[Q] Red Light of Death - RMA or Repairable? - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I very recently had my Nexus give me the blinking red light of death. It started when I couldn't flash the latest Franco Kernel due to an "Unmatching MD5" error. So, I thought why not update Cyanogenmod 10 to the latest nightly? Lo and behold, it skips the prompt asking if I want to install it and the phone shuts off. The furthest I've gotten right now is getting it to the standard recovery, and that was only for a minute (this was after I hooked the phone up and used the Nexus toolkit to reflash the stock recovory). Now, when I try to flash the stock ROM, I either get "device not found" or that some random error has happened. I'm stuck between either using software methods to fix this, or sending it in for an RMA sooner than I thought I would (it has tons of scratches and dents).
Just as a note, I know about the battery trick, and I'm not up for doing that. I'd sooner RMA it, as I believe after relocking the bootloader it would still be under warranty since it seems to technically have no ROM installed right now.

Will it boot into fastboot?

It will. It won't go beyond that though. I did, at one point, get the default recovery screen where the dead android with a red triangle in it's chest popped up, but I haven't been able to get past that. I have a replacement coming in, but it'd be great to know how to fix this in case the replacement faces the same issue.
Sorry for the late reply, didn't have it set to email me or even had it subscribed.

CodemasterRob said:
It will. It won't go beyond that though. I did, at one point, get the default recovery screen where the dead android with a red triangle in it's chest popped up, but I haven't been able to get past that. I have a replacement coming in, but it'd be great to know how to fix this in case the replacement faces the same issue.
Sorry for the late reply, didn't have it set to email me or even had it subscribed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get into Fastboot mode, have you tried flashing the stock images from Google?

Yes. I've, as far as fastboot has told me, successfully flashed the stock kernel, ROM, and recovery, and the bootloader is still in tact so I can lock and unlock that at will. The phone is completely dead now though. Must have been a battery problem, because it won't even show the light now.

CodemasterRob said:
Yes. I've, as far as fastboot has told me, successfully flashed the stock kernel, ROM, and recovery, and the bootloader is still in tact so I can lock and unlock that at will. The phone is completely dead now though. Must have been a battery problem, because it won't even show the light now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to take it apart and pull the battery connection off. Its the same thing as a battery pull. I had to do it this morning cause I had the red light of death. Booted back up no problem. There's a video on YouTube red light of death fix.
Just saw you know about it. Mine was bought used so I couldn't RMA. But it works easy enough. And I'm a amateur who isn't good at working on small tech stuff and it was easy enough for me.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Mephisto Zap said:
You need to take it apart and pull the battery connection off. Its the same thing as a battery pull. I had to do it this morning cause I had the red light of death. Booted back up no problem. There's a video on YouTube red light of death fix.
Just saw you know about it. Mine was bought used so I couldn't RMA. But it works easy enough. And I'm a amateur who isn't good at working on small tech stuff and it was easy enough for me.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, I was about to direct you to the OP
That *might* fix it, but I believe a full battery replacement is in order. The phone was reaching an excess of 150 degrees before it shut down, it literally burnt my leg and gave me a red spot. All is well though; I managed to pry the SIM card out, wipe all of the partitions, and get it back to factory state before it completely turned over in it's grave. Learned my lesson the first time around; got myself a case to prevent all of those nasty scratches and I'll be ordering XO skins soon.

