[Q] Issues after OTA topic

Have a bit of a problem here. I gave my parents my SGS3 and i know i had a root on it and was running stock. Im pretty sure that before giving it to them i ran an OTA lost root then re rooted. This most recent OTA has left the phone in a boot loop. Since it has been so long i have no idea what version it was running. Ive done some reading here and thought the solution would be to go back to 4.1.1 but i few posts warned that it could hard brick the phone if it was upgraded to 4.3... Anyway to tell what i have on there. I can get to download mode. Unable to get recovery open. ...Any help would be helpful. Thank you