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:
First, hello to all as this is my first post and please excuse my bad english.
I've a GT-I8190 that I'm trying to flash via Odin, but some strange things are happenning. All the process goes fine, but when I finish the upload nothing changed. I know how to use Odin (this is not my first time flashing a device), and I know what to expect from each option of the program, so I'll go to the main point.
As far as I cannot flash anything (I repeat, all the process goes fine and SUCCESS appears on Odin, so no NAND write errors, no connection errors, etc ...), I tried to do the last thing I could do to check my thoughts: I performed a "Nand erase all" (Odin 3.09). No PIT file, no CSC, no PHONE, no BOOTLOADER, only CWM on PDA. As far as I understand, doing this I'll loose bootloader, radio, EVERYTHING, and I won't be able to turn on the phone as far as it won't have a valid bootloader... so, when all process finished ("Erasing NAND" message appeared on log, and SUCCESS again when finished), I started the phone and... it booted exactly as if I did anything with Odin!
I tried to make a reset to factory defaults from OS, but results are the same: nothing changed on reboot (still have my apps, contacts, EVERYTHING). Manually uninstalled Facebook and AVG, but when I restart the phone they are still there!
So, question is, is there something I can do with this phone? It seems that NAND is write protected or something like this... Is there any eFUSE that prevents to write to NAND?
I don't know if there is another case similar to this one in the forum, I've searched a lot but find nothing.
Any help will be appreciated.
PS: BTW, I cannot acces to recovery menu
PS2: ADB reboot-bootloader does not work, it restarts the phone normally. I cannot test fastboot oem lock / unlock commands
Did you realize any solution? I have similiar problem.
try flashing with odin 3.07
Dont desconnect phone untill you see the main screen of your phone I mean past boot up
Let the glash finish phone restart with cable plug in
Same here
I'm having exactly the same problem. HELP! i haven't tried changing the battery because i haven't been able to do it, but there's something that should work
Hello Friends,
Yesterday I was chatting on whatsapp and suddenly my le2 restarts, and then a blue splash screen appears and device keeps on booting,
hence I went to recovery and clear the data, but that also didnt help me,
Then i flash the 13s rom via Flashone 1.9 then also same problem happens, sometimes it went to optimizing apps 3 of 4 and again restarts with blue LED, i were unable to switch it off,
after draining the whole battery I keep mobile to charge but now it is not charging, it only showing Red Solid LED Continuously.
Now I am also Unable to boot into recovery or fastboot mode.
I again flash the stock 13s rom via flashone 1.9 , i got success msg but then also mobile is not booting nor it is charging.
Note: I am on complete stock rom on locked bootloader, never unlocked or rooted, used as come in box.
Please give me a solution on this, I have searched everywhere but not getting any solutions.
Thanks in advance
Try to check your USB cable, most of the time charging issue is due to cable
shubham1358 said:
Try to check your USB cable, most of the time charging issue is due to cable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cable is ok. I have another Le2 and it is charging with that cable very well
I am facing same problem. How you solve this issue? Blue led blinks after flashing any rom and bootloop.
xerol said:
Hello Friends,
Yesterday I was chatting on whatsapp and suddenly my le2 restarts, and then a blue splash screen appears and device keeps on booting,
hence I went to recovery and clear the data, but that also didnt help me,
Then i flash the 13s rom via Flashone 1.9 then also same problem happens, sometimes it went to optimizing apps 3 of 4 and again restarts with blue LED, i were unable to switch it off,
after draining the whole battery I keep mobile to charge but now it is not charging, it only showing Red Solid LED Continuously.
Now I am also Unable to boot into recovery or fastboot mode.
I again flash the stock 13s rom via flashone 1.9 , i got success msg but then also mobile is not booting nor it is charging.
Note: I am on complete stock rom on locked bootloader, never unlocked or rooted, used as come in box.
Please give me a solution on this, I have searched everywhere but not getting any solutions.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have the exact same problem. Phone started rebooting as soon as it booted up. Somehow i managed to unlock the bootloader, but to no avail. Can't seems to find any rom which can boot up. So practically i have a bricked device with trwp. Formatted the system and other partitions with twrp, flashed many roms. Still the result is same. Bootloops.
Hi,
try to to reimage your phone with QFIL from this site:
https://www.techpoison.in/2017/12/how-to-flash-letv-le-2-x526-stock.html
I downloaded everything from there, QFIL, Sparse image and drivers. My phone was bricked, but its working normally now. After you flash the image your phone should charge normally, just try to boot it up. In my case i had issues with baseband, not detected, no sim function and no wifi and phone was restarting each 3-4 minutes, but it was operable. Basedband issues can be solved by hard reseting the phone and updating it to 21s using the local update, just put the 21s stock renamed to update.zip to internal storage and run system update. When you get the error - APK missing, just boot it up again and retry the local update, should work fine the second time, i just deleted the update.zip and put back again and ran the update.
