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Root Infamous Evo Bootloop - A New Incarnation

batvans46

Newbie
So about 8 months ago my dad's Evo started having random boot loop issues, and he shelved it cause its a work phone and he just bought a Moto Photon. Anyways, it came off the shelf today so my mom can move to Sprint from Verizon.

I've done a ton of these "infamous boot loops" for friends and family. Usually a quick RUU jobbie does the trick. Sometimes I come across one that boot loops for a few mins every day, but works most of the time. On those I usually get to root it and show off the world of custom roms to the victim :D From what my dad described was going on when he shelved it, that latter scenario is what I thought I was dealing with. His Evo had never been modded in any way, not even a custom launcher. No root. Bone stock. Easy job.

I was wrong.

I can get into the bootloader no problem. Fastboot is functional. S-on, but I can easily htcdev unlock and relock it. I've done that about two dozen times today. NO RECOVERY. And I mean none. I boot into recovery, get the white htc screen, then blackness, followed shortly by the staccato "d-d" sound of a usb device that is no longer connected but wasnt removed... you know the sound.

I've been working on it 12 straight hours now, running around in circles. I've tried everything I can think of, and everything I can find on the web. This one has me stumped. After messing with every Android device that I can get my hands on (most of my friends and family have custom roms cause I bugged them till they let me do it) and personally having owned and modded a G1, DInc, Inspire, Eris, Triumph and Evo3d, I thought I knew how to handle most soft bricks.

Instead of trying to tell you what I've tried (trust me, I've tried everything except that one thing that will fix it), it's probably best that I just think like a noob and start from the top.

Any suggestions are appreciated. This might end up being my white whale.

Some specifics (as of right now):

*** UNLOCKED ***
SUPERSONIC EVT2-3 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-2.18.0001
MICROP-041f
TOUCH PANEL-ATMEL224_16ab
RADIO-2.15.00.12.19
Dec 21 2011, 12:50:32

At this point I can't really focus on what parts of the last 12 hours are relevant, ask me for any specific information and I will give more details.


{Additional information will be added here as it is requested and answered}
-correct ruu for this phone is the 4.67.651.3 one (full ruu name i used RUU_SuperSonic_GB_Sprint_WWE_4.67.651.3_Radio_2.15.00.12.19_NV_2.33_release_234563_signed)
-have done 99% of this using a 16gb sd card.
 
For your enjoyment, a screenshot of my dual-monitor desktop at the time of this writing...thats the cleanest its been in the last 4 hours...
Untitled.png
 
Are you sure the Android version is 4.67xxx? and not 5.07.xxx?
There is no ruu for the 5.07.xx version and probably will never be one:(
I believe in fastboot you can type:
"fastboot getvar all" (without the quotes) to see what version the device is on.
 
*** UNLOCKED ***
SUPERSONIC EVT2-3 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-2.18.0001
MICROP-041f
TOUCH PANEL-ATMEL224_16ab
RADIO-2.15.00.12.19
Dec 21 2011, 12:50:32

At this point I can't really focus on what parts of the last 12 hours are relevant, ask me for any specific information and I will give more details.


{Additional information will be added here as it is requested and answered}
-correct ruu for this phone is the 4.67.651.3 one (full ruu name i used RUU_SuperSonic_GB_Sprint_WWE_4.67.651.3_Radio_2.15.00.12.19_NV_2.33_release_234563_signed)
-have done 99% of this using a 16gb sd card
.

Are you sure the Android version is 4.67xxx? and not 5.07.xxx?
There is no ruu for the 5.07.xx version and probably will never be one:(
I believe in fastboot you can type:
"fastboot getvar all" (without the quotes) to see what version the device is on.
welcome to the forums!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah he has tried the correct ruu as it matches his radio. have you tried the PC36IMG version?

if you are going to try the ruu's though i would relock the bootloader and try them.

what happens when you run the ruu.exe?
 
welcome to the forums!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah he has tried the correct ruu as it matches his radio. have you tried the PC36IMG version?

if you are going to try the ruu's though i would relock the bootloader and try them.

what happens when you run the ruu.exe?

I concur, but if the radio is the same on software version 4.67.651.3 as it is on 5.07.651.1 or even the latest 5.07.651.6, the ruu he lists for 4.67.651.3 wont work if he is on 5.07.651.1 or later?

