Tab S3 Hard-bricked (I need some files from you if you have a rooted SM-T820)

[NullCode]

[LOOK AT POST #2 FOR UPDATES]

Good Morning/noon/afternoon/night whatever. Since I'm the dumbest man alive, I've messed up my tablet once again. Yesterday, I wanted to flash Valera's Project Treble zip, and i followed each and every single instruction UNTIL before flashing the GSI. I was following a guide on XDA and it said that no heavy modifications (SuperSU or Magisk) can stay. So I was worried because I still had magisk installed (T820 Tweaked by @rorymc928). Then in Valera's forum it was written that if i flash @ashyx TWRP, i can format everything and all would be good to go. BUT when I used Valera's TWRP to flash ashyx's TWRP image, nothing worked. It was stuck on download mode. So the next day (today) I used ODIN to flash the Stock ROM, but while doing that the Tab rebooted for no reason. And now the Tab is showing "An error has occured while flashing the device software" and whatever mode I went to, it kept rebooting after some time, so I can't flash ANYTHING. As a last ditch effort, I nand flashed the Stock ROM and that failed too. Now I'm desperate to do anything. Please help. I beg

 

[NullCode]

Edit: Now I've messed up real bad. Since download mode wasn't staying on for more than 30 seconds, I decided to flash the OS in parts. First, I flashed the bootloader (BL). This is where the problems began. While flashing, the fricking tab rebooted and now my tab is in a veggie state. Nothing works, doesn't respond to ANYTHING. Upon connecting to PC, it displays "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008". From what I can see, the entire boot partition and some core Qualcomm files got messed up. So I beg anybody for a solution. (Especially the people I trust: @rorymc928 @JordanBleu and @ashyx)

On YouTube I saw someone using EMMC Dongle to fix their Samsung phone, using a raw dump of the device. So i would ask anybody to give me a raw dump of the SM-T820 32 GB version OR tell me how to solve this problem please (I can't stress this enough)

 

[JordanBleu]

Edit: Now I've messed up real bad. Since download mode wasn't staying on for more than 30 seconds, I decided to flash the OS in parts. First, I flashed the bootloader (BL). This is where the problems began. While flashing, the fricking tab rebooted and now my tab is in a veggie state. Nothing works, doesn't respond to ANYTHING. Upon connecting to PC, it displays "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008". From what I can see, the entire boot partition and some core Qualcomm files got messed up. So I beg anybody for a solution. (Especially the people I trust: @rorymc928 @JordanBleu and @ashyx)

On YouTube I saw someone using EMMC Dongle to fix their Samsung phone, using a raw dump of the device. So i would ask anybody to give me a raw dump of the SM-T820 32 GB version OR tell me how to solve this problem please (I can't stress this enough)

Hello, and sorry for what happened to your tab.
Infact, it wasn't recommended to flash the OS in separate parts like you did, but when you were flashing them you should have seen if the "auto reboot" case in Odin was checked or not (and you should have unchecked it).
I must to be clear : you have to tell us if TWRP still works (which isn't probable) or if your download mode (Odin mode) still works, which is the basic of all, even on bricked devices.
If it works then you can reflash all the firmware again, BUT COMPLETELY AND NOT IN PARTS, if it doesn't work, then.... Your tab is deeply bricked and won't recover in an easy way.

 

[NullCode]

Hello, and sorry for what happened to your tab.
Infact, it wasn't recommended to flash the OS in separate parts like you did, but when you were flashing them you should have seen if the "auto reboot" case in Odin was checked or not (and you should have unchecked it).
I must to be clear : you have to tell us if TWRP still works (which isn't probable) or if your download mode (Odin mode) still works, which is the basic of all, even on bricked devices.
If it works then you can reflash all the firmware again, BUT COMPLETELY AND NOT IN PARTS, if it doesn't work, then.... Your tab is deeply bricked and won't recover in an easy way.

Uh oh. Yeah TWRP and Download mode all don't work. Nothing works. Only after connecting to the PC it shows QDLoader 9008 mode. And the reason I flashed it in parts is because THE DAMN TAB WOULDN'T STAY ON, EVEN AFTER I LET IT CHARGE FOR 5 HOURS. And even after I flashed it in parts it just rebooted and the bootloader flash failed. So yeah, hard bricked.
Oh and @JordanBleu I wonder if you have an SM-T820. Do you?

