My Umi Z just bricked itself

julianoic

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I just received my Umi Z and less than 1 hour after the smartphone died in my hand and doesn't turn on anymore.

I plugged it on the wall charger and on my computer but there is no response. The screen is black and the smartphone is cold to the touch. Its not charging and doesn't react if the power button is pressed for 10 seconds, alone or with the volume buttons. I didn't test the wall charger or the cable. If I plug it to my computer, Windows doesn't detect it and it doesnt consumes USB energy on the device manager.

I sent an email to Banggood and Umi support.
I dont know what else I can do.

julianoic

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I wrote down a log of my actions with the phone:

a) the package arrived in my city on 24/02/2017
b) I collected it in the post office on 01/03/2017
c) the package had some protection wrapped around it
                - there are two small bents on top and bottom right corners, on the front face of the Metal Case
                - the seller is BangGood

d) I opened the case and grabbed the Umi Z
                - the phone has no sign of damage and turned on the screen
                - battery was around 54%
                - I didn't connected it to the wall charger

e) I skipped most of the welcome screen login steps:
                - changed the language to portuguese-br
                - skipped google account setup
                - skipped wi-fi config
                - skipped fingerprint security
                - skipped location sharing

f) I checked the phone and sensors - everything ok:
                - touch button
                - sound speaker (volume up and down)
                - rear camera
                - front camera
                - screen (no dead pixels or light leakage)
                - checked battery log: the phone was 100% charged in late december/2016
                - the location icon was shown near the clock, but I didn't test the GPS or google maps

g) I checked android version on the 'about phone' menu
                - activated the developer mode, but I forgot to check if it was ON or OFF on its menu

h) there was a notification saying "the app permission is closed" or something
i) I did a factory reset/clean user data using the android configuration menu
j) the phone restarted and the welcome screen appeared again
k) I activated the wi-fi connection and skipped the others steps (google account, location, fingerprint)
                - after some seconds, the phone connected to the network (10mbps maximum download rate)

l) a new update was found and started downloading
                - I dont remember if it was automatic or if I pulled the notification overlay and activated it

m) I checked the update menu in Configurations
                - the downloading version was 0225
                - changed the update check to weekly
                - clicked the button 'Update from file'
                - android asked for file acces permission. I allowed it.
                - tapped the back button without open the file location window

n) I left the phone for some minutes to answer a call on my other phone
                - download at 33% before leaving it on couch

o) I finished the call and returned to the phone. It was:
                - on lock screen
                - download at 66%
                - battery around 51%
                - the back side was a little warm on the up part of it

p) I tested the google now icon on lock screen (talk to search)
                - phone opened a white window asking for microphone input
                - I said hello
                - the phone recognized the word, started a transition to other screen ...

q) ... and the whole screen went black.
r) I tried:
                - short and long press of the power button
                - connecting it to the wall charger and press the power button (short and long press)
                - connecting it to my netbook USB - windows xp didn't detect it and no power was being consumed
                - charging for 1h on wall charger - the charger and the phone are cold to touch
                - charging for 12h - same thing


Does it look like a soft or a hard brick? Maybe it's a loose connector inside of it?

bencebacsi

Hi,
Analyzing your log I suppose you interrupted the updating process at the moment when the preloader was being replaced by a new version. When the screen went black, the updating process had just started and you shouldn't have touched your phone while it was running. Without a working preloader your phone cannot do anything, not even charging.
The solution might be to re-flash your phone with SP Flash Tool but first only the preloader (first) partition, then as a second task the whole ROM content in Firmware Upgrade mode. You should use a Windows 10 or at least Win7 machine. I cannot guarantee your success under Windows XP. Well, it's a 15-year-old operating system.
Link: http://community.umidigi.com/thread-6814-1-1.html

julianoic

Hi ben,

I followed your guide on my windows 10 notebook, but I couldn't start the preloader flashing. Windows didn't recognize the phone and SPF tool didn't start the process. Maybe I should have tried more times. I kept the power button pressed for 10s or more... Maybe I depleted the battery... Maybe I got a faulty cable....

I'm curious about 2 things:

1) on normal FOTA, the preloader starts before the download gets to 100% and before it asks for a system restart? Is it a multi part download?

2) the battery data in the first ROM released  is accurate? I was wandering if the real number could be 4% instead of the 54% shown on screen.


Thanks for your time and great support.

MarcinP

julianoic replied at 2017-3-10 11:29
Hi ben,

I followed your guide on my windows 10 notebook, but I couldn't start the preloader flashin ...

Hi
Please try other usb cable,different USB port and computer with older system.

julianoic

(2 years later...)

After a long time, I took the phone to a technician and he said it was a soldering point in the battery, or something like that.

So, It was a hardware fault...

Now I'm upgrading via OTA all the versions that the wireless update app offers me.

julianoic

Here's a screenshot taken after the repair was done. The download stopped at 67% when the phone shutdown.