I'm posting here because this is the only place I can think of to turn to where people are both knowledgeable and helpful.
I have a Pixel 3 XL, which I've had since November, and has worked without incident until yesterday. One of my main reasons for choosing this phone was the alleged support for root, but I haven't actually rooted it because the guides that I've seen up to this point still seem to indicate that there is some loss of functionality involved.
Yesterday I went for a walk to visit an old neighbor. The phone was at about 80% charge when I left, and working fine. At some point during the visit, I pulled out my phone to check for any messages, and couldn't see the screen. I thought it might be because it was bright outside, so I put it away again. A little later, I checked it again and still couldn't see, so I went indoors to look. Nothing. The screen was completely blank, and the phone wouldn't wake up from the fingerprint sensor or the power button. I tried holding the power button down for 10 seconds, then 30 seconds, then a minute and more, and nothing. I figured maybe the power had drained and it was off, so I'd check it out later. A little after that the phone rang, but the screen was still off and I couldn't answer it.
To fast-forward a bit, at present the phone is *almost* functionally a brick. If I get a call, it rings and vibrates, and if I swipe from the right spot on the screen I can answer the call. Also, alarms that I had set on the phone still rang this morning. Unfortunately, that's it. Without any indicator lights it's hard to know for sure if the phone is on or off, and no amount of holding down the buttons seems to do much more than maybe reboot it. I cannot reach the phone using Airdroid, Teamviewer, or Find my phone, so there seems to be little or no network communication happening.
I called Google, and their suggestion (after trying to get the phone to ring with the Find my phone option) was to try to erase everything. While I don't think that will work, I also don't want to try. I don't want to wipe out the phone without saving everything on it! They gave me the standard line about "most of your things should be backed up," but that's not true of apps that weren't installed through the play store, along with all of the associated data for those apps. They told me to take it to one of their partner companies, "ubreakifix," to have someone look at it, but the person at the store said they wouldn't be able to look at it for a few days, and that wiping out the phone is the first thing they'd do anyway. They say I just need to send it back to Google, and that they'll either fix it or, more likely, send me a replacement, but that they'll wipe it out too.
I find this incredibly frustrating. Without removable storage, everything is locked up inside the phone when something like this happens. Without root, I don't have the access authority to fully backup apps and data. Without a removable battery, I can't even fully power down and restart the device! On top of all of that, even if I get a replacement, there's no guarantee that this won't happen again, since I have no idea what caused it this time. I didn't drop the phone. I didn't spill anything on it. I just put it in my pocket like I do every day.
So here are my questions to you, the members of the developer and modding community: Is there anything else I can do? Does anyone know if I can pry the thing open and attach a cord somewhere internally to access the on-board memory? Is there a way to determine for sure if the issue is the screen, the motherboard, or something else, short of sending it out to never see again? Am I the only one who finds the attitude of wiping out a phone as the default practice for any difficulty to be incredibly frustrating? I would be grateful for any suggestions or insights that you may have to share!
Thank you for reading this, and I hope to get some good news.
Not sure if it's similar to your situation or not, but a few weeks ago I rebooted my phone because it wasn't syncing with my Fitbit. I rebooted it and walked to the kitchen. Came back and hit power button, nothing happened. Fingerprint sensor, nothing happened. If I pressed and held the power button I could feel a brief vibration like it does when the power menu slides out, but the screen was off. I didn't get any calls or anything so I can't say if I could have answered them like you did.
I pressed and held the power button for 5-10 seconds trying to induce a reboot and nothing happened. I tried power and volume down to get to bootloader and nothing happened. I held power again for about 30 seconds and it rebooted, but it erased all my wifi networks. Other than that, everything was normal. I was on the Q beta so it could be related to that.
If you happen to have USB debugging turned on and your PC is authorized you can try using these commands to force the backup to run and backup your SMS, calls, apps/data (for the ones that are supported). I know it's not much but worth a shot.
Code:
adb shell
bmgr run
bmgr backupnow --all
I usually run that before opting into/out of a beta, flashing/factory resetting, etc.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the quick reply.
It sounds like your experience wasn't entirely like mine, but it does bear similarities. I'm curious about it erasing your wifi networks...might that be a factor in why mine isn't getting online? It wouldn't explain everything, but suppose wifi and/or wireless data is turned off (for some reason), and the phone could theoretically still be functional without seeming like it.
I have a micro USB cord with a little adapter to USB-C that I use for charging. I tried plugging the whole thing into my computer (I've got a chromebook with me right now), but it didn't notice anything being there. I don't know if this cord works only for charging, or if it works for data too, and similarly without the screen turning on, I don't know if the phone is set to allow connections, although it should be. I'll try to get a different cable this evening and see if I can get further. If adb works, I'll definitely try those commands.
Thank you again, and any other thoughts are still very welcome!
fury683 said:
Not sure if it's similar to your situation or not, but a few weeks ago I rebooted my phone because it wasn't syncing with my Fitbit. I rebooted it and walked to the kitchen. Came back and hit power button, nothing happened. Fingerprint sensor, nothing happened. If I pressed and held the power button I could feel a brief vibration like it does when the power menu slides out, but the screen was off. I didn't get any calls or anything so I can't say if I could have answered them like you did.
I pressed and held the power button for 5-10 seconds trying to induce a reboot and nothing happened. I tried power and volume down to get to bootloader and nothing happened. I held power again for about 30 seconds and it rebooted, but it erased all my wifi networks. Other than that, everything was normal. I was on the Q beta so it could be related to that.
