yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Epic 4G General] squshy 7:
2 errors in this guide, just trying to help out from a Sprint tech standpoint.

A T5 screwdriver is not needed. All the screws in the SPHD700 are Phillips.

Removing the speaker is unnecessary. Sure if you need to replace the speaker, but removing the plate that houses the keyboard components does not require the speaker to be removed. It's best practice not to unless necessary, simply because the speaker has a cable component underneath that snaps into a corresponding cable on the keyboard; failure to ensure it sits properly will of course prevent your speaker and vibrator from working.

Heretofore, removing the bottom end of the white antenna wire from the speaker is also unnecessary.
[Epic 4G General] altimuh:
Just wondering - where is everyone ordering replacement parts from?

Perhaps when this info is answered it could be added to the OP so that all the info is in one nice easy to find area :)
[Epic 4G General] repairsuniverse:
Samsung Epic replacement parts can be found here - Samsung Epic Replacement Parts

Hope this helps.
[Epic 4G General] blamethenetwork:
Great guide

Thanks for such a great write up.
[Epic 4G General] repairsuniverse:
No problem.

Glad you found it useful.
[Epic 4G General] lmf:
When my phone is in landscape mode the swype doesnt work when im swyping say the word android where i have to slide left and right. I dont know what the internals of the epic4g is made up of but im guessing theres a digitizer or sensor part under the outer screen. Could it be the problem or is there some app for calibrating the touch screen where im having trouble getting the word to complete through long left and right swype movements? I used the dev tools to test the areas i touch and it appears fine but not very accurate but doesnt seem like im having bad areas on the touchscreen.
[Epic 4G General] zman0900:
Does anyone have any experience replacing just the glass without replacing the LCD and digitizer? I cracked my glass and eBay has the part for very cheap, but sprint wants $100 deductaple to replace the phone. I'm wondering if the LCD and glass are bonded together.
[Epic 4G General] ÜBER™:
From what I've heard is the digitizer is so close to the screen or glass its really impossible to do it with out error... you'd have to get the whole deal and replace it.

Also might want to drop TEP as it requires a deductible and get a third party protection plan...
[Epic 4G General] zman0900:
Went ahead and payed the $100. The cable that connects the two haves of the slider was sticking out of the case, so I took the phone apart to try plugging it back in hoping I could at least make the cracked screen light up. Turns out the cable was broken too, so I figured it would be cheaper to just get the replacement. Thanks for that 3rd party plan idea. I'll have to look into that for my next phone.
[Epic 4G General] ÜBER™:
cm9eq

Yeah I'm buying my gnex from wirefly and they offer a premium protection plan for 7.50 a month and it covers everything... theft, damage, etc. With NO deductible. :) not bad...
[Epic 4G General] thomasskull666:
Also good to note that the antenna wire uses very small Lucent type MC/MMCX connectors (similar to the antenna connecting wires on laptop mini-PCIe/PCI WiFi cards) that are very fragile and should only be disconnected and reconnected a few times. Breaking or damaging one of these things can be very bad as faulty connectors can introduce interference issues, and they are pretty hard to find in my experience.
[Epic 4G General] nom303:
I was wondering if my screen is messed up n needs to b replaced. I have a spare epic but the screen went out. When it was working (before screen died) id get this full screen green effect when closing my phone but when i opened it, all colors went back to normal. That went on for about 2 weeks until my touch screen went out. The screen didnt go black yet. I just couldnt touch my screen to get into apps and my calls ect. But i could use the kb to get around the issue. Then the other day i closed my phone after texting and the screen never came back on. I can turn the phone on. Hear it boot, lcd blinks, kb lights up but nothing on screen....

My question is could the flex cable be broken or does the screen need to be replaced?
[Epic 4G General] thomasskull666:
More than likely it's the cable. The way this phone is set up, the cable is snaked through the actual slider housing so that it can move freely between the top and bottom halves of the phone when the keyboard is slid open. There is little room for clearance, so if the cable did somehow get caught then it was pulled and either broken or disconnected at some point.

Is your keyboard slider hinge loose at all? The reason I ask is because my first Epic had a very loose hinge that would allow the keyboard to slide out too far. Over time this stretched the screen's ribbon cable causing it to tear. Those things are super fragile.

