[Q] MSFT Employee HardSPL'd Device Messing Around

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moitoius

Member
Mar 13, 2008
27
1
Johannesburg, ZA
I have a device that used to belong to a MSFT employee. At Microsoft you can just hand in your device and they will put a new ROM on it for you. So first thing I did when I got it is to HardSPL (OliNex 1.90) it and load up a new ROM (the one on it was a couple of builds back, and GPS didn't work etc.).

The strange thing is that ROMS seem to be 'loosing' files (as far as I can tell - apps won't open etc.) after a few days of otherwise great operation. If the device is rebooted, it's almost like a hard-reset; although the installation takes next to no time: and it gets stuck on the splash. Hard resetting the device makes it work for a few days more. The device didn't have these problems with the MSFT ROM (which I stupidly didn't backup).

I have tried a few ROMs and they all seem to have the problem:
  • MagicROM_23541_Sense25_Mar01
  • TAELROM_v4.23541_SENSE_2.5_28FEB10_LD
  • Timolol_5100207TH (awesome ROM)

So my current plan:
  1. Flash stock ROM.
  2. Flash stock SPL.
  3. Flash stock ROM (hoping it will clear anything funny MSFT put on it).
  4. Hard SPL.
  5. Flash Timolol Stock-Like (seems to have the problems the soonest - 2 days max).

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks guys.
 
Last edited:

kwill

Senior Member
Jun 15, 2006
4,375
26
Austin, TX
I assume since you posted in the Touch Pro2/Tilt 2 section, that you own one of those devices. The roms you have mentioned below are (I believe) for a touch pro/fuze device. That could be your problem. Although, I would assume that you have one as I'm sure a rom for a different device would even flash to the device period. If you have the right rom/device combo and its a touch pro, then you should post in the thread for the roms. More details such as network and device will help the most.
 

Farmer Ted

Senior Member
Nov 30, 2008
2,373
90
I don't think it's a hot idea to flash the stock spl. I'm not sure that it can be over-written with hard spl-you'll have to ask in the hard spl thread. If you do it, you might be stuck with the stock rom. Just try flashing the stock rom, then going to the custom one you want. That seems to work for a lot of people.
 

moitoius

Member
Mar 13, 2008
27
1
Johannesburg, ZA
Small update - just flashed the latest stock Fuze ROM. Just before the customization app come up I saw that device.exe crashed... In any case, I will see what happens with the custom ROM.
 

Farmer Ted

Senior Member
Nov 30, 2008
2,373
90
You may need to reformat the memory of your phone. Having device.exe crash on a stock rom during bootup is kind of weird. I've never done it myself, but there are threads on it in the Leo forum. I wouldn't try the apps that they've put together, though. I guess you can search around for "Task 29" to find out how to do it properly.
 

hilaireg

Moderator Emeritus
Jan 20, 2009
2,948
237
@OP:

If the device was flashed on a regular basis, it's possible that the device flash memory is near end-of-life.

You could try running Raphael Diagnostics on it to see if that sorts it out.

HTH,
 

moitoius

Member
Mar 13, 2008
27
1
Johannesburg, ZA
Plus minus 2 days - it has been able to go as far as 5.

According to this post: http://xdaforums.com/archive/index.php/t-514940.html

These are good options:

This one in particular: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=3446141&postcount=16 (it applies to Rhodium, but people have had success with it).

Apparently Task 2a (equivalent of 29) is disabled on the OliNex 1.90 SPL - so I can't do a NAND format without reflashing the stock SPL (not that I would attempt that myself in any case :) ).

I'll run RaphaelDiagnostics and see if that comes up with anything.

Thanks for the help so far guys, I first want to see if the stock flash I did works (I smell a Wiki page).
 

