Help Defy - Will not start - Will not factory reset

[NRLP]

Hi. Can someone please help as I'm new to this this and would very much like my phone to work again...

My Defy kept restarting approximately 5 seconds after starting up. Without being able to access any settings I tried a factory reset via the on button / volume down button. I'm not sure how long this should have taken but decided after a few hours of nothing more than a yellow dot moving across the screen that it wasn't working! Button presses / screen taps had no affect so I pulled the battery.

On powering it up it now either gets as far as the Moto Blur or T-Mobile logos but just hangs there. Further attempts to factory reset give the same result as the first time.

I've noticed two lines of text when accessing the reset screen which read 'E:Can't open /cache/recovery/command' and 'E:Can't open /cache/recovery/caller'. I think these were present at the first attempt but I'm not totally sure of this.

In case it's relevant the phone shipped with Eclair, I changed this to Froyo using the Motorola software upgrade some months ago, it had been working fine since apart from not saving photos (?).

Aplolgies for the essay. Can someone please help?

 

[!on]

I don't know what the yellow dots going across the screen are. When you got into stock recovery, did you press both the vol up & down same time to access the menu (with power key to select)?

I would install RSD Lite & the drivers on a PC, then find your generic Froyo rom from here:

xda defy wiki page

I wouldn't go back to 2.1 as you might not have downgrade ability.

You hold power key & vol UP to enter bootloader mode. Connect to PC & wait while all the various drivers install. Get the Froyo rom (full flash .sbf file from the link above) & put it in the same folder as RSD lite on your comp (program files, rsd lite...). Open RSD & load the .sbf file, then flash it.

This will take some time (10 or 15 mins maybe) so don't disconnect until it's done the thing & rebooted your phone, etc.

 

[scrannel]

As far as factory reset, you know in 2.2 the reset mode listed on the phone does not work? There is a different method. (Stock ROM of course)

DEFY™ with MOTOBLUR™ on Android 2.2 — Hard reset instructions These instructions are different than they are with Android 2.1.

Power DEFY™ off.
Wait 15 seconds.
Press and hold POWER/LOCK key and VOLUME DOWN key.
Continue to press and hold POWER/LOCK and VOLUME DOWN until a screen appears with a "!" inside a triangle and a small Android standing in front of it on a black background.
Once the "!"-Triangle screen appears, press both VOLUME DOWN and UP keys at the same time. This can be achieved by pressing the center of the VOLUME rocker.
Once the recovery menu appears (text is blue) use the VOLUME DOWN key to navigate to "wipe data/factory reset".
Select "wipe data/factory reset" with POWER/LOCK key.
Navigate with VOLUME DOWN key to "Yes -- delete all user data"
During this process you will notice the phone format the system memory and cache. This is normal.
After the factory reset has completed, select "reboot system now" with the POWER/LOCK key.
Please allow 3-10 minutes for system to recover. A long pause on the stylised "M" logo or the carrier animation is normal. DO NOT power the phone off during this period.
(MOTOBLUR™ devices only) Once the DEFY™ has booted, you will be greeted with the MOTOBLUR™ login page.

 

[soggypilchard]

As far as factory reset, you know in 2.2 the reset mode listed on the phone does not work? There is a different method. (Stock ROM of course)

DEFY