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Root The Charge is a nightmare

YankeeDudeL

YankeeDudeL

Android Expert
Excuse me while the normally very composed, and experienced root user steps away from the computer to make room for the angry guy.

Everything about this process is ****ed. Seriously, this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I've rooted 5 diff Android devices now, and this is by far the most terrible one to deal with. Hell, the Bionic is a breeze to work with and that has a locked bootloader.

It's taken me hours to just get the thing rooted. Now, all I want to do is flash a ROM. That's it, not rocket science. I put Clockwork on, there's something I'm familiar with. What, the SD card is write-protected? Oh, just DL the patch. Noooo, the SD card is write-protected, you can't move ANYTHING to it. Well just flash a custom ROM in Odin. Ok. Make sure you unzip it. Alright. Oh wait, yeah Winrar isn't going to work, you need 7zip. Whatev. Oh, it just breaks the file into lil folders. Am I supposed to choose one of these in Odin? Wait, they're all empty anyway. I mean what the flying freak?

The only reason I'm rooting this thing is because this POS phone decided to completely crap out and totally not work. And you have to jump through hoops just to get this thing fixed?

I'm just venting, I gotta be at work in 5 hours, I have to get this phone to my g/f in some working order before that, and I've gotten next to no sleep all weekend.

How the freak do I flash a freaking ROM?
 
If you plan on dumping it off on your Girlfriend then you don't really need to do anything special with it. Just get the latest GB leak and go from there.

Disclaimer: If you break your phone it's not my responsibility. It is possible to brick your device by messing around with flashing ROMs. That said, it's a fairly simple process and you can really only screw it up if you don't follow the instructions clearly.

Ok now that that is out of the way, check this Thread: EP4P - Official Gingerbread Build

Download the version of the ROM you want. I chose the Bloated, Deodexed, Rooted version because there are some apps I wanted to keep. Once I got it up and running I used Titanium Backup to uninstall all of the crap apps I didn't want.

Extract the ROM zip file, winrar worked for me, to wherever you want it. I made a folder on my desktop for everything.

Download Odin, also linked in that thread.

Plug your phone into a -back- USB port on your computer. Directly into the rear I/O panel on your motherboard. For some reason USB extensions such as front panel ports and USB dongles don't work. Don't ask me why, but they just don't.

If you're running a current version of Windows then Windows update will automagically install the Samsung Drivers. If not, then you can also DL the Samsung drivers from that thread.

Boot your phone into Download mode. Once it is totally powered off hold the Volume Down button and press and hold the Power button for 1 second. Release the power button but continue holding the volume down button. If you did it correctly you'll boot into a screen with a yellow and black image of the Android dude shoveling some crap.

Launch Odin and if you have a yellow box in the top left then you know that Odin is detecting your phone.

::THIS IS IMPORTANT::

The -ONLY- boxes you want checked on Odin are F.Reset Time, Auto Reboot and PDA. Nothing else.

Click the PDA button and you'll be asked to select a file. Select the extracted ROM file that you want and then double and triple check that your options are set correctly.

Are you sure they are set correctly?

OK.

Press start. Wait approximately 8 minutes. Tada!

The phone will reboot. You can now unplug the cord and enjoy your vastly improved Droid Charge.
 
actually for download mode, just remove the battery.

Hold vol-down.

Plug it into the usb cable.

Your screen will light up with the yellow/black android . Remove LTE card (just a precaution!), put battery back in, and proceed with odin instructions.
 
Thanks guys. I really just needed to vent at that moment. It was getting late, I had to wake up early, and I knew I wouldn't have a whole lot of time if any to work on it the following week. Considering the only reason I got the green light to root it was because the phone has pretty much stopped working. I don't know why I've had so many issues with the Charge, I've never had a problem trying to flash a ROM before. I did manage to get it rooted.

I don't think I'd have an issue if I was able to transfer files to and from the SD card, but I keep getting a write-protected error message every time. I've Googled how to fix it, and so far I haven't come across a solution. It's the only phone that I'm having this issue with.
 
YankeeDudeL said:
Thanks guys. I really just needed to vent at that moment. It was getting late, I had to wake up early, and I knew I wouldn't have a whole lot of time if any to work on it the following week. Considering the only reason I got the green light to root it was because the phone has pretty much stopped working. I don't know why I've had so many issues with the Charge, I've never had a problem trying to flash a ROM before. I did manage to get it rooted.

I don't think I'd have an issue if I was able to transfer files to and from the SD card, but I keep getting a write-protected error message every time. I've Googled how to fix it, and so far I haven't come across a solution. It's the only phone that I'm having this issue with.
Click to expand...

If you "rooted" you did an old method if this is the case, and now need a patch on the SD card.

Most new roms that are using odin don't have this problem... EE4 rom by chance?

Also love the comparisons of our awesome screen with the new razr that are coming up lately :) :)
 
Ok, I think I'm on even ground now. I found an SD patch on XDA, and it transferred to my SD. I don't know if there was just something screwy going on that night, or if there's something with that file that allowed it to transfer over, but regardless, I'm happy. Was able to boot into recovery and flashed Gummy Charged 2.0.

The good news is it seems to have fixed every issue I was having with this thing. The bad news is that it doesn't seem stable. There's a lot of nuances with the Charge that I'm still getting used to, so I think I'm going to have to scour the forums and catch up. Thanks for tolerating me. lol
 
YankeeDudeL said:
Ok, I think I'm on even ground now. I found an SD patch on XDA, and it transferred to my SD. I don't know if there was just something screwy going on that night, or if there's something with that file that allowed it to transfer over, but regardless, I'm happy. Was able to boot into recovery and flashed Gummy Charged 2.0.

The good news is it seems to have fixed every issue I was having with this thing. The bad news is that it doesn't seem stable. There's a lot of nuances with the Charge that I'm still getting used to, so I think I'm going to have to scour the forums and catch up. Thanks for tolerating me. lol
Click to expand...


Maybe this will help make it easier... 25000 other people thought it did.

Vids:
root (old method)
Gummy 1.9 (no vid but same as root and loads everything you need for 2.0)
Gummy 2.0 to 2.1 patch over gingerbread via CWM
GummyComb Theme (no vid)

All this equal the ultimate Charge which has been stable for about a month with 2 battery pulls and nothing else to report.

Here are the vids I made:
kraisydave's Channel - YouTube

Let me know if you need any help. You have lots of experience with other phones. This one can be easy also.

Dave

Twitter
@kraisydave

Everyone deserves to get the most out of their phone!
 
lol, i didn't have any issues with rooting either? I didn't get any of those errors... i've rooted photon/evo 3d/evo 4g...

you should get some rest, you're prolly just tired and doing it wrong. >_<
 
Hi all, i am planing to remove the Samsung Droid Charge mother board and replace it with some other Mother-board which can work on other networks.Any suggestions???? can anybody suggest which Mother-board fits in Samsund Droid Charge i510

Regards
 
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