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I really suck at installing custom ROMs.
I hard bricked because of low battery while flashing (I think, screen won't turn on, green light only comes on when plugged into a computer with no battery in, and a couple of posts I read made it sound like I'm screwed). So I'm going to AT&T tomorrow and hopefully getting a new phone. My main question is...
Can someone point me in the direction of a very comprehensive guide to installing a custom ROM on a stock Atrix brand new from the store?
I have poured over these forums for five days obsessively trying to figure out why I am so stupid and can't make it work, and have probably tried ten different methods of everything to get it to work, hoping that one of them had whatever I was missing already taken care of.
I rooted and unlocked my bootloader just fine. Even installed the Gingerblur rom (but that's a P-ROM right?). I think my problem is the custom recovery. Yes I deleted the recovery_install file. I tried flashing tenfar's CWM (the newest one I think, I sideloaded a different one to get Gingerblur) with fastboot but it said something like "flash:recovery is not a known command." (Sorry I don't remember completely, this was very early this morning before I went to sleep) I thought at the time that once you unlocked the bootloader you didn't have to do it again, but I read a thread an hour ago that said you just have to flash the unlock image after an RSD reset. So I was going to try to re-unlock, then try and flash with fastboot. Unfortunately I never got to try.
I am sorry for my obnoxiously long post, but I figured the more info I gave the higher chance there would be that someone could point at the obvious for me.
Thanks for your time.
when you plug the phone to wall-charger...wt happens?..do you see anything on the screen..
No. Also nothing happens when I press the power button. The green light ONLY comes on when I plug it into my computer with no battery, not when I plug it into an outlet.
Not entirely the right person to give advice but I guess it's worth a shot trying.
I'm a bit confused as to what you actually did. You're rooted and unlocked (100% sure on this?) Had gingerblur installed (guessing you were unlocked on 1.8.3?) and then wanted to install CMW, correct?
From the error you got you probably didn't cd (folder fastboot is in) flash fastboot recovery (path of recovery-en-goapk.img). Deleting the stock Android recovery folder most likely left you without any recovery. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong )
Entirely sure NOTHING happens while being plugged in into a computer? Can you get into fastboot at all? When connected via USB, does RSD show your device?
xscottishx27 said:
Not entirely the right person to give advice but I guess it's worth a shot trying.
I'm a bit confused as to what you actually did. You're rooted and unlocked (100% sure on this?) Had gingerblur installed (guessing you were unlocked on 1.8.3?) and then wanted to install CMW, correct?
From the error you got you probably didn't cd (folder fastboot is in) flash fastboot recovery (path of recovery-en-goapk.img). Deleting the stock Android recovery folder most likely left you without any recovery. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong )
Entirely sure NOTHING happens while being plugged in into a computer? Can you get into fastboot at all? When connected via USB, does RSD show your device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen will not turn on. Nothing, no moto symbol, nothing. I did cd, I got an interface, fastboot said it was going to install a recovery, but then it failed, and that is the message the phone gave me. I was rooted, because I had superuser. I WAS unlocked,, because it had said unlocked on boot, though not at the time of fastboot, but then I used rsd after I was stuck in boot after trying to install a custom rom. After that it didn't say unlocked, so I unlocked again, and while doing so it said I was already unlocked. I failed to install a custom rom again with the same result, so I rsd'ed again back to 1.2. I never unlocked after that because I figured I didn't need to. I tried to install a custom rom many times with pretty much the same result after trying several different things, including flashing CWM with fastboot. Then I read that I had to re unlock after RSDing, so I was in the process of that when my screen shut off in the middle of it. I assume it didn't have enough charge and died (or that is what it sounds like according to what I have read)
mediocrepiracy said:
The screen will not turn on. Nothing, no moto symbol, nothing. I did cd, I got an interface, fastboot said it was going to install a recovery, but then it failed, and that is the message the phone gave me. I was rooted, because I had superuser. I WAS unlocked,, because it had said unlocked on boot, though not at the time of fastboot, but then I used rsd after I was stuck in boot after trying to install a custom rom. After that it didn't say unlocked, so I unlocked again, and while doing so it said I was already unlocked. I failed to install a custom rom again with the same result, so I rsd'ed again back to 1.2. I never unlocked after that because I figured I didn't need to. I tried to install a custom rom many times with pretty much the same result after trying several different things, including flashing CWM with fastboot. Then I read that I had to re unlock after RSDing, so I was in the process of that when my screen shut off in the middle of it. I assume it didn't have enough charge and died (or that is what it sounds like according to what I have read)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sounds like hard brick bro...
