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[Guide] How to brick your Desire S

How I bricked my Desire S - information on avoiding brick and an indictment of the dubious nature of HTC's S-on policy
The Desire S is a great phone so why did I want to root it?
The main reasons for rooting and s-off for me were:
Titanium backup (android built in backup is weak)
Being able to remove bloatware that takes up unnecessary spaces and unnecessarily reduces battery performance.
To try different ROMs from the community
Video screen capture
And of course I bought the phone so isn't it mine to use as I please.
Having waited a long time for a good s-off tool to come out I was getting more and more anxious to s-off.
Alpharev got together with Unrevoked to create Revolutionary.
I had previously used the Unrevoked tool to root my first generation Desire. The tool worked easily and flawlessly even on my Mac.
I later used the Alpharev bootable CD to s-off and root a later generation Desire. Again it worked smoothly and flawlessly.
Having had this positive experience I felt confident in the new tool, Revolutionary.
I read everything I could find about how the tool worked and how others were finding results. All seemed straight forward and uncomplicated so I proceeded to download and run the tool from my PC because there was no Mac version available.
Temp root and s-off went smoothly. No apparent issuse. Both Hboot and Fastboot had been successfully replaced on the phone, and CWM recovery was working.
So I added su in recovery then ran a nand backup of the whole system at this point.
Then I downloaded a Cyan 7 ported for the Desire S that was getting good reviews and feedback. The rom seemed to flash clean. After running it for a short time it stated crashing, so I decided to try an MIUI ported to Desire S. Again a ROM with good feedback and labeled as stable.
Downloaded the ROM and flashed it after a full wipe in recovery.
This time on reboot the phone hung at the HTC screen on boot for a very long time. So I wanted to do a force shutdown.
Here is where things got ugly.
The Desire S does not have a force shutdown keystroke combo as my old Desire did. So I opted to pull the battery.
Reinserting the battery and booting into recovery nothing worked properly.
CWM wouldn't mount its partitions, wouldn't flash a rom or even do a factory reset.
I tried doing some functions in fastboot mode. But nothing worked. Any command issued in fastboot mode would just lock up the phone and terminal.
At this point I was pretty worried so I got on #revolutionary and chatted with some of the big guns. I got some good feedback to test this and try that but in the end nothing worked. So I got on XDA forum and looked for others with similar issues.
What I found at this point was very troubling.
XDA user opumps had the same issue as me and had done some great research about the problem.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1150917
It becomes clear on reading, that like him, my Desire S had a fried eMMC chip. This is the internal storage device for HBoot. Once cooked your are basically F*ucked. There is no recovering from this by reformatting the eMMC. Pooched.
Doing the tests on the XDA post I found my eMMC to be pooched.
Now the question is, What fried the eMMc? Was it the S=off process or the forced pulling of the battery while the phone was boot locked?
I then took the phone to HTCs warranty center.
They tested the phone and called me back a few hours later. Your eMMC chip is fried they said. Yes, I said, Can you fix it please?
He told me that the eMMc was fried by the s-off tool I had used. Now, maybe he is full of **** and just wants an excuse to void my warranty. And, maybe not.
I told him to go ahead and fix it. He told me it would be a $200 Dollar replacement of the main board. ****. Well, what other choice do I have. Do it, I told him.
Next I got on the phone with the HTC help center. I got friendly with the lady technician on the call. After some nice chat I started probing for information on the Desire S. After a long conversation She told me that the Desire S, Incredible S, Desire HD all have the problem of frying the eMMC chip if the battery is disconnected while power is on. She said she gets calls every day with people who have fried their eMMC chip. Not through S-off but just because the battery came loose and lost contact while the phone was on or charging. The main reasons for the issue are as follows, HTC cheaped out on the eMMC chips in these phones, as the issue is specific to a particular series of eMMc. And because of a design flaw in the way the battery door closes, and because HTC did not include a force shutdown key combination to shut the phone off properly when locked.
So in the end it sounds like a lot of bad design and bad planning and poor foresight on HTC's part led to the fried eMMC on my phone. But they are not willing to stand behind their product and found an excuse to void my warranty and make me pay for the replacement Mainboard.
Now, here is where we get into the debate of should anyone s-off their phone? The main point here is no one should have to s-off. The phones should never be shipped s-on. It's bad policy to lock the bootloader. But having received an s-on phone you may very well want to s-off. If you decide to s-off just remember that you could easily brick your phone by many ways not related to s-off and your warranty will be void.
Another option is to not buy HTC because of the design flaws and their bad locked bootloader policy. To unlock and root a Samsung all you have to do is issue the command fastboot oem unlock. I don't know if Samsung phones also have the eMMc chip issue, so I can't comment there. But I certainly prefer their open policy on bootloaders.
Maybe the whole reason for locked bootloaders from HTC is beacause they are aware that they used sub par eMMc chips and are trying to reduce bricks.
Regardless this experience has made me very dubious of HTC in general.
I hope this is helpful and educational.

