[Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jopop:
Details of the XAR firmware flashing failures so far...

Hi Android.Ninja.

Thank you so very much for responding to my post and offering to help. I had forgot to click on "Instant Email Notification" so I didn't realize that you had responded. I had started another thread when I though I made some progress and was receiving alerts from there but just came back to this one.

Anyway, so today I spent the day trying yet again to make this happens.

You asked for

*exactly*

what happens, well I think I typed every freaking detail I could as this was happening. Hopefully it can help. :eek:

Here is a detailed version of events that has led me to where I am now, which is unable to reflash the firmware for the United States, XAR on my Galaxy Note Pro 12.2.

When I first got it, I rooted it using Chainfire's root method but kept the original recovery.

I was using it fairly regularly and enjoying it until one day I used Titanium Backup to "integrate updates" into the system ROM on a bunch of apps. It basically became soft bricked.

Kies was unable to help me.

I tried all kinds of things that I found on XDA and elsewhere, all to no avail.

So someone suggested that I flash a new firmware. Unable to find one labeled "United States" someone suggested just picking one since they are all basically the same. I accidentally chose the Chinese one. However it flashed with no problem. I was then able to flash over to the New Zealand firmware (XXU) with no problem.

Then someone told me that I needed the XAR firmware.

And that's where the troubles started.

No matter what I tried, which version of Odin, 3.07 or 3.09, which USB (2.0) port I used, rebooting the PC, reinstalling Kies 3 and reintalling the drivers, would allow me to reflash the XAR firmware.

However, I could flash and reflash the Chinese and New Zealand firmwares back and forth with no problem.

The only thing I noticed is that even when I have flashed the New Zealand firmware that the first screen you see when going into download mode by holding the buttons is in Chinese.

So today, in order to give you as much information as I can, I went through the whole process again in great detail. Hopefully this might allow you to see something that I was doing wrong that I didn't catch.

Here we go...

I flashed from the New Zealand to the Chinese firmware (P900ZCUAND4_P900CHNAND4_HOME.tar) using Odin 3.07.

The only options selected in Odin were "Auto Reboot" and "F.Reset Time". The rest were unchecked. The firmware was put in the PDA slot.

All good.

When device rebooted, I went to About Device, unlocked Developer Mode and turned on USB Debugging.

Rebooted the device.

All good.

Everything in Chinese firmware.

Then I went into recovery, at the top it had:

Android system recovery <3e>

KOT49H.P900ZCUAND4​

Then on the bottom left it had:

# MANUAL MODE #

--Appling Multi-CSC...

Applied the CSC-code : XAR

Successfully applied multi-CSC.​

Even though I flashed the Chinese firmware, my original CSC code is there.

So now I rebooted the device again, then put it in download mode.

In download/Odin Mode, it had the following in the top left corner:

ODIN MODE

PRODUCT NAME: SM-P900-CHN

CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official

SYSTEM STATUS: Official

KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 1

AP SWREV: A1​

I then opened up Odin 3.07 and keping the same options selected as I did earlier, I inserted the firmware file I am trying to restore my device back to, P900UEU1ANC5_P900XAR1ANC5_HOME.tar.md5 into the PDA slot. I waited for it to completely check the MD5 and the "Leave CS.." message to appear.

I then clicked "Start", and here is the result of that:

<ID:0/008> Added!!

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

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

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> P900UEU1ANC5_P900XAR1ANC5_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/008> Odin v.3 engine (ID:8)..

<ID:0/008> File analysis..

<ID:0/008> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/008> Initialzation..

<ID:0/008> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/008> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/008> boot.img

<ID:0/008> NAND Write Start!!

<ID:0/008> recovery.img

<ID:0/008> sboot.bin

<ID:0/008> system.img

<ID:0/008> FAIL!

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

At this point when I try to reboot the device, I get the "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again." There is also a bunch of stuff in Chinese below that.

I had a friend forward a photo of the stuff in Chinese along to a friend of another friend who translated it and said that it basically says the same thing about the firmware upgrade encountering and issue.

I've discovered through the 2-3 dozen times that I've tried this and tried doing different things that at this point, I can just flash TWRP using Odin 3.07 and the device will reboot or that I can just reflash the Chinese firmware to get back to where I was with the official recovery.

However in this case, I chose to flash in TWRP 2.7.0.2 and reboot the device.

Everything worked and it was still using the Chinese firmware.

I then rebooted into Recovery. Going into "Settings" in TWRP, I selected "Use rm -rf instead of formatting?".

On the Wipe menu, I chose "Advanced Wipe" then selected to wipe "Dalvik Cache", "Cache", "Data" and "System".

Here is the output of the wipe:

Updating partition details...

Full SELinux support is present.

Wiping Dalvik Cache Directories...

Cleaned: /data/dalvik-cache...

