[Q] Bricked. Why did this happen? - EVO 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Ok so I bricked my Evo yesterday. The goal of this thread is to find out possible reasons why it bricked so I can avoid any future incidents. What I was doing was simply flashing a new rom. I had reflashed my clockwork from version 3.0 to version 2.5 which worked fine. I was able to flash between a couple of roms using it. I did this because of the issue with not being able to flash certain zip files with the new recovery. So I downloaded Warm Z RLS 1; the 2-23-11 version. So I flashed the zip the process went as normal. The installation completed normally. Then, I flashed the radio file. That also installed successfully as expected. Then, I backed out and went to "reboot system now." When I clicked that It went to a black screen showing a picture of an open box with an arrow coming out of it pointing to the little android guy outside the box. So, after trying to hit the power button to turn it off and return to the bootloader, it remained at that screen. Next, I removed the battery to restart it that way. Where it finally rested in peace. The phone would not even attempt to boot up nor attempt to enter the bootloader. The charger light wouldn't even turn on when plugged in. It was as bricked as can be.
Now here is my question. Does anybody have any theories as to why this happened? I want to remain a "rooter" when I get my next Evo. I want to know what went wrong so I can avoid bricking another phone.
Thank you in advance to those who can offer any advice or help. Also, sorry in advance if I'm posting a repetitive topic.
P.S. Sprint is replacing my phone for FREE. I didn't mention anything about rooting. Without asking questions, the sprint rep simply said that they would order a replacement, which will arrive in a couple of days.

errie806 said:
Ok so I bricked my Evo yesterday. The goal of this thread is to find out possible reasons why it bricked so I can avoid any future incidents. What I was doing was simply flashing a new rom. I had reflashed my clockwork from version 3.0 to version 2.5 which worked fine. I was able to flash between a couple of roms using it. I did this because of the issue with not being able to flash certain zip files with the new recovery. So I downloaded Warm Z RLS 1; the 2-23-11 version. So I flashed the zip the process went as normal. The installation completed normally. Then, I flashed the radio file. That also installed successfully as expected. Then, I backed out and went to "reboot system now." When I clicked that It went to a black screen showing a picture of an open box with an arrow coming out of it pointing to the little android guy outside the box. So, after trying to hit the power button to turn it off and return to the bootloader, it remained at that screen. Next, I removed the battery to restart it that way. Where it finally rested in peace. The phone would not even attempt to boot up nor attempt to enter the bootloader. The charger light wouldn't even turn on when plugged in. It was as bricked as can be.
Now here is my question. Does anybody have any theories as to why this happened? I want to remain a "rooter" when I get my next Evo. I want to know what went wrong so I can avoid bricking another phone.
Thank you in advance to those who can offer any advice or help. Also, sorry in advance if I'm posting a repetitive topic.
P.S. Sprint is replacing my phone for FREE. I didn't mention anything about rooting. Without asking questions, the sprint rep simply said that they would order a replacement, which will arrive in a couple of days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I can tell you why that happened. It's because you pulled the battery during the Radio Flash!!! (almost a guaranteed brick by doing that...) After you flash the radio update in recovery, it brings you back to the recovery screen, and you have to hit reboot. Upon rebooting, the radio flash completes (that is the black screen with the box and the arrow....) That part can take from 20 seconds to 10 minutes, and you have to be patient. If you disturb the phone (battery pull) during that process, you'll brick it. That is one of the only ways to surefire brick an Evo. So, to prevent it from happening again, all you need to do is be sure that if/when you ever flash a radio update, that you follow all of the instructions, and never, ever pull the battery during a radio flash. You need to remember that when you flash a different radio, it reboots and then does the important stuff, while showing you that screen with an arrow and a box, or an arrow and a phone. Once that part completes, it takes you back to the recovery screen, and then at that point you select reboot, and it'll boot normally into the OS.

Oh, I see. Thanks a lot. I had never seen that screen before. I had flashed radio update before but I didn't see that screen. I thought it froze. I feel like an idiot. But, I learned a lesson. Thanks again! Can't wait to get my replacement evo to start rooting/flashing again.

errie806 said:
Oh, I see. Thanks a lot. I had never seen that screen before. I had flashed radio update before but I didn't see that screen. I thought it froze. I feel like an idiot. But, I learned a lesson. Thanks again! Can't wait to get my replacement evo to start rooting/flashing again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, we all make mistakes. That is definitely one that you'll learn from though! And sometime's that screen, when the radio is flashing, varies a bit. I know when I flash a radio, it's a screen with a picture of an Evo that has a circle around it with an arrow facing down. I believe it is the hboot version or the recovery (amon ra or clockwork) that determines what that screen will be. Either way, that is what to expect during a radio flash. It has happened to many people, where they flash a radio, and get to that screen that they've never seen before, and then think that something's wrong so pull the battery. You're not the first, for sure. Anyways, good luck on getting your new Evo. Take it easy.

