Well, it looks like you guys just got unlucky in your little Galaxy S3 hacking adventures. That is, little things such as rooting, custom recoveries, and custom ROMs — and now, you guys have a bricked device in your hand. In this article, we are going to talk about Restoring or Unbricking Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 – Full Tutorial. Let’s begin!
Well, what we can do now is just try to restore your Galaxy S3 back to stock via firmware. So that all bad partitions on the device are fixed and it doesn’t boot loops and restarts normally as well.
And well, relying on what you were trying to do, and more importantly how, it could either be soft-bricked or hard-bricked as well. In the latter case, as sad as it is, and you may be out of luck, man!
Contents
What’s Hard-brick and Soft-brick?
Even though rare, and whenever you are set to be doomed, your Galaxy S3 might get hard-bricked actually. In which case, the Galaxy S3 won’t boot into download mode and it won’t respond to key combinations. That guys you are trying to make it to boot normally or to download or recovery mode as well.
Hard-brick results in one dead Android device. Yes, it’s sick, and worrying as well. You guys may have to look for a JTAG service locally; the person along with good knowledge of that may be able to revive it actually. Oh, you can also try to use USB Jig (look on eBay, perhaps!). In order to reboot the Galaxy S3 into download mode, however, it may or may not work!
Hard-brick is really rare, it may happen only when the power supply gets disturbed of the computer and/or Android device. Whenever something is being installed or updated on the device. Or, when you totally mis-do things totally recklessly as well. That’s why you guys have to be really careful with even the easiest steps.
Further
Let’s see soft-brick now. Normally, a rick is a soft brick, which actually means your device isn’t completely dead actually. That it is just not able to boot normally and gets stuck somewhere else. And, the download mode is working.
How can you identify bricked Galaxy S3?
If your Android device can boot into download mode, then it basically means it’s a soft-brick. If it cannot, then it’s hard-bricked actually.
Cases of soft-brick:
- Bootloop: Your Galaxy S3 is not restarting properly and gets stuck at the logo. And reboots again and again on it as well. Mostly occurs when you guys flash something bad.
- Corrupted but working: Your Galaxy S3 can’t power On, however, is entering the Download mode and/or Recovery mode on pressing the key combinations. That is, it’s responding to key combos, at the very least.
- Any other case: As it doesn’t matter what happened, as long as you guys can access Download mode via the key combos specified in the unbrick Galaxy S3 guide below. You’re good — no reasons to worry about as well!
Solution?
Just install the firmware through the guide below and your Galaxy S3 shall be up and running coolly soon enough! you must be able to enter the download via the key combinations specified in the guide below.
Cases of Hard-brick:
- Well, if you guys can’t enter download mode via the key combinations specified in the guide below. You got a worry — your device is hard-bricked actually. You can’t actually repair it yourself unless you guys are able to reboot it into download mode.
Solution?
You can also try USB Jig to enter Download mode, however, there is no guarantee it would work or not. Your last hope is JTAG: find a local service provider who can use the JTAG for you and revives your dead hard-bricked Galaxy S3 as well. You can use Google to buy JTAG and try it yourself, however, we don’t recommend it at all. It needs the skills of a knowledgeable person in Electronics actually.
Let’s see now how to unbrick or restore or fix a bricked Galaxy S3 as well.
Restoring or Unbricking Galaxy S3 GT-I9300
WARNING!
Warranty may be void of your device if you guys follow the procedures given on this page.
You only are responsible for your device as well. We actually won’t be liable if any damage occurs to your device and/or its components actually.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S3 GT-I9300 OFFICIAL JELLY BEAN 4.3 FIRMWARE
Before you begin with the guide instructions below, you have to make sure your android device is adequately charged — at least 50% battery of the device.
CHECK DEVICE MODEL NO.
In order to make sure your device is eligible with this, you guys must first confirm its model no. in the ‘About device’ option under Settings as well. Another way to confirm model no. is through looking for it on the packaging box of your device. It must be GT-I9300!
Do not use the procedures discussed here on any other Galaxy S3 actually. ( Also including the Galaxy S3 variant at T-Mobile, Sprint, US-Cellular, AT&T, Verizon, and many other International LTE variants) or any other device of Samsung or any other company too. You have been warned!
