Root Soft - Brick : Serious Help Required

[savvasch]

Hello Developers,

I have a big issue with my HTC Desire. Long story short I think I have bricked it

To begin with, I acquired the phone locked to Vodafone UK. After trying to unlock it using HTC Unlock Sim Tool, the software crashed and the phone was restarting at random times. You can watch the video here.

So, following some advice from XDA, I tried to re-install RUU 2.3 Gingerbread Update through the SD Card. For some reason I got a worse problem which was Radio Fail

In order to fix the issue, I tried many different RUUs available in order to get the radio fixed. One of the RUU I used resulted to what is known SLCD brick. As you can understand now, I have now visual feedback now. (Screen is Black).

The RUU I've used was:

RUU_Bravo_Vodafone_UK_1.19.161.5_Radio_32.36.00.28U_4.06.00.02_2_release_126338_signed.exe

In order to fix this, I followed this thread along with this tutorial.

I have created a goldcard and tried all day long to get a WWE RUU run and fix the issue. However I got no results.

Then, I decided to try fastboot and see if the phone is working.

When I run Command I get the follwing results:

1) The device is connected properly:

 C:\android-sdk-windows\tools>fastboot devices
HT091PL00003    fastboot

2) I cannot flash RUU from fastboot:

C:\android-sdk-windows\tools>fastboot update C:\rom.zip
Whoops: didn't find expected signature
read_central_directory_entry failed

 

[Hadron]

Hi savvasch, and welcome to AF

Right, to start with the easy stuff first: the change from HBOOT 0.93.001 to HBOOT 1.02.0001 is because you ran the 2.3 RUU. And without some serious trickery you can't run another RUU after that because it's an _Upgrade_ utility, and any RUU apart from the one they provide for the official bootloader unlock would be a _downgrade_. So what you did wrong to get the SLCD brick was load an RUU that was so old that it only worked on the original (AMOLED) Desires - probably because the downgrade tutorial is that old.

Right, that's the problem, what can we actually do?

One unusual situation is that your phone says "S-Off". But the hboot version changes when you ran the RUU, while it remained S-OFF. That makes me suspect you have one of the rare factory S-Off phones (if you got S-Off through third party mods, changing the hboot using an RUU will remove this, or else will not change the hboot at all).

So what can we do?

Firstly, can you use the same method you used to produce the SLCD brick but use a more recent RUU instead of the one that tutorial suggested? RUU_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.29.405.5_Radio_32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27_release_159811_signed.exe from shipped-ROMs.com would be my suggestion.

If that doesn't work, just try the 2.3 upgrade again (or download it again and see if you have better luck).

If you want to flash without running the RUU on a PC, extract and update.zip from the RUU (as you've clearly already discovered), rename it to PB88IMG.zip, copy to your SD card, and install it through hboot. There's a description of the process here.

If neither running the RUU via the PC or as above works, you could try using pastboot. My preference would be to extract the individual img files from the RUU and flash them separately (e.g. "fastboot flash system system.img"). If you try this I'd recommend trying system.img first (that's the ROM, which is one of the easiest and least important components to replace ). If it works, consider "fastboot flash radio radio.img". If you get past that, flash recovery and boot as well, but you are pretty much there.

The bad news is that a radio partition update (PU) failure can leave the phone hard bricked. That's why successfully updating the radio, whether via an RUU or some other method, is now the key.

If all else fails there is a newer RUU if you follow HTCs offical bootloader unlock instrctions. But leave that as a last resort, as you don't need it for anything else.

 

[savvasch]

Thanks Hadron for your help.

Firstly, i cannot run the RUU from the computer since i get Error 171. So that knocks out choice #1

I did extensively tried performing an blind update through my SD card with no sucess at all. #2 is out

Now regarding fastboot, I have to admit i did try to install the components one by one. However for system.img i get the error "file too large to send" and for everything else ( radio, boot) error "failed to connect with remote".

I honestly run out of ideas


Update 04/03/2013:

I have now solid reason to believe that the device is bricked. I run the Fastboot commander v1.5 which is a GUI interface of fastboot (thread here)

This is what I get:

