Database Users

Cause & Possible Fixes for Whitescreen + D-Pad failures (a new thing to try)

First, it'd like to thank
MikeChannon
for pointing out something important that narrowed down my testing.
Now, onto the problem Symptoms :
- D-Pad, IE and Email buttons cease to work
- Screen fades to white or comes back from standby as white
- Display is slight disaligned to the side, 1mm of left appears on right side.
- Randomness in all above symptoms.
Cause : It is the D-Pad connector.
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Yes, the D-Pad connection DOES cause the whitescreen. It's odd and illogical, but this is the conclusion I have reached.
ALL the previous guides, such as sliding plastic between the screen and casing, were randomly moving things inside.
By CHANCE ONLY it'd affect the D-Pad connector positively. That is why such solutions only worked for a few people temporarely.
SOLUTION :
You will need to try variants of the following things :
- Tightness of the screws over the connector
- Disconnecting the plug and reconnecting it very carefully
- Pressure over the bibbon between the D-Pad connector and the screen.
- Pressure over the D-Pad connector itself
- Tightness of the screws over the D-Pad PCD
- Tightness of the screws closing the plastic casing of this part of the phone
To stress-test the variants, I ran a D-Pad intensive game (Skyforce) for 30 minutes or until the symptoms came back.
I've played around with all those, giving mixed results, but definitively making a difference.
My final and best result was by putting a thin foam piece over the blue parts in the picture below. (Ignore the red circles, original picture is taken from a website)
The foam I used was the typical foam sheets you find in packaging for fragile electronics such as motherboards, hard drives, graphic cards etc. It has to be super thing in other to close the casing without buldges.
There isn't a specific thing you can do that will make your D-Pad be reliable and the whitescreen to go away. You'll have to do several tests, so I recommend you keep your phone disassembled while testing. The connector is VERY VERY SENSITIVE. That is why I cannot be any more precise in how to fix this. However, you NOW KNOW what causes the screen to freak out and buttons to stop working.
What I did for testing :
I have tested my phone while it was completely disassembled. Meaning I had the back of the monitor open, as seen in the picture above.
That way, I could fiddle around and instantly test the result.
I've fiddle with the cables, the screen pressure, everything. Nothing returned the screen from being white or becoming white.
Putting pressure D-Pad connector's ribbon or actual pin caused the screen to either turn on white, or fade to white. (Results often noticed only after going in & out of standby)
It also caused my D-Pad buttons and the top 2 buttons (IE & Email) to either work or not work.

Oh and this is my testing setup. Elastic band to hold the battery in place, everything else opened. However, I had to place/remove the backcover of the screen part of the phone to test as it affects the pressure put on the connector.

wow. I don't have balls to break apart my 8525 like that.

mutantblack said:
wow. I don't have balls to break apart my 8525 like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this fix is for those who got a big enough problem and can't return it under warranty.
Anyhow, taking apart the TyTN is quite simple, and the thing is sturdy.
Only and only the D-Pad connector is tricky. The big ribbon connecting the two halfs of the phone is quite solid and never caused problems.

guys... what/where can i get the screw driver to open this mofo... it looks like a hex allen wrench but that doesnt work...
i have had this issue for months now and will try anything to fix it but i need to know where i can get this screw driver and fast!!!!

So it is a problem with the connector itself or cause by flex in the cable?
Also, where are you putty pressure on the connector? Are you saying if the screws are too tight this is a problem as well.

jwagman1 said:
guys... what/where can i get the screw driver to open this mofo... it looks like a hex allen wrench but that doesnt work...
i have had this issue for months now and will try anything to fix it but i need to know where i can get this screw driver and fast!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a TORX No6 screwdriver you need. Available online or from stores like Maplin who sell Phone screwdriver sets.
Check out links in the Wiki here or in my signature for internal pics, dismantling guides and to download the service manual (that also has a dismantling walkthrough)
Mike

Vasichko said:
So it is a problem with the connector itself or cause by flex in the cable?
Also, where are you putty pressure on the connector? Are you saying if the screws are too tight this is a problem as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to me there may be a bit of trial and error regarding the fix. The service manual points out that the d-pad connector must be precisely inserted and absolutely level. So both under-tightening the screws or over-tightening could distort the connection. If you have it apart, take out and reconnect the push in connector several times This helps to ensure there is no oxidisation on the contacts.
(PS. this is not my fix so I cannot testify that it will work for you, though I believe it is on the right track, at least for some cases of this problem)
Mike

It's really intersting to know I'm not alone to have this issue ...
Do you have a site who describe how to open the Hermes ?
Thanks

mikechannon said:
It's a TORX No6 screwdriver you need. Available online or from stores like Maplin who sell Phone screwdriver sets.
Check out links in the Wiki here or in my signature for internal pics, dismantling guides and to download the service manual (that also has a dismantling walkthrough)
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANK YOU!! amazon.com overnight!!! woooo

I tried this diy.
I didnt have a small enough phillips to remove the screws from the connector on the D-Pad.
Know where I can get one?
So I took all the connections, put some automotive electronic connection cleaner on a q-tip and cleaned all of the other ones.
I used some automotive light double sided adhesive that you can get at Auto Zone instead of form. I only used 1 side of the adhesive and didnt peal the other side off, if it doesnt work, its easily removeable, just wanted to make sure it stays in place when I re-assemble the phone.
I also added some in a place you didnt which I show in yellow on your photo.
So far so good after 5 minutes.

Mine PDA was also totally disassembled and atleast in my device the problem wasn't a faulty connector.. I had the front panel off and when I squeezed the Xilinx fpga-chip(black square on d-pad circuitboard) the the screen worked fine -when i took my fingers off it faded back to white. Earlier I also tried re-soldering the connector but it didnt work on my device.

marciton said:
It's really intersting to know I'm not alone to have this issue ...
Do you have a site who describe how to open the Hermes ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dismantling guides and the service manual:
www.mikechannon.net
Mike

Hermes / TyTn / 8525 White Screen
Hey guy,
Nice write-up.
Good that someone has taken the time to experiment with different procedures.
I gave up on mine, after taking it apart time and time again.
-Reseating the cables and completely disassembling the unit was a tempereary fix, so I sold it on eBay for a parts / repair.
I just purchased another on eBay.
This time, instead of getting worked up about the white screen of death, I had purchased a warranty from www.squaretrade.com.
I am not an AT&T customer, so I unlocked the phone.
Neither AT&T or HTC can help when you dont have their service , or it's a branded phone.
Keep up the good work.

So far since my post before lunch today. No problems at all.
It used to white out when taking a picture with the camera, randomly when sliding out the keyboard, randomly when using the D-Pad.
No problems at all today after doing this fix posted here and adding the extra pad that I did.

im gonna have to try this when i get my new housing....anyone know where i can get a front camera?

Just giving another update. So far so good, no problems at all.
DPad no longer has the issue of not working here and there.
White screen issues appear to be gone.
Hopefully for good.
I will still post updates so you all can know the status.
Thx again for the right up. I will post some pics of the type of tape I used as well.

I have the rest of december left on my warranty. Do you guys think PPCtechs will know how to fix this? i don't want to send it to them and have it sent back with the same probs (like they did last time i sent it in to get my scroll wheel and camera lense repaired).

Miguel- said:
Mine PDA was also totally disassembled and atleast in my device the problem wasn't a faulty connector.. I had the front panel off and when I squeezed the Xilinx fpga-chip(black square on d-pad circuitboard) the the screen worked fine -when i took my fingers off it faded back to white. Earlier I also tried re-soldering the connector but it didnt work on my device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes indeed, re-aligning and reconnecting the connector works for many but will not work for all. There are, as you say instances where it is a chip connection that's at fault. There is little if anything you can do with that problem other than board replacement unless you have the correct tools - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1724236&postcount=66
Mike

It looks to be a design flaw. I dropped my maybe 3ft on the carpet yesterday and got the white screen issue. I took apart and looked at the connector in question. Even with it screwed in you can unplug it half way. So I added some more padding.
I think part of the problem is that coming from the back of the LCD to the DPad board or whatever you call it, the angle of the ribbon cable declines.

