What Is Bricking?

Date First Published: 18th February 2024

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Hardware

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 5/10

CONTENTS

Causes Of Bricking
Types Of Bricking
Example Of An iFrame

Learn more about what bricking is in this article.

Bricking happens when an electronic device loses its functionality, making it unusable. This term comes from the fact that the electronic device is as useful as a brick. The higher the level of an update, the higher the chances of it bricking a device. For example, a firmware update is at higher risk than an operating system update. An application update is less likely to brick a device than an operating system update.

Causes Of Bricking

Bricking can be caused by:

Hardware issues that cause physical damage. For example, if a device is dropped or liquids are spilt on it, it may become bricked and no longer work.
An invalid firmware update or an update that does not finish successfully. To avoid incomplete updates, most firmware and operating system updates will not run unless the device is plugged into a power source.
Viruses and malware - Some can brick a device and cause it to not work at all.

Types Of Bricking

There are two types of bricking. These include:

Hard bricking - The device shows little to no signs of life. The screen may not turn on at all and the power button may not light up. These are harder to fix than soft bricks and may require special recovery tools available from the device manufacturer.
Soft bricking - The device is capable of turning on and functions enough to display an error, but does not do anything else. For example, on startup, the device may display an error message that indicates that the operating system is unable to load.

Ways To Fix A Bricked Device

Ways to fix a bricked device are:

Activating recovery mode - Sometimes a device may appear to be bricked after an invalid update, such as an attempt to jailbreak an iPhone, but it can actually be recovered easily. For example, a bricked iOS device may display a screen instructing the user to plug it into a computer to perform an operating system recovery using iTunes.
Performing a factory reset - Smaller electronics may have a button or switch that restores the device to factory settings, which can resolve a lot of issues.
Manually repairing it - If it is a hardware issue, you can try fixing the problem yourself and replacing the broken or faulty hardware.
Bringing it to a repair shop - If your device is hard-bricked and you cannot fix the problem yourself, you may want to bring it to a repair shop. They might be able to fix the problem. If you can't afford it, then it is best to completely replace the device.