I have softbricked my phone many times and have fixed it too but never understood the concept of hard brick.
Flashing incompatible roms causes soft brick , so what causes hard brick? What precautions should be taken to not hard brick a device?
Bricked Device It's the actual "Brick" unlike soft brick which is not really a brick
is when Android phone isn't operation in anyway, since now it isn't fixable in any way, it is as good as a brick. So in that condition, it is called a "Bricked Device".
Soft Brick
When phones gets into bootloop or boots but ends up at fastboot or recovery. In these kind of situations, phone is fixable.
Differences
1. Soft Brick
- you can still turn your phone on but it doesnt really start (bootloop i think is a kind of soft brick. )
- this kind of brick can be fixed through softwares like flashtool.
2. Hard Brick
- you can't turn your phone on and it doesnt really start, you don't get any response from it.
- only rif jtag can save you if you get this kind of brick
Causes of a Brick -Hard Brick-
When a device is hard bricked, memory that contains drivers for the boot sequence has been erased or corrupted. Thus, the device quite literally doesn't know how to boot. Data has been erased that can only be manipulated during hardware assembly.
a very basic way to think of it is that a hard brick occurs when the base coding of the parts gets overridden/erased/corrupted. For example, the coding that tells the phone to boot when the physical power button is pressed no longer exists, therefore you cannot boot your phone. To my understanding, JTAG uses the ports on the MB and a controller box to manually inject the code into the phone to allow it to power on and flash the necessary files in order to recover.
i just did a copy and paste and collected them all in one post as they are enough to clearify the point
{REF}
Credits to all of the following great XDA members
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=32816510&postcount=10
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=40863475&postcount=4
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/hard-brick-soft-brick-terminology-t3598335
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=31590899&postcount=3
Related
Hi.
My htc x7500 is stuck at the bootloader but i can't see the numbers and letters showing information about the device. I see the colour stripes only. What can i do?
Thanks
a few more details...
when i start the device all i get is a black screen and a green light. (see picture 1)
when i get into the bootloader (camera + reset) i get the color stripes but i don't see the bootloader info and my computer doesn't recognize my device.
I also tried to run an update through a mini sd but nothing happened. it stayed at the color stripes without showing any bootloader information.
Any help or idea would be appreciated...
Thanks!
if the PC doesn't recognize the usb (explicitly states the unrecognized usb device error), then I'm afraid it's ****ed :/ JTAG may help but need a brick to work out how to JTAG it =)
PS: I can't remember now if bootloader checks DOC before checking hard reset button combo (most likely the DOC flash is what is messed up currently). you may try doing the hard reset combo, though this probably won't fix it (upset DOC needs more than that to be fixed).
Hi..
Hard reset is not working it leads to the same blank bootloader screen. I'm trying to find the jtag pins now... but yes i need a brick to (possibly) fix mine...or turn mine to a brick (which is the most probable scenario)..
I've gotten the yellow exclamation mark countless times (over 20) and it's always been fixed with a simple flash back to any firmware.
Is it impossible to completely brick the X10?
It's not like I'm trying to brick my phone, I just noticed that every time I "brick" my phone it's fixed by flashing with any firmware.
The reason I ask is because when I tryd to flash my old phone and it went wrong there was nothing I could do to fix it, which led me to buying the X10.
Seems you've answered your own question...
Actually, I'm not sure if it is a question...
I didn't answer my own question. It's possible that I've never actually technically "bricked" my phone, which is why I was asking...
I once really bricked my X10. But that was because of some hardware fault (I read something about nand fault somwhere) I flashed it for the root process got the yellow triangle and exclamation mark. Reflashed it with stock rom, everything fine. Tried again to flsh if for root, somewhere during the flashing process suddenly some write errors appeared. Well after turning on I got the triangle again, tried reflashing about 100 times, but nothing ... I tried to flash it to stack rom with seus and again write errors ... well I sent it back to SE and got a new device.
So it was a brick, but most likely not because of some software but bacuase of a harwae fault.
The bootloader isn't hacked yet so I'm assuming its harder to just brick something if you wipe the firmware only.
You can only really brick it if you mess with the boot loader (or damage the hardware..).. because the bootloader brings up all the essential services before it loads the OS.. then if you knacker your OS you can simply reflash it..
Once the bootloader has been cracked (assuming that it will be at some point!), then you can bet we'll start seeing a lot more bricked x10's appearing..