Thanks for sharing, I removed my battery a couple of times while stuck in htc logo screen. Don't think I'll try that move again, anyway I read about holding power + vol up + vol down to force shutdown, wondering whether that works...
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App

monkey21stc said:
Thanks for sharing, I removed my battery a couple of times while stuck in htc logo screen. Don't think I'll try that move again, anyway I read about holding power + vol up + vol down to force shutdown, wondering whether that works...
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, thanks for warning.sorry to hear your struggle, disappointed that htc use this tactic, will certainly reconsider buying an alternate make device next time of this issue persists
The volume up plus volume down plus power button combination does work, it's just but published
Very often, although have yet trio try out when the devices has hung, but certainly reboots my device .
Swyped from HTC Desire S using XDA Premium

just fyi in germay they take 184 € to repair a bricked eMMc :-(

Aye, Thanks for Sharing. I'v hade the same problem as you. I'll never buy an HTC phone again. Cheap bastards!

i need to know that every chip is different...bad for u that u got the bad one but i flash phone daily and its ok..i have same procedure every time i do that..to brick phone can happen to experts too...well if u want to risk to get root and all goodies u can say good bay to warranty..thats for sure

thanks for sharing man.
monkey21stc said:
Thanks for sharing, I removed my battery a couple of times while stuck in htc logo screen. Don't think I'll try that move again, anyway I read about holding power + vol up + vol down to force shutdown, wondering whether that works...
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that works on miui

Buy a htc with simlock.
Mine is t-mobile
When I've started my device for the first time, is was already s-off because if I turn my phone on it will show the t-mobile logo
So u can't brick your phone if you will s-off
But thanks for sharing
Next time I won't buy a htc
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA Premium App

Just remember though flash memory is extremely volatile, and ripping a battery out of a phone generally isn't a good idea to begin with, although I was lucky to read about the vol up/down + power procedure before I rooted my phone.
Very interesting post, interesting to see the bigger picture behind this issue.

so here's the deal - I am 99.9% sure that the bricked eMMC chip is a problem only in devices with a chip that was faulty in the first place. When the phone first came out, there were MANY threads on the hardware faults like "Battery cover not fitting" and "Misaligned screen". This was an issue that could't be identified easily, so it wasn't reported. Now, many people are having this issue and instead of panicking, we should do some research. I think that all the guys who bricked their phone would be living close to each other, in the same country or at least the same continent ie, this is a local issue. Also, i'm sure they had one of the other issues i mentioned above. I've not seen anyone in India or Asia with any such issues, so i think we need to find out why europe is having problems. Contact the BRICKees, i'll try making a new thread.

^^^.. yes this issue you need to find the Source.. I sold my Desire yestreday to get Hold of the Desire S but my only concern is this Dead eMMC chip.. and that is the reason I am not buying it yet... I want to identofy the ones with this issue..
really I dont want to screw up my 40K Rs on a faulty set..

Got the same problem, accidentally bricked a DS with a faulty Samsung eMMC, barely 3 weeks after buying it and 2 weeks after S/OFF'ing and rooting it... (btw, isn't it strange that Samsung chips that you find in Samsung branded phones don't seem to have this problem, but strangely the chips sold to their competitors seem to always be somehow sub-par ? Clever and sneaky way to undermine the competition, if you ask me. But at the same time, I bought a SGS2 as replacement in the meantime. ^^ even though it heats up a bit, it's way better than the DS )...
Haven't RMA'd the DS yet, I'm trying my damnedest to find a way to S-ON again and trash the remainder of the partition table -so the service center won't gimme **** about it.. So far I've been able to revert back from Alpharev SOFF to PVT ENG SOFF (0.98.2000), but even this has been horribly hard to achieve.. The "secret fastboot command" to totally brick a NAND didn't work, of course. Had to do it all by hand, in the dead of night, losing many hours of sleep in the process.. :/
It's really shameful that HTC is using such deviant ways to cover their own ****ups and to shirk the payment of their dues.. So I really got no qualms about trying to con them into replacing the device under warranty either. "tit for tat", or so they say.. And they shouldn't be surprised if I never ever again buy a phone from them either, that's really bad PR if y'ask me...
PS : I just got one of those mischievous ideas that often occur to me during sleepless nights : I've read here and there about how dangerous flashing a radio is, and it should only be done if necessary, yadda-yadda-yadda... (heck, I was at my 4th radio flash -just for the fun of it, didn't even have any reception or battery problems to justify it- when I bricked my DS, and I can tell y'all that it wasn't what ****ed it up :S)
Let's just imagine -that's a hypothesis, of course- that I attempted flashing a new radio, and one of my cats "accidentally" jumped on the desk and ripped the usb cord away from the phone, making it drop down on the floor, dislodging the battery in the process.. Wouldn't this brick it nice and proper, and render the NAND totally unreadable even for a HTC service center ? xD
I guess they got a XTC device at hand, but would that help in such a case ?

