Help Simple HAVE to flash back to Gingerbread. Please help.

vwgolfman · May 7, 2012

Hi I bought my Galaxy S2 SIM FREE several months ago. Running Froyo and then Gingerbread. No problems.

A week ago I updated to ICS via the phone itself (not using Kies). Again no problems.

Yesterday I decided to wipe my phone and reinstall a few things just for good measure. Again no obvious problems.

However, this morning I am finding that the Wifi will not turn on.
When I drop down the menu at the top and hit the Wifi button, it turns dark green instead of bright green and will not turn on.

After a while it goes grey again but simply will not turn on.

If I hard reset the phone and begin again from scratch, once I get to the screen where I enter my Google account details, it displays "turning Wifi on" and just locks up for ages doing nothing.

Please please may I have some help and ideas?

Thank you.

vwgolfman · May 7, 2012

WOW there are thousands of people with the same issue...

Issue 28036 - android - WiFi freeze on Samsung Galaxy S2 with ICS 4.0.3 - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

I have to say that the Samsung programmers have to be the biggest load of prats I think I have ever witnessed.

vwgolfman · May 7, 2012

Hi, due to the terrible problems I and many others have had with Ice Cream Sandwich here...

Issue 28036 - android - WiFi freeze on Samsung Galaxy S2 with ICS 4.0.3 - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

...I simply HAVE to flash back to Gingerbread as currently the phone is virtually unusable. Well done Samsung you've won an award.

* I bought my Galaxy S2 SIM Free and would like to know if it's possible to flash back to Gingerbread without invalidating my warranty?

* Also I presume I'll need to choose a "Sim Free" (unbranded?) firmware?

* After flashing will I be able to use the phone's update facility and/or Kies to update to ICS once they fix this Wifi bug?

My phone's details are....
Network O2.
Model GT-I9100
Android version (currently) 4.0.3
Baseband I9100XXLPS
Kernel 3.0.15-I9100XWLP7-CL340913
Build IML74K.XWLP7

Please can you kind people point me in the right direction.

Very many thanks for any help given.

matttye · May 7, 2012

The only way to fix your problem without rooting would be to wait for Samsung to fix it.

However, you can be rooted and running a very stable stock ICS ROM in half an hour. If you like Touchwiz, there are plenty of ROMs that have that too.

vwgolfman · May 7, 2012

Hi Matttye and thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately I can't wait for Samsung.
At the moment the phone is almost unusable.
It keeps locking up, the Wifi keeps trying to turn on and off without my intervention and the Wifi never turns on properly at all..

I don't know what Touchwiz is.
I am more than happy to go back to my original Gingerbread.

Would you please be so kind to have a look at my other thread which I started just now?
It describes what I would like to do but I don't know where to start.

Many thanks for any help.

oceann · May 7, 2012

Same problem happened to me today. I upgraded to ics yesterday and i'm unhappy with this

when will it be repaired by samsung and will any update come from samsung for some problems like this?

Slug · May 7, 2012

vwgolfman said:
Please can somebody tell me which stock firmware I need?

XWKI4, which is towards the bottom of post #2 here. Make sure that you download from the XEU (UK) link.

Do I need to flash the kernel or just the firmware?

There's a good walkthrough in post #1 which explains what to do depending on whether the package is a single file or multiples. No matter which the stock kernel will be included.

What is a binary counter and do I need to worry about it?

It's a software counter in the bootloader (I think) that increments each time you flash a non-stock firmware/kernel with Odin. You need not worry as Samsung's packages don't trigger this counter.

vwgolfman · May 7, 2012

Hi Slug and thank you for helping.......

I have successfully flashed XWKI4 and now see that my Baseband, Kernel and Build are all different even though I only selected the one xxxx.tar.md5 using Odin's "PDA" button.

I also note that my binary counter has not incremented and that download mode still reports "Samsung original firmware" or similar.

However, doing this flash has not resolved my issue which only occured a few days after updating (normally through the phone's update software facility) to ICS 4.0.3

My Wifi still will not turn on. The Wifi icon turns green and scanning for Wifi signals takes place but after a few seconds, the icon turns grey again and it switches off.

Please do you have any ideas as to what is wrong?

vwgolfman · May 7, 2012

oceann I have flashed back to stock Gingerbread firmware but still have the same symptoms. I am trying to get to the bottom of this. See this thread.........

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...-have-flash-back-gingerbread-please-help.html

gadgetman404 · May 7, 2012

Sorry dude i used odin got firmware from xpa developers they use intratech lots of firmwares there try it

bored_stupid · May 7, 2012

Did you do a full wipe/factory reset, wipe devik cache and under mounts and storage, format system in recovery before flashing the gingerbread firmware via odin. If not thats where your problem lies.
Also download the pit file from samfirmware for you phone.

Justinyao · May 7, 2012

You should not upgrade your s 2 to ICS right now. It has many problems this moment. You may go to the Samsung official website and ask for a support.

Slug · May 8, 2012

First up, I've merged both threads dealing with your problems to prevent confusion and make locating solutions easier.

bored_stupid said:
Did you do a full wipe/factory reset

Exactly. You HAVE to wipe data if changing major OS versions.

Also download the pit file from samfirmware for you phone.

The fact that the handset is booting into the OS demonstrates that the file systems are fine. I don't think officially-released updates alter the partitioning.

vwgolfman · May 9, 2012

Hi all and thank you for your suggestions.....

Can I please ask how one wipes his Dalvik-Cache as this may resolve the issue?
Recovery mode doesn't give me a "wipe dalvik-cache" option.

What I want to avoid if at all possible is incrementing that binary counter in case U need to return the handset under warranty.

I really need to get this sorted as the handset keeps turning itself off and even once on it flattens the battery from 100% within 3 hours. I am certain all these issues are something to do with this Wifi issue.

Help Simple HAVE to flash back to Gingerbread. Please help.

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