How to Fix Bricked (Unbrick) Samsung Galaxy TAB
Many users have been looking for answers if they messed up and bricked their Samsung Galaxy TAB. Today I will give you some hints on how to fix this problem.
Disclaimer: This is my own terms and personal brief explanation, just correct me and add suggestion if I missed up something wrong.
Okay let's tackle what your device problem is.
Is your Galaxy Tab already bricked?
Freeze or Hang on logo.
The phone can boot after pressing the power button but it stuck or freeze on LOGO or home screen and after that it doesn't work any further.
Crashing/Shutdown on logo or often restarted.
Some users they call this problem as boot looping, the device will just automatically shuts off again and again.
At this state the phone can still reaches into Download Mode, Charge Mode and Service mode. They called this problem as SOFT-Bricked. The phone is not already totally bricked on this state.
What about if the Phone doesn't turns On or Power UP is it already bricked?
Some other factors if the device will not power Up is due to battery failure,firmware failure and hardware failure cause by water damaged or accidentally dropped.
Bricked phones will not powering up if the firmware is totally corrupted or damaged. We do not use the term bricked if the phone is still powering up or boot up. We used the term Dead Boot Jammed.
But one thing to remember that the device will not turns ON if the battery is totally drained and the device won't show a battery icon when the battery charger is plug-in.
Hardware failure issue can only determine after checking or diagnosing the firmware.
So how to fix the problems?
If the phone still reaches up to Download Mode (Volume Down+Power Button) and Recovery Mode(Volume Up+Power Buttons), You can still fix the phone by flashing the right firmware again. Firmwares comes on different versions according to your Country or Region and Service or Carrier providers. If you flash a wrong firmware you will messed up again.
This steps below are hints on how to diagnose any so-called bricked problem by users:
Hang, Frozen, Crashing, Auto Shutdown, Often restated:
If your Tab experience hang, frozen or often restarted without doing anything on it or flashing any firmware, You may first try to wipe the data cache of your device and restore it to its original factory default settings:
They called it a Hard reset:
Turn off the phone then Press the Volume Up and Power Button, your device will then boot into recovery mode. Select the wipe data or factory reset option.
This sometimes help and fix the problem but not certainly very often. If the problem still continues then you may need to re-install (flashing) the firmware again.
Flashing the Firmware: This process will install a fresh firmware on the device by Using an Original STOCK ROM and ODIN flasher tool.
Try to use another working battery first or let the charger plug-in for about 8 hours (standard) or less, as long as the battery have the right voltage to power up the phone.
- If the battery seems working or already tried a new one, this time
In this case you may consider that your TAB is already bricked (Dead Boot) or totally messed up. Flashing the firmware by using ODIN will not work this time, because you can't access the phone into Download mode or service mode.
So, is the phone will still can be fix?
Yes! if your device still at its warranty period, we advice that you may send it back to your Samsung sevice centers for repairs. There's is nothing on the web that may help you fix it by your own. There are also many 3rd party mobile phone technicians nearby that can help you recover your TAB just unless if you have already void the warranty of your device.
We will show how does it is going to be fix here, just to inform anyone else for curiosity matter.
If the you TAB is totally messed up, the only way to recover it is by using special tools and the process is a little bit complicated and time consuming.
So what tools needed?
When the phone's firmware is totally damaged, since you cannot use ODIN to install the firmware on it, you will need a tool that can force the device to make you access and install the firmware unto it again. This tools are like the production tool where your Tab are like at the state of factory production.
Okay, instead of using the standard method by flashing through ODIN on phones USB, We used a tool by a way of JTAG flashing. The JTAG flashing needs a JTAG device and a software downloader tool to connect the phone and regain access and install the firmware on the phone again.
And doing this is a bit complicated because it will need to dis-assemble the galaxy TAB and solder some part of it to make a connection from the JTAG device tool to the phone.
The picture below will show which part of the galaxy TAB PCB board where to regain a connection.
It is the JTAG pinouts, where service centers get access to restore the phones firmware.
That's it... hope this helps
