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Thread ID: 142960 2016-10-18 21:53:00 Xiaomi Redmi 3S EDL mode issues wratterus (105) Press F1
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1427620 2016-10-18 21:53:00 The phone I ordered off Aliexpress thanks to the info from Chill (only around a week ago) has turned up - really like the look of it.

Anyway, I went to put the phone into EDL mode. Enabled USB debugging, then rebooted (by holding volume down and power). It rebooted to the screen with the little Xiaomi animal, then the screen went blank. I was expecting to see a new device in the device manager, however I get an unrecognized USB device, with a device descriptor error, and can't seem to install any drivers. The phone screen is blank and I can't seem to reboot it. Tried forcing the Qualcomm drivers on, doesn't like that. Have plugged the phone into a Win7 PC just in case, but it is seen the same way.

Unsure what to do at the moment - I seem to have bricked the shiny new phone. :o

If Chill has a sec on what's he'd do at this point, that would be excellent :badpc:

Edit - Well I've managed to get it booting again which is nice. Chill - if you have a minute, would you be able to give a slightly more detailed run through of what you've done to flash the phones in the past? I've obviously done something very dumb. Thank you. 		wratterus (105)
1427621 2016-10-19 02:05:00 So you need the driver / Xiaomi Flashing Tool. There's a bunch of them, different builds etc, but the one I've been using was 20151028
mega.nz

Install that (Put it in to c:\Xiaomi just to keep life really really simple) and install the Qualcomm driver that comes with it. You *may* need to put Windows into "Test" whatever the hell mode it is that disables driver verification:
www.drivethelife.com
Which can be summed up as:
Open up a command prompt running as an Administrator, and run:
bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON
Then restart the computer

Go in to c:\Xiaomi\MiFlash (Or whatever the directory ends up being called)\Source\ThirdParty\Qualcomm\Driver and right-click on the qcser.inf (The one with the type of "setup information") and choose "Install".

You'll want to download the firmware from http://en.miui.com and then go to Downloads
Choose any Xiaomi device, it doesn't matter, as they all link to the same place eventually (Mi 4 is first in the list right now)
Then, click on Flashing Guide (Which will take you to en.miui.com )
On the left-hand side, click on "Fastboot Update" (Which will take you to en.miui.com )

This is where you'll download the files to flash through both Fastboot / EDL mode. EDL mode is slightly different from Fastboot mode, but on one of the devices that a family friend imported, I had to flash it from Fastboot mode. All the rest did it in EDL.

Choose either:
Redmi 3S/Prime Latest Global Stable Version Fastboot File Download ( update.miui.com )
Redmi 3S/Prime Latest Global Developer Version Fastboot File Download ( update.miui.com )

To be honest, I'm running the "Developer" version, which equates to a weekly update with minor tweaks / changes / improvements. The Stable is slightly less frequently, every month or two.

You'll then want to extract it in to c:\Xiaomi
It's a .tar.gz (Or .tgz) which WinRAR should be able to extract with no issues
It'll make a directory with a bunch of .bat files and another subdirectory with the ROM files, this is perfect.
Make life easier for yourself and just rename it to "redmi3s" or similar (I've flashed a BUNCH of phones, so I have the Redmi3, 3S, Mi Max, Mi 5 etc all in there)

7593

From here, fire up MiFlash (I run this as an Administrator, though to be honest I'm not 100% sure if you need to or not)
Click on the "Select" button on the left and choose the directory that has the contents I've shown above, all the .bat files etc

Now, put your phone in to Fastboot Mode by shutting down the phone, wait 15-20 seconds (It keeps 'shutting down' even after the screen goes blank for a bit), then hold Vol-Down and Power. It'll vibrate and immediately you should see the Xiaomi Rabbit fixing an Android, along with the words "Fastboot".
Plug the phone in to your PC if it's not already
Then click on "Refresh" and you should see a phone appear there in the list
Down the bottom-right ensure it's set to "Flash all" or "Clean all" (Depending on the version of MiFlash you're using).
Then hit Flash

*** IF it fails, all hope is not lost, now try EDL mode ***

Reboot it by holding down Power for 15 seconds, it'll reboot itself automatically, everything is fine, even though flashing in Fastboot may have failed it's worth trying that first.
Power the phone back off again

Push and hold Power + Vol-Up, and it'll vibrate as it turns on, you'll see the "mi.com" logo, and then as long as you're keeping the buttons held down, after 15 seconds you'll see a "Recovery Menu":
7594
From here choose "Download"
Plug the phone in if it's not already and click "Refresh" in MiFlash.
It should show up as like "Com10" or "Com20"
You MAY need to bring up your Device Manager in Windows and force it to use the latest driver from in the XiaomiFlash\Source\ThirdParty\Qualcomm\Driver directory, but to be honest I didn't have to.

