Un-Wakelockable zombie: grey bar, bootloop & recovery missing - Galaxy Note 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey friends of the beloved Note 4, I was deeply gutted by the malfunctioning of my phone. I have been using an N9100 for the past 6 months. The phone was new out of the box (manufactured in July 2016), with stock marshmallow installed. I rooted it by flashing cf-auto-root through odin. Everything was fine and dandy until 2 weeks ago, when reading comics (presumably not a particularly taxing job for the hardware) its screen suddenly started to glitch then the phone completely died. I found one useable recovery firmfare from trial and error to revive the phone (Kitkat 4.4.4). But the symptoms persists, which sounds eerily familiar to but somehow different from the infamous emmc failure:
1. A grey bar appears at the bottom left of the screen for 1-2 seconds when booting up;
2. Reboot or bootloop occurs when waking up the phone after display timed out or pressing the power button;
3. Screen glitches and phone randomly reboots from time to time;
4. Recovery mode cannot be accessed most of the times, even after freezing the phone in the refrigerator;
5. The tried and true wakelock revamp app is unable to stop the phone from going to sleep and rebooting.
It seems the phone itself is seriously compromised. What maybe the root cause of this nuisance? And more importantly, is there any solution to it other from switching the motherboard, that is logistically and economically sound?
Alas, roses are red and Samsung phones are high maintenance...

Switching motherboard will create a lot more issues.
It looks like the EMMC is dying. Search about it. Also someone found a solution to insert a heat artic pad underneath the eMMC and apparently it worked. Also search about this.

Related

[Q] Nexus 7 wifi 2012 power button issue

Hey guys,
I am having 2012 wifi 8GB N7 for more than yr now and have recently started getting irritating problem making it unusable.
Its behaving as if its power button is continuously pressed even when i am not touching the tablet or sound / power buttons. Its operating on its own to restart, bring power menu in every situation i put it in, like in system standby condition, powered down condition or in bootloader or even in CWM recovery. Its operating function corresponding to power button.
Tablet is out of warranty so i am trying to troubleshoot and fix it myself (as far as i can) and but getting any clues from online available material too. Also out of warranty repairs are costly / worthless if service guy decide to change its PCB.
If anyone has faced similar issue/ got solution/ got it fixed from service guys, please suggest me what can be done. Is it a software issue or hardware issue like.
So far I have tried factory roms of 4.2.2, 4.3, CM versions and AOKP versions in rooted, non rooted, bootloader locked unlocked conditions. And from my understanding its not related to any roms. Heck it shows this erratic behavior even in bootloader mode or in CWM recovery.
Can there be anything which service guys do as far as software is concerned which we cant do, so that i can give them to fix it?
Looks like a hardware issue. The internal part of the button may be loose.
Sent from my AUXUS Nuclea N1 using xda app-developers app
Ain't nobody faced such issue ever? Please guys i need some inputs.
So far i tried disconnecting power/ volume button strip/ cable from motherboard and let it idle for sometime. Even tried booting with that strip removed, but it didnt solve the problem. So my thinking of this strip being the culprit is wrong (from my understanding).
Thought of giving an update to this issue..
Dismantled N7 completely taking help of youtube videos. Booted back up and problem persisted but with extreme low frequency. i.e. power command executed on its own after a long time. So used tablet for half and hr, updated it to 4.4.2 which was not possible in the condition it was in before. Later problem aggravated to initial level again. i.e. continuous restart, no operation possible.
So left tablet in powered off condition for a day. Switched it on again. And could use it for same half an hr without facing any problem. After that problem started troubling again.
If anyone can think of resolution, would appreciate assistance.
Thanks.
Another pleasant update.
Tab was lying unused for months with battery fully discharged. And later when i checked at random without even expecting any change in its condition..... it started perfectly.
And its working without any issue now. Hope this will help someone else facing problem.

