Database Users

Strange but true

Something really weird happened to my O2 mini s. I just saw all the LED lights flash and then the phone vibrated and went blank. I did a soft reset it restart but then the same thing happened. I did a hard reset it was all ok, then when the O2 software began installing it did the same. Flashed all LEDs including the flash led vibrated and went blank. I though it was the battery. Changed the battery and it would refuse to wake up, just switch on all LEDs and keep vibrating. This kept happening for several times, and then suddenly all was ok. Re-installed an all, all is fine now. But I wonder what happened? And will it happen again? Any explanation by anyone would help. Thanks in advance.

This sounds like a hardware fault to me.
Can you think of ANY outside influences? Things like extreme temperature exposure, exposure to high humidity, or very fast changes of temperature or humidity could all cause shorts or low resistance conditions. I don't know that any of these historically lead to the type of fault you experienced specifically in Wizards, but from an electronics standpoint, anything of this nature could cause bizarre but temporary faults. Even dropping it could cause you problems of an unusual nature.
If the answer to any of the above (except dropping) was yes, do this:
Gather up all the desiccant you can find. This stuff can be found in bags of jerky, and in just about any electronics box ever packed. Sometimes I find little "jars" of desiccant in medicine bottles (long-acting antacids, in particular). Put the phone in a plastic zip-top bag in a warm, dry place with all of the desiccant inside and seal it up tight. Leave it for at least 12 hours, but 24 would be better. Throw away the desiccant when you're done.
If you can't come up with an outside cause for the fault, you may just have to chalk it up to the age of these phones. They are far from new. Even if you just bought yours, chances are good that it is refurbished, and electronics, like fruit, will go bad eventually.

Thought so...
Thanks for your detailed reply. I think the temperature would be the reason. I am in India and that too in the Southern part and its been awfully hot these last few days (40 deg. C or more) yesterday I was in my room and had switched on the air conditioning, the phone was near the ac for a while. Then I did switch off the ac, probably this fluctuation caused to form moisture? It was behaving weird but its ok for the time being... for the last 12 hrs or so. I am waiting for 3G services in India before I decide on my new phone, so I hope this lasts for another 6 months. Hope! Thanks again, will try your method if this happens again.

The problem is back and won't go away. Should I bury my phone? Or is there hope? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If dessication didn't work, you can also try swapping batteries with someone (best to do this while the problem is presenting itself).
You can also try doing a hard reset as a last resort (remember to backup your PIM info!), but I doubt this will do you any good. However, it doesn't cost you anything, and is therefore worth a try.
See if your service carrier offers insurance on your phone. If they do, sign up, and turn it in a week later for replacement. Just remember to wipe out your personal data and remove any HardSPL/Unlocks you might have done.
If insurance fraud is distasteful to you, hit eBay. You can usually score a decent condition Wizard for around $120 USD.

I haven't really tried dessication, but I think its gone beyond that. Batteris I have 3 and none of them worked. Is it easy to open the phone and try and "air" it? Will that help. Unfortunately carriers in this country don't have insurance plans. So that leaves out that last option. And if I have to buy another phone then why... the same one... ;-) Thanks anyways..

Nice service repair story from HK (update: not so nice)

Well, I was in the process of putting my phone back to stock so I could get the camera replacement (purple haze problem) done while the warranty was in place... except somehow the eMMC screwed up while going back to stock. The bootloader still runs, so HTC can at least see that I unlocked the phone before it screwed up... and likely voided my warranty.
I talked with HTC in HK (where I bought it; I'm in GZ now), figuring I'd be on the hook for the memory fix but also the camera now, too.
In fact, they were pretty cool about it - they said if they could fix the memory and get it back to stock without replacing the motherboard, they'd cover it under the warranty. Even if the motherboard had to be replaced, they'd charge me for that, but then still cover the camera replacement under the warranty!
Have to say, that wasn't the response I was expecting. On top of that, they accepted my phone in the GZ location and sent it back to HK, for free.
The phone's still in processing now, so it's not final yet, but so far I'm pretty impressed with HTC service...
(update: after a number of returns, detailed below, I've thrown my hands up in frustration and moved on to another phone.)

