Red light of death fixed!!! (sticky???)

[sWuRv]

I think I just figured out how to fix it!!!!!!! I was tinkering around and got my red light brick to turn on!!!! I'm not sure exactly what fixed it so here's everything I did-

1. Removed the storage & sim cards.
2. Took off the backplate.
3. Removed the battery.
4. Bent these 2 pins up a little bit:

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6790/dsc00306qk4.th.jpg (http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00306qk4.jpg)

5. Put the battery in at an angle, so that the power leads were connected, but the metal shielding plate on the back of the battery was not touching:

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/5152/dsc00307ju2.th.jpg (http://img20.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00307ju2.jpg)

6. Hit the power button (with the battery still "halfway" installed) Bam, green light of life.

Somebody please confirm this. Meanwhile I'll be copywriting this process so anyone who performs it owes me 10 bucks :D

[drokkon]

So my replacement Tilt isn't working either, so they're overnighting me a third one. In the meantime, I haven't sent back my original (RLoDed) Tilt, so I thought I'd play around with some of your theories.

Another thought I had. After the tilt goes into red brick death mode, has anyone tried plugging it into power, battery installed, and then holding down power+camera(all the way) and then pushing in the reset button on the bottom? This may trigger it to go into flash mode - although I kinda doubt it'll work. Worth a shot! Might be able to reflash it back to life! Holding down power and camera while it boots is how you manually force it to get in the Red/Green/Blue firmware flash mode. If it let us do that much when the device bricked we might have a snowball's chance in hell of getting them working. I didn't think of trying it before I returned mine tho. D'oh!

I didn't know what to try besides installing the battery and SIM card and trying to push down the power, camera, and stylus buttons (I knew I was doing it correctly, because I had to use this to return my second Tilt to factory specs). No response whatsoever! This thing is deader than a doornail. Except for the red LED, of course... that works REALLY well whenever it's plugged in.

I think I just figured out how to fix it!!!!!!! I was tinkering around and got my red light brick to turn on!!!! I'm not sure exactly what fixed it so here's everything I did-

1. Removed the storage & sim cards.
2. Took off the backplate.
3. Removed the battery.
4. Bent these 2 pins up a little bit:
5. Put the battery in at an angle, so that the power leads were connected, but the metal shielding plate on the back of the battery was not touching:
6. Hit the power button (with the battery still "halfway" installed) Bam, green light of life.

Somebody please confirm this. Meanwhile I'll be copywriting this process so anyone who performs it owes me 10 bucks :D

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but the only thing I can confirm is that this did NOT work on my RLoDed Tilt. Tried it several times in various ways. I think you just seriously lucked out! :D

As such, I'd also have to vote against stickying this... for now.

Best of luck, all... if not actually in fixing your RLoDed Tilts, then definitely in avoiding the $500 service fee if AT&T discovers we voided our warranties. :p

[kicker jeep]

alright i will confirm this too....my phone was truely RLOD..... i did the same thing that these guys did just jammin the battery in and out and it "jump started the phone"

exact process used

Moto Razr charger
hold down power button
"bounce" battery on and off the contacts for the battery a good 100 times or so
green light apeared after the red light started to flicker a little bit..... tis as if you were giving the phone CPR or something

im not going to call this a fix all i know is that the phone was RLOD and now it is working....battery is at 54% right now and i will post back in a bit to see if it has risen at all....

no smell arising from device

running origional rom but have had other roms on there (alex's)
hard SPL still installed on device

SPB phone suite is the last software that was installed on the device

reg tweaks installed as well, the usual ones no sms, hsdpa enabled blah blah blah

that is about all i can provide....the unit was on the computer overnight charging....when i woke up it was RLOD....and i was sad....i did have the ATT store replace the battery for me as well dunno if that had anything to do with the issue...

in the time that it has taken me to write this the battery is now at 55% so it is charging.....on wall charger with MOTO razr charger

ok lets take a little closer look at what happened within the past little bit....

after gettin the device all up and running it was behaving very oddly.... it would go through multiple attempts to connect to the data network for various reasons....after showing that it was at 55% on the charger it went back down to 54%... i pulled it off the charger and took it into the other room to do something......within 10 min it was down to 46%....now having a data connection my blackberry connect should have a valid network connection....but it did not... not sure why...

the best that i can conclude is that it was trying to connect to so many things all at the same time that it exhausted its self that fast....

so the question is how many people out there that have RLOD are running the BB connect software on there devices and have made REG edits to the data connection time outs and the HSDPA mod availability

editing those settings together may confuse the device and make it think that it has to connect to too many things at one time....

just another thought process that i thought that i would throw out there...

here are some things on the my device that would use the DATA connection and automatically initiate the connection on the device rather than you opening a program forcing it to connect such as Internet explorer

GPS update
HTC home weather tab
SPB weather tab
Blackberry connect
SPB insight....RSS Reader
text messages going in and out....my phone sees quite a few of those
Edit/Delete Message

[sWuRv]

There have been a few other people who have now fixed their RLOD's. Confirmed it was done by messing about with the battery. If you have revived yours, please post your method in here so we can compare them and eventually pinpoint the fix. Thanks.

[volcomnator999]

i had the same prob..took out the batterly wiped the four contact points on the phone (might of pushed them down or up) and put battery back in and worked..

[troybperk]

I believe sWuRv was onto something. My Tilt had the RLOD today. I tried everything, even what he suggested above to no avail. So I called warranty and got my replacement on it's way, express shipping waved and all. So I decided to everything I could think of to try and get the thing back on so I might be able to back up my data again.

I started fooling with the battery, like sWuRv suggested but I moved it all around at 45 degrees or so pushing the power on button. I noticed while it was plugged to the USB with red light on that every now and then the red light would flash when I moved the battery so the contacts moved (while holding the battery at that 45 degrees). I started getting the light to go yellow but it would not stay. So I unplugged from the USB and kept trying it while pushing the power button. It eventually started and I was able to back up to my SD card. One thing I can tell you is that this process caused the phone to get hot and smell like electronics burning a little. There is definitely a power problem inside.

I have no idea how or why this worked but it did. I think I will still take the replacement even though I have to figure out how to swap my fancy invisible armor clear protector skin.

