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Possibly water damaged Captivate half-working

I may have possibly water damaged my Captivate last night. It was in my pocket when water spilled on my lap, and I didn't immediately take it out. Very stupid of me. The USB port was open so I'm thinking liquid may have gotten into there... Also, there were water beads on the inside of the camera lens.
My recourse was to take it apart and try to let it dry out. Initially it wouldn't do anything upon being plugged in to the charger, so naturally I thought it was bricked. I've let it sit all day on a dry window sill next to the radiator. After putting the battery back in and plugging it in a little bit ago, the phone surprisingly booted up. Here's where I'm at now:
The phone boots normally, however if I plug it in to the charger I get an error stating Battery Temperature too high or something, so charging is paused. Does anybody know what this indicates?
Secondly, after being on for a minute or so, the screen gets screwy. Dark transparent overlays start flashing over everything and it gets unresponsive... I haven't left it on like this long b/c I was afraid something worse would happen - I usually rip the battery out of the back to shut it off.
My phones currently pulled apart and drying in the window sill. Whatever water got on/in it is not visibly there, however I understand some parts might still be wet.
Any advice? Also, I believe the water indicator on the battery and near the pins where the battery dock in the phone are both fine. They're white squares and haven't changed color. Any chance there are other indicators?
The phone isn't insured and I bought it back in August. Would warranty possibly cover this or will they know about the water damage?

jmusso said:
I may have possibly water damaged my Captivate last night. It was in my pocket when water spilled on my lap, and I didn't immediately take it out. Very stupid of me. The USB port was open so I'm thinking liquid may have gotten into there... Also, there were water beads on the inside of the camera lens.
My recourse was to take it apart and try to let it dry out. Initially it wouldn't do anything upon being plugged in to the charger, so naturally I thought it was bricked. I've let it sit all day on a dry window sill next to the radiator. After putting the battery back in and plugging it in a little bit ago, the phone surprisingly booted up. Here's where I'm at now:
The phone boots normally, however if I plug it in to the charger I get an error stating Battery Temperature too high or something, so charging is paused. Does anybody know what this indicates?
Secondly, after being on for a minute or so, the screen gets screwy. Dark transparent overlays start flashing over everything and it gets unresponsive... I haven't left it on like this long b/c I was afraid something worse would happen - I usually rip the battery out of the back to shut it off.
My phones currently pulled apart and drying in the window sill. Whatever water got on/in it is not visibly there, however I understand some parts might still be wet.
Any advice? Also, I believe the water indicator on the battery and near the pins where the battery dock in the phone are both fine. They're white squares and haven't changed color. Any chance there are other indicators?
The phone isn't insured and I bought it back in August. Would warranty possibly cover this or will they know about the water damage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well you want to put in rice, so that the moisture is gone

rice it for sure. but warranty WILL not cover it UNLESS the tabs on the battery and phone are white (It might not have gotten wet if it was in your pocket)
if they are still white, or if your phone is white and battery red (then buy another battery) and get to the store and tell them you don't know what is wrong with it. The only indication that it is water damaged is if it is red and those tags are notoriously faulty so you could always argue your way through it if you have an account in good standing.
best of luck.
I know someone who "claimed' that insurance was supposed to be added to the phone when he got it and noticed that the person didn't do it properly (the guy was new so it helped his cause) and the manager of the cor store told him that they'd do a courtesy replacement and charged him the 125$ for a new device.
you could go that route should you need too...

I don't have access to rice at the moment... Would it do any good even if I absolutely can see no water anywhere in/on the phone?
Am I doing my phone any harm/potential harm by trying to turn it on every once in a while, or should I just let it be for a few days?

Take the phone apart and focus the strongest fan you have on it over night. It's probably best to not turn it on for awhile. Maybe if you focus a blow drier on it for perhaps several hours, air will find flow through the small openings within the case.
You may not be able to dry some parts of it unless you do a complete dismantle, but that may require special tools
Consider shipping it to get repaired only as a last resort, as I've read some bad reports about that.

Rice or some other dessicant is the way to go - it will pull moisture out. Also, turning it on (even putting the battery in) is bad - you are powering circuits and possibly creating shorts where water is present. You may have already done permanent damage.
If you get electronics wet, the best course of action is to remove the battery and put it in a bag of rice for a few days.

