This post will be kept up to date with my story.
TL;DR so far: My only hope is some koeran LG customer support.
What happened?
As you may or may not know, a lot of LG G4 devices are becoming paperweights after a while due to manufacturing defects straight from LG. LG admitted that there definitely is an issue, and has claimed to take full responsibility for this. They have pin pointed the issue, and now know how to solve it.
What exactly is the issue?
What I'm talking about is ILAPO, or Infinite Loop Auto Power Off. What actually happens is that over time, loose connections between the CPU and the main board just cut the power off of the CPU. The CPU is a Snapdragon 808, what this means is that there's basically two CPUs inside the device, one that is quad core, and another that is dual. The problem is apparently specific to the dual core CPU, because turning the two cores off might prevent this issue from happening again. Once that CPU is disconnected from the board, the device hangs for about 5-10 seconds and then turns off and doesn't turn back on normally.
This issue is present on a lot of LG G4 devices, but is apparently most common on devices with the serial number that starts with 505. I have (had) a G4 with this serial number. And I was no exception of this issue. After exactly a year and a month and 5 days, I got ILAPO while chatting on Hangouts.
What I did (So Far):
Consulting XDA Members:
So first of all, I have contacted one of the best I've known. He has the experience, and my intention wasn't to nag to him about it, it was to be more of a guinea pig if he needs to extract any info from people who have this issue. It's none other than @autoprime
We went on and on in the IRC chat trying to see if I can at least boot into something. What I could get to was the following:
- LG logo
- TWRP Recovery for 1 second (couldn't press any button there)
- Download mode for 1 second (not enough for a connection to PC)
- VERY RARE 2-3 minutes of normal boot
Trying with LG:
Now I have heard of many tricks to temporarily solve this issue, at least to get my data back. But since LG claimed that they would fix/replace the device, I went ahead and contacted LG, then actually got up and went down to their official repair center in my country.
Their reply was that my device is an LG G4 H815, and what they sell is an LG G4 H815P so they refused to fix my device. My device wasn't bought straight from LG, it was imported from another country. They claimed that they would fix it if it was bought straight from them.
Trying with the shop:
I then went to the shop where I bought it from, they had no idea where the device came from, but took the device and took my phone number to try and fix it themselves and see how that goes. I waited 3 days and then they called and said that they actually fixed it for only 30$. I was SHOCKED! I went straight to them as soon as I hung up and then turned it on in front of them. 2-3 minutes later, it froze, turned off, and went back to ILAPO. I took the device without paying anything.
Trying with LG again:
So my next step was to figure out where this thing was imported from, and contact that LG branch.
I have tagged @lguS on Twitter hoping to get some assistance from there, and I did get a reply. They said I should contact LG Levant for assistance. After sending them an email, this is what I got as a reply. This is a copy-paste of the reply, this is how bad they are at English-ing. Terrible:
So this was hopeless, off to another way for customer "support".
I went to LG's website in the US and contacted them via live chat. The following is the transcript:
Basically I gave them my IMEI and they told me that this was made in Korea and that I should contact LG Korea. So I went to LG's website in Korea, and with a lot of Google Translate I have sent them an email explaining my situation. No reply yet.
The Rant:
This has been TERRIBLE. Every LG branch is blaming the other one, nobody wants to fix my phone even though it is totally LG's fault I now have a hard bricked device. They are constantly finding reasons not to fix/replace it. There's no single phone number to call, no single email to send to, no single link for a live chat. Each branch has a different mind set, and one branch refuses to fix another branch's product. This is STUPID!
This is not about whether there's warranty or not. This is about a worldwide defect that is affecting a LOT of users and will keep affecting them as long as they are using their LG G4s. My G4 was THEIR DEVICE. It has an LG logo on it, and THEY are responsible for whatever hardware defect they produce and we buy.
LG has failed miserably with supporting their customers. And they have been straight up liars because they actually made a statement that they would fix this issue. Seriously how much do they get paid for this? I'm an RC here and have offered much better support, and the people who I've supported aren't even customers!
I'm never buying a product from LG again, be it mobile phones, refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves. Because I'm sure that LG won't fix any of them either.
That's 600$ down the drain after about a year.
TL;DR so far: My only hope is some koeran LG customer support.
What happened?
