Develop Bugs

[Q] How to revert ATT Galaxy S3 to Stock ROM

I am a complete Android noob so pardon me beforehand. I have a rooted ATT Galaxy S3. I recently flashed 2 CM 10.1 nightly builds. I wasn't happy with the performance of the ROMs and want to reset my phone to stock rom ( default out of the box ICS Touchwiz UX). What ROM file do I need to download and what method to use to restore/flash (TWRP, Odin, etc.) I have read countless threads on this but still have not understood how to go about doing this, so don't blame me about spam. Thanks for all your help!

mook111 said:
I am a complete Android noob so pardon me beforehand. I have a rooted ATT Galaxy S3. I recently flashed 2 CM 10.1 nightly builds. I wasn't happy with the performance of the ROMs and want to reset my phone to stock rom ( default out of the box ICS Touchwiz UX). What ROM file do I need to download and what method to use to restore/flash (TWRP, Odin, etc.) I have read countless threads on this but still have not understood how to go about doing this, so don't blame me about spam. Thanks for all your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Preface: I take no responsibility for any actions you take or any resulting consequences. I am merely giving you information related to your question. If you choose to follow it, that is solely your decision.
Read all directions before taking any action.
First make sure you have ODIN which can be downloaded here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1722686
Then download your Original Stock System here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1968625
Next install the Samsung Device Drivers to your computer if you don't already have them from here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SGH-I747MBBATT
Once installed put your phone into Download mode (power off the phone, then press and hold Volume Down + Home and then Power while holding all 3 until you get to a warning screen. Release the buttons and press Volume Up to continue).
Plug the phone into the computer and open ODIN. Leave everything completely and entirely default. Press the PDA button and locate the .tar.md5 stock firmware you downloaded and press Start.
Your phone will restart and more than likely get stuck at the Samsung logo while booting. Hold the Volume Up + Power until the phone turns off (or do a battery pull). Go directly into Recovery (Volume Up + Home + Power) and choose to wipe cache and perform Factory Reset. Once done reboot the device and you will be completely 100% unrooted stock.
NOTE: This will not reset your flash counter. If you wish to go to complete fresh out of the box you will need to download Triangle Away and flash it on a stock rooted ROM. To do that you can either buy the app from the play store, recommended to support the developer, or download it from the developers thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114
Instead of flashing the ROM above flash the one located in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426
and follow all the same steps above. This will give you rooted stock. Once done install the Triangle Away app as noted above and follow the directions.
Once completely done, go back into download mode, confirm the counter is 0 (blue text top left of screen) and proceed to follow all steps above to get to unrooted stock status.
P.S. Let me know if you have anymore questions. =)
P.S.S. The above links will flash 100% stock including Modem, ROM, Recovery and Kernel (among other stock items). It is a complete Stock Image as if you took it out of the box for the very first time. The only thing this will not do is restore NV Data or EFS folder if they were corrupted. NV Data / EFS folder contains your IMEI which allows you to connect to the network. If your IMEI shows 0, This will not help you.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 on AT&T

mook111 said:
I am a complete Android noob so pardon me beforehand. I have a rooted ATT Galaxy S3. I recently flashed 2 CM 10.1 nightly builds. I wasn't happy with the performance of the ROMs and want to reset my phone to stock rom ( default out of the box ICS Touchwiz UX). What ROM file do I need to download and what method to use to restore/flash (TWRP, Odin, etc.) I have read countless threads on this but still have not understood how to go about doing this, so don't blame me about spam. Thanks for all your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you make a backup before you flashed cm10.1? if so, you can restore that backup (nandroid) in recovery

xBeerdroiDx said:
did you make a backup before you flashed cm10.1? if so, you can restore that backup (nandroid) in recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He had said he wanted out of the box touchwiz, unfortunately if he flashes his nandroid it won't flash his original recovery / unroot / reset his counter.
However, if he doesn't mind the custom recovery / root (which is a good idea anyways to get rid of bloatware) then this method is absolutely recommended.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 on AT&T

RPelham said:
He had said he wanted out of the box touchwiz, unfortunately if he flashes his nandroid it won't flash his original recovery / unroot / reset his counter.
However, if he doesn't mind the custom recovery / root (which is a good idea anyways to get rid of bloatware) then this method is absolutely recommended.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 on AT&T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct on both statements. i only suggested recovering his nandroid because he didnt mention unrooting and, honestly, i was afraid your reply might have made his head explode. haha. seriously, your post was awesome and spot on. with him being a self-admitted noob, i was hoping to get him back to stock firmware as simply as possible. at some point, if he wishes to fully unroot (either today via your posted methods or down the road), he'll hopefully do some reading up and get himself familiar with the procedures so he feels more comfortable with all the acronyms/terms/protocol.
cheers, RPelham. you always have great and knowledgeable responses on this forum.

xBeerdroiDx said:
correct on both statements. i only suggested recovering his nandroid because he didnt mention unrooting and, honestly, i was afraid your reply might have made his head explode. haha. seriously, your post was awesome and spot on. with him being a self-admitted noob, i was hoping to get him back to stock firmware as simply as possible. at some point, if he wishes to fully unroot (either today via your posted methods or down the road), he'll hopefully do some reading up and get himself familiar with the procedures so he feels more comfortable with all the acronyms/terms/protocol.
cheers, RPelham. you always have great and knowledgeable responses on this forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! As do you!
To be honest, I was thinking my post may overwhelm the OP a bit, I tried to be as detailed as possible as to not miss any information and he could follow step by step. Your method is definitely much easier and will ultimately achieve the same goal. I always recommend keeping root/recovery as it adds so much more power and functionality to the phone without sacrificing the stock feel if that's that you prefer.