Now that You have the phone apart get an alcohol pad and gentley scrub the main board. Sometimes when liquid touches the main board you will get a white looking residue. If you see anything like that simply wipe it off. I dropped my phone into a trash can at a very popular teriyaki restaurant here in Las Vegas my phone was submerged into a deep bath of teriyaki sauce. I quickly pulled the phone from the can and wiped it down vigorously. I was excited to see that it was initially working unfortunately this was not the case by the time I got home. The phone would not turn on for a whole week, until I decided that I was going to open her up. I found a tutorial on line describing a complete break down of the captivate. Upon opening it I found I was able to see exactly where the teriyaki had interacted with the electronics due to the remnants of an oxidized white film that was present on various parts of the main board. I grabbed a alcohol pad out of my first aid kit and began wiping it down to remove all of the white stuff,put the phone back together and to my surprise it turned on. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the info guys.
How would I go about getting to the "main board"? Taking out the battery and looking inside it only reveals where the battery connects, where the SD card and sim cards can go... I'm assuming if I remove the little screws around that fixture I can get to the "main board"?
I think I can see some minor corrosion around where the sim card connects, but I think I *should* be able to clean that with some alcohol.
The phone seems to be working fine (I've yet to put my SIM back in it, though, so no idea if the corrosion around there is affecting it at all). I just booted it up and was able to get on the web (wifi), run apps, everything just fine. Didn't get the flashy screens I mentioned earlier. However, if I plug in the USB charger, it still gives me the temperature error. I didn't keep it plugged in, however it did make me realize something:
The errors I was getting before, where the screen went all wacky, only happened if the phone was plugged in to the wall. Is it possible my battery is busted, or do you think the USB charger is busted? Remember that port was open when it happened.
Any thoughts? New battery? Or do you think I won't be able to charge the phone via USB charger any more?

jmusso said:
I don't have access to rice at the moment... Would it do any good even if I absolutely can see no water anywhere in/on the phone?
Am I doing my phone any harm/potential harm by trying to turn it on every once in a while, or should I just let it be for a few days?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes you are, because if there is water or moisture internal, it can short circuit, also rice will help dry up the phone completely

jmusso said:
Thanks for the info guys.
How would I go about getting to the "main board"? Taking out the battery and looking inside it only reveals where the battery connects, where the SD card and sim cards can go... I'm assuming if I remove the little screws around that fixture I can get to the "main board"?
I think I can see some minor corrosion around where the sim card connects, but I think I *should* be able to clean that with some alcohol.
The phone seems to be working fine (I've yet to put my SIM back in it, though, so no idea if the corrosion around there is affecting it at all). I just booted it up and was able to get on the web (wifi), run apps, everything just fine. Didn't get the flashy screens I mentioned earlier. However, if I plug in the USB charger, it still gives me the temperature error. I didn't keep it plugged in, however it did make me realize something:
The errors I was getting before, where the screen went all wacky, only happened if the phone was plugged in to the wall. Is it possible my battery is busted, or do you think the USB charger is busted? Remember that port was open when it happened.
Any thoughts? New battery? Or do you think I won't be able to charge the phone via USB charger any more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you've never taken apart a smart phone before, and reading your first question, I'm going to assume that's the case, then I strongly advise you not attempt it unless you are willing to either A) buy a replacement after you break it or B) invest time/money into repairing mistakes you've made. This phone is not as difficult to disassemble as some, but I wouldn't want to break that $150 amoled screen.
No, removing the screws will not simply get you to the mainboard. It's more complicated and nuanced than that.

I'm a new user so I can't post the link but if you google Tech Republic Captivate tear down [/B]there is a website that will show you step by step how take the phone apart. There are two screws under the clip you pull down to take the back cover off. Be careful when pulling it back to expose the screws. I tugged on it pretty hard with no problems, but I imagine it could be broken if you pull too hard. Good Luck! It's actually really easy to take apart and the various ribbon connectors on the main board are really easy to unplug and plug back in after cleaning it.

So what do you guys think I should do if I'm still getting the battery error with the thermometer and yellow caution sign? Buy a new battery? Or do you think its the USB jack? Has anybody seen this before - the battery was working fine as long as it was not charging.
I'm trying to decide between a) buying a new battery, or b) buying a wall-mounted battery charger since the USB won't charge the phone.
Anybody have any experience?

Meguro2006 said:
I'm a new user so I can't post the link but if you google Tech Republic Captivate tear down [/B]there is a website that will show you step by step how take the phone apart. There are two screws under the clip you pull down to take the back cover off. Be careful when pulling it back to expose the screws. I tugged on it pretty hard with no problems, but I imagine it could be broken if you pull too hard. Good Luck! It's actually really easy to take apart and the various ribbon connectors on the main board are really easy to unplug and plug back in after cleaning it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you need to be careful about who you encourage to dissect their device. This guy asked how to get to the mainboard. Clearly, he hasn't opened a smart phone before. Telling him it's "actually really easy" is disingenuous at best. Performing smart phone repairs properly requires experience. I'm certainly not suggesting that noobs not try to fix their phones, only that they are made fully aware of the risks.

My Captivate was fully submerged in dirty water. I followed some instructions online and it's been working fine for over a month now. If your water-detection stickers are already red anyway, and rice isn't working, I recommend it:
1) Remove battery, SIM card, SD card
2) Submerge in a bowl of distilled water and gently agitate. This helps clean the insides. Distilled water (not spring water) does not conduct electricity.
3) Next, submerge in a bowl of high-quality rubbing alcohol (~95% pure) and gently agitate. Rubbing alcohol displaces water, removes corrosion, and evaporates quickly. (It's also flammable, so have good ventilation and no open flames nearby)
4) Leave it out to dry for two days or until it no longer smells of alcohol.
BTW I wouldn't dry it too close to a radiator, the heat may damage it.

