Redmi 3s 3/32gb Completely Bricked. No Edl, No Fastboot, No Logo, No Led - Solved

[MaciekV]

1. I have bought brand new Redmi 3s 3/32GB english/china language version and I've asked Xiaomi for permission to unlock bootloader. After three days I've got the permission and I've unlocked the bootloader.

2. After that I have attempted to flash global stable rom using fastboot rom, EDL mode and MiFlash. Flashing had started properly but around 50% an error had raised and a process had stopped.

3. Since the flashing my new Redmi 3s is a stone cold and completely dead piece of plastic and metal.

Absolutely no reaction to anything.
No vibration, no LED, no effect on pressing and holding any combination of vol+, vol- and power buttons. No reaction neither to "adb devices" nor "fastboot devices" command. According to that there is no possibility to enter EDL or Fastboot mode to attempt flashing.

What I tried:

1. I disassembled the phone and disconnected/connected battery - no effect
2. I have made a deep flash cable and tried every combination of every connection between phone and PC - no effect
3. I installed QPST and tried to flash using QFIL - no effect
4. I tried to use several versions of MiFlash - no effect
5. I installed several versions of Qualcomm drivers - no effect
6. I reinstalled 'Qualcomm HS-USB Diagnostics 900E' into 'Qualcomm HS-USB QD Loader 9008' driver - no effect

Last few days I have read almost every post in english and my native language and watched most of videos on youtube about bricked Xiaomi's.
They all have one thing in common: to do anything with a phone first you have to enter EDL or fastboot mode which is not possible in my case.

Is anybody on the planet Earth speaking english
who is able to give a solution of the problem?...

 

[woutur]

You're pretty much lost if you can not even enter download mode. And you disassembling the phone doesn't give a lot of confidence this phone will ever work again. Unless you didn't recharge the battery first.

Time for a new phone.

 

[samsa]

Hi,

I was in similar situation with my Redmi 3S (with 3GB ram and 32GB rom). After I had tried to flash global rom several times to the phone it was detected as "Qualcomm HS-USB Diagnostics 900E" by my PC. Then I found out the location of the test points on the motherboard and I managed to get it working again with global stable rom (previous was china stable). My device still has locked bootloader as I'm waiting for unlock permission. Hopefully you can find help to your situation from my post. You probably should clean your device drivers if you have manually forced them to be different. I did not do any manual device driver configuration in my Windows 10, it found the correct ones automatically.

I cannot give any warranty for the information I give, but I got my bricked Redmi 3S phone working with these steps:
- I recharged the battery with my USB charger for couple hours to be sure it had charge
- Disconnect USB cable from the phone
- Removed back cover
- Removed internal cover from motherboard held together by screws (one under MI -sticker)
- Removed battery connector
- Reattached battery connector
- Connected phone via known good USB cable to PC (connect straight to PC motherboard USB ports, do not use any USB hubs etc between phone and PC)
- Shorted the test point pins while holding "power" + "volume down" -buttons until device reboots. I used metal tweezers for mobile phone repair I got from ebay as the pins are small & there are components near.

The device should now be recognized as Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008
Which means you are back in EDL-mode​

- Flashed official Xiaomi global stable rom via miflash with "clean all" selected.
- After miflash had successfully flashed (took around 230seconds on my PC) I disconnected the phone from PC and removed battery connector.
- Reattach battery connector and press power to normally start phone. I was welcomed with normal MI-logo and the first start took somewhere near 15minutes.

The filename for the rom I downloaded from Xiaomi servers was: land_global_images_V7.5.9.0.MALMIDE_20160805.0000.29_6.0_global_470b843c10.tgz

The version of xiaomi flashing tool / miflash I used was "Miflash 2016.08.30.0" I got from Xiaomi flashing guide "method 3. fastboot upgrade" page.

I'm hoping to flash xiaomi.eu rom after I get the bootloader unlocked so I can install TWRP, but now I have again functional phone. I attached two pictures to this post, one with clear picture of motherboard and one with test points circled.

Photo of the motherboard where I have circled the pins that need to be short out for forcing EDL and battery connector:

 

[MaciekV]

Hi Samsa,

Your post is exactly what I was waiting for. It is precise, detailed and intelligent.
I will be able to try the method tomorrow, as soon as I get results I will let you know what has happened.

By the way: I have the same 7.5.9.0. MALMIDE rom and 2016.08.30 MiFlash version prepared in case of bringing my phone back to life And my primary goal is still flashing xiaomi.eu which I have on my girlfriend's Xiaomi which is Redmi 3 (not 3s) and it works perfect.
Best greetings for the guys who are working on xiaomi.eu roms have to be passed at this moment.

Let me ask you one question:
Have you had a LED indicator flashing during battery charging when your phone was dead?
In my case the LED was dark but when after two hours of charging I've checked the battery voltage with a multimeter (after opening the lid and disconnecting the battery from the mainboard) it was 4.13 V so I assumed it has charged.

 

[samsa]

Thank you for your kind words. I believe that you can get your phone back to life.

