Question Repair ROG Phone 5 ZS673KS through edl firmware, no need to unlock Bootloader to modify COUNTRY CN to WW

[AzimBahar]

Got Un-Brick / EDL file on ROMDevelopers

QFIL_FUSE_AND_LOCK_UFS_Factory_ZS676KS_18.0502.2009.21_M1.8.3.34_OPEN_Phone-userdebug_202107221.7z

 

[hkdoublecat]

My phone is not turning on. When I connect the charging cable, the phone starts in to fastboot mode. When I flash in fastboot mode, the phone turns off in the middle of the flash. And the phone switches to EDL mode. Or diagnostic mode port 900e com 10. And the flashing is incomplete. Please help me how i fix?

i face the same problem after flash QPST.
and able to boot into system after volume up + power to fastboot mode, and flash the WW fastboot rom: WW_ZS673KS_18.0830.2101.75_M2.13.24.14.1-ASUS_1.1.63_Phone-user.raw_to_CN.zip

 

[Legend102]

im trying this but when i do the update EDL it came back with an error

the error says UFS ERROR -5

does this means my NAND is bricked?

 

[djlunatix]

Well, that was the worst 9+ hours of my life.
I got my ROG5 back from warranty (it went through frickin' China and got locked down for 3 months straight in various cities along the road transit network)
I had bought it as WW, but it came back as CN.

My deepest thanks to @johnny886 @ashrah28
Johnny for doing much of the hard yards, doing all the scripting and packaging. This is extremely hard work, you are a genius, don't let anyone get you down.
Ashrah for piping up about asuskey4
Myself for spending the 3 hours to find the right hex address to edit in persist.img and another 5 hours to find the right sequence of patching and rooting

Here's my steps of CN A11 locked -> WW A12 rooted.

0) On PC: Install a bunch of packages including Android USB Drivers and WinHex full version
1) On Phone: Install and run the Asus Unlock Tool https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/ZenFone/ZS673KS/AsusUnlock_1.0.0.7_210127_fulldpi.apk

2) Setup phone Developer Options -> USB Debugging, connect the phone via its left USB-C port, allow development from PC -> Phone is on normally and in ADB connection
3) adb reboot bootloader -> Phone is in bootloader
4) Powershell -> cd to unzipped ROG5 directory -> .\Reboot_to_edl.bat -> Phone is black screen and in EDL: PC Device Manager will show a COM device with descriptor 9008
5) cd ROG5\ENG -> .\0-update_image_EDL.bat -> Phone is in a super-bugged-out "Android UI" with a card including your IMEIs and stuff
5a. cd .. -> .\backup.bat -> save the following 8 files somewhere safe
5b. “persist.img factory.img modemst1 modemst2 asuskey4 fsg fsgCA fsc”

6) Fire up WinHex, open persist.img
6a. 00D00000 = WW; Save
7) open asuskey4
7a. 0000280 = WW; Save

8) cd .. -> adb push persist.img /sdcard/
adb push asuskey4 /sdcard/
adb shell
su
dd if=/sdcard/persist.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/persist
dd if=/sdcard/asuskey4 of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/asuskey4
Ctrl+D, Ctrl+D
adb reboot bootloader -> Phone is in bootloader
9) cd WW -> .\flash_raw_and_wipe_data.cmd -> Phone is in first-time setup of 18.0810.2101.95

10) Acquire UL-ASUS_I005_1-ASUS-18.0830.2102.88-1.1.80-user and push it to phone, update
10a. use Payload Dumper to extract boot.img of UL-ASUS_I005_1-ASUS-18.0830.2102.88-1.1.80-user
10b. Push the boot.img and also a Magisk package to phone
11) Install Magisk -> patch the boot.img
11a. Push the patched boot image back to phone
11b. Setup phone Developer Options -> USB Debugging, connect the phone via its left USB-C port, allow development from PC -> Phone is on normally and in ADB connection

12) adb reboot bootloader -> Phone is in bootloader
13) fastboot flash boot (patched boot image from 11a) -> START phone

14) Acquire UL-ASUS_I005_1-ASUS-18.0840.2201.229-1.1.102-user and push it to phone, update, don't reboot
14a. In Magisk -> Install, Inactive Partition -> Reboot
15) Acquire UL-ASUS_I005_1-ASUS-31.0810.1226.128-1.1.201-2209-user and push it to phone, update
15a. In Magisk -> Install, Inactive Partition -> Reboot

You are now on WW Android 12, rooted!

 

[humanrain2k]

These materials can only be used for ROG Phone 5_ZS673KS, and ROG Phone 5S_ZS676KS cannot be used.

