I have no clue, but for # 3 above. I was once trying to do a hard reset on my vibrant. I held down the volume rocker, and turned the phone on. Instead of getting me to the bootup menue, it gave me something that appears the be download mode. It was a Triangle with the android guy using a shovel, and I believe it said download mode. It also said "downloading....do not unplug" or something like that. Since I wasn't flashing anything, I just turned the phone off and it was fine. But you cant do a battery pull if infact you are doing a true download, it will brick.

take care.

 

Ate you over your 14 days? If not and you can't fix it, I'd exchange it!

 

I think I remember seeing somewhere that they said do not use rom manager to partition.

 

Download mode is weird.. Some phones it is incredibly easy to get into (like mine) others like my wifes it's a nightmare but. There is hope.

You will need to use Odin and follow the directions from this link.. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734475

To get into download mode if your phone is picky. Turn it off completely, then plug it into the computer. You will see a battery image come up and after a second or two the charge level will be shown by the battery being filled to a certain level, colored in green.

When you see the battery change color. Hold down both volume up and down and then press the power button. As soon as the screen goes black let go of the power button. If you aren't fast enough this can take several tries.

You should now be greeted by an Android holding a shovel. I think this is googles way of saying "Hi! I'm here to help you dig your way out of this mess! "

From here follow the instructions in the post I linked except make sure in Odin you check the repartition box as well ( I know it says don't but yours is hosed and you need too hehe)



Edited to add:

If you are using Windows 7 64bit save yourself a lot of hassle and do this on a 32bit machine. For some reason lots of folks have problems with Odin hanging on 64bit machines (it's a crappy pos when it's working so no sense making it worse for yourself)..

 

It hangs on my 64bit system too.. I tried for 3 hours to get my wife's phone up and running and was close to smashing it when I seen someone mention in the 30+ threads I had open that it worked on a 32bit system and not a 64bit.. Sure enough as soon as I moved over to my wifes computer it was flashed and going in less than 15 minutes..

If I had to guess I would say it is an issue with the Samsung USB drivers, although Odin is buggy enough on it's own that it could very well just be it lol.

If you need some more help let me know, I've had to fix my wife's phone several times now as it seems VERY picky when it comes to updating and installing a new rom etc so I've spent a lot of time with Odin lately

 

Did you ever find a fix?