[Q] Suddenly locked with "Load Kernel (boot) failed" message

[NewVerizon]

Hi,

My phone suddenly locked up on me and stuck with following message:

AP Fastboot Flash Mode (S)
10.9B(*) (sha-61146a2, 2014-07-29 03:17:13)
eMMC Info: Size 32GB
Device is Locked, Status Code: 0
Battery OK
Connect USB
Data Cable
Load Kernel (boot) failed
Fastboot Reason: Boot Failure

I never rooted or flashed the phone or changed anything beyond stock version or OTA provided by Verizon. Tried the different options to reboot, or do factory reset, but keeps coming back to same screen. When trying Recovery option, I get the android picture with the triangle, but then pressing Volume Up and Down buttons at the same time does not do anything.

I am mainly interested in knowing if there is any way/hope to recover any of the pictures/videos that I have stored on the phone. As a secondary item, I am looking for any way to recover/restore the phone to operational condition. While searching for this online, I came across this forum. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Guapo613]

Did you happen to set the storage location for your camera to "SD Card"?, because if you did, then just remove the SD Card and use a SD card reader to copy your pics to your PC.

As far as the phone goes, all I can suggest is to use RSDLite to flash the stock firmware while in AP Fastboot mode. Here is a link to RSDLite: http://rsdlite.com/rsd-lite-download/.

Here is a link to the XT926 (Droid RAZR HD) 183.46.15 firmware :http://www.mediafire.com/download/qwgk70yqf38ss86/VZW_XT926_4.4.2-KDA20.62-15.1_1FF.xml.zip. This will not wipe your phone, (At least it has not wiped my data as I have used it multiple times).

Before you use RSDLite, make sure you have all the drivers for your phone on your PC and while your phone is in AP Fastboot mode, plug it into your PC and let it load the driver. Let us know if you need any further help

 

[NewVerizon]

Did you happen to set the storage location for your camera to "SD Card"?, because if you did, then just remove the SD Card and use a SD card reader to copy your pics to your PC.

As far as the phone goes, all I can suggest is to use RSDLite to flash the stock firmware while in AP Fastboot mode. Here is a link to RSDLite:
Here is a link to the XT926 (Droid RAZR HD) 183.46.15 firmware :

This will not wipe your phone, (At least it has not wiped my data as I have used it multiple times).

Before you use RSDLite, make sure you have all the drivers for your phone on your PC and while your phone is in AP Fastboot mode, plug it into your PC and let it load the driver. Let us know if you need any further help

Guapo613,

Thank you very much for the quick reply. As far as memory card, unfortunately it was already full a long time ago, so practically all the pictures and videos I am talking about are on the internal storage of the phone (not the external card).

As far as restoring using RSDLite, are you indicating that this would maintain my data (pictures and videos) and only affect the boot partition? It seems all other methods I came across by searching were indicating that those methods would wipe out my data. It's great if this will help me restore the phone and not affect the data.

Note, the data on the phone is automatically encrypted, so hopefully this method will still maintain the information and allow me to use the same password for access afterwards?

As far as the firmware you pointed me to, is it the same for my phone? i.e., no difference between the Droid Razr HD and the Droid Razr Maxx HD?

Regarding your guidance to ensure all the drivers for my phone are on my PC, can you clarify how I can make sure of that? When I plug in my phone in the current state, it does not seems to be recognized by the PC and nothing is getting downloaded in the form of drivers.

Thanks!

 

[billycar11]

Guapo613,

Thank you very much for the quick reply. As far as memory card, unfortunately it was already full a long time ago, so practically all the pictures and videos I am talking about are on the internal storage of the phone (not the external card).

As far as restoring using RSDLite, are you indicating that this would maintain my data (pictures and videos) and only affect the boot partition? It seems all other methods I came across by searching were indicating that those methods would wipe out my data. It's great if this will help me restore the phone and not affect the data.

Note, the data on the phone is automatically encrypted, so hopefully this method will still maintain the information and allow me to use the same password for access afterwards?

As far as the firmware you pointed me to, is it the same for my phone? i.e., no difference between the Droid Razr HD and the Droid Razr Maxx HD?

