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How do phones get bricked? Custom roms?

B

benaiir

Lurker
I've been doing plenty of reading about android tips and tricks ever since I switched over to the android OS last year. I've noticed every now and then, people get their phones bricked.

What would I have to do to get bricked (or maybe better phrased, what do I avoid doing?)

And just because I don't want to start 2 threads, what are the pros and cons of each custom rom available, and how could I get over to 2.3 gingerbread, if possible? I'd like to take advantage of the GPU upgrades.
 
benaiir said:
What would I have to do to get bricked (or maybe better phrased, what do I avoid doing?)
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Don't hack your phone and you should be fine. Bricking is an accepted risk once you start hacking.

what are the pros and cons of each custom rom available
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Read the associated thread over at XDA. There are dozens of Captivate ROMs, and the feature sets change daily.

and how could I get over to 2.3 gingerbread, if possible?
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It's still in very early "alpha" development/testing form and tons of critical stuff doesn't work.
 
True bricks generally look like they stem from a corrupt bootloader (and I've read some say a corrupt primary bootloader is ok, but corrupt secondary is bad news).

This whole thread (not just the first post) has information on this:
brick boot loader to black screen: no simple solution, simple prevention - xda-developers

I personally don't remove sbl.bin from my custom ROM packages, and the worse that's happened to me is this "pseudo brick" where it took a little work to get into Download Mode, and reflash everything.

I also notice that those who don't read as much re: flashing, and the proper procedures tend to be the ones with problems. Soak up the information on XDA. Some of the stickies there have been recently updated and are a good place to start reading. I'm not going into the pros/cons of each rom out there, and I'm pretty sure not very many people are going to be doing this either. Once you get over the initial nervousness of flashing, you can try the different roms and figure out which works best for YOU.


sremick said:
Don't hack your phone and you should be fine. Bricking is an accepted risk once you start hacking.
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I'd rather flash my phone 10 times through ClockworkMod Recovery with custom ROMs vs. 10 flashes of JH6 via OTA through AT&T. I don't think I've seen stories of people recovering their JH6 OTA bricked Captivates with Download Mode.
 
I never flashed a custom rom until last week and was nervous. I flashed 5 different roms already with no issues.
 
mi04se1 said:
I never flashed a custom rom until last week and was nervous. I flashed 5 different roms already with no issues.
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And pulling the trigger 10 times without dying still doesn't make Russian Roulette a safe game. ;)

The answer doesn't come from the isolated anecdotal experiences of individual success stories, but instead the cumulative stories of many people playing the flashing game, which reveal just how risky this is.

Does everyone who flashes eventually brick their phones? Of course not. But many do... several respected members even on this forum, who are now swearing off the activity.
 
I disagree. Far more successful flashers out there than not. You just hear about the failures more because who's going to come on a forum and say, "it worked"!

To say that these successful flashes are isolated and anecdotal is a limited and biased view.

It is very difficult to hard brick your phone if you know what you are doing.
 
bruceinman said:
I disagree. Far more successful flashers out there than not. You just hear about the failures more because who's going to come on a forum and say, "it worked"!
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I don't disagree with any of that and never claimed that more people fail than succeed when flashing. My point is that as soon as you start playing the ROM game, you increase your risk significantly with far-greater possible consequences than if you did not.

It is very difficult to hard brick your phone if you know what you are doing.
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But not impossible, and even experienced users on here managed.
 
sremick said:
My point is that as soon as you start playing the ROM game, you increase your risk significantly with far-greater possible consequences than if you did not.
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Most definitely. That is what people need to understand. You can buy your phone and use it for what's advertised...Or you mess around with it and do more (with risk). Both are acceptable to me. You can't rely on some guy who makes 6 buck and hour and says such and such will be on the phone and updated next week. It's a gamble, sometimes.

To answer the OP question....Playing with your phone and drinking.
 
