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Root [Merit] ZTE Merit Touchscreen Bricked after *983*29873283# code

You can't believe everything you read.

FTM mode can be activated on a rooted phone. I was in ftm mode just the other day.

There is a flag on the phone that changes to zero when the phone is rooted though. All you have to do is change that flag back to 1. It's in the /sys directory somewhere. Im working and cant mess with it right now though.

Aside from that the phone is easily unrooted as i posted an unroot update here on the boards.

The only reason i havent contributed anything to this is because there are larger fish to fry than ftm mode. You cant execute fastboot anyway that i know of when its in ftm. No commands work when i have been in it
 
I also have unrooted full nandroids of both phones. You're chasing a rabbit trail that's not gonna help you do anything...

Trust what I'm telling you.
 
You also have to be on the stock recovery to get in the FTM


Unless you use the Recovery I posted above. FTM on this phone does nothing but run that that binary
 
stayboogy said:
You also have to be on the stock recovery to get in the FTM


Unless you use the Recovery I posted above. FTM on this phone does nothing but run that that binary
Click to expand...

I was actually going to give those a try again, that you posted above to get to FTM, only because, as I stated, I downloaded the ZTE update tool, said it found updates but because I was running the AT&T avail rooted/unrooted roms, I just could not get FTM mode. I just wanted to get to FTM mode to try and see if those ZTE update tools help any, more than anything else.

I think the reason it did not work before, the above merit links, was because I kept getting the mtd errors writing to block when flashing the recovery.img, until I discovered the dd=if/dev/zero. Maybe, I don't know.

Honestly, If I knew exactly what was wrong with this HTC phone that just miraculously stopped working after 6 weeks of usage, I would be screwing with that one and not this. Verizon told me it was because I may have dropped the HTC, or got it wet, which seems messed up, because I dropped this cheap ZTE 100 times and it still works.
 
Did do a little research, as you modders probably already may know, *983* stands for ZTE and than you have your code, so, *ZTE*CHIPINFO* gives you your chip info. Next, went to a website that gave all the different ways your phone keypad would spell something and put in 29873283, figure it had to be the AXUPDATE *983*29873283 (*ZTE*AXUPDATE*) that deleted my touch firmware. Just to see, it does not work on the z990g but only worked because I was running an avail root rom. Have to admit though, now that I have learned what I have learned I can keep the rooted z990g and just flash a SDCARD image to increase my storage space for apps.

Just thought that was interesting
 
if you wanted to play with FTM more

the flag i referred to before is

/sys/devices/system/soc/soc0/zte_ftm_flag

should be changed from 0 to 1 and maybe that is what allows FTM to persist. couldn't ever find it when i was looking for it again, but i come across it tonight looking for something else.
 
stayboogy said:
if you wanted to play with FTM more

the flag i referred to before is

/sys/devices/system/soc/soc0/zte_ftm_flag

should be changed from 0 to 1 and maybe that is what allows FTM to persist. couldn't ever find it when i was looking for it again, but i come across it tonight looking for something else.
Click to expand...

Man, just my luck, while playing around with wanting to get into FTM mode, I downloaded the Net10 stock merit, formatted my boot and recovery than flashed the Net10 stock merit recovery.img via fastboot. Still did not get FTM mode, but during the process formatted my SD card and just my luck, my card reader died.

Now I'm stuck in unrooted until my new card reader comes in the mail (live way way out and what you have to pay at CVS for a card reader is not worth the $10 in gas).

Unless there is a hack to format my phone with a combination of keys or enable usb storage, I can't try this until my reader comes in the mail.

Will try though and report with the outcome, thanks :)
 
Well, said screw it and paid the $10 for a new touchscreen, in the meantime bought a new tablet as well. The merit works now, micallan_17 was right.

Since I did drop it and cracked the screen a week before bricking the touchscreen, it needed one anyways. Have to say, quite proud of myself, first time ever taking apart an android and replacing a part with no problems :)
 
stayboogy said:
if you wanted to play with FTM more

the flag i referred to before is

/sys/devices/system/soc/soc0/zte_ftm_flag

should be changed from 0 to 1 and maybe that is what allows FTM to persist. couldn't ever find it when i was looking for it again, but i come across it tonight looking for something else.
Click to expand...

can't seem to get the right permission to change that to a 1, tried everything.

Saw that blade had a place that indicated to set ftm flag to y, somewhere on the z990g, possibly there is a line, not sure where to look, where I could change it from n to y, that is if that line even exists or if there is a possibility to add the line in the correct place.
 
allromeroblz1 said:
I see, trying to get this damn merit z990g to go to DFU so i could flash it the way micallan_17 did. I remember after so many hours of trying we got it but dnt remember what we did.
Click to expand...

