Related
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!
I was on a call and when I hung up, wanted to unlock.
Push the power button, lights on the 4 bottom buttons come on. Screen stays black, no backlight.
Push the button again, lights go off.
Push again, lights come on, no screen.
etc, etc...
I pulled the battery, and put it back in.
Now it's just sitting here saying HTC, but it doesn't get to the "quietly brilliant" ever. It just sits there forever saying HTC.
The phone is hacked, rooted, ENG S-OFF, was running Android Revolution 4G 5.1.6 or something when this all happened.
I can get into the [vol-] + [power] menu (white BG) and to recovery (black BG), but I'm not sure how to transfer files to the SD card to load a new ROM on without Android.
Can I use ADB to push a file across? If so, how?
Is there anything I should try before I wipe my phone? I'd like to back up my apps and SMSs if possible, but won't break down in tears if I can't.
Edit: I don't really know very much about ADB/Fastboot, but when I type ADB Devices the phone doesn't show up, however if I go into "Fastboot" in the white screen, I can type Fastboot Devices and my phone is listed. I suspect I can somehow push across the Android Revolution 4G ROM zip file and wipe/install it from recovery? I'm not sure how though.
WHile the phone is completely off, press and hold the Volume (down) and the Power off/on button (press the volume down first if that makes it easier ,then the power button).
Then you should get to the Hboot screen (white back), in there you should have the option to go to recovery...
As long as you can get to recovery ,your perfectly safe (even if just the hboot page)...In here you can reinstall a new ROM.
You can do so by going to mounts and storage , and choose mount usb storage (or something; make sure your connected to the PC with the USB)..
Your phone should now be connected to your pc Via your SD card..
Just download a new ROM, and then put it somewhere in your SDcard and after that, choose install zip from SDcard and select the ROM file you just transfered.
ANd unfortunately but, if you cant get passed recovery..I believe there would be no way to back up any phone/internal data .
If he wanted to back up some data as long as he has AR 5.1.6 still he should be able to reflash the rom w/o a full wipe to try and get the phone to boot so he can back up.
Some times it works sometimes it doesn't.
Just boot into hboot , then from there get to recovery. Once in recovery, you should now be able to use adb (if fastboot is working, it should see the phone in recovery).
Now put the rom in the platform tools folder(or whereever your tools/adb is (not sure if your using Linux or windows but this should work with either. Now open a terminal to platform-tools(or like earlier, whereever adb and now the rom are) now -
adb push nameofrom.zip /sdcard
nameofrom.zip has to be exactly what the name of the rom is you put in the location that has adb in it.
It will take a few min. to push the whole rom, when its done flash it.
This is all assuming you don't have adb in your enviorn . path- it can be done a little differently if you have it in your path in windows or Linux, but this way will work either way.
Or use fastboot to flash a new system.img, but you'll have to find one or make one- don't know where.
Di11's method is fine, but pardon me if im mistaken, can't he, since he's able to boot into recovery, plug his cord in>mount usb storage>transfer rom to sdcard>unmount>and wipe data/cache/dalvik/flash rom? it would seem easiest
Ya, sometimes I've noticed in the past when ****s all muffed up it wont wanna mount as USB storage. (Dont know why but it happens)This works every time.
di11igaf said:
Ya, sometimes I've noticed in the past when ****s all muffed up it wont wanna mount as USB storage. (Dont know why but it happens)This works every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never had a problem like that, least that i know of lol, my baffled mind forgets to put the rom on my phone since i flash your rom and sense rom's daily, so i always just mount while in recovery after wiping everything.. Anyways, OP report which method you used and how it works.
Hey Guys ,
I think my phone is dead or bricked... ...i have tried to root with the hack-ace and had an issue in the middle of the rooting !!...now my phone can't boot , not even recovery mode , pull the battery, put it back in , nothing happens ..when i plug the usb cable into the computer i have the orange led lighting up but no boot is possible...
have any solution for me ?? it would be highly appreciate !!
thanks
maostar said:
Hey Guys ,
I think my phone is dead or bricked... ...i have tried to root with the hack-ace and had an issue in the middle of the rooting !!...now my phone can't boot , not even recovery mode , pull the battery, put it back in , nothing happens ..when i plug the usb cable into the computer i have the orange led lighting up but no boot is possible...
have any solution for me ?? it would be highly appreciate !!
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go back to the hack kit thread, read the op, towards the bottom it talks about hitting the irc for help. Reeeaaadddd then go there for help.
I got your 10 char right here
hello all,
I am new here and I have been searching the forums for a few days as well as the internet but I could not seem to find one that had my same problem, but if there is can you please direct me to it and apologies for that.
I was installing a new rom, the Blackout ICS Incredible v3.0.0 FULLY WORKING!!! [4.0.4][Sense 3.6], onto my inspire i did a full wipe using FULL_WIPE_1.5_EXT4_.zip and I cleared the caches. the install i thought went well because it went to 100% and i even chose what kind of background i could as well as choosing to over clock my processor. The phone the restarted after all of that and it went to the htc screen then faded to black, after about ten minutes of it being black screen i pulled out the battery.
Now when i try to recover it it wont go into hboot and it just goes to the htc white screen then it quickly fades to a black screen and stays like that.
so my question to you all is a Jtag the only way i can save my phone or is there something else i can do?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30480411
Sent from a dream.
