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Root Boot looped

davecove

davecove

Newbie
My wife's fullt-updated stock EVO 4G started boot looping about a week ago while d/ling an audio book from Audible.com. I was able to move her back to her Shift and am now trying to fix the 4G.

When the power button is pressed, there is a white 4G banner screen, then a black screen, then the banner again... endlessly.

Using vol/power to get to HBOOT works, and apparently so does Clear Storage but choosing Recovery puts you right back into the loop.

I rooted the phone using the HTCDev procedure and have placed a new PC36IMG.zip (DigitalKarma) in the root of the SD card. HBOOT sees the file, copies it (the progress bar), checks it and parses it witout error, and then returns to the HBOOT screen like nothing ever happened. Choosing Recovery or Reboot at this point results in the loop again.

What else can I try?

Thank you for your time,
Dave
 
Hello, I'm at lunch on my phone. Sorry for your trouble. I don't know what Digital Karma is.

What happens if you delete that and try to re install a recovery using that method?
 
Dave, my lunch break is over. In the forum app it wasn't apparent you are not in the root thread. I'd be ever so proud to move you but there. You'll get more help. This phone is smarter than I am though so best I can do for you is call for help and get back to work.
Hang in there!

And welcome to the forums!
 
davecove said:
My wife's fullt-updated stock EVO 4G started boot looping about a week ago while d/ling an audio book from Audible.com. I was able to move her back to her Shift and am now trying to fix the 4G.

When the power button is pressed, there is a white 4G banner screen, then a black screen, then the banner again... endlessly.

Using vol/power to get to HBOOT works, and apparently so does Clear Storage but choosing Recovery puts you right back into the loop.

I rooted the phone using the HTCDev procedure and have placed a new PC36IMG.zip (DigitalKarma) in the root of the SD card. HBOOT sees the file, copies it (the progress bar), checks it and parses it witout error, and then returns to the HBOOT screen like nothing ever happened. Choosing Recovery or Reboot at this point results in the loop again.

What else can I try?

Thank you for your time,
Dave
Click to expand...


It sounds like your phone needs to have a recovery installed, but I have no idea what Digitalkarma is. Can you give us some info on it? Are you trying to get recovery by using step 2 in the HTCDev method?
 
biker57 said:
It sounds like your phone needs to have a recovery installed
Click to expand...

I'll look into that, but don't be surprised if my next post is 'How do I do that?'

biker57 said:
I have no idea what Digitalkarma is. Can you give us some info on it?
Click to expand...

It is just one of the bazillion ROMs out there... I picked it sort of at random. Here is an intro: Digital Karma ROM for HTC Evo 4G! [V8] | HTC Evo 4G Hacks!

biker57 said:
Are you trying to get recovery by using step 2 in the HTCDev method?
Click to expand...

Yes... the volume/power thing and then selecting 'Recovery'

Dave
 
what is your radio(baseband)? which PC36IMG file did you use? have you tried getting a custom recovery yet? do you know how to do it? we can walk you thru it if not.
 
ocnbrze said:
what is your radio(baseband)?
Click to expand...

Ok, this is what I know:
*** UNLOCKED ***
SUPERSONIC EVT2-3 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-2.18.0001
MICROP-041f
TOUCH PANEL-ATMEL224_16ab
RADIO-2.15.00.01.15
DEC 21 2011, 12:50:32

This is a Sprint phone

ocnbrze said:
which PC36IMG file did you use?
Click to expand...

Well I have tried a stock one and the Digital Karma mod'd one, but I probably didn't do them right.


ocnbrze said:
have you tried getting a custom recovery yet?
Click to expand...

I tried to use TWRP and got the "Main Version is older" error so I tried the version that is supposed to work on unlocked and it errored with a 'bad image'.

ocnbrze said:
we can walk you thru it if not.
Click to expand...

Oh, please please please do... I am technically competent, but this is my first foray into rooting an Android device.

One complication is that none of the USB procedures seem to work. They all seem to start with setting the USB into debug mode, but this phone started into this boot loop without giving me the chance to set the USB to debug. Thus far, the HTCDev root procedure has worked via USB, but nothing from adb or fastboot (other than 'fastboot oem get_identifier_token') has worked. We probably need to avoid using adb and fastboot and try doing everything from the SDcard.

