Bricked? LG Optimus S

[Harlequenne]

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I'm completely new to the world of Android phones and systems and I'm really overwhelmed trying to read a lot of these threads.
Now, I did a stupid thing and bought a phone from craigslist and let the jerk that sold it to me leave before making sure the phone worked. It does--esn's clean and everything. But the screen doesn't work. It glows, and the intensity of the glow changes as if it's doing things, but all I can see is a black screen. It even makes noises occasionally.

I can't get a hold of the guy I bought it off (of course), so I'm trying really hard to figure out if I can make it work. So I could really use some dumbed-down advice. Is this what "bricked" means? Did he do something to make it like this, and is it fixable? Is there a "fixing your android for dummies"?

 

[epidenimus]

Hmm... I remember reading that sometimes a GB update could cause some issues with the screen. Try pulling the battery out for a minute, putting it back in and rebooting. If that doesn't fix it, can you boot into recovery or the bootloader?

Either way, it appears like the seller was aware of the issues. It doesn't necessarily mean that it is bricked, especially if you are getting sounds.

 

[Harlequenne]

I've got the battery out now, but I'm not sure how to boot into recovery or the bootloader.

 

[epidenimus]

Try just putting the battery back in and booting normally first.

If that does not work, take the battery out for a minute and replace... then hold down the following buttons:
Power + Volume Down + Home

After a few seconds, you should get a text-based program appear on your screen with a few options. Again, if this does not work, there are still some things to try.

 

[sfhub]

But the screen doesn't work. It glows, and the intensity of the glow changes as if it's doing things, but all I can see is a black screen. It even makes noises occasionally.

LG changed the LCD component midway through the product cycle. The new LCD requires new drivers which aren't present on older ROMs. If you run an older ROM with the new LCD, it'll work, as in the buttons work, you can swipe the touch screen, etc., just there will be no visual feedback.

Most likely what happened is the seller "restored" the phone to stock ROM using a guide that had an older ROM. They may or may not have checked to make sure the phone works after restoring stock ROM.

If all this is true, then you can get your phone working again. What you should do is run the ZVD update.zip from this thread:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/lg...67361-how-simplified-unroot-return-stock.html

Skip step #2 as you probably have stock recovery (though it is not assured)

There are pictures on how to perform the operations "blind". You need to look at the pictures and visualize the button presses interacting with the menus in the pictures. I listed the # of button presses needed at each point also.

After you are done, you should be able to boot into Android. If it gets stuck at the Android logo for more than 7 minutes, do the procedure listed in Step 3, Note #1.