Update... Back to stock, no more black rectangle! Yay

[TheANARCHY]

OK the previous thread was getting to long and I didn't want anyone to lose context so I started a new one. But Just in case here it is;

http://forum.androidcentral.com/fas...rt-some-some-stupid-questions-forgive-me.html

Now for the good news... I finally, after 7 tries, managed to Odin this phone completely to stock and get rid of the little black rectangle that was showing up on the screen. Boy am I tired now! But that's not all. The phone rebooted back to stock with 2.1-update 1 and all the root apps still there even though the root was removed. At this I felt a call to Samsung may be in order to verify that indeed something is not right with this phone. The "Senior Software Engineer" who I spoke to after about 3 exchanges with lower lvl folks assured me it was simply corrupt software in the bootloader and it had to be repeatedly flashed away to kill all traces. As the for the root apps reappearing he had no answer other than to speculate I had a backup that automatically re-installed from the sd card. Which I didn't, I deleted all that stuff before I decided to go back to stock. But whatever the cause the phone is back and working like new.

If you follow the previous posting you'll note Verizon has already agreed to send a new phone to me and it should arrive by Fedex tomorrow. The question is this... Do I keep this phone, since it is fixed and working now, or just swap it out for the new one and start anew once again. I fully intend to re-root the phone and clean off the bloatware from Verizon. I might even go so far as to try DJ05 again. But no VooDoo! I learned the hard way that is nothing to mess around with if you are new to this rooting stuff.

So what's the verdict? Accept that it was a corruption in the software that is now fixed and send the replacement phone back? Or take the new phone and not trust the old one?

P.S.- The guy with Samsung did tell me that if I was going to root the phone again, which he was fully in support of, that I might want to wait til the end of the week as an announcement would be forthcoming. That's all he said in his own cryptic way. 2.2 Froyo perhaps?

 

[sjenkins1009]

Oooooo but then Samsung has been well known for dropping cryptic hints about the mysterious update that never arrives. Grats on being able to recover your phone back to stock and remove the black box. I would say go ahead and keep the new one and send the old one back. As long as it isn't costing you anything. Better yet, if they don't have you sent the old one back you now have a tinkering phone. Test everything out on that one first before doing it to your real phone. Never hurts to have a back up.

 

[TheANARCHY]

Oooooo but then Samsung has been well known for dropping cryptic hints about the mysterious update that never arrives. Grats on being able to recover your phone back to stock and remove the black box. I would say go ahead and keep the new one and send the old one back. As long as it isn't costing you anything. Better yet, if they don't have you sent the old one back you now have a tinkering phone. Test everything out on that one first before doing it to your real phone. Never hurts to have a back up.

That's not a bad idea... In fact now that you mention it nobody with Verizon mentioned that I had to send the phone back.... Hmmmm

And as for that "Hint" I have no intention of waiting on Samsung. I waited patiently since September for them to release the build the phone should have shipped with in the first place. That's why I came here to study up on rooting and dig deep from the well of knowledge and support available.

 

[gunnermike53]

That's not a bad idea... In fact now that you mention it nobody with Verizon mentioned that I had to send the phone back.... Hmmmm

you MUST send the broke phone back!!! if not you will get like a $600 charge on your bill in like 4 months. i know cause i forgot to send an omnia back once. ouch. mailed it back and got a credit but it was still freaky seeing a $600 charge on my bill. dont worry they will send you all the packageing and pay for the post charge. its pretty pain free, unless you forget and then it hurts alot.

glad it wasnt a bad piece of hardware. thats good to know about some things needing to be repeatedly flashed.

and about the "announcement" i will bieleve it when i see it. im not getting my hopes up cause i dont to get disapointed.

 

[NOsquid]

Cool man I had a feeling it would take a few tries

Lessons:

1. If you're going to mess around, take notes on exactly what you do, helps the fixing

2. Don't call Verizon tech, they are inept. That guy doesn't know a Fascinate from a clamshell, he's just reading his manual. It will always be: 1. pull battery 2. factory reset 3. refurbished phone. The only reason to call them is when you've tried everything and want to take your refurb.

It would be really cool if you donated the old phone to a dev, I'm not sure how cool Verizon would be about activating it though.

Edit: nm looks like it's going back per Mike. Just make sure it's completely back to stock

 

[gunnermike53]

Edit: nm looks like it's going back per Mike. Just make sure it's completely back to stock

if not then every one would have 2 phones. i know i would.

 

[TheANARCHY]

So true folks. I appreciate those responses. I think I'm gonna let this stay stock as is and just start fresh with the new phone when it gets here tomorrow. I've learned quite a bit from this process now and can safely say that the new phone will be rooted in a much different fashion.

Step 1 will be to plan how I want to modify it after I root. That was something I didn't do with this one. I just dove right in and didn't take the time to study up like I should. I certainly know better than that now. You know the old saying give somebody an inch and they take a mile? I was given an inch and decided to sprint for the finish line. Never mind the marathon of steps that had to be run in between. Again lessons learned.

And I'm gonna just call Verizon about returning this since nobody told me otherwise. But an interesting wrinkle is this... I paid for this phone (and my wife's) out of pocket. I've never liked the idea of subsidizing into my contract the price. Too many bad experiences with Cingular/AT&T writing a phone into the contract. So I handed over $200 up front for each. Doesn't that make it mine to do with as I please since it's paid for? I like the donate idea so a Dev out there can cook up some Fascinate goodness for us with a test unit.

P.S- My wife has basically left her phone alone since I rooted it and de-Binged it and got all the bloat off of it. As a Result it's pretty clear hers kept working fine while I got overzealous and trashed mine. Again more evidence I was the source of it's issues.

 

[gunnermike53]

And I'm gonna just call Verizon about returning this since nobody told me otherwise. But an interesting wrinkle is this... I paid for this phone (and my wife's) out of pocket. I've never liked the idea of subsidizing into my contract the price. Too many bad experiences with Cingular/AT&T writing a phone into the contract. So I handed over $200 up front for each. Doesn't that make it mine to do with as I please since it's paid for? I like the donate idea so a Dev out there can cook up some Fascinate goodness for us with a test unit.
QUOTE]

NO. i paid $250 with a $100 mail in rebate. the retail price for this phone from verizon to get a no contract plan is $579. they would eat your soul if they could.

Set Your Location

 

[TheANARCHY]

Ohhh... So basically I put free money in the salesman's hand? Dammit. More stupidity on my part lol. Oh well at least I got $100 dollars off the monthly bill for the life of the contract so that's something.

 

[gunnermike53]

Ohhh... So basically I put free money in the salesman's hand? Dammit. More stupidity on my part lol. Oh well at least I got $100 dollars off the monthly bill for the life of the contract so that's something.

i want a 100 dollars of my monthly bill.

 

[NOsquid]

It shouldn't have any root apps, it should be exactly as it came out of the box, completely stock.

I think it's still fighting, give it a little more Odin until it taps out don't send back a non-stock phone, that's just giving them more reason to stick us with a locked bootloader on their next phone.