Teichopsia said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30480411
Sent from a dream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im sorry but I dont understand. I cannot enter hboot no mater what i do and don't you need to enter hboot to reflash it?
True, but I'm hoping you are doing something wrong.
Pull battery, wait a few minutes, place back in. Press and hold Volume down, then power button. Does it go into hboot? If not.
Read this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=20382502
Edit: you are the first report with that issue after trying to flash that rom. My bet (that is, if you are new), you are not doing something wrong.
2nd edit: if you are new, then read the guide in post#7
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30007255
Sent from a dream.
Teichopsia said:
True, but I'm hoping you are doing something wrong.
Pull battery, wait a few minutes, place back in. Press and hold Volume down, then power button. Does it go into hboot? If not.
Read this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=20382502
Edit: you are the first report with that issue after trying to flash that rom. My bet (that is, if you are new), you are not doing something wrong.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really appreciate the help Teichopsia , but I've tried the power /volume - method many times and it still wont go to hboot. if it helps this is the 5 time i have have flashed a rom on my phone (and it is rooted) and yes sadly i had to be the first person to be unlucky enough to get my phone bricked from the blackout rom :crying:
i think i could get out of this mess if i could only get into hboot.
reading the method you linked to me will it work if i cant even get to the hboot screen? my phone only stays of the white htc logo screen for about 3 seconds then it goes to a lit black screen
on a side note should i report what happened to team blackout to see if they have any soloutions?
The only thing I can think of is trying to get into hboot without the sd card and sim card.
The rest is beyond my knowledge.
You'll need to wait for someone more knowledgable than myself to help you.
Remember, first press and hold the volume down button, while holding that down press the power button. Do not release either button till it shows the hboot. If that doesn't work, pull the battery for five minutes and try again. If you did this part exactly like that, then you can skip it.
Well, you already posyed your issue here, just wait for someone to help you. Glevitan is bound to show up sooner or later.
Sent from a dream.
I would see if you can send commands to it from adb while its in the blacked out state. adb is pretty easy to use and can be found easy online. if you get it installed type "adb devices", if it recognizes your device type "adb reboot bootloader" or "adb reboot recovery".
Novius vi said:
hello all,
I am new here and I have been searching the forums for a few days as well as the internet but I could not seem to find one that had my same problem, but if there is can you please direct me to it and apologies for that.
I was installing a new rom, the Blackout ICS Incredible v3.0.0 FULLY WORKING!!! [4.0.4][Sense 3.6], onto my inspire i did a full wipe using FULL_WIPE_1.5_EXT4_.zip and I cleared the caches. the install i thought went well because it went to 100% and i even chose what kind of background i could as well as choosing to over clock my processor. The phone the restarted after all of that and it went to the htc screen then faded to black, after about ten minutes of it being black screen i pulled out the battery.
Now when i try to recover it it wont go into hboot and it just goes to the htc white screen then it quickly fades to a black screen and stays like that.
so my question to you all is a Jtag the only way i can save my phone or is there something else i can do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i also have the same problem. i'm using a DHD. and to add to that, my volume rocker is broken. i wonder why the warning not to select reboot immediately after installation wasnt part of the download as a readme or something. i may have just lost a perfectly good phone as a result
I can confirm as a third user and one knowledgable in flashing roms that the ICS blackout does the same thing to my phone. I can also confirm that pulling the battery and then trying hboot just results in the white htc screen instead of just popping up hboot. I was able to boot into recovery from the white htc screen by using adb and doing the "adb reboot recovery" command. I am able to restore my backup just fine so you guys will be able to fix it. it must just have a bad boot image for the version of hboot that we have installed.
Gizmoe said:
I can confirm as a third user and one knowledgable in flashing roms that the ICS blackout does the same thing to my phone. I can also confirm that pulling the battery and then trying hboot just results in the white htc screen instead of just popping up hboot. I was able to boot into recovery from the white htc screen by using adb and doing the "adb reboot recovery" command. I am able to restore my backup just fine so you guys will be able to fix it. it must just have a bad boot image for the version of hboot that we have installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im sorry but this is the first time i have ever done something like that can you give me a step by step instruction how to do it or a link that says how, i dont want to sound lazy but I scared to mess up my phone even more
Use this guide its very easy. if you have already used your phone on your pc and the drivers are installed all you need to do is download the easyadb and follow the instrucions to where is says to type adb.exe. once it is started just type adb devices to make sure it sees your device and then adb reboot recovery
Ignore the fact the instructions are written for a xoom as it will work for any android device with the drivers already installed, which they should be from rooting, syncing and all the other stuff you have probably already done on pc.
UPDATE: I reinstalled ICS blackout but instead of wiping myself i just let aroma installer do it and everything went fine this time. I noticed the aroma installer reformats everything to ext4. its not mentioned in the op as a requirement but seems thats the case. Hboot version has nothing to do with it like i previously commented. It really is a cool rom with both ics and sense. I have only tried the sense version so far
Hope this helps?
Novius vi said:
Im sorry but this is the first time i have ever done something like that can you give me a step by step instruction how to do it or a link that says how, i dont want to sound lazy but I scared to mess up my phone even more
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just in case-- to get into recovery you must press and hold the volume down for a few seconds and then hold the power button. Do not do press them both at the same time. I realize you wrote that your volume rocker seems or is broken but I wrote above just in case-- when I first tried to root my phone, I was pushing them both at first and thought my rocker was broken....
