Reports of Pixel 3s bricking with “EDL” message are growing
A growing quantity of Pixel Three and three XL customers say their telephones are dying an early dying. For months, reviews have been piling up on Google’s issue tracker, support forums, and Reddit, all saying mainly the identical factor: in the future, the telephones abruptly cease working and develop into utterly unresponsive. The telephones cannot boot into Android and can solely present a Qualcomm restoration mode known as “Emergency Download (EDL) mode.”
The telephones that show EDL mode are utterly ineffective bricks. Some Googlers within the assist thread are asking for Android-generated bug reviews, which acquire a ton of diagnostic information about working processes. But customers cannot submit these reviews, as a result of the telephones will not boot into Android. The regular methods used to flash a contemporary model of Android onto the gadgets will not work, as customers cannot get out of EDL mode and into the traditional bootloader, the place they will use the usual recommended flashing instruments like “fastboot” or Google’s slick, new browser-based Android Flash Tool.
EDL mode is never used within the Android hacking and restoration scene, however it’s meant for restoration, presumably earlier than any of the usual Android boot and restoration chain will get loaded onto the telephone. When plugged right into a PC, telephones in EDL mode will determine as “QUSB_BULK_CID,” adopted by a serial quantity. The PC software program that communicates with EDL mode is named “QPST,” or the “Qualcomm Product Support Tool,” and will theoretically try to flash a brand new copy of Android onto the Pixel 3, assuming you might get the total NAND picture in the fitting format. Google admirably supplies dozens of Pixel Three system pictures for obtain, however they’re meant for the traditional Android flashing instruments, not QPST.
Getting the fitting recordsdata nonetheless in all probability would not clear up something. We can solely speculate about what the issue is, however reviews of telephones dying over the course of a number of months and an entire lack of recoverability point out that the problem shouldn’t be as a result of a software program replace. This sounds so much like a batch of {hardware} parts with a poor shelf life. It’s all very reminiscent of the bootloop problems that plagued LG telephones for years, together with the Google-branded LG Nexus 5X. In that case, telephones would abruptly cease booting due to poor solder joints between the board and the CPU.
The Pixel Three marked the beginning of Google being a extra impartial {hardware} firm (as an alternative of partnering with varied competing Android OEMs), and most reviews peg the Pixel Three as being manufactured by Foxconn. The Pixel Three was launched on the end of 2018 and continued to promote for about 18 months, so whether or not you are nonetheless below the two-year guarantee or not will rely upon once you purchased your telephone. Google lately prolonged the Pixel 4 XL warranty to a few years as a result of sure {hardware} points, reminiscent of random reboots and a rapidly draining battery. It could be good to see the corporate present the identical assist for Pixel Three homeowners.