Patience is the key with all things root. Not every dev reminds you that you have to wait a while for things so it's easy to forget it. On the Samsung Fascinate, development can be a fragmented mess so most devs explain everything l.e.t.t.e.r.b.y.l.e.t.t.e.r. I rooted my girlfriend's phone and they always remind you that reboot/reflashes can take up to 20 minutes so when my Evo did that on a recent flash I knew I just had to leave it alone.

Great to know info. Thanks for bringing this out for us newbs to know.

Yeah as said above those radio flashes can be a learning process. Seemed like a few people did exactly as you when flashing radio's on Myn's RLS 5. Even after people were warned in the thread it still happened. I put my phone down and sat on the throne a while. Felt better to drop bricks, than turn my phone into one. patience is a virtue.

Yep, whenever I do any flashing I just set it down next to me and try to keep myself busy with other stuff so I don't get impatient.
BTW, what did you tell then Sprint store had happened to your phone, just that it wouldn't turn on?

Related

[q] help! Evo stuck in boot loop :'(

Ok, so I was trying to get my Evo running on the Verizon network, and ended up messing with some NV items that I probably shouldn't have. Long story short it's stuck in a boot loop. I can get to the bootloader just fine, but recovery is a no-go. Also, I was able to do an RUU flash from fastboot, but that didn't fix the boot loop. What should I do?! Please help me!
Sounds like you took a big step and should not have. Next why would you want to go to Verizon? you can not use 4g over there. i think there is a post here or on another android site on getting your phone out of a boot loop with no recovery. Search is your friend
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=stuck+in+boot+loop+without+recovery+android+evo
I found a solution to this exact problem.
Flintr said:
Ok, so I was trying to get my Evo running on the Verizon network, and ended up messing with some NV items that I probably shouldn't have. Long story short it's stuck in a boot loop. I can get to the bootloader just fine, but recovery is a no-go. Also, I was able to do an RUU flash from fastboot, but that didn't fix the boot loop. What should I do?! Please help me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found a solution to this exact problem after I wrote some nv items from a boost phone. no recovery, evo 4g boot loop over and over till the battery dies and only fastboot commands work. dont even think about saying flashing the boot or system images to fix this thats a no no, it will not work although it wont break the phone either. If anyone is in this same awful position and cant find a fix just pm me or reply to this post and i'll write a full tutorial of what i did. I just dont wanna waste my time and there might be an answer out there already. All i know is that I could'nt find one anywhere and I am literally a part of every mobile forum you can think of. Anyone interested?
marley183rd said:
I found a solution to this exact problem after I wrote some nv items from a boost phone. no recovery, evo 4g boot loop over and over till the battery dies and only fastboot commands work. dont even think about saying flashing the boot or system images to fix this thats a no no, it will not work although it wont break the phone either. If anyone is in this same awful position and cant find a fix just pm me or reply to this post and i'll write a full tutorial of what i did. I just dont wanna waste my time and there might be an answer out there already. All i know is that I could'nt find one anywhere and I am literally a part of every mobile forum you can think of. Anyone interested?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i REALLY COULD USE YOUR HELP
need help
I have the same problem, i used a tp2 as a donor, everytihng qorked but data, after copying the needed nv items(CDMA WS 2.7) and still didnt work i copied ALL available items from tp2 to the evo OOOOUCH , now i am at the endless boot loops , the only thing working is fastboot but not adb. i flash all types of roms with no luck, please tell us what you did to get it back running, you help will be appriciated
Need help
I have the same problem, i used a tp2 as a donor, everytihng qorked but data, after copying the needed nv items(CDMA WS 2.7) and still didnt work i copied ALL available items from tp2 to the evo OOOOUCH , now i am at the endless boot loops , the only thing working is fastboot but not adb. i flash all types of roms with no luck, please tell us what you did to get it back running, you help will be appriciated
