My Hard Reset experience - xv6800

[Nickles]

hiya friends!
figured i'd lay it out there for you
firstly, i am now a little more comfortable in taking the plunge to actually UPDATE my rom and radio..

today, for whatever reason, i was trying to access Youtube.. PIE would just sit there, trying to load the page.. forever. the phone finally became unresponsive to anything at all, so i had no choice but to soft reset.
forget it. it would try to boot, and then reset again.. safe mode prompt.. so i opted to boot in safe mode.. wouldn't even do that. just a endless cycle of rebooting itself.
struck with panic and horror. but i quickly felt somewhat comfortable that i had a full SPB backup from Monday night i could restore..
so i did it. and performed a hard reset.. got to the 'customization' screen that i read so much about.. i just let everything go.
within no time, i was back to stock. as if it was brand new.
first thing i did, was install the SPB backup program CAB from storage card.
then, i restored my backup..

PERFECT! not only did it restore every setting, but also every program, including serial numbers, registrations etc.... i was VERY surprised by this. i figured i would have to reinstall all my cabs one by one.. but the SPB backup actually restored my phone to the identical state it was in when i backed it up.. i was amazed. happy, but amazed..

i had no internet connection.
so I *228, dialed out, and selected option 1 for initial programming.. (during this process, i noticed it said 'SPL Unlocked' on the dial pad.).. within a couple minutes, it said 'Programming complete'... i now had full internet and data connectivity.

No voice calls though. i would try to make a call and the recording came back and said 'your phone could not be authenticated'..
i called Verizon tech support. the guy said he has just learned than on the xv6800's everytime you do a hard reset you need a new a-key..
so they generated a new a-key, and walked me through how to ##778, edit, and add the a-key.. soft reset, and voice calls are back.

i realize this is pretty trivial to most of you.. but this entire process made me feel REALLY good about my data and now a working knowledge of going through the 're-boot' stage .. i may actually attempt the new rom/radio upgrade !

So. lesson learned to everyone - BACK UP YOUR DATA.. SPB is a lifesaver. it restored the regsitry (including all my prior hacks and edits) and everything...

thanks for reading and listening to my story. i might see some of you on the upgrade board in the coming weeks !!

[buckyswider]

Hey, nice read Nickles. Definetly NOT trivial for me!! You may have convinced me to go get SPB backup...I almost was forced to hard reset myself last week, but finally on about the 8th soft reset it came back to life....SPB would have made me much less panicky that I was!!!

Keep in mind that if you do upgrade to a new ROM, you won't be able to use SPB to restore. I'm looking at using the tiermann's "oemizer" when I build my first ROM with the kitchen (the oemizer is actually built into the new kitchen). It will handle 90% of the cusomtization stuff, and persist through hard resets. And it can be built into any new ROMs you may cook. It will take some work to customize and get it to that point, but I think it's well worth the time investment. It will take a little work after a reset (it looks like slingplayer and google maps are better off installed and configured manually, among I'm sure many other things) but much better than starting from scratch.

Nice job!

[pdub73]

Originally Posted by Nickles

hiya friends!
figured i'd lay it out there for you
firstly, i am now a little more comfortable in taking the plunge to actually UPDATE my rom and radio..

today, for whatever reason, i was trying to access Youtube.. PIE would just sit there, trying to load the page.. forever. the phone finally became unresponsive to anything at all, so i had no choice but to soft reset.
forget it. it would try to boot, and then reset again.. safe mode prompt.. so i opted to boot in safe mode.. wouldn't even do that. just a endless cycle of rebooting itself.
struck with panic and horror. but i quickly felt somewhat comfortable that i had a full SPB backup from Monday night i could restore..
so i did it. and performed a hard reset.. got to the 'customization' screen that i read so much about.. i just let everything go.
within no time, i was back to stock. as if it was brand new.
first thing i did, was install the SPB backup program CAB from storage card.
then, i restored my backup..

PERFECT! not only did it restore every setting, but also every program, including serial numbers, registrations etc.... i was VERY surprised by this. i figured i would have to reinstall all my cabs one by one.. but the SPB backup actually restored my phone to the identical state it was in when i backed it up.. i was amazed. happy, but amazed..

i had no internet connection.
so I *228, dialed out, and selected option 1 for initial programming.. (during this process, i noticed it said 'SPL Unlocked' on the dial pad.).. within a couple minutes, it said 'Programming complete'... i now had full internet and data connectivity.

No voice calls though. i would try to make a call and the recording came back and said 'your phone could not be authenticated'..
i called Verizon tech support. the guy said he has just learned than on the xv6800's everytime you do a hard reset you need a new a-key..
so they generated a new a-key, and walked me through how to ##778, edit, and add the a-key.. soft reset, and voice calls are back.

i realize this is pretty trivial to most of you.. but this entire process made me feel REALLY good about my data and now a working knowledge of going through the 're-boot' stage .. i may actually attempt the new rom/radio upgrade !

So. lesson learned to everyone - BACK UP YOUR DATA.. SPB is a lifesaver. it restored the regsitry (including all my prior hacks and edits) and everything...

thanks for reading and listening to my story. i might see some of you on the upgrade board in the coming weeks !!

For some reason (knock on wood) I never had to do more then *228 opt 1 and then opt 2...and my voice and data were just fine...I used SPB back up and it works great...don't be afraid to flash ur phone...the people here are knowledgable and if you read all the instructions you can't mess up...Having GPS enabled google maps, has already save me time and gas on countless occaisions... I encourage you to try it.

[Half Decaf]

I haven't had a need to call Verizon for an a-key, here, and I have hard resetted quite a few times. Don't know why I have been this lucky.

[Nickles]

Originally Posted by Half Decaf

I haven't had a need to call Verizon for an a-key, here, and I have hard resetted quite a few times. Don't know why I have been this lucky.

the guy at tech support i was on the line with, said they have been taught to believe that doing the *228 programming bit, should automatically update the a-key as well.. but they have also learned by experience that for some reason it just isn't happening. so they are having to manually generate a new one for many xv6800 users.. i guess i don't much mind, since they are only a phone call away, and they were EXTREMELY friendly and willing to help.. with all the right answers. WORLD of difference from my miserable years of Sprint customer service.

i did notice after i put my new a-key in, soft reset, then went back to view it, the field was blank.. maybe they hide it by design.. or maybe because it disappears like that, it believes it doesnt exist when you do your reprogram.. could be a buggy bios or something ? who knows.