Develop Bugs

[Q] Questions about warranty repair (BravoC)

Hi All,
I have a US Cellular BravoC that needs to go in for repair. I am one of the unlucky ones who are experiencing the overheating/forced resetting while doing CPU intensive tasks.
I currently have S-OFF, CWM Recovery 3.0.2.4
I know that I can download 2.2 RUU in fastboot and that will return my phone to unrooted, S-ON... and my warranty repair should go through fine. The problem is, I want to be able to return to CM or Oxygen when I get my phone back.
1) If I return a phone with S-OFF and CWM recovery is it likely that HTC will deny the warranty repair?
2) Does anyone know if there is an RUU for 2.1?
3) Is it possible to flash the stock recovery and leave S-OFF as a back door?
4) Is it even likely that I will get the same software back? In other words... should I not even worry about because I will likely get back something different (Just flash the 2.2 RUU and say screw it).
I still do not really understand the whole "goldcard" thing or how to really use fastboot effectively, so I don't have the untouched ROM that came with the phone. Only the rooted one I created with nandroid backup before installing CWM
Sorry, I know that is a lot of questions but they are all very closely related. I have searched through the forum and did not find anything that really answers these.
Thanks for any advice you may have!

When you get your phone back you can just reroot and S-OFF again. You need to find the US Cellular ruu and run it.
Maybe someone else can help you with that.

So if I understand this correctly, even if I have 2.2 installed (which, as of now, can not be rooted) I could find and install the 2.1 RUU and then root the phone? I think the problem is HTC never released a 2.1 RUU. I am pretty sure I go to 2.2 (or HTC upgrades my phone to 2.2) I will lose the ability to root it.
Man, I just hate the stock ROM so much I want to try avoiding it at all costs.

[Q] Return phone with S-OFF ok?

This was probably asked before but I couldn't find anything on my searches...
I need to return my phone since I got a refurb'd but I'm having issues turning it back to S-ON... has anyone returned their phone with S-OFF? Did they attempt to charge your account or something to that effect? I can definitely do the RUU and return it to stock unrooted but the bootloader shows S-OFF as well as the 6.17 Hboot instead of S-ON and 2.16 Hboot...
TIA!

gqukyo said:
This was probably asked before but I couldn't find anything on my searches...
I need to return my phone since I got a refurb'd but I'm having issues turning it back to S-ON... has anyone returned their phone with S-OFF? Did they attempt to charge your account or something to that effect? I can definitely do the RUU and return it to stock unrooted but the bootloader shows S-OFF as well as the 6.17 Hboot instead of S-ON and 2.16 Hboot...
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well they can't really do anything about us rooting phones since the supreme court says we can do whatever the hell we want to devices we paid for, thanks to the Apple lawsuit. However rooting voids your warranty so I suppose the question is why are you returning. If you are returning it because it's in some way physically defective, you *might* be ok. But if it has malfunctioned, it could bite you in the ass. More information would be helpful.
You should also realize that Sprint has been very inconsistent on this issue. There are those who have had warranty work/returns done and had no issues with it having S-Off and even custom roms still installed. Then there are those who have gotten caught. It should also be pointed out that this is in your contract, so please don't be one of those guys that get denied then RAGE about it on these forums. When you rooted, you clicked a box that said "Your warranty is now void" or at least read that somewhere I am certain! Anyway more info pls, or try it anyway and good luck! Worst thing they will do is give you the phone back and void your warranty totally. You could always toss it in the sink for a few hours then file insurance claim on it.

gqukyo said:
This was probably asked before but I couldn't find anything on my searches...
I need to return my phone since I got a refurb'd but I'm having issues turning it back to S-ON... has anyone returned their phone with S-OFF? Did they attempt to charge your account or something to that effect? I can definitely do the RUU and return it to stock unrooted but the bootloader shows S-OFF as well as the 6.17 Hboot instead of S-ON and 2.16 Hboot...
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried returning my Evo with S-Off, and the person who was looking at it recognized it in the bootloader. He said "I personally used Revolutionary too. Sadly, we can't return this."
I was able to find a solution, however. Download the zip file attached to this forum post, rename it to PC36IMG.zip, and place on the root of your SD card. Boot into your bootloader. You will be prompted to update. Choose yes. It should flash quick. When it asks you to reboot, choose yes and reboot back into the bootloader. It should show S-ON with 6.17 HBOOT. From there flash your RUU and you should be back to 2.16 HBOOT with S-ON!

