I've had the great misfortune of bricking my phone within the first few hours of owning it. I should have known something was up, it wouldn't reboot when I changed the language to English, and I'd have to hard reset it (delete everything) and then let it load in Chinese again. Well, in an attempt to fix what I thought was a rom issue, I went through the song and dance of trying to root my phone.
I'm still not fully clear on how to do it, as it seems there's more to it than just what the tutorials say.
Anyway, like the title of this thread says, there's a pretty good way to figure out if your phone is really bricked, no need to ask or wonder anymore.
If your phone only boots to the htc magic screen (and then stops), and is unable to load bootloader, fastboot, usb connections, or anything else, it's bricked. 100%. You have to take it back. Don't bother searching the forums for the answer, I've wasted hours going through every related thread and trying every possible solution. Without the ability to access the fastboot screen, you're out of possibilities. Untill someone comes out with an unbricker which goes deeper than fastboot, there is absolutely no way to fix it.
A semi brick is much better on the other hand. There are plenty of ways to fix your phone, provided you're only semi bricked. I would define semi bricked as being able to enter fastboot, but being unable to boot the phone as normal. This can happen with a bad flash, or a mis step during a tutorial. I'm not exactly sure how easy it is to change a semi brick to a full brick, but my full bricking happened after semi bricking it while loading a new rom on it.
So. to summarize, if your phone WON'T go into the boot menu by pressing vol-down+power, you're in need of a new phone.
If you can still get into the boot menu, and access your phone through usb, you're ok, just get help (via a tutorial) before going any further, unless you're completely certain of what to do next.
Tis a shame to send a device, which is physically undamaged, to the digital graveyard. But such is life.
Caid.
444.
EDIT
on a side note, before my phone reset itself into it's endless loop of unloading, I noticed the screen flash an image of a box with what looked like a red arrow coming out of it. It was right in the center of the screen. This was in the recovery-RAv1.0H.img menu. What's that all about?
Did you try other key combinations such as Home+Power, or Back+Power?
I'm sorry but I think you're misunderstanding it all a little bit...
Caid444 said:
I've had the great misfortune of bricking my phone within the first few hours of owning it. I should have known something was up, it wouldn't reboot when I changed the language to English, and I'd have to hard reset it (delete everything) and then let it load in Chinese again. Well, in an attempt to fix what I thought was a rom issue, I went through the song and dance of trying to root my phone.
I'm still not fully clear on how to do it, as it seems there's more to it than just what the tutorials say.
Anyway, like the title of this thread says, there's a pretty good way to figure out if your phone is really bricked, no need to ask or wonder anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's easy if you follow the guides... I did it in two different phones with no problem at all in any of them... Anyway, let's stay on topìc
Caid444 said:
If your phone only boots to the htc magic screen (and then stops), and is unable to load bootloader, fastboot, usb connections, or anything else, it's bricked. 100%. You have to take it back. Don't bother searching the forums for the answer, I've wasted hours going through every related thread and trying every possible solution. Without the ability to access the fastboot screen, you're out of possibilities. Untill someone comes out with an unbricker which goes deeper than fastboot, there is absolutely no way to fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong. If your phone boots to the HTC Magic screen, the bootloader is doing it's job. The bootloader just takes you there. The linux kernel and ramdisk takes you to the boot animation, and there is where android really starts.
If your phone shows the first htc logo, or the Vodafone branded screen, you can start in bootloader mode. To make that you just have to remove the battery, put it back, and press and hold BACK + END KEY. From that, you can fastboot.
Also, and unless you destroyed the recovery partition, you can also boot in recovery mode, by pressing END KEY while holding HOME (no need to keep them both hold, just home button)
Caid444 said:
A semi brick is much better on the other hand. There are plenty of ways to fix your phone, provided you're only semi bricked. I would define semi bricked as being able to enter fastboot, but being unable to boot the phone as normal. This can happen with a bad flash, or a mis step during a tutorial. I'm not exactly sure how easy it is to change a semi brick to a full brick, but my full bricking happened after semi bricking it while loading a new rom on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would call a semi brick this:
Your phone goes into an endless loop while booting.
