i605 Hard-Unbricking via KOBOL's Method :)

[unicell]

did you prepare the SD card properly?? follow the instructions exactly and with the SD card in place, you'll see the black screen saying success or something like that.

Keep at it, worst case scenario is you don't succeed...

Yes, I tried the combination of those two image files (cause I wasn't sure which one applies to my case), with winimage and winhex. Same result. I also tried screwdriver and pincet to short the resistor. After pressing the power button, screen remains black before and after I remove the screwdriver. I'm quite sure I hold the battery right, because if don't short the resistor and simply press the power button, it will display logo in loop. And I tried above steps many many times.

 

[BlakeDC]

Ok. Let me start this out by saying that this procedure is very risky...I'm not even sure why I followed through with this....but, I will tell my story and you can decide if the risk is worth it.

I was running the 4.3 locked bootloader VRUEMJ9. I was running SafeStrap with N3bula ROM. Like many others, I've been frustrated with this locked bootloader...So, for the third time, I decided to test this method to see if I could downgrade back to 4.1

Using the knowledge from KOBOL, and the very helpful write-up by GiGaLeOnZa, I spent over an hour trying to hold the battery in place and short that little tiny resistor. After an hour, I finally got the stars to align, and was able to hold everything together while pressing the power button. As I counted to 6, the screen flashed white, and I pulled my screwdriver off of the resistor, and the screen stayed white for another second, then went black. After thinking, "oh great, there goes my phone" I reconnected everything and prepared to put my bricked phone back together. Imagine my surprise when I turned it on, and the safestrap screen appeared. After hitting continue, my phone booted in system recovery mode. I chose the "update from SD card" option. This resulted in a failure to mount. So, after I realized that I still had to imaged SD card in the device, I turned it off and put my normal SD card in. When I booted my phone, N3bula loaded like normal, and I was able to check my e-mail and voicemail. So, obviously, I felt like I needed to mess with it even further. Brazened my the backup I had made yesterday, I decided to ODIN the root66 firmware onto the device. After ODIN declared the process successful, I waited with my breath held while my phone booted up...After what seemed to be a long time on the "Samsung Galaxy Note II" splash screen, the little Android with an open chest appeared with a status bar. After that had completed, my phone rebooted and I went back to holding my breath. When the phone got past the first splash screen and the old "4GLTE" logo with the emanating rings appeared, I almost fell off my chair. After an eternity, my phone turned on and finally, what we've all been waiting for....View attachment 2713239

Now please, I beg you to read this whole post before you decide to do this yourself...as I said before, this is extremely risky, and I'm not sure if I just got lucky, or this worked.

Huge thanks to GiGaLeOnZa and KOBOL for their extremely helpful guides and knowledge.

Has nobody tried to replicate this?

 

[GiGaLeOnZa]

Yes, I tried the combination of those two image files (cause I wasn't sure which one applies to my case), with winimage and winhex. Same result. I also tried screwdriver and pincet to short the resistor. After pressing the power button, screen remains black before and after I remove the screwdriver. I'm quite sure I hold the battery right, because if don't short the resistor and simply press the power button, it will display logo in loop. And I tried above steps many many times.

Yea, if you weren't holding the battery right then the phone wouldn't be turning on, unless you have the USB cable plugged in. I opted not to do so, because when the board gets power it will try and start charging it and wouldn't start the boot looping..

Keep at it, I got mine going on the 3rd attempt to power it up. Make sure your counting exactly to 5, 6 tops. I'm not sure what else to say, but if in the event you can't get the phone reset via micro SD and can't ODIN back, you're stuck best of luck.

 

[GiGaLeOnZa]

Has nobody tried to replicate this?

I wish I could, but I haven't been unfortunate enough to install the new locked bootloader. If I had by mistake, I would want to try this to unlock, but I was lucky enough just to bring my phone back to life, I'm not courageous enough to update then try and go back. I leave that to the people who are locked and want to be adventerous enough to confirm what ioc did.

 

[WhiteEVO]

I'm getting to the point where I might try shorting the jumper and seeing if I can odin back to 4.1.1 or 4.2. So frustrated with being bootlocked!!!

 

[tekjester]

I wish I could, but I haven't been unfortunate enough to install the new locked bootloader. If I had by mistake, I would want to try this to unlock, but I was lucky enough just to bring my phone back to life, I'm not courageous enough to update then try and go back. I leave that to the people who are locked and want to be adventerous enough to confirm what ioc did.

So, I just spent quite a few hours trying to replicate this, and here's what happened.

Everything went as he described, but the bootloader is still locked! A couple nuances.

First, KNOX is still present even after getting the white screen (never got any sort of text)
Second I could not flash stock VRAMC3 firmware. That messed me up.
Third, I could flash Root66 Firmware. It flashed successfully, but it bootlooped and I flashed again and got the same successful flash with a bootloop.
Lastly, even after successfully flashing Root66, the bootloader is very much locked and showing a void warranty. I never booted, but the system and bootloader are independent of each other. If the shorting itself does not reflash the bootloader, certainly flashing an old rom won't.

