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I've had the great misfortune of bricking my phone within the first few hours of owning it. I should have known something was up, it wouldn't reboot when I changed the language to English, and I'd have to hard reset it (delete everything) and then let it load in Chinese again. Well, in an attempt to fix what I thought was a rom issue, I went through the song and dance of trying to root my phone.
I'm still not fully clear on how to do it, as it seems there's more to it than just what the tutorials say.
Anyway, like the title of this thread says, there's a pretty good way to figure out if your phone is really bricked, no need to ask or wonder anymore.
If your phone only boots to the htc magic screen (and then stops), and is unable to load bootloader, fastboot, usb connections, or anything else, it's bricked. 100%. You have to take it back. Don't bother searching the forums for the answer, I've wasted hours going through every related thread and trying every possible solution. Without the ability to access the fastboot screen, you're out of possibilities. Untill someone comes out with an unbricker which goes deeper than fastboot, there is absolutely no way to fix it.
A semi brick is much better on the other hand. There are plenty of ways to fix your phone, provided you're only semi bricked. I would define semi bricked as being able to enter fastboot, but being unable to boot the phone as normal. This can happen with a bad flash, or a mis step during a tutorial. I'm not exactly sure how easy it is to change a semi brick to a full brick, but my full bricking happened after semi bricking it while loading a new rom on it.
So. to summarize, if your phone WON'T go into the boot menu by pressing vol-down+power, you're in need of a new phone.
If you can still get into the boot menu, and access your phone through usb, you're ok, just get help (via a tutorial) before going any further, unless you're completely certain of what to do next.
Tis a shame to send a device, which is physically undamaged, to the digital graveyard. But such is life.
Caid.
444.
EDIT
on a side note, before my phone reset itself into it's endless loop of unloading, I noticed the screen flash an image of a box with what looked like a red arrow coming out of it. It was right in the center of the screen. This was in the recovery-RAv1.0H.img menu. What's that all about?
Did you try other key combinations such as Home+Power, or Back+Power?
I'm sorry but I think you're misunderstanding it all a little bit...
Caid444 said:
I've had the great misfortune of bricking my phone within the first few hours of owning it. I should have known something was up, it wouldn't reboot when I changed the language to English, and I'd have to hard reset it (delete everything) and then let it load in Chinese again. Well, in an attempt to fix what I thought was a rom issue, I went through the song and dance of trying to root my phone.
I'm still not fully clear on how to do it, as it seems there's more to it than just what the tutorials say.
Anyway, like the title of this thread says, there's a pretty good way to figure out if your phone is really bricked, no need to ask or wonder anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's easy if you follow the guides... I did it in two different phones with no problem at all in any of them... Anyway, let's stay on topìc
Caid444 said:
If your phone only boots to the htc magic screen (and then stops), and is unable to load bootloader, fastboot, usb connections, or anything else, it's bricked. 100%. You have to take it back. Don't bother searching the forums for the answer, I've wasted hours going through every related thread and trying every possible solution. Without the ability to access the fastboot screen, you're out of possibilities. Untill someone comes out with an unbricker which goes deeper than fastboot, there is absolutely no way to fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong. If your phone boots to the HTC Magic screen, the bootloader is doing it's job. The bootloader just takes you there. The linux kernel and ramdisk takes you to the boot animation, and there is where android really starts.
If your phone shows the first htc logo, or the Vodafone branded screen, you can start in bootloader mode. To make that you just have to remove the battery, put it back, and press and hold BACK + END KEY. From that, you can fastboot.
Also, and unless you destroyed the recovery partition, you can also boot in recovery mode, by pressing END KEY while holding HOME (no need to keep them both hold, just home button)
Caid444 said:
A semi brick is much better on the other hand. There are plenty of ways to fix your phone, provided you're only semi bricked. I would define semi bricked as being able to enter fastboot, but being unable to boot the phone as normal. This can happen with a bad flash, or a mis step during a tutorial. I'm not exactly sure how easy it is to change a semi brick to a full brick, but my full bricking happened after semi bricking it while loading a new rom on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would call a semi brick this:
Your phone goes into an endless loop while booting.
Your phone gets stucked on the first boot logo.
You can't get access to the recovery partition.
Your phone boots all the way but then gets stucked.
Your phone gone bad during a software update.
That, all, can be solved by reflashing the affected region. There are tutorials for everything but if you need I can write some hints on each case (I suffered them all ).
Caid444 said:
So. to summarize, if your phone WON'T go into the boot menu by pressing vol-down+power, you're in need of a new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, VOLDOWN+POWER starts in Hboot mode. From there you can go back to fastboot mode, but hboot is used to make a software upgrade using complete images or running htc diagnostic images (SAPPDIAG.IMG, SAPP*.IMG /NBH).
Caid444 said:
If you can still get into the boot menu, and access your phone through usb, you're ok, just get help (via a tutorial) before going any further, unless you're completely certain of what to do next.
Tis a shame to send a device, which is physically undamaged, to the digital graveyard. But such is life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can't get USB working on fastboot mode, or on recovery mode, your phone has probably a hardware fault. It happened with some of the first revisions of the Vodafone branded magic, don't know about htc branded ones though..
NOTE: Not talking about missing drivers, if you don't have drivers, that's another problem, but the computer should at least detect the device. Also, if your phone is off, and you connect the charger (or usb) and the orange led lights up, the bootloader should be ok.
Caid444 said:
on a side note, before my phone reset itself into it's endless loop of unloading, I noticed the screen flash an image of a box with what looked like a red arrow coming out of it. It was right in the center of the screen. This was in the recovery-RAv1.0H.img menu. What's that all about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the recovery mode. With that you can unbrick your phone
Also, as another hint, if you're new to linux OSes, you might want to take a look at some manual on terminal commands. If your main software is bricked, it's possible that your SDCard doesn't get mounted on recovery mode, depending on wich recovery image you're running. Provided you have an update.zip on the sdcard you need to run, you might have to mount it manually.
