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Running (was) a stock rooted N7 v1 on 4.3. Bought a data recovery tool off of the play store to try and recover some photos I had deleted. At some point it rebooted into safe mode, my battery was running low and I shut it off to let it charge. Now it's dead in the water. Stuck in APX mode. I am asking if there is anyway to breathe life back into this tablet.
The tablet does nothing on the screen, period, no matter what you do. When plugged in to a computer it sometimes registers as an unknown device, sometimes APX. None of these get you anywhere. Toolkits on these forums won't recognize the device, installing the android development kit and drivers does nothing, executing commands from the command line is worthless because the device won't register. I do not have any "blobs" and have no clue at this point even what they are or what they could have done for me had I made them.
I've searched this forum and found bits and pieces here and there and wanted to start a thread dealing solely with devices stuck like this and what has or hasn't worked and get others input if warranty service was done and the state your tablet was in when you sent it in (locked/unlocked, rooted etc).
Anyone stuck here will have probably tried the same things as I have but here is is a minor rundown...
1) Every button combo press known to man for short, medium, and extended periods of time.
2) Charging with the Original charger/cable for 1 hour, then button presses then charging for 12 hours.
3) Same as above but with different aftermarket chargers at different amperages.
4) Uninstalling and deleting drivers. Trying different drivers. Getting the Android drivers etc.
5) Trying every toolkit on the forums to no avail because the device won't register.
6) Checking to make sure the battery cables are seated correctly.
7) Screaming and yelling at your new paperweight.
My hope here is that I've missed some important thread about recovery and someone can point me in the right direction. Failing that, if I should get a new mobo or try and send it in for warranty service in the state it's in.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Sent from my Rooted Frameworked SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
I don't know what you tried before to revive your tablet and what the tool did to get you into this state, but generally APX mode can be left by pushing the power button *only* for about 10-20 sec, as long as there us enough power within your battery and the hardware / software is working / consistent.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
I don't think I've ever seen anyone in here describe a situation where they observed the tablet in bootloader mode without seeing *something* on the screen.
And as you found out through your reading, using "nvflash" on the N7 is only useful at this time for folks that made prior disaster recovery preparations. So, APX mode is of no use to you (at this date 12/2013).
So, until you see something happen on that screen, drivers on a PC are of no value to you anyway.
It is really unfortunate that the N7 doesn't have a physical charging indicator - that makes it difficult to distinguish between a tablet which is truly borked vs. one that refuses to boot simply because the battery isn't charged.
Holding down a specific button combo (iirc Pwr+VolUp) during an attempt to get "something, anything" to happen will put the tab into APX mode, so it isn't particularly diagnostic that you have observed APX mode once or twice.
Really about the only way to know if the battery in a non-responsive N7 is charged or not is to put it in another tablet or measure the open-circuit voltage. (About 4.15v fully charged & about 3.5v discharged)
The reason that I mention this is that there have been a few reports from users in similar straits as you that report something like "I don't know what happened, but I tried it a few days later and all of a sudden the tablet booted up". Almost every one of those reports involved mentions of low battery conditions, just as your narrative does.
I don't know what file recovery program you used, but I suspect that is a red herring . It might have to have root privileges in order to read raw partitions, and might even want the tablet in safe mode to minimize write activity by *other apps* while it does it's forensics, but it certainly isn't going to recover files by writing in raw mode on a mounted, live filesystem - it would do all it's writing through normal kernel syscalls. That's the long way of saying that a low battery is more likely to be the original source of your troubles.
So what to do now? I think the first order of business is to figure out if your battery is charged or failing to take a charge. If it really is well charged, then a warranty return is probably in your future.
If you can't find a second N7 or a voltmeter, then you could try just leaving it on the charger for a couple of days... but that really is just a "grope about in the dark, wing & prayer" kind of strategy.
good luck
Button sequences & USB Identifiers (VID/PID pairs):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2133986
You are in the same situation I was in - nothing shows up on screen. I got APX drivers to finally install (had to search all over the internet to find them) and that STILL didn't help. I was never able to get it to come back. Nothing ever showed up on the screen.