Related

Evo refuses to turn on AT ALL

This has happened once before, but just for a small amount of time to to the heat (I believe). The phone has been off for over and hour and refuses to turn on whether I hold down the volume button, don't hold down the volume button, or push the battery in at the exact time as I'm doing the other one or two. The splash screen flashed for half a second and immediately went back off when I plugged my evo charger, the usb part, into my portable ipod charger, so I believe this means there is still help available! Last time this happened, which was months ago, it seemed as if it just needed to cool down a bit, and my reading on the internet confirmed that the phones shut off when their batteries reach too high of temperatures. So what I did was wrap the phone and the battery, separately, in a large wash cloth and let them sit it the fridge for a little while. No luck, I'm running out of ideas (and I realize a ziplock bag may have been better but who cares). A few days ago I installed cm7gginggerbread7 (wimax) over cm7gingerbread2, but have not had any issues up until now and everything has run perfectly as well as smoothly. Is there any way I can turn my brick into a phone? Perhaps there's a way to adb something even though the phone wont boot (im a noob). I'm just pissed cuz I finally got every little thing exactly the way I wanted it, and now I'm stuck with a paperweight :/ I thank you for all your help, brave knights
It just suddenly shut off and won't turn back on?
And you weren't messing with anything?
If so, sounds like it's a hardware or battery issue.
Can you try a different battery?
Does the charging light come on when you plug it in? It could be a dead battery, and if the charging port is broke, it wont charge.
Otherwise, it seems like a hardware issue. I would take it to sprint, and they should be able to replace it for you.
sitlet said:
Does the charging light come on when you plug it in? It could be a dead battery, and if the charging port is broke, it wont charge.
Otherwise, it seems like a hardware issue. I would take it to sprint, and they should be able to replace it for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it has teh rootz!!!!!!!!!
Smash that mofo with a hammer and call Asurion!!!!!!
jk
matt2053 said:
But it has teh rootz!!!!!!!!!
Smash that mofo with a hammer and call Asurion!!!!!!
jk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they can't get it to power on then it really doesn't matter if it's rooted or not because they won't be able to find out.
Well I was messin with it a couple days ago, flashed gginggerbread6 w/ wimax over gginggerbread2 after wiping cache and dalvik and of course making a nandroid. I was thinking of smashing it but I've gotten everything they way I want it for the thousandth time. I'm also reluctant to do it because this issue has resolved itself in the past, albeit a tad quicker. For christ's sake, it even fixed itself for half a second this time, just enough to show me the splash screen lol. I'm very gentle with my evo and have never had any problems that weren't easily resolved with a little bit of work. I guess I could smash it until it works, and then if it ends up breaking then I win either way, but I'd really like to get my darling fixed. I know it's nothing compared to the cyanogenmod team, but I've flashed and flashed (almost always to cyanogenmod, what can I say it's perfect) and I have FINALLY got everything set up the way I wanted it, which includes manually going through and changing all the icons to custom pngs lol.
I guess I just don't understand why this would happen all of a sudden like this, I've onlu had it for three or four months, htc can't make that shotty of work can they? The other thing is I have a battery widget so as to make sure my battery does not get to hot, as well as having a setting in setcpu which stops overheating if it should ever occur. I really have a feeling it's something which can be fixed just because it has been magically fixed in the past and it was "fixed" for half a second today. Is there any way to adb into recovery even though the screen is black? Any suggestions help, I have important calls coming in as well as rather important calls to (hopefully) future employers. Of course I also don't want people to think that I am ignoring them, which isn't quite as bad but I still try to be as rude as possible :/
So...any ideas guys Don't wanna sound like I'm fishing for compliments, but you all are by far the best in the field. Keep up the good work (on my phone haha) Thanks so much for the advice you're going to give me on how to fix this up so I don't miss all my friends calls and texts until I get pissed off at. Later trooper
EDIT: Sry got block of text. tl/dr fix my evo that wont turn on asap thx
Raillery said:
Well I was messin with it a couple days ago, flashed gginggerbread6 w/ wimax over gginggerbread2 after wiping cache and dalvik and of course making a nandroid. I was thinking of smashing it but I've gotten everything they way I want it for the thousandth time. I'm also reluctant to do it because this issue has resolved itself in the past, albeit a tad quicker. For christ's sake, it even fixed itself for half a second this time, just enough to show me the splash screen lol. I'm very gentle with my evo and have never had any problems that weren't easily resolved with a little bit of work. I guess I could smash it until it works, and then if it ends up breaking then I win either way, but I'd really like to get my darling fixed. I know it's nothing compared to the cyanogenmod team, but I've flashed and flashed (almost always to cyanogenmod, what can I say it's perfect) and I have FINALLY got everything set up the way I wanted it, which includes manually going through and changing all the icons to custom pngs lol.
I guess I just don't understand why this would happen all of a sudden like this, I've onlu had it for three or four months, htc can't make that shotty of work can they? The other thing is I have a battery widget so as to make sure my battery does not get to hot, as well as having a setting in setcpu which stops overheating if it should ever occur. I really have a feeling it's something which can be fixed just because it has been magically fixed in the past and it was "fixed" for half a second today. Is there any way to adb into recovery even though the screen is black? Any suggestions help, I have important calls coming in as well as rather important calls to (hopefully) future employers. Of course I also don't want people to think that I am ignoring them, which isn't quite as bad but I still try to be as rude as possible :/
So...any ideas guys Don't wanna sound like I'm fishing for compliments, but you all are by far the best in the field. Keep up the good work (on my phone haha) Thanks so much for the advice you're going to give me on how to fix this up so I don't miss all my friends calls and texts until I get pissed off at. Later trooper
EDIT: Sry got block of text. tl/dr fix my evo that wont turn on asap thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this occurred while you were NOT changing anything with the radio partition or recovery partition then it's not a brick issue.
Sounds like you have a hardware issue.
Take it to the store.
If you smash it you will be paying $100 to asurion for a replacement as Sprint changed the TEP again.