jatkins09 said:
If you've never taken apart a smart phone before, and reading your first question, I'm going to assume that's the case, then I strongly advise you not attempt it unless you are willing to either A) buy a replacement after you break it or B) invest time/money into repairing mistakes you've made. This phone is not as difficult to disassemble as some, but I wouldn't want to break that $150 amoled screen.
No, removing the screws will not simply get you to the mainboard. It's more complicated and nuanced than that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really. Once the screws are removed..including the two hidden by the battery cover lock slider...you can carefully pry the cover apart using your fingernail to get to the the internals. I have done it several times and am no expert by any means. Just don't yank like you are opening a present on Christmas morning.
Although I am mystified by the op stating they have no access to rice?! That should always be the second thing one does after a moisture incident...right after pulling the battery and sim. I guess in this case a trip to the store with a couple bucks may have pushed that to step three though..
sent from my captivate disguised as an i9000 running cyanogen

Having battery charging issues? Read this...

Just an FYI.............
So for the last several months my Tbolt has not wanted to charge past 50-60% no matter what I do. Even charged in a stand alone charger it would still only read 50-60%. It actually was charging fully but just wouldn't read the voltage correctly.
I decided it was a hardware issue so last week I bought a used Tbolt on ebay that was in pieces. I took that motherboard and put it in my phone and voila FULL CHARGE!! BUT when setting the phone up the wifi refused to work. It kept giving "error" or "unable to scan", that really pissed me off. I tried several radios and roms with no luck.
So tonight I decided to reflow my original motherboard and see if it would fix a faulty solder joint that it might have causing it not to read the voltage right. I put it in the oven at 385 for about 10 minutes then opened the oven door and let it cool down. I'll have you know that the original motherboard is now reading the correct voltage!!! Halleluyer!!! Everything else seems to work fine too, except..........
A few things to do before you decide to stick it in the oven, remove both cameras because it melted the lense on both, and even tho it didn't mess up my earpiece speaker or loudspeaker I would recommend removing those also.
Next I'm gonna reflow the ebay one and see if that fixes the wifi issue. If it does then awesome!!

nxslt1 said:
Just an FYI.............
So for the last several months my Tbolt has not wanted to charge past 50-60% no matter what I do. Even charged in a stand alone charger it would still only read 50-60%. It actually was charging fully but just wouldn't read the voltage correctly.
I decided it was a hardware issue so last week I bought a used Tbolt on ebay that was in pieces. I took that motherboard and put it in my phone and voila FULL CHARGE!! BUT when setting the phone up the wifi refused to work. It kept giving "error" or "unable to scan", that really pissed me off. I tried several radios and roms with no luck.
So tonight I decided to reflow my original motherboard and see if it would fix a faulty solder joint that it might have causing it not to read the voltage right. I put it in the oven at 385 for about 10 minutes then opened the oven door and let it cool down. I'll have you know that the original motherboard is now reading the correct voltage!!! Halleluyer!!! Everything else seems to work fine too, except..........
A few things to do before you decide to stick it in the oven, remove both cameras because it melted the lense on both, and even tho it didn't mess up my earpiece speaker or loudspeaker I would recommend removing those also.
Next I'm gonna reflow the ebay one and see if that fixes the wifi issue. If it does then awesome!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Creative home remedy to fix the solder joints. Nicely done.

but, most people arent willing to put their mobo in the oven

Battery drain after water damage and repair

So my nexus 5 took an unfortunate trip into the ocean with me a month back. It was fairly dead. I couldn't get it do much of anything, even after complete disassemble, a flush with distilled water, then alcohol, and an extended multi day drying time that started with 4 hours in direct sun, then 44 hours in a rice bag.
I was messing around with it the other day, and got it booting, but the touch screen was dead. I was able to use if fully with the help of an OTG cable, usb hub, keyboard and mouse. I decided since everything worked great, I would order a new screen and a new battery(since the battery was draining very fast).
So i ordered a completely front panel assembly, including bezel, touch screen and LCD and I ordered an OEM battery. I installed the parts carefully once they arrived, everything was working fantastic! Well..... almost. The battery drain was still there. I would loose 4%-8% in airplane mode, and had 0 wakelocks. So i disassembled again, cleaned all the boards again in warmed distilled water and a tooth brush, then flushed with alcohol, and put in rice for about 48 hours. I reassembled, did a complete format from fastboot and reloaded everything from a google factory image. The battery still drained 4%-8% per hour, even in airplane mode. I disassembled again, and disconnected everything besides the battery, the charge board and the LCD cable. Performed a factory reset, booted up and didn't log into anything or touch anything. Put the phone in airplane mode again, still draining 4-8% per hour, with NO screen on time and no wake locks.
I figure 4 things could be going on.
1.) Main board is fried
2.) Charge board is fried.
3.) The original OEM battery was draining fast because the LCD was water damaged, and this "OEM" battery is a really bad fake with extremely small capacity?
4.) This LCD is somehow causing a battery drain even with screen off because if a cheap fake?
Having said that, the LCD looks and works great, and the battery looks great, just like an OEM battery.
If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Better off replacing water damaged phones

He's right this time. Could be almost anything, especially after exposure to salt water.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Op did you buy the moto maxx?

