Screen goes black/fixed/keyboard problem now - G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I inherited a G1 that looks like its in good shape. But when I turn it on it briefly flashes a boot screen that quickly fades to black.
If I hold down the power and camera button it starts to boot, I let go of the power button and keep the camera button held down the screen will stay lit and I can see the fastboot mode. As soon as I let go of the camera button some other words flash on the screen and it dies again.
I looked through the forum assuming I could quickly fix this and have a new backup phone but this forum is now so advanced nobody seems to be having basic problems like this. And anyone who is still here seems to have lots more experience than me with this particular model of phone. Usually the stickies have an unbrick thread but I cant seem to find it.
I am sure this is something simple but if someone could point me in the right direction, or say the screen is burned out, I its bricked, or whatever you think it might be, I would appreciate it.

After more reading and discussing with previous owner, I think that the Camera and power button puts it into fastboot. (not sure exactly what that is yet)
From there it tries to install something from the SD card but fails.
The SD card contains DREAIMG.nbh and two empty folders. It seems to be trying to install something else besides DREAIMG but it fails so fast I cant catch it.
Is there something else I should place on the external SD card or perhaps a different version of the same file?
The previous owner also told me the G1 had been running CM6 if that makes any difference. ( I know it does on CM7 ).
I can get it to the screen with the three skateboarding androids (engineering spl indication? )but any time I let go of any of the buttons the screen fades right to black, making any further button pushing useless.
Any helpful hints? Anyone? Even a thread you think I should read completely?

I copied the DREAIMG.ngh to the desktop of my computer and reformated the SD card. After I bunch of button pushing and holding I managed to get it to hold on the HBOOT screen without going black. I pushed the trackball down and it reloaded the image apparently. Now it turns on and such but none of the keyboard buttons work and it says safemode in the bottom left corner. I will continue to read and search.

I cant find anything in this forum about safe mode. I am stumped.
The phone will boot and tries to get me to sign up for the gmail account but the keyboard only has the d, e, f, and x keys working.
The emergency dialer seems to work. I dialed my other phone with it and it said its not an emergency number and wont let it dial.
I am pretty sure this is not a lost cause here. There is just something I am missing. Could it be a bad flash from the DREAIMG.nbh?
Would it be possible to download a different image.nbh from someplace and try that?
Anyone have any ideas?

ok what are you trying to do exactly? i think your having trouble because the files on your sd... take them all off and see what happens??

can you boot into recovery? holding home+power??

ldrifta said:
ok what are you trying to do exactly? i think your having trouble because the files on your sd... take them all off and see what happens??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying to get a functioning phone is all. I am comfortable fiddling with it , just dont know the process to go through.
I pulled the SD card and rebooted and its the same result. Little grey box in the bottom left that says 'safe mode' and it proceeds to the google account screen.
The touch screen works, and the trackball seems to. but Home and Menu dont so I cant even back out of the sign in screen.
Booting up with home+power gives me the triangle with the ! inside it instead of any kind of recovery mode like I expected.
Like I mentioned earlier, I believe it might be running CM6 but I am not even positive about that. I was told it was.
Any suggestions on my nextstep to get it into some kind of functoning state? I am willing to try anything suggested. New ROM or whatever.
I really thing its something simple, I just dont have any expreience with this model at all.

After more searching I guess the ! with triangle is the first screen of the recovery mode? But pushing Alt+L or Alt+I doesnt do anything.
I am used to the Galaxy S recover mode being all right there on the screen.
So next step would be......?

no wait you get the triangle and the !?? thats good lol that is the stock recovery mode.. so now i know what to work with when you get to that screen you can press alt+L and a list should pop up!!