I'll try and update on whether this phone dies again or what until I get the new one.

[jfbarbato]

I tried messing with the battery in a variety of ways for 30 minutes with no sucess. RLOD stayed solid.:mad:

[jfbarbato]

Holy shoot............After bouncing my battery up and down about 40 times my phone came to life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nick Collision]

Reseating the battery and/or sim/storage cards is hardly a revolutionary procedure. Its Cellphone 101.

[TheProducer96]

you guys are LIFE SAVERS. I have been on this forum for about a month now and I finally found a reason to post. I haven't posted because I always find my answers. I just wanted to thank everyone, as I have been on the phone with Amazon.com (where i got my tilt), went into an AT&T store and was on the phone with HTC tech support ALL day trying to resolve my red light issue. Unbelievable that all I needed to do was give it some "battery CPR":D:D:D:D:

[TheProducer96]

UGHHHH. Well i found reason to make post #2. The fix lasted less than 5 minutes. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

[uuc328]

this did not work for me :mad:

[rotohammer]

These stories remind me off all the bad batteries/no powerup of my Motorola Q and those of others. My mother is on her 4th Q and I know its the battery, but the store just swaps out the whole phone. I've seen batteries last as little at 2 weeks, especially if let run down to empty at any point.

My questions are, is this just a bad battery problem? Does anyone with RLoD have a spare battery to try? If these batteries fail in the shorted condition, will they over draw power from the phone and mess up the charging circuit?

Roto

[cushcalc]

These stories remind me off all the bad batteries/no powerup of my Motorola Q and those of others. My mother is on her 4th Q and I know its the battery, but the store just swaps out the whole phone. I've seen batteries last as little at 2 weeks, especially if let run down to empty at any point.

My questions are, is this just a bad battery problem? Does anyone with RLoD have a spare battery to try? If these batteries fail in the shorted condition, will they over draw power from the phone and mess up the charging circuit?

Roto

I certainly don't believe it's a bad battery problem. I had 2 spare batteries, fully charged with separate docking charger - none of the 3 batteries made any difference once I got the RLOD.

[rotohammer]

I certainly don't believe it's a bad battery problem. I had 2 spare batteries, fully charged with separate docking charger - none of the 3 batteries made any difference once I got the RLOD.

Very good, thanks for the insight!

[mattpc]

I finished a call yesterday and then dropped my phone on to the pavement cos I was a bit drunk... Anyway this caused my phone to go from working fine (all be it with pants battery life) to just flashing the red light. Fixed it today. I tried the methods prescribed in this thread without success although I did not persevere for very long. I then put a spare battery in to the phonea and bingo the orange light comes on, phone boots up and it's now happilly charging. Note that I charged the old battery for several hours before trying the fix. Pity nobody seems to know what the problem actually is. I wish HTC would let us know....

[Jay2TheRescue]

There have been a few other people who have now fixed their RLOD's. Confirmed it was done by messing about with the battery. If you have revived yours, please post your method in here so we can compare them and eventually pinpoint the fix. Thanks.
I had a similar problem with my old iPAQ hw6515, and a Motorola V3. The contacts on the battery don't spring forward as well on an older phone as they do when it was new. I shimmed the battery. I did this by taking a business card and holding it against the opposite side of the battery from the contacts I traced the battery's profile and cut it out. I scotch taped my new shim to that side of the battery, then re-inserted it. This forces the battery up against the contacts better and in many times resolves inoperable phones, failure to charge, and spontaneous rebooting issues.

-Jay

[p51d007]

My replacement tilt (first one had a bad USB connector) died Sunday.
Had it on the charger, looked down, red LED. Back of phone was pretty
warm. Pulled the battery, SIM, memory card, slammed the battery onto the
battery contacts rapidly 5-6 times, put the SIM, memory, battery back into
it, and it charged up. Did a hard reset. Battery was 100% charged, I turned
it completely OFF when I went to bed. Got up, battery was 0% drained!
Red LED again. Did the rapid thingy with the battery again, orange charge
light came on.
Called at&t warranty replacement. When I told her I had a red LED, she didn't
even ask me to do anything else. She just asked for the IMIE number and shipped me another one.
Maybe the 3rd one will be the charm LOL.......
I'm beginning to think that HTC doesn't stand for "high tech computes" but
"high tech CRAP"....

[~~Tito~~]

Maybe you guys got the margin of error productions? I know its really unlikely that you could get them again after a replacement but it is possible, and it maybe your computer. What do you think could be making this things go crazy? Overly protective anti-virus, I know, I know but it could do things secretly and screw around like mine does and wont let me into sites I have been on before on the same app no changes . . . Well I hope you luck.

[jaylau]

ok I just tried everything you guys said, but it didn't work for me

so as some of you have stated it must be the battery, so what I did is put it between my hands for about 1 minute and put it in and it worked again!

really weird... must be the heat?

well hope that helps the research

Cheers

Jay

[asfoor]

Read the following thread:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=372266&highlight=rlod

[jwbrint]

Read the following thread:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=372266&highlight=rlod

That did not work for me.

[KHayworth]

This worked for me too. The AT&T folks were no help, but issued me a replacement. In the interim I found these posts.

I tried cleaning the connections to no avail, but after a few battery pumps there was a sharp (kinda scary) popping noise, and then -- green light of happiness. Everything seems fine. Very weird.

[Stumead]

Cellphone 101 it might be, and I consider I just pased this class. maybe duff battery or just ran out of own accord - we shall see. Thanks to all posters as always.

[phi11yphan]

I was using my TILT to watch a video in Windows Media Player, and that started heating up the unit. I closed all apps when finished, and let the unit sit. I assumed that all programs were closed -- but my hunch now is that I should have soft-rebooted. I suspect that a program was draining my battery to the eventual state of the Red Ligh Of Death.

In the morning, after a full night charge, is when I noticed the RLOD for the first time. My first attempts were to hard-reset; but absolutely no key combinations were doing anything to wake the Tilt. The only visible signs of life were the red light coming on when I charged (with battery in or out.) No amber light at all.

I took a voltage read of my battery, using a voltmeter. 4.3V for the battery (on what states should have 4.5V); so I believe that should have been plenty of juice for at least a quick boot. Sounded like a circuit problem.

