Database Users

ZE550KL fell in water. Hardware damage or hardbrick?

Hi everyone! I'm a noob which made a mess with a brand new asus Ze550KL: I accidentally tossed it inside the toilet (possible water damage).
More precisely, this is my problem, I hope someone may help me .
THE CURRENT SITUATION
Now it's totally dead. I don't know if it is a broken hardware problem or if it just hardbricked, and I don't know how to find it out since the device is toally dead (not turning on, not responding to POWER ON + VOLUME and not entering recovery/fastboot mode, no lights) except from the fact my pc recognizes it as "QHSUSB_BULK" when connected via USB, but can't browse the files inside nor do anything else). Also I think the battery receives energy when connected with the recharge cable to the wall, since the alternator gets hot like usual.
THE SYMPTOMS BEFORE SILENCE
I don't know if it helps you to know, but the dying process was this: The device fell in the water while turned on. I picked it up immediately and it seemes still working, but the touch screen was not reacting to my fingers touch. I immediately pulled out the battery and dried every reachable spot with a towel. I noticed that the water did not get inside the back case, so after a few minutes I tried to insert again the battery: as soon as the battery touched the electrical contacts the device started to vibrate like hell, so I immediately pulled it out again. I put the device in a hot place a few more minutes, than tried again with the battery: it didn't vibrate, I tryied to power it on and it could reach a logo screen with some words on the toop. Unfortunately I don't remeber if it was "Fastboot" or "recovery", but it must have been one of the two. It remained stuck on this screen, so i turned it off again.
The sequent day I had the bad surprise: it was totally dead. I put it in a warm place and waited a lor of days. After 2 weeks it's now still totally dead.
MY QUESTION
Before spending money I'd like to kwow if its just a software problem (hard brick due to cotact with water) or hardware problem, and in this last case what was damaged. How to do it? More precisely:
1) I read a lot of guides about unbricking but I couldn't find anything related to the ze550kl for the case it's totally dead, with no possibility to enter recovery mode or fastboot mode. Is there a way I can make a check-up via PC? How can I solve the "QHSUSB_BULK" problem (since i read some guides, but nothing related to ze550kl with screen not turning on at all).
2) In case it's hardware damaged, how can I understand what the water damaged precisely (in order to know if it's worth repairing or not)?
Thank you very much!!! :laugh:
EDIT (08/11/16):
Maybe I made one step towards the solution (if there's any). In fact I installed the qualcomm processor drivers on my laptop, so now it recognizes the devise as "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 (COM3)" when connected via USB. This means that I can connect to the device using QFIL (software used for unbricking via usb, explained here : androidbrick.com/ultimate-qualcomm-snapdragon-unbrick-guide-snapdragons-are-unbrickable-qhsusb_dload_qpst_qfil/).
However the problem is that QFIL returns this error message when trying to download something on the device:
"Download Fail:System.Exception: Unable to download Flash Programmer using Sahara Protocol
in QC.QMSLPhone.Phone.QPHONEMS_SaharaArmPrgDownload(String sFileName)
in QC.SwDownloadDLL.SwDownload.QPHONEMSSaharaDownloadArmPrg(UInt64& version, String armPrgPath)
Download Fail:Sahara FailSahara Fail
Finish Download".
Using google search I think it may be because also that part of the ROM which allows to download files on the device via USB is corrupted. Is that true? Do you have any solutions?
Thank you again!!!
Grazie!

Usually, when your phone's got water inside it anyhow, you'd best bury it in rice for about half a day or so.
But considering you've done that all, you'd better get professional opinion instead.

up! (pls see "edit" chapter in 1st message)

Anyway to retrieve data from a *dead* LeEco Le Pro3 (x727)

I am unable to boot up the device. I tried all (power + Vol Up) key combos, not working. Is there anyway to pull data out from the device?

easyxpress said:
I am unable to boot up the device. I tried all (power + Vol Up) key combos, not working. Is there anyway to pull data out from the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No fastboot or custom recovery ?
Then no theirs nothing really to do
Maybe a battery replacement would boot it up
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6010 using Tapatalk

No fastboot or custom recovery. I'm wondering if the *storage* can be pulled out like a hard drive?

easyxpress said:
No fastboot or custom recovery. I'm wondering if the *storage* can be pulled out like a hard drive?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope it's just a chip on a circuit board
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6010 using Tapatalk

easyxpress said:
I am unable to boot up the device. I tried all (power + Vol Up) key combos, not working. Is there anyway to pull data out from the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not enough information. What did you do prior to your phone failing to boot? Was there a software mod you installed? What were the symptoms the phone showed the last time it was on? Any problems before it failed to boot like an old battery, misbehaving ROM, poor charging?
Basically, you need to identify (help us identify) the cause of your phone not booting. We cannot find the solution to a problem we don't know the cause of. The problem must first be defined and then we work from there.
All the best.

