Hanging it Up - Bricked PH1 and what to get next? - Essential Phone Questions & Answers

Well, it finally happened. My first no joke, hard brick. I've had every nexus phone, a few HTCs, some motorolas, no hard bricks. But today was my day. :laugh:
I was originally having issues with the device not booting to system on reboot, sometimes it'd boot to bootloader instead.
I thought I'd just do a full reset, BTS, and see if that helped. Nope. Couldn't find partition, max size allowed reached, fail to write, all that.
Looked around, ADB/fastboot out of date? Ripped out windows drivers, uninstalled, drivers from device, used brand new platform-tools. Nada.
Tried different cables, USB ports, and googled modern tech wizardy. Nothing.
Finally got it to write TWRP to both partitions (somehow), thought I'd reboot to recovery and be in the clear. WRONG.
Device started to reboot, windows showed device as "OUSB Bulk" and then my PH1 went black. Unresponsive. Kaput. Donezo.
Brick.
It was real, it was fun, but can't say it was real fun.
I LOVE this phone. Honestly, it's perfect for me. Size, weight. The lot. But it's dead now...
Well, I leased it through Sprint, and as it happens my lease is now up so I can get something new. A bunch of Samsungs and Apples, what to get?

Tbh, I'd get another for exactly the reasons you give. Especially if you can one for a good price.
I'm currently using an op6t as I need a dual SIM phone while working abroad. As good as it is, I can't wait to get back my ph1. I've not seen anything that is a real upgrade.

We have a special topic for questions about choosing a new phone and you should only ask them in it.
Here it is.
Thread closed.

Related

Goodbye, Hero. Hello, Speedy!

Well, I didn't think this day would come so soon. I was a relative late comer to rooting, ROMs, Mods, and themes and really enjoying all the performance I could milk out of what at the end of the day I think has been a pretty fantastic phone - My Hero. After having been so frustrated with it, after experiencing and tweaking with Froyo ROMS, overclocked kernels, Firerat's MTD mod, themes, kitchens, and all, I was in love all over with what was essentially a new phone.
Unfortunately, this week I fear I bricked it. I flashed the updated CWM Recovery, and immediately did a Nandroid backup. Something happened; don't know what, but the backup wasn't created and I couldn't reboot. I think my error may have been that I didn't run Firerat's recovery mod after flashing the new recovery, but I'll never know.
I tried to do a restore from a known good backup and couldn't restore. I was getting a message about "Error in CACHE: recovery/log (No space left on device)". I couldn't get into recovery and ADB couldn't see the device (although Fastboot could). After a couple of hours of looking for a solution, I was stumped and in need of a phone (it's essential to my work; I'm a road warrior and depend on it).
I've been eyeing the EVO Shift. I looked at the EVO when it came out and it just seemed too big to me. The Shift looked just about right, but i didn't see enough of a reason to switch. In the end, though, the stars aligned: I was looking at a dead phone, Best Buy had the Shift on sale this week for $99 and was giving their new Buy Back program away for free. I went for it. I tried to get the trade in for my Hero, but they wouldn't take it in non working order.
The next day, I finally managed to get the Hero back to unrooted RUU. Don't know what it was that finally worked; it finally went though when I installed my original SD card (which I had replaced with a 16g one.) I went back to Best Buy and got $41 for the Hero. So: new EVO Shift for less than $60!
I've got the Shift rooted and am starting to remove bloat. I'm finding that I really love the phone. I'm not using the keyboard that much, being pretty proficient with Swype, but for long or complicated text, I really do appreciate it. The one funny: I didn't even notice that the Shift had no trackball when I first looked at it. When I started using the phone, I found my thumb looking for it and wondering, "where did they put the trackball?" I haven't made up my mind how much I miss it yet.
I do know that I will miss my Hero, but it's time to move on. See you in the Shift forums!