2 days later (after lots of reading), I found this approach. Eager to try anything, I went for it:

1.) take battery out. no charge cables connected.
2.) bend battery contacts up slightly
3.) place battery in at an angle, so that 4 contact leads are touching, but the metal backing of the batery is not touching the contacts that I had just raised
4.) click the 4 contacts together back and forth repeatedly, at a quick pace (about 2-3 times every second.)
5.) what a relief to see the amber light come on! Place the battery completely in, close cover, press power button, and happy to see the green light and a boot =)

Thanks! Now, I have to deal with a very hot unit (100 degrees F!) and a fast battery drain (3 hours and it's dead.) Might require a re-flash... but at least my unit has life and has been operational for 2 days since.

[joe22359]

i just brought my fone back to the dead by messing around w the battery, but is it going to run hot now w a bad battery life, stock phone btw no roms

EDIT my battery is draining by the minute. if i buy a brand new battery will the phone drain the new one or is it this old battery?

[luvmy356]

My 10 day old Tilt experienced the RLOD while sitting on the wall charger. I'm not sure how I fixed it as I tried various combination of button presses, resets, battery wacks, fiddling with the contacts, but gave up. And when I tried again an hour later, it turned on, but worked for only 24 hours before the red light came back. This second time, I haven't been as lucky.

So Amazon.com overnighted me a new one, and before I configured the replacement, I stuck the new battery into my old Tilt, and it booted up. At least I'm able to use the opportunity to wipe off the data before sending it back.

Just to confirm it was just a battery issue in my case, I put the old battery back in my replacement Tilt and I just get the red light when attempting to charge.

I wonder if the wall charger fried the battery? I'm sending it back with the old Tilt.

[uncle_odb]

Hi guys. I've had my tilt since the beginning of January. I love the phone, but was always nervous about the RLOD that I kept reading about. Well, it just happened to me this evening. The last time I used the phone in the afternoon, I had about an 85% charge on the battery. I left the phone on my desk and went back to check on it before going to sleep later at night. My phone was completely dead; it would not turn on. Plugged in the charger and the dreaded red light came on. With or without the battery in, the red light stayed when having the charger plugged in. I took out my sim and storage card, and did exactly what someone else mentioned here. I held the battery in at a 45 degree angle, and basically pushed the battery against the contacts quickly, like 3-4 times per second while pressing on to the power button. (oh my phone was still connected to the charger). I only did this for about 15 seconds, then my RED light turned into Yellow. After that, I just pushed the battery back in and closed the back cover. I turned on the phone and it still has about 81% battery charge left. I'll see how long this lasts. I hope this doesn't happen again and the phone works great from now on. This is very upsetting because I love this phone! :(

[joe22359]

now after bringing it back from the dead i am not getting any incoming or outgoing calls...

[uncle_odb]

Holy crap, no incoming or outgoing calls? Did this happen right after you brought it back from the dead? Or did this just start happening today? I am thinking maybe a hard reset is needed. Don't really know myself. After I brought mine from the dead, i think my battery life has gotten worse. Just great!

[owegophil1]

was using wizard for 2 years with no problem
bought a rebuilt kaiser/tilt from ATT north america
181007(RC01)/US

quickly installed latest dutty ROM and radio

got the RLoD this weekend. the phone behaved like it was ALMOST out of power, and i could turn it on, log in briefly, but then it would shut off due to no power. during this time while plugged in and turned off, the Amber charging light was on. After about 2 hours, then only the red ligth would appear. From then on, it was red lighting.

took it to ATT store tonight, and explained that i thought i needed a different battery because mine would not charge with either USB or wall plug. the clerk, who didn't seem knowledgable, dissappeared in the back, and returned - confirming that the battery was no good. i don't think she did anything.

so, got the new battery. phone booted up fine. had 56% of factory charge on the phone. got home, plugged in, and to my suprise, the phone continues to DROP in charge over last 3 hours. ( I haven't been using it.)

When I go to the Power screen, it says
Recharging State: Recharging
however the phone continues to lose power, and the charge light near the earpiece flashes.

when the phone is off, it's solid amber. however, there is no evidence that it's charging.

it appears that the phone cannot charge the battery. the battery merely continues to lose charge, until it has nothing left.

so, i sit here, helpless, as my phone loses 'blood', and it will die soon.

i feel like i'm watching The Abyss, and Ed Harris is desperately trying to give his wife CPR.... me - Ed, CPR - XDA and various chargers, wife - phone.

[my95z34]

was using wizard for 2 years with no problem
bought a rebuilt kaiser/tilt from ATT north america
181007(RC01)/US

quickly installed latest dutty ROM and radio

got the RLoD this weekend. the phone behaved like it was ALMOST out of power, and i could turn it on, log in briefly, but then it would shut off due to no power. during this time while plugged in and turned off, the Amber charging light was on. After about 2 hours, then only the red ligth would appear. From then on, it was red lighting.

took it to ATT store tonight, and explained that i thought i needed a different battery because mine would not charge with either USB or wall plug. the clerk, who didn't seem knowledgable, dissappeared in the back, and returned - confirming that the battery was no good. i don't think she did anything.

so, got the new battery. phone booted up fine. had 56% of factory charge on the phone. got home, plugged in, and to my suprise, the phone continues to DROP in charge over last 3 hours. ( I haven't been using it.)

When I go to the Power screen, it says
Recharging State: Recharging
however the phone continues to lose power, and the charge light near the earpiece flashes.

when the phone is off, it's solid amber. however, there is no evidence that it's charging.

it appears that the phone cannot charge the battery. the battery merely continues to lose charge, until it has nothing left.

so, i sit here, helpless, as my phone loses 'blood', and it will die soon.

i feel like i'm watching The Abyss, and Ed Harris is desperately trying to give his wife CPR.... me - Ed, CPR - XDA and various chargers, wife - phone.

I dont know if it's true with the Tilt, but with the Mogul, if it's plugged in and the amber light blinks, it means that it is too hot and is no longer charging. I used to get that when I would be using ICS.

Hope it helps.

