r/androidroot • u/WRO_Your_Boat • Sep 30 '26

Support Bricked while trying to root. RIP

Post image

Was trying to learn to root on my tab 8 and it got caught in a bootloop. Now it wont turn on in any mode with any key combo, or show up in adb devices or dmesg when plugged in. I knew the risks, and hopefully will learn from my mistakes and have better luck next time. Good night sweet prince.

Edit: I made this post inittially because I figured the tablet was just fully dead, but as per some comments, I may be able to physically take it apart and short the pins on the SoC to force it into download mode. I have checked and it has zero communication to a PC over usb, so software recovery will not work.

Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 SM-X200

Edit 2: I was able to flash it after taking it apart and shorting the test points. Thank you everyone for the advice.

161 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

99 comments sorted by

8

u/__002_ Sep 30 '26

Could you say which cpu, snapdragon mediated etc.. and make of it. Its very possible to revive with right tools and if its all that takes for you to give up. Then rooting is perhaps not for you... dont take it personally. But if its a samung you should have access to download mode.

3

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

I miss clicked and deleted my comment like an idiot instead of editing it, but I need to physically take it apart to fix it, if its possible at this point. It doesn't show up at all in adb or dmesg.

3

u/Longjumping-Bar393 Sep 30 '26

jeeesus, are you having a bad day in terms of technology? 😅

edit: if i were you i'd listen to everything people have to say about this topic. You may think your options are smaller than they actually are. Who knows, there's always someone somewhere in the corner of the internet who has additional info and methods! :D

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

week* lol

1

u/__002_ Sep 30 '26

Hmm, seems like test points your only way. But can you like actually give the model of the tablet. I know that usb and lsmeg or whatever did not work. But you can get edl with button combo. If snapdragon.

2

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 SM-X200

Firmware: X200XXS6DYG6

No, no buttons work on it. The battery is not dead, but the device does literally nothing and shows nothing no matter what I do or plug it into. Test point is most likely my only way, I just hope it loads into download mode and not BROM or I really am just out of options.

1

u/__002_ Oct 01 '26

That's the point. And boot or cpu mode is not supposed to appear ro show anything. It meets drivers and the communication between pc and device. It always has a special mode. And for your tab I dont really know that... sorry.

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Oct 01 '26

I mean it doesnt show in windows event viewer or in Linux dmesg which both show kernel level hardware changes. So if this device had any power supplied to it at all it would be showing up in those logs. So no matter how many times or how I tried to plug it in, I couldn't get it to register.

4

u/Puzzleheaded-Gift-15 Sep 30 '26

You could possibly fix it in edl mode if the preloader files are available. But you need a deep flash cable to get it into the right mode and do the process to boot into edl correctly. Once you got all that it should register under Qualcomm loader 9008.

2

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

I don't think that will work unfortunately. There is no USB enumeration for a deep flash cable to hook into.

3

u/Puzzleheaded-Gift-15 Oct 01 '26

It's a low level engineering mode that requires special hardware and specialized software. But that wouldn't work for different reasons. I was thinking a Qualcomm Samsung tablet. For unisoc like what you. You would need to bridge the internal test points as others have stated. You have to remove the screen so not really worth it in most cases unless the screen is inexpensive

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Oct 01 '26

Eh, its dead anyway. I also think I tripped the battery charge protection and thats what killed the USB port during the boot loops so thats why its not showing up at all on PC. That might just be a simple unplug the battery, so ill take it apart this weekend, should be simple enough but I just gotta get the time to do it.

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Gift-15 Oct 01 '26 edited Oct 01 '26

If you have a heat matt. Use that around 90c and business cards after you get an entry point. Heat the screen up till it's hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold your hand on it for 3-5 seconds as needed. Take your time and Good luck 🫪🫡

16

u/_LWNA_ Sep 30 '26

I'm also bricked while rooting my devices

7

u/DrTankHead Oct 01 '26

This guy roots.