[Q] How to identify a "clean" HD2

Hello HD2 forum
I am planning on purchasing a HD2 second hand, to ultimately dual boot windows phone 7 and ICS.
I am buying it from a local trade in store for good prices and warranty, ideally i would like to power it on in store before the purchase to check its clean and ready for me to follow the tutorials available.
Other than identifying that the phone is still running windows mobile, is there any other way for me to check that the phone has not previously been messed with? Something in the settings? Maybe i should check for a secondary mode with certain key combination on boot?
Thanks a lot!
You kinda need to define what you mean by "clean"...I assume you mean stock (and never been modded, but these are 2 different things totally unrelated to each other, more to that in a minute).
IMO the best thing you could do would be to read up on the flashing process. This will tell you what to look for, if you're looking for a stock never-been-modded phone.
But back to your question...the first major sign I'd look for would be HSPL. I'm not going to go into detail about how to find out if it's installed. You'll have to do your own homework. Read every 'how to' and 'newb' (or noob) guide on xda. XDA is an awesome site and the dev's here write awesome documentation. Do them the favor of reading it. I mean, I don't know what you're an expert on but it might get on your nerves if I ask you simple questions about that topic cause I'm too lazy to do the research myself. The research is easy, the reference material is all contained here in various forums, depending on what you want to do. I show my appreciation for that by taking advantage of it, and don't forget to thank the dev's if something is especially helpful...they like that.
As far as checking to ensure that it's still running WinMo...that's gonna be about as effective and informative (about the phone being virgin-stock) as whether or not it's raining that day or not. What's that got to do with anything? Exactly. Nothing. My HD2 is running (at the moment) a WinMo 6.5 build. But it's been flashed more than a hundred times. My daily software is an SD Android build. Before I flashed my HD2 for the first time, I probably spent about 30 hours just reading about the process and trying to understand the process of what I was going to be doing (while reading, I usually had video tutorials playing on my 2nd monitor...I'd give up the reading when it got interesting). So that's it, really...read read read. It's not fail safe. I can't tell you how many times I waited on pins and needles to find out if I had ****-canned my new €400 phone. If you have a heart condition, you just shouldn't ride this ride. ;-)
I just got a SGS2, cause I prefer Android to WinMo. WinMo's a full time job, as is flashing. Something was always not performing the way I wanted it to (efficiency or performance etc), which was why I started flashing, but it gets to be like a drug. Nothing's ever good enough, cause you wind up wanting the best. I'd flash a ROM and install all my **** (manually, one cad file at a time) and then flash a different one and have to reinstall everything again. It was even worse if I had set up my homescreens, and folders the way I wanted them...to that end, I'd highly recommend that you also research mass-installer programs. I can't think of the name of it right now, but you pack all of your cad's in one folder and this program installs all of them (which means like 65% typically, cause invariably about 1/3 will fail for one reason or another).
Even still, looking for HSPL (which is required to flash anything on the HD2) is not very indicative as to whether or not it's been previously modded. When I got my phone it was virgin/stock, of that I'm sure. I bought it from a person, and the person was not capable of performing such tasks (he wasn't so technically inclined). But in your case, you're going to have no idea. It is not only possible but also very easy to return the phone to stock by removing HSPL leaving virtually no trace of it having ever been modded (I say virtually, cause I don't THINK that it can be traced when HSPL has been removed, but I'm not a dev and not a guru). So even the absence of HSPL doesn't even really tell you that it's never been modded, it only says that if it was- then the modder was smart enough to cover his tracks.
Basically, I don't think there's an answer to your question. There are clues that say YES THIS PHONE HAS BEEN MODDED. But there's no definitive sign to look for that say THIS PHONE HAS NEVER BEEN MODDED, and you dunno if someone's gonna lie to you. But I am inviting you to prove me wrong, read the documentation and get back to me.
Good luck flashing, don't **** it up though. You'll be pissed if you brick your ****, which is easy to do. Hell, it's probably a thousand times safer to buy a phone with HSPL installed, then you can flash all you want with no risk. The main risk, is ****ing something up in the HSPL installation process, but there are ways to minimize the risk...which all amount to: read, read, read.
And if you decide you'd be interested in previously modded HD2 (with HSPL already installed), let me know, make me an offer. Mine's just a wifi media device at the moment and I'll probably be marketing it in the near future regardless. It currently has HSPL, and I haven't decided to remove it before sale or not. I saw one on Amazon last week that was at a premium price, cause the seller had Android running on it. It's a great phone if you like WinMo, but I find Android to be much less 'high maintenance' and I used to be a huge WinMo fan (I'm a 10 year WinMo user, if you can believe that!).
Regardless, this is getting long. Those are my 2pence. Be easy.
[EDIT] Hell, if you were closer I'd let you borrow mine for a few weeks to see if you like the phone. I'm a nice guy like that.
There is no way of knowning to be honest, unless you go into bootloader and you see the firmare on it has been tinkered, ( i.e. Hspl, radio, rom ) and depending if it is a eu or tmous version. good luck tho!