[GUIDE] Reinforcing/repairing your mushy/broken power button

Hey thinkpadpaders,
Before we get anywhere. If your button is acting weird or is broken, [blink][explosion]this should be covered by your warranty[/explosion][/blink]. I've heard of turn around times from 2 days to 2 weeks or more. If you still want to do this yourself, then read on.
So, my power button drove me nuts last week when it stopped responding. After some research on the problem I ended up fixing it in house and relatively easily.
The cause of the irresponsive button is the physical movement of the internal button component. It's poorly held in place and eventually it tends to move around and then entirely fall off during normal use. Here's some guides that will help you open your thinkpadpad and repair a non working button or fix and enforce a mushy one. Note that this is probably going to void your warranty, though everything up to epoxying your button down is clean and pretty much undetectable (there aren't any visible "warranty void if broken" stickers). Also, this will take some amount of soldering skills. Basically, I (and anyone I reference) am not responsible for scratched cases, bricked devices, burnt fingers, completely epoxied/glued units, the apocalypse, etc.
Moving on to the fun stuff! Please be sure to read through this post to limit any surprises you may find in the process.
Tools you will need:
A thinkpadpad
This guide and its references
Small phillips screwdriver
Plastic case prying tool
Soldering equipment (for repairing)
Epoxy (for enforcing)
Most of you should be at least halfway set. The first step is to get your thinkpad open.
Opening the thinkpad.
There's already some great guides that go through opening the TPT in order to install a 3G capable modem:
Opening the thinkpad to install a 3G card
The basic steps are:
Removing the four face buttons
Removing the two screws underneath the face buttons
Carefully separating the two halves of the tablet
I'll cover some helpful tips in this post to help you with the process. After reading them follow the previously linked guide carefully to open your tablet.
To keep you from damaging the button's clips, notice how they are attached to the tablet.
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"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
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The semicircle tabs pry off like a hinge. Once they are free you can just lift the button right off.
When separating the clips to open the case, use a plastic tool to keep from scratching the thinkpad. I found it easiest to start at the usb port.
Image-left) shows me starting at the usb port with my tool (I just used a divider from a tackle/jewelry box). Image-right) I am carefully sliding the tool around the TPT's edges to undo all of the clips.
Here's an overexposed shot of one of the clips. It's the type you simply push in to undo. I barely had to use any force to separate the halves.
An important thing to remember: the touchscreen is connected to the bottom half's motherboard. These (two) connections are on the left side of the thinkpad.
Slowly open the thinkpad, like a book from, the right.
If you do happen to yank out these connections, they should easily plug back in. See the previous guide about doing this.
Reattaching the button.
If your button is only mushy, but still responding, you can probably skip this step of reattaching the button. If you feel like re-soldering the points, then feel free to do so.
Here's a photo of my broken button:
View attachment 917192
You're going to put the button back into position so that its contacts (opposite of the white button) are lined up against the contact points on the board (the pink points within the green box in the photo above). Here's an annotated picture of the placed button from a much better camera and photographer, Daniel Lane (his cool photo site):
You can see how the button can pivot off these solder points and eventually break. Solder the points as specified in the photo. Test to make sure your points are good. Hold down the internal button to keep it from moving and try to boot using the external button.
Reinforcing the button with epoxy.
As you probably saw in the previous image from Daniel Lane, he recommends applying epoxy to the button's side posts. Normally these posts would be soldered down underneath the board to secure it in place. You can attempt to either re-solder these posts (if they ever were attached), apply epoxy to them as Daniel suggests (the next safer method), or apply epoxy to more of the button (which I have done).
A few important notes about epoxy:
-It's some serious stuff. Dont get it anywhere you dont want it. ESPECIALLY on the moving part of the button.
-If its a more fluid type, it may not stay where you want it.
-Mix it very well. For at least one minute. You don't want to be stuck with a tacky epoxy job.
I chose to apply epoxy to the sides, back, and top of the button. Do this carefully. Make sure not to let it get on any moving parts. Make a barrier if you have to, or be safe and use Daniel Lane's method and apply a smaller amount. Here is my epoxied button (warning, we are going back to crappy pictures!):
You can substitute hot glue for the epoxy if you'd like an even safer application. Though its bond is definitely not as strong as the epoxy's.
Let the epoxy cure for as long as its instructions states, then close up your thinkpad tablet. Be sure not to break any clips in this process.
Final step.
Enjoy clicking your power button. Or... something more productive.
UPDATE: Sometime last week (4/13/2012) one of my volume buttons started to go. Luckily I caught it before it completely came off like the power button did. If you open up your TPT to repair the power button, I'd recommend epoxying the volume buttons while you're at it. It's a much easier job while the solder points are still in place.

thanks for your guide !
My button isn't broken yet, but it's good to know that it's possible to fix it by ourself

Thanks for the guide! This is awesome! My button isn't broken (yet) so I'm thinking of reinforcing it soon to prevent any breakage.
Again thanks for the detailed guide. I probably won't get around to it until a couple weeks as I'm swamped with school. But I will update my results when I do.
Cheers.

Excellent!! Thanks. Well done, with just a modicum of humor. "You don't want to be stuck with a tacky epoxy job." Good job!!

While you're inside there, put a 3g modem in the pci slot to convert your wifi tab to a 3g tab.

obscure.detour said:
My button isn't broken (yet) so I'm thinking of reinforcing it soon to prevent any breakage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's a good idea. It seems that even after Lenovo repairs the RMAs they just solder those three points, just like it was when you bought it. That's why even the repaired pads seem to break.
toenail_flicker said:
Excellent!! Thanks. Well done, with just a modicum of humor. "You don't want to be stuck with a tacky epoxy job." Good job!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha. No pun was intended, either of them. But I'm glad you enjoyed it anyway.
rangercaptain said:
While you're inside there, put a 3g modem in the pci slot to convert your wifi tab to a 3g tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a bad idea. I ordered a sata/usb adapter for that slot so I can explore other possibilties :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1512480

Does anyone have a source for the button you solder onto the board? I repaired mine myself a few weeks ago, but the actual button definitely seems a bit less "clicky" than before. I believe I might have gotten it too close to the soldering iron.
Anapmac said:
Not a bad idea. I ordered a sata/usb adapter for that slot so I can explore other possibilties :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1512480
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm very interested in seeing what you can fit in there. It sure would be nice to find a tiny usb gps that would fit in there and lock on faster than the built in one .

Just wanted to reiterate someone's recommendation of epoxying the volume buttons while you're in there. My volume up button went out last week (WE NEED MORE POWER!!!).
opnsrcaddict said:
Does anyone have a source for the button you solder onto the board?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ever find a suitable replacement?

Great thread. My power button was starting to go, it got mushy. Cracked it open and the back three solder joints were still in tact, but the front reinforcement was broken.
Epoxied the [email protected]#$ out of it, and it's perfect now, stronger than it was originally I'd say! Also did the volume buttons while I was at it.

While You have Your tab open and the epoxe mixed. Resolder and strenghten the micro usb as well. It will come loose later....

Thank you so much for you great instructional guide with the very helpful pictures. I was going to try and get Lenovo to fix my volume+ key after it wouldn't work anymore but I found this before it. The process of fixing it was really simple. My volume+ button thing on the inside fell off when I barely touched it so I thought I had to solder it first but then it looked really hard to solder in the small area as I never done that before. I just put it in it's place and tested to see if it would work without soldering and it did. I then just epoxied it while holding it down tight until it solidified. I also epoxied the other volume thing and the power button one while I was at it. Now I feel safe that they won't break so easily now. So far everything works well. Thank you again.

