Thanks for the support there notebook, really appreciate that. We'll have HTC trembling in their boots now!
Well, since that's been rendered useless and if it's a choice of following your links or some more friendly instructions where they don't have to root, let's go with what I've been sending to people then.
Instructions to Downgrade the HTC Desire S
Before you undertake this procedure, be aware of the following:
- Although it is possible to return your phone to a state which is likely to appear to the network that you have not done so, you will temporarily at least invalidate your warranty
- You perform this at your own risk. Although it is a relatively simple process, you're undertaking actions outside of those expected of you as an end user and any damage you do, unlikely as it is, is your own responsibility
- O2 users: This procedure works for you too, the only exception being that you will lose your speed dial #1 to your voicemail. This will be set to 123 rather than 901 and, to my knowledge, cannot be changed. This is because O2 are owned by Telefonica, a Spanish company. No-one else appears to have picked this up, but I promise you that your phone will not be in Spanish and you will otherwise not notice any difference. Outside of this caveat, your phone should be returned to perfect working condition.
Once you have accepted all this, then by performing these actions your phone will be downgraded and to a normal, reported working state with no visible differences.
So here's some basic terminology to ease you in. Now real tech-heads will probably correct me on this, but this is my understanding and it's got me through:
S-ON / S-OFF - Your phone is currently protected from having its software written to by being S-ON. Up until recently, all HTC phones were supplied in an S-ON state. We need to make your phone S-OFF and remove this protection to downgrade the software.
Rooting - This is when you gain access to the core software of the phone and you will see this mentioned in the guide you'll follow. HOWEVER you will not root your phone. This is just for your reference and understanding.
RUU - Remote Update Utility, containing an official release of the software. Your phone is protected by S-ON from this being allowed to be used. So if you've been paying attention to what we've said so far, you may have worked out what we're going to do is..
..make your phone S-OFF to allow us to run the RUU. Below is a video I used at one point which was kindly sent to me as well. I did think about writing up a pure list of instructions but if you have a video to follow, you can visually see what needs to be done and make sure yours matches up. However, the video isn't perfect or exactly what you need to do, so I've made additional notes for you.
Read through these instructions twice before you carry out a single action. Follow the video where appropriate, pausing and replaying AT ANY TIME you don't understand. It's actually all straightforward, but given how dangerous you've been told this is, you won't believe that and nor should you just to be safe
1) Turn off your phone.
2) This is the video you'll be using:
How to S-Off and Root the HTC Desire S [HD] - A step-by-step tutorial - YouTube
(Start taking notice at 00:35, the rest is just filler)
3) At 1:14, make a note of whether your phone says 0.98.0000 or 0.98.0002.
Note: If you have trouble getting to this screen and it just boots normally, try taking the battery out, leaving it for
30 seconds, reinserting it and then go again.
4) If when you get to this stage your phone says S-OFF instead of S-ON (which is VERY unlikely) then stop as you'll only have to run the RUU but there will be other steps you have to complete similar to several in here but that's not the focus of this guide.
5) By 2:10 when he says to uninstall HTC Sync, you may not have it installed, in which case obviously don't worry.
6) At 4:00 in, make sure you do get your
serial number and not your IMEI number or anything else, and copy it exactly.
7) At 4:05 when you generate the key, keep it open and handy and notice whether any zeroes are actually letter O's and vice versa. The best way to do it is copy the key, making sure you don't capture any leading or trailing spaces, and then right click -> paste when you come to entering the code in the later, relevant stage.
8) At 4:35 the video will gloss over something you need to do but you will go to:
Menu > Settings > Applications > Development
..and enable USB Debugging.
9) It wouldn't hurt to check again that Fast Boot is disabled:
Settings > Power > Fast Boot
10) Copy everything that he does up until 6:53. He will root from this point onwards - we don't need to, so stop watching!
11) Go to this page:
[ROM]Shipped Desire S ROM Collection - xda-developers
..and read down the list until you see an entry for your network - look for the third word in each emboldened line. Download that file.
12) If your phone is connected to the PC, then take out the cable, wait a second and reconnect, and choose Disk Drive.
13) Run the file you just downloaded. Follow only EXACTLY as it says. If it sits waiting to recognise the phone but never does, cancel it, try enabling USB Debugging again as in no. 8 earlier and go again.
14) Assuming it then runs, be patient. Don't touch it until it looks like it's finished and your phone is back into the initial setup mode. If it looks like you're stuck on the white HTC screen, just leave it. It probably isn't stuck, it just takes ages. The most you should need to do at this stage is unlock it briefly using the power button if it goes to sleep.
And at the end of it all, you'll basically be up and running on the old software.
Now I have to stress, that without having your phone in front of me and performing these actions, I cannot guarantee that this will work with whatever you do to follow it. Again, you undertake this at your own risk. However, this has worked for four people now with no failures. Reporting that you've had success or adding Thanks wouldn't go amiss.
Please feel free to PM me if you have any problems so that we can keep this thread to reporting people with the issue and any progress in getting it officially resolved. If there are any corrections that need to be made to the above for the benefit of other users, then I'll do so over time.
