HTC Desire series

[HTCfoot]

Damn thing left me stranded in the middle of Scotland. Never trusting Vodaphone on an update again. I rang up yesterday and their customer services claimed complete ignorance of this problem even though it's been known about for over a week. Wish they'd just admit they've ######ed up and get it fixed.

And i'm tempted to root it as well, be a damn site quicker than 8 working days back to Vodaphone.

Definitely not giving them a 10 on the next customer survey.

[lazza251]

Yep, me too.  No GPS after update.......

[BrutalUK]

If you do decide to root this will invalidate the warranty. There are ways of returning the phone back to a Vodafone ROM but even I'm not sure about this as such. Rooting is easy if you fully read up about before you go ahead and do it. Or you could wait till later on this year because hopefully HTC will unlock the bootloader making changing to other ROMS much more easier. Warning though.....get the rooting process wrong you can brick your phone!

[scouser_steve]

@BrutalUK - you cannot root with this version (2.50.x.x) - only up to version 2.37.x.x can root be acheived - trust me, I spent two days looking at this. I tried a supposed Vodafone Rom Update Utility (RUU) but this failed as I think it was HTC stock image not Vodafone branded image.

@Tom Vodafone - any chance of sending us a link for the correct Vodafone RUU to drop the software back to a previous version without having to send off for repair??

[KurvZ]

This no GPS issue has really messed up my Weekend , Had to buy a Cheap Sat Nav just to get me here and there , been filling in for my brother driving a min bus here there and everywhere that I dont know ..

Im amazed at the bad level of support thus far from Vodafone, I cant see why the update was still available when this problem was already highlighted days before , well days before I got the OTA !!

Could have saved me money and lots of time ... Why could Vodafone just send a text to everyone telling us ? like all the crap text we get now and then !!

Im never updated after this gets sorted .. or I may just sell this Phone and get a Different one and done with it .. Im so p*ssed off ..

Thanks

[BrutalUK]

I think we'll be stuck with this fault for a while. Can't see Vodafone giving us a Vodafone branded RUU or HTC resolving this update with another update quickly. Plus if you did want to root you can't! Only tried and tested on 2.37 or lower.

[NeoBlade]

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BrutalUK wrote:
If you do decide to root this will invalidate the warranty. There are ways of returning the phone back to a Vodafone ROM but even I'm not sure about this as such. Rooting is easy if you fully read up about before you go ahead and do it. Or you could wait till later on this year because hopefully HTC will unlock the bootloader making changing to other ROMS much more easier. Warning though.....get the rooting process wrong you can brick your phone!

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I would like to explicitly stress this; Rooting will indeed void your warrenty, but rooting alone *will not brick your phone*. The only "risky" process that would lead to a "brick" (a term used where the phone is rendered dead) is when you flash the SPL. The SPL controls the partition size of the internal storage. This risk can be negated by simply flashing the Engineering Bootloader (HBOOT). This will then grant you full unlocked access, so if you can still access the Fastboot, then you can recovery your phone. 

Please do not confuse "obtaining root" with the possibility of "bricking". The term "root" itself is akin to a Linux or Windows PC user from moving to a Guest account to an Admin account. That is all.

Going back, the HTC Desire HD does not have a locked bootloader so once you have rooted you can flash the Engineering Bootloader to fully unlock it. This s different to a locked bootloader on the HTC Sensation where it is fully write protected and only HTC can unlock it... Although #teamwin are working hard to do it early for us!

As for rooting the Gingerbread update, there are methods to do so but I obviously cannot explain it here! 

Either way as long as you understand that by applying a permanant root or running a custom rom will void your warranty then its ok. As Eddy mentioned, I don't believe there is a VF RUU out there, I know there are WWE versions however if your phone was unbranded to begin with.

EDIT: Touching the SPL or HBOOT can be risky. Do so only after understanding what you are doing and why. In many cases even touching these two components is not required.

[HTCfoot]

@Tom

Tried the XDA fix and it didn't work.

I see the options now being: Vodafone give me an RUU to fix this myself, or at least make it possible to do it while you wait in-store, or Vodafone supply me with a loan device while you fix mine. Seeing as this update quite obviously hasn't been tested this is the least Vodafone can do as this is not my fault and i will not be held responsible for it like your customer services said i was.

Failure to do one or other of these options will result in Vodafone getting my phone back and my contract being cancelled.

Vodafone's update broke it, Vodafone can fix it.

And i'm not just blowing off steam. This ###### up has cost me time and money.