Your phone gets stucked on the first boot logo.
You can't get access to the recovery partition.
Your phone boots all the way but then gets stucked.
Your phone gone bad during a software update.
That, all, can be solved by reflashing the affected region. There are tutorials for everything but if you need I can write some hints on each case (I suffered them all ).
Caid444 said:
So. to summarize, if your phone WON'T go into the boot menu by pressing vol-down+power, you're in need of a new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, VOLDOWN+POWER starts in Hboot mode. From there you can go back to fastboot mode, but hboot is used to make a software upgrade using complete images or running htc diagnostic images (SAPPDIAG.IMG, SAPP*.IMG /NBH).
Caid444 said:
If you can still get into the boot menu, and access your phone through usb, you're ok, just get help (via a tutorial) before going any further, unless you're completely certain of what to do next.
Tis a shame to send a device, which is physically undamaged, to the digital graveyard. But such is life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can't get USB working on fastboot mode, or on recovery mode, your phone has probably a hardware fault. It happened with some of the first revisions of the Vodafone branded magic, don't know about htc branded ones though..
NOTE: Not talking about missing drivers, if you don't have drivers, that's another problem, but the computer should at least detect the device. Also, if your phone is off, and you connect the charger (or usb) and the orange led lights up, the bootloader should be ok.
Caid444 said:
on a side note, before my phone reset itself into it's endless loop of unloading, I noticed the screen flash an image of a box with what looked like a red arrow coming out of it. It was right in the center of the screen. This was in the recovery-RAv1.0H.img menu. What's that all about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the recovery mode. With that you can unbrick your phone
Also, as another hint, if you're new to linux OSes, you might want to take a look at some manual on terminal commands. If your main software is bricked, it's possible that your SDCard doesn't get mounted on recovery mode, depending on wich recovery image you're running. Provided you have an update.zip on the sdcard you need to run, you might have to mount it manually.
To do that, you have to start the phone in recovery mode, and run an "adb shell" on the PC.
When you have a shell opened, you'll have to mount the sdcard manually:
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard
Then, on the phone you can use the option to run sdcard update.zip to restart the software upgrade procedure.
Regards!
Before I reply, I'd just like to say thank you very much for your extremely in depth reply.
biktor_gj said:
I'm sorry but I think you're misunderstanding it all a little bit...
It's easy if you follow the guides... I did it in two different phones with no problem at all in any of them... Anyway, let's stay on topìc
Wrong. If your phone boots to the HTC Magic screen, the bootloader is doing it's job. The bootloader just takes you there. The linux kernel and ramdisk takes you to the boot animation, and there is where android really starts.
If your phone shows the first htc logo, or the Vodafone branded screen, you can start in bootloader mode. To make that you just have to remove the battery, put it back, and press and hold BACK + END KEY. From that, you can fastboot.
Also, and unless you destroyed the recovery partition, you can also boot in recovery mode, by pressing END KEY while holding HOME (no need to keep them both hold, just home button)
I would call a semi brick this:
Your phone goes into an endless loop while booting.
Your phone gets stucked on the first boot logo.
You can't get access to the recovery partition.
Your phone boots all the way but then gets stucked.
Your phone gone bad during a software update.
That, all, can be solved by reflashing the affected region. There are tutorials for everything but if you need I can write some hints on each case (I suffered them all ).
Actually, VOLDOWN+POWER starts in Hboot mode. From there you can go back to fastboot mode, but hboot is used to make a software upgrade using complete images or running htc diagnostic images (SAPPDIAG.IMG, SAPP*.IMG /NBH).
If you can't get USB working on fastboot mode, or on recovery mode, your phone has probably a hardware fault. It happened with some of the first revisions of the Vodafone branded magic, don't know about htc branded ones though..
NOTE: Not talking about missing drivers, if you don't have drivers, that's another problem, but the computer should at least detect the device. Also, if your phone is off, and you connect the charger (or usb) and the orange led lights up, the bootloader should be ok.