@urushiol

dicecuber said:
Op did you buy the moto maxx?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take it you saw my thread over at:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/dro...xt1225-umts-hsdpa-bands-t3106760#post60811984
Not yet, I am worried about that 900mhz band support and can't find a clear answer. It looks like it does work on 900mhz UMTS, but that its just not advertised in Brazil. I want to be sure though, its an expensive phone.

Wanted to add, i narrowed the nexus 5 issue down to a mainboard issue. I setup airdroid on the phone, powered off, disconnected there screen and charge cable, powered back on and accessed the phone via airdroid.
Still drained just as fast, so the issue must be mainboard or battery. And since it did it with the old battery, i assume its the main board. I would love to find one for cheap, but they seem scarce.
If anyone has a D820 main board, or knows where I can find one, let me know. I would pay 80 bucks. Would pay 50 dollars for one with a dead ESN number so long as everything else worked.

Bootloop and random reboot fix

I've been seeing some threads about some some people experiencing lots of random crashes, random reboots and bootloop. From what I've seen for some it's caused by a faulty battery, but for some others it seems like a hardware problem similar to the LG G4 bootloop problem. I also have read that a hard drop can cause a similar issue. I have been experiencing this with my G Flex 2 but only after installing the AT&T 5.11 update for H950. I don't know if it's a manufacturing problem or something that happens from a random drop since I have dropped my phone in the past but not very hard.
I experienced just about every odd symptom with this phone after the update. After a reset things seemed fast and stable but after installing apps it would start having problems. Usually just a random reboot followed by the phone starting with optimizing apps almost every time. A couple of times it even got stuck doing boot loops. Usually after about a month of random reboots eventually mobile network would stop working and only a complete reset would fix it.
To me this sounded similar to the LG G4 problems my wife had on two of her G4s before they would finally only boot loop. Which is caused by a bad solder connection to the processor. This is also something that happened to many older laptop NVIDIA graphics processors in the past. I've been able to fix laptop graphics cards permanently by reflowing the solder with Solder flux so I thought I would give it a try on my G Flex 2. Now this isn't very complicated but you have to be careful. I've tried it on my dying G Flex 2 and so far it's been running for almost a week without a single crash or reboot any more. Something else that's interesting is that it's actually running cooler and consuming less battery than before.
Basically I pulled the phone motherboard out and pulled the RF shields off (which came off pretty easily by just pulling them up with a small flat head screwdriver). Then I put some flux on top and around the main processor and voltage regulator just in case that was an issue as well. After that I grabbed my heat gun but only used it to melt and spread the flux around the components I wanted to reflow. If you don't have a heat gun a blow dryer should work as well. I made sure the heat gun didn't get any hotter than 160F by pointing it at a piece of aluminium foil and then using a temperature gun to measure the temperature of the aluminium. I would then adjust the heat gun until it was at around 160F. Once I got the flux spread around really well I would preheat the oven to 385F. Once warm I would put the motherboard with the main processor facing up on top of baking sheet with a large piece of aluminum folded multiple times. Others use aluminum foil balls and set them at the corner but I was afraid a chip underneath might fall off. Make sure the motherboard is laying flat and not at an angle. Then I set the pan in the oven for 7 minutes. Once the 7 minutes were up I pointed my temperature gun at the processor and it measured at 401F so hotter than the oven was set at. I also have a convection oven so I'm not sure if this may have made it warmer than expected. At this point I just turned the oven off and cracked it open until it cooled. Once cooled I used pure 100% alcohol to clean some of the flux off. You can also reheat the flux on the board to help you clean it off it it's too hard. After this I just reinstalled the RF shields and put the phone back together. There's always a chance that this may cause more damage so make sure to backup your data. If you're out of your warranty there's nothing to lose by trying this and if you are in warranty I don't even know if LG would notice. I just hope that maybe this can help someone with similar symptoms.
Here's a few links on some of the information and things I used for this.
I followed the steps from a post on reflowing the solder on a LG G4 here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/diy-h815-usa-variant-hardware-boot-loop-t3311623
Here's a video showing the process of reflowing a G4 but with an expensive temperature precised heat gun. I wouldn't recommend reflowing with just a regular heat gun since they're not as consistent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadWAgYcmGc
I also used the Solder FLUX below:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00425FUW2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here's the type of temperature gun I used:
https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Las...06763&sr=1-2&keywords=temperature+reading+gun.

hey, nice thorough fix thread. Also, you're the same guy that made the enhanced thermal engine file! Wow, you're really good at this, aren't you XD? I'm gonna try to replace my battery to see if it fixes my bootlooping (my model is the H959 one)... If it doesn't, I'll translate your thread and show it to a technician to see if he can do it, since it would mean the battery's not the problem in my case. Can I do that, or do you not give me permission? Also, I'm not sure if you updated your thermal engine files later on after the first page of the that thread you made, have you made better ones? ALSO (last question, I promise) do you think this bootlooping might have been cause by charging it with a power bank (I'm charging it on the 5V 2.1A port, the other is 5V 1.0A)? Because it wasn't long after I started using it my phone started bootlooping, plus people said in the bootlooping forum (the one you linked to this thread) that using non-LG chargers was what bootlooped their phones, and even one guy said he used a power bank. Sorry for the massive amount of questions, but I would appreciate if you could answer them ~

