yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Captivate Android Development] Aerimus:
If you are having problems getting to download mode, Use the Stock Captivate Cable Only when trying to access Download mode!

Story:

I have struggled with 2 captivates now to get into download mode. I have read tons of arguments back and forth from people that say it is easy to get into download mode, and people who say that it is impossible with their phones.

Well, for some history...On my first captivate, I bricked it and it refused to go into download mode...PERIOD. I proceeded to exchange it(I was within my 30 days), and didn't think much more about it. Well, I installed Cognition 2.2 recently and in the process realized that my new phone would go into download mode just fine by doing the standard process of:

1)remove battery, sim, microsim

2)reinserting battery only

3)holding down both volume buttons

4)inserting usb cable

No problems right? Well, I ended up "bricking" my phone by accidentally deleting my framework-res.apk file(don't ask) and lo and behold, I suddenly could not get it to go back into download mode. I was really pissed at this point and spent all night trying everything all over again.

Well, I decided to give up for the night and go to bed. As I was laying in bed a thought crossed my mind. I had purchased a second usb cable(from ATT) to use with the captivate, and the one time that download mode had worked, I was using the standard captivate cable that came in the box. However, every time it wasn't working I was using my second USB cable. So I got up out of bed to try the stock cable and, lo and behold, it works flawlessly every time.

I would venture to guess that this is what the problem is with most everyone else that can not get their captivates to go into download mode. So, if you haven't tried it give it a shot. And certainly tell everyone you know to use the stock cable only.

I just want to reiterate that the spare cable that would NOT work was purchased from ATT and is the cable that they recommend you purchase as a spare. It wasn't like I got it from ebay or something.
[Captivate Android Development] kkeo:
Using a usb cable I got from ebay, monoprice, htc, motorola, and stock samsung cable, I was able to get into download mode everytime...

... also, shouldn't this be in general and not in development?
[Captivate Android Development] jromney:
No USB Hubs or Extenders

RECOMMENDED: Use your stock USB cable that came with the phone.

IMPORTANT: Plug the USB cable into your computers native motherboard USB port (the back of your computer). Plugging the cable into USB switches, extenders or external ports, does not allow the phone to enter download mode correctly.
[Captivate Android Development] USHERROB:
I can confirm, although i found this out a whilllllle ago, just didnt think much of it lol
[Captivate Android Development] shinji257:
Just so you know. I found that in some cases certain USB cables just will not work with some devices. This has to do with the quality of the cable. I would avoid overly thin or flat cables because they tend to be cheaply made and won't be able to provide a stable power flow. The shorter the cable the better.
[Captivate Android Development] USHERROB:
The cable he/I bought from AT&T is shorter the the cable that comes in the box, and doesnt work, so im not sure if shorter is better
[Captivate Android Development] Aerimus:
I can recreate this over and over again. The reason I put this here and not in general is because I, like many others, have struggled over and over with odin, and people had the attitude of "it works every time, you're just doing something wrong." The reality is that you're trying to prove that I'm just "doing something wrong" because all your cables work. I can recreate this over and over again. What do you want me to do, make a video of it in order for you to believe that there is an actual issue?

I think it's important for people to see this when trying all the roms and mods that are in the development section. In fact, I think it would be REALLY helpful if designgears would add this to the "how to get to download mode" section on the Odin thread. I can't tell you the amount of hours I have spent trying to get into download mode. It is incredibly frustrating to do everything right, and have others telling you that you are not doing it right.

I searched google endlessly looking for a solution to get into download mode, and no where did I see this as a possible solution. Also, as an FYI, when I plug in the other cable, it just goes straight to the battery screen no matter what I press. I can hold down the power and volume buttons to go into recovery mode, but it's impossible to get to download mode.
[Captivate Android Development] Minor723:
I have plugged mine into a usb port in the front of my computer as well as in my monitor. I have never had a problem with download mode or anything else.
[Captivate Android Development] Mac11700:
While this is good to know...It is quite possible you got a faulty second cable, and some of the cables that do come in the box are faulty as well..

It's always a good reminder to try changing out cables if your having an issues. Same for downloading different things that work for a-lot of people and not for you/me..same too for hooking into the back of the computer and bypassing the external hub....Sometimes you get lucky and find the problem right away..sometimes you don't....It's called a process of elimination...

