yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Electroz:
I went through about 15 different phones at 2 different Bell stores.

I have had 4 phones, only 3 worked. 2 of which worked EVERY time (including the one I have now, the other had a dead pixel), the other one was picky at best, but I could generally get it to go into one of the modes after a few minutes of taking the battery out and trying again.

Here's a breakdown of the phones I've taken home.

1. Picky Recovery/Download mode, Phone would NOT sim unlock or receive MMS for some reason. (Returned)

2. 3 button not working what so ever. Brought it home, Sim Unlock successful. But odin locked during a JH2 upgrade from JG9. Got the dreaded Phone-Warning-Computer symbol but could not get it into download or recovery modes to flash again. Returned an hour after purchase.

3. 3 button worked EVERY time and Sim Unlocked without issue. Had this phone for nearly a week before I realized it had one stuck pixel as I was watching a movie on it. Returned it the next day.

Now, this is where I got picky to make sure I got one that did the 3 button mode. When I went back to the store the next day, I literally went through 10+ phones to find a single one that did the 3 button mode. I don't think they would have let me, only for the phone I had, did it.

4. 3 button works like a champ. Sim unlock went smooth. No dead pixels. This is my current phone.​

I believe my search for a good galaxy s phone has reached a conclusion, but I do think it's pathetic that I had to go through nearly 15+ phones to find one that working correctly. Samsung really need to look at their Quality Control.

I think this is just a completely random defect with these phones. It's been shown that serial number/place of purchase/shipment has no effect on if 3 button mode will work or not.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mellll:
If I plug the phone in the computer via USB or wall, without the battery, it will not show the charging indicator.

If I plug the phone in to charge via USB or wall, and try the 3 button recovery, it will just keep rebooting to the battery charge indicator.

I cant have it plugged in while trying to do the 3 button recovery because of that.

Only able to try the 3 button recovery if I dont have my phone plugged in.

EDIT: I am noticing more and more people having the same problems as me, sometime after applying the lag fix/root from the Market.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-vibrant/165531-stuck-galaxy-s-screen.html
[Galaxy S I9000 General] YJGUY:
I picked up two phones in Ottawa the other day without checking them first. Bought one for my wife at a Bell store at Carlingwood mall and the 3 button does not work. I picked up another one at The Source in Kanata Centrum mall and the 3 button works fine.

To get the 3 button to work on mine, I hold all 3 buttons until it starts to reboot, when the black screen appears, I let go of all the buttons and then press all 3 again for one or two seconds then let go again, it goes into recovery mode right away.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Cruisin1966:
The screen starts out black, this makes no sense. First thing that displays is the Samsung logo.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mellll:
Nothing has worked, gonna try the oven again.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mellll:
Holy ****ing ****

i got into recovery mode.

I made a video so im gonna upload to youtube in a bit

basicly put it in the oven for 5 min or so and i got in recovery!!!!!!!

I tried 2 times last night and today I got it!!! AHHHAHAHHA

BRB!

BTW my serial number ends in XXXXX52 and thats a number everyone here thought had no recovery mode right!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Electroz:
It's been shown repeatedly in this forum that serial number has absolutely nothing to do with the 3 button mode working or not.

Congrats on getting in though!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mellll:
Man, I feel so damn numb right now. I tried for 6 hours last night trying to fix this.

And 5 hours today, and after the oven trick, it friggin works.

I dont know how to prove anything, but Im uploading the video to youtube.

I just hope this will help people who were absolutely wrecked like my phone.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] YJGUY:
I'm not sure what you mean, this is how I'm getting it into recovery mode:

1) the phone is on, normal home screen and icons are displayed

2) hold volume up, home and power button for several seconds

3) phone starts to reboot and the screen turns black and the samsung splash screen starts appear

4) let go of all buttons once the splash screen starts to appear and then press them again for a second or two and release again

5) phone goes into recovery mode
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Cruisin1966:
Well, that's more clear. Most when getting into recovery mode are starting out after a battery pull, or just with the phone off.