Since you rooted the phone originally-- not sure how you did it. But if you go to this link you can download recovery flash. Read the "readme" file:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29208930&postcount=10
Assuming you can get into recovery-- then reload the blackout ROM but you MUST let the aroma installer wipe and format do not use any other wipe/format tool. Then do NOT press the "FINISH" button-- instead press the back arrow-- you want to go back to flash recovery and reboot from there. If you press finish (like I did multiple times, the phone will just lockup).
Best of luck!
Three of us confirmed that hboot was inaccessible even after battery pull. I am no stranger to this device as well. The only fix was using adb reboot. Also if you actually reformat your partitions to ext4 before install, then aroma will install correctly. It's just not mounting anything if it's still in ext3 format. Definitely better to just do the full wipe within aroma though. I do agree with not hitting restart from aroma but someone already mentioned that a few posts up.
Thank you thank you thank you
After putting it into abd it recognized it and then i was able to put it into hboot. Im not out of the woods yet, but after not being to see hboot in so long, well its just amazing to see it again
ok now its in hboot it gives me 4 choices
bootloader
Reboot
Reboot Bootloader
power down
apologies again but just for reassurance which one should i select?
THANK YOU GUYS for getting me this far!!!
special thanks to Gizmoe for suggesting the adb route
Novius vi said:
After putting it into abd it recognized it and then i was able to put it into hboot. Im not out of the woods yet, but after not being to see hboot in so long, well its just amazing to see it again
ok now its in hboot it gives me 4 choices
bootloader
Reboot
Reboot Bootloader
power down
apologies again but just for reassurance which one should i select?
THANK YOU GUYS for getting me this far!!!
special thanks to Gizmoe for suggesting the adb route
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Select bootloader to get to recovery option.
1shukla said:
Just in case-- to get into recovery you must press and hold the volume down for a few seconds and then hold the power
Assuming you can get into recovery-- then reload the blackout ROM but you MUST let the aroma installer wipe and format do not use any other wipe/format tool. Then do NOT press the "FINISH" button-- instead press the back arrow-- you want to go back to flash recovery and reboot from there. If you press finish (like I did multiple times, the phone will just lockup).
Best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did exactly as you said I pressed finished and it asked if i wanted to reboot i said no. then it sent me back to recovery mode crossing my fingers hoping to see that it works:fingers-crossed:
Now, just manually reboot.
Sent from a dream.
You saved my phone!!
Thank you guys sooo much this Rom is great once I got past that minor issue
My phones working better than ever I even oced it a little bit
Again I am eternally grateful to you guys and team black out for this great Rom!
Hey yall. I had the phone for 6 days before I bricked it. I am wondering if there is any stock recovery mode or anything or what I shsould do? I think something went wrong due to using the root toolbox pro app. I have done some backups within the ap as well as Titanium Backup but now the phone will not boot up and I dont know if/how to put it in factory recovery mode. Soft reset does nothing. The Motorola logo will show on startup but then the screen just blacks out forever, not off, just colored black.
A few details, the phone was rooted with Motofail2go, with no recovery and bootloader still locked as far as I know.
Should I take it to Sprint for a factory reset? Is this even an option? What are my other options?
Next time I will probably use the Moto unlock key so I can open the bootloader all legit like and have a recovery mode...
Try holding power button and the down volume key to power off. Once you power off press and hold them again. This should boot you into fastboot, Motorola's adb shell basically. This can take a couple tries, make sure the phone is powered down completely before hitting volume down and power button to get into fastboot. If you can boot into fastboot you can unlock using this guide: http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/20/how-to-unlock-the-motorola-photon-q-bootloader/
Once unlocked flash the custom recovery of your choice (I like twrp). You can boot into custom recovery by holding volume up and the power button from a powered down state. Here is the link for instructions on how to flash twrp:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1887070
Then you can download one of the stock backups for the Q posted in the development section and restore them using the custom recovery. Most of the ones I have seen have been compatible with twrp.
The only way to download the stock rom backups is to remove the sd card from your phone, plug your sd card into a PC or other device with a card reader, download the stock backups, and place the stock backup rom files on your sd card. Finally place the sd card with the stock backup downloads into your phone.
These backups and information on how to go through this process can be found in this thread on page 2: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2001226
The key is to make a backup of your existing rom with twrp and then move the stock backups from your sd card to the twrp/backups/yourdeiceserial/ directory. That creates a backup directory which twrp knows to look for backups in.
Don't feel bad, I've been in that state several times since getting the Q, live and learn.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
UnicronAlpha99 said:
Try holding power button and the down volume key to power off. Once you power off press and hold them again. This should boot you into fastboot, Motorola's adb shell basically. This can take a couple tries, make sure the phone is powered down completely before hitting volume down and power button to get into fastboot. If you can boot into fastboot you can unlock using this guide: http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/20/how-to-unlock-the-motorola-photon-q-bootloader/
Once unlocked flash the custom recovery of your choice (I like twrp). You can boot into custom recovery by holding volume up and the power button from a powered down state. Here is the link for instructions on how to flash twrp:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1887070
Then you can download one of the stock backups for the Q posted in the development section and restore them using the custom recovery. Most of the ones I have seen have been compatible with twrp.
