Related
As we know, the Nook Color's SD slot will always take first boot priority. I'm in a situation where even booting via SD through known methods are not working.
The purpose of this thread is to:
1) Share with others who are in this similar situation, on methods which may result in the recovery of their own devices
2) Keep this discussion healthy so one day, I will be able to restore my own bricked device which I'm still striving hard to.
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Click to collapse
IMPORTANT: If you have a bricked device I need to emphasize on searching and reading very carefully what others have shared here in both General and in Development. This is a fundamental requirement, as with the ability to follow instructions and not panic by creating unnecessary threads. This will only make things harder to find, so thank you in advance for not doing that.
There are many useful guides out there, some of which the most helpful are:
Nook Color Restore to stock by samuelhalff
Dummies Guide to Fixing 'My Nook Won't Boot' by RileyGrant
Stock 1.1.0 Clockwork Recovery Image by brianf21
Nook 1.01 stock dd images by shad0wf0x
[RECOVERY] Monster RootPack 0.7 / Clockwork Recovery 3.0.0.5 SD by thecubed
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Click to collapse
Anyway, in severe bricking cases where hardware is not at fault, many of the solutions to restore the NC begins with either:
1) Booting to CWR-SD via uSD
2) Booting to a rom i.e. Nookie Froyo via uSD
3) Having ADB access, if available
Till date I am not sure why the SD-loaded programs do not work for me, and here are the symptoms:
1) Without SD inserted, the standard BN splash appears, 'Welcome to the Future of Reading', then gets stuck there till powered down. Needless to say, the 8-times reset method doesn't work.
2) With SD inserted, the 'LOADING' screen will splash, then screen blacks out with device still powered on . You will know that the device is still running as you need to hold power down for around 20 secs before you're able to power it back up again. I call this the 'Black Screen of Death'.
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Click to collapse
To get your device up and running, try the following:
0) Do not panic. As long there's no hardware failure there will always be a solution. Look at me, thing's still a damn brick and yet here I am, still hopeful
1) Perform a search, read the useful threads created by the above members first. This thread is related only to failed SD-booting.
Once you've done that, prepare your recovery options with these in mind. The elimination process is part and parcel of problem-solving. In no particular order:
2) Sometimes, try powering on your device by connecting the USB cable from your PC or A/C source, instead of using the Power button.
3) Use only the original USB cable that came with your device.
4) Use the back USB ports of your PC, instead of the fronts as they may provide more consistent power and connection to your device. Try to avoid using USB hubs as they may not distribute the required power equally/properly.
5) Try switching to different USB ports, some may be hardware-gimped due to wear-and-tear.
6) Try to attempt the recovery on another Win, Mac or Linux computer. At least eliminate further possibilities of environmental hardware error.
7) Try charging the battery full.
8) Or, try discharging the battery completely, by leaving the device in BSOD state overnight until you get a message saying your device can't boot due to insufficient power when switched on. Once you are in this state, keep booting the device up until the screen does not appear. Then, recharge it back to full to see if the OS returns to stock (I am sceptical of this, but this was what others advised).
9) Try different SD cards. The device could be picky. Variety should be by class-type, brand, SDHC or non-SDHC. It's been discussed that faster cards perform better, as with more reknowned brands. Also, 16GB cards reportedly do not run Froyo (do read more by searching).
10) When loading anything via SD (CWR, roms), try different button combinations i.e. power + n + up, power + n, etc.
11) And/or, hold power for various timed-presses i.e. >30 / 45 / 60 seconds. Some members report CWR booting up after these periods, or even longer.
Note: funnily I tried holding power + n + up for > 60 seconds and the 'LOADING' screen just stays frozen. Still doesn't work, and I didn't get any ADB access.
12) Try formatting the card completely with native Win/Linux tools, EASEUS Partition Master or SDFormatter before each burn.
13) Try using both Win32DiskImager and WinImage, or dd-ing in Linux (search for more instructions). If you have Linux, you can check to see if the SD's /boot partition is indeed bootable or not.
14) For ADB access, try to unregister your hardware (go to Start > Run > devmgmt.msc), then unplug-replug device to have your PC detect it again. If a device with VID of 2080 shows up, that's the NC. You should know what this means, by now. If not, read more here.
15) Try different SD card readers, especially when experiencing failure on multiple computers. As opposed to multi-adapters i.e. 6-in-1s, try dedicated microSD readers like this one. Do not use those microSD-to-normalSD converters (usually packed together in the same shipping plastic as your card) just because you only have a reader that reads regular SD cards, they tend to fail a lot.
16) At your own risk, try cleaning the contact points on your SD cards (if you must, use cleaning alcohol and a cottom swap/q-tip - do not use water), to free them of dirt and invisible grime. If you have multiple SDs, try cleaning the least expensive ones first. Don't forget to leave them to dry completely before insertion into the NC. Credit to bonobomidwest, read his experience here.
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17) Use Nooter 0.2 (recommendation from thecubed):
Here's my recommendation: use the stock charger cable (the one with the light-up N in it) when you try Nooter 0.2.
If the light goes from orange to green (or something like that) that means Nooter is booted and working.
My new thought: some file in /rom is missing, which controls the backlight and lcd controller. I can't prove this, but it seems logical haha.
All you need to do is get Nooter 0.2 booted and ssh'd in and you'll be able to dd over a complete 1.0.1 backup.
rawfish: I use Ubuntu, so sorry if I'm not able to provide instructions for Windows
Type:
Code:
sudo ifconfig usb0 192.168.2.1
Then:
Code:
ssh [email protected]
And you should be able to follow the directions for restoring on the wiki... either that or check around on IRC, if you tell them that you've got ssh access and you just need to restore your device, they'll help you out if I'm not around..
rawfish: I typed 'dmesg' in shell to see if the NC connected as a usb-ethernet device, and it doesn't show. If it does for you, then you should have progress and should ask around in IRC.
