So I bricked my GNEX...Then brought it back to life!

[rekrapg]

So, this morning at 5am (yes, stupid time to be playing) I flashed a zip. I have stored on my phone zips for both this and my tablet, and guess what genius did? flashed the wrong friggin one! Very surprised it went through without fault, but hey, **** happens.

So, basically what happened, is my phone became a brick. Black screen, could not boot it up, couldn't et to bootloader or download mode or recovery, tried several things like pulling battery for 30 secs then putting back in, plugging into PC without battery and putting battery in, leaving without battery or SIM for 30 minutes and putting back in, NA friggin DA. Still a brick. Not even the vibration when it first kicks in. Nothing

Starting to think time to call tech support, but as I was trying to plug into PC, I noticed something trying to install, then disappearing real fast. That was my first clue. I opened device manager, plugged phone in, and watched what was happening. A device called OMAP4460 was trying to install for half a second before disappearing, failing, but still, it was something. Even though screen was still blank, and not even bootloader would come up, this was happening. So I googled.

I found this site/thread: http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f63...-i9100g-via-usb-cable-freeeeeeeeeeee-1465412/. Legija, is a friggin genius Downloaded and unzipped the package, ran the bat, and plugged in the phone. But alas, still no joy

Reread his post - install drivers first...So, putting on my tech hat, how to install drivers if device is not listed, I went into the Actions menu in Task Manager (Win 7), and selected to add legacy hardware. I then chose to install manually, then selected have disk, and browsed to the drivers in the zip package from Legija (all this without device plugged in BTW). I installed the OMAP flash driver successfully, and now showing in task manager with the nice yellow triangle/exclamation mark.

Ran the bat file again, plugged phone in **WITHOUT** battery in phone, and off it went scrolling through it's processes, ninja'n away my f'up. When it completed, put battery back in, held down power, and up she came! Woot! Got back into OS no issues, and I'm one very happy camper.

So I thought i'd share, not thinking anyone else may do the same bloody stupid thing, but maybe a variance, or just have the same symptom (black screen, attempt to install OMAP when plugged into USB), this may just help you! AS for me...deleted all files not for GNEX, i'll continue to stuff around before work, so this is safe

EDIT:

1. Download the zip file from http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f63...-i9100g-via-usb-cable-freeeeeeeeeeee-1465412/, created by Legija
2. Extract zip to whatever location you're comfortable with (I used Android directory)
3. Open up Device Manager (Hold down Windows Key, press R, the type in devmgmt.msc and press OK)
4. Go to actions menu, select Add Legacy Hardware
5. Choose install manually, then have disk. Browse to where you extracted the zip, select the 'inf' file in usb_drv_windows
6. Choose OMAP, you'll get a popup if on Win 7, continue anyway (driver not signed)
7. Once completed with driver, pull battery out of phone, then plug it into USB
8. Double click omap4460_tuna_hs_pro.bat to start the process. Once you see "Press any key to continue..." close the CMD window and proceed to step 9
9. Unplug from USB, put battery back in, and power-up!
10. Extra step - depending on what's been done, it may 'brick' again - suggest to do a restore or a wipe reinstall afterwards to be certain (mine bricked again next reboot)

 

[resynx]

Thanks for sharing this find, I'm sure others will find this to be useful

 

[rekrapg]

No problem, true believer in sharing my stupid mistakes so other may not follow, or if they do, know how to fix

Oh, in my write up - one change now edited - run the bat with the phone connected to USB **WITHOUT** battery in, once it's finished insert and boot up

 

[Djabolic]

Next time I'll be more safe while flashing roms to my phone.

Great find.

 

[molesarecoming]

wow, this is possible? i thought cwm will prevent you from flashing wrong zips and even if not, why would it kill the bootloader? i was under the impression gnex is close to unbrickable but this topic you linked opened a whole can of worms for me, whats with all these hundreds of people who hard(!)bricked their nexus ... did i miss something?

 

[rekrapg]

This was a custom zip I had created myself to do some things on my tab, it ran from install script an install.sh that then went and installed a recovery img. Pretty sure i've never seen this before from any install zip, it was the behaviour I put in mine that allowed it to go through, and I hadn't put into the script to stop if not correct device - lesson learned

BUT - that said, you can do things like this to your phone running scripts, very easy to actually if it's running from su... So never run scripts unless you trust he person whose created it (or have written it yourself and certain of it), know it's definitely for your device, and, most importantly - never miss this step - have had 3 cups of coffee first :good:

 

[Theshawty]

Nice find OP, but honestly, how people manage to hard brick a Galaxy Nexus is beyond me.

Though, I am glad you learned from this and actually USED Google to search beforehand. ^^

 

[rekrapg]

Nice find OP, but honestly, how people manage to hard brick a Galaxy Nexus is beyond me.

Though, I am glad you learned from this and actually USED Google to search beforehand. ^^

LOL - easy thing to do if you're screwing with stuff before you're awake, especially scripts. Anything running under superuser can do this effectively, especially scripts working in /dev/block/... All it takes is one FAIL and you're bricked - the question then becomes is it permanent or not! And I always google before I ask questions, otherwise i'd lose my right to abuse others who don't!!! :angel:

 

[efrant]

LOL - easy thing to do if you're screwing with stuff before you're awake, especially scripts. Anything running under superuser can do this effectively, especially scripts working in /dev/block/... All it takes is one FAIL and you're bricked - the question then becomes is it permanent or not! And I always google before I ask questions, otherwise i'd lose my right to abuse others who don't!!! :angel:

If it's not permanent, it's not, and never was, a brick.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[rekrapg]

If it's not permanent, it's not, and never was, a brick.

