[Q] Starting Problems - Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I encountered my first problems with my Nexus 5, which i am very happy with, about 1-2 weeks ago. After about 11 months of happy, problem free use, without dropping it or anything else, it started misbehaving (about a month with Android L so far). It crashed and wouldn't start up farther than the 'android' screen most of the times. Rarely it would fully boot, but the seemed to go into the lock screen and crash after a max. time of about 1 Minute of normal use. After going through this a few times I checked some forums and found a solution suggesting to repeatitly press the lock screen button while it boots. This solution worked quite good, even though i had go through the process multiple time the following days.
Last thursday evening (today is saturday) though my phone crashed fully once more (just after checking and having an 80% charged battery) , but now the quick hits on the Power button did not work at all. Instead my phone wouldn't react at all. Neither pressing the volume rockers alone or together with the power button would work either. Having plugged in the Nexus though acheived it to at least reach a state which seems to be a more common problem. It has been discussed and solved for many (seemingly everyone) in another thread called '[Q] Nexus 5 constantly rebooting at 'Google' ' (Link to this at bottom). Long explanations and videos of the situation have been given here, depicting my exact situation along with two solutions:
1. Using magnets near the power button (to apparently loosen two magnets used when pressing the power button)
2. Two flick and quickly press the button (for some this had to be done many minutes)
After seeing many (surprisingly) positive reactions to both methods, I tried them myself. I began with the magnet method and without having it connected to a charger it would boot to the google screen twice (note: As said, without a charger nothing happened). First once about as long as when connected to power and once very briefly. This method didn't prevail more than once and i couldn't start it up any diffrently than before.
So next I tried the flicking method and (maybe because of the magnets) it booted al the way to the 4 colored dots flying around. I let go and it crashed once more. I fooled around with the magnets again and tried the flicking method again, without stopping, as other users mentioned a long time needed (15-30 Min.) and after about 20 Minutes I stopped. My Nexus did not crash, but it is now 'stuck' at the colored Dots. I have tried connecting it to a power outlet, my PC and again started pressing the power button and volume rockers, without effect. It has been so for about an hour if not more. I will try to drain the battery and then continue, but if any other solutions are known Please help, thank you!
Link to other Question: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/nexus-5-constantly-rebooting-google-t2809617

Update
After having drained the battery completely and then charging it again, the normal 'charging battery' icon popped up. Trying to start the phone, however resulted in getting into the flying dots loop again... I am able to go into fastboot mode, but neither start or Power Off help the situation. Should I go into recovery mode? I would strongly dislike losing all my data....
(Update)
I tried going into recovery mode, but the only thing that happened was that a little android figure, lying down with a red exclamation mark showed up (which should be normal as I recall going into recovery mode before my problems), and a text saying 'no command' above it. What now? I'm all out of ideas and back up plans, except calling google as it should still be under my warranty. But I don't want to give up my data as I haven't saved anything and I don't want to give up my phone either.

