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HTC 10 stuck in bootloop.. even with bootloader

x25064

Well-Known Member
Dec 16, 2011
100
28
So... my wife has an HTC 10 that randomly decided it wanted to go into a bootloop overnight. We woke up in the morning to the phone looping itself at the HTC screen. I did what any android owner would do and tried a hard reset by holding the power+vol up keys.. no dice.

So I then tried holding power + vol down to enter the bootloader... and somehow, some way, it doesnt work.... lolwut?

I've been romming droids since the OG droid in '10 .. hell I even had a razr die on me mid wipe and had to jump start it using the old USB splicing trick on the battery terminals... yet I have NEVER had a phone bootloop on me when I tried to get into the bootloader.

See for yourself, around :20 I start the bootloader command:

I've tried pulling out the SD card, SIM card, connecting a charger, connecting to my PC, and tried using ADB which will not detect the phone because it doesn't stay on long enough for that to happen.

The phone is not new, HTC will probably charge us to send it back, VZ are clueless idiots most of the time (HTC's are garbage bro you gotta get an iphone!!1!11!!1), and she has important pictures stored on the media partition of the internal memory.

Any gurus out there have any idea what can be done?

Thanks in advance.
 
With my older HTC's I'd not release the volume key until it had booted into the bootloader. That's the only thing that comes to mind.

I've no experience of VZW modified software, should that be relevant.

Yeah in the video when it bootloops the bootloader, my finger is pressed the whole time. When I release it, that's when it goes back to the white screen at the end of the video.
 
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Was it dropped or anything because I have a feeling it's because of failing hardware

Definitely has had its share of drops, but nothing that would have warranted the erratic behaviour that night. I will say that it was charging in a popup camper hooked up to a state park electric pedestal, so it's possible that there was a power issue - however it was plugged into a power strip that my s8 plus was also plugged into and my phone is 100% fine.

Can you get it to turn completely off? If so, try removing the charge cable then retry the usual power + volume down method if you haven't already tried that.

So if I hold down the vol down button for two power cycles of the bootloader screen, then it shuts off after you release on the second go around.. if im lucky. Otherwise it goes to the white screen again. PITA.
 
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Definitely has had its share of drops, but nothing that would have warranted the erratic behaviour that night. I will say that it was charging in a popup camper hooked up to a state park electric pedestal, so it's possible that there was a power issue - however it was plugged into a power strip that my s8 plus was also plugged into and my phone is 100% fine.



So if I hold down the vol down button for two power cycles of the bootloader screen, then it shuts off after you release on the second go around.. if im lucky. Otherwise it goes to the white screen again. PITA.
So you have an SD card in it if so try removing that and then try booting up again
 
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So if I hold down the vol down button for two power cycles of the bootloader screen, then it shuts off after you release on the second go around.. if im lucky. Otherwise it goes to the white screen again. PITA.

Ok so no luck on using power + volume down from an unplugged and fully powered down phone? If not, it'd point toward a non functioning volume down button.
 
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I did see the video. You're plugged in and I'm saying to try it unplugged. And also, with it plugged in, I'm guessing it'd do exactly what it's doing in the video even if you did not use the volume down button. If you continually press power, it's likely to keep rebooting it in a similar way yeah?

It does it while it's unplugged as well. If I depress the volume down button it goes back to power cycling the white HTC screen instead of the black and gray one.
 
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Ok so just to be absolutely sure here...you are pressing both power and volume down at the same time (from fully powered off state) in order to try entering the htc bootloader correct? It almost looks like you're holding only volume down in the video but it's hard to tell so just making sure.

edit: well it seems you clarified the two button combo in the OP so yeah, not sure there's much else you can do here. I've not seen an unmodded HTC fail to go into hboot. Some bad luck for sure, sorry.
 
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So you have an SD card in it if so try removing that and then try booting up again

Ok so no luck on using power + volume down from an unplugged and fully powered down phone? If not, it'd point toward a non functioning volume down button.

I did see the video. You're plugged in and I'm saying to try it unplugged. And also, with it plugged in, I'm guessing it'd do exactly what it's doing in the video even if you did not use the volume down button. If you continually press power, it's likely to keep rebooting it in a similar way yeah?

Oh sorry well it's not because it's modified because you said you stoped that a long time ago. I would say your SOL and should just buy a new phone unless you think flashing the stock firmware will solve it but I highly doubt it.

I'm not sure I can even flash stock firmware on it if ADB won't pick it up, can I? I'd like the option to preserve the media on the internal memory if at all possible.

Ok so just to be absolutely sure here...you are pressing both power and volume down at the same time (from fully powered off state) in order to try entering the htc bootloader correct? It almost looks like you're holding only volume down in the video but it's hard to tell so just making sure.

edit: well it seems you clarified the two button combo in the OP so yeah, not sure there's much else you can do here. I've not seen an unmodded HTC fail to go into hboot. Some bad luck for sure, sorry.

I'll give it one more shot and report back.
 