tobin_o said:
Well, I was in the process of putting my phone back to stock so I could get the camera replacement (purple haze problem) done while the warranty was in place... except somehow the eMMC screwed up while going back to stock. The bootloader still runs, so HTC can at least see that I unlocked the phone before it screwed up... and likely voided my warranty.
I talked with HTC in HK (where I bought it; I'm in GZ now), figuring I'd be on the hook for the memory fix but also the camera now, too.
In fact, they were pretty cool about it - they said if they could fix the memory and get it back to stock without replacing the motherboard, they'd cover it under the warranty. Even if the motherboard had to be replaced, they'd charge me for that, but then still cover the camera replacement under the warranty!
Have to say, that wasn't the response I was expecting. On top of that, they accepted my phone in the GZ location and sent it back to HK, for free.
The phone's still in processing now, so it's not final yet, but so far I'm pretty impressed with HTC service...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is my exprience:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=52438047
so all in all, i dont have anything bad to say about em. heck they even changed the covers .D

HTC is a company from Taiwan. I have to say, they don't treat us like this over here.

Repair Story from Pakistan
I just got back my phone with camera purple haze fixed. They replaced the camera in my HTC One.
I gave them my phone yesterday and to my surprise holding my phone in perfect condition right now within 24 hours.
Amazed at their extremely efficient service

tobin_o said:
Well, I was in the process of putting my phone back to stock so I could get the camera replacement (purple haze problem) done while the warranty was in place... except somehow the eMMC screwed up while going back to stock. The bootloader still runs, so HTC can at least see that I unlocked the phone before it screwed up... and likely voided my warranty.
I talked with HTC in HK (where I bought it; I'm in GZ now), figuring I'd be on the hook for the memory fix but also the camera now, too.
In fact, they were pretty cool about it - they said if they could fix the memory and get it back to stock without replacing the motherboard, they'd cover it under the warranty. Even if the motherboard had to be replaced, they'd charge me for that, but then still cover the camera replacement under the warranty!
Have to say, that wasn't the response I was expecting. On top of that, they accepted my phone in the GZ location and sent it back to HK, for free.
The phone's still in processing now, so it's not final yet, but so far I'm pretty impressed with HTC service...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how long gonna take to repair it? i'm planning to replace the camera, on my vacation in HK.

Well, OK, time for an update to my original story:
So I got the phone back from HTC:
- Camera replaced, purple haze gone. Yay!
- eMMC (entire mainboard) fixed at a cost of approx. USD$213; oh well, my fault.
- Surprise - back casing replaced for free, without prompt from my side. Reason given was "Beats logo print quality poor" (ironically, the Beats logo on the new casing is wiping off even faster than before)
Anyway, so I had the phone back in my hands, and was initially pretty happy. Signal reception seemed a bit... off... but I figured it was maybe down to being in poor reception spot in China, or needing a factory reset, or even that I should get a new SIM card after more than 2 years.
Less than a day later, I realized there was something seriously wrong. 3G was seriously unstable in most places where it used to be strong, and even phone calls would drop out abruptly. Locking the phone down to 2G seemed to help a lot, but maybe not quite perfect, either. Regardless, staying on 2G is no good. Here's the unfortunate part: I was so determined to believe within the first evening that even *if* anything was wrong, that it couldn't possibly be the phone. By the time I realized it was the phone, I had already unlocked it, in order to root it. Why? Because I'm in China, and since the Tiananmen Square anniversary, anything related to Google is totally blocked, including Google Play, Mail, Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Translate, etc. which means SSH or VPN is a must, which means unlocking->rooting.
So I get it back to HTC in HK, and explain very kindly that while I appreciate the camera being fixed, that I think they've given me a borked 3G radio. I explain that it's unlocked, only because of the situation in China, and they're very understanding about this, as apparently they've heard this from many other customers, too.
I get the phone back later, and same issue. They state that they just replaced the "upper board" which apparently handles the radio. Worst thing is that they don't even know if they've fixed it or not, because I realize the 3G radio problem in HK is far less severe, and therefore far less obvious, although definitely still apparent throughout a day of usage. Even for myself, I didn't realize the problem was still there until after the service center was closed. This leads me to believe that it might be the antenna embedded within the back casing (which they replaced in the original repair because of the bloody Beats logo... which I didn't even ask for...), because of the far better 3G coverage in HK compared to anywhere in mainland China.
I get back in touch with HTC HK, and explain the situation. They try to be understanding, but they're unsure about what to do about this. I tell them I think it's the back casing. They seem open to that idea, but then go on to explain to me that their lenience with the unlocked status of the phone only extends to repairs that don't involve mainboard replacement. If it were to come down to that, they'd want to charge me another ~USD$213.
It gets better: I had been using an old Sony Xperia Play during the time that my HTC was out of my hands, and was using a SIM card holder in it. I stupidly placed the empty holder back into its SIM slot during the most recent HTC pickup, and when I tried to remove the SIM holder from the Sony later, it had snagged on something... probably one of the electronic contacts for the SIM card. Long story short, I got the holder out, but the SIM slot in the Xperia is busted. Yay...
Faced with my HTC One being gone again for a while, and no certainty at all about whether it would come back to me any better than before, and no longer having a backup phone, I bought a OnePlus One. Despite all the crap you read about delays with their invite system and shipping, etc... if you buy it domestically, it's delivered to your hands in less than 24hrs from clicking "Buy" on their website. Nice. Although OPO has a couple of issues, too, but that's for another post.
As for HTC... I hope they might try replacing the back casing this time (at no expense to me) and that this might resolve the situation. As troublesome as this whole service situation has been since the purple haze camera started it, I still love the phone, and think it's definitely the best phone I've ever owned, and one of the best phones ever made. Even with the improvements made, the M8 doesn't beat it, either. I'm very anxious to see what HTC does with the M9...