[snooginsguy]

I got the ROLD yesterday. :@ I will vouch for the OP's technique, it worked to some degree for me, at least such that I could reset the SPL back to factory and get a warranty replacement. One thing I did differently was instead of bouncing the battery rapidly off the terminals, I would push it against the terminals, with the power button pressed, and the phone would start to boot up then shut off, at which point I'd pull the battery back off and push it on again. So, a slower process but similar. Once the phone actually did boot up, I had the same issues others have reported of a really hot phone and virtually no battery life. I also had the added bonus of it not connecting to the network, so it was not even useable as a crippled phone. Joy!

[mouragio]

I've got the same issue here....

After bringing to life for you guys it looks like the radio on the motherboard is crippled?

I've contacted HTC in the netherlands; and tomorrow they will pick it up for warranty.

b.t.w. I've got an custom rom on it... but anyways... If I can't boot it up so can't the repairman... the only thing is that if they can manage to boot it they can say it's the rom thats caused it... but i think it is a small chance.

I ain't gonna try the jump start thing above because i think it will do more damage then good?

I will keep ya'll posted.

[mouragio]

I've got the same issue here....

After bringing to life for you guys it looks like the radio on the motherboard is crippled?

I've contacted HTC in the netherlands; and tomorrow they will pick it up for warranty.

b.t.w. I've got an custom rom on it... but anyways... If I can't boot it up so can't the repairman... the only thing is that if they can manage to boot it they can say it's the rom thats caused it... but i think it is a small chance.

I ain't gonna try the jump start thing above because i think it will do more damage then good?

I will keep ya'll posted.

Ok; Yesterday i've got mine back. HTC uses eurotwice(.be) for repairs (warranty or not).
They have replaced the whole motherboard; beacuse i've got a new IMEI number.

So if you got an RLOD and you have warranty (mine was 2 years) then call HTC support and claim your warranty. Mine was also hardSPL unlocked; and flashed with a custom rom several times....

regards, Rene

[mattdehat]

hi, ive an untouched kaiser.with rlod.i cant enter bootloader or even turn on phone.tried loads oways .no joy.so id like to buy working board or new advice on how to sort my paper weight.thanks

[dieneverknowing]

Hey everyone,

Please be gentle if this have been covered, but I've searched this issue until my eyes started to hurt from reading so much (mainly from the 28 pg thread :p).

Here's a run down of my events. Please read if you have a minute to spare.

- Battery was dying so I started charging via usb.
- Turns out it wasn't charging and now the battery is dead and at which point the phone turned off
- Tried to power on the device while still connected via usb and the RLOD came on
- Left it connected to try and charge (hoping it would magically fix itself once the battery had enough juice)
- After an hour of charging, the amber led came on.
- Tried to turn on the phone and the led turned green them started to boot up. AT&T boot screen loaded and then the Radio/Rom numbers loaded as normal. But instead of going to the Windows Mobile screen, it turned off and the RLOD came back on.
- (*Roller coaster of emotions*)
- I left it plugged in to try and charge some more and the amber led came back on in about the same amount of time as it did before. Except this time I left it alone to charge further, but the RLOD came back on by itself within 20 minutes and has been on since.

So in anyones opinion, am I truly boned and all that start up jazz was just a glimpse of false hope? Or could this be a fixable problem?

I've tried just about all the battery tricks I could find except that of a using a different battery (no spare). I also found out that I'm 5 days out of the warranty period and AT&T said there's nothing they can do for me. So with no exchange in site and assuming the issue doesn't fix itself, could this be fixed by your typical cell phone repair shop? Or would I be better off trying to buy a Tilt with a broken screen and just swapping my screen for theirs?

I'm all ears seeing as how my phone doesn't work. :rolleyes: Thanks in advance for any advice.

::: UPDATE :::
I stopped by the AT&T store just to see what would happen if I put in another batter and what do ya know, it worked! So I guess perhaps in strange circumstances the RLOD can be a battery (as shown in other ways before). I just hope it was a bum battery and not a problem that will carry on *crosses fingers*

[Chaptop]

I was using my TILT to watch a video in Windows Media Player, and that started heating up the unit. I closed all apps when finished, and let the unit sit. I assumed that all programs were closed -- but my hunch now is that I should have soft-rebooted. I suspect that a program was draining my battery to the eventual state of the Red Ligh Of Death.

In the morning, after a full night charge, is when I noticed the RLOD for the first time. My first attempts were to hard-reset; but absolutely no key combinations were doing anything to wake the Tilt. The only visible signs of life were the red light coming on when I charged (with battery in or out.) No amber light at all.

I took a voltage read of my battery, using a voltmeter. 4.3V for the battery (on what states should have 4.5V); so I believe that should have been plenty of juice for at least a quick boot. Sounded like a circuit problem.

2 days later (after lots of reading), I found this approach. Eager to try anything, I went for it:

1.) take battery out. no charge cables connected.
2.) bend battery contacts up slightly
3.) place battery in at an angle, so that 4 contact leads are touching, but the metal backing of the batery is not touching the contacts that I had just raised
4.) click the 4 contacts together back and forth repeatedly, at a quick pace (about 2-3 times every second.)
5.) what a relief to see the amber light come on! Place the battery completely in, close cover, press power button, and happy to see the green light and a boot =)

Thanks! Now, I have to deal with a very hot unit (100 degrees F!) and a fast battery drain (3 hours and it's dead.) Might require a re-flash... but at least my unit has life and has been operational for 2 days since.


This also worked for me. I have not really been able to gauge how fast my battery drains on standby, but with continuous use for about every 10 minutes worth of use, 5% is used.

[dieneverknowing]

I'm gonna cut to the chase again. For previous problem see my other post. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2220715&postcount=37

- Got a new battery from AT&T and the phone works like a champ again
- Can sync with active sync via usb with no problems
- When trying to charge, the phone will show as charging on the screen but will not physically charge
- Nothing appears to be bent or curved

So basically it seems the usb port works except for actually supplying power. Does this seem like it's just a problem with the port or perhaps something with the rest of the phone? It seems a few people suggest pocketpctechs(dot)com as a good repair place. But before I send it there, does anyone know of a reputable repair place on the east coast (preferably in Florida)? I can find some places out here but was curious if anyone had any actual experiences.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[pitermaikal]

Got RLOD on my Universal a few days ago.

