So I've been reading all these threads about people bricking their phone..
Im quite new at this stuff (roooting android phones, I rooted mines only about a week and a half ago)., so I havent quite got a hold of it yet...
I was wondering, whats the worst thing that can happen when rooted?
A point where theres no way to unbrick perhaps?
I was such a noob that I thought a goldcard was attached to the SDcard so I was scared to break my card or something.
Worst case scenario: You have some how messed with the system's partitions and deleted something you shouldn't have.
Dropping and breaking your phone while trying to navigate in clockwork recovery using the volume buttons
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flash a CDMA radio on a GSM phone or vice versa, will physically damage the hardware.
Related
I was having trouble trying to flash back to the orig sprint ruu. After toying around, I finally got it to flash completely, only thing is...it still had the METRO banner. I ignored it.
So I hit the search bar and was looking for the best way to root it. Several options came up, I clicked one, and proceeded. Now, after trying to restart the phone, it will not boot at all, it wont go into recovery, all it was doing was flashing a steady orange light. After unplugging and replugging for a few hours, now all it does is just flash a blinking orange light.
I tried to use the ruu flash again on the pc, it gets to the point where it says the img version: version-main FAILED (status read failed (Too many links)). I select to update the current Rom version and it just hangs.
Here is why Im having these issues. I used this method http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=858996 which isnt even for the shift, its for a damn htc glacier mytouch. I never browse for other phones except the evo, but i was taken there from the search while I was inside the shift sub-forum. A mistake that could have been prevented if only I didnt trust the search bar that it would stay within the "shift" sub-forums. Feck, Feck, FECK!!!
Then, i went here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1010397&highlight=bricked to figure a way to unbrick it, everybody is saying this guy need a new battery. I doubt that will help my cause.
Right now, my epic is activated? Should I switch the shift on that line, and take it in to the sprint store? Swapping phones on sprintpcs.com just involve adding in meid numbers thats on the phone only, or do the phone need to be on (booted up) to add more numbers? Never done it and just trying to figuer out my best option here? Or is there any other way I can atleast get the shift to boot so i can reflash the ruu?
Congrats you successfully truely bricked your phone. There is no way to recover from it. That sucks dude.
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TRUE BRICK? thats not what I wanted to hear. By using the flash ruu, doesnt my phone needs to be turned on? Or that doesnt matter?
Im hoping that since its all software based modifications that was made, then it should be as simple as re-writing those software/programming mods?
Head to the irc stickied at the top of the page. If anyone can help you it will be there but I wouldn't hold out hope.
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I'd activate it and go to Sprint. Don't tell them what happened. They'll just order you a new one if you have insurance and if not you'll have to pay $35.
See if you can find a charged battery for a Shift, TouchPro2, Hero, or original Evo and pop that in, it's worth a try. I know someone else with the flashing orange light was able to fix their phone by using a new battery.
mulhiny said:
I'd activate it and go to Sprint. Don't tell them what happened. They'll just order you a new one if you have insurance and if not you'll have to pay $35.
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That's what I'd do. But they might charge you the deductable ($100) . Just be sure to under no circumstance tell them you did it. Hell if it's truely bricked just tell them you dropped it in water. That way they don't even check it. But, remember that's just my opinion .
If you are using the dropping it in water method make sure you do get the battery wet as there is an indicator on the batteries to see if the phone has been wet. It's a paper strip and will turn pink when it has been in water...
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If all else fails and you're planning a drowning defense, why not just drop it in the water (tee hee)?
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Guys, I've worked out an alternative solution, and its way much easier. Will update about my secret weapon in due time, lol.
Eek a true brick. That's scary as hello. I rooted via visionary and the dd method. I've only heard of bricks but never saw one first hand.
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i have never had to pay a deductible for a defective phone. almost every single phone i have had has had some issue that i havent been happy with, sprint has either replaced or repaired it at no cost to me. so dont get it wet, just take it in and tell them it cut out during a call or something, and now you cant turn it back on. done and done, you'll have your replacement.
I was thinking about trying to flash an epic 4g radio to the mezmerise similar to the fascinte radio to mezmerise method.... I am assuming the experts would advise against this.... but I guess the real question is... will this permanently brick my phone, or could I theoretically just odin back to stock if it jacks my phone up too much?