My phone was completely dead outside, no led, no vibrate and nothing on screen. Only sign of life was that "diagnostics 900e" USB device when connecting phone to PC. I was able to reboot the phone by either holding the power button down or volume down button. This I noticed from Windows usb disconnect & connect sounds.

Only time I got the led to light up was when I intentionally let the phone sit on my table and drain the battery. Then the led flashed red when connected to the charger until battery was recharged over some level. But I don't think the battery was full when the led stopped flashing red. You have good point about checking the battery voltage. It did not occure for me to check that. My phone was sitting on the shelf for around 1 month with the battery connector disconnected until today because I was looking info about test points and did not want the battery get deeply discharged. Before starting today I connected phone into charger for couple hours. I had around 80% battery left when I finally got back to android and home screen.

So with my phone the breakthrough was finding info about those test points and trying them out. I had also tried all those options you had tried with your phone, but finally today I found sketchy youtube video about test points in similar looking redmi phone and decided to try them out. I measured 1,5V over the test point pins with multimeter. Simply shorting those pins did not do anything. Then I decided to try to keep the pins shorted while rebooting the phone by holding down power and volume down buttons. At that moment I was able to get the phone back to EDL mode and try flashing again and so I got my phone back from dead.

I cannot submit links as I have too few posts to these forums, but you can find the youtube video where I found out the test pins if you search for video with title "Repair Unbrick xiaomi redmi 3x atau 3s connect 900E , no edl mode 9008".

 

[MaciekV]

Samsa, you are my hero

The telephone is brought back to life.
I've done everything the same the way you described, no experimentation.
I used Windows 7 64 bit, 2016.08.30 MiFlash and 7.5.9.0. MALMIDE rom for flashing after entering EDL.
There was neither SD card nor SIM card in the telephone during flash.

I think it can be highlighted here you are the first guy on a planet who described the method of bringing back to life deeply bricked Redmi 3s.

Many thanks again

 

[samsa]

It is very nice to hear that you managed to get your phone back to life and thank you for your kind words MaciekV. You're welcome!

 

[alexbr1980]

the right to note 3 pro 32gb?

 

[Antimatter]

Samsa, you are my hero

The telephone is brought back to life.
I've done everything the same the way you described, no experimentation.
I used Windows 7 64 bit, 2016.08.30 MiFlash and 7.5.9.0. MALMIDE rom for flashing after entering EDL.
There was neither SD card nor SIM card in the telephone during flash.

I think it can be highlighted here you are the first guy on a planet who described the method of bringing back to life deeply bricked Redmi 3s.

Many thanks again

Sorry to bother you, but I have a feeling you might be able and willing to help. I have a redmi 3s and I'm able to get into fastboot mode (or MI logo bootloop, it's one of the two).
My bootloader is still locked, because MIunlock stopped at 50% telling me the accounts couldn't be verified or whatever.

I proceeded with this guide (http://en.miui.com/thread-327861-1-1.html) and after the last step it just never came out of the mi logo. Flashing was successful according to mi flash and I was greeted with mi logo that never disappeared. What do you suggest?
I've been searching for a solution all day, but can't find anything to work apart from wait till the battery dies and then try this (http://xiaomitips.com/guide/how-to-put-redmi-note-3-into-edl-mode/)?

Very grateful for any kind of input

 

[Antimatter]

It is very nice to hear that you managed to get your phone back to life and thank you for your kind words MaciekV. You're welcome!

Hopefully not being too rude, but I wanted to 'tag' you to see if you mind giving me some input and helping me troubleshoot? Normally I get to fix stuff myself, but after hours of searching and trying with this I feel a bit lost

Edit: see post above

 

[jeviorro]

Thanks.....very interesting and didactic post...

 

[jeviorro]

Fantastic works.....

Thankss

 

[socratesbrussels]

@samsa:
As I had exactly the same problem as you described, I started a thread in a different forum in xiaomi.eu, where @manzing pointed me to this thread.
And it worked!
One additional observation: Once you see the 9008 indication, do not unplug the battery connector to start the re-assembling of the phone. Because then your phone as a device has disappeared and you have to start all over again.
So MIflash (2016.08.30.0) now detects my phone on a COM port, but the flashing does not work very well, as I get a error-message "cannot receive hello packet". I have to work on that.
Question: did you unpack the MALMIDE.tgz file or not?

But I am very grateful for your post how to use the test point procedure!

 

[ov1lord]

@samsa:
As I had exactly the same problem as you described, I started a thread in a different forum in xiaomi.eu, where @manzing pointed me to this thread.
And it worked!
One additional observation: Once you see the 9008 indication, do not unplug the battery connector to start the re-assembling of the phone. Because then your phone as a device has disappeared and you have to start all over again.
So MIflash (2016.08.30.0) now detects my phone on a COM port, but the flashing does not work very well, as I get a error-message "cannot receive hello packet". I have to work on that.
Question: did you unpack the MALMIDE.tgz file or not?