Please refer to the post below for a fix. This will in no way help you if you started having reboots and then a bootloop while running CM7. It is meant to fix issues that come from corrupted NV items only.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16133086&postcount=54
I am experiencing the boot loop issue also. Really weird, all I have done is root via UnRevoked, use Rom Manager to install CM 6.1.2, and been running this ROM exclusively. I have never overclocked, or even installed or used any task killers in CM 6... I started noticing a couple weeks ago some odd force closes and sync issues with gmail that would come and go. Then, my phone would reboot every once in a while. Sometimes when I was using it, most of the time while it was just sitting on the counter. Then one day it just started the boot loop. Vibrate, white HTC Evo screen for a few seconds, then dark again, over and over. I can't boot into recovery, and have tried a bunch of recovery images (they unpack and update succeeds but attempting to boot to recovery just starts the loop again). I thought about unrooting and bringing the phone back to the store but the instructions I found for unrooting require me to at least get into recovery.... At the time I rooted (Sept '10) I had all the latest OTA... any advice for me to try?
S-OFF
HBOOT-2.10.0001
RADIO 2.15.00.11.19
I made a writeup
Please refer to the post below for a fix. This will in no way help you if you started having reboots and then a bootloop while running CM7. It is meant to fix issues that come from corrupted NV items only.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16133086&postcount=54needed files.
Update
So I never could fix this issue, although I got some really great suggestions and learned a lot from cutthroatamft.
Ended up just deciding to completely brick the phone (in case the Sprint tech might check my bootloader screen for S-OFF). To do this, I just removed the battery while I was flashing an engineering image (while it was updating the radio). After that, not only would the phone not power on at all, but the charging LED wouldn't even light up when plugged in to a power source. They gave me a refurbed Evo.
Haha, I was able to fix my Evo (dont remember what I did) but I have since sold it.
dwreck_ said:
So I never could fix this issue, although I got some really great suggestions and learned a lot from cutthroatamft.
Ended up just deciding to completely brick the phone (in case the Sprint tech might check my bootloader screen for S-OFF). To do this, I just removed the battery while I was flashing an engineering image (while it was updating the radio). After that, not only would the phone not power on at all, but the charging LED wouldn't even light up when plugged in to a power source. They gave me a refurbed Evo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mind pointing me to the image you flashed? I just pulled the battery while flashing a radio, but i'm still booting haha.
You should find it fairly easy if you search Google for eng-pc36img.zip
Looks like the first link.
Sent from my Evo using XDA App
I wish I could, but honestly it's been so long that I dont have any idea.
Thanks cutthroat.
dwreck, at what point did you pull?
I've pulled it twice while it was updating Radio_V2, with the red bar about 1/3 of the way, and nothing about my phone seems to change.
Did you pull a little later? Or did you pull during Radio_Cust? That thing is hard to catch, it updates quickly.
My friend says it took him about a hundred times to fully brick his Evo. Just keep trying I suppose.
Sent from my Evo using XDA App
Sprint was backordered on Evo's. It might take me more than a week to get another one, and it's still 35 bucks. Cutthroat or dwreck, do either of you guys know if it would be safe for me to send my Evo into HTC? I did the battery pull (it took about 20 tries) and the phone doesn't turn on, no led or anything. Will htc know it's rooted regardless?
You should be fine to send it to HTC, my friend has gotten two replaced that exact way. He had no issues with them finding out his were rooted.
Sent from my Evo using XDA App
pthr3e said:
i REALLY COULD USE YOUR HELP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please refer to the post below for a fix. This will in no way help you if you started having reboots and then a bootloop while running CM7. It is meant to fix issues that come from corrupted NV items only.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16133086&postcount=54
I'd just like to take a sec to give props to cutthroat. His guide is GREAT if you've screwed up your NV files (unfortunately that wasn't my problem). Anyways I appreciate you helping me out even after that.