Just wondering was your battery completely dead before this happened. I have read some people here and other places have said that if the battery completely dies that it won't charge unless you put it on a actual battery charger made for it. Does the charge light come on when you plug it in? Also, like my friend before me said, take it to Sprint. Ask them if they have a battery you could try. If it doesn't work it will eliminate the battery being the issue. If it won't boot they will replace it. They won't be able to tell if it is rooted because it won't boot. If you were flashing a radio and didn't let it finish or the battery died during the process, you are bricked.
Does the charge light flash when plugged in?
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
The light doesnt change
clean off the battery contacts
the same exact thing happened to me. i read in another post that the TP2 battery was a suitable replacement, so i checked the VDC and mA and they were exact and also the contacts were in the right place. (looks exactly like the evo batt just black instead of red in retrospect). It was a good call on the TP2 battery. My evos batt died on me tonight while it was charging. no light while plugged into OEM wall charger, no blinking, nothin, I wasnt even using it, never had a problem before. luckly i was just chargin up my old TP2 to give to my girlfriend. popped in that battery and the evo came right up. popped the evo battery in my TP2 and it appears to be charging. curiously the evo appears to be charging the tp2 batt now aswell. so i dont know what happened... one positive thing is that i know i have 2 batteries now. a negative is that my gf cant have my TP2 untill i get this sorted.
anyone have any insight as to what is goin on? or why this happened? if my charging port has gone bad why is the tp2 batt charging in the evo? and if the evo battery went bad why is it charging in the TP2?
i am using the stock sprint evo rom. not scared to root, just havent yet.
vespix said:
the same exact thing happened to me. i read in another post that the TP2 battery was a suitable replacement, so i checked the VDC and mA and they were exact and also the contacts were in the right place. (looks exactly like the evo batt just black instead of red in retrospect). It was a good call on the TP2 battery. My evos batt died on me tonight while it was charging. no light while plugged into OEM wall charger, no blinking, nothin, I wasnt even using it, never had a problem before. luckly i was just chargin up my old TP2 to give to my girlfriend. popped in that battery and the evo came right up. popped the evo battery in my TP2 and it appears to be charging. curiously the evo appears to be charging the tp2 batt now aswell. so i dont know what happened... one positive thing is that i know i have 2 batteries now. a negative is that my gf cant have my TP2 untill i get this sorted.
anyone have any insight as to what is goin on? or why this happened? if my charging port has gone bad why is the tp2 batt charging in the evo? and if the evo battery went bad why is it charging in the TP2?
i am using the stock sprint evo rom. not scared to root, just havent yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take the original battery to sprint. Tell them the story and get a replacement, ask for some free accessory since you've helped them isolate a reliability issue.
LOL
There are two known issues with the Evo to be aware of. The first is the charging bug. If the Evo shuts off due to low battery level there is the possibility that the charging circuit fails to recognize the dead battery as even being there and will not charge. The workaround is to charge the dead battery in another compatible phone or use an external battery charger. This is supposed to be fixed in the next update but we'll see.
The second is the thermal sensor bug. The thermal cut off starts to trigger at lower and lower temps til even freezing the phone won't work. I thought the local service center was joking til I actually saw it reproduced. This is a hardware issue and the only fix is a replacement phone.
The first issue is intermittent but knowledgeable service centers are aware of this and will either charge the dead battery or swap out with a charged one.
The second issue is reproducible but can take some time to do so depending on how far off the sensor is. Again, knowledgeable service centers are aware of this and will want to reproduce it before ordering a replacement.
Not sure what technical thong is happening, but I do know I panicked when it happened to me, bit it turns out if you try to charge EVO from a USB port while its in the recovery mode it will eventually drain and **** off. I forgot I was on recovery mode and came back to what you described. After doing the swap with my GF's EVO and realizing my battery was fine, I remembered how I had left the phone in the first place and Googled it to confirm that will cause the dead EVO scare.
Sent from a corrective lens wearing eskimo translating Turkish smoke signals viewed over a streaming webcam at 640x480 resolution via a U.S. Robotics 14.4 Hayes compatible modem.
This has happened to me twice, but since I was on the extended battery from sprint, I would just pop my stock battery in and it powered up fine. Each time I just brought my battery in to sprint and they replaced it. Also, when it happened to me the charging light wasn't turning on or anything.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
OK friends, same thing happening here to me today.
Here's my story: Last night, working fine, running stock turbo rom and netarchy cfs-havs-sbc-4.3.4 kernel for about a month, working great.
Used Kernel manager and flashed to cfs-suv-nohavs-nosbc and it was working great. Figured I didnt need the extra batter life/damage risk anymore. Went to sleep, phone on my bed.
Wake up today, phone is fully unresponsive. Take the battery out, put it back in, unresponsive. nothing whatsoever when holding down power, volume, etc.
When I plug it in, the orange battery led comes on and off.
:[
cjh6386 said:
OK friends, same thing happening here to me today.
Here's my story: Last night, working fine, running stock turbo rom and netarchy cfs-havs-sbc-4.3.4 kernel for about a month, working great.
Used Kernel manager and flashed to cfs-suv-nohavs-nosbc and it was working great. Figured I didnt need the extra batter life/damage risk anymore. Went to sleep, phone on my bed.
Wake up today, phone is fully unresponsive. Take the battery out, put it back in, unresponsive. nothing whatsoever when holding down power, volume, etc.
When I plug it in, the orange battery led comes on and off.
:[
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Blinking charge light means that the battery v has dropped below the required v to turn on the phone. I see 4-5 Evo's a day like this as well as the charge bug.
I actually got it booting again somehow. Now, it consistently turns on, will boot to the bootloader, but recovery doesnt work and it wont boot into the phone. It does search for pc36 image though... i might try that.
I just sit here and shake my head on a daily basis when I see people talk about problems and inevitably, and I'm not saying this is applicable in this case, but they say in their post they were using ROM or Kernel Manager.....