You need to find a way to charge your battery. It sounds like your battery is dead. Try to find a someone with the same phone as you.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
To charge your battery,
Take ANY USB cable and cut one end of it off.
Strip the outer layer and strip the Black and red wires exposing the wire itself.
Starting with the black wire, tape that end to the NEGATIVE sign on the battery
Then take the red wire and tape it to the POSITIVE side of the battery.
Make sure you check it every few minutes so it does not over heat because it WILL get hot due to no regulations
I would charge it for approximately 30 min or so then put the battery back into your phone and boot it up
AND NO YOU DID NOT HARDBRICK BECAUSE YOU DID NOT HAVE HAVE THE RIGHT CWM IN ORDER TO FLASH THE OTA THAT WOULD CAUSE YOU TO HARDBRICK IF GOING BACKWARDS
ClearFire said:
To charge your battery,
Take ANY USB cable and cut one end of it off.
Strip the outer layer and strip the Black and red wires exposing the wire itself.
Starting with the black wire, tape that end to the NEGATIVE sign on the battery
Then take the red wire and tape it to the POSITIVE side of the battery.
Make sure you check it every few minutes so it does not over heat because it WILL get hot due to no regulations
I would charge it for approximately 30 min or so then put the battery back into your phone and boot it up
AND NO YOU DID NOT HARDBRICK BECAUSE YOU DID NOT HAVE HAVE THE RIGHT CWM IN ORDER TO FLASH THE OTA THAT WOULD CAUSE YOU TO HARDBRICK IF GOING BACKWARDS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this works I will give you many thanks, and my firstborn child.
It didn't work. Walked into an AT&T store and said "It broke, I don't know what to do" and they gave me a new one under manufacturers warranty. I am going to try again, but if someone could point me towards a comprehensive guide that may be able to solve my problems, I would be appreciative.
I figured out my issue with not being able to install custom recovery, it was the fact that I hadn't unlocked again after flashing an sbf. I am now running Aura ROM, and so far I've been geeking out nonstop. Thanks everyone who tried to help me.
I got this phone from ebay, and it worked a few days before I flashed it so I know it's not hardware or a bad flash on their part because it was stock when I got it. Anyway, I flashed the generic fw through flashtool and it was working fine for awhile until one day it froze and nothing was responsive. The battery died, and I recharged it and threw it into flash mode to repair the firmware through SEUS, and it got it working for awhile until it happened again. So instead I went ahead and used flashtool to put AT&T's fw back on the phone. After I did that, the phone now only vibrates when I turn it on and then does nothing. If it does do something, it just continuously vibrates until I pull the battery. I tried using SEUS and Flashtool to flash another fw because I can get it to flash mode, but it says failed everytime no matter what firmware I use. And SEUS fails right up front when trying to repair. Any ideas?
Pull out the battery....plug the usb cable...run latest flash tool...click on flash button..when it is searching for the fone then put back the battery with pressing the return key.
Recheck the latest driver for 2.3.3
Did it work?
Dude are you aware of rooting procedures?
First you should flash the stock rom back in, then you flash some pre-rooted GB rom. Threads on X10 Android Development are full of options.
jeancca said:
Dude are you aware of rooting procedures?
First you should flash the stock rom back in, then you flash some pre-rooted GB rom. Threads on X10 Android Development are full of options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude did you even read my post?
I've been a member here for 3 years and have been flashing Android to phones ever since then. I have looked at the troubleshoots but they were all giving a failed flash. Not to mention this has nothing to do with root or GB, I was talking stock firmware, this brick happened before SE pushed out the GB update.
