Root Stuck at HTC logo (Volume- key not working, so can't boot into bootloader)

[Belask]

hi guys,
First of all I want to make it clear that I did a lot of googling before posting my problem here. Normally I am not a noob but am not experienced in this field, because this is my first smartphone ever. Hope you guys understand.

I have HTC Desire which i bought in slightly used condition. It has been working perfectly for about an year but a couple of days ago it suddenly restarted and keeps restarting and never goes past HTC logo.
Its 'Volume -' hardware key virtually never worked even when the phone was in otherwise perfect condition. So I can't boot into bootloader using 'Volume -' key.
As far as I know it's not rooted. The android version is 2.2 or 2.3, not sure.

I want to ask:
1. When should i expect bootloader? Before or after HTC logo?
2. Can i access my phone from android SDK even when its off?
4. Is it possible to flash rom even when i can't boot into bootloader using hardware keys, and the phone keeps restarting and never gets past htc logo.
5. SDK Manager that came with ADT bundle is command prompt. Not GUI as shown in the tutorial from where i downloaded it. What should i do now?

 

[Hadron]

Hi Belask, and welcome to AF,

If it were going into the bootloader it would show the splash screen (HTC logo) fairly briefly, then bring up the bootloader.

There are two key utilities in the SDK: ADB (Android Debug Bridge) and Fastboot. You need to be running android USB debugging turned on before it will respond to ADB commands. Or if you had a custom recovery you could probably use ADB there (a custom recovery would give you other options anyway), but since you aren't rooted you don't have one of those. Plus you still need to get into the bootloader to access that.

Fastboot you may have more chance with, but on an unrooted device there aren't many things it can do. The first thing is that you can get the phone into fastboot mode by booting while pressing the "back" button. You get a menu similar to the bootloader, and one of the options is to switch to the bootloader. However, if the volume keys don't work you may not be able to do much anyway, as you need them to select the menu items. If they work for that then select bootloader, then from the bootloader select recovery. In recovery (black screen with red triangle) use volume up + power to bring up the recovery menu. From there you can try erasing cache, and if that isn't enough you could try a factory reset (which will of course erase your apps and data).

But if your volume key really doesn't respond then this won't be possible. Nevertheless if you can get into fastboot mode you have a couple more options. For a start, if you have the fastboot command set up then you can use that to do some of the things I described above. Boot the phone into fastboot mode and connect to a computer. It should now say "fastboot USB" on the screen. Then try the command "fastboot erase cache" followed by "fastboot reboot". I can't recall exactly which commands work on unrooted devices (locked bootloaders), but hopefully erase cache will do so. If it still doesn't reboot properly, "fastboot format cache" and "fastboot format data" would be equivalent to a full factory reset.

The other thing you can do in fastboot mode is run a ROM Update Utility (RUU) and reflash the device with a complete new set of software. For this it would be helpful to know what OS version you are running and whether the phone is network branded. However, the android 2.3 update, which can be downloaded from here (near bottom of the page), should work with a large range of GSM Desires. The RUU is a Windows executable (unzip the 2.3 package to find it). Just connect the phone to a PC when in fastboot mode and run the RUU .exe on the PC.

However, whether any of this will work will depend on why it's in this state. If it's some software corruption this will fix it, but if it's due to a hardware fault, such as motherboard overheating, then it's unlikely you'll be able to run the RUU successfully and it could even conceivably make things worse. So I'd keep the RUU in reserve until you've at least tried a factory reset (or ascertained that you cannot).

Good luck!

P.S. Can't help you with the GUI question. I always use ADB and fastboot as command-line tools. I also don't use Windows for this stuff at all.

 

[Belask]

Thanks man, you rock. Now my phone is working fine. Using back key to get the phone into fastboot did the trick. From there I switched to bootloader, then recovery, then recovery menu, and then i did a factory reset.
Volume down key is not working properly so i had to press it many times to get it work for once. Volume up is perfectly fine.
One more thing, I had to press BOTH volume up and volume down, not just volume down, along with power button to get into recovery menu. Fortunately i had read in an article that you have to press both volume buttons to get into recovery menu.
Since now my phone is working fine, i would like to know what settings should i do, and what information should i obtain from the device, to make any future recovery easy.
Thanks a million times.

 

[scary alien]

Belask, good to see that great advice Hadron kindly provided was helpful (you're always in good hands when he's guiding the way ).

Just wanted to also let you know that I've moved your thread to the all-things-root area for the HTC Desire. I know your device isn't rooted, but there's many root-related and complicated topics/utilities/concepts discussed here that are typically part of the ATR area.

Lemme know if you guys feel strongly and I'll happily move you back .

Cheers and best of luck!

 

[mursieme]

Thanks man, you rock. Now my phone is working fine. Using back key to get the phone into fastboot did the trick. From there I switched to bootloader, then recovery, then recovery menu, and then i did a factory reset.
Volume down key is not working properly so i had to press it many times to get it work for once. Volume up is perfectly fine.
One more thing, I had to press BOTH volume up and volume down, not just volume down, along with power button to get into recovery menu. Fortunately i had read in an article that you have to press both volume buttons to get into recovery menu.
Since now my phone is working fine, i would like to know what settings should i do, and what information should i obtain from the device, to make any future recovery easy.
Thanks a million times.

hi there my name is janice and i'm experiencing the same problem, i did try the back key but it still won't work unless i'm doing it wrong can you please help me. Please post back here or PM me.

 

[nicka3200]

Hi mursieme

Make sure your phone is fully depowered by pulling the battery out fir a few seconds.

Then you have to hold the back key down while momentarily pressing the power button. Make sure you hold the back button until it starts to boot.

If it does boot into fastboot you can follow Hadron's instructions above.