Back story:
My beloved tablet ran down on power as I was using it today (note to self - change warning percentage from 5% to something like 15%)! I tried shutting it down, but it died before the shutdown was finished. I put it on the charger and let it charge until about 65%, took it off the charger, powered it up. It started coming up, got to the the PIN screen, then nothing. Couldn't do anything, touch screen wasn't doing acknowledging anything. I think things got corrupted as it was powering off...
Powered it down, waited a few minutes, then powered back up. Took about 10 minutes to start after I entered my PIN, and it was behaving strangely:
1. WiFi said it was off, but I was getting e-mails (sent one to myself from another device to confirm it)
2. Settings would start, but got nothing, just a white screen.
3. Most apps would start but really slow, then suddenly shut down
4. Tried booting into TWRP 3.1.1 - got the initial screen, there it sat for the next 20 minutes before I rebooted.
5. I can get into bootloader, but fastboot from my Linux laptop doesn't work - can't find any devices when the tablet is plugged in.
6. "adb devices -l " shows the tablet is connected, but get no prompt on the tablet screen about adb starting
6. "adb reboot bootloader" and "adb reboot recovery" from my laptop just sits there - nothing happens on the tablet.
I'm on Lineage OS 14.1 (latest weekly for the SMP-900) and TWRP 3.1.1 on the tablet, and Fedora 25 on the laptop. Rebooting is iffy - sometimes it starts, sometimes it doesn't and just sits on the Lineage boot animation. I also have my 128Gb SD card set up as part of the internal memory (i.e., can't pull it and stick it into another device) Every reboot takes longer, and I fear the next power on will have me just sitting there, staring at the Lineage boot screen forever.
I have Nandroids from TWRP, but doesn't do me much good if I can't get into TWRP to use them. I have TWRP image and tar files, but jodin (a Java based Odin type of program that works in Linux) doesn't get a response from the tablet and therefore won't flash.
If I could get the tablet back to the point where I can get TWRP working again, I can reload from the TWRP backup. I also don't have a Windows computer available at all, but I do have Windows XP in a VMware virtual machine as an absolute last resort on my laptop.
Does anyone have any ideas or pointers to get me running again? Right now, it's powered off and charging...
Thanks for any help....
Patience, patience, patience ...
I'm answering this myself - just so there is an answer.
If you ever run into this problem, read the heading above! I got the tablet to boot up finally by pulling the 128 Gb SD card first, then powering up the tablet. I plugged in the SD card back in and it started slowing down, but checking under Storage, it indicated it was checking the encrypted card. I set it aside, checked it 2 hours later - still checking the card. Plugged it into the charger and went to bed, got up this morning and it was shut off. Powered it up, it booted up, this time around it recognized the encrypted card as part of internal storage and Life is good again.
My assumption is that when the tablet died, the card was marked dirty (I.e., not shut down properly.) When I tried TWRP, it noticed that the card was flagged dirty and started checking it before it would give me the home screen - same thing with Lineage when it tried to boot. And yes, I changed the battery power warning to 15%.
Thanks for your update on that problem.
Related
Hi All,
Saw a few posts with similar things such as random reboots and bootloader issues, however my issue seems a little different. I already know the first few things I'm going to try but would just like a little bit of input.
The tf700 isn't my first transformer tablet, I had a prime back during release and replaced it with the 700 after my friend broke the screen. I have plenty of experience with flashing the devices and putting on custom roms etc. My infinity has been on JB since the OTA update came (infinity is 100% stock). I use the device every day extensively and it is in the keyboard dock about 99% of the time.
Today while checking my email the device randomly froze, went to a black screen, and then started up at the first asus logo (has happened before so I was not that surprised). After getting to the second splash screen with the silver asus logo I let it sit for about 15 minutes where I continued to get the loading animation. I decided to restart and go into the bootloader menu and thats where I noticed some issues.