To subhanker.ds, thank you for the input, I'll give it a shot.
EDIT: Just got the same error
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
As per your screen shot, debugging mode is of....but it is not possible to on now as ur phone is dead.
I think somehow jeancca is correct...use rooting process..(no need to flash any rom)..it will automatically turn on debugging mod & then you flash ur rom...
Hope ur prob will be solved dear...
I've tried several rooting methods that and they all state I should turn on Unknown Sources and Debugging. But I cannot do this, is there a way that will force it into usb debugging as you said?
Actually at the time of flashing debugging mode automatically turn on...
Anyway i'm not getting any clue...although you can try to flash only system.sin file.then see what will happen....best of luck...
I've tried everything I can think of and I still can't get it to work. A new symptom has came up though, when I try and connect it to my PC, it will go into flash mode but after awile the LED goes off but is still recognized by the PC as being in flash mode. Same goes for when I plug it into the charging cable.
Bump.
Sorry for doing it, but is there anyone out there that can help me?! I had to think I have a $200 paperweight.
Hi..... I mentioned this on another post but thought I might see if this might help you. Although I didn't mention the use of other Flashtools in the other thread, I did end up trying Flashtool 2.8.0 and 2.9.1 and the latest edition. In the end I ended up going with the 2.8.0 to start fresh and since that was the one that was used for An Android 2.1, I flashed back to 2.1. With a few instances like those you mention I tried this and worked out.
What I did was open my devices and printers (control panel) and noticed the SEMC USB or IDE blah blah......The device pops up when connecting my phone. I would flash my phone and the go to the "Turn on phone and check debug" and ..... Same as you green light (Flash) would go on and then nothing.
What I did was unplug my phone and Uninstall the device used (SEMC USB or IDE, it named itself differently on an occasion or two) and then started my Flashtool then tried again. Goto Flashtool and prepare your Flash and wait for it to load up (took some time once or twice but....) connect your phone and try again.
I have been messing around with a bunch of apps and FW's and ROMS and lately Unlocking the BootLoader.
Some you can just goto Task Manager and Stop the ADB.exe processes but this uninstall worked excellent for me when needed.
Hope this solves your issue. Good Luck. Oh you may not need the other Flashtools but I have them on file just in case because 2.9.1 gave me a problem before when doing something. You might be able to do with whatever Flashtool you are using but just thought I would share my experience.
I have the same problem . i I flashed it with X10i rom but work for while and after 1 or 2 hours hanged and when i remove the battery it's hang in sony ericsson .
After that I flashed it with SEUS and upgrade to official rom 2.3.3
and has the same problem .DO THINK IT IS A HARDWARE PROBLEM
Tingles said:
Hi..... I mentioned this on another post but thought I might see if this might help you. Although I didn't mention the use of other Flashtools in the other thread, I did end up trying Flashtool 2.8.0 and 2.9.1 and the latest edition. In the end I ended up going with the 2.8.0 to start fresh and since that was the one that was used for An Android 2.1, I flashed back to 2.1. With a few instances like those you mention I tried this and worked out.
What I did was open my devices and printers (control panel) and noticed the SEMC USB or IDE blah blah......The device pops up when connecting my phone. I would flash my phone and the go to the "Turn on phone and check debug" and ..... Same as you green light (Flash) would go on and then nothing.
What I did was unplug my phone and Uninstall the device used (SEMC USB or IDE, it named itself differently on an occasion or two) and then started my Flashtool then tried again. Goto Flashtool and prepare your Flash and wait for it to load up (took some time once or twice but....) connect your phone and try again.
I have been messing around with a bunch of apps and FW's and ROMS and lately Unlocking the BootLoader.
Some you can just goto Task Manager and Stop the ADB.exe processes but this uninstall worked excellent for me when needed.
Hope this solves your issue. Good Luck. Oh you may not need the other Flashtools but I have them on file just in case because 2.9.1 gave me a problem before when doing something. You might be able to do with whatever Flashtool you are using but just thought I would share my experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot, I will give this a shot as soon as I get home. I'll keep my fingers crossed that this may help me and the others having this sort of issue.