I got a refurb a couple months ago and it arrived S-OFF, so I dunno

Thank you all for your responses. I did try to run the RUU and Captain Throwback's S-ON zip but no luck, I'll probably just unroot and RUU it back to the newest firmware and just return it like that. Since borrowedchief said he received his with S-OFF, its probably a hit or miss as most other things at Sprint...

I just sent my old phone back with S-OFF. My issue though was power cycling. Sprint even credited me the $100 premium for my insurance because they failed to replace my phone before it had water damage. I took the phone in multiple times with no luck. Finally the Tech told me I had good news and bad news. Good news, you are getting a new phone. Bad news you have to pay $100 because you have water damage. The first Rep I talked to said we should have replaced the phone the first time. Credited me the money once they received my old phone.

I just returned my phone a few days ago with the s-off but i did have the original rom on the phone. They didnt say anything to me and when i received the new phone, the s was also off.......

Obviously the official rule is that they dont take them back S-off... Some people get lucky and either get a lazy rep or a rep that wants to be nice... It's a gamble

richp1970 said:
I just returned my phone a few days ago with the s-off but i did have the original rom on the phone. They didnt say anything to me and when i received the new phone, the s was also off.......
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Click to collapse
I returned mine too but the terms state that they have up to 2 billing cycles to charge us for any damages or whatnot... guess we'll see...

Their policies at sprint are now that they service rooted phones meaning with S-off they just RUU back up to the latest and it usually reflashes over ENG hboot and other things meaning that it's just gonna be s-on when you get it.

I rooted my phone and is s-off too and cant get it back to s-on

gqukyo said:
This was probably asked before but I couldn't find anything on my searches...
I need to return my phone since I got a refurb'd but I'm having issues turning it back to S-ON... has anyone returned their phone with S-OFF? Did they attempt to charge your account or something to that effect? I can definitely do the RUU and return it to stock unrooted but the bootloader shows S-OFF as well as the 6.17 Hboot instead of S-ON and 2.16 Hboot...
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Originally Posted by Captain_Throwback
Here I will post my 2.16 hex-edited HBOOT to appear as 6.17. I'm not really a good person to put together a guide, but I can give you this file, which should at least help.
I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU (SOMEHOW) BRICK YOUR DEVICE. FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
Also note that I have 0003 hardware, so there are no guarantees that this will work for you! That being out of the way, let me continue . . .
I used AndroidFlasher to flash this HBoot, as it was extremely easy (just renamed to HBOOT.img). Flashing through Fastboot (directly on the device) might also work, I guess, if you rename the file to PC36IMG, but I didn't try it that way.
I was able to do this successfully on Windows XP 32-bit (I always have issues getting anything to work on my Windows 7 machine), so I'm not sure how (or if) it'll work on Vista or 7 (or on 64-bit versions).
Note that if you're doing this with your device connected to your computer, USB Debugging MUST BE TURNED ON!!
If you want to return to stock, I first recommend flashing a stock ROM. I recommend the most recent Gingerbread update, which can be found in this post (RUU can be found here).
After successfully un-rooting your device by flashing the unrooted ROM from above, now we must re-lock NAND (set S-ON). Basically, you just flash the hboot.img from the attached zip file, and it will set your device HBOOT version to 6.17, and re-lock your NAND (S-ON). Then, you can re-flash the ROM from the above step, and it *should* overwrite the hex-edited HBOOT with the "official" version, and restore your device to stock.
Again, this worked for me, but if it doesn't work for you, don't go blaming me, and calling my method a sham.
Thanks to {ParanoiA} for posting the link to the thread where the hex-editing was mentioned, and thanks to thefredelement (from that thread) for posting a working method!
Maybe someone else can test my method and confirm it works for them & others, and then put a real guide together, for everyone else (like me) that needs to return their device for service after rooting with Revolutionary.
Thanks man! I rooted gingerbread 2.3.3 with revolutionary and try to unroot with unrevoked foreverson.zip but no luck because I didn't use there method to root. Hours and hours of research came accross your thread and all I can say thank you.
*****Very important to complete last step because if you don't you will have S-on but your HBOOT will be 6.1... For my last step I didn't flash using HBOOT I just downloaded RUU most current file because my phone came with 4.24.651.1 I just ran RUU booted back to white screen and HBOOT now shows HBOOT 2.1
Here you should use this method. It was origanally posted by captainthrowback and thanks to him now im back to s-on I was rooted and went back to stock but had s-off and I used this method to go back to s-on and it worked. My evo is on hardware v0004 and it worked fine too. Hope this method works for you to. Good Luck. Have any other questions just ask

