[T-Mobile LG G2x] joseph_korn:
Hi, I apologize up front for the long winded post, but I want to relay as much info as possible in the hope that someone can point out my mistake(s).

This is the 2nd android phone I have managed to brick in the past couple years.. The first was an old dream and I flashed the wrong update file for a different phone by accident, but at least I knew what I did wrong that time.

Fast forward to yesterday. I picked up a brand new LG Optimus 2X (LG-P999 = G2X) From Wind Mobile in Canada running android 2.2.2. I bring it home and load up super one click and it tells me I am rooted, great! After that I loosely followed these instructions: hxxp://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/LG_Optimus_2X:_Full_Update_Guide to get ClockworkMod Recovery installed via the market (free version).

First little hiccup was that when I opened the mod manager and tried to click on 'Flash ClockworkMod Recover' it gave me an error saying, "Error while downloading from Server. Please make sure that you have a stable internet connection, and that your SD card is inserted and has free space!". That's weird.. I have a brand new 2gb sd card and my 3g connection is working great.. I was able to sort that out by connecting to my home wifi connection and then this message disappeared. When flashing clockwork it asks for my model of phone and I choose the LG G2X from the list. Success! Although when I try to click on the option to boot into recovery -- nothing happens. Since I don't want to power off my phone, I download "Quick Boot" by Sirius Applications Ltd. and try to click the reboot option, but again, nothing happens. The recovery option also does nothing, whats going on here? I finally decide to power down my phone the "normal" way from the home screen.

I boot back up normally and realize that I didn't download cyanogenmod yet, so I go do that. I download update-cm-7.1.0.1-G2x-signed.zip for the T-Mobile G2x, even though mine is not T-Mobile, I read on the internet that I definitely have a G2x even though it is marketed as an LG Optimus 2X. I also download the Google apps gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip.

Once the files are downloaded, I attempt to copy them up to the memory card, but windows explorer (Im using Windows XP) seems to lock up for a bit and I get a weird error: Cannot copy gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip: The path is too deep. I have never seen this copy error before. I look it up on google and don't get much help, although it tells me what I already assume, that this error appears when your filename + path combo is too long. But its not too long! gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip is on my desktop, and I'm copying to the root of F:\ !! The other weird thing is that this gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip is only 6MB large. I have no problem copying the update-cm-7.1.0.1-G2x-signed.zip which is 93MB! I can copy any other file I throw at it.. BUT I CANT COPY THE GAPPS FILE !? I tried so many things at this point. I renamed gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip to gapps.zip. I redownloaded it from the mirror. I tried copying it from the root of C:\ and another drive. I tried unzipping it and rezipping it. I always got the same error.

Finally I decided to copy the gapps file to the internal memory, and it copied without a problem. I wasn't sure if I could access that drive from recovery, but I decided to try it, even without gapps since I wasn't having much luck getting it onto the card. In hindsight, I should have maybe tried copying it to another sd card and also tried copying to the same sd card plugged into my computer via sd reader to see if the same problems existed. Even rebooting the phone and my computer would have been some good troubleshooting, but I wasn't aware of what would happen next.

I booted to recovery at this point (I can't remember if I booted via the rom manager link or if I rebooted and held the power and volume down button) and it came up as expected. I first made a backup of the existing system even though I didn't think I really needed it. Then I did the Wipe data/factory reset and Wipe cache partition. Finally, I loaded the cyanogenmod update and was surprised at how it loaded in mere seconds-- my old dream always took at least 1 or 2 minutes even for a smaller file. I then noticed an option to load a zip file from my the other storage (I can't remember the exact name of the option - but it was the place where the gapps file was). I loaded gapps without error and rebooted the phone.

It is at this point that I never booted back into anything again. If I remember correctly, it loaded the first LG symbol as usual, and then I saw another 'fancier' LG logo come up, with no animation or progress bar. I waited on this screen for more than 10 minutes, expecting that it would finally change to cyanogenmod, but nothing ever happened. No problem I thought, I can just boot back into recovery and try again without the gapps perhaps. No dice. I removed and replaced the battery, and then booted up with the power and volume down arrow held. I saw a LG symbol with progress bar, I saw a android character coming out of a box with a progress bar. I let go of the buttons. The phone rebooted. I tried again and again. Nothing.

At this time I was getting quite worried, but I had my phone plugged into the computer still and I noticed that everytime I got to the 'fancier' LG logo screen, the computer would recognize the phone via usb. I decided to see what the internet offered for solutions and I read lots and lots of info.

Everything boiled down to pulling out the battery, holding the volume up and down buttons and then plugging the usb to the computer. I installed all the necessary drivers and ran nvflash in an attempt to either install CWM or even the stock recovery. Getting the computer to recognize the phone properly was a chore in itself. Often it would come up saying 'Unrecognized usb device' or it would simply show up in the device manager with an "!". Sometimes when it showed up with the "!" I would right-click and uninstall it, then unplug and replug and install the driver again and that would work for a time or two.

The problem was that when I ran any commands I found for nvflash, it seemed to take forever to do anything. I mean I would be waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and all the command prompt would say is:

"Nvflash started"

One post I read somewhere said to just try a harmless command of "nvflash --sync" to see if the proper output appeared. I tried it a few times, but all I got was the same "Nvflash started", but then one time I noticed after a while it came up with a new line after that of "rcm version 0X20001". I tried nvflash at least 1000 times, no joke. I wasn't about to let this brand new phone beat me without a fight.

On one occassion I tried using the "One Click Recovery Flasher" that I found, and I attempted to load the stock recovery. The response from nvflash seemed to flow a little quicker this time and I got further in the process then ever before. Since it was now 4am I decided to let it do its thing and I would wake up and check it in the morning. I woke up at 10am and it was exactly where I left it. After 6 hours, I would have expected it to do SOMETHING! Here is what it said:

Nvflash started

rcm version 0X20001

System Information:

chip name: unknown

chip id: 0x20 major: 1 minor: 4

chip sku: 0xf

chip uid: 0x037c704243a08357

macrovision: disabled

hdcp: enabled

sbk burned: false

dk burned: false

boot device: emmc

operating mode: 3

device config strap: 0

device config fuse: 0

sdram config strap: 0

downloading bootloader -- load address: 0x108000 entry point: 0x108000

sending file: fastboot.bin

It apparently was unable to send the fastboot file for some reason. I could try 1000 more times but I am defeated at this point. I am planning to return the phone today and see what they say. If by chance I return it successfully, and I get the same model of phone, I will be super wary of trying to root it again. But I also don't want a phone that I can't "have fun with". Any comments or suggestions are most welcome. I would like to know what I did wrong so that I can learn for "next time". Other than the weird sd card error, I really think I did everything correct. At this point I am thinking there was either something wrong with the sd card or even with the phone itself. Regardless, I thank you for reading my story and I look forward to any helpful responses.

Cheers!