Hi folks,
In my wife's Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G 64GB, firmware updates seem to be completely blocked.
I've tried every conceivable method described in this forum, but nothing seems to help.
I've tried to install CWM and CM using Odin (I laid off Heimdall, as it seemed to complex). The device is recognized, but the flashing is just standing, getting nowhere at all.
The same if I try using ADB, I can manipulate the file system within ordinary user limits (creating folders, renaming folders, moving them etc.), but as soon as I try to push a file to the device, the process is just waiting, and waiting, and...
If I set the device in recovery mode (PWR and Vol-, then Vol-, and Vol+), ADB tells me the device ID and recovery. But it refuses to accept any files.
Also nvflash doesn't help. Under Windows (PWR and Vol+), the device is recognized by the driver, but when I execute any nvflash command, it says "USB device not found". Under Linux, the device is also recognized as some nVidia device, but not possible to write anything, nor read anything.
My last resort is to try draining the battery, and then install a new official ROM again.
I'm completely out of ideas by now, and would very grateful for some useful tips how to unblock the device.
Best regards,
Peter
Just bad luck purchasing this product
Hi folks,
This tablet is driving me completely nuts . After spending several days plowing through forums and other sources, it's pretty clear why it's not possible to modify the tablet. My GT-P7500 G3 is a retail version and thus blocked against changes. With blocked I mean totally, utterly blocked.
There seems to be one single way to get low level access to the tab, and that's using nvflash with Samsung's SBK (secure-boot-key). Just imagine Samsung giving me access to that boot key. No way I'd say.
So, please, please, if somebody knows the secure boot key, or know how to create it, PM me. I would be really grateful.
This total block has got far reaching implications. Lots of applications requiring elevated access privileges don't install, or if they install, don't work. No backups, no recovery, no modyfing. My reason to get access to raw disk partitions is, that there was some glitch in the tab that destroyed all pictures, and all videos. If I can read the raw disk to a file, there's a pretty good chance that I can recover at least some of it.
I feel really cheated by Samsung blocking access to MY data this way.
So for you who are considering purchasing a Samsung product, have this in mind. Don't waste your time as I did.
Best regards,
Peter
Good morning all.
So I installed the 8.1 preview through the store when it first came out a few months ago with no problems. Last night I went to try to move over to the official 8.1 release by going to the store then opening the browser then clicking on the link to take me back to the store to retrieve the official update through the store. The store update "application" never showed up(even after a few restarts and repeating the process). I thought it was strange so I said "screw it, i have nothing important on here" and decided to do a full/clean restore.
I plugged the charger in, let it go about its business and walked away. I came back 2 hours later and the screen was black(no "restoring windows" progress"). Let it sit for another hour in case it was doing something I just wasnt seeing. Came back and decided to hit the power button. Screen turned on with the "Surface" start up logo and then I got this error message.
http://i.imgur.com/Q37Af1a.jpg
Now I am stuck in a boot loop where if i hit "ok" it just restarts and brings me back here.
Of course I never made a 8.1 recovery USB. I have the touch keyboard and access to a USB keyboard too.
Any ideas/direction/thoughts AT ALL are greatly appreciated.
EDIT: I was considering using my colleagues RT to create a recovery image to attempt to get this guy booting but it seems as though this is a bad idea due to his SN being copied over to my RT and causing issues. Am I correct in assuming so?
The CD key ought to come from flash ROM, but it depends on how the recovery image works, which I don't know >.<
If you can use his recovery image to boot to command prompt, you can mount your SSD's registry hive and dump the product key data, then decode it on a Windows PC. Then after recovering with the image, even if the product key ended up copying your colleague's Surface's key, you could just go to System and click "Change product key" and type your own key. (In this situation, the desktop will likely be black, a sign that Windows was unable to activate. Changing the key to yours will fix that, of course.)
I'm not saying that this is easy or anything, but this ought to work, with my understanding of Windows NT.
Note that you don't need to bother decoding the registry data if you notice after recovering that your product ID in System is different than your colleague's, and it also says that Windows is activated. This would mean that the recovery image grabbed your CD key out of flash ROM.