Can someone confirm what exactly is meant by pressing Power and Volume + and - at the same time? Press Power and press both ends of the volume rocker switch at once? Is that it?

first press the two volume buttons and then power until it shuts down.
worked for me at least -I just learned about that trick a trifle too late

your story said that it includes desire HD? wow i didn't know that honestly when my old DHD freezed i always pull the battery out and no problems at all it's just that the constant carmode problem irritated me and ended up selling it and bought a Desire S...not yet rooted and S-Off but will do later...so it's not the S-off process it's the battery thingy...it sucks for that to happen

Thanks for guide. I'm really scare of eMMC chip problems. I never tried to S-OFF coz of eMMC chip problems. Don't wanna to make void the warranty

Thanks for sharing! I have removed my battery a few times already to force shutdown. Don't know if I'll ever try it again. Maybe as a last resort, but at least I know the risks now. Thanks again!
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App

Cool thanks for Sharring
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App

i work my whole life with pc, hardware, software, flashed everything from set-top boxes to mobile phones.
seriously, i can't believe that anybody can fry the eMMC (a ****ing simple NAND-based flash memory) cause he puts SOFTWARE on it - thats what it build for!!!
you can brick your phone if you destroy the bootloader or something without a possibility to fix it, this won't destroy any hardware on your phone - but thats a different story.
the only reason for s-on is to take you the chance to deinstall the bloatware which they pollute their devices.