FireRaider said:
After more searching I guess the ! with triangle is the first screen of the recovery mode? But pushing Alt+L or Alt+I doesnt do anything.
I am used to the Galaxy S recover mode being all right there on the screen.
So next step would be......?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oooo it doesnt do anything?? hmmm

you sure nothing happens? try pushing down alt hard and keep holding it.. than press down on L hard see if a list pops up.. it only like 3 choices..

ldrifta said:
you sure nothing happens? try pushing down alt hard and keep holding it.. than press down on L hard see if a list pops up.. it only like 3 choices..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing, hold down Alt and then press and hold L. No changes.
The other odd thing is now when I do the camera+power combo it takes me to the welcome screen instead of the HBOOT screen. I was going to try reflashing the image on the external SD card and now it wont do that either.
The return+power combo also takes me to the welcome screen now.
The welcome screen is where I want to be except the 'safe mode' seems to be keeping the keyboard from functioning?

what welcome screen? lol

are the keys sticking maybe? lol

ldrifta said:
what welcome screen? lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First I get the T-Mobile G1 screen.
then the Android guy
then the Welcome to T-MobileG1, touch the android to begin.
That all seems normal to me, except for teh grey box that says 'safe mode' in the corner.
So i touch the android and it moves to the Setting upp your T-mobile G1 screen and wants me to enter my account info, which I cannot do because the keyboard is not funtioning properly. Its almost like the image flash borked the keyboard drivers or something.

ldrifta said:
are the keys sticking maybe? lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the d, e ,f , x keys are all working so I think its not a stuck key. no other keys seem to work though. nor the menu buttons.

would safe mode mean some of the drivers are disabled? kind of like on a desktop computer?
And if so, how to get out of safe mode?

uhhh i never even been on safe mode.. is the led blue while its on? my advice would be to unroot but you cant get recovery functioning properly so im not sure what to do.. do you know what radio and hboot you have?

does it go to safe mode when you just boot up normally?

ldrifta said:
does it go to safe mode when you just boot up normally?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, safe mode shows in the bottom left corner of the screen when I power up normally.
I should have writen down what radio and such as I saw it displayed when I was in HBOOT and installing the DREAIMG.nbh file but I didnt think to.
Now I am either getting the Welcome to T-mobile screen or the first step of the recovery screen depending on the button combo I use.
But I am unable to proceed to do anything useful.

Related

My kaiser died after flash :(

Hi. I tried to flash my kaiser to new Dutty's wm 6.1 rom (had Dutty's v3 before so i had hardSPL) and after the rom update process completed my kaiser died , screen is always black no matter i connect it to charger or push power, is there any possibility to bring my phone back 2 life?
Have you taken the battery out?
Have you tried flashing from SD card?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=336158&highlight=flash+from+card
Worked for mine when i bricked it.
i have taken battery out , it wont help. also flashing from sd card works only when u can actually power on the device and i cant do it. name of my rom wasnt RUU_signed.nbh it was : Ruu_Signed_Duttys_WM6.1_5.2.19716_1.64.08.21.nbh maybe thats the reason of error
Well did you try the special key sequence to try to turn it on?
special key sequence? U mean both softkeys and stylus into reset hole?
Can you get it to the HSPL screen?
hold camera button and stylus into reset hole?
If you can to there you can reflash it using the sc card method.
3. Plug the card into the phone, then enter boot loader mode by pressing down the Power and Camera buttons simultaneously, and using the stylus at the same time to press the RESET button at the left side. Continue pressing the two buttons for a few seconds after pressing and releasing the reset button until the bootloader screen appears. (taken from Wiki)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not the soft keys
thanx but it wont work, if i could enter bootloader i would just reflash the rom, but i cant get my phone on, screen is all the time black. if i plug in a charger there is no charging led too.
Ok, so your saying you tried it and it doesn't work?
im saying this doesnt work because my phone is totally dead. i cant get any response, it just wont turn on.
ok I'm taking it that you didn't try that sequence because you won't say that you tried it.
Hell no he/she ain't tried it. Probably has no idea what you are telling him to do.
Well Belizibub told him, I just started reading between the lines and noticed that he never admitted to trying it.
I love your avatar Tater.
can't all read, he can't turn it on, so how is he suppose to enter the bootloader or flash it from the sd card.
how come i try to enter bootloader , the phone is D E A D, it doesnt respond on any key cominations. i cant see even blank screen, nothing, it just wont turn on.
take the battery out and plug it into the charger, if a red light comes on thats a good thing if not then you probably have whats known as a "bricked kaiser" and sent it in for repairs or go buy a new one and save that one for parts.
marcini said:
can't all read, he can't turn it on, so how is he suppose to enter the bootloader or flash it from the sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, not even worth it.
So let me ask this, Why was this thread started? Was someone seeking help? Has someone provided the possibility of help? Do you think that the devils friend didn't understand that to this requester of help, that his phone appeared to be dead? Or is it possible the Devils right hand man knows something that the requester of help doesn't know and kindly attempted to share it with him, just to have the secret unlock code ignored.
Try up up down down left right left right a b select start.
That will fix your phone.
ps, what I'm getting at is if you haven't tried it then you need to try it. The special key config could possibly turn the phone on for you.
OK, now I see this same conversation going on in 2 different forums by the same person. Here and in Dutty's latest 6.1 release.
I noticed you are an Orange user. I have seen Multiple Orange users trying to flash radios to their phone and locking them up. I suggest looking/searching for one of those threads and see if they have a solution.

