Dead HD2 - Can't power/boot up

sb09 · Feb 24, 2010

Update at post #26 (handset returned from HTC alive and well)

Urgent help required please guys - help me rescue my very poorly HD2!

Phone is completely dead at the moment. Battery is completely dead and attempts to charge it are not working - however I'm sure it's not the battery that's the problem!

I've been flashing different radio roms this last couple of days going from 2.08.50.05 to .08 and back yesterday to .05 because while on .08, the back of phone was getting really hot and the battery was draining very quicky. Late yesterday afternoon it discharged completely while I had it on-charge!

Since then it's remained dead! Initial attempts to re-charge saw the orange LED come on for a minute or two, at which time I tried a hard-reset but it froze at the point of making the selection to hard-reset after the brief bootloader screen. On one more occasion the LED came on for say 10 seconds before disappearing again and since then - nothing!

Taking the battery out for all of last night and at least 20 times today has made no difference. Trying to charge it via (original) charger and via usb cable has not worked. No LED, no charge (though interestingly it still gets warm at the back when on charge), can't boot, no response, nothing, nada.

Helpful guy in O2 shop spent 40 mins helping me out earlier today (he's a XDA forum user who flashes custom roms from here too on his HD2). He took his charged battery and put it in mine with pretty much same result! White HTC bootscreen came on for a few secs before dying again. Couldn't start/boot up my phone using his good battery, yet after putting my battery in his phone he was able to begin to charge it, proving I think that, it's not battery that's to blame for this, but an internal fault with the power-unit of the hardware, (and/or perhaps with the charging port).

I'm convinced that the power-unit is the major issue, and that as it seems to be over-heating quicky, then it shuts down immediately from doing anything. I could be wrong of course.

Sorry for the lengthy story guys, but now feeling really low that I can't seem to sort this. If I cant start it up or get to the bootloader screen then I'm not going to be able to flash a stock rom to get this problem fixed under warranty, so as you can see, I'm really frustrated!

Any help, advice, suggestions etc would be gratefully received and much appreciated too! Thanks in anticipation.

Edit: sorry should have said that I've extensively read these forums today and found many similar (but not exact same) threads/posts, hence the new thread.

pack21 · Feb 24, 2010

hapened the same to me, radio 2.08.. to 2.05... white screen HTC freeze....not booting.

my solution was press the two sound boutons at same time, when the screen write HTC apears....them booting at radio specs...them press one more time de 2 sound boutons sf same time....

it solve for me the booting...is strange this issuie of downgrade the radio 2.08... to 2.05..

good luck.

sb09 · Feb 24, 2010

pack21 said:
hapened the same to me, radio 2.08.. to 2.05... white screen HTC freeze....not booting.

my solution was press the two sound boutons at same time, when the screen write HTC apears....them booting at radio specs...them press one more time de 2 sound boutons sf same time....

it solve for me the booting...is strange this issuie of downgrade the radio 2.08... to 2.05..

good luck.

Thanks pack21, but at the moment I can't get it to do anything at all - it won't start, it won't go into bootloader, and I can't charge it. I'd be happy to see anything on the screen at all right now! Thanks again.

biofotis · Feb 24, 2010

since it cant boot why dont you take it back to HTC? They will first have to repair it since they dont know it has been flashed with an unofficial firmware....They might even give you a new device!

sb09 · Feb 24, 2010

biofotis said:
since it cant boot why dont you take it back to HTC? They will first have to repair it since they dont know it has been flashed with an unofficial firmware....They might even give you a new device!

Yeah, that's what I'm going to have to do as a last resort, but my fear is that with their tech/tools, they'll figure a way to power it up or get it into bootloader and discover it has a custom rom, and return it to me unfixed. This is almost certainly a hardware fault, as I believe it has always been warmer (sometimes very hot) at the back than it should be, but trying to prove it would be difficult. It would be great if I did return it and they couldn't boot it, but I only want to return it this way as a last resort. Here's hoping someone out there might have another solution.

wacky.banana · Feb 24, 2010

Can you power the phone up with the charger and usb lead plugged into it?

