[WARNING] Do not boot TWRP to inactive partition - Google Pixel 3 XL Guides, News, & Discussion

Wow, been buying new phones every year (sometimes more frequently) since the Galaxy Skyrocket and ROM'd every single one.
This is my first ever hard brick!!!!
Not getting any display at all.
Charge was ~30% at the time if I remember correct.
Can't get to fastboot or any display output at all.
Just a dead black screen. ugh
This isn't a questions thread, since there is no recovering from hard-brick like you can from soft-brick.
So I'm not here to ask for help, because there is no help.
This thread is just to let you see what I did wrong that caused a hard brick.
TWRP Booted to slot B.
Wiped cache/dalvik & system & data.
Flashed Bootleggers ROM zip (unofficial, not available to public, I kinda wasn't supposed to flash it but hey, it's not at fault here, so don't think that).
Rebooted to recovery.
But it rebooted to stock recovery, so TWRP got lost.
Booted up to Bootleggers.
Let it settle.
Looked around and it's neat.
Rebooted to Bootloader.
Fastboot booted TWRP.
Installed TWRP zip.
Noted that I'm on slot A again.
Rebooted to slot B to verify nothing was installed there.
It never actually booted, of course. Just got a black screen.
Held power button/volume-up buttons down forever and got nothing.
Waited 5 seconds and tried holding power button down forever and got nothing.
Waited five minutes.
Tried holding power button for a long while. Nada.
Let it charge for 10 minutes (never got charging symbol).
Held down power button 60 seconds. Nada

I wish there was something I could offer - I have thought I was hard bricked on other devices I have owned but thru the help of others was able to eventually get to a point where I could flash a stock image. I don't know if you are really past that point or not but I wish you luck and hope you find a solution.
Might be worth contacting GOOGLE for a warranty repair - worst case, they will charge you something to bring the phone back from the dead .....
Good luck my friend, hope you figure something out.

Google Fi "support"
lol
Google Support
You are number 97 in the queue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'm usually the guy helping others recover from soft brick.
This one is just dead-dead.
Even tried checking if my PC recognized it for ADB or fastboot after various key press combos.

CZ Eddie said:
Google Fi "support"
lol
Yeah, I'm usually the guy helping others recover from soft brick.
This one is just dead-dead.
Even tried checking if my PC recognized it for ADB or fastboot after various key press combos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't feel too bad. I did pretty much the same thing. You don't want to try and boot to the inactive partition with twrp. It's like there is no system there and voila, your hard bricked. I did rma the device.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

jd1639 said:
Don't feel too bad. I did pretty much the same thing. You don't want to try and boot to the inactive partition with twrp. It's like there is no system there and voila, you're hard bricked. I did rma the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know, I suspected this was the issue.
Me booting to an unused, inactive partition.
We didn't have this issue on Pixel 1 though.
At least not when I was still flashing my P1.
I never had a Pixel gen 2.
I just did some Googling and see there are warnings out there not to do what I did because it could cause a non-recoverable brick.
So I edited my thread title for any other fools like me. :good:

This might sound strange, but I once thought I hard bricked my original Pixel. Tried for 2 days to get it to boot. Then finally I got it to boot by holding down the Power Button & Volume Down Button, then plugging in the charger cable while still holding the buttons down. It booted up bootloader screen and I was able to fastboot twrp and bring the phone back to life. Not sure if you tried that or not.

wtyler2505 said:
This might sound strange, but I once thought I hard bricked my original Pixel. Tried for 2 days to get it to boot. Then finally I got it to boot by holding down the Power Button & Volume Down Button, then plugging in the charger cable while still holding the buttons down. It booted up bootloader screen and I was able to fastboot twrp and bring the phone back to life. Not sure if you tried that or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I tried that but thanks.
Let it charge a while.
Let it sit a while.
Then pressed vol+ & power and plugged in charger.
Also did vol- & power and plugged in charger.
And power and plugged in charger.
And vol- and plugged in charger.
And vol+ and plugged in charger.
Also did this by pressing the buttons and waiting a second before plugging in charger.
lol I did it all.

****ty!
I wonder if there's is a way for twrp to warn that that partition is empty and not to boot. Or something twrp can do to prevent booting in that?
Anyone able to talk to the twrp team about this?

I noticed that when you wipe system it goes to black screen. It happen to me twice. I was able to get back to bootloader by pressing volume down and power button at the same time.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 07:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 PM ----------
c_86 said:
****ty!
I wonder if there's is a way for twrp to warn that that partition is empty and not to boot. Or something twrp can do to prevent booting in that?
Anyone able to talk to the twrp team about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I wiped system and flashed a rom system image which flashed ok, I press reboot. TWRP said there is no system OS to boot.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

rimgarciag said:
[/COLOR]When I wiped system and flashed a rom system image which flashed ok, I press reboot. TWRP said there is no system OS to boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, it does this!
I should have known better but as an Android tinkerer, I always do things I shouldn't do.
Anyhow, I'm sort of back up and running.
I kept trying and trying and trying to get to bootloader.
And finally got it!!
At first, it started by an occasional white line that would briefly show up on the screen for 1/4 of a second.
A kept trying and trying, and eventually I would get fastboot briefly flash on the screen for one second and then go away.
After four or five times of getting fastboot to flash up on the screen like that, on the sixth try (?) it finally stuck!!
So I ran flash-all.bat and the OS booted up just fine. :good:
I then encountered nothing but issues with trying to get TWRP installed again.
It was failing to decrypt anything even after installing it three times.
And before that, my PC kept refusing to recognize the phone after booting TWRP, so I had a heck of a time just trying to transfer the TWRP.zip to the phone to install.
I gave up on all that.
And I did the following:
fastboot erase partition (A & B individual partitions for everything below)
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase recovery
Now I'm gonna flash-all.bat again and hope things go better this time around. :good:

Yep, I'm back up and running again.
Got Bootlegger's ROM installed.

CZ Eddie said:
Yep, I'm back up and running again.
Got Bootlegger's ROM installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great that you're up and running. Maybe I should have kept trying on my device. But after a number of attempts and it not charging at all I gave up. You just kept trying to boot into the bootloader?
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

You never got hard bricked, it's just that holding power button plus volume down to boot is also the hard reset key combination, and while trying to boot into bootloader, you get the almost exact timing as the hard reset.
Timing is the key here to get into bootloader, you've got release the key combo super quick. It's a really stupid behavior, but I had the same situation and that's what happens.
Maybe having flash all already started with fastboot in waiting for device could help in getting the timing right, as as soon the device would be in bootloader, fastboot would start flashing the stuff ?

Paradoxxx said:
You never got hard bricked, it's just that holding power button plus volume down to boot is also the hard reset key combination, and while trying to boot into bootloader, you get the almost exact timing as the hard reset.
Timing is the key here to get into bootloader, you've got release the key combo super quick. It's a really stupid behavior, but I had the same situation and that's what happens.
Maybe having flash all already started with fastboot in waiting for device could help in getting the timing right, as as soon the device would be in bootloader, fastboot would start flashing the stuff ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure I understand the timing to do a hard reset. When I boot into the bootloader I typically press and hold power and volume down until it boots into the bootloader. I do notice the first time I do that it doesn't seem to do anything but if I do it again it boots. If I do a quick press and release of the keys it didn't seem to do anything.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

jd1639 said:
I'm not sure I understand the timing to do a hard reset. When I boot into the bootloader I typically press and hold power and volume down until it boots into the bootloader. I do notice the first time I do that it doesn't seem to do anything but if I do it again it boots. If I do a quick press and release of the keys it didn't seem to do anything.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's simple really.
If you hold the key combo too long, you'll end up hard resetting instead of going into fastboot. You have like half a second to react to release the keys and not hard reset and stay into bootloader.
Press both buttons->Hold till bootloader screen appears->Release immediately->If not released HardReboot.

