• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root DHD downgrading before rooting problem

D-U-R-X

turbo drinker
Apr 20, 2011
16,875
7,194
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
[FONT=&quot]Hi all... sorry if this is "yet another" post on this subject - I have looked on the net to see if I can find an answer to this, but not been able to :thinking:

Also - sorry that this is going to be a bit of an essay... just want to make sure that I explain EVERYTHING as clearly as possible, as I'm new to rooting.

I've had my (Orange branded) DHD for a little over a month now, have been looking in to rooting and all the positives thereof. Finally, having looked at about 20 different sites and explanations, I took the plunge.

As my phone is Orange branded, I know I have had to create a goldcard before I could downgrade to the earlier version (1.32) and then go on to root using visionary. I only realised that I had to create a goldcard once I had tried (unsuccessfully) to downgrade to 1.32.

The first time I tried, my DHD went through all processes and then told me it couldn't downgrade - I then looked and found that it is not possible without a goldcard when your phone is branded.

(should probably have stopped, noted exactly what the phone said and come on here at this point, but I thought I'd try to sort everything myself)

I got an SD card, created a gold card (without problems) and followed the guide to downgrade (How to- Root HTC DESIRE HD
 
Did it come out with the same result?

Specifically this bit

"Carefully type in the following commands one by one
  • adb push psneuter /data/local/tmp
  • adb push misc_version /data/local/tmp
  • adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/psneuter
  • adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/misc_version
  • adb shell /data/local/tmp/psneuter
  • adb shell
If you got “#” in the result, you have temproot! Proceed:"
 
Upvote 0
Did it come out with the same result?

Specifically this bit

"Carefully type in the following commands one by one
  • adb push psneuter /data/local/tmp
  • adb push misc_version /data/local/tmp
  • adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/psneuter
  • adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/misc_version
  • adb shell /data/local/tmp/psneuter
  • adb shell
If you got “#” in the result, you have temproot! Proceed:"


When I followed the online instructions, it said all of the above... I then got on to the next part (which was another 2 lines to input in command promt)... then, upon restarting the phone (whilst holding the volume down button, I got the bootloader screen as detailed in my first post.

The first time I did this (before creating the goldcard), it didn't go to the screen I have described, but went straight in to asking me if I want to start the download. Should I go for the SIMLOCK option? Is this asking me/giving me the option to un-simlock the phone?
 
Upvote 0
OK. Is the ROM img on your SD card? It sounds to me as though you have done everything right, but forgotten to put PD98.IMG onto your sd card (hence it not automatically beginning)

I would leave all the options alone in that screen because it will automatically begin the 'upgrade' or show you a menu asking if you want to 'upgrade' (I forget which) if everything is done correctly.

I don't personally know what the simlock option does as I have never gone into it, but I do know that you can remove the simlock another way once rooted (at least... it happened with me)
 
Upvote 0
Yeah - put the zip file on my phone and rbooted, but then got the message I mentioned in the first post.

I tried rebooting a couple of times, went back in to the phone and then unmounted the SD card, reformatted it and created the goldcard again. Went through all the steps again and still got the same result.

Think I'm gonna try again when I get in from work... format the SD card, delete the files off my computer and re-download them and do it all from scratch to see if that sorts it out!

Will post an update once I've done that!
 
Upvote 0
Yea... the PD98.IMG needs to go onto your goldcard once all the cmd lines are completed. Then when you reboot into recovery (holding Vol. down + Power) it should either bring up a yes or no option about starting the upgrade (it'll assume it's an upgrade because in the cmd work you told the phone it is running a lower version of android than 1.32.405.6 which is what that file contains) or automatically start the upgrade
 
Upvote 0
FFS!!! :mad:

I decided to erase everything off the 2gb SD card I got to use as a goldcard, reformat it and go through the whole process again.