His Evo was on the shelf for 8 months. 5.07.651.1 came out in May, 2012.
Perhaps his dad did the update before he started running into issues.
Perhaps not. But we don't know that if he is bootlooping.

Am I on the right track here or am I smokin' somthing? :p
 
I concur, but if the radio is the same on software version 4.67.651.3 as it is on 5.07.651.1 or even the latest 5.07.651.6, the ruu he lists for 4.67.651.3 wont work if he is on 5.07.651.1 or later?

His Evo was on the shelf for 8 months. 5.07.651.1 came out in May, 2012.
Perhaps his dad did the update before he started running into issues.
Perhaps not. But we don't know that if he is bootlooping.

Am I on the right track here or am I smokin' somthing? :p

If I'm thinking right, he would need to be s off to run the 4.67 ruu if in fact he has the most up to date 5.07

Can't go backwards without being s off :)
 
I'm not sure at this point being s off or s on is relevant tho.
I think as Ocn suggests, he needs to relock the bootloader to run the .exe ruu.
I gotta think about this one. :D
 
I'm not sure at this point being s off or s on is relevant tho.
I think as Ocn suggests, he needs to relock the bootloader to run the .exe ruu.
I gotta think about this one. :D

And this is why I should read the entire thread and not just a single post :facepalm:

Another alternative I've found that was easier on my 3d at least, locating the ruu zip and renaming it and placing on root of sd card and.booting into boot loader.
 
I concur, but if the radio is the same on software version 4.67.651.3 as it is on 5.07.651.1 or even the latest 5.07.651.6, the ruu he lists for 4.67.651.3 wont work if he is on 5.07.651.1 or later?

His Evo was on the shelf for 8 months. 5.07.651.1 came out in May, 2012.
Perhaps his dad did the update before he started running into issues.
Perhaps not. But we don't know that if he is bootlooping.

Am I on the right track here or am I smokin' somthing? :p

software version does not matter as much depending on what rom the phone is currently on. the latest ota had a radio change which we do not have a ruu for.

but the 4.67 with the same radio should be fine.

If I'm thinking right, he would need to be s off to run the 4.67 ruu if in fact he has the most up to date 5.07

Can't go backwards without being s off :)
no you can run ruu with s-on but the bootloader needs to be locked.
 
Are you sure the Android version is 4.67xxx? and not 5.07.xxx .... "fastboot getvar all"....

yup.

Oversion: 0.5
Oversion-bootloader: 2.18.0001
Oversion-baseband: 2.15.00.12.19
Oversion-cpld: None
Oversion-microp: 041f
Oversion-main: 4.67.651.3
Oserialno: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Oimei: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oproduct: supersonic
Oplatform: HBOOT-8x50
Omodelid: PC3610000
Ocidnum: SPCS_001
Obattery-status: good
Obattery-voltage: 4154mV
Opartition-layout: Generic
Osecurity: on
Obuild-mode: SHIP
Oboot-mode: FASTBOOT
Ocommitno-bootloader: 4b46e889
Ohbootpreupdate: 11
Ogencheckpt: 0

[Revised] Rooting Gingerbread 2.3.5 Dummies Guide - Android Forums

[Revised] Rooting Gingerbread 2.3.5 Dummies Guide use the ADB method instructions from this guide

havent been able to get adb devices to show the phone. might have something to do with usb debugging never being turned on?

welcome to the forums!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah he has tried the correct ruu as it matches his radio. have you tried the PC36IMG version?

if you are going to try the ruu's though i would relock the bootloader and try them.

what happens when you run the ruu.exe?

have tried running ruu.exe with re-locked bootloader. apparently the commands it issues to reboot the phone into the bootloader fail, ill do it again and document what happens.

Another alternative I've found that was easier on my 3d at least, locating the ruu zip and renaming it and placing on root of sd card and.booting into boot loader.

rename rom.zip > PC36IMG.zip, onto sd root
boot into bootloader, let it see and load the zip, finished fine, try going into recovery, same white htcEVO4G screen and d-d-d sound.
 
typing this out as i go through the process so i dont miss anything.