[Q] Boot Looping + No Recovery Access

Hi Guys, Idon't post too often as you can see, but I have had a great time rooting my Evo and learning from all the awesome members here. I do my research, and until now I have not run across a problem I could not fix on my own.
I am running CM7 nightly 26, and out of nowhere today, my phone rebooted and proceeded to get stuck in a boot loop. I am not surprised by that kind of thing at this point, but for the first time ever, I was not able to boot into recovery. If I select that option from the boot loader, I just get the white Evo 4G screen and it proceeds to boot loop.
Ok, I thought, maybe my recovery was corrupted somehow, so I pull the SD card and put Amon Ra 2.3 in the root directory and named it PC36IMG.zip and flashed it. No good. I still can't get into recovery.
I also tried downloading the stock (rooted) sprint ROM, putting on the root of my SD card and naming it PC36IMG.zip. After the bootloader detects it and the progress bar finishes, it says "Parsing PC36IMG.zip", and then it just takes me back to the bootloader main menu without an option to flash anything.
Also, is there a way to get S-ON back (with my only access being to the bootloader) in the event that I have to take it in? The alternative would be to drown it or smash it (as a last resort)
Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance for any help!
Westibone said:
Hi Guys, Idon't post too often as you can see, but I have had a great time rooting my Evo and learning from all the awesome members here. I do my research, and until now I have not run across a problem I could not fix on my own.
I am running CM7 nightly 26, and out of nowhere today, my phone rebooted and proceeded to get stuck in a boot loop. I am not surprised by that kind of thing at this point, but for the first time ever, I was not able to boot into recovery. If I select that option from the boot loader, I just get the white Evo 4G screen and it proceeds to boot loop.
Ok, I thought, maybe my recovery was corrupted somehow, so I pull the SD card and put Amon Ra 2.3 in the root directory and named it PC36IMG.zip and flashed it. No good. I still can't get into recovery.
I also tried downloading the stock (rooted) sprint ROM, putting on the root of my SD card and naming it PC36IMG.zip. After the bootloader detects it and the progress bar finishes, it says "Parsing PC36IMG.zip", and then it just takes me back to the bootloader main menu without an option to flash anything.
Also, is there a way to get S-ON back (with my only access being to the bootloader) in the event that I have to take it in? The alternative would be to drown it or smash it (as a last resort)
Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance for any help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many of us are racking our brains trying to figure out what is causing this situation. Everyone who are experiencing this were using CM7, like you, and it happened to of nowhere and for no known reason. I don't think anyone has figured out a workaround, but I could be wrong. I haven't ready through the forums today regarding this issue. Just know that you are not alone, my friend....
Well, it doesn't look too hopeful from what I have seen so far, but thanks for the support. It's good to know that I am not alone.
If you can still access the bootloader, you should still be able to run an RUU through fastboot.
It happened to me, I was one of the first on the forum it happened to, in January. Was never able to fix it, you could spend a loonnngggg time, and get no results. If you search for my threads you can see the ones I started about the subject.
Long story short, I was never able to fix the problem or get S-On. However by doing a battery pull while flashing a rom with a different radio, during the radio installation, I bricked my phone to the point that it wouldn't even turn on. So thats basically your only way out that I know of. You'll have to perform the battery pull upwards 20 times probably before you get the phone to fully brick.
I'm on CM7 nightlies. What are the HW specs of those having these problems? I thought it was due to CWM but there have been some on RA experiencing this too. Just wondering if this is more specific to the newer HW builds/hboots or occurs with all phones.
My Evo is hardware version 003 for what it's worth.
Westibone said:
My Evo is hardware version 003 for what it's worth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you select recovery, what happens?
I had same issue in Jan after flashing miui.
tried the suggestions on this thread..but nothing worked:
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-support-troubleshooting/267018-struck-boot-loop.html
Had to replace my phone...that seems to be the only way out of this.
This is the reason I have stayed away from CM for so long. I keep seeing these horror stories about bootlooping, etc. I know its awesome when its running, but when it comes to the point where bricking your phone on purpose is a good thing, something is wrong For those that it has happened to above, did you get your new one and go back to CM (or any other AOSP rom)?
teh roxxorz said:
When you select recovery, what happens?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I select recovery, it just goes back to the white Evo 4G screen and proceeds to boot loop. Over and over again
My God, another one. It's weird these seem to be happening more and more...
Westibone said:
When I select recovery, it just goes back to the white Evo 4G screen and proceeds to boot loop. Over and over again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19699565/3.70 RUU Zip.zip Rename it to PC36IMg. Its 3.70 ruu, flash it in the bootloader, then re-root.
teh roxxorz said:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19699565/3.70 RUU Zip.zip Rename it to PC36IMg. Its 3.70 ruu, flash it in the bootloader, then re-root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hopefully, your RUU will work. Others who have attempted to this this very thing still couldn't make it work. Me, k2buckley and others have yet to figure it out and believe me, we've tried everything within our experience range. A solution will be found, I have no doubt about that, but "when" is the question that I cannot answer.
