shannonz

Sorry for the duplication, originally posted in the wrong area.

About at the end of my rope here: I've tried more than 10 times to get the gingerbread update. I have Samsung Kies mini on my PC. All the drivers have been downloaded. Chose Kies (firmware update) in USB settings. Connect the phone, launch Kies - shows an update is available. I download the update files and then it says "firmware updating" and there it sits. No progress is ever shown even after 4+ hours. I tried turning off my firewall and anti-virus on the PC and Lookout on the phone thinking maybe that had something to do with it...nope. I can't find anyone else that's had any similar issues and I'm about ready to give up - unless you guys can help!

jerofld

No problem if you accidentially post something in the wrong area. You can click the button and explain that you posted in a wrong area and we can move the thread for you or you can contact any of the Guides (the users with the green usernames and the Guide badge) and they can also move it for you.

Good luck on getting an answer!

mam1955

I had the same problems last night. I spoke with a tech from Samsung this morning. He told me Kies Mini is not compatable with a 64 bit OS.

I brought out my older PC with XP installed, and was able to download the uupdate without a problem.

andyinmichigan

honestly you probably don't want it. I was pretty exited about it too, but after seeing what the release offered it's almost a downgrade from the current FROYO.

The best bet is to stixk with what you have, boring as it may seem for 99% of infuse users it seems to be the best bet. Also, many people who have been trying custom roms, etc, do flash back to stock realizing iy really is one of the best options.

at this point, if you want GB or ICS yore better off getting a new phone if possible.

shannonz

I may call Samsung myself. I'm running Vista (32 bit) on a 5 year old computer. It downloads the updates fine, just wont install the firmware.

yohannie

I completely agree. Aside from minimal battery life gain, the "official" Gingerbread was basically an unfinished beta version that the developers at AT&T decided to just toss out into the world as the "update". The stock Froyo that comes with the phone is much better and is the better option, unless you are interested in rooting and flashing custom ROMs.

DesElms

I've been saying, since back when I had a Samsung Captivate and the 2.3 Gingerbread update for it was finally released, that no update should be applied unless the phone has first been backed-up and then factory reset. And by "factory reset," I mean the most rigorous of the three reset methods: The "GSM Reset."

The Infuse (which is what I use now) is no different.

The logic is simple (and when I express these opinions, remember that they're coming from a 55-year-old man who's been in IT for 35+ years, and who has managed entire departments of software developers and testers): There is no way that the Samsung/AT&T engineers could possibly anticipate all the various conditions in which a 2.2 Froyo phone could be immediately pre-Gingerbread update, and so when they tested said update, they most assuredly did it using factory-fresh 2.2 Froyo phones... in either fresh-out-of-the-box condition, or in post-GSM-Reset condition.

When I posted this elsewhere, people told me I was nuts; that it shouldn't matter, yadda, yadda, yadda. Fine.

So I called a buddy at AT&T and after he spent two days calling around and trying to find with whom I could talk, I finally had a conference call with an AT&T engineer (who was kinda' useless, for my purposes), and a Samsung engineer (who was a techno-god). They confirmed that I was completely correct; that every single test they did on the 2.3 Gingerbread update for pretty much every phone -- including both the Captivate and the Infuse -- were on either factory-new-out-of-the-box phones; or such phones, but immediately after doing a GSM Reset on them. Every single test.

They also confirmed my statement in my various postings that, indeed, the only way to ensure that the about-to-be-updated-to-Gingerbread Froyo phone was in substantially the same condition as the phones on which they tested said update was to do a GSM Reset on it... after backing-up everything to a PC, of course.

I love being right.

But I still wanted to test it myself. If I was going to say "I told you so" to everyone, I wanted to have more than just the word of the engineers.

So I updated to Gingerbread my old Froyo Captivate with some serious miles on it. And I got predictably crappy results... just like pretty much everyone else who simply updated a Froyo phone to Gingerbread without first Froyo factory-resetting it.

To prove to myself it wasn't the phone, though, I wanted to re-try the Gingerbread update on the old Captivate after factory resetting it. The problem was that the Gingerbread update flashes the phone's ROM to 2.3 Gingerbread; and if the phone wasn't pre-Gingerbread-update Froyo factory reset, then the Gingerbread on said ROM is squirrely. So I drove the phone to the nearest AT&T support center and had 'em flash it back to 2.2 Froyo. Then I drove back home.

Then, just for grins, when I got it home I did my own GSM Reset on it; then immediately plugged it in to my PC and launched KIES and did the Gingerbread update.

The result was a PERFECT Captivate with 2.3 Gingerbread on it. Not a glitch to be found...

...exactly as I had been telling, and telling, and telling people would be the case, if they'd just listen to me.

But even that wasn't good enough. I then backed-up my wife's 2.2 Froyo Captivate to her Windows notebook's hard drive, did a GSM reset on it, and then updated it to 2.3 Gingebread. Once again, a perfect update... not a flaw in sight.

But, oh, no, even that wasn't good enough for me. Again, before I went into the various forums and saying "I told you so," I wanted to bygod be able to say that I had tested and tested. And so I repeated on my Infuse the test I did on my old Captivate: I backed it up, and then applied the Gingerbread update to it without having first Froyo GSM Resetting it. And it was a predictably freakin' mess! In fact, the update paused for a while and I wasn't sure it was even gonna' finish. Once it was finished and I tried to use it, it got into some kind of weird boot loop which I finally got stopped; but then it was just weird and unstable and flakey in about four different ways.

So, fine, I knew I needed to, once again, drive the phone back to the AT&T support center. Then I got it flashed back to Froyo. Then I went back home. Then I did another GSM Reset. Then I immediately applied the Gingerbread update...

...and, voila!, I now have an Infuse that's running 2.3 Gingerbread perfectly. And it's faster. And it's easier on the battery. And... well... I could go on and on.

I've known, instictively, all along, that none of these phones -- no matter the brand or model, frankly -- should ever be updated to a higher OS level without first resetting them back to the way they originally shipped from the factory. Had I been in charge at Samsung and/or AT&T, I'd have tested on no other types of phones. Such just makes good common sense...

...and I'm a little irritated, frankly, that so many people just blew me off when I said it in various forums months ago.

Now it's six months after the Captivate's 2.3 Gingerbread release, and two months after the Infuse's 2.3 Gingerbread release, and I keep finding these kinds of threads in various forums wherein people claim the Gingerbread update just made things worse, or that it just isn't as good as Froyo, or that one shouldn't even bother updating, yadda, yadda, yadda.

And so, here it is: I TOLD YOU (ALL) SO! (whew! that felt good)

Plug the phone into a PC and back everything up. Then unplug the phone from the PC, and then reboot the phone (you can reboot the PC, too, for all I care; but at least reboot the phone).

If the phone has been updated to (a faulty, squirrely) Gingerbread, then find the nearest AT&T support center and take the phone to it. There, get it flashed back to 2.2 Froyo. Then take it home. (If the phone was never Gingerbread updated, then just go to the next step.)

Once home, do a GSM Reset on it. Technically, flashing it back to 2.2 Froyo is all that's necessary as long as you haven't since used the phone for anything, but what the heck, do the GSM Reset anyway. Can't hurt.

Then immediately apply the Gingerbread update.

Trust me, the result will be a pretty much perfect 2.3 Gingerbread phone. Totally stable. Works as advertised. No troubles. Perfect.

