Database Info

Registry Tweaking voids warranty?

Quoting from the warranty card,
"THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY IF THE DEFECT WAS CAUSED THROUGH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
(d) The defect was caused by unauthorized software including but not limited to ROM upgrades, non proprietary software;
(g) The defect or damage are arising from unautorized modification of the core software or caused by the computer virus;"
Does that mean that if I did some tweaking related to SMS, like disabling threaded SMS, my warranty is voided?
I've also installed quickmenu, so is that considered as unauthorized software, thereby voiding the warranty too?
I'm asking this because it seems my battery meter occasionally freezes at a certain percentage and upon a soft reset, it jumps drastically (eg, from 51% to 30%). I've contacted HTC customer support, but they claim that my warranty might be voided because of the registry editing.
Is there any way I can deal with this frozen batt meter problem? So far the meters from MS3 and QM have frozen on me.
Thanks!

Flashing a new ROM will almost certainly invalidate the warranty, unless it was an HTC or your telco's officially supplied upgrade. Every reason to have a copy of your original ROM to put back if required.
Tinkering with the registry will not, as all you have to do is hard reset the device to put everything back as it was when you bought it. Your previous tinkering is removed.

As previously mentioned, just do a hard reset, that should solve your problems. If not then your device will be fine for waranty return (as long as you have an official rom)

wow.. is joel back?

petition for legal modding and warranty

You know what bugs me already for years is the following...
Mobile phones, which I paid a lot for, come with poor vendor roms, which are locked. They are mostly rich in bugs and therefore poor in bugfixes, support and updates.
xda-developers mod roms, cyanogenmod, android root and so on are such great projects...
The problem with those is, that
- warranty gets lost
- not available for all phones (there are for example no mod roms for Motorola Flipout, because the bootloader has been successfully protected my Motorola and no one could hack it yet)
- the developers have to waste time with working around the protections to mod the device
It is ridiculous, you paid the full price for the phone, but never get the right to fully use it's potential.
Let's compare it with buying a normal laptop. It's also a piece of hardware and mostly there is Windows preinstalled with a loads of bloated unwanted software. This might be ok for a lot of people. And the rest? They are free to install ANY operating system they wish.
On normal laptops there are not risks when messing around with new operating systems. Of course you need some knowledge and you may lose your data, if you do not know what you are doing. But since all my messing with operating systems for PC, I never damaged the hardware, simply it is designed in a way, not to be damaged by software, it's robust.
Mobile phone vendors claim, they lock us out, because we could potentially harm the hardware. Isn't it their task, just to develop robust hardware and allow us to install any software we want?
This petition would aim for:
- open bootloader by default
- root by default
- warranty for the hardware, no matter which software you used
- free to install custom roms
- robust hardware
I'd like to start a petition and perhaps some public awareness for this issue.
So, if you want to help with anything.... Like writing a petition, a more handy text then this, for example, would be needed.
Discuss.

Installing another O/S on your laptop is not likely to break it, if it does you fix it or take it to a computer shop. A computers warenty normally only covers the junk it came with. There is already a problem with self entitled gits who dont read properly, or make an effort to understand what they are doing who download a WP7 rom, try to put it on a sensation, and expect someone to come running with a new phone. I don't believe they should try to stop people from modifying their devices in any way they want to, but they shouldnt have to cover your fumbling around either. Any modification is rightly done at your own risk.

hungry81 said:
Installing another O/S on your laptop is not likely to break it, if it does you fix it or take it to a computer shop. A computers warenty normally only covers the junk it came with. There is already a problem with self entitled gits who dont read properly, or make an effort to understand what they are doing who download a WP7 rom, try to put it on a sensation, and expect someone to come running with a new phone. I don't believe they should try to stop people from modifying their devices in any way they want to, but they shouldnt have to cover your fumbling around either. Any modification is rightly done at your own risk.
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I agree with this.
One of the major issues with phone ROMs is that you do have the potential to completely brick your phone if you don't know what you're doing. Unrelated hardware failures (i.e. USB port loses power while flashing a new bootloader) may hard brick your phone to a state of complete uselessness.
Having super user access and root on a phone is another issue that the vast majority of end users do not want to have to deal with. UAC is enabled by default on Windows Vista and 7 because it provides robust protection for people who DO NOT know what they are doing. For day to day usage of a computer, users do not need an account with any special access privilege. Even if you do know what you're doing, its still SAFER to be on a non-admin account for day to day computer use.

