Newby: What to do if... - General Questions and Answers

Hi all and thx in advance for your time.
In different situation I found myself dealing with non-responding phones. Sometimes completely black, other repeating the brand logo animation screen on and on...
I dont know is at this stage it would make much of a difference if you are dealing with a Nokia or a Samsung, so with Windows O.S. or Andriod one. In case you'd tell me...
My basic question is: which are the rule of thumb for a standard functionality check-up.
What I mean is...which are the basic steps you'd follow through to try and understand what the issue could be, before you actually open the phone itself and take a look inside. I'd like to know from the outside point of view, step by step, what procedures is it correct and complete to follow before having to look into the phone, and therefore deducting that it's some sort of hardware issue.
And...are there any timings? Few times I heard of devices which were completely dead and after a couple of days, just trying to put it on for fun...it finally worked! I mean...do these devices have some sort of timing management or not?
I'm sorry...I know it's noob and maybe it's not the right place, in case mods please kindly move it...but I find that many...too many nowadays, when the phone freezes with black non responding screen...the owner seems to freeze as well! Or they panic and go mad about loosing their contacts or their mail or appointments...
Mobile phones are so diffused today that everyone should know the few, basic steps to follow when and if they face a soft brick or a hard brick of their mobile phone.

Related

[Q] [HELP] unrooted HTC's touch screen unresponsive, but USB debugging enabled

Hi everyone,
I'm experiencing really wierd behaviour with my HTC Desire S. I'll try to tell the story as it happened, so you may have the best grasp on what's happening to me. Here's the thing: yesterday, I charged my HTC on the wall plug as almost every night (y'all know how it is with smartphones, always needing to be charged ). When I unplugged it on the morining, the green LED stayed on. Not cool. I can't really remember if it was turned on and stuck or already turned off at that time, but I had to reboot the phone. Okay, that can happen, phones have to reboot sometimes.
And then, it did not boot. Instead, it was stuck on the bootscreen. I looked around on the internets, but people seemed to have boot loops or devices stuck after the "quietly briliant" part. Actually, mine was stuck before that part. It didn't even play the funny sound and show the fancy animation: it was stuck on the blank screen with only the HTC logo.
I tried many things, like praying pagan gods and removing the battery, let it cool for a while, boot and wait to see what happens for more than 30 minutes, boot it while plugged on the wall plug... I think I was about to get to the "I'll have to make a factory reset, then" line when I tried to see what dmesg would tell me if I plugged the phone on my computer. Note to self: always try to plug to computer. It did boot completely. The victory dance was almost completed when I was invited to enter my PIN code. My touchscreen did not respond. Damn.
So I had to reboot. Again had to remove the battery (I don't like that, but what choice do I have?). Now it always boots completely (that's a good start), but my touch screen seems completely unresponsive. I can't access anything, can't enter my PIN code or unlock the phone when there's no SIM.
That's where this forum comes in: I've not given up. You see, my phone has USB debugging activated (yeah I know, the thread's title spoiled all the story). I'm pretty sure this means adb can help me in some way to troubleshoot my device. adb shell gives a nice UNIX-like shell, yay, that is relevant to my interests.
My phone has never been rooted. I've looked into it (that's why USB debuging was activated), but I wasn't 100% confident it would work, so I gave up before ending up bricking my phone (duh, too late, haha). It's running the last Gingerbread version distributed by HTC in Belgium (2.3.5, I think, without any certainty), with the last Sense version related (could it be 3.0.3?).
tl;dr: Unrooted phone with unresponsive touch screen, debugging mode enabled, trying to find what's wrong.
So here's what I'd like to know: is there any way to try to force start my touch screen with the help of adb? Where's the related log, the one that should display the error(s) that occur(s)? Should Bill Murray play in the next Batman? If root is needed, do I have a way to use a temproot exploit in order to fix my phone once and for all?
Any attempt to help will be greatly appreciated. This is my first post here, I hope it's clear enough, and not too nooby for you guys. Also, that I didn't break any rule (I watched/lauged at that video about noobs to xda). Btw, I'm quite confortable with UNIX shells, so don't avoid cli-related answers if that may happen to be helpful. Also, I'm not at home right now, but I'll follow this thread with a lot of interest anyways. I'm back on a regular connection next sunday.
Have a nice day! And sorry for the long post (but believe me, I'm even more sorry to admit I can't investigate further on my own, now that is frustrating).
Okay, I'm back.
It makes no sense. I let my phone on for a few days, then suddenly, probably out of boredom removed the battery, put it back and rebooted. I distractingly tried to unlock it… and it worked.
I have absolutely no single clue on what happened. And I'm still quite concerned, because this means it can happen again without any warning.
I'm gonna give a shot at HTC's support in order to ask them what I can do to locate the problem if there are traces. I'd really, really like to read all the logs (and logcat didn't show anything interesting).
If anyone has a suggestion, feel free to shoot it. I'll try to keep this thread updated in case someone has the same problem.
Duh, just got an anwser from HTC's support. Totally useless, they told me to try to reboot in Safe Mode in order to see if the problem happens again. Well, even in normal mode it has not failed for two days. GJ, guys.
I'm really willing to meddle in my system in order to see what could have gone wrong. I'd especially like to see if there is any way to see whether there are HW faults or not, since I'm suspecting a temporary TS chip failure, which can happen again at any moment. I'll be reading some documentation about Android's system and its logs.
Yeah, I know I'm talking a lot alone, but if someone ever has the same problem, he might be able to see what I've gone through, so I'm documenting as much as possible. =)
adb bugreport

