Bricked, trying to fix

[gekaap]

Hi everyone. Been reading the forums for a few weeks, trying to gain knowledge to do some stuff with my phone. Seems I still don't know nearly enough, and now I'm trying to figure out what to do after bricking my Optimus V. I've read several times that the factory reset option will brick a rooted phone. Apparently, but that, you all have meant any phone that was ever rooted in the past. Either that, or when when I tried to unroot my phone with Gingerbreak it didn't work right. Now, my phone boots directly into recovery mode every single time.

So, what I started off with was flashing the IHO 3.7 gingerbread. Noticed that it didn't have swype, so after multiple failed attempts to download swype beta off the internet I recovered back to the original operating system to try to figure out if there was a way to backup the swype app. While trying to figure that out, I reflashed/recovered back and forth a couple times. That's when I started noticing that PlayStore was no longer working very well for me. When I tried to download new apps off the android market I was getting a purchasing error. So, that's when I decided to unroot and factory restore. That was a mistake, of course.

I've tried reinstalling the IHO zip, and tried to do the nandroid recovery from the backup I had made before flashing, and that has done nothing for me. One thing I've noticed, and I wonder if it is somehow part of the problem, is that every time I've done any of these things I always get the message "sd-ext doesn't exist." If I could, what I would be doing at this point would be to try restoring the SD card from the backup I put on my hard drive. But, I can't access the SD card from recovery mode, and my computer doesn't have an SD drive for me to plug the card into the computer directly. >_<

I also tried this method. But something seems to go wrong at about step 7, because the window that pops up is screwy, and all the text is convered into question marks, and it seems to make no progress after you unplug the USB cable and restart. Anyone who can assist it would be greatly appreciated. I am quite novice, so I've been having a hard time understanding alot of the stuff that I'm finding here about unbricking your phone (for example, I have no idea how to create an abd shell). But I'm eager to learn. Thanks in advance.

 

[andrewnelson23]

DON'T DO THE S FIRMWARE FIX UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO!!!

It seems as if you still have a couple of options. It sounds like you formatted your sd card. Which means you need to put your sdcard onto another phone, mount it to your computer and put a rom on sdcard. Then remove sdcard, put in original phone, boot into recovery, wipe data, cache and dalvik, then install the rom.

As a general rule, I would never do the S Firmware Fix if you have recovery. You still have a way out - the roms on your sdcard(which you can download onto there). If you don't have another phone, find a friend that is okay that will let you download a rom onto your sdcard.

Another note: if you do the S Firmware Fix, you may have to pay in order to get the cdma workshop. The demo used to give you the MSL code, but I think they removed that feature in their later posts. (You don't have to if you don't mind not having 3G or network data or MMS).

Also, in the event that you absolutely have to do the s firmware fix, take it slow and ask as many questions as you need to. First, the reason the screen may be popping up like that is possibly that you aren't in e-mode. Are you? If you aren't, make sure you are. To do this, turn off phone and plug in to computer. Next hold the back button, the volume down button and the power button until you see the lg splash goes then release. It should show you a screen that is definitely recognizable as emergency mode. I would post a picture but my phone is my camera and can't take pictures if I'm in e-mode

 

[ThatGuyLurkin]

The S fix is only if you brick from radio update.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2

 

[gekaap]

DON'T DO THE S FIRMWARE FIX UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO!!!

It seems as if you still have a couple of options. It sounds like you formatted your sd card. Which means you need to put your sdcard onto another phone, mount it to your computer and put a rom on sdcard. Then remove sdcard, put in original phone, boot into recovery, wipe data, cache and dalvik, then install the rom.

As a general rule, I would never do the S Firmware Fix if you have recovery. You still have a way out - the roms on your sdcard(which you can download onto there). If you don't have another phone, find a friend that is okay that will let you download a rom onto your sdcard.

Another note: if you do the S Firmware Fix, you may have to pay in order to get the cdma workshop. The demo used to give you the MSL code, but I think they removed that feature in their later posts. (You don't have to if you don't mind not having 3G or network data or MMS).

Also, in the event that you absolutely have to do the s firmware fix, take it slow and ask as many questions as you need to. First, the reason the screen may be popping up like that is possibly that you aren't in e-mode. Are you? If you aren't, make sure you are. To do this, turn off phone and plug in to computer. Next hold the back button, the volume down button and the power button until you see the lg splash goes then release. It should show you a screen that is definitely recognizable as emergency mode. I would post a picture but my phone is my camera and can't take pictures if I'm in e-mode

From what tinkering I've been able to do, it looks like all my old data is still present on my SD card. So I don't think I formatted it. Here's an odd thing that my phone seems to be doing. If I turn it off, and plug it into the charger, it automatically boots up in recovery, without me even turning the phone on! Does it whether I connect it to a wall charger, or connect the USB to a computer.

Using another phone is something I had considered. I'll have to see if I can get someone who has a droid to help me out. Seems pretty much all my friends have Iphones. I think that one of my friends may still have an old droid of his, though, so I may try that. Thanks for the help so far.

 

[andrewnelson23]

The S fix is only if you brick from radio update.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2

No it's not. I bricked a couple months ago. Started going into boot loops cuz I was a noob and factory reset after root. Still had recovery though. Tried to get a new rom on, somehow got to fastboot. From there, I had a friend try fixing it(stupid, stupid, STUPID) and he somehow managed to remove my recovery. Literally the only thing I could boot into was e-mode. My phone would turn on but leave a black screen. Thought it might be an invisible recovery, but I have an older screen, so it wasn't. Ended up using the S fix and my phone works perfectly right now.

