[Guide] de-bricking a ZTE Blade

[Guest shmizan]

your post lacks too much information.

you should provide what things you have tried so far that didn't work. make it a rule for the future for you.

[Guest ricolhaw]

i'm brazilian i will do my best for you guys can understand me.

i need help,my device (zte blade ) dont start, i have installed a custom rom ( ics by tilia) and he dont start,only stay on the animation screen.

i cant enter in cwm --> dont work

i can turn on the phone and use him but i have to wait 10h to the ics start.

i cant enter in fastboot method ...

plz help

[Guest androx]

Hello everybody,

my clockworkmod was not working properly (It was not possible to accomplish the selected options) so I used the methods 3, 4 and 5 , but I have the same problem with any new or older clockworkmod?

Any idea?

Thx

[Guest iSid]

Hi

Firstly, I would like to thank you for putting together such a complete and useful guide. Your guide has helped me countless times with my old Dell XCD35. But it seems not to work for my new Blade. Here are my observations:

I bought a new ZTE Blade going by the name of "Idea Blade" in India. This is a Chinese Blade, a v880+ (Edit 2: or just v880?), with 256MB RAM. I just wanted to suggest a few changes/additions/warnings in your guide for this new v880+ Blade as it may easily be confused with the Chinese v880 Blade (Edit 2: or is it the same?), leading to different stages of bricking.

Method 3: TPT

TPT is a way......

.....You can now flash a ROM using clockworkmod. If it doesn't work, then using a different SD card may help. If you have a European variant then it is safe to try both Gen1 and Gen2 TPTs separately in case you have made a mistake.

The Chinese TPT did not work for my v880+. So until a compatible TPT is found, could you add a warning for v880+ devices? I am tracking various threads both here and over at xda for solutions and will keep you posted if I find anything useful.

Method 5: The dodgy ZTE firmware flasher

This method can help if your blade cannot boot at all. Consider it a LAST RESORT - people do this all the time and only make their situation worse. Only use it if all the above methods fail or if your IMEI is corrupt. Your IMEI will be lost in the process and you will need to use hex editing to fix it up afterwards. This method also requires windows. Most of this is taken from burstlam’s thread here, which you can also refer to (burstlam has posted screenshots which also help to show what to do). ....

.....You can now flash a ROM (If you flashed Gen1 firmware you can also upgrade to Gen2 via TPT). When you do, check your IMEI. If it is wrong, flash stock recovery in clockworkmod, boot into FTM mode, and repeat (correctly) above from editing channel1.nvm onwards.

This ZTE firmware flasher method gets stuck at 25% and fails. Here's a related post that discusses this problem, but there is no solution as of now. http://www.modaco.co...brick-zte-v880/ . So the ZTE firmware flasher mode will not help at all with the v880+ (at present) and should not be used as all it can do is make things worse.

Please update your original post accordingly, as with the increasing sales of the Idea Blade, there are bound to be more cases of bricks (actually, there are very high chances of a brick with this model as it is not compatible with most of the methods established for older Blades.) I would advise not to switch from the default ROM at all (unless you are a dev trying to solve this problem) as even CWM is causing problems with this Blade model.

Edit: A compatible recovery has been found and can be downloaded here: http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1713419 . Instructions to flash it are in the same post.

Edit 2: Ok, I took the phone to a ZTE Service center today and the tech guy wrote "Blade v880" as the model name. So it is a Chinese v880 after all... :-/

Edited June 27, 2012 by iSid

[Guest alarson]

I have tried the tpt method . It started good,when I turned it on by holding menu and - it came screen text and it went up to 100 % and said complete or something positive,but then it just stays on the green android animation,how long do you need to wait? I have tried doing it 2 times,should I try another method or ?

[Guest fbmj]

Hi everyone, i tried to do the last metod but unfortunantly the phone is not recognized in the fasher after i put in ftm mode, so now my phone just turn on in ftm mode, what i can do now?

[Guest teteuninja]

Consegui concertar com o Metodo 3 - Valeeeeeu galera !

Edited August 22, 2012 by teteuninja

[Guest fireborn]

so after all the :ph34r: hidden snooping around, messing with my phone and things, i flashed a bad music app! :blink:

but thanks! Method 5 brought my phone back from the -uh- undead!

...and now on to reshaping my phone to its awesomeness :D

[EDIT: Its not working as normally as it should, like its not connecting to 3G, does not connect to Market, and Link2SD isn't working anymore. weird. I'm running CM7, with the latest clockwork mod if it matters.]

Edited August 31, 2012 by fireborn

[Guest fireborn]

Hey guys

I can't seem to get a good fix to this, and since it started with a bad flash, I'm guessing something i did in the recovery process screwed up my 2G, 3G connection. Can i get some help on this? do u need any stats or specs?

[Guest arpit22x]

After a bad flash, my blade (Dell xcd35 gen2) went bricked, First it was sticking on the green droid but when I flashed a gen2 TPT (used TPT method), Tpt remained at 0% with blue error msges (Error! Error! ....3-4 times)......... When I rebooted back, now, only red LED turns on, no green logo (blank screen)..... I cant check usb as I dont have cable now, but can anybody tell me what might have went wrong? Have I made it permanently bricked? Is method 5 the only solution now?

I have tried multiple TPTs with different SD cards. but no luck.

[Guest arpit22x]

Please help! it has stopped Flashing red LED.... :( .... nothing is happening while pressing power /+ Vol- /+ Menu...

[Guest snowbord]

Nothing happened with mine when I tried to enter download mode (volume up + down, power on) - no red led flash, blank screen. However, the ZTE flasher picked the phone up as it had indeed successfully entered download mode.

