Hard Brick - Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Good day.
I got a Nexus 5 D820 from my mom who dropped it in the river about a year ago at which time the phone was dead. It had indication of power but would not turn on. It was in a drawer powered off until yesterday.
I was able to power the phone on although it would not boot. The Google logo appeared and the android loading animation, but it would always reboot or freeze at different points. From the bootloader the phone seemed stable and I never had an issue pushing/flashing files. At this point I flashed a few different recovery images for the device, but only Philz would work, while TWRP and CWM would only freeze or bootloop.
From Philz I was able to flash a few different ROMS including the latest official one from google and also a few custom roms with/out gapps. None of these would boot and had the same freeze/bootloop at the google logo or android animation with no consistency.
I figured at this point possibly the sdcard had become corrupted/damaged by the water since I was able to flash pretty much anything I wanted. This is where things went downhill.
I followed a guide to use the partition editor from within an ADB shell. The guide assumed I was formatting an external SD card and suggested deleting all partitions. I did make a backup of the configuration of the partitions just in case but followed the instructions and removed everything. I was concerned what would happen once I rebooted the device at this point so I looked around a bit and it was suggested that flashing a google factory image would recreate the missing partitions so I didn't have to do it manually, so I rebooted thinking I could just flash the google package from the bootloader. This was the last time the phone ever showed any indication of working.
Now I have no indication of even power, no LED's, no bootloader.
Please let me know what you think... Thanks.

Before deleting the partitions, did you perform a full factory wipe before or after flashing different ROMs?
Does the phone appear as a device in Windows Device Manager when connected via USB?

If you deleted all of the partitions you deleted the bootloader partition.

Related

[Q] [Help] Stuck in boot on Google

Alright. This is a 100% stock Nexus S- nothing "development" wise was done to the device, no system tools installed that could cause issues, basically nothing but basic apps loaded on the device.
It just started today. I was working on my bf's Vibrant (another, more successful story) and grabbed my Nexus and hit the power button and it did not turn the screen back on. Holding the power button down did not reboot the device, and none of the buttons would light up or function.
So, I pulled the battery. Now every time I try to boot, it hits the "Google" screen and stays put. I left it alone for 5 minuets hoping it would finish booting and nothing. The soft buttons will light up, and if I touch them they register the touch but it does not help the phone to boot.
I do know that the phone was basically dead right before this happened, and at first I thought it was just dead. However, its been on the charger for at least 30 minuets- which should have given it enough of a charge to boot up, and still nothing.
What could cause this issue?
I did install a couple of new applications today, and I know the market updated a bunch of them but they're all apps that I've had on several phones (minus the two new ones today) and have never had an issue with any of them. The two new ones I downloaded were OS Monitor, and a 2G/3G toggle for hopes of improving some battery life.
But those are the only two things I've done differently. I've only been using the phone for a week but I haven't had any problems at all, before this.
Now- if worst comes to worst I can seem to get into the bootloader, and through that, stock recovery. So I can try to do a factory reset and wipe cache but without a backup I really kinda hope thats a last resort.
Please help, and let me know if you need any more information.
Thank you!
I understand that you're fully stock which I assume means you have a locked bootloader (everything I say from here on out assumes as such)? First, I'm going to also assume that you didn't update to 2.3.3? If not, then follow the steps in this guide to boot into a custom recovery and from there go to backup and restore and do a NANDroid backup. Now go to mounts and storage and mount USB storage (or whatever its called, don't have my phone right here). Plug your phone into your comp and copy over whatever you'd rather not lose from your SDcard (just in case you have to wipe). Now download the 2.3.3 update from here and put it on the root of your SD card. Now go back and flash this. Reboot and see if you're golden. If so, great, if not try a factory reset.
If that doesn't work go through the steps again to boot into a custom recovery, you might have to unlock your bootloader and wipe all your data (again) and restore your backup and try doing a factory reset with that. Don't worry about unlocking the bootloader, it can be relocked with a simple command and it won't wipe anything to relock it.
Here is the command just in case:
Code:
fasboot oem lock
I got all the way to having clockwork recovery booted up on the phone, but nothing would mount. Everything gave me an error, and factory reset froze...
I don't think there is anything I can even do from here, is there?