True - but in how many cases would the above be considered a brick?

If I wasn't such a stubborn son of a *****, I would have just called it a brick after the standard revive tricks failed

 

[sarni84]

Nice find OP, but honestly, how people manage to hard brick a Galaxy Nexus is beyond me.

Though, I am glad you learned from this and actually USED Google to search beforehand. ^^

Well it happens my dude.....at least he took the time out to give a guide and explained how he fixed it just in case someone else does something similar

---------- Post added at 08:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 AM ----------

If it's not permanent, it's not, and never was, a brick.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

True....but most people would not know what to do in this situation and call it a day....at least he searched Google and fixed his problem. Wish more people were like him ya know

---------- Post added at 09:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 AM ----------

True - but in how many cases would the above be considered a brick?

If I wasn't such a stubborn son of a *****, I would have just called it a brick after the standard revive tricks failed

Exactly I said most people would have called it a day.....ZOMGZ MA FONEZ NO LITE UPZ IT HARDSOFT BRICKED!! .....lol all joking aside man your like me I wouldn't have stopped until I was absolutely sure I needed them JTAG boys
Persistence pays off...remember that

 

[rekrapg]

Yup. In most cases, there's a way around a problem, you just have to dig until you find it

 

[ntorresla]

Congratulations

Saludos desde Ecuador

 

[jvw]

Though I don't want to have chance to perform your provided method, it's really good to know, in case....

Congratulation and thanks!

 

[Chad_Petree]

5. Choose install manually, then have disk. Browse to where you extracted the zip, select the 'inf' file in usb_drv_windows
6. Choose OMAP, you'll get a popup if on Win 7, continue anyway (driver not signed)
7. Once completed with driver, pull battery out of phone, then plug it into USB
8. Double click omap4460_tuna_hs_pro.bat to start the process
9. Once completed, unplug from USB, put battery back in, and power-up!
10. Extra step - depending on what's been done, it may 'brick' again - suggest to do a restore or a wipe reinstall afterwards to be certain (mine bricked again next reboot)

In step 6 you say choose omap, but which one? omap flash drive? omap p4460? also i cant install any of those it says it is not signed and it wont install, i tried booting in safe mode and no luck, i tried using the 'bcdedit /set nointegritychecks ON" , rebooted, no luck either

My galaxy nexus is not exactly bricked but i cant get into bootloader, recovery or fastboot , do you think this method could be useful to me?

 

[rekrapg]

In step 6 you say choose omap, but which one? omap flash drive? omap p4460? also i cant install any of those it says it is not signed and it wont install, i tried booting in safe mode and no luck, i tried using the 'bcdedit /set nointegritychecks ON" , rebooted, no luck either

My galaxy nexus is not exactly bricked but i cant get into bootloader, recovery or fastboot , do you think this method could be useful to me?

Choose the one closest to what displays on the device manager. I started with the OMAP Flash Drive one and it worked for me, but you can always choose the 'update driver' option and install another if required. Turn off User Account Control in Control Panel/Users and make sure you're on an admin account, as it may by default block the ability to install unsigned drivers, to be honest not sure on that one as it's always been first port of call for me on Win 7 (and Vista).

I also found this that might help: http://www.techspot.com/community/t...signed-drivers-in-windows-vista-7-x64.127187/

 

[mrschmitz]

Wish I would have found this a week ago! The exact same thing happened to me, except I had been running a working JB ROM for a day or so.

Went jogging, was listening to music, came home, music stopped, screen wouldn't turn on with power button or USB cable with a charger or a computer, but there was a notification LED flashing. No amount of pressing and holding the power button would bring it back to life, so I pulled the battery. After that it was in the exact state your GNEX was in. Not even the vibrate when trying to power it up. After a few hours of charging and trying all sorts of things to breathe life into it (including a battery swap) I ended up returning it to the brick and mortar VZW store and they replaced it because I was under 2 weeks with the phone.

Thanks for posting!

 

[lemonspeakers]

I ran the OMAPFLASH_tuna on my GNex and now, I seem to be stuck at "Sending Data"(SEE last line in the image attached)

The values of 131072 has been like that for over 20 minutes and have not changed. What data is it sending and to who or where?


to those who've used this too, What should happen after this?

thanks...

 

[rekrapg]

I would be lying if I said I knew exactly what this wonderful tool is doing mate With mine, it ran through in like 30 seconds to completion. I ran it 3 times to be sure! I have 2 suggestions,

1. Sign up to those forums and ask the expert
2. If your device is already 'bricked', it may be worth just disconnecting, closing the CMD window, reconnect and re-run it.

I'm no expert on this application though, I simply found it, it worked for me, so I shared. So option 1 may be your best shot. It's quite likely the bloke who created the tool will be able to let you know the proper path to go down.

EDIT: I am at work atm, so I can't 're-run' it on my device to show you the screen - but I recall it comes up with a 'press any key to continue' prompt after completion (pressing any key just re-runs it).

 

[lemonspeakers]

Funny because another person on GSMHosting is experiencing the same problem and says that his just stops downloading... Just like mines and at the same stop too... hummm...