FWIW..I've never trusted cheap ass cables..in anything. Never have..Never will..but..JSYK..expensive cables go bad from time to time too;)

Thanks for the reminder

Mac
[Captivate Android Development] z28james:
I use the external ports on the front of my case without a problem...
[Captivate Android Development] terrigan:
I've also noticed that, on my PC at least, my front case USB ports don't always reliably work with this procedure. I've been plugging the USB cable since into the USB ports on the motherboard.
[Captivate Android Development] Aerimus:
The thing that throws me off is that this cable works for EVERYTHING else. Data transfer, media syncing, recovery mode, charging, etc... There was never anything that would indicate any issue with the cable. I just want to make sure everyone knows this, because when I was struggling to get into download mode, I didn't see anyone suggest that it could be the cable, even though the cable worked for everything else.:)
[Captivate Android Development] the.dude.abides:
OP - thanks for posting this! It is at least another thing to keep in mind when troubleshooting. I was actually considering getting another cable to keep at work.....

P.S. would we get in trouble for quoting Michael Scott's favorite joke in response to post #6? Yea, I know. Little too obvious right. I'll restrain. Already made myself chuckle anyways
[Captivate Android Development] avgjoegeek:
Um.. not true - Although I did use the stock USB Cable - I was flashing the night away (trying to recover my bricked phone) on my Win7 box using a USB hub that had a few other devices hooked into it.

Never had an issue getting to D/L mode.. and it found the phone again and again and again and again.... (go on for infinity).

I think it has more to do with the hardware your connecting it to and how the USB drivers loaded (i.e. XP=****e) and what type of OS your running more than anything. I had terrible luck with my work's XP rig... but my Win7 x64 rig found the device while in d/l mode - found the drivers?!?! and I was good to go.

Although - it is always a good rule of thumb IF you can't get the device to recognize on your computer to use the original cable and hook to the best source of power for your USB which is the back of your computer.

So.. this isn't a [FIX] - just a good tip. If you can't get into D/L mode by holding the volume button and jamming in the USB or using ADB -> Reboot Download command.. your pretty much fux0red.
[Captivate Android Development] nbarsotti:
I need original USB cable

I just wanted to throw in my $0.02 I needed to use the original USB cable and a port directly on my motherboard. The usb cable I bought from newegg does not work with my MSI X58 motherboard and my capitavate. The original cable does not work if I use a front usb port on my Antec P183 case. Strangly an identical usb cable from newegg that I ordered at the same time does work with my work computer, Dell X38 motherboard.
[Captivate Android Development] snieves:
Ive had the same problem... only way i get it to download mode is via Terminal:

su

reboot download

I really cant get it to work no other way :s
[Captivate Android Development] Mechapanda:
honestly, i have my phone cord that came into the box, connected to an extender cable, that's connected into a usb port hub so i don't agree with what you're saying here

mine works every single time
[Captivate Android Development] designgears:
This method has been known for some time now, reading really helps...

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=731989
[Captivate Android Development] Aerimus:
I appreciate all your hard work on everything. I read through that post and tried to search it several times... Believe me, I spent hours pouring through the pages looking for something that would work.

No where did I see anyone say to make sure you were using the stock cable because other cables might not work? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...there are a lot of pages after all. :)

Furthermore...I'm sorry to be new to Android and to flashing roms, but we are all new at some point. No one is born an expert.:)

edit: I'm guessing you misunderstood the post? I wasn't posting about the method...just about the fact that many usb cables, including the micro usb cable that ATT sells, do not work for getting to download mode. If I'm wrong about what you were posting, feel free to correct me. If i'm correct, your post is quite ironic :D
[Captivate Android Development] n19htmare:
The first captivate I had WOULD NOT GO INTO DOWNLOAD mode regardless of cable or usb port. I tried every port and every cable including the stock one that came with the phone.

The replacement captivate ALWAYS goes into download mode regardless of cable or port.

It's a tip and thank you for the. But if your phone is one of those that does not have 3 button recovery then it will likely not work with the 2 button download trick either.
[Captivate Android Development] tk1lla:
my friend had the same issue with his and exchanged within 30 days and it worked on the first try....when we tried with his first one i tried my stock cable and his and it just wouldn't work...

some cables you can buy from at&t now are strictly for charging and aren't meant for data transfer which is what i'm assuming you could have bought...
[Captivate Android Development] bird333:
Is it safe to kill the power in 'Download Mode' if you want to test getting into download mode? I don't want to change anything on my phone but I want to see if I can get into download mode.
[Captivate Android Development] n19htmare:
you can go into download mode and just pull the battery to get out of it.
[Captivate Android Development] darkamikaze:
just hold all 3 buttons.. and it would restart..

battery pulling is such a hassle when you have a case.
[Captivate Android Development] Aerimus:
The cable works fine for data transfer though, just not for download mode.
[Captivate Android Development] gocats7:
FWIW, I could get into download mode on mine and after issues, couldn't. Same cable, same port as before. This is a good tip for those with issues to try. I no longer have that captivate, would love to have tried this out at the time.
[Captivate Android Development] glitterballs:
Untermensch has a fix for hardware locked Vibrants over in Vibrant dev. It basically flashes a secondary boot loader, and there's some speculation that Samsung had a couple different version of the SBL being loaded into phones which is why some of them are hardware locked. I also happen to have a Vibrant which was hardware locked and this fixed it. And look, it's not like I don't know how to get into download mode, I do. My Vibrant was hardware locked. Might be worth a look to see if the fix for the hardware locked Vibrants can be applied to the Captivate.