BACKUP YOUR DEVICE
Back up important data and stuff before you guys start to play around here. As there are chances that you guys might lose your apps and app data (app settings, game progress, etc.), and in some rare cases, files on the internal memory, too.
INSTALL LATEST DRIVER
You must have a proper and working driver installed on your Windows computer to be able to successfully flash stock firmware on your Samsung Galaxy S3. In case if you’re not sure, then follow the link below for a definitive guide to install the driver for your Galaxy S3 on your computer.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
DOWNLOADS
Download the Odin zip file and firmware file given below now. You have to transfer both Odin and firmware files to a separate folder on your computer just to keep things tidy.
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Important Note: Backup important files saved on the internal SD card of your device. So that in case a situation arises needing you to do a factory reset after flashing the stock firmware. That might delete the internal sd cards too, your files will remain safe on the PC.
- Extract or Unzip the Odin zip file, Latest Odin3 v3.09.zip on your computer (via 7-zip free software, preferably) in order to get this file: Odin3 v3.09.exe
- Extract/Unzip the Firmware zip file, I9300XXUGMK6_I9300OXAGMK6_BTU.zip on your PC(via the 7-zip free software, preferably) in order to get this file: I9300XXUGMK6_I9300OXAGMK6_I9300XXUGMK6_HOME.tar.md5
- Now move the firmware file, tar.md5, to the same folder in which you guys extracted the Latest Odin3 v3.09.zip (Just for your convenience, and that is). So, now you’ll have the following files in that folder as well:
- Odin3 v3.09.exe
- I9300XXUGMK6_I9300OXAGMK6_I9300XXUGMK6_HOME.tar.md5
Further
- Just disconnect the Galaxy S3 from the PC if it is connected.
- Double-tap on the Odin3 v3.09.exe file in order to open Odin.
- Now boot your Samsung Galaxy S3 into Download Mode:
- Power off your phone first and then wait for 6-7 seconds after the display is off
- Tap and hold these 3 buttons together until you see Warning! screen: Volume Down + Power + Home
- Press Volume Up now in order to continue to Download Mode
- Connect your Galaxy S3 to PC as well. Odin window will also show an Added!! message in the bottom left box. Odin’s screen would look also like this: If you don’t get the Added! the message, then here are some troubleshooting tips:
- Make sure you guys have an installed driver for Galaxy S3 as said above in the ‘Before you begin..’ section.
- If you guys have already installed the driver, then just uninstall them and reinstall back.
- Connect in order to use a different USB port on your PC.
- You can also try a different USB cable. The original cable that came along with your phone should work best as well, if not. Then you can try any other cable that’s new and of good quality.
- Reboot phone and PC and then try again as well.
Further | unbricking galaxy s3
- You guys have to load the firmware file (extracted in Step 1) into Odin as instructed below:
- Click on the AP button on Odin and select the I9300XXUGMK6_I9300OXAGMK6_I9300XXUGMK6_HOME.tar.md5 file (from step 1). Your Odin window should just look like the screenshot below:
- Now in the Options section of Odin, just make sure that the Re-Partition box is unchecked. (Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time boxes remain checked, but, all other boxes remain unchecked.)
- Double-check the above two steps now.
- Tap on the Start button to begin flashing stock firmware on your Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300, and now wait until you see a PASS! message in Odin’s top left box.
- Whenever you get PASS! the message, your phone will restart automatically. You can then disconnect your phone from your PC as well.
What’s more | unbricking galaxy s3
If you see a FAIL message rather than the PASS in Odin’s top left box, then that’s a problem. Try this now: disconnect your Galaxy S3 from PC, close Odin, remove the phone’s battery and then put it back inside in 3-4 seconds. Now open Odin and then repeat from Step 3 of this guide again.
Also, If the device is stuck at setup connection or on any other process, then too, you have to try this. Disconnect your S3 from PC, close Odin, remove the phone’s battery and then put it back inside in 3-4 seconds. Open Odin and then repeat from Step 3 of this guide again as well.
Conclusion
Alright, That was all Folks! I hope you guys like this “unbricking galaxy s3” article and also find it helpful to you. Give us your feedback on it. Also if you guys have further queries and issues related to this article. Then let us know in the comments section below. We will get back to you shortly.
Have a Great Day!
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