Nexus 7 2013 - completely BRICKED - Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A

So I completely bricked my tablet, cant even get my PC to recognize the tablet, and the only screen i have up is the Google and the unlock padlock. and if i try a hard reset, all i get is android on his back and the red triangle. I have decided to buy a used motherboard, I see from ifixit.com that they are easy to repair, will this solve my dilema? I found used mobo's on ebay, made sure to get the correct one, is this the answer to not buying a new tablet?

My nexus 7 lte is in the exact same state(that's why I've posted here instead of starting new thread)...by using nrt to try updating to marshmellow as per site's instructions...wondering if anyone can offer a solution???
(bought at google play almost 2 years ago and they already sent me a free refurb replacement...but I still wanna try getting the old one going before sending it back if possible...worth a try before buying a replacement mobo)
here some details of my situation:
ran this on my nexus 7 2013 lte...failed on the first try...tried again..it wiped everything and then failed on install...now I have bootloader (accessible by volume down and power button simultaneously) only and no functional recovery(get the android with red triangle and asterisk when I select Recovery)...the only Android device listed in Device manager is Android Bootloader Interface.
If I start from fastboot mode:
gives a driver failed to load error from windows" and also, now in Device Manager my Android Device Listed changed from "Android Bootloader Interface" to "Android Composite ADB Interface", as well, there is now a Portable Device listed also but it's the driver that failed to load I guess "MTP USB Device" with a yellow asterisk.
If I run the flash-all.bat in the image download that the NRT got on the first attempt, everything goes fine until I get to "sending system"...this fails with unknown data transfer error...
when I download the latest image from developers google.com and extract it I get just one big file with no extension...shouldn't there be a bunch of files including a flashhall.bat file?

^Yes, inside the main image zip is the bootloader (+ radio in your case) and another zip of the actual partition images.
Run fastboot devices from the bootloader just to be sure it's detected. If not uninstall all traces from your pc and start fresh.
Flash the new bootloader, reboot bootloader, flash the radio, reboot bootloader then flash each .img individually with fastboot. Don't use any toolkits.
You should get the "OKAY" after flashing each image. Is it only system that fails? Do you get the okay with boot and recovery? If system only I don't know.
ronf1011 said:
So I completely bricked my tablet, cant even get my PC to recognize the tablet, and the only screen i have up is the Google and the unlock padlock. and if i try a hard reset, all i get is android on his back and the red triangle. I have decided to buy a used motherboard, I see from ifixit.com that they are easy to repair, will this solve my dilema? I found used mobo's on ebay, made sure to get the correct one, is this the answer to not buying a new tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The android with the red triangle with exclamation is what happens with stock recovery, you need to press power, volume up and down quickly all at the same time to get in. Usually takes a few tries. If you can get into recovery you could factory reset. It could be another problem though. You have to describe what you previously did to it if you really wan't help.

rma
Thanks for the reply...was never able to get the system image to load...google play is supposed to reemburse me once they receive my original nexus 7 (already got a pristine refurb from them..updated to marshmellow..will be staying away from NRT with this one...)
Thanks again for the reply and suggestions!

system image can't be written
Exactly the same happened to me. After a successful update to MM with Wugfresh's NRT 2.0.5 (with no root) I tried to root my device with 2.0.6 which was released in the meantime.
But that failed because NRT thinks my bootloader is locked, while in fastboot mode I can see that it is unlocked. With fastboot commands I can relock and re-unlock but for NRT it makes no difference.
It seemed to me that a manual reflash of bootloader (FLO-04.05), kernel, cache, system and data should solve this, but no way. The flashall. bat reports a write error of the system.img. A direct fastboot flash system system.img command leads to FAILED (remote: unknown chunk type).
I couldn't find any information about chunk types. I am afraid that somewhere in the process the partitioning was affected. Is that a possibility and can anything be done to fix this? Or are there other solutions for the chunk type error?