That's the recovery mode. With that you can unbrick your phone
Also, as another hint, if you're new to linux OSes, you might want to take a look at some manual on terminal commands. If your main software is bricked, it's possible that your SDCard doesn't get mounted on recovery mode, depending on wich recovery image you're running. Provided you have an update.zip on the sdcard you need to run, you might have to mount it manually.
To do that, you have to start the phone in recovery mode, and run an "adb shell" on the PC.
When you have a shell opened, you'll have to mount the sdcard manually:
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard
Then, on the phone you can use the option to run sdcard update.zip to restart the software upgrade procedure.
Regards!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To the first answer.
It's not THAT easy, the guides are kinda (you should already know what you're doing at this point) in nature. It's confusing for newcomers, as we've no idea what to expect, that and there are a multitude of variations. More specification as to which guide works with which model, and which updates would be nice.
As for the second part, I could not get the phone working with any button variation pressed. I'm sorry I was not more clear in my description, to begin with. I could press (and hold) any button (or buttons) + power (end key) and the phone would just vibrate (briefly) and then display the original screen "htc magic"(endlessly). The orange light does come on when plugged into the usb or computer, but only while it is off, as soon as the device turns on, the light turns off.
Another thing of note is that, after bricking it, I had to remove the battery to turn it off (every time if it was on), and if I put the battery back in while it's plugged into the usb port of the computer, the phone would turn back on without pressing any buttons. It's also completely unresponsive or detectable by my computer after bricking it. The only other thing I can get it to do is make the orange light blue by holding the action button and turning on the device. That way the light on top of the device is blue when it turns on. Still unresponsive at that point.
This is my first android device, but not my first htc device (I've had MANY MANY different ones.) so I'm a bit familiar with trying different combinations to get a response.
I am not the first person who's had this happen, unfortunately. There have been a couple others, who've described the exact same encounter. Perhaps it's a mistake that I made, and perhaps they also made it themselves. I would like to figure out how it's happening, though, and perhaps write a tutorial for people like us unlucky few.
Again, a really big thanks. I've sent my phone back and am getting a new one soon. I much appreciate your reply, however, as it's probably the most understanding and considerate reply I've seen on these forums.
Cheers.
Caid.
444
One more quick question out of curiosity, when you press and hold back and press end to turn on the device (it still goes to the htc magic screen) SHOULD it go to a different screen, other than the "htc magic" screen? Or is that a process that runs without some sort of visual notification on the device itself?
The usb was completely unresponsive after this happened, but in the event that bootloader may have been running, (only possible if it runs without any visual notification on the device itself), I'll go pick up the device and see if my usb drivers on my computer just became unresponsive after being accessed too many times. Sometimes windows does that, right? Perhaps a reboot would have allowed fastboot and the drivers to connect again, if the device was trying to talk to the computer, but I just didn't know on account of not having any notification.
So, again, should pressing back and power bring me to a different screen? or would it also look like it was hanging on htc magic screen?
Caid.
444
p.s. Sorry for the confusing wording, I'm tired and trying very hard to be as specific as possible.
back+end/power should lead you to the fastboot screen right after it shows the HTC Magic screen or whatever splash screen you have installed.
Home+end/power should lead you to the recovery screen.
ok, it was bricked. Thanks for the answer.
Caid.
444
Caid444 said:
Before I reply, I'd just like to say thank you very much for your extremely in depth reply.
To the first answer.
It's not THAT easy, the guides are kinda (you should already know what you're doing at this point) in nature. It's confusing for newcomers, as we've no idea what to expect, that and there are a multitude of variations. More specification as to which guide works with which model, and which updates would be nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, we all should be here to learn, and to help (except for the trolls)
This is the guide I followed for both Vodafone branded Magics: http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=Magic_Rooting
Maybe not for now, but for the next magic you get it may come handy
Caid444 said:
As for the second part, I could not get the phone working with any button variation pressed. I'm sorry I was not more clear in my description, to begin with. I could press (and hold) any button (or buttons) + power (end key) and the phone would just vibrate (briefly) and then display the original screen "htc magic"(endlessly). The orange light does come on when plugged into the usb or computer, but only while it is off, as soon as the device turns on, the light turns off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When the phone is off with the charger connected and you press the power button, the light goes off, as for the others, you really should be able to enter the SPL if it could the magic bootlogo and vibrated upon boot...
