One of the biggest fears that all smartphone users have, regardless of the years they have experience in the field, is that through some modification or software installation, the device will freeze. In other words, it becomes a fairly expensive “brick” or paperweight, and that situation cannot be reversed.
Generally, the crash of an Android smartphone is not as dramatic as most believe, since there are a number of techniques with which to recover a damaged phone, some of them simple to perform and others not so much, but which can also be useful.
If the smartphone fails, and obviously it is not a matter of burned hardware or problems with the physical platform of the same, there are many opportunities to recover it, as long as the failure was caused by the installation of a new operating system or an application, or configuration problems.
A few years ago, recovering a damaged or blocked smartphone was an impossible task, but fortunately today we have many tools and information at our disposal. Thanks to this, with a few presses of the device buttons, some specialized software, a USB cable and a lot of patience, we can bring our beloved phone back to life with relatively little effort.
First of all, for a better understanding of the contents of this article, we have to clarify the meaning of one of the most widely used terms throughout it: “Brick”
In the world of smartphones, the term “Bricked” is used to identify a phone that, due to hardware problems, or corrupted firmware, crashes, leaving the device completely useless, much like a brick in English.
Therefore, “Unbricking” means to take the phone out of that state.
As a general rule, when a smartphone fails, it usually does so due to boot failures, which can be solved by implementing recovery mode or USB mode.
However, when a phone is bricked, we may not be able to use that method without having to use a combination of buttons. It is also possible that on some phone models, this method can be forced by making a bridge between certain terminals of the USB port.
But for this we must do an exhaustive search on Google to find the appropriate method for our device, although if we are not very experienced users, this practice is completely discouraged.
Contents
Is our device really disabled?
Currently, an Android device is really easy to connect to a PC and install some of the unofficial updates that exist on the market such as Cyanogen using a specific tool such as ClockworkMod Recovery.
In most cases, an apparently unusable or “bricked” smartphone is caused by an incorrectly flashed ROM. Because there are many brands and models of devices, the first thing we have to do is find the specific procedures for our model on the net.
Detailed information for our smartphone
In case we do not find detailed information for our smartphone, we can follow these general guidelines:
- Go back to the site from where we downloaded the ROM to find more information or ask for help.
- If the phone only starts the recovery screen, we will need an alternate ROM to install. Installation can be done through recovery.
- If our device is trapped in a reboot cycle, we will have to use the ClockworkMod recovery utility to clear the cache data using the Wipe Dalvik cache, Wipe Cache Partition and Wipe Data / Factory Reset options .
- It is quite possible that the installation errors have occurred due to the SD card. Remove the card and try again.
Other problems
It can also happen that the “bricking” problems do not originate in the software or internal hardware of the device, but rather there is an external cause, and it appears to be a much more severe problem.
One of the most frequently commented problems by users is that of chargers and their connectors. The latter, due to the constant manipulation to which they are subjected, can often be damaged, resulting in the equipment battery not charging, and giving us the feeling that the device is unusable.
As it is not properly charged, the device will not turn on or respond to any of our actions, so one of the first things to check before starting any repair action is to check the integrity of chargers, cables and connectors.
It can also happen that the phone falls, and with the blow breaks its screen, which can give us the feeling that the device has been blocked entering that state of “Bricking”. But as in any touch device, the screen is the main element for its operation, and the absence of it makes it impossible to operate, including starting.
But the most likely thing is that the smartphone has not been ruined, all we have to do is get the right spare part and change it ourselves, if we are skilled enough, or failing that, go to a professional on the subject.
conclusion
Both smartphones and tablets can stop working due to a myriad of reasons, from low battery power to problems with the USB connectors. Being able to repair it and bring it back to life can be very useful to us, and can save us a considerable amount of money, in addition to the satisfaction of having done it with our own hands and effort.
Although the recommendations and tricks contained in this article have absolutely no guarantee that they will work, since they are only suggestions and tips more aimed at putting ourselves in the situation, the truth is that in some situations they have culminated with a phone back in operation. , to the surprise and delight of their owners. Trying costs nothing.