-- Dalvik Cache Directories Wipe Complete!

Removing all files under '/cache'

Wiping data without wiping /data/media...

Done.

Removing all files under '/system'

Updating partition details...​

To be safe and thorough, I did the same wipe a second time. Then I went back to the main TWRP menu and hit "Reboot", choosing the option to reboot into "Download Mode".

It gave me a warning about no operating system installed.

When I rebooted into Download Mode, there was no information at the top left corner where it usually said "Odin Mode". There was just the green Android in the middle with "Downloading... Do not turn off target !!" message underneath of it.

I then, using a newly downloaded copy of the XAR firmware that I got from sammobile.com and put in a new folder as you suggested, opened up Odin 3.07, keeping the same options selected as I had earlier. I set the PDA slot to the newly downloaded firmware file P900UEU1ANC5_P900XAR1ANC5_HOME.tar.

I let it do it's check of the MD5 file then I clicked start.

Here is the result of that:

<ID:0/008> Added!!

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

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

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> P900UEU1ANC5_P900XAR1ANC5_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/008> Odin v.3 engine (ID:8)..

<ID:0/008> File analysis..

<ID:0/008> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/008> Initialzation..

<ID:0/008> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/008> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/008> boot.img

<ID:0/008> NAND Write Start!!

<ID:0/008> recovery.img

<ID:0/008> sboot.bin

<ID:0/008> system.img

<ID:0/008> FAIL!

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

Another failure.

At this point, I shut down Odin and then rebooted the device into download mode.

This time, it has the following on the top left:

ODIN MODE

PRODUCT NAME: SM-P900

CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official

SYSTEM STATUS: Custom

KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 1

AP SWREV: A1​

I reconnected the cable, and reopened Odin 3.07.

At this point, rather than repeating the process over and over, which I have dozens of times, I went into Kies 3 to see if it would recognize it or if it would restore the firmware for me.

After I go into "Firmware Upgrade and Initialization", it asks me for my device model, which I enter "SM-P900" followed by my serial number. A window pops up saying "Prepare for firmware upgrade", it does a few things and then a couple of seconds later a screen pops up and says "This device's version cannot be updated." So I click ok, and close the useless Kies program.

When I attempt to reboot at this point, it gives the "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue" blah blah blah.

So I decided to try something different. I reflashed TWRP. Went in, setup the advanced wipe and wiped everything again.

This time I chose to wipe everything including internal storage.

The wipe was complete and successful so I again rebooted into Download Mode.

NOTE: The first screen you get to when you push the buttons to go into download mode as been all in Chinese ever since I first flashed the Chinese firmware, even when I flashed the XXU firmware for New Zealand, etc.

Anyway, after rebooting into Download Mode, I had the following in the top left corner:

ODIN MODE

PRODUCT NAME: SM-P900

CURRENT BINARY: Custom

SYSTEM STATUS: Custom

KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 1

AP SWREV: A1​

I guess not having anything in /system is considered custom? :eek:

So using Odin 3.07 I chose the New Zealand firmware P900XXUANC4_P900NZCANA3_HOME.tar and put it in the PDA slot and pressed start.

Here is the result of that:

<ID:0/008> Added!!

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

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

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> P900XXUANC4_P900NZCANA3_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/008> Odin v.3 engine (ID:8)..

<ID:0/008> File analysis..

<ID:0/008> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/008> Initialzation..

<ID:0/008> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/008> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/008> sboot.bin

<ID:0/008> NAND Write Start!!

<ID:0/008> boot.img

<ID:0/008> recovery.img

<ID:0/008> system.img

<ID:0/008> cache.img

<ID:0/008> hidden.img

<ID:0/008> RQT_CLOSE !!

<ID:0/008> RES OK !!

<ID:0/008> Removed!!​

So that's two different firmwares that I can successfully flash.

The device reboots and shows up in English with "English (New Zealand) greeting me on the welcome screen.

I confirm in the About Device/Settings that the current build number is KOT49H.P900XXUANC4.

Time to reboot into Recovery.

Going into recovery I have the following at the top:

Android system recovery <3e>

KOT49H.P900XXUANC4​

Then on the bottom left it had:

# MANUAL MODE #

--Appling Multi-CSC...

Applied the CSC-code : XAR

Successfully applied multi-CSC.​

So that worked.

I have repeated this process in various ways over and over, and yes, over again with the same results.

I've downloaded the XAR firmware about 15 times.

For some reason, my device is blocking me from reflashing the XAR firmware and it boggles my mind, especially since I can go between Chinese and New Zealand so freely.

At one point, during this process, I followed someone's advice to click the "nand erase all" to clean up the crap from all the flashing. Here is the post where I posted those results. http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=53289858&postcount=16

I hope that was enough detail and information for you or someone to see or catch on to something that will help me.

A sincere thank you for any and all help.