To do that, you have to start the phone in recovery mode, and run an "adb shell" on the PC.
When you have a shell opened, you'll have to mount the sdcard manually:
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard
Then, on the phone you can use the option to run sdcard update.zip to restart the software upgrade procedure.
Regards!
Before I reply, I'd just like to say thank you very much for your extremely in depth reply.
biktor_gj said:
I'm sorry but I think you're misunderstanding it all a little bit...
It's easy if you follow the guides... I did it in two different phones with no problem at all in any of them... Anyway, let's stay on topìc
Wrong. If your phone boots to the HTC Magic screen, the bootloader is doing it's job. The bootloader just takes you there. The linux kernel and ramdisk takes you to the boot animation, and there is where android really starts.
If your phone shows the first htc logo, or the Vodafone branded screen, you can start in bootloader mode. To make that you just have to remove the battery, put it back, and press and hold BACK + END KEY. From that, you can fastboot.
Also, and unless you destroyed the recovery partition, you can also boot in recovery mode, by pressing END KEY while holding HOME (no need to keep them both hold, just home button)
I would call a semi brick this:
Your phone goes into an endless loop while booting.
Your phone gets stucked on the first boot logo.
You can't get access to the recovery partition.
Your phone boots all the way but then gets stucked.
Your phone gone bad during a software update.
That, all, can be solved by reflashing the affected region. There are tutorials for everything but if you need I can write some hints on each case (I suffered them all ).
Actually, VOLDOWN+POWER starts in Hboot mode. From there you can go back to fastboot mode, but hboot is used to make a software upgrade using complete images or running htc diagnostic images (SAPPDIAG.IMG, SAPP*.IMG /NBH).
If you can't get USB working on fastboot mode, or on recovery mode, your phone has probably a hardware fault. It happened with some of the first revisions of the Vodafone branded magic, don't know about htc branded ones though..
NOTE: Not talking about missing drivers, if you don't have drivers, that's another problem, but the computer should at least detect the device. Also, if your phone is off, and you connect the charger (or usb) and the orange led lights up, the bootloader should be ok.
That's the recovery mode. With that you can unbrick your phone
Also, as another hint, if you're new to linux OSes, you might want to take a look at some manual on terminal commands. If your main software is bricked, it's possible that your SDCard doesn't get mounted on recovery mode, depending on wich recovery image you're running. Provided you have an update.zip on the sdcard you need to run, you might have to mount it manually.
To do that, you have to start the phone in recovery mode, and run an "adb shell" on the PC.
When you have a shell opened, you'll have to mount the sdcard manually:
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard
Then, on the phone you can use the option to run sdcard update.zip to restart the software upgrade procedure.
Regards!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To the first answer.
It's not THAT easy, the guides are kinda (you should already know what you're doing at this point) in nature. It's confusing for newcomers, as we've no idea what to expect, that and there are a multitude of variations. More specification as to which guide works with which model, and which updates would be nice.
As for the second part, I could not get the phone working with any button variation pressed. I'm sorry I was not more clear in my description, to begin with. I could press (and hold) any button (or buttons) + power (end key) and the phone would just vibrate (briefly) and then display the original screen "htc magic"(endlessly). The orange light does come on when plugged into the usb or computer, but only while it is off, as soon as the device turns on, the light turns off.
Another thing of note is that, after bricking it, I had to remove the battery to turn it off (every time if it was on), and if I put the battery back in while it's plugged into the usb port of the computer, the phone would turn back on without pressing any buttons. It's also completely unresponsive or detectable by my computer after bricking it. The only other thing I can get it to do is make the orange light blue by holding the action button and turning on the device. That way the light on top of the device is blue when it turns on. Still unresponsive at that point.
This is my first android device, but not my first htc device (I've had MANY MANY different ones.) so I'm a bit familiar with trying different combinations to get a response.
I am not the first person who's had this happen, unfortunately. There have been a couple others, who've described the exact same encounter. Perhaps it's a mistake that I made, and perhaps they also made it themselves. I would like to figure out how it's happening, though, and perhaps write a tutorial for people like us unlucky few.
Again, a really big thanks. I've sent my phone back and am getting a new one soon. I much appreciate your reply, however, as it's probably the most understanding and considerate reply I've seen on these forums.
Cheers.
Caid.
444
One more quick question out of curiosity, when you press and hold back and press end to turn on the device (it still goes to the htc magic screen) SHOULD it go to a different screen, other than the "htc magic" screen? Or is that a process that runs without some sort of visual notification on the device itself?
The usb was completely unresponsive after this happened, but in the event that bootloader may have been running, (only possible if it runs without any visual notification on the device itself), I'll go pick up the device and see if my usb drivers on my computer just became unresponsive after being accessed too many times. Sometimes windows does that, right? Perhaps a reboot would have allowed fastboot and the drivers to connect again, if the device was trying to talk to the computer, but I just didn't know on account of not having any notification.
So, again, should pressing back and power bring me to a different screen? or would it also look like it was hanging on htc magic screen?
Caid.
444
p.s. Sorry for the confusing wording, I'm tired and trying very hard to be as specific as possible.
back+end/power should lead you to the fastboot screen right after it shows the HTC Magic screen or whatever splash screen you have installed.
Home+end/power should lead you to the recovery screen.
ok, it was bricked. Thanks for the answer.
Caid.
444
Caid444 said:
Before I reply, I'd just like to say thank you very much for your extremely in depth reply.
To the first answer.