If you happen to have USB debugging turned on and your PC is authorized you can try using these commands to force the backup to run and backup your SMS, calls, apps/data (for the ones that are supported). I know it's not much but worth a shot.
Code:
adb shell
bmgr run
bmgr backupnow --all
I usually run that before opting into/out of a beta, flashing/factory resetting, etc.
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FireflyII said:
Thanks for the quick reply.
It sounds like your experience wasn't entirely like mine, but it does bear similarities. I'm curious about it erasing your wifi networks...might that be a factor in why mine isn't getting online? It wouldn't explain everything, but suppose wifi and/or wireless data is turned off (for some reason), and the phone could theoretically still be functional without seeming like it.
I have a micro USB cord with a little adapter to USB-C that I use for charging. I tried plugging the whole thing into my computer (I've got a chromebook with me right now), but it didn't notice anything being there. I don't know if this cord works only for charging, or if it works for data too, and similarly without the screen turning on, I don't know if the phone is set to allow connections, although it should be. I'll try to get a different cable this evening and see if I can get further. If adb works, I'll definitely try those commands.
Thank you again, and any other thoughts are still very welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cords are kind of goofy. If you have a machine that supports C-C or an A-C cable, I would use that. In my experience they work much better without adapters. Also with a Chromebook, about the only thing you'd likely see is the photos folder if it was in PTP mode (I think). The Chromebook may also have a notification about it providing power to the USB device, but I'm not 100% sure. I don't think the microUSB->C adapters can do data, or at least the C->microUSB adapter I have (my Bose headphones are the only thing I keep in my bag that charges with microUSB anymore) does not do data.
Does the phone do anything when you press the power button? Does it vibrate at all, or if you keep holding it does anything come on the screen (Google logo, recovery, fastboot, etc). I'd try getting into Fastboot and see if the screen itself works. If it does, that might be a good sign. Hopefully you can then get into recovery and do a reset. I would suck to lose all your apps and data and stuff but it would be better than the brick it is now, I guess. You can go here and double click the device to see what is backed up and when it was last backed up: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/backups. I know that won't help you with non-Play apps like you said in your OP but it is better than starting over 100% from scratch.
If you can approximate the location of the buttons you could also try swiping down to the notification shade and tapping the quick tiles you might have in your top row. For example I have Flashlight as my far right one. If you can guess roughly where it might be you can see if the flashlight comes on, which might help determine that the screen is the issue, etc. Double tap power button to see if the camera opens (vibrates when it does) etc.
If I think of anything else to try I'll let you know.
fury683 said:
Cords are kind of goofy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I was a little annoyed at the tech I went to for telling me that "the charging cable is a data cable, they're the same thing."
As a brief update, I got ADB installed and running on the chromebook in anticipation of trying the commands. Plugging in the phone yields nothing in adb. However, I also tried with someone else's phone (after enabling developer mode and USB debugging) to see if it's the computer, and it doesn't see that phone either, so maybe I'm missing something else in how it works.
fury683 said:
Does the phone do anything when you press the power button? Does it vibrate at all, or if you keep holding it does anything come on the screen (Google logo, recovery, fastboot, etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pressing the power button doesn't do anything noticeable. No vibration, and nothing on the screen. If I touch the fingerprint sensor I get the little vibration of acknowledgment that usually means that the phone is unlocking. A further complication comes from the fact that the first time after rebooting, the phone requires a code and won't unlock just from the fingerprint. I found that when I pick up an incoming call (by touching the right part of the screen), the number buttons (for dialing) respond as well. I don't think they're in exactly the same place on the lock screen though.
fury683 said:
If you can approximate the location of the buttons you could also try swiping down to the notification shade and tapping the quick tiles you might have in your top row.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that would help if I could figure out where those are on the screen. I don't remember for sure what order things show up in, though, and I don't know if that menu even comes up if the phone isn't unlocked. Double-clicking the power button doesn't do anything either, whereas it usually vibrates a little and launches the camera.
I still plan on trying to get a different cable later, but if I can't get something from ADB on a different phone either, I might need to wait until I can use a different computer.
Another update:
I went and bought a new USB-C cord and hooked up the phone. ADB does, indeed, recognize that there is something there, however it gives me this:
error: device unauthorized.
This adb server's $ADB_VENDOR_KEYS is not set
Try 'adb kill-server' if that seems wrong.
Otherwise check for a confirmation dialog on your device.
A little searching turns up suggestions to delete one or two files (which I did), and....disable/reenable and accept the incoming connection on the phone! Well, I can't exactly do that. Any ideas on what to do from this side?
Thanks again!
FireflyII said:
Agreed. I was a little annoyed at the tech I went to for telling me that "the charging cable is a data cable, they're the same thing."
As a brief update, I got ADB installed and running on the chromebook in anticipation of trying the commands. Plugging in the phone yields nothing in adb. However, I also tried with someone else's phone (after enabling developer mode and USB debugging) to see if it's the computer, and it doesn't see that phone either, so maybe I'm missing something else in how it works.
Pressing the power button doesn't do anything noticeable. No vibration, and nothing on the screen. If I touch the fingerprint sensor I get the little vibration of acknowledgment that usually means that the phone is unlocking. A further complication comes from the fact that the first time after rebooting, the phone requires a code and won't unlock just from the fingerprint. I found that when I pick up an incoming call (by touching the right part of the screen), the number buttons (for dialing) respond as well. I don't think they're in exactly the same place on the lock screen though.
