[Q] Completely dead screen on an SGH-I896 - Any way to retrieve data?

[FlareHeart]

A friend of my brother's had a Captivate and it's screen is completely dead. Cracked and broken physically, and won't display anything. I know the phone still kinda works since there is a row of pixels at the top that kinda lights up when the power button is pushed. The lights seem to correspond to a normal boot up and screen on/off functionality.

I am not versed in this particular phone, is there any way for me to get the data off of it? The guy who used it can't remember the google account info (...yes I know...) so he's come to me, the resident techie, to try and get the data off of it.

Is it possible? It's unrooted, stock, basically untouched from what I know. So we're dealing with something that has zero root access.

Do you guys think it's still possible to get it into fastboot mode and get something off of it? Maybe using ODIN?

 

[RootTheMachine]

Well, I am guessing that it is impossible to activate USB mass storage given the condition of the screen. The best way would be to odin a kernel that has CWM, and blindly navigate through the menus in order to mount USB storage. I have seen this done before; it's easy if you know how many times to press the buttons. I suppose I could help with that if you can't find another reference.

Or you could use ADB but that relies on USB debugging being enabled, which isn't likely if the person was an average user.

BTW, I'm jealous of your current devices...

 

[FlareHeart]

Well, I am guessing that it is impossible to activate USB mass storage given the condition of the screen. The best way would be to odin a kernel that has CWM, and blindly navigate through the menus in order to mount USB storage. I have seen this done before; it's easy if you know how many times to press the buttons. I suppose I could help with that if you can't find another reference.

Or you could use ADB but that relies on USB debugging being enabled, which isn't likely if the person was an average user.

BTW, I'm jealous of your current devices...

You can ODIN a kernel with CWM on an unrooted device? I did not know that! Could you kindly point me in the direction of some sort of ODIN how-to? I'm not versed in the Samsung proprietary stuff. I should also add that it's not just the "USB Storage" that needs to be retrieved, things like contacts and stuff too if possible. I tried explaining that the Google account would have the stuff synced, but that's where the "I dunno the login" comes in. -sigh-

USB Debugging is not enabled as far as I know this is purely a stock device. Nothing changed other than basic usage settings.

I'm a bit of a Nexus junkie...my husband gets my older stuff...so he's kind of up to date (only out by a year or so), and I get the fancy really new stuff lol.

 

[RootTheMachine]

You can ODIN a kernel with CWM on an unrooted device? I did not know that! Could you kindly point me in the direction of some sort of ODIN how-to? I'm not versed in the Samsung proprietary stuff. I should also add that it's not just the "USB Storage" that needs to be retrieved, things like contacts and stuff too if possible. I tried explaining that the Google account would have the stuff synced, but that's where the "I dunno the login" comes in. -sigh-

USB Debugging is not enabled as far as I know this is purely a stock device. Nothing changed other than basic usage settings.

I'm a bit of a Nexus junkie...my husband gets my older stuff...so he's kind of up to date (only out by a year or so), and I get the fancy really new stuff lol.

Yep, rooting only affects things at the OS level, while download mode has access to everything right out of the box. Do you happen to know which stock version the phone was running? That will affect which kernel I suggest.

As far as the contacts go... I suppose we can do a nandroid backup of the device from recovery, and to get the other stuff out, I figure you'd have to restore it to a different device and deal with it from there.

 

[FlareHeart]

Yep, rooting only affects things at the OS level, while download mode has access to everything right out of the box. Do you happen to know which stock version the phone was running? That will affect which kernel I suggest.

As far as the contacts go... I suppose we can do a nandroid backup of the device from recovery, and to get the other stuff out, I figure you'd have to restore it to a different device and deal with it from there.

No idea what version it was running prior to crash, and I don't have another Captivate to restore a nandroid to, so I'm not sure how well this is going to work...

I'm kinda leaning towards the..."nope you borked it" answer.

 

[RootTheMachine]

No idea what version it was running prior to crash, and I don't have another Captivate to restore a nandroid to, so I'm not sure how well this is going to work...

I'm kinda leaning towards the..."nope you borked it" answer.

Okay, well in that case you should probably just try a froyo kernel because we don't know if you have gingerbread bootloaders or not.

And I'm pretty sure you can extract that kind of stuff from a nandroid using titanium backup.

Sent from a jelly bean

 

[FlareHeart]

Okay, well in that case you should probably just try a froyo kernel because we don't know if you have gingerbread bootloaders or not.

And I'm pretty sure you can extract that kind of stuff from a nandroid using titanium backup.

Sent from a jelly bean

I plugged the phone into my PC to charge, and it's not making the chime...I know it won't pop up as a storage location, but shouldn't the PC still chime to indicate that it sees the device? Also, something appears to have caused it to cease powering up like before. The lights on the buttons don't come on anymore, and the power button no longer seems to elicit the normal pixel line at the top showing power...I think it just finished dying.

I don't think it's going to work for us.

Thanks anyway though!

 

[laughingT]

remote screen: if you can figure how to install myphoneexplorer client on your cappy and then install the myphoneexplorer on you pc, it has a driver to remote the cappy screen via usb into a window on the pc. you can use the mouse to do anything you would do with your finger on the cappy screen.

search 'my phone explorer' via google play. the developer of the app may have a way for you to get it on the cappy via usb.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using xda app-developers app