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Hello all,
Recently I have had a major issue with my nexus 7. About a week ago, it died (ran out of battery) while I was using it. When I attempted to turn it on after charging it, I would get the screen that says google, with unlocked lock icon. The tablet would be frozen at this screen. I left it running until it died again. I was running the latest stable release of cyanogenmod 10 with no problems before when this happened.
By now I had realized that the nexus may have been bricked. I did some googling and found that this is an issue other users have been having when their battery died on android 4.2.2. I attempted to restore the nexus. At this time I was able to access bootloader on the device by holding down all of the buttons at the same time. However, I decided not to restore the nexus, and wait until a time where I would be able to turn all of my attention to the problem. But when I tried to restore the device yesterday, I was not able to access bootloader! I connected the device to my PC (running win8) and it is not recognized. Similarly, trying fastboot restart-bootloader gives me "waiting for device". I am afraid that the bootloader may have been corrupted somehow.
My question is, how can I fix this? Is there a way to reflash the bootloader, or is there something that I am missing? Is there a hardware operation that needs to be performed on the device (battery pull, etc)?
Thanks.
AW: [Q] Help! Nexus 7 not working, may be bricked
I doubt your nexus is bricked. Most likely you entered the APX mode. Hold down the power button for about 6-10 seconds, then it should exit from there.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/APX_mode
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Not working
AndDiSa said:
I doubt your nexus is bricked. Most likely you entered the APX mode. Hold down the power button for about 6-10 seconds, then it should exit from there.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/APX_mode
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I hold down the power button, the device just turns off and comes back on again. The google boot logo shows for a few seconds, then I get a black screen.
patil215 said:
When I hold down the power button, the device just turns off and comes back on again. The google boot logo shows for a few seconds, then I get a black screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you get a Google logo, that is a good sign - it means the bootloader is at least partially intact, possibly even in perfect shape.
I would proceed assuming that your battery is completely discharged.
Put the device on the charger overnight and then try starting it up while it is still plugged in to the charger. Hold the vol-down button and the power button continuously until at least one second after the Google logo flashes - this should put the device into fastboot mode if the bootloader is intact.
Something to remember is that Li-Ion batteries have a safety feature that prevents them from charging if the battery voltage gets too low. This is part of the reason why they are shipped with a 50% charge - they can sit that way for months and months only self-discharging at a very very slow rate.
OTOH, if you discharge the battery deeply and then let it sit for a long time afterward - especially if there is something like APX mode draining current - the battery voltage can fall below this "safety threshold voltage" and (even though it is still a "good battery" it can no longer be charged).
I'm not sure it the N7 can be started up while plugged in to only the charger; if it can, disconnecting the battery and trying to power up the device might be a way to discriminate "dead device" from "unchargeable battery".
good luck
I've tried this before
bftb0 said:
If you get a Google logo, that is a good sign - it means the bootloader is at least partially intact, possibly even in perfect shape.
I would proceed assuming that your battery is completely discharged.
Put the device on the charger overnight and then try starting it up while it is still plugged in to the charger. Hold the vol-down button and the power button continuously until at least one second after the Google logo flashes - this should put the device into fastboot mode if the bootloader is intact.
Something to remember is that Li-Ion batteries have a safety feature that prevents them from charging if the battery voltage gets too low. This is part of the reason why they are shipped with a 50% charge - they can sit that way for months and months only self-discharging at a very very slow rate.
OTOH, if you discharge the battery deeply and then let it sit for a long time afterward - especially if there is something like APX mode draining current - the battery voltage can fall below this "safety threshold voltage" and (even though it is still a "good battery" it can no longer be charged).
I'm not sure it the N7 can be started up while plugged in to only the charger; if it can, disconnecting the battery and trying to power up the device might be a way to discriminate "dead device" from "unchargeable battery".
good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried this before. I still get a google screen, even after fully charging it. Does this mean that the battery has become unusable? How can I fix this?
Then try it again. It takes less time than typing a post into XDA.
There are two ways to try it.
1) Hold both Power & Vol-Down simultaneously, and keep holding them down until at least 4 seconds after the B&W "Google" text appears on the screen
2) Hold only the Power button down continuously, but be ready! Press the Vol-Down button as soon as the Google logo appears! - you only get less than a second to do this. (If you are late, the bootloader tries to boot the boot partition). Also, you need to keep holding the Power button down (3 or 4 seconds) after this - wait long enough that you are convinced that the fastboot screen is not going to occur.
As for the battery, you can pop off the back case and use a voltmeter to CAREFULLY measure the open-circuit voltage. The normal 0%-to-100% voltage range is about 3.6v - 4.15v. Obviously if it won't take a charge then there is a battery issue. BE CAREFUL - avoid doing anything which could short the terminals even momentarily.
bftb0 said:
Then try it again. It takes less time than typing a post into XDA.
There are two ways to try it.
1) Hold both Power & Vol-Down simultaneously, and keep holding them down until at least 4 seconds after the B&W "Google" text appears on the screen
2) Hold only the Power button down continuously, but be ready! Press the Vol-Down button as soon as the Google logo appears! - you only get less than a second to do this. (If you are late, the bootloader tries to boot the boot partition). Also, you need to keep holding the Power button down (3 or 4 seconds) after this - wait long enough that you are convinced that the fastboot screen is not going to occur.
As for the battery, you can pop off the back case and use a voltmeter to CAREFULLY measure the open-circuit voltage. The normal 0%-to-100% voltage range is about 3.6v - 4.15v. Obviously if it won't take a charge then there is a battery issue. BE CAREFUL - avoid doing anything which could short the terminals even momentarily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried holding down the buttons in various configurations at least 50 times already. As for the battery, there is current flowing, so I don't think this is a battery issue. Also worth noting is that if the device completely dies and I plug it in again, the charging battery sign appears (an empty battery slowly filling with white bars). Sometimes the device will give a black screen with little white sparks flickering randomly on it.
Well there have been several posts on here with identical symptoms, where the affected owner later reported that their tablet mysteriously started operating normally.
Unfortunately nothing consistent seems to have emerged from those reports.
You could try disconnecting the battery for a few minutes and reconnecting it to see if that makes any difference.
But whatever you do, you're gonna eventually have to press some buttons & the procedure I suggested is diagnostic for the bootloader, even if the boot or /system partition are borked.
BTW In my experience that battery charging graphic shows the charge state of the battery - does yours show closer to empty or full?
bftb0 said:
Well there have been several posts on here with identical symptoms, where the affected owner later reported that their tablet mysteriously started operating normally.
Unfortunately nothing consistent seems to have emerged from those reports.
You could try disconnecting the battery for a few minutes and reconnecting it to see if that makes any difference.
But whatever you do, you're gonna eventually have to press some buttons & the procedure I suggested is diagnostic for the bootloader, even if the boot or /system partition are borked.
BTW In my experience that battery charging graphic shows the charge state of the battery - does yours show closer to empty or full?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine shows the battery going from empty to full, like an animation. Also, I'm considering sending in the device for repair but I know that since the bootloader is unlocked it probably wouldn't be free.
Also can you link me to any posts related to this? They might be useful in solving my problem.
Thanks
Were you able to get your computer to recognized your Nexus when you connected it? I had to jump through a bunch of hoops with my Win8 machine to get the driver installed, because it didn't pass Microsoft's signature check. Maybe you can use Wug's toolkit to try to fix it, or at least re-lock the bootloader before sending it in for repair?
codehunter2000 said:
Were you able to get your computer to recognized your Nexus when you connected it? I had to jump through a bunch of hoops with my Win8 machine to get the driver installed, because it didn't pass Microsoft's signature check. Maybe you can use Wug's toolkit to try to fix it, or at least re-lock the bootloader before sending it in for repair?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After spending a few hours, I was able to get an adb driver installed onto my computer, I also had to jump through a lot of hoops (I run win8 too). Running adb devices shows the nexus in recovery mode. However, I can't access the bootloader whatsoever. Typing fastboot reboot-bootloader just hangs, and I've tried several toolkits but they just hang. I'm not sure if I can do anything unless I can access bootloader. If you know anything I can do please tell.
patil215 said:
Mine shows the battery going from empty to full, like an animation. Also, I'm considering sending in the device for repair but I know that since the bootloader is unlocked it probably wouldn't be free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By coincidence I was charging mine right now (82%), so I shut it down and looked at that battery animation. (I have the v4.18 bootloader & Dec '12 hardware) First the "lightning bolt" symbol shows up in the battery icon, and the a little later, it performs a "filling the battery up" animation. But here's the important part: when that animation runs on mine, it starts from nearly, but not quite full (mostly white, not all black)- about 82%.
Can't tell exactly from the way you described your situation, but this (again) sounds like your battery is either not charging, or the bq27541 charge controller is reporting the wrong battery state.
Unplug the battery and let it sit for a while before reconnecting. If you have a safe way to measure the battery voltage, do so. You'll know right away if the battery is charged and the charge controller chip is lying.
---------- Post added at 08:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 PM ----------
patil215 said:
After spending a few hours, I was able to get an adb driver installed onto my computer, I also had to jump through a lot of hoops (I run win8 too). Running adb devices shows the nexus in recovery mode. However, I can't access the bootloader whatsoever. Typing fastboot reboot-bootloader just hangs, and I've tried several toolkits but they just hang. I'm not sure if I can do anything unless I can access bootloader. If you know anything I can do please tell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is completely bizzare. The only way that a recovery can be started is via the bootloader. If the bootloader doesn't run, nothing can run. (The recovery is a booted kernel just as with the regular OS). Moreover, you saw the battery screen light up - if a recovery was (still) running, you would think something would show on the screen (although I guess recent versions of TWRP does screen blanking now). Very weird.
bftb0 said:
By coincidence I was charging mine right now (82%), so I shut it down and looked at that battery animation. (I have the v4.18 bootloader & Dec '12 hardware) First the "lightning bolt" symbol shows up in the battery icon, and the a little later, it performs a "filling the battery up" animation. But here's the important part: when that animation runs on mine, it starts from nearly, but not quite full (mostly white, not all black)- about 82%.
Can't tell exactly from the way you described your situation, but this (again) sounds like your battery is either not charging, or the bq27451 charge controller is reporting the wrong battery state.
Unplug the battery and let it sit for a while before reconnecting. If you have a safe way to measure the battery voltage, do so. You'll know right away if the battery is charged and the charge controller chip is lying.
---------- Post added at 08:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 PM ----------
That is completely bizzare. The only way that a recovery can be started is via the bootloader. If the bootloader doesn't run, nothing can run. (The recovery is a booted kernel just as with the regular OS). Moreover, you saw the battery screen light up - if a recovery was (still) running, you would think something would show on the screen (although I guess recent versions of TWRP does screen blanking now). Very weird.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I have the links that you mentioned about users having identical symptoms that "fixed themselves"?
I really don't want to send it in for repairs if it's going to cost me. I'm a student with not much money to spare . One of the reasons I bought the nexus 7 in the first place.
bftb0 said:
By coincidence I was charging mine right now (82%), so I shut it down and looked at that battery animation. (I have the v4.18 bootloader & Dec '12 hardware) First the "lightning bolt" symbol shows up in the battery icon, and the a little later, it performs a "filling the battery up" animation. But here's the important part: when that animation runs on mine, it starts from nearly, but not quite full (mostly white, not all black)- about 82%.
Can't tell exactly from the way you described your situation, but this (again) sounds like your battery is either not charging, or the bq27451 charge controller is reporting the wrong battery state.
Unplug the battery and let it sit for a while before reconnecting. If you have a safe way to measure the battery voltage, do so. You'll know right away if the battery is charged and the charge controller chip is lying.
---------- Post added at 08:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 PM ----------
That is completely bizzare. The only way that a recovery can be started is via the bootloader. If the bootloader doesn't run, nothing can run. (The recovery is a booted kernel just as with the regular OS). Moreover, you saw the battery screen light up - if a recovery was (still) running, you would think something would show on the screen (although I guess recent versions of TWRP does screen blanking now). Very weird.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also fully charged the nexus 7 overnight. The battery icon now showed no animation because the battery was full (it first showed a picture of the lighting bolt battery, then a picture of a full battery) so I believe that the battery is working correctly.
patil215 said:
Can I have the links that you mentioned about users having identical symptoms that "fixed themselves"?
I really don't want to send it in for repairs if it's going to cost me. I'm a student with not much money to spare . One of the reasons I bought the nexus 7 in the first place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't make a record of them - you will need to search. What sounded very familiar was when you had said
patil215 said:
...black screen with little white sparks flickering...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I recall - probably imperfectly - was that most of those cases seemed to spontaneously resolve when the owner charged their battery. And since your story started out with "black screen and little white sparks flickering", and "low battery" it sounded quite similar.
The various folks who mentioned this said things like "white lines flashing", "like sparks", or "like snow on an old-fashioned TV screen". Don't know if that will help you search, but they are in this forum (Q&A).
I also don't know if their tablets were in one particular mode or another (judging from a PC connected to the tablet - a black screen on the tab doesn't tell you anything) - I don't think any of them reported this.
As I said previously, that Black and White Google logo is produced by the bootloader. I just started my tablet in APX mode right now, and while the "charging battery" icon shows up when using the APX cold-start sequence (Vol-Up+Power), that B&W Google (text) Logo does not show up on the screen - the tablet goes directly from battery charging to APX mode (detected by looking at the PC - device shows up under "Other devices -> APX" in the device manager; VID/PID pair USB\VID_0955&PID_7330&REV_0103
)
So, my point is that it sure seems like your bootloader is there and capable of at least starting up at least part way.
What if your Vol-Down button was not working and you had a borked "boot" partition? If you had that combination, the bootloader wouldn't go into fastboot mode, as it would never see the Vol-Down keypress... and if your boot partition was borked, then you would never get any boot accompanied by a black screen.
At this point I think you should try observing the behavior of the USB port from the PC while trying to start it up... and even though you've tried it before, see if you can get the fastboot screen to appear. Perhaps there is something funky going on with your Vol-down button.
good luck
bftb0 said:
I didn't make a record of them - you will need to search. What sounded very familiar was when you had said
What I recall - probably imperfectly - was that most of those cases seemed to spontaneously resolve when the owner charged their battery. And since your story started out with "black screen and little white sparks flickering", and "low battery" it sounded quite similar.
The various folks who mentioned this said things like "white lines flashing", "like sparks", or "like snow on an old-fashioned TV screen". Don't know if that will help you search, but they are in this forum (Q&A).
I also don't know if their tablets were in one particular mode or another (judging from a PC connected to the tablet - a black screen on the tab doesn't tell you anything) - I don't think any of them reported this.
As I said previously, that Black and White Google logo is produced by the bootloader. I just started my tablet in APX mode right now, and while the "charging battery" icon shows up when using the APX cold-start sequence (Vol-Up+Power), that B&W Google (text) Logo does not show up on the screen - the tablet goes directly from battery charging to APX mode (detected by looking at the PC - device shows up under "Other devices -> APX" in the device manager; VID/PID pair USB\VID_0955&PID_7330&REV_0103
)
So, my point is that it sure seems like your bootloader is there and capable of at least starting up at least part way.
What if your Vol-Down button was not working and you had a borked "boot" partition? If you had that combination, the bootloader wouldn't go into fastboot mode, as it would never see the Vol-Down keypress... and if your boot partition was borked, then you would never get any boot accompanied by a black screen.
At this point I think you should try observing the behavior of the USB port from the PC while trying to start it up... and even though you've tried it before, see if you can get the fastboot screen to appear. Perhaps there is something funky going on with your Vol-down button.
good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UPDATE!:
Not sure if this will help at all. But I ran adb -d reboot bootloader, and the device just turned off. Completely. I turned it on again by holding power for 15 seconds but I got the exact same thing as before (google with black screen following). Once the device was on and I connected it to Windows, windows said "Windows detected malfunctioning device". But I couldn't duplicate the results again. Running adb -d reboot bootloader just hangs.
patil215 said:
UPDATE!:
Not sure if this will help at all. But I ran adb -d reboot bootloader, and the device just turned off. Completely. I turned it on again by holding power for 15 seconds but I got the exact same thing as before (google with black screen following). Once the device was on and I connected it to Windows, windows said "Windows detected malfunctioning device". But I couldn't duplicate the results again. Running adb -d reboot bootloader just hangs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incredibly, extra-ordinarily bizzare. ADB on the tablet side is a daemon process that runs in userspace. You would need a completely functional kernel to be running on the tablet, and a functioning ramdisk too in order to communicate with the tablet. ADB does not talk to fastboot mode, nor any other mode of the bootloader.
IF YOU ARE REALLY SHUTTING YOUR DEVICE OFF AND THEN SOMETIME LATER YOU ARE ABLE TO TALK TO THE TABLET BY USING THE adb COMMAND (not fastboot), THAT MEANS THAT THE BOOTLOADER IS SUCCESSFULLY BOOTING SOME (unknown) LINUX KERNEL.
That truly beggars the question of why you are seeing anything on the screen after the google logo. Did the previous ROM not have a splash-screen?
Well, if you can communicate with ADB it might be appropriate to try:
adb reboot recovery
and see what this does.
If you can find the device in the Windows device manager, what would be really, really helpful would be the device VID/PID pair.
The way you do this is like this:
1) Identify the device in device manager; right-click on it and select "Properties"
2) Select the "Details" tab
3) In the "Property" Combo-box pulldown, select the Property Name"
Hardware Ids
If you can get those values we can identify exactly which mode the device is in. There is a decoder ring at the end of the first post in this thread
OK, I'm starting to get fatigued, as I offer up both things to attempt as well as avenues of exploration, and you seem to simply ignore all of it.
I know you have tried it several times, maybe even a million times. Please try both methods of starting the tablet to try and intercept the initial phase of the bootloader startup and see if you can get the tablet to go into fastboot mode.
It's OK to try it and fail. But in all this back-and-forth, not once have you said, "yes I tried it again and it still failed". Try it and report the result, even if it fails.
Please try it again - both methods. In the second method where you click the Vol-Down button only after you see the B&W "Google" text, you need to do it really quickly - and not let your finger off the Power button either for several seconds.
---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------
PS
The "-d" option to the adb command should only be needed if you were running an emulator via the Google SDK on the same PC.
If that were the case, when you ran the command
Code:
adb devices[/url]
you would see multiple lines of output indicating multiple devices on the machine - one for each running emulator, and one for the actual hardware device (so long as it is actually booted into a recovery or OS and you have the right drivers installed).
bftb0 said:
Incredibly, extra-ordinarily bizzare. ADB on the tablet side is a daemon process that runs in userspace. You would need a completely functional kernel to be running on the tablet, and a functioning ramdisk too in order to communicate with the tablet. ADB does not talk to fastboot mode, nor any other mode of the bootloader.
IF YOU ARE REALLY SHUTTING YOUR DEVICE OFF AND THEN SOMETIME LATER YOU ARE ABLE TO TALK TO THE TABLET BY USING THE adb COMMAND (not fastboot), THAT MEANS THAT THE BOOTLOADER IS SUCCESSFULLY BOOTING SOME (unknown) LINUX KERNEL.
That truly beggars the question of why you are seeing anything on the screen after the google logo. Did the previous ROM not have a splash-screen?
Well, if you can communicate with ADB it might be appropriate to try:
adb reboot recovery
and see what this does.
If you can find the device in the Windows device manager, what would be really, really helpful would be the device VID/PID pair.
The way you do this is like this:
1) Identify the device in device manager; right-click on it and select "Properties"
2) Select the "Details" tab
3) In the "Property" Combo-box pulldown, select the Property Name"
Hardware Ids
If you can get those values we can identify exactly which mode the device is in. There is a decoder ring at the end of the first post in this thread
OK, I'm starting to get fatigued, as I offer up both things to attempt as well as avenues of exploration, and you seem to simply ignore all of it.
I know you have tried it several times, maybe even a million times. Please try both methods of starting the tablet to try and intercept the initial phase of the bootloader startup and see if you can get the tablet to go into fastboot mode.
It's OK to try it and fail. But in all this back-and-forth, not once have you said, "yes I tried it again and it still failed". Try it and report the result, even if it fails.
Please try it again - both methods. In the second method where you click the Vol-Down button only after you see the B&W "Google" text, you need to do it really quickly - and not let your finger off the Power button either for several seconds.
---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------
PS
The "-d" option to the adb command should only be needed if you were running an emulator via the Google SDK on the same PC.
If that were the case, when you ran the command
Code:
adb devices[/url]
you would see multiple lines of output indicating multiple devices on the machine - one for each running emulator, and one for the actual hardware device (so long as it is actually booted into a recovery or OS and you have the right drivers installed).[/QUOTE]
Sorry for not indicating the results of all of your suggestions.
Believe me, I have probably tried both of your button combinations at least two dozen times already. And I have gone down every avenue of exploration that you've suggested.
I've even tried every single one of the button combinations in the thread of nexus 7 button combinations. When I do anything from when the device is on, after 5 seconds or so the device turns off. Then the tablet shows the Google screen for about 5 seconds, no matter what I do. After the google screen comes a blank black screen (I can tell the device is still on because it's illuminated black, different from if the device was dead or powered off). There's not even a way I can get the tablet to power off - it just automatically restarts even if it's not connected to power, so I have to let it die or do a battery pull if I want to fix it. The black screen remains there indefinitely (until the battery runs out of course).
I've tried disconnecting the battery, leaving it disconnected for 30 minutes, connecting the device to power with the battery disconnected, having the buttons held down and connecting the tablet to wall power and USB pc, and different chargers. Nothing gives me a different result. The battery is alive and working, and the voltimeter did give me a current, sorry for not posting that earlier. About the random sparks/snow, there is really no pattern to when these appear, although they might be more frequent (but it might just be me) after a battery pull or full battery discharge.
Remember, I used to be able to access the bootloader but that stopped working for some reason. I'm kicking myself right now for not restoring the tablet when I was able to access bootloader, but I was busy at the time.
I've had some experience with rooting, locking, and unlocking other android devices, but this is something extremely weird.
Also, I should have posted the hardware ID's of the device before. I had done the exact same thing as you suggested when I was trying to install an adb driver for the nexus 7 (had to jump through a lot of hoops to get it working on win8, goddamn win8). The hardware ID's are USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001&REV_9999 and USB\Vid_18D1&PID_D001. According to the guide this means the device is in custom recovery, which makes sense because I was running Cyanogenmod 10 with clockworkmod recovery. If normally booting into the OS, the tablet should be giving me the default animated Cyanogenmod splash screen. Perhaps this issue is a bug with clockworkmod recovery?
I know that -d is to target a specific device, however I pulled up adb and went through each command methodically (really tedious) to see which ones would work. For some reason adb -d reboot-bootloader was the only thing that gave me a response, and even that won't do anything anymore (it just hangs, same with any other adb command). adb reboot recovery hangs also, and any fastboot command gives me waiting for device. Since I've installed a driver for it, in device manager the device shows up as Android phone and Android Composite ADB Interface. Windows tells me it's working properly (really? I'm not so sure windows).
I'd like to apologize for not indicating the results of trying your suggestions. Believe me, I have been trying them! I've spent probably a total of 12 hours trying to get this damn tablet fixed.
I'd also like to thank you. Without people like you this forum would not be any good. I am really grateful for any advice even if it does not work.
I know this is a hell of a problem. No goddamn clue how this happened. I love android but I sincerely hope that this is a clockworkmod recovery problem because otherwise that would make it a mistake on Google's (and therefore android's part). I know that the battery issues are quite frequent on android 4.2.2, but I have yet to find another user with my symptoms.
Lastly, do you know of some way to lock the device or destroy evidence of having the bootloader unlocked without being able to access the bootloader, in case this can't be fixed and I have to send it in for repair?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
patil215,
Whew. That took you some time to write - thanks for all the details.
The USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001 USB Device Id sure does look like the custom recovery. I will assume - unless you say differently - that you would see this VID/PID pair any time you had the "black screen but with the backlight on".
Android uses this thing called the "BCB" (Boot Communications Block) to write instructions for the bootloader about what it should do when it starts up the next time. In the absence of seeing this, no doubt the bootloader has a default behavior. But basically, the way this works is that a "reboot" command eventually causes the kernel to write into this non-volatile memory area, and then a soft hardware reset occurs. The bootloader is aware of the BCB, and under normal circumstances, it will read it and attempt to follow the indicated boot mode - and then either erase the BCB or fill it with the "default booting instructions" just prior to booting a kernel or special-purpose mode previously indicated. In this way it will return to it's default behavior the next time it is booted.
