Develop Bugs

Possibility of bricking & how to avoid it..

Is anyone manage to brick the phone already?
How likely/ or stupidity you need to actually bricking the phone?
What is a NO NO and how to avoid it?
That's the question.. thanks!

Main thing is read as much as you can before you do any changes, it helps to check what few sites say.
When I rooted my phone I could not get it to run the update part, tried time and time again, one site said "rename the file to update.zip and paste it" then I read on another site to just call it update as it is already a zip file.....and then it worked, small bit of detail like that stopped it working to start with so if I was you I check a few sites and get all the info you need, but also as many would say if you are that unsure dont take the risk and wait for samsung updates with Kies.

voodoochild2008 said:
if you are that unsure dont take the risk and wait for samsung updates with Kies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kies actually failed to update my phone, I have the Korean Galaxy S SHW-M100S, and it showed an update was available. So, I thought I was bricked for about 30 mins, kept trying to get it to work itself out of the problem in recovery mode, after about 4 tries (1 reboot of Windows, plus changing USB ports and 2nd try with this static new config) eventually it did, thank God.

Do not remove usb while in the middle of flashing with odin
Wanna know HOT TO BRICK YOUR PHONE? Right when ODIN start flashing, pull the battery on your phone and see what happens.
I can't even boot up!
****

amerikian said:
Wanna know HOT TO BRICK YOUR PHONE? Right when ODIN start flashing, pull the battery on your phone and see what happens.
I can't even boot up!
****
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was gonna say something along the lines of a smart ass, but I can't. That sucks.
why would you do a battery pull?

madjsp said:
I was gonna say something along the lines of a smart ass, but I can't. That sucks.
why would you do a battery pull?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been flashing all night and wanted to do it "right" this time....realized my SIM and SD card were still in there mid-flash so wanted to pull them and start clean..........................
Yeah....don't do that.
Guess I'll be that "guy" paying a visit to the local AT&T shop tomorrow....
Luckily I'm w/in my 14 days since getting it....

delete. ......

amerikian said:
Wanna know HOT TO BRICK YOUR PHONE? Right when ODIN start flashing, pull the battery on your phone and see what happens.
I can't even boot up!
****
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've removed the cable half way and rebooted, and it was fine..
You simply remove the USB cable, battery again, put the battery in, and you'll be able to get to downloader mode.
The phone seems to have a component that ODIN doesn't touch that is read-only that handles download mode. Most hardware devices tend to have safeguards. I haven't confirmed this, but I've noticed the same applies to NAS devices (which tend to have a special redboot which uses tftp).
I have still yet to have seen any evidence of anyone permanently bricking their phone, but I've seen a few cases of "oops, got it working again".
Remember, Samsung are eager to reduce their support costs, and failsafe's are cheap and easy to add.

yes, the odin doesn't touch the 'bootloader' , or the small piece of code that enable the download mode, so there's no way you can brick the phone.
I have tried to repartition the phone while flashing firmware that has nothing except the csc data (i.e. no kernel, no factory rfs, etc) and the flash procedure went succesfully but in actual fact, my phone contains a new set of partitions that contain nothing except the small csc data.
and i still able to reflash, although I must make sure that the phone is totally shutdown (i.e. take out battery, let it stay for awhile before putting back)

andrewluecke said:
I've removed the cable half way and rebooted, and it was fine..
You simply remove the USB cable, battery again, put the battery in, and you'll be able to get to downloader mode.
The phone seems to have a component that ODIN doesn't touch that is read-only that handles download mode. Most hardware devices tend to have safeguards. I haven't confirmed this, but I've noticed the same applies to NAS devices (which tend to have a special redboot which uses tftp).
I have still yet to have seen any evidence of anyone permanently bricking their phone, but I've seen a few cases of "oops, got it working again".
Remember, Samsung are eager to reduce their support costs, and failsafe's are cheap and easy to add.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought in the Big FAQ, it said... do not disconnect the usb-cable but to remove the battery if want to interrupt it...
7.The phone will be flashed and once it’s finished, it will boot up. (Do NOT disconnect the usb-cable, remove the battery or otherwise interrupt this process!)

amerikian said:
Wanna know HOT TO BRICK YOUR PHONE? Right when ODIN start flashing, pull the battery on your phone and see what happens.
I can't even boot up!
****
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Similar happened to me,although I didnt pull the battery, the phone just disconnected halfway through the flash.
Had half hour of panic,where I thought it was bricked.
Had to do a few battery pulls,restart PC a couple of times and mess around with different USB ports,but finally got it working.
Have flashed a 3 times since without a problem.