I've got a very definite hard brick situation going on. A few weeks ago I was using my phone, browsing Tapatalk and downloading something with the Dropbox app, and the phone went completely unresponsive (screen on but frozen, no response to any touches), came back after a few seconds, then froze completely. I powered off and tried to reboot, it hung on the boot animation. Not a bootloop, just hanging there. I powered off again and booted into CWM and tried to restore from my backup. It threw a couple errors which unfortunately I don't remember much about, and honestly, I can't remember now if they came up before or after I started the restore. It started restoring, but got hung up restoring system. After waiting what seemed like forever but was probably more like 10 minutes I very hesitantly powered off and went back into recovery, this time attempting to reflash the rom I was using. More or less the same thing, it started but just hung up during the install. I powered off again, intending to put my phone into download mode and try to flash something via Odin, but the poor guy had had enough and wouldn't even power back on. I left it charging overnight, but it never came back on and I've since bought a new phone. However, if it seems to anyone that it would be worthwhile to try a jig or jtag service, I wouldn't mind keeping this phone as a spare. Truth is, I actually miss it.
I was running WanamLite 12.5, which is XWLPX, 4.0.4, with SpeedMod K3-32. I had tried out a couple of what were then pretty much new JB leaks just before the bricking, I know I tried out Omega and Disaster, but I only kept them on for a few hours each time. All of the kernels I've used since 4.0.4 have been considered "safe".
Anyway, again, based on what I've described does anyone think there's a chance of unbricking my phone without replacing the motherboard?
shockwaverider said:
I've got a very definite hard brick situation going on....
Anyway, again, based on what I've described does anyone think there's a chance of unbricking my phone without replacing the motherboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, there is no such thing as a "hard brick" for same reason there is no such thing as a "soft brick". There is just "bricked" and no in between, your device is either bricked or it isnt.
What n00bs call "soft bricked" is just when they cant figure out how to get system to boot. Your device is bricked when it wont power on or if it powers on you cant use download/recovery to flash working rom/kernel.
In your case it sounds like you have had a hardware failure and thus will need to get the part fixed/replaced or maybe whole board. To answer your question though, yes you should first try a USB jig to see if you can get device to wake up in download mode and then try again to flash kernel ready for restoring backup or flashing new rom. If this fails then you will need to get it fixed.
TheATHEiST said:
Firstly, there is no such thing as a "hard brick" for same reason there is no such thing as a "soft brick". There is just "bricked" and no in between, your device is either bricked or it isnt.
What n00bs call "soft bricked" is just when they cant figure out how to get system to boot. Your device is bricked when it wont power on or if it powers on you cant use download/recovery to flash working rom/kernel.
In your case it sounds like you have had a hardware failure and thus will need to get the part fixed/replaced or maybe whole board. To answer your question though, yes you should first try a USB jig to see if you can get device to wake up in download mode and then try again to flash kernel ready for restoring backup or flashing new rom. If this fails then you will need to get it fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yada yada yada I've heard some developers use "unbrick". Go tell 'em there's no such a thing.
And stop worrying about semantics.
Thanks for the replies. I understand that a so-called "soft brick" isn't really a brick per se, but when even articles in the XDA portal throw around the terms "soft" and "hard" bricks, I would say that the genie is out of the bottle and these terms have, for better or worse, entered the common parlance. I do, however, appreciate the input and quite possibly this is simply a hardware issue, although I will, when time allows, try to wake the phone up with a jig.
gastonw said:
yada yada yada I've heard some developers use "unbrick". Go tell 'em there's no such a thing.
And stop worrying about semantics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BS!
If thats the case link me one single post where any respected dev refers to a system boot issue as a "soft brick".
The only conceivable time they would refer to that is simply to try and help a n00b and it was quicker to refer to it in that way then to explain things.
You can only "unbrick" if your device is "bricked" and having a rom or kernel issue resulting in a system not booting is not "bricked", Its as simple as that.
Firstly, I want to make it clear that I cannot reset the flash counter due to the "emmc brick bug". My phone won't accept any flash via Odin etc at all (hangs at NAND write start). I've tried many times with different cables, computers, software versions.
So my phone is pretty much useless but I still have warranty. The point of this thread is really how could I maximize my chances of getting Samsung to do a replacement?
To the experts out there, what state would I have to put my phone in JUST ENOUGH so that it is impossible for the tech to see the flash counter (hence voiding warranty)?
Background story: I was using my phone one day (never rooted it) and it suddenly froze, I power off and power on and bam... bricked. So I tried to flash and fix it, however... did not turn out great. So I wasn't screwing around with any flashing just bad hardware, I hope this is a good enough reason for a replacement.
