[helpVolume keys not working / Installing CWM and Custom ROM

[Guest meep.o.matic]

I'm in kind of a pickle here...

 

I bought this phone 2nd hand, no warranty for a bargain. The volume buttons aren't working and I think it's impossible to install a custom rom from the recovery since I can't navigate it...

 

I've read here how to flash the recovery from ADB and also know it's possible to flash a ROM from ADB.

The thing is, if the recovery were to be touch then there would't be any problem, but I'm not sure that the CWM for this phone is touch enabled.

Any ideas on how to solve this?

Edit: So, I went and flashed a CWM based on konsta's build with touch enabled (recovery builder) using [dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p13] in terminal emulator...

Now it won't boot... it turns on the red light and keeps the screen off forever...

Please, help me.

 

Edit2: So I found some threads about the same situation on the ZTE Blade 3, and ultimately someone said "if you can't fastboot your device, then you have a problem with the drivers" but I made sure my drivers were isntalled... I downloaded the drivers direcly from ZTE. The phone is recognized by Windows as ZTE Handset Diagnostic Interface (DFU).

Guys please =(

Edited September 28, 2013 by meep.o.matic

[Guest MJonMoDaCo]

Bad news Sir...

mmcblk0p13 isn't the recovery partition. mmcblk0p17 however, is... I'll ask around for assistance, but if your volume keys don't work then your phone is effectively useless anyway...

[Guest meep.o.matic]

Thank you MJonMoDaCo. I don't know for the love of god, why I wrote a 3 instead of a 7...

 

If I had the volume keys working then would I have any chance? Because I'm about to purchace this part.

Edited September 28, 2013 by meep.o.matic

[Guest MJonMoDaCo]

Yes you would absolutely have a chance, but the

part in question is for a Zte Blade 1, and I'm not

certain it would be compatible for your device or

not. If you do get a compatible volume

component however, then you should be good to

go.

There is a thread on Blade 3 forum dealing with

your current situation here. Quote a relevant post from KonstaT if you have major trouble to summon him.

Not sure if that recovery version (touch) is really for your device though (its closed-source anyway) so flash a non-touch version of CWM - the one on either this forum or blade 3 forum should be good enough.

I think your chances are reasonable, even though

it doesn't seem it at this moment. Good luck.

Edited September 28, 2013 by MJonMoDaCo

[Guest MJonMoDaCo]

ERM... incidentally, is your device a Blade 1 (Libra)? If so then there is a forum for your device (Acqua isn't the right one) over here, which you'll need when you get around to rooting your device, installing custom ROMs, and getting proper advice from those that own it, as there's only so much that somebody that doesn't have it (like me) could do for you, despite the many things about Android that are universal...

Edited September 28, 2013 by MJonMoDaCo

[Guest meep.o.matic]

http://bbs.hiapk.com...435279-1-1.html

http://4pda.ru/forum...0#entry16066241

So, I've read the thread MJonMoDaCo sugested and decided to try my luck.

I've linked the program to the TMN stock update.zip (D:\Transferências\Smart a15 (TMN) - Pacote de actualização de software para a versão B06 e respectivo manual de instruções\update.zip) and executed. Now it seems to be stuck like this, after the "wait reset" step and another one.

 

Sugestions?

 

Edited September 28, 2013 by meep.o.matic

[Guest meep.o.matic]

Nope, it's a TMN Smart a15 / Skate Acqua / N880E. I also own a Libra.

[Guest MJonMoDaCo]

I have to admit I haven't used that program before (haven't had to). Best to ask someone on the thread you got it from.

As for the model number, Acqua= V880e. Minor I know, but that makes all the difference apparently.

[Guest meep.o.matic]

Thanks for the heads up! I'll try and bump that thread.

[Guest emines009]

Ok

[Guest meep.o.matic]

I followed the instructions on the thread again and after flashing my phone with the V889D soft, it wont even boot the red light... so, gg guys, thank you for your support.

Lesson learned :unsure:

[Guest MJonMoDaCo]

I hope by V889D you don't mean model number? That would have been unfortunate. I'm sorry for your situation, but don't bin it yet. A chap on this forum (papars ) owns and bricked and then fixed his acqua before. I'll ask what he did - but you might find that your phone would be more expensive to repair than rebuy.

[Guest meep.o.matic]

Don't worry about it MJonMoDaCo, I'm not going to spend another penny on this phone, it's just not worth it. Besides, now I know better than to be so reckless. It was a hard lesson, but I'm sure I learned It.

Thank you for everything =)

[Guest MJonMoDaCo]

Your welcome... But its a bummer to hear such news. I hope you have better luck next time.

Ciao.