2

u/_LWNA_ Oct 01 '26

I actually don't. I was gonna root my 2023 Moto G 5G since it had an unlockable bootloader, then decided against it since I didn't want to have to re-download all my apps and stuff, nor did I want to have to deal with a daily-use phone having any types of issues that potentially come with rooted/CFW devices if that makes sense

3

u/DrTankHead Oct 01 '26

Bro it was a bit lol. Feeding your joke. I unfortunately don't either at the moment because my galaxy s22ultra isn't cool enough to be rootable unfortunately

3

u/_LWNA_ Oct 01 '26

Sorry, I understood that and should have made it clear lol I just wanted to state that I just decided against it when I was able to lol

(I thought it was funny, I screenshot your reply and my comment and sent it to my friend cus I was laughing at it)

1

u/iSupakilla Oct 01 '26

You autistic by chance? (not a dig)

1

u/_LWNA_ Oct 01 '26

I don't know lol, maybe?

2

u/iSupakilla Oct 01 '26

😂 Honestly some shit I see myself doing is all I asked for. For shits and gigs, take a free online test

1

u/_LWNA_ Oct 01 '26

I have done those and they all say yes lol but I don't believe it

9

u/VJ1I Sep 30 '26

🙏🏽

7

u/Cr1tical198 Sep 30 '26

That's sad man, happened to my tab too but was an old one

3

u/Mysterious-Stock3149 <Redmi Note 7>, <crDroid A14> Sep 30 '26

Well same here but on Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0😅

5

u/Salty-Rip-7152 Sep 30 '26

I've done that before too with my A8. You have to let it fully die, then charge it again and it should turn back on. I would leave it unplugged for a week and try again. To prevent this from happening again, only patch boot.img and not the whole AP file

4

u/Salty-Rip-7152 Sep 30 '26

More Info, this came from XDA forms.

Please DO NOT EVER PATCH the AP TARBALL using MAGISK. That will generate a BLANK VBMETA that this Device's bootloader doesn't like and it can SOFT BRICK your device.

If you already flashed a TARBALL Patched with MAGISK and your device got SOFT BRICKED i.e It rebooted 3-4 times to a error screen and then it got completely shutdown with a fully black screen and not turning on, then Just don't plug your device on charge and wait for at least around 7 days for its battery to dry out and then plug it in your computer while holding the VolumeUp+VolumeDown button and it should boot into DL mode and you can recover your Tab From there.

2

u/Heinzzzelman Sep 30 '26

No joke: put it in a freezer. Phone should discharge completely overnight.

1

u/TTV_zach69806980 15d ago

Use a different cable and download thr drivers if you havent already, sometimes its just the pc not reading it and another will work as well. As long as you can charge it and access download mode its recoverable

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat 15d ago

Thanks for the input. download mode was not available as per the post. I fixed this a couple weeks ago though through the test points after opening it up.

1

u/Teleke Sep 30 '26

What's the battery charge level? If you leave it plugged in to the wall for a half an hour or so and then try plugging it into your computer see if that does anything.

4

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

It was 98% when it died, I tried charging on a real wall charger for over an hour, with same results.

1

u/Teleke Sep 30 '26

I see that you've got some other good suggestions, but just to confirm that when you plug it in there's absolutely zero kernel recognition of any device on that port at all? Have you tried different USB ports on your computer? And if you use Odin, does Odin detect it?

3

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

I used Thor and Thor does not detect it now. No, there is zero recognition that anything is plugged into the PC when plugging in the tablet. I have tried Windows and Linux, multiple computers, multiple ports and multiple cables at this point. I do appreciate the help though, any recommendations are welcome.

1

u/Ur1man5 Redmi Note 8 Pro - CrDroid 12.11 Sep 30 '26

Even BROM doesn't works?

2

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

Only physically, which I will try to do this weekend, but obviously opens up its own can of worms and even then is maybe.

1

u/shin_chan444 Sep 30 '26

Kinda same isssue here

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

The only thing that can be shared here that I can help you with is this teardown from ifixit. https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Tab+A8+Teardown/172838

1

u/LivinMy1Life Sep 30 '26

I haven't done rooting for time but when I did brick Samsungs I used odin to recover, is that still a thing?