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All these did not work for me, but hope this is useful to some. I've read testimonies from everyone that this is an unbrickable device, and I certainly hope it's true, and for a kind soul to help suggest more solutions. As I'm overseas, do you think I should call BN up to see if I can arrange to send my device back for fixing/replacement? It's been a month since purchase, and 3 weeks of failed restore attempts.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible if any of these methods get you in deeper trouble. Attempt at your own risk. Credit goes to thecube aka IOMonster, and the #nookcolor channel on irc.freenode.net. Thank you to everyone who created the recovery guides too.
This space reserved.
You sure you just don't have crap or badly burned SD cards? Sounds pretty much what happens if you boot s really slow/junk SD or burn it badly.
khaytsus said:
You sure you just don't have crap or badly burned SD cards? Sounds pretty much what happens if you boot s really slow/junk SD or burn it badly.
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I tried on 6 different SD cards:
1. Transcend 8GB Class 6
2. Transcend 4GB Class 2
3. Wintec 16GB Class 10
4. Sandisk 4GB Class 4
5. Sandisk 2GB non-SDHC
6. Sandisk 256MB
I've burned stuffs like Autonooter and Honeycomb on these before, and they worked fine.
rawfish said:
I tried on 6 different SD cards:
1. Transcend 8GB Class 6
2. Transcend 4GB Class 2
3. Wintec 16GB Class 10
4. Sandisk 4GB Class 4
5. Sandisk 2GB non-SDHC
6. Sandisk 256MB
I've burned stuffs like Autonooter and Honeycomb on these before, and they worked fine.
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Click to collapse
First of all - great job in pulling all the resources into one place (it's small consolation, but i think you've just helped a whole load of people )
Second, i apologise if I'm telling you stuff that's obvious, but in helping out on these forums often it's the LOGIC of troubleshooting rather than the particulars of the problem that are important... In other words, only vary one thing at a time, and ALWAYS swap out every piece of hardware involved at each stage... if you always rely on one piece of hardware this might be the weak link... so have you tried a different SD drive or adapter? and have you tried burning from a different computer?
Now, I'm not being insulting, because I had a virtually identical problem with my first froyo - it just wouldn't boot (as you describe) despite multiple burns, different cards, all of the standard formatting tricks etc. It wouldn't work in multiple computers - the common element being the SD/microSD adapter. It never occurred to me that such an electrically simple part could be at fault, but you bet it was - in fact i would say in my experience these things consistently fail! (I spent a day kickign myself, because we know ho unreliable they are from using them in other devices). They also all look alike so it's hard to keep track of which one you are dealing with They also fail unexpectedly, so if you used an adapter before there's no guarantee it's working now...
Sooo... Have you tried a dedicated microSD reader (rather than a simple adapter)? I now carry one with me everywhere (it doubles as the world's smallest thumb drive too)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HGFKR8
Also bear in mind that froyo appears not to work on 16gb cards (i see you tried one)
Also, from my experience with other devices these cards are very sensitive to dirt and oil on the contacts. Certainly with enough frustrated handling you can get enough finger-grease on them to have them fail. Also they seem to be much less tolerant when writing than reading. I have NO idea how you would go about cleaning out the slot in the NC (and as someone who has ruined at least one DVD drive by blowing canned air where you shouldn't I'm not going to advocate for that). I have resurrected 'dead' SD cards before by cleaning the contacts with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip (on the card's contacts) - but again do so with great care (at your own risk!!!) and with your cheapest card, and make sure it si completely dry before you put it in the NC.
I have been generally a little scared that all this plugging and unplugging of the microSD might hurt the NC, so i have done everything i can to avoid that...
I am sure you can find someone local to you willing to help fix your boot issue but I assure you, its damn near impossible to brick a nook without physical damage.
@bonobomidwest:
No offence taken at all, in fact I am very appreciative of your contribution. I forgot to add the fact that I tried on 2 different card readers, plus indeed tried to clean the slot via an air duster VERY GENTLY as a last effort resort (I would not recommend this, it may cause permanent hardware damage). Once I'm free I'll go get a new SD reader (reads uSD only) and a new uSD which I haven't tried before. I'll try cleaning the contact points too.
*Thanks - I've added more checklists to the OP
@combustiblemonkey:
Thanks for the assurance.
I convinced my friend to buy a nook, rooted it for him, and was bricked within 2 days. Here is how I fixed it
EDIT: I tried to post a link, but was unable. If you go to theunlockr(dot)com and search for how to restore nook color to stock, there is a detailed article.
This took me almost 2 days of reboots, black screens, and freezing. I would get into CWR, and it would freeze. Had to reboot, got the black screen of death. Literally, a couple hundred reboots before it said that the OS has successfully installed, and of course, it froze again. Many more reboots, and it was finally at stock. I figure getting it back to stock was enough to return it.
Dr-Rockso said:
I convinced my friend to buy a nook, rooted it for him, and was bricked within 2 days. Here is how I fixed it
EDIT: I tried to post a link, but was unable. If you go to theunlockr(dot)com and search for how to restore nook color to stock, there is a detailed article.
This took me almost 2 days of reboots, black screens, and freezing. I would get into CWR, and it would freeze. Had to reboot, got the black screen of death. Literally, a couple hundred reboots before it said that the OS has successfully installed, and of course, it froze again. Many more reboots, and it was finally at stock. I figure getting it back to stock was enough to return it.