Finally got around to popping my TPT open and reinforcing my power and volume buttons. I've been nervous about my power button for some time so finally decided to do it before this semester starts.
This guide was very helpful
Here is a complete picture of volume/power buttons reinforced.
EDIT: Wanted to update the post and let everyone know that my power button now clicks on every press now! No more mushy power button

Anyway we can get a sticky on this thread?

Excellent guide. I just may have to do this since I need that power button to be in working order so I can go into recovery.
TS

Thanks to your instructions my Tablet is back!
Basically just glued with epoxy - For soldering jobs you need a tiny front on your iron.
I also glued the volume buttons and tried to strenghten AUX, USB, HDMI.
Problem was that between these pieces little plastic pieces ftom the screen go down and hold the front panel.
I was not able to close the device properly and I had to remove the epoxy from these places.
So don't think you can reinforce the plugs on underneath the buttons.
Next step will be upgrading to 3G!

Thank you so much for this it saved my power and volume buttons ....this should be stickyed

nice guide...
how bout ideapad k1?
i dont even know how to open the case...

thank u very much~~
Anapmac said:
Hey thinkpadpaders,
Before we get anywhere. If your button is acting weird or is broken, [blink][explosion]this should be covered by your warranty[/explosion][/blink]. I've heard of turn around times from 2 days to 2 weeks or more. If you still want to do this yourself, then read on.
So, my power button drove me nuts last week when it stopped responding. After some research on the problem I ended up fixing it in house and relatively easily.
The cause of the irresponsive button is the physical movement of the internal button component. It's poorly held in place and eventually it tends to move around and then entirely fall off during normal use. Here's some guides that will help you open your thinkpadpad and repair a non working button or fix and enforce a mushy one. Note that this is probably going to void your warranty, though everything up to epoxying your button down is clean and pretty much undetectable (there aren't any visible "warranty void if broken" stickers). Also, this will take some amount of soldering skills. Basically, I (and anyone I reference) am not responsible for scratched cases, bricked devices, burnt fingers, completely epoxied/glued units, the apocalypse, etc.
Moving on to the fun stuff! Please be sure to read through this post to limit any surprises you may find in the process.
Tools you will need:
A thinkpadpad
This guide and its references
Small phillips screwdriver
Plastic case prying tool
Soldering equipment (for repairing)
Epoxy (for enforcing)
Most of you should be at least halfway set. The first step is to get your thinkpad open.
Opening the thinkpad.
There's already some great guides that go through opening the TPT in order to install a 3G capable modem:
Opening the thinkpad to install a 3G card
The basic steps are:
Removing the four face buttons
Removing the two screws underneath the face buttons
Carefully separating the two halves of the tablet
I'll cover some helpful tips in this post to help you with the process. After reading them follow the previously linked guide carefully to open your tablet.
To keep you from damaging the button's clips, notice how they are attached to the tablet.
View attachment 923254
The semicircle tabs pry off like a hinge. Once they are free you can just lift the button right off.
When separating the clips to open the case, use a plastic tool to keep from scratching the thinkpad. I found it easiest to start at the usb port.
View attachment 923330
Image-left) shows me starting at the usb port with my tool (I just used a divider from a tackle/jewelry box). Image-right) I am carefully sliding the tool around the TPT's edges to undo all of the clips.
Here's an overexposed shot of one of the clips. It's the type you simply push in to undo. I barely had to use any force to separate the halves.
View attachment 923255
An important thing to remember: the touchscreen is connected to the bottom half's motherboard. These (two) connections are on the left side of the thinkpad.
View attachment 923276
Slowly open the thinkpad, like a book from, the right.
View attachment 923277
If you do happen to yank out these connections, they should easily plug back in. See the previous guide about doing this.
Reattaching the button.
If your button is only mushy, but still responding, you can probably skip this step of reattaching the button. If you feel like re-soldering the points, then feel free to do so.
Here's a photo of my broken button:
View attachment 917192
You're going to put the button back into position so that its contacts (opposite of the white button) are lined up against the contact points on the board (the pink points within the green box in the photo above). Here's an annotated picture of the placed button from a much better camera and photographer, Daniel Lane (his cool photo site):
View attachment 923306
You can see how the button can pivot off these solder points and eventually break. Solder the points as specified in the photo. Test to make sure your points are good. Hold down the internal button to keep it from moving and try to boot using the external button.
Reinforcing the button with epoxy.
As you probably saw in the previous image from Daniel Lane, he recommends applying epoxy to the button's side posts. Normally these posts would be soldered down underneath the board to secure it in place. You can attempt to either re-solder these posts (if they ever were attached), apply epoxy to them as Daniel suggests (the next safer method), or apply epoxy to more of the button (which I have done).
A few important notes about epoxy:
-It's some serious stuff. Dont get it anywhere you dont want it. ESPECIALLY on the moving part of the button.
-If its a more fluid type, it may not stay where you want it.
-Mix it very well. For at least one minute. You don't want to be stuck with a tacky epoxy job.
I chose to apply epoxy to the sides, back, and top of the button. Do this carefully. Make sure not to let it get on any moving parts. Make a barrier if you have to, or be safe and use Daniel Lane's method and apply a smaller amount. Here is my epoxied button (warning, we are going back to crappy pictures!):
View attachment 923344
You can substitute hot glue for the epoxy if you'd like an even safer application. Though its bond is definitely not as strong as the epoxy's.
Let the epoxy cure for as long as its instructions states, then close up your thinkpad tablet. Be sure not to break any clips in this process.
Final step.
Enjoy clicking your power button. Or... something more productive.
UPDATE: Sometime last week (4/13/2012) one of my volume buttons started to go. Luckily I caught it before it completely came off like the power button did. If you open up your TPT to repair the power button, I'd recommend epoxying the volume buttons while you're at it. It's a much easier job while the solder points are still in place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank u very much~~

[Q] Power Button Broken Is there a Way to Start The Phone?

Hey everyone,
My apologies if this has been covered I did several searches and didn't find anything.
Short story: I dropped my phone in the toilet.....walked into the bathroom and fumbled it. Pulled it out pretty quickly it had a soft and hard case on it that helped prevent some water form getting in. Now everything works except the power button. It ran out of battery before I could get home to charge it yesterday. Now with a broke power button I don't know how to turn it on.
- Dropped it in the water 2 days ago
-USB debug was not enabled
-I can get it into download mode (not sure if this is relevant)
Thank you for taking the time to read, if you could use anymore info let me know.

Have you tried the usual rice procedure? Leaving it in a bowl of dry rice for approx. a day. If you haven't, I'd wait for more insight by experienced gurus as I'm not totally sure, but I think there is some way to turn the device on from download mode, which you said you can access.

MillerTime33 said:
Short story: I dropped my phone in the toilet.....walked into the bathroom and fumbled it. Pulled it out pretty quickly it had a soft and hard case on it that helped prevent some water form getting in. Now everything works except the power button. It ran out of battery before I could get home to charge it yesterday. Now with a broke power button I don't know how to turn it on.
- Dropped it in the water 2 days ago
-USB debug was not enabled
-I can get it into download mode (not sure if this is relevant)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, at least there wasn't anything else in the toilet...
You could try disassembling the phone. You'll need a T5 TORX driver, a very small Phillips driver, and something thin and plastic to pull the case halves apart like a guitar pick or plastic knife. Go to ifixit.com and look up the tear-down guide.
It could be that the contacts for the power button board were corroded. Head to Radio Shack or whatever the equivalent is that you have wherever you are and pick up some Progold and Deoxit. Deoxit removes corrosion, Progold improves conductivity. If that doesn't work, you could try buying a new power button board off eBay; they're pretty cheap.

Planterz said:
Well, at least there wasn't anything else in the toilet...
You could try disassembling the phone. You'll need a T5 TORX driver, a very small Phillips driver, and something thin and plastic to pull the case halves apart like a guitar pick or plastic knife. Go to ifixit.com and look up the tear-down guide.
It could be that the contacts for the power button board were corroded. Head to Radio Shack or whatever the equivalent is that you have wherever you are and pick up some Progold and Deoxit. Deoxit removes corrosion, Progold improves conductivity. If that doesn't work, you could try buying a new power button board off eBay; they're pretty cheap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thank you guys for the replies. It seems like I will have to give your suggestion a try I already have the tools so it shouldn't be a big deal. Just to confirm there is no way to start it without the power button? Like I said I can get it into download mode by holding down the volume rocker when inserting a usb. Thanks again its much appreciated.