Either way I would say if you definitely don't plan on turning it in to Sprint for repair/replacement, you should follow the guide and have a look for yourself, these things are really not difficult to take apart. Just make sure not to break the clips holding on the back piece. Guitar pick is your friend :-)
[Epic 4G General] nom303:
Thanks for a quick reply! I would take it to sprint but it has no service but the one im on does. i dont think they will fix it for me bcuz it doesnt have service. Its alil loose I took it apart to check it out and the cable seemed to b rubbed on but came to ask round here bcuz i wasnt sure if i should replace cable or lcd, dont want to by the wrong part
[Epic 4G General] squshy 7:
Well, what we do in that instance, is we just activate that phone on the spot, wait 15 minutes for our eticket system to catch up and recognize the new phone on your account, then create your ticket and give you an ETA for repair. We when you come back to pick it up, you can either have one of the reps swap the phones again, or call customer care, or even wait to have computer access and go to sprint.com and swap your phones. In fact, you could just go to sprint.com and activate your epic and then go in to the store, that way your not waiting for our systems to catch up.
[Epic 4G General] nom303:
Sounds like a good idea bro! So if i understand this right, there's no charge for activing the broken phone? because I thought I read before when sprint changed somethings with activating a phone when the iphone came over but I might have misunderstood it...
[Epic 4G General] squshy 7:
That's only in regards to new lines and upgrades. You can swap ESNs on your account till your blue in the face.
[Epic 4G General] nom303:
Going to attempt this n see what happens. By any chance does anyone know where the water sensors r on the epic 4g so I can check them first
[Epic 4G General] righteousdude:
fwiw...Here's my 2¢ for what's needed to replace a cracked screen...

Start by watching the first 2.5 minutes of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6npRaFm0d4

The video is only to give you an idea what your looking at because the amount of disassembly is overkill.

1. Acquire a working unit from eBay for appox. $50.

On both units:

2. Remove back cover, battery, & SD card.

3. Remove the seven screws(#000 phillips) found on the black back housing , then gently pry around the edges to unclip it (bottom to top seems to work best & the buttons are going to fall out).

4. Unhook the antenna cable (only the motherboard side) and both flex cables attached to the motherboard.

Last step:

5. Since the motherboard is now free, simply put your original one in the fresh unit and reverse the above process.

If you've obtained a phone in fairly good condition, there's simply no need to disassemble either unit any further than what i listed above. Your goal should simply be to swap the motherboard.

BTW...You should definitely hang on to the remaining carcass because it has a bunch of good parts on it. Ex: charging port, audio jack, loud speaker/antenna/vibrator ass'y
[Epic 4G General] dzl:
I haven't taken mine apart yet, but is it actually possible to replace the charging port? I dropped mine when it was plugged in and it messed up the port pretty bad, which is why I just swap batteries now instead of plugging it in most of the time. usb data barely works since it needs to sit a certain way without losing the connection.
[Epic 4G General] righteousdude:
Duh! I see I incorrectly listed the charging port in my post above.

It's actually embedded in the motherboard so replacing it isn't possible.

My apologies for the error.

Sent from my SPH-D700
[Epic 4G General] redvexx:
has anyone else tried just swapping the mobo? Is it easier?
[Epic 4G General] samdsox:
i have

yes i did it. My dad's phone had a broken charging port (on the motherboard). Mine had a cracked screen. I swapped my mobo into his outer casing and now he uses it as his daily phone. It took about 30 minutes and was really easy (for a 15 year old). Just don't forget to swap the stickers with your meid numbers on it because the sticker goes with the mobo, NOT THE CASING/Antenna.
[Epic 4G General] moserandrea:
Thank you. This guide is very helpful.
[Epic 4G General] RotorBalls:
For anyone else that encounters this I'd recommend using the blue loctite threadlocker on the threads of the screws that attach the screen to the keyboard. I've had to take mine a part a couple times after a screen replacement to figure this out. There are probably some other screws that could benefit from this as well as I had some other random screws fall out as well.
[Epic 4G General] Kompster:
I haven't posted in these forums in ages but I have an issue that just came up recently with my Samsung Galaxy II Epic 4G.

I've had this phone for a few years, loved it... Rooted running People's Rom 2.2 for some time with no problems.

This past week I had been running a 4G wireless tether and had a near-constant data transfer, the phone was running hot as hell.

After 4-5 days of this the screen began to show blue artifacts that would show up right after turning on the screen and would fade away pretty quickly. Three more days now the blue has nearly taken over the entire screen, though usually the very top area displaying the time and connection shows. Occasionally the screen flickers back to normal, or the blue becomes transparent.

I'm assuming this is a display issue and although I'm eligible for an upgrade and may be headed towards the Galaxy S4 or Note 2 (or 3) I still would like to bring my Epic back to a functional state and use it as a mobile media and gaming device.