 

[andrewnelson23]

From what tinkering I've been able to do, it looks like all my old data is still present on my SD card. So I don't think I formatted it. Here's an odd thing that my phone seems to be doing. If I turn it off, and plug it into the charger, it automatically boots up in recovery, without me even turning the phone on! Does it whether I connect it to a wall charger, or connect the USB to a computer.

Using another phone is something I had considered. I'll have to see if I can get someone who has a droid to help me out. Seems pretty much all my friends have Iphones. I think that one of my friends may still have an old droid of his, though, so I may try that. Thanks for the help so far.

It's good that you have recovery. I have some ideas.

First, install a new rom onto your sdcard somehow. You should really try and figure out how to adb. You could do that instead of using a different phone. That will take some intense learning though. (you can send me a personal message if you want and I will walk you through it.)

Try turning off your phone. Pull battery and hold power for 20 seconds. Take out the sdcard. Reinsert the sdcard. Reinsert battery and boot into recovery. Wipe everything but your sdcard. Then try flashing your rom.

I hope that works for you.

 

[inceyet]

It's good that you have recovery. I have some ideas.

First, install a new rom onto your sdcard somehow. You should really try and figure out how to adb. You could do that instead of using a different phone. That will take some intense learning though. (you can send me a personal message if you want and I will walk you through it.)

Try turning off your phone. Pull battery and hold power for 20 seconds. Take out the sdcard. Reinsert the sdcard. Reinsert battery and boot into recovery. Wipe everything but your sdcard. Then try flashing your rom.

I hope that works for you.

Sounds like that is probably the advice. Try any iho roms backside, harmonia, bobzhome, mirage are probably the best to get your phone back on its feet
Hope this has helped

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Android Central Forums

 

[gekaap]

Try turning off your phone. Pull battery and hold power for 20 seconds. Take out the sdcard. Reinsert the sdcard. Reinsert battery and boot into recovery. Wipe everything but your sdcard. Then try flashing your rom.

I hope that works for you.

Unfortunately, this was not successful. But if you know of a good "abd for dummies" kind of resource, I would love to know.

 

[anthonycr]

You can mount the sdcard from recovery you know...

Just plug it into the PC and go to "mounts" in recovery and mount sdcard. But am I missing something, because that seems too easy...

 

[andrewnelson23]

You can mount the sdcard from recovery you know...

Just plug it into the PC and go to "mounts" in recovery and mount sdcard. But am I missing something, because that seems too easy...

hahah i was going to suggest that but its never worked for me and didnt wanna suggest something thats never worked for me.

gekaap: here.

 

[andrewnelson23]

Unfortunately, this was not successful. But if you know of a good "abd for dummies" kind of resource, I would love to know.

wait why was this unsuccessful? Did you get an error when flashing or did it flash and then hang on boot?

 

[gekaap]

wait why was this unsuccessful? Did you get an error when flashing or did it flash and then hang on boot?

I went through the process, but the phone still automatically boots in recovery mode when I turn it on. It doesn't even try to do anything else. The only error I got was the same issue with the sd-ext that I've been getting. It keeps saying "No app2sd partition found. Skipping format of /sd-ext."

I had tried mounting the SD, didn't seem to do anything. With the SD mounted, the E: device doesn't even appear on my computer. Dismount it and it appears, but clicking on it prompts me to enter a disk into the drive.

 

[Badboytoast]

I could also use the guide for dummies lol

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2

 

[andrewnelson23]

the sd-ext shouldn't matter. you must be doing something wrong, or you have a corrupt rom or something like that. You are trying to flash a fresh, compatible rom, right? And please see above for the link to the adb guide. I think it's pretty straight-forward, and if it's not, make specific questions and post them here and I'll try and answer and if I can't someone else can.

 

[BuggerZ]

Unfortunately, this was not successful. But if you know of a good "abd for dummies" kind of resource, I would love to know.

Maybe this doesn't help, but for me, it was as simple as reading the programs help menu.

ADB - CyanogenMod Wiki

 

[gekaap]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I've been very busy the past few days at work, so I haven't had the chance to work much on my phone. Hopefully today will provide some success.

 

[gekaap]

Well, downloading a fresh copy of IHO didn't help. After I downloaded and flashed, and rebooted, it still boots directly into recovery mode and nothing else. I'm novice at all this stuff so I don't know, but it seems that this is a rather odd issue for my phone to be booting directly into recovery, and then to also spontaneously power up into recovery any time I plug the USB into the computer or wall charger.

Looking at the abd info now. Hopefully it will give me something.

 

[andrewnelson23]

Are you making sure to wipe everything properly? I know that can cause bootloops. Specifically, what do you do from start to finish every time you flash your rom?

 

[gekaap]

1. wipe data/factory reset
2. wipe dalvik cache
3. format \boot
4. format \cache
5. format \data
6. format \sd-ext
7. format system

(I've also, a few times, thrown in "wipe cache partition" and "wipe battery stats" just for good measure, but it has not made a difference.)

8. install zip from sdcard > choose zip from sdcard > (location of backside zip)
9. choose zip from sdcard > (location of gapps zip)
10. reboot system now

 

[andrewnelson23]

hmmmm. That's weird. I don't know what you might be doing wrong. What recovery do you have? And have you tried an entirely different rom?