Brick (electronics)
In terms of consumer electronics , a refers Brick (English [stone] brick ) an electronic device such as a smart phone , a game console , a router or a tablet computer , which is a serious misconfiguration, a corrupted firmware or hardware has -problem and no more works as desired. The name is derived from the roughly cuboid shape of many electronic devices (and their power supplies ) and alludes to the fact that the device can only be used as a large and heavy object. Before Brick found its way into the German everyday language, according damaged equipment has been humorous exclusive suitability as a paperweight rumored ( "[...] is good only as paperweight").
The name can also be used as a verb, for example someone could say, “ I bricked my MP3 player when I was trying to modify its firmware. "
In general, bricken refers to damage that makes the device permanently unusable. This is often triggered by a misconfiguration of important onboard software (i.e. software that is built into the hardware). Irrespective of this, the term bricked is used to describe the situation in which a device does not work, but there could still be opportunities for the device to be brought back into a functional state. This is often referred to as soft brick or semi -Brick referred, whereas irreparable devices as hard brick or full-brick are called.
Cause and prevention
Bringing a device is usually the undesirable consequence of updating the software of that device. Many devices have an update procedure that must not be interrupted. If the process is interrupted by a power failure, user intervention or for any other reason, the existing firmware can be partially overwritten and become unusable. The risk of destruction can be minimized by taking all precautionary measures for an interruption.
The cause of the bricking can be the installation of faulty firmware or firmware intended for a different hardware revision. Another cause could be the installation of an incompletely patched firmware version, for example firmware for a DVD drive that only plays DVDs that were purchased in a specific region, i.e. that does not support all DVD region codes.
Devices can also be damaged by malicious programs and sometimes by running actually harmless software that contains errors.
Some devices have two copies of the firmware. Of these copies, one is active and the other is stored in static ROM or writable non-volatile memory , usually inaccessible by processes that could damage it . There is also a method to copy the backed up firmware even if the active version has been damaged, which means that if the active firmware has been damaged, the copy can be used to replace it and the device can then be functional again. Other devices have a minimal bootloader firmware, which is usually activated via a switch or a jumper . The device does not work as normal, but it is possible to restore the main firmware.
Unbricken
Some devices that are bricked because their non-volatile memory has been incorrectly written can become fully functional again by using additional hardware (a debug board) that directly addresses the memory in question. This procedure is similar to that used when the memory of a new device is still empty. This type of bridging and un-bridging is usually carried out during the testing and development of firmware. In other cases, sometimes complex software and hardware procedures have been developed so that there is a good chance that the device can be repaired. However, there is no uniform method as each device is structured differently. In addition, there are also modification programs created by individual users that offer the possibility of repair on partially or fully bricked devices. Examples of such homebrew software are BootMii, which is used to repair a partially bricked Nintendo Wii , and the ClockworkMod for Android devices.
Systems
In principle, every device can bridge with rewritable firmware or with important settings that are saved in flash or EEPROM memory. Many, but not all, user-upgradeable devices have protection against bricking. On the other hand, devices that are usually only updated by official service personnel usually have no such protection.
The following devices are known to break: older computers (newer models often have two BIOSes or another form of protection), many cell phones , handheld consoles such as PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS , game consoles such as Nintendo Wii , Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 , many SCSI devices and several generations of hard drives and routers .
Online and mobile services
Many newer systems that are able to connect to online services (for example, iPhone , PlayStation 3 , Xbox, and Xbox 360 ) have a unique hardware-based serial number. This makes it possible to monitor individual systems via a network and to exclude them from certain online services. Such systems usually continue to operate normally during activities that are independent of the online services. For users of the online services, the device still has a certain amount of damage and is not usable.
Mobile phones have a static serial number with the IMEI . If a phone is reported as stolen, it is possible to block the IMEI in cellular networks , which in principle makes the device unusable. However, with the appropriate experience and equipment, it is possible to change the IMEI.