MillerTime33 said:
Just to confirm there is no way to start it without the power button? Like I said I can get it into download mode by holding down the volume rocker when inserting a usb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the state your phone is in, I don't think so.
There are ways to turn the Nexus 4 on by means other than the power button. For example, there are apps that utilize the proximity sensor to unlock your phone by waving your hand in front of it. If you're rooted with the bootloader unlocked you can flash a custom kernel that enables various ways of waking the screen and sleeping it via touch (these aren't 100% though). If you're rooted, you can use Xposed modules to remap your buttons, and you could use the volume rocker instead of the power button.
But all those require your phone to at least be ON first, so they're not an option for you until you can actually get your power button working.
There is one possibility that didn't occur to me last night. A co-worker of mine is in practically the same situation as you (substitute your toilet for a mop bucket) with his Nexus 4. He uses the proximity sensor hand waving thing to wake/sleep his phone since his power button doesn't work. When Towelroot came out, I rooted it for him and installed a root rebooter so he can reboot if he needs to. But he's also able jam a thin knife through the case where the button is and short the contacts and turn it on/off that way.
So what you could try when you disassemble the phone is to try shorting the contacts with a piece of wire or paper clip. Take off the back cover, remove the plastic piece that covers the logic board (but don't remove/disconnect anything else. The phone should still operate (or would if your button wasn't damaged). If you're able to turn on your phone in this manner, then try cleaning the contacts and/or replacing the board as I mentioned earlier.
Good luck.

MillerTime33 said:
Hey everyone,
My apologies if this has been covered I did several searches and didn't find anything.
Short story: I dropped my phone in the toilet.....walked into the bathroom and fumbled it. Pulled it out pretty quickly it had a soft and hard case on it that helped prevent some water form getting in. Now everything works except the power button. It ran out of battery before I could get home to charge it yesterday. Now with a broke power button I don't know how to turn it on.
- Dropped it in the water 2 days ago
-USB debug was not enabled
-I can get it into download mode (not sure if this is relevant)
Thank you for taking the time to read, if you could use anymore info let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Wugs Toolkit, It works even on power off.

Planterz said:
In the state your phone is in, I don't think so.
There are ways to turn the Nexus 4 on by means other than the power button. For example, there are apps that utilize the proximity sensor to unlock your phone by waving your hand in front of it. If you're rooted with the bootloader unlocked you can flash a custom kernel that enables various ways of waking the screen and sleeping it via touch (these aren't 100% though). If you're rooted, you can use Xposed modules to remap your buttons, and you could use the volume rocker instead of the power button.
But all those require your phone to at least be ON first, so they're not an option for you until you can actually get your power button working.
There is one possibility that didn't occur to me last night. A co-worker of mine is in practically the same situation as you (substitute your toilet for a mop bucket) with his Nexus 4. He uses the proximity sensor hand waving thing to wake/sleep his phone since his power button doesn't work. When Towelroot came out, I rooted it for him and installed a root rebooter so he can reboot if he needs to. But he's also able jam a thin knife through the case where the button is and short the contacts and turn it on/off that way.
So what you could try when you disassemble the phone is to try shorting the contacts with a piece of wire or paper clip. Take off the back cover, remove the plastic piece that covers the logic board (but don't remove/disconnect anything else. The phone should still operate (or would if your button wasn't damaged). If you're able to turn on your phone in this manner, then try cleaning the contacts and/or replacing the board as I mentioned earlier.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've opened it up but I'm having trouble determining the where the contacts are I need to short and haven't found a diagram online. Could you direct me to where they are located on the board? I attached a picture of the board.
Thanks
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MillerTime33 said:
I've opened it up but I'm having trouble determining the where the contacts are I need to short and haven't found a diagram online. Could you direct me to where they are located on the board? I attached a picture of the board.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I circled the contact points. I believe these points, when shorted, should complete the circuit and make the device think the power button is being pressed. Actually, it's not a short, you're just completing a circuit, but I can't think of the proper term for what it's doing.
EDIT: I tried it on mine, and completing a circuit between those 2 contacts definitely works to activate the power button. If it doesn't work on yours, then either the contacts are too corroded or you need a new power button board.

And if they are too corroded, you can use some rubbing alcohol to remove it!
Planterz said:
I circled the contact points. I believe these points, when shorted, should complete the circuit and make the device think the power button is being pressed. Actually, it's not a short, you're just completing a circuit, but I can't think of the proper term for what it's doing.
EDIT: I tried it on mine, and completing a circuit between those 2 contacts definitely works to activate the power button. If it doesn't work on yours, then either the contacts are too corroded or you need a new power button board.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

@MillerTime33
Any luck?

P580 Power Issues?

Hey all, I recently bought a P580 when I was out in the States with work (I'm back in the UK now). Whilst I was out there it was working fine and when I came back it was working fine when I originally tried it out - I didn't want to use it much as it was supposed to be a gift but wanted to make sure it was all set up and stuff. Second time I tried it, it won't power on. I've tried multiple USB cables, multiple wall plugs and tried charging it on my PC. Nothing seems to get it to power on.
Everytime I connect and disconnect it to my PC I get the audible tone that says a device was connected but that's it. Samsung's Smart switch doesn't recognise it either. Talking to their support, I've tried holding Power + Volume down + home button but that doesn't seem to do anything other than disconnect it from the PC and holding the Power button for more than a minute doesn't seem to do anything either.
I hadn't rooted the device, in fact I'd barely done anything other than install a couple of apps like Facebook, Snapchat and Youtube. Does anyone know what's going on with the device and is there anything I can do? I'd definitely prefer not to send it back to Samsung as they won't accept it in the UK support so I'd have to send it back to the US support.
Anyways, if anyone has any advice it would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.

It's not a power but display issue. If you can hear the sound in the background or press volume up and down and you can hear the sound, it mostly has the loose LCD cable.
Search Youtube how to open your tablet, the tool you may need is a guitar pick.
Disconnect the battery first. You only need to disconnect and reconnect the LCD cable. The locking tab is at the top of the connector, lift it gently up 90 degree and be careful, otherwise you might break it. All connectors are unlocked by lifting up from the top 90 degree and they're very easy broken if you're not careful.
Here the LCD cable ( black ) is just slightly below the line on mainboard, you will have a black screen
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This one, the LCD cable is fully seated.
This connector is weakly hold the cable, you can pull the cable out while is in locking position. So you need put tapes over the connector and cable to hold it firmly, another one at the center of the battery to prevent if from moving. Battery should be back, otherwise you'll see nothing. Test by plugging your charger and press the HOME button, you should see the battery icon briefly if everything you're done correctly.

Beut said:
It's not a power but display issue. If you can hear the sound in the background or press volume up and down and you can hear the sound, it mostly has the loose LCD cable.
Search Youtube how to open your tablet, the tool you may need is a guitar pick.
Disconnect the battery first. You only need to disconnect and reconnect the LCD cable. The locking tab is at the top of the connector, lift it gently up 90 degree and be careful, otherwise you might break it. All connectors are unlocked by lifting up from the top 90 degree and they're very easy broken if you're not careful.
Here the LCD cable ( black ) is just slightly below the line on mainboard, you will have a black screen
This one, the LCD cable is fully seated.
This connector is weakly hold the cable, you can pull the cable out while is in locking position. So you need put tapes over the connector and cable to hold it firmly, another one at the center of the battery to prevent if from moving. Battery should be back, otherwise you'll see nothing. Test by plugging your charger and press the HOME button, you should see the battery icon briefly if everything you're done correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thank you for the reply! I opened up my Tab and it was loose. Unfortunately being a complete beginner I think I f****d it up and ruined the cable - imgur dot com/a/kvP8Z ( I cant post links)
Am I going to have to replace that now as it still doesn't seem to be working.. :/
Other than that I can't see anything else that might be wrong with it whilst it's opened up??
Again, thanks for your help, it's MASSIVELY appreciated!