No combination of button presses helped. I finally gave up and, since my N7 was still under warranty, I RMA'd it back to ASUS. It took about 3 weeks, but I got it back with a new motherboard installed on it.
It was borked and your's sounds the same way as mine. Just either register your N7 on the ASUS website and RMA it that way, or call it in over the phone and RMA it that way. Hopefully, you still have the box your N7 came in because you'll need the serial number.
Others have stated you can get it by opening the back, but that will void your warranty. I do believe you MUST have the serial number, so find the box and get it from there.
Also, you'll definitely lose everything that was there, especially if they replace the motherboard. So hopefully, you backed it up. I backed mine up just before it got borked, so I was lucky.
Good luck!
I am wary of trying to do the battery swap. I went and bought a new version after it crashed but I would be voiding both warranties to try the battery swap.
I do have the serial number if I want to try and get service.
I have done some reading about "deep discharge" battery issues and I suspect this may be a part if it but I have tried leaving it plugged in for days and nada.
I don't know if there is a way to "shock" or jump start the charging process and I am going to put the multimeter on it tomorrow and see what I get.
Thanks for everyone's input. I will keep you up to date.
Sent from my Rooted Frameworked Verizon Galaxy S4 on MJ7 using the XDA App.
Hi there,
My phone not turning on not without battery and SD not with home and volume+ and power button not with both volumes and power nothing at all not even vibrating when charging I am not sure if it's the battery but it was charged before I rebooted once rebooted it didn't turn back on I am on aurora ics and cwm.
I didn't have any problems with it partitions might of been wiped but I guess this would leave me with access to bootloader or anything or a vibrate on charge at least it happened as I was formatting another device but put the wrong sd on ubuntu so I started to think it might be the battery except it was charged unless it decided to leak all the charge in no time.
Also it doesn't do anything on usb or charge connection no vibrate no led no light buttons no nothing just nothing.
Sounds like my issue...
If in fact you did format the whole 3.69gb partition, then you wiped the phone.
So far, my only recourse has been to attempt a JTAG and install a bootloader.
I'm thinking that maybe I can try some form of "wire trick", like the ones used on the HTC Sensation, but I don't want to blow it up by shorting something unrepairable.
If you find another solution, please reply as it would be helpful to others.
PoXFreak said:
Sounds like my issue...
If in fact you did format the whole 3.69gb partition, then you wiped the phone.
So far, my only recourse has been to attempt a JTAG and install a bootloader.
I'm thinking that maybe I can try some form of "wire trick", like the ones used on the HTC Sensation, but I don't want to blow it up by shorting something unrepairable.
If you find another solution, please reply as it would be helpful to others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope i didnt format 3.96 gb it was 3 mb and it was shown as linux cd gadget also it worked afterwards until i rebooted next day then blackness the thing is i cant seem to find a battery to try with so i need to try everything first
The one I have here wouldn't start charging the battery until I force-fed the battery directly. (use a 4-5v charger and directly charge the battery for a couple of minutes).
Mine worked, but I made the mistake of formatting the entire partition (3.69gb), so now the phone does absolutely nothing.
PoXFreak said:
The one I have here wouldn't start charging the battery until I force-fed the battery directly. (use a 4-5v charger and directly charge the battery for a couple of minutes).
Mine worked, but I made the mistake of formatting the entire partition (3.69gb), so now the phone does absolutely nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a bit confused here so now when you plug it you can do something to it since it's charging? I guess I never did the 3.69 thingy if I am not mistaken..So lemme ask you if I tried the wall outlet for example instead of the USB to tv or laptop would that help to start it? I am thinking of replacing the battery and see what happens that's if I can find it here in Turkey the Turks always into the newest phones so this one is ancient to them to find a battery for...
Mine is in the same state. But I know that in my efforts to get it to start again I accidently wiped the the entire partition. Can't turn it on, can't get a pink screen, not a thing and haven't beenable to find any solution. So I guess all I can do is sit back and check the postings to see if anyone else has the same issue and knows of a way to restore the boot partition.
Burtrum57 said:
Mine is in the same state. But I know that in my efforts to get it to start again I accidently wiped the the entire partition. Can't turn it on, can't get a pink screen, not a thing and haven't beenable to find any solution. So I guess all I can do is sit back and check the postings to see if anyone else has the same issue and knows of a way to restore the boot partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm thinking of trying to run MTTY 1.42 and talk directly with the qualcomm chip to send the boot files myself, but I need to know what I need and where it goes first.