Yes, that would help if I could figure out where those are on the screen. I don't remember for sure what order things show up in, though, and I don't know if that menu even comes up if the phone isn't unlocked. Double-clicking the power button doesn't do anything either, whereas it usually vibrates a little and launches the camera.
I still plan on trying to get a different cable later, but if I can't get something from ADB on a different phone either, I might need to wait until I can use a different computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fury683 said:
If you can approximate the location of the buttons you could also try swiping down to the notification shade and tapping the quick tiles you might have in your top row. For example I have Flashlight as my far right one. If you can guess roughly where it might be you can see if the flashlight comes on, which might help determine that the screen is the issue, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? I found the flashlight. I called the phone, answered by swiping the general location, and tapped around the screen listening to touch-tones until I had a decent sense of where the number pad is on the screen. After hanging up, I touched the fingerprint reader, tapped my password into what might be the location of the numbers, and then dragged down from the top of the screen to get to those tiles. Tapped a little here and a little there, and lo and behold, the flashlight toggles on and off!
So at this point, I'm not *sure* that I've logged into the phone, although it seems plausible, and confirmed that behind the darkness there is something running. If you're right about the wifi having been forgotten though, it may be hard to check on whether it's connected. I don't suppose you could share a screenshot of giving ADB permissions so that I have an idea of where on the screen to tap if the message is popping up. If I could get that to accept and then get into the phone with ADB to back up my files I would be far more at ease with sending the phone off for repair!
Current status: slightly less of a brick than before, but still a ways to go!
Unfortunately the flashlight will toggle on even when locked. Also, depending on your lockscreen notification setting you would not be able to grant your computer adb access without the screen unlocked. Try holding the button combo to get to bootloader with the phone plugged in. That way you can hear a sound through the chromebook if it disconnects and reconnects. If you get that use fastboot devices to see if it is recognized. From there you could try to flash factory image without wipe and see if it helps.
wangdaning said:
Unfortunately the flashlight will toggle on even when locked. Also, depending on your lockscreen notification setting you would not be able to grant your computer adb access without the screen unlocked. Try holding the button combo to get to bootloader with the phone plugged in. That way you can hear a sound through the chromebook if it disconnects and reconnects. If you get that use fastboot devices to see if it is recognized. From there you could try to flash factory image without wipe and see if it helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm. I hadn't realized that the flashlight works from the lock screen. Any idea what else works from there? Is it possible to toggle wireless data, wifi, airplane mode, etc from the lock screen? I've been tapping around the area where the flashlight control is, but I don't know what, if anything, is being accomplished.
By a combination of button presses and the fastboot reboot-bootloader command, I'm reasonably certain that I'm getting it to boot to the bootloader (at least it tells me on the chromebook that it was successful in that), but there's still nothing on the phone's screen and I'm not sure what to do from there. How do I flash an image without wipe, and what would that accomplish? Ideally at this point I'd just like a way to either perform a backup or outright copy files from the phone to the computer, and I need a way to grant the permissions to allow that.
Thank you for helping!
FireflyII said:
Hm. I hadn't realized that the flashlight works from the lock screen. Any idea what else works from there? Is it possible to toggle wireless data, wifi, airplane mode, etc from the lock screen? I've been tapping around the area where the flashlight control is, but I don't know what, if anything, is being accomplished.
By a combination of button presses and the fastboot reboot-bootloader command, I'm reasonably certain that I'm getting it to boot to the bootloader (at least it tells me on the chromebook that it was successful in that), but there's still nothing on the phone's screen and I'm not sure what to do from there. How do I flash an image without wipe, and what would that accomplish? Ideally at this point I'd just like a way to either perform a backup or outright copy files from the phone to the computer, and I need a way to grant the permissions to allow that.
Thank you for helping!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@FireflyII
To install the factory image without wiping data or internal storage edit the flash-all file. remove the minus w (-w) before update.
- Then connect your phone to the computer
- Open a Command prompt in the Platform-tools folder.
- At the command prompt type flash-all
If it is successful your phone should boot into the OS
Do you have a USB keyboard handy? I just connected mine via the USB adapter in the box for my phone, rebooted and used it to put in my PIN and get into my phone. After rebooting I tapped the fingerprint sensor to show the PIN screen and typed my PIN on the numpad (had to turn numlock on) and pressed enter and it went to my home screen.
I swiped my notification shade down (two long swipes to get it to show the settings icon) and was able to use TAB to get to the settings gear (19 taps of tab...) and press enter to get to settings. From there you could try getting to the USB Debugging settings. Here are some screenshots to help with that:
Scroll to the very bottom of settings and pick System if you've already enabled Developer Options:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
If you haven't enabled it before you have to go to About and scroll to the very bottom and tap Developer Options 7 (I think?) times. I can't remember if it requires a PIN to enable or not.... someone else might need to sound off on that one.
On the System screen about halfway down there is an Advanced rollup. Expanding that shows Developer Options:
Once you are on Developer Options what I did was touch just above my home button on Apply Automatic Updates. I slid my finger up so that it was even with the VOL UP button, that brought "Enable USB Debugging" to the area just above the home button. Toggle is on the right:
Also to build on what the others have said, if your bootloader is unlocked you could try flashing the factory image (remove -w from the flash-all.bat or sh to preserve data) to see if that gets it going. Hopefully the keyboard helps making things a little easier to move around.
