At wits end with Galaxy SII flashing..

[Tezcatlipoca84]

Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong forum. If so, I'll happily move it.

I rooted my phone with Siyah Kernel several months ago and decided to attempt to format it and start over. I've made several attempts at installing the official ICS and I've even upgraded Siyah to its latest ICS-compatible version. However, after many hours of trying to install ICS through Odin, the phone will now only either enter Download mode (Power button + Home + Volume Down) or simply enter a 'Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again'.

I am really not sure how I've managed to back myself in such a corner considering I'm usually quite good at this sort of thing, and it's pretty embarrassing that I may have inadvertently bricked my phone. Odin doesn't appear to be helping anymore. I either get 'All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 0)' or it outright fails to flash altogether.

There's really nothing on my phone that I want to keep and I'd be happy just even getting it back to factory settings. I've read so many guides these last two days trying to fix this that I can barely even remember my own name without looking at my passport.

If anyone can help me, I'd greatly appreciate it! I'm going traveling tomorrow and without a phone, I'm screwed. If you need any more information to make this easier, just let me know!

Thanks again!

 

[StarScream2109]

What carrier do you have? I will move this to its appropriate forum for you can get further assistance

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

Aha, I knew I forgot something! I'm on Vodafone. Thanks for moving the topic!

 

[StarScream2109]

Vodafone? Never heard of them! Haha are they like Verizon? Or a prepaid Plan?

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

They're a UK carrier. I'm on contract.

 

[StarScream2109]

Okay thread moved to "international all things root section"
Thanks for understanding

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

I'm not with it today at all. Thank you again!

 

[StarScream2109]

No problem please feel free to drop me a PM if you need anything

 

[lunatic59]

If I'm not mistaken, the Vodafone version of this phone can be either i9100 or i9100T. Could you please verify that? It makes a difference. In any case the best practice at this point is to take your phone completely back to stock ... stock kernel, radios and rom ... and start over. Let us know the full model number and we can track down the files for you.

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

It's the GT-I9100 if that helps.

 

[lunatic59]

This is a silly question, but have you tried the firmware recovery through Kies?

Fire up Kies, plug in your phone (sorry, don't know if you just let it not connect or have to put it into download mode) and then go to tool>emergency firmware recovery.

If that doesn't work, you can try flashing the stock ICS rom for your phone. I think this is what you need. I9100BULPC Android 4.0.3 ICS United Kingdom (Vodafone) Stock ROM Download

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

Kies has been a real pain as of late. It doesn't connect to the phone at all! =\ I'll try a few more times and then check out the Stock ROM. I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you!

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

Well, that settles it. Kies just flat-out refuses to connect no matter what USB port or cable I use. I'm downloading the ICS ROM at the moment and I'll try to install it with Odin. I can't enter anything with the phone except for Download mode. I'm assuming this should be sufficient to install that Stock ICS?

 

[lunatic59]

To be honest, I didn't look at it. I take it you can't get into recovery, either.

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

Argh! Odin won't install anything either and Kies still won't detect the phone for me to flash the kernel. As far as Odin goes, it either informs me that the installation wasn't successful or tells me that nothing has happened (successful 0 / Failure 0).

I get the feeling I'm well and truly screwed. =\

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

No, just download mode, provided I reset the phone with Home/Power/Volume Down held together. Booting as normal confirms 'Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again'.

 

[ironass]

See under the heading, "My firmware is not eligible for ICS yet but I want it now!", in the #1 post, here, for details on downloading and flashing firmware via Odin.

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

Thanks for the help, but the real issue I appear to have is that I'm limited to either booting the phone to that Kies error message, or restarting it to Download mode. Kies won't detect the phone and while Odin detects it, I can't get any further than 'All threads completed (successful 0 / failure 1)'. I can't access Settings or my home screen.

I'm using the official Vodafone ICS file through PDA. No joy.

EDIT: Actually, this might help me out. I'll give it a go.http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1075278

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

*Sigh* Sorry for posting so much. The tutorial I linked to isn't helping either. Right now, after another attempt, Odin is stuck in 'SetupConnection' and has been for over 10 minutes now.

 

[ironass]

If you have successfully connected to Odin you should see the ID:COM box in Odin turn yellow or light blue, (depending on which version of Odin you are using).

Precisely, which firmware are you endeavouring to flash?

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

I was using a rooted Gingerbread 2.3.5 I believe, and tried my hand at upgrading to ICS after flashing the old version of Siyah Kernel with the latest ICS compatible one. I could boot into recovery mode no problem as of last night and just needed to install ICS itself, and then somewhere down the line, I entered this terrible mess.

Oh and yes, Odin recognizes the phone connection no matter which USB port I use, so that's something at least.

 

[ironass]

I was using a rooted Gingerbread 2.3.5 I believe, and tried my hand at upgrading to ICS after flashing the old version of Siyah Kernel with the latest ICS compatible one. I could boot into recovery mode no problem as of last night and just needed to install ICS itself, and then somewhere down the line, I entered this terrible mess.

Oh and yes, Odin recognizes the phone connection no matter which USB port I use, so that's something at least.

If I understand you correctly, you were on Gingerbread 2.3.5 and then flashed the ICS, (3.x), version of Siyah kernel over the Gingerbread, (2.x), version of Siyah before attempting to upgrade to ICS firmware?

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

Exactly, which I now realise was a very, very stupid thing to do.

 

[ironass]

Exactly, which I now realise was a very, very stupid thing to do.

Correct!

Shame you didn't mention that in your first post.

Since then, what else have you tried to flash and was anything successful?

 

[Tezcatlipoca84]

I've put about 15-20 hours worth of effort into fixing this, so I've tried an insane amount at this stage - too much for me to recite if I'm honest. I think I've exhausted most avenues. I'm pretty convinced that my USB cables aren't helping the matter as neither of them are official. The fact that the phone is difficult for Kies to detect too is raising that concern, so I've just bought a spare official Samsung cable as my one appears to have gone missing.

One other thing I've noticed is that the phone is now incredibly slow to charge. It's turning off after about 15 minutes each time and it isn't being charged via USB at all. I have a battery wall charger on its way to me anyway so I'll have to use that. In the meantime, this thing will have to remain useless until the cable and battery charger arrive. Failing that, I'll have to send it off to be fixed.

Thanks for your help everyone!