Yellow Triangle of Death Laughs Off My Feeble Attempts At Restoring Stock Recovery using ODIN

JD Holland

New member
Dec 16, 2013
3
0
0
Visit site
TL;DR
1. Rooted using towelroot
2. Installed CWM's app, tried installing their custom recovery
3. Got the Yellow Triangle of Death ('non-stock software...take to Verizon store...yadda yadda')
4. Tried flashing stock recovery using ODIN v3.09
5. Seemed like it worked, tried turning phone off and then booting into recovery mode, still had YTOD.
6. Basically back at square one, not sure if there's something more I can do (I'm sure there is, but what?), or if I should just try playing dumb with the folks at the Verizon store across the street and see if they can just reset everything, at which point I can do this all over again, minus the part where I unknowingly get into a fight with Verizon's bootloader and lose.

Device Info:
SCH-I535 running 4.4.2 stock (minus any kind of functional recovery mode)
please feel free to ask for more info if the long version below leaves anything pertinent out

Okay, so some weeks ago, I attempted installing CWM's custom recovery on my phone for the first time after successfully rooting. This was my first time doing anything of the sort. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize that Verizon had apparently locked its bootloader since 4.3 (Was running 4.4.2 at the time, still am). I also didn't realize that this meant I wasn't going to be able to install a custom recovery without running into the yellow triangle of death.

So, long story short, my phone has been fully functional ever since then as far as I can tell, except that I can't boot it into recovery mode at all now. All I get is that yellow triangle. I've basically just been living with this for over a month now as it doesn't really break the day-to-day functionality of the phone, but I'd really like to get it fixed, as it's been in the back of my mind annoying me for some time now.

Fast forward to this past week, and I've been trying to troubleshoot a couple nights after work, to no avail. I've tried flashing the stock recovery using ODIN 3.09, and I already got the latest drivers (think they were June 2014) from Samsung's website. When I load up the recovery file and run ODIN, it goes through the whole process, and the phone reboots normally. But then, every time that I've gone and turned it off and then tried to boot into recovery, it STILL gives me that dang yellow triangle, telling me to take it to my nearest Verizon store, et cetera.

I've gotten to the point now where I'm not really sure how to proceed; when I boot it into download mode, the little ticker says "Samsung Official" and all, so technically I might not get in trouble if I do take it to the store warranty-wise, but I'd rather avoid having to try and come up with a fake reason how my phone got a botched non-stock recovery installed onto it if I supposedly didn't do it (i.e. knowingly void my warranty).

Anyway, any and all help or ideas would be greatly appreciated at this point. The ROM itself is still stock, as I never got that far (which is probably a good thing, as my ignorance of the locked bootloader would have probably ended up meaning some sort of brick/boot-loop situation for me, which wouldn't have been too dandy).

So, really, all I'm looking to accomplish here is to find some way to Mulligan this whole custom recovery endeavor and get it back to stock (I know it won't be that easy, ha ha). At that point, I'll probably do my best to get everything un-rooted and back to stock (start fresh), and then give rooting another go, sans the attempts at flashing custom software now that I'm privy to the limitations put in place by Verizon's bootloader.

If there's any pertinent information that I may have left out, please mention it and I'll be sure to respond quickly with an answer. Once again, thanks in advance for anyone who might be able to help. I really am sort of stuck at this point.
 
Last edited:

TOTtomdora

Well-known member
May 5, 2014
76
0
0
Visit site
Did you download the stock recovery from sammobile? It should've taken a while to download.
I ask because I thought I was flashing stock on mine too, but it wasn't actually.

If so, you're in download mode when you flash, correct?

Sent from my Nexus 7
 

JD Holland

New member
Dec 16, 2013
3
0
0
Visit site
Well I THOUGHT I downloaded the correct recovery lol. Now I'm not so sure. I can go look it up again, but if you feel like linking me just to make sure, I'd appreciate it.
 

