[Verizon] I think my GNEX is bricked...Insurance vs Warranty?

VolsMcFalls said:

Here's what happened...

My phone ran out of juice yesterday evening. I plugged it into the car charger and it started charging. Once on, I enabled Fast Charge (AOKP Milestone 5). The phone immediately powered down and I haven't been able to get it to power back on since. I've tried battery pulls, USB connection (with and without battery), different chargers, everything. No dice. The phone will not respond at all. No battery charging notification on screen or anything. I've resigned myself to the fact that it's bricked.

So, here's me question...can I still have it replaced under warranty, or do I need to go insurance route? The phone us unlocked and rooted running an AOKP ROM. I believe this is supposed to void warranty. But, if it's dead, will they be able to tell that it's rooted and then come back at me for the full price of a new phone? Will they repair it as is or scrap it for parts?

Or, am I better off going through insurance? The folks at Verizon tell me that if there is no physical damage then I have to go through warranty. But, I can physically damage it if needed

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I would probably try to go the Warranty route. My understanding is "rooting" does void the warranty to an extent. Technically (I think) they can't refuse to cover physical failure because its rooted, but they sure will heck try.

If you can't get it to do anything, the tech. will probably just trash can it.

If you decide to go insurance just tell them you dropped it and it stopped working sometime after. (everyone's dropped they phone at some point)

disclaimer: the above are my best "guesses", whatever you do is at your own risk.

VolsMcFalls said:

I've resigned myself to the fact that it's bricked.

So, here's me question...can I still have it replaced under warranty, or do I need to go insurance route? The phone us unlocked and rooted running an AOKP ROM. I believe this is supposed to void warranty.

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I doubt the phone is bricked. As for the warranty, you may wish to watch this (forward to about 1:20)

Your Warranty is Not Void - YouTube

Edit: I'm sharing this for the OP's info. My intent is not to derail this thread. Please take this to one of the other off topic areas of the forum if you wish to discuss the video.

Crashumbc said:

If you decide to go insurance just tell them you dropped it and it stopped working sometime after. (everyone's dropped they phone at some point)

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That ^ is called insurance fraud. Not judging you, just saying... probably not a good idea to encourage illegal things like that here on the forums. We don't want to get the thread closed.

VolsMcFalls said:

Thanks for the help, but if it's not bricked, what would you call it?

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Could be a hardware issue or a software issue. A rogue app or corrupt system file(s) does not mean it's bricked.

VolsMcFalls said:

Got'cha. I just assumed "bricked" covered all actions that resulted in a non-responsive device.

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I'm betting there's a guide somewhere in the all things root section that might be able to help you do some things with the phone via ADB commands. I just fixed my OpV this morning. It would not come on.. till I tried emergency mode, then I was able to run some commands with an LG tool and some other tools (a 3 part series guide that took me all morning) that totally repaired the phone. I had done nothing to it and it just died one night out of the blue and wouldn't come back on.

Have a peek around the written guides and see if there's one that can help.

I'm not sure to be honest. This is where my knowledge goes out the window, and where I rely on the written guides for answers. I'm just too new with the G-Nex still.

I've moved this to the VZW ATR sub-forum to avoid confusion.

VolsMcFalls said:

I enabled Fast Charge (AOKP Milestone 5). The phone immediately powered down and I haven't been able to get it to power back on since.

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Have you tried a replacement battery? That's where I'd suggest looking first, in case the "Fast Charge" mode (which I assume increases the amperage) has damaged it somehow.

I've never had this problem, but my guess is the "Fast Charge" option might have been the culprit. I'm not really sure what it is, or how it works, but I'm assuming it's some method to make your phone charge faster. Unless fast charge is disabling your radio/background apps/etc., this most likely means it's drawing more voltage/current than the battery or connector is rated for. This method allows for your battery to charge faster, but is dangerous because whenever you exceed the ratings of a component, that component is now at risk of damage. Therefore, you could have shorted the battery or connector, and have fried the power supply to the phone.

A good test would be to try a different battery and see if you can power it on. If you can't, you'll probably want to go with either the warranty/insurance method. If you can, you now have a working phone, except you'll have to somehow charge your battery externally from the phone. I say this because you mentioned your phone will not turn on even without a battery and the microUSB connector inserted.

If you want to fix the problem yourself, you're going to need to test each individual component leading from the microUSB connector to the battery. If you feel comfortable with doing these things, it will be alot cheaper than warranty or insurance (I don't know how expensive warranty or insurance is, but fixing things yourself is almost always the cheaper option).

+1 to trying a second battery first.

Couple things. Maybe I missed it but I saw no mention of you trying to access the bootloader. Have you tried holding both volume buttons and the power button all at the same time for several seconds to bring up the bootloader screen? If so, I'd also try a 5 minute battery pull. For whatever reason, that seems to have brought several Gnex's back to life that were written off as hard bricked.

buy this:

Amazon.com: Anker Multi-Purpose Universal Rapid Cell phone Battery Charger for HTC: Sensation 4G XE XL, Radar, Sprint EVO 4G, AT&T Inspire 4G, Vivid 4G, Incredible 2 ; Samsung: Galaxy S II S2 I9100, T-Mobile T989, Sprint Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy Nexus P


charge battery and see what happens

cheaper than having to buy another battery (although a second battery is handy)

For the uninitiated, the "Fast Charge" feature usually shorts out the USB data lines (USB2 has two differential data lines), which tricks the phone into thinking it's on a wall charger, and pulling up to 1A of current. It generally works fine, though it does break USB spec and can harm older motherboards/hubs. A side affect of this is that the data lines are shorted, so the computer won't recognize anything being plugged in. If it's stuck in Fast Charge mode, you'll never see it come up on the computer.

I recommend trying to charge the battery externally if possible. If that fails, definitely try getting into the bootloader, which will run it's own kernel (sort of...I don't think it's a full fledged kernel) which might allow you to get to recovery, or at least some ADB access.

It's unlikely that you've caused a hardware problem with the Micro USB connector, or anything else, though it is possible you've caused some damage to traces on the PCB or the USB data pins on the MCU.

so you were able to try adb after the battery got charged?

VolsMcFalls said:

Thanks for all the help. A couple of things to add...

I took the phone to Verizon and they confirmed that the battery is ok - they tried it in another phone and it would charge and hold a charge. They also tried a fully charged battery in my phone and it wouldn't power up. They also confirmed that the phone will not charge with any charger.

So, it appears to be two problems. 1) the phone will not power on, regardless of the power source. And 2) my micro USB does not seem to be working. They are sending me a new one under warranty replacement, but I'm worried that Samsung will get mine to work, realize it's rooted, and try to charge me $500 for the one they are sending me. But, seeing as no on has been able to get the phone to work, I doubt that happens.

Also, I tried bootloader and got nothing. I was hoping to be able to salvage it with adb commands, but my computer will not recognize it at all when plugged up.

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I wouldn't worry, the chances are extremely small that

a. they CAN get it working (most likely the tech will slam a new board in it, and throw it on the refurbished pile).

or

b. If they DO get it working, the tech will just push a new image to it and throw it on the refurbished pile.