Develop Bugs

[Q] OTA Update caused phone to not boot

Hi,
I know next to nothing about phones (although am OK when it comes to computers). I've an HTC Desire which I've had a couple of months which I've not touched the operating system on. I received an OTA update yesterday which I duely installed. The phone has been unable to boot since.
From reading around I've discovered that there's a recovery mode which installs a file update.zip from the SD card. I'm assuming this is what's corrupted on the phone (as it won't boot by installing this file either).
HTC have been no help, neither have O2 in the UK. They all seem to think wiping the data is the only solution and if I try anything on my own I'm going to invalidate the warranty. I can't see how installed a working official update file will invalidate anything, but I'd just like a copy of the file to try.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix the phone without having to do a hard reset?
Thanks.

Before the update were you getting an o2 logo when booting up the phone? If so, download the file at the bottom of this post and then:
1. Turn the phone on holding the back button to get into FASTBOOT
2. Connect phone to the PC
3. Once drivers are installed run the file
It should get you back to stock BUT it will mean losing all data on the phone
File to download:
http://ship.ibeta.org/shipped/Bravo...00.32U_5.09.05.30_2_release_144166_signed.exe

Yes, I still get the O2 logo when I try to boot (it just gets stuck at the logo). The phone is still stock, I've never tried to mess with it before, it's just had an automatic update installed which corrupted it.
Is there any way to get the phone to work WITHOUT losing the data on the phone?
Otherwise I'll try that file (or follow the hard reset instructions).
I'm currently becoming a quick study of all things phone operating systems.

Unfortunately not

EddyOS said:
Unfortunately not
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would not an update.zip from another phone be able to fix the problem?
Or is there a way of getting the data off a phone stuck at the boot screen?
I'm beginning to feel that the old expression about microsoft building bridges might be better applied to phones. I can normally fix my computer when things go wrong and not lose the data if I do need to rebuild.

The ONLY way you can get it working is to wipe the cache - which you can't do with a stock ROM. All you can do is either wipe the data as it is or install the RUU

Surely there must be a way to wipe the cache without wiping the data?
Is there a way of getting a working recovery file onto the SD card and getting the phone to boot off that? I'm assuming that won't mean I lose all the data.

As I've already said, there's no way of doing it. You're going to have to lose your data unless you root first, back it up then wipe but to restore you'd have to root again
If there was a way of doing it I think I'd have posted it by now

[Q] restore phone from recovery/hboot

Im having a problem with my phone booting. it does a variety of things from rebooting mid way through boot, hanging at the white HTC screen, getting to lock screen then rebooting...
point is, i cant get in to the system.. what i'd like to do is remove everything and get it to stock... the RUU would be nice, but it needs to be booted for that to happen. i've tried a couple of custom roms (vaelpak, synergy) but they all result the same way. cleared dalvik, data, .android_secure, cache with no impact..
RA 2.3 is what the recover console currently is...
what is the best way to recover the phone to stock?
im ok with working with the phone but not awesome so somewhat detailed directions would be appreciated.
hope i didnt leave anything out,
Thanks

What rom are you on? I am assuming you can get into recovery. May I recommend, fresh 4 rom by flipz to get everything back to normal first (Full wipe is necessary) ...then we can work on this further.

thanks for the response.
wiped data/secure/cache/dalvik
applied Fresh 4.2.0.0 rom
rebooted
showed HTC white screen for 2 seconds rebooted.. did this until it gave me the 3 vibrates and flashing green light..
reseated battery and powered on
HTC white hung for what seemed longer than normal than Fresh boots.. lock screen appears for a couple of sec and then it reboots.
thanks

