If you’re familiar with flashing, you’re also familiar with the dangers of flashing. Any modification made to your phone courts the chance of an accident and if anything unfortunate should happen to your phone, there’s that window of chance that service centers may reject it.

With the rising popularity of modifying Android phones, service center technicians have learned to check for an extra something that may result in their returning your device to you unfixed or sending you an invoice for the repairs.

It’s called by many names but commonly, it’s called the “Odin counter,” the “flash counter,” or the “download counter.” This flash counter appears when your device is in Download Mode. By default, it’s set to NO but whenever you flash a non-Samsung kernel to your device, NO changes to a number depending on how many times you flash. If you want to be able to sleep well at night when your phone’s in the shop, you may want to consider resetting your flash counter.

Thanks to XDA Developers senior member -Mr.X-, there is now a method to reset the flash counters on the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 (SGH-T989) and the TELUS Samsung Galaxy S2 X SGH-T989D.

Warning

• These instructions are compatible only with the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 (SGH-T989) and the TELUS Samsung Galaxy S2 X (SGH-T989D).  You may check your model number through Settings > About Phone. If your device does not match either of the said models, do not use this method to reset your device as it may lead to bricking.
• Use these instructions at your own risk.  We shall not be responsible  for whatever happens to your phone.
• This method should never be used to frequently reset your flash counter. If your battery dies in the middle of the resetting method, your device will brick so exercise caution.

Requirements

• T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 (SGH-T989) or TELUS Samsung Galaxy S2 X (SGH-T989D), with ClockworkMod Recovery installed
• Make sure to create a backup of any important data on your phone, as data may be corrupted or lost.
• Make sure that your phone has a fully charged battery. This prevents the device from shutting off in the middle of the flashing process.
• Counter reset file:
  • For Galaxy S2 SGH-T989 (flash_counter_reset_Tmo_SGH-T989.zip, md5sum: b7ae24b01e5421973c61bb31603f4f64)
  • For Galaxy S2 X SGH-T989D (flash_counter_reset_Telus_SGH-T989D.zip, md5sum: 7d30bd0a1307c6d9ebea16c6f3710e4f)

Instructions

1. Download the appropriate counter reset file to your computer.
2. Copy the counter reset file to the internal SD card of your phone.
3. Turn off your phone completely.
4. Boot into Recovery Mode. You can do this by pressing and holding down the Volume Up, Volume Down and Power keys.
5. Make a Nandroid backup by selecting Backup and restore > Backup from the recovery menu. This allows you to revert to your previous state should something not work out.
6. Select Install Zip from SD Card > Choose Zip from SD Card.
7. Select the counter reset file.  Confirm that you want to start installation.
8. Once flashing is complete, select Go Back.
9. Select Reboot System Now.

Congratulations! Your flash counter has now been reset.