Once in the bootloader it seems that Volume UP (to change between RCK, Data wipe etc..) is always recognized as Volume DOWN, meaning I cannot switch between any of the bootloader tasksJust realized they changed the input even though the bootloader text still has ICS commands listed. That leaves me the option of waiting 10 seconds for a cold-boot or starting the RCK. Unfortunately either task I decide to do freezes the screen on the bootloader. I know that the device is responding at first because of the highlight over RCK fading in and out, and then it freezes. Prior to the freeze the prompt always reads Signature Match when trying to cold-boot or start the RCK. Restarting the device again leaves me stuck on the first splash screen, and never progressing after that. I am somewhat concerned about possible corruption from this.
Currently I am letting the power drain all the way down while in the dock and will try charging it to see if that brings it out of this brickish state. In addition I also have a micro-sd in the device, as well as an SD card in the dock.
Other than power draining I would really appreciate some advice, because of freezing in the bootloader I am unsure whether I would be able to perform any sort of modification to overwrite whatever has been corrupted.
Thanks in advance,
Jon
jallweiss said:
Hi All,
Saw a few posts with similar things such as random reboots and bootloader issues, however my issue seems a little different. I already know the first few things I'm going to try but would just like a little bit of input.
The tf700 isn't my first transformer tablet, I had a prime back during release and replaced it with the 700 after my friend broke the screen. I have plenty of experience with flashing the devices and putting on custom roms etc. My infinity has been on JB since the OTA update came (infinity is 100% stock). I use the device every day extensively and it is in the keyboard dock about 99% of the time.
Today while checking my email the device randomly froze, went to a black screen, and then started up at the first asus logo (has happened before so I was not that surprised). After getting to the second splash screen with the silver asus logo I let it sit for about 15 minutes where I continued to get the loading animation. I decided to restart and go into the bootloader menu and thats where I noticed some issues.
Once in the bootloader it seems that Volume UP (to change between RCK, Data wipe etc..) is always recognized as Volume DOWN, meaning I cannot switch between any of the bootloader tasksJust realized they changed the input even though the bootloader text still has ICS commands listed. That leaves me the option of waiting 10 seconds for a cold-boot or starting the RCK. Unfortunately either task I decide to do freezes the screen on the bootloader. I know that the device is responding at first because of the highlight over RCK fading in and out, and then it freezes. Prior to the freeze the prompt always reads Signature Match when trying to cold-boot or start the RCK. Restarting the device again leaves me stuck on the first splash screen, and never progressing after that. I am somewhat concerned about possible corruption from this.
Currently I am letting the power drain all the way down while in the dock and will try charging it to see if that brings it out of this brickish state. In addition I also have a micro-sd in the device, as well as an SD card in the dock.
Other than power draining I would really appreciate some advice, because of freezing in the bootloader I am unsure whether I would be able to perform any sort of modification to overwrite whatever has been corrupted.
Thanks in advance,
Jon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like you only have RCK option on your device. I would download the full JB .16 version from the Asus site, unzip it and rename the new unzip file to EP201_768_SDUPDATE.zip on your PC, plug in your micro SD card (make sure no other zip file(s) on the root of your micro SDcard), then copy this file to the root of your micro SD card, remove the micro sDcard and plug it back to your tf700, Hold down volume down and power button and let it boot to the RCK (by default) see if the device perform the update.
buhohitr said:
Seems like you only have RCK option on your device. I would download the full JB .16 version from the Asus site, unzip it and rename the new unzip file to EP201_768_SDUPDATE.zip on your PC, plug in your micro SD card (make sure no other zip file(s) on the root of your micro SDcard), then copy this file to the root of your micro SD card, remove the micro sDcard and plug it back to your tf700, Hold down volume down and power button and let it boot to the RCK (by default) see if the device perform the update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks buho,
Full power drain and repower didnt seem to fix it.
I gave it a shot with the update and I still got the message saying that the signature matched and then freezing at the bootloader trying to use the update. As I edited in my post I found that the bootloader commands had been swapped, so I can get to the other options to work. However all of them freeze the bootloader, I cant get any kind of USB recognition at all.
Unfortunately things may have gotten even worse...
I figured since I just need the device to work I would do a full wipe, I started the data wipe, got the freeze after a bit of text. I left the device for about 20 minutes hoping it would go through with the wipe. It was still frozen on the bootloader so I reset the device again... After resetting I cant even get into the bootloader anymore, power button + volume down does nothing.
