Sahara error while sending programmer to bricked phone

Question

I flashed a bad aboot partition on my Idol 3 and I'm now stuck on a black screen. Plugging my phone in gives me a "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008" on COM11 (rather than the usual COM7 in EDL). I have a backup of the old aboot, but when I try to flash with QFIL, I get the following error:

Download Fail:System.Exception: Unable to download Flash Programmer using Sahara Protocol

   at QC.QMSLPhone.Phone.QPHONEMS_SaharaArmPrgDownload(String sFileName)

   at QC.SwDownloadDLL.SwDownload.QPHONEMSSaharaDownloadArmPrg(UInt64& version, String armPrgPath)
Download Fail:Sahara FailSahara Fail

Using the official Mobile Upgrader Q tool from Alcatel, I get a "read terminal information failed" error message, and the Panasonic Download Tool (which also used to work with Idol 3) gives me "Load NPRG Error. (Error code = 5002)"

What's going on? Why can none of these tools send the programmer?

Edit: A more recent version of QFIL (version 2.7.460) gives a much more detailed error message (SAHARA_NAK_MEMORY_DEBUG_NOT_SUPPORTED): https://pastebin.com/K0FN6nG6

Answer 1

You need the correct programmer to hard unbrick your devices.

Originally Posted by petrov.0 

Your warranty is void. I'm not responsible if your device is hard bricked by using the procedure below. The method described below has been tested on 6039Y, 6039S, 6039H (with the archives for 6039Y) and 6039K (with the 6039S archive) and is confirmed that it works.  What to expect on successful completion:  - you will have access to the fastboot commands (removed by the latest upgrade).  - you should be able to check for OTA updates and to download them, but you will not be able to install them. 

What's needed: 

1. I hate when I must say this ... but ... a Windows PC. 
2. QPST version 2.7.422 (you can find it on the net as 2.7 build 422). This is a link to one such version (found through Google). If there are problems with this link please let me know. I will try to find another one (you can do it yourself too). 
3. Drivers in order the device to be recognized when is in Download mode. Install Mobile Upgrade Q 4.8.7 the necessary drivers are installed with it. It can be downloaded from here. 
4. The files from the archives below. Please use the archive which is especially for your device ... in theory if you use the archive for different device (e.g. the archive for 6039S on 6039Y (with the standard partitions)) you should have a repartitioned device at the end, and only the resize2fs command should be enough to start to utilize the whole memory chip ... but you will loose the possibility to sweat a little bit when do the repartitioning by following the guide for it .  - 6039Y (8GB stock partition sizes) (md5sum: 860789bedb63da5c5976c24825c29d47) - 6039Y (repartitioned by following the repartitioning guide) (md5sum: c2f8ff3cfc683e46fbf5d797103de71b) - 6039S (md5sum: dfd04067230b5709729c70cac61ffd52)

How to proceed: 

1. Install all the necessary software.
2. Unpack the downloaded archive for your device. 
3. Power off the device. Connect it with the USB cable to the PC. Wait the battery symbol to disappear and hold both volume keys and the power button. You should see a red screen with a warning sign and a scheme. Then hold the volume up button. The display will stay lit but nothing will be shown on it from now on until the end of the procedure. 
4. When the device is in Download mode under the windows device manager -> Ports (COM & LPT) you should see Android HS-USB QDLoader 9008 (COMXX) 
5. Open the windows explorer and find the installation folder of QPST (mine is under Program Files (x86)\Qualcomm\QPST). From the bin sub-directory start QFIL as administrator. 
6. In QFIL the COM port number as seen under the windows device manager should be selected automatically. 
7. The rest must be done from QFIL:
   • Programmer path: _____ - Click on the Browse button against it and from the extracted archive select prog_emmc_firehose_8916.mbn 
   • Search Path: _____ - if the path is not selected automatically after the programmer selection click on the Browse button against it and select the folder where the archive has been extracted.
   • Load XML - click on it and first select rawprogram0.xml from the archive, then the patch0.xml file.
   • Click on the Download button. The process should finish quickly (few seconds ... up to a minute). If everything is OK the phone will be restarted automatically and the fastboot commands will be available again.

Please see the original post for downloading files