Well, I have installed and uninstalled and gone through a plethora of attempts to get it to recognize, but it doesn't.
Ok let's get some background information. If you are using Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) then that means you are running either Windows Vista or 7...XP still relies on a program called ActiveSync 4.5. So exactly what version of Windows are you running on your computer?
I'm wondering if maybe you can't get a USB connection because the checkbox is disabled in ActiveSync/WMDC. Open ActiveSync/WMDC and then go to connection settings and see if the checkbox is checked or not. If it's not checked then perhaps that is why the device is never recognized? Otherwise it might be a faulty USB port (either on the phone or the computer), or a faulty USB cable. Does the charge LED light up when you plug the phone into the USB port? It should do that at the very least.
Another way we can check for connectivity is to use the bootloader. Power down the phone, then press and hold the volume down button. While continuing to hold it, press the power button and it should boot to a screen that is red/white/blue/green. On the bottom it will say "Serial" but if you connect a USB cable to your computer then it should change to "USB" instead. If not, then you're not getting any USB connection!
While you're in there, do you see anything about CotullaSPL and SPL-2.08.HSPL?? We need to verify that you still have the "hard SPL" installed so that we can flash Android ROMs. The SPL is basically equivalent to BIOS on a PC. For more information about Hard SPL see another post I made here:
http://androidforums.com/htc-leo-hd2/370478-installing-android-windows-hd2.html
Pull the battery to power it down, then reinstall it so you can power back on.
Now, if we can come up with a way to accomplish this, I may be more inclined to not go through the trouble of having to redo 208 contacts (I am a cabby, and most are my customers).
Do you have all of these contacts saved away in your google account? For example, if you login to gmail and click the "Contacts" link does it show all of these people have their phone numbers saved? If so then that is excellent, if not -- DO NOT CONTINUE WITH MY INSTRUCTIONS BELOW YET UNTIL WE FIGURE OUT WHERE YOUR CONTACTS ARE! They might be stored on your SIM card? I don't know...let's get all the facts first. If they are already stored in your google account then let's forge ahead.
That was splendid. I fully understand what you are saying. You're an excellent teacher!
Glad to help and thanks. I taught some undergraduate courses for a few semesters while I was in grad school. I suppose some of that experience may have paid off a little.
Anyway, if you want to completely delete his account from the phone then let's just wipe the thing. There are a few things we can try. The first is to try a wipe through Android and see if that works. Note that I and others reference the Menu key, but on the HD2 that is mapped to the Windows key.
Option 1:
Unlock the phone and from the home screen hit Menu > Settings > SD & Phone Storage. Then tap on Factory Data Reset. It says it erases all data on the phone so in theory this should delete all of the data and bring it back to a "clean" install of Android. I have never tried this so I really don't know what it will do, but have always seen the option. Give it a shot! If that doesn't work or you have already done that then move on to the next option.
Option 2:
Let's just flash a new ROM to this bad boy and that will truly make it back to a clean install so you can link to your google account. Believe me this is much easier than it sounds. Assuming you have the hard SPL installed (see above for steps to check this), then I am also going to assume you have the correct radio version installed (most people recommend 2.15.50.14), as well as something called MAGLDR. You can check the radio version by looking at the "R" in the lower right corner of the screen when the phone is booting up.
To verify if you have MAGLDR installed simply power down the phone, then press and hold the power button. Continue to hold it down and it should boot into a black screen with a bunch of white text that says MAGLDR at the top. If so, we are ready to flash an Android ROM!!!!
Honestly I think you have to have all of the pre-reqs still present otherwise I don't think your current Android ROM would boot. Certainly someone ran through these pre-reqs in order to get Android on there in the first place.
It's up to you which ROM you flash but I really recommend the prj Clean Desire ROM which you can get here:
[12 JAN] prj Clean Desire v0.3.2 [Kernel: prj v0.4] - xda-developers
Note that the steps there assume you have 2.08 HSPL, an appropriate radio version, and MAGLDR. Assuming that is all correct just follow his instructions there (which I will tweak/paraphrase below and reorder a bit):
Download:
http://gm.mainframe.no/stuff/prj_build_v0.3.2.rar
Installation:
1. Download the above file then extract its contents using either WinRar or 7-zip (both freely available programs)
2. Start ROMInstaller.exe and follow instructions.
3. Boot your device into MAGLDR by holding down the power button and select in the menu "4. USB Flasher"
4. The program will take over from here, just let it do its thing and when your phone reboots it should load up the new Android ROM.
So if you can verify that USB connections can be established and that you have all of the pre-reqs (which I assume you do) then the install process is really that easy. Just download the rar file, extract it, and run it. Then load your phone into MAGLDR and hit the USB flasher option. It will take care of the rest and you're now an expert in flashing custom Android ROMs on your phone!
If it fails with some error about rspl.cpp and a USB issue then simply close the program, uncheck the USB connections in ActiveSync/WMDC, then launch the ROMInstaller.exe program again and it should flash it this time. The problem is that ActiveSync/WMDC is hijacking the USB connection and won't give it up until you manually tell it not to allow USB connections.
You're welcome to try some other ROM but the installation instructions will possibly differ...and could certainly be more complex.
So I know that is a lot to read but let me know what you find and if it's all ready to go, try to flash the thing and let me know how it goes!!