Mr Smith... I seek your infinite wisdom: Can't get past boot loop issue, RezROM ICS

[alpinewil81]

I know you're the moderator, but I'll try to summerize what I've gone through as its posted in various threads throughout.

I have my HTC ReZound, it was running the elder RezRom that I installed back in about February or there about after first purchased.

I also installed AmanRa, SuperUser, and Titanium Backup. Its obviously rooted and unlocked.

About two weeks ago it tried to OTA update, which I didn’t think was possible with custom ROMS… but it isn’t fun. I tried to freeze the files and that didn’t work, at all.

Upon trying to install the update, it would force boot to recovery about every 2 hours. I changed the update settings to defer in 24 hour increments, this simply reduced the reboot to nightly.

Yesterday I saw the latest version of the ICS Based RezRom. I downloaded it, MD5 checked it, flashed my phone… twice as suggested, installed and followed the installation and then setup instructions.

Upon install and first boot, the Bootloader asked if I wanted to update? I said yes, then I completed the set up. Then, upon the first glimpse of network it went white and began bootlooping.

I was able to time the gap and get the bootloader to find recovery again. I tried to flash everything again, reinstalled, denied the update. Only this time I can’t get through even the setup.

So, I tried again… this time flashing the holy heck out of the phone every way I could see possible, reinstalled the ROM… this time installed the patch with it (just for giggles and grins) to see what happened. Still the exact same thing… it is locked in boot loop world. At the moment. If I take the SD card out, I can get it to quit boot looping, so obviously my problem lay there as to what its recognizing.

I’m not sure, but from what I can tell, every time I’ve installed the new rom after excessive flashing, it still sees all my old accounts. I’ve cleared all cache and delvik-cache, several times too. Still, upon new ROM it sees everything. Through the recovery platform, I can browse to my SD card and see random things, that is when I can get to my recovery beyond the boot loop. As of now, I can’t this last time with the SD card still in…

Any suggestions? One question I have, why is it when I install the ROM it extracts and places the PH98IMG.zip that is within the RezROM_Ex_v3.4.zip??? Is that normal?

I’m currently formatting the SD card via my desktop to wipe any and all information it may contain. I’ll again try to get my phone into recovery to flash. Is it possible I’m unable to truly wipe the data from the thing?

I’m getting frustrated now… this thing is one sexy paperweight. Well, it was when it had a home screen picture L…

Your wisdom and assistance is greatly appreciated!

 

[MrSmith317]

Ok, first and foremost, bricking the rezound takes a lot more than a few flashes. My advice would be to flash the 3.14.605.12 RUU, from there it's like you're starting over again. You'd unlock, install AmonRa, install your ROM etc...

You can find the RUU here: [Exclusive Download] HTC Rezound Ice Cream Sandwich RUU For Final OTA (3.14.605.12)

And instructions on how to flash it here: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/htc-rezound-development/217825-how-flash-ruu-htc-rezound.html

 

[alpinewil81]

Yeah, I was afraid you'd say that. I was hoping for a little less pain, but man, if it takes going to Square One then so be it. Anything is better than nothing. Oh, and thank God these phones are hard to brick, I've heard some horror stories about my predecessor, the HTC Droid Eris. When I meant its a paperweight, its because I can't turn it on without it spending all day boot looping... it isn't technically a functioning phone at the moment.

I'll get the files and go for gold! I'll keep ya posted... ICS, OTA I guess, here I come!

 

[alpinewil81]

Well, after having heck with downloads... I think I've finally got one to work. Its only taken 7 total tries now. 6 occured by 8 am and took place on 3 different computers and 2 seperate ISP's. BUT! I finally got one that appears to be the accurate size and is being MD5 checked... we'll see.

Let everyone know how it goes...

Alright... step one, accomplished!

 

[alpinewil81]

I am not having any luck... so to do the full RUU it tells you to be rooted and S-Off. Yeah, well... according to my research you can only obtain S-Off two ways. A) Use the JuonuputBear Control Bear and the Wire Trick or B) Use the All In One Tool Kit if you already have ICS installed.

So, I go for the wire trick. All was great, or not... it got drunk (if you have done this you'll understand), had a great party... then it killed my SD card. My card is now a 108kb and not a 16GB. Guess I'll go spend $20 and try again ... it will get fixed, eventually!!!! I need a stock RUU that's my next task.

