[Zenfone 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vaibhavnarain11@gmail.com:
HI GUYS !!BRICKING has been the term which all android lovers hate.after bricking our top notch device get reduced to a mere paperweight (or maybe can be used in place of bricks in ur house)..bricking has become very common these days and its happening by very small faults of ours which we many time ignore.

so guys in this thread i will be discussing how you may brick your phone,so please be carefull and avoid these scenarios as far as possible

[1] ROOTING

rooting has always been the top position holder when it comes to bricking phones mainly beacuse we are all tempted to gain control over our devices and end up bricking our devices. so as far as possible don't root your phone unless you cant live without rooting.if you want to root go to a well known website like xda developers and see the procedure carefully and see if your device is supported or not

[2]CUSTOM ROMS/KERNELS

never ever install/flash roms or kernels which are not meant for your device,many times if you are unlucky the recovery and fastboot files get corrupted and you cant even flash the stock firmware causing a hard brick which can be recovered only by a developer or changing the motherboard

[3] FORCE POWER OFF WHEN SYSTEM UPDATE IS IN PROGRESS

system updates are treats for us,they give nice new features.big system updates take time to install and we must have patience,many times we force power off our device when system update is in progress thinking that the process is stuck at some point.NEVER DO THAT. it will hard brick your device and may damage the motherboard beyond recovery

[4] BATTERY LOW WHILE INSTALLING A UPDATE

this issue is quite similar to above.android recommends charging your phone to 15% but i would say that CHARGE YOUR PHONE ATLEAST TO 50% before doing a update,if your phone goes off while flashing it might never come back

[5] INSTALLING SYSTEM UPDATE WHILE BEING ROOTED

this is the most common mistake many users make. NEVER UPDATE SYSTEM IF YOUR PHONE IS ROOTED

always un root and then do the update.

[6] FLASHING WRONG RECOVERY AND FASTBOOT WHILE INSTALLING STOCK FIRMWARE

never flash worng recovery with a firmaware.if your recovery/fastboot files get corrupted then it will be very difficult to save your device

[7] INSTALLING XPOSED FRAMEWORK/CUSTOM RECOVERY

xposed is a pretty well known feature and if you have rooted your device then you may try to install it but be carefull.THE METHOD OF INSTALLING XPOSED IS A BIT DIFFERENT FOR x86 DEVICES.

and the same goes for custom recoveries like twrp or cwm DONT JUST DOWNLAOD ANY RECOVERY YOU FIND AND FLASH IT.

the recovery files first need to be optimised for devices and then they are safe to flash.

[8]UPDATING THE SYSTEM WHEN THE PHONE IS ENCRYPTED

you should never perform a system update when your phone is encrypted.it may hard brick your phone..

always remove encryption and then perform system update

IF UNFORTUNATELY IF YOU HAVE COMMITED ANY OF THE ABOVE CRIMES THEN HOW SHOULD YOU SAVE YOUR PHONE??

REMEMBER THE GOLDEN RULE= IF YOU BOOT IN FASTBOOT YOU CAN SAVE YOUR PHONE, ELSE I DONT KNOW....just kidding

[1] IF YOU ARE ABLE TO BOOT INTO FASTBOOT= SEE THIS--http://xdaforums.com/zenfone-5/help/bootlooped-bricked-returning-to-stock-t3358662

[2] IF YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO BOOT INTO FASTBOOT(maybe stuck on usb logo)--see this: http://www.asus.com/zentalk/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=33800 it is written by asus guys and will help you

and please note that not hitting thanks will lead to a zombie apoclypse :p dont forget to hit thanks;)