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Fixing a bricked Nexus S

I had a Vibrant before and flashed it constantly. I soft bricked it several time and it was easy just to Odin back to stock and try again. Before I begin to flash Roms on this phone I would like to know how one would fix a bricked Nexus S. I searched "bricked Nexus S" and didn't come up with much.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Flash a stock img thru fastboot/adb. Just as painless as Odin was if not easier.
Sent from my Nexus S

Yeah I figured that much but I have never used ADB before. What are the commands to flash a stock img and where can I get a stock img? I already have ADB set up, serial # comes up when I enter - adb devices. I'm ready to root and flash but I want to be prepared for anything. I don't want to panic for ten minutes like I did the first time I bricked my Vibrant.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

You should be able to snag a stock image from the development section. As far as what adb commands to use check out any of the root tutorials in development.
Sent from my Nexus S

bricking the phone is not easy... everything can be wiped and reinstalled with ease. Recovery is your friend.

leyvatron said:
bricking the phone is not easy... everything can be wiped and reinstalled with ease. Recovery is your friend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why I love this phone. When I first rooted my wife's phone she was a nervous wreck about me ruining it. Now, she jokingly cheers when it boot loops or hangs on the google splash screen.

kenvan19 said:
That's why I love this phone. When I first rooted my wife's phone she was a nervous wreck about me ruining it. Now, she jokingly cheers when it boot loops or hangs on the google splash screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coolest wife ever? haha

risegeek said:
Coolest wife ever? haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hehe why'd'ya think I married her

Hi Everyone.
I have my Nexus S for a 3 days - it's brand new. Last night i turned it off. It was about 50% charged. Today i can't turn it on. Phone is dead. What's wrong? There is no any response, even during charging (black screen).
Phone wasn't rooted. It has Android 2.3.2 update.
What can I do?

Van_Dyke said:
Hi Everyone.
I have my Nexus S for a 3 days - it's brand new. Last night i turned it off. It was about 50% charged. Today i can't turn it on. Phone is dead. What's wrong? There is no any response, even during charging (black screen).
Phone wasn't rooted. It has Android 2.3.2 update.
What can I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not enough information is present. you can attempt to get into bootloader / recovery, plug USB to the computer. When plugged, does the computer make a plugged in noise? if it does.. try turning it on, try using adb on it, etc.
as a last resort: if its not rooted or modified in any way, you can go back to best buy and exchange it since you said you've only had it for 3 days

Van_Dyke said:
Hi Everyone.
I have my Nexus S for a 3 days - it's brand new. Last night i turned it off. It was about 50% charged. Today i can't turn it on. Phone is dead. What's wrong? There is no any response, even during charging (black screen).
Phone wasn't rooted. It has Android 2.3.2 update.
What can I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First thing to do is pull the battery, let it sit a minute or two, then put the battery back in and try to boot.
Also, try booting into recovery or fastboot. With power off, press and hold volume up button, then press/hold power on switch. You should enter fastboot mode. From fastboot menu, select boot to recovery. The phone will reboot and you'll get to a screen with an "!" and an android robot on it. At that point you press hold power, then press/hold volume up (make note that this is the reverse of what you did earlier).
Once in Recovery, try wiping cache from the menu.
Reboot.
If still no good, then repeat the process but pick factory reset/wipe from the menu in recovery. Note that this will wipe all personal data and apps off the phone but it won't touch your sdcard contents.

The case with pull battery - not working.
I can't enter fastmode using 2 keys combination.
Computer don't recognize the phone. It's brick...

Van_Dyke said:
The case with pull battery - not working.
I can't enter fastmode using 2 keys combination.
Computer don't recognize the phone. It's brick...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last option is to try to trick it into Samsung's Download Mode (see the Odin thread in Development section), but if the keys aren't recognized you can't soft boot into it so you'll need a dongle with a resistor to get there.
Sounds like it's truly a brick at this point. You'll probably have to return it, but I'm concerned about returning a phone that has your personal data on it without being able to wipe it. Doesn't seem like much way around that at this point if you can't get fastboot or download.

get the 301k resistor JIG and then you can go into the download mode even without the 2 keys + usb plug
you can always make your own JIG if you have the materials at home or a nearby Radio shack

Thx for all Your advices
Problem was with the dead battery. The battery died during the night - i don't know why. I think the system waren't able to boot up ant start charging process.
My solution:
I took 9V battery, 2 wires and charged dead battery for a while from 9V battery. Then a put it into phone and plug in to wall charger. Charging process started
Now everything is ok

