After getting my new Samsung Galaxy III I’ve spent a lot of time reading around on the XDA forums and came across a thread that had an internal Samsung document that explains how to JTAG the Galaxy III (S3) which can come in handy if you find yourself in a situation where you soft bricked your phone.

There are plenty of instructions on XDA on how to attempt to repair a soft bricked phone, and you can find the links to those threads at the bottom of this post.

This is a copy from the thread as there is no reason in trying to reinvent the wheel.

Brief Description of the fix:

Copying the Bootloader file to an external SD Card, using a normal GT-I9300.

Inserting the external SD card into the bricked phone, and copying the bootloader file to the defective PBA.

After downloading the bootloader file to the defective phone, entering download mode with the phone, and downloading a Full S/W.(PIT, PDA, CSC, PHONE files)

Description of the files attached to this post:

(12-38)_GT-I9300_BRICKED.pdf.zip – This ZIP file Contains a PDF file that is the manual for the fix.

GT-I9300_Boot_Recovery.tar – This TAR file is the Bootloader that is copied to the external SD card.

Odin3v3.07.rar – The program specified in the manual that copies the bootloader onto the external SD card.

GT_I9300_unbrick_sdcard_head.zip – The BIN file used in Rebellos’s method below.

Requirements:

Odin3 v3.07.exe and Odin3.ini

GT-I9300_Boot_Recovery.tar

(12-38)_GT-I9300_BRICKED.pdf.zip

External SD Card (Memory size should be 2GB or bigger.)

One normal I9300 phone(normally booted on)

*Resistor has to be shorted very carefully, avoiding touching any other parts at all cost. If you short too many things together – possibility of frying some component of your I9300 rises drastically.

No one has yet to report trying this fix and it being successful, but I am confident that if preformed according to the instructions this fix has the potential of fixing almost any bricked GS3.

One Little Problem:

Scenario: I bricked my phone and I want to fix it as mentioned in this thread. So I go ahead and look at the requirements:

I download it from the attachments.

I download it from the attachments.

I download it from the attachments.

I don’t have one so I go buy one from a store for a little amount of money.

Ummmm… I have one but it can’t boot… Damn! I don’t have any friends that own one…. Damn! What should I do?!

Buy a new one so I can use it to fix the old one

Take my bricked phone to a store and pay at least 60$ for a fix.

Follow the instructions below.

Highly Recommended:

(Not Tested Yet)

Because of the ‘One Little Problem’ there are a few things you can do ahead of time so if you brick your phone you will be prepared:

If you don’t own an extra one, buy a 2GB external SD card.

Follow steps 1-12 in the manual using your own phone.

Take the external SD card out of your phone and put it away in a safe place to be used if needed.

Or follow Rebellos’s (Elite Recognized Developer) way:

Quote:

Here’s an experimental image: (Or attached to this post)

1) Insert SD card (Everything from it will be wiped!)

2) Bootup some linux machine (it can be rooted android phone aswell as its also linux machine )

3) Unpack archive

4) Perform dd if=GT_I9300_unbrick_sdcard_head.bin of=/dev/

On most of phones its /dev/block/mmcblk1 (MAKE SURE YOU DONT OVERWRITE YOUR INTERNAL PHONE MEMORY, ITS USUALLY “/dev/block/mmcblk0”)

On PCs it depends, its sometimes /dev/sdb

More info about dding sd card:

http://mikelev.in/2010/09/cloning-an-sd-card-on-linux/

You’re all ready and set, try to boot it up on dead I9300 and tell me how did it go! (Follow step 14 of Samsung’s guide)

Also, I don’t think Anyway JIG is necessary. Probably you only need to connect it to PC so it gets powered and you can use download mode.

Notice:

This method of fixing your bricked device is only meant to be used if all else fails: Full S/W package with Odin (PIT, BOOTLOADER, PDA, PHONE, CSC) Or USB Jig.

I have not done this before and have not tested this method, do this at your own risk!!!

Download Files

Download “Samsung Galaxy III (S3) GT-I9300 JTAG Documentation” 12-38-GT-I9300-BRICKED.zip – Downloaded 186916 times – 1,016 KB

Download “Samsung Galaxy III (S3) GT-I9300 Boot Recovery” GT-I9300_Boot_Recovery.tar – Downloaded 151656 times – 870 KB

Download “Samsung Galaxy III (S3) GT-I9300 SDCard Head” GT_I9300_unbrick_sdcard_head.zip – Downloaded 74661 times – 372 KB