yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] AC-DC:
Do you know why my phone still freezes? I really don't know what to do.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
unfortunately not...

If there are no other reasons (like overclocking, undervolting, etc.), and the emmc brick has to be blamed for the freezes, I can only imagine, that it's because some emmc chip admin structures are damaged in a kind that it sometimes freezes.

the only way coming to mind to possibly fix this would be to force the chip to recreate structures.

This was the reason why I created the write scanner,

but it's like shooting in the dark, because we know very few about the real emmc mechanisms.

May be there are other better strategies.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] AC-DC:
So if I try to recreate structures, the phone maybe should work? I do that using the write scanner? I don't have much to lose, I want to try everything before discard the phone.

Even my phone won't work, I want to thank you and congratulate you for the amazing job you did. I'm sure many phones have been saved around the world. :good:
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Thanks...

the write scanner is one experimental method to continuously write data to the emmc.

It doesn't harm, because it writes only one file and deletes it and repeats this endlessly.

The only harm is that the flash memory is written to many times. Flash memory only allows a limited number of writes.

That's why the wear leveler exists.

But so far the write scanner seems not to have any effect to anyone.

So I assume this method of writing data to the emmc doesn't stimulate the wear leveler to revisit/rewrite it's structures (which was my pure speculative theory or should I better call it hope).

May be another way of writing data to the emmc may have more success.

E.g. you may write big data files to the internal sd until it becomes filled up and then delete it again.

Then write again, delete it, and so on...

Or as someone suggested before, you could record a video, delete it, record, delete, ...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] AC-DC:
I understood. I will test your emmc writer method, let's see what happens.

hg42, did you see this topic? http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1772234

I read it and I think this could be a solution to everyone who got emmc bricked, what do you think? Is there a way to make this mod work with S2? Maybe we could transform the internal sd as a external sd and vice versa.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I think we should discuss the general meaning and purpose of partitions there and considerations about repartitioning here.

I don't get what's going on here.

Looks like a bug in the scanner but I don't see how it can be.

The scanner only reads one byte in steps of 1MiB where dd reads continuously byte after byte, which should be more thorough. If the scanner freezes dd should freeze even more.

Have to think about that. May I ask you for some tests then?

The first would be a simple cat command:

cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 >/dev/null

This should read like dd but may be dd isn't reading byte wise.

Yes, I think datafs and ums are combined.

That's why I call it "big" partition in the OP.

The dd test indicates it should work.

May be it's not mounted, then

ls /mnt/sdcard

looks empty or /mnt/sdcard doesn't exist.

You can mount it in recovery.

mount /mnt/sdcard

may also work.

You can also dd to /cache/efs.img

You can use adb pull to get the file to your pc.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
cm9 can switch internal/external sd out of the box.

I personally use another solution:

my /sdcard is internal sd

I move some directories which I want to have on external sd and mount them back with --bind option so they are accessible in internal sd like before.

emmc sdcard
-------------------------
Android
backup <-- backup
Camera <-- Camera
ColorWallpaper
data
download <-- download
Music <-- Music
SpeedSoftware
TWRP <-- TWRP

( <-- mount binds /sdcard/DIR to /emmc/DIR )

This way I have a virtual sdcard which has effectively the combined size of internal and external sd together.

For this I use a script which mounts all directories on external sd to internal sd.

Because I use cm9 the script could be called by or integrated into /data/local/userinit.sh

But because it's more practical, I start it from script manager app which can start scripts at boot time.

I think it could also be started by other apps like rom toolbox or tasker
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] allexsava:
SOLVED

:fingers-crossed: Sorry for late response guys but yeah I've fixed it by patching the right .pit file and got only 8,83 GB internal memory.. Flashing CriskeloRomNOTE.vICS-V11.2 and HydraCore v3.5 STD.. I've got few problems with ROM, suddenly stuck/freeze in different situations but again yeah.. I'm happy I didn't changed my MB ..if someone got some ideas why it stucks please reply :D

PS: hg42 you are a really life saver !
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
hmm, this sounds like you're one of the unlucky guys with an unstable brick, where we don't have a solution.

The phenomena looks like writing to the emmc would sometimes make trouble in the wear leveler.

The so called bricked blocks are position dependent, ommitting these memory positions works around that.

But these occasional freezes seem to be position independent.

Looks like a random process, which makes a work around difficult may be impossible.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] brainbang12:
Superbricked GT-P6800...

Thanks for sharing! Now I have already the backup of my efs.img and I'm ready for the next step :good:

Sorry for late reply. I only do it to test if I can flash param.lfs to PARAM and to confirm if it works fine. I already did it and it flashed successfully. :)

Ok I'll do it. Unfortunately, my computer can't read my device (using adb devices), that's why I can't do it at this moment. Do you know how to fix this? It has already happened to me when I connect my tablet for the first time.

