Help Botched update/emergency mode... bricked?

[seanre453]

Hello, AF! First time poster, long time reader.

In a nutshell, I believe I've inadvertently bricked my phone by way of a botched update. I checked for an update yesterday on the LG update program and, low and behold, there was. All was well until the update was about 60% complete, then it tells me there was a communication error with the phone. I follow the instructions, unplug it, remove and reseat the battery and reconnected it. It turns on fine, LG bootscreen loads, telus bootscreen loads and holds on the animated android bootscreen. I restart the update from the computer as per the programs instruction, and again, part way through, it tells me there was a communication issue.
After this second botched attempt, the phone now loads the LG bootscreen, then immediately cuts to and hangs on the yellow "Emergency Mode!" screen. With the battery attached, the computer will not recognize the phone at all. Though, strangely, if I remove the battery and attach it to the computer, the computer will recognize it, identifying as "LGE Android Platform Composite USB Device" in the device manager. To clarify, it hangs on the "Emergency Mode!" screen regardless of whether the battery is attached or not, which is what I find strange. Attaching it to the computer with the battery removed, I opened the update program. It does identify with the program initially, but the program freezes about 6 bars into the "Checking the connection with the cell phone" routine and will effectively "un-hang" itself if I disconnect the phone from the computer.
To note, I consider myself fairly technologically competent, but this has totally thrown me for a loop. I'm under the impression the emergency mode is specifically for directly flashing the ROM, but the part that really confuses me is what the battery being attached has to do with it being identified by the computer. I'll assume, based on past experience and a bit of guess-work, that as long as it is still identifying with the computer in some capacity, and also assuming emergency mode is what I suspect it is, I should be able to re-flash the ROM by some method or another.

Sorry for the obscene length of the post, but I figure the more thorough I am, the more chance I have of finding a solution.

Thanks in advance!

 

[stepet]

mine did the first thing after the first update so i did what the website said now mine is stuck on the telus screen and wont get any further in the boot up, any idea who to call first... I do have the device protection plan from telus....

 

[seanre453]

Considering, at least in my case, I didn't cause the botched install, and there is nothing physically wrong with the phone, a repair case through telus or directly through LG should be covered regardless of any repair plans as long as your under warranty. Your best bet, unless we can find a fix here, is grudgingly trod down to your local telus booth with the original receipt, asking them if they could possibly send your device back with the update already installed, so as to avoid the identical happening with a different phone.
The only thing I could imagine would void the warranty is bricking by way of failed root, physical damage, or something caused directly by the user... but as far as I'm concerned, the LG update program buggered it up, LG should fix it. I'm just hoping someone can dream up a fix that actually works (fingers crossed) without me having to bring it to Telus... It's a three-week turn around time for repairs through them and I'd much rather waste a day or two fixing it DIY-style than 3 weeks without anything to tinker with.

 

[karendar]

Considering, at least in my case, I didn't cause the botched install, and there is nothing physically wrong with the phone, a repair case through telus or directly through LG should be covered regardless of any repair plans as long as your under warranty. Your best bet, unless we can find a fix here, is grudgingly trod down to your local telus booth with the original receipt, asking them if they could possibly send your device back with the update already installed, so as to avoid the identical happening with a different phone.
The only thing I could imagine would void the warranty is bricking by way of failed root, physical damage, or something caused directly by the user... but as far as I'm concerned, the LG update program buggered it up, LG should fix it. I'm just hoping someone can dream up a fix that actually works (fingers crossed) without me having to bring it to Telus... It's a three-week turn around time for repairs through them and I'd much rather waste a day or two fixing it DIY-style than 3 weeks without anything to tinker with.

There might be a way to fix it with fasbtoot, but you have to be pretty knowledgeable. And on top of that, this might not resolve the radio issue we've been having in the all things root forums. You're not the first one who's had communications issues after updating. I suggest exchanging it with Telus if possible.

In the meantime, if you were in the Montreal area I could help. Otherwise, without having a bricked phone in hand, can't do much to help you sadly...

 

[seanre453]

To clarify: I believe you mis-read my first post; the phone never finished upgrading, the commuication issue was between the computer and the phone during the update, which caused the 'brick'. As well, the phone was completely stock in every sense of the word, no mods, it wasn't rooted, etc. This, combined with what little I have read about Fastboot, leads me to assume Fastboot is not an option for my situation.

As a side-note: If and when I manage to fix the phone, I'm not concerned whether the radio works. If by radio you mean the FM radio or the GSM/CDMA radio, that is, as i bought the phone off-contract with the intent of using it, effectively, as a PDA. If by radio you mean the Wi-Fi or bluetooth radio, then yes, that could pose an issue.