Final update on what started as a "nice" service repair story at HTC in HK:
Got my HTC One back from HK repair... again. Given the lousy signal strength, the fact that they'd already tried replacing the "upper board" which apparently hosts the radio, the hotter (than normal) temperature and lousy battery life, I figured the issue was probably with the antenna in the back casing (which they needlessly replaced the first time because the 'Beats' logo was wearing off), and told them so in a very polite and patiently-phrased letter I attached, concluding that this might easily be fixed with a replacement of the back casing - no big deal right? Since they replaced it the first time only because of the 'Beats' logo.
So, yeah, I finally get it back... and what's the result? They interpreted my letter as meaning the bad battery life must be the result of a bad battery, and replaced it. That was it. So my radio still sucks, the battery is slightly better, but still not as good as it was originally, the overall casing came back totally filthy, which took a good deal of cleaning... and the best part? Now my speakers, which previously worked perfectly, are constantly cutting out during playback of any song. Yay. Another problem that wasn't there before.
Basically, it seems can't seem to do a full and proper testing and evaluation of a returned phone, not even when I'm continuously pointing them in the right direction. Furthermore, they keep returning my phone with new problems that never existed in the first place. The former is greatly frustrating, but the latter really burns me.
To HTC (if you happen across this): you guys have great, world-class designers in your company, such that your products are beautiful and hit almost all the right keys for me... BUT... you have SERIOUS issues, both in your factory (my original phone had weirdly mismatching casing and the purple-haze camera) and even more in your after-sales repair. Your next phone (M9) is going to have to be out-of-this-world for me to even consider going down this road with you again. My OnePlus certainly isn't perfect, but it's awfully close, at less than half the price that I paid for my M7. Please get your act together... soon.

No image / Does seem to boot

Hi guys,
Have my OPT since september '15, great phone, but with some issues. About three months ago, I did a screen replacement because I dropped it and got a cracked display. Repair worked fine, until last week. It was in the morning, so my mind wasn't very clear, but I remember picking up the phone checking the time and notifications, and it felt very sluggish. Really didnt want to respond. Then I fell asleep again, and when I woke, my screen was dead. First thought battery was drained, that happens sometimes. So gave it a charge, the red LED did light up during the charge. Trying to boot gives me the vibration and key LEDs lighting up, but no image. I guess it does in fact boot, but I dont have evidence. Getting into Android recovery still doesnt give me image. What could be the problem? My screen repair was months back, would be weird if that suddenly gives issues.. Opened the phone up, all the wire cables seemed OK. Is there a possibility that my SoC / GPU part is fried, or anything like it? I really don't know what to think of it - usually I'd send it back for factory guarantee repair, but since I changed the screen myself my warranty is probably void. Before I start ordering random parts to replace, what tests can I run to find out what the actual problem is? I was planning on using the phone for at least another year, so this is really a bummer..

There's not much you can do, really. Other than connecting your phone to your PC to see it gets detected. Probably a poor quality screen, if it broke down after such a short while ?
Skickat från min ONE A2003 via Tapatalk

pitrus- said:
There's not much you can do, really. Other than connecting your phone to your PC to see it gets detected. Probably a poor quality screen, if it broke down after such a short while ?
Skickat från min ONE A2003 via Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm oke, will try that. So you do think its the screen? But there isn't any crack or visible damage to it, and it should be an official OnePlus part. Isn't that weird?