Don't feel bad, I've been in that state several times since getting the Q, live and learn.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that does not work you could drop it in water or something. You have not officially unlocked boot loader so you still have warranty. Or you could just tell sprint it quit working and act completely clueless. At least its bricked with warranty still intact.
matt2k12 said:
Hey yall. I had the phone for 6 days before I bricked it. I am wondering if there is any stock recovery mode or anything or what I shsould do? I think something went wrong due to using the root toolbox pro app. I have done some backups within the ap as well as Titanium Backup but now the phone will not boot up and I dont know if/how to put it in factory recovery mode. Soft reset does nothing. The Motorola logo will show on startup but then the screen just blacks out forever, not off, just colored black.
A few details, the phone was rooted with Motofail2go, with no recovery and bootloader still locked as far as I know.
Should I take it to Sprint for a factory reset? Is this even an option? What are my other options?
Next time I will probably use the Moto unlock key so I can open the bootloader all legit like and have a recovery mode...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both of the methods above are very effective. When I had the first photon I bricked it and just dropped it in water and did a claim. Depending on the insurance you have that way may cost you $100. The other method should work. When I first got this phone I did the exact same thing and to go back and unlock then flash twrp and in stall a stock backup someone had posted.
Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk 2
UnicronAlpha99 said:
Try holding power button and the down volume key to power off. Once you power off press and hold them again. This should boot you into fastboot, Motorola's adb shell basically. This can take a couple tries, make sure the phone is powered down completely before hitting volume down and power button to get into fastboot. If you can boot into fastboot you can unlock using this guide: http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/20/how-to-unlock-the-motorola-photon-q-bootloader/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. Is there anything extra extra special about getting into factory fastboot mode? I can't seem to get it done. Is there an official set of instructions anywhere? Does the phone need to be plugged into the PC? It was always my understanding (for the last week) that Power and Vol Down was the soft reset mode which reboots the phone. Therefore it always tries to reboot in normal mode. This is what keeps happening. It never powers completely down using this method.
Anyhow, once I follow your instructions, the Moto logo appears, no Sprint logo appears, the phone "powers on" but the screen is blacked out (not off). After waiting for a while at the blank/black screen, or holding down several buttons like vol or camera I get the first attachment: "Process system is not responding. Would you like to close it?" When I wait nothing happens. When I push OK nothing happens. By chance, I held down power during the notification and the power menu came up behind the ANR notice (second/third attachments). So obviously there are some things working but the main system isn't booting up. And either factory fastboot is nuked or I can't figure it out. When I power down from this accessible power menu and try to do the fastboot (Power / Vol Down) I still havent gotten it to work.
Any other ideas before I take drastic measures?
Since I bought it from Amazon would that be my best route for return or should I go thru a Sprint store?
Thanks in advance.
Hi again yall. You know once I got to thinking about it, I decided to check out the return policy on Amazon Wireless. They will accept any device under warranty for the first 30 days and it is up to Moto for the next 11 months of warranty coverage. They email me a packing label and it ships out 1 day and they ship out the new phone 1 day shipping. Hard to beat, just takes 2 days of shipping and some more fun times with my Epic, 10.1CM style, in the meantime.
Who's to say it wasnt some sort of hardware or software glitch that bricked the phone rather than my screwing around? Nobody knows and it isn't up to the consumer to prove his innocence. I bought everything legally, all the apps at the app store, and only ran the motofail2go root method. Wasn't running any custom Roms, Mods, or anything. I don't feel bad after they got me for another 2 grand for 24 months, and since I have been with Sprint for 10 years;l I have spent well over 10k or 15k with them lifetime.
If any other method pops up between now and when I ship it out I may give it a shot but if not, ah well, capitalism.
matt2k12 said:
Thanks for the response. Is there anything extra extra special about getting into factory fastboot mode? I can't seem to get it done. Is there an official set of instructions anywhere? Does the phone need to be plugged into the PC? It was always my understanding (for the last week) that Power and Vol Down was the soft reset mode which reboots the phone. Therefore it always tries to reboot in normal mode. This is what keeps happening. It never powers completely down using this method.
Anyhow, once I follow your instructions, the Moto logo appears, no Sprint logo appears, the phone "powers on" but the screen is blacked out (not off). After waiting for a while at the blank/black screen, or holding down several buttons like vol or camera I get the first attachment: "Process system is not responding. Would you like to close it?" When I wait nothing happens. When I push OK nothing happens. By chance, I held down power during the notification and the power menu came up behind the ANR notice (second/third attachments). So obviously there are some things working but the main system isn't booting up. And either factory fastboot is nuked or I can't figure it out. When I power down from this accessible power menu and try to do the fastboot (Power / Vol Down) I still havent gotten it to work.
Any other ideas before I take drastic measures?
Since I bought it from Amazon would that be my best route for return or should I go thru a Sprint store?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using adb. If your computer has drivers on it for phone you might able to get into fast boot. If that does not work I would try Sprint store first. Have locked my phone up several times while hacking wife off in progress and have used adb every time. Only time i have been truely scared is when i soft bricked my nexus 7. had to stay at work for two hours after i got off to get it to recover because i was scared of her lol.