It's not THAT easy, the guides are kinda (you should already know what you're doing at this point) in nature. It's confusing for newcomers, as we've no idea what to expect, that and there are a multitude of variations. More specification as to which guide works with which model, and which updates would be nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, we all should be here to learn, and to help (except for the trolls)
This is the guide I followed for both Vodafone branded Magics: http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=Magic_Rooting
Maybe not for now, but for the next magic you get it may come handy
Caid444 said:
As for the second part, I could not get the phone working with any button variation pressed. I'm sorry I was not more clear in my description, to begin with. I could press (and hold) any button (or buttons) + power (end key) and the phone would just vibrate (briefly) and then display the original screen "htc magic"(endlessly). The orange light does come on when plugged into the usb or computer, but only while it is off, as soon as the device turns on, the light turns off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When the phone is off with the charger connected and you press the power button, the light goes off, as for the others, you really should be able to enter the SPL if it could the magic bootlogo and vibrated upon boot...
Maybe you didn't try enough or maybe your bootloader behaved differently than mine... I should be more clear anyway, to get to the bootloader, the best way to make it go to the bootloader is press and hold back key, then while holding it, hold the power button too. It should take about a second or two before showing the three skater droids.
Caid444 said:
Another thing of note is that, after bricking it, I had to remove the battery to turn it off (every time if it was on), and if I put the battery back in while it's plugged into the usb port of the computer, the phone would turn back on without pressing any buttons. It's also completely unresponsive or detectable by my computer after bricking it. The only other thing I can get it to do is make the orange light blue by holding the action button and turning on the device. That way the light on top of the device is blue when it turns on. Still unresponsive at that point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you put the battery while USB or charger is connected, the phone boots up, that's the normal behaviour. About the blue led, that's the Radio bootloader. That's quite dangerous to play with, but it gives a lot of other functions. Another sign that your phone wasn't completely dead Even if you wipe the SPL (the three skater droids), you may be able to boot into the Radio bootloader and write or boot another one to fix it. But that's waaaay harder
Caid444 said:
This is my first android device, but not my first htc device (I've had MANY MANY different ones.) so I'm a bit familiar with trying different combinations to get a response.
I am not the first person who's had this happen, unfortunately. There have been a couple others, who've described the exact same encounter. Perhaps it's a mistake that I made, and perhaps they also made it themselves. I would like to figure out how it's happening, though, and perhaps write a tutorial for people like us unlucky few.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the first advice when you start tricking with a phone is be careful with what you're doing. That's the good thing of fastboot.
When booting on fastboot mode, you can pick, for example a recovery image, and boot it without overwriting the original rom:
Code:
fastboot boot [recovery_image]
Then, when you see it's working, you can flash it:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery [recovery_image]
fastboot flash boot [boot_image]
fastboot flash system [system_image]
fastboot flash data [data_image]
You can't do that with the system.img since it's too big, but you can do it also with a boot.img
About the key combinations on the phone, it goes like this:
Code:
BACK + END KEY -> Fastboot mode (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
VOLDOWN + END KEY -> Hboot mode (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
ACTION (trackball center) + END KEY -> Radio Bootloader (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
HOME + END KEY -> Recovery mode (you should see the boot logo, then get the recovery menu)
SEND + MENU + END -> Reboot the phone (while the phone is on)
Maybe there are more (android has kind of 'safe mode' but I don't know it it goes there automatically if there's a problem or if it has to be called manually)
Anyway, I hope these things will be useful for the next phone, and for anybody who's a bit lost on this
Regards!
Let us know where you live , so maybe one can help you , I live in Sweden and will be glad to help you if you are near ;-)
Hey! Thanks again for all the help, and the offer to come help. Unfortunately, I'm in China. Coming here from Sweden (although it's a single large landmass) would take quite a bit of time
I appreciate all the support, though. Very cool community we're building here for the magic.
Caid.
444
htc semi-brick?
Hi to all. I'm in the same condition described in this tread; after installing SPL i get the htc block in Vodafone brand red screen.
None keys combination bring me to the boot menù. Only Action(trackball) + power have effect, but with a black screen...
Any suggest?
What do you do if you can boot into fastboot but can't flash anything because absolutely everything gives the error "FAILED (remote: signature verify fail)"?
I have a card reader and have tried just about every sappimg.zip, every boot.img, every recovery.img i could find. I can't even boot a recovery img because the screen just hangs at the HTC Magic logo.
I don't know what kind of warranty i have on this thing, but i might take it in tomorrow and see if i can get it replaced. I've only had it for just under two weeks.
Newbie need help
ok so i can still go to recovery mode but everytime i reboot my phone the mytouch 3g logo never goes away im new to Android but not htc can somebody plz help me out.
gruppler said:
What do you do if you can boot into fastboot but can't flash anything because absolutely everything gives the error "FAILED (remote: signature verify fail)"?
I have a card reader and have tried just about every sappimg.zip, every boot.img, every recovery.img i could find. I can't even boot a recovery img because the screen just hangs at the HTC Magic logo.
I don't know what kind of warranty i have on this thing, but i might take it in tomorrow and see if i can get it replaced. I've only had it for just under two weeks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of flashing something, you boot a recovery image, and then, from there, you flash whatever you need (using adb & flash_image for example)
PS: Be a little patient, if fastboot is letting you boot a recovery image, the recovery needs to boot, and that takes a little while, and while it's booting, you see the bootlogo until the menu appears. Also, you can try running adb shell after boot process started to try to get an error message (or at least to know if the thing is booting in some way)
I couldn't boot any recovery images. I had tried a few different Hero ROMs but decided i wanted to use Cupcake again because i have a 32B board and it just doesn't have enough RAM, though Swapper makes it usable at least. I don't know what exactly i did, but i've learned a lot from my mistakes. Everything i tried failed the signature check because the hboot version didn't match. If i could just flash the 1.33.2005 hboot again, i would have been in business, but no matter which recovery image i tried, it just sat there doing nothing. And believe me, i waited.
Fortunately, T-Mobile gave me a new device after i took it in and played dumb. And I just rooted it =]
Caid444 said:
ok, it was bricked. Thanks for the answer.
Caid.
444
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not flashing it with an RUU from HTC. Not sure that would work but it is worth trying.
Hi there, people!