Yes you can show this to who ever you want if it helps. One way to know if it's your battery is to have it plugged when using the phone and if you still get bootloops then it's most likely the phone not the battery.
I have experimented making some more aggressive and some slightly more conservative thermal files, however I never gained much and sometimes ran worse then my thermal files I originally posted.
No I don't think a powerbank is an issue with causing bootloops. I actually have two G Flex 2 phones. one has the default thermal file and the other is modified. On both phones I've used three different powerbanks including one that charges at 2.1 amps. Yet the phone I used less with the default thermal file is the one that started having problems. I could be wrong but I think even if you had a really bad powerbank I don't think it would damage the phone primarily. I think it could damage the charging regulator and perhaps the battery. The battery and regulator should buffer a lot of the electricity going to the phone.
The fact that I could fix my phone by reflowing the board kind of shows that in my case the problem was with connections not damage from a charger.
I've already heard of quite a few G Flex 2s, V10 and G5s, having bootlopoop issues. Not as many as the G4s but this seems to have have happened to a lot of LG smart phones made within the last year and a half. LG has also admitted that the G4 problem was caused by bad solder connections to the CPU and RAM .
Well I hope you can figure out your phone. Good luck

Here's something else that G4 users say stopped the bootloops. It's not a fix but more of a test. Try disabling all the big cores on the phone. This made G4 users phone work, but at the cost of performance. But it's worth a shot. If it works then you'll know for sure your problem is caused by a solder connection problem.

probaina said:
Here's something else that G4 users say stopped the bootloops. It's not a fix but more of a test. Try disabling all the big cores on the phone. This made G4 users phone work, but at the cost of performance. But it's worth a shot. If it works then you'll know for sure your problem is caused by a solder connection problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for answering... My phone stops bootlooping when charging, so it must be the battery. Still, thank you very much for responding... I'll try disabling the big cores if after I change the battery the problem still remains.

Hey there mate,
As you can expect my Flex 2 decided to go into the infinite boot loop after 1 year and and a couple months of ownership.
I came upon your re-flux fix guide after countless hours researching for a way to hopefully fix the Flex 2 myself and not forking more $$$ over to the crooks @ LG.
Was hoping you could give me a pretty detailed update as to how the Flex 2 you operated on has been up to date. Crossing my fingers the guide you posted is a pretty long term fix.
Thanks and let me know
:good:

Had random powerdowns with battery not discharged. One morning the phone would not go past LG boot screen. No playing with battery /charging helped. Found this guide, used rosin flux from radioshack, 385F in the oven for 7 minutes, cooled for an hour, cleaned rosin residue with rubbing alcohol. The phone booted and is working. Will post updates if anything goes wrong with it. Thanks OP.
Update:24 hours still going strong. This is good enough to recover data, already.
Update:14 days later, everything was working fien, left the phone in the carin the open sun, for a couple of hours, it must have baked while charging, I came back it was hot and off and wont respond to power, nor power/volume down buttons. Thought it was done, but couple hours later, it booted up, battery almost fully drained. Fix is still in.

