Root Taking my phone in to Sprint. Unroot?

[SamXp]

Yeah, I know this has been asked before. Just wanted a poll result to see what my fellow AndroidForumers would do.

Here's the deal:
- Getting horrible signal at my house
- Called in Jan 2011 to complain, they said they were upgrading towers
- Called in Apr 2011 to complain that it hadn't changed. They said they're behind on upgrades and reimbursed me for the first three months
- Called last week (6/25/11) to complain when I couldn't even send SMS or make a call, nevermind 3G (never mind 4G!!)
They said I need to bring my phone in to be checked. I tried to get out of it because I can go 1/2 mile from my house and get a GREAT signal. They tried to say it is my house and I said no, because it is the same in my driveway. I literally have to wrap up calls a few blocks away because they will get dropped. They asked if I live in a rural area - I do not. I'm within Winston-Salem, NC city limits.

So, I did a nandroid (loved how it was running on CM7.1) and flashed a stock de-odexed kernel.
Should I?
- Bring it in with the stock kernel?
- Unroot and do the OTA update?

Don't want to void my warranty since Sprint now has us on this 24 month upgrade schedule.

 

[Podivin]

If you're going to be taking it to them with the knowledge that they are going to be digging around in it trying to solve a problem, I'd say that your best (safest) option is to unroot it do the OTA. Otherwise they are just going to tell you that it's your fault for modifying your phone and send you on your way.

It might even be a good idea to move your nand backup(s) to your PC, so that they don't see them and come to the same 'your fault' conclusion.

 

[SamXp]

Yeah, I am sure they are going to try to find a way to absolve themselves of all responsibility so that's a good idea. I have an old SD card I might just use for when I bring it in.

 

[ocnbrze]

well the only thing about unrooting and accepting the ota is that you cant re-root your phone if you do. the latest ota is not rootable yet. the ota puts a new hboot(2.16) and an exploit has not been found yet for that hboot. you can unroot and take your chances, just tell them that you do not want gingerbread on your phone.

 

[Granite1]

Before you take it in, call Sprint customer service and tell them you're going to cancel your service. They will transfer you to another department, explain your predicament to the (i think) retention folks. Tell them exactly what you wrote above. You get great service just up the street, and the phone works flawlessly.
Ask for information about an Airave. This is a femtocell unit that works over your high speed internet to give you full service at the house. Signal radius is like WiFi. I have one and it works awesomely.
Do a search for Sprint Airave on here, read up. Good luck!

 

[SamXp]

Yeah, I'm familiar with AirRave. They offered it to me, but I don't have internet at home so that's not an option.

I guess I could unroot and flash a 2.2 PC36IMG and tell them I don't want the update, but they might claim it contains some "magic fix" that will improve reception (technically possible, with a radio update). I guess I should just unroot and take the OTA and see what happens. I'm sure an exploit isn't far away and then it'll just be that much sweeter when I go back to CM.

If I do this, and Sprint offers to reimburse me for lack of service for another three months, I'll sit tight with them and wait for things to get better. If they refuse to reimburse like they did in April, I'll tell them to transfer me to someone that will cancel my service and hopefully get a "retention specialist".

 

[andygu3]

Yeah, I'm familiar with AirRave. They offered it to me, but I don't have internet at home so that's not an option.

I guess I could unroot and flash a 2.2 PC36IMG and tell them I don't want the update, but they might claim it contains some "magic fix" that will improve reception (technically possible, with a radio update). I guess I should just unroot and take the OTA and see what happens. I'm sure an exploit isn't far away and then it'll just be that much sweeter when I go back to CM.

If I do this, and Sprint offers to reimburse me for lack of service for another three months, I'll sit tight with them and wait for things to get better. If they refuse to reimburse like they did in April, I'll tell them to transfer me to someone that will cancel my service and hopefully get a "retention specialist".

They're not going to force you to upgrade to 2.3.3.

With you being rooted right now, you have the power to upgrade your radios without having to do the OTA. Have you updated your radios to latest? Wimax, PRI......? The only thing that running the OTA would do, upgrading to Gingerbread and you have access to all of that now.