Well, my Nexus 4 lasted a month.

Went out yesterday afternoon with some friends, had about 80% charge on the battery. Probably an hour into my night, I went to check my phone (i always keep it in my front pocket), and to my confusion, it wouldn't power on. Okay...maybe somehow an app left running killed the battery (although I think they designed the phones not to do this). Fast forward about 4 hours, when we get back home. I plug the phone into the wall charger and instantly see an unfamiliar blinking red led light just above the charge port. The phone wouldn't power up, decided to check back later. 30 Minutes later, still nothing. 8 Hours later on charge, still nothing.
I've tried hard resetting, I've tried holding the power button for 30 seconds, I've tried holding all three simultaneously. I guess it's just a dead phone.
I didn't root the phone, I didn't custom-rom the phone, no 3rd-party kernel...nothing...she was completely stock.
I called google, their support agent wasn't familiar with the phone. Said he'd get an RMA started, would email me the details he needed from me...never got back to me. I'm pretty pissed.
Waiting 5 weeks for a phone that dies in a month....not a happy camper.
UPDATE! FIXED IT
Following the guide here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+4+Teardown/11781/1
I took it apart, disconnected the battery lead, and reconnected the lead...poof it boots!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UPDATE #2
The phone "died" again. Took it apart again, pulled the battery, again. Factory Reset, the phones been on a charger since then and it is still on, we'll see how it lasts the day.
I'm not sure if there is any proof of this, but I read somewhere that benchmarking apps can cause this(?) I had Quadrant installed on my device shortly before this happened. Anyway, I'll let you guys know if I have any more problems.
UPDATE #3
I've lost it again. I don't know what to do at this point...
Before I proceed,
1) Are you comfortable working on electronics
if yes, continue to 2. if not, stop here.
2) Do you have the appropriate tools?
rr5678 said:
Before I proceed,
1) Are you comfortable working on electronics
if yes, continue to 2. if not, stop here.
2) Do you have the appropriate tools?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and Yes, but I don't want to void my warranty on such an unknown problem. I'd rather see it replaced and they can research the problem on my phone and try to prevent it in the future so others don't have to go through this. Thanks
Don't you just hate the fact that some random employee at Google will easily have access to all of your personal data left on the phone?
Oh well, at least you get taken care of.
ethugp3pp3r said:
Yes and Yes, but I don't want to void my warranty on such an unknown problem. I'd rather see it replaced and they can research the problem on my phone and try to prevent it in the future so others don't have to go through this. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not aware of any warranty/void stickers on this phone.
have you seen this?
If
If the phone battery has been discharged too far then it becomes dangerous to try and recharge it as it can explode, this is why these sorts of safety mechanisms kick in sometimes.
Your only option is to send it back, if the battery safety device has been activated, it will be permanent and can only be fixed by a new battery
Regards
Phil
rr5678 said:
I'm not aware of any warranty/void stickers on this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure? Can anybody else verify this? What were you going to suggest doing? I'm having lots of complications with the RMA process because i'm currently visiting in England until the end of the month and then I'll go back to Germany where I'll be living for the next ~7 months. I got this phone last month when I was visiting home in the US. It's a total disaster and if disconnecting and reconnecting my battery is all I need to do (and I won't void the warranty), I'd prefer to give that a go.
oh and another thing...when I connect the phone to my laptop, the USB connect/disconnect sound plays every 5-6 seconds. So it seems like the phone is turning on, and then off again...over and over again.
ethugp3pp3r said:
oh and another thing...when I connect the phone to my laptop, the USB connect/disconnect sound plays every 5-6 seconds. So it seems like the phone is turning on, and then off again...over and over again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured that all this red light stuff could be solved by a simple battery pull, but LG was too STUPID to realize that people need an accessible battery and now to even try it, you have to open the phone and unscrew the battery connector.
rr5678 said:
I figured that all this red light stuff could be solved by a simple battery pull, but LG was too STUPID to realize that people need an accessible battery and now to even try it, you have to open the phone and unscrew the battery connector.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it really that easy? Will the warranty be voided?
Following the guide here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+4+Teardown/11781/1
I took it apart, disconnected the battery lead, and reconnected the lead...poof it boots!!
ethugp3pp3r said:
Following the guide here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+4+Teardown/11781/1
I took it apart, disconnected the battery lead, and reconnected the lead...poof it boots!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There you go. You've confirmed the fix.
HI EVERYBODY.
I'm back. The phone has done it again. I've not got the patience to peel the back off, but it's gone into the blinking red light on charge/not booting up at all mode.
GOOGLE/LG, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, Send us all a new battery as well as the tools to replace it, and update the software, too. I'd also like $50 for the trouble, and please, fire every single "support technician" that thinks the sim card is behind the battery on a nexus (I've had that 2 times now from support)
The phone is great when it works, but it's "infrastructure" is absolutely god awful.
Will report back. Recommendations are welcome!
ethugp3pp3r said:
HI EVERYBODY.
I'm back. The phone has done it again. I've not got the patience to peel the back off, but it's gone into the blinking red light on charge/not booting up at all mode.
GOOGLE/LG, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, Send us all a new battery as well as the tools to replace it, and update the software, too. I'd also like $50 for the trouble, and please, fire every single "support technician" that thinks the sim card is behind the battery on a nexus (I've had that 2 times now from support)
The phone is great when it works, but it's "infrastructure" is absolutely god awful.
Will report back. Recommendations are welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you let your battery drain all the way or something?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
BigDig said:
Did you let your battery drain all the way or something?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, I haven't done that. I just took it apart and reconnected the battery for the 3rd time. I really don't know what the f**k to do at this point. Does anybody have any idea what could be causing this? Google will not allow me to RMA the phone because I bought it in the US and I live in Germany (they won't ship it to Germany for some **** reason).
ahhhhhh!!
ethugp3pp3r said:
Nope, I haven't done that. I just took it apart and reconnected the battery for the 3rd time. I really don't know what the f**k to do at this point. Does anybody have any idea what could be causing this? Google will not allow me to RMA the phone because I bought it in the US and I live in Germany (they won't ship it to Germany for some **** reason).
ahhhhhh!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bad battery is causing it...
Find a replacement.
You can also call LG instead of google. They may RMA for you.
tweaked said:
bad battery is causing it...
Find a replacement.
You can also call LG instead of google. They may RMA for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's lasted through the night off the charger on Franco's Kernel and CM 10.1
not sure what that tells us, but I'm happy!
I'm 90% sure all of these weird battery problems + red light are because of stock charger!
Search around and see..
calanizzle said:
I'm 90% sure all of these weird battery problems + red light are because of stock charger!
Search around and see..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good thing I hardly use that one
But instead of telling us to search, could you provide us with sources? Because this is interesting.
Somebody should compare the LG charger with another good quality charger, a Samsung or Nokia for example, using a scope.