That's pretty scary that it wouldnt take a charge if run down completelty. But hey handy to know incase it happens to any of us,
If you get any repeat i would take it back to get a fresh battery of course (only right to do so).
here's hoping you never need to though

Van_Dyke said:
Thx for all Your advices
Problem was with the dead battery. The battery died during the night - i don't know why. I think the system waren't able to boot up ant start charging process.
My solution:
I took 9V battery, 2 wires and charged dead battery for a while from 9V battery. Then a put it into phone and plug in to wall charger. Charging process started
Now everything is ok
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is scary......
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Bricked
Tried unlocking nexus s last night, now it appears bricked. Cannot connect to computer to reflash as it seems to have wiped the driver. Any ideas on how to bring it back from the dead? thanks
I have managed to see the phone with fastboot. I was hoping that fastboot update, would re-image the brick. Can anyone let me know the correct syntax. I am not able to copy an image onto the phone. Thanks again

Noob {MAC User}... Please be gentle
Greetings Everyone,
Okay, so I endeavoured to root my phone last night and was successful. I ran into trouble when the clockwork recovery and superuser permissions kept getting removed each time I reboot.
Now, I'm at the Google splash screen with no way to move forward. I'm a mac user and I don't really get the adb thing. Got adb to work with mac from a youtube video, but still not sure what commands to run.
What I've done so far:
- wiped cache
- wiped/factory data reset
- retraced my steps by using terminal to setup superuser permission from this post (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=927838)
What I think:
- maybe in all of my clicks I removed the ROM, so the phone doesn't have a ROM to work with.
This maybe a really infantile conclusion, but I know there's a solution (had a rooted G1 that I flashed all the time and thought I bricked once but was able to get it back to stock).
Eagerly waiting for a reply... no cell phone if this can't be fixed.
Tamara

warrenb said:
Tried unlocking nexus s last night, now it appears bricked. Cannot connect to computer to reflash as it seems to have wiped the driver. Any ideas on how to bring it back from the dead? thanks
I have managed to see the phone with fastboot. I was hoping that fastboot update, would re-image the brick. Can anyone let me know the correct syntax. I am not able to copy an image onto the phone. Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be easier to help you if we knew exactly what you did that caused the problem. You said you tried to unlock it...you mean fastboot oem unlock or something else?
If you can get into fastboot, you're not totally lost, but the computer needs to see the phone to do it.
I'm working in a vacuum here on what your real problem is, but without further details, the things you can try are boot into recovery (from the fastboot mode select boot recovery)...if you're stock recovery, press/hold power, then volume up once you see the android "!". From there wipe cache and whatever else it will let you wipe. Try rebooting. IF that didn't work go back to recovery and try a factory reset of the phone (will delete all your apps and stuff on the phone, but not on the sdcard (pics and stuff).
If none of that works, you can still try getting Clockwork recovery on the phone via fastboot. Boot phone to fastboot and then on computer type the command "fastboot flash recovery <put file name of recovery version you're flashing here>"
Once in clockwork, you should have access to adb via the computer. On your computer go to the Development section here and download any of the various nandroid images posted there. Now you use clockwork mounts and storage menu to mount the sdcard. Then use adb to "adb push <insert path and filename of your nandroid image here> /sdcard"
Unmount the sdcard with the clockwork mounts and storage menu. Now go to the backup menu, select advanced restore and find the nandroid image and restore it.
With any luck, you should be able to boot into a fresh phone.

Having the oddest problems. Fear a brick.

I am on a Verizon Razr Maxx HD (xt926). This all started when I decided to cleanly flash the newest version of CM10.2. I had been running it before. I wanted to start from a blank slate, so I went into TWRP and did the format wipe. Installed the newest CM10.2 nightly and gapps. This went fine and I booted into the ROM and started recovering all of my stuff. I installed F-droid and AdAway, and rebooted for that. The phone never got past the Bootloader Unlocked warning screen. I turned it off and went into TWRP to try some things. I tried to fix permissions, but it failed, referencing something to do with fdroid. I wiped again and reinstalled CM, but I still couldn't get past the Bootloader Unlocked warning.
I booted into TWRP again and wiped what I could, and accidentally wiped my external SD, and I had no card readers lying around to get the ROM zips back onto it. I downloaded the Razr HD utility, used the batch file, and tried to flash the stock rom through fastboot, but it got stuck in some kind of loop and would not flash correctly. I then tried to do it manually, but got some sort of buffer error. I tried again, and it started ok but I never saw it actually finish flashing.
By this time I finagled the ROM zips onto the SD card and stopped the fastboot and booted into TWRP. I did another set of wipes, and rebooted into TWRP again. I flashed the CM and Gapps. The ROM booted fine from TWRP and I was able to start setting up my account again. I tried rebooting after the initial setup just to see if it was working correctly, and was met with the fastboot screen with fastboot reason: Flash failed. I rebooted into TWRP from there, and tried to boot normally, but it still brought me to the fastboot. I went to the boot menu and tried the normal boot selection, and now my phone is stuck on the Bootloader Warning screen and now it won't even turn off when I hold the power button.
I have no idea what is going on, or why I could get to the working ROM once but not again. Does anyone know anything that could help me?