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Thanks, this is the direct link:
http://theunlockr.com/2011/02/14/how-to-restore-the-nook-color-to-stock
All instructions were taken from XDA, plus no guarantee it's the most updated
Moving on, great to hear you've gotten it back to stock. Man, you've got GREAT patience, a couple hundred reboots?
1) Was the SD inserted in or not? Curious about the OS successfully installed message, which is the result of 8x unsuccessful reboots without SD inserted.
2) Could you also provide a more detailed account on what you did? Looking forward to hear - thanks.
Hi rawfish
I also have this issue and have been trying many things. My nook did boot nooter 0.2 (the light went green) but I couldn't get Win 7 or Ubuntu to connect to it. My screen never changes at all, no backlight even. Seems this may be a larger issue than most believe it to be, especially for people like us who don't live in the US.
chrysilis said:
Hi rawfish
I also have this issue and have been trying many things. My nook did boot nooter 0.2 (the light went green) but I couldn't get Win 7 or Ubuntu to connect to it. My screen never changes at all, no backlight even. Seems this may be a larger issue than most believe it to be, especially for people like us who don't live in the US.
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Click to collapse
If you can find a friend or person in your area having the same device, you can try to see if an SD you burned work on theirs. If it works on theirs, it's possible that your SD slot is defective - but then comes the question of it being in working condition before the bricking happened, right?
I still think mine's recoverable, as with yours. Could be a bad SD or reader, or bad contacts. I'm going to try out using another reader plus purchase an el-cheapo branded SD. I'm also going to try formatting it via another PC in a linux environment and messing around with the partitions.
I understand the trouble you may have taken to get the device - and this happens. All the best mate, and do cheer up, don't give up.
rawfish said:
Thanks, this is the direct link:
All instructions were taken from XDA, plus no guarantee it's the most updated
Moving on, great to hear you've gotten it back to stock. Man, you've got GREAT patience, a couple hundred reboots?
1) Was the SD inserted in or not? Curious about the OS successfully installed message, which is the result of 8x unsuccessful reboots without SD inserted.
2) Could you also provide a more detailed account on what you did? Looking forward to hear - thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I finally got it to work, the SD card was installed with the 1.0.1 stock OS on it, and CWR. The problem was that that (+) and (-) would only occasionally work. And if they did, it would usually freeze. I would be able to format system, but it would freeze if I tried to format data. Powered off, and I would get the black screen of death (BSoD). Once this happened, I would plug it into my computer so that I could hear the chime indicating a new device was plugged in. I found that ejecting the SD and then rebooting would sometimes help get rid of the BSoD. Then another power down, plug in the SD, and start again. Also, holding the N, +, and Power would sometimes help in launching CWR. I would usually have to hold for 60 seconds, but it would finally launch. It seemed like the nook was trying to run a process that slowing it down and causing it to freeze, but I couldn't figure out what it was. If I would wait an hour, it would boot CWR and allow me to format system and data, but then it would freeze when I would try to install the zip.
The successful install message was in CWR. It said Install From SD Card Complete, or something like that. After that, I still had to do the 8 reboots. It would load up the stock welcome screen and freeze. 8 reboots later, I got the video lady. Good enough to return it to the store.
It really was just persistence. It would usually take an hour of reboots before I was able to try to install the zip, and it probably failed on me 15+ times. The status bar would get half way, and freeze. Then I had to begin again. If it had been my nook instead of my friends, I probably would have given up. I wish I could be more specific, but unfortunately I am new to all of this. My nook rooted just fine, and fixing his is really my only experience with CWR. I just kept going until it worked.
Good luck! It is a pain in the ass, but it can happen.
rawfish said:
If you can find a friend or person in your area having the same device, you can try to see if an SD you burned work on theirs. If it works on theirs, it's possible that your SD slot is defective - but then comes the question of it being in working condition before the bricking happened, right?
I still think mine's recoverable, as with yours. Could be a bad SD or reader, or bad contacts. I'm going to try out using another reader plus purchase an el-cheapo branded SD. I'm also going to try formatting it via another PC in a linux environment and messing around with the partitions.
I understand the trouble you may have taken to get the device - and this happens. All the best mate, and do cheer up, don't give up.
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My wife has one as well so am able to test using that and the SD works fine in hers. The whole screen not turning on thing is weird though, does your screen turn on?
We bought them when on honeymoon in America so didn't have to pay a shipper or anything
Deleting the partitions manually with Gparted and using dd to burn the SDs and making sure the correct partitions are bootable doesn't seem to work. Last night I retried a lot of the previously attempted options, with no results.
It's weird to think that a working SD slot and a slew of cards will suddenly malfunction, but for now that seems like the most plausible reason why my NC can't boot anything off SD.
To think back how it all started, the device suddenly rebooted from HC preview v0.4 to stock BN 1.01 (rooted + installed CWR on eMMC) while the SD is inserted, then upon another reboot it simply stays dead, this gives me reason to believe that the internal boot partition is corrupted, and SD slot nuked hardware-wise.
Hmmm, really hoping to find someone else who has the same device, in my area.
Right now I am at the Black Screen of Death as well...
I think Barnes should refund me, but I am willing to do some tests for the good of society.
Steelfan555 said:
Right now I am at the Black Screen of Death as well...
I think Barnes should refund me, but I am willing to do some tests for the good of society.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that, and don't give up! Hope you took a look at the other threads, and this little pseudo checklist I made in the OP. Do share the outcome
Thank you Rawfish. The first option, the Dummies Guide to Fixing 'My Nook won't boot'
was what I needed to get started on the right track again. Though I'm not sure anyone wants to know how I ended up here, I'm grateful to those that put in the time and effort to find any of these solutions.