So currently Im stuck on the first splash screen, unable to access the bootloader. I would appreciate any help at all.
Just to update, I can get APX mode to function right now, but I am not really sure where I can go from there...
Hi, I got Motorola Moto G, original system, no root. I just encrypted my phone, process most probably finished without problems - I stopped watching the phone on around 90%. Then it restarted, boot animation, "enter your password to decrypt the phone", I type it in, green robo shows for 1 second and then black screen (backlighted) :/ After couple hours nothing changes.
If I type wrong password, phone ofc doesn't accept it. Computer sees device, but I can't access it. When I turn off the phone by pressing POWER for long time, it just resets and goes back to asking for passwod again.
Please help me recover my data...
EDIT
before entering password PC says phone is off, after typing it, PC says it doesn't have drivers (it worked normally before encryption).
I can enter fast boot, but IDK what next. Recovery mode just ends with "NO COMMAND"
I see that probably all users who got this problem have Motorola Moto G too. Mostly people who use CM and tried to encrypt phone too.
I downloaded Android SDK, fastboot.exe tool sees my phone in this state. Not sure if it can be used to do something useful....
adb.exe doesn't see device
bump :crying:
So, I left the phone in black screen step over night. Battery ran out. I tried turning it on/off, entering fast boot mode, but nothing happened, then connected to USB. LED turned on for a while, screen too, showing battery with 0%. But now nothing again. Just black or off, not sure. Can't do literally anything, I tried pressing different keys for minutes and changing USB slot.
EDIT
nevermind, fixed battery problem, Moto G with no power needs normal charger or much longer time on USB
phantom_gopher said:
Cut...
before entering password PC says phone is off, after typing it, PC says it doesn't have drivers (it worked normally before encryption).
I can enter fast boot, but IDK what next. Recovery mode just ends with "NO COMMAND"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dunno if this can help (and sorry for the grammar but i'm not english and i really suck at it), but for me it's normal to see "no command" on the recovery, to see the recovery commands you just need to:
(Token from Customer Help Motorola):
1. Go in fastboot mode.
2. Select the voice "Recovery".
3. Now the phone'll show motorola's logo and then the android bot with the exclamation mark.
So now, you have to press VOL UP for 10-15 seconds. while pressing it, press and release the POWER button.
U should now see the voices in the recovery.
phantom_gopher said:
So, I left the phone in black screen step over night. Battery ran out. I tried turning it on/off, entering fast boot mode, but nothing happened, then connected to USB. LED turned on for a while, screen too, showing battery with 0%. But now nothing again. Just black or off, not sure. Can't do literally anything, I tried pressing different keys for minutes and changing USB slot.
EDIT
nevermind, fixed battery problem, Moto G with no power needs normal charger or much longer time on USB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get the phone to be recognised try reflash firmware
Sent from my Moto G using XDA Free mobile app
Thanks for replies. Menu in recovery mode lets me wipe all data, so that's last thing I want to do, but I guess I will have too soon :/
About flashing firmware - from what I've read, encrypted data on phone is protected by password and some kind of encryption key/file. Reflhasing would cause permanent lose of that key and thus whole encrypted data.
The only solution I guess is copying that key on PC. Copying encrypted data if possible, and decrypting on PC using some tool, as Android is open source, so it shouldn't be a problem to extract it's decryption mechanism and run it on PC.
OR copying key to PC, reflashing phone, copying back key and praying this time system will start.
Well what's more important I working phone or a few apps??
If you need to get data off the phone maybe using a otg cable and using the file manager in recovery to copy it all over to the USB otg but as far as that I think your gunna have yo count your losses and learn not to encrypt your phone lol....
Sent from my Moto G using XDA Free mobile app
ME TOO!!!
phantom_gopher said:
Hi, I got Motorola Moto G, original system, no root. I just encrypted my phone, process most probably finished without problems - I stopped watching the phone on around 90%. Then it restarted, boot animation, "enter your password to decrypt the phone", I type it in, green robo shows for 1 second and then black screen (backlighted) :/ After couple hours nothing changes.
