My 1+ year old Zenfone 8 (16gb/256g) wifi won't turn on anymore

[Bbbang]

I bought the phone March last year and it was the best phone I ever had (since I don't usually spend allot on them). Over the course of course there were bumps and wears throughout but nothing serious. Just months ago I started to notice it restarts a few number of times while the mobile hotspot was on. I initially just thought that it was just due to the temp of the phone plus the weather. Then one time it did the restart again and once it booted I can't turn on the WIFI anymore even with multiple restarts. So now I only use mobile data.

As being a developer and former android developer for sometime I did try to research and there were a couple of similar issues to this and also tried to check for system updates regularly. There were ones doing a downgrade to A12 (which mine is A13 atm and at the time the issue came up). I didn't come far to flashing the MOD nor downgrading. Because there were (probably 2 instances) when I just randomly restarted it and then "magically" the WIFI comes back to life. Then once it came back I instantly checked for a system update and it did have a minor update but when it restarted "poof" WIFI's dead again.

I encountered this "magic" WIFI coming back to life once more while just randomly restarting then one time while outside (I was using mobile data and hotspot) it did the force restart again and then the WIFI doesn't turn on up to this point.

It's really frustrating and disappointing that what I thought would be a solid phone that would last maybe just a couple more months or another year perhaps would just turn into a uncapable phone that only has mobile data internet.

I ran out of luck restarting it hoping it comes back again and also trying out the tips from XDA (still except from flashing and downgrading - which I find to be tedious and frustrating work if it still doesn't work).

Here's the logcat logs I got when turning on/off the WIFI switch (which doesn't do a thing anymore).

09-05 20:28:36.912 1421 2345 E HalDevMgr: Cannot start IWifi: 9 ()
09-05 20:28:36.912 1421 2345 E WifiVendorHal: Failed to start vendor HAL
09-05 20:28:36.912 1421 2345 E WifiNative: Failed to start vendor HAL
09-05 20:28:36.913 1421 2345 E WifiNative: Failed to start Hal
09-05 20:28:36.913 1421 2345 E WifiClientModeManager[unknown]: Failed to create ClientInterface. Sit in Idle
09-05 20:28:36.913 1421 2345 E WifiActiveModeWarden: ClientModeManager start failed!ConcreteClientModeManager{id=1112115 iface=null role=null}
09-05 20:28:36.916 1421 2345 E WifiActiveModeWarden: One of the native daemons died. Triggering recovery
09-05 20:28:36.916 1421 2345 E WifiSelfRecovery: Triggering recovery for reason: WifiNative Failure
09-05 20:28:36.916 1421 2345 E WifiSelfRecovery: Already restarted wifi 2 times in last 1 hour. Disabling wifi
09-05 20:28:36.916 1421 2345 E HalDevMgr: IWifiEventCallback.onFailure: 9 ()
09-05 20:28:36.919 1421 2345 E WifiActiveModeWarden: One of the native daemons died. Triggering recovery
09-05 20:28:36.920 1421 2345 E WifiSelfRecovery: Triggering recovery for reason: WifiNative Failure

[Falcon_ASUS]

@Bbbang 
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Please check the top right corner and kindly share the serial number and details requested in the PM inbox.
Thank you.

[nasch007]

Do like the moderator says. You'll end up opening an RMA. Mine died like a month or two out of warranty. After calling in they sent me a shipping label and ... well... that was 8/19 that I sent it in. I also tried to fix it myself beforehand. So I'm here without  my Zenfone since August 3, 2023.

The support person (Ricardo1) has been communicative at least... I mean he answered all the questions I've asked. Keep in mind that doesn't mean I like the answers, but at least he's fielded the questions. Bear in mind you will probably have to wait extra long for parts (that's what my RMA status says)... no mention of payment of any kind so far (phone call got them to waive diagnostic fee) so it seems to me that they know the problem and are prepared to address it. I'm glad because they've been getting a lot of negative press lately from tech folks like Jayz and GamersNexus. 

So they're swapping my motherboard which is what I assume they'll do to yours. It's a shame I'm permanently locked out of my google account now but at least I'll get my phone back with a new motherboard. Although they wouldn't say they knew what caused the failure or that it won't happen again. Oh well. I'm thinking if this phone dies once it returns, I'll probably get a fairphone or nothing phone... if Asus doesn't stand behind their products after they've fixed them, that'll be a bad sign.

Keep the hope up and maybe you'll get lucky and it won't require you to send your unit in.

[Bbbang]

Hi @nasch007 thanks for feedback! Appreciate it. I'll definitely bring mine in this week. Just couldn't find the time. And also I'm worried that it'll be costly :'(

I hope you're still active once I brought it in @Falcon_ASUS. 

[nasch007]

Approach with caution... I've made several inquiries in the past week and nothing's updated and they haven't gotten back to me within 48hrs... the last communication I had said "the parts needed to repair your unit are scheduled to arrive on 09/08/2023. Once the parts are received, the repair center will resume the repair process and it will take an additional 2-3 business days. Please click here to check the status any time by entering RMA#   or SN#"... even giving two or three business days it's been more than double that with no further update. Are they that hard to fix or obtain parts by the company that makes the device?? Weird.

On the plus side....... maybe by the time I do get it returned, they will have finished optimizing the experience of the unlocker app. Maybe.