Not really, I've experienced both screens failing and touch digitizers failing shortly after swapping them, Chinese quality ?

Hm okay. Waited a bit for prices to come down, 40 bucks for a new replacement seems OK. Will order and try that.
Is there any way I have warranty on the first screen I ordered? I mean, if it suddenly stopped working after 3 months its probably not the original part but some cheap knock off they advertised for the real deal..

If it was really cheap, there's probably no headroom for warranty replacements. Also the returning cost usually is really expensive back to China ?

My take on Nexus 5X bootloop, crazy possible fix

Ok guys maybe will work for your or not if u are reading this means that also u know what bootloop is. I am aware of the "new" way of fixing this by using only 4 cores instead of 6, well for me did not work so well. After a lot of scratching swears and other stuff i realized that actually this is a hardware problem, and i need to look at it as such.
01.So in the beginning i did try the oven charm, well was good for few hours... but after a short time it started to randomly reboot, specially after i was charging the phone(or getting intensive with it). (but not bootloop)
02. Second time i did use a strong hairdryer, to be more friendly, same thing few hours after it started with the random reboots. (but not bootloop)
so
03. i am suspecting that the problem starts from the snapdragon chipset, maybe a slow connection, so i added some pressure to the chip by adding some aluminum foil on top of it. Till now like this is working proper
CZ: So the main thing is: Because i set pressure on the Snapdragon chipset now my phone works again ^_^
IF situation changes i will let you know, but until now for me was the only way to fix this. (and believe me i did try all the software ways)
Later edit: almost two days since the massage and is rocking ^_^ jaja

I did that too, it worked for 2 or 3 days, then started to fall again.

If you want a permanent fix for your 5X you'll have to get the SoC re-soldered like these guys here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/general/4gb-ram-upgraded-nexus-5x-t3588743

Third day for me still working

Got a free replacement mother board from LG in India
I had a bootloop problem last week after upgrading to 8.0.0 through the beta route. Phone was manufactured in 2015 and bought by me in Apr 2016. Hence, it was out of warranty. The phone was bought through the Google store. Initially, it was completely dead. Maybe through bootlooping it exhausted the battery. Anyway I charged it for several hours and then put it in the freezer for 2 hours. It started and went into bootloop. I could get it to go to bootloader mode and recovery mode. I then rang up Google support and after two phone calls and discussion on chat they sent me an email which said that I should contact LG in New Delhi, India where I am located. Yesterday I visited LG repair center. They without any demurring or hesitation agreed to replace the motherboard. They only wanted to see the invoice and despite it being out of warranty they are replacing the motherboard. I asked the executive why I should trust a new motherboard as many people have reported problems after getting a replacement. He said, and I cannot confirm the veracity, that the there are some changes in the new motherboard and it should not go into bootloop. I will only know once I get the phone back next week and run it over a period of time. Will keep people updated. Even though I bought it in India and it was delivered from Singapore by Google LG has replaced the motherboard.

hahaha hair dryer
I baked my motherboard in my mom's baker.
It's last about week then i sell it.
RIP MY LG G3

Is it still running ? Could you upload some pictures on where you applied the foil ?

at the moment not is not running it started to randomly reboot, and i made another flame bake and is gone, i will buy another cheap dead phone to play with, anyway this method is good if u want to recover at least the files bla bla, i need to find a better way how to fix the chipset. anyway is fun

I just baked my wife's 100% stock locked 5x.. 2 minutes at 150°c (from cold to temp, timed after it reached temperature) and 30 seconds at 235° ( again not setting the timer until it reached temperature).. Used a hair dryer to slowly bring the temps down ( mine has a cold air button) then put it in the freezer for 5 minutes...
Booted, transferred files, installed apps and its still running several hours later.. I'm going to factory reset it, unlock it and mod it until it dies..
I bought her a Nokia 7 plus replacement phone..