I did this with the HTC Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) with some success.
That was on Windows XP though...not sure if it will run correctly on Win 7.
PoXFreak said:
I'm thinking of trying to run MTTY 1.42 and talk directly with the qualcomm chip to send the boot files myself, but I need to know what I need and where it goes first.
I did this with the HTC Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) with some success.
That was on Windows XP though...not sure if it will run correctly on Win 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
help me i have the same issue....
service
May be best option is to take it to service center.
Hello everybody,
- On monday i ran into a strange problem with my N910F. At first it was just not charging whatsoever.
- after the phone ran out of power, i attempted to charge it which gave me a brick with a black screen, vibrating short every two seconds
- Fine by me i thought, went and got a replacement battery (after checking simple stuff like the physical state of the battery (normal) and killing the batterystats (which i heard both yay and nay about so i decided to give it a try).
- Replacement battery charged overnight on the USB Port of my computer (2.0, for the completionists) went smooth (didn't turn it on, just had this bubble animation of charging).
- Turned it on this morning (booting apparently took 3% off my battery) and all well so far.
- finally in my chair at work i plugged it into my power cable (genuine Samsung FastCharging adapter that came with the phone itself) and nothing happened
- tried another adapter (some cheapo 1A adapter) which started charging around 10secs after connecting but decided to stop charging after a couple of minutes
- some shaking and gentle knocking brought back the charging symbol for some seconds, seemed like some loose contact or a broken cable so i felt fancy and plugged the very same cable (the one originally shipped with the phone) to my laptop. started charging instantly and no shaking or knocking stopped this (so no loose contact or broken cable at all)
This is the story until now, put together as complete and organized as possible. For now i'm stuck to charge my phone on the laptop or computer which seems to work. In this progress above i tested around 7 chargers, 3 laptops, 2 computers, 10 cables and 3 screens with both batteries, although the workaround i have now is only tested with the genuine cable as i was just done with testing for the night.
Now for my questions (apart from a touch with the magical fix-everything tool):
- What i see as possible causes based on my very shallow knowledge are either the microUSB port on the phone or the power distribution unit. Anyone has an idea what to check?
- As i have no idea how deep the OS goes, could it be a software issue by any chance?
Even though the device is only ~9 months old, I don't like the idea of going through Samsung for this one as i tripped KNOX already.
Hope there's still hope for me
Cheers,
Fachtal
sooooooo, does nobody have an idea lying around somewhere?
Fachtal said:
Hello everybody,
- On monday i ran into a strange problem with my N910F. At first it was just not charging whatsoever.
- after the phone ran out of power, i attempted to charge it which gave me a brick with a black screen, vibrating short every two seconds
- Fine by me i thought, went and got a replacement battery (after checking simple stuff like the physical state of the battery (normal) and killing the batterystats (which i heard both yay and nay about so i decided to give it a try).
- Replacement battery charged overnight on the USB Port of my computer (2.0, for the completionists) went smooth (didn't turn it on, just had this bubble animation of charging).
- Turned it on this morning (booting apparently took 3% off my battery) and all well so far.
- finally in my chair at work i plugged it into my power cable (genuine Samsung FastCharging adapter that came with the phone itself) and nothing happened
- tried another adapter (some cheapo 1A adapter) which started charging around 10secs after connecting but decided to stop charging after a couple of minutes
- some shaking and gentle knocking brought back the charging symbol for some seconds, seemed like some loose contact or a broken cable so i felt fancy and plugged the very same cable (the one originally shipped with the phone) to my laptop. started charging instantly and no shaking or knocking stopped this (so no loose contact or broken cable at all)
This is the story until now, put together as complete and organized as possible. For now i'm stuck to charge my phone on the laptop or computer which seems to work. In this progress above i tested around 7 chargers, 3 laptops, 2 computers, 10 cables and 3 screens with both batteries, although the workaround i have now is only tested with the genuine cable as i was just done with testing for the night.
