I8190 SIII Mini Soft-Bricked, need help - Galaxy S III Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey people, I have been on this forum and using the CM12.1 ROM by New Maclaw since it came out, but I'm afraid my S3 Mini is dead now Saturday night it turned off by itself while charging, and it wouldn't turn on again. I let it charge a little, and after a while it turned on again, but was stuck on the CM12.1 boot animation. I tried rebooting multiple times, but it always got stuck on the boot animation. I tried booting into TWRP, but it got stuck on the Galaxy SIII Mini splash screen and wouldn't even go any further.
I was getting my hopes up when I saw download modus still working, so I flashed TWRP again with Odin, but nothing changed. I flashed the entire CM12.1 package again with Odin, but it had no effect whatsoever, can't boot into TWRP and regular boot is stuck on CM boot logo.
Since I had no options left, I decided to follow this guide: [GUIDE] Unroot / Unbrick, Flash official stock firmware on Galaxy SIII Mini GT-I8190 to flash original ROM again, first flashing the original recovery as linked in the thread, then the ROM itself, and checking after each step if anything changed. But even after I flashed the stock ROM, it would show the CM 12.1 boot animation on boot, and recovery was still not working at all. I continued by flashing the params.tar as linked in the post, but my phone still shows the CM 12.1 boot animation, and I can't get any further
What's really concerning to me is the fact that all the flash operations via Odin are going through, I get a PASS every time, but it doesn't seem to have any effect, so I'm afraid the memory chip on my phone has died There are so many great minds in here that know everything about this phone, maybe someone has an idea to help me get my trusted S3 mini back

Super weird. It's not soft bricked, it's completely f#cked up:laugh: OK, have you tried to remove the battery for some minutes!? Or go in recovery through adb instead!? If you have a backup (that's why, we always need a backup) maybe you can restore it through adb. Search on XDA for adb tutorials or something like that or some case like yours. I want to believe that you're not the first one with that issue. I know that's frustrating when we don't know what's going on. Good luck

mauam said:
Super weird. It's not soft bricked, it's completely f#cked up:laugh: OK, have you tried to remove the battery for some minutes!? Or go in recovery through adb instead!? If you have a backup (that's why, we always need a backup) maybe you can restore it through adb. Search on XDA for adb tutorials or something like that or some case like yours. I want to believe that you're not the first one with that issue. I know that's frustrating when we don't know what's going on. Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really care about backups, all my important data is on the SD anyway, I just want to bring the phone back to life if possible at all.
While on the CM12.1 boot screen I can find the phone with adb, but since I never set up adb my computer is unauthorized, and I can't authorize it without being able to boot. I'm not all that familiar with adb, I asked some people, but nobody has an idea how I can authorize my computer without having access to the phone system.

Related

[Q] Interesting boot loop problem.