---------- Post added at 02:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:57 PM ----------
If you get adb to recognize device you could take chance and officially unlock boot loader. Then flash twrp. There is a thread in general section about having trouble getting official update. It has a stock recovery in it. Trick would be moving files to recovery section of twrp
I have gotten the phone to soft power down and get into fast boot and custom recovery. It's a bit tricky with timing, I usually wait for the screen to go black after soft reset, let go, and immediately hold power and volume down. If you can not boot into fastboot I honestly don't know what you can do either than return the phone.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
UnicronAlpha99 said:
I have gotten the phone to soft power down and get into fast boot and custom recovery. It's a bit tricky with timing, I usually wait for the screen to go black after soft reset, let go, and immediately hold power and volume down. If you can not boot into fastboot I honestly don't know what you can do either than return the phone.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the help Unicron. I think Brandons method might be my only alternative... but you know what? I already have the box packed up to ship back to Amazon! I am still a noob; I dunno if I could go the distance on this one. I have been updating my Android SDK files since I got the phone but I never got it to recognize boot up thru ADB fastboot. disclaimer* I havent tried it in a couple days since all teh SDK updates completed.
I dunno though I am a big time DIYer when possible. If it werent for the massive amount of tape I put on the box and packing label I would already be trying this method. I can't convince myself just yet. Amazon makes it too easy. I could have the *new* phone by Friday. Then I wouldn't be wasting my remaining work week trying to hack into my personal Christmas present in order to make it function...........................................
Edit - Yes I'm impatient. My job is too demanding and I am trying to set a good precedent for 2013. Wasting the first 3 work days on a phone is not how I intend to start off the year. There is probably a valuable lesson to be learned from this as far as hacking experience and to be honest with the responses here I think I could get it to boot up from PC in SDK/ADB mode and go from there. I just didnt know if that was possible until after I made the claim with Amazon. I still have an entire day today and tomorrow if I want to indulge myself. It doesnt matter if I mail the package today or Wednesday, I can still get it by Friday. I believe this thread is still valuable because we have patterns of repeating past failures and I may find use of it when I recieve my new phone and, darn it, it mysteriously bricks as well. in the same fashion.... the only thing I was really trying to do was get all my apps on my SD card... sad huh?
Edit 2 - Opened up the box, tried fastboot and adb, nothing. Off she goes.
I don't blame you, it sounds easier to exchange in your case any way. The main suggestion I have is if you are getting into any type of build.prop or operating system tweaks that have potential to lead to boot loops or cause the phone not to boot, then unlock the bootloader and install custom recovery.
The Moto-fail method seems limited to only be able to run apps that require root. For me this has no use as I want to be able to have complete control over all aspects of the Android OS. There is not a huge mod community for the Q as yet but I believe Cyanogen will be a reality as Interloper continues working on it. I came from an Epic with Cyanogen and soft-bricked it a minimum of 50 times. CWM was very forgiving on that phone, the Q is a lot more finicky and frustrating.
If you have insurance through the carrier then you are going to pay $150 for a refurb if something goes wrong and you hard brick the phone. If you unlock bootloader and install custom recovery then you have a fail-safe in the form of nandroid backups and restores. Then you can mod away with little fear.
Good luck on the new phone and I hope you don't give up after six days of modding with the Q!
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
matt2k12 said:
Thanks for the help Unicron. I think Brandons method might be my only alternative... but you know what? I already have the box packed up to ship back to Amazon! I am still a noob; I dunno if I could go the distance on this one. I have been updating my Android SDK files since I got the phone but I never got it to recognize boot up thru ADB fastboot. disclaimer* I havent tried it in a couple days since all teh SDK updates completed.
I dunno though I am a big time DIYer when possible. If it werent for the massive amount of tape I put on the box and packing label I would already be trying this method. I can't convince myself just yet. Amazon makes it too easy. I could have the *new* phone by Friday. Then I wouldn't be wasting my remaining work week trying to hack into my personal Christmas present in order to make it function...........................................
Edit - Yes I'm impatient. My job is too demanding and I am trying to set a good precedent for 2013. Wasting the first 3 work days on a phone is not how I intend to start off the year. There is probably a valuable lesson to be learned from this as far as hacking experience and to be honest with the responses here I think I could get it to boot up from PC in SDK/ADB mode and go from there. I just didnt know if that was possible until after I made the claim with Amazon. I still have an entire day today and tomorrow if I want to indulge myself. It doesnt matter if I mail the package today or Wednesday, I can still get it by Friday. I believe this thread is still valuable because we have patterns of repeating past failures and I may find use of it when I recieve my new phone and, darn it, it mysteriously bricks as well. in the same fashion.... the only thing I was really trying to do was get all my apps on my SD card... sad huh?
Edit 2 - Opened up the box, tried fastboot and adb, nothing. Off she goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FWIW, pressing vol down + power til it resets then pressing the camera button + power once the screen is black gets you to the Boot Mode Selection Menu, where you can start recovery, fastboot, BP tools (still not sure what that is entirely) and some others. Seems to be a fairly reliable/easy method for getting to both recovery and fastboot from any point.
befrosty8612 said:
FWIW, pressing vol down + power til it resets then pressing the camera button + power once the screen is black gets you to the Boot Mode Selection Menu, where you can start recovery, fastboot, BP tools (still not sure what that is entirely) and some others. Seems to be a fairly reliable/easy method for getting to both recovery and fastboot from any point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure wish I would have known that ahead of time. Does this work without any recovery mode and with the bootloader still locked?