Does anyone have any suggestions on this?

After reading around I've decided to open up the phone later and see if the LCD ribbon is messed up, seems like that is a some-what common issue that causes the effects I stated above.
[Epic 4G General] zman0900:
I still had email notification on for this topic, so I happened to see your post. You're probably looking for these forums if your phone is the galaxy s II epic (the epic 4g touch). This is for the galaxy s I epic (epic 4g).
[Epic 4G General] Kompster:
Naw, I'm on the OG Epic (edit: said I was on a different model I guess)... Thanks though. I felt that this thread was relevant to my problem and would be a good place to share and maybe receive some input. I have not opened the phone up yet, kinda worried to take it apart and make the the problem worse. It seems like whenever the Epic gets hot its display issues become worse, and when I use it when its cold the screen works alright for a minute, then it starts to crap out again. Talked to Sprint Customer Support today and they issues me a $50 credit after I mentioned terminating my account so I could take advantage of the $99 GS4 deal going on at Amazon... But really I don't want a 4G LTE upgrade yet, I'm in Seattle and Sprint's LTE coverage hasn't really taken off here, and I'm getting damned good WiMAX speeds for the past couple months. Think I might just fix this Epic and stick with it till the LTE coverage is good enough.
[Epic 4G General] repairsuniverse:
You're Welcome!
[Epic 4G General] astonmartin214:
Yea do need to take my epic apart I stepped on it & tore the display ribbon so sad about that
[Epic 4G General] repairsuniverse:
Sorry to hear about that, check our site to find the parts and tools you'll need.
[Epic 4G General] poit:
OK, weve got the direct link from the Google servers for FB09 thanks to NateWhite. Here it is:

http://android.clients.google.com/packages/ota/sprint_samsung_d700/11f71b652c51.update_SPH-D700_EL30_to_FC09.zip

This can be used to upgrade STOCK EL30 to STOCK FB09. You must be on stock recovery.
[Epic 4G General] austin420:
who cares. its not ics.

had to be that guy! lol
[Epic 4G General] pvtjoker42:
hmm.. so there's yet another OTA update rolling out eh?

Obviously not ICS, but anything worth lookin at update wise?
[Epic 4G General] machx0r:
I care :D

http://community.sprint.com/baw/message/405733#405733

Is there somewhere specifically we should be looking for this? I assume it downloads it to the SD card but does it stick it in a temp folder or directly in the root?
[Epic 4G General] poit:
Had to **** in my cheerios, eh?
[Epic 4G General] pvtjoker42:
when the update is downloaded it should go to /cache so you can copy it from there with any root file explorer.
[Epic 4G General] poit:
And we really don't need the file as much as we need the full exact name of the file, so we can find it on the google servers.
[Epic 4G General] zanderman112:
Yepp. If you get the notification, DO NOT ACCEPT IT, then use a root explorer to go to /cache and copy that zip to your sdcard. Then tell us its exact name :-)

I am Z.
[Epic 4G General] muyoso:
Seems like a nothingburger of an update. Fixed a single force close issue and some sprint connection optimizer software? Wow, thanks sprint.
[Epic 4G General] KennyG123:
Basically everything in Darkie's FB15 aROM.
[Epic 4G General] tigerknight:
Unfortunately Sprint has said point blank there won't be an official ICS for it thanks to Touchwiz. The phone can run ICS just fine (IE the very snappy CM9b1 I'm running right now) but the ICS+Touchwiz combo is too heavy for it, according to them, and they aren't willing to put out an update to ICS without Touchwiz.

So if anyone did anything to your cereal.. it's them. (It irritates me more than a little bit too)
[Epic 4G General] Fatonuseni:
Maybe the modem has enhancements.:confused:
[Epic 4G General] Tomcat5:
I am hoping this.
[Epic 4G General] KennyG123:
It is Samsung that said that and it is due to their BML partition. Thrte is no room for the ICS OS in there. That is why our DEVs put it on MTD. Samsung won't attempt a partition and file system change for all the Epic owners via OTA...that is tech support suicide.
[Epic 4G General] pvtjoker42:
So true about the hellish nightmare that would be sprint support if they did attempt to roll out an OTA MTD switch.. god my head hurts just thinking about it.. it's sad that Samsung has to be different and not use MTD like several other manufacturers.
[Epic 4G General] The Root:
ICS for epic touch stock with tw is in the ballpark of like 350 MB.
[Epic 4G General] NateWhite:
FC09

Ok,

I have a phone with the update notification. I loaded astro and went to /Cache and it was empty.