--After I typed all that I realized there is a search bar in settings. Mine doesn't seem to be doing anything, might be a bug in Q. I connected the keyboard to my fiancee's Pixel 3 (not XL) and typing "USB Debug" didn't find anything but she has Developer Options off. Looks like you can search for whatever screen you're trying to get to and it should even scroll to that option if it's not on the screen. Once on a screen you can use the arrow keys to move through them and press enter to go into that screen. Might be a little easier to use a keyboard for navigation than going blind
Hope this helps!!!
If you never rooted or installed twrp you should have factory recovery and could try an ota (would be blind hard button pushing). If bootloader unlocked you could try factory image without wipe. It would be a last attempt I guess. I think adb is available in stock recovery to do backup maybe (Again blind hard button pushing). If you have unlocked bootloader you could try to do a data backup with twrp, though that would be blind screen button pushing, which is not easy.
Somethings we need to know, did you unlock bootloader? What is the state of developer options?
I am only saying a factory image flash to see if your screen comes back. If it does not it must be some issue with the screen, not a software issue. Was the the phone ever dropped? Any reason a connection might have came loose?
Homeboy76 said:
@FireflyII
To install the factory image without wiping data or internal storage edit the flash-all file. remove the minus w (-w) before update.
- Then connect your phone to the computer
- Open a Command prompt in the Platform-tools folder.
- At the command prompt type flash-all
If it is successful your phone should boot into the OS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm traveling today and will have to try this out tonight. Just to clarify a few things though, where are these files? I've flashed other phones with custom recovery and ROMs before, but not this one yet. Will it be obvious when I download the factory image?
Also, assuming that the process works, where does that put me? I understand how it would help if there is something corrupt that is keeping the phone from working correctly, but in that case I would expect the screen to show something, at least when rebooting. If the display is physically broken and the phone is otherwise working, does installing the factory image and letting it start up mean that it will let me connect with adb? I would expect the result to be either the same as where I am now, or possibly slightly worse if it resets to non-debug-over-usb mode! As I said, I'm up for trying it, but I'd like to know what changes to expect beforehand, if possible.
Thanks again.
FireflyII said:
I'm traveling today and will have to try this out tonight. Just to clarify a few things though, where are these files? I've flashed other phones with custom recovery and ROMs before, but not this one yet. Will it be obvious when I download the factory image?
Also, assuming that the process works, where does that put me? I understand how it would help if there is something corrupt that is keeping the phone from working correctly, but in that case I would expect the screen to show something, at least when rebooting. If the display is physically broken and the phone is otherwise working, does installing the factory image and letting it start up mean that it will let me connect with adb? I would expect the result to be either the same as where I am now, or possibly slightly worse if it resets to non-debug-over-usb mode! As I said, I'm up for trying it, but I'd like to know what changes to expect beforehand, if possible.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sure sounds like something happened to the screen to me. Could be a connector unplugged, bad display, etc. Flashing the factory image isn't going to help any of that.
fury683 said:
Do you have a USB keyboard handy? I just connected mine via the USB adapter in the box for my phone, rebooted and used it to put in my PIN and get into my phone. After rebooting I tapped the fingerprint sensor to show the PIN screen and typed my PIN on the numpad (had to turn numlock on) and pressed enter and it went to my home screen.... Might be a little easier to use a keyboard for navigation than going blind
Hope this helps!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely! I didn't know that you could use a keyboard to enter the PIN, that is certainly helpful! Thank you also for the screenshots and descriptive locations for things. I've got about another hour or so before I get home and can try these out, but thank you very much!
Happy to help, man. Let me know how it goes or if you need any more help. ?
fury683 said:
Happy to help, man. Let me know how it goes or if you need any more help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I have something of a new development now. After traveling all day and not knowing for sure if the phone was on or off, I wasn't getting much from it on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, so I plugged it in, waited until I got the flashlight on, and left it to charge during the day while I attended to other things. This morning the alarm on the phone went off, and I swiped to the side...a bit later it rang again, so I assumed I had done "snooze" and swiped the other way. Again, it rang after a while, but this time I let it go. Once I had a moment, I pulled out the charger and tried the keyboard. Nothing. Now the phone is totally inert--it doesn't ring when called, the flashlight doesn't respond, and no amount of pressing and holding the buttons brings it back. However, almost as soon as I plug it in again, I am able to use the flashlight. Disconnect, nothing. This seems like a power issue to me. Ordinarily at this point I'd open up the phone to check out the battery (okay, honestly I'd have done that a while ago), but the phone is sealed. I found a tear-down guide on ifixit that suggests using suction cups and possibly a heat source to pry the thing open, but I don't have any suction cups on hand and am dubious about finding ones strong enough locally.
So to sum up:
The phone is a brick until I plug it in. At that point the little fingerprint sensor vibrates when touched, and I can toggle the flashlight on and off. I can disconnect the power and still have the flashlight working until I touch the fingerprint sensor again. At that point, it doesn't vibrate, but the phone returns to brick status.
*sigh*
Time to call Google again, I think.
FireflyII said:
Well, I have something of a new development now. After traveling all day and not knowing for sure if the phone was on or off, I wasn't getting much from it on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, so I plugged it in, waited until I got the flashlight on, and left it to charge during the day while I attended to other things. This morning the alarm on the phone went off, and I swiped to the side...a bit later it rang again, so I assumed I had done "snooze" and swiped the other way. Again, it rang after a while, but this time I let it go. Once I had a moment, I pulled out the charger and tried the keyboard. Nothing. Now the phone is totally inert--it doesn't ring when called, the flashlight doesn't respond, and no amount of pressing and holding the buttons brings it back. However, almost as soon as I plug it in again, I am able to use the flashlight. Disconnect, nothing. This seems like a power issue to me. Ordinarily at this point I'd open up the phone to check out the battery (okay, honestly I'd have done that a while ago), but the phone is sealed. I found a tear-down guide on ifixit that suggests using suction cups and possibly a heat source to pry the thing open, but I don't have any suction cups on hand and am dubious about finding ones strong enough locally.
