Related
After I got my skyrocket, many of my friends and family also decided on the skyrocket Well, now it's up to me to make sure they're all in working order.
So one of my family members left her skyrocket in a bag of water for a while while she was at the beach, and it was completely unresponsive. I fully disassembled it (not my first time), dried out the majority of the water, then left the phone in rice for a few days. The good news is, the phone boots up and seems to work. The battery still works and it charges over USB.
The bad news is, the cellular radio does not work, IMEI comes up as unknown, bluetooth mac is "unavailable", front facing camera is also unresponsive. Really bad news: data/adb over usb does not register at all. A few more days in rice haven't helped.
The phone is completely stock. My first thought was that flashing a new radio might reset the cellular somehow, but not having cwm/odin makes that impossible. I can't seem to get the phone into download mode either because of the USB problem.
One thing that DOES work is the stock recovery. I can tell it to flash the official ATT ICS build, which contains a radio!
However when I try flashing it says.. "E: Short write of /tmp/sideload/package.zip (No space left on device) Installation aborted". Other zips "failed to verify whole-file signature"
Any ideas? My next step will be buying a used skyrocket with a cracked screen, and transplanting the working screen from this unit...
Tom
First off, please use the Q&A section for, you know, questions and answers. Don't create a new thread; I'm going to ask the mods to move this one instead.
Second, your issue is that the hardware radio is dead. The stock ROM only has a software radio included. To put it a different way, the stock ROM includes programming that tells the cell radio what to do. It can't fix the cell radio if it's broken, though. Unfortunately, based on the amount of damage you've got there, I'd say your phone is pretty much toast.
If you're completely stock, try to warranty it out. Just be up front with Sammy about what happened (because, in this instance, they will figure it out if you make up a story or play dumb), and the worst thing they can say is no. You might get a sympathetic rep who'll help you out. If they won't take it, you've already got your backup plan in the working SR.
T.J. Bender said:
First off, please use the Q&A section for, you know, questions and answers. Don't create a new thread; I'm going to ask the mods to move this one instead.
Second, your issue is that the hardware radio is dead. The stock ROM only has a software radio included. To put it a different way, the stock ROM includes programming that tells the cell radio what to do. It can't fix the cell radio if it's broken, though. Unfortunately, based on the amount of damage you've got there, I'd say your phone is pretty much toast.
If you're completely stock, try to warranty it out. Just be up front with Sammy about what happened (because, in this instance, they will figure it out if you make up a story or play dumb), and the worst thing they can say is no. You might get a sympathetic rep who'll help you out. If they won't take it, you've already got your backup plan in the working SR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Meant to post this in Q&A, woops. Too many xda tabs open trying to figure this out. Sorry about that
I do know the difference between the hardware/software radios... My thought was that while the phone was turned on and submerged, the software radio could have become corrupt... A long shot perhaps
I'll try contacting samsung, but somehow I doubt they'll cover it. Sidenote, do you really think they have a more sophisticated way to check for water damage than the internal water-damage indicator sticker?
The question still stands though, if anyone is interested. Even without a cell radio, I'd like to be able to root it for other purposes
Thanks for the advice
Tom
dutchthomas said:
Meant to post this in Q&A, woops. Too many xda tabs open trying to figure this out. Sorry about that
I do know the difference between the hardware/software radios... My thought was that while the phone was turned on and submerged, the software radio could have become corrupt... A long shot perhaps
I'll try contacting samsung, but somehow I doubt they'll cover it. Sidenote, do you really think they have a more sophisticated way to check for water damage than the internal water-damage indicator sticker?
The question still stands though, if anyone is interested. Even without a cell radio, I'd like to be able to root it for other purposes
Thanks for the advice
Tom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, based on the amount of things going wrong, it's hardware. If the software radio was corrupt, it would be because the internal storage had been corrupted, and your phone likely would not boot.
And yes, they can find water damage beyond the sticker. They can see corrosion plain as day when they open it up and look at the internals.
You can root it without USB working. Is your wifi working? If so, download GooManager off the market, then follow the instructions in the TWRP thread to get TWRP on your phone. Download a custom ROM to your PC, then transfer it to your external SD using an adapter/card reader so you can place it on the card directly (instead of going through the USB port). Use TWRP to flash the pre-rooted ROM onto your phone and viola. Unless there's a pre-rooted stock out there (and I don't think there is for SR), a custom ROM is the only way I can think of to do it.
Be advised, though, that because of the amount of damage done to your phone's internals, there's a better-than-normal chance that something won't work and you'll brick. I'm not responsible for your decisions or for the brick if that happens.
Long story short, just get a replacement SR.
