Related
I wanted to share my knowledge and experience from the past 2 days. Most of the help came from guides and posts on this forum so I wanted to give that back.
We were trying to root the SGS4G and because we're noobs we made the mistake of thinking it was a Vibrant. Got a Vibrant ROM and tried to flash it though Odin WITH re-partition checked. Everything we read said if you do either one of these things, you will brick your phone.
Sure enough we bricked the phone. It was trying to boot into the Vibrant ROM but was getting stuck on the word 'Vibrant' and then showing a whole lot of weird colored pixels. We then learned we'd made a massive mistake and that the phone wasn't a Vibrant after all.
We got a stock ROM for SGS4G and started trying to push them through Odin. Faced countless FAILS and freezes and finally it took us to the Recovery Mode and we tried the Restore option. It booted into a crippled SGS4G ROM. When it booted, it vibrated every 10 seconds or so and it had a null IMEI and unknown baseband.
We tried following a guide that wanted to change some text in the nv_data.bin but the numbers we were meant to be editing (0018810?) didn't exist in our nv_data.bin. So that didn't work for us.
In the meantime we tried to flash the stock ROM in Odin but kept getting FAILs and Freezes. With this step we lost even the crippled operating system and couldn't reach anything except the 'phone --!-- computer' screen. Luckily, this acts the same as download mode, so not bricked. We kept trying to push the stock SGS4G stock ROM (Froyo 2.2) several times and failing.
At one point we got a completely black screen, wouldn't turn on. Bricked again. We found this post on RootzWiki and it worked for us that time and brought it back from the black screen to download mode http://rootzwiki.com/topic/1820-how-to-unbrick-your-sgs4g/
Somehow we ended up at this guide here on XDA for fixing the "null/null" IMEI http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142829
We followed that guide. When you add the PIT file it automatically checks 'Re-Partition' in Odin, we didn't uncheck it. Bricked again. It was stuck on the Samsung logo and when we tried to get to download mode it got stuck on a black screen with the loading circle/lines and 2 computers were giving 'The USB device has malfunctioned' when we plugged it in. The unbrick guide above (RootzWiki) didn't help this time. We tried restarting the computer, let the phone rest without battery for half an hour, held power button for a minute without battery, still nothing.
Finally I accidentally pressed the power button (rather than the volume buttons to get into download mode) and it went to the samsung logo (as expected) and after that I was able to get into download mode. The key to this I think is to keep on trying powering on normally then try download mode over and over and eventually it should get unstuck and the computer should recognize it again.
Once I had it back in download mode, I followed this guide again BUT!!! I made sure to un-check re-partition and I did not check "Phone EFS Clear" (because I had tried that already before it was bricked and wanted to see if a straight ROM would work first). Everything worked perfectly, I got my IMEI and Baseband back, without modifying anything.
I don't know if this was a miracle, or if any of it will work for anyone else, but the moral of the story is don't give up even if you've done the absolute worst possible thing. I don't even think hardbrick exists on this phone after everything we were able to save it from.
Cheers
Hardbricks do exist on this phone but you have to try really hard to do it. A few people have managed it. Way to stick with it and recover your phone. I've done that more times than I can count.
hechoen said:
Hardbricks do exist on this phone but you have to try really hard to do it. A few people have managed it. Way to stick with it and recover your phone. I've done that more times than I can count.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't feel like i really hard bricked it until i saw the USB computer connection error "device pluged in malfunctioned" in more than one PC.
Then i really felt like its a hardware BIOS chipset level problem now but man...
That story cracked me up. That is exactly why I spend days reading before I even root my phone. I made the mistake one time on my old G1 and it could not be revived.
Congrats on getting it working. (especially without flooding the q&a with redundant questions that have been described in detail several places )
hani1400 said:
I wanted to share my knowledge and experience from the past 2 days. Most of the help came from guides and posts on this forum so I wanted to give that back.
