RMN2 Hard Brick, CM12.1 - Redmi Note 2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey devs,
for about 3 weeks I have been a proud owner of the RMN2 Prime until yesterday, when it suddenly turned off and died.
When I got the phone I started skinning it down with jaik's custom boot image and also cleaned it from unused apps. So far so good.
Now, some days ago I decided to switch over to danielpinto's CM12.1 , which is really awesome compared to MIUI. No problems either.
I also installed Greenify and Disable services to get rid of some battery hogs.
Yesterday, I was out of home whole day, had minimal standby battery drain, but really massive battery drop when recording a video (~50% to 25% in about 2min).
Put it in my pocket, and 10 min later it didn't turn on again. I thought it would be the battery, but apparently it's bricked. No charge LED, no PC recognition, nothing...
I tried to unbrick it via SP tool and some really unconvenient tutorials, but nothing worked. I guess I installed all needed drivers now, but SP tool doesn't show any reaction in the progress bar (the coloured bar at the bottom...I don't get ANY colour, nothing starts when I click the download button).
What to do?
The RMN2 is a pretty good phone IMO, but now also my first bricked one. I would be extremly graceful if some experienced xda devs could help me with this as I'm really desperated.
I'm from Europe and ordering a new one (if I'd need to) would take some weeks from now.
If so, have you any suggestions on which device might be a better choice? It should be in the same price range though.
Thanks for reading!
Best regards

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If it is broken.... I guess new phone can be redmi note 3 pro.

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Only thing I can think of is trying with a new battery.. (something must be wrong with it if it drained that quickly).

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Thanks for your replies!
elaurens said:
Only thing I can think of is trying with a new battery.. (something must be wrong with it if it drained that quickly).
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Click to collapse
Well, after I used the camera the drain was normal again and stayed at 27%. I also removed the battery and directly powered it from my powerbank, but it never turned on or vibrated...and no LED...
mehdi554 said:
If it is broken.... I guess new phone can be redmi note 3 pro.
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Click to collapse
The extra features of the 3 pro are not really attractive for me. I've found the Elephone P9000 Lite today and I think this might be great alternative. Or I give the RMN2 another chance. Not sure on this yet...

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sierrabravo6 said:
Thanks for your replies!
Well, after I used the camera the drain was normal again and stayed at 27%. I also removed the battery and directly powered it from my powerbank, but it never turned on or vibrated...and no LED...
The extra features of the 3 pro are not really attractive for me. I've found the Elephone P9000 Lite today and I think this might be great alternative. Or I give the RMN2 another chance. Not sure on this yet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't it be less costly to first spend 10$ on a new battery before buying a new phone? In regards to a new phone, I'd chose a Snapdragon 650 powered RN3 w/ a 4k mAh battery over the Elephone P9000 Lite any day of the week. My brother has one and it's an amazing phone. Of course it all depends of what you find important in a phone. What makes you go for the Elephone?

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elaurens said:
Wouldn't it be less costly to first spend 10$ on a new battery before buying a new phone? In regards to a new phone, I'd chose a Snapdragon 650 powered RN3 w/ a 4k mAh battery over the Elephone P9000 Lite any day of the week. My brother has one and it's an amazing phone. Of course it all depends of what you find important in a phone. What makes you go for the Elephone?
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Click to collapse
Really appreciate your thoughts, man!
If I could be sure that it was a battery problem I would of course buy a new one. But it really appears to be a hard brick (I tested it with the battery removed and the phone directly plugged to the charger -> no LED, no reaction) Also the PC can't recognise it anymore.
The RN3 might surely be a nice phone, but for me the fingerprint, slithly faster performance and the battery are not worth 60€ more.
I just stumbled over the P9000 Lite yesterday and it seems to have everything the RN2 has + more RAM, LTE band 20 and Marshmallow. Negative is the small xda community for it...
And today I just found Ulefone! Geez, almost the same company name, but whole different stuff...there are way too many china phones out there!
The Elephone is down for a Ulefone Power or Ulefone Vienna.
Any thoughts?
Btw FYI, my preferences would be:
- at least 3000mAH
- 5.5 inch FHD
- Android 6 (or via update) + maybe chance for N if it's not asked too much
- at least 2Gb RAM, processor level of RN2 would be sufficient
- I don't care about the camera quality at all
- less than ~180€

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Does the phone vibrate when you plug it to the charger without the battery?

