Nokia Software Recovery Bricked my 1520

[howetechnical]

Hi,

I had the 8.1 preview for developers installed for a while, and tonight used the NSR to update the device to the most recent official firmware. It detected my phone, I allowed the firmware version it said it could do, then walked away for about 15 minutes. When I came back, NSR was on a screen saying to press volume down + power until it vibrated, then click OK. The 1520 had nothing on the screen. Tried that, it wouldn't turn on (or rather, it was unresponsive). I can't get it to do anything now. Here is what I have tried:

Holding power button - nothing
Volume down + power - nothing
Volume down + plugging in - no exclamation mark

When I plug it into the PC, I do get an unknown USB device message, so it is detecting that a device has plugged in that is not a charge-only device. But NSR doesn't recognize it plugged in when choosing the option to recover when the phone won't turn on.

I'm now letting it sit, hopefully it will die and then I can charge it a little and start it up some way. The current state of the device is screen off, no response on button combination presses.

Anybody else have any ideas? I'm very frustrated that a software by Nokia is what bricked my device. I'm using version 1.4.3, FYI.

 

[MDK22]

Hi,

I had the 8.1 preview for developers installed for a while, and tonight used the NSR to update the device to the most recent official firmware. It detected my phone, I allowed the firmware version it said it could do, then walked away for about 15 minutes. .

There was your mistake then walked away for about 15 minutes

Either NSU or NSR will flash a bricked phone ... I suggest you Google it 'restore bricked Lumia 1520'
or
Google 'Lumia 1520 service manual', there's a key combination to hard reset the phone (hope you got a backup) to factory.

 

[howetechnical]

There was your mistake then walked away for about 15 minutes

Either NSU or NSR will flash a bricked phone ... I suggest you Google it 'restore bricked Lumia 1520'
or
Google 'Lumia 1520 service manual', there's a key combination to hard reset the phone (hope you got a backup) to factory.

With a manufacturer solution, I would have hoped their engineering was QA'd enough to not require babysitting. And I understand NSU and NSR do flash bricked phones, but there is one requirement, and that is that it must detect the phone plugged in via USB. As mentioned, the PC sees the USB device but does not know what it is, and the software simply goes on like nothing is plugged in that it recognizes. The key combination to hard reset is volume down + power, again as mentioned, which, again, as mentioned, is not providing any change of state.

Thanks for your response, however it addressed issues already mentioned to be ineffective. You assumed I had not already gone through due process in researching a resolve. I have been around the block enough to know that forum posts are a last resort only when all other avenues of research have been exhausted. Every Google search and forum post or blog I have read about this contains information I have already attempted. I believe the device firmware is in a deadlocked state currently, and my only hope will be if once the battery fully drains, it allows a factory reset when volume down + plugging in is attempted. I don't need a backup, so none was made.

 

[hipporama]

Volume down + power is for a soft reset, not a hard reset.

Try this for a hard reset:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc9bYEAJIh8

 

[Sam_oslo]

I have used Nokia Software Recovery to flash the new Cyan 8.1 over WP 8.0 + Cyan. It was straight ahead with no hassle.

If I remember it right, I had to enter my pin-code a couple of times after reboots, but otherwise it didn't require much attention from me. It installed, rebooted, and went on all by itself. At the end I had to go trough the same proses as after a hard reset.

 

[switch side method]

Wow.. That took ms by surprise as I never had to do that. Just left it and came back and it was done. No pin code or anything. I think as suggested to let the battery die out. Hopefully on next boot up it will work. I would suggest as soon as the phone powers back up is to make sure you hold volume down and power button so it instantly gets into format mode. Keep up updated anyway and we will go from there

 

[MDK22]

With a manufacturer solution, I would have hoped their engineering was QA'd enough to not require babysitting. And I understand NSU and NSR do flash bricked phones, but there is one requirement, and that is that it must detect the phone plugged in via USB. As mentioned, the PC sees the USB device but does not know what it is, and the software simply goes on like nothing is plugged in that it recognizes. The key combination to hard reset is volume down + power, again as mentioned, which, again, as mentioned, is not providing any change of state.