We were trying to root the SGS4G and because we're noobs we made the mistake of thinking it was a Vibrant. Got a Vibrant ROM and tried to flash it though Odin WITH re-partition checked. Everything we read said if you do either one of these things, you will brick your phone.
Sure enough we bricked the phone. It was trying to boot into the Vibrant ROM but was getting stuck on the word 'Vibrant' and then showing a whole lot of weird colored pixels. We then learned we'd made a massive mistake and that the phone wasn't a Vibrant after all.
We got a stock ROM for SGS4G and started trying to push them through Odin. Faced countless FAILS and freezes and finally it took us to the Recovery Mode and we tried the Restore option. It booted into a crippled SGS4G ROM. When it booted, it vibrated every 10 seconds or so and it had a null IMEI and unknown baseband.
We tried following a guide that wanted to change some text in the nv_data.bin but the numbers we were meant to be editing (0018810?) didn't exist in our nv_data.bin. So that didn't work for us.
In the meantime we tried to flash the stock ROM in Odin but kept getting FAILs and Freezes. With this step we lost even the crippled operating system and couldn't reach anything except the 'phone --!-- computer' screen. Luckily, this acts the same as download mode, so not bricked. We kept trying to push the stock SGS4G stock ROM (Froyo 2.2) several times and failing.
At one point we got a completely black screen, wouldn't turn on. Bricked again. We found this post on RootzWiki and it worked for us that time and brought it back from the black screen to download mode http://rootzwiki.com/topic/1820-how-to-unbrick-your-sgs4g/
Somehow we ended up at this guide here on XDA for fixing the "null/null" IMEI http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142829
We followed that guide. When you add the PIT file it automatically checks 'Re-Partition' in Odin, we didn't uncheck it. Bricked again. It was stuck on the Samsung logo and when we tried to get to download mode it got stuck on a black screen with the loading circle/lines and 2 computers were giving 'The USB device has malfunctioned' when we plugged it in. The unbrick guide above (RootzWiki) didn't help this time. We tried restarting the computer, let the phone rest without battery for half an hour, held power button for a minute without battery, still nothing.
Finally I accidentally pressed the power button (rather than the volume buttons to get into download mode) and it went to the samsung logo (as expected) and after that I was able to get into download mode. The key to this I think is to keep on trying powering on normally then try download mode over and over and eventually it should get unstuck and the computer should recognize it again.
Once I had it back in download mode, I followed this guide again BUT!!! I made sure to un-check re-partition and I did not check "Phone EFS Clear" (because I had tried that already before it was bricked and wanted to see if a straight ROM would work first). Everything worked perfectly, I got my IMEI and Baseband back, without modifying anything.
I don't know if this was a miracle, or if any of it will work for anyone else, but the moral of the story is don't give up even if you've done the absolute worst possible thing. I don't even think hardbrick exists on this phone after everything we were able to save it from.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wheooooooooowwww,..you just UNBRICKED mine, I know of the Battery pull etc...but the post you referenced
is MAGIC
This was not my first Rom nor Root on this phone, it weirdly happened while doing the GB starter....via ODIN, which i also used before..no clue what went wrong, oh well...
Thank you, thank you "i did"....Yohoooo
Yup i agree i like to read, reread then read as i do. This way i got a pretty good understanding of what I'm doing. Btw i have just started using one click and it is sooooo simple. I love it.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
The link for fixing null/null IMEI is not working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142829
diavel said:
The link for fixing null/null IMEI is not working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142829
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=881162
Im still carrying this phone, stupid baseband unlock for iphone won't come out now I am carrying 2 phones, one as an ipod touch and the galaxy s! Good story, hope it can help others, but I am prepared to jump off of this bandwagon anytime now!
This morning in my half-awake state I accidentally pressed "OK" to my phone asking me to go ahead with the (I'm guessing) 2.3.6 update. I KNEW I would end up doing something stupid like that. GRR!!
