Hello, everyone. I'll apologize in advance for this wall of text, but I'm completely puzzled (being a n00b, that is expected, I guess) and wanted to give as much info as possible. Also, I intended to post this in the "Ask any question" thread, but I figured you can skip this novel easier this way 
First of all, I'd like to thank you all for creating and maintaining this forum. It's tremendously detailed and helpful. But, apparently I'm missing something or I haven't looked hard enough
sorry.
Anyway, here's the story:
I bought my Sensation about a year ago. It was an unlocked phone, probably Vodafone originally (I know, first mistake, but all I cared att is to get a great phone for as little cash as possible, which excluded insanely priced data/voice plans. At least it was not stolen or anything). It was never really stable (reboot every couple of days, camera just shuts down in the middle of recording, etc.), but in time I got used to it.
However, in the last few months, it got worse. At least once a day reboot and constant lock-ups and freezes (not too many apps installed, mind you). Now, I have a friend who is a bit more tech savvy than I (as you usually do), and I asked him if anything could be done. He told me some things that meant nothing to me att (revolutionary roms and stuff
), so I asked him to do that in my stead. Needless to say, it all went wrong.
I received the phone in a non-working state. With the bootloop issue. Nothing worked except for the bootloader.
To cut this story short, I took it to the official service center, where I've been told that the main board is gone and that I can pay some 150-200EUR to repair it
I was a bit skeptic about that, brought up the bootloader part and (apparently) confused the repairman. I figured that, if the BL works, the board should be OK, right?
So, anyway...
I looked around the net, found this forum (thanks for it, again) and, a few weeks ago, I started to dabble a bit myself. Found some great guides, links and posts that gave me some hope.
After some data mining I tried to do the whole "recover the phone then get ICS" thing, so I downloaded the 3.33.401.106 FW , ADB and revolutionary, removed the HTC Sync, installed 3.0.0.007 drivers, got the Superuser, 4ext, terminal emulator, rom manager and busybox apps (maybe one too many?). Got the Android Revolution HD-Sensation 6.7.0 XE.zip, checked all the MD5 sums, etc.
First thing I did was to flash the FW. I did it all "by the book" and, voila, the phone started working. Just with the FW flashed. I tested it, it had the same old 2.3.3 OS(!), but all the user data was wiped. And, of course, all the old problems were there
, except for the reboot isuue.
Then I wanted to continue upgrading. I did a Nandroid Back-Up and I checked my CID and MID (not superCID, yet), they were VODAPA30 and PG5813000 respectively. Then, as I was writing down some data, something caught my attention. The FW was apparently as old as it gets (it says 1.12.0.0 CL51025 test-keys).
BTW, the bootloader now says
*** LOCKED ***
PYRAMID PVT SHIP S-OFF RL
HBOOT-1.23.0000
RADIO-11.24A.3504.31_M
OpenADSP-v0.5.6.0.226.00.0418
eMMC-boot
Dec 26 2011,12:14:25
Now, as I said, I'm completely puzzled. How is this possible? What did I do wrong? Did the FW even flash? How is it that my phone's working? And, most importantly, what am I to do, now?
I apologize for the length once again, and thank you in advance.
First of all, I'd like to thank you all for creating and maintaining this forum. It's tremendously detailed and helpful. But, apparently I'm missing something or I haven't looked hard enough
Anyway, here's the story:
I bought my Sensation about a year ago. It was an unlocked phone, probably Vodafone originally (I know, first mistake, but all I cared att is to get a great phone for as little cash as possible, which excluded insanely priced data/voice plans. At least it was not stolen or anything). It was never really stable (reboot every couple of days, camera just shuts down in the middle of recording, etc.), but in time I got used to it.
However, in the last few months, it got worse. At least once a day reboot and constant lock-ups and freezes (not too many apps installed, mind you). Now, I have a friend who is a bit more tech savvy than I (as you usually do), and I asked him if anything could be done. He told me some things that meant nothing to me att (revolutionary roms and stuff
I received the phone in a non-working state. With the bootloop issue. Nothing worked except for the bootloader.
To cut this story short, I took it to the official service center, where I've been told that the main board is gone and that I can pay some 150-200EUR to repair it
I was a bit skeptic about that, brought up the bootloader part and (apparently) confused the repairman. I figured that, if the BL works, the board should be OK, right?
So, anyway...
I looked around the net, found this forum (thanks for it, again) and, a few weeks ago, I started to dabble a bit myself. Found some great guides, links and posts that gave me some hope.
After some data mining I tried to do the whole "recover the phone then get ICS" thing, so I downloaded the 3.33.401.106 FW , ADB and revolutionary, removed the HTC Sync, installed 3.0.0.007 drivers, got the Superuser, 4ext, terminal emulator, rom manager and busybox apps (maybe one too many?). Got the Android Revolution HD-Sensation 6.7.0 XE.zip, checked all the MD5 sums, etc.
First thing I did was to flash the FW. I did it all "by the book" and, voila, the phone started working. Just with the FW flashed. I tested it, it had the same old 2.3.3 OS(!), but all the user data was wiped. And, of course, all the old problems were there
Then I wanted to continue upgrading. I did a Nandroid Back-Up and I checked my CID and MID (not superCID, yet), they were VODAPA30 and PG5813000 respectively. Then, as I was writing down some data, something caught my attention. The FW was apparently as old as it gets (it says 1.12.0.0 CL51025 test-keys).
BTW, the bootloader now says
*** LOCKED ***
PYRAMID PVT SHIP S-OFF RL
HBOOT-1.23.0000
RADIO-11.24A.3504.31_M
OpenADSP-v0.5.6.0.226.00.0418
eMMC-boot
Dec 26 2011,12:14:25
Now, as I said, I'm completely puzzled. How is this possible? What did I do wrong? Did the FW even flash? How is it that my phone's working? And, most importantly, what am I to do, now?
I apologize for the length once again, and thank you in advance.