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[Q] Possibly unfixable Nexus S?

First off, I know I'm a new member, and I did watch the video, I've been searching the forum for days now trying to find someone with the exact some problem as me but I've come to the conclusion I must be special as I haven't seen this problem else where. Lucky me...
Let me start off with some information about the phone.
Carrier: Vodafone AU (says XSE on the recovery screen)
Baseband Version: I9020XXKI1
Bootloader Version: I9020XXKL1
HW Version: Rev 52
Model: Nexus S i9023
Lock State: Unlocked
Primary computer: iMac
Fairly certain I have USB debugging turned off :\
I rooted and unlocked the phone and was running the latest CyberGR mod ROM and the latest AirKernel kernel. The phone was running brilliantly, not a problem in the world, very smooth, very fast, excellent battery life, I loved it. Only thing I didn't like was how the keyboard became unresponsive at times. For that reason, I think I'll be switching to the Bugless Beast ROM and thalmus kernel when (if) I get this phone fixed.
So a few days ago, the power button on my Nexus S stuffed up and wouldn't work anymore. Completely unresponsive. I couldn't lock/unlock my phone using the power button. I had to either connect/disconnect it from the USB or turn it on/off by taking the battery out to be able to use it. Needless to say, this got very tedious very quickly and I decided to unroot it and send it back to Samsung.
I looked into how to unroot and came across the Odin app and decided that I'd use that to unroot. (noob error on my behalf, I realise now) Regardless of what I'd read, Odin doesn't work on a Nexus S apparently and although I didn't flash to stock, my phone became significantly less useable, half the time it wouldn't respond to anything I did on it. I tried to boot into CWM and although I was able to do so, it was useless as my power button wasn't working.
At this stage, I took out the battery, put it back in and the phone booted up again. I didn't press the power button, it just booted up straight away. I took it out again and held the volume up button on the side and this time, I didn't get put into the CWM menu, but the normal Android recovery menu. I went to press the volume up and down buttons but nothing worked. Power button is still unresponsive.
When I don't boot into recovery, it goes past the Google screen with the unlocked lock on the bottom of it, and goes to a screen where it says "Android" in a metallic style (I disable the boot animation logo in CyberGR mod so I was used to this screen) and it just hung on there, it never booted up past that screen.
Every time I tried to use fastboot -w to wipe the phone, or oem lock or anything, I would just get < waiting for device >
I plugged it into my Windows 7 laptop, tried the one_click_stock app and got the message that my phone has no boot.img. I then googled problems regarding the boot.img and no one really had any solutions that helped me out.
The SDK won't recognise my phone is there, but the sound pops up on Windows saying a device has been connected and disconnected but it never shows up.
Is it bricked or unfixable? Clearly warranty is void, not sure if I should just take it into Vodafone and ask for a new phone (as its still within warranty period, hence why I wanted to lock it and flash a stock ROM).
Very sorry for the lengthy post, I know I was meant to be brief but I thought the more information I could give, the better chance there would be for anyone to help me out. Thanks.

Make the root of your phone with any application in the market and install the recovery ClockworkMod touch with Rom manager premium or Rom toolbox Pro. Restart recovery using Rom manager or Rom toolbox and do a full cleaning on the phone. Wipe only data and cache.
Now, select from mount and storage mount USB storage and copy over to your i9020 storage any rom ( try using the cm9 ). If the installation is successful restart, if not try some other roms. More than that I do not know how to help.
P.s.: In theory it should go smoothly, otherwise I do not assume any liability for further damage to the phone ... Good luck!

Did you know you can operate cwm using the capacitive search button instead of the power button?

Alfaneo said:
Make the root of your phone with any application in the market and install the recovery ClockworkMod touch with Rom manager premium or Rom toolbox Pro. Restart recovery using Rom manager or Rom toolbox and do a full cleaning on the phone. Wipe only data and cache.
Now, select from mount and storage mount USB storage and copy over to your i9020 storage any rom ( try using the cm9 ). If the installation is successful restart, if not try some other roms. More than that I do not know how to help.
P.s.: In theory it should go smoothly, otherwise I do not assume any liability for further damage to the phone ... Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, I can't actually boot into the phone or get to any market place or any screen that could make the phone useable at all, it just sits on the CyberGR android screen for when you disable the boot animation.
bedalus said:
Did you know you can operate cwm using the capacitive search button instead of the power button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was pressing the search button (the volume buttons were working when I could boot into CWM) and the text just disappeared off the screen and just showed the logo. I can no longer boot into CWM.
I've installed Ubuntu and I'm going to try running the unrbickable java app that a user on here created, hopefully that may work.