Thank you!
FroztIkon said:
Thank you Rawfish. The first option, the Dummies Guide to Fixing 'My Nook won't boot'
was what I needed to get started on the right track again. Though I'm not sure anyone wants to know how I ended up here, I'm grateful to those that put in the time and effort to find any of these solutions.
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update:
Ok, so after running through it, I ended up getting stuck on the boot screen that shows N. If I powered off, it would restart and get stuck at that screen. I tried the 8 shutdowns (it installed new software), but afterwards, it was still stuck. So, I tried another method I found on the forums. I powered off holding the N button and power, which caused it to boot back up and do a factory reset. I now have a factory fresh Nook.
Okay, it's been a while since I kept this thread updated - I contacted BN and had the device sent back, apparently the SD slot failed so they sent me a new one. I'm just wondering if it's sheer concidence that it happened, as I was tinkering with Nookie Honey preview v0.4, when the hardware suddenly failed.
Oh well, I guess the NC still remains as a 99.99% unbrickable device - with the 0.01% being related to the ambiguous root cause to my case.
I now have 2 NCs (one from the RMA process, another one from the $199 eBay deal.
OK Guys, here is my issue... I searched the forums and had no luck for what seems to be my problem, nor did a google search return anything.
I got my Nook back in Febraury, and it worked great, right away wound up putting NF 0.6.7 on the eMMC and life was peachy. I hadn't been using it much, had been waiting for CM to get to a stable release so I could put that on there and call it good.
Anyways, I'm using it one night, full battery, I turn the screen off, head to bed. The next day I try turning it on, nothing happens, tried all the key combinations, but wouldn't start. My microSD adapter was broken and was waiting for a new one so couldn't try much.
Just got the adapter yesterday so I went ahead and made a CWR bootable SD card (not ext4) and booted it up, but it was doing the weirdest thing, The whole screen was flashing, like how the screen will turn black if you press the power button while in CWR, it would blank the screen then come back momentarily, and then probably 10 seconds into it it rebooted itself. Thought this was pretty weird so tried booting again with the same results.
My next step was try download the SD image again, reburn it and try the process again. At some point I wound up trying the ext4 image because I wanted to install CM7 anyways. One time I was able to boot to CWR, and it didn't seem like anything was wrong, so I thought life was grand, wiped data/cache and installed the CM7 zip liek the instructions stated. Rebooted, nothing. Rebooted with the SD card in again and it was back to its old antics. Anyways, after many reburns and tries, I was able to get CWR to stay up long enough to flash the repartition boot with stock image. When I rebooted it would get to the N screen, and then bootloop like it's supposed to, did that 8 times, got to where it shoudl Factory reset itself, got the installing screen, and the Nook rebooted right before it was about to finish!
So ever since then it's been a struggle of trying to keep it up long enough to flash a stock zip, but I have had no luck, it literally reboots within 30 seconds of being in CWR. Tonight I'm going to try making a CM7/NF SD card to see if ti will stay booted solely off of the SD card, but not holding my breath since CWR won't stay.
To me it sounds like a hardware problem, all the keys work fine tho, power to boot and turn off, I guess i cant test volume keys but the N works just fine too. Didn't drop a glass of water on it, didn't leave it on top of a furnace or anything, I have no clue.
Crappy part is im outside of BB's return perios, and even if I wasn't, I threw the box away last week So what do you guys think? Am I totally missing something? Is it hardware? Can I send it back to B&N for a warranty claim? Not sure if they'd be able to tell it's been messed with since it appears stock now, and I don't feel like defrauding them, but if it's hardware it would have happend with or without a custom rom on there. Sorry for the long winded post and thanks!
does it behave when hooked up to your computer via usb? is it possible to complete the flashing using adb?
Hi,
It also sounds like the electronics might be intermittent - have you given the
unit a 'thump'?
Cleaned the uSD connections on the card (and maybe on the Nook?)
Probably not it, but in your long description above, you don't mention reformatting
to EXT4 all the correct partitions before installing CM7.
Good luck!
Peter
Animec said:
does it behave when hooked up to your computer via usb? is it possible to complete the flashing using adb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holy crap, it behaves perfectly when hooked up to the computer, i can mount it and everything, but as soon as i unplug it, it's up to it's old tricks, dimming the screen, going back to the lock screen, acting like the power button was pressed. I don't get it at all.. I'm going to do some research on pushing the partitions via adb...
spoke too soon, back to rebooting every time it gets to the N screen
pmilford said:
Hi,
It also sounds like the electronics might be intermittent - have you given the
unit a 'thump'?
Cleaned the uSD connections on the card (and maybe on the Nook?)
Probably not it, but in your long description above, you don't mention reformatting
to EXT4 all the correct partitions before installing CM7.
Good luck!
Peter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What kind of 'thump' do you recommend? lol, i tried cleaning the connectors, no luck, i actually didn't format any partitions to ext4 before i tried flashing the zip, i thought flashing it from an ext4 compatible sd card was the only thing you had to do? please tell me i missed something and we can fix it!
OK one more reply here..it seems to be behaving fine when its plugged into either usb or outlet, its almost like thinks it's dead unless its charging?
HI,
CM7 requires most of the partitions to be formated with ext4.
I found this posting to be the most useful for my install of CM7:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=960542&page=16
a little dated, but very detailed!
Looks like /system /data and /cache should be ext4.
I would be surprised if running CWM from external SD, if it is setup correctly
would just crash before you try and access the internal memory though.
-> have you tried a second uSD card?
Could it be a bad card plus badly corrupted mixture of stuff on internal emmc?
You mention in post that device looks ok with USB power adapter connected?