apairofscissors said:
How I bricked my Desire S - information on avoiding brick and an indictment of the dubious nature of HTC's S-on policy
The Desire S is a great phone so why did I want to root it?
The main reasons for rooting and s-off for me were:
Titanium backup (android built in backup is weak)
Being able to remove bloatware that takes up unnecessary spaces and unnecessarily reduces battery performance.
To try different ROMs from the community
Video screen capture
And of course I bought the phone so isn't it mine to use as I please.
Having waited a long time for a good s-off tool to come out I was getting more and more anxious to s-off.
Alpharev got together with Unrevoked to create Revolutionary.
I had previously used the Unrevoked tool to root my first generation Desire. The tool worked easily and flawlessly even on my Mac.
I later used the Alpharev bootable CD to s-off and root a later generation Desire. Again it worked smoothly and flawlessly.
Having had this positive experience I felt confident in the new tool, Revolutionary.
I read everything I could find about how the tool worked and how others were finding results. All seemed straight forward and uncomplicated so I proceeded to download and run the tool from my PC because there was no Mac version available.
Temp root and s-off went smoothly. No apparent issuse. Both Hboot and Fastboot had been successfully replaced on the phone, and CWM recovery was working.
So I added su in recovery then ran a nand backup of the whole system at this point.
Then I downloaded a Cyan 7 ported for the Desire S that was getting good reviews and feedback. The rom seemed to flash clean. After running it for a short time it stated crashing, so I decided to try an MIUI ported to Desire S. Again a ROM with good feedback and labeled as stable.
Downloaded the ROM and flashed it after a full wipe in recovery.
This time on reboot the phone hung at the HTC screen on boot for a very long time. So I wanted to do a force shutdown.
Here is where things got ugly.
The Desire S does not have a force shutdown keystroke combo as my old Desire did. So I opted to pull the battery.
Reinserting the battery and booting into recovery nothing worked properly.
CWM wouldn't mount its partitions, wouldn't flash a rom or even do a factory reset.
I tried doing some functions in fastboot mode. But nothing worked. Any command issued in fastboot mode would just lock up the phone and terminal.
At this point I was pretty worried so I got on #revolutionary and chatted with some of the big guns. I got some good feedback to test this and try that but in the end nothing worked. So I got on XDA forum and looked for others with similar issues.
What I found at this point was very troubling.
XDA user opumps had the same issue as me and had done some great research about the problem.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1150917
It becomes clear on reading, that like him, my Desire S had a fried eMMC chip. This is the internal storage device for HBoot. Once cooked your are basically F*ucked. There is no recovering from this by reformatting the eMMC. Pooched.
Doing the tests on the XDA post I found my eMMC to be pooched.
Now the question is, What fried the eMMc? Was it the S=off process or the forced pulling of the battery while the phone was boot locked?
I then took the phone to HTCs warranty center.
They tested the phone and called me back a few hours later. Your eMMC chip is fried they said. Yes, I said, Can you fix it please?
He told me that the eMMc was fried by the s-off tool I had used. Now, maybe he is full of **** and just wants an excuse to void my warranty. And, maybe not.
I told him to go ahead and fix it. He told me it would be a $200 Dollar replacement of the main board. ****. Well, what other choice do I have. Do it, I told him.
Next I got on the phone with the HTC help center. I got friendly with the lady technician on the call. After some nice chat I started probing for information on the Desire S. After a long conversation She told me that the Desire S, Incredible S, Desire HD all have the problem of frying the eMMC chip if the battery is disconnected while power is on. She said she gets calls every day with people who have fried their eMMC chip. Not through S-off but just because the battery came loose and lost contact while the phone was on or charging. The main reasons for the issue are as follows, HTC cheaped out on the eMMC chips in these phones, as the issue is specific to a particular series of eMMc. And because of a design flaw in the way the battery door closes, and because HTC did not include a force shutdown key combination to shut the phone off properly when locked.
So in the end it sounds like a lot of bad design and bad planning and poor foresight on HTC's part led to the fried eMMC on my phone. But they are not willing to stand behind their product and found an excuse to void my warranty and make me pay for the replacement Mainboard.
Now, here is where we get into the debate of should anyone s-off their phone? The main point here is no one should have to s-off. The phones should never be shipped s-on. It's bad policy to lock the bootloader. But having received an s-on phone you may very well want to s-off. If you decide to s-off just remember that you could easily brick your phone by many ways not related to s-off and your warranty will be void.
Another option is to not buy HTC because of the design flaws and their bad locked bootloader policy. To unlock and root a Samsung all you have to do is issue the command fastboot oem unlock. I don't know if Samsung phones also have the eMMc chip issue, so I can't comment there. But I certainly prefer their open policy on bootloaders.
Maybe the whole reason for locked bootloaders from HTC is beacause they are aware that they used sub par eMMc chips and are trying to reduce bricks.
Regardless this experience has made me very dubious of HTC in general.
I hope this is helpful and educational.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please change the title of the thread to "how not to brick your desire s". The current one sounds really fun and why any one would want a guide to brick their phone.
Sent from Desire Aj'S using XDA eXtra Premium App!

[Q] Desire S - Unable to power on

Hi Guys,
I was installing some games on market and all of a sudden, the phone freeze. I removed the battery and now it's dead. It will not power on at all. What could have happened to the phone?

Removing the battery often causes damage to eMMC on our device, there are multiple threads on that matter. If it doesn't boot at all just send it for warranty repair.
Sent from my HTC Desire S

Evilmystic said:
Removing the battery often causes damage to eMMC on our device, there are multiple threads on that matter. If it doesn't boot at all just send it for warranty repair.
Sent from my HTC Desire S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holy Moly... I bought this phone from Singapore. HTC Australia does not honor warranty on handsets purchased overseas.

jazzaddict said:
Holy Moly... I bought this phone from Singapore. HTC Australia does not honor warranty on handsets purchased overseas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check this thread to test whether your chip is really fried or not:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1150917

Guerde said:
Check this thread to test whether your chip is really fried or not:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1150917
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there's really nothing I can do, it will not power on at all. Can run adb to do any troubleshooting. I mean if the phone freeze, what can be done other than removing the battery?
I don't have any custom ROM running on it, but I did S-OFF it with XTC clip months ago

jazzaddict said:
there's really nothing I can do, it will not power on at all. Can run adb to do any troubleshooting. I mean if the phone freeze, what can be done other than removing the battery?
I don't have any custom ROM running on it, but I did S-OFF it with XTC clip months ago
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best way to reboot a not responding phone is connecting it to pc and running "adb reboot" command.
Sent from my HTC Desire S

Try the vol up + vol down + power hard reset..it helped..at least for me...
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App

monkey21stc said:
Try the vol up + vol down + power hard reset..it helped..at least for me...
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this works for me too, but i dont think it works for others. im not sure.

monkey21stc said:
Try the vol up + vol down + power hard reset..it helped..at least for me...
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I've known this earlier. Do you think I will get charged GST (consumption tax) if I send this back to HTC Singapore for RMA. Stuff above S$400 will get taxed.

jazzaddict said:
I wish I've known this earlier. Do you think I will get charged GST (consumption tax) if I send this back to HTC Singapore for RMA. Stuff above S$400 will get taxed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm i'm not too sure though. You can try contacting the service center in Singapore. I believe the shipping fees will be taxed but not the repairs if covered under warranty.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App

thanks for this information mate

Seems to be the common ingredient to a brick. I'm in the same shoes. The only Desire S's in Australia is with friggin' Telstra, so we all have to resort to buying overseas. I just hope I'm never in your situation, but I probably will.
Are you going to send it overseas for repairs? Keep us posted mate.