Related

[Q][help] bricked badly after failed encrypt - fastboot and ODIN can't write to flash

hi all,
i've managed to get my g-nex (vz lte) pretty badly bricked and am hoping that someone here will be able to help. here's what i did initially on the phone:
1. ran 4.0.2 update from carrier
2. installed adb sdk etc on win 7, verified connectivity and function
3. oem unlock
4. rooted phone
5. installed apps, etc.
6. used phone for a few days, rebooted at will, all working as expected, no issues
7. fully charged phone and in the settings kicked off the encryption process, entered PIN, everything looked good.
8. this morning i woke up to a failed encryption (unfortunately i didn't catch the error message) which needed to be rebooted to move on.
9. after choosing reboot, the screen went very strange - it had grainy horizontal lines that shifted in color somewhat and got dim
10. after waiting for a bit without anything happening, pulled the power and battery
11. the phone rebooted into fastboot, couldn't get into recovery to restore cwm backup, couldn't really do anything
phone shows the following:
fastboot mode - no boot or recovery img
product name - tuna
variant - toro
hw version - 9
bootloader version - primekkk15
baseband version - i515.ek02 cdma - i515.ek05
carrier info - none
serial number - XX_redacted_XX
signing - production
lock state - unlocked
here's what i've tried:
adb commands - doesn't show as there from adb devices
fastboot commands - shows up with fastboot devices, flash commands seem to start but never stop
ODIN mode - connects but writes fail to complete
different usb ports/cables, doesn't seem to make a difference
what i've found to somewhat work - but not really do much - is to oem lock and unlock the phone, once there i can fastboot flash boot boot.img, etc. but if i do a recovery and try and boot into it, it just hangs at the google screen (with the lock unlocked).
i would like maybe reformat the phone completely and reinstall, i've tried the fastboot -w and erase boot / recovery thinking that i could write a clean image to them once they had been cleared, no dice.
if anyone has some suggestions, i'd really appreciate it.
take care,
philo
Have you tried a clean install of the factory image found here? http://code.google.com/android/nexus/images.html#mysidicl53f
i have tried going back to factory, unfortunately that set of images didn't work either. i was able (after an oem lock/unlock) to flash the img files, but it errored on the fastboot reboot-bootloader command with the oddly lined screen. i've attached a picture of the screen for reference.
philo_enyce said:
i have tried going back to factory, unfortunately that set of images didn't work either. i was able (after an oem lock/unlock) to flash the img files, but it errored on the fastboot reboot-bootloader command with the oddly lined screen. i've attached a picture of the screen for reference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you flashed the LTE version and not the GSM
You need this one https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz and you must first flash bootloader then radio and then the update img
i have been using the lte, same as your link. i can get the bootloader on, but a reboot-bootloader gives that weird screen, if i try and flash the radio without rebooting i get:
unknown partition 'radio'
philo_enyce said:
i have been using the lte, same as your link. i can get the bootloader on, but a reboot-bootloader gives that weird screen, if i try and flash the radio without rebooting i get:
unknown partition 'radio'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392336
Its the cwm for cdma edition.Check if you can flash it and in this way have access to cwm recovery
i've tried that as well, same lines even if i use the menu to go to recovery after flashing rather than reboot to bootloader first.
So long as it's back to stock, and you've locked the bootloader, it's off for a replacement you go if it was me
EddyOS said:
So long as it's back to stock, and you've locked the bootloader, it's off for a replacement you go if it was me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 to this
interestingly, i can't get the fastboot oem lock to take either. it reverts back to unlocked after the reboot fails and i have to pop the battery.
does anyone know how to straight up repartition/reformat the flash? i'm assuming that the failed encryption of the flash has put it into an unusable state and would be happy enough just wiping the damn thing clean...
It looks the encryption screwed up because of the different recovery partition which might of also messed up the partition table.
Best bet is to plead ignorance and get a replacement phone.
problem "solved"
i called samsung and pleaded for the pit + factory image with no luck, so i went over to my local vzw and had them replace the phone for me.
i'm not going to try and encrypt this one, hopefully this was just a fluke and won't affect anyone else...
nice work... let them try to fix that shiz!
Darn, I was hoping for a solution...
I am having a similar issue with a Nexus 5. Phone was working fine, started the encryption process and went to bed and woke up with a bricked phone. I can get into the Bootloader and had figured no problem, I'll just do a factory wipe. Whether trying to boot the phone or get it to do the factory restore it sits there and bootloops with the Google logo. Wish programmers would put in status messages the way we did in the 'old days.'
I was able to get a little further was able to reflash, format the partitions etc. but no luck. I am wondering if perhaps the user data may have an indicator or flag that states it is encrypted even though it isnt at this point encrypted. Figured the factory restore would have been more than enough. WUG makes a nice Root Toolkit that automates a lot of the process but even letting do what I already didnt help.
philo_enyce said:
i called samsung and pleaded for the pit + factory image with no luck, so i went over to my local vzw and had them replace the phone for me.
i'm not going to try and encrypt this one, hopefully this was just a fluke and won't affect anyone else...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
philo_enyce said:
interestingly, i can't get the fastboot oem lock to take either. it reverts back to unlocked after the reboot fails and i have to pop the battery.
does anyone know how to straight up repartition/reformat the flash? i'm assuming that the failed encryption of the flash has put it into an unusable state and would be happy enough just wiping the damn thing clean...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep , if you can get into recovery , you can adb shell , then list the partitions with "cat proc/mounts" , from there you'll have a list of your partitions and you can use the ext4 tools to manually repartition . I believe the command is makefs_ext4 <whatever partition you wanna do > I'll try to find the exact command but you can do it .
Also if you simply type "fastboot " when at the bootloader it'll give you the help text and it should tell you how to wipe partitions from fastboot
Hack The Tuna
The same issue here ! memory locked
I ve got the same scenario on a phone i just got , brand new but with the same issue , this one boots up but its impossible to factory reset it , odin , cyanogenmod , fastboot adb flashes .... everything fails somehow .... once you reboot the phone everything comes back ! stock software with the applications and old data .... theres no way to erase it ... it seems the previous owner of the phone encrypted it and then used clockworkmod or something like that ..... the nand on the device is like hardlocked .... doesnt let you do anything !

