Bricked Droid during flashing -- a challenge for the experts

[DarkNova]

Here's a problem for the experts. The Motorola Droid 1 is sometimes called "unbrickable", but I'm afraid this one might be the exception. It was being flashed with a new ROM when the battery was accidentally pulled. Now it won't turn on at all. Nothing appears on the screen when the power button is pressed. I've tried holding down X when powering on, and that also doesn't do anything. I've also tried holding down Up when powering on, and that won't bring anything up either. When the Droid is connected over USB to the computer, the computer doesn't detect anything coming up when I try to power the Droid on. There has been no physical or water damage. The battery is full. Experts -- what can I try next? Thanks.

 

[LtKen]

Welcome to the forum. Just for kicks, let it sit on an AC charger for a couple hours.

It sounds like you may have killed it, though....

 

[Abe21599]

what ken said. but if u cant get anything to come on the screen, u might be out of luck.

every electronic device has its breaking point..

 

[DarkNova]

Yep, I tried letting it sit on the charger for 24+ hours, just for kicks, but still nothing. Of course, the battery shows as a full charge in another Droid, so that's not the problem.

One thing I do notice is that if I plug the charger in without the battery in, the white charge LED flashes about once a second, so there's something alive in there, at least to get that.

So has anyone investigated if there is a JTAG port on the Droid board that could be used to do an emergency flash? Thanks.

 

[teddyearp]

<snip> Now it won't turn on at all. Nothing appears on the screen when the power button is pressed. I've tried holding down X when powering on, and that also doesn't do anything. I've also tried holding down Up when powering on, and that won't bring anything up either. <snip>

Unfortunately, this is the exact definition of a brick.

 

[Tallica]

My question is why was the battery cover off while flashing ANYTHING?

 

[JustisLewis]

Its not a battery issue, its your droid having an "I don't know what do" issue. If it lost power during the middle of flashing you have no O.S. to give the phone instructions. I honestly don't know of anything that can be done.

Sent from my Ultimate DROiD 1.0.0 using DroidForums App

 

[INSANENEIVIESIS]

honestly ive formated my boot, system, and data partition and all it does is boot into recovery instead of the rom. im not sure what this is pulling the battery during a flash isnt the worst thing you can do, ive done worse. even on the incredible which seems to be more brickable doesnt do anything, ive pulled the battery multiple times. i would say see if its the battery by borrowing your friends or buying a new one. if it still doesnt work and you have insurance then take it in and get a replacement, if it doesnt boot they can adb to check the contents of the system. or flash the sbf. they will have to scrap it.. anyway good luck, hope it works out for you.

 

[Dave12308]

I think in this case, he might have pulled the battery during the bootloader flashing phase, thus not even leaving it with a functional bootloader. Without the bootloader, these things don't even know how to power on. In that case, a JTAG port would be the only hope (and the knowledge/equipment to use it)

 

[DarkNova]

Just to be clear, I wasn't the one that actually pulled the battery out I'm just trying to fix it. I think what happened is what Dave12308 said, that the battery was pulled when the bootloader was flashing, so now it doesn't have a bootloader. I've tried a couple batteries -- that's definitely not the problem. Insaneneivisis -- you mention doing adb, is this possible without the bootloader? It doesn't seem as though it is willing to communicate via USB, but I was hoping there would be some way to initiate this. Otherwise I was hoping that someone has some info about JTAG access to the board.

 

[Dave12308]

^^^^^^^^ addition to above:

I did find mention of what "appears to be a JTAG port" on the main board of the DROID from a thread from wayyyyy back in the pre-root days. So there may be one, but it would require complete disassembly of the device to get to it.

 

[INSANENEIVIESIS]

Just to be clear, I wasn't the one that actually pulled the battery out I'm just trying to fix it. I think what happened is what Dave12308 said, that the battery was pulled when the bootloader was flashing, so now it doesn't have a bootloader. I've tried a couple batteries -- that's definitely not the problem. Insaneneivisis -- you mention doing adb, is this possible without the bootloader? It doesn't seem as though it is willing to communicate via USB, but I was hoping there would be some way to initiate this. Otherwise I was hoping that someone has some info about JTAG access to the board.

It was being flashed with a new ROM when the battery was accidentally pulled.

thats what i read you were flashing a rom, a rom and an sbf are 2 completely different things. a rom does not effect the bootloader in anyway. a sbf does, if you were installing a rom then your replacing the /system directory and the contents inside the boot.img. pulling the battery in this would not brick your phone it would simply have a half installed system/boot.

 

[Dave12308]

thats what i read you were flashing a rom, a rom and an sbf are 2 completely different things. a rom does not effect the bootloader in anyway. a sbf does, if you were installing a rom then your replacing the /system directory and the contents inside the boot.img. pulling the battery in this would not brick your phone it would simply have a half installed system/boot.

LOL Yeah sorry 'bout the confusion, somehow I completely missed the word "ROM" and replaced it with "SBF" simply based on the symptoms the phone was exhibiting. In this case, if it were a ROM being flashed; the complete bricking would be an unfortunate coincidence. And probably would point to an issue beyond what JTAG access could fix.

EDIT: Put it this way, OP. You can do a complete format of SYSTEM/DATA/CACHE/BOOT/RECOVERY/SD-EXT/SDCARD; and the device will still boot to the "M" logo as long as the bootloader is intact (which in this case, it should be). Even though you'd have to use an SBF to recover from this point (since there would be nothing on ANY of the partitions) the device would still be "alive" - it sounds like yours simply kicked the bucket.

 

[furbearingmammal]

@OP,

From reading every post here I can say you'd probably be better off taking it to Verizon. If you can't get the bootloader to come up while pressing the D-pad towards the screen and powering it on you have a $500 paperweight.

There might be something you can do to recover from this paperweight but from the sounds I've been hearing from the other posters it's probably not happening.

 

[teddyearp]

@OP,

From reading every post here I can say you'd probably be better off taking it to Verizon. If you can't get the bootloader to come up while pressing the D-pad towards the screen and powering it on you have a $500 paperweight.

There might be something you can do to recover from this paperweight but from the sounds I've been hearing from the other posters it's probably not happening.

+1 ^^^ this. No signs of life=no good.

good luck