EDIT: I guess what I meant to say is that when you boot to command prompt, run regedit. In regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then File/Load Hive. Find your system hive on your SSD, which may be on a different drive letter than usual, in somewhere like Z:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM. Give it some name like "meow". Find the subkey meow\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. Go to File/Export and export that to a .reg file on your USB stick. If there is an option to do so non-recursively (I forget, and I'm on my iPad), use it because that key is big. Once you've backed it up, you're safe to recover, because now you have everything needed to find out your old key if required.
If in fact you do need to use that .reg file to determine your old key, let me know so I can help you out. Some tricks will be required to proceed.
Melissa
munsterrr said:
Good morning all.
So I installed the 8.1 preview through the store when it first came out a few months ago with no problems. Last night I went to try to move over to the official 8.1 release by going to the store then opening the browser then clicking on the link to take me back to the store to retrieve the official update through the store. The store update "application" never showed up(even after a few restarts and repeating the process). I thought it was strange so I said "screw it, i have nothing important on here" and decided to do a full/clean restore.
I plugged the charger in, let it go about its business and walked away. I came back 2 hours later and the screen was black(no "restoring windows" progress"). Let it sit for another hour in case it was doing something I just wasnt seeing. Came back and decided to hit the power button. Screen turned on with the "Surface" start up logo and then I got this error message.
http://i.imgur.com/Q37Af1a.jpg
Now I am stuck in a boot loop where if i hit "ok" it just restarts and brings me back here.
Of course I never made a 8.1 recovery USB. I have the touch keyboard and access to a USB keyboard too.
Any ideas/direction/thoughts AT ALL are greatly appreciated.
EDIT: I was considering using my colleagues RT to create a recovery image to attempt to get this guy booting but it seems as though this is a bad idea due to his SN being copied over to my RT and causing issues. Am I correct in assuming so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you recover using an 8.1 recovery image form somebody else it won't mess with the keys. Worst case is that you may have to activate and you do not have a key. If you look at this post by Osprey you will see how to get the key from a 8.0 installation. That won't help you of course unless you have access to the registry and hive as Melissa suggested.
I actually recommend you use an 8.0 image to recover your RT and then upgrade. The only thing you have to do is get the image and "burn" it to a thumb drive. There are no steps required to obtain your key. Make a bootable thumb drive with an image you can download from here and start from scratch. Your system will automatically activate going this route. I've done this several times to switch between Preview 8.1 and 8.0. Follow the instructions above from Osprey's post to obtain your key just in case you do need it sometime in the future. Then you upgrade to 8.1 (nothing necessary in terms of activating this way).
Here is a post with a link on how to recover with a USB recovery image. One important point when you put the image onto the thumb drive is that it has to be bootable. Use UltraIso or Rufus to put the image onto the thumb drive (FAT32 formatted).
munsterrr said:
Any ideas/direction/thoughts AT ALL are greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently this is a widespread problem, and one of the reasons I haven't upgraded to 8.1. Heres the solution: http://kickthatcomputer.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/windows-rt-8-1-upgrade-fails-with-boot-configuration-error/
Thanks for the replies everyone. My colleague was able to upgrade to 8.1 on his RT with no problems. We were able to copy the image(minus recovery partition) over to a thumb drive and I was able to boot from that and eventually upgrade myself.
Hello,
I am trying to factory reset my windows surface and running into some issues. The tablet was given to an ex employee and he set everything up. Now he has been dismissed and he wont provide login info nor big locker information.
I have went over the steps for a hard reset and tried them. But after all my efforts I am always promoted to enter bit locker number.
So is there any way around this? Can I wipe the system another way or boot software to over ride this issue?
Will gladly provide paypal funds to anyone that can help me resolve this problem. I have a new employee starting this week so this tablet is needed asap.
Thanks much.
updated
so far what i tried is
I downloaded the files needed for disk image
followed these steps
rt 8.1 boot steps- download files extract format usb- boot up
when i get to the hold the power button and volume down button the screen just turns off line below the middle for a second and off.