chluk2425 said:
I thought in the Big FAQ, it said... do not disconnect the usb-cable but to remove the battery if want to interrupt it...
7.The phone will be flashed and once it’s finished, it will boot up. (Do NOT disconnect the usb-cable, remove the battery or otherwise interrupt this process!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means you shouldn't do any of those things! So don't disconnect usb, don't remove the battery and don't interrupt the process.

zenkinz said:
yes, the odin doesn't touch the 'bootloader' , or the small piece of code that enable the download mode, so there's no way you can brick the phone.
I have tried to repartition the phone while flashing firmware that has nothing except the csc data (i.e. no kernel, no factory rfs, etc) and the flash procedure went succesfully but in actual fact, my phone contains a new set of partitions that contain nothing except the small csc data.
and i still able to reflash, although I must make sure that the phone is totally shutdown (i.e. take out battery, let it stay for awhile before putting back)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure that flashing (through ODIN) in any case never touch that "Download Mode" piece of code ? Even you select all the options in ODIN ?
Can anyone confirm this ? Actually I want to play with Kernel and RFS (have some ideas to try) but afraid of full bricking. So if this download mode is always present then I can play with it without any problem.
Waiting for response.

amerikian said:
I've been flashing all night and wanted to do it "right" this time....realized my SIM and SD card were still in there mid-flash so wanted to pull them and start clean..........................
Yeah....don't do that.
Guess I'll be that "guy" paying a visit to the local AT&T shop tomorrow....
Luckily I'm w/in my 14 days since getting it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Believe me! you can still access the download menu

The bootloader is almost always writeprotected and cannot be overwritten. You would probably have to connect a cable to some internal port like Jtag to be able to reflash the bootloader section. Atleast that is the case in 99% of all bootloaders. Im very certain that you cannot cripple the bootloader.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

jackiechan8 said:
That means you shouldn't do any of those things! So don't disconnect usb, don't remove the battery and don't interrupt the process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gosh man, thanks correcting me but if that's the case, what should i do if it doesn't reboot by itself?

take out the battery, wait for 30 to 60 secs, put the battery in and start phone with vol down + menu + power

Don't disconnect the usb or do anything else while flashing!!!
I removed the usb cable when it started flashing (i thinked it was stuck, happens sometimes), and since it does not boot anymore. I press the power button, volUp + home + power, volDown + home + power... nothing happens.... it's dead, doesn't turn on at all...

after all i have read i think it's almost impossible to brick the sgs since you always get back into download-mode. the only case i read where i believe that it's a goner is flashing with the wrong (in this case the at&t) odin version. those guy's just got a white sreen with at&t logo at boot. they didn't get into download mode any more because the button mapping on the captivate is different ... so thats really bad luck, dont't try that at home

jodue said:
after all i have read i think it's almost impossible to brick the sgs since you always get back into download-mode. the only case i read where i believe that it's a goner is flashing with the wrong (in this case the at&t) odin version. those guy's just got a white sreen with at&t logo at boot. they didn't get into download mode any more because the button mapping on the captivate is different ... so thats really bad luck, dont't try that at home
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, mine doesn't boot at all, and i flashed (technically not, because i removed the usb cable at the very start) with the RIGHT odin version
Maybe if it fails when flashig sbl (secondary boot loader ) you can't go into download/recovery mode...

[Q] Galaxy Nexus black screen of death

Basically, this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1384415
No one responded to that thread because it was in the wrong forum.
I got the "Phone -- ! -- PC" screen, and was attempting to fix it before getting this black screen of death.
Galaxy Nexus GSM
Rooted, Codename ROM, don't think there is a Kernel in there
Carrier: Virgin Mobile
Edit: I won't be able to respond for a couple hours as I'm going to work. Any and all help is much appreciated.
Original post from above thread below:
Hello guys,
I have recently bought my first android phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
On the second day I decided to root it since I needed market enabler, as my local market (UAE) has literally no apps.
I rooted using the SDK tools, fastboot and superboot. Everything worked fine for 1 day.
However, the next day, the phone just died on me, and would not boot at all. It kept getting stuck on the "Google" image at startup. At that point, I could still go into the bootloader. I tried locking/unlocking the bootloader again, since that basically wipes all the date on the phone, but it still refused to load, it would get stuck at the startup animation.
After a few more attempts, it kept spam restarting every time I tried to switch it on.
At that point, I was downloading the default OEM ROM so I could reflash that onto the phone. However, I thought I could try using the superboot bat file again, and maybe that would fix the problem. BIG MISTAKE.
As soon as I ran that file, the phone COMPLETELY died. It will not start at ALL, it will not go into Bootloader, not go into Recovery mode, and not even go into Download (odin) mode.
The ONLY possible response you can get from it, is when you plug it into the PC. My PC seems to play that "detection" sound, same sound as when you plug in a USB, but it would just play that sound over and over again, as if im plugging/unplugging a device really quickly. It seems like the phone is continously restarting itself. When I connect the phone to the PC and that disconnect/reconnect sound comes up, I went into my device manager and I could see the following:
An item under "Other Devices" called "OMAP4440" keeps appearing and dissapearing all the time, with the little "!" mark next to it indicating that there is a driver error. The drivers for this phone are fully installed on this same PC, and it use to work fine before it went dead.
Now the problem is since I cant get into any mode whatsoever, its a bit hard to diagnose the phone. I know there is a "recovery" slot at the bottom of the phone that is accessible with a small pin, but I dont for the life of me know how that works or what it does. Does anybody know how to work that or what it actually does?
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks fellas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

