Previously working SF refuses to boot after running battery down

[Guest StealthBadger]

Hi,

I have had my SF for a couple of weeks now and it had been working absolutely fine. It is unlocked and had japanese jellyfish on it, which I installed using the guide at orangesanfrancisco.co.uk.

On saturday morning the battery ran down to zero and it switched itself off. This is the first time I had let the battery get to zero, so it was the first time the phone had switched itself off (other than me telling it to with the power button). Since then, I have charged it up for well over 12 hours (so I'm sure it's not having trouble because of a lack of charge), but it refuses to boot at all. When I turn it on, it just gets stuck on the little green android man forever [i.e. well over 15 minutes], or keeps flashing between a black screen and the little android man (alternating ~20 seconds of each).

I have tried 6 times booting it in clockwork recovery mode and doing wipe cache partition, wipe data/factory reset and then re-installing JJ from the SD card but it still gets stuck on the android man. I have also tried using the same method to install the r12-update-modacocustomrom-blade-kitchen-unsigned.zip in case it was some weird problem with JJ. This hasn't worked either, and I've tried redownloading and copying each of the two environments onto the SD-card twice, in case the zip file was somehow corrupted. No luck either way. I have also tried booting the phone up with no SD-card, which didn't help.

I've exhausted everything I can think of to fix this problem, and it's getting pretty inconvenient not having access to a phone at all! If anybody has any ideas that I could try, I'd be very appreciative of your help!

EDIT: I've attached the list of files on my SD card in case that helps?!

Edited March 6, 2011 by StealthBadger

[Guest flickflack]

Hi,

I have had my SF for a couple of weeks now and it had been working absolutely fine. It is unlocked and had japanese jellyfish on it, which I installed using the guide at orangesanfrancisco.co.uk.

On saturday morning the battery ran down to zero and it switched itself off. This is the first time I had let the battery get to zero, so it was the first time the phone had switched itself off (other than me telling it to with the power button). Since then, I have charged it up for well over 12 hours (so I'm sure it's not having trouble because of a lack of charge), but it refuses to boot at all. When I turn it on, it just gets stuck on the little green android man forever [i.e. well over 15 minutes], or keeps flashing between a black screen and the little android man (alternating ~20 seconds of each).

I have tried 6 times booting it in clockwork recovery mode and doing wipe cache partition, wipe data/factory reset and then re-installing JJ from the SD card but it still gets stuck on the android man. I have also tried using the same method to install the r12-update-modacocustomrom-blade-kitchen-unsigned.zip in case it was some weird problem with JJ. This hasn't worked either, and I've tried redownloading and copying each of the two environments onto the SD-card twice, in case the zip file was somehow corrupted. No luck either way. I have also tried booting the phone up with no SD-card, which didn't help.

I've exhausted everything I can think of to fix this problem, and it's getting pretty inconvenient not having access to a phone at all! If anybody has any ideas that I could try, I'd be very appreciative of your help!

EDIT: I've attached the list of files on my SD card in case that helps?!

Just a guess try a different usb cable (plug into Usb port on computer if you suspect charger), mine ran out of charge this morning and showed the android man ?

[Guest StealthBadger]

Just a guess try a different usb cable (plug into Usb port on computer if you suspect charger), mine ran out of charge this morning and showed the android man ?

I will give that a go, I think . I'm using the charger that came with the phone, and I haven't had a problem with it before though. *runs off to harass friends about micro-usb cables*

[Guest StealthBadger]

So I've tried charging it on a different micro-usb for about 5 hours now and I still get the same problem. Is there a way to tell how charged the battery is (bearing in mind that I can only boot it into clockwork recovery)?

It occurs to me that I have no idea how much charge it has, so I can't tell whether it's failing to boot due to the battery or due to a problem with the ROM or something.

In an attempt to work out which of the two it is, I tried to boot up my SF without the battery in, but plugged into my PC via USB. I still get exactly the same thing, so I have to guess that it can't be to do with the battery?

Does anybody have any ideas?