Very sad. I took pics of the process throughout, but seems like a waste. For anyone else trying this, flip the monitor cable over the edge so the screen is face down and THEN reattach the board. You can't flip it while attached, but you can reattach it once it's flipped. This made shorting, powering on, and holding the battery 10 times easier!!

I think that Knox causes the white screen versus text when trying to flash the VRAMC3 image back.

 

[stopher58]

Yea, if you weren't holding the battery right then the phone wouldn't be turning on, unless you have the USB cable plugged in. I opted not to do so, because when the board gets power it will try and start charging it and wouldn't start the boot looping..

Keep at it, I got mine going on the 3rd attempt to power it up. Make sure your counting exactly to 5, 6 tops. I'm not sure what else to say, but if in the event you can't get the phone reset via micro SD and can't ODIN back, you're stuck best of luck.

I have the same issue as unicell, I guess i should just give this all a try and see what happens? I did the exact same thing as him and flashed the FING 7100 bootloader and get stuck in that bootloop and can only get into download mode. I'm so pissed.

 

[hazemsalah]

Hello all,
My phone is locked for flashing stock roms it stucks at modem.bin after trying to flash N7105 4.1.2 stock rom , but i can still run cleanROM v5 without problems, i can run recovery and download mode , install modems from recovery.

I need to restore it , in order to flash MJ9 , and install DN3 rom

is there a way to install i605.img instead of the resistor way.

 

[kkemp31]

I just wanted to share that I just downgraded my bootloader from 4.3.1 to 4 .1 2 going to try to unlock the bootloader when I get home

 

[J_3dgar_H00v3r]

grrr

I'm just desperate enough and broke enough to try this. I am on 4.4.2 and I hate it. Especially since I did my backup with titanium and I can't restore without root. So I am willing to try to downgrade this way, so far no luck though.

Couple of questions, did the samsung logo come on first or the red text that said flashing was complete? If the samsung logo came on first how long did it stay on before it switched to the flash complete text?

Either wait I can't seem to get it to do it. I have tried a screw driver and silver solder wire. Any tips would be appreciated. I will post results if there are any. :silly:

 

[jdaproduca]

Downgrade bootloader from 4.3 to 4.1.2

I was successfully able to downgrade my bootloader using this method. I was on locked bootloader and firmware 4.3. After using this method i was able to flash 4.1.2 firmware.

 

[Hälftebyte]

@GiGaLeOnZa
Anyone able to downgrade from 4.4.2 locked bootloader?
Or any idea if the 4.3 file could work to downgrade from 4.4.2?

 

[nikitis]

Okay, so I attempted this. My phone is opened right now as I speak. I held the tool, got a white screen, but the screen was on for 2 seconds, and then it booted into 4.4.2. I used the 4.1.2 i605.img file provided by the Original Poster of this thread.

Is it somehow possible that the bootloader was pre-unlocked from the i605.img and boots the 4.4.2 rom because it's not checking the signature? Or did it just fail and nothing has changed? I couldn't see any text, but then I couldn't see the screen all that well at the angle I was doing this at. I'd like to know what you think before i reassemble this phone.

I could reassemble and try to flash a recovery. If it boots custom recovery then I suppose i'm on a 4.1.2 bootloader. If not then I suppose it failed. Would like to know what you think of the white screen for 2 seconds. Do I need to try and keep the white screen on longer? I'm wondering if maybe the white screen was on from shorting but then slipped and it didn't finish? I have no idea.

---------- Post added at 10:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 AM ----------

Okay, I reassembled. Booted into 4.4.2. Flashed recovery. Then tried to boot into recovery. Got Verizon unauthorized error. Figured maybe signature problem Attempted to odin to 4.1.2. Same error. so I guess this method did not work on a 4.4.2 device. Only choice now is to odin back to 4.4.2.

 

[Hälftebyte]

Imo unless you can see what's going on with the screen you won't know if it works or not. Shorting the resistor can be hit or miss so you need to see if the writing came up on the screen

Gesendet von meinem SAMSUNG-SCH-I605 mit Tapatalk 2

 

[drarkanex]

Did you hard brick your Verizon Note 2? Flashed the wrong boot loader, now you're bootlooping and ODIN can't save you??

Thank you, adding what the screen looks like upon completion of SDCard so people will know what to look for. Use it freely. Thank you again!

 

[GiGaLeOnZa]

Thanks for the pic!

Thank you, adding what the screen looks like upon completion of SDCard so people will know what to look for. Use it freely. Thank you again!

That is EXACTLY what you're looking for, people! Thanks for posting that pic, after booting up my phone I realized I hadn't captured that screenshot and wish I had.