Now for my questions (apart from a touch with the magical fix-everything tool):
- What i see as possible causes based on my very shallow knowledge are either the microUSB port on the phone or the power distribution unit. Anyone has an idea what to check?
- As i have no idea how deep the OS goes, could it be a software issue by any chance?
Even though the device is only ~9 months old, I don't like the idea of going through Samsung for this one as i tripped KNOX already.
Hope there's still hope for me
Cheers,
Fachtal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You seemed to have tried using the cheap charger which allowed you to charge after shaking it a bit, have you tried purchasing a new genuine charger?
Sent from my trltexx using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Tripping Knox does not necessarily mean that you've lost warranty.
Battlehero said:
You seemed to have tried using the cheap charger which allowed you to charge after shaking it a bit, have you tried purchasing a new genuine charger?
Sent from my trltexx using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried around 7 adapters (from cheap ones to genuine galaxy S3, Note2, and Note4), around 10 different cables (again, from cheap ones to genuine samsung cables), 3 Laptops (again with all cables), 2 computers (all cables) abd one of those mobile charging battery things.
The only thing that works is either the genuine cable on my computer or the same cables on my screen at work.
@geevh that's news to me. As far as i heard is tripping know equal to losing warranty.
Fachtal said:
I tried around 7 adapters (from cheap ones to genuine galaxy S3, Note2, and Note4), around 10 different cables (again, from cheap ones to genuine samsung cables), 3 Laptops (again with all cables), 2 computers (all cables) abd one of those mobile charging battery things.
The only thing that works is either the genuine cable on my computer or the same cables on my screen at work.
@geevh that's news to me. As far as i heard is tripping know equal to losing warranty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried to flash stock firmware, in case it's the kernel?
KNOX warranty shouldn't void your warrant in the EU as I have gotten two knox tripped devices repaired from Samsung before.
Sent from my SM-N910F using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Battlehero said:
Have you tried to flash stock firmware, in case it's the kernel?
KNOX warranty shouldn't void your warrant in the EU as I have gotten two knox tripped devices repaired from Samsung before.
Sent from my SM-N910F using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just flashed the official ROM using Odin. Had some problems getting the phone connected while in DL mode (didn't work at all while in normal android mode).
This seemed to be a dirty flash (already was on stock Rom, just put CWM on, rooted the phone and replaced the kernel to have SELinux permissive for Viper4Droid) as it didn't go through the setup process and was like before.
Anyway, charging still doesn't work. Is there anything else I can test? I'm nearly at the point where I migrate back to my old SGS3 and have the N910F sent to the carrier (well, in the end it will go to Samsung) to get it fixed.
Thanks about the whole Knox false knowledge.
Cheers, Fachtal
Fachtal said:
I just flashed the official ROM using Odin. Had some problems getting the phone connected while in DL mode (didn't work at all while in normal android mode).
This seemed to be a dirty flash (already was on stock Rom, just put CWM on, rooted the phone and replaced the kernel to have SELinux permissive for Viper4Droid) as it didn't go through the setup process and was like before.
Anyway, charging still doesn't work. Is there anything else I can test? I'm nearly at the point where I migrate back to my old SGS3 and have the N910F sent to the carrier (well, in the end it will go to Samsung) to get it fixed.
Thanks about the whole Knox false knowledge.
Cheers, Fachtal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would just give the device in for repairs but make sure to flash a full stock rom and factory reset before giving the phone, since you have already tried everything else.
Good luck
Battlehero said:
I would just give the device in for repairs but make sure to flash a full stock rom and factory reset before giving the phone, since you have already tried everything else.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, flashing stock ROM seems to be slightly less relaxing than I thought. It feels like I have to connect the phone to the pc, put it on the table in a very specific position/way and then hope that it doesn't disconnect halfway through flashing...
This has become quite an adventure so far and I hope I'll get this done so i can get rid of this very expensive paperweight
Thanks for all the help so far, I guess I'll add the explanation from my carrier/Samsung as soon as I (hopefully) get my device back.
Fachtal
PMIC or Charging IC is probably broken on the mainboard, i hear more N4's have this problem.
Best is to send it for warranty or let the components be replaced by a "good" repair shop.
