Banging my head against a bricked android? Please help!!!

[Guest robinbrum]

I hope one of you good people here can help me because I am at my wits end with my phone which seems to be caught in a constant bootload loop. I’ll try and keep it brief.

 

I am not a complete noobie and have rooted my device and installed several roms without having any issues. My phone had been running very slow and malfunctioning so I decided to flash the latest version of Cyanogenmod. I had TWRP and CWM installed as recovery options. I backed up my device using TWRP and when I had done so it unexpectedly shut the phone down and entered into CWM recovery. I was perplexed by this as I had never used TWRP before and was only using it for the initial backup before I went and performed a reset.

 

Once booted into recovery I followed the normal method of flashing the rom from the zip file after having reset all data and cleared the delvik cache. There were one or two issues I can’t quite recall but the message said install complete so I restarted the phone expecting it to boot into the rom. Instead it keeps on going back into the bootloader, no matter how many times I have tried it and with different roms it always goes back into recovery.

 

I tried using the adb sideload method but the screen just hung on installing, after literally being left on all night so clearly something wrong. I also used this method to try and flash the stock firmware but again no success. Same result when I tried flashing it from the sd card.

 

I formatted the sd card prior to trying this last step as I heard this sometimes could be an issue. However the result was still the same.

 

I have looked extensively online to try and find a solution to this problem but it appears I have pretty much exhausted every option. Surely the device can not be “bricked” if it is able to boot into recovery?

 

Is it something really simple and obvious I am missing? I am hoping somebody can point me in the right direction.

 

Thanks in advance.

                                                                                                

 

[Guest dalyer]

I don't understand how you say you had TWRP and CWM installed?

I thought you could only have one recovery?

Did you use the right CWM for CM 11?

Have you tried a force update of stock ICS (e.g. B952) - e.g. see this thread?

 

http://www.modaco.com/topic/362821-tutorial-how-to-officially-unlock-the-bootloader-with-definitions-relock-guide-included/

[Guest robinbrum]

 Thanks for the reply. I downloaded TWRP like you would any other app because I had read somewhere that it was better than CWM. I have no idea whether you can use both of them - I assumed you could. 

 

I have the looked at the link in your post and to be honest I am close to getting out of my depth with stuff as complicated as that. I am not saying i couldn't do it but  fear making mistakes could be very costly. Is there not a simpler method?

 

As the risk of sounding ignorant I didn't know there was a "right" CWM for flashing CM but I only downloaded it very recently.

 

I've no idea where I went wrong but I want to know!

[Guest dalyer]

Flashing stock ICS B952 is a common way to get out of trouble - e.g. "bricked" devices or bootloops etc.

Skip to here to see how it's done:

 

http://www.modaco.com/topic/362821-tutorial-how-to-officially-unlock-the-bootloader-with-definitions-relock-guide-included/#entry2128104

 

If it works then you are back to stock ICS and may need to root, unlock the bootloader again (see the rest of the same thread if you did not do this already) and install CWM before installing a custom ROM.

 

There is a specific version of CWM (Linux 3.4 kernel based) if I recall correctly.

Anything else can cause problems such as you are seeing.

The thread should clarify what version is required.

Edited April 27, 2014 by dalyer

[Guest robinbrum]

I will give this a go but I wish there were a simpler way. I will be very careful about using CWM to flash a rom again. I thought it could handle any rom that was thrown at it, that the latest version was compatible with all CM mods????

 

I need to put a day aside to do this...wish me luck!

[Guest dalyer]

You haven't clarified what CWM you tried to use to flash CM 11 (presumably?).

But using the wrong one to flash CM 11 can cause problems although not necessarily what you are seeing I don't think.

Ultimately you want to try to get back to a working version and it should be possible.

The most common way that I know of doing this is to try flashing stock ICS B952.

There may be other ways and there's no guarantee that B952 will just install OK.

But almost certainly there will be some way back from where you are to a working phone.

Maybe others can suggest something...