tmkp
Lurker
Hey everyone, so I'm up to my digital eyeballs in browser tabs researching this problem and I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask the community at this point. I am a complete noob and don't know proper terms so excuse me while I explain the best I can.
Phone & Carrier: Hydro Vibe, Virgin Mobile
Problem: Phone is stuck in a bootloop, for what reason exactly, I'm unsure. It is not rooted. Upon starting the phone, it will show the android splash screen, followed by the virgin mobile splash screen, followed by the usual short vibration just before it would normally load my home screen, only it never loads. It will wait a few seconds before vibrating again and will keep doing that while the virgin mobile symbol is displayed. It does this for about two minutes (?), before it appears to reboot and the cycle starts over.
Steps leading up to the problem: I was using a pretty processor heavy application which renders 3d models and avatars in an open virtual world. Wanting to take a break from that for a moment, I set the app in the background rather than fully exiting. I opened another app, which required an update before use. I navigated to the Play Store where I started the download for the update. I let the update run while I switched back to the virtual world app. A few minutes into use (and while the update was still downloading), the phone reboot itself and became stuck in the bootloop since.
Cause possibilities: A. Perhaps I overheated the hardware and thus caused something to permanently malfunction. B. The update I was downloading is causing a software conflict.
Troubleshooting attempts: I've discovered how to access the boot menu by which there are only three options: reboot now, factory reset/wipe, clear cache. I do not want to wipe the phone. There are files stored directly on the device that I would like to recover. I have cleared the cache. This did not end the bootloop. There is no way that I know of to boot this phone directly into safe mode starting from the off state. Apparently you can only reboot into safe mode when you already have access to the OS.
Jumping straight to recovering files, I have connected the phone to my PC, though obviously my PC cannot read the device. I get the following error:
I don't know if that means the hardware is shot, or if it's a software problem. My computer does detect it, but it shows up as "unknown device" in the device manager. When checking the driver, obviously it states that no drivers have been loaded, so I thought perhaps I could supply it myself though I have no idea what driver to supply.
I have learned that newer android phones do not allow the device's storage to be read as if it were a USB device. It uses a media transfer protocol instead. I don't know how to use this information to determine the correct driver. I'm not even sure supplying a driver will help my computer to read the storage.
Questions: Is there any known way to end the bootloop? Are my files recoverable by any method? Does anyone know the name of the device driver used to read the phone's storage (perhaps you could tell me if you connect a working Hydro Vibe to your PC, then read the description in the device manager).
Thank you for your time.
Phone & Carrier: Hydro Vibe, Virgin Mobile
Problem: Phone is stuck in a bootloop, for what reason exactly, I'm unsure. It is not rooted. Upon starting the phone, it will show the android splash screen, followed by the virgin mobile splash screen, followed by the usual short vibration just before it would normally load my home screen, only it never loads. It will wait a few seconds before vibrating again and will keep doing that while the virgin mobile symbol is displayed. It does this for about two minutes (?), before it appears to reboot and the cycle starts over.
Steps leading up to the problem: I was using a pretty processor heavy application which renders 3d models and avatars in an open virtual world. Wanting to take a break from that for a moment, I set the app in the background rather than fully exiting. I opened another app, which required an update before use. I navigated to the Play Store where I started the download for the update. I let the update run while I switched back to the virtual world app. A few minutes into use (and while the update was still downloading), the phone reboot itself and became stuck in the bootloop since.
Cause possibilities: A. Perhaps I overheated the hardware and thus caused something to permanently malfunction. B. The update I was downloading is causing a software conflict.
Troubleshooting attempts: I've discovered how to access the boot menu by which there are only three options: reboot now, factory reset/wipe, clear cache. I do not want to wipe the phone. There are files stored directly on the device that I would like to recover. I have cleared the cache. This did not end the bootloop. There is no way that I know of to boot this phone directly into safe mode starting from the off state. Apparently you can only reboot into safe mode when you already have access to the OS.
Jumping straight to recovering files, I have connected the phone to my PC, though obviously my PC cannot read the device. I get the following error:
Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)
I don't know if that means the hardware is shot, or if it's a software problem. My computer does detect it, but it shows up as "unknown device" in the device manager. When checking the driver, obviously it states that no drivers have been loaded, so I thought perhaps I could supply it myself though I have no idea what driver to supply.
I have learned that newer android phones do not allow the device's storage to be read as if it were a USB device. It uses a media transfer protocol instead. I don't know how to use this information to determine the correct driver. I'm not even sure supplying a driver will help my computer to read the storage.
Questions: Is there any known way to end the bootloop? Are my files recoverable by any method? Does anyone know the name of the device driver used to read the phone's storage (perhaps you could tell me if you connect a working Hydro Vibe to your PC, then read the description in the device manager).
Thank you for your time.