matt2k12 said:
Sure wish I would have known that ahead of time. Does this work without any recovery mode and with the bootloader still locked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does work without any recovery mode and I believe it still works without the bootloader being unlocked, I didn't know about this myself until after I had already unlocked it. Sorry I couldn't help out sooner.
befrosty8612 said:
It does work without any recovery mode and I believe it still works without the bootloader being unlocked, I didn't know about this myself until after I had already unlocked it. Sorry I couldn't help out sooner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, I am wanting to do the backdoor root method again but, of course, may brick it. I dont think Amazon will keep sending me new ones.... but maybe!
befrosty8612 said:
FWIW, pressing vol down + power til it resets then pressing the camera button + power once the screen is black gets you to the Boot Mode Selection Menu, where you can start recovery, fastboot, BP tools (still not sure what that is entirely) and some others. Seems to be a fairly reliable/easy method for getting to both recovery and fastboot from any point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For anyone concerned, I knew it would only be a matter of time until bricking my new device. This damn Root Toolbox Pro did it to me again, and on a simple, menial task. I am going to be working thru the motions on getting this to work.
Using the instructions quoted I did get stock recovery to work or at least flash on the screen for a split second. Seems like there is a timer on the recovery screen. I am having trouble with the fastboot prompt though on the PC. Do I do it in the "platform-tools" folder which contains fastboot or in the "tools" folder of the main SDK directory? I am really a noob, can you give me the cliff notes of how to get into ADB, fastboot, etc on the Photon Q in order to do a factory reset? I already have Android SDK installed and completely up to date so that is done. And Fastboot is installed. I'm just having trouble crossing the finish line here... I can get the fastboot page opened in the stock recovery but from there I'm lost. I dont know what to type into the command prompt, in what directory, or what.... Also when I open the command prompt in the SDK folder on the PC with fastboot in the directory and type "adb reboot bootloader" it says "device not found". Maybe (surely) that is the wrong prompt?
FWIW my phone is showing the dead android guy. I didnt do anything besides try and clear up my Play Store download list which required a reboot. The phone never started back up. I dont know how much damage was done or info was lost or whatever, but seeing as how I was rooted but still locked, I had no custom recovery. So no back ups. Is there anything to restore or am I looking at a full wipe and restore?
matt2k12 said:
For anyone concerned, I knew it would only be a matter of time until bricking my new device. This damn Root Toolbox Pro did it to me again, and on a simple, menial task. I am going to be working thru the motions on getting this to work.
Using the instructions quoted I did get stock recovery to work or at least flash on the screen for a split second. Seems like there is a timer on the recovery screen. I am having trouble with the fastboot prompt though on the PC. Do I do it in the "platform-tools" folder which contains fastboot or in the "tools" folder of the main SDK directory? I am really a noob, can you give me the cliff notes of how to get into ADB, fastboot, etc on the Photon Q in order to do a factory reset? I already have Android SDK installed and completely up to date so that is done. And Fastboot is installed. I'm just having trouble crossing the finish line here... I can get the fastboot page opened in the stock recovery but from there I'm lost. I dont know what to type into the command prompt, in what directory, or what.... Also when I open the command prompt in the SDK folder on the PC with fastboot in the directory and type "adb reboot bootloader" it says "device not found". Maybe (surely) that is the wrong prompt?
FWIW my phone is showing the dead android guy. I didnt do anything besides try and clear up my Play Store download list which required a reboot. The phone never started back up. I dont know how much damage was done or info was lost or whatever, but seeing as how I was rooted but still locked, I had no custom recovery. So no back ups. Is there anything to restore or am I looking at a full wipe and restore?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As abnormal as it seems, your situation seems pretty normal... at least from my shoes. I went through the same scenario... I didn't know what adb was, or fastboot, etc. So, here's what I know
the fastboot commands work even if adb doesnt see it in the list of devices attached. Somehow it just works (as long as the phone is in fastboot mode).
If you're able to get to the fastboot mode, things should be okay. Just open a windows explorer window to the Platform-Tools, hold the shift key and right click on a blank space within the window, then click open command window here.
you should be able to pass any adb (if the phone is on and recognized) or fastboot (if phone is in fastboot mode) commands from that command prompt.
Also, if you have a stock recovery, CMW, or TWRP image, this is the folder to copy those .img files to. Once you get your phone into fastboot mode and its plugged into the computer, just type into the command prompt:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
If you're just looking to reboot the phone into recovery
If you have a CWM or TWRP recovery just replace the recovery.img with whatever the .img file that you have. Also, as a tip instead of writing the entire file name, just press the first couple letters then press the tab key within the command prompt, it should fill in the rest. keep pressing tab until you get to the .img file name you want.
To avoid doing this again, maybe I can help... what were you trying to do to begin with? From the sound of it, you were trying to root the phone with the Root Toolbox Pro but it bricked, and then you tried to reboot into recovery and then got the red android... ?
befrosty8612 said:
As abnormal as it seems, your situation seems pretty normal... at least from my shoes. I went through the same scenario... I didn't know what adb was, or fastboot, etc. So, here's what I know
the fastboot commands work even if adb doesnt see it in the list of devices attached. Somehow it just works (as long as the phone is in fastboot mode).
If you're able to get to the fastboot mode, things should be okay. Just open a windows explorer window to the Platform-Tools, hold the shift key and right click on a blank space within the window, then click open command window here.
you should be able to pass any adb (if the phone is on and recognized) or fastboot (if phone is in fastboot mode) commands from that command prompt.
