Water damage and boot loop - Google Pixel XL Questions & Answers

So dropped the pixel in pooring rain, picked it up within 5 seconds and the screen was smashed, but the phone still worked for a little bit. Then it entered a boot loop and couldn't get out of it. I took it to a repair shop and they said the thing is toast. I did a little bit of research on line, and the verdict is that it could be the flex cable. The way to test it is to just hold down the volume down and it should go into recovery mode. I told the repair shop and they said they tried it, but no such luck. I'm not sure if they actually tried it or not, but I'm not ready to give up on this thing. I've taken it apart and while charging it, I could feel it vibrate as if it would turn on, and it would repeatedly do this every 20-30 seconds. I removed the power flex cable and examined it. It doesn't seem to be damaged, but while I had it removed, the device also stopped vibrating. Since I can't see the screen I don't know if it's off, or removing the flex cable stopped the boot loop. Any ideas from the brain trust on there's hope for this thing, or should I just trash it?

Also, I just realized that when I pulled the flex cable off and put my finger on the finger print scanner the device vibrates.

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[Q] GNexus Not Booting

Sorry if this question's been answered in another thread, I tried searching and couldn't find any question that exactly matched mine, or any response that solved the issue.
I purchased a used, unlocked Galaxy Nexus from ebay around a month or two ago, in near perfect condition -- this has been the first time I've had any problems with it. It's probably not applicable, but after the release of the dev preview for Ubuntu phone OS I rooted the phone and reinstalled the factory image "takju 4.2.2 (JDQ39)".
Anyway, a few hours ago I accidentally bumped my phone off of a counter in the kitchen onto the tile floor. I picked it up and looked it over, and noticed no visible damage whatsoever, although the plastic cover had been partially dislodged; however, the phone's screen was dark, and the phone was unresponsive. I took out the battery and replaced it, then held down the power button. The phone vibrated once, like it normally did when booting up, but the screen remained black and the phone unresponsive unless I removed and reinserted the cover again.
I've tried charging it, plugging it into my pc, removing both the battery pack and the SD card, taking the battery out and rebooting it while holding both power buttons down, but I still get no response (and my computer doesn't recognize the phone when I plug it in). After reading a post where someone had success reconnecting the display, I unscrewed and removed the casing, then disconnected and reconnected the display from the motherboard -- still nothing.
Is there anything else I can do, or is my phone beyond repair?
Did you check the other connections while you had the phone apart?
bodh said:
Did you check the other connections while you had the phone apart?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I opened it up again and took pictures, but I'm not very knowledgeable about this sort of thing, so I can't tell if anything's wrong or not. Should I remove the motherboard to get a better look at the display?
You're talking about the back cover which became dislodged upon impact? I'd say you're lucky that the phone still gives that vibrate. But it seems there are so many things that could go wrong from an impact. Do you have fastboot? [I know you said you tried holding down both volume buttons and power, but try pressing them first then tapping power.] If you don't have fastboot, then your only options would be omapflash and odin. If these do not work, it's gonna be hardware. Maybe the display is gone, if you get the vibrate but see nothing..

toilet bricked..