[Q] Hopefully Softbrick - might be a driver problem?

First off, this forum rocks. First post but have read a tremendous amount since learning to root and rom my Thunderbolt.
I upgraded to the Galaxy Nexus (CDMA), and decided to try the "one-click root" which left me with the followign problem.
It seemed to work ok, however when I booted into recovery, recovery failed to load and I got the android w/ exclamation.
I tried a few other things to no avail, at one point I hit a volume up and down and got a limited clockwork menu on the screen, one which was factory wipe (as I was intending to install a ROM).
The wipe hung, so I pulled the battery and was left in a loop.
I booted back into fastboot, and it shows as unlocked, but I can't get it to show as a device in ADB.
I'm assuming this may be a driver issue. I did re-download the Android SDK but this didn't seem to make a difference.
I get the USB connection, but the phone displays "Fastboot Command Read Error -2147483647". I did try to kill server and try again as I saw suggested in some other posts but no luck.
In device manager it shows as "SAMSUNG Android ADB Interface" for the driver 2.9.310.1125.
I'm thinking fastboot should be a non-samsung branded driver?
Anyhelp is appreicated.
thanks!
soulman1980 said:
First off, this forum rocks. First post but have read a tremendous amount since learning to root and rom my Thunderbolt.
I upgraded to the Galaxy Nexus (CDMA), and decided to try the "one-click root" which left me with the followign problem.
It seemed to work ok, however when I booted into recovery, recovery failed to load and I got the android w/ exclamation.
I tried a few other things to no avail, at one point I hit a volume up and down and got a limited clockwork menu on the screen, one which was factory wipe (as I was intending to install a ROM).
The wipe hung, so I pulled the battery and was left in a loop.
I booted back into fastboot, and it shows as unlocked, but I can't get it to show as a device in ADB.
I'm assuming this may be a driver issue. I did re-download the Android SDK but this didn't seem to make a difference.
I get the USB connection, but the phone displays "Fastboot Command Read Error -2147483647". I did try to kill server and try again as I saw suggested in some other posts but no luck.
In device manager it shows as "SAMSUNG Android ADB Interface" for the driver 2.9.310.1125.
I'm thinking fastboot should be a non-samsung branded driver?
Anyhelp is appreicated.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you boot back into fastboot look under device manager on your computer and you will probably find a yellow question mark by your device. You will need to download the Samsung driver and manually install it at that screen. Then you can fastboot oem lock and then fastboot oem unlock and that should fix your boot loop issue. The android with exclamation point is the factory recovery, if you rooted and still have root download rom manager in the market and flash clockworkmod through it.
badassirocz said:
When you boot back into fastboot look under device manager on your computer and you will probably find a yellow question mark by your device. You will need to download the Samsung driver and manually install it at that screen. Then you can fastboot oem lock and then fastboot oem unlock and that should fix your boot loop issue. The android with exclamation point is the factory recovery, if you rooted and still have root download rom manager in the market and flash clockworkmod through it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
definitely check for any drivers, but i haven't heard anybody needing to re-lock & unlock before. once you have the drivers you should be able to use 'fastboot' from the fastboot screen. not adb. after your drivers, type 'fastboot devices' and see if anything comes up.
