Atrix won't boot - even with factory cable

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jonbruce

Member
Mar 2, 2013
15
3
Barrie
I have a Motorola Atrix 4G on Bell Mobility. Currently the phone will not boot at all. The phone is out of warranty.

When this started I began by searching through the xda forums and found several similar problems. Most pointed to the sleep-of-death or a charging adapter problem. I have tried charging with the Motorola adapter that came with the phone, a USB cable and the Motorola Lapdock. None of these have provided any happy. Each time I tried, I left the phone overnight, when I checked on it, the phone and battery were cold. I tested a known-working battery from another Atrix and the phone would still not boot.

Some other searches point to a factory cable. I bought one on Ebay however the phone will not boot. I tested the cable on a known-working Atrix and it works fine. I did notice that when I plug the factory cable in to my phone and in to my Windows 7 PC, it detects *something*. Under device manager I see an unknown device called "APX". So far Google and xda searches haven't been able to provide me with a correct answer.

When I plug in the regular USB cable the green LED turns on for a while, if I touch the power button, the green LED goes out. RSD Lite does not detect anything, I assume this is because the phone is not in RSD mode.

I have tried combinations of volume buttons/power button as well, both with the wall charger and with the factory cable. Nothing displays on the screen at all no matter what I've tried. The phone had the stock install from Bell however was rooted with SuperOneClick (obtained from xda forums and installed many months ago) and had no third-party apps on it.

This death seemed to start slowly, at first battery life was at times terrible, then it moved on to not wanting to power on for a while if the battery died or the phone was turned off when the battery was low. Removing/re-inserting the battery several times typically helped. Eventually the phone got so bad, when it booted it would just crash repeatedly with a message about motorola.home.something (sorry I don't remember exactly what). Hitting force close would just bring the message back up again. I left the phone off overnight and the next morning, R.I.P. my Atrix :(

I have access to Windows XP or 7 as well as Linux.

Any help would be appreciated. Also I apologize for the long-winded post, I'm trying to provide as much information as I can.
 

Xerox98

Member
Nov 23, 2012
47
42
Streaky Bay
I had this problem to, I freaked out, what I needed to do was to get another Atrix (in this case my Uncles) and make sure that the battery in it is FULLY CHARGED, then I took out my battery (in the broken phone) and put in his, then I got a solid green LED, then I had to leave it on the charger overnight, after that the M would show, but that was it, so I then went into fastboot and flashed the ICS Leak, and ta-da.
 
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jonbruce

Member
Mar 2, 2013
15
3
Barrie
I had this problem to, I freaked out, what I needed to do was to get another Atrix (in this case my Uncles) and make sure that the battery in it is FULLY CHARGED, then I took out my battery (in the broken phone) and put in his, then I got a solid green LED, then I had to leave it on the charger overnight, after that the M would show, but that was it, so I then went into fastboot and flashed the ICS Leak, and ta-da.

I had tried that before, but I can't remember if I had charged the battery full. I'll give it a shot today, thanks!
 

jonbruce

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Mar 2, 2013
15
3
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It's possible that your phone is finished. The 'motorola.home' error is usually caused by something you've updated (google search?) but I would doubt that it would cause your phone to not even start up.
At this point, I might be inclined to open the phone up <url removed so I could reply> and see if you can see anything obvious?

I will check that out tonight and report back, thanks!
 

jonbruce

Member
Mar 2, 2013
15
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I will check that out tonight and report back, thanks!

Nothing obvious when I took it apart, no visible damage or problems. Any other thoughts? I've been told to try ADB from a Linux box and see if it will do anything. I've started installing ADB but looking for more insight.
 
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jonbruce

Member
Mar 2, 2013
15
3
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Nothing obvious when I took it apart, no visible damage or problems. Any other thoughts? I've been told to try ADB from a Linux box and see if it will do anything. I've started installing ADB but looking for more insight.

Update. I found this ... http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=11901016&postcount=75 and now instead of "APX" in Windows device manager, I have "NVIDIA USB Boot-recovery driver for Mobile devices".

It looks like NVFlash might be something I need next. In other news, the phone when plugged in via the factory cable, is actually very slightly warm. It's the first new sign of life I've seen in this thing for a few days.
 
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jonbruce

Member
Mar 2, 2013
15
3
Barrie
Update. I found this ... http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=11901016&postcount=75 and now instead of "APX" in Windows device manager, I have "NVIDIA USB Boot-recovery driver for Mobile devices".

It looks like NVFlash might be something I need next. In other news, the phone when plugged in via the factory cable, is actually very slightly warm. It's the first new sign of life I've seen in this thing for a few days.

I've had no luck at all since my last reply. http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1046994 seems to have something to do with my problem, but I'm not able to dig up a solid answer. As best as I can tell, I manged to hard brick the thing and I'm up the creek without a required paddle.

Any other thoughts on this would be great. Even if I'm able to ensure the device is wiped, I could send it in. There are work files on there (I know, I know, I'm an idiot) I can't have out in the wild.
 

jonbruce

Member
Mar 2, 2013
15
3
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Just bought a replacement Atrix for $100. It included three cases, three batteries, wall charger with cable, car dock and a metric ass-load of screen protectors.

I do want to thank everyone for offering help and ideas, it was a good learning experience!
 

cheekan

New member
Aug 27, 2013
1
0
Just bought a replacement Atrix for $100. It included three cases, three batteries, wall charger with cable, car dock and a metric ass-load of screen protectors.

I do want to thank everyone for offering help and ideas, it was a good learning experience!

I've just encountered this issue and cannot find a solution anywhere online. I've come to terms with my phones fate by now. Just wanted to ask where I could find this Atrix replacement for 100 w/ all the neat stuff you've listed above? Please advise

thanks

Cheekan
 

jonbruce

Member
Mar 2, 2013
15
3
Barrie
I've just encountered this issue and cannot find a solution anywhere online. I've come to terms with my phones fate by now. Just wanted to ask where I could find this Atrix replacement for 100 w/ all the neat stuff you've listed above? Please advise

thanks

Cheekan

I found mine on Kijiji, luckily right in my city.
 

i_Lestat

New member
Sep 26, 2013
2
0
Hello, so much time searching for this on the web, spanish is my birth language... so i wanted to know some update from this of any of you if posible, thanks in advance.
i couldn't describe better the problem and situatiob, is exactly the same, same phone of course.
I was about to try to make a factory cable, so i ended here, i think is not going to help me then is that right?
PD: i don't know what more to do with the atrix, sell for parts, even that is difficult over here, and the services don't help either, i've tryied 2 of them already, only ignorance they have :(
 

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    I had this problem to, I freaked out, what I needed to do was to get another Atrix (in this case my Uncles) and make sure that the battery in it is FULLY CHARGED, then I took out my battery (in the broken phone) and put in his, then I got a solid green LED, then I had to leave it on the charger overnight, after that the M would show, but that was it, so I then went into fastboot and flashed the ICS Leak, and ta-da.
    1
    It's possible that your phone is finished. The 'motorola.home' error is usually caused by something you've updated (google search?) but I would doubt that it would cause your phone to not even start up.
    At this point, I might be inclined to open the phone up (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola+Atrix+4G+Teardown/4964/1) and see if you can see anything obvious?