So essentially you want to defraud Samsung ? You voided your warranty the moment you increased the flash counter.
Posted so that people don't need to keep posting if they are bricked.
What is a brick?
A "brick" is a term used to identify when a device has failed and becomes about
as useful as a brick. Bricks also come in two forms, soft brick and hard brick. Which
Will be covered later on.
What causes a brick?
Many things can cause a brick. A bootloader flash
going wrong, ROM flashes failing, the eMMC bug,
hardware failing etc. But just because you're bricked,
doesn't mean you can't resurrect it.
Soft bricks
Soft bricks are the most common bricks of all,
they usually occur when a ROM/Kernel flash goes wrong
and results in an incomplete filesystem. When
this happens you cannot boot in to Android, instead
you will get either A) A bootloop or
B) Hanging at the Samsung splash screen.
Recovering from soft bricks
Recovery from soft bricks aren't usually a difficult task.
First you must find out if you can access recovery or download mode.
If you can, you can use either one of those tools to start the flash
again and hope it completes. If it fails again you can decide if there
is an issue with either the phone or your flashing method and
work with the community on resolving your issue.
Hard bricks
Hard bricks are horrible. They are the hardest to
overcome and are the most dangerous and are usually caused by:
A) A bad bootloader flash leading to corruption
B) The eMMC brickbug destroyed your chip leaving you with a dead
device.
If A) occurs, you would need to perform a JTAG resurrection
on it, you can either do this yourself or your phone can be taken
in to an independent repair shop to have them do it. They will
likely flash the bootloader again through the JTAG interface
and revive your phone.
If B) occurs then I'm sorry, but you're done for. The chip is damaged.
You may get lucky with the brickbug and only have your /data partition
corrupt, if this happens you can find custom PIT files (partition table)
to work around the corrupt sectors of the chip. You will lose
some storage space, but at least you get your phone back. The
other side of the brickbug is the phone no longer powers on at all,
in this case, you need a new phone/motherboard.
Avoiding the eMMC bug
Not all of the SII phones were affected by this bug,
but without downloading an app to check, there is no way
of telling so it is better to just play it safe by default.
The bug is caused due to a particular erase command
used in the ICS (4.0.x) kernels and recoveries. So it is,
in essence, best to avoid ANY ROM based on ICS.
In saying this, avoid Firefox OS until a safe kernel
is released for it.
There's no such thing a 'soft brick'. A bricked phone is one that doesn't boot. At all. And is not recoverable by normal means (I.E a JTAG or motherboard replacement/some other kind of hardware fix). If the phone bootloops & recovery or download mode are available, unless the NAND is stuffed, it ain't bricked.
MistahBungle said:
There's no such thing a 'soft brick'. A bricked phone is one that doesn't boot. At all. And is not recoverable by normal means (I.E a JTAG or motherboard replacement/some other kind of hardware fix). If the phone bootloops & recovery or download mode are available, unless the NAND is stuffed, it ain't bricked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Soft brick = Recoverable without professional intervention.
Hard brick = Not recoverable. A paperweight.
Just do a search engine search on "soft bricks" .
http://www.techychat.com/2013/04/08/soft-brick-vs-hard-brick-vs-broken/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2258628
http://tutorialfor-android.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/how-to-fix-soft-brick-on-android.html
http://androidfannetwork.com/2013/05/02/fix-your-soft-bricked-att-samsung-galaxy-s4/
Still no such thing?
Lol.....smartypants.........can you edit the bit about "you need a new phone".
You only need a new motherboard.....not the whole phone lol.
theunderling said:
Lol.....smartypants.........can you edit the bit about "you need a new phone".
You only need a new motherboard.....not the whole phone lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure I will do, however usually a new mobo costs roughly the same as a new device.
It depends how you go about it.You could theoretically sell your phone as unbootable on ebay,and use the money to buy a 2nd hand working phone,and end up paying a £20 difference.
Or you could be lucky and get a working motherboard for free off me lol.
Samsungs motherboards are a ripoff,and as time goes on they will become worthless....which serves everyone right involved with the distribution of them lol.
theunderling said:
It depends how you go about it.You could theoretically sell your phone as unbootable on ebay,and use the money to buy a 2nd hand working phone,and end up paying a £20 difference.
Or you could be lucky and get a working motherboard for free off me lol.
Samsungs motherboards are a ripoff,and as time goes on they will become worthless....which serves everyone right involved with the distribution of them lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that's true. I've updated the OP nonetheless.