[Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE] softyelectric:
Dear Whom Can Help,

My sincere apologies if this thread feels redundant, but other threads dealing with restoring this phone are starting from steps well beyond an initial, and/or are using jargon that is at opaque at best from an outsider...

To reduce to salient points:

I bought a used HTC Evo 4G LTE through Glyde.com to port it over to Ting. The previous owner must have been one of your folk, a phone modder / tinkerer / developer / what have you, because it came in an obviously altered state. (Something called Beanstalk loading, terminal apps, etc.)

I don't want any of this. I respect those that want to root and modify their phone, and as a security and a network design consultant I understand the concepts behind all of it, but I also know when and where I want to apply my time. And I don't want to spend it learning about rooting and messing with my phone. And even if I do want to root it someday, I want to root it from scratch myself, not hope that the last person to have the phone didn't put anything nefarious on it (unlikely) or just did stuff I don't understand (likelier).

So I want the phone back to a completely clean factory state. But I don't know any of the precepts and assumptions that all the "unrooting" conversations I've seen have and make. (Basically, all the unrooting stuff assumes you were the one that rooted it, and so already know the jargon.)

Here's where I'm at:

HTC Evo 4G LTE. The phone is in TMRP v2.3.1.0. There are no packages to restore. There is no external microSD card (I can certainly buy one if it's required). I cannot even reboot, as there is "No OS Installed! Are you sure you wish to reboot?"* I can connect the phone via USB to my Windows laptop, if I would need to copy files to it or something.

So, I'm looking to, whether within TWRP or copying a ROM and rebooting the phone or whatever, have the phone back to naked, like I bought it fresh and new, state.

Can someone help me do this? The other questions along these lines point to websites like shipped-roms.com that have pretty names listed like Runnymede and Puccini, but nowhere to explain that my phone is Shooter or Supersonic or what have you. And while I'm pretty computer-savvy, I don't pretend to have any idea what the referents are to statements like "Like how do I get back to fully stock? Or should I be trying to re-root to RUU again? Moonshine doesn't recognize my device in fastboot us..."

I appreciate anyone's time, so I don't have to return this phone. I have already spent a good three-plus hours trying to tackle this, and I fear when I die and my life is flashing before my eyes, this time will be the most boring of the whole lot of it.

Thanks greatly for anyone's time,

Me

* Now, I am aware that I pretty much brought the phone to a worse place, with no OS / no restore points or whatever you kids these days call them, probably while I was trying to restore it to a factory default, which I thought was going to be as simple as clicking on the factory reset option within Android. In any case, yes I made it worse. But I'm at where I'm at, and it's still the dude's fault who sold me a phone without reverting it.