A SmartPhone I saved

[ThinkPad560X]

Where I work sometimes from the other company that sends in boxes for recycle "The Box and Foam inside" there will be electronics left inside and most times the company says you can just trash them. I found a Samsung Galaxy S4 inside with its OEM charger. I tried to turn it on but nothing. So I plugged it in and let it charge for awhile. Later I can power it on and would say Samsung Galaxy S4 and then load to a company installed Hotspot and no menu. I went online to see how to remove it and showed how to get into the bios and erased everything on it. So now their is no OS and stays on the Galaxy S4 screen. I don't know anything about smartphones and I'm still using my Motorola Razr V3m. So this is basically my first smartphone. I don't have any use for touchscreens and if I want to go online I use my ThinkPads or desktop. My phone is just if someone needs to get ahold of me.

Is their anyway to get the OS back on? I removed the company SIM from the phone, No SD card inside. Also will this work on Verizon? It has T-Mobile on the back case and everyone said as long as the phone is paid off you can go to any carrier. And if taken to the phone store can they reinstall the OS, from what I found about the phone it came out in 2013 and had OS KitKat.

[ajkula66]

Also will this work on Verizon? It has T-Mobile on the back case

No T-Mobile phone will work on VZW network.

[Saucey]

Not sure if I ever bricked my S4 but XDA is always a valuable source.

To resurrect it, iirc you'll need a Windows PC and download thedrivers for it.
Next you'll need Odin to flash it, and from there you'll need a ROM for your device because it sounds like it removed it.

Its been awhile since I used an android device. Luckily, most of the android phones that come to my work are resetted simply.

Check out RootJunky's Videos! I learned a lot from his stuff, basically shadowed his video guide.

Basically the steps are:
Make sure the phone is charged at least to 70%
Download drivers, a ROM, gapps (google play) & Odin for your windows computer.
Put the phone in recovery mode (power, volume up?, & home pressed when cold boot)
Let Odin do its work.
Copy ROM to a directory on the S4 where it won't overwrite
install the ROM with the phone
Install gapps
erase dvalik and cache iirc
reboot

[kfzhu1229]

Try to use download mode by using power button + volume down + home key for around 5 seconds (3 seconds for the Exynos Asian/European version), then try kies on PC. If kies doesn't work, try downloading firmware and odin software from sammobile.com
Can I know the model for that Galaxy S4? I have dealt 3 Galaxy S4 with complete different internals and I can tell you the difference even between one letter of the model number (from the same Galaxy S4 family) is huge!
If it is real T-Mobile version of Galaxy S4, it should have a model number of SGH-M919.

[ThinkPad560X]

This is all I see under the battery on sticker

IMEI: 356420/05/569075/4
FCC ID: A3LSGHM919
13.06
M919
MADE IN CHINA CE0168
STA 14.02


specs I found: https://swappa.com/specs/samsung-galaxy-s-4-tmobile

[kfzhu1229]

Well yea then yours is the T-Mobile version. Also forget about what I said before, T-Mobile version will NOT get the Lollipop update and if you want the lollipop update, go to eBay and replace a i337 motherboard in
So try using Samsung Kies to recover first. It asks you for the model number (enter exactly SGH-M919) and your serial number or IMEI, whichever it asks for.
If that doesn't work, then try the odin software to download the stock rom inside.
The downloads for the firmware can be found here:
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/SGH-M919/
Note: if you replace the motherboard, replace it with i337. Other motherboards may not fit inside your mid frame!
Details about the difference between the models come from here:
http://www.ecever.com/blog/difference-b ... cd-screen/

[ThinkPad560X]

Am I able to take the phone to any carrier and get them to install the OS back on the phone? I'm not having luck getting the OS on and tried online but I don't want to risk downloading a OS from 3rd party sites and most are mod hacks. and no there is no downloads off the android site but just feature information on the OSs. All it does right now is just boots to the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen and stays on that. I can boot to the bois but it just says No OS! and most sites say the install has to be on the MicroSD Card witch it has a 8GB.

I went ahead and bought a factory refurbish complete in box Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4. So if I decide to use this phone I can and use the T-Mobile for parts/sell or mess around with. but still want to finish the project of reinstalling the OS. Looking at them side by side they are the complete same. removing the back covers they are the same but their is two really small carved into the plastic VZ witch guessing means Verizon. In the same area in the T-Mobile it has J-AT/TM#7.6

I am coming from and still using the Motorola Razr V3m and still in brand new shape as I only use a phone if need to get ahold of, but as of late last year I am unable to send and receive images now. I do all my online on my IBM Pcs/ThinkPads. I looked online and the S7 is the latest model and the S8 is coming out this year. I wanted to see if I can remove the battery and open it up easy on the new models and the S5 is the last one to remove the battery/back, The S6/S7 backs are glued and has a no removable battery. So I just decided to go with the S4 as I got one for parts if need be.

[TankPad]

Go to Sam Mobile and enter your model number to get a list of OEM/Carrier firmwares.
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/

Using the latest version of Odin, flash that firmware to the phone. You'll find loads of guides on how it works but in simple terms, plug the phone into the computer, make sure it's drivers are installed, select the firmware and click flash. It's really quite easy with Samsung devices.

[kfzhu1229]

I know S4 well enough and no, You CANNOT swap parts such as screen bezel (hense the screen itself as well cannot be swapped unless you want to risk breaking the screen and remove the screen assembly from the bezel) and mid frame with a Verizon S4 as they are actually different. However, your tmobile version can swap completely with a AT&T version.
Also if you want to use that Tmobile phone with Verizon, get a unlocked AT&T motherboard.
As for S5, I know them very well too. If you use a gsm compatible carrier and don't mind for 4g, get the Exynos version if you can. Under the same shell, Exynos variant (Exynos Octa 5422) is full octa core (unlike Exynos Octa variant of S4 which only enables 4 cores at a time) while the snapdragon variant is only quad core. The performance gap right there determines that the Exynos version is a clear winner (And also no infamous snapdragon heating issues too). However, S4 is much more serviceable than Galaxy S5 because its waterproofing capability, you have to start everything by removing the LCD while you can open S4 by removing the screws at the back!
As for firmwares, you are stuck with Tmobile one and kitkat only while most of the other S4 has lollipop available. Please don't try to flash the firmware for other models of Galaxy S4 into your Tmobile version as it will definitely NOT work and may damage your motherboard permanently!! If you dont know how severe that is, it is basically equivalent to flashing T43 bios into a T42 thinking that you will get NX and PAE instructions!