Develop Bugs

[Q] Kindle fire totally unresponsive after bootloader flash

After flashing firefirefire and twrp 2.1 to a friend's Kindle Fire, the kindle is totally unresponsive. (Yes, I believe I flashed the bootloader incorrectly. I probably flashed the actual .zip rather than a binary.)
Anyways, now:
- The power button never lights, no matter what I do. A/C plugged in, USB plugged in, after holding power button for minutes, after battery disconnected and USB connected, nothing.
- When plugged in to the USB port (Linux running), no messages appear in the syslog that indicate it even recognizes that a device has been connected
- usbboot (with the shorting trick) did not help
- disconnecting battery, then trying usbboot (with the shorting trick) does not help
For what it's worth: I actually accidentally performed the shorting trick on the wrong Kindle (mine) and effectively made it not boot. I WAS able to fix mine using the usbboot (with the shorting trick) and get it back booting. So, I know how this works. One difference I note, when I plugged in my Kindle, and tried the usbboot trick, it did not work (stuck on waiting for OMAP44xx device forever). But when I unplugged the battery, and plugged in the usb cable, at least Linux logged that the USB device was connected, and the power button flashed green, on and off. This other one does absolutely zero - nothing.
It's almost like the USB jack on this Fire is completely hosed. How could flashing the bootloader and recovery do this?
After extensive research, I'm beginning to feel like I'm out of options. The factory usb cable is the only thing I have not tried.
Thanks.
This is the thread I have been following to try to recover. It worked for mine, but not for my friends.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1636883
Update: if you want to know what i did:
sudo ./fastboot -i 0x1949 flash bootloader ~/Downloads/Kindle/u-boot-firefirefire-1.2.zip
(Yeah, I know, just wasn't thinking.)
Update:
I just, on whim, with the battery unplugged, tried the usbboot short trick again, and it worked!
I think I'm back in business.
Update:
After several successful attempts at communication with the device, I was able to get the bootloader overwritten and twrp installed. I had to customize the "usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp" script to get it to go through. It kept coming back to 'waiting for device'. Maybe I didn't wait long enough. It seemed stuck. Here is my customized script. (I removed the oem format and xloader).
#!/bin/bash
FKDIR=$(pwd)
echo "Loading FFF through USB..."
./usbboot $FKDIR/aboot.bin $FKDIR/u-boot.bin
#echo "Fixing partitions..."
#./fastboot oem format
#echo "Installing x-loader..."
#./fastboot flash xloader $FKDIR/mmcblk0p1
echo "Flash FFF..."
./fastboot flash bootloader $FKDIR/u-boot.bin
echo "Flash TWRP..."
./fastboot flash recovery $FKDIR/twrp2-blaze.img
echo "Resetting bootmode to standard boot..."
./fastboot oem idme bootmode 4000
echo "Loading TWRP..."
./fastboot boot $FKDIR/twrp2-blaze.img
Note: I was running this from my personal Linux (non VM linux system) as root. I just extracted firekit into my download dir and called the commands manually, since I didn't want to bother with a USB stick (since I run linux).

kcburge said:
After flashing firefirefire and twrp 2.1 to a friend's Kindle Fire, the kindle is totally unresponsive.
- The power button never lights
- When plugged in to the USB port (Linux running), not message appear in the syslog that it even recognizes that a device has been connected
- usbboot (with the shorting trick) did not help
- disconnecting battery, then trying usbboot (with the shorting trick) does not help
For what it's worth: I actually accidentally performed the shorting trick on the wrong Kindle (mine) and effectively made it not boot. I WAS able to fix mine using the usbboot (with the shorting trick) and get it back booting. So, I know how this works. One difference I note, when I plugged in my Kindle, and tried the usbboot trick, it did not work. But when I unplugged the batter, and plugged in the usb cable, at least Linux logged that the USB device was connected, and the power button flashed green, on and off. This other one does absolutely zero - nothing.
It's almost like the USB jack on this Fire is completely hosed. How could flashing the bootloader and recovery do this?
After extensive research, I'm beginning to feel like I'm out of options. The factory usb cable is the only thing I have not tried.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately a factory cable won't help, so save your money. This is caused by a bad bootloader flash. Usually from flashing a corrupt file or a .zip instead of a .bin
If you're using a VM, instead of straight Linux or LiveUSB, that could cause problems as well as the Linux version you are using. It's possible you were able to get yours to work with your current setup because the bootloader was still intact on your device.
Only you would know for sure but it's possible if the battery was low enough then it might have died while installing the bootloader, which would be the only reason you should get a factory cable.