What i with my little (almost nothing experience in android) would do its going to another computer with no drivers installed, would download the toolkit and install those drivers, then plug the phone and see what happen, im sure its not bricked since the computer recognice it.. I did lot of stuff with blackberry and there was a lot of ways to recover a phone like that... From here if the toolkit recognice it in any way.. Then you could try to do some of those steps.. As far as i tried doing all kind of stuff to my phone, toolkit its for much the Best Tool and way to do anything to your phone or at least for starters like me
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

But the computer doesn't actually recognize it. The "detection" sound it makes is for an unresponsive device. It won't charge, won't be recognized, and no matter what combo I use, it doesn't turn it.
I played dumb, called Samsung, and now I'm going to send it in. Thanks for the help though.

sometimes my screen goes blank and I have to pull the battery and everything comes back to normal

Nexus not booting after system upgrade

Hi. I am a newbie on the forum so pardon me if I have posted in the wrong section.
I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus i9250 that I purchased under a 3 year agreement with Bell not too long ago, perhaps in May. One day I left my phone connected to my PC so I could transfer some video and picture files that were on there. After the transfer finished, I then proceeded to remove my Nexus from my PC. After a while, I noticed it restarted because the screen went blank and I heard it vibrate because it was on my desk.
My phone is encrypted, so when the phone restarts, or you turn the phone off, and on again, you need to enter a PIN to decrypt the storage. When I entered the PIN, the Nexus froze and then restarted, leading me to the exact same screen I was at previously. Now, I attempted to enter the boot-loader and go into recovery mode, but each time I went into recovery mode, the phone restarted normally. There were a few times I would see the android guy with what looks like a globe sticking out of his chest and a bar below him which probably meant recovery, but my screen would flash back and forth and eventually stick.
I took the phone in only to be told that the system image in the Nexus is corrupted and that it wouldn't be covered under the warranty. At that same time, I decided to go back home and see if I could work with anything. I attempted to use ODIN to put ICS 4.0.4 back on the Nexus, but in between the process, ODIN failed, and now I am left with a phone that can not turn on, go into recovery, or anything else it should.
I'm at a loss here and I'm wondering if anyone else would have any suggestions at this point. If I have to send it in, I'm okay with that, but if there is something that can be done from my PC, I would like to attempt that first. Thank you for your help.

Does anyone think they may have a solution?

Give this a try if it is truly bricked. Apparently it works wonders though I'm not sure if it will work in your case.

Unlawful said:
Give this a try if it is truly bricked. Apparently it works wonders though I'm not sure if it will work in your case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for your help. By using that program, I was able to boot back into ODIN mode and upload ICS 4.0.4 back on it!

Eazy_Going said:
Thank you so much for your help. By using that program, I was able to boot back into ODIN mode and upload ICS 4.0.4 back on it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Woot, gotta love happy endings!

[Q] Strange things followed by brick galaxy nexus.