Help me fix a bricked OPO :(

Phone memory was almost totally full and my sister was still shooting videos on it.
During one shoot the phone turned off and I can't turn it back on again.
Here is my problem, the phone just doesn't boot.
Shows only first screen with 1+ logo and then reboots. Not even the system boot animation.
When I try to enter recovery mode it shows TWRP screen and then reboots again. So I can't even access recovery.
And when I try to enter Fastboot Mode it turns on but the PC won't see it in adb.
What are my options here?

try charging the phone for a few hours

se7enlyn said:
try charging the phone for a few hours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, forgot to mention that. can't even charge it. when I plug it in it does the same. tries to turn on. shows the first splash screen and reboots doing the same again and again. doesnt even show the charging screen with chinese text and battery animation.

sounds like u need a new battery

ireaper4592 said:
sounds like u need a new battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
already tried that too. had a replacement battery laying around. changed it and still no luck.

@bmark240
help please

se7enlyn said:
@bmark240
help please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi you need to follow this guide :https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-unbrick-oneplus-one-t3013732

Hi.
Firstly, you have recovery installed, so that is good.
Some things for you to try:
Can you hold down the power button for longer than 10 seconds. This will clear temporary memory and hard reboot.Press power button & volume 'down' button until you enter TWRP.
Try this firstly.
Can you access ADB at all?
15 second ADB drivers should work.
What Operating system is on your Computer?
TWRP should pop up & be accessible
If you have Windows 10 on. If it doesn't recognize your phone you will have to run an update for Media Center for Windows 10 (64 bit...I'm assuming its not 32bit).
TWRP should be read by your computer if you can access it as it contains the drivers inbuilt.
If it still is inaccessible you might have to flash TWRP again through fastboot mode using ADB.

bmark240 said:
Hi.
Firstly, you have recovery installed, so that is good.
Some things for you to try:
Can you hold down the power button for longer than 10 seconds. This will clear temporary memory and hard reboot.Press power button & volume 'down' button until you enter TWRP.
Try this firstly.
Can you access ADB at all?
15 second ADB drivers should work.
What Operating system is on your Computer?
TWRP should pop up & be accessible
If you have Windows 10 on. If it doesn't recognize your phone you will have to run an update for Media Center for Windows 10 (64 bit...I'm assuming its not 32bit).
TWRP should be read by your computer if you can access it as it contains the drivers inbuilt.
If it still is inaccessible you might have to flash TWRP again through fastboot mode using ADB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have TWRP installed, but cant access it. Shows the TWRP splash screen and then reboots after like 10 seconds or so.
ADB does not see device. Only shows the device during that 10 second TWRP splash screen time, but even then no commands are effective and it just reboots.
Already tried holding down power button for few seconds. No luck.
I already installed all the possible drivers and media feature packs on my Windows 10. Still no luck.
And yes, I am running latest Windows 10 Pro x64.
And no, since I cant access Fastboot, I can not re-flash TWRP either.

kallum7 said:
hi you need to follow this guide :https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-unbrick-oneplus-one-t3013732
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gonna try that right now. Hopefully that will fix it.

Daaaamn I really frankensteined the sh*t out of this one
I tried that Color OS unbrick method but it did not work. I mean the process itself worked, but the phone would not boot past the logo.
So I grabbed the system.img from old CM13 image, grabbed 2016 modem.img, then placed twrp.img instead of CM recovery and pressed START.
AAAAAND IT WORKED!!! The phone is alive!!!
Now I am in TWRP and I'm going to flash a new ROM. Hopefully everything will go perfectly.
Thanks a lot for your help @kallum7
EDIT: Flashed new ROM. Everything went just fine.