also, if you can get into clockwork recovery, look at your device manager again for yellow errors....often there is another driver that doesn't install itself properly; the one that allows you to use adb while in CWM.
cancerouspete said:
definitely check for any drivers, but i haven't heard anybody needing to re-lock & unlock before. once you have the drivers you should be able to use 'fastboot' from the fastboot screen. not adb. after your drivers, type 'fastboot devices' and see if anything comes up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fastboot OEM lock and the Fastboot OEM unlock is a known fix to correct a loop soft brick issue that he noted
badassirocz said:
Fastboot OEM lock and the Fastboot OEM unlock is a known fix to correct a loop soft brick issue that he noted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which is because it is just doing a factory wipe correct? if he fixes his drivers & fastboot issue, he should be able to just flash an image without wiping the whole phone
I guess in some aspect yes but if the phone is not softbricked anymore that he should be fine not doing it. Most of the time the ADB issue is like you stated that when you boot into fastboot the driver is not recognized so you need to do a manual install to fix it. If his battery pull left the phone stuck in a boot loop he will have to re-lock and then unlock to fix it.
You guys really are a godsend.
So, the drivers all seemed good and installed properly (no exclamation or question mark in Device Manager).
Ultimately, I knew there was a driver issue so I just went to a different computer (running win7 64). Coulnd't get that to work, then found drivers arn't supported. I also found the PDANET work around.
This allowed me to install the driver and fastboot WAS able to detect the device.
Following some advice and some other posts I tried "fastboot oem lock", which worked successfully.
I then rebooted, was still in a loop, then pulled the battery.
I ran "fastboot oem unlock", then rebooted.
This time I got past the "google" screen and got the graphic screen.
This sat for awhile (3-4 minutes)??
Then it rebooted again (I almost cried) and I was back to the google logo. Again, it went past this point and displayed the graphical animation again.
Than, on the second time around came the "Welcome!" screen!!!!!!
As well as a rush of relief that is indescribable....
I spent 5 minutes living as Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Boogie Nights sitting in his car outside the party - then did a human xanax reboot and am happy to go to bed!
I'm only posting all of this in detail as an update, and so it is available for anyone else who may come into this problem.
It seems there are many ways to get stuck into this boot-loop besides what I did.
NOW - the next problem....
I'm in my phone, everything works. HOWEVER, I apparantly have a corrupt or bad install of Clockworkmod on my phone.
Do I just try everything again from scratch, or is there something I should do differently to reinstall CWM Recovery?
Thanks again!
glad you got booted. drivers are supported for windows 7 64x, using them currently btw.
i would download a new copy of cwm, confirm its md5 checksum first, and flash it again if you think its corrupt, or if you have rom manager you should be able to do it from there.
good luck
Glad you got it fixed. The lock and unlock fixes the boot loop issues as you found out. I would root your phone with cf-root using adb which you can find here on xda. Then install clockworkmod through rom manager which you can download free in the market.
Thanks again guys, all is good in the hood.
I followed the instructions to re-install CWM here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392336
I picked up where I had left off (I already had phone unlocked).
All is perfect!
can't thank you all enough