Wont load or boot?
Don't know simpler method, but you can always boot from recovery pendrive into command prompt and remove/recreate system (and perhaps boot too?) partition using diskpart
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825686.aspx
This can be used on clean (wiped from partitions) drive - that's how I restored my XPS10, so it may be helpful here too, just remove partitions first.
This happened just a little bit ago, but when I woke up this morning my phone was on a screen that said "Your device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and may not work properly." Then it gave me a link which just lead to the google help page for android, as well as a message at the bottom saying "to continue press the power button", though pressing the power button did nothing. After looking things up I loaded the bootloader and tried to activate recovery mode, but trying to do that just lead back to the screen. And I couldn't boot in safe mode since I can't even get to the loading animation. Is there anything I can do short of sending it to the manufacturer to flash the phone?
To my knowledge I've not downloaded any files recently beyond a few pictures, but those are all from trusted sources, and I've never tampered with the software, so I have no ****ing idea what could be causing the corruption.
Did you unlock the bootloader? If you did, you can flash the last official Google image for the device from their pages and restore your device to working order. Keep in mind however that anything on the phone will likely be lost if you didn't back it up, especially if you had set a pin or password for the device.
So I bought a new phone since my old Onyx (One+ X) died (cracked screen and charging port is getting iffy). And finally I decided on this one, a cheap Chinese docomo branded one off Ebay.
I was so exited when it arrived, the UPS truck was at my gate when I got home that day, ready to leave, but the driver was nice enough to wait and give me my package then and there. Pheew.
Well, now to my, bootloader unlocking, recovery flashing, after market os installation and rooting story...
Bootloader:
The phone was supposed to be unlocked, and I guess that only meant SIM unlocked, because the service menu read "Bootloader unlock allowed: no". Damn.
A few Duckduckgo searches later, turned up I needed the "S!Unlock tool" which I found a copy off online, but username/password fields needed to be filled in, and I think I found a pirated s/n which didn't seem to work, (might have if I had tried harder).
But since it was just over £22 at https://networkunlocking.com/ I thought I could spare that on the off chance it worked. I was very surprised when it finally did, truth, I needed a few tries. And it actually did turn that service menu's pesky "no" to a thumbs-up "yes". Yay!
So now, pulling the cable, holding "volume up" and inserting cable for that blue light goodness, and running the "flashtool.exe -i 0x???? oem unlock bootloader 0x????????????" comand.
Not so fast, that doesnät work with newer flashtool versions...
Finding the old one from my Xperia Arc days and runnning it again, Yay!
(Wish I had read ahead and done that temporary root trick to rip my DRM codes off my phone first. But I don't plan to revert to stock, and I gather (might be wrong) that the DRM is only needed for stock roms, and not Lineage OS and such.)
Recovery (TWRP):
Now the problems start for real, getting into recovery was a **** and a half. Most guides for the phone says to push "volume up" multiple times during the boot-process. This turns out to be plain wrong. The actual button combo is holding "volume down" and "power" button together atleast until the screen goes blank after the unlocked bootloader warning.
Now, I wanted 17.1 on the phone and the recommended TWRp is 3.1.1 or something, and this works to install lineage fine, but don't forget to erase /data partition as I did. Stupid mistake that made wifi fail miserably, and probably a lot of other stuff, that I never tried before noticing my mistake.
However trying to get my own set of ringtones on the phone turned out to be another issue, going back into recovery when I noticed my ringtone.zip had failed. Obviously the media folder had moved since los 15.1,so no wonder right? Turns out it wasn't the only problem. TWRP 3.1.1 (or something) failed to unencrypt the root partition, so changing anything via recovery was a lie. fortunately the latest recovery, 3.5.2_9 did. So after installing that everything was rosy peaches.
Rooting:
SuperSU? forget it.
Magisk? yeah, but how? No really good step by step guide out there, except download from the github page, but what version?
A little trial and error, tried with the arm64 version and it turned out to be the right one. (Sometimes you just get it right on the first try...)