So to sum up:
The phone is a brick until I plug it in. At that point the little fingerprint sensor vibrates when touched, and I can toggle the flashlight on and off. I can disconnect the power and still have the flashlight working until I touch the fingerprint sensor again. At that point, it doesn't vibrate, but the phone returns to brick status.
*sigh*
Time to call Google again, I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it provide any power to the keyboard? If you turn the numlock or capslock on you might be able to see if the keyboard is powered.
I just plugged one in and tried it and found tapping spacebar brings up the PIN entry. Get it to boot, tap spacebar enter PIN and hit enter. Like I said, that might not do much if you can't confirm you're in without a screen...
---------- Post added at 02:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:37 PM ----------
Also, have you tried using a wireless charger to see if that does anything differently? Might be useful to charge wirelessly and use the USB port for keyboard if it dies without a charger?
Related
I have a HTC Tilt 2... I have been having a ton of problems with this phone but when it really freaks out, I usually take the battery out, let it sit a few days and then it starts working again. My phone started doing some funny things today so I restarted it as usual, it freezes and I remove the battery. When I turned it back on I got a red, green, blue and white screen with text:
RHOD300 32M MI-BC
SPL-0.87.0000
MicroP(LED) 0x0A
MicroP(KEY) 0x04
TURBO HW/TURBO SW
TP MFG DATA
498, 526 792,855
795,211 214,211
223,845 Calibrated
This has never happened before.
This RGB&W screen used to say serial when it first happend a few hours ago but then I installed ActiveSync and plugged it into PC, now says USB.
ActiveSync won't recognize my device, it does appear in My Computer.
I tried following directions in another forum to turn the device off then hold the pickup/hangup/power button at the same time...a different screen appeared than the forum directed, a gray screen with "Trigger Ramdump Mode"...then I couldn't do anything.
I can restart it back into the tri-color screen...
I need help in laymen's terms. I've never tried to change anything about the phone's operating system, I've never done an update or anything, I do not have the Tilt2 CD.
Right now I have my SIM card and my SanDisk card removed, I was afraid it could get erased when I tried the pickup/hangup/power button trick.
PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!!!!!!!!!
This screen is called the bootloader. Its used by technicians (or more advanced users) to load the OS or "ROM" onto the phone. It may be stuck in bootloader because some of the OS files are damaged or missing, and the OS is not booting up. Or possibly even a hardware failure.
Pulling the battery may/may not be the culprit. I've read someone on here mention that pulling the battery can corrupt files on the phone. If the phone is lagging, frozen, then pulling the battery is not the correct way to restart the phone. The correct method of restarting the phone by soft reset is done by sticking the stylus into the small red hole/button on the side of the phone, while the batter cover is off:
http://www.hardreset.eu/htc_touch_pro_2_rhodium_hard_reset_soft_reset_en.html
Pulling the battery is only a method of last resort, as the soft reset button will work in almost all cases.
Hard reset by holding TALK, END and POWER is probably not going to work. It requires the OS to be working, and you are not even getting to the point that the OS is booting.
Its supposed to say "USB" when the phone is connected to your PC via the USB cable. If I remember properly, it will say "Serial" in bootloader for a second when you plug the phone to USB, and switch to saying "USB" after that. USB is a form of serial connection, after all (USB = Universal Serial Bus). As long as it says "USB", you are in somewhat good shape, since it SHOULD allow you to try the following.
Try downloading the latest ROM from HTC. This is actually a newer version than the ROM that was originally on your phone, but still "official" ATT software. And by most accounts, better than the old ROM. Since its official software, installing this will not endanger any warranty you may still have on the phone.
Its the first file on the following page ("ROM Update"):
http://www.htc.com/us/support/tilt-2-att/downloads/
With your phone connected to your PC by USB, run the .exe ROM update file and follow the instructions that come up on your PC screen. It should work. Try it and let us know.
Bear in mind, you will lose any personal data you have on the phone (contacts, texts, emails, etc). But you've probably already lost those.
Its possible there is some other way out of it, I certainly don't know all the tricks. But in searching around this site, being stuck in bootloader seems to require flashing a new ROM to get out of it. And it seems that you are prepared to lose your personal data, based on the fact that you were already trying to hard reset (the TALK, END, and POWER button process) which also dumps all your data. And flashing the official ROM is really pretty easy to accomplish. Just a pain that you have to re-setup the phone again, since it will basically be returned to factory condition (but in this case, a slightly newer version of the OS).
The SAME thing happened to My HTC Tilt 2 an Hour ago (1/13/2010 4:46pm)
The same exact thing occurred to my HTC Tilt 2 today. It is stuck on the red green, blue and white screen with the same yellow 'config' type message . The white bottom strip has the black letters "serial" typed in.
My problem also, is that the phone stays "on" until i pull the battery out. The moment i place the battery back in the phone, the keys stay lit up instantly and the screen is black. When pressing the power button, then i get the same red, green, blue and white screen.
Ive tried holding the talk/end/power buttons all at the same time, it doesnt make a difference. So i cant get to the step where you press the "volume up" key so to initiate the master reset.
Ihad no idea the HTC Tilt2 would just fry like this. I had no additional apps that were unusual to the norm, i even had more free space than used on the set. its not like the phone was over loaded.