hungry81 said:
Installing another O/S on your laptop is not likely to break it, if it does you fix it or take it to a computer shop. A computers warenty normally only covers the junk it came with.
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There are also computers which come without any software, just hardware. If anything goes wrong, like defect harddrive, then it will be replaced, because of warranty.
Mobile phones are very similar to computers nowadays. But there are no decent mobile phones without operating systems available. This is also what I vote vor.
hungry81 said:
I don't believe they should try to stop people from modifying their devices in any way they want to, but they shouldnt have to cover your fumbling around either. Any modification is rightly done at your own risk.
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Well, messing with software -> no more software suppprt -> but hardware warranty still ok.
Kagadar said:
One of the major issues with phone ROMs is that you do have the potential to completely brick your phone if you don't know what you're doing. Unrelated hardware failures (i.e. USB port loses power while flashing a new bootloader) may hard brick your phone to a state of complete uselessness.
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Click to collapse
I agree that this problem does exist right now...
But only because the hardware is not robust.
As far I know, (a while ago I informed myself about a few devices) it is not possible to brick Nokia S60 v3 devices. This is because the routine to flash the device is read only and can not be changed. No matter if you lose power during flashing or usb cable loss... You can always flash again. There is NO way to brick the device while flashing.
Apart from the flash routine which is hardly built into the phone, the rest of the phones software can be updated.
That demonstrates that there are no technical limitations to deploy robust hardware.
Kagadar said:
Having super user access and root on a phone is another issue that the vast majority of end users do not want to have to deal with. UAC is enabled by default on Windows Vista and 7 because it provides robust protection for people who DO NOT know what they are doing. For day to day usage of a computer, users do not need an account with any special access privilege. Even if you do know what you're doing, its still SAFER to be on a non-admin account for day to day computer use.
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Click to collapse
I also agree that it is saves not to use admin account for everyday use and that it's also a good idea not to have it enabled by default.
On computers you still have the option to legally use your root account. At the other hand with mobile phones this is completely unwanted and you need some kind of hack to do it. This is the difference. And this is what I complain about.

Yeah
I think just like apps there are some absolutely amazing ROMs that run better than the vendor ROMs. I think they should allow those changes to occur whether through a "vendor verified" developer or some kind of authorized ROM download channel through the manufacturer so you can get the style and type you want the most which typically runs much smoother without voiding the warranty. Great idea!

Lmao. Hell no. Carriers and manufacturers will try to start sellings roms like theyre crack. Ringtones anybody? Cmon. Only $3.
Anyways. I think the op doesnt know what hes asking for. What you want is a blank phone and you want the manufacturer to cover hardware no matter what is done with phone. Fair enough. I guess you want them to cover the phone if you burn through all your write cycles in the flash memory used because you have to flash anything you can your digital hands on. You do realize this will cause the price of parts to go up in the long run? And prices upfront will be more because they will calculate losses due to all the warranty claims. Should i keep wondering why insurance prices keep going up? Phones are built much, much different from computers. Pc's are generally modular and a single piece if defective is claimed to oem of that part. Not necessarily hp or dell. Phones usually only have one or two boards in them with all your components. So if you somehow manage to fry your wifi because you thought could improve reception or your bandwidth or whatever with something custom and it doesnt work, that whole board, system or maybe even phone depending on how its built now needs to be replaced.
I dont want to say it, but itis fair for them to not cover your phone if you went above and beyond. True, because we have become digital crackheads we usually become beta testers for their hw/sw but we also have the power of the coin too. You cant fault them if you wanted to improve their bugs/sw. You cant go banging on your drug dealers door either when he sells you some bunk cocaine and you go mix it with drano, just hoping for something and it backfires on you.
I voided my warranty.

Some interesting opinions. If this was made legal there would likely be restrictions placed on what can be changed, and it would likely end up regulated in some way.
The result would be third-party 'illegal' roms and commercially available 'legal' ones.
People like us would likely still be flashing illegal roms with modified clock-speeds etc ; )

Legal recourse if warranty denied because of root/unlock?