Hit Flash and you should be away laughing! :)

If you get stuck, post back and I'll see what I can do. Don't fret coz there's basically no way you can brick the phone, even unplugging it halfway through like I did on accident once, it was still fine...
Once you hit "Flash", it should take around 4 minutes to flash it, but then the "first boot" after it restarts will take somewhere around 15-ish minutes, so if it looks like it's stuck, don't worry, it's supposed to sit there on the first load (While it does the precompling of the apps for the Android RunTime etc) 		Chilling_Silence (9)
1427622 2016-10-19 04:04:00 Thanks heaps Chill, I get this error when trying to flash with the fastboot method, am just trying the EDL now.

Would this perhaps mean the phone is not unlocked?

7595 		wratterus (105)
1427623 2016-10-19 04:22:00 OK, well in EDL mode the phone has installed correctly (as COM3 , Qualcomm HS-USB...) initially MIFlash looked to be happy, but then gave me the error below.
7596 		wratterus (105)
1427624 2016-10-19 20:23:00 Got it . :) I was using a much older version of MiFlash . Used the latest version (2016 . 08 . 30 . 0) and it's flashed with EDL mode no problem . Now to wait the 15min and make sure it cranks up properly .

Edit - which locale do you generally use? Does it actually make a difference?

Thanks heaps for your help Chill . Really appreciate it . 		wratterus (105)
1427625 2016-10-19 23:29:00 Yeah so the "Cannot flash critical partition" or whatever in the first means you can't flash through Fastboot, so EDL it is.

Locale, I usually just grab the first on the list. It ends up being overridden by other settings anyways and seems kinda pointless to me to be honest...

Glad you've got it all sorted, so it's now running the latest MIUI8? Did you go Stable or Dev? 		Chilling_Silence (9)
1427626 2016-10-19 23:31:00 Protip: Familiarize yourself with Autostart. Under Settings --> Permissions --> Autostart.
Once you've got your apps and stuff installed, Autostart will stop certain things from firing up in the background, it's great for preventing cheap games from starting up all the time to send you stupid ad-notifications, but it has the potential to interfere, say for example with Hangouts if your Hangouts isn't allowed to autostart, it won't check for messages unless it's running at that time.
It's the only thing you really need to be aware of, but otherwise, enjoy! :-)
Be keen to hear what sort of battery life you get after having used it for a couple of days and your 'usage' has settled back to normal... 		Chilling_Silence (9)
1427627 2016-10-20 00:34:00 Latest MIUI8, went with stable as it's for the missus, not myself. :p Thanks for the tip re the autostart. With the quick play I had with the phone this morning I'm very impressed with it. The only thing I did think was a little odd given the specs was there is no dual band wireless - tbh not an issue in this case, and if I'd read through the whole spec list fully I would have seen that anyway.

I'll let you know what the thoughts on it are next week, but so far extremely impressed with it. 		wratterus (105)
1427628 2016-10-20 01:20:00 Yeah, for ~$250, I guess there had to be some shortcuts taken... Chilling_Silence (9)
1427629 2016-10-26 02:57:00 Well the wife is pretty stoked with the phone. She's just been using it last night and today, battery life we can already tell is awesome - she's been on it for a couple of hours last night and flat out today and it's around 50% now - I can imagine getting 3 days out of it with light to normal usage.

Apparently the only thing she doesn't like are "the ring tones are all gay", that's easily fixed lol. Likes how quick it is, likes the camera, likes the fingerprint reader. So I think we're onto a winner. Thanks!

The final cost, incl a clear TPU case and glass screen protector was around $195. 		wratterus (105)
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