  1. Created goldcard (no probs)
  2. Went through the process using command promt - as per here How To Downgrade HTC Desire HD To Root It After OTA Update - (no probs - got the "#" symbol for temp root as per what they say in the addictivetips guide)
  3. Copied the PDG98IMG.zip to the root of my SD card as per the instructions on the above site (no probs)
  4. Rebooted my phone as per the guide but, when the phone is supposed to just kick off in to the downgrade, I got exactly the same thing as in my fist post...
PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! I think I'm going mental!

As far as I can work out, I've done everything as I should... the only thing that I guess I could have done wrong is when I created the goldcard. I followed the guide here How To: Create a Goldcard | TheUnlockr - the only part of this guide that I didn't follow was how to get the goldcard image's number... I used the app "goldcard helper" (https://market.android.com/search?q=goldcard+helper&so=1&c=apps).

I guess the only thing I can do is follow theunlockr's way to get the goldcard number (which should be EXACTLY the same as the number I got using the app).

Like I say... any help is much appreciated!
 
Upvote 0
I'd like to bump this thread as I am having the exact same problem as D-U-R-X!

Could the fact that I'm using a 512MB card be an issue?

Also, once you've gone through everything, failed to downgrade, and the phone has rebooted back to your original menus, do you need to go through all the command prompt stuff again?!

Thanks for any help
 
Upvote 0
Hi - I am also trying to downgrade from 1.84.61.2 and I haven't succeeded yet. What I have found is that some of the PD*.ZIP files are CORRUPT. Can you open the ZIP file on your PC by double clicking on it? If not, try a different download site. I had a similar problem at first.

For the rest of you, my question is this:

I bult the gold card, did all the psneuter stuff, got the # root prompt, rebooted into bootloader, phone found the PDblah.ZIP update, loaded it, verified it - then - nothing. phone stays at same version if I look in settings, Visionary+ is version r14 (is that the problem?) and it hangs when I select "temproot" - black screen. Any ideas anyone? I am going to look for r15 of visionary!
 
Upvote 0
Only got back on here today n seen loads of messagesx on this thread! :D

What I don't get about all of this is that when I tried to do the downgrade in the first place (without a goldcard), it DID automatically find the file and, at least, start the downgrade process. It waqsn't until right before the end that it said something about invalid CID or something. When I have tried using the goldcard, it doesn't start the download.

I'm just charging my DHD at the moment and will be trying EVERYTHING again to see if I can get it all sorted. Even gonna use the computer, rather than the phone, to format the SD card.

Will let you know how I get on! :)
 
Upvote 0
Yea I don't understand that bit either seeing as the Goldcard is there solely to assign the false CID and allow the final part of the flash.

I was assuming you had used the pc to do it each time... don't forget it needs to be FAT 32 and you shouldn't quick format either

Yeah - I had formatted the card using the phone, assuming it owuld do it all correctly... like I said, will give it a go in a bit and advise how I get on!
 
Upvote 0
DURX,
I'm also in exactly the same position like your's (my DHD is running 1.84.707.2). BTW I think if you format the SD in your DHD the result will be a FAT format (not FAT32 as it should be). The result of FAT format is the system will not found the "PD98IMG.zip".
My problem is I'm stuck with the "CID incorrect!" and I'm pretty sure my "Gold Card" is created correctly.
So hopefully there's someone here who can help us both? :-(

TIA guys ...
 
Upvote 0
DURX,
I'm also in exactly the same position like your's (my DHD is running 1.84.707.2). BTW I think if you format the SD in your DHD the result will be a FAT format (not FAT32 as it should be). The result of FAT format is the system will not found the "PD98IMG.zip".
My problem is I'm stuck with the "CID incorrect!" and I'm pretty sure my "Gold Card" is created correctly.
So hopefully there's someone here who can help us both? :-(

TIA guys ...

Never got to do anything yesterday, after all, as I ended up havin to go out... if the DSD does indeed format in FAT, then this could have been the problem... I have formatted the SD card again, using the computer instead, and ensured that it is FAT32... and will have another go... this sounds like what could have been my problem (as the bootloader wasn't finding the file on the goldcard)... hopefully this could be the end of my issues... :cool:
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones