Root Unrooting a Desire completely to stock for warranty repair

[Beowulf1970]

Hi,

I'm at my wits end.

I've spent ages (most of last night and all of this morning !) looking through google and This forum, XDA developers etc etc etc and I'm no further forward

I have/had (not sure where I am at the moment.. will explain in a minute) a rooted Desire on FroYo. then my Desire started the overheating problem and randomly rebooting every 3 to 5 minutes. The only way I can keep it running long enough to do anything is to use an ice pack and chill the phone !

Anyway I tried to do a roll-back and lose root access etc and return my desire (UK Vodafone) to stock so I can send it in for a repair.

I initially used my nandroid backup to roll back to the previous version of my software, then I re did the official OTA to 2.2 and it SEEMED to work.. except I still seemed to have root access.. I certainly had the Superuser application in my applications list.

Apparently to delete superuser (or is it Superuser with capital S? I seem to have both?!) You need root (figures!) so.. ran unrevoked again, seemed to unroot again but :-

(a) try as I must i can't uninstall Superuser.apk. Tried using root manager, terminal and adb but I keep getting errors saying something about read write permissions?

(b) I have also read that I may need to restore the official Android recovery (have clockwork mod recovery at the moment) that needs to go too.

I just want to return my Desire back to store/factory.. but I can't seem to do this.

I'm feeling thick as cold mince at the moment.. Seems the process differs depending on different HBOOT versions/ device versions / root methods / day of week / alignment of the planets !!!

can anyone PLEASE help with an idiot (and boy do I mean IDIOT) proof guide to get rid of all traces of my naughtiness and back to a warranty friendly 2.2 Desire??

 

[SUroot]

Read this thread very carefully

http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/184678-gone-stock-back-2-2-vodafone.html

Hopefully you have an AMOLED version not SLCD

 

[anoniemouse]

If you have the slcd version teppic74 will more than likely be able to help with a solution.

 

[teppic74]

For SLCD it depends on the brand - if unbranded it's easy, if O2 it's possible, if Vodafone/Orange/t-mobile/3 it's not possible.

 

[Beowulf1970]

Thanks Guys.

I "think" I've got it now. Had a real pain trying to uninstall Superuser.APK !! Would un-root the phone, roll back , download the OTA to 2.2 and start up again and everything would look ok.. until I noticed the Super User Permissions Ninja App in my app list.. and of course, to delete it you needed root !! D'oh !

so Had to re-root, delete superuser.apk (and/or Superuser.APK.. seemed to have 2.. one with caps one not!) using ADB (an easy task once I realised it was infinitely easier if you logged in to recovery, then mounted the system/apps folder from there )

so I now at least SEEM to have a vanilla phone. not sure if all the settings are back to plain jane factory settings but I guess it's suck it and see.. least I can do is Send it off.. and if they send it back because its warranty is invalidated well I guess it's just an expensive lesson.

All my checks seem to suggest it's ok.. I guess it all depends on how deep and closely the Vodafone tech guys peer into the device

thanks for all your help!

Pete.

 

[SUroot]

what recovery have you got now?

 

[teppic74]

You cannot unroot a phone by removing files. It's still rooted. You need to use an RUU.

 

[CellGuy]

Seems to me that there was a law about rooting/unlocking/jail-breaking not voiding warranties. I am not sure if this law actually passed or not. I'm sure a quick google search will give you the answer.

 

[SUroot]

I know when I was on the blackberry forums, the US members all said de-branding was illegal. Not sure about the US, but its not illegal here.

And why it is illegal to change the software on your phone, especially one that runs an open source operating system is beyond me. Its like passing a law where if you own a jug, you can only put water in it and it is illegal to put milk in it.

 

[teppic74]

It's definitely not illegal to root or debrand your phone in the UK. Debranding is very unlikely to void your manufacturer's warranty but networks may try to refuse warranty repairs.

 

[SUroot]

Yes, as long as its a stock rom, HTC will accept it.

 

[anoniemouse]

It's only rooting that voids the warranty, debranding also seems ok with the networks as all you have done it returned the phone to stock

 

[CellGuy]

Okay, I did some research into this. I am still looking for the official documentation but from what I can tell, it appears that while jailbreaking/unlocking/debranding/rooting/etc may not be illegal in terms of copyright infringement and such but the manufacturer does not have to honor warranty for a device that has been modified in this way.

To clarify, here are the two main points:

1. You cannot be sued, fined or penalized either monetarily or by jail/prison sentence for jailbreaking/unlocking/debranding/rooting or the like of your personal hand held device. Nor can can the above mentioned penalties be applied for providing information or software to aid others in said actions.

2. While these activities are not illegal, manufacturers of said products are not required to honor warranties for devices altered in the above mentioned manner. To find out if your warranty will be voided, check the manufacturer's website or contact the manufacturer directly.

If I find the official documentation for this, I will gladly share the link.

 

[sookster54]

Couple months ago the US FCC said it's fine to jailbreak iPhones but it still stands as it voids warranty and carriers don't honor it, same goes for rooting/debranding. I'm sure it's the same in Canada since we tend to follow the US.

What I'm wondering is the clockworkmod recovery, would it get rid of that if you want to unroot?

 

[SUroot]

an RUU will replace the bootloader, recovery and rom. It will be as if it were brand new.

If its a generic RUU, HTC may know (using the serial number) if it was supposed to have been supplied by a carrier. I assume branded devices still come from the HTC factory - the carrier sending their rom to HTC to distribute?

However, if its an official RUU, I am not convinced they would turn it away for support.

 

[teppic74]

HTC can easily see if the phone was branded before as the CID says so (it's locked), they don't need to look at serial numbers.

 

[SUroot]

CID, Serial number - They're both unique identifiers My point was there will be a unique identifier that will tell them if it was branded or not

 

[teppic74]

What I mean is the CID tells anyone instantly not only if the phone was branded but which network it was branded to - no need to cross reference anything.