Also I did a search from the root for all .zip files and didn't find anything.

Does anyone know if I am doing something wrong?

Thanks
[Epic 4G General] Ceelos09:
Make sure you accept the notification to "Download" the update. Right after its done, it will again notify you if you would like to "Install" the update. DECLINE it, and try checking the cache again.
[Epic 4G General] zanderman112:
You have to download the update first, but when it asks you to install it, don't. Then check.

I am Z.
[Epic 4G General] JBizzleFoSho:
I am hoping for this as well
[Epic 4G General] nikon120:
Yea same here. EL30 modem doesn't play nice for me.
[Epic 4G General] NateWhite:
It wasnt my phone and the guy didn't download it after all.

If I get the notice on my phone I will post the name.

Sorry guys
[Epic 4G General] The Root:
I liead earlier. ICS roms on the Epic Touch are about 560 MB. May actually be a bit bulky for OG Epic.
[Epic 4G General] Shinydude100:
OG Epic has 1GB for ROM as I recall in the specs?
[Epic 4G General] mkasick:
BML vs MTD isn't really the issue. If anything, BML is actually more flexible here as it supports a partition table and Odin supports repartitioning, whereas the MTD partition table is hardcoded into the kernel. But you're right, there's no way to cleanly repartition while preserving user data and it wouldn't be feasible to do in an OTA.

Although frankly, I assume the lacking /system space is a convenient excuse for not releasing an ICS update. It's quite likely there wouldn't be an official update at this point even if there was enough space.
[Epic 4G General] lilajrestnom:
So a week later and still no one got this update...?
[Epic 4G General] steveo314:
I don't believe that. But then again I don't really think anyone is on el30.
[Epic 4G General] lilajrestnom:
So ur saying ppl aren't even able to receive this update cuz they haven't even gotten el30 yet??

What about if ur on fb15 would u get the update msg or only if u were on el30?
[Epic 4G General] zanderman112:
No, he's saying because most people are on CM9.

~ E.R.A.
[Epic 4G General] duce102:
Edit: why does everyone beat me to the punch? Lol

I'm pretty sure he means everyone's on aosp
[Epic 4G General] zanderman112:
I'm quick :)

~ E.R.A.
[Epic 4G General] steveo314:
Yes majority of us are on cm aosp or a custom build rom.
[Epic 4G General] MДЯCЦSДИT:
Make sure you are using a root explorer and not astro...

It is in /cache

Not /sdcard/cache/
[Epic 4G General] zanderman112:
This. Rom Toolbox or ES File Explorer are good options.
[Epic 4G General] lilajrestnom:
Oh lol well ya idk y I didn't think of that especially cuz I am running cm7 and can't get the update lol
[Epic 4G General] notsosmrtgeek:
I'm. Taking one for the team I have been on stock almost a week now. Its killing me. I'm on the computer ever day. And trying not to flash. But I gotta stay strong. Lol. But still. No update. :-(
[Epic 4G General] lilajrestnom:
Lol u can do ittt you'll get it sometime soon don't they usually get it around to eveyone within like 10 days or so..? I think..?
[Epic 4G General] Dronak:
With past ones I've seen, yes, but not this time. From http://community.sprint.com/baw/message/405733:

Released in stages with 100% of devices having received the update within approximately 6 weeks

We could be waiting a while before someone gets FC09 and ROMs based on it become available.
[Epic 4G General] steveo314:
+1
[Epic 4G General] notsosmrtgeek:
I don't know if xbox. Releases. The blur or sense. I might have to give it a go for a day. And flash back.
[Epic 4G General] NateWhite:
Name of File

OK I got it now.

11f71b652c51.update_SPH-D700_EL30_to_FC09.zip

I hope that helps.
[Epic 4G General] lbe:
http://android.clients.google.com/p...11f71b652c51.update_SPH-D700_EL30_to_FC09.zip

Direct link
[Epic 4G General] GRK4G63:
gave you a "Thanks" for the link :)

Just like notsosmrtgeek, I went back to stock EL30 in anticipation of the OTA update. And yeah...it was KILLIN' me after being on CM9 for so long, hehe.

So please forgive the n00b question, but I just wanted to make sure...

Do we flash this in CWM?
[Epic 4G General] zanderman112:
Awesomesauce!

