[General Questions and Answers] crisco79:
I need a bit of help, I bought a SGS2 GT-i9100M, with Bell, I'm in Canada, that was displaying 'Firmware encountered an issue' error message thinking it would be an easy fix. I have tried a few things to fix it (and done a ton of reading, currently have 8 threads open) but no luck so far and I have to ask for help. I bought this phone knowing it had issues, was told it wasn't modded, however when I charged it and booted into download mode it showed Custom Binary Download:YES (12 Counts) and Current Binary: Custom, it still shows 12 but Current Binary is now Samsung Official.

The phone will boot into download mode but not into recovery mode, I have tried flashing various roms from gingerbread to jellybean, used ODEN3 v1.83, 1.84, 1,85, and 3.07, tried different usb ports, uninstalled kies entirely, reinstalled samsung drivers, nothing. I came across GT-I9100_ClockworkMod-Recovery_4.0.0.2 from Zubair Ikram and that worked, it was the first thing to pass, but didn't reboot the phone to the startup screen when finished as it did in his video, instead the same error message was displayed. After each rom failed I turned the phone off, took out the battery, boot back into dl mode and try something else. Have tried csc, phone, pda from "SGS2 Canadian Thread (Bell/Virgin/Sasktel/Rogers) Root/Unlock/Firmware/Modems/Mods", same as others, however, when using v1.85 the csc .tar makes it almost halfway through the green bar before freezing (I let these sit for ~1hour each time, unless they say 'fail', once left it for 8 hours, no change).

Each time it seems to hang just after NAND Write Start, which from various threads seems to point to a bad partition. After reading all the warnings not to Re-partition, I tried it but it also failed. Tried u1_02_20120326_emmc_EXT4_8GB.pit as well, failed, have followed exactly, step by step, at least 15 recovery threads (probably more), and now not sure what to try.

I got a number for a local phone repair tech, explained the problem and was told it sounds like a bad partition, or bad efs, and should be easily fixable. Looking for suggestions on what to try next? I have tried to fix this myself, I have 130 threads just from this forum in my history from yesterday alone, I think the next step will be to try to manually repair the damaged blocks (read this in a thread) but wanted to hit you guys up for suggestions first. If there's anything I have been unclear about, or you'd like to know specifics about what roms I've tried, or have any other questions please let me know.

Thanks in advance for your time,

Chris.

EDIT:

Had a friend offer some advice, here's a bit more detail on what I tried.

Reply to the first email- I'm not sure what operating system is currently installed, can't see what it is from the download mode, says custom binary download: currently 14, started out at 12 when I got the phone, and current binary: custom, I flashed with the GB kernel and got it to say current binary: samsung original, then flashed it back to custom.

I tried recovery with kies, then tried with oden shutting down all running applications of kies in task manager, then uninstalled kies entirely, restarted and tried again.

Tried flashing stock firmware with oden, tried flashing custom roms with oden, tried uninstalling drivers, reinstalling them, installing drivers from my working phone, installing custom drivers for i9100m specific, tried multiple usb ports, tried all roms with v1.83, 1.84, 1.85, 3.04 and 3.07 of oden.

Tried reinstalling original kernel, original bootloader, original pit mapping, original rom, again with all versions of oden, all failed, then tried re-partition with segmented original pit, still failed. Tried clockworkMod recovery v4.0.0.2, 5.xxx, 6.xxx, 4.0 passed but didn't reboot into recovery mode. I have let it run sometimes for 8+ hours before it fails, but always fails.

2nd Email - I have tried that guide <<< http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1457458 >>> with multiple usb ports, multiple versions of oden, failed, haven't tried alternate cables, but since it passed on the one pda flash with CWM4.0.0.2 the cable may be ok (factory htc cable), I did read that the resistance on the cable may have an effect on the upload and the phone will look for stock samsung cable resistance, but have to get hold of another cable before I can try that.

Tried other similar threads to the one that you sent, but that one did seem to be the most complete with the best directions, and working links to the software.

I think the nand is the issue, thought it would be recoverable through a repartition since the clockworkmod v4 passed, but still only boots to download mode. I have a usb jig ordered to see if resetting the custom rom counter will make any difference.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1796807