[Q] Is the nexus s as hard to brick as the vibrant? - Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I previously owned a vibrant and was a flash-a-holic. I couldn't brick it if I tried. Is the Nexus S as hard to brick?

Unless you botch flashing a radio, it'll be pretty much unbrickable.
If you can use fastboot, it can be recovered.

Rusty! said:
Unless you botch flashing a radio, it'll be pretty much unbrickable.
If you can use fastboot, it can be recovered.
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Thank you...

Related

Any bricks??

How easy is this phone to brick?
And by brick I mean point of no return?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I have heard no reports of people bricking it ever.
Sent from my Darkginger CM7 Google Nexus S!
It appears to be rather difficult. I've not seen any validated reports of a brick here yet. One guy acted like he might have bricked his legitimately, but it's not clear what he actually did or if he managed to flash something to it.
As long as you have fastboot working, there should be no issues flashing a recovery image and a rom from there.
Keep in mind Google designed this phone to be easily unlocked and modded with custom roms.
If mine is still working, they have to be pretty hard to brick. Google did an awesome job in making recovery very easy.
byock1 said:
If mine is still working, they have to be pretty hard to brick. Google did an awesome job in making recovery very easy.
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Indeed. I'm not going to pull a Titanic and claim its unbrickable but I'd say its pretty f°°°ing hard to brick. As distortedloop said, I've not seen a case where someone could not get to the bootloader and if you can do that you can fast boot a recovery and restore a stock nandroid.
Sent from my Darkginger CM7 Google Nexus S!
I haven't heard of bricks either.... its really difficult to brick when u have recovery.
you really have to pull some crazy **** to brick this phone, even then its hard. ive even tried flashing a nexus one and a mt4g rom to it, but it just errored out
lol i did brick my nexus s
i flashed the odin flash image found here and killed my att nexus s so sad
i was trying getting CM7 on it but it wouldnt mount cache nor data so tried to mount them over adb and went crazy and flashed that odin image,
wont boot or anything probably different bootloader and i killed it appart from having different modem, i guess i will go back to my i9000T that wont brick even if i install euro i9000 bootloaders
davioxx said:
lol i did brick my nexus s
i flashed the odin flash image found here and killed my att nexus s so sad
i was trying getting CM7 on it but it wouldnt mount cache nor data so tried to mount them over adb and went crazy and flashed that odin image,
wont boot or anything probably different bootloader and i killed it appart from having different modem, i guess i will go back to my i9000T that wont brick even if i install euro i9000 bootloaders
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Even then, its probably still not bricked. Sell me yours.
peeturr said:
Even then, its probably still not bricked. Sell me yours.
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Click to collapse
lol really help me getting it back to life i think i have a unique device atm
i cannot boot neither recovery, fastboot or download mode
im thinking on building a jig with the 301k resistor to see if that makes it boot :S
davioxx said:
lol i did brick my nexus s
i flashed the odin flash image found here and killed my att nexus s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you brick a phone that doesn't yet exist (att nexus s)...?
Nice catch there
nice to notice the ATT nexus s
Brick
benifactor said:
How easy is this phone to brick?
And by brick I mean point of no return?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it must be impossible; I've put on roms, kernels, etc., and I don't know what I'm doing. Just play around and it's never broken.
benifactor said:
How easy is this phone to brick?
And by brick I mean point of no return?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its kind of hard to brick where you cant bring it back. i had bootloops and stuck at the google screen but as far as that goes you can still access your recovery and restore a working rom.

Downloading Mode?