Same thing happened to my girls Atrix. She gave it a nice bath in Green Tea. After shutting it down and pulling it apart I gave it the rice treatment for 48 hours. Booted but returned a radio error. Her USB port was working so I was able to root it and install a few custom ROMs on it. No change. So I would bet you actually fried the chip. Call Sammi and get a quote to cover the repair which will be a new mobo. They pay shipping both ways and are usually pretty cheap.
hechoen said:
Same thing happened to my girls Atrix. She gave it a nice bath in Green Tea. After shutting it down and pulling it apart I gave it the rice treatment for 48 hours. Booted but returned a radio error. Her USB port was working so I was able to root it and install a few custom ROMs on it. No change. So I would bet you actually fried the chip. Call Sammi and get a quote to cover the repair which will be a new mobo. They pay shipping both ways and are usually pretty cheap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, this is my mother's phone actually. First she ripped the screen ribbon cable on a nokia E75. Then she smashed her Atrix's screen, tried to fix it herself with a new screen, and managed to rip part of a ribbon cable... so it no longer has a working touch digitizer. Now she left her skyrocket in a bag of water. The girlfriend managed to crack her skyrocket's screen, which I replaced... I've also had to fix 2x nokia N95's, an N97, and a bunch of water damaged dumb phones over the years...
FWIW, the skyrocket seems to have the best repairability / internal layout of any of the phones I've messed with
The cracked screen skyrockets on ebay seem to be going for more than I thought, so I'll be giving sammy a call for sure
Greetings to all of you. I hope you be very patient with my poor english (I write and speak spanish) and this long post (please, read all of this) and please help me with this question, my first question here.
I am a XDA user a time ago, 2 years or least; I have flashed the kernel or the ROM of a lot of Android devices (+10, tablets and phones) using your knowledge posted on this wonderful community and I talk about this to prove that I'm not a totally noob and I never had a problem like this before; sadly, this happens with my own phone: SGH-T959V.
The charging port stopped working as data transfer port and just worked as charging port, this occurred just 2 months ago; but it was not relevant for me because I did not use the function in a long time, I used to charge my phone when it requires energy and nothing else. But I read about a CyanogenMod update (unofficial) for my phone and decided try it. Then I download it, install it via CWM and it worked successfully; I had a beauty JB 4.2 running on my 3 years old phone. I noted that there was a trouble with the RAM size, the new CM ROM just recognizes 346 MB of the RAM and the last ROM (CM 9) could recognize the 512 MB. I looked for a post here which talked about my problem and I found it, they suggest to install another kernel and I proceeded to do it. It was the 3 am or close, I was tired and here comes the first big mistake: I download and install a wrong kernel, a kernel for the T959, not the T959V. I cannot remember the name of the wrong kernel (because I deleted it from my PC) but since I installed it, the phone is always on recovery mode and the title of menu is: “Devil touch recovery v6.0.1.9”.
I tried to install the last kernel which worked fine (hefe-kernel-v0.8.1) and I always get the following messages: (as with any other kernel or ROM)
E:Can’t mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E:Can’t open /cache/recovery/last_log
E:failed to find “cache” partition to mount at “/cache”
Status 4 error and Status 7 error appeared too. (I solved the status 7 error modifying the Meta.inf data into the zip)
I formatted the SD card, put the kernel there and tried again to install it, but I have no success. I fixed permissions, tried to wipe data, wipe cache, but the same messages appeared. I look for a solution on some threads here and read about the cache format, they talk about ext3 and ext4 but I cannot find the way to reformat the phone with a kernel which has the right format to then, finally, install the right kernel for the phone. Well, at this point, I thought about all the mess up and then I conclude: Why the hell I don’t just recover the phone via download mode and Odin? If you remember, the charging port just worked for charging, not for data transfer or any other usb function; yep, I got it on that dawn: I was screwed.
Next morning, I carried the phone to the technical service (here in Cali, Colombia. It is not from Samsung) looking for a new charging port, the technician told me that he had the right repairing part; he said that was the same of the SGS3 (IFC700). I returned the next day for my phone and I found a major disaster: the “technician” did not apply properly the heat gun and all the electric conducting lines (the 7) were pasted at the pins of the old and damaged port.
I searched for another technician and thanks God could find one that gave me hope, although somewhat unreal, for my bad luck. He suggested me that if we could detect the origin of the electric conducting lines on the mainboard (unit U701, specifically) we could make a bridge between them and the pins of the new charging port; the problem is that I surf and surf through all internet and found only this pdf: On bit ly :/1dS7M61 (I cannot post links yet.)
But here, they do not give information about the PCB and the specific connections for pins, so, here comes my first question:
Do you know the specific origin of the seven electric conducting lines of the charging port? And, if you do, do you know if possible make a bridge with them?
In case this does not work, do you know how to recover the phone to the original kernel and ROM (as Odin does) but without using the usb cable, just the SD card?
I will stay watchful. Thank you for your time, your patience and your help.
Most of the lines for the pins are on the surface layer and go right up to the connector so unless you have ripped them all the way off you should be able to tell what goes where. The first and last connections are GND and there's a big area of gnd on either side of the connector. There are 2 other lines that are VCC I can't remember which lines now from memory but it should be fairly obvious to a technician. The last 3 are the tougher ones. TX and RX each have a tiny little line on the surface layer which leads up to the corresponding pin. The last one is the host mode pin which actually comes out from inside the board into the pin itself. If you look really close it looks like a little dot where the pin would sit. That last one I found nearly impossible to repair, but the other lines you can peel off the coating and solder a really small wire on top of them to complete the connection. All the more important lines are visible so unless somebody really jacked up your phone a decent tech should be able to repair it mostly.
