eMMC fix?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Search This thread
By:
Advanced…
tKoHaXoR

tKoHaXoR

Senior Member
Aug 5, 2010
205
57
LA
I would brick my bad emmc glacier for the sole purpose of testing this theory.

I can get a refurb for 20$ from t-mobile. If anybody wants to donate.. I am willing to brick this little bad boy! lol

I have the bad chip. M4G2DE. Haven't perma-rooted. Just temp rooted to recover my apps with Titanium.

Haven't encountered any issues, but if their is a guaranteed way to get a fail-pu I will go ahead and do it and try this method to see if it recovers.
 
irrelephant

irrelephant

Senior Member
Jan 17, 2010
764
203
Houston
tKoHaXoR said:
I would brick my bad emmc glacier for the sole purpose of testing this theory.

I can get a refurb for 20$ from t-mobile. If anybody wants to donate.. I am willing to brick this little bad boy! lol

I have the bad chip. M4G2DE. Haven't perma-rooted. Just temp rooted to recover my apps with Titanium.

Haven't encountered any issues, but if their is a guaranteed way to get a fail-pu I will go ahead and do it and try this method to see if it recovers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It's not known how to force the fail pu error, it is just bad luck of the draw so to speak... This isn't a theory for bringing a brick back, but for the failed emmc/fail pu

Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App
 
J

Jack_R1

Senior Member
Aug 9, 2009
4,362
964
3p4145 said:
now considering this, IF the controller is physical fault (as in fabrication fault, overheated transistors etc).. the nothing more can be done.. BUT if the fault is just in the addressing fail.. this providing the addresses should work wouldn't you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It would work, of course. But that's exactly where another difference comes in play:
In nearly every thread talking about failed eMMC, flashing PD15IMG is mentioned. PD15IMG is reformatting everything on the eMMC chip, including the partition locations which can (and do) become faulty sometimes due to bad flashes. If flashing PD15IMG works - the eMMC is restored. If it doesn't - showing "Fail-PU" - it means that the physical write didn't succeed.
 
3

3p4145

Senior Member
Sep 18, 2010
223
9
Ottawa
Wow.. everyone has a theory.. MT4G has been in the market for a while now.. and this issue has been around for jus as long.. and I don't think there was any technical ideas ever suggested to get it fixed.. (maybe I am wrong and maybe the search here is messed up) but that being said.. I love how people jump on other peoples technical (in)capabilities on here...

If you have a theory.. suggest it.. that's what online general discussions are for.. If anyone has a better idea as to what to do with their dead HTC MyTouch 4G.. by all means.. but this is pretty valid.. If you go back and read the original post.. this is never a discussion about HW/Sw/FirmWare/Software... its a theory and it still hold water as I dont think there has been a non-rooted phone where the eMMC chip has failed...

All that being said.. if one wants to prove they are smarter than other.. its not hard.. I don't claim to know everything abt eMMC technology.. but I am sure I know a bit and it is accurate enough..

The only reason I did not want to put down technical discussions was to avoid exactly these type of comments...

I usually do ignore negative comments.. but its amazing to see how many people said it would work or it would not work.. but not one person with a dead phone tried it!!

Well good luck with this one folks...
 
saranhai

saranhai

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 5, 2011
5,059
3,286
Nowhere
3p4145 said:
Wow.. everyone has a theory.. MT4G has been in the market for a while now.. and this issue has been around for jus as long.. and I don't think there was any technical ideas ever suggested to get it fixed.. (maybe I am wrong and maybe the search here is messed up) but that being said.. I love how people jump on other peoples technical (in)capabilities on here...

If you have a theory.. suggest it.. that's what online general discussions are for.. If anyone has a better idea as to what to do with their dead HTC MyTouch 4G.. by all means.. but this is pretty valid.. If you go back and read the original post.. this is never a discussion about HW/Sw/FirmWare/Software... its a theory and it still hold water as I dont think there has been a non-rooted phone where the eMMC chip has failed...

All that being said.. if one wants to prove they are smarter than other.. its not hard.. I don't claim to know everything abt eMMC technology.. but I am sure I know a bit and it is accurate enough..

The only reason I did not want to put down technical discussions was to avoid exactly these type of comments...

I usually do ignore negative comments.. but its amazing to see how many people said it would work or it would not work.. but not one person with a dead phone tried it!!

Well good luck with this one folks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Really? I thought there were a few non rooted bricked eMMCs...

Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
 
3

3p4145

Senior Member
Sep 18, 2010
223
9
Ottawa
saranhai said:
Really? I thought there were a few non rooted bricked eMMCs...

Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I tried searching.. but i dint find anyone reporting one that was not rooted..
Now this could be just lack of reporting... as why would one bother researching if they can jus walk over to Tmobile store...

But like I hinted.. I humbly apologize for trying on this one.. I will go back to being a noob and not trying to contributing...
 