If I type wrong password, phone ofc doesn't accept it. Computer sees device, but I can't access it. When I turn off the phone by pressing POWER for long time, it just resets and goes back to asking for passwod again.
Please help me recover my data...
EDIT
before entering password PC says phone is off, after typing it, PC says it doesn't have drivers (it worked normally before encryption).
I can enter fast boot, but IDK what next. Recovery mode just ends with "NO COMMAND"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same happened to me...couldn't even do a factory reset. I had to get a new phone. I was so mad!!! Now I have a Sony Xperia phone. I just bought it outright so I wouldn't be stuck in a plan.
So recently, my phone has started acting up. Sometimes, the phone would overheat, lag, and freeze. Usually, a quick boot into the bootloader via physical buttons would fix the problem.
However, as I tried to boot into the bootloader, my phone just stayed at a black screen throughout. I found that odd, and connected to my laptop running Ubuntu, opened up a Terminal window, and tried adb devices. Oddly, the device wasn't there. (fastboot showed nothing, as well) However, a bunch of windows labeling different volumes opened as I plugged into the phone. Normally, the phone would only load up the SD Card and External Storage. Charging it doesn't show its amber light.
I currently have a Verizon HTC One (M8) bootloader unlocked and S-OFF'd.
Any help would be appreciated.
EDIT: The battery died and phone started to boot up normally. Still confused on why it showed up 30+ volumes, though.
Bought a Nexus 5 about 6 months ago USED. It has been amazing. I got the latest OTA a week ago or so, not sure if that has anything to do with current issues.
About 2 days ago started randomly restarting. Today, it shut down and has been in continuous loop restarting. I see "Google" and maybe even the boot dots loading, then it is off. Three seconds later, starts again and repeats. Never makes it all the way into Android system. I let it sit for a while and when I pick it up, without touching any buttons, it repeats all of this. I suppose it is probably dead in general, but I don't know. Do you guys have any ideas? Again, I bought it used and from a ma/pap store who said they buy 100 in bulk, which made me skeptical, but they also had a 60 day guarantee and it was amazing the first 60 days and even after. It has been error free for 6 months, so I don't know if this is just a random issue or if the previous owner dropped it in a lake and I got lucky, or what. FWIW the damn thing has been in a case and never dropped, so it isn't anything that I have done I don't think. Thanks for any help.
edit: never rooted, never messed with, always been stock
Another user reported some instability since the last OTA update.
Flashing the full factory images did the trick.
a friend of mine gave me his nexus 5 to repair and its doing something similar. He had ir rooted and on latest 5.1.1 (i think). Either way, he said it was randomly locking up and rebooting. When i got it it had the red blinking light when plugged so i got a new battery. That got fixed but then the constant bootloop showed itself. I flashed TWRP (many versions, 2.6.3.1; 2.7.1.1; 2.8.7.1; the one that worked best was 2.7.1.1). So, once in twrp wiped, pushed cm 12 snapshot, flashed it, pushed gapps, falshed, pushe supersu flashed. Started the system. That precise order of things (ie: pushing flashing, then pushing something new and flashing it) was what gave me best results to actually boot up at least once. Once booted up and logging in and everything to cm i had some sort of stability (even rebooting and powering off) but i think that everything went wrong when i plugged the phone to the computer and it was back to bootloops and not even getting to the recovery. Flashed everything again. Didnt work. Had to leave the phone sit for a while (without the back casing) before trying again, in order, before getting any success. Im starting to think of ovrheating but it doesnt even get that hot...
Dunno if you guys have any ideas on this. Or if i can give you mor details to help us out.
Regards!
Looks like I'm having a similar problem to what is described here, as well as http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/bootlooped-dont-how-to-enable-debugging-t3215951
I've had one of my Nexus 5 phones running OmniROM 5.1.1 for some time now, very stably. After trying out the Marshmallow preview and going back to that ROM, I started having spontaneous hard reboots and hard crashes. The phone would often boot loop before even getting to the OmniROM boot animation. It was also very recalcitrant about entering and staying in the boot loader, rebooting spontaneously shortly after rendering the boot loader screen. I was occasionally able to "grab" control long enough to get it to boot into TWRP, from which a boot to Android seemed to usually get it out of the loop and into running Android.
