but I had a lot of problems with that freezing (becoming Unresponsive) and I've never had that in v1.7 so that is the one I am giving you here.
first you need to decide if you want to go all the way back to DI01 (Android 2.1 "Eclair") or EB01 (android 2.2 "Froyo") it makes all the difference with the files you need. The pit file is not necessary in the files I am giving you as they are an All In One package thanks to one of our Excellent Dev's Adrynalyne, but I have included it just in case you need to go completely back to stock. after downloading odin from another Excellent Dev JT1134, and your recovery package of choice. Make sure you put your downloads in a file that you can easily find again.
Start by removing your back cover and battery, I Know it can be done with it in but lets minimize opportunity for mistakes. Plug your phone, without the battery, into your PC with the original usb cable that came with it new, then press and hold the volume down button until the yellow triangle with the droid digging appears on the screen.
Now that you are in download mode verify that odin is reading it properly, you will see a yellow block with a port number in it, you are connected. next click on the
PDA and ONLY THE PDA button in the Files (downloads) section. now you will see why I told you to make sure of where your file is located, you need to go there through the odin popup window, and select it.
Now the check box next to PDA is checked and the block has the file location in it. Make sure Repartition, Dump, Phone EFS clear, and Bootloader Update are
NOT CHECKED in the Options section. Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time
SHOULD BE CHECKED. These are the default settings in the options section but double check it anyway.
If you are going all the way back to stock, just like the day you first bought it, you will need to click on the pit button and select the pit file from the link below. Now the Repartition box should automatically be checked, if it isn't check it,
this is the only time you will use anything other than the default settings listed above.
You are ready to go ahead and click start, and let odin run, it can take anywhere from just a minute to around a half hour. If anything Happens like your computer shuts off, you accidentally unplug your phone from your PC, or download failed, don't worry. If anything happens to interrupt the download or it fails simply unplug your cable, click reset in odin and start the process over from the beginning, but you wont have to download everything again.
Once odin finishes and does its test you will get a green box lit up that says Pass in it just above where you saw the yellow box showing you were connected. Congratulations on a successful recovery. reinstall your battery and the back cover, reboot your phone and wait for it to boot up. The boot process can take several minutes so be patient. If the boot was successful you should be looking at a stock bloated Verizon Fascinate, that is asking you to back up your system and log into Gmail.
If it didn't succeed try it again, still no luck, don't sweat it we still have other options see heimdall below.
odin 1.7 link: Thanks JT1134
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?t093btu771q0bgi
DI01 all in one: Thanks Adrynalyne.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4D3JPBKR
EB01 all in one: Thanks Adrynalyne.
http://www.multiupload.com/I9HBT8MXN1
DI01/EB01 pit file: Thanks Adrynalyne.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?26xbh796jmwvwqb
odin didn't work, now what?
heimdall, my best friend.
Now for the heimdall walk through, so follow along, although I don't think it is possible to completely brick this phone short of actually smashing it, lets not take unnecessary chances. First go to the link for heimdall. Download, unzip this and open the folder. In this folder you will find another folder labeled Drivers, open it and you will see a program called zadig.
Now put your Phone into download mode, that is remove the back cover, take out the battery and plug it into your PC with the cable that came with the phone when you got it, then press and hold the down volume button till a yellow triangle and droid digging show up, now you are in download mode.
Next double click zadig and when it opens, click on options and click list all devices. Now drop the usb drop down box and you will find an option for Samsung usb driver, select it then click install drivers. the usual install stuff from windows about do you want to install this, yes you do. Now If the warning about publisher could not be verified, whatever, install it anyway, no it's not a virus. You are almost ready to get your phone working again.
Now you need the files for this program to install, make sure you get the pit file for the correct file, it will be right above the All In One it belongs with at the bottom of this walk through. After download is complete unzip the .tar.md5 file with winzip/7zip/jzip, whatever zip file program you use, extract to a file, mine are named DI01heimdall and EB01heimdall, for easy recognition when I need it again. At this point I always move the pit file into the unzipped file, yes I copy and paste one to each one. Two reasons I do this is so everything I need is now in one file and easy to get to when I need them.
Now back into the heimdall file you opened earlier and click the application called heimdall-frontend. here is where you can go wrong so I will do this side by side with heimdall names and DI01/EB01 file names.
heimdall on this side of =DI01/EB01 file names on this side.
In Repartition:
PIT=atlas_v2.2.pit see below.
In PDA/Code:
FactoryFS=factoryfs.frs
Kernel(zImage)=zImage
Param.lfs=param.lfs
Primary Bootloader=boot.bin
Secondary Bootloader=slb.bin
In CSC:
Cache=cache.rfs
Database Data=dbdata.rfs
In Other:
Modem=modem.bin
Recovery=recovery.bin
Now you are ready to run heimdall, but you say you have a file in either DI01 or EB01 left called movinand.bin? Why, yes you are correct and since there are no places left in heimdall to put it, now what? Nothing it wont be used in this program and yes your phone will still work. So after a simple answer of data, i went looking for more info, movinand.bin is a flash program to access data storage at less cost than using soldered in hardware, REALLY, see what I found here
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/13819/samsung_8gb_movinand/.