I searched as best I could so please bare with me..
Brand new e971, less than a week old and I managed to drop it in the toilet bending over to tuck in a shoelace after I took a leak. Fell out of my sweater pocket, and right in the bowl.. that'll teach me to put the seat down.
Anyway, I was out somewhere and obviously didnt have the sim key or any tools to crack the back and pop the battery..I 'windmilled' to get what I could out.. but that was the best I could do. I held the power button down hoping itd shut off and it eventually did, flashed something on the screen and that was it.
When I was able to I opened it up and popped the battery and dried whatever water was inside, whcih there was some.. took the mainboard out, blew it off with compressed air (it was actually dry, all the covers worked well). Put it back together sans battery and put it in rice for 36~ hours or so (would have waited longer, but I was confident I got the majority of the water out in the first place).
Phone won't power on though. The best I can do is get it to start download mode by pressed vol up+down and inserting the USB. Plugging in the USB on its own sees the charge indicator flash red intermittently, in a very long slow frequency - im thinking the battery is fried, maybe the power button too. The LG logo comes on the screen for a second and disapears for about 5, and repeats this cycle.
I've never rooted or messed with anything like this before but someone said I may be able to reflash the phone and have it work.. but I really have no clue. Any advice would be appreciated.. like I said this is brand new :/
How to "Unbrick": http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010624
That reflashes new stuff.
If you hold down Volume Down + Power Key you should get into factory reset, can you see if that works or you might have fried the storage or something.
If you somehow get it to work but need battery you have here:
http://www.etradesupply.com/lg/optimus/lg-optimus-g-e975.html
Which ships World wide I think and pretty decent price.
Hope it works and please come back and tell us how it went.
wargreymon89 said:
How to "Unbrick": http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010624
That reflashes new stuff.
If you hold down Volume Down + Power Key you should get into factory reset, can you see if that works or you might have fried the storage or something.
If you somehow get it to work but need battery you have here:
http://www.etradesupply.com/lg/optimus/lg-optimus-g-e975.html
Which ships World wide I think and pretty decent price.
Hope it works and please come back and tell us how it went.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response
vol down + power key has no response
Im tempted to think the power switch is broken and the battery shorted and is dead, but I am no expert
If I plug it into USB all it does is flash the LG logo, no lights nothing.
if I hold the vol down button down, when the LG logo flashes the back/home/search buttons illuminate for a second, and occasionally the red light will come on for a second, but thats it, other than being able to get into download mode the phone is a total brick. I'll check out your link when I get home. I have insurance but there is still a replacement fee and I can't afford it right now.. and the fact that I opened the phone I think they may try to **** me over with that even though its clearly water damage (indicators are all purple/pink)
thanks again
Dudley Do-Right said:
Thanks for the response
vol down + power key has no response
Im tempted to think the power switch is broken and the battery shorted and is dead, but I am no expert
If I plug it into USB all it does is flash the LG logo, no lights nothing.
if I hold the vol down button down, when the LG logo flashes the back/home/search buttons illuminate for a second, and occasionally the red light will come on for a second, but thats it, other than being able to get into download mode the phone is a total brick. I'll check out your link when I get home. I have insurance but there is still a replacement fee and I can't afford it right now.. and the fact that I opened the phone I think they may try to **** me over with that even though its clearly water damage (indicators are all purple/pink)
thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the red light flash, it's usually because the power button is hold down. I think your power button might be stuck. Also try to plug it in wall and no on computer USB.
chadouming said:
If the red light flash, it's usually because the power button is hold down. I think your power button might be stuck. Also try to plug it in wall and no on computer USB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was at work with the phone (dropped it out somewhere and took it apart and left there) so I had not tried plugging into a regular wall charger
Plugged it into a charger, backlight came on and the LG logo flashed, went away and flashed again, but a lot faster this time, and then I got a message "battery too low to power on!! I assume its charging, or trying to?!?! The red light goes bright, and then dims to nothing, and then goes bright again. Pressing the power button turns the screen on to the "too low to power on" screen again, and pressing again turns it off as per normal!
I'm kind of excited now, it may just be the battery after all.
Now, either the water shorted it and ruined it (and ill be checking the phone closely to see the lipo doesnt blow up on me..), or somehow the battery fully discharged? The battery was pretty full around the time of the toilet incident, but stranger things have happened right?
Dudley Do-Right said:
I was at work with the phone (dropped it out somewhere and took it apart and left there) so I had not tried plugging into a regular wall charger
Plugged it into a charger, backlight came on and the LG logo flashed, went away and flashed again, but a lot faster this time, and then I got a message "battery too low to power on!! I assume its charging, or trying to?!?! The red light goes bright, and then dims to nothing, and then goes bright again. Pressing the power button turns the screen on to the "too low to power on" screen again, and pressing again turns it off as per normal!
I'm kind of excited now, it may just be the battery after all.
Now, either the water shorted it and ruined it (and ill be checking the phone closely to see the lipo doesnt blow up on me..), or somehow the battery fully discharged? The battery was pretty full around the time of the toilet incident, but stranger things have happened right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The indicator going from dim to bright during charging is pretty normal. It also means your battery is charging. Give it a full charge and see how it goes. And do try keeping your phone in your trouser pockets. It's safer that way.
MarcSinger said:
The indicator going from dim to bright during charging is pretty normal. It also means your battery is charging. Give it a full charge and see how it goes. And do try keeping your phone in your trouser pockets. It's safer that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I left it on the wall charger for a little over an hour but the phone appeared to make no progress so I unplugged it deeming the battery dead, that and I didnt want to run the risk of anything bad happening charging a dead battery (im a little leery with these lipo's due to my RC experience with them..). Maybe I'll try again for a while this evening.. but since the battery had a full charge prior to toileting, I can't imagine it totally discharging; is this possible? The other not so nice reality is that maybe the power circuit on the mainboard fried and its not reading the battery properly?
Yes.. will definitely have to keep phones in my trousers and put all seats down from now on..
So I'll try charging again for a longer time period to see what happens, otherwise I'll be ordering a battery on Monday and waiting about a week to two weeks for it
I'll keep the thread updated as much as I can without double posting
Thanks for the response
Well.. you'll never believe this but.. it works. Flawlessly as if the toilet never happened..
I tried the insurance route being that a battery shipped to me would cost half the price of a claimed replacement and it would have been a gamble.. so I went that route. Was told they denied my claim because my insurance was not activated because I need to make an outgoing phone call.. I only ever text and had not made one..
So down in the dumps and considering spending $25 shipping on a $30 battery, I went home and decided to try the phone one more time by reseating the battery..
I plugged it into the charger and got a blue battery charging.. I pressed the power on button and the phone came to life..
Not sure what the hell happened, maybe the battery needed to dry out inside or it wasnt seated just right the last time I tried but everything is working flawlessly.. wow. I am in shock.
Now I guess its time to root it
Thanks everyone for the advice and tips, but it seems all I needed was some time and luck!