Some caveats...

If you intend to put a larger (than came from the factory) externnal SD card into the phone, then be sure said larger card is installed in the phone's external SD cardslot both when you do the GSM Reset, and also when you apply the Gingerbread update.

Make sure you have installed on your PC the absolutely latest KIES MINI as found on the phone's support page on the Samsung web site; however...

...before installing the latest KIES MINI, make sure that all earlier KIES MINI (or -- actually, especially -- KIES full version) software is fully uninstalled from the computer. Be sure to also look on the list of installed software for any Samsung drivers, and uninstall those as well. Then reboot the PC. Then, and only then, install the latest KIES MINI on the PC. Then reboot said PC yet again.

Follow, to the letter, the instructions on the Samsung web site for how to perform the Gingerbread update. Deviate not (or at your peril, your choice).

Do these things, and you'll not have a problem in the world with your 2.3 Gingerbread update. Fail to do it, and you'll be just another one of the gazillions of people who decry the Gingerbread update, and hate their phones; and who give bad advice like "don't even bother to update" and stuff like that.

The 2.3 Gingerbread update is good. It's an improvement. It should be done. But it must be done right, or there's no point. What I've herein described is how to do it right.

Hope that helps!


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Last edited by ocnbrze; April 30th, 2013 at 03:16 PM. Reason: Manually removed your signature

yohannie

Very insightful post, DesElms. Thanks for such a thorough explanation and input. This might sound like a stupid question, but by GSM reset, do you mean the factory reset option that's available in he phone's options?

Sounds like it makes sense to me. I had only thought about doing the factory reset after upgrading to Gingerbread, but I never thought about doing one before upgrading. It seems like Android phones do have a tendency of accumulating various issues as stuff is done to them and various things installed, with a factory reset often times solving most issues, so the same would totally make sense for upgrading.

DesElms

Worry not. There are no stupid questions.

There are three ways to reset the Captivate and the Infuse... each more rigorous/destructive than the last.

The most basic is the one accessible from the Settings menu... that's the one most people know about because it's a menu item in the phone.

The next (second) and more serious method is where you begin with the phone off, and then you hold down, simultaneously, the up/down volume rockers as you press-and-hold the power button until the AT&T logo appears, then you release only the power button and continue holding the volume rockers until you see the system recovery screen, then you release the volume rockers. Then you use the volume rockers to move the highlight to the right thing, then press the power button to select. Most who've ever done any kind of reset are fairly familiar with that one, too.

The third "GSM Reset" method is the most rigorous/destructive. If done with the SIM card in the phone it will not only reset the phone back to factory state in a manner unlike all other methods, but it will also send-out a special reset signal to the AT&T network from both the phone (by its IMEI number) and its phone number (via the SIM card). If the SIM card's not in the phone when the GSM Reset is done, then it's just a signal to the network based on the phone's IMEI number. In either case, it wipes everything clean, reformats everything, resets everything, and reinstalls all stock apps, putting the phone to exactly the way it shipped from the factory.

I recommend doing it with the SIM card in the phone. It's more thorough, and systematically helpful. The signal sent out by the GSM Reset to the network is much the same as is sent out when/if one wants to sort of "reintroduce" the phone to the network after weird stuff has been going on (usually only technicians use it). For example, sometimes, if a phone is left on too long -- too many days or weeks -- without ever powering it off and then back up again (in other words, without a reboot), then the system and the phone will sometimes get a bit out of sync. When that happens, one may still call out as normal, but sometimes incoming calls and texts just stop... ostensibly because the system can't "find" the phone anymore, even though the phone thinks everything's fine. It's rare, but it sometimes happens. The GSM Reset signal sent by the phone to the AT&T network sort of resets everything so the phone is seen as an almost new member on said network. All towers treat it as a new player at the table... a player which the system recognizes, of course, but which the system treats as though it has never before used said system. You'd be amazed what an interesting list of weirdnesses such a reset can mysteriously fix!

To do a GSM Reset, one simply uses the dialpad (dialer keypad)... just exactly the same as if one were going to make a phone call.

One simply fires-up the phone, and lets it fully boot-up and settle down (so that it's not still doing things... media scans and whatnot).

Then one presses the green "Phone" icon as if to make a phone call.

Then, from the dialer keypad, one dials *2767*3855# and then just sits back and watches the show. Once that last # key is pressed, there's no more waiting... nothing else to press... it begins, then, immediately.

One then simply waits for the phone to do all its wiping and formatting and resetting and whatnot; then there's an automatic reboot of the phone...

...and, trust me, when it boots fully back up after that, it's exactly the way it originally came out of the box. Asks the user all the same setup questions, etc. And nothing on either the internal or external SD survives... so do a backup to a PC first.

The GSM Reset is the reset of choice if you're going to sell the phone to someone. Actually, I, personally, even manually reformat both SD cards first, and then I do the GSM Reset on phones to be sold or given away.

As to the need for or wisdom of it: Phones are just way too weird -- and way too much oddball stuff can both happen to them, and get on them -- to not bring them to a known starting point before doing something as major as applying a whole new OS version. That's major. Before doing such a thing, one wants to remove as much variability from the process as possible, and the best way to do that is to do exactly the same thing which those who wrote and tested the update did: A GSM Reset.

So doing also removes from the mix the whole silly wondering of what might hopefully survive the update. By starting over from factory state, one knows exactly where one is when one fires-up the phone again. It's a whole new beginning... the best place to (re)start.

And the 2.3 Gingerbread update loves starting there because everything it needs to copy over or replace or reinitialize is in a predictable both place and state. It's win-win for everyone!

Hope that helps.


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Last edited by ocnbrze; April 30th, 2013 at 03:15 PM. Reason: Manually removed your signature

yohannie

Wow, thank you so much for such valuable information! This is great to know, not just for the Infuse, but in general. I'm actually on the Galaxy SII and the ICS update is supposed to be released soon. I'll definitely do a GSM reset before upgrading.

I just had one more question. Will doing it cause any issues with AT&T? Will they be upset or anything like that for me having done it? I know for rooting and other forms of tinkering, they get very upset, so just wanted to confirm.

I'm excited to try this out since I also use a 32 GB external, and I needed a good way to format it

DesElms

Good!

Actually, neither AT&T nor Samsung get THAT upset when you root... in largest measure because by your so having done, you've released them from any further warranty liability to you. [grin] For them, that's actually a good thing. So, "upset" is not really the right word. But they definitely don't want you to do it because it really does screw-up their ability to support your use of the phone.

Personally, I never recommend rooting, in any case. Of course I know how to do it, and get really geeky about it. But for what? In the end, all rooting does is make the phone more of a support nightmare... for you, the user. Rooting is for geeks who like to tinker with stuff; who still get a thrill from tearing stuff apart, figuring it out, making it work differently than intended, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I remember when I was maybe 12 -- over 40 years ago -- my ol' man coming home from work and finding me sitting in the middle of the living room floor with every last bit of the big console TV all torn apart and surrounding me. He thought he'd have to buy a new one. But I had it back together and working in no time. And though I got in trouble for it, I learned a lot about TVs. But by starting that young, my point is that I was pretty muchh over the need to tear stuff apart, and see how it works, and make stuff inside work in newer and cooler ways, etc., by the time I was... I dunno... maybe 22 or thereabouts.