Paradoxxx said:
You never got hard bricked, it's just that holding power button plus volume down to boot is also the hard reset key combination, and while trying to boot into bootloader, you get the almost exact timing as the hard reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I'm familiar with this behavior.
But I don't think it's what was happening for me.
Well, maybe it was, but the timing was off.
Because I've done this hard reset before.
As well as booted to Bootloader thousands of times.
I'm pretty good with the timing when they're working properly.
Paradoxxx said:
Maybe having flash all already started with fastboot in waiting for device could help in getting the timing right, as as soon the device would be in bootloader, fastboot would start flashing the stuff ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually did try this!
And nope, it didn't work for me but maybe it would for others.
Because when I finally got bootloader to stick, it wasn't recognized by my PC.
I had to reboot my PC.
All in all, I'm happy it wasn't a hard brick after all.
Just a unusually bad soft-brick. :good:

Continue to hold volume down key when you release the power button.

CZ Eddie said:
Yep, I'm back up and running again.
Got Bootlegger's ROM installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW, so glad you got it back. Gave me severe indigestion before seeing that you're OK.

HI Guys, just curious, as I've not worked on A/B partitions before (my P3xl will be the first time), but how does one boot TWRP to an inactive partition? My guess is inactive means there is nothing in there since an erase was done on system, and perhaps a fastboot set_active_<the inactive partition> was issued?
Just a thought so that I know what not to do. Thanks in advance everyone!

CZ Eddie said:
Yep, it does this!
I should have known better but as an Android tinkerer, I always do things I shouldn't do.
Anyhow, I'm sort of back up and running.
I kept trying and trying and trying to get to bootloader.
And finally got it!!
At first, it started by an occasional white line that would briefly show up on the screen for 1/4 of a second.
A kept trying and trying, and eventually I would get fastboot briefly flash on the screen for one second and then go away.
After four or five times of getting fastboot to flash up on the screen like that, on the sixth try (?) it finally stuck!!
So I ran flash-all.bat and the OS booted up just fine. :good:
I then encountered nothing but issues with trying to get TWRP installed again.
It was failing to decrypt anything even after installing it three times.
And before that, my PC kept refusing to recognize the phone after booting TWRP, so I had a heck of a time just trying to transfer the TWRP.zip to the phone to install.
I gave up on all that.
And I did the following:
fastboot erase partition (A & B individual partitions for everything below)
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase recovery
Now I'm gonna flash-all.bat again and hope things go better this time around. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think i may be fully bricked
https://forum.xda-developers.com/pi...reen-fastboot-one-catch-t3875953#post78351724

Related

Fixing a bricked Nexus S

I had a Vibrant before and flashed it constantly. I soft bricked it several time and it was easy just to Odin back to stock and try again. Before I begin to flash Roms on this phone I would like to know how one would fix a bricked Nexus S. I searched "bricked Nexus S" and didn't come up with much.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Flash a stock img thru fastboot/adb. Just as painless as Odin was if not easier.
Sent from my Nexus S
Yeah I figured that much but I have never used ADB before. What are the commands to flash a stock img and where can I get a stock img? I already have ADB set up, serial # comes up when I enter - adb devices. I'm ready to root and flash but I want to be prepared for anything. I don't want to panic for ten minutes like I did the first time I bricked my Vibrant.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
You should be able to snag a stock image from the development section. As far as what adb commands to use check out any of the root tutorials in development.
Sent from my Nexus S
bricking the phone is not easy... everything can be wiped and reinstalled with ease. Recovery is your friend.
leyvatron said:
bricking the phone is not easy... everything can be wiped and reinstalled with ease. Recovery is your friend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why I love this phone. When I first rooted my wife's phone she was a nervous wreck about me ruining it. Now, she jokingly cheers when it boot loops or hangs on the google splash screen.
kenvan19 said:
That's why I love this phone. When I first rooted my wife's phone she was a nervous wreck about me ruining it. Now, she jokingly cheers when it boot loops or hangs on the google splash screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coolest wife ever? haha
risegeek said:
Coolest wife ever? haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hehe why'd'ya think I married her
Hi Everyone.
I have my Nexus S for a 3 days - it's brand new. Last night i turned it off. It was about 50% charged. Today i can't turn it on. Phone is dead. What's wrong? There is no any response, even during charging (black screen).
Phone wasn't rooted. It has Android 2.3.2 update.
What can I do?
Van_Dyke said:
Hi Everyone.
I have my Nexus S for a 3 days - it's brand new. Last night i turned it off. It was about 50% charged. Today i can't turn it on. Phone is dead. What's wrong? There is no any response, even during charging (black screen).
Phone wasn't rooted. It has Android 2.3.2 update.
What can I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not enough information is present. you can attempt to get into bootloader / recovery, plug USB to the computer. When plugged, does the computer make a plugged in noise? if it does.. try turning it on, try using adb on it, etc.
as a last resort: if its not rooted or modified in any way, you can go back to best buy and exchange it since you said you've only had it for 3 days
Van_Dyke said:
Hi Everyone.
I have my Nexus S for a 3 days - it's brand new. Last night i turned it off. It was about 50% charged. Today i can't turn it on. Phone is dead. What's wrong? There is no any response, even during charging (black screen).
Phone wasn't rooted. It has Android 2.3.2 update.
What can I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First thing to do is pull the battery, let it sit a minute or two, then put the battery back in and try to boot.
Also, try booting into recovery or fastboot. With power off, press and hold volume up button, then press/hold power on switch. You should enter fastboot mode. From fastboot menu, select boot to recovery. The phone will reboot and you'll get to a screen with an "!" and an android robot on it. At that point you press hold power, then press/hold volume up (make note that this is the reverse of what you did earlier).
Once in Recovery, try wiping cache from the menu.
Reboot.
If still no good, then repeat the process but pick factory reset/wipe from the menu in recovery. Note that this will wipe all personal data and apps off the phone but it won't touch your sdcard contents.
The case with pull battery - not working.
I can't enter fastmode using 2 keys combination.
Computer don't recognize the phone. It's brick...
Van_Dyke said:
The case with pull battery - not working.
I can't enter fastmode using 2 keys combination.
Computer don't recognize the phone. It's brick...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last option is to try to trick it into Samsung's Download Mode (see the Odin thread in Development section), but if the keys aren't recognized you can't soft boot into it so you'll need a dongle with a resistor to get there.
Sounds like it's truly a brick at this point. You'll probably have to return it, but I'm concerned about returning a phone that has your personal data on it without being able to wipe it. Doesn't seem like much way around that at this point if you can't get fastboot or download.
get the 301k resistor JIG and then you can go into the download mode even without the 2 keys + usb plug
you can always make your own JIG if you have the materials at home or a nearby Radio shack
Thx for all Your advices
Problem was with the dead battery. The battery died during the night - i don't know why. I think the system waren't able to boot up ant start charging process.
My solution:
I took 9V battery, 2 wires and charged dead battery for a while from 9V battery. Then a put it into phone and plug in to wall charger. Charging process started
Now everything is ok
That's pretty scary that it wouldnt take a charge if run down completelty. But hey handy to know incase it happens to any of us,
If you get any repeat i would take it back to get a fresh battery of course (only right to do so).
here's hoping you never need to though
Van_Dyke said:
Thx for all Your advices
Problem was with the dead battery. The battery died during the night - i don't know why. I think the system waren't able to boot up ant start charging process.
My solution:
I took 9V battery, 2 wires and charged dead battery for a while from 9V battery. Then a put it into phone and plug in to wall charger. Charging process started
Now everything is ok
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is scary......
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Bricked
Tried unlocking nexus s last night, now it appears bricked. Cannot connect to computer to reflash as it seems to have wiped the driver. Any ideas on how to bring it back from the dead? thanks
I have managed to see the phone with fastboot. I was hoping that fastboot update, would re-image the brick. Can anyone let me know the correct syntax. I am not able to copy an image onto the phone. Thanks again
Noob {MAC User}... Please be gentle
Greetings Everyone,
Okay, so I endeavoured to root my phone last night and was successful. I ran into trouble when the clockwork recovery and superuser permissions kept getting removed each time I reboot.
Now, I'm at the Google splash screen with no way to move forward. I'm a mac user and I don't really get the adb thing. Got adb to work with mac from a youtube video, but still not sure what commands to run.
What I've done so far:
- wiped cache
- wiped/factory data reset
- retraced my steps by using terminal to setup superuser permission from this post (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=927838)
What I think:
- maybe in all of my clicks I removed the ROM, so the phone doesn't have a ROM to work with.
This maybe a really infantile conclusion, but I know there's a solution (had a rooted G1 that I flashed all the time and thought I bricked once but was able to get it back to stock).
Eagerly waiting for a reply... no cell phone if this can't be fixed.
Tamara
warrenb said:
Tried unlocking nexus s last night, now it appears bricked. Cannot connect to computer to reflash as it seems to have wiped the driver. Any ideas on how to bring it back from the dead? thanks
I have managed to see the phone with fastboot. I was hoping that fastboot update, would re-image the brick. Can anyone let me know the correct syntax. I am not able to copy an image onto the phone. Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be easier to help you if we knew exactly what you did that caused the problem. You said you tried to unlock it...you mean fastboot oem unlock or something else?
If you can get into fastboot, you're not totally lost, but the computer needs to see the phone to do it.
I'm working in a vacuum here on what your real problem is, but without further details, the things you can try are boot into recovery (from the fastboot mode select boot recovery)...if you're stock recovery, press/hold power, then volume up once you see the android "!". From there wipe cache and whatever else it will let you wipe. Try rebooting. IF that didn't work go back to recovery and try a factory reset of the phone (will delete all your apps and stuff on the phone, but not on the sdcard (pics and stuff).
If none of that works, you can still try getting Clockwork recovery on the phone via fastboot. Boot phone to fastboot and then on computer type the command "fastboot flash recovery <put file name of recovery version you're flashing here>"
Once in clockwork, you should have access to adb via the computer. On your computer go to the Development section here and download any of the various nandroid images posted there. Now you use clockwork mounts and storage menu to mount the sdcard. Then use adb to "adb push <insert path and filename of your nandroid image here> /sdcard"
Unmount the sdcard with the clockwork mounts and storage menu. Now go to the backup menu, select advanced restore and find the nandroid image and restore it.
With any luck, you should be able to boot into a fresh phone.