Anyway, the phone then launched itself into a white screen with blue text saying that it is doing the update, but nothing happens and it appears to be frozen.
I am rooted and was trying to avoid this update; like I said, I was half-awake.
I can't even get it to boot into download/recovery mode, it always goes straight to the white screen. Hopefully this isn't a double post; I checked here and google first but couldn't find anything for this phone. I'm really at a loss here. I have Titanium Backup and I got an external SD card, but I'm not sure if I actually backed up the apps to the external card (new to TB). I did a Kies contacts backup a few days ago so that at least is safe.
Is there any hope for my phone? If I can just get it back to a working state, I can live with my apps' data being erased. Any help appreciated.
Thank you!
Doh... sorry to hear that.. are you also running a custom rom, or customized ATT rom (I have the stock rom from the developers forums over the standard root after having tried a few custom roms).
I got the update message as well this morning, but I postponed it for 8 hours, however I am unable to get rid of the stupid notification, and am curious if after the 8 hours, it will force the update or let me postpone it agian (that will get annoying fast if I cannot disable the OTA update..)
I'd like to know how to cancel the update as well. I have it sitting in my notification bar. >_<
jvanbrecht said:
Doh... sorry to hear that.. are you also running a custom rom, or customized ATT rom (I have the stock rom from the developers forums over the standard root after having tried a few custom roms).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still running stock 2.3.5. All I've had time to do is root and TB apps, haven't had the chance to play around with ROMs yet for this phone.
Yeah I postponed it for 8 hours, too. The 8hrs must have expired right as my alarm went off because the "Install this update?" message popped up and I hit it, thinking it was the snooze button -_-
Let me know if there's any way to get off of this screen my phone is stuck on! And then disable the obnoxious message for good.
Thanks again =)
Maybe try to remove battery.
lyndone58 said:
Maybe try to remove battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have about 10-15 times since it first happened this morning. I also tried taking out the SIM and microSD cards. It's the only way I can get it to stay off to try to boot to recovery mode (which it still won't boot into); if I hold the power button to turn it off it just resets back into the white Software Update Screen (won't stay off).
Has anyone successfully applied this update yet?
Any other ideas? I appreciate the feedback so far!
Similar thing happened to me. I pulled the battery and booted in to CWM just fine. Restored from there.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
I don't believe I have CWM installed? How would I have known if I did? When I volume up + volume down + power and wait until the Samsung logo comes up it boots back to the white screen. Maybe I'm doing that process wrong?
Same thing happened to me this morning!
almost identical story
I've tried literally every combination to get to the reboot screen. ugh :'(
mrl3086 said:
I have about 10-15 times since it first happened this morning. I also tried taking out the SIM and microSD cards. It's the only way I can get it to stay off to try to boot to recovery mode (which it still won't boot into); if I hold the power button to turn it off it just resets back into the white Software Update Screen (won't stay off).
Has anyone successfully applied this update yet?
Any other ideas? I appreciate the feedback so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't been rooting as much as some of the guys here, but I think if you take the battery out and it won't boot back even into recovery, you're hard-bricked and you're gonna have to start from scratch with a fresh stock rom. Go to download mode (turn off, hold vol up + down, insert powered usb cable) and put a stock rom back on using odin.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1342348
You will basically get back to what your phone was when you took it out of the box and you'll have to install everything, your data (other than the data that is on a microSD card) won't be there.
If you have a backup that you did with CWM, then you can restore the backup after you do all this.
I think you got unlucky with the worst case scenario of what shouldn't happen during an update.
Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try when I get home from work and will let you guys know how it goes.
For the future, is it generally recommended to de-root before doing any straight carrier update? Or is this just a total fluke that some of us are experiencing?