So, rooting is just about the last thing I want to do to a phone. Why in the world would I want to add the nightmare of supporting a rooted phone to my already-long list of stuff I can barely keep-up with now? It's just silly. Plus, regular, everyday, non-technical/non-geeky should never attempt to root a phone. It's just stupid! The vast majority of the requests for help from people in the root sections of the various forums are from people who had no business even attempting it in the first place. And the reason they ultimately did is because all the techno-geeks in said forums talked about it like it was no big deal; and the non-technical people weren't sufficiently experienced to realize that they shouldn't have even ventured into such forums.

Rooting a phone just adds to the problems. There's virtually no reason to do it. The biggest reason it got so popular in the first place was because AT&T overreached by not only making the phone so that certain things could not be done to it unless it was rooted, but they also did stupid stuff like limiting where a person could obtain apps to just the Google Play Store (or, more accurately, back then, the Android Market). People wanting to install from more than just there is kinda' what got even non-technical people interested in rooting. AT&T, in that sense, then, made its own troubles. If it had allowed people to install from anywhere right from the outset, then rooting might have remained the purview of just the geeks... where it belongs.

Another thing AT&T did which it shouldn't have done, and which also drew non-techies to the wholly-technical thing called rooting was not allow stock apps to be removed.

If the desktop computer industry has taught us anything since it began in the late '70s, it's that whenever a vendor tries to shove stuff down its products' users' throats, they end-up getting nothing but trouble from said users, who will always resist. Of course, the reason the vendors do it is so that their support burden will be reduced. If the user is allowed to do just anything to his/her computerized device, then said doing could be what causes support problems. It's a vicious circle.

But now I'm digressing. Sorry.

AT&T cares not one whit about "GSM Resets." They're a common part of the everyday use of the system. Don't worry about it one bit.

The real value of the GSM Reset, to the end user, in any case, is not the signal it sends to AT&T. That's just extra niceness; and it may actually not do a single helpful thing regarding the phone's relationship with the AT&T network. It's only really useful if said relationship had somehow gotten weird, thereby necessitating at least some kind of reset.

The real value of the GSM Reset, to the end user, is how it so completely returns the phone to true factory state... better than any other of the reset methods. That's the only reason I recommend it. If one is going to "reset," then why *****foot around, I always say. If one wants to reset, then s/he should bygod RESET. Don't do it only halfway. That's my philosophy... hence the reason I pretty much only use the GSM Reset method. But, hey... that's just me.

Actually, the best way to format a 32GB external SD card is, at least at first, in your PC.

Remove the card from the phone, and put it into some kind of adapter that will allow it to plug directly into your Windows PC; and then format the card that way... likely using 32K-sized sectors. And don't do the "quick" method. Go for it. And if you do, plan on having time to go get coffee... maybe even stop by the library. It can take up to a couple or three hours.

Then, once that's done, before you unplug the card from the computer, use the freeware "h2testw" app (you'll find it on Softpedia) to test and verify the card... make sure it's in good shape, that it's really a 32GB card (there are a lot of fakes out there), etc. That, too, takes a while... an hour to two hours.

Then, unplug the card from the PC and put it into the phone and start-up the phone again; and once the phone has settled down (isn't media or virus scanning or anything like that), simply unmount the card and reformat it. Formatting in the phone like that puts the requisite folders on it, and also does some other little internal things so that the phone starts "seeing" the card as something which belongs in it.

Now, that having been said, I must tell you that even if you do it that way, the phone may still somehow become confused about a whoping big 32GB card. Even though Samsung says its phones can handle big 32GB SDHC cards, the truth is that they're most comfortable if the card is 16GB or smaller. Oh, don't get me wrong, they can handle the 32GB cards... but just barely. They become easily confused by them... or at least some phone models do... including the Infuse.

And that, right there, is the reason that I recommend that whatever SD card is gonna' be in that external slot is present during a ROM OS flash (an upgrade to Gingerbread or ICS or whatever). By having the big card in the phone when the ROM is flashed, the phone is initialized with said card being part of said initialization...

...and you wouldn't believe how doing that small and simple thing can make the phone and the 32GB card "play nice" together better over time. It's not foolproof, but it can really help.

So it is not as a means of reformatting the 32GB card that the GSM Reset should be used. The GSM Reset is for resetting the phone to factory state, and sending some interesting reset signals out to the AT&T network along the way. Including the 32GB card in the external slot when you do it is simply so that the phone, when the new OS is flashed to the ROM, will "see" the big 32GB card as something "native" to it, and will play nicer with it over time.

But if all you want to do is format the 32GB card, you may certainly do that without completely GSM Resetting the phone. In fact, I don't recommed GSM resetting the phone just for that purpose. Instead, if all you want to do is properly format the 32GB card, just do it as I've herein earlier described, in your PC first (formatteing to FAT32, with 32K sectors) and then, after that, to make the card so that the phone "sees" it properly, unmount and reformat it again inside the phone. That's all you need to do if all you want to do is format the 32GB card.

Using the "h2testw" utility while the card's still in the PC simply verifies that it's in good shape, that it's in fact the size you think it is (again, the fakes), and it also helps you to see the card's actual read/write speed.

Hope that helps!


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Last edited by ocnbrze; April 30th, 2013 at 03:14 PM.

andyinmichigan

^^^ wow! now that's a great poster right there, Lots of useful knowledge, clear, and concise info. wow! I did have to read some of the sentences twice to wrap my head around it. I'm not a tech newbie, but this guy is wayyy above me in experience, that's for sure.

So DesElms, i was one of those people that told others not to bother with the upgrade, mostly based on what other have posted, but by reading your posts I understand that most of these people probably didn't do the correct preparation and were not careful to take the steps that you did.

So that being the case, many people complaining about screen lag, and whatever else i cannot remember, were those problems a result of bad preparation and installations? And in your opinion I should definately update then?

One thing i do like that i've hrad the 2.3 update doesn't do is scrolling wallpapers, is that so? I guess it's not super important, but I think it's neat.


Also, is it correct that the "silent" icon is replaced with the flight mode instead? I find that kind of odd, it seems that the silent would be used wayyy more than flight mode, as it seems to me people don't use flight mode all that much.

Anyway, thanks for the excellent writeups!

yohannie

I'm going to let DesElms answer your other questions, but as for the flight mode toggle, yes, indeed the silent mode icon toggle has been replaced with flight mode (it's also this way on the Galaxy SII, so it wasn't a development mistake for the Infuse update). I at first found it very strange as well, but now I use the power button (holding it brings up a menu) in order to go back and forth between silent and regular modes.

andyinmichigan

Thanks. Like i said i feel like it's an odd swap out, but who knows. I've seen widgets that toggle silent too, so I could always do that i suppose.

andyrockstar

I've been putting off the "upgrade" to GB because of all the fuss being made here, but DesElms' advice makes complete sense. I've been running stock Froyo since I got the Infuse 6 months ago, and it's served me well so far.

When I have some free time again I'll have to try this out.

DesElms

I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to reply. I got tied-up on a project... busy, busy, busy. [grin]

If one does the steps I prescribe, the 2.3 Gingerbread-updated phone is actually a bit faster and better performing... just as Samsung promised.

But remember that lagginess, generally, can have many causes having nothing to do with the 2.3 Gingerbread upgrade. I was fairly easily able to make my Infuse (and my Captivate, before it) laggy even when it was using the 2.2 Froyo OS version that came on it from the factory.

