[HTC One Mini] Andyt95:
Hey gents, I have soft bricked my HTC One Mini while rooting it according to [HOW-TO][SUPER-GUIDE] Keeping Your One Mini Up To Date!!

let's start at the beginning

1. I unlocked the bootloader with HTCdev successfully, everything was looking good.

2. I tried to obtain S-OFF status, following the guides given in the thread

- None of the methods worked, but the wording of the guide says that S-OFF is not absolutely essential. I got various methods which suggested that obtaining S-OFF shouldn't actually be step 2 in this guide. At the time of trying to S-OFF, I did not have an unsecure kernel

3. I installed a stock, rooted, Odexed ROM called JMZ-M4 v.1.22.401.1 and the corresponding JMZ M4 kernel via TWRP recovery standard flashing methods.

- Tried to S-OFF again, got a "success" message but nothing happened, multiple times.

4. After playing around with this temporary test ROM, I decided to go ahead and install InsertCoin. The description of insert coin says the requirements are:

#include
/*
* Unlocked Phone @ HTCDEV or S-OFF
* Custom Recovery
* Common Sense, Brains and logic
*/

Seeing as I unlocked my bootloader @ HTCdev, I thought I wouldn't need the S-OFF, and continued.

- The ROM hung before bootloop (no animated part, just HTC logo) so I reset it (hold down power) and booted into bootloader and then recovery, wiped everything, went to flash it all again (I'm a veteran of the HTC Hero so know a bit about dalvik errors and assumed it was just a wipe problem) and there were no files.

-This made sense since I'd just wiped it, but now I don't have any USB access to my phone.

5. I can access adb in recovery and fastboot in fastboot USB, but other than that I have no sort of communication with my phone. In recovery, I can't browse any files. According to CWM, the /sdcard folder is unmountable, and in TWRP there is no adb connection whatsoever.

6. Using ADB Sideload, I managed to flash the PacMan ROM, but when booted up, neither the phone nor the computer detect any connection (no adb, no mass storage - MTP or MSC).

- adb Sideload refuses to load any Sense ROMs - I get a no status error, and I assume it's because the files are too big and cause a timeout.

7. Things could be worse, so I decide to move on and install GApps but still don't have a Play Store app.

8. I found a "fix" for the USB connection problem but it doesn't work:

fastboot oem enableqxdm 0
fastboot oem eraseconfig

9. Another USB fix was to revert to stock recovery > clear storage > factory reset > CWM recovery > flash ROM

Obviously, this doesn't work either.

10. Cannot get anywhere setting up S-OFF anymore, adb shell will not let me cd into /data/local/tmp, however it still lets me push files to that directory (curious?)

Just so I can recap:

S-ON HTC One Mini, no USB connection, and only runs stock Android ROMs, otherwise results in a brick.

Cannot achieve S-OFF with any method, each method results in an error or says "success" but doesn't actually work.

TWRP does not allow adb in any way, but allows me to browse files on the phone (could install from zip if I could put one there)

C:\Android>adb devices
List of devices attached

CWM allows adb and adb sideload, but does not allow me to browse files on the phone (so no installing from zip on sdcard). adb pushing large files results in a recovery crash (so can't push ROMs that I could install through TWRP)

C:\Android>adb devices
List of devices attached
HT41MWA01962 recovery

Booting into PacMan lets me use the phone, but does not have Play Store nor any connection with the computer through USB. Every other feature seems to work.

Phone BOOTLOADER info:

M4_UL PVT SHIP S-ON RL
HBOOT-2.21.0000
RADIO-1.23.40E.00.26
OpenDSP-v19.2.0268.0927
OS-2.12.61.3
eMMC-boot 1024MB
Dec 3 2013,23:49:27.0

And serial number:

HT41MWA01962

At this point, I really don't care about roots, upgrades, firmware or anything. I just want to be able to use my phone like before I did any of this stupid stuff. I have a working knowledge of adb and fastboot so didn't anticipate any of these faults (I assumed 5 years of modding an HTC Hero would prepare me for this, but I was wrong).

Would it be too much to ask for someone more knowledgeable than myself to give me a hand?

Thanks, there's a $10 donation in it for anyone who can get my phone back to stock again or (even better) set up S-OFF and allow me to root properly as you learned folk do.