 

[JordanBleu]

Edit: Now I've messed up real bad. Since download mode wasn't staying on for more than 30 seconds, I decided to flash the OS in parts. First, I flashed the bootloader (BL). This is where the problems began. While flashing, the fricking tab rebooted and now my tab is in a veggie state. Nothing works, doesn't respond to ANYTHING. Upon connecting to PC, it displays "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008". From what I can see, the entire boot partition and some core Qualcomm files got messed up. So I beg anybody for a solution. (Especially the people I trust: @rorymc928 @JordanBleu and @ashyx)

On YouTube I saw someone using EMMC Dongle to fix their Samsung phone, using a raw dump of the device. So i would ask anybody to give me a raw dump of the SM-T820 32 GB version OR tell me how to solve this problem please (I can't stress this enough)

Uh oh. Yeah TWRP and Download mode all don't work. Nothing works. Only after connecting to the PC it shows QDLoader 9008 mode. And the reason I flashed it in parts is because THE DAMN TAB WOULDN'T STAY ON, EVEN AFTER I LET IT CHARGE FOR 5 HOURS. And even after I flashed it in parts it just rebooted and the bootloader flash failed. So yeah, hard bricked.
Oh and @JordanBleu I wonder if you have an SM-T820. Do you?

If you are talking about the wifi version, then sadly no (I only have the cellular variant, SM-T825).
I hope I can help you even with the cellular version.

 

[NullCode]

If you are talking about the wifi version, then sadly no (I only have the cellular variant, SM-T825).
I hope I can help you even with the cellular version.

Thanks a lot for giving your help. My plan is this:
My tab is in EDL Mode, and I saw on Google that EDL Devices can boot to SD Card when the eMMC Fails. So what I want to do is flash the bootloader and the PIT File to an SD Card, using the image pulled from your Tab.

Now the problem is:
1: The tutorials I found for doing this are OLD (like Galaxy S3 old).
2: I have no clue where the bootloader is stored on Samsung devices.

And also here is the tutorial I found for the Galaxy S3:
"1: Boot the device to TWRP and connect it to PC and open ADB (if you don't have it install "minimal ADB and Fastboot")
Now type the following commands:
ADB devices (to check if your device is detected).

If it is OK then do:
ADB shell

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 of=/external_sd/part1.img

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 of=/external_sd/part2.img

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4 of=/external_sd/part4.img

OK you see one number is always changing... we need this with following numbers:

1 2 4 5 6 7 10 11 14 15

Partition 10 and 14 are a bit larger so the command may look like it's stuck but it isn't."

Could you mind performing these steps and sending the files to AndroidFileHost?
Thanks in advance if you do.

And if it works I'll make a guide for everyone who has a hard bricked Tab.

 

[bmwdroid]

By coincidence, without knowing your post, I recently read something about EDL I didn't know anything about before.
Perhaps this helps.
https://www.the***********.com/qualcomm-edl-mode-guide/
This adress seems censored so you have to replace the star by (custom) followed directly by (droid).
I've asked that guy if it's possible to build such a flashable file from the stock ROM but didn't get an answer yet.

 

[NullCode]

By coincidence, without knowing your post, I recently read something about EDL I didn't know anything about before.
Perhaps this helps.
https://www.the***********.com/qualcomm-edl-mode-guide/
This adress seems censored so you have to replace the star by (custom) followed directly by (droid).
I've asked that guy if it's possible to build such a flashable file from the stock ROM but didn't get an answer yet.

Good morning. Yeah I've tried that site because @rorymc928 gave me that website a long time ago (and it didn't go well). EDL devices can boot from the SD, so I wanted the bootloader image from anybody's Tab S3. I'd be very happy if you managed to give me.

 

[bmwdroid]

Good morning. Yeah I've tried that site because @rorymc928 gave me that website a long time ago (and it didn't go well). EDL devices can boot from the SD, so I wanted the bootloader image from anybody's Tab S3. I'd be very happy if you managed to give me.

Giving you the boot.img is not the problem but mine is for T825.
Don't know if they differ.
You could extract it from of the stock T820 ROM files couldn't you?
If you still want it, just tell me.
But as far as I understand the a. m. site the tool can only flash .elf or .mbn files didn't read about .img files.

 

[NullCode]

Giving you the boot.img is not the problem but mine is for T825.
Don't know if they differ.
You could extract it from of the stock T820 ROM files couldn't you?
If you still want it, just tell me.
But as far as I understand the a. m. site the tool can only flash .elf or .mbn files didn't read about .img files.