Ways To Not Brick Your Device (Please Add To List If You No More)

So, i'm really new to flashing roms. and i never knew how its possible to brick your device, in till this process. I always wanted to no what not to do to brick. So here's what i learned, what not to do, so you don't brick your new transformer tf300t
READ, READ, AND READ AGAIN! - you have to read everything before you start anything. At first i would read step one, then actually do it. Read step two then, do it. DONT DO THAT! Read everything twice at least. even the comments. don't try anything if no one else has tried with positive results. Only people who know what there doing, are ballsy enough to be first, second or third.
DONT OVER WHELM YOURSELF - Make sure you no all the material first, so don't regret it later. If you want this new rom everyone is talking about. You can't just read everything about the rom, and think your ready. Do you need to unlock your bootloader, Do you need to be rooted, are you rooted, What about the Recovery, Nandroid Backup, how to recover back up if you didn't read this first and bricked your tf300 lol Make sure you know all the material before started anything. and somehow manage not to overwhelm yourself in the process,If your overwhelmed, your not ready. If you don't know something, just simply ask ( but if you expect an answer, follow step one READ, READ AND READ AGAIN.) Don't ask a question when all you have to do is scroll up to find your answer lol or Read the post right below yours
Start Off With Something Easy - After Rooted of course and read all of the material. Start off with the build.prop tweak by seanzscreams (i believe) Be careful Though many pple have still bricked trying this, including me lol
So if you change your build,prop make sure you backed up original to build.prop.bak and name tweaked one back to build.prop
Don't forget about permissions rwrr
IF YOU SAY TO YOURSELF, I DONT NO IF I SHOULD ROOT, I DONT NO IF I SHOULD UNLOCK BOOTLOADER, BUT... BUT... MY WARENTY - If you've thought this, then chances are your probably going to brick you device, you most likely haven't read anything, and don't know all the pros and cons
ONLY FLASH THINGS MEANT FOR YOUR TF300T OR OTHER SPECIFIC DEVICE - Only flash things that specifically says tf300 rom, tf300 mod, tf300 recovery. DO NOT, I MEAN DO NOT flash anything under transformer prime or 101. Seriously DO NOT. In less the OP (Original Poster) said its ok and people who know what there doing, confirmed it works in the comments (and not just one person, like a whole conversation full of people) Just be in the habit to not flash anything that's not meant for the device your holding
Common Mistake - I've read of people trying to do a bunch of things with more than one device at a time. (Even people who are experienced with all this) and they go to fast or just not thinking. and start doing a process for one device on the other one, and next thing they no, there bricked.
Stick to one device at a time. especially if your new at all this.
I'm new to all of this myself, So i'm sure there is alot more ways to brick your device. If anyone cares to add to any of this, please do, I want to know myself too.
I could be wrong, it just seems like whenever someone is bricked, it because of something called OPERATOR ERROR, So please read every single post if you have too, inless your the kind of person who love massive head aches or like to use a $400 paper weight as there knew door stopper lol
Undoubtingly the best way to make sure you don't brick your device is not to mess with it, but yes, familiarizing yourself with the instructions first, making notes of what makes sense and what does not so you can further read to educate yourself before taking the leap to modify anything on your tablet.
The first time I messed with my GTab I thought I bricked it. It would not load or even get into recovery, but then I found a way with many steps via command line to re-install the original image. I was sweating bullets for a few days as it was past the 30 days I could take it back to Sears.
Other than that, some device manufacturers (samsung for example) make it almost impossible to brick their devices with the worst case scenario using a JTAG plug to get into download mode.
Be careful with build props. Its one of the easiest, and hardest to fix ways to brick.
Don't be cheap
I'd also recommend to those who have the option BUY THE REPLACEMENT PLAN! I paid $90 when I bought my first transformer. I bricked it, took it back and got a new one, paid $90 and got the replacement plan. I then heard they weren't selling the transformer anymore (if you try to replace your device and they no longer sell it, they give you a comparable model or an upgrade). I "dropped" it and I took it back the day the Transformer PAD came out, one day earlier I would have been given the prime (the salesman chuckled at me as he swapped it out).
If you're planning on tinkering with your device and don't know what you're doing, it could be the best $90 you ever spent. I know have an upgraded tab after replacing two devices (granted I could have put the money towards a prime from the door but in case one, I may have bricked that, and been screwed).

Halp!