Any other link to download this? Devhost is giving me network error at 99%

Another method?
Hey guys, would I just be able to flash this official samsung zip file from their open source website?
http://opensource.samsung.com/index.jsp

RPelham said:
Preface: I take no responsibility for any actions you take or any resulting consequences. I am merely giving you information related to your question. If you choose to follow it, that is solely your decision.
Read all directions before taking any action.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 on AT&T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to say thanks RPellham. I had Rooted my AT&T LTE i747 Galaxy S3, and installed Clockwork Mod custom recovery. I have to say, i'm a level 3 IT guy for a large ad agency in NYC, and this was frustrating and took at least 4-5 hours. (a lot of that was download time however)
I used the same tool (the samsung galaxy s3 toolkit 7.0) That i had used to root and flash the custom recovery, to unroot and flash the stock recovery. This all seemed to go well, and i waited for the OTA update.
that took about 8 hours to download thanks to at&t's servers. (sigh) Then; this morning when i went to take a look, it had failed. So i found a thread with a kid who was nice enough to provide the update here in zip form, to use with the built in stock recovery.
I rebooted into stock recovery ~ and tried the update.zip. again, failed. Sigh.
at this point i go to this thread, (why i'm posting) and downloaded the entire stock image, and followed the instructions here, restored to stock with ODIN. At this point i then restarted in custom recovery again, and tried to apply the same zip, which worked this time.
I'm finally on stock 4.1.2 / multi window etc.
Just figured i would say thanks and share; in-case anyone else was in the same situation, and didn't know which way to go.

Please for the love of god, back up your IMEI info. I went from CM10.1 nightly to CM10.2 and lost my IMEI number. I was able to inject it but I wasn't able to get anymore than EDGE. I have to get a replacement

mook111 said:
I am a complete Android noob so pardon me beforehand. I have a rooted ATT Galaxy S3. I recently flashed 2 CM 10.1 nightly builds. I wasn't happy with the performance of the ROMs and want to reset my phone to stock rom ( default out of the box ICS Touchwiz UX). What ROM file do I need to download and what method to use to restore/flash (TWRP, Odin, etc.) I have read countless threads on this but still have not understood how to go about doing this, so don't blame me about spam. Thanks for all your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You download the stock tar and flash it with odin.

Upgrading rooted 4.1.1 to rooted 4.1.2
My i747 is rooted but otherwise stock 4.1.1. I received a notice that ATT wants to perform an OTA to 4.1.2. I told it to upgrade but when it reboots to start the upgrade the phone reboots into TWRP. If I get out of TWRP the system says the upgrade failed. Since the upgrade 4.1.2 file did download, I thought I could install it using TWRP but I don't know the upgrade file name or where it's stored on the phone. Can someone help me or am I dreaming that I cane use TWRP to upgrade from a rooted 4.1.1 to a rooted 4.1.2?

RPelham said:
Preface: I take no responsibility for any actions you take or any resulting consequences. I am merely giving you information related to your question. If you choose to follow it, that is solely your decision.
Read all directions before taking any action.
First make sure you have ODIN which can be downloaded here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1722686
Then download your Original Stock System here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1968625
Next install the Samsung Device Drivers to your computer if you don't already have them from here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SGH-I747MBBATT
Once installed put your phone into Download mode (power off the phone, then press and hold Volume Down + Home and then Power while holding all 3 until you get to a warning screen. Release the buttons and press Volume Up to continue).
Plug the phone into the computer and open ODIN. Leave everything completely and entirely default. Press the PDA button and locate the .tar.md5 stock firmware you downloaded and press Start.
Your phone will restart and more than likely get stuck at the Samsung logo while booting. Hold the Volume Up + Power until the phone turns off (or do a battery pull). Go directly into Recovery (Volume Up + Home + Power) and choose to wipe cache and perform Factory Reset. Once done reboot the device and you will be completely 100% unrooted stock.
NOTE: This will not reset your flash counter. If you wish to go to complete fresh out of the box you will need to download Triangle Away and flash it on a stock rooted ROM. To do that you can either buy the app from the play store, recommended to support the developer, or download it from the developers thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114
Instead of flashing the ROM above flash the one located in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426
and follow all the same steps above. This will give you rooted stock. Once done install the Triangle Away app as noted above and follow the directions.
Once completely done, go back into download mode, confirm the counter is 0 (blue text top left of screen) and proceed to follow all steps above to get to unrooted stock status.
P.S. Let me know if you have anymore questions. =)
P.S.S. The above links will flash 100% stock including Modem, ROM, Recovery and Kernel (among other stock items). It is a complete Stock Image as if you took it out of the box for the very first time. The only thing this will not do is restore NV Data or EFS folder if they were corrupted. NV Data / EFS folder contains your IMEI which allows you to connect to the network. If your IMEI shows 0, This will not help you.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 on AT&T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much rpelham I sent you a thanks. Had I prayed better attention I would have had my phone fixed last night but all is good now!!!!!! Now I just need a current rooted Rom to put on here from full factory stock Rom this is UGLY!!!!

Cant get into download mode. Screen black, wont boot, can someone help?
RPelham said:
Preface: I take no responsibility for any actions you take or any resulting consequences. I am merely giving you information related to your question. If you choose to follow it, that is solely your decision.
Read all directions before taking any action.
First make sure you have ODIN which can be downloaded here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1722686
Then download your Original Stock System here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1968625
Next install the Samsung Device Drivers to your computer if you don't already have them from here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SGH-I747MBBATT
Once installed put your phone into Download mode (power off the phone, then press and hold Volume Down + Home and then Power while holding all 3 until you get to a warning screen. Release the buttons and press Volume Up to continue).
Plug the phone into the computer and open ODIN. Leave everything completely and entirely default. Press the PDA button and locate the .tar.md5 stock firmware you downloaded and press Start.
Your phone will restart and more than likely get stuck at the Samsung logo while booting. Hold the Volume Up + Power until the phone turns off (or do a battery pull). Go directly into Recovery (Volume Up + Home + Power) and choose to wipe cache and perform Factory Reset. Once done reboot the device and you will be completely 100% unrooted stock.
NOTE: This will not reset your flash counter. If you wish to go to complete fresh out of the box you will need to download Triangle Away and flash it on a stock rooted ROM. To do that you can either buy the app from the play store, recommended to support the developer, or download it from the developers thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114
Instead of flashing the ROM above flash the one located in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426
and follow all the same steps above. This will give you rooted stock. Once done install the Triangle Away app as noted above and follow the directions.
Once completely done, go back into download mode, confirm the counter is 0 (blue text top left of screen) and proceed to follow all steps above to get to unrooted stock status.
P.S. Let me know if you have anymore questions. =)
P.S.S. The above links will flash 100% stock including Modem, ROM, Recovery and Kernel (among other stock items). It is a complete Stock Image as if you took it out of the box for the very first time. The only thing this will not do is restore NV Data or EFS folder if they were corrupted. NV Data / EFS folder contains your IMEI which allows you to connect to the network. If your IMEI shows 0, This will not help you.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 on AT&T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was flashing a new version of CWM recovery and my little brother ran by and knocked the phone out of my hand. i think it selected "Reboot Recovery" when it hit the ground. But at that time there was no recovery flashed. Now I Cant get into download mode, the Screen is black, and the phone wont boot.
If anyone can help me out i would really appreciate it very, very much. Thanks