Feedback, criticism, ideas, improvments, thanks and appreciations are welcomed on the forum-thread.
............................................................
Operating system: Windows.
Tools folder found.
Windows fastboot tools found.
The folder containing the IMG files was not found.
No Nandroid folder was not found - "Restore" button disabled.
STARTING PRINT OF DEVICE INFO.
-----------------------------------.
SPL/hboot version: 0.80.0000.
Radio version: 4.06.00.02_2.
Main software version: 2.29.405.5.
cid: 11111111.
cpld: .
-----------------------------------.
PRINT OF DEVICE INFO FAILURE - PLEASE CHECK YOUR CONNECTION.
-----------------------------------.
HT091PL00003 Connected.
-----------------------------------(note: here I forced the phone reboot into fastboot).
Rebooting device.
Reboot SUCCESSFUL.
-----------------------------------.
HT091PL00003 Connected.
-----------------------------------.
STARTING PRINT OF DEVICE INFO.
-----------------------------------.
SPL/hboot version: failed.
Radio version: failed.
Main software version: failed.
cid: failed.
cpld: failed.
getvar:product failed (command write failed (unknown error)).
getvar:mid failed (command write failed (unknown error)).
getvar:security failed (command write failed (unknown error)).
getvar:build-mode failed (command write failed (unknown error)).
-----------------------------------.
Print of device info SUCCESSFUL.
This device does not have s-off nor eng hboot.
ARE YOU SURE THAT THIS IS THE RIGHT TOOL FOR YOU?.
Hboot, radio & recovery files set - FlashAll button enabled.
-----------------------------------.
STARTING FLASH OF CUSTOM FILES.
Flashing "radio" - PLEASE WAIT.
"radio" flash FAILURE.
FLASH OF CUSTOM FILES FAILURE - RADIO FAILURE.
-----------------------------------.
Running fastboot command - PLEASE WAIT.
###Calling fastboot with: oem rebootRUU###
                              ... FAILED (command write failed (Unknown error))
finished. total time: 0.641s
********************************

 

[Hadron]

Funny thing is that you do have usb access, because it's returning your device's serial number, but 171 is a usb connection error. It's otherwise behaving as if S-On even though it says S-Off. You don't have the engineering hboot though, so it might be that that's the problem with trying to fastboot flash radio etc.

It's clearly in an odd state because:

SPL/hboot version: 0.80.0000.
Radio version: 4.06.00.02_2.

come from the old Vodafone RUU, while

Main software version: 2.29.405.5.

is from a recent WWE. On the plus side, that radio version is old but it's valid, so it might be that the radio partition failure is fixed.

The RUU is the only thing that I can think of. Did you force it into fastboot mode before running the RUU (boot while pressing the back button)? After a partition update failure they often go into a mode where all you can do is run an RUU, but we can't see what's on the screen so don't know - and I think the radio partition may have been fixed, so it might not be in that mode. So it's probably worth trying running the RUU both from (what should be) normal bootloader mode and fastboot mode, and see whether one or other will work without the 171 error - try fastboot mode first though, as that's what I'd expect to work.

I'd try the recent WWE (because that's the system software version you have). If that really won't work try the 2.3 RUU - but given the problem you had with that last time, I'd keep this as last resort, and download a new copy and check the md5 code to ensure it's not corrupt. shipped-ROM.com, who I linked earlier, provide md5s for this purpose (if you don't know what this is, see here).

I'm not without hope, because the worst problem was the radio and there's reason to think that has been fixed. It's just a matter of getting past this connection error.

 

[savvasch]

I've tried many RUU's none seem to work.

Most RUU's don't even recognise the phone. They don't even pass the stage when it says

"Verifying information on your Android phone".

The only one that passes that stage is 2.3 Gingerbread Update.

I have even changed the "rom.zip" file from %temp% of the Gingerbread Update installation with another "rom.zip"(the one with software version 2.29)

Nothing works. The installation says:

Rebooting to Bootloader - Waiting for Bootloader....

I have noticed, from another HTC Desire, that when the commands:

fastboot reboot

and

fastboot reboot-bootloader

are run the computer recognises that change in the driver, where as in my case nothing happens.

 

[Hadron]

OK, this is a long shot, but there's an old post for a different HTC device which says that if you get that "waiting for..." followed by a 171 you should just run the RUU again (without disconnecting the device or anything else in the meanwhile).

There is one more RUU you probably haven't tried, but I don't normally suggest it because once you run that you cannot run any other (and also can't S-Off, which some people want to do, but that's probably not the concern right now). You get this one by going to HTCDev.com and following the instructions for unlocking the bootloader. You don't actually do the unlock, but it will ask you to download and run another RUU in order to install the unlockable bootloader, and that's a new Froyo RUU that you won't find anywhere else. So if nothing else works it might be worth trying this one.

 

[savvasch]

I have tried the "do not disconnect method" and it doesn't work.

Neither the RUU from HTC Sense works.

It passes the stage were it verifies the information of the phone but it's still stuck on Waiting for bootloader.

What I think now is that I have a bad driver on my PC. But I have tried so many, and I don't know what else to do.