Hello. I'm a 55 year-old newbie to the wonderful world of Android, courtesy of my kid's continuously-rebooting Dell Streak 5 (AT&T, USA). It all started with the Froyo 2.2 OTA update in late 2011. The Streak would not boot after that update completed (WiFi - FIOS). We called Dell, and they advised that we Factory Reset it. That worked, and we thought all was well. Now several months later and 2000 factory resets later, my kid requested an iPhone for Christmas, and I re-claimed the Streak. I called Dell last week, and of course they wasted several hours of my time, ultimately telling me that my phone was out of warranty, but that for $249 I could buy a new phone. I advised several reps and a supervisor that Dell's OTA 2.2 update caused the problem, and that I should not be charged for any resolution to that problem. End of that story - here I am, after spending all of Saturday and most of Sunday attempting to downgrade back to 1.6. Here's what I have done:
I used SuperOneClick and successfully rooted the phone
I have used many recovery mods, ALL of which seem to lead to a black screen after selecting option 2. However, the Clockworkmod "alternate" recovery method did work. I downloaded a 4399 stock recovery zipped file, copied it to the Streak's SD card, then renamed the entire zipped file to "Update.zip". Then I used FastBoot, and flashed the Clockworkmod alternate recovery "recovery.alt.img" to the Streak. I used fastboot to reboot the Streak, then held the two Volume buttons, selected Option 2, and made my way through the awkward menu - but ultimately I was able to install "Update.zip" successfully. Upon the reboot, I am stuck with the Dell logo. I have tried factory resetting at this point, starting again from "scratch", only to return to the same old story: stuck at Dell logo. I read somewhere that it could take 10 minutes for the Streak to boot, but I have waited for 30 minutes plus.
An hour ago I was too frustrated to continue trying to downgrade to 1.6, so I read this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1334487. I used the clockwork 3.0.1.9 recovery method, and attempted to upgrade to 2.3.?. This was not an "alternate" method (which had not worked in two days), but after flashing the recovery.img to the Streak, and using the 2.3.? "Update.pkg" on the SD card, the Streak did begin to verify the package - then it started the update, then - REBOOT. The first time this happened, I waited for 30 minutes, thinking that the upgrade was happening in the background while displaying the Dell logo, as Windows updates sometimes do. But then I yanked the battery, and started that process again. The next time and every subsequent attempt to perform this upgrade results in a reboot as the "verifying package" is occurring.
At this point I feel as though I am spinning my wheels, so I'm putting out an All Points Bulletin for some advice and/or help.
Thanks in advance! John in Dallas
I used SuperOneClick and successfully rooted the phone
I have used many recovery mods, ALL of which seem to lead to a black screen after selecting option 2. However, the Clockworkmod "alternate" recovery method did work. I downloaded a 4399 stock recovery zipped file, copied it to the Streak's SD card, then renamed the entire zipped file to "Update.zip". Then I used FastBoot, and flashed the Clockworkmod alternate recovery "recovery.alt.img" to the Streak. I used fastboot to reboot the Streak, then held the two Volume buttons, selected Option 2, and made my way through the awkward menu - but ultimately I was able to install "Update.zip" successfully. Upon the reboot, I am stuck with the Dell logo. I have tried factory resetting at this point, starting again from "scratch", only to return to the same old story: stuck at Dell logo. I read somewhere that it could take 10 minutes for the Streak to boot, but I have waited for 30 minutes plus.
An hour ago I was too frustrated to continue trying to downgrade to 1.6, so I read this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1334487. I used the clockwork 3.0.1.9 recovery method, and attempted to upgrade to 2.3.?. This was not an "alternate" method (which had not worked in two days), but after flashing the recovery.img to the Streak, and using the 2.3.? "Update.pkg" on the SD card, the Streak did begin to verify the package - then it started the update, then - REBOOT. The first time this happened, I waited for 30 minutes, thinking that the upgrade was happening in the background while displaying the Dell logo, as Windows updates sometimes do. But then I yanked the battery, and started that process again. The next time and every subsequent attempt to perform this upgrade results in a reboot as the "verifying package" is occurring.
At this point I feel as though I am spinning my wheels, so I'm putting out an All Points Bulletin for some advice and/or help.
Thanks in advance! John in Dallas