teh roxxorz said:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19699565/3.70 RUU Zip.zip Rename it to PC36IMg. Its 3.70 ruu, flash it in the bootloader, then re-root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know why this keeps happening dude. Just like all the other ones. I promise (unfortunately) that this guy isn't going to be able to recovery. Same as the others. THe RUU won't work, neither will the PC36IMG. I don't know why. THey may appear to complete successfully, but the result will still be hanging at the splash screen. That is my prediction, let's see his results. I hope I'm wrong, truly, I do.
k2buckley said:
Don't know why this keeps happening dude. Just like all the other ones. I promise (unfortunately) that this guy isn't going to be able to recovery. Same as the others. THe RUU won't work, neither will the PC36IMG. I don't know why. THey may appear to complete successfully, but the result will still be hanging at the splash screen. That is my prediction, let's see his results. I hope I'm wrong, truly, I do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you are too, but I have saved 1 person with the RUU, so I can hope to save more, but yea, I don't know what's causing this pandemic cuz I've been flashing the latest nightlies, reflashing my kernel, with no problems...I hope it works.
Same Here
Wow, what a coincidence, this just happend to me last night. I had just finished installing and flashing the new, SavagedZen(MOD)-RC1-Evo4G, Rom. Went to bed and sometime during the night the phone got stuck on restarting on the EVO white screen and turning off and on continusly. I have tried all the efforts of putting the stock ROM back on and everything else mentioned in this thread, but to no avail. Like you said, cant get into recovery or anything, just keeps looping through startin and stopping.
With all that is said so far on this thread, it looks like a new phone is the only way to fix this.
Westibone said:
Hi Guys, Idon't post too often as you can see, but I have had a great time rooting my Evo and learning from all the awesome members here. I do my research, and until now I have not run across a problem I could not fix on my own.
I am running CM7 nightly 26, and out of nowhere today, my phone rebooted and proceeded to get stuck in a boot loop. I am not surprised by that kind of thing at this point, but for the first time ever, I was not able to boot into recovery. If I select that option from the boot loader, I just get the white Evo 4G screen and it proceeds to boot loop.
Ok, I thought, maybe my recovery was corrupted somehow, so I pull the SD card and put Amon Ra 2.3 in the root directory and named it PC36IMG.zip and flashed it. No good. I still can't get into recovery.
I also tried downloading the stock (rooted) sprint ROM, putting on the root of my SD card and naming it PC36IMG.zip. After the bootloader detects it and the progress bar finishes, it says "Parsing PC36IMG.zip", and then it just takes me back to the bootloader main menu without an option to flash anything.
Also, is there a way to get S-ON back (with my only access being to the bootloader) in the event that I have to take it in? The alternative would be to drown it or smash it (as a last resort)
Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance for any help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By some awkward chance, have you tried a full wipe, and then flash a sense rom?
teh roxxorz said:
I hope you are too, but I have saved 1 person with the RUU, so I can hope to save more, but yea, I don't know what's causing this pandemic cuz I've been flashing the latest nightlies, reflashing my kernel, with no problems...I hope it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was actually one guy that I was able to help recover. (it was short lived though). After trying like 10 different RUU's, one of them had finally took. The phone booted up into a stock sense rom, and the kid was stoked. About 10 minutes after he was up again, his phone rebooted again. Stuck at the splash screen again (this was stock, and he still had s off, because we couldn't ever turn it on). I had him try flashing a recovery again, and low and behold it worked, and he flashed a sense rom. Things seemed fine, and I didn't hear back from him. A few days later, he PM'd be back, saying that it randomly rebooted again, and was stuck at the same splash screen loops. He ended up exchanging his phone. He was the ONLY one, out of quite a few that I've tried to assist through this problem, that was actually able to boot the phone again. Unfortunately, it wasn't stable for him, and then it ended up doing the same thing. Somehow, some way, I believe that the damage was already done, and he just got lucky to be able to squeeze a few extra days out of his Evo, but it was still a short lived recovery.
It's a very perplexing phenomenon that's going on here.
k2buckley said:
There was actually one guy that I was able to help recover. (it was short lived though). After trying like 10 different RUU's, one of them had finally took. The phone booted up into a stock sense rom, and the kid was stoked. About 10 minutes after he was up again, his phone rebooted again. Stuck at the splash screen again (this was stock, and he still had s off, because we couldn't ever turn it on). I had him try flashing a recovery again, and low and behold it worked, and he flashed a sense rom. Things seemed fine, and I didn't hear back from him. A few days later, he PM'd be back, saying that it randomly rebooted again, and was stuck at the same splash screen loops. He ended up exchanging his phone. He was the ONLY one, out of quite a few that I've tried to assist through this problem, that was actually able to boot the phone again. Unfortunately, it wasn't stable for him, and then it ended up doing the same thing. Somehow, some way, I believe that the damage was already done, and he just got lucky to be able to squeeze a few extra days out of his Evo, but it was still a short lived recovery.
It's a very perplexing phenomenon that's going on here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope my case doesn't come back to haunt me. Seems like we got a T Virus of phone crashings going around...those already along their way [like you and I] are imune...the newer ones get sucked in. we haz to fix this soon-ishly.