Mobark, I don't think it's a hardware issue. For awhile I was thinking it was a dead screen, but from the people I have heard that did indeed have dead screens, they have lines in the center of the screen while my screen just doesn't turn on.
Hi everyone i am having the same problem my phone only vibrates for sec and the green led just flash for sec than nothing but my phone goes into flash mode but the flash aborts i have also made a thread in which i fully listed my progess and software i used http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1257581
Nope, didn't seem to work. I think my problem is the phone doesn't want to stay in Flash mode for some reason.
I fix this error, i download and flash this, next i updated in SEUS, my phone is Xperia Play
Sorry for my bad english.
Ok, so I upgraded to 3.0.0 and tried flashing the generic fw again to no avail. And as far as above, the firmware isn't for the x10, it's for the Play, Arc, and Neo.
This is what i did
Not sure if this will work for you but this is how I fixed my phone.
When I first changed the rom on my phone i was on baseband 435. I never changed the baseband with the custom rom install.
My friend factory erased the phone and then it would take 45 - 50 mins to finish booting (would turn on i would see se logo and 50 mins later I'd get to a stock "slide to unlock screen" upon doing so i would get a black bg with the custom batt meter and clock at the top. it also dected the sd wasnt plugged in.
While the phone was on, Sony Ericsson pc Companion would say please mount sd card, and that i couldnt do.
While trying to use flashtool 2.9.1 it would say please put the phone in debuggign mode.
At this point, your ss shows you making it further than i did. because mine wouldnt make it past the date/time (yours starts flashing an fails some way through).
I tried 4 roms and none of them worked.
Then i found http://www.multiupload.com/9H20YEXEHR and After updating to flash tool 3.0.0, and using the stock rom that i posted the link to, It worked. but i had to try a few times. At http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=920746 There are 3 different stock roms for x10a (I used the first one in the x10a list)
I used the one that matched my baseband. Try an match yours if you know it.
When i connected usb, the phone would not turn on. The phone would only turn on with batt in. So i connected usb, held back and put batt in.
Doing this worked, I held the back button until the flash completed.
Also as a note, I did not change the bootloader, that could be why it would boot after 50 mins or so.
I hope this helps.
-Mike
Hi guys, I've had a look around for this, but I can only find the solution for bootloaders that are unlocked. I suspect my Ray WASN'T unlocked. I accepted the OTA 2.3.4 update, thinking it would be fine. But the phone now shows the exclamation mark. I can get into both the recovery and fastboot modes (green/blue LED).
None of the recovery solutions are working for me. Is there a way for me to fix this, or will the phone have to go to a Sony Ericsson shop.
The official PC software from SE won't restore it either.
it is wise to go to sony shop , they will fix it
Not sure if this will solve your problem, but it solved mine:
The problem was with the bootloader. So I tried FlashTool_0.2.9.1_FOTAUnbrick which brings a small firmware information to reset the bootloader.
The problem I was having was to be able to correctly connect the phone to the flash tool. My phone's USB connection was constantly going up and down. So I decided to uninstall all the tools and drivers and install them from scratch.
In short, here's what I did.
Installed Update_Service_Setup-2.11.10.7.exe from sony ericcsson in order to get the USB drivers to work.
Followed the instructions of the Update_Service and flashed the latest update available for my phone (2.3.4). This didn't solve the startup problem, just installed the latest update.
I ran the Update_Service again and restarted the process has if I was going to flash again, but after the Update_Service detected the phone I canceled the installation. (I did this just to make sure the phone was connected in FlashBoot)
Then I installed FlashTool_0.2.9.1_FOTAUnbrick.exe, opened the folder of the application and ran X10FlashTool.exe
Hit Flash button and the program opens a Firmware Selection window with a preloaded firmware with two reseting contents (loader.sin, preset.ta). Hit OK button and waited until the program indicated the flash process was finished. The process of flashing takes a few minutes and we need to be patient. It might even seem like it's doing nothing but we just have to wait.
