[HTC One X] bear.are.cool.:
[Q] "Retroactive Bricking" or "spontaneous" hardware fault? [Xpost One X/X+ Help]

*PSA: This will be crossposted in xda GenerAL Q&A and HTC One X+ forums, I hope cross posting is allowed, haven't seen it mentioned in rules.*

Hi all,

Quick disclaimer:

I've been lurking parts of xda now and again for a couple years now, have flashed a couple of phones and tablets now and again for mainly practical reasons, recently getting more interested in it as a ""fun" interest or "hobby".

SO:

I am very aware that this is my first post, the rules, search function, etc. ..

BUT

: After extensively searching both google and specifically xda to help me resolve this issue *myself*, I decided to create an account and post. I'm sorry if this Q should have been put in the newbie thread, my assessment was that it probably has no place there.

ALSO PLZ NOTE: What was meant to be a succinct summary and question somehow turned into a condensed but complete rundown of events, so here is a...

TL;DR:

- Replaced HTC One X+ display/digitizer unit myself, ran fine for 5 weeks.

- Then: flashed twrp 2.7x or 2.8, not sure anymore, before installing Android HD Revolution 33.1 by mike1986, and following the official instructions, which ran great for about week until my phone spontaneously BRICKED THE F*CK OUT COMPLETELY.

(yes, true brick, paperweight, robot-corpse, whatever)

=> Question: IS "RETROACTIVE/RETROGRADE BRICKING POSSIBLE/A "THING"?? :confused:

If so, what could I have done wrong? (POSSIBLY something to do with a bootimage of firmware that I was sure I had the up to date version of... dunno though).

=========================================================================

About 6 weeks ago:

- Cracked the display of my HTC One X+ badly by dropping it onto concrete-type floor at a rave/party

=> Decided to try and replace it myself, researched for a good while (talking several days here, 90s/00s kids),

=> Decided to replace the display/digitizer unit myself to save money and gain knowledge.

Repair process was challenging and nearly as nerve wracking as playing the WSOP (not kidding, have played it three times), had an issue immediately after putting it back together where it suddenly wouldn't charge AT ALL anymore (NO LED), and overheated, and had unusually fast battery drain of its remaining charge (which never ran out completely before resolving that issue, since I kept turning it off whenever possible).

=> Took it apart and put it together again XX times until realizing the power switch flex cable kept slipping out of its two (jawbone?) connectors during putting it back together (I was doing something wrong with the flex positioning).

=> This resolved the issue.

=> Felt like a hero and that I win at life (since this phone has a rep as being hard to meddle with, and this was my first time even opening, let alone taking apart a smartphone).

=> Continued joyful phone shenanigans for over

one month

.

=> THEN: Decided to root it, mainly because there was a particular app I wanted that required root ("Quick reply for Whatsapp/Pushbullet", for the curious).

My previous, very limited rooting/flashing experiences =

- Google Nexus One (CWM/Cyanogen) a few times, years ago

- Galaxy Tab 10.1 (CWM/Cyanogen 10.1 ages ago, TWRP/Omnirom Kitkat 4.4.4 recently) a couple times.

So, did my research (or so I thought..?) for this particular custom ROM, decided to go for

Android Revolution HD for HTC One X/+ 33.1 by mike 1986

(because it looked fckin awesome, and it was, while it ran) and loved the sh*t out of my "new" phone for about a week. Especially the vastly improved battery life seemed almost surreal, a big deal for a fixed-battery phone.

Then, ONE FATFUL EVENING in a bar, I remember looking at my phone and seeing 35% left, (days before it would've been an amazing 70-80% on an avg. day), which may not be relevant as it was my birthday, so had been using it a lot that day => may be a moot point

- Next time I looked at the phone ( < 1 hour without active use for sure) it was dead.

"Hmmmm," thought slightly drunk me. Whatever, charge it later, weird sh*t happens.

- Got home later, charged it over night after booting it with usb cord attached (mains).

Seemed normal, I even set an alarm.

=> Alarm never rang because it was in a powered-off state again come morning, despite all-night charging.

=> It booted to HTC logo. Seconds later, it turned off again. Held down power again, all I saw was the soft touch buttons flashing red a few times. After this it unexpectedly became (or was secretly crowned):

!! COMPLETE AND UTTER FCKNG KING BRICK OF BRICK COUNTRY AND ATTACHED TERRITORIES !!

