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Help Stuck in infinite Boot loop and trying to save data..

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paulhudgins

Newbie
So my wife's Evo is stuck in an infinite boot loop. I know I could have it flashed but everything would be lost. The issue is she has some voicemail's from her G'mom that passed away recently and I am looking for anyway to try to save those voicemails. I don't know if that is possible but I need to try.

The phone is completely stock. I already tried recovery but it just kept on looping. From the Boot menu this is what I have.

***Locked (OOW) ***
SUPERSONIC EVT2-3 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT -2.18.001
MICROP-041f
TOUCH PANEL-ATMEL224_16ab
RADIO-2.15.12.19
Dec 21 2011, 12:50:32

Any help would be appreciated.
 
paulhudgins said:
So my wife's Evo is stuck in an infinite boot loop. I know I could have it flashed but everything would be lost. The issue is she has some voicemail's from her G'mom that passed away recently and I am looking for anyway to try to save those voicemails. I don't know if that is possible but I need to try.

The phone is completely stock. I already tried recovery but it just kept on looping. From the Boot menu this is what I have.

***Locked (OOW) ***
SUPERSONIC EVT2-3 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT -2.18.001
MICROP-041f
TOUCH PANEL-ATMEL224_16ab
RADIO-2.15.12.19
Dec 21 2011, 12:50:32

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

welcome to the forums!!!!!!!!!!!

what exactly happened to cause the bootloop? and going to recovery will not do much as the phone is not root and all you have is a stock recovery. other then a factory reset there is not much you can do, unfortunately.
 
ocnbrze said:
welcome to the forums!!!!!!!!!!!

what exactly happened to cause the bootloop? and going to recovery will not do much as the phone is not root and all you have is a stock recovery. other then a factory reset there is not much you can do, unfortunately.
Click to expand...


The animation for time of day on the HTC screen started going crazy. It was changing rapidly it looked like screen flicker at first but it only effected that animation. I shut the power down and rebooted and it went into infinite loop.
 
paulhudgins said:
The animation for time of day on the HTC screen started going crazy. It was changing rapidly it looked like screen flicker at first but it only effected that animation. I shut the power down and rebooted and it went into infinite loop.
Click to expand...

hmmmm well not sure what else you can do other then try and do a factory reset. you will loose all data so not sure if you want to do that or not. i know you will most likely loose the voicemail, but at least you will have a working phone, hopefully.

not sure how up date the phone was, but when you delete messages on the sprints latest visual voice mail app, it will move the deleted messages to the sd card. you might want to check there.
 
ocnbrze said:
hmmmm well not sure what else you can do other then try and do a factory reset. you will loose all data so not sure if you want to do that or not. i know you will most likely loose the voicemail, but at least you will have a working phone, hopefully.

not sure how up date the phone was, but when you delete messages on the sprints latest visual voice mail app, it will move the deleted messages to the sd card. you might want to check there.
Click to expand...


hmmm.. It is my wife's phone so I don't really know how up to date she had it. I'll search the SD card and see. Do you know what file they would normally go under? Frustrating because it seems like there should be a way to access the drive even if the phone can't boot all the way.
 
paulhudgins said:
hmmm.. It is my wife's phone so I don't really know how up to date she had it. I'll search the SD card and see. Do you know what file they would normally go under? Frustrating because it seems like there should be a way to access the drive even if the phone can't boot all the way.
Click to expand...

sorry i had a brain fart. lol i never really looked for it, but every time i delete a message, it says that it has been moved to the deleted folder. i thought that it meant that there was an actual folder on the card. but that is incorrect. so sorry about that.

unless the message was backed to the sd card, i'm afraid that it is lost.

and you can't get access to the system partitions like that unless you are rooted. if the phone was rooted we have more ways to troubleshoot.
 
ocnbrze said:
sorry i had a brain fart. lol i never really looked for it, but every time i delete a message, it says that it has been moved to the deleted folder. i thought that it meant that there was an actual folder on the card. but that is incorrect. so sorry about that.

unless the message was backed to the sd card, i'm afraid that it is lost.

and you can't get access to the system partitions like that unless you are rooted. if the phone was rooted we have more ways to troubleshoot.
Click to expand...