Maybe you didn't try enough or maybe your bootloader behaved differently than mine... I should be more clear anyway, to get to the bootloader, the best way to make it go to the bootloader is press and hold back key, then while holding it, hold the power button too. It should take about a second or two before showing the three skater droids.
Caid444 said:
Another thing of note is that, after bricking it, I had to remove the battery to turn it off (every time if it was on), and if I put the battery back in while it's plugged into the usb port of the computer, the phone would turn back on without pressing any buttons. It's also completely unresponsive or detectable by my computer after bricking it. The only other thing I can get it to do is make the orange light blue by holding the action button and turning on the device. That way the light on top of the device is blue when it turns on. Still unresponsive at that point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you put the battery while USB or charger is connected, the phone boots up, that's the normal behaviour. About the blue led, that's the Radio bootloader. That's quite dangerous to play with, but it gives a lot of other functions. Another sign that your phone wasn't completely dead Even if you wipe the SPL (the three skater droids), you may be able to boot into the Radio bootloader and write or boot another one to fix it. But that's waaaay harder
Caid444 said:
This is my first android device, but not my first htc device (I've had MANY MANY different ones.) so I'm a bit familiar with trying different combinations to get a response.
I am not the first person who's had this happen, unfortunately. There have been a couple others, who've described the exact same encounter. Perhaps it's a mistake that I made, and perhaps they also made it themselves. I would like to figure out how it's happening, though, and perhaps write a tutorial for people like us unlucky few.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the first advice when you start tricking with a phone is be careful with what you're doing. That's the good thing of fastboot.
When booting on fastboot mode, you can pick, for example a recovery image, and boot it without overwriting the original rom:
Code:
fastboot boot [recovery_image]
Then, when you see it's working, you can flash it:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery [recovery_image]
fastboot flash boot [boot_image]
fastboot flash system [system_image]
fastboot flash data [data_image]
You can't do that with the system.img since it's too big, but you can do it also with a boot.img
About the key combinations on the phone, it goes like this:
Code:
BACK + END KEY -> Fastboot mode (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
VOLDOWN + END KEY -> Hboot mode (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
ACTION (trackball center) + END KEY -> Radio Bootloader (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
HOME + END KEY -> Recovery mode (you should see the boot logo, then get the recovery menu)
SEND + MENU + END -> Reboot the phone (while the phone is on)
Maybe there are more (android has kind of 'safe mode' but I don't know it it goes there automatically if there's a problem or if it has to be called manually)
Anyway, I hope these things will be useful for the next phone, and for anybody who's a bit lost on this
Regards!
Let us know where you live , so maybe one can help you , I live in Sweden and will be glad to help you if you are near ;-)
Hey! Thanks again for all the help, and the offer to come help. Unfortunately, I'm in China. Coming here from Sweden (although it's a single large landmass) would take quite a bit of time
I appreciate all the support, though. Very cool community we're building here for the magic.
Caid.
444
htc semi-brick?
Hi to all. I'm in the same condition described in this tread; after installing SPL i get the htc block in Vodafone brand red screen.
None keys combination bring me to the boot menù. Only Action(trackball) + power have effect, but with a black screen...
Any suggest?
What do you do if you can boot into fastboot but can't flash anything because absolutely everything gives the error "FAILED (remote: signature verify fail)"?
I have a card reader and have tried just about every sappimg.zip, every boot.img, every recovery.img i could find. I can't even boot a recovery img because the screen just hangs at the HTC Magic logo.
I don't know what kind of warranty i have on this thing, but i might take it in tomorrow and see if i can get it replaced. I've only had it for just under two weeks.
Newbie need help
ok so i can still go to recovery mode but everytime i reboot my phone the mytouch 3g logo never goes away im new to Android but not htc can somebody plz help me out.
gruppler said:
What do you do if you can boot into fastboot but can't flash anything because absolutely everything gives the error "FAILED (remote: signature verify fail)"?
