I did a very stupid thing tonight. I bricked my phone. I know, shame on me. I deserve everything I got from it lol.

What happened was, I bought my phone from NoMoreRack a couple of months ago for $99. It’s a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone and it was refurbished. I was having issues with it not allowing me to do certain things, and I found out that it wasn’t allowing me to do certain things because when it installs apps, it doesn’t install them properly. I tried installing Terraria and it works just fine on my Nook, but not on my phone. I went into the files and saw that the folder wasn’t even there for it. It had installed 1 file in a folder called obb, but it didn’t install the rest of the files in the data folder. I zipped the files up on my Nook and put the zip file on OneDrive and downloaded it and unzipped it and it wouldn’t unzip it. I used File Manager and went into the root settings for rooted devices only and checked the root explorer and checked change system folders and then unzipped it on my SD card, then copied the files from my SD card over to the data folder and it worked, and suddenly I was able to play Terraria on my phone.

So here is what has brought me to this point. A couple of days ago I got a notice that it had downloaded the file for my phone upgrade, it’s actually my root upgrade which is called Philz Touch 6. I went into the root by turning off the phone, then turning it back on while holding the power, home and volume up keys all at the same time, then letting go of the power button when I saw the blue text, then letting go of the home and the volume up button when I saw the little android guy. I noticed that the root is an old old old file, like from 2012 or 2013 or whatever. I figured if it is trying to install the latest version, but it can’t because it refuses to install the files, then perhaps I can do it manually like I did with Terraria. Cause you know, things like that always work out lol. The upgrade went off without a hitch, except for when I went to reboot the phone and it wouldn’t turn back on.

Naturally when something like this happens you go to the message boards and you go to the phones website and yadda yadda. I went to the phones website thinking I’ll just go ahead and buy the same phone from them, but they didn’t give me the option. In fact, I couldn’t find any way for me to even buy a new phone even as an upgrade. I had to email them to tell them that it wanted me to install an upgrade to the phone, and I did, and now it won’t turn on.

I continued doing more researched and found a video on YouTube of a guy who had a similar situation that resulted with a bricked phone. He bought something called a Jig on ebay and in the video he plugged the jig in and it turned the phone on into download mode. He made a 2nd video, but I haven’t seen it yet. I was so impressed that I went to ebay where he said he bought his and I bought one too. It’s just a little thing that plugs in where you charge your phone and it was only $5.59 including the shipping, and it is coming from Santa Ana which is basically in Los Angeles. The estimated delivery is Monday, but I’ve gotten things next day from Santa Ana, so I’m keeping my eyes crossed that it comes sooner. If it works, great, if it doesn’t, well, at least it wasn’t $20 or $100.

I’d be curious how it’s supposed to work though. I mean, the phone bricked when I went to reboot after installing the root. Won’t it do the same thing? One of the message boards said to install Samsung Kies and that would fix things, even in what I would call dos mode, but it’s like root mode. It is supposed to check your phone to make sure it has the correct firmware installed, so if I can get it on in download mode, then perhaps I can plug it in to the computer and it will undo what I did and fix whatever the problem is. I sure hope so, because I honestly can’t afford to put another $200 on my credit card. Maybe in 6 months, but not right now.

And of course I will be back here when this jig arrives so I can update you on my progress, so stay tuned…