Database Users

How I un-bricked my bricked phone.

A few days ago I bricked my phone. I performed a SPL flash which seemed to go ok, the phone rebooted and then just stuck at the first splash screen. I waited for 30 minutes and it was still there.
I then removed the battery, reinserted it, and tried booting into recovery mode. Nothing happened, it just stuck at the first splash screen.
So I removed the battery again, reinserted it, and tried booting into fastboot mode. Nothing happened, it just stuck at the first splash screen.
I repeated these steps a few times with the same result.
I tried booting it with the USB cable attached, the result was the same, and Windows showed the phone as an 'unrecognized device'.
At this point, I was nearly crying, my phone was a brick.
Then, for some reason I tried the following:
-On the PC, i ran the command 'fastboot boot recoveryimage.img'.
-At this point the command says 'waiting for device' (or something like that).
-I removed the battery.
-I Connected USB.
-I inserted the battery.
-I booted the phone while holding the HOME key.
-The phone still froze at the first splash screen, but then suddenly, the waiting fastboot command detected the phone and booted the recovery image! Yay!
That's it. I didn't test it any more thoroughly for obvious reasons, I just reflashed the SPL and everything was back to normal.
I hope this helps someone in the future....

Very nice..

wow seriously, didnt expected that..
good job mate!
btw wat did u do to cause the brick?

Just read the very first line of his post...
marcdbl said:
A few days ago I bricked my phone. I performed a SPL flash which seemed to go ok, the phone rebooted and then just stuck at the first splash screen. I waited for 30 minutes and it was still there.
[...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

mgear356 said:
btw wat did u do to cause the brick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said above, I had been flashing the SPL, and when I rebooted following the flash it was bricked (stuck at first splash screen).
It's weird, because once I managed to get back into fastboot, I simply flashed the same SPL again and it worked fine.

thats not really unbricking your phone. gotta be bricked meaning it wont even go to the splashscreen. and there is no way to unbrick it at that point. Still for those that end up in same situation as you this might help indeed.

goa200 said:
thats not really unbricking your phone. gotta be bricked meaning it wont even go to the splashscreen. and there is no way to unbrick it at that point. Still for those that end up in same situation as you this might help indeed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never seen someone say the splash screen isn't coming up without blaming the hardware. I didn't think that flashing the wrong SPL would case the splash to not come up. I bricked my first phone by stupidly flashing the wrong SPL first before loading an OS. I thought the whole point of using the word 'brick' was when referring to the phone failing to enter 'fastboot' and 'recovery mode'. At that point, the phone would technically be a 'brick'. This has to be the first post I've seen with a possible fix but I could be wrong since I gave up on fixing that phone awhile ago.

goa200 said:
thats not really unbricking your phone. gotta be bricked meaning it wont even go to the splashscreen. and there is no way to unbrick it at that point. Still for those that end up in same situation as you this might help indeed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bricking means you can't get to fastboot or recovery no matter what you do.
so he counts as bricking.

this might be a fix for the haykuro spl bricked users..

Well done if we have HTC G1 user with brick phone who want to try this methode and give feedback

goa200 said:
thats not really unbricking your phone. gotta be bricked meaning it wont even go to the splashscreen. and there is no way to unbrick it at that point. Still for those that end up in same situation as you this might help indeed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, You can still get to your splashscreen when the phone is bricked, If you cant turn on the phone then thats called the phone is dead not bricked. As stated already if you can't fastboot, or get to recovery then thats a brick.

Just tried it does not work and I was flash the death spl from haykuro,I am getting a new one but wanted to see if this works and I did not think it would which it didnt.

imfloflo said:
Well done if we have HTC G1 user with brick phone who want to try this methode and give feedback
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Posted the fix on the android community forums. I have none person in mind, bricked it applying a spl, but he hasn't relied yet. Keep you informed if he does.

