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Root Noob needs help "unrooting" an EVO 4G

rpmchris

rpmchris

Lurker
My wife and I have been happy HTC EVO 4G owners since Aug. 2010 (and Sprint customers for a LONG time); she dropped hers in a toilet 2 months ago and bought a used replacement on craigslist with a clean ESN, no problem. When my phone was stolen this past Sunday from a shopping cart while I was at Sam's, my wife went to craigslist and found one for me, but it had been "rooted" (neither one of us knew what that meant...). It had a weird start-up screen (Cyanogenmod 7), but she called Sprint to check out the ESN - it was clean, so we bought it. I called Sprint to activate it, but it wouldn't work. Everything they had me do to find out the problem didn't work. Then I was asked a few questions about what I saw on the screen (I didn't know any better), and they told me my phone needed to be reset to factory specs before they could activate it.

Here I am, hat in hand, hoping someone here can help me out. :confused:

It was missing a SD card, so I installed a new 32gb. I need to get my phone and email working (I use it for work) ASAP...:egg:

Thanks in advance for your help!!!:D
 
First things first!

1) We are going to have some questions to help you get to stock. You can stay stock and be rooted if you'd like, or you we can also get you back to a stock, unrooted state. By having root access, you are able to do more with your phone than a non-root user. Hate having apps that Sprint won't let you delete off your phone? This can be accomplished with root. Anyway, here we go...

2) Power off your phone. Wait about ten seconds, then press the Volume Down and Power buttons at the same time. Wait for the little white screen to show up. We will need to know your Hboot version. It will be one of the numbers at the top of the screen. Write it report back here with your version.

3) If you have any interest in staying rooted with a stock setup, I would go into "recovery" after you write down your Hboot. Again this is totally optional. Recovery mode lets you write custom software and updates to your phone. This is why your phone is running Cyanogenmod instead of regular HTC Software.
 
You are awesome!!! Thanks.:party:

HBOOT = 0.79.0000

In case it helps, the whole thing says:

SUPERSONIC EVT2-3 SHIP S-OFF
HBOOT-0.79.0000
MICROP-041f
TOUCH PANEL-ATMEL224_16ab
RADIO-2.15.00.09.01
Apr 14 2010, 15:41:34
 
Mizzou has you off to a good start so far. My suggestion to you would be to stay rooted in case your interested in it later, and flash a sense based rom to get the phone activated
 
Rxpert83 said:
Mizzou has you off to a good start so far. My suggestion to you would be to stay rooted in case your interested in it later, and flash a sense based rom to get the phone activated
Click to expand...

That's what I'm thinking...there are definitely some things I'd like to change on my phone, but wouldn't know where to start or how to fix it once I did! I an NOT a smart guy...:alberteinstein: What is this "sense based ROM" you speak of, and where can I get one?

Now, talk to me about building a nationally competitive Mazda MX-5 race car, I can help you with that! :D
 
I also found this info:

Model number = PC36100
Android version = 2.3.7
Baseband version = 2.15.00.09.01
Kernal version = 2.6.37.6-cyanogenmod-01509-g8913be8 shade@toxygene #1
CPU info = ARMv7 Processor rev 2 (v7l)
Mem info (avail/total) = 256 MB/414 MB
Mod version = CyanogenMod-7.1.0-Supersonic
Build number = GWK74

Does any of this help?
 
You should go into backup and restore in recovery and see if there is a backup of one. I know it sounds unlikely but for some insane reason my wife just sent back a phone rooted and running CM. Hoping I don't end paying money over it.
 
MizzouBrent said:
First things first!

1) We are going to have some questions to help you get to stock. You can stay stock and be rooted if you'd like, or you we can also get you back to a stock, unrooted state. By having root access, you are able to do more with your phone than a non-root user. Hate having apps that Sprint won't let you delete off your phone? This can be accomplished with root. Anyway, here we go...

2) Power off your phone. Wait about ten seconds, then press the Volume Down and Power buttons at the same time. Wait for the little white screen to show up. We will need to know your Hboot version. It will be one of the numbers at the top of the screen. Write it report back here with your version.

3) If you have any interest in staying rooted with a stock setup, I would go into "recovery" after you write down your Hboot. Again this is totally optional. Recovery mode lets you write custom software and updates to your phone. This is why your phone is running Cyanogenmod instead of regular HTC Software.
Click to expand...