Most service centers don't check knox status so i would go for that, if all fails take it for repairs if the costs are not too high.
Hi guys, back for a rather unexpected "solution"
When i finally freed up some time to actually get to the carrier shop to get my phone fixed, I was in for a rather embarrasing experience.
The lady in the shop pulled a charging cable and an adapter out of a box, plugged my phone in and it suddenly charged as if nothing ever happened. Now, some time later, it still works perfectly fine, as if there never were problems...
I have absolutely no idea on what happened. Before going to the shop i obviously flashed the stock rom yet again (with the usual wipe user data/cache/dalvik procedure).
Now, on what i had when the problems started: stock BOC5 ROM, touch CWM, rooted and with a custom kernel for SEAndroid permissive (emotion something i believe the kernel was called). Now during my rather extensive troubleshooting I actually flashed the stock ROM at least once and the issue persisted, which is why i just stood there, staring on my charging phone, my jaw somewhere on its way to the ground, unable to form any proper words :silly:
So basically, does someone have a possible explanation to clear this up? If not, I'll consider this thread solved i guess^^
In the meantime, I downgraded to Stock 4.4.4 with CWM, root and xposed (which i really missed on Lolli) and I'd say I'm happy with this :victory:
Fachtal
Fachtal said:
Hi guys, back for a rather unexpected "solution"
When i finally freed up some time to actually get to the carrier shop to get my phone fixed, I was in for a rather embarrasing experience.
The lady in the shop pulled a charging cable and an adapter out of a box, plugged my phone in and it suddenly charged as if nothing ever happened. Now, some time later, it still works perfectly fine, as if there never were problems...
I have absolutely no idea on what happened. Before going to the shop i obviously flashed the stock rom yet again (with the usual wipe user data/cache/dalvik procedure).
Now, on what i had when the problems started: stock BOC5 ROM, touch CWM, rooted and with a custom kernel for SEAndroid permissive (emotion something i believe the kernel was called). Now during my rather extensive troubleshooting I actually flashed the stock ROM at least once and the issue persisted, which is why i just stood there, staring on my charging phone, my jaw somewhere on its way to the ground, unable to form any proper words :silly:
So basically, does someone have a possible explanation to clear this up? If not, I'll consider this thread solved i guess^^
In the meantime, I downgraded to Stock 4.4.4 with CWM, root and xposed (which i really missed on Lolli) and I'd say I'm happy with this :victory:
Fachtal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's sound strange but a couple of years ago i read somewhere,forgotten where and about the specific device. The thing was that phone wasn't charging eather ,and now it comes.....the solution was turnig around the charger in te power socket.
ludoke said:
It's sound strange but a couple of years ago i read somewhere,forgotten where and about the specific device. The thing was that phone wasn't charging eather ,and now it comes.....the solution was turnig around the charger in te power socket.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this indeed sounds strange. And honestly, i didn't pay attention on the orientation of the power adapter (although my stock samsung one is always in the same orientation because the cable goes out on the side (which means it worked in the same direction as it didn't before).
The only even remotely considerable approach would be that the custom kernel along with this synapse app somehow screwed with the power intake and i forgot to wipe everything when i first flashed stock over it, meaning that synapse still had its fingers in the system screwing around with that.
But then again, as I seem to be the only one with this problem and this custom kernel had more than just a few users I don't think this is the way it went (I don't even use an unusual collection of root Apps which could cause some sort of malfunctioning combination of effects).
I had a few evenings just thinking about this and draw some simple mindmaps/schematics to make some sort of a sense...
So one day I was using Samsung Smart Switch to restore my firmware from Lineage OS to default Samsung. Everything was going well until the application gave me some kind of error box.
It said something along the lines of, “Update mode failed to initialize.” After that, my tablet went dark. I couldn’t power it on, or anything. Couldn’t even get it to go into download mode. If anyone could help, please do. Thanks in advance.
龍88 said:
So one day I was using Samsung Smart Switch to restore my firmware from Lineage OS to default Samsung. Everything was going well until the application gave me some kind of error box.
It said something along the lines of, “Update mode failed to initialize.” After that, my tablet went dark. I couldn’t power it on, or anything. Couldn’t even get it to go into download mode. If anyone could help, please do. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried holding the Home, Vol down and Power buttons for over ten seconds? It could be that, even though the screen is black, that the tablet is still on.