S-ON wipe Recovery?

Okay, this is a quick and probably stupid question. I just used jcase's method to return my phone to stock (now it's running Froyo, and I declined the GB upgrade). I have to return it under warranty, but I just want to confirm that they won't find anything wrong with it. Is the recovery overwritten? I know I am S-ON so is that enough? Thank you so much for your help!

DalekCaan said:
Okay, this is a quick and probably stupid question. I just used jcase's method to return my phone to stock (now it's running Froyo, and I declined the GB upgrade). I have to return it under warranty, but I just want to confirm that they won't find anything wrong with it. Is the recovery overwritten? I know I am S-ON so is that enough? Thank you so much for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if ur s-on ur good.

S-On
I'm going to follow up with another stupid question.. if i get S-Off from Alpharev, is there a way to return it back to S-on? i know with the original Dinc there was an S-on Zip.. i know they're completely different phones, but can i use that to S-on again? is there something in ADB to redo it?
If i get S-off.. i DO want to keep it, i'm just talking about warrenty purposes..
Ya I found that out right after.. my Googling skills were weak for a little bit then i realized i couldnt find anything to return it to stock because i had Dunc 2 written instead of Dinc 2... and Google apparently found it funny to not give me the Suggested search...

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnlnWW8tsvo and follow it with jcase's guide (link in video description). I was anxious about messing something up but this was really easy.

[Q] back to stock and then s-on - reversible?

i may need to go to bone stock for warranty purposes and then go s-on. if i flash the latest ruu (2.3.4) and then go to s-on (how do i go to s-on?) then can i get back to s-off if they actually fix my piece and send it back?

No. S-on via Clockworkmod, then flash 2.2 RUU. Then, when you want to root, use unrevoked

No need to go to newest stock, any stock with s-on should work. If they send you back an updated phone you can still downgrade and s-off from 2.3.4. Search forum for s-off and downgrade. It's doable - i've done it with help from here.

Just get the phone back to stock s-on. It doesn't matter if its 2.2 or 2.3 as long as its stock. They will send you a new phone that is updated already. Then to re root just downgrade and use unrevoked3
Sent from my Incredible Stock+ Ginger Tiny

oh so with s-on i can downgrade using an ruu and then unrevoked it? i thought some updates could block root forever a.k.a. u cant downgrade anymore to unrevoke. guess i was wrong. gonna submit my claim to square trade soon. hope they send me an upgraded phone lol.. rezound would be nice.

Ya that would be nice but you will either get the original incredible or the incredible 2. Any ways, the original 2.2 downgrade should work. I have tried it my self and I don't see where people have problems. I bricked my phone really bad and had to install the actual bootloader. But point is I had no problems downgrading and rooting again. Let me know if it worked for you. It should since you have a bootloader still.
Sent from my Incredible hd / gingedtiney

[Q] Is stock possible?

Recently been looking into purchasing a new HTC One for myself, but after reading up on it, I see that there are a ton of S-Off and stock issues flying around. I guess I have a few clarifying questions then...
If I buy the phone today, is S-Off still possible?
Is S-Off risky?
Can I return to 100% complete stock yet if I need to or not? If yes, how?
Really I'm wondering if it's worth it to even purchase this phone as I don't want to be without flashing ROMs but at the same time, I resell my phones after awhile so I'm going to need to go back to 100% stock eventually. Sorry if these questions have already been asked, my xda search function is a bit broken. Thanks for reading this far.
Edit - Did some more searching and found the HTC One m8 now has the RUU's? Could someone also explain this? I'm new to HTC devices, coming from a nexus 5 here.