I've flashed back the boot loader and baseband from factory-stock 5.1.1 LMY48M (HHZ12h and 2.0.50.2.26) using the flash-base.sh script from a freshly downloaded and extracted hammerhead-lmy48m. Things appeared to be OK last evening and this morning, but things got worse today.
Now the phone is in a state where it is not responsive to the power button when unplugged. I can hold it down for 30 seconds with no response.
If I plug in USB, it spontaneously starts rebooting, not showing more than about two seconds of the Google boot loader screen. If I hold the down-volume button, I can get the boot-loader screen, but no matter how fast I try to be, I can't select anything more than "Restart bootloader" (or "Power off") option before it spontaneously reboots (to boot loader).
As far as I know, the battery had a significant charge before this started happening.
I see the same behavior if the phone is connected to a USB charging source, rather than a USB port.
I've tried pulling the SIM, but that doesn't change the behavior.
adb wait-for-device never returns, so poking it over adb doesn't seem to be an option.
fastboot devices also doesn't see the phone, for the brief time the boot loader is running.
Any suggestions on how to get this into the boot loader so I can at least re-flash it?
Nexus 5 D820(E) 32 GB
Edit:
WaxLarry said:
In my opinion your problems seems power button's related.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying to see how I can "clean" or "clear" the power button now.
Edit:
Paul22000 said:
This morning my Nexus 5 was turned off all of a sudden after not having used it for 20-30 minutes. I held the power button and nothing. I plugged it into power and the "Google" screen appeared. It then went into a reboot loop on and off, on and off, on and off. I held the Volume Buttons and it went into fastboot, but then boot looped out again and again. Searching on Google yielded that this was indeed a common problem. [...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit: Repeatedly pressing the power button seems to have temporarily allowed a boot to Android.
In retrospect, I had noticed over the last few days that the phone didn't seem to respond properly to the power button, either "ignoring" it, or when a second press got things started, it would unexpectedly come up with the long-press-volume menu.
One link on how to replace the power switch yourself is http://protyposis.net/blog/replacing-the-nexus-5-power-button/
Ok @jeffsf keep going on this thread. I had the same damn experience, that ended with RMA. LG said that the problem is related to some tension change in the power button. After the RMA I used the phone totally stock and never had a problem. Two months ago I switched to blu_spark kernel and some weeks after i noticed some problem. When I pressed the button to lock the screen, phone locked itself and then screen turned on, sometimes showing the shutdown option. So i understood that something was happening to the power button. I tried to overvolt with a +5mV on general offset and since then i never had problem. If you can enter recovery or bootloader i suggest you to flash some kernel with volt change support and then overvolt the general offset... and keep finger crossed
jeffsf said:
Looks like I'm having a similar problem to what is described here, as well as http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/bootlooped-dont-how-to-enable-debugging-t3215951
I've had one of my Nexus 5 phones running OmniROM 5.1.1 for some time now, very stably. After trying out the Marshmallow preview and going back to that ROM, I started having spontaneous hard reboots and hard crashes. The phone would often boot loop before even getting to the OmniROM boot animation. It was also very recalcitrant about entering and staying in the boot loader, rebooting spontaneously shortly after rendering the boot loader screen. I was occasionally able to "grab" control long enough to get it to boot into TWRP, from which a boot to Android seemed to usually get it out of the loop and into running Android.
I've flashed back the boot loader and baseband from factory-stock 5.1.1 LMY48M (HHZ12h and 2.0.50.2.26) using the flash-base.sh script from a freshly downloaded and extracted hammerhead-lmy48m. Things appeared to be OK last evening and this morning, but things got worse today.
Now the phone is in a state where it is not responsive to the power button when unplugged. I can hold it down for 30 seconds with no response.
If I plug in USB, it spontaneously starts rebooting, not showing more than about two seconds of the Google boot loader screen. If I hold the down-volume button, I can get the boot-loader screen, but no matter how fast I try to be, I can't select anything more than "Restart bootloader" (or "Power off") option before it spontaneously reboots (to boot loader).