jfortenberry23 said:
i was flashing a new version of CWM recovery and my little brother ran by and knocked the phone out of my hand. i think it selected "Reboot Recovery" when it hit the ground. But at that time there was no recovery flashed. Now I Cant get into download mode, the Screen is black, and the phone wont boot.
If anyone can help me out i would really appreciate it very, very much. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If its unable to boot, you'll need a JTAG.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

xBeerdroiDx said:
did you make a backup before you flashed cm10.1? if so, you can restore that backup (nandroid) in recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had same issue as OP
I restored my backup (nandroid)
I am back on 4.1.1 (looks stock) still rooted. I am super noob.
My phone works perfect. It works exactly as a it did back in March 2013 (when I did my back up).
Problem is my phone wants to do OTA. Would that be a terrible idea to accept?

Error Using ODIN
I have CYA 10.2 and im trying to get back to stock on my phone i download the Original Rom from the link that you have but when i run the ODIN i have this error
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> I747UCALEM_I747ATTALEM_I747UCALEM_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/006> Added!!
<ID:0/006> Odin v.3 engine (ID:6)..
<ID:0/006> File analysis..
<ID:0/006> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/006> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

FAILED
I tried to flash my SGH-I747M running 4.3 back to this stock ROM, but it just fails out. Specifically, it fails with:
aboot.mbn
NAN Write Start!!
FAIL! (Auth)
The reason I am going back is because when the device upgraded to 4.3 it brought with it KNOX, which blocks SuperSU.
Since my copy of SuperSU came over with Chainfire's CWM-SuperSU-v0.87.zip, I am unable to update it via Play Store (for the Knox fix).
So, that was my reason for wanting to regress.
I'm not sure what my options are now.

Bringing back to ATT
RPelham said:
Preface: I take no responsibility for any actions you take or any resulting consequences. I am merely giving you information related to your question. If you choose to follow it, that is solely your decision.
Read all directions before taking any action.
First make sure you have ODIN which can be downloaded here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1722686
Then download your Original Stock System here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1968625
Next install the Samsung Device Drivers to your computer if you don't already have them from here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SGH-I747MBBATT
Once installed put your phone into Download mode (power off the phone, then press and hold Volume Down + Home and then Power while holding all 3 until you get to a warning screen. Release the buttons and press Volume Up to continue).
Plug the phone into the computer and open ODIN. Leave everything completely and entirely default. Press the PDA button and locate the .tar.md5 stock firmware you downloaded and press Start.
Your phone will restart and more than likely get stuck at the Samsung logo while booting. Hold the Volume Up + Power until the phone turns off (or do a battery pull). Go directly into Recovery (Volume Up + Home + Power) and choose to wipe cache and perform Factory Reset. Once done reboot the device and you will be completely 100% unrooted stock.
NOTE: This will not reset your flash counter. If you wish to go to complete fresh out of the box you will need to download Triangle Away and flash it on a stock rooted ROM. To do that you can either buy the app from the play store, recommended to support the developer, or download it from the developers thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114
Instead of flashing the ROM above flash the one located in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426
and follow all the same steps above. This will give you rooted stock. Once done install the Triangle Away app as noted above and follow the directions.
Once completely done, go back into download mode, confirm the counter is 0 (blue text top left of screen) and proceed to follow all steps above to get to unrooted stock status.
P.S. Let me know if you have anymore questions. =)
P.S.S. The above links will flash 100% stock including Modem, ROM, Recovery and Kernel (among other stock items). It is a complete Stock Image as if you took it out of the box for the very first time. The only thing this will not do is restore NV Data or EFS folder if they were corrupted. NV Data / EFS folder contains your IMEI which allows you to connect to the network. If your IMEI shows 0, This will not help you.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 on AT&T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also a noob at this. I plan to bring my phone back in for a trade soon but ATT might not accept it in its current state. Will this guide fully restore it to the point where they can't tell the difference?

Once knox has been tripped, you can't change it back. AT&T may not check for this.

Freezes at ATT logo

I have an i747 and after a week of research and trail and error I was able to get back to a factory working phone. I wanted to share my findings so that the next person may get up and running a bit quicker. First off, my phone was never rooted. I was getting it ready to sell and was going to factory reset it when I realized I forgot the system password. So I installed Kies and proceeded to factor rest it there. For whatever reason the reset did not take and after several failed attempts with kies the phone began to boot in ODIN mode. I built a USB jig and was able to get back into download mode but nothing would bring it back to life. Downloading the official rom from sammobile and flashing with ODIN3.07 would fail every time. Emergency recovery in kies also failed. So here was my final approach that worked. Maybe the wrong way to do this, maybe the long way to do it.. IDK.. but it worked for me..
1) get the official Samsung files from kies (google -"does kies store firmware")
2) boot do download mode
3) flash CSC file with auto reboot and F. reset time checked
4) boot do download mode
5) flash PDA file with auto reboot and F. reset time checked
6) boot do download mode
7) flash Modem file with auto reboot and F. reset time checked
* I closed ODIN between each step, might be overkill.
** I did not flash the bootloader file
I have read that it takes a long time the first boot, and I have been waiting 15 minutes at the SAMSUNG screen but it is still pulsing so i think it is still processing. If it is still at this screen in the morning, I will let you all know but this is further than I have been in over a week.
On a side note, when it crashed I took this into AT&T they told me over the past month or so they have seen numerous people with the same issue. All from doing a factor rest in Kies. My phone was out of warranty and they barely looked at it before asking me to upgrade. I took it to BestBuy and they fixed it from booting to ODIN mode but it still locked up on the AT&T logo, so I was back to square one.