twistyplain said:
Not enough information. What did you do prior to your phone failing to boot? Was there a software mod you installed? What were the symptoms the phone showed the last time it was on? Any problems before it failed to boot like an old battery, misbehaving ROM, poor charging?
Basically, you need to identify (help us identify) the cause of your phone not booting. We cannot find the solution to a problem we don't know the cause of. The problem must first be defined and then we work from there.
All the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Prior to the phone failing to boot, the phone kept crashing. I saw the screen turning into *mess* and then the phone shut off by itself. Initially, I was able to boot up the phone after the crash, however the screen would get mess up and shut off again after a few minutes. Eventually, It got harder and harder to turn on the phone until it finally failed to boot (die). At this point, the phone seems dead. When I plug in the charger, there is no response of any kind, just black screen.
At one time, when the phone was on its last legs, I was able to boot into the Recovery mode, the phone seems to stay in that mode without the crash. Unfortunately, I didn't stay long enough in the Recovery mode to confirm this.
The phone was running on Lineage of Android 8. I have been using the phone for two years, the battery is surely weakened but can still last an hour or two for continual Youtube watching. I didn't do any software update after the Lineage Android 8's last nightly build.
Hope you can help and give some pointers. Thanks.
-- Joseph

easyxpress said:
Prior to the phone failing to boot, the phone kept crashing. I saw the screen turning into *mess* and then the phone shut off by itself. Initially, I was able to boot up the phone after the crash, however the screen would get mess up and shut off again after a few minutes. Eventually, It got harder and harder to turn on the phone until it finally failed to boot (die). At this point, the phone seems dead. When I plug in the charger, there is no response of any kind, just black screen.
At one time, when the phone was on its last legs, I was able to boot into the Recovery mode, the phone seems to stay in that mode without the crash. Unfortunately, I didn't stay long enough in the Recovery mode to confirm this.
The phone was running on Lineage of Android 8. I have been using the phone for two years, the battery is surely weakened but can still last an hour or two for continual Youtube watching. I didn't do any software update after the Lineage Android 8's last nightly build.
Hope you can help and give some pointers. Thanks.
-- Joseph
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This appears to be hardware failure. The SoC is most probably dead. You should have recovered your data when it was still able to boot. Right now I think it's too late.

twistyplain said:
This appears to be hardware failure. The SoC is most probably dead. You should have recovered your data when it was still able to boot. Right now I think it's too late.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just plugged in the phone. Miraculously, after few minutes, it did come up with the boot screen (with some messy lines), see the attached picture. However, It didn't go beyond the boot screen and recycle again for 2 or 3 times and then no more. I was able to duplicate this recycling situation several times after plugging it to the charger. Also, I was able to push it into the Recovery mode, but it only stay at the boot screen (with lines) and shut off again after few seconds.
What do the messy lines on the boot screen suggest? Is it the battery totally dead? Or, is the charging system faulty that somehow it doesn't have any enough juice to push thru beyond the boot screen and hence shut off?
-- Joseph

easyxpress said:
I just plugged in the phone. Miraculously, after few minutes, it did come up with the boot screen (with some messy lines), see the attached picture. However, It didn't go beyond the boot screen and recycle again for 2 or 3 times and then no more. I was able to duplicate this recycling situation several times after plugging it to the charger. Also, I was able to push it into the Recovery mode, but it only stay at the boot screen (with lines) and shut off again after few seconds.
What do the messy lines on the boot screen suggest? Is it the battery totally dead? Or, is the charging system faulty that somehow it doesn't have any enough juice to push thru beyond the boot screen and hence shut off?
-- Joseph
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what happened to TWRP ? thats stock recovery
will it enter fastboot mode ? if you can get into TWRP their is a chance of off loading your userdata to a PC

easyxpress said:
I just plugged in the phone. Miraculously, after few minutes, it did come up with the boot screen (with some messy lines), see the attached picture. However, It didn't go beyond the boot screen and recycle again for 2 or 3 times and then no more. I was able to duplicate this recycling situation several times after plugging it to the charger. Also, I was able to push it into the Recovery mode, but it only stay at the boot screen (with lines) and shut off again after few seconds.
What do the messy lines on the boot screen suggest? Is it the battery totally dead? Or, is the charging system faulty that somehow it doesn't have any enough juice to push thru beyond the boot screen and hence shut off?
-- Joseph
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup...This phone is dead. I have seen a similar le pro 3 posted here on XDA with the same streaks along the display. It's definitely a hard brick. No way to get around it that I know of. I'd like to rope @tsongming in on this. He has seen a few dead pro 3's so this is within his expertise.
Sent from my LeMobile Le X526 using XDA Labs