Dave
 
ok so you have the latest radios which means that you can't use ruu's(rom update utility). these come in two forms and they are used to update your phone. they are either in the form of PC36IMG or .exe file. they are similar to taking an ota. however, htc has not released the code to the latest ota, so we can't try that. it is one reason to never accept an ota if you are going to root the phone at some point.

anyways lets try and get recovery.

1. download this file:http://themikmik.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5412&stc=1&d=1327671265. this one should work with s-on.

2. rename the file to PC36IMG and move it to the sd card(no folders, just on the card)

3. reboot the phone into the bootloader

4. if it is named right and it is on the sd card then it should ask you to update.

5. select yes

6.when it is done, select no to reboot(we do not want to do this).

7. in the bootloader menu, select recovery

lets see if we can make it this far. let us know if you can get recovery to work.
 
davecove said:
It finds and loads the file, but instead of asking to update, it says

Main Version is older!
Update Fail!

Dave
Click to expand...

ok another way to do it is to fastboot flash recovery.

1. extract the file you just downloaded.

2. move the recovery.img file and move it to the android folder you used to unlock the phone. it should contain the adb and fastboot files.

3.open the command window from this folder

4. enter this command:
Code: 
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

hopefully that should work.

edit: make sure that the phone is in fastboot
 
Copied the extracted recovery.img to the sdk-tools folder

Used vol/power to boot phone with no SD card in. HBOOT is highlighted in blue above and FASTBOOT is highlighted in blue below.

Pressed Power to select FASTBOOT. FASTBOOT became highlighted in red above and BOOTLOADER became highlighted in blue below.

Plugged in USB cable. FASTBOOT in red became FASTBOOT USB in red. Computer made the 'USB connected sound', but no notification pops up.

At command propmpt:
C:\Android\sdk-tools>fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
< waiting for device >

..and that is where it stays... As I mentioned in my first post, USB has been a no-go after the looping started except for the original HTCdev root procedure. Right now 'fastboot devices' and 'adb devices' neither show the device.

Dave
 
ok you have some other issues that makes this kind of harder to trouble shoot.

the forums is blowing up today. so give me a sec to see what the next move is. if anything plug the phone in and leave it off so that the battery can charge. we do not want it to loose power while we are trying to fix it. it could brick it for sure.
 
Mikestony said:
Can you try a different port?
Click to expand...

I can, and just did, no joy...

Mikestony said:
Do you have the drivers installed?
Click to expand...

I think so, I installed HTC Sync, and the SDK as per instructions... when I run USBDeview it says I am using ANDROIDUSB.sys ver 2.0.7.14, Service Name is 'HTCAND64' and the 'Driver Description is 'My HTC'

Mikestony said:
How about a different cord?
Click to expand...

Just tried it... on the new port and the old... no joy...

Mikestony said:
How about some chocolate pie? <<<how did that get in there??
Click to expand...

That reminds me... There is a slice of lemon pound cake downstairs calling to me...

Dave
 
Mikestony said:
Can you try a different port?
Do you have the drivers installed?
How about a different cord?
How about some chocolate pie? <<<how did that get in there??
Click to expand...

drivers are a pain. One set will work with one application, need to use a different one to do others.

wish we could keep them straight!
 
Some progress... using a virgin Win 7 Pro VM I installed the collection of sdk-tools and ran the HTC Sync setup far enough to get the prerequisites and drivers installed, then cancelled the actual installation of Sync.

Now, when I run fastboot, I get something that looks good:

C:\sdk-tools>fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
sending 'recovery' (4004 KB)... OKAY [ 2.668s]
writing 'recovery'... OKAY [ 1.669s]
finished. total time: 4.337s​

When that finishes, I push the power button on the EVO to return to the FASTBOOT menu and then I use the vol down to select Recovery and power to select.

At which point the phone gives me the while banner screen and continues to boot loop. :(

Dave
 
you might have a corrupt partition that i'm not to sure how you can fix it. i think we might have to chalk this one to the bootloop of death that occasionally happens. it is a known issue with the og evo. it is not all that common but it has been known to show its ugly head every now and then. there is usually no fix for it.

i can't say this for a fact as we can't use any ruu's due to the fact that it has been updated to the latest firmware which there is no ruu for it.
 
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