Food for thought. How about waiting to see if your instructions actually work on your phone before posting them here for people with similar issues to use. Kind of useless if it doesn't end up working, huh?

lordblue969 said:
I have an i747 and after a week of research and trail and error I was able to get back to a factory working phone. I wanted to share my findings so that the next person may get up and running a bit quicker. First off, my phone was never rooted. I was getting it ready to sell and was going to factory reset it when I realized I forgot the system password. So I installed Kies and proceeded to factor rest it there. For whatever reason the reset did not take and after several failed attempts with kies the phone began to boot in ODIN mode. I built a USB jig and was able to get back into download mode but nothing would bring it back to life. Downloading the official rom from sammobile and flashing with ODIN3.07 would fail every time. Emergency recovery in kies also failed. So here was my final approach that worked. Maybe the wrong way to do this, maybe the long way to do it.. IDK.. but it worked for me..
1) get the official Samsung files from kies (google -"does kies store firmware")
2) boot do download mode
3) flash CSC file with auto reboot and F. reset time checked
4) boot do download mode
5) flash PDA file with auto reboot and F. reset time checked
6) boot do download mode
7) flash Modem file with auto reboot and F. reset time checked
* I closed ODIN between each step, might be overkill.
** I did not flash the bootloader file
I have read that it takes a long time the first boot, and I have been waiting 15 minutes at the SAMSUNG screen but it is still pulsing so i think it is still processing. If it is still at this screen in the morning, I will let you all know but this is further than I have been in over a week.
On a side note, when it crashed I took this into AT&T they told me over the past month or so they have seen numerous people with the same issue. All from doing a factor rest in Kies. My phone was out of warranty and they barely looked at it before asking me to upgrade. I took it to BestBuy and they fixed it from booting to ODIN mode but it still locked up on the AT&T logo, so I was back to square one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems a pretty long route to take. If you are on an Odin flashable firmware version (e.g. 4.1.1), you only need to flash one partition - PDA. This updates all partitions to stock including bootloader, modem, recovery, kernel. The newer firmware versions - 4.1.2 & 4.3 are, however, not Odin flashable. Also, if you couldn't do a factory reset from settings because of password issues, you could have booted into recovery mode and done a factory reset there. This wouldn't require a password and would still have the same effect of wiping data and returning to factory settings.
If your phone is stuck at the Samsung screen for 15 minutes, then it's stuck. Reboot into recovery mode and try a reset there. If this doesn't work, then it means you have a soft brick you need to restore your firmware via custom recovery. Your phone is never hard bricked when you can get to download and recovery modes. Flash custom recovery via Odin in download mode. Reboot to custom recovery and flash a clean, complete stock image for 4.3. That's your best option now since you are selling

Larry2999 said:
Seems a pretty long route to take. If you are on an Odin flashable firmware version (e.g. 4.1.1), you only need to flash one partition - PDA. This updates all partitions to stock including bootloader, modem, recovery, kernel. The newer firmware versions - 4.1.2 & 4.3 are, however, not Odin flashable. Also, if you couldn't do a factory reset from settings because of password issues, you could have booted into recovery mode and done a factory reset there. This wouldn't require a password and would still have the same effect of wiping data and returning to factory settings.
If your phone is stuck at the Samsung screen for 15 minutes, then it's stuck. Reboot into recovery mode and try a reset there. If this doesn't work, then it means you have a soft brick you need to restore your firmware via custom recovery. Your phone is never hard bricked when you can get to download and recovery modes. Flash custom recovery via Odin in download mode. Reboot to custom recovery and flash a clean, complete stock image for 4.3. That's your best option now since you are selling
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So like the true repository of knowledge we have here, Larry you are correct.. After about 30 minutes I decided it was really stuck.. So this time I watched the process I described above a bit more closely and as you stated the PDA file is all i needed.. but I had tried several from different sources including the office from sammobile and they always crashed. So what eventually worked for me was after being stuck at the samsung logo...
I booted into recovery mode
wiped the cache
factory reset it
then flashed with the Kies PDA file that I obtained in Kies in emergency recover mode.
This finally worked.
and as stated was a shorter route to take. The PDA that i used had 4.1.1 on it.
Thanks for the clarification in the fact that flashing with the PDA takes care of the bootloader, cache, file system, etc.

DMF1977 said:
Food for thought. How about waiting to see if your instructions actually work on your phone before posting them here for people with similar issues to use. Kind of useless if it doesn't end up working, huh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
excitement over came me.

Still having issues
Ok, keepers of knowledge.. I have a phone that will boot up but I have no baseband version. It shows unknown.. I have tried just flashing the modem file but i still do not get it back.. if I try to flash anything other than the official files from kies, ODIN fails. My phone is now at 4.1.1, build JR003L.I747UCDLK3.
If I try to update via wifi with the software updater, it says I am up to date. If I try to update with Kies, it fails..
I am at a loss...
Please help..
Thanks in advance..

[Q] update to 4.4 from 4.3 +clean some bugs

Hi all my name is Blake and I'm a noob. (Sigh) thanks in advance for answering my stupid questions and being the awesome intelligent human bada$$es you are and helping teach me to better understand and operate my phone! So I rooted my phone a while back (4.3) or at least attempted it but I think Knox or something along those lines was preventing the process from completing so I had a friend help me out to complete the root so I'm still not 100% on how to do this. So I want to upgrade to 4.4 assuming it's better but more importantly my phone has a lot of quirks and bugs that annoy the living crap out of me and I won't waste u r time listing them unless you need me to and I'm hoping updating will solve some of them and if not I'll be back to forum surfing... anyways I'm rooted and need to know how to get to where I can get the ota update and then root it or however would be easiest to get the update and back to being rooted? I tried reading and understanding the existing threads but I'm still learning the terminology and i couldn't quite understand the ones i could find. Also this is probably a stupid question but is there an app or anything that will magically go through my phone and fix any stupid bugs and stuff!

