[Asus Zenfone Max Questions & Answers] sid595:
Hello everyone.

My friend has been using ASUS Zenfone Max (ZC550KL, MSM8939) since one and a half year. Unfortunately, it seems in bricked state as of now. Following were the series of events that has led to current situation. Please go through it (although it's long), so that u have idea of what has been done.

Last week, due to heavy raining, some water crept inside mobile phone. We tried to switch off phone, but due to non-removable battery, we couldn't. When I pressed the power button for long enough time, it would restart. The touchscreen was also misbehaving. So, what we did, is we let it discharge and switch off overnight, by opening back cover, below the fan.

Next day, when we booted up (made sure that phone was dry, no putting in rice and all that) the touch-screen stopped working. We went to ASUS service center, and they told us a huge cost. Since, phone was out of warranty, we went to a local guy who replaced the touch-screen digitizer at a lower cost (maybe he put a resistive one). Phone started working completely normally, all the functions.

Next day, due to my friend's negligence, the phone again got discharged and switched off. Now, when we tried starting it, it went till android is starting, and stuck there. We waited for 6.5 hrs, then forced reset it (long press power key). Now it got stuck at ASUS logo. We again waited for >4 hrs. Again we tried 2-3 times, it always got stuck at ASUS logo. The phone was able to go in Stock Recovery and Bootloader (CSC) mode. The bootloader was locked and debugging mode not enabled.

*In recovery mode, following messages were coming "E: unknown volume for path /factory"

Before going to ASUS service center, we have tried following ROMs/ updates (in sequence):

factory reset from recovery mode

UL-ASUS_Z010_2-WW-13.8.26.113-user.zip [adb sideload]

UL_ASUS_Z010_2-WW-13.8.26.80-user.zip [adb sideload]

WW_ZC550KL(8916)-13.8.26.92_M3.1.42_Phone-user.raw.zip [ASUS flash tool] wrong firmware

WW_ZC550KL_8916_V13.8.26.60_M3.1.40_Phone-user.raw.zip [ASUS flash tool] wrong firmware

WW_ZC550KL(8939)-13.8.26.98_M3.1.42_Phone-user.raw.zip [ASUS flash tool]

WW_ZC550KL_8939_V13.8.26.63_M3.1.40_Phone-user.raw.zip [ASUS flash tool]

IN_ZC550KL(8939)-13.8.26.98_M3.3.10_Phone-user.raw.zip [ASUS flash tool] (we thought IN was for India)

UL-ASUS_Z010-WW-13.8.26.76-user.zip [adb sideload]

In all of above, the ASUS logo went till android is starting and stuck, for >3 hours.

In between, we flashed wrong ROM (by mistake).

Even now, the mobile can go into Recovery mode and CSC mode. We went to Recovery mode and would verify on top whether the specific ROM has loaded or not.

The recovery mode would change the version properly every time after update.

Every time after adb sideload or flashing, the mobile would go till starting android and stuck. After waiting good enough time (patiently) when we restart, it would get stuck at ASUS logo.

Finally, we gave to ASUS service center, where they said: "Mobile not accepting software, need to change motherboard", for which we denied, because the cost of motherboard replacement is 87.5% of overall mobile cost!! :(

Anyways, current situation is: mobile enters the recovery and boot-loader mode. Boots till ASUS logo. Properly recognized in adb and fastboot. On trying to flash custom recovery or boot, it says "Remote: permission denied" (might be because of locked boot-loader) and was unsuccessful.

We don't know what to do further. We are planning to give it to local repair guy, to see if he can do something. But we thought to post here first. Any suggestions are welcome.

More importantly, we want to understand possibly what has happened and why. :confused: ASUS guy told that internal memory chip is damaged, but how? If it was, why phone started working properly once, and got damaged once we rebooted?

Thanks in advance