What I would like to compile is a list of things one could do to brick there phone. One way is if you lose your RSA private keys, what else can cause you to walk around with a paper weight?
flashing a radio image from another phone, especially GSM. It will actually fry the circuits. Saw someone do that in the Hero forums (didn't check what hero a rom was for and literally toasted it. Completely dead.) I don't think there are that many other ways to truly brick the phone beyond repair. There are plenty of ways to soft brick, but generally if the phone turns on, there is at least some way to fix it, though it might be out of reach for less technical users.
My Desire Z was stolen today.
It was brand new. It had phone finder activated, but somehow it is not working on the site. Somebody please advise me how can i trace the phone
Really really please. Is there anyway, through gps, cell signal, or anything to track my phone. I put in my entire savings on this phone. I will be deeply thankful to even any little advice.
navkaranchadha said:
My Desire Z was stolen today.
It was brand new. It had phone finder activated, but somehow it is not working on the site. Somebody please advise me how can i trace the phone
Really really please. Is there anyway, through gps, cell signal, or anything to track my phone. I put in my entire savings on this phone. I will be deeply thankful to even any little advice.
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Click to collapse
If he/she turn ur phone off any gps tracker from market app doesn't work, if he knows something about phones he can just factory reset your phone so anything doesn't help at all.
Fly like a G2
If you had a Sense ROM and signed up for HTC Sense, there is a phone finder there. That's about my only other suggestion. Like the guy above said though, if whoever has it knows anything about phones, they could easily get past any GPS apps.
I know this is too little too late, but next time try "theft aware" it embeds itself within the firmware to where you are unable to factory reset it. I got mine back that way, though I think I left it at the bar.
sorry to hear that
I don't wanna pass judgement but maybe you shouldnt spend your entire savings on a phone? I wouldnt put all my savings into a device that is easily targeted for theft.
And if you did spend all your savings on a phone, why not just get handset insurance? As stated above most ways of recovering ur phone as far as apps are concerned can be bypassed by a mildly smart thief.
martonikaj said:
I don't wanna pass judgement but maybe you shouldnt spend your entire savings on a phone? I wouldnt put all my savings into a device that is easily targeted for theft.
And if you did spend all your savings on a phone, why not just get handset insurance? As stated above most ways of recovering ur phone as far as apps are concerned can be bypassed by a mildly smart thief.
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i just tried the theft aware app that the guy recommend above damn this app is good brah, even without data connection it forces the stolen phone to call the phone your using so you can hear him, even the gps whenever available it will send it to you and so much more can lock, wipe and alarm
I have a GS3 that was rooted with a CM rom. I was using it the other day and the screen just suddenly went black. I tried rebooting it and popping out the battery, but to no avail. I can't boot it into download or recovery mode either.
When I put in the battery, the phone vibrates but nothing else. When I plug in the USB cable with no battery, it vibrates and the LED comes on for a few seconds before flickering off.
My first priority is data recovery, I've been a bad boy and haven't backed up my data for a while. My second priority is making it so they can't tell I have a flashed ROM when I send it out for warranty service, though AFAIK, this may be a nonissue.
I tried to make a 300k jig, and it didn't work (assuming I got the pins right).
Have you tried KAsp3rd's debrick method?
Stickies in development.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
DocHoliday77 said:
Have you tried KAsp3rd's debrick method?
Stickies in development.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not stuck in QHSUSB-DLOAD as far as I can tell. Would it still be effective?
Could be. It basically allows you to boot download mode from the sdcard. From there you Odin flash the firmware and hopefully that would fix it. But if it's a hardware failure, which it could be per your description, I doubt anything will work.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
New update. I figured out that the 300k ohm resistor trick DOES work, but only for like three seconds. Meaning that they'll be able to see the custom binary count, but (as far as I know) I can't reset it to 0.
The weird part is that it only works if I plug the usb jig into the phone before putting the battery in, if I put the battery in first, it doesn't work. It almost seems like it constantly thinks the power button is being pressed or something.
I guess I'm opening it up and looking for a short. The power button operates normally tactile-y speaking.
EDIT: new new update. I wasn't able to find anything physical when I looked at the pcb. But I verified my theory, somewhat. When I hold home and volume up/down (without touching the power button) when I put the battery in, it boots into download mode for a second before shutting down.