Done, done, and awaiting your next instructions. I ventured into the "backup and restore" area and it would not "restore"...is the original data on the original SD card? I just put a new one in as the phone did not have one. Do I "wipe data/factory reset" or something else? I'd like to have the freedom to go back and lightly customize my apps, but mostly I just need to get my phone up and running with voice and email.

Thanks!;)
 
Ok here you go. Follow these steps exactly. I will try to be as detailed as possible.

1) Recovery is important. Like I said before, Recovery is what lets you flash updates to your phone, back up stuff etc. There are several different recoveries that can be installed on your Evo. There is none better than this one. Amon RA 2.3. Download it here via this thread

[Recovery] [09-Feb-2011] RA-supersonic-v2.3 - xda-developers

You want the file in the Download section of the first post that is titled PC36IMG.zip. You will want to download this file and place it in the Root of your SD card. This means to put it in the top level directory of your sd card, so don't put it in any folders. On my computer, the phone will default to the F Drive when I plug it in. So I just open the F drive on my PC and paste the zip file there. DO NOT extract the zip file. Leave it in zip format.

2) The second part of this is that we need to get you a Sense based rom. IMHO, the best one out there is MikG 3.11. It's an upgraded version of Sense over what the stock Evo has, and you can do everything with MikG that you need to be able to do, like get it activated (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Link is here:

MikG v3.11 [3/9/2012]

You want the file called MikG 3.11 Full Wipe

3) Ok, you have your downloads that you need. Again, both files should be left in zip format. The PC36IMG.zip file needs to be on your SD root like I said above. Just put MikG somewhere where you can find it...leaving it on the root of your SD card is just fine as well.

Now you need to power off your phone like you did before. Hold Volume Down and Power at the same time. This time it should scan for files and find the PC36IMG.zip file and it will prompt you to update. You need to select YES by pressing Vol Up. When it asks you if you want to reboot, choose NO by pressing Vol Down. Now you have your recovery installed. Scroll down to RECOVERY with the volume buttons and hit power to load up recovery.

4) For good measure, make a nandroid backup. Go to the backup/restore menu and hit power. Choose nandroid backup, select all the options you have available. Start making your backup.

5) After it finishes, back out to the main recovery menu. You should see an option to WIPE. Hit that. You want to wipe absolutely everything ***EXCEPT*** SD Card. Do not wipe your SD Card. I always wipe Data/Factory Reset, Cache, Dalvik Cache, Boot and System. Back out to the main menu in recovery again.

6) You should have the option to Install Zip from SD Card. Select that. Find where you had MikG stored on your SD Card and flash it. Let it do it's thing and it will automatically reboot. You're done!

You can download any number of roms and flash it pretty much the same way. So use this as a guide. Good luck!
 
Cool, I tried to keep it simple above. Just keep posting here and one of us can help explain stuff more if you need more detail.

One thing that always confused me was recovery. HTC has a recovery for a phone that is not rooted, but all it does is install the OTA updates (ie software updates released "over the air") that they release. It doesn't really do much else. Having a custom recovery lets you install custom software that has been made for the Evo. Since HTC's recovery doesn't do this, you need a custom recovery. There are a couple different recoveries that have been made for the Evo. Some are better than others. Amon RA 2.3 is the best one for the Evo.
 
You can wipe the cache partition with the stock recovery or flash an official ruu or update from your SD card.

When you select recovery and get the red triangle with the exclamation mark, hold both volume up and down and the power button. You'll see a few options. Of course this is with the stock recovery. ;)
 
rpmchris said:
That's what I'm thinking...there are definitely some things I'd like to change on my phone, but wouldn't know where to start or how to fix it once I did! I an NOT a smart guy...:alberteinstein:
Click to expand...
Sure fooled me you came to the best place you could have come that takes real intelligence.

rpmchris said:
Awesome, thanks! Most of what you said is over my head, but I'm not afraid to dive in over the long weekend. You can bet I'll be back with additional questions. ;)
Click to expand...

C'mon Back that's why we exist. We have very good guides here and we have some of the best people in the world on an EVO here. So you'll get the hang of things quick. Welcome to the forums :) I hope it becomes a home for you as it has many of us.
 
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