Are you entirely sure you have stock hboot? If you do have you tried formatting all partitions from recovery several times?
Yes, I'm sure about my hboot, and I've formatted everything, internal or sd. My Bravo is PVT1 and has overheating issues. It sometimes reboots while installing, so I have to start again several times in order to achieve install.
Weirdest is I have much less trouble with AOSP/AOKP/PA/CWM... roms.
Next I wanna try is to flash the downgrader from alpharev before flashing stock hboot again, but tbh I don't expect much from that.
Thing is I really want to try Sense 4 rom on the desire, since I have a GN on the side for all my AOSP wishes.