I don't think I can post links yet, but the name of the thread is[MOD] Fix for hardware locked phones / cant access recovery without adb.
[Captivate Android Development] The Bishop:
When I bricked my Captivate (and had to send back to Samsung to fix) plugging the USB cable that came with the phone into the native motherboard USB (new mobo with USB 3.0) it still did nada.

Just wanting to put on this thread for anyone else out there -- there are sometimes that even using this will not yield results.
[Captivate Android Development] othermark:
I've got a little story that might help someone out, when I first got my Captivate I could not for the life of me get it to successfully connect to the computer and I thought something was defective. However, after the first few hours of ownership I figured it out:

You can still have the usb cable barely connected if the metal slider tab on the usb port on the phone is not 100% all the way over on the opening. In this state it will supply power, but not connect to the computer.

I thought Samsung was really stupid with their design with such a flimsy usb connection at first (the cable kept falling out if you moved the phone) before I just gave the extra effort and discovered the slider does go all the way over.

With the phone being new it took some real effort to get over, but now it slides easily.

Just a heads up. The cable goes all the way and fits snugly.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] initzero:
can someone please help me understand the major issues of porting android to the hd2? devs from htc can obviously get android running perfectly across numerous hardware platforms, so why is it so hard for anyone to port any version of android to the hd2 without some type of bug or problem? you can flame me all you want I just want to know what the major hurdles are so I can have a better understanding. Is it that HTC doesn't give you guys enough info on the hardware? is htc purposely holding back info from you guys so it's impossible to succeed? The hd2 has been out for ages and as far as I know, there is not one 100% fully working port of sense or stock froyo to the hd2 that I have seen.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FriedSushi87:
It says right at the top of the forum.

READ BEFORE POSTING.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=734335

You must be able to read some English, even if it is one giant block of text...

Read everything in that thread, THEN ask a question, in the appropriate section.

You have no idea how much work is involved in porting over an operating system, or creating drivers from scratch. You sound like an ignorant moron, and that is not me flaming you, but being honest.

I have a 100% working version of Android on my HD2, and I have had it for more than 2 months now. You're probably just doing it wrong, because you have failed to read the stickies.

Read the stickies.

Good luck.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ruinertt:
Custom drivers to initialize the hardware. The problem is that when you don't have the proper hardware schematics or internals, you have to write them from scratch and/or piece code together in order to get it to work.

The main issue is around creating things from scratch at times - very hard to do when you don't have the hardware particulars to build the code from.

Make sense? It's NOT an easy process at all. And yes, the hardware IS different between a lot of the phones. Anything from screens to CPU's to antennae configs, etc.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] willhang:
No idea what are you talking about, I am using Mdeejay Froyo Sense 2.4 and it is working 100% for me, every function i use on a daily basis works as well as when my HD2 was running WM if not better. As mentioned in the replies above, read, search if you feel your Android isnt working to your liking. If you do not understand how difficult it is to port an OS onto a device, research about it and you will understand these devs have done so much in such a short time and they rival any group of highly-skilled SW engineers that any tech company would love to get their hands on.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] initzero:
so you're telling me you have 100% working version as original as far as battery drain, tethering, camera, wifi, boot time, call quality, etc etc? if so, which one is that? seems I missed it somehow.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] initzero:
then it sounds to me like HTC is crazy, why would they change each hardware so much and have to re-invent the wheel constantly?
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] microse23:
If u read my last reply in a previous post, NO QUESTION IS A DUMB ONE! Thats why these forums are here. Now I'm not a dev nor am I that tech savvy but I wud assume that the software has to match the hardware. While different companies make multiple devices, u wud think it shouldn't be hard to root one from the other, understand that each device has different hardware specs, therefore requiring hardware specific software. Hope that helps. As for the other guy telling u to read all the threads to find wut u are looking for, not everyone has the time to read thru all the threads to find the answer to a specific question. Sometimes it's easier to just ask the question in hopes that someone who knows the answer wud reply.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] initzero:
you guys are all the best, and that's why I posted my question here. Yes the search feature is a PITA in it's own right, with the captcha bs and 1000 search hits. I could spend another hour refining my search, or spend 2 mins asking the question. If everyone expects people to search first then at least it should be faster or equal to just asking the question, then people would use it more I would think.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] motoman234:
Each software has certain hardware needs to work. Obviously HTC is raking in millions and millions, so I wouldnt say they are too crazy.

