Develop Bugs

[Q] Intentional Brick?

I'm asking on behalf of a friend of mine who doesnt actually have a computer so he cant post here himself to ask. I'm a vibrant/N1/G1 user myself, so i'm familiar with the aspects here: he has a slide, has the split-screen/ribbon problem on opening/closing the keyboard. He managed to get a warranty replacement from TMO, but he's super paranoid about having to pay the damages fee because he has CM loaded on it instead of the stock firmware.
Bottom line, he wants to brick it just to be sure before he sends it back (he already has the replacement phone). What is the simplest way (that I could explain to him over the phone) to hard brick the phone?
Quick and dirty is all I really need to help him get the job done, all help much appreciated!

If he can brick it, then he can flash the factory ROM that is available to bring it back to unrooted stated. Why not just do that?

-sigh- I guess he can just try to follow the S-OFF instructions to where it says not 2 power off, take out battery- disconnect phone... do the oppsite of what it says not to do? Just saying though... why not just do what Fermunky said?

fermunky said:
If he can brick it, then he can flash the factory ROM that is available to bring it back to unrooted stated. Why not just do that?
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CaliBoyPhillip said:
Just saying though... why not just do what Fermunky said?
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Problem is that he lives in virginia and I live in colorado. I rooted and customized his phone when I was out there visiting because he's completely inept at this kind of stuff, so I was just looking for a simpler solution than to try and walk him through a reflash over the phone. Plus, apparently what he told the TMO reps was that he got an OTA update and it bricked him, which is the only way (he said) that they'd do a warranty exchange.

Well, I guess your short answer is No, there is no "quick" way. Whether you try to brick it or not, either way will require some attempt at flashing "something", but to just do it in a completely wrong way. Maybe by connecting to a PC and using clever ADB/Shell commands could also do it, but not entirely sure.

Couldn't you flash the radio for say, a Droid X or any CDMA radio?
I know you can brick CDMA phones by flashing GSM radios.
And yay Colorado ;D

I'm going to have to close this as it's discussing warranty fraud.

[Q] Voided Warranty clarification

Yes yes, tampering with the hardware of a device voids the warranty. But does it actually make a difference? Cant you just unroot your device, and send it back into the store for a brand new one (if something breaks, etc etc)? I feel kind of stupid asking this question but i honestly dont understand the difference between the two. Answer please?

Depends, I'm not sure if you can unroot the Evo. My Moment I could unroot. If the phone doesn't start up, then you're okay.

The first Evo (rooted) I bought fell in the toilet, the right side of the screen stopped working, all I did was uninstall Superuser and any rooted apps via ADB and they never suspected a thing.
You could still boot into recovery though but they never tried I guess

sW333t11 said:
Yes yes, tampering with the hardware of a device voids the warranty. But does it actually make a difference? Cant you just unroot your device, and send it back into the store for a brand new one (if something breaks, etc etc)? I feel kind of stupid asking this question but i honestly dont understand the difference between the two. Answer please?
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Click to collapse
Yes, you can just Unroot but just make sure to flash the S-ON zip first. They are big to say it voids your warranty, but I don't think they really go through phones all that much to check for evidence of rooting. But, don't take advantage of this being an option. It gets old seeing all the people on here who brick their phones because they don't know what they are doing then just returning it for replacement because they didn't read something closely enough. These antics only hurt all of us in the end, just more excuses for Sprint to jack it to us on insurance etc.

Thread moved to Q&A.

Nah its not me with the problems, my phone is perfectly fine. I was just wondering because one of my friends wants me to root their phone and such, but they're kind of hesitant because of the whole waranty being voided thing. With the S-On zip though, this unroots the enitre phone back to stock? I forgot to mention this before but the phone that would possibly need unrooting is an Evo purchased a couple weeks ago.

The if you used unrevoked, the s-on tool sets your nand security back to s-on, and then running a ruu with reflash all stock software. Doing these two things will completely unroot you and make the phone eligible for warranty stuff.

Got it. Thanks a bunch.

yea when we root its all software crap and so with software its easily taken on and off just gotta know what your doing. As for as hardware mods if you take your phone apart that voids the warranty .

[Q] Warranty...?

