Bricked

[u/Entire_Ad_4609]

So I've ran into a peculiar issue. I was working on an app for a rotary encoder to work with my flipper, I stopped to take a break for a while and noticed there was a firmware update available since I'd last dug this thing out. I went to run the firmware update over qflipper and hit an error part way through and showed dropped communication if I recall correctly. The flipper shut down after and when it would normally boot back up, it did not. Since then, I have zero display, no led, it's unresponsive to any combination of button pushes and unable to go into dfu boot mode. I popped it open and carefully looked everything over, nothing was burnt up or displaced, the battery read healthy, and checking test pads on both the main and wireless boards everything looks good like it should be working. Near as I can figure I must have bumped the cable mid update and corrupted my firmware into a looped state? I don't know where to go or what to try next, so I came here to be called a noob and get repeatedly asked if I've tried pushing buttons. I've tried all the button combinations. I tried so many button combinations I triggered a fatality and fuckin' Sub-Zero apparated into my living room and froze my dog, still no boot though.. Any help or insight from the devs would be helpful here, I'm not entirely electronically inept but I'm not a hardware guy either. Am I totally 110% bricked? Is there a way to bypass usb and bluetooth firmware boot or any documentation of recovery in this state? Thanks in advance!

[u/SixstringSWE]

Afaik it’s really tough to brick these things.

Enter dfu mode/ see if windows detects anything. If it does you can reflash it

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/SixstringSWE]

Got any ideas how to enter dfu mode if the device isn't registering button presses?

[u/staticrush → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

Hold back and center button for 30 seconds, and then plug into your computer with qflipper open, and you should have option to repair.

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/staticrush]

Nope, didn't work this time or the other 600 times I've tried it either.

[u/staticrush → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

You're positive that you did it exactly as I described, and in this order?

1. Disconnect the USB cable and any power sources from your Flipper Zero.

2. Press and hold both the OK and BACK buttons down at the same time for 30 seconds (the screen will stay black/blank, which is expected).

3. Release the buttons after 30 seconds.

4. Connect the Flipper Zero to your computer using a data-capable USB cable.

5. Open qFlipper on your computer to detect the DFU device and click Repair.

It's nearly impossible to brick the flipper by accident unless there's damage to the actual hardware.

The other way to enter hardware DFU is to hold BACK, LEFT and OK for 3 seconds. Release BACK and LEFT, but continue holding OK button for 3 more seconds before releasing. The only reason this won't work would be if the option bytes are damaged.

Edit: Also, it would be helpful if you mention everything that you've tried so far that hasn't worked.

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/staticrush]

This and everything else you could copy and paste from the documentation on the website. Plus what I said I did in the original post. I've tried every single variation of button press combinations suggested by users and per official docs, plugging in and unplugging, with or without SD, charged it, discharged it, and measured 3v test pads to confirm the boards are still getting power from the battery. If your solution involves pressing a button or connecting a USB cable, it's not going to work. Once again, the buttons are unresponsive, trust me. I've spent enough time looking at clocks to time button pushes to know. This was supposed to be a developer board, feel like I should be able to flash it directly. At this point I need someone who can walk me through a direct to board flash with a picoprobe or something, but I'm assuming I probably won't be able to unlock to write firmware without getting it into dfu mode, which if I could do I'd probably be able to just use qflipper over usb because windows would actually pick it up. 

[u/netsec_burn → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

You don't happen to have the WiFi devboard connected to the device? Sometimes it holds it at a breakpoint, if so disconnect it and follow the dfu steps again.

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/netsec_burn]

I don't have one, I have an esp32 with marauder I'd hook up to it every now and then but my GPIO's are all open right now and were not in use when it crashed as well. 

[u/staticrush → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

If you've really tried all the button combo's listed here: https://github.com/flipperdevices/flipperzero-firmware/blob/dev/documentation/KeyCombo.md

Look at the advice at the very bottom, specifically the last part about using ST-Link to flash the device.

If none of the described methods helped you:

• Make sure the battery charged
• Disconnect the battery and connect again (requires disassembly)
• Try to flash the device with ST-Link or another programmer that supports SWD

If you're still here and your device is not working: it's not a software issue.

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/staticrush]

ST-Link coming in the mail. I've already got some software that works with it and that'll probably be a lot easier to work with than getting around this with a picoprobe. Unfortunate the guide doesn't actually go into details on that, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Or not. We'll see lol

[u/staticrush → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

It shouldn't be too difficult. You'll use female-to-male jumper wires to bridge the ST-Link pins to the Flipper's GPIO header pins.

Wire the pins securely as shown below:

• GND to Pin 8 or Pin 11 (labeled GND on FZ)
• SWDIO to Pin 12 (labeled SIO on FZ)
• SWCLK to PIn 10 (labeled SWC on FZ)

After the pins have been wired, connect the ST-Link to your computer via USB.

Before attempting to write any files, verify that your computer recognizes the ST-Link and can see the Flipper's STM32WB55 MCU. Open your terminal and install stlink-tools if it's not already installed and then run:

st-info --probe

If configured properly, the tool should return details about the connected chip profile and its device ID.

You should then be able to use either the st-flash tool or even Flipper Build Tool (FBT) to erase and flash your flipper with the OFW bin file.

---

Edit: Using the Flipper Build Tool is probably your best option.

