Bricked Phones

[Skunkape60]

I have been seeing the term bricked way to much here. The term shouldn't be thrown around so lightly.

A bricked phone is a phone that can't be fixed. I have seen the term used for bad flashes, phones bootlooping, phones hung up on the Samsung screen. Phone not going into recovery. None of these phones were bricked.

A Samsung phone is not truly bricked until the phone losses it's ability go into download mode.

All of these false reports of bricking phones, does nothing other than cause fear of rooting. Reports of bricked devices is probably the #1 reason people fear rooting their phones.

So far i have only seen 2 truly bricked Sprint Version Galaxy S3's. And that's from both this forum and the XDA forums.

When you state you bricked your phone and then come back a day later with well I went back to stock or flashed a new rom and fixed it, truly minimizes what a bricked device is. A bricked phone is one that CANNOT be repaired. With a Sprint Samsung GS3, that means no download mode.

Take it from someone who's bricked his share of phones. "Crying Wolf" does more harm than good.

 

[spagman]

Well said... If anything they should use the term "soft bricked" which is recoverable.

Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Skunkape60]

Well said... If anything they should use the term "soft bricked" which is recoverable.

Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

Other than the guys who flashed the international ROM's and the format all zip (these are examples of a soft brick), the recent reports weren't even soft bricked.

 

[Gator352]

I agree Skunkape60 and thanks for clearing it up for some who don't know!

 

[trekkie1701c]

Well said... If anything they should use the term "soft bricked" which is recoverable.

Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

Personally I just say I crashed it. If I mess around with Windows settings and my computer won't boot? I either call it a boot loop, or say it's crashed. I would say "soft-brick" would be like Skunkape says, where the phone is in a state that, while recoverable by the end-user, requires some advanced knowledge and more work than just simply doing a reflash.

I mean, brick implies something really, really bad happen. I've had a phone brick on me before (LG Optimus S kept rebooting at LG logo. Would not boot to recovery or emergency mode, no response to adb - or even any response to a USB connection at all, Windows didn't recognize it enough to even say it had been connected - and no response when the techs hooked it up to see if they could restore it). I've also had numerous other issues with not booting or other random issues that took five seconds to fix. Why use the same - or similar - term to describe both? It's like saying "Yeah, man, I totaled my car yesterday!" "Really, well when are you getting a new car?" "Well technically it was a soft total, they just had to replace the bumper."

 

[ttriplett1]

Thanks for addressing this; I've had the same thought reading through the forums. I've had bad flashes on some phones but never referred to them as bricked. If it's truly bricked there is no need to ask for help on the forums, it's too late.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

 

[trekkie1701c]

Thanks for addressing this; I've had the same thought reading through the forums. I've had bad flashes on some phones but never referred to them as bricked. If it's truly bricked there is no need to ask for help on the forums, it's too late.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Android Central Forums

I think it's fine to ask if it's bricked. For this particular phone especially, rooting and installing a ROM doesn't require any real technical skill. As such, if my phone were to suddenly stop booting, I'd definitely ask here first to see if it's really a brick, or if there's something that's being over looked. No sense to go to the sprint store just because you don't know what to do.

 

[Skunkape60]

I think it's fine to ask if it's bricked. For this particular phone especially, rooting and installing a ROM doesn't require any real technical skill. As such, if my phone were to suddenly stop booting, I'd definitely ask here first to see if it's really a brick, or if there's something that's being over looked. No sense to go to the sprint store just because you don't know what to do.

Asking if it's bricked is one thing. Claiming it's bricked when it's not is another. I'm just trying to get everyone in the same sheet of music. People read about bricked phones and it naturally puts fear in you. These phone aren't like the gs2's which were fairly easy to brick.

The gs3 is a very difficult phone to brick. Unless you really screw up, they are very forgiving. As long as you stick to a few rules you should never have a bricked phone.

1. never flash a rom, mod or kernel not meant for you specific phone and carrier.

2. Never wipe or format anything but cache partition, dalvik, data / factory reset or system.

Sure you will occasionally get a bad download and get buggy ROM's. But those are easy to recover from.

 

[sinisin]

Reading through a lot of these threads, so takes me back to my noob days. Can't help but LOL a little... Not to be an ass, just brings back memories. I've had 6 devices now including my S3 here. I've rooted them all. Never even been close to a brick. I wish they were all as easy to root and handle as this was. Took me 2 hours after I got home with it from Best Buy. And it wouldn't have even been that long but like a dope I let it OTA which gave me some problems in the recovery area.

ROOT OR DIE!

 

[spagman]

Well... Anyway you want to call it, but if you flashed a rom/kernel/modem and you can't access download or recovery mode or have no signs of power on your device don't throw away your phone ... I jtag and chances are its fixable. Just Pm me.

Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Skunkape60]

Well... Anyway you want to call it, but if you flashed a rom/kernel/modem and you can't access download or recovery mode or have no signs of power on your device don't throw away your phone ... I jtag and chances are its fixable. Just Pm me.

Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

I wish i had the jtag available when i bricked my two epics. I lost my download mode in both of them. Ended up leaving the epic for the nexus because of it. While the Nexus s4g was nice. I was let down a little with the pure Google experience. AOSP was missing some of the things I liked with my epic and was unavailable with the nexus.

Absolutely hated voice.