I'm going to guess that there is no way to attempt to root a phone that is stuck in a loop. Looks like I am quickly running out of options. Thanks for your help.
 
paulhudgins said:
I'm going to guess that there is no way to attempt to root a phone that is stuck in a loop. Looks like I am quickly running out of options. Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

well there is a small possibility that you could unlock the bootloader via the HTCdev site. as long as you can get to the bootloader you should be fine doing it. now keep this in mind in that you will have a bootloader that is watermarked, meaning that it will say unlocked. this voids your warranty (though being how old the evo is, you most likely will not have to worry about this), but also anybody who knows what to look for will know that your phone has been rooted. however, most places do not care really if the phone is rooted or not.

also this will wipe data as well so you will still loose the voice message.

so following down this path will be up to you. i can guide you through if you need it. also keep in mind that i can't guarantee that this will work for your phone.
 
ocnbrze said:
well there is a small possibility that you could unlock the bootloader via the HTCdev site. as long as you can get to the bootloader you should be fine doing it. now keep this in mind in that you will have a bootloader that is watermarked, meaning that it will say unlocked. this voids your warranty (though being how old the evo is, you most likely will not have to worry about this), but also anybody who knows what to look for will know that your phone has been rooted. however, most places do not care really if the phone is rooted or not.

also this will wipe data as well so you will still loose the voice message.

so following down this path will be up to you. i can guide you through if you need it. also keep in mind that i can't guarantee that this will work for your phone.
Click to expand...

The data is really the only thing that concerns me about the phone. So it looks like I am pretty much stuck. The only other thing I can think to try then would be to send it off for cell phone forensics and see if they could pull any data. Do you think something like that might be a possibility? I can replace the phone so if the phone was to be destroyed but the data was saved I wouldn't care.
 
there's not much you can do to save the data on the stock recovery though you CAN use Odin to flash a CWM and wipe everything accept Data. and it should be fine unles DATA is what is causing it (though unlikely) which Evo do you have i can help look for the files.
 
NGD1 said:
there's not much you can do to save the data on the stock recovery though you CAN use Odin to flash a CWM and wipe everything accept Data. and it should be fine unles DATA is what is causing it (though unlikely) which Evo do you have i can help look for the files.
Click to expand...

Have the EVO 4G.
 
You can access the stock recovery menu and wipe the cache.

Pull the battery, put it back in. Hold the volume down button, then press and hold the power button simultaneously. Wait for a white screen to appear. This is the bootloader or hboot.
Use the volume down button to highlight "Recovery" press the power button. See if it boots to recovery, you'll get a black screen with a triangle and red exclamation point. Now press and hold both the volume down and the volume up buttons, then press the power button and hold all three. A new menu should appear. Use volume down to highlight wipe or clear cache, press power to wipe the cache. Then select reboot.

See if that will allow the phone to boot up. It's worth a try. :)
 
Granite1 said:
You can access the stock recovery menu and wipe the cache.

Pull the battery, put it back in. Hold the volume down button, then press and hold the power button simultaneously. Wait for a white screen to appear. This is the bootloader or hboot.
Use the volume down button to highlight "Recovery" press the power button. See if it boots to recovery, you'll get a black screen with a triangle and red exclamation point. Now press and hold both the volume down and the volume up buttons, then press the power button and hold all three. A new menu should appear. Use volume down to highlight wipe or clear cache, press power to wipe the cache. Then select reboot.

See if that will allow the phone to boot up. It's worth a try. :)
Click to expand...

I can try this when I get home. I have accessed stock recovery but I haven't tried clearing cache yet.
 
NGD1 said:
Check this out
HTC Evo 4G: Full Update Guide - CyanogenMod Wiki
Click to expand...

So I looked at this for the Custom Recovery Image. I don't have a way to disable fastboot or turn on the USB debugging on her phone. So I'm not sure how Revolutionary could communicate with the phone over the USB? Someone said I could try to flash Amon-Ra recovery from the SD card but I'm not sure if the phone has to be rooted to succeed with that either. Any thoughts on this? Thank you for your help.
 
paulhudgins said:
So I looked at this for the Custom Recovery Image. I don't have a way to disable fastboot or turn on the USB debugging on her phone. So I'm not sure how Revolutionary could communicate with the phone over the USB? Someone said I could try to flash Amon-Ra recovery from the SD card but I'm not sure if the phone has to be rooted to succeed with that either. Any thoughts on this? Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

yeah this will not work for you. revolutionary works with an older hboot. you are current so this will not work. also for you to get a custom recovery you will need to get your bootloader unlocked which in turn will wipe data.

try granite's suggestion first then we can try other things so that we can at least get the phone working.
 
ocnbrze said:
yeah this will not work for you. revolutionary works with an older hboot. you are current so this will not work. also for you to get a custom recovery you will need to get your bootloader unlocked which in turn will wipe data.

try granite's suggestion first then we can try other things so that we can at least get the phone working.
Click to expand...

alright I tried it and it failed. From another forum I found this thread

HTC Evo Will Not Start

This describes my issue to a tee. Here is the quote from that I receive when going into wipe the cache. I get the exact same messages.