Nobody knows at all...?
Sent from my HTC M8

DinoSoup said:
Recently been looking into purchasing a new HTC One for myself, but after reading up on it, I see that there are a ton of S-Off and stock issues flying around. I guess I have a few clarifying questions then...
If I buy the phone today, is S-Off still possible?
Is S-Off risky?
Can I return to 100% complete stock yet if I need to or not? If yes, how?
Really I'm wondering if it's worth it to even purchase this phone as I don't want to be without flashing ROMs but at the same time, I resell my phones after awhile so I'm going to need to go back to 100% stock eventually. Sorry if these questions have already been asked, my xda search function is a bit broken. Thanks for reading this far.
Edit - Did some more searching and found the HTC One m8 now has the RUU's? Could someone also explain this? I'm new to HTC devices, coming from a nexus 5 here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably, it will be. But it's not for certain. If your phone comes with the stock 1.12 software, then you can do it. But there's also a possibility of your phone being one of those unlucky "Whelp, this sucks..." phones. If it comes with the latest 1.57 software installed, it won't be possible.
That being said, if it comes with 1.12, which it probably will, and you unlock the bootloader, root, and S-Off, you can always go back to 100% stock with no trace at all of it ever being rooted if you want to return it for warranty, exc.
IF it is one of the unlucky "Whelp, this sucks..." phones, and you unlock your bootloader, root, and try to S-Off, but can't, then you can re lock the bootloader, run the stock RUU, and the only trace of it being unlocked and rooted would be that in the bootloader, it would say "Relocked" instead of "Locked."
Remember that if the phone comes with the 1.12 software, NEVER accept the OTA update. If you do accept the update, you will never be able to S-Off.
But again, chances are you will probably get the 1.12 software and be able to S-Off your phone. Hope this helped.

XxKINGxX2580 said:
Probably, it will be. But it's not for certain. If your phone comes with the stock 1.12 software, then you can do it. But there's also a possibility of your phone being one of those unlucky "Whelp, this sucks..." phones. If it comes with the latest 1.57 software installed, it won't be possible.
That being said, if it comes with 1.12, which it probably will, and you unlock the bootloader, root, and S-Off, you can always go back to 100% stock with no trace at all of it ever being rooted if you want to return it for warranty, exc.
IF it is one of the unlucky "Whelp, this sucks..." phones, and you unlock your bootloader, root, and try to S-Off, but can't, then you can re lock the bootloader, run the stock RUU, and the only trace of it being unlocked and rooted would be that in the bootloader, it would say "Relocked" instead of "Locked."
But again, chances are you will probably get the 1.12 software and be able to S-Off your phone. Hope this helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a ton, this is exactly what I was hoping for. Final question - how do I go about getting to stock. I found the RUU and stock files but I don't know at all what to do. After I know that, I'll be ready to root!
Sent from my HTC M8

DinoSoup said:
Thanks a ton, this is exactly what I was hoping for. Final question - how do I go about getting to stock. I found the RUU and stock files but I don't know at all what to do. After I know that, I'll be ready to root!
Sent from my HTC M8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the late reply,
To get to complete 100% stock, you have to download and run the RUU. It's a simple EXE file. There are a bunch of Youtube videos on how to run RUUs. Before running the RUU, you have to re-lock the bootloader. But, to go to 100% stock, you first have to to reset the tampered flag, LOCK, not re-lock the bootloader (there is a thread on how to make the bootloader say LOCKED, not Re-Locked) and then S-ON. After that, run the RUU file, and it will take you back to complete stock. Like you never unlocked the bootloader or rooted.
But, I would do everything except S-ON. If you go to S-ON and run the RUU, you will not be able to go back to S-Off again. The RUU will install the 1.57 software, and that version isn't supported by Firewater.
The only thing you really have to do is a simple re-lock of the bootloader before running the RUU. But, doing what I said would make the phone look like it was never rooted. Again, I would do everything I said except going back to S-ON.

I just successfully achieved completely stock with S-On. I gave my details here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55374644&postcount=2