Help i think i bricked my phone

i just picked up my telus htc diamond last night. was looking forward to putting the new juicy rom on it today, but i get screwed over big time. first i tried putting the hardspl from here, that didnt work. then i went to ppc forums downloaded .057 cdma version of hardspl for diamond. that worked. so i wont over to install the juicy TELUS version of the rom 2.3. was going well, but 40% through it stopped, and ever since i was not able to get the rgb screen off my touch. i tried reapplying the .057 version and now it wont start up. the screen freezes on htc diamond touch, with version info. is it a done deal for this phone? if there is any way to fix it, please help me out. the stock version rom on it was 1.6.661. or do you think they will take it back. i will say i was updating the files, and it just keeps freezing on it. do you think they will notice i was tempering with it? any help would be appriciated. i just signed on a 3 year term, and don't feel like paying 500 dollars for it, as i was running all over the city to get the 100 discount on the phone.
please help me out on this one. thank you
when i start it up, it shows these stats
uP0B P DCBBBPZM-615010
B 80 R 0. 99. 90V
ps20 D 1. 06
are these stock stats?
did u try hard reset?
If not u can find a stock rom and try to flash it in using bootloader mode?it shd work if u r able to go into bootloader...good luck bro
i can't seem to dwonload the stock rom. but i doubt it will wokr because the phone is not synced. it wont start up. it stays frozen on that blackdiamond screen with red letters. do you think they will take it back in store if i say i dunno what happened?
i am not sure what hard reset is. i tried removing the battery and i also tried pressing on the little button behind the battery slot is.
Incubated said:
i can't seem to dwonload the stock rom. but i doubt it will wokr because the phone is not synced. it wont start up. it stays frozen on that blackdiamond screen with red letters. do you think they will take it back in store if i say i dunno what happened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tatswhy i ask to u to try to go into bootloader bro,if u can, u might still be able to flash in a rom...
Don't panic. Try Hard Reset. Keep pressed Volume down button+Enter+,,little button behind the battery slot'' and than follow the instruction on the screen. Try search better for Hard Reset
Incubated said:
i am not sure what hard reset is. i tried removing the battery and i also tried pressing on the little button behind the battery slot is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hold down down vol key,centre action key and then poke and let go the red reset button while still holdin on to the 2 button,you shd see a grey screen which warn u about losing all your data.
i cna't seem to put on a stock rom. i download one from ppc forums, but it shows its 1.00. my telus cmae wiht .1.6.661
i can't seem to be able to flash anything on. i do hard reset and it goes ot the rgb screen, but not much from there.
when i try to flash it, it wont even display the image version. does it mean there is no rom on it or what?
Incubated said:
i cna't seem to put on a stock rom. i download one from ppc forums, but it shows its 1.00. my telus cmae wiht .1.6.661
i can't seem to be able to flash anything on. i do hard reset and it goes ot the rgb screen, but not much from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no,it goes to a light grey screen and ask u if you wanna hard formatt the 4gb disk or juz wanna reset the set...do u see tis sreen?
how bro?
no i dont see the grey screen. i am holding down volume down, middle circle, and pressing reset button behind, where battery is, nothing
its not coming up. either i hold down power button on top and volume down, it brings the touch diamond screen. or i hold down voluem down, circle button and reset and it also brings touch diamond screen. nothing else. it doesn't take me anywhere else from the rgb screen. does it mean i am screwed?
try the hard reset method remember hold down to the vol down and center buttons when u poke the red reset and hold it there for around 3sec
Incubated said:
its not coming up. either i hold down power button on top and volume down, it brings the touch diamond screen. or i hold down voluem down, circle button and reset and it also brings touch diamond screen. nothing else. it doesn't take me anywhere else from the rgb screen. does it mean i am screwed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
holding down power and vol down bring u to bootloader when u press reset!
hold down middle buttons? u mean not the circle but the whole square?
holy crap it keeps vibrating, wont stop
Incubated said:
hold down middle buttons? u mean not the circle but the whole square?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OH MY GOD!!!where do u came from my friend???MAR???
u dunno how to hard reset but u try to flash???
Incubated said:
holy crap it keeps vibrating, wont stop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
at least ur diamond is showing some reaction pls try to HARD RESET UR SET FIRST

