galaxy note 10.1 bootloop

hey guys Ive been stuck on this for ages and im sure my galaxy note 10.1 is bricked. i was just listening to music one night, and when i woke up it was dead [even though it was on charge. tried to start it and it got stuck on the samsung logo after it shows the optus [my provider] logo. Now ive seen a lot of posts on this and i simply cant get into recovery mode by pressing power + vol up. it simply does the usual restart and gets stuck in the same place. When i push power plus vol down it displays a screen saying "warning!! A custom OS can cause critial problems in phone and installed applications. If you want to download a custom OS, press the volume up key. Otherwise, press the volume down key to cancel. " THAT'S it. if i push vol down goes back to the usual start up i had initially [cancelled]. But when i push vol up, it enters a screen with the adroid man in the middle of the screen saying "downloading... Do not turn off target". up in the top corner is some small teat saying" ODIN mode, product name: GT-N8020, currant binary: samsung official, system status: official, AP swrev: A2". And it just sits there until the battery runs dry. i left in it for two days on charge and it didnt do anything. i installed smart switch and it says its not supported [even though its on the supported list on samsungs website]. I went to "more" on smart switch and tried "emergency software recovery and Initialization". on the first tab it stays blank, so can't do anything there. went through a nightmare with the intialization part [second tab] busted open the tab to get the serial number and put that into it and it tells me something along the line of its gonna delete everything. im like "i dont care i just want it to work.", so click ok. It then says "Initialized version: PDA:NK1 / PHONE:NL1 / CSC:NL1 (OPS)" and below that is a message saying "now initializing the latest version. all settings will be initialized, and stored data will be permanently deleted. Do you want to proceed? Warning remove your google account(s) to disable device protection features. If you skip this step, you will be required to sign in with a google account that was previously synced on this device." then i click ok. "Software update and initialization for galaxy note 10.1 will now start." then is basically telling me to go into ODIN mode. i do that and end up at the same screen with the android logo [on the tablet]. And on the PC it suddenly displays 100% after a few seconds [as ive done this a few times], then shows a box Failed to recognize software update mode. PLease follow the guide shown below and try again. " and basically give me instructions to go into ODIN mode again like i already did.
arrggg! and thats where im bloody stuck.
Please tell me guys this tab is not bricked and theres a way to fix it short of replacing the motherboard?