First of all, thanks because while I was reading ur posts I realized that my phone had been bricked, 100 %
I tried official ROM upgrade to Android 1.6 using the folowing steps
1. Copied radio zip to my sd card by renaming it in update.zip
2. Recovery screen was started by pressing HOME+END key
3.Applied update.zip, process was going on: Opening package, verifing package, installing radio...and message about success was shown and phone restarted
4. Phone stucked on HTC Magic logo screen...15 minutes
5. I removed a battery, put it back and tried to reach recovery or boot mode again
6.Unsuccessfully! Phone vibrates and turns on...but always stucks on the HTC Magic screen
7. USB does not recognize my phone is connected (I tried any adb and fastboot commands)
8. So, I just pray to give me a new phone if my warranty will be accepted
iivanovic said:
Hi there, people!
First of all, thanks because while I was reading ur posts I realized that my phone had been bricked, 100 %
I tried official ROM upgrade to Android 1.6 using the folowing steps
1. Copied radio zip to my sd card by renaming it in update.zip
2. Recovery screen was started by pressing HOME+END key
3.Applied update.zip, process was going on: Opening package, verifing package, installing radio...and message about success was shown and phone restarted
4. Phone stucked on HTC Magic logo screen...15 minutes
5. I removed a battery, put it back and tried to reach recovery or boot mode again
6.Unsuccessfully! Phone vibrates and turns on...but always stucks on the HTC Magic screen
7. USB does not recognize my phone is connected (I tried any adb and fastboot commands)
8. So, I just pray to give me a new phone if my warranty will be accepted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. I get up hboot and fast boot menus can not get it in recovery. try to add in sappimg but no luck
I'm having the exact same problem...
Any solution yet?
Hello! I can assure you that your phone is not fully bricked! Awhile ago I flashed a new radio only to discover that I hadn't done my research and was a complete and total idiot. I flashed the 1.76.xxxx on a 32B. It didn't like it. I got a quick HTC logo that disappeared then the phone never responded again. When I say never responded it was dead. no combination of buttons would get any response. If you can get into fastboot you have options. All that's necessary is to make sure you have the appropriate sappimg file. Try the Unlockr's gold card method file. He has a .zip file that may work for you. Just make sure that you find an image that is compatible with your board (32A or 32B). Hope this helps!
My stock, untouched, unrooted HTC One S has randomly got itself stuck in a boot loop. It goes through the 'quietly brilliant' screen, onto the 'htc one' screen and then it restarts. I am desperately trying to recover my files and photos from the memory before I try a Factory Reset, because while these.threads mention ways to recover deleted files, these.posts from the OP suggest that it doesn't work for files lost to a factory reset.
Things I have tried:
Selecting the 'Recovery' option from the bootloader shows a black screen with green arrows on it for about 10s, but then the green arrows change to a red triangle with a '!' in it and it eventually reboots into the same loop.
Connecting to the phone using ADB over USB fails as the device is unseen. I believe this is failing because the phone is locked, and/or does not have USB debugging enabled on it??
The Fastboot tool does seem to be able to see my device, but from what I can tell fastboot is more used for flashing ROMs, and I'm not really trying to do this.
So my questions are:
Does anyone know of a way to access the files/folders on my device in its current state?
Since the SD card on the One S is fake, is there a way for me to fix the section of memory that boots the device, whilst leaving the storage bit untouched?
Any advice is greatly appreciated as I've got a lot of personal photos and videos on the device. I didn't think to back them up because on previous phones they've always been safely accessible on a physical card =(
Thanks in advance,
Tom
Hi Tom,
I'm not familiar with stock recovery, as I unlocked and rooted my device almost immediately. So I'm not really sure, but here are some suggestions anyway:
Try and see if vol-up or -down gets you in a state where you can get adb when booted into stock recovery.
You can also try and fastboot boot directly into a custom recovery image, but that may not be possible with a locked bootloader.
If not, I'm afraid you're SOL, since unlocking wipes the storage.
-Jobo
I cant think of any way to recover from this situation except reflash ruu but then your sd card is wiped. Did you not activate dropbox?
What about vol down and power, rebooting into HBOOT? Then can't you dd if sdcard of?
Or fastboot pull /sdcard/ C:\Users\User\Desktop\sdcard
Sent from my locked, tampered ville
I'm in the same situation, it happened on Thursday night (the 8th), when did your's start? I'm struggling to find a solution for this as well. The closest I've got to anything is that on Linux Ubuntu, when I book the phone connected to my laptop one the second (out of three) boot screens it recognizes the device as an inaccessible HTC Phone, disappearing then once it reboots. Nothing is accessible.
Thanks all for your replies. I'll try to respond in order...
@Jobo - Sorry to be a noob, but how do I boot into stock recovery? The Recovery option from the HBOOT screen fails like I said above. Regarding fastboot, does it let you boot into an image that is stored on your PC? Is that how it works? Obviously I'm not going to be able to get an image onto the phone without most likely wiping everything. FYI, my HBOOT screen says ***LOCKED*** on it, but the phone was bought outright so it is not locked by a provider.
@gazknight - I saw Dropbox more as a solution for the One S's limited storage capacity. Since I didn't expect to go over the fixed limit, I didn't really think I'd need the service. Backing up for security's sake would obviously have been a good idea but then I've never had a phone break quite so suddenly as this so I didn't think to do that.
@usaff22 - I can get into HBOOT successfully, but in this state (or whilst in the FASTBOOT menu) my SD card is not mounted and not visible over USB. Does the DD command require a mounted drive? Also, is it a LINUX command? I'm running Windows on my laptop, but with the Android SDK installed. I tried FASTBOOT PULL, but that's not a recognised command when I try it; listing the commands available only shows options like 'flash', 'erase', 'format', 'boot' etc.