Related

[Q] Question about reset switch

Hey, all.
What does the internal reset button actually do? I was expecting it to reset to factory settings, but fortunately for me it didn't do this. I'm actually happy it didn't, as it means I didn't lose any of the customizations I had done or applications I had installed.
I just cracked open the case on my gTablet and pressed what I assumed to be the reset button, a tiny little white switch in the center of the unit. After pressing and holding it for about 3 seconds, the tablet immediately powered back on and returned to its previous state. Everything appears to be functioning perfectly normally and exactly as it was before.
What does the reset button actually do? Do I need to worry about battery meter not being accurate or any other weird side effects? I only mention that because the battery gauge is showing 100%, but the external red charge light is still on.
I'm not sure what prompted it, but earlier today, my gTablet went blank and wouldn't turn back on at all. My son had been playing Angry Birds for an hour or so and I had been using it heavily showing it off to my in-laws, so I thought perhaps the battery had simply gone dead. I had not plugged in the charger the night before, so it seemed to be a reasonable explanation.
I plugged the charger in and the external red light was visible, so I let it charge for a little while, then tried turning back on. I could press any number of different key combinations (power & vol+, power & vol-, holding button for long time followed by short press, etc.) but I got nothing but a black screen. There was no indication whatsoever that anything was happening.
I was assuming something had gone quite awry, but didn't panic. My wife was not quite so calm, but I reassured her that I would be able to find the answer on the XDA forums. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this great community, by the way!
First, I tried plugging in the USB cable to my Windows 7 laptop and heard the distinctive 'bing-bing,' notifying me that hardware was recognized, so I knew it wasn't dead. But, it didn't show up anywhere, so I checked the Device Manager. Interestingly, there was no yellow exclamation mark anywhere, as I expected from reading some other posts about NVFlash. I finally found it listed under the 'Disk Drives' section as: 'NVIDIA Tegra 2 USB Device.'
I remembered reading about people experiencing problems with the unit going into APX mode, but I also remembered reading about the internal reset button on the gTablet. So, I figured before I attempted to use NVFlash, I would try the reset button first. Fortunately, these devices were designed well and the case was very easy to pop off.
By the way, I was running the stock ROM, but with the TNT 3588 Enhancement Pack (Gapps with nVidia Drivers) provided by edirector. I had also installed the z4root application. I used the default ROM for the first day, but was comfortable with the idea of flashing othe ROMs, as I've done it with my HTC Aria phone. I flashed roebeet's TNT Lite 4.40 and used that for several days before going back to the factory ROM with the enhancement pack.
Thanks in advance,
Calvin
Well,
I've been reading these forums since last November and I don't know of anyone who
has really reported on "pushing" the reset button before!!!
Usually when people crack the case to push the reset button or unplug the battery
for 10-15 seconds it is a situation where they can't get the machine to start and
literally have nothing to loose.
Sounds to me (in terms of 30+ year of different computers) that you did a hardware
reset and boot. I assume something was locked up inside and the reset key released
it to restart.
Glad for you!!!
Rev

Continuous reboot with HTC One S - almost certainly a HARDWARE problem - any ideas?

This is kind of a last resort - to see if anyone has any experience with this problem. I have Googled around for similar problems and haven't quite found the same issue anywhere.
OK, so let me emphasise, this is not a bootloop - there is clearly some kind of hardware or firmware problem where the phone is interpreting the power button as being pressed.
I can power on, and the phone will get to various points before then rebooting, as though the power button were being held down:
- often it only gets to the splash screen and then reboots
- sometimes I can get it into recovery, but whatever option I happen to highlight (I have about a second or two to do so) just gets selected as though the power button were pressed
- sometimes the phone will even boot and can be used for a little while (enough even for me to back up the files off it), but sooner or later a message will pop up saying something along the lines of "Continue holding power button to reset", again - OBVIOUSLY the system thinks the power button is pressed down.
The problem happened while the phone was under guarantee, the repair place kept it for weeks, eventually "replaced the motherboard" (so they say) and it seemed to work for a time. Now the problem is back and there is no more warranty. A reputable repair place has had a look and said they can't do anything.
I have tried taking the top cover off and fiddling with the microswitch (only thing I could think of) to see if there is anything obvious going on there, but that doesn't seem to be the cause of the problem.
Any ideas, before we ditch the phone as a $XXX loss?
Just to update - I managed to catch the phone when it wasn't going crazy, go into fastboot and flash CM10.2. Could've restored to stock I suppose, but I am concerned that may somehow have been the cause of the problem in the first place.
As of 12 hours later the phone is behaving itself. Can't be sure a new ROM is what did it, but fingers crossed...

Dead N5?

