Root Ultimate Guide to Rooting and Overclocking your Bell Desire Z. NEWB Friendly!

[Blue1k]

Hi, I spent a bit of time figuring out what worked for the Bell Z and which methods would be the best and easiest to follow.

Below is a complete step-by-step guide I pieced together using info from XDA to hopefully make it very easy for you to root your Z and then overclock (keeping the stock kernel).

Enjoy!

Step 1: Rooting the Desire Z

*This is based on the work of qpop of XDA Developers and Modaco developers*


1. First, you will need the Visionary R14 APK rootscript.

Download it from here

2. Install HTC drivers by installing HTC sync for your PC. 

Download HTC Sync from here



3. Next, download ADB (if you don

 

[Blue1k]

Step 2. Overclocking your Desire Z using the Godspeed method
(safest way, keeps stock rom and mac address)


1. You will need a custom recovery to back up (image) your phone. I would not skip this step.
By creating a nandroid backup your are essentially creating a fallback in case anything screws up. Don’t skip this step. 



Go to Market on your phone and install Rom Manager (free version is fine).
Open the app and press Flash Clockwork Mod recovery. it will ask "Confirm phone model: HTC G2", tap yes (thanks for the tip stridger !!). 

When finished, it says "Successfully Flashed ClockworkMod Recovery!"

I recommend rebooting the phone after flashing the Recovery.
Now let's test it:

From ROM Manager, tap "Reboot into Recovery", it will ask "Are you sure you want to reboot into ClockworkMod Recovery?", tap OK.
Inside ClockworkMod Recovery, use the trackpad to navigate and select an item, or the volume buttons to scroll,
and power button to go back.

Select "Reboot system now" to exit ClockworkMod.

If ClockworkMod Recovery doesn't start and you see a red triangle with an exclamation mark, flash it again.
Sometimes it requires a second flash to work properly.



2. Go to here to download gtrab’s Godspeed update that will overclock your phone.


You can choose 3 speeds: 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 GHz

I chose 1GHz as I was only looking for a slight boost.
The higher the clock speed (with same voltage) the higher the temp and stress on the CPU. Your choice. All 3 work fine (on most Z’s). 



3. Rename the godspeed.zip to update.zip
Copy the zip file to the root of your SD. Don’t extract it.



4. On your phone go into SETTINGS-->APPLICATIONS. Uncheck Fast Boot



5. Now hold power button and select Power Off this time.



6. Next, hold down the volume down button and keep holding while you power on the phone.
You will boot into recovery. A green and black menu should come up (otherwise you may need to reflash clockwork recovery again).
Use the optical pad and scroll to backup and restore and click to select. Do a nandroid backup. It will take a few minutes.
You know have a back up of your phone in stock condition plus root.
In case you screw up anything you can always boot back into recovery and restore from backup to revert back to stock. 



7. Go back to main recovery menu after the back up is complete.
Choose apply update. Choose the update.zip that your transferred to your sd card on your phone. Reboot when done.

8. You will now have an overclocked phone running a stock ROM. 



9. Install SetCPU (optional)
This is an excellent app to control the clock speed of your CPU based on demand. It will scale down your cpu when not needed and allow you control of how fast you want it to run in different situations.
It is not free but it is not expensive either and worth every penny. 


 

[benbird7]

Thanks for posting Blue1k and I am sure many people will appreciate that guide, I have had nokias in the past and unlocked etc also updated firmwares etc.

For the amount of leg work required does it really make a huge difference rooting the phone? Also with the overclocking aspect, the processor to run at that higher clock will consume more energy thus the battery life will be even worse than normal?

In a nutshell, should I bother?

 

[Slug]

For the amount of leg work required does it really make a huge difference rooting the phone?

That depends on what you do with it. I can't live without Titanium Backup, Root Explorer (and a few more) so my handsets have to be rooted. Also, if you want to experiment with mods like third-party ROMs, new kernels or theming root is pretty much essential. For everyday run-of-the-mill use though, root access is overkill.

Also with the overclocking aspect, the processor to run at that higher clock will consume more energy thus the battery life will be even worse than normal?

Not necessarily. Most of the overclockable kernels have sophisticated governor settings which ensure that the CPU only 'steps up' when required.

 

[tase25]

I was able to root the phone, installed Rom Manager, and was able to get to here "Successfully Flashed ClockworkMod Recovery!" and restarted the phone.

But once I try and reboot into recovery, I get the battery image with a red exclamation mark which prevents me from going into recovery.

Any solutions or ideas what's wrong?

 

[Slug]

As noted below, try flashing the recovery again. I've seen quite a few reports from users of it requiring a second (or even third) attempt before it "sticks".

 

[Blue1k]

I was able to root the phone, installed Rom Manager, and was able to get to here "Successfully Flashed ClockworkMod Recovery!" and restarted the phone.