@nickrr1 - Mine went bad just a few days before yours I think. I see what you mean, I think; on Windows, when I leave the phone connected via USB for the duration of its boot loop, a mounted drive does appear for just a few seconds, but if I click it it says "Please insert a disk" and then it's gone within a few seconds.
tommy_g003 said:
Thanks all for your replies. I'll try to respond in order...
@Jobo - Sorry to be a noob, but how do I boot into stock recovery? The Recovery option from the HBOOT screen fails like I said above. Regarding fastboot, does it let you boot into an image that is stored on your PC? Is that how it works? Obviously I'm not going to be able to get an image onto the phone without most likely wiping everything. FYI, my HBOOT screen says ***LOCKED*** on it, but the phone was bought outright so it is not locked by a provider.
@usaff22 - I can get into HBOOT successfully, but in this state (or whilst in the FASTBOOT menu) my SD card is not mounted and not visible over USB. Does the DD command require a mounted drive? Also, is it a LINUX command? I'm running Windows on my laptop, but with the Android SDK installed. I tried FASTBOOT PULL, but that's not a recognised command when I try it; listing the commands available only shows options like 'flash', 'erase', 'format', 'boot' etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Locked means the bootloader being locked/unlocked, not the SIM's state.
dd if of should work after typing adb shell. Have you tried flashing a recovery in fastboot? I need the sdcard partition number though, for the dd to work.
It is fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (recovery should be named recovery.img and placed in the fastboot folder)
Edit: tried this?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25557817#post25850720
tommy_g003 said:
@Jobo - Sorry to be a noob, but how do I boot into stock recovery? The Recovery option from the HBOOT screen fails like I said above. Regarding fastboot, does it let you boot into an image that is stored on your PC? Is that how it works? Obviously I'm not going to be able to get an image onto the phone without most likely wiping everything. FYI, my HBOOT screen says ***LOCKED*** on it, but the phone was bought outright so it is not locked by a provider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said, I'm not familiar with stock recovery and I don't have it installed.
After you select recovery from hboot, and before it reboots again, does it respond to the volume buttons?
Yes, you can fastboot boot into a recovery image without copying the file to the device:
fastboot boot recovery-cwm-ville.img (substitute the actual file name of the recovery image. but im not sure whether this requires an unlocked bootloader.)
As usaff22 pointed out, **LOCKED** means bootloader locked, not provider SIM locked.
usaff22 said:
Have you tried flashing a recovery in fastboot? I need the sdcard partition number though, for the dd to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He can not flash recoveries since his bootloader is locked.
The sdcard partition is /dev/block/mmcblk0p36
EDIT: Here is another thought:
Have you tried booting into safe mode? (Power on the device, when on the boot splash hold vol-down and keep holding until you feel a long buzz or until you see 'safe mode' in the lower left corner of the screen.) If not, you can try to fastboot erase cache and even fastboot erase userdata. This should not erase your sdcard, just your apps and app data, but it might get your device back into bootable state, if the bootloop was caused by a user app or some corrupted user data.
usaff22 said:
Edit: tried this?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25557817#post25850720
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That will erase the sdcard. The whole point of this thread is to save the sdcard contents.
touch of jobo said:
That will erase the sdcard. The whole point of this thread is to save the sdcard contents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad. Sorry.
I wonder if the following will work:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p36 of=C:\Users\UserAccount\Desktop\
Have you tried the wipe user data option in HBOOT? Not clear storage, if I remember correctly there is another option to wipe user data.
usaff22 said:
I wonder if the following will work:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p36 of=C:\Users\UserAccount\Desktop\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will not. dd must be run on the device. What would work (on a linux host) is this:
(adb shell dd if=/dev/block/mmc0p36) > ~/rescued_sdcard.img
But still .. you would need to be able to get an adb shell first.
Thanks so much for your time and suggestions on this. I've tried a few things now, but to no avail so far...
ADB - Still no luck with this. I think this is expected because of the state my phone is in... I have read that it needs to be actually booted up, and with USB Debugging enabled for it to work.
Safe Mode - No joy. I can use a long press of Volume Down to get a long buzz, but then it still reboots a few seconds later.
Recovery Boot - Selecting Recovery from the HBOOT menu and then pressing/holding the Volume Up and Down buttons does not seem to have any effect. I'm not sure exactly when I should be pressing them, but I have tried a few different methods and it always ends up on the same red triangle screen.
Fastboot - This does seem to be connecting, but because the damn thing is locked I'm getting access errors when I try to do anything useful...
fastboot erase cache works, but then rebooting normally or with safe mode both fail as usual.
fastboot erase userdata fails with a "remote: not allowed" error.
fastboot boot ville_recovery_signed.img posts success at reading the image file but then it fails at the 'booting' stage with the same remote access error.
HBOOT wipe - My only two options relating to data at the top level menu are 'FACTORY RESET' and 'CLEAR STORAGE'. I have not tried selecting either of these, so I am not sure of any deeper options, but I did research these options and it does seem like they will likely wipe my SD data. I am wondering though if maybe the FACTORY RESET might save my data on the SD partition. This is the opposite of what an HTC support guy told me though.
Also I found a report of another poor guy having the same issue this week. Add 'www' to the following: peoplesrepublicofcork.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4528285 (soz, I can't post links yet)
>_< Why didn't I just back up my photos & videos!?!
UPDATE:
So after a bit of back-and-forth with HTC's tech support over the last few days, I got some instructions from them to use the Factory Reset...
HTC: "...I would like you to perform a factory reset of the phone. This will erase all data saved to the memory of the phone, but will not clear the phone storage..."
ME: "...Will the Factory Reset really spare the 'storage' as suggested, or is this wording aimed at phones with a physical SD card?..."
HTC: "On the HTC One S there are 2 different types of storage. The phone memory and the internal storage of the phone. A factory reset will erase all data from the memory of the phone, but leave the phone storage intact, it is easiest if you think of phone storage as an internal SD Card. There are 2 settings on the phone which reflect this, a factory reset and the option to clear storage. If you choose a factory reset of the phone your internal storage should remain intact and your photos will not be wiped from the device."