[Q] NS4G is possesed

I have a strange situation going on with my phone and I could use some advice.
My issues started after loading the "official" IMM76D ROM, the rooted and odexed version. Phone would shut off like it was dead after charging all night. Wont boot back up without a battery pull. It would freeze up while the screen was on forcing a battery pull. Basically unusable for more than 10 minutes.
Here is where I might have messed things up. I tried to wipe the phone completely, including the SD card. Factory Reset multiple times, wiped everything multiple times. I even did a repartition of the SD card thinking it would format it further.
Where I'm at now. The phone still boots into the 4.0.4 ROM and I still have CM recovery. But now no matter what I do, factory reset, format/wipe EVERYTHING including the SD card, use fastboot to load a whole new setup, THE PHONE BOOTS RIGHT BACK INTO THE ROM AND SD CARD STILL HAS EVERYTHING. I dont get it.
I have ODIN 1.87 downloaded but it wont see my phone in download mode. I have all the correct drivers loaded including PDAnet, and my phone is correctly detected as Android ADB Device. Interesting side note: fastboot detects the phone, ADB does not. dont know if that means anything.
Sorry for the long winded post but I have been at this for 4 days now and I really need my phone back! Any ideas??
Maybe flash stock rom or CWM recovery from fastboot would solve the partitions issue. I remember when i had my old HTC magic i would sometimes change the partition layout and to reverse it i would have to reflash my recovery.
But as i said, this is all theory and can work or not.

A handful of problems after performing a factory reset

Hi.
I installed some dodgy app which required root access to operate (but it didn't even though I allowed it in SuperSu) and this is where my problems started.
First of all, I noticed each and every app I tried to run would immediately crash. That included system apps, such as the Settings app. At that stage I was left with only the launcher working and attempts to uninstall apps would also cause a crash. Even the shutdown menu was broken and the phone hung up so I was forced to reboot it by holding the power button for 10 seconds.
After that, the phone would no longer be able to boot, it was stuck in a boot loop, but recovery still worked (TWRP for that matter) so firstly I wiped the cache partitions (including dalvik cache) but that didn't help, as the phone still wouldn't boot. In this case there was only one thing left for me to try and that was the factory reset capability of TWRP which claimed to not even touch internal storage so I was fine with that and did the wipe.
Thankfully, the phone booted afterwards and it welcomed me with the first startup guide (the language selection dialog was really buggy but that's Huawei's fault) and the phone was seemingly ok, except that the whole internal storage had been wiped out but not only that - the external microsd card was empty as well! Could you believe that? I couldn't. TWRP promised not to touch internal storage and the external memory card wasn't even mentioned but why would it wipe it anyway?
That's for the story behind it, now for the actual problems I'm facing right now:
The stock remote app is gone
The boot animation has changed to a different one (now it's a silver "android" logo instead of the "honor" logo)
Battery usage stats are not available (see: http://i.cubeupload.com/BXCknW.png)
Sound quality from the built-in speaker seems noticeably worse
Hereby, I'm asking you guys to help me out with all of this.
The "remote app missing" problem could be solved by someone sharing their apk file with me, that's probably the simplest one to fix.
As for the boot animation, I have no clue as I don't even know what files are responsible for that.
The same for the battery stats problem, I'm already through a couple of full-charge-to-discharge cycles as well as wiping the cache partition, but the problem remains.
The sound quality probably has to do with the DTS sound enhancer. The config file for that is either "/cust/unicom/cn/xml/dolby_config.xml" or "/cust/unicomelectric/cn/xml/dolby_config.xml" and I'm asking you to upload these files somewhere so I can compare them with mine to see if anything is different.
The device I'm using is the H60-L02 variant running the B532 ROM.
Does the 3 buttons method erase internal storage as well? I've already set up quite some apps and having to do it again wouldn't be the most pleasant surprise. But at least in this case I could make some backups and whatnot...
Also, would it work if I flashed B535 straight away or does the 3 buttons method expect the same version which is already installed, in this case B532?
pudup said:
It will wipe internal storage. You can flash any *full* ROM as long as you're not moving up or down from kitkat-lolipop/marshmallow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, so I decided I'd do the whole thing today. I downloaded the full B535 ROM on my PC, backed up all the stuff I care about from the phone to the PC as well, and also I downloaded the MultiTool.
Though the MultiTool thread says this in bold red:
VirusPlus said:
EMUI 3.1 WARNING! Update over rooted or system modded in EMUI 3.1 gives a BRICK.
You have to restore system and REMOVE root before every update in EMUI 3.1 for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I also fired up Titanium Backup in order to defrost all the frozen apps, which went fine, and then I wanted to unroot the phone but I've been unable to do so so far.
To unroot, I launch the SuperSU app, navigate to the "Settings" tab and select "Full unroot". The problem being, it just gets stuck on the screen saying "Uninstalling, please wait...". I don't know how long it usually takes to complete, so far I've waited for maybe 10 minutes and nothing seems to change. Should I care about that? Is that warning about updating rooted/modified EMUI 3.1 resulting in a brick still true?
Can I skip this step and just flash the stock recovery followed by the 3 buttons method?
EDIT:
After some trial and error with the multi tool and different recoveries, I was able to finally unroot. Next, I flashed the stock recovery for B532 and attempted to do the 3 buttons method, but it would say "Install failed. The update package does not exist" (could be because I'm doing the update from a USB flash drive as I don't have an micro sd card big enough to fit the package). So I rebooted the phone into system and used the Updater to perfrom a local update where it would let me pick the USB drive. It completed without errors and then rebooted into some kind of updater (black background and some bluish emui colors) where it also took some time to finish thankfully successfully. I can right now see the phone booting and for what it's worth, the boot animation is once again the good old "honor" logo and not that ugly silvery "android" one
And now it's "Optimizing system...". I really hope it finsishes successfully as it's already a bit late here and I wouldn't like the phone to be unusable tomorrow :laugh:
36% ready...
46% it's kind of fun to watch this, and now 49%
I'd like to thank @pudup once more for helping out, I'm not really that much into flashing recoveries, roms and all that myself. Without your help I would probably be too scared to try doing something on my own :crying:
86%, 89%, 95% and 100%. Aww, what a relief Good old stock lock screen and wallpaper.

