~help~ Flash Mode?? Phone Wont Turn On....

[armyturtle]

I had the exact same problem this morning - and what I'm seeing in common in everyone I've found who's experienced this (found quite a few through a google search) is that each person who has seen this happen has turned their Motorola Q off for some period of time and plugged it in to recharge it. I restarted mine at least 30 times within a couple of hours time prior to this and had no issue whatsoever. The last thing I saw before I went to bed was the huge battery icon (animated) saying it was charging (filled the who screen). I woke up this morning, turned it on, briefly saw the bright yellow "Sprint Local" (actually it wasn't brief - it was rather lengthy and I remember wondering what the heck was taking so long?) Then the "Motorola Flash Mode" "Please Connect the USB Cable" screen came on. Pulling the battery did nothing - the screen would simply come back a minute after putting the battery back in. When I did plug in my USB cable that came with the Motorola Q (other end was in my computer) it did nothing but change the words to now say "USB Cable Connected" - big whoop!

Now I remember something. A couple of other times with my other 2 Motorola Q's (this one is for my sister-in-law), when I connected it to my computer with the USB cable(s) that came with them, the windows/the computer would fail to even recognize that anything had connected to it. It would draw power to charge from the computer (the icon changed to say it was charging and it made the low tone beep from the phone to confirm it had been plugged into some type of charger) but no connection sound from windows, no action from activesync either.

After the many times of having my Q and my wifes' Q not be recognized (and unchecking the "Enable advanced network funcitionality" from the USB to PC selection within settings) I got fed up and decided to try ANYTHING. "Anything" eventually led me to try using an old iDEN Blackberry 7510 usb cable I had sitting on my desk still charging the blackberry I always hated and never used. When I used THAT usb cable, viola! - Windows immediately made the recognition sound for new hardware, displayed the "Found New Hardware/Device" bubble from the system tray, and sure enough seconds later Activesync started doing it's dance.

Since I had seen progress before with this cable, I decided to give it a go on this problem. I connected it to my PC while the "Motorola Flash Mode" screen was begging me to connect a USB cable. BANG!!!! Windows recognized it. I luckily had the Motorola update software already open in the back round (was trying to use it to fix the Q when I was still trying to use the USB cable that came with it). I automatically started checking the version of software on my phone. (I had not previously connected this phone to the Motorola update software, it was still on whatever it came with a few days ago). Sure enough it started updating. My PC made hardware disconnect sounds a few times (normal during this software update), restarted once or twice while the Motorola update software waited for it to recover, then kept chugging along.

Luckily last night before turning it off, I used Sprite Backup to take an image of the whole thing once I got it perfectly set up for her. I just restored that image as well.

My sister-in-law's Q is now 100% restored!

[lunetun]

I am new to the forums thing, so please bear with me. My Verizon Q did the same Flash Mode nightmare to me on Sunday. I don't want to fuel any fires, but for the sake of collecting data - I almost NEVER power cycle the phone, but do always kill the tasks. I did, however, notice that over the past month or so when I would open the task manager the text message was showing as running, regardless as to if I had sent or recieved a message. This seems to line up with my failed attempt to use wireless sync to access Lotus Notes email.

This is my 4th Q and due to other issues, Verizon said it was out of warrantee as Moto sent it to me directly in late December, they have no record of it. As I had nothing to lose...
I was not as lucky as others because the software update trick did nothing for mine. I finally fixed it tonight using RSD Lite v3.8 and a monster VRZ software file. It took three attempts to reflash the phone, the first one timed out waiting on XP to install the second driver set, the second attempt had check sum verification errors, the third time, as they say, was the charm. Only issue was a call to Verizon to manuall re-program the phone as the *228 method would not work. Might also be important to note that RSD General 4.5 and RSD General 4.9.8 would not talk to the phone. Maybe my copies, I am not sure.
Hopefully this helps someone.

[moonbeam]

i read these 7 pages twice - no phone to play with while mine is in the mail. seems the phone is so usefull that folks just keep taking chances. i want mine back for sure. i miss my 'ears'. there's a world out there . . .

as a non techie, i am inclined towards the "bad/cheap flash chip" theory. it seems to fit the random nature of the failures. but, on the hardware side, i am intrigued by the fixes achieved by using a working cable.

my q came with a wall charger that has an arrow impressed in the phone end such that the arrow is on the back. all my other phones have had such a prompt visible from the front. and my q was completely unreliable as to whether the battery was charged or not. i kinda knew when to charge it based on use - the icon would read fully charged after 5 minutes plugged in after telling me it was dangerously low on juice.

on the other hand, the death occured while the battery was low and in the midst of using task manager to kill apps.

so, all ya'll who have been thu flash boot death - is your charger cable like mine with the arrow on the wrong side?

part of why i ask this is there is a business here in town that has a contract to replace the ends on wiring harnesses. manufacturers buy cables in bulk from overseas, then use good american knowhow to replace the connectors such that product liability issues go away.

just a thought - anybody?

[aeonfluxx75]

this is great news. i will definitely keep this in mind and download the sprite util to be better prepared. it took me 3 wks to get my device swapped out and by the looks of all these posts, it'll happen again im almost positive.

[neonix]

I just ran into this problem a few minutes ago while talking to a friend on my Q. I don't believe I had any applications running, I'm sure I had more than the default processes running though, but nothing more than I normally have, shouldn't overload the thing. I highly doubt tis is caused by running applications and processes.

I was determined to fix it though. And I did. Took a little fiddling, but I removed and replaced the battery a few times while messing with the charger. Put the charger in while it was off, plug it in without the battery in. Eventually, it got past the Verizon logo and loaded WM.

What a relief, I don't think I could go even a few days without my phone, being my alarm clock and watch among other things.

[USAFGuy19]

I dont see how this whole running to many program thing is true. Ive had mine for almost a year and its always been really slow and seemed to freeze up, so i always made sure after i did anything( text, internet ,etc....) I always went to task manager and killed all! And i Had done that earlier today and i went to check my phone and it was off! So i tried to turn it on and got the same error as all of you! So tom. Im taking my phone into sprint. I have a really good friend who works there so i know she'll tell me the truth and etc.. Well let you all know what happens!

[geoff101]

I dont see how this whole running to many program thing is true. Ive had mine for almost a year and its always been really slow and seemed to freeze up, so i always made sure after i did anything( text, internet ,etc....) I always went to task manager and killed all! And i Had done that earlier today and i went to check my phone and it was off! So i tried to turn it on and got the same error as all of you! So tom. Im taking my phone into sprint. I have a really good friend who works there so i know she'll tell me the truth and etc.. Well let you all know what happens!

you're friend at sprint isnt going to be able to tell you what causes...and odds are, not able to tell you how to fix it either....if you need to fix it let me know, i have a 100% cure rate for flash boot mode...i recovered every one of them.

[thatboycisco]

you're friend at sprint isnt going to be able to tell you what causes...and odds are, not able to tell you how to fix it either....if you need to fix it let me know, i have a 100% cure rate for flash boot mode...i recovered every one of them.

how? pm me.

[geoff101]

how? pm me.

http://www.everythingq.com/forum/spr...fix-10314.html

if you read this read and cant figure it out, et me know, i'll send you my address, you can mail it to m and i'll fix it and send it back to ya...

[liftingchic]

This happened to me this morning.. and it had nothing to do with to many programs running... My phone battery was dying and I was in class so I turned it off and when i got into my car after class to charge it, it came on that screen.... I dont have the insurance for it.. but Sprint replaced mine for 35 bucks..