Man that's a bummer. You didn't understand my request. I don't need the boot.img (I already have it). What I need is the image of the BOOTLOADER (apdp, NON-HLOS, sec, tz, rpm, cmnlib etc) all combined in an img file. That's only possible if another person with the same device grabs one and sends it to me

 

[NullCode]

Giving you the boot.img is not the problem but mine is for T825.
Don't know if they differ.
You could extract it from of the stock T820 ROM files couldn't you?
If you still want it, just tell me.
But as far as I understand the a. m. site the tool can only flash .elf or .mbn files didn't read about .img files.

Also @bmwdroid well there's nothing to lose, so I'm giving you the thread which mentions how to do it (it was made for the Note 4, so idk if it still works) https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/general/tutorialhow-to-make-debrick-image-t3488082

 

[bmwdroid]

Sorry that I misunderstood you.

 

[iGamerProYT]

You'll need to reinstall the stock OS with Odin on Windows

 

[UDPSendToFailed]

Also @bmwdroid well there's nothing to lose, so I'm giving you the thread which mentions how to do it (it was made for the Note 4, so idk if it still works) https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/general/tutorialhow-to-make-debrick-image-t3488082

Hi @NullCode!

I've googled for the recovery process because I would use custom ROM on my SM-T590, so I want to make sure it can be restored if something goes wrong, and found your thread.

For me, in the downloaded official Samsung ROM there is a BL_T590(...) file which you can open with WinRAR (of course, download the FW for your model, for example with Frija). Then it will give you files like aboot.mbn.lz4 (I think this one is the Android bootloader), apdp.mbn.lz4, cmnlib.mbn.lz4, etc. You can decompress these files with LZ4 command line tool, and then you may be able to reflash them in EDL mode.

Edit: On some forums I found that they didn't decompress LZ4 files, so I have no idea which way could work.
Also there are some solutions to generate rawprogram.xml files for flashing, but I'm not sure if it's allowed to link them here.

Good luck, and let me know if this worked!

Tools:
Frija: https://forum.xda-developers.com/s10-plus/how-to/tool-frija-samsung-firmware-downloader-t3910594
LZ4 tool: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/releases/tag/v1.9.3

 

[NullCode]

Hi @NullCode!

I've googled for the recovery process because I would use custom ROM on my SM-T590, so I want to make sure it can be restored if something goes wrong, and found your thread.

For me, in the downloaded official Samsung ROM there is a BL_T590(...) file which you can open with WinRAR (of course, download the FW for your model, for example with Frija). Then it will give you files like aboot.mbn.lz4 (I think this one is the Android bootloader), apdp.mbn.lz4, cmnlib.mbn.lz4, etc. You can decompress these files with LZ4 command line tool, and then you may be able to reflash them in EDL mode.

Edit: On some forums I found that they didn't decompress LZ4 files, so I have no idea which way could work.
Also there are some solutions to generate rawprogram.xml files for flashing, but I'm not sure if it's allowed to link them here.

Good luck, and let me know if this worked!

Tools:
Frija: https://forum.xda-developers.com/s10-plus/how-to/tool-frija-samsung-firmware-downloader-t3910594
LZ4 tool: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/releases/tag/v1.9.3

Hello! Well I would like to thank you for trying to help, but flashing with EDL mode isnt a possibility. Because even if i have the full ODIN firmware [which I do] I would need the official signed Samsung Firehose loader with the Sahara protocol. If that was a bit too complicated [no offence], basically I need to hack into Samsung's servers OR persuade a Samsung repair employee to give me the loader to flash my tab with. Alas, since this isnt a possibility, I am planning to send this tablet to its homeland [America] and get it JTAG flashed, because that is the only thing that can be done for this

 

[UDPSendToFailed]

Hello! Well I would like to thank you for trying to help, but flashing with EDL mode isnt a possibility. Because even if i have the full ODIN firmware [which I do] I would need the official signed Samsung Firehose loader with the Sahara protocol. If that was a bit too complicated [no offence], basically I need to hack into Samsung's servers OR persuade a Samsung repair employee to give me the loader to flash my tab with. Alas, since this isnt a possibility, I am planning to send this tablet to its homeland [America] and get it JTAG flashed, because that is the only thing that can be done for this

Are you sure about that? I mean, isn't the EDL interface universal among Qualcomm SOCs? I think it is, there are lots of tools for flashing, also I haven't seen anything about Samsung locks this option, the only manufacturer that blocks 3rd party flashers is Xiaomi as far I know, but there is a modded flasher software for Xiaomi too. As I can see, there are threads about Galaxy S8 being reflashed and is working fine, so in theory Samsung doesn't lock bootloaders.