Sn0wtek said:
Hey, thank you for the reply! I opened up my Tab and it was loose. Unfortunately being a complete beginner I think I f****d it up and ruined the cable - imgur dot com/a/kvP8Z ( I cant post links)
Am I going to have to replace that now as it still doesn't seem to be working.. :/
Other than that I can't see anything else that might be wrong with it whilst it's opened up??
Again, thanks for your help, it's MASSIVELY appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speaking from experience, you are in a tight spot now... if you did what I did. I had a Tab S and I opened it up to replace the charging port. Different pieces, but same steps as listed above. I broke the locking tab that holds the cable down. My only recourse was to replace the motherboard. Long story short, it was easier (and not much more expensive) to buy a new tablet. I know this isn't what you want to hear. Sorry about your luck.
HOWEVER, my problem was with supply, my S was old and I couldn't find a new motherboard and the website I found was "out of stock" of used ones priced high. Since you have a fairly new device, you might be able to find a replacement much easier.

Bdozier said:
Speaking from experience, you are in a tight spot now... if you did what I did. I had a Tab S and I opened it up to replace the charging port. Different pieces, but same steps as listed above. I broke the locking tab that holds the cable down. My only recourse was to replace the motherboard. Long story short, it was easier (and not much more expensive) to buy a new tablet. I know this isn't what you want to hear. Sorry about your luck.
HOWEVER, my problem was with supply, my S was old and I couldn't find a new motherboard and the website I found was "out of stock" of used ones priced high. Since you have a fairly new device, you might be able to find a replacement much easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that the locking mechanism is effected, but I scuffed the black LCD cable thing and it's now showing some of the bronze beneath it.. I thought that maybe that was causing it to not just work now that the cable's in the correct position? If it's the case that I've completely ruined the device and that I can't do anything with it, I don't know if I can justify getting a second one in such a short space of time. :/

Sn0wtek said:
I don't think that the locking mechanism is effected, but I scuffed the black LCD cable thing and it's now showing some of the bronze beneath it.. I thought that maybe that was causing it to not just work now that the cable's in the correct position? If it's the case that I've completely ruined the device and that I can't do anything with it, I don't know if I can justify getting a second one in such a short space of time. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good. You might be able to find a replacement cable or even just put a small piece of electrical tape over the scuffed segment... Depending on how deep the scuff is. There are a lot smarter people on this board that may be able to advise you better.
Just searched "galaxy tab a 10.1 lcd cable" and they are pretty inexpensive. Cheaper than a new tablet! About $2 USD.

Sn0wtek said:
I don't think that the locking mechanism is effected, but I scuffed the black LCD cable thing and it's now showing some of the bronze beneath it.. I thought that maybe that was causing it to not just work now that the cable's in the correct position? If it's the case that I've completely ruined the device and that I can't do anything with it, I don't know if I can justify getting a second one in such a short space of time. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to tape the LCD cable down to the mainboard, I don't know how bad you damaged it. This LCD cable is not easy to take out as the section connected to LCD is under the frame.
In order to take it out, you have to cut the frame. It's easier than heating up the whole assembly to remove the touchscreen and LCD from the frame. Newbie will most likely damage them in this process.

Beut said:
Try to tape the LCD cable down to the mainboard, I don't know how bad you damaged it. This LCD cable is not easy to take out as the section connected to LCD is under the frame.
In order to take it out, you have to cut the frame. It's easier than heating up the whole assembly to remove the touchscreen and LCD from the frame. Newbie will most likely damage them in this process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See Sn0wtek... A much smarter person than me!

This is the proper way to secure LCD cable both SM-T580 and SM-P580, without tape the cable will loose again.
This is another bad design from Samsung, the motherboard has no screw to hold it at the bottom. It can wobble easily, that's reason you need tapes to hold the LCD cable to mainboard , prevent it from moving out of the connector.

[Tutorial] AC8227L head units - how to unlock the bootloader

If you have one of these 8227L units that doesn't have any physical buttons, and you've tried to unlock your bootloader, you may have given up in frustration when the on-screen instructions say, press volume down to continue...
If you have one of the units that does have physical buttons, your process will be similar but much simpler, as you won't have to take your unit apart, so you can follow along with this tutorial after that portion is done.
Disclaimer: If you don't have physical buttons on your unit, you're going to have to dismantle it and potentially do some soldering to get through this. The points in question are tiny and if you permanently short them or apply too much heat and lift a pad, you could get stuck with a unit that's permanently muted or just bricked altogether. You have been warned about the risks, and I am not responsible for any damage you may incur!
Here's how it's done.
Prerequisites:
8227L unit with no physical buttons
Phillips screwdriver
Comfort with soldering on fairly small stuff
(You might get by without having to do any soldering, but if you can solder, you'll have an easier time)
PC of some type, probably a laptop if you want to do this inside a vehicle
adb and fastboot installed - there are plenty of tutorials on this elsewhere on these forums
It is possible to root these things without unlocking the bootloader, so if your device happens to be
rooted already, note that you'll be able to skip the adb portion entirely by installing a reboot utility
from the play store that allows you to just reboot the device to bootloader mode, but you'll still need to
use fastboot over USB.
If you need to bring the unit inside to get to a computer, you'll need a 12v power supply of some type
USB A male to male cable - that's just a cable with a "full size" usb plug on both ends - You can just chop up two old USB cables and splice them back together by matching the colors of the inner wires to make your own if need be.
We're going to be disassembling the unit, so obviously you'll want to completely disconnect it first.
On the backside of the unit there is a Phillips head screw at each corner, go ahead and pull those out and put them someplace safe.
Once you remove those screws, the back of the unit is loose, but don't just pull up on it! It's still connected to the board, which is connected to the screen assembly by some fragile ribbon cables, and you don't want to tear those! The cables attach towards the bottom of the screen, so tilt the back of the unit away from the screen top side first, opening it like a book. This will reveal the three ribbon cables we need to disconnect. They connect into three plastic connectors (They're called ZIF or Zero Insertion Force connectors) attached to the board that can also be fragile, so take care with this next step. On the back side of each connector, the side away from the ribbon cable is a little plastic "flap," usually black in color. Take your fingernail or a plastic spudger, or a toothpick or something (non-metallic preferably) and get underneath that and flip it upwards. The flap should stay in the connector and just hinge open. Once this is done, the ribbon cable itself should come out easily. If you have to apply any pressure to get it out, you don't have it unlocked and you will damage something, so make sure you've got it unlocked before you go pulling on the ribbon cables.
With the ribbon cables disconnected, the screen assembly can be set to the side for the time being. We now have access to the front side of the board, but what we need is on the other side, so we'll have to remove it completely from the housing. There will be 4 or 5 more Phillips screws to remove, depending on your model. Once you get those out, you can pull the board free and flip it over. We're looking for 5 small copper pads exposed on the surface of the mainboard, in the area of the CPU, RAM and NAND/EMMC memory chips. I have attached an image that I borrowed from elsewhere on these forums, because I don't have a unit opened up right now and didn't want to take one apart just to take some pictures.
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In the image I attached, you're looking for the points marked 1 and 2. The caption on the image suggests they connect to Volume Up, but on every unit I've seen these points connect to Volume Down. Your mileage may vary. The layout of these points can vary from model to model, but they're always in this area. On all the models I have seen, two of these points are slightly larger than the rest, and those are the two we're concerned with for now. You may here this referred to as the "test point," but in fact these points simply expose access to Home, Back, Volume Up and Volume Down. Of the two bigger points, one of them will be ground. (If you know your way around a multimeter you can verify which one by checking for continuity to ground elsewhere on the board, but it's really not important for our current purposes which is which.) The next part will be much, much easier if you can handle soldering on stuff this size. We need to have access to momentarily short the two bigger points. The one that isn't ground is volume down, and making a connection between the two sends a Volume Down key press. (If you have identified which is ground you can access Home, Back and Volume Up by shorting it to the three smaller points) At first, I thought I'd just be able to touch the two points with a
screwdriver to accomplish this, but I never ended up getting that to work. If your unit is a bit different than mine, you may have more luck with that. But in my case, I needed to tin both points (that simply means to apply fresh solder to them) and attach a small wire to one of them. (The jumper wires that come with an Arduino work great for this if you have any of those laying around, otherwise just use a really small wire of some kind.) This jumper wire is going to function as our "volume down" button for the next part. These are also the same points you will need to access if you ever manage to brick your unit and need to get access to the "backup" pre-loader.
Now that we have our "button" in place, we're going to need to connect the ribbon cables for the screen back to the board, power the unit up and get connected via adb. There are two different usb cables that come with the unit. One of them has a 6 pin connector and one has a 4 pin connector. You want to use the one with the 4 pins. At this point you've got to handle the unit with the board exposed, power running through it, and those ribbon cables connected. It should go without saying that you need to be very careful. Don't tear any ribbon cables, and don't let your jumper wire accidentally short out against anything as you turn the unit over to use the screen.
If your unit has a physical volume down button, you can follow along from here and just ignore all the horrific parts about running the unit with the guts hanging out and jumper wires and all that scary stuff.
Once the unit powers on, you'll probably notice that it's not detected by the PC right away. That's because these units default to usb host mode, so they can mount your flash drive or whatever you may store music on and plug into them. So we're going to have to go to the "factory" settings menu. This is the one that asks for a password when you try to go into it. For most units it's 8888, but I have seen a few where the password is 1111. Once you're into the factory settings menu, towards the bottom you should see USB options. Open that menu, and click on "Other" towards the bottom left. On the next screen, tap the "usb mode" option, and you should get a popup where you can toggle between "host" and "device" mode. Device mode may be already selected, but go ahead and click it anyway. After this, you should be able to get a connection over adb. Try entering the command "adb devices" from your command line, and you should see your unit identifed by it's serial number. If it says "offline", go back to the factory settings menu, toggle it to host mode once and then back to device. If you're seeing "unauthorized" there are some pre-requisite steps you're missing. They are covered extensively on these forums and elsewhere, so if you need to find them immediately just search these forums or google for "adb tutorial mediatek device" and you'll find about a dozen walkthroughs. All we need from here is to be able to ender the command:
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
Once you get that done, your device should reboot to the boot logo screen, but it will stay on that screen and display the words "FASTBOOT MODE" Back to the command line of your PC, you can enter the command:
Code:
fastboot devices
to verify that you have a connection. If you're still with me at this point and you're able to communicate with the bootloader through fastboot, enter the command:
Code:
fastboot oem unlock
At this point, the instructions on the screen of your unit will warn you about how Santa Claus won't bring you any presents if you unlock your bootloader, and prompt you to press Volume Down if you really want to proceed. At this point you'll need to use that jumper wire to make the connection we prepared previously to execute the Volume Down entry. You may have to hold it in place for a couple of seconds, but eventually you should get a confirmation that your bootloader has been unlocked! Now, power the unit off, disconnect your jumper wire, and reverse the disassembly process to put it back together. One thing to keep in mind, if you're attempting to flash a new firmware and it comes with a locked bootloader, you'll have to repeat this proces, so if you can get away with it, don't flash the LK partition.