LineageOS mtp not working, twrp lost after flash, cant boot to twrp from fastboot

hello, recently i bought myself a new op6, as it was good for modding and such. unlocked the bootloader, flashed twrp, and rooted it the day after, used it for a couple of days, before I installed elementalX. was happy with that for some days. then I decided I wanted to try out lineageOS, in order to de-google my self, in my quest for privacy.
TL;TR:
mtp is not working after flashing, neither is twrp, cant even access it through fastboot with booting the .img file.
does this have something to do with the a/b partition thing on these phones, perhaps?
I would guess that I flashed lineageOS the wrong way, and that is the issue, but since I cant access twrp, I cant restore and reflash the correct way.
more detailes below
--------------------------------------
backed up before installing elementalX, to have something to go back to, in case of failure
rebooted into twrp, and wiped everything, exept internal storage (i looked this up several places, prior to flashing, that this was the way to do it, so assumed this was the correct way)
flashed lineageOS 15.1
wiped dalvik and rebooted
took ages to boot, so figured id reboot again a couple of times, with no succsess
tried to boot to twrp, to restore back state prior to flashing, but ended up in lineageOS' own recovery.
tried to boot from fastboot, and reflash twrp
goes out of bootloader and screen turns black, led turns on, and nothing. tried waiting for a bit, but nothing seems to happen
have to manually turn of phone, and reboot. tried this several times, but same result.
after reboot i turned to the recovery to look after any solutions there, but nothing
started adb, just to check, and it says "device unauthorized"
sortof gave up, so figured I could atleast get going installing apks, but after downloading f-droid, I couldnt get it to install
found out this was some sort of permission issue, so had to move it to internal storage to get it to install
after installing some apks, I was going to transfer my contacts from my pc, but cant get mtp working..
if someone know a soulution to this, I would be really greatfull, as Im at a loss. cant seem to find anyone who has had a simillar issue..
You can always use EDL and MsmDownloadTool. Check that thread
thanks, will definetly check that out.
now it apears that I have another issue, the key for adb is no longer valid. i did get the prompt when I connected the usb, but that didnt appear to do anything. have tried to revoke it, reanable, reboot both phone and pc, also delete the keys on my pc. I have no root access anymore, so cant really enter the root on my phone, to pull out the keys there, neither can i push my own keys, as it seems atleast. I may be doing it wrong too, for all i know..
If you can enable debugging and see your phone with adb devices, you can adb push /sdcard/<romfile>.zip
I am able to enable debugging mode, yes. Will this enable me to push my own key, or any other existing key for that matter, to remove the unauthorized label?
Id also like to at that i done goofed when flashing lineageOS. Ive come to and understanding that I have to flash OOS 1.5.1 (i think that was it) on both slots, before then flashing the custom rom onto the device, and reflashing twrp after that. Which i did not do. I also were running pie at that time, so theres another mistake I made to begin with. Neither was I really aware of the concept of a/b partition system at hand..
Can i switch slots in fastboot, and then boot inton twrp, and reflash back to OOS 1.5.1, on both slots, and then reflash LOS 15.1? And ofcource reflash twrp and root afterwards, which totally slipped my mind..

