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[DEV TIP]How I Got Out Of A Semi-Brick

I almost had a heart attack last night doing some kernel work. This is what happened, and how I got out of it.
I had just finished compiling a kernel I was working on and was excited to flash it and give it a run. So I built the boot.img and did
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
I got into the bootloader and
Code:
fastboot flash boot [B][I]boot.zip[/I][/B]
fastboot reboot
Working quickly, a got a little sloppy. Most unfortunately, I had a boot.zip in the same folder as the boot.img so boot.zip got flashed to the boot partition. Upon reboot, I got the usual splash screen but the upper left hand corner indicated I was in "RSD Mode 3". I pressed and held Vol up + power to get into bootloader but that was unresponsive. All I could do was press Vol Down + power which brought me back to the same state. I was unable to issue fastboot commands from here as well. This is what I did to fix it.
While I was in "RSD Mode 3" I did
Code:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
Even though there was no response from the device, I pressed Vol Down + power until the screen went black. I then quickly pressed and held Vol Up + power. The device then went into the bootloader, received the queued command from fastboot, and flashed the boot.img. Finally, I did
Code:
fastboot reboot
and was back in the game.
Guys, I think the moral of the story is to slow down and be careful with fastboot. You can bet i'll be a little more careful

good post I'm sure this will help devs in the future

way to stay calm under pressure lol. good info.

Small world, I used to live in Fontana for 25 years and moved to NY couple of years ago Oh and thanks for the tip

Ran into this today, i had a similar, but different experience..hope this helps
Once i got into the RSD 3 mode, fastboot commands were basically dead...all i would get was <waiting for device>...
in order to get out, i had to hold BOTH VOL+ and VOL- and Power at the same time, then as soon as the screen turned off, I had to press VOL- and power at the same time to get to a 'regular' looking boot screen. I saw regular because there was no text at the top ofthe screen; however fastboot commands would work here. Because i FUBAR'd a kernel install, i just did
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot reboot
and voila...it was alive again
a bit scary though

Ok, so I definitely know the heart attack feeling, and hopefully someone here can help me out. I got my Xoom today(wifi), and went looking for a root. I found a link to a root here that -said- it worked for both 3g and wifi models(found out later that it doesn't, obviously). So, I flashed the boot image, and came up with the RSD message. At that point all fastboot and adb capability was lost, and I can't seem to get it back.
Here's what happens with the following button combo's:
Hold Power+VolUp and release on screen-black: Motorola splash screen(dual core etc) with no text in corner
Hold Power+VolUp until after the splash comes up: splash with "Starting RSD protocol support 3"
Hold Power+VolUp and then hold VolDown immediatedly afterward: Splash screen with "Starting Fastboot protocol support."
Hold Power+VolUp and then VolDown after waiting a second: Splash screen with NvFlash/RSD/Fastboot menu
Hold Power+VolUp and then press VolUp again: Splash with "Starting RSD protocol support 3"
If I choose Fastboot from the menu, it just sits at the "starting fastboot protocol support".
If I choose RSD, it gives me the "starting RSD protocol support 3"
If I choose NvFlash, it says "entering nvFlash (something) and the screen immediately goes black and the notification led comes on (sits there until reboot)
No other button combinations seem to do anything. Holding Power+VolDown doesn't do anything from any mode, and Power+VolUp+VolDown acts just like Power+VolUp.
In any mode, I can't issue fastboot or adb commands. Fastboot simply says <waiting for device> for anything. I tried the advice above, to queue up a "good" boot.img (from here at xda), but it doesn't recognize it on a reboot from/to any mode I can get to. I've tried each about 20-30 times now, and I'm about ready to test the thing's shatter-resistance with my fist, so any help here would be -greatly- appreciated.

Quick update to previous post: Resolved!!
My advice? If you get stuck unable to fastboot or adb in linux, try it in windows. I hadn't booted into win for over a year, so it never occured to me until I saw someone mention it in the Tiamat thread. Even a fresh JDK/SDK install in Ubuntu didn't work for me. I didn't have any tools or SDK's installed in my winXP partition, but after a quick install, it worked first time, so now I'm the happy owner of a rooted Wifi Xoom with SD card.
Once again, the XDA forum saves the day. I love this place.

