[SGS3-R530M] Return to stock & reset your flash counter
How to return your Samsung Galaxy S III (R530M) to stock
These instructions should fix your semi-bricked or broken phone as long as you can get it into download mode. Make sure you have drivers already installed on your Windows computer before starting. Please read them all the way through and then begin.
Things you will need to restore your phone are below.
Download and use this version of Odin 3.04: ODIN
Tar files needed to flash are in post #3
Set up the software: Extract the odin-pit.zip
Run Odin3 v3.04.exe
Make auto-reboot box is checked:
Put your phone in Download Mode: Power your device off
Make sure the usb cable is not connected (it tends to mess up due to charging animation)
Press and hold volume down, home and power
You will see a warning screen
Press volume up to contine to download mode
Connect USB cable
Odin should now look like this:
Uncheck F. Reset Time
Click on PDA and load R530M-VQA-LJ1.tar
You should now look like this
Now you should be able to click Start.
When you click start you should see something similar to this:
Your phone should auto-reboot when finished and should be working 100%!
This returns you back to factory stock, aka Metro has no idea stock, except your download counter (if its been tripped)
Troubleshooting:
Odin isn't detecting the phone?!
Quote:
Try a different USB port
Take out battery and plug phone into computer and put into download mode without the battery installed
Uninstall the drivers, reboot, and reinstall the drivers
It seems frozen and hasn't made any progress for 15 minutes
Quote:
System.img.ext4 takes awhile but if it stays on that for longer than 15 minutes unplug the phone and remove the battery and start over
I dont ask for much, but my friend is going through some rough times,
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Last edited by Shabbypenguin; March 6th, 2013 at 11:45 PM.
The Following 27 Users Say Thank You to Shabbypenguin For This Useful Post:
Heimdall Tutorial will go here when i find time to make heimdall 1.4 (the latest version that supports the US sgs3)
ok so for all you linux people here is a temp hold over http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=33074572 i can make heimdall 1.4 no issues but cant seem to make it into a easy install package and i cnat seem to make the frontend :/
Last edited by Shabbypenguin; January 14th, 2013 at 03:16 PM.
The Following 8 Users Say Thank You to Shabbypenguin For This Useful Post:
This tar will wipe your entire device. the only way they will know you were rooted is via download counter.
How to reset the flash counter
This is for LJ1, if you use this on any firmware newer it will cause issues. my suggestion is to use the modded triangle away i made which can be found here. it will work on both firmwares no issues.
Device(s): Samsung Galaxy S3, LG Connect, LG Esteem, Motorola Droid X, BlackBerry Tour.
Carrier: MetroPCS
Thanks: 559
Thanked 713 Times in 528 Posts
Does odin versions matter? I have think I have 3.07.
__________________
People who leave one star ratings in playstore because of something like not liking the icon should be beaten. And forever banned from using free apps.
sorry i need to edit the file, rename it to remove the md5 at the end off and it will flash fine
wtf?!? how did you find that site?
I just did a search in google for the firmware hope it helps !!!!
I tried rename the file before finding this link and didn't work, so I think is best to use this one it work PERFECT ... phone is back to stock " Normal "
nuttmeg was able to flash back to stock just fine once he removed the md5 filename, i already removed it on my server so any suture downloads will be fine
Device(s): Samsung Galaxy S3
Nexus 7 Unlocked and Rooted
Carrier: MetroPcs
Thanks: 572
Thanked 1,375 Times in 881 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pacmanmode
I just did a search in google for the firmware hope it helps !!!!
I tried rename the file before finding this link and didn't work, so I think is best to use this one it work PERFECT ... phone is back to stock " Normal "
Same file just shabby forgot to rename the tar file from .tar.md5 to .tar which anyone can do by right clicking and renaming.
this is probably just me
will try redownloading Shabby's TAR
is it possible to do a "checksum" for these things?
odin does a md5 checksum, just remember to take off the .md5 and it will warn you about changing name, just ignore it and proceed and it should look like a zip file after you rename it. You should now have a .tar file.
