[Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bobpsmith:
And the story goes...

So this is the deal. I have not flashed any roms (before I started this guide today). I bought a T959 off craigslist (in vegas) a few weeks ago. I procrastinated for a long time (about 4 days) about rooting (because I had a lot of crap going on with the impending move and all). I get my $hit sent off to the east coast and get on the bus (FYI, next time you go cross country, FLY people, F L Y!!!) a day and a half in I download an update.zip file onto my phone and root it. I get Superuser off the market and install it. Everything is working great.

By now I'm getting pretty full of myself so I grab ROM Manager thinking that I'm going to master the Android universe once and for all! After installing I try to setup ClockWorkRecovery, and like I said a few posts ago before the fit hit the shan I only did it once (NOTE: READ the posts and do it TWICE like they tell you!! [I still havent done it yet so I really hope this works:p]). Well I'm sitting half a bus seat, my mind somewhere between my aching back and the very pleasant, but very plus sized man to my left, and I can't tell if it has worked or not (but I'm hoping!).

I finally reach NYC and am slogging through a 4 hour layover when I see that Superuser needs an update, I hit Update in the market and wait for the magic to happen...but it doesn't, "update failed" runs gleefully across the top of my screen. Undaunted I find the Superuser update fix and pop that in. When it runs it tells me that I need BusyBox (I think) and "nand unlock" (still don't know exactly what that is or how to get it :() so I go along spaming the OK/Continue buttons. Well the update fix program runs and it goes through its prompts, and they all work -- except for the last one. "cleanup ... FAILED." But Superuser is updated and things appear to be OK.

I install GO Launcher EX and personalize the phone and I falling fully in love with the phone. But I want MORE, I want FLASH! So I download a flash 10.1 (for eclair) update from xda and install, nothing.

Now (today, MUCH earlier) I try to start the task of wiping the phone so I can use Kies mini to upgrade to Froyo. I go to your post and download your stuff (along with Kies mini and AIO Vibrant Toolbox 2.5) and send you my first message. I am about to start when I decide to try AIO Vibrant Toolbox 2.5 first. Things do not go well and I end up with a hard bricked phone, no combination of buttons and reinserting the battery will get any response.

Moments before my first ever attempted suicide I remember reading an xda thread about fixing a hard brick. I open ODIN (

your

odin) and remove my battery connect the cable, hold the vol buttons and pop the bat back in. The phone screen lights up! I load

YOUR

.tar and .pda files and lord of lords it works!!!

I am now trying to update through Kies mini and it is telling my my firmware is

firmware: Unsuported

I have a few questions through this sad and rambling post, but my brain is now about as functional as burnt toast so I am way past rereading and listing them in any sort of understandable fashion. If you can remember them by the time you get this far you can try to marginally reduce my ignorance and perhaps curb my impending migraine, but that is at your discretion.

I want to close by saying firstly that I do not want to cast doubt on AIO Vibrant Toolbox 2.5 as it may be my computer (the error I ran into was after I loaded his tar and pda files into his ODIN (ver 1.81)) and his thread has many positive replies. Secondly I want to quash any doubt that your instructions work, I was in a BAD way and your files and instructions saved the day!

Robert

UPDATE: I had Kies mini update the drivers and it is now updating the firmware, or its 1 hour into a presumably 2 hour download to be precise.

UPDATE: Kies mini failed, did the emergency recovery and the thing works! It is updated to 2.2! Next up: rooting Froyo...

If you know an easy way to do this you can post it here or pm me. I also give you written permission to edit and re-post any part of all of my posts on this thread in part or in whole for any reason you may come up with.

Robert OUT