So here's my deal... I tried gaining root access and followed all the steps perfectly, but for some odd reason it didn't work. I got as far as installing the radio update and still nothing changed. So what I decided to do was restart the process from the beginning. I put the dreaimg.nbh file on my sd card again and was ready to start all over, only this time at the rainbow screen it loaded all the way and I got the following screen:
00018003
DREAIMG.nbh - FAIL
BOOTLOADER - OK
RECOVERY - OK
BOOT -OK
SPLASH1 - OK
SYSTEMFail
USERDATA -
RADIO_V2-
Update Terminate
UPDATE FAIL
What happens is it gets all the way through the update process, hangs for awhile and then fails at system and locks up, the only way out is to pull the battery.
I've tried another SD card with a different copy of DREAIMG thinking it could be corrupted but no go, I tried it without the SD card as well as a blank SD but it always boots into the rainbow screen and there's no way past it that I can find.
Is my phone bricked?
Help please! Sorry if this has been answered before, I did a few searches and nothing came up.
I used the following video as a tutorial for everything I've been doing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOo2V9qCauc&feature=channel_page
Like I said, I got through the whole process fine the first time with no problem except for the part where it didn't work. It's the 2nd time through that got me here...
been there
I know what you are going through...I haven't prayed so much in a long time. Try pulling the battery and then when you start the phone, press and hold the power and home buttons while the phone starts up. Just remember to breath...If you get the rainbow screen then that means that android is still installed and it should be able to be recovered...
If that doesn't work then reformat your sd card and try to redownload the Dream Img File.
Thanks for the help wm1, it's tough to breathe when your baby isn't working
Unfortunately I've tried both reformatting the SD card and installing a fresh dreaimg.nbh as well as the home/power button trick, neither yielded any results. I've even tried a different SD card... Thinking I'll just take it into t-mo, not sure how I'll explain this though haha
You made two mistakes;
1) Following a VIDEO -- totally retarded. If the person giving the instructions is so stupid that they give a video instead of a set of concise written instructions, then they definitely SHOULD NOT be giving instructions.
2) Failing to follow the instructions given. Some things you can't just abort in the middle of the procedure -- thats how you make a brick.
The device may still be recoverable, but because of your failure to follow procedure or to research the procedure before blindly following some retard's video, I doubt your ability to make it happen.
lbcoder said:
You made two mistakes;
1) Following a VIDEO -- totally retarded. If the person giving the instructions is so stupid that they give a video instead of a set of concise written instructions, then they definitely SHOULD NOT be giving instructions.
2) Failing to follow the instructions given. Some things you can't just abort in the middle of the procedure -- thats how you make a brick.
The device may still be recoverable, but because of your failure to follow procedure or to research the procedure before blindly following some retard's video, I doubt your ability to make it happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clearly you didn't even read anything I wrote, thanks for attempting to be a dickhead though, really helpful.
Have you tried running a checksum on DREAIMG.NBH after it has been copied to sdcard? A fail might indicate file corruption or damaged sdcard.
I bricked my phone yesterday. I didn't know what to do when it keep loading at the android screen so I removed the battery to start over. I made it worst. Thankfully I have a friend who told me to call t-mo. Call the customer service line explained that your phone was updating and it froze. They will replace your phone even if you don't have insurance on it.
ETA: I got the same error as you when I was trying to add a theme.
Inhalent said:
Clearly you didn't even read anything I wrote, thanks for attempting to be a dickhead though, really helpful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As much as you may be upset at lbcoder, I must say that I've never, ever bricked a phone. Considering that I run a small business on the side rooting g1's, I should have seen one if it's just random chance.
On the other hand, people write ****e directions in poor english, so you cant be faulted.
Can you reflash the spl using the fastboot binary?
Yes this video is ****ty, extremely ****ty. Instead of easy removing the flash disk with the icon near the clock, he is opening my computer, right click on drive and than select eject. I mean, if you don't know the better way to remove the flash drive why do you want to root your phone.
Just to say "hey my phone is rooted"
Or just select turn off USB storage from your G1 ( hate to call it phone ).
Related
This is the first phone that I have tried any kind of rooting or flashing or etc. I followed steps where given, but I think something has gone wrong in the process because a lot of the folders that used to be on the SD card are now gone. I need to start from square one, and I'm not exactly sure how to accomplish that. I know this is a very noob-ish question, but I would appreciate the help.
I have to have screwed the pooch pretty bad, I'm caught in a loop at the HTC splash screen and then it reboots. Any helps would be very much appreciated. I know I did something, I just don't know what.
you dont give enough info..i mean what steps did you follow? when did things go wrong? what step was it? what was the last thing you did?
pull the battery and then boot into recovery (hold volume down+hold power)
EVOKeith said:
This is the first phone that I have tried any kind of rooting or flashing or etc. I followed steps where given, but I think something has gone wrong in the process because a lot of the folders that used to be on the SD card are now gone. I need to start from square one, and I'm not exactly sure how to accomplish that. I know this is a very noob-ish question, but I would appreciate the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash the RUU from the "All roms" thread
Everything was fine after the root guide I followed (the idiot-proof one). When I attempted to do the Nand access portion something went wrong because I got an error that the SD card was blank or had an unsupported file system. The only choice I had was to format the SD card.
