Can you fixel my Pixel?

December 11, 2021 2:49 PM

My Google Pixel 3 XL died today. Will not turn on, charge, or go into recovery mode. No lights, no noises, no connection when I go online and try to locate it. Any ideas for a fix?

I had to buy a new phone, but the employee told me that if I can get it to turn on in the next 14 days, it is eligible as a trade-in and will mean hundreds of dollars of refunds. I have tried everything I could find on Google's support pages and done some searching, but other than waiting and hoping it randomly turns on (just like it randomly died!), I'm not sure what I can do. Any ideas?

posted by papayaninja to Technology (5 answers total)

Best answer: I suspect your phone has succumbed to this known issue:
https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/08/31/pixel-3-and-3-xl-phones-are-getting-stuck-in-edl-mode-and-seemingly-bricked/

You can confirm this by connecting it to a PC (Windows) and seeing if it shows in Device Manager as a device named QUSB_BULK_CID_. If that's the issue, there's no known fix for it. I'm sorry if that's the case; this happened to my Pixel 3 a couple of months ago and there was nothing I could do.
posted by bent back tulips at 2:58 PM on December 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Well, darn. That is my issue exactly. Although... I guess it's technically "powering on" but I doubt that's what Verizon means!

Thanks. Hope you're enjoying your new phone.
posted by papayaninja at 3:06 PM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

If it makes you feel any better, I just upgraded my old but functioning-just-fine Pixel 3 to a new Pixel 6 and the trade-in value from T-Mobile was a big fat $0, so you may not be losing out on that much.
posted by platinum at 5:26 PM on December 11, 2021

Response by poster: Yep. Verizon is running a trade-in promo and we were quoted $440 if we could get it to turn on. But I'm definitely familiar with the $0 thing! So I guess I'll just look at it that way.
posted by papayaninja at 6:34 PM on December 11, 2021

there's no known fix for it

There's no known user-accessible fix for it. But if fixing it could be worth $440, it probably wouldn't hurt to pay a visit to an authorized repairer and see whether they have some clever Qualcomm tool that could unbrick it for you for less than that.
posted by flabdablet at 10:38 PM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]