Also, if you have a stock recovery, CMW, or TWRP image, this is the folder to copy those .img files to. Once you get your phone into fastboot mode and its plugged into the computer, just type into the command prompt:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
If you're just looking to reboot the phone into recovery
If you have a CWM or TWRP recovery just replace the recovery.img with whatever the .img file that you have. Also, as a tip instead of writing the entire file name, just press the first couple letters then press the tab key within the command prompt, it should fill in the rest. keep pressing tab until you get to the .img file name you want.
To avoid doing this again, maybe I can help... what were you trying to do to begin with? From the sound of it, you were trying to root the phone with the Root Toolbox Pro but it bricked, and then you tried to reboot into recovery and then got the red android... ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. So, all I have to do is: go to fastboot and flash a stock recovery image file and it will automatically wipe the phone, cache, everything, and restore the operating system? Sounds awfully easy! I found some stock files in this post : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2001226&page=2 Are these the ones you used before?
Last question: I can flash CWM or TWRP but wont be able to access them if my bootloader is locked, correct? So flashing a stock recovery will allow me to have my stock phone back again, locked and un-rooted? I guess if I cant get it to work with the stock recovery then I can unlock the bootloader and do a CWM or TWRP recovery and then flash the stock .img files?
Thanks again for your help. I already had root with the motofail2go method which I like using but seems like when I try and use some generic root feature from apps from the app store that it will crash/brick the phone cuz obviously those apps are generalized and likely to brick certain percentage of devices....
Ok what does this mean? Something with the bootlaoder obviously. Does it need to be unlocked?
Code:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>fastboot flash recover
y qrecovery1.img
(bootloader) Variable not supported!
target reported max download size of 31457280 bytes
sending 'recovery' (5962 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.479s]
writing 'recovery'...
(bootloader) Preflash validation failed
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.755s
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>
And on the phone screen it says "invalid image size for partition recovery" twice for both times I tried this method.
You will need to flash the system image as well if you want those, as the recovery image will only flash the recovery. The files in that link are for twrp only... so you'll have to be able to get there first.
With the custom recoveries, I'm not 100% sure whether or not you will be able to use them without being unlocked. I would wait to see if anyone else can answer that question for you, but if you did try it without an unlocked bootloader, you at least have the stock recovery to fall back on if needed.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 09:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 PM ----------
I'm thinking it could either be that your phone is full and the image you're flashing is too large to fit on the space available...
Or you're trying to flash custom software on a locked phone.
Hopefully someone is able to answer that a little better...
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
You can't alter the stock recovery (flash a custom recovery like twrp or cwm) in fastboot without having the bootloader unlocked. Your options are to unlock your bootloader, flash custom recovery, create a backup of your current setup, download one of the stock working backups, place it in the backups folder for twrp on your external sd card, and restore one of the known working backups in the development section (befrosty linked to one). Or you could use RSD lite to return to stock using a stock factory firmware flash. That involves connecting your phone to your PC and flashing the phone back to factory stock. Information on RSD Lite and links to the FXZ's can be found here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2095536
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
If i just use my charger, there is no response from the phone. When i try with the laptop, my laptop makes a sound to show that the phone has been plugged in, but the phone does not respond at all. I had a cm12 nightly flashed, and tried to flash Francos kernel on it, which made the phone get stuck on that blue alien logo when booting. After trying various fixes with no results, i just wiped everything ( i had no backups because i am a stupid ****) and then it got stuck on the Oneplus One logo. Now i am trying this http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-return-opo-to-100-stock-t2826541[1] and while i used the flash all.bat file, i noticed that cmd just kept showing waiting for device response (or something like that) which was weird, since it had completed some of the previous actions. Then i looked at my phone, with nothing at the screen. And it is now that it does not boot at all (not into the recovery, fast boot, normally, nothing) and does not show anything while i try to charge. What can i do?
Before the cmd process, the phone was showing up as a unit under Computer, but it is not anymore.
Just before, when i plugged it in, windows showed that something had been connected, but it did not know what, so i assume that there are some driver issues or something, though i have installed the qpst driver.
I also made a reddit post about it, where i got some response, but i could not go through with those either https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/3bzwel/my_one_is_not_booting_at_all_and_does_not_react/
Do you know what i am doing wrong? Got any other fixes? Thanks in advance.
One get a otg cable then flash any custom rom using ur pen drive or go to adb and connect ur phone and check in device manager if it shows ur phone there or install any adb driver the try that flashall.bat it will surely work!! But I would say get a otg cable
Transmitted via Bacon
alan2500 said:
If i just use my charger, there is no response from the phone. When i try with the laptop, my laptop makes a sound to show that the phone has been plugged in, but the phone does not respond at all. I had a cm12 nightly flashed, and tried to flash Francos kernel on it, which made the phone get stuck on that blue alien logo when booting. After trying various fixes with no results, i just wiped everything ( i had no backups because i am a stupid ****) and then it got stuck on the Oneplus One logo. Now i am trying this http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-return-opo-to-100-stock-t2826541[1] and while i used the flash all.bat file, i noticed that cmd just kept showing waiting for device response (or something like that) which was weird, since it had completed some of the previous actions. Then i looked at my phone, with nothing at the screen. And it is now that it does not boot at all (not into the recovery, fast boot, normally, nothing) and does not show anything while i try to charge. What can i do?
