xandrius 10 months ago

Everything is a brick until you figure a way to fix it.

I thought I bricked my old phone but it turns out I just needed to open the phone, short a couple of pins 5-10 times and trying to quickly boot into flashboot, repeat if it didn't work.

It turns out I was a fool thinking that it was bricked after all.

  • dwaite 10 months ago

    Sure, but shouldn't there be a minimum standard like "the built-in and well-documented recovery process failed?"

    • xandrius 10 months ago

      Depends on where this process is well-documented: if it is available on iFixit or somewhere super obvious but if I've got to go to xda or some Russian hacking forum, download a bunch of files strictly internal to the company and hope someone made a video about it, then it doesn't matter how "well-documented" it is.

      Also it's basically the core of the highly-paid tech expert meme "not paid for turning the screw but to know which screw to turn".

      If the issue is not easily troubleshootable and searchable then the keyword for it if the device doesn't reach stage X of boot will always be "bricked".

stepupmakeup 10 months ago

I don't think I've ever truly "bricked" a iPhone, or got one to the point it CAN'T be put DFU mode and restored. Cydia tweaks made it sound like one wrong move could render your device permanently unusable, at most it was a inconvenience.

  • Retr0id 10 months ago

    You can very easily brick an iPhone by logging in to an iCloud account and then forgetting the password (which of course TFA will not help with)

    • fsckboy 10 months ago

      if you go into an apple store, they can fix that for you. might help if you look... i dunno, middle aged?

      • Retr0id 10 months ago

        Does it still work if you're not the original retail customer?

fragmede 10 months ago

Keep trying to de-dramaticize language, you'll get there!

Seriously though, the last time I truely bricked something was because I overwrote the bootloader on a chip that had no other way to flash, and it was an all-in-one, so I couldn't solder to the chip and reprogram it directly. Now that was a brick. A board that I can still solder to a chip and bus pirate my way to victory, isn't a brick. Being able to do so wirelessly? psh.

Edit: I'm remembering now, that hardware was an Apple keyboard. I wanted to flash the firmware so I could have capslock be left Ctrl in hardware, but I flashed the wrong thing and then could not flash an updated image to it.

  • freedomben 10 months ago

    > I wanted to flash the firmware so I could have capslock be left Ctrl in hardware

    You're a person after my own heart. If there is a God, you're doing his/her/their work.

    What was the hardware and firmware you were flashing?

    • HKH2 10 months ago

      Why have three Ctrl keys? Why not use an empty modifier and have your own shortcut keys that you can guarantee no other program uses?

      • yjftsjthsd-h 10 months ago

        > Why have three Ctrl keys?

        You could just swap caps with one.

        > Why not use an empty modifier and have your own shortcut keys that you can guarantee no other program uses?

        Because that would require messy tinkering with multiple layers of software.

        • HKH2 10 months ago

          From memory, Linux has spare modifiers. You can see them using xmodmap. It's easy to assign shortcuts using them.

    • fragmede 10 months ago

      It was one of those wireless Apple keyboards, and I thought I had the settings right, but it turns out I didn't.

  • [removed] 10 months ago
    [deleted]
[removed] 10 months ago
[deleted]