I've spent as much time as I could spare reading all sorts of topics related to this kind of failure, including this one.

I've then tried the suggested methods described here and still no signs of life in that expensive "brick"...

I've opened it several times and searched for loose connections on the charging circuit (none detected to my knowledge), still without success.

Decided to leave it "grounded" on my desk for a couple of days, without the battery.

Had another go at it today.

I did not connect it to the charger. Instead, I pressed the power button and while pressing it, I've inserted the battery back. I then released the power button and the little devil just it powered up, as if nothing had ever happened!

I then put it to charge (got the amber light I missed so much back again :cool:) and was able to connect it to the PC via ActiveSync and even enter Bootloader.

However, the OS was unstable, to the point where it would reset itself occasionally (after a few seconds / minutes using it, it would shutdown). At the same time, I noticed that the backlight on the screen was unstable (it flickered even when connected to the charger).

During some of the reboots, I noticed "NO GSM" came up, instead of the Radio version, in the first splash screen. It would still load the OS though.

After a few minutes using it and trying to charge the battery, so that I could completely reflash it, the device completely shutdown and I've had the RLOD again.

I'll be leaving it plugged to the wall charger for a couple of hours now, because I had noticed before that although the red light is on, it still charges the battery (I've been doing this test with another battery, from another UNI).

My guess (and hope...) is that the battery has become damaged and no longer provides enough / stable power for it to operate properly.

I'm awaiting another battery (a new one), as I no longer can borrow the battery from the other UNI. And keeping my fingers crossed in the meantime... ;)

Will keep you posted.

[pitermaikal]

The UNI is now up and running again.

Same procedure was all it took: left it two days without the battery. Last night I pressed the power button and inserted the battery (still the old one, because I haven't received the new one yet) at the same time.

It booted normally.

The only malfunction I've spotted so far is the fact that the SIM card is not recognised anymore. The "Invalid or missing SIM card" warning comes up sistematically.

Today I tried another SIM card from a mate and it worked for a few minutes. I removed his SIM card and put mine back. It recognised it. I've inserted the PIN, which was accepted and it logged me the network. However, a few seconds later I got the same message complaining about an "Invalid or missing SIM card" again :mad:

I've tried swapping SIM cards again, but that no longer does the trick apparently. Reflashed with different ROMs and ran the SIM / CID Unlock tool again, but still no success.

The battery is obviously not working great, because every now and then when the phone is rebooted the status indicator initially displays "0%" charge and a few seconds later it updates the information to its current charge (+ 93%).

Perhaps using a new battery will help. Or maybe not... :confused:

[tom_martini]

I had the infamous RLoD and I got it fixed by tilting the battery. Thanks for the insight you are a life savior, you made my day!

[michi123]

I had the infamous RLoD and I got it fixed by tilting the battery. Thanks for the insight you are a life savior, you made my day!

That´s why it´s called the "Tilt".....:D

[baps]

had the rlod a couple weeks ago, took my tilt to the AT&T store and they told me that many of the "early" tilts have had problems with the original battery (i bought mine in feb). he replaced the battery (under warranty) and everything worked like normal. my battery died again last night, but when i plug it in i get nothing. no lights at all, which leads me to think there is a problem with the usb port on the phone. so there seems to be two separate issues with the phone. hopefully the usb problem will also be covered under the warranty.

[hardik119]

I kept the phone on charging last night today morning when I woke up it was RED light of death.

I followed the CPR procedure and bingoo!! green light of life!

[bronco300]

read that other massive thread for these stupid red lights...i just got my tilt maybe a few weeks ago...and i had bought another package for the phone so i had a usb cord to sync it which came with an extra battery...well i got the red light on there...but switching out my batteries it went away...have no idea how, but it did....another thing i've had happening is, for instance, tonight talking to my wife on it and it'll go dead, and a steady red light will turn on while its plugged into the charger...i unplug the charger, and the phone turns back on(but of course flashes the dead sign once booted)...i'm pretty sick of the battery life these have...maybe i'm doing something wrong as i'm not technical smart, but it doesnt seem very helpful if i cant have a phone last more than 4 hours....anyways...if it happens again i'll pay more attention

[Erivelton]

Well, i tried all methods in this post, but, no success to fix RLoD. My battery started with tips of this site: http://michael-channon.spaces.live.com/, but, not fix the problem, only permit charge the battery. I buy a second battery, but this don't solve the problem :(

In portuguese
Tentei todos os métodos expostos nesse post, contudo nenhum conseguiu fazer minha bateria carregar, somente com o as dicas do site acima é que obtive sucesso parcial, pois a bateria carregou, mas, tudo sempre volta a estaca zero, pois quando ligo o tilt e tento carregar normalmente, o sistema indica carga, mas a bateria não carrega. Comprei uma segunda bateria, mas isso não resolve o problema, é um paliativo. Tenho pensado seriamente em tentar fazer uma ponte direta entre o positivo e o negativo do conector usb aos conectores da bateria, (eu tenho feito isso usando 2 cabos usbs, sendo 1 cortado e conectado direto nos terminais da bateria) mas não sei dizer se fazendo isso direto na placa ira funcionar :P.

[blankito350]

mine works with pushing the battery out and in like 20 times... then i heard a puff sound.... and works fine right now... it will have like a week the phone working weird and no signal... but then it will work great...!! IM A REDLIGHT SURVIVOR!!!!!! Who0o0o0oho0o0o

[Longrange Shooter]

I had put my Kaiser on my computer USB to charge it while I slept. Woke up the next morning to find it was buzzing me every minute. The boot screen was up and a red light was on. When I disconnected it turned off for good.

I swapped my SIM with my backup phone and that phone did not turn on. Whatever gave me a red light cooked my SIM. AT&T gladly replaced it.

I got a replacement battery and it is happily charging now.

No "giving my phone CPR" or pushing the OK button 5 times quickly while twirling in a circle, or any of the other juju you guys talk about. Replace the cooked stuff and it boots right up.

UPDATE:
I got my new battery charged and the machine works great. I put my old battery in (with no hardware installed) and it is happily charging as well.