THEVAN3D said:
Daaaamn I really frankensteined the sh*t out of this one
I tried that Color OS unbrick method but it did not work. I mean the process itself worked, but the phone would not boot past the logo.
So I grabbed the system.img from old CM13 image, grabbed 2016 modem.img, then placed twrp.img instead of CM recovery and pressed START.
AAAAAND IT WORKED!!! The phone is alive!!!
Now I am in TWRP and I'm going to flash a new ROM. Hopefully everything will go perfectly.
Thanks a lot for your help @kallum7
EDIT: Flashed new ROM. Everything went just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
because i had bricked my phone a few months ago and that is how i got my phone back using the colour os

THEVAN3D said:
Phone memory was almost totally full and my sister was still shooting videos on it.
During one shoot the phone turned off and I can't turn it back on again.
Here is my problem, the phone just doesn't boot.
Shows only first screen with 1+ logo and then reboots. Not even the system boot animation.
When I try to enter recovery mode it shows TWRP screen and then reboots again. So I can't even access recovery.
And when I try to enter Fastboot Mode it turns on but the PC won't see it in adb.
What are my options here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is Bacon Root Toolkit (BRT) by WugFresh's
install file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DdFXrHPhVDlSzPqAk1PVfjK_Q0J_UzxO/view?usp=sharing
If you need stock rom
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/official-cm11s-roms-ota-updates-t2906746
If you have any question find me on discord FiveO#8241 I will try help you out

FairuzOnn said:
This is Bacon Root Toolkit (BRT) by WugFresh's
install file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DdFXrHPhVDlSzPqAk1PVfjK_Q0J_UzxO/view?usp=sharing
If you need stock rom
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/official-cm11s-roms-ota-updates-t2906746
If you have any question find me on discord FiveO#8241 I will try help you out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I already fixed it.

i had it in the past for some reason too. Managed to fix it using the color os method. Carefully followed the steps until i could flash again. That was a year ago tohugh. There should be some thread around wit some all-in-one solution against bricks.

Phone completely black screen, how to successfully save the brick

The phone is now completely blank, and it’s useless to press any button, and you can’t enter fastboot. Use 9008 to perform steps 5 and 6 (5. Power off your phone by pressing Voice Down + Power Buttons) (6. Start update_image_EDL.bat script-it will recreate all of the partitions) The script window flashed and exited without any prompts, how can I solve it?

Same here...
I was trying to flash BlissRom 12.8 on a clean Q stock rom and when it finished flashing, I wanted to reboot recovery to slot B. Then it went black.
No button or combination works, no charging, no recognition by Windows, adb, fastboot.
The QDLoader 9008 fix (update_image_EDL.bat) returns that variable _COM is not defined.
Can anyone help?
Edit: So I can see the screen flashing very faintly every second, there seems to be some logo but I cannot identify it...
Edit2: was able to fix it with the QDLoader, but only by bridging two contacts inside the device...

got exact same situation. Booted into twrp (twrp-3.4.0-1-I01WD, no install)
installed asus rom from there (UL-ASUS_I01WD-ASUS-16.1220.1909.194-1.1.1-user) from sdcard
rebooted to bootloader (adb reboot bootloader)
I can see a faint powered by android logo every second
Maybe it's a bad idea to install stock rom from twrp.

abprie said:
Same here...
I was trying to flash BlissRom 12.8 on a clean Q stock rom and when it finished flashing, I wanted to reboot recovery to slot B. Then it went black.
No button or combination works, no charging, no recognition by Windows, adb, fastboot.
The QDLoader 9008 fix (update_image_EDL.bat) returns that variable _COM is not defined.
Can anyone help?
Edit: So I can see the screen flashing very faintly every second, there seems to be some logo but I cannot identify it...
Edit2: was able to fix it with the QDLoader, but only by bridging two contacts inside the device...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how did you do the bridging also is there any alternate way unless opening the device and did you wiped the vendor??

23598685 said:
got exact same situation. Booted into twrp (twrp-3.4.0-1-I01WD, no install)
installed asus rom from there (UL-ASUS_I01WD-ASUS-16.1220.1909.194-1.1.1-user) from sdcard
rebooted to bootloader (adb reboot bootloader)
I can see a faint powered by android logo every second
Maybe it's a bad idea to install stock rom from twrp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flash stock roms via unofficial TWRP regularly and so far I've never had any problem. My steps:
-flash new ROM
-flash TWRP Installer
*Reboot to recovery, slot changes
-flash kernel
-flash twrp (it may not be necessary, I do it though)
-flash magisk
And then I'm good to go.