I wish people would understand something with me:

I have absolutely zero issue with people who are fully-informed and desire to hack ROMs onto their phones knowing the potential risks involved. I'm a long-time hacker myself and have done all sorts of things to computers, phones, PDAs and other devices over the last 20 years or so.

My issue is simply the casualness that every newcomer to the forums is pushed into flashing a hacked ROM without being given that due education, or any consideration as to whether that's the best or wisest solution for this new user. You get... well... (what's a euphemism for "fanboy"?)... over-zealous ROM-fans pushing the suggestion onto everyone over-enthusiastically without any disclaimer, warning, or education. Newcomers are left thinking that flashing ROMs is trivial, what everyone does, and utterly without risk.
 
sremick said:
My issue is simply the casualness that every newcomer to the forums is pushed into flashing a hacked ROM without being given that due education, or any consideration as to whether that's the best or wisest solution for this new user. You get... well... (what's a euphemism for "fanboy"?)... over-zealous ROM-fans pushing the suggestion onto everyone over-enthusiastically without any disclaimer, warning, or education. Newcomers are left thinking that flashing ROMs is trivial, what everyone does, and utterly without risk.
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Do you get a warning every time you back a car out of your driveway? This is where we learn.
 
happycappy said:
Do you get a warning every time you back a car out of your driveway? This is where we learn.
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Not really the same at all. People know about car accidents. It's common knowledge.

What isn't common knowledge is what flashing a ROM is doing, the risks, and what might not work after. People are lead to believe it's as benign as just installing Firefox on their PC so they don't have to use IE. If installing Firefox could brick their PC into a $1000 paperweight or the "back" button would stop working once they installed it, but no one told them up-front, they'd be rather ticked.

I don't think a bit of control and moderation in how flashing is pushed upon new users, along with some extra effort to educate first, is really an unreasonable idea. :)
 
I have never seen a phone bricked that odin could not bring back, very easily.There is almost no risk, and you have great support for developers that can help. Phoenix 2.0 has my GPS working perfect. Research and don't hesitate. Or you can sit around wondering if or when FROYO is coming out.
sremick said:
And pulling the trigger 10 times without dying still doesn't make Russian Roulette a safe game. ;)

The answer doesn't come from the isolated anecdotal experiences of individual success stories, but instead the cumulative stories of many people playing the flashing game, which reveal just how risky this is.

Does everyone who flashes eventually brick their phones? Of course not. But many do... several respected members even on this forum, who are now swearing off the activity.
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There hasn't been anyone to permanently brick their phone, so you should be okay. Just read the comment thread beforehand to make sure that no one got to a point where they screwed themselves beyond any recovery, and you should be good.
 
aintwaven said:
I have never seen a phone bricked that odin could not bring back, very easily.
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Then, by definition - it was not bricked. Bricked means totally unrecoverable.

I'm a hardcore rooting enthusiast.

And I agree with sremick.

Educate on the facts, let the user decide what's right for them.

The fact is that this is a risk activity and the risk increases as the user's tech familiarity decreases.

I got a guy in another spot - decided it just made good sense to him to install a rom that had nothing to do whatsoever with his particular phone.

No one is calling him names, everyone is pitching in - but - he's bricked.

Not everyone is a tech guy.

Mouse clicker != able rooter.

Almost bricked == almost pregnant.

Brick == anchor, does not respond to new electrical inputs.

With patience, going slow, learning, rooting is easy for many many people. Not all.
 
aintwaven said:
I have never seen a phone bricked that odin could not bring back
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In the few months I've been here and XDA I've seen many that had to be sent back under "warranty". These are people who tried every solution presented. Some were even pros. Some are on here and have sworn to give up ROM hacking once their next Captivate comes in.

Just today I read a story about someone who's USB accidentally came undone during Odin 1-click flash, prior to flashing their intended ROM. Permanent, hard brick.

