Nexus 6P Bootloop Fix Found

Megalith

Megalith

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Those of you with a Nexus 6P affected by bootloops can now dust it off, as a fix is now available for fully booting up your device again. In order to revive your Nexus 6P, you’ll need to flash modified files that disable the root of the problem: the big clusters of the Snapdragon 810 SoC. For some reason, these "A57 performance cores" prevent the phone from booting when active, so they need to be turned off completely. Flashed (fixed) phones will run on the "A53 little cores" instead, which are slower but more power efficient.

Near the end of 2016, we saw a volley of reports from multiple users claiming their Nexus 6P units were inexplicably entering random bootloops, a problem seemingly separate from the early shutdowns that plagued the phone around the same time. This was different, and while reduced battery life is certainly bad, the bootloops essentially turned the smartphone into paperweight. Users who faced this issue quickly sunk into despair as there was no remedy in sight. No amount of data wiping or re-flashing of factory images seemed to solve the problem, indicating that the issue was hardware-related, possibly a problem in the SoC.
 
That's not cool. They need to replace or offer a huge discount to upgrade to the pixel. Gimping the phone is not a fix. I wouldn't even call it a band aid. Never had the issue with my 6P personally tho.
 
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How does the device end up in this problem state? Does anyone actually know?

Is this a bug at the hardware level?
 
Riptide_NVN said:
How does the device end up in this problem state? Does anyone actually know?

Is this a bug at the hardware level?
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Must be on the hardware level. I would assume if it was software it would of been fixed properly by now.
 
good news instead of being completely paralyzed you can use one arm and move your head.

wtg google.
 
Pretty nasty bug if at the hardware level. They would've solved the problem with some type of firmware update by now if it were fixable. Seems I have a bit of a ticking time bomb on my hand eh? Worked well so far.
 
Posting from new-to-me 6p purchased days ago.

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It's a defect in the SOCs, could happen to anyone at any time. Most people don't have the issue.
 
I've had a 6p since a few weeks after launch, 128GB frost and... I've never had a problem with it. A number of people have had battery problems with them but I think that's from routinely charging them at 3 amps, I charge at 1-1.5 amps most of the time and I still get 4-6 hours of screen on time depending on brightness and use.
 
I slow charge mine as much as I can get away with and use AccuBattery. Had it several months now no complaints so far other than it takes a long time to slow charge so the device does a lot of sitting there hooked up to the USB port on my computer.
 
Term-X said:
They should offer Nexus 6P users affected by this crap 50% off the Pixel 2.

Disclaimer: I have a Nexus 6P but it's not affected by this issue.
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No, they need to offer a free upgrade and two-way shipping. The error is baked right into the SoC, your next one could suffer the same fate.
 
The Nexus 6 units had incept dates starting in 2014. We are coming up on their intended 4 year lifespan. It doesn't surprise me some of them start dropping like flies.
 
If the thing can't boot with the big cores, why are they being totally disabled? How about disabling them just during the boot process, and turning them back on once the phone's up?
 
I had a LG G2 that was in a boot loop and it took about 10 months before someone released a tool to fix that. I was sooooooo thankful. I guess I need to check craigslist for bricked 6P's lol
 
This is not a permanent fix, folks, as the issue lies with the hardware itself and just turning off some of the cores won't resolve it. The same issue lies with the LG G3, the G4, the V10, the G5 (in a very small number of cases reported so far that are known about), I read two reports of a V20 doing it but that's not even a sample size that can be considered relevant at all, and of course the Nexus 5x made by LG too. The class action lawsuit against LG (which I'm a part of like many others) is all about this issue, so it wouldn't surprise me to see the Nexus 6P added to the list of devices suffering from this manufacturing defect even in spite of the fact that Huawei made the Nexus 6P and not LG which means Huawei itself might get added or a standalone class action against them could be brought into play by the same lawfirms (there are two, I think one of them might have settled in the recent past but I'm not 100% sure).

This "fix" may work for a while but, at some point almost guaranteed to happen if you have a Nexus 6p that suffered from this once it will return again at some point and no such software patching is going to resolve it. Huawei's hardware might be more responsive to the "fix" as it exists now - the LG G4 had a similar "fix" created by LG but wasn't distributed to the public at large, it was leaked of course, a "big core disabling patch," but the problem was it was only useful on the International models of the G4: the patch could not be applied to any US carrier models at all which was kinda fucked up.

I still love the G4 and I'm planning to get a V10 soon from another member here when I can manage the funds and he selects his next smartphone soon. Yes I know it could theoretically up and die on me 10 mins after I unbox it but that's a risk I'm willing to take 'cause I know I'll get LG to repair or replace it regardless. :)
 
Wade88 said:
I've had a 6p since a few weeks after launch, 128GB frost and... I've never had a problem with it. A number of people have had battery problems with them but I think that's from routinely charging them at 3 amps, I charge at 1-1.5 amps most of the time and I still get 4-6 hours of screen on time depending on brightness and use.
Click to expand...

Riptide_NVN said:
I slow charge mine as much as I can get away with and use AccuBattery. Had it several months now no complaints so far other than it takes a long time to slow charge so the device does a lot of sitting there hooked up to the USB port on my computer.
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Replacing the battery on these is relatively easy and cheap. I replaced mine for $10 after I got hit with the early shutdown issue due to a defective battery. I wouldn't worry about slow charging my phone to save battery wear with how cheap and easy it is to replace the battery, at least on the 6P. It's definitely a bit easier than the One M8 I had before and replaced the battery on and any newer Samsung or HTC phone.

That said, I wasn't even aware of any boot loop issues on the 6P and I follow a lot of mobile blogs and channels. I knew of the 5X boot loop issue though, as well as the other LG phones that have had the issues in the past few years (I know a few former G4 owners myself that got screwed by that phone). The biggest hardware issue with the 6P is the early shutdown issue due to a bad battery, which like I said above isn't too hard to fix.
 
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Dang this fix is pretty terrible... losing the big cores means its nit even the same phone anymore :-/

Soeaking if LG, my brothers LG G3 got so hot that it burnt out the SIM card reader so now its just a wifi tablet -.-. I am on my 3rd or 4th G3, kept having to send it in for replacements lol. Now that I have a working one it us a great phone but damn their quality control sucks!
 
Damn you G3 keyboard! Actually i can only blame myself for those typos i suppose! Sorry! :)
 
Had the Lumia 950XL until very recently, which also used the Qualcomm SnapDragon 810. Ran like shit. I'm surprised I kept it so long. Moved to a very cheap Android phone which runs circles around the 950XL due to it crashing and hanging all the time. Not sure how much of it was the 810 related.
 
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