[Q] HTC One (M7) stuck in boot loop after incomplete power-down

[StarTrail]

Hey guys, I have an HTC One (M7) from AT&T that I got in August 2013. I have never tampered with it, not even as much as getting an upgrade (which maybe I should have). By now, the battery has suffered a little, so at times it doesn't have enough power anymore to properly power down and just shuts off. That has happened yesterday night. After charging over the night, I tried to start the phone this morning and I end up in a boot loop: short buzz, "HTC quietly brilliant " screen, AT&T logo screen, "HTC quietly brilliant" screen again, "htc ONE" screen, aaaaand repeat.

Maybe I should mention that I have moved overseas in the meantime, so getting the phone to AT&T customer service is not an option, unfortunately. With the help of Google and also this forum I finally figured out how I can get to the boot menu to select Recovery mode. Unfortunately that doesn't help either. It takes a bit longer, I get a symbol on the screen that shows a phone and a triangle for some time and then I'm back in the old boot loop.
I'd be grateful if somebody could point me towards things I could try out next to recover at least the data I have not backed up (mostly pics and a few phone numbers). The hope for data recovery is also the reason I haven't tried the factory reset option yet.

Thanks and please ask if you need more information.

Here's the information from my boot menu:
*** LOCKED ***
M7_UL PVT SHIP S-ON RH
HBOOT-1.44.0000
RADIO-4A.14.3250.13
OpenDSP-v26.120.274.0202
eMMC-boot
May 3 2013,19:16:59:-1

 

[suchauser]

Can you enter recovery and try to wipe cache/dalvik-cache? I don't remember if stock recovery has this feature

 

[StarTrail]

Hi suchauser, thank you for your reply. As I wrote in the description, starting in Recovery mode didn't get the phone out of the reboot loop.

 

[alray]

With the help of Google and also this forum I finally figured out how I can get to the boot menu to select Recovery mode. Unfortunately that doesn't help either. It takes a bit longer, I get a symbol on the screen that shows a phone and a triangle for some time and then I'm back in the old boot loop.

This triangle logo is actually the recovery. The menu is hidden for preventing users to access the recovery functions by error. To reveal the menu, hold your volume up button then hit the power button and release the volume up at the same time (this must be done when you see the triangle)

The hope for data recovery is also the reason I haven't tried the factory reset option yet.

Then there is no reason to boot in the recovery since the only useful option there is "factory reset". The stock recovery is onl used for that and for installing ota updates. You could try a "fastboot erase cache" first to see if the phone boot, if not, there isn't any way to recovery your data since you'll either need to flash a RUU or unlock your bootloader to recovery your phone. Both these options will wipe the entire phone.

 

[StarTrail]

Thanks, I couldn't find the information about holding the volume up button to access the recovery menu anywhere on the web, this was very helpful! It tells me that it cannot mount the SD card, so I'm afraid all hope is lost I suspect there was a write happening to the SD Card at the very moment the phone shut off because of low battery, leaving the file system on the SD card in an inconsistent state.

I'm frankly a little upset that phone manufacturers (in this case HTC) can get away with not catching these kinds of problems that are not all that unlikely to happen during normal phone usage. Of course, the phone is 2yrs and 4 months old, aka no warranty anymore

 

[alray]

Thanks, I couldn't find the information about holding the volume up button to access the recovery menu anywhere on the web, this was very helpful! It tells me that it cannot mount the SD card, so I'm afraid all hope is lost I suspect there was a write happening to the SD Card at the very moment the phone shut off because of low battery, leaving the file system on the SD card in an inconsistent state.

Can't mount sd card error when booting in stock recovery is 100% normal, there is no sdcard on this phone... This error is present on all the M7

I'm frankly a little upset that phone manufacturers (in this case HTC) can get away with not catching these kinds of problems

These kind of problems can happen on any device type (Phones, tablets, computers etc) and the manufacturer can't do anything about that, its like unplugging your desktop computer while it was running, there are high chances something will be corrupted on the disk.

Post the output of "fastboot getvar all" (dont post imei/sn). It should be easy to repair.

 

[StarTrail]

Hey alray,

thanks for getting back to me! From googling a little it seems I need ADB to run "fastboot getvar all", right? I'm just about to set it up now. The thing I am wondering is, will I be able to get ADB connected with my M7 even if it is unable to boot?

Thanks

 

[alray]

Hey alray,

thanks for getting back to me! From googling a little it seems I need ADB to run "fastboot getvar all", right? I'm just about to set it up now. The thing I am wondering is, will I be able to get ADB connected with my M7 even if it is unable to boot?

Thanks

Sorry, I'm a little lazy so read this post:
http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=63955546&postcount=6
that should answer all the questions you might have regarding fastboot/adb

 

[StarTrail]

No worries, I'm super grateful for your help!

Here's what I have achieved so far. I installed the android sdk tools as well as the htc drivers. The boot menu on the phone is aware of the USB connection and offers a FASTBOOT USB option. However, the Windows Device Driver does not recognize an "Android USB Device", neither a "Mobile devices --> HTC One". Shortly after I start FASTBOOT USB, there is a "Portable devices --> HTC MTP Device".

Neither "fastboot devices" nor "adb devices" ever find anything. "fastboot getvar all" says < waiting for device > and never gets beyond that, no matter how often I reboot.

Am I missing something obvious in order to get the connection going?