beta expired - need help

Hi All,
Hopefully someone can help me out here. I just suffered the unfortunate fate of having the beta ROM expire on me. Now it looks as though I will need to reflash the X1 with a new ROM.
If I reflash the ROM is there anyway that I can save my pictures and videos from the internal phone memory or will they get erased by the flash? If they get erased by the flash, can I recover them after?
Is there anyway to bypass the white screen that states the beta has expired? I really need to get to the pictures.
Thanks,
T
I don't have much experience with this(I don't even see the point why your rom isn't timebomb fixed). But are you able to connect via activesync?
No, I can't connect via active sync. The only thing that I see when I connect the phone to the PC is the removable sd card.
killer8nl said:
I don't have much experience with this(I don't even see the point why your rom isn't timebomb fixed). But are you able to connect via activesync?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by "timebomb fixed"? Where do I find the timebomb fix?
no you cant recover it after flash.. if possible copy those files of yours to the sd card.. then flash.. frankly speaking i didnt know that there was a rom with a expiration.. really.. got me confuse there bud..
Hi ,
same case here. I had an energy ROM which does not have time bomb fixed and now all the internal data needs to be saved. i have also looked to many posts to seek solution and being a newbie was reluctant to ask around. if anybody has a solution pls post. this effects WM6.5 series ROMS. Thx in adavnce for help
i doubt you will get the images back i dont know what format is the phone is, if you flash over it or with a smaller rom, the sectors will be free for allocation, but if you manage to use data recovery program you might have a chance depending on the allocation size, they tell you to hard reset after flash so there is something left behind, but its interesting to know that in the tri color boot screen connects to the pc via usb so there is some communication there.
good luck
Did anyone ever figure this out?
This stupid ROM that has expired seems to prevent the bootloader from starting up somehow.
I tried holding the volume down button while pressing and holding the power button, but it always boots into the Energy ROM. Instead of immediately seeing the tricolor screen, I get the SE logo followed by the blasted HTC logo then the Energy ROM.....
I have tried doing a hard reset (stylus in the pin hole with the two silver buttons on the front pressed down) and no luck...it just boots up normally....
I really need to get my files off of the phone, but I cannot access it via Activesync (phone not visible), and the blasted screen on the phone is completely white with a stupid message. Man I am really p***** off./
If anyone here can help I would really appreciate it as I have some files that are very important that I desperately need to get off the phone...
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!
taz1973 said:
Did anyone ever figure this out?
This stupid ROM that has expired seems to prevent the bootloader from starting up somehow.
I tried holding the volume down button while pressing and holding the power button, but it always boots into the Energy ROM. Instead of immediately seeing the tricolor screen, I get the SE logo followed by the blasted HTC logo then the Energy ROM.....
I have tried doing a hard reset (stylus in the pin hole with the two silver buttons on the front pressed down) and no luck...it just boots up normally....
I really need to get my files off of the phone, but I cannot access it via Activesync (phone not visible), and the blasted screen on the phone is completely white with a stupid message. Man I am really p***** off./
If anyone here can help I would really appreciate it as I have some files that are very important that I desperately need to get off the phone...
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry that I still have no clue how can you get your files...so sorry
About entering the bootloader, the main point is, did you continue holing the down volume button while you are holding the power button??
Hold volume button, press and hold power button (still keep holding the volume button), wait and you will see 3 color screen....
hope you can some how to connect to the computer...
Good luck....
I keep holding the volume down button while I press and hold the power button and it just boots up normally...
I have even trien a hard reset and it also just boots up normally...
wtf....