Partition table doesn't exist

Hey all,
So I seem to have soft bricked my tablet (Nexus 7 2013 LTE). I can get into fastboot mode (but not into the recovery menu) then I am stuck on the Google logo. Does this mean the device is repairable?
Device manager on Windows shows the tablet as
- an unknown device (no drivers installed / Samsung (Wugfresh) / Google drivers)
- Android bootloader interface (Snoop05's tool)
- Android ADB Interface (PDAnet (Wugfresh)).
On all of them the driver is not correctly installed and I have the exclamation mark showing on device manager. I am unable to access the tablet via fastboot or ADB at this time.
I have tried every permutation I can think of so am turning to the hive mind for advice.
To compound matters I am in Turkey and I don't speak Turkish. I've been in an internet cafe for about 5 hours now and it's 1am (Turkish keyboards have an ı where i should be and you can imagine how many times I have mistyped). I am on a year long cycle tour and the tablet has my music, books, guidebooks and dictionaries on it so I am pretty hacked off. Especially given that I've only just arrived...
I did manage to connect via ADB yesterday but ran out of time as I was borrowing someone's computer and can't replicate the steps. Gah!
I have backups of all my data so essentially I would just like to factory reset. Any help gratefully received!
Thanks,
Don
Well, I found the right combination of drivers (Snoop05's tool then PDANet on Wugfresh) and can now see the device via fastboot so I have unlocked it. However whenever I try and flash boot / system / recovery, etc via fastboot I'm receiving an error 'remote: partition table doesn't exist'. Any ideas, people?
Probably useful to add that the problem was initially caused when I removed the SIM card whilst the unit was switched on. I received a message asking me to reboot and it has been bricked since. Also, I was runing stock unrooted.
Thanks
I have now tried every toolkit I can find but still no joy. I seem to have corrupted my partition table which is preventing me writing anything to the device.
To confirm - I can boot into fastboot mode and can see the device via fastboot using command line and can unlock it using 'fastboot oem unlock'. I have the images to write using 'fastboot flash boot/recovery/system [image location] but nothing will let me write to the device without receiving the error 'FAILED - remote: partition table doesn't exist'.
I have searched everywhere and can't find very much. Is the device recoverable or have I fecked it...? I need to get out of internet cafes and onto my bike...
Cheers in advance
Gulp! 100+ views and no replies...does no-one want to break it to me that my lovely tablet is beyond help! Is the only solution some wizardry using GParted or something? I'm already in way over my head.
I'm only bugging you all as I am running out of time in town and need to head off into the wilds. I have tonight and that's it for at least a week. It would be nice to have some company ie books and music...oh and a Turkish dictionary and translator...poor attempt to drum up sympathy I know.
I'll be honest, I've never seen such an issue as yours but it's worth a try since you got fastboot to do fastboot format of all your partitions and see if it helps to flash factory image. Something like fastboot format system for example.
Sorry I can't be more help
Nexus 7 LTE
Carbon Rom
Faux Kernel
dondelion said:
I have now tried every toolkit I can find but still no joy. I seem to have corrupted my partition table which is preventing me writing anything to the device.
To confirm - I can boot into fastboot mode and can see the device via fastboot using command line and can unlock it using 'fastboot oem unlock'. I have the images to write using 'fastboot flash boot/recovery/system [image location] but nothing will let me write to the device without receiving the error 'FAILED - remote: partition table doesn't exist'.
I have searched everywhere and can't find very much. Is the device recoverable or have I fecked it...? I need to get out of internet cafes and onto my bike...
Cheers in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remove Wug's drivers and what ever other old drivers you have and follow this tutorial http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2381582 make sure your getting for the data and not WiFi only. Get them old drivers out of there first.
Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running Odex SinLess ROM 4.4.2 with ElementalX kernel using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Raverbunny said:
I'll be honest, I've never seen such an issue as yours but it's worth a try since you got fastboot to do fastboot format of all your partitions and see if it helps to flash factory image. Something like fastboot format system for example.
Sorry I can't be more help
Nexus 7 LTE
Carbon Rom
Faux Kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fastboot format still appears to require an intact partition table as I still receive an error - 'FAILED (command write failed (invalid argument))' but thank for the response.
LinearEquation said:
Remove Wug's drivers and what ever other old drivers you have and follow this tutorial http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2381582 make sure your getting for the data and not WiFi only. Get them old drivers out of there first.
Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running Odex SinLess ROM 4.4.2 with ElementalX kernel using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this but same problem - no partition table so unable write anything to the device, thanks...
don, did you ever solve this?
I am having a similar problem but cannot unlock the device.
i have the same problem ....i just usedf flo-ebb clamours repartition and it wiped out all my partions i can only access fast boot but cant install anything as it says " no such partition "
Is your bootloader unlocked? If so, you should be able to flash the factory image in fastboot.
If not, you should be able to sideload the OTA in recovery.