Since the "heat" method didn't work for me, I'll give this a shot.

But, I would suggest that the proper 3-button method (phone off, hold all three, release power at Samsung logo) will most likely do the same for you.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Electroz:
How does this benefit the people who cannot boot into android?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Cruisin1966:
Nope, didn't work.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mellll:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_LIZIc9Bsc

Heres the video of my recovery.

Crappy video sorry, wasnt exactly thinking it was going to work. This was just a random shoot, because I wasnt expecting any good results....
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Electroz:
Awesome man! One less brick going back to Samsung at least!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] YJGUY:
As you might figure from my post count, I'm new to this and just starting to figure things out. Thanks for the comment though, it was about as helpful as you imply mine was.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Electroz:
Lol, touche....

I apologize!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] deezid:
OMG your trick (oven) rescued my phone!!! But it has to be really HOT! :)

Thank you so much!

Dennis
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Legion6789:
Went through hell with the last Vibrant trying to return it after I found out the 3 button combo didn't work. Took me 7 hours in the Bell store. But today I found a good one. Ended up buying the demo phone from a The Source, checked it and it works with Download/Recovery Mode. And I didn't have to activate it in the store.

I don't think I've ever had to do so much leg work to buy a phone, even my old iPhone was easier to buy. But it's worth it, its such an awesome phone.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] zubin:
Heads up guys. On samsung mobile facebook canada just minutes ago:

"Some of you have reported to us that there is an intermittent software issue affecting the Galaxy S and “recovery mode” functionality. We’ll be announcing a downloadable software update shortly. Thank you for your patience."

Perhaps our prayers are finally answered?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] pure_energy1:
Just saw this as well...

http://www.facebook.com/samsungmobilecanada

I hope it's true!

I sent a rather lengthy email to samsung canada just yesterday regarding this... :)

....hopefully nobody will brick their phone while installing that update when it comes out... har har...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] khmerpride:
What would this update do for those that can not get this update and need the recovery mode...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] jensy:
I hope Optus do the same...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] StoneRoses:
Their service center surely get a lot of bricked phones. And that cost them money and some potential customers might buy anything instead because of this.

I can't think of any logical reason for Samsung to disable recovery mode.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] omrij:
Does anyone here encountered an Orange UK I9000 with this problem?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] BTTNext:
I can report that I just bought a Galaxy S from Bell, battery manufacturing date dated August 15, 2010. 3-button method is alive and working.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] yakkamut:
Share the knowledge! What are the details of your kick-ass plan with Bell?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] davidke:
I got a kick-ass plan too... but this needs a new thread. Start it.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
yay! that's good to know

which branch did you get it at?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] yakkamut:
Done.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=8036350#post8036350
[Galaxy S I9000 General] zerverize:
Been lurking quite a while here, I got the batch manufactured on June 2010 (from the battery).

3 Button is not working for me. I hope people in the US can get their hands on this update as well. :o
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DarthV:
Batting 1.000 with....demo phones. Still haven't found any for sale here in Fredericton that have working 3 button :( Guess the Bell store will have a new batch tomorrow.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] DarthV:
And the Bell store just got a shipment of 20+ phones, first one out of the box worked! Already unlocked, rooted and just about to do a lagfix :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mengsuan:
For those who made the buttons work by heating up using oven, does it work after it cools down; no?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
very good question
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mixxy:
my manufacture date is 2010-08-28 and my 3 button download works =)

ps. bought this this yesterday, coming from a nexus one and xperia (backup phone), and i have to say that this is one phone that i dont feel i HAVE to mod to get to my liking. All i need is froyo, and for that i'll wait.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] zerverize:
I am envious mixxy :). I was weighing decisions to return the phone but from Samsung Canada's facebook they will fix the issue. Yours is 2010-08-28 ? is this date from the battery ? Mine is 2010-07-17, looks like the later batches have the 3 btn recovery mode ?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mixxy:
yup, from the battery

in fact, if u are still within your exchange period and are in the GTA, i would go to bestbuy mobile at fairview mall, all the units there are from that batch 28-08-2010
[Galaxy S I9000 General] 4180122:
Heating it _actually_ works