Have you tried booting wth the SD card out?

If you can at least boot it up then you could try MTTY to see if that helps.

Post your outcomes back up and lets see what else we can do to help.

WB

sb09 · Feb 24, 2010

wacky.banana said:
Can you power the phone up with the charger and usb lead plugged into it?

Have you tried booting wth the SD card out?

If you can at least boot it up then you could try MTTY to see if that helps.

Post your outcomes back up and lets see what else we can do to help.

WB

Thanks for input WB - I note you've helped many others out on other threads with related problems.

Can't power up the phone by any method (AC charger or USB), and because it's got no power, I can't boot it at all. Tried it without SD card earlier, and it didn't make any difference. Even with someone else's battery in earlier, it wouldn't boot up or charge even, so I'm at a complete loss.

Always thought I'd need to try MTTY sometime soon - just didn't know my device might die on me before then (and its only 5 weeks old). Any other thoughts?

wacky.banana · Feb 24, 2010

sb09 said:
Thanks for input WB - I note you've helped many others out on other threads with related problems.

Can't power up the phone by any method (AC charger or USB), and because it's got no power, I can't boot it at all. Tried it without SD card earlier, and it didn't make any difference. Even with someone else's battery in earlier, it wouldn't boot up or charge even, so I'm at a complete loss. Always thought I'd need to try MTTY sometime soon - just didn't know my device might die on me before then (and its only 5 weeks old). Any other thoughts?

Hmmm, tough one this.

I know that some of the newer roms are particular about which radio you have installed else you get a problem not dissimilar to yours, ie the device won't get past the boot screen. Yours being completely dead is a new one on me.

Do you remember what radio and what rom were on the device just before this happened?

WB

sb09 · Feb 24, 2010

wacky.banana said:
Hmmm, tough one this.

I know that some of the newer roms are particular about which radio you have installed else you get a problem not dissimilar to yours, ie the device won't get past the boot screen. Yours being completely dead is a new one on me.

Do you remember what radio and what rom were on the device just before this happened?

WB

Yeah, was on 2.08.50.05 until 2 days ago, flashed 2.08.50.08 to give it a try but noticed it was draining battery fast and getting v hot at the back, so reverted yesterday to .05 (but maybe too late, maybe damage was already done, because total discharge happened shortly after that yesterday).

sb09 · Feb 24, 2010

Hey guys (WB and any others with any possible solutions), I need to hit the pillow (11.45 pm my time now and I need to be up 5.45 am), but please keep posting any ideas that you want that you might have, and I'll give them at go first thing at 5.46 am. Thanks very much in anticipation!

wacky.banana · Feb 25, 2010

I think Kholk of the Eugenia project has done a lot of work with radio roms. PM him (nicely) and see if he can help.

WB

sb09 · Feb 25, 2010

wacky.banana said:
I think Kholk of the Eugenia project has done a lot of work with radio roms. PM him (nicely) and see if he can help.

WB

Thanks for suggestion WB. I'll pm Kholk in a moment - whilst it could indeed be the radio rom that caused the overheating and/or discharge, it seems that whatever caused it was catastrophic because I still can't get any charge into it, and hence I can't boot it up!

I hope sincerely other HD2 owners do not suffer this same problem at any time - it's proving a nightmare to fix.

My advice to all would be ignore those who promote the idea of allowing your battery to fully discharge - especially if it follows an over-heating handset - you may never recover from it (like me at the moment)!

If anyone's got any other suggestions for getting my handset powered/booted up - I'd be delighted to hear them. Really don't want to return to HTC with a custom rom on it!

kholk · Feb 25, 2010

The Radio ROM contains software parts that are critical to your device (at least for HTC devices) as it contains the OEMSBL (the radio bootloader) that boots ... ALL!
So, if you flash a wrong Radio ROM (as for example flashing a Diamond radio on Leo, or every radio that is not compatible with Leo: remember that for Diamond/Blackstone/X1/Raphael the radios were compatible) you'll get a totally bricked and unrecoverable (if not using JTAG!) device.

BUT.