No power on with or without volume up/down held for whatever amount of time;

No charging, no heating up when "charging";

No LED in any colour or flashing frequency, ever;

No response after hours and days of charging on different USB cables on PC/wall socket;

PCs and laptops don't register a sign of anything when it penetrates their port parts, etc etc...

...

.Even that semi-mystical bright-light-exposure-while-charging "light sensor manipulation" thing (which apparently worked for a lo of people with similar issues) did nothing for the cause.

Promotion: *Paperweight status successfully acquired.* Yay.

=====================================================

Now, obviously my first thought was that the power flex that gave me trouble during display replacement probably slipped again., somehow (I had taped it down solidly I thought).

=> SO I opened it once again, flex position seemed ok, but I wasn't sure of its functionality as it did look kind of battered from the somewhat unprofessional repair I had conducted on it (which I openly admit to, though I really did try my absolute best).

- Spontaneously took mainboard/battery combo to a local independent phone/accessory shop after being told they'd take a look for free

(I was in there was in there buying a microsim adapter so I could use my ancient Nexus One, since my GF has my old S2 now, which she kindly offered back, but its hers now, so nah. Great phone though.)

=>Shop's advice echoed my thoughts: Flex cable may be screwed, I may have damaged it by bending in the wrong direction/too often, and that damage somehow didn't manifest until much later. I didn't mention the recent rooting + flashing as I deemed it irrelevant at the time.

Their secondary thoughts: Battery or mini-usb port fukt, (which would require soldering, which they don't even offer).

=> SO, feeling confirmed in my layman's assessment, I cheaply got a pristine new replacement flex on ebay, double checked all videos/tutorials, implemented the damn thing with considerably more skill/experience and even higher anticipation. What happened next was shocking:

Absolutely nothing, obv.

=> Did an additional epic f*ckton of internet/forum research, found similar problems and some resolutions, but no real answers, probably because my main problem translates to a kind of hybrid question.

So here I am now am with my core question:

Is it possible to FULLY brick an HTC/any smartphone but not become aware of this until one week later, when the device dies OVER ONE WEEK of reliable and amazing performance?

(and if yes, what aspect/stage of the flashing process is this likely related to?)

If the answer is NO, it must be a hardware fault with probability rank (I think)

:

1.) Battery dead for whatever reason

2.) Mini USB OR mainboard/integral component (equal rank as not sure), possibly caused by incompetent repair, but why or how would this express itself over a month later??

3.) Other, which I'm not aware of.

While researching new ROMS for the N1, I realized that I may have messed up on the "bootimg part" of the flashing process of the Revolution ROM, a part I found v. confusing in the instructions, even after rereading them many, many times. It was about the most recent firmware, which I was pretty sure I had anyway, since it was unrooted before and I do remember installing some firmware updates over the air.

I still did my best to follow the instructions though.

=> Maybe this has something to do with it, i.e. the hardware can't accept a charge because the software allowed it to become too uncharged (a fairly paradox concept to me, but apparently it can happen. Guess it's like a BIOS-type thing).

Thank you for anyone who read this far!

As it stands, I refuse to give up hope so soon after experiencing that rush of having fixed it myself.

Any specific or general help, tips, hints, pointers, replacement phones (One M8 or S5 plz., Iphones will go straight on ebay) would and will be greatly appreciated!!

The obvious choice is to get a new battery and see what happens, but I'm not sure if I wanna sink any more money into this phone, only to later find out the mainboard is at fault (not worth the money replacing), AKA "get a new phone without a contract", which would more than suck for me financially atm (Im ignoring my N1 here, which I love, but don't wanna be stuck with, esp. as it has the standard-issue broken power button (which I actually had repaired once under warranty, back in the ol' days of yore some prefer to refer to as 2009.

So guys: What's my move, if there is one, besides going to a local/online service centre (I live in Germany btw.) and probably paying unproportionate cash money to even have it looked at?

Cheers, thanks, merci, danke

PS: Just saw the polling function, so I attached one just for the hell of it, to see what happens (never used one before).

If you feel both qualified AND so inclined as to pass judgement on this here serious business, please indicate what you think may be the cause of my issue.

Poll is in "General QA" Forum original post: http://xdaforums.com/general/help/retroactive-bricking-spontaneous-t2948954