----

UPDATE

Nevermind, I already fix it. Anyways, I already tried cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 >/dev/null but I don't know if I enter the command correctly.

C:\Users\Cram\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb shell cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p4
>/dev/null
The system cannot find the path specified.

Could you please give me step by step instructions how to do it because I'm still a noob using ADB :laugh:

Thanks again!
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] xscreations:
Hello,

I am running the emmc_scan_write.zip file and i do not know if i have to stop it by making a reboot or do i have to wait for the program to stop and give some results?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
it's indefinitely running, meaning you have to reboot
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
ok, I see, I wrote this from memory / theoretically without testing...sorry for that.

The problem: the >/dev/null will be interpreted by your shell (which is cmd because your probably on windows, because I get this error message on windows, when I execute e.g. "echo >/dev/null").

Because I am not at home currently, I have to guess again.

This should work:

adb root

switches adb to root mode (ignore if it says it already is).

adb shell

you should get a prompt on your android device.

If the prompt doesn't end in # (but in $) you have to type

su

to get into root mode (but the adb root should have done it already).

Now type

cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 >/dev/null

this should work. It may need a much longer time than dd before, because it probably reads by a slower method.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] brainbang12:
Superbricked GT-P6800...

I followed your instructions, but still it didn't work. Here's the log I've made. You can check it if you want:

C:\Users\Cram\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb root
adbd is already running as root

C:\Users\Cram\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb shell
~ # su
su
/sbin/sh: su: not found
~ # cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 >/dev/null
cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 >/dev/null
~ #

Ok I'll wait for your instructions. In my opinion, the PARAM partition has no problem for I successfully flashed the param.lfs yesterday. Will anything happen if I try to use the right .PIT file for my tablet for now even without doing that step?

I have to fix this tablet by tomorrow afternoon because I would like to bring this in our camping. I hope you can help me.

Please reply asap. :)
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
adb was already running as root, su wasn't needed because your prompt (~ #) ended in #

cat worked (no output expected because all redirected to /dev/null which is kind of nirwana), and ended without freeze, so it's the same result as dd, which also didn't freeze.

Flashing param also says the partition is ok.

So three against my scanner.

Flashing the correct PIT doesn't harm anyways, so just do it.

The worst thing that can happen, is some freezing now and then, like tannykim and others are experiencing.

I suspect you will get these random freezes, but of course I wish you good luck.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] brainbang12:
Super-superbricked GT-P6800... (now dead)

Sad to say that my tablet is now totally dead. I can't access to recovery and download mode. It had turned on up to Samsung logo. But after that, the lcd had suddenly turned off. I tried to turn it on again but it didn't. Honestly, I don't know what's the cause. I know that I'm responsible for what happens to my tablet. All I need for now is to wait to go back to my country and fix it for JTAG repair because it's not available and very rare here in Italy. Luckily, I have a backup of efs.img for future use. Anyways, thanks for your help hg42. I really appreciate it.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
sad, but not strictly hopeless.

I don't think the PIT alone has this effect.

Did you follow my instructions?

Did flashing with Odin work?

You also flashed a ROM together with the PIT?

Or you flashed the PIT without autoreboot and then the ROM?

According to trying to turn it on:

The screen sometimes is black, but the device is on. You could even be in download mode but don't see it.

If you have Odin running and the tablet connected, try pressing the button combination for download mode about 30 sec.

Then wait if Odin detects the tablet (yellow bar with COMx display).

Also recovery could be there with black screen. Press the buttons for this 30 sec and check with adb devices. Note this can take up to several minutes, so be patient.

In such a case I would remove the battery, wait for 10 sec and reinsert it.

I remember this isn't possible for most tablets. May be you find a way to remove power (if you can open the tab, perhaps there is some connector which can be removed).

My own cheap android tablet once also could not be turned on. I waited a whole day and night, and in the morning I could start recovery (or may be download mode in your case).

Another time it was frozen and I couldn't switch it off. I also waited for some hours, until the battery became empty. This helped.

So if it should be running in a loop doing nonsense while showing a black screen, there is a chance the battery gets empty after hours.

You may check if it's powered on, by feeling if it's a little warmer somewhere (be patient, give it enough time to cool down or warm up).

If this should work in a way, don't try to boot into the ROM, because it didn't work before. Try to boot into recovery instead, or may be download mode.

If in recovery, you can try to investigate, in which condition the partitions are. Can you mount them? are there expected files on them etc.

Eventually, a small piece called "usb jig" can force the tab to download mode (if applicable to your tab, and if you have one, or can build one yourself), but it has to react to power on.

Also of course you should search the www about this kind of problem related to your tab.

