Hello folks, this is for those of us who find a way to hard brick your phone so thoroughly, that it is absolutely unresponsive to any button combination, cannot be detected in device manager in any computer, and thus cannot go into EDL mode.
You of course are going to need to remove the back cover, this is done with a heat gun, follow the YouTube tutorial. Next, remove the visible screws, then the wireless charging coil, and the speaker (these components are what the screws you removed were holding to the main board).
Disconnect the battery connector from the main board, its easy to spot just above your battery. Next plug in your USB cable and attach the other end to a computer with the Qualcomm Qloader driver installed, as well as the QPST/ QFIL program which are discussed in the bootloader unlocking tutorials here.
In the photo I've attached, the test points you'll need to short together (and hold, for about 2 seconds) with a paperclip are located in the center of the picture. They are very small.
This will get your brick into EDL mode, and the rest I leave to you.
hello!
In my case, I do not need to disconnect the battery, because when it is disconnected - after taking out the tweezers, the Qualcomm port disappears.
With the battery and loudspeaker connector on, the pins are still visible and after shorting them, they reset to EDL. Thanks for the instruction!
way2aware said:
Hello folks, this is for those of us who find a way to hard brick your phone so thoroughly, that it is absolutely unresponsive to any button combination, cannot be detected in device manager in any computer, and thus cannot go into EDL mode.
You of course are going to need to remove the back cover, this is done with a heat gun, follow the YouTube tutorial. Next, remove the visible screws, then the wireless charging coil, and the speaker (these components are what the screws you removed were holding to the main board).
Disconnect the battery connector from the main board, its easy to spot just above your battery. Next plug in your USB cable and attach the other end to a computer with the Qualcomm Qloader driver installed, as well as the QPST/ QFIL program which are discussed in the bootloader unlocking tutorials here.
In the photo I've attached, the test points you'll need to short together (and hold, for about 2 seconds) with a paperclip are located in the center of the picture. They are very small.
This will get your brick into EDL mode, and the rest I leave to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please I need a bit of education here about 'hard bricked'. My phone a. has an unlocked bootloader, b. only boots to the no command screen with android robot and loops, c. no serial number, and cannot be detected by adb devices command, d. but is detected as an LG device is device manager and of course e. cannot flash firmware through all apps even though I'm able to get it into download mode.
How did it happen? I bought it rooted with a very old version of magisk. I updated magisk and found a host of interesting options that I was trying out occasionally. But I found out that my banking apps won't work on a rooted device so I figured I needed to unroot the phone and it seems I UPROOTED the entire os and so I'm left with a beautiful brick. The serial number was already wiped though
way2aware said:
Hello folks, this is for those of us who find a way to hard brick your phone so thoroughly, that it is absolutely unresponsive to any button combination, cannot be detected in device manager in any computer, and thus cannot go into EDL mode.
You of course are going to need to remove the back cover, this is done with a heat gun, follow the YouTube tutorial. Next, remove the visible screws, then the wireless charging coil, and the speaker (these components are what the screws you removed were holding to the main board).
Disconnect the battery connector from the main board, its easy to spot just above your battery. Next plug in your USB cable and attach the other end to a computer with the Qualcomm Qloader driver installed, as well as the QPST/ QFIL program which are discussed in the bootloader unlocking tutorials here.
In the photo I've attached, the test points you'll need to short together (and hold, for about 2 seconds) with a paperclip are located in the center of the picture. They are very small.
This will get your brick into EDL mode, and the rest I leave to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also regarding the actual process, what would be the role of the QFIL program (just installed, installed and running or anything else?)
Related
is there anything i could try short of wiring up a JTAG programmer to revive a dead Universal?
the device is totally dead.. doesn't power up or reset into the bootloader (tried power/light/reset, etc)
windows doesn't see the device either.
the only thing i noticed is that when i plug the charger, the charging LED goes red..
i swapped batteries to one that's fully charged.. plugged the phone into the USB port of a vista box, and the new hardware found beep came up.. then windows said device isn't recognized.. still i couldn't go into bootloader, and when i tried hooking up the charger with this battery, the LED didn't turn red.
it only does with the dead battery.
bottom line is, it seems that the device has some sort of life left in, as a charged battery does cause windows to "feel" the USB connection, albeit not recognize it.
any tips?
i think you must close USB Conncetion on Active Sync
then
press light button + power + reset to entering bootloader mode
then
if you want back to your rom you must have Uni_exitbootloader.exe
are you using vista?
try using xp and active sync 4.5
just try my friend
Hi,
any success in entering bootloader on your device???