Renamed the apk to .zip put it on the phones memory, entered recovery and installed the zip, et voi effing la, Magisk root installed.
Root checker verifies root status, TitaniumBackup and RootExplorer works. Yes, my phone is playing ball.
Final notes:
This above looks simple right? In fact this was a two day process since the guides are surely lacking for this phone, a lot of trial and error, the greatesthurdle was getting into Recovery, until I found the right button combo I accidently managed to enter it once making me believe I had the right combo and something was wrong with the phone. 4 hours or so wasted trying different versions rebooting and flashing. Getting back my Viber messages turned out to be a problem to, TitaniumBackup got the messages back, but the db had references to my old images on my old phone, and probable pointed at the wrong directory so trying to send images either from gallery or take new photos crashed the app. Solution, backup the messages to my google account, uninstall and reinstall viber and restore from that backup. TitaniumBAckup is good but no magic bullet, it's a ***** that we have to rely on Google for backups though, I am allergic to the cloud, something about it makes my skin crawl.
Otherwise I like the phone, it says docomo on the back, something I can live with. The Chinese vendor even supplied one glass screen protector for the phone and a clear soft plastic case, in case I wanted some extra protection. I only wish there was a screen protector that had the same surface as the one that was on the phone in the box, that slightly opaque cloudy feel was so nice on my finger.
Can I recommend this phone? Nah, if noone writes a step by step guide that will cut down the time I spent on making this phone palpatable, I can't. But if you, like me, don't mind to tinker and don't want a phablet or spend way too much for the privilege to get a screen size you don't want, then sure. But why do we have to get them from China?
My trusty xz1 compact is slowly dieing on me and i am looking for a replacement how much did you pay for yours and is a really new or just refurbished ?
"Final notes:
This above looks simple right? In fact this was a two day process since the guides are surely lacking for this phone, a lot of trial and error, the greatesthurdle was getting into Recovery, until I found the right button combo I accidently managed to enter it once making me believe I had the right combo and something was wrong with the phone"
This Phone is in the mobile Sphere already ancient. Don't expect to get any help here or newer hot to guides.
my biggest problem is the fastboot recognition of my Windows. If this would work reliable i could better flash the phone but getting the right driver is a kind of roulette for this phone.
muhschaf said:
my biggest problem is the fastboot recognition of my Windows. If this would work reliable i could better flash the phone but getting the right driver is a kind of roulette for this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also had a non-connecting fastboot issue on Windows until I ran into this guide showing me it was not about a driver but an installation method:
How to install Sony Xperia Drivers Manually (Super Easy Guide)
Step-by-Step guidelines to install Sony Xperia Drivers Manually (this method can be used on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows 10).
xperiausbdriver.com
4qx said:
Also had a non-connecting fastboot issue on Windows until I ran into this guide showing me it was not about a driver but an installation method:
How to install Sony Xperia Drivers Manually (Super Easy Guide)
Step-by-Step guidelines to install Sony Xperia Drivers Manually (this method can be used on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows 10).
xperiausbdriver.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Handy cannot boot now anyway so i would probably not able to recover anyway.
muhschaf said:
cannot boot now anyway so i would probably not able to recover anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone completely refuses to boot?
Do you have recovery installed? If not, are you able to install it via fastboot on linux?
4qx said:
The phone completely refuses to boot?
Do you have recovery installed? If not, are you able to install it via fastboot on linux?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay i will explain.
i had this common issue with this running out of internal space (13GB pictures i could not find, only 300MB left) and after looking into it i figured, that, due to my constant app installing and deinstalling, i had literrally thousends of little images (thumbnails, icons, you name it) that got not deintalled for whatever reason and clogged up my internal memory. So i made a Backup and decided to completly wipe and flash the newest lilac from Modpunk (18.1) and did a big Mistake here. i go into recovery and wiped EVERYTHING...without checking that recovery is untouched. then during the same session i installed the ROM and rebooted...so far all nice and dandy. Setting up the Phone, then get the newsest Gapps and then try to reboot into recovery to install them...well did i mentioned that i had wiped EVERYTHING? Well, there was no recovery anymore. Not my first rodeo i headbutt myself into the desk and spun up ADB/fastboot...only to run into the same problem i run everytime due to improper intalled driver i forgot already about. Longs story short: after some time handy refused to boot also into system.
