Monday 16 January 2017

Reflashing / Unbricking Chinese Smart Phone



I recently bought an Leagoo M5 for my father, my son already owns one of these phones are it certainly does the job for the price.

My father Leagoo bricked 1 hour after installing the latest system updates.

Being familiar with flashing phones (experience of Cyanogenmod), I thought I'd attempt to reflash the operating system. 

There's lots of misleading information on the internet about the subject so I'd thought I'd document my experiences.

Things you need for a  re-flash:

1. A copy of the stock operating system image, this can usually be downloaded from your Smart Phones support webpage.

2. Smart Phone Flash Tool aka SP_Flash_Tool, ensure the you get the latest one (I used 5.1648).

3. A copy of USBDeview.exe (Nirsoft's)


Instructions

a. Run USBDeview and remove any copies of the MediaTek USB port driver.

b. Switch your phone off and connect to the PC via USB, the driver should automatically install.

c. Unplug your phone and REMOVE the battery.

d. Run the SP_Flash_Tool 

1. Select Download Agent (This is bundled for with the SP_Flash_Tool).

2. Select the Scatter Loading File, this will be located in the same directory where the stock rom for your phone. If you get a check sum error when load this file, delete the checksum.ini from the stock rom directory.

3. Make sure download only is set.

4.Press the download button.

e. Remove the battery from the phone.

f. Hold Volume Up/ Volume Down on the phone and insert the USB cable.

If everything is done correctly the flashing should begin.