Also there is a file for MSM8996 for Galaxy Note 8 which is Snapdragon 820 in your tablet. It's in the G930XU5 folder.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=77904842&postcount=2

 

[NullCode]

Are you sure about that? I mean, isn't the EDL interface universal among Qualcomm SOCs? I think it is, there are lots of tools for flashing, also I haven't seen anything about Samsung locks this option, the only manufacturer that blocks 3rd party flashers is Xiaomi as far I know, but there is a modded flasher software for Xiaomi too. As I can see, there are threads about Galaxy S8 being reflashed and is working fine, so in theory Samsung doesn't lock bootloaders.

Also there is a file for MSM8996 for Galaxy Note 8 which is Snapdragon 820 in your tablet. It's in the G930XU5 folder.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=77904842&postcount=2

No no Samsung doesn't block EDL mode at all (in fact, my tablet ONLY goes to EDL mode now), the problem is the flash loader, which is specific to each device. Xiaomi used to generously provide Fastboot ROMs which used the loader we are talking about and EDL mode to flash things, but they don't do that anymore.

Also, I tried the G930XU5 thing the day I wrote this thread, and it was stuck at 50% and didn't do anything else (I think this happened because the loaders are also flash chip dependant and the one in the Note 8 thread is UFS while the Tab S3 uses eMMC). Oh another thing, could you tell me the names of flashers that use EDL mode? I've only heard of QFIL and MiFlash

 

[UDPSendToFailed]

No no Samsung doesn't block EDL mode at all (in fact, my tablet ONLY goes to EDL mode now), the problem is the flash loader, which is specific to each device. Xiaomi used to generously provide Fastboot ROMs which used the loader we are talking about and EDL mode to flash things, but they don't do that anymore.

Also, I tried the G930XU5 thing the day I wrote this thread, and it was stuck at 50% and didn't do anything else (I think this happened because the loaders are also flash chip dependant and the one in the Note 8 thread is UFS while the Tab S3 uses eMMC). Oh another thing, could you tell me the names of flashers that use EDL mode? I've only heard of QFIL and MiFlash

Final update: Well, someone from a mobile service explained me how it works, basically without a firehose file which is signed by Samsung specifically for the device, we can't do anything. I hope the files will be available for the public, because this way Samsung just forces their users to pay for a "repair" which could be done at home using the official Qualcomm solutions.

QPST - Official Qualcomm flasher
emmcdl - I think this one can do the flashing with multiple files since it has options like sector address, etc, also you can find a fota.zip (password for fota.zip is fotatest1234) inside the official Samsung ROM which has some partition table informations
Z3X Samsung Tool PRO - Looks like it can do many things, but doesn't start up for me, says "Card not found"
blankflash - This one is for Motorola devices, but who knows
sahara - You can find it on GitHub, there is an example .xml file too

And possibly many others which I haven't found yet.

Update: I found an app called PIT Magic, it can show partition table info and memory addresses after unpacking CSC and selecting the .pit file. Maybe that can be useful when used together with emmcdl, like flashing SBL back with emmcdl -p ttyUSB0 -b SBL1 C:\path_to_sbl1.mbn or with using these adresses in .xml files.

Update #2: There are some firehose files on "OneLabsTools" GitHub page for MSM8996 too.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1916936

 

[XolYnrac]

Edit: Now I've messed up real bad. Since download mode wasn't staying on for more than 30 seconds, I decided to flash the OS in parts. First, I flashed the bootloader (BL). This is where the problems began. While flashing, the fricking tab rebooted and now my tab is in a veggie state. Nothing works, doesn't respond to ANYTHING. Upon connecting to PC, it displays "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008". From what I can see, the entire boot partition and some core Qualcomm files got messed up. So I beg anybody for a solution. (Especially the people I trust: @rorymc928 @JordanBleu and @ashyx)

On YouTube I saw someone using EMMC Dongle to fix their Samsung phone, using a raw dump of the device. So i would ask anybody to give me a raw dump of the SM-T820 32 GB version OR tell me how to solve this problem please (I can't stress this enough)

You could try flashing twrp . It dont take more than 5 second. You only have to be prepare to enter to recovery mode because your device reboot automaticly

 

[NullCode]

Final update: Well, someone from a mobile service explained me how it works, basically without a firehose file which is signed by Samsung specifically for the device, we can't do anything. I hope the files will be available for the public, because this way Samsung just forces their users to pay for a "repair" which could be done at home using the official Qualcomm solutions.

yeah I did say that a while before but I'm glad you understood. Without this "programmer" there is nothing we can do.
there's also a high likelihood that Samsung won't provide the firehose files because every company just wants money nowadays