Good luck!

[Guest arpit22x]

Today, I gave my phone to dell people (it was totally dead) and they agreed to replace that but in how many days, 3 months, yeah they said 3 months. What's wrong with these guys? are they insane or they are going to make ZTE to built a new phone for me from scratch?

Well, missing my toy.. ah, my blade.... going to switch to Galaxy Note, now. :(

[Guest ososossy]

stuck at ftm screen nothing is happening...plz help.

[Guest snieR]

Followed method 5 - everything seemed to be going fine (only had a bit of trouble booting to ftm, but managed it in the end), but now, when i should take out the battery, it should boot to clockwork but it doesn't. Instead it gives me the green android logo. I have tried booting it with and woithout battery, with and without connection to the computer, with and without holdin vol+/- .. While holdin vol- and connecting to the computer it is recognized as ZTE Handset(COM13) and while connecting regularly (with green android popping up) it is recognized as Android.

What should I do? Can it be irreversible bricked?

Edited October 3, 2012 by snieR

[Guest Extensis]

I followed your instructions on method 5, but I cannot find offset 0x1215.I'm using hxd. please help! my blade is stucked in airplane mode.

[Guest JG263]

Hi,

I've got an Orange OSF Gen I. I'm trying to upgrade OS from 2.1 stock to OS 2.3. I'm trying to load CM7 ROM.

I've got ClockworkMod 3.0.2.8 loaded on phone & can access the menu through power on/volume down. I can't get the CM7 to boot & phone gets stuck at Green Android & sometimes goes to Orange logo. I've got a backup copy of all files on my PC & a copy of ZTE Blade USB driver.

I've done a restore in ClockworkMod & it gives the following screen dump:

"ClockworkMod Recovery v3.0.2.8

Checking MD5 Sums...

Erasing boot before restore...

Restoring boot image...

Restoring system...

Restoring data...

.android_secure.img not found. Skipping restore of /sdcard/.android_secure.

Restoring cache...

sd-ext.img not found. Skipping restore of /sd-ext.

Restore complete!"

Are these missing files causing the ROM not to load. Should I wipe data/factory reset & wipe cache?

Or is there something else I can do to get out of this. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

JG263

I managed to get this to work using Swedish Snow ROM

Edited November 3, 2012 by JG263

[Guest RoVlad]

my story ... i did everything as in tpt version but when i press menu and vol+ button and power on nothing happens ... just moves on into rom boot loop any ideas ?

i also tried step 5 with zte flasher and after pressing purple arrow nothing happens ... i did them all corect but nothing happens

on step 5 i eventually succeeded ... on device manager i didnt notice the absence of the word ZTE on debug device ... but everything solved after driver update :)

Edited November 16, 2012 by RoVlad

[Guest neothegod]

Guys please help me here. I have Dell XCD 35... I am unable to enter recovery mode. I can boot into the rom. Not sure how I lost CWM. I tried rebooting into recovery but that didn't help either. Can you please suggest what I can do to enter recovery.

Edited November 21, 2012 by neothegod

[Guest fahad.sagittarius]

Very helpful. Thank you . . :)

[Guest ZTE-V880]

PLEASE HELP...

i recently got me ZTE V880 BLADE ChinaUnicom. my 1st time using android, a friend said he was goin to upgrade th rom to Nightly GingerB which he did but now my fon will not go reboot, it hungs in th restart stage with only th LOGO showing, i cant run google store and so many other apps. like i said, this im a 1st time android user but this is almost killing my intrest, i thought it was goin to b fun. now my friend cant fix my problem. i have been reading all th threads on debricking and all, i want to start work on it but i need to consult with you guys in here 1st. i trust in your brains alot, tnx. [email protected]

[Guest afridi2129]

Hi thanks fot this guide, it really helped me from start. now i am stuck with FTM Logo on zte blade. i tried your step 5 under guide to recover IMEI , as it say UNKNOWN at IMEI place in phone, now after using that complete Method 5, at last step i am receiving FTM logo, if i reboot same happen, cant get into recovery , as this is stock mode. Please Advise. Thanks

[Guest somewhatdog]

Hi - looking for some tips on what I think may be a broken ZTE Blade (originally a UK Orange San Francisco Gen1)

It came to me with CWM/Swedish Snow installed - earlier this year I used the Gen1-to-Gen2-Total Transfer TPT and installed Cyanogen 7.2 and it was OK for a few months.

It then decided to freeze on the 'big green Android' on startup - so I booted it into CWM and installed Swedish Snow again - and everything was OK for a few months.

Last week it reset itself randomly and would only startup to either

a - freezing on the 'big Green Android'

b - refusing to power-up at all sometimes (not even a red light on the back button)

I managed to get it into CWM and I've tried wiping cache/data and installing both Swedish Snow and Cyanogen 7.2 but they'll generally boot and then crash not long after (back to the 'big Green Android' or even refusing to boot at all - as above)

I'm assuming the phone is knackered - possibly a power issue (I have 3 batteries and have tried them all -but it will crash even when connected to the charged) - anything else worth trying before I bin it?

Would the Gen1-Gen2 thing be a problem - is it revertable?

Edited December 23, 2012 by somewhatdog

[Guest Wigglebottom]

Thanks for the guide!

I got up to the very last point of method 5, but with clockwork I cannot get into any of the menus. I have the main menu, but when I click on something else the top hat just becomes more visible and everything else disappears.

Please, some help would be amazing!

[Guest marsamgod]

Mine doesn't even get to the big green droid, just pulses when I turn it on then maintains a black screen and solid red LED, any ideas?