Can a dead LG Viper be resurrected?

[ja1124]

My LG Viper LS840 (Sprint) mysteriously died back in 2016. I had a few photos of my dog on it (since deceased) that I had not yet backed up when the phone died, and I would like to retrieve them if I can do it myself.

Nothing appears on the screen - no charging indicator appears when plugged in, and nothing appears when I hold down the power button.

Recently I learned about putting the phone into download mode, so I installed the latest LG Universal Drivers on a Windows 10 pc, connected the phone to the pc via USB cable, and held down the Volume Up and Power buttons simultaneously. I have held them down for at least two minutes continuously, but nothing appears on the phone's screen. I do hear some tones being played by the Windows 10 pc, and when I first connected the phone via USB cable, a message appeared on the pc that a Qualcom device was found. So the pc is detecting something, but nothing is happening with the phone at all.

Is it definitely dead, or is there anything else I can try?

 

[ocnbrze]

is it fully charged? do you have a new battery? if not, i would recommend that you try replacing the battery first.

 

[ja1124]

Thank you for your reply. I tried a new battery. When I installed it, it would not charge either.

 

[ocnbrze]

Thank you for your reply. I tried a new battery. When I installed it, it would not charge either.

have you tried new cables as well? and even a new charger? if you can't get it to stay charged, you might be SOL.

 

[ja1124]

Well, I had figured I was SOL, but there are people here who know more than me, so I asked.

I connected the phone to the computer with a new cable that I have tested with another working phone. I have also attempted to charge the phone with the new cable and a new charger.

The device does appear in Device Manager on the Windows 10 PC as Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 on COM3.

 

[mikedt]

Well, I had figured I was SOL, but there are people here who know more than me, so I asked.

I connected the phone to the computer with a new cable that I have tested with another working phone. I have also attempted to charge the phone with the new cable and a new charger.

The device does appear in Device Manager on the Windows 10 PC as Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 on COM3.

That's for initial manufacturer loading the Qualcomm SoC during production. Which you shouldn't normally see, but can happen if the phone's firmware(bootloader, recovery, etc) has been completely wiped out for some reason, like it's completely bricked, or maybe the flash storage has failed.

 

[ja1124]

That's for initial manufacturer loading the Qualcomm SoC during production. Which you shouldn't normally see, but can happen if the phone's firmware(bootloader, recovery, etc) has been completely wiped out for some reason, like it's completely bricked, or maybe the flash storage has failed.

If the flash storage fails, is it game over?