2 nights ago I thought I would have a go at installing ULTIMATE ROM 3.0. I have flashed many Roms on my Galaxy S before and not had a problem yet. I have ClockworkMod Recovery 2.5.1.0 installed.
However, this time- something went wrong. I don't think the installation completed properly. When I tried to reboot the system (to go back into my previous ROM) I wasn't able to. The Samsung logo appeared before the phone booted back into Recovery mode.
I tried to re-flash my previous working update.zip but had problems. I wasn't able to properly re-flash as the Installation would abort for various reasons. After doing cache clearing and data/factory reset I still had no luck. I resorted to reformatting the sdcard. Still didn't solve the flashing problem.
Throughout the whole time I was able to adb into the phone, browse the file system and I could push files on to it and take files off. But Kies wouldn't recognise the phone and Odin isn't able to complete a transfer to the phone (not sure why).
Today, I am able to successfully flash update.zip files (at least, that's what it looks like) but the phone ALWAYS boots into ClockwordMod recovery.
I am fast running out of ideas. Does anyone have any suggestion?
How can I tell if my ROMs are really 'there' but I can't access them because ClockworkMod is preventing them from booting?
hmmm... me too.. stuck in a loop, that keeps going back to the CWM recovery menu, and no matter what i do, keeps going back to it... cant even get to the download screen to flash (again).... here i was thinking no matter what happens when installing custom roms, i can always flash to my stable secure rom, but not this time... need some software that can perform surgical operations, any suggestions?
bradels said:
2 nights ago I thought I would have a go at installing ULTIMATE ROM 3.0. I have flashed many Roms on my Galaxy S before and not had a problem yet. I have ClockworkMod Recovery 2.5.1.0 installed.
However, this time- something went wrong. I don't think the installation completed properly. When I tried to reboot the system (to go back into my previous ROM) I wasn't able to. The Samsung logo appeared before the phone booted back into Recovery mode.
I tried to re-flash my previous working update.zip but had problems. I wasn't able to properly re-flash as the Installation would abort for various reasons. After doing cache clearing and data/factory reset I still had no luck. I resorted to reformatting the sdcard. Still didn't solve the flashing problem.
Throughout the whole time I was able to adb into the phone, browse the file system and I could push files on to it and take files off. But Kies wouldn't recognise the phone and Odin isn't able to complete a transfer to the phone (not sure why).
Today, I am able to successfully flash update.zip files (at least, that's what it looks like) but the phone ALWAYS boots into ClockwordMod recovery.
I am fast running out of ideas. Does anyone have any suggestion?
How can I tell if my ROMs are really 'there' but I can't access them because ClockworkMod is preventing them from booting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
myrobelle said:
hmmm... me too.. stuck in a loop, that keeps going back to the CWM recovery menu, and no matter what i do, keeps going back to it... cant even get to the download screen to flash (again).... here i was thinking no matter what happens when installing custom roms, i can always flash to my stable secure rom, but not this time... need some software that can perform surgical operations, any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats too bad guys,and i m sorry to hear that news.I would like to havean answer but i dont...
The fact is that since most people in this forum use some custom roms,and all of us think the same,that we can always go back,so it would be great if you give some more details about what happened to you,and mybe why it went wrong,and it would be even better if one of the BIG guys would give some explanation about this...
I already thinking of not updating my rom anymore,dot want to end up in looping too,so lets see if someone will find something.Good luck guys..
By the way,i didnt get it right,CWM recovery cannot load your backup????
I just got an idea,but not sure if or how it would work or not.
Since you can push file with ADB,if soeone made a clean backup with his CWM (o e mail,contacts,setting saved) and send it to you,so that you log in with CWM recovery and flash that ???
Just an idea..maybe stupid dont know...
Its not very clear if youve tried this already but cant you just boot into recovery through adb? or does that not work either?

Cannot Access CWM Recovery Mod

[SOLVED -- Read my last post]
Posting on forum was my last resource, but I've tried literately almost everything I can possible find.
I already bricked my phone and had to unbrick, do everything (update firmware etc) all over again.
I am at a point where I am afraid to do something new to my phone now without knowing what they are...
Please bare with me, I am not familiar with exactly what flashing is or whatnot, I just followed the instructions and got where I am....
K, recently I decided to wipe my phone CLEAN and update to new CyanogenMod 9 from factory mode.
So, I have Captivate, I897. It was ECLARE with 2.1 firmware.
I have updated to 2.3.5 (Gingerbread [I897UCKJ2]), Rooted.
I had to Flash BACK to KK4_stock_kernel.tar for me to use WIFI again because I had issue after Rooting my phone, I couldnt access the WIFI.
I installed Clockwork mod (Free version).
My goal is to install CyanogenMod 9, and part of the process requires me to enter the CMW Recovery Mod.
I dont even know what this looks like, but all I know is whenever I boot my phone, after the AT&T logo animation it seems to go into this "messed up" screen, where as if my phone is broken. Stays there for 3 seconds and then continues to boot back to its OS.
In ROM manager, it says Flash ClockworkMod Recovery (You must have the clockworkmod recovery installed to flash and restore ROMs!)
Another option within ROM manager is, Reboot into Recovery (Boot into Recovery mode for manual management.), which if I do access it, it takes me back to that AT&T logo animation and that "messed up" screen again, but this time it stays there. Where all kinds of colored pixels are on my screen as if my screen is broken. It will only continue to boot back to my OS if I press power button or some sort.
Im guessing that's my Recovery Mod, which my phone for some reason cannot see?
So I tried "Download ROM (Upgrade to ROM Manager (premium) to access the full list of ROMs!", hoping this may cure that messed up screen effect, which I think is the Recovery Mod for all I know... When I click to install, it gives me Confirm Phone Models. None are my phone model for me to install.. (It only gives me Google Nexus S / Google Nexus S 4G / Samsung Epic4G / Samsung GalaxyS i9000).
Earlier, I was looking at this, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1127578
which is a way to fix recovery mod(?) But I have NO idea how to even install those files... Maybe not the .tar file but the other one.
Please help? Am I the only one experiencing this kind of problem? Couldnt find anywhere else on youtube / google / forum..
Thank you VERY much in advance, really appreciate it..
-Dan.
danroh said:
I had to Flash BACK to KK4_stock_kernel.tar for me to use WIFI again because I had issue after Rooting my phone, I couldnt access the WIFI.
-Dan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is your likely problem right here. The Kernel that is installed during the rooting process and typically when you install custom roms is what is responsible for installing and therefor you being able to access the CWM recovery. Flashing back to the stock kernel likely messed things up for you.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1300843
Now if you follow that link it will take you to several one click options for flashing your phone to stock gingerbread but with a kernel containing CWM. Also keep in mind that it is possible you could have wifi issues if you've had them in the past, but if your goal is to get to CM9 just ignore the wifi for the time it shouldn't be an isuse in the end.
Hey OP,
See this.... TRusselo's Flashing Guide
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using xda premium
You need Gingerbread bootloaders.
Thanks guys! I figured out the problem and solved it!
Like you guys said, I didnt have the bootloader. The gingerbread I installed was the no bootloader version. After reinstalling to the one with bootloader, I was able to access the recovery mod and that "rainbow screen" glitch was no more.
Thank you!