Regarding your guidance to ensure all the drivers for my phone are on my PC, can you clarify how I can make sure of that? When I plug in my phone in the current state, it does not seems to be recognized by the PC and nothing is getting downloaded in the form of drivers.

Thanks!

rsd by default will wipe your data but for you that no longer matters because you said you factory reset and that erases data i recommend following this guide from @SamuriHL http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-razr-hd/general/fxz-4-4-2-183-46-15-t2873083
for your questions the razr maxx hd and razr hd are the same just different batterys and storage sizes
get Motorola drivers from here https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/88481

 

[Guapo613]

The XML in the download I provided supposedly has been modified NOT to wipe data and in the times I have used it, it has not. I cant guarantee it will save your data but it has worked for me on both my RAZR HD and my RAZR HD MAXX.

 

[NewVerizon]

rsd by default will wipe your data but for you that no longer matters because you said you factory reset and that erases data i recommend following this guide from @SamuriHL http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-razr-hd/general/fxz-4-4-2-183-46-15-t2873083
for your questions the razr maxx hd and razr hd are the same just different batterys and storage sizes
get Motorola drivers from here https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/88481

Sorry if I wasn't very clear enough on the factory reset. I mentioned that I tried that option after the Recovery option didn't work, and I know that would typically wipe off the data. However, when I chose it, it very quickly came back to the same boot fail screen, so I don't believe it actually did anything (including deleting any data). Given this information, and if assumption is that data was not wiped off and factory reset did not actually take place, is RSD still the best option, and will it still wipe off all my data? Is there any option I can try that may keep my data while just restoring the boot partition or clearing other areas such as cache (but not touching non-volatile data storage)?

 

[billycar11]

The XML in the download I provided supposedly has been modified NOT to wipe data and in the times I have used it, it has not. I cant guarantee it will save your data but it has worked for me on both my RAZR HD and my RAZR HD MAXX.

still does not matter anymore op says he factory reset phone already that wiped data he seems new so i linked to @SamuriHL 's guide so he knows how to do it he can still use your images if he wants

---------- Post added at 02:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:24 AM ----------

Sorry if I wasn't very clear enough on the factory reset. I mentioned that I tried that option after the Recovery option didn't work, and I know that would typically wipe off the data. However, when I chose it, it very quickly came back to the same boot fail screen, so I don't believe it actually did anything (including deleting any data). Given this information, and if assumption is that data was not wiped off and factory reset did not actually take place, is RSD still the best option, and will it still wipe off all my data? Is there any option I can try that may keep my data while just restoring the boot partition or clearing other areas such as cache (but not touching non-volatile data storage)?

so then yes try rsd with keeping data use whatever method of keeping data you wish use @SamuriHL method or the predone way from @Guapo613

 

[NewVerizon]

still does not matter anymore op says he factory reset phone already that wiped data he seems new so i linked to @SamuriHL 's guide so he knows how to do it he can still use your images if he wants

---------- Post added at 02:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:24 AM ----------



so then yes try rsd with keeping data use whatever method of keeping data you wish use @SamuriHL method or the predone way from @Guapo613

Great, thanks! You are right, I am new and not familiar with any of this so details are very helpful. I appreciate the help and patience that Guapo613 and you are providing. Hopefully I'll be able to get this restored, especially the data (mostly pictures/videos of first baby).

 

[Guapo613]

Verizon is your carrier?, did you use Verizon Cloud or Google Drive to back up your phone??, because if you did, then your pics are stored in either or both clouds.

 

[NewVerizon]

Verizon is your carrier?, did you use Verizon Cloud or Google Drive to back up your phone??, because if you did, then your pics are stored in either or both clouds.

Verizon is my carrier, but unfortunately I do not have most of the pictures/videos on Verizon Cloud or Google Drive. I copied a handful of them to Google Drive when I wanted to share them, but majority of them (95%) are unfortunately not backed up...

BTW, I have one more question. When I looked at the other link that was posted by SamuriHL, it had a warning "IF YOU HAVE NOT UNLOCKED, THIS BUILD WILL PERMANENTLY PREVENT YOU FROM DOING SO. STOP NOW and GO UNLOCK!". Does the same thing hold for the XML you suggested? Should I be doing something else to unlock first, or should I just proceed with rsdlite and your XML?