J

Jack_R1

Senior Member
Aug 9, 2009
4,362
964
There were numerous non-rooted bricked eMMCs reported in failed eMMC thread in General section, and also at least 2 threads in Q&A that I've participated in that dealt with non-rooted bricks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: saranhai
S

SirChang

Member
Aug 10, 2011
11
1
I think everyone probably knows this by now... but this doesn't work.

When the eMMC goes bad, you can't write anything to /proc (or most of the other partitions for that matter). Tried it numerous times when I was trying to resurrect my old MT4g (bad eMMC chip), with every manner of chmod, cp, dd, various emmc images, backups, etc etc, and kept getting refused.

Also tried overwriting the /dev/block directly (yeah, pretty desperate)... same thing.

Just figured, since this thread is still out there, and no one seemed to be definitively saying the method doesn't work, it had to be said.
 
Last edited:
grhand82

grhand82

Senior Member
May 23, 2011
380
13
Thread still here huh. Well, i gots a bricked mt4g. Even though I don't think this will work, what do you want me to try. i can get adw fastboot but it wont formate/erase crap. Locked up. i get a failed p/u. I'm open. I have an unlocked device through a local carrier so getting a new device through tmo is not an option and i dont feel like paying HTC 189.00 to replace the board.

Suggestions are taken. Let me know.
 
saranhai

saranhai

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 5, 2011
5,059
3,286
Nowhere
won't work bud. as you see in the post before yours, once the chip is dead, there's no reviving it.
just ask tmobile for a replacement, they replaced mine.
 
C

cmstlist

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2010
3,349
522
Toronto
Google Pixel 4a
A related question: Suppose my eMMC goes bad at a point when I have a custom ROM installed, such that Mobilicity might hesitate to take it in for warranty.

Is there anything I can do once eMMC has failed, to SUPER-brick the device, so that you can't even tell that I once S-OFFed it because it's so screwed? Which might be better than bringing it into the store with a clear custom ROM.
 
AggNA

AggNA

Member
Jul 28, 2011
38
5
FL
If you want to hard-brick the device so the RMA is not denied for warranty replacement. Then I suggest you do a search on our Q&A sub forum as I did put few methods few months back. Only way to fix it is to replace the motherboard.

Sent from my HTC Glacier
 
saranhai

saranhai

Inactive Recognized Developer
Mar 5, 2011
5,059
3,286
Nowhere
cmstlist said:
A related question: Suppose my eMMC goes bad at a point when I have a custom ROM installed, such that Mobilicity might hesitate to take it in for warranty.

Is there anything I can do once eMMC has failed, to SUPER-brick the device, so that you can't even tell that I once S-OFFed it because it's so screwed? Which might be better than bringing it into the store with a clear custom ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

you can't hard brick it anymore, since you cannot write to the eMMC chip. you could short circuit it.
but the only way to fix this as of now is to change the motherboard like AggNA mentioned.
 
zelendel

zelendel

Senior Member
Aug 11, 2008
23,360
20,609
OnePlus 6T
OnePlus 9
Ok guys. Rudeness will not be tolerated in any form. I see to much of this around the forums and this will change. If it is not constructive then dont post it.

For those that know me, then you know what is next.
For those that dont. I have just come out of retirement as a mod and while Fair, I am very FIRM. I give one warning and one warning only.
 
T

Tom Barrister

Member
Aug 31, 2011
46
7
dhkr234 said:
(speculation that the opening poster's method doesn't work; the post wasn't quoted as-is because it contained unnecessary flaming.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I spoke to HTC this morning, and it took a LONG time to reach somebody who was familiar with this.

ACCORDING TO THE TECH (and I have no idea whether he was telling it to me straight or making things up), the problem is hardware-related. According to the rep, about one out of five of the suspect chips are actually defective; the other 80% are fine. Put into simple terms, the defect may cause the chip to be written to incorrectly, which may or may not corrupt things up to and including "bricking" the phone. The rest is summed up as best I can:

1) Not all defective chips will go bad. It depends on how the phone is used. Repeatedly flashing ROMS and such will definitely speed up the process.

2) If the phone gets bricked, and the chip is still usable, re-flashing may fix it. Of course, if the chip isn't usable anymore, the phone is finished.

3) The rep recommends that if you get the bricked phone messages while flashing, you should attempt to flash "stock" back to it (i.e. Froyo 2.2.1, Gingerbread 2.3.4 etc.: what HTC put on the phone in the first place or sent OTA). If this works, do not attempt to root or modify it again. If it's in warranty, get it replaced. If it isn't, leaving it on stock will give the chip the best chance to not get any worse.