twistyplain said:
Yup...This phone is dead. I have seen a similar le pro 3 posted here on XDA with the same streaks along the display. It's definitely a hard brick. No way to get around it that I know of. I'd like to rope @tsongming in on this. He has seen a few dead pro 3's so this is within his expertise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry bad news.
As twistyplain said, your phone is absolutely fried, and there is no solution.
It's definitely no brick, that is a hardware issue... Most likely shorted solder connections. The same thing happened to two of our X727s, we have one left that still works.
I highly recommend buying a seemingly unbrickable Xiaomi phone. Their budget models are awesome and of course their flagships are awesome. Everyone in my family has Migrated to Xiaomi . I currently have Android 10 working flawlessly.

Thanks for the info. I made a mistake of not backing up the photos from the phone. I'm still hoping for a slim chance and searching that some of the repair shops (in China?) are somehow able to boot up the phone and retrieve the photos for me. Meanwhile, I'll check into Xiaomi.
-- Joseph

easyxpress said:
Thanks for the info. I made a mistake of not backing up the photos from the phone. I'm still hoping for a slim chance and searching that some of the repair shops (in China?) are somehow able to boot up the phone and retrieve the photos for me. Meanwhile, I'll check into Xiaomi.
-- Joseph
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are in China and located in a large city or tech industrial area you should have plenty of shops that repair at the component level.
Your phone could very likely be repaired by a shop that has a hot air rework soldering station with an electron microscope.
We used to have these types of places in the US but they have all gone out business, replaced by board swappers, who charge a lot. I would suspect that you could get it repaired in China for 100 yuan or less.
I worked in Beijing for 3 months, about 18 years ago and these types of places were everywhere.

M30s does not boot - stuck at very first screen

Hi all,
my Gylaxy M30s rebooted itself yestarday, and now is stuck at the very first screen (the one showing "SAMSUNG Galaxy M30s" in the center and "Powered by android" at the bottom).
Vol down + power results in a reboot attempt (screen goes black, vibration), but the phone is stopping at the same screen again.
I am not able to turn the phone off.
Switching from Vol down to Vol up immediately when screen goes black does not enter recovery mode.
Vol down + power while charging sometimes leads to the charging symbol being shown on the screen, but without the percentage in the middle.
Charging over night did not help.
The phone cannot be connected to a Win PC.
Any suggestions what I can try?
Thanks,
Alchemist

Try volume down+volume up and while pressing those buttons, plug your phone into your computer. Tell me the results of that.

Nothing happening...

I mean trying those combinations immediately after using power+ volume down to reboot.

What did you do with your phone? Died suddenly when normally using?

Yes, phone died during normal usage.
Ah, I see - a screen comes up warning me that downloading a custom OS might harm the phone.
Also, the PC makes this "USB connected" sound when I then press Vol up, but I do not see a new drive connected, I think.
I am slightly optimistic now?

Press volume up.Then install Samsung usb drivers(search on Google)

Ugh, just wanted to do this, but now the phone is completely dead. No response to any button or charging. Will hang it on the charger for a few hours, but my optimism is gone...

OK, now it works again. I am in the screen with the colourfull stuff and the phone waits for some download.
Driver is installed on PC. Is there anything supposed to happen - the phone is still not accessible via PC, or is it?

Install Odin (search in Google 'odin samsung' and download)
Download stock firmware(android os) at www.samfw.com , after downloading you will see files like AP-M505xxxxxxx.tar.
Select, from the stock ROM AP-M305xxxxx.tar for AP in odin CSC-M305xxxxx.tar for CSC, and so forth then click start .

OK. All data will be lost, right? Is there some way to access the internal storage to rescue some files before flashing the new firmware?

Sorry to tell you that you cannot have data restored bad news for you sorry

Sorry. If you only see one file(make sure it is .tar or .tar.md5 file) after you extracted the .zip firmware, install it to the AP slot.

Any chance I could fix this issue with tools like dr.fone, UltFOne, ReiBoot?
I do not have any experiences with these - no idea if the just want to make money with desparate customers? ...

These could possibly brick your phones even more ( anyways flashing with Odin could also brick your phone). However, it in some cases can fix your device.
If you HAVE to have your data back and you don't mind paying, visit a service center and tell them: 'Hey my phone died and i HAVE to have the data back '.(I know, your warranty is expired probably, but they might still do the things for you with paying.)(if those stores closed during lockdown then I don't know any way to fix it.)

OK, another thing I have observed: The screen goes black after about 30 sec to 5 min when not charged - the shorter it was charged, the quicker the screen goes black. Buttons do nothing when screen is black. When reattached to charger, phone tries to boot and is then stuck at said screen - no button pressing needed for the phone to try to start. The longer the phone has been without charger, the longer it takes until the phone tries to boot.
Maybe it's just the battery that is dead - or would the phone with a dead battery boot normally when attached to charger?