My suggestion is that if you aren't sure exactly what your flashing is going to do its not a good idea in fact its a very bad idea....won't work anyways 4g isn't just software or firmware its different hardware.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
I understand that the 4g radio is a completely separate thing, and while there may be worthless software added, perhaps the 3g radio is similar... Either way I have seen unbrick guides that should technically unbrick just about anything. This is why I want to take such a careless risk, as there is no sprint radio for the i500 devices. I dont imagine a verizon radio helping me with getting this sucker to work properly with my boost account while a sprint radio would help greatly.
sidicious said:
I understand that the 4g radio is a completely separate thing, and while there may be worthless software added, perhaps the 3g radio is similar... Either way I have seen unbrick guides that should technically unbrick just about anything. This is why I want to take such a careless risk, as there is no sprint radio for the i500 devices. I dont imagine a verizon radio helping me with getting this sucker to work properly with my boost account while a sprint radio would help greatly.
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so how did the flash go?
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My ballzieness shrunk back down to a logical level when the alcohol wore off, and I am now afraid to attempt such a thing as it seems idiotic to me now.
sidicious said:
My ballzieness shrunk back down to a logical level when the alcohol wore off, and I am now afraid to attempt such a thing as it seems idiotic to me now.
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Haha that's funny **** right there bud! Im glad you didn't bork your phone while drunk as I have found its harder to read how to fix things when the screen is fuzzy and the room is spinning! Even tho it is likely that if you can get to download mode you can fix these phones.
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well, i had thoroughly researched bringing the mesmerize back from really stupid flashes... like people flashing captivate roms to their i500... so I honestly think it would have been a series of odin flashes. but regardless, dumb idea, and i have full 3g working on a pick n pack mesmerize rom/radio.
So I rooted my Samsung Infuse and installed Clockwork recovery using the appropriate method for flashing the - v3 or ve or what it might be called - recovery. So then using Clockwork I backed up my current ROM (Stock). It acted funny later after so I decided to just go back and restore from a previous ROM. It said there were problems mounting a few things. Don't remember what those were. However, here is the real kicker; I may have used update.zip from the previous phone (Which seemed to be a T-Mobile My touch 3G with a 32A something and a 32B something else, similar to the Fender) I had since all I did was switch out the external SD cards since they were both the same size and I had all of my music on the My Touch.
So, if it did flash the Update.zip, is my phone, for the most part, completely bricked? It's symptoms include:
- Static pictures
- Will not boot into recovery
- Will display 'Samsung' but then cuts to static afterwards.
- Shows Battery meter when plugged in and my computer still recognizes and installs the device drivers.
- It will boot into Download mode. Dunno if that actually will help at this point.
If it still turns on you're golden. Just look for the ultimate unbrick thread in the development section and follow the op instructions to go back to stock. The unbrick also is pre rooted and had the right recovery installed, so you're good to flash stuff after
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Cool, so somehow this fixed a phone which had a Fender radio flash. Since that's the case, what should I be worried about in the future that might permanently brick my phone?
Mr.Brosnan said:
Cool, so somehow this fixed a phone which had a Fender radio flash. Since that's the case, what should I be worried about in the future that might permanently brick my phone?
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Trashing your partitions and bootloaders. Tho I'm not an expert on Samsung devices those seem to be the main causes of true bricks.
Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt
So if I change the partitions to like an ext3 filesystem is that considered trashing it? Yes, I'm fairly new to this entire in depth Android experience. I only took the Android over the iPhone because I am experienced with Linux and only touched a MAC (Referring to the Apple Operating System and not MAC cosmetics) three times.
Well, now I can't download anything in the market due to an 'Unknown error'. I mean, I can receive emails, I think I can call and text. I just can't use my smart phone to do dumb things now. This is a very disturbing complication and I will set off to find the cure for this ailment by posting here again.
Mr.Brosnan said:
Well, now I can't download anything in the market due to an 'Unknown error'. I mean, I can receive emails, I think I can call and text. I just can't use my smart phone to do dumb things now. This is a very disturbing complication and I will set off to find the cure for this ailment by posting here again.