Now that we have all the files loaded into the correct spots, the necessary drivers installed, and our phone in download mode, the start button will be able to be clicked, not shaded outlines like before, did you even notice that? If everything was followed step by step in this tutorial go ahead and click the START button and get your brick back to being a Fascinate. After heimdall finishes reboot your working Verizon stock, bing bloated, working Fascinate.
after this is completed successfully you will be able to use odin again if you need to.
heimdall: I can't remember who gave this to me, so whoever did thanks.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?0zpydb4mt5o8vo3
DI01 all in one: Thanks Adrynalyne.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4D3JPBKR
DI01/EB01 pit file: Thanks Adrynalyne.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?26xbh796jmwvwqb
EB01 all in one: Thanks Adrynalyne.
http://www.multiupload.com/I9HBT8MXN1
Why did this happen?
Why was this necessary, as far as I can find out, through research, I wont even try to figure out how many times I had to ,and the six yes that's right I said 6, times I have HAD to use heimdall, because my phone would not recover through odin, it seems to be, dbdata, can not mount. This has happened to me because I didn't remove voodoo, or flashed a pre edify rom after accidently putting clockwork orange, which is for edify, on a non edify rom. So moral of the story is twofold, yes it is very likely it can be fixed, and remove voodoo before going to nonvoodoo, and unless you are on an edify rom stay away from clockwork orange. Another reason you will need the heimdall method and yes i did this too, is flashing a rom for a different phone on your Verizon Fascinate.
NEVER USE A FILE, ROM, KERNEL, ANYTHING, THAT IS NOT CLEARLY FOR THE VERIZON FASCINATE.
Remember, thank the developers by clicking the thanks button on threads you find helpful, they did the work. All I did was take some time and put together all the links and processes I have read and had to learn. Some of the walk through threads are well written by the Dev's and some were hard for me to follow. Sometime I wonder if our Dev's forget that us mere mortals have no idea what they are talking about, and I pride myself on being much better than average with computers and software. That said if you have trouble working e mail and office, I think it's fair to say you would be lost. I hope this is easy to follow and always successful for you. Better yet I hope you never need this.
EDIT: If heimdall fails, but you can still get into download mode, do it again, and again. If odin fails, but you can still get into download mode do it again, and again, If odin refuses to work, see heimdall. If you cant get into download mode with your phone plugged into your PC, Unplug usb from PC and plug it into the wall plug adapter, plug that into wall outlet, try to put it into download mode there. When It goes into download mode, unplug usb from adapter, plug it into PC and put it into download mode, it should work. I thought when Adrynalyne, either by referring me to one of his threads, or by PM, i thought he was crazy, but i was desperate so i tried it, it works.
If this has Helped you not have a $600 dollar paperweight, consider donating to some of our Dev's these are some of my favorites to support when I can.
Adrynalyne:https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6362350
jt1134:http://forum.xda-developers.com/donatetome.php?u=2562109
GizmoDroid: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QZDDNHBUFMPBW
ChainsDD: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=8154934
EDIT: Since there seems to be a ton of Questions about rooting your phones, I have decided to include a link to what I believe to be the easiest way I have ever rooted ANY phone: I tried to find the thread i got this step from but no luck there so whoever did this thanks.
ROOTING YOUR PHONE VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY. I NOR ANYONE ELSE WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING YOU CHOOSE TO DO. NO ONE HERE IS MAKING YOU DO ANYTHING, JUST PROVIDING INFORMATION ON WAYS TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.
First you will need to go to download the superuser zip file and put it on your SD card. Thanks ChainsDD
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?m826plog4uo9ezc
Next you need the Clockwork odin file, this one is for amend scripts, that is Clockwork Red. Thanks GizmoDroid.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?826l2o779ng33cd
After you have your files in the right places, go into download mode and odin in Clockwork Recovery Red. After it finishes, boot into CWR, power on while holding the volume down button. Once the Samsung logo appears release the power button but continue to hold the volume down until CWR appears.
Go to Install zip, Choose zip, install from SD card. Find your superuser.zip file and install it. Reboot, you are rooted, install busybox, free from market if necessary.
EDIT: The XDA Developers are currently working on Clockwork Orange, and Edify script roms to work with rom manager. As that becomes available I will test recovery method, update as necessary and post here.
EDIT: As suggested, I updated to hopefully make this easier to follow when you are in full panic, I need help now mode. I also fixed my typos on the file names. Thanks to all who had suggestions for me to make this better, if there are more suggestions, lets hear them.