[Q] Samsung Galaxy S 4g Boot Loop without CWM

Ok, I am new to these forms and kind of a noob android user so please make it as simple as possible.
So, I rooted my phone but i never have messed with roms or kernels or anything (mostly because i dont understand them) so everything is stock (gingerbread 2.6 i believe). I was following an online guide to change the boot animation via root explorer and now my phone only shows the word "android" with the shine going through it. The weird thing is, I can turn on the phone and get to the homescreen, but I am not able to see anything except the boot screen. For example, when i turn it on, I am able to turn it off by pressing power then blindly searching for the turn off button on-screen.
I have searched long and hard for a solution, but they were all caused by uploading a CWM roms that went bad, but I didnt do that. I did have it at one point just to backup my rom because everyone said that it was important. So I do have a CWM backup, but no CWM app on my phone. I am able to get to recovery mode.
Please help thanks.

[Q] Stuck at Samsung Logo... Repartition phone?

So, to make a long story, short, for the past couple of days my phone has been soft-bricked... It first happened when I attempted to flash dmodv6 in CWM. Everything looked good throughout the installation, however, when I rebooted my device, I got stuck in a boot loop where It would say "Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I8190" for a few seconds, the screen would go black, then say the same thing again... over and over and over...
After a lot of trial and error because of NOT making a nandroid backup via CWM (stupid, I know - I had made one via Titanium Backup and thought that might be good enough), I finally was able to boot. Thanks to xXPR0T0TYPEXx, I was able to flash another rom by puting my external sd card into another phone, loading another rom onto it, and putting it back in my phone. I now had Cyanogenmod10 and was able to boot back up.
I attempted to restore the Titanium Backup I had made with this new rom (stupid again, I know) and it made almost every service on the phone stop working... I desperately wanted just to get back to square one - to install stock firmware and go from there. I followed tys0n's guide on flashing stock recovery then attempted to install stock firmware... All seemingly went well - I booted up, got past the initial "Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I8190" logo and finally got hung up at the "Samsung" logo. I left it one while I went to sleep, just to see if it would eventually work... I woke up and it was still the same. I tried flashing different version of the same stock firmware but it all ended in getting hung up at the "Samsung" logo.
A major problem is that I absolutely CANNOT flash a custom recovery via Odin - it just will NOT work. Everything looks good on Odin's end - I PASS, get the (succeed 1 / failed 0) thing but am sent to stock recovery every time I do the 3 button combination. I've tried many version of CWM and TWRP.... NOTHING. I've even unticked the "Auto-Reboot" button in Odin and pulled the usb cable and battery upon completion but, but nothing ever works. The only way I was ever able to get CWM on my phone in the first place was by an in-phone app... Rom Manager, maybe? I can't remember. But, as it is, that method is out of the question.
I've learned a lot about what I did wrong so that's the only good part of all of this. Now, all that's left is to fix the thing so I can go about it right. I'm completely out of ideas, have spent almost a full 24 hours searching solutions to this problem and I am at wits end...
I just want to get back to stock firmware... Any ideas, guys? Should I go about re-partitioning my device at this time?
I have the PIT file... but I'm not sure as to which firmware to choose. I imagine a firmware that is 4.1.1 like my phone was... but I'm not sure about the region. I live in the US and there is no US or North American region firmware version.Can anyone shed some light on which one I should choose?
My SSN underneath my battery say "GTI8190GSMH".
I'm sorry this is so long, I just wanted to explain what happened as best as I could. So, should I go about re-partitioning my device at this point? If so, what firmware would you recommend for my model? Are different region versions okay for a this method?
Or is there another way?
Thanks, guys. :silly:
Some additional details (if it will help): I can, indeed, boot into both recovery and download mode. I just can't seem to flash a stock rom that will boot past the "Samsung" logo.
I've even attempted to flash the param file after the rom flash but it didn't help.