you can also use the camera button instead of the volume keys... camera+power... that's what i do
seems as tho everyone who has this problem with the volume keys are the only ones who use custom roms
HolyChristmas!!!! That worked...it was the only %^## combination of buttons that I did not try. Thanks a million spike.
Not when I have my X1 in boot loader mode and then connect to the PC, will I be able to access the files on it using Activ sync? Right now I see nothing.....
taz1973 said:
HolyChristmas!!!! That worked...it was the only %^## combination of buttons that I did not try. Thanks a million spike.
Not when I have my X1 in boot loader mode and then connect to the PC, will I be able to access the files on it using Activ sync? Right now I see nothing.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can plug your USB in your X1 while in bootloader, so you can flash a new ROM, you can't back-up your files from there.
glad to here that ur problem i solved
The problem solved?....50% but not quite completely out of the woods yet.
Now that I can get to the bootloader, I need to fetch my personal files from the phone memory before flashing a new ROM onto it. So that is where I stand now.
I know that the phone is somehow communicating with the PC as I was able to re-run the HARD-SPL as a test and it worked. Now it is a matter of getting the phone to be seen by the PC so that I can get my data from it....the data is very important to me so I cannot afford to lose it.
AAny suggestions short of applying blunt force with a hammer will be appreciated...
taz1973 said:
I keep holding the volume down button while I press and hold the power button and it just boots up normally...
I have even trien a hard reset and it also just boots up normally...
wtf....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your data is already gone if you already did a hard reset, so there is no way to get it back.
The phone can't communicate with your pc unless winmo is up and running and activesync service is running, so from within the bootloader, i think it isn't possible.
You could read around at the forum on how to make a dump of your rom, then all files on your phone will be "dumped" to the pc. But i don't know if you can do that through the bootloader. Good luck
EDIT: Ow, sorry, I didn't look to the last posts, i see you already found out that the camera button already works.
To get in bootloader, try the camera button and the power button instead of the vol. down button.
I know that the data is still there for the following reasons:
1. hard reset was not done
2. when phone boots up normally I do the the custom desktop background (which is a picture that I took with the camera) before it gets covered up by that white screen with the "beta expired" message.
3. I am able to communicate with the phone because when I was in bootloader mode, I ran the Hard-SPL.exe from my PC and the phone responded by loading the hard-spl.
I also thought of trying to dump the ROM, so that is one of the things that I will try soon.
Any other suggestions of how I can access my files in the phone memory?
Just took a look at the "how-to dump your ROM" guide and it does not look feasible considering I can't see the screen because of the white "beta expired" message. However, since I was running a custom ROM, perhaps the sdkcerts.cab was already pre-installed along with the registry settings...will try it anyway.
Any other ideas?
"
2) Preparing your phone:
Before your X1 will allow the dumping to be done, the following Sdkcerts.cab file must be installed.
- Copy Sdkcerts.cab to your phone or storage card and install it to the device.
Also, your phone must accept changes that pdocread makes. You can do this with the regedit function of the FdcSoft Taskmanager.
- Set the following registry keys to "1":
* HKLM\Security\Policies\Policies "00001001"
* HKLM\Security\Policies\Policies "0000101a"
- Connect your phone to your pc with activesync.
"
in the future, never save info on ur device that's valuable, im sure this is the reason why u have a sd card... i learn this the hard way on my p1i
just imagine you having info on ur device thats valuable and something else had happened, your goose would have been cooked... utilize the sd card as a safe storage way and always keep backups on an external storage... even myphone service from M$ gives this...
wish u luck in getting that info
I think that I definitely learned my lesson this time around...I am usually a bit more careful with my data....perhaps a moment of insanity lead me to this.
Back to trying to recoup the data....

how do i factory reset with a dead screen?