Is this N5 hosed?
Android 5.1.1
( I know the following because I have a second N5 that was purchased at the same time that Is still running flawlessly and they both would update within a day or so of each other, assuming this info is the same)
Baseband Version
M8974A-2.0.50.2.26
Kernel Version
3.4.0-gbebb36b
[email protected]#1
Tue Mar 10 18:17:45 UTC 2015
Build Number
LMY48B
I have a completely stock N5 that started presenting problems some months ago with random reboots, just occasionally. It would just restart no big deal, didn’t worry to much about it pretty soon the restarts came more often.
I installed the “Device Assist” App as suggested in a google forum group, to which it immediately started to recognize “Device Randomly rebooting? Try Safe Mode” ( which I didn’t at that time) it did give me the option to call a google tech and speak with them about the issue, they saw, through device assist that indeed the device had been randomly restarting. The tech ran me through clearing the device cache from the recover menu, I rebooted and everything worked fine for several weeks.
Then the reboots started again, but this time more seriously, often the unit would just power down and attempt to reboot would be meet with a short vibrate with a flash of the word google.
Eventually it would boot back up, often it would run through an “optimizing apps” routine.
I remembered as well, often the reboot(s) would begin with the “power off” screen coming up, even if I didn’t choose it it would shut down anyway and often if I dismissed it, it would wait 10 seconds or so then shut down.
All really strange.
So I got a hold of a google tech again, this time they suggested rebooting in safe mode and running several days like that to see if it was a software or hardware issue.
In safe mode it ran without issue for 48 hours( normally this would have resulted in a handful of restarts at best. Google tech seemed to think it was an app issue since the problem didn’t return in safe mode and suggested a complete factory restore,( and to setup the phone as a new phone rather than restore any back info form google) I was backed up so I ran the factory restore from system settings “back up and restore” .
Once restored it worked fine for a day and then it all went downhill from there, power off screen would appear (often when I short pressed the power button to sleep the unit) and again if I dismissed that dialogue it would power down anyway and it would take numerous tries to get it to power back up, almost every time it would run through the “optimizing apps” routine.
Within a day, it just stopped powering up. If I plug the unit in to charge it does this odd cycle of black-screen/short vibrate/Flash the word Google, about every 2 seconds, it never shows a battery charge indicator
If it is not plugged it won’t do anything, if it is plugged in when I tried to boot into recovery, the recovery screen would appear for a brief second and then it will start the vibrate/flash “google “ cycle.
It does nothing when placed on a wireless charging plate.
Google tech said it is out of warranty ( which I knew) and gave me a number to LG to see what options they suggested.
I suspect it has something to do with a sticky or malfunctioning power button, but wanted to see if anyone here has and experience with this type of issue or has a suggestion.
Thanks