Lets try a few more steps before concluding hardware issues.
1. wipe all
2. http://www.virusrom.com/Tools/VR_SUPERWIPE.zip (flash this)
3. Flash your favorite rom (try one of the newer ones if your SD is partitioned)
4. restart...and let the phone wait for 10 mins...before you unlock the screen
5. unlock screen and let it settle (DO NOT SET UP ACCOUNTS)
6. reboot recovery..wipe cache and dalvik and reboot
7. sign into market...
8. if it still reboots/FCs then flash latest radios http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715485

cool i'll give that a try..
when you say wipe all, is the list i've provided "all"? i noticed with RA i can wipe system/boot and some others i believe... wasnt sure i should wipe the boot or system...

yes...start at format all factory reset...and then the list you've provided...dont wipe sdcard unless formatting it...and then follow from step 2

yeah basically what i listed was the factory reset + dalvik..
so, you mention if the SD card is partitioned (app2SD?) which i dont currently have setup, but its a new SDcard so i might.. but, if i put one of those newer roms on that assume App2SD (which i believe i did) then would the problems im having be a result of doing that??

no luck, still getting random reboots

what rom did you flash? But if you did all the steps from my earlier post, I am wondering if this is an hardware issue.Heres a thread about back to stock RUU . http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7529500&postcount=1
here another for the latest froyo ruu
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=874251
just in case you would want to root back

well that sucks... i just replaced the screen and LCD too....
thats the tool i was trying to use but couldnt keep the system up long enough to get it to run right... in order to run the RUU you need to be in android (is that right? sounds werid, like saying in windows, past boot, etc etc).. anyways.. it has to be loaded, the RUU then flashes a special boot loader to do the restore... i've gotten a handful of errors, some of which even say that i have the wrong version (i'll try the one you posted but i've used an RUU before and tried the same one again)
i'll keep screwing with it, or get a new phone i guess.. still a year left on my contact so i'll be hitting up ebay or something :-/
thanks for all your help, really apprecaite it

[Q] Had my GN died?

I was updating some apps in the market, as suddenly the phone reboots without any warnings.
OK, **** happens i thought and let it boot. But now the phone starts the ROMs boot animation for about 4-5 seconds and then reboots over and over again.
I pulled the battery and started into recovery. I made a nandroid and wiped cache and dalvik. Reboot with same behavior.
Recovery again: wiped everything and flashed a new AOKP M3 - result: reboot and loop again
Back to recovery: tried to flash the before made nandroid - MD5 checksum error
Flashed an older nandroid and got boot loops again.
So, i think this piece is for the service now...
What is the best way to reset this GN? Using ToolKit to put back stock recovery and lock the bootloader? Or should i try something else?
Update:
Flashed Stock Google Image via ToolKit 5.4 and after that the phone is booting normal?!?
I reflashed the touch recovery and pushed the AOKP build 27 back to the phone and flashed it.
So far so good - I have to start from the bottom now, because flashing the stock rom wiped the whole phone and EVERYTHING on sdcard is gone
Do you think there is a hardware failure? Perhaps some sort of memory malfunktion or something like that?

Same thing just happened to me, thi is the second time

lighthammerhh said:
I was updating some apps in the market, as suddenly the phone reboots without any warnings.
OK, **** happens i thought and let it boot. But now the phone starts the ROMs boot animation for about 4-5 seconds and then reboots over and over again.
I pulled the battery and started into recovery. I made a nandroid and wiped cache and dalvik. Reboot with same behavior.
Recovery again: wiped everything and flashed a new AOKP M3 - result: reboot and loop again
Back to recovery: tried to flash the before made nandroid - MD5 checksum error
Flashed an older nandroid and got boot loops again.
So, i think this piece is for the service now...
What is the best way to reset this GN? Using ToolKit to put back stock recovery and lock the bootloader? Or should i try something else?
Update:
Flashed Stock Google Image via ToolKit 5.4 and after that the phone is booting normal?!?
I reflashed the touch recovery and pushed the AOKP build 27 back to the phone and flashed it.
So far so good - I have to start from the bottom now, because flashing the stock rom wiped the whole phone and EVERYTHING on sdcard is gone
Do you think there is a hardware failure? Perhaps some sort of memory malfunktion or something like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly when you get bootloops or any other problem do NOT do a nandroid as it backs up EVERYTHING, including the problem.
When you "wiped everything" did you go to mounts and storage and format system, cache and data?
If not then you didn't do a proper full wipe.