Will adb recognize your phone? If it does just adb reboot recovery
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
Lucidmike said:
I haven't been rooting as much as some of the guys here, but I think if you take the battery out and it won't boot back even into recovery, you're hard-bricked and you're gonna have to start from scratch with a fresh stock rom. Go to download mode (turn off, hold vol up + down, insert powered usb cable) and put a stock rom back on using odin.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1342348
You will basically get back to what your phone was when you took it out of the box and you'll have to install everything, your data (other than the data that is on a microSD card) won't be there.
If you have a backup that you did with CWM, then you can restore the backup after you do all this.
I think you got unlucky with the worst case scenario of what shouldn't happen during an update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AMAZING!! Thank you so much! Not only is my phone up and working but the update has installed!
I learned the following:
-you pretty much need a pc (not a mac) to do all the downloads correctly. I used a friends.
-to get your phone into download mode when it's frozen from the update, you have to hold down either vol + AND vol - (or just vol -) as well as the power button, simultaneously hold down power and also simultaneously plug in the usb. Then let go of the power button and remain holding down one or the two volume buttons.
THIS WAS JUST WITH MY SKYROCKET EXPERIENCE
I'm so happy. Thank you LucidMike
This just happened to my friend's phone. White screen no matter what. Stock everything, too. She's pretty bummed that there's no way to recover the videos and pictures on her phone before resetting it. Apparently she went to AT&T and they couldn't figure it out. They called tech support for her and THEY couldn't figure it out. She's currently on the phone with Samsung, but I doubt they'll be able to help either.
viralriot said:
This just happened to my friend's phone. White screen no matter what. Stock everything, too. She's pretty bummed that there's no way to recover the videos and pictures on her phone before resetting it. Apparently she went to AT&T and they couldn't figure it out. They called tech support for her and THEY couldn't figure it out. She's currently on the phone with Samsung, but I doubt they'll be able to help either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AHHH!! Tell her to hang up the phone right now!! Use this method to fix her phone!! All of her data will still be there after it's done! After the process is complete, back it up to a computer (enable USB storage and just copy + paste and I used Kies to copy my contacts) and THEN do a full factory reset (reset recommended by everyone to ensure smooth function of phone). The method in the link will return her to the original stock version; I believe it may trip a counter that AT&T can use to determine if you've hacked your phone, but if you want a working phone...and there's also a chance that it WON'T trip the counter (some people say it did and some say it hasn't).
EDIT: Pictures and videos that I took with the phone are saved in /sdcard/DCIM/Camera, so you know where to copy her stuff from.
jessielooloo said:
AMAZING!! Thank you so much! Not only is my phone up and working but the update has installed!
I learned the following:
-you pretty much need a pc (not a mac) to do all the downloads correctly. I used a friends.
-to get your phone into download mode when it's frozen from the update, you have to hold down either vol + AND vol - (or just vol -) as well as the power button, simultaneously hold down power and also simultaneously plug in the usb. Then let go of the power button and remain holding down one or the two volume buttons.
THIS WAS JUST WITH MY SKYROCKET EXPERIENCE
I'm so happy. Thank you LucidMike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm trying to fix my boyfriend's phone (he actually didn't hack/root it or anything...but yesterday's update messed up his phone so it was stuck in the "SOFTWARE UPDATE" and "Loading..." frozen white screen). We tried taking out the battery, restarting it, everything. I tried your method of holding all three buttons while plugging in the USB and then letting go of the power button. What do you press when it asks you if you want to continue (up vol +) or cancel (vol -)? I chose vol -, and when it took me back to the white screen, I did it again and pressed vol +. Now I'm on a ODIN MODE page...will this affect his warranty or anything? What do I do next?
