Me and my friend are currently in an argument in what the term "bricked" really means.
I am saying that a bricked device is one that is no longer functioning, like one stuck in a boot loop, BUT it is able to be fixed in many cases.
Example: When I bricked my Droid 2, I flashed a working SBF.
He is saying that when a device is "bricked" it is unable to be fixed, and is far beyond repair.
Example: When my friends mom stomped on his Evo Shift, the phone wouldn't turn on, and the device was bricked.
I understand that both of those examples are bricked (one more extreme than the other) but a device doesn't need to be beyond repair to be technically "bricked">
I would love to hear your opinion on how you view this term.
Bricked means unflashable, and you need jtag or other device to be able to fix, or not flashable or repairable through usb cable or sdcard, also a brick is when you drop it in water and it short circuits and destroys the ics, lcd etc.
Edit: brick also means if you dropped it and it now malfunctions, like lcd cracked and other crazy things happen when your using it.
Soft brick is when its stuck in a bootloop or whatever software problem that can be fixed
Hard brick is when you mess with the bootloader or something and it won't turn on BUT BECAUSE THE SOFTWARE
When its been smashed or physically damaged (ie water damage) I simply call the device "broken"
Sent from my DROID2 using xda premium
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1483113
There are two types of bricks: hard bricks are serious and can't be fixed 99% of the time (the phone is useless and might as well be a brick) and soft bricks can be. If you have a hard brick you're probably sol but if you have a soft brick there's no need to panic.
Chancee said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1483113
There are two types of bricks: hard bricks are serious and can't be fixed 99% of the time (the phone is useless and might as well be a brick) and soft bricks can be. If you have a hard brick you're probably sol but if you have a soft brick there's no need to panic.
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That's not what he was asking... read the OP again...
Sent from my DROID2 using xda premium
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Look guys if your phone can be fixed it is not bricked. One can not fix a brick. Just because you have had negative results, does not always mean you are bricked. If we continue to take this word so lightly it will lose its meaning. Then we will have to come up with other witty way to describe the death of our phones. Anyway think about it.
noobile said:
Look guys if your phone can be fixed it is not bricked. One can not fix a brick.
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Exactly. It is bricked when its functionality is permanently reduced to that of a brick.
I bricked my phone yesterday. Wouldn't boot into recovery or download mode. Or normal mode for that matter. I am working on getting a replacement, now. I have reflashed a couple of supposedly "bricked" phones, but as long as it will boot to download mode, it usually isn't very tough to flash back to stock.
"It might be bricked but I"m not sure." Maybe, we just need a witty term that defines that! Any ideas?
You mean "semi-bricked"? I think that alone is good enough for "it's screwed up but it might be fixable".
i tried to repartition using heimdall, and i think i bricked my phone. it doesn't respond to anything -- 100% black screen.
should i even bother making a jig or is the wicked witch finally dead?
Why not try a jig?
Sent from my Captivate using XDA Premium App
a.vandelay said:
i tried to repartition using heimdall, and i think i bricked my phone. it doesn't respond to anything -- 100% black screen.
should i even bother making a jig or is the wicked witch finally dead?
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Worth a shot, a pack of 100k resistors is 99c at radioshack, but I'd put my money on perma-bricked. In almost all cases (I actually have yet to hear of a single case where someone managed to recover from a black screen brick), a completely unresponsive phone, where pressing the power button does nothing, means that the phone has been paper-weighted.
You most likely destroyed your bootloader. If that's the case, your only options are to either buy a riff box and reflash the bootloader and firmware directly onto the chip via jtag, or mail it back to Samsung and let them do it.
Sorry to hear about your rotten luck, dude. Happens to everyone sooner or later :\
Provided that the phone is in good physical condition and none of the water strips have changed colors, Samsung should fix it up under warranty. They will even pick up the shipping. Give them a call.
yep, this thing is a solid brick. i've recovered from pretty horrific things (e.g. the battery falling out during a flash) but never had it completely unresponsive.
i'll try to get a replacement. maybe if i say "i flashed a bad bootloader" the service rep will go along with it .
edit: i had to dig out my iphone 2g to use in the meantime. 1) at&t reactivated my unlimited data plan. 2) i installed gingerbread on it. lolz.
Turning on my phone today and it was stuck on the HTC logo. After 20 mins, I pulled the battery (all I could do) now when I try and start it, it just vibrates 5-8 times and refuses to start.
Is there anyway to sort this, or should I return? The phone is only 6 weeks old, so I can get my money back on it.
If you haven't modified the phone (S-Off, root etc) then I would just take it back to the shop and ask for a replacement. After only 6 weeks they should still take responsibility for it and not make you go via the network provider for a replacement.
Yep, as long as you haven't voided the warranty (root etc)
They'll be more than happy to replace it.
Good luck with that.
The quality of these phones is really quite bad. Mine was also one with a gap at the top of the screen..
