Database Info

Verizon Knowingly activated my phone with a custom ROM

So my HTC VZ6900 (Vogue) was acting up two days ago and I could tell it was a software issue and has not done any real research on the device till yesterday! Here is my story...
HTC started acting up while at school on Monday and was not doing great. I tried a soft reset but nothing worked... Booo. I tried removing the battery and waiting a few minutes and it took an entire 90 minutes + to get past the WM 6.0 screen! Once it got to the today screen the touch feature was none responsive so I could not really access anything. Soft keys worked. Couldn't get anything and the phone would not connect to the network.
Tuesday morning I took it to the Verizon store before I went to work. I had brought my old phone because I was not sure what was wrong. I personally thought it was a software problem, and figured that if that was the case Verizon would hard reset the phone or at least give me a replacement. Wrong. The clown at the desk took my phone and word for word quotes here: "Ah, yeah this thing is dead you’re going to have to get a new phone. Oh! Wait you have insurance you can pay $50 and they will give you a replacement."
I am a studying to get a PHD in electrical engineering and my gut told me this was not the case... So I said no thank you to the insurance and ask him to switch my phone to my old phone that being my old envy which still works perfect. When I went to leave they tried to take my HTC touch to which I protested and they complied. To work I go...
Well it was a quiet day so I had lots of free time and decided to Google VZ6900 problems, after about 10 minutes of searching I came across XDA-Developers! Did a little searching and saw that some people had similar problems. Figured out how to hard reset my phone (This was not a problem all of my contacts were saved to windows live!). Phone resets and it’s like brand new. I had seen these ideas of Custom ROM's and decided to do a little reading. After about 20 minutes I decided that it would not be hard to upgrade my ROM, loaded coke loader and followed the Verizon directions, 20 minutes later BAM running WM6.5 custom ROM. Hm I began to wonder, will Verizon be so nice as to activate this for me? I know they love to lock everything down so that they will get paid. I walk back to the store at 430 and proceed to wait 25 minutes to talk to a different person. I was explaining that their Tech earlier had told me the phone was broken beyond repair and that in fact he had just been lazy and refused to even attempt to fix the phone. They did not like this one bit. They told me I would have reset to the original Verizon settings. Though what he intended was that I needed to run the Verizon ROM with its own customization. So I asked the guy if he could get the other Tech who had helped me earlier to come into the conversation and he was somewhat upset at this time, but complied.
"Hey your back, oh wow this is the new Windows Mobile Cool!"
"Yeah I spent the better part of the day fixing my phone, now switch my phone back"
"Um... I do not know if I am supposed to do that. Um."
"Remember this morning when you told me to file an insurance claim for a broken phone?"
"Yeah, don’t have to do that anymore but I cannot activate an unlocked phone"
"Yes but telling me to file an insurance claim for a broken phone when it was not actually broken is insurance fraud"
"Oh... well we are not supposed to do this but I'll make an exception"
Two minutes later that had it all up and running and I was out the door without any problems.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the information I used, it saved me a great deal of time!

Surround wont boot

Hi guys and girls, Im new to the forums and ive turned here because I have noone else to go to without dealing with customer support. My problem is my HTC Surround gets stuck on the "HTC" screen and wont go anywhere past that. Before my phone died I noticed it was very laggy and all my pictures were gone. I dont know if you guys can help, im pretty good with computers so any suggestions I should be able to try. I was also wondering if it was possible to flash the OS right back on it myself if its corrupt. Thanks.

a few things to try in this order...
1. if you have a case on the phone, remove the case, then try and boot
2. try connecting it to the pc and booting it up (launch zune on desktop first) to see if it zune can fix it
3. try holding the volume buttons up and down at the same time and booting the phone, it should ask if you want to hard reset, select yes (you'll loose all your data, but since you can't even get in the phone anyways, that shouldn't matter)
4. go back to the store and get a replacement

Thanks for the response
1. No case
2. Tried this, zune software says it cant restore my phone
3. Tried this as well, no luck.
4. have insurance, but being from alaska that is my last resort because i dont want to have to wait a week for shipping to get a working phone back, but if i dont find a solution before ATT closes tomorrow thats what ill end up doing.

Mine did the same thing 34 days after I bought it. They would not even trade me out in store because it was 4 days past due of the return date. I had to go through factory warranty to get a new one. It was just flat dead and nothing would revive it, even a hard reset. Fortunately Zune backs up all your pictures so you should be fine there. Call ATT immediately.

Sounds like the sd card in it died....
You could take it apart and replace the card (Google ifixit, they have pics of how to), but you might void the warranty if they can tell you have tampered with the card.
Good luck
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express

Some questions if it is the SD. Is the OS stored on the SD? If so how would I get WP7 back on it. I could definately change it myself. I actually just saw a break down on the Surround. If it doesnt void my insurance id be totally willing to change it out with an even bigger SD while im at it.