~ E.R.A.
[Epic 4G General] poit:
No,

This is only useful on stock EL03 using STOCK recovery. I'm sure some of our devs could cook up a CWM flashable version of any of them still care about stock.
[Epic 4G General] GRK4G63:
No worries! I downloaded the file, put it on the root of my SD, went into stock recovery and flashed it. No sweat. :)

Edit:

Gah!! Can't root it! Anyone had any luck?
[Epic 4G General] zanderman112:
EL30 to FC09 Modem Delta Flashable

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=24358547#post24358547
[Epic 4G General] sonarchist:
Ran this via ODIN >EL30 the DELTA > wtogami's cwm/bml Temp Recovery over an hour ago...............so far all appears to be well (had been running FB15 Leak, happily past weeks)............so am looking forward to seeing how this will dovetail w/ our merged Android 4.0.4 ROMs!!!! THNX THNX + THNX to nateWhite, poit, zanderman112, mkasick, Drockstar + all who got this to us......you guys are awesome!

..........sent from today's android = 4.0.4
[Epic 4G General] kbboykin:
We do need to rename to update.zip, right?
[Epic 4G General] zanderman112:
Yes

~ E.R.A.
[Epic 4G General] notsosmrtgeek:
well they updated the sprint tv. here is a question what is the bouncycastle.jar? its in the patch/system/framework.
[Epic 4G General] NateWhite:
FYI, I am on stock Rom with Clockwork 5 and root.

I updated from EL30 to FC09 (which worked but removed root).

I reloaded clockwork from Odin and Reloaded the Root from EI22.

Just in-case anyone wondered if that would work. :D

Nate
[Epic 4G General] notsosmrtgeek:
You have to make sure you delete the install_recovery from. System/etc. Or it will put stock recovery back on. You will be rooted but you will. Not have cwm. I noticed that el30. Didn't have it on there unless it was removed from the tar. But the update.zip. does have it in there.
[Epic 4G General] sonarchist:
It was definitely a bit of an ODIN wrestling match running this, some initial strangeness but not too bad :) you know what they say: anticipate everything expect nuttin' .........well this went well IMO, + am super thankful to have been on the thread when your post came up!!..........THNX so much for getting this to us!

BTW: 10 Satellites, big improvement here.

..........sent from today's android = 4.0.4
[Epic 4G General] KennyG123:
So they at least fixed the gps...that was 10 locks right?
[Epic 4G General] sonarchist:
Yes, unreal for this area.......the usual is 4, occasionally 6 (had just been checking these last night.)

..........sent from today's android = 4.0.4
[Epic 4G General] poit:
Rooting requires a bit of a dance. Recent versions of Epic stock kernels have a script that reinstalls stock recovery on reboot. Here's the instructions on how to root and get CWM to stick, I paraphrased from a post from lbe:

This is the only way I know of to get both root and CWM to stick on gingerbread unless you want to use a modified kernel.
[Epic 4G General] notsosmrtgeek:
That or you can just flash custom roms after the first time you odin cwm. But you. Sir. Are correct. You don't have to use es explorer. But it does have to be an explorer that can do root stuff. I bought root explorer. And use it a lot. But there is a few you can use.
[Epic 4G General] rando991:
I understand there is a custom KERNEL (if you don't want a custom ROM) now that you can flash before installing CWM that removes the script, saving a few reboot steps.
[Epic 4G General] poit:
That was true for earlier ROMS, I don't know if they work with FC09 or if there is another one for FC09. The instructions above work with the stock kernel
[Epic 4G General] tigerknight:
Do you need to flash the whole FC09 to get the improved GPS, or is it just the modem/baseband delta?

Also, being a delta - do you need to incrementally move up from EI22 -> EL30 -> FC09? or can you skip EL30?
[Epic 4G General] KennyG123:
You need to install the whole FC09. There are changed files like gpsd. You need to be on EL30 for either modem flashable or entire update.
[Epic 4G General] machx0r:
Was just about to post the same thing. Hopefully we get an official "full" package for Odin sometime (I should have made one...).

Not that I'm expecting many more updates but the whole Odin to EC05 and stock recovery EC05 - EI22, EI22 -> EL30, EL30 -> FC09, reset all customizations/restore app data/etc dance is too much (not really but I'm lazy).

If I was smart I probably would have made backups of the Sprint crapware before removing it this time...
[Epic 4G General] sonarchist:
Toadlife' CleanGB Kernel was awesome this way during the firmware transition btwn EI22 stock to EL30 stock......you ODIN this kernel on EL30, then CWM will stick on reboot.........afterwards you have the option of flashing a custom MTD ROM.

..........sent from today's android = 4.0.4