[Q] [HELP] Soft Bricked(?)

[jonnyboiii]

Today I was using my phone like any other day, when all of a sudden the screen froze and then turned off. I'm on Carbon Rom (1.7 I believe), and have been on it for months, and it's gone and rebooted on me before for no reason, but this time it wouldn't boot back up, and got stuck on the boot logo. I was afraid I'd have to do a factory restore so I made a backup in TWRP and all was good... Then after I made my backup, I couldn't get back into TWRP, as it just sat on the blue logo screen not doing anything. Still not booting and unable to get into recovery, I assumed it was soft bricked. Then I did what I was dreading--doing a full factory reset and flashing to a stock rom, following Hero's guide on doing so. I followed his guide to the letter, and after flashing the VRALEC bootchain and getting a pass in Odin, my phone gave me a message "System software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone" and from there I was unable to get back into download mode, let alone have my computer see it when it's plugged in.

SO:
I can't get into download mode, and I need to. Badly.
Any suggestions?

At this point I've pretty much lost hope so it would make my week if someone could prove me otherwise.

Edit: Checked my battery in my sister's S3 and it's at 87% so my battery isn't why it's not booting up.

 

[joekiv]

You could try a USB Jig to get into download mode. You can get one here for $6

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130724488168&ssPageName=ADME:L:eek:U:US:3160

I haven't done it, so consider this a uninformed suggestion.

---------- Post added at 08:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:25 AM ----------

SO:
I can't get into download mode, and I need to. Badly.
Any suggestions?

At this point I've pretty much lost hope so it would make my week if someone could prove me otherwise.

Edit: Checked my battery in my sister's S3 and it's at 87% so my battery isn't why it's not booting up.

You could try a USB Jig to get into download mode. You can get one here for $6

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130724488168&ssPageName=ADME:L:eek:U:US:3160

I haven't done it, so consider this a uninformed suggestion.

 

[jonnyboiii]

You could try a USB Jig to get into download mode. You can get one here for $6

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130724488168&ssPageName=ADME:L:eek:U:US:3160

I haven't done it, so consider this a uninformed suggestion.

---------- Post added at 08:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:25 AM ----------



You could try a USB Jig to get into download mode. You can get one here for $6

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130724488168&ssPageName=ADME:L:eek:U:US:3160

I haven't done it, so consider this a uninformed suggestion.

No I'm pretty sure it's hard bricked now... no button combinations will make the screen budge. Although when I plug it into my computer without the battery in, a red LED comes on. Other than that I got nothin.

 

[BadUsername]

No I'm pretty sure it's hard bricked now... no button combinations will make the screen budge. Although when I plug it into my computer without the battery in, a red LED comes on. Other than that I got nothin.

Sounds hard bricked.

So after you odin flashed the file, the phone turned on ok? Sounds like you may have used odin incorrectly.

I recommend either a jtag service, or there's a thread going around in q&a section where someone was actually able to put a good download mode image on their external SD card and boot it up through that. Either one should do the trick. The external SD card has to be the same size as your internal SD card for it to work and you need to use a linux live CD. If you want to try it, the instructions look fairly straight forward.

 

[jonnyboiii]

Sounds hard bricked.

So after you odin flashed the file, the phone turned on ok? Sounds like you may have used odin incorrectly.

I recommend either a jtag service, or there's a thread going around in q&a section where someone was actually able to put a good download mode image on their external SD card and boot it up through that. Either one should do the trick. The external SD card has to be the same size as your internal SD card for it to work and you need to use a linux live CD. If you want to try it, the instructions look fairly straight forward.

I tried the external SD today, but it was a no-go. I got the same exact card the guy had in his video, a class 10 16GB. I have to use a Linux live CD? What exactly is that and where can I get one?

 

[BadUsername]

I tried the external SD today, but it was a no-go. I got the same exact card the guy had in his video, a class 10 16GB. I have to use a Linux live CD? What exactly is that and where can I get one?

I haven't looked too much into it because I've never had to use it. Linux is a free operating system and it uses the CD as a kind of bootable OS, not sure how exactly to get it but I know it's a free download somewhere.

At least I think that's what I remember. I'm pretty sure you aren't able to do the process through windows because the steps needed will only work on linux. Everything should be laid out nicely in the original sprint thread.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2397145

Here's the verizon thread, everything else should be linked from there.

 

[Wh1t3Rose]

For a Linux live CD grab Ubuntu. It's the most popular out there and is Noob friendly. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

You can bburn the ISO to CD or use the Windows program UNETBOOTIN to make a bootable USB drive

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