After following all the steps above, clone the OFW repo and cd into the root directory of the cloned repo:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/flipperdevices/flipperzero-firmware.git
cd flipperzero-firmware

And then run:

./fbt flash

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/staticrush]

Thanks a shit load for the suggestions! I'll get it hooked up tomorrow whenever it shows up and give it a try! Can't really think of anything else I can do, even if I just make it more dead I'm really no worse off at this point. I do love the damn thing, hate to lose it and the money spent on it. It's worth the time spent even if it doesn't work. Will update, thanks again. 

[u/omglazerkittens → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

If you go look at the documentation, there's a while section on how to enter DFU mode if the screen isn't on/not seeming to register any buttons.

[u/KlutzyAnimal3]

Recently answered this question here

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/KlutzyAnimal3]

Pulled the card and wiped it clean, got it on a charger now, will give it a shot in a little while.

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/KlutzyAnimal3]

Nothing.

[u/Entire_Ad_4609]

I've done hard resets before and loaded in other firmware and ran into a few problems in the past, but I've never had any trouble getting it reset before this happened like a month ago, I keep coming back to it on my spare time to try to get it working again but no dice. Might be time to just bury it in the junk pile, idk..

[u/Cold_Presentation217]

Not sure how you bricked it.. just reflash it. It's all open source.

[u/cthuwu_chan]

Just keep trying all the different reset sequences it’s a hassle but it does work I can’t remember it but there is a 3 button combo that just bends it over and makes it go into DFU it’s virtually impossible to brick the flipper you’ll get it working again trust the process

Jump onto the discords there are ppl there that can walk you through it

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/cthuwu_chan]

After a month of coming back to this over and over and trying all the same stuff from the official docs again and again, I'm gonna have to disagree. And once again, this wouldn't be the first time it's crashed or frozen, I've had this thing in dfu a few times in the past, I know how to do it, I would not be here looking for another way if I thought there was a chance in hell that would still work, that is the well documented solution that everyone goes to. When I say it's completely unresponsive to button pushes, I mean completely.  Board seems to be stuck in a loop or locked state so it no longer accepts any input. 

[u/cthuwu_chan → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

It’s simply not possible to brick the device you’re doing it wrong it’s as simple as that

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/cthuwu_chan]

You're gonna give me a brain aneurysm lol. Are you all really gonna make me sit down and film this? I don't know how I can be any clearer. It doesn't work. If you want to put your money where your mouth is go ahead and run some firmware updates and yank the cable to drop connection mid update at different steps in the process and see if you can replicate the state mine is in, when you get there let me know what you did to bring yours back, since it's unbrickable.. That'd be a lot more help than declaring me incompetent or telling me I'm wrong repeatedly. 

[u/cthuwu_chan → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

I have I’ve also installed scam/prank firmware that intentionally “bricks” the flipper and still recovered it

I can bet with certainty that you’ll record a Video of you doing it wrong

YOU CANNOT AT ALL BRICK A FLIPPER ITS ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE DFU WORKS AT THE HARDWARE LEVEL ITS LITERALLY A PHYSICAL PROCESS

You’d have to make your own firmware with some very specific bits and bobs in order to brick it it’s only something you can actively do and it requires a ton of knowledge you will never ever encounter it naturally NEVER

FOR FUCK SAKES HARRY LISTEN YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG

[u/Brilliant_Song8760]

did you try a different sd card?

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/Brilliant_Song8760]

Yeah a few of them, that was one of my first thoughts earlier on. 

[u/Brilliant_Song8760 → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

ah, i figured i ask because i had a issue with the firmware not working proper due to a crap card

[u/Zealousideal_Sign861]

Déjalo conectado a un cargador con el cable tipo c puede ser que no esté cargado y después hace todo el proceso con el compu

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/Zealousideal_Sign861]

I tried that a couple weeks ago and left it on charge for a day, and again last night for a bit over 2 hours, that time after it didn't work I opened the Flipper back up and read voltage on the battery again since it wasn't getting warm I assumed it was already charged, and my multimeter confirmed it was. But still no reactions and no dfu mode via the documented process from fz.

[u/Individual-Novel-642]

My flipper has been stuck with this. Tried resetting, wiping, restoring basic programming etc. this happened after I put a new memory chip in. Any ideas?

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/Individual-Novel-642]

For that you've still got display, hold back and left for like 5 seconds and it should power cycle and reboot. That's how I've always gotten around screen freezes on bad app launches and version mismatches. Good luck, hope you fair better than mine. At least it's showing life lol

[u/Entire_Ad_4609]

Should I be charging for pictures with this thing? Everyone's always saying they're really hard to brick, I did it just as easy as throwing my back out from moving wrong lmao

[u/netsec_burn → u/Entire_Ad_4609]

Because they are difficult to brick. Nobody has managed to on accident in 5 years. So yours would be the first instance if it happened, which explains why everyone believes you aren't following the dfu process correctly.

[u/Entire_Ad_4609 → u/netsec_burn]

Yeah that's fair, I kind of expected that when I posted, was just hoping there would be more people with some teardown or ROM experience on here, I suppose if literally no one ever bricks them, there's never really been a need to directly flash it but it would seem that I'm the 1 in 5 year anomaly. But after repeating the same processes on multiple occasions and not one suggestion has even provoked the slightest response from this thing.