But once I try and reboot into recovery, I get the battery image with a red exclamation mark which prevents me from going into recovery.

Any solutions or ideas what's wrong?

Yup! Same thing happened to me. Go back into Rom Manager and flash recovery again. Took a few times and it finally worked!

 

[tase25]

Which Recovery versions did you guys use?

I tried 2.5.1.4 and 2.5.1.3 and none worked. Trying again for the 5th time.

 

[Blue1k]

Are you sure you have permanent root gained and s-off? Something might have not happened correctly during rooting.

FINAL NOTE
To check this has all worked!

*Root: Obviously, after reboot open a terminal emulator on your phone and type "su". If you get a superuser prompt, you have root! If you get "permission denied" you've done something wrong!
*Radio S-OFF: From your ADB prompt type "adb reboot bootloader"
Your phone will reboot into HBOOT. The top line should say "*** *** S-OFF"
Success!

To check cid status: HTC Vision - XDA-Developers

 

[tase25]

I definitely have permanent root.

I went in to HBOOT, and noticed at the top that it says "S-ON". Is that what I need to fix? What does that even mean?

Sorry, newbie here.

 

[Blue1k]

I definitely have permanent root.

I went in to HBOOT, and noticed at the top that it says "S-ON". Is that what I need to fix? What does that even mean?

Sorry, newbie here.

Ah that explains it. It means you still have the security restriction on. S-OFF allows the signature check to be bypassed, allowing a user to upload custom firmware images, unsigned boot, recovery, splash and HBOOT images.

Ok go back to step 11. Make sure that when you type SU in shell (adb command window) you get # instead of $. If you don't then you don't have root and we can go from there. If you do get the # symbol then do step 11 again. Make sure you also have the gfree file in the same folder as the visionary apk file.

 

[Alonzzo2]

Does this guide (first 2 posts) still works after i installed the latest htc update? (the one that was released a couple of days ago and upgraded my android version to 2.2.1)

Thanks

 

[Alonzzo2]

Does this guide (first 2 posts) still works after i installed the latest htc update? (the one that was released a couple of days ago and upgraded my android version to 2.2.1)

Thanks

I guess i found the answer : NO...
[WARNING] Do not flash a new official RUU/ROM/OTA if you have root and/or S-OFF - xda-developers

 

[GQBalla]

I installed ROM Manager and flashed to 2.5.1.3
rebooted the phone and than opened ROM Manager again.
hit Boot into Recovery, and i get a black phone with a red exclaimation mark.
i have tried to flash the phone again with Clockwork Mod Recovery (or at least i think i have) by uninstalling ROM Manager and reinstalling, hitting FlashClockwork Mod Recovery and by installing the older FlashClockwork Mod versions (2.5.1.3 and 2.5.1.1) 2.5.1.4 and 2.5.1.0 do not work it states an error occured while flashing.

i have permanently rooted my HTC Desire Z checked with Terminal Emulator by typing su.

the verision on my phone is 2.2 not 2.2.1 like said in previous post.

I have tried to reflash and reinstall more than 20 times now and still unable to get into recovery mode, but im wondering because i have a phone with a exclamation mark.

any help?

 

[GQBalla]

now i dunno if my phone is rooted or not, i have the super user icont and visionary app

i noticed on step 11 after i type in su, it does not show # on my computer
but when i use a terminal emulator on my phone it shows the # when i type in su....

i have no idea now what to do.

help needed please

**********
edit never mind, i figured it out!

i just redid all the steps and finally it worked!

 

[poniz]

hey i had a htc dream before this and got a htc desire z 2 weeks ago decided to root it found this guide worked like a charm thank you cant have a android and not root

 

[ravijohn]

Dear All,

First of all im sorry if im posting this in the wrong area. I have read millions of pages on this forum and other and am really really confused. I have a Desire Z and it was running stock rom with the following details:
HBOOT - 0.76.2000 (PC1011000)
MICROP-0425
RADIO-26.03.02.26_M
eMMC-boot
OS 1.34.707.5

Since d rage method was not working for me initially due to ADB issues, i tried Visionary as an easy way out and now i seem to have semi-bricked my device as im always facing boot loop screen. I hadnt made any typos, everything was done as said. I have managed to get S-OFF and had enable USB Debugging before the perm root. However after this boot loop issue started, im unable to use ADB alongwith FASTBOOT as it doesnt list my device under attached devices on using ADB DEVICES command. Initially i also had a driver issue as it was detecting an android 1.0 device but i guess i solved that by using PDAnet drivers but still no success with ADB. I have never made any custom/ nandroid backups and im very confused as to what to do. I took my phone to HTC but since the 'z' is not yet launced here they said I would have to wait till the official launch (wtf).. is there any way to recover my device? i dont even mind using the old STOCK rom, i only wanted to root to enable 'trackpad wake' and 'overclocking'.. Please help me out folks

 

[venderson]

Hi
My machine have permroot , and get superuser and recovery is S-OFF
I can do R/W
but when I run Visionary R14 I didn't set "Run Visionary.sh after boot"

If I want to do your overclock procedure , Is this item necessary?