 

[funpig]

Sean, I have had the LG 2.3.3 update interrupted on two of three phones. In each case, I did a battery pull and restarted the LG Mobile Update, clicked Customer Support and then Phone Recovery. The Update would then restart, continue and then tell me that my phone is up to date. But after the LG 2.3.3 update, my phone had some issues.

On one warranty replacement phone, I was able to do a complete LG 2.3.3 update without any interruption. However, that phone still had the same issues (crippled voice control and unstable wifi leading to occasional black screens which required battery pull).

 

[seanre453]

The recover phone option is no good, upon suggestion of multiple sites i've disabled the modem driver which does result in it being recognized by the application, but all it's given me is the 'fatal error' notification. Not a windows fatal error, mind you, theres a blurb in the update application itself. I spoke to LG tech support (totally useless, fyi), I explained to the CS rep my situation, and she had the gall to tell me they hadn't released an update. Which they did, thats how the phone busted to begin with.
She did, on the other hand, tell me they would "for sure" be issuing the update in the first 5 days of November. Is there any way to completely re-flash the rom from stock over usb without fastboot or any phone-based recovery method? Cause I'm not at all keen on the idea of sending off a 6-month old, fresh out of the box model and having them send back a year and a half old refurb model.

 

[karendar]

The recover phone option is no good, upon suggestion of multiple sites i've disabled the modem driver which does result in it being recognized by the application, but all it's given me is the 'fatal error' notification. Not a windows fatal error, mind you, theres a blurb in the update application itself. I spoke to LG tech support (totally useless, fyi), I explained to the CS rep my situation, and she had the gall to tell me they hadn't released an update. Which they did, thats how the phone busted to begin with.
She did, on the other hand, tell me they would "for sure" be issuing the update in the first 5 days of November. Is there any way to completely re-flash the rom from stock over usb without fastboot or any phone-based recovery method? Cause I'm not at all keen on the idea of sending off a 6-month old, fresh out of the box model and having them send back a year and a half old refurb model.

Gotta love LG... Have you attempted Fastboot? When you connect your phone, did you check device Manager to see if any hardware is detected? Because fastboot is the best solution I've found to recover bricked phones...

There's a procedure for the LG ally that might work, but the problem is someone would have to backup their root partition to supply it. This is from the LG Ally forum, our close cousin.

http://www.assembla.com/spaces/ks360/documents/aEZLwobzar3RzFeJe5afGb/download?filename=LG-Utils.zip

This is for the KP500 Util. If you look at this thread:

http://androidforums.com/ally-all-things-root/257859-unbrick-lg-ally-updated-3-2-2011-a.html

It gives an unbrick procedure. I just tried the tool and it lets you backup the root partition of the phone. Someone would have to do this procedure (Which doesn't seem simple) and supply this file, as we don't have a CAB file like the one supplied in the LG ally forum.

I can't really write a procedure as I'm not sure how it'd work out. But at least there's some information on a possible recovery.

If you do the first steps (Battery pull, slide out keyboard, hold 5 and plug in USB) maybe you'll be able to access the phone in fastboot mode?

Anyways, try it out! You have nothing to lose.

If you look at the all things root thread, Jiilik actually has a dump of the ROM! This might also help in flashing back your phone.

 

[karendar]

To clarify: I believe you mis-read my first post; the phone never finished upgrading, the commuication issue was between the computer and the phone during the update, which caused the 'brick'. As well, the phone was completely stock in every sense of the word, no mods, it wasn't rooted, etc. This, combined with what little I have read about Fastboot, leads me to assume Fastboot is not an option for my situation.

As a side-note: If and when I manage to fix the phone, I'm not concerned whether the radio works. If by radio you mean the FM radio or the GSM/CDMA radio, that is, as i bought the phone off-contract with the intent of using it, effectively, as a PDA. If by radio you mean the Wi-Fi or bluetooth radio, then yes, that could pose an issue.

And yes, I did read your post. Fastboot can be used as a means of recovering a phone *IF* the bootloader is intact. If the bootloader was updated, then a communication error occured, you could possibly save the phone... If the bootloader was flashing while the comm error happened, your phone is a paperweight sadly.

I found the full DZ ROM of 2.1 and Jiilik found the full 2.3 DZ ROM, here's a link for the Shine Plus DLL necessary for some flashing techniques: http://www.mediafire.com/?ewa7ryvdvi6df2i

We have all the necessary tools to fix the ROM, now just trial and error until we do manage to fix it.

 

[seanre453]

In that case, I believe I may have a $300 paperweight. Still under warranty though, now all I have to do is find the receipt... good luck haha. I'll keep you posted in my other thread.