Root Android Boot loop - Is my device dead?

ranm · Oct 24, 2015

Hello All,

This is my fiest post at the forum.
I've come to a point where I'm on the verge of giving up.

A few days ago my Nexus 5 entered a boot loop without me doing anything special with it - it was just in my pocket.
All see is the google logo for a few seconds , then the screen goes down for a few more, and back to the google logo.

I'm able to go into fastboot by hold down the volume down (only) button when this happens, but the boot loop happens when I choose to boot into recovery mode.
My device has an unlocked bootloader.

I have fast boot access and no ADB (ADB wait-for-device doesn't work).
Went over this tutorial and flashed a completely new image:
http://androidforums.com/threads/guide-how-to-flash-a-nexus-factory-image-manually.706533/
The entire process worked, but the phone is still at the same state.

I've read that there is and issue with the power button on these devices - so I tried all methods of knocking it against stuff without success.
I've taken it to a lab nearby and the guy there was sure it was the power button. He said he fixed about 50 of these already - after a few hours he called me up and said he had replaced the power button 3 times and he's giving up.

in short , this is the current situation :
1. Device stuck in bootloop - only google logo is seen
2. can boot into fastboot (and have fastboot access from PC) but can't boot into recovery
3. flushing a stock succeeds but won't help
4. power button seems o.k.

I am about to call this a bricked phone and look for a new one but something inside me tells me that this might still be a software issue and can be fixed.
I would be happy to know if there is a way to know what is failing in the boot sequence. or maybe load a debug application on to the device to check the HW. I've yet to find any help in that direction.
I'm a software eng. working in the cellular comm. field, so I'm up for anything that anyone has in mind.

Thanks,
Ran.

Hadron · Oct 24, 2015

You've flashed a factory image but nothing changed. Assuming there were no errors during the flashing that doesn't leave much scope for software. But OK, since you can get into fastboot but not recovery, try flashing a custom recovery for this phone. You should visit our Nexus 5 forum's root section for advice on where to find that (though I imagine the XDA-developers Nexus 5 Original Android Development forum would be a good place to look). The recovery has to be for the specific device.

When you find a recovery for the N5, use fastboot to flash it, and if you still can't enter recovery mode then I would think there is probably something wrong with the device hardware. If it works then a custom recovery should also give you ADB, and then you just need to install a ROM.

(As noted, the factory image not fixing it doesn't give me confidence. But as I don't own a Nexus there may be a subtlety that I'm not aware of).

scary alien · Oct 24, 2015

Welcome to our AndroidForums, ranm...sorry that it's under these circumstances, though

.

I've moved your thread over here to the Nexus 5 area for you (oh, and I already see one of our finest members has already replied!

-- thanks, @Hadron!).

scary alien · Oct 24, 2015

By the way, I left your thread here in the main N5 area and not the root area for the time being since your issues aren't specifically (yet) root-related or complicated enough that the root area would be the best place for it (that may change, though).

So, just to be clear, you did say that you flashed the stock / factory image? If so, how did you do this?

Omar Days · Oct 24, 2015

Try mashing/massaging the power button for about half a minute.

Mine sometimes acts up and goes in a boot loop. The trick, in my case at least, is to press and hold the power button like you normally would to turn the phone on, just as the google logo disappears when it's going through the boot loop.

After that, I recommend you d/load and install gravity screen to wake the device using the phone's various sensors instead, and try and not press the power button as much as you can.

Been like that on my phone for past year and a bit. Can not wait until my Nexus 6p arrives.

ranm · Oct 25, 2015

Hadron said:
You've flashed a factory image but nothing changed. Assuming there were no errors during the flashing that doesn't leave much scope for software. But OK, since you can get into fastboot but not recovery, try flashing a custom recovery for this phone. You should visit our Nexus 5 forum's root section for advice on where to find that (though I imagine the XDA-developers Nexus 5 Original Android Development forum would be a good place to look). The recovery has to be for the specific device.

When you find a recovery for the N5, use fastboot to flash it, and if you still can't enter recovery mode then I would think there is probably something wrong with the device hardware. If it works then a custom recovery should also give you ADB, and then you just need to install a ROM.

(As noted, the factory image not fixing it doesn't give me confidence. But as I don't own a Nexus there may be a subtlety that I'm not aware of).

