[Micromax A57 Ninja] True $tar:
Let's describe Softbrik:-Anything caused to your phone except damage to Hardware of your phone which put your Device into a state where it is not booting up and kept showing White, Gray, Blue or Black Screen or Either It gets stuck at Company logo Screen. This may occur if something goes wrong during Rooting, flashing Recovery or ROMs or during Updating in Recovery Mode or either being caught by some wrong software or VIRUS !!!

Preface to the Guide:

Fastboot is a command line tool used to directly flash the filesystem in Android devices from a host computer via USB. It allows flashing of unsigned partition images and also can erase partitions. Its a part of Android Developement Kit (Android SDK).

Use of FASTBOOT is disabled in production devices since USB support has been disabled in the bootloader. You must have an Engineering SPL, or an SPL that is S-OFF or Unlocked bootloader to use 'fastboot'.

After installing the Android SDK or ADB Standalone you can use 'fastboot' in addition to the more common ADB.

One can use the attached .android folder if u want to skip downloading Android SDK. (Refer Attachment)

Verify SPL S-OFF or Bootloader Unlocked:

Not required for Micromax !! But certain Production Devices like Sony HTC LG etc may need bootloader to be unlocked before carrying out this process. My simple advice to people is.. "If you enjoy experiments on your device, you must be ROOTED and to ROOT you device you may need to have unlock bootloader"

Preparations:

(1) Download attached .android.zip, Extract and place .androidfolder on C:/ drive of your PC. So the path of this folder will look likeC:/.android

(Never remove this ".android" folder from C:/ coz you will require it whenever u want to experiment with you Droid using ADB or FASTBOOT methods. I assure... You can do a lot more with it; if you really explore how to use various commands !!!)

.android folder is containing adb.exe, fastboot.exe and related drivers adb_usb.ini, android_winusb.ini AdbWinApi.dll and AdbWinUsbApi.dll and other files; all together not more than 800KB

(2) Connect Device in 'USB debugging ON' mode.

Ensure Drivers for your Device are already installed on the host computer

Note: I recommend you should always keep USB Debugging opetion 'ON' as it only can help you, in case, your device get SoftBricked and you cant see anything on Device Screen. Remember that with USB debugging 'OFF' your Device can't communicate with your Host Computer.

(3) Host Computer Ability to Launch Command Prompt:

On Windows-XP or earlier, to start ADB (Android Debug Bridge) You need to locate your folder containing adb.exe where as Windows-7/Vista/Other-Latest-OS can directly launch command prompt from the Folder itself by Shift+Right Click on Mouse and Selecting "Open Command Prompt from here".

Hence 'Locating 'adb' folder-steps' are for XP users only, However higher OS users can skip it and can directly start giving 'adb' commands after opening cmd from .android folder.

(4) So now, Open Command Prompt (in Windows XP), it will return like this:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME>

(As our adb.exe is in C:/.android.... we will type: Cd C:\.android)

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME>Cd C:\.android (Hit Enter)
C:\.android>

Let's give command to detect attached device by writing: 'adb device'. On hitting enter it will list all devices attached to your PC.

C:\.android>adb devices
List of devices attached
XXXXXXXX-XXXX device

Now u can do a lot while your Device is attached in 'adb mode' e.g.:

1. Rebooting into Bootloader (FASTBOOT)
2. Installing apps on as /system/app or /data/app
3. Copying Files to/from your SDCARD
4. Pulling Files or Apps already installed on your /system or /data partition

To Understand adb commands and how they work please read:

http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html#commandsummary

Let's come back to ISSUE: "We have a SOFTBRICKED devices !!!"

(1) Booting into FASTBOOT mode:

Let's come back to'fastboot' as we need to flash new ROM or to apply update.zip in a Softbricked deviceNote: Let your device remain connected to PC and don't disconnect untill You finish you job-successfully and get your Device again in working Factory Condition.

""fastboot reboot-bootloader" This command is used to reboot your device into bootloader i.e into fastboot mode) and In this Mode your device will stuck into boot logo only and u cant operate it. ;D Well we are not concerned as we already have a bricked device with no screen display !!!. Lets go ahead...on cmd follow:

C:\.android>adb reboot-bootloader
C:\.android>fastboot devices
XXXXXXXXXXXX fastboot

(2) Unlocking-ReLocking Bootloader:

(Skip if u working with pre-unlocked devices)

(Accept/Decline warning on your devices screen. Select YES to Unlock)

(Once ROM is flashed) To relock Bootloader use command: fastboot oem lock:

C:\.android>fastboot oem unlock
...
SUCCESSFULL
finished. total time: 118.063s

(Accept/Decline warning on your devices screen. Select YES to ReLock)]

(Skip if u working with pre-unlocked devices)

(3)Get 'Recovery.img' and 'Update.zip' for your Device:

Lets Wipe the Data and then proceed to Flash new ROM/Update.zip

IMPORTANT: Copy the stock recovery.img and your devices' Update.zip[ in .android folder(You can get it even by searching it in this forum or by Googling for it..) So I assume that you have it....in your .android

Abbreviations:

recovery.img = Stock Recovery of your Device

Update.zip = Update Package/Stock ROM of your Device

Let's start wiping and updating process with following commands:

(4)Wiping Old Data and Flashing new Update.zip:

C:\.android>fastboot -w
SUCCESSFUL
C:\.android>fastboot update Update.zip

(Here Replace Update with Full Name of your any Update.zip that you copied to .android folder)

Your phone will update and automatically reboot into the Factory State. Cheers !!!

Note: Its important to spell the file name correctly that u want to flash/update. No space between name are allowed. This process will only be successful if your device is still carrying recovery partition 'intact'.

.....If above wiping/updating FAILS....

If you still in "No Display State", extract update.zip to .android folder (U can use 7zip).

You will find following main .img files, each incorporate specific partition on any android device. In our case we can extract following:

boot.img -The main kernel and initrd

recovery.img -A 'backup' kernel, initrd, and OS 4 sysm recovery/maintanance

sytem.img -The main OS

userdata.img -User data and settings

splash.img -Has Boot image. can be splash1 as well.

cache.img -Temp storage

...there can be similar partition names depends on your device type.... but basically these 6 partitions constitute a ROM. Copy all of (6) files to .android folder. (Henceforth, we can use this recovery.img as stock recovery for your device.)

"As your device is bricked/corrupted, we need to erase all old Partitions and flash (rewrite) new partitions that we have extracted from Update zip and placed in .android."

(1) Lets erase all partitions first (one by one)using: fastboot erase <partition>

C:\.android>fastboot erase system
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot erase recovery
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot erase boot
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot erase userdata
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot erase splash
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot erase cache
Successful

(2) Continuing with Flashing new partionsusing the Images copied in .android:

Command: fastboot flash <partition> <partition_name.img>

C:\.android>fastboot flash boot boot.img
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot flash system system.img :(here people gen. get stuck
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot flash splash splash.img
Successful
C:\.android>fastboot reboot

If all successful, Your phone will update and automatically reboot into the Factory State. Cheers !!!

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..If you are Unable to flash 'system.img' successfully...

Reason: Your device is not allowing to format and rewrite 'system' partition manually. If your device is Rooted then probably such failure will never occur.

Let's overcome this Issue as well...Try Following...

First, Understand current State of Device...

We Wiped out old partitions and Flashed new partitions except :-\ system :-\ So No System on your Device at present.

What we will do now..

We will now wipe all partitions again

We will then flash only recovery.img saved in .android folder

We will use update.zip saved in .android folder to Flash it using SD Card.

We will copy update.zip on SD Card (using adb). If you can do it manually using a card reader skip step-II in below process.

Step-I: Wiping 'partitions' and Flashing 'recovery.img':Let's wipe all partitions again:

C:\.android>fastboot -w
C:\.android>fastboot reboot-bootloader
C:\.android>fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
C:\.android>reboot

Step-II: Copy update.zip on SDCARD

C:\.android>adb push update.zip /data/sdcard

Step-III: As you can't manage to see what is happening on screen(No Display) hence Don't do mistakes here, read carefully and follow exactly:

1.Reboot Device into Recovery Mode:

On cmd type:

C:\.android>adb reboot recovery

2.Now Press 'Volume(-)' button ONCE. (Once means 'once only'-if you did mistake here repeat the Step-III)

3.Press 'Power' Button TWICEand Leave you Device for some 10 Minutes time.

If phone don't get alive in 10 Minutes Repeat Step-III again.

You may not able to see but Your phone will update and automatically reboot into the Factory State. Cheers !!!

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Explaining Last Step:

We used simple logic in last procedure/ Its nothing but updating using Recovery Mode. Always remember Custom Recovery of Micromax A56/57 has following options: (May be diferent for other devics)

As the default curser in recovery UI remains on Option-1 and we needed to choose Option-2.

Hence to select "Apply update for sdcard" we pressed 'Vol(-)'ONCE and then to Confirm and execute that option Tapped 'POWER' button TWICE.

Hope this Guide helped you or ...will Help you to help others !!! ​