FIXED -- Is my Samsung Tab3 Bricked?

[slheider3]

UPDATE - After a lot of attempts I was able to get my tablet into Odin mode and after a failed Odin flash, a reboot of PC and tablet and then turning off antivirus and running Odin in Administrator Mode I successfully reset my tablet. I'm now happily re-installing all of my apps.

've posted updates & additional info in the comments/responses below.
My Samsung Tab 3 won't boot past the Samsung logo. I've tried everything I could find online. Done a factory reset more than once both with and without my SC card; let it run completely out, charged it a bit and then tried again. Plugged into my laptop but while it beeps I don't see anything that indicates it's connected.

I tried to find out if I could load Odin on to my SD card and flash it that way but I could find zero comprehensible instructions on whether that was able to be done at all or how to do it. I don't have the funds right now to replace my tablet which I received when my step-dad passed away 18 months ago. I didn't have any rooted programs, just stuff the Google Play or Amazon stores.

Thursday night/Friday early morning, I had been playing a game and was stopping to head to bed. I keep my wifi off during the day to preserve battery and at night turn it on, open the google play store to download any updates. I started my end of the day stuff and turned on wifi and got a message that said Samsung WatchON has stopped and the background turned all black versus the green it had been (icons were fine). It was being goofy and so I rebooted it and got the Odin downloading locked up thing. I figured out how to get out of that and it seemed ok. I set my updates to downloading and went to bed.

I checked it on Friday when I got up and there were still some updates so I pushed the update button in the play store. It keep shutting down the play store which I thought was odd and when it kept doing it I rebooted it. And now, no matter what I do, it won't go past the Samsung Logo.

Is it beyond repair? Would the UBReak IFix guys be able to make it work with costing the earth? I really enjoy my Tablet even though it's old. It was great for my Android games, logic puzzles and reading and I'd really like to have it back. Does anyone have any suggestions??

 

[webworkings]

Have you tried turning it on in "Safe Mode" to see if it loads? Granted it will have limited access, but if it loads in there, then you may well have something on the tablet that is interfering. Virus, malware, bad app, etc. that you will need to remove to resolve this.

To get into "Safe Mode" please do the following.

1. First turn off the tablet.

2. Next press and hold "Power" until you see the manufacturers logo on the screen, then release the power button.

3. "Quickly" press "Volume Down" and hold it for few seconds until you see the message "Safe mode: ON" or something similar.

4. If you wanted disable it, simply repeat the steps above, and you should see "Safe Mode: OFF" rather than on.

 

[slheider3]

I've tried that too and I can't get it to go into Safe Mode either. Because the tablet was old and a bit slow, I've never used too much for web surfing and never for email. I say this only so you'll understand that I couldn't have picked up a virus anywhere. It was a casual game playing / Kindle reader tablet with apps only from either the Google Play store or Amazon.

Have you tried turning it on in "Safe Mode" to see if it loads? Granted it will have limited access, but if it loads in there, then you may well have something on the tablet that is interfering. Virus, malware, bad app, etc. that you will need to remove to resolve this.

To get into "Safe Mode" please do the following.

1. First turn off the tablet.

2. Next press and hold "Power" until you see the manufacturers logo on the screen, then release the power button.

3. "Quickly" press "Volume Down" and hold it for few seconds until you see the message "Safe mode: ON" or something similar.

4. If you wanted disable it, simply repeat the steps above, and you should see "Safe Mode: OFF" rather than on.

 

[slheider3]

I might have some progress. I would update/change my question but I don't know if that's the right thing to do so I'm just adding this here.

Although I tried multiple times yesterday and it wouldn't work, I have managed to put my tablet in Odin Download mode which I understand is needed to flash the ROM. I'm pretty fluent in PC fixing but I've never had to deal with tablets.

I've downloaded and installed the Samsung drivers and the Odin software. I'm googling to figure out what else I need and how to go about doing this. If you happen to read this and know what to do with the Odin thing, I'd appreciate the help.

Additional info that may or may not matter: I have removed my SD card from the tablet. I hear the connect tone when I plug my USB to tablet cord into my laptop but I don't see it show up in the My Computer area so I don't know if it's really "there".

Have you tried turning it on in "Safe Mode" to see if it loads? Granted it will have limited access, but if it loads in there, then you may well have something on the tablet that is interfering. Virus, malware, bad app, etc. that you will need to remove to resolve this.

To get into "Safe Mode" please do the following.

1. First turn off the tablet.

2. Next press and hold "Power" until you see the manufacturers logo on the screen, then release the power button.

3. "Quickly" press "Volume Down" and hold it for few seconds until you see the message "Safe mode: ON" or something similar.

4. If you wanted disable it, simply repeat the steps above, and you should see "Safe Mode: OFF" rather than on.

 

[webworkings]

With all that is going on with this device, I would really suggest you back up any stuff on it to a cloud account or a computer. Files, music, contacts, etc. (can't backup apps) just to be safe. Should the device need to be reset/wiped or it turn out to be a hardware issue, you will lose everything if you don't back it up now.

Just a suggestion.