There are some other reasons for this, and may be someone has a solution.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] ashkan_mc:
Hi,

I made a very very stupid mistake and got my phone soft bricked this morning ... I used a standard 16Gb pit file to revive my phone and now it is working but my phone memory lost 3 Gb.

Now my question is, is there any way that I can get this 3 Gb back? and beside this, what happened to my phone now? Is it working normally like before or it is just like a damaged phone?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
3gb is usual, often you can go down to 2gb.

Use the scanner, please read the OP.

Your device is damaged, not easily repairable.

If it will work flawlessly depends.

I think the standard case is like mine, my phone works absolutely flawlessly since reviving.

But there are users like tannykim who get random freezes and shutdowns all the time. I would call this an u stable emmc brick.

Read at least the OP and the last n posts of this thread...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] ashkan_mc:
One question

After the soft brick, I used a standard pit file 16 GB and now my phone is almost usable. Now can I use the pit file which is correct for my phone? I mean now I have found the start and end of the brick. So is it ok if I use the related pit file again which is available in the OP?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Yes, this should be no problem.

Keep in mind that the changed partitions contents is invalid afterwards.

So you need a backup.

For partitions not changing their size a partition image will work and a file wise backup like tar will do, too.

This is true for most partitions changed by my pits, e.g. factoryfs is moved but not resized. Except the "big" partition will change it's size, so here you need a file wise backup.

This shouldn't be a problem, because this is usually usb storage.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] cornbread0715:
Bricked

are there any PIT files for the Galaxy Note SHV-E160L 32GB....My phone is not rooted and i think its hard bricked. It does not turn on using any button combos but when i plug it up to my computer odin turns yellow and can reconize it. if odin can see the device does that mean i still have a chance and can just do the adb commands and repartition the hard drive ?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] ashkan_mc:
Thanks ...

After I did all of these, can I again use odin pc or mobile odin for other official roms ?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] gunmetalrx8:
P6200

Hey hg42,

Thanks for uploading the patched 6200 PITs. I didn't try your Brick Scanner but i flashed each patched PIT untill I got a working flash.

I flashed a CWM kernel afterwards & then did a Wipe/Format on Cache, Date & sdcard, None showed any error. So i simply done a reboot system.

It stayed on the Samsung Galaxy Tab logo for a while & finally it booted into the samsung logo & eventually i got the Stock HC. But i only had about 600 MB of Internal Storage free.

So I tried a different range of Patched PIT for P6200 from your folder to get back more internal Storage.

Surprisingly this time the OS wont boot & it stuck on the Samsung Galaxy Tab logo for a long time.

I tried getting back to the PIT where it booted the OS, but no luck.

What happened here? im confused now.

Thanks again. At least im making progress i guess.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
Why do you think it's an emmc brick? did you wipe or format while on a stock ics kernel?

If not, you shouldn't assume it's an emmc brick.

Odin has nothing to do with adb.

Odin attaches to download mode (press Vol-Down + Home + Power for about 30 sec), while adb attaches either to recovery (press Vol-Up + Home + Power for about 30 sec) or when the phone is fully booted.

So no adb in download mode (=Odin mode).

If Odin sees the device you can flash a ROM, kernel, boot loader, PIT etc. so you can completely (re)install the whole system.

"Does not turn on" probably means a black display?

Odin turning yellow does not necessary mean the phone is in download mode (I'm not sure).

It might be the phone is hanging (running in a loop) and doesn't react to buttons.

Try removing the battery for at least 10 sec and the reinsert it.

If the boot message (something like "Galaxy Note") doesn't appear after that you have a problem.

If it appears but doesn't continue in the boot process, you should flash a ROM in download mode, then reboot.

*Never* wipe or format when running a stock ICS (meaning the kernel of stock ICS), this may emmc brick your phone.

Good luck...
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] gunmetalrx8:
P6200 Successfuly revived

Thanks to hg42.

I successfully revived my P6200 7 plus tab.

I now only have 700 MB of Internal Storage but it can be managed by using Ext SD cards.

Thanks a lot to hg42 for his immense support. Thumbs Up
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] ashkan_mc:
I did the procedure as exactly explained in the OP and now I have 9 GB internal memory.

My note is working very good but sadly I got one freez during last 24 hrs and it is making me worried. It was when I was working with opera mobile with 3 tabs open at the same time.

I am using hydracore kernel v3.5. ... any idea? is it bad?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
"freeze" in emmc brick context means you cannot access any internal partition, most apps are freezing then. Often a shutdown follows, sometimes immediately.

A simple force close with dialog (wait, ...) shouldn't be from emmc brick.

