[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] The_Forastero:
I don't know who's going to read this and/or if there will be any comments to it. I just want to take this horrible frustration and downheartedness out of my chest. I hope this will be of some help for anybody out there trying the same.

Today, I've hit what I hope will be the lowest most bitter point for me as an Android aficionado. Ever since the G1 was announced and came out, I jumped on the wagon and pre-ordered from Tmo (I was a customer at that time). As soon as I had it in my hands, I began learning about its customization, user experience, etc. I came here and learned how to root it (although I registered a bit later). I've owned four G1s, two G2s, an HTC Sensation and two Tbolts. All of them motivated me to dare tweaking and customizing more and more. Always with more or less satisfying results at the end, after overcoming the always present unexpected troubles. This time, however... I feel like I've got a pretty ugly dose of failure.


I'll try to make it short.
 My in-laws came from China. They had very old phones and wanted to get iPhones. However, the screen ended up seeming pretty small for them compared to my Tbolt. They asked me if I could help them get a good phone. I came up with a couple of choices. The HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S2. After thinking about it, I went for the S2. Now, it was a matter of picking the right (GSM) one. Either the ATT or Tmo version. I did more research and picked the ATT (I777) version, since "that's closer" to the international version.

I purchased two of them, still sealed, from Craigslist. I just loved them! Immediately, I purchased the unlocking codes for both. I got home and inserted a Tmo SIM to test them. I couldn't wait to hand them over to them. Then, things started to go just wrong in every way...

I was shocked to see the S2 had no Chinese option in language. The only Asian language available was Korean. At some point later, I realized that the Chinese options in my other phones were probably due to HTC being a Taiwanese company. I kept searching for an answer and ended up trying a couple of apps from the market like Morelocale2, etc. But they only translated about %30 of the whole. Failure.

I kept reading and learned I could flash a ROM with the language included. After more and more reading and rooting it, I had two choices. I could flash the Hong Kong or Singapore version of the phone. Those two come with the language already installed. Even though I don't know Chinese, I managed to get some help from a dev acquaintance and found the HK (I9100) version that even had the ICS version. I followed the tut and flashed it using Odin. When it booted it looked all good. Looking at that Chinese all over the place even made me smile. I sighed and said "I'm done"... little did I know my failure was far from avoided.

First of all, I learned that only two of the four buttons work due to the kernel. Only Back and menu work. I tried to see the good side. It'd be easier for them to get used to using only two buttons. I started installing more goodies, like Chinese input (by strokes, not by keyboard), even a wonderful app I found called Buttonsavior to replace the physical buttons. I was "done" and handed over the phone; only one of them. I wanted to be sure of the procedure to go, before doing the other. Then, I realized something horrific...

As they were trying the phone, poking menus here and there to become familiar with the UI; suddenly, while testing making a phone call, I heard that phrase: "It has no sound!" I wanted to kick myself out of my own disbelief... I thought "OMG! It was so hard hard to get a hold of that ROM. Now what?" I sadly understood I'd have to restore and go back to trying to find a solution to the partially translated gingerbread version. Then, I restored and went cold when I realized what had happened.

During the restoring, I was quite glad I had backed up in case of a disaster. When I booted up and just out of curiosity of how good the sound of the call was supposed to sound, I made a call. Guess what? IT DIDN'T WORK EITHER! This is when I started panicking! I thought "OK, I restored, now what?" I quickly did a wipe, factory reset, even unrooting back to the stock ROM. Did it work? No!! No audio call! "OMG!! The phone I just bought on Craigslist it's defective!"

I didn't give up and let that make me feel down (completely). I said "OK, after all this struggle and time, at least I'm going to make the other one work." I took the other phone and made a call to finally hear the quality of the audio call. It was very good to say the least. It was very nice and clear. At this point I started to feel half of an epic failure. In less than 5 mins the phone was rooted and being updated to the HK ICS ROM. I went as quickly as I could through the initial setup. I hit the home screen and the first thing I touched was the phone call icon, dialed and waited to see what the phone was supposed to be like. Then, the half failure, became full failure. I don't remember feeling that down for something before. I threw in the towel...

The audio didn't work... that's when I realized I had just messed up two brand new S2s I bought out of a stranger's hands. I've thought about it, and I got the feeling something can be done, but at this point I'm not sure what. I feel like my brain has dried up. I struggled with this for about a week, having a massive headache at least three times. But the story didn't end there...

In a feeling of total defeat, I did the last thing I could think of... I called tech support and tell them about the lack of sound. After lot of talking and pushing for some solution (they wanted me to take it back to the 'store'), they said the warranty was good for another eleven months. They've got my info and emailed me a prepaid UPS label. You think think it's a happy ending? No. You want to know why? I can't even reset the binary counter. I even got a jig connector to do the job, but of course 'for some strange reason', it won't do it. If this isn't an example of a perfect failure, then what is it? Total lost: $900.

I'm not as good as most guys here, but I like to read and use common sense as much as I can. This time I thought to my self "I'm a dumbass, what else can I say?" Aren't I?

Thanks for reading,

Edit: Yes, I did flash a stock ROM.