LG G Vista 2 "Unfortunately System UI Has Stopped"

[Phoenix864]

Hi all,

I've got an LG G Vista 2 that I've been trying to turn into a audiobook/podcast/mp3 player after decommissioning it from use as a cellphone about a year ago. However, whenever I boot the phone the screen remains black and a popup appears saying: "Unfortunately System UI has stopped". When tapping "ok" to close the popup the screen remains black and shortly later another popup appears, effectively preventing any interfacing with the device. Even keeping the power down menu open long enough to turn off the phone is a struggle.

It seems like the most common recommendation online is to factory reset the phone through recovery mode - I have tried that several times, each time the popup comes up even before going through the Android setup process. The same popup comes up even in safe mode. I'm at a loss of what to do: I have no way to interface with the phone, through the device still seems to work fine. I'm wondering if this issue is possibly caused by a hardware fault that is manifesting in a software issue, or if the OS install is just incredibly corrupted.

Is there any way to reinstall Android on the phone without being able to access its GUI? Being a lower end phone from several years ago it is rather hard to find OEM ROMs online, though even if I had a ROM I wouldn't know exactly what to do. I would appreciate any recommendations on where to go from here.

Thanks.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! See if you can boot into Safe Mode. First, pull the battery to force a shutdown. Reinsert it, then power the phone on. As soon as you see the boot logo, press and hold Vol Down until the homescreen shows up. Does it give you a Safe Mode indicator anywhere, and does the error message go away?

 

[Phoenix864]

I did try booting the phone in safe mode. The small marking in the bottom of the screen with "safe mode" appeared, but the otherwise black screen and the "Unfortioantly System UI has stopped" remained.

 

[B. Diddy]

In that case, I'd suspect corrupt firmware. You could try reinstalling the firmware, but I'm not sure how complicated that is. Check the forums at XDA-Developers.com to see if anyone has a tutorial on it.

 

[Phoenix864]

Yeah, it definitely looks to be a firmware issue - especially since it keeps reoccurring after a factory reset. I've created a thread on the XDA forums but unfortunately have not gotten any replies yet. The largest issue with this phone is unlocking the bootloader (if it's even possible) seems to require going the the UI, and the recovery menu (what happens when I boot the phone with vol down and power button pressed) has been entirely neutered, it only allows me to reset the phone. So at this point it just seems to be about learning how to flash a new OS onto the phone, even if it's the stock OS build.

 

[mustang7757]

Yeah, it definitely looks to be a firmware issue - especially since it keeps reoccurring after a factory reset. I've created a thread on the XDA forums but unfortunately have not gotten any replies yet. The largest issue with this phone is unlocking the bootloader (if it's even possible) seems to require going the the UI, and the recovery menu (what happens when I boot the phone with vol down and power button pressed) has been entirely neutered, it only allows me to reset the phone. So at this point it just seems to be about learning how to flash a new OS onto the phone, even if it's the stock OS build.

If your going reflash the stock firmware , no need to unlock the bootloader.

 

[Phoenix864]

Unfortunately being a lower end LG device from several years ago makes it very difficult to find an OEM ROM for the phone. Is there a way to flash something else without having to root the phone? I would also be up for rooting if it's possible to do without being able to access recovery mode (for some reason the stock ROM did away with it) or the GUI.

 

[mustang7757]

Unfortunately being a lower end LG device from several years ago makes it very difficult to find an OEM ROM for the phone. Is there a way to flash something else without having to root the phone? I would also be up for rooting if it's possible to do without being able to access recovery mode (for some reason the stock ROM did away with it) or the GUI.

I'm not familiar with LG flashing or root , might be better off checking XDA forums for that as others have mentioned.