Thanks, I'll try that. I've only tried the stock recovery so far.

scary alien said:
By the way, I left your thread here in the main N5 area and not the root area for the time being since your issues aren't specifically (yet) root-related or complicated enough that the root area would be the best place for it (that may change, though).

So, just to be clear, you did say that you flashed the stock / factory image? If so, how did you do this?

I have access to fastboot only - so I did it from there.

Omar Days said:
Try mashing/massaging the power button for about half a minute.

Mine sometimes acts up and goes in a boot loop. The trick, in my case at least, is to press and hold the power button like you normally would to turn the phone on, just as the google logo disappears when it's going through the boot loop.

After that, I recommend you d/load and install gravity screen to wake the device using the phone's various sensors instead, and try and not press the power button as much as you can.

Been like that on my phone for past year and a bit. Can not wait until my Nexus 6p arrives.

I don't think that's the case as I already replaced the power button in a nearby lab. I've tried all sorts of solutions in that spirit :-0

scary alien · Oct 25, 2015

ranm said:
I have access to fastboot only - so I did it from there.

The reason I asked about how / if you flashed a factory image was to find out if you used the flash-all.bat / flash-all.sh scripts or used a toolkit like Wug's, etc.

So, you could try manually flashing (or even soft-booting) a custom recovery to see if your device will behave differently vs. the stock recovery:

- go back into fastboot/bootloader mode

- download this file https://dl.twrp.me/hammerhead/twrp-2.8.7.1-hammerhead.img

- to flash it, do a "fastboot flash recovery twrp-2.8.7.1-hammerhead.img" and then use the toggles to select Recovery

- you could also soft-boot it (i.e., not write/flash it) via "fastboot boot twrp-2.8.7.1-hammerhead.img" which will automatically boot into that custom recovery without having to use the toggle and power keys to select Recovery; the behavior of this vs. the fastboot flash might tell you something about the state of the hardware keys

I'm really thinking along the lines of what @Hadron proposed--you've got a hardware issue, likely with the part of the motherboard that the power button is pressing against--i.e., your device thinks you're always pressing on it?

I'm charging-up my old/spare N5 to see how it behaves when the power button is constantly depressed (i.e., does it boot loop, etc.?)

scary alien · Oct 25, 2015

Okay, that didn't take long: constantly pressing/holding-in the power button on my Nexus 5 while booting it up does indeed cause a bootloop (constant display of "Google" logo with a vibration...rinse/repeat ad infinitum...).

You've got a hardware issue [likely on the motherboard]

.

ranm · Oct 25, 2015

scary alien said:
Okay, that didn't take long: constantly pressing/holding-in the power button on my Nexus 5 while booting it up does indeed cause a bootloop (constant display of "Google" logo with a vibration...rinse/repeat ad infinitum...).

You've got a hardware issue [likely on the motherboard) .

I get your point, but two things don't add up:
1. I replaced the button already and it didn't help
2. The power button behaves fine when in fastboot mode. I've seen youtubes about what it looks like when its stuck and it also effects the boot loop.

Right now the only action item i have is to try a costom recovery. I will today/tomorrow. I didnt get how to do that without flashing , can you elaborate on that option?

As for the other questions about the flash, i used flushh all and manual flash . Tried 5.0.1 and 4.xx i dont remember. Both didnt help.
Thanks.

scary alien · Oct 25, 2015

Was the button (external toggle) or the part on the motherboard that it touches both replaced? It's the second (motherboard part) that I'm thinking is what is wonky on your device.

I see what you mean about the fastboot thing: when I unplug the device from the USB cable (I have to to enter fastboot/bootloader mode) and enter fastboot mode (volume-up + volume-down + power) but keep holding the power button in, my device immediately toggles to the next/second screen which is the Power off selection which of course, does power-down the device.

Unfortunately, the version of the factory image for the N5 that @jhawkkw's http://androidforums.com/threads/guide-how-to-flash-a-nexus-factory-image-manually.706533/ thread points to is "LRX21O" (the first 5.0 version). The full list of factory images for the N5 is here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images?hl=en#hammerhead

Using the flash-all.bat (or flash-all.sh for *Nix systems) will flash all partitions and you need to pay attention to the output to make sure that it did indeed flash everything correctly (just running the script doesn't guarantee that the flashing will or did work).