After finishing the flash process the program invited me to disconnect the phone and turn it on. I did so and the phone took probably a minute or so to startup. At first I thought it didn't solve the problem, because it was taking so long to start, but it did solve! So I waited patiently and the Sony Ericsson logo showed up giving me a new hope. After that I had to wait another 4 or 5 minutes for the phone to finish applying the new firmware mentioned in point 2. (There's no visual information of the conclusion process so you might wonder the phone might have hung.) Just waited and everything got back to normal with the benefits of the new firmware 2.3.4 (instead of the previous 2.3.3).
I hope it helps someone having the same issue.
xperia ray said:
it is wise to go to sony shop , they will fix it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might not fall under warranty.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1568792, check my tutorial, there is a guide to unbricking.
Hi, I unfortunately don't know a lot about what I am doing here (the root of all my trouble), I'll try to get the info straight:
Motorola Droid Razr (XT910), bought in Dubai, using it in UK, so I didn't receive OTA updates. I decided to try update to ICS using RSD Lite, but the flashing got stuck at system_signed. I gave it a lot of time (hours) before I switched off the phone and tried again, which is when things started going haywire:
During my following attempts, the battery ran low, so I couldn't go on trying (soft brick). I made a patched "factory cable" as per instructions in this forum somewhere, the cable works and powers the phone for flashing.
Now all it does is coming up with the fastboot screen, which reads:
AP Fastboot Flash Mode (S) (Flash Failure)
0A.6C
[...]
Device is LOCKED. Status code: 0
Battery OK
OK to Program
Transfer Mode:
USB Connected
...which suggests to me it would be ok to be flashed, if only I could get it to accept the files. Being a big numpty, I am unfortunately not quite sure what was the exact version that was on there before (big mistake, I know that now), it was 2.3.6 and I suspect it must have been a MEA version, since it was bought there(? - also, when I first switched it on, all was in arabic).
What I have tried so far was:
* using several different fastboot firmware files with RSD Lite 5.7, all of which do not get over the step '1/xx flash cdt.bin "cdt.bin_signed"' - it just hangs supposedly "In process..." forever. I noticed all of these have an "ota" folder (although they vary considerably in size between <1 and 2.5 GB) - maybe all the ones I downloaded are only updates? Is there an actual, base operating system image somewhere?
After many failed attempts, I got desperate and tried files for different regions at random. The ones I tried so far:
SPDREM_U_01.6.5.1-73_SPU-11-M1-2_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRRTGB_HWp2b_Service1FF_fastboot.xml
SPDREM_U_01.6.5.1-73_SPU-11-M1-2-ULB_1C.85P_0A.6B_DATDE_CFC_HWp2b_SIGNED.xml
SPDREM_U_01.6.5.1-167_SPU-15-M2-3_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRRTGB_HWp2b_Service1FF_fastboot
SPDREM_U_01.6.7.2-180_SPU-19-TA-11.6_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRICSRTCEE_HWp2b_Service1FF_fastboot.xml
SPDREM_U_01.6.7.2-180_SPU-19-TA-11.6_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRICSRTGB_HWp2b_Service1FF_fastboot.xml
SPYDERIRD_U.01.26.0_SPD-IRD-21_SIGN_ASIA_RETAIL_HKTW.xml
SPYDERIRD_U.01.26.0_SPD-IRD-21_SIGN_MEA_RETAIL.xml
The only thing I am quite sure about is that it is not LATAM.
* I tried manually flashing the various image files with moto-fastboot, fastboot, and eprj-mfastboot, both the Windows and the Linux versions, with pretty much always the same result: it would flash some files (e.g. ebr, mbr, devtree), but not what I think are the crucial ones: boot, system, also logo.bin. As there are so many possible combinations, I have not tried every file from every firmware I downloaded with every possible program, but as far as I can tell, the results were the same. I did get some error messages about signing (indicating wrong region) sometimes, but most of the time it just hangs forever while supposedly transferring the files.
* I also tried the DroidRAZRUtility, both 1.51 and 1.6, which both invariably fail at the first step of flashing the "allow-mbmloader-flashing-mbm.bin" file on there.
So, I am out of ideas now. Please, someone tell me I have overlooked something obvious. Also, please tell me I haven't bricked the thing for good.