threadreaper said:
If you have one of these 8227L units that doesn't have any physical buttons, and you've tried to unlock your bootloader, you may have given up in frustration when the on-screen instructions say, press volume down to continue...
If you have one of the units that does have physical buttons, your process will be similar but much simpler, as you won't have to take your unit apart, so you can follow along with this tutorial after that portion is done.
Disclaimer: If you don't have physical buttons on your unit, you're going to have to dismantle it and potentially do some soldering to get through this. The points in question are tiny and if you permanently short them or apply too much heat and lift a pad, you could get stuck with a unit that's permanently muted or just bricked altogether. You have been warned about the risks, and I am not responsible for any damage you may incur!
Here's how it's done.
Prerequisites:
8227L unit with no physical buttons
Phillips screwdriver
Comfort with soldering on fairly small stuff
(You might get by without having to do any soldering, but if you can solder, you'll have an easier time)
PC of some type, probably a laptop if you want to do this inside a vehicle
adb and fastboot installed - there are plenty of tutorials on this elsewhere on these forums
It is possible to root these things without unlocking the bootloader, so if your device happens to be
rooted already, note that you'll be able to skip the adb portion entirely by installing a reboot utility
from the play store that allows you to just reboot the device to bootloader mode, but you'll still need to
use fastboot over USB.
If you need to bring the unit inside to get to a computer, you'll need a 12v power supply of some type
USB A male to male cable - that's just a cable with a "full size" usb plug on both ends - You can just chop up two old USB cables and splice them back together by matching the colors of the inner wires to make your own if need be.
We're going to be disassembling the unit, so obviously you'll want to completely disconnect it first.
On the backside of the unit there is a Phillips head screw at each corner, go ahead and pull those out and put them someplace safe.
Once you remove those screws, the back of the unit is loose, but don't just pull up on it! It's still connected to the board, which is connected to the screen assembly by some fragile ribbon cables, and you don't want to tear those! The cables attach towards the bottom of the screen, so tilt the back of the unit away from the screen top side first, opening it like a book. This will reveal the three ribbon cables we need to disconnect. They connect into three plastic connectors (They're called ZIF or Zero Insertion Force connectors) attached to the board that can also be fragile, so take care with this next step. On the back side of each connector, the side away from the ribbon cable is a little plastic "flap," usually black in color. Take your fingernail or a plastic spudger, or a toothpick or something (non-metallic preferably) and get underneath that and flip it upwards. The flap should stay in the connector and just hinge open. Once this is done, the ribbon cable itself should come out easily. If you have to apply any pressure to get it out, you don't have it unlocked and you will damage something, so make sure you've got it unlocked before you go pulling on the ribbon cables.
With the ribbon cables disconnected, the screen assembly can be set to the side for the time being. We now have access to the front side of the board, but what we need is on the other side, so we'll have to remove it completely from the housing. There will be 4 or 5 more Phillips screws to remove, depending on your model. Once you get those out, you can pull the board free and flip it over. We're looking for 5 small copper pads exposed on the surface of the mainboard, in the area of the CPU, RAM and NAND/EMMC memory chips. I have attached an image that I borrowed from elsewhere on these forums, because I don't have a unit opened up right now and didn't want to take one apart just to take some pictures.
In the image I attached, you're looking for the points marked 1 and 2. The caption on the image suggests they connect to Volume Up, but on every unit I've seen these points connect to Volume Down. Your mileage may vary. The layout of these points can vary from model to model, but they're always in this area. On all the models I have seen, two of these points are slightly larger than the rest, and those are the two we're concerned with for now. You may here this referred to as the "test point," but in fact these points simply expose access to Home, Back, Volume Up and Volume Down. Of the two bigger points, one of them will be ground. (If you know your way around a multimeter you can verify which one by checking for continuity to ground elsewhere on the board, but it's really not important for our current purposes which is which.) The next part will be much, much easier if you can handle soldering on stuff this size. We need to have access to momentarily short the two bigger points. The one that isn't ground is volume down, and making a connection between the two sends a Volume Down key press. (If you have identified which is ground you can access Home, Back and Volume Up by shorting it to the three smaller points) At first, I thought I'd just be able to touch the two points with a
screwdriver to accomplish this, but I never ended up getting that to work. If your unit is a bit different than mine, you may have more luck with that. But in my case, I needed to tin both points (that simply means to apply fresh solder to them) and attach a small wire to one of them. (The jumper wires that come with an Arduino work great for this if you have any of those laying around, otherwise just use a really small wire of some kind.) This jumper wire is going to function as our "volume down" button for the next part. These are also the same points you will need to access if you ever manage to brick your unit and need to get access to the "backup" pre-loader.
Now that we have our "button" in place, we're going to need to connect the ribbon cables for the screen back to the board, power the unit up and get connected via adb. There are two different usb cables that come with the unit. One of them has a 6 pin connector and one has a 4 pin connector. You want to use the one with the 4 pins. At this point you've got to handle the unit with the board exposed, power running through it, and those ribbon cables connected. It should go without saying that you need to be very careful. Don't tear any ribbon cables, and don't let your jumper wire accidentally short out against anything as you turn the unit over to use the screen.
If your unit has a physical volume down button, you can follow along from here and just ignore all the horrific parts about running the unit with the guts hanging out and jumper wires and all that scary stuff.
Once the unit powers on, you'll probably notice that it's not detected by the PC right away. That's because these units default to usb host mode, so they can mount your flash drive or whatever you may store music on and plug into them. So we're going to have to go to the "factory" settings menu. This is the one that asks for a password when you try to go into it. For most units it's 8888, but I have seen a few where the password is 1111. Once you're into the factory settings menu, towards the bottom you should see USB options. Open that menu, and click on "Other" towards the bottom left. On the next screen, tap the "usb mode" option, and you should get a popup where you can toggle between "host" and "device" mode. Device mode may be already selected, but go ahead and click it anyway. After this, you should be able to get a connection over adb. Try entering the command "adb devices" from your command line, and you should see your unit identifed by it's serial number. If it says "offline", go back to the factory settings menu, toggle it to host mode once and then back to device. If you're seeing "unauthorized" there are some pre-requisite steps you're missing. They are covered extensively on these forums and elsewhere, so if you need to find them immediately just search these forums or google for "adb tutorial mediatek device" and you'll find about a dozen walkthroughs. All we need from here is to be able to ender the command:
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
Once you get that done, your device should reboot to the boot logo screen, but it will stay on that screen and display the words "FASTBOOT MODE" Back to the command line of your PC, you can enter the command:
Code:
fastboot devices
to verify that you have a connection. If you're still with me at this point and you're able to communicate with the bootloader through fastboot, enter the command:
Code:
fastboot oem unlock
At this point, the instructions on the screen of your unit will warn you about how Santa Claus won't bring you any presents if you unlock your bootloader, and prompt you to press Volume Down if you really want to proceed. At this point you'll need to use that jumper wire to make the connection we prepared previously to execute the Volume Down entry. You may have to hold it in place for a couple of seconds, but eventually you should get a confirmation that your bootloader has been unlocked! Now, power the unit off, disconnect your jumper wire, and reverse the disassembly process to put it back together. One thing to keep in mind, if you're attempting to flash a new firmware and it comes with a locked bootloader, you'll have to repeat this proces, so if you can get away with it, don't flash the LK partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is very useful, thanks! However it doesn't cover bricked devices, which I think many people would be interested in fixing. For example, what can be done with these techniques on a damaged unit? Can it be restored from say an accidental wipe from SP Flash tools?