AffectiveEffect said:
Some additional details (if it will help): I can, indeed, boot into both recovery and download mode. I just can't seem to flash a stock rom that will boot past the "Samsung" logo.
I've even attempted to flash the param file after the rom flash but it didn't help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the stock recovery now instead CWM? If yes do (if you didn't try it) a factory/data reset and wipe cache but it will delete your pics, music etc on your internal storage too.
xXPR0T0TYPEXx said:
Do you have the stock recovery now instead CWM? If yes do (if you didn't try it) a factory/data reset and wipe cache but it will delete your pics, music etc on your internal storage too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have stock recovery now and I have tried that many, many times... Even if I install something like CyanogenMod, it still gets hung up on the CyanogenMod boot screen... And if I boot a stock firmware, it gets hung up at the same place at the "Samsung" logo...
I have an idea that one of the only options left is a PIT re-partitioning... If so, how would I properly go about that? Load the PIT file and the stock firmware in odin? Or only the PIT as PDA? I've heard a couple of different things and am unsure.
AffectiveEffect said:
Yeah, I have stock recovery now and I have tried that many, many times... Even if I install something like CyanogenMod, it still gets hung up on the CyanogenMod boot screen... And if I boot a stock firmware, it gets hung up at the same place at the "Samsung" logo...
I have an idea that one of the only options left is a PIT re-partitioning... If so, how would I properly go about that? Load the PIT file and the stock firmware in odin? Or only the PIT as PDA? I've heard a couple of different things and am unsure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about PIT files but some people got this message : "CUSTOM PIT BINARY" in recovery mode after flashed a PIT file (maybe they used a other PIT file that wasn't compatible). So make sure you use a PIT file that is GT-i8190 compatible.
I tried flashing the PIT file for the hell of it because I am completely out of ideas.... It failed repeatedly in Odin.
I have no clue on how to fix this... I've tried countless roms and they all get stuck on their respective boot screens. The only one that gave me a glimmer of hope was Cyanogenmod10.2.... It went as far as saying "Android is upgrading" and showed "starting apps" but it got hung up there.
I don't know what to do, guys. Someone help!!!
AffectiveEffect said:
I tried flashing the PIT file for the hell of it because I am completely out of ideas.... It failed repeatedly in Odin.
I have no clue on how to fix this... I've tried countless roms and they all get stuck on their respective boot screens. The only one that gave me a glimmer of hope was Cyanogenmod10.2.... It went as far as saying "Android is upgrading" and showed "starting apps" but it got hung up there.
I don't know what to do, guys. Someone help!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use a custom ROM to see if it will fix the problem .Try to flash CyanogenMod 10.2 by NovaFusion via odin or if you flash CyanogenMod 11 then you will automatically get the TWRP recovery. NovaFusion Team Homepage : novafusion.pl. I know you want the stock ROM but try other ROMs to get a booting phone again
xXPR0T0TYPEXx said:
Use a custom ROM to see if it will fix the problem .Try to flash CyanogenMod 10.2 by NovaFusion via odin or if you flash CyanogenMod 11 then you will automatically get the TWRP recovery. NovaFusion Team Homepage : novafusion.pl. I know you want the stock ROM but try other ROMs to get a booting phone again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have... I've tried numerous stock roms and numerous custom roms... all versions of Cyanogenmod, Chameleon, Carbon, Slim mod, etc... They all get stuck at their respective logos.
I even tried the Cyanogenmod with TWRP but, as I explained earlier, I absolutely CAN NOT flash a custom recovery unless I use what ever app I used.... It doesn't work with Odin or with a rom. I don't know why.
I wish someone had more info on repartitioning my phone and if it would help.
NEED HELP?
AffectiveEffect said:
So, to make a long story, short, for the past couple of days my phone has been soft-bricked... It first happened when I attempted to flash dmodv6 in CWM. Everything looked good throughout the installation, however, when I rebooted my device, I got stuck in a boot loop where It would say "Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I8190" for a few seconds, the screen would go black, then say the same thing again... over and over and over...