Just because we can get a lot of different ROMs to work on our phones does not mean that all phones can handle all versions of Android and run perfectly out of the box. Although it would be cool.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] initzero:
thanks guys, so it seems the root issue is that HTC really does change their hardware fairly drastically between models and that just seems so insane to me. Why would they do such a thing? It seems so counter productive, and adds so many extra costs. That really sucks but I guess they have the $$ to do it with their stock being up there above google's.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] initzero:
I realize now that htc really is making (figuratively speaking) an apple, a pc, an xbox, a nintendo ds, a psp, a palm etc and getting their OS to run on it. That is really unbelievable. It must be a requirement of the different carriers. Pretty amazing how they were able to do that if you think about it. No wonder it's a nightmare for the devs here. That is exactly what I needed to know and it makes everything very clear now, thanks everyone.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] initzero:
p.s. microse23 you're always so nice, thanks man I appreciate it
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] encrypti0n:
please elaborate what y

you mean by battery drain. obivously the battery is going to drain, constant use of the SD card will do that to a phone , as far as boot time is concerned have you ever booted into a Linux live disk? it isnt all too fast is it? hmmmm i wonder why android take a sec to boot.... and here is a working rom for you: Nexus to HD2. I am using it and it works great! GPS lock in like 20 sec for me, sd is fine, tethering works, camera works (5mpx) boot time is about the same as my mytouch 3G slide after HaRET, call quality is clear no robot voice, apps from market install, HD youtube works. little to no touchscreen freezes, screen wakes up fast. (<--run-on lol) seems to be working 100%...
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] FriedSushi87:
You don't understand how a computer runs.

There are apps that run ontop of runtime environments which are connected to the OS, the Kernel through the API (applicaiton programming interface) and then that talks directly to the hardware via the Hardware Abstraction layer, which is made up of a bunch of drivers which are individual files that detail what language and what commands are to be sent to a device to make it do certain things, which change with each device, which each screen resolution change and new technology or tweak on old technologies. Especially with the radio where it changes from 2G and 2.5G and 3G and H and H+.

APPS

API

OS

DRIVERS

HAL

HARDWARE
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] azzzz:
why can't they port a perfect copies? MONEY!...HTC paid their employees millions of dollar to put this thing together and make it run. Here at XDA, we have geniuses but they are working own their own time and reverse engineering isn't easy. I guess it would be like walking in a maze that doesn't always have an exit. Another thing, HTC is not exactly giving away much information on their hardware too which makes thing harder.

Think about it, we still can't get a PERFECT snes Emulators. They work and have MORE features than the original hardware console but still have issues.

Making software/os work on hardware that's not intended for isn't always clear cut.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shadiku:
What.

Did I miss this?
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] encrypti0n:
I assume you mean me? I do understand how a computer works as I repair them, the LiveCD/usb thing was very vague comparison.
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] encrypti0n:
OHSHI- thought I read it in the post was WRONG, my bad disregard that. FIX'D
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dusty_nz:
Key points missed so far.

When HTC gets hardware from a supplier (Eg Qualcomm) they include driver source. Hardware API's etc for HTC to quickly develop drivers. Guys like Cotulla don't have access to this information so they clip some code from here, there and everywhere.

The hardware may be the same but the Bios (Radio) also defines how that HW is presented to the OS. The radio for a WM phone may present the hardware differently to an android phone. This needs different drivers.

There are 1000's of components and features in a phone all comprising of different models, revisions and manufacturers.

Cotulla and the guys work for free in there spare time. Big difference compared to being paid as part of a team of 20 people to do the job.

So in summary. What the guys are doing is trying to build there own UFO using photo's of an alien UFO that no one even understands the technology or how it works.

Would be a lot easier if the aliens left the instruction and design manual in the glovebox :)
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hutc:
Hi please stop this thread

Hi to the person who started this thread if you are so smart stop asking questions and read between the lines ,do you have any idea how an os is built and how programs are written in different languages,please google and find your answers rather than wasting the developers hard time they are spending at developing the android builds.please dont spend your valuable time answering my reply rather google your question you may get more info towards your required answer.

Please to the moderator stop such threads unless they are reporting build problems.