Galaxy S2 on the fritz!

[cdamy]

Ok, I thought I had gotten it but apparently didn't... Phone was running Gingerbread, after I had downgraded from ICS last year, but with some issues.

I rooted my SGS2 and flashed ClockworkMod 4.0.1.4 according to the instructions of www.*****************. The phone worked so far.

I then I got cocky...

I downloaded Siyah-s2-v5.0.1-CWM.zip kernel and flashed it. That's when the phone stopped booting, but could still go into Recovery and Download modes. I entered recovery mode and flashed cyanogen mod 10.1 for Galaxy S2. Again it wouldn't boot, but it showed the cyanogen logo (constantly).

I went back into recovery mode and tried to recover to an earlier recovery image? I had made with ClockworkMod 4.0.1.4.

Now the phone just stays at the original screen and also goes into download mode.

Do you think there's some way to save it?

THX for any help!

 

[Rukbat]

Are you completely wiping the caches and doing a factory reset after every ROM flash?

 

[cdamy]

Are you completely wiping the caches and doing a factory reset after every ROM flash?

I don't know what caches are and no.

I didn't after rooting , or after flashing when I could still boot to Android and after that I couldn't boot at all.

Do you need to know anything more? Can you see any see any way out?

Thanks for the interest.

 

[cdamy]

Dear Rubat, thank you again for your interest. I don't know if you're thinking on it, or plain abstaining from involving yourself with a moron (both admirable pursuits), but I need a phone asap and I woyld greatly appreciate it if you could give me your opinion on whether it is worth waiting for it to be mended , or simply buy a new new one and keep trying to fix it in the mean time.

Thanks again for your effort!

 

[sntaylor]

Cdamy, your phone, from the sounds of it is most certainly recoverable, however you may lose data!

You have said you have not performed any wipes on the phone? This would be my first recommendation...try a full wipe in recovery and going to advance and wipe cache and dalvik(not format anything yet!).... then assuming you have a custom Rom on your phone/on sd card, flash it(ie cm 10.2) this should get you back to a working phone, albeit on cyanogenmod which may not be fully functioning! Photos and other things downloaded etc should still be accessible though

If that still fails, download a stock Rom from Sam mobile and flash it through Odin, if that still doesn't work, you will need to flash siyah through Odin again to get a custom recovery as the stock Rom will replace the recovery you had.
go back in to recovery and do a format of everything (format system) beware that this option WILL wipe the entire phone and when you get it back running it will be unrooted and as if you had just got it out the box!

 

[cdamy]

try a full wipe in recovery and going to advance and wipe cache and dalvik(not format anything yet!)....

I can't get into recovery any more, only Download mode...

I forgot to mention that after all that (and before posting here) I used recovery to go back to the backup of the previous state I had and that's when it all went bananas and it stopped loading to recovery.

I appologize for not mentioning it earlier, I'm confused as to what I did myself. I really believed that the process was pretty fullproof and that except from the rooting part I couldn't botch anything else...

Thanks for the help!

PS: No data to be lost, I have it all on SD or cloud(s). No worries there!

 

[sntaylor]

Then you will need to flash a stock Rom through Odin....if after 10 mins it doesn't load up, then you should root with the appropriateKernel( a siyah one for whatever version android your using) this will give you a custom recovery again where you can format everything and reflash the stock Rom.

 

[cdamy]

Then you will need to flash a stock Rom through Odin....if after 10 mins it doesn't load up, then you should root with the appropriateKernel( a siyah one for whatever version android your using) this will give you a custom recovery again where you can format everything and reflash the stock Rom.

This actually makes sense (to me)! Thanks a lot!

I'll get back to you with results!

 

[cdamy]

It appears to have been a kernel problem. I flashed the previous clockwork I mentioned (did it come with a kernel as well?) and it booted just fine, back into gingerbread (the version I was trying to abandon).

I am (almost) back where I started from, but now I am rooted and am getting ready to reacquainting myself with my phone.

Thank you all! You've all offered awesome help and moral support!

Thanks again!

PS: If anybody had Amy questions (for educational purposes) I'm all ears.

 

[ironass]

Ok, I thought I had gotten it but apparently didn't... Phone was running Gingerbread, after I had downgraded from ICS last year, but with some issues.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I downloaded Siyah-s2-v5.0.1-CWM.zip kernel and flashed it. That's when the phone stopped booting,

I guess it was a kernel problem. Siyah S2 v5.0.1 is for ICS only and should not be used on Gingerbread. See #1.5, #1.6 and #1.7 of the Rooting Galaxy S2 - Dummies Guide