Thanks for your response, however it addressed issues already mentioned to be ineffective. You assumed I had not already gone through due process in researching a resolve. I have been around the block enough to know that forum posts are a last resort only when all other avenues of research have been exhausted. Every Google search and forum post or blog I have read about this contains information I have already attempted. I believe the device firmware is in a deadlocked state currently, and my only hope will be if once the battery fully drains, it allows a factory reset when volume down + plugging in is attempted. I don't need a backup, so none was made.

You asked for ideas, I provided them. Is it possible, whatever solution attempted, first, timed out after '... about 15 minutes...' of inactivity ?

Obviously, you have NOT done your due diligence (& it showed in the first post) ...

snarky will get you nowhere, here.

Howe Technical are you ? you did all this w/o a backup ?

Good Luck.

 

[howetechnical]

You asked for ideas, I provided them. Is it possible, whatever solution attempted, first, timed out after '... about 15 minutes...' of inactivity ?

Obviously, you have NOT done your due diligence (& it showed in the first post) ...

snarky will get you nowhere, here.

Howe Technical are you ? you did all this w/o a backup ?

Good Luck.

How did my first post show lack of due diligence? I described the problem, listed my attempted remedies (which were all available, as the suggestions by you and others were actually already listed in that first post as having been attempted), and even described my next step of letting the power drain after a couple of days. I think you are sorely mistaken about your lofty attitude.

Regarding the backup, I mentioned that I did not need or want one. This is a development phone, not my daily driver. I chose not to make a backup because it would not provide me any value.

As far as "Howe Technical" am I, I don't toot my own horn. I would suggest you do a Google search for me (sound familiar?) or visit any of the popular social media or career related social sites to discover that on your own. I won't fling the egg on your face myself.

This concludes our reply contest, MDK22. Let's keep all posts going forward helpful, with the insight of knowing what I have tried in my original post, withholding the sarcasm and snide remarks. You and I are both guilty of that.

Volume down + power is for a soft reset, not a hard reset.

Sorry hippo, OP mentioned I tried holding power button. No reaction by the phone. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[switch side method]

May I suggest a "thinking outside the box" approach? It may help but just an idea all the same. I personally live in the UK and have a 1520 and was on PD so like you I downgraded and got 8.1 and cyan. It may be worth a shot to change your keyboard, region and language to English UK. Then attempt the process. Basically if the Nokia recovery tool accepted my English UK phone fingers crossed it may do the same for you. Please let me know if this works as I will come up with more ideas

 

[howetechnical]

May I suggest a "thinking outside the box" approach? It may help but just an idea all the same. I personally live in the UK and have a 1520 and was on PD so like you I downgraded and got 8.1 and cyan. It may be worth a shot to change your keyboard, region and language to English UK. Then attempt the process. Basically if the Nokia recovery tool accepted my English UK phone fingers crossed it may do the same for you. Please let me know if this works as I will come up with more ideas

I believe the phone is on because Windows (PC) detects it when plugged in (NSR does not though) , but the screen is off and buttons do not produce any activity. Can't get into those settings, thanks though.

 

[MDK22]

This concludes our reply contest, MDK22. Let's keep all posts going forward helpful, with the insight of knowing what I have tried in my original post, withholding the sarcasm and snide remarks. You and I are both guilty of that.

YES, but my phone's NOT bricked !
:grin:

Did you Google methodology to have the phone recognized by the PC (hint - uninstall existing drivers & uninstall / re-install whatever software tool you are using)?

' ... Holding power button - nothing, Volume down + power - nothing ...' BOTH = soft reset, which would be ineffective

If you hard reset (with key combos, as I suggested) it could at least get you back to factory (may NOT work on your device, though) !

All good advice was provided, I troubleshot that based on the limited info you provided (just like I'd talk to a user that I did not know & did not know their tech acumen - you've been there !).