Which one do you have?

btw. I am on tour from now on.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] ashkan_mc:
No no it was not force close. It was a complete freez and I had to press power botton for 10 secs to get my phone restarted.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] test95815:
Hi hg42,

I have executed the following

emmc_find_brick_start.zip

emmc_find_brick_end.zip

and both show completed ok which means all blocks are usable? but somehow my phone only shows 4.11GB internal storage, any clue how i can fix this?

My Phone is SGS2 I9100, with custom rom SuperNexus Build 2 and CM kernal.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] ashkan_mc:
I noticed something strange ... I used the proper pit file according the scan I had done, but when scanned my phone again, I saw that there is still a block file at 1073 MB.

Why it is like this? The pit file I used was supposed to remove the block but it is still there !
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] mrhooof:
thank u hg42 ana all of you

plz check up my proplem:

i flash new germany rom 4.0.4 and i had 4.0.3 not germany rom

didnt like the new rom so i desided to go back to my backup nand that i made so i restored the 4.0.3 but it stucked in samsung logo

tried alot of roms and kernal but nothing worked

i can enter the recovery mod and download mode, download any kernal or any thing but not roms the roms failed in odin and recovery

i tried this method and i have w brick boint 1073 start 2048 end

some people saied that mutible file GB rom solve the proplem is that right

what should i do

and if you guys chose to flash abit in odin what i should do after that

thanks everyone alot
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] mrhooof:
thank u hg42 i am thankful to u becuse i thought that i lost my phone but now my note works just fine with latest ics and ilost about 1.7 gb thats ok

thank u very much i appreciate

Morhaf
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
not an emmc brick...

When having emmc brick, your OS doesn't know anything about it, so it reports stock sizes.

Unfortunately I don't know your phone enough to tell you anything about this.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
this is typical behavior when having emmc brick, because the flash memeory cannot be used anymore and everyone (apps) is waiting for getting data out of it. However, some code like the power button handler and others are still working because they don't use the flash memory.

But there can be other reasons for this particular behavior, so it's not sufficient to identify an emmc brick.

You may additionally try the emmc check app (the one with a scanner).
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
The brick finder scan should always report the same begin and end blocks (if you don't have a "randomizing" emmc brick).

It doesn't use the partitions, it directly scans the device at a lower level.

You use the finder to determine, where the brick is located, then you repartition in a waxy which leaves these blocks unused by the partitions.

The bricked blocks are not removed, neither are they fixed, they are simply skipped for normal phone usage, that is the OS and all apps etc. don't touch them.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
seems you solely used stock Samsung software?

If you still have warranty, you should use it.

Otherwise you follow the description in my OP.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I see you solved it by yourself, nice. But if you still have warranty, think about using it...the phone works but is damaged in some way.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
yes, but as I read most people brick their /system and/or /data, right?

Also, I think if the brick still allows download mode, it should be possible to recover from the brick.

Note some report they can go (blindly) to download mode, but cannot see it, because of a have a black screen.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I don't really know what the PIT file does exactly, but I think it is the same as repartitioning by other ways.

I currently have a structure definition file for a multi-platform tool (java) called DataWorkshop, which allows looking at binary data in structured form.

I added the structure file to the first post for those who want to try it.

The tool is not very comfortable when it comes to copy/paste etc. but you can edit the values (just put the cursor at the correct digit before typing the number).
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] garwynn:
To all following this thread,

We found this workaround to work in similar cases with the Epic 4G Touch; however, most people will only suggest this as a temporary measure to restore phone functions until it can be replaced. There has been no long term testing to see the effects of the eMMC operating in this condition; as it has also been noted there is no easy way to ODIN or flash other things by CWM.

Also, not every "superbrick" will boot as we've been told by the Android team themselves, so this solution may not work for every case.

Bottom line - for now replace it if you can. If you absolutely can't but you can boot and need the device working - then this is a good short term solution. Hopefully this problem will be improving soon.
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] blue_panther9_9:
Which firmware did you install it to? I cant seems to install it. everytime I use ODIN it seems to be wiping the device first.

I assume you used thorkernel and recovery to install a zip file?
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
I generally agree with you...

but one note:

my new partition scheme only moves the two partitions and keeps their sizes, partition indexes, and names:

...-|-FACTORYFS-|-DATAFS-|-UMS------------------------------------|...
...-| empty space |-FACTORYFS-|-DATAFS-|-UMS---------------|...

This should be in no way different from repartitioning for a different sized firmware.

So, nearly all things work exactly as before, Odin and CWM generally work as before.

Only flashing a new PIT or other means of repartitioning will not work like before.

From what I know this doesn't happen very often.

In this case the scheme would have to be customized again (PIT file patched etc.).
[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] hg42:
hmm, the pit.str file was not a *.pit file!

This is only a description of the structure of a pit file for use with DataWorkShop.