These guys are not kidding! I had bricked my Bell phone by accessing download mode via adb and was devastated to find out - after hours of lurking - that there is no way back... So, I decided to save myself an embarrassing and potentially long trip to the Bell store by attempting this sketchy suggestion. I put the phone under my laptop for 10 minutes until it was _fairly_ hot and it worked! Here are the exact steps I took:

-heated the phone while it was on the COMPUTER-!-PHONE screen

-detached the USB cable

-took out the battery

-removed the SIM and SD cards

-replaced the battery

-held volume_down, home, and power buttons in that order, and

-BAM! download mode!

It did take a couple of tries to reach required threshold temperature. But it works EVERY time if the temperature is kept above threshold. Odin also only operates above this temperature for me. Unfortunately, I was too tired/lazy to try different permutations of hot vs cold operations. I tried to be cautious about the amount of thermal radiation I was exposing the LCD to. Please be very careful when doing this and use your judgement.

I'm an electrical engineer and I cannot conjure up an explanation as to how or why this works... The heat is not enough to re-flow loose/poorly installed components. Could this be attributed to the amount of leakage caused by using poorly qualified ASIC? I have seen cases where particular ASICs exhibit abnormally high current leakage at low temperatures causing abnormalities. I'm just surprised that the QA at Samsung did not catch this. Maybe they have a few corner parts mixed in with good ones... that would account for the variability in occurrence of button combo issue.

Sorry about the jargon, hopefully someone else can make sense of this. I'm thoroughly blown away.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] davidke:
[BEGIN wild theory mode]

Instead of heating the entire unit, have any you considered just placing the heated tip of a screwdriver on the service mode sensor just like the samsung teks use to unbrick all the phones we are sending back? It just needs to be warm. Some sensors are so sensitive that they dont need to be heated at all, just press the 3 keys and you are good to go. This is the sensor that they are going to disable in an upcomming fix that they are releasing because of community pressure.

[END wild theory mode] ;-)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mengsuan:
Lol what? [10 char needed]
[Galaxy S I9000 General] pure_energy1:
I'm curious where you heard about this...

If this is true, it stands to reason why heating up the phone seems to resolve the issue in some cases.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Joghurtbecher:
Nice theory, but my guess would be that this hole stems from the molding process of the body ;)

On a more serious note, in a different thread someone mentioned that it could be a timing issue. This is actually realistic.

In laymen terms:

Digital Signals don't change their level instantanious. If you want to change a 1 into a 0, you need to get all the electrons which produce the "1-voltage" to go somewhere else to have your "0-voltage". This takes time, not much but enough to be a major design factor in digital electronics. If you have two chips communicating, you don't want the first on to look what the second sends, before the signal levels have stabilized. The 3 button issue could very well be such an issue with some timing beeing off far enough to have the the 3-button combo never register with the CPU.

How can heat change this?

Well, simplified its like this: Good conductors (e.g. metals) have a lot of electrons who are not that closely bonded with the atoms. This means they can roam freely and carry electrical current (which is nothing else, then electrons moving around). Isolators are materials which have all their electrons fused to the atoms and therefore don't permit free electron flow. Semiconductors are materials which lay somewhere in the middle. Their electrons stick to the atoms too but the get knocked off easly by things like radiation in the form of heat, light, radioactivity and so on. This in itself is not the primary mechanism which gives silicon chips their electrical properties, we actually want them to have. That is achieved by diluting the pure silicon chrystal with certain elements but thats not the point here. Whats important is, that temperature is a factor in the conductivity of a semiconductor. Temperature can change the behavior of chips, espeacily the timing behavior. The reason for this is, that higher temperature means more free electrons which means more conductivety which means faster moving electrons, which means faster changeing signal levels. Theoretcally it is possible, that by this mechanism and pure chance, the 3-button combo works in a heated SGS. It would be interesting to heat up only certain chips on the board and see which one is responsible. Not that I'm going to try that with my (until know) unbricked phone ;)