After a lot of trial and error because of NOT making a nandroid backup via CWM (stupid, I know - I had made one via Titanium Backup and thought that might be good enough), I finally was able to boot. Thanks to xXPR0T0TYPEXx, I was able to flash another rom by puting my external sd card into another phone, loading another rom onto it, and putting it back in my phone. I now had Cyanogenmod10 and was able to boot back up.
I attempted to restore the Titanium Backup I had made with this new rom (stupid again, I know) and it made almost every service on the phone stop working... I desperately wanted just to get back to square one - to install stock firmware and go from there. I followed tys0n's guide on flashing stock recovery then attempted to install stock firmware... All seemingly went well - I booted up, got past the initial "Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I8190" logo and finally got hung up at the "Samsung" logo. I left it one while I went to sleep, just to see if it would eventually work... I woke up and it was still the same. I tried flashing different version of the same stock firmware but it all ended in getting hung up at the "Samsung" logo.
A major problem is that I absolutely CANNOT flash a custom recovery via Odin - it just will NOT work. Everything looks good on Odin's end - I PASS, get the (succeed 1 / failed 0) thing but am sent to stock recovery every time I do the 3 button combination. I've tried many version of CWM and TWRP.... NOTHING. I've even unticked the "Auto-Reboot" button in Odin and pulled the usb cable and battery upon completion but, but nothing ever works. The only way I was ever able to get CWM on my phone in the first place was by an in-phone app... Rom Manager, maybe? I can't remember. But, as it is, that method is out of the question.
I've learned a lot about what I did wrong so that's the only good part of all of this. Now, all that's left is to fix the thing so I can go about it right. I'm completely out of ideas, have spent almost a full 24 hours searching solutions to this problem and I am at wits end...
I just want to get back to stock firmware... Any ideas, guys? Should I go about re-partitioning my device at this time?
I have the PIT file... but I'm not sure as to which firmware to choose. I imagine a firmware that is 4.1.1 like my phone was... but I'm not sure about the region. I live in the US and there is no US or North American region firmware version.Can anyone shed some light on which one I should choose?
My SSN underneath my battery say "GTI8190GSMH".
I'm sorry this is so long, I just wanted to explain what happened as best as I could. So, should I go about re-partitioning my device at this point? If so, what firmware would you recommend for my model? Are different region versions okay for a this method?
Or is there another way?
Thanks, guys. :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i got same problem with you before im wayback dmod v6 before and stuck at samsung logo i just try hard reset
1. open your phone
2. remove battery and put the battery try and try til u get in recovery mode (CWM) maybe just tried almost 20x restarting in logo til u in CWM :victory:
3. re-Flash your dmod v6 this way for dirty rom like what i said (softbricks)
4. just flash another new rom whatever u like or dmod v6.
5. I HOPE IT HELPS DONT FORGET TO THANKS <3 :highfive:

[Q] [S3 mini 8190L]White pixelated screen, not boot and no TWRP mode after swapper2

Im currently using a S3 Mini I8190L with Carbon latest ROM. It was all fine and great until I tried to improve a little bit by using swapper2 through this method:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1659231&page=1
Since the ROM documentation said it provided support for swap, I went straight for the swapper2 apk configuration, set it all, HIT ok. After that part, i got 2 fail msgs, the phone froze and i had to restart it.
But it would go straight to a white pixelated screen and never boot into KK or TWRP. All it does is Download mode (btw, battery doesn't recharge, need to use a 2nd device to charge it)
I tried to reflash the ROM but got a "THERES NO PIT PARTITION" error, went on to solving that with i8190l.pit but after flashing it, nothing changes. Still cant flash ROMs, boot to KK or TWRP.
For reference, the "STOCK" firmware is this one: http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/confirm/22769/I8190LUBAMK1_I8190LZTMAMK1_ZTM/
What should I do ?
Sir,
Please wait until mods will move this thread to the device specific forum for more relevant answers.
Stand by
Good luck

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