The reason I mention it is that I have seen on other devices that got borked (HTC Droid Eris) in a way that sometimes those phones would always jump into a particular booting mode - and ignore any hard-button presses that would normally cause the bootloader to follow a different path. The Eris had/has "bootloader", "fastboot", and "OEM" modes and sometimes borked devices would not boot into anything other than the OEM mode.
So, since you apparently are seeing some evidence that a partially-functioning recovery is running, that sounds like a very similar scenario - the Asus bootloader is always booting to your (damaged?) recovery.
So, that's materially different (I think) than what other folks might have experienced it. The first time I've seen it here, although TBH I've only been looking in here for a little less than 3 months.
I don't know what else to suggest - it sounds like maybe you've tried things like "adb shell" commands?
If the bootloader can't be forced into fastboot mode, that (possibly damaged) recovery mode is the only privileged thing you have left. It seems to me that if you can't get into that somehow - adb being the most obvious route - then there is little left to do.
No, I don't know how to relock the bootloader without using the bootloader. That's probably something that can only be done with factory methods (possibly in APX mode).
Sorry.
Been trying for hours now to try and sort out an issue I am having. My S4 is damaged, the phone works but the screen and digitizer is broken. I want to check a few sms messages, access and control the phone from my PC and basically make a complete clone/image of my phone. I cannot for the life of my figure out how to do this.
I use windows 7, I have installed SDK tools, have ADB/fastbook etc. Device isn't found with ADB. Spent hours reading information about installing correct drivers, which I have done. No luck what so ever. The phone is not rooted, developers tools is not on, usb debugging is not on either.
I am starting to think this is a lost battle as I cannot sort this out.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Bump.
Anyone? Is there no way to solve this problem? Tearing my hair out.
Best bet (given ADB doesn't work) would be to root the phone & get a custom recovery on (via Odin; this is might be very difficult if you can't somehow have the phone & PC recognise each other - you don't need to have had debugging on though) then do a nandroid backup (someone using the same recovery/version might be able to walk you through the button presses.
What S4 variant (model number) are we talking about ?
MistahBungle said:
Best bet (given ADB doesn't work) would be to root the phone & get a custom recovery on (via Odin; this is might be very difficult if you can't somehow have the phone & PC recognise each other - you don't need to have had debugging on though) then do a nandroid backup (someone using the same recovery/version might be able to walk you through the button presses.
What S4 variant (model number) are we talking about ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GT-I9505 is the model number that is displayed behind the battery. The screen is broke and so is the touchscreen (completely black). I tried to figure out via ODIN but that wouldn't recognise the phone either. I assumed you'd need to boot in recovery/download mode but because I cannot see anything on screen, when I do the volume down, home and power thing I do not know what to do next so the phone boots up normally. I know this because I have unread SMS and when phone loads my SMS tone goes off.
Really not sure how to get around this.
You're going to have to get it into DL mode somehow (don't need to use home button on S4, just vol down/power); try a jig. Once you've done that, then you need to get the phone & PC to recognise each other. If you're having problems with that, prepare to continue to do a lot more reading/trying stuff if you're having PC-side driver issues (there's a lot of threads on here re: the issue). There's also an 'Odin troubleshooting' guide in S2 General by Hopper8 which is worth looking at as much of the stuff he suggests also holds true for the S4 (except the firmware stuff, which is obviously different).
There's not going to be any quick & easy in this instance, I'm afraid. It's going to be hard work.
Edit - Also..USB board/port on the phone might also be damaged, so when you reach the point of having tried everything on the PC-side & everything you can possibly try on the phone-side, replace the USB board/port on the phone. This is quick/easy/cheap (<US$20) to do & might just enable you to get things done where everything else has failed.
Extra edit - And...A jig working (getting you into DL mode) or not is probably a good test of whether the USB board/port on the phone is still good; I.E if the jig works, the board/port is probably still good, if it doesn't, the board/port might be shot as well.
The USB is fine because when I plug the phone in when in normal boot it recognises the data storage. I will try to boot in DL mode. Are there any gestures my S4 will do when booting in DL? Vibrations? As I cannot see anything on screen that will indicate it's worked. I think that once I can get the phone to work with ODIN/ADB I will be good to go as I am relatively tech savvy.
Nope. You're going to by flying blind so far as having no screen/no vibrations in DL mode goes. You're going to be relying on the jig working, and once you hook it up to the PC & fire up Odin, you'll know straight away whether you've got a successful connection up & running (as screenshots in the many Odin guides on here will show you).
I see, will just have to keep trying.
So on the S4 it's hold power and volume up, then wait? or do I need to press anything else afterwards? Or is it power and volume down?
Thanks
No luck with download mode. Girlfriend has a note 2, and her method is Vol down, home and power button. Screen comes up almost immediately with confirmation. Volume up needs to be pressed to confirm. Tried to replicate with S4, no avail.
No luck with starting S4 in download mode. I have followed video on youtube. Supposed to be Vol Down, Home and Power button. Wait till vibrate and warning screen, then press up. Because I cannot see the screen I cannot see the warning screen. But I Hold for 4 seconds, release just after vibrate and then press up, but phone seems to boot up in normal mode.
Ok, finally in download mode, now what? I know it works because it installed new drivers and device manager states a samsung modem. Need to try and clone and do what I need to do ASAP and taking to store tomorrow to exchange for new one.
Any last minute ideas?
Thanks
ODIN3 v1.85 shows a yellow box, this is good right? I downloaded CWM from http://galaxys4root.com/clockworkmodtwrp-recoveries/
What do I need to do next, do not want to make this worse, I just need to enable usb debugging or at least be able to use adb, I am good to go from there
Only a few hours left? Surely someone knows what Flash I need to do to allow me adb access???
Right, go into recovery mode...adb now works.
What do I need to do to enable debugging?
Edit:
I can't get adb to work... error: closed
any ideas
If you cant get adb to work in recovery then youre out of luck.
