Stuck with Error 104

[Guest seismos]

First of all, a big high-five to everyone for making this site such a great resource.

Now that the flattery has been laid on thick, on to my problem. I have a Tanager that won't let me install any of the ROM versions I've downloaded. I'm trying to keep this post short & sweet, so I won't bore you with everything I did to get where I am now.

-->The phone will power on, but it will only show the light gray screen with "Press any key to enter bootloader" displayed

-->I can get into the bootloader (v0.98)

-->I can get into Canary DIAG (v0.97)

-->I can access the phone via USB with USBterm

-->I have successfully installed the bootloader from a Winhex backup

When I try to install various flavors of the ROM I've found here (Qtek, i-mate, Orange), the installation program checks the phone and then gives me error 104. This is the procedure I'm using:

1. Reboot my laptop

2. Close unnecessary programs

3. Remove the battery and replace it after 30 seconds

4. Turn on the phone and enter the bootloader

5. Put the phone in the sync cradle

6. Run the ROM installation program

7. Swear profusely when the error 104 appears

8. Repeat as necessary

Is this phone dead, or is there something I can do to get Smartphone 2002 back?

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Error 104? Does it say what that error means?

I assume you don't have a winhex backup of the complete ROM then? Obtaining that would probably be your best hope I think...

P

[Guest seismos]

Error 104 is the one the installation program displays on the PC when it can't read the ROM. I'm not sure whether it's referring to the ROM image in the installer package or the ROM in the phone. I suspect it's the latter, since all of the installation programs are displaying error 104 when I run them.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about Winhex until after I corrupted the ROM, so I don't have a backup of the original ROM. At this point it's looking grim, because I don't know anyone with a Tanager. If I could find Winhex files of whatever files I would need to get the phone back to its out-of-box state, I'd give them a shot.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

When you run an update make sure you do it from the canary screen.

Moved to Help and Advice

[Guest seismos]

Yep, I've been running each flavor of the installer (Qtek, i-mate, Orange) while the phone is in the Canary screen (v0.98). Each installer program on the PC shows me error 104 and says something about not being able to read the ROM.

I can use Winhex to open the ROM image that the installer extracts to my hard disk, but I'm not sure if that tells me whether or not the installer should be able to read it. Since each flavor of the installer chokes at the same point, I think it's safe to assume that there's something wrong with the ROM in the phone that prevents the installer program from determining whether it's being installed on the correct phone.

That assumption would be consistent with the fact that the first update I tried to do (Qtek 1.5) crapped out sometime after the installer said it was deleting the old ROM from the phone.

[Guest statscat]

What exactly does it say when it gives you the 104 ?

Also which upgrade did you try to install on your tanager (E100) first (who , where, version etc) ?

[Guest seismos]

The Qtek 1.5 ROM installer (from http://www.qtek.nu/files/Qtek150.zip) is the first one I tried. The compressed file contains an executable named ruu15091.exe.

I have just tried running the Qtek installer mentioned above after having my phone's battery removed for 2 days. I began by rebooting my computer and closing all programs that start automatically on login. Next I installed the battery in the phone and powered it up, which took me directly to the gray screen with "Press any key to enter bootloader" displayed. For some reason I don't need to hold the record button to get to the gray screen; I only have to power up the phone. I entered the bootloader (Canary v0.98), put the phone in the cradle and ran ruu15091.exe.

A small window window appeared when the program started saying "Checking the information on your Smartphone...Please wait..." along with a warning not to unplug the phone from the computer or AC power.

In a few seconds, a larger window opened. The title on the window was "SmartPhone software update, V1,0,1,2." In the window, the following was displayed: "ERROR 104: CANNOT OPEN ROM IMAGE FILE"

"The SmartPhone software Update cannot open the ROM image file. Download the correct ROM update and try again."

Well, that wasn't getting me anywhere, so I killed the remaining processes (they don't close even after the windows are closed), deleted the RUU folder from c:program files, and deleted a folder from my profilelocal settingstemp directory that contained the processes that actually do the installation and the ROM image file (NK.nbf).

I removed the battery and tried again, this time using the i-mate 1.50 ROM installer (from http://www.imate.com/imate/files/EnglishA.zip). The identical windows are displayed.

So after hours of research and numerous attempts at bringing my phone back to life, I'm about ready to give up. I've tried every arcane method of updating the ROM in this phone, and nothing's working

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

(Qtek 1.5) crapped out sometime after the installer said it was deleting the old ROM from the phone.

This is your first problem, but if you can get to the bootloader it should

be possible to recover the phone if not you have a expensive paperweight :lol:

Can you get to the bootloader menu and have you tried to a hard reset?

[Guest Richie M]

Ah, quite a few people have had this problem with the Qtek 1.5 update :lol:

It seems that its a dodgey ROM ;)

I've tried everything possible with people who have came into IRC for help with this problem, to no avail :shock:

I think your best course of action is to contact Qtek, assuming they are your provider - if not then of course you shouldn't of been installing their update :roll:

[Guest seismos]

Well, my Tanager is back up and running again, but on Smartphone 2003.

I bought my phone on eBay and use it with T-Mobile, so I don't have access to any repairs through them. However, I have a buddy who works at Microsoft in the Smartphone division (I live near Seattle). I asked him if he had heard of anything like this and how I could fix it. He didn't know anything, but he took my phone to work and had one of the techs look at it.

She said she couldn't flash my phone with any of the builds of Smartphone 2002 she had available. However, she was able to flash a pre-release version of Smartphone 2003. Weird, no?

[Guest yoos]

interesting... can you do a full backup of that 2003 ROM from the bootloader or usbterm?