Can't boot into bootloader

Hi! So I tried to load a ROM tonight, just like I have a ton of times before, but after flashing the new radio, the phone only shows a box with an arrow pointing to the Android icon. When I hold the volume down button and hit the power button to go into the bootloader, the same thing happens. I can find no way to load the bootloader or the recovery console. Can anyone PLEASE help me? I am about to go insane trying everything I can think of!
What you're seeing is the radio flashing. Let it run, it'll send you back to recovery when it finishes. If you haven't bricked your phone yet, you're lucky.
This is a perfect example of why you should always read directions thoroughly and know what you're doing before you do it.
If after pulling the battery, your phone suddenly won't turn back on, it's officially dead. You'll have to get a new one.
Does your computer recognize it via adb?
I did follow the instructions to the letter. Can you please explain what ADB is? It's been a while since I've heard that term. I'm fairly inept at this sort of thing, to be honest. But I'm trying to learn. I also thoroughly searched the forums to no avail. Thank you so much for your help!
Smyc151 said:
I did follow the instructions to the letter. Can you please explain what ADB is? It's been a while since I've heard that term. I'm fairly inept at this sort of thing, to be honest. But I'm trying to learn. I also thoroughly searched the forums to no avail. Thank you so much for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you stand now? Are you still seeing the radio update screen? If so, just wait it out. It shouldn't take that long, but give it a while longer before pulling the battery.
When you flash the radios, a line of text runs after the initial flash process. It says something similar to reboot the phone now to finish installation, then you'll return to recovery where you can reboot normally. One time that I flashed a radio it told me to nor interrupt the process.
Next time be sure to read the text displayed after flashing. If the process seems to take too long, you can try pulling the battery, but I'd give it at least another ten minutes.
You didn't happen to check that the md5 checksums matched, did you? I'm lazy and never check, except for with radio updates.
(from... Evo/MIUI/Tapatalk)

[Q] Boot Loop, no recovery.

Signed up for XDA because I got problems, and you guys seems to know everything when I need to use my googl-fu to solve a problem.
Have lurked for hours trying to figure this out. Nothing solves it.
Phone specs: Phone is babied, never dropped etc. Evo 4g on sprint, rooted unrevoked3 method, was running CM7 nightly95.
Have been running this for several days no issue, (since nightly95 came out.)
Was running a CM7 stable build before this. No issues.
And then the problem: Was just using my phone like normal at work it decided it wanted to reboot on me, once, restarts fine, and about an hour later reboots into a boot loop. It was on a charge cable to wall outlet, not pc when this happened, if that matters.
From the boot loop, just starts, vibrates, shows the htc evo screen maybe 10 seconds and reboots.
I can get into Hboot, (power + vol down) but can not get into recovery. if it's selected the boot looping starts again.
I have tried clearing storage, and flashing a couple PC36IMG.ZIP Since it seems to fix other peoples. Since the most I can figure out is putting the SD card into the computer and try loading files from Hboot.
Last one being this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=791019
Still boot looping, no recovery.
Any help is appreciated. But I am noob when it comes to command line adb stuff. Just so you know.
what PC36IMG are you trying to flash exactly?
try this one, its amon ra 2.3, its the one i have as a backup in case mine foks up, just take amonra out of the name so its only
PC36IMG.zip, then put in the root of your sd card, turn on phone while pressing volume down, to go into bootloader let the phone recognize it and select yes when asked to update, if thats gets your recovery up try wiping and restoring a backup
If all else fails, try the attached doc.
First, boot into the bootloader, look at the top of the screen and see if it still displays "S-OFF". If it does not, you need to re-root your device. If it displays "S-ON" then If you have a card reader, connect it to your PC or Mac and copy the contents of the SD card to your computer. Afterwards, re-format the card. Now copy a freshly downloaded rom and a freshly downloaded copy of the PC36IMG.zip file for amon-RA recovery version 2.3 to the root of your SD card (not in any folder). Re-insert the card in your EVO and boot to the bootloader. The PC36IMG.zip file *should* be automatically detected and you *should* be prompted to install it. Follow the prompts to install. Installation will take approximately 10 seconds. Afterwards, boot into your new recovery. Go to the wipe menu and wipe EVERYTHING in it EXCEPT the SD card. After that, flash the rom. Be patient during the initial boot process. You *should* be good to go afterwards.
posting & replying via the XDA Premium app.
HipKat said:
If all else fails, try the attached doc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried this a bit ago.