Phone is Verizon Galaxy Nexus, running the vicious jellybean build that first came out (yeah I was too lazy to install a new ROM when the first Jellybean build I got my hands on worked fine)
Alright so here's the sequence of events,
Last night - phone working just fine
When I went to look at my phone and set an alarm for when I went to sleep I noticed it was powered off. So I tried to power it on and it hanged at the Google logo. It did this for about 20 minutes, and then I pulled the battery and tried again. This time I left it at the Google logo bootscreen over night (plugged in). Note: I'm not sure if it was bootlooping or hanging at this point, I don't remember it vibrating)
I'm awaken in the morning by the sound of my phone vibrating every 10 seconds. I look at my phone and it's at the unlock screen but the only things I can do are emergency call and, strangely, it asks me to enter a password to decrypt my phone. I never encrypted it. I started freaking out, at this point I probably should of started Googling for a default password or something, but in my morning stupor I rebooted the phone and it just bootlooped on me.
I got into CWM recovery, looked for a NANDROID backup but it kept telling me sdcard wasn't mounted, and attempting to mount it failed. I'm not seriously scared.
Reboot back in to CWM recovery to see if anything changes. Nope.
I Google this problem and land on this page. (I guess I can't post links, but it tells me I just have to reflash CWM) I think, "oh, I just have to reflash CWM. Not too hard!
I downloaded the GN toolkit and update to the latest CWM touch.
Attempted to reboot phone - nothing happens. All buttons unresponsive, no battery shows up when trying to charge. My laptop doesn't find it.
More Googling. I land on this page (link removed - GSM forums for legija's .bat unbrick fix thing), so I try plugging in my phone to my laptop without the battery, sure enough I see the OMAP 4460 device attempting to install. I follow the instructions and install the OMAP drivers, but when I plug in my phone it acts as if its being unplugged and replugged back in constantly. It won't stay connected for more than 3 or 4 seconds without reconnecting, so any attempts to try and use the .bat file fail
And so that's where I am. I have my phone plugged in right now incase for some reason it isn't charged, but I'm stuck. I hope I gave enough information for anyone to help me, thanks!

Sleete said:
[*]More Googling. I land on this page (link removed - GSM forums for legija's .bat unbrick fix thing), so I try plugging in my phone to my laptop without the battery, sure enough I see the OMAP 4460 device attempting to install. I follow the instructions and install the OMAP drivers, but when I plug in my phone it acts as if its being unplugged and replugged back in constantly. It won't stay connected for more than 3 or 4 seconds without reconnecting, so any attempts to try and use the .bat file fail[/list]
And so that's where I am. I have my phone plugged in right now incase for some reason it isn't charged, but I'm stuck. I hope I gave enough information for anyone to help me, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
some also have had this issue "It won't stay connected for more than 3 or 4 seconds without reconnecting, so any attempts to try and use the .bat file fail"
but no, they've managed to do it in the end, it's just that you have to be ultra-quick
can you still get in fastboot/bootloader? if yes, flash latest twrp (i'm sure it supports encryption); if after flashing twrp it still doesn't work, flash google stock images by following the procedure here

Thought I should update this in case anyone else manages to hard-brick their phone, but I sent it in to Samsung and they replaced the entire mobo under warranty. I think they either didn't care or it was bricked enough where they couldn't tell I rooted it. Also good side effect of fixing the finicky USB port on my phone. Happy ending!

...

I was on the FK23 rom for a while, and everything was working perfectly. However, last night, I ran a white noise machine app from my phone while it was on the charger all night.
When I went to unlock the phone this morning, it wouldn't unlock, so I pulled the battery, and it started to bootloop. It would do the Galaxy SII screen, then the Sprint bootup, then it would play the Sprint boot down animation. Over and over.
So I tried flashing FL16 with ODIN, and when I do that, it gets stuck on hidden.img and doesn't do anything. Then I tried flashing EL29 with ODIN, and it gets stuck on recovery.bin and doesn't do anything. I have used multiple PCs and multiple cables. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?! I just want my phone to work T_T

anchor_th said:
I was on the FK23 rom for a while, and everything was working perfectly. However, last night, I ran a white noise machine app from my phone while it was on the charger all night.
When I went to unlock the phone this morning, it wouldn't unlock, so I pulled the battery, and it started to bootloop. It would do the Galaxy SII screen, then the Sprint bootup, then it would play the Sprint boot down animation. Over and over.
So I tried flashing FL16 with ODIN, and when I do that, it gets stuck on hidden.img and doesn't do anything. Then I tried flashing EL29 with ODIN, and it gets stuck on recovery.bin and doesn't do anything. I have used multiple PCs and multiple cables. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?! I just want my phone to work T_T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a factory restore and wipe then odin one click stock EL29 and start from scratch.

I can't do a factory restore. When I hold Vol up + power, it says "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again"

:edited: Didn't see your response to graydiggy
Redownload a complete one click, verify md5 and try putting the phone in download mode and attempting again. It's possible that your download was bad.

so is there nothing I can do?

By technicality, that is not a brick. You should be able to flash from that message. That was the case with the Samsung Captivate.