If this doesn't work you're screwed. And even if you can repair 6 of the 7 lines the one that tells the phone to be in dock or download mode is necessary if you can't get into download mode with the volume buttons.
TwitchyEye said:
Most of the lines for the pins are on the surface layer and go right up to the connector so unless you have ripped them all the way off you should be able to tell what goes where. The first and last connections are GND and there's a big area of gnd on either side of the connector. There are 2 other lines that are VCC I can't remember which lines now from memory but it should be fairly obvious to a technician. The last 3 are the tougher ones. TX and RX each have a tiny little line on the surface layer which leads up to the corresponding pin. The last one is the host mode pin which actually comes out from inside the board into the pin itself. If you look really close it looks like a little dot where the pin would sit. That last one I found nearly impossible to repair, but the other lines you can peel off the coating and solder a really small wire on top of them to complete the connection. All the more important lines are visible so unless somebody really jacked up your phone a decent tech should be able to repair it mostly.
If this doesn't work you're screwed. And even if you can repair 6 of the 7 lines the one that tells the phone to be in dock or download mode is necessary if you can't get into download mode with the volume buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the fast answer! I will show this to the techinician and I hope that he can repair it; although I really think it is almost impossible, the lines are all deeply ripped, just the third and fifth line survived the attack.
Again, I want to answer just one more time about fixing the problem of installing kernels or ROMs via recovery mode (please read again the first post): "E:Can’t mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E:Can’t open /cache/recovery/last_log
E:failed to find “cache” partition to mount at “/cache”
Status 4 error and Status 7 error appeared too. (I solved the status 7 error modifying the Meta.inf data into the zip)"
Do you know how to fix this? Or install a stock kernel without those problems?
Thank you!
PD: I will post the answer of the technician to this.
Yeah the kernel you flashed screwed up your phone and the only way to recover is through heimdall or Odin which you'll need usb for.
Thank you again for your attention. Unfortunately the technician could not find the download mode pin, so it's official: my phone is a paperweight. I thank you again for your help and interest, have a good weekend.
First of all, fo ur problem, I believe that the only way u can save ur phone is using heimdall to flash another mtd kernel (if u can luckily boot into download mode) but sad that ur usb port was doom (correct me if I am wrong).
In addition, why on new kernel the phone just shows 384MB of RAM? Just fyi, new aries kernels changed the way counting RAM as they don't count the reserved RAM that the init system took but just the remain. As if u look into the kernel, there is somewhere says that RAM = total subtract reserved (in a specific calculation not words). That's why u saw 384MB even in fact we have 512MB. N why it is 384 but not 400 or 450, idk lol. So if anyone is curious bout this can have this rep as an answer as well
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2
You don't need the download pin if you can get into download mode by holding the volume buttons. If you need a usb jig to get into download mode then you're out of luck. Otherwise your phone will function normally except when you put it in a dock or try to use otg which as far as I know we don't have support for anyway.
HELLO,
i would like to try to replace the nand chip of my bricked tv box with a new chip
this because the original chip has been damaged shortening two pins trying to put the device in mask rom mode
my device is t-r42 based on rk3188
the price of the nand flash is about $4,
i can found it on some chinese online store
i hope that replacing the nand, my device will go to mask rom mode, enabling me to do the firmware loading through pc (rkbatchtool)
i know that this mode has been designed specifically to load the firmware the first time,
so i hope my device will go to this mode the first time i power on it after replacing it
any suggestion?
any hint?
i know this must be done with :microscopic` attention
thanks!!
Vicolodo said:
HELLO,
i would like to try to replace the nand chip of my bricked tv box with a new chip
this because the original chip has been damaged shortening two pins trying to put the device in mask rom mode
my device is t-r42 based on rk3188
the price of the nand flash is about $4,
i can found it on some chinese online store
i hope that replacing the nand, my device will go to mask rom mode, enabling me to do the firmware loading through pc (rkbatchtool)
i know that this mode has been designed specifically to load the firmware the first time,
so i hope my device will go to this mode the first time i power on it after replacing it
any suggestion?
any hint?
i know this must be done with :microscopic` attention
thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your going to have to find someone with a hot air rework station to unmount and or remount a new chip. the thing of it is, the pcb has to have perfect traces,,, 0 damage. even if that is met, unmounting and remounting a new chip in a perfect world takes a lot of skill and experience. will it get you into mask rom mode,,, I would guess yes. far as I understand it, thats a hardware thing not a os thing (os=firmware). Unless its something you just want to tinker with just to see if you can do it I wouldnt bother. Thats just me. I have crashed units over and over and got into mask rom mode doing the pin short, purposely trying different firmwares to see if they would work. I am not sure if mask rom mode will happen with out the pin short on a blank chip. maybe thats another question.
if you find someone local that does rework on surface chips, best bet would be ask them. Also a better answer here at least for me would be a close up picture of the chip you speak of, it would probly tell a thousand words. I have done rework, not in the past 5 years but I have. it takes a extremely steady hand and a good feel for when the solder is fluid. Theres tricks to it, do it wrong and theres no fixing the torn traces. Maybe craiglist would point you to someone who does this sort of work in your area. Possibly a local flat screen tv repair center may be able to direct you to someone local also, they are packed with sm chips.
