[Galaxy S 4 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AdrianVanStrate:
Hello! this is my first thread on this forum, which im making because I ran out of options, and don't know what to do...

It looked like my Galaxy S4 mini (GT-I9190) died last weekend (april 29) I was watching a video on youtube and suddendly it ''ran out of memory'' (the screen froze) and it turned completely black, the audio was still playing and I decided to force it to shut down (holding the power buttom)

The audio stopped, and I tried to boot it back but it wouldn't answer at all, so I removed the battery, put it back on, still nothing after many attempts (also trying download mode and recovery mode, none of them worked).

So I decided to plug it into the computer, and that's how I found it wasn't ''completely dead''

My computer detected the device as ''QHSUSB_DLOAD'' which was a good sign, meaning I wouldn't have to put my s4 mini to sleep forever.

So after some research, coming across people using 300 kohm resistors to force a bricked phone to dl mode, people using weird hardwares, Jtags and whatnot (all of these methods involved extra hardware) I found this:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2625628 and this http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2660566

The .img in the scard method, links up there.

So I gave it a try and guess what, it actually worked, my phone actually responded after placing back the sdcard and the battery, I didn't even had to press the power buttom.

My phone booted, but displaying this screen:

after this point, It wouldn't go further

I tried download mode at least 10 times, I't didn't work, the phone booted back to that screen again.

So I switched the vol- for vol+ to see what happen (I was doing download mode: power vol- and home)

And It worked, my phone went to the ''Galaxy S4 mini GT-I9190'' Screen, the first screen you see when it actually boots.

but after this point, It bootlooped turning off and back on to this screen and so.

when the phone turned off, I tried download mode once again and IT FINALLY WORKED.

At this point I believed that everything was over, I would connect it into odin a flash a stock firmware.

But it just started... (here comes the interesting part)

I tried to flash a stock firmware with odin, yeah, the blue progress bar and everything, my phone rebooted, but nothing, the same bootloop again. Here comes an important question: Do I need to flash a specific region firmware? or any region should work? First, I flashed an argentina region firmware (ARO was the code), results: Bootloop

After that, I tried the Russian firmware (I dont know if the region of my phone is Rusia, but I believe so because after doing a factory reset, the default language was russian, please answer this as well) and BOOTLOOP again...

So basically, The main problem is a bootloop, but I dont know what is causing this

After this point, I'm stuck, and not knowing what to try...

I'm looking for answers, what should I do? what can I try?

If you can answer any of these questions please do it...

Do I need a specific region firmware? (I already tried argentina(ARO), and Rusia (SR)) oh yeah, I tried Rusia SR, should I try XE? XE seems to be a multi-region format (?) I don't have a clue actually... I really need the opinion of someone who knows about this

If the default language when doing a factory reset is russian, this means my phone's region is Rusia?

Is there a way to know the region of my phone, when hard bricked? I dont have the box, manuals, nothing...

What was that weird screen my phoned displayed after booting with the .img sdcard? (read the quotes higher in this post)

Is there a posibility that the bootloader is corrupted, and is causing the bootloop?

I want to try everything before a JTAG service, what are these hardwares? What do they do?

Oh here is an important question:

I read that the baseband of unbrick.img has to match the baseband of my phone... is this completely true? if so, what can I do? where can I get a specific baseband .img file, and what can I do since I already used another .img (I dont know if the baseband was the same) and im already stuck on a bootloop? If a use a correct baseband .img file will the phone stop the bootloop?

Im looking forward to see your posts... :(

If you need any aditional information feel free to ask...

If you don't have a clue, just like me, please send this thread link to someone who could help...

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Also recovery mode NOT working, when trying to enter this mode, the galaxy s4 mini gti9190 screen displays ''entering recovery mode'' on the upper left screen, and after that it turns off and the bootloop continues