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Hi everyone!
I'm wondering, how risky it is to flash new firmware to the tab? Is it really brickable, I mean, is it possible to really really brick the tab to a point where it's not possible to fix it? I'm asking partly because I'm a rookie, but mostly because it seems that everyone who manages to brick their tab around here, is somehow able to restore it. Or am I mistaken?
Where I live, the tab has a starting price of $1100. And thats gotta be one of the most expensive bricks in xda history. And if I brick mine, I know I won't be able to resist buying a new one, which adds ut to a $2200 pricetag and a very VERY angry gf..
thanks btw to all of you who make this place what it is
As risky as any other device. Simple. The risk doesnt just lay on the devices shoulders, its the user and the rom maker.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
Okay, I'm so confused with the brick-terminology being used here. In all posts regardig new firmware to the tab you'll see at least to guys saying that they bricked their tab. Only to say that they fixed it/unbricked it moments later.
I thought that if you bricked your device, whatever device it is, then it's dead, period. No more usefull than a brick like the ones you'll find in a brick wall, just a hell of a lot more expensive. Heck, the word "unbrick" shouldn't even exist by this definition.
So, let me rephrase:
If I brick my tab, can't I just unbrick it? And if not, why? Is it even possible for the tab to be totally and permanently bricked forever? Is the tab in any way safer to fool around with than other devices? Do we know anyone who have bricked their tab permanently? Should I be afraid of fooling around with my tabs firmware for real?
I think it's just a question of perception on the part of the person who "bricked" their device (the "brickie"? ). If you flash and find that you have what appears to be a dead device then you may well come on here and say "I've bricked my device!". You may then find that it's not bricked at all as there is a way (previously unknown to yourself) to recover. I remember in the old days on here people would pick up "bricked" phones on ebay etc, knowing that quite often they could recover them. It probably still happens...
But devices certainly can get permanently bricked too as you know. Personally, I would only flash if I had confidence in myself that it would work, having read up on the procedure and seen enough working examples. Others may just dive in and see what happens . Only you can decide if it's worth the risk or not, but these days I think it's quite rare to permanently brick a device if you fully understand the procedures and the risks. A stable recovery ROM makes a big difference. Not sure if the SGT has that yet.
paulshields said:
A stable recovery ROM makes a big difference. Not sure if the SGT has that yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's in the works, just not quite there yet.
As Paul said, there's always going to be a risk it COULD happen. But following documentation and fully understanding the task at hand before diving in helps to limit the risks to a minimum.
Thanks to all of you for enlightening me
When I was flashing the different files to get calling on my ATT Tab I managed to flash the wrong file and get the device not to boot up but there was still the "download mode" to go into and I was then able to flash the correct file. I find it is very rare to actually "brick" a device requiring the device to be replaced or cracked open & reprogrammed manually. Most of the time now when a device is described as a brick it just won't boot the OS like it is normally supposed to.
paulshields said:
I think it's just a question of perception on the part of the person who "bricked" their device (the "brickie"? ). If you flash and find that you have what appears to be a dead device then you may well come on here and say "I've bricked my device!". You may then find that it's not bricked at all as there is a way (previously unknown to yourself) to recover. I remember in the old days on here people would pick up "bricked" phones on ebay etc, knowing that quite often they could recover them. It probably still happens...
But devices certainly can get permanently bricked too as you know. Personally, I would only flash if I had confidence in myself that it would work, having read up on the procedure and seen enough working examples. Others may just dive in and see what happens . Only you can decide if it's worth the risk or not, but these days I think it's quite rare to permanently brick a device if you fully understand the procedures and the risks. A stable recovery ROM makes a big difference. Not sure if the SGT has that yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol @ "brickie" - I guess you have to be British to get that one?
As for "bricking" , quite right, the device isn't "bricked" if it can be fixed by the user.
People have gotten sloppy with the term, but really it means that you could build a house with it if it were fat enough, but it's no more useful than an expensive paperweight.
The worst you can do without bricking is boot-loop/no-boot which can usually be fixed. The point is, if the device shows any signs of life whatsoever, it's usually fixable.
I thought I bricked my tab, I got the infamous "phone-!-pc" screen
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Samsung_Galaxy_S_Black_Screen_of_Death.jpg
I thought I was screwed. However, I still had it connected via USB and Odin still running and I saw that the com port popped up. I though, hmmmm
clicky and bam, its flashing.
Got it back.
This was after a stupid botched flash attempt on my part.
So, I think you REALLY gotta mess it up to be proper "bricked"
I did a lots of tries and I thing that is not that easy to brick, but I can give a suggestion: Backup the EFS folder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I deleted by mistake with root explorer the nv_data and relatives backups, and I had a corrupted IMEI that is not a brick but I think is one of the bad things (and hard to recover if not impossible if you don't have a backup) because if the carriers ban double IMEI the phone (tab) will not work + is not legal
Forgot to say: seems that some SGS firmware upgrades corrupted the IMEI too, I didn't see something flashing the TAB, but restoring the EFS folder will fix (almost always) the problems
I have not tried to brick my GT, but the JM6 gave me a scare... I have been flashing it for a while now.
The one thing you have to give up for now is SWYPE. I se you have a norwegian flag... And norwegian is not included in any flash I have found. So if you ever decide to try flashing. Say goodbye to SWYPE in norwegian for now...
Yeah, the loss of the Norwegian keyboard is the only thing stopping me from flashing jm6. Lucky for me, I'm very patient.
Sent from my HeTC Desire using XDA App
Apparently, you can brick it. I succeeded !
I flashed with Odin and a custom made PDA package including boot.bin but no repartition.
Odin flashed without problems but the Tab did not reboot and simply 'died'.
Black screen all the time, no recovery/download mode, not seen by the PC, does not charge on ac/dc (neither the charger or the PDA ever gets hot, no sound on connection, ...).
I'm letting the battery discharge completely (but how long can that take when it's not using any energy...) to test again tomorrow but I will probably RMA it on monday.
One thing that concerns me is not being able to remove the battery to force the phone to shut down completely.
As an example when I originally 'bricked' my SGS using Kies, no matter how many times I powered the phone it simply refused to go into Recovery or Download mode. All it would do was show me the two icons on screen.
The only way I managed to totally shut the phone down was by removing the battery and wait 30 seconds before returning. Only then would the SGS allow me to access the 3-Button Recovery/Download Mode.
So..... has anyone come across a situation where you needed to remove the battery and if so how did you manage to recover?
Beards said:
One thing that concerns me is not being able to remove the battery to force the phone to shut down completely.
As an example when I originally 'bricked' my SGS using Kies, no matter how many times I powered the phone it simply refused to go into Recovery or Download mode. All it would do was show me the two icons on screen.
The only way I managed to totally shut the phone down was by removing the battery and wait 30 seconds before returning. Only then would the SGS allow me to access the 3-Button Recovery/Download Mode.
So..... has anyone come across a situation where you needed to remove the battery and if so how did you manage to recover?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The worst I have done is get the device in the "Phone---!----PC" mode where you can't enter "Download Mode". It seems that simply flashing a new PIT file and then forcing it off, it will then enter download mode again.
alias_neo said:
The worst I have done is get the device in the "Phone---!----PC" mode where you can't enter "Download Mode". It seems that simply flashing a new PIT file and then forcing it off, it will then enter download mode again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A little un-nerving isn't it... I have deep thoughts of not being able to get the Tab to drop out of memory by not being able to remove the battery and flush.
Beards said:
One thing that concerns me is not being able to remove the battery to force the phone to shut down completely.
As an example when I originally 'bricked' my SGS using Kies, no matter how many times I powered the phone it simply refused to go into Recovery or Download mode. All it would do was show me the two icons on screen.
The only way I managed to totally shut the phone down was by removing the battery and wait 30 seconds before returning. Only then would the SGS allow me to access the 3-Button Recovery/Download Mode.
So..... has anyone come across a situation where you needed to remove the battery and if so how did you manage to recover?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that when you leave/turn "USB Debugging" on in Applications -> Development, it is fairly save. As long as you are near a computer with adb installed and you have your usb cable within reach, you can reboot the device into recovery with adb reboot recovery or just reboot with adb reboot.
Another way is of course to let the battery run out of power, charge it and reboot.
appelflap said:
I think that when you leave/turn "USB Debugging" on in Applications -> Development, it is fairly save. As long as you are near a computer with adb installed and you have your usb cable within reach, you can reboot the device into recovery with adb reboot recovery or just reboot with adb reboot.
Another way is of course to let the battery run out of power, charge it and reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying that the Tab will accept an "adb reboot" in it's unresponsive black screen state or some other? I'v not yet come across a state where just holding power didn't turn it off.
appelflap said:
I think that when you leave/turn "USB Debugging" on in Applications -> Development, it is fairly save. As long as you are near a computer with adb installed and you have your usb cable within reach, you can reboot the device into recovery with adb reboot recovery or just reboot with adb reboot.
Another way is of course to let the battery run out of power, charge it and reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Running down the battery is an option... but it would take an age seeing as you're not doing anything with the phone except looking at two icons on a black screen.
alias_neo said:
Are you saying that the Tab will accept an "adb reboot" in it's unresponsive black screen state or some other? I'v not yet come across a state where just holding power didn't turn it off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That thought passed me by as well.
alias_neo said:
Are you saying that the Tab will accept an "adb reboot" in it's unresponsive black screen state or some other? I'v not yet come across a state where just holding power didn't turn it off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did . I was fooling around with the button definitions of the tab, I lost all my buttons so to speak (also the powerbutton) and couldn't get into the system. A simple adb reboot got me out of there without any problem.
Yes, I believe adb can connect with the Tab in very unresponsive states and still issue commands. I've seen it also with my old galaxy S. A bad flash and a blank screen still gave me access to the system shell with adb.
My lesson learned is: alway have "USB Debugging" turned on.
Hi,
Not sure if it's a right place to ask, but let it be my first post here. I own an S5 device, and it's sort of crazy. Let me explain.
Three months ago my device suddenly rebooted and got almost-soft-bricked in sense of being unable to boot to the operating mode normally: its display just got black after the splash screen, however I could tap the display and watch 1 FPS "live stream" using `adb screencap` at my PC. So the device was not dead and I could take out all private not synced data I needed (it was really hard once for an application that has the backup facility disabled in its application manifest) -- blind tapping everywhere. My first attempt to fix the device was re-flashing another compatible ROM having all important data backed up. Well, I got it bricked and could not boot anymore. The recovery mode was not available (the device just frozen if trying to enter the recovery), however I could enter the download mode.
Unfortunately, no reflashing helped, so I decided to let it be fixed by a repaire service (since an official Samsung service center in my country has rejected the repair request _with payment_ because the device was not intended for sale here -- well, "thanks Samsung"). Ok, the alternative service took the device and asked almost a half of the device price for the display replace. Honestly, I forgot to ask why there was an idea to replace the display if it worked perfect while it was waiting in the Download mode. Again, it just got black after the splash screen, but the display worked fine in the Download mode until the device was powered off or reset. So after a few days they gave it back to me, and the device was really good now -- it worked fine. They also re-fllashed the device to Android 6 (previously Android 5) and the device was unrooted. Well, that's fine to me.
But after a few hours of rooting, testing and re-installing the software and migrating the data back to the device, the device rebooted again being unable to boot to the "operating mode". Now it just got stuck at the Samsung S5 splash screen or rebooted in a loop. But after a long time (it might took more than a day; the battery seems to be inserted in the device and not pulled off) the device was able to boot normally and (this might be odd) upgrade the installed apps. If I remember, this was a cyan screen with two or three animated white gears. So about 150 apps were upgraded and the normal "operating" mode activated -- so I could use the device. Now after working a few hours, the device falls into a reboot loop / splash freeze coma again for undetermined time, and then, for unknown to me reason, the device woke up.
In short:
1) The device reboots or shuts down suddenly.
2) Instant rebooting does not work for whatever reason.
3) Just wait for some undetermined time without the device battery pulled off.
4) ... It boots again.
5) The upgrading process starts after the boot.
6) Working with the device until paragraph 1: "The device reboots or shuts down suddenly".
Now I don't know if it's a hardware or a software issue: the repair service guys didn't explain much, and now I'm feeling cheated for the replacement of the display that worked perfect in the Download mode that I gave half device price just because it was an idea of theirs. Yes, I have the repair warranty paper for their service, but I just would like to know the real context.
What I could be deservedly blamed for:
* I rooted the device after their repair in a wrong way.
* When I rooted the device, I removed most Samsung bloatware I used to remove earlier. I don't tend to think that I could kill some important software, though. But, to me, it's hard to believe that a software issue might cause such an odd device behavior (I mean the booting just after a certain period of time).
So... I would really and really appreciate getting the real issue behind the symptoms or just a hint spark of light to reveal possible root causes. And was I really cheated by the repair service?
* My device: Samsung SM-G900P S5, Sprint
* Firmware before the repair: stock, Android 5.0.x (?), root, most Samsung bloatware removed
* Firmware after the repair: stock, Android 6.0.1, root, most Samsung bloatware removed (yes, the bloatware list difference is significant now)
* The battery: seems to work fine and does not get drained when the device is in coma
Thank you!
hurricane flow said:
Hi,
Not sure if it's a right place to ask, but let it be my first post here. I own an S5 device, and it's sort of crazy. Let me explain.
Three months ago my device suddenly rebooted and got almost-soft-bricked in sense of being unable to boot to the operating mode normally: its display just got black after the splash screen, however I could tap the display and watch 1 FPS "live stream" using `adb screencap` at my PC. So the device was not dead and I could take out all private not synced data I needed (it was really hard once for an application that has the backup facility disabled in its application manifest) -- blind tapping everywhere. My first attempt to fix the device was re-flashing another compatible ROM having all important data backed up. Well, I got it bricked and could not boot anymore. The recovery mode was not available (the device just frozen if trying to enter the recovery), however I could enter the download mode.
Unfortunately, no reflashing helped, so I decided to let it be fixed by a repaire service (since an official Samsung service center in my country has rejected the repair request _with payment_ because the device was not intended for sale here -- well, "thanks Samsung"). Ok, the alternative service took the device and asked almost a half of the device price for the display replace. Honestly, I forgot to ask why there was an idea to replace the display if it worked perfect while it was waiting in the Download mode. Again, it just got black after the splash screen, but the display worked fine in the Download mode until the device was powered off or reset. So after a few days they gave it back to me, and the device was really good now -- it worked fine. They also re-fllashed the device to Android 6 (previously Android 5) and the device was unrooted. Well, that's fine to me.
But after a few hours of rooting, testing and re-installing the software and migrating the data back to the device, the device rebooted again being unable to boot to the "operating mode". Now it just got stuck at the Samsung S5 splash screen or rebooted in a loop. But after a long time (it might took more than a day; the battery seems to be inserted in the device and not pulled off) the device was able to boot normally and (this might be odd) upgrade the installed apps. If I remember, this was a cyan screen with two or three animated white gears. So about 150 apps were upgraded and the normal "operating" mode activated -- so I could use the device. Now after working a few hours, the device falls into a reboot loop / splash freeze coma again for undetermined time, and then, for unknown to me reason, the device woke up.
In short:
1) The device reboots or shuts down suddenly.
2) Instant rebooting does not work for whatever reason.
3) Just wait for some undetermined time without the device battery pulled off.
4) ... It boots again.
5) The upgrading process starts after the boot.
6) Working with the device until paragraph 1: "The device reboots or shuts down suddenly".
Now I don't know if it's a hardware or a software issue: the repair service guys didn't explain much, and now I'm feeling cheated for the replacement of the display that worked perfect in the Download mode that I gave half device price just because it was an idea of theirs. Yes, I have the repair warranty paper for their service, but I just would like to know the real context.
What I could be deservedly blamed for:
* I rooted the device after their repair in a wrong way.
* When I rooted the device, I removed most Samsung bloatware I used to remove earlier. I don't tend to think that I could kill some important software, though. But, to me, it's hard to believe that a software issue might cause such an odd device behavior (I mean the booting just after a certain period of time).
So... I would really and really appreciate getting the real issue behind the symptoms or just a hint spark of light to reveal possible root causes. And was I really cheated by the repair service?
* My device: Samsung SM-G900P S5, Sprint
* Firmware before the repair: stock, Android 5.0.x (?), root, most Samsung bloatware removed
* Firmware after the repair: stock, Android 6.0.1, root, most Samsung bloatware removed (yes, the bloatware list difference is significant now)
* The battery: seems to work fine and does not get drained when the device is in coma
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
someone said after an OTA to 6.0.1 it borked the phone into a reboot loop too. I had mine rooted for maybe a week or 2 and now I have reboot Loops, not even twrp can fix this issue. I am trying a battery like this person said here http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/help/marshmallow-6-0-1-ota-update-boot-loop-t3425838,
spending 9 bux and change beats spending 250 for another Unlocked G900T
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/help/marshmallow-6-0-1-ota-update-boot-loop-t3425838
eidairaman1 said:
someone said after an OTA to 6.0.1 it borked the phone into a reboot loop too. I had mine rooted for maybe a week or 2 and now I have reboot Loops, not even twrp can fix this issue. I am trying a battery like this person said here http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/help/marshmallow-6-0-1-ota-update-boot-loop-t3425838,
spending 9 bux and change beats spending 250 for another Unlocked G900T
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/help/marshmallow-6-0-1-ota-update-boot-loop-t3425838
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, that's interesting, thank you. I also noticed that the loop happens after some time only, it's like the more you have your phone running in the normal mode, the more your phone can get into the loop again. However, I don't think it's a battery overheat issue or so (sorry, I may use silly terms not being an expert at all). So in short:
1) After some pretty long power-off time you power on the device. It's working really stable unless...
2) ... unless something happens (battery? some intricate software or hardware issue?) and the device gets rebooted.
3) Here comes the boot loop, and usually no reboot helps to get out of the reboot loop.
4) Just power off the device and let it just be alone for some time, and now you're back to the step 1 until the "unless..."
My coma device is powered off for long time (thus I think that the step 4 still works for me after that long time) and I'm going to give it to the repair service again, just comparing what the service guys say and what the forum folks say.
I will follow up on the battery swap when mine arrives.
hurricane flow said:
Hm, that's interesting, thank you. I also noticed that the loop happens after some time only, it's like the more you have your phone running in the normal mode, the more your phone can get into the loop again. However, I don't think it's a battery overheat issue or so (sorry, I may use silly terms not being an expert at all). So in short:
1) After some pretty long power-off time you power on the device. It's working really stable unless...
2) ... unless something happens (battery? some intricate software or hardware issue?) and the device gets rebooted.
3) Here comes the boot loop, and usually no reboot helps to get out of the reboot loop.
4) Just power off the device and let it just be alone for some time, and now you're back to the step 1 until the "unless..."
My coma device is powered off for long time (thus I think that the step 4 still works for me after that long time) and I'm going to give it to the repair service again, just comparing what the service guys say and what the forum folks say.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I received a battery yesterday, charged it up and started using it today, no reboots or bootloops so far.
The battery that came in my phone was made in china, the one I just got yesterday was made in Vietnam.
I'm wondering if Samsung really needs to stop using china to make batteries lol, Surefire flashlights state not to use batteries made in china lol.
eidairaman1 said:
I received a battery yesterday, charged it up and started using it today, no reboots or bootloops so far.
The battery that came in my phone was made in china, the one I just got yesterday was made in Vietnam.
I'm wondering if Samsung really needs to stop using china to make batteries lol, Surefire flashlights state not to use batteries made in china lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, that's really interesting. It's hard to believe that replacing the old battery might affect it that much and get rid of bootloops -- I mean, I just thought that it might be a software/firmware failure (let's say I removed some system apps [actually Samsung bloatware] improperly), or something very core hardware might fail, but I have never thought of a batter as the root cause. Hard to say, sorry. But I'll take your solution into account. Thank you!
hurricane flow said:
Hm, that's really interesting. It's hard to believe that replacing the old battery might affect it that much and get rid of bootloops -- I mean, I just thought that it might be a software/firmware failure (let's say I removed some system apps [actually Samsung bloatware] improperly), or something very core hardware might fail, but I have never thought of a batter as the root cause. Hard to say, sorry. But I'll take your solution into account. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it was a bad rom flash as well or SuperSU causing it, well I found another article stating they replaced the battery and the issue went away. I think the phone was stating a bad POST so it would restart
I was on the latest CM13 nightly (was waiting a bit to go to 14.1) So I went to bed last night and my phone did a reboot as I was setting my alarm. Didn't think too much of it, crap happens. I waited for it to come back fully into the OS, which it did, checked my alarm. Noticed something strange I got the CM Updater notification in the statusbar ("There are new updates available" - CM14.1-12-02 or something), which I thought was weird that's the first time it's said that, and I've checked the CM Updater before and since the 14.1 switch there's been nothing there. As it should, I imagine, not try to update major versions like that. Anyways I dismissed it and went to bed (this entire thing is PROBABLY entirely unrelated, but I found it's timing interesting at least).
Woke up a few hours later to my phone getting really hot, and stuck in an infinite boot loop. It never gets passed the first Google screen. If I let it go it'll sit there for several minutes and maybe reboot. I was able to get into the bootloader, choosing Boot Recovery though sends me back to the Google bootup screen where it never progresses, doesnt have the blue text in the top that says booting into recovery..
Was able to get into the phone with fastboot so I tried flashing the latest recovery I had installed TWRP-3.0.2-2-angler. Still wouldn't boot into it, sometimes it would get to the TWRP recovery loading page, and then sit there for a couple minutes, then reboot.Tried flashing it a few times with fastboot with no success.
Erased userdata with fastboot, then did a full factory reflash of several images, MDB081 - MTC20l (factory images I know I've used in the past to recover, had them saved). Rebooted and I still can't get into the OS (stuck at first Google logo). Interesting the stock recovery though loads.
Flash an older TWRP recovery I had saved twrp-2.8.7.2-angler . Was able to get into recovery finally - kind of. Sometimes it still locks up and wont let me swipe to enter TWRP. The first time it let me in it asked me for my decryption password - I didn't have a password - had a swipe and fingerprint setup only. Got in again and first thing I tried doing honestly is erasing (formating) all my data, thinking if I'm going to have to warranty this phone or sell it broken, I want to make sure my data is wiped. Also I figure after that I can try to reinstall CM etc like I would a completely fresh build. It complained about not being able to mount the partition and locked up in TWRP then eventually auto rebooted. Got in again and tried to do a basic wipe, it said it cant find /sdcard then said it wiped, and then froze, auto rebooted again after a few seconds.
To note : All fastboot commands seem to execute with "OKAY" status, no errors reported anywhere, it always finds the device too.
I can't seem to get anywhere with this phone. Everything I try to do in recovery is met with freezes and reboots. It seems like maybe the internal emmc has taken a dump.
Problem is I'm literally 3 days out of the 1 year warranty from when I received my phone, and having tried to work with Huawei support previously, I'm 100% certain they won't help. I came across a few threads on here similar to mine recently without any real resolution other then RMA'ing it. I figured I'd post here for a last desperate attempt if anyone has any other suggestions, because I don't know what I'll do. The Pixel XL is ungodly expensive, and conveniently out of stock. And I don't think I could talk myself into buying another Huawei anytime soon after this.
Any suggestions?
the.root said:
I was on the latest CM13 nightly (was waiting a bit to go to 14.1) So I went to bed last night and my phone did a reboot as I was setting my alarm. Didn't think too much of it, crap happens. I waited for it to come back fully into the OS, which it did, checked my alarm. Noticed something strange I got the CM Updater notification in the statusbar ("There are new updates available" - CM14.1-12-02 or something), which I thought was weird that's the first time it's said that, and I've checked the CM Updater before and since the 14.1 switch there's been nothing there. As it should, I imagine, not try to update major versions like that. Anyways I dismissed it and went to bed (this entire thing is PROBABLY entirely unrelated, but I found it's timing interesting at least).
Woke up a few hours later to my phone getting really hot, and stuck in an infinite boot loop. It never gets passed the first Google screen. If I let it go it'll sit there for several minutes and maybe reboot. I was able to get into the bootloader, choosing Boot Recovery though sends me back to the Google bootup screen where it never progresses, doesnt have the blue text in the top that says booting into recovery..
Was able to get into the phone with fastboot so I tried flashing the latest recovery I had installed TWRP-3.0.2-2-angler. Still wouldn't boot into it, sometimes it would get to the TWRP recovery loading page, and then sit there for a couple minutes, then reboot.Tried flashing it a few times with fastboot with no success.
Erased userdata with fastboot, then did a full factory reflash of several images, MDB081 - MTC20l (factory images I know I've used in the past to recover, had them saved). Rebooted and I still can't get into the OS (stuck at first Google logo). Interesting the stock recovery though loads.
Flash an older TWRP recovery I had saved twrp-2.8.7.2-angler . Was able to get into recovery finally - kind of. Sometimes it still locks up and wont let me swipe to enter TWRP. The first time it let me in it asked me for my decryption password - I didn't have a password - had a swipe and fingerprint setup only. Got in again and first thing I tried doing honestly is erasing (formating) all my data, thinking if I'm going to have to warranty this phone or sell it broken, I want to make sure my data is wiped. Also I figure after that I can try to reinstall CM etc like I would a completely fresh build. It complained about not being able to mount the partition and locked up in TWRP then eventually auto rebooted. Got in again and tried to do a basic wipe, it said it cant find /sdcard then said it wiped, and then froze, auto rebooted again after a few seconds.
To note : All fastboot commands seem to execute with "OKAY" status, no errors reported anywhere, it always finds the device too.
I can't seem to get anywhere with this phone. Everything I try to do in recovery is met with freezes and reboots. It seems like maybe the internal emmc has taken a dump.
Problem is I'm literally 3 days out of the 1 year warranty from when I received my phone, and having tried to work with Huawei support previously, I'm 100% certain they won't help. I came across a few threads on here similar to mine recently without any real resolution other then RMA'ing it. I figured I'd post here for a last desperate attempt if anyone has any other suggestions, because I don't know what I'll do. The Pixel XL is ungodly expensive, and conveniently out of stock. And I don't think I could talk myself into buying another Huawei anytime soon after this.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's an ongoing thing with these 6P's and 5X's. Some have been able to fully recover and others like myself were not. Here is a guide that might be able to help you if you haven't come across it yet. Good luck..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/guide-revive-angler-bootloop-t3454938/page6
Check Warranty Status:
http://consumer.huawei.com/us/support/warranty-query/index.htm
BIGSAMDA1ST said:
It's an ongoing thing with these 6P's and 5X's. Some have been able to fully recover and others like myself were not. Here is a guide that might be able to help you if you haven't come across it yet. Good luck..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/guide-revive-angler-bootloop-t3454938/page6
Check Warranty Status:
http://consumer.huawei.com/us/support/warranty-query/index.htm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I came across that. I tried flashing MMB29P as well as several other factory images without success. My problem now it seems no matter what I flash I cannot get back into recovery anymore. Even if it's stock or if it's TWRP (any version - including 3.0.2.0 as they suggest), so I don't really get passed step 4-5 in that guide. I guess she only had so many reads left in her, sigh.
WEIRD @ warranty link. It says from my S/N that it's valid until 2017-02-17. I don't know how, I purchased it 2015-10-22, it shipped 2015-11-24, and I got it 2015-11-30. Unsure how/why that would've gotten extended until February. I'm concerned they'll get it back then deny it once they figure that out, or figure out it's been unlocked/flashed. When I first got the phone i had issues with it charging, I narrowed it down to the USB C->C cable being faulty, and contacted Huawei. They absolutely refused to replace just the cable. Said I had to ship the whole phone back and it'd take AT LEAST 3-4 weeks to get it back. I argued with several people on the phone there (their support 100% refuses to give you their name or transfer to their supervisors btw), and finally asked google support to pull some strings and get in contact with someone there to replace a simple freaking cable - no one cared at all - spent several hours trying and got nowhere. I'm /done with Huawei. I think my best bet is to probably find out how well that American Express extended warranty claim works, I've never actually had to use it before. IDK what I'll do after that. Sad this is a common problem with these phones exactly one year out, so even if I wanted to buy a used one on eBay I'd risk the same thing shortly thereafter.
I'll keep the phone powered off for a while and try some more flashing later see if I can get back into recovery to try the rest of his steps in that article. It's not looking promising anymore.
Well being that it's a known issue, like I said, I myself ran into this fiasco, had phone rooted and running custom rom. I myself couldn't get into recovery but was able to flash all factory images and relock bootloader manually. I then called Huawei and played dumb telling them that I had updated my phone to the latest firmware via OTA and then it went into bootloop. They never asked if it was unlocked and I never volunteered to tell them either. I had bought my 6P through Best Buy and still had receipt Incase they'd asked for it which they didn't. All they did was ask for IMEI # along with Ser # and verified that it was still under warranty, then they emailed me a return label. I shipped phone to them and in a matter of like a week or so I had a brand new device in hand. Build date on it was August, 16, 2016. So far running good but let's see for how long.
BIGSAMDA1ST said:
Well being that it's a known issue, like I said, I myself ran into this fiasco, had phone rooted and running custom rom. I myself couldn't get into recovery but was able to flash all factory images and relock bootloader manually. I then called Huawei and played dumb telling them that I had updated my phone to the latest firmware via OTA and then it went into bootloop. They never asked if it was unlocked and I never volunteered to tell them either. I had bought my 6P through Best Buy and still had receipt Incase they'd asked for it which they didn't. All they did was ask for IMEI # along with Ser # and verified that it was still under warranty, then they emailed me a return label. I shipped phone to them and in a matter of like a week or so I had a brand new device in hand. Build date on it was August, 16, 2016. So far running good but let's see for how long.
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Click to collapse
Hmm interesting. Maybe their US support has improved since last year. So it was brand new not refurbished? Did you get the full retail box set? I bought mine directly through Huawei, so I would like to think that they would have accurate warranty data, but perhaps not. I will consider RMA'ing it to them if it's really a new one. It's either that or a 550$ refund from my credit card company. I haven't tried fastboot lock yet, will do that when I give up on all else lol (and need to return it), but hopefully that will work if the rest of the emmc is hosed.
Yeah, mine came in a new box, sealed like day one. I was surprised thought I'd be getting a refurbished device but I can honestly say it was a brand new one. And I don't blame you on trying to get the device to a working state. I tried everything and it's mother before giving up and finally relocking bootloader and sending it in.
BIGSAMDA1ST said:
Yeah, mine came in a new box, sealed like day one. I was surprised thought I'd be getting a refurbished device but I can honestly say it was a brand new one. And I don't blame you on trying to get the device to a working state. I tried everything and it's mother before giving up and finally relocking bootloader and sending it in.
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Click to collapse
Just called them. They won't accept it back without a proof of purchase. I have to send in the proof of purchase before they'll approve the RMA and then I get the shipping label/information. And "they can't look it up by S/N, doesn't matter if the website says it's in warranty". LOL. Sounds about right from what I remember of their support. They say their website is inaccurate, and cant ever verify/lookup that I bought the product directly from them. Maybe I'll try back tomorrow to see if someone else will help but it's unlikely from the sounds of it. She did say this is very common problem however, knew all about it.
Damn, That truly sucks..I would definitely give them a call again and see if I get a different rep. I was lucky with the one I got, he basically knew it was an ongoing thing and really didn't give me a hard time. He didn't even ask for a receipt, about the only thing he asked was that if the bootloader was locked or unlocked and when I told him it was locked, he then proceeded with the RMA procedure.
BIGSAMDA1ST said:
Damn, That truly sucks..I would definitely give them a call again and see if I get a different rep. I was lucky with the one I got, he basically knew it was an ongoing thing and really didn't give me a hard time. He didn't even ask for a receipt, about the only thing he asked was that if the bootloader was locked or unlocked and when I told him it was locked, he then proceeded with the RMA procedure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I played dumb and all, didn't help. She didn't ask me any real questions she was convinced of the problem just from my description. She also said it's 12 months from the date I purchased it and not when I received it in the mail (so since they took 5-6 weeks to get it to me - preorder madness - I don't get that time back in the warranty) lol. Not like it matters now, just to further comment on how crappy their support/warranty is (in my experience).
I'll follow up if I have any more luck unbricking the device or warrantying it for that matter.
Good luck on either with the warranty or bringing it back to life.
I also have problems such as your support Huawei says four weeks of waiting
Got a recovery image to boot finally (after like 10x attempts at flashing one). Tried doing the nandroid backup as that guide suggests, says it cannot find/mount /sdcard and freezes/reboots. Tried going into wipe -> advanced and repairing internal storage and data and it was an invalid partition or something. Tried repairing system and it locked up again. Tried formatting them with fastboot and didn't work. Tried installing the latest 7.0 factory image for the hell of it, nadda. Relocked the bootloader successfully. Giving up. Filed an claim online with my credit card company (most do a +1 year extended warranty), we'll see how that goes, if I get lucky they'll approve the claim and let me keep the phone. May pick up a used 5x or something.
the.root said:
Got a recovery image to boot finally (after like 10x attempts at flashing one). Tried doing the nandroid backup as that guide suggests, says it cannot find/mount /sdcard and freezes/reboots. Tried going into wipe -> advanced and repairing internal storage and data and it was an invalid partition or something. Tried repairing system and it locked up again. Tried formatting them with fastboot and didn't work. Tried installing the latest 7.0 factory image for the hell of it, nadda. Relocked the bootloader successfully. Giving up. Filed an claim online with my credit card company (most do a +1 year extended warranty), we'll see how that goes, if I get lucky they'll approve the claim and let me keep the phone. May pick up a used 5x or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would stay away from the 5X as well..lol They are going through the same thing the 6P is going through. It's all over Reddit and XDA as well. I'm currently using the 6P but I'm waiting on the One Plus 3T to arrive. I have a few other devices to play with but I'm still using the 6P waiting for the 7.1.1 update to drop in a few days to see how that goes.
BIGSAMDA1ST said:
I would stay away from the 5X as well..lol They are going through the same thing the 6P is going through. It's all over Reddit and XDA as well. I'm currently using the 6P but I'm waiting on the One Plus 3T to arrive. I have a few other devices to play with but I'm still using the 6P waiting for the 7.1.1 update to drop in a few days to see how that goes.
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Click to collapse
Oh what the **** . That sucks. My wife owns a 6P and my son has a 5x. So our house is a ticking time bomb of failure. Maybe I'll buy a Note 7 and finish the job. I have my old Nexus One and Tmobile G1, both still power on last time I checked. I've gotten rid of all other past cell phones we've had unfortunately. Used to have so much trust in the Nexus lineup
the.root said:
Oh what the **** . That sucks. My wife owns a 6P and my son has a 5x. So our house is a ticking time bomb of failure. Maybe I'll buy a Note 7 and finish the job. I have my old Nexus One and Tmobile G1, both still power on last time I checked. I've gotten rid of all other past cell phones we've had unfortunately. Used to have so much trust in the Nexus lineup
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Click to collapse
Lmao.. Yeah I would stay away. Also you have to throw in the fact that the devices only have support until at least Sept. of 2017, then unless you're flashing custom roms your basically stuck.
BIGSAMDA1ST said:
Lmao.. Yeah I would stay away. Also you have to throw in the fact that the devices only have support until at least Sept. of 2017, then unless you're flashing custom roms your basically stuck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I mean I've always liked the Nexus devices because they always seem to have a good strong developer/modding community. I don't know the definition of a stock - anything. I recently converted my wife & son over to Nexus from Samsung's because I got frustrated with how they now lock down their phones. I have no doubt the 6P/5x (if they survive that long lol) will still be one of primary devices in this community to receive new OS/etc (cyanogenmod/whatever) well past the September EOL. Just look at the older Nexus phones still some of the first to receive the CM14.1 builds.
the.root said:
Yeah I mean I've always liked the Nexus devices because they always seem to have a good strong developer/modding community. I don't know the definition of a stock - anything. I recently converted my wife & son over to Nexus from Samsung's because I got frustrated with how they now lock down their phones. I have no doubt the 6P/5x (if they survive that long lol) will still be one of primary devices in this community to receive new OS/etc (cyanogenmod/whatever) well past the September EOL. Just look at the older Nexus phones still some of the first to receive the CM14.1 builds.
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Click to collapse
Exactly.. That's why I'm still keeping mine and hoping it doesn't decide to go on the fritz again.
I bought this 6t refurbished and I suspect is a t-mobile converted to global. I've tried resetting the phone and deleting all kinds of apps cache/data to no avail. in addition I tried to get the
Google Services Framework Android ID but my phone is not rooted. i would like to keep the phone as stock as possible.
chrisrf said:
I bought this 6t refurbished and I suspect is a t-mobile converted to global. I've tried resetting the phone and deleting all kinds of apps cache/data to no avail. in addition I tried to get the
Google Services Framework Android ID but my phone is not rooted. i would like to keep the phone as stock as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you convert your tmobile to international ? I guess you did. So either root it and install magisk or livr without Google pay.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
chrisrf said:
I bought this 6t refurbished and I suspect is a t-mobile converted to global. I've tried resetting the phone and deleting all kinds of apps cache/data to no avail. in addition I tried to get the
Google Services Framework Android ID but my phone is not rooted. i would like to keep the phone as stock as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you go to About phone the build number will tell you if it is T-Mobile converted phone. If the build number starts with ONEPLUS A6013_34_ then it is converted, if it starts with ONEPLUS A6013_41_ or ONEPLUS A6010_41_ then it is a global version.
Krzysiek_CK said:
When you go to About phone the build number will tell you if it is T-Mobile converted phone. If the build number starts with ONEPLUS A6013_34_ then it is converted, if it starts with ONEPLUS A6013_41_ or ONEPLUS A6010_41_ then it is a global version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes the build number is ONEPLUS A6013_34_2000222 what should I do ?
chrisrf said:
yes the build number is ONEPLUS A6013_34_2000222 what should I do ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you can't do really anything but if you have not had it too long you could return it.
chrisrf said:
yes the build number is ONEPLUS A6013_34_2000222 what should I do ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have 3 options:
1. DO nothing and hope OnePlus will fix it down the road. I actually lost hope with this one.
2. Load T-Mobile version, and loose dual sim capability. Google Play will pass certification and Google Pay will work.
3. Use Magisk, at your own risk, to trick SafetyNet check.
I have one of those scammy "no warranty" T-mo -> Intl. OnePlus 6T and, with enough work, it is possible to convert to the most recent Intl. android 10, and get root and Google pay working. I don't think at this time it's possible to watch Netflix in HD while having your cake and eating it too, sadly. The A/B situation on this phone is painfully confusing and leads to brick after brick as you learn the ropes of this phone. Not sure that's TMo's fault. Thankfully the bricks are fixable. You need the modded flasher for 9.0.11. From usb serial mode, the flasher gives some gibberish "Sahara" error. There is whole infuriating thread consisting of nothing but post after post of newbs being shamed for asking how to fix this problem (because it's already been asked a million times) but no clear concise solution ever provided (just a bunch of conflicting half-answers i.e., "I finally figured it out after mashing buttons for a long time..." -- What worked for me was holding down all the physical buttons, vol+, vol- and power, with the red "Saharah, please fix..." (something like that) red error message blinking away at me on the computer screen, and the phone plugged in to computer USB, the whole time. Only when its air composition sampling system detects your fingers bleeding profusely, will it kick in and fix your bricked device
So that gets you to an equivalent to a locked Global 9.0.11 rom with no OTA updates. From there you can do developer mode -> unlock bootloader instantly from fastboot -> (loose all your data) -> TWRP; now the a/b stuff gets really confusing AF but if you do TWRP from fastboot->flash 10.3.2 -> TWRP from fastboot again (it's like ms windows!) -> flash TWRP .zip installer -> TWRP from fastboot yet again -> Magisk, you can finally boot system.
To pass CTS profile you'll need to use the command-line signature changer Magisk module and Magisk Hide. Once the play store says it's "Certified" (certifiable more like...) and Magisk is giving you two green checkboxes, you are ready for more suffering. Now you need to freeze the Google Pay/Play apps and Google Play services and blow away all their data. At least that's what I did. Then make sure Magisk hide has all the Google play/GMS/AR/pay stuff hidden in Magisk, one more reboot for good measure, and you're off to the races. This gets Google Pay working and even lets you watch DRM at Widevine L3 level... it's still not all your cake and all your eating I suppose... hopefully you're not a big Netflix guy. Otherwise you kinda bought the wrong phone.
GL! Oh btw I have not found any way to restore an encrypted TWRP backup on this device. Starting to suspect it's literally impossible at this time -- but, if I'm honest, probably I just haven't gone through enough suffering, yet, to figure it out.
anonywimp said:
There is whole infuriating thread consisting of nothing but post after post of newbs being shamed for asking how to fix this problem (because it's already been asked a million times) but no clear concise solution ever provided (just a bunch of conflicting half-answers i.e., "I finally figured it out after mashing buttons for a long time..." -- What worked for me was holding down all the physical buttons, vol+, vol- and power, with the red "Saharah, please fix..." (something like that) red error message blinking away at me on the computer screen, and the phone plugged in to computer USB, the whole time. Only when its air composition sampling system detects your fingers bleeding profusely, will it kick in and fix your bricked device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Just completely dis-confirmed the above recipe. I am clearly still well in the cargo-cult phase of my OP qdl client tools education
All I can say for sure is randomly frobbing with the buttons and the phone-side usb-c cable for long periods of time will usually eventually start the process. And one sure-that-I'm-not-sure---but-still-fairly-confident correction: It probably helps to /un-/plug the phone from the PC, once it starts giving the meaningless red "Sahara quintessence frobnitz poop" error message (or whatever equally meaningful thing it actually says). If you find yourself in TWRP, you can use the "Reboot edl" button. Likewise, I believe the stock recovery has an interface to jump to qdl mode... could be making that up though Anyhow I think from there you want to turn the phone entirely off, which I believe can only at this point be achieved through continuous, uninterrupted mashing of the power button. So just after your get the error and disconnect, is your opportunity to impress the phone by bleeding all over it.