Re-lock and RUU.exe process:

[HIGH]C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot oem lock
... INFOLock successfully...
FAILED (status read failed (Too many links))
finished. total time: 0.096s[/HIGH]

So right after the oem lock command, the phone goes dark, then white htcEVO4g screen, then dark again. looks like its off, but no charging light, and when i unplug it from the computer i get the ba-dum disconnected sound. have to do a battery pull to get it to respond again.

back into hboot, we see ***relocked*** like we should, go to fastboot, i start the ruu.exe up. now we're in the ruu, click next, next, verifying information... it sees it, image version 4.67.651.3, update to that same version, next, next.

checking.... waiting for bootloader... phone screen goes dark, a few seconds later d-d-d sound. quickly pull plug, battery pull, boot to hboot and get black htc screen, plug back in. ruu starts back up like nothing happened...
sending...
updating signature...
checking hboot
updating radio (got the green bar on the black htc screen, goin good...)
updating boot
updating recovery
updating system
updating user data (noticed little triangle with ! appeared at end of green bar on phone, when did that get there?)

well the ruu finished, congratulations! yaddayaddayadda... phone goes dark and d-d-d sound. before unplug and batt pull, since i know the phone is not actually off (every time this happens i get usb sounds and no charging light) i double check via cmd to see if the computer sees it

[HIGH]C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot devices

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>adb kill-server

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>adb start-server
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>adb devices
List of devices attached


C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>[/HIGH]

nothing. unplug (usb disconnected sound) and battery pull. back in fastboot now, only things that changed are batt voltage and this:

[HIGH]gencheckpt: 1[/HIGH]

it was 0 on the last getvar.

hop back to bootloader, try recovery, htcEVO4g screen and usb disconnect sound, then black screen and d-d-d sound. battery pull, try to boot os, htcEVO screen loops a couple times, then black.
 
Something I'm kicking myself for not doing is running a getvar before i started in on the phone. My dad said he didnt remember accepting the latest OTA, so I went ahead and flashed the 4.67 zip that I already had. Now, if he was on 5.07.651.1, for instance, and I manually flashed the the 4.67 zip, that would make the getvar show up like 4.67 right? when in reality it would have needed the 5.07xxx files.

theres no way to even try using those files, they dont exist for us huh? no PC36IMG or nuthin?
 
One other thing, when my dad first handed the Evo off to me, we managed to get it into the recovery screen then. The buttons didnt do anything then it just shut off. I thought it might be an issue with the recovery being corrupted, so thats when I first flashed the 4.67 zip. Im starting to think that the battery was just dead...
 
havent been able to get adb devices to show the phone. might have something to do with usb debugging never being turned on?

nope. you cant get a response from adb devices becasue youre in fastboot. adb is only useable in the booted OS,and in most custom recoveries. not seeing it with a stock,non-booting phone is perfectly normal :)

have tried running ruu.exe with re-locked bootloader. apparently the commands it issues to reboot the phone into the bootloader fail, ill do it again and document what happens.

typically the RUU will run if you start it with the phone in fasboot,or in RUU mode. you can get to RUU mode with: fastboot oem rebootRUU if the ruu does not work,and you become trapped in RUU mode, fastboot reboot-bootloader should get you back out.

rename rom.zip > PC36IMG.zip, onto sd root
boot into bootloader, let it see and load the zip, finished fine, try going into recovery, same white htcEVO4G screen and d-d-d sound.

i personally run RUUs a third way: flash via fastboot. i run them alot,and i dont have the patience to move them on and off the sd card ;)

-relock bootloader
-put "rom.zip" into your adb/fastboot folder
-put phone in fastboot,open cmd window and:
fastboot devices
fastboot erase cache
fastboot oem rebootRUU
fastboot flash zip rom.zip (assuming you didnt change the name)

*wait patiently for it to finish

fastboot reboot

doing it this way may show a failure or error that the sd card method,or the .exe method do not.

updating user data (noticed little triangle with ! appeared at end of green bar on phone, when did that get there?)

saaaaaay whaaaaaa?? :eek: thats one ive never seen or heard of. sort of suggests there was an error of some sort along the way

Something I'm kicking myself for not doing is running a getvar before i started in on the phone. My dad said he didnt remember accepting the latest OTA, so I went ahead and flashed the 4.67 zip that I already had. Now, if he was on 5.07.651.1, for instance, and I manually flashed the the 4.67 zip, that would make the getvar show up like 4.67 right? when in reality it would have needed the 5.07xxx files.
theres no way to even try using those files, they dont exist for us huh? no PC36IMG or nuthin?
unfortunately,thats not quite how it works... running the 4.67 ruu did not change your main version if your s on. you have the 4.67 software/firmware,or you would have gotten a "main version older" error and the ruu woud have failed. so rest assured youre using the correct RUU :)

one bit of advice... go back thru and x out all your esn and meid numbers- theyre not the sort of thing youll want floating aroung the internet!