Replacement touch screen unresponsive

I'm fixing an infuse for a friend who needed the screen replaced simple enough job so I thought as I repair phones and electronics as kind of a hobby. However the replacement screen isn't responding to any kind of touch at all. It displays the puzzle piece lock screen and everything else even shows there's been some missed calls ect. yet will not respond to any kind of touch. I think it's a calibration issue but I can't get passed the lock screen so there's no way to change the setting. Honestly I'm most worried about all the media on the phone most (pics, videos, contacts, ect )
If there is a way I can retrieve that off the internal storage I'll feel better about taking drastic measures. Other things I've noticed is an unusualy long boot up time hanging at the white Samsung letters but this is the first time I've dealt with an infuse so I'm not to sure on that.
Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
s1im
There are different versions of screens or maybe it was revisions. At least for the LCD +digitizer assembly. Rev.6.1 and 6.2 and 6.3 if I remember correctly.
Edit....here is a link for reference, also two of the screens were interchangeable but not all three. Sorry I don't remember which ones.
http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=180914982430&siteId=0&isClassified=false
Edit....my statement regarding interchangeability may not be true. The screen I bought could be used as a replacement for two of the rev numbers. That could mean that it is backward compatible but the other one isn't forward compatible.
The link said this item has been removed, but to be clear your saying not all revisions of screens can be used as replacements that you must find out which rev your original screen is?
s1imch4anc3 said:
The link said this item has been removed, but to be clear your saying not all revisions of screens can be used as replacements that you must find out which rev your original screen is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct mine had a sticker on it.
Bummer I have no idea what kind of screen she had I threw it away as a jumbled mess is there any other way to find out what screen it was... either way thanks for the replies
Wish I could answer that, but here is another screenshot. It shows one for 6.0/6.1 and another for 6.2 so my original numbers were off. Did the new one say what it is?
Do you know of any way to retrieve the pics and other media off the phone without being able to unlock the screen
s1imch4anc3 said:
Do you know of any way to retrieve the pics and other media off the phone without being able to unlock the screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just guessing but maybe adb. You could try to edit the title of your thread or start a new one about this question.
Edit..I have an idea but first a few questions , is this phone stock, and would you be comfortable flashing a kernel if it is? This will give you CWM recovery which has mount USB storage as an option in it. All this can be done with the physical buttons, power and volumes.
I found something that may work without having to make software modifications so I'm going to try that first and if not I'll get back to you...
To answer your questions tho the phone is stock and I've rooted /flashed a couple phones with no problems before so I'm OK with giving it a try
Again I'd like to thank you for your continuous help
You should be able to pull everything you need with adb...but the problem is, is adv enabled? And can you pull a whole directory? I doubt you know individual file names for each media file, not to mention that would be a long tedious process as there are likely well over a 100 if not in the 1000s of music/pics/vids
Well..looks like you can pull a whole.directory (sdcard)
this thread may help http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=744454
Btw...you don't have to be rooted to adv pull
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
UPDATE: I took the phone back apart finally after some grueling hours of adb research that lead me almost in circles and found that the replacement LCD is a rev 6.2 and that the revs 6.0/6.1 are the universal more common screens in the u.s. infuse. I decided to return the screen and get the other rev in hope it will be that easy...
I'd like to thank the 2 above members that gave me help especially adfergurson for sticking with me and my ?s I will post back when the next screen comes in to confirm it worked for anyone else needing this as future reference
s1imch4anc3 said:
UPDATE: I took the phone back apart finally after some grueling hours of adb research that lead me almost in circles and found that the replacement LCD is a rev 6.2 and that the revs 6.0/6.1 are the universal more common screens in the u.s. infuse. I decided to return the screen and get the other rev in hope it will be that easy...
I'd like to thank the 2 above members that gave me help especially adfergurson for sticking with me and my ?s I will post back when the next screen comes in to confirm it worked for anyone else needing this as future reference
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADB was the first thing I thought of, but flashing a kernel with custom recovery in Odin should allow you to get into USB storage. I am not familiar with the stock recovery but you could see what options are there. I believe it would be from device powered off hold volume up+volume down+ power buttons then release power at Samsung screen.
Were you able to resolve the screen issue with the different version? I am having the same problem.

