What is the difference between a hard and soft brick?

[Hopeless One]

Difference between hard and soft brick

Hey everybody. I'm sorry if I'm posting this to wrong forum or if thia question was previously asked (tried searching, didn't find anything yet). I wondered what is the difference between soft and hard "brick". As far as I know, there is a way to revive your device from soft brick. Hard brick is only fixable by changing the motherboard am I right?

Also would like to know (God forbid) but if anytime I'll brick my phone, how do I determine wether it is a soft or a hard brick?

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[jaboop]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

soft brick = recoverable without professional repair; hard brick = not recoverable, it's basically a paper weight

Sent from my Nexus 7 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Hopeless One]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

But how do I know if phone is soft bricked or all the way hard?

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[jaboop]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

Can you boot it into recovery? If not I'm sorry but... Its moved onto a better place

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[Hopeless One]

You must have misunderstood me, I'm not suffering from any kind of brick. I was just asking if someday (hopefully never) it will happen to me or any of my friends I would know what to do..

Well anyways, thank you for help

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[gollum18]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

You must have misunderstood me, I'm not suffering from any kind of brick. I was just asking if someday (hopefully never) it will happen to me or any of my friends I would know what to do..

Well anyways, thank you for help

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

If that's what you wanted to know, here you go.

A soft brick, is usually just when you're phone is stuck in a bootloop, and as the name implies, is caused by a software error, usually the lack of a system to boot from or some other minor software bug that glitching boot. They are easily fixable by reflashing your ROM in recovery.

Now then, as mentioned earlier a hard brick is where you're device won't boot at all. You have to either repair it yourself, using a JTAG or send it into a JTAG service to have it fixed. These are usually caused by people flashing ROMs or kernels not meant for their device. Flashing a ROM not meant for your device, can throw your system through a loop, because it also flashes the kernel.

The kernel is what allows your phones software to interact with the hardware. It contains all the necessary info for boot, and also your phones drivers. There's a line in the kernel called "bootclasspath", and if this isn't what it should be for your device, you will get a hard brick, as this line tells your phone how to boot.

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[Hopeless One]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

Thank you very much! This is exactly what I wanted to know.

Posted via Android Central App from a Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[anon(6174973)]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

A soft brick is usually caused by a dirty flash. This can be fixed by flashing the original rom.

A hard brick means that your phone is as good as dead.

Sent from my HP Slate 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Jitendra Raghuwanshi1]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

guys i was trying to do a backup in CWM recovery and then i reset my galaxy core to factory settings then it was stucked in CWM menu and now when i start my cell thr is a yello logo triangle whatever u call it and then my cell goes to recovery option what should i do ihve tried factory reset.....but problem is still there my phone is in recovery menu is this is a hard brick please help....!!

 

[Mark Jayson Andaya]

can still do the hard bricks?

can still do the hard bricks?
please help me

- - - Updated - - -

can still do the hard bricks?

 

[anilkumar pingili]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

hi , can you help me get ride off problem

i had rooted my karbonn s5 n it successfull rooted that ok

after that i had installed various apps

superuser, cleaner etc,

and i also installed "chainfire 3d" and i had give permission to superuser to root access

and again i had given the permission to chainfire 3d to root access

then my phone gone to booting

for 1 to 2 minutes

and i taken out battery

and kept again

now the phone is not opening ie only showing booting screen

please help me

my phone model is karbonn titanium s5 andriod version 4.1.0 jelly bean

pls help me i bought it just 5 months before

pls help me

 

[My-kl Embryon]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

hi , can you help me get ride off problem

i had rooted my karbonn s5 n it successfull rooted that ok

after that i had installed various apps

superuser, cleaner etc,

and i also installed "chainfire 3d" and i had give permission to superuser to root access

and again i had given the permission to chainfire 3d to root access

then my phone gone to booting

for 1 to 2 minutes

and i taken out battery

and kept again

now the phone is not opening ie only showing booting screen

please help me

my phone model is karbonn titanium s5 andriod version 4.1.0 jelly bean

pls help me i bought it just 5 months before

pls help me

You need to re-flash the ROM using Odin or Heimdall and a USB cable. I had the same problem yesterday and I fixed it.

 

[aldrinn]

what do you mean by dirty flash

 

[Vella Neeraj]

i have Micromax android one.
first i root it.
then install cm11 them it not boot it struck on micromax logo.
then i try to flash it by sp flash tool.
and not it shownig nothing.
i want to know is it hard brick or soft brick

 

[Dysanix]

what do you mean by dirty flash

A dirty flash is when you already flashed a ROM, let's say Cyanogenmod 11 (KitKat), and then without doing a data/factory reset in the recovery, you flash a newer ROM on it (let's say Cyanogenmod 12 (Lolipop)). SOMETIMES this can work, but 95% of the time it won't without glitches.

This won't kill your device, merely a chance for a softbrick. When that happens, you just go to the bootloader > recovery and then data/factory reset, and you install the newer ROM.

You will lose your apps and data, though, that's why some people try a dirty flash first.

i have Micromax android one.
first i root it.
then install cm11 them it not boot it struck on micromax logo.
then i try to flash it by sp flash tool.
and not it shownig nothing.
i want to know is it hard brick or soft brick

Does it still boot?
Did you put a recovery on it, or did you immediately flash through ADB?
Always put a custom recovery on it... if you didn't, it could be fixed through the default recovery.
Just tell me what you see, exactly.

 

[raghu ruku]

yesterday i received lollipop update for my micromax Yu yureka,and by night i accidentally un locked the bootloader by using kitkat root files instead of lollipop by the my mobile is bricked.So, can you tell me what should i do now...here bricked means it goes to the fast boot mode and when ever i start the phone logo will come come(companies)...

 

[DaVeNuE]

Since my problem seems related to the above, I'll post here. I hope that is okay.

I have Galaxy S3 4.4.3 stock; I had added Wanam Xposed and a bunch of related modules. Since the torch/flashlight was working right, I installed a flashlight fixer module. After doing so, and rebooting, the reboot process gets stuck at the Verizon screen and does not go anywhere after that..

I cannot enter recovery mode by pressing "upper-volume, home & power keys"; I can however enter download mode by pressing "lower volume", home & power keys. I had previously done a complete phone backup via Titanium which is on my SD card. I would appreciate knowing if there is something I can do to get my phone working properly. Thanks for any help with this!

 

[Fedginator]

Re: Difference between hard and soft brick

Soft brick can be fixed with recovery and or computer
Hard brick is broken for good

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[DaVeNuE]

I guess maybe I should have started a new thread... I'm not sure if your reply Fedginator addresses R. Ruku's problem, mine, or both.

Is my situation soft brick or hard brick?

 

[Rukbat]

For a Samsung phone, as long as you can get to the Download screen, see [Samsung] How to flash Stock ROM via ODIN. That's a soft brick, and once you have the file(s) (one or 3, depending on whether you get an all-in-one file or 3 separate files), it's 10 minutes of nail-biting the first time, 10 minutes of patience the second time and, by the 10th time you flash a ROM, you wish you had some grass to watch growing - it's more exciting. (I usually just start the flash, then go into the living room and watch TV. Multitasking is easy when one of the tasks is staring at a monitor that's not doing much.)

(The technical difference is that a soft brick does something wrong. A hard brick and a phone without a battery do the same thing - nothing. If the phone does anything at all, it's a soft brick.)