[2013] Possibly hard bricked on factory image update. Honestly not sure.

Earlier today I used the Nexus Root Tool Kit to flash stock and flash the factory image for 5.0.
At erasing User Data it seemed to get stuck, it was there for over 40 minutes. While looking at the device I accidentally knocked the USB cable out and it said failed. Upon rebooting the device I got the Google logo and the bootloader unlocked icon and then the bugdroid with the gear like it's doing an update (THIS: http://scottiestech.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Android_Update_Screen.jpg[1] ). It stayed like this for another 40 minutes. I forced it to shut down and tried to get into the bootloader but holding down vol up+vol down+power for almost 60 seconds did nothing.
I then booted it up normally again to the gear bugdroid and left it like that before I went out for almost 6 hours. When coming home it was the same and still stuck on that.
I rebooted again and held down to boot into the bootloader but again it did not boot in over 60 seconds.
So am I hard bricked and should toss this out with the trash tonight or can this be restored somehow.
Are you able to connect to your device using fastboot?
Assuming you have fastboot installed and the drivers installed, open a command prompt and from the directory where your SDK files are (unless you added the directory to your system PATH), type "fastboot devices" without the quotes. What do you get back? If you get back a serial#, you should be able to flash the individual files manually
(Download the factory image from google's site, and extract the files into a folder, and run the flash-all.bat This will wipe all your data out, and assumes your bootloader is already unlocked)
Edit: follow the instructions here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/tutorial-how-to-flash-factory-image-t2513701
These are for Nexus 5, but the same steps apply for Nexus 7 as well. Just make sure you download the right factory image for your Nexus 7. Use Method 1
jj14 said:
Are you able to connect to your device using fastboot?
Assuming you have fastboot installed and the drivers installed, open a command prompt and from the directory where your SDK files are (unless you added the directory to your system PATH), type "fastboot devices" without the quotes. What do you get back? If you get back a serial#, you should be able to flash the individual files manually
(Download the factory image from google's site, and extract the files into a folder, and run the flash-all.bat This will wipe all your data out, and assumes your bootloader is already unlocked)
Edit: follow the instructions here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/tutorial-how-to-flash-factory-image-t2513701
These are for Nexus 5, but the same steps apply for Nexus 7 as well. Just make sure you download the right factory image for your Nexus 7. Use Method 1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I can get it into fastboot but I'm getting errors when it tries to flash the bootloader or boot.
what's the error message?
jj14 said:
what's the error message?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
originally there was none, it just said failed and completed. now i'm getting invalid arguments.
I'm still in fastboot mode but literally nothing will flash.
*edit* just tried to use tookit again and
writing 'bootloader'
FAILED <remote: flash write failure>
finished.
Seeing a couple people mention that they fixed errors like this just from using a different usb port or cable. going to try that.
Why didn't you use adb to flash factory image from the get-go? It's the safest way to flash. I would be so mad on your place if device would render useless. But that might be just me since i'm poor. I really hope you manage to fix it.
neo5468 said:
Why didn't you use adb to flash factory image from the get-go? It's the safest way to flash. I would be so mad on your place if device would render useless. But that might be just me since i'm poor. I really hope you manage to fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I knew of that way but the Nexus Tool Kit has always been perfect and I've never had any issues with it so I figured I'd just do it that way to make it easier and well, it didn't happen.
I'm hoping because I can get into fastboot that it's not actually bricked yet but if so then oh well i guess.