If the complainant's phone wasn't laggy before the 2.3 update, but was after, then, yes, I would say it was because they didn't do it the way I prescribe. It's rather remarkable how weird and bad-behaving the phone is if one doesn't do my prescribed steps. I was stunned by just how unstable it became. There's no question in my mind that doing anything short of a GSM Reset just moments before doing the update is just asking for trouble.

To be candid, I don't mess with wallpapers, at all. A completely black screen is better on the battery... and I, personally, think it looks better. For starters, I've never been big on wallpapers -- be they for phones, or desktop/notebook Windows computers -- which are actual sharply-focused pictures of things. I think it's too distracting. I like wallpapers that are abstruct and a little blurry, even, so that icons and things on which the eye should actually be focusing are more front-and-center. But, hey... that's just me.

Personally, one of the first things I install when I'm either doing a new phone (or re-doing a factory-reset one) is a thing called "No Wallpaper" by Mihai Preda. Find it in the Google Play Store. It simply adds a "No Wallpaper" option on the wallpaper menu that you may access whenever you long-press a homescreen. But unlike other "no wallpaper" apps, this one simply causes no wallpaper to be displayed. Some of the other ones cause a black wallpaper to be displayed, and technically there's a difference. Having absolutely no wallpaper being displayed -- not even a black one -- is actually the easiest on the battery. They look the same, I realize, but even when the phone's displaying a graphic of all-black pixels, it's still using battery to display a graphic. So that's why I like Preda's "No Wallpaper" app best, because there's literally no wallpaper displaying at all. It's just blackness... easiest on the battery.

As for scrolling wallpapers, though, whether or not any Samsung phone comes out of an OS upgrade with or without scrolling wallpapers kinda' depends on whether Samsung goofed-up said upgrade, as it sometimes does. Samsung Galaxy Skyrocket owners noticed that the 2.3.6 Gingerbread update broke scrolling wallpapers. Others report similar problems, and still others say they don't know what those who say it stopped working are even talking about.

Weird, I know. That's why I always suggest that one get a little app called "Wallpaper Wizardrii" by Twisted Apps. No matter what wallpaper weirdness exists on a 2.3-Gingerbread-updated phone, that app will give back any and all Wallpaper-related features that anyone could possible want.

What you're referring to is what one sees when one pulls down the notification shade (or, from any homescreen, presses the hardware "Menu" button, and then presses "Notifications"). And the answer is yes, what was, in 2.2 Froyo, the "Silent Mode" button is, in 2.3 Gingerbread, the "Flight Mode" button.

However, with 2.3 Gingerbread, you can also just long-press the hardware power button to make pop-up the little dialog that one normally uses to either put the phone in "Flight mode," or power it down. The third choice on that pop-up dialog is "Silent mode." So you can still fairly quickly and easily get to something that will put the phone in "Silent mode", though I agree that having it among the buttons one sees across the top of the screen whenever one pulls down the notification shade is easier/faster/better. Remember, though, that once the phone's in Flight Mode, all radio waves to/from the phone are stopped, so no texts can arrive, no phone calls... nothing that makes noise. Only if things like calendar alarms, or timer alarms, etc., occur during intended silent times would the phone make a noise during "Flight Mode." So, in a sense, "Flight mode" could almost be used instead of "Silent mode," but I wouldn't recommend it. True "Silent Mode" is better.

But, honestly, there's no shortage of cool freeware apps out there that will put widgets or shortcut icons or whatever, pretty much wherever you want them, so that you can easily put the phone into "Silent mode." Some of them toggle into silent mode with vibration on one press, then silent mode without vibration on the second press, and then back into non-silent mode on the third press... and just about every other possible other way of doing it that you can imagine.

There's even a cool app which senses when you put the phone in silent mode, and then it pops-up a dialog asking for how long... the point being that by specifying that the phone should be in silent mode for only as long as, say, for example, a church service lasts (about an hour), one needn't remember to take it back out of silent mode after church. How many times have you put the phone in silent mode for a meeting or something, and then forgot to take it out of silent mode afterward; and so no one can reach you for however long it takes you to realize your phone's silent?!?

My pleasure. Glad I could help.

togethersjg

Just wanted to say thanks for the time you put into responding and the thoroughness of your answers. I've had my Infuse since May 2011 and one of the features I thought had value was the ability to update the operating system to the latest and the greatest. Since that time, numerous cries for help in this forum have pointed out the downside to doing so for the naive, uninformed or technically less proficient. Since that included me and the stock setup did everything I wanted and the phone operated flawlessly, I decided there really never was a substantial reason for taking that next step. Nonetheless, the detail you've provided convinces me that, for first time, the risks to the process can be managed. Thanks again.

andyrockstar

I've had the Infuse for 6 months, using stock Froyo the entire time, and finally decided to try to upgrade to Gingerbread. I thought I'd followed these instructions to a T, but somehow the upgrade still didn't go through. Everything was going smoothly until I got the famous "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again" message. I tried to do the emergency recovery and it didn't work...still stuck on the same error message. I tried a different cable (as has been recommended here) and still no progress.

Looks like I'm headed to Best Buy today to see if they or AT&T can reset the phone. Worst case scenario is the phone is fubar and they give me an SII, although I'd rather have this phone working.

nhsebas

Thank you...do you have instructions for upgrading to Gingerbread on Samsung Infuse 4G owners, who use Mac/OS, i.e., me?

Justinsaneok

I "heard" the update won't work on 64 bit Win 7 ultimate? Any truth to this?

porksoda

Awesome information!
Very Very helpful!

Thank you!

porksoda

I did as DesElms said to update our Infuse 4g to Gingerbread. The phone works flawlessly. I cant vouch for it working different as if I were to update it with out doing a factory reset. I just bought this phone from an ebay seller that unlocked it and did a GSM reset before shipment.
So far this phone is awesome!
Thanks again for the help!

DesElms

Cool! Glad I could help. And it really is a pretty awesome phone. Of course, its most salient feature -- the large screen -- is becoming more commonplace; and the new models which sport it have faster/better processors. But, still, the Infuse 4G is surprisingly cool, indeed.

Thanks for the info.

adfutballer071

Ok, so I have tried the reset under Privacy, as well as the GSM reset and still no luck. I'm running Kies Mini under Admin Privileges and it will download the update but it always stops after the phone tries to download it. Any ideas?

DesElms

Without knowing precisely what is your procedure, it's hard to know what to suggest. A few thoughts...

Make sure you're using the USB cable that came with the phone; or, if you are, then somehow make sure that it's working okay. If you have to drive to an AT&T service center to purchase a new USB cable expressly intended for use with the Infuse 4G, then do so. Not all USB cables for Samsung phones, even if they all look the same, are, in fact, the same. And it's easy for one of the pins to go dead or develop a short or something.

Make sure that doing the GB update is the very first thing you do after completing the GSM reset; don't use or configure the phone when it reboots from immediately post-GSM reset.

If you've upgraded the external memory card to something larger than the 2GB card that comes with the phone, try putting the original 2GB card into the phone immediately before the GSM reset, and then do the GB update with that 2GB card still in the phone; upgrade it back only after the GB update is successful.

