# [How To] Unbrick your SGS4g.



## 1madfitter (Jun 9, 2011)

So this was my first experience with a hard brick. Wouldn't power on, black darkness all around me....'twas a dark and lonely world, but then I got lucky!

Here's what I did at first. From past experience, I pulled the battery, held power, reinserted the battery, and continued to hold power for about 2 minutes. All of the sudden this very strange screen came up with all red letters....so I figured 'Yea...this p.o.s. is done, give up'....but oh no, not me 

here's how it went down:

1) Remove battery, sim card, and sdcard.

2) Hold down volume up + down and re-insert the battery (still holding the volume keys)

3) While still holding the volume keys, I plugged in the phone to the pc, and to my amazement, the damn thing went into download mode!!! Holy crap!

4) Open up odin and use the old original, rooted, KD1 found HERE and wallah!!! Right back in business! 

I got lucky I guess, but I figured I should share this with the community. I thought for sure this phone was bricked permanently, but after an hour and a half of dickin around, I stumbled onto this.

In closing: If you think your perma-bricked.....give this a shot before you call T-mobile and have to lie about how it got bricked


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## Raverx3x (Jun 24, 2011)

but bricks taste good when u learn from them 

on the note about bricking...

Even if you brick say the bootloaders the phone has a backup copy of key system files and bootloaders

THere is in fact a backup of the boot and sbl files just in case


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## mzangui (Jul 26, 2011)

you mean you couldn't go to download mode with the other methods?!
it seems like the only difference between your method and others is removing sim and sd card


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## 1madfitter (Jun 9, 2011)

Correct.....couldn't go into download mode or anything. When you pressed power nothing happened. Pressed anything, nothing happened. I had a hard brick. Plug it in.....nothing, press power......nothing.......basically if you tried to hit anything on the phone, nothing happened. I got lucky by just holding shit until I figured out there was still a bootable device. Then with button combo's, I got back into download mode.


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## jager555 (Jul 22, 2011)

great discovery. i bet this will help a ton of people!


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## lenny hodapp (Jul 7, 2011)

Yeah I know what you mean. I've had the solid black screen and the one with dots I thought I was bricked I couldn't even get the download mode to show up but odin picked it up and was able to bring it back to life.


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## Raverx3x (Jun 24, 2011)

1madfitter said:


> Correct.....couldn't go into download mode or anything. When you pressed power nothing happened. Pressed anything, nothing happened. If you think you know more than me, then hard brick it once. I had a hard brick. Plug it in.....nothing, press power......nothing.......basically if you tried to hit anything on the phone, nothing happened. I got lucky by just holding shit until I figured out there was still a bootable device. Then with button combo's, I got back into download mode. This is something to help people, not start a bullshit convo...................just sayin.


who was this posted at ?


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## 1madfitter (Jun 9, 2011)

Something that someone already deleted. Sorry for the rant.

Sent from the pits of hell.


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## enteptain (Aug 2, 2011)

Thanks for the info!!! i hard bricked mine. repartitioned by accident. no luck with this method yet but im going to keep trying to see


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## MotoKrusher (Aug 4, 2011)

I wish that I could say this worked for me :sad3: I hard bricked my SGS4G Earlier today while applying the "Fix 3-button combo" thing (see link) http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile...laxy-s-gt-i9000/comment-page-2/#comment-54196

I couldn't get to the Download Feature (_ holding Vol button down, home, and power key while booting_) on the phone so I was trying to fix that bug... Unfortunately, my Galaxy Did NOT like this method and bricked on me once Odin was finished with the instal (_which said "Success" btw, phone just never came back on_). But, getting a replacement from T-Mobile Friday to replace it.. Thank God though that I had an extra one already so I'm not missing a beat! (_have 3 lines of service, all three SGS4G's, but only using two lines currently_) Still sucks to lose one :_con: I guess you could call the extra one an experimental donor.... Good luck my fellow BricK M8's!


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## 1madfitter (Jun 9, 2011)

Sounds to me like you checked (or forgot to uncheck) re-partition. When flashing with odin, some files will, by default, have re-partition checked. This should NEVER be checked, as it will put you into a hardbrick. I was still able to come back from it using this method.

Also, I never used the home button. Just volume up + down, then plugged in the usb cable.


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## tan (Aug 10, 2011)

So I have a somewhat similar problem. I'm stuck in the Recovery Mode <3e>. No matter what I do, the phone just boots up and go directly into the stock recovery. I'm not able to go into download mode using any of the methods ever mentioned. Also, it won't charge when off. I think there's something wrong with the bootloader. In the second post, RaverX3X mentioned the backup bootloader. Is there anyway I can restore the bootloader using the backup? Any help will be appreciated.


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## bkoon1218 (Jul 9, 2011)

1madfitter said:


> Sounds to me like you checked (or forgot to uncheck) re-partition. When flashing with odin, some files will, by default, have re-partition checked. This should NEVER be checked, as it will put you into a hardbrick. I was still able to come back from it using this method.
> 
> Also, I never used the home button. Just volume up + down, then plugged in the usb cable.


Some ROMs have Re-partition checked, such as RaverX3X's KC1. Unchecking that soft bricked me. It would be safer to not touch anything and flash as it is.


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## 1madfitter (Jun 9, 2011)

In some instances, yes, however when using odin flashing kd1, I forgot to uncheck it, causing a brick. So pretty much, unless your told to, I would check with the dev before using the re-partition option. I know I wasn't the only one to run into that problem.


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## ro6666lt (Sep 2, 2011)

nice thread, but guides/how-to's/etc. don't belong in the dev section. moved.


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## dingurupa (Oct 4, 2011)

Quick question. Would it be a bad idea to flash the KI1 stock rom referenced here instead of KD1? http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?5781-LEAK-Deodexed-KI1-Gingerbread-2.3.5-Build-Date-9.15.2011

I'm stuck in a bootloop after attempting to root via ODIN, but I can still enter download mode. I'm a little new to this and have read a bunch of guides on xda and here on rootz. Any help would be greatly appreciated!


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## nika2011 (Dec 15, 2011)

1madfitter said:


> So this was my first experience with a hard brick. Wouldn't power on, black darkness all around me....'twas a dark and lonely world, but then I got lucky!
> 
> Here's what I did at first. From past experience, I pulled the battery, held power, reinserted the battery, and continued to hold power for about 2 minutes. All of the sudden this very strange screen came up with all red letters....so I figured 'Yea...this p.o.s. is done, give up'....but oh no, not me
> 
> ...


Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! I have been researching all day to fix it and I find this post and yea success


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## jgvargas75 (Feb 18, 2013)

I HARD BRICKED MY S 4G AND NOW MY S2 DOESNT WANT TO CHARGE BROKE THE SCREEN TO MY S3 YESTERDAY ALL WITHIN A 7 DAY PERIOD IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER AND ON THE 7TH DAY GS3 SCREEN SHALL CRACK AND THE DIGITIZER WILL NO LONGER RESPOND


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