# Phone bricked? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 14, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-bricked/681357 "2014-02-14T19:01:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-bricked/681357/1 "2014-02-14T19:01:55Z")
Android. (Kyocera event, hey it was very very inexpensive and my first smartphone okay?) Bootloop. Have deleted cache in recovery mode, no progress. Have reset to factory settings, deleting all user data. Still no progress. There is no SD card. Any other ideas? Write off the $30 loss? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-bricked/681357/2 "2014-02-14T19:06:35Z")
Is there a way to reinstall the OS? I know there’s a way to start it in what’s called “download mode” but I’m not seeing much info as to what you can do in that mode, and whether you can do anything relevant to my problem. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-bricked/681357/3 "2014-02-14T22:40:42Z")
Have you tried a hard reset? If not, try this. Step 1 Power down the phone. If the Event won’t react to a touch of the “Power” key, remove the battery, wait five or ten seconds and then reinsert. Step 2 Press and hold the “Power” and “Volume Down” buttons at the same time. Release the “Power” key when the Android logo appears, but keep holding the “Volume Down” key. Step 3 Release the “Volume Down” key once the recovery menu appears. Use the “Volume Down” key to navigate the recovery menu and highlight “Wipe Data.” Step 4 Press the “Power” key to confirm your choice. Confirm you want to erase all data by using the “Volume Down” key to highlight “Yes” and press the “Power” key to start reset procedures. ---
**Author:** ![compositejoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/compositejoe/32/7232_2.png) [@compositejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/compositejoe)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-bricked/681357/4 "2014-02-14T23:02:48Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Android. (Kyocera event, hey it was very very inexpensive and my first smartphone okay?) > > Bootloop. Have deleted cache in recovery mode, no progress. Have reset to factory settings, deleting all user data. Still no progress. > > There is no SD card. > > Any other ideas? Write off the $30 loss? I would probably be shitting **bricks** if that happened to my smartphone which also happens to be Android based. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-bricked/681357/5 "2014-02-14T23:12:32Z")
If you can get into recovery mode I don’t think it is possible to brick the phone with a bad software update - but you have to use adb to push the files to the phone in that state. That is relatively complicated and will require a good level of computer knowledge and googling/searching [xda-developers.com](http://xda-developers.com). Edit to add, by which I mean recovery will consist of posibly pushing a new recovery using ADB, pushing a new image to the phone using ADB, and then installing with recovery.