[Droid Incredible Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wigmuke:
Hey folks,

Thanks for taking the time to read/assist. I don't typically do these kinds of posts and am at my wit's end! :)

Phone's Previous Setup - MIUI Gingerbread, Rooted (but with S-ON after the fact).

What happened:

My HTC Incredible finally got to the point of being practically unuseable with laggy behavior and random restarts and the like, so I decided to complete a reset to factory settings or wipe.

I completed my backups using Titanium (apps) and ClockworkMod Recovery (full backup). After this, I went ahead and opened up Settings and directed the phone to complete a Reset to Factory Settings. It ran through the process, rebooted, and came up jelly. While no custom apps were installed (expected), my folder settings on my main home page were saved, along with some previous text messages. I was pleasantly surprised.

From here, I wished to wipe the SD Card so as to make sure it was clean of any residual folders/files that might cause conflict down the road (based on advice from others). So, headed to the SD card part of the settings. Had to unmount the SD card to format, proceeded to do so.

Here's where things went wonky: Despite receiving a confirmation that the SD card format had proceeded, nothing else ever happened. I attempted to mount the card again w/o luck (kept getting a msg that it was now unmounted). Eventually, I decided to go ahead and restart the phone and see if that helps. Big mistake.

From this point forward, the phone refuses to fully start up into any Android ROM. Initially, it hung on the white HTC Incredible splash screen (yes, even w/ giving it an hour+ of time). I tried wiping and reflashing different ROMS over the period of the day yesterday to no avail.

Doing a full recovery via ClockworkMod (from my backup that I made before and copied back onto the SD card via USB) leaves me stuck on the HTC Incredible white splash screen.

MIUI - 2.2.10

Hangs on white splash screen

No go w/ or w/o SD card installed

MIUI - 2.2.17

Loads past white and MIUI splash screens

Instead of loading into Android homescreen, immediately loads up "Encryption" error and directs to "reset phone."

Repeated restart and attempts of resetting phone don't work

No go w/ or w/o SD card installed.

MIUI - 1.12.9

Hangs on white splash screen.

No go w/ or w/o SD card installed.

CM - 7.1.0

Hangs/loops on CM splash screen.

No go w/ or w/o SD card installed.

CM - 6.1.0

Hangs/loops on CM splash screen.

No go w/ or w/o SD card installed.

I looked into HBOOT options, getting PB31IMG.ZIP and PG86IMG.ZIP.img thinking maybe I could try reverting to stock at a friend's suggestion. HBOOT sees the files and "checks" them, even briefly showing a small vertical blue loading bar at the top-right corner, but never attempts to run/update them as I am lead to expect from all the instructions/encounters I've found on the net suggest. The screen info flashes by so quickly, I can barely read it, but I confirmed that it said "checking" and not updating or such. x.x

I considered trying to flash an updated copy of ClockworkMod Recovery, but I cannot do that w/o being able to load up the phone into Android.

I cannot run anything desktop-side, like ADB, as they all require the phone started up and put into USB-debugging mode.

I've looked into and tried all this and more, but nothing seems to be working.

My next idea is to try to forcibly downgrade the phone. Reasoning being that I read that the HBOOT will not try to update if it senses that the ROM is newer than its default settings(?). So, I need a good choice of "old" ROM that I can attempt to install via the HBOOT or CWM Recovery, and verify I have the correct files for HBOOT to try updating/running.

Again, this is a speculative attempt, but I'm willing to try whatever might work! Otherwise, I've got a fancy brick and my well-being on the line w/ no $$ to replace the phone. x.x

Thanks again for reading and hopefully offering some wonderful assistance! Sorry it's so long! :)

Feel free to ask Qs if you need clarification on stuff.