Yesterday morning, after an attempt to install the Samsung keyboard from the Vibrant, I found myself in a force close loop after rebooting. The Fascinate was able to boot past the Verizon logo, but once at the "home screen", I saw a steady stream of TW, acore, and a bunch of other FC popups.
No problem, I thought. I figured I could just follow the How to go back to stock sticky. However, no matter how many times I flashed the Odin restore file, my phone would go into an endless force close reboot after the Verizon logo. Somehow I managed to totally corrupt my 32GB SD card in the process. OMFG, I thought. 2 hours later I was at the Verizon store buying a replacement. 8 hours later, I had read through enough threads and posts to finally cobble together a solution. In the process, I read where other people have had this issue after applying the lag fix. I think I've seen a few other instances of it too, and several other desperate cries for help.
So here's how I fixed it (I want to thank namebrandon from the AC forums and wasupwithhuman from the XDA forums for their contributions):
Note: If you've already downloaded Odin before you can skip steps 5 & 6 below.
1) Download this CWRecovery File.
2) Power off phone.
3) Press and hold the volume-down key.
4) Plug your Fascinate into the computer via USB cable.
You should now see a gigantic yellow triangle and your phone will be in download mode. You can now release the volume key.
5) Download the Odin executable from here.
6) Open Odin.
7) Click on the PDA button.
Triple check that you pushed the PDA button. Do NOT click the Phone button prior to step 8. Click the PDA button. If you choose Phone, you will have bought your Fascinate a one-way ticket to hell.
8) Choose the CWMrecovery.tar file you downloaded in step 1 & then click the Start button in Odin.
The phone will reboot when finished & will continue to force close. Do not panic. The Fascinate can be unplugged from your computer at this point.
9) Download the attached update.zip (CWR) file (thanks namebrandon).
10) Move update.zip file to SD card (you will likely need an SD card reader to do this).
11) Power off Fascinate (takes a bit to power off).
12) Press and hold the volume up and the volume down keys at the same time.
13) Press and hold the power button.
14) Release the power button when you see the Samsung logo.
You should now see "Android System Recovery <2e>" at the top of your screen. Reboot system now will be highlighted.
15) Press the volume down button, once, to highlight the option to apply sdcard:update.zip. Then press the home button to select and apply the update.
Once flashed, the Fascinate will reboot into Clockworld Recovery. Let it be, while you complete the next steps.
16) Download this Stock Nandroid Image. (thanks wasupwithhuman @XDA).
17) Remove the SD card from your Fascinate and insert into computer with an SD card reader.
18) Create a folder on your SD card called clockworkmod.
19) Create a sub folder inside of clockworkmod called backup.
20) Unzip the file downloaded in step 16 and place the 2010-09-21.18.31.12 folder inside the backup folder you created in step 19.
21) Remove SD card from computer and insert into Fascinate.
22) In CWM select backup and restore -> restore -> 2010-09-21.18.31.12 (use the volume rocker to highlight menu options and the power button to execute the highlighted item).
Once complete, the phone will reboot and you should be out of the force close loop of hell.
No problem, I thought. I figured I could just follow the How to go back to stock sticky. However, no matter how many times I flashed the Odin restore file, my phone would go into an endless force close reboot after the Verizon logo. Somehow I managed to totally corrupt my 32GB SD card in the process. OMFG, I thought. 2 hours later I was at the Verizon store buying a replacement. 8 hours later, I had read through enough threads and posts to finally cobble together a solution. In the process, I read where other people have had this issue after applying the lag fix. I think I've seen a few other instances of it too, and several other desperate cries for help.
So here's how I fixed it (I want to thank namebrandon from the AC forums and wasupwithhuman from the XDA forums for their contributions):
Note: If you've already downloaded Odin before you can skip steps 5 & 6 below.
1) Download this CWRecovery File.
2) Power off phone.
3) Press and hold the volume-down key.
4) Plug your Fascinate into the computer via USB cable.
You should now see a gigantic yellow triangle and your phone will be in download mode. You can now release the volume key.
5) Download the Odin executable from here.
6) Open Odin.
7) Click on the PDA button.
Triple check that you pushed the PDA button. Do NOT click the Phone button prior to step 8. Click the PDA button. If you choose Phone, you will have bought your Fascinate a one-way ticket to hell.
8) Choose the CWMrecovery.tar file you downloaded in step 1 & then click the Start button in Odin.
The phone will reboot when finished & will continue to force close. Do not panic. The Fascinate can be unplugged from your computer at this point.
9) Download the attached update.zip (CWR) file (thanks namebrandon).
10) Move update.zip file to SD card (you will likely need an SD card reader to do this).
11) Power off Fascinate (takes a bit to power off).
12) Press and hold the volume up and the volume down keys at the same time.
13) Press and hold the power button.
14) Release the power button when you see the Samsung logo.
You should now see "Android System Recovery <2e>" at the top of your screen. Reboot system now will be highlighted.
15) Press the volume down button, once, to highlight the option to apply sdcard:update.zip. Then press the home button to select and apply the update.
Once flashed, the Fascinate will reboot into Clockworld Recovery. Let it be, while you complete the next steps.
16) Download this Stock Nandroid Image. (thanks wasupwithhuman @XDA).
17) Remove the SD card from your Fascinate and insert into computer with an SD card reader.
18) Create a folder on your SD card called clockworkmod.
19) Create a sub folder inside of clockworkmod called backup.
20) Unzip the file downloaded in step 16 and place the 2010-09-21.18.31.12 folder inside the backup folder you created in step 19.
21) Remove SD card from computer and insert into Fascinate.
22) In CWM select backup and restore -> restore -> 2010-09-21.18.31.12 (use the volume rocker to highlight menu options and the power button to execute the highlighted item).
Once complete, the phone will reboot and you should be out of the force close loop of hell.
Last edited:
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