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Ok so just to be absolutely sure here...you are pressing both power and volume down at the same time (from fully powered off state) in order to try entering the htc bootloader correct? It almost looks like you're holding only volume down in the video but it's hard to tell so just making sure.

edit: well it seems you clarified the two button combo in the OP so yeah, not sure there's much else you can do here. I've not seen an unmodded HTC fail to go into hboot. Some bad luck for sure, sorry.

Yep, comes into hboot for a second, then bootloops into the white HTC screen again.
 
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I'm not sure I can even flash stock firmware on it if ADB won't pick it up, can I? I'd like the option to preserve the media on the internal memory if at all possible.

I'm afraid not. Need hboot at this point in order to run an RUU. That'd be a best case scenario and even then it'd wipe an internal sdcard partition in the process but at least you'd have a chance of getting the phone going again.

Yep, comes into hboot for a second, then bootloops into the white HTC screen again.

Oh it does show the hboot screen for awhile huh? We're talking about the screen that says s-on at the top, has the build info, other options like factory reset, fastboot, etc?

That's at least somewhat of a sign of interest though it doesn't help you much in the end if it won't stay. Very, very strange.

edit:
ok so it's been awhile since i've run an HTC and i was just watching this video for the htc 10:


Go to 4:20 mark and pause the video. There are fewer options than I remember in hboot but notice that the very first option is "reboot". You then hit power to accept. So you think it's possible that you're inadvertently getting into hboot and then it's thinking it should reboot due to the power button possibly being still depressed?
 
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I'm afraid not. Need hboot at this point in order to run an RUU. That'd be a best case scenario and even then it'd wipe an internal sdcard partition in the process but at least you'd have a chance of getting the phone going again.



Oh it does show the hboot screen for awhile huh? We're talking about the screen that says s-on at the top, has the build info, other options like factory reset, fastboot, etc?

That's at least somewhat of a sign of interest though it doesn't help you much in the end if it won't stay. Very, very strange.

edit:
ok so it's been awhile since i've run an HTC and i was just watching this video for the htc 10:


Go to 4:20 mark and pause the video. There are fewer options than I remember in hboot but notice that the very first option is "reboot". You then hit power to accept. So you think it's possible that you're inadvertently getting into hboot and then it's thinking it should reboot due to the power button possibly being still depressed?

Yeah I guess I should clarify that it won t get to any selectable menu, it just shows the black screen with the gray HTC logo like in the video, then goes black and bootloops. I wish I could get to any menu of sorts.

I guess I'll be giving HTC a call tomorrow.. hopefully they don't have a horrible offshore call center....
 
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Yeah I guess I should clarify that it won t get to any selectable menu, it just shows the black screen with the gray HTC logo like in the video, then goes black and bootloops. I wish I could get to any menu of sorts.

I guess I'll be giving HTC a call tomorrow.. hopefully they don't have a horrible offshore call center....

Ah ok yeah that doesn't leave you with any other option. Good luck to you, hopefully they'll pull through in a good way.
 
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Ah ok yeah that doesn't leave you with any other option. Good luck to you, hopefully they'll pull through in a good way.

Thanks man, I'll update the thread as I get more info in case anyone else runs into this.

FWIW her phone was running like crap after the Android 7 update. I saw a few others having similar issues that she did. I wonder if it's all related..
 
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Wait hang on a sec. I just watched more of that video and it looked like he accessed hboot using power + volume UP (4:14 in the vid). And it seems on that device that power + volume down is used to access download mode. It wouldn't really surprise me if Verizon blocked entry to download mode.

But didn't you say earlier that you also tried power + volume up and it didn't yield any results either? Again, that'd have to be done from a powered off state so figured I'd throw it out there as a last ditch retry maybe. Man I can tell it's been awhile since i've run an HTC. They've changed things up a bit.
 
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Sorry to say but my experiences with HTC support are horrible. My "10" had booting problems from nowhere. Not like yours but I couldn't use the phone. I called Verizon and spoke to a level 2 tech after telling the level 1 that I was computer literate and explained everything I had tried. They told me to hold down power & volume up. That bricked my phone. Nothing would work. Black screen, period. Obviously, that didn't help, but they sent me replacement "10" overnight. Unfortunately, that doesn't get back your stuff on your internal drive, but at least you get a functioning phone. Under the "Better late than never" category, I store everything important on my external SD card and again on Verizon's backup. That saved me when my phone bricked. Best of luck.
 
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Mark, that sounds like Verizon support being rubbish rather than HTC - though I've no experience with HTC USA myself, so they may be equally bad for all I know.

Yeah, HTC have changed things a bit in the last couple of years. The only thing I could think of was that the black screen plus silver "HTC" reminds me of "RUU mode" on my HTC, but it shouldn't boot into that unless it's really screwed-up (and if it was in that state I don't think I'd expect to see the white boot screen at all, and I'd expect it to be stable in that state). It may just be that the 10 comes up that way as it boots into the bootloader/download mode, my wife won't like me playing with hers to test.
 
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