[Q] AT&T Lumia 1020 dead after screen replacement

I bought this phone for my bride. THe screen was smashed it was changed and now the phone will not boot. It ios recognized by the computer and shows up as the proper device. THe screen is just dead. It vibrates, but that's all. There is no screen I have tried everything I can think of. I have done the hard and soft reset with no luck. Of course, I can't be sure as I can't see the screen. I was able to use a Nokia program to update the software. (Nokia Software recovery Tool version 1.5.0) see attached photo. Any ideas or help is appreciated. When the phone reboots the software is asking for the phone pin. This is impossible for me to input it because I don't know it and further I have no way to input it. Any advice is needed.
Hello, that's sad.
Something you can do is disassemble it and see one of those disassembly videos and check if something is wrong.
Example :
Maybe this one is not the best, but you can surely find one with lots of details on connections.
If you're lucky, it's only a connector not correctly linked.
Who has changed the screen ?
Not that lucky
The connections are correct. I'm starting to think BRICK.. These window phones are just garbage in my opinion or I am just dumb or both. I got to figure this out as it is what my bride wants. I again thank all of you for any ideas.
did you make it work?
I have the same problem like you...

Digitizer works in TWRP recovery but not after normal boot

I'm new to this forum and this is my 2nd attempt to get help to solve my problem. I have read ALL the rules posted in the XDA New User Guide - Getting Started On XDA, as well as all of the linked pages that are suggested to read before posting. It was very informative but I'm more confused then ever about the right place to seek help. This is all very overwhelming and I'm afraid I'm going to say something to offend someone or post in the wrong place and get in trouble, or worse, ignored. I suspect I did just that in my last post because I never got a response. I apologize in advance if I have done something wrong.
Ok, I'll do my best to explain my problem. I have an LG K20 Plus (I'll refer to this as my original phone) that I bought, brand new, from T-Mobile in May. In August I cracked the screen but continued to use it because besides the crack, it worked fine. By September the crack had worsened significantly and I decided to replace the outer glass as I had successfully done that with my older LG G3.
In that process, while trying to get that dreadful glue off, I scraped off some of the black stuff under the glue on the LCD which caused a white spot, about the size of a 1/2 dollar, on my screen. Although it was bothersome, the phone itself still worked fine. I continued to use it while I searched for the easiest way to fix it within my budget. After reading posts here and realizing it would work, I bought a used LG K20 Plus (I'll refer to this as my used phone) with a bad esn. The plan was to put my original logic board into the used phone and be on my way. That didn't happen.
When the used phone arrived, I turned it on to verify everything worked. I then put my original logic board into the used phone and turned it on. I saw my orignal wallpaper and was so happy I had my phone back. Then I tried to swipe to unlock and nothing happened. I booted it up a couple more times and still nothing. I connected a mouse via an OTG cable and verified that there were no more obvious issues with the phone except the digitizer. To confirm the dispaly wasn't faulty on the used phone, I put the used logic board back into the used phone it came with and booted it up. The digitizer was back to working again. I ran through as much as I could on a locked phone and the digitizer worked like new.
I, carefully, put my original logic board back into the used phone and, again, no touch capability. Again, I researched this problem to no avail. I realized I was way over my head and I decided to ask for help instead of making things worse by trying to fix it without knowing what I was doing. So, I put the phone in a drawer and asked for help here. That was a month ago. I know you are all very busy and, like I said earlier, I'm sure it's my fault and I messed up somewhere because my post didn't receive any replies.
I can't use my original phone because I have no touch ability and I can't use the used phone because it has an esn lock. At this point I decided to try and (I'm sure I'm using the wrong terminology here) flash the used phone and root it to bypass the bad esn lock. After researching that and seeing the word "illegal" A LOT, I decided I just didn't know if it was legal or not, so I decided to not take the risk of doing something that may get me into trouble.
At this point I decided I didn't have much to lose so I backed up my original phone and, with only the display of the used phone attached, I started the process of flashing it with TWRP and rooting it via this guide https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/recovery-twrp-v3-lg-k20-plus-t3616248 So, it is now successfully rooted but it still has no touch ability. The really weird thing is, while I was in TWRP Recovery mode, the touch ability worked again. But as soon as I rebooted the phone into regular mode, the digitizer stopped working again. I'm so confused and I don't even no where to start looking because I can't define the problem or the exact thing that is failing. I don't even know if it's hardware or software related.
