[General Questions and Answers] juzten:
No mistake is a dumb mistake, unless youve already made that mistake several times and you repeat it, expecting the outcome to change. The more you mess something up and you fear youve messed up big time, the more you will figure out a way to fix it and gain knowledge.. embrace it..

On most Samsung phones, you have key combinations that are all the same.. very specific how you do it though..

Im going to use keys below, to simplify things a bit

[H] = home button, bottom center of screen

[P] = power button, usually top right edge

= volume up button

[D] = volume down button

If your phone is in boot loop* or not responding to power button, you will first have to completely restart all the system fresh.

* boot loop: an error that cause a device to start to load and at a certain point restarts, and repeats without ever getting past the point of restart

Two ways I know of to manually do it:

- You can take the battery out, and then press and hold power for 30 seconds. Then release power and insert battery.. leaving it in a dead state.. not powering it on, not charging, or even plugged into laptop..

OR

- Press and hold [D] + [P] *ONLY* for 45 secs or until the phone cuts off, careful to not accidentally restart

Once device is in that dead state, use key combos listed below:

..........☆ RECOVERY MODE ☆..........

press and hold

+ [H] + [P]

when the splash logo* appears,

release all of them

*splash logo: the first thing you see when powering on your device. Usually will say like samsung s2 and powered by android. You usually only see it for a few seconds

..........☆ DOWNLOAD OR ODIN MODE ☆..........

press and hold

[D] + [H] + [P]

when you see a blue screen,

quickly release them all.

then it will have instructions

typically

to confirm into download mode,

or [D] to cancel and reboot

Straight Talk phones are known to have these taken out, so you cant free the phone from the grasps they have on it..

If those dont work, and your phone isnt straight talk or verizon, you can download these programs to windows OS pc, and they have buttons that will send a call to your device, and put them into download, fastboot, sideload, adb, or even recovery mode.. not all those modes are available on all samsung devices..

ME PERSONALLY, I HAD MOST LUCK WITH "D P TOOLS" AND "WINDROID"

ODIN IS A MUST HAVE IF YOUR GOING TO BE INSTALLING ROMS. ODIN WILL GET YOU BACK TO BONE STOCK FIRMWARE

Stock firmware can be found on multiple sites and here on XDA. Firmware is device specific and android version specific.

Heres a couple of the latest android versions

6.x.x = marshmallow

7.x.x = nougat

8.x.x = oreo

X/// STOCK FIRMWARE LINKS ///X

you would use the model number which can be found under the battery, and android version. since you may not know which one your running. I suggest google search for " your phone model + release date + release specs" that will get you in the ballpark

SAM MOBILE FIRMWARE

https://www.sammobile.com/

UPDATO

http://updato.com/firmware-archive-select-model

X/// ODIN INFO ///X

-- HERE IS A IN DEPTH ODIN TUTORIAL --

https://xdaforums.com/note5/general/guide-odin-flashing-stock-firmwares-t3634256

Thanks to Gr3atGeek for this tutorial

X/// MOBILE TOOLS I MENTIONED ///X

run antivirus!!

-All in one flasher

CANNOT FIND

-D P tools

http://dp-tools.en.lo4d.com/

-Minimal ADB and fastboot

http://minimal-adb-and-fastboot.en.lo4d.com/

-Windroid

1 ) http://windroid-universal-android-toolkit.en.lo4d.com/

2 ) http://windroid-toolkit.en.lo4d.com/

-Android Ultimate

http://android-ultimate-toolbox-pro.en.lo4d.com/

**GENERAL TIPS AND TRICKS**

THESE IVE HAD THE MOST LUCK WITH. IM PRETTY SURE THIS IS THE ACTUAL URLS WHERE I DOWNLOADED ALSO.. NOW SOME WORK WITH THIS PHONE BUT NOT THAT PHONE. SOME WILL WORK WHEN ATTEMPTING TO PUT INTO RECOVERY MODE BUT WONT PUT INTO DOWNLOAD MODE.

**USE OF SOFTWARE HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS*

I HIGHLY SUGGEST NOT TO RUN MORE THAN ONE OF THESE PROGRAMS AT ONCE. SOME USE ADB.EXE AND IVE FOUND MULTIPLE ADB.EXE WILL CAUSE SILENT PROBLEMS.. IF YOUR UNSURE HOW MANY INSTANCES OF ADB.EXE ARE RUNNING, CLICK (CTRL) + (ALT) + (DEL) ALL AT ONCE. THEN CLICK TASK MANAGER. ONCE TASK MANAGER IS LOADED, CLICK THE PROCESSES TAB AND FIND ADB.EXE

** USB TRICKS AND SUGGESTIONS **

USE IF POSSIBLE YOUR ORIGINAL USB CABLE AND DONT USE ONE THAT HAS ANY HINT OF A PROBLEM, USUALLY THE THICKER THE WIRE THE FASTER AND SAFER IT IS.. OEM WORK THE BEST.. AND IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, MINIMIZE THE AMOUNT OF USB PORTS BEING USED TO PREFERABLY JUST THE CHARGER WIRE. SOMETIMES USB 2.0 AND USB 3.0 WILL EFFECT THINGS. DO NOT HAVE MORE THAN ONE PHONE CONNECTED AT A TIME.

GO INTO DEVICE MANAGER AND UPDATE USB DEVICE DRIVERS AND MAKE SURE SAMSUNG DRIVERS ARE UP TO DATE

Hope this has helped.. Sometimes the buttons on a phone will quit working but when you press it, it feels like it worked, made the sound and all.. thats when these programs come in handy.. im guessing you charged your phone until it came on, and when you were trying button combos, the phone was still on. It has to be off first. ADB and fastboot are powerful tools if you know some terminal knowledge, you can also start a shell and usually terminal will tell you if deamon* started successfully or not.. sorry about the mass confusion.. go run around XDA forums just searching and reading and now that youve heard me mention some of the lingo and terms used.. Google search everything.. the resources are there, and i just gave you a good bit of direction.. good luck

*daemon: to be brief, a word that symbolizes a connection between your device and another system

$$ IF IVE HELPED, OR YOU FEEL I MADE AN HONEST ATTEMPT TO HELP, HIT THE THUMBS UP, THATS THE BUTTON FOR "THANKS" HERE IN XDA

IM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY BROKEN, DAMAGED, OR MYSTERIES THAT HAPPEN TO YOUR DEVICE OR COMPUTER USING ANY INFORMATION OR TOOLS IN THE ABOVE TUTORIAL. BE SAFE