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[International / GSM] Unbrick Galaxy Nexus S

PhilOa

Lurker
Aug 15, 2012
6
2
Hi a couple of years ago, I bricked my Samsung Nexus. Now I am looking to use it again after my iPhone broke (due a bike crash).

The Google logo appears on a black screen and a padlock appears at the bottom of the screen. I cannot do anything on the phone.

Any ideas are welcome!
 
Do you recall what you were doing when the device became "bricked"? It's notoriously difficult to truly hard-brick a Nexus device (because they are intended to be hacked). If you're able to get into fastboot, you should be able to get that sucker back up and running.

To boot into fastboot, turn the device off (or remove the battery momentarily) and then press-and-hold Volume-Up + Volume-Down + Power until the device comes on. You should see some information about "bootloader" there.

Once in fastboot, you can flash a copy of the factory image to restore the phone to its stock, working condition. Instructions here: http://androidforums.com/android-sy...e-how-flash-nexus-factory-image-manually.html

Let me know if you run into any issues :)
 
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Do you recall what you were doing when the device became "bricked"?

Not much indeed! I think I ran out of battery and the phone switched off. The next time I switched it on - the notorious screen with the Google logo and padlock (unlocked) was on.

I remember that prior to this, my Nexus would go to this same black screen upon turn-on but a simple restart (via removing the battery and putting it back on) would make it disappear and I could use the phone normally upon the next turn-on.

I'll try out your advice and keep you updated as to what happened.
 
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