If you've tried the GB update more than once, it's possible that what you now have on the phone is a hybrid of 2.2 Froyo and 2.3 Gingerbread; and, if so, then it's possible that the GSM reset is actually restoring the phone to an essentially broken state; and so the GB update is failing. I'm not saying that that's it, but I've seen it happen. If that's it, then you may need to go to an AT&T center and have the phone forcibly restored to a pristine copy of 2.2 Froyo, and then you'd drive home; once home, do the GSM reset and then immediately try the GB update.

Some people have claimed that Kies Mini and some 64-bit versions of Windows just don't seem to work very well. There's also a possibility of something on your machine that's interfering with Kies and/or its ability to properly communicate with the USB port. Both things suggest that maybe another approach is to try to do the GB update on another machine. I know it sounds crazy, but if you have a friend with a 32-bit Vista machine, you might find that all of a sudden it works. It shouldn't be necessary to go through all that, of course, but I'm just saying that sometimes something like that is what it takes to make it happen.

The bottom line with this sort of situation is to remember what they say about the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting something to change. The first thing that troubleshooters are taught is that whenever one is in a situation like you describe, something has to change. All that I've herein suggested are changes; and one of them may be what it takes to make it work. You could try them one-by-one, but who has the time? Also, who cares which thing it is. Were I you, I'd try them all, and see if it just finally works.

Assuming the phone's not damaged or something, it should work; it's just a question of figuring out what's ultimately impeding it. Of course, discounting that there's something wrong with the phone may be a dumb idea, 'cause maybe there is. That's yet another reason to go to any AT&T Service Center and have 'em first forcibly restore it to pristine 2.2 Froyo, and then have 'em run all their magic tests on the phone and make sure its' operating at normal factory specs. You might find that the phone's somehow broken. I doubt it, but I'm just sayin'.

I'm sure there's other stuff I can think of, but see if any of that will help.

Let us know what happens. If none of that works, I'm sure I can come-up with something; though, at that point, I may need for you to describe, in painstaking detail -- with stress on the word detail -- exactly what you're doing. Maybe there's a procedural step you're missing. Be absolutely certain that you're following the correct steps for using Kies Mini. They may all seem stupid, but if you miss one, it can really matter. Kies Mini (which is the only thing that works, by the way; not Kies, but, rather Kies Mini is the only thing that works) can be persnickety. For example, if there's an earlier version of Kies Mini on the machine, or a copy of full Kies, that could squirrel everything.

Download the freeware version of REVO UNINSTALLER and use it, with all its strongest and most aggressive settings, to uninstall Kies Mini from the Windows machine... all copies and versions; reboot between versions if more than one is there; and reboot again after finally getting all traces of Kies off the machine. Then redownload and install Kies Mini, then reboot again. Then, and only then, immediately after you've done the GSM reset, and using a USB cable that you know is right and works, and following the Kies Mini instructions from the AT&T website TO THE LETTER, try again.

Again, I'm sure if I can come-up with more stuff, but somewhere in there I'll bet is the solution; or combinations of things is the solution.

It's persnickety, so make sure you get it right.

Hope that helps.

Last edited by ocnbrze; April 30th, 2013 at 03:05 PM. Reason: Manually removed your signature

tvfreakazoid

OK. I'm new to this site.

I've never updated or attempted to update my phone.

Currently i'm having issues with my infuse. It started happening yesterday.
Basically when i turn the screen off or i guess powering it down, then when i turn the phone on to put in my password and touch the "ok", my screen freezes and i have to take the battery out. Basically resetting it.

I figure if i can update to gb it may help. Well i hope.

So, from what i can get from your earlier posts, DL the keis mini from samsungs website, then do the hard reset by putting in that number code, plug in the usb from my pc and start the upgrade?

Again i've never attempted this so hopefully maybe you can clear it up again.

Thanks.

tvfreakazoid

Also, would it be easier to go onto samsungs website and use their tutorial?

Or will it cause problems like others had with their updates?

DesElms

No, you're right about the tutorial (actually, I call them instructions). As I recall... er... wait... lemmee look it up, to be sure... stand-by...

[moments pass]

...okay, it's these (click here) instructions that you follow...

...and I mean FOLLOW... as in EXACTLY; do not miss a single syllable or deviate from a single part of it. Not one!

But here's the thing that's not in those instructions: You need to do the GSM reset first! And only then immediately -- and I mean immediately (after the GSM reset) -- follow those instructions, to the letter.

If you do that, and there are no errors and/or nothing freezes or anything, then a more or less perfect Gingerbread upgrade should result.

Be sure to back-up anything you need from your 2.2 Froyo installation to your Windows machine's hard drive first. Simply syncing things like contacts with your GMAIL account should be enough to cover that, but you may have ringtones, browser bookmarks, and other stuff that you'd like to back-up; and I think I covered, earlier in this thread, what I consider to be the best back-up app for that purpose. If not, just ask.

A caveat: KIES Mini apparently only works on 32-bit Windows. Since I had used my wife's 32-bit Vista machine when I upgraded my phone (my 64-bit Win7 machine was in my briefcase and I was too lazy to fire it up), everything went well; and so I didn't even realize, 'til I read others commenting about it, that KIES Mini doesn't run well -- or maybe not even at all -- on 64-bit Windows. So, if your machine is even remotely new, then it'll almost certainly be 64-bit, and so you'll likely need to go find a machine with 32-bit Windows on it... likely a Vista or maybe even an older XP machine. There are some Win7 machines out there which are, for some reason, 32-bit, but good luck finding one. If you find a 32-bit Win7 machine it'll likely be an older one that originally shipped running XP, and then got upgraded. And that would work fine... but I'm just sayin' that finding a 32-bit Win7 machine will be a challenge. If all else fails, a local, mom-and-pop computer repair store/shop will likely have a 32-bit Windows XP, Vista or maybe even Win7 machine sitting around; or, alternatively, it will likely have a 32-bit copy of Win7 on an installation DVD that it could install on a virtual machine for you or something. Be prepared to pay a fee, of course... hopefully an only small one.

If Samsung had used its head, it would have made a Linux version of KIES Mini available as part of an ISO file which included a bootable Linux distribution so that all a person would need to do is download the ISO, burn it, bootably, to a CD using readily-available freeware; then just leave the CD in the drive and turn off the machine, then back on again, allowing it to boot from the CD into Linux, which would then go straight into a fully-automated routine that just walks the user through the process, easy as pie. Then, at the end, the CD gets removed, and the machined turned off, then on again, whereupon it would reboot back into normal Windows. Then no one would have to worry about 32-bit versus 64-bit because a 32-bit copy of Linux will boot as 32-bit, even on 64-bit hardware. Actually, so will a 32-bit copy of Windows, but most people with 64-bit machines don't have the installation CD for that lying around.

Of course, if Samsung had really used its head, it would have... oh... I dunno... how 'bout MADE A 64-BIT VERSION OF KIES MINI, TOO, maybe! Did anyone at Samsung... you know... think of that?

<sarcasm>Yes, it's a bleeding edge concept, I know... far too much to ask of Samsung; but I'm just sayin'.</sarcasm>

Hope that helps!


_____________________________

Last edited by ocnbrze; April 30th, 2013 at 03:04 PM. Reason: Manually removed your signature

tvfreakazoid

I have a 6 or 7yr old pc lol. Im still on win xp pro. 32 bit.

I made sure i backed everything onto my pc. Basically copied everything and pasted to my pc hd.