Kopiok said:
I am on a Verizon Razr Maxx HD (xt926). This all started when I decided to cleanly flash the newest version of CM10.2. I had been running it before. I wanted to start from a blank slate, so I went into TWRP and did the format wipe. Installed the newest CM10.2 nightly and gapps. This went fine and I booted into the ROM and started recovering all of my stuff. I installed F-droid and AdAway, and rebooted for that. The phone never got past the Bootloader Unlocked warning screen. I turned it off and went into TWRP to try some things. I tried to fix permissions, but it failed, referencing something to do with fdroid. I wiped again and reinstalled CM, but I still couldn't get past the Bootloader Unlocked warning.
I booted into TWRP again and wiped what I could, and accidentally wiped my external SD, and I had no card readers lying around to get the ROM zips back onto it. I downloaded the Razr HD utility, used the batch file, and tried to flash the stock rom through fastboot, but it got stuck in some kind of loop and would not flash correctly. I then tried to do it manually, but got some sort of buffer error. I tried again, and it started ok but I never saw it actually finish flashing.
By this time I finagled the ROM zips onto the SD card and stopped the fastboot and booted into TWRP. I did another set of wipes, and rebooted into TWRP again. I flashed the CM and Gapps. The ROM booted fine from TWRP and I was able to start setting up my account again. I tried rebooting after the initial setup just to see if it was working correctly, and was met with the fastboot screen with fastboot reason: Flash failed. I rebooted into TWRP from there, and tried to boot normally, but it still brought me to the fastboot. I went to the boot menu and tried the normal boot selection, and now my phone is stuck on the Bootloader Warning screen and now it won't even turn off when I hold the power button.
I have no idea what is going on, or why I could get to the working ROM once but not again. Does anyone know anything that could help me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the solution in the last few posts on this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2465695

I hope you get more knowledgeable advice than mine but, were I in your situation, my primary goal would be to get back to STOCK. Forget CM and modding for now. Either through TWRP or through the recovery settings on the phone itself I'd get to where I could do a factory reset. If you're continuously able to boot into TWRP I don't see how your phone could be bricked. My experience is, if I can get a phone to do ANYTHING I've got a shot at figuring out how to get out of whatever mess I've created. I don't know if this could be a factor but I'd put in a different micro SD card too, in case there's something on the card you've got in there.

Just an update. So, I got it to go back to fastboot this morning and I tried using the Razr Utility to flash back stock and stock recovery, but I got a "Failed" line with the reason "Remote Failure". Not sure what that's about. When it reset it got back to the Cyanogenmod boot graphic, but it never started. I left it there for a good 12 minutes.
Right now it's sitting in TWRP. I'm going to let it charge to 100% (it was a little less when I tried all of this) and attempt it again at 100% battery. Thanks for the help so far!

So, I tried using the Razr Utility to flash the system, kernel, radio and for system it was unsuccessful (something about too many threads or strings, something to that effect), but the rest said OK. Now my phone doesn't seem to turn on. My computer still makes the device plugged in sound when it's plugged/unplugged, but I cannot get the screen to show anything or seem to turn on the phone.
Is this it? Is it... bricked!? ;-;
Edit: I ordered the Factory Adapter as a last resort sort of thing. This is lame.
Edit Edit: I've seen the boot logo since my last edit! But... it's not coming back and I still can't even bring up the bootloader. I don't know why it will sometimes turn on or sometimes not. In any case, I'm now hopeful that not ALL is lost.

Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!

cellzealot said:
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the plan! One odd thing happening now... My phone's screen isn't showing anything, so I assumed it was off. I left it unplugged and went to see a movie..... and the phone is still warm. This leads me to believe the phone is still drawing power, for some reason... God this is weird. I'll wait for the adapter and try again. Thanks for the help!

cellzealot said:
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
according to the packaging on mine from tbh a chinaman made it, just sayin

Yes, we designed them and contracted through our US supplier who produced all of our cables who, in turn, had them produced in China according to our specifications. There is no longer any injection molded plastic production done in the US that can work at this small scale for affordable rates.
Sorry...that's the way the world works these days.

cellzealot said:
Yes, we designed them and contracted through our US supplier who produced all of our cables who, in turn, had them produced in China according to our specifications. There is no longer any injection molded plastic production done in the US that can work at this small scale for affordable rates.
Sorry...that's the way the world works these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for making it either way, better to have and not need.
havent had to use it so far

bweN diorD said:
thanks for making it either way, better to have and not need.
havent had to use it so far
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome! They are definitely the best $10 investment you can make in any Motorola phone.
Next time you want to invest many thousands of dollars of your own money in a wild, hairbrained scheme to help a bunch of anonymous people on the internet fix their phones that they recently finished destroying themselves, let us know...we have just the plan!

cellzealot said:
You're welcome! They are definitely the best $10 investment you can make in any Motorola phone.
Next time you want to invest many thousands of dollars of your own money in a wild, hairbrained scheme to help a bunch of anonymous people on the internet fix their phones that they recently finished destroying themselves, let us know...we have just the plan!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how many thousands, and whats the plan?

I got the Factory Adapter and used RSD Lite to flash stock. And it works! Yay! It's starting up reliably and everything.
Except... it won't start up without the cable attached, and the battery icon has a big question mark on it. It also won't connect to the cell network (but does connect to WiFi). What do I do now?
Edit: So I noticed that while the battery status said "Unknown", it did go from 2% to 3% charge level when I plugged it in normally for a little. My plan at the moment is to try leaving it plugged in for a while and then try taking the OTA update to see if that fixes everything. Good plan?
Edit Edit: Never mind! I just had to let it charge for a bit. It seems to be back in working order, now! Thank you so much for all the help everyone!

That is exactly what is supposed to happen. Congrats on fixing your phone!
The factory cable/adapter does not charge the device but powers it directly, allowing it to boot no matter what state the battery is in or even without a battery at all.
You cannot charge in bootloader, which is why the cable/adapter is so valuable. Once the device can boot/charge normally then you are all set.

Hard brick - anything at all to do?

I was running stock recovery and stock with root for several months when it randomly got stuck and I tried to reboot. I was unable to boot, but at first, I could get into fastboot where I tried to recover there without a pc via resetting. When I got home, I was able to get it into fastboot again without issue, but I didn't right away because I was on my way to work. I get home from work and the battery is dead, but now I cannot get it into fastboot mode at all now. At some point, I put a pin in the hole, and I think that's what killed it completely.
Are there ANY tricks to getting it back into fastboot/recovery that anyone knows? I hadn't backed anything up because I felt fairly secure with stock. I'm pretty desperate, so I'm willing to try anything at this point.
Thanks!
-Melissa

Okay, as soon as I typed that I tried to get into fastboot again with it attached to the computer with a bit more battery, and I got an Android that said erasing and now it appears to be booting and it's reset, but it works. Backing it up NOW. But playing with battery life seems to kick it into gear. I am one lucky girl!

[Q] Android won't boot...

Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!

kyle313 said:
Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try flashing factory images?

ryukiri said:
Did you try flashing factory images?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that was what I flashed :/

If you can get into fastboot you "should" be able to flash stock images... Obviously this will revert any root and you will need to flash TWRP/CWM recovery after.
I assume you have a Windows PC with fastboot/adb setup and all drivers etc..
- Download latest "stock" hammerhead images (I cannot post links due to XDA rules... so: "developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#hammerhead"
- Extract the .tgz archive contents on your PC into a folder
- Boot the N5 into fastboot and plug USB cable from phone into your PC
- Go to the folder with the extracted files and run the "flash-all.bat" script on Windows
**Hopefully at this point your device will start to respond.. I.e, on fastboot screen, at the bottom you will see "writing" or something, as the script runs on the command window on your PC.**
If this works, you should be able to reboot once complete and then wait to see if you can get back into your phone.. then you can fastboot again and flash custom recovery, and then whatever rom.
If however you have a hardware issue (i.e, even after the above process it fails) then I am not sure what you could do... I guess ensure it has a complete charge. If you can get into fastboot and the buttons are responsive then it should not be a faulty power button.
Hope this helps :good:

Have you tried a simple factory reset? Reason I ask is it was working fine so sounds like something needs "flushing out" clear cache etc.

kyle313 said:
Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you choose the right model and firmware before you flash in WugFresh NRT?