my damaged nexus one screen has progressed to the point of a black screen all the time... i didnt think of it before the screen died, but i am a bit stumped as to how i now reset to clear all my data? i cant see anything on the screen, but the phone still has my google account linked to it.
doh! :-(
reason i want it cleared: may send in for repair and i dont want others to get my info, or i may have to send to insurance company for payout (they said to hang on to phone for now) and i dont want them to see my info, or may sell damaged unit if insurance doesnt pay and i dont want those folks to get my info either.... see the problem?
You can try this. Did a google search.
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/28793-how-do-full-adb-wipe-help.html
thanks for the link...would work if id had debugging enabled before the screen died... adb wipes require debugging mode.
any other suggestions?
There's this:
http://code.google.com/p/androidscreencast/
But if you don't have Debugging enabled and can't get it to register when you hit "adb devices" you're probably effed. I don't know much about touch screen engineering, though. Does it still respond to touch as far as you can tell, or is the screen completely dead when the OLED display stops working?
This serves as a good warning for others, though. ALWAYS MAKE SURE USB DEBUGGING IN SETTINGS > APPLICATIONS > DEVELOPMENT IS CHECKED. There's really no good reason I can think of that would ever make you want to leave this unchecked, and this is an example of when it would come in very handy.
cant you use the clear storage function by booting while holding volume down, waiting 5 seconds, then pressing volume down 3 times followed by a press of the power button?
flybyme said:
cant you use the clear storage function by booting while holding volume down, waiting 5 seconds, then pressing volume down 3 times followed by a press of the power button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is this a commonly known sequence ? if so, please link to a list of all the known boot-up key combos. thanks
Kiserai said:
There's this:
http://code.google.com/p/androidscreencast/
But if you don't have Debugging enabled and can't get it to register when you hit "adb devices" you're probably effed. I don't know much about touch screen engineering, though. Does it still respond to touch as far as you can tell, or is the screen completely dead when the OLED display stops working?
This serves as a good warning for others, though. ALWAYS MAKE SURE USB DEBUGGING IN SETTINGS > APPLICATIONS > DEVELOPMENT IS CHECKED. There's really no good reason I can think of that would ever make you want to leave this unchecked, and this is an example of when it would come in very handy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the digitizer still accepted touch input as screen beneath began to fail. colors bled from the cracks and the images began to imprint in the screen... within a few hours, it was completely illegible, and then the next morning, it appeared as a dysfunctional unit with a non working screen.
i will try and methods suggested, but i have no way to verify success... thanks for the sequence.
well when you boot by holding power, your given options FASTBOOT, RECOVERY, CLEAR STORAGE, SIMLOCK
Heres the exact key combination
Boot phone using Volume Dn + Power
Wait 5-10 seconds to be safe
Press Volumn Dn twice
Press Power Btn
Press Volume Up
Phone should reboot after 5 seconds
i will try that... confirmation of success will be the charging LED turning off and then back on again?
nexusonemeover said:
i will try that... confirmation of success will be the charging LED turning off and then back on again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
of the reboot? ya. i cant imagine doing this without the screen lol. Sorry i couldnt be more help
You could also probably flash a PASSIMG.zip from the bootloader. That will overwrite all partitions so it should make it 100% stock.
It might be harder to do without the screen than the clear storage function though.
flybyme said:
of the reboot? ya. i cant imagine doing this without the screen lol. Sorry i couldnt be more help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried the method... and i think it worked... i cant verify, but thanks for the help guys.
You can easily verify that by sending yourself an email and see if your phone can get the notification of that new email (by trachball or sound).