Rom-er

Well-known member
Jan 31, 2014
52
0
0
Visit site
Well I THOUGHT I downloaded the correct recovery lol. Now I'm not so sure. I can go look it up again, but if you feel like linking me just to make sure, I'd appreciate it.

Did you ever figure out a fix for your issue? I seem to be in the exact same situation you were in.
Are you guys flashing the recovery .tar with auto reboot UNCHECKED when you start? If you have auto reboot checked it won't keep the recovery. You seem to have wiped out your recovery completely, that's why you get the triangle, if you unchecked auto reboot and flash the recovery the device won't reboot when the flashing is done, leave the device connected, dont pull battery and don't restart the phone, go ahead and boot straight to recovery by holding volume up+home+power and you should boot to recovery then make your nandroid backup to insure that you keep the recovery and all data.
 

Rom-er

Well-known member
Jan 31, 2014
52
0
0
Visit site
TL;DR
1. Rooted using towelroot
2. Installed CWM's app, tried installing their custom recovery
3. Got the Yellow Triangle of Death ('non-stock software...take to Verizon store...yadda yadda')
4. Tried flashing stock recovery using ODIN v3.09
5. Seemed like it worked, tried turning phone off and then booting into recovery mode, still had YTOD.
6. Basically back at square one, not sure if there's something more I can do (I'm sure there is, but what?), or if I should just try playing dumb with the folks at the Verizon store across the street and see if they can just reset everything, at which point I can do this all over again, minus the part where I unknowingly get into a fight with Verizon's bootloader and lose.

Device Info:
SCH-I535 running 4.4.2 stock (minus any kind of functional recovery mode)
please feel free to ask for more info if the long version below leaves anything pertinent out

Okay, so some weeks ago, I attempted installing CWM's custom recovery on my phone for the first time after successfully rooting. This was my first time doing anything of the sort. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize that Verizon had apparently locked its bootloader since 4.3 (Was running 4.4.2 at the time, still am). I also didn't realize that this meant I wasn't going to be able to install a custom recovery without running into the yellow triangle of death.

So, long story short, my phone has been fully functional ever since then as far as I can tell, except that I can't boot it into recovery mode at all now. All I get is that yellow triangle. I've basically just been living with this for over a month now as it doesn't really break the day-to-day functionality of the phone, but I'd really like to get it fixed, as it's been in the back of my mind annoying me for some time now.

Fast forward to this past week, and I've been trying to troubleshoot a couple nights after work, to no avail. I've tried flashing the stock recovery using ODIN 3.09, and I already got the latest drivers (think they were June 2014) from Samsung's website. When I load up the recovery file and run ODIN, it goes through the whole process, and the phone reboots normally. But then, every time that I've gone and turned it off and then tried to boot into recovery, it STILL gives me that dang yellow triangle, telling me to take it to my nearest Verizon store, et cetera.

I've gotten to the point now where I'm not really sure how to proceed; when I boot it into download mode, the little ticker says "Samsung Official" and all, so technically I might not get in trouble if I do take it to the store warranty-wise, but I'd rather avoid having to try and come up with a fake reason how my phone got a botched non-stock recovery installed onto it if I supposedly didn't do it (i.e. knowingly void my warranty).

Anyway, any and all help or ideas would be greatly appreciated at this point. The ROM itself is still stock, as I never got that far (which is probably a good thing, as my ignorance of the locked bootloader would have probably ended up meaning some sort of brick/boot-loop situation for me, which wouldn't have been too dandy).

So, really, all I'm looking to accomplish here is to find some way to Mulligan this whole custom recovery endeavor and get it back to stock (I know it won't be that easy, ha ha). At that point, I'll probably do my best to get everything un-rooted and back to stock (start fresh), and then give rooting another go, sans the attempts at flashing custom software now that I'm privy to the limitations put in place by Verizon's bootloader.