ronak123456 said:
how did you do the bridging also is there any alternate way unless opening the device and did you wiped the vendor??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bridging was easily done with a metal paper clip, but any thing similar out of conductive metal will do.
If you get your device registered as a COM device, you probably can run the script without bridging.
I don't remember wiping vendor, probably not. I had several custom ROMs installed before, but have to admit that I never really got the hang of it with those two slots and getting it finally to work felt like I did something by chance that made it work.
Maybe one additional hint: when I had the device opened, I restored the stock ROM, updated to 10, rooted, installed TWRP 3.4, and flashed BlissRom once again to see if 3.4 was the culprid and it was indeed!

abprie said:
Bridging was easily done with a metal paper clip, but any thing similar out of conductive metal will do.
If you get your device registered as a COM device, you probably can run the script without bridging.
I don't remember wiping vendor, probably not. I had several custom ROMs installed before, but have to admit that I never really got the hang of it with those two slots and getting it finally to work felt like I did something by chance that made it work.
Maybe one additional hint: when I had the device opened, I restored the stock ROM, updated to 10, rooted, installed TWRP 3.4, and flashed BlissRom once again to see if 3.4 was the culprid and it was indeed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bridging with a metal paper clip without opening the phone?
my device is not recognized by the device manager no matter what i do.

any complete solution for this issue yet?
i made huge mistake that wipe vendor this time
it was been too long time to forgot about flashing from last try

ronak123456 said:
bridging with a metal paper clip without opening the phone?
my device is not recognized by the device manager no matter what i do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, of course not without opening the phone.
If you don't get the phone recognized and see a faint flickering of something like a boot image every second (I could only see this in complete darkness), then you might have the same problem as I had.
---------- Post added at 05:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 PM ----------
chocosobo said:
any complete solution for this issue yet?
i made huge mistake that wipe vendor this time
it was been too long time to forgot about flashing from last try
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did what was explained here and got it working again: https://piunikaweb.com/2019/10/24/unbrick-asus-zenfone-6-asus-6z/

abprie said:
I did what was explained here and got it working again: https://piunikaweb.com/2019/10/24/unbrick-asus-zenfone-6-asus-6z/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is that means short that 2 pin make my phone to 9008 state from issue?
my issue is only displaying 'powered by android' at lowest brightness (barely see) for 1 sec and looping until battery out

chocosobo said:
is that means short that 2 pin make my phone to 9008 state from issue?
my issue is only displaying 'powered by android' at lowest brightness (barely see) for 1 sec and looping until battery out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I can judge it from the distance, it sounds like the issue I had. Shorting the two pins solved it for me. But if you have warranty on the device, you may want to try returning it. Don't blame me if something goes wrong when you open your phone... If you do: take good care about the cable for the buttons not to cut it (happened to me). See this video for someone who already warned about this:
Edit: by "solved it for me" I meant that the phone was then recognized by Windows and I could run the script to reset it to stock.

Stupid me replied twice to the post...

Xperia Xz premium not flashing

Hi guys, can someone help me:
first i had my xperia xz premium 1 sim, but i never got updates so i downloaded android 9 firmware and tried to flash using sony flashtool but as soon it ask to connect the phone i had a power outage, so everytime i tried after i get error
getvar: max download size, so i quit trying and i saw i could install a different rom thru twrp but i needed to unlock the bootloader so i did but after i did i got green pictures i didnt know this would happened so i looked for a solution and saw xperifix but sadly i dont have the money for it, so i tried finding another solution and found a drmfix that i could flash but then the phone stuck on logo, i did a full wipe but i think in this process i erased the os so i tried flashing a custom rom but still doesnt pass the logo. is it possible to put back the stock rom and make the camera work?

Fairly difficult to read and understand what your problem is. Right now I can't help you as it is impossible for me understand what the problem is. Maybe you should edit the text.
Use shorter sentences.
Use paragraphs.
Add screenshots if possible.
Use upper case characters where appropriate.

