[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tbong777:
This is a guide from a noob who spent a few hours today on my wifes phone trying to get it into Download mode after using Master Clear.....Worked fine before Master Clear but I wanted all the root apps IE Titanium) gone which the stock ROM update did not do. Being a total noob at Android and the Captivate being my first foray I though I would try to provide noob instructions to cover most bases. Most of the instructions here are scattered and not easy to find or are incomplete and make assumptions. This is specifically for those who cannot get into recovery or download mode.

Recovery/ Download modes are SEPARATE modes for for different uses.

I used recovery mode to "root' the phone AFTER putting the "update" file into the root directory using USB mass storage mode.

I use Download mode to install ROMS such as Stock and the 2.2 update.

My biggest issue was having a device that Would not GO INTO RECOVERY/DOWNLOAD MODE using any combination of button presses which it did before I Master cleared the phone. . Very frustrating. So I decided to bite the bullet and use the SDK mode. This first part will guide one on how to use the Android SDK and Command Prompt.

The assumption is all the drivers have been loaded for the Samsung Captivate.

First you need to have JAVA installed in your PC ( I did not)

The next you need to download the SDK package readily available

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

This is what I did:

1. Created a folder called SDK on my C drive root directory.

2. Copied the android-sdk_r07-windows.zip SDK file to that directory

3. Extracted the ZIP into a newly created folder in that Directory

4. Deleted the Downloaded Zip package.

5. Moved all files from the new folder created by the extraction to the root SDK directory and deleted the now empty folder they came from. (This makes the path to the tools folder simple (as you will need to type that path out exactly in command Prompt)

My Path looked like this C:\SDK\Tools . Doesn't matter how you get there but tools folder must be in the path and the path must be exact

Next I started my Captivate normally and put my Captivate in USB debugging mode. Plugged in the USB.

I then opened the ODIN file I wanted to use whether original stock ROM or the new Froyo ROM

1. Opened command prompt on PC

2. Type CD\ to start at C root directory

3. from there I typed in CD \sdk\tools\

4. The next step involves the typing the command to open the screen you want the Phone to use...Recovery or download

4. Type in adb reboot recovery for the recovery screen (This gets you into the "three button screen" with no USB attached many cannot get into.

5. OR type in adb Reboot download to get the yellow download screen...

From there ODIN should indicate a com port..You hit start and the new ROM will be installed. There should be NO hangups on the indicated steps within ODIN. it happens pretty quickly.....YOu will see a filler bar at the top of ODIN and a blue line filler across the phone as the ROM is loaded.

I used Froyo..and discovered with Froyo I did not need to use the SDK method to get into recovery mode.....Froyo fixed that.

I have two Odin files. One for Jf6 Stock and the new 2.2.

I updated the JH7 FW using mini Kies in debugging mode. That was the only way I could load that FW which did not work OTA.

Bottomline is this is not a Hardware phone replacement issue if one cannot get into download mode. It is all about the FW in the phone. IF you can use the SDK you may likely not have to use it again.

OK ALL YOU EXPERTS Please correct or certify the steps.

Just trying to hep those who cannot read a 110 page thread that goes in many different directions.