As for dealing with Warranties and insurance, thats my last resort being in Alaska the shipping processes are a pain.

[Q] What will happen if my carrier finds out about root?

Hello everyone!
So I recently had a problem with my Rooted Droid Incredible 2 running MIUI 1.12.9, I started up my phone and it displayed the splash screen for longer than usual and then it just "died". The screen went off so I tried pressing the power button to see if it would do anything, nothing. I tried holding down the power button to see if it would change anything, nothing. I resorted to doing a battery pull, nothing. Tried charging it with two different chargers, nothing. Connecting via USB, nothing. Taking out the battery, holding the power button for ten seconds, reconnecting the battery and holding the power button for ten seconds as many have suggested; still nothing. I browsed a few threads in multiple forums and decided and came to the conclusion that my phone, simply, needs to be replaced, as I read from a similar problem that someone had of mine.
The phone had been running fine with the same ROM for about a month and a half with no problems (I had also used this ROM multiple times before; I've had this phone since May of 2011.). It was fully charged the night before and then this morning I turned it on, only to see it "die" in front of me.
So I called Verizon Customer Support and they are sending me a new Inc2 and I have to send them back my current "dead" Inc2.
So my question is; What can Verizon do if they inspect my phone, somehow get it to boot and discover that I've rooted and installed a custom ROM, along with S-OFF?
The customer support rep also told me to remove the "card" before I ship my phone back to them, SIM card or SD Card?

you CAN s-on YOUR STOCK ROM BY INSTALLING THE RUU file (the correct one)
THIS would wipe of all YOUR data , on the phone so kindly back up all by any app like Titanium backup .
once u have S-ON , U CAN SHIP IT BACK TO VERSION AND RESOLVE YOUR PROBLEM .
THEN U CAN ROOT IT BACK
AND U NEED REMOVE THE SD CARD AND SEND THAT WHAT THEY WANTED TO SAY

Have you tried flashing another ROM? just to verify this is some kind of software problem.
Before you return your phone, flash it back to stock rom, and S-on.

The phones go back to HTC after VZW's warehouse. Thy will see that it had been unlocked and do a charge back of up to $499. Best bet would of been to step on the screen and file insurance.

Thanks for your replies.
First off, I did consider S-ON and RUU but seeing as I can't boot up my phone at all (unless there's some magical method of booting up a "dead" phone.) there's no way for me to do either of these.
My phone is not able to boot up. To my knowledge anyways, after I have tried the methods that I stated in my first post. If there is a method that I haven't listed, please let me know.
And I really hope you aren't serious boosterp. Further elaboration would be nice if you could do so. I would like to know how HTC could charge me $500 for doing something that they provide a service for to their customers, through HTCdev..
Edit: I cannot access my bootloader either.

louisli said:
Have you tried flashing another ROM? just to verify this is some kind of software problem.
Before you return your phone, flash it back to stock rom, and S-on.
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hello im planning to sell my phone, how can i unroot my samsung galaxy s2? before i sell it i want to go back all the phone settings and everything on how i bought it. can i still go back to that?ty

Thoriiin,
All carriers have warranty contracts with the manufacturers. Just as short as a year or so ago they all have been doing "charge backs" for damaged phones returned because in turn the manufacturer charges the carrier. Rooting is specific and in all the contacts as voiding a warranty. So yes, you get to pay back retail value of the device if the warranty is anyway voided. As long as there is no physical damage and the phone will not go into HBOOT, then you are covered because HTC is only going to strip, rebuild, and/or reflash the phone and send it back to the carrier for warranty replacements. It is the same concept as if you sent the phone to the manufacturer under warranty for repair.
---------- Post added at 12:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 AM ----------
BTW, ask a Spint employee (have 2 ex-employees and one current who contracts for Sprint who have or is working for them) if there is one on this boar; Spint will often do an alternative replacement meaning replace one phone with a different kind. Sprint then looses money two ways, the initial cost of the equipment and some employee in a central location rebuilding or just putting that phone back into circulation.
ATT and VZW I know will sometimes do an alternative replacement because it makes "financial sense" meaning it is better than loosing you, better than sending the 24th replacement that shipping has already cost the same as the phone, or if the warranty replacement option is not in stock.

[Q] Returning phone for warranty, how to unroot with no working screen?