Seems to be the common ingredient to a brick. I'm in the same shoes. The only Desire S's in Australia is with friggin' Telstra, so we all have to resort to buying overseas. I just hope I'm never in your situation, but I probably will.
Are you going to send it overseas for repairs? Keep us posted mate.

decoyknox said:
Seems to be the common ingredient to a brick. I'm in the same shoes. The only Desire S's in Australia is with friggin' Telstra, so we all have to resort to buying overseas. I just hope I'm never in your situation, but I probably will.
Are you going to send it overseas for repairs? Keep us posted mate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you're right about this. What's point about handset exclusivity? It's an anti-competition practice and should be ruled illegal. You can read about the problems I have with HTC Singapore GWS. here

If you have access to do so, try a different battery before sending the phone back under RMA (an potentially wasting some of your money).
My first Desire S did exactly as yours has: it froze, would not respond to any input... and failed to turn back on after the battery was removed and reinserted.
Thankfully, I had a spare battery (I always buy more than one spare battery for every portable device, just in case). After inserting the new battery, connecting the phone to my PC via USB, and using "adb reboot recovery" from cmd (subsequently wiped the cache and rebooted the phone courtesy of ClockworkMod) solved my problem entirely.
Have the same handset, working perfectly for the last 4 months.
It may not be exactly the same issue for you, but it's worth a shot, right?
P.S.
One way to help avoid frying the eMMC is to disable HTC's "Fast boot" option (I can't remember under which menu it is located, but someone else hopefully will be able to post it in a reply).
The "Fast boot" option essentially places the phone in "sleep" mode, even when it's powered off... meaning that the some-what minute risk of frying the eMMC would persist even if you think the phone is "powered off". Disabling "Fast boot" means that when you shut down the phone, it really IS powered off, and thus removing the battery in this state would pose no risk to the eMMC.
Hope it helps someone!

Wife's Desire S won't boot, please help!

My wife installed some updates in the market and her phone froze on the Sense home screen. Removed the battery, and it now won't boot past the HTC logo.
It is on the factory/default Sense ROM, never rooted or anything, my wife has like 5 apps on it and still the stock Sense wallpaper
It can boot into HBOOT, we tried the recovery option which showed the black screen with phone+green arrow animation for a few seconds. Then very shortly an image with a red arrow, then a reboot and still stuck on the HTC boot screen.
It does not show up in ADB, USB debugging is not on either.
My next thing to try would be a factory reset, is that likely to work?
Is there any way to get SMS'es and some game save games off the phone before resetting it?
Thanks for all suggestions!

Well if your PC is not recognizing the phone, then there's not much you can try I guess (other then factory reset.) Maybe someone is gonna come up with something.
Aren't the gamesaves on your sd card?
There have been hardware issues associated with multiple downloads from the market and pulling the battery. This might or might not be the case. However you are covered with warranty in case it is.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App

esbenm said:
My wife installed some updates in the market and her phone froze on the Sense home screen. Removed the battery, and it now won't boot past the HTC logo.
It is on the factory/default Sense ROM, never rooted or anything, my wife has like 5 apps on it and still the stock Sense wallpaper
It can boot into HBOOT, we tried the recovery option which showed the black screen with phone+green arrow animation for a few seconds. Then very shortly an image with a red arrow, then a reboot and still stuck on the HTC boot screen.
It does not show up in ADB, USB debugging is not on either.
My next thing to try would be a factory reset, is that likely to work?
Is there any way to get SMS'es and some game save games off the phone before resetting it?
Thanks for all suggestions!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If she created a HTC Sense account and had set it up to sync then her texts would have been saved online.

If no other options download the corresponding to your region RUU (ROM Update Utility) from here. Then reboot to Bootloader (VOL DOWN + POWER Button). Make sure that you have HTC Sync installed. Go to fastboot screen (you should see FASTBOOT USB line). Start RUU.exe. It will handle everything automatically and hopefully you will have a brand new Stock system again.

