Hello,

Sorry I am new to the forum and I tried to updated to Gingerbread 2.3 using the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgIl-Tym3P8

After flashing it just froze and nothing happened. I then tried to flash back to the voodoo file and when I boot I hear a female robotic message that says something about invalid partition and now I'm stuck with no phone :(.

Any help will be very very appreciated. I am still very new to all this and I didn't make a backup.

Oliver

After reading those 5 pages of negative comments I would have done some serious research before following that guy.

1) He has Nokia in his name - not exactly inspiring.
2) He is using a virtual android device to demonstrate the guide ?! EDIT- I see now it's PicView Live - My mistake.
3) When Gingerbread is successfully ported to the SGS you will hear about it on this forum, or on the XDA-Devs forum.
4) I am assuming he suggested installing the Voodoo lagfix first because Gingerbread can't read the RFS system?
5) omg. just omg!

Please tell me your 3 button recovery mode/download mode works?

Power off/battery out then battery back in.

Recovery mode: Press and hold the Volume Up button and the Home button, then press the Power button while keeping those two pressed. As soon as you see some coloured text, release all the buttons. This should get you into recovery mode.

Download mode: Press and hold the Volume Down button and the Home button, then press the Power button.

Hopefully download mode works and you *might* be in with a chance. But this is very messy.

He also offers such fantastic advice as: -

"It seems that your phone is locked just go back to your original ROM!

Good luck mate, hope that idiot hasn't bricked your phone for you. This forum is where you will get it fixed if it's possible.

Hi Goots,

Thank you for replying, the recovery mode doesn't work but the download does. Any further advice is appreciated.

Oliver

OK mate it's a long shot but as you're stuffed anyway it can't hurt.

TRY FOLLOWING THIS GUIDE. (http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/showthread.php/2921-How-to-use-Odin-to-upgrade-to-Froyo-from-Eclair) <-- click that, it links to the guide.

Use the exact files I have linked to there. Not the version of WinRAR you already have and definitely not the version of Odin you already have.

I know it's not strictly for your problem, but it *should* sort it.

I really hope your /efs folder survives this because as you have already said, you have no backup :(

Lesson to be learnt here - you can never do too much research.

EDIT: It won't hurt to get the 3 button recovery mode working first actually - CLICK HERE FOR THE TUTORIAL. (http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/showthread.php/3452-How-to-get-the-3-button-recovery-mode-working)

Thanks Goots, considering it just flashes up and resets when I try the three button technique I should still try this because it's the only thing left right?

I appreciate your help btw.

Oz

Yeah try and get the 3 button recovery fixed first (by following my second link) because that is really handy and you might need it after we have (hopefully) fixed your phone.

After that, try to follow the tutorial I linked to as best you can. I'm hoping the repartition will sort out the mess that has been made of your internal filesystem.

I'm hitting the sheets now as I have work in 6 hours, so I'm not ignoring you if I don't tespond immediately.

Hi Goots, I followed the steps to the first flash and it boots to the "S" logo and then the screen goes black (Waited about 20 mins). The Up volume, home and power works now and I have the following options though:

Reboot system now
Apply sdcard:update.zip
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe cache partition

This is the first time I'm doing this first time other than after the flash.

Yeah I never expected that to fix the phone, but at least you have the 3 button recovery mode working now.

You can clear the cache first, then do a wipe data/factory reset, then select reboot. I doubt very much that it will reboot, but no harm in trying. Anyhow, if it doesn't, you need to do the flashing tutorial to try and het usable firmware back onto the phone.

I'm typing this on my phone in work, so I might be delayed in responding to any questions you might have.

So cleared cache and factory reset and we are back online, Goots fking legend. What do you do for a job man? I shall be writing a thank you article on my blog (not tonight have a date, got the number again lol). I will be back.

From what I see it's removed all the apps maybe some other stuff not really sure what? which is cool because I was to busy playing and not really sure what I wanted till just recently. I believe I'm on 2.1 so I should go to 2.2 now from your previous post? Anything else you suggest?

You cleared the fatware as well which is cool as I never got round to that.

Thanks again friend,

Oz

Well I'm glad (and a little suprised) that it seems to be fixed reasonably easily.

Yes now would be an ideal time to move to 2.2, but your route there will depend on your existing firmware version, and I can't offer proper support while I'm in work, we can speak later or some other time about it.

For now, just dial *#1234# and post back here what it says.

ps- fyi I work as Cheryl Tweedy's personal masseur. Not really, I'm an engineering supervisor :)

I've been out of the UK so long I was trying to work out who Cheryl Tweedy was. So I had to google then google some more. That was before lunch, then I forgot what I was doing. Anyway:

PDA:
PHONE: I9000XXJM4
CSC:

OK it certainly looks like there is work to do.

For the moment let's not rush into anything now because as I say, I'm stuck in work.

Basically, we have to replace the firmware you have now with the latest official one. I'll post more details tonight after work.

I owe you, I have a few sites and do some PS and poker if I can help anytime.

Oz

Believe it or not, I'm not normally a retard :confused:

I'm good to carry on adding some app's right?

Glad he's helped you mate, has also rescued me from the dark depths of Galaxy S dispair.

Sorry to hijack this thread but i cant post new ones or send PM or alter my profile or contact the admin team. i either get bumped to Briggs message about Spam or a blank white screen with this in the address bar "http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/profile.php?do=dismissnotice" this happens on my works pc home pc and my Darkys rom Galaxy tried message to Briggs but no response are there any admin bods on here who can help ????????

"http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/profile.php?do=dismissnotice"

I had this, go to the main menu and look for a popup box with message and "X" normally t and c's welcome or notification.

Once you've read those come back and you should be able to post.

will do, i know ive been able to before though which is strange but thanks for help.

