HTC Desire 610 - Tampered & Locked, Unbootable

[mlugg]

Hi folks,

I've been trying to fix a friend's HTC Desire 610, whose screen was fixed by a small support shop which appears to have somehow bricked his phone. When booting, it will hang on the HTC splash screen indefinitely, although can be booted into hboot/fastboot with volume down. There, I see the following screen:

*** TAMPERED ***
*** LOCKED ***
A3_UL PVT SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-3.18.0.0000
RADIO-1.101.111011.19.1223
OpenDSP-v28.2.2.00546.0331
OS-1.31.401.4
eMMC-boot 1024MB
Aug 10 2015,14:01:31.0

I can access Fastboot, but not ADB. I have tried unlocking the bootloader so as to attempt to reflash using htcdev.com - both with HTC Desire and All Other Supported Devices - but for both, the phone has displayed its warning, and when I press yes (vol-up then power) it overlays some warning text, then reboots, still locked. Is there anything I can do here?
Thanks,
-Matthew

 

[Hadron]

You won't be able to access ADB unless you can boot it into Android. When it's in fastboot mode you can use fastboot (in fact there is no circumstance in which you can use both at the same time).

Tampered suggests that someone has modified the software at some point in its history.

The simplest thing to try would be to go into recovery (from hboot). From there you can wipe the cache partition and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't you could try a factory reset.

If you want to reflash using stock software (a ROM Upgrade Utility or RUU) then you do not want to unlock the bootloader: it actually has to be locked for that to work. What you need for that is to find an RUU that's compatible with the phone, i.e. compatible with the cidnum (which you can get using the command "fastboot getvar all") and no older than the currently-installed software.

One thing does strike me though: when talking about unlocking you say "both with HTC Desire and All Other Supported Devices", but you don't have a Desire there, you have a Desire 610. That makes a difference: these things will be specific to the particular model, so you need to follow procedures for the Desire 610 and not just the Desire (which was a 2010 handset and nothing to do with the 610 apart from having Desire in the name).

 

[mlugg]

You won't be able to access ADB unless you can boot it into Android. When it's in fastboot mode you can use fastboot (in fact there is no circumstance in which you can use both at the same time).

Tampered suggests that someone has modified the software at some point in its history.

The simplest thing to try would be to go into recovery (from hboot). From there you can wipe the cache partition and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't you could try a factory reset.

If you want to reflash using stock software (a ROM Upgrade Utility or RUU) then you do not want to unlock the bootloader: it actually has to be locked for that to work. What you need for that is to find an RUU that's compatible with the phone, i.e. compatible with the cidnum (which you can get using the command "fastboot getvar all") and no older than the currently-installed software.

One thing does strike me though: when talking about unlocking you say "both with HTC Desire and All Other Supported Devices", but you don't have a Desire there, you have a Desire 610. That makes a difference: these things will be specific to the particular model, so you need to follow procedures for the Desire 610 and not just the Desire (which was a 2010 handset and nothing to do with the 610 apart from having Desire in the name).

I was basing my use of the Desire option on several XDA posts I read, some of whom said that option worked for the 610.
I didn't mention that I can't actually access recovery; pressing it dumps me back into fastboot after rebooting the handset.
I'll try to find an appropriate RUU - I'll get back to you on that!
Thanks