Perhaps intermittent battery connector? (Try holding unit at different angles?)
Thump: whatever you feel comfortable with without doing any damage(?)
Good luck!
Peter
jwood55812 said:
What kind of 'thump' do you recommend? lol, i tried cleaning the connectors, no luck, i actually didn't format any partitions to ext4 before i tried flashing the zip, i thought flashing it from an ext4 compatible sd card was the only thing you had to do? please tell me i missed something and we can fix it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, morning report, left it plugged into the Nooks EOM charger cable over night, seems to be working this morning, its almost like the battery was dead...maybe i was using my Captivates charging cable instead of the Nook one? Anyways, everything seems to be better now, thanks for the help!
I've read through the Dummies Guide and researched plenty of posts. The Nook will not boot by itself or with an SD card:
1. The SD card boots my other Nook Color just fine.
2. Have tried multiple boot images 128mb, 4gb, 8gb, and the CW 1gb. No go.
3. Tried 8 failed attempts (but without seeing anything on screen I do not know if I did it right)
4. Tried Multiple combination of holding power, n, volume buttons.
5. Disassembled Nook and disconnected the battery overnight.
6. Fully charged battery afterwards and nothing still.
7. Tried all this with and without a bootable SD inserted.
Computer does the whole recognize OMAP 3630 for a split second and loses it. From This Thread, I gather that I might be bricked. However This Guy seemed to have come back from this state. I am a little unsure as to how. I couldn't quite understand his final post about how he fixed it. It sounds like he just found a different boot.img (which I also tried ..... i think) and had finally found a SD card boot image that worked.
I have exhausted my research ability. I have no history on this Nook. I bought my working Nook off Ebay and the seller just threw this in with it along with a error 28 Ipad. I just hate to be defeated by an electronic. The only thing I have not tried is actually replacing the battery, but it seems to work fine. It discharges and recharges. So I am not sure where I stand on this. I believe I have tried everything, but maybe a Nook's nand is like an finicky Xbox and I can short some pins or something to give it electro shock treatment.
Anyway, I have absolutely no problem trying "crazy" ideas that risk frying this thing. Maybe I missed something, maybe I haven't. I apologize if I posted this in the wrong section.
I have a Nook that experienced everything you're saying.
After trying everything multiple times and getting nowhere I assumed it was a hardware problem.
I got a new motherboard off of ebay and replaced it and it's been fine ever since.
I'm not sure which part failed though since everything's integrated on the one board.
I'm going to go through and play with the board a bit. Time to test for shorts.
Hello guys! This is my first post after visiting xda developers everyday for the past two weeks so bare with me...
I recently purchased an HTC HD7 from ebay at a very good price. I thought all was well with the free shipping and all...until the phone started restarting after the first day. So I panicked, searched on google and up pops up xda developers forum! It offered alot of solutions to many problems regarding resetting and restarting.
However after extensive research for the past two weeks, I finally recognized that the problem was the 'internal' SD card. The sellers from HK from whom i bought the phone had voided HTC warranty to insert one of their low class, cheap SDHC cards (which explains the reduction in cost) causing it to fail drastically as a phone. I know this happened because of a shiny warranty sticker with a bunch of chinese symbols on it. Updates won't work, factory reset happens on it's own, restarting even when i simply open up the messaging app and of course the infamous "storage card not working" error.
I've decided I cannot and do not want to send back my phone back in exchange for a new one since i will encounter the same problems. I've decided to have them compensate me for any repairs I have to make. So I read an article on xda dev about upgrading memory to 32GB using SanDisk Class 2 SDHC. Problem is, it is quite out of reach in my country so I would like to know a full list of compatible SDHC cards (not necessarily 32 gb). Also, what other hardware problems might be causing the occurances mentioned? I doubt it's a software problem, but say it is, what might be causing it?
Thank you!
cabe0018 said:
Hello guys! This is my first post after visiting xda developers everyday for the past two weeks so bare with me...
I recently purchased an HTC HD7 from ebay at a very good price. I thought all was well with the free shipping and all...until the phone started restarting after the first day. So I panicked, searched on google and up pops up xda developers forum! It offered alot of solutions to many problems regarding resetting and restarting.
However after extensive research for the past two weeks, I finally recognized that the problem was the 'internal' SD card. The sellers from HK from whom i bought the phone had voided HTC warranty to insert one of their low class, cheap SDHC cards (which explains the reduction in cost) causing it to fail drastically as a phone. I know this happened because of a shiny warranty sticker with a bunch of chinese symbols on it. Updates won't work, factory reset happens on it's own, restarting even when i simply open up the messaging app and of course the infamous "storage card not working" error.
I've decided I cannot and do not want to send back my phone back in exchange for a new one since i will encounter the same problems. I've decided to have them compensate me for any repairs I have to make. So I read an article on xda dev about upgrading memory to 32GB using SanDisk Class 2 SDHC. Problem is, it is quite out of reach in my country so I would like to know a full list of compatible SDHC cards (not necessarily 32 gb). Also, what other hardware problems might be causing the occurances mentioned? I doubt it's a software problem, but say it is, what might be causing it?
Thank you!
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I think your probably right, more than likely it is due to the cheap SD card!
The good thing is that almost all the newer manufactured SDHC cards will work in the HD7, class 2, through 10.
I would recommend at least the 8gb or the 16gb for storage capacity and a class 4 for read/write speeds.
Stay with a better brand like SanDisk or PNY.
Purchace it from someone that has a decent return policy, just incase you get a dud.
Run the CrystalDiskMark 4000mb test on it and post your results in the "upgrade your HTC HD7 memory to 32gb" thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=883582
and they will be able to tell you if its a sufficient SD card for the HD7.