Before throwing a quick answer out to me, please read this quick blurb that describes my situation:
I have a Nexus S. On my 51st week of ownership (aka last week of warranty), the power button decided to bite the dust. This has been documented by other owners as well, notably the one and only simms22 himself. This is a common problem with Nexus S owners. Anyways, while I was trying to flash it back to stock, just my luck the TWRP recovery app crashes, leaving me with a wiped /system and a few other partitions seemingly out of whack. As a result, I have a non-booting phone. I can get as far as the Google logo with the unlocked padlock, at which point it of course cant find an OS to load (/system is blank). Anyways, I was unable to recover it back to stock because for some reason, if the power button doesnt work, then the bootloader and fastboot do not work properly. Basically, the bootloader is unresponsive unless the physical buttons are actually functioning.
I have no doubt that this phone is more than fixable. A simple repair of the power button and I'll be on my way. But of course, I was unable to do that, so I had to send it in today (in the state I just described) with a note explaining that I'm a developer, and work with various systems. This may have been a stretch, but I figured it'll help. I explained that I am 100% sure the problem is hardware-related, and independent of any software. I said that I had tested many versions of Android and have determined that since the phone doesnt respond to power presses when OFF, that it is NOT software related.
Anyhoo, I know I've got myself into some ****, so I'm curious: what kind of legal recourse do I have if they try to deny my warranty claim? I'm aware of the following:
1. The bootloader on a Nexus S specifically states that unlocking the bootloader or modifying software MAY void the warranty. It doesnt say it DOES, but that it MAY. I believe that is a strong word to use, and may very much help my case if I have to fight it. It would seem to me that this leaves Samsung with the burden of proof showing that software mods caused a button that communicates 1-way (lol) to fail, which is impossible. It's physically impossible to set the software to 'fry' the power button. It's a physical button...software simply detects presses and acts based upon it.
2. The 1975 Magnuson-Moss Act has been used frequently in the automotive sector, though its language is in no way geared towards cars. It helps to keep manufacturers from claiming things like 3rd party stereos voiding drivetrain warranties.
I'm fully prepared to fight them on this one if I have to, but I'm hoping someone can help give me some additional ammo here. I'm hoping that I won't have to, and that Samsung will do the right thing and repair it without charge. I'm a faithful customer of theirs.
Thanks!

I don't have anything but I suggest you look into your state laws as well.
You may have some extra protections given to you by your state laws.

t1n0m3n said:
I don't have anything but I suggest you look into your state laws as well.
You may have some extra protections given to you by your state laws.
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That's exactly what I'm doing right now, but I've had no luck so far. It seems that Australia, on the other hand, is all over that kind of stuff. Damn Aussies
Anyways, if anyone can assist me with USA-wide or TN-specific consumer/trade laws that protect me, I'd greatly appreciate it. Or if someone has a similar experience to share, please do!

Can't access recovery mode / faulty touchscreen?

Hi Everyone. I've read a lot of posts here and elsewhere on this issue, but have been unable to solve it, and Sony phone support suggested I post a question. So here goes...
I have a Z3 (D6653) on Android 6.0.1. A month out of contract with my telcom (Telstra), I started having trouble pulling down the notification drawer. Originally it was just slow, then only possible from the home screen and within a day altogether impossible.
I reset the device to factory, but this didn't help.
I used the native diagnostic tool to test the touchscreen and it showed a narrow, very uniform unresponsive band at the top of the screen. About 2-3mm. The uniformity of the band, which suggested to me (right or wrong) that it may be a software issue, not a hardware issue.
So I tried to flash a custom ROM, but although I was able to unlock the bootloader, I was unable to access recovery mode. (I've flashed custom ROMs before, but it's not something I've ever found trouble-free.) After about 8 hours trying all the usual methods, and all the unusual ones, I gave up and started looking at recovery apps.
But recovery apps all require root, so I decided to pursue that course. But without recovery, I couldn't root the device the normal way, so I decided to try Kingroot. After a few false starts, it eventually said it had successfully rooted the device, and Root Checker said it had too. But I was still unable to install a custom recovery with an app. Which left me with nowhere to go.
And now Root Checker is saying the device is NOT properly rooted, Kingroot basically spins, and I haven't been able to unroot with SU or anything else I've tried (not many attempts).
And now at least one app (Pokemon Go) won't work because it thinks the device is rooted.
So I'm now using a floating app to pull down the notification drawer, and I've got all the apps that most often give me notifications sitting directly on my home screen, rather than in folders. I know none of this is the end of the world, but it interrupts my workflow and, thus, my overall productivity. Also plays havoc with my OCD!
Sony support said it's no longer covered by warranty because I rooted it, and although they can probably fix it, it'll take up to a month, and will cost somewhere between $50-$250. I could buy a replacement phone for not much more!
Any ideas on where to go from here? Should I just get a local mobile repair shop to replace the touchscreen? Or is my suspicion right and it's more likely to be the OS? And if the OS, how do I get to recovery?
Thanks heaps, in advance.
Cheers
Glenn