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andrea210701 said:
Does the phone vibrate when you plug it to the charger without the battery?
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Click to collapse
Nope

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sierrabravo6 said:
Nope
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Click to collapse
Where did you buy your phone? Maybe it's still in warranty and maybe they will fix it for free,spending some $ to fix the rn2 is more convenient

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andrea210701 said:
Where did you buy your phone? Maybe it's still in warranty and maybe they will fix it for free,spending some $ to fix the rn2 is more convenient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got it from Gearbest and it's still in their 45 days warranty. I'll probably try to ask for a refund and order a new RN2.
Sending it back, fixing it, then sending it back to me would last monthes...
So I'll order a new one today or tomorrow, I'm just undecided between Ulefone Power or RN2.

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sierrabravo6 said:
Really appreciate your thoughts, man!
If I could be sure that it was a battery problem I would of course buy a new one. But it really appears to be a hard brick (I tested it with the battery removed and the phone directly plugged to the charger -> no LED, no reaction) Also the PC can't recognise it anymore.
The RN3 might surely be a nice phone, but for me the fingerprint, slithly faster performance and the battery are not worth 60€ more.
I just stumbled over the P9000 Lite yesterday and it seems to have everything the RN2 has + more RAM, LTE band 20 and Marshmallow. Negative is the small xda community for it...
And today I just found Ulefone! Geez, almost the same company name, but whole different stuff...there are way too many china phones out there!
The Elephone is down for a Ulefone Power or Ulefone Vienna.
Any thoughts?
Btw FYI, my preferences would be:
- at least 3000mAH
- 5.5 inch FHD
- Android 6 (or via update) + maybe chance for N if it's not asked too much
- at least 2Gb RAM, processor level of RN2 would be sufficient
- I don't care about the camera quality at all
- less than ~180€
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Djeeeeeeeeeeeez thx a lot!! You've made me look at that Elephone P9000 Lite, then at that Ulefone Power (looks awesome w/ wooden back!) and now i'm considering passing on my RN2 to a family member and going on a spending spree (again) I wouldn't personally go for the Ulefone Power because of it's less than great MT6753 processor, 16GB (only) storage and Ulefone's custom ROM (planned upgrade to MM, but yeah don't think it'll get N).
I'm actually moving to China in a couple of weeks and one of the first things I'll do when I get there is go have a look at the Umi Super. Check out these specs:
- SHARP 2.5D 5.5 FHD display (Gorilla glass 3)
- Mediatek P10 (MT6755) @ 2.0GHz
- SAMSUNG 32GB eMMC 5.1 ROM
- SAMSUNG LPDDR3 4GB RAM
- SONY 4000 mAh battery
- PANASONIC 13MP dual flash camera
- TYPE-C USB / SD card up to 256GB / Fingerprint sensor / Dual SIM (shared 2nd slot w/ SD)
And when you thought it couldn't get any better, it comes with stock Android 6.0 (yes you've read that right!! it's a Nexus!!!!! ) and Umi offers a ROM flashing tool (Rootjoy) on their website and the tool allows you to flash a MIUI, VIBE, EMUI or LEWA ROM, made for the Super, to the phone
That is one hell of a crazy phone! Now I know in your requirements it says "less than 180e" and there is a time limited offer on Umi's homepage to get it for 179.99$ (not sure about shipping fees). Anyway, I'm gonna get it even if I need to shell the normal 249.99$ price for it (it's more than worth it if you look at the top class components they've chosen for the Super). So screw the idea of repairing your RN2, throw it in the bin (or put it up on eBay) and get that unibody aluminium one

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elaurens said:
Djeeeeeeeeeeeez thx a lot!! You've made me look at that Elephone P9000 Lite....
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Click to collapse
Damn it, now there are 3 devices to choose from
The RN2 has a strong community, but bad battery..
the Ulefone Power has...ehm...power and MM, but is unhandy and has no community..
and the UMI Super sounds awesome, but has even less community and it will take monthes til it would be here with me!
Do you have a link to the 180 bucks offer? found it
And are you in anyway paid by UMI by chance?
EDIT: Ok, somehow got hooked by the Super Now the only question is where to get it fast and cheap
I can't stand getting along with my old Lg L7 for so long!