You need to have odin on your pc and the stock .tar and flash it. Here go here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=1509978
Read carefully follow directions exactly
silver03wrx said:
You need to have odin on your pc and the stock .tar and flash it. Here go here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=1509978
Read carefully follow directions exactly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I read on the first page of the thread that it needs to be rooted though? This phone is brand new and never been rooted or hacked...will doing this void the warranty or anything unpleasant? (I'm the one that likes hacking my devices like my Nook Color...my boyfriend is a little more paranoid and would rather have it stay covered under warranty )
No actually. Thats incorrect..the stock tar. Is just as it sounds. The stock firmware the phone comes with.....dont need to be rooted to use odin. Actually if u odn the stock tar. It removes root.
mrl3086 said:
AHHH!! Tell her to hang up the phone right now!! Use this method to fix her phone!! All of her data will still be there after it's done! After the process is complete, back it up to a computer (enable USB storage and just copy + paste and I used Kies to copy my contacts) and THEN do a full factory reset (reset recommended by everyone to ensure smooth function of phone). The method in the link will return her to the original stock version; I believe it may trip a counter that AT&T can use to determine if you've hacked your phone, but if you want a working phone...and there's also a chance that it WON'T trip the counter (some people say it did and some say it hasn't).
EDIT: Pictures and videos that I took with the phone are saved in /sdcard/DCIM/Camera, so you know where to copy her stuff from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried doing this, but this is all I get.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 0)
<ID:0/006> Added!!
That's it. Nothing else happens. Help?
EDIT: Nevermind! Plugged it into a different USB port (COM:6) and it worked flawlessly. All data is still on phone and it works like new! Thank you!
I am on a Verizon Razr Maxx HD (xt926). This all started when I decided to cleanly flash the newest version of CM10.2. I had been running it before. I wanted to start from a blank slate, so I went into TWRP and did the format wipe. Installed the newest CM10.2 nightly and gapps. This went fine and I booted into the ROM and started recovering all of my stuff. I installed F-droid and AdAway, and rebooted for that. The phone never got past the Bootloader Unlocked warning screen. I turned it off and went into TWRP to try some things. I tried to fix permissions, but it failed, referencing something to do with fdroid. I wiped again and reinstalled CM, but I still couldn't get past the Bootloader Unlocked warning.
I booted into TWRP again and wiped what I could, and accidentally wiped my external SD, and I had no card readers lying around to get the ROM zips back onto it. I downloaded the Razr HD utility, used the batch file, and tried to flash the stock rom through fastboot, but it got stuck in some kind of loop and would not flash correctly. I then tried to do it manually, but got some sort of buffer error. I tried again, and it started ok but I never saw it actually finish flashing.
By this time I finagled the ROM zips onto the SD card and stopped the fastboot and booted into TWRP. I did another set of wipes, and rebooted into TWRP again. I flashed the CM and Gapps. The ROM booted fine from TWRP and I was able to start setting up my account again. I tried rebooting after the initial setup just to see if it was working correctly, and was met with the fastboot screen with fastboot reason: Flash failed. I rebooted into TWRP from there, and tried to boot normally, but it still brought me to the fastboot. I went to the boot menu and tried the normal boot selection, and now my phone is stuck on the Bootloader Warning screen and now it won't even turn off when I hold the power button.
I have no idea what is going on, or why I could get to the working ROM once but not again. Does anyone know anything that could help me?
Kopiok said:
I am on a Verizon Razr Maxx HD (xt926). This all started when I decided to cleanly flash the newest version of CM10.2. I had been running it before. I wanted to start from a blank slate, so I went into TWRP and did the format wipe. Installed the newest CM10.2 nightly and gapps. This went fine and I booted into the ROM and started recovering all of my stuff. I installed F-droid and AdAway, and rebooted for that. The phone never got past the Bootloader Unlocked warning screen. I turned it off and went into TWRP to try some things. I tried to fix permissions, but it failed, referencing something to do with fdroid. I wiped again and reinstalled CM, but I still couldn't get past the Bootloader Unlocked warning.
I booted into TWRP again and wiped what I could, and accidentally wiped my external SD, and I had no card readers lying around to get the ROM zips back onto it. I downloaded the Razr HD utility, used the batch file, and tried to flash the stock rom through fastboot, but it got stuck in some kind of loop and would not flash correctly. I then tried to do it manually, but got some sort of buffer error. I tried again, and it started ok but I never saw it actually finish flashing.