 

[billycar11]

Verizon is my carrier, but unfortunately I do not have most of the pictures/videos on Verizon Cloud or Google Drive. I copied a handful of them to Google Drive when I wanted to share them, but majority of them (95%) are unfortunately not backed up...

BTW, I have one more question. When I looked at the other link that was posted by SamuriHL, it had a warning "IF YOU HAVE NOT UNLOCKED, THIS BUILD WILL PERMANENTLY PREVENT YOU FROM DOING SO. STOP NOW and GO UNLOCK!". Does the same thing hold for the XML you suggested? Should I be doing something else to unlock first, or should I just proceed with rsdlite and your XML?

i believe you were already on the latest ota/update so you cant unlock that is only for custom roms and rooting and it seems like thats not something you want to do anyway,
just be sure to check the xml file and make sure "erase userdata" is gone from the xml that way you have the best chance of recovering your data

 

[Guapo613]

Verizon is my carrier, but unfortunately I do not have most of the pictures/videos on Verizon Cloud or Google Drive. I copied a handful of them to Google Drive when I wanted to share them, but majority of them (95%) are unfortunately not backed up...

BTW, I have one more question. When I looked at the other link that was posted by SamuriHL, it had a warning "IF YOU HAVE NOT UNLOCKED, THIS BUILD WILL PERMANENTLY PREVENT YOU FROM DOING SO. STOP NOW and GO UNLOCK!". Does the same thing hold for the XML you suggested? Should I be doing something else to unlock first, or should I just proceed with rsdlite and your XML?

I'm going to assume that your XT926 was updated to the latest firmware available for your phone (183.46.15). If that was the case, then dont worry about un-locking the bootloader as this option is not currently supported by your updated phone.

Once you get this thing working again, you can root your phone, read this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-razr-hd/general/root-droid-razr-hd-xt926-183-46-15-t3062040

 

[NewVerizon]

i believe you were already on the latest ota/update so you cant unlock that is only for custom roms and rooting and it seems like thats not something you want to do anyway,
just be sure to check the xml file and make sure "erase userdata" is gone from the xml that way you have the best chance of recovering your data

Sounds good. I downloaded and unzipped the RSD Lite (from SamuriHL link, since the original link seems to fail to download 6.1.6 and only works for older versions such as 6.1.5). Currently, I am in the process of downloading the XML (1/3 done, it's pretty big at 753MB). When it's done, am I supposed to unzip it, and then look inside for the modification? How can I tell if "erase userdata" is gone from the xml? I assume RSD Lite is going to expect the XML as an input, or can it take the zip file?

BTW, when I plugged the phone to the data cable, it looks like the battery was run down. It took a little while, but then it came back up to the boot fail screen but indicates Battery Low. Do I need to charge the phone and wait till Battery OK before starting the process?

 

[NewVerizon]

I'm going to assume that your XT926 was updated to the latest firmware available for your phone (183.46.15). If that was the case, then dont worry about un-locking the bootloader as this option is not currently supported by your updated phone.

Once you get this thing working again, you can root your phone, read this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-razr-hd/general/root-droid-razr-hd-xt926-183-46-15-t3062040

Sounds good, thanks for the additional clarifications!

 

[billycar11]

Sounds good. I downloaded and unzipped the RSD Lite (from SamuriHL link, since the original link seems to fail to download 6.1.6 and only works for older versions such as 6.1.5). Currently, I am in the process of downloading the XML (1/3 done, it's pretty big at 753MB). When it's done, am I supposed to unzip it, and then look inside for the modification? How can I tell if "erase userdata" is gone from the xml? I assume RSD Lite is going to expect the XML as an input, or can it take the zip file?

BTW, when I plugged the phone to the data cable, it looks like the battery was run down. It took a little while, but then it came back up to the boot fail screen but indicates Battery Low. Do I need to charge the phone and wait till Battery OK before starting the process?

yes you will unzip the file then find and open the xml file and delete the whole line that contains "erase userdata" also erase any lines that contain TZ and yes the xml is the input for rsd,
im not 100% sure if the battery will charge with no boot.img i don't think it will and in order to flash you need that low battery warning to be gone so check if it will charge and if not you will need to make or buy a Motorola factory cable.