I recommend everyone keep a backup copy of their system.img around just in case too. I was going nuts after messing with my framework-res.apk file to get SMS working (for the verizon web account activiation message). I used root explorer, and BAM! crash, crash, FC, FC, then stuck at the moto logo at boot. I couldnt get it back with just a boot.img flash. I went for broke and found a post of the HI66 system.img. it was HUGE, dont know if thats what I needed. but flashed that and I was back in business as nothing else was working and couldnt get ADB to take to push the old framework-res.apk.

I have a similar issue. I have tried for over three hours now to understand why I cannot reboot into fastboot. It seems lika I have lost both fastboot and NVflash. Only RSD mode and a logo screen without text. Can't shut it down with powerbutton or factory reset. I tried to root it with a 3g boot.img whitch was terribly wrong on a wifi-only xoom and I'm now trying to flash a stock wifi boot.img. It just sits there on the M dual core screen.
What can I do from RSD mode 3?
EDIT: I have a feeling that it has freezed on that logo screen. I want to try a hard reset and the only way for me is to try to first shut it down then power it on again. Don't know if it helps but it is silly to be unable to stop it. How can I shut it down?

I've tried all the suggestions above with no luck
Will try a windows machines tonight to see if that will help, but I fear I will need to send my Xoom back to mfg for rework

may seem a stupid suggestion but what if you let the battery go dead. it will turn off. Then connect to power supply and do a fast boot restart, holding power button and vol down.
Just a thought!

I will try but I think I already tried that. It seems like boot and recovery is dead. I tried to flash the 3g .sbf file today. Thought that an already bricked tab couldn't be more bricked and perhaps it would restore the recovery or boot but RSD Lite couldn't do it. It's unvisible for a computer. I've tried both win7 and my Arch Linux box. The device is dead. Hopefully they wont have to replace the motherboard. I'm sending it for repair on Monday.

mines bricked also says
failed image lnx 0x0002
starting rsd mode 2
i can get it in the fastboot protocol mode with the - button and power but cmd window says waiting on device. my started after i did an fastboot oem lock with a bad kernel.

dogma444 said:
mines bricked also says
failed image lnx 0x0002
starting rsd mode 2
i can get it in the fastboot protocol mode with the - button and power but cmd window says waiting on device. my started after i did an fastboot oem lock with a bad kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iirc the Failed Image lnx 0x0002 is due to locking the boot loader with custom stuff.
Unplug xoom usb
boot into fastboot
plug in xoom usb
fastboot oem unlock

orionshock said:
iirc the Failed Image lnx 0x0002 is due to locking the boot loader with custom stuff.
Unplug xoom usb
boot into fastboot
plug in xoom usb
fastboot oem unlock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man that just sound to easy to work. ADB has no clue the device is.....wel, a device! Its like my xoom de-evolutionized to a primitive state and is suffering from tourrets. Anyway command typed in adb gives you back < waiting for device >. I've tried just about all the techniques here on the forums. And the people who claim to have been brought back to life are not victims of this "RSD mode 2" Im pretty sure this is like a failsafe if you blow up the original bootloader, 3. IDK though, pretty sure they are going to require some hardware replacements. Im not sure people are recognizing the degree of our bricks. These are what appear to be real BRICKS. no "soft" ness up in here. straight up cement

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1041192
adb wait-for-device && adb reboot recovery
tried this command and seemed pretty slick but, still nothing

Same thing here, was there any solution?

Give this a try:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1079784

Please, I have same problem, but I can just reset it by pressing and holding Vol Up + Power On. When I press Vol Down + Power Down, nothing happens. If I press Vol Down when it restarts, it doesn't show me the message but shows the Motorola Dual Core logo and stops. Even in this situation I can't comunicate via usb. Now it just turn off when the battery is totally low.

I CAN boot into fastboot mode and issue fastboot commands from CMD. apparently mine is booting into RMD 3 mode or whatever it's called. when I boot normally (just hold down power button, I get the moto dual-core screen, and then it boots into the Clockwork Recovery Mod... PLEASE HELP

Stuck at Motorola logo and RSD mode 3

I'm new to Xoom but gave unlocking and rooting a go. That was todays mistake! I flashed a 3g version of boot.img. Then I tried to flash back to stock img-file. Found out that it also was a 3g img-file. Flashed once more. Now it was a wifi-only boot.img. Now I'm stuck at the Motorola Dual Core logo with Starting RSD mode 3 written in top left corner. I can't shut this thing off or anything else but rebooting back to same screen. I really don't know what to do. I bought it yesterday from a man that bought it in the US a week ago so I can't go to the shop and I don't think there are any shop that can flash it for me because it's not available here in Sweden yet. Please help. I have RSD Lite installed and the correct drivers for the Xoom installed. I'm used to ADB but it can't find the device and fastboot doesn't see it either.
Edit. I can't go into fastboot mode.