[Q] Galaxy S4 hardbrick

Hey,
This is my first time posting here and really using the site. I have the Sprint Galaxy S4 and just updated to the SlimKat official build 7 and had no initial problems. A day later it starts to reboot constantly and would stay on for a couple minutes. Now it is stuck in a bootloop and will shut off even when going into download or recovery mode. When plugged into a computer the computer won't even recognize the phone and the phone will not turn on. The only time the phone will even start to boot is when it is not plugged into wall/computer and on battery. I have no idea what to do now.
That's a tough one. Usually with a soft brick, if you can make it to recovery, your phone can be saved but since you can't... I hope you get it working!
Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app
puresublimie said:
Hey,
This is my first time posting here and really using the site. I have the Sprint Galaxy S4 and just updated to the SlimKat official build 7 and had no initial problems. A day later it starts to reboot constantly and would stay on for a couple minutes. Now it is stuck in a bootloop and will shut off even when going into download or recovery mode. When plugged into a computer the computer won't even recognize the phone and the phone will not turn on. The only time the phone will even start to boot is when it is not plugged into wall/computer and on battery. I have no idea what to do now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to sprint galaxy s4 thread. All answers there. You need Odin 3.09 then stock ng2 tar. To flash through computer.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using XDA Free mobile app
I already have odin and the tar files for stock. When plugged into my computer it will not even register that it is connected and so I can't use odin to flash it.
The same thing is happening to me. I get to the Galaxy S4 splash screen, then it shuts off. Even if I try to boot into recovery
I'm going to pile on in here as I seem to be having a similar issue. I had my S4 (not rooted, stock rom) on my dock streaming google music. A phone call came in and the phone started vibrating like crazy and wouldn't stop. The screen shut off and the phone was still vibrating. Finally it stopped and was shut off. When I try to start it a few things happens. It will sometimes boot to my lock screen and the screen goes black and I think it is powered off. Sometimes it will get past the lock screen and then die shortly after. After like 2 or 3 times of that it won't even boot. It loads the Samsung screen but never gets to the Sprint screen or boots. If I leave it for some time shut off with battery out it will go back to booting to the lock screen then dying etc... When I press the buttons to get into recovery it says recovery is loading and then the screen goes black. I swapped batteries and that didn't do anything. I tried pressing the menu button or the home button to try and boot safe mode and it just loads normally not that I think that would help anyway.
Any ideas on things I can try next? What is this odin thing? Would that work for me?
---------- Post added at 07:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:16 PM ----------
Ok... I can get into recovery now and will try a factory reset. Are you sure you are going into recovery correctly. Apparently I was not. Hold volume up power and menu button and when the phone vibrates let go of power only.
Before I do a hard wipe is there any way to get data off the internal memory from recovery mode?
So I got a custom recovery installed, reinstalled stock rom, things worked ok for awhile. Then it started random reboots every 10 mins or so. Now it is back to instant crashing and rebooting. Any idea what could be the issue? I'm assuming at this point it is hardware related. Why can recovery and download mode run consistently without crashing but when an os is fired up it has issues? If it was a hardware issue shouldn't it not work across the board?
So I had Sprint replace my phone on the 8th. I have been using my same batteries (1 stock 1 Anker) and chargers (some stock some not) without issue the past 5 days. I rooted and installed xposed and some modules (original broken phone was never rooted and was completely stock). Things were going great until tonight when it started reboot looping exactly like the old phone. I switched battery and same proble. After I took the battery out and left it out awhile it fired back up but I'm afraid the problem will return. Is it possible that the battery or charger randomly are causing damage to the phone? I only have 14 day warranty on this replacement and need to figure this out.
So things were going well for awhile and then the reboot loops started up again. I did some digging and read that apparently Samsung phones are notorious for sticking power buttons and the symptoms were exactly what I was experiencing. I watched some videos online how to open the phone and clean out the power button but it didn't make a difference. I then read that squeezing the connector for the power button with a pair of pliers sometimes does the trick. Not for me. So finally since I'm not under warranty, have no insurance, and the phone wasn't working anyway, I just ripped the white plastic part of the power button right off. Well, that seemed to do the trick. Phone immediately fired back up without issue and has been going strong. I glued a small thin piece of plastic where the old one used to be and I am back in action. If my little plastic piece solution eventually fails or breaks off I will consider soldering on a new button but so far so good.
If you have tried everything else, and are looking for last resort, try cleaning the power button with some alcohol, and if that fails, rip off that power button! Here is the video that gave me the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Glllc7bEJs and here are some other power button videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=s4%20power%20button&search_type=&aq=f&oq=

[Q] S5 screen problem

Hi i have problem with my s5 display, it starts going crazy like scrolling up constantly, when i use it and then switch the power button to shut thr display the phone does not power back up unless i remove battery, otherwise the two button lights only show.
Prior to this problem, it started when my mic at the bottom stopped working, and then the pinnacle point was when i unrooted my s5 and rebooted, immediately the colors turned to different tints of colours.
The next day it started going all fuzzy and scrolling up.
Took it to samsung but waa refused as i found out about the knox counter lol
I have my usb port dock part which im ready to replace on my mainboard. But what ia causing the funny display ? I can barely use my phone, the digitizer seems fine aa at times it works for like 5mins.
What ive tried:
Factory reset
Reroot
Phoenix rom
I have a video to show you guys.
youtu.be/nYgBp2VAfFo
Video is private
...