It's not behaving exactly like it would if it was only that though, because I tried holding the power button down on the t999l I got as a replacement, while inserting the battery, and the boot screen shows up for a few, where a boot screen never shows up on the bad phone.
DOUBLE EDIT: can I swap that pcb with the one from the t999l, or are they too dissimilar? Would I be able to swap it with one from another t999, or does the board that has the power switch also have the onboard storage?
TRIPLE EDIT: I answered my own question, the eMMC and the power switch are on the same board. But if the fault is caused by something else (e.g. a camera), would I be able to plug all the other hardware from the t999l into the t999, or can I just boot up the t999 without most of the hardware connected as a test?
I would not risk going through all that trouble. Not quite sure why you would honestly. You got a T999L right? Warranty replacement I assume? It's a superior device so why my not just use it as is?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
DocHoliday77 said:
I would not risk going through all that trouble. Not quite sure why you would honestly. You got a T999L right? Warranty replacement I assume? It's a superior device so why my not just use it as is?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
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1. I really want my data back.
2. I risk getting charged for out of warranty if they see it was rooted and flashed.
3. I'm going to sell it anyways, I got a note 3 because the S3 was on backorder and I couldn't do my job without a smartphone.
1. I'm sorry to say, but plan on this not being possible.
2. If it won't boot there is little chance you'd have to worry about it. They aren't going to go to extraordinary measures to check k the counter. Many people have claimed they sent a dead device back and never got charged, even though the counter had been tripped.
If you damage the good hardware you won't have much to sell.
I don't understand why you'd be willing to attempt to Frankenstein the two devices, but not at least attempt the debrick method I mentioned.
Also, you should be aware, even if it's something else, not a bad chip, it probably won't work. Much of the hardware is in fact different between the two. Different camera, different radios, different SoC....
I wish you luck if you decide to try this, but imo you are taking an awful big risk to try something that probably won't work anyway.
If your data is really that important maybe you should look into a data recovery service.
And in the future, back up back up back up!
Good luck whatever you decide. Let us know what happens.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
DocHoliday77 said:
1. I'm sorry to say, but plan on this not being possible.
2. If it won't boot there is little chance you'd have to worry about it. They aren't going to go to extraordinary measures to check k the counter. Many people have claimed they sent a dead device back and never got charged, even though the counter had been tripped.
If you damage the good hardware you won't have much to sell.
I don't understand why you'd be willing to attempt to Frankenstein the two devices, but not at least attempt the debrick method I mentioned.
Also, you should be aware, even if it's something else, not a bad chip, it probably won't work. Much of the hardware is in fact different between the two. Different camera, different radios, different SoC....
I wish you luck if you decide to try this, but imo you are taking an awful big risk to try something that probably won't work anyway.
If your data is really that important maybe you should look into a data recovery service.
And in the future, back up back up back up!
Good luck whatever you decide. Let us know what happens.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Reading through the whole thread, I am going to agree with the Doc. Why would you go to all that trouble ? Nobody is going to be able to salvage that data, let alone snoop in it. You are best move on rather than Creating that Frankenstein Monster as Doc aptly put it.
The frankenphone would only have been for if the phone didn't work without the camera/speaker/etc connected. However when I disconnect everything from the main board except for the screen, I get the same behavior. So I guess the only thing I would want to test would be the touchscreen. I can't find any info on if the t999l touchscreen is compatible with the t999 board, but if anyone knows, that would be great.
I'm still going to try the microsd card debrick method, I was concentrating on the usb jig last night since that got me further than anything else so far.
As to why, I have pictures and whatnot on the phone that I want to save, as well as a bunch of work crap that will take me dozens of hours to recreate, plus a bunch of other personal stuff. If I can't get it, then I can't get it, but I want to exhaust my resources (within reason) before giving up.
dubloe7 said:
I'm still going to try the microsd card debrick method, I was concentrating on the usb jig last night since that got me further than anything else so far.
As to why, I have pictures and whatnot on the phone that I want to save, as well as a bunch of work crap that will take me dozens of hours to recreate, plus a bunch of other personal stuff. If I can't get it, then I can't get it, but I want to exhaust my resources (within reason) before giving up.
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Click to collapse
Try JTAG instead of this if sdcard doesn't work. Most of t999l hardware is supposed to be identical. Since partition are potentially different. So phone may not boot. But you might be able to do adb. Good luck.
Actually it's the other way around. Partition layout is the same (though firmware incompatible) and hardware is definitely different.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
SD card didn't work, looking for jtag instructions.