If you remember let me know. Wanted to see if that actual unlock for the avail would work if I installed avail ROM. Did see one post where he mentioned getting to ftm mode with the avail ROM.

Did notice that when I installed cwm superuser lost my extended memory.
 
allromeroblz1 said:
I see, trying to get this damn merit z990g to go to DFU so i could flash it the way micallan_17 did. I remember after so many hours of trying we got it but dnt remember what we did.
Click to expand...

I found the post you were talking about and that isn't the FTM mode that everybody is looking for. I read what he said to do. Basically it sounds like he took a hard way. There is actually an easier way to do what he did.

It sounds as if mcllen tried to install the t-mobile concord firmware then tried updating the at&t t-flash update, all the t-flash update did was format his phone then not finish since the two were not compatible.

Messing around I had actually deleted my boot and system through CWM recovery. When I rebooted the system it ended up just being stuck on the bootlogo.

Just to see what would happen I typed fastboot devices and got:

?????? fastboot

then just to see what would happen, I flashed a new recovery:

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

then I held down the menu vol + and power and go into recovery, then I just reinstalled my firmware.

You can actually, for this phone, download the stock rom of the at&t avail z990 firmware here and do an update, it works. Doesn't sim unlock the phone though.

To install it though you need a CWM recovery, this one works here

If you install the CWM recovery by there instructions on the second link, skip the steps to install a firmware and just go into advanced

format boot
format system
format data

and restart system, you will just get stuck in the boot logo

in shell type fastboot devices

you will see ????? fastboot

lsusb shows Google, Inc.

At the time when I messed up my touch screen, winblows wasn't installed, it is now so I was going to actually jump into winblows and try some of those tools after formatting the phone.
 
bethnesbitt said:
I found the post you were talking about and that isn't the FTM mode that everybody is looking for. I read what he said to do. Basically it sounds like he took a hard way. There is actually an easier way to do what he did.

It sounds as if mcllen tried to install the t-mobile concord firmware then tried updating the at&t t-flash update, all the t-flash update did was format his phone then not finish since the two were not compatible.

Messing around I had actually deleted my boot and system through CWM recovery. When I rebooted the system it ended up just being stuck on the bootlogo.

Just to see what would happen I typed fastboot devices and got:

?????? fastboot

then just to see what would happen, I flashed a new recovery:

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

then I held down the menu vol + and power and go into recovery, then I just reinstalled my firmware.

You can actually, for this phone, download the stock rom of the at&t avail z990 firmware here and do an update, it works. Doesn't sim unlock the phone though.

To install it though you need a CWM recovery, this one works here

If you install the CWM recovery by there instructions on the second link, skip the steps to install a firmware and just go into advanced

format boot
format system
format data

and restart system, you will just get stuck in the boot logo

in shell type fastboot devices

you will see ????? fastboot

lsusb shows Google, Inc.

At the time when I messed up my touch screen, winblows wasn't installed, it is now so I was going to actually jump into winblows and try some of those tools after formatting the phone.
Click to expand...

there's actually a tutorial here on the boards i meant to post to this. you can zero dd your boot, or format like you mention, and then reboot. at this point you are in the bootloader.

still though it's only good for flashing, which can be done several other ways.

i can't seem to find the link at the moment. i found it searching the board here.
 
I saw that somewhere also, went into windows and ran qpst to see what would happen if the phone was in fastboot mode, nothing happened. Then I took out the battery and attached it to the USB cable, then it detected it.

Saw it had a Factory Test Mode but when I opened it said FTM was obsolete for the device and something to use a radio tool. Thinking that this zte merit just doesn't have a FTM mode. Did find out, read in area51, that people were actually able to use qpst tools with it by dialing *983*87274 then selecting the only dialog option.

Didn't get a chance to do much more because I have a damn virus on my windows partition and have been waiting for my linux virus scanner to clean it up all day. Man android runs linux so why are these people making windows software to access linux devices? Grrr virus can cripple a person's progress for days.
 
bethnesbitt said:
I saw that somewhere also, went into windows and ran qpst to see what would happen if the phone was in fastboot mode, nothing happened. Then I took out the battery and attached it to the USB cable, then it detected it.

Saw it had a Factory Test Mode but when I opened it said FTM was obsolete for the device and something to use a radio tool. Thinking that this zte merit just doesn't have a FTM mode. Did find out, read in area51, that people were actually able to use qpst tools with it by dialing *983*87274 then selecting the only dialog option.