[Q] Water damaged Nexus 4, salvageable?

Hey all,
About a month ago my nexus 4 met up with my washing machine, and as a result was submerged in water for about an hour. Shortly after the incident I opened it up to see what the damage was and the only damage I saw was some indications of corrosion on the motherboard (image 1) and (image 2). On the reverse side (image 3) you can see there is no such corrosion. Unfortunately in the confusion after taking the phone out of the water, I tried to boot it up.
Tonight, 1 month later I was fooling around and I plugged the phone in. What I got at first was the "red LED of death", but when I held the power button, the white battery symbol (image 4) popped up and the phone vibrated, followed by bitter nothingness.
My question is to ask whether or not I could salvage my dear Nexus, and how I could do this. My theory is that I would replace the fried board with a fresh one and maybe the battery too, but
1) do you think this would work? and 2) where could I find a replacement motherboard? I'm sorry to bother you but I think this information might save me a couple hundred bucks and may enlighten others with my same misfortune. Thanks,
Jack
Jackk127 said:
Hey all,
About a month ago my nexus 4 met up with my washing machine, and as a result was submerged in water for about an hour. Shortly after the incident I opened it up to see what the damage was and the only damage I saw was some indications of corrosion on the motherboard (image 1) and (image 2). On the reverse side (image 3) you can see there is no such corrosion. Unfortunately in the confusion after taking the phone out of the water, I tried to boot it up.
Tonight, 1 month later I was fooling around and I plugged the phone in. What I got at first was the "red LED of death", but when I held the power button, the white battery symbol (image 4) popped up and the phone vibrated, followed by bitter nothingness.
My question is to ask whether or not I could salvage my dear Nexus, and how I could do this. My theory is that I would replace the fried board with a fresh one and maybe the battery too, but
1) do you think this would work? and 2) where could I find a replacement motherboard? I'm sorry to bother you but I think this information might save me a couple hundred bucks and may enlighten others with my same misfortune. Thanks,
Jack
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not too sure about this but I think you'd be better off getting a new one entirely than purchase a motherboard, replace it yourself and run the risk of your original problem not even being the motherboard.
Clean with 99% alcohol. And try again. Happened to my g2 back in the day and the clean solved it
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Warbuff said:
Clean with 99% alcohol. And try again. Happened to my g2 back in the day and the clean solved it
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would this work even if I had powered it up after the incident. I'm pretty sure all the water is out of it but there might be some soap residue.
Update* Bootloader
Surprisingly, I was able to access the boot loader screen with the arrows and the android guy getting a sun tan, but upon trying to boot i get a Google screen and then back to black. What I think now is that the problem is that the battery shorted, so when I can I am going to transplant my brother's battery into my phone and see if it works. If this is successful it will surely be a triumph of Nexus 4 over human error! Below is a picture of where I got to (apologies for the blurriness).
When it happened on my g2. I could only get into the bootloader. Anything else would go and last a second and short out. I took a toothbrush plus the alcohol and that's what worked for me.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Warbuff said:
When it happened on my g2. I could only get into the bootloader. Anything else would go and last a second and short out. I took a toothbrush plus the alcohol and that's what worked for me.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
\
That is exactly what is happening to me, where exactly did you scrub with the alcohol? This sounds awesome, did you just dip the brush and scrub all the components? Thanks
Pretty much. I dipped the brush into the alcohol and carefully went brushing slowly the motherboard. Make sure it's 99% so that there is minimal water content in the alcohol. Let it air dry and put everything back in and see if it worked.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I was limited to 91% but heard that that worked. I had to submerge some of the encased parts and am currently letting the whole thing air-dry for 2 days in a bag with some rice. Will report results. Thank you for all the help.
Jackk127 said:
I was limited to 91% but heard that that worked. I had to submerge some of the encased parts and am currently letting the whole thing air-dry for 2 days in a bag with some rice. Will report results. Thank you for all the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let us know the result mate
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
So I popped the motherboard back in and got back to bootloader, but the same thing happened where it shut off after trying to boot it back up. Does anyone have any more suggestions, or do you think its a problem with the motherboard? Thanks again.
Jackk127 said:
So I popped the motherboard back in and got back to bootloader, but the same thing happened where it shut off after trying to boot it back up. Does anyone have any more suggestions, or do you think its a problem with the motherboard? Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds stupid but did you tried to flash a recovery, boot on it, and side load a zip from there. Maybe your ROM as been broken or smth. Just my 2 cents. Good luck !
Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 4 avec Tapatalk
Unfortunately I am a but a yeoman in the subject of such things, and even after searching the internet for hours I could not figure out how to side load and flash files onto it. I can only get to the boot loader screen and download mode, and when I try to get into CWM on it it fails. When I tried to connect it to my computer and fix it with the Nexus root toolkit it didn't recognize the ADB or whatever. I am confident that this is a software issue now and feel that the solution lies just outside my grasp at the moment. Again, thank you guys for all your help.
Jackk127 said:
Unfortunately I am a but a yeoman in the subject of such things, and even after searching the internet for hours I could not figure out how to side load and flash files onto it. I can only get to the boot loader screen and download mode, and when I try to get into CWM on it it fails. When I tried to connect it to my computer and fix it with the Nexus root toolkit it didn't recognize the ADB or whatever. I am confident that this is a software issue now and feel that the solution lies just outside my grasp at the moment. Again, thank you guys for all your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you can get into the bootloader, try using fastboot to flash a recovery.img. make sure you place it in your fastboot folder.
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
See if you're able to boot into recovery then. If you do not have fastboot setup, check the stickies for the rooting guide. The beginning helps you with that.
estallings15 said:
Since you can get into the bootloader, try using fastboot to flash a recovery.img. make sure you place it in your fastboot folder.
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
See if you're able to boot into recovery then. If you do not have fastboot setup, check the stickies for the rooting guide. The beginning helps you with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that I cant even get into fastboot or adb on my computer, it wont recognize the phone and I cant install the drivers for some reason. Also, I cant get to recovery on my phone.
did you use the official google drivers?
masterchung89 said:
did you use the official google drivers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I tried to do that and I can connect via fastboot but not ADB. When I tried to flash a custom boot image via fastboot in a toolkit though, it got to a teamwin screen for a millisecond then crashed to a black screen and red led of death. Do you guys think its possible that the problem is the battery is shorted so I cant get enough power to boot the phone, even if it is plugged into a computer?
*Update- Dead
I just finished a round of trying to boot and flash and all of the sudden the phone is just dead. No bootloader, no Led, no vibration, just dead. Does anyone know why this happened? Could this be a result of the battery damage or do you think the motherboard is fried? Thanks again.
Jackk127 said:
I just finished a round of trying to boot and flash and all of the sudden the phone is just dead. No bootloader, no Led, no vibration, just dead. Does anyone know why this happened? Could this be a result of the battery damage or do you think the motherboard is fried? Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never mind that, I re-bathed the motherboard and it brought it back to the origional state of RED LED.
Umm for red led can you leave plugged in for a bit see if it charges the battery?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Help: Screen stopped working