Did you reflash ROM after applying spl..? If you did and it still didn't boot then that should most likely be a brick. Can you boot into recovery right now and tell us your SPL version and radio?

goa200 said:
thats not really unbricking your phone. gotta be bricked meaning it wont even go to the splashscreen. and there is no way to unbrick it at that point. Still for those that end up in same situation as you this might help indeed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes bricking your phone is when it wont even turn on! In the case of the sapphire when you hold power the led will flsh red quickly once then nothing.
On the blackstone you dont even get the pleasure of the led flash if your phone will turn on there is a way to get it fixed.
When ive been stuck on the bootscreen i have managed to revert using sappimg.nbh (which is 32b in my case) dunno where i got it from but i have it!
sappimg.zip (which is 32A) i got from Amon_RA's post and also have that, ive managed to revert back with both images after being stuck on "red screen of death"

A bit of a personal opinion here:
"Dead" is when the phone doesn't respond to anything, at all.
The charging light does not come on, the power button does nothing, and there is not so much as a flicker in the screen. Also, it is completely inaccessible for hardware debugging (JTAG, serial, USB or otherwise). This usually happens from a hardware problem, or doing something stupid like zero'ing the IPL.
Examples:
- My brother dropped his Nokia N75 in water. It's dead.
- I dropped my Cingular 8125 (HTC Wizard) on the ground. It doesn't power on any more, and plugging it into the charger does nothing. Voltmeter shows a charge running through some areas of the device's motherboard once disassembled. It's dead.
Solutions: Replace, recycle or sell for parts.
"Bricked" is when a purely software problem causes the device to no longer respond.
This may happen on many levels, but usually results in the OS not booting, or booting and being completely unusable (e.g. stopped with kernel panic at OS splash). It may light up and/or show a splash screen, but it fails to enter the bootloader or recovery menus. Its recoverability may vary, but will usually involve a debugging tool and a computer, and likely a copmlete wipe of everything on the device. Even if it's heavily bricked, if it can be recovered via JTAG or similar, it's not "dead".
Examples:
- HTC Dream only goes as far as splash screen, and freezes there. Does not respond to ADB. Does not enter recovery, or bootloader, however fastboot responds.
- HTC Dream shows blank screen, but lights up as if it were powering on. Fastboot does not respond. I connect my HTC ExtUSB Serial dongle to it though, and I'm able to get a response to some commands.
- Western Digital MyBook World Edition NAS powers on, and spins up hard drive, but does not go any farther than that. Front lights do not light up, and no hard disk activity is heard. Networking is not yet enabled. Hard drive can, however, manually be connected to a PC with SATA, and the firmware image re-written to its partitions.
- XBOX (the original) was softmodded, but the dashboard.xbe (the OS shell) was overwritten. It now just stays at the Microsoft logo.
- iPhone was recently jailbroken and SIM unlocked, then Apple pushed an update on me, and my iPhone is in a state where it doesn't enter DFU/Recovery, and when it boots, it says "Emergency calls only."
Solutions: Be very careful not to further brick the device, but use any methods available. Be sure to check documentations, search forums, and then ask questions if unsure. Make sure you finish every process you start.
After this, might just be hardware "damage" (like a power button not working right) or software "errors", like the home screen failing to load because of "Process com.google.android.gapps quit unexpectedly." These are usually relatively easy to fix, or have fixed.
Again, this is just an opinion.
Back on topic though, I seriously wouldn't have probably thought of using fastboot while it's stuck at the G1 screen, unless mine were bricked. Kudos to you, and I hope this works on some other bricked G1's out there (At least ones with the Engineering/Hard/DangerSPL, the stock SPL doesn't support fastboot as far as I know.)

bonesy said:
Yes bricking your phone is when it wont even turn on! In the case of the sapphire when you hold power the led will flsh red quickly once then nothing.
On the blackstone you dont even get the pleasure of the led flash if your phone will turn on there is a way to get it fixed.
When ive been stuck on the bootscreen i have managed to revert using sappimg.nbh (which is 32b in my case) dunno where i got it from but i have it!
sappimg.zip (which is 32A) i got from Amon_RA's post and also have that, ive managed to revert back with both images after being stuck on "red screen of death"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Won't agree with that, what you describe as a brick is a DEAD mobile. A brick is a useless piece which wont get into any state of recovery. The only thing i will agree with is that if it'll turn on there is a way to get it fixed that's why we even got the word unbricking which is done with many other pieces than Android mobiles.
Hope this will get us closer to a unbricking method which works on all the BRICKED pieces out there.
Good job dude!