Just some thoughts
stinkster said:
your going to have to find someone with a hot air rework station to unmount and or remount a new chip. the thing of it is, the pcb has to have perfect traces,,, 0 damage. even if that is met, unmounting and remounting a new chip in a perfect world takes a lot of skill and experience. will it get you into mask rom mode,,, I would guess yes. far as I understand it, thats a hardware thing not a os thing (os=firmware). Unless its something you just want to tinker with just to see if you can do it I wouldnt bother. Thats just me. I have crashed units over and over and got into mask rom mode doing the pin short, purposely trying different firmwares to see if they would work. I am not sure if mask rom mode will happen with out the pin short on a blank chip. maybe thats another question.
if you find someone local that does rework on surface chips, best bet would be ask them. Also a better answer here at least for me would be a close up picture of the chip you speak of, it would probly tell a thousand words. I have done rework, not in the past 5 years but I have. it takes a extremely steady hand and a good feel for when the solder is fluid. Theres tricks to it, do it wrong and theres no fixing the torn traces. Maybe craiglist would point you to someone who does this sort of work in your area. Possibly a local flat screen tv repair center may be able to direct you to someone local also, they are packed with sm chips.
Just some thoughts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you very much,
i will let you know!!
Vicolodo said:
thank you very much,
i will let you know!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A quick alternative for establishing that it is only a faulty NAND is to try booting Linux from an SD card. If that works, then you could look around for someone who has created running Android from SD card for your device and you could at least still use your device in the interim.
PSA: *This will be crossposted in xda HTC One X and HTC One X+ forums, I hope cross posting is allowed, haven't seen it mentioned in rules.*
Hi all,
Quick disclaimer: I've been lurking parts of xda now and again for a couple years now, have flashed a couple of phones and tablets now and again for mainly practical reasons, recently getting more interested in it as a ""fun" interest or "hobby".
SO: I am very aware that this is my first post, the rules, search function, etc. ..
BUT: After extensively searching both google and specifically xda to help me resolve this issue *myself*, I decided to create an account and post. I'm sorry if this Q should have been put in the newbie thread, my assessment was that it probably has no place there.
ALSO PLZ NOTE: What was meant to be a succinct summary and question somehow turned into a condensed but complete rundown of events, so here is a...
TL;DR:
- Replaced HTC One X+ display/digitizer unit myself, ran fine for 5 weeks.
- Then: flashed twrp 2.7x or 2.8, not sure anymore, before installing Android HD Revolution 33.1 by mike1986, and following the official instructions, which ran great for about week until my phone spontaneously BRICKED THE F*CK OUT COMPLETELY.
(yes, true brick, paperweight, robot-corpse, whatever)
=> Question: IS "RETROACTIVE/RETROGRADE BRICKING POSSIBLE/A "THING"??
If so, what could I have done wrong? (POSSIBLY something to do with a bootimage of firmware that I was sure I had the up to date version of... dunno though).
=========================================================================
About 6 weeks ago:
- Cracked the display of my HTC One X+ badly by dropping it onto concrete-type floor at a rave/party
=> Decided to try and replace it myself, researched for a good while (talking several days here, 90s/00s kids),
=> Decided to replace the display/digitizer unit myself to save money and gain knowledge.
Repair process was challenging and nearly as nerve wracking as playing the WSOP (not kidding, have played it three times), had an issue immediately after putting it back together where it suddenly wouldn't charge AT ALL anymore (NO LED), and overheated, and had unusually fast battery drain of its remaining charge (which never ran out completely before resolving that issue, since I kept turning it off whenever possible).
=> Took it apart and put it together again XX times until realizing the power switch flex cable kept slipping out of its two (jawbone?) connectors during putting it back together (I was doing something wrong with the flex positioning).
=> This resolved the issue.
=> Felt like a hero and that I win at life (since this phone has a rep as being hard to meddle with, and this was my first time even opening, let alone taking apart a smartphone).
=> Continued joyful phone shenanigans for over one month.
=> THEN: Decided to root it, mainly because there was a particular app I wanted that required root ("Quick reply for Whatsapp/Pushbullet", for the curious).
My previous, very limited rooting/flashing experiences =
- Google Nexus One (CWM/Cyanogen) a few times, years ago
- Galaxy Tab 10.1 (CWM/Cyanogen 10.1 ages ago, TWRP/Omnirom Kitkat 4.4.4 recently) a couple times.
So, did my research (or so I thought..?) for this particular custom ROM, decided to go for Android Revolution HD for HTC One X/+ 33.1 by mike 1986 (because it looked fckin awesome, and it was, while it ran) and loved the sh*t out of my "new" phone for about a week. Especially the vastly improved battery life seemed almost surreal, a big deal for a fixed-battery phone.
Then, ONE FATFUL EVENING in a bar, I remember looking at my phone and seeing 35% left, (days before it would've been an amazing 70-80% on an avg. day), which may not be relevant as it was my birthday, so had been using it a lot that day => may be a moot point
- Next time I looked at the phone ( < 1 hour without active use for sure) it was dead.