By this time I finagled the ROM zips onto the SD card and stopped the fastboot and booted into TWRP. I did another set of wipes, and rebooted into TWRP again. I flashed the CM and Gapps. The ROM booted fine from TWRP and I was able to start setting up my account again. I tried rebooting after the initial setup just to see if it was working correctly, and was met with the fastboot screen with fastboot reason: Flash failed. I rebooted into TWRP from there, and tried to boot normally, but it still brought me to the fastboot. I went to the boot menu and tried the normal boot selection, and now my phone is stuck on the Bootloader Warning screen and now it won't even turn off when I hold the power button.
I have no idea what is going on, or why I could get to the working ROM once but not again. Does anyone know anything that could help me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the solution in the last few posts on this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2465695
I hope you get more knowledgeable advice than mine but, were I in your situation, my primary goal would be to get back to STOCK. Forget CM and modding for now. Either through TWRP or through the recovery settings on the phone itself I'd get to where I could do a factory reset. If you're continuously able to boot into TWRP I don't see how your phone could be bricked. My experience is, if I can get a phone to do ANYTHING I've got a shot at figuring out how to get out of whatever mess I've created. I don't know if this could be a factor but I'd put in a different micro SD card too, in case there's something on the card you've got in there.
Just an update. So, I got it to go back to fastboot this morning and I tried using the Razr Utility to flash back stock and stock recovery, but I got a "Failed" line with the reason "Remote Failure". Not sure what that's about. When it reset it got back to the Cyanogenmod boot graphic, but it never started. I left it there for a good 12 minutes.
Right now it's sitting in TWRP. I'm going to let it charge to 100% (it was a little less when I tried all of this) and attempt it again at 100% battery. Thanks for the help so far!
So, I tried using the Razr Utility to flash the system, kernel, radio and for system it was unsuccessful (something about too many threads or strings, something to that effect), but the rest said OK. Now my phone doesn't seem to turn on. My computer still makes the device plugged in sound when it's plugged/unplugged, but I cannot get the screen to show anything or seem to turn on the phone.
Is this it? Is it... bricked!? ;-;
Edit: I ordered the Factory Adapter as a last resort sort of thing. This is lame.
Edit Edit: I've seen the boot logo since my last edit! But... it's not coming back and I still can't even bring up the bootloader. I don't know why it will sometimes turn on or sometimes not. In any case, I'm now hopeful that not ALL is lost.
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
cellzealot said:
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the plan! One odd thing happening now... My phone's screen isn't showing anything, so I assumed it was off. I left it unplugged and went to see a movie..... and the phone is still warm. This leads me to believe the phone is still drawing power, for some reason... God this is weird. I'll wait for the adapter and try again. Thanks for the help!
cellzealot said:
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
according to the packaging on mine from tbh a chinaman made it, just sayin
Yes, we designed them and contracted through our US supplier who produced all of our cables who, in turn, had them produced in China according to our specifications. There is no longer any injection molded plastic production done in the US that can work at this small scale for affordable rates.
Sorry...that's the way the world works these days.
cellzealot said:
Yes, we designed them and contracted through our US supplier who produced all of our cables who, in turn, had them produced in China according to our specifications. There is no longer any injection molded plastic production done in the US that can work at this small scale for affordable rates.
Sorry...that's the way the world works these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for making it either way, better to have and not need.
havent had to use it so far
bweN diorD said:
thanks for making it either way, better to have and not need.
havent had to use it so far
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome! They are definitely the best $10 investment you can make in any Motorola phone.
Next time you want to invest many thousands of dollars of your own money in a wild, hairbrained scheme to help a bunch of anonymous people on the internet fix their phones that they recently finished destroying themselves, let us know...we have just the plan!
cellzealot said:
You're welcome! They are definitely the best $10 investment you can make in any Motorola phone.