Update:
After several successful attempts at communication with the device, I was able to get the bootloader overwritten and twrp installed. I had to customize the "usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp" script to get it to go through. It kept coming back to 'waiting for device'. Maybe I didn't wait long enough. It seemed stuck. Here is my customized script. (I removed the oem format and xloader).
#!/bin/bash
FKDIR=$(pwd)
echo "Loading FFF through USB..."
./usbboot $FKDIR/aboot.bin $FKDIR/u-boot.bin
#echo "Fixing partitions..."
#./fastboot oem format
#echo "Installing x-loader..."
#./fastboot flash xloader $FKDIR/mmcblk0p1
echo "Flash FFF..."
./fastboot flash bootloader $FKDIR/u-boot.bin
echo "Flash TWRP..."
./fastboot flash recovery $FKDIR/twrp2-blaze.img
echo "Resetting bootmode to standard boot..."
./fastboot oem idme bootmode 4000
echo "Loading TWRP..."
./fastboot boot $FKDIR/twrp2-blaze.img
Note: I was running this from my personal Linux (non VM linux system) as root. I just extracted firekit into my download dir and called the commands manually, since I didn't want to bother with a USB stick (since I run linux).[/QUOTE]
Nice good job

This is a rather extreme example of excessive quotation of a previous post, something that seems to be endemic to this site. I have seen few if any other web forums, blogs or whatever where people habitually quote fully a long comment that was posted previously, especially when it is likely to appear on the same web page. It's generally considered good practice to quote only the particular statements you are discussing, and to refer back to the post you are discussing by giving its author's id and/or the comment number.
And there is a Thanks button, after all!

aarons510 said:
This is a rather extreme example of excessive quotation of a previous post, something that seems to be endemic to this site. I have seen few if any other web forums, blogs or whatever where people habitually quote fully a long comment that was posted previously, especially when it is likely to appear on the same web page. It's generally considered good practice to quote only the particular statements you are discussing, and to refer back to the post you are discussing by giving its author's id and/or the comment number.
And there is a Thanks button, after all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, it won't happen again.

How to recover when a bad bootloader flash puts your Fire completely out
I had this same problem, and it came from flashing u-boot.zip instead of the u-boot.bin it contains.
Once flashed and rebooted, the Kindle Fire became completely unresponsive. No power/charge light, USB port appeared completely dead. I called Amazon support and they sent me a new Fire. But I just couldn't accept that it was unfixable, so I kept trying. And I figured it out.
Here's the procedure:
Disconnect the USB cable.
Remove the Fire's back cover.
Disconnect the battery. This step is critical! It ensures that the CPU is completely powered off.
Have your USB cable plugged into the computer, but NOT into the Kindle yet.
Ground the "USB boot" pad on the Fire's motherboard, as described elsewhere (the USB boot shorting trick). Keep it this way for the next step.
Plug the USB cable into the Fire. At this point, the Fire has been turned on in USB boot mode and is being powered exclusively by the USB port. You can now stop grounding the USB boot pad.
Now reconnect the battery. This step is critical!
Use usbboot as documented elsewhere to send a good bootloader via USB and boot with it. You should end up in fastboot mode. AND your power light should be back on, probably green! NOTE This only boots with the bootloader you sent, it does not flash it. The bad bootloader is still installed.
Now use fastboot to install a good bootloader, and a recovery if you want. Or use a firekit script...
Finally you can reboot for real. Make sure it will really reboot before you put the back cover on. You may have to change the bootmode back to 4000.
You now have a working Kindle Fire again.
Why it works. This is conjecture based on my findings:
First, as long as the battery is providing power to the Kindle, the CPU is not powered completely down, even in this case where the device seems totally dead from a bad bootloader flash. Therefore, grounding the USB boot pad does nothing, because the CPU only honors this on powerup. Disconnecting the battery and USB forces the CPU to power down. If you then ground the USB boot pad and connect the USB, the CPU powers up and goes into USB boot mode.
It's possible that if you wait a long time (maybe many days) so that the battery discharges to the point that the battery protection circuitry stops all further drain, you might get the same effect without disconnecting the battery. I didn't have the patience to test this.
Second, the bootloaders I used (two firefirefire versions) apparently check whether the battery is connected, and halt if it is not. I suspect this is true of most/all available bootloaders. So even if you get into USB boot mode and send over a good bootloader, once the Kindle starts booting with that bootloader, if it finds that the battery is not connected, it quits: it never gets into fastboot mode. Hence the "waiting for device" messages noted earlier in this thread. Therefore, as soon as you have gotten the CPU in USB boot mode, but BEFORE you've run the usbboot command, you need to reconnect the battery.
The only thing that remains is to listen to the angel choirs sing.
And wonder why you had to brick the replacement Kindle that Amazon sent--and break some of the tabs on its back cover in the process of fixing it--in order to fail at proving to yourself that you did not cause the problem in the first place. And decide whether you're glad that you now own TWO Kindle Fire's with loose back covers...