Hmmmmm.... help!!!
Re-read above about "soft-reset" and you might want to try reflash your phone.
Sent from my MSM using Tapatalk
RicoATT said:
The same exact thing occurred to my HTC Tilt 2 today. It is stuck on the red green, blue and white screen with the same yellow 'config' type message . The white bottom strip has the black letters "serial" typed in.
My problem also, is that the phone stays "on" until i pull the battery out. The moment i place the battery back in the phone, the keys stay lit up instantly and the screen is black. When pressing the power button, then i get the same red, green, blue and white screen.
Ive tried holding the talk/end/power buttons all at the same time, it doesnt make a difference. So i cant get to the step where you press the "volume up" key so to initiate the master reset.
Ihad no idea the HTC Tilt2 would just fry like this. I had no additional apps that were unusual to the norm, i even had more free space than used on the set. its not like the phone was over loaded.
Hmmmmm.... help!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read my post above. Your OS is missing or damaged, and you need to reflash (re-install) it.
Master reset re-loads the OS from the ROM area of your memory. The ROM is damaged, so their is nothing to reload. That's why its stuck in bootloader (tri-color screen).
redpoint73 said:
Read my post above. Your OS is missing or damaged, and you need to reflash (re-install) it.
Master reset re-loads the OS from the ROM area of your memory. The ROM is damaged, so their is nothing to reload. That's why its stuck in bootloader (tri-color screen).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
_______________________________________________________
Today, i stuck the battery in the phone (Tilt2) pressed the hard reset keys. THIS time it allowed the volume-UP key to finally kick in the reset to default cycle. I got the phone working again and have restored my last backup So, I havent lost anything.
The only problem now i am noticing is the light on the keyboard never goes off. Even when I power the phone down, "the keyboard stays lit".. I am having to remove the battery just to keep it from draining when the phone is not in use.hmmm. is there a regEdit key I can modify that may turn off the keys? id rather have no light at all over no battery juice. If i can edit the key to turn off the backlight on the keyboard permanantly , this will be a temp fix for me until i get a new phone.
as anyone ever experienced this?
RicoATT said:
_______________________________________________________
Today, i stuck the battery in the phone (Tilt2) pressed the hard reset keys. THIS time it allowed the volume-UP key to finally kick in the reset to default cycle. I got the phone working again and have restored my last backup So, I havent lost anything.
The only problem now i am noticing is the light on the keyboard never goes off. Even when I power the phone down, "the keyboard stays lit".. I am having to remove the battery just to keep it from draining when the phone is not in use.hmmm. is there a regEdit key I can modify that may turn off the keys? id rather have no light at all over no battery juice. If i can edit the key to turn off the backlight on the keyboard permanantly , this will be a temp fix for me until i get a new phone.
as anyone ever experienced this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
_______________________________________________________
Well, today 1/18/2011: the above issue seem to have vanished altogether. Very good. I did nothing but what i was resolved to do until I buy a new phone (take the battery out so to completely power down the phone and lights).
Today, my ole third hand decided to work like normal! Yay!. All of a sudden it rebooted, and now the keyboard backlight turns off when the keypad is closed and you can see it light up when extended. and most importantly: the back lighty for the keypad goes "off" when the phone is powerd down. go figure this one.
I am glad its working like normal now, but i know its time to get a new phone. These are just symptoms of the "big-crash" soon to come. I am backing up every day.
For now, very very glad my phone is back to "normal"
The G3 just dropped down on the floor with the circle case. Then It was working some minutes apparently with no problem, until I myself turn the phone off and restart it. Then the device just didn't turn on. The only thing is that the screen is black and the led notification blinking green and blue
when i connect the charger, the red led blinks once and then disappears, then after 30 seconds the red led appears which apparently shows that the phone is charging the battery. Also When I connect the phone to the PC, a sound of connection is heard from PC but the PC doesn't complete the device recognition process as no new device is found.
I tried to make a hard reset, but nothing happens when I press the power and volume down keys. Tried some other tricks with the battery and the hard keys on the phone but no result at all, as the same story just repeats. Does anybody have a solution for the problem? This devise is the only android device I have
Help
Please Help :crying:
ashkaboos said:
The G3 just dropped down on the floor with the circle case. Then It was working some minutes apparently with no problem, until I myself turn the phone off and restart it. Then the device just didn't turn on. The only thing is that the screen is black and the led notification blinking green and blue
when i connect the charger, the red led blinks once and then disappears, then after 30 seconds the red led appears which apparently shows that the phone is charging the battery. Also When I connect the phone to the PC, a sound of connection is heard from PC but the PC doesn't complete the device recognition process as no new device is found.
I tried to make a hard reset, but nothing happens when I press the power and volume down keys. Tried some other tricks with the battery and the hard keys on the phone but no result at all, as the same story just repeats. Does anybody have a solution for the problem? This devise is the only android device I have
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you do anything else after/during the time that the phone was off? And is there no possibility that you cracked the LCD digitizer? I mean it might sound strange but this is what I had with my old phone. I dropped it, nothing serious but then I put it in my pocket and upon taking it out I noticed the screen not turning on. As stated above, my digitizer was broken and multiple people told me that the digitizer had a small crack which I didn't notice, then when I put it in my pocket I put too much pressure on the digitizer cracking it. The LED-light did work though, and this sounds very similar so my advise going to the store and asking wether they know what the problem might be.
(Hopefully this was helpfull hehe)
ashkaboos said:
Please Help :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you Don't see the LG splash screen when pressing the power button it seems like a screen or digitizer problem for sure.
