C550 in a "Cold Boot Config" loop - won't boot up!

[Guest keith_white]

My Orange C550 is in a world of trouble... :D

Yesterday, I re-booted the phone after installing the demo of the MadBeetle Anim plugin (after installing a homescreen which required it) and it has somehow got itself into a cold boot config cycle it can't get out of.

It boots up and the blue "Windows Mobile" screen is displayed. It does several loud "dings" and then some softer ones (like it does after a hard reset). After 2 or 3 minutes the top and bottom bars are displayed over that screen but nothing else (battery and signal bars are on top and "Unlock" on the bottom). Press the Unlock soft key and it gets highlighted but nothing happens.

Another couple of minutes later and the battery bar shows full and there is signal, but still the "Windows Mobile" blue screen and no key will get it to do anything. At this point I can call the phone, it shows the phone icon over the signal but it rings out and I can't answer the call.

In fact, I can't do anything at all with it except hold the power key to turn it off. At this point I spy "Configuring device Please wait... 0%" for a few seconds. Originally, I thought "Ha! Just leave it to get to 100% and see what happes" but it was still stuck on 0% even after being left on all night. :)

I've tried a lot of stuff but to no avail...

• I left it on all night, just in case... it "ding"'d periodically but was still as sick this morning.
  
• I tried several hard resets (making sure I pressed "0"). Nothing.
  
• Took the battery out for 30mins. Nowt.
  
• I got into bootloader and tried an "r2sd all" thinking I could then use that to restore the rom and the phone to factory settings. Nope - I got a message about "You didn't get the proper security level to download a specific image" despite my phone being app unlocked. 'course, I can't boot into my phone to try any nifty utilities to change the CID so it will do that backup...
  
• I was desperate enough to trust an Orange C550 rom image I downloaded and tried psdwrite'ing that to my MiniSD card. Went into bootloader, "SD All image" written at top - pressed the volume down key but then got the error "Not allow update!". Aggghhh!!!
  

I'm out of ideas now having spent pretty much most of the day searching the internet in vain for ideas and answers.

I'm hoping there's someone out there who can either come up with something new or tweak the ideas I've listed above to get me around some of the issues.

Thanks for taking the time to read and thanks in advance for any help...

Keith

[Guest keith_white]

OK, so none of you gurus have any ideas yet (if you have, please tell me !!) - the phone's still in the same state and totally unusable.

I've not long cancelled my Orange contract so will have no joy getting any support from there - but are there HTC service centers who might be able to resurrect it?

If anyone has any details, I'm desperate enough to admit defeat and resort to that - I miss TomTom :)

Thanks,

Keith

[Guest Confucious]

Have you tried taking the memory card out then booting?

[Guest keith_white]

Absolutely - one of the first things I did in fact but thanks for the suggestion.

Tried it without miniSD then without SIM and then without both and various combinations at various stages of trying things. Nothing made any difference...

Latest update - I managed to persuade it to install the t-mobile SDAII rom update available from the t-mobile website (had to edit the nbf file to get rid of the "Operator" field to allow it to install).

Well, my splash screen has changed and I get the t-mobile jingle now ;-) but it's still stuck on the blue "Windows Mobile" screen and still doesn't boot. Not getting the "Cold Boot Config" issue now - it's just plain stuck (although keypresses light up the backlight and keys).

I also tried the Qtek 8200 rom (again, altering the Operator field in the nbf file and also changing the version numbers to allow it to install). Still the same symptoms (although strangely, the t-mobile splash screen and jingle are still there).

Both updates got to 100% in a few minutes, although they each paused on different bits and the progress bar went red a couple of times in each...

I can still get into bootloader though, so there's got to be some hope :)

I've e-mailed the good folks at HTC to see if they can send me the original UK Orange C550 rom to re-flash or if they have other suggestions.

Meanwhile, if anyone has any ideas...

Cheers,

Keith

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

HTC will not send you the Orange ROM as they would ne be authorised to do so unfortunately, also flashing with a non Orange ROM has invalidated your warrany.

Strange how a hard reset is not working, what actually happens when you do this? (trying to understand the actual process you are going through) It's interesting that flashing with different ROMs are also giving this error as well as this may lead to more of a hardware issue than software.

If all else fails HTC will charge about £35 to replash the phone for you.

[Guest keith_white]

HTC will not send you the Orange ROM as they would ne be authorised to do so unfortunately, also flashing with a non Orange ROM has invalidated your warrany.

Strange how a hard reset is not working, what actually happens when you do this? (trying to understand the actual process you are going through) It's interesting that flashing with different ROMs are also giving this error as well as this may lead to more of a hardware issue than software.

If all else fails HTC will charge about £35 to replash the phone for you.

Ah yes, good point about authorisation for the Orange ROM. I was tired by the time I decided to ask that of HTC and wasn't really thinking straight... :)

Warranty isn't an issue as the phone is over 18months old and I'm no longer with Orange (as of Monday when my contract is scheduled to be cancelled) so was quite prepared to try the flashing other rom route knowing that I couldn't get it fixed under warranty.

When I hard reset (keep the left-most and right-most soft buttons pressed while holding the power-on button for 1-1.5 seconds) - I get the message to press 0 to reset to factory default, which I duly do. The phone shows the splash screen for 20/30 seconds, then moves on to the blue "Windows Mobile" screen where it stays forever (left it overnight and there it was this morning!).

During the first minute of the blue screen, the blue bluetooth LED flashes a few times and then, if the USB cable is plugged in, the yellow charging light goes on after a few seconds (but nothing happens with ActiveSync)

I'm also beginning to reach for hardware rather than software as the cause in which case HTC re-flashing isn't going to cut it? Anyway, I'll see what those guys say - they're the experts and I'm just a bumbling idiot groping blindly about trying to get back to the status quo :D

Do you reckon there's any chance Orange will send me a copy of the ROM image? If so, which bit of Orange should I talk to - I doubt anyone I could get to via 150 will understand or be able to help...