If anyone of you wonders why you cool your CPU, when it should get faster when more hot: Remember, that a CPU is a block of silicon which has very specific conduction paths embeded into it to make it function as a CPU. Heating it up will lower resitance in the whole chip, making it eventually a whole big conductive lump of silicon. In that case, current will simply flow from the + to the - terminal, bypass all the logic gates and roast you chip :( So leave the cooler on kids.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] mr_ding:
I got mine from Bell Time Square (Leslie/Hwy7) and the recovery mode is working too
[Galaxy S I9000 General] davidke:
[BEGIN tasteless humor mode]

So I bring my i9000 in to a Bell shop and explain that the 3-button recovery mode doesn't work and I want to exchange it. The guy says that the 3-button mode is not for end users so he cant exchange it just for that. So I shove the phone up is @ss ... and when he pulls it out ... the 3-button combo worked!!! I guess the heat theory is true then. Go figure. This must be how samsung teks get into to recovery.

Note: I suspect it has to be pretty "tight" for it to work.

[END tasteless humor mode] ;-)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] yakkamut:
For those of you on Bell Mobility, seems like they finally have a firmware fix for the 3 button combo. Check out their facebook page for links and instructions. (Samsung Mobile Canada)

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150262535205538&id=260085296049&ref=mf
[Galaxy S I9000 General] CrashyNL:
"OMG How can this actually work???"

That was my first reaction, but because i was desperate i tried it. (My phone was stuck on the Galaxy-bootscreen and did not and therefore could not use adb, recovery or other tools).

And guess what, the 'heat trick' really works! What i did:

-Removed back cover

-Battery inserted, no SD or SIM

-USB plugged in (not powerd on) (charging -> primary heat source :P)

-I put the phone slightly tilted against my laptop fan

-Stress CPU/GPU (of laptop) (i did with HD video material and playing FlatOut 2 :P)

-heat the phone for about 30 minutes...

-Removed the phone

-remove battery and re-insert it

-press volum down+home+power

et voila!

Thanks for this Great (but crazy) sollution!!!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] contalyst:
Would be great if Kies actually worked for it. :mad: Good find tho! Thanks :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] cteaser:
just for the statistics ;-)

had the "brick" problem after playing with odin.

had troubles entering "download" mode.

resolved it with the "temperature" trick (hard to believe but closely correlated).

my samsung is a pretty new galaxy S aka GT-I9000 (ieuropean model)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] MarkVibrant:
Interesting. I bought mine from Best Buy Toronto (Yonge/Dundas) and my IMEI ends with a /03, AND my serial number ends in 65xxxxx, and I cannot get it into recovery or download mode (have tried all the various methods that seem to be posted). Nor can I get another phone we have that ends in 64xxxxx.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] elena11:
I had mine for a month. The download mode did not work, no matter what I tried. I got the black screen 3 weeks ago and had to send it for repair. When I got it back the download mode was working and what they did is only update the phone with the last version on Kies.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] benjaminwt:
It's an easy solution

Just follow the instructions here

http:

//xdaforums.com

/showthread.php?t=785201

can't post links yet.

and every phone will work.

No problems.

Was easy,

the only thing is that you need to get adb.exe from the sdk.

But otherwise following these instructions is easy.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] daniel.netti:
Hi, can anybody help me please?

A friend's GT-I9000M is entering into "force close" in the launcher of Android, and I can not enter recovery mode, the adb method returns to me "Device not found" message, is there any solution to this case?

Thanks
[Galaxy S I9000 General] sirphunkee:
daniel, you'll need to create a new thread in the Q&A section here, this is an old thread that's really been abandoned, and I'm going to close it now as well. You'll have much better luck getting answers there ;)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
you need to first remove the battery

then put the battery back in

vol down + home + power still no Download screen?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] gtg2:
I have 2 60xxxxxxxx phones and the 3-button sequence works on them both.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] wang1chung:
yes, rebooted a couple of times, then took battery out, and tried again, still same looping black and white screen.

hmmm, what's interesting though, is that now my gps kicks in within 2 seconds of opening "maps".

i had my wi-fi originally on just now, and it found it instantly, so i exited, shut it off, then opened it again, and it was still there for about 3 seconds, then moved about 1100m's away (i say this because it says accurate to within 1100m), then move back to my correct location.........i guess it's better than taking 1-2+ minutes to lock.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] JaY_III:
can someone please confirm what number i am looking at.

people mention Serrial and IMEI.

