Help! Tab is Stuck in a Loop

[rebornr]

I downloaded a game from the marketplace (one of the featured games so I don't think it was corrupted) and during startup of the game my tab froze. I restarted and now it's stuck in the boot loop of the Samsung startup screen (animation and then the glowing Samsung logo). I've never rooted this Tab and it had just gotten TW with last week's update.

I tried to hold down the power and volume up keys at the same time but it didn't do anything. Went to the Samsung site to look for solutions and of course it was useless.

Does anyone know the proper way to reset this (at this point I don't care if the settings are wiped)? I'm looking for a consumer way out and hopefully don't have to learn root, load firmware, etc.

EDIT: Okay looking the around the internet I saw that you can reboot another way: hold down the volume down key and then the power button. Now I have two icons on the screen: something that looks like a mailbox with an arrow pointing down to the a small android guy AND on the right another icon with the android guy and the word 'Downloading...' underneath (this icon is flashing). NOW WHAT? I'm afraid to push anything now. Of course the site I was looking at had neither as an option.

Help!!

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Choose the recovery option (on the left) and then choose the reboot option. See if that gets you back up and running

 

[rebornr]

Choose the recovery option (on the left) and then choose the reboot option. See if that gets you back up and running

Thanks for the reply. Okay so I choose the icon with the mailbox (recovery) by clicking on the volume button. Then select with the power button? Doesn't do anything if I tap the button. If I just click the power button it doesn't do anything either. If I hold down the power button it restarts. Am I being stupid??

 

[rebornr]

I think I am in the recovery mode (but frankly, I don't know how I got there - I clicked on the power and volume up at the same time while the left mailbox icon was selected I think). Do now I have four choices:

- reboot system now
- apply update from/sdcard
- wipe data/factory reset
- wipe cache partitiion

I tired the 'reboot system now' option but it just came back to the startup loop. I guess the next thing is the 'wipe data' option?

There is some info at the bottom:
'Appling Multi-CSC...
Installiing Multi-CSC
Can't access to '/system/csc/XAB/system'.
Sucessfully applied multi-CSC.'

Oka-a-a-ay...

 

[rebornr]

I'm pretty impatient so I went ahead and wiped the Tab clean. For anyone else who might run into this problem I'm going to try and document it here. Please correct me if I don't get something right.

First off, in every other solution I read if your Tab is in a 'reboot loop' (which means that it gets to the Samsung startup screen but no further) you should press the power and volume up key to get to the reset options. That didn't do anything for me.

I did press the power and volume DOWN key at the same time however and it brought me to a screen with the two icons I mentioned above (note that the icons are totally different than what has been posted on the web previously - not sure if this is a TW thing - but I think the one on the left is equivalent to USB or rooting your OS). The one to the right with the word 'downloading...' is the one you want to get to and access. If you click the wrong button you'll know because the other one will give you a big warning sign about loading other OS's onto the Tab. How you actually click the left or right button is still a bit of a mystery to me. But getting to one or the other screen won't make a difference because at those screens there are a lot checks and double checks before you can proceed so don't be too scared to click the wrong button.

From there everything else is the same. I tried the reboot option and when that didn't work I used the Wipe Data option. The instructions once you get to reset screen are actually very straightforward. Once I clicked on the Wipe Data option it brought me to another screen for a confirmation. From there everything went as anticipated.

Since my Tab was linked to my Google account all I had to do is register to account again and I was ready to start again. A few notes:

- Touchwiz was installed when it came back (yay!) and actually totally cleaned up on the desktop ... kinda nice.
- Go to your the Market on your Tab and all your applications will download again
- Videos, images and files are wiped of course.
- You'll need to reconfigure your settings, desktop, email and social accounts.

Anyway, hope this helps someone out there.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, some things came up...

When you get the two icons on the screen (recovery/download) you use only the volume buttons. One is used to move between the two icons, and the other is used to select it, I believe volume down is used for navigation, and volume up is used to select.

Glad you were able to get everything going again!

 

[jeanloup]

Ok I'm gaving this problem right now. What I need to find out is, is there a way to recover files (photos and videos mostly) before doing a factory reset? I would much much rather not lose all that stuff

(Yeah I know, back up regularly etc...)

Thanks