help- bricked it, no recovery, what now?

Hey yall. I had the phone for 6 days before I bricked it. I am wondering if there is any stock recovery mode or anything or what I shsould do? I think something went wrong due to using the root toolbox pro app. I have done some backups within the ap as well as Titanium Backup but now the phone will not boot up and I dont know if/how to put it in factory recovery mode. Soft reset does nothing. The Motorola logo will show on startup but then the screen just blacks out forever, not off, just colored black.
A few details, the phone was rooted with Motofail2go, with no recovery and bootloader still locked as far as I know.
Should I take it to Sprint for a factory reset? Is this even an option? What are my other options?
Next time I will probably use the Moto unlock key so I can open the bootloader all legit like and have a recovery mode...
Try holding power button and the down volume key to power off. Once you power off press and hold them again. This should boot you into fastboot, Motorola's adb shell basically. This can take a couple tries, make sure the phone is powered down completely before hitting volume down and power button to get into fastboot. If you can boot into fastboot you can unlock using this guide: http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/20/how-to-unlock-the-motorola-photon-q-bootloader/
Once unlocked flash the custom recovery of your choice (I like twrp). You can boot into custom recovery by holding volume up and the power button from a powered down state. Here is the link for instructions on how to flash twrp:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1887070
Then you can download one of the stock backups for the Q posted in the development section and restore them using the custom recovery. Most of the ones I have seen have been compatible with twrp.
The only way to download the stock rom backups is to remove the sd card from your phone, plug your sd card into a PC or other device with a card reader, download the stock backups, and place the stock backup rom files on your sd card. Finally place the sd card with the stock backup downloads into your phone.
These backups and information on how to go through this process can be found in this thread on page 2: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2001226
The key is to make a backup of your existing rom with twrp and then move the stock backups from your sd card to the twrp/backups/yourdeiceserial/ directory. That creates a backup directory which twrp knows to look for backups in.
Don't feel bad, I've been in that state several times since getting the Q, live and learn.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
UnicronAlpha99 said:
Try holding power button and the down volume key to power off. Once you power off press and hold them again. This should boot you into fastboot, Motorola's adb shell basically. This can take a couple tries, make sure the phone is powered down completely before hitting volume down and power button to get into fastboot. If you can boot into fastboot you can unlock using this guide: http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/20/how-to-unlock-the-motorola-photon-q-bootloader/
Once unlocked flash the custom recovery of your choice (I like twrp). You can boot into custom recovery by holding volume up and the power button from a powered down state. Here is the link for instructions on how to flash twrp:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1887070
Then you can download one of the stock backups for the Q posted in the development section and restore them using the custom recovery. Most of the ones I have seen have been compatible with twrp.
Don't feel bad, I've been in that state several times since getting the Q, live and learn.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that does not work you could drop it in water or something. You have not officially unlocked boot loader so you still have warranty. Or you could just tell sprint it quit working and act completely clueless. At least its bricked with warranty still intact.
matt2k12 said:
Hey yall. I had the phone for 6 days before I bricked it. I am wondering if there is any stock recovery mode or anything or what I shsould do? I think something went wrong due to using the root toolbox pro app. I have done some backups within the ap as well as Titanium Backup but now the phone will not boot up and I dont know if/how to put it in factory recovery mode. Soft reset does nothing. The Motorola logo will show on startup but then the screen just blacks out forever, not off, just colored black.
A few details, the phone was rooted with Motofail2go, with no recovery and bootloader still locked as far as I know.
Should I take it to Sprint for a factory reset? Is this even an option? What are my other options?
Next time I will probably use the Moto unlock key so I can open the bootloader all legit like and have a recovery mode...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both of the methods above are very effective. When I had the first photon I bricked it and just dropped it in water and did a claim. Depending on the insurance you have that way may cost you $100. The other method should work. When I first got this phone I did the exact same thing and to go back and unlock then flash twrp and in stall a stock backup someone had posted.
Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk 2
UnicronAlpha99 said:
Try holding power button and the down volume key to power off. Once you power off press and hold them again. This should boot you into fastboot, Motorola's adb shell basically. This can take a couple tries, make sure the phone is powered down completely before hitting volume down and power button to get into fastboot. If you can boot into fastboot you can unlock using this guide: http://www.droid-life.com/2012/08/20/how-to-unlock-the-motorola-photon-q-bootloader/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. Is there anything extra extra special about getting into factory fastboot mode? I can't seem to get it done. Is there an official set of instructions anywhere? Does the phone need to be plugged into the PC? It was always my understanding (for the last week) that Power and Vol Down was the soft reset mode which reboots the phone. Therefore it always tries to reboot in normal mode. This is what keeps happening. It never powers completely down using this method.
Anyhow, once I follow your instructions, the Moto logo appears, no Sprint logo appears, the phone "powers on" but the screen is blacked out (not off). After waiting for a while at the blank/black screen, or holding down several buttons like vol or camera I get the first attachment: "Process system is not responding. Would you like to close it?" When I wait nothing happens. When I push OK nothing happens. By chance, I held down power during the notification and the power menu came up behind the ANR notice (second/third attachments). So obviously there are some things working but the main system isn't booting up. And either factory fastboot is nuked or I can't figure it out. When I power down from this accessible power menu and try to do the fastboot (Power / Vol Down) I still havent gotten it to work.
Any other ideas before I take drastic measures?
Since I bought it from Amazon would that be my best route for return or should I go thru a Sprint store?
Thanks in advance.
Hi again yall. You know once I got to thinking about it, I decided to check out the return policy on Amazon Wireless. They will accept any device under warranty for the first 30 days and it is up to Moto for the next 11 months of warranty coverage. They email me a packing label and it ships out 1 day and they ship out the new phone 1 day shipping. Hard to beat, just takes 2 days of shipping and some more fun times with my Epic, 10.1CM style, in the meantime.
Who's to say it wasnt some sort of hardware or software glitch that bricked the phone rather than my screwing around? Nobody knows and it isn't up to the consumer to prove his innocence. I bought everything legally, all the apps at the app store, and only ran the motofail2go root method. Wasn't running any custom Roms, Mods, or anything. I don't feel bad after they got me for another 2 grand for 24 months, and since I have been with Sprint for 10 years;l I have spent well over 10k or 15k with them lifetime.
If any other method pops up between now and when I ship it out I may give it a shot but if not, ah well, capitalism.
matt2k12 said:
Thanks for the response. Is there anything extra extra special about getting into factory fastboot mode? I can't seem to get it done. Is there an official set of instructions anywhere? Does the phone need to be plugged into the PC? It was always my understanding (for the last week) that Power and Vol Down was the soft reset mode which reboots the phone. Therefore it always tries to reboot in normal mode. This is what keeps happening. It never powers completely down using this method.
Anyhow, once I follow your instructions, the Moto logo appears, no Sprint logo appears, the phone "powers on" but the screen is blacked out (not off). After waiting for a while at the blank/black screen, or holding down several buttons like vol or camera I get the first attachment: "Process system is not responding. Would you like to close it?" When I wait nothing happens. When I push OK nothing happens. By chance, I held down power during the notification and the power menu came up behind the ANR notice (second/third attachments). So obviously there are some things working but the main system isn't booting up. And either factory fastboot is nuked or I can't figure it out. When I power down from this accessible power menu and try to do the fastboot (Power / Vol Down) I still havent gotten it to work.