Also to show my appreciation if u guys have like a YouTube channel i can like and subscribe to or anything i can do to show my appreciation I'd be glad to do so just send me a link thanks again you're my hero!

magikalbum said:
Also to show my appreciation if u guys have like a YouTube channel i can like and subscribe to or anything i can do to show my appreciation I'd be glad to do so just send me a link thanks again you're my hero!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know you wanted a video I don't have all of the equipment to do so .. this is just a lot of words but simple easy steps.
Best possible solution for you if you really wanted the 4.4 update (nothing really has changed except the basic updates (firmware/modem)
... nothing noticeable except when you click on About Phone lol and you see 4.4.2 and the description of your system. That's really it.
But if you really want to give it a try the best solution for you is:
1 ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR PHONE!
This WILL BE UNROOTED BUT WILL GIVE THE OPTION TO BE ROOTED IF YOU WOULD LIKE
2 Download Odin if you haven't already and download the .tar file for 4.4.2 (the OTA Update)
When you extracted everything and opened Odin make sure Auto Reboot and F Reset Time is the ONLY ones checked.
3 Put the .tar file in PDA on Odin and put your phone in download mode (home, vol down, and power) when it comes up press vol up and it will show downloading .. it may show NOT RESPONDING give it a minute it usually will load up
Attach the usb cable from computer to phone once it registers it (will say added) click start. let it finish and you will have a complete wipe of 4.4.2 STOCK ROM --- UNROOTED!
FOLLOW THESE STEPS (COLOR MATCH) TO BE ROOTED ..... 4.4.2 ROOTED OR 4.3 ROOTED
-THIS IS THE START FOR BOTH --
1 Download your custom recovery (Philz or TWRP) ... I use Philz it's simple and and does everything for you to make sure it goes through.
2 Open Odin once more (same checked) turn your phone off wait for the vibration to indicate it is completely off then put it in download mode.
3 Place your recovery in PDA then attach phone and click start.
It will reboot just turn phone off and enter recovery mode (home, vol UP, and power). If the recovery doesn't show (sometimes it won't due to knox again) Then try again this way:
Phone off, place recovery in PDA, attach phone, and UNCLICK Auto-Reboot and push start. It will show downloading wait for Odin to show pass then boot in recovery from the screen you are on by just pushing home vol up and power. It should load that time.
Once it's loaded...
FOR 4.4.2 - ROOTED
3. Factory reset/clean to install new rom ...
DO NOT wipe cache just simply factory reset ..wait.. done ... clean to install new rom .. wait .. done.
If you do you will get a Status 7 or an error message.
4. Flash rom
5. Reboot
-It may ask you if you want to disable custom recovery make sure you hit NO!
You will need to update SU on playstore. And you should be good to go (had problems the first few times).
FOR 4.3 - ROOTED
DO NOT TRY FLASHING .TAR THROUGH ODIN. It will fail everytime because you can not downgrade firmware through it.
1. You will need to go back to stock unrooted with this HERE (MC2 Download only)
2 Make sure you have the MC2 Download -- or you will receive a Status 7 .. which means you don't have the right rom to update from.
3 Once you're on the MC2 firmware I believe it is the 4.2 version.
4 Turn off phone, enter recovery mode and flash this MC2 to Mk4 Rooted (NEED TO HAVE MC2 first!)
5 Reboot - if it asks to disable custom recovery make sure you press NO or it will unroot it at start up.
.

[Q] galaxy s3 I747 wont boot past Samsung Galaxy s3 Logo, Did i brick my phone???

I was trying to carrier unlock my phone, and to do that i tried to downgrade it 4.3 to 4.1.1, and only after i had pressed the button, i had noticed that this might brick my phone in a comment in one of the forums, this is what i did:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2625461
after following this and trying to run odin with it, odin returned "FAIL", and due to my high level of stupidity at the time, i tried to use the original 4.1.1 as my PDA in odin right after, i didnt reboot or anything, just pressed start again with the other tar.md5 file....
so now i cannot go past the samsung galaxy s3 logo when booting. I CAN go into download mode though, but i have no clue what i am supposed to do afterwards
i have the Galaxy S 3 i747 (was 4.3 before the whole mess) at&t carrier, i am trying to unlock it because i am travelling and need a phone.
please help me fix it, i do not care about the warranty since i dont have it anymore anyways, as long as the phone is working
also, if possible, i also need to unlock it afterwards, any help is HIGHLY appreciated, thanks!

baruchadi said:
I was trying to carrier unlock my phone, and to do that i tried to downgrade it 4.3 to 4.1.1, and only after i had pressed the button, i had noticed that this might brick my phone in a comment in one of the forums, this is what i did:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2625461
after following this and trying to run odin with it, odin returned "FAIL", and due to my high level of stupidity at the time, i tried to use the original 4.1.1 as my PDA in odin right after, i didnt reboot or anything, just pressed start again with the other tar.md5 file....
so now i cannot go past the samsung galaxy s3 logo when booting. I CAN go into download mode though, but i have no clue what i am supposed to do afterwards
i have the Galaxy S 3 i747 (was 4.3 before the whole mess) at&t carrier, i am trying to unlock it because i am travelling and need a phone.
please help me fix it, i do not care about the warranty since i dont have it anymore anyways, as long as the phone is working
also, if possible, i also need to unlock it afterwards, any help is HIGHLY appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downgrading your boot loader from 4.3 is a guaranteed brick. I'm not sure if the brick will get you to the Samsung screen.
If you're already assuming its bricked reboot into recovery and do a full wipe. Restore a nandroid of something if you have one or try flashing a custom ROM. Because Odin failed maybe it never flashed the boot loader.
Worth a try
Sent from my SGH-I747M using XDA Free mobile app