---------- Post added at 03:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:18 PM ----------
Forthe55 said:
I also have the exact same problem. Phone started rebooting as soon as it booted up. Somehow i managed to unlock the bootloader, but to no avail. Can't seems to find any rom which can boot up. So practically i have a bricked device with trwp. Formatted the system and other partitions with twrp, flashed many roms. Still the result is same. Bootloops.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash the 21s bootloader + modem, one ZIP file, should work fine. Not sure what ROM did you install last time. You can give it a shot with with MIUI 10 - its nougat.
I had similar issues, see my topic, maybe it helps a bit.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/le-2/help/x526-bricked-unknown-baseband-4g-t3838093
Modem + bootloader 21s.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_R...FxTGxlMHM/view
Brother same thing happened to me, a week ago. I cant say about your problem but my problem was due to faulty power button. Actually due to that reason my phone actually kept restarting itself. It showed red light blinking while charging and wasn't able to bypass the optimizing app screen. I also thought it was a software issue but actually it wasn't. I spent about 2 hours figuring out what the actual problem was. The problem was: As we know when power button is hard pressed for about 10-15 seconds it reboots itself.
Although the repair shop guy didn't put new power button but he added a tiny piece of paper in between the power button and body housing to prevent the issue and voila the problem was solved.
delltech1 said:
Hi,
try to to reimage your phone with QFIL from this site:
https://www.techpoison.in/2017/12/how-to-flash-letv-le-2-x526-stock.html
I downloaded everything from there, QFIL, Sparse image and drivers. My phone was bricked, but its working normally now. After you flash the image your phone should charge normally, just try to boot it up. In my case i had issues with baseband, not detected, no sim function and no wifi and phone was restarting each 3-4 minutes, but it was operable. Basedband issues can be solved by hard reseting the phone and updating it to 21s using the local update, just put the 21s stock renamed to update.zip to internal storage and run system update. When you get the error - APK missing, just boot it up again and retry the local update, should work fine the second time, i just deleted the update.zip and put back again and ran the update.
---------- Post added at 03:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:18 PM ----------
Flash the 21s bootloader + modem, one ZIP file, should work fine. Not sure what ROM did you install last time. You can give it a shot with with MIUI 10 - its nougat.
I had similar issues, see my topic, maybe it helps a bit.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/le-2/help/x526-bricked-unknown-baseband-4g-t3838093
Modem + bootloader 21s.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_R...FxTGxlMHM/view
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Thanks. I actually did that first, flashing through qfil the same rom. it helped me to go to settings after umpteen attempts to go past language selection screen, and i was just able to oem unlock and enable usb debugging (actually after a 2nd partial failed flashing). the phone kept freezing within seconds of booting up. Now After i unlocked the bootloader and installing twrp and flashing many roms thru twrp, i am still having the same problem of booting up and freezing at start-up. cant flash again through qfil, as i will again loose the unlocked bootloader and twrp.
At least , now i can try different roms to see which can unbrick it. last one used was the twrp flashable rom based on eui (small eui by aurel) but it also freezes on language selection screen or beyond.
I am running out of ideas, lets see.
2nd partial failed flashing? any issues during the flash process? i had some issues when i used usb 3.0, 2.0 worked fine for me. If you have also charging issues stay in twrp and let the phone charge properly, its slower but should work fine. You can try to flash the 21s bootloader with modem, maybe it will boot properly. But try it only when you are able to enter the fastboot mode, longpress volume down and power for 10-15 seconds, if that is working you should be able to flash twrp via fastboot and you can experiment a bit. Try to find the chinesse twrp 3.0.2.0 and try to flash the stock 21s version. Should be also an image file, in standard twrp go to install - image, after selecting the image file click on recovery and install, after installation go back, reboot, recovery. Copy 21s to storage, wipe data, cache, dalvik and flash it, chinesse twrp will skip version check and will let you install the stock image, after install reboot but click on do not replace recovery button - this will keep the chinesse twrp installed.
If nothing helps it can be only a HW failure, maybe the power button, try usb 2.0 port during the flash process, i had issues with 3.0 on my pc, if that doesnt help.try a different cable, no more suggestions, sorry.
delltech1 said:
2nd partial failed flashing? any issues during the flash process? i had some issues when i used usb 3.0, 2.0 worked fine for me. If you have also charging issues stay in twrp and let the phone charge properly, its slower but should work fine. You can try to flash the 21s bootloader with modem, maybe it will boot properly. But try it only when you are able to enter the fastboot mode, longpress volume down and power for 10-15 seconds, if that is working you should be able to flash twrp via fastboot and you can experiment a bit. Try to find the chinesse twrp 3.0.2.0 and try to flash the stock 21s version. Should be also an image file, in standard twrp go to install - image, after selecting the image file click on recovery and install, after installation go back, reboot, recovery. Copy 21s to storage, wipe data, cache, dalvik and flash it, chinesse twrp will skip version check and will let you install the stock image, after install reboot but click on do not replace recovery button - this will keep the chinesse twrp installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone has been flashed multiple times by qfil method. And always it hangs at initial setup (so it boots up, but hangs at language selection or further up screens, before setup can complete and launcher could be loaded).