If not, you're not alone
is there anything i could try short of wiring up a JTAG programmer to revive a dead Universal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We started a thread about using the JTAG interface on the universal hardware.
Please have a look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=353072
Unfortunately all this stuff is not trivial and there's no solution so far to bring a dead device back to life. But maybe some day it will be solved.
If you are patient enough to read the whole thread you will get an idea of what we've checked out in the last weeks and where we got stucked
Never give up!
Regards,
scholbert
so i think my power button broke? i can navigate once it is booted, but idk how to boot, i at least want to have some functionality before i take it in in a few days.
i can reach charge screen by plugging it in, sadly when it occurred i didn't realize the button wasn't functioning and thought it just froze so i pulled the battery out, now i can't boot. :X
EDIT: its busted for sure, the button is loose, and pops out a bit on one side.
Close this ****, ADB is my best friend and its nice always having debugging on.
really simple actually, get adb, run "adb reboot".
Done.
phone has to be in debugging before hand though.
Magic Oreo said:
so i think my power button broke? i can navigate once it is booted, but idk how to boot, i at least want to have some functionality before i take it in in a few days.
i can reach charge screen by plugging it in, sadly when it occurred i didn't realize the button wasn't functioning and thought it just froze so i pulled the battery out, now i can't boot. :X
EDIT: its busted for sure, the button is loose, and pops out a bit on one side.
Close this ****, ADB is my best friend and its nice always having debugging on.
really simple actually, get adb, run "adb reboot".
Done.
phone has to be in debugging before hand though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't want to carry a laptop or computer around try this
it takes some work but at the end it will be easier
1. get an old toy or anything you don't need that has 2 or 3 AA battery slots.
2. take it apart and take the part you put the batteries in with the wires there will probably be a red wire and a black wire or a red wire and a yellow wire.
3. take an old USB cable you don't need that fits your phone and tear it apart and keep the side that fits your phone
4. use electrical tape or a soldering iron and solder or tape the usb black wire to the toy's black wire and red usb wire to red toy wire.
5.plug in your phone and it will start up.
It does this because the 2 or 3 double A batteries provide as much power as pressing a power button for a few seconds to turn it on.
Sorry this is a long one. Phone is a Verizon Galaxy Nexus about five months old.
Using Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit v.1.3 I managed to get the phone unlocked and (I think) install clockwork mod but when attempting to flash to root I got as far as "install from zip file . . .' but the next option "select zip file . . ." leads to a either an icon of a hat (which I presume is clockwork icon?) or a picture of an android with his belly open and an exclamation mark in a red triangle. I can no longer get to this point to confirm exactly which. Now when attempting to get to recovery mode I get into fastboot but after selecting "recovery mode" I always get the android with his belly open and a red exclamation mark and can never get to any menu.
Now all of a sudden possibly as a result of this process or else by coincidence usb on the phone appears to be either dead or sub-functional. This may also be why I could never flash to root, (bad USB led to corrupt or missing zip?). Windows does not detect any usb connection from phone, not even a failed one (no sound, no error message) but I have confirmed it's not the PC's error as other usb connections are working.
Also, confirming some sort of USB issue, the phone does not show the charging icon when I plug it into a charger UNLESS the phone is powered off, when I do see the charging animation. To make matters even more confusing despite not seeing the charging icon or the battery manager reporting that the battery is charging the phone does appear to be charging even while powered on but this was only after one night and I'm not quite 100 % certain it charged or that it charged at the usual speed. (thankfully I have an extra, separate, standalone battery charger).
I have re flashed to factory from the " backup and reset" menu inside Android and this did not help.
Simple question: any way to RELOCK phone without USB so I can at least make the phone appear un-tampered with so I can get a warranty service or replacement to fix the apparent usb problem?
bigger question: wtf is going on, is the usb issue perhaps a software problem? and is there anyway to fix the failed flashing process by perhaps transferring a zip file by some other means than usb to the proper directory?
Thanks for anyone who bothered to read this far.
Note: the actual sequence of events is a bit more complicated and now foggy in my memory but this I hope is close enough. If anyone wants more info I'll try to supply it. Let me just say that there were issues from the start of this process. merely unlocking the phone the first time had bricked my boot, all I saw was "Google" and a picture of an un-locked lock, getting into fastboot and then choosing recovery mode led to the picture of the belly up android but after several attempts I finally got past that one time and elected to flash back to stock from recovery menu. This was all before trying to root.