first,i think id try running "rom.zip" via fastboot and see what happend.

next,i think i would try and boot your recovery into phone memory. re-unlock the bootloader.

i assume your recovery image is allready in yout adb/fastboot folder from when you flashed it. youre going to do do basically the same thing,with a slightly different command:

fastboot boot imagename.img

example:
fastboot boot amon_recovery.img

hopefully this will launch your recovery,and youll see its menu appear. this eliminates a damaged recovery partition from the equation. you can try whatever recovery you wish,but id make sure to give amon a try. its an older recovery,but has few frills and basic functionality,making its memory footprint a lil smaller.

having access to a recovery(even if you have to boot it manually) will give us access to adb. its entirely possible at this point to flash root files,mount system and data,and flash a modified misc image that would let you flash an older RUU,wich may or may not be of value,but worth a shot :)
 
[edit: lol thanks scotty, apparently great minds think alike cause it seems i was doing this while you were responding saying to do this.]

tried this just now. i did it last night doing it again to provide code.

[HIGH]C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot oem lock
... INFOLock successfully...
FAILED (status read failed (Too many links))
finished. total time: 0.095s

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot erase cache
< waiting for device >
erasing 'cache'... OKAY [ 1.936s]
finished. total time: 1.936s

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot oem rebootRUU
... OKAY [ 0.095s]
finished. total time: 0.096s

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot flash zip rom.zip
sending 'zip' (218371 KB)... OKAY [ 32.913s]
writing 'zip'... INFOadopting the signature contained in this i
mage...
INFOsignature checking...
INFOzip header checking...
INFOzip info parsing...
INFOchecking model ID...
INFOchecking custom ID...
INFOchecking main version...
INFOstart image[hboot] unzipping for pre-update check...
INFOstart image[hboot] flushing...
INFO[RUU]WP,hboot,0
INFO[RUU]WP,hboot,100
INFOstart image[radio] unzipping for pre-update...
INFOstart image[radio] flushing...
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,0
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,7
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,16
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,21
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,26
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,35
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,40
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,45
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,50
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,100
FAILED (remote: 90 hboot pre-update! please flush image again immediately)
finished. total time: 100.067s

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot oem rebootRUU
< waiting for device >
... OKAY [ 0.168s]
finished. total time: 0.169s

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot flash zip rom.zip
sending 'zip' (218371 KB)... OKAY [ 32.429s]
writing 'zip'... INFOadopting the signature contained in this i
mage...
INFOsignature checking...
INFOzip header checking...
INFOzip info parsing...
INFOchecking model ID...
INFOchecking custom ID...
INFOchecking main version...
INFOstart image[hboot] unzipping for pre-update check...
INFOstart image[hboot] flushing...
INFO[RUU]WP,hboot,0
INFO[RUU]WP,hboot,100
INFOstart image[radio] unzipping for pre-update...
INFOstart image[radio] flushing...
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,0
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,7
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,16
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,21
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,26
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,35
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,40
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,45
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,50
INFO[RUU]WP,radio,100
FAILED (remote: 90 hboot pre-update! please flush image again immediately)
finished. total time: 99.575s