Guys,
I need some help with this. I bought a new S4, a week old, rooted it, unlocked the bootloader and loaded AOKP ROM on it. Today I was applyed a screen protector on it (skinomi). After about an hour the phone started going crazy, opening random apps, screen flickering, basically it was like someone was touching the screen. So I just locked it and kept it away. After a while it got really bad, so I power off the phone. I powered it back on and the screen started flickering again. It turned off and has stopped working since then. I power it on and the buttons light work but the screen is blank. I feel may be I applied too much screen protector liquid and it just messed up things.
Any help? Should I take it to an AT&T store? Will they find out that I have rooted it if the screen doesnt work?
Appreciate any help on this guys.
Flickering could be due to a bad ROM flash. Disabling hardware overlay in Developer Options would be a temporary fix if that were the issue.
But it sounds to me like you got too much water on your phone.
I'd charge the phone overnight (while powered off).
Then I'd pull the battery for a couple minutes.
Put battery back in.
See if you can get into Download mode by pressing Volume Down and Power and Home button at the same time until the phone powers on. If you get ANY video output that is not flickering, then you're good to go and can Odin back to stock.
If you don't get ANY video output, then your phone is hosed.
You can try to warranty it.
If you do get video output but it's flickering while in Download mode, then your phone is still hosed but at least you can now ODIN back to stock before you warranty it.
Thanks for the advice. I applied some heat on it, so that the water evaporates and have kept it on charging now. Hopefully it turns on in the morning.
CZ Eddie said:
Flickering could be due to a bad ROM flash. Disabling hardware overlay in Developer Options would be a temporary fix if that were the issue.
But it sounds to me like you got too much water on your phone.
I'd charge the phone overnight (while powered off).
Then I'd pull the battery for a couple minutes.
Put battery back in.
See if you can get into Download mode by pressing Volume Down and Power and Home button at the same time until the phone powers on. If you get ANY video output that is not flickering, then you're good to go and can Odin back to stock.
If you don't get ANY video output, then your phone is hosed.
You can try to warranty it.
If you do get video output but it's flickering while in Download mode, then your phone is still hosed but at least you can now ODIN back to stock before you warranty it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back from the dead
My phone is back
Let it charge all night, then removed the battery and turned it on. It started working.
Thanks for all the help.
re: custom roms
zeesh86 said:
My phone is back
Let it charge all night, then removed the battery and turned it on. It started working.
Thanks for all the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem would have never happened if you would have not flashed a AOKP/AOSP/CM rom but instead flash one
of the many excellent samsung i337 based touchwiz custom roms which are available for the AT&T i337 S4 phone.
You will find many of the features of the samsung S4 touchwiz roms are no where to be found after flashing any of
the AOSP/AOKP/CM type roms.
Glad it's working for you now.
Misterjunky said:
The problem would have never happened if you would have not flashed a AOKP/AOSP/CM rom but instead flash one
of the many excellent samsung i337 based touchwiz custom roms which are available for the AT&T i337 S4 phone.
You will find many of the features of the samsung S4 touchwiz roms are no where to be found after flashing any of
the AOSP/AOKP/CM type roms.
Glad it's working for you now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank for the advice but I find Touchwiz really ugly. I love the the vanilla android UI and don't care much about the air gestures etc features on touchwiz. Having said that I will try to flash a more stable ROM next time.
Same. Im waiting til the google edition and keylime pie comes out with ir support so I can get a fully working aosp rom
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Misterjunky said:
The problem would have never happened if you would have not flashed a AOKP/AOSP/CM rom but instead flash one
of the many excellent samsung i337 based touchwiz custom roms which are available for the AT&T i337 S4 phone.
You will find many of the features of the samsung S4 touchwiz roms are no where to be found after flashing any of
the AOSP/AOKP/CM type roms.
Glad it's working for you now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats the most ridiculous thing i've read in awhile. explain how flashing this broke the users phone and, after following the procedures the user posted, the device suddenly works again without a problem.
zeesh86 said:
Thank for the advice but I find Touchwiz really ugly. I love the the vanilla android UI and don't care much about the air gestures etc features on touchwiz. Having said that I will try to flash a more stable ROM next time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i purchased the S4 a couple weeks ago and have been on tasks aokp since day one. no problems. your issue was obviously not rom related. glad its fixed. cheers
I am always leery of the wet application screen protectors for precisely this reason.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
zeesh86 said:
My phone is back
Let it charge all night, then removed the battery and turned it on. It started working.
Thanks for all the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, how much water did you put on the phone? You might want to check the visible water damage indicators to see if they turned colors or not. It will be good for you to know incase you ever need to try and repair or replace it through warranty. I'm not sure exactly where thy are located or what color they turn when wet, but you can look it up pretty easy.
scott14719 said:
Wow, how much water did you put on the phone? You might want to check the visible water damage indicators to see if they turned colors or not. It will be good for you to know incase you ever need to try and repair or replace it through warranty. I'm not sure exactly where thy are located or what color they turn when wet, but you can look it up pretty easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not alot of water, just sprayed some while putting on the screen protector, thats it. I dont see any visible water damage. Screen looks good and no flickering anymore. I will keep an eye on it and if I see any issues I will get it replaced.
Well, if it only flickered while in the operating system, then it was probably ROM related. If it ever flickered OUTSIDE of the operating system, like in recovery, download or while booting, then it was more likely hardware related.
Glad to hear it's working now!

