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Help me ID my hero?

WP416

Lurker
Jul 29, 2010
3
0
canada.
I purchased an HTC Hero A6262 yesterday from a guy posting his for sale on a classifieds site, in Toronto, Canada. The part number on mine is 99HHM001-00, model is A6262, serial number starts with HT998L,
and it has been upgraded to "Android2.1-update1" according to the firmware screen. There is no visible branding information on this phone, and I have no idea which ROM versions are usable on it.

It has the following problems that I need to find a solution to:

1. the capacitive touch screen has almost no sensitivity on the right-most and bottom 1 centimeter margins of the screen, making the portrait keyboard useless (delete and space for instance don't work) and most buttons that appear at the far bottom of the screen can only be pressed by using the little marble/trackball device.

2. the locales/keyboards available on the device are all asian-english regions, and all the keyboards include asian keyboard options. There is no "English US" or "English UK" local/language option.

3. the docs speak of a screen calibration procedure, which is nowhere available in the settings menu at all. My guess is that they removed it from Android 2.1. Maybe I can get an app in the android store that will let me recalibrate the onscreen keyboard?

My guess is that it was purchased in one of the Chinatown shops and that is the reason for the singapore/taiwan english choices, and the asian locale of the firmware ROM on this thing.

My basic question is: I'm a geek, but new to the Android scene, what should I do? Should I ditch this phone and get something that works or should I play around? I wanted to get this phone and load a stock Android distribution on it, assuming I could find one that worked with this phone. Eventually I want to write apps for android, and I thought this would be a good handset to get. All the reviews for this were glowing. But like all embedded tiny systems, without a keyboard, when the going gets tough, the device gets useless. I am used to my Nokia phones and their hardware keyboards. I took a leap of faith grabbing a used htc hero, instead of the htc dream or dream2 that I originally thought I'd get, because I wanted to stay up with the android-2 times. Now I've got a device that I probably can't return, and might not be able to use.

Any tips or ideas would be most appreciated. If I could get the darn touch-screen to actually WORK, I would be so much better off. Why oh why is that calibration option GONE in Android2.1?

I am thinking I should take this down to the chinatown computer shops that sell asian cell phones unlocked, and see if the geeks down there can make this phone workable again, for another $30 or so.

Thanks dudes.

Warren
[Toronto,Canada]

Android2.1-update1
HTC Hero A6262
 
Hi Warren, and welcome aboard the crazy train! :D

What is the build number displayed in "About phone/Software information" in Settings? That'll give us an idea of which ROM has been loaded by the previous owner. From your description of the locale options it does sound like an imported Asian model.

Have you tried a factory reset (Settings/Privacy)? This is a bit of a cliche I know but sometimes it really can work. You're correct that the screen calibration option was removed in 2.1. Have you tried calibrating the onscreen keyboard (Settings/Language & keyboard/Touch Input/Text input/Calibration tool)?
 
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Yes I tried the "Settings/Language & keyboard/Touch Input/Text input/Calibration tool", or rather, I tried to find it, but it's missing from the menus!

The seller told me just now via email that it's an unlocked euro or asia model, mfg in in Malaysia, but never carrier locked, the update came OTA via HTC so he has never modded or custom-rommed or rooted the thing.

It looks to me like the menus under settings -> Language & Keyboard are MISSING the required calibration items. So the OTA upgrade seems to have messed things up.

Some messages on the HTC forums about "tell us if there are locale issues after upgrade" indicates to me that there may be issues (!) with OTA upgrades on these direct-purchased-from-HTC handsets.

Anyone got any ideas? Is there a back-door way into this thing to make it rebuild its menu structures so that I get missing menu items back? Or did they bork me and I have no choice but to go to HTC and beg them to let me recalibrate my phone? Argh! :)

BUILD is 3.34.707.1 CL194466 release-keys,
fw name "2.1-update1"

W
 
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Googling your build number shows that you're running a Singapore localised version of the firmware.

Honestly? It does sound like the phone may need repairing. The calibration tool you're looking for does not calibrate the touch screen, only the keyboard. (It tries to compensate for your misplaced keystrokes). There is no way to calibrate the screen that I know of.

Do you have any kind of warranty left with HTC? If so, I would get them to sort out the touch screen before you mess with the firmware.

Once you've done that, you will probably want to switch to a normal English firmware. Like the one that comes with Telus heros, for example. I think it's always a good idea to reset a phone like that if buying second hand anyway. I honestly don't know if this would fix the screen, it depends what is wrong, but hey it's worth a shot.
 
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1. the capacitive touch screen has almost no sensitivity on the right-most and bottom 1 centimeter margins of the screen, making the portrait keyboard useless (delete and space for instance don't work) and most buttons that appear at the far bottom of the screen can only be pressed by using the little marble/trackball device.

I had the exact same problem on my unbranded Hero, which developed a couple of weeks after purchase.

I tried all sorts of things but ended up returning the device for repairs. Since it was by then rooted and running a custom ROM, I was a little worried that the guarantee would be voided. A week of high anxiety went before it was returned with new screen and motherboard. Screen response is crisp and faultless, and the 1.5 - 2.1 upgrade really made it fly.
 
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