If that is the case, open up your phone, put in a replacement battery, and try to boot up(yes, you need to. it will be a frustrating process.). Your phone could be having a faulty battery and nothing else, to cause this issue.

Im having the same problem mentioned above. The samsung service centre says to replace the motherboard which costs almost half the price of the actual phone..

Mystic_Jamdam said:
Im having the same problem mentioned above. The samsung service centre says to replace the motherboard which costs almost half the price of the actual phone..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Truth to be told: The guy in the repair shop opened the phone and wanted to change the battery - when he saw that water must have come into the phone, corroding the motherboard. So yeah, all data lost, but... no backup, no mercy. I now have set up a NAS for all computers and devices in our family... ;-)

If it really is a hardware problem then the quality must have been really bad.

Mi 9T suddenly died/won't turn on

Hello,
yesterday my ~2 year old 9T just went into black screen while I was using it. It wasn't laggy/hot/wet at that moment or anything, it just straight went into black screen. The battery was on ~70%.
Holding down the power button, power button + volume up/down for a minute doesn't do anything.
Charging the phone on a confirmed charger over night, still nothing after trying the buttons again.
The only sign of life im getting is when I connect it to my computer.
Im getting a QUSB_BULK_CID:0404_SN:B54B8A07 entry in the device manager under other devices.
The phone was clean, no custom ROM, no TWRP or other bootloader, not rooted.
I saw some similar cases in this forum, but they usually involved at least some kind of TWRP or custom ROMs.
Also weird is al that I found researching this topic were some Qualcomm [...] entries in the device manager under connections (COM & LPT) while I have a different entry.
Now the questions are:
- Is there any hope for success with an software approach, meaning can I install some software which allows me to access the phone?
If yes how do I do it and will I lose all my data this way?
- Given that my computer at least recognizes my phone in some way, can I rule out some hardware issues or should I try to open it and at least check if there is something broken?
Note that I probably would have replaced this phone over the course of this year anyways, so visual damage doesn't bother me too much,
I'm much more interested in recovering my data or getting my phone to work so I can at least backup my stuff before moving to another phone.
If you need any more information I will try to provide it, I will be grateful for any help!

Hi, you should get a battery replacement to discard a hardware issue. I replaced the battery on my 9T and I can confirm the phone won't boot or even power on without a battery despite the type of charger being used.

Hardware fault keeps leaving me with a black screen

Hi there,
I've had this PH-1 for almost a year now, no issues, worked fine. Then out of nowhere it just started locking up in the middle of use, going to a black screen. I'd try rebooting and sometimes it'd work, sometimes it wouldn't. It got progressively worse to the point that I legitimately thought that my phone was bricked. Eventually I figured out to give it some time, let the battery drain to empty and I was able to boot into fastboot/recovery. I backed up what I could and flashed new recovery images then did a fastboot -w after wiping, well, everything. But the black screens continued. Sometimes I can boot into recovery, sometimes I can't. I'm starting to believe that it's a hardware issue. I'm not sure what would have caused this to suddenly start happening - not even sure how to go about diagnosing it but it's definitely a problem. I've been using Lineage recovery as I was told a while back that TWRP doesn't work well with Mata, not sure how accurate that is currently.
Anyway, while it's black-screened I can connect it to my PC and it'll chime like it's recognized a connection but it won't mount and I can't reach it via fastboot. The best way to kind of force it into booting into recovery/fastboot appears to be pulling out or inserting the USB C connector while it's connecting but that's not 100%, it almost feels like chance.
Has anyone ever encountered a hardware issue like this before? Is it my screen connector or a solder, perhaps, that's faulty? Or something more dire?
Any insight would be appreciated!
Thank you,
Brandon
EDIT: At first I thought that this was a firmware issue as it seemed to resolve itself after updating to Lineage 19.1 but after about 20 mins of use, the same freezing, black screen, locking up started up again. After a good amount of searching, I've discovered that my phone is showing up in Device Manager as QUSB__BULK - which, according to this thread, seems to mean that my memory chips have 'reached the end of their normal life cycle through natural wear and tear'.
"Google's bug tracker entry has officially changed to "Won't Fix"/"Infeasible" - their reasoning is that their memory chips have completed their "natural lifecycle" and have failed due to normal consumer use case wear and tear.
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/192008282"
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pixel3/comments/mm7yp2

Are there any Android tools/apps that can identify/flag/fix memory or bad sector issues to help head this memory degredation off at the pass?

try installing qualcomm drivers for EDL mode on PC? then will it show up as 9008 mode
then if it is 9008 mode maybe flash with EDL?