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pixel 5A 5G - zombie? (hackertalks.com)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by jet@hackertalks.com to c/googlepixel@lemmy.world

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I have the Pixel 5A 5G. It's been my main phone for 2 years. Love it. Two weeks ago it started to exhibit the well-known motherboard issue where the screen doesn't turn on. I've kept it on my desk since then, massaging it, cooling it, charging it and discharging it. And eventually it turns on for a few minutes and I back up my data and set up a new phone. So far so good.

Today, it turned on again, I double checked everything, and did a factory reset. And now it's working fine. The screens turning on every time....

I don't know if I can trust this device anymore, having the phone just die completely for 2 weeks isn't acceptable. I'm not sure if I have the BGA motherboard issue, where I actually need to get the CPU reballed, or if the factory reset was sufficient....

So now my phone is a zombie...

Anyone else have a similar experience with the 5As? I saw the resolution most people took was sending the phone back to Google, and getting either refurbished model or a pixel 6. But now that it's working that avenues not available to me

Update: the screen died after 5 hours of working, guess I'm now happy that it is infact a hardware issue and not firmware issue.

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But believe me when I say it wasn't working. It just wouldn't boot. I could hear it buzzing sometimes. But I couldn't get the screen to turn on. I put it in the freezer, and that made it boot for about 90seconds.

The phone died while I was taking a photo of a train. And today randomly it just turned on on my desk, and driving me insane

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I've had it play a 4K YouTube video for 2 hours. And now I've been recording a video for 20 minutes. It hasn't crashed, the screen still on..... I'm trying to get it to die again to prove I wasn't going crazy.

I think what this tells me is the phone was bricked due to a firmware issue, not a hardware issue. And the factory reset got it into a good state.

That's super concerning. A pixel 5A is breaking itself is very scary. The forums for Pixel 5A call it a motherboard issue, but this feels like a firmware issue instead

[–] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Was the phone exposed to rain? Could be some droplets that got through some crack and which have now dried out (beware the rust though in that case). I can't think of anything else honestly. However your idea of stress-testing is good, I'd also try to run a bunch of benchmarks on it.