Incase this happens with new phone, always have a remote access app like Cerberus installed. MightyText is a pretty nice app too.
I see, ok no worries. Thank you anyways
I think I'm bricked. My shield is stuck in a simple bootloop and should be considered a softbrick. I can't seem to get into fastboot. Forget adb, that's not responding, but I'm still getting the android boot logo. I've tried so many ways. Holding the button, mashing the bettenbetter, plugging at the brick, power at the console, just about everything. Anyone figure out how to get into fastboot with hardware? If so, please let me know or I'll be throwing this out. It just won't seem to respond to fastboot. Such a shame.
EDIT: Android figured it out somehow and just booted, but I'd still like to know how to get into fastboot for when I'm not so lucky next time. Or any other way to get into recovery.
EDIT 2: Thought I posted this in troubleshooting. My mobile data was lagging somethinf fearce. Sorry.
It can be tricky mate. The way I did it was to unplug the device and then put the power cable back it. As soon as you plug the power cable back in hold the power button down until the fastboot menu appears. It took me a few tries. Of course if you have adb working the easiest way is "adb reboot bootloader"
baileyjr said:
It can be tricky mate. The way I did it was to unplug the device and then put the power cable back it. As soon as you plug the power cable back in hold the power button down until the fastboot menu appears. It took me a few tries. Of course if you have adb working the easiest way is "adb reboot bootloader"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done it once before, but it didn't work the way that their confusing instructions said. I'll give that a shot though. When android just flat out won't boot enough to access ADB, it can be problematic.
kdb424 said:
I have done it once before, but it didn't work the way that their confusing instructions said. I'll give that a shot though. When android just flat out won't boot enough to access ADB, it can be problematic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It certainly doesn't help that there isn't a physical button on the Sheild, so your not absolutely sure your pressing in the right place after re-inserting the power cable.
In my experience the whole button is sensitive, bit that's still a pain. I have no problems booting my phone to recovery or fastboot, but that's just nuts. Oh well. Hopefully teh learned something as I'm sure their techs are complaining too. It is a consumer device, so I guess I can't be too mad, but still, they expect us to reflash before an RMA when needed sometimes, and that's not fair to ask with thes device lol.
I have the same issue here. I was able to get in fastboot hardware wise a bunch of times before. Now I think the device is done. I've tried every combination. What's weird is I did get a flicker of the bootloader continuing once. What could have changed that the bootloader is not responding anymore? How did you get lucky, let it sit there loading for a day? I've tried to see if fastboot commands can reboot the bootloader when I plug it in timing it correctly. So frustrating.
Yesterday from many many trying times I did it only once and don't wanna go cross again and don't ask me how I don't know how and still don't know how. I did everything by "book/instructions" finally give up and just randomly (panicly ) pressing / holding finger on it, power on / off...and then somehow bootloader screen appear. That should be fix by Nvidia
Sent from my SM-G925K using XDA Free mobile app
---------- Post added at 09:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 AM ----------
I hope some developers out there will create some magic solution how enter easily in bootloader mode, like using micro sd ports some modded scripts or usb ports where in plugged in mode console entering bootloader mode or recovery etc.
Sent from my SM-G925K using XDA Free mobile app
Glad I'm not the only one having issues. I've been trying everything with no luck. I'll give it a few more tries and then It's going back. Following Nvidia's instructions is BS. There is obviously an issue going on here that needs to be fixed.
mow4cash said:
Glad I'm not the only one having issues. I've been trying everything with no luck. I'll give it a few more tries and then It's going back. Following Nvidia's instructions is BS. There is obviously an issue going on here that needs to be fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will definately go into fastboot, it's just a matter of timing. It's really tight. In the end I stopped following their directions and just tried a bunch of random stuff. I tried so much I don't know what worked, but doing what they said wasn't working for me.
kdb424 said:
It will definately go into fastboot, it's just a matter of timing. It's really tight. In the end I stopped following their directions and just tried a bunch of random stuff. I tried so much I don't know what worked, but doing what they said wasn't working for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here - finally haotic random pressing / unplugging and at the end done only once
Sent from my SM-G925K using XDA Free mobile app
Im also in the same boat
Just tried to flash stock 2.1 and Full android 2.1 and now the shield wont boot into anything
Im trying the hardware bootloader method but thats not working so far.........ive just unplugged everything, and giving it a while before i keep trying.........i suspect i might have to try rma......that'll be fun...........(im implying, that it wont)
Same here, mine is stuck on on screen and stating production fused , and couple of options like recovery kernel forced recovery, none works fallowed nvidia instructions , tried downloading SDKS And followed commands nothing working , as well tried holding power button , and unplugging and nothing works, I will try what you guys did and see maybe I get lucky somehow
I have a Shield TV power device but the screen is black and I can not go to the Hardw
I have a Shield TV power device but the screen is black and I can not go to the Hardware Bootloader Access:crying::crying::crying:
Same here - when I plug int he power the green light comes on for about half a second then goes off.
Quite infuriating really.
I get a screen that sasys "continue booting..." and then it loads normally do I need to let go once it says this or should I continue to hold?
I've dealt with a few bricked phones in the past that have been a simple fix through ADB/Recovery, but this one really perplexes me.
So I get work, place my phone on the desk, and a few minuets into the day I see it re-boot out of the corner of my eye. It's not something to be expected but this has happened a few time over the 5 months I've had this phone so I think nothing of it.
But 5 minuets later its still looping on the Google logo. So hold down the sleep button to shut it down, still loops. The only thing I have done to this phone is unlock the bootloader through the command prompt and install a stock Nougat image straight from Google
Using the hardware keys I can get into the the bootloader, but that's it. "Recovery Mode" option sends the phone back into a loop so I can't reset the phone to factory (though ideally I would like to save the thousands of photos on the device) or enable USB Debugging as I can't get into Android.
I have Googles Android USB Driver installed, Windows 10 chimes when I plug it in, It appears in Device Manager as "Android Bootloader Interface" but I have not been able to get it to show in the terminal with ADB. I have also tried on a Windows 7 and OSX Laptop.
I am completely dumbfounded, any help/ideas would be amazing!
Thank you
BrickOfNexus said:
I've dealt with a few bricked phones in the past that have been a simple fix through ADB/Recovery, but this one really perplexes me.