anonywimp said:
You need the modded flasher for 9.0.11. From usb serial mode, the flasher gives some gibberish "Sahara" error. There is whole infuriating thread consisting of nothing but post after post of newbs being shamed for asking how to fix this problem (because it's already been asked a million times) but no clear concise solution ever provided (just a bunch of conflicting half-answers i.e., "I finally figured it out after mashing buttons for a long time..."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I think I figured out an actual recipe now, or the beginnings of one. It is still a bit fuzzy in places. It goes like this:
If you're not in qdl mode, or you are there but it won't talk to the proprietary flasher software, get the phone completely turned off. Often this is the hardest part. I have sometimes managed to brick my phone where it will Boot and insta-freeze at the infuriating-yellow-triangle screen¹. Then it will just sit there, indefinitely, and never bring up any sort of USB or wifi connectivity (nor does it show any sign of boot-looping, judging by dmesg output on my computer. It's just cold, and dead. Probably a bootloader bug/secure boot fail). In every semi-brick-like circumstance like this, I've found the following enables me to get the phone to turn itself off reasonably quickly, in fact, in just a couple of seconds, usually: unplug any USB-C cable (so I'm running on batteries), hold down all the buttons* until fingers bleeding or something happens -- if nothing happens, release all the buttons briefly and try again; once off, release all the buttons immediately.
Now get the phone back on, and in qdl mode. Somehow. Usually, if the phone is unplugged and off, I can get it there by holding all the buttons and plugging it into usb. If I'm soft-bricked, I'm already there, so nothing to do. From TWRP I can easily "reboot edl" to get there. Maybe there's ways to do it from fastboot, stock recovery, and system as well, via adb/fastboot commands.... My preferred way is holding "all the buttons" for about 1 second, and plugging in the usb cable, which will cause it to enter qdl mode "just one time" without actually bricking anything.
Now, finally, we run the proprietary flasher tool. Press start and it will go until it gets to the "sahara bingo yip-a-dee-ha" error (or whatever it really says... definitely not exactly what I wrote ).
Now turn the phone off again. Same recipe, but this time it seems to almost-always suffice to keep the phone connected to USB, while holding all-the-buttons. If that isn't working, then I go ahead and unplug, power cycle, and get into qdl mode like above. During this, the computer software is maybe completely disconnected from your phone, *****ing and moaning the whole time about Sahara or whatever. Ignore that, it's fine.
If the phone was fully powered off (rather than power-cycled in place), be sure to next release all the buttons, so that the phone has no usb or button-press input of any kind for at least a fraction of a second. Then press "all the buttons" again (nb: I suspect just vol+ and vol- suffice here, and the power button is superfluous? Maybe even detrimental depending on ordering? If I screw this up (sometimes it winds up booting into recovery or bootloader), then I find a way to ask it to reboot from there into qdl mode, if I can, or else power off from there and try again to use the three buttons.
pro tip said:
It is possible to hold all the buttons for too long. In which case, you may find yourself booting system. From there you may need to start this guide over from the beginning, sorry. The correct period of time to hold all the buttons down is about a second. Two seconds is probably too long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using your fourth hand, Plug in a USB-C cable, what leads from your computer, to the phone, while continuing to hold down all the buttons with your other three hands (or, if you entered qdl via software, just plug it in, now).
That's it, done. Kick back and enjoy as the tool's progress bars go wild and unbrick your phone tut suite. The qdl process should be able to go all the way to the end where it says "100%" (although when you close the program it will still treat this like you are interrupting it in the middle; I think that's because it does multiple phones at once, and you only ever fed it the one phone, so it is alerting you that, hey, phone #2 never got processed).
I am doing the above in a non-FOSS emulator under desktop linux, using the patched client referenced from xda threads.
I imagine qemu would work, as well. Obviously native Windows is going to be your best bet. I def. wouldn't trust Oracle (VirtualBox) USB emulation with my qdl flashing needs, if I were me -- which I am. Phones tend to look like huge USB hubs, full of an ever-changing kaleidoscope of peripherals. Which I don't think the VirtualBox USB stack is really ready to cope with right now. (Not even with the proprietary USB add-on pack or whatever that is -- I simply don't trust Oracle not to hard-brick my phone; VirtualBox has seemingly perma-bricked one device for me, already. That was some time ago but I'm not going to feed it any more devices and I doubt the USB was fixed in vbox. It think it's paravirtualized, or something, so as to be super-fast, but unreliable when the bus topology changes in meatspace.
-- rants / footnotes ---
¹ You know, that warning screen for "security." Which, currently, happens to be punishing me for trying to put the newest stock security updates onto my phone that I just purchased a month ago¹*².
* Not an "All the things" meme -- by "all the buttons" I literally mean all the hardware buttons: [vol+], [vol-], and [power].
¹*² I imagine the person who made the decision to require this in Android would explain it something like this:
straw man said:
(California accent) "Um, like, why? Are you a criminal or something? You know, you could just buy a new phone for like $899 US. Oh, you're, like, poor, or something? Well, OK, I guess there's no way for us to stop you from doing that. But we, like, won't be able to support you in any way. Also, sorry, but we're just going to need to put a brief warning screen on your phone, as a safety measure? No, it's not really a warning for you. More, like, in case other people might be around you for some reason? It just says, 'Hey, no judgement, but it seems like maybe a poor person owns this phone? And they're definitely doing some really weird stuff with it. So just be careful. Like maybe tell a friend where you're going, if you're going to spend time with them.' What? No, I'm sorry, there's no way to remove it. We paid millions to have it fused into the microchips or something? If you could just remove the warning, that would defeat the purpose. So, I'm sure you'd want the people around you to be safe, right? And, like, so do we! So we, like, locked that down pretty tight, yehh-...!'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey!
While I was calibrating my fingerprint, phone suddenly turned off and went to recovery with screen off.
I managed to reflash stock rom through fastboot and it boots to system fine, but the screen stays off and the front camera keeps trying to open while playing the MIUI camera sound (sometimes, while booting, the camera does manage to open once, kinda like it's calibrating). Some playing around with ADB and it seems that the SIM isn't recognized either.. antenna maybe?
I opened the phone up and checked everything, there's no visible issues with the electronics, however it could just be the inside of a cable that died?
Does anyone know what this could be? I noticed the screen, fingerprint reader and antenna are all connected to the same removable PCB, but the camera isn't so that's odd.
Aren't we moving way too fast here? Like wtf is happening rn?
First: Explain in detail from the beginning please if you want help.
Second: Please state exactly what is your issue, and the ROM version of your device.
I don't think what you just did is the cause of whatever problem you're facing, do you mind telling me the source from which you got this phone? Otherwise you might want to send it to a service center.
XDHx86 said:
Aren't we moving way too fast here? Like wtf is happening rn?
First: Explain in detail from the beginning please if you want help.
Second: Please state exactly what is your issue, and the ROM version of your device.
