Urgent advice/help needed - Galaxy J7

[anon(9607521)]

I bought my new device just yesterday, and today, when trying to flash TWRP recovery with Odin, the dumb Windows XP gave me a blue screen on both attempts, so I gave up. But, Odin did try to flash the device, and although it seems to be functioning normally (and it still uses the default recovery screen/options), how do I know for sure the device is not (at the least) semi-bricked ?

Also:

1- I tried "Smart Switch PC" to re-flash my device with original files, but it just hangs at 0% and does nothing. The big AP file, although downloaded through Samsung's original link (and program) seems to be corrupted, because when I noticed the "0%" flashing was stuck, I tried to Odin it, and Odin gave an error screen (meaning it didn't load the file within Odin);

2- I had to try Smart Switch, because sammobile does not have the "AP" file for my device. There's two versions there, but none is "J700MUBU1AOI2_J700MUBU1AOI1" ("Oi1" or "OL1", as I'm not sure if it's an "i" or an "L" being "baseband", and Oi2 or OL2 being "build number"). The fact I can't re-download through either sammobile or smart switch is worrying me big time! If anyone could upload the AP file somewhere else, so I can download it, I'd appreciate it. The original name of the file, according to Smart Switch, is "AP_J700MUBU1AOI2_CL825622_QB6412595_REV00_user_low_ship.tar". I was able to copy the BL, CP and CSC files with no problems from the temp folder, so I am just missing the AP one.
You can see here that the AP I need is not on Sammobile: Firmware for Samsung SM-J700M - SamMobile

3- If I try to flash TWRP recovery with Vista or later, and Odin 3.0.9 or later, will it even work, or keep giving me Windows blue screens ?

4- Just a general worry... I never noticed the "power down" option in recovery mode before Smart Switch tried to flash my device (failing miserably at it, as it got stuck at 0%)... Is my device modified in any way ? Both Smart Switch and TWRP failed, so I hope not, but I honestly had not ever noticed this option in recovery before trying Smart Switch today.

Thanks in advance to anyone who steps forward to answer all my queries.

 

[anon(9607521)]

Update

I just bricked my device.
Tried to flash TWRP with a more powerful PC with a modern version of Windows, and now it is not working anymore.

I'll never trust TeamWin again. They and others keep talking about how unsafe KingRoot is, but at least kingroot wouldn't have done this to any of my devices. I'll stick with Kingroot forever, from now on. Two days since purchase, and now I'll have to pay because of voided warranty, thanks to hackers who think they are better than the Chinese.

Everyone with a J7 exynos 7580 can root this device with TWRP and SuperSU, but with me, it had to give out an error. Great!

 

[anon(9607521)]

Update 2

Device unbricked.

I was able to restore it with the combination of Kies3's/SmartSwitch's downloaded files and Odin in another computer with a more modern version of Windows.

In this PC here, Odin would always blue screen my WinXP, and Kies3 and SmartSwitch simply don't work either, also forcing the PC to reinitialize. This PC here is a piece of junk, but I never had any problems with it when I had the Gran Prime Duos. It seems flashing the J7 requires more memory.

In any case, I'm not gonna trust just any hackers again. Kingroot is the safest option out there. I just don't want to use it because, again, Samsung hasn't provided the file (version/PDA/CSC) I need on sammobile.com, so I can't restore it if needed.

Just updating the community on my situation. It's now solved. I hate having to put up with bloatware though.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Just seeing your thread now. Is Knox on the J7? If so it might have been countering what you were doing behind the scenes.

 

[anon(9607521)]

TWRP is installed now, but its flashing hung up in Odin at "RQT_close". But it's now rooted.
TWRP and SU get in the way of OTA too though, just like Kingroot. So, I am disappointed in this regard.

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