So I get work, place my phone on the desk, and a few minuets into the day I see it re-boot out of the corner of my eye. It's not something to be expected but this has happened a few time over the 5 months I've had this phone so I think nothing of it.
But 5 minuets later its still looping on the Google logo. So hold down the sleep button to shut it down, still loops. The only thing I have done to this phone is unlock the bootloader through the command prompt and install a stock Nougat image straight from Google
Using the hardware keys I can get into the the bootloader, but that's it. "Recovery Mode" option sends the phone back into a loop so I can't reset the phone to factory (though ideally I would like to save the thousands of photos on the device) or enable USB Debugging as I can't get into Android.
I have Googles Android USB Driver installed, Windows 10 chimes when I plug it in, It appears in Device Manager as "Android Bootloader Interface" but I have not been able to get it to show in the terminal with ADB. I have also tried on a Windows 7 and OSX Laptop.
I am completely dumbfounded, any help/ideas would be amazing!
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi... There is no available fix for the moment. Check this thread. You are not alone
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/help/boot-loop-death-nexus-6p-t3533528/page19
BrickOfNexus said:
... Using the hardware keys I can get into the the bootloader, but that's it. "Recovery Mode" option sends the phone back into a loop so I can't reset the phone to factory (though ideally I would like to save the thousands of photos on the device) or enable USB Debugging as I can't get into Android....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately @5.1 is right. The common denominator of the BLOD (many threads on this) is the inability to get into recovery mode by any means. ADB doesn't work unless in recovery. Without ADB you will not be able to pull anything off the phone. At least you are unlocked so you can try some tools and/or manually attempt to fastboot boot or fastboot flash a custom recovery and get ADB working, but chances are almost non-existent. Some ppl have been able to briefly get back into recovery on completely full charge, but it seems to start boot looping again shortly afterwards from recovery. Hopefully you were using Photos and synced recently. If you bought direct from Google, contact them even if out of warranty. If they won't help you or you didn't buy from Google, approach Huawei for an RMA.
I was in your situation and was able to flash the full stock image (flash-all.bat command) even though my device didn't show up on ABD--but maybe I just got lucky. I thought there was no chance it would work but it did. Some people reported getting out of the boot loop using Skipsoft's tool but most likely you will need to RMA the device if it's still under warranty from Huawei. Sorry to hear you have been added to this club. There are a lot of lemon 6Ps that die because of hardware issues (according to Google) and they clearly don't care because they never recalled the affected devices. I was hoping it was just the early generation phones but if yours is 5 months old that means the problem is persisting. None of these things might still be running in a couple years which is ridiculous for a premium phone. Makes you think twice about buying another phone from Google since they threw 6p owners under the bus rather than offering 6P owners a credit or something for their defective 6Ps. Good luck. At this point I think people need to create a class action suit against Google. That's the only way people got repairs or compensation from Apple the numerous times they pulled stuff like this with defective products. Why should Google get away with selling what they themselves admit is a defective phone?
Hi everyone,
You can probably guess where this is going. I bricked my Axon 7 Mini B2017G.
Yesterday I had the genius idea that I was going to do something awesome with my phone, so I went into recovery and flashed a file called "emmc_appsboot.mbn" but unfortunately it was until only afterwards that I discovered that it was for the A2017G, which I think is the not-mini version of the phone, and I probably have the B2017G. And let's assume that as of yesterday, I knew absolutely NOTHING about smart phones. I can press the power button and get nothing. No boot. No recovery. No backups.
What I've tried:
I cannot get into the same mode I did yesterday that lets me flash files from an sd card, which I think is called Recovery Mode.
I can get into a mode that says FASTBOOT MODE by holding the up and down arrows, which I think is called EDL Mode.
In EDL Mode, it says "DEVICE STATE - locked" in scary red letters.
In EDL Mode, ADB doesn't work, because I think ADB is much higher level, like some application on the OS that you talk to via networking protocols?
The fastboot command doesn't work, because it gives me an error that OEM unlock isn't allowed.
The Axon7Tool doesn't work because it can't detect the phone, maybe because it's looking for the non-mini version?
The MiFlash tool is the ONLY thing that can detect my phone! This must be important but:
I've tried shoving dozens of zip files into MiFlash from the interwebs, but they all give me an error that it couldn't find a bat file named "flash_all_except_data_storage".
There are so many versions of MiFlash available - some are versioned by date, some look kinda like major.minor.revision, and they're all anywhere between 20%-100% in Chinese (which I thought I couldn't read, but somehow I think the buttons "Next", "Prev", and "Do the things" are the same in every human language now).
When I look up information about MiFlash, it sounds like it's for another company that's not ZTE!
But when I look up information about unbricking the non-mini, XDA forum guides say to use MiFlash!
That one website Host with all the Files and the Androids, doesn't have any files for the Axon 7 Mini.
I am NOT opening up my phone case. At worst, I'm going to RMA my phone in and pretend that I was taking a vacation to... Upper Michigan(?)... and that it was on hold at the post office and found out it was a lemon when I opened it. Because science.
I barely have any Internet - only for a few hours a day, with varying degrees of dialup slowness, and various degrees of all the good websites are blocked (yes - sometimes all of the proxies).
Also... please don't assume I have certain things installed such as adb, fastboot, miflash, etc. Please let me know exactly what I need, where, and what versions. This is because I have less than ideal computer access.
MiFlash must be the key! It sounds to me like the parts ZTE used to make the phone has a secret hidden backdoor built into the USB jack where if you send certain commands, it opens up a tunnel somehow (potentially a serial connection?) that goes straight into the phone's insides, with no limitations, that they probably use to do... put software on the phone in the factory???
But what is this .bat file that it needs? What do windows files have to do with my weird-linux-java phone? Where can i get the correct boot files to put on my phone and how can I shove them into MiFlash so that it works? Can I steal these files from somewhere, or fashion them somehow, or get them from one of you guys? Am I doing something completely wrong? What other information can I give you to help me better? How can I unbrick my phone? I know it must be possible! (without cracking open the case and poking 5V wires into various places)
Please help me urgently! Thank you, you all have my eternal gratitude <3
EDIT 2018.05.17 21:00+0000:
So I found a script file on the interwebs with the same name that MiFlash is looking for - "flash_all_except_data_storage" - and all it contains is a bunch of fastboot commands that appear to flash individual files to separate ...sections? ...paritions?? One of them is even the file that I borked - the "emmc_appsboot.mbn" file. What does MiFlash have to do with fastboot? When I had tried to do fastboot before, I wasn't allowed to modify the device. Where can I get the correct emmc_appsboot file for my specific device? And am I on the right track? How do these things fit together and how do I use these things?