Thank you
xdrc45 said:
I think your probably right, more than likely it is due to the cheap SD card!
The good thing is that almost all the newer manufactured SDHC cards will work in the HD7, class 2, through 10.
I would recommend at least the 8gb or the 16gb for storage capacity and a class 4 for read/write speeds.
Stay with a better brand like SanDisk or PNY.
Purchace it from someone that has a decent return policy, just incase you get a dud.
Run the CrystalDiskMark 4000mb test on it and post your results in the "upgrade your HTC HD7 memory to 32gb" thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=883582
and they will be able to tell you if its a sufficient SD card for the HD7.
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Where can I hit the thank you button? I cannot find it :S Also the phone is deteriorating day by day....Now it is out of battery and when i charge it, it goes into a loop of the HTC splash screen and a windows loading screen. It then freezes and repeats. Is there anything else that might be contributing to this? thanks!
cabe0018 said:
Where can I hit the thank you button? I cannot find it :S Also the phone is deteriorating day by day....Now it is out of battery and when i charge it, it goes into a loop of the HTC splash screen and a windows loading screen. It then freezes and repeats. Is there anything else that might be contributing to this? thanks!
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It's definitely possible and I wouldn't rule out a software issue, but I think the signs are pointing to a non- compliant SD card
The devices OS is reliant on the SD card to store user data and cache, contacts, SMS, emails and apps, without an SD card inserted or having a faulty SD card would cause these operations to crash and cause system errors when powering on the device, this in turn prevents it from operating and the system from loading and cause file system performance issues, device lockup, reset or boot loop.
Are you sure that they even put an SD card in your device? They or the original owner may have removed the SD card and not installed another one. Either way, I would start with putting a new SD card in your device and go from there!
xdrc45 said:
It's definitely possible and I wouldn't rule out a software issue, but I think the signs are pointing to a non- compliant SD card
The devices OS is reliant on the SD card to store user data and cache, contacts, SMS, emails and apps, without an SD card inserted or having a faulty SD card would cause these operations to crash and cause system errors when powering on the device, this in turn prevents it from operating and the system from loading and cause file system performance issues, device lockup, reset or boot loop.
Are you sure that they even put an SD card in your device? They or the original owner may have removed the SD card and not installed another one. Either way, I would start with putting a new SD card in your device and go from there!
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Yes I am sure they put in an SD card because i removed the back panel and it is clearly visible. One thing I find annoying is that they removed the protective metallic paper used to protect and hold the SDHC in place. Is there a way to use an alternative to this protective paper? I have also noticed the phone does have some on board memory ( 11MB) to be able to run. However there is no place for anything, messages, contacts, even for running applications such as IE! I'm guessing it is some kind of emergency memory? Anyways, my worry is that i feel that metallic strip is somewhat important so I would like to know how to replace it? Your help is very much appreciated!!!
cabe0018 said:
Yes I am sure they put in an SD card because i removed the back panel and it is clearly visible. One thing I find annoying is that they removed the protective metallic paper used to protect and hold the SDHC in place. Is there a way to use an alternative to this protective paper? I have also noticed the phone does have some on board memory ( 11MB) to be able to run. However there is no place for anything, messages, contacts, even for running applications such as IE! I'm guessing it is some kind of emergency memory? Anyways, my worry is that i feel that metallic strip is somewhat important so I would like to know how to replace it? Your help is very much appreciated!!!
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Glad I can be of help!
It sounds like it's not recognizing the SD card. Can you get the phone running and goto settings, about phone and check to see what it says for storage capacity. It should show, total storage and available storage.
As far as the metalic tape... I know that it's there to help prevent the SD card from coming out of the tray. Because WP7 Mango security locks the card to prevent any data from being removed from the card. So say you removed the card without unlocking it first, there is no way to extract the data from the card or format it with another device. If the HD7 is turned on without the SD card installed the card will no longer work in the device either.
Not a 100% sure if the tape serves any other purpose though. You could cut a piece of duct tape to fit and secure it in place use the good kind like gorilla duct tape.
xdrc45 said:
Glad I can be of help!
It sounds like it's not recognizing the SD card. Can you get the phone running and goto settings, about phone and check to see what it says for storage capacity. It should show, total storage and available storage.
As far as the metalic tape... I know that it's there to help prevent the SD card from coming out of the tray. Because WP7 Mango security locks the card to prevent any data from being removed from the card. So say you removed the card without unlocking it first, there is no way to extract the data from the card or format it with another device. If the HD7 is turned on without the SD card installed the card will no longer work in the device either.
Not a 100% sure if the tape serves any other purpose though. You could cut a piece of duct tape to fit and secure it in place use the good kind like gorilla duct tape.
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I have successfully inserted a 32Gb SanDisk SDHC Class 4 in my phone just a few hours ago. I performed a hard reset as instructed. When I booted up, the HTC splash screen showed up and it froze. For roughly 5 minutes...I plucked out the battery and again performed a hard reset. This time the device loaded with an error saying: low storage space please free up some space from your device. I tapped 'ok' and all I had was a black screen, although i know the OS booted up because i could hear system sounds, the bottom buttons were responsive and the lcok screen was visible. However when I slide up, no icons are visible except the wifi icon, the battery icon and the sim icon.
