What is the difference between a hard and soft brick?

**Hopeless One** · 08-04-2013, 10:06 PM

Hey everybody. I'm sorry if I'm posting this to wrong forum or if thia question was previously asked (tried searching, didn't find anything yet). I wondered what is the difference between soft and hard "brick". As far as I know, there is a way to revive your device from soft brick. Hard brick is only fixable by changing the motherboard am I right?

Also would like to know (God forbid) but if anytime I'll brick my phone, how do I determine wether it is a soft or a hard brick?

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**gollum18** · Aug 05 2013 | 9:34 am EDT

Originally Posted by Hopeless One

You must have misunderstood me, I'm not suffering from any kind of brick. I was just asking if someday (hopefully never) it will happen to me or any of my friends I would know what to do..

Well anyways, thank you for help

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

If that's what you wanted to know, here you go.

A soft brick, is usually just when you're phone is stuck in a bootloop, and as the name implies, is caused by a software error, usually the lack of a system to boot from or some other minor software bug that glitching boot. They are easily fixable by reflashing your ROM in recovery.

Now then, as mentioned earlier a hard brick is where you're device won't boot at all. You have to either repair it yourself, using a JTAG or send it into a JTAG service to have it fixed. These are usually caused by people flashing ROMs or kernels not meant for their device. Flashing a ROM not meant for your device, can throw your system through a loop, because it also flashes the kernel.

The kernel is what allows your phones software to interact with the hardware. It contains all the necessary info for boot, and also your phones drivers. There's a line in the kernel called "bootclasspath", and if this isn't what it should be for your device, you will get a hard brick, as this line tells your phone how to boot.

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**jaboop** · 08-04-2013, 10:11 PM

soft brick = recoverable without professional repair; hard brick = not recoverable, it's basically a paper weight

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**Hopeless One** · 08-05-2013, 05:44 AM

But how do I know if phone is soft bricked or all the way hard?

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

**jaboop** · 08-05-2013, 05:58 AM

Can you boot it into recovery? If not I'm sorry but... Its moved onto a better place

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**Hopeless One** · 08-05-2013, 07:05 AM

You must have misunderstood me, I'm not suffering from any kind of brick. I was just asking if someday (hopefully never) it will happen to me or any of my friends I would know what to do..

Well anyways, thank you for help

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

**gollum18** · 08-05-2013, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by Hopeless One

You must have misunderstood me, I'm not suffering from any kind of brick. I was just asking if someday (hopefully never) it will happen to me or any of my friends I would know what to do..

Well anyways, thank you for help

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

If that's what you wanted to know, here you go.

A soft brick, is usually just when you're phone is stuck in a bootloop, and as the name implies, is caused by a software error, usually the lack of a system to boot from or some other minor software bug that glitching boot. They are easily fixable by reflashing your ROM in recovery.

Now then, as mentioned earlier a hard brick is where you're device won't boot at all. You have to either repair it yourself, using a JTAG or send it into a JTAG service to have it fixed. These are usually caused by people flashing ROMs or kernels not meant for their device. Flashing a ROM not meant for your device, can throw your system through a loop, because it also flashes the kernel.

The kernel is what allows your phones software to interact with the hardware. It contains all the necessary info for boot, and also your phones drivers. There's a line in the kernel called "bootclasspath", and if this isn't what it should be for your device, you will get a hard brick, as this line tells your phone how to boot.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

**Hopeless One** · 08-05-2013, 10:44 AM

Thank you very much! This is exactly what I wanted to know.

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

**tastycaramel** · 08-05-2013, 10:50 AM

A soft brick is usually caused by a dirty flash. This can be fixed by flashing the original rom.

A hard brick means that your phone is as good as dead.

Sent from my HP Slate 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

**Jitendra Raghuwanshi1** · 01-29-2014, 03:21 AM

guys i was trying to do a backup in CWM recovery and then i reset my galaxy core to factory settings then it was stucked in CWM menu and now when i start my cell thr is a yello logo triangle whatever u call it and then my cell goes to recovery option what should i do ihve tried factory reset.....but problem is still there my phone is in recovery menu is this is a hard brick please help....!!

**Mark Jayson Andaya** · 02-01-2014, 08:53 AM

can still do the hard bricks?
please help me

- - - Updated - - -

can still do the hard bricks?

**anilkumar pingili** · 05-15-2014, 11:16 PM

hi , can you help me get ride off problem

i had rooted my karbonn s5 n it successfull rooted that ok

after that i had installed various apps

superuser, cleaner etc,

and i also installed "chainfire 3d" and i had give permission to superuser to root access

and again i had given the permission to chainfire 3d to root access

then my phone gone to booting

for 1 to 2 minutes

and i taken out battery

and kept again

now the phone is not opening ie only showing booting screen

please help me

my phone model is karbonn titanium s5 andriod version 4.1.0 jelly bean

pls help me i bought it just 5 months before

pls help me

**My-kl Embryon** · 08-04-2014, 04:38 AM

Originally Posted by anilkumar pingili

hi , can you help me get ride off problem

i had rooted my karbonn s5 n it successfull rooted that ok

after that i had installed various apps

superuser, cleaner etc,

and i also installed "chainfire 3d" and i had give permission to superuser to root access

and again i had given the permission to chainfire 3d to root access

then my phone gone to booting

for 1 to 2 minutes

and i taken out battery

and kept again

now the phone is not opening ie only showing booting screen

please help me

my phone model is karbonn titanium s5 andriod version 4.1.0 jelly bean

pls help me i bought it just 5 months before

pls help me

You need to re-flash the ROM using Odin or Heimdall and a USB cable. I had the same problem yesterday and I fixed it.