Hi, Hope some1 can help me!
ok.. so i have been installing custom roms etc within the last couple of months.. the latest one i used was RCMIX3D Runnymede. This was working absolutely fine until one day the WIFI, the bluetooth, and the up and down volume keys all stopped working. When trying to turn on wifi it says Error. same with bluetooth... i have tried absolutly everything to sort this out. different roms etc.. the volume buttons don't even work in bootloader recovery mode!
I have now managed to install the RUU stock rom 1.32 using my laptop.. and still nothing works..
so i'm thinking must be a hardware problem?! and wanting to send to HTC for a repair... thing is.. i am wondering will they know i have rooted and installed custom roms etc?.. as i now have stock rom from RUU and will update to 2.3.5 via OTA on my 3g network..
Is there anything else i need to do? or have i messed up my chances to get my DHD repaired on the warranty?
Really hope somebody can help!! as this is doing my nut!
Cheers
Garry

hardware failure most likely if its not even working in recovery
my vol - doesnt work, im waiting for the day when the vol + goes kaput as well ,, a weak link in an other wise excellent phone
sometime i think engineers at htc went for lunch when it was time to make the volume rocker

Surely somebody would know if rooting etc would void the warranty?! i have stock rom and now unrooted......

I've just sent my phone back for replacement (long story short, HTC didn't repair my phone completely when they were supposed to, I had to take my phone back, didn't have time to replace it, and after some haggling I finally have got them to get a replacement sorted for me). I sent it back rooted, but with stock firmware (apparently Mac users don't exist, and I'm not installing a copy of Windows on my system just to unroot my phone).
Note that in the Nexus One warranty policy, there was a clause "h", which stated that rooting voided the phone's warranty. None of the phones since, whether that be the Desire or the Desire HD, have this clause. So it is safe to assume, and you have a strong point to argue, that rooting does not void your warranty, though if you come to brick your phone, of course, you won't be covered.
There is no other clause, apart from this clause "h", that covers software; it all covers hardware failure.
Finally, there are loads of stories that I've read of people sending off rooted phones for repair, and them coming back rooted, whereas there are few of phones being rooted, and being refused repair. Also, as you will know, to restore the phone to a standard, completely stock, factory fresh state, all you do is run the RUU; sending a phone back when a simple RUU restore is possible, to me at least, would not be economical, both in terms of time and money.

Get it back on s-on using Easy Radio tool v2_2 found here on xda http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=857537 and unroot and it should be fine.
However I understand you can´t use volume buttons, but well if you can root the device with visonary then you can do s-on using the tool I mentioned.
After that call HTC explain them your problem and send it for repair. I guess they will not find any traces that you used custom roms and also I heard from several people on www.tweakers.net who used custom roms and even didnt return it on s-on still got there warranty when they had it go for repair.
But most important don't mention about root or custom roms to HTC, aslong as you do that they will probably give the warranty and also HTC is not one doing the repairs it are external repair companies so it might be different for each country.
And yes if you would still have the custom rom on it would void your warranty, that's why I would always put it back to stock if possible, but about root I don't know, but before In returned in my phone for repair I just did a factory reset so that all data was gone and any traces off root.

Thanks for your responses,
I've since found a link on another site.. which shows somebody with the exact same problem and has got HTC to admit its this is a known fault.
http://androidforums.com/desire-hd-support-troubleshooting/300012-wifi-error-bluetooth-wont-connect-volume-button-not-responding.html
i'll crack on with the S-on thingy and call them tomorrow to send for repair or replacement
Cheers again for clearing that up

[Q] Does unlock Bootloader mean out of warranty?

Yes, it looks like a very common question, but I used to own HTC-Wildfire once.
After installing custom ROMS, I have problems with battery malfunction. Untill now, I cannot fix it even if I brought a new battery.
I had purchased HTC One X, before I have found that the official ROM is not the best. I would like to try CUSTOM ROMS, but I'm afraid that it will make my mobile phone out of warranty.
However, I heard that after unlocking bootloader, we can lock it again and install an official ROM but the status of the phone will show " re-lock " instead of lock.
That means someone will know that I used to unlock it.
What do you think about this? Can I do it and also make it restore as untouched when my phone need fixing?
Thank you in advance.
KhSom

It will show re-lock, and I guess this is the purpose.
khom27820 said:
Yes, it looks like a very common question, but I used to own HTC-Wildfire once.
After installing custom ROMS, I have problems with battery malfunction. Untill now, I cannot fix it even if I brought a new battery.
I had purchased HTC One X, before I have found that the official ROM is not the best. I would like to try CUSTOM ROMS, but I'm afraid that it will make my mobile phone out of warranty.
However, I heard that after unlocking bootloader, we can lock it again and install an official ROM but the status of the phone will show " re-lock " instead of lock.
That means someone will know that I used to unlock it.
What do you think about this? Can I do it and also make it restore as untouched when my phone need fixing?
Thank you in advance.
KhSom
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Click to collapse

khom27820 said:
Yes, it looks like a very common question, but I used to own HTC-Wildfire once.
After installing custom ROMS, I have problems with battery malfunction. Untill now, I cannot fix it even if I brought a new battery.
I had purchased HTC One X, before I have found that the official ROM is not the best. I would like to try CUSTOM ROMS, but I'm afraid that it will make my mobile phone out of warranty.
However, I heard that after unlocking bootloader, we can lock it again and install an official ROM but the status of the phone will show " re-lock " instead of lock.
That means someone will know that I used to unlock it.
What do you think about this? Can I do it and also make it restore as untouched when my phone need fixing?
Thank you in advance.
KhSom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your phone will still be in warranty in case of any hardware defects however should you break your phone as a result of flashing firmware then HTC will not assist you.

