[Q] Nexus 4 Damage Help

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Str1ngcheese

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Feb 12, 2014
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So first some back-story, I'll get right into it. I recently dropped my phone in some water. As soon as possible I dried off the outside, and let it sit. That was the only thing I could do at the time, I had no rice, no tools to open up the phone, anything. I ended up with a solid red light, and everything unresponsive.

The next day I got some tools to open her up. There was pretty extensive corrosion to the motherboard, so using some alcohol I cleaned it all off, rinsed it, and let it dry. I also took apart everything else and cleaned any corrosion. The inside looks brand new. However, this isn't the point of the thread.

It appeared my cleaning helped quite a bit. Upon re-assembling and plugging in, I immediately got a charging sign on the phone. However, after trying to power on, I got no response. Additionally, The charging signal went out after about 20 seconds, and the whole phone became unresponsive again. I can do this process as many times as I want, but the same thing happens every time.

So I tried a different approach. First I hold down both volume rockers plus the power button, and plug it in while holding them down. This puts the phone into "download mode" However, once in download mode the phone is, again, unresponsive. After plugging into my laptop, my computer recognizes the phone, but not as "Nexus 4," but as "Full JellyBean on Mako."

Is there anything I can do about this? I've heard about drivers being able to be installed when in download mode, but I would not know what these are, where to get them, or how to install them. I really don't mind if my phone never works 100% again, I doubt it would. I just want to be able to get into the storage so I can recover some of the files I lost.

It's also probably worth mentioning I have not gotten a solid red light after the clean. Once in a while I will get a blinking red light after plugging it in, but after less than a minute it stops and goes through the charging/stop charging phase I'm so familiar with. Any help at all would be appreciated, and thanks in advance.
 
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DrFredPhD

Senior Member
Oct 30, 2010
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The charging block and/or battery could be wrecked, for safety reasons and because it will probably become faulty soon you should change the battery anyway. If the charging block is broken flashing your phone could fail. It's also possible the board was irreparably damaged, but it's probably worth a try as the parts aren't too expensive.
 
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Str1ngcheese

Member
Feb 12, 2014
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The charging block and/or battery could be wrecked, for safety reasons and because it will probably become faulty soon you should change the battery anyway. If the charging block is broken flashing your phone could fail. It's also possible the board was irreparably damaged, but it's probably worth a try as the parts aren't too expensive.

After trying to figure more things out, I kept it plugged in for a while. It appears my battery actually holds at least a pretty good charge, as the indicator is full when I plug it in now. However, I don't know what you mean when you say charging block.

Also, I seemed to determine my power button isn't working either. I always thought no response to pushing it meant there was something else going on, but I am able to put it into "download mode" by just holding down the volume rockers and plugging it in. Is there a way to turn on the phone another way besides the power button? Also if not, will buying another power button fix the problem? I don't want to buy one then later figure out the reason it wasn't turning on was just a board problem, and not a problem with the button itself.
 
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DrFredPhD

Senior Member
Oct 30, 2010
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You can short the power button with a screwdriver or something should turn the phone on., By charging block I mean the secondary board that the micro usb port is a part of, it can be replaced fairly easily if necessary.
 

Str1ngcheese

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Feb 12, 2014
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You can short the power button with a screwdriver or something should turn the phone on., By charging block I mean the secondary board that the micro usb port is a part of, it can be replaced fairly easily if necessary.

With a screwdriver? Enlighten me, I'd have no idea how to do that. If I had a faulty charging block, then my phone wouldn't be able to charge correct? My phone was plugged in for a while in download mode, and it gained a full charge from a relatively low charge. I also took the block apart and cleaned any corrosion, so I think that's still functional.

Some more progress, upon further attempting to turn the phone on, I was able to get it into fastboot mode. When plugging into the computer it is recognized, but as just "Android." I will type out what information is displayed here, minus serial number, as a new member cannot submit links in posts apparently.

FASTBOOT MODE
PRODUCT_NAME - mako
VARIENT - mako 8GB
HW VERSION - rev_11
BOOTLOADER VERSION - MAK0230d
BASEBAND VERSION - M9615A-CEFWMAZM-2.0.1700.98
CARRIER INFO - None
SERIAL NUMBER -
SIGNING - production
SECURE BOOT - enabled
LOCK STATE - locked

Also, fastboot at the top (as far as I know) usually says "Start" or "Recovery Mode," but mine says "Restart bootloader." When I try switching with my volume buttons, nothing happens.
 
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Str1ngcheese

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Feb 12, 2014
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Another update, just in case anyone is still listening..

Also, fastboot at the top (as far as I know) usually says "Start" or "Recovery Mode," but mine says "Restart bootloader." When I try switching with my volume buttons, nothing happens.

This no longer applies, for some reason I am able to switch through all modes, incliding "Start, Power Off, Recovery Mode, and Restart bootloader."
 

Monotoko

Senior Member
Dec 29, 2012
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Another update, just in case anyone is still listening..



This no longer applies, for some reason I am able to switch through all modes, incliding "Start, Power Off, Recovery Mode, and Restart bootloader."

Now that you're at this point, have you attempted to flash the phone with a stock image? I'd be weary of what the other poster said though and ensure your USB connection is holding steady because you don't want it dying half way through a flash because then you'll have a brick.
 

Str1ngcheese

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Feb 12, 2014
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Now that you're at this point, have you attempted to flash the phone with a stock image? I'd be weary of what the other poster said though and ensure your USB connection is holding steady because you don't want it dying half way through a flash because then you'll have a brick.

I have tried actually. I used the Nexus Root Toolkit v1.8.0 to try and flash it. At first it wouldn't find the device, but through device manager I manually installed the usb_driver onto the phone. After this, the toolkit was able to find the phone. I attempted to flash the image, but it ended up staying in fastboot mode. The program then suggested I try to enable "force flash," which I did, and this time it was never able to finish because the phone tried to restart, but went through that "charging to unresponsive" state I described in my first post.

Upon trying to flash it normally again, it looks like maybe the phone has to be unlocked to do this properly? I then tried to unlock with the same program, but in order to do that, I need the power button to confirm I actually want to unlock the phone. So yet again, I need that power button working.

Any ideas/suggestions/solutions would be amazing.
 

opssemnik

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Jun 10, 2013
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Jellybean on mako means that your phone is in lgnpst/qcpnst mode. Looks like something failed to start and made the bootloader trogger that mode

Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
 

Str1ngcheese

Member
Feb 12, 2014
8
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clean all the contacts with alcohol (not the normal one, the other that i dont remember the name).clean all the corrusion that you can find,let your phone charge for some hours and try again
I've already done that.

The next day I got some tools to open her up. There was pretty extensive corrosion to the motherboard, so using some alcohol I cleaned it all off, rinsed it, and let it dry. I also took apart everything else and cleaned any corrosion. The inside looks brand new.

Problem is the power button doesn't work, and the flashing fails. It looks like the flashing fails because the phone isn't unlocked. To unlock, I need the power button. Kinda stuck.