This is my own experience, but I want to warn you guys. I had a similar problem with my GNex. The first time it happened, my phone rebooted itself every 5 seconds. I completely restored it using factory image and it ran fine for 3 weeks, then one day, the phone just rebooted itself and got stuck at the boot image. I had to factory reset it again to make it work.
After the second time, I called Samsung and sent it in for repair last week. They are shipping me a replacement unit. It seems the problem was hardware related.

econometrician said:
This is my own experience, but I want to warn you guys. I had a similar problem with my GNex. The first time it happened, my phone rebooted itself every 5 seconds. I completely restored it using factory image and it ran fine for 3 weeks, then one day, the phone just rebooted itself and got stuck at the boot image. I had to factory reset it again to make it work.
After the second time, I called Samsung and sent it in for repair last week. They are shipping me a replacement unit. It seems the problem was hardware related.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For 3 weeks... exactly 3 weeks, 21 days?
I can tell you that my first boot loop brick was 20 days after I bought the phone. The second was later that day. But the third one was... again, 20 days after the last successful restore. Is there something magical about the 3-week mark???
I am currently taking nightly nandroid backups, so when I had my third boot loop brick my backup was just under a day old. If this is ultimately a hardware problem that can be warrantied, I guess I'll have to try that next time. I would have to make sure I return it with the bootloader locked, stock recovery, but without the wipe because it has to still be boot looping to prove there's an issue!
Anyway, things I will point out:
- It's the complete wipe in bootloader that blanks the internal storage.
- If you have CWM installed, you can back up the internal storage over USB via adb pull /sdcard/ ./sdcard/ (correct me if I got the syntax wrong)
- When the boot loop brick has happened, CWM is not capable of properly reformatting or restoring to the data partition. I have not found a way to repair it without blanking /sdcard (which on the GN is actually in /data/media), so if you don't want to lose those files the only way to keep them is to pipe them out, blank the phone, and then pipe them back in afterwards.
- After a complete wipe in bootloader (either by flashing userdata.img or by relocking/unlocking bootloader), you must boot the phone once into the OS in order to complete the reformatting of /data. If you try booting straight into recovery after a wipe in the bootloader, CWM cannot read or write from that partition.

Can't say for sure whether it's exactly 21 days but it's definitely around 3 weeks. Why don't u give Samsung a call? The phone is not supposed to behave this way. Plenty of people don't have this problem. My wild guess is that the internal flash memory is faulty.

econometrician said:
Can't say for sure whether it's exactly 21 days but it's definitely around 3 weeks. Why don't u give Samsung a call? The phone is not supposed to behave this way. Plenty of people don't have this problem. My wild guess is that the internal flash memory is faulty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll warranty it through my carrier next time as they do exchanges on site. The trouble is, once I've recovered the phone, there's no evidence of the problem anymore. The best way to prove it is to show it fritzing out.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I think this is a known problem. You shouldn't have to prove it to them. They should be aware of it.

It bricked again today so I warrantied it in-store at my carrier. They gave me a brand new one after being unable to find a solution when fiddling with it. As a bonus, all the little hairline scratches on my screen are gone too
The store guy said he's never seen this issue, and it's one of only two warranty locations for my carrier in the Vancouver area. So I can only hope this was a rare hardware problem and not something that pervades every GN they're going to sell.
I can tell this one is from a different batch because it came preloaded with 4.0.2.