Listen to the big boys I just got lucky with that link cause I got a little desperate and found that , I don't know nothing about this... I'm a graphic designer
Device(s): Samsung Galaxy S3
Nexus 7 Unlocked and Rooted
Carrier: MetroPcs
Thanks: 572
Thanked 1,375 Times in 881 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pacmanmode
Listen to the big boys I just got lucky with that link cause I got a little desperate and found that , I don't know nothing about this... I'm a graphic designer
oh perhaps we can use your skills with some custom boot animations
Okay for some odd reason while I was installing metropolis rom it didn't work so I tried to restore to one of my backups in TWRP but all my TWRP backups decided to delete themselves so without panic I remembered shabby put this thread up. I ran into a little snag while using this method and file so before saying thanks to shabby I would first like to detail my problems so that those with my problem can try what I did instead of asking the same questions over and over.
I downloaded the .tar file shabby put up but like everyone else I had problems. First being the .md5 attached at the end of the file. So I right-clicked the file, clicked on rename and removed the .md5 that was there.
I then went to odin and did all that was asked of me in the first thread by shabby but it still didn't work. I did a little investigating and noticed that within that .tar file was a 1GB file! So I extracted that file and right-clicked on it, clicked on rename and removed the .md5 that was attached to it's name.
Tried again with odin but still no cigar. Out of desperation I then renamed it again but this time adding another .tar to it. So it looks like this:
Thank you so much, I was just about, to be quite frank, f%#&@d up the ass over this semi-brick issue I was having. Then after a couple hours of searching when I was nearly about to give up, TA DA, I found this thread and it was quite surprising because nobody wants to support the oh-so-great Metro PCS for anything, so thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, YOU LORDS OF COMPUTERS. Where'd you guys learn how to do this stuff, anywho? Sorry for claiming dorkdom of newbs. Ok, so the rom finished installing, but I still have my initial problem. I ran a clockworkmod rom on my phone and when I updated to another nightly, my phone cdma capabilities stopped working. I can't make calls or send texts, but I can still use data. When I go under my phone info, it says my number is 000-000-1729, which is definitely not my phone number. Any help?
Thank you so much, I was just about, to be quite frank, f%#&@d up the ass over this semi-brick issue I was having. Then after a couple hours of searching when I was nearly about to give up, TA DA, I found this thread and it was quite surprising because nobody wants to support the oh-so-great Metro PCS for anything, so thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, YOU LORDS OF COMPUTERS. Where'd you guys learn how to do this stuff, anywho? Sorry for claiming dorkdom of newbs. Ok, so the rom finished installing, but I still have my initial problem. I ran a clockworkmod rom on my phone and when I updated to another nightly, my phone cdma capabilities stopped working. I can't make calls or send texts, but I can still use data. When I go under my phone info, it says my number is 000-000-1729, which is definitely not my phone number. Any help?
You have to call metro to get your MIN/MDN number.
1. In dialer enter *#22745927
2. Enable Hidden menu. Exit back to dialer
3. In dialer enter **772
4. Select Edit option in the NAM Info screen
5. Enter phone number in the MDN field.
6. Enter MIN in the MSID field.
7. Press back key. Select Done. Device will reset.
Worked perfectly for me my flash counter is now at zero. I have no fear now, bring on the motherboard glitch.
hahah i had this method sort of figured out back before i even got my phone but i didnt wish to have anyone risk bricking in fear of crap going wrong (man oh man am i so glad too as my original plan was to use anothe rphoens file which would have bricked) but the flash counter reset will work on ANY metropcs SGS3 16GB model. if they ever release a 32GB model one will have to be made for that one
now... who wants to help me get a custom downloader count of 9001 so we can say it is over 9000?!!?!?! :P
Device(s): Metro PCS Galaxy S3 White 16gb, Asus Transformer TF300 (White 32gb)
Carrier: Metro PCS
Thanks: 15
Thanked 21 Times in 14 Posts
Sorry for the confusion but is this working now or not? Ive read the whole thread and there is conflicting info on what download to use. I am currently downloading the one from #3 and it is still .md5. So are we suppose to just remove the .md5 to .tar and flash in odin? Or are we suppose to use the other download thats in this thread. Thanks guys.
__________________ 1st Corinthians 10:13 My Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3 White 16gb (Metro PCS) Rooted Stock JB 4.1.2, TWRP 2.4.4.0 My Tablet: ASUS Transformer TF300T White 32gb: Rooted Stock JB 4.2.1, TWRP 2.4.4.0
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[SGS3-R530M] Return to stock & reset your flash counter
