To be fair to HTC/Sprint I retitled this. As the phone is not representative of a normal M8 (either by hardware or corrupted/miss programming).
Long story.
If you want the short version, "This phone sucks" (and by the way so does the S5).
Here is the long version.
Bought the phone first day.
HTC Unlocked and Rooted it as soon at it was available. Applied S-OFF as soon as it was available.
I had not much time to play with it and stayed on Stock and have WIFI on full time which is used at work and home.
Couple days ago I decided to try some ROMs (being very patient for things to mature a bit). I tried Barebones, pretty good ROM. Note I had "dirty flashed it".
Then I took my first long trip since I got the phone. 100 miles into the boonies.
It popped up "Roaming Guard every 2 minutes", every call. But it was still running ok.
I had forgot to shut the roaming guard off (or it was locked out by the time I though of it).
This is a known issue and happened on M7as well. Most reliable way to deal with it, is to full wipe in order to disable it. (I tried all the tricks).
Well at this time OMJ released his "Harman" ROM and Firmware.
Well I guess it's a good time to start clean, wipe and switch to OMJ's Harmon ROM (and firmware) (whom I've been a loyal customer of)
So this stupid Roaming Guard thing keeps coming and going as I sort out which ROM I want, restoring things with TB etc.
But now, my phone is "stuck is 1X". WTF. And if it does occasionally show 3G as soon as I use it, it drops out completely or reverts to 1X.
So now I think I hosed something really bad. Can't get 3G at home or work. My wifes HTC One M7 is fine (running OMJ's BadBoys ROM)
Updated Profiles, played with PRL's.
So I put it all back to factory (except S-ON) and used the HBOOT that hides that's it's S-OFF.
And flashed the closest Stock ROM I could find (which so happened to get no Data or Voice at all). Perfect !!
Then took it to sprint store, and it was a sharp kid and he said it was rooted and nicely handed it back. He suggested I add T.E.P. and "try again".
Well I figured I'll have to S-ON it. And stopped in another store to added T.E.P. just in case. I had like 2 days left.
So I was gonna go home S-ON it and go to another Sprint "repair" Store but decided I really needed to get to some other commitments.
So I restored a backup and on the road and the phone was back to "Normal" except for the stupid Roaming Guard thing. WTF.
Then it hit me. The new ROM from OMJ was telling me what my REAL network was doing and the stock ROM was lying through it's teeth.
I'm well aware of Developer ROM's displaying "1x" when it sees 1x but after being on the stock ROM (with WIFI on), I kind of forgot about it.
And I was never clear what the "New" Spark Icons were really saying anyway (with WIFI ON or OFF).
So the truth is this thing has been running like crap since day 1. And I believe even worse since the first OTA firmware update.
I started researching options to get the Galaxy S5. Turns out the reviews are worse on the S5 than the M8.
Then I kept finding threads like this one.
https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/155517
Maybe I have a bad phone. Maybe I'll just smash the thing and try another one.
I miss my M7. Luckily my wife has it.
Long story.
If you want the short version, "This phone sucks" (and by the way so does the S5).
Here is the long version.
Bought the phone first day.
HTC Unlocked and Rooted it as soon at it was available. Applied S-OFF as soon as it was available.
I had not much time to play with it and stayed on Stock and have WIFI on full time which is used at work and home.
Couple days ago I decided to try some ROMs (being very patient for things to mature a bit). I tried Barebones, pretty good ROM. Note I had "dirty flashed it".
Then I took my first long trip since I got the phone. 100 miles into the boonies.
It popped up "Roaming Guard every 2 minutes", every call. But it was still running ok.
I had forgot to shut the roaming guard off (or it was locked out by the time I though of it).
This is a known issue and happened on M7as well. Most reliable way to deal with it, is to full wipe in order to disable it. (I tried all the tricks).
Well at this time OMJ released his "Harman" ROM and Firmware.
Well I guess it's a good time to start clean, wipe and switch to OMJ's Harmon ROM (and firmware) (whom I've been a loyal customer of)
So this stupid Roaming Guard thing keeps coming and going as I sort out which ROM I want, restoring things with TB etc.
But now, my phone is "stuck is 1X". WTF. And if it does occasionally show 3G as soon as I use it, it drops out completely or reverts to 1X.
So now I think I hosed something really bad. Can't get 3G at home or work. My wifes HTC One M7 is fine (running OMJ's BadBoys ROM)
Updated Profiles, played with PRL's.
So I put it all back to factory (except S-ON) and used the HBOOT that hides that's it's S-OFF.
And flashed the closest Stock ROM I could find (which so happened to get no Data or Voice at all). Perfect !!
Then took it to sprint store, and it was a sharp kid and he said it was rooted and nicely handed it back. He suggested I add T.E.P. and "try again".
Well I figured I'll have to S-ON it. And stopped in another store to added T.E.P. just in case. I had like 2 days left.
So I was gonna go home S-ON it and go to another Sprint "repair" Store but decided I really needed to get to some other commitments.
So I restored a backup and on the road and the phone was back to "Normal" except for the stupid Roaming Guard thing. WTF.
Then it hit me. The new ROM from OMJ was telling me what my REAL network was doing and the stock ROM was lying through it's teeth.
I'm well aware of Developer ROM's displaying "1x" when it sees 1x but after being on the stock ROM (with WIFI on), I kind of forgot about it.
And I was never clear what the "New" Spark Icons were really saying anyway (with WIFI ON or OFF).
So the truth is this thing has been running like crap since day 1. And I believe even worse since the first OTA firmware update.
I started researching options to get the Galaxy S5. Turns out the reviews are worse on the S5 than the M8.
Then I kept finding threads like this one.
https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/155517
Maybe I have a bad phone. Maybe I'll just smash the thing and try another one.
I miss my M7. Luckily my wife has it.
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