Starting to pull my hair out over flashing the Razer Phone

I've been trying to install TWRP and Magisk to the Razer phone for upwards of 3 days now. I cannot get anything to flash through fastboot to the phone no matter what I try. At one point I even said screw it and tried flashing the stock boot image back over to re-lock my bootloader, but no luck, still won't flash.
I was originally following this tutorial here but during the flashing of the boot image it kept failing. Then I tried following the "foolproof" guide found here
I either ended up with the error of "no such file or directory" or "too many links" or "unable to identify current slot". Did a ton of Googling but ultimately came up with no solutions.
I have Android SDK and development studio installed. I have the google drivers installed. I have the Razer phone drivers installed and I have ADB and Fastboot installed.
I have all the files I need on the SD card, and when I'm flashing everything I have the files I need placed in the same folder as the ADB\Fastboot files.
I have my bootloader unlocked, developer mode on and USB debugging enabled. I am using a USB Type A to Type C cable as recommended (made by Anker if it matters). I've tried all 3 USB ports on my laptop. I've even disabled Antivirus.
I have flashed many Android devices in the past and none have given me such a headache as this one. I'm even more ticked off that I can't even get the factory boot image back over to re-lock the bootloader after now realizing that I can't install Netflix anymore because they wen't and blocked installations for Rooted android users (for whatever ridiculous reason).
I will say that for whatever reason that when I go to open command prompt by using the shift+right click I only get the option to use Windows Powershell, not Command Prompt. I also have to put a .\ in front of every command I send. I'm unsure why, but I found no work around for it.
I'd like to try to get the TWRP and Magisk installed. I'm sure I can force Netflix to install over to the phone using another method.
Open to any suggestions!
FireGuy0723 said:
I've been trying to install TWRP and Magisk to the Razer phone for upwards of 3 days now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel for you as when things don't work, like someone says they do, it's frustrating. I personally wouldn't be doing everything through power shell but would instead press Windows Key+R to bring up the "Run" dialog box then type "cmd" for command prompt. Trying to restore "command prompt here" to Windows 10 seems stupidly hidden. I'm just not sure if using powershell is messing with your progress.
Second thought is that your Razer phone drivers may not be installed correctly. For me I spent days/hours with my main PC, I then tried another PC and got my phone flashed in minutes. What would happen is that I could send "adb" commands without issue but some of the "fastboot" commands were not working. So at the critical times when it's trying to flash the different portions of our phone, some of them were successful while the others were giving little errors here and there.
I spent a lot of time updating my adb and fastboot commands to newer ones because it seems every time you download someones resources you get a different version. Also the more phones you have owned the more times you have installed specific USB drivers for those phones and they are now hanging around messing things up. There are programs such as USBDeview that will allow you to uninstall those old drivers. For me I had HP drivers from an old tablet, OnePlus drivers, LG drivers, etc.
Munk0 said:
I feel for you as when things don't work, like someone says they do, it's frustrating. I personally wouldn't be doing everything through power shell but would instead press Windows Key+R to bring up the "Run" dialog box then type "cmd" for command prompt. Trying to restore "command prompt here" to Windows 10 seems stupidly hidden. I'm just not sure if using powershell is messing with your progress.
Second thought is that your Razer phone drivers may not be installed correctly. For me I spent days/hours with my main PC, I then tried another PC and got my phone flashed in minutes. What would happen is that I could send "adb" commands without issue but some of the "fastboot" commands were not working. So at the critical times when it's trying to flash the different portions of our phone, some of them were successful while the others were giving little errors here and there.
I spent a lot of time updating my adb and fastboot commands to newer ones because it seems every time you download someones resources you get a different version. Also the more phones you have owned the more times you have installed specific USB drivers for those phones and they are now hanging around messing things up. There are programs such as USBDeview that will allow you to uninstall those old drivers. For me I had HP drivers from an old tablet, OnePlus drivers, LG drivers, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been messing with it today a bunch. I am back to following the "foolproof" guide and this time I have completely uninstalled all my old drivers for anything android or USB or ADB related and reinstalled everything.
All commands work, I am using command prompt now.