[Guest Lew247]

If your certain the battery is charged - take it out for about ten seconds then put it back in again

When it drains to zero it does something that makes the phone unable to reboot until it's charged and sometimes has to be removed totaly and then put back before it will work again

[Guest StealthBadger]

If your certain the battery is charged - take it out for about ten seconds then put it back in again

When it drains to zero it does something that makes the phone unable to reboot until it's charged and sometimes has to be removed totaly and then put back before it will work again

Unfortunately that's part of the problem! I don't really know whether it's charged. I know it's been on two different chargers for a total of about 18 hours, but I can't boot it up, so I don't know whether it's actually charged up during that time. I have removed and replaced the battery numerous times though, and it doesn't seem to make any difference unfortunately.

Is there any way to read the md5 code through the clockwork recovery thingy, so I can tell if the ROMs I'm trying are corrupted?

[Guest flickflack]

So I've tried charging it on a different micro-usb for about 5 hours now and I still get the same problem. Is there a way to tell how charged the battery is (bearing in mind that I can only boot it into clockwork recovery)?

It occurs to me that I have no idea how much charge it has, so I can't tell whether it's failing to boot due to the battery or due to a problem with the ROM or something.

In an attempt to work out which of the two it is, I tried to boot up my SF without the battery in, but plugged into my PC via USB. I still get exactly the same thing, so I have to guess that it can't be to do with the battery?

Does anybody have any ideas?

Took my battery out of sf would not power up even with usb cable attached to pc or charger,put battery back in with usb cable attached to pc phone stuck on android,

removed usb cable from sf booted as normal

from completly flat my sf will power up after only a minute or so attached to either pc or wall charger

Check out this thread http://android.modaco.com/content/advent-v...od-for-an-hour/

[Guest StealthBadger]

Took my battery out of sf would not power up even with usb cable attached to pc or charger,put battery back in with usb cable attached to pc phone stuck on android,

removed usb cable from sf booted as normal

from completly flat my sf will power up after only a minute or so attached to either pc or wall charger

Check out this thread http://android.modaco.com/content/advent-v...od-for-an-hour/

Unfortunately that hasn't worked for me :(

I'm not sure what it is in that thread that you think might be relevant? Back when I could actually boot the phone, it wasn't draining particularly quickly at all. I was very pleased with the battery life. It's just totally borked now!

[Guest flickflack]

Unfortunately that hasn't worked for me :(

I'm not sure what it is in that thread that you think might be relevant? Back when I could actually boot the phone, it wasn't draining particularly quickly at all. I was very pleased with the battery life. It's just totally borked now!

just clutching at straws really,

strange that you have enough power in phone to boot into clockwork recovery I would have thought that with the phone plugged into the charger it would

supply enough power even if the battery was suspect to enable it to boot up

Have you another sd card that you could try ,at least that would eliminate that

[Guest Thermostat9]

I would have thought that with the phone plugged into the charger it would supply enough power even if the battery was suspect to enable it to boot up

It does. You can even take the battery out when it is turned on and plugged in and it stays working fine.

[Guest flickflack]

It does. You can even take the battery out when it is turned on and plugged in and it stays working fine.

correction mine doe's as well but as i remove the battery the phone reboots tried a (few times)

but stays on after reboot with no battery

Edited March 6, 2011 by flickflack

[Guest StealthBadger]

I have now managed to check that both MD5 numbers are correct, by USB mounting, and then using a MD5 verifier on my laptop.

So that doesn't seem to be the problem. Ewwwwwwwww.

[Guest flickflack]

I have now managed to check that both MD5 numbers are correct, by USB mounting, and then using a MD5 verifier on my laptop.

So that doesn't seem to be the problem. Ewwwwwwwww.

Another stab in the dark http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...tresett-button/

[Guest IronDoc]

Could the vol+ button be stuck down somehow? If you boot and try 'fastboot devices' while plugged in, is it detected?

[Guest StealthBadger]

Could the vol+ button be stuck down somehow? If you boot and try 'fastboot devices' while plugged in, is it detected?

If I boot while holding down the volume+ button and then run fastboot, I get;

sending 'recovery' (3684KB)... OK

writing 'recovery' ... OK

rebooting...

Press any key to continue...

whereas if I boot without the volume + key, I get;

< waiting for device >

I'm pretty sure that's correct, right?