Yes, my phone is back!
I bricked my G1 about 2 months ago pretty much the same way marcdbl did.
I gave up on it and sit it aside getting a new MT3G.
Sweet, now I got 2 phones to play with.
Thank You marcdbl

wow sweet news
fishman0919 said:
Yes, my phone is back!
I bricked my G1 about 2 months ago pretty much the same way marcdbl did.
I gave up on it and sit it aside getting a new MT3G.
Sweet, now I got 2 phones to play with.
Thank You marcdbl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very glad to hear that your dead or bricked or whatever-you-may-call phone is back to LIVE!!!
So I think this solution works for some certain people. So i think rather than arguing on terminology, better spread this good trick to people who had dead/bricked/whatevery-you-may-call phone. IMHO
Thanks for the solution.
Best,
Thihaz

marcdbl said:
A few days ago I bricked my phone. I performed a SPL flash which seemed to go ok, the phone rebooted and then just stuck at the first splash screen. I waited for 30 minutes and it was still there.
I then removed the battery, reinserted it, and tried booting into recovery mode. Nothing happened, it just stuck at the first splash screen.
So I removed the battery again, reinserted it, and tried booting into fastboot mode. Nothing happened, it just stuck at the first splash screen.
I repeated these steps a few times with the same result.
I tried booting it with the USB cable attached, the result was the same, and Windows showed the phone as an 'unrecognized device'.
At this point, I was nearly crying, my phone was a brick.
Then, for some reason I tried the following:
-On the PC, i ran the command 'fastboot boot recoveryimage.img'.
-At this point the command says 'waiting for device' (or something like that).
-I removed the battery.
-I Connected USB.
-I inserted the battery.
-I booted the phone while holding the HOME key.
-The phone still froze at the first splash screen, but then suddenly, the waiting fastboot command detected the phone and booted the recovery image! Yay!
That's it. I didn't test it any more thoroughly for obvious reasons, I just reflashed the SPL and everything was back to normal.
I hope this helps someone in the future....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
where were you 2 months ago dude? I paid 270€ to change the board on my magic
Good Job! Thanks for the info

My tmobile mytouch 3g is bricked how can unbrick it??

Hey people greeting first of all by stupidity i flashed a new radio 32a radio on my 32b mytouch by accident now my phone its bricked it just stay stuck on the first splash scree i cant fastboot or recovery mode my pc dosnt reconize my phone ether what can i do??? Help please
mytouch 3g
32b s on g
slp 1.33.2010

if you cant fastboot/recovery/anything, it's pretty much bricked. If you get some blue LED, there isnt much hope for that either.

i got no blue led it just stay on the first splash screen no recovery mode or fastboot

morepr said:
i got no blue led it just stay on the first splash screen no recovery mode or fastboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you're bricked. Means you need a new phone.

no ooo
people there is a solution via the usb when it is stuck at the first splash screen just search
mine is totally bricked and still no solution !!!

call tmobile.
I did the same thing yesterday and I told them that My phone updated itself then wouldnt turn back on.
my new one is in the mail and will be here in 2 days
just act naive and clueless.
as long as your still under warranty, your all good.

thanks ppl i try everything but this its not going no where the pc dosnt want to recognize my phone and i try everything just gonna throug it in the toilet and call the insurence

At least sell it for parts, you can probably squeeze 40 bucks out of it or similar. Check the going rates on eBay for non-functional handsets.

I know its a bit late....but I fixed my 'bricked' MT3G
I was searching around the web for a solution to my problem, and needless to say, there wasn't much out there for me besides the typical... "it's bricked, buy a new phone."
So here's my story:
Earlier today I decided to upgrade my MT3G to Cyanogen's 5.0.7 Android 2.1 rom. I had used the experimental 5.0.6 rom, and found it to be a bit more "glitchy" than I was comfortable with. So, I went online for what I figured to be a very simple upgrade...and downloaded both the rom and a kernel (which was 32A not 32B).
Needless to say, after installing the rom, the kernel, my gapps update, and resetting my phone... it did nothing but hang on the MT3G screen. After about 30-45 min...I knew something was wrong and I freaked. It was unresponsive to multiple attempts to reboot, and was not being seen by my computer.
That's when the online search began... I looked for other individuals who've suffered the same fate and kept coming up with the same "you're screwed" response. Having recovered more "bricked" iPhones in the past than I can count, I knew this could not be the case. For me, as long as the phone turned on and flashed some sort of screen, there's still hope.
So what did I do...
Well, I first attempted to boot the phone into recovery mode...but it would not work. Next, i figured I would try doing a fastboot... and what do ya know... it worked!
From there I used multiple combinations of plugging in the phone via usb and resetting and putting into recovery mode until I found one that worked.
So here's my steps:
(Note: this has only been tested if you accidentally installed the 32A kernel on your 32B device)
1. Power on the phone... If you continuously sit at the green MT3G screen, take off the back and take out the battery.
2. Plug in your USB cable (VERY IMPORTANT, will explain later)
3. Next, replace the battery and hold down both the [home] and [power] buttons, if it merely turns on to the green screen, and you get no response from your computer's usb notification window...take out the battery again
4. Fastboot your phone (hold down [back] and [power] arrows) While your phone in connected to your computer, it should make a notification sound.
5. Restart your phone from Fastboot, AS SOON as it shuts off, hold down the [home] and [power] keys.
6. Continue holding until you hear a notification sound from your computer...at that point it should boot into recovery mode.
7. Wipe your handset (just for good measure) and reinstall your update package...DELETE that wrong kernel from your sd card so you dont make the same mistake again.
Summary:
I have no clue as to why it works, but I've done this 3 times now just to verify, and each time it has worked. For some reason, the USB connection to the handset acts as a precursor to the phone booting. I will stress that without plugging in the USB, my phone did not boot into recovery mode. However, after I did plug it in...Fastbooted....Reset....and Booted into Recovery it worked perfectly.
I am still suffering lags on my device (more so than before) and this could be a product of my stupidity, or this rom being laggy. Either way it works, and I don't have to purchase a new phone!!!