As you may or may not know, a lot of LG G4 devices are becoming paperweights after a while due to manufacturing defects straight from LG. LG admitted that there definitely is an issue, and has claimed to take full responsibility for this. They have pin pointed the issue, and now know how to solve it.
What exactly is the issue?
What I'm talking about is ILAPO, or Infinite Loop Auto Power Off. What actually happens is that over time, loose connections between the CPU and the main board just cut the power off of the CPU. The CPU is a Snapdragon 808, what this means is that there's basically two CPUs inside the device, one that is quad core, and another that is dual. The problem is apparently specific to the dual core CPU, because turning the two cores off might prevent this issue from happening again. Once that CPU is disconnected from the board, the device hangs for about 5-10 seconds and then turns off and doesn't turn back on normally.
This issue is present on a lot of LG G4 devices, but is apparently most common on devices with the serial number that starts with 505. I have (had) a G4 with this serial number. And I was no exception of this issue. After exactly a year and a month and 5 days, I got ILAPO while chatting on Hangouts.
What I did (So Far):
Consulting XDA Members:
So first of all, I have contacted one of the best I've known. He has the experience, and my intention wasn't to nag to him about it, it was to be more of a guinea pig if he needs to extract any info from people who have this issue. It's none other than @autoprime
We went on and on in the IRC chat trying to see if I can at least boot into something. What I could get to was the following:
- LG logo
- TWRP Recovery for 1 second (couldn't press any button there)
- Download mode for 1 second (not enough for a connection to PC)
- VERY RARE 2-3 minutes of normal boot
Trying with LG:
Now I have heard of many tricks to temporarily solve this issue, at least to get my data back. But since LG claimed that they would fix/replace the device, I went ahead and contacted LG, then actually got up and went down to their official repair center in my country.
Their reply was that my device is an LG G4 H815, and what they sell is an LG G4 H815P so they refused to fix my device. My device wasn't bought straight from LG, it was imported from another country. They claimed that they would fix it if it was bought straight from them.
Trying with the shop:
I then went to the shop where I bought it from, they had no idea where the device came from, but took the device and took my phone number to try and fix it themselves and see how that goes. I waited 3 days and then they called and said that they actually fixed it for only 30$. I was SHOCKED! I went straight to them as soon as I hung up and then turned it on in front of them. 2-3 minutes later, it froze, turned off, and went back to ILAPO. I took the device without paying anything.
Trying with LG again:
So my next step was to figure out where this thing was imported from, and contact that LG branch.
I have tagged @lguS on Twitter hoping to get some assistance from there, and I did get a reply. They said I should contact LG Levant for assistance. After sending them an email, this is what I got as a reply. This is a copy-paste of the reply, this is how bad they are at English-ing. Terrible:
Quote:
Dear Rawad, I am apology to inform you that, Lebanon service regulation is to maintain product from local sales by offecial distrebutor, you can refer to any connection to get repaired your mobile from related country of purchase, appreciate your understanding... Regards, |
I went to LG's website in the US and contacted them via live chat. The following is the transcript:
Basically I gave them my IMEI and they told me that this was made in Korea and that I should contact LG Korea. So I went to LG's website in Korea, and with a lot of Google Translate I have sent them an email explaining my situation. No reply yet.
The Rant:
This has been TERRIBLE. Every LG branch is blaming the other one, nobody wants to fix my phone even though it is totally LG's fault I now have a hard bricked device. They are constantly finding reasons not to fix/replace it. There's no single phone number to call, no single email to send to, no single link for a live chat. Each branch has a different mind set, and one branch refuses to fix another branch's product. This is STUPID!
This is not about whether there's warranty or not. This is about a worldwide defect that is affecting a LOT of users and will keep affecting them as long as they are using their LG G4s. My G4 was THEIR DEVICE. It has an LG logo on it, and THEY are responsible for whatever hardware defect they produce and we buy.
LG has failed miserably with supporting their customers. And they have been straight up liars because they actually made a statement that they would fix this issue. Seriously how much do they get paid for this? I'm an RC here and have offered much better support, and the people who I've supported aren't even customers!
I'm never buying a product from LG again, be it mobile phones, refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves. Because I'm sure that LG won't fix any of them either.
That's 600$ down the drain after about a year.
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