While trying to flash again with qfil once it stopped at 25 percent (because the battery went dead). Charged the battery and booted up the phone, and i was surprised it booted up. After 2-3 attempts i was able to reach the launcher screen and immediately enabled developer options and oem unlock / usb debugging. Only had few split seconds to do this and the phone froze again. After that i installed twrp and hence treying different roms. Most fail at setup.
Just tried MIUI 9PRO ROM. It also froze at setup multiple times, but once i was able to complete the setup and miui launcher is up , but it reboots or turn off the phone just after that. So cant do anything with the phone. Unsure of whether a newer bootloader will help in these freezing issues as i have been able to boot up at least in some roms only if for few seconds. Will try to tinker the settings of miui rom (if the phone let me do it before freezing/hanging). Lets see. Thanks for suggestions. More suggestions welcome, because i am still unsure weather this is a software or hardware related problem. I am guessing that it may have something to do with Google security as earlier i was getting msg that phone has been wrongly resetted and needs to verify with Google (but i couldn't get a chance to use the same account, as phone kept freezing at setup).
Did you fully charge the battery, if not let it fully charge in twrp. Flashing the roms in twrp works everytime or do you see any errors? Before you flash anything disconnect the usb cable.
---------- Post added at 09:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:47 PM ----------
Try to flash the 21s bootloarder with modem, one zip using twrp. Go to fastboot mode and wipe modems. fastboot erase modem1st fastboot erase modem2st. Put the phone to flash mode and reimage with qfil. Before you do it write down both imeis, you can find them also on the original package on the backside. Also try to remove all sim cards from the phone and try a different cable. If nothing helps, hw issue, maybe the power button mention earlier in this thread.
After reflash skip everything at setup and reset phone to factory defaults. OEM is already unlocked, you dont have to do it again.
I have charged the phone fully before any flashing after that error. I can flash the phone through twrp without any error msg. The phone boots up most of times in various roms but hangs at or after the initial setup screens show (like language selection etc). Flashed the modem+bootloader, success, but it showed bootloader version as 20s (not 21s). Tried the commands u mentioned to erase modems, it say error failed, no such partition found. I had checked the partitions with parted and 56 partitions are there including the modemst1 & 2.
Now re flashed via qfil , did as advised but again the same problem of hanging / freezing at or after initialization screens of various roms.
Forthe55 said:
I have charged the phone fully before any flashing after that error. I can flash the phone through twrp without any error msg. The phone boots up most of times in various roms but hangs at or after the initial setup screens show (like language selection etc). Flashed the modem+bootloader, success, but it showed bootloader version as 20s (not 21s). Tried the commands u mentioned to erase modems, it say error failed, no such partition found. I had checked the partitions with parted and 56 partitions are there including the modemst1 & 2.
Now re flashed via qfil , did as advised but again the same problem of hanging / freezing at or after initialization screens of various roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah sorry i screwed the command its fastboot erase modest1 modemst2, my bad.
Just now i was able to complete the initialization (setup screen) of sparse image india rom. I can reach the launcher and settings for few seconds before the device freezes or reboots.
So the same problem , with which i started, the only good thing is that i have been able to set oem unlock to on, so that i can flash trwp and various roms (but all fail with the same freezing issues)
Forthe55 said:
Just now i was able to complete the initialization (setup screen) of sparse image india rom. I can reach the launcher and settings for few seconds before the device freezes or reboots.
So the same problem , with which i started, the only good thing is that i have been able to set oem unlock to on, so that i can flash trwp and various roms (but all fail with the same freezing issues)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you erased modems and reflashed with qfil right? If so i assume its a HW problem. Try the fix with the power button, i ran out of ideas
Last thing which can help maybe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH3VOIlLfvo&t=135s
Download 21s stock image + the chinesse twrp, links should be under the video, i think so, or look somewhere in the forum for new links. Try to reflash the 21s, some people reported that freezing issues were gone after installing the latest EUI. Basically you can do the same after QFIL reflash but you need enough time to copy the ZIP file as UPDATE.ZIP to the internal storage and run the local update via setting, system update and local update, i hope that TWRP will work for you, just follow the video tutorial.
delltech1 said:
Last thing which can help maybe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH3VOIlLfvo&t=135s
Download 21s stock image + the chinesse twrp, links should be under the video, i think so, or look somewhere in the forum for new links. Try to reflash the 21s, some people reported that freezing issues were gone after installing the latest EUI. Basically you can do the same after QFIL reflash but you need enough time to copy the ZIP file as UPDATE.ZIP to the internal storage and run the local update via setting, system update and local update, i hope that TWRP will work for you, just follow the video tutorial.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did that also, the same problem. The phone freezes after the os is booted. I was wondering what is that isnt touched by flashing ( in download mode or fastboot mode or through twrp). I may need to tinker that. The roms are all fine in the sense they all stop at the same points. Something in the phones partition, which isnt touched by flashing? (There must be, as i flashed with qfil, the oem unlock remains, the bootloader didn't lock, and it remains unaffected by re-imaging)
Try this, maybe it helps:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/le-2/help/issues-installing-twrp-rom-le-s3-x522-t3618662/page2