BTW: I'm a Senior Systems Analyst ... know from scientific methodology, my advice was offered to assist, not for an argument ...

peace

 

[switch side method]

I believe the phone is on because Windows (PC) detects it when plugged in (NSR does not though) , but the screen is off and buttons do not produce any activity. Can't get into those settings, thanks though.

Of course you can't...sorry..didn't think that one through. Lol actually...have you tried going on the laptop and use "find my phone" on the Microsoft website? Maybe if you click on the reset phone option it may just be the thing. Hope that works out

 

[MDK22]

Of course you can't...sorry..didn't think that one through. Lol actually...have you tried going on the laptop and use "find my phone" on the Microsoft website? Maybe if you click on the reset phone option it may just be the thing. Hope that works out

That just might get it ... or not - theoretically a factory reset - hmmmmmmm

 

[salmanahmad]

Hi,

I had the 8.1 preview for developers installed for a while, and tonight used the NSR to update the device to the most recent official firmware. It detected my phone, I allowed the firmware version it said it could do, then walked away for about 15 minutes. When I came back, NSR was on a screen saying to press volume down + power until it vibrated, then click OK. The 1520 had nothing on the screen. Tried that, it wouldn't turn on (or rather, it was unresponsive). I can't get it to do anything now. Here is what I have tried:

Holding power button - nothing
Volume down + power - nothing
Volume down + plugging in - no exclamation mark

When I plug it into the PC, I do get an unknown USB device message, so it is detecting that a device has plugged in that is not a charge-only device. But NSR doesn't recognize it plugged in when choosing the option to recover when the phone won't turn on.

I'm now letting it sit, hopefully it will die and then I can charge it a little and start it up some way. The current state of the device is screen off, no response on button combination presses.

Anybody else have any ideas? I'm very frustrated that a software by Nokia is what bricked my device. I'm using version 1.4.3, FYI.

I once bricked an Android device(not proud of it, just saying) and the worst part was that it wasn't mine and I was going to get screwed so badly if I couldn't fix it.

Thank God due to the openness of Android and all those developers there was a special software made to recover your device from soft and near hard bricks.

The phone I recovered was in a similar condition to yours, screen was blank, no button combination worked but when you plugged it into a computer it responded for like 10 seconds.

In those 10 seconds I managed to get the device in fastboot mode and restore it to the original state.

Sadly the 1520 has no particular software for this purpose, at least I've never heard of it.

I would recommend taking it to a Nokia Care center and let them do the work because I don't think there is much you can do.

 

[howetechnical]

YES, but my phone's NOT bricked !
:grin:

Did you Google methodology to have the phone recognized by the PC (hint - uninstall existing drivers & uninstall / re-install whatever software tool you are using)?

' ... Holding power button - nothing, Volume down + power - nothing ...' BOTH = soft reset, which would be ineffective

If you hard reset (with key combos, as I suggested) it could at least get you back to factory (may NOT work on your device, though) !

All good advice was provided, I troubleshot that based on the limited info you provided (just like I'd talk to a user that I did not know & did not know their tech acumen - you've been there !).


BTW: I'm a Senior Systems Analyst ... know from scientific methodology, my advice was offered to assist, not for an argument ...

peace

Thanks for the reply, glad to know we're like-minded on technology. Coming from a 5 year stint as a Sr. Systems Engineer, now a software engineer and project manager (+1 for the masters degree on getting the upgraded career), I did indeed try the methods to reinstall fresh drivers and software. At first, the NSR wouldn't recognize the device when it was on and logged in, so I did nave to remove the USB device drivers and re-install the software, which worked. This time around, nothing. As mentioned, hard reset (yes I have tried that as well, many times) does not provide any new results as the buttons simply don't instigate any life into the device. The ONLY symptom I have that gives hope is that the PC does recognize a USB compatible device plugged in, just doesn't know what device it is. The 1520 screen won't turn on and no vibrations happen when holding the power button.