Now it doesn't loop. But it's not any better.
It just boots, htc evo for a few seconds, and then vibrates approx 5 times and screen goes black and the top led flashes green.
Anybody else think this sounds like the bootloop of death? If so, there's no known fix. You can run the PC36IMG, but if that's what it is, you'll never get recovery or any rom to boot up.
I hope I'm wrong, though.
(from... Evo/MIUI/Tapatalk)
this sounds just like what happened to my phone. After spending hours on the forums and PM'ing back with a few people, I diagnosed it as the bootloop of death. Which sounds like exactly your going through....
no fix unfortunately...if your s on you can go back to sprint and get a brand new one. If not (like me) smash it pay the $100 deductible and get a refurb. Sucks I know.
For a more in depth thread search "boot loop + no recovery".
If I understand correctly, it's a problem with a partition size and was common with a certain Hardware version (0002?)
The good ole bootloop of death, that I fear so deeply. I hope this never happens to me. I'm sorry for your luck, but it sounds like plainjane is right. I agree, you got the bootloop of death, and most likely won't recover from it. Do you you have insurance ?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
k2buckley said:
The good ole bootloop of death, that I fear so deeply. I hope this never happens to me.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My fear, too. Every time I boot up in the morning, I hold my breath a little til the Evo screen goes off and the boot.ani starts...
Well, After HipKat first suggestion I can get to s-on. I may try it again with a different RUU but I think it's dead too.
So, since it will be S-on, hopefully there is a new phone in my future, without any money out of pocket.
Thanks for the help guys. I'll let you know if anything fixes it, or what sprint says.
HipKat said:
My fear, too. Every time I boot up in the morning, I hold my breath a little til the Evo screen goes off and the boot.ani starts...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I remember reading about a month ago, when this seemed to be happening a lot, was that it was random.
Didn't start when you were trying to boot up, just suddenly, randomly, terrifyingly, and like death in the night....power off, and never to fully boot again. Just typing about it now kinda scares me like a hex. I hope to finish typing this sentance.
@ OP, really sorry about your luck, man. We all feel you.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Thats crazy, the same exact thing happened to my brother running CM7 lke a month a go.. is this limited to just AOSP ROMs? I know there's always the potential of bricking your phone flashing, but from what I've been reading it seems its happening to lots of people on AOSP ROMs
fergie716 said:
Thats crazy, the same exact thing happened to my brother running CM7 lke a month a go.. is this limited to just AOSP ROMs? I know there's always the potential of bricking your phone flashing, but from what I've been reading it seems its happening to lots of people on AOSP ROMs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not limited to AOSP ROMs, but it does seem that most of the cases were people running CM7 and/or Clockwork Mod. I know there was an argument that it's just that there are so many people running CM that it just seems like CM was the culprit, but it was odd to me, anyhow, how overwhelmingly I saw that it was happening to people running that mod
HipKat said:
No, it's not limited to AOSP ROMs, but it does seem that most of the cases were people running CM7 and/or Clockwork Mod. I know there was an argument that it's just that there are so many people running CM that it just seems like CM was the culprit, but it was odd to me, anyhow, how overwhelmingly I saw that it was happening to people running that mod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I was reading this happened a few days ago to a guy who was on Decks 2.3.4.. IDK I told my brother to just flash a radio and pull the battery while flashing to try and get a replacement.. But the whole thing freaked me out lol.. Feel bad cuz it could happen to anyone I suppose
Your lucky to get S-ON, I only read about one other person able to get S ON after bootlooping.....take it to the Sprint Store, they should give you a new one on the spot if they have stock, if not they order one overnight. Could have been way worse...
Right now it says s-off again. But acts likes it's on, can't erase anything through fastboot/adb.
Going to try to repeat the RUU install a few times to see if I can get it back to s-on then take it in.
I was one of the first 3 or so people to report about this on the forum - it happened to me over 4 months ago. Anyways, if you flash a PC36IMG-eng and pull the battery at exactly the right time, while the radio is updating your phone will completely brick - it won't even turn on. Then you can take your phone in and just tell sprint it wont turn on. Note, it took me over 20 battery pulls before it finally wouldn't turn on, but its your best option if you can't get S-ON.
Wow that's crazy. I've never heard of the bootloop of death.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Do a search for Boot loop white screen and you'll find a ton of threads/posts about it