Thanks for the feedback, and to answer your question, yes, there is a way to recover a bricked device utilizing these internal points, even if the memory has been completely wiped.
It's actually something I'm planning to do a tutorial on. Ironically, it was one of the first things I had to learn. Having never owned any device with a MediaTek chipset in it before, I wasn't familiar with how they worked. So before attempting to do any sort of modification to my brand new unit, I hit up these very forums looking for information on how to do a full system backup. The post I ended up stumbling across actually led to me "bricking" my own unit. In hindsight, and having learned a lot about these units since that day, I now realize that I was misunderstanding the instructions, but I feel like it was perhaps poorly worded. One thing that has always existed in the Android modding community (and to be fair, most others like it) is a real lack of comprehensive, completely newbie friendly tutorials/documentation. The fact is, by the time most of us have gained enough knowledge to actually write a tutorial, the basic operations seem so trivial that they hardly warrant the effort of writing a tutorial. It's easy to forget that most of us once needed those tutorials ourselves. So, as long as my ambition keeps up, my goal is to do a whole series of tutorials, as detailed as I can think to make them.
I have another one that I'm working on right now that has ended up taking longer to put together than I anticipated, but once it's finished and I've worked the bugs out of the software I'm releasing to go along with it, I will move the brick recovery tutorial to the top of the list! If you're in need of assistance right now, feel free to ask questions via PM. I'd rather not take this thread off topic.

threadreaper said:
Thanks for the feedback, and to answer your question, yes, there is a way to recover a bricked device utilizing these internal points, even if the memory has been completely wiped.
It's actually something I'm planning to do a tutorial on. Ironically, it was one of the first things I had to learn. Having never owned any device with a MediaTek chipset in it before, I wasn't familiar with how they worked. So before attempting to do any sort of modification to my brand new unit, I hit up these very forums looking for information on how to do a full system backup. The post I ended up stumbling across actually led to me "bricking" my own unit. In hindsight, and having learned a lot about these units since that day, I now realize that I was misunderstanding the instructions, but I feel like it was perhaps poorly worded. One thing that has always existed in the Android modding community (and to be fair, most others like it) is a real lack of comprehensive, completely newbie friendly tutorials/documentation. The fact is, by the time most of us have gained enough knowledge to actually write a tutorial, the basic operations seem so trivial that they hardly warrant the effort of writing a tutorial. It's easy to forget that most of us once needed those tutorials ourselves. So, as long as my ambition keeps up, my goal is to do a whole series of tutorials, as detailed as I can think to make them.
I have another one that I'm working on right now that has ended up taking longer to put together than I anticipated, but once it's finished and I've worked the bugs out of the software I'm releasing to go along with it, I will move the brick recovery tutorial to the top of the list! If you're in need of assistance right now, feel free to ask questions via PM. I'd rather not take this thread off topic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is excellent news and I look forward to those tutorials! my current MediaTek unit is still in the car (currently looking to buy a proper MTCD/MTCE unit to run Malaysk) so I will be able to play around with my old one and hopefully learn more about how these things work. I bought soldering kit and built an appropriate power source (12V 5A AC/DC adapter), so now I'm good to go

iceblue1980 said:
This is excellent news and I look forward to those tutorials! my current MediaTek unit is still in the car (currently looking to buy a proper MTCD/MTCE unit to run Malaysk) so I will be able to play around with my old one and hopefully learn more about how these things work. I bought soldering kit and built an appropriate power source (12V 5A AC/DC adapter), so now I'm good to go
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tutorial has been posted, you can follow the link in my signature.

Hey, just got mtk device with 2gb ram and 16gb storage, I wonder if I can use all the files from this forum or 4pda with my device?
Second, how can I create a full backup of this device ?
Sent from my MI 9 using Tapatalk

zetlaw01 said:
Hey, just got mtk device with 2gb ram and 16gb storage, I wonder if I can use all the files from this forum or 4pda with my device?
Second, how can I create a full backup of this device ?
Sent from my MI 9 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm planning to do a comprehensive backup tutorial very soon, probably in the next day or two. The answer to your first question is no! Not every rom dump you find is going to be compatible with your device. In general I have found that if a rom dump comes with a scatter file and that scatter file is identical to the scatter file from your stock backup, then you're usually safe to flash it, but there may be exceptions to that rule, so always have a backup before you flash anything. While all of these units are based on the same SoC, they can have different amplifiers, radio chips, etc, and you could find yourself with a ROM that boots, but has no audio for example.

Thanks, I managed to take the backup and also use wwr to create my own Scatter file
Using that I flash twrp and rooted my device.
Sent from my MI 9 using Tapatalk

I´m trying to install twrp. I successfully unlock the bootloader and finally flash twrp, but now can´t access to recovery. System says: " Orange state your device has been unlocked and can't be trusted Your device will boot in 5 secods" when reboot recovery mode.
Any ideas?