Can't boot, restarts constantly

Bought a Nexus 5 about 6 months ago USED. It has been amazing. I got the latest OTA a week ago or so, not sure if that has anything to do with current issues.
About 2 days ago started randomly restarting. Today, it shut down and has been in continuous loop restarting. I see "Google" and maybe even the boot dots loading, then it is off. Three seconds later, starts again and repeats. Never makes it all the way into Android system. I let it sit for a while and when I pick it up, without touching any buttons, it repeats all of this. I suppose it is probably dead in general, but I don't know. Do you guys have any ideas? Again, I bought it used and from a ma/pap store who said they buy 100 in bulk, which made me skeptical, but they also had a 60 day guarantee and it was amazing the first 60 days and even after. It has been error free for 6 months, so I don't know if this is just a random issue or if the previous owner dropped it in a lake and I got lucky, or what. FWIW the damn thing has been in a case and never dropped, so it isn't anything that I have done I don't think. Thanks for any help.
edit: never rooted, never messed with, always been stock
Another user reported some instability since the last OTA update.
Flashing the full factory images did the trick.
a friend of mine gave me his nexus 5 to repair and its doing something similar. He had ir rooted and on latest 5.1.1 (i think). Either way, he said it was randomly locking up and rebooting. When i got it it had the red blinking light when plugged so i got a new battery. That got fixed but then the constant bootloop showed itself. I flashed TWRP (many versions, 2.6.3.1; 2.7.1.1; 2.8.7.1; the one that worked best was 2.7.1.1). So, once in twrp wiped, pushed cm 12 snapshot, flashed it, pushed gapps, falshed, pushe supersu flashed. Started the system. That precise order of things (ie: pushing flashing, then pushing something new and flashing it) was what gave me best results to actually boot up at least once. Once booted up and logging in and everything to cm i had some sort of stability (even rebooting and powering off) but i think that everything went wrong when i plugged the phone to the computer and it was back to bootloops and not even getting to the recovery. Flashed everything again. Didnt work. Had to leave the phone sit for a while (without the back casing) before trying again, in order, before getting any success. Im starting to think of ovrheating but it doesnt even get that hot...
Dunno if you guys have any ideas on this. Or if i can give you mor details to help us out.
Regards!
Looks like I'm having a similar problem to what is described here, as well as http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/bootlooped-dont-how-to-enable-debugging-t3215951
I've had one of my Nexus 5 phones running OmniROM 5.1.1 for some time now, very stably. After trying out the Marshmallow preview and going back to that ROM, I started having spontaneous hard reboots and hard crashes. The phone would often boot loop before even getting to the OmniROM boot animation. It was also very recalcitrant about entering and staying in the boot loader, rebooting spontaneously shortly after rendering the boot loader screen. I was occasionally able to "grab" control long enough to get it to boot into TWRP, from which a boot to Android seemed to usually get it out of the loop and into running Android.
I've flashed back the boot loader and baseband from factory-stock 5.1.1 LMY48M (HHZ12h and 2.0.50.2.26) using the flash-base.sh script from a freshly downloaded and extracted hammerhead-lmy48m. Things appeared to be OK last evening and this morning, but things got worse today.
Now the phone is in a state where it is not responsive to the power button when unplugged. I can hold it down for 30 seconds with no response.
If I plug in USB, it spontaneously starts rebooting, not showing more than about two seconds of the Google boot loader screen. If I hold the down-volume button, I can get the boot-loader screen, but no matter how fast I try to be, I can't select anything more than "Restart bootloader" (or "Power off") option before it spontaneously reboots (to boot loader).
As far as I know, the battery had a significant charge before this started happening.
I see the same behavior if the phone is connected to a USB charging source, rather than a USB port.
I've tried pulling the SIM, but that doesn't change the behavior.
adb wait-for-device never returns, so poking it over adb doesn't seem to be an option.
fastboot devices also doesn't see the phone, for the brief time the boot loader is running.
Any suggestions on how to get this into the boot loader so I can at least re-flash it?
Nexus 5 D820(E) 32 GB
Edit:
WaxLarry said:
In my opinion your problems seems power button's related.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying to see how I can "clean" or "clear" the power button now.
Edit:
Paul22000 said:
This morning my Nexus 5 was turned off all of a sudden after not having used it for 20-30 minutes. I held the power button and nothing. I plugged it into power and the "Google" screen appeared. It then went into a reboot loop on and off, on and off, on and off. I held the Volume Buttons and it went into fastboot, but then boot looped out again and again. Searching on Google yielded that this was indeed a common problem. [...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit: Repeatedly pressing the power button seems to have temporarily allowed a boot to Android.