Another common scenario is flashing Odin 1-click, losing the ability to go into download mode via the 3-button combo due to the sbl.bin being overwritten with the bad included version, then something else going wrong, leaving you screwed because now you can't even enter download mode (unless you can get that jig working but that's not going to be in everyone's skill level, and isn't a guarantee).
 
sremick said:
Not really the same at all. People know about car accidents...
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Where I live (Ontario), the law enforcement authorities rightly calls them collisions, as very few driving mishaps are truly accidental (unavoidable). :)

Perhaps the same could be said about flashing ROMs.

What I find missing from many flash recipes (and what holds me back from experiencing flashing sooner rather than later) are making connections between a particular step, and its Linux or Windows analogue.

Lots of us can install at least one of those O/S's, configure RAIDed HD's, and perform some limited recovery operations.

I think it would be useful to connect that common knowledge with ROM flashing, so the similarities would be more apparent, and we'd know where we are in the Android firmament during our hacking activities.

I believe there are way more similarities than differences. After all, Android is an O/S not an Alien Artifact.

So far I've been able to root and, with Rom Manager, tentatively create a backed up stock ROM (except for the fact it's rooted) of the current state of my phone.

I'm patiently waiting for more to soak in before I go further. If it never happens I can live with that, but I'd like to experience flashing, with a nearby parachute (and spare) packed by me.
 
I guess I would equate it to skydiving.... Do you take the risk for the benefit?
To Sremick's point, yes there are risks when flashing, yes there will be bugs from ported ROMs, so its a simple matter of preference.

I agree that flashing is not to be taken lightly and have always stated that you have to know what you're doing first. I think there are plenty of warnings for a newcomer to see, even in a developer's OP, but you will always get an overzealous noob that wants to jump in head first.
If you take time to read and understand and take the proper precautions, it's a risk worth taking IMO.
I have had this device since Nov. and am totally new to the Android scene, so I took my time to read and understand and just now flashed my first ROM (Phoenix) mainly since the long anticipated push of 2.2 didn't happen. There's one lingering bug that no one seems to be able to resolve that was keeping me away from flashing and that's the wired headset bug. There are kernels that have it fixed for the OEM headset but on 2.1 I can use any 3.5mm headphones and hear the caller on the other end. But I guess the added features of 2.2 made me decide to take the leap.

I came over from WM where I was deathly disappointed at what the carriers released as a final product. I would buy the lastest and greatest phone but would never use it until I was able to make it mine because my previous one worked so much better after I tweaked the hell out of it.


After all AOSP means it's open to hack. :D
 
bruceinman said:
I guess I would equate it to skydiving.... Do you take the risk for the benefit?
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Haha... didn't I compare it to skydiving in another thread? :)

There's one lingering bug that no one seems to be able to resolve that was keeping me away from flashing and that's the wired headset bug. There are kernels that have it fixed for the OEM headset but on 2.1 I can use any 3.5mm headphones and hear the caller on the other end.
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Oh crap... I was under the impression that one had been totally fixed. Guess not. :(
 
sremick said:
Haha... didn't I compare it to skydiving in another thread? :)
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I didn't see that one but it's a good analogy. :)


sremick said:
Oh crap... I was under the impression that one had been totally fixed. Guess not. :(
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I kept seeing "wired headset bug fixed" but when I flashed the kernel, it didn't work.
I posted the question on XDA and could only get a response that it worked on the OEM headset which I refuse to use.
I drive an older car so I used the 3.5mm to cassette player as my hands free...... :D
 
I really don't see all of the 'just flash a ROM, it's easy, go ahead, just do it!' posts that you seem to be seeing.

Instead of the one-note of 'doom follows those who flash custom ROMs
thun.gif
' why don't you just tell people, as I do, to do their research before they even think of flashing?

The 'brick' examples only prove that you can brick - but in what context? What did the user do to produce the brick? That's more relevant than just saying 'Look! Another brick!'. The 'bricks' I've seen are all user error - that error could be flashing any old ROM they find without researching thoroughly, but that's the price you pay if you're going to foolishly jump in without getting educated first.

I guess I'm a firm believer in Darwinism - and suffering the consequences of your actions. Some lessons are tough to learn.
 
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