[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] mycatisether:
Continuing on from my earlier post on how to make the Korean Galaxy Note work in Canada, I'll continue on some troubleshooting you can do with a custom firmware I found on KOXDA.

First, make sure you have a nandroid backup, if not I'd recommend following the guide I made here to install CWM Recovery and use it to make your nandroid backup, it's not ABSOLUTELY necessary, but it will make things a hell of a lot easier for you.

(my previous post: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=28899883)

After you've made your backup, download this firmware:

http://www.sharebees.com/6lvyjdfv8tv8.html

This is a custom SHV-E160L firmware that has international features enabled and made by a really talented programmer on koxda who goes by the username teamleader, he also made an custom AT&T ROM for the galaxy note which I cannot find as of yet, so if someone finds that one, let me know.

Anyways, once you've downloaded the firmware from sharebees, flash it onto your phone using Odin in the same way as you've flashed other firmwares. Once that is done, you'll have access to a gingerbread build of the ROM working on your phone. From here, you'll need the secret menus.

Open up the phone dialpad and type in *#*#2663#*#*

(Codes courtesy of this thread here on xda note they're for the i9000 but lots of codes are reused for different Samsung products: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=7882964&postcount=42)

As soon as you finish typing that last * in, the phone should open up a secret menu with two options. One button to upgrade touch screen firmware and another to upgrade the touch key firmware.

**WARNING**

IF YOUR TOUCH KEYS ARE WORKING FINE, DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING JUST LEAVE THAT SCREEN NOW!

Please note that perfectly working touch keys (the menu and back buttons beside your home button) can be ruined by updating the firmware, not sure about the touch screen but hey, don't mess around with something that isn't broken (should've taken that advice for myself but I wouldn't have learned anything to share if I hadn't, anyways you've been warned).

Once in this screen, press the button to upgrade your touch key and wait. Eventually it'll finish, you can try rebooting the phone (though mine worked immediately after I believe) and test out your touch keys.

If they work, congratulations, but the reason why I don't use the teamleader ROM with all its useful features will become readily apparent. First, it does not have google market and I was never successful in installing it properly. Secondly of all, it tends to be rather unstable, at least for me and crashed like crazy.

So now you're going to want your old ICS system and all its novelties back. You can at this point flash the stock ROM I posted in my previous link and go through the entire process of rooting and getting the SMS to work.

~~OOORRR~~~

If you have a nandroid backup, just boot into recovery and restore that backup.

The touch key firmware update will survive the restoration if it started working already and should remain working with your restored backup image.

If all goes well, then congratulations you now have a working phone once again.

I hope the hours I spent in frustration trying to fix my damn phone helps someone and feel free to pm me if you have any questions, please note I am very bad at responding.

Good luck everyone