Mod. edit: not dev related, moved to general

I experienced the same problem which can not boot recovery.
I've tried your way above but no luck.
Is there another way?
HTC MAGIC MY TOUCH
SAPPHIRE PVT 32B ENG S-OFF H
radio-2_22_23_02
cm-5.0.7-DS-signed

T-Mobile myTouch 3G - stuck on splash
Today I probably flashed my phone with a wrong (32A) SPL. I can't access fastboot, recovery mode or anything, including access from PC (either Linux or Window$). But it's stuck on splash - if it was totally bricked, would it still load a splash screen? Is there any hope?

Sigh.. I have the same problem.. Blue LED If I hold down the track ball but can't get to fastboot or recovery..
My problem started after I flash the HTC rom from the website.. Sigh.. I think it was the radio that did it..
Anyone found a way to get around this (w/o jtag)?

I am also experiencing the same problems. Blue LED works, cannot get into fastboot, bootloader, or recovery. It just sits on the opening splash screen.
Any other ideas?

Looks like I will just sell mine as a "bricked" device and hope to salvage a few bucks. Sigh

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I would keep going but you get the point. I downloaded ROM Manager, and I flashed a Cyanogen Nightly ROM from 11-5-2010 and I got nothing but a Green spalsh screen and a reboot cycle. You instructions ROCK!!!

I went crazy and prayed a few times to unbrick my phone. I tried different things and then nothing worked. So I had the phone on for a bit and it restarted twice and then ran. Just let in sit for a while. Give it time. Maybe itll work for u too. goodluck

have a mytouch 3g 1.2 with the old radio and SPL, i acidently bricked it trying to flash the new radio and SPL and now i cant get into recovery or fastboot and the flash screen is frozen, pleassssssee help me get this fixed it has been completel useless for the last week or so

Succesfully unbrick with wiggler Mytouch 3G 1.2
as Ezterry instruction i follow his guide, and build my own JTAG.
My God its working 100%..

awebagar said:
as Ezterry instruction i follow his guide, and build my own JTAG.
My God its working 100%..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I ship you my bricked device so you can practice unbricking? I can pay you in random electronics

HTC Sapphire 32A cannot load Recovery or Fastboot (bricked?)

Hey all.
i tried to flash the 2.22.23.02 radio.
after doing so, the phone loads the Rogers screen, stays there for some time, and then reboots, loading the rogers screen again. this continues indefinitely.
i can no longer access the recovery screen (power+home) or the fastboot screen (power+back).
i have searched for a possible solution, to no avail.
is the phone bricked ? is there any way out of this ?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
- Yaniv.

Have you tried removing battery and hold home button when inserting it again?

yes, i have removed the battery and tried booting into either fastboot or recovery. No luck. as before, it only shows the rogers screen.
i suspect the radio installation was compromised. the battery may have been removed part way through the installation, or the radio file itself may have been corrupt. is there any way to recover from that ?
- Yaniv.

same here, i bricked my phone today when trying to flash 2.22.23.02 The boot-logo has stuck and I can't do anything.
Anyone got a solution? I tried almost everything I found on the internet. I just can't access recovery/fastboot mode.
Everytime i try to connect my phone with USB it says < waiting for device > although it's properly connected.

