[General Questions and Answers] mrbonine:
Device semi-brick After OTA Update - Samsung Galaxy 3 Verizon

Any help would be appreciated. I accidently accepted the latest Verizon OTA update for my phone, which I believe was this last Tuesday (6/25/13). Afterward, an error message appeared (when the phone rebooted) about dangers of loading non-official software and suggested visit to Verizon store. Phone would not revert back to phone mode, and the OTA update would not revert "out" so the phone would return to pre-OTA status, as had happened once before with this phone. As best I can remember I was on 4.1.2 base firmware (stock) rooted, and unlocked.

I have tried various things, but ODIN would not flash the phone initially. I had tried this process: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/ga...icked-after-recent-forced-update-verizon.html but ODIN did not report success. At some point I was able to boot into boot into clockworkmod recovery, but unable to boot into download mode. In despiration, I loaded KIES and attempted an emergency recovery there, but KIES never saw my phone, I assume because of the standard download USB drivers I had installed on the PC. After messing with KIES, however, I completely uninstalled it, and it's drivers, and found I could then get by phone into download mode.

I then followed this process and flashed, via ODIN this file: \KIES_HOME_I535VRBMB1_861013_REV09_user_low_ship_NOWIPE.tar.md5 following this process: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1974114. The phone was left connected and this is the "results list" from ODIN:

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> KIES_HOME_I535VRBMB1_861013_REV09_user_low_ship_NOWIPE.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/003> Added!!

<ID:0/003> Odin v.3 engine (ID:3)..

<ID:0/003> File analysis..

<ID:0/003> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/003> Initialzation..

<ID:0/003> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/003> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/003> NON-HLOS.bin

<ID:0/003> NAND Write Start!!

<ID:0/003> aboot.mbn

<ID:0/003> boot.img

<ID:0/003> cache.img.ext4

<ID:0/003> persist.img.ext4

<ID:0/003> recovery.img

<ID:0/003> rpm.mbn

<ID:0/003> sbl1.mbn

<ID:0/003> sbl2.mbn

<ID:0/003> sbl3.mbn

<ID:0/003> tz.mbn

<ID:0/003> system.img.ext4

<ID:0/003> RQT_CLOSE !!

<ID:0/003> RES OK !!

<ID:0/003> Removed!!

<ID:0/003> Remain Port .... 0

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 1 / failed 0)

The phone rebooted itself into a no-boot mode -- all of the flashaerobics show, starting with the Samsung Custom (black on white) with an unlocked padlock, leading to the colorful "distract the user that this is taking forever" graphics. However the graphics never stop and I can only turn the phone off at this point by pulling the battery. This is the mode I was in, btw, when trying to get into download mode. If I restarted normally, I would get (the same?) never ending boot process.

After much fiddling of buttons, I was able to get the phone to open into, I believe, stock recovery (dead open green bot with red ! triangle over it's open chest cavity). Words overprinted (lots of red and yellow below the blue):

Android System Recovery <3e>

[blue choices listed]

then several red error messages (if all are important I can add to post), here are a couple:

E: failed to mount /data (invalid argument)

can't mount '/data' (invalid argument

.

.

.

E:Can't mount /data/Fota/ipth-muc.prop

.

.

.

Now in Yellow

# MANUAL MODE #

Applied the CSC-Code : VZN

Successfully applied multi-CSC.

Back to Red:

E: failed to mount /data (invalid argument)

...(looks like same three errors listed above [the first three in red]

Any ideas about where to go from here. I'm completely over my head and don't want to further torture the phone or myself without some guidance.

Thank You for any tested or reliable processes to get back to stock/root, if possible. Just stock is fine and I can (probably) take it from there.