Mine also atfirst went to optimising apps and now it doesn't even turn on please
probaina said:
I've been seeing some threads about some some people experiencing lots of random crashes, random reboots and bootloop. From what I've seen for some it's caused by a faulty battery, but for some others it seems like a hardware problem similar to the LG G4 bootloop problem. I also have read that a hard drop can cause a similar issue. I have been experiencing this with my G Flex 2 but only after installing the AT&T 5.11 update for H950. I don't know if it's a manufacturing problem or something that happens from a random drop since I have dropped my phone in the past but not very hard.
I experienced just about every odd symptom with this phone after the update. After a reset things seemed fast and stable but after installing apps it would start having problems. Usually just a random reboot followed by the phone starting with optimizing apps almost every time. A couple of times it even got stuck doing boot loops. Usually after about a month of random reboots eventually mobile network would stop working and only a complete reset would fix it.
To me this sounded similar to the LG G4 problems my wife had on two of her G4s before they would finally only boot loop. Which is caused by a bad solder connection to the processor. This is also something that happened to many older laptop NVIDIA graphics processors in the past. I've been able to fix laptop graphics cards permanently by reflowing the solder with Solder flux so I thought I would give it a try on my G Flex 2. Now this isn't very complicated but you have to be careful. I've tried it on my dying G Flex 2 and so far it's been running for almost a week without a single crash or reboot any more. Something else that's interesting is that it's actually running cooler and consuming less battery than before.
Basically I pulled the phone motherboard out and pulled the RF shields off (which came off pretty easily by just pulling them up with a small flat head screwdriver). Then I put some flux on top and around the main processor and voltage regulator just in case that was an issue as well. After that I grabbed my heat gun but only used it to melt and spread the flux around the components I wanted to reflow. If you don't have a heat gun a blow dryer should work as well. I made sure the heat gun didn't get any hotter than 160F by pointing it at a piece of aluminium foil and then using a temperature gun to measure the temperature of the aluminium. I would then adjust the heat gun until it was at around 160F. Once I got the flux spread around really well I would preheat the oven to 385F. Once warm I would put the motherboard with the main processor facing up on top of baking sheet with a large piece of aluminum folded multiple times. Others use aluminum foil balls and set them at the corner but I was afraid a chip underneath might fall off. Make sure the motherboard is laying flat and not at an angle. Then I set the pan in the oven for 7 minutes. Once the 7 minutes were up I pointed my temperature gun at the processor and it measured at 401F so hotter than the oven was set at. I also have a convection oven so I'm not sure if this may have made it warmer than expected. At this point I just turned the oven off and cracked it open until it cooled. Once cooled I used pure 100% alcohol to clean some of the flux off. You can also reheat the flux on the board to help you clean it off it it's too hard. After this I just reinstalled the RF shields and put the phone back together. There's always a chance that this may cause more damage so make sure to backup your data. If you're out of your warranty there's nothing to lose by trying this and if you are in warranty I don't even know if LG would notice. I just hope that maybe this can help someone with similar symptoms.
Here's a few links on some of the information and things I used for this.
I followed the steps from a post on reflowing the solder on a LG G4 here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/diy-h815-usa-variant-hardware-boot-loop-t3311623
Here's a video showing the process of reflowing a G4 but with an expensive temperature precised heat gun. I wouldn't recommend reflowing with just a regular heat gun since they're not as consistent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadWAgYcmGc
I also used the Solder FLUX below:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00425FUW2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here's the type of temperature gun I used:
https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Las...06763&sr=1-2&keywords=temperature+reading+gun.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Is Your Flex 2 still working.Please help!
:crying::crying:
probaina said:
I've been seeing some threads about some some people experiencing lots of random crashes, random reboots and bootloop. From what I've seen for some it's caused by a faulty battery, but for some others it seems like a hardware problem similar to the LG G4 bootloop problem. I also have read that a hard drop can cause a similar issue. I have been experiencing this with my G Flex 2 but only after installing the AT&T 5.11 update for H950. I don't know if it's a manufacturing problem or something that happens from a random drop since I have dropped my phone in the past but not very hard.
I experienced just about every odd symptom with this phone after the update. After a reset things seemed fast and stable but after installing apps it would start having problems. Usually just a random reboot followed by the phone starting with optimizing apps almost every time. A couple of times it even got stuck doing boot loops. Usually after about a month of random reboots eventually mobile network would stop working and only a complete reset would fix it.
To me this sounded similar to the LG G4 problems my wife had on two of her G4s before they would finally only boot loop. Which is caused by a bad solder connection to the processor. This is also something that happened to many older laptop NVIDIA graphics processors in the past. I've been able to fix laptop graphics cards permanently by reflowing the solder with Solder flux so I thought I would give it a try on my G Flex 2. Now this isn't very complicated but you have to be careful. I've tried it on my dying G Flex 2 and so far it's been running for almost a week without a single crash or reboot any more. Something else that's interesting is that it's actually running cooler and consuming less battery than before.
Basically I pulled the phone motherboard out and pulled the RF shields off (which came off pretty easily by just pulling them up with a small flat head screwdriver). Then I put some flux on top and around the main processor and voltage regulator just in case that was an issue as well. After that I grabbed my heat gun but only used it to melt and spread the flux around the components I wanted to reflow. If you don't have a heat gun a blow dryer should work as well. I made sure the heat gun didn't get any hotter than 160F by pointing it at a piece of aluminium foil and then using a temperature gun to measure the temperature of the aluminium. I would then adjust the heat gun until it was at around 160F. Once I got the flux spread around really well I would preheat the oven to 385F. Once warm I would put the motherboard with the main processor facing up on top of baking sheet with a large piece of aluminum folded multiple times. Others use aluminum foil balls and set them at the corner but I was afraid a chip underneath might fall off. Make sure the motherboard is laying flat and not at an angle. Then I set the pan in the oven for 7 minutes. Once the 7 minutes were up I pointed my temperature gun at the processor and it measured at 401F so hotter than the oven was set at. I also have a convection oven so I'm not sure if this may have made it warmer than expected. At this point I just turned the oven off and cracked it open until it cooled. Once cooled I used pure 100% alcohol to clean some of the flux off. You can also reheat the flux on the board to help you clean it off it it's too hard. After this I just reinstalled the RF shields and put the phone back together. There's always a chance that this may cause more damage so make sure to backup your data. If you're out of your warranty there's nothing to lose by trying this and if you are in warranty I don't even know if LG would notice. I just hope that maybe this can help someone with similar symptoms.
Here's a few links on some of the information and things I used for this.
I followed the steps from a post on reflowing the solder on a LG G4 here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/diy-h815-usa-variant-hardware-boot-loop-t3311623
Here's a video showing the process of reflowing a G4 but with an expensive temperature precised heat gun. I wouldn't recommend reflowing with just a regular heat gun since they're not as consistent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadWAgYcmGc
I also used the Solder FLUX below:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00425FUW2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here's the type of temperature gun I used:
https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Las...06763&sr=1-2&keywords=temperature+reading+gun.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Farqaleet said:
:crying::crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thought I'd post an update on this. Recently my GFlex2 started having the same symptoms again which I'm not surprised. I have also done this fix with two LG G4s which actually need a lot more heat to get them working again. On the two G4s I fixed I ended up going up to 435F and those two have been working for over six months now. I plan on raising the temperature on my GFlex 2 motherboard this time and I'll post on how long it lasts this time.
One thing I find really interesting is that on my Gflex 2 running Android 5.01 this crashing and random reboot problem doesn't happen. It only happened when I upgraded my second Gflex 2 to version 5.1. From the very first boot after the upgrade, this problem happened. This seems to be a similar problem that happens with the Nexus 5X as well.