Screen stopped working with strange moments

Hi,
After Xmas I made factory reset with TWRP and I made an upgrade to CM13.(6.0)
It was working fine.
When I was trying to make next daily update, after reboot, screen became black and nothing shown up.
I was trying a lot of things since that moment.
When I was going back from service point (I really want to sort it out) when they told me it is probably LCD broken (i have broken glass, but 1 year ago, so I do not believe it can be screen),
when I take phone out I spotted that keys are highlighted so I swiped and it locked out and shown screen! it was working perferctly fine,
so I decided that it is best moment to flash newest CM to solve issues, but after reboot screen was black again.
I can enter download mode so it is visible in Odin, but screen is black in every mode.
There is only quick flash on screen when turning on and also really short moment of Samsung Galaxy logo which becoming dark quite quickly.
I flashed stock rom(5.0), but nothing changed, despite of that I know phone is turning on somehow because I hear music on turning on...
Can someone help?
I really doubt that it can be hardware issue.
Can it be something with BL ? How can I solve it...?

Dead phone(?)

Hi, i have a bit of a problem with my own Huawei G7: it wants to stay dead.
Just to give a quick "backstory" of the device in question:
I've been owning it since 2015, so far so good, but after 3-4 ish years of usage it started to get issues without doing any particular stuff (ex. rooting, unlocking bootloader, etc.). I've used to update the phone whenever updates came out, and i was exactly on the latest M release.
Since i've got that update and, to add, a newer phone in late 2018, the phone decided to kill off itself.
Each time i've booted up the thing, it was making more and more struggle to boot up into android- even to a point of getting into a bootloop, or straight out softlocking after the bootup animation or EMUI trying to fix itself.
Latest times i've got it to boot the device up correctly, it worked fine, honestly-
no apps crashed, no strange behaviors from the os, but the only bad part were pics from my gallery got corrupt (not all, but a good chunk of it).
After next bootups i've tried, it decided to show no life except the notification LED.
The screen was dead, no vibrations started when booting up, but only the LED displayed a certain order of colors (blue, green, red, orange- then the pattern repeated).
After a long while, i've recently took it back to give it a fix.
At first i tried following typical solutions given on the internet, like:
button combos to boot the device into different modes, load an sdcard with an update.app package on the dload folder, even making it charge for an extended while (around 1-2hs) and see if it worked- but the phone was still dead, still shown the LED pattern.
Moving on, i decided to move to the manual work:
Disassembling, reassembling, plug off different modules (+ battery) and attach them back, also attempting to charge while i had detached the battery's pins with my nails. Still no signs of life happening. I've tried everything except one very thing: short the pins and boot it up to EDL mode (since it has QCom chip).
So, as a last resort, i've tried to search far and wide on the internet about a QCom FW for this specific device.
None to be found, except few useful sites:
The device's page over PostmarketOS' wiki (that's how i've found out about the points to short on the board);
Huaweistockrom's page on the device (i refuse to hyperlink it because their .xml file inside the .zip made QDL puke out errors about it having no correct syntax on the code. Didn't bother myself to fix it alone- also has 'wares inside, so i won't break a rule);
An obscure thread found over gsmturkey.net (the only one offering a perfectly functioning FW. If it doesn't load for you, here's an archive.org snapshot) + a functioning DL link;
Without further ado, i've went trial & error flashing the FW dump from gsmturkey's site over my phone's board via triggering EDL with pin shortage (with my rooted phone on the terminal to flash it).
Didn't felt like it took much, but i saw the terminal was reporting the partitions being written successfully, then QDL disconnected and printed somewhere in the text (possibly flagging it has flashed the FW successfully):
Code:
"partition 0 is now bootable."
By now, the phone should have shown signs of life- like the screen turning on or anything (like i previously did with another QCom phone).
Phone was still dead, but on the bright side: no more colored LED pattern!
I tried booting it up manually, even doing key combos, disassembling it and do other shenanigans to make it work:
the phone still was dead, but the only functioning thing was the red LED showing any signs of the battery charging- but at some point it turns off, no signs of the green LED nor the screen printing any cool battery level animation (like it should normally do on any phone when the OS isn't on).
Moving on, i gave a good ol surf around the web and found out something: this issue isn't uncommon at all, it exists even on older Huawei models.
For example, i saw across XDA itself and other android-centric blogs the specific issue of "LED turning on when charging, but phone doesn't turn on" kind of deal.
If i were to link up several for proof:
A P10 Plus facing a similar issue, over Huawei's consumer help page;
A very exact problem of what i've used to have too, over HTCMania (spanish page);
Same page, this time is about a G610;
Several users having the same malfunction, over the Ascend G6's XDA page;
A Huawei Mate 20 Pro, shared over r/Huawei's sub;
Another person- but this time's about the colored led thing, over Android Central;
Aside the list, i wonder if either the colored LED thing is a code for the motherboard or EMMC dying (even though convinced more of the mobo, if the EMMC wasn't alive: then none of the flashing could have took place) or a planned obsolescence made by Huawei for their own devices.
Whatever that is, i'll await for answers if my issue would be resolvable- or atleast bypass this red LED and black screen issue without putting extra expenses to buy new components (i was very affectionate of this device and would like to revive it in order to extend it's lifespan).

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