So I did the Reset, and the phone now boots, but I've lost all my photos and videos. They don't show up on the phone; they don't show up on a mounted drive; they don't even show up using typical 'undelete' software on the mounted drive. Thanks for the great advice, HTC!
Now my last option is to follow this thread, but this will involve me knowingly voiding my warranty on a piece of hardware which I already know is potentially unreliable.
So I think I'm just going to give up....
What a drama...
@tommy_g003
How did things work out? Did you manage to recover your data after the factory reset?
I have exactly the same bootloop problem you described and I'm beyond despair. Over the past couple of weeks I've used an app on my phone (PCM recorder) to record interviews for my master thesis. I've backed up several of them, but not all... I have gone above and beyond to get these interviews and there is no way I'll be able to redo them. I really truly cannot lose these recordings!
I think at this point I'd rather even sacrifice my phone by physically removing the storage from it and somehow recovering the data from it, but I have no clue whether this is even possible.
I read a thread (androidforums. com/htc-wildfire-s/560123-unrooted-wildfire-s-bootloop-help. html - remove spaces in url) that describes how to re-flash the stock ROM when not rooted. Presumably this can fix the bootloop, while not deleting the internal storage. Does anybody know if something like this exists and works for the One S as well?
jazzmijnhv said:
I read a thread (androidforums. com/htc-wildfire-s/560123-unrooted-wildfire-s-bootloop-help. html - remove spaces in url) that describes how to re-flash the stock ROM when not rooted. Presumably this can fix the bootloop, while not deleting the internal storage. Does anybody know if something like this exists and works for the One S as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Running a RUU will erase your sdcard. So will unlocking your bootloader. Don't do it.
You can try booting up in Safe Mode (power down, boot back up and as soon as you see your boot splash (quietly brilliant) hold vol-down until youre fully booted.
You can try erasing your data and cache partitions in fastboot, and then booting back up.
Both of these suggestions were already offered in this thread so you probably tried already, but just to make sure.
Finally, you can look at the unbricking tutorial in the development forum, and see if the same method can be used to extract partition #36. Personally I've never had to unbrick/downgrade, but maybe someone familiar with the process can weigh in. If this is possible, you can then mount it and extract the files from it. Since you're not unlocked and you can't unlock (without losing your data) you'll have to be able to get into download mode by powering up holding vol-up.
I haven't really got any further with this. My One S now works, but I'm avoiding using it for now until I've imaged & extracted its storage for a salvage op (see the link in my post above) and I'm too lazy to go about rooting etc. right now in order to do this.
I had the exact same issue as you, multiple times now.
First time I did a factory reset and everything was erased (pics, videos, downloaded apps, etc).
After that I'm just doing clear storage - which removes all the apps that were installed and all configuration, but my photos, videos, and all other documents remain intact.
Fix bootloop without losing data
After my phone shut down because of the % of the battery, it was low, phone got stucked on samsung logo after power up. I dont want to lose data on my phone, how can i recover data first and then factory reset it, or to access device without losing data, is it possible? If its not, ill do the factory reset....
Hello, I'm about to giving up,
Something happened to the phone and now it won't boot, it barely show the "ANDROID" logo when it restart itself. I can enter to the recovery menu, it doesn't have clockwork recovery nor twrp, just the basic recovery. So far I tried:
wipe data/factory - didn't work.
wipe cache partition - didn't work
apply update from adb: Adb just work with sideload and that's it, for everything else it shows closed. I tried sending the rom with sideload and it fails every time:
* failed to write data 'protocol fault (couldn't read status): Invalid argument' *
So I took my sdcard and copied the room there, so I tried
apply update from sdcard, it starts and in no time it says:
Installation aborted (APPLY_EXT).
I'm very frustrated right now, nothing works, it seems that the manufacturer did great effort on being the only one who can recover this phone, who appears to be from China, the MTK6582.
Fastboot? it doesn't show the device, it would be my last hope but no, since there is no adb, I cannot call fastboot, and the apply update from adb only work with sideload (yeah, f**k me).
The best course of action would be to throw it to the trash?
Thanks!
Hey, I'm in a similar position to you. However, I went about it with a slightly different route. The chip used in this phone is the MediaTek 6582 (I think?). I downloaded some tools from a thread on here that includes the 320 rom and the necessary software for flashing. I've flashed MediaTek devices before, the Huawei Ascend G610 and G700, both successfully. This one is giving me headaches, the damn device keeps disconnecting. HOWEVER, if you're lucky and you don't have the same problem with disconnecting hardware, you should be able to flash a new rom via the software. It'll take a while though. Also, I don't know what'll happen to your IMEI afterwards, so that's another possible headache (both the G610 and the G700 lost their IMEI info, but I'd taken steps to back them up beforehand so I could just restore them; here, there's no option to backup).
Here's the thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/htc-mtk-cpu-flash-files-flashtool-t3114271
Let me know if you need help. I'm screwed in that the damn phone keeps disconnecting. Similar to you, no fastboot either. Plus, no RUU for this HTC. Hell, the internet barely knows this flipping phone.
Cheers, and good luck.
blitz9826
0Camus0 said:
Hello, I'm about to giving up,
Something happened to the phone and now it won't boot, it barely show the "ANDROID" logo when it restart itself. I can enter to the recovery menu, it doesn't have clockwork recovery nor twrp, just the basic recovery. So far I tried:
wipe data/factory - didn't work.
wipe cache partition - didn't work
apply update from adb: Adb just work with sideload and that's it, for everything else it shows closed. I tried sending the rom with sideload and it fails every time:
* failed to write data 'protocol fault (couldn't read status): Invalid argument' *
So I took my sdcard and copied the room there, so I tried
apply update from sdcard, it starts and in no time it says:
Installation aborted (APPLY_EXT).