Great write up hope I never need to use it but lots of people get stuck in your situation so it should come in handy

That's basically what I did. The problems I had were:
1) not performing the short correctly
I used the wands (not sure what they are called) from an ohm meter (disconnected from the ohm meter) to make the contact with the rail. On one of the Kindles it was easier than the other. I must have tried 20 or 30 times on the one that I had the trouble with. After I had resigned that it was not going to work, I decided to try "one last time", and it worked. So, as someone else said. "Don't give up."
2) not performing the short with the battery unplugged.
I performed the whole operation of booting and overwriting the bad bootloader with the battery unplugged.
Thanks for you input.

switched off...need help
I have kf, its switched off and dont switched on, with the USBboot
Code:
./usbboot aboot.bin u-boot.bin; ./fastboot boot twrp-blaze-2.0.0RC0.img
kf switched on, but its loaded once to yellow triangle then switched off, then i turn on kf and no more yellow triangle.... all do in ubuntu, windows dont recognazes kf. and the firekit allows ones do one of his scripts, and that all. i stuck on firekit, whats i need flash on kf to do it works?

Hi. Thank you for your explanation, but I am having trouble understanding one part. Step 5: Ground the "USB boot" pad on the Fire's motherboard, as described elsewhere (the USB boot shorting trick). Keep it this way for the next step.
Is there somewhere I can see a picture of this or get detailed instructions? I don't want to do it incorrectly. I screwed my Fire 8.9 up after trying to root using the Bin4ry Tool and appropraite 8.9 drivers. Now I have an unresponsive Kindle Fire 8.9. It won't power on at all.
Thank you for any help.

Yeah ... I was looking for a bit more detail on that part.... I just super-bricked my Kindle Fire 7" and am hoping that this Shorting Trick works... but I also am confused at what a Boot Pad is
[email protected] said:
Hi. Thank you for your explanation, but I am having trouble understanding one part. Step 5: Ground the "USB boot" pad on the Fire's motherboard, as described elsewhere (the USB boot shorting trick). Keep it this way for the next step.
Is there somewhere I can see a picture of this or get detailed instructions? I don't want to do it incorrectly. I screwed my Fire 8.9 up after trying to root using the Bin4ry Tool and appropraite 8.9 drivers. Now I have an unresponsive Kindle Fire 8.9. It won't power on at all.
Thank you for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Found this buried in the forums
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=19762674&postcount=51

Old thread, I know, but where can I find how to do the shorting trick

Nandr0idC0nsumer said:
Old thread, I know, but where can I find how to do the shorting trick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[INDEX] Kindle Fire Development
Sent from my KFFOWI using XDA Labs

sd_shadow said:
[INDEX] Kindle Fire Development
Sent from my KFFOWI using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I'm being dumb but I can't find it :silly:

Nandr0idC0nsumer said:
Maybe I'm being dumb but I can't find it :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
post #4 Unbricking
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61563704&postcount=4
Sent from my XT1060 using XDA Labs

sd_shadow said:
post #4 Unbricking
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61563704&postcount=4
Sent from my XT1060 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alrighty I've gotten it recognized on my Linux PC as OMAP444x USB Device!
I haven't a clue what to do next. thanks in advance!

[Q] Hard-Bricked Dropped Kindle Fire

TL;DR: Dropped Kindle Fire won't boot to OS or recovery, even after flashing FFF and "successfully" flashing TWRP. Broken flash chip?
More Info:
My brother gave me a non-functioning Kindle Fire from a friend of his. (FYI, I do not believe it to be stolen). When I got it, it would turn on to a static Kindle Fire logo for about a second, then the screen would get a little brighter, then go completely dead.
After derping around trying to get it to boot or be recognized (to no avail), I followed these instructions (USB boot shorting trick) to get into USB boot mode, then these instructions (Firekit bootloader and recovery installation utility) to install FFF and TWRP while the Kindle was in USB mode. Now, it boots to the yellow fire triangle, but after 10-20 seconds, it still gets a little brighter and then dies. NBD, I haven't installed a new ROM yet. However, if I press the power button again to get into recovery, the button goes orange, but then the screen gets brighter and dies again. Same happens when I try to fastboot into recovery. Firekit says sending, writing, loading, and booting recovery all worked, but the above continues to happen.
The device looks like it has been dropped; the glass on the lower edge of the screen is cracked, and it is generally scuffed and scratched around the edge. There is no visible damage to the motherboard or any components (no cracking, etc.). But these symptoms look to me like a bad flash chip. Any other thoughts?

deutschigmann said:
TL;DR: Dropped Kindle Fire won't boot to OS or recovery, even after flashing FFF and "successfully" flashing TWRP. Broken flash chip?
More Info:
My brother gave me a non-functioning Kindle Fire from a friend of his. (FYI, I do not believe it to be stolen). When I got it, it would turn on to a static Kindle Fire logo for about a second, then the screen would get a little brighter, then go completely dead.
After derping around trying to get it to boot or be recognized (to no avail), I followed these instructions (USB boot shorting trick) to get into USB boot mode, then these instructions (Firekit bootloader and recovery installation utility) to install FFF and TWRP while the Kindle was in USB mode. Now, it boots to the yellow fire triangle, but after 10-20 seconds, it still gets a little brighter and then dies. NBD, I haven't installed a new ROM yet. However, if I press the power button again to get into recovery, the button goes orange, but then the screen gets brighter and dies again. Same happens when I try to fastboot into recovery. Firekit says sending, writing, loading, and booting recovery all worked, but the above continues to happen.
The device looks like it has been dropped; the glass on the lower edge of the screen is cracked, and it is generally scuffed and scratched around the edge. There is no visible damage to the motherboard or any components (no cracking, etc.). But these symptoms look to me like a bad flash chip. Any other thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery may be low... Try using the factory charger (not USB).
If that doesn't work, let me know. This sounds like an issue a lot of people are having, and maybe I could work something out with you so I can get a failing KF to debug.