The above could be right, however when I've used it, it's pointed out if I made that mistake. Having used his software dozens of times I've found it will bring any Nexus 5 back to life.

howard bamber said:
The above could be right, however when I've used it, it's pointed out if I made that mistake. Having used his software dozens of times I've found it will bring any Nexus 5 back to life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello! I am apologize for that I didn't read the OP carefully. This happened to me once in that particulary way, but it was immediately after flashing. OP says that it happened suddenly, without reason. So now I am the one, who doesn't read, right? Sorry for that.
Regards, Zagor

Thanks for the responses, but I'm still having trouble.
I have been able to successfully write the newest stock android 3 times (1 without full wipe, 2 with) and the phone still can't boot up and goes through one of the three issues above.
I've also been able to get to the system recovery from the bootloader and I've tried wiping the cache and doing a factory reset from there and the problem remains.
I'd contact google, but I bought it at launch so I don't think they'll do anything for me since it's been 1+ years.

kyle313 said:
Thanks for the responses, but I'm still having trouble.
I have been able to successfully write the newest stock android 3 times (1 without full wipe, 2 with) and the phone still can't boot up and goes through one of the three issues above.
I've also been able to get to the system recovery from the bootloader and I've tried wiping the cache and doing a factory reset from there and the problem remains.
I'd contact google, but I bought it at launch so I don't think they'll do anything for me since it's been 1+ years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have a bad nand sector. From fastboot try:
Code:
fastboot oem lock
Then reboot into fastboot and check if it's locked or not. If the device isn't locked your emmc is corrupt and there is nothing you can do. If that is the case call Google and they will most likely help you out with a RMA.

theesotericone said:
Sounds like you have a bad nand sector. From fastboot try:
Code:
fastboot oem lock
Then reboot into fastboot and check if it's locked or not. If the device isn't locked your emmc is corrupt and there is nothing you can do. If that is the case call Google and they will most likely help you out with a RMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was actually able to relock the phone.
Luckily I called google and they're going to send me a replacement.
If anyone else has any other ideas, I'll still take them...I'd rather not be without a phone for the next week!

You won't be without a phone - they are sending a refurbish unit to you , putting a block on your credit card and waiting for you phone to arive at them. Once that happens they will release the funds.

Frozen on Google screen and recovery splash

Unlocked, rooted, TWRP, Cataclysm Final Lollipop (my phone never played nice with any MM ROM I tried, so I just went back to this and have been great ever since)
My phone has been rock stable for months, today I pull it out of my pocket and the screen is black. I turn it back on and it freezes on the Google screen with the unlock logo.
I can get into bootloader via power+voldown, but if I launch recovery it gets past the Google screen but then freezes on the TeamWin page.
Any suggestions, please? Searches intimate power button issues, but given I get no bootloops, I can turn the phone off reliably by holding the power button down, and it freezes at the same point consistently, it's hard for me to think that's the issue in my scenario, too. Thank you!

As an update, I used fastboot to successfully flash the newest version of TWRP, just to be sure, but it still gets stuck in the same spot, as does trying to boot normally.

Try flashing a stock ROM including userdata.img file.

audit13 said:
Try flashing a stock ROM including userdata.img file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. Is there any way to get my personal data off before I do this?
I guess beggars can't be choosers, but I'd hate to lose anything I don't have backed up already if it ends up being another issue after all (the power button, etc.).
A corrupted ROM can prevent a clean, freshly-installed recovery from launching properly?
Thanks again.

Try flashing different version of TWRP? Maybe one of them will allow you to mount the data partition and copy off your data.

While trying to flash the (stock) new system images, I keep getting "remote: flash write failure" and/or "remote: failed to erase partition." This is via a toolkit or manually via fastboot.
The bootloader remains unlocked through all this
It's especially odd, since now I'm getting it on my recovery partition, which I was able to write to earlier today.
A cursory search of this forum suggests I'm SOL unless I replace the whole motherboard, at which point I might as well get a new phone. Do you (all) concur?
Last ditch thought: I went jogging when it went dead--outside chance a connection to the memory on the motherboard got jostled and could be reattached? Or is it fried?
Continued thanks.

The memory is soldered into place but it is possible that something happened during your jog. I also jog with my nexus 5 for 20 to 30 km per week and have done so for the past year without any issues.