Galaxy S4 soft brick

Hey, I'm hoping someone on here knows a lot more about android than I do.

Short story, my mum dropped her S4 into freshwater... I've dried it out sufficiently and tried to get it to work but it's acting like it's been soft bricked. It will go into download mode (vol. down + power) but it hangs when going into recovery mode (vol. up + power) with the samsung splash and the tiny blue "booting into recovery" in the top right hand corner.
It's running standard everything, and all she really cares about is getting her photos off the internal memory.

Any ideas before I start the usual methods of re-flashing?
My computer (and ODIN) recognises it when it is plugged in in download mode only, but Kies doesn't... Maybe there is a backdoor to access what's on the phone when it's in download mode?

It's kind of an out there question, I know... so thanks in advance if anyone has any ideas

@Ice knows a thing or two about this

Benzino when odin picks yp your phone do you see it under my computer ? You know like a usb key.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Also you may want to root it which shouldnt wipe it. Try and find the most stable "cf root" for the S4 and then you may be able to pick it up like a drive...am I makimg sense ?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ice

Benzino when odin picks yp your phone do you see it under my computer ? You know like a usb key.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

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Thanks very much for your help Ice (and Adam for directing him my way)!

I see it as a USB device in device manager but not as a drive in My Computer.

I currently have the phone apart to clean some corrosion. I'm also going to replace the charging board and the battery as they seem to be the common things to go when water gets in.
The motherboard looks good though, so I am hoping it's ok.

If the hardware side of things doesn't work, I will try rooting as per your suggestion.
If that doesn't work, do you know of any methods I should try before going down the path that wipes the phone?

Cheers!

Hey @Ice
sorry to bother you again. Just wanted to update and get your opinion if you have a minute.

So I replaced the USB board and battery and that didn't change anything. I then rooted with CFroot and it showed the change in DL mode (system status: custom; knox warranty void 0x1) but it still wouldn't boot normally or into recovery.
I then did some more research and saw some people had luck flashing Philz recovery... did that and nothing happened.
So the last thing I did was download a stock version of the i9507 firmware. It flashed successfully (back to system status: Official) with no luck on the boot front.

Any advice before it gets sent off to Samsung and then gets sent back because the water damage indicators have been set off? :lol:
Cheers,
Ben

I-9507 ? The S4 Octa core is i9500 & 3G and the Quad core with 4G which is what all us ozzies have is the I9505. hmmmm ok so its a fancier S4 than the rest but ofcourse typical when you need it most it has less support than others.

I presume you looked here ? http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2577856

Look send it to Samsung or Optus (im guessing its an Optus rom phone) they may be able to get something working otherwise if they send it back and its the same send it to me and ill see what I can do as its difficult to tell when I don't have it in from of me or take it to a company where they may be able to retrieve the data/photos. Ide also try with some i9505 roms.

good luck :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by benzino

Hey @Ice
sorry to bother you again. Just wanted to update and get your opinion if you have a minute.

So I replaced the USB board and battery and that didn't change anything. I then rooted with CFroot and it showed the change in DL mode (system status: custom; knox warranty void 0x1) but it still wouldn't boot normally or into recovery.
I then did some more research and saw some people had luck flashing Philz recovery... did that and nothing happened.
So the last thing I did was download a stock version of the i9507 firmware. It flashed successfully (back to system status: Official) with no luck on the boot front.

Any advice before it gets sent off to Samsung and then gets sent back because the water damage indicators have been set off? :lol:
Cheers,
Ben

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Yeah, that thread was how I found the stock firmware.
From what I've read, the i9507 is a HK and aus only phone with the only difference from the 19505 being the LTE frequency to suit optus/virgin as far as I'm aware.

May I ask what you would try if I were to send it to you? More of what I've been doing?

Unfortunately I don't have much internet so I can't download any more roms/firmware. I think I will have to concede defeat and send it off! :mad2:

Thanks again @Ice for bouncing some ideas around with me

The difference by the way is also cpu speeds. The i9505 has snap dragon 600 cpu and the i9506,7 has snapdragon 800 cpu's plus graphics upgrades.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Ide try more of what your trying I suppose. Ide focus on getting the data, not getting it working as such.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

If ur still having problems http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/general have an look i have modded heaps of phones using that forum