[Desire General] Futurian:
Hi All,

I have had a bit of a unlikeable experience with HTC today that I felt I needed to share with the community. My HTC Desire has been purchased off EBay as I just couldn't wait to get my hands on one. I was assured by the seller that the device had not been rooted and never questioned the information. This may have been my mistake, however I took it for granted I had an unbranded Desire and this was the reason the device took my Vodafone SIM without worries.

So, oblivious and ignorant to any potential history of the device I get the long awaited OTA prompt today. I have been waiting ever so patiently for the new features, especially the official implementation of APP2SD. I was aware of the possibilities of rooting my device for this feature, however did not want to jeopardise my investment so soon after purchase.

Well, needless to say the update has not gone smoothly. The download completes fine and the installation begins to take shape, however towards the end of the installation a reboot cycle begins and all starts to go pear shaped. The black screens complete OK, however I then get a white screen that contains a percentage indicator. At this stage there is a short delay before I am apologised to and informed that "Process system is not responding.". I have the option to "Force Close" or "Wait", I'm patient by nature so I "Wait"... Whichever option I choose always results in the same outcome anyways... This process repeats some ten times up to the 97% stage (enough to take me to the end of my tether). I finally figure out that if I take the SD Card out the phone will boot into the Home Screen. I have to replace the card for HTC Sense to boot up. At this stage things get even weirder as the same error message continues and my SIM Card is refused. The system is just about accessible but frequent random reboots occur every few minutes or so.

I feel I have tried all obvious techniques to resolve the problem, including a number of different hard resets and blanking the SD Card used in the device (inc. simultaneously), however once the update has been applied stability can not be regained.

I phoned HTC and explained my predicament. They say it was sold as a T-Mobile device and it must have been rooted to accept my Vodafone SIM card. They offered to reflash the device for £50, however could not advise if it would be the 2.1 or 2.2 firmware that would be installed. I imagine I would probably end up with a T-Mobile locked device if I took this option, and the 2.1 firmware... :-S

Thankfully I have found my own resolution using a Goldcard and this firmware image:-

PB99IMG_Bravo_HTC_WWE_1.21.405.2_Radio_32.36.00.28U_4.06.00.02_2_release_126984_signed.zip (Posted by 'ortonnorth')

I renamed the file to "PB99IMG.zip" and booted up holding the Volume Down key and seem to have successfully flashed back to the 2.1 firmware that was installed when I obtained my device. After getting back onto 2.1 and trying to update to 2.2 again (over wi-fi) all the same symptoms were present, back to 2.1 again and all is OK. To be honest I'm still uncertain as to whether my device is rooted, I'm gonna try checking as soon as I finish this post..

I have gathered this information along the way:-

[B][U]2.2 OTA Update[/U][/B]
Android Version : 2.2
Baseband Version : 32.36.00.28U_4.06.00.02_2
Kernel Version : 2.6.29-0cb9f166 (htc-kernel 'at' and18-2 #1)
Build Number : 2.09.405.8 CL218634 release-keys
Software Number : 2.09.405.8

[B][U]2.1 WWE ROM[/U][/B]
Firmware Version : 2.1
Baseband Version : 32.36.00.28U_4.06.00.02_2
Kernel Version : 2.6.29-0cb9f166 (htc-kernel 'at' and18-2 #1)
Build Number : 1.21.405.2 CL174215 release-keys
Software Number : 1.21.405.2

I write this in the hope that I can warn others who may be just about to make the same mistake, and hopefully provide some information about how to get back out of the situation. I personally was a bit livid that HTC wanted to charge me for a repair, despite being prompted for an update by their device. I probably wouldn't even mind paying it if I was going to get the 2.2 update, but the intentions seemed to be to flash it back to stock.

May I also take the opportunity to express gratitude to the community. Without the information on this site I would have been at HTC's mercy..

Thanks for reading!

Futurian