How it happened:
This initially started when I was trying to provide information to another D2 user. The D2 user couldn't see his screen and asked how many clicks down/up were to get to the wipe data on CWR. I provided the info to him in another thread. To my horror, when I tried backing out of the menu to reboot my phone back up, it went ahead and wiped all my user data. I was currently on MIUI 1.8.12.
So, I figured since I messed up I might as well go for it and SBF back to Froyo to take on Verizon's GB OTA. I did this by buying TBH's app. It has a flashable SBF zip (2.3.20). Everything went well with that zip as far as I could see.
I then proceeded to go ahead and take on VZW's GB OTA after the phone had settled down from all the activity going on after the SBF. Everything looked good when the phone shut off so the GB OTA could install. Once the installation was over the red Motorola logo appeared and I was excited to see the new GB. Instead, I was greeted with a Bootloader and what appeared to be an assortment of errors in different numbers and letters.
What I did:
- Shut the phone off via Power button and Power it back on (fail)
- Hold Power button + x. This takes you to the stock recovery. Instead, it took me straight back to the Bootloader (fail)
- Pull the battery out, reinsert it after 3 seconds and Power on (fail)
- Pull the battery out, reinsert it after 3 minutes and Power on (fail)
- Hold Power button and up button on physical keyboard (success without errors like mentioned above)
- Boot up RSD Lite, used 2 different versions and try to SBF (fail on both versions)
The result of many unsucessful attempts and the consequence:
The result of trying everything I knew and looking up different methods ended up killing my battery, while being stuck in the Bootloader, within 3 hours of the problem occurring.
New problem arises:
Due to a dead battery, I decided to just leave it on the wall charger. Many people fail to understand that charging from your PC (computer) does not provide an adequate cycle of power supply to your phone. It will still charge but going from 20% to 100% on a wall charger (AC) should take 2 hours versus going from 20% to 100% from your PC (computer) would take roughly 4 to 7 hours.
When I checked in on the battery, I was greeted with a new problem on the Bootloader:
Battery Low
Cannot Program
So, with that new problem I knew I was going to have to fight with reviving the battery before I could revive the crippled Android OS.
What I did for the battery issue:
- Left it on the wall charger during each test on different periods of idle time (failed)
- Plugging the USB into the PC (computer) shows charge light on (success)
- Plugging the charger into the wall outlet shows charge light on (fail)
Diagnosis: The Android OS is not established on a Bootloader therefore it has no way of reading and recognizing a charge no matter what you do.
Things You Could Try To Get A Charge Or Get The Bootloader Running In Your Favor: You could try to power off the phone, take the battery out, reinsert it, hook it up to the wall charger, wait a few minutes and just tap the Power button once. If you get the battery charging image then you are good to go to get it charged up. If this does not help and takes you to the Bootloader with the same persisntent Battery Low, Cannot Program message then you need to either borrow a battery or get another battery that you have and is charged up and see if that fixes the problem
If you should finally resolve that issue, you should see a Battery Ok message and then attempt to SBF again.
Since none of this worked for me and I had no battery to borrow I had to do things the hard way. I took it to the VZW store, where I bought it, and hoped the VZW rep would change out the battery and get something going so I could finish up the rest. He comes back and says he has no idea what is wrong with it and it looks impossible to fix. He admitted to changing out with a fresh battery (which I would later question him saying that because that's what would be the cause of the problem with the battery issue).
21 Hours Later:
Before I grew too tired and it was 2am in the morning, I had decided to just slightly push the charger into the slot of my D2 (from the wall charger) and the charge light came on finally. I used tape to hold it in place. If I pushed it all the way in, it would shut off, the Bootloader would come on and the Battery Low, Cannot Program would be flashing before my eyes yet again.
I went back to work on this phone around 11:30am this morning. I noticed the charge light was not on anymore and I was thinking the battery finally got charged up. I powered it on and sure enough it said Battery OK on the Bootloader.
So, I quickly booted up the Linux SBF (follow this link
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-2-hacks/161849-tool-ezsbf.html) and plugged the USB via my laptop to my D2. Everything went good but then the phone shut off on me midway during the SBF process. However, I did notice that something caused the battery to get along slightly better with the charger but it wasn't charging up the way it needed to charge up.
Last Resort for Battery Issues (Beware! Research before you do this!)
Basically I need my battery to have enough charge so I could run the Linux SBF on it. I had to think about this one for awhile and then it struck me. Most of my phones I've had have been Motorola brands. I went digging for some of my old Motorola chargers. Found 3 of them. What I did next is something you have to research because anything bad could happen. I cut off the end of the micro-USB (the end that plugs into your phone). There were 3 wires. Red, Yellow, and Black.
Red is positive (+)
Yellow is temperature charge (T)
Black is negative (-)
On the back of the D2's battery there is a + (red positive) and a - (black negative) next to the terminals. Basically I took the red and black wire, stripped it down to expose the threads and sandwich the red with the phone's terminal and battery's terminal and the same for the black wire. I allowed it to stay in place for about 30 minutes. Some people say 5 to 10 minutes is enough time for it but that all depends on what kind of phone you have. Smartphones like the D2 require a little more time for this kind of charging. I would not recommend to leave it in there for the same amount of time that you leave it on your regular wall charger.
I was greeted with Battery Ok on the Bootloader but had a new message, Corrupt Code. I knew I was on the right track because I read up on the Corrupt Code and that is easily fixed with a fresh SBF.
Once the 30 minutes passed I booted up the Linux CD with the SBF on it and quickly went to work on reviving the Android OS.
20 minutes later, the phone is back up and running on Stock Froyo and currently charging, off the wall charger, the way it should.
If anyone has any questions regarding being stuck on the Bootloader or Battery Low, Cannot Charge then please post your messages here. I will be glad to assist you in getting it back up and running again since I have a ton of more information on what to do to fix this up.
Bottom line... nothing is impossible.