So assuming i mess up and there is an error. Do u have to do the gsm reset and start all over again
I've read that people still had problems when upgrading to gb. But i assume if u follow samsungs direction.

Also do u need to take out ur sd card?

Thanks

Last edited by tvfreakazoid; March 21st, 2013 at 11:37 PM.

DesElms

If you follow the instructions to which I linked you, and you execute them immediately after doing the GSM reset, it's quite unlikely that you'll "mess up" or that there'll be "an error."

If the update does get goofed-up, though, and crashes in some way before it completes, then whether you can recover, and begin again, will depend on how much of the update took. If the phone ends-up with some kind of mixture of 2.2 Froyo and 2.3 Gingerbread on it, then a GSM reset will probably not work; will reset the phone to a weird hybrid state which KIES Mini may or may not be able to update on its second try.

Fortunately, a screw-up like that is rare as... well... its astronomically rare. So I just don't think you need to worry about it. However, if that worst case happens, it's still recoverable; it's just that you'd have to take the phone to an A&T support center and have them restore the phone to a pristine copy of 2.2 Froyo. The support centers won't do a 2.3 Gingerbread update (er... well... unless maybe you find a tech who's got a big heart, and is working without his/her supervisor around or something), and so you'd need to have them put it back to factory state, the way it came in the box; then drive home and do the 2.3 Gingerbread update using KIES Mini.

But, honestly, that's almost certainly not gonna' happen... at least as long as you, seriously, just follow the instructions to the letter. It's not rocket science. You'll be fine.

The reason I made such a big deal out of it, and talked about the persnicketyness of it all and stuff is because people don't take it seriously. They think that they can just plug the phone in, as is, to the 32-bit Windows machine, without any GSM reset, and do the 2.3 Gingerbread update. And that, for sure, won't work. Period.

All the bad stories you've heard about 2.3 Gingerbread not working, or sucking, or being worse than 2.2 Froyo...

...every last one of them was from the 2.3 Gingerbread update being performed on a phone that wasn't reset first. The AT&T and Samsung engineers tested the 2.3 Gingerbread update on pristine, out-of-the-box copies of 2.2 Froyo. By the time a phone's been in use for a while, the 2.2 Froyo installation is all different from how it came out of the box... just different enough that the 2.3 Gingerbread update/upgrade just doesn't end-up quite right; and so the phone, then becomes squirrely.

I have been prescribing doing the GSM update immediately prior to doing the 2.3 Ginbread update because I'm trying to get people to put the phone back the way it came new, from the factory: a pristine 2.2 Froyo installation, as if the phone's just out of the box. And the reason is because every test that the AT&T and Samsung engineers did on the 2.3 Gingerbread update was done on a factory-new, never been used 2.2 Froyo installation. They had to do it that way, else they'd have no known starting point and so wouldn't know what went wrong if the 2.3 Gingerbread update failed. I've done that kind of testing in my career. You always have to start from a known point, else you're just blind when troubleshooting.

That's why the 2.3 Gingerbread updates done to factory-new and pristine 2.2 Froyo phones, restored to that state even after a year or two of use by doing a GSM reset, always work; and 2.3 Gingerbread updates done to 2.2 Froyo phones that have been in use for a while, without first being GSM reset, nearly always have glitches. Some people have only a glitch or two, and they're so mintor that they're happy. Others report nearly nightmarish results. And for a few, said nightmarish results are so nightmarish, and the phone's so goofed-up, that even trying a GSM reset, once it's that bad, won't work. Fortunately, a quick trip to the nearest AT&T support center (and I'm not talking a dealer, but an AT&T corporate support center), and the kind of restoral of the phone to 2.2 Froyo that only those guys can do, will put things right back where they need to be.

The other thing to remember is that a lot of these guy out there are rooting their phones; then they try to do the 2.3 Gingerbread update, and they wonder why it fails. Rooting so goofs around with the deepest bowels of the phone that godonlyknows what'll happen if either a GSM reset, or a 2.3 Gingerbread update is attempted. Then those idiots get into forums and leave out that they so messed with the phone's little brains before they tried the 2.3 Gingerbread update that it's a wonder the thing even boots. Don't be misled by those idiots.

And never root a phone. Yes, in the hands of a master, a rooted phone can do amazing things; but at what cost? Who has time for all the fiddling you have to do; and all the researching what the symptoms and error messages mean? The only people who get anything out of rooting phones is young people who find it fascinating, and learn stuff from it, and get a charge out of mastering it and doing cool stuff with it. I was like that too, once; started-out when I was in grade school and my parents came home to find the big console TV in the living room all torn apart and in a gabazillion pieces. I was so proud -- and learned a ton -- when I put it back together and it actually worked. And that sense of conquering the technology stayed with me for the first 15 or so years of my now nearly 40-year-long IT career.

But I just want stuff to work, now; and don't give a rat's youknowwhat how the technology achieves it. I know I can spend a Saturday with virtually any technology and figure it out and master it and awe people. So what? Who do I see about getting that Saturday back?

Never root a phone. Keep it the way Samsung and AT&T shipped it; that way you can hold them accountable when it doesn't do what they promised; and you can also always restore the phone to the way they shipped it to you with such as a GSM reset so you can get to the same starting point that they used when they created and tested the 2.3 Gingerbread update/upgrade that you're getting ready to perform. Again... I can't stress this enough: NEVER ROOT A PHONE! That way you'll never be one of the idiots in the forums asking why their phone's doing such-and-such instead of spending quality time with your family, or walking your dog on the beach, or...

...well... just read the message on my website.

The GSM Reset and then the immediate 2.3 Gingerbread update should be done with whatever SD card in it that you intend to use in it once you've got 2.3 Gingerbread up and running, and you're beginning to restore stuff to your phone, and reinstall apps, etc.

Also, try to use the USB cable that came with the phone. Others will likely work, but every now and then I'll hear about somebody who thought s/he could save a buck by buying some super-cheap cable that comes from such as one of Amazon's resellers who just puts it into a Glad-brand sandwich back, with a hand-written label on it. Some of those cables don't even have continuity on all the pins. If you no longer have the cable that came with the phone, at least use one that's made by one of the big-name makers... Belkin, maybe... or anything with an AT&T or Samsung label on it. Sorry I forgot to mention that earlier... though I already might have, earlier in this, or one of the other threads I've got on this subject floating around out there on the various forums.

Just be cool. Take it one step at a time. Don't rush things. Follow the instructions. Everything will be fine.

And I trust you'll report back and let us know how it went.

Lookin' forward to it.


Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com

Last edited by DesElms; March 22nd, 2013 at 02:07 AM.

sarahard7

If I was helpful to you, please click the Thanks button.

Last edited by sarahard7; March 22nd, 2013 at 02:35 AM.

tvfreakazoid

I was curious how long does it take to upgrade to GB?

It's been like almost 20 minutes and stuck at 42%.

I felt something wrong was going to happen

tvfreakazoid

Well i waited about an hr and half and it was stuck at 42%. Not sure what could have caused this.

Maybe it was the hardware issue i had been having lately with my phone.

DesElms

I'm sorry... helpful to whom, for what, and how? Are you sure you posted in the right thread? I don't see your participation in this one, anywhere...

...er... well... except, of course, for that to which I'm now replying.

So, then, was it simple mistake? Or are you doing what I've seen in other forums like this wherein you hope that the person helped won't notice who's posting the "Thanks" button request, and will just click on the button of the one who asked for and/or suggested it?