Think I'm boned, figured I'd ask anyways...

So I think my 6P screen just up and died, completely out of the blue. I was using it minutes earlier no different than I usually do and it wasn't dropped or exposed to liquid, etc.
So the phone was charging and the battery light was on so I know it was powered on. I went to wake the device and was unable to. The screen VERY QUICKLY flashes like it's trying to turn on and then turns back off right away. Only the middle of the screen attempts to light up. I can actually see a brief flash of my notifications on my lock screen. I figured it might just be a hiccup and force powered down the phone by holding power. I tried to boot it again and still no screen, nothing is happening. Eventually the battery light comes on, so I know it's booting up.
I was able to use ADB to backup my files and reboot to bootloader and used fastboot to flash factory images. Sadly, the issue persists. Phone is long past both Google and Huawei warranty programs. RMA doesn't seem to be an option. I'll be fixing this myself.
I guess my questions to anyone with insight are;
-Has anyone else ever ran into this and managed to fix it? Unlikely, but hey...
-Does this sound more like a display issue or a motherboard issue? Or something else entirely? This being my primary question, really, as it matters for which parts I'm going to have to buy. I would guess the motherboard since the display wasn't dropped or exposed to liquid/fire/heat/cold/explosions/radiation/alien probing/12 rounds with Rocky Balboa/etc., and it still makes an attempt to turn on. If it was the MB, would it even boot? IDK, that's why I'm asking.
-Any reputable vendors which sell quality parts for the 6P? I've had hit or miss experiences with phone parts in the past and I haven't taken anything apart since my N5 & GNex.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Maybe the solder is bad could try 200 degree oven for 10 minutes to see if it that fixes it?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
gjkrisa said:
Maybe the solder is bad could try 200 degree oven for 10 minutes to see if it that fixes it?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possible, I suppose. Thanks! I'll give that a shot as a last ditch effort. I called Google just to see if they'd RMA it, told me I was out of warranty which I knew was the case. They were getting transferred to Huawei for a conference call with Google and them and Huawei disconnected. The Google rep said Huawei has actually been surprisingly good about taking care of certain out of warranty issues. 30 minutes on hold with them, we'll see how it goes.
I think that's a possibility since the screen keeps doing weird things. Blinks on for a half second on the top right of the screen, then the left, the middle, the bottom. Touch absolutely works across the entire display even though nothing shows. I was able to guesstimate the encryption pin entry to finish booting which allowed me to ADB pull all of my files (silver lining, I guess). It vibrates when I touch it, etc. If the oven trick doesn't work I'll just solder it myself and see if that fixes. That would be nice if I didn't have to buy anything!
I think Huawei is putting up a front to Google to look like they are doing good but lots of bad reviews on the forum glad I paid for the warranty first time and only time I've had to use it twice so far this last time they sent me a refurbished phone wonder how long I can do this for this may be the last phone I will actually want
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
gjkrisa said:
I think Huawei is putting up a front to Google to look like they are doing good but lots of bad reviews on the forum glad I paid for the warranty first time and only time I've had to use it twice so far this last time they sent me a refurbished phone wonder how long I can do this for this may be the last phone I will actually want
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for the input, could you do me one last favor anytime you get a chance? From the bootloader, what's the key combo to power off the phone? I just want to turn it off. I can power to the bootloader, but I can't remember the key combo to POWER OFF. I know 6P has some others like barcodes, etc. Not sure if it's up twice, down once, etc. If you can't no biggie, I guess it can sit at the BL until the battery is dead dead.
If it started on start it should be three down
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 06:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------
Start,reboot,recovery,power,factory,bp tools,barcode
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
If you have an Amazon Firestick or a Chromecast does it show up as an option under screen mirroring? I believe if the cpu and gpu can render the image for screen mirroring, then you know the display is bad or the connector needs to be reseated. What do you think? Edit- but you would need to enable wireless display for that it's early, I will keep thinking of ways to narrow it down. The voice command open display settings will get you halfway there.
Or have a look at this. The only trick will be finding the touch area to allow the adb key. http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-mirror-your-android-device-on-your-pc-with-ease/
RoyJ said:
So I think my 6P screen just up and died, completely out of the blue. I was using it minutes earlier no different than I usually do and it wasn't dropped or exposed to liquid, etc.
