Hard brick

[progzone122]

Congratulations, I have a Hard Brick.
I tried to flash the stock firmware and this is what came out of it...

The phone does not respond to anything and is not detected by the PC.

On KPCOL0 voltage 1.3V

[progzone122]

After flashing the super partition, it automatically turned off and did not turn on again

[progzone122]

I think I'll have later to try GPIO _МЕТА_DET testpoint.
There is a possibility that this is the only way to restore Hard bricks!

ChatGPT response:

Activating META Mode through GPIO_META_DET:
If the Preloader is partially or fully damaged, the device may not be recognized through normal boot methods such as Fastboot or standard boot mode. However, activating META Mode through GPIO_META_DET allows bypassing the standard boot process. In this mode, the device can be recognized as a MediaTek USB VCOM Port, allowing you to use SP Flash Tool to flash new firmware.

[shomykohai]

Anyway, we need to find a way to recover it without JTAG

You're only hope is the META TP, but for bricked preloader the only way would be either BROM or JTAG, with the first one being inaccesible.. I wish too there was a way to do it without JTAG, but it seem to be the only logical solution in this case

At least we should try it. Because when META was running, it really wasn't in Preloader, it was loading into VCOM

What's concerning is that the META MODE string is not even in preloader, but lk...

[shomykohai]

I've made some research online, and the only thing that actually helps is just JTAG, and BROM if you're lucky having a phone with it enabled

[progzone122]

It didn't seem to work.
So the only option is JTAG?
I understand it would be easier to sell this shit for parts and buy a new phone?

[shomykohai]

It didn't seem to work. So the only option is JTAG?

Yes

I understand it would be easier to sell this shit for parts and buy a new phone?

Well, yeah, it depends also if you want to continue development on this phone or not, too.
Maybe you can look if you can find a cheap repair centre first which has JTAG repairing first.

Also, this phone parts, apart from the motherboard, don't seem to be really valuable

[shomykohai]

Anyway @progzone122, tell me if you need a clean dump of the preloader or other partitions if you're willing to repair it, I'm not sure if the one in the firmware are correct at this point

[shomykohai]

Anyway @progzone122, since we were talking about JTAG, we forgot to put on the documentation the guide. I remember seeing it one time, but on penangf-guides there is only documentation about Meta mode.

We should definitely put it back.

[shomykohai]

Also, unrelated to the topic, the Meta mode page is not working anymore since we migrated to docsaurus, I just noticed

[shomykohai]

@progzone122 The reason you bricked is because you flashed preloader, I can confirm it 100% now.

It's not your fault though, it's motorola that used the wrong command.

In g24 cfc flash:

$ fastboot flash boot0 preloader.img

$ fastboot flash boot1 preloader.img

In our device it's boot1 and boot2, but that doesn't change the fact that it flashed the preloader in the wrong way.

There's no risk of bricking the device completely if the preloader partition is not touched at all.
We can still work for making custom roms and only have softbricks at most

[shomykohai]

It's a shame that when the preloader is damaged, BROM doesn't activate. They really do make electronic garbage.

I think it's something that mediatek decided too, it seems like other devices have brom blocked.

There are many Helio G85 devices that have BROM available via testpoint. So no, it was most likely Motorola

You have to consider that Helio G85 is a 2020 SoC, and mediatek started to impose vendors to disable BROM mode in 2022.

Then yeah, Lenovo decided to disable it on their behalf, too.

Basically imo its fault of both mtk and Moto, but moto having most of the fault for not having a backup solution like Samsung does with their download mode. It's impossible to hard brick a Samsung device, especially those with exynos

[progzone122]

It's a shame that when the preloader is damaged, BROM doesn't activate. They really do make electronic garbage.

I think it's something that mediatek decided too, it seems like other devices have brom blocked.

There are many Helio G85 devices that have BROM available via testpoint. So no, it was most likely Motorola

You have to consider that Helio G85 is a 2020 SoC, and mediatek started to impose vendors to disable BROM mode in 2022.

Then yeah, Lenovo decided to disable it on their behalf, too.

Basically imo its fault of both mtk and Moto, but moto having most of the fault for not having a backup solution like Samsung does with their download mode. It's impossible to hard brick a Samsung device, especially those with exynos

Meanwhile, when trying to reboot to fastbootd, we get a softbrick...
I don't understand why MTK recommends doing this.
I don't think I'll buy a phone on MTK anymore, I don't want to support their policy

[shomykohai]

I don't understand why MTK recommends doing this.

I assume because of the gravity of the exploit, giving access to anyone to bypass FRP, maybe dump userdata and more.

I don't think I'll buy a phone on MTK anymore, I don't want to support their policy

I agree, considering they don't even open source their driver, or at least, it's the vendor that has to give the sources, not mtk (which is kind of a scam).

At least moto gave us drivers it seems

[progzone122]

I suggest you buying another phone, like a pixel if you want to do yourself a favor, and maybe one day you can find a cheap used g13 for development/backup phone.

Looks like I'll be able to buy a G13 soon and get to work.
Thanks for the material help @R0rt1z2

[shomykohai]

Happy to hear that!! Thanks @R0rt1z2 for making development & testing continue!