Grab the wifi's boot.img off of here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1017398

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=973355
This might be helpful. Not sure.

Don't worry you are in good company, even BRD had the same problem. Here's how he fixed it:
While I was in "RSD Mode 3" I did
Code:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
Even though there was no response from the device, I pressed Vol Down + power until the screen went black. I then quickly pressed and held Vol Up + power. The device then went into the bootloader, received the queued command from fastboot, and flashed the boot.img. Finally, I did
Code:
fastboot reboot
and was back in the game.
Guys, I think the moral of the story is to slow down and be careful with fastboot. You can bet i'll be a little more careful
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit: Same advice as linked above by milehighclubAV8R

That doesn't do it. Propably it's some stupid misstake from me but I cannot do this because of " I pressed Vol Down + power until the screen went black". It wont get black. When I press Power + Vol down nothing happens. Am I doing something wrong. I have tried holding the buttons for about 30 seconds and nothing happens.

Did you just press the buttons or did you also enter the fastboot code as suggested?

First cmd command then pressing the buttons. When I reboot using power + vol up it starts into RSD mode 3. When rebooting it with power + vol up then vol down when black it starts into the logo screen without any text in the upper left corner. Can't even shut it down with long press on power button
Can I pull the battery? On my Galaxy S that's the way out if I get in a boot loop or need to redo a failed flash.

Not AFAIK, the unit is sealed and can't access the battery to pull it.
Perhaps ask in this thread - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=973355, there may be more technical people seeing it there than in the general section.

OK. I will do that. Thank you for trying to help.

Press power+volume up. Hold it til it restarts. Let go of both buttons once you see the motorola logo then just press volume down once, and you should be then able to cycle through 3 different modes. Press volume down to cycle to different modes, volume up to select. Hope that helps.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

Sorry but I can't cycle through anything. There are two modes. Either "Starting RSD mode 3" or nothing and RSDLite can't communicate with it so I belive that my xoom is dead. Sending it in for repair tomorrow. I'm giving up.

mine is stuck in the rsd mode 2. if i push and power and the up it will boot cycle if i the down button it says it is the the flashboot protocol mode, but i cannot get it to respond from the cmd window. my computer doesnt think its connected. i have the correct mot drivers. any help or is it bricked

Some people have been getting lucky with ADB commands however others have not been so luck. I myself am in the others category with one of my XOOMS.
Sucks, but some people have been able to get back. I however have not been so lucky with one of the WiFi XOOM's I have and did this purposely to see if maybe something can be done with it. Looks like we have to wait for all the files to be released......
Any day now Moto, util then people will continue to send these devices in and con the stores . For this, I applaud them.

This might work or it might not.
I had a bricked xoom too. no matter what fastboot i entered it wouldnt recognise it. all it would say is "waiting for device"
This is what i did.
Turn the xoom off
Do not connect you USB cable yet
Fastboot reboot-bootloader
It should say "waiting for devices"
Now plug your xoom
Turn on the xoom.
When you see the Motorola logo press volume down till you see "fastboot protocol"
Press volume up.
It recognise my xoom that way

couldnt turn mine off. let the battery run down. plugged it into power booted it up. no help. bricked

stevenege said:
Some people have been getting lucky with ADB commands however others have not been so luck. I myself am in the others category with one of my XOOMS.
Sucks, but some people have been able to get back. I however have not been so lucky with one of the WiFi XOOM's I have and did this purposely to see if maybe something can be done with it. Looks like we have to wait for all the files to be released......
Any day now Moto, util then people will continue to send these devices in and con the stores . For this, I applaud them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to admit, I'm one of them. Sure is a nice way to tell Moto to hurry the F up. I can't say I felt great about it but I wasn't about to lose $600 either.

me to one of them

shipped mine back to the factory today. not sure what they can do to it. is there such a thing as a force flash or will they have to replace the firmare chip to make it work? unstable combo tegra and honeycomb, aint messin with mine anymore.

i just recovered mine from this. i flashed recovery with clockwork mod:
at the rsd 3 screen with the usb attached
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
held the volume down while pressing the power off on until fastboot started flashing the recovery
fastboot reboot
xoom started in clockwork mod, did a restart and it worked
****This happened after attempting to load recovery from rom manager without flashing new recovery image.***

Did you happen to mention in your explanation about what went wrong with your xoom anything about unlocking or relocking?