[Q] OMG! Accidentally Formatted system data!

Alright. For starters, xda has been VERY VERY helpful to me over the past few months and I thank everyone who has ever contributed to a question or a discussion I have read. That being said, this is my first post. I watched the newb video, read many forums (both xda and others), google searched, read some more threads, kept reading threads, tried some methods described in some threads, bookmarked some interesting threads for if my phone ever works again, and read some more threads.
I am not saying the answer is not already out there, I am saying I have reached my resourcefulness cap.
Anyway, to the root of the problem: I'm not entirely new to rooting, and am comfortable using recovery and hboot to flash roms. I also had a nandroid backup! for SOME SILLY reason, while in my clockworkmod recovery this morning (maybe slightly due to being half asleep which is why I now recommend being fully awake before entering hboot or recovery or rom manager....etc) I formatted the system on my phone. I THINK.
My phone will now load up to display the bootloader, and go into recovery mode, and flash roms, but when I flash a rom, nothing changes. If I boot my phone up, it will show a notification bar at the top like usual, a stock wallpaper, and that is IT! it will show a message notification and missed call icon since I have them, but the touch screen will not work. The rosie buttons at the bottom do not show up (i.e. phone button or all aps button) no apps appear, no clocks except for in the notification bar... hardkeys have no effect (home button search button menu or back) and volume keys will not work. The lock button will only lock and unlock the screen, not power off or reboot or anything. If plugged in at this point, it is charger only.
So, I can take the micro sd card out and put files on it from my PC via a microsd-usb converter thing...
I have tried putting new roms on the sd and flashing them from recovery, no effect. Tried the RUU_Supersonic_1.32.651.1_Radio_1.39.00.04.26_release_171253.exe program, it always says that my phone has below 30% battery and will not continue (this is not the case as I have two batteries both have been fully charged because the phone will still charge them...)
And I have tried putting PC36IMG.zip files on my sd card to no avail.
I am thinking that the system was wiped because it seems like there is no boot image on the phones internal memory itself. I am currently looking for a way to place a boot image on the sd card to possibly flash it or some sort of update.zip so that my bootloader will ask me to update upon reading it.
Sorry for the long post, and ask any questions I will answer as best I can.
I am posting preemptively to the boot image adventure so that if it does not work, maybe I can have some help finding a solution by then.
I was going to take my evo to the sprint store since it is under warranty but if they go into recovery they will see clockworkmod recovery.
Thanks to all for any form of guidance!
I did just notice in my Bootloader menu (HBOOT-2.10.0001) that it says Supersonice evt2-3 **** S-ON
I don't know how because I thought it was a requirement that it says S-OFF to be rooted and flash roms, but I have definitely flashed roms before and gained su access to applications and such. BUT since it says S-ON would it then be covered by the warranty if it is not rooted?
Thanks again.
I you want to flash a boot image, you can take the boot.img from an RUU for the firmware you are, place it in your adb tools folder, then flash it using the commands:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot reboot
I'm not sure how to identify what firmware I am. Unless your talking about the Hboot version? and also, I can't place anything in any folder except onto my sd card. I have no access other than that to the phone. On the sd card there are no files except for what I put on there.
...aaand not to mention I don't know what adb is exactly...
Does your phone still go to clockwork when you go to recovery?
Am going to try it right now, but will that work if I cannot tell my phone to allow usb debugging? i remember something about unrevoked needing that to root the phone in the first place. will update as soon as I try it. May not have time right now as I have to leave in about 15 mins. If no reply by 9:45, then I will be back online tomorrow morning. and thanks!
Timeconsumer10 said:
Am going to try it right now, but will that work if I cannot tell my phone to allow usb debugging? i remember something about unrevoked needing that to root the phone in the first place. will update as soon as I try it. May not have time right now as I have to leave in about 15 mins. If no reply by 9:45, then I will be back online tomorrow morning. and thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome, but yes, you do need to have had usb debugging enabled, so we'll see how that goes.
SUPER THANKS! S-OFF tool worked perfectly just flashed a rom and now so far so good. Will post tomorrow to let you know if everything works well. So much appreciated =) I would thanks a million times if i could don't know what to do without my evo.
Timeconsumer10 said:
SUPER THANKS! S-OFF tool worked perfectly just flashed a rom and now so far so good. Will post tomorrow to let you know if everything works well. So much appreciated =) I would thanks a million times if i could don't know what to do without my evo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, it'd take you 200,000 days since you can only thank 5 times a day Though glad you're rooted now.
shortydoggg said:
Does your phone still go to clockwork when you go to recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it still goes to clockwork because its rooted.. now my screen legitimately does not work in certain areas of the screen (not responding to touch) so I'm going to try and get it stock stock stock unrooted and go for warranty replacement. Any ideas please let me know. Currently trying RUU Supersonic...
So, I got an ERROR [110] message from the RUU package its a file open error... :/ now i dont know what is up. Says I need a complete RUU package. Looking for another one or another option now.
If i boot phone normally now it just goes to a black screen with "htc" in the middle and "!" in a triangle in all four corners. Can't do anything from that screen.
If I boot into bootloader once where it says SHIP S-OFF at the top and instead of recovery and all those options it just says RUU but you cant do anything there... :/ I now, however cannot even get to the bootloader screen.
Could they tell it is rooted?
Maybe I could say I finally decided to do sprints OTA update that I've been denying for a while and this is the result.
Anyone agree disagree?
COCLUSION!
So. Since it has just the HTC logo and four error icons one in each corner... I took it into a sprint repair store. It would not boot into bootloader as a hard reset, so the guys at the store were stumped. They had actually never seen this before =). They asked me if I rooted it and all so I just played dumb. I told em I didn't know what that really was. They kinna explained it and I told em I didn't even have a computer (not a lie actually I sold mine and now use my dads or gfs lol). The logo on the screen was an oooold htc logo from like hero or so. So they just put it in the system as a wont even turn on type of thing and gave me a new phone since I was under warranty =) gonna see if I can live without root juuust for a little bit because work and school are gonna keep me busy for a while. I am certain to return though!
Can't wait to see what the devs can do by then!
Thanks to all for the help!

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