As far as I know, the battery had a significant charge before this started happening.
I see the same behavior if the phone is connected to a USB charging source, rather than a USB port.
I've tried pulling the SIM, but that doesn't change the behavior.
adb wait-for-device never returns, so poking it over adb doesn't seem to be an option.
fastboot devices also doesn't see the phone, for the brief time the boot loader is running.
Any suggestions on how to get this into the boot loader so I can at least re-flash it?
Nexus 5 D820(E) 32 GB
Edit:
Trying to see how I can "clean" or "clear" the power button now.
Edit:
Edit: Repeatedly pressing the power button seems to have temporarily allowed a boot to Android.
In retrospect, I had noticed over the last few days that the phone didn't seem to respond properly to the power button, either "ignoring" it, or when a second press got things started, it would unexpectedly come up with the long-press-volume menu.
One link on how to replace the power switch yourself is http://protyposis.net/blog/replacing-the-nexus-5-power-button/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got a notification for this post since you quoted me. I'm not sure if you're having the same problem but I'll tell you what happened to me, just in case. I called T-Mobile and they referred me to the nearest 3rd party phone repair shop. I went there and after an evaluation, the repairman told me the power button on my phone was indeed broken. They replaced it for $55.
The story doesn't end there though. I took my phone home and a few hours later I tried to use bluetooth and it didn't work. I took it back and found out that unfortunately, when the guy replaced the power button, he inadvertently broke the bluetooth. There's no way to fix bluetooth without replacing the motherboard entirely, which would cost $200. I'd rather buy a new phone at that point since my Nexus 5 was getting old. He refunded me, which was nice. At least the power button worked so I could use my phone. Bluetooth isn't as valuable as being able to you know, turn on the phone, so at least it was a net gain.
After that, I purchased a Nexus 6 and rooted it so I could use double-tap-to-wake (along with the automatic screen on when you pick up the Nexus 6). I also use the following app in order to turn off the screen by swiping up from the home button (I don't care about losing the shortcut to Google Now): Screen Off and Lock
I can now literally go weeks without using the power button on my Nexus 6. (I literally only use it when tap to wake sometimes becomes unresponsive which is rare.)
Bottom line: I will never buy another phone without tap to wake functionality! :good:
A local repair shop here indicated that one sometimes does changing the power switch resolve the issue. They have seen situations where the issue appears to be one of the power-management ICs. Just something to be aware of when examining the potential cost of a repair and who you would have do the work.
Hey everyone, I'll start by saying I'm new to these forums, so go easy...
I've had an S7 (Verizon SM-G930V) for probably 3 years, recently it randomly glitched/locked up (screen had strange color bars through what I was looking at) phone restarted and then was stuck in a boot loop. It's never been wet or dropped hard and is in really good shape. I shut it off and attempted to re-start with the same results... Got a new S20+ so I at least have a device, but I'm determined to get the lost month on the old S7 back since I had a backup from early Feb.
I tried a new battery since that was mentioned, didn't change anything, however in messing with trying to get the phone to boot have discovered a few strange message screens and behavior...
1. Phone will eventually stop responding to key presses, have to pull battery connector, wait, then it will re-boot, but every time the blue 'Recovery Mode...' is displayed. If I touch nothing, it will boot and start 'installing updates' but eventually lock and restart. At one point it made it as far as the Verizon screen, then died.
2. I can get the phone to to into the recovery menu and it will respond to commands. I've tried restart normally, boot to safe mode, and shut down phone normally, all of which result in the same restart and recovery mode message and then the lock during the update.
3. I have successfully made it to the download mode screen a few times, but don't have the knowledge of what needs to be done there and which files I would need to upload to it to make that work. (phone was totally stock rom) It had recently updated to the latest version available from Verizon which I think was 8.0?
4. Now I have found a new error screen which I have not seen before... The little Android guy has X's in his eyes and a large yellow sign with ! in it says 'No Command' and then the phone restarts? It also during that finally responded to being plugged in via USB charging, however normally it shows no signs of charging other than being warm and actually charging the battery (verified with a meter)
5. When the phone is on, it gets warm quite quickly (it's still split open and the tin covers are warm, but not hot)
Hopefully someone can help out. I wouldn't say there's anything too critical on there, but there are some pics I'd really like to have back :crying:
Thanks everyone!
bigblkyj said:
Hey everyone, I'll start by saying I'm new to these forums, so go easy...