"Hmmmm," thought slightly drunk me. Whatever, charge it later, weird sh*t happens.
- Got home later, charged it over night after booting it with usb cord attached (mains).
Seemed normal, I even set an alarm.
=> Alarm never rang because it was in a powered-off state again come morning, despite all-night charging.
=> It booted to HTC logo. Seconds later, it turned off again. Held down power again, all I saw was the soft touch buttons flashing red a few times. After this it unexpectedly became (or was secretly crowned):
!! COMPLETE AND UTTER FCKNG KING BRICK OF BRICK COUNTRY AND ATTACHED TERRITORIES !!
No power on with or without volume up/down held for whatever amount of time;
No charging, no heating up when "charging";
No LED in any colour or flashing frequency, ever;
No response after hours and days of charging on different USB cables on PC/wall socket;
PCs and laptops don't register a sign of anything when it penetrates their port parts, etc etc...
...
.Even that semi-mystical bright-light-exposure-while-charging "light sensor manipulation" thing (which apparently worked for a lo of people with similar issues) did nothing for the cause.
Promotion: *Paperweight status successfully acquired.* Yay.
=====================================================
Now, obviously my first thought was that the power flex that gave me trouble during display replacement probably slipped again., somehow (I had taped it down solidly I thought).
=> SO I opened it once again, flex position seemed ok, but I wasn't sure of its functionality as it did look kind of battered from the somewhat unprofessional repair I had conducted on it (which I openly admit to, though I really did try my absolute best).
- Spontaneously took mainboard/battery combo to a local independent phone/accessory shop after being told they'd take a look for free
(I was in there was in there buying a microsim adapter so I could use my ancient Nexus One, since my GF has my old S2 now, which she kindly offered back, but its hers now, so nah. Great phone though.)
=>Shop's advice echoed my thoughts: Flex cable may be screwed, I may have damaged it by bending in the wrong direction/too often, and that damage somehow didn't manifest until much later. I didn't mention the recent rooting + flashing as I deemed it irrelevant at the time.
Their secondary thoughts: Battery or mini-usb port fukt, (which would require soldering, which they don't even offer).
=> SO, feeling confirmed in my layman's assessment, I cheaply got a pristine new replacement flex on ebay, double checked all videos/tutorials, implemented the damn thing with considerably more skill/experience and even higher anticipation. What happened next was shocking:
Absolutely nothing, obv.
=> Did an additional epic f*ckton of internet/forum research, found similar problems and some resolutions, but no real answers, probably because my main problem translates to a kind of hybrid question.
So here I am now am with my core question:
Is it possible to FULLY brick an HTC/any smartphone but not become aware of this until one week later, when the device dies OVER ONE WEEK of reliable and amazing performance?
(and if yes, what aspect/stage of the flashing process is this likely related to?)
If the answer is NO, it must be a hardware fault with probability rank (I think)
:
1.) Battery dead for whatever reason
2.) Mini USB OR mainboard/integral component (equal rank as not sure), possibly caused by incompetent repair, but why or how would this express itself over a month later??
3.) Other, which I'm not aware of.
While researching new ROMS for the N1, I realized that I may have messed up on the "bootimg part" of the flashing process of the Revolution ROM, a part I found v. confusing in the instructions, even after rereading them many, many times. It was about the most recent firmware, which I was pretty sure I had anyway, since it was unrooted before and I do remember installing some firmware updates over the air.
I still did my best to follow the instructions though.
=> Maybe this has something to do with it, i.e. the hardware can't accept a charge because the software allowed it to become too uncharged (a fairly paradox concept to me, but apparently it can happen. Guess it's like a BIOS-type thing).
Thank you for anyone who read this far!
As it stands, I refuse to give up hope so soon after experiencing that rush of having fixed it myself.
Any specific or general help, tips, hints, pointers, replacement phones (One M8 or S5 plz., Iphones will go straight on ebay) would and will be greatly appreciated!!
The obvious choice is to get a new battery and see what happens, but I'm not sure if I wanna sink any more money into this phone, only to later find out the mainboard is at fault (not worth the money replacing), AKA "get a new phone without a contract", which would more than suck for me financially atm (Im ignoring my N1 here, which I love, but don't wanna be stuck with, esp. as it has the standard-issue broken power button (which I actually had repaired once under warranty, back in the ol' days of yore some prefer to refer to as 2009.
So guys: What's my move, if there is one, besides going to a local/online service centre (I live in Germany btw.) and probably paying unproportionate cash money to even have it looked at?
Cheers, thanks, merci, danke
PS: Just saw the polling function, so I attached one just for the hell of it, to see what happens (never used one before).
If you feel both qualified AND so inclined as to pass judgement on this here serious business, please indicate what you think may be the cause of my issue.
*BUMP 1*
Come on guys, I know it's a wall of text, but can't someone at least answer the TL;DR?
=> Is is possible to flash a custom rom which then (possibly because of improper installation) causes the phone to brick about a week later?
Simple question surely!
[Q&A] WiFi stuck on turning on; MAC 02:00:00:00:00:00; G2 G3 G4 G5 Nexus5 Nexus 7 etc
Hi!