That link (like the AF link above, too) also tells you how to flash the factory images manually via the fasboot flash command.

What I was proposing was just flashing the recovery partition since I think that's what you're indicating you're seeing an issue with?

I'm pretty sure that just messing with the recovery partition will not get/make your device work again because the normal, non-recovery, boot has no involvement / reference to anything recovery-related (i.e., the normal boot uses the boot partition to load the OS vs. the recovery partition).

jj14x · Oct 25, 2015

scary alien said:
Was the button (external toggle) or the part on the motherboard that it touches both replaced? It's the second (motherboard part) that I'm thinking is what is wonky on your device.

I had the exact same symptoms on a Nexus 5 in my family, about two months ago. And after a whole lot of troubleshooting, I ended up sending to LG, and they repaired it for just under $80. The repair summary showed that they replaced the power switch, and the part where it touches the main board.

Edit: re-read op - in my scenario, the phone would restart when in fastboot too - so it may not be the same issue - sorry

ranm · Oct 25, 2015

scary alien said:
Was the button (external toggle) or the part on the motherboard that it touches both replaced? It's the second (motherboard part) that I'm thinking is what is wonky on your device.

I see what you mean about the fastboot thing: when I unplug the device from the USB cable (I have to to enter fastboot/bootloader mode) and enter fastboot mode (volume-up + volume-down + power) but keep holding the power button in, my device immediately toggles to the next/second screen which is the Power off selection which of course, does power-down the device.

Unfortunately, the version of the factory image for the N5 that @jhawkkw's http://androidforums.com/threads/guide-how-to-flash-a-nexus-factory-image-manually.706533/ thread points to is "LRX21O" (the first 5.0 version). The full list of factory images for the N5 is here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images?hl=en#hammerhead

Using the flash-all.bat (or flash-all.sh for *Nix systems) will flash all partitions and you need to pay attention to the output to make sure that it did indeed flash everything correctly (just running the script doesn't guarantee that the flashing will or did work).

That link (like the AF link above, too) also tells you how to flash the factory images manually via the fasboot flash command.

What I was proposing was just flashing the recovery partition since I think that's what you're indicating you're seeing an issue with?

I'm pretty sure that just messing with the recovery partition will not get/make your device work again because the normal, non-recovery, boot has no involvement / reference to anything recovery-related (i.e., the normal boot uses the boot partition to load the OS vs. the recovery partition).

Well , I'm trying to make the phone come back to life..... fixing the recovery was something I was thinking about as part of the solution. I was hoping that if that got fixed it would lead to the rest.

If I understand your description correctly - there are two boot "branches" - through the recovery partition and through the boot partition.
I was able to flash both with success when flashing manually from fastboot.
but when booting into either the device acts the same, so the problem should come from something that is common to both or from something that is part of the boot process before the decision takes place as to which to use.

I was thinking of loading some kind of "diagnostics" ROM onto the device to check the boot sequence , or get some logs out of the boot sequence but I couldn't find any way to do that.

scary alien · Oct 25, 2015

Yeah, unfortunately, the common component to the two booting paths (one to normal Android and one to recovery) is your hardware

.

If the device get's far enough along in either boot process for the adb daemon to get started, you could monitor the system log via an "adb logcat" command.

That command will only work for normal Android if you get far enough long in the process and you had previously enabled USB debugging (along with authenticating the RSA fingerprint of the connecting device). A custom recovery will have USB debugging enabled by default, but for the N5, I always have to disable MTP in the Mount menu.

ranm · Oct 25, 2015

scary alien said:
That command will only work for normal Android if you get far enough long in the process and you had previously enabled USB debugging (along with authenticating the RSA fingerprint of the connecting device). A custom recovery will have USB debugging enabled by default, but for the N5, I always have to disable MTP in the Mount menu.

O.k. , so I'll try the custom recovery from your link.
What does "disable MTP" mean?

ranm · Oct 25, 2015

So I flashed the TWRP custom recovery. ran:

Code:

adb wait-for-device

and selected recovery from the fastboot menu.
Didn't catch anything.

scary alien · Oct 25, 2015

ranm said:
O.k. , so I'll try the custom recovery from your link.
What does "disable MTP" mean?

Sorry for the delay in replying...was away from my computer for a couple of hours

.