Farmer Ted

Senior Member
Nov 30, 2008
2,373
90
I tried out the raphdiag-it's pretty cool. I've been having a few weird issues lately on my fuze. In particular, all of a sudden my boot-up time seems to have gotten slow (millisecond to idle thread went from 65-70 sec to 90-95 sec, and I hadn't messed with start up programs). Also, I have been having an issue with files on the main memory becoming corrupted, which has just been weird. Anyway, I ran an 'info 8' with mtty a few weeks ago, and it came up with 7 bad blocks, which seems normal. So, I ran raphdiag this morning, and ran the format nand routine. I was a little surprised, because after running it, I soft reset and the phone booted up normally like after a hard reset. I thought that it was going to wipe the entire rom memory clean, leaving only the radio, bootloader and splash screen. It didn't seem much different from a hard reset. The good news is that my startup is faster. With a setup I was using beforehand, the millisecond-to-idle-thread speed was 76 seconds, and after the format it was down to 71 seconds. However, I ran an 'info 8', and the memory analysis hadn't changed at all (same 7 bad blocks). I'm not sure if the formatting (task 29 or this) is supposed to clear that up, though.

I put both the raphdiag.nbh and a raphimg.nbh on the root of my normal 16 gb card. When you go into bootloader, it does a quick image update (takes about 2 seconds), then the screen tells you to push power for a rom update or push the action button to go into diagnostics. From there, you have maybe 4 or 5 choices. Scroll up and down with the up/down buttons, then push action. The first is a set of hardware tests, the second is something like 'run in/on', which appears to be a test scheduler. The 3d is the NAND format option, and I think the 4th and 5th options are 'calculate rom checksum' and then 'skuid', or something like that. To exit, I just soft reset, or used soft reset/vol down to go back to bootloader. After the format, I tried to flash (I think it called it re-flash), but it said there was no image present. You may need to do this on a clean card to get it to work (that is, format and then flash off the same card without swapping things out).

The diag tests are kind of cool. There's an auto mode that runs through all of them, but you have to do things to get it to work. The first is an LED test. The screen turns red, you stare at it for 5 min wondering what the hell is going on, then push the action button for the hell of it. Then the screen turns green. Push it a bunch more times, and it goes through shaded and checkered screens and whatnot, then it tells you it passed the test. There's a test for the slider, and you need to slide the keyboard in and out. The qwerty test was weird. It's configured for a touch pro (not a fuze), so I didn't know what the hell to do at first. The screen just says 'QWERTY_KBD_1', or something like that. I tried hitting the '1' button, and fn-1, and it did nothing. Then I just hit the top left button, and it said OK and prompted to hit 2. So, you just push all the keyboard buttons from left to right, top to bottom. There are also tests for the other hardware buttons, except for the 4 main buttons on the d-pad (home, back, send, end), which was kind of weird. If you think your power button or vol down button is effed, this tool will confirm/deny it for you.
 

moitoius

Member
Mar 13, 2008
27
1
Johannesburg, ZA
Right, so the RaphDiag didn't brick your device. It's a bit risky - so I will first resort to less extreme measures :) - at least I know there is one success story.
 

Farmer Ted

Senior Member
Nov 30, 2008
2,373
90
I seriously wouldn't worry about it, but you may want to have a card reader available in case you need to remove raphdiag from you sd card to get a flash to work. It's possible that I didn't get the nand format to work properly, but I think I did it right, because the device definitely needed to cold boot. I was just surprised that there was still an OS there.
 

moitoius

Member
Mar 13, 2008
27
1
Johannesburg, ZA
I'll take your word for it - BUT - in terms of gaining knowledge I am going to try the steps in the posts I found. If the NAND does need a format there is no doubt that I will land up doing it - but I will have first-hand experience.

This really needs a Wiki page once I am done; so I want to squeeze as much info out of the device as I can.

Can anyone else think of any gotcha's before I potentially brick it?
 

Farmer Ted

Senior Member
Nov 30, 2008
2,373
90
I ran the format a second time. It's really fast; it takes maybe 5 seconds. I haven't figure out how to exit from that part of the diag other than soft resetting, which leads to a cold boot. I'm surprised it's so fast. A hard reset takes about 30 seconds. I guess that it's working properly.