My Trezor is broken!

[1GUARDIAN]

I had an unexpected situation last night. Suddenly my first Trezor, which I bought back in 2015, stopped working. When I tried to connect it to the USB connector, the screen started flashing and he stopped responding to button presses. I checked it after a couple of hours but everything is still - the screen is blinking and it doesn't work anymore.

To make matters worse, I used it as a second factor to access my gmail. In this regard, I had a question - if I buy a new Trezor and restore it using a seed-phrase, will the function allowing it to be used as a key for two-factor authentication also be restored? Or not ? Has anyone encountered such a situation? If so, please give an answer to this question. It is very important for me to know if I have a chance to recover it exactly as a two-factor authentication key.

[o_e_l_e_o]

if I buy a new Trezor and restore it using a seed-phrase, will the function allowing it to be used as a key for two-factor authentication also be restored?

Yes. The private keys used in the 2FA app are derived from the seed phrase the Trezor was set up with, and so recovering the seed phrase to another device will recover the 2FA app just as it would recover a bitcoin wallet.

You can see the relevant info on the Trezor wiki here:

Restoring a seed on another Trezor (see Recovery) restores all the U2F keys too, since they are derived from one master key. Due to the design of U2F, some services might implement a counter that records the number of sign-ins. However, if you have firmware version 1.4.2 or higher, the U2F counter is restored automatically.

[1GUARDIAN]

Yes. The private keys used in the 2FA app are derived from the seed phrase the Trezor was set up with, and so recovering the seed phrase to another device will recover the 2FA app just as it would recover a bitcoin wallet.

Thank you so much buddy. You calmed me down a lot. The fact is that some time ago I lost my mobile number and therefore I entered the mail almost always using my Trezor as a second factor. It remains to purchase a new Trezor and restore it. Thank you very much for the hint.

[o_e_l_e_o]

It remains to purchase a new Trezor and restore it.

I've been thinking some more about this - does anyone know if the U2F is compatible between different hardware wallets? You can restore the Trezor U2F to other Trezors, and you can restore the Ledger U2F to other Ledgers, but I've never tried to restore from one device to the other. Given that there are no open source third party tools you can use to restore your seed phrase to recover your U2F like you can do with bitcoin wallets, if you cannot restore to other devices that it puts you in a precarious situation of being entirely dependent on that one company. If that company goes bankrupt, or you are unable to obtain a replacement wallet from them for another reason, then you could find yourself locked out of your accounts.

If U2F is not cross-compatible, then there is a strong argument to made to always have a second device as a back up stored somewhere secure in the event of loss or failure of your first device.

[1GUARDIAN]

If U2F is not cross-compatible, then there is a strong argument to made to always have a second device as a back up stored somewhere secure in the event of loss or failure of your first device.

This is a very correct thought. And in fact, I was fighting back in 2015 to buy myself a spare Trezor. But for some reason i didn't.  And now i see that it's a rather stupidly. Now I will have to wait another week and a half until the new Trezor is delivered to me. All these weeks and a half, I will not have access to either the mail or the stock exchange. In conditions when there is now a strong growth in bitcoin, it was rather stupid to be left without a spare Trezor. But apparently this will be a lesson for me for the future.

[1GUARDIAN]

This is where HW security keys may come in handy. Two or even three instances of such  devices (hold exclusively for authorization purpose)  would be more cost effective   that the same quantity of Trezors. Besides  having less electronic components ( no display and relating biasing circuits) HW security key is more reliable and will last a longer time. I have created a dedicated thread for them. Keep reading if interested.

Yes I agree. The authentication key is a device specially designed for this purpose, which will probably last several times longer than my Trezor. Moreover, if you very often use Trezor for authentication purposes, then for sure it will become unusable much faster than if it was used only as a wallet.

[2chase]

I had an unexpected situation last night. Suddenly my first Trezor, which I bought back in 2015, stopped working. When I tried to connect it to the USB connector, the screen started flashing and he stopped responding to button presses. I checked it after a couple of hours but everything is still - the screen is blinking and it doesn't work anymore.