I concede defeat...
I'm a brand spanking new owner after my beloved LG G3 shat the bed last week. That phone endured a flashahloics abuse like a champ. It was easy beating up that phone. A sad day to see it finally go lights out.
Unlike the G3, this A2017U (updated to B19) has been giving me grief from day one. I spent the week before arrival reading and collecting tools for the eventual, and immediate, warranty voiding procedure. I felt more than confident in my new abilities to do so. Right from the get go, I was met with an obstacle I couldn't overcome: getting MiFlash to recognize my phone. I have tried everything after scouring the net. Nada. Zilch. No sign of life.
I tried various drivers to no avail. In EDL mode, Windows (8.1 64bit) sees the phone on com4 as a Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoaoder 9008. No matter what version of MiFlash I use, I always get the same error when clicking refresh: Length cannot be less than zero...blah blah blah.
I might be missing the obvious in my attempt to communicate with this phone. While the stock OS is far from horrible, and I could certainly get used to it, unlocking this bad boy is far more attractive. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have for me in an effort to troubleshoot.
Cablespider said:
I concede defeat...
I'm a brand spanking new owner after my beloved LG G3 shat the bed last week. That phone endured a flashahloics abuse like a champ. It was easy beating up that phone. A sad day to see it finally go lights out.
Unlike the G3, this A2017U (updated to B19) has been giving me grief from day one. I spent the week before arrival reading and collecting tools for the eventual, and immediate, warranty voiding procedure. I felt more than confident in my new abilities to do so. Right from the get go, I was met with an obstacle I couldn't overcome: getting MiFlash to recognize my phone. I have tried everything after scouring the net. Nada. Zilch. No sign of life.
I tried various drivers to no avail. In EDL mode, Windows (8.1 64bit) sees the phone on com4 as a Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoaoder 9008. No matter what version of MiFlash I use, I always get the same error when clicking refresh: Length cannot be less than zero...blah blah blah.
I might be missing the obvious in my attempt to communicate with this phone. While the stock OS is far from horrible, and I could certainly get used to it, unlocking this bad boy is far more attractive. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have for me in an effort to troubleshoot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uuhh... Custom roms aren't all that good really. They just don't run as good as stock (although rather by a little, but it IS noticeable) and they have some bugs. MiFavor 5.0 is the way to go IMHO. But if you want to try and see for yourself anyways, do this:
Righr click on the QDLoader 9008 stuff, go to Properties, and check the datarate. Should be on 115200 or 128000. It seems that some people have this problem. If not, try with another PC.
But have you tried with axon7toolkit?
I got it going. For some reason my PC and one laptop caused grief with MiFlash not recognizing the phone. I have another laptop with a fresh Win10 install on it and it worked just fine. The Axon7Toolkit took care of the rest. Awesome tool! I'm now unlocked, recovered and rooted.
I did forget to format data after the procedure and was greeted with the 'enter your password' thingamabob. Luckily for me, I did plenty of reading before I got the phone to realize what I needed to do. I'm up and running as of a few minutes ago. I'm pretty stoked to be running AEX on my A7. I loved it on my G3.
Thanks for taking the time to reply, brother. I appreciate it. And thanks to the community for providing a wealth of knowledge for new owners like me. Because of you all, I was able to free my phone of its bondage.

If your device is older I would avoid Pie

I don't know if I am just suffering from correlation is not causation but I feel like the memory usage of the Pie rom was what just caused my phone to boot loop and then green screen. I just decided to use a Pie rom last week and despite seeing information in the threads saying there were issues with memory usage and other stuff I thought I would dive in. I loved the rom, it was working perfectly for 2 days and I enjoyed it. Then all of a sudden it just started having wifi disconnect issues, crackling speakers and finally one time when I was changing the volume on the phone it just BAM... restarted and got stuck at the google screen. I wasn't able to get back into recovery so I tried reflashing that using the BLOD method. That worked long enough to get a stock rom on the phone. I thought maybe I could just use my device like that but now it started going into a green screen and it wouldn't even power up. It did lead me to find information about getting my phone replaced. I think thats the only positive to come out of this for me. Obviously YMMV and flash at your own risk... but in 10 years of flashing I have never had an experience like this. Even with WM devices. I have kept an eye on both the Pie threads in Android Development and I see similar comments to my experience... I just suggest caution to people like me... who might only know what you are doing based on guides.
TLDR - I tried both the pie roms that were available. I decided on the PixelPie Rom. My phone started bootlooping withing 2 days. I think its the maxed memory usage.
Update: I just got an email that LG has fixed the board and they are mailing my phone back. I was afraid they were going to turn me down for one reason or another. I should get the phone in 2 days. I did personally speak with an LG rep over the phone about it since they were mailing me the same phone back. She said she would not be able to opt for me to receive a new phone because that is always based off the determination of the person repairing the phone. She said that if I ever have any more issues with the phone it will be covered by warranty since I am in the system. I would just have to mail the phone in and go through the same annoyance.
LG was nice enough to fix my phone... They also repaired the cracked screen free of charge. I am happy... I am sticking with stock. lol
As I know, there's a way to incrase your RAM sending motherboard to China (or just buying new from Ali) to install up to 4Gb. Can't precisely tell the prise, but something around $100. In some cases that can be a nice way to give your phone the second life.
orcgoblinsupply said:
As I know, there's a way to incrase your RAM sending motherboard to China (or just buying new from Ali) to install up to 4Gb. Can't precisely tell the prise, but something around $100. In some cases that can be a nice way to give your phone the second life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I paid around $100 for mine like a half year ago. Works very smoothly with Pie.
My phone started having more issues after the warranty time started running out. The screen isn't working right, the phone is freezing up all the time, its also giving me memory errors. luckily this happened within the 90 days of extended warranty they gave me. Will they ever just completely replace my phone? sigh... heh

Categories

Resources