 

[MrSmith317]

You don't need s-off to run the RUU.. You don't even need to be rooted. Just rename the RUU to PH98IMG.zip (use that name exactly including case). And put it on the root of your SD card. Reboot into HBOOT and let the magic happen.

 

[MrSmith317]

Crap, I just figured out what happened. Android-Police are a bunch of morons. Sorry for that headache. Hopefully your phone survives. Also there's a fix for the SD card on XDA, you might want to try that first. I think you just need to re-format it or something else easy like that.

 

[alpinewil81]

Its alive.... muahahahahaha... moniacal laugh!

Crap, I just figured out what happened. Android-Police are a bunch of morons. Sorry for that headache. Hopefully your phone survives. Also there's a fix for the SD card on XDA, you might want to try that first. I think you just need to re-format it or something else easy like that.

That's funny... bunch o' morons! Love it. Honesty is a great thing , way to be honest. :big smile:

Well should I share the good news... I went and bought a new a new SD Card at lunch, only $19 on sale at "The Shack". My computer wouldn't even recognize the full SD card. My CPU wouldn't recognize anything except the 108kb...

So, I'm thinking the SD card may have been the real source for all of my headaches. At some point I stated everytime I went into recovery I could still view the file structure of the SD, it wasn't actually Wiping it,so I formatted it? At that time it did still view the full 16gb... But here's where it gets interesting. I actually followed their directions, simply put, every time I tried to flash that image it would come back as an invalid image. I tried about 4 or 5 times then said eff it, I'm gonna figure out this S-Off crap. Well, so I did. The only thing I could find unless you already had ICS installed was do the S-Off Wire Trick. And since I misplaced my backup... really I uhm, erased it from my PC. Anyway, things were working smooth. The Juonoput program was doing its thing, it got real drunk and went about its way. But after doing it, and during the reboot to be S-Off, it gave me an apk error. That was the precise time my SD card did take a big dook. I know what its like to jumper PC boards, I rebuild various things on them all the time... Good news is the phone itself has survived just fine. I took my new SD card and retried the Juonoput trick... flawless first try. Card survived and S is Off. I moved the same image as before from my portable flash back to my SD and it flashed flawlessly at start up. The only more painful thing about this was getting a complete download that the MD5 checked out and it was fractured upon arrival. So the beast currently is rooted, running the AmonRa recovery again, and has the bootloader in tact. I am going to go custom again because I hate all the crap bloatware again. I really liked the RezRom, and have it in ICS downloaded... but since that's where my trouble began when the stupid VZW OTA came through, I may give another one a shot? I hear Viper is an amazing ROM? I'm not sure if I want sense or desensed? Any thought on that?

So... as of about 45 minutes ago, all life became good again!

Not sure... was the S-Off thing dangerous? I treated it as if you were installing a jumper on a hard drive to change write speed or turn it to slave? Just curious. At least now I can use the new Hasoon2000 S-Off all in one.
My wife is going to be so happy I'm nearly done screwing with my phone ... she was getting a little angry :furious:

Well, thanks for the help. Just piece of mind that someone with such vast knowledge is watching over the shoulders of idiots like me willing to just do crazy things without experience to our phones is a great thing! Like my wife always tells me: "If it ain't broken, fix it til it is". Gotta love that... so true, so true!

Thanks Mr. Smith! I'll let you know how my new ROM treats me... which one will I choose, I just don't know...

 

[Mainmanluke]

Similar Issue

Earlier, when you said those over at Android Police are morons :biggrin: ... what was implied by that? (As in what went wrong, I could care less about the AP hahah)

I was following this, as I'm in need of returning my phone to at least what appears to be stock, so the folks over at best buy return it for an exchange. (My phone boots up into any ROM I install for about 15 seconds before it shuts off. Tried different batteries, different boot.img's corresponding to different roms, etc)

Appreciate any help from the master :hail:

 

[MrSmith317]

Earlier, when you said those over at Android Police are morons :biggrin: ... what was implied by that? (As in what went wrong, I could care less about the AP hahah)

I was following this, as I'm in need of returning my phone to at least what appears to be stock, so the folks over at best buy return it for an exchange. (My phone boots up into any ROM I install for about 15 seconds before it shuts off. Tried different batteries, different boot.img's corresponding to different roms, etc)

Appreciate any help from the master :hail:

Basically I was saying that AP's insistence that S-Off was necessary for flashing an RUU is dangerous because most people aren't ready for that level of operation.

For you, just relock your bootloader (fastboot oem lock) and run the RUU that matches your firmware.