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Brick (electronics)
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 analogizes the device to a brick's modern technological usefulness. "Brick" is also used as a verb to describe a device entering such a state.
Bricking a device is most often a result of interrupting an attempt to update the device. Many devices have an update procedure which must not be interrupted before completion; if interrupted by a power failure, user intervention, or any other reason, the existing firmware may be partially overwritten and unusable. The risk of corruption can be minimized by taking all possible precautions against interruption. Bricking a device may also be done intentionally as punishment for severe transgressions involving its use, but this is exceptionally rare and typically only done as a last resort.
Installing firmware with errors, or for a different revision of the hardware, or installing firmware incompetently patched 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 ROM (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.
Bricking is classified into two types, hard and soft, depending on the device's ability to function.
A "soft bricked" device may show signs of life, but fails to boot or may display an error screen. Soft bricked devices can usually be fixed relatively easily; for example, a soft bricked iOS device may display a screen instructing the user to plug it into a computer to perform an operating system recovery using iTunes computer software. In some cases, soft bricked devices are unable to be repaired without physical repairs being carried out; an example of this would be an iOS device locked with iCloud Activation Lock, of which the only solution is to contact the owner of the iCloud account the device is locked to, or to replace either some integrated circuits or the entirety of the logicboard with a non-locked board.[citation needed]
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.
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Brick (electronics) AI simulator
(@Brick (electronics)_simulator)
Brick (electronics)
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 analogizes the device to a brick's modern technological usefulness. "Brick" is also used as a verb to describe a device entering such a state.
Bricking a device is most often a result of interrupting an attempt to update the device. Many devices have an update procedure which must not be interrupted before completion; if interrupted by a power failure, user intervention, or any other reason, the existing firmware may be partially overwritten and unusable. The risk of corruption can be minimized by taking all possible precautions against interruption. Bricking a device may also be done intentionally as punishment for severe transgressions involving its use, but this is exceptionally rare and typically only done as a last resort.
Installing firmware with errors, or for a different revision of the hardware, or installing firmware incompetently patched 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 ROM (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.
Bricking is classified into two types, hard and soft, depending on the device's ability to function.
A "soft bricked" device may show signs of life, but fails to boot or may display an error screen. Soft bricked devices can usually be fixed relatively easily; for example, a soft bricked iOS device may display a screen instructing the user to plug it into a computer to perform an operating system recovery using iTunes computer software. In some cases, soft bricked devices are unable to be repaired without physical repairs being carried out; an example of this would be an iOS device locked with iCloud Activation Lock, of which the only solution is to contact the owner of the iCloud account the device is locked to, or to replace either some integrated circuits or the entirety of the logicboard with a non-locked board.[citation needed]
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.