What I am getting hung up on now is even after pushing all three files to the SD card, I run the command "fastboot flash boot twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img && fastboot reboot" and it bounces back with " Failed: Write to device failed (no such file or directory)"
I've double checked the file names numerous times. I have no idea what I am doing wrong now. I have tried the command "fastboot boot twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img" as stated in the other tutorial and it bounces back with "failed to identify current slot".
So I'm making progress at least. I'm trying to follow the first set of instructions listed in the fool proof guide but still no luck. I also tried the "clean method" listed below on that guide and that one doesn't work either. Apparently the Fool Proof guide thinks I'm a fool!
FireGuy0723 said:
What I am getting hung up on now is even after pushing all three files to the SD card, I run the command "fastboot flash boot twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img && fastboot reboot" and it bounces back with " Failed: Write to device failed (no such file or directory)"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that when you run "fastboot flash boot twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img" you are pushing the file called "twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img" that is sitting on your PC's C: or whichever drive you are currently sitting in to the Razer Phone. So make sure the file is in the same directory as where you are running that command. This will then transfer it to the Razer and will reboot into TWRP.
But after you reboot into TWRP you will want to flash the version you have sitting within your SD card to the "recovery" partition. That way it is permanent.
Munk0 said:
I believe that when you run "fastboot flash boot twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img" you are pushing the file called "twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img" that is sitting on your PC's C: or whichever drive you are currently sitting in to the Razer Phone. So make sure the file is in the same directory as where you are running that command. This will then transfer it to the Razer and will reboot into TWRP.
But after you reboot into TWRP you will want to flash the version you have sitting within your SD card to the "recovery" partition. That way it is permanent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was finally able to get the phone to accept a flash! I ended up saying screw it and dug a old laptop out, fresh install of windows and installed all the proper drivers onto it.
It worked almost flawlessly. It was able to correctly send the twrp.img file and the phone was able to boot into twrp which is about as far as I got. As it was attempting to load twrp it would "crash" the screen would flash twice and try rebooting back to TWRP.
What ended up happening was it got stuck in a boot loop trying to boot into TWRP. (I haven't even installed TWRP.zip yet, just tried booting the .img file).
I couldn't get the phone to boot to the system anymore. I thought I had a nice $600 paperweight on my hands.
I finally got the phone to go back into the boot loader and flashed all the factory stuff back on and relocked the bootloader. So right now I'm 100% back to stock.
I'm not sure what went wrong in the boot up of the twrp.img file. I'd like to try again but I'm kinda getting sick of wiping the phone Everytime something goes wrong.
Sent from my Phone using Tapatalk
I'm wanting to get TWRP / Magisk on my Razer too, but see too many bootloop stories after attempting to flash TWRP.... making me nervous ha ha.
Sorry, not much help, but hope you get it sorted...
Peace
chris5s said:
I'm wanting to get TWRP / Magisk on my Razer too, but see too many bootloop stories after attempting to flash TWRP.... making me nervous ha ha.
Sorry, not much help, but hope you get it sorted...
Peace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had mine in boot loop, I was able to get it out pretty easily. If your able to get the phone into the bootloader (I did using a fastboot command while it was in a boot loop) you can just execute the script provided by Razer and it does the rest. Took about 10 minutes and I had factory everything back on the phone. Relocked the bootloader after and done, phone fixed.
Sent from my Phone using Tapatalk
FireGuy0723 said:
I had mine in boot loop, I was able to get it out pretty easily. If your able to get the phone into the bootloader (I did using a fastboot command while it was in a boot loop) you can just execute the script provided by Razer and it does the rest. Took about 10 minutes and I had factory everything back on the phone. Relocked the bootloader after and done, phone fixed.
Sent from my Phone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my case I actually had to flash the stock boot.img from the May 2018 stock OS. Then I was able to use Razers guide to flash stock again. I haven't locked my bootloader since I still want to give it a try again. But I want to find a reliable way of rooting and then unrooting in case I want to do so in the feature.
So far I haven't found said documentation.
Installed Magisk v17.1 via TWRP loaded in fastboot boot (not fastboot flash boot ie not permanently installed) and so far all seems well. No boot loops when restarting...
Peace

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