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sierrabravo6 said:
And are you in anyway paid by UMI by chance?
EDIT: Ok, somehow got hooked by the Super Now the only question is where to get it fast and cheap
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Click to collapse
Not in any way., I only found out about Umi at 2am last night when I was still looking at the newer China phones xD You can go on their website and click on the Super promo on the homepage (Snap now) and it will show you all the supported resellers (Gearbest and alike + 1 shop on Aliexpress/eBay). The Aliexpress shop (Deal Home) seems to be the only one having stock already (there's a certificate signed by a Umi representative stating that Deal Home has the First launch exclusivity) and all the other shops won't be sending anything out before June 20th. I've taken a look at their flash sale system. First, you need to register for the coupon (which they mail every Wednesday to the lucky first ones) and then you need to wait on a flash sale day (there was one on May 23rd and the next one, which we'll miss obviously, is on May 31th). Only on those days, and at the following hours: 00:00, 03:00, 06:00, 18:00 and 21:00, can you get one for 179$. The 179$ phones will be shipped out after 7 days according to the shop. So this system 1) scks and 2) is not as speedy as we like.
But there's a second option. You can buy it in a presale (right now) w/o the flash sale crap for 219.99$ on Deal Home (there's a 10$ seller discount as well) and according to them, those phones get shipped out "24~48h after test well". Thing is, I'm not sure how true that all is since in the shipping option, it mentions "ships out within 28 business days" (but that might be a default aliexpress thing). I'd just contact the shop and ask how quickly you can get it (or the item is being shipped out) if you take the 209.99$ one. They have 81 gray ones and 97 golden ones left.
It is true that the dev community is pretty small, but how much of it do you need if they offer a stock ROM by default (w/ possibility of root, xposed, etc.) and many alternative ROMS as an option? The only thing they might not do (but that's the same for every other Android vendor) is to offer an upgrade to Android N. I checked their forum a bit and at least they're being honest and clear about it when and why one of their devices isn't being updated to a new Android version.

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I just had a first look at the sellers today and at the moment they all sell them for about 190€ - 200€, which is still okay for me (especially compared to the RN3). That is efox, tomtop, Banggood and Gearbest. Aliexpress' Deal Home unfortunately doesn't ship to my country. But I saw that Gearbest also has this kind of flash sale on special days of the week.
They all seem to deliver from mid to end of June plus the shipping time itself. So it will be here in mid July at the earliest...
elaurens said:
The only thing they might not do (but that's the same for every other Android vendor) is to offer an upgrade to Android N. I checked their forum a bit and at least they're being honest and clear about it when and why one of their devices isn't being updated to a new Android version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was quite happy to see this.

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sierrabravo6 said:
I just had a first look at the sellers today and at the moment they all sell them for about 190€ - 200€, which is still okay for me (especially compared to the RN3). That is efox, tomtop, Banggood and Gearbest. Aliexpress' Deal Home unfortunately doesn't ship to my country. But I saw that Gearbest also has this kind of flash sale on special days of the week.
They all seem to deliver from mid to end of June plus the shipping time itself. So it will be here in mid July at the earliest...
Ah the major downside of importing phones from China .. it takes forever to get them (unless you pay an extra 35$ for a DHL <8 days delivery).
I was quite happy to see this.
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Click to collapse
Awesome. That seals the deal for me
Btw, this is Umi's official shop on Aliexpress. You can get the super deal and flash deal for their device right there. There's even 1 super deal phone in stock but unfortunately it's a gold one.

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Maybe this could help, but is in spanish http://www.movilesdualsim.com/index.php?threads/117528/
Sent from my Redmi Note 2 using Tapatalk

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Nice phone = all Lte Support
Gesendet von meinem Redmi Note 2 mit Tapatalk

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jmora99 said:
Maybe this could help, but is in spanish http://www.movilesdualsim.com/index.php?threads/117528/
Sent from my Redmi Note 2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the delayed response and thank you for your tip! Actually I tried the exact same tutorial (in english language) before, but to no success.
elaurens said:
...
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Click to collapse
In the meantime I ordered the UMI Super for 164€. I'm really excited, but have to wait until July at least, as it will be shipped from 25th June at the earliest -.-
And now I'm already wondering if I should send the Super right back to GearBest and buy a Vernee Apollo Lite.
I thought the Super would be the best of the best for this price atm, but when you see the Apollo Lite....
- Helio X20 Deca core (Antutu >90000)
- IGZO display that seems to be really power efficient
- better camera with better focus
and Vernee is said to get a lot of hours out of a 3000mAH battery. While the 4000mAH of the Umi might not hold what they promise...
I'm not really into the fastest processor available as you won't feel a big differnece in daily use anyway, but it still seems to be a better package overall.
Price ~200€, ~230$ pre-sale

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I ordered aswell they working on the battery like the last update. Waiting for root =(
Gesendet von meinem Redmi Note 2 mit Tapatalk

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Little update and a question:
I'm currently pretty happy with the UMI Super. All I wish for is DTTW and a Wifi fix, but all in all a really decent device for that price.
Regarding the RMN 2:
It's a real shame that I cant revive it...so dead...yet so beautiful
I disassembled it and tried the test point method as a last resort, but I can't identify the test points.
Anyone knows where they are?
I googled, but to no avail...
Thanks everyone!