I've had an S7 (Verizon SM-G930V) for probably 3 years, recently it randomly glitched/locked up (screen had strange color bars through what I was looking at) phone restarted and then was stuck in a boot loop. It's never been wet or dropped hard and is in really good shape. I shut it off and attempted to re-start with the same results... Got a new S20+ so I at least have a device, but I'm determined to get the lost month on the old S7 back since I had a backup from early Feb.
I tried a new battery since that was mentioned, didn't change anything, however in messing with trying to get the phone to boot have discovered a few strange message screens and behavior...
1. Phone will eventually stop responding to key presses, have to pull battery connector, wait, then it will re-boot, but every time the blue 'Recovery Mode...' is displayed. If I touch nothing, it will boot and start 'installing updates' but eventually lock and restart. At one point it made it as far as the Verizon screen, then died.
2. I can get the phone to to into the recovery menu and it will respond to commands. I've tried restart normally, boot to safe mode, and shut down phone normally, all of which result in the same restart and recovery mode message and then the lock during the update.
3. I have successfully made it to the download mode screen a few times, but don't have the knowledge of what needs to be done there and which files I would need to upload to it to make that work. (phone was totally stock rom) It had recently updated to the latest version available from Verizon which I think was 8.0?
4. Now I have found a new error screen which I have not seen before... The little Android guy has X's in his eyes and a large yellow sign with ! in it says 'No Command' and then the phone restarts? It also during that finally responded to being plugged in via USB charging, however normally it shows no signs of charging other than being warm and actually charging the battery (verified with a meter)
5. When the phone is on, it gets warm quite quickly (it's still split open and the tin covers are warm, but not hot)
Hopefully someone can help out. I wouldn't say there's anything too critical on there, but there are some pics I'd really like to have back :crying:
Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If what you've described is correct, all of the solutions involve flashing the stock firmware which will of course wipe the device.
Were your photos not stored in a folder on the SD card?
There is a chance you can recover the device using Samsung Kies with the emergency recover option but if you've encountered the "no command" screen it's not looking good.
Unfortunately I did have an SD card installed, but I normally kept my camera pics on the phone's memory, since I have had an SD card fail as well and lost everything on there.
So this took an unexpected turn yesterday pretty much right after posting this... I've been messing with the phone, unplugging the battery each time, and have managed to get into different menus which kept making me think that something still had to be working if I could do that. Well, after leaving the No Command message on the screen it magically booted into the Recovery menu with (finally) the option to wipe the cache partition, which I did and rebooted normally. Believe it or not, it booted normally and into the OS like nothing ever happened?!
I instantly plugged it into my PC and ran Smart Switch which started taking a backup! About 25% though the device restarted again and was really warm to the touch on the RF covers inside. Bummer...
So I figured heat was now the issue for some reason... I waited for it to cool and then reinstalled the SD card and figured, if I could get it to boot long enough, the SD card is a quicker transfer and I'd just use ES File Explorer to try and do a photo dump to the SD card and see how far it would get. It actually made it all the way through and gave me enough time to grab some other stuff before getting hot and restarting again.
I believe the overheating is being caused by my opening of the device though... Currently I have the antennas removed and the speaker so that I'm able to quickly access the battery connector (which BTW seems to be the trick here to this working) But inadvertently, without the larger wireless charging coil in place, it relieved the pressure on the motherboard and broke the thermal paste connection between the chipset and the copper heatsink (I didn't tear it down further to check, but I can hear the 'sticking and peeling' when you press down on it).
I think what I'm going to do is apply pressure with a chip clip or something similar (non conductive) and see if I can grab a backup again before it restarts. After the cache wipe the phone seems to understand that it's plugged in and charging now which is a new thing as well...
Sorry for the long winded posts, but if this at all helps even one person with the same situation as I have, maybe that'll be worth getting lost in here