Please help a techno idiot

[Guest chris9181]

Hi

I now turn my phone on to be greeted by the 'web page not available' screen with a message saying 'browser cannot load this page because there is no internet connection'.

I click on 'ok', and it says launcherpro has expired. no home screen so cannot access internet!

My SF has not been modified in anyway as I dont have the confidence or nohow.

Any help appreciated

[Guest Lew247]

The search button is your friend

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...broke-my-phone/

[Guest SqueakyG]

I've just been reading up on this (because your post made me go, "WTF?? LauncherPro expires??!!")

There's lots of discussion about it on forums, including this one -- SEEEAAARCH ;) But most of the conversation is from people who were lucky enough to have a wifi/data connection. Not many people understand just how stuck you would be without a data connection, and therefore are blocked from accessing the Settings to turn on data! (And how stuck ADB users would be if they couldn't access the Settings to turn on USB Debugging).

So you'll be shouted at for not searching and not Googling, but most people shouting at you will not understand that existing threads are less than helpful.

It's a terrible stupid design oversight by the developer. I can't believe people aren't angry about it. Reading about this has made me lose a lot of faith in the product... seeing how the developer breezed over the issue in his own forum, and there's no big FAQ or apology from him. It makes me never want to pay the guy for the Plus version. At least the latest version doesn't have any expiry.

Anyway.

Lets see how lucky you are: Long-press the Home button to bring up a list of "recent" apps. If you're very lucky you will have recently used Settings, or something that can get you into your settings so that you can enable data. Perhaps tinker with Advanced Task Killer if you have it and it shows up in the list. But that's probably too lucky.

Another thing to try: Try to get a newer version of LauncherPro onto your SD card. You can download it here: http://www.launcherpro.com/apk/LauncherPro-0.8.2.apk If your phone won't let you mount the SD card, try to dig up a micro-SD converter so you can stick it straight into a card reader in your computer. Put the file on there. Then see if the browser on the phone lets you type into the address bar. If so, type: file:///sdcard/LauncherPro-0.8.2.apk. Hopefully the browser treats this as a download and you can then install it. The phone should then ask you to set a homescreen. Fixed!

If that doesn't work... sorry. If your phone is still totally unmodified and unrooted, you could take it back to Orange and explain the situation. Also try switching the phone on with the volume button held down, and see if it takes you to any kind of recovery screen (most people here have installed something called ClockworkMod that goes there, and I confess I don't know what the standard recovery looks like), see if it has a Factory Reset option. You'd lose everything on the phone and start from scratch.

[Guest Phoenix Silver]

yes just install clockworkmod (see the topic how to install a custom rom)

in clockworkmod do a wipe data factory reset

[Guest SqueakyG]

yes just install clockworkmod (see the topic how to install a custom rom)

in clockworkmod do a wipe data factory reset

See, this is a case of when I don't think this forum works for regular phone users. The OP describes himself as a "techno idiot". You have to understand that saying "Just install clockwork mod" sounds as impossible as saying "Just do some brain surgery." Especially since he would have to install clockworkmod via the old fastboot method, because the LauncherPro expiry bug gives him absolutely no access to functions on the phone itself. I think fastboot/command line stuff is maybe just too much for newbies.

The thread you suggested is very user-friendly when it comes to newer techniques for getting Clockworkmod on the phone, but the old fastboot method is not written for newbies to understand very well. For example it says things like "Open a terminal" without explaining how to do so. You know and I know. But has the OP ever typed things into a command line before? Have self-confessed "techno idiots" seen a command line since 1993?

(This example is a good test for whether Guide authors are properly considering newbies. A good author says: "Open a terminal: you can do this by typing "cmd" into the search bar of your start menu." An author who presumes too much knowledge simply says: "Open a terminal.")

Um, end of rant ;) So anyway, I took the time to dig around for less drastic solutions to the OP's problem; but it's hard because the problem is very unique: most people who were affected were fortunate enough to have their wifi/data switched on and their USB debugging active (for ADB); but the OP has absolutely no access to his homescreen or app drawer, and therefore no access to his settings to switch on data/wifi or USB debugging.

Unfortunately clockworkmod may be the only resort for the OP. The good news is that if he can wrap his head around it, the world of custom ROMs will be open to him! It's a good opportunity to do a lot of reading and get into this new hobby,

[Guest chris9181]

See, this is a case of when I don't think this forum works for regular phone users. The OP describes himself as a "techno idiot". You have to understand that saying "Just install clockwork mod" sounds as impossible as saying "Just do some brain surgery." Especially since he would have to install clockworkmod via the old fastboot method, because the LauncherPro expiry bug gives him absolutely no access to functions on the phone itself. I think fastboot/command line stuff is maybe just too much for newbies.

The thread you suggested is very user-friendly when it comes to newer techniques for getting Clockworkmod on the phone, but the old fastboot method is not written for newbies to understand very well. For example it says things like "Open a terminal" without explaining how to do so. You know and I know. But has the OP ever typed things into a command line before? Have self-confessed "techno idiots" seen a command line since 1993?

(This example is a good test for whether Guide authors are properly considering newbies. A good author says: "Open a terminal: you can do this by typing "cmd" into the search bar of your start menu." An author who presumes too much knowledge simply says: "Open a terminal.")

Um, end of rant ;) So anyway, I took the time to dig around for less drastic solutions to the OP's problem; but it's hard because the problem is very unique: most people who were affected were fortunate enough to have their wifi/data switched on and their USB debugging active (for ADB); but the OP has absolutely no access to his homescreen or app drawer, and therefore no access to his settings to switch on data/wifi or USB debugging.

Unfortunately clockworkmod may be the only resort for the OP. The good news is that if he can wrap his head around it, the world of custom ROMs will be open to him! It's a good opportunity to do a lot of reading and get into this new hobby,

Some excellent comments thanks. people do get hung up about people not using 'search' but believe me I searched for some time!!

Any way the solution I found on the net was this and I amazed myself that I did it!!

download the latest LauncherPro APK (or hopefully any other APK). Connect your phone to your PC and mount the SD card. Copy the new APK to the top-level of the SD card and rename it to something short (like lp.apk).

Unmount the phone, then in the phone browser (which is the only thing LP lets you run), type the following in the URL bar:

file:///sdcard/lp.apk

(notice the three slashes)

This will force-launch the Installer application on the phone. Now on my phone, it was set to disallow non-Android Market apps from installing; since the APK is not off the Android Market, the phone popped up an error and offered to let me change the application setting. Which launches the Settings application.

The Settings application also allows you to uninstall applications.

Which finally allowed me to get rid of that misbegotten abomination LauncherPro.

Edited February 2, 2011 by chris9181

[Guest SqueakyG]

Some excellent comments thanks. people do get hung up about people not using 'search' but believe me I searched for some time!!

Any way the solution I found on the net was this and I amazed myself that I did it!!

download the latest LauncherPro APK (or hopefully any other APK). Connect your phone to your PC and mount the SD card. Copy the new APK to the top-level of the SD card and rename it to something short (like lp.apk).

Unmount the phone, then in the phone browser (which is the only thing LP lets you run), type the following in the URL bar:

file:///sdcard/lp.apk

Glad you got it fixed. That was kind of one of my solutions ;)

Latest versions of LauncherPro will never do the same despicable thing again. The author learned his lesson. I have lost some faith in the product and would never support it with money, but I have to say it's still the best launcher. I tried ADW.Launcher and it was less smooth and sometimes crashed.