Is there not a way to write something new into it's memory on an even more basic level (I am thinking Linux' dd here), or to read out which region it is currently locked to? I repeat, all I get is the Fastboot screen, I can get into the Fastboot menu, but none of the options gets me anywhere else, (stock) recovery does not work... My last idea is that it might still be a power issue despite the "factory cable", and to try and crack it open and power it at the battery contacts for flashing - but the fact that some flashing works, and the other files don't fail because it goes dead, but because it rejects them, suggests to me it is not a power problem.
Any suggestions appreciated, thanks!
Try flashing SPDREM_U_01.6.7.2-180_SPU-19-TA-11.2_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRICSRTGB_HWp2b_Service1FF_fastboot
with rsd lite.
Those failures are because of two things:
1. You are trying wrong sbf for another region
2 and/or you are trying to flash an older firmware.
Please note that now your only bet is to flash ICS firmware, and try various regions untill you find your right one.
Also if you manually flash use eprj-mfastboot , others fail to flash corectly.
Again for the power issue, when RSD throws an error , look at the phone, if it says "Low battery, cannot program" then the factory cable is bad, if not there is no power problem.
Don't worry your phone is not dead, you only need to find the correct sbf file, try more variants with rsd lite, it must work.
Mine had problems flashing correct sbf's, it was my system. Even with correct drivers and lastest RSD it would not work, nor with my other laptop, but working fine on my old xp install on a macbook. I could however install stuff individually using fastboot flash command. Sorry that I dont have a solution but I just wanted to let you know that sometimes it can be your computer/os install.
still trying
@Killer2k8: Thanks for the encouragement, I will try with the file you suggested with eprj-mfastboot.
As per power: I seem to have tried so many times that the battery is way deeply uncharged (I hope it isn't permanently damaged once I get the phone to charge at all again), so anyway, I crack'd'er open and tried powering directly at the battery contacts (battery disconnected, of course). As you would guess from what you wrote, that did not make any difference to my problems... But also, it proves my factory cable is good, as I can even flash the few files that work if no power is connected at the battery contacts, powering through the cable only. Some files will transfer correctly, and when it says "writing", the phone will just reboot, causing an error - that's why I thought of power issue, e.g. the actual flashing process requiring more power than just the transfer... Anyway, that issue did not go away even with direct power. - Will see what happens once I find the right files for me...
I'm good with flashing ICS, that's what I wanted to do in the first place. And thanks for the encouragement!
@drolgnir: Thanks, I had the same idea, as initially I had tried everything from Win7 running in VirtualBox (at first, I only found all the tools for Win, should've really researched better before starting this), I thought maybe it doesn't have the proper low-level access to the USB ports. Anyway, since trouble hit me, I tried also on three different Linux machines (2 different dirtros), and also again on the virtual Win, and on many, many different USB ports on these (just in case it was a USB power issue), all to no avail. I guess Killer2k8's suggestion sounds most promising at the moment... Cheers anyway.
no luck - situation deteriorating..?
Sorry for the many posts, I hope someone is still reading this...
So, I tried the file you suggested. I flashed manually, not RSD, with "fastboot" from eternity project, which is the Linux equivalent to "eprj-mfastboot.exe", as far as I can tell (download from the same post as the Win version).
I could flash cdt.bin, ebr, mbr. Note that these are all just 16kB.
When trying logo.bin, it sent it ok, but during 'writing logo.bin...', the phone just switched off. After restart, same again. Same also with boot_signed.
Since then, things got worse: whenever I try to switch on now, it flashes ~1/4 of the red "M" logo, then flashes the AP fastboot screen, and repeats that a few times before staying off (sometimes not, just switches off right away). I can still get into the Boot Mode Selection menu by holding all three buttons, but selecting AP fastboot there has the same effect. Starting with power&Vol- button shows the fastboot screen immediately, but again only for a flash...
The only thing that will stay on is the SBF Flash screen, but I don't know what to do with that..?