Good for you. hopefully my new phone will behave

[Q] Chainfire 3D brick :(

Hello guys, i need serious help with my Samsung Galaxy S3, I just rooted today, and everything was working fine.
I decided to download chainfire 3d, thought i'd enable some unstable games to run, but quite the opposite my phone is now BRICKED.
I tried re-flashing my rom with ODIN, but to no help, the phone remains bricked.
I read some tutorials how to flash using the 'transfer to sd card from PC' rom. But there is another problem..
My pc doens't recognize my phone completely(icon doesn't show in My computer - winows 732bit).
Now im stuck at the Samsung logo, with no other options but hope someone here can help.. ..
Ps; I tried cleaning the cache and dalvik cache from CW mode. Anything else im missing out??..

When you Odin did you wipe data / factory reset after or before? Usually when you Odin and didn't wipe data in recovery mode you will get stuck at the Samsung boot up. So try going back to recovery and do a factory reset /wipe data and see if it boots up pass samsung logo.

teambestyrandy said:
When you Odin did you wipe data / factory reset after or before? Usually when you Odin and didn't wipe data in recovery mode you will get stuck at the Samsung boot up. So try going back to recovery and do a factory reset /wipe data and see if it boots up pass samsung logo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact i dont even know if I'm doing it correctly, i only flash one file, the one i ROOTED with. its in the PDA location. I will try to wipe before and after..
Edit: I used ODIN and then i wiped data/factory reset from CW, and still stuck at the boot logo
I also got this error on my PC, MTP USB device did not install correctly. I downloaded the drivers from the official t-mobile support page, so i don't think its the Pc's fault. .
Any ideas?

knight26 said:
In fact i dont even know if I'm doing it correctly, i only flash one file, the one i ROOTED with. its in the PDA location. I will try to wipe before and after..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try wiping data and see if it works. I it should pass the Samsung logo boot up.

teambestyrandy said:
Try wiping data and see if it works. I it should pass the Samsung logo boot up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work.
Should i try to format my /data, /sdcard, etc, from the CW menu?.
Is there a risk in doing that?, I dont mind losing my data as long i get the phone back running.
EDIT: I flashed Odin, and it seems to be working now, I'm only left to wait for the phone to pass the bootloop.
what I had forgotten was to flash the stock firmware after i do the CW mode. Lets hope for best, I'll edit this post if it works.
EDIT 2: IT WORKS!. I'd post links to the stock firmwares, but not sure if that is allowed on the site. Anyway just google galaxy s3 stock firmware download.
writing this response to the other people in need of the same help

[Q] Friend did a bad file flash, Hard bricked phone

Okay my friends wife had an unlucky bad file flash and ended up hard bricking somehow.
And keep this in mind that she never flashed a Int. version.
She flashed the SlimRom 3.1.0-D2SPR then she flashed the custom kernel unlocker file
to use the K747 kernel for slimrom, but the thing was ( She has TWRP ) when she slid the bar to flash
the file, the screen went back to the TWRP home page she waited 5-10 minutes then she tried reflashing the file again
and it said failed. Rebooted and the phone's hard bricked after installing the kernel. ( No LED when USB plugged in for recharge,
No power or haptic feedback. )
Her husband used the same method to install slim rom and his phone is fine
but the screen never went to the TWRP home page, it went straight into installing it.
The thing that boggles my mind is that she flashed everything in order and it hard bricked.
Rom first, rebooted recovery, kernel unlock, cache and dalvik cleared. rebooted recovery
When she tried flashing the K747 AOSP Kernel, she said it never went to the page screen that would show
it install, it just went straight to the home page, retry flashing but failed. ( here's the weird part I've never experienced. )
Is her devices bootloader corrupted? Because all I'm thinking is she's the one in a million of people that has a defective
device itself and a bad flash ( This is what I think ) hard brick her device.
But my suggested solution if correct would be force odin mode via USB Jig or send it in for jtag repairs if possible.
If there is no chance for the both of these solutions then a full blown replacement repair will be the last thing she'll do
because she doesn't have TEP or a warranty on the device.

