[How to] Factory Restore (or Fix a Bricked Phone)

[steveninstl]

Thank to the OP for this! I had "bricked" my Epic last night installing a ROM. The only thing that sucked was the hour and a half download time of the .tar file.
Thanks again!

 

[rogodeter]

I can confirm this works

I don't believe there is a native Odin application for Ubuntu. Try using VirtualBox, and run Odin under Windows.

I can confirm that ragnarokx's suggestion will work. I had issues with it originally and got it working finally, using Windows virtual guest inside my Linux Host.

Here's how I can net out my experience... The Samsung phone has a different USB signature depending on whether it is normally running (or in download/DL mode, with the yellow digger icon). So I had to start the phone in DL mode, under Ubuntu (or whatever flavor of Linux you use), then look at it via the lsusb command. You'll notice that it is listed differently in DL mode than when the phone is just normally booted and you plug it in.

So, what I did was to verify that Linux picked it up while in DL mode (using the lsusb command), it did.

Next I start VirtualBox (I imagine it is very similar using VMWare or KVM) but before I start my Windows virtual machine, I bring up its' settings and under USB I removed existing USB filters and then clicked to add a new filter (VirtualBox will query the Linux system to find available Plugged-in devices).. You should see your phone here. Mine was listed as something like "Gadget Serial". I included pictures that show you that the phone advertises itself differently depending on the mode it's in (different USB productID).

Once you've got that USB filter setup in VirtualBox, you can keep the phone connected and just launch your Windows VM. Then you can just launch Odin, In my case, when I launched Windows and Odin, I already had the phone attached and it just worked. Odin showed my phone connected and I went ahead with flashing.

1. [optionally] restart Linux - Had to do this on a few occasions
2. Put phone in DL (Download) mode - keyboard's 1 key plus power button
3. do an lsusb command in Linux and find your phone (lsusb -v gives you all details)
4. Start VirtualBox and create a USB filter
5. Launch Windows
6. Launch Odin
7. Hopefully you'll see the device there and can proceed.

** I can not 100% confirm this but my only success has been on a particular USB port. It might just be coincidence (I'm thinking it is), but until I'm able to confirm it, it wouldn't kill you to try an alternate USB port if one fails after rebooting Linux.

 

[ragnarokx]

Very nice write up! I'm going to add it to the 1st post for anyone else wanting to use this method.

 

[bcrtj457]

how long does this process normally take?

 

[ragnarokx]

Takes me about 5 minutes using Odin and Windows - YMMV.

 

[uvahdez88]

factory reset epic

I updated my epic to 2.2 using the update.zip on the sd card....I've been wanting to reset m phone back to factory the only problem is my computer won't recgnize my phone I've trid 6 different computer and I've tried at least 20 different usb cables and I've also tried it with debugging on and off. Is there any way I can format it back to factory setting using the sd card?

 

[ragnarokx]

Did you install the drivers? Did you try the alternate drivers? Is your phone in USB debugging mode, and are you starting Odin before plugging it in?

 

[uvahdez88]

Yes I've instaled al the drivers I could find( I always delete te old ones beforeinstalling the new ones) and yes my phone was in debuggng mode and I turned on odin before I connected it

 

[ragnarokx]

You can try Heimdall (Odin alternative) - info is in the 1st post.

 

[rogodeter]

Minor Correction

@Liquidjesus... In your section below... "New: Flash Froyo DK28 Modem Only"... you're missing something... Your instructions say to just select the .tar file, but if you do that, without selecting the .pit file, the process stops and your phone partial-bricks. After I partial-bricked my phone, I simply removed the battery, started the phone in download mode, and then selected the .pit AND the .tar file and ran that. Worked for me for installing the DK28 modem.

Thanks

There are five separate procedures below: "Restore to Eclair DI18 Using Windows", "OSX, Linux and Alternative Windows Method for Eclair", "New: Restore to Froyo DK28", "New: Flash Froyo DK28 Modem Only", "New: Odin Workaround for Ubuntu"

...

3) Extract "Odin3+v1.61andepic.pit.zip" into a folder on your computer, then launch "Odin3+v1.61.exe".

4) Press the "PIT" button and select "victory_8G_100528.pit", then press the "PDA" button and select "SPH-D700-DK28-8Gb-REL.tar.md5". On the left side of the Odin screen, make sure only "Auto Reboot" is checked.

5) Plug in the USB cable (if it's done right you should see a yellow Com device light up in one of the rectangular boxes).

6) Click Start and wait until you get a green box at the top that says success. Your phone should reboot.

...

 

[weapon omega]

my epic wont turn on!! need help

i was tryin to flash my phone to stock using odin because it was bricked and now it doesnt on or charge. need help on how to fix it...pleaseeee

 

[ragnarokx]

Take the battery out and put it back in. Then enter Download Mode and continue with Odin.

 

[weapon omega]

it doesnt turn on at all and it doesnt charge

 

[weapon omega]

it shows the phone and in the computer and in the middle the triangle wit exclamation point in the middle

 

[ragnarokx]

Hold the 1 key while powering on to enter Download mode, then flash with Odin per the first post in this thread.

 

[cnicklaus53@gmail.com]

anyone know how long it should take to get the green "pass" in odin?been about 20 min so far in the message section it says setupconnection.

 

[jcee85]

i cant get that file do u know why SPH-D700-DK28-8Gb-REL.tar.md5 i need help

 

[jcee85]

how did u get SPH-D700-DK28-8Gb-REL.tar.md5 file

 

[cnicklaus53@gmail.com]

it took me several times to download it...had to try 3 or 4 different sites until i got one that downloaded.

 

[cnicklaus53@gmail.com]

try the direct download button and just wait it out.took about 30 min for me