BUT;
after you try turning it "on" let it sit a few minutes and see if you can call your self or send a text to see if it makes noise vibrates etc. to confirm a screen problem.
OR
Also you can try putting it into download mode.
Battery pull (don't turn on)
plug USB into phone but not computer
Hold volume down AND then plug usb into computer
if this comes up to a pic of something on the phone it will be software related. to get out of this mode you can do a battery pull.
Remember to always read up on topics and things you are doing. There are guides here on XDA to help you out.
Hope you get your phone working
Neorpowa said:
Did you do anything else after/during the time that the phone was off? And is there no possibility that you cracked the LCD digitizer? I mean it might sound strange but this is what I had with my old phone. I dropped it, nothing serious but then I put it in my pocket and upon taking it out I noticed the screen not turning on. As stated above, my digitizer was broken and multiple people told me that the digitizer had a small crack which I didn't notice, then when I put it in my pocket I put too much pressure on the digitizer cracking it. The LED-light did work though, and this sounds very similar so my advise going to the store and asking wether they know what the problem might be.
(Hopefully this was helpfull hehe)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't do anything special after/during the time the phone was off. I checked the screen very carefully under a lamp. No particular sign of crack. Thank you very much for sharing ur experience.:good:
Tweakecho said:
If you Don't see the LG splash screen when pressing the power button it seems like a screen or digitizer problem for sure.
BUT;
after you try turning it "on" let it sit a few minutes and see if you can call your self or send a text to see if it makes noise vibrates etc. to confirm a screen problem.
OR
Also you can try putting it into download mode.
Battery pull (don't turn on)
plug USB into phone but not computer
Hold volume down AND then plug usb into computer
if this comes up to a pic of something on the phone it will be software related. to get out of this mode you can do a battery pull.
Remember to always read up on topics and things you are doing. There are guides here on XDA to help you out.
Hope you get your phone working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried to put it into download mode, but no result at all as no connection could also be made between the phone and PC. Moreover, I tried to make a text/call, but nothing is received by the phone. Thank you very much for ur suggestions.
ashkaboos said:
I tried to put it into download mode, but no result at all as no connection could also be made between the phone and PC. Moreover, I tried to make a text/call, but nothing is received by the phone. Thank you very much for ur suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like the drop damaged the memory and the phone can't reload it, you will have to bring it in
suljo94 said:
Seems like the drop damaged the memory and the phone can't reload it, you will have to bring it in
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that's plausible ! I'd bring it in too
Hope you fix your phone fast
Yeah... Probably it's a hardware problem. Someone who checked the phone in order to fix it, said that the problem had been with the device board. Even though I was satisfied with the phone, I have found out that the G3 is a sensitive device, as the height of the table from which it dropped down wasn't too much. So always take care of your G3 phone.
Hello,
I just got a nexus 7 2013 that had a busted screen. It still showed data between the huge shatter, and didn't respond to my attempts to unlock it by swiping. I assumed it was just a bad screen and bought a replacement and installed it today.
The display worked, but the touchscreen didn't seem to be responding to me trying to swipe to unlock. I eventually figured out that although I couldn't unlock it, the dialogue menus from long pressing the power button did work! Well, some, anyway. I can change sound modes, airplane mode, and access the power off dialogue, but am only able to select cancel from the two options, though ok is not grayed out. I can also click anywhere outside the dialogue and it will back out of it, leading me to assume that the screen's hardware is intact and functioning.
I then hard reset it via stock recovery and am now at the welcome screen prompting a language selection with the big right arrow, unable to press it but still able to interact with the power off and cancel options of the power menu.
Recovery says its running KOT49H.
I've used NRT to reflash the same build from a stock download, and I'm still stuck at the same spot.
What the heck can I do?
myleskeller said:
Hello,
I just got a nexus 7 2013 that had a busted screen. It still showed data between the huge shatter, and didn't respond to my attempts to unlock it by swiping. I assumed it was just a bad screen and bought a replacement and installed it today.
The display worked, but the touchscreen didn't seem to be responding to me trying to swipe to unlock. I eventually figured out that although I couldn't unlock it, the dialogue menus from long pressing the power button did work! Well, some, anyway. I can change sound modes, airplane mode, and access the power off dialogue, but am only able to select cancel from the two options, though ok is not grayed out. I can also click anywhere outside the dialogue and it will back out of it, leading me to assume that the screen's hardware is intact and functioning.
I then hard reset it via stock recovery and am now at the welcome screen prompting a language selection with the big right arrow, unable to press it but still able to interact with the power off and cancel options of the power menu.
Recovery says its running KOT49H.
I've used NRT to reflash the same build from a stock download, and I'm still stuck at the same spot.
What the heck can I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would assume that the new digitizer is still bad. There are lots of them on sale on Ebay where the seller would assure the merchandise has been "tested" before shipping. In reality, they might not be. If you happen to have one with spotty functionality, there's nothing you can do with the software to cure it. It would not respond in some areas, period. If you only replace the digitizer instead of the whole LCD/touchscreen assembly, chances are you have a partially bad one. I've never come across one good one myself.