AtlanDaGonozal said:
Fairly difficult to read and understand what your problem is. Right now I can't help you as it is impossible for me understand what the problem is. Maybe you should edit the text.
Use shorter sentences.
Use paragraphs.
Add screenshots if possible.
Use upper case characters where appropriate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i cant flash my phone cause it get stuck on getvar: product, i accidently deleted my system in twrp recovery so i need a fix

imkofficial said:
i cant flash my phone cause it get stuck on getvar: product, i accidently deleted my system in twrp recovery so i need a fix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have your tried:
Unplug USB
Press and Hold volume up
Press and Hold power
Wait for LED to glow blue
Release buttons
This should boot your into the bootloader from where you can try the flash twrp anew using fastboot.

AtlanDaGonozal said:
Have your tried:
Unplug USB
Press and Hold volume up
Press and Hold power
Wait for LED to glow blue
Release buttons
This should boot your into the bootloader from where you can try the flash twrp anew using fastboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did and it does not flash using the stock tft. rom file it gives an error.

Did I just destroy my phone ? Japanese Pixel 4a can't boot after first reboot under LineageOS

Hi all,
I recently imported a used Japanese Pixel 4a (I wanted the jp-exclusive "Barely Blue" model), and immediately upon receiving it, installed LineageOS 19 on it.
The phone originally came in with some form of android 12 (I didn't check that very precisely unfortunately, could have been 12.0 and not 12.1)
Installing LineageOS went mostly fine, the phone managed to boot and I was able to use it for a few hours ... then wifi and mobile data stopped working. I thought rebooting would fix that, so I tried rebooting, but the phone never rebooted completely.
I've tried a lot of things to get it back to a working state :
Flash LineageOS again
Flash Google's Factory Image for the last 12.1
both via the online tool AND the flash-all.sh script
both on slot A and B
also tried the very old 10.0.0 JP-carrier-specific image
with a different USB cable
on a different USB2 port on my computer
on a USB3 port on my computer
Flash Google's Full OTA Image for the last 12.1
by using fastboot to boot into lineageos's recovery image
At one point in my attempts at making it work it even displayed the "Your device is corrupt" error message (it's now gone btw).
My phone is now in a state where I can reach fastboot, but everytime I try booting up any ROM (Google or LineageOS), it shows the boot animation for something like 2 seconds then shuts down.
Any help you guys could provide would be awesome

Stepland said:
Hi all,
I recently imported a used Japanese Pixel 4a (I wanted the jp-exclusive "Barely Blue" model), and immediately upon receiving it, installed LineageOS 19 on it.
The phone originally came in with some form of android 12 (I didn't check that very precisely unfortunately, could have been 12.0 and not 12.1)
Installing LineageOS went mostly fine, the phone managed to boot and I was able to use it for a few hours ... then wifi and mobile data stopped working. I thought rebooting would fix that, so I tried rebooting, but the phone never rebooted completely.
I've tried a lot of things to get it back to a working state :
Flash LineageOS again
Flash Google's Factory Image for the last 12.1
both via the online tool AND the flash-all.sh script
both on slot A and B
also tried the very old 10.0.0 JP-carrier-specific image
with a different USB cable
on a different USB2 port on my computer
on a USB3 port on my computer
Flash Google's Full OTA Image for the last 12.1
by using fastboot to boot into lineageos's recovery image
At one point in my attempts at making it work it even displayed the "Your device is corrupt" error message (it's now gone btw).
My phone is now in a state where I can reach fastboot, but everytime I try booting up any ROM (Google or LineageOS), it shows the boot animation for something like 2 seconds then shuts down.
Any help you guys could provide would be awesome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you walk us through the steps you took to initially flash LOS?
Also, have you tried flashing versions other than 12.1 of Google's factory images?
Can you boot into recovery? Did you root LOS?
How did you import the device? Are you sure it was a trusty site/seller? Could they have tinkered something with the device to not make it work?