Sorry to be so cynical, but I've seen every trick in the book. My apologies if I've misjudged.

But helpful to whom, for what, and how, in this thread?

Just askin'.

Last edited by ocnbrze; April 30th, 2013 at 03:03 PM. Reason: Manually removed your signature

DesElms

Sometimes hardware breaks, it's true. Maybe that's what's going on with your phone.

You could try the GSM reset again... maybe even do it twice, pulling out the battery and just letting the phone sit for a few minutes inbetween them.

Also try it with and without the SD card inside (a bad SD, card, by the way, can make a phone really nutty).

At this point, you've got little to lose so you can safely experiment a little.

Ultimately, though, to safe yourself a bunch of time and frustration, you probably need to go to an official AT&T wireless support center and have them first make the phone exactly the way it came from the factory. Don't let 'em just do their own GSM reset. Ask them, instead, to plug the phone into one of their machines that forcibly wipes everything clean, and reinitializes everything, and then reinstalls 2.2 Froyo onto the phone, exactly as it came from the factory. Once, when I did it, they actually installed an every-so-slightly older 2.2 Froyo than came on my phone; but the tech insisted that that version was more stable. So these guys really know what they're doing.

Once a clean, good, pristine, AT&T-installed 2.2 Froyo's on the phone, then ask him to test the heck out of it and make sure the hardware's okay.

Then -- this may sound strange -- but then ask him to repeat the process of wiping everying, reinitializing everything, and re-installing a factory-new copy of 2.2 Froyo onto the phone.

While you're there, either talk him into giving you, or buy one if you have to, a new battery. The battery plays a role, believe it or not, in the 2.3 Gingerbread update; if it's squirrely in any way, it can screw-up the update. When you get the phone home, put the new battery in and charge it all the way up, and make sure it's that way when you next try the update.

To learn where is your nearest wireless device support center, go to this web page (click here) and then scroll down to "Step 3." Don't worry about all the warranty info on the page; just pick your state, download its PDF file, and then open said PDF file, and find the center nearest you. Sadly, some states have only one center, so you may have some driving to do. But it's usually worth it, though, because those guys tend to really know what they're doing.

You might even be able to talk 'em into exchanging the phone for you. I've seen that happen, even with a phone that was way out of warranty, but the customer was an old and long-standing one whose two-year contract was just barely halfway through. So, who knows.

Or, what the heck, maybe it's time to move on to a new phone. Even if your two-year contract isn't over, AT&T will quite often let you sign-up for, in effect, a whole new two year contract, and pick a nice either free, or one-cent, or otherwise super-cheap phone. If you've got the money, you should get a Samsung Note (not necessarily the Note II, though if you want that one, instead, fine; but the regular Note is amazing... huge, better/faster, and so effectively a blurring of the line between a phone and a tablet that you may stop carrying around your tablet (or may not buy one, if you don't already have one). It's a fantastic phone.

Even though our two-year contract still has 8 months left on it, Mary-Anne and I want to move over to the shared data family plan because we can get a net 2GB/month increase over what we have now, but for over $20/month less. While we're at it, I'm thinking very, very seriously of finally pulling the trigger on getting that Note; and giving Mary-Anne the Infuse; and then doing a GSM reset on her Captivate and just putting it in the drawer as a backup phone in case either one of ours craps out. The chances that we'll do that are high, actually. Maybe you should consider something like it.

Or if you don't want the Note, fine... there are others. Click here. I see that a refurbed Galaxy SIII can be had for only thirty bucks. Never be afraid of the refurbs. They're not merely checked-out by AT&T; they're factory refurbed by Samsung or one of its authorized refurbishers, and, seriously, anything even close to being marginal is replaced, and then everything is thoroughly checked-out. The only thing potentially bad about refurbs is that they've usually got at least a year of usage history on them; and so anything that checked-out during refurb, and so wasn't replace, could finally die just as it would have if the phone had never been refurbed. But, seriously, refurbs, if they're really good deals, like this SIII, are usually a pretty good value; and, in a sense, are far better checked-out and verified than brand new phones. As long as a refurb is really a refurb, by the factory or one of its authorized centers; and as long as they really did replace things, and not just test, reset, clean-up and rebox, then they're pretty reliable.

There are obviously other phones there...

...including the Note, for $199, on which I've so got my eye.

Start with doing a little experimenting; GSM reset the phone again, and be sure to reboot the Windows machine, too, just before doing the update (and let it fully boot-up... wait 'til the hard drive light settles down). Re-try the update (making sure the battery's fully charged, even though, yes, the phone gets juice from the USB cable). Make sure the USB cable's the one that came with the phone, and that it has no shorts or anything in it.

If it fails again, then repeat it all, but with the SD card out of it. In fact, as long as the SD card's out of it, put said card into the Windows machine and reformat it. Can't hurt.

When you're finally done screwin' around with it (or if you're ready now), find the nearest AT&T support center and go there and do what I earlier herein wrote. Then go home, charge-up the new battery, do your own GSM reset, reboot the Windows machine, connect the phone to it, and try it again.

If that fails, too, then I'm not sure I know what to tell you..

...other than at that point you'd be in the sort of place where I would, were I your official support person, be asking you to box it up and send it to me.

Did you purchase the phone new or used? If used, how did you purchase it... off eBay or something? If so, you know, it could have been dropped in the toilet or something, and be water damaged. If I could look inside it, I could tell you in two seconds. If so, though, that could explain why it's squirrely, and why it might even pass testing at the support center, yet still be squirrely when you got it home. Water damage to integrated circuits can produce all manner of oddities.

It might also have been dropped, and something's shorted inside such that it just happens to test okay at the service center, but gets squirrely elsewhere.

There could be heat issues, too. Sometimes only certain precise conditions of heat, after the phone's been on for a certain amount of time (which maybe couldn't be replicated in the service center) can suddenly make something inside one of the chips or other components, or on one of the tracings or solder joints, open-up a little... become intermittent.

While any of those things, in the hands of someone like me, for example, who's got a whole workshop full of cool tools and test equipment, can find; at some point one has to ask: At what cost? For no more than a new phone costs, you might want to just punt and go get one.

That said, if the service center's close enough to you, it would probably be a trip worth taking. Take the cable with you, too, and have 'em check that out; or buy a brand new one with AT&T labeling (it'll be expensive, but probably worth it).

And don't forget to get a new battery... not an aftermarket one, but, rather, the actual Samsung-brand battery exactly like the one that came with the phone! You wouldn't believe how these advanced batteries, some of which actually have little circuits inside, can goof-up a phone. Truth be told, that could be all that's wrong with it. I'm serious.

Short of sending me the phone or something, I don't know how much more helpful, at this point, I can be. I'm sorry it hasn't worked-out for you. There's obviously something wrong...

...although, having said that, I've seen these things fail, too, because of something wrong on the Windows PC. Maybe a bad USB port; or some USB management software running. Maybe something running downn in the System Tray; or a service that's conflicting with KIES Mini. The list of possibilities on that score is potentially endless!

Also... oh, yeah... I forgot... this is important: Make sure that no earlier version of KIES Mini -- or, especially, the full version -- is installed on your machine. If more than one KIES Mini is installed, or if an earlier version was on it, but you thought you properly uninstalled it, then use REVO UNINSTALLER's most aggressive mode to bygod get every version, including the most recent one you just tried to use, off that machine. Then reboot. Then reinstall the new KIES Mini. Then reboot. Then do the GSM reset, then try the update.