Again, this is what I was told. I'm not a phone geek, so I have no idea if what he said was true or even possible.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: catherall and pianodirt
D

disturbedl

Member
Nov 23, 2008
7
0
Available non rooted mt4g w/ failing emmc for testing!

i have a mt4g never been rooted....

hboot-0.86.0000
microp-0429
radio-26.03.02.26_m

i believe the emmc is failing but not quite dead yet....
if the battery is left out of the phone for 20 min....upon putting it back in i can boot to recovery, fastboot, hboot okay....and the phone will boot and have wifi, signal, etc......but after 5 min the phone will start slowing down quite consideradbly....and then reboot to the mt4g boot loop until the battery is removed for another 20 min...also when entering the recovery menu...command responses are few and far between....

in the past i have had emmc errors in the recovery menu upod wiping data/cache and even had the phone completly lock up during a wipe operation...the phone has nver been rooted to my knoweldge and is still s-on...

i am willing to devote this phone to testing so if anyone has any ideas and can work with me on trying to come up with a emmc fix plz pm me whenever you want to....

i will be trying this fix today to see if it has any effect...i will report back with results....hopefully it works!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

crazykas
[q] {SOLVED}how to find emmc chip of my unrooted glacier?
Replies
28
Views
11K
A
androboi
ksubedi
Mytouch 4g Bad EMMC Question
Replies
21
Views
9K
thorne1209
thorne1209
nba1341
[Q] Check emmc without root?
Replies
4
Views
6K
neidlinger
neidlinger
T
Ics mms problem fixed
Replies
7
Views
15K
T
tawhid111
A
semi brick, been awake 27 hours trying to fix please help...i searched extensively
Replies
120
Views
10K
B
Blazin'j83

Top Liked Posts

24 Hours All time
  • There are no posts matching your filters.
  • 3
    J
    Jack_R1
    If it's the chip itself that fails - then you can't fix it by writing something to it, since it won't write whatever you're trying to write to it. Trying that would be equal to trying to fix a failed hard disk by using it.

    "Firmware" is just another term for software. No chip consists of firmware, firmware is written on memory (permanent or rewritable), which is read by some hardware (usually some type of CPU) that executes this firmware. eMMC is just a rewritable memory chip, and if the controller of the chip fails, or big chunks of the memory in this chip fail - it's not usable anymore.

    And of course, there is no such thing as "driver chip". Driver is a program, software, that runs on CPU and is stored in - again - memory. eMMC controller, on the other hand, is hardware, a part of the chip itself. The failure is on a whole another level.
    View
    2
    T
    Tom Barrister
    dhkr234 said:
    (speculation that the opening poster's method doesn't work; the post wasn't quoted as-is because it contained unnecessary flaming.)
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    I spoke to HTC this morning, and it took a LONG time to reach somebody who was familiar with this.

    ACCORDING TO THE TECH (and I have no idea whether he was telling it to me straight or making things up), the problem is hardware-related. According to the rep, about one out of five of the suspect chips are actually defective; the other 80% are fine. Put into simple terms, the defect may cause the chip to be written to incorrectly, which may or may not corrupt things up to and including "bricking" the phone. The rest is summed up as best I can:

    1) Not all defective chips will go bad. It depends on how the phone is used. Repeatedly flashing ROMS and such will definitely speed up the process.

    2) If the phone gets bricked, and the chip is still usable, re-flashing may fix it. Of course, if the chip isn't usable anymore, the phone is finished.

    3) The rep recommends that if you get the bricked phone messages while flashing, you should attempt to flash "stock" back to it (i.e. Froyo 2.2.1, Gingerbread 2.3.4 etc.: what HTC put on the phone in the first place or sent OTA). If this works, do not attempt to root or modify it again. If it's in warranty, get it replaced. If it isn't, leaving it on stock will give the chip the best chance to not get any worse.

    Again, this is what I was told. I'm not a phone geek, so I have no idea if what he said was true or even possible.
    View
    1
    saranhai
    saranhai
    3p4145 said:
    Thanks for talking abt this guys..
    I understand what you guys are saying.. but quite often the HW itself is not bad but the address locations are corrupt.. Like I mentioned in my initial post... I am not sure what causes the fault.. but Once caused, IF there is a way to just re-write the addresses for these locations so that the driver chip/Controller chip can try to use the addresses provided is what I am trying to see..

    This statement is right on the amrk: "eMMC is just a rewritable memory chip, and if the controller of the chip fails, or big chunks of the memory in this chip fail - it's not usable anymore."

    now considering this, IF the controller is physical fault (as in fabrication fault, overheated transistors etc).. the nothing more can be done.. BUT if the fault is just in the addressing fail.. this providing the addresses should work wouldn't you think?

    If someone has a brick on their desk they can try this.. Nothing really to loose right?

    I would never suggest replacing the emmc file of a working chip.. now thats just crazy talk.. well if you have $500 to spare.. sure.. but I was thinking of fixing a broken one...


    One more last thing: The only problem with this approach on a dead phone is getting access to the FS AFTER the phone is dead.. any ideas?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    using adb you are able to get into the filesystem...
    View
    1
    irrelephant
    irrelephant
    saranhai said:
    should i also post this in the g2 forums?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    I believe there are a few ppl there with the failed emmc that still have their phones...

    Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App
    View
    1
    J
    Jack_R1
    There were numerous non-rooted bricked eMMCs reported in failed eMMC thread in General section, and also at least 2 threads in Q&A that I've participated in that dealt with non-rooted bricks.
    View

New posts