Could you walk us through the steps you took to initially flash LOS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The very first time I flashed LineageOS I just followed these "official" installation instructions from the LineageOS website. The only mistakes I remember making were :
I forgot to really check that the phone actually was on the latest stock 12.1, the phone may have been on 12.0 or an older 12.1 prior to flashing LOS
I forgot to reboot between flashing LineageOS and GApps (MindTheGapps in my case), noticed my mistake, rebooted then flashed GApps again
After I saw things weren't working, I double checked the version numbers and the sha256 hashes of everything I had downloaded and they were all correct
Also, have you tried flashing versions other than 12.1 of Google's factory images?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes,
I tried flashing factory images of
10.0.0 (Android 10) QD4A.200805.001 (6583866) (JP carriers and Verizon)
12.1.0 (SP2A.220405.003, Apr 2022)
12.1.0 (SP2A.220505.002, May 2022)
12.1.0 (SQ3A.220605.009.A1, Jun 2022)
12.1.0 (SQ3A.220705.003.A1, Jul 2022)
13.0.0 (TP1A.220624.014, Aug 2022)
Can you boot into recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes
Did you root LOS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No
How did you import the device? Are you sure it was a trusty site/seller? Could they have tinkered something with the device to not make it work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By asking a person who's used to proxying things, this phone was from a listing on rakuten, it came from this seller. Since it came in with stock 12 (or 12.1, don't remember), I think it's unlikely they tinkered with it

Stepland said:
I forgot to really check that the phone actually was on the latest stock 12.1, the phone may have been on 12.0 or an older 12.1 prior to flashing LOS
I forgot to reboot between flashing LineageOS and GApps (MindTheGapps in my case), noticed my mistake, rebooted then flashed GApps again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These likely have nothing to do with the issue you're facing.
Since you're able to boot into recovery, would you be open to try to flash literally any custom ROM (with the provided custom recovery), and see if that works?
You can flash whatever you like, since you said you wanted to go for LOS, I'd recommend you flash PixelExperience, since it's the closest to that (I think). You can download the regular or the plus edition, doesn't really matter. Make sure you not only download the build (flashable zip), but also the recovery image.
I assume you're familiar with the process of flashing custom ROMs. Should you be unfamiliar, I followed this guide when I first flashed a custom ROM on my 4a.
(If you don't feel like watching a video made for newbies, here are some notes I took a while back, just so I can know I never skip a step):
Spoiler: Flashing steps
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot devices
fastboot flash --slot all boot <img_name>.img (i think this can be skipped?)
use power buttons to enter recovery mode
apply update
apply update over adb
adb sideload <zip_name>.zip
*/ if you don't want to root, you can skip everything below /*
reboot recovery (to change to active slot so that magisk flash goes to correct slot)
apply update over adb
adb sideload <magisk_name>.zip

Oh my GOD thank you SO much I'm finally getting somewhere !
I tried flashing PixelExperience, both recovery and the ROM itself, the flashing part went well.
Then I rebooted and the following things happened in order :
static google screen
phone reboots (before the animated G even appeared)
PixelExperience screen that warns "your data may be corrupt you may need to perform a factory reset"
I chose the factory reset / wipe data option
phone reboots
boot animation that lasts WAY longer than in any of my previous attempts, goes as far as 3/4 of the progress bar
phone reboots before reaching the welcome screen
PHONE SUCCESFULLY REACHES THE SETUP/WELCOME SCREEN ON THE NEXT BOOT
phone seems to freeze for a moment
"Bluetooth keeps stopping" message pops up
phone reboots + reaches welcome screen a few times
phone reboots, reaches welcome screen, then plays the "charging" chime (didn't hear it before even though it was plugged in the whole time)
It has now been a solid 10 minutes and my phone is showing the welcome screen and hasn't crashed !?!
What should I do to troubleshoot what caused the crashes ?
Thank you SOOOOOO much for your help so far !

Stepland said:
PixelExperience screen that warns "your data may be corrupt you may need to perform a factory reset"
I chose the factory reset / wipe data option
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, yeah, my mistake. You are supposed to perform a factory reset whenever you flash a different ROM. Step can only be skipped when performing a dirty flash.
Stepland said:
It has now been a solid 10 minutes and my phone is showing the welcome screen and hasn't crashed !?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by "showing the welcome screen"? Can you use your device? Can you log in to your Google account and set it up? If we don't take Bluetooth crashing into account, would you be able to use your device regularly?
Stepland said:
"Bluetooth keeps stopping" message pops up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stepland said:
[...]the phone managed to boot and I was able to use it for a few hours ... then wifi and mobile data stopped working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, these malfunctions you get regardless of the OS makes me think somebody tinkered with your phone/gave you a faulty unit to begin with.
You could try to flash any / of / these kernels to see if they stop the "bluetooth crashed" notification. If you do flash a new kernel, I'd suggest you do another factory reset after the kernel has been flashed (and before you boot your device up). Just to make sure nothing stays in cache and no configurations remain that could cause this error again.
If that doesn't help, for starters, I would suggest you flash radio.img provided by Google on this site. Make sure you download the one corresponding to your build number (which you can find out by going to Settings -> About phone -> Build number (it will be at the very bottom of the page)).
You can flash this downloaded radio.img using "fastboot flash radio radio.img"
If that doesn't help either, I would try to use the Android Flash Tool. I assume the PixelExperience you downloaded is A12.1, so I would choose the latest 12.1 version in the Flash Tool. Be sure you have the "Wipe Device" and "Force Flash all Partitions" boxes ticked!!