Didn't get a chance to do much more because I have a damn virus on my windows partition and have been waiting for my linux virus scanner to clean it up all day. Man android runs linux so why are these people making windows software to access linux devices? Grrr virus can cripple a person's progress for days.
Click to expand...


It worked, was able to backu my nvram using QPST Tool, just not sure how to go in and change the carrier settings. Didn't even have to press only_dialog, All functions worked as well.

Pressing all functions picked up both ports, the one for ADB didn't work but the other did. Installing the zte hsusb drivers was a pain.

Was even able read directories and files in the phone using the efs explorer in QPST that you don't see in something like root explorer.
 
Hey Stayboogy, I was fiddling again with this phone and noticed that sometimes old splashs would suddenly appear and then disappear or just change. For example, one time I was trying to see if I could get to FTM mode and while holding down the down volume and power, the little alien splash screen appeared from a previous flash appeared for a second then it went to the new splash screen from the new nand flash.

Something else I noticed was that all of a sudden I cannot do a fastboot flash system system.img anymore, tells me it is to large. This got me to thinking, from all the flashing, am I filling the phone up with garbage, could the FTM just be messed up from all the flashes, should I try flashing a new recovery via dd?

It is worth a shot, try to start the phone from scratch by performing some type of DD and how would I dd a system.img, recovery.img etc...

Do know it has to be rooted.
 
bethnesbitt said:
Hey Stayboogy, I was fiddling again with this phone and noticed that sometimes old splashs would suddenly appear and then disappear or just change. For example, one time I was trying to see if I could get to FTM mode and while holding down the down volume and power, the little alien splash screen appeared from a previous flash appeared for a second then it went to the new splash screen from the new nand flash.

Something else I noticed was that all of a sudden I cannot do a fastboot flash system system.img anymore, tells me it is to large. This got me to thinking, from all the flashing, am I filling the phone up with garbage, could the FTM just be messed up from all the flashes, should I try flashing a new recovery via dd?

It is worth a shot, try to start the phone from scratch by performing some type of DD and how would I dd a system.img, recovery.img etc...

Do know it has to be rooted.
Click to expand...


there is no difference between ftm in the avail version and ftm in the merit version. the kernel is EXACTLY the same. there are no difference between the phones on the kernel level, only in software. i've been up and down the kernel so you can trust that info.

there is a flag that is thrown the first time the lcd resets (thought it was first boot originally) and this borks ftm. now, why this happens readily on the merit and not the avail, who knows. the explanation is not in the kernel source...

nand is not a hard drive. it doesn't work like that. bad blocks prevent an mtdblock from being properly erased. this will cause all sorts of problems, and some just like you mentioned. this is because the old is never actually overwritten and why it is sometimes seen and sometimes not is a symptom of the it being nearly an unreadable area of the nand.

i've completely filled the splash partition up with garbage several times only to have the charger animation remain. then i've changed the splash screen only to have the charging animation borked. bad blocks cause these issues. that's all. that's the problem with ALL flash memory. bad blocks on a hard drive can be worked around and reallocated. not on the nand.

quit worrying about fastboot. just say no...

that's the best advice i can give you. everyone is so worried about fastboot. it's worthless for this phone.

use the recovery.

install a recovery
restore a stock nandroid
done

no dd.

if you must then get into a rooted shell in a running system and dd your boot and recovery and splash images that way to be more thorough.

sample [recovery]
HTML: 
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd0 of=/sdcard/mtd0.img bs=4096

dd if=/sdcard/mtd0.img of=/dev/mtd/mtd0 bs=4096
 
and this may be a dumb question,

but

did any of you just try disconnecting the digitizer and then reconnecting it???

many problems with peripheral devices are solved this simply with most pc's and pc variants. i almost intentionally tried this on this last phone i bought since the charging port doesn't work, but i'd hate to ruin the digitizer just in case i need it or someone else needs it down the line
 
stayboogy said:
and this may be a dumb question,

but

did any of you just try disconnecting the digitizer and then reconnecting it???

many problems with peripheral devices are solved this simply with most pc's and pc variants. i almost intentionally tried this on this last phone i bought since the charging port doesn't work, but i'd hate to ruin the digitizer just in case i need it or someone else needs it down the line
Click to expand...

I did that still a no go, the digitizer never came back to life, but it's very strange that a dialer code would bork the digitizer, it just wipes the touchscreen firmware before trying to update it, but since there is no update it just stays there.