[Q] Captivate without 3 button combo

I've tried everything in the book, my Captivate is one of the phones that will not boot into recovery using any sort if button combo, I have to use ADB. My phone is rooted, lag fix, bloatware removed, sideloading enabled, MobileAP installed, and the Vibrant's GPS files installed, and I'm afraid that someday I'm going to need my phone in recovery/download for Odin3 because I've bricked my phone, but I wont be able too because if my phone's setup. I'm just asking, question of concept, is it possible for someone who knows what they are doing (I have no inexperience) to find the difference between a Captivate w/ the 3 button combo, and one w/o, so that I could manually enable it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
if you brick your phone, your main worry is how to get into download mode. take battery out, put back in, hold volume down+power while plugging in usb cable. can you at least do that?
As I said, I've tried every trick in the book, it doesn't work.
DemonWav said:
I've tried everything in the book, my Captivate is one of the phones that will not boot into recovery using any sort if button combo, I have to use ADB. My phone is rooted, lag fix, bloatware removed, sideloading enabled, MobileAP installed, and the Vibrant's GPS files installed, and I'm afraid that someday I'm going to need my phone in recovery/download for Odin3 because I've bricked my phone, but I wont be able too because if my phone's setup. I'm just asking, question of concept, is it possible for someone who knows what they are doing (I have no inexperience) to find the difference between a Captivate w/ the 3 button combo, and one w/o, so that I could manually enable it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go to where you got it, tell them its a samsung problem, they SHOULD replace it. Before you okay the replacement try to boot the phone without the sim to recovery.
try turning off. Unplug USB. Then hold down the Vol down button and the power button. Just the 2 of them.
Then insert the USB cable 2-3 seconds after holding those 2 keys down.
That worked for me even though I used to use Vol up and down and power all together.
Hope it works for you.
we need a sticky that includes EVERY single way of recovering from all these "bricked" phones. I'm nervous that it will happen to me one day and i won't know what to do. Everyone says there is always a way to unbrick, but there sure are a lot of people that have claimed to try every possible way of entering download mode and still not happen.....and i don't want to get stuck with them!
BTW, did you try plugging your phone into the wall for awhile and then going back to trying usb and download modes?
i also have the same problem with a friends phone. i know the newer ones have issues with the 3 button combo and adb is the only way. i suppose there is a way to remove the block from boot that detects the command, maybe like a different firmware, i remembered that the stock i9000 firmware on the captivate uses only vo down + power to get to download mode but i will not want to risk the phone or it will be bricked.
i know alot of users in this forum are saying read the stickys but until u experience the problem, u will be singing a different tune. there are new captivate owners that cannot get into download mode with the 3 button combo.
i will confirm this and i have 3 other captivates that going into download mode no prolems with 2 possible 3 button combo, just only 1 that doesnot
Yes, I think someone needs to make a sticky for this. Mine works with 3 buttons, but I have seen many many users now that have 3 button disabled. I'm sure they appreciate all the suggestions, but every single person recommends the regular button methods that just don't work!
I would say, if it were me, I would stop modding it now before you f*** it up and return it to the store. I would also test the new phone in store until you get one that works.
I'm sure someone much smarter than I will figure out a software method for this. I find it hard to believe the when the phone is in Phone--!--computer mode that there is no possible way to force it into download mode via software. I know adb doesn't work, but theres got to be some other developer tool that will work.
Part of the issue is terminology.
Recovery Mode is what you use to clear cache, clear user data, or install an update.zip file by selecting "Reinstall Packages".
Download Mode is the screen with a yellow triangle and android digger icon and allows you to use odin to flash. This is the important one for recovering from a problem.
Both modes can be entered with ADB. Both modes can be entered with hardware buttons and that's where things get tricky.
On my phone, I can activate recovery mode with the steps below:
Power off
Hold both volume buttons
Press Power
Release power when I see the AT&T splash screen
Release the volume buttons a second or two after releasing power
If I continue to hold all three buttons, the phone simply boot loops at the AT&T screen with a blank flash in between. If I continue to hold the volume buttons after releasing the power button, the phone will boot normally. I have to release them to get into recovery. The phone also has to get past the AT&T splash screen before recovery will load.
I can only enter download mode with the steps below.
Phone off
Remove battery, sim, microsd
Hold volume buttons
Plug in USB
Plug in battery
The phone will then immediately enter download mode.
People need to be very careful when claiming what mode they are in and how they got there.