I have a card reader and have tried just about every sappimg.zip, every boot.img, every recovery.img i could find. I can't even boot a recovery img because the screen just hangs at the HTC Magic logo.
I don't know what kind of warranty i have on this thing, but i might take it in tomorrow and see if i can get it replaced. I've only had it for just under two weeks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of flashing something, you boot a recovery image, and then, from there, you flash whatever you need (using adb & flash_image for example)
PS: Be a little patient, if fastboot is letting you boot a recovery image, the recovery needs to boot, and that takes a little while, and while it's booting, you see the bootlogo until the menu appears. Also, you can try running adb shell after boot process started to try to get an error message (or at least to know if the thing is booting in some way)
I couldn't boot any recovery images. I had tried a few different Hero ROMs but decided i wanted to use Cupcake again because i have a 32B board and it just doesn't have enough RAM, though Swapper makes it usable at least. I don't know what exactly i did, but i've learned a lot from my mistakes. Everything i tried failed the signature check because the hboot version didn't match. If i could just flash the 1.33.2005 hboot again, i would have been in business, but no matter which recovery image i tried, it just sat there doing nothing. And believe me, i waited.
Fortunately, T-Mobile gave me a new device after i took it in and played dumb. And I just rooted it =]
Caid444 said:
ok, it was bricked. Thanks for the answer.
Caid.
444
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not flashing it with an RUU from HTC. Not sure that would work but it is worth trying.
Hi there, people!
First of all, thanks because while I was reading ur posts I realized that my phone had been bricked, 100 %
I tried official ROM upgrade to Android 1.6 using the folowing steps
1. Copied radio zip to my sd card by renaming it in update.zip
2. Recovery screen was started by pressing HOME+END key
3.Applied update.zip, process was going on: Opening package, verifing package, installing radio...and message about success was shown and phone restarted
4. Phone stucked on HTC Magic logo screen...15 minutes
5. I removed a battery, put it back and tried to reach recovery or boot mode again
6.Unsuccessfully! Phone vibrates and turns on...but always stucks on the HTC Magic screen
7. USB does not recognize my phone is connected (I tried any adb and fastboot commands)
8. So, I just pray to give me a new phone if my warranty will be accepted
iivanovic said:
Hi there, people!
First of all, thanks because while I was reading ur posts I realized that my phone had been bricked, 100 %
I tried official ROM upgrade to Android 1.6 using the folowing steps
1. Copied radio zip to my sd card by renaming it in update.zip
2. Recovery screen was started by pressing HOME+END key
3.Applied update.zip, process was going on: Opening package, verifing package, installing radio...and message about success was shown and phone restarted
4. Phone stucked on HTC Magic logo screen...15 minutes
5. I removed a battery, put it back and tried to reach recovery or boot mode again
6.Unsuccessfully! Phone vibrates and turns on...but always stucks on the HTC Magic screen
7. USB does not recognize my phone is connected (I tried any adb and fastboot commands)
8. So, I just pray to give me a new phone if my warranty will be accepted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. I get up hboot and fast boot menus can not get it in recovery. try to add in sappimg but no luck
I'm having the exact same problem...
Any solution yet?
Hello! I can assure you that your phone is not fully bricked! Awhile ago I flashed a new radio only to discover that I hadn't done my research and was a complete and total idiot. I flashed the 1.76.xxxx on a 32B. It didn't like it. I got a quick HTC logo that disappeared then the phone never responded again. When I say never responded it was dead. no combination of buttons would get any response. If you can get into fastboot you have options. All that's necessary is to make sure you have the appropriate sappimg file. Try the Unlockr's gold card method file. He has a .zip file that may work for you. Just make sure that you find an image that is compatible with your board (32A or 32B). Hope this helps!
Hi there, phone screen remains black and no visuals after flashing rom, so I canrt see anything on screen or know what to do about it, pls help?