Thank you very much.
Hi @threadreaper,
I have memory dump of my radio 9218c_0005_v004, 8227l. I do have the scatter file too. It was working perfectly fine and I rooted it too.
But while I was modified the build.prop to get the multiwindow feature as mentioned in one of threads related to 8227l and rebooted my system. It went into bootloop.
I tried to flash a rooted another firmware for my device which I had never flashed earlier. I used to scatter file mentioned in the same rooted firmware zip. Everything finished well in the SP tools with success and I rebooted the radio but It still didn't come up. Just a black screen. Is it because I flashed preloader with the wrong scatter file?
Now problem is, when I try to connect radio with PC, PC is not able to detect it. It's not even appearing for 2 seconds in the Device manager.
I have the backup and everything. and can restore it back. but it should be detected. What can be gone wrong here?
1. Did that rooted firmware contain wrong preloader/scatter file? Should I have skipped preloader and used my scatter file?
what are the solutions so that PC detects it back as a preloader?

amit_coolcampus said:
Thank you very much for the tutorial. My android unit is not detected in SP tools. When I reboot the radio, It appears in Device manage as MTK USB for 2 seconds and disappears. Is it because bootloader is locked? Will the problem resolve after unlocking the bootloader.
Just wanted to check if you have prepared to recover the bricked devices using this method.
My unit is working but I would love to have a Plan B ready.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup! Check the link in my signature for a tutorial on recovering from a brick!
For your device to be used with SP-flashtool you need to connect the device (fully powered down) via usb AFTER you start an operation in SP-flashtool. The preloader will shut down after 2 seconds if it doesn't receive a signal indicating it's connected to a flash device, so that's the behavior you're seeing. Basically you need to have SP-flashtools prepared to send this signal to the preloader before your connect your device.

dickinson said:
I´m trying to install twrp. I successfully unlock the bootloader and finally flash twrp, but now can´t access to recovery. System says: " Orange state your device has been unlocked and can't be trusted Your device will boot in 5 secods" when reboot recovery mode.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't come across anything like this before... What brand/model is your device?

threadreaper said:
Yup! Check the link in my signature for a tutorial on recovering from a brick!
For your device to be used with SP-flashtool you need to connect the device (fully powered down) via usb AFTER you start an operation in SP-flashtool. The preloader will shut down after 2 seconds if it doesn't receive a signal indicating it's connected to a flash device, so that's the behavior you're seeing. Basically you need to have SP-flashtools prepared to send this signal to the preloader before your connect your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aaah. ... I see. Now I get it. I'll give one more try and will get back to you. Thank you very much

threadreaper said:
I haven't come across anything like this before... What brand/model is your device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally I´ve solved this problem. My model is 9213 with a 9260 board , firm 8.1 (Oreo real) YT9213AJ_00011_V001_20200718_0 . Orange´s state happens when bootloader is unlocked . I only need flash a new twrp version for Oreo system. Twrp3.4.0 ( previous versions don´t work) and locked my unit again. It´s working now and can access to recovery
Note: in this version I only can connect to spflahTool with a male-male usb without ground pin (only 3 wires) and external 12v supply

Woohooo!
I was able to detect my radio in sp flash tools.
1. Created a preloader backup.
2. Created a rom_0 backup. Just one clarification required. Can you please tell me what should be the last address(length) so that it includes everything. I have put start address of BMTpool as the total length of backup so that includes whole userdata partition.
So start address- 0x0
Total length - 0x738A80000
Can you confirm if this should have everything to restore in case of any mishappening?

Thank you so much @threadreaper,
I was able to get it detected and take a full backup, but something wrong happened after I rooted and tried to update the build.prop file in the system folder. Can you please help. Here is the brief:
I have memory dump of my radio 9218c_0005_v004, 8227l. I do have the scatter file too. It was working perfectly fine and I rooted it too.
But when I modified the build.prop to get the multiwindow feature as mentioned in one of threads related to 8227l and rebooted my system. It went into bootloop.
I tried to flash a rooted another firmware for my device which I had never flashed earlier. I used to scatter file mentioned in the same rooted firmware zip. Everything finished well in the SP tools with success and I rebooted the radio but It still didn't come up. Just a black screen. Is it because I flashed wrong preloader with the wrong scatter file?
Now problem is, when I try to connect radio with PC, PC is not able to detect it. It's not even appearing for 2 seconds in the Device manager.
I have the backup and everything. and can restore it back. but it should be detected in the first place. What can be gone wrong here?
1. Did that rooted firmware contain wrong preloader/scatter file? Should I have skipped preloader and used my scatter file?
Is the only solution left to read memory in Flash tool by using test point?
threadreaper said:
Yup! Check the link in my signature for a tutorial on recovering from a brick!
For your device to be used with SP-flashtool you need to connect the device (fully powered down) via usb AFTER you start an operation in SP-flashtool. The preloader will shut down after 2 seconds if it doesn't receive a signal indicating it's connected to a flash device, so that's the behavior you're seeing. Basically you need to have SP-flashtools prepared to send this signal to the preloader before your connect your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

iceblue1980 said:
This is excellent news and I look forward to those tutorials! my current MediaTek unit is still in the car (currently looking to buy a proper MTCD/MTCE unit to run Malaysk) so I will be able to play around with my old one and hopefully learn more about how these things work. I bought soldering kit and built an appropriate power source (12V 5A AC/DC adapter), so now I'm good to go
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you create that 12v adapter. I am interested to make one, it's really painful to sit in the vehicle and do everything.
I am also looking to buy 4 Pin connector for USB.

amit_coolcampus said:
Thank you so much @threadreaper,
I was able to get it detected and take a full backup, but something wrong happened after I rooted and tried to update the build.prop file in the system folder. Can you please help. Here is the brief:
I have memory dump of my radio 9218c_0005_v004, 8227l. I do have the scatter file too. It was working perfectly fine and I rooted it too.
But when I modified the build.prop to get the multiwindow feature as mentioned in one of threads related to 8227l and rebooted my system. It went into bootloop.
I tried to flash a rooted another firmware for my device which I had never flashed earlier. I used to scatter file mentioned in the same rooted firmware zip. Everything finished well in the SP tools with success and I rebooted the radio but It still didn't come up. Just a black screen. Is it because I flashed wrong preloader with the wrong scatter file?
Now problem is, when I try to connect radio with PC, PC is not able to detect it. It's not even appearing for 2 seconds in the Device manager.
I have the backup and everything. and can restore it back. but it should be detected in the first place. What can be gone wrong here?
1. Did that rooted firmware contain wrong preloader/scatter file? Should I have skipped preloader and used my scatter file?
Is the only solution left to read memory in Flash tool by using test point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. If you have flashed the wrong preloader to your device, you will have to recover from test-point. Never flash a backup with a scatter file that doesn't exactly match your existing scatter file.

amit_coolcampus said:
How did you create that 12v adapter. I am interested to make one, it's really painful to sit in the vehicle and do everything.
I am also looking to buy 4 Pin connector for USB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really doesn't take much. I have run a few different versions of these head units just fine off of a 12V/2A "wall wart" type power supply. Just cut the end off, check polarity (carefully!) with a multimeter while it's plugged in and then wire it up just like you would with 12V in a vehicle.

threadreaper said:
Yes. If you have flashed the wrong preloader to your device, you will have to recover from test-point. Never flash a backup with a scatter file that doesn't exactly match your existing scatter file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two confirmations sir:
Got it. So the scatter file which I created from the stock backup has to be used always, no matter if I flash back any other ROM?
One more question. When I flashed TWRP recommend for my radio. It got flashed and I was I able to install supersu by flashing and boot up the system. But when I tried to take backup of system, data and cache via recovery, after half of the backup process, twrp started turning into different colors like a distorted screen and touch stopped working (screenshot attached) and system rebooted normally without finishing the backup. It happened the same second time also. So is it something like - we can't take backup of radio from the twrp. Can it only be backed up & restore back from sp flash tools?