So, I still smell a power problem, but neither applying external power, nor using the factory cable alone made a difference. The cable is ok, I re-checked. The fact that the SBF Flash screen stays on suggests that it is not a stuck power button (someone had that problem, apparently), am I right?
So, any suggestions from here? Thanks..
Although this doesn't help, I have pretty much the exact same issue. However, I do know what/where my phone is from, it requires the central Europe update. But apart from that the issues are identical; it only boots into the flash failed fastboot menu, and any RSD attempts have failed at cdt.bin, while using the fastboot tool does not work either as I get preinfovalidation flash errors. The utilities don't work either.
Now, as you did, I also tried quite a few different versions of the firmware, and none of them worked. So what I was wondering is, is there a way for us to find out exactly what version the phone 'thinks' it is on, so we can find the same/a newer version of the firmware to update it to? Because I am quite certain I am using the files from the right region, so it must be the version that is too old.
update: still struggling, but giant leap further! Please read my tale...
...just in case anyone might find this useful, I'd like to give an update on my "patient":
I actually managed to flash ICS on there! Kind of.. What I did, was:
With the battery unplugged, I supplied external power to the phone, additional to the factory cable. The issue was that it would often flash small files, but for larger files would successfully "send" them, but in the "writing" phase the phone would just switch off. So, I supplied carefully monitored 3.7V to the contacts, which seemed to make a difference, but in the "writing" phase, Voltage dropped to below 3V where it would again switch off. Ok, you can charge a LiIon battery with max. 4.2V, and you should normally charge the battery before flashing, so I tried again while providing 4.2V. And - Success!! Voltage would drop to ~4V during "writing", but it stayed on, and allowed me to further test which Firmware the device would actually accept.
I do not believe that applying 5V from an USB cable directly to the (plugged-in) battery contacts, as mentioned in the forums somewhere, is very healthy for the battery. I reconnected the battery and tried charging it directly from the contacts, but I made sure the Voltage would always stay below 4.2V. Occasionally in my exploits, the charging circuitry would actually spring into action (confirmed by a drop and fluctuations in Voltage, and the faintest of noises from the phone itself), and I used that of course to squeeze some life back in, but most of the time it would not charge at all. I can not say what combination of flashing attempts, rebooting, un- and replugging the cable, switching and changing the charging current,... actually triggered the charging process occasionally, sorry. I could not reliably reproduce it.
In the process, I also tried the DroidRazrUtility 1.8, which interestingly flashed the AP fastboot to v 0A.74, but of course failed further on...
With the new AP fastboot, I thought maybe something more might now work, and at last I found it would now miraculously accept:
SPDREM_U_01.6.7.2-180_SPU-19-TA-11.6_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRICSRTGB_HWp2b_Service1FF_fastboot.xml and
SPDREM_U_01.6.7.2-180_SPU-19-TA-11.6_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRICSRTCEE_HWp2b_Service1FF_fastboot.xml
Fantastic!
First thing, before any actual booting, was to try if I could finally charge my battery again, and at last - yes!
At about 70%, I got adventurous, and unplugged the charger to put it in another power outlet. This made the phone actually boot up, but I thought that's not too bad now... But:
Now I have the following issue: After being freshly flashed (I tried several times now), it will charge as long as I don't actually switch it on, ONCE, but when it boots, after asking the setup questions and a little while on, it will switch off on its own, and then it's stuck in some variation of the bootloop (M dual core logo, pulsing M forever, OR rebooting ever and ever again at the pulsing M, OR just stuck at the M dual core). At least I now have a recovery menu. Erasing cache and data DON'T solve the issue (as proposed many times in the forums). I read a hint that it might be a kernel issue, or that it might be caused by a wrong radio.img (CDMA on a GSM phone). I checked and tested the latter by deactivating the radio in the extended settings, but it would still switch off after a short while (and it had defaulted to GSM, as it should).
So...am I stuck to wait for some new Firmware to come out, that might fix the issue? Or what should I try? Thanks in advance...
Resolved!
Long read, but I finally managed to do it. Basically, I am not 100% sure what happened, but I have a hunch:
After I thought I had solved the power issues by at least being able to charge the battery once after each re-flashing, I tried to fix the issue about the phone randomly switching off (and on - it wouldn't stay off!). I read that it might have to do with flashing failures (no error message??), or incorrect kernel or radio images...
