I updated my S3 to 4.3 via Kies not too long ago so I had KNOX installed on the phone. Somehow today I managed to hardbrick it in TWRP flashing a zip but I'm not sure which one did it as I had flashed a couple zips. I've tried this method in every form possible to at least get it in to download mode with no success:

Unbrick a hard bricked Samsung Galaxy S3 Sprint/ Virgin Mobile - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

Could it be knox thats preventing that method outlined above from working anymore? What else can I try?

***UPDATE 12/18/2013*** For anyone who might stumble upon this thread with the same problem: It is possible to un-hardbrick a Samsung Galaxy SIII VM (w/4.3 OTA + KNOX) if all other methods have failed, via the JTAG RIFF Box method of unbricking. If you don't know anyone who has one- take a look around for people selling unbricking services on ebay. Best of luck!

 

Nope no recovery, no download mode, nothing, screen stays completely black no matter what. If I plug it into my PC the red LED will blink and windows will make that USB recognized device sound occasionally and I thought at one point I even saw it say installing drivers for Qualcomm something but Odin won't recognize it. And I can't even get it into download mode using that sdcard trick in the link I posted in original post. I was updated to the latest OTA 4.3 (rooted, with KNOX) before this happened and had TWRP installed for recovery. And by no means am I a novice to any of this stuff, I've been rooting phones since my original Motorola Droid w/Verizon and NEVER hardbricked a phone until now. Any ideas?

 

First of all, thank you so much for all the help everyone. As someone pointed out above I did notice with the phone plugged into my PC, windows was making the USB connection sound every time i would pop the microSD card in and out of the phone. I was trying to get Odin 3.09 to recognize it with no success then I remembered reading somewhere to use Odin 1.85. Upon loading odin 1.85 the phone is now showing up in COM slot 3. I guess Im going to grab that sprint TAR off xda and give it a go- Ill let you know what happens.

In the mean time If I was to find/hire someone with a RIFF JTAG box to try and unbrick it via that method, what firmware would or can I provide them with to return the phone to stock? Is there even one available for the virgin mobile variant that would work for this method? For example I messaged the seller on this ebay auction:

Unbrick Samsung Galaxy s JTAG Riff Boot Repair Hard Brick Jig USA Only | eBay

And he asked me for a link to the virgin mobile 4.3 update... is there any rom/tar/anything i can provide him with that would work for the RIFF box JTAG method of unbricking? thanks in advance

 

Okay update- I got Odin 1.85 to recognize the phone, downloaded the sprint TAR file mentioned here:

[ROM][TAR] Stock MK3 Odin flashable - xda-developers

And upon trying to flash odin stops and is telling me md5 hash value is invalid? any ideas?

 

Awesome, thanks for that find! I uploaded a mirror of the full unzipped ALL_L710VPUBMK5_L710SPTBMK5_2045665_REV03_user_low_noship.tar.md5 in case anyone else is interested:

https://mega.co.nz/#!4J1CgRjS!GA8ZYCr1hwO1tioMkUKFJgw8wClEKj6muh6hTdioAZE

*Edit* Some people have issues downloading from Mega, here's another mirror on my own server:

http://www.deviation56.com/SPH-L710...SPTBMK5_2045665_REV03_user_low_noship.tar.md5

Much thanks to mrg666 for uploading the original file(s)!

I'm about to try flashing it now, I'll let yall now how it goes, thanks!

 

Ok so upon trying to flash the above file, I'm still getting the same error from Odin "md5 hash value invalid"- same error it gave me when trying to flash the sprint ROM. Furthermore any version of Odin v3.04 and above will not recognize the phone, but Odin 1.85 will recognize it, so thats where I am trying to flash it from. Any more ideas or should I just try my luck and have the guy with the JTAG RIFF box try and unbrick it? Thanks guys

 

Yeah I feel stupid, I realized that seconds after I made that post. Removing the .md5 gets pasted the md5 hash failure but now Odin 1.85 just hangs on Setting Up Connection state... Looks like I'm SOL as far as possible fixes within my reach- going to send it off to JTAG RIFF Box repair service and hope for the best. I'll update and let you know if it's sucessful or not which will hopefully give a little more insight into how knox & hardbricking works... Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

Tried all versions of Odin. As far as windows recognizing the phone being plugged in this is what happens:

With battery and SD card removed, if I plug in phone via USB to PC I will get solid red LED on the phone and Windows will make the USB connection sound thus allowing the phone only to be seen in Odin 1.85

With battery removed and SD card inserted, if I plug in phone via USB to PC I will get solid red LED on the phone but Windows will not make the USB connection sound until I pop out the SD card (and then it can be seen in Odin 1.85- but any attempts to flash anything freeze at Setting Up Connection)

I don't know if it makes any difference but the SD Card has on it that bootloader that I linked to earlier that's supposed to let the sprint variant boot into download mode via booting from the SD card

...I think having someone attempt a JTAG is pretty much my last and only option here unless there's anything else you guys can think of- the way I see it even if JTAG fails at least I can say I exhausted all my options to avoid owning a $300 paperweight. Thanks again everyone for your help thus far