Help HTC Desire A8181 - non starter

[Shankara101]

Hi I have been given the HTC A8181.

When I go to start the device it vibrates(buzzes) 7 times then hangs on the green HTC Splash screen with white background.

I have followed a few of the threads here, being an android novice, this is what I have tried:

1. Held down volume and power to get into 'options?' screen which says

BRAVO PVT3 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-0.93.0001
MICROP-051d
TOUCH PANEL-SYNW0101
RADIO-5.11.05.27
Aug 10 2010, 17:52: 18

I then have chosen: fastboot, recovery, clear storage, separately. Each time I have chosen each of those the device restarts, then the same buzzing and symptoms detailed at the start of this thread occur.

(if i chose recovery no other options appear just restarts!)

2. I attached the device with USB via my mac into a Win 7.0 VM which I use. The device driver loads and the device appears in device manager - so I can see: HTC SERIAL INTERFACE COM 5.

I then attempted to run RUU_BRAVO_FROYO_HTC_WWE_2.29.405.5_RADIO_32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27_RELEASE_159811_SIGNED which installs, but then errors with a (170) could'nt connect to device. Though the connection is made 'bleeps' when I plug in and unplug from the USB. And changes from HBOOT to HBOOT USB PLUG on the device screen.

I am sure there must be a way around this. Someway to reinstall an OS?. I am, however, inexperienced with Android, am a Win/Mac tech, but at a loss here to get going.

Any help would be appreciated!

Many thanks

 

[Hadron]

Hi Shankara101, and welcome to AF

OK, the bad news is that 7 vibrates usually means a motherboard failure. So to be honest I doubt there's much chance for this one.

Sometimes, when the problem is overheating, I've known people manage to get it to run through the RUU by cooling the device first (put it in a sealed plastic bag, with the air squeezed out, and stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes or so). However overheating problems were usually with PVT1 devices, not PVT3, and if that is the cause running the RUU won't fix the underlying problem.

In any event, to run the RUU you need to get it into fastboot mode first. To be honest that's the most disquieting thing to me: that it crashes when you select fastboot from the bootloader menu (because the bootloader is a very small, low-level app, and if that's not able to change mode that feels very bad to me). What you could try is shutting it down (pull the battery out - in fact leave it out for several minutes, just to let everything discharge and cool), then boot it while pressing the "back" button down. That should take you straight into fastboot mode. If that works, connect to the computer and it should say "fastboot RUU". Then you can try running the RUU.

If it gets that far, the next thing is to hope that RUU is the right one. It should work on an unbranded "international" GSM handset (such as mine was), but if the phone was originally branded will not. The fact that it's a white HTC screen rather than a network splash screen is a good sign though . Otherwise the official 2.3 upgrade RUU might work.

Anyway, I'm afraid I think it's a long shot, but hopefully this will give you a chance.

Good luck!