[Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] xaser66:
Hi!

Well, after few weeks with my nice S3, yesterday I finally had time to try to root and mod my phone, but things seems to be worst in advance, so I woul like to ask for some help...

1) At first, I never plug my phone on my pc since I bought it, since I put all my stuff on sd card with an textternal usb reader/w and put in and everything works nice.... however when I yesterday try to put my phone in usb download mode, I found that it was NOT recognized in usb in any way (no MTP, no usb device and not usb Download Mode) by my vista windows install on my laptop (I use more kubuntu but keep the original vista install that came with my machine for the rare times that I need to run something on windows).

Ok, so, I then read post, search and follow sugestions about remove drivers, reinstall Kies, remove kies, reinstall, then install only the drivers for T-mobile version, and also uninstall everything and reinstall again with the ToolKit 4.0... but again NO results and S3 not recognized on my machine...also tested with others micro usb cable (1 generic and one oem motorola)...

2) Again and follow posts... I borrow anotehr laptop with a Win7 install that NEVER had installed Samsung drivers or Kies... so I installed Kies, and drivers only for try to at least get my S3 recognized by Kies by USB cables... same NO successs...

3) So, then I came to my Kubuntu install and try at first a flash of recovery with Heimdall... so It was recognized and completed the flash of recovery, But I found that I use a STOCK recovery file... son when I try to acces recovery, I get it but again it was the same stock recovery....

4) Here is the weird part... after this first Heimdall flash, the Flash counter appears with 1 count, BUT now Heimdall also dont recongnizes my S3 with this error:

Initialising connection...

Detecting device...

Failed to detect compatible download-mode device.

I wonder if after first count may the Stock S3 may be block the usb connection for dwonload mode until some sort of stock software, that may reset usb and allow it to enter in download mode again... also wonder if may be some hidden menu optioon for reset/test thet usb port or for change it form MTP to USB storage mode thatmay NOT requiere ROOT since I not see by now a way to get root withouth usb access detected in pc.

So, by now, I am still lucky in that my phone is booting fine on stock android and charges and everything seems normal, except that there is no way to make it recognized in usb connection of any type, none Linux, vista o win7...

5) I then try at a last resort to try to get root, to try to use STOCK recovery to try to flash a zip with CWM recovery inside, but give a error of validation and no flash nothing...

6) By now I wonder how could be reset or wake up the usb since seems a common issue with S3 but almost everything that I found refers to solution when the phone is already rooted, and if not rooted all I found is the same suggestions about uninstall/reinstall drivers/kies but nothing else...

So, I remember that when I used a Moto XT720, one of the ways to make it custom roms, was a zip that was proper prepared by a dev, that include a version of CWM zipped inside a file named update.zip that could be flashed temporaly by Stock recovery "flash update" option of stock recovery menu, and then it Boots to CWM recovery that finnally allows to flash custom roms properly inside the phone and WITHOUT usb access... so I wonder if somebody may know/help with a similar solution for S3 that dont get USB access for get flased roms or root...

So, as I post above, by now I fell enough lucky to have my phone booting-up normal and charging, but feels that I caged since I not see a way to get root or custom roms other that have an usb fully recognized by pc and seems that this could be an issue of the stock firmware that may be happen... so I would like to ask for help suggestions and proece with extremely care before doing any other attemps to root since I would like to solve how to maintain a reliable usb connection open and recognized status and/or a way that may be possible to install CWM recoveery with an update.zip file form stock recovery, and from there the advance may be safer....

Thanks for read and any help/suggestion will be very appreciated.

Best regards to all.