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

kenrico

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Need a recommendation - plugged Epic into headphone charger (close, it charged) but now the charging/usb is sloppy and tried all my cables and can't get it to recognize on PC for ODIN back to stock.

Still on ACS 5.5 EXT4 (love flashed over Random for apps, styling ect) but afraid I have no net if this ROM unwinds and already on as a daily driver much longer than I have anything else (including stock).

Can't try anything new like MTD based or CyanogenMod - til I have a workable recovery back to stock .

Should I take the phone for Sprint service ? Sell and buy another ? Even if I can't ODIN to get off a MTD, if there is a flashable or some other option to do a factory reset without the USB cable can reset to factory stock and sell or just use until the GNexus ships .
 
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MikeMc890

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I'm trying to use Odin but my phone is only being recognized when it is powered on. When it is in download mode with the android digging, odin will not recognize it. Any ideas?
 

MikeMc890

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Ok this is really weird. Odin said it failed, but it looks like it worked!!!

I did the battery pull and tried it that way, and it was working for a while. A few times it would get to the factoryfs.sys or something like that, and the blue bar on my phone under the digging android would get around 75% and it would fail. A few times it would fail in the middle and my screen would turn purple. Once it turned blue. Then I reset my computer tried again, and it went all the way to modem.bin, and the blue bar on my phone looked like it was 99% then it said failed!! I was soo mad because I finally thought I had it that time. So I reboot the phone and Im expecting my normal rooted startup but I get the Galaxy S start up instead. It stays on the galaxy s screen for a while, and I'm thinking its bricked because I know ODIN said it failed and I was expecting my rooted bootup screen if it was going to power on at all. But finally it looked like i was back at the launcher i had a year or 2 ago. completely stock.

I just got the OTA message now, I think I'm finally in the clear!!! Thanks for your help everybody :confused:
 

jpfoxey

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Funny you should mention the PIT and repartition. I already did that as well since I know repartition on a PC would have done a complete wipe and reinstall, including any partition used for Boot.

Just as I was afraid of, fried.


NOOOO! I needed to go back to stock in order to get my phone looked at since it was not charging. I forgot the pit/ I was MTD running CM9 Beta 2, and now nothing, I will be beside myself if I fried it doing this, is that what rrrrrrrrr, so not happy

PLEASE Help!
 

jpfoxey

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NOOOO! I needed to go back to stock in order to get my phone looked at since it was not charging. I forgot the pit/ I was MTD running CM9 Beta 2, and now nothing, I will be beside myself if I fried it doing this, is that what rrrrrrrrr, so not happy

PLEASE Help!


FALSE ALARM, I am not the sharpest tool, had a bad MD5, at least I had a place to freak out while I waited.
 

jmuru

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NOOOO! I needed to go back to stock in order to get my phone looked at since it was not charging. I forgot the pit/ I was MTD running CM9 Beta 2, and now nothing, I will be beside myself if I fried it doing this, is that what rrrrrrrrr, so not happy

PLEASE Help!

Can you get into download mode? Try running Odin again but with the PIT file and repartition checked and see if it works. Basically follow the first method in the OP of this thread.
 

Paul627g

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FYI, I used the same method I described in the OP for restoring to stock EL30 and it worked like a charm. My wife's Epic was on Froyo EC05 (Bonsai ROM) for ages and it worked perfectly to upgrade her straight to EL30 stock.

Computer used: Windows 7/ 64-bit.
Samsung Drivers from OP (32 bit version) installed first time, device recognized no problems.
Samsung stock cable (aftermarket purchased brand new)
 

rogodeter

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I installed Truly Epic Rebirth 1.5, after converting my fs to ext4. Now I want to factory restore and then do an OTA update to whatever is current on Sprint's network. Do I want to flash back to Eclair? Which restore procedure should I be using for this?

Thanks in advance.
 

rogodeter

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I installed Truly Epic Rebirth 1.5, after converting my fs to ext4. Now I want to factory restore and then do an OTA update to whatever is current on Sprint's network. Do I want to flash back to Eclair? Which restore procedure should I be using for this?

Thanks in advance.

Answered my own question by reading backwards from the last page in this thread. I installed EL30 (thanks Paul) and then was able to do an OTA upgrade to current Android version.

All is good.. Now I can store this phone and activate my Galaxy S3 that just came today. I wanted to factory restore this one first so I'd have a pristine backup in the event that my wife or I decide to smash or SGS3 on a parking lot in the near future.

Thanks again!
 

Zeinzu

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Mar 25, 2011
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How can I tell if my phone is mtd or bml?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Android Central Forums

How much internal storage do you have total?

Also, you can check what your system, etc, are mounted as.

RFS would be BML. YAFFS2 would be MTD. (on this device anyway)

Sent from my AOSP Android 4.1.1 Galaxy Nexus
 

javabiker

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Well, on my Galaxy I did as you said and the phone displayed 'Downloading' and under that 'Do not turn-off target' which I took to mean the phone. Anyhow, after 4 hours that display did not change. So I pulled out the USB cable, turned off and restarted, only to find nothing had changed. AFASIK, the USB port is ok. Could it be the cable itself?
Any thoughts?
 

Clinton Meier

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Re: Can't update, drivers not working.. etc

windows 7 users troubles with odin try running it as administrator just select and right click on odin select run as administrator thanks for the files been looking everywhere for this type of answer hopefully i can get my 3g/wifi working again
 

dkmrules

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Re: Can't update, drivers not working.. etc

I want to restore my dad's old epic 4g back to stock so I can replace my evo 3d that I dropped in water, but the power button is broken and sprint won't fix it because I'm running CM. Since the power button is broken I can't get it into download mode, and I managed by a stroke of luck to get it into download mode with some USB cable/battery trickery but odin failed to load Gingerbread and I tried taking the battery out but that turned the phone off and I haven't been able to replicate it. I'm pretty frustrated right now wtf do I do?
 

Davante Nisbett

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May 28, 2013
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Said ***LOCKED*** But Dosen't Say Anything Just Starting From Line Below)
SHOOTER XC SHIP S-OFF RL
HBOOT-1.58.0000
RADIO-1.09.00.0108
eMMC-boot
May 17, 2012

AND THE 4 OPTIONS BUT EVERY TIME I GO INTO RECOVERY IT COMES UP WITH A PHONE WITH GREEN RECYCLE SIGN THEN RED TRIANGLE. PLEASE HELP IM SO FRUSTRATED ! ALL OF THIS HAPPENED CUZ I TRIED TO OVERCLOCK.ALSO MY LAPTOP DOSENT RECOGNIZE MY PHONE THROUGH USB, SHOULD I TRY ON MY DESKTOP ?
 

abigweenus

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Re: Odin from DG17 to DI18

Do I extract the SPH-D700-FC09-8Gb-REL.tar.md5.zip file before applying it in Odin? And do I change the .tar.md5 to anything?

- - - Updated - - -

Do I extract the SPH-D700-FC09-8Gb-REL.tar.md5.zip file before applying it in Odin? And do I change the .tar.md5 to anything?
 

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