Hoping that letting it fully drain to where the PC doesn't detect a device plugged in, then trying to either hard reset or volume down + plug in will work. Won't know until tomorrow probably since it had half a charge.

 

[howetechnical]

I once bricked an Android device(not proud of it, just saying) and the worst part was that it wasn't mine and I was going to get screwed so badly if I couldn't fix it.

Thank God due to the openness of Android and all those developers there was a special software made to recover your device from soft and near hard bricks.

The phone I recovered was in a similar condition to yours, screen was blank, no button combination worked but when you plugged it into a computer it responded for like 10 seconds.

In those 10 seconds I managed to get the device in fastboot mode and restore it to the original state.

Sadly the 1520 has no particular software for this purpose, at least I've never heard of it.

I would recommend taking it to a Nokia Care center and let them do the work because I don't think there is much you can do.

Yeah, my daily driver and main tinkering device is an Android as well (right now I have the OnePlus One 64GB, but also the Galaxy S5, S4, and previously the Note 3, Nexus devices, etc). I'm a regular on XDA, and fortunately know that ecosystem extremely well. Made my own ROMs, dabbled in writing custom firmware, etc. Never bricked any devices simply because I always had a backup plan on how to recover any changes, since Android allows that control. Windows phone, not so much that I've found.

 

[howetechnical]

YES, but my phone's NOT bricked !
:grin:

Did you Google methodology to have the phone recognized by the PC (hint - uninstall existing drivers & uninstall / re-install whatever software tool you are using)?

' ... Holding power button - nothing, Volume down + power - nothing ...' BOTH = soft reset, which would be ineffective

If you hard reset (with key combos, as I suggested) it could at least get you back to factory (may NOT work on your device, though) !

All good advice was provided, I troubleshot that based on the limited info you provided (just like I'd talk to a user that I did not know & did not know their tech acumen - you've been there !).


BTW: I'm a Senior Systems Analyst ... know from scientific methodology, my advice was offered to assist, not for an argument ...

peace

I just replied, but the forums for one reason or another never posted it to the page / database. Here goes again. Basically I mentioned that I'm glad we're like minded technically, as I (up until 2013) had a 5 year stint as Sr. Systems Engineer and am now a software engineer. I have definitely tried removing existing device drivers and re-installing the Nokia software, which helped before when the device wasn't detected though would turn on, but now holds no effect. The only sign that gives me hope is that the PC does detect some device plugged in, just doesn't know what to make of it. I'm hoping a full battery drain will allow it to progress from this state. The screen is off, buttons don't produce any results, etc. I'll update in a day or two once I know the battery has drained.

 

[TechFreak1]

Have you tried different usb ports? sometimes ports can become flaky and not detect properly.. not sure what causes this but I have seen this occur time and time again. Re-installing the chipset drivers or usb host drivers sometimes alleviates the problem temporarily (i have seen this occur on a fresh motherboard).

Also sometimes when I plug in my 920 into my laptop, I would get nothing - no auto play prompts (shows up as unknown device under device manager) then I would plug it into another port and it connects just fine.

If I was to hazard a guess, the power save mode must have kicked in ("allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" tick box is always on by default).

 

[howetechnical]

Have you tried different usb ports? sometimes ports can become flaky and not detect properly.. not sure what causes this but I have seen this occur time and time again. Re-installing the chipset drivers or usb host drivers sometimes alleviates the problem temporarily (i have seen this occur on a fresh motherboard).

Also sometimes when I plug in my 920 into my laptop, I would get nothing - no auto play prompts (shows up as unknown device under device manager) then I would plug it into another port and it connects just fine.

Yeah, tried different ports and even my laptop instead of desktop. Also removed device drivers and re-installed.

 

[TechFreak1]

Yeah, tried different ports and even my laptop instead of desktop. Also removed device drivers and re-installed.

Have your tried, connecting after quickly disconnecting whilst in the tool? (old blackberry trick)

I'm not sure if it will work as I haven't had a bricked device or a bricked device to test on.