[macdo]

I followed the suggested stpes and it came back to life again. The battery was at 1%, dunno why, it was the first time I left Wifi On during the night but without any software opened connected to internet.
I hope it stays normal as before, but I wasn't able to read successful stories :confused: :(

[vanisher]

Was anyone able to figure out why the radio isn't working properly after a recovery?

That's the boat I'm currently in. I managed to bring the phone back to life, but sans a radio.

[zackv1]

OmG I did what the first guy say to do and it my kaiser is alive now. it took about 20 bounce. thank you very much!

[sharpe65]

i got the RLOD a few weeks ago out of nowhere.. did the battery trick about 30 times with the USB cable plugged in and the light turned from red to amber but like others have said the phone functionality of it didn't work anymore... i tried a lot of things but the one that finally worked was turning off 3G using the duttythroy_black_3g_comm_manager cab.. can't use 3G but everything else works perfectly fine now including GPS.. hope this helps someone out!

[markshanks]

I think I have come up with a better solution to the red light of death problem - at least it worked for me. What struck me when reading the problems and the solutions was that the problem is exactly the same for everyone - red light when plugged into charger only, and won't ever turn on. However, the proposed solution with bouncing the battery had very variable results - worked for some, but not others. Some others said replacing with a new battery fixed the problem, but others said it did not. One guy said it was fixed when he charged his existing battery with another method. These inconsistencies suggest that there is some solution here, but the suggested solution is not exactly correct. For me, I tried the bouncing a bit and had no success.

Since there seemed to be some suggestion that the battery was at fault and it was possibly due to low voltage, I chose to take the battery out of the phone and LEAVE IT OUT for about an HOUR. The notion was that batteries can recover their voltage when they are not under load.

I then plugged the phone into a charger, and then plugged the battery back in. The amber light immediately came on, and I was able to turn the phone on/off, and recharge the battery.

In hindsight, I think the critical step is not what you are doing with the battery, but what you are doing with the phone in this situation. Ever since you first put your battery in the phone, it is continually receiving a current - even if you reset the phone, the phone still has a battery attached and is maintaining the circuitry. When you unplug the phone and remove the battery (and an hour is likely much longer than needed), the capacitors in the phone will slowly discharge and it can go back to its state before a battery was originally put in. This then seems to reset the problem and allows you to again get access.

This solution would explain some of the inconsistencies in terms of the previously suggested solutions. When the guy recharged his battery using another charger, the phone was left without battery while it was being recharged. If someone replaces the existing battery with a new battery, the time it takes to get the new battery affects how long the phone is without battery. The bouncing - without touching the other side contacts - could also be effectively leaving the battery unconnected.

Once the phone was up and running, I also had the problem whereby the phone was only intermittently working, and the battery discharge was much higher than normal. However, I noticed that the phone would work when the data connection was at "E" and would not work when the data connection was at "H". So I downloaded the CommManagerOnOffButtons.cab the previous poster mentioned, and turned off 3G. Now, "E" always shows, calls always work, and battery life is much improved.

Amazingly, I've also noticed that with turning off 3G, the phone reliability and call quality is better than when it was new. I think that the 3G really causes a drain on the battery and possibly interference, and this leads to some of the odd sounds I used to hear when using the phone.

In short, take the battery out for an hour, replace, and turn off the 3G. At least for me, the red light of death went to a phone that is working better than it did before.

[pavy]

I tried all the methods contained in this thread as well as many other threads. This is what worked for me.

I slightly bent up the 4 main battery contacts on the back of the phone and then I also bent up the two other contacts that sit on the bottom of the back of the phone. I put the battery in and I still had the red light. Then, while I had my Tilt plugged into a USB cord which was connected to my computer, I pushed on the battery while it was seated in the phone, all of a sudden a got an amber light and it started charging.

Since then I have been having three problems.

1. When rebooting the phone or turning the phone off and then back on, sometimes the phone will turn on but as soon as it gets completely started up, I get a low battery warning, and then the phone shuts down. To correct this, I take out the battery and bend up the two contacts (not the 4 main contacts) and then clean off the battery with sometimes (clean the metal-plated backside of the battery as well as the contacts on the battery). Then I re-seat the battery and try again, usually with success. If not, I do it again. So far I've been able to keep my phone working using this method.

2. The phone won't charge sometimes (using the good wall charger or USB connected to a computer). To correct this, I just unplug the power cord from the phone and carefully put it back in. I then just watch the battery charge to make sure it goes up at least 1% before walking away. This method has worked for me so far.

3. The phone will not come out of sleep with I hit the power button. This has happened twice so far. When this happens, I remove the battery, clean it, bend up the two contacts, put the battery back in and turn the phone on. So far this has worked for me.

I plan on posting my full RLoD story in this thread once I have more time: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=355232

[greencupbay]

Well, this is my first post, but I think that it might help. I have had my phone for a year but this last month it messed up. Just tonight I found that it has this reputation. It use to start up and show the red light and then just shut off; other times it would work fine and tell me battery life was perfect, but then it would die. Thanks to xda, I did this:
With NO sim/memory card in,
1) Take the battery out and in and turn it on - repeat about 65-100 times (only takes a few secs)
(After this mine worked fine for a few mins. but shut off shortly after with the red light)
2) Next, follow these instructions- (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=372266&highlight=rlod)
3) After getting it running (or not) with the last step, in a jumbled manner take the battery in and out and press the power button for about 30 secs.

I am talking on the phone right now and hoping that it doesn't go bad any time soon. If it does, there is one last idea I have. With the phone laying on its back, wrap it in a towel and put a blow drier in with it (blow-driers nose in the towel and but out of the towel or the blow drier will overheat, also not too close to the phone) and let sit for a few minutes; when done, let it settle on its back after this for about 45 mins. The idea behind it is the 'towel trick' for the xbox 360 red ring of death is that it might get hot enough to loosen and re-bond any solder. People say don't do it for the 360 but it works (I did it), as I am sure that people will say it for the phone, but what else is there to do other than open it? Let others know if this will work as I will if/when I do it. Sorry for such a long post! Hope everyone can keep enjoying their Kaisers!
Ajax

[greencupbay]

This just in, my previous post didn't work, but I think I might be on to something else. It is running fine now. Tell you what it is later tomorrow or Monday!