Hey, htc Inspire 4g has a "download mode" like the samsung's phone?. Like if i brick updating it or something.. there is any way to restore?
I am not quite sure what you are talking about, but if you are flashing a rom and it fails to boot, then you can go into h-boot then recovery do a full wipe wipe dalvik and reflash the rom.
takato23 said:
Hey, htc Inspire 4g has a "download mode" like the samsung's phone?. Like if i brick updating it or something.. there is any way to restore?
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Click to collapse
Yes. On the inspire it's known as hboot, as mudknot2005 mentioned.
It's actually a MUCH more pleasant experience... only two keys to push, near instant. Never have to worry about whether you pushed all the keys in hard enough/in time, or whether or not the build number of your phone has that "three button combo" working or not, like the captivate.
if you couldn't tell, I'm a disgruntled former captivate owner
;-)
Sent from my Inspire using XDA Premium
Scott_S said:
It's actually a MUCH more pleasant experience... only two keys to push, near instant. Never have to worry about whether you pushed all the keys in hard enough/in time, or whether or not the build number of your phone has that "three button combo" working or not, like the captivate.
if you couldn't tell, I'm a disgruntled former captivate owner
;-)
Sent from my Inspire using XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my wifes Captivate...The button combinations didn't work at all. I always had to boot into recovery using adb commands from the PC.
yes.. that is what i was talking about. So.. there is no worrys about a totally brick? i mean, if i brick the phone installing a radio, i just have to do that "hboot" or whatever to restore back?
takato23 said:
yes.. that is what i was talking about. So.. there is no worrys about a totally brick? i mean, if i brick the phone installing a radio, i just have to do that "hboot" or whatever to restore back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one has managed to totally brick their phone yet. Though if you botch a radio flash there is a chance of completely bricking the phone but if you take the precautions and check the md5sum before flashing you should be fine. I recommended this thread for flashing radios http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1002226
but with that tutorial can i unlock the inspire? coz i don't have AT&T... Can i do it with one click program on developmnt forum?
takato23 said:
but with that tutorial can i unlock the inspire? coz i don't have AT&T... Can i do it with one click program on developmnt forum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both rooting methods unlock the phone.
Nickovtyme said:
On my wifes Captivate...The button combinations didn't work at all. I always had to boot into recovery using adb commands from the PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Musta been a build 1008, if my memory serves me correctly. Or 1010. Or something.
No longer do I care about that mess of a phone. ;-)
Sent from my Inspire using XDA Premium

[Q] How much does it take to brick?

tl;dr: What is the SK4G unable to bounce back from?
It seems like ODIN can fix everything except my phone falling into a lava pit (or water, if that's your thing). How much software damage can this phone take without being completely broken? Like, flashing a bad ROM/kernel? Pulling the battery mid-Voodoo format? I'm just curious.
Kuzar said:
tl;dr: What is the SK4G unable to bounce back from?
It seems like ODIN can fix everything except my phone falling into a lava pit (or water, if that's your thing). How much software damage can this phone take without being completely broken? Like, flashing a bad ROM/kernel? Pulling the battery mid-Voodoo format? I'm just curious.
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Click to collapse
i dont really know what can brick a phone to be honest i have recovered from a lot. ive read that if you loose your bootloader or something like that not exactly sure but the main point of my message is if youre worried about a hard brick dont be ODIN fixes everything!
The only way to truely brick your sk4g is by flashing a bad bootloader, which bricks it because you can't get into download mode. ROMs do not flash any parts that can brick your phone, the only thing that can flash a bootloader is odin/heimdall
So the only thing ODIN can't fix is a bad ODIN? What could cause an ODIN to fail that badly?
Kuzar said:
So the only thing ODIN can't fix is a bad ODIN? What could cause an ODIN to fail that badly?
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Click to collapse
it wouldn't fail you would have to actually put a bad bootloader file into odin!
tylermaciaszek said:
it wouldn't fail you would have to actually put a bad bootloader file into odin!
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Click to collapse
So you'd have to pretty much intentionally cripple your phone? That makes me feel a hell of a lot better about screwing around with this stuff.
Kuzar said:
So you'd have to pretty much intentionally cripple your phone? That makes me feel a hell of a lot better about screwing around with this stuff.
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Click to collapse
screw around have fun ive soft bricked a bunch it takes 5 minutes to get it fixed not a big deal
The only real worry of bricking with odin is if you're making your own odin image.
sduvick said:
The only real worry of bricking with odin is if you're making your own odin image.
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Click to collapse
Which is something I'm definitely NOT doing. Ever.
Why would anyone want to do that, though?
Kuzar said:
Which is something I'm definitely NOT doing. Ever.
Why would anyone want to do that, though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
experienced devs do it to help us get out of soft bricks otherwise no one should ever

Tons of bricks?