 

[cApitalist]

Blue1k, I registered just to tell you you're the f*cking man!

I attempted the guides on modaco, xda, and theunlocker with no success. In their defense, I'm sure my own ineptitude played a major role, but your method worked on the first try.

Thank you.

 

[bonexmbonex]

Hi, guys. I'm a newbie. I followed the tutorial here to root may Dezire Z. Could you write tutorial how to unroot Desire Z?

I just tried to root, install clockworkmod and tried cyanogenmod ROM. Right now, I just turned back may Desire Z to the Official ROM, but I cannot unroot my DZ and remove the clockworkmod.

 

[Slug]

I just turned back may Desire Z to the Official ROM, but I cannot unroot my DZ and remove the clockworkmod.

The easiest way to revert to a completely stock state is to install an official RUU (ROM Upgrade Utility) which will restore the stock recovery image.

 

[lh881211]

@Blue1k This guide is DEFINITELY the BEST!

got my HTC Desire Z and after a few weeks followed ur guide and done it!! THANKS SO MUCH!

@Slug because im a complete noob, so i will have a few questions to ask you, sorry for being troublesome!

so after doing all this, and overclocked my Desire Z, when an firmware update came alone, will it be alright for me just to update it? or should i not update any new firmware? and if they decide to upgrade Desire z to android 2.3 gingerbread, should i upgrade it, or will i have to re do this whole process all over again?


so in short, is it safe to update my Desire Z if new updates come out? will i have to re-root or re overclock once i've updated??

thanks!

 

[Slug]

will i have to re-root or re overclock once i've updated??

Yes, any update will revert your handset to unrooted. Also be aware that permanent root still hasn't been achieved for the most recent firmware afaik.

 

[Mockmo]

Hello im a newb and i just bought a htc desire z im coming from using an iphone 4, from what i understand rooting is just like jailbreaking? the phone i bought has been rooted with visionary, im not sure if i said that right like i said i am a newb. im new to this and ive read about overcloking, is visionary the best way to go?

Im not sure i made much sense above i am kinda lost, and help would be much appreciated.

This is what the seller told me

"Excuse me , not the NAM lock but the NAND Lock. When you install a ROM the NAND kicks in and reinstall the original HTC ROM. I disabled the NAND Lock on my Desire Z and several other HTC phones including the G2. The motorola locks are much more difficult to disable and reappears with an update. Once the NAND is diabled it's gone for good. Once it's unlocked you can use ROM manager to install Virtuous, CM6.1, CM7, VillainRomZ, or any other ROM. I am currently using Virtuous."

Can someone dumb this down for me? and is virtuous the best choice?

 

[Slug]

from what i understand rooting is just like jailbreaking?

Not really, as the reasons for doing each are different. "Jailbreaking" an iPhone is usually done to allow sideloading of apps i.e. outwith the App Store, but Android already allows this by simply checking an option in Settings/Applications/Development. "Rooting" is done primarily to allow installing custom ROMs, recompiled kernels or to modify the UI beyond what is provided by the standard OS as it gives almost unhindered access to the device's entire filesystem.

im new to this and ive read about overclocking, is visionary the best way to go?

It's a start.... see below.

This is what the seller told me

"Once the NAND is diabled it's gone for good. Once it's unlocked you can use ROM manager to install Virtuous, CM6.1, CM7, VillainRomZ, or any other ROM. I am currently using Virtuous."

Can someone dumb this down for me? and is virtuous the best choice?

To install third-party ROMs or kernels you need three things; root access (which you already have), radio S-OFF (a security flag in the radio ROM switched off) and the ClockworkMod recovery installed to do the installing. ROM Manager is available from the Market and the free version will allow you to install the recovery. I'm unclear as to whether the seller has S-OFFed but I suspect so. To check, switch off the handset then hold the VOLUME_DOWN button while powering on. You'll boot into the bootloader screen - don't do anything, just look at the top line. If you see "S-OFF" up there then you're golden. Pull the battery to exit and restart as normal. If you're not S-OFF then use gfree as explained in this post.

You can then install ROM Manager, back up your current ROM (very important!) and decide which ROM you want to try. Virtuous is a very stable Sense-based ROM with a mild 998MHz o/c as standard, with an optional kernel that will allow clocking up to 1.5GHz. I used it until recently but am currently running Cyanogen's 6.1.1-Vision ROM which is vanilla Android 2.2.1 as a comparison.

I hope this is of some help. If you have further questions don't hesitate to post up here - that's what AF is all about.