[General] Galaxy S2 Stuck in Boot Loop after ROM Flash (ODIN)?

Galaxy S2 Stuck in Boot Loop after ROM Flash (ODIN)?

I have a Tmobile Galaxy S2 (SGH-T989) that's now more or less a paperweight. I'm all out of ideas to fix it, so I was hoping to get some answers here.

The problem started yesterday afternoon when I seen I wasn't receiving signal (a "no smoking" like symbol where the signal bars are), and ended up calling Tmobile customer service last night with still no signal. I was told that there was a problem with the network and I would be contacted by an engineer in a few days; but, just to be sure I was told to remove my SIM card, reinsert it, etc., and after doing so the phone couldn't read the SIM, saying one wasn't inserted (it was). I called Tmobile back with this issue and was told to reset my phone and the representative said to call back if there were any more issues. After resetting my phone I was left with only a black scree and working notification bar (no lock screen, icons, etc.), so I can only turn WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, Screen Rotation on/off. Being it was 10pm and I had to get up for work, I didn't call Tmobile back. Since getting off today I've been troubleshooting to no avail.

I researched the black screen issue on Goggle and found that manually flashing the ROM with ODIN would fix it (the phone came with Jelly Bean 4.1.1 and the flash would upgrade to 4.1.2). I followed the directions for flashing explicitly; waiting until reboot to unplug the USB with ODIN saying "PASS" and successful. After doing this I've been stuck in constant boot loop with a window saying "Android Upgrading... optimizing apps 0-73," but after reaching 73 it does this all over again and I'm not able to get past it. I also tried reflashing with ODIN again as instructed.
I troubleshooted this issue and found that doing a data/factory reset and wiping the cache should fix it. I done this and I'm still stuck in the boot loop with the "optimizing apps 0-73." I tried just a data/factory reset again, but the problem's still there.

My boyfriend bought this phone a month and a half ago from Wal-Mart with 2yr. contract. He didn't like it and gave it to me, but he didn't purchase an insurance plan and the 2 weeks warranty had expired. I was hoping someone could give me an answer on how I could fix this and not have to pay a repair fee to Tmobile (I really don't have the extra cash right now, but need a phone for work). Is this something we can fix, or is it beyond our ability?

Any and all help is very much appreciated. Thanks.

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