[Galaxy Ace S5830 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Jarmezrocks:
Hey everyone,

NB: If you don't want to read all the fluff skip to the part highlighted in red

I am a n00b in this section of the forums, although I am a long time Samsung user of quite a few different models. Off the top of my head I have owned Galaxy S I900 (been modding these since their first release), Galaxy SII I9100, Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE P7320T, Galaxy S3 LTE GTi9305.

I've developed ROMs for I900, I kick started a team that's now 22 developers in size that support most devices across the forums, and I myself support devs for various devices....so I am fairly seasoned with regards to Samsung devices. They are my weapon of choice because I understand them and *usually* know their weaknesses, exploits etc and most importantly understand how to port from various other Samsung models to less feature rich devices (ones that would lack support from Samsung). I enjoy bringing new features to devices. Its fun.

So for Christmas I got my mum her first Android device.

She has resisted and stuck with her nokias for so long now and I can hardly blame her, but she has seen what my devices are capable of and how simple they are to use so I decided to go with the Galaxy Ace for a number of reasons, price point being the major factor.

I was shocked that I could get a device of almost on par standards to my S1 for just $68 brand new! Yes that is correct :) OfficeWorks here in Australia had these babies on sale for only $68 however locked to Optus, although my particular one is unlocked.

They had made a stuff up and we were promised the last one available at the store and we were prepaired to drive an hour to Brisbane in search of a store that still had stock if I had to (as you can imagine they sold like hotcakes at such a steal of a price) I would have grabbed more had I known that the sale was on.

Anyway long story short, they admitted that they had sold out of locked devices long ago and a staff member had let slip that they had been selling the unlocked ones for the same price because people were swarming for them every single day and they only had 1 more device left. So lucky me got the last one they had. Awesome!

Heres the bad part now, the phone WILL boot into recovery fine red coloured 3e. The device is detected absolutely fine in Windows, no driver faults, nothing flagged in device manager in Windows 7 64bit. I cannot get it to boot into download mode via the 3 button method. It just blatantly refuses as though there isn't even a download mode? Inside of Windows even though it IS detected fine, ADB does not see the device what so ever. I get the generic list of devices attached message. I have removed and reloaded drivers. I have done the 3 button trick with the battery out and dropping the battery back in whilst already holding the 3 buttons in and still no download mode?

The device is running Android 2.3.6 and is a bit of a slug. I wanted to get a decent ICS ROM on there for her with some nice features for one, and secondly because OMFG gingerbread looks so darn horrid. I forget just how crap this software was. Man it's gotta go!

Next issue, I have a solid WiFi connection and this thing refuses to create a Google Account? WTF? I don't have the sim for it (she is using it and my sim in my current phone is a micro sim and won't work. I have made a dodgy jigsaw puzzle like carrier out of an old simcard that works well to hold micro sims in place but usually only in the flip down tray style of simcard trays...I am not game to stick my sim in this slot style. So thats a no go?

I don't really have the Option to return it unless it is physically not working, I guess the Google Account not registering is enough, but the thing is that they won't have a device to give me as a replacement. Usually almost always when there are specials like this with 3rd party suppliers (OfficeWorks are not an everyday reseller for Optus nor Samsung and they aren't a telco either) so I know they will probably turn me away and say send it off the Samsung if I have any issues (which I kind of expected).

So what are my options from here?

Should I attempt to flash the latest stock firmware from Optus in a hope that it has a kernel that will allow me into download mode? How would I go about doing this? Does anyone know of any signed firmware packages that I can flash via the 3e recovery? This was a solution when I had the same problem with Gingerbread. Basically Samsung has been known for blocking download mode in their kernels so as to stop users flashing their own firmware, but still allowing them to do a factory reset from recovery. Shifty lil buggers aren't they ;) My Galaxy S1 that had much the same issues? Because I couldn't get download mode on my S1, I flashed stock recovery 2e over 3e and then from there I was able to flash a stock gingerbread kernel (insecure kernel) and from there the world was my oyster as they say ;)

Would this be similar approach for me? I can't get into download mode so I can't use Odin, so could I flash a different recovery (like stock 2e) flash a stock "insecure kernel" (do they still call it that these days?) then I should be able to make a backup recovery, or flash root from 2e and then just a terminal back up dd to my SDcard or ext SDcard right? Would any devs have these resources on hand?

Can anyone tell me what type of update script is used on these devices? Is it edify or amend? Also what binary? Would the binary from my S1 developments work for the Ace?

The biggest hitch is being no download mode. I know a lot of you guys in here from your recommendations to several users have been that you are screwed when you have no download mode? I believe that not to be so.....well coming from my SGS1 days that was quite common to have a device that would not allow download mode, I am just not so sure with the Ace? Maybe you guys are right and know better than me and maybe I am screwed?

I am all ears? Shoot with suggestions and I am willing to give them a try before driving all the way to Brisbane to search for a store that might still have stock to possibly get a device that might still have the same issue?:)

First person that can help me out of this situation I will share with them my work (that I still have) from the first port of proper TouchWiz ICS to SGS1 device (all but working with exception of the FM radio) I would really love to kick start that again and get another ROM going with some ICS but something other than AOSP (nothing wrong with AOSP btw, just there is less dramas with integrating TW apps into genuine TW firmware thats all ;)....anyway....

Ok I'm done. I have about half a week to spare before my mum is back from holidays to have this done for her, otherwise it's ****ful gingerbread for her

Cheers and merry Christmas if I don't hear back from anyone till then