So the phone was charging and the battery light was on so I know it was powered on. I went to wake the device and was unable to. The screen VERY QUICKLY flashes like it's trying to turn on and then turns back off right away. Only the middle of the screen attempts to light up. I can actually see a brief flash of my notifications on my lock screen. I figured it might just be a hiccup and force powered down the phone by holding power. I tried to boot it again and still no screen, nothing is happening. Eventually the battery light comes on, so I know it's booting up.
I was able to use ADB to backup my files and reboot to bootloader and used fastboot to flash factory images. Sadly, the issue persists. Phone is long past both Google and Huawei warranty programs. RMA doesn't seem to be an option. I'll be fixing this myself.
I guess my questions to anyone with insight are;
-Has anyone else ever ran into this and managed to fix it? Unlikely, but hey...
-Does this sound more like a display issue or a motherboard issue? Or something else entirely? This being my primary question, really, as it matters for which parts I'm going to have to buy. I would guess the motherboard since the display wasn't dropped or exposed to liquid/fire/heat/cold/explosions/radiation/alien probing/12 rounds with Rocky Balboa/etc., and it still makes an attempt to turn on. If it was the MB, would it even boot? IDK, that's why I'm asking.
-Any reputable vendors which sell quality parts for the 6P? I've had hit or miss experiences with phone parts in the past and I haven't taken anything apart since my N5 & GNex.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds exactly like my screen failure.
One minute working, reboot. Dead.
I had to get a warranty replacement. (Nexus Protect $79.)
RoyJ said:
So I think my 6P screen just up and died, completely out of the blue. I was using it minutes earlier no different than I usually do and it wasn't dropped or exposed to liquid, etc.
So the phone was charging and the battery light was on so I know it was powered on. I went to wake the device and was unable to. The screen VERY QUICKLY flashes like it's trying to turn on and then turns back off right away. Only the middle of the screen attempts to light up. I can actually see a brief flash of my notifications on my lock screen. I figured it might just be a hiccup and force powered down the phone by holding power. I tried to boot it again and still no screen, nothing is happening. Eventually the battery light comes on, so I know it's booting up.
I was able to use ADB to backup my files and reboot to bootloader and used fastboot to flash factory images. Sadly, the issue persists. Phone is long past both Google and Huawei warranty programs. RMA doesn't seem to be an option. I'll be fixing this myself.
I guess my questions to anyone with insight are;
-Has anyone else ever ran into this and managed to fix it? Unlikely, but hey...
-Does this sound more like a display issue or a motherboard issue? Or something else entirely? This being my primary question, really, as it matters for which parts I'm going to have to buy. I would guess the motherboard since the display wasn't dropped or exposed to liquid/fire/heat/cold/explosions/radiation/alien probing/12 rounds with Rocky Balboa/etc., and it still makes an attempt to turn on. If it was the MB, would it even boot? IDK, that's why I'm asking.
-Any reputable vendors which sell quality parts for the 6P? I've had hit or miss experiences with phone parts in the past and I haven't taken anything apart since my N5 & GNex.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you purchase directly from Google? I've had my 5X since 2015 and it entered an endless bootloop last week. Gave Google a call and they offered me a one time warranty replacement because I'm in good standing and long time user of Google Play products. Worth a shot?
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
SlimSnoopOS said:
Did you purchase directly from Google? I've had my 5X since 2015 and it entered an endless bootloop last week. Gave Google a call and they offered me a one time warranty replacement because I'm in good standing and long time user of Google Play products. Worth a shot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not directly from Google Play. It was pre-ordered from Project Fi. When I called Google support about it, they transferred me to Fi which said they'd have to transfer me to the manufacturer, Huawei. They told me there was nothing they could do, call a local repair shop. I called a place in town and he offered to take it apart for me and try to reseat all of the connections and if it started working he wouldn't charge me. Otherwise a replacement would be $200 :/
I'm taking it there tomorrow so hopefully it's just a loose connection and starts working again. Touch seems to work fine all over and I cleaned the screen and put a light on it just to make sure there wasn't any cracks I didn't know about. Looks fine. I'm optimistic, lol. I think $200 is kind of steep, but he said it also comes with a lifetime warranty, so I guess that helps ease the pain a little. I need it fixed ASAP though. My backup Nexus 5s battery is shot. Takes like 12 hours to fully charge and discharges in about 2-3 hours.

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