[Galaxy Note II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tnt4ever:
hello every one

as the subject says if you soft brick your phone for whatso ever reason( and you are facing Firmware Upgrade encountered an issue on display when turning on,

then this solution might be very helpful for you

i was on 4.3 with MJ5 boot loader, made the mistake didnt checked the phone info and tried to downgraded the firmware caused my phone soft bricked

the worst thing i realized i didnt made any backup( even the EFS back up was lost)

in short the story is..

i asked couple of people for advise,

i tried following to bring my phone back

* Samsung Kies( recovery Modes by entering Device Serial Numbers and Model Name) Result: Failed, this device cant be upgraded/restored due to custom firmware

* Odin: 3.09 + stock firm ware ( 4.3 from O2uk and then 4.3 3 Uk) Result: failed, error message, missing PIT File

* Tried to find PIT File online but there are few places you can get stock 4.3 Firmware Extracted PIT File to flash) tried here http://xdaforums.com/show....php?t=1927983, result failed

* then tried different firmwares ( European, French 4.3, UK 4.1 with and Without PIT file ( http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/) but failed again, the ODIN 3.09 was not helping out here

I was about to give up here but then steff advise me to try and flash rescue firm ware from http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=32273406 link but only 2nd firm ware ( not the 1st or 3rd, ) for some reason the 4.1 rescue firmware link is down,( download from here : https://www.dropbox.com/s/qs9wigflyrwp8ip/N7100XXDLL7_N7100OXADLL4_N7100XXDLK7_FACTORY_XEF.rar)

Android - 4.1.2

PDA - N7100XXDLL7

CSC - MULTI XEF_N7100OXADLL4

RADIO - N7100XXDLK7

DOWNLOAD_N7100XXDLL7_FACTORY (2012-28-12)(

and steff helped me out with his drop box to upload the rescue firm ware ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/gfdh3mgbv34c3ti/N7100XXDLL7_N7100OXADLL4_N7100XXDLK7_FACTORY_XEF.rar )

any way by extracing the rescue firmware 4.1, and doing PIT file flash with Odin 3.09 didnt worked either, so as per advise i changed the Odin 3.09 to 3.07( download from ( Odin 3.07 - XDA-Developers)

i was successfuly able to flash PIT ( done this number of times , at first flashed rescue firmware with PIT File, failed half way cause the PIT was flashed but firmware couldnt went through, then flashed rescue firmware 4.1 alone

stopped half way, again started in download mode and flashed it went through and finally phone booted up)

* NOw the IMEI was gone, tried to enter phone engineering screen to update the IMEI from GPR Service Menu but failed

* i flashed MJ5 boot loader to see if it works fine failed again.

* Finally i was told to flash Stock 4.4 KK which will remove all bugs from the phone and hope fully the phone will boot with correct imei

downloaded 4.4 from this link ( https://mega.co.nz/#!2QRmCbyb!YkWs927BfvYxqL-vJiQHXkshqG3UtqHm4XIDbgLsEK0) fast download, and flashed successfully , which bring my note back to life

everything works fine

* I tried to flash 4.4.2 direct to see if it works( both with Odin 3.09 and 3.07 before flashing rescue firm ware but this didnt work either

* IMportant Points:

Avoid flashing any rom/kernal unless you are sure what you are doing

* always keep a nand back up prior to any flashing

* always read good enough before you flash

* and even if you read enough and something went wrong, use your phone for parts and pay for the charity at the end:)

i hope this is simple guide for you to sort your bricked phone from the error'' firmware upgrade encountered an issue please connect with kies''

special thanks to smeet.somaiya , singhpratik87 , , Logel, nitol, and Specially to steff195 for providing all links up and running

this will save time and money to those who are out of warranty

thanks