Bassicly i want to know how/where exactlty you are finding that number
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TriC_101:
This update changed my IMEI number from at /03 to a /04 but I can still get into my recovery.. also my GPS still works really good like it did before.. i'm in an apartment and I can get 12 Sats.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] TriC_101:
hold down all 3 but when you see the Logo popup let go of the power and just hold down the home and vol up buttons.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] greeced:
You mention the "Download Mode" is easier to get into then the recovery mode. What do you mean by this?

Is it not as simple as this:

Download Mode - While phone is off - Press and Hold - Volume Down + Home Key + Power = Yield sign with the Android guy working?

Recovery Mode - While phone is off - Press and Hold - Volume Up + Home Key + Power = Android System Recovery?

Or is the Recovery mode the one you have to let go of the power button where the download mode doesn't? What happens if you don't let go of the power button while holding Volume UP? Does it just cycle the startup logo? If you do have to let go of power for recovery, when is the exact moment you do so?
[Galaxy S I9000 General] Bobler420:
i just bout a new galaxay from best buy aug 15th recovery mode and download mode both work i have 59XXXXXXXX
[Galaxy S I9000 General] greeced:
I'm going to head to another Best Buy today, this time i'll be looking for the serial numbers... if it is 59 or 65 going to test those specifically. Let you know what I turn up.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] foobar83:
Hey guys, just adding more confusion to this thread

I have a 58xxxxx phone and download / recovery mode don't work.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
yes recovery mode there are chances you might miss the quick release

download mode is fool proof as you do not need to release the power button
[Galaxy S I9000 General] greeced:
Ok great, thanks for that... I tried the volume up procedure on most of them when I went in (guess thats the recovery mode).. time to go back and try volume down!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
the thing is you don't need to worry about that

if they worked with volume up, they will also work with volume down

if they are disabled, none of those options works.

but for people new to the SGS, testing using volume down is easier :)
[Galaxy S I9000 General] greeced:
The reverse would be true too wouldn't it? If it works with volume down then it will with volume up?

The reason I ask is because I think I did the volume up one incorrectly.. i remember releasing power on a couple of them, but maybe i didn't do it at the right time.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] arr0ww:
Hey, sorry i did not record the serial # of my old phone. I live in Vancouver, i got mine at the Coquitlam BestBuy.
[Galaxy S I9000 General] AllGamer:
yes that is right, if one work, the other will work as well
[Galaxy S I9000 General] yhdks:
OK, I don't know where I can find my serial number, but when I do *#06#, my IMEI ends with /04.

This is weird because before I updated my firmware yesterday, it was /03, and I had no problem putting it into download mode. Maybe the new firmware that was released yesterday enables your phone to go into download mode?

I feel sorry for you guys because I just got my I9000M from Best Buy (Downsview, Toronto) 3 days ago (Aug 12th), and the download mode has never been a problem...
[Galaxy S I9000 General] greeced:
I finally found a phone that does the download/recovery 3 button thing properly. PHEW.

I also noticed -- on the initial phone I bought the KIES software said something to the effect of "This phone cannot be updated".

Whereas after todays update on the new phone it stated something to the effect of "your firmware is up to date".

so there's a change I've noticed right there.

As for the update, appears very snappy and the gps lock is amazing.. I'm loving this phone the more I use it!
[Galaxy S I9000 General] yakkamut:
I bought my phone on release day (Aug 6th) at a Bell store in Burnaby, BC.

My serial is a 61xxxx and neither download nor recovery mode work with the 3 button combos. Holding either combo of buttons just causes the startup logo to cycle over and over.