4929york said:
Have you tried holding the Home, Vol down and Power buttons for over ten seconds? It could be that, even though the screen is black, that the tablet is still on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have. And I know the screen isn't just black, because every time I attempt to plug it into my computer no input is detected.
Nevermind, it was actually just my charging universal serial bus port that was broken. I guess I had no battery that time so it ran out during the process of restoring my tablet.
龍88 said:
Nevermind, it was actually just my charging universal serial bus port that was broken. I guess I had no battery that time so it ran out during the process of restoring my tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I was gonna say, probably the greatest thing about Samsung devices, which almost makes up for the slow updates and the difficulty ROM developers have historically had in supporting Exynos, is Download Mode. It's hardcoded onto a read-only chip, will boot even if you lack a bootloader, and always works perfectly with Smartswitch or Odin as long as your MicroUSB port works, thus making is literally impossible to hard-brick a Samsung device except by causing physical damage (dropping, water damage, sledgehammer, etc). I don't know of any other OEM that has something similar. HTC's S-On sort of did the same thing, but it was on the regular NAND chip which made it less noob-proof than Download Mode, could theoretically be turned off, and was much more restrictive in the partitions it gave developers access to. I'm not loyal to Samsung or any other brand, my current Tab A 10.1 is my first Samsung device and could still be my last if someone else has better specs and better software for a better price in the next generation, but this is one of my favorite features. The moment you suggested you'd hard-bricked it with a simple attempt to flash something onto the regular NAND, I knew something had to be wrong with the battery or MicroUSB port.
Seanthedroid said:
Yeah, I was gonna say, probably the greatest thing about Samsung devices, which almost makes up for the slow updates and the difficulty ROM developers have historically had in supporting Exynos, is Download Mode. It's hardcoded onto a read-only chip, will boot even if you lack a bootloader, and always works perfectly with Smartswitch or Odin as long as your MicroUSB port works, thus making is literally impossible to hard-brick a Samsung device except by causing physical damage (dropping, water damage, sledgehammer, etc). I don't know of any other OEM that has something similar. HTC's S-On sort of did the same thing, but it was on the regular NAND chip which made it less noob-proof than Download Mode, could theoretically be turned off, and was much more restrictive in the partitions it gave developers access to. I'm not loyal to Samsung or any other brand, my current Tab A 10.1 is my first Samsung device and could still be my last if someone else has better specs and better software for a better price in the next generation, but this is one of my favorite features. The moment you suggested you'd hard-bricked it with a simple attempt to flash something onto the regular NAND, I knew something had to be wrong with the battery or MicroUSB port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While DOWNLOAD mode is fairly robust it actually can quite easily be killed by a bad flash.
Speaking from experience. Aboot is responsible for booting the kernel or DOWNLOAD mode.
ABOOT should always be flashed with its corresponding SBL.
If not then the SBL may reject ABOOT as it wont have the correct signature. This breaks a chain of trust which is started from when the device is turned on and the firmware initialized.
(basically this is what is meant by secure boot seen in download mode)
If the SBL rejects ABOOT the device simply will not boot and will appear dead. No DOWNLOAD mode nothing.
Unfortunately I did this by accident when trying some mods out and flashed the wrong ABOOT thus killing my T555.
If you're lucky the device will drop into qhsusb_dload mode, however I think this mode only activates if the SBL believes ABOOT is corrupt not if it's failed the chain of trust.
Unfortunately this didn't happen, so the only option I have is to flash the EMMC direct using something like RIFF BOX in ISP mode(which I already have, but needs an update).
Failing that there is a little trick with an SDCARD adapter that could work with limited success I may try.
So just to sum up anything beyond flashing bootloaders is unlikely to brick the device as this will ensure DOWNLOAD mode is always accessible.
Hey!
While I was calibrating my fingerprint, phone suddenly turned off and went to recovery with screen off.
I managed to reflash stock rom through fastboot and it boots to system fine, but the screen stays off and the front camera keeps trying to open while playing the MIUI camera sound (sometimes, while booting, the camera does manage to open once, kinda like it's calibrating). Some playing around with ADB and it seems that the SIM isn't recognized either.. antenna maybe?