EDIT: I have noticed than when it's plugged into my laptop and i try to boot it (without holding anything down), windows keeps playing the "device plugged in" sound every couple of minutes, which presumably means it keeps finding it and losing it again. Does that mean that it's just trying to boot over and over again?

Edited March 6, 2011 by StealthBadger

[Guest IronDoc]

Yeah just sounds like a standard bootloop. You tried a TPT image?

[Guest StealthBadger]

Yeah just sounds like a standard bootloop. You tried a TPT image?

I haven't (because I'm not completely sure how they work!). I'll give it a go tomorrow morning.

[Guest t.reddings]

I haven't (because I'm not completely sure how they work!). I'll give it a go tomorrow morning.

This seems similar to an issue with two of my faulty phones. I'm on phone no 5 now. However when my phone 2nd phone failed it did just this. Ran flat and refused to charge. The charger seemed to send it into an endless loop of vibratring, start up screen then blank. Luckily I'm surrounded by ZTE Blade users in the office so borrowed a battery and got my phone working, I also proved my battery worked in their phone too. So put the old stock image on, called Orange and got a replacement. So it tunre3d out my phone failed to charge enough to power the phone. Battery works fine at the moment.

[Guest StealthBadger]

Yeah just sounds like a standard bootloop. You tried a TPT image?

I've tried using a TPT image to put the Orange Stock RoM back on. The phone now boots as far as "Welcome to ZTE-BLADE - Touch the android to begin", but if I do anything on that screen, I get "Sorry! Process system is not responding" and the options to force close or wait. Neither gets anywhere of course! Also, I can't get access to recovery anymore, I just get a white screen with FTM on (I haven't managed to get the phone doing anything useful in this mode).

[Guest Miracle Boy]

This seems similar to an issue with two of my faulty phones. I'm on phone no 5 now. However when my phone 2nd phone failed it did just this. Ran flat and refused to charge. The charger seemed to send it into an endless loop of vibratring, start up screen then blank. Luckily I'm surrounded by ZTE Blade users in the office so borrowed a battery and got my phone working, I also proved my battery worked in their phone too. So put the old stock image on, called Orange and got a replacement. So it tunre3d out my phone failed to charge enough to power the phone. Battery works fine at the moment.

Don't know if this will help to assist u, but if T.Reddings is correct, and your phone is failing to charge the battery up enough to power the phone properly, may I suggest that you buy this battery & charger set on ebay?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ZTE-Battery-USB-Char...=item2561b87390

It's a kinda expensive work aroundf though, particularly as your not sure if it's a hardware problem or not.

[Guest IronDoc]

Because you wiped your recovery and put the stock Orange one on. You can flash a new one with fastboot.

This is weird. That sort of FC is normally because of someone not wiping.

Flash clockwork or whatever and format data and cache. There's a seperate option in advanced or something.

[Guest flickflack]

I've tried using a TPT image to put the Orange Stock RoM back on. The phone now boots as far as "Welcome to ZTE-BLADE - Touch the android to begin", but if I do anything on that screen, I get "Sorry! Process system is not responding" and the options to force close or wait. Neither gets anywhere of course! Also, I can't get access to recovery anymore, I just get a white screen with FTM on (I haven't managed to get the phone doing anything useful in this mode).

StealthBadger

At least it has moved on slightly from where you started

could it be that recovery or clockwork have become corrupt might be worth a go

also i would be tempted to format the sd card just in case this has a problem or try a different card

[Guest IronDoc]

StealthBadger

At least it has moved on slightly from where you started

could it be that recovery or clockwork have become corrupt might be worth a go

also i would be tempted to format the sd card just in case this has a problem or try a different card

No, FTM mode is what happens if you hold vol - and power a new blade on. As I said, he wiped his recovery with the TPT.

[Guest StealthBadger]

I'd just like to thank everybody who helped me at all here. I never did get it working again, but Orange replaced it for me (after the TPT attempt, it at least booted up as far as the Orange logo, so it looked convincing!).

I'm currently giving it a go just using the stock Orange ROM. It doesn't seem too slow so far, so maybe I'll just get used to it (it does refuse to sync my facebook contact photos though, and i can't seem to choose non-orange ringtones!).

Anyway, thanks again everybody!