Details -
After flashing ROM from SD card via which seem to go well... ONLY that the screen is blanked out, no lights except the key lights, phone comes on, responds to touch by giving normal sounds like when I use flick the scroll lock and touch the screen etc (just because I know how the phone works) but problem remains that I cant see anything, so I cant even boot into recovery or download mode to flash again since its all black and dimly lit.
I have a B63M running Gingerbread 2.3.5 so I am not sure what model of HTC it falls under in case this question or similar has been asked already.
I was able to initially get into flash recovery using the mobile uncle tool which allowed me get into recovery, something that has been impossible using the stock recovery in b63m.
I backed up the ROM , cleared cache and daikvil cache then went on to flash ROM using an update.zip and then the touble I explained above.
This is a current situation pls I need help getting back up and flashing the right lattest rom for my phone?
Help me pls
xdadeem said:
Hi there, phone screen remains black and no visuals after flashing rom, so I canrt see anything on screen or know what to do about it, pls help?
Details -
After flashing ROM from SD card via which seem to go well... ONLY that the screen is blanked out, no lights except the key lights, phone comes on, responds to touch by giving normal sounds like when I use flick the scroll lock and touch the screen etc (just because I know how the phone works) but problem remains that I cant see anything, so I cant even boot into recovery or download mode to flash again since its all black and dimly lit.
I have a B63M running Gingerbread 2.3.5 so I am not sure what model of HTC it falls under in case this question or similar has been asked already.
I was able to initially get into flash recovery using the mobile uncle tool which allowed me get into recovery, something that has been impossible using the stock recovery in b63m.
I backed up the ROM , cleared cache and daikvil cache then went on to flash ROM using an update.zip and then the touble I explained above.
This is a current situation pls I need help getting back up and flashing the right lattest rom for my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys I need help fast pls. My phone screen is blank after flashing thru sd card, now I cant see anything but it appears to still be working, I since it responds to touch with click sounds... help pls.
Have you probably try to go over adb to recovery?
sure... adb could see it
xdadeem said:
Hi there, phone screen remains black and no visuals after flashing rom, so I canrt see anything on screen or know what to do about it, pls help?
Details -
After flashing ROM from SD card via which seem to go well... ONLY that the screen is blanked out, no lights except the key lights, phone comes on, responds to touch by giving normal sounds like when I use flick the scroll lock and touch the screen etc (just because I know how the phone works) but problem remains that I cant see anything, so I cant even boot into recovery or download mode to flash again since its all black and dimly lit.
I have a B63M running Gingerbread 2.3.5 so I am not sure what model of HTC it falls under in case this question or similar has been asked already.
I was able to initially get into flash recovery using the mobile uncle tool which allowed me get into recovery, something that has been impossible using the stock recovery in b63m.
I backed up the ROM , cleared cache and daikvil cache then went on to flash ROM using an update.zip and then the touble I explained above.
This is a current situation pls I need help getting back up and flashing the right lattest rom for my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dagger780 said:
Have you probably try to go over adb to recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your response, yes I have gone the adb route and I was able to see my device in adb but once I say adb reboot recovery or adb reboot download, it restarts and reboots but again I cant see the screen so I have no idea what to do next or what really is happening on screen.
Maybe if you know how to proceed once in adb, you can share with me, this is frustrating me?
Chrizuki said:
My Relay wont boot into recovery mode. Whenever I hold the Volume-Up + Home + Power, it turns on then it says on the top left corner a small blue colored message saying "RECOVERY BOOTING..." and then it goes to the "Galaxy S Relay from T-Mobile" screen and then black screen. Nothing happens, it doesnt boot into recovery but it can turn on and function well with the OTA Jelly Bean 4.1.2 update as well as boot into Download mode. I have rooted it before when It was still ICS 4.0.4 and I guess I didnt unroot it correctly.
A couple of days ago, I heard about the Jelly Bean update, which I wanted, so I used Kies to update. I connected my phone while in Download mode and Kies did its thing and my phone was unrooted when it booted up and had Jelly Bean. It worked perfectly, but it couldnt boot into recovery mode. I dont think it's a huge problem to not boot into recovery, but to me, I feel safer having it.