Also which command did you use in firekit? Try again with usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp. You may have a screwed up partition table. Since the LED changes color and the screen comes on, your first stage boot loader should be working.

pokey9000 said:
The battery may be low... Try using the factory charger (not USB).
If that doesn't work, let me know. This sounds like an issue a lot of people are having, and maybe I could work something out with you so I can get a failing KF to debug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We've had it plugged into a charger for a Samsung smartphone. I wasn't given an actual KF charger. Right now it's plugged into my iPad charger, which is closer to the KF charger output, but it's still USB. I'll leave it there for a bit and let you know what happens. I don't think it's a battery issue because it's had enough power to do this on/off cycle numerous times, but who knows. When plugged in, it does it again, dies, and makes no indication that it is charging or anything, just like it does with a PC. I have a multimeter, so I could check the voltage/amperage across the battery, but I don't know which wires to do lol.
pokey9000 said:
Also which command did you use in firekit? Try again with usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp. You may have a screwed up partition table. Since the LED changes color and the screen comes on, your first stage boot loader should be working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started with usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp, and then tried usb_boot_twrp, then some of the fastboot commands. I think they all said they worked at each step. The boot command always said something like 0.003 s, not sure if that is a normal time.

It's been plugged into the iPad charger for a few hours now, and the behavior has not changed.

deutschigmann said:
We've had it plugged into a charger for a Samsung smartphone. I wasn't given an actual KF charger. Right now it's plugged into my iPad charger, which is closer to the KF charger output, but it's still USB. I'll leave it there for a bit and let you know what happens. I don't think it's a battery issue because it's had enough power to do this on/off cycle numerous times, but who knows. When plugged in, it does it again, dies, and makes no indication that it is charging or anything, just like it does with a PC. I have a multimeter, so I could check the voltage/amperage across the battery, but I don't know which wires to do lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it was a crapshoot, but a few people have had some weirdnesses resolved by making sure the battery's charged. I guess the fact that you get through the TWRP install rules this out.
I started with usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp, and then tried usb_boot_twrp, then some of the fastboot commands. I think they all said they worked at each step. The boot command always said something like 0.003 s, not sure if that is a normal time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One theory I've had is that either something is being missed by the partition recreator, or there's some assumption that the emmc is blanked when the device is initially flashed. If you have no attachments to any data that might be on this Fire, you could try zeroing (or 0xFFing as erased flash would be) the flash while in TWRP (via adb). Then redo the usb_fix_parts_blah_blah which should leave you with bootloaders and recovery.
I'm not sure if this would work, but without knowing where and why the bootloader is dying I can only guess.

I just erased each partition through fastboot (fastboot erase boot, system, cache, userdata, recovery) and it seemed to work, or at least think it was working, as they each took a proportional amount of time from 2 s for boot to 118 s for userdata. Ran install_fff_twrp, it went through all the motions, then died when it tried to boot as before. Tried using the power button to get to TWRP, same thing.
Edit: Just found a list of the partitions. Went through in fastboot and deleted xloader, bootloader, dkernel, dfs, recovery, backup, boot, splash, system, userdata, cache, and media. Reran install_fff_twrp, same effect as before. Oh whoops, now it won't boot at all. Probably need to do the shorting trick again.

Hmm, I may have borked it a bit more than I intended. Right now, doing the USB trick, running usb_fix_parts... it says:
Loading FFF through USB...
?
waiting for OMAP44xx device...
I let it sit, then Ctrl+C, redid, tried again, hung after "?" and seemed unwilling to Ctrl+C, redid, hung at "waiting" again.
Edit: Did it one more time, seems to have worked (as well as earlier). Hung for a while on "Resetting bootmode to standard boot...", but it said it only took 0.079 s. Whatever the case all steps said "OKAY" and the screen got brighter, then all went dead.
Is there a way to do a full wipe of the disk through fastboot, other than doing partition-by-partition?