thanks for repeating what millions have already posted.....that doesn't work for a ton of people around here. Luckily, it does work for me, but in the case i get put in the same situation as those guys, i want to know how to get myself out. There are some people that know what they are talking about and still can't get into download mode, and yes, that is including adb reboot download
just because it works for you doesnt mean it works for everyone
I agree. I want to know just in case that happens to my phone one day. I refuse to think that without the 3 button option your phone can be hard bricked. Worst case some has to figure out a JTAG method.
And from reading a few threads, it looks like the build date is related to 3 button modes being disabled. Many users without 3 button have build dates between 8-11-2010 to 8-14-2010.
buddy17 said:
thanks for repeating what millions have already posted.....that doesn't work for a ton of people around here. Luckily, it does work for me, but in the case i get put in the same situation as those guys, i want to know how to get myself out. There are some people that know what they are talking about and still can't get into download mode, and yes, that is including adb reboot download
just because it works for you doesnt mean it works for everyone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if you were responding to me or not, I simply wanted to point out the difference between recovery mode and DL mode as I see plenty of posts where someone is trying to use odin but can't get into "recovery mode". I don't doubt that there are phones that won't work with the hardware buttons.
Welp, count me in as having a brand new Captivate that will not go into Recovery or Download mode. I've tried all the suggestions and stickies, as well. Its like the phone simply ignores button presses while starting up. I bricked my phone while attempting to reverse the lagfix. No idea how I managed that. It now will only boot to the AT&T splash screen... over and over. At least, I'm able to exchange it today as I just brought it home yesterday. I'm going to try boot into recovery before I leave the store with the replacement. Although, my fear is the "bad batch" from manufacturing is actually the new "anti-xda haxor" safe guard from Samsung.
faspalma said:
Welp, count me in as having a brand new Captivate that will not go into Recovery or Download mode. I've tried all the suggestions and stickies, as well. Its like the phone simply ignores button presses while starting up. I bricked my phone while attempting to reverse the lagfix. No idea how I managed that. It now will only boot to the AT&T splash screen... over and over. At least, I'm able to exchange it today as I just brought it home yesterday. I'm going to try boot into recovery before I leave the store with the replacement. Although, my fear is the "bad batch" from manufacturing is actually the new "anti-xda haxor" safe guard from Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in the same boat as you...both phones so far won't go into recovery or dl unless adb'ed... have had the same fear as you. However... sister's captivate goes into dl mode just fine. Got them both at the same time...
Let's hope there's some workaround for this somewhere down the road.
Those of you that are missing 3 button recovery and download mode, if your phone is working do this,
go to the phone keypad, dial *#*#197328640#*#* from there it will pull the service menu, go to Version Info, SW Version, READ ALL SW VERSION
Look at the line labeled RF CAL DATE.
Mine for example is, RF CAL DATE 07-11-2010 and my buttons work.
It looks like phones with an RF CAL DATE between 8-11-2010 and 8-14-2010 have the button problems. I just want to find as much data as I can to verify or not-verify this.
bobbylx said:
Those of you that are missing 3 button recovery and download mode, if your phone is working do this,
go to the phone keypad, dial *#*#197328640#*#* from there it will pull the service menu, go to Version Info, SW Version, READ ALL SW VERSION
Look at the line labeled RF CAL DATE.
Mine for example is, RF CAL DATE 07-11-2010 and my buttons work.
It looks like phones with an RF CAL DATE between 8-11-2010 and 8-14-2010 have the button problems. I just want to find as much data as I can to verify or not-verify this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine says 8-18-2010. Still no buttons working.
xtremekilla09 said:
Mine says 8-18-2010. Still no buttons working.
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Click to collapse
Interesting. That means so far, the earliest i have seen is 8-11-2010 and yours is the latest. Looks like that was a bad week at the Cappy factory.
This is what I was talking about. I was in the middle of Odin3, going back to stock so I could take it back and do the "manufacturer defect" thing to get a new one, and out of no where, I didn't touch anything, nothing was unplugged, but my phone's screen went black, and it rebooted itself to the "phone+!+computer" screen. Anyone wanna give me some tips to maybe get them to replace my phone without looking at it, for the same "manufacturer defect" reason?
Oh, and by the way, my phone is one of the unlucky ones. So I can't boot into download mode. Period.
Have you seen this:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=784704
kzakaria said:
Have you seen this:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=784704
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I didn't but I've already bricked my phone, and it wouldn't have worked for my firmware anyways...

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