But I am very grateful for your post how to use the test point procedure!

if you receive the error "cannot receive hello packet" you should enter the second download mode (ELD) . you need to press all 3 buttons of the phone(volume up, volume down and power) simultaneously until you see the mi logo. then quickly release the buttons and you should be in the second download mode. after that you can flash an official rom via miflash without any error.

 

[socratesbrussels]

What happened next:
Flashed the MALMIDE Rom successfully. Took 1870 seconds, about 33 minutes. (but I have Win 7 x 64 working under virtual machine in my iMac, so things go a bit slower!)
But contrary to @samsa experience, pressing the power button did not help. Black screen, no Mi logo.
After plugging in the USB cable with the PC QDLoader 9008 disappeared from Devices list in Windows, but it came back after removing and subsequently reattaching the battery connector.

Any suggestions?

 

[socratesbrussels]

Let me ask you one question:
Have you had a LED indicator flashing during battery charging when your phone was dead?
In my case the LED was dark but when after two hours of charging I've checked the battery voltage with a multimeter (after opening the lid and disconnecting the battery from the mainboard) it was 4.13 V so I assumed it has charged.

Hi, @MaciekV can you tell me (or point out on the photo of @samsa) where you put the pins of your multimeter to check the voltage of the battery? I need to check mine!

 

[MaciekV]

@socratesbrussels
You need to detach battery connector from the mainboard. The '+' and '-' are marked on the connector.

I don't know how does it correspond with manually measured voltage but after bringing my Redmi 3s back to life I've checked the battery voltage with CPU-Z apk from Google Play. The voltage value was 4,342 V at 100% charge. At the moment of writing this words the voltage shown by CPU-Z is 4227 mV (4,227V), and my phone's charge level is 90%.

The most important thing in the whole situation described by Me and Samsa from phone's empowering point of view is that the mainboard charges the battery even when Redmi 3s loooks completely dead. It makes the whole process possible even when few days passed from bricking moment and the battery has completely discharged since that time.

 

[socratesbrussels]

In the meantime I have sent the Redmi 3S to the service center, where they reanimated the bricked Phone and installed the newest ROM..
Everything OK now, but when things will go wrong later, I will remember this valuable post to revive Xiaomi phones.

 

[tommyboy7]

Had a similar situation yesterday. Bricked 3s with only access to fastboot, no adb, no EDL. In fastboot i couldnt do anything, no flashing in Miflash since it displayed critical error.

I took the cover off, disconnected the power cable (waiting for 3s to shut down by itself can take days). I ordered a deep flash cable since i could only see Qualcomm Diagnostic 900E, meaning no EDL.

In the meantime i saw a video on diy making a deepflash cable with a copper wire. The wire if positioned correctly on the 2nd pin from the left prevents the phone from charging when u put in the usb cable in the computer.

After about 10 tries and pulling the copper wire out and again connecting the usb, it found Qualcomm Qloader 9008.
I quickly fired up Miflash and flashed official developer rom and it worked.
If you cannot enter EDL, as in my case ,deep flash seems to be the only solution.
I tried two point unbrick with the pins but nothing happend, no EDL.
So there you go. Get a cable, or do it yourself.

Why i got into this situation is another matter. I tried to unlock the bootloader and it stopped after 50% ( the old cant verify device). I checked fastboot oem device status and it said unlocked. I installed twrp and everything went well. I even installed the latest weekly eu rom for 3s and all went well. When i rebooted, bootloop, no twrp, only fastboot which said "oem device-info" locked.
I will obviously never do that again, but just a question. If bootloader is locked, why did it let me install twrp and subsequently the eu. rom. It shouldn'be possible right?

 

[MarkyO]

On your first boot into TWRP, did you disable dm-verity? If you didn't, the described situation will occur.
If you flash an official ROM, it will always lock your bootloader again.

 

[tommyboy7]

Thats the thing, i flashed unofficial rom, meaning .eu weekly rom, which never relocks the bl
The real question is - if the bl is locked, it shouldn't be possible to flash twrp nor an unofficial rom - correct?
Because when in bootloop i had fastboot access, it denied installing twrp again (the device is locked).
Obviously - lesson is learned, as long as miunlock doesnt unlock the bl - its locked.

But the fastboot info on device saying it is unlocked, but in fact isnt't, is very intriguing.

 

[cabelist]

Here is an easyer way to enter download mode :
1. device off
2. connect black(gnd) and green(D+) wires of usb cable (you just Can peel it off no need to cut wires)
3. connect micro usb to your phone and in a few seconds disconnect green from black wires
4. wait a sec......and everything ok you will see ......qualcom 9008.....etc

This is our "beta" version of cable....

 

[rodeo]

Anyone tested this method? My Phone is Dead as Well...

 

[cabelist]

Anyone tested this method? My Phone is Dead as Well...

Works 1000℅

 

[tommyboy7]

Either with a deep flash cable or by diy cable - it works. The problem is that you have to turn off the phone completely either by draining it fully or opening it and disconnecting the power ribbon.