OK so it looks like the weird hangings and stuff were probably due to using a-port USB extender on my laptop. Tried on my desktop and everything went quickly, but the KF still died.
After all the deletions and stuff it still won't boot into recovery, but instead of dying when trying to do a normal boot, it just gets hung on the bootloader screen, and won't allow me to try to go into recovery. I'm not sure if that's better or worse. I guess it means the deletions really erased something, but then why won't it write/boot?

deutschigmann said:
Hmm, I may have borked it a bit more than I intended. Right now, doing the USB trick, running usb_fix_parts... it says:
Loading FFF through USB...
?
waiting for OMAP44xx device...
I let it sit, then Ctrl+C, redid, tried again, hung after "?" and seemed unwilling to Ctrl+C, redid, hung at "waiting" again.
Edit: Did it one more time, seems to have worked (as well as earlier). Hung for a while on "Resetting bootmode to standard boot...", but it said it only took 0.079 s. Whatever the case all steps said "OKAY" and the screen got brighter, then all went dead.
Is there a way to do a full wipe of the disk through fastboot, other than doing partition-by-partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you still get into TWRP after the usb_fix_parts... finishes? If so, try:
adb shell
When you get a prompt, do:
tr "\000" "\377" < /dev/zero | dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0
***WARNING THIS COMMAND WILL STEAL YOUR CAR AND USE YOUR
***CUPHOLDERS FOR A URINAL. IT WISHES YOUR FAMILY ILL AND IS
***RESPONSIBLE FOR PUTTING INDUSTRIAL WASTE IN IMPORTED PET
***FOOD. IT IS SERIOUS BUSINESS. DON'T DO THIS UNLESS YOU
***ABSOLUTELY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
It might take a few hours for this to run. At the end your flash will be fresh from the factory clean. If you hold down the power button long enough, your Fire should go into USB boot mode regardless of shorting the test point. Now try the usb_fix_parts_... again.

I wish I could, but I've never been able to get it into recovery. Just bootloader.

deutschigmann said:
I wish I could, but I've never been able to get it into recovery. Just bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So when you run usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp, it doesn't reboot into TWRP when it's done? You don't have to get it to run recovery from the flash, just run recovery at all. Unfortunately FFF doesn't know how to wipe everything at the level I described.

No, it says it does each step and gives the status OKAY, but when it tries to boot the recovery, the screen gets a little brigher and then everything dies, just like when I try to get to it using the power button.

deutschigmann said:
No, it says it does each step and gives the status OKAY, but when it tries to boot the recovery, the screen gets a little brigher and then everything dies, just like when I try to get to it using the power button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does "usb_boot_twrp" work instead of usb_fix_parts...?

Nope, same result. Gets brighter, dies. Hmm...

Tried another copy of TWRP and ./fastboot boot twrp....img, same thing. Flashed TWRP 2.1.1 from another post, still dies.

Is it possible to boot to USB storage, similar to the other USB boot trick? So that I could use the linux distro's system to write to the disk?

deutschigmann said:
Is it possible to boot to USB storage, similar to the other USB boot trick? So that I could use the linux distro's system to write to the disk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, unfortunately. The USB boot is part of the on-chip bootrom. It's not smart enough to do much more than boot off SD & soldered down flash chips, serial, and the simple USB device protocol.
What's making this hard is not being able to see where it's dying: is it in the kernel or in FFF? It seems like your Fire is now in the same state as everyone who was bitten by the latest CWM.

Since it had the same behavior before and after installing FFF, I feel like that's probably not it. It seemed like it likely hadn't been modded before, since it was stuck on the stock KF logo.

pokey plz make it working again the kindle is still in waiting for device
hey plz solve the firekit issue of being stuck in waiting for device issu

[Q] Need Help - Bricked Kindle Fire

I got this kindle fire that I am trying to fix for my kid. I don't know what firmware was in. The KF has never been rooted. We tried to call Amazon for a replacement, but since I didn't remember which email account was tied to this KF and I couldn't find the Serial Number either, I got stuck with it. If could make this device to boot one more time to see the amazon account or the serial number that will be great.
Well anyways, these are the symptoms. After lots of hours of reading about bricked Kindle Fires I decided to order a factory cable suspecting the problem was a low battery KF going into a 5 second loop. The process went good. I was able to flash FFF 1.4a and TWRP 2.2.2.1 by going into fastboot mode, but the problem is that the KF does not want to start in recovery mode, nor in normal mode.
At this point, I think I can rule out a battery low problem, but I am not sure.
No matter what I do, I cannot enter to adb mode, and this is the real problem I don't seem to find an answer. If there was a way that I could upload the firmware from fastboot mode or a tool that forces recovery mode.
As I said this KF was always stock until today that I tried to unbrick it by installing the FFF and the TWRP. The TWRP never started.
As I said earlier my only objective at this point is to recover the serial number or the account email associated with my KF.
Question 2, how can I revert to the stock bootloader if everything else fails?
Any suggestions, links, ideas will be welcome.