[Q] Phone wont boot after replacing charger port.

So here's how it went:
I opened the phone, replaced the port (the small boardlike thing)
assembled my phone to try it.
The phone started
Then I put all the screws and sim card But I didnt get signal no matter how long I waited
So I dissassembled it again. I was a bit harsh and broke the "Power" button. (the rubber thing that makes it bounce fell off, and an small metallic circle that probably completes the circuit fell off as well.
(Google "galaxy note 2 charger port" for a picture, cant post external links @[email protected])
Checked everything was plugged properly and tried to start it with the tip of a paper clip to complete the circuit where the power button should be (that small round thing)
Nothing happened so I googled a method to start it without using the powerbutton:
youtube: Gre9qaJyCZw
Basically its to plug the charger, wait for the battery logo to show, unplug, take out the battery and put it back in quickly.
So I assembled the phone again to try that and when I connect it to charge it the screen flashes for half a second (no words no nothing, it just brightens up for a bit) And then the red led that means its charging turns on after a couple of seconds.
After doing the trick, the led turns on blue....then the phone vibrates a bit(seems its starting up, but with no sound or nothing in the screen)
And then the "menu" soft key blinks a couple of times and then back to nothing
So I just have no idea what to do @[email protected] I dont mind replacing the button but I would rather not spend on it if there's something else wrong with the phone...any ideas?
And I just bought this to replace another phone that broke ;_;
EDIT::::::
I replaced the charger port for the old one and tried the starting trick. but to the same result: after doing the trick, the led turns on blue....then the phone vibrates a bit(seems its starting up, but with no sound or nothing in the screen)
And then the "menu" soft key blinks a couple of times and then back to nothing
Shmendrich said:
So here's how it went:
I opened the phone, replaced the port (the small boardlike thing)
assembled my phone to try it.
The phone started
Then I put all the screws and sim card But I didnt get signal no matter how long I waited
So I dissassembled it again. I was a bit harsh and broke the "Power" button. (the rubber thing that makes it bounce fell off, and an small metallic circle that probably completes the circuit fell off as well.
(Google "galaxy note 2 charger port" for a picture, cant post external links @[email protected])
Checked everything was plugged properly and tried to start it with the tip of a paper clip to complete the circuit where the power button should be (that small round thing)
Nothing happened so I googled a method to start it without using the powerbutton:
youtube: Gre9qaJyCZw
Basically its to plug the charger, wait for the battery logo to show, unplug, take out the battery and put it back in quickly.
So I assembled the phone again to try that and when I connect it to charge it the screen flashes for half a second (no words no nothing, it just brightens up for a bit) And then the red led that means its charging turns on after a couple of seconds.
After doing the trick, the led turns on blue....then the phone vibrates a bit(seems its starting up, but with no sound or nothing in the screen)
And then the "menu" soft key blinks a couple of times and then back to nothing
So I just have no idea what to do @[email protected] I dont mind replacing the button but I would rather not spend on it if there's something else wrong with the phone...any ideas?
And I just bought this to replace another phone that broke ;_;
EDIT::::::
I replaced the charger port for the old one and tried the starting trick. What happened now is that after doing the trick, the led turns on blue....then the phone vibrates a bit(seems its starting up, but with no sound or nothing in the screen)
And then the "menu" soft key blinks a couple of times and then back to nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you probably messed up the mainboard or some connections.
Try to power it on with microusb board disconnected.
Make sure every single connection to the main board is connected properly
yaro666 said:
you probably messed up the mainboard or some connections.
Try to power it on with microusb board disconnected.
Make sure every single connection to the main board is connected properly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any suggestion as to how I can start the phone with the power button broken and without the microusb board?
I already checked all the connections that you can see when replacing the microusb board (the back side of the motherboard) Is there connections worth checking in the front?
Do those symptoms sound familiar for any specific problems? (Like non working screen or motherboard)
- Charging takes a couple of seconds to turn on the red led when connected but shows nothing on the screen.
- Trying to start it with taking out the battery trick makes the led turn blue, then the phone vibrates a bit, then the menu soft key flashes a couple of times.
Update: I found 2 more symptoms
1° Kept restarting the phone with the battery trick, and a couple of times I could hear the music of the phone starting up, but it seems to be at random or due to some factor I have not spotted yet
2° If I connect it to the computer it detects the phone and lets me access the files. Kies detects it as well
If phone can be accessed through kies I think you have broken some connection between logic board.
Power button and volume + - buttons should have the same round metal part, which will work after swapping.
I think you should give up, maybe there is still hope for repair.
yaro666 said:
If phone can be accessed through kies I think you have broken some connection between logic board.
Power button and volume + - buttons should have the same round metal part, which will work after swapping.
I think you should give up, maybe there is still hope for repair.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the weird thing. if you take a look at that phone's board, the only things that are within "breakable" range when you open it with a plastic tool are:
power button
charger port
earphones port
volume buttons
And they all seem fine except for the power button. there's no other flexors or anything even remotely close to where the tool was used. (and where I got a bit rough)

