Mi A1 dead, LED blinks on charger, how to revive?

[fusionfan]

Hi! Similar problems have been posted on the forum before, but none of the solutions worked for me.
Stock Mi A1 with vanilla Oreo (latest official patch), everything stock & vanilla, no hacking, no rooting, no modifications etc whatsoever. All apps installed through google store, nothing fancy.

In short: put my phone into airplane mode about a week ago (battery at 90%), then a few hours into the flight the phone blacked out. Won't react to power button, power+volume up, power+volume down, all buttons, no buttons, any combination of buttons for any length of time. Phone was in my pocket, no physical impact or anything, just "died".

There are 2 signs of life:
- If i plug it to charge the notification LED blinks about 1 / sec
- If I connect it to a computer, it recognizes it as Qualcomm 9008 blabla device.

What I have tried so far and didn't work:
- All imaginable button combinations: no reaction
- Fully charging phone: doesn't help
- Letting battery deplete: doesn't help
- Disassembled the phone, disconnected the battery, put it in charger, reconnected the battery: this fixed the issue for some, didn't work for me.

I GUESS that since the computer recognizes it I could try to "flash" it or whatever, although 1) there are a lot of negative posts about it 2) I have no idea how to do it (which exact ROM, using which exact tool, etc).
I wouldn't mind not losing the data on the phone though, if that is an option: I was about to back up my photos on the flight, but it died before I could have done it.

There is no official Xiaomi support / service where I live, bought the phone while visiting a country which sold it.
Any suggestions?

 

[fusionfan]

Small update.
- adb doesn't see the device.
- Miflash sees the device, but dies at "ping via firehose" stage.
-A1 low level backup tool doesn't see the device.

After 2 weeks of googling I have found around 50 forum threads around The Internet with similar issues, but no solution as of yet. Sounds promising!

 

[KeiFTW]

I had this problem 2 hours ago and fixed with the Disconnect battery, connect charger, reconnect battery (while charger is still connected just to clarify). you tried this fix like this? reconnecting battery while charger is still connected?

 

[Jt380p]

Maybe try getting a different battery and connect it, and/or maybe let the battery discharge itself.

 

[fusionfan]

I had this problem 2 hours ago and fixed with the Disconnect battery, connect charger, reconnect battery (while charger is still connected just to clarify). you tried this fix like this? reconnecting battery while charger is still connected?

Thanks for the replies fellas. I have tried this before. Now I have tried this again just to be sure. Did it multiple times. Disconnect battery, connect charger, reconnect battery. It doesn't alter the phone's state in any way. Doesn't react to buttons, flashes led on charger, shows up as qualcomm 9008 device on PC, but doesn't let me flash anything. Sad.

 

[MoHuToP]

Qualcomm 9008 is sigh of faulty emmc chip. Bad soldering i guess. Take the device to the service center. My 1 cent op. Regards

 

[lucascanero]

Its very simple the solution. The problem is the cable. Try to change the cable, charging the phone and turn it on. I my case works

 

[kissamopo]

Sad.

Have you had any progress? I'm having similar issues with my mi mix 2s.

 

[mrchrister]

The answer is to replace the battery. I have two dead batteries for my Mi A1. Both batteries were left in the drawer for several months and upon connecting them to my Mi A1 they showed the dreaded blinking light. After trying to fix this for a day I gave up. I disconnected the battery, the phone booted up right away. Bought a new battery and everything is working again. Hope this helps!

 

[KronozFX]

I too had numerous kind of hard bricks with my previous smartphones.
Here are the links that will save your life:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

Try the ones that you think fit the most.

 

[Adroidnoob1212]

I had the same issue just today
removed the battery connector and connected it back without touch any other component

phones working fine now

 

[ranjodhricky]

its bricked and get into edl mode just try to flash with MiFlash tool i have faced this problem some time ago when i flashed an ota with twrp recovery then my phone went dead and when i connect it to pc led blinks and phone recognise in ports as "diagnostic port 9008d" something like that then i install the drivers and flash stock pie rom with MiFlash tool but after successful flashing phone wont boot but after pressing power button for 10 to 15 second phone starts. i have unlocked bootloader so it works for me but i'm not sure it works on locked device try it or use QFIL flash tool from QPST

 

[Takeshiro04]

This happened to me but all i did was charge the phone the whole time.

 

[yacsap]

My Xiaomi A1 had the same issue, I think I have tried all available solution but unfortunately mine still dead, and when I connect the charger it blink.
I guess the ultimate solution is to throw it to a recycle bin.