If you are reading this now, you are probably one of the unlucky fellows who's WiFi (and Bluetooth) stopped functioning, and if so, you are probably deperately searching for a solution/fix. I might have something for you, but first:
*** DISCLAIMER/WARNING ***
You yourself are exclusively responsible for whatever may (or may not) happen to your mobile device, to yourself or others. I am only giving hints/advices here that *MAY* help, but I will not take any responsability, nor will I provide any support, in absolutely *ANY CASE*, including, but not limited to: your problem not being solved or/and your mobile device becoming partially or completely broken. Let me be very clear: If you do anything to your device rendering it useless, destroying it, seriously or fataly injuring you or others, and then come blaming me or/and cry for help, I will point my index finger at you and laugh at you. Period.
If you are a impatient person and want to get straight to the point, jump right to section 6.
Table of Contents
0. Foreword
1. Description of the problem
2. Urgent advice
3. Things that didn't work
4. There is little hope
5. My most obvious advice
6. LET'S GET SERIOUS!
6.a Sellotape / Scotch tape
6.b Refrigerator / Freezer
6.c Oven
0. Foreword
Two or three months ago, one fine morning, the WiFi/BT of my LG G2 suddenly stopped working. Initially I thought this would be only one stupid annoying minor thingy, that I’d be able to solve it fast. I was wrong.
1. Description of the problem
When turning on the WiFi, it would just stay in "Turning on..." forever. Similar thing for Bluetooth: It would stay on for a few seconds and then turn itself off again after. (But then, who needs Bluetooth anyway, WiFi ist probably 100 times more important...). I have thoroughly searched the internet, and I found quite some videos with exactly the same problem (remove the two blanks from the links to watch):
h ttps://w ww.youtube.com/watch?v=fRGnQz1zUmw
h ttps://w ww.youtube.com/watch?v=4W8YJMDFM88
h ttp://w ww.dailymotion.com/video/x2cuyjt_nexus-5-turning-wifi-on-frozen-problem_tech
2. Urgent advice
I want to prevent you from wasting countless hours searching for a solution - I wasted so much of my time already, no need for you to repeat that. Therefore: *Please* be aware that there is a VERY HIGH PROBABILITY that this issue is being caused by a hardware defect. I can not speak for all devices of course, but keep in mind that the main reason I wasted so much time, was me beliving it was some software issue! See the next section for a glimpse of stuff I have tried without any success:
3. Things that *DIDN'T* work
01. Restarting WiFi/Bluetooth several times
02. Rebooting the phone
03. Turning airplane mode on/off several times
04. Slapping/hitting the phone (this was indeed suggested in a forum)
05. Using WiFi-Fixer apps
06. Resetting to factory settings
07. Upgrading to newest Android version
08. Fully drained the battery and left it uncharged for several hours
(Rooted the phone)
09. Deleting the /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf
10. Deleting the whole /data/misc/wifi folder
11. Creating a file named ".bdaddr" in /persist/bluetooth containing a MAC-Address in hexadecimal format
12. Creating a file named ".macaddr" in /persist/wifi containing a MAC-Address in hexadecimal format
13. Flashing several custom ROMs to it (CyanogenMod, ParanoidAndroid, ...)
14. Going back to stock ROM
15. etc. etc. etc.
16. Several combinations and permutations of the above
4. There is little hope
Again, as the cause of the problem is most likely a hardware issue, I don't recommend going through all the steps as described in the previous section; however, though none of the steps worked for me, this doesn't mean that none won't work for you neither; you might be luckier than I was. In that case, enjoy your restored WiFi and be happy.
5. My most obvious advice
You need to replace the motherboard (main board) of your device.
Honestly, if you can afford it and it doesn't cause too many inconveniences to you, you'll be better off by simply buying a new device. If you don't want to buy a new device, send it in for repairs. If you don't want to do that as well, you'll have to fallback to a DIY solution:
I. Buy a new main board for your device. Be careful to get exactly the right component for your specific model. If you dont find any shop selling those, there are plenty of individuals out there that own devices with broken displays. You dont need the displays, you need the motherboard. Buy one such broken device, and you'll have your main board replacement.
II. Replace your main board or let someone else do it for you
Continues below.
continuation
6. LET'S GET SERIOUS!
If you are reading this, you either didn't read or you decided not to follow my most obvious advice in section 5. So be it. If you want to carry on from here, be sure to re-read my disclaimer at the top of my post.
There are 3 DIY possible fixes for the WiFi problem - none is guaranteed. I will describe them from the most harmless to the most kamikaze/deadliest. All of them will require you to open your device; if you are not careful and damage any of the components inside, you will end up with a worse device than before - but hey, don't say I didn't warn you.
At this point we assume that the cause of the problem is a faulty solder joint of your WiFi IC. The goal is to try to restore that solder joint. To do that, you will have to:
I. Open your device
II. Find your main board and separate it from all connected plugs
III. Find / identify the WiFi IC chip on the main board. I recommend searching for a service manual for your device, or/and searching for a disassembly video for your device; you need to know which one of the chips on the main board is the WiFi one.