b4b4j4g4 said:
same here, i bricked my phone today when trying to flash 2.22.23.02 The boot-logo has stuck and I can't do anything.
Anyone got a solution? I tried almost everything I found on the internet. I just can't access recovery/fastboot mode.
Everytime i try to connect my phone with USB it says < waiting for device > although it's properly connected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
apparently keep inserting your usb cable and it should pick up. linux ubuntu with adb tools quicker apparently too.
what steps did yo take to get it to wait for devices.
if you stilll have power light light then you should be able to push recovery at some point, but keep trying for 15 mins or so

[Q] Hero bricked after official upgrade

Okay, so I think this topic has been talked about a few times already. But I didn't manage to find a proper solution, maybe my situation is not as desperate as the others I read about.
A friend of mine gave me his Hero for me to repair. It just would not boot up after last official HTC update. Just gets stuck at the first "Hero" screen. Should I precise, he did not do anything to his phone (no rooting, no alternate bootloader, no nothing).
Official RUUs can't manage to detect the phone via USB (whatever the boot mode is), it can't boot, so I can't turn USB debugging on, or install flashrec to set up a custom ROM.
Power + Menu takes me to a waiting screen with a phone and an exclamation mark.
Power + Back takes me to fastboot, from which I can get into HBoot mode.
From these, flashing a new recovery via fastboot doesn't work (remote: not allow), which is to be expected.
Is there any other solution except sending the phone back to manufacturer. We'll do that in the end if no other solution happens to work, but I'd prefer to fix it myself.
Thanks for your help.
Tell me if you need any other details.
A.

Use this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=776056
Follow the whole of the 1st post from start to finish, the bootloader stuff is crucial.
Then put phone into hboot and try running an RUU.

Found this n all pal,...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=714519

[Q] HTC MT3G 3.5mm - Possibly Bricked - Help Please!

Hi,
I was trying to update my phone to latest Froyo dragon and it was not booting. I then flashed it to Gingebread Yoshi but was happy with it so tried Froyo dragon again and noticed that I needed to update the radio.
I updated the radio it and seemed ok but then my battery dropped out. Now it will not boot pass the "MyTouch 3g" green splash screen. From investigating it seems that because hboot and radio are not matching versions this is the problem.
I cannot get into recovery mode at all. I cannot get in Fastmode or Hboot nor use AdB as usb it is not recognised by my computer. I have tried a few different computers but non recognise it. Blue led with trackball+power is the only key combo that works.
Things i have tried:
- Fully charged phone and left it on but it just goes flat eventually.
- Tried all different combinations to boot Vol down+Power, Back+Power, Home+ Power, Trackball down plus power loads with black screen and blue led.
- Downloaded various sappimg.zip and SAPPIMG.nhb files to sd using adaptor and tried to boot with no luck.
- I have also created a couple of goldcards but didnt make any difference.
Any other suggestions or do I just have a paperweight?
Is there other files that I can put on the goldcard so I can access recovery?
Does the phone need to have a valid SIM card in order to get into recorver,hboot,fastboot, or just to boot. I did try a sim once but did not go back to it.
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.
Regads,
Arch

No, i don't think you need a SIM-card to get it running - didn't need one to debrick mine.
So, you tried many things, but i don't think there is a way to flash the phone with sappimg.zip or nbh because you don't get into fastboot mode.
What you can try:
- remove battery for some time (5 minutes or whatever) and press power - then get the battery back in and try to start it again
- start the phone with Home+Back+Power or Menu+Back+Power (don't remember), in my case there was a menu to erase cache and so on, maybe this would work for you
- is your phone listed in "fastboot devices" when you power on your phone with Vol down+Power, Back+Power, Power, Home+Power or the combination from above? I read that some people are already in fastboot-mode when they see the logo, shown for example here (they had red text on red vodafone-logo):
http://www.android-hilfe.de/attachm...oter-vodafone-bildschirm-geloest-dsc00624.jpg
If nothing works the only way to get it back to life is JTAG, maybe you can find someone who's doing that (where are you from?).

Hi Thanks,
Tried all above but no dice.
Anything else I could try. I am in Australia so don't know anyone with Jtag. I guess I may just have to sell it for parts. Seems such a shame though
Hopefully somebody finds a way.

Sorry, but i think there's nothing you can do for your phone. :crying:
Bluelight-Mode works (Trackball+Power), so only JTAG will help, but i don't know how to find this service in your area. Search for a repair-shop with JTAG in your area or ask here at XDA or some other community. Maybe find that service on ebay.
Another possibility is that you buy a Riff Box and learn how to unbrick your phone yourself - maybe provide your service for some other people around your area and earn the money you payed for the Riff Box. :laugh:
Good luck!