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot flash zip rom.zip
sending 'zip' (218371 KB)... OKAY [ 32.679s]
writing 'zip'... INFOadopting the signature contained in this i
mage...
INFOsignature checking...
INFOzip header checking...
INFOzip info parsing...
INFOchecking model ID...
INFOchecking custom ID...
INFOchecking main version...
INFOstart image[rcdata] unzipping & flushing...
INFO[RUU]UZ,rcdata,0
INFO[RUU]UZ,rcdata,100
INFO[RUU]WP,rcdata,0
INFO[RUU]WP,rcdata,100
INFOstart image[boot] unzipping & flushing...
INFO[RUU]UZ,boot,0
INFO[RUU]UZ,boot,40
INFO[RUU]UZ,boot,80
INFO[RUU]UZ,boot,100
INFO[RUU]WP,boot,0
INFO[RUU]WP,boot,40
INFO[RUU]WP,boot,80
INFO[RUU]WP,boot,100
INFOstart image[recovery] unzipping & flushing...
INFO[RUU]UZ,recovery,0
INFO[RUU]UZ,recovery,33
INFO[RUU]UZ,recovery,66
INFO[RUU]UZ,recovery,99
INFO[RUU]UZ,recovery,100
INFO[RUU]WP,recovery,0
INFO[RUU]WP,recovery,32
INFO[RUU]WP,recovery,65
INFO[RUU]WP,recovery,98
INFO[RUU]WP,recovery,100
INFOstart image[system] unzipping & flushing...
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,0
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,4
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,9
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,14
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,19
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,24
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,29
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,34
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,39
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,44
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,48
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,54
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,58
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,63
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,67
INFO[RUU]WP,system,0
INFO[RUU]WP,system,67
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,67
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,69
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,71
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,74
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,77
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,79
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,82
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,84
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,87
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,90
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,92
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,95
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,98
INFO[RUU]UZ,system,100
INFO[RUU]WP,system,67
INFO[RUU]WP,system,69
INFO[RUU]WP,system,71
INFO[RUU]WP,system,74
INFO[RUU]WP,system,77
INFO[RUU]WP,system,79
INFO[RUU]WP,system,82
INFO[RUU]WP,system,84
INFO[RUU]WP,system,87
INFO[RUU]WP,system,90
INFO[RUU]WP,system,92
INFO[RUU]WP,system,95
INFO[RUU]WP,system,97
INFO[RUU]WP,system,100
INFOstart image[userdata] unzipping & flushing...
INFO[RUU]UZ,userdata,0
INFO[RUU]UZ,userdata,100
INFO[RUU]WP,userdata,0
INFO[RUU]WP,userdata,100
INFOstart image[sp1] unzipping & flushing...
INFO[RUU]UZ,sp1,0
INFO[RUU]UZ,sp1,100
INFO[RUU]WP,sp1,0
INFO[RUU]WP,sp1,100
INFOstart image[wimax] unzipping & flushing...
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,0
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,10
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,20
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,33
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,44
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,56
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,70
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,82
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,95
INFO[RUU]UZ,wimax,100
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,0
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,13
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,26
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,36
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,49
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,59
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,72
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,85
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,95
INFO[RUU]WP,wimax,100
OKAY [195.391s]
finished. total time: 228.070s

C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>[/HIGH]
twice, i got an error [HIGH]FAILED (remote: 90 hboot pre-update! please flush image again immediately)[/HIGH]first time i messed it up. this was all done with the black with silver htc screen and green loading bar.

it all went swimmingly, last night when it worked i practically danced a jig. but then on the reboot, it just goes back to the black screen :(
 
unfortunately,thats not quite how it works... running the 4.67 ruu did not change your main version if your s on. you have the 4.67 software/firmware,or you would have gotten a "main version older" error and the ruu woud have failed. so rest assured youre using the correct RUU :)

thanks, I thought that was how it worked just wanted to make sure.

one bit of advice... go back thru and x out all your esn and meid numbers- theyre not the sort of thing youll want floating aroung the internet!

another thanks, never thought to do that, this is the first time ive ever needed to post anywhere lol. everything ive ever needed to know had already been covered, because you guys are awesome!
 
sorry,forgot to mention the pre-update thing. :o

some ruus are set up that way,some are not,so it was normal for you to see it,you didnt mess anything up. the ones that do it,typically flash hboot and radio(sometimes just hboot) then give that error,and you just need to issue the command again,as you did.

looks like everything flashed normally,and no failures or errors,i assume no change in the situation?

edit: lol just noticed your edit,so i guess that answers the above question :(
 
i assume your recovery image is allready in yout adb/fastboot folder from when you flashed it. youre going to do do basically the same thing,with a slightly different command:

fastboot boot imagename.img

example:
fastboot boot amon_recovery.img

got this when i tried:

[HIGH]C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot boot recovery.img
downloading 'boot.img'... OKAY [ 0.919s]
booting... FAILED (remote: not allowed)
finished. total time: 0.920s[/HIGH]
 
got this when i tried:

[HIGH]C:\Program Files\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot boot recovery.img
downloading 'boot.img'... OKAY [ 0.919s]
booting... FAILED (remote: not allowed)
finished. total time: 0.920s[/HIGH]

hmmmm this was with the bootloader unlocked correct? phone definately in fastboot,and not accidentally in hboot?
 
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