So, I guess my question is, does anybody have any experience with this kind of problem you could share with me. I'd settle for someone being patient enough to explain to me exactly what is going on so I could research it better myself. Asking for help was not my first step. I have been looking and looking for 6 weeks now. I'm way out of my league with this stuff. It's really difficult to find a solution to a problem you don't quite understand. It's a little bit like being told to look up a word in the dictionary to find the spelling.
*LG K20 Plus
*LG-TP260
*T-Mobile
*Rooted
Baseband: MPSS.JO.
2.0c1.2-00012-8937_GENNS_PACK-1.85468.1
I think it's my original ROM
Kernel Version 3.18.31
I flashed TWRP
USB debugging enabled
OEM Lock Off
Here is what you do. Hook it up to a pc. Take a logcat and that will tell you what is failing. It sounds like a kernel compatibility issue.
zelendel said:
Here is what you do. Hook it up to a pc. Take a logcat and that will tell you what is failing. It sounds like a kernel compatibility issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm so sorry but I have run into a few problems .. firstly, on my phone I have to use a mouse connected via OTG cable because I have no touch ability and my usb connection is set to "charge only". Apparently you can't change that until the phone is plugged in and obviously I need the mouse so I can't connect to computer. I downloaded an app called LogCatX and made a log file but I don't know how to attach a file and when I copy/paste it into the reply it says it is too long and reduce by 30000 characters. Any advice?
HelpNeededPlz said:
I'm so sorry but I have run into a few problems .. firstly, on my phone I have to use a mouse connected via OTG cable because I have no touch ability and my usb connection is set to "charge only". Apparently you can't change that until the phone is plugged in and obviously I need the mouse so I can't connect to computer. I downloaded an app called LogCatX and made a log file but I don't know how to attach a file and when I copy/paste it into the reply it says it is too long and reduce by 30000 characters. Any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the new touch screen will need a calibration.
PS: i liked how you explained your problem
Sorry for my confusion but I'm not sure if you were telling me what I should do to figure out where the incompatibility issue may be or if you were asking me to upload the catlog so you could look at it and help me. I don't know what a catlog is, nor how to interpret it. At any rate, 6 hours later, I have, finally, figured out how to upload a file. :victory: I've been looking at how to fix a kernel incompatibility issue and I've read you can flash a custom kernel. If I did something like that, would that resolve my problem. Are they specific to the version of operating system your phone has (ie nougat, marshmallow etc) or do you need to use one for your specific phone model? Would flashing a custom ROM do the same thing? And is that model specific or OS specific? Where would I go to find something like that?
NOTE... In looking for differences in my phone to try and figure out where this kernel compatibility issue might be, I noticed that there are two different numbers on the midframe of my phones. I don't know if this means anything. I'm just trying to help someone help me.
zelendel said:
Here is what you do. Hook it up to a pc. Take a logcat and that will tell you what is failing. It sounds like a kernel compatibility issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello? Was this the extent of your help? I'm not sure if you were asking me to run a catlog to upload so you could help me figure out what was wrong or if you were just telling me what to do and then moving on. Because if it was the later, all you've done is piled more stuff on my steadily growing mound of confusion. To make matters worse, my posts is showing as getting a response, so, I fear, nobody else will look at it and I will be left in the same place as before. If someone happens upon this post, could you give me advice that will actually help me solve my problem, along with instructions on how to do whatever I need to do. Thank you in advance. Until then, I'll be anxiously awaiting your reply....

Help with an odd Japanese phone (Urbano L02)

Hello, recently i bought a few Japanese phones from a rather good seller off ebay, one of them, is of course the topic of this thread.
The phone in question is a Kyocera Urbano L02.
Upon powering it on, I'm greeted with what
I assume is a lock screen (as i can't actually read Japanese) So the next option would be to hard reset. But, this is where the problems begin
I have tried every different combination to get to system recovery but every time, the phone boots up to the carrier logo, and then just goes dark until i let go of what ever key I'm holding. Upon release, the phone boots up again like normal, as if something is actually "blocking" system recovery
I have seen this happens with other Kyoceras online, no matter the model, and every article i saw was never actually answered.
So what do I have to do? I've exhausted every option so far that my limited experience has granted me, At the very least is there a pinhole reset? I collect phones and would rather like to have this one working, and not be a paper weight.
Maybe it's better to post the lock screen here. Perhaps someone here who can read Japanese may give a hand to you.

Categories

Resources