So I came from 2 HTC devices, the incredible then the rezound and almost never saw stories about bricks or anything of that nature. Almost anything you did could be easily fixed by running an ruu. Anyways, now I'm here and looking through the thread there seems to be a lot of people with bricks and missing radio info( not sure what that's about?) And all sorts if different issues. Anyways, my question is, how much easier is it to hard brick a gs3 compared to other HTC devices?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Most people claiming bricks don't actually have one, and anyone who has actually bricked their phone has almost certainly done something wrong. There is a strange IMEI issue and data loss which is supposedly fixable with QPST. Still, don't ever remember having IMEI issues ever before.
Zalithian said:
Most people claiming bricks don't actually have one, and anyone who has actually bricked their phone has almost certainly done something wrong. There is a strange IMEI issue and data loss which is supposedly fixable with QPST. Still, don't ever remember having IMEI issues ever before.
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Ok so how badly do you have to screw up to get a hard brick? Also, what is qpst?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
werdna87 said:
Ok so how badly do you have to screw up to get a hard brick? Also, what is qpst?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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To hard brick, you pretty much need to flash the wrong thing to the wrong place.
QPST is Qualcomm Product Support Tools, a tool used for some things (including backing up NV/IMEI)
Zalithian said:
To hard brick, you pretty much need to flash the wrong thing to the wrong place.
QPST is Qualcomm Product Support Tools, a tool used for some things (including backing up NV/IMEI)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So just by flashing romsn I'm not gonna have an issue with flashing stuff to the wrong place correct? They all include scripts that make sure of that. Also I know we got the bootloader unlocked recently. Is that similar to S-off on HTC devices?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
werdna87 said:
So just by flashing romsn I'm not gonna have an issue with flashing stuff to the wrong place correct? They all include scripts that make sure of that. Also I know we got the bootloader unlocked recently. Is that similar to S-off on HTC devices?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Flashing ROMS shouldn't hurt anything if you do it properly/don't do anything stupid in ODIN and have an NV/IMEI backup. I would wait until the IMEI issues are sorted, personally. You can still lose data, your IMEI and be stuck in roaming. I don't know how many people have used QPST backups of their NV to fix their IMEI problems.
I don't know about S-off so I can't comment on any similarities, but with the bootloader unlocked you can flash custom roms/kernels.
Zalithian said:
Flashing ROMS shouldn't hurt anything if you do it properly/don't do anything stupid in ODIN and have an NV/IMEI backup. I would wait until the IMEI issues are sorted, personally. You can still lose data, your IMEI and be stuck in roaming. I don't know how many people have used QPST backups of their NV to fix their IMEI problems.
I don't know about S-off so I can't comment on any similarities, but with the bootloader unlocked you can flash custom roms/kernels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The QPST fix takes like 10 minutes and works fine, without leaving you stuck in roaming, and is even faster if you had the foresight to use QPST to make a backup beforehand. At this point, it's not really something to be worried about unless you're crack flashing at a time when you wouldn't have access to a computer to fix it.
ind3p3nd3nt said:
The QPST fix takes like 10 minutes and works fine, without leaving you stuck in roaming, and is even faster if you had the foresight to use QPST to make a backup beforehand. At this point, it's not really something to be worried about unless you're crack flashing at a time when you wouldn't have access to a computer to fix it.
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Click to collapse
Sounds good then. I hadn't heard of many people using QPST backups to restore their IMEI yet.

[Q] Hard BRICK Help Please!!