probaina said:
Thought I'd post an update on this. Recently my GFlex2 started having the same symptoms again which I'm not surprised. I have also done this fix with two LG G4s which actually need a lot more heat to get them working again. On the two G4s I fixed I ended up going up to 435F and those two have been working for over six months now. I plan on raising the temperature on my GFlex 2 motherboard this time and I'll post on how long it lasts this time.
One thing I find really interesting is that on my Gflex 2 running Android 5.01 this crashing and random reboot problem doesn't happen. It only happened when I upgraded my second Gflex 2 to version 5.1. From the very first boot after the upgrade, this problem happened. This seems to be a similar problem that happens with the Nexus 5X as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any update please after raising the temperature?

hbahaie said:
Any update please after raising the temperature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well my G Flex 2 didn't like raising the temperature very much. The phone seems to not crash any more but I think it damaged battery temperature sensor. Sometimes it thinks the battery is too cold and other times it things it's suddenly way too hot. Oddly enough the battery temperature sensor is on the motherboard or something. I can tell the readings are bogus since the battery temperature suddenly jumps by a lot. Maybe on the G Flex 2 at least it's better to use a heat gun directly on the CPU chip instead of baking it above 385F.
I'm going to try to reflow it again and see if maybe just some sensors need to be reflowed. I think I can also tell the thermal config file to ignore max battery temperatures. Although that probably isn't the safest thing to do.

Hi all. Has anyone tried this wakelock fix?
Some YouTube users commented the fix helps.

probaina said:
Thought I'd post an update on this. Recently my GFlex2 started having the same symptoms again which I'm not surprised. I have also done this fix with two LG G4s which actually need a lot more heat to get them working again. On the two G4s I fixed I ended up going up to 435F and those two have been working for over six months now. I plan on raising the temperature on my GFlex 2 motherboard this time and I'll post on how long it lasts this time.
One thing I find really interesting is that on my Gflex 2 running Android 5.01 this crashing and random reboot problem doesn't happen. It only happened when I upgraded my second Gflex 2 to version 5.1. From the very first boot after the upgrade, this problem happened. This seems to be a similar problem that happens with the Nexus 5X as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like I was wrong. I just had some flux in the battery port. I cleaned it up and it's working great again.
So basically the first fix at 385f worked for about 6 months than it started to reboot often and later turned into boot loop.
This time I decided to go set my oven at 410f and using my laser infrared thermometer I kept checking on the CPU temperature until it reached 420f. Took about 10 minutes to get there.
Another thing I tried that I read works well on the G3 boot loop problem, is to use a piece of wood to push down on the processor with a few pounds of force. Once I pulled the board off the oven it quickly cooled to 380f at that point I used a stick with a flat end to push down on the processor. I would recommend to be careful and press down with no side movement for a few seconds. This can hopefully squish all the solder to an even height and hopefully make a more reliable fix.
So far after a few days the phone has been working great.
Also on the LG G4 I baked to 435f so far has been working perfectly fine for 10 months which is actually oddly longer then the three new G4s my wife got lasted before this fix.

Help!!!
Hi I am a big noob when it comes to all of this. Today my phone (G Flex 2 H955) went into a bootloop when I disconnected it from the charger. It has randomly restarted several times in the past few months but this time it was just bad (until I stumbled upon this thread I never even knew it could be a hardware issue, just assumed unstable OS was to blame). I even factory reset the thing while plugged into the charger, but it didn't make a difference. My phone restarts even when plugged into the charger but not as often and doesn't go into a bootloop like it does now when disconnected. I was thinking I'd try out what you have detailed here. I went through the video but found it all a bit lacking in detail for a noob like me. This is the first time I am gonna do anything like this. Initially I thought I'd just go to some repair shop and show them this thread, but here in India, you can't really trust everyone's work ethics and you'd never know, the guy might say yes yes I'll do it, and then botch it up cause he doesn't have the right equipment or the interest. Another thing that is different is the availability of good quality stuff to do the job, and information on what is what (atleast for someone like me who literally has no idea what is what). Could you please help me do this thing on my own. I have to cause I'm in college and just can't afford a new phone or shoddy repairs on this one at the moment. From the video you linked, I surmised that all I would need is a temperature precise heat gun and flux fluid.
Are there any more precautions I need to keep in mind? If that is the stuff I need to buy to do this job properly, then can I just clean out a syringe and use it to extract the flux fluid is it super sensitive to impurities? What kind of air speed should I start off with for how much time? Do I just set it straight to 200C (385F) or do I get there incrementally? Is there anything else I might be missing out? I am super desperate and super interested to get a response. Looking forward to it. Sorry for the annoying questions!
Cheers!