baruchadi said:
I was trying to carrier unlock my phone, and to do that i tried to downgrade it 4.3 to 4.1.1, and only after i had pressed the button, i had noticed that this might brick my phone in a comment in one of the forums, this is what i did:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2625461
after following this and trying to run odin with it, odin returned "FAIL", and due to my high level of stupidity at the time, i tried to use the original 4.1.1 as my PDA in odin right after, i didnt reboot or anything, just pressed start again with the other tar.md5 file....
so now i cannot go past the samsung galaxy s3 logo when booting. I CAN go into download mode though, but i have no clue what i am supposed to do afterwards
i have the Galaxy S 3 i747 (was 4.3 before the whole mess) at&t carrier, i am trying to unlock it because i am travelling and need a phone.
please help me fix it, i do not care about the warranty since i dont have it anymore anyways, as long as the phone is working
also, if possible, i also need to unlock it afterwards, any help is HIGHLY appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the forum! Wished you'd come in much earlier though as you would have found you CANNOT downgrade from 4.3 to 4.1.1 to free unlock. Sorry, but once you are on 4.3, the surest way to unlock is to obtain the unlock code from the carrier or purchase one online. Sounds like you do have a soft brick. If your phone is still booting to the Samsung logo, then it's only a soft brick. Attempting to downgrade the 4.3 bootloader usually results in a hard brick so you may be in luck.
To fix this first, try to see if you can boot to recovery mode and do a hard wipe/factory reset. If you are able to boot to recovery (or download) mode then you have little to worry about. If the reset does not work, you can flash custom recovery via Odin and follow the instructions in the thread below to restore stock 4.3. Afraid, you have to revert to full stock 4.3 to get the phone back in working order and don't even think about 4.1.1.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2658486
If you are not able to get to recovery, then you can see if you can boot from a debrick image following the instructions (on the first page) of the thread below ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2549068
Once your phone is working normally, you can request the unlock code from AT&T via the request form below. If eligible, they should provide this. Otherwise, you would have to buy one online ....
https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/
Let me know if you need any further help.

KorGuy123 said:
Downgrading your boot loader from 4.3 is a guaranteed brick. I'm not sure if the brick will get you to the Samsung screen.
If you're already assuming its bricked reboot into recovery and do a full wipe. Restore a nandroid of something if you have one or try flashing a custom ROM. Because Odin failed maybe it never flashed the boot loader.
Worth a try
Sent from my SGH-I747M using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried wiping everything, i also wiped cache, still didn't boot, thanks though!
Larry2999 said:
Welcome to the forum! Wished you'd come in much earlier though as you would have found you CANNOT downgrade from 4.3 to 4.1.1 to free unlock. Sorry, but once you are on 4.3, the surest way to unlock is to obtain the unlock code from the carrier or purchase one online. Sounds like you do have a soft brick. If your phone is still booting to the Samsung logo, then it's only a soft brick. Attempting to downgrade the 4.3 bootloader usually results in a hard brick so you may be in luck.
To fix this first, try to see if you can boot to recovery mode and do a hard wipe/factory reset. If you are able to boot to recovery (or download) mode then you have little to worry about. If the reset does not work, you can flash custom recovery via Odin and follow the instructions in the thread below to restore stock 4.3. Afraid, you have to revert to full stock 4.3 to get the phone back in working order and don't even think about 4.1.1.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2658486
If you are not able to get to recovery, then you can see if you can boot from a debrick image following the instructions (on the first page) of the thread below ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2549068
Once your phone is working normally, you can request the unlock code from AT&T via the request form below. If eligible, they should provide this. Otherwise, you would have to buy one online ....
https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/
Let me know if you need any further help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am able to get to recovery, but the first link isn't very clear.... i am not really familiar with odin and all this other stuff... lol, i am now downloading the files it says to download in the first link though, can you maybe tell me in a quick list what exactly im supposed to do?
thanks!

baruchadi said:
I tried wiping everything, i also wiped cache, still didn't boot, thanks though!
I am able to get to recovery, but the first link isn't very clear.... i am not really familiar with odin and all this other stuff... lol, i am now downloading the files it says to download in the first link though, can you maybe tell me in a quick list what exactly im supposed to do?
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's time to start reading. Before doing any flashing/modding, you should make sure you understand what you're doing and know the risks.
Now as for Odin, it's quite straight forward. Phone needs to be in download mode, you put the PDA file in Odin and flash (if it's a Odin one-click, just need to hit start). One thing is to not interrupt it! Especially if flashing bootloaders cause that will brick your phone. Also, don't downgrade bootloaders.
There are a few guides in the sticky, I suggest you take an hour or two reading them so things like that don't happen again (or that you know what to do if it does).
GL!

baruchadi said:
I tried wiping everything, i also wiped cache, still didn't boot, thanks though!
I am able to get to recovery, but the first link isn't very clear.... i am not really familiar with odin and all this other stuff... lol, i am now downloading the files it says to download in the first link though, can you maybe tell me in a quick list what exactly im supposed to do?
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright. If wipe/reset didn't work, you'll need to restore full stock 4.3 via custom recovery. Here's what we need to do....
1) Download the Odin flashable *.Tar file for custom recovery. I prefer TWRP because of the GUI so that's where I'm pointing you to ...
http://techerrata.com/file/twrp2/d2att/openrecovery-twrp-2.6.3.1-d2att.tar
2) Download the stock restore file for 4.3 from the thread below... If you are using TWRP, then the first link is the one you need
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2658486
3) Copy the stock restore zip file to a good quality (micro) SD card
4) I presume you have Odin already so you will use this to flash custom recovery to your phone. Run Odin.exe on your PC. If you are using Odin v.3.09 then you need the AP tab. For all other versions, use the PDA tab. Navigate to the custom recovery *.Tar file you downloaded earlier and place this in the PDA (or AP tab). Leave the default settings as is and do not check/uncheck any boxes other than the default settings.
5) Boot the phone to download mode via the 3-button combo (Volume Down/Home/Power). When you get to Odin (Download) mode, press volume up to continue. Connect the phone to your PC with a good quality micro USB cable. Wait until Odin has recognized the device then click on the Start button to start firmware installation (flashing). Wait for the flashing to end and the <Pass> message. Disconnect the phone from the PC and pull the battery to stop auto reboot.
6) Place the micro SD card with the stock restore zip in your phone. Replace the battery and boot to recovery mode. If you were successful with the firmware flashing above, it should boot you to custom recovery.
7) Select install from external card and navigate to the stock restore zip file. Select this file and swipe the screen to start firmware installation. Wait for installation to complete. Then clear your cache/dalvik and reboot to system.
This will hopefully do it.