gwmadrigal said:
I got this kindle fire that I am trying to fix for my kid. I don't know what firmware was in. The KF has never been rooted. We tried to call Amazon for a replacement, but since I didn't remember which email account was tied to this KF and I couldn't find the Serial Number either, I got stuck with it. If could make this device to boot one more time to see the amazon account or the serial number that will be great.
Well anyways, these are the symptoms. After lots of hours of reading about bricked Kindle Fires I decided to order a factory cable suspecting the problem was a low battery KF going into a 5 second loop. The process went good. I was able to flash FFF 1.4a and TWRP 2.2.2.1 by going into fastboot mode, but the problem is that the KF does not want to start in recovery mode, nor in normal mode.
At this point, I think I can rule out a battery low problem, but I am not sure.
No matter what I do, I cannot enter to adb mode, and this is the real problem I don't seem to find an answer. If there was a way that I could upload the firmware from fastboot mode or a tool that forces recovery mode.
As I said this KF was always stock until today that I tried to unbrick it by installing the FFF and the TWRP. The TWRP never started.
As I said earlier my only objective at this point is to recover the serial number or the account email associated with my KF.
Question 2, how can I revert to the stock bootloader if everything else fails?
Any suggestions, links, ideas will be welcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to ask this question but do you know how to access recovery by using the power button to get the boot menu then selecting recovery? If you are using the boot menu to attempt to access recovery and its not cooperating it`s possible that points to a broken bootloader or a broken recovery. When you flashed both fff and twrp did you see that it sent and physically wrote each one? maybe explain how you flashed them so we can see if a error was made there. What level do you believe the battery is at? Possible it could be playing a role in your present issue.

Thepooch said:
I hate to ask this question but do you know how to access recovery by using the power button to get the boot menu then selecting recovery? If you are using the boot menu to attempt to access recovery and its not cooperating it`s possible that points to a broken bootloader or a broken recovery. When you flashed both fff and twrp did you see that it sent and physically wrote each one? maybe explain how you flashed them so we can see if a error was made there. What level do you believe the battery is at? Possible it could be playing a role in your present issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done a lot of experiments with my SGS2 about installing ROMS using ODIN or CWR, backing up my own images and making backups. Most of the work I do though is in CWR. I haven't dealt with TWR yet. I also installed ICS on my HP Touchpad. So, even though this is the first time I deal with the KF, I already some experience working with ROMS and images.
Back to the process. I installed the FFF using the Kindle Fire Utility. The KF was forced to fastboot mode via the factory cable. At first I could see on the KF splash screen with the black and orange logo, and now the KF is booting using a Black and Blue kindle fire logo with 1.4a on top. At the bottom of the splash I see instructions of the bootloader selector indicating to press the power button and select the mode that I want to boot. Either Normal Mode or Recovery Mode.
I flashed the TWRP 2.2.2.1 in fastboot mode using my command prompt by putting this code:
Code:
fastboot -i 0x1949 flash recovery [path]\openrecovery-twrp-2.2.2.1-blaze.img
I was following the instructions on this guide.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1638452
I got stuck on step 3 after attempting to boot into recovery mode.
I can select which boot mode I want to go, but none of them work. I only get on the bottom of the screen saying Booting... and then the KF shuts down.
I suspect the battery had a good level of charge, but I can't tell for sure.
Thanks for everything.

Download TWRP again, check the md5, reinstall, and post whatever error messages (if any) that are in your command window here.
In the meantime, enter the following command and let me know what happens after you reboot.
Code:
fastboot oem idme bootmode 5001
fastboot reboot

soupmagnet said:
Download TWRP again, check the md5, reinstall, and post whatever error messages (if any) that are in your command window here.
In the meantime, enter the following command and let me know what happens after you reboot.
Code:
fastboot oem idme bootmode 5001
fastboot reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All commands were successful.
When I'm doing instead of the fastboot reboot is to remove the factory cable. Shutdown the KF by holding the power button. Then I connect a regular USB cable. The KF starts the boot process. It enters the first splash screen. Then it moves to booting, but the booting fails. The only thing that I see is that the button light turns from green to yellow and then it shuts down. And the boot process starts again going into a boot loop.

gwmadrigal said:
All commands were successful.
When I'm doing instead of the fastboot reboot is to remove the factory cable. Shutdown the KF by holding the power button. Then I connect a regular USB cable. The KF starts the boot process. It enters the first splash screen. Then it moves to booting, but the booting fails. The only thing that I see is that the button light turns from green to yellow and then it shuts down. And the boot process starts again going into a boot loop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What happens when you change the bootmode to 5001?

soupmagnet said:
What happens when you change the bootmode to 5001?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It accepts the command.
The command prompt responds saying something like it took 0. something seconds to execute the command.
Thanks for reading my thread.