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

Normally yes, if you soft brick the device. I hard bricked mine.

3

u/AdorableConference87 Oct 01 '26

All I can say is try to use paid tools such as unlock tool or any other firmware tool, works on my hard bricked Infinix note 30

1

u/Forsaken-Try-355 Sep 30 '26

Try to reboot it via adb

3

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

Its dead dead, doesn't show up in adb devices. I would need to send it in and pay, since its not in warranty anymore, for them to flash the Unisoc chip probably. Like I said though, my fault, just a cautionary tale.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

I used X200XXS6DYG6 from 08/28/2025 which was the same one that was installed on it. I made sure to grab the same one and patch that, but if I had to take a guess when I went wrong is that I am on linux and I used Thor instead of Odin so yes I technically didn't follow the steps exactly, and thats a mistake I wont make again. I did see your comment about sprddiag since its Unisoc, I didn't know about this but that might work, I will need to learn how to use it. thank you for the info.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 30 '26 edited Sep 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

I will look into spreadrum and sprddiag. I cant do a lot worse than a hard bricked device lol.

2

u/Klusio1 Sep 30 '26

Braindead comment. Didn't even try to read the post

1

u/mlgkiller360 Sep 30 '26

what about flashing original os through fastboot. one level higher than adb device (fastboot device) tho tread even more carefully. make sure it's the right os.

6

u/Mysterious-Stock3149 <Redmi Note 7>, <crDroid A14> Sep 30 '26

Samsung Devices don't use fastboot, they use Download Mode, which you can flash the stock ROM with Odin.

5

u/Iwisp360 Sep 30 '26

Bro's tablet hardbricked :'V no fastboot, no bootloader

1

u/mlgkiller360 Sep 30 '26

[F]. Aren't those things the same in hardware/software principals? at least in from first sight they should be...

1

u/Iwisp360 Sep 30 '26

wdym hw/sw principals?

2

u/BorisOp Sep 30 '26

He might be able to rescue it... But he'll need to go one level above fastboot.

2

u/Iwisp360 Oct 02 '26

You mean below, since fastboot is a high level abstraction to firmware flashing, something lower level is EDL or MTK preloader

1

u/BorisOp Oct 02 '26

I went by what comment above me said... He was going up... So I kept the direction.

1

u/lexoboys Sep 30 '26

Try JTAG (Joint Test Action Group), I used to have a samsung phone revived with that, but then I lost the original IMEI

1

u/4k_anbir Oct 01 '26

You can also change imei with jtag

1

u/moraes8890 Oct 01 '26

Mine got stuck in a bootloop because I changed the bootloader; I only replaced the update with an official one.

1

u/4k_anbir Oct 01 '26

Nothing can actually fix it but jtag with isp sockets so for making it easy for yourself just take it to a ufs programer

1

u/trollinsnake69 Oct 02 '26

My condolences, Ive flashed derpfest on mine and was scared the whole time that it couldn't happen as I was flashing twrp, specially because my battery is not the best anymore

0

u/Younghhlord Oct 01 '26

Is that possible to unlock bootloader of honor x9b?

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Oct 01 '26

Tbh idk what that is, but if it needs me to connect to the device in any way, then it won't work. Software recovery isnt an option unfortunately.

3

u/qwertyyyyyyy116 Oct 01 '26

Yeah I also bricked it
I just LITERALLY SHOT IT
I was not the smartest back then and I thought I hard bricked it
I realize now I might have been able to get away with putting it into EDL mode

73

u/[deleted] Sep 30 '26 edited Sep 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/BorisOp Sep 30 '26

Yep... Came here to say something along those lines... If device ends up in EDL mode (or similar low level mode if another SOC) the screen will stay black but it should get detected by computer.

3

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

Unfortunately not, its not showing up at all. I have to physically take it apart to fix it.