When you open up, config.gz there is a line under
# Input Device Drivers
# CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_FIRMWARE is not set

but I have no idea what it does if you change it
CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_FIRMWARE=y

if this file is auto-generated it won't do anything
 
stayboogy said:
and this may be a dumb question,

but

did any of you just try disconnecting the digitizer and then reconnecting it???

many problems with peripheral devices are solved this simply with most pc's and pc variants. i almost intentionally tried this on this last phone i bought since the charging port doesn't work, but i'd hate to ruin the digitizer just in case i need it or someone else needs it down the line
Click to expand...

I didn't bother trying because the screen was cracked, thought about it.

What I think the issue was is that there is a litle chip on the cable of the digitizer. The software that reads the digitizer to the phone may be on that little chip and by using that code we deleted it. I looked all over the web, even signed up for the syntapic or whatever website to see if they actually had the firmware to reinstall the digitizer software.
 
stayboogy said:
there is no difference between ftm in the avail version and ftm in the merit version. the kernel is EXACTLY the same. there are no difference between the phones on the kernel level, only in software. i've been up and down the kernel so you can trust that info.

there is a flag that is thrown the first time the lcd resets (thought it was first boot originally) and this borks ftm. now, why this happens readily on the merit and not the avail, who knows. the explanation is not in the kernel source...

nand is not a hard drive. it doesn't work like that. bad blocks prevent an mtdblock from being properly erased. this will cause all sorts of problems, and some just like you mentioned. this is because the old is never actually overwritten and why it is sometimes seen and sometimes not is a symptom of the it being nearly an unreadable area of the nand.

i've completely filled the splash partition up with garbage several times only to have the charger animation remain. then i've changed the splash screen only to have the charging animation borked. bad blocks cause these issues. that's all. that's the problem with ALL flash memory. bad blocks on a hard drive can be worked around and reallocated. not on the nand.

quit worrying about fastboot. just say no...

that's the best advice i can give you. everyone is so worried about fastboot. it's worthless for this phone.

use the recovery.

install a recovery
restore a stock nandroid
done

no dd.

if you must then get into a rooted shell in a running system and dd your boot and recovery and splash images that way to be more thorough.

sample [recovery]
HTML: 
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd0 of=/sdcard/mtd0.img bs=4096

dd if=/sdcard/mtd0.img of=/dev/mtd/mtd0 bs=4096
Click to expand...

Wanted to actually see if I could unlock the phone with a program I got a hold of that is for unlocking the avail. Don't really care if it is bootloader or FTM, according to these programs it has to be FTM anyways.

Tried resetting the flag, even tried through File Manager w/root, got as far as being able to change from 0 to 1 with that program but as soon as I exited out it went right back to 0.

Even tried all of the suggestions mcmelln, held the home up volume and power at the same time, did the image update thingy that he had posted, got the blank screen. Pulled the battery out and plugged in to pc while holding all differant combinations of buttons.

Everything but the FTM mode worked, even when I did the *983*87274 and selected only diaglog, showed as com port.

At one point it almost acted as it was going to get to FTM, the unlock software went from 4% to 6% while on the bootlogo, then lost my com port and the phone just rebooted.

I guess I can be hard headed when it comes to seeing if something works, for example, got a new china tablet from Irulu, 512mb app storage, 2.11gb phone storage.

Read it couldn't be rooted, I rooted it.

Read that the MTK6572 app storage could not be extended all the way to the phone storage. One on XDA said that it wasn't worth the root, shoot...

Heh, pulled the EBR1 figured out how to do that in a hex editor, went from 512mb to 2.5mb for app storage. Looked all over the web how to do it, couldn't find anybody that either knew how or was willing to write a tutorial, or kept saying you had to edit the MBR, wrong, just the EBR1

Wrote a tutorial myself :)

Elizabeth's Blogger Wikis: Tutorial: How to increase partition on MediaTek Tablets MTK6572, MTK6577 and others

I guess I was seeing the nand storage as a sdcard or pc harddrive because of that.
 
bethnesbitt said:
Even tried all of the suggestions mcmelln, held the home up volume and power at the same time, did the image update thingy that he had posted, got the blank screen. Pulled the battery out and plugged in to pc while holding all differant combinations of buttons.

Everything but the FTM mode worked, even when I did the *983*87274 and selected only diaglog, showed as com port.

At one point it almost acted as it was going to get to FTM, the unlock software went from 4% to 6% while on the bootlogo, then lost my com port and the phone just rebooted.
Click to expand...

Hey beth, I have 3 merits that I want to get unlock via the method you tried, I remember that to get to the black screen was easy when I first did it but the one I have are seemingly hard to get to make the screen go black, can you post what you did to get to go black? I have tried the same steps I did before but they aren't working, am starting to think that Tracfone may have patched those holes with newer merits.
 
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