I opened the phone up and checked everything, there's no visible issues with the electronics, however it could just be the inside of a cable that died?
Does anyone know what this could be? I noticed the screen, fingerprint reader and antenna are all connected to the same removable PCB, but the camera isn't so that's odd.
Aren't we moving way too fast here? Like wtf is happening rn?
First: Explain in detail from the beginning please if you want help.
Second: Please state exactly what is your issue, and the ROM version of your device.
I don't think what you just did is the cause of whatever problem you're facing, do you mind telling me the source from which you got this phone? Otherwise you might want to send it to a service center.
XDHx86 said:
Aren't we moving way too fast here? Like wtf is happening rn?
First: Explain in detail from the beginning please if you want help.
Second: Please state exactly what is your issue, and the ROM version of your device.
I don't think what you just did is the cause of whatever problem you're facing, do you mind telling me the source from which you got this phone? Otherwise you might want to send it to a service center.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a bit of a long one, so I didn't want to bother too much with the details if anyone knew what those specific issues could be caused by, here goes though:
I am on a Mi 9T bought on Amazon Italy in July 2019. I cannot comfortably send it to a repair center due to every authorized shop around here is just a drop-off point for Xiaomi RMA. I talked to them and, due to (>6 months old) glass damage to the screen and back of the phone, they intended to charge me way more than I can afford, as "solving issues covered by the warranty would require us to replace the accidentally damaged components"
As for what happened:
I was running LOS 17.1 with no issues for a few months. I went to unlock the phone and I heard the reboot vibration, which sent me to recovery (softbricked) but with no screen signal. I assumed it was just a software problem, so I flashed MIUI 12 (global, V12.0.7.0.QFJMIXM) to see what would happen.
As it completed, the phone rebooted itself, the MIUI logo popped up and it went to system (seemingly) without any issues.
I went through the initial wizard and played around with it. everything seemed fine and I even made sure the screen did work in recovery and fastboot. Later, when I went to setup the fingerprint reader, the screen went blank for half a second when I first touched it, and then the same screen death -> reboot to recovery.
The phone was softbricked again, though, this time, reinstalling MIUI didn't yield the same success. Now:
MIUI boots "normally" again
The screen isn't working at all
The front camera opens, as if it's calibrating, when system boots up
The front camera randomly tries to open again every now and then, failing to do so as if the motor is stuck, while MIUI plays the camera closing sound.
Meddling through ADB, the antenna doesn't seem to be working, but I can't be 100% sure due to the methods used
The power and volume buttons, speakers, and the charging light all work.
I have opened the phone up myself, thoroughly checked every cable, connection and PCB, but there is no sign of damage. I put it back together and the same issue continued.
My best guess is that something inside the fingerprint reader went bad and shorted something else.
What that something else is, I couldn't find out. Given the antenna, screen and FOD are all connected to the same little PCB which then runs a couple cables to the motherboard, I am now in the process of finding a couple replacement cables to see if that fixes anything.
As I mentioned before, repair centers are not an option due to the lack of anyone who's willing to help me for less than a good chunk of the price of the phone.
Interesting. So basically what happened is due to the initial soft brick and accordingly you flashed a global MIUI 12 ROM, which in return brought you to the second soft brick which caused some issues within the hardware of the device.
Now you're stuck with a faulty screen, a faulty camera and a faulty antenna.
I don't have the skills to play around with the motherboard and the phone circuit. And I don't care which youtube tutorial you saw, you should have NEVER done that - Of course unless you're actually experienced in that manner, then I apologize for speaking with such prejudice -
I can't help you if you messed up your phone circuit since I have no knowledge about android hardware, however I can safely assume that what caused your issue isn't related to hardware.
I think the issue is caused by an incomplete flashing of a ROM (In this case MIUI 12 global) OR flashing a different variation from your device.
e.g. you flashed only the ROM, but didn't flash the other components of the ROM.
Needless to say, flashing a variation of the ROM that isn't meant for you device can be a disaster recipe.
I recommend flashing LOS again, since you can't go back on Xiaomi devices due to rollback protection.