Any other ideas before I take drastic measures?
Since I bought it from Amazon would that be my best route for return or should I go thru a Sprint store?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using adb. If your computer has drivers on it for phone you might able to get into fast boot. If that does not work I would try Sprint store first. Have locked my phone up several times while hacking wife off in progress and have used adb every time. Only time i have been truely scared is when i soft bricked my nexus 7. had to stay at work for two hours after i got off to get it to recover because i was scared of her lol.
---------- Post added at 02:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:57 PM ----------
If you get adb to recognize device you could take chance and officially unlock boot loader. Then flash twrp. There is a thread in general section about having trouble getting official update. It has a stock recovery in it. Trick would be moving files to recovery section of twrp
I have gotten the phone to soft power down and get into fast boot and custom recovery. It's a bit tricky with timing, I usually wait for the screen to go black after soft reset, let go, and immediately hold power and volume down. If you can not boot into fastboot I honestly don't know what you can do either than return the phone.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
UnicronAlpha99 said:
I have gotten the phone to soft power down and get into fast boot and custom recovery. It's a bit tricky with timing, I usually wait for the screen to go black after soft reset, let go, and immediately hold power and volume down. If you can not boot into fastboot I honestly don't know what you can do either than return the phone.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the help Unicron. I think Brandons method might be my only alternative... but you know what? I already have the box packed up to ship back to Amazon! I am still a noob; I dunno if I could go the distance on this one. I have been updating my Android SDK files since I got the phone but I never got it to recognize boot up thru ADB fastboot. disclaimer* I havent tried it in a couple days since all teh SDK updates completed.
I dunno though I am a big time DIYer when possible. If it werent for the massive amount of tape I put on the box and packing label I would already be trying this method. I can't convince myself just yet. Amazon makes it too easy. I could have the *new* phone by Friday. Then I wouldn't be wasting my remaining work week trying to hack into my personal Christmas present in order to make it function...........................................
Edit - Yes I'm impatient. My job is too demanding and I am trying to set a good precedent for 2013. Wasting the first 3 work days on a phone is not how I intend to start off the year. There is probably a valuable lesson to be learned from this as far as hacking experience and to be honest with the responses here I think I could get it to boot up from PC in SDK/ADB mode and go from there. I just didnt know if that was possible until after I made the claim with Amazon. I still have an entire day today and tomorrow if I want to indulge myself. It doesnt matter if I mail the package today or Wednesday, I can still get it by Friday. I believe this thread is still valuable because we have patterns of repeating past failures and I may find use of it when I recieve my new phone and, darn it, it mysteriously bricks as well. in the same fashion.... the only thing I was really trying to do was get all my apps on my SD card... sad huh?
Edit 2 - Opened up the box, tried fastboot and adb, nothing. Off she goes.
I don't blame you, it sounds easier to exchange in your case any way. The main suggestion I have is if you are getting into any type of build.prop or operating system tweaks that have potential to lead to boot loops or cause the phone not to boot, then unlock the bootloader and install custom recovery.
The Moto-fail method seems limited to only be able to run apps that require root. For me this has no use as I want to be able to have complete control over all aspects of the Android OS. There is not a huge mod community for the Q as yet but I believe Cyanogen will be a reality as Interloper continues working on it. I came from an Epic with Cyanogen and soft-bricked it a minimum of 50 times. CWM was very forgiving on that phone, the Q is a lot more finicky and frustrating.
If you have insurance through the carrier then you are going to pay $150 for a refurb if something goes wrong and you hard brick the phone. If you unlock bootloader and install custom recovery then you have a fail-safe in the form of nandroid backups and restores. Then you can mod away with little fear.
Good luck on the new phone and I hope you don't give up after six days of modding with the Q!
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
matt2k12 said:
Thanks for the help Unicron. I think Brandons method might be my only alternative... but you know what? I already have the box packed up to ship back to Amazon! I am still a noob; I dunno if I could go the distance on this one. I have been updating my Android SDK files since I got the phone but I never got it to recognize boot up thru ADB fastboot. disclaimer* I havent tried it in a couple days since all teh SDK updates completed.
I dunno though I am a big time DIYer when possible. If it werent for the massive amount of tape I put on the box and packing label I would already be trying this method. I can't convince myself just yet. Amazon makes it too easy. I could have the *new* phone by Friday. Then I wouldn't be wasting my remaining work week trying to hack into my personal Christmas present in order to make it function...........................................
Edit - Yes I'm impatient. My job is too demanding and I am trying to set a good precedent for 2013. Wasting the first 3 work days on a phone is not how I intend to start off the year. There is probably a valuable lesson to be learned from this as far as hacking experience and to be honest with the responses here I think I could get it to boot up from PC in SDK/ADB mode and go from there. I just didnt know if that was possible until after I made the claim with Amazon. I still have an entire day today and tomorrow if I want to indulge myself. It doesnt matter if I mail the package today or Wednesday, I can still get it by Friday. I believe this thread is still valuable because we have patterns of repeating past failures and I may find use of it when I recieve my new phone and, darn it, it mysteriously bricks as well. in the same fashion.... the only thing I was really trying to do was get all my apps on my SD card... sad huh?
Edit 2 - Opened up the box, tried fastboot and adb, nothing. Off she goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FWIW, pressing vol down + power til it resets then pressing the camera button + power once the screen is black gets you to the Boot Mode Selection Menu, where you can start recovery, fastboot, BP tools (still not sure what that is entirely) and some others. Seems to be a fairly reliable/easy method for getting to both recovery and fastboot from any point.
befrosty8612 said:
FWIW, pressing vol down + power til it resets then pressing the camera button + power once the screen is black gets you to the Boot Mode Selection Menu, where you can start recovery, fastboot, BP tools (still not sure what that is entirely) and some others. Seems to be a fairly reliable/easy method for getting to both recovery and fastboot from any point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure wish I would have known that ahead of time. Does this work without any recovery mode and with the bootloader still locked?
matt2k12 said:
Sure wish I would have known that ahead of time. Does this work without any recovery mode and with the bootloader still locked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does work without any recovery mode and I believe it still works without the bootloader being unlocked, I didn't know about this myself until after I had already unlocked it. Sorry I couldn't help out sooner.
befrosty8612 said:
It does work without any recovery mode and I believe it still works without the bootloader being unlocked, I didn't know about this myself until after I had already unlocked it. Sorry I couldn't help out sooner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, I am wanting to do the backdoor root method again but, of course, may brick it. I dont think Amazon will keep sending me new ones.... but maybe!
befrosty8612 said:
FWIW, pressing vol down + power til it resets then pressing the camera button + power once the screen is black gets you to the Boot Mode Selection Menu, where you can start recovery, fastboot, BP tools (still not sure what that is entirely) and some others. Seems to be a fairly reliable/easy method for getting to both recovery and fastboot from any point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For anyone concerned, I knew it would only be a matter of time until bricking my new device. This damn Root Toolbox Pro did it to me again, and on a simple, menial task. I am going to be working thru the motions on getting this to work.