EDIT 2018.05.18 01:30+0000
There's so many conflicting guides on the Internet... is the mode that I'm booting into by holding down both volume buttons with the words "FASTBOOT MODE" actually called bootloader mode? If so, how do I get into EDL!?!?!?! Help pls.
EDIT 2018.05.18 03:00+0000:
I tried bs-ing the script file that MiFlash is looking for and it appears that the only thing MiFlash does is run fastboot for me! That's not helpful at all because fastboot can't flash!! I'm beginning to believe that I'm not actually in EDL mode. How do I get into EDL??
If you have the US model, entering EDL mode is done (while the phone is off) by holding down the Volume Up and Down keys at the same time while plugging the phone into your computer, and afterwards, continuing to hold down the keys for at least 3 more seconds, then letting go.
Note that there will be no indication that EDL mode is on; no lights, screen is completely off, and no sounds/vibrations whatsoever. The only way to identify whether your device is in EDL mode is via tuliptool (which you can find in the ROM/Development section for this phone) or through your computer's device manager.
Good luck, I hope this helped.
Oh. My. Goodness. Thank you so much for replying!!!!
So I was initially correct in thinking that EDL is the volume up and volume down and then plugging in. That's EXACTLY what I've been doing, but when I do it, I get to a screen with a lot / some text on it as I've briefly described before.
The screen has, notably, words in red text that say "FASTBOOT MODE". It also presents me with an invisible menu that I can scroll with the volume keys - "Start" in green, "Restart bootloader" in red, "Recovery mode" in red, and "Power off" in white. I'm assuming that I can select an option with the power button - selecting "Power off" correctly, well, powers off my phone. Selecting "Restart bootloader" seems to restart my phone into the same mode. Select the other options gets my phone into a... bootloop? It's when my phone has an underscore in the very lower right, just a few pixels wide, that appears for a bit and disappears again, followed by a very short vibration before it repeats.
In this mode, it presents itself to my computer as a USB device vendor 0x18d1 (which my computer calls Google) product 0xd00d (which my computer calls "Android Bootloader Interface"). I dunno how you guys write out these USB codes sorry.
Does this mean that I have the EU version? I really hope not! Is there any way I can check? What do I do if it is the EU version?
JoeGatto said:
If you have the US model, entering EDL mode is done (while the phone is off) by holding down the Volume Up and Down keys at the same time while plugging the phone into your computer, and afterwards, continuing to hold down the keys for at least 3 more seconds, then letting go.
Note that there will be no indication that EDL mode is on; no lights, screen is completely off, and no sounds/vibrations whatsoever. The only way to identify whether your device is in EDL mode is via tuliptool (which you can find in the ROM/Development section for this phone) or through your computer's device manager.
Good luck, I hope this helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So....
I got my phone working again. (and bonus points for it now being unlocked... yay!) But of course not rooted, darn.
I'm not ungrateful for the help from everybody in the XDA community, quite the opposite - everything here has been super helpful and it goes without saying that I wouldn't have been able to fix my phone without all of your help. But in my humble/honest opinion... forums are the wrong place for all of this. Unless I completely missed a whole website you guys are hiding somewhere? I think you're all doing this wrong.
Whenever a forum post/guide, sticky or not, says, "download this software and press this button", that's completely wrong - it's nonsense. Devices simply don't work like that. Same for, "hold these buttons for x seconds", "go to this menu and enable this", "install this thing then replace this with that", etc. That's not how it's actually done. I can kinda guess why the XDA community doesn't care about any of that. You have your developers that make roms, then you have you the other folk that install the roms. Sometimes. And other times brick their phones.
From my understanding, humans have spent the last few decades (at LEAST) actually taking a look at technology - dividing it up into little pieces and giving each one a name. Now that you can name them, you have (more) power over them. These little pieces all connect with each other in some way. There are also collections of pieces that operate together to perform some sort of function. Understanding how specific pieces fit together and function together gives one the ability to modify them.
In my mind, there needs to be a collection of these... names... in a simple format that lists precisely what each piece does, and what other name-pieces interact with....
...
Well then! As I was about to wrap up my post, I came across this little gem - https://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Main_Page - so you people were hiding such a website this whole time! You won't believe how silly I had felt when I discovered that website. Wow, I must be pretty stupid. I was bumbling around on the forums this whole time like an idiot.
The XDA Wiki has the potential to be an amazing source of good, an even better version of the amazing pool of knowledge that you all have here on the forums. I just wish that there was more content to it! The wiki has absolutely no mention of the words B2017G, Axon 7 Mini, or even the Axon 7. It would have been such a treasure if the wiki had actual information on it. Whoever is actively working on the wiki - keep up the great work that you're doing.
Please add more information to the wiki! It could help so many people.
Well, that is all. Peace everybody.
Hi buddy,
I can easely understand the frustration you got. I have this axon mini just to play/have fun testing new roms, etc...
Recently I got the same issue you had before: I mean black screen, no led, no battery charge, nothing except this Quadcomm drviers.
Good point are :
- Miflash is running & is recognizing the phone
- Windows is also recognizing the phone
Bad points are:
- ADB do not recognize the axon
- No flashtool also
May I kindly ask you the methodology you used in order to wake up this phone ?
I've the B2016G
thx
Nathan4 said:
XDA Wiki: https://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Main_Page
The XDA Wiki has the potential to be an amazing source of good, an even better version of the amazing pool of knowledge that you all have here on the forums. I just wish that there was more content to it! [...] It would have been such a treasure if the wiki had actual information on it. Whoever is actively working on the wiki - keep up the great work that you're doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Nathan4 - "To be able to create or edit pages, you must be registered as a user at xda developers." - So you can add your knowledge to the Wiki for a start!