No to first question.
As for second question, pull the battery for about 10 minutes and see if it fixes your USB issue. Don't connect it to a computer to test the charging issue, and instead an outlet.
adrynalyne said:
No to first question.
As for second question, pull the battery for about 10 minutes and see if it fixes your USB issue. Don't connect it to a computer to test the charging issue, and instead an outlet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying now, will report back. I think I already tried this though. I should also tell you I have three different batteries and behavior is same for all of them.
I'm not thinking its the battery but something stuck in hardware. Hence the leave it out for 10 minutes.
Left battery out phone unplugged for almost twenty minutes... and still no luck.
oops, I see I was supposed to put this in the Q and A section, sorry, new here, should I start over there?
Could be a hardware issue with your usb connector. Try cleaning it out with a blast of compressed air or something. I just found out today that the USB ports on the GNex are weak and prone to maybe needing repair.
Good news is that the part only costs $6.00 on ebay - if you're a DIYer.
zuberio said:
Could be a hardware issue with your usb connector. Try cleaning it out with a blast of compressed air or something. I just found out today that the USB ports on the GNex are weak and prone to maybe needing repair.
Good news is that the part only costs $6.00 on ebay - if you're a DIYer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was it! I blew it out, and then I cleaned a bit with alcohol, and then when that didn't do it I pushed up (or down) on the cable while it was plugged in and suddenly it came to life. I was able to connect to PC and lock it back. Now at least I can attempt a warranty repair if I so decide.
I had gently pushed up and down on the cable before to try to make a good connection but never once did it connect - I feel like the cleaning must have been needed but apparently was not sufficient to fix it fully.. So I suppose something is still amiss with the connector - either it is damaged or askew or else still a bit dirty.
I'm happy to be back to full stock, maybe I'll root again another day after I sort out the USB issue.
Thanks everyone!
In the future, I'd recommend steering clear of "one-click" or "toolkit" root methods. Sure, they work, and gosh darn it they are easy... but when something goes wrong, you'll never know what's actually the problem. Get comfortable working with fastboot and adb; it will take you a long way with this device.
This should help get you started in the right direction.
So hi. Had an issue with my GNex where I had to replace the charging port (easy) and I managed to tear the volume button cables in the process. Wasn't a huge issue until I had the clever idea of booting into recovery.
Currently using ClockworkMod Recovery 6.0.2.3, and because I'm not smart it's not the touch version. All I can do is select "reboot system now" and choose "no" to fixing root, because I can't navigate without the volume keys. Choosing to restart just brings me back to recovery, so I can't get back into the OS to flash the touch version (would I even be able to without the volume keys?).
Is there any way I can flash a touch recovery on the device without being able to use the volume keys? I can't boot it into Odin mode here.
(I suppose I could bite the bullet and get a soldering iron... I've got the replacement volume key, I'm just **** at small parts, obviously)
Got it into Fastboot mode with ADB, but for whatever reason the device driver that works while it's in Recovery mode does not work in Fastboot mode, so Fastboot isn't detecting it and I can't load the new recovery.
Baby steps.
For whatever reason Windows wasn't installing the ADB drivers properly so I had to do it manually? It even told me the driver I'd selected wasn't recommended, but it went ahead with it anyways and now both ADB and Fastboot work.
It's been so long since this has worked it looks like it's got a Jellybean AOKP ROM on it. Currently initiating swagger, though it's taking a while.
Aaand looks like it's a version of AOKP that just sits there loading eternally. Think I ran into this before, which is how I ended up in this situation to begin with. Must have found a way to get into recovery from here.
So... again, still not working, but for a different reason this time at least.
I really should just get a soldering iron.
If the connection to the motherboard isn't broke and its just the buttons that are broke, you can try using a paper clip to make contact with it and short out the connection which tells the phone the button is pressed its what i did when my power button went out, its a pain to do and get right but it might be worth is i wish i had pictures to show you what i'm talking about so i hope you understand! but if all else fails ebay is your best friend for new parts!
Dudeyourdead said:
If the connection to the motherboard isn't broke and its just the buttons that are broke, you can try using a paper clip to make contact with it and short out the connection which tells the phone the button is pressed its what i did when my power button went out, its a pain to do and get right but it might be worth is i wish i had pictures to show you what i'm talking about so i hope you understand! but if all else fails ebay is your best friend for new parts!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, it's the ribbon cable connecting the buttons to the motherboard that's been damaged. I have a replacement, but I am not great with soldering and haven't tried it yet.