I tried loading the bootloader and as far as storage goes it is only recognizing some sort of 64MB partition from an "sd sandisk". Could this be a faulty installation of the OS on the new card? was I supposed to allow the system to take its time to load the software onto the new SD card? I am also unable to obtain the bootloader version etc that would be required to flash an RUU. Help would be appreciated!
cabe0018 said:
I have successfully inserted a 32Gb SanDisk SDHC Class 4 in my phone just a few hours ago. I performed a hard reset as instructed. When I booted up, the HTC splash screen showed up and it froze. For roughly 5 minutes...I plucked out the battery and again performed a hard reset. This time the device loaded with an error saying: low storage space please free up some space from your device. I tapped 'ok' and all I had was a black screen, although i know the OS booted up because i could hear system sounds, the bottom buttons were responsive and the lcok screen was visible. However when I slide up, no icons are visible except the wifi icon, the battery icon and the sim icon.
I tried loading the bootloader and as far as storage goes it is only recognizing some sort of 64MB partition from an "sd sandisk". Could this be a faulty installation of the OS on the new card? was I supposed to allow the system to take its time to load the software onto the new SD card? I am also unable to obtain the bootloader version etc that would be required to flash an RUU. Help would be appreciated!
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That's strange... The HD7 has an internal (primary) seperate memory for the OS, the SD card is a secondary memory for the device. Technically it's a non removable storage. So once inserted, you hard reset the device and the SD card is formatted and then it becomes a part of the device and it's integrated into the file system.
If you boot into bootloader mode (device off, hold down the volume down button and power the device back on, while continuing to hold down the volume down button) what's all the information on the bootloader screen? I'm wondering if it's bricked. Can you also get into USB host mode? Device off, hold down the volume down button and the camera button and then power back on.
xdrc45 said:
That's strange... The HD7 has an internal (primary) seperate memory for the OS, the SD card is a secondary memory for the device. Technically it's a non removable storage. So once inserted, you hard reset the device and the SD card is formatted and then it becomes a part of the device and it's integrated into the file system.
If you boot into bootloader mode (device off, hold down the volume down button and power the device back on, while continuing to hold down the volume down button) what's all the information on the bootloader screen? I'm wondering if it's bricked. Can you also get into USB host mode? Device off, hold down the volume down button and the camera button and then power back on.
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The device was not bricked. I inserted another SDHC card I had used for an old MP4. It was an 8GB TEAM SDHC class 2. The device booted up the OS on this card after a formatting and everything worked better than previously. However some restats were still happening. I tried loading the bootloader in an attempt to flash a custom ROM for the device but no USB text was seen on screen although Zune was recognizing the device perfectly. I decided to leave the device as is. Yesterday, I migrated to my grandma's for a week and I have a room where reception is great always full and no interruptions. A curious fact was that the phone did not restart once no matter how much I used it... and I did use it extensively downloading apps for the first 3 hours, constantly chatting on facebook, emails HTC hub and also voice recognition for messaging and searches. It was working 100% great. When I descended down the stairs (my room is on the first floor) and went to the kitchen I recieved a call from my girlfriend. I picked it up and reception was pretty bad, so I told her to message me instead. As I cut I realized the reception bar was zero. After a couple of minutes, the phone restarted for the first time since my stay at grandma's. I came to the inevitable conclusion that the mobile restarts everytime the reception is bad. This conclusion was backed up by working fine in my room and restarting every time I went to a low reception room. It hit me then that my house does have pretty bad reception where I reside most of the times which causes all those restarts. I am almost sure this is the cause of the restarting. However I am not sure what it infers... Regardless I am sending the phone back in exchange for a new one. However I do wish to know if anyone encountered the same problem, what they did to tackle it (besides running around like a madman to find reception), what causes this and if it is a model defect or a rare case. Thank you for your help!
cabe0018 said:
The device was not bricked. I inserted another SDHC card I had used for an old MP4. It was an 8GB TEAM SDHC class 2. The device booted up the OS on this card after a formatting and everything worked better than previously. However some restats were still happening. I tried loading the bootloader in an attempt to flash a custom ROM for the device but no USB text was seen on screen although Zune was recognizing the device perfectly. I decided to leave the device as is. Yesterday, I migrated to my grandma's for a week and I have a room where reception is great always full and no interruptions. A curious fact was that the phone did not restart once no matter how much I used it... and I did use it extensively downloading apps for the first 3 hours, constantly chatting on facebook, emails HTC hub and also voice recognition for messaging and searches. It was working 100% great. When I descended down the stairs (my room is on the first floor) and went to the kitchen I recieved a call from my girlfriend. I picked it up and reception was pretty bad, so I told her to message me instead. As I cut I realized the reception bar was zero. After a couple of minutes, the phone restarted for the first time since my stay at grandma's. I came to the inevitable conclusion that the mobile restarts everytime the reception is bad. This conclusion was backed up by working fine in my room and restarting every time I went to a low reception room. It hit me then that my house does have pretty bad reception where I reside most of the times which causes all those restarts. I am almost sure this is the cause of the restarting. However I am not sure what it infers... Regardless I am sending the phone back in exchange for a new one. However I do wish to know if anyone encountered the same problem, what they did to tackle it (besides running around like a madman to find reception), what causes this and if it is a model defect or a rare case. Thank you for your help!
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Yeah... If you can exchange it for another one I would!
If in bootloader mode the white section will display "serial" while not plugged in and "USB" while plugged in, if neither of these are present then the device is half/small bricked for sure, even if it's recognized by Zune. That can be fixed with the goldcard/ Y cable method too.
I have heard of some people having issues with restarts when on their network and while roaming outside of their network. One thing you can try is flashing different radio versions until you find one that gives the best signal. Another thing could be the OS build version and firmware version that your device is running on, it may need to be updated.
xdrc45 said:
Yeah... If you can exchange it for another one I would!
If in bootloader mode the white section will display "serial" while not plugged in and "USB" while plugged in, if neither of these are present then the device is half/small bricked for sure, even if it's recognized by Zune. That can be fixed with the goldcard/ Y cable method too.