If hard resetting dies not work, I'm afraid you may have a fries eMMC chip! It's very common when the phone freezes in maker updates and you pull the battery!

olyloh6696 said:
If hard resetting dies not work, I'm afraid you may have a fries eMMC chip! It's very common when the phone freezes in maker updates and you pull the battery!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to be offensive but stop with this crap it only scares people. I have rescued my phone twice already from the bootloop. The fried eMMC is the last consideration to be made after trying some reasonable solutions.

An boot loop isn't
an real indicator for fried emmc, most of the times you just somehow messed up part of the software or the partitions, this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1292730 it's an really fried emmc.
Let's try some solutions before destroying any hope!
Swyped from my Desire S

amidabuddha said:
Sorry to be offensive but stop with this crap it only scares people. I have rescued my phone twice already from the bootloop. The fried eMMC is the last consideration to be made after trying some reasonable solutions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not starting with 'crap' I'm simply saying what might be true.
It is well known that after hitting update all in the market, it leads to a fried emmc chip.
I have also been stuck on a bootloop many times (after flashing wrong kernels etc) and had to pull the battery. I also risked a fried emmc chip. I was just lucky I didn't get it fried, and I hope it doesn't happen again! *touch wood*
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium

esbenm said:
My wife installed some updates in the market and her phone froze on the Sense home screen. Removed the battery, and it now won't boot past the HTC logo.
It is on the factory/default Sense ROM, never rooted or anything, my wife has like 5 apps on it and still the stock Sense wallpaper
It can boot into HBOOT, we tried the recovery option which showed the black screen with phone+green arrow animation for a few seconds. Then very shortly an image with a red arrow, then a reboot and still stuck on the HTC boot screen.
It does not show up in ADB, USB debugging is not on either.
My next thing to try would be a factory reset, is that likely to work?
Is there any way to get SMS'es and some game save games off the phone before resetting it?
Thanks for all suggestions!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so, have you tried hard reset/factory reset. let us know what happen than. next time never pull out battery when your phone freeze. just press vol up + vol down + power button (all three hardware button) and the phone will restart. I personally had this problem few times and able to recover my device. start with hard reset your phone.
look at ben_pyett signature. you need the adb+fastboot and htc drivers for your windows pc to detect your device. I'm using linux and I don't need those drivers.

olyloh6696 said:
I'm not starting with 'crap' I'm simply saying what might be true.
It is well known that after hitting update all in the market, it leads to a fried emmc chip.
I have also been stuck on a bootloop many times (after flashing wrong kernels etc) and had to pull the battery. I also risked a fried emmc chip. I was just lucky I didn't get it fried, and I hope it doesn't happen again! *touch wood*
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok to be more specific: I have already rescued my phone from a bootloop with all the indications for a "fried eMMC" described in some threads in this forum. Also me and Tectas assisted several people accross the forum these days to revive their phones from the "fried eMMC" (some successful, some not). Anyway all of these users had the info that they eMMC is fried and were terrified. But a Bricked and Fried phone are totally different stuff. So if you post to help is OK, but when you post to scare this isn't.

Update: thanks for all the suggestions. I couldn't get any of it to work, including factory reset.
We are going to send the phone in for a warranty repair, most of her personal stuff is on her Google account or the SD card, so no major problems.
The HTC Sense website with SMS backup never worked for her, there is no option to log in from the phone.
As much as i love Android I am shocked that hitting "update all" in the market and/or pulling the battery can brick a 400 $ phone. Even buggy old Windows ME was fine if you pulled the pover cord.
My iPhone friends will laugh at me well into 2012 if I tell them this.
Do HTC have more faults than other brands? Both our Desires have had trouble. I am about to upgrade mine, maybe should look at another brand?