Hi Im a complete Noob for doinf this :silly:
Coming from Htc One there was a method posted on the Htc one forums to get the bootloader locked.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2475914
And stupid me without thinking I used the command echo -ne '\x00\x00\x00\x00' | dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 bs=1 seek=33796
to reset the unlocked to lock stats.
Well now the phone doesnt even turn on no booloader no recovery nothing, pc detects it as an unkown device but I dont know what to do with it.
is there anyway possible to bring this brick back to life or do i have send it back to google?
Any suggestions or Advice is welcome.
Thanks
If it doesn't turn on I think you're hosed. You messed up one the partitions running the commands you did Please read the pinned (stickies) threads on the general forum before you do anything on your new device.
You wiped an important partition of the phone, and now it won't boot. Looks like you are out of luck. You can probably call Google and tell them your phone won't turn on, but technically that would be lying because you broke it without reading.
If you do get a replacement, and want to unlock the bootloader just get fastboot and type 'fastboot oem unlock'. That's it. This is a Nexus.
You kinda asked for it by attempting to follow a guide that is not for your device. HTC One =/= Nexus 5.
Like the above said, you wiped a partition essential to the function of your device. No way to fix it. Gonna have to send it back to Google, hopefully when you do they won't charge you and will just send you another. They might be used to having a million returns because when a device launchers there is a massive amount of nitpicking customers trying to get replacements and/or their are legit issues with the devices and they won't bother to check whats wrong with your phone. Most likely they will though, and who knows what you'll be charged. Good luck!
xXxG0dzRAgexXx said:
You kinda asked for it by attempting to follow a guide that is not for your device. HTC One =/= Nexus 5.
Like the above said, you wiped a partition essential to the function of your device. No way to fix it. Gonna have to send it back to Google, hopefully when you do they won't charge you and will just send you another. They might be used to having a million returns because when a device launchers there is a massive amount of nitpicking customers trying to get replacements and/or their are legit issues with the devices and they won't bother to check whats wrong with your phone. Most likely they will though, and who knows what you'll be charged. Good luck!
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I hope I do get a replacement , Im in the Uk so i cant get in contact with Google support till Monday now. I was stupid for doing that and I have learned a valuable lesson.
That's what happens when you do not read. Good luck.
xXxG0dzRAgexXx said:
You kinda asked for it by attempting to follow a guide that is not for your device. HTC One =/= Nexus 5.
Like the above said, you wiped a partition essential to the function of your device. No way to fix it. Gonna have to send it back to Google, hopefully when you do they won't charge you and will just send you another. They might be used to having a million returns because when a device launchers there is a massive amount of nitpicking customers trying to get replacements and/or their are legit issues with the devices and they won't bother to check whats wrong with your phone. Most likely they will though, and who knows what you'll be charged. Good luck!
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Click to collapse
this just scares me about android. I am getting a nexus 5 soon, and love tweaking with my phones, so im pretty sure theres nothing to worry about, but still.... not trying to troll or anything, but on iPhone, its ridiculously hard to "hard brick". I've seen posts online, but most of the time its just users who end up thinking they've done a fix with no result, when in reality, ive had to fix plenty of iphones in the past, and some have come in horribly screwed up. always been able to fix them and restore though, even if it meant wiping a users data. With android, while I understand there are options to restore and such, it still seems rather easy to totally brick if you miss a step or something were to happen.
hoping I will never have this issue.... :-\
unvaluablespace said:
this just scares me about android. I am getting a nexus 5 soon, and love tweaking with my phones, so im pretty sure theres nothing to worry about, but still.... not trying to troll or anything, but on iPhone, its ridiculously hard to "hard brick". I've seen posts online, but most of the time its just users who end up thinking they've done a fix with no result, when in reality, ive had to fix plenty of iphones in the past, and some have come in horribly screwed up. always been able to fix them and restore though, even if it meant wiping a users data. With android, while I understand there are options to restore and such, it still seems rather easy to totally brick if you miss a step or something were to happen.
hoping I will never have this issue.... :-\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iPhone's are pretty much impossible to hard brick. Was in the jailbreak scene for 2 and a half years, and there is no way to hard brick one. Very early on it was possible, but not anymore. Android devices are pretty hard to brick usually. Just make sure you follow a guide for your device and all should be well. Only risky thing really is flashing the wrong firmware or radio on a device. Flashing roms, mods, or wiping the entire device is always fixable (not important partitions though, but that's only possible via command terminal like in this case). I was at first scared with my HTC One since it was my first android device, but realized as long as you know what your doing all should go well.
unvaluablespace said:
this just scares me about android. I am getting a nexus 5 soon, and love tweaking with my phones, so im pretty sure theres nothing to worry about, but still.... not trying to troll or anything, but on iPhone, its ridiculously hard to "hard brick". I've seen posts online, but most of the time its just users who end up thinking they've done a fix with no result, when in reality, ive had to fix plenty of iphones in the past, and some have come in horribly screwed up. always been able to fix them and restore though, even if it meant wiping a users data. With android, while I understand there are options to restore and such, it still seems rather easy to totally brick if you miss a step or something were to happen.
hoping I will never have this issue.... :-\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't be too scared. Honestly bricking a nexus device is quite hard as long you are somewhat literate. With most situations (if you have access to the bootloader) you have the option of flashing the factory images which will get your phone up and running 95% of the time. Basically if you can access the bootloader, there is nothing to panic or worry about.
The only reason this guy bricked his phone is because he thought it was a good idea to root his nexus 5 using a guide that teaches you how to unlock the bootloader on an HTC One.
Just make sure you read a bit, understand what you are doing, and don't blindly follow random instructions that you find on the interwebz. If you follow that advice i doubt you will have any problems.
Sent using xda-developers app
uronfire said:
Hi Im a complete Noob for doinf this :silly:
Coming from Htc One there was a method posted on the Htc one forums to get the bootloader locked.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2475914
And stupid me without thinking I used the command echo -ne '\x00\x00\x00\x00' | dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 bs=1 seek=33796
to reset the unlocked to lock stats.
Well now the phone doesnt even turn on no booloader no recovery nothing, pc detects it as an unkown device but I dont know what to do with it.
is there anyway possible to bring this brick back to life or do i have send it back to google?
Any suggestions or Advice is welcome.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still having issues? I've got a couple of ideas you could try. I managed to fix my nexus after I completely screwed up the bootloader, willing to share how I fixed it
daniel.kusy said:
Still having issues? I've got a couple of ideas you could try. I managed to fix my nexus after I completely screwed up the bootloader, willing to share how I fixed it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you manage to fix yours? Mine's still bricked but can only get access to the bootloader. Have tried every option of flashing factory but still no luck.
How do you brick a Nexus?
I wish I could feel pity but man....
Tell them it won't turn on. Send it back I'm sure they won't know. Hope they don't at least. Better than keeping a paperweight.
sent from my Nexus 5
jphilippon said:
How do you brick a Nexus?
I wish I could feel pity but man....
Tell them it won't turn on. Send it back I'm sure they won't know. Hope they don't at least. Better than keeping a paperweight.
sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used ChainFires auto root and it quite simply did not work and bricked my phone. Nothing else to it… it just bricked my N5. No interruptions, all correct drivers installed. Now I'm stuck with a phone displaying unlocked boot loader (which I can lock temporarily using fast boot command.) but when the device restarts into fast boot it's back saying unlocked. Nightmare really.
Meakii said:
I used ChainFires auto root and it quite simply did not work and bricked my phone. Nothing else to it… it just bricked my N5. No interruptions, all correct drivers installed. Now I'm stuck with a phone displaying unlocked boot loader (which I can lock temporarily using fast boot command.) but when the device restarts into fast boot it's back saying unlocked. Nightmare really.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a person in the franco's thread who even corrupted the bootloader he managed to recover using some lg flsh tool something like kdz
it was some kind of methord used to unbrick nexus 4
Meakii said:
How did you manage to fix yours? Mine's still bricked but can only get access to the bootloader. Have tried every option of flashing factory but still no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried the flash-all.bat (factory image using command prompt from the sdk/platform-tools folder )?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
floxrin said:
have you tried the flash-all.bat (factory image using command prompt from the sdk/platform-tools folder )?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea mate. No luck.
Meakii said:
Yea mate. No luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get into bootloader does fastboot work? If you can get into the bootloader virtually anything can be fixed. What happens when you click the flash all.bat file?
Try LG download mode
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
daniel.kusy said:
If you can get into bootloader does fastboot work? If you can get into the bootloader virtually anything can be fixed. What happens when you click the flash all.bat file?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See the attached. I can't do anything. Every attempt to write anything to the internal SD fails. I wish it could be fixed but have tried everything. Worst part is even after fastboot oem lock cmd when it restarts it's unlocked again. Meaning when I return it warranty will probably be void.
This guy has the same problem. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=315800
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I957 using xda app-developers app

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