divinewrite said:
I used the native diagnostic tool to test the touchscreen and it showed a narrow, very uniform unresponsive band at the top of the screen. About 2-3mm. The uniformity of the band, which suggested to me (right or wrong) that it may be a software issue, not a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just about guarantee you that it's a hardware problem, this has happened to me twice on 2 different display panels, through some research this problem happens only on sony phones.
Normally cracking the screen will trigger this problem (Even the smallest of cracks will) but in some cases it will do it on it's own. I think (correct me if I am wrong) sony purposely made this happen possibly to make money on the unfortunate ones who have cracked the screen and caused the digitiser to become slightly unresponsive or not work at all (Thus needed repair and most will go to sony to do so).
I ended up blowing up the phone (Not kidding, I put it in a old microwave and the battery exploded) because it was a pain to run AOSP/CM roms on there and it was gonna cost me quite a bit to fix again so I said fk it and happily destroyed it with a couple of mates (I don't suggest doing this I was just sharing my experience/feelings with this problem {and more}).
I'd suggest selling it (If possible) and getting a new phone, even a phone with the same specs will be better due to sony being... well... sony.
I'm quite happy with my new Moto G4 Plus that runs considerably better than my old Z3 (And the battery lasts longer too ).

Question Screen weirdness on me the other day.

My pixel 7 pro freaked out on me the other day and went black on me when I played a game and didn't come back for over 15 minutes then finally was responding again. Any reason why this happened . Hopefully software and not hardware. Hasn't happened since but still concerning .

Anyone ?

Redbeardkevv said:
Anyone ?
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Flaky game? I never play games on any tool, which a smartphone is. I wish the OEM's would stop trying to make it even possible. Buy a "gaming" phone which is designed specifically for that purpose. In fact, some of the best phones available today (spec wise) are gaming phones! If it only happened while playing the game then that is where I would look.

jaseman said:
Flaky game? I never play games on any tool, which a smartphone is. I wish the OEM's would stop trying to make it even possible. Buy a "gaming" phone which is designed specifically for that purpose. In fact, some of the best phones available today (spec wise) are gaming phones! If it only happened while playing the game then that is where I would look.
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This is one of the most ridiculous responses I have ever seen. There is nothing that makes a "gaming phone" special. They're using the same hardware and software as any other phone with gaming-specific gimmicks. The phone has a throttle mechanism to prevent any kind of damage.

EtherealRemnant said:
This is one of the most ridiculous responses I have ever seen. There is nothing that makes a "gaming phone" special. They're using the same hardware and software as any other phone with gaming-specific gimmicks. The phone has a throttle mechanism to prevent any kind of damage.
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Ridiculous...maybe...but the fact remains that you experienced this WHILE playing a game! So I wonder what the problem may be?

Hmmm

jaseman said:
Ridiculous...maybe...but the fact remains that you experienced this WHILE playing a game! So I wonder what the problem may be?
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That's called a hardware defect if the hardware can't cope. Going blank for 15 minutes is not normal.

Hardware hmm and not software?

Redbeardkevv said:
Hardware hmm and not software?
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What were you playing? If it was a graphically intensive game, I would definitely lean more towards blaming the hardware. It's very rare that a game can actually make a phone that unstable. In fact I can't remember the last time I've had a game make my phone unresponsive.

