[Nook Color Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] czarofthefrozentundra:
Well, after a few weeks of reading posts, even opening up the hardware and taking the nook apart, here I am asking a question. I figure I would go to the source rather than those other place I was reading and tryign to get info from (mot os those places link here anyway). I know that everyone says that the nook is "unbrickable;" while I want to believe it, I may be in a place where it may be true.

I do want to add a thanks as well, since the NC "tablet" has been very handy, and my wife and I have really enjoyed it. Wouldn't have happened without you all. I wish I had more time to participate in developing, but working 80+ hours/week in a hospital limits my free time, as you can imagine.

I rooted the NC and installed Cyanogenmod 7 back in July 2011. It was a 1.1 model (if I recall correctly). I installed the mod to EMMC, along with CWM. Things ran fine for 6 months. Literally no issues. Then, one night the battery was dead, so I plugged it into the computer USB to charge while the machine was off. Didn't touch it at all. When I went to turn it on again, I was stuck in a bootloop. It would go to the cyanogenmod screen and say "Loading" then would start over again. So, I naturally made a bootable SD card, and tried going into CWR to fix things. However, the SD card had the bootloop as well. It would get to the two skulls and "Loading", flash blank, then start over again.

That went on for a while. I couldn't boot into anything, not into recovery, alternate images, literally nothing. So, I tried different images --- nothing. Finally, I did the power+n and got into the only screen that wouldn't keep resetting. It has blue text and says "Entering boot menu". The menu says "Encore U-boot Menu by j4mmr. 1.2 port+ extras by fattire." From this screen, I can navigate and change the boot options. However, once again, whatever I try does not actually boot, regardless of what I set it to. The only thing that I got from getting here was no more boot loops. After getting it to this point, I can try loading anything, and it will start, then the screen goes black/blank, and nothing happens. Left it on for hours to test.

Since that point, I have switched cards (SanDisk 2 GB class 4, Patriot 8 GB and a generic 8 GB microSD). I know that cards work correctly because I got a hold of a second nook, and they work fine on it. Below are a list of all the images I have tried to run off the SD. Again, nothing will boot, not even clockwork recovery/clockworkmod.

128 mb rootpack (IOMonster)

clockwork 3.0.2.8

clockwork 3.2.0.1 eyeballer

Nooter

Mirage_CM7_ICS_CM9_DualbootSD (this card works great on the working NC)

TWRP 2.0 RC0

Generic SD

Clockwork 0.7 -> starts boot loops again

I also tried ADB, connecting to the computer and using putty over SSH. Didn't work. 8 interrupted boots with 9th holding power+n. Nope. I even took the nook apart and disconnected the battery. Still no go.

If I recall, I think I had CWM 3.0.0.5 installed to the card and to the emmc.

If anyone has any other ideas, I could really use the help. I consider myself pretty computer literate (build my machines, coded in my spare time in the past, hacked a lot of my electronics). I have read many guides/sites and even tried the outdated stuff. Once again, I cannot get into clockwork recovery, so any guide that says to do that as the first step will not work. I also cannot boot off of the SD on cards that I know function.

Would using an older version of CWM (prior to 3.0.0.5) work? I think I remember reading a bunch of stuff about problems people were having with that version. The thing is, I wasn't installing or flashing anything new. I wish I was, because then I would know what was happening when everything got screwed up.

Thanks a bunch in advance for your guy's (gals?) time. This has been really painful.