Help Bionic stuck at red M

[zyberwoof]

My Bionic is stuck at the first screen with the red circle with the white M when it is plugged in, and won't respond when unplugged. My phone was drained of the battery fully last night, and I have left it plugged into the wall for a few hours now.

I saw a similar post (Stuck on the Droid Bionic red circle screen), but I wanted to ask how I should handle my situation. My phone is rooted, has SafeStrap, and I was running Mokee 4.4. I have a full Titanium backup on my microSD card for all of my apps, and I'm used to putting new ROM's on my device, so I don't mind wiping everything if necessary. In fact, I plan on getting a new phone in a month or two, so I just want to get this device working again for a bit.

I'm guessing there is a nice post online somewhere describing how to recover from this point. Could someone point me in the right direction? Since I'm not running Stock, I didn't know if that complicates things.

 

[Thom]

Welcome to Android Forums.

Are you using the original battery? I needed to replace mine ... E-bay OEM battery was $14.

If yes then we could move this to the all-things-root sub-forum to ask about software issues.

... Thom

 

[BRAINZ2013]

Hello and welcome to the forums. I have had that problem . how I fixed was pulled the battery . wait for 30sec and place battery back in a hey hey what do you say it works . . now I don't know if you did the safestrap update to the 3.7 . but my device runs great with mokee . trying out pacman with the speed kernel so so so far. But try the battery pulling . if it works guess what no data lost or resetting.

 

[zyberwoof]

I updated to the latest version of Safestrap a month or two ago. I've tried pulling the battery and waiting, and I've tried holding down all 3 buttons. Both end up at the same screen.

And the battery is about 2 months old, and hasn't shown any signs of aging.

I'm fine with this being put in whatever forum this should be in.

 

[BRAINZ2013]

The problem is you don't hold down all 3buttons you only tap the power button and the safestrap does its thing all you do is tap the power button when you see the m for Motorola next the mokee splash come up . don't hold all 3buttons just tap the power

 

[zyberwoof]

I got it. I plugged my phone into my PC and instead of the M, I got the white LED light. Then I remembered that I had seen topics about a "white light of death". The problem was the battery is too low to charge.

I grabbed my old battery and put it in and the phone came right up. Unfortunately, that other battery is 2 years old, and doesn't last very long. But, at least I know the cause, and the easy solution is a new battery.

I did try multiple chargers to charge the bad battery, but I didn't have any luck. I know there are other methods that might work for jump-starting the battery, but I'll just pay the $10 - $15 for a new battery if I want one.

Thank you both for your suggestions. I do appreciate people taking the time to try to help someone out.

 

[Thom]

Thanks for posting the conclusion ... it may help someone else.

... Thom

 

[BRAINZ2013]

You could just plug phone up with it on and it will charge . I had to do this for about a hour it worked .

 

[zyberwoof]

You could just plug phone up with it on and it will charge . I had to do this for about a hour it worked .

Maybe. Yesterday I had it plugged into a wall with the M logo for about 8 hours total. Every hour or two I'd try to reboot the device (while plugged in) with no luck. But in total, about 8 hours while at work.

I've read that usually that will fix it, but sometimes the battery is too far gone for that to work. The next step is to use the official battery charger if you have one, but that would cost more than a new battery. And I even read of someone peeling the label off of the battery and hooking bar wires directly to it to avoid the safeguards and force it to charge.

I may take time later to try to revive the battery. But for now, I'm just glad that I know of an easy solution.

 

[SNeitzel]

It has always amazed me that this particular bug still exists. The battery is too low to measure a charge so the phone cannot charge it. The fix is to charge the battery so the phone can read it. But the phone can't charge the battery because it is too low...

Your options are a standalone external battery charger, the are inexpensive and can prove useful. Or, there is a way to modify a micro USB cable to force charge the battery when the phone is turned off. There is a special name for that type of cable but I cannot remember it off hand.

 

[doogald]

I bought one of these when I had a Droid 3: http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Battery-Charger-Series-Batteries/dp/B005LFXBJ6

and I see that Amazon also sells this: Amazon.com: Motorola Battery Dock for BW & HW Standard and Extended Batteries for the XT875 DROID BIONIC, ATRIX 2 MB865 - Bulk Packaging: Cell Phones & Accessories

Pretty inexpensive and they are nice to have for situations like this.

 

[Thom]

... and you can try scanning for motorola droid bionic OEM battery in ebay.com.

I just did and they are $9 to $24.

... Thom

 

[zyberwoof]

Thanks y'all. Like I said, I plan on getting a new phone soon. My work will pay for it, and I'm hoping for a Nexus 6/X. So I may just get by with my old battery for now.

P. S. I've always had sporadic sluggishness with this device. Based on a suggestion by BRAINZ2013, I got the "ROM Toolbox" app. I wasn't sure for what to change, but I did recognize swappiness (I'm a Linux user). I turned it down to 10 from 60, and there has been a night and day difference for the past few hours. If this type of performance keeps up, I may hold off on a new phone for a while.

P. P. S. That standalone battery charger on Amazon.com is way cheaper than I expected. It's less than $5.

 

[SNeitzel]

FYI...
The cable is called a Fastboot Factory Cable.
They sell them on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Fastboot-Cable-N2A-Motorola/dp/B0099E59SG

An example on how to modify a regular cable:
How to Make Motorola Factory Cable to Unbrick Your Android! - YouTube

 

[BRAINZ2013]

Maybe. Yesterday I had it plugged into a wall with the M logo for about 8 hours total. Every hour or two I'd try to reboot the device (while plugged in) with no luck. But in total, about 8 hours while at work.

I've read that usually that will fix it, but sometimes the battery is too far gone for that to work. The next step is to use the official battery charger if you have one, but that would cost more than a new battery. And I even read of someone peeling the label off of the battery and hooking bar wires directly to it to avoid the safeguards and force it to charge.

I may take time later to try to revive the battery. But for now, I'm just glad that I know of an easy solution.

Feel free to spend your money but if you leave on charger for 3hours you will see that it will work . just leave alone on charger don't attempt to run the boot or recovery . cause that little bit of power that you charged up will blow just that fast . so 3hours and know what you want to do cause it only has one shot