How to shut down a (semi)bricked Xoom

I have had a hard day trying to recover my Xoom. No success. My biggest problem for now is:
How do I shut it down. The screen is on showing the M bootlogo. The powerbutton doesn't do it. From what I understand so are the tablet "off" because the charging light goes on when I connect the charger. I read in a thread somewhere that the light doesn't go on if the tablet is on.
So how do I shut down a tablet that's not on?
I'm afraid that the screen will be damaged if it has the same picture on it untill the battery is drained. Perhaps that's not the case nowadays, but I don't know.
Anyone that do know?

Have u tried just hold power volume up?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Yes. That only reboots to logoscreen and Starting RSDmode 3.

jai134 said:
Yes. That only reboots to logoscreen and Starting RSDmode 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't just shut it down. Gotta boot into fastboot and flash a boot.img, then power it off. Obnoxious I know.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

Hold volume up and power at the same time. See if that works!
Oops just saw the 2nd post.

Yup, follow post #2 to shut it down. But make sure you let go of both buttons as soon as the screen turns off. Also, if you wanna unbrick your semi bricked xoom, use a windows XP machine (win 7 64bit just gives me too many problems). You can use the one click root solution to make it easier for you. To get it to fastboot mode (to restore the boot.I mg and system.I mg files), you have to hold power+volume up button, and as soon as the screen turns on, let go of both buttons and press volume down immediately.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

u may need to download your devices partition images and reflash them in fastboot

Thank you. I'm sorry but that didn't help. I can't boot into fastboot mode. When I follow your advice I boot into the logo screen without any text in the upper left corner. Then I give the "fastboot flash boot boot.img"-command from CMD. It just sits there <waiting for device>. I think I have to send it back to Best Buy and let them repair it. It was nice for 5 hours though. My personal best in bricking.

I got stuck at that screen once and shut it down by holding the power button for a very long time. At least 30 second, if not more. Perhaps that'll work for you.

jai134 said:
Thank you. I'm sorry but that didn't help. I can't boot into fastboot mode. When I follow your advice I boot into the logo screen without any text in the upper left corner. Then I give the "fastboot flash boot boot.img"-command from CMD. It just sits there . I think I have to send it back to Best Buy and let them repair it. It was nice for 5 hours though. My personal best in bricking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, try this.. Reboot the device by pressing on the power and volume up key. Hold both keys til it reboots and you see the motorola logo. As soon as you see the motorola logo, let go of the power and volume up key. Press on the volume down button once and it would then give you the choice of booting Android (recovery), press the volume down again for the RSD mode, press on the volume again and it will then give you the choice of fastboot mode. Pressing the volume up key will select the current boot mode displayed... See if that works..
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

No. I can't get into any recovery. It boot into RSD mode 3 or no text in upper left corner. In that mode I can't use fastboot or adb. What can I do with RSD mode 3? Can I create the file that can be flashed with RSD Lite from a wifi xoom dump in the development forum?

MY XOOM WiFi MZ604 is HEAVILY BRICKED! HELP ASAP, PLEASE!

Error : Starting RSD mode 3
I followed the steps on rooting the xoom wifi from this website : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1010568. I got to the step,"fastboot flash boot boot.img". Then it stuck at "Dual Core Technology". I rebooted my xoom, then it went to the same screen, but there is an ERROR. The error is "Starting RSD mode 3". PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM!
EDIT : Also, I can't connect my XOOM to my PC via USB. It won't even play that WINDOWS sound when i plug it in to pc, it won't recognize.
EDIT2 : I can't get into fastboot. I powered my xoom down, then hold power and volume down button, and it just shows the motorola logo.
-shadowminh

if you press power and vol up till it resets then hold volume down it will boot into fastboot mode and you can try to reflash the boot img
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Sic123 said:
if you press power and vol up till it resets then hold volume down it will boot into fastboot mode and you can try to reflash the boot img
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I reseted my xoom. But when i hold the volume down, it just show the motorola logo, with no error, and it freezes. It doesn't show the fastboot.

So the only option you have is rsd3? You can only run commands from fastboot. If you do a hard reset while its plugged into the pc, does anything happen?