I have a Samsung I9250 which I've unlocked, rooted and loaded with Lineage. The Lineage version is 13.0-20171126-NIGHTLY-maguro. The recovery is TWRP and the root is through SuperSU FREE (CM) v2.79-SR3. The On/Off button doesn't usually work. If the phone is off then pressing On/Off has no effect. Occasionally it works for no reason I can see, it seems to be random, but for the most part it simply doesn't have any effect. If the phone is on then the same is true. Turning it off from the On/Off button is usually impossible. I get round this through Settings>Display & lights>Wake on plug. This means I can activate the phone by connecting it to a PC using its USB cable. This will activate the phone immediately if it is off. It doesn't help with turning it off and I am usually reduced to taking the battery out. The phone is effectively useless although it is clearly NOT bricked. When I can turn it on it works fine.
I don't know if this is a hardware or software problem. If it's a software problem I don't know if the fault is in Lineage or TWRP or SuperSU. I noticed that the problem existed before I installed SuperSU. Has anyone else come across this problem? I'm reluctant to bin the phone because I spent such a long time getting Lineage on to it, but, if I can't turn it on or off it's not really a phone. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
@erich_vogt it's more a hardware problem, you can buy a new button (find link of online stores in accessories section or google.it).
for easyness you don't need to plug charge/usb everytime, you can set volume button waker, find in settings > button (don't remember where correctly, it will be somewhere there) then use volume switches to wake it.
erich_vogt said:
If the phone is off then pressing On/Off has no effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There have been power button bugs, but only in the OS. If it's not turning on from off, then I think the switch is broken! A common failure in old phones, which is why "volume button to wake" is important, to reduce load on the power button.
Thanks very much for offering to help.
I already had the option for the Volume control buttons to wake the phone turned on. It's here - Settings > Buttons > Volume Buttons > Wake up device. This worked for a while then stopped. I disassembled the phone to look at the On/Off button. I tried turning the phone on directly from the metal contact pad beneath the plastic button. This worked. When the phone had booted I checked to see if there was another nightly update for Lineage. There was the 3rd of Dec update. I downloaded and installed the nightly update using TWRP. It reported a successful install. The phone rebooted and never got past the Google boot-up screen. I waited for a few minutes and the took the battery out and tried turning on again from the metal contact pad. The phone booted but again got stuck (or seemed to) on the Google boot-up screen. I'm afraid that's it for me. This doesn't appear to be related to anything I have done or not done. The phone is just taking up too much time and it will have to go the the local recycler. Life is, as they say, too short. Thanks again for your suggestions.
erich_vogt said:
Thanks very much for offering to help.
I already had the option for the Volume control buttons to wake the phone turned on. It's here - Settings > Buttons > Volume Buttons > Wake up device. This worked for a while then stopped. I disassembled the phone to look at the On/Off button. I tried turning the phone on directly from the metal contact pad beneath the plastic button. This worked. When the phone had booted I checked to see if there was another nightly update for Lineage. There was the 3rd of Dec update. I downloaded and installed the nightly update using TWRP. It reported a successful install. The phone rebooted and never got past the Google boot-up screen. I waited for a few minutes and the took the battery out and tried turning on again from the metal contact pad. The phone booted but again got stuck (or seemed to) on the Google boot-up screen. I'm afraid that's it for me. This doesn't appear to be related to anything I have done or not done. The phone is just taking up too much time and it will have to go the the local recycler. Life is, as they say, too short. Thanks again for your suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3rd dec nightly has problem with booting, get back to older than it.
Reset volume button waker, if it stopped working. I never had problems with volume buttons.
I'd second the idea of it being software. I've had problems with all builds after 20171112. I get the impression there was something overlooked when the developers unified the builds for different GNex variants.
If you still have the phone, try that 20171112 build.
I don't know how to roll back to an earlier build. The phone will not boot. If I try VolumeDown+On/Off to try to get into TWRP Recovery mode nothing happens. The adb bridge option is turned on but if I connect the phone to my PC with a usb cable it does not appear in Device Manager as it used to. If I run ".\adb devices" it is not listed so clearly adb cannot find it. I don't know what else I can do.
erich_vogt said:
The phone will not boot. If I try VolumeDown+On/Off to try to get into TWRP Recovery mode nothing happens. The adb bridge option is turned on but if I connect the phone to my PC with a usb cable it does not appear in Device Manager as it used to. If I run ".\adb devices" it is not listed so clearly adb cannot find it. I don't know what else I can do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, ok. Sorry, I thought you could still do more than that, but it was rebooting and unusable in that sense.
That's well beyond any help I can offer you. I hope you got any data off it.
Hi there,
I have got a huge problem with my Pixel C. So what happened?
Several months ago I noticed, that something inside the tablet (around 5cm from the USB socket) must have expanded somehow. The edge of the display there is probably 0.5mm visible above the aluminium body. Some weeks later the right side of the display was flickering partially sometimes. This seemed to be a mechanically problem with a connection, as pressing hard on the display solved it. I already thought, that it might be a good idea, to activate the backup function to google drive of the device. About one month ago the battery was empty as I did not use the tablet for some time. But then I noticed, that it won't charge anymore!
So what can I do now? If I connect the charger, I get a complete red flashing on the leds and a short Google logo on the screen, then nothing at all. Even double tapping on the back gives no reaction from the leds. I can enter bootloader, but booting from there gives the same behavior. If the device is in bootloader or I select power off device from the menu, at least the leds react on a double tap: 1 red led flashing, then complete red again.
Other facts:
out of warranty
factory image
factory bootloader
device is locked
device is encrypted
passphrase is known
fastboot is working
I noticed just too late, that the data of one banking app got not backed up to google drive. Is there any way I can backup my data? I will then try to open the tablet and inspect the "expanded" part. I already tried to run twrp through "fastboot boot", but I get a verification error.
Thanks for your help!