[Galaxy Note II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Phistachio:
Hello everyone! :D

This is a guide dedicated to those who are a bit noobish or new to XDA, so if you're not one, I would advise to stop reading now! (although feedback would be great! :))

After my success over at the GSII's boards with over 300,000 thread views all over my threads from all sections, I believe that this board should also get some taste of my how to. I'm going to be explaining step by step what to do and how to do it, while explaining each thing.

Just in case you don't know, a soft brick occurs when you flash a ROM or Kernel, and it doesn't go your way, thus bricking the "soft part", aka Software, of your phone. Therefore, it is easy to recover from. Now, if you poorly flash a ROM and it results in a NAND rw corruption (NAND's read and write function corrupted) it means that it is an issue deeper than a soft brick, but still no reason to be alarmed!

When you can flash a kernel, but you can't flash a ROM due to ODIN errors, that happens because it can't properly read the NAND, but it still can flash a kernel. But you ask, why the kernel? Because flashing a kernel is a bit deeper than flashing a ROM. When you flash a kernel, you're changing/putting new instructions to the hardware, and when flashing a ROM, the instructions that are drewn are different and more "simple" (just pulling and pushing folders without touching partitions), so when flashing, ODIN will say "FAIL" instead of "PASS", or suddenly stopping the flash out of nowhere.

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IF YOU ONLY HAVE A BOOTLOOP​

Wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache. IF THAT DOESN'T WORK, MOVE ON WITH THE GUIDE :)

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Let's start with the basic files, downloads and requirements​

1) You have to know the basics of ODIN and flashing for starters!

2) Just to be safe, please uninstall Samsung KIES. It usually interferes when flashing with ODIN. You must have the USB drivers from your phone, so don't uninstall them. Only uninstall the program KIES.

Just in case you don't have them, here are the Samsung USB drivers

3) Download ODIN v3.07, the tool that we'll use to flash all the things into our loved Galaxy Note 2 N7100!

4) Download the necessary files : the Recovery Package/ROM and the bootloader will be included in the very package. Android 4.1.2, unbranded, XXDLJ2. When you recover the phone, just update it if you want a newer version!

5) You must have WinRAR to unRAR the Recovery Package and to unzip ODIN.

You can also use 7zip if you'd like.

And that is it! Let's get down to business :)

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If your GSII has the folowing symptoms :

Bootloop

Stuck on GNII logo, but already removed the battery to try to fix it

Enters Download mode and Recovery mode

It means that you are soft bricked and is easy to solve.

But if your symptoms are the mentioned above, PLUS the symptoms below

Doesn't flash

Bad flash in odin (FAIL after flashing, or the flashing suddenly stops)

Then it means that you have a bigger issue, such as the aforementioned NAND rw corruption.

It's time to open up ODIN and start reviving your phone!

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First of all, let's just have a quick glance of how ODIN looks like, and where we should put the files :

As the picture clearly shows, the green rectangle is where you can tick. Those 2 which are ticked must remain that way. And the red one is well... Where you SHOULDN'T touch :p

ONLY FLASH WITH RE-PARTITION TICKED AND A PIT FILE IF YOU ARE SURE

THAT THE FLASH WILL SUCCEED.

Which means that you CANNOT have a damaged USB, corrupted drivers and such.

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When recovering from a soft brick, it is recommended, not mandatory, to have Re-partition ticked with a .PIT file. So you must be extra careful when you are using a .PIT and Re-Partition. And obviously, the red box is the one where you can't and don't want to mess with ;)

But where are the files going, you say?

.PIT -> PIT

BOOTLOADER -> BOOTLOADER (or PDA if flashed alone)

CODE -> PDA

MODEM -> PHONE

CSC -> CSC

***If you have a 1 file .tar package, then flash it in PDA***​

There is only 1 way to recover a soft bricked phone. How to recover from a NAND corruption? We'll get on that later on ;)

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Recovering a soft bricked phone​

1) Grab the Recovery Package, and you'll see a bunch of .tar files. Take a look at the names. You'll see CODE, MODEM, CSC (and the .PIT). Put each one in its place

(EXCEPT the .PIT, refer to the warning below)

.

2) Turn off your phone. Enter Download mode by presing Volume Down + Home + Power button.

3) Plug in your phone. It will show you, in a blue box in ODIN, ID:COMx (x being the number displayed, sometimes displays 7, sometimes displays 9)

Now here, take a breath​

First try flashing

WITHOUT

the .PIT and re-partition. And only if it

DOESN'T WORK OR FIX

then you flash with the .PIT and Re-Partition ticked.

4) Once ready and done all your prayers, press Start. Wait patiently. It usually takes 5-10 minutes to flash.

Have you done everything correctly until now? Then...

Congratulations on recovering your phone!​

You deserve some cake afterwards, and some rest :D

Now, if your problem is the NAND rw coruption, and wasn't fixed by the above fix, then follow these steps :

WARNING : FLASHING A BOOTLOADER IS DANGEROUS. FLASH WITH EXTREME CAUTION.

4) Open the zip you downloaded and find the Bootloader. Flash it as PDA or Bootloader in ODIN. Without ticking Re-Partition

5) Flash the recovery package, like in steps 1-4 (

WITH the re-partition ticked and the .PIT file in place

) and that will fix any of your issues :D

6) After you have recovered your phone, I advise you to have your phone completely up to date by browsing and downloading the firmware for your version through SamMobile!

I hope that this guide was helpful, and if it was, hit the thanks button! :)

Credits mainly go to as i9000, for his amazing collection of ROMS and files :)

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Disclaimer

This is to be used as educational information. I am not liable of any damage that may occur to your phone.