If upon rebooting, the result is the same after changing the bootmode, it is possible the bootloader isn't working properly. If that's the case, flashing a new bootloader (with md5 verified) might not work, but it's worth a shot.
If that doesn't work, you should be able to change the bootmode to USBboot (4003) and use Firekit to replace the bootloader, but that's speaking theoretically. I've never tried it so I couldn't tell you whether it would work or not. But then you could always pull the back cover off the device and use the shorting trick to use Firekit in USBboot.
If installing a bootloader with the Firekit doesn't work, you're likely looking at a hardware issue, and there's not much we can do about that.

soupmagnet said:
1. If upon rebooting, the result is the same after changing the bootmode, it is possible the bootloader isn't working properly. If that's the case, flashing a new bootloader (with md5 verified) might not work, but it's worth a shot.
2. If that doesn't work, you should be able to change the bootmode to USBboot (4003) and use Firekit to replace the bootloader, but that's speaking theoretically. I've never tried it so I couldn't tell you whether it would work or not. But then you could always pull the back cover off the device and use the shorting trick to use Firekit in USBboot.
3. If installing a bootloader with the Firekit doesn't work, you're likely looking at a hardware issue, and there's not much we can do about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2 sounds too complicated. I will need to read more.
I'm at work. I am going to try number 1 when I get home.
One more question, how can I revert the KF so when the it boots it shows the original orange white logo?
Thanks for everything.

gwmadrigal said:
2 sounds too complicated. I will need to read more.
I'm at work. I am going to try number 1 when I get home.
One more question, how can I revert the KF so when the it boots it shows the original orange white logo?
Thanks for everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have any questions about using Firekit, don't be afraid to ask.
Get your device working properly before attempting to revert the bootloader back to stock. Contrary to what you may think, the custom bootloader is much better for you in this situation.

gwmadrigal said:
All commands were successful.
When I'm doing instead of the fastboot reboot is to remove the factory cable. Shutdown the KF by holding the power button. Then I connect a regular USB cable. The KF starts the boot process. It enters the first splash screen. Then it moves to booting, but the booting fails. The only thing that I see is that the button light turns from green to yellow and then it shuts down. And the boot process starts again going into a boot loop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect your battery is still depleted because it still sounds like a 5 second boot loop. Try this hold the power button down till it`s off and plug it to your pc for a few hours to see if you cannot get some power to your battery.

Thepooch said:
I suspect your battery is still depleted because it still sounds like a 5 second boot loop. Try this hold the power button down till it`s off and plug it to your pc for a few hours to see if you cannot get some power to your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that would be the case if the device just rebooted. The OP is saying the device shuts down when FFF starts to load the operating system (Booting...) or recovery, which is why I think it is either the bootloader or some hardware issue.

soupmagnet said:
If you have any questions about using Firekit, don't be afraid to ask.
Get your device working properly before attempting to revert the bootloader back to stock. Contrary to what you may think, the custom bootloader is much better for you in this situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried reloading the u-boot using fastboot and the upload was successful. But it's doing exactly the same.I guess my only question right now, do you know of any good guide that I should start reading to get my feet wet on what the firekit is and how to get started?
Thepooch said:
I suspect your battery is still depleted because it still sounds like a 5 second boot loop. Try this hold the power button down till it`s off and plug it to your pc for a few hours to see if you cannot get some power to your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have nothing to lose. This KF is already bricked. I can certainly try anything. Which cable do you suggest I use? the Factory cable or the USB cable?
I think I answered my own question now. Using a regular USB cable puts the KF in the bootloop. I will use the factory cable instead. I shut down the KF, put the factory cable connected to my computer and the KF. Right now the KF is in the KindleFire splash screen waiting for fastboot commands of for me to use the button to tell it which mode to boot. I will leave it plug overnight.
Thanks for replying on my thread and trying to help me.
soupmagnet said:
I think that would be the case if the device just rebooted. The OP is saying the device shuts down when FFF starts to load the operating system (Booting...) or recovery, which is why I think it is either the bootloader or some hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I posted a video in utube of what the KF is doing, so you can see what I'm seeing.
Link
Thanks for coming back several times to reply on my thread.

That looks like your battery. From what I can tell, the device is just rebooting, not shutting down.
Unplug the device and hold the power button to perform a hard shutdown.
Plug the device in (it should power up on it's own) and hold the power button to shut it down again.
Leave it plugged into the computer until sometime tomorrow and try again.

Same thing I was thinking 5 second bootloop Thank you the video was very helpful to see just how its acting. Use stock cable to charge not factory.

OKay. I'm glad I came to check the thread one more time before going to bed. I removed the factory cable and put the regular usb instead. The KF was rebooting. I shut down the KF by holding the power button without unplugging the cable. Now the KF appears to be shut down, but the cable is still plugged. The yellow light does not appear as it normally would if it was charging though. I don't know if this is normal.

gwmadrigal said:
OKay. I'm glad I came to check the thread one more time before going to bed. I removed the factory cable and put the regular usb instead. The KF was rebooting. I shut down the KF by holding the power button without unplugging the cable. Now the KF appears to be shut down, but the cable is still plugged. The yellow light does not appear as it normally would if it was charging though. I don't know if this is normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're fine let it rest.