Droid-Xer said:
So the only option you have is rsd3? You can only run commands from fastboot. If you do a hard reset while its plugged into the pc, does anything happen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes. I either go to rsd3 or nothing, motorola logo. adb, or fastboot, won't find my device. How do you do a hard reset???

Can someone help me with this problem! Pleaaaase!

Hold power and vol up
Sent from my MZ604 using XDA Premium App

ankorez said:
Hold power and vol up
Sent from my MZ604 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's to reboot

Are you find solution?
tu peux essayer ça: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1052644
Sent from my MZ604 using XDA Premium App

shadowminh said:
that's to reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what OS are you using?????
did you make sure drivers loaded before trying to use fastboot?

If you get the rsd3 you should be okay. I had same issue and used rsd lite with the sbf and it worked.

There is no SBF for the WiFi only xoom. So he needs fastboot.

Please Help...
I got very similar problem.
I own Motorola Xoom WiFi only and I was trying to root it via Koush manual.
Everything works fine until step 9. Xoom didn't reboot. I'm just looking on Motorola Dual Core technology logo...
I try to restart it (Vol Up and Power) but nothing changed...
So sorry for my English
EDIT: reflash original motorola sw, so works fine now... without root

me to i have same problem
maybe the solution sbf file but where the sbf ???
every day i heard tomorrow

just reflash all original stock wifi images...

Damn, wont' even load fastboot!

OK I'm stumped.
I was sick of the OTA updates bugging me so I set about flashing to 4.4.2 on my XT1034. All went along fine till I got to the part where I had to flash system with sparsechunk. It kept giving me a permissions error. I wasn't sure what to do so I decided to try rebooting, clearly that was not the answer. Now my phone shows the unlocked boot loader screen for a few seconds and goes to a black screen. I can tell the screen is on, it's just that the screen itself is showing all black. My computer recognizes that something in there and installs the drivers for the ADB interface and USB composite, but not the MTP device. All commands to adb or fastboot just says waiting for device.
Anyone have any idea?
Edit: Not sure if it makes a difference, but I was on stock 4.3, trying to go to 4.4.2 or in firmware terms...
from Blur_Version.14.14.16.falcon_umts.AWSRetail.en.US
to Blur_Version.172.44.4.falcon_umts.AWSRetail.en.US

If your phone even does not start in fastboot mode then i would say you are pretty much fu***d.

Fastboot Cable?
I just had a thought. I have a fastboot cable from my Droid Razr XT912. I wonder if that might force it into fastboot mode?
I'll have to wait till I get home to try it but I'll update it I make any progress.

Hold power button until phone turns off. Turn phone on while holding volume down.

tapman said:
I have a fastboot cable from my Droid Razr XT912.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have a fastboot cable :fingers-crossed::laugh:
Thats really great!
No my friend, your USB cable will not help you to access fastboot mode.
The first way to access Fastboot is to press Volume Down + Power when the phone is switched off.
The second way to access Fastboot is to boot the phone into Android and then
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
But as you have no operating system on your phone there is only option one for you.
So your fastboot cable will not help you. Try several times to get in fastboot with option one.

lost101 said:
Hold power button until phone turns off. Turn phone on while holding volume down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No luck. When I power it off it just power's itself back on a few seconds later whether I and holding the power button or not and regardless of if it's plugged in or not. I've tried the following combinations:
power off then hold volume down while it powers itself on
power off then power back on while holding volume down
hold power and volume down till it reboots
All have the same result, reboot, unlocked bootloader screen, blank, windows detects new hardware and tries to install drivers but fails on the MTP

So also if there is no cable connected it switches on itself?
Actually when it comes to the bootloader screen you missed already the fastboot entrance point.
Give it some more tries.

mokkami said:
So also if there is no cable connected it switches on itself?
Actually when it comes to the bootloader screen you missed already the fastboot entrance point.
Give it some more tries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. I'll keep trying :/
Edit: Sweet Jebus it worked! I'm back into fastboot
Thank you so very much!
Could be a coincidence but after taking off my case(otterbox defender) and trying again it worked. Maybe the membrane was causing me to press both volume buttons? Weird but I'll take it.

Glad to hear. Yeah i had also an Otterbox for my HHTC HD2 and i had also this problem.
Now you can go on to restore your Moto G

mokkami said:
Glad to hear. Yeah i had also an Otterbox for my HHTC HD2 and i had also this problem.
Now you can go on to restore your Moto G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup back up and running now, no idea why I was getting those permission errors. *shrug*
Thanks again