Note 2 stuck at Start Up screen. Please help

My Galaxy Note 2 is stuck at the Start up screen screen. Where its an all black bg and simply says Samsung Galaxy Note II
I have tried using recovery mode, cleared cache, and reset to factory. Neither troubleshoot method worked.
I have tried numerous Odin autoroots. none work. Whenever I try to root it fails. Im guessing it might be because I dont have Dev Debug enable and I cant get into my phone to enable it. because of this issue
I have tried looking for TWRP .tar but every file I download the file is always a .img
The Model of the phone is a SGH-T889 (T-mobile Note II)
I am all out of ideas, and I dont know what to do. I have been search for answers for hours and everytime I think I found a solution it doesnt work.

What ROM was your phone on when this happened ?
Can you get int to download mode ? If yes try flashing stock ROM and see if it helps.

ciphercodes said:
What ROM was your phone on when this happened ?
Can you get int to download mode ? If yes try flashing stock ROM and see if it helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was on the offical default rom. the phone was never modded, or rooted.
My niece downloads a bunch of kiddie games onto the phone, we constantly have to uninstall them. My thoughts and the T-mobile tech suspects that it the crash may have been caused my too many updates or a bad updated file most likely due to the games or game.
I can get the phone into download mode, and recovery mode.
In reovery mode I have 6 options
reboot system now
apply update from ADB
apply update from external storage
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cashe partition
apply update from cache
I have tried Apply update from cache, Wipe cache partition, then Wipe data.factory reset. I also attempted to put a CF auto root .md5 file and a KIES .md5 file which I believe is a stock firmware file on a SD card. to try to use the apply update from external storage option, but neither file showed up when I went into the option. So I guess I didnt have the right sort of file.
So recovery didnt work so I tried using Odin v3.07 and Odin v3.09 with CF auto root files for the SGH-T889, that didnt work, ecerytime I tried to apply it, It was always Fail within seconds. I tried other root files that are made for other versions of the Galaxt Note 2 like the GT-N1700 but those also simply failed.
I tried using what I believe to be stock frimware files with Odin. and those also Failed.
Im not exactly the best person with these. I learn mostly what I know from the internet and reading various forums, youtube videos, and other people experiences. I cannot find anyone who's problem has not yet been fixed through the above methods. so I really dont know where to go from here.
I think the reason I cant Flash from PC is because it might be possible USB Debugging is not enabled. Not sure if this is what is causing all the Fails in odin

BramaKnox said:
It was on the offical default rom. the phone was never modded, or rooted.
My niece downloads a bunch of kiddie games onto the phone, we constantly have to uninstall them. My thoughts and the T-mobile tech suspects that it the crash may have been caused my too many updates or a bad updated file most likely due to the games or game.
I can get the phone into download mode, and recovery mode.
In reovery mode I have 6 options
reboot system now
apply update from ADB
apply update from external storage
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cashe partition
apply update from cache
I have tried Apply update from cache, Wipe cache partition, then Wipe data.factory reset. I also attempted to put a CF auto root .md5 file and a KIES .md5 file which I believe is a stock firmware file on a SD card. to try to use the apply update from external storage option, but neither file showed up when I went into the option. So I guess I didnt have the right sort of file.
So recovery didnt work so I tried using Odin v3.07 and Odin v3.09 with CF auto root files for the SGH-T889, that didnt work, ecerytime I tried to apply it, It was always Fail within seconds. I tried other root files that are made for other versions of the Galaxt Note 2 like the GT-N1700 but those also simply failed.
I tried using what I believe to be stock frimware files with Odin. and those also Failed.
Im not exactly the best person with these. I learn mostly what I know from the internet and reading various forums, youtube videos, and other people experiences. I cannot find anyone who's problem has not yet been fixed through the above methods. so I really dont know where to go from here.
I think the reason I cant Flash from PC is because it might be possible USB Debugging is not enabled. Not sure if this is what is causing all the Fails in odin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lets see if we can get this resolved.
1) Do you remember what version of Android the phone was on 4.3 or 4.1.2 ?
2) Put your phone in download mode then connect to your computer via usb. Start Odin in admin mode (right click and run as admin).
3) Now do you see ID:COM section turn blue ? Under message you can see "Added!". If you see this then phone is recognized by Odin.
4) If your phone was on 4.3 then download this most up to date firmware - from here http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/download/22863/T889UVUCMK7_T889TMBCMK7_TMB/
5) Once downloaded, extract the file(use 7zip or winrar), once extracted you will see a file with .md5 extension.
6) Now going back to ODIN, click on PDA and then browse to this file which you just extracted.
7) This takes some time, once done you should see a message like "Checking MD5 finished successfully", "Leave CS".
8) You can leave Auto reboot and F-reset time checked.
9) Now click Start and let the process finish.
10) If everything goes fine you should see a green message "Pass"
Let me know how it goes.

I have the same problem as the OP (boots only up to Samsung logo with black bg) but it was not caused by niece downloading games but instead from trying to install jedi masterx2 rom.
I did what ciphercodes recommended and put phone in download mode and odin went through the motions of installing the stock os (in my case version 4.3) but after apparently installing the rom it again booted up to Samsung note II logo in black bg.
luckily I can install either Clockword mod recovery v6.0.4.3 or teamwin v2.8.6.0
The clockword mod recovery can read the external sd card (whereas funnily enough the teamwin can't) and I can attempt recovery from previous backups on cmr or to install a rom from zip file but neither of these work - reboots again to Samsung logo in black background after apparently installing the rom.
both teamwin and cwr mention that they can't mount system and that's probably why no rom is install either using cwr or odin so my guess is that I have to reformat the partitions cause probably efs file is corrupt but I don't know how to do that and I have done extensive search in google but have not found a solution
so ciphercodes if you or anyone reading this can help please reply to this message

ciphercodes said:
Lets see if we can get this resolved.
1) Do you remember what version of Android the phone was on 4.3 or 4.1.2 ?
2) Put your phone in download mode then connect to your computer via usb. Start Odin in admin mode (right click and run as admin).
3) Now do you see ID:COM section turn blue ? Under message you can see "Added!". If you see this then phone is recognized by Odin.
4) If your phone was on 4.3 then download this most up to date firmware - from here
5) Once downloaded, extract the file(use 7zip or winrar), once extracted you will see a file with .md5 extension.
6) Now going back to ODIN, click on PDA and then browse to this file which you just extracted.
7) This takes some time, once done you should see a message like "Checking MD5 finished successfully", "Leave CS".
8) You can leave Auto reboot and F-reset time checked.
9) Now click Start and let the process finish.
10) If everything goes fine you should see a green message "Pass"
Let me know how it goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am uncertain of which version the phone was on. If you need I can call t-mobile and have them tell me which version it was on.
I did these steps. the file took a hour to download. and It still didn't work. I follow all steps down to the exact. and when I pressed start. within one second it said FAIL. just the other attempts I made.