[freekquency]

RLOD fixed using kickers method-

Held down power button while plugged in and just kept touching the pins to the battery over and over took maybe 15 tries. (sim + sdcard removed)

If this phone is ok-= well even if not- this community rocks.

:))


thanks.. im seeing radio problems listed as possibly problems now.. will update post if radios do not work.

tytytytytytytytytytytytytyyty

[brandall]

Folks, I only managed to get the Red Light of Death to go by force charging the battery using a cut up USB cable and then booting. Since then however, the phone will not charge the battery:

1) The charge light comes on but only for a limited time then goes off.
2) The backlight dims prior to this as if the phone was only on battery power.

I've checked the connections etc and therefore I can only assume that the phone is at fault as this hasn't coincided with any other changes I've made.

Can anyone suggest anything I can try to confirm the problem?

If not, I need to force charge all the way and get searching on how to return the phone to non updated SPL and stock ROM before ringing Orange.....

Oh joy.......... :mad:

Edit: The link to reverting to stock etc http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=335568

[IllusiaX]

You know when a PSP is bricked a great fix is a modified battery like the Datel Tool Battery http://www.amazon.co.uk/Datel-Tool-Battery-PSP-Slim/dp/B0013VAEFG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1233232198&sr=8-2

Allot of developers and techs have modified standard batteries to achieve the same result. Maybe something similar could be done for the tilt to successfully fix the RLD.

[F2504x4]

Just came across this thread, although mine works fine,

I am curious if those that have had issues (batt drain , no radio etc etc ) afterreviving their Tilt with this method , tried reflashing/reloading the stock rom ? The reason i am asking this is because when those that flash a lot of custom roms that have had issues,bugs etc , it seems that re-flashing the stock rom then reflashing a custom Rom , the problems go away.

Any merit to this ?

[Rockpick]

Just came across this thread, although mine works fine,

I am curious if those that have had issues (batt drain , no radio etc etc ) afterreviving their Tilt with this method , tried reflashing/reloading the stock rom ? The reason i am asking this is because when those that flash a lot of custom roms that have had issues,bugs etc , it seems that re-flashing the stock rom then reflashing a custom Rom , the problems go away.

Any merit to this ?


I wanted to bring this one back to the top as a quick 'thank you' to everyone who has contributed. I was referred over here many years ago via HoFo and have lurked for a while. Great stuff here! Thanks.

As for the RLOD. I got it yesterday. I found this fix and, so far, I'm working. I pray the battery drain problem doesn't affect me...

Just curious... how many folks that got the RLOD that tried this fix and have worked, RLOD-free, ever since.

I'm worried that I'm going to see a cyclic pattern of it going in and out.

[Pho3niX90]

I got the ROLD yesterday. :@ I will vouch for the OP's technique, it worked to some degree for me, at least such that I could reset the SPL back to factory and get a warranty replacement. One thing I did differently was instead of bouncing the battery rapidly off the terminals, I would push it against the terminals, with the power button pressed, and the phone would start to boot up then shut off, at which point I'd pull the battery back off and push it on again. So, a slower process but similar. Once the phone actually did boot up, I had the same issues others have reported of a really hot phone and virtually no battery life. I also had the added bonus of it not connecting to the network, so it was not even useable as a crippled phone. Joy!

This sounds very similar to what happend to me to fix my Kaiser.. It got some watter in the phone (dono how :( ) the sticker at the back of the battery (watter marker) and all 3 inside was red, the phone wouldn't come on, and if it does it shuts down again after 1 vibrate, strangely, I plugged it into my with the usb cable and took out the battery, then tried starting the phone that way, it eventualy worked but it was the onlyway i could het my phone into windows, so I eventually stripped everything and used some alcohol to clean all the connectors ect ect.. And it's good as new now/

[Jdiesel413]

I have a question about this, My phone is just not responding think I bricked it when I tried to flash. Now when I turn it on it automatically goes to bootloader and if I plug in the usb it wont acknowledge it unless I hold down the soft keys. Also if I try to flash or even hard reset it does it half way and then turns off. So my real question is... Do I now have a $600 brick and will at&t screw me if I send it back????

[Twiddler]

I know that this thread is a little stale, but I just wanted to point out something:

Don't try to flash a malfunctioning phone! If you are having any inconsistent behavior, you may compound your problems by bricking it.

I have a 181007(RC01)/US phone that was given to me because it was going dead in 4 hours. It was 2 days out of warranty, poor guy!

One BIG clue that I have about the battery life issue is this; pull the SIM and the battery lasts (at least in my case). This tells me that the drain is probably the radio circuit. This may also explain why some lose their radio when they get their RLOD fixed, maybe they blow a fuse to the radio?

I've been looking around for a fix but I have a request in with an AT&T guy that's doing some digging for me. If I find a fix, I'll let everyone know.

[abunai247]

woohoo... my phone lives!!! thank you XDA!!! you guys are the greatest... im sure the customer service reps at at&t hate me though. lol

[abunai247]

phone doesnt seem to charge... it says charging but the battery is draining... just switched out the battery that had the initial issue gonna see if it charges on the stand and if the replacement charges in the cradle... crossing my fingers...

[abunai247]

ok batteries take a charge out of the phone in the spare battery charging area on my cradle but wont charge in the phone...

[abunai247]

Screw it looks like Apple just got another customer... as much as I hate to go to Apple HTC wants to charge me 376 bucks for a new motherboard?!?!?!?! For an outdated phone... I could go get the Fuze but that whole Red light of death for no reason kinda pissed me off. I watched some videos on the Fuze and its seems kinda laggy and I heard the battery life sucks worse than the tilt... I have a friend who has the Tilt and his lady has the Fuze... he says her battery life is worse... :mad: who knows if the iPhone sucks maybe ill get the Fuze and come back but I doubt it.

[matttytn2]

The metal connectors on the back of the battery are the arial?

[Uetzel42]

...

I took a voltage read of my battery, using a voltmeter. 4.3V for the battery (on what states should have 4.5V); so I believe that should have been plenty of juice for at least a quick boot. Sounded like a circuit problem.