Once you have identified your WiFi chip, you have 3 options, which you may combine with each other, but I recommend to try them out one-by-one as follows:
6.a Sellotape / Scotch tape
You need to make sure that your WiFi chip is pressed against the main board (ideally, this ensures the broken contacts touch each other, solving the problem). The best way to achieve this, is to attach a series of tape strips on the top of the WiFi chip, causing it to be pressed against the main board by the surrounding cover/hull once you reassemble/close the device. The tape strips are just a suggestion, do whatever you find convenient as long as you ensure that the chip is pushed against the board at all times.
This method may solve the WiFi problem already. When you turn your device back on, give it some time (5-10 minutes) and reboot it a few times if the problem still persists. My own WiFi didn't function right away, but after a while it finally recovered - hurray!
6.b Refrigerator / Freezer
Instead of using the tape as described in 6.a, you may first try to put your motherboard in a fridge for a few hours/days. But make sure to put it there in a plastic bag, and avoid moisture as much as you can, specially when taking it out of the fridge. Make sure its completely dry before reassembling your device!
By the way, try the refrigerator option BEFORE you try the freezer option!
6.c Oven
If everything else fails, the oven might be your last chance. This is not a joke, but as you probably can assume, it is "All-In" i.e. highly risky. The theory behind this is that high temperature will cause defective solder joints to reflow, reconnecting and thus fixing the problem.
You should only try this as a matter of last ressort. Be warned that you may fully destroy your main board, and there is a high chance that you will. Also, you may cause serious injury to yourself or others. Make sure you make backups of your data first. DO NOT BAKE THE WHOLE DEVICE, ONLY THE MAIN BOARD. DO NOT BAKE THE BATTERY!!
If you are still reading:
I. pre-heat your oven to 385° Fahrenheit (196° Celsius)
II. put your main board in the oven, bake it there for 7 minutes
III. remove from the oven, let it cool down until every component of the board has room temperature
Finally, here is a video of a guy doing a similar thing, but with a heat gun:
h ttps://w ww.youtube.com/watch?v=A4n0j3uaS7E
Ok, this is all, I hope I could help you.
Good luck!
Summary
Hello all,
first of all, I want to thank brysclar and xbing6 for their valuable feedback! Thanks a lot guys! :good:
Now, in an effort to update this thread and in an effort of trying to summarize it in fewer words (my disclaimer above applies!):
- The described problem seems to affect mainly (all kinds of) LG devices
- The issue seems to be caused by a defective soldering of the Wi-Fi chip on the main board
- The defect seems to be induced by dropping or/and overheating the device; recharging the battery, big/long app or android updates or the flashing of custom roms could cause excessive heating
- brysclar pointed out that replacing the battery might solve the problem (I haven't tried this out myself, so I can neither deny nor confirm this)
- My recommended solution is 6.a - applying pressure on the Wi-Fi chip, pushing it against the main board, using tape stripes
- There is a video of a brasilean guy doing some similar, but using pieces of an old credit card instead of tape strips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJkdva2iOag BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT HE IS APPLYING THE PRESSURE ON A RANDOM SPOT, NOT DIRECTLY TO THE WIFI CHIP! It *may* work for you, but if it doesn't, find/identify your Wi-Fi chip and apply the pressure there
- If everything else fails, and only as a matter of last ressort, you may try what I have written in 6.c
So... this thread has over 500 views, but not one single reply.
Guys... what has your experience been? Have you tried anything out from the posts above, and if so, what was the result? Did it help you? Do you recommend anything? Has something else, not written here, worked for you?
There are a lot of people out there having the same problem. It would be great if you could give any feedback, share anything that helps the community.
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I honestly didn't see this post before. You really covered every detail very well. So far, returning my G3 to stock and replacing the battery has fixed it for me. Weird. I know. I did try 90% of the things on your "things that don't work" list and you are correct. They don't work.
wlanmac 02/00/00/00/00, Bluetooth is OK
Hey, i just got an LG LS990 with same Wifi issue and i'm ready to try so WITNESS ME!
Thanks for an amazing and detailed post lml
Simply awesome.
I have similar issue with my Nexus 5x. It is QCA6174 hw 3.2 chip, lspci does not detect this chip any more. I am going to do a little bit investigation from device driver (cnss) perspective. It enables one GPIO to provide power to this WiFi chip, I will try read back this GPIO status to see if it is enabled. I do not have the schematics, I do not know how to check if power is supplied to this wifi chip.
lspci used to show below:
$ ./lspci
00:00.0 PCI bridge: Airgo Networks Inc Device 0300 (rev ff)
01:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Device 003e (rev ff) (this is qca6174)
If kernel driver investigation does not reveal anything helpful, I will ask other guys to replace the chip.
I thought it is because of vendor partition is accidentally wiped out, maybe it is unlikely.
---------- Post added at 08:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:40 PM ----------
As Bluetooth can not be turned either, I am tending to think this is hardware related as well. As described previously, I will see if I can check that gpio status.
investigating
xbing6 said:
I have similar issue with my Nexus 5x.
(...)