To make matters worse, I used it as a second factor to access my gmail. In this regard, I had a question - if I buy a new Trezor and restore it using a seed-phrase, will the function allowing it to be used as a key for two-factor authentication also be restored? Or not ? Has anyone encountered such a situation? If so, please give an answer to this question. It is very important for me to know if I have a chance to recover it exactly as a two-factor authentication key.

Perhaps not everything is as sad as it seems.

About six months ago I had a similar situation - when connected to a laptop, the screen blinked and it did not react at all to button presses. At first I was also very upset because I thought it was the end. But then I decided to try to replace the wire that connects the Trezor and the laptop, and what my surprise was when I connected the wire from my second Trezor and voila - it worked again as if nothing had happened. In my case, it was just that.

You also can try to do it. Chances are slim, but why not give it a try. Maybe it's not about the breakdown of the device.

[Chikito]

^ We have also watch carefully, Trezor has different wire/cable each other.

Trezor One uses USB B to micro USB cable and Trezor T uses USB B to USB C cable

if confused with each other, Trezor still won't work. (CMIIW)

[2chase]

^ We have also watch carefully, Trezor has different wire/cable each other.

Trezor One uses USB B to micro USB cable and Trezor T uses USB B to USB C cable

if confused with each other, Trezor still won't work. (CMIIW)

Yes, of course, I meant that the cable should be of the same type. This is a correct clarification. Thanks.

I have two identical trezors, which I bought at different times. And accordingly there were two identical cables. And thank God that in my case the cable problems turned out to be the reason for the inoperability of one of my trezors.

[BitMaxz]

~snip~

It happens to any device, not just Trezor so the USB cable might be the issue but since he bought Trezor last 2015 there is a possibility it's a hardware issue it could be the USB connector or shorted parts like capacitor or ICs.

Here's a sample of the Trezor board.



I just want to help 1GUARDIAN(And also others) if he doesn't want to buy new.

First thing, check the USB connector it might have full of dirt and rust to remove them use a brush and lacquer thinner(Or any rust cleaner, alcohol, or fluid) then test it again.

If not, you must disassemble the Trezor as shown in the image above then do this clean the ICs with brush and thinner make sure LCD is far and protected.

If it still doesn't work it might have some shorted capacitor or maybe one of the IC pins has lost contact with the board so you might need to resolder the pins to fix the issue.

[Husna QA]

-snip-
First thing, check the USB connector it might have full of dirt and rust to remove them use a brush and lacquer thinner(Or any rust cleaner, alcohol, or fluid) then test it again.

If not, you must disassemble the Trezor as shown in the image above then do this clean the ICs with brush and thinner make sure LCD is far and protected.

If it still doesn't work it might have some shorted capacitor or maybe one of the IC pins has lost contact with the board so you might need to resolder the pins to fix the issue.

Most people can probably still do the first and second tips. But for the third tip, special skills are needed, including knowing which part is the source of the problem, is it enough to re-solder it, or even have to replace the damaged spare part.

[Rath_]

Trezor One uses USB B to micro USB cable and Trezor T uses USB B to USB C cable

if confused with each other, Trezor still won't work. (CMIIW)

There is clearly an error here and on the Trezor website. Both devices are shipped with USB type A connector on one end. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to plug in USB-C into micro-USB port and vice-versa, so I don't think it's necessary to mention.

[Csmiami]

There is clearly an error here and on the Trezor website. Both devices are shipped with USB type A connector on one end. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to plug in USB-C into micro-USB port and vice-versa, so I don't think it's necessary to mention.

As someone who has seen a person try to plug an USB into a RJ-45 port, I must tell you that it is most likely worth mentioning

[Chikito]

There is clearly an error here and on the Trezor website. Both devices are shipped with USB type A connector on one end. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to plug in USB-C into micro-USB port and vice-versa, so I don't think it's necessary to mention.

Yes, that is clear enough for me.

First thing, check the USB connector it might have full of dirt and rust to remove them use a brush and lacquer thinner(Or any rust cleaner, alcohol, or fluid) then test it again.

maybe frequently Trezor user must have PortPlugs to cover USB port form dust.