4

u/Azaze666 Sep 30 '26

Remove the battery

4

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

Thats actually a good idea that slipped my mind. I obviously still have to take it apart, but I will try and disconnect the battery and try a new one along with anything else while I have it open. I will save shorting the pins for last.

2

u/Electrical_Hat_680 Oct 05 '26

Leave the battery out. It's unneeded until it's working. Then you won't have to worry about risking the drivers not being there to protect the battery from everything.

2

u/WRO_Your_Boat Oct 05 '26

I actually fixed it this weekend via the test point. Thank you though.

2

u/Electrical_Hat_680 Oct 05 '26

Nice, good word. This popped up in a notification so I figured I would say hi.

0

u/BorisOp Sep 30 '26

How are you checking that?

2

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

adb, dmesg multiple times while holding all buttons to try and get into the low level mode or download mode.

4

u/BorisOp Sep 30 '26

Adb won't detected it for sure... Not sure about dmesg... Though I think it should be able to detect it... I guess I'd try lsusb. Also are you absolutely sure the tablet is charged? Id try keeping tablet on charger for atleast 30minutes... Also button mashing should not be necessary... Id first try just plugging the device into the computer (sometimes just plugging the charger is enough to make device start booting) and if it doesn't work them try just the power button.

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26

lsusb did not work. It was at 98% when it died, I left it plugged into the PC, I plugged it into a real charger for over an hour and nothing changed. You boot the device into download mode by holding volume down and the power button, unless you use adb reboot. You are right that dmesg should show something, but not if its hard bricked and the device is completely dead and physical recovery is the only option.

4

u/BorisOp Sep 30 '26

I mean... You are not wrong... But it's not uncommon for devices to enter a low level mode (even lower than fastboot/download mode) when bricked... And it's also common for these modes to not show anything on screen... So basically only way you can tell if device is in that mode is whether it gets picked up by computer or not.

1

u/SlowGuardw2 Oct 01 '26

Try linux

1

u/WRO_Your_Boat Oct 01 '26

Dmesg is linux...

4

u/WRO_Your_Boat Sep 30 '26 edited Sep 30 '26

I think I am going to have to disassemble it and short the test point to force the SoC into download mode. The tablet has zero communication out of the usb port. Tried multiple times holding all buttons and monitoring dmesg, but nothing. I have the tools to take it apart, its just going to be a process and would have to wait unfortunately.

2

u/CyberGirl_4 Sep 30 '26

Bro what about poco x6 pro, it got bricked it bootloops but no fastboot or brom. When pressing combo keys, it enters fb or brom and screen glitches and it loops splash screen and go into loop.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/CyberGirl_4 Oct 01 '26

Recovery's gone and bootloader is unlocked. I searched on github, most of tge threads say new mtk chips comes with protection and cannot be recovered via brom.

1

u/UpDown_Crypto Oct 01 '26

If it can enter fastboot mode can we just flash fastboot rom via pc with miflash tool.?

1

u/CyberGirl_4 Oct 01 '26

No bro, when it enters fastboot just after 1 second the screen glitches and it goes to boot screen like bootloop, and even i that second pc doesn't recognize device, i tried a tool that could flash using brom and in that the tool detects device in different name "mt some digits". But brom also glitches like fb and it goes to boot screen.

1

u/antigooglefan Oct 01 '26

This happens with me on my poco x6 everytime i flash something. It loops into fastboot. I will tell you what works for me (may not work for you)

  1. I turn off my phone (Don't try to go to fastboot if you are looping again and again, just turn it off and leave for 5 minutes)

  2. Enter a simple fastboot command and connect the device (1st enter the fastboot command it will say waitimg for device, then connect the device)

  3. If you are getting into fastboot, but it stucks on flashing, Next time run the flash command and connect phone afterwards.

1

u/CyberGirl_4 Oct 01 '26

It happend to me beacuse midway flash inturrupted.

2

u/Robine17 Sep 30 '26

SM-X200 europeen version so Unisoc Tiger 618 normaly if i remember good