Next time you want to invest many thousands of dollars of your own money in a wild, hairbrained scheme to help a bunch of anonymous people on the internet fix their phones that they recently finished destroying themselves, let us know...we have just the plan!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how many thousands, and whats the plan?
I got the Factory Adapter and used RSD Lite to flash stock. And it works! Yay! It's starting up reliably and everything.
Except... it won't start up without the cable attached, and the battery icon has a big question mark on it. It also won't connect to the cell network (but does connect to WiFi). What do I do now?
Edit: So I noticed that while the battery status said "Unknown", it did go from 2% to 3% charge level when I plugged it in normally for a little. My plan at the moment is to try leaving it plugged in for a while and then try taking the OTA update to see if that fixes everything. Good plan?
Edit Edit: Never mind! I just had to let it charge for a bit. It seems to be back in working order, now! Thank you so much for all the help everyone!
That is exactly what is supposed to happen. Congrats on fixing your phone!
The factory cable/adapter does not charge the device but powers it directly, allowing it to boot no matter what state the battery is in or even without a battery at all.
You cannot charge in bootloader, which is why the cable/adapter is so valuable. Once the device can boot/charge normally then you are all set.
Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!
kyle313 said:
Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try flashing factory images?
ryukiri said:
Did you try flashing factory images?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that was what I flashed :/
If you can get into fastboot you "should" be able to flash stock images... Obviously this will revert any root and you will need to flash TWRP/CWM recovery after.
I assume you have a Windows PC with fastboot/adb setup and all drivers etc..
- Download latest "stock" hammerhead images (I cannot post links due to XDA rules... so: "developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#hammerhead"
- Extract the .tgz archive contents on your PC into a folder
- Boot the N5 into fastboot and plug USB cable from phone into your PC
- Go to the folder with the extracted files and run the "flash-all.bat" script on Windows
**Hopefully at this point your device will start to respond.. I.e, on fastboot screen, at the bottom you will see "writing" or something, as the script runs on the command window on your PC.**
If this works, you should be able to reboot once complete and then wait to see if you can get back into your phone.. then you can fastboot again and flash custom recovery, and then whatever rom.
If however you have a hardware issue (i.e, even after the above process it fails) then I am not sure what you could do... I guess ensure it has a complete charge. If you can get into fastboot and the buttons are responsive then it should not be a faulty power button.
Hope this helps :good:
Have you tried a simple factory reset? Reason I ask is it was working fine so sounds like something needs "flushing out" clear cache etc.
kyle313 said:
Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you choose the right model and firmware before you flash in WugFresh NRT?
The above could be right, however when I've used it, it's pointed out if I made that mistake. Having used his software dozens of times I've found it will bring any Nexus 5 back to life.
howard bamber said:
The above could be right, however when I've used it, it's pointed out if I made that mistake. Having used his software dozens of times I've found it will bring any Nexus 5 back to life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello! I am apologize for that I didn't read the OP carefully. This happened to me once in that particulary way, but it was immediately after flashing. OP says that it happened suddenly, without reason. So now I am the one, who doesn't read, right? Sorry for that.
Regards, Zagor
Thanks for the responses, but I'm still having trouble.
I have been able to successfully write the newest stock android 3 times (1 without full wipe, 2 with) and the phone still can't boot up and goes through one of the three issues above.
I've also been able to get to the system recovery from the bootloader and I've tried wiping the cache and doing a factory reset from there and the problem remains.
I'd contact google, but I bought it at launch so I don't think they'll do anything for me since it's been 1+ years.
kyle313 said:
Thanks for the responses, but I'm still having trouble.
I have been able to successfully write the newest stock android 3 times (1 without full wipe, 2 with) and the phone still can't boot up and goes through one of the three issues above.