Using the instructions quoted I did get stock recovery to work or at least flash on the screen for a split second. Seems like there is a timer on the recovery screen. I am having trouble with the fastboot prompt though on the PC. Do I do it in the "platform-tools" folder which contains fastboot or in the "tools" folder of the main SDK directory? I am really a noob, can you give me the cliff notes of how to get into ADB, fastboot, etc on the Photon Q in order to do a factory reset? I already have Android SDK installed and completely up to date so that is done. And Fastboot is installed. I'm just having trouble crossing the finish line here... I can get the fastboot page opened in the stock recovery but from there I'm lost. I dont know what to type into the command prompt, in what directory, or what.... Also when I open the command prompt in the SDK folder on the PC with fastboot in the directory and type "adb reboot bootloader" it says "device not found". Maybe (surely) that is the wrong prompt?
FWIW my phone is showing the dead android guy. I didnt do anything besides try and clear up my Play Store download list which required a reboot. The phone never started back up. I dont know how much damage was done or info was lost or whatever, but seeing as how I was rooted but still locked, I had no custom recovery. So no back ups. Is there anything to restore or am I looking at a full wipe and restore?
matt2k12 said:
For anyone concerned, I knew it would only be a matter of time until bricking my new device. This damn Root Toolbox Pro did it to me again, and on a simple, menial task. I am going to be working thru the motions on getting this to work.
Using the instructions quoted I did get stock recovery to work or at least flash on the screen for a split second. Seems like there is a timer on the recovery screen. I am having trouble with the fastboot prompt though on the PC. Do I do it in the "platform-tools" folder which contains fastboot or in the "tools" folder of the main SDK directory? I am really a noob, can you give me the cliff notes of how to get into ADB, fastboot, etc on the Photon Q in order to do a factory reset? I already have Android SDK installed and completely up to date so that is done. And Fastboot is installed. I'm just having trouble crossing the finish line here... I can get the fastboot page opened in the stock recovery but from there I'm lost. I dont know what to type into the command prompt, in what directory, or what.... Also when I open the command prompt in the SDK folder on the PC with fastboot in the directory and type "adb reboot bootloader" it says "device not found". Maybe (surely) that is the wrong prompt?
FWIW my phone is showing the dead android guy. I didnt do anything besides try and clear up my Play Store download list which required a reboot. The phone never started back up. I dont know how much damage was done or info was lost or whatever, but seeing as how I was rooted but still locked, I had no custom recovery. So no back ups. Is there anything to restore or am I looking at a full wipe and restore?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As abnormal as it seems, your situation seems pretty normal... at least from my shoes. I went through the same scenario... I didn't know what adb was, or fastboot, etc. So, here's what I know
the fastboot commands work even if adb doesnt see it in the list of devices attached. Somehow it just works (as long as the phone is in fastboot mode).
If you're able to get to the fastboot mode, things should be okay. Just open a windows explorer window to the Platform-Tools, hold the shift key and right click on a blank space within the window, then click open command window here.
you should be able to pass any adb (if the phone is on and recognized) or fastboot (if phone is in fastboot mode) commands from that command prompt.
Also, if you have a stock recovery, CMW, or TWRP image, this is the folder to copy those .img files to. Once you get your phone into fastboot mode and its plugged into the computer, just type into the command prompt:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
If you're just looking to reboot the phone into recovery
If you have a CWM or TWRP recovery just replace the recovery.img with whatever the .img file that you have. Also, as a tip instead of writing the entire file name, just press the first couple letters then press the tab key within the command prompt, it should fill in the rest. keep pressing tab until you get to the .img file name you want.
To avoid doing this again, maybe I can help... what were you trying to do to begin with? From the sound of it, you were trying to root the phone with the Root Toolbox Pro but it bricked, and then you tried to reboot into recovery and then got the red android... ?
befrosty8612 said:
As abnormal as it seems, your situation seems pretty normal... at least from my shoes. I went through the same scenario... I didn't know what adb was, or fastboot, etc. So, here's what I know
the fastboot commands work even if adb doesnt see it in the list of devices attached. Somehow it just works (as long as the phone is in fastboot mode).
If you're able to get to the fastboot mode, things should be okay. Just open a windows explorer window to the Platform-Tools, hold the shift key and right click on a blank space within the window, then click open command window here.
you should be able to pass any adb (if the phone is on and recognized) or fastboot (if phone is in fastboot mode) commands from that command prompt.
Also, if you have a stock recovery, CMW, or TWRP image, this is the folder to copy those .img files to. Once you get your phone into fastboot mode and its plugged into the computer, just type into the command prompt:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
If you're just looking to reboot the phone into recovery
If you have a CWM or TWRP recovery just replace the recovery.img with whatever the .img file that you have. Also, as a tip instead of writing the entire file name, just press the first couple letters then press the tab key within the command prompt, it should fill in the rest. keep pressing tab until you get to the .img file name you want.
To avoid doing this again, maybe I can help... what were you trying to do to begin with? From the sound of it, you were trying to root the phone with the Root Toolbox Pro but it bricked, and then you tried to reboot into recovery and then got the red android... ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. So, all I have to do is: go to fastboot and flash a stock recovery image file and it will automatically wipe the phone, cache, everything, and restore the operating system? Sounds awfully easy! I found some stock files in this post : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2001226&page=2 Are these the ones you used before?
Last question: I can flash CWM or TWRP but wont be able to access them if my bootloader is locked, correct? So flashing a stock recovery will allow me to have my stock phone back again, locked and un-rooted? I guess if I cant get it to work with the stock recovery then I can unlock the bootloader and do a CWM or TWRP recovery and then flash the stock .img files?
Thanks again for your help. I already had root with the motofail2go method which I like using but seems like when I try and use some generic root feature from apps from the app store that it will crash/brick the phone cuz obviously those apps are generalized and likely to brick certain percentage of devices....
Ok what does this mean? Something with the bootlaoder obviously. Does it need to be unlocked?
Code:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>fastboot flash recover
y qrecovery1.img
(bootloader) Variable not supported!
target reported max download size of 31457280 bytes
sending 'recovery' (5962 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.479s]
writing 'recovery'...
(bootloader) Preflash validation failed
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.755s
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>
And on the phone screen it says "invalid image size for partition recovery" twice for both times I tried this method.
You will need to flash the system image as well if you want those, as the recovery image will only flash the recovery. The files in that link are for twrp only... so you'll have to be able to get there first.
With the custom recoveries, I'm not 100% sure whether or not you will be able to use them without being unlocked. I would wait to see if anyone else can answer that question for you, but if you did try it without an unlocked bootloader, you at least have the stock recovery to fall back on if needed.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 09:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 PM ----------
I'm thinking it could either be that your phone is full and the image you're flashing is too large to fit on the space available...
Or you're trying to flash custom software on a locked phone.
Hopefully someone is able to answer that a little better...
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
You can't alter the stock recovery (flash a custom recovery like twrp or cwm) in fastboot without having the bootloader unlocked. Your options are to unlock your bootloader, flash custom recovery, create a backup of your current setup, download one of the stock working backups, place it in the backups folder for twrp on your external sd card, and restore one of the known working backups in the development section (befrosty linked to one). Or you could use RSD lite to return to stock using a stock factory firmware flash. That involves connecting your phone to your PC and flashing the phone back to factory stock. Information on RSD Lite and links to the FXZ's can be found here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2095536
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Help: Black Screen after bootanimation