Is there a way to fix this using just Samsung Kies? Is there a way to flash that recovery or something using Odin? If so, where can I find it and how do I do it?
Thanks in advance!
Sent from Chrizuki's SGH-T699 in Development using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Relay wont boot into recovery mode. Whenever I hold the Volume-Up + Home + Power, it turns on then it says on the top left corner a small blue colored message saying "RECOVERY BOOTING..." and then it goes to the "Galaxy S Relay from T-Mobile" screen and then black screen. Then it goes back to the "Galaxy S Relay from T-Mobile" screen followed by black and back again.
My phone is currently NOT rooted. I attempted to root it when I first got it and almost bricked it so when I got it back to working I just left it. I've had my phone over a year and have recently over the past few months had issues with the charging port and batteries even holding a charge. Bought extended life slim batteries and a charger due to that issue. Then just yesterday I was using facebook on my phone and it randomly rebooted and wouldn't stop boot looping. Only way I've stopped it thus far is to take out the battery.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sounds as though your recovery image might be corrupted. I'd utilize ODIN or heimdall to reflash recovery using download mode and see if that fixes your issue. If you were rooted, and feeling adventurous, you could even do so from within the OS. One more question though: Are you releasing the buttons when you see the samsung boot logo with 'RECOVERY BOOTING....' in the corner? If you do not, then the phone will simply reboot again into the OS. Always let the buttons go once the recovery boot process begins.
Magamo said:
Sounds as though your recovery image might be corrupted. I'd utilize ODIN or heimdall to reflash recovery using download mode and see if that fixes your issue. If you were rooted, and feeling adventurous, you could even do so from within the OS. One more question though: Are you releasing the buttons when you see the samsung boot logo with 'RECOVERY BOOTING....' in the corner? If you do not, then the phone will simply reboot again into the OS. Always let the buttons go once the recovery boot process begins.
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Haven't had much of a chance to try due to distractions plus work along with internet issues at home and a friend's house. I will try ODIN. What is heimdall? I've never heard of that.
Yes, each time I try to reboot into recovery I am releasing the buttons as soon as I see the samsung boot logo with 'RECOVERY BOOTING....'
As always Magamo, Thanks for your help
RockinRita said:
Haven't had much of a chance to try due to distractions plus work along with internet issues at home and a friend's house. I will try ODIN. What is heimdall? I've never heard of that.
Yes, each time I try to reboot into recovery I am releasing the buttons as soon as I see the samsung boot logo with 'RECOVERY BOOTING....'
As always Magamo, Thanks for your help
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Heimdal is an open source program that implements the ODIN functions. I usually use it as a command line tool, but it does have GUI front ends.
http://glassechidna.com.au/heimdall/
getting frustrated
Magamo said:
Heimdal is an open source program that implements the ODIN functions. I usually use it as a command line tool, but it does have GUI front ends.
http://glassechidna.com.au/heimdall/
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Click to collapse
Magamo, I've downloaded Odin 3. 10..6. Not exactly sure what to do now cos I just tried to put my phone into download mode and it boot loops again! So if I can't go into recovery mode or download mode, what can I do? My phone is not rooted and I don't want to root it. Ideally I want to be able to at least copy some of my text messages before rooting it but how can i do anything if I can't get it to go into recovery mode, download mode, or even turn on without boot looping?!
I dont even know what made it randomly one day decide to shut itself off and boot loop.
Any ideas you (or anyone else has) would be very much appreciated!
-Rita-
Sorry i guess i cant help u on this one. But good luck m8!
So I have a recent issue that I have not seemed to resolve. Today, under normal use, my pixel's screen went black and I have not been able to power it back on. I was using the pixel dust rom when the issue happened. I have booted into twrp and tried to factory reset but the screen even went black during the wipe. After that, I booted into the bootloader and attempted to flash google's factory image. The phone actually stays on during the bootloader session. It seemed that I was able to flash the factory rom but once I tried to reboot, the same thing happens. The boot animation will play but that's as far as it gets until the screen goes black once again.