 

[dragonize1]

Ok so this is the first thread/forum I have read that sort of makes sense... I can without reserve say I am a newbie in that I have not turned to a forum before to get help. I have had a Razor, the LG flip phone and now my LG Vortex v2.2.2.... and until I let my nephew mess with it, I have not had any problems. My problem seems to be a common one: text messages are rejected because the memory is full - it isn't full, I have deleted all texts, and cleared as much of the caches that I can.... I went to the Verizon store and ended up sittng around for over half an hour waiting for someone to tell me to turn the phone off, remove the battery and it will clear the error message or he could do a factory reboot/hard clear and start from scratch....Well not sure that I liked that answer, I left the store and searched the computer. The other problem I am having since that time is the computer not recognizing my phone when connected via my usb. I can no longer download my pics/videos to my laptop....So please humor a newbie and I am open to suggestions. I can call, text, send pics and post to FB, videos too and I also use Square up on my phone for selling my jewery...so I am not stupid until you start talking about rooting etc...I am on Verizon and like my Vortex, am considering an Iphone (will never go any further I think) but really am comfortable with the android system.It is a real pain in the a** to go thru the wsystems and see what is running, clear cashes and then check the system to see that I have more than enough memory available despite the warnings....

 

[Almeuit]

This should be stickied .

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC fourms

 

[ooMOSSBERGoo]

ok you guys might be talking about me well just happened to earlier was trying to find that revolution hd for sprint s3 couldn t find spoke on it i xda and some one posted a tread to direct download looked rightso here we go i was in ttrwp recovery look good super wpied installed reboot phone goes throught the motions turns off like it was about to reboot now no power imhoping to find some way to get into download mode with out a jig side note reason im unsure if its hard bricked my led lights still work

 

[Skunkape60]

If you don't get into download mode you are basically hard bricked. The jig may help.

 

[ce2dope]

I bricked my iPhone. To clarify my previous statement: after the ridiculous court ruling, I took a brick and smashed my iPhone for causing stress to the Android community.

 

[Lotusincorporated]

I truly bricked my Galaxy s3 ATT it wont even boot up to a download mode so i could refirmware it to stock. When i press the power button it wont turn on. If i press power+home+volume down no response either. I can assure you its not a power source problem the battery is fine and theres no physical/weather damage to it. I tried using Kies to emergency refirmware it but it does not detect the device. This happened after i installed Mike's Revolution HD custom Rom on it. It all went fine (the instalation in the download mode/safe mode) but after the instalation was complete it told me to fully reboot the phone which i did and then boom, i get the brick status. My assumption is that i may have rooted the phone twice. Could this be a problem that causes this? Well so far my best bet is to go to ATT and try to replace it i know modifying the phone voids the warranty but they have no proof since the phone cannot even be detected through a usb, speaking of which... When i connect it to a computer via usb i get the "usb connected sound" and then a fail to recognise the device sound 4-5 seconds after. Please help. Any advice is much appreciated

 

[cyanogen-man]

I soft bricked mine in the root process (faulty data cable) h boot recovery bam back to stock UK what you mean didn't clear the dalvic boot loop yet again recovery its a strap learning curve but its trial by fire and now I help npobies when I can root is awsume!! Just be careful!!!"

INSPIRE AOKP ICE COLD SANDWICH ROM

 

[cyanogen-man]

I truly bricked my Galaxy s3 ATT it wont even boot up to a download mode so i could refirmware it to stock. When i press the power button it wont turn on. If i press power+home+volume down no response either. I can assure you its not a power source problem the battery is fine and theres no physical/weather damage to it. I tried using Kies to emergency refirmware it but it does not detect the device. This happened after i installed Mike's Revolution HD custom Rom on it. It all went fine (the instalation in the download mode/safe mode) but after the instalation was complete it told me to fully reboot the phone which i did and then boom, i get the brick status. My assumption is that i may have rooted the phone twice. Could this be a problem that causes this? Well so far my best bet is to go to ATT and try to replace it i know modifying the phone voids the warranty but they have no proof since the phone cannot even be detected through a usb, speaking of which... When i connect it to a computer via usb i get the "usb connected sound" and then a fail to recognise the device sound 4-5 seconds after. Please help. Any advice is much appreciated

Interesting did you try taking out the sum card?? If your getting a sound deff something is there maybe a messed up file on the root of the SD??

INSPIRE AOKP ICE COLD SANDWICH ROM

 

[Skunkape60]

I truly bricked my Galaxy s3 ATT it wont even boot up to a download mode so i could refirmware it to stock. When i press the power button it wont turn on. If i press power+home+volume down no response either. I can assure you its not a power source problem the battery is fine and theres no physical/weather damage to it. I tried using Kies to emergency refirmware it but it does not detect the device. This happened after i installed Mike's Revolution HD custom Rom on it. It all went fine (the instalation in the download mode/safe mode) but after the instalation was complete it told me to fully reboot the phone which i did and then boom, i get the brick status. My assumption is that i may have rooted the phone twice. Could this be a problem that causes this? Well so far my best bet is to go to ATT and try to replace it i know modifying the phone voids the warranty but they have no proof since the phone cannot even be detected through a usb, speaking of which... When i connect it to a computer via usb i get the "usb connected sound" and then a fail to recognise the device sound 4-5 seconds after. Please help. Any advice is much appreciated

I hate to tell you but you are the cause of this bricked phone. You broke the #1 rule so forgive me for using you as an example. This is what will happen if you flash a ROM NOT MEANT FOR YOUR PHONE. There's a reason that the forums are separate. You can NOT flash a rom on you phone not meant for it. Mike's Revolution HD is made for the international version GS3.

ONLY FLASH ITEMS MADE FOR YOUR PHONE & CARRIER. If you disregard this rule, you will brick your phone 100% of the time.

As for what will happen when you return it to AT&T. You are likely correct. If you can't get it into download mode, most likely they can't either.