Yes, I believe that ANY rooting (and therefore ROM changes) voids the warranty of ANY phone however there are ways of unrooting your phone so that it appears completely unrooted.
Here's one method that may work: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=900875
However if you use a program such as superoneclick, ginerbreak, etc then an unroot feature is often included.
I believe that these methods don't leave an obvious trace, thus allowing a warranty claim to be made.

dr9722 said:
Your phone will still be in warranty in case of any hardware defects however should you break your phone as a result of flashing firmware then HTC will not assist you.
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Click to collapse
That means if something wrong to my phone such as the screen is broken, I can still claim it, right?
If it is, I will begin to unlock my phone and install other ROM doubtlessly.

dr9722 said:
Your phone will still be in warranty in case of any hardware defects however should you break your phone as a result of flashing firmware then HTC will not assist you.
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Click to collapse
I had to send my HOX back to the shop because of a dodgy touchscreen. Of course, I had already installed ARHD so I was faced with the same issue. I reinstalled the proper RUU and relocked my bootloader. The shop accepted my RMA after finding the defect and told me that they had sent the phone to the HTC Service Center. So as of now the phone is wherever that is awaiting repair. The jury is still out as to whether they will investigate if the bootloader is relocked. I don't think it will be an issue, but I will report back as soon as I get word!
Cheers,
Mathieu
ps - I will change my signature as soon as I get my HOX back...

HTC will still honor warranty claims even if your phone was unlocked via HTCdev. The lcd on my One X decided that it would display the screen whenever it wanted to and not when I did. I called HTC and opened a ticket, shipped it to them, paid their slightly frustrating $20 USD handling fee, and now it's in repair with nothing else I need to pay.
This is with a unbranded HTCdev unlocked phone that had at least 4 different ROMs flashed as well as 2 kernels.
As far as your question of dodging the RE-LOCKED screen:
Until someone finds a way to S-OFF, we're stuck with it. But believe me that RE-LOCKED looks a whole lot better in HTC's eyes than TAMPERED.
If all you want to do is flash ROMs, just do it the HTC provided way.
Unless you manage to fry your phone by overclocking to 2.5ghz or overvolting, you'll be fine if the phone breaks.

Hi guys,
Just an update. I just received an email in which I was informed that my HOX has been repaired/replaced (I wonder which it is?). So either they didn't check the bootloader (or any secret log files of what has been installed) or they just didn't care. It would seem to have gone well...

Is using the box safe?

Hi, my HTC one M8 eye isn't working for about one week now because I installed a wrong ROM on it. I tried many methods to get it back working but all have failed. I messaged HTC service center in my country and they said they can't support it even if I pay, since it was damaged in a non technical way. So I sent it to a guy in a Mobile repair shop and after two days he said, something is preventing any flash ROM from being installed and that he has to use the box method to remove the cid and make the phone accept any custom ROM. Now, I don't understand what was he talking about and I fear this would lead to more damage. What shall I do?
Thank you in advance .

Aboemn said:
Hi, my HTC one M8 eye isn't working for about one week now because I installed a wrong ROM on it. I tried many methods to get it back working but all have failed. I messaged HTC service center in my country and they said they can't support it even if I pay, since it was damaged in a non technical way. So I sent it to a guy in a Mobile repair shop and after two days he said, something is preventing any flash ROM from being installed and that he has to use the box method to remove the cid and make the phone accept any custom ROM. Now, I don't understand what was he talking about and I fear this would lead to more damage. What shall I do?
Thank you in advance .
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Click to collapse
The tech guy is referring to the dedicated boxes used to unlock ,flash or repair mobile phones.it should be safe as long as the guy knows what he is doing.But I doubt there's a box that could change CID without the phone being s-off.
Flashing a wrong rom should only result to a soft brick.As long as you can boot to fastboot you practically can fix it with official methods like relocking the bootloader and restore with RUU.
or flash twrp and install a custom rom.

Yer im pretty sure they cant change CID without S-Off, i was looking at buying the Xtc2 clip. very similar, but doesnt change cid, and as already said, soft brick=easy to fix, i fear he may be trying the old garage mechanic routine, go in with a flat tyre, come out with a new engine lol.