hello xda. i need your help. im desperate. i dont know what else to do with my moto g here's what happened:
first of all, i dropped my moto g into the water.
right after i got it out, it startet bootlooping. then it turned off by itself after almost an hour had passed.
i put it in a bag full of rice for the rest of the night and almost the whole following day. then i plugged it into the wall charger, and it wouldnt charge at all. the only sign of life was the blinking led.
so i took it to Movistar-Peru for repair, and told me the obvious: water damage was not covered in the warranty, then my phone was returned to me.
so i decided to tear it down by myself.
everything was looking fine. the water indicators were red, but everything was clean except for the battery socket: there was mineral condensation around it. i wiped it out, cleaned it away and then the phone would actually charge the battery icon displayed normally.
so i let it charge for 3 hours and after it was completely charged i turned it on. just to run into a black screen after the bootnimation.
good news is it actually can boot into fastboot mode and can access recovery menu.
i did some research here, and seemed like my phone needed a full stock flash (that´s what i thought). i decided to unlock the bootloader, using motorola unique code. (i thought it may be needed for flashing, but it seems it is not necessary)
in recovery, my sdcard folders display normally, i can wipe data/factory reset it normally, BUT when i try to erase cache partition, the phone reboots.
so i started flashing my device through fastboot. i should mention that before i dropped it into the water, i had installed 4.4.2 ota update. but whenever i tried to flash a 4.4.2 rom, i got hab check failed for sysyem, for recovery and sometimes for boot.
now, i've tried several official motorola signed jelly bean roms (nextel br, movistar sp, claro ar, etc etc) including original Movistar Pe jb rom (which ive already flashed uncountable times) with no errors on flashing, but neither of them got me passed the black screen after bootanimation. (the phone is not off, cause the backlight remains on). the only way of getting out of it is rebooting into fastboot mode again (volume- and power).
i've also tried relocking the bootloader, and the process gives me no errors (the word "locked" displays by the end, though the phone then reboots into the "warning bl unlcked" screen) , but regardless of that and the relocking process turning out okay, status code 3 is displayed in menu, meaning the bl wasnt really relocked..?)
in short:
-dropped into water, started bootloop, then it turned itself off.
-next day it would display black screen after bootnimation, no matter what i did.
-if i choose wipe cache partition, the phone reboots.
-i've flashed it "sucsessfully" several times, still runs into a black screen after bootnimation.
-i've unlocked the boootloader
-if i try to reclock: process turns out okay("locked" word by the end), but status code remains being 3.
-i dont care about backups, i had nothing important in my phone (gdrive ftw)
my concearns are:
-possible hardware unrepairable damage
-bootloader got corrupted
-mineral condensation is still there deep inside the components
-maybe gpu? emmc corrupted? semi brick? idk..
my questions are:
-what can i do from now?
-i've read that a new bootloader can be flashed into the phone. risk of bricking my phone?
-if the bootloader is the problem, flashing a new one would solve it?
-in general, what am i doing wrong in all of this? has my phone any chance of functioning normally, at all?
please help me , i miss my phone, i got it for christmas, it is my first smartphone and i woudl like to bring it back to life if possible. thank you for reading.
I can help!
My girlfriend dropped her Moto G in water too, and it also started showing a black screen after the boot animation. I just managed to fix it.
Even if you have done some of this stuff, do it again anyway.
1-Power phone off
2-Press and hold volume down key for 3 seconds, then press the power key, then release both
3-You will see the boot options menu
4-Press the volume down key to scroll to RECOVERY, then press volume up to select it
5-You will see the Motorola logo, then after 10-30 seconds (maybe longer), you will see a Android logo with an exclamation symbol
6-Press and hold the Volume Up key for 10 seconds, then tap the power button
7-You will see a new menu
8-Use the Volume down key to scroll to Wipe data/factory reset, and then press the power key to select it.
9-Then use the volume down key to select yes, and use the power button to confirm
10-Let the phone format, then press the power key to reboot.
Once the phone has switched back on, wait and see what happens. If the Motorola logo comes on and then stays on for ages WAIT! It takes ages, but the phone will come back to life normally and be working in a few minutes! If you see a black screen again:
Repeat steps 1-7
When you see the new menu again, this time select the cache wipe option (it's the last option on the list)
Let the phone wipe and then it should reboot
This time you will defo see the Motorola logo on the screen for ages. Just keep waiting and press nothing. Hopefully after a minute or 2 it will then take you to the welcome screen
Hope this helped. I couldnt find any advice so had to experiment haha
Thank you for replying to my problem
i have already done your steps uncountable times.
every time i try to wipe cache, the phone reboots. it does not wipe anything at all, it just instantly reboots. then bootanimation, then black screen again, but nothing happens. not even after 2 minutes, after 5 or 10. nothing. just black screen until battery drains completely from continously powering the backlight. do you think maybe the water hardware-bricked my phone? also, im ocassionally getting blue screens out of a sudden, then the phone powers itself off.
Ah, ok, sorry my suggestion didn't help. I had exactly the same problem, so surprised this didn't help you. After being dropped in water, all I got was a black screen after the initial start animation. I don't really know much about phones tbh, I just managed to fix mine through trial and error. My girlfriends phone was initially sent to a shop for repair, and although the guy couldn't fix it, he said there was no signs of water damage. Not really sure then why the phone stopped working, but the method I suggested did work for me. I don't think there was anything else I tried. It's worth mentioning maybe that it took 6 weeks before I could fix the phone. Maybe it took that long to fully dry out? Straight after the accident though the phone was put in a bowl of rice for days so it should have been dried pretty quick. Don't really know what else to suggest, sorry I couldn't be more help. Have faith though, I reckon it'll come back to life soon
thank you for posting a reply and thank you for your advice. i appreciatte the attention given. i will further try some other methods in hope of a solution.
Your bootloader is working fine, dont touch it.
Unlock the bootloader and try to install cwm or twrp recovery, mount and format /data , /cache , /system through the recovery (if you manage it get recovery working ofc).
After that download mfastboot and flash stock rom with it.
Btw if you ever put anything into bag of rise, DON'T CLOSE the bag, you`ll probably do more damage than good this way.It should be done in open-air conditions.
liveroy said:
Your bootloader is working fine, dont touch it.
Unlock the bootloader and try to install cwm or twrp recovery, mount and format /data , /cache , /system through the recovery (if you manage it get recovery working ofc).
After that download mfastboot and flash stock rom with it.
Btw if you ever put anything into bag of rise, DON'T CLOSE the bag, you`ll probably do more damage than good this way.It should be done in open-air conditions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you sure it has nothing to do with the bootloader? now that you mention this.. can a 4.4.2 bl load a 4.3 rom successfully? and moreover, if i flash another bl, it will overwrite my original one right? is there eny problem on that? i am asking because no matter what i do, regardless of the "locked!" message, the menu keeps showing code status 3.
what happens if i flash the recovery and cant mount or flash any rom? or if the black screen persist after that?
and i wish i had known the rice trick before, cause i kept the bag closed for almost a day :s
grahameaddicott said:
My girlfriend dropped her Moto G in water too, and it also started showing a black screen after the boot animation. I just managed to fix it.
Even if you have done some of this stuff, do it again anyway.
1-Power phone off
2-Press and hold volume down key for 3 seconds, then press the power key, then release both
3-You will see the boot options menu
4-Press the volume down key to scroll to RECOVERY, then press volume up to select it
5-You will see the Motorola logo, then after 10-30 seconds (maybe longer), you will see a Android logo with an exclamation symbol
6-Press and hold the Volume Up key for 10 seconds, then tap the power button
7-You will see a new menu
8-Use the Volume down key to scroll to Wipe data/factory reset, and then press the power key to select it.
9-Then use the volume down key to select yes, and use the power button to confirm
10-Let the phone format, then press the power key to reboot.
Once the phone has switched back on, wait and see what happens. If the Motorola logo comes on and then stays on for ages WAIT! It takes ages, but the phone will come back to life normally and be working in a few minutes! If you see a black screen again:
Repeat steps 1-7
When you see the new menu again, this time select the cache wipe option (it's the last option on the list)
Let the phone wipe and then it should reboot
This time you will defo see the Motorola logo on the screen for ages. Just keep waiting and press nothing. Hopefully after a minute or 2 it will then take you to the welcome screen
Hope this helped. I couldnt find any advice so had to experiment haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked for me, Thanks
liveroy said:
Your bootloader is working fine, dont touch it.
Unlock the bootloader and try to install cwm or twrp recovery, mount and format /data , /cache , /system through the recovery (if you manage it get recovery working ofc).
After that download mfastboot and flash stock rom with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok i did what you said, i tried to flash cwm and fastboot presented no problems, (output is "okay"), but un the phone screen there's a message "mismatched partition size (recovery)", and when i enter recovery, it boots normal STOCK recovery!! i donw know whats happening. i renamed the cwm image to cwm.img and typed in these commands:
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery cwm.img
then i clicked recovery option in the bootloader menu... but it booted into stock recovery!! this is so confusing
Now
mfastboot flash partition gpt.bin
mfastboot flash fsg fsg.mbn
at first since it seems you got partitions a bit messed for some reason.
Then flash everything in order, skip those 2
Also if you are really suspcious about the bl is not working fine, just flash motoboot.img from the same version of android you need.
thank you i will proceed to try what you said. though i have a question: is it possible for the bootloader to be overwritten with a previous version?
and what does it mean when the phone outputs "hab check failed for boot/recovery/system (etc)" ? i sometimes get those errors when flashing other region (official) roms
liveroy said:
Now
mfastboot flash partition gpt.bin
mfastboot flash fsg fsg.mbn
at first since it seems you got partitions a bit messed for some reason.
Then flash everything in order, skip those 2
Also if you are really suspcious about the bl is not working fine, just flash motoboot.img from the same version of android you need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried what you said and it is all the same. i choose "recovery" after flashing a custom recovery image, but it boots into stock recovery. any ideas on what might be going on?? is it possible for water damage to cause this behaviour ?
tenjou_89 said:
i tried what you said and it is all the same. i choose "recovery" after flashing a custom recovery image, but it boots into stock recovery. any ideas on what might be going on?? is it possible for water damage to cause this behaviour ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, maybe leave the recovery aside for now and try to boot a 4.3 ROM (stock one).
Also you cannot downgrade to bootloader afaik, but the newer ones work fine with 4.3 ROMs.
I don't think that the eMMC got damaged, cos nothing will work then.I really can't say if your problems are coming from the water dip or it's just the Moto G being stubborn if you do even one thing the wrong way.
PS. How do you flash the recovery?
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery recovery.bin
fastboot reboot bootloader
This way?
what about the ram? a guy on some other forum said that maybe the ram got damaged to a point where only a part of it is now writable, and it gets flooded just before the complete boot up of the system, wichi is why the phone would then crash and display a black screen. what do you think about that theory?
i am going to try with 4.3 roms now. oficial and custom and post the results.
liveroy said:
PS. How do you flash the recovery?
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery recovery.bin
fastboot reboot bootloader
This way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, exactly that way.
edit: except i have images instead of bins, so:
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot reboot bootloader
Typo of mine, should be .img
About that RAM theory, it really doesn't sound viable to me, but who knows.
If I have to guess, I would say it's probably some crucial component failing to initialize properly and the kernel halts the system.
hmmm do you know of a method of checking for the conditions of individual hardware componets through a pc? like probing or running a full check of everything, not just the emmc..?
These seem not to work.
But if you find the correct details, maybe there is something to test in the service menu.
I have the same problem without water damage. I guess its the 4.4 OTA bug.
Tried reflashing the firmware i already have but of no use.
Mine shows the Blue Motorola logo and then doesn't show the boot animation.
Please can anyone help me out :'(