I'm very frustrated right now, nothing works, it seems that the manufacturer did great effort on being the only one who can recover this phone, who appears to be from China, the MTK6582.
Fastboot? it doesn't show the device, it would be my last hope but no, since there is no adb, I cannot call fastboot, and the apply update from adb only work with sideload (yeah, f**k me).
The best course of action would be to throw it to the trash?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto!!!
Hey guys I am having the exact same issue, luckily for me it is my Mrs who done her phone in and not mine . She has the HTC Desire 320, I believe she tried to root it on her own without even asking for advice, I think she used the app Kingo Root, she said she went to remove the root but when she uninstalled the app it didn't remove it. (LOL I told her well perhaps that's because there will be some way of removing it, aside from just uninstalling the app), anyway she proceeded not to care and carried on using her phone as normal for maybe a week or two at most, then about midnight one night, came down and said to me,
"my phone had an update and on restarting I just get a dead android, if you press the power button you get some options so I clicked erase"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was like nice so basically you F***ed it!!!!, and for about 2 weeks now I have been endlessly reading post after post, forum after forum, trying rom after rom, RUU, all kinds of things.
Here is the situation, the phone will boot as far as the HTC logo, it will get stuck in a short loop and reset itself 4/5 times repeating the HTC logo, eventually it will end up at the dead android pic (the android on his back with the red exclaimation mark triangle) with the words 'no command'. From here I can press the power button once to get a list/menu of items (What I assume to be the recovery menu). I can backup data, I can restore the backed up data (both of which do nothing as I guess there is nothing really to back up), There is an option to restore from sd card (which I have tried numerous roms and to no avail have any been successful), I can erase the cache and I can also erase everything and recover, the erase side works fine, I did notice in each of these menu that if you press volume up to activate them and then press the power button once, then the writing dissapears and the android proceeds to have his moving atom type thing in his belly, saying 'erasing..', however even with them completed successfully, it still does not restore.
NOTE!!! If you choose the erase and restore method, once activated with volume up, press the power button to get the spinning atom and erasing... message, when this finishes the phone will reboot, it goes to the htc logo, resets itself, goes to the logo again and then just stays at a black screen (almost like a frozen state, I left it for quite some time and it never changed).
I should also note, which I didn't to begin with, but no matter how long I hold the volume down and power button, there is no such hboot/fast boot menu at all, if you hold the volume down and power button even after it displays the htc logo, the phone just proceeds to endlessly reset and loop through the same process forever.
The only thing I can seem to access with little success, is the ADB CMD prompt through the Android SDK,
Code:
adb devices
will indeed return the device (a set of numbers with the word sideload beside it)
Code:
adb usb
Apart from the odd fluke, this has seemed to fail everytime with either an error about a protocol or an error stating 'closed'
Code:
adb sideload "ROM_FILENAME.ZIP OR .IMG
Occasionally this will throw the protocol error, but generally succeeds and displays the 100% most of the time, however the phone doesn't even try, it just almost instantaniously returns the error message :
Code:
[B][I]Installation Aborted (APPLY_ADB_SIDELOAD)[/I][/B]
NOTE!!! That the android lays on his back with this error, but it only says error below not no command.
I am pretty sure that I already came across a solution very similar to the one you posted above, and I just couldn't get it to recognise the phone, the only way the RUU would work, was by completely removing the battery and plugging in the usb, however without the battery in the phone, it just constantly beeps via usb, so I guess it turns on, then off, then on, then off, forever!!! So the RUU fails everytime, if I leave the battery in and try, the RUU program does nothing whatsoever! So I am at a complete loss with it now.
Cheers
GunnerJnr
Any luck with unbriking the HTC?
Maybe this is the solution, good luck.
Search: How to Unbrick every MTK China Phone ! Preloader / SP Flashtool Fix [HD] on Youtube
Responds please.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64659997&postcount=16
I think that you no tell true because I tried this method with volume keys and nothing. Flash tool still show error. Its impossible to write android without battery. I think really put your phone to rubbish or sell as lcd+digitizer parts I think just we must waiting for new custom rom flashable via stock recovery. 320 is still new model and developers no moke any custom rom. So maybe only HTC service may help, only in HTC Factory peoples know how install android and bootloader on hard bricked device.
Hello,
after updating to MM yesterday I am stuck with a strange behaviour of my phone. I already searched everywhere if anyone has the same problems but the suggested solution proposals did not work.
But let me explain the problem first:
If I don't have the phone plugged in it just doesn't want to start at all (neither vol- and power nor power alone worked).
If I plug it in however it goes straight into a bootloop but I am able to access the boot menu. The only problem is that if I want to access the recovery menu from there it just goes back to the bootloop instead of taking me to the recovery menu.
I thought about using adb or fastboot to make progress but neither of them is able to recognize the phone.
The phone is all stock, so no root or unlocked bootloader.
Any help is appreciated as I am pretty desperate to what to do with the phone as I don't have a backup of all the data on it.
Thank you!
It's better to consult the Motorola service center they can fix it
Hi all,
Im in a desperate and urgent need of help.
My Mrs pixel 7 pro is stuck in a boot loop that restarts 5 seconds after the google writing appears when starting. I wasn't home when it happened but she doesnt really make sure her phone has some battery before turning it on, as soon as she sees 2% she starts it, so im guessing maybe she bricked it while the phone was trying to apply an update when turning it on as she said that the external battery didnt have any juice left inside.
Anyway,
I know i can wipe the phone from recovery mode and make it into a factory reset phone. The issue here is we have over 6000 photos and videos of our son in that phone that she hasnt copied to the external hard drive i gave her for months due to her not liking that her little laptop is slow.
I tried recovery mode Reboot, i tried going into safe mode (no luck as it will go straight into fastboot mode). She doesnt care about a lot of things and obviously she never unlocked the developer setting or bootloader so device state is also locked.
I am begging you, anything any info or advice on how i can get those pictures out of the phone. Is there any way i can flash the stock firmware just to make the phone start and copy them after?