You've flashed a Radio ROM and your device booted successfully, so, no errors during the flash process.
Assured that this Radio ROM is compatible with every HTC HD2 (TMOUS and EU), this Radio can't have produced an hardware fault on your Leo: it's almost certain that it is a coincidence that your Leo died with this Radio!

Anyway:
1. Be sure that your battery contacts are sane: check that they coincides with battery contacts: if you swap fast a battery you can do a wrong gesture with your hands and fold youre device's battery contacts.
2. Check the battery LED near the speaker: does it power on? (orange/green)

If the battery contacts are sane and the battery LED doesn't power on, maybe your battery is fault OR it is really completely discharged: on my old NEC e606 if the battery was completely discharged (0A, 0V) I had to charge it "manually".

However, if these two steps aren't helping, try this:
1. Take an AC adapter of maximum 5 Volts, or an USB cable
2. Cut off the end of the AC adapter (or the other end of an USB cable) and connect positive on battery positive and negative(GND) on battery negative.
3. Make sure that the cables are correctly connected and that your power source (AC Adapter / USB Cable) is connected and/or powered on.
4. Mantain this position for 5 minutes: your battery will take some power (yes, it is a really raw charging process)
5. Don't wait more than 5 minutes: it is a raw charging process and it will never stop! (well, not never, but if you wait for too much time, you'll **** your battery!)
6. Battery slightly charged: disconnect it from your power source, take it into your HTC HD2 and connect its battery charger.

If it works, well, you're saved, but I think that there is a fault with your HD2 because for a complete discharge of your battery you have to wait for weeks....or months! Or even years!

If that doesn't work, try with another spare battery that is known to work.
If your HTC HD2 doesn't work even with another battery, RMA it, HTC won't see that you've flashed an HardSPL, a new Radio and a custom ROM because they'll simply replace your mainboard.

Let me know how it goes!
Hope that this helped.

The Eugenia Project Developer
-kholk

jonbaker76 · Feb 25, 2010

If you are anything like me you wouldn't have slept well last night

best of luck mate

sb09 · Feb 25, 2010

kholk said:
The Radio ROM contains software parts that are critical to your device (at least for HTC devices) as it contains the OEMSBL (the radio bootloader) that boots ... ALL!
So, if you flash a wrong Radio ROM (as for example flashing a Diamond radio on Leo, or every radio that is not compatible with Leo: remember that for Diamond/Blackstone/X1/Raphael the radios were compatible) you'll get a totally bricked and unrecoverable (if not using JTAG!) device.

BUT.

You've flashed a Radio ROM and your device booted successfully, so, no errors during the flash process.
Assured that this Radio ROM is compatible with every HTC HD2 (TMOUS and EU), this Radio can't have produced an hardware fault on your Leo: it's almost certain that it is a coincidence that your Leo died with this Radio!

Anyway:
1. Be sure that your battery contacts are sane: check that they coincides with battery contacts: if you swap fast a battery you can do a wrong gesture with your hands and fold youre device's battery contacts.
2. Check the battery LED near the speaker: does it power on? (orange/green)

If the battery contacts are sane and the battery LED doesn't power on, maybe your battery is fault OR it is really completely discharged: on my old NEC e606 if the battery was completely discharged (0A, 0V) I had to charge it "manually".

However, if these two steps aren't helping, try this:
1. Take an AC adapter of maximum 5 Volts, or an USB cable
2. Cut off the end of the AC adapter (or the other end of an USB cable) and connect positive on battery positive and negative(GND) on battery negative.
3. Make sure that the cables are correctly connected and that your power source (AC Adapter / USB Cable) is connected and/or powered on.
4. Mantain this position for 5 minutes: your battery will take some power (yes, it is a really raw charging process)
5. Don't wait more than 5 minutes: it is a raw charging process and it will never stop! (well, not never, but if you wait for too much time, you'll **** your battery!)
6. Battery slightly charged: disconnect it from your power source, take it into your HTC HD2 and connect its battery charger.

If it works, well, you're saved, but I think that there is a fault with your HD2 because for a complete discharge of your battery you have to wait for weeks....or months! Or even years!

