My question is about the "Flash Count". What is this and does the phone only have so many times it can be "flashed"? Why is that a concern Jay? Just curious.
Whenever you flash a *kernel* not signed by Samsung using ODIN it increases the flash count and causes a yellow triangle at boot. The flash count is visible when you go into ODIN D/L mode using Power+VolDn (after turning off the phone)
The yellow triangle can be removed by flashing a stock kernel or running triangle away, but the flash count would need to be reset using a usb jig which you can bulid or buy.
Some people theorize that Samsung or Sprint might try to deny warranty claims if they see you installed non-stock software, but I don't believe they can do that legally unless they prove the changes you made caused the issue your returning the phone over.
Anyway, in practice most Sprint repair centers don't care about the ODIN flash count, but some folks feel better not attracting any attention at all with their repair claims so they don't want the yellow triangle nor the odin flash count to be greater than 0.
Some people just don't want the yellow triangle because it isn't aesthetically pleasing.
I don't believe there is an explicit limit on the number of flashes you can do, though all EMMC has a limited lifetime of writes, you may never reach the range where issues would arise.
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