Phone reboots instead of entering recovery mode.

So I've had my htc one s for about 2 years or so now and this problem has started happening rather recently. No matter what I try, I cannot access the recovery menu.
I've tried:
1.Hardware Keys (Going into bootloader and trying the recovery from there) = no go.
2.App that would allow me to reboot to recovery = no go
3.Installing another recovery to see if that would help = no go
I've also tried the method of erasing the cache through fastboot to no avail.
I'm currently running a really outdated version of cyanogenmod (10.1 i believe) and my phone is now currently stuck at the beginning trying to boot up.
I'm not sure what else I can try. Oh and another thing. It seems like when I tried to install another recovery image, it didn't overwrite what was already there and so now I believe that my phone currently has to recovery menus.
I've already searched through the forums looking for help and while some of the threads that I found came close, none of them except for the erasing of the cache one came close to helping me figure out what was going on.
Please help.
Macrophage001 said:
So I've had my htc one s for about 2 years or so now and this problem has started happening rather recently. No matter what I try, I cannot access the recovery menu.
I've tried:
1.Hardware Keys (Going into bootloader and trying the recovery from there) = no go.
2.App that would allow me to reboot to recovery = no go
3.Installing another recovery to see if that would help = no go
I've also tried the method of erasing the cache through fastboot to no avail.
I'm currently running a really outdated version of cyanogenmod (10.1 i believe) and my phone is now currently stuck at the beginning trying to boot up.
I'm not sure what else I can try. Oh and another thing. It seems like when I tried to install another recovery image, it didn't overwrite what was already there and so now I believe that my phone currently has to recovery menus.
I've already searched through the forums looking for help and while some of the threads that I found came close, none of them except for the erasing of the cache one came close to helping me figure out what was going on.
Please help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can get into bootloader, so just relock it and run an RUU.
Then you can go through the steps of unlocking, installing a recovery and ROM again.
tivofool said:
You can get into bootloader, so just relock it and run an RUU.
Then you can go through the steps of unlocking, installing a recovery and ROM again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah ok, I'm going to try that. The problem now is that my phone won't boot up and my volume down button doesn't work. It just stays at the portion of boot up with the cyanogenmod logo. I guess my only option now is wait until my phone dies for it to turn off since it won't stay off by simply shutting it down.
Macrophage001 said:
Ah ok, I'm going to try that. The problem now is that my phone won't boot up and my volume down button doesn't work. It just stays at the portion of boot up with the cyanogenmod logo. I guess my only option now is wait until my phone dies for it to turn off since it won't stay off by simply shutting it down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you mean your volume down is physically broken, then yikes you might be in trouble. Might have to watch a video on youtube to learn to take it apart and fix/clean the rocker contact.
If you mean it isn't working because of the boot loop, ok. If you hold power down for like 10 seconds it should reset and then you hold down volume down to get to bootloader.
tivofool said:
If you mean your volume down is physically broken, then yikes you might be in trouble. Might have to watch a video on youtube to learn to take it apart and fix/clean the rocker contact.
If you mean it isn't working because of the boot loop, ok. If you hold power down for like 10 seconds it should reset and then you hold down volume down to get to bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I meant it's actually physically broken. I was hoping that wouldn't be the case but it seems like I'm going to have to find out how to take my phone apart.
Thanks for the help.