Spark91 said:
Is her devices bootloader corrupted? Because all I'm thinking is she's the one in a million of people that has a defective
device itself and a bad flash ( This is what I think ) hard brick her device.
But my suggested solution if correct would be force odin mode via USB Jig or send it in for jtag repairs if possible.
If there is no chance for the both of these solutions then a full blown replacement repair will be the last thing she'll do
because she doesn't have TEP or a warranty on the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I'm just going to rattle through my thought process on this, just to get things clear in my mind:
Her phone cannot turn on at all. Do a battery pull/replace and make sure that there's no going into recovery or download mode. If that's the case, then JTAG might be your only solution.
This happened when trying to flash a kernel. It seems unlikely that a kernel would screw up the bootloader. I was under the impression that only recovery zips touch the bootloader/recovery partition.
If the kernel or Rom zip was for an international GS3, then it would try to write to the bootloader partition. But since you said your buddy's phone flashed the same files just fine, it seems unlikely that they flashed the international zips.
I've had TWRP fail to flash a zip. Each time I tried to flash a zip, it would say it failed. All I had to do was reboot into recovery (even if I hadn't flashed a ROM, so I had no system file), and then I could flash the file. Sometimes TWRP had those issues for me. Her story reminded me exactly of when that happened to me, but if hers won't load into recovery (or download mode), that's a major difference.
After all that, I honestly have no clue how this happened. It sounds to me like the JTAG is the best bet. You can find them online for around $60. Sorry this happened, and I hope you find a good fix for your friend's wife.

Its possible that you can still fix this....
Couple questions. When you try to turn it on, what exactly happens? does it vibrate? what occurs?
There is a possiblity that you can bypass the idea of holding the power button and vol button, try to adb reboot recovery command. ive had this save me about 5 times now when flashing goes bad.
http://droidlessons.com/how-to-install-adb-on-a-windows-7-pc/
make sure adb is installed...
while the phone is trying to boot, keep typing or copy/pasting or in cmd pressing up and enter after you enter the command.
adb devices
if it gives you the UID of your phone you at least know that you might have the ability to fix it.
From here just type
adb reboot recovery and it will reboot into the recovery to allow you to flash a "good" kernel again.
Bit of advice.. I am always paranoid after going through this so many times of a bad flash. As a result i never stack flashes.. for instance.
if i want to flash a rom, kernel, modem, radio..
i wipe dalvik, flash rom, wipe dalvik, wipe system, wipe cache.
Reboot let android do its thing...
reboot into recovery.
wipe dalvik, flash kernel, wipe dalvik, wipe system, wipe cache.
reboot, let android fully boot up.
reboot into recovery
wipe dalvik, flash radio, wipe dalvik, wipe system, wipe cache.
reboot...you get the point.
Just precations i started doing because of issues ive had in the past. If you have a mac, the commands are a bit different so let me know...

This is interesting, Hamspiced.
I didn't know that flashing a kernal can "brick" your phone.
Do you happen to know why or how this happens? You allude to stacking flashes... I normally only stack gapps with the ROM, but I was wondering if it's important to reboot and go through the setup prior to flashing gapps.
Thanks for the info!

topherk said:
This is interesting, Hamspiced.
I didn't know that flashing a kernal can "brick" your phone.
Do you happen to know why or how this happens? You allude to stacking flashes... I normally only stack gapps with the ROM, but I was wondering if it's important to reboot and go through the setup prior to flashing gapps.
Thanks for the info!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When i had my evo things flashed slightly different.
There were many issues in kernel flashing where if the kernel didnt download properly or you had a bad dl. it will what we called soft-brick. This would allow the phone to "act" like it was booting up but only display a black screen and never boot. Screen would flicker, phone was active but nothing would display and it will not boot loop. kind of just freeze.
We noticed that if we connect the phone to the computer we could actually use adb to access the phone. from there we noticed that we could push recoveries, and even push kernels and radios to the phone even though it wasnt displaying anything.
I figured the easiest way to get through this issue is to see if you can Reboot Recovery through adb if it allows you, and hopefully then you can restore functionality.

Help possibly?
Can you get it into download mode and just use Odin to flash it?