[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 !!