Roblox with my nephew

Redbeardkevv said:
Roblox with my nephew
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I've never played that game but their site seems to suggest some rather low requirements so I would be shocked if an ARMv8 processor like Tensor 2 is going to struggle with it.
Android warning screens
Due to the very large number of Android devices in existence, we cannot be certain that all devices will run optimally even if they are running the correct version of the operating system and do not have a Tegra 2 chipset.
We have 2 levels of unsupported Android devices - skippable and unskippable:
Skippable Devices: These types of devices will get a warning telling you that your device may not be powerful enough to play experiences smoothly. This is just a warning to let you know that while your device isn't specifically supported, experiences might still run though they will likely lag a little (or a lot). Tapping outside the warning box will make it go away and the experience should keep loading.
Unskippable Devices: will get a message that informs you that your device doesn't meet the minimum system requirements. This means the device is not able to play experiences on Roblox. This message usually shows up on devices that use the Tegra 2 graphics chipset or a processor older than ARMv7. These kinds of tablets/phones do not support features that the Roblox needs to be able to function. However, users with these unskippable messages will still be able to access all other parts of the app outside of experiences.
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https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/203625474-ROBLOX-Mobile-System-Requirements

Yea I was thinking it had low requirements. Maybe bad coding ??? But then again no other app or game has caused that to happen. Sooo. Yea

I don't think it's software. I already had one screen die. Went black and never came back on. I had it fixed under warranty at a local UbreakIFix (Asurion - Google's warranty partner). Techs were aware of a similar problem with the 5a and replaced my screen same day.
I've had a few wonky screen issues that hard locked my phone. Had one go black, but fortunately came back after holding power down. It once went all yellow with weird shapes/sections. And then just had some freezes with artifacts on the screen.
I'm going away for the holidays so I'll send it back when I get home if I'm still having issues. If you're going away, I'd suggest taking a backup phone just in case. Had mine die the first time when I was visiting my folks out of state. It sucked with no backup.
One thing I noticed is the screen does a fuzzy flash whenever I plug in a USB charger. It's only a split second but it is noticeable. Has anyone else experienced that?

Superguy said:
I don't think it's software. I already had one screen die. Went black and never came back on. I had it fixed under warranty at a local UbreakIFix (Asurion - Google's warranty partner). Techs were aware of a similar problem with the 5a and replaced my screen same day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of these failures have been a combination of both hardware and software - nothing is actually wrong with the screen. I'm not sure exactly how it happens, but it seems that this usually involves a OS crash (phone freezing up) followed by an attempt to reboot, but for some reason the bootloader has become corrupted and the device won't start. Fixing it generally involves replacing the mainboard, because most repair centers don't have the QPST or the software needed to perform low level reflash. This is a known issue over several generations of Pixels; the cause is unknown.

V0latyle said:
Most of these failures have been a combination of both hardware and software - nothing is actually wrong with the screen. I'm not sure exactly how it happens, but it seems that this usually involves a OS crash (phone freezing up) followed by an attempt to reboot, but for some reason the bootloader has become corrupted and the device won't start. Fixing it generally involves replacing the mainboard, because most repair centers don't have the QPST or the software needed to perform low level reflash. This is a known issue over several generations of Pixels; the cause is unknown.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What was weird is when mine went black, the phone would still boot and in theory was still usable. Pushing the buttons gave haptic feedback like they were bringing up the power menu or adjusting the volume. I just couldn't see what was going on or use touch to give input.
They told me they just replaced the screen. Didn't touch the motherboard.
I was using one of the custom kernels so I ended up having to wipe it and went back to stock kernel with magisk and some modules. It hasn't acted up as much as it did with the custom kernel, but there are still issues. I suppose it could be something that's messed up in the stock kernel, and perhaps tweaks a dev made in theirs may have exasperated it some.
If I end ups ending it back, I'll try a custom kernel again, but for now, I'm just sticking with stock.
*no disrespect intended or implied to any dev

Superguy said:
What was weird is when mine went black, the phone would still boot and in theory was still usable. Pushing the buttons gave haptic feedback like they were bringing up the power menu or adjusting the volume. I just couldn't see what was going on or use touch to give input.
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Yeah, that's definitely a display issue. I'm talking about when the device doesn't work or respond at all, maybe vibrates on power up but doesn't respond to anything, and usually will come up as "Qualcomm Bulk USB" or something when connected to PC
Superguy said:
They told me they just replaced the screen. Didn't touch the motherboard.
I was using one of the custom kernels so I ended up having to wipe it and went back to stock kernel with magisk and some modules. It hasn't acted up as much as it did with the custom kernel, but there are still issues. I suppose it could be something that's messed up in the stock kernel, and perhaps tweaks a dev made in theirs may have exasperated it some.
If I end ups ending it back, I'll try a custom kernel again, but for now, I'm just sticking with stock.
*no disrespect intended or implied to any dev
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For sure, active development may or may not have stability issues, it's all a learning process!