Unfortunately, you may be SOL, if updating all the radios doesn't solve the issues

 

[SamXp]

They're not going to force you to upgrade to 2.3.3.

With you being rooted right now, you have the power to upgrade your radios without having to do the OTA. Have you updated your radios to latest? Wimax, PRI......? The only thing that running the OTA would do, upgrading to Gingerbread and you have access to all of that now.

Unfortunately, you may be SOL, if updating all the radios doesn't solve the issues

The dimwit on the phone already asked me if I had performed the recent update so I fully expect that they will listen to my story, tell me I need to run the OTA update, and then send me on my way with the instruction to come back if it doesn't get better. Sprints continual stance is to simply push you off for however long they can manage.

That said, I'm going to flash the latest radio and see if that makes a difference, before I make the jump.

 

[andygu3]

The dimwit on the phone already asked me if I had performed the recent update so I fully expect that they will listen to my story, tell me I need to run the OTA update, and then send me on my way with the instruction to come back if it doesn't get better. Sprints continual stance is to simply push you off for however long they can manage.

That said, I'm going to flash the latest radio and see if that makes a difference, before I make the jump.

Sounds like a good plan, let us know if it improves

 

[Granite1]

Poop, the Airave solved my problems, well root solved my problems the Airave made things perfect at home.
On a brighter note I just read an article that stated an exploit for the EVO 3D has been found, and this very well may be the same exploit needed to crack the 2.3.3 EVO bootloader. So once root for the 3D is fully established it'll probably be good to go for us too. We'll see.
Good luck!

 

[SamXp]

I'm sure the EVO isn't too far behind if the 3VO has the exploit! I've flashed the radio so it'll be interesting to see if there's a change at home tonight.

 

[youdoofus]

Yeah, I know this has been asked before. Just wanted a poll result to see what my fellow AndroidForumers would do.

Here's the deal:
- Getting horrible signal at my house
- Called in Jan 2011 to complain, they said they were upgrading towers
- Called in Apr 2011 to complain that it hadn't changed. They said they're behind on upgrades and reimbursed me for the first three months
- Called last week (6/25/11) to complain when I couldn't even send SMS or make a call, nevermind 3G (never mind 4G!!)
They said I need to bring my phone in to be checked. I tried to get out of it because I can go 1/2 mile from my house and get a GREAT signal. They tried to say it is my house and I said no, because it is the same in my driveway. I literally have to wrap up calls a few blocks away because they will get dropped. They asked if I live in a rural area - I do not. I'm within Winston-Salem, NC city limits.

So, I did a nandroid (loved how it was running on CM7.1) and flashed a stock de-odexed kernel.
Should I?
- Bring it in with the stock kernel?
- Unroot and do the OTA update?

Don't want to void my warranty since Sprint now has us on this 24 month upgrade schedule.

If you upgrade your plan to an $89.99 plan or higher and have that plan active for 3 mos you can upgrade every 12 mos, I just read that on sprint.com the other day. Just fyi

 

[youdoofus]

Before you take it in, call Sprint customer service and tell them you're going to cancel your service. They will transfer you to another department, explain your predicament to the (i think) retention folks. Tell them exactly what you wrote above. You get great service just up the street, and the phone works flawlessly.
Ask for information about an Airave. This is a femtocell unit that works over your high speed internet to give you full service at the house. Signal radius is like WiFi. I have one and it works awesomely.
Do a search for Sprint Airave on here, read up. Good luck!

I just got my airave today looking forward to trying it out

 

[SamXp]

If you upgrade your plan to an $89.99 plan or higher and have that plan active for 3 mos you can upgrade every 12 mos, I just read that on sprint.com the other day. Just fyi

Interesting, hadn't thought of that. But if I'm going to spend nearly a hundred dollars for service I won't use, I'd rather just pay the Early Termination Fee and move on.

 

[youdoofus]

Interesting, hadn't thought of that. But if I'm going to spend nearly a hundred dollars for service I won't use, I'd rather just pay the Early Termination Fee and move on.

??? How much is your plan now? I think mine is $69.99 before tax, and that different calculates to $60 over the 3 month period. But yeah, if you're looking to leave sprint then the point is moot I guess. Perhaps someone else might benefit from that lil tidbit tho