[Guest Snap.IT]

Oh man, you can't use the software to flash files from another phone for christs sake!

 

You need to get your own phones software and flash that, this should be a given.

 

I used DFU tools to recover a blade III and it works just fine if you just use the files that are for your phone (i also did some more experimenting but not until i had a complete dd of mmcblk0 so i could easily restore it by flashing my CWM via DFU tools, rebooting into CWM and using adb to dd the mmcblk0 dump back).

 

Just download the software for your phone and place that into any folder and point DFU to that folder.

 

And yeah, it will work since the DFU mode is entered before reading anything you could possibly flash including RMNA, it's a default mode for the phone that allows you to restore it without having to mount mmcblk0 at all, it's in NVRAM.

 

You will have to open the phone and manually short the two switches for vol- and vol+ though.

Edited October 3, 2013 by Snap.IT

[Guest papars]

@Snap.IT

 

About a year or so ago I killed 2x acqua because of wrong firmware files.

The phones stuck at DFU but back then I could not find the relevant files to restore the phone, hence I send to ZTE for repair.  They did for free but took about 2 months!

 

Can you provide detail info on what and how to back up the phone and restore it when is stuck at DFU?

I'm also bit worried about NVRAM.  Can this be backed-up as well?

[Guest MJonMoDaCo]

Oh man, you can't use the software to flash files from another phone for christs sake!

 

You need to get your own phones software and flash that, this should be a given.

 

I used DFU tools to recover a blade III and it works just fine if you just use the files that are for your phone (i also did some more experimenting but not until i had a complete dd of mmcblk0 so i could easily restore it by flashing my CWM via DFU tools, rebooting into CWM and using adb to dd the mmcblk0 dump back).

 

Just download the software for your phone and place that into any folder and point DFU to that folder.

 

And yeah, it will work since the DFU mode is entered before reading anything you could possibly flash including RMNA, it's a default mode for the phone that allows you to restore it without having to mount mmcblk0 at all, it's in NVRAM.

 

You will have to open the phone and manually short the two switches for vol- and vol+ though.

Many thanks for your time and input, Snap. I didn't think those were the right firmware files. I'm pretty sure that came from a dual sim variant. Yikes. I'd better become well versed in DFU just in case I need it someday. I've seen a few articles about shorting the circuits. Scary sh!t.

@papars.

Sorry, old chap. I was of the opinion you'd been successful at fixing it. My apologies. It would seem you still have 2 acquas still though?? That was why I assumed - and we know what they say about that eh...

Edited October 4, 2013 by MJonMoDaCo

[Guest papars]

I have still 2 acqua.  Working fine. 

I have made the wireless charging and lost warranty, so I do not want to experiment with firmware without a way to recover.

So, I stopped experimenting with ROMs and I use CM10.2 and I'm happy.

 

Only battery does not last long with latest CM10.2.

[Guest Snap.IT]

@Snap.IT

 

About a year or so ago I killed 2x acqua because of wrong firmware files.

The phones stuck at DFU but back then I could not find the relevant files to restore the phone, hence I send to ZTE for repair.  They did for free but took about 2 months!

 

Can you provide detail info on what and how to back up the phone and restore it when is stuck at DFU?

I'm also bit worried about NVRAM.  Can this be backed-up as well?

You should back it up before it gets stuck like that, the best way would be to use QPST for the nvram and do a dd=/sdcard/backup.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 for everything on it.

 

You can use the DFU program to flash only the stock recovery and use that to restore a proper unpacked update zip for your phone, in some cases you will have to flash several (since they don't all update everything) to get to the point where you have restored it completely.

 

Undervolting will give different results, i did a max undervolt for the OT-995 and it works just fine with that (about three whole days and a few hours using it for various tasks at least four hours a day) but on other devices it won't work unless you want to limit your clock speeds greatly, there is no actual reason for cm 10.2 to be bad when it comes to battery time, it's all in the kernel.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Snap.IT

[Guest Snap.IT]

Before i forget, don't flash the cefs files first round, just flash the rest, reboot (it won't have radio at this point) reboot to FTM mode and do a QPST backup, flash the CEFS files and then restore the QPST backup.

[Guest MJonMoDaCo]

I have still 2 acqua. Working fine.

Yeah ^^

But I thought you'd fixed it yourself. With DFU. That's the claim I made further up the page, and I'm clearly mistaken.

I have made the wireless charging and lost warranty, so I do not want to experiment with firmware without a way to recover.

So, I stopped experimenting with ROMs and I use CM10.2 and I'm happy.

Only battery does not last long with latest CM10.2.

Ouch. Im not surprised you're shy after that. At least CM 10.2 cranks, although battery life is somewhat okay with me.