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Help Boot Up Options

Duckster

Duckster

Android Enthusiast
When holding down the power button (Bionic) and volume up/down buttons all at the same time for a few seconds, several boot options come up on the screen. Does anyone have a list of definitions of what each option does? I know that one of them is supposed to provide the same results of doing a battery pull but I have no clue as to what all of the listed options do. I can't provide a screen shot of it but if someone knows what I am talking about, can you post a screen shot?
 
sounds like your talking about the stock recovery

should have something like

reboot recovery
factory wipe/reset
wipe cache


and maybe one more or a variation of the above. Unless your in to rooting i would avoid this all together.
 
There are two different subjects here and two different menus.

If power is on and you hold down all three switches, the Phone options menu will appear. If you continue holding the three switches until the menu disappears it will start to boot. This reset and then boot is identical to a battery pull.

If power is off and you hold down all three switches it calls up the the Boot Mode Selection Menu (displayed in character mode).

Boot Mode Selection Menu
Vol Up Selects, Vol Down Scrolls

Normal Powerup -- boot the Bionic
Recovery -- display (!) screen (then hold down vol Up/vol Down for Android System Recovery menu)
AP Fastboot -- developers only
BP SBF Flash -- developers only
BP Only -- developers only
BP HW Diag & Boot AP -- developers only
BP Tools -- developers only

If you do anything with this menu you open the door to causing permanent damage. This is sometimes referred to as BRICKing.

If you do nothing after a few seconds it will choose the current option (Normal Powerup) and boot your Bionic.

... Thom
 
Also, nothing personal, but if we need to ask what they do, we need to stay out of them. We can brick a phone fast in there.
 
Thom Little said:
There are two different subjects here and two different menus.

If power is on and you hold down all three switches, the Phone options menu will appear. If you continue holding the three switches until the menu disappears it will start to boot. This reset and then boot is identical to a battery pull.

If power is off and you hold down all three switches it calls up the the Boot Mode Selection Menu (displayed in character mode).

Boot Mode Selection Menu
Vol Up Selects, Vol Down Scrolls

Normal Powerup
Recovery
AP Fastboot
BP SBF Flash
BP Only
BP HW Diag & Boot AP
BP Tools

If you do nothing after a few seconds it will choose the current option (Normal Powerup) and boot your Bionic.

... Thom
Click to expand...

Thanks...but was still looking for a definition of them. However, I did find it elsewhere. Thanks for the clarification of two different operations of the buttons.
 
whompus60 said:
Also, nothing personal, but if we need to ask what they do, we need to stay out of them. We can brick a phone fast in there.
Click to expand...
Nothing personal taken...but we can say that about everything and never learn anything. I just wanted know what the options do.... not necessarily try any of them. This is how we learn.
 
Duckster said:
Thanks...but was still looking for a definition of them. However, I did find it elsewhere. Thanks for the clarification of two different operations of the buttons.
Click to expand...

The information is not just "lying around. I have added the two that I could find to the original message here and the one in Tips.

When I find more I will add them. What was your "information elsewhere" lead?

... Thom
 
Thom Little said:
The information is not just "lying around. I have added the two that I could find to the original message here and the one in Tips.

When I find more I will add them. What was your "information elsewhere" lead?

... Thom
Click to expand...
It was from the Motorola site. I had asked the same question over there but after not getting any initial responses, I asked here. Is it ethical to copy/post someone else's response? If so, I will post it here (I'll get his permission first of course).
 
I think your original question was great and I tried Googling and searching around to find out what the abbreviations stood for. I didn't succeed. What I found was a lot of instructions to flash this or that and to press specific buttons. There never was a simple explanation of that each was for.

I figured it would make a great addition to the Tips section of this board.

Never mind ... I just accessed it on the other board ... it was posted at 11:42 today.

I updated both messages here. LEt me know if you don't agree with the result.

Thanks.

... Thom
 
I just got a message from the OP that I can repost his message to me:

cellzealot said:
This question is difficult to answer properly within the constraints of the forum rules because the modes of access available in the boot menu allow for operations that will void your warranty and discussion of them is forbidden. Given that limitation I will give a simple overview. Recovery is the stock Android partition that is where updates are loaded and has menu options for loading an uodate.zip from sdcard, factory reset/data wipe and wiping just the cache partition. You can only load official signed updates via recovery. Normal use does not void the warranty. AP Fastboot is the new bootloader menu for loading firmware via the command line fastboot interface. This is where the firmware is flashed as discreet image files and is not for end users because the files required are proprietary and intended for use by technicians only. SBF mode is akin to the old bootloader menu and loads firmware in a different format from a single file using a service software utility. This is again not intended for end users and requires proprietary firmware files and tools. The other modes are for various low level hardware and diagnostic access again requiring proprietary software tools designed for use by technicians and developers for testing and/or fixing problems with the device. Some of them also allow for access via adb shell in the Android SDK, the use of which does not strictly void the warranty but may depending on what is done. Basically, the only one that end users should be concerned with is the Recovery mode in cases of failure to boot or other issues that the limited menu provides. Under normal circumstances, most users should never need to deliberately access any of these menus and updates and factory resets are scripted to run from the phone while booted normally and reboot to recovery and run without user input. Short answer: You should never need to know anything about these menus and they would rather you didn't.
 
Duckster said:
When holding down the power button (Bionic) and volume up/down buttons all at the same time for a few seconds, several boot options come up on the screen. Does anyone have a list of definitions of what each option does? I know that one of them is supposed to provide the same results of doing a battery pull but I have no clue as to what all of the listed options do. I can't provide a screen shot of it but if someone knows what I am talking about, can you post a screen shot?
Click to expand...
 
Thom said:
There are two different subjects here and two different menus.

If power is on and you hold down all three switches, the Phone options menu will appear. If you continue holding the three switches until the menu disappears it will start to boot. This reset and then boot is identical to a battery pull.

If power is off and you hold down all three switches it calls up the the Boot Mode Selection Menu (displayed in character mode).

Boot Mode Selection Menu
Vol Up Selects, Vol Down Scrolls

Normal Powerup -- boot the Bionic
Recovery -- display (!) screen (then hold down vol Up/vol Down for Android System Recovery menu)
AP Fastboot -- developers only
BP SBF Flash -- developers only
BP Only -- developers only
BP HW Diag & Boot AP -- developers only
BP Tools -- developers only

If you do anything with this menu you open the door to causing permanent damage. This is sometimes referred to as BRICKing.

If you do nothing after a few seconds it will choose the current option (Normal Powerup) and boot your Bionic.

... Thom
Click to expand...
 
Last week my phone started to lose power disturbingly fast. It would not charge and I couldn't power off. Someone suggested a couple of fixes including this method, which I tried. I have my phone working, I have disabled the virus which is in there permanently, and removed and disabled several unnecessary apps. My mobile is not draining as fast but it won't charge unless I turn it off. I thought I would try the recovery mode again and see which one would reset it to charge while powered up. I was surprised and disappointed to discover in this forum that I was making it worse.
Would replacing the battery fix this?
 
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