Can't factory reset this thing

[asmwaaa]

I found my old phone earlier today while I was re-organizing some things, and decided to turn it on for laughs. After discovering it still powered on, I wanted to see if I could unlock it and get it fully working. However, I can't even get to the point of unlocking the device (see pic one). After some research, I said screw it, and tried doing a hard reset, but I can't even get into recovery mode, and I don't have an option to factory reset this thing. And of course, when I tried to use the HTC RUU for this thing, that ends up not working either. Has anyone else ever ran into anything like this before?

For reference, as you can see in picture 2, I haven't modified the rom, rooted the device, or anything of that nature.

 

[Dannydet]

Go to settings, system, advanced settings, reset options....
Choose factory reset

 

[ocnbrze]

Go to settings, system, advanced settings, reset options....
Choose factory reset

see the first pic....so the op can't get into settings.

@asmwaaa what happens when you run the ruu? error? nothing? which ruu did you try?

 

[Brian706]

One thing with the RUU is that you cannot downgrade with it, with the phone in an s-on state (as your bootloader shows). So you need to find one that's equal or higher than the version you are currently running.

 

[Hadron]

The funny thing is that the third shot tells us that the phone *has* been modified. You only get that red text on the splash screen after modification, so at the very least the bootloader has been unlocked at some point, even if it's locked now. And whatever was done then might be relevant to the current problem.

Also why is it in safe mode in shot 1?

What actually happens when you try run the RUU? *How* does it fail?

More information will help people understand the problem.

 

[asmwaaa]

see the first pic....so the op can't get into settings.

@asmwaaa what happens when you run the ruu? error? nothing? which ruu did you try?

I get error 170, the USB connection error. I've tried to use a couple different cables, but the charging port on this phone is pretty busted. The only cable I can get to stay put is the charging cable for my JBL flip 4, but it doesn't exactly transfer data correctly. Maybe I'll buy another cable to see if that helps.

 

[asmwaaa]

The funny thing is that the third shot tells us that the phone *has* been modified. You only get that red text on the splash screen after modification, so at the very least the bootloader has been unlocked at some point, even if it's locked now. And whatever was done then might be relevant to the current problem.

Also why is it in safe mode in shot 1?

What actually happens when you try run the RUU? *How* does it fail?

More information will help people understand the problem.

In all fairness, the bootloader was unlocked at one point, however, the phone's never been rooted, flashed with custom roms, or anything of that nature. The phone is running on the stock HTC rom. Having unlocked the bootloader still wouldn't explain why it can't seemingly be factory reset.

I rebooted it into safe mode to see if there was anything 3rd party that could be causing the error. The result is the same on normal startup, so that told me what I needed.

It's worth mentioning that occasionally, it'll start to show a stock wallpaper, and it even showed my Homescreen with no wallpaper once, but the same error still occurred.

 

[Hadron]

If the recovery module is borked that would imply either some attempt to flash something or else a failure of part of the system storage.

So let's try one more way of running the RUU. There's a trick to get the img file out of the exe: it involves running the RUU on the computer up to some point and stopping. Been a long time since I looked at this, but hopefully that will give you a start in looking it up. Then you rename the img as PBsomething.img, put it on the SD card (not in a folder) - a card reader works fine if the data port is bad - and boot into the bootloader. The "something" part of the name depends on which HTC phone it is. When the bootloader starts it checks for an image file of the right name and flashes that if it is found.

The only problem here is that I don't remember whether this way of doing things relies on having a working recovery module. But if the USB port is bad it's your only remaining chance.

 

[Brian706]

To fill in a couple of details on what Hadron mentioned, I think for your device you will name the file: 0PM9IMG.zip

The simple version of how to extract the zip from the RUU is to:
Run the RUU
Then browse to the temp folder (start>run>%temp%)
Search for "rom"
Copy/paste rom.zip to your desktop or wherever
Rename to 0PM9IMG.zip
Place on the root of your ad card
Reboot to bootloader

You'll have to confirm the update by hitting a volume button. This is where you might have a problem. Your options are pretty limited when you can't use commands or use physical buttons on the phone.