 

[Guapo613]

Sounds good. I downloaded and unzipped the RSD Lite (from SamuriHL link, since the original link seems to fail to download 6.1.6 and only works for older versions such as 6.1.5). Currently, I am in the process of downloading the XML (1/3 done, it's pretty big at 753MB). When it's done, am I supposed to unzip it, and then look inside for the modification? How can I tell if "erase userdata" is gone from the xml? I assume RSD Lite is going to expect the XML as an input, or can it take the zip file?

BTW, when I plugged the phone to the data cable, it looks like the battery was run down. It took a little while, but then it came back up to the boot fail screen but indicates Battery Low. Do I need to charge the phone and wait till Battery OK before starting the process?

Charge the battery to at least 70% before starting the process.

What I like to do is create a folder on your desktop and name it "RAZR HD" (or RAZR MAXX HD) and place the .zip file I provided in that folder, now just un-zip it inside that folder and when you open RSDLite, just navigate to the folder you created on your desktop and click on the XML document and click on "Start" and RSDlite will take care of the rest

 

[NewVerizon]

Charge the battery to at least 70% before starting the process.

What I like to do is create a folder on your desktop and name it "RAZR HD" (or RAZR MAXX HD) and place the .zip file I provided in that folder, now just un-zip it inside that folder and when you open RSDLite, just navigate to the folder you created on your desktop and click on the XML document and click on "Start" and RSDlite will take care of the rest

Hi Guapo613,

Sorry for the delayed response. I was away at a conference out of town, and just got back home where I have access to a Motorola charger. It is the travel one, so unclear if it is charging or not. The phone seems to be in a state in which it indicates Battery Low, and then after plugging back with power and back directly to the computer, it indicates Battery OK (switches back and forth during subsequent reconnect).

I got it to Battery OK indication, then extracted the files from the zip as you suggested and started RSDLite with the XML. However, it failed almost immediately. It shows the following output on the first two lines (all subsequent lines are blank other than Port No):

Model Port No. Port Type IMEI/ESN/MEID Status Result
1 USB The phone failed to switch to fastboot mode. FAIL
Fastboot VANQUISH S 2 USB N/A Failed flashing process. 1/17 flash partition "gpt.bin" -> Phone returned FAIL. FAIL

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[NewVerizon]

yes you will unzip the file then find and open the xml file and delete the whole line that contains "erase userdata" also erase any lines that contain TZ and yes the xml is the input for rsd,
im not 100% sure if the battery will charge with no boot.img i don't think it will and in order to flash you need that low battery warning to be gone so check if it will charge and if not you will need to make or buy a Motorola factory cable.

Hi billycar11,

As I mentioned in the post I just wrote to Guapo613, I tried using the xml he provided with RSDLite, but it did not work. Also, when looking at the XML, I did not see any line containing "erase userdata", so I guess that's a good thing (i.e. it was already done in that XML). I did not see any lines containing TZ, but I don't believe I saw any lines indicating that the XML is the input for rsd or where I would change anything to yes. My assumption was that the file is already good as-is since Guapo613 indicated he used it multple times before, so hopefully the changes you noted are not needed.

However, that process did not work, so I am not sure if it means the phone is in a worse state than thought, or maybe it has something to do with the battery and needing the stock (non-travel) charger. Maybe the phone will just not charge without boot.img, but as I noted in the other post, I did manage to get the Battery indication to OK rather than Low (regardless whether there is actually any charge in it or not).

One other note, before it allowed me to at least get to the menu in which I could navigate between options such as Recovery or Factory Reset (even though none of them actually accomplished anything), but now it seems even that is not possible (it doesn't get there when I press Volume Up, Down, and Power).
----> I take this last statement back. After disconnecting and then trying again, it looks like it is still possible to reach that first menu. However, end result is still the same, with Recovery no being able to get past the icon of Android on its back with triangle, and subsequent reboot (requiring down volume and power) getting back to the screen indicating boot fail.

Do you have any ideas on what I should try next?

Thanks!

 

[Guapo613]

Are you able to boot into AP Fastboot??

 

[NewVerizon]

Are you able to boot into AP Fastboot??

Can you clarify what you mean by this?

The screen I keep getting back to indicates at the top "AP Fastboot Flash Mode (S)".

Is there anything specific you would like me to try to get into AP Fastboot?