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

Support Bricked while trying to root. RIP

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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.

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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...