There is some hope!
amidabuddha said:
Ok to be more specific: I have already rescued my phone from a bootloop with all the indications for a "fried eMMC" described in some threads in this forum. Also me and Tectas assisted several people accross the forum these days to revive their phones from the "fried eMMC" (some successful, some not). Anyway all of these users had the info that they eMMC is fried and were terrified. But a Bricked and Fried phone are totally different stuff. So if you post to help is OK, but when you post to scare this isn't.
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+1
I'm afraid that I must agree.
In the early days of this problem, I too was probably guilty of announcing too early to users "that's you've fried your eMMC chip - that's a warranty return" where as over time we've now come to believe that this still a chance of hope, albeit not great or guaranteed, but none the less, fortunately several people have managed to recover from this situation, by a variety of means.
So even though the possible outcome might not be likely, I think that we should attempt to always suggest that there might be hope at least until we've tried all the possible solutions and now luckily the various users have compiled guides of the suggested options so this isn't that difficult.
The only time when I'd suggest that a user should probably instantly return a device, is if they are completely non technical or have a brand new device which is still S-ON. In which case they may as well return the device under warranty and get a replacement device or motherboard which will at least contain the non dubious/faulty chip, and will remove the possibility of future occurrence completely - so they'll actually be better off for the future!
esbenm said:
Update: thanks for all the suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear this. You were just unfortunate and what happened to you is rare, also it's not a fault of Android but, a HTC eMMC chip hardware issue caused by a particular dodgy version of the eMMC chip that comes on some of these phones.
I believe that HTC realised the fault and replaced the chip with another make after a fashion. So hopefully you'll get the different chip on your replacement device/motherboard.
I also think that they've changed the market application so that it downloads one application after rather than all the applications together, which was known to cause a device freeze, which often was followed by a battery user battery pull - which then led to this problem.
Next time... Never pull the battery! there are always other options.
Take care and good luck.

Another dead phone

Hi, I have flashed many different roms with no problems on HD2 and Desire S. This evening I thought I would try another Rom (why oh why), so duly wiped and done the usual preparation, but this time it just stuck at HTC for over half an hour, tried rebooting but nothing, tried all the ways on the forum to restart without taking the battery out, in the end I made the stupid mistake of taking the battery out and putting it back in . Well you know the rest, dead phone fried chip I think.
Now my questions are 1) its on contract from Tmobile 6 months ago, the device is obviously S-off so am wondering if I can still get it fixed by them. 2) How much does it cost to have a fried emmc chip replaced if I send it to HTC.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I sent it to HTC without the battery and got a repaired phone free of charge
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium

Hi Dan. Can you tell me the process you went through and is your a contract phone

Can you boot into Recovery or Bootloader? The bootloop can be caused by many reasons, not only eMMC

Hi, can't boot into anything , the phone is just dead, doesn't do anything, no power.

correct me if im wrong but dosnt emmc failure still boot? im not 100% sure thats your problem

Ok, but I tried everything to power up with no luck, I know there was at least 80% battery when I used it, also nothing when I plug it in to the mains.

pandollar said:
Hi, can't boot into anything , the phone is just dead, doesn't do anything, no power.
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Click to collapse
This is a completely bricked phone (whatever the reason that caused it). But in this case the repair cannot state that it is S-Off. So go ahead for a replacement. There is a way to unbrick it (JTAG), but never heard so far that the HTC repair centres use that - all the problematic devices were just replaced, not repaired. Good luck

Ok, I will have to try and get them to replace it then. Many thanks for your help.

amidabuddha said:
This is a completely bricked phone (whatever the reason that caused it). But in this case the repair cannot state that it is S-Off. So go ahead for a replacement. There is a way to unbrick it (JTAG), but never heard so far that the HTC repair centres use that - all the problematic devices were just replaced, not repaired. Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is great..I have two bricked phones lying about that I have no idea what to do with...

virtu0s0 said:
This is great..I have two bricked phones lying about that I have no idea what to do with...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Find a person in your area that owns a JTAG, there is a great chance to fix them.

Galaxy reboots itself

Hi All
Received my SH-G920I (unlocked) and for the last 2 days I faced three occasional reboots.
Once it was when phone was idle, then when I try to unlock it and once it was in the middle of web browsing.
It looks like "fast" reboot, when only "Samsung" logo displayed briefly and phone is quickly coming back to working mode. Sometimes after such reboot screen and soft buttons aren't responding and I have to turn it off/on with power button. Them it back to normal
Any ides what is it?
Thank you.

My G920i (got it from eBay) is doing the same thing...hope it's not a hardware issue...

iShihx79 said:
My G920i (got it from eBay) is doing the same thing...hope it's not a hardware issue...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, my from eBay as well. For last 24 hours it worked without reboots. Not sure how promising this might be....

Bought a G920I from ebay myself, arrived yesterday. So far noticed :
- 2 soft reboots (really dim Samsung boot animation, then fine)
- CONSTANTLY reboots on mains charger all night (annoying as it was lighting up in middle of night)
- Reboots on wireless charger constantly (standard Qi cheap one - not sure about officiall)
I have not rooted my phone, it's completely stock.
Is this just the G920I or are other people having problems? I am thinking of returning it for the G920F model.