Go to 'Recovery'
Shows Green sync-looking-picture-with-a-down-arrow-in-the-middle, then Red Triangle With Exclamation Mark appears
Press up and power button
When I do that it says this below the red triangle:
"E:Can't open /cache/recovery/command"
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log"
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log"
Go to wipe cache:
Says "wiping cache",
"Formating /cache..."
"Cache wipe complete."
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log" (again)
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log" (again)
Go to Reboot:
Says "Success Rebooting by reason:oem-00..."
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log" (once again)
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log[/I]" (once again)
 
alright I tried wiping the cache and it failed. From another forum I found this thread

HTC Evo Will Not Start

This describes my issue to a tee. Here is the quote from that I receive when going into wipe the cache. I get the exact same messages.

Go to 'Recovery'
Shows Green sync-looking-picture-with-a-down-arrow-in-the-middle, then Red Triangle With Exclamation Mark appears
Press up and power button
When I do that it says this below the red triangle:
"E:Can't open /cache/recovery/command"
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log"
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log"
Go to wipe cache:
Says "wiping cache",
"Formating /cache..."
"Cache wipe complete."
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log" (again)
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log" (again)
Go to Reboot:
Says "Success Rebooting by reason:oem-00..."
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log" (once again)
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log[/I]" (once again)
Click to expand...
 
NGD1 said:
well i feel stupid XD best of luck!
Click to expand...

its all good. i appreciate the effort in trying to help.1

paulhudgins said:
alright I tried it and it failed. From another forum I found this thread

HTC Evo Will Not Start

This describes my issue to a tee. Here is the quote from that I receive when going into wipe the cache. I get the exact same messages.

Go to 'Recovery'
Shows Green sync-looking-picture-with-a-down-arrow-in-the-middle, then Red Triangle With Exclamation Mark appears
Press up and power button
When I do that it says this below the red triangle:
"E:Can't open /cache/recovery/command"
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log"
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log"
Go to wipe cache:
Says "wiping cache",
"Formating /cache..."
"Cache wipe complete."
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log" (again)
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log" (again)
Go to Reboot:
Says "Success Rebooting by reason:oem-00..."
"E:Can't mount /data/data/recovery/log" (once again)
"E:Can't open /data/data/recovery/log[/I]" (once again)
Click to expand...

yeah i'm not sure if this is because you are not rooted or not and do not have access to the stock recovery functions.

if you want you can try clear storage in the bootloader menu, but this will wipe data. so that will be up to you.
 
When you try to access the stock recovery make sure you press both volume up and down at the same time.
The stock recovery really needs to have the option to wipe the Dalvik cache as well IMHO. Seriously. Stock users could benefit from this in a serious way.

If this doesn't work, I'm really sorry. At this pint I really don't know how to get this working.

Wait. I might have an idea. Let me get a hold of a few peeps. BRB. :)
 
Granite1 said:
When you try to access the stock recovery make sure you press both volume up and down at the same time.
The stock recovery really needs to have the option to wipe the Dalvik cache as well IMHO. Seriously. Stock users could benefit from this in a serious way.

If this doesn't work, I'm really sorry. At this pint I really don't know how to get this working.

Wait. I might have an idea. Let me get a hold of a few peeps. BRB. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. When I go into recovery I have only 4 options:

Reboot System Now
Apply update from SDcard
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe Cache partition

The above is of course what happens when I try to wipe the cache and reboot.
 
@anyone who already responded--would/could any adb commands work in this situation?
I'm leaning towards "no" due to the fact he cannot access "usb debugging" or cannot enter fastboot (no custom recovery)?? Edit: what am I thinking....fast boot in bootloader screen?
Just curious is all.

Edit again: what if he goes into bootloader screen, fastboot, plug in phone, then issue any/if any, adb commands?!?!
 
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