I have heard of some people having issues with restarts when on their network and while roaming outside of their network. One thing you can try is flashing different radio versions until you find one that gives the best signal. Another thing could be the OS build version and firmware version that your device is running on, it may need to be updated.
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While I wish to thank you for your constant support and very useful suggestions on the matter, xdrc45, I am going to send the phone back very soon. Chances are I will recieve a replacement in two weeks time. Aside from this, I am sure the seller at HK will send me a phone with similar issues (Cross-fingers he won't), But since I am able to handle some very basic technical issues such as these, and the phone is at a good price (160EUR) I do not wish to refund. I'd much rather tinker with it a little here and there to customize it to my liking, ensure maximum potential of the phone and prevent issues. So my question is this: What steps should I take the minute the phone arrives (assuming they send me an identical copy of the phone they provided)? Do I need to supply myself with any hardware or software to be able to install the phone to function as though I bought it officially from HTC?
In reply to your suggestion on the bootloader: yes, the white section was always empty no matter what...so I'm guessing the phone was slowly dying away anyways. I will definately look further into the goldcard/ y cable.
Thanks!
cabe0018 said:
While I wish to thank you for your constant support and very useful suggestions on the matter, xdrc45, I am going to send the phone back very soon. Chances are I will recieve a replacement in two weeks time. Aside from this, I am sure the seller at HK will send me a phone with similar issues (Cross-fingers he won't), But since I am able to handle some very basic technical issues such as these, and the phone is at a good price (160EUR) I do not wish to refund. I'd much rather tinker with it a little here and there to customize it to my liking, ensure maximum potential of the phone and prevent issues. So my question is this: What steps should I take the minute the phone arrives (assuming they send me an identical copy of the phone they provided)? Do I need to supply myself with any hardware or software to be able to install the phone to function as though I bought it officially from HTC?
In reply to your suggestion on the bootloader: yes, the white section was always empty no matter what...so I'm guessing the phone was slowly dying away anyways. I will definately look further into the goldcard/ y cable.
Thanks!
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I think that's a good choice and hopefully the next one won't have the same problems for you!
The best thing to do when you get the new one is boot into bootloader mode and check the information, if you want post back all the info from the BL screen or provide a screen shot of it. Also go into settings, about phone, more info and post back all the information from there too. That way we can make sure everything is up to par on the device and functioning like it should and make sure it's not bricked and if it is we'll get it taken care of for you!
In preparation for upgrading to a Moto X I had them replace my wife's old D3 (with another D3, if you can picture the dusty warehouse that must have THESE spares..) Anyway, what's the more straight-forward way to move from the old one to the new one? The only thing wrong with the old one was a flaky keyboard, so it's accessible for the process.
The old one is rooted and has a 32gb microSD card. Both the old & new are running 5.7.906
The one thing I haven't done yet is activated the new phone (did the four corners green guy skip). The SIM card is not inserted in either phone at the moment. I'm loathe to spend the likely HOUR on the phone it'd take with Verizon and then if the new phone "doesn't work" I'd have to do the dance all over again. Let me get the phone set up first...
I thought I was headed in the right direction by first rooting the new one (via the motofail method) which seemed to work. I then bought and loaded the $3 CWM tool. I used that to create a backup on the old phone to it's SD card. Also, seemed to work. Also downloaded the CWM app onto the new phone, powered off, brought the SD card over, powered up, used the app to reboot into recover and reloaded the backup. Seemed OK. Lots of stuff 'looked like' it was present and usable. I wanted to then go and whack out the bloatware.
But now the new phone reboots. Not right away, it takes a few minutes but then, with no messages on the screen, it just spontaneously reboots. It only seems to do this if the USB cable is connected and USB debugging mode is selected.
It does not reboot unless USB debugging is enabled.
Ok, so perhaps I've missed some critical steps or something. It's been a while since I had to do this sort of thing and this is a pretty old phone. I'm inclined to think there's and ADB driver issue here. But I'd like to be sure to head in the right direction before making a bigger mess.
Suggestions?
Random reboots after moving CWM backup to new D3?
Just when I thought everything was done... bam, it reboots randomly.
I had a D3 with a flaky keyboard. Got a replacement since it's been covered. Going to decommission it next week with a Moto X.
Got the replacement D3 (hoped for a D4 but they STILL have stock of replacement D3's). Old one was rooted and had the D3 Bootstrap app on it. Booted into CWM and made a backup to a blank 4GB microSD card.
Rooted the new D3 using motofail. Loaded the D3 Bootstrap app and restored the backup made from the old Droid3. Seems to 'take'.
But then I started getting random reboots. Thought it might be just related to the USB debugging, so I turned that off. Seemed to stop rebooting.... for a while. STFW said WiFi networks can be problematic, so I deleted all the old networks and turned off WiFi. No love, still reboots.
In fact, while I've been typing this it's rebooted twice.
Ok, so before I subject myself to the utter nonsense that is Verizon support, what steps should I take to narrow down whether it's an issue with the phone or the way I did the restoration to it?
HELP!
I'm thinking I would have taken the old motherboard, and slapped it in the new phone. Just an idea....
Dougnsalem said:
I'm thinking I would have taken the old motherboard, and slapped it in the new phone. Just an idea....
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Given it was insured there wasn't really any need, other than the possible quicker turn-around. They sent the replacement's replacement in just two days more, so it wasn't a big wait. That one has been fine.
Meanwhile the Moto X was shipped Fedex signature-required, and the driver didn't wait long enough for me to get out of the shower. Nor did they respond to a phone request asking the truck to circle back around later. So presumably it'll be delivered later today.