If anyone has had this issue or if anyone has an idea on how to resolve this issue, please respond quickly.
Much Appreciated!
After the screen goes black, are you still able to communicate with the device over adb/fastboot? Have you tried reflashing the factory image (make sure the checksum is correct!)? If you put the phone in the refrigerator for a bit, will it last longer before going black (i.e., bad solder)?
post-mortem said:
After the screen goes black, are you still able to communicate with the device over adb/fastboot? Have you tried reflashing the factory image (make sure the checksum is correct!)? If you put the phone in the refrigerator for a bit, will it last longer before going black (i.e., bad solder)?
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So during fastboot, the screen actually doesn't go black. I am still able to remain communication and That is when I tried flashing the factory image. How do you make sure that the checksum is correct? I didn't receive any errors during the flash indicating that it didn't flash properly.
If you're using Windows, Hashtab is a good, free checksum program with a GUI.
Download
Info/Review
On Google's image download page, copy the SHA-256 listed, and compare it to what you have locally (which you used to flash onto your phone).
how to boot into twrp? almost the same issue to you, adb cant find my phone.
jcd173339 said:
So I have a recent issue that I have not seemed to resolve. Today, under normal use, my pixel's screen went black and I have not been able to power it back on. I was using the pixel dust rom when the issue happened. I have booted into twrp and tried to factory reset but the screen even went black during the wipe. After that, I booted into the bootloader and attempted to flash google's factory image. The phone actually stays on during the bootloader session. It seemed that I was able to flash the factory rom but once I tried to reboot, the same thing happens. The boot animation will play but that's as far as it gets until the screen goes black once again.
If anyone has had this issue or if anyone has an idea on how to resolve this issue, please respond quickly.
Much Appreciated!
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Click to collapse
bush911 said:
how to boot into twrp? almost the same issue to you, adb cant find my phone.
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Click to collapse
If adb cant detect your phone, it looks like the only way that you're going to boot into twrp is through the bootloader mode (if you had it previously installed). Holding down volume down and power will get you into bootloader and then using the volume buttons, you can cycle through the options until you find "recovery". Pressing the power button will select that option.
post-mortem said:
After the screen goes black, are you still able to communicate with the device over adb/fastboot? Have you tried reflashing the factory image (make sure the checksum is correct!)? If you put the phone in the refrigerator for a bit, will it last longer before going black (i.e., bad solder)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like your freezer method works. Putting it in the freezer actually gets the phone to boot completely into google's factory image. its usuable for about a minute until the problem of freezing and turning off reoccurs. It feels like the phone warms up while running so maybe i have a hardware problem rather than software.
I seem to have the exact same problem with my pixel 32gb, my device was not rooted, nor did I had any custom recovery but the bootloader was unlocked. The issue happened one day while I was browsing the device went black right infront of me. It was not like I did a dirty flash/mod or something. I'm able to detect my pixel via fastboot, able to flash the factory image no problem, but does not boot up after successful completion of the flashing, it just goes black after "google" logo. Anyone found a solution yet??
thank you sir, I have twrp installed previously. but the screen doesnt turn on so I can't choose the recovery model. and try to hold the power button for a while the phone will become warm. no other response:crying:
jcd173339 said:
If adb cant detect your phone, it looks like the only way that you're going to boot into twrp is through the bootloader mode (if you had it previously installed). Holding down volume down and power will get you into bootloader and then using the volume buttons, you can cycle through the options until you find "recovery". Pressing the power button will select that option.
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Click to collapse
Thufail19 said:
I seem to have the exact same problem with my pixel 32gb, my device was not rooted, nor did I had any custom recovery but the bootloader was unlocked. The issue happened one day while I was browsing the device went black right infront of me. It was not like I did a dirty flash/mod or something. I'm able to detect my pixel via fastboot, able to flash the factory image no problem, but does not boot up after successful completion of the flashing, it just goes black after "google" logo. Anyone found a solution yet??
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Click to collapse
Maybe try locking the bootloader? I might try to do that since you and i both are experiencing the same problem with an unlocked bootloader. But i can't see why that would impact anything.