[Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II] mattnmag:
@ celticpride34,

I'm at a loss as to why your internal data didn't get wiped and reformatted when you Odin flashed the stock VRMAC3 image and the pit file. Since you never took the 4.3 update and it was still running 4.1.2, it sounds like it should have wiped everything and returned it to unrooted/locked bootloader settings. I wonder if there were hardware issues that could have been interfering with the restore process? Maybe another XDA member with more knowledge would have an idea...

The good thing is, it sounds like you were able to get the stock recovery back on there. And with doing the Odin restore and factory reset, it sounds like you did everything possible to unroot and restore it... hopefully, they will just repair the defective hardware and return it to you :).

As far as my own phone goes... I actually got my Note 2 about a month ago from Swappa after using a rooted S3 for the last year. I made sure my Note 2 had 4.1.2 on it before I bought it, because I wanted to unlock the bootloader to install custom roms... When I got my Note2, it had been factory reset and it booted up into the initial activation/Language setup screen. ( I was also working on my S3 around the same time to get it restored to back stock/rerooted/ and set up with Page Plus for my mother-in-law (a whole different story... :eek: ) ... so things are a little fuzzy for me as to all of what I did with both devices around that time... :silly: But, I believe that I used the same trick that worked on my S3 to skip the initial activation on my Note 2 (the trick is that you touch the bottom left screen above the "emergency call" area, then touch bottom right screen above "next" area, then touch bottom left again, and bottom right one more time ... then you press volume up and it will let you totally skip the "Language Setup/ Activation area). After I skipped the initial set up... I connected it to wifi and played with it pretty extensively to make sure it was fully functional. (I didn't have an activated SIM in it at this time yet)... I installed apps from the Play store and pretty much went through everything I could think of to make sure it worked well before I activated it onto my Verizon account. After I was satisfied that it was functional, I factory reset it again, booted it up, activated it with my SIM, and followed the Casual root process.

After I rooted it, I used the app "Titanium Backup Pro" to freeze the SDM app to prevent the OTA from trying to download. I can't remember if I also froze FWupgrade or not...but I think I did. (BTW... I haven't heard that simply rooting the phone will prevent the OTA's from downloading and trying to install to the phone... I think that a custom recovery will prevent the OTA from being able to install itself, but I think it will still download the OTA and nag you to install it unless you disable the apps that try to install the OTA. When you install a Custom Rom onto the phone, the Custom Rom will normally have the SDM app and other apps removed so you won't get the OTA update prompts any longer).

Anyway, I ran it on stock rooted 4.1.2 for a few days before deciding to put JellyBeans Build 22 on it... and I've been really happy with the phone since then.

I hope that things work out with your warranty repair... let us know after you get it back on what happens.

--Take care--