[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kennyTSV:
'samsung mobile MTP Device' pop-ups

I'm running windows xp sp3, and recently did myself a favour (after getting great help from this forum and the teamwin people on irc) by learning how to root my i9210T phone running stock ICS ROM. The main thing was to learn that TWRP (after flashing it into the phone) required a special power-up key sequence to get into the TWRP menu system - otherwise you can't get into that menu system (without knowing about the holding BOTH volume-up and volume-down keys at the SAME time during power-up, and keeping both vol-up and vol-down depressed until the actual install/wipe etc menu screen shows up permanently). And TWRP is then used to install a file (superSU.zip, or update_superSU.zip) that we need to download from XDA etc. It is the installation of that super-user software that achieves the root access. And TWRP has a 'backup' button that allowed me to backup boot, data and system - which means we can restore the backed-up operating system and user data whenever we want.

I tested the 'restore' feature of TWRP (after having done a backup and a factory reset). And everything really did get restored - messages, apps, all data, phone logs etc.

The only issue I encountered is 'Found New Hardware - samsung mobile MTP Device' keeps popping up in winxp 3 when I plug a usb jack into the phone (with the other end of the cable connected to the PC). Prior to doing the RESTORE, I was able to use Samsung KIES to connect to my i9210T. But after the RESTORE, I notice that Samsung Kies recognises something is connected/connecting, but does not even register 'i9210T' anymore. Kies just keeps having 'connecting' displayed, and nothing else happens. This kind of thing usually makes us waste lots of time re-installing windows usb and mtp drivers, re-installing different versions of Kies etc. I had experienced this kind of thing in the past - which was before I had even tinkered with rooting procedures etc. And I was sure that the issue wasn't on my computer's side. The issue was actually on the phone side. I now find that if I do a factory reset of my phone, then KIES will connect up to my i9210T almost right away via USB. But I believe that the issue is not with the rooting process or anything like that. I think it is something to do with samsung software in the phone that handles MTP communications (has somehow stopped working for some reason), or something that samsung software that can't handle that is preventing MTP communications from working or starting up.

Prior to doing factory resets, I actually did heaps of tests, such as to turn the USB Debugging feature on, then tried KIES, then turned USB debugging off, followed by trying KIES again. So a factory reset removes the problem. But if I then RESTORE my backup, I get my system back, but the 'Found New Hardware - Samsung Mobile MTP Device' starts popping up again, and the connectivity issue between the phone and KIES comes back again. Whatever is blocking KIES connectivity is on the phone-side. This issue is not a major one for me anymore because having TWRP backup and restore features doesn't require me to use KIES anymore. But for those people that do run into connectivity issues with KIES, just keep in mind that the issue is not always with the computer side. Instead, the connectivity issue could be due to some setting that's gone wrong on the phone side.