[G1 Android Development] blueheeler:
[HOW-TO] Hey Noobs ... Here's help when you think you "bricked" your phone (U.S.)

Since we have apps now that seemed to have inspired G1 noobs to root and flash their phones without the prequisite of reading the instructions, I hope they might read this to help them get out of the "bricked" situation they often find themselves in. It's simple to do, it's saved my ass a number of times, and it will quickly get you back to a pristine T-Mobile status.

NOTE: This is for U.S. T-Mobile users. Your mileage my vary and it may need to be adapted with different files relative to your country and carrier.

You are not bricked if you can get into the recovery or bootloader just jammed up!

How to quickly UN-"brick" your phone:

All you need are two files.

DREAIMG.nbh

update.zip

THESE TWO FILES ARE FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF PEOPLE IN THE U.S.These can be downloaded at:

- http://www.brentcctx.com/android/DREAIMG.nbh

- http://www.brentcctx.com/android/update.zip

DREAIMG.nbh is the original T-Mobile U.S. Rom.

update.zip is the original T-Mobile U.S. "cupcake" update (signed-kila-ota-148830.de6a94ca)

Download these two (2) files and put them on the root of your sdcard and restore the original T-Mobile rom. You will do this by

remove the sdcard from your phone

put the sdcard into your card reader

put the card reader into your computer

make sure your computer recognizes the sdcard with a drive letter (Windows) or is mounted (Linux)

look in the root directory of your sdcard for any file named "update.zip". If one is there, delete it.

copy DREAIMG.nbh to the root of your sdcard

copy update.zip to the root of your sdcard.

double check that DREAIMG.nbh is spelled just like that (with DREAIMG in all caps and nbh in lowercase)

double check that update.zip is spelled correct and the whole thing is lowercase

safely remove the card reader from your computer (unmount in linux or eject properly in Windows)

remove the sdcard from the card reader

make sure your phone is off

put the sdcard back into your phone

press and hold the CAMERA button

while still holding the CAMERA button, press the POWER BUTTON (red button on the bottom right of phone)

at this point, you should see the phone checking your sdcard, looking for DREAIMG.nbh and checking it for errors

wait until you see "OK" beside all the different items and instructions at the bottom of your screen.

now, press the POWER button (red button on the bottom right of phone) which will restore DREAIMG.nbh

wait until everything has completed.

reboot your phone

your phone will also write the old, original radio back to your phone too and reboot itself

your phone will now boot into the recovery screen (if it didn't, start over with #1)

you should see the triangle with a yellow exclamation point ! (again, if you don't, start over with #1)

Now that you are in the recovery screen, that means your phone has been restored to the original G1 factory condition. Note: you have also lost root at this point, your radio is back to the original and, if you had a different SPL, that's been replaced as well.

While still in the recovery screen, it's now time to update your phone to "Cupcake". This is the OTA version from T-Mobile. It is not rooted or modified. It is strictly the OTA update.

Open up your keyboard and press ALT + L to go from the triangle/! to a menu

For safety sake, press ALT + W to wipe your phone (it should have already occured, but we're being safe)

Now we want to apply the sdcard:update.zip by pressing ALT +S

Wait until the update completes and you see instructions at the bottom of the screen.

Follow the instructions to reboot your phone.

At this point, your phone will update the radio. Be patient and wait for the phone to reboot itself.

Your phone will reboot into recovery again. All you need to do at this point is reboot your phone by pressing HOME+BACK.

You will have to be patient again while your phone boots for the 1st time with "Cupcake". If, after 5-7 minutes your phone hasn't fully booted, that means you have done something wrong. Start completely over.

If at any point during the process you get a warning that DREAIMG.nbh or update.zip cannot be found, that means you didn't copy the files properly. Start over! Put your sdcard back into your computer, check the root of your sdcard for DREAIMG.nbh (that filename is case sensitive) and update.zip (case sensitive as well). Make sure that update.zip isn't named update.zip.zip (that often happens with Windows).

Once your phone has rebooted, you will have to log in again. Your should have your phone back.

I now recommend flashing Cyan's latest recovery image. Search XDA Developer's Forum for the latest. Download and install.

If you still want to try and flash a modified rom, hopefully you have learned from the experience and will be more careful. My suggestion is to the following items, in the following order. Search XDA for the proper thread.

-- DOWNLOAD ANY ADDITIONAL FILES YOU WILL NEED (rom, SPL?, radio)

Now is a good time to re-format & re-partition your sdcard.

In most instances, you will want 3 partitions in this order: Fat32/Ext3/Swap

If you don't have anything to partition your card, get a trial version of Paragon Partition Manager.

Once your card is partition, copy all of your needed files to the Fat32 partition.

Install Cyan's latest improved recovery image next.

Install the most up-to-date radio

If, and only if, the rom you want to install requires a different SPL, then install that.

Now install the modified rom of your choice.

It's a good idea to re-flash the latest radio once again.

Now create an emergency kit !

For future problems, take those two files you originally download from the top of this thread and put them on your sdcard right now ... in the root of your directory. ALWAYS KEEP THEM THERE ! Do NOT rename them (keep them DREAIMG.nbh and update.zip). That way, should your phone ever hit the crapper again, you are fully prepared to get your phone working again anywhere you are without the need for a computer.

NOTE: if you do keep DREAIMG.nbh and update.zip in the root of your sdcard, be careful not to overwrite the update.zip file with a modified rom update. When you want to install a modified rom, just copy the modified rom's .zip file to your sdcard (do not rename it, keep it named whatever the developer named it). If you are using Cyan's latest recovery image, you will be able to apply any update using any .zip file in the root of your sdcard. Update to a modified rom by choosing that rom's .zip file name.