FYI people, I screwed up my phone so many months back with the wrong STOCK ROM. I had the N7105 image that had the bootloader, modem, rom, etc. This will re-write the stock verizon I605 bootloader. You THEN can boot up your phone ODIN flash a stock 4.1.2 full system image for our phones. THEN you can root using Casual, install TWRP recovery again, THEN you can re-flash your ROM backups, custom roms from scratch, etc.

This is not a means to fix just one issue, it is a means to unbrick your fubar'd bootloader back to the stock 4.1.2 bootloader. What you can do from there, or what you plan to do and may succeed/fail at, is unknown as all of our phones are in different states.

It appears at least 3 people have been able to downgrade the bootloader which is pretty cool I'm rocking the 6+ since Christmas and my Note 2 is a freshly refurbished Verizon replacement I received right before getting it. Going to sell it and make a couple $$ vs. ripping it apart to see if this can be doneso I won't be able to add any other relevant info to ths thread. I am happy this thread has helped a few people and I look forward to seeing others succeed in repairing and un-bricking their I605's! Good luck to all

 

[drarkanex]

Did you hard brick your Verizon Note 2? Flashed the wrong boot loader, now you're bootlooping and ODIN can't save you??

Just wanted to say that I was def. hard bricked. What had happened was I flashed a bootloader on my i605 and i didn't check the MD5 on it. was a bad download and I found out the hard way. This fix needs to be made a sticky in case there are some hard bricked note 2's running around. Thing is I flashed the bootloader via odin, after it flashed it, it rebooted my phone to a black screen. Since samsungs are known for their really dark screens, you can't tell if the phone is powered on at all if the bootloader is hosed. There was nothing physically wrong with my phone, just the bootloader was hosed and never flashed anything on the screen. Until I found this post, my phone sat in my drawer for a week. I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw the SDCard mode screen come up because that was the first sign of life i saw out of this phone in a week. I mean, NOTHING came up on the screen prior to this fix. Bootlooping is one thing, if you can get to download mode, you are soft bricked. Mine was def. hard bricked. Thank you again.

 

[FIKRET]

sd card boot

17) Power up your phone and you should be greeted with the "Verizon has detected..." blah blah unauthorized software. AWESOME AND CONGRATS! Pull the battery and boot to Download/ODIN mode.

** NOTE ** I have NO IDEA if you can downgrade during this process, no one in KOBOL's thread had yet to confirm as of this writing. Flash whatever you're coming from, you went this far to Un-brick your phone, why do it again? If you went to 4.3, deal with it and restore 4.3 Coming from 4.1.2? restore 4.1.2 then! Besides SafeStrapping is coming soon

18) Restore your phone with a working ODIN image, whether it be a stock keis image, your favorite ODIN image (root66 ODIN is great) etc. etc.

19) After the ODIN restore is complete, you may boot loop but this is normal, you need a factory reset. Pull battery, boot recovery, do a factory reset. You'll be OK now!

20) BASK IN THE GLORY OF YOUR RESTORED VERIZON GALAXY NOTE 2!

I'm sorry I don't have any of my own pictures, it was nerve-racking enough just to get through this and have enough hands to do it. Waking up my girlfriend so I can ask her "hold the battery just like this..." at 2 AM would have been a bad idea..

MANY, MANY, MAAAANY thanks to KOBOL for engineering this very clever recovery process... I would be out a phone right now or shopping online for JTAG devices. All the while be at work with no phone tomorrow and the next day while I wait for a replacement phone to arrive. To think I have insurance and most likely would have been fine to get a replacement (sent rooted & unlocked phones back several times no issues) I did this all so I wouldn't be without my phone for 36 hours!!

May this guide be helpful to even ONE PERSON... please give thanks, and more importantly, message KOBOL and ask him how to send a donation, I will be doing so myself!

Best of luck to all. :good:

Hello i was trying to do this today with no luck i used some tweezers maybe scredriver is better, did you use just one screw driver and which resistor you need to touch both of them ? It was very great write up man...Also do you remember which of his image files did you use i am little confused i605 i605mj9 or Esf , we need to write just one image to sd card right? do you remember which you used ?

 

[AuztiinAnonX]

SDCARD Mode?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 i605 with the 4.4.2 nd7 boot loader. How do I enter this SDCARD Mode? I'm highly curious on unlocking my boot loader. This SDCARD Mode caught my interest and I'm hoping to possibly downgrade my boot loader. I just want to run a lollipop ROM and safestrap won't work with those ROMs..

 

[hami497]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 i605 with the 4.4.2 nd7 boot loader. How do I enter this SDCARD Mode? I'm highly curious on unlocking my boot loader. This SDCARD Mode caught my interest and I'm hoping to possibly downgrade my boot loader. I just want to run a lollipop ROM and safestrap won't work with those ROMs..

U have to short the resistor and prepare your sd card with the bootloader image. Then sd card mode will appear.