Product Code Database
A brick (or bricked device) is an electronic device, specially consumer electronics (such as a mobile device, game console, computer, etc.) that is no longer functional. It could be due to corrupted firmware, a hardware problem, or other damage. The term analogy the device to a brick's modern technological usefulness. "Brick" is also used as a verb to describe a device entering such a state.
Installing firmware with errors, or for a different revision of the hardware, or installing firmware incompetently software patch such as DVD firmware which only plays DVDs sold in a particular region, can also cause bricking.
Devices can also be bricked by malware (malicious software) and sometimes by running software not intentionally harmful but with errors that cause damage.
Some devices include a backup copy of their firmware, stored in fixed Read-only memory (Read Only Memory) or writable non-volatile memory, which is not normally accessible to processes that could corrupt it. Should the firmware become corrupted, the device can copy from the backup memory to its main memory, restoring the firmware.
Most devices can be soft bricked in a variety of ways. Resolution where possible generally follows a process of analyzing the boot process, determining the sub-type of soft brick, and making changes with the help of external (non-bricked) devices.
Some kernel Software bug have been known that affect the /data partition in the MultiMediaCard chip, which becomes corrupted during certain operations such as wiping and flashing. Another example of a hard brick was related to a EFI firmware bug which could allow users to run rm on the EFI system variables mounted to the filesystem from within the operating system, resulting in a bricked bootloader that would require ROM soldering tools to repair. This bug was addressed by Linux developers in 2016.
Recovering from a hard brick is generally considered difficult or impossible and requires the use of a more direct programming interface to the device; such an interface often exists, as there must be a way to program the initial firmware during the manufacturing process. However, additional tools or connections may be needed, such as low-level programming devices. Hardware hard brick recoveries are also considered difficult and require electrical knowledge to find and fix hardware issues. For example, an overloaded capacitor in a circuit may explode, thus stopping the flow of electricity and bricking the device. More complex examples involve permanent damage to integrated circuits and processors. Fixing such hardware bricks involve replacing these components entirely or fixing them by either bypassing if the circuit allows or other methods.
Amongst devices known to have bricking issues are: older PCs (more recent models often have dual or some other form of protection), many , handheld game consoles like the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS, video game consoles like the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, many SCSI devices and some lines of hard disk drives and routers.
Electric cars such as the Tesla Roadster (first generation) can brick if the battery is completely discharged.
Sometimes an interrupted flash upgrade of a PC motherboard will brick the board, for example, due to a power outage during the upgrade process. It is sometimes possible to un-brick such a motherboard, by using a similar BIOS chip to boot from floppy. Then it will be possible to retry the flash process. Sometimes it is possible to boot from a floppy, then swap the old presumably dead BIOS chip in and re-flash it. On some Gigabyte boards, it can also be possible to re-flash the bricked main BIOS using a backup BIOS. Some vendors put the BIOS chip in sockets, allowing the corrupted BIOS chip to be removed and reprogrammed using an external tool, like a universal programmer or an Arduino.
Devices that have a strong dependency on online services in order to function may be bricked after services are discontinued by the manufacturer, or some other technological factor (such as expired security certificates or other services quietly becoming unavailable) effectively prevents them from operating. This can happen if the product has been succeeded by a newer model and the manufacturer no longer wishes to maintain services for the previous version, or if a company has been acquired by another or otherwise ceases operations, and chooses not to, or is no longer able to maintain its previous products. For example, Apple dropped support for OS X El Capitan in October 2018, and on 30 September 2021 the built-in security certificate expired, rendering users unable to connect to or use any iCloud services. The security certificate issued with the final updates of MacOS Sierra and High Sierra expired on 20 May 2022. The practice has especially been scrutinized within the Internet of things and home automation markets. Bricking in these cases has been regarded as a means to enforce planned obsolescence.
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