If there's any pertinent information that I may have left out, please mention it and I'll be sure to respond quickly with an answer. Once again, thanks in advance for anyone who might be able to help. I really am sort of stuck at this point.
Also, I believe you can use safestrap to install recovery and ROMs with the locked bootloader. I'm not sure of the details, I'm not a Verizon user.

Also, I think there is a ROM with an unlocked bootloader available at XDA, ask around in the Verizon S3 forums at XDA and I'm sure one of the guys there can point you in the right direction.
 

Illuminarii

New member
May 26, 2015
3
0
0
Visit site
I did flash with auto reboot unchecked but it made no difference. So far I've just been dealing with not having recovery like the original poster. Taking it to Verizon isn't an option as they are not my carrier anymore (PagePlus.) My biggest issue though is Stagefright and the inability to update my phone. I'm not in the market to buy a phone and I really would have rather had LiquidSmooth on this phone like I had on a previous S3 instead of the stock ROM so I could handle updates at my convenience instead of a carrier's. Are there any other tips you guys have that maybe the OP and I did not try?
 

Rom-er

Well-known member
Jan 31, 2014
52
0
0
Visit site
I did flash with auto reboot unchecked but it made no difference. So far I've just been dealing with not having recovery like the original poster. Taking it to Verizon isn't an option as they are not my carrier anymore (PagePlus.) My biggest issue though is Stagefright and the inability to update my phone. I'm not in the market to buy a phone and I really would have rather had LiquidSmooth on this phone like I had on a previous S3 instead of the stock ROM so I could handle updates at my convenience instead of a carrier's. Are there any other tips you guys have that maybe the OP and I did not try?
Flash with auto reboot unchecked but when its done boot straight to recovery, don't let it boot to system or you'll lose the recovery you flashed, you have to go directly to recovery after flashing if you want it to stick.

Has your device ever been on anything stock 4.3 or above? If so then you've got a locked bootloader and you'll have to use safestrap, custom recoveries (CWM, TWRP, Philz touch, etc.) and custom AOSP ROMs can't be used on locked bootloader, you have to use stock and stock modified ROMs.

If you don't have the locked bootloader and you want to avoid stagefright vulnerability then go to teamoctos.com and get the newest d2vzw/d2ltevzw ROM they have, it has stagefright patch built in, they were the first to incorporate it in their builds, the other guys haven't included it yet.
 

Illuminarii

New member
May 26, 2015
3
0
0
Visit site
I had already tried booting straight to recovery after flashing the new one with no luck previously. I just tried it again just in case I may have missed something the first time but same result, yellow triangle. This phone came with 4.2 on it originally and at one point I had various custom roms on it. I had turned it back into a stock phone thinking I had it only as a lease but that's a different story not needed for this thread. Any other possible solutions on getting stock recovery back? Like the OP stated, it's just recovery that's borked. The phone works fine otherwise.
 

Rom-er

Well-known member
Jan 31, 2014
52
0
0
Visit site
I had already tried booting straight to recovery after flashing the new one with no luck previously. I just tried it again just in case I may have missed something the first time but same result, yellow triangle. This phone came with 4.2 on it originally and at one point I had various custom roms on it. I had turned it back into a stock phone thinking I had it only as a lease but that's a different story not needed for this thread. Any other possible solutions on getting stock recovery back? Like the OP stated, it's just recovery that's borked. The phone works fine otherwise.
Flashing the entire stock firmware should fix you.

What stock firmware are you on now? Are you on one with the locked bootloader? If you're on 4.3 then there is a new method for downgrading from 4.3 to 4.1.2 and unlocking the bootloader, if you can use that method then you'd be able to root and install custom recovery and Custom ROMs including the Liquidsmooth that you say you'd rather have.

You can find the downgrade thread at XDA in the Verizon S3 forum.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
943,084
Messages
6,917,188
Members
3,158,813
Latest member
pierre5463