Some strange side effect, can't download app's from the store. They are all unsuccessful?

Yeah it's because your CSC is missing (because your firmware is still a bit fked up), so the Android Market doesn't know what you should be eligible to install and because of that it doesn't give you anything.

As an example, if I dial *#1234# I get

PDA: I9000XWJS3
PHONE : I9000XXJPY
CSC: I9000XXJP9

So as you see, I have firmware in each of the sections. To be honest, I'm suprised you can make and receive calls, but we need to sort it out.

As you have the 3 button recovery mode working now, it's a bit less risky to install firmwares because we will always have recovery mode available.

I would normally advise you now to back up your /efs folder, you need to be Rooted to do that, but because we can't tell which PDA firmware you are on, it's going to be impossible to Root right now.
As usual, it's up to you if you want to attempt this as your phone is technically working now (albeit not correctly), and I can't be held responsible if it bricks it - but it shouldn't.

So now you really need to do the Odin flashes from that tutorial I linked to (THIS ONE (http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/showthread.php/2921-How-to-use-Odin-to-upgrade-to-Froyo-from-Eclair)) because doing that will (eventually) get you to a place where it works properly, and is much easier to update, root, backup and customise.

Following that guide will...

1) replace the code and modem parts of your existing firmware with JM8 firmware, which in turn sets the phone up ready to..
2) install the JPO pda, code and modem parts of your firmware which will completely sort your phone.

From there, it's reasonably simple to upgrade further, right up to the latest firmware which is much better than that half-finished version of Gingerbread you were originally trying to flash.

One more thing you should check before you do anything (not that you can change it if it's wrong :( ) is that your IMEI hasn't been corrupted. You can do that by dialing *#06#. If it starts with 00 then you are in trouble :|

(Don't paste your full IMEI here by the way, just make sure the first few digits aren't 00.....)

Thanks Goots and I will let you know how I get on, either way as promised this weekend I am blogging an update for the appreciation.

Oz

imei isn't starting with 00 phew, proceeding with tutorial.....

You Da Man, owe you big time. Anything else you recommend?

Thanks goots: http://www.edrinker.com/2011/02/08/this-is-why-i-fking/

wow! i r famous :D

Cheers mister, glad you got sorted.

EDIT: I would recommend backing up your entire /efs folder(and all it's contents) somewhere other than your phone's internal memory card. Put it on your external SD, or better still your PC.

If something happens in the future and you need to reflash your firmware again, if your IMEI gets screwed then the phone really is a brick. We can use the backed up /efs folder to restore the IMEI details.

I think you were lucky this time :)

Goots is there a thread on doing this somewhere, or is it done through an app that comes with Darkys that ive maybe missed looking at ?

Cheers

You need an app that can access your phone at Root level. I use Root Explorer LINK HERE (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.speedsoftware.rootexplorer) which is perfect. There might be some free apps on the market that can do the same, but Root Explorer is my app of choice - it's never let me down :)

Once you have it, just start the app, long-press on the /efs folder, select "Copy" then navigate to your external SDCard and click "Paste". That will put a backup of your /efs folder onto your external memory card. For extra security I just take another copy and place it on my PC.

Another great idea is to keep the Darky's_v9.2_Extreme_Edition.zip (or any ROM file, depending on what ROM you are using) actually on your internal SDCard. I know it takes up space, but if you ever bugger your phone up in a way that it can't boot, you can always boot into your recovery mode, and reflash it using the "install zip from sdcard" option. Yeah you will lose your apps and settings (OK not settings if you use Darky's) but at least you will have a bootable phone :)

EDIT: This method of rescue will only work if the custom ROM is a full ROM and doesn't need a base ROM to be pre-installed. eg, it will be fine with Darky's, but I can't speak for others because I'm not sure of their pre-requisites. For the amount of space it takes though, it must be worth keeping on there even if it offers you the slightest chance of rescue :)

Excellent service as usual, many thanks Goots, thank god this site isnt blocked by my company.

Ive possibly already backed the efs using SGS tools, just looked in Astro file manager and it says theres a folder called mnt/sdcard/sgstools backup_efs_.q is this the same thing mate ?

cheers
Fairly sure that ive backed up my efs now and through dropbox saved there and to my laptop pending any disasters.

Another great idea is to keep the Darky's_v9.2_Extreme_Edition.zip (or any ROM file, depending on what ROM you are using) actually on your internal SDCard. I know it takes up space, but if you ever bugger your phone up in a way that it can't boot, you can always boot into your recovery mode, and reflash it using the "install zip from sdcard" option. Yeah you will lose your apps and settings (OK not settings if you use Darky's) but at least you will have a bootable phone :)

I would like to say this doesn't always work :)


Ive possibly already backed the efs using SGS tools, just looked in Astro file manager and it says theres a folder called mnt/sdcard/sgstools backup_efs_.q is this the same thing mate ?

I believe it is, I remember seeing that when I had SGS tools :)

Ive possibly already backed the efs using SGS tools, just looked in Astro file manager and it says theres a folder called mnt/sdcard/sgstools backup_efs_.q is this the same thing mate ?

Well kind of, that particular file can only be used by SGS Tools to restore the /efs folder, but there's nothing wrong with that, it just means you have to use SGS Tools to restore the /efs, rather than doing it manually.

It won't hurt to store that file (or the manual one I mentioned earlier) on the external SDCard too, because if you need to format your internal SDCard to get your phone working, you will lose that backup.

I would like to say this doesn't always work :)

Ah, I presume you mean if the custom ROM needs a base ROM to sit on. I will edit my original post, cheers :)

Or when you trying different Rom, kernels, lagfixs and other stupid stuff you shouldn't do unless you have a PC nearby :)

I still haven't learned my lesson even though I say I have:)

Very sound advice that i hopefully never need