In retrospect, I had noticed over the last few days that the phone didn't seem to respond properly to the power button, either "ignoring" it, or when a second press got things started, it would unexpectedly come up with the long-press-volume menu.
One link on how to replace the power switch yourself is http://protyposis.net/blog/replacing-the-nexus-5-power-button/
Ok @jeffsf keep going on this thread. I had the same damn experience, that ended with RMA. LG said that the problem is related to some tension change in the power button. After the RMA I used the phone totally stock and never had a problem. Two months ago I switched to blu_spark kernel and some weeks after i noticed some problem. When I pressed the button to lock the screen, phone locked itself and then screen turned on, sometimes showing the shutdown option. So i understood that something was happening to the power button. I tried to overvolt with a +5mV on general offset and since then i never had problem. If you can enter recovery or bootloader i suggest you to flash some kernel with volt change support and then overvolt the general offset... and keep finger crossed
jeffsf said:
Looks like I'm having a similar problem to what is described here, as well as http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/bootlooped-dont-how-to-enable-debugging-t3215951
I've had one of my Nexus 5 phones running OmniROM 5.1.1 for some time now, very stably. After trying out the Marshmallow preview and going back to that ROM, I started having spontaneous hard reboots and hard crashes. The phone would often boot loop before even getting to the OmniROM boot animation. It was also very recalcitrant about entering and staying in the boot loader, rebooting spontaneously shortly after rendering the boot loader screen. I was occasionally able to "grab" control long enough to get it to boot into TWRP, from which a boot to Android seemed to usually get it out of the loop and into running Android.
I've flashed back the boot loader and baseband from factory-stock 5.1.1 LMY48M (HHZ12h and 2.0.50.2.26) using the flash-base.sh script from a freshly downloaded and extracted hammerhead-lmy48m. Things appeared to be OK last evening and this morning, but things got worse today.
Now the phone is in a state where it is not responsive to the power button when unplugged. I can hold it down for 30 seconds with no response.
If I plug in USB, it spontaneously starts rebooting, not showing more than about two seconds of the Google boot loader screen. If I hold the down-volume button, I can get the boot-loader screen, but no matter how fast I try to be, I can't select anything more than "Restart bootloader" (or "Power off") option before it spontaneously reboots (to boot loader).
As far as I know, the battery had a significant charge before this started happening.
I see the same behavior if the phone is connected to a USB charging source, rather than a USB port.
I've tried pulling the SIM, but that doesn't change the behavior.
adb wait-for-device never returns, so poking it over adb doesn't seem to be an option.
fastboot devices also doesn't see the phone, for the brief time the boot loader is running.
Any suggestions on how to get this into the boot loader so I can at least re-flash it?
Nexus 5 D820(E) 32 GB
Edit:
Trying to see how I can "clean" or "clear" the power button now.
Edit:
Edit: Repeatedly pressing the power button seems to have temporarily allowed a boot to Android.
In retrospect, I had noticed over the last few days that the phone didn't seem to respond properly to the power button, either "ignoring" it, or when a second press got things started, it would unexpectedly come up with the long-press-volume menu.
One link on how to replace the power switch yourself is http://protyposis.net/blog/replacing-the-nexus-5-power-button/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got a notification for this post since you quoted me. I'm not sure if you're having the same problem but I'll tell you what happened to me, just in case. I called T-Mobile and they referred me to the nearest 3rd party phone repair shop. I went there and after an evaluation, the repairman told me the power button on my phone was indeed broken. They replaced it for $55.
The story doesn't end there though. I took my phone home and a few hours later I tried to use bluetooth and it didn't work. I took it back and found out that unfortunately, when the guy replaced the power button, he inadvertently broke the bluetooth. There's no way to fix bluetooth without replacing the motherboard entirely, which would cost $200. I'd rather buy a new phone at that point since my Nexus 5 was getting old. He refunded me, which was nice. At least the power button worked so I could use my phone. Bluetooth isn't as valuable as being able to you know, turn on the phone, so at least it was a net gain.
After that, I purchased a Nexus 6 and rooted it so I could use double-tap-to-wake (along with the automatic screen on when you pick up the Nexus 6). I also use the following app in order to turn off the screen by swiping up from the home button (I don't care about losing the shortcut to Google Now): Screen Off and Lock
I can now literally go weeks without using the power button on my Nexus 6. (I literally only use it when tap to wake sometimes becomes unresponsive which is rare.)
Bottom line: I will never buy another phone without tap to wake functionality! :good:
A local repair shop here indicated that one sometimes does changing the power switch resolve the issue. They have seen situations where the issue appears to be one of the power-management ICs. Just something to be aware of when examining the potential cost of a repair and who you would have do the work.