My LG G2 stopped working last week. The screen totally went dead out of nowhere, and I went to the store and ordered a replacement. I have the new phone so everything is good, but how do I go about returning the old one? I rooted it like 2 weeks ago, how can I unroot without a working screen? The phone won't even connect as a usb device to my computer anymore (and I can't change the settings cause of the screen..).
Will verizon know it is rooted even if the screen doesn't work? I don't want to get shafted with a $500 charge just for rooting. I'm sure this has to have happened to people before so if anyone has any info I'd appreciate it.

mrgrowl said:
My LG G2 stopped working last week. The screen totally went dead out of nowhere, and I went to the store and ordered a replacement. I have the new phone so everything is good, but how do I go about returning the old one? I rooted it like 2 weeks ago, how can I unroot without a working screen? The phone won't even connect as a usb device to my computer anymore (and I can't change the settings cause of the screen..).
Will verizon know it is rooted even if the screen doesn't work? I don't want to get shafted with a $500 charge just for rooting. I'm sure this has to have happened to people before so if anyone has any info I'd appreciate it.
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Click to collapse
Throw it in download mode and get the KDZ or whatever it's called for your device. it'll install a completely stock ROM on your device.

the last time i had to return a phone for non-functionality after i'd gained administrator access, they didn't even look at the phone before they gave me a replacement. that's what my money's on here, too, especially with a broken screen and no usb function. they probably won't even attempt to repair it, it's just not worth it. they'll try to recover the precious metals from it and be done.
no promises of course, but that's my guess.

LG G5 T-Mobile Won't Turn On

My wife's phone randomly turned off yesterday and we just ignored it. Today, it would randomly restart and/or turn off at least 3 times the whole day. When we have it plugged in to charger, it would randomly turn off and restart. Then we have to pull the battery out to turn the phone on. But now, the phone won't even turn on anymore. I have a G5 (w/ Verizon) and we tried swapping the battery packs and her phone won't turn on. Just to be sure, I plugged her battery to my phone and it started, though it displayed a "Module not compatible with Verizon"
Anyone else running into similar issues?

Yes. Today I had about 30 app updates to do in Google Play. I set it to update all while here at work, put it in my pocket, and went to take care of some tasks here in the building. The next time I pulled it out about an hour after that, I noticed the phone was off. It wasn't hot or overheating, and the power button doesn't respond regardless of how long I hold it in. Recovery mode also doesn't start up. I removed/reinserted the battery multiple times to no avail.

My phone did the same thing! It just froze one day and I had to battery pull to get it working again. Then later on it froze and started resetting over and over again. Finally it froze, shut off, and never worked again no matter what I did. It might be a bad batch of these phones. I am now on my fifth phone. The other three had dead pixels. I hope my fifth phone won't have any of the previous phones issues.

DarkMage619 said:
My phone did the same thing! It just froze one day and I had to battery pull to get it working again. Then later on it froze and started resetting over and over again. Finally it froze, shut off, and never worked again no matter what I did. It might be a bad batch of these phones. I am now on my fifth phone. The other three had dead pixels. I hope my fifth phone won't have any of the previous phones issues.
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I'm on my second one, but now I'm past the 14 day return window. How do I go about getting this replaced? Can I take it to my local Tmobile store or do I contact LG? Should I be concerned about pictures and data being retrieved off of the phone if I ship it off somewhere in exchange for a replacement device? I know it's pessimistic to say, but if I wanted to return the device due to these defects for a full refund and go with a different phone, is that possible at this point?

I'm in the UK on EE and I've also had this problem with both my original LG G5 and the replacement. The phone display would randomly disappear then it would be impossible to switch it back on using the power button and recovery mode didn't work either. The only way to make it work again was to plug it into the charger.
Luckily I was within the 14 days and have returned them both. The second is awaiting assessment by their engineers but I've lost faith and am going with the Samsung Galaxy S7 instead.

woodie said:
I'm on my second one, but now I'm past the 14 day return window. How do I go about getting this replaced? Can I take it to my local Tmobile store or do I contact LG? Should I be concerned about pictures and data being retrieved off of the phone if I ship it off somewhere in exchange for a replacement device? I know it's pessimistic to say, but if I wanted to return the device due to these defects for a full refund and go with a different phone, is that possible at this point?
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I called T-Mobile and told them my phone was dead. Saying it was dead allowed me to avoid all the tech support questions and they sent me a new phone with 2 day shipping. I was surprised how quickly they sent the new phone to me. I don't think there is any way they will give you a full refund if you are outside of the 14 day window but you are still well within the warranty period so I would keep bugging them till you get a phone you are fully satisfied with.
In addition you can use the LG backup app to save all apps and the associated data. After everything is backed up wipe the phone that way you keep your data with you on an SD card. I couldn't wipe the data off my dead phone but I doubt it could be retrieved anyway.

woodie said:
I'm on my second one, but now I'm past the 14 day return window. How do I go about getting this replaced? Can I take it to my local Tmobile store or do I contact LG? Should I be concerned about pictures and data being retrieved off of the phone if I ship it off somewhere in exchange for a replacement device? I know it's pessimistic to say, but if I wanted to return the device due to these defects for a full refund and go with a different phone, is that possible at this point?
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Click to collapse
if you call t mobile and tell them about yiur problem they will send you a new one try it
Sent from my SM-G935T using XDA-Developers mobile app