It means to disable the media transfer protocol (MTP) in the Mount menu (at least for me, I have to do this to get my adb session to connect); something similar to this screen:

ranm said:
So I flashed the TWRP custom recovery. ran:

Code:

adb wait-for-device

and selected recovery from the fastboot menu.
Didn't catch anything.

Did you see the TWRP menu on the screen or did it still bootloop?

ranm · Oct 26, 2015

scary alien said:
Sorry for the delay in replying...was away from my computer for a couple of hours .

It means to disable the media transfer protocol (MTP) in the Mount menu (at least for me, I have to do this to get my adb session to connect); something similar to this screen:

Did you see the TWRP menu on the screen or did it still bootloop?

Still boot-looped , didn't see anything on the screen other then the google logo.

I don't think I can get to the MTP setting , I can't get to the see the screenshot you attached. I think the only way to do that would be to apply it on the img file itself before the flash.

scary alien · Oct 26, 2015

ranm said:
Still boot-looped , didn't see anything on the screen other then the google logo.

I don't think I can get to the MTP setting , I can't get to the see the screenshot you attached. I think the only way to do that would be to apply it on the img file itself before the flash.

Lemme look at that tonight...I'm not sure what the system property is for that, but I can try to unpack and re-pack that recovery image with that modification for you (still a very long shot, though).

I think it's probably time for this thread to move to the root area, which I'll do here in a second.

scary alien · Oct 26, 2015

LOL, I spent the last couple of hours researching how to disable MTP in the above TWRP image and re-familiarizing myself with the unpacking/re-packing/mkbootimg process, only to realize that MTP is disabled by default in that .img file

--i.e., adb should work out of the box after flashing or booting it.

So, if you've got the proper adb USB drivers installed (and a good cable and USB port), you should be able to put your device in fastboot/bootloader mode and type:

fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot boot twrp-2.8.7.1-hammerhead.img

That should bring-up the "teamwin" logo and then show the initial eight button main TWRP screen.

If you're not, then something is interrupting the boot process...

ranm · Oct 27, 2015

scary alien said:
LOL, I spent the last couple of hours researching how to disable MTP in the above TWRP image and re-familiarizing myself with the unpacking/re-packing/mkbootimg process, only to realize that MTP is disabled by default in that .img file --i.e., adb should work out of the box after flashing or booting it.

So, if you've got the proper adb USB drivers installed (and a good cable and USB port), you should be able to put your device in fastboot/bootloader mode and type:

fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot boot twrp-2.8.7.1-hammerhead.img

That should bring-up the "teamwin" logo and then show the initial eight button main TWRP screen.

If you're not, then something is interrupting the boot process...

O.k. so that's about what I did already and didn't work - still got the same bootloop and ADB didn't catch anything

ranm · Oct 27, 2015

New information -
Yesterday the device suddenly booted into revoery and then booted normally into the OS.
I have no idea what happened. The only idea that came to mind was that maybe the battery depleted to a level that causes some kind of reset to a component on the system ????
That's good news although now I don't have any idea what the issue was and when is it going to come back....

Not all is good though - it booted into a fresh new OS , and I could add my account, connect to wifi and use cellular, but can't download any app or updates - so it's basically useless.

I Tried to debug it a little with no luck so far -
got error 495 on the google play download - deleted data+cache for various google services and now I can't even connect the google play app .

I'll go for a clean flash of a new image today, hoping that will fix and get the OS to work.

ranm · Oct 28, 2015

Well, the device is fine now .
I have no idea what happened, and when and if it'll come back ....
My assumption is the battery drain (although it was not at 0% when it booted o.k.), but that's just a guess.

jbkelly · Oct 31, 2015

i cant get adb to notice device. or my pc for that matter. cant flash. stuck on lg screen. cant access cwrp or hard reset.

scary alien · Oct 31, 2015

jbkelly said:
i cant get adb to notice device. or my pc for that matter. cant flash. stuck on lg screen. cant access cwrp or hard reset.

Hey, jbkelly, is your device an LG F3? (I see you've posted in the F3 area, so I'm guessing you're looking for similar issues and answers)

The Nexus 5 is probably not comparable to the F3 in terms of fixing issues and I in particular don't know anything about the F3

.

Root Android Boot loop - Is my device dead?

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