[padster8543]

Hi Tom, Any news from HTC yet? Some of us will wait patiently while others prefer to have a rant. Regards Padster.

[KurvZ]

I have just been on a HTC Live chat and my problem is being dealt with , and info ill post here fingers Crossed

[Tom]

Hi Padster,

Nothing yet sorry, I'll update you all as soon as there's any information to provide.

scouser_steve, unfortunately it's not possible for me to provide an older version of firmware to roll back to- you have to do it via the repair process.

Tom

[HTCfoot]

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padster8543 wrote:
Hi Tom, Any news from HTC yet? Some of us will wait patiently while others prefer to have a rant. Regards Padster.

And if you'd bothered to read the post to the end you'd see i specifically pointed out i'm not just blowing off steam. I'm furious at Vodafone for this.

I'd spent over an hour on the phone to both HTC and Vodafone who claimed no knowledge of this problem whatsoever even though i was sat here looking at Tom's earlier response saying it was known about and being looked into. Vodafone then proceeded to have the audacity to tell me it was quite likely my WiFi connection had caused the problem in that the software might not have downloaded properly and that it wasn't an uncommon problem.

Use a decent checksum algorithm in the software then and you might not get the problem.

It's a known problem but Vodafone won't accept it's their fault - that's what galls me the most. Don't keep making out you know nothing about it, just hold your hands up and get it fixed.

@Tom - precisely how long does this repair process take may i ask? HTC quoted me 2-4 weeks even if i took the phone to their repair house in Huntingdon. Given that it's Vodafones fault, what express service have they laid on to cope with it?

[Tom]

Our repair process normally takes a few days- not a month. Info here: http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/About-the-Community-and-Latest/Frequently-asked-questions-General/m-p...

[drey_p]

Just been on to HTC about this on their Live Chat and they claim to have no knowledge of this problem and that no one else has reported it. It sounds like they have no clue about what is happening....

[HTCfoot]

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Tom wrote:
Our repair process normally takes a few days- not a month. Info here: http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/About-the-Community-and-Latest/Frequently-asked-questions-General/m-p...

So based on taking one day to send it and another to send it back, the repair process must then also take one day to enable the whole process to "take a few days". So if you'd like to give me the address of the U.K. repair office, i'll save you the cost of carriage both ways and take it myself. If it only takes one day to fix it then i'll make sure it's there at 9am and wait.

Or will we suddenly not want "a few days" to be taken lterally?

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And as for HTC denying all knowledge - why am i not surprised? So considering i've reported it, you've reported it, we've got Tom's assurance that Vodafone have reported it, why are HTC still denying all knowedge of it?

And then you wonder why customers rant?

[scouser_steve]

Just a quick update for everyone - I have decided to drop my phone off instore for repair and have received a loan phone - a Samsung H1. I spoke to the support guys there and they too looked blankly when I mentioned the fault. This kinda makes sense as if you look at this forum, there's only 4 or 5 of us actively reporting the issue, so maybe some phones are OK?
In store repair team says 7 working days, but at least I have a loan phone for now. They, like Tom said the software could not be rolled back and that they cannot do this in store - will let you know how I get on with the repair process asap...

[Tom]

Thanks for updating us scouser_steve!

On the topic of few people being aware and only five reporting this on the forum, we stopped the update really early, so there are probably only tens of customers who this affects.

I know it's really frustrating that maybe HTC's service staff and our store haven't heard about the issue, but we've focused on raising this to the people who can get it fixed, who are a totally different set of people to those mentioned.

Fingers crossed this will be sorted really soon. Does anyone happen to know if an external GPS unit gets round the problem? If so, I have an old one I'll happily give away to a new home if anyone is interested

Thanks,

Tom

[KurvZ]

I will wait a little longer see what HTC say if they get back to me , if not ill take it in to the Vodafone shop .. My friend also has the same problem o, and he didn't know about it as he doesn't use his GPS much so there could well be a good few users who are unaware of this issue ..

Thanks for the Updates all

[BrutalUK]

According to posts made on XDA forums it's not only Vodafone but other networks from other countries effected too. Pretty slack of HTC really. How don't they know there's a problem? Surely you'd think their boffins would've noticed this before releasing it!

[drey_p]

@BrutalUK - you are right, it doesn't seem to be specific to Vodafone but a more general problem with the 2.50.xx.x software.  As you said it is on XDA and also on other forums.  There doesn't seem to be an easy fix short of sending the phone in.  But HTC still deny it is a problem!