That, as well as the emmc problem means I wont be buying another Desire S, or HTC phone.
even if u voided the warranty,the emmc cip is broken and they canot know anything you done on it...
think in a positive way..when you bricked your phone accidentally,with working recovery,but you cannot do anything,you can jsut try your best to fry the emmc chips by keep on pulling battery,so that it'll be covered under warranty
tcchuin said:
even if u voided the warranty,the emmc cip is broken and they canot know anything you done on it...
think in a positive way..when you bricked your phone accidentally,with working recovery,but you cannot do anything,you can jsut try your best to fry the emmc chips by keep on pulling battery,so that it'll be covered under warranty
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Great, never knew that
Thought it would be the end if that happened
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium
I see a lot of posts in both general and Q&A from people who state their device to be bricked. The contents of the topic are very divers, from actual bricks to a plain boot loop. I wanted to create this topic to shed some light on the whole Bricked concept. There's a lot of information the be red in this forum, a lot of different concepts with different definitions in diffirent context. The same goes for the concept Bricked.
so, what is bricked?
The term is actually derived from the baked lump of clay itself. A device is messed up in such a way, it serves no greater purpose then being a rectangle shaped object (which most electronic objects are) with mass, like a brick.
So how does a device become bricked?
This can be caused by multiple reasons, but the nr. 1 being; you probably weren't aware of all the ins and outs of the proces you were doing. In other words, you didn't read thoroughly enough.
Other, more technical reasons can be:
- a disruption during a firmware update in power or transfer,
- faulty application of a firmware version (incompatible),
- corrupted files,
- faulty command input with signature checking disabled (S-OFF),
- and probably more...
Most bricks, if not all, can be avoided by reading every line of a how-to, guide, ROM-topic etc. very thorough. Reread everything at least one more time and understand the thing you are doing. a good starting point to understanding what you are doing and the risk involved can be found here. Although not specifically related to Sensation, it's a general warning and self-test to those who just heard the concept 'rooting'.
The mother of all questions, when is my phone bricked?
There are actually two types of bricked devices, a hard brick and a soft brick.
Soft brick
This the type of brick that I encounter most in this forum. well, presumed by the owner that is. This is a state of the device where it's unable to boot the ROM, and in some cased the recovery aswell. It is however, still able to boot into the bootloader. This means that your phone is not dead. It can be saved. Since bootloader still works, fasboot will to and thus fasboot flashing.
Hard brick
this the type of brick that all people fear. The phone doesn't show any sign of life and doesn't respond to anything. It won't boot, not in recovery and not even in bootloader. Not even with a fully charged battery, replacement battery, wall charger plugged or USB plugged. When in this state, there's only one spark of hope and that's the Sensation Unbricking Project. If that doesn't work, well, let's just say you can use your phone the next time you're building a house.
Then I guess I'm soft bricked, so I'm still screwed right?
No. Considering bricked devices I like to refer only to the hard brick, meaning a soft brick isn't really a brick. You are still able to flash firmware, recovery and gain S-OFF if you're hboot 1.17 or higher. Search the forum for related issues and if you're lost, the brilliant contributers can most likely help you out.
As long as your phone starts the bootloader, you're not bricked.
I hope people will find this topic a source for better understanding of a bricked device.
Is bricking a phone just a myth? I mean there is always a way to fix it isn't there? The phones are a blank slate when they are produced so I would imagine you just re-flash the stock OS with Odin don't you? Brick must just be a word some n00b associated with his phone when he couldn't fix it comparing it to a coaster cd, would this assertion be correct?
i understand a phone would become hard-bricked if you destroyed the hardware in some way but could someone cause an unfixable soft-brick?
Bricking a phone, as you realized, can mean both "it got soft-bricked" and "it got hard-bricked". This forum at 99% is used by people who think they have to redesign a phone software-wise and when doing so miserably fail - will say they soft-bricked the phone.
Have always wondered why people buy a phone of which they are not convinced what does not have the features they expect.
A soft-bricked phone always can get fixed, at least by authorized repair center. That's also true with hard-bricked phones.
Unfortunately, bricking is real and not only a myth. Most of the time you can easily repair a brick, but there are also hard-bricks that can’t be repaired or can only be repaired with soldering knowledge.
As jwoegerbauer has already mentioned, you can try to contact a repair center, but if there is no official repair center nearby, or even worse, there isn’t an official repair center at all, your phone will be a useless brick :/
xando10 said:
Unfortunately, bricking is real and not only a myth. Most of the time you can easily repair a brick, but there are also hard-bricks that can’t be repaired or can only be repaired with soldering knowledge.
As jwoegerbauer has already mentioned, you can try to contact a repair center, but if there is no official repair center nearby, or even worse, there isn’t an official repair center at all, your phone will be a useless brick :/
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If i'm not wrong, flashing corrupted bootloader and prebootloader is unfixable without soldering knowledge because it destroys the bridge between flashing software and the phone??
Flashing a corrupted bootloader and prebootloader will cause a hard brick. If I remember correctly, you can sometimes still fix the phone without soldering, via EDL mode, but that still requires a lot of knowledge and time. Either way it would be a really bad situation Please correct me if I am wrong.