Help - this is a difficult one

Okay from the top, have OPO that had paranoid 4.6 Beta 2 working just fine. Was playing with settings(dumb idea) and changed the runtime to ART like i have on multiple other phones just to try it out. Phone rebooted and upgraded all the apps like it should, but about 5 seconds after it booted, screen froze for a second and then it rebooted. Once it rebooted it was up for 5 seconds again and then rebooted again. thus started a continues reboot loop.
Using the five seconds i had i was able to race through settings and switch the runtime back to dalvik. this caused the normal reboot and fixing of apps however once it finished the boot process it began the reboot loop again and there was nothing i could do to stop it.
I booted to recovery and attempted to reflash the last update, that failed.
attempted to wipe cache and dalvik cache and that failed.
attempted factory data reset, that failed
NOW is when i made a mistake, on TWRP i checked system wipe as well as data and cache. Wiped everything.
So, phone was then entirely devoid of OS which is a slight problem. I was able to get into fastboot however and flash cm11s which i figured would fix it, false. Now when it boots the system ui crashes over and over continuously and it wont become stable. Went back to recovery but my twrp was gone and i just had cyanogenmod simple recovery. attempted to get to fastboot mode but its apparently nonexistent, i tried every combination of commands possible to get there but cant. so now im stuck with an unusable OS and a useless recovery and no way to get to fastboot mode that im at least aware of... if there are any other details that could help feel free to help, ill post pictures once i figure out a way to do that.
please, for the love of God, help me.
If you gold the power button for about 15 seconds then it should turn off. Then hold volume up and then press and hold power while still holding volume up for a few seconds and it should boot fastboot mode. Try erasing userdata from there to see if you can recover from the crashing.
tiny4579 said:
If you gold the power button for about 15 seconds then it should turn off. Then hold volume up and then press and hold power while still holding volume up for a few seconds and it should boot fastboot mode. Try erasing userdata from there to see if you can recover from the crashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that a hundred times, the problem is once the screen turns off, if you keep holding vol up it never comes back on, its something i have never seen before and its exxtremely frustrating. Its like fastboot doesnt exist.
I wiped out everything on my Oneplus two months ago by mistake. Then my phone wont boot up because it had nothing in it except the TWRP. I tried EVERYTHING, to load a Rom into the phone, but it didn't work. It goes through the motion of loading a Rom into your phone and when you are about to hit the 100% level, it says FAILED. It wants you to check the debugging which you can't because your phone wont boot up. Anyways, I purchased a micro usb flash drive and loaded up the Rom into flash drive from my comp's usb. Then I connected it to my phone from TWRP via the micro usb port. After it loaded up the Rom from the flash drive, it booted up. Hope that works.
grenademasta said:
I wiped out everything on my Oneplus two months ago by mistake. Then my phone wont boot up because it had nothing in it except the TWRP. I tried EVERYTHING, to load a Rom into the phone, but it didn't work. It goes through the motion of loading a Rom into your phone and when you are about to hit the 100% level, it says FAILED. It wants you to check the debugging which you can't because your phone wont boot up. Anyways, I purchased a micro usb flash drive and loaded up the Rom into flash drive from my comp's usb. Then I connected it to my phone from TWRP via the micro usb port. After it loaded up the Rom from the flash drive, it booted up. Hope that works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey i hadnt thought of that, thanks ill try that as soon as i can get my hands on a micro usb flash drive, will the device find it using cyanogenmod simple recovery? twrp is gone for some reason.
Don't know if it will work without TWRP. I only see "Apply Update" then "Apply from ADB" and "Choose from internal storage". Hopefully the phone might recognize additional storage from the micro usb flash drive. Good luck.
grenademasta said:
Don't know if it will work without TWRP. I only see "Apply Update" then "Apply from ADB" and "Choose from internal storage". Hopefully the phone might recognize additional storage from the micro usb flash drive. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for your help! ill update as soon as i get one
The latest twrp supports mtp and you can use adb push to push the file to sdcard. Its really worth learning.
ugly_duckling said:
I tried that a hundred times, the problem is once the screen turns off, if you keep holding vol up it never comes back on, its something i have never seen before and its exxtremely frustrating. Its like fastboot doesnt exist.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should let go of the power button after the device turns off. Then vol up+power when the phone is off. This is different than what I read for the device but it works for getting me in fastboot.
Try flashing it by adb?
Overdose1986 said:
Try flashing it by adb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried using adb to push files but got error: closed, tried adb kill-server etc to try and get it to work but it wouldnt go, trust me i have tried a lot of things
as for the holding of the volume up button, ive tried every combination of holding and releasing i could think of, it just wont work :/
ugly_duckling said:
tried using adb to push files but got error: closed, tried adb kill-server etc to try and get it to work but it wouldnt go, trust me i have tried a lot of things
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He meant using adb sideload
Sent from my Oneplus One
have you had a look at my thread here? sure sounds like one of the issues listed. Take a peak and decide if it's something you'd like to try
Makrilli said:
He meant using adb sideload
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ya i tried, it wouldnt connect to the phone, tried multiple tweaks from pc side and device side and couldnt get it to work, im probably messing it up somewhere but i tried to follow various "tutorials" to the letter
markbencze said:
have you had a look at my thread here? sure sounds like one of the issues listed. Take a peak and decide if it's something you'd like to try
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey thats exactly how it started when i first reflashed cm11, but i managed to get through and force disable audiofx, from there though it just kept crashing system ui, i will definitely try this when i get outta class.
is there something different ill need to do based on having already disabled audiofx?
ugly_duckling said:
Hey thats exactly how it started when i first reflashed cm11, but i managed to get through and force disable audiofx, from there though it just kept crashing system ui, i will definitely try this when i get outta class.
is there something different ill need to do based on having already disabled audiofx?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disabling it will not fix your issue. My thread tells you what needs to happen. Generally when people decide to try new ideas without proper knowledge is when they get into trouble
ugly_duckling said:
I tried that a hundred times, the problem is once the screen turns off, if you keep holding vol up it never comes back on, its something i have never seen before and its exxtremely frustrating. Its like fastboot doesnt exist.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a tip, if u can go in fastboot mode, try to disconnect usb from phone first , and then try
markbencze said:
Disabling it will not fix your issue. My thread tells you what needs to happen. Generally when people decide to try new ideas without proper knowledge is when they get into trouble
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ya i gotcha, i was just wondering if i needed to re-enable audiofx for stuff to work, my other problem with this method is, and correct me if im wrong, but i believe i need to be in fastboot mode? which for some reason is unattainable at the moment..
ugly_duckling said:
ya i gotcha, i was just wondering if i needed to re-enable audiofx for stuff to work, my other problem with this method is, and correct me if im wrong, but i believe i need to be in fastboot mode? which for some reason is unattainable at the moment..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and then follow the directions in my thread
luka1002 said:
Just a tip, if u can go in fastboot mode, try to disconnect usb from phone first , and then try
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
idk why, but i read this post and said "what the hell, ill try it again" out loud to myself. unplugged my phone, held down the volume up key and turned it on, IT WENT STRAIGHT TO FASTBOOT. fml thanks guys, i think i can fix everything from here...i dont know how i managed to never do it correctly even though before this happened i booted into fastboot regularly to flash different ROMS...thank you guys very much for the help

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