(SOLVED) Zenfone 2 ZE551ML Hard Bricked

FireCharge · February 25, 2017

Hey guys!
Hard-bricked my Z00AD, I'm able to get to bootloader using xFSTK but AFT flashing fails over and over.
Tried flashing with a couple raw images I found, waited an hour for one to complete and got nothing, then waited 7 hours for the other, still no go. currently have it running with a 2.20.40.139 image that I downloaded from this guy's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BboYFzgg7Jo
Also searched the forum a bit and found a couple more images that I'm currently downloading (2.15.40.13 and 2.20.40.196, gonna try to revert to android L with the first one, maybe it'll work)

It just gets stuck at the "Flash image" stage with "RESULT: OKAY" on my device.
Tried flashing manually with a later firmware after supposedly cleaning the partitions (I.E. sideloading via fastboot to flash splashscreen, droidboot, boot, recovery and system of the latest firmware) and nothing happened.
ATM Also downloading the 2.20.40.139 zip firmware to try and manually flash the same firmware on the device.

Any suggestions?
Thanks!

EDIT:

Asked over at XDA and was told to quit AFT while it was flashing (after "result: okay" shows up) and open it again, then press vol up to reset bootloader on the phone to change the serial. Though a problem appears again: Serial on the phone has changed but now my computer doesn't recognize my phone at all - neither on AFT nor when checking fastboot devices via adb.

EDIT:

SOLVED

If you have the same issue - everything works until you flash once, afterwards your PC doesn't recognize the phone.

First try to do everything on a different computer, if the same happens do the following:

1. Run xFSTK to get to bootloader.

2. Flash once with AFT.

3. Force exit from AFT

4. Connect the phone to another computer with AFT installed and the RAW image file

5. Should now recognize the phone (don't exit from bootloader) and allow you to flash the image.