XDHx86 said:
I don't have the skills to play around with the motherboard and the phone circuit. And I don't care which youtube tutorial you saw, you should have NEVER done that - Of course unless you're actually experienced in that manner, then I apologize for speaking with such prejudice -
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I understand why you'd think that and have seen people do similar stupid things, however I didn't watch any youtube video and know what I'm doing quite well.
I made sure I flashed the correct rom through fastboot to restore everything to stock. I did try to reflash LOS and whatever else (though it's kind of a pain with adb shell), but it doesn't fix the problem, sadly.
That's why I'm betting on a HW issue.
The fingerprint reader and everything else worked flawlessly in LOS for months, but it made the screen go blank and bricked the device in both LOS and fully functional, stock MIUI.
Currently, I'm battling with this damn thing to get USB debugging working while booted to system, so I can do a few things like cast the screen to my PC and see what works from there.
I have access to fastboot and recovery, but everything I know (editing build.prop or patching the boot image) didn't work so far. Do you have any idea what I could do to get that done?
angometry said:
Currently, I'm battling with this damn thing to get USB debugging working while booted to system, so I can do a few things like cast the screen to my PC and see what works from there.
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If the touch screen is dead then you can use mouse and OTG cable.
If it is completely black then you can get usb c to HDMI cable (Also usb c hub might work, like this one). Or you can use playstore on pc to download and install apps like (Screen stream over HTTP) on your device, just make sure your device is connected to the internet and you're signed in on your phone as well, you might have to type in the screen password if you have one.
angometry said:
I have access to fastboot and recovery, but everything I know (editing build.prop or patching the boot image) didn't work so far. Do you have any idea what I could do to get that done?
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I don't know why bother with build.prop unless you have the wrong fingerprint prop. Then you can get the correct one from your device's stock ROM, though I think this is irrelevant to your issue.
All I can think of is:
Wiping dalvik cache, though you might have already done that.
Trying other custom ROMs from here.
You may try to get your device rollback index and installing a MIUI ROM that has index higher than it, and see if that works.
That is as far as I can help, unfortunately.
I have zero knowledge when it comes to hardware, so I can only help with software issues. If none of my solutions worked then sorry for wasting your time :/
XDHx86 said:
If it is completely black then you can get usb c to HDMI cable (Also usb c hub might work, like this one).
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Wait, does it actually just automatically use it as a 2nd screen if I connect it via HDMI?
XDHx86 said:
I don't know why bother with build.prop unless you have the wrong fingerprint prop. Then you can get the correct one from your device's stock ROM, though I think this is irrelevant to your issue.
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Sorry, I didn't explain myself, I'm looking for a way to enable USB Debugging without a screen. Thinking that using adb in twrp is the best way, but I can't manage to do it. Do you have any ideas?
If I can get it on, I can then use things like scrcpy to get screen signal through USB.
Main problem with everything else is that the screen is 100% dead. Even with usb otg I don't know how I could possibly get through the setup wizard haha
angometry said:
Wait, does it actually just automatically use it as a 2nd screen if I connect it via HDMI?
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I haven't tried it myself, however it should detect it as a second monitor. Give it a try the cable isn't costly at all anyway.
angometry said:
I'm looking for a way to enable USB Debugging without a screen. Thinking that using adb in twrp is the best way, but I can't manage to do it. Do you have any ideas?
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TWRP has debugging mode on by default, however that strictly applies to recovery and fastboot modes only as debugging mode is pretty powerful and can cause security issues. So you better forget about it.
I saw one of my friends who owns an authorized service center use some cable connections to get the screen to display on another touch screen. If you have the capabilities and resources I recommed trying it, though don't mess too much with the motherboard.
Just a question though, can you confirm if the touch is working? If not then there's a chance - Although slight - that this is just a UI problem (Which is pretty common in MIUI ROMs for some reason). In that case deleting dalvik cache or completely reflashing the ROM might solve the issue.
I may not do much help but certainly someone there can help so it's better if you include "usb debugging" in the title and/or the tags. Like changing the title to "Enabling usb debugging without screen" or "Screen is dead, need help to flash ROM"
Using proper title and proper tags can get the right person to help.