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you could try a factory reset or
you could just start over
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1116251
and or
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1092021
JBO1018 said:
Trashing your partitions and bootloaders. Tho I'm not an expert on Samsung devices those seem to be the main causes of true bricks.
Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt
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Mainly bootloaders, and ours have enough protection that it's difficult to trash them.
It's next to impossible to hardbrick our phone. Worst case you put it in a state where you need to Odin/Heimdall something to fix it.
Entropy512 said:
Mainly bootloaders, and ours have enough protection that it's difficult to trash them.
It's next to impossible to hardbrick our phone. Worst case you put it in a state where you need to Odin/Heimdall something to fix it.
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Good stuff to know considering my next phone is a toss up at this point between the Prime and Vigor.
Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt
Okay I'm not into windows 7 phones but I'm helping out a friend. She said its been a common thing with the HTC surround. It boots to the bootsplash(the HTC logo) and doesnt do anything afterward. She hasnt rooted or whatever they call it here lol but can anyone help me on a solution? Warranty is out of the question. But please and thanks for anyone that can help me
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Bump.
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Sounds like either bad hardware or bad firmware... if it hasn't been modified in any way, I'm not sure what you expect us to suggest. This isn't a tech support forum.
The only thing I can think of to try is get into the flashing mode and re-flash the stock OS. Alternatively, if it has an old enough bootloader, install HSPL and flash a custom ROM. Neither of those will help if it's a hardware problem, though.
Yeah I know I'm not expecting tech support just seeing if there was something I could flash it with I'm an android user so I don't know the ways around wp7 could you supply some links possibly?
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Pull the simcard out, wipe the connectors and put it back in.
Had that happen once before with my surround (that my wife now uses to play games and facebook since i got my titan). Simcard was my issue.
Not really that common of an issue.
If the doesn't do it, it's one of 3 things.
messed up flash on built in sd card. if that's the case you need to reset the phone.
1st try a zune restore - you can try to start the phone while holding the power and camera button until you see an image of the phone requesting to be connected to computer once you connect zune should launch and try to restore the device. This should bring you back to the last backup (if you ever made one) that zune took.
if that doesn't work, straight hard reset...
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-perform-a-hard-reset-on-your-htc-surround-guide/
And finally in emergency- take the phone apart and replace the built in sd card
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BiZzfdWDR4
When your done with above you would have to hard reset it. You will need a fast card and do a little research but it's a nice upgrade if you drop a 32gb card in.
I just want to know cuz I'm a coward and I don't want to flash my own roms
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cpu999 said:
I just want to know cuz I'm a coward and I don't want to flash my own roms
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You are my hero of the day
Seriously though, a couple things can cause bricks. Battery pull during radio flash. Flashing a kernel with the wrong mount points. Formatting internal memory is a good way. Not like normal in recovery when you wipe, but in the way when you make your updater-script and aren't paying close attention to what your doing, lol. Yes, I have done this, haha.
There is plenty more ways for sure, but just pay close attention to what your doing and watch other devs around you and learn what they are doing and you'll be fine.
And how do you recover? USB isn't an option anymore and you need a JTAG or similar?
lap777 said:
And how do you recover? USB isn't an option anymore and you need a JTAG or similar?
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Well normally there isn't a way to recover, hence "hard bricked". But, if there is a way there will be a recovery method posted somewhere in your device forums to recover bricks. Its a hard thing to come back from though.
Here is a pretty good example of a hard brick that a fix was eventually found for quite awhile after the device was released, went through eol, and people started leaving for newer devices. All credits go to the legend, Doug Piston of course. HTC Droid Incredible and its 5 vibe hard brick: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1110865
I heard jcase (teamandirc) say the GS3 is pretty easy to recover though, so I'm not sure you'd have much issue if you did brick. I'm not familiar with Samsung, I use HTC devices, so I'm not sure what method you boys would use.
I know for HTC devices, bricks most commonly occur when we accidentally mount something wrong, format something incorrectly, or a lot here lately, libs. Libs can cause issues to. The good thing though is we have the protection of a secure bootloader, s-on, which means if something harmful is flashed it won't hurt the phone since the bootloader is unlocked through HTC but still s-on. I think Samsung is about the same in this area. But I don't know. I'm just bored and felt like typing a bunch of text, lol
Good man.
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