Better to replace it.
Sent from my Lenovo A680_ROW using XDA Free mobile app

Anutrix said:
Better to replace it.
Sent from my Lenovo A680_ROW using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems I'm not the only one though. I wonder if it's a software issue with it being a soft reboot

crupton said:
It seems I'm not the only one though. I wonder if it's a software issue with it being a soft reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who was your seller one Bay? Maybe it is the problem of specific shop/batch.

I have the same problem with a SH-G920F

My god! I started a new thread about this without finding this first. I bought my 920i from the same seller and am facing the same problem! So any idea if this is a batch issue or general issue that quite a few are facing? I have asked for a refund and hope that I am not charged a restocking fee , which in this case is 20% which is too much.

I sent request to Samsung support so they advise if this is hardware issue and we should replace the device or software one that can be mitigated.

mrootman said:
I sent request to Samsung support so they advise if this is hardware issue and we should replace the device or software one that can be mitigated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please keep us posted ! I think this could be a software issue

On top of the random "soft boot" my S6 has has an issue with the SIM tray not sitting completely flush with the frame. The top portion (the section where you can insert the ejection pin) tends to stick out a little bit (about 0.1 or 0.2mm). I have had quite a few phones with similar designs (iPhone 6+, M8, M9) and this is the first time I run into this kind of issue. I am starting to think this particular batch has a bad QC or something. I message the eBay seller yesterday asking for a return/refund but have not hear back from them yet. A little bit frustrating to say the least.

So you are facing soft boot issues and sim card tray issues? That sucks. I heard back from the seller and he asked me if I wanted an exchange or refund. I have asked for a refund and am expecting RMA any time today. Seller has also increased the price to 839 now.

Yea, it definitely sucked. How did you contact the seller on eBay, did you just asked him a general question or you used the specific "return" link? I think I can going to request a refund too as this point. I was trying to be nice by avoiding the use of the "requesting a refund" link as I think it count against the seller but they are not replying to the question I initiated yesterday at all.
Thanks,

iShihx79 said:
Yea, it definitely sucked. How did you contact the seller on eBay, did you just asked him a general question or you used the specific "return" link? I think I can going to request a refund too as this point. I was trying to be nice by avoiding the use of the "requesting a refund" link as I think it count against the seller but they are not replying to the question I initiated yesterday at all.
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent him a general question and explained the reboot issue and this was his reply :
Hello,
We are so sorry to hear that the item you purchased is not up to standards. We are more than happy to further assist you. First we need to know if you would like an exchange or a return. After you have answered us, which are to your liking, then we can respond to you with a RETURN MERCHANDISE AUTHORIZATION.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to respond to this email or call our customer support line (1866 603 0638) .
Thank YOU!!!
-UnlockedCellPhoneKings
P.S. Emails are answered in the order they are received
We are here for you Monday- Friday from 9-5 Eastern
You can also reach us by phone at 1866-603 0638 "
Since it is the weekend so they may take some time to reply but so far they have been co operative. I am definitely getting a refund and I hope they don't apply the restocking 20% fee. It breaks my heart because I really liked this phone.
Back to the Oneplus for now.

Samsung support replied, that they are unable to provide any information since I have non US model. They sugested to seek resolution with the support in country where device was purchased or directly with retailer.
So, guys, are you all returning it?

mrootman said:
Samsung support replied, that they are unable to provide any information since I have non US model. They sugested to seek resolution with the support in country where device was purchased or directly with retailer.
So, guys, are you all returning it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I really like the phone alot and would've most likely kept it if not for the raised SIM Tray. The random soft boot really didn't bother me as much as the physical SIM tray issue.... I liked how this int'l version can change the APN settings for you depends on what SIM card you are using (I tried both T-Mo and AT&T) which I know the AT&T version will not even I get it unlocked. But then the AT&T model is built in Korea verses the int'l version which is built in Vietnam. Not sure if is correlated but T-Mobile's version is also built in Vietnam and there seems to be quite a bit of issues with that batch too.

mrootman said:
Samsung support replied, that they are unable to provide any information since I have non US model. They sugested to seek resolution with the support in country where device was purchased or directly with retailer.
So, guys, are you all returning it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am still confused about what I am going to do. I like everything else about the phone and I think this reboot issue should be fixed via a software update , but the question is , are there enough of us facing this issue for samsung to do something about it?

ecksreturns said:
I am still confused about what I am going to do. I like everything else about the phone and I think this reboot issue should be fixed via a software update , but the question is , are there enough of us facing this issue for samsung to do something about it?
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Click to collapse
I like it as well, but a minute ago it will not turn on untill I pressed on power button and then he made soft reset again. It doesn't look good.

HI, It is happening to me too. I have same phone. Had it for about a week and last 2 days it rebooted itself 3 times. Any news about it?