S7 G930FD TWRP Bootloop - please help

Objective: I am hoping to be able to boot my existing system to recover data such as SMS, call logs, app data, and so on - obviously it was inadvisable to start messing around without backing up my data, particular with my amateurish capabilities. But that's the situation I am in. For some reason I thought that just replacing the Recovery was not going to risk my data. Its been over 5 years since the days when I would regularly flash my new phones with cyanogenmod, and my abilities were very basic even then.
Context: G930FD with stock rom, baseband ETC? - apparently for Dubai, which does not allow VoLTE or WiFi calling, which is what I was trying to fix when I got myself into this.
the Events:
- I enabled ADB and used Heimdall on Windows 7 to flash twrp-3.3.1-0-herolte.img
- initial attempts failed to complete download. I booted back into the system and applied OEM Unlock. Flashed successfully.
- chose the 'allow modification' option or whatever it says, not the Read-only option
- I did NOT check at that point to see if the system would reboot properly. I instead right away made a full back-up to my external SD.
That's all I did. After the back-up was complete I rebooted, and arrived at "SAMSUNG Galaxy S7" endless boot loop.
best guess: this is related to samsung encryption? TWRP file manager says that DATA is 0MB.
Again, I am desperately hoping that someone can help me recover my existing system. The threads I found on this subject all lead to wiping the phone and flashing a new rom.
thanks.
digging in deepr
I went ahead and rooted by loading SuperSU otg through TWRP.
Now I get passed the first splash screen that was previously boot looping (Galaxy S7, powered by Android), and I get to the 2nd splash screen (glowing SAMSUNG logo). It does not boot loop, just glows in and out endlessly and never loads.
Is that progress? Or maybe its worse.
t.krug said:
I went ahead and rooted by loading SuperSU otg through TWRP.
Now I get passed the first splash screen that was previously boot looping (Galaxy S7, powered by Android), and I get to the 2nd splash screen (glowing SAMSUNG logo). It does not boot loop, just glows in and out endlessly and never loads.
Is that progress? Or maybe its worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reflash TWRP with Odin, boot TWRP, wipe cache, reboot.
Thanks.
I think greenman at sammobile had the answer --> NEW: S7 5 file firmware options (this forum wont let me post a link).
But I botched the execution and the CSC file overwrote my data. Crushing blow. I would say lesson learned, except that I already knew better and risked my data anyway. Sad.
I have a backup I made at the first launch of TWRP - but I assume its worthless since TWRP was not reading the encryption. Its only 3.7GB.
Side note - I did achieve the original goal of replacing the Emirati rom with one that activates WiFi calling and VoLTE.
Has this issue been solved?
I never recovered my data if that's what you mean. Did you look up greenman at sammobile? It sounds like someone followed his directions and was able to flash just the system files without overwriting their data. I think you had to modify the csc_home file. It was a bit beyond my skill level.
Oh, I was just wondering if your phone was still bricked. I didn't read your last message properly before replying lol. My bad.
I'm not personally having issues with a device, I was just curious if I could help at all.

Categories

Resources