Lada333 said:
What do you mean by "showing the welcome screen"?
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It reached the setup assistant you are presented with the first time you power on a phone, without crashing
Lada333 said:
Can you use your device? Can you log in to your Google account and set it up? If we don't take Bluetooth crashing into account, would you be able to use your device regularly?
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Unfortunately no :
Wi-Fi doesn't work
I can access the Wi-Fi menu in the settings, I can "turn it on" but it never finds any network. My other phone is doing just fine on my home wi-fi so it's not just that there's no network reachable​
my SIM card is not recognized
Not much to say, I placed it in and the phone says it has no SIM card inserted, even after I reboot​
it takes many attempts to successfully boot the phone
Last reboot took 8 tries​
Surprisingly, Bluetooth seems to be working just fine ? I was able to connect to a bluetooth speaker and play some sounds
Lada333 said:
You could try to flash any / of / these kernels to see if they stop the "bluetooth crashed" notification. If you do flash a new kernel, I'd suggest you do another factory reset after the kernel has been flashed (and before you boot your device up). Just to make sure nothing stays in cache and no configurations remain that could cause this error again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried blu_spark, exact same problems :
Takes many attempts before a "successful" boot
Wi-Fi broken
Can't detect my SIM card
Lada333 said:
If that doesn't help, for starters, I would suggest you flash radio.img provided by Google on this site. Make sure you download the one corresponding to your build number (which you can find out by going to Settings -> About phone -> Build number (it will be at the very bottom of the page)).
You can flash this downloaded radio.img using "fastboot flash radio radio.img"
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Click to collapse
That worked almost perfectly !
fastboot was refusing to flash radio when the phone was on fastbootd, regular fastboot worked just fine, I also flashed with --slot all because ... why not ?
After that the phone booted just fine on the FIRST TRY ! Wifi and mobile data both work !
Unfortunately it's still a bit unstable, after the first boot the phone shut down after about 10 minutes (while I was playing back a youtube video, if that's of any importance ?). It rebooted just fine without crashing even once, and it's now been running for half an hour without a problem.
If that doesn't help either, I would try to use the Android Flash Tool. I assume the PixelExperience you downloaded is A12.1, so I would choose the latest 12.1 version in the Flash Tool. Be sure you have the "Wipe Device" and "Force Flash all Partitions" boxes ticked!!
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Well actually it was 13, so I tried flashing 13. it all went fine ! The phone rebooted fine on the first try, wifi and mobile data both work ... I'm speechless, I don't even understand what I did that made it work ... but it works !
I'll try using the phone for a few days and report back any problems if I don't forget about it.
Thank you so much for your help ! I owe you big time

Well uh, the joy was short-lived. The phone lasted a couple hours before shuting down and going back into a short series of failed boot attemps, but now every failed boot attempt gets noticeably "further" in the boot animation than they did at the time of my initial post.
The phone managed to boot yet again, wifi + data + bluetooth still work.
Keeping an eye on it for now

Stepland said:
Well uh, the joy was short-lived. The phone lasted a couple hours before shuting down and going back into a short series of failed boot attemps, but now every failed boot attempt gets noticeably "further" in the boot animation than they did at the time of my initial post.
The phone managed to boot yet again, wifi + data + bluetooth still work.
Keeping an eye on it for now
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Click to collapse
I honestly don't have any experience with custom ROMs on Pixels, but if you want to return to bone stock, you can use the Android Flash Tool. Since you've been using custom firmware, make sure you check the Force flash all partitions option.
Otherwise, you can refer to my guide to flash the factory firmware and root using Magisk.

Yup, that's what I did to get it to its current state.
The phone is still unstable, it rebooted itself twice just this morning.
If this is a hardware issue, how do I diagnose it ?