Before the cmd process, the phone was showing up as a unit under Computer, but it is not anymore.
Just before, when i plugged it in, windows showed that something had been connected, but it did not know what, so i assume that there are some driver issues or something, though i have installed the qpst driver.
I also made a reddit post about it, where i got some response, but i could not go through with those either https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/3bzwel/my_one_is_not_booting_at_all_and_does_not_react/
Do you know what i am doing wrong? Got any other fixes? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/help/guide-unbrick-oneplus-one-t3013732
yashshan said:
One get a otg cable then flash any custom rom using ur pen drive or go to adb and connect ur phone and check in device manager if it shows ur phone there or install any adb driver the try that flashall.bat it will surely work!! But I would say get a otg cable
Transmitted via Bacon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That won't work, the phone isn't turning on.
Heisenberg said:
Go here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/help/guide-unbrick-oneplus-one-t3013732
That won't work, the phone isn't turning on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot, i dont know how i did not come upon that link while trying various fixes, now i can boot the phone again
Heisenberg said:
Go here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/help/guide-unbrick-oneplus-one-t3013732
That won't work, the phone isn't turning on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh, new problem, i used the toolkit to unlock the bootloader, and i had to use the Ultimate Tool kit to get TWRP on it. When i connect the phone to the pc (windows 7) i keep getting a message saying i have to format the phone before i can use it. When i click that, it says its writing protected. When i boot up the phone, it turns on, and i can go to the home screen (some times) but after a few seconds, it just turns off it self. Sorry for asking for your help again, but do you know of this problem? Google just came up with results for people with battery problems.
Heisenberg said:
Go here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/help/guide-unbrick-oneplus-one-t3013732
That won't work, the phone isn't turning on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am just going to message you again before i mess up my phone even more, after a lot of hassle, i messed something up and redid the guide in the link you sended to me. According to the Oneplus one toolkit, my bootloader is unlocked. I can not enter fastboot, so i can not get a custom recovery or root. I can not turn on the phone normally either. I can Volume up+power button though, which takes me to the ColorOS RECOVERY screen. I would appreciate your help.
alan2500 said:
I am just going to message you again before i mess up my phone even more, after a lot of hassle, i messed something up and redid the guide in the link you sended to me. According to the Oneplus one toolkit, my bootloader is unlocked. I can not enter fastboot, so i can not get a custom recovery or root. I can not turn on the phone normally either. I can Volume up+power button though, which takes me to the ColorOS RECOVERY screen. I would appreciate your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get rid of the toolkit,they're nothing but trouble. Plus, you don't need it. Plus, they allow you to bypass some very crucial learning experience. Power + volume up should take you to fastboot, not recovery, the button combo for recovery is power + volume down. Are you sure you can't get into fastboot? Is adb working in ColorOS recovery?
Heisenberg said:
Get rid of the toolkit,they're nothing but trouble. Plus, you don't need it. Plus, they allow you to bypass some very crucial learning experience. Power + volume up should take you to fastboot, not recovery, the button combo for recovery is power + volume down. Are you sure you can't get into fastboot? Is adb working in ColorOS recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh brainfart, yup, its volume down+power that goes to the recovery. I just tried volume up+power, and now it goes into fastboot. I did try before, and the vibration was there, but no text on the screen. Not sure what to say about adb, when i launch adb.exe the CMD window just opens up, types a bunch in so fast that i cant read it, and then it closes down. It does the same thing when my phone is not plugged in, so i assume it does not work.
alan2500 said:
Oh brainfart, yup, its volume down+power that goes to the recovery. I just tried volume up+power, and now it goes into fastboot. I did try before, and the vibration was there, but no text on the screen. Not sure what to say about adb, when i launch adb.exe the CMD window just opens up, types a bunch in so fast that i cant read it, and then it closes down. It does the same thing when my phone is not plugged in, so i assume it does not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, you're not meant to launch adb.exe like that though. You go to the folder where adb.exe is located, then hold shift and right click the mouse, and select "open command prompt here" from the menu, then you can issue adb commands. The same process goes for using fastboot. Anyway, now that you have access to fastboot all you should need to do is flash the stock images, go to section 8 of my guide thread for instructions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2839471
Heisenberg said:
Ok, you're not meant to launch adb.exe like that though. You go to the folder where adb.exe is located, then hold shift and right click the mouse, and select "open command prompt here" from the menu, then you can issue adb commands. The same process goes for using fastboot. Anyway, now that you have access to fastboot all you should need to do is flash the stock images, go to section 8 of my guide thread for instructions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2839471
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a bunch, i got through it this time lol. So just to be sure that i do not end up bricking my phone again, can i just install TWRP, root, then dirty flash the latest CM nightly? I have no idea whats best to go with, and other than long battery life and good performance, i do not really have any needs, so i am thinking the latest cm will be fine. It was a nightly i was running before i bricked the phone actually.
alan2500 said:
Thanks a bunch, i got through it this time lol. So just to be sure that i do not end up bricking my phone again, can i just install TWRP, root, then dirty flash the latest CM nightly? I have no idea whats best to go with, and other than long battery life and good performance, i do not really have any needs, so i am thinking the latest cm will be fine. It was a nightly i was running before i bricked the phone actually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't dirty flash, clean flash. Try out the Exodus ROM, great battery life and great features too.