Phone is now unbootable into any state, but Black screen fastboot over hardware buttons...
i COULD still try to make a blind fastboot flash after following the driver install instruction from above, but consider my lucky or clumsyness i will **** this up too and only waste time. and due to my current covid recovery i have not the energy nor the patient to diddle around with this sorry excuse of an absolute restrictive Phone and rather get me a S5 mini or something else that has no bootlock whatsoever and let you flash it from the very start.
i am plain running out of patient with sonys harassment.
/€: Also the constant "cannot get root" on a rooted phone is plain BS³. having permanent trouble to install adaway or use my sdcard proper is so friggin annoying that i now will search for a android version that got rid of this bull**** and will buy any phone that is suported by that ROM.
It is MY phone, and not Goolge nor the the phone company will dictade what i can or cannot install on it. i decide and i carry the risk, period. and the biggest security reason holds the phone anyway.
@muhschaf okay so it doesn't seem bricked. Pretty sure you just need to flash the recovery through fastboot and flash a ROM. Try that on Windows with the driver method; if that fails boot a Linux distro e.g. EndeavourOS, even from a USB without installing no adb/fastboot driver is necessary for Linux, it just works. You can do it.
4qx said:
@muhschaf okay so it doesn't seem bricked. Pretty sure you just need to flash the recovery through fastboot and flash a ROM. Try that on Windows with the driver method; if that fails boot a Linux distro e.g. EndeavourOS, even from a USB without installing no adb/fastboot driver is necessary for Linux, it just works. You can do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i known, the question is more "i really want that?" like i said i struggle with this phone ever since. and i realized yesterday the problem is not the phone itself, it's the bull**** of androids security architecture. Google seems to be very prone to make sure that they can shove any amount of advertisements down your throat. Given that they earn their money with ad network it doesn't surprise me.
i came to the conclusion that in reality i want to have a reliable way to install ad away on any given phone i own. i archive similar things on my desktop with Firefox and umatrix and ublock. And what can is say: Having Advertisment fee Internet is a bliss and i not care a bit about "but the free stuff" and i incrisingly fury about my inability to archive similar things on my phone i rely quite a bit.
@muhschaf I get it but you know what they say: good things require effort. But I find that once I set my Android up, I'm happy to have done it.
In regards to ads, you can actually install uBO on Android Firefox now, and many other addons also.
So i gave it a try again and the result was that it detects now a "?" under fastboot but ADB can't see anything failing sucsequently to flash recovery. i am also seemingly unable to get even into hardware fastboot anymore. But could be quite possible that the battery is already drained again. so i recharge it the night.
4qx: i was going away from uBO several years ago. Wonder that he has survived the drain after his "whitelist" decision, but it seems like.
Adaway block advertisement in apps and this is mainly the feature i wanted, see advertisment have gotten out of the browser itself into the Base/apps systems (Android, Windows) and therefore the Adblocker have to go with it. under windows i can control the System itself pretty easy and throughoutly with Powershell and package debloating scripts or regedit. under Android i haven't this option and have to rely on app like adaway. This shortcoming is pretty frustraing for an "Open Source" OS
After nearly a Year i stumble upon something windows related and now i have finally my xz1c back:
Windows USB Hubs of ANY kind (Monitor USB Hubs, Powers external USB Hubs, hell sometimes even the PCH, that is technical also a USB Hub), can and sometime WILL prevent proper lowlevel access to devices like...USB Headsets (Logitech Pro X) and Mobile Phones in fastboot mode (xz1c).
To circumvent this you have to connect the phone to a USB Port on the Back of your PC Motherboard DIRECTLY. every other Port can have an USB Hub in between that alters your write or readout and therefore failed the flashing.