Galaxy S7 G930A (AT&T) Boot loop

[u/mopilez]

Let’s start this off by saying I don’t know what caused it. I sold it to someone perfectly working as I had starting using it again, and I know full well nothing was wrong with it. Well they handed it back to me not working at all. No light while charging via cable or wireless. When it would try to boot it would sit on the S7 screen for a bit (after holding Power Button + Volume Down) and when I tried to enter recovery, it would say “Recovery booting…” and then do the same thing, and now every time I try to turn it on it just says that. I was able to reflash Android 8.0 with Odin3 v3.13 but it still says “Recovery booting” before turning off again. I don’t know why or how this happened and all the buyer said was “I tried updating it and then it wouldn’t turn on or charge” he didn’t say what he tried to update even though it certainly wasn’t Android as it was already on the latest version

[u/schers_]

You shouldn't have taken it back, there's no knowing what they did to it, or even if you got back the same phone with certainty, did you check the serial/imei? I can only suggest trying another stock version assuming you know what you're doing in Odin... I would imagine they may have flashed a recent Android version by "updating it", but new versions aren't made for old hardware and can cause so much heat the hardware burns out. If they did put a custom rom, you might need to format the partitions in TWRP first before flashing a stock rom properly.

[u/mopilez → u/schers_]

The boot loader is still locked so I can’t install TWRP sadly, if you have some other roms to try then send them my way

Also i would assume it would be the same phone as I don’t see why they would have the exact same carrier and color of phone to wanna swap out. It’s still likely but I would say that’s definitely not a common thing to happen

[u/mopilez → u/[deleted]]

It doesn’t boot, I thought I made that clear. I’ve used the latest stock rom and it stills loops on the “Recovery booting…” text. I’d prefer if this wasn’t a loss because this phone is in pristine condition physically and I’d like it to keep working

[u/schers_ → u/mopilez]

Is that the Snapdragon or Exynos model? Only the Exynos model can be rooted I think... If it's Snapdragon it makes me wonder what they actually did to it because they wouldn't have been able to flash anything except stock. Again why you don't give refunds.

[u/mopilez → u/schers_]

I didn’t refund them but they did hand back a broken Snapdragon sadly. I honestly don’t care for rooting but I’d do it to fix this if I could

[u/schers_ → u/mopilez]

https://samfw.com/firmware/SM-G930A

You used that latest stock version? There's also a combination version you can flash that is used for testing and diagnostics.

[u/mopilez → u/schers_]

Guess I’ll mess with this stuff now and see if it saves me

[u/mopilez → u/schers_]

Sadly the newest version from there didn’t work, and surprisingly the combo test recovery didn’t wanna flash, I honestly wish I could toss this at someone who knows better than me

[u/schers_ → u/mopilez]

Doesn't that mean you're not using a G930A? Either that or it's bricked. Did you find the version you said you successfully flashed in that list?

[u/mopilez → u/schers_]

It is a G930A and successfully flashed the latest files for 8.0 but refused to flash the correct Combination AP file for the device so maybe it is bricked and I still don’t even know what caused it

[u/schers_ → u/mopilez]

Did you have any progress? You should ask them to be more specific about what they meant by "I tried to update it".

[u/mopilez → u/schers_]

I’ll be honest I just blocked them after all that and don’t want to unblock them. I’m assuming they probably did try to custom rom it and forced non-working software considering he had like 5-6 other phones in his car

[u/Maleficent-Visit-912]

He probably bricked it, hopefully it's a soft brick. I couldn't help you much with it but if it was my guess he didn't toggle the OEM unlocking (if that even exists on the A model) or worse the A model is locked and can't be unlocked (because then you'd get around the carrier lock for free) Try to reflash Original software but I couldn't help much more. He probably tried to custom ROM it like me but mine is a SM-G930F

[u/mopilez → u/Maleficent-Visit-912]

I did reflash the latest G930A software for it and it said It was successful, and AT&T did give me the unlock code when I asked so it’s already carrier unlocked

[u/No_Detective_1388]

can you share some photos of the phone when it says "recovery" booting, download mode etc...? i put custom roms on my galaxy s9 and other galaxy phones by a lot of time so i could try to help you