If that doesn't work, try with another spare battery that is known to work.
If your HTC HD2 doesn't work even with another battery, RMA it, HTC won't see that you've flashed an HardSPL, a new Radio and a custom ROM because they'll simply replace your mainboard.

Let me know how it goes!
Hope that this helped.

The Eugenia Project Developer
-kholk

Hey kholk, huge respect for taking the time to consider this serious problem of mine! Thank you for the different options - I'll work my way through them and see if any can bring my HD2 back to life.

I can confirm that I've successfully flashed roms and radios (via SD) and never had any problems, and I think you're right - it wasn't the switching between 2.08.50.05 to .08 and back to .05 - it was probably just a coincidence that the unit got seriously hot and discharged at the same time as I used .08 (hence the reason I had just re-flashed .05 when it happened).

Battery contacts are good - checked them carefully yesterday.

I'm convinced the battery is as dead/discharged as it could be; since yesterday morning I've not even had a glimpse of an orange LED when connected to AC or USB charger (though the unit continues to get warm at the back, but doesn't get hot any more). I'll try your ideas for getting some life into it, and I've got a replacement battery on order, but as I found out with a friend's spare battery, it still won't boot up or allow itself to be charged.

I think therefore that it will ultimately need to go back, but I'm grateful for your assurance that HTC are unlikely to know that I've got HSPL/Custom Rom and Radio on there! Many thanks again for now (its so re-assuring to know that if you come across occasional difficulties, there's some good guys on these forums who will try to help bail you out)!

sb09 · Feb 25, 2010

jonbaker76 said:
If you are anything like me you wouldn't have slept well last night

best of luck mate

That's 2 bad nights sleep now, as this happened day before yesterday

. Thanks - fingers crossed eh, both for getting mine fixed, and for hoping this is not going to become a common problem for other HD2 owners!

kholk · Feb 25, 2010

Well, if the device won't power up even with a known good battery, then HTC isn't able to power it on magically. Your hardware got a fault and the only fix for this is replacing the faulty part.
And no, HTC won't desolder and resolder a chip on your mainboard: they'll replace it completely!

I'm sorry for your dead HTC HD2 and I know how you're feeling... I've experienced the same.

The Eugenia Project Developer
-kholk

sb09 · Feb 25, 2010

kholk said:
Well, if the device won't power up even with a known good battery, then HTC isn't able to power it on magically. Your hardware got a fault and the only fix for this is replacing the faulty part.
And no, HTC won't desolder and resolder a chip on your mainboard: they'll replace it completely!

I'm sorry for your dead HTC HD2 and I know how you're feeling... I've experienced the same.

The Eugenia Project Developer
-kholk

Thanks again kholk. Reading what you've written confirms for me that there's not likely to be an easy fix for this and so I should give up on that idea now and just get it returned sooner rather than later for a warranty repair. If anything develops from this I'll be sure to post an update for the benefit of anyone else who might experience the same difficulty. Much appreciated again for now!

rp-x1 · Feb 25, 2010

sb09 said:
Thanks for input WB - I note you've helped many others out on other threads with related problems.

Can't power up the phone by any method (AC charger or USB), and because it's got no power, I can't boot it at all. Tried it without SD card earlier, and it didn't make any difference. Even with someone else's battery in earlier, it wouldn't boot up or charge even, so I'm at a complete loss. Always thought I'd need to try MTTY sometime soon - just didn't know my device might die on me before then (and its only 5 weeks old). Any other thoughts?

I had very similar issue on my X1 when I left it plugged into my car by accident, it totally drained the battery and wouldn't do anything other than blip a red light.

I swapped to my spare battery and the phone booted once, said low battery (was fully charged the day before) then did the same red light.

After much fiddling, it turned out that I had to leave it on charge for around 12 hours for the battery to kick back into life and boot the phone. Then it took a further few hours to charge it again!

webpatrick · Feb 25, 2010

Older devices could only be chared with a HTC stock charger (when having a dead battery), cause they delivered a little more power then custom AC chargers (like the one for your BT headset).

Dead HD2 - Can't power/boot up

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