[Vibrant General] gilmanj:
I've been a stalker on here for a long time, as I've been interested in custom ROMs but I never pulled the trigger, until last night. My Vibrant has served me well for a many years, I bought it shortly after they came out. All I'd ever done to it was network unlock it so I could keep using it after I moved to the UK.

I've been toying with getting a new phone for a few months now so I decided why not try and flash a custom ROM and get ICS on my Vibrant, if I got the EU error and bricked it, oh well, I'd get a new phone. So I after much reading and research, studying the tutorials on here I went for it. I am vary tech and computer savvy. I build my own computers from scratch, I've flashed my routers and set up networks so I was pretty confident I could do this with the help of the forums here.

I've read every thread I can find on the EU on here and I know that the community needs as much info as possible to try and solve this bug, so I will try and be as specific as possible and list everything I did. But bear in mind, I'm new to this and this was my first time doing much of this so some things may be muddled as I was up til quite late messing with all this.

To start my phone was running 2.2 which was updated using Kies Mini. The only thing I'd ever done to it was network unlock, and for that all I did was find the file on the phone with the code and then enter it to unlock.

I decided to follow Woodrube's guide (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1464423)

I followed the guide to the "T".

1. Used Odin to flash back to stock 2.1, worked fine, phone booted back up and everything worked. Phone Data showed I was on 2.1.

2. I put Clockwork Recovery downloaded from Woodrube's sig block on my internal sdcard labeled as Update.zip

3. Created a folder called ICS on my internal sdcard. Found and downloaded CM7 from the forums here and dropped it into the ICS folder. Found and downloaded the ICS Passion ROM from the forums and dropped it into the ICS folder

4. Booted to recovery mode and did Reinstall Packages. It ran but brought me back to the blue recovery screen. so per Woodrube's guide I did it again and the second time it brought me to the green CWR recovery screen

5. I did wipe data/ factory reset

6. I did wipe cache

7. I went to advanced and did wipe dalvik cache

8. I went to mounts and storage and did format system

9. I went to install from sdcard and found the ICS folder I made and ran the CM7 fille I dropped there. It worked the first time and booted right up, I let it sit for about 5 mins waiting for the request to install my google password as Woodrube mentions, but it never appeared, so I moved on after 5-6 min of waiting.

10. I then booted back into recovery mode using the extended power button menu

11. I went to install from sdcard again and this time ran the ICS Passion file. It ran some text lines showed on the screen as id did somethings and then I sw a Random Offset error and a small hex string but then it said successfully installed but didn't leave the recovery screen. So i scrolled up to reboot system.

12. The phone rebooted, showed me the Passion splash screens and a progress bar which filled and completed, then showed a few other splash screens and then it booted up showing my signal strength bar and notifications bar. I thought YES! I did it and it worked. then the screen flashed, it showed a single multi-colored line horizontally across the middle of the screen and then flashed again and I was looking at the Encryption Unsuccessful screen.

13. I DID NOT PUSH THE RESET BUTTON, I set the phone aside and followed Woodrube's link to the Captivate Forums and read up on the error, read all of it, then searched the forums for more threads on the error and read all of those, then I Googled the error and read everything else I could find.

14. First i tried just shutting the phone down with the power button and then restarting it. I did this about 5-6 times. Every time it rebooted it showed me the Passion splash screens then boots up shows my notification bar and signal strength meter and the EU screen. That didn't work. I next tried rebooting 5 times without my external sd card installed. Same results

15. Next I decided to see if I had lost access to my internal sdcard as I had read about. I wasn't sure if I had because I had never pushed the EU screen reset button. So I booted into recovery mode, went to install from sdcard and my sdcard list popped up. I still had access to my internal sdcard.

At this point I was torn... do I stop playing with fire and just got back to stock, update with Kies Mini and go back to using the phone as I had always been and forget all this or do I try and figure this out? Well my stubborn side hating to be stumped had encountered a problem and so wanted to move forward... on i went.

16. I decided, ok, I can still see my internal sdcard so why not try reflashing the ISC Passion and see if maybe it will take this time with no EU. I ran it and exactly the same thing happened as the first time.. right down to the flash with the horizontal line and all. (I did not wipe data, cache or anything, just reflashed. Not sure if I should have or not)

17. Back to recovery mode and check... yes still see my internal sdcard. hmmm

18. Decide ok, how about it I do Woodrube's guide all over again from the start? Maybe that will work. I followed the guide again using all the same files and wound up right back at the EU screen again.

19. Hmmm, how about a different ICS ROM? Went and found ICZen and downloaded it. Hmm, how do I get this unto my internal sdcard if the phone won't boot all the way? Booted it back to the EU screen and just plugged the phone into the usb on my computer, windows recognized it, made the device plugged in noise, and both my internal and external sdcards on the phone showed up as drives. Navigated to the ICS folder in the internal sdcard and dropped the ICZen file into it.

20. Rebooted the phone into recovery mode using the power button menu

21. Used install from sdcard and flashed the ICZen. (Again, I didn't wipe anything before hand. Again not sure if I was supposed to)

22. The ROM installed and got stuck in a boot loop. I pulled the battery and rebooted to recovery and reflashed the ICZen again with no wipes. This time it worked and the phone rebooted and I got the ICZen splash screens, then the notification bar and signal strength meter showed up.. and AGAIN the weird flash with the horizontal bar and then the EU screen. SIGH

23. Booted back to recovery mode and checked if I still had access to internal sdcard. yes it was still there.

24. Shut down and booted to download mode and ran Odin and flashed back to stock 2.1

This is where I am now, It was too late to try anything else and my wife was glaring at me to go to bed so shut off the phone and went to bed.

I tried to put everything I did down with as much detail as I could. I'm sure some of you pros out there might be wincing at stuff I did, but again this is all new stuff for me and I'm slowly learning.

If you have any questions or need clarification just ask and I will try and help/explain better.

Hopefully this might help in the quest to solve this bug or it may just be a waste of time to read, dunno.