I am going to do a little bit investigation
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Hi xbing, and thank you for your feedback! :good:
I am really curious and looking forward to hear the results of your investigation! I believe that in your case, too, the Wi-Fi/BT chip is not being supplied correctly due to a defective soldering. Note that I don't think that the chip itself is defective, only the contacts between the chip and the main board. So, before replacing the chip, I'd recommend to first try what I've written in 6.a (or check my update/summary above).
Keep us posted about everything you find out!
Sprint declined to fix my LS990 due to "water damage" being the reason for it not working, and wanted to charge me a $150 deductible for a $100 phone. Shimming the WiFi chip against the metal covering with some thermal pad I had lying around and adding a bit of sticky foam on top of the ribbon cable for the camera worked great! Much thanks!
Tomcat5 said:
Sprint declined to fix my LS990 due to "water damage" being the reason for it not working, and wanted to charge me a $150 deductible for a $100 phone. Shimming the WiFi chip against the metal covering with some thermal pad I had lying around and adding a bit of sticky foam on top of the ribbon cable for the camera worked great! Much thanks!
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Any idea if thermal paste/grease could work?
unlikely
NavHur said:
Any idea if thermal paste/grease could work?
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Hi NavHur,
since the problem is mostly caused by a loose Wi-Fi chip, respectively a defective solder joint, using thermal paste or grease is unlikely to help; again, what you need to do is to have your Wi-Fi chip pushed against your main board. You can use your imagination on how to accomplish this; what Tomcat5 described he did ultimately led to exactly having his chip being pressed against the board.
Of course you are free to try whatever you want - if you find new solutions please post some feedback.
Good luck.
NimbleWeasel said:
Hi NavHur,
since the problem is mostly caused by a loose Wi-Fi chip, respectively a defective solder joint, using thermal paste or grease is unlikely to help; again, what you need to do is to have your Wi-Fi chip pushed against your main board. You can use your imagination on how to accomplish this; what Tomcat5 described he did ultimately led to exactly having his chip being pressed against the board.
Of course you are free to try whatever you want - if you find new solutions please post some feedback.
Good luck.
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Thanks you so much, I placed a small piece of plastic above the wifi chip and one next to the camera lens. Now the wifi works fine. However my screen was pushed up so it bended a little. The faulty thing was my battery, not the added plastic. I compared mine with the one of a friend, mine was 1 mm bigger. (also with the battery of my friend's g3 the screen was fine)
I'll be changing it soon.
same problem as u but sometimes wifi works(mainly fully charged) and sometimes dont
i have lg g2 D802 model. It had a wifi problem as u shown in your videos,my phone also behaves same like yours but sometimes it works normally like while charging,works like 2 or 3 times a day(for 5-10 min).please tell me whether my phone got ic problem or software issue
Pratap94 said:
i have lg g2 D802 model. It had a wifi problem as u shown in your videos,my phone also behaves same like yours but sometimes it works normally like while charging,works like 2 or 3 times a day(for 5-10 min).please tell me whether my phone got ic problem or software issue
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Hi Pratap94,
nobody, neither here in this forum nor elsewhere in the internet, will be able to give you a reliable answer without having a *physical* look at your phone. Nobody.
However, I can give you my opinion, based on the stuff you wrote: The fact that it works normally sometimes, specially while charging (probably it heats up in the process?), indeed seems to indicate a hardware issue. I believe you have a loose Wi-Fi chip i.e. a defective solder joint, like I had on my LG G2 D802 as well. I solved my problem by doing the stuff I described in 6.a.
Good luck.
Thank you so much
NimbleWeasel said:
Hello all,
first of all, I want to thank brysclar and xbing6 for their valuable feedback! Thanks a lot guys! :good:
Problem solved good bless you!! the problem is fix in that youtube video XD
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Sadly step 6.a did not help me. Well, it worked for first 5-10 minutes and then back again.
Olzhas18 said:
Sadly step 6.a did not help me. Well, it worked for first 5-10 minutes and then back again.
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Hi Olzhas18,
that might be an indication that your WiFi chip is still a bit loose and is not sitting tight enough on the main board. On LG G2, it is difficult to push the chip against the board because it's covered by a metal cover...
Also, did you check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJkdva2iOag ?
Good luck!
NimbleWeasel said:
Hi Olzhas18,
that might be an indication that your WiFi chip is still a bit loose and is not sitting tight enough on the main board. On LG G2, it is difficult to push the chip against the board because it's covered by a metal cover...
Also, did you check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJkdva2iOag ?
Good luck!
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Click to collapse
Thank you this tip and this whole thread. I have seen this video, but still the same effect. 5-10 minutes, I can rean some news and back to flashing. I'm going to buy Huawei Honor 8 soon, it was the last chance to recover my G4. I doubt I will purchase any other phone from LG.
Same boat
But bluetooth working
In cm roms also wifi tethring can be onn
But u cnt turn onn wifi
I had the same issue, can't turn on Wifi after factory reset.
I turn off my device off after one hour and reboot wifi was OK but when I want to upgrade some apps iwifi turn of again and my phone reboot with no SIM card.
I do "6.a Sellotape / Scotch tape" + a creedit card cut with this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_0jzp65eLY#t=73.319872
My LG G2 works fine