My own experience with the dreaded "eMMC read failed"... and aftermath

First of all, hello to all Note 4 owners and my deepest sympathies to those affected by this "bug" (whatever it actually is).
I got used Note 4 in March 2016. It was trade in for my Sony Xperia and guy told me he had it for around a year. I liked this nice device. It had great display and served me very well. Excellent, even better term.
It was until December 2016 when dreaded bug appeared, and I knew nothing about it at the time. You already know it - lags, restarts, freezes, unable to turn on, going to download mode, harder and harder to start up...
How it happened is what amazes me most. I have 2 batteries, both original. I exchange them sometimes when I am on longer time without charger. This night (before it all happened) I let phone charge down to 0% because it showed false % in battery bar. It would die at 15% and not charge over 92% for example. This was factory battery and not my spare one I got later. I found out battery % is reset each time I let it charge down all the way, then after it shuts down I charge it up and it fixes the percentage bar temporarily. Anyway, as I was saying, that night (day before I experienced the bug) I wasn't in a good mood and phone died on me sometimes in the early night. I was annoyed and I started up the phone, it got to homescreen then shut off because it was empty. I did it again. This time it got to boot animation. Again. Again. How foolish of me. I did it until phone couldn't be turned on at all. Then I set it up to charge and left it overnight. Tomorrow I took it and left to work. It was peak 100%.
Around 10AM I got some messages on facebook messenger, and I wanted to check them out and reply, I took a break from working. In middle of my typing, phone simply froze. Froze, it wouldn't react to physical buttons, virtual keyboard, nothing. Screen was on non stop with frozen facebook messenger, virtual keyboard on screen and my unfinished message.
I took out battery and turned it back on. Phone was never the same since then... First "light" freezes and after second or two it "let's go" and all messages I typed appear instantly in messenger. Sometimes I press power button to wake device it wouldn't right away. It was getting harder and harder... after investigation I learned about this production "flaw" from samsung, I've read many pages about this error, many of those here on XDA (by the way community here is wonderful)...
I bought another device because Note was getting in state of unusable. I left it alone on table and it stand there for some time.
I couldn't give up it's wonderful screen, power, pretty TouchWiz... and after I've read a lot about this, I decided to buy new motherboard. I got one from ebay in late August and it arrived sometimes in middle September. 60 US dollars. I asked seller will all functions work, is IMEI blacklisted, is WI FI working, does it has good memory chip (which is culprit for bug it seems) and seller kept saying to me everything works, is tested one by one before shipping, and he said "it must work, 1 year warranty!" I smiled a bit, it's how he said it.
I ordered also some tools for disassembling phone as I wanted to do it myself. Very cheap, 7$ and there is everything there, really nice kit. It got to me before motherboard. Then it arrived. Same night I wanted to do it, I couldn't wait to use my note again. I missed it.
One friend at work which owns mobile store and repair, told me to wait until tomorrow, he will do it for cheap but I was not patient enough. I thought I can do it. After couple of youtube videos I started it... Bottom line is I didn't heat up the device to loosen the glue and I ended up breaking the screen... And couldn't attach screen to motherboard, because Samsung made it hard without removing the screen too. I went to my friend and he scolded me for not waiting few hours and eventually found me used screen for 75$ more... They are 150$ around but he took it from some friend of his own to help me because he felt sorry and he got that friend's phone, got out the screen and transplanted it to my motherboard and casing over for free. I have working Note again...
Now, I don't know what to do with it? Do I sell it? Use it? I felt free to attach some screenshots from it, to add up to collective knowledge of XDA (it was my intention with this story in the first place). Who knows... maybe some info from here might help someone, sometimes.
Phone info showed my phone (motherboard) is made in 01.2016. Brickbug check app can't identify the memory chip (shows production date as 11/1999 which is not possible for note 4). It is fast now, one screenshot proves it. Friend said he stress tested the board (whatever it means) and it seems fine. All functions work, I tested everything too. Board color looks different - shade of green is different. KNOX warranty void status 0x0.
What is opinion of fellow XDA's about this? Do I use this thing, sell it... it cost me more than it's worth, and selling it will be just extracting mere costs I invested. But I like the device... I feel like just going through with it, whatever happens this time... maybe my pain with emmc fail is over.
Maybe some other members reading this, can screenshot their brickbug check app statuses? Those which have "healthy" devices and those having emmc issues too? Maybe we can build database of good chips, and which devices may be "safe"... I will sure add my results here in attachments.
I wish everyone owning this good little device much luck and as less problems as possible...
PS Mods can move thread to some other one regarding this issue but I'd like it stays thread of it's own... but I will conform to decision of Mod team. This is wonderful and helping site, thanks goes to owners which built it and mod team keeping the order, as well as userbase for contributing to collective knowledge and "hacking" the android and devices in a good way.
StreetKing

Two and a half years and still no issues. I'll gladly contribute to your database since I seem to have one of the "good" chips.