Chosen Solution
Hello - long time fixer, first time forumer. The internet usually come to the rescue with even the most obscure technical problems, write in the symptoms, phrase it right and ta da etc. However, for this simple (well at least obvious) problem I’ve found no answer apart from send off it for repair - boring! So hopefully someone on this forum will help the web save face: PROBLEM: HTC one M8 dropped (one of quite a few occasions in its short life) onto tiled kitchen floor after it’s owners consumption of gin. No power up or sign of any life at all, apart from a solid orange light when plugged in. The phone looks fine and there is no cracked screen etc. SO FAR: Have tried all the various power / volume key combinations (included the stressful 2 minute hold). Left it on for 8 hour charge. Attempted to drop it in the same place and at the same speed to see if it could reverse the problem. SOLUTION: Happy to try anything really, been wanting to get inside this thing for a while now. Thanks for the help!
Remove the back case of the phone and check the battery cable for damage such as a tear or a poor connection to the motherboard. You can use the HTC one M8 guides on this site to help disassemble the phone. If no damage is present to the cable then try reseating the battery’s cable connection on the motherboard. The solid orange light is an indicator the battery is not communicating with the phone properly. This is why I say to check the battery’s flex cable and its connection to the logic board. Also look for any other damage to the mother board and daughter board and cables. Hope this may help you out. Best of luck. Updated answer: Glad to hear you have gotten it to turn on after reseating the cable. So it will turn on and then restart after about three minutes. Does it actually boot into the operating system or does it just hang during boot until it restarts again? Are you able to plug your charger in now and have a solid red LED charge light indicator or does it flash and is it still orange or is it red? Trying to figure out if the battery may have been slightly damaged or if their may be an issue elsewhere which is causing the phone to restart every 3 minutes or so. Have you tried any of the button combinations after you were able to get the phone to power up? Such as power button + down volume to enter the boot menu were you can perform a factory reset. As far as the digitizer, you may want to look over the cable for tears, as well as look at the connection on the motherboard with some magnification to make sure there are no damaged pins. If the digitizers connection looks good then try reseating the cable to see if this may help regain the touch function. I have supplied you with a picture of the motherboard with its connections marked to tell you what the connections are responsible for. I have never been able to locate any schematic diagrams to show me what parts tie in to the connections on the motherboard. I am just assuming especially on the two connections that connect the motherboard and daughterboard. This might help to give you an idea of what cables are responsible for some of the major components. Let me know if this helps or if you have any questions and hopefully I can help you out some more.