BramaKnox said:
I am uncertain of which version the phone was on. If you need I can call t-mobile and have them tell me which version it was on.
I did these steps. the file took a hour to download. and It still didn't work. I follow all steps down to the exact. and when I pressed start. within one second it said FAIL. just the other attempts I made.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless your t889 Note II was sitting in a drawer and not being updated for the last year or so you probably have 4.3
When you go to download mode do you see "custom binary download: yes ..."
and do you see "knox warranty void:" ?
if so, your phone has been rooted.
but unlike your case, when I try to install stock rom through Odin, it goes through the motions of installing and gives message pass - that is that the stock rom has been installed, but unfortunately it has not installed any rom that my phone can read.

koyanishi said:
Unless your t889 Note II was sitting in a drawer and not being updated for the last year or so you probably have 4.3
When you go to download mode do you see "custom binary download: yes ..."
and do you see "knox warranty void:" ?
if so, your phone has been rooted.
but unlike your case, when I try to install stock rom through Odin, it goes through the motions of installing and gives message pass - that is that the stock rom has been installed, but unfortunately it has not installed any rom that my phone can read.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it says
Product Name: SGH-T889
Custom Binary Download: No
Current Binary: Samsung Official
System Status: Official
Knox Warranty Void: 0
RP SWAEV: A2

BramaKnox said:
No it says
Product Name: SGH-T889
Custom Binary Download: No
Current Binary: Samsung Official
System Status: Official
Knox Warranty Void: 0
RP SWAEV: A2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you have an un rooted 4.3 rom because the 4.1.2 did not have knox

koyanishi said:
Then you have an un rooted 4.3 rom because the 4.1.2 did not have knox
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay thank you, well then link ciphercodes gave me for the firmware was the right one. But still Failed. *Sigh*

BramaKnox said:
Okay thank you, well then link ciphercodes gave me for the firmware was the right one. But still Failed. *Sigh*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since your phone is not rooted then I think that ciphercodes advice will not work as you can only install a stock rom that way only if your phone is first rooted.
Probably you should try to root your phone using instructions from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2562994
But this might not work for you as it could be that efs file is corrupted or something else as we both boot up to a black screen that only has Samsung logo

koyanishi said:
Since your phone is not rooted then I think that ciphercodes advice will not work as you can only install a stock rom that way only if your phone is first rooted.
Probably you should try to root your phone using instructions from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2562994
But this might not work for you as it could be that efs file is corrupted or something else as we both boot up to a black screen that only has Samsung logo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the chainfire root fail as well. I have tried every file for all the Galaxy II's including mines. none work. Always FAIL in Odin. I'm guessing there is just nothing I can do

BramaKnox said:
Yeah the chainfire root fail as well. I have tried every file for all the Galaxy II's including mines. none work. Always FAIL in Odin. I'm guessing there is just nothing I can do
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since your phone is not rooted you may be able to get it repaired under warranty. I think that Samsung warranty is only good for a year, but if you purchased your phone with a American Express gold card (I think other gold cards will also apply) your warranty is extended to double what the original was. So perhaps you have a chance to have your credit card pay for the repair.
Otherwise:
I am no expert but if you want to continue playing with your phone before you get expert advice you may want to play with the recovery mode. To enter recovery mode press volume up and home and power buttons at the same time. once you feel vibrate or after a while release the power button but continue to hold volume up and home buttons and then you will enter recovery mode. you may want to go to menu that says wipe data/factory reset and see if that works. It may be that it is like my phone and the system cannot be mounted in which case you will get that message. After you are through to get out of this menu remove the battery.
But please be aware that I am no expert and you are using this info at your own risk
but I think of doing something catastrophic using this advice in my non expert opinion is small.

koyanishi said:
Since your phone is not rooted you may be able to get it repaired under warranty. I think that Samsung warranty is only good for a year, but if you purchased your phone with a American Express gold card (I think other gold cards will also apply) your warranty is extended to double what the original was. So perhaps you have a chance to have your credit card pay for the repair.
Otherwise:
I am no expert but if you want to continue playing with your phone before you get expert advice you may want to play with the recovery mode. To enter recovery mode press volume up and home and power buttons at the same time. once you feel vibrate or after a while release the power button but continue to hold volume up and home buttons and then you will enter recovery mode. you may want to go to menu that says wipe data/factory reset and see if that works. It may be that it is like my phone and the system cannot be mounted in which case you will get that message. After you are through to get out of this menu remove the battery.
But please be aware that I am no expert and you are using this info at your own risk
but I think of doing something catastrophic using this advice in my non expert opinion is small.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the warranty is expired. and I have tried recovery mode. thats actually the first step before trying to apply a firmware. So recovery hasnt worked either. Guess I will just have to get a new phone. thank you all for oyu help tho. I apperciate it

I was just reading through the thread.. It doesnt seem like you tried flashing Tmobiles Stock 4.3 Firmware in download mode. If you tried to flash a 4.1.2 Firmware when the phone was already updated then I think thats where it failed. Try again but with the 4.3 Firmware through ODIN. After it finishes try rebooting it manually and/or if it doesnt boot again then go back into recovery and factory/data reset again...shouldnt hurt to try..

Double0EK said:
I was just reading through the thread.. It doesnt seem like you tried flashing Tmobiles Stock 4.3 Firmware in download mode. If you tried to flash a 4.1.2 Firmware when the phone was already updated then I think thats where it failed. Try again but with the 4.3 Firmware through ODIN. After it finishes try rebooting it manually and/or if it doesnt boot again then go back into recovery and factory/data reset again...shouldnt hurt to try..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my knowledge the other person who first replied gave me 4.3 firmeware fild link. But in the chances of it could u provide me with a link to a 4.3 firmware u believe will work, because all the ones I found have not worked