Hi,
Had a problem with the Flex 2 where it would not turn on. originally unclipping the battery for a while would get it back working but then even that did not work.
Anyway have tried the oven trick several times and it so far it has worked - get about 3 months before I have to repeat. I don't use flux/remove the heat shield. I just take the main board out, wrap it lightly in tinfoil and put it in a digital over heated to 220 degrees. I "bake" for 20 minutes, take it out and let it cool down. I get another 3 months or so from the phone.
What seems to cause to not to turn on is if it is left on the charger for too long!.
Hope this helps someone.
W.

I bought a bootlooping G Flex 2 off eBay, swapped in a new battery, and it ran a month or two just fine. Had issues again though, so I tried a new charging port board - didn't help. Did the "light" baking fix above this morning, 220°F for 15 minutes in foil. Reassembled and successfully booted again. :good: Will save up for flux and do the more intense reflow procedure if bootloops come back.

Hmm,
I'm gonna chime in with a fix that worked for me that didn't require me to bake the snapdragon 810 chip or the voltage regulator.
Instead here's exactly what I did.
1. Disassemble your phone until you get to the motherboard. Remove the RF shield around the Snapdragon 810 chip. Remove thermal pad on the 810 chip.
2. Wrap every component in aluminum foil or kapton tape (Google this). I used kapton tape (may post pics later). The parts I didn't cover was the 810 and voltage regulator. Place board on a cool surface.
3. Heat the hot air gun to 450F.
4. Start the clock. From about 1-2 feet slowly lower the hot air gun until you are a few cm from the 810 chip. When you reach the chip, make small circles at the center of the chip to melt the solder balls. Do this all until 2 minutes are up.
5. Once 2 minutes are up, slowly raise the hot air gun back about 1-2 feet from the chip.
6. Repeat steps 4-5 for the voltage regulator.
7. Allow the motherboard to cool (I waited for 1 hour).
8. Obtain some good Thermal Pads. I don't remember the exact material I used but they were industry-grade top of the line ones.
9. Cut the Thermal Pads to the shape of the Voltage Regulator and the 810 chip.
10. Use 70% IPA Isopropyl Alcohol to clean the motherboard after removing the aluminum foil or kapton tape covering on the motherboard.
11. Place the Thermal Pads on the chips.
12. Snap the RF shield back on the motherboard. You will likely have to press hard on it due to the Thermal Pads being thicker than the shield.
13. Reassemble your phone, plug in your battery for a few minutes and boot up your phone. It will take some time to boot up. Be patient!

PhantasmRezound said:
I bought a bootlooping G Flex 2 off eBay, swapped in a new battery, and it ran a month or two just fine. Had issues again though, so I tried a new charging port board - didn't help. Did the "light" baking fix above this morning, 220°F for 15 minutes in foil. Reassembled and successfully booted again. :good: Will save up for flux and do the more intense reflow procedure if bootloops come back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, should have mentioned I do the "bake" at 220 degree Celsius (not really light) glad it worked for you.
I have found it lasts for approx. 3 months and tends to die when I have forgotten to take the phone off charge (charging for approx. 36 hours).
W.

This method revived my LS996!

Samsung s7 bootloop issue, i tried almost everything...

I'm fairly tech savvy in regards to PC's but im not too familiar with phones. My grandma handed me her S7, its stuck in a bootlop, keeps turning on and off. I put maybe 2-3 hrs of troubleshooting into this, I managed (somehow) to do a system restore with Odin and finding the correct firmware and I also did a system update. Problem remains. Not sure what to do from this point forward. Im assuming it's hardware related although Im afraid to tinker with the battery because I don't exactly know what to do. For whatever reason the phone works somewhat normally ONLY when it has a full charge.

i'd be inclined towards thinking the battery is dying or faulty if it works ok when it's fully charged.
what would be worth doing would be to completely flatten the battery, then leave it switched off and charging for a LONG time, say overnight, ideally with the original charger and cable, or at least a high quality, branded charger and cable.
In the morning, unplug it, switch it back on, and if it doesn't say 100%, plug it in again and leave it until it does say 100%. see if it behaves any differently.
if not, the hardest part of replacing the battery is getting the glass back off the thing. your first try at it, you will likely crack the glass whatever technique you use, replacement glass isn't expensive on ebay. watch a few youtube videos of people removing the glass to get the idea.
once the glass is off, you just need a screwdriver to get inside it, and a plastic spudger to disconnect the battery connector from the board.
the battery is glued to the screen assembly, some guides say to soften the glue with heat. i prefer to drip some isopropyl alcohol along the top of the battery, then let it spread behind it. that should make the glue lose its stick, and the battery should come away easily enough with a plastic spudger.