ROG Phone 5S ZS676KS Please see here:https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...ootloader-to-modify-country-cn-to-ww.4353339/

If your ROG Phone 5 ZS673KS only has edl mode (port 9008), then this tool can help you repair your phone through edl mode.

Or if you want to modify COUNTRY, flash the firmware of WW, you don't need to apply to unlock the Bootloader,

you don't need ROOT, just follow me.

1.Connect the phone to the computer through the USB port on the left, enter the fastboot mode,

and then open "Reboot-to-edl.bat" to enter the edl mode. Or enter fastboot oem enter-dload in cmd.


2.You must flash in the ENG firmware that I modified. If you find the firmware online,

you may lose your fingerprint and IMEI after flashing.

Method 1: The phone enters edl mode, and when you see port 9008 in the device manager,

open the ENG folder--open "0-update_image_EDL.bat"

Method 2: The phone enters edl mode, and after you see port 9008 in the device manager, use the XiaoMiFlash tool to flash in.

Method 3: The phone enters edl mode, and after you see port 9008 in the device manager,flash in through the QPST tool.


3.After flashing in the firmware and successfully booting up, be sure to back up your phone partition files. If your phone's fingerprint is lost or IMEI is lost,

it can be restored to normal. If you don't have a backup, it will be very troublesome.

Double-click to open "Backup.bat", it will automatically back up your phone partition files, you need to save these files, follow-up will definitely help you.

Include these Eight files：“persist.img factory.img modemst1 modemst2 asuskey4 fsg fsgCA fsc”

Normally, you don’t need to restore these files. If your fingerprint or imei is lost and you need to restore these files to your phone,

please flash the ENG firmware, then put these Eight files into the ROG 5 folder, and double-click to open " Restore.bat" can be restored to your phone.

4.If your machine is an global version, after backing up and saving Eight files, directly enter the fastboot mode, open the WW folder-open "flash_raw_and_wipe_data.cmd" to flash the WW firmware,

and successfully repair your ROG 5.

If you cannot flash the firmware in fastboot mode, the prompt: fastboot error CID () Mapping wrong Xrom!

You can Double click to open"Open-Cmd.bat",Then enter the commands, enter fastboot -v flash all xx.raw

xx.raw is the firmware on your computer, for example: fastboot -v flash all C:\Users\johnny\Desktop\ROG5\WW\WW_ZS673KS_18.0810.2101.95_M2.13.24.9-ASUS_1.1.46_Phone-user.raw

ASUS:
version display asus fastboot version and list support project.
-v flash all : disable asus raw id checking.
-g flash all : disable repartition.
-C flash all : disable CRC_<partition>.

If your machine is the CN version, and you want to flash into the WW Firmware, but don’t want to unlock the BootLoader, you can use WinHex to open the persist.img you just backed up,

find COUNTRY, change CN to WW and save it, and you can directly restore it to your phone through the dd command Inside, there is no need to unlock or install magisk.

Double click to open"Open-Cmd.bat",Then enter the commands one by one

adb push persist.img /sdcard/

adb shell

su

dd if=/sdcard/persist.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/persist

Then enter the fastboot mode, open the WW folder-open "flash_raw_and_wipe_data.cmd" to flash the WW firmware.

File Downlaod Link：https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SyvQTp4lNw9-54k12EPOooQjdvSuCLyk/view?usp=sharing
YouTube:

I have also studied Hardwaresub Services for a long time, ROG1/ROG2/ROG3 only need to modify COUNTRY, CN to WW, and then flash into the global version,

there will be no such prompt. In addition to modifying COUNTRY, ROG 5 also needs to modify asuskey4.

In this partition, clear the imei, then there is no prompt. But I can’t do anything with ROG 5S.

This machine verifies modemst1 and modemst2. I tried it for a long time, but I couldn’t get rid of the prompt except for the whitelist.

If your ROG3/ROG5/ROG5S is the CN version, but you have flashed the WW firmware, you cannot unlock the Bootloader, or you are prompted to unlock successfully, but the Bootloader is still not unlocked after restarting, you can write the correct SSN and ISN of the phone Go to asuskey4, then restore to the phone partition, and then use the official unlocking tool to unlock it.

Thank you for this guide dude. I have been looking for something to revive my black-screened ROG 5 for a week. But following exactly your instructions, I am stuck with the screen below, and I've been trying to figure out how to jump to the backing up step, been looking around but there doesn't seem to have a way of backing up my portion, I understand that this thread has been here for quite a long time, but I am hoping that you could still or at least anyone help me totally revive my phone, thank you in advance.

----------EDIT-----------

Let me just add, I tried flashing the WW ROM directly, skipping the backup step, but it just turn back to the black screen state and can only be accessed thru EDL mode, where I re-flash firehose file again and re-do everything until I see the bootloader screen again.