I don't think what you just did is the cause of whatever problem you're facing, do you mind telling me the source from which you got this phone? Otherwise you might want to send it to a service center.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a bit of a long one, so I didn't want to bother too much with the details if anyone knew what those specific issues could be caused by, here goes though:
I am on a Mi 9T bought on Amazon Italy in July 2019. I cannot comfortably send it to a repair center due to every authorized shop around here is just a drop-off point for Xiaomi RMA. I talked to them and, due to (>6 months old) glass damage to the screen and back of the phone, they intended to charge me way more than I can afford, as "solving issues covered by the warranty would require us to replace the accidentally damaged components"
As for what happened:
I was running LOS 17.1 with no issues for a few months. I went to unlock the phone and I heard the reboot vibration, which sent me to recovery (softbricked) but with no screen signal. I assumed it was just a software problem, so I flashed MIUI 12 (global, V12.0.7.0.QFJMIXM) to see what would happen.
As it completed, the phone rebooted itself, the MIUI logo popped up and it went to system (seemingly) without any issues.
I went through the initial wizard and played around with it. everything seemed fine and I even made sure the screen did work in recovery and fastboot. Later, when I went to setup the fingerprint reader, the screen went blank for half a second when I first touched it, and then the same screen death -> reboot to recovery.
The phone was softbricked again, though, this time, reinstalling MIUI didn't yield the same success. Now:
MIUI boots "normally" again
The screen isn't working at all
The front camera opens, as if it's calibrating, when system boots up
The front camera randomly tries to open again every now and then, failing to do so as if the motor is stuck, while MIUI plays the camera closing sound.
Meddling through ADB, the antenna doesn't seem to be working, but I can't be 100% sure due to the methods used
The power and volume buttons, speakers, and the charging light all work.
I have opened the phone up myself, thoroughly checked every cable, connection and PCB, but there is no sign of damage. I put it back together and the same issue continued.
My best guess is that something inside the fingerprint reader went bad and shorted something else.
What that something else is, I couldn't find out. Given the antenna, screen and FOD are all connected to the same little PCB which then runs a couple cables to the motherboard, I am now in the process of finding a couple replacement cables to see if that fixes anything.
As I mentioned before, repair centers are not an option due to the lack of anyone who's willing to help me for less than a good chunk of the price of the phone.
Interesting. So basically what happened is due to the initial soft brick and accordingly you flashed a global MIUI 12 ROM, which in return brought you to the second soft brick which caused some issues within the hardware of the device.
Now you're stuck with a faulty screen, a faulty camera and a faulty antenna.
I don't have the skills to play around with the motherboard and the phone circuit. And I don't care which youtube tutorial you saw, you should have NEVER done that - Of course unless you're actually experienced in that manner, then I apologize for speaking with such prejudice -
I can't help you if you messed up your phone circuit since I have no knowledge about android hardware, however I can safely assume that what caused your issue isn't related to hardware.
I think the issue is caused by an incomplete flashing of a ROM (In this case MIUI 12 global) OR flashing a different variation from your device.
e.g. you flashed only the ROM, but didn't flash the other components of the ROM.
Needless to say, flashing a variation of the ROM that isn't meant for you device can be a disaster recipe.
I recommend flashing LOS again, since you can't go back on Xiaomi devices due to rollback protection.
XDHx86 said:
I don't have the skills to play around with the motherboard and the phone circuit. And I don't care which youtube tutorial you saw, you should have NEVER done that - Of course unless you're actually experienced in that manner, then I apologize for speaking with such prejudice -
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Click to collapse
I understand why you'd think that and have seen people do similar stupid things, however I didn't watch any youtube video and know what I'm doing quite well.
I made sure I flashed the correct rom through fastboot to restore everything to stock. I did try to reflash LOS and whatever else (though it's kind of a pain with adb shell), but it doesn't fix the problem, sadly.
That's why I'm betting on a HW issue.
The fingerprint reader and everything else worked flawlessly in LOS for months, but it made the screen go blank and bricked the device in both LOS and fully functional, stock MIUI.
Currently, I'm battling with this damn thing to get USB debugging working while booted to system, so I can do a few things like cast the screen to my PC and see what works from there.
I have access to fastboot and recovery, but everything I know (editing build.prop or patching the boot image) didn't work so far. Do you have any idea what I could do to get that done?
angometry said:
Currently, I'm battling with this damn thing to get USB debugging working while booted to system, so I can do a few things like cast the screen to my PC and see what works from there.
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If the touch screen is dead then you can use mouse and OTG cable.
If it is completely black then you can get usb c to HDMI cable (Also usb c hub might work, like this one). Or you can use playstore on pc to download and install apps like (Screen stream over HTTP) on your device, just make sure your device is connected to the internet and you're signed in on your phone as well, you might have to type in the screen password if you have one.
angometry said:
I have access to fastboot and recovery, but everything I know (editing build.prop or patching the boot image) didn't work so far. Do you have any idea what I could do to get that done?
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I don't know why bother with build.prop unless you have the wrong fingerprint prop. Then you can get the correct one from your device's stock ROM, though I think this is irrelevant to your issue.
All I can think of is:
Wiping dalvik cache, though you might have already done that.
Trying other custom ROMs from here.
You may try to get your device rollback index and installing a MIUI ROM that has index higher than it, and see if that works.
That is as far as I can help, unfortunately.
I have zero knowledge when it comes to hardware, so I can only help with software issues. If none of my solutions worked then sorry for wasting your time :/
XDHx86 said:
If it is completely black then you can get usb c to HDMI cable (Also usb c hub might work, like this one).
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Wait, does it actually just automatically use it as a 2nd screen if I connect it via HDMI?
XDHx86 said:
I don't know why bother with build.prop unless you have the wrong fingerprint prop. Then you can get the correct one from your device's stock ROM, though I think this is irrelevant to your issue.
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Sorry, I didn't explain myself, I'm looking for a way to enable USB Debugging without a screen. Thinking that using adb in twrp is the best way, but I can't manage to do it. Do you have any ideas?
If I can get it on, I can then use things like scrcpy to get screen signal through USB.
Main problem with everything else is that the screen is 100% dead. Even with usb otg I don't know how I could possibly get through the setup wizard haha
angometry said:
Wait, does it actually just automatically use it as a 2nd screen if I connect it via HDMI?
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I haven't tried it myself, however it should detect it as a second monitor. Give it a try the cable isn't costly at all anyway.
angometry said:
I'm looking for a way to enable USB Debugging without a screen. Thinking that using adb in twrp is the best way, but I can't manage to do it. Do you have any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP has debugging mode on by default, however that strictly applies to recovery and fastboot modes only as debugging mode is pretty powerful and can cause security issues. So you better forget about it.
I saw one of my friends who owns an authorized service center use some cable connections to get the screen to display on another touch screen. If you have the capabilities and resources I recommed trying it, though don't mess too much with the motherboard.
Just a question though, can you confirm if the touch is working? If not then there's a chance - Although slight - that this is just a UI problem (Which is pretty common in MIUI ROMs for some reason). In that case deleting dalvik cache or completely reflashing the ROM might solve the issue.
I may not do much help but certainly someone there can help so it's better if you include "usb debugging" in the title and/or the tags. Like changing the title to "Enabling usb debugging without screen" or "Screen is dead, need help to flash ROM"
Using proper title and proper tags can get the right person to help.