LG V20 in Boot Loop : Solved (I think)

[BrokerDadFL]

Wife's V20 went into seemingly hopeless boot loop after being charged over night. It just went from black screen to that LG logo, and repeats.

After some researching about this phenomenon, specific to V20 (others like G4 is different), I found that after the Action Class lawsuit against LG mostly regarding the G4 which they claimed detached solder on pins of CPU chip, LG gave info on other models as they happened.

On the V20, LG claimed the cause was people using poor quality aftermarket USB-C cable/plugs. I did notice some cheap USB-C cable work only if you insert one way, but not the other.

So I inserted the USB-C cable, (one way then the other way) before putting the battery in place. And YES, it booted one way, but not the other. The best clue was to insert the USB-C with the jointed side of the metal portion facing down, away from the screen.

In Cheap USB-C plug, the metal portion of the plug is really a flat piece of metal rounded up to join together as a hollowed plug. Put the side of the plug where the opposite ends of this metal piece meet, face down (screen faced up).

Then it boots normally.

Just want to log this in, in case someone experienced the V20 boot loop.

It has to do with the cheap plug, not LG20 electronics.

 

[BrokerDadFL]

Further look into this problem, I found that bad USB C plug scrapes the metal connections inside the male connector in the phone.

We've got 3 V20s, so I can compare. I take care of mine very carefully, inserting plug always at right angle and softly push in. Viewing mine and others, mine is nice and clean inside while the problem one is scruffed up inside. I suspect that some metal strip got peeled off partially and make unwanted contact to other strips.

If this boot loop problem remains pervasive, I'm thinking about
1. desolder the USB C connection off the board. We just switch batteries that are charged outside.

2. Put in permanent Q charging coil/pad for wireless charging.

Also, I note that some people drop saliva into the connector charger and it worked for them. May saliva act as lubricant or help conducting??

For now, every boot requires playing with the charger, and wet, plug.

Stay tuned.

 

[Chromium 4]

Thinks for sharing. Gladly I haven't had that or any other major problems with my 2.5 year old H-918. I also avoided the great G4 bootloop debacle and my device ran well right up until the day I traded it in for a big discount on my Note 8. I've had a routine for all of my phones that have kept them running smooth for years:
1) Regularly clear cache', cookies,
data and browsing history
especially on Chrome.
2) Restart phone once a week.
3) Reboot into recovery mode and.
clear partition cache after major.
software updates.
4) Don't install major software
updates until the bugs are worked
out.
5) Keep app versions updated.
This system has so far worked for me for every phone I've owned from LG to Samsung.

 

[BrokerDadFL]

Those are good conservative practices !!

Update: Once the damage to the USB-C (male) terminal gets started, it only goes downhill from there.
Metal conductors inside of it get ripped up partially from the base (you wouldn't know which ones) then electrically contact the others. So you'd end up feeding either power or ground to a connection that doesn't want it.

Potential solution is to replace the USB-C fixture on the board, but that's a tough job. You'd likely damage the board anyway.

The use of Saliva is a plausible solution only if you'd want to boot it up long enough to save your info (pics, docs, etc.) to a microSD, but not even a medium term solution. Combination of saliva and electrical current will corrode the terminal within the hour.

Save the darn thing for parts, if you do own more than one V20.