Please help me with my phone.

Hey everyone who reads this.
I'd like to start my topic with apologising if I post this in the wrong section.
So, I have a LG Spirit H440N LTE for about 3 years now, maybe a little less. I've always taken good care of it, both physically and in updates / security wise aswell.
My phone has been working flawlessly until the last 2 days. 2 days ago i was charging my phone, and when it vibrated (meaning its 100%) I pulled the cable off, and pressed the power button (power button locks - unlocks the screen) the screen didn't turn on. I was like "wow that's strange" but didn't care much, i just kept pressing the button every 5-6 seconds, nothing.
At that point I pulled the battery out, let it sit for a short time and then put it back, start the phone, I felt the vibration (meaning it's starting up) but no screen, so my first idea was that I need to get a new firmware and completely reinstall my phone, as it seems like it got bricked.. for no reason, by itself ? Strange thing but I accepted it and literally been googling for 9 hours now and I find more and more issues.
After I got LG FlashTool, drivers, and even 3 different firmwares, I wanted to start the phone in download mode to start upgrading, but even though I held down "volume up for 5 seconds and then put the usb cable in" nothing happened, no screen, my PC didn't recognise the phone either.
So I got a little bit mad and pulled the cable out from the phone, I wanted to remove the battery, but out of nowhere the phone suddenly started loading in, screen working completely fine, i could do whatever i want, so my first thing was to do a hard reset. After the hard reset I set up my usual stuff (important apps etc) and I locked the screen so my battery won't go down. Little did I know, I ****ed up again, because ever since that happened, I can't get my screen to work again. I tried everything I could but my PC still doesn't recognise the phone (even after a LOT of drivers being installed), charging the phone doesn't do anything. Regardless if I remove - put back the battery no screen, no screen in download - hard reset mode either, it's just completely black.
I'd like to have some sort of help, because I am just completely out of ideas, I really feel like a firmware change could fix the phone, but if the computer doesn't recognise it, I have no idea what to do.
rawon3 said:
Hey everyone who reads this.
I'd like to start my topic with apologising if I post this in the wrong section.
So, I have a LG Spirit H440N LTE for about 3 years now, maybe a little less. I've always taken good care of it, both physically and in updates / security wise aswell.
My phone has been working flawlessly until the last 2 days. 2 days ago i was charging my phone, and when it vibrated (meaning its 100%) I pulled the cable off, and pressed the power button (power button locks - unlocks the screen) the screen didn't turn on. I was like "wow that's strange" but didn't care much, i just kept pressing the button every 5-6 seconds, nothing.
At that point I pulled the battery out, let it sit for a short time and then put it back, start the phone, I felt the vibration (meaning it's starting up) but no screen, so my first idea was that I need to get a new firmware and completely reinstall my phone, as it seems like it got bricked.. for no reason, by itself ? Strange thing but I accepted it and literally been googling for 9 hours now and I find more and more issues.
After I got LG FlashTool, drivers, and even 3 different firmwares, I wanted to start the phone in download mode to start upgrading, but even though I held down "volume up for 5 seconds and then put the usb cable in" nothing happened, no screen, my PC didn't recognise the phone either.
So I got a little bit mad and pulled the cable out from the phone, I wanted to remove the battery, but out of nowhere the phone suddenly started loading in, screen working completely fine, i could do whatever i want, so my first thing was to do a hard reset. After the hard reset I set up my usual stuff (important apps etc) and I locked the screen so my battery won't go down. Little did I know, I ****ed up again, because ever since that happened, I can't get my screen to work again. I tried everything I could but my PC still doesn't recognise the phone (even after a LOT of drivers being installed), charging the phone doesn't do anything. Regardless if I remove - put back the battery no screen, no screen in download - hard reset mode either, it's just completely black.
I'd like to have some sort of help, because I am just completely out of ideas, I really feel like a firmware change could fix the phone, but if the computer doesn't recognise it, I have no idea what to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might be having hardware issues, such as a faulty power button. If you are the type of user that frequently presses the power button to lock/unlock the screen, this leads to excessive wear on the button components, this is why some users prefer to use the "tap to sleep" and "tap to wake" feature, to avoid wearing the power button out. On my LG, this feature is called "KnockOn", it's located in Accessibility settings.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

Categories

Resources