[Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] quetzalcoatl.pl:
Hi there!

At first, let me apologize for two things:

- I wrote in the topic that it's 7004, but I'm not 100% sure, as my co-worker just grabbed the phone after I've unlocked it and their've gone away with the wind.. I'm sure that HD7 as "old" firmware, without copy-paste, but probably with MAC-displaying as someone was able to register it on ours WiFi AP

- I had really no time to check on this forum if that information is already known, so that may be not so important as I view it

Ok, now to the point:

Everywhere (and that was *many* places.. not necessarily good ones) where I looked is written, that ChevronWP7.exe must have Zune running in background to work: install cert, fire Zune, turn flightmode, connect as owner, run chevron clik-click-click, and getlost. And it worked all the time. I had to perform it several times, as the device relocked itself after every few weeks. I didn't want to edit the device's state any further to prevent relocks as reunlocking was so easy.

So, today, the coworker mentioned earlier came to me with a phone that relocked itself some time ago. I did everything as always and BAM: ChevronWP7.exe said "cannot connect, check USB, run Zune". But I had Zune running..

After few seconds later I've noticed that the Zune wants to update itself and the phone..

Ok, so maybe during that screen the connection that Chevron needs is unavailable. I've closed the screen with UpdateLater, and retried. Nope. Chevron again did not connect.

So, I've restarted Zune, canceling the update instantly and retried unlocking. Nope. Chevron again did not connect.

So, I've disconnected the computer from the network, restarted Zune and retried unlocking. Nope. Chevron again did not connect. That was strange. But then, I thought that maybe the phone remembered that it has an update pending?

So, I've turned off the phone, reconnected the computer to the network, restarted Zune. Turned on the phone, turned flight mode on, connected the phone to computer. After a while Zune found update and presented the dark "Update Me+Phone" screen and phone then said 'update pending', pressed OK in the phone, cancelled update in Zune. Chevron failed at connecting. Ok, that was expected. But hey, it found the update after a while. Hm.

So, having the phone still connected by USB cable, I've restarted Zune after a while Zune found update.

So, having the phone still connected by USB cable, I've closed Zune. Then Opened Zune and IMMEDIATELLY pressed "Phone" icon and IMMEDIATELY started ChevronWP7.exe. And guess what, it started properly. And a while Zune found the update. I've closed and restarted Chevron, and now it does not start claiming the same "connection problems".

Ok, now this is interesting. It seems that IF Zune NOTICES a pending update, it blocks "the connection to the phone" that Chevron requires to work.

Sooo. Having the phone still connected by USB cable, I've closed Zune. Then Opened Zune and pressed "Phone" icon and started ChevronWP7.exe, everything not so immediatelly, but fast enough so Chevron starts BEFORE Zune finds update. And guess what, it started properly. Then I click-click-clicked and Chevron succesfully unlocked the phone. And then Zune found its update, again. Ok. Fun.

Thats the end of the story of unlocking while an update is pending.. As I said, the device got unlocked and is held by my coworker that is running somewhere around here with it, so I cannot produce any more reliable tests on it. (it IS unlocked already, and I don't have it:) )

BUT it is not all what I wanted to tell you.

The best thing is that, after I unlocked the phone by racing with Zune and its update-finding, I played with another side of the problem: The Zune BLOCKED the connection to the device that Chevron needed.

wait, WHAT CONNECTION?

If you have registered at market place, you go through "Phone Registration" process and voila your VisualStudio through the omnipotent Zune now is able to deploy XAPs to the device and run and debug. But you DON'T NEED ZUNE. you may go to the WinPhoneDevTools, run WPConnect.exe and voila, **** the Zune, VisualStudio connects, deploys, runs and debugs everything just as fine as with Zune's running.

soo.

I killed Zune and Chevron, restarted Chevron - fail, no connection.

Started WPConnect, then started Chevron - connected.

Um.

Clicked RELOCK. Success.

Clicked UNLOCK. Success.

erm..

so, I've closed chevron

...and it crashed

I've checked with VisualStudio's app debugging, the device was left unlocked!

And this was the exact point of time when I had to pass the phone to the other guy, ah crap, it was just getting more and more interesting!

Let's summarize facts observed:

F1) Zune blocks connections to the device when it detects that an update is pending

F2) Zune does NOT persist any information that the update for that device is pending and rechecks it everytime it is launched

F3) Zune does NOT block connections at startup, it does so only after it finds an update

F4) When Chevron is "unable to connect" due to Zune's connection-block-dueto-pending-phone-update, then you may kill Zune and actually manually preconnect via WPconnect and then run Chevron

but, before anyone derives some optimistic but false conclusiosn, let me also summarize the possible explanations:

As for Chevron "connection", either:

C1) launching and closing Zune, with or without pending updates, leaves something behind (running service?) that allows WPConnect+Chevron to work

C2) requirement for having Zune running is a bull****, and just a 'connection' is needed, and that one fully mantained by WPConnect (mind that for VisualStudio it is enough!)

and for Chevron "unlocking/relocking" via WPconnect, either:

U1) when running without Zune but with WPconnect, Chevron got lost completely, and just started as if it had connection. It has NOT CONNECTED to the device. The device stayed unlocked all the time. Chevron actually failed completely to do anything, but its internal errors were silenced at some points and only for the user (me) everything looked as if it worked properly. Due to that errors Chevron entered unstable state and that's why it crashed at the end

U2) when running without Zune but with WPconnect, Chevron actually CONNECTED but have NOT relocked the device due to not-having-Zune-somethingies. The device stayed unlocked all the time. Chevron actually failed completely to do anything, but its failure to relock was silenced at some point and only for the user (me) everything looked as if it worked properly. Due to that "errors" Chevron entered unstable state and that's why it crashed at the end

U3) Chevron's relocking feature is a fake. Connection problems were irrelevant except for being able to launch the Chevron. The device was unlocked all the time, and Chevron actually successfully did nothing as the device was unlocked already. Chevron crashed at exit due to not having Zune or due to some (p)RNG my bad luck

U4) when running without Zune but with WPconnect, Chevron have relocked the device successfuly, then unlocked it successfully too. Chevron actually succeeded in everything, but crashed at exit because it tried to do some additional cleanups related to working with Zune

You may wonder why I'm wroting down all the points. I just don't want you to get overoptimistic about chevron/zune/wpconnect, or to overestimate my work. I just sat down, played with the bricks a bit, and whoops it got unlocked. Then I "lost" the phone, thought about everything and collected all what I remembered here, on this post. Lots have yet to be checked before I can say with confidence why at all (and whetver at all!!) I succeded in unlocking that phone today, without apphub registration on one side and Zune's connection firewalling on the other side. I have not updated the phone in the process, nor I have updated Zune in the process.

Btw. my Zune's version is 4.7.1404.0