Whew! I know it's a lot of screwing around, but whoever wrote KIES Mini either at or for Samsung must have been high or somethiing, because that whole family of software products is a freakin' mess.

Anyway... see what part of anything I've just written helps... and let us know.

Last edited by ocnbrze; April 30th, 2013 at 03:02 PM. Reason: Manually removed your signature

tvfreakazoid

No i wasn't trying to be smart ass about it. I really meant thanks for trying to help out. No ones at fault. Not blaming you or no one else.

I had to stop the keis program. But it bricked my phone ( i guess it's the right term). I went to an att device support center.
They ended up grading my phone to GB.

Since i backed up all my files to the pc and i want to upload it back to my phone. But now i'm having another issue (cant seem to catch a break damn samsung phone lol), my usb cord is having problems connecting with my pc. I touch the mass storage to connect with my pc, but almost immediately it will disconnect.
When i did connect the first time it was fine but the second time it wont connect. I took the battery out and see if that would help but its being a pain in the ass.

the usb cord is the original one that came with the phone.

When i bought the phone it was brand new.

Any ideas?

Last edited by tvfreakazoid; March 22nd, 2013 at 03:33 PM.

tvfreakazoid

I did fix the usb connection by going into settings/application/usb settings and setting it as mass storage.

But it seems i have to down load all the apps again. I was hoping to save my text messages and backing it up to my sd card as well as my contacts but not sure if i can. I thought i backed it up but i guess i'll have to tinker with it more after work tonight.

IF you got any ideas that would be great.

DesElms

Wait a minute, user "tvfreakazoid," when I was asking "helpful to whom," I was talking to user "sarahard7," who asked for somone whom s/he did not specify to click on his/her "thanks" button if he had helped anyone. I was not talking to you. Please pay attention to who's post is whose by looking over on the left side of each post and noting said post's owner's username.

Or are you saying that you're logging-in, here, under both the "tvfreakazoid" and the "sarahard7" usernames? If so, then that's probably a violation of this site's terms of service (TOS). Most forums require that everyone be "present" with only one (1) username/identity. I'm guessing that this forum's rules are similar.

So, then, assuming that it was not actually you to whom I was addressing my "helpful to whom" words, you needn't have apologized for anything. Again, note the any given post's username, over on the left. Anyone who's registered around here may post in any thread... as it appeared user "sarahard7" did... either accidentally, or because s/he was "thanks button clicke trolling." Only s/he knows.

Bottom line, @tvfreakazoid: I wasn't, when I wrote "helpful to whom," addressing you... er... I mean... unless you're also user "sarahard7," which I'm guessing you're not.

"Bricking" a phone is usually something that only screwing-up the rooting of a phone can accomplish; though, if you think about what KIES Mini is doing, it's much the same sort of thing. And so, yes, I suppose "bricking" could happen from an effectively aborted-in-the-middle 2.2-Froyo-to-2.3-Gingerbread update. I'm a little surprised that the device support center people were willing to do the 2.3 Gingerbread update, but with all the trouble it's been having, maybe they've loosened that policy. I haven't been to a center in quite a while.

I'd sure like to know precisely what the technician, there, did, though. If s/he recovered from the bricking and did the 2.3 Gingerbread update in the same process (as opposed to first restoring the phone to 2.2 Froyo factory condition, and only then performing the 2.3 Gingerbread update) then it's entirely possible that you've still got yourself an oddball, hybridized, pretty-much-2.3-Gingerbread-but-with-2.2-Froyo-remnants phone. And that can cause all manner of weirdness. AT&T techs sometimes take shortcuts, too; and those who learned what they know through mostly just rote, without really having a good engineering both background and mindset, sometimes make the same kinds of rookie mistakes as reinstalling-Windows-is-the-answer-to-everything PC technicians in places like Best Buy.

The only road to a proper 2.2 Froyo-to-2.3 Gingerbread upgrade is to start from a phone that's in fresh-from-the-factory, pristine, 2.2 Froyo state. Period. No amount of wishing otherwise will change that.

On most phones, a simple GSM rest achieves that state; and then if everything is just right about the phone and its battery, the Windows PC and its Internet connection and the KIES Mini installation on it, and the cables between them, then the upgrade to 2.3 Gingerbread, if done exactly/precisely as per instructions, and immediately after the GSM reset, will go flawlessly.

That's really the net bottom line of all of this. Anyone who deigns to perform the 2.2-Froyo-to-2.3-Gingerbread upgrade by any other means is introducing into the mix a state of things that's inconsistent with what AT&T and Samsung engineers did when they developed the 2.3 Gingerbread update/upgrade, and tested and re-tested it until they finally got it right. And don't forget that they originally got it wrong, and withdrew their first release of the 2.3 Gingerbread update for the Infuse 4G. Their testing of the update between the first and second releases always began with a factory-state 2.2 Froyo phone. Always. Beginning anywhere else is inviting trouble.

Sometimes, sadly, even AT&T technicians need to be reminded of that. The guy I go to at the device support center nearest me is the assistant manager, and I could tell that he really got it. So my experience with my only two trips, ever, to that office have been excellent. But almost every technical support office for every type of high-technology product, around the world, has a technician (or two) who isn't(aren't) careful; and who shotcut things. I worry that that's what's happened to you and your Infuse today. I'm not saying it did, but I sure wish I knew precisely how the technician did whatever s/he did on your phone today.

Yeah... print-out this posting. Take it and the phone with the SD card in it, your cable, and whatever battery you're using back to the AT&T device support center. Demand to speak with the manager, and then show this posting to him/her, and demanding that s/he read it (asking him/her to ignore, of course, the first section, where we settled the "sarahard7" issue); then demand to be handed-off to his/her absolutely, hands-down best technician (which the manager often also is)... even if it means your coming back if s/he's not working that day. And then, once your phone is in his/her hands, demand that s/he:

1. Restore the phone to original, as-shipped-from-the-factory, 2.2 Froyo state by the most destructive means possible. If there's a way to wipe it so clean of all previous stuff on it before so doing that it's as if the phone just came off the factory line, just before installing anything onto its chips, then have him/her do that first. This phone needs every trace of anything and everything ever on it to be gone; and then a pristine 2.2 Froyo, exactly like it ships from the factory, installed onto it.
2. Then run the phone through the most aggressive and complete hardware diagnostics of which the center's capable. Do it twice, and get the phone heated-up, but good by the first time, for the second time.
3. Assuming both those things go well, then and only then perform the 2.3 Gingerbread update.
4. Then run the phone, again, through the most aggressive and complete hardware diagnostics of which the center's capable. Do it twice, and get the phone heated-up, but good by the first time, for the second time.

If the phone survives all that and the technician believes, to the depths of his/her soul, that the phone's basically perfect...

...then have him/her do, on one of the Windows PCs there, on the counter, in front of your eyes, whatever you're doing which is failling on yours, at home, and see if it works. If it does, yet still fails in the manner you're describing when you get the phone home, then it's likely that your Windows XP machine has been the problem, all along. If so, then that's a whole different diagnostic and repair road that you must go down; but at least it shows that the phone's fine.

Let me know how all that goes.

Last edited by EarlyMon; April 30th, 2013 at 02:27 PM.