I downloaded EL29 and verified it again. It is doing the same thing. stuck on recovery.bin
I also tried flashing from that message just now. Same thing. ODIN gets stuck on recovery.bin
thanks for the help but I think it's ****ed. something might have messed up in the filesystem and that's why ODIN gets stuck maybe.

anchor_th said:
I downloaded EL29 and verified it again. It is doing the same thing. stuck on recovery.bin
I also tried flashing from that message just now. Same thing. ODIN gets stuck on recovery.bin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, so I found a solution by sfhub that worked for someone from a while ago. Try using pc odin to flash each piece seperately. Modem, kernel, then rom..
Here's my ref:
See post #9 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1492771

I'll see if this works. Hopefully it does, I'm ready to toss the thing out of a window, haha
edit: noob question, how do I flash the .md5 files? I downloaded odin multi downloader but the phone doesn't show up in it.
edit 2: okay nevermind I figured it out, it seems to be flashing
edit 3: so modem flashed just fine and the phone rebooted but when I try kernel it loads the green bar all the way on odin then it freezes...
edit 4: so I think my phone's flash memory might be screwed somehow. I've been reading other threads and someone had a similar problem as me and couldn't fix it.

anchor_th said:
I'll see if this works. Hopefully it does, I'm ready to toss the thing out of a window, haha
edit: noob question, how do I flash the .md5 files? I downloaded odin multi downloader but the phone doesn't show up in it.
edit 2: okay nevermind I figured it out, it seems to be flashing
edit 3: so modem flashed just fine and the phone rebooted but when I try kernel it loads the green bar all the way on odin then it freezes...
edit 4: so I think my phone's flash memory might be screwed somehow. I've been reading other threads and someone had a similar problem as me and couldn't fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you flashed all three pieces before trying to let the phone boot completely? Once you flash the first piece and it restarts, Just hold power+vol down and get back into download. Do that until you have all three segments flashed. Then try letting it boot.

I flashed the modem, it worked, then I rebooted back into download. Then I tried flashing kernel and the bar on ODIN filled up but then it froze and did nothing. I let it sit for about 10 minutes and it still did nothing. so I tried skipping that and flashing the rom and the bar on ODIN moved barely then froze. Like I said, I think my phone's flash memory got messed up somehow. :\

anchor_th said:
I flashed the modem, it worked, then I rebooted back into download. Then I tried flashing kernel and the bar on ODIN filled up but then it froze and did nothing. I let it sit for about 10 minutes and it still did nothing. so I tried skipping that and flashing the rom and the bar on ODIN moved barely then froze. Like I said, I think my phone's flash memory got messed up somehow. :\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then there may be one more thread that might help if that's the case.
Kernel is only the zimage file. Hang on, let me find it.
:edit: Maybe this will help you. If not, maybe graydiggy or someone else has some ideas.
With this, you'll have to see if you can't flash a custom recovery. From the sound of it, it may not be helpful at all.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1865102
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

Yeah, I don't think there's a way to do that since I can't access ADB...

anchor_th said:
Yeah, I don't think there's a way to do that since I can't access ADB...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/samsung-epic-4g-touch-jtag-brick-repair/

I'll try that as a last resort. I'm going to a Sprint store tomorrow and I'll see what they tell me. I just might use all this as an excuse to finally get a Note II.

anchor_th said:
I'll try that as a last resort. I'm going to a Sprint store tomorrow and I'll see what they tell me. I just might use all this as an excuse to finally get a Note II.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They will probably know you borked it by trying to flash. If they can get to a recovery to see if you have flashed anything, you are screwed.
Do you by chance have a USB Download Mode JIG?

No, I don't. My download count in download mode is at 1, too.... so they probably won't fix it... but I might get lucky. Who knows.
edit: the messed up thing is I don't really know what messed it up. it worked fine for about a month on FK23, then boom, this morning it won't unlock and bootloops when I pull battery. before I tried flashing it, it wouldn't even go into recovery. when I held vol up + power, it just went to the Samsung screen and rebooted over and over

anchor_th said:
No, I don't. My download count in download mode is at 1, too.... so they probably won't fix it... but I might get lucky. Who knows.
edit: the messed up thing is I don't really know what messed it up. it worked fine for about a month on FK23, then boom, this morning it won't unlock and bootloops when I pull battery. before I tried flashing it, it wouldn't even go into recovery. when I held vol up + power, it just went to the Samsung screen and rebooted over and over
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a theory... Give it a couple hours of plug in time without turning it on or trying to flash. Just give it like 3 hours and see if you can flash from there. You may have a battery that is low and it could be resulting in your problem of not being able to flash.

the battery was also on the charger all night... but I'll plug it in. is it charging even though it is on the connect to kies screen?

anchor_th said:
the battery was also on the charger all night... but I'll plug it in. is it charging even though it is on the connect to kies screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just keep it completely powered off and use the normal wall charger.