[Q] Bricked Kindle Fire (first gen.) computer won't recognize

I have had my Kindle Fire for over a year and I have used various ROMs. Most recently, I was using the HellFire ROM and it crashed out on me. I decided to go back to stock for a while but noticed a new version of FFF (v1.4a) so decided to install that. Now, it boots to the FFF screen but nothing else. I cannot enter the boot menu. My computer does not recognize the device (no sound from the computer recognizing that it was plugged in) with either a regular or factory USB cable (I've used the factory cable before to unbrick the device).
I have read through the other posts regarding similar problems but all of those posts were resolved with either a driver problem or with a factory cable. None of the utilities or terminal commands are useful since the device is not recognized.
I have let the battery completely drain (letting it sit in a drawer while I take a break from the problem). It does recharge with the factory charger, but one thing of note is that the LED stays green during the charge. It never turns amber either on the charger or when it is connected to the computer.
Anyone have any ideas? I've been scratching my head lots over this. Many thanks for anyone willing to scratch along with me.

So have you tried Soupkit? How did you flash your bootloader?

Thepooch said:
So have you tried Soupkit? How did you flash your bootloader?
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Click to collapse
First of all, thanks for replying and trying to help. I have tried SoupKit and the Macintosh utilities but I keep getting the same response "Your device appears to be offline."
I originally rooted the kindle by manually entering adb commands. I installed the bootloader with KFU.

Is the bootloader splash static or does it blink on and off? Are you able to accces the boot menu to reset bootmode or enter recovery or select normal boot?

Thepooch said:
Is the bootloader splash static or does it blink on and off? Are you able to accces the boot menu to reset bootmode or enter recovery or select normal boot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bootloader splash is static. I am unable to access the boot menu at all.
I have been playing with the "short the point" install TWRP over USB but to no avail. I get "waiting for OMAP44xx device" and that's all.

[Q]bricked kindle in usbboot mode.

I recently recieved this kindle as is from a friend and i was asked to fix it, i don't really have any information to go off of other that what i could gather. So far, it doesn't turn on/charge, in windows it's recognized as a OMAP4430 device only for a second or two, from there i tried using FireKit on ubuntu via usb. that gave me some success, after using usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp i saw the yellow triangle on the screen; however, the script seemed to stop with this:
waiting for OMAP44xx device...
sending 2ndstage to target...
waiting for 2ndstage response...
sending image to target...
Fixing partitions...
< waiting for device >
and won't progress any further. i'm not really sure what to do at this point since i feel so close and it would be a shame to quit now.
I've also tried using multiple USB cables and a fastboot cable, but none seem to be making a difference. so please if you know of anything that would help, it would be greatly appreciated.

You only have a small window of time to get everything through. When the usbboot script hangs at "waiting for device", leave the script running, unplug the device, hold the power button for 15 seconds, create the short and plug the device back in.
You may have to do it a couple of times.
Once you see the yellow triangle, don't shut the device off until you install FireFireFire1.4a while in recovery. You may have to use adb to push the .zip file to your sdcard first though.

Oh, ok thanks. i didn't know i still had to preform the short, since it was already in usb boot mode. anyway trying it now.

I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly. I followed what you said and after shorting the device, and plugging it back in, it brings up the yellow triangle again. But pressing the power button doesn't bring me into a recovery and the script still says waiting for device

I should have clarified that a bit, but oh well.
Go ahead and reboot to try to access recovery with the power button. Sometimes when you reboot, depending on how everything went, the device doesn't come on again and you have to start all over...but you should be fine though.

=/ not too much luck there...maybe i'm shorting the cpu incorrectly, not sure. once the script hangs i unplug and power off the device, and essentially just any old conductive piece of wire should do and connect it to the point and the metal bar, right? i'm using a male to male jumper cable at the moment. While doing this i've noticed a couple times the kindle would power back on and display the yellow triangle but still no other responsiveness or progess in the script itself.

When the yellow triangle is displayed, do you have access to fastboot?
Try sending 'fastboot getvar product'

i guess not. it just sits at "< waiting for device >"

Try using a safety pin to make the short....that might help.

so slight update, it turns out i have no problem booting a firefirefire from usb, but from there it just refuses to initiate fastboot and ubuntu can't seem to recognize it. i thought it might have been a possibly issue with the specific version of FFF i was booting from, but so far 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 all give me the same issue.

dragon0010 said:
so slight update, it turns out i have no problem booting a firefirefire from usb, but from there it just refuses to initiate fastboot and ubuntu can't seem to recognize it. i thought it might have been a possibly issue with the specific version of FFF i was booting from, but so far 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 all give me the same issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you have FFF1.4a and run your fastboot commands as root in Ubuntu.

so i just found out something interesting. i had a spare fully functional kindle that i put into usb boot mode with the shorting trick, and did all the steps, and fastboot was able to recognize it. i haven't done anything differently with the currently bricked kindle, but it just wont get past "waiting for device" when issuing any fastboot command. so at this point is there really anything i can do?