Phone dead (Bricked!?), am I able to revive it?

Yesterday my Nexus 5X died. Last thing I saw was that is had entered power save mode, around 15 minutes later I wanted to check my phone but it didn't do anything. Not even the red LED when it's empty. Though, I thought maybe it's power is so low it can't even show me that.
When I got home I plugged it into the charger but still nothing happened. Left it charging all night, no sign of life. I'm not able to enter the menu by pressing volume down + power for several seconds. Tried to plug it into my pc, but my pc doesn't seem to recognize anything plugged it..
Hope you guys can help me, if I send my phone back to the place I got it from I'll have to wait around 3 weeks. This is so frustrating!
Okay nevermind, it seems the Nexus phones have some sort of security for water damage inside of 'em. Got a notification that my power was cut off to prevent damage due to water damage. It waited untill it was dry and it is working fine now.

Why phone boot itself and stuck in bootloop when drop into water?

I just drop my whole phone into water.
This is the first time so I a bit shocked and dont know what to do.
By the time I take my phone up, its about 10 seconds drowning in water.
The first thing I do is power it off.
Then I wipe the water away with a cloth.
Water is already inside and maybe short circuit happened? Causing the phone to boot itself and stuck in bootloop.
I cannot turn it off by pressing power button, so I connect my phone to computer and press power button and volume down button going to fastboot mode.
But the fastboot mode just lasts a while and then it goes back to bootloop.
So, I have no choice but to open up the phone for first time.
I found that a lot of water comes in through the charge port and there are many water on the board near charge port.
After drying it for few seconds, my phone exit bootloop and boot successfully.
Anyone know the actual reason the phone boot itself and stuck in bootloop?
coolwei1 said:
I just drop my whole phone into water.
This is the first time so I a bit shocked and dont know what to do.
By the time I take my phone up, its about 10 seconds drowning in water.
The first thing I do is power it off.
Then I wipe the water away with a cloth.
Water is already inside and maybe short circuit happened? Causing the phone to boot itself and stuck in bootloop.
I cannot turn it off by pressing power button, so I connect my phone to computer and press power button and volume down button going to fastboot mode.
But the fastboot mode just lasts a while and then it goes back to bootloop.
So, I have no choice but to open up the phone for first time.
I found that a lot of water comes in through the charge port and there are many water on the board near charge port.
After drying it for few seconds, my phone exit bootloop and boot successfully.
Anyone know the actual reason the phone boot itself and stuck in bootloop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Corrosion shorting out contacts, sending commands to the cpu.
Clean the board with isopropyl alcohol, the best concentration you can find, no less than 70%. The best method would be ultrasonic, but if you don't have such device, every switch and button should be submerged in alcohol and pressed/depressed a few time and then let it dry. The board should be cleaned with a q-tip. If you don't do that now, right after the water damage already started, corrosion will kill SMD chips in the future. At least now, you can save it long-term.
TheoXSD said:
Corrosion shorting out contacts, sending commands to the cpu.
Clean the board with isopropyl alcohol, the best concentration you can find, no less than 70%. The best method would be ultrasonic, but if you don't have such device, every switch and button should be submerged in alcohol and pressed/depressed a few time and then let it dry. The board should be cleaned with a q-tip. If you don't do that now, right after the water damage already started, corrosion will kill SMD chips in the future. At least now, you can save it long-term.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see, if you didn't tell me I'll just move on and though my phone is invincible.
Thank you for your advice, I'll do it soon.
coolwei1 said:
Anyone know the actual reason the phone boot itself and stuck in bootloop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you plug into USB the phone turns on. If the water shorts out some pins on the USB connector, it probably seems to the phone like it should turn on.
I have no idea why it bootlooped.

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