Stepland said:
Yup, that's what I did to get it to its current state.
The phone is still unstable, it rebooted itself twice just this morning.
If this is a hardware issue, how do I diagnose it ?
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If you tried a stock rom, a custom ROM , with all the same results it's probably a hardware issue, have you noticed excessive heat coming from the phone? You could always trade it in for a 6a and get 300.00 credit as long as the screens good and it turns on.

hammered58 said:
have you noticed excessive heat coming from the phone?
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Yes in fact I have ?! How did you guess that, that's weirdly specific ?
It was heating up a bit, at least enough to be noticeable and to feel abnormal but not uncomfortable. I can't remember if it got warm while it was doing its updates or before. I would have guessed it was just working pretty hard if it had been happening during some updates. Weirdly enough now that it's doing nothing it's not warm anymore
hammered58 said:
You could always trade it in for a 6a and get 300.00 credit as long as the screens good and it turns on.
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Click to collapse
Hmm, that's good to know. I think I'll pass tho, I chose the 4a specifically because it's small and lightweight while not being a completely out-dated phone, the 6a would take me back to more or less the same size and weight as my current phone (xiaomi vince) which I find too big and heavy. Oh the things I'd do for a flagship phone that's like, actually small

Stepland said:
Well uh, the joy was short-lived. The phone lasted a couple hours before shuting down and going back into a short series of failed boot attemps, but now every failed boot attempt gets noticeably "further" in the boot animation than they did at the time of my initial post.
The phone managed to boot yet again, wifi + data + bluetooth still work.
Keeping an eye on it for now
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Click to collapse
As the others have pointed out as well, it is likely a hardware malfunction. Your radio partition (?) was likely corrupt, so we got rid of that, but if random reboots still happen PLUS your device overheats, it's 99% not a software issue.
Not sure about the RMA process, since you imported the device from overseas. Try contacting your POS?

Stepland said:
Yes in fact I have ?! How did you guess that, that's weirdly specific ?
It was heating up a bit, at least enough to be noticeable and to feel abnormal but not uncomfortable. I can't remember if it got warm while it was doing its updates or before. I would have guessed it was just working pretty hard if it had been happening during some updates. Weirdly enough now that it's doing nothing it's not warm anymore
Hmm, that's good to know. I think I'll pass tho, I chose the 4a specifically because it's small and lightweight while not being a completely out-dated phone, the 6a would take me back to more or less the same size and weight as my current phone (xiaomi vince) which I find too big and heavy. Oh the things I'd do for a flagship phone that's like, actually small
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Your right though,, it's the size and weight of the 4a that brought me here in the first place so I can see your point in not switching, good luck!!

You seem really ticked off, I'm sorry if my answer came out as snarky or something ? that really wasn't the intent
Nevermind, completely misread your answer, non-native english speaker moment

Hm, just when I was about to post that the phone seemed to be working fine because it hadn't rebooted for 30+hours ... it just rebooted again.
And yeah it also got warm again while I was installing some apps ... so uh ... no luck

Stepland said:
And yeah it also got warm again while I was installing some apps
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That's not necessarily an issue. Installing apps uses the CPU, which, in term, generates heat.
What we and hammerhead meant by 'the phone heating up' is it randomly becoming inexplicably hot.
Like for example when it's just sitting on your desk, not doing anything. No notifications popping up constantly, no music/video playback, nothing. Just when it's supposed to be in deep sleep.
This app is rather outdated and you need to type in 3 adb commands for the advanced stats to show up, but it still works perfectly for finding out if any apps are draining the battery in the background and to see if you have any wakelocks.
You could give it a shot, install it, enable in settings -> general "App Usage," "Device Usage Access" and "Record History," and wait a few days, see if you have any apps misbehaving.
Again, I'm still leaning toward it being a hardware issue, but hey, worth a try.

I give up, it just has to be a hardware defect.
Since with stock 13 it looked like the phone was almost stable (it would only reboot every 10 hours or so) I tried using it for a day, unfortunately it quickly went back to the exact same state it was in when I created this thread : the phone won't boot, it crashes two seconds into the boot animation.
Still, massive thanks to everyone who helped me through this !
I ordered a replacement.
If anyone wants the broken one my DMs are open