[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 4] WetbehindEars:
Hi All,

I've searched through the forums for answers to my particular problem but haven't found anything that's worked bla bla bla... you guys go through a lot of this every day, don't you? :) I honestly have been scouring the web, looking for answers to my problem (I'm a member on other, unrelated forums and I know how annoying lazy noobs can be) but I only found a single response in a single thread that might be helpful (but I'll get back to that at the end).

Here's a brief history of my failure, followed by my problem:

1. Tried rooting with motochopper, it installed Superuser but SU didn't work properly (kept going off about updating binary but would always shoot back errors when I tried to update) and Rootchecker said phone wasn't rooted.

2. Tried rooting via Odin, I don't remember exactly what happened (it's been hours since this happened) but I ended up with a failure notice halfway through the download, I read somewhere to pull the battery so I did. Waited a minute, plugged it back in, now the phone won't boot (I get a "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies and try again" error), and it gives me the same error message if I try to boot to recovery mode, but I can still boot to download mode.

3. At this point, I figured I'd screwed the pooch and should flash the original, stock Samsung ROM back on to the phone and start from scratch. (I don't have a backup file but I've only had the phone for two days, I don't care if I lose personal data).

4. Downloaded the 1.6 GB stock ROM zip file.

5. Deleted temporary files, restarted computer, booted phone into download mode, opened Odin, loaded the ROM .tar file into the PDA slot of Odin (left all the Odin settings as they were).

6. Connected phone to computer, blue light from Odin (this means it added the device if I understand correctly).

7. Started Odin, download failed. Here's the transcript from Odin:

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

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

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> M919UVUAMDL_M919TMBAMDL_M919UVUAMDL_HOME.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> sbl2.mbn

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

<ID:0/003> Complete(Write) operation failed.

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

<ID:0/003> Added!!

I hit start again, another failure. Transcript:

<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> There is no PIT partition.

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

So do I need to flash a new PIT partition? The one relevant thread (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2320066&highlight=partition+file) says that the PIT information is imbedded in the tar file, why isn't Odin reading it correctly?

I'm very new to the realm of Android and Linux, I've been trying to learn the basics about rooting, kernels, ROMs, etc. over the last few days to better understand how to fix these problems on my own. But I haven't found anything that will fix this. Thanks to anyone and everyone who answers, I'll make you cookies.

I'm not joking, if you live in or around the San Francisco bay area and you help me fix this, I'll deliver cookies, donuts, brownies, etc.