Not long, and I ran into familiar problems again: It would flash the smaller files, but not system and cdrom; it would successfully "send" the files, but never stop "writing" them (I waited for somewhere between 10 min and an hour at each attempt), only way to stop the process was to switch off the phone, which certainly is not healthy during flashing...
...so battery started to go down again and I started to more and more clearly face a power issue again (I had disconnected the external power and didn't want to risk that McGyver approach again). As it happened, I also 'got some new USB 3.0 external hard drives at this time. I found that one would readily power up on all my USB ports, the other one could not get enough power even from some supposed 3.0 ports..
...which made me try flashing the very same firmware I was just trying (with the factory cable, of course), all the smaller files of which worked on the one computer but not the large ones (indicating I had the right firmware, at least):
SPDREM_U_01.6.7.2-180_SPU-19-TA-11.6_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRICSRTGB_HWp2b_ Service1FF_fastboot.xml
, on another computer, on the one USB 3.0 port that had proven to supply the most power - and taa-daa! It wrote it, very quickly, without complaining!
And it booted alright (after charging it first, just in case). And it stayed on (and off, when I eventually rebooted it). I am running that ever since, and it seems ok...
Originally, I had aimed for:
SPDREM_U_01.6.7.2-180_SPU-19-TA-11.6_SIGNEuropeAustraliaEMEA_USASPDRICSRTCEE_HWp2b _Service1FF_fastboot.xml
, but I think the differences are minimal and I don't want to risk anything going wrong again, right now.
In conclusion, to me the main issues were
- finding the right firmware, stupidly not having paid attention to the original version number, and
- all sorts of different power issues!
The factory cable did not solve all of my problems.
Recharging the battery (eventually) did not solve my problems.
ADDITIONALLY, it needs to be flashed from a USB port supplying sufficient power!
This might point into the direction drolgnir suggested, but for me, it was not an OS/driver problem, but definitely power (same, fresh install of Fedora Linux on the two machines that did, and didn't work, one of them alternatively running Win 8; the Linux Mint computer I also tried doesn't have USB 3.0, the USB 2.0 ports - including an externally powered USB hub - did not work). @drolgnir: maybe it was power for you too, but you didn't notice because it was a different OS too?
...I hope this overly detailed report might help someone else too...
I am a "noob" to android but have always gotten elbow deep into computers so i figured I would take a crack at it. Well it cracked me back and now I am stuck and help would be great....
I have an ascend II cricket phone, I rooted the phone using a guide foud on www,theunlockr,com and everthing was good. Iflashed a couple different roms and still no problems but I couldn't find one that had everthing I wanted so I decided to dig deeper.
I reflashed the phone back to stock with no problems and started changing little thing like sounds and the boot animation and then I went for broke and tried flashing a kernel that was supposed to enable multi-touch on the display - BRICK-!
I once again reflashed back to stock and installed the android updateds to bring my as current as the ascend to gets and re-did all my custom sounds and graphics.
This is where things go bad, I put everything back on the phone (battery, back plate, and hard plastic holster) and inadvertently put the holster on upside down so when I powered the phone on the two volume buttons where being held in by the holster and it once again started to re-flash the firmware, I didn't want to mess it up and yank the battery mid process so i let it run and it never came back .
At current the phone powers on but freezes at the oem boot logo. I have tried with no sucess to enter both fastboot and recovery, however I can still re-flash the firmware. When connected to my pc the computer recognizes that the device is plugged in only if I boot the phone while holding both volume buttons in with out an sd card inserted. This brings me to a blank pink screen. even though windows sees it there is no communication to the device.
I downloaded the stock firmware from several different source but they all produce the same result.
Also every 15 minutes or so the screen goes blank, vibrates and the boot logo comes back on, obviously the phone is trying to do something so I feel as though all is not lost, any advice or ideas as to what I can do from here would be greatly appreciated. (i tried to make sure I included all the details of my situation if there is anything else I or you need to know just ask.)