Any possibility or chance or retrieval?
I am willing to pay anyone that can guide me in the right direction as there are over 6 months worth of photos and memories.
Thanks in advance and may the luck be on my side.
andyysk said:
Hi all,
Im in a desperate and urgent need of help.
My Mrs pixel 7 pro is stuck in a boot loop that restarts 5 seconds after the google writing appears when starting. I wasn't home when it happened but she doesnt really make sure her phone has some battery before turning it on, as soon as she sees 2% she starts it, so im guessing maybe she bricked it while the phone was trying to apply an update when turning it on as she said that the external battery didnt have any juice left inside.
Anyway,
I know i can wipe the phone from recovery mode and make it into a factory reset phone. The issue here is we have over 6000 photos and videos of our son in that phone that she hasnt copied to the external hard drive i gave her for months due to her not liking that her little laptop is slow.
I tried recovery mode Reboot, i tried going into safe mode (no luck as it will go straight into fastboot mode). She doesnt care about a lot of things and obviously she never unlocked the developer setting or bootloader so device state is also locked.
I am begging you, anything any info or advice on how i can get those pictures out of the phone. Is there any way i can flash the stock firmware just to make the phone start and copy them after?
Any possibility or chance or retrieval?
I am willing to pay anyone that can guide me in the right direction as there are over 6 months worth of photos and memories.
Thanks in advance and may the luck be on my side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can enter recovery mode try to sideload the same exact ota package of the rom she's running, maybe that can help. Good luck!
andyysk said:
Hi all,
Im in a desperate and urgent need of help.
My Mrs pixel 7 pro is stuck in a boot loop that restarts 5 seconds after the google writing appears when starting. I wasn't home when it happened but she doesnt really make sure her phone has some battery before turning it on, as soon as she sees 2% she starts it, so im guessing maybe she bricked it while the phone was trying to apply an update when turning it on as she said that the external battery didnt have any juice left inside.
Anyway,
I know i can wipe the phone from recovery mode and make it into a factory reset phone. The issue here is we have over 6000 photos and videos of our son in that phone that she hasnt copied to the external hard drive i gave her for months due to her not liking that her little laptop is slow.
I tried recovery mode Reboot, i tried going into safe mode (no luck as it will go straight into fastboot mode). She doesnt care about a lot of things and obviously she never unlocked the developer setting or bootloader so device state is also locked.
I am begging you, anything any info or advice on how i can get those pictures out of the phone. Is there any way i can flash the stock firmware just to make the phone start and copy them after?
Any possibility or chance or retrieval?
I am willing to pay anyone that can guide me in the right direction as there are over 6 months worth of photos and memories.
Thanks in advance and may the luck be on my side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As @acuicultor said;
Here's Googles official OTA updates and instructions etc.
From what i've read briefly and as far as i can gather (still running a stock pixel 7 pro - for the first phone in god knows how long, so i'm not well read on this device but...) if you can sideload the latest OTA update via sideload then you should in theory be able to save the data and boot again. But if you flash full firmware then your device will be wiped in the process (if that's even possible with a locked bootloader).
Very best of luck
EDIT: hmm thinking about it, you won't have enabled USB debugging in dev options, hang on, i'll reboot direct to recovery to see if i can get the device recognised without USB debugging enabled. Sorry to be vague (hopefully someone more experienced with this device will chime in with more advice), like i say, i'm not rooted, flashed with custom rom - nothing, just plain old stock so i've not read up much on proceedures for this device. Bare with me!!
Had another thought, do you or have you been using Google photos to view your images on the device. If so, did you enable backup photos online when you first set the app up? If so, they could be backed up automatically...
Edit: my bad..
Try this link
If that fails just Google 'Google photos sign in'
Just tried from recovery to run some adb cmd's, no joy without enabling debugging 1st
There may be hope... If your photos aren't backed online already from above link...
EDIT:
1. From power off state (make sure the device is charged before apply any ota update) Press vol down and power together. As soon as it boots to google logo, let go of vol down, then power. That will put you in fastboot mode where you use the vol up/down to navigate to Recovery mode and power button to select.
2. Then when you have the screen that says 'no command', press power button and CLICK vol up (releasing vol up straight away but keeping power pressed). That'll take you a blue menu at top of screen.
3. Use vol buttons to navigate to 'apply update from adb'. I have checked using 'adb devices' and 'adb reboot sideload' cmd's on PC and the device is now recognised...
Will write further instructions shortly. (no guarantees this will work tho without losing data...or even if it'll work at all - i suspect the OTA update with just fail to transfer)
OR there is another option, using the same instructions above (1) in fastboot mode use the volume buttons to navigate the menu, power button to select Rescue mode. Then contact your service center for support who will advise/offer support - hopefully, which may end up having to send the device in and still offers no guarantee of preserved data
reg66 said:
@acuicultor said;
Here's Googles official OTA updates and instructions etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Following the link it's all explained there:
- no USB-Debugging needed
- booting recovery by key combo
- no loss of any data when using the OTA files
Also turning on USB-Debugging in developer options is not necessary for the recovery. It's enabled by default and moreover the recovery doesn't consider any system settings like disabled/enabled USB-Debugging.
WoKoschekk said:
Following the link it's all explained there:
- no USB-Debugging needed
- booting recovery by key combo
- no loss of any data when using the OTA files
Also turning on USB-Debugging in developer options is not necessary for the recovery. It's enabled by default and moreover the recovery doesn't consider any system settings like disabled/enabled USB-Debugging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh cool. I obviously didn't read much of it! Dunno what's happened to the chap, maybe his wife has killed him lol
reg66 said:
Ahh cool. I obviously didn't read much of it! Dunno what's happened to the chap, maybe his wife has killed him lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, maybe...
FYI: Stock recovery only uses a minimal adbd with a very limited set of commands. That's why some known ADB commands won't work.
minadbd