I've also been able to get to the system recovery from the bootloader and I've tried wiping the cache and doing a factory reset from there and the problem remains.
I'd contact google, but I bought it at launch so I don't think they'll do anything for me since it's been 1+ years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have a bad nand sector. From fastboot try:
Code:
fastboot oem lock
Then reboot into fastboot and check if it's locked or not. If the device isn't locked your emmc is corrupt and there is nothing you can do. If that is the case call Google and they will most likely help you out with a RMA.
theesotericone said:
Sounds like you have a bad nand sector. From fastboot try:
Code:
fastboot oem lock
Then reboot into fastboot and check if it's locked or not. If the device isn't locked your emmc is corrupt and there is nothing you can do. If that is the case call Google and they will most likely help you out with a RMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was actually able to relock the phone.
Luckily I called google and they're going to send me a replacement.
If anyone else has any other ideas, I'll still take them...I'd rather not be without a phone for the next week!
You won't be without a phone - they are sending a refurbish unit to you , putting a block on your credit card and waiting for you phone to arive at them. Once that happens they will release the funds.
I'm kind of at my wits end, which may not be saying much
I've had my note 5 for 4 or 5 weeks, rooted and tried every custom ROM. I got curious this morning when I found I was on OH6 baseband, and wanted to update to OI5 before flashing to loco's OI5 ROM. I downloaded the files from the resource thread and flashed both the modem/baseband and bootloader with Odin 3.10.6. Phone booted back into android, checked new baseband and all was well. Placed new ROM on my phone and went into TWRP. Well, tried to, but it was stuck, sorry I don't remember the verbage, but something along the lines of unenforced kernel, but it stopped right there.
Went back to Odin, flashed TWRP 2.8.7.1, same thing. Did it again, same results. Odin again with baseband and bootloader. Same thing.
It gets worse.
Decided, OK, I'll fix you, so I'd start fresh. I went to sammobile and download OI5, the newest firmware. Takes over an hour to DL from that site, unless you want to pay for the faster service. Anyway, finished downloading, flashed with Odin, phone started to boot, then gets stuck in a bootloop righ after T-Mobile logo. Let it do this for 30-45 minutes with no luck, flashed Odin again, same results. I had the older firmware on hand, so I flashed OH6, but I get a failed result. Thought maybe bad file so I tried OGE firmware, getting the bad flash message with this one too. Re-downloaded OH6 from sammobile, but got same fail flash results. Tried different USB port on my computer, different USB cords (3), tried a different computer with same results for each file, including bootloop and failed flashes.
Wew!!
Any suggestions at this point? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Referenced firmware:
N920TUVU1AOGE_N920TTMB1AOGE_N920TUVU1AOGE_HOME.tar.md5
N920TUVU1BOH6_N920TTMB1BOH6_N920TUVU1BOH6_HOME.tar.md5
N920TUVU2COI5_N920TTMB2COI5_N920TUVU2COI5_HOME.tar.md5
edit: I played around some more after searching on the note 5 bootloop subject. Found a site dedicated to s6, which was close enough for the time being. I found if I hold the power and volume down it will cycle power down, but not completely power off. So what I did was cycle off and immediately hold home, power and volume up, with the thinking I would either get into TWRP or samsung power menu, so I could clear cache and devlac. Got into TWRP (which I couldn't before ?!?#?) and wiped, installed forever loco.
Looks I'm good to go, but I suppose forever patience is key here.
You can close this up.
Sounds like Mr toads wild ride... glad you are back up and running.
dandroid7 said:
Sounds like Mr toads wild ride... glad you are back up and running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was scratching real hard for a while. Still, didn't find how to turn a bootloop note 5 completely off other than getting into either android or custom recovery.
Plus, I fully expected my files to be gone, but they weren't!! Meaning none of the Odin firmware took, even though on the OI5 the little android told me he was erasing "everything".
This won't deter me from continuing my exploits, but I might start writing some things down. LOL
Delete please.