Image source: https://www.portplugs.com/

there are a lot of people sell any type of these rubber PortPlugs on Amazon and eBay

[Husna QA]

^ We have also watch carefully, Trezor has different wire/cable each other.-snip-

I just found out that the Trezor One and Trezor T use different types of USB ports.
As Rath_ mentioned earlier, of course, USB-C can't plug into a micro-USB port and vice versa.

I don't know if 1GUARDIAN has tried to replace the Trezor USB cable with another one or not. Maybe there is a problem with the USB cable.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TREZOR/comments/6q2s26/problem_with_usb_cable_trezor/

[1GUARDIAN]

I don't know if 1GUARDIAN has tried to replace the Trezor USB cable with another one or not. Maybe there is a problem with the USB cable.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TREZOR/comments/6q2s26/problem_with_usb_cable_trezor/

Hi guys! Many thanks to all of you for the many useful tips !!! 

The last three days have been quite interesting. When I read that the problem could be with this cable, I remembered that somewhere I should have a similar cable. I decided to dig in my old things in the garage and found a suitable (as it seemed to me) cable. Its connectors fit both the Trezor and the MacBook. Perhaps it was a cable from an USB-flashlight for a bicycle - I can't say for sure. Then i came home with some hope, replaced it and tried to connect it to https://wallet.trezor.io.

The only difference this time was that the Trezor screen stopped blinking white and a standard inscription appeared on the screen. But unfortunately the functions still not worked. Then I decided that he was really broken. 



But when I read this article on Reddit today - https://www.reddit.com/r/TREZOR/comments/6q2s26/problem_with_usb_cable_trezor/ I realized that maybe it was the wrong cable that I needed.

Later I went and bought a cable that supports data transfer. And what was my amazement when it started working! Everything turned out to be so simple and the problem was solved in one minute. The new cable solved it! 



Many thanks to everyone who participated in the correspondence

@o_e_l_e_o
@ Captain-Cryptory
@ 2chase
@DroomieChikito
@BitMaxz
@Husna QA
@Rath_
@Csmiami
@DroomieChikito

Special thanks to @ 2chase and @Husna QA !

@Husna QA - your last tip turned out to be the cherry on the cake !

In a couple of days my new Trezor will be delivered, which I ordered as soon as I had problems with it.

Interesting - Satoshi Labs still complete its devices with cables of questionable quality or not. We'll see soon.This time I ordered the Trezor-T, at least it looks a little more solid than the old version of the Trezor One.

Once again, many thanks to everyone for your help ! 

The solution to the problem turned out to be very simple! But without your help and tips, I definitely would not have done it!

[o_e_l_e_o]

Glad you got it fixed so easily. As a nice side effect of this issue, you now have a spare Trezor to use as a backup in case your primary one ever does actually break, which will be particularly useful since you use it as a password manager and 2FA key as well.

Interesting - Satoshi Labs still complete its devices with cables of questionable quality or not.

Both Ledger and Trezor overprice their cables anyway. $7 for a single cable from Trezor, and $20 for a pack of three from Ledger. You can get these cables for $2-3 at Walmart, Amazon, etc. As you've discovered, there is nothing special about the cable - any data USB cable with the right connections will work.

[2chase]

Special thanks to @ 2chase and @Husna QA !

Man, I'm really glad you followed the advice   As you can see, everything is fine with your device. It's just about the cable. And I'm sure your Trezor will last for a long time. Now you know what the problem might be. Have a nice day ! I was glad to help you !

[IIIIIIIII#VIP#IIIIIIIII]

As for the fact that first versions of Trezors (Trezor One) have a very low quality cables, this is a rather old story and many already know about it firsthand.

I had a similar problem - after two years of operation, I noticed that my Trezor starts working intermittently - the contact was regularly disconnected, and in order to make it work normally without the need to constantly correct his position, I was forced to used the electrical tape. I wound it tightly in the place where device was connected to the cable and for about a year my trezor has been working properly.

It not seem so aesthetic, but perhaps for some this method will also be useful.

[Pmalek]

@IIIIIIIII#VIP#IIIIIIIII
No offence, but where do you keep your Trezor wallet? It seems to be in an awful condition. It is all worn out. Like if you just took it out of a swamp. Is it the low quality picture or is it really messed up?