Question Wow.. I actually bricked it?

[zacattackkc]

I am a very experienced ROM enthusiast and owned plenty of Xiaomi/Oneplus devices.. This is my first pixel device. I loved the phone, more than the other mentioned companies. My pixel 7 Pro was my prized possession.. I've came close a couple of times botching a ROM flash, even once with my p7p (installing evo with February firmware instead of Jan, phone would boot to bootloader for a total of 2 seconds before dying again, had to spam flash phone in pixel flasher app until it recognized and luckily it did) but this time, trying to go from latest feb build to jan before flashing evo, my ****ing cable did something in the middle of flashing the second partition (b partition) and was almost to system, the partition it flashes before booting.. it was flashing the product partition.. literally already flashed every other partition except partition and system on the b slot. A slot was fully flashed.. phone literally wont respond to plugging into computer, into charger, holding down every combination of buttons... doesn't matter. I'm stumped how flashing a factory rom could have gone this horribly.. especially so late into the flashing process..

Beware guys; Make sure the cable you're using to flash is stable!

attached in this post is the logs I have pulled from the pixel flasher app.. if someone could bounce some ideas off of me or somehow make this make sense to me, it would be gladly appreciated.

 

[Wi1son]

Holding down the down volume button when starting doesn't enter bootloader? If it does, use Google's online Android Flash tool to go back to stock.

 

[Curiousn00b]

Try a different cable.

Try a different USB port.

Try another computer as well.

If any of these prompt some response, I think there's hope. Also try booting into fastboot from bootloader as well as recovery.

 

[Arealhooman]

Prob hard brick.

 

[xflowy]

im wondering, since i am just flashing the feb factory image on my rooted pixel and read this thread here: if my laptop (from which i operate the flashing procedure) were to malfunction like it did last night (bsod) - would i hard brick my phone, too? isnt that, where the other slot comes into play?

does this mean, every time i flash, my pc/laptop should never run into any issues whilst flashing or otherwise my phone will be effed?

 

[Arealhooman]

im wondering, since i am just flashing the feb factory image on my rooted pixel and read this thread here: if my laptop (from which i operate the flashing procedure) were to malfunction like it did last night (bsod) - would i hard brick my phone, too? isnt that, where the other slot comes into play?

does this mean, every time i flash, my pc/laptop should never run into any issues whilst flashing or otherwise my phone will be effed?

If you device is flashing something like the bootloader, and connection breaks for any reason at all, or the problem closes, etc, it will be a hard brick. You may get lucky, and it may be something unessential.

 

[xflowy]

If you device is flashing something like the bootloader, and connection breaks for any reason at all, or the problem closes, etc, it will be a hard brick. You may get lucky, and it may be something unessential.

uff ok. is there any way to avoid this? i mean, even my desktop pc (which is stable) could suffer from a power shortage in the house for example.

 

[Arealhooman]

uff ok. is there any way to avoid this? i mean, even my desktop pc (which is stable) could suffer from a power shortage in the house for example.

Nope. Get a battery. If a flash fails, 75 percent chance ur ****ed (and yes, I am pulling these statistics out off my ass, but I doubt I’m too much off)

 

[xflowy]

Nope. Get a battery. If a flash fails, 75 percent chance ur ****ed (and yes, I am pulling these statistics out off my ass, but I doubt I’m too much off)

A battery for my desktop PC?

 

[t-ryder]

A battery for my desktop PC?

Google for "uninterruptible power supply" ...

 

[Arealhooman]

A battery for my desktop PC?

Yeah, no idea.

 

[krakout]

Maybe I'm wrong, but although the whole flashing process can fail if communication with device breaks, it's hard to actually fail while flashing a partition? Because the system first pushes the whole file and only then does it begin actual flashing. So whatever partition you are pushing at any given moment, if it fails to push it in its entirety, then it won't flash it... Unless data is corrupted during transfer?

 

[zacattackkc]

im wondering, since i am just flashing the feb factory image on my rooted pixel and read this thread here: if my laptop (from which i operate the flashing procedure) were to malfunction like it did last night (bsod) - would i hard brick my phone, too? isnt that, where the other slot comes into play?

does this mean, every time i flash, my pc/laptop should never run into any issues whilst flashing or otherwise my phone will be effed?

If you device is flashing something like the bootloader, and connection breaks for any reason at all, or the problem closes, etc, it will be a hard brick. You may get lucky, and it may be something unessential.

The real answer to this is why google and the android community as a whole is pushing away from having a supporting third party recovery menu (implementing new partitions like init_boot and vendor_boot for recovery, also no working twrp). Why do you think Evolution ROM pushes so hard to be different and when flashing their newest build you do it not through the usual scary tedious bootloader way (THE SAME WAY WE ARE SUPPOSED TO FLASH OUR FACTORY ROMS) to making their own recovery, which obviously means only flashing one partition, and adb sideloading the rom. its like google wants you to break your phone and they are making it more convenient for third party roms to package theirs the same way. i should have never left evo.. haha.

Oh, and sorry for the late reply. I thought I would leave my phone alone for a little to see if it would help; I'm accident prone and lose things constantly, and what do ya know I just lost my phone that I can't even call to find lmao. Ill keep updated on everyones opinions on what i should try whenever i find it

 

[EtherealRemnant]

Maybe I'm wrong, but although the whole flashing process can fail if communication with device breaks, it's hard to actually fail while flashing a partition? Because the system first pushes the whole file and only then does it begin actual flashing. So whatever partition you are pushing at any given moment, if it fails to push it in its entirety, then it won't flash it... Unless data is corrupted during transfer?

Google uses sparse images... I think they're maxed at like 262MB? So like you'll see the flashing process go Product 1, Product 2, etc... It flashes after the full sparse image is transferred but if you don't have the full image when something goes wrong, you can still brick.

 

[krakout]

Google uses sparse images... I think they're maxed at like 262MB? So like you'll see the flashing process go Product 1, Product 2, etc... It flashes after the full sparse image is transferred but if you don't have the full image when something goes wrong, you can still brick.

Ah I see, makes sense.

 

[HipKat]

uff ok. is there any way to avoid this? i mean, even my desktop pc (which is stable) could suffer from a power shortage in the house for example.

Oh brother, how often does that actually even happen?

 

[xflowy]

Oh brother, how often does that actually even happen?

Sure, not really often. But when it does..

 

[96carboard]

If you device is flashing something like the bootloader, and connection breaks for any reason at all, or the problem closes, etc, it will be a hard brick. You may get lucky, and it may be something unessential.

This is incorrect. The image is sent to the device memory (RAM) prior to actually being written. It won't write it to flash storage until AFTER the entire image is received.

 

[96carboard]

trying to go from latest feb build to jan before flashing....

It sounds like you may have tripped some anti-downgrade code.

EDIT: I can confirm that the bootloader version was changed in the FEB image as compared to the JAN image.

 

[Arealhooman]

This is incorrect. The image is sent to the device memory (RAM) prior to actually being written. It won't write it to flash storage until AFTER the entire image is received.

Well, I use Samsung, so I am assuming fastboot is similar…