In the meantime, I bought a jig on ebay, and with that I've got it back into Odin mode. I'm absolute **** at retaining information/skills though and can't for the life of me remember how to get ADB to detect the damn thing once it's in Odin mode.
One thing I did just remember is that the USB connection on this phone is deep, so a few of the cables I have don't go in far enough, which causes complications.
Odin detects the phone, Heimdall detects the phone, Kies detects the phone (and tells me it's not supported). I just can't get ADB or Fastboot to detect the phone.
I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, I've tried swapping USB ports, I've tried different cables, I know this works because I've had it working before.
This phone is going to drive me to drink.
Sweet buttery gonads, I've got it booting into stock Android (no ADB, but Odin still working? Alright, there's a workaround).
I wish I still had that Moto G, it never had these problems...
So much luck using the Nexus Root Toolkit, and GAPPS/CWM Recovery Touch by Koush, I appear to have a functioning Galaxy Nexus running CM12.1? It's still verifying/optimizing apps, and that's where my Note 8.0 ran into trouble, so I suppose only time will tell.
22 of 91 apps optimized.
TL;DR for what I did:
I bought a jig on ebay. $1.50, free shipping, can't go wrong. It plugs into the bottom of the phone (with the power off) and puts the phone in Odin/download mode.
After getting fed up with trying to get ADB/Fastboot working on my desktop (it worked once, can't get it to now, no idea why) I tried it on my laptop. Tracked down a Nexus Root Toolkit (from Wugfresh) which automated a lot of the process, and had a good walkthrough for driver installation. Took three driver wipe/reinstalls on the laptop before it took.
Also the usb port (this being the one I replaced) is broken again, so I have to hold the USB cable at an upward angle for ADB/Fastboot to detect the phone at all. I just rested the cable on a screwdriver next to the phone and that did the trick. No jiggling at all.
The nice thing about the Toolkit is that it automates installation and does all the recovery stuff itself, which bypasses the lack of volume keys entirely. It flashed an up to date TWRP recovery, not sure if it flashed a touch one since I can't boot into recovery mode without the toolkit/ADB/Fastboot anyways.
The phone is still on it's last legs, but I've got CM12.1 installed now, as well as the Blackberry keyboard from the Priv, which was the whole point of digging the GNex out in the first place.
Links:
Nexus Root Toolkit:
http://www.wugfresh.com/nrt/
Glad to Hear! in all fairness i completely restored my Gnex but buying an broke one with functioning part someone sold it bricked for $14.67 on eBay, But if you bought the whole power button flex cable then its just a matter of opening up and snapping it down no soldering required i promise just push till you hear a click!
Dudeyourdead said:
Glad to Hear! in all fairness i completely restored my Gnex but buying an broke one with functioning part someone sold it bricked for $14.67 on eBay, But if you bought the whole power button flex cable then its just a matter of opening up and snapping it down no soldering required i promise just push till you hear a click!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Power button's fine, it's the volume keys that are damaged. I've got a bad history with translucent orange ribbon cables.
hello there the community,
just wanted to put this out there to see if anyone has a similar problem and found a fix
a friend of mines had an argument with his missus and she attempted to bend and break his mi max well it only slightly bent a little but was still working ok the screen is intact have stripped it down and checked the mainboard all the cables and no issues that i can see but the device refuses to charge it simply boot loops over and over when connected to either the charger or the PC sometimes i can get it to show the charging icon when connected to a PC but it never shows it actually charging and stays on 0%
the only time i can get it to connect to the PC and be recognised is in fastboot and have attempted to rebbot this way as well but it still just boot loops over and over,have not attempted to reflash a rom as of yet as the MiFlash tools also refuses to recognise trhe device so i am at an impass and am hoping there is a solution to be had besides throwing the thing in the trash
any moderators please close or delete thread thank you
The charging circuit board is demaged but I believe at least one phrase (of two) still works. If he didn't depleted battery totally it would charge slowly when it turns on unplugged! Now it needs to charge charging circuit bord. Tell him not to push much the ear plug while lousing up the back cover or he will also need to replace it. Let him use clip & only slightly gently push with the headphone jack. You can find complete disadembly guide on iFixit.
Best regards.