2 days later (after lots of reading), I found this approach. Eager to try anything, I went for it:

1.) take battery out. no charge cables connected.
2.) bend battery contacts up slightly
3.) place battery in at an angle, so that 4 contact leads are touching, but the metal backing of the batery is not touching the contacts that I had just raised
4.) click the 4 contacts together back and forth repeatedly, at a quick pace (about 2-3 times every second.)
5.) what a relief to see the amber light come on! Place the battery completely in, close cover, press power button, and happy to see the green light and a boot =)


Red light of death with a HTC touch 3450.
Had the same probelm. Tried everything. Still death.
Now I tried your method ... and ... WORKED.
The HTC touch is alive again. THANKS very much!

[UnusualSuspect]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I've gotten a lot of help and insight from this forum over the past year+. So....

Woke up this morning to a RLoD on my AT&T WM6.1 Stock-ROM Tilt. It was working perfectly last night...

Okay, I popped the battery and did the thing with re-seating it rapidly until I heard the 'pop' noise that people speak of. Put the battery back in, and the phone came to life, but was acting "funny". On first try, it said the battery was nearly dead. I put in my extra (Seido 1600mAH) battery. Things got better, but I noticed that the Tilt was really hot on the top edge.

I pulled the battery and let the unit cool down. Put the battery back in, and over several power-downs and soft-resets, things got better.

It seems like I have all the PDA functions back, but it will not connect to the network. It "searches" for a long time and occasionaly reports that it's connected, but when I try to make a call, it immediately reports "No Service". WiFi works, I haven't tried Bluetooth. ActiveSync works just fine over a USB connection.

I did a hard reset, removed bloatware and restored from my latest backup. Still no joy - this beast will not connect to the network, and the battery is draining at a crazy rate.

I wonder if maybe that heat I felt at the top edge of the unit after it came back to life wasn't the antenna circuits frying?

Has there been any news on this subject? I'm out of warranty and have no insurance.

Mike

[nikiu]

My HTC S730 fell accidentally from my chair on the carpet and now it doesn't turn on. When I put the usb cable or the wall charger, the RLOD comes up. I tried at least twice or three times every method you mentioned here and nothing happens. :( Sh**, buying a phone like this where I live is like a monthly salary. Did anyone come up with any new solution?

[Motocross-FrEaK]

Since ~ two weeks i've got a HTC Kaiser.
I buid it with a broken screen, so i buid a new screen and replaced it.
I bought a new battery (not original), with it the phone works.

First try with new Screen was perfekt, but Slide-Keypad didn't work so i have to open the phone again.
After changing the Keypad und Turned on the phone, it boots and then
suddenly the phone turned off and the rlod began to light.

I did few thinks:
* take battery out
* take simcard out
* bend the 2 contacts up
* placed the battery in an angel, that the metal-blade don't touch the 2 contacts i bent up
* put the batty forward and backward very fast

but nothing happend!
I did last part with charge-cables and holding the power-button too..but - nothing!

Do i do something wrong?

Others..
if the battery is in the phone, i hold power-button and connect the charger-cable, the slide-keybad begin to shine and there is not a rlod.
Without the power-button there is not a keybad shining and i see the rlod.

And..without charge cable, if i press the power-button nothing happens, but if i release the button, the slide-keypad shine for a ~half second.


Sorry for my english, i'm from Germany..


greetings

[cahpcat]

ActuaLLy did work for me. My fone faced the RLOD back in Feb/March of this year. I followed up on many suggestions and this seemed to be 1 that helped out a bit. My only problem afterward is that my Battery life after was NEVER the same again. But the fone has and stiLL is working.

[Motocross-FrEaK]

there's a video of my problem..

http://www.youtube.com/user/1337tmracer#p/a/u/0/7A9o0qDZ078

[jesgatt]

I had the same problem. After opening the mobiel for a microphone problem, some flux went under the CPU and after assembly, the battery drained. I re-opened the mobile and cleaned the flux. I tried to switch it on but the RLOD came on. I tried the procedure of the battery at an angle but with no success. Then I gave the battery a 5V charge(with the PC power supply, RED and Black) for about 3 mins. Connected the battery in the mobile and the mobile switched on.

[dicespice]

IT REALLY WORKED!!

Fixed my issue with the RLOD on my TILT. I was ready to buy a busted screen tilt that powered up and swap my screen in it.

I was sceptical, but desperate at the same time.

I tried to reseat the everything, tried with SIM, without, on power, without power. Tried cleaning the contacts with an eraser, and alcohol swab etc.

Bouncing the battery and holding my mouth just right fixed it.

I heard it buzz when it vibrated the phone for second, and I was like NO WAY! HOLY S**$! :p

[jsimpson82]

I too had a RLOD and did a number of things to solve it.

First of all, my root cause. It appears to me that the socket on my phone has one or more leads broken loose inside the phone. While I've dealt with such a situation on laptops and other devices by resoldering the connection, I don't feel comfortable taking my tilt apart to apply such a fix. Maybe at the local hackerspace, but not on my own.

Anyway, I didn't figure the above out until fighting my RLOD for a long time. One day my tilt stopped charging (as a result of the above) and I wasn't sure why... I ended up using my old blackjack 2 for a long time as a result.

Over a year after my first RLOD I decided to poke at my tilt again. I dug up a 5.1 VDC cord meant for an IP camera and clipped the wires, then connected it to the battery for a day. I then put it in the tilt... no dice.

So I took a next step... I wired up this power source directly to the positive and negative terminals inside the phone, then put the battery in. I plugged the normal tilt charger into the phone, then plugged my jury rigged direct to battery charger into the wall...

Moments later, I had a yellow light. In retrospect, I think this is because the charging port on the phone is messed up. Regardless, the phone now works again (for weeks now) with a little fiddling of how I position it when charging.

So that's my story. Analyze away.

[jsimpson82]

Follow up: mine is still working, but IF I let it run down all the way it won't charge until I repeat the little jump start process. But this works consistently, once I attach both the set of leads to the battery and the real charging cord, I get a yellow light within seconds and can boot within a minute.

It makes me work real hard not to let it run down, though!

[Lethol]

My TyTN II had the RLOD after placing it on the charger last night. I fixed mine by leaving the charger plugged in and removing the SIM and SD card and bumping the battery on the connectors a few times till the orange light came on.

Will see how long it lasts.

[bigpimpin75]

it worked for me for about 1 min and went off again!