EDIT: The more I look, the more it looks like a faulty power switch. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I have a way to short the power switch or something in a way that doesn't void the warranty...
Any help on this is appreciated.
Well, I think I'm completely screwed now.
I found this, http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...-help-black-screen-vibrating.html#post5262715 and somehow managed to lift the freaking solder pads.
What do you think the chances that they won't charge me a couple hundred dollars for "out of warranty service" are?
EDIT: good news: Confirmed that the cable that I lifted the solder pads on, which I assume is an antenna, probably isn't the problem (unplugged it on the t999l, and it works fine).
bad news: I also confirmed the power switch itself isn't the problem either. The left and right hand side aren't connected (according to my multimeter) when the button isn't pressed, but they are when it is.
Another edit: I unconfirmed the power switch part. It looks like the button only needs the slightest contact in order to short. I removed the power button from the case, surprisingly difficult since I saw people complaining about it falling out. Now the difficult part is making it think the switch is closed for long enough to not turn it on, but not long enough to turn it back off. I've gotten it to the boot logo, but I haven't gotten it to fully boot.
Yet another EDIT: the only way I can get it to turn on long enough to see the boot logo is by smacking it in my hand after it turns on, which seems to interrupt the constant button press signal. From the metering on the switch, it seems that even less contact is needed to turn on the phone than to signal the multimeter. Any suggestions as to somewhere to cut the power switch signal other than the power switch?
I was listening to a podcast and out of nowhere my phone turned off. I tried to turn it back on, but it keeps getting stuck on the LG start up screen (almost like a bootloop). I manged to get it to turn on once and it turned itself off after a couple of minutes. I tried taking the battery out, but that didn't help. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I looked into it more and found out it happens to a lot of people. Im going to try to get a replacement phone.
I have a question about the warranty though. Apparently they may not fix the phone if there is physical damage to it (because they cant tell if its your fault it broke). My screen has around 5 cracks on it. Has anyone tried to get lg to replace/fix your phone with physical damage to it? If so how did it go?
Just try it. Worst case is they send it back
If you are lucky the bootloop gets fixed and they ask your if you want to get the screen replaced for some $$. (Don't know the real numbers but frontscreen should be around 50$)
And don't listen to the service staff. The repair team from LG decides if your phone is getting repaired.
Most common mistake by too much people.
I had the same problem with my Lg G4. I took it to AT&T Service Center and they wanted to replace it. However, I have important stuff saved on the phone. Do you think they can download or recover the data? Is it possible to do? I would think they know how, but just wondering if anyone knows for sure.
Tiger78232 said:
I had the same problem with my Lg G4. I took it to AT&T Service Center and they wanted to replace it. However, I have important stuff saved on the phone. Do you think they can download or recover the data? Is it possible to do? I would think they know how, but just wondering if anyone knows for sure.
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Click to collapse
If you saved it to the sd card then you are fine. If not you can ask them if they can. I'm not sure if they would be able to or not
Here's the story.
My note 4 froze on me one day, so I pulled the battery to reset it. I guess I pulled it at the wrong time bc it wouldnt turn on after that. I tried plugging the charger in for 24 hours and the charge light won't even come on.
My wife of 11 years passed away Aug 27th 2015. I have a lot of pictures of her on there that I would really like to have. Borderlining on needing. I called data recovery places ,and they cost like almost 2 grand, and possibly more depending on what they have to do to save it. If there is no other way, I will save up and pay for it. I dont even make alot of money, but that's how important the pics are.
Ive looked into disassembly videos on YouTube for the chance I can find a donor phone and take the internal memory chip into it from mine.
Does anyone know where the internal memory is? I didnt see it in any of the teardown videos I saw.
If anyone has any ideas , please tell me.
Thank you for reading.
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
Very sorry for your loss. Something like this probably makes it all the more difficult. Your best bet is probably to use a professional data recovery service. I've tried to restore data on my phone and have never been able to do so.
Not sure if Samsung could help you or not... But I think you need professional assistance.
Something as precious as this, I don't know what else to say.
Good luck.
It sounds like your phone is in a hard brick state, If it is hard bricked then the good news is that it can be fixed with a unbrick/debrick.img, the bad news is to create a debrick.img you need another working at&t note 4 running lollipop. To check if your phone is indeed hard brick plug it into a computer and open device manager check to see if QHSUSB_BULK driver error