Now, when I attempt to install a downloaded .zip from recovery it acts like it is going to install but goes right back to the menu after a few seconds. IF I tell it to reboot then I get caught back in the splash screen rebooting over and over again.
do a full wipe and cache wipe, reboot and see if that helps before you go any further. you do that when you boot into recovery. that will likely fix it. If not post what it does then.
What happens:
When I boot into recovery the first bit is that it tried to load PC36IMG.zip, I get the following:
Main version is older!
Update Fail!
Do you want to reboot device?
<VOL UP> Yes
<VOL DOWN> No
I selected No and went into Recovery. I wiped all data and cache and rebooted. Once again the white HTC EVO 4G screen comes up for a few moments and then the phone powers off and restarts with the same screen over and over. I'm at a complete loss.
bumping for help
is that pc36img.zip the rom that you initially flashed that worked or is it a different one that was part of the 'nand access portion'? I figured that would be from an 'update.zip', but I barely know what I'm doing outside of the well detailed guides.
If it isn't the rom you flashed, try loading that rom back on there. I hope you have another device you can read/write micro-sd's from.
If it is the rom you flashed try flashing another rom.
...I'm a noob here too, but I'm on my second rooted/custom recovered phone so I'll help as I can.
Did you make a nandroid backup?
Whelp, it rolled over and died. Going to Sprint tomorrow. Thanks for trying to help guys.
EVOKeith said:
Whelp, it rolled over and died. Going to Sprint tomorrow. Thanks for trying to help guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lucky for you that none a single rep I've ever spoken to in any Sprint store has any idea about anything whatsoever. I returned a Samsung Moment that I never bothered to restore to stock...hey turned it on, it booted up with a "Hacksung, XDA developers" screen, proceeded to load up a (then hours old) 2.1 lock screen and said "Okay, it still works", didn't check to see if I had kept the memory card in or even re-packed the charger and gave me a refund for everything on the receipt, even things I didn't have in the bag.
...another time before that I was asking about the Android 2.1 update and when it was being rolled out to which the sales rep stood up, turned around and yelled "Bobbyyy....what's an android and when do we get one in?"
Though I'm sure there is a way to bring your phone back...perhaps check in on the thread where you got your rom and see if anyone else has had such issues, give all the details you can in the order in which they happened.
If you can still get to the hboot screen try the zip posted here using the instructions here
Is there any sure-fire way to get root access that also unlocks Nand, etc...at least a way that is 99% effective.
After being told that UnRevoked3 doesn't really give full root or unlock Nand, I was referred to SimpleRoot as the way to get all of the above. I was primarily only wanting to get Wifi tethering unlocked, which I did, but apparently something still isn't right.
I tried SimpleRoot OTA 1.47.651.1 last night, and it seemed to go fine up until Step 4. It got thru rebooting the phone (Waiting for phone...), and the phone got back to the main screen, but the SimpleRoot screen on my laptop just sat there at "Starting Step2..." or "Starting part 2"...whatever. It never indicated it had finished doing whatever it was doing, and nothing more happened. After an infinite while I just had to close the screen. The phone seems perfectly fine, thought what the "Reboot and Scan" step actually was to do I don't know.
I can set some things to Superuser...but if I try install BusyBox from the Market, it fails saying that the phone is not fully rooted and "Nand unlocked". I thought SimpleRoot was intended to do all that, so I presume SimpleRoot failed overall and I don't yet have full root.
Anyone care to offer ideas or suggest other methods to get true full root that do actually work.
Thanks,
-JTT
I had this same problem as well. What I did was use a different micro-sd I had laying around and formatted it 3 times so nothing was on it and ran Simpleroot again. It worked on the first shot.
I'm sure you can use the card that you have installed and dont need to get a new one. Just copy all the contents of the card onto your computer then right click the drive under computer and choose format. Format it to FAT32 and when its done unplug the phone and reboot it. Run SimpleRoot again and it "should" work.
If not then I would suggest getting a new 2gb microsd and formatting that as well then run SimpleRoot again.
Hope this helps...
I think others have done the unrevoked 3 then used simple root and had success, also reformatting the sd card is a good idea, make sure there is nothing else on it when you do simpleroot, seems to work for some people this way, not sure if it is a problem with a 2g card filling up during the process ....
2GB should be plenty of space to just run the update as SimpleRoot uploads the part 2 PC36img.zip which is 180MB. The other files it uploads are tiny.
Also I believe SimpleRoot is one of the only ways to unlock nand as of right now...the other has more steps involved and SimpleRoot pretty much does these for you.
read pade 104 of simple root...read what jigga says, that worked for me. I kept getting past step 3 soon as i would click step 4 it just hung there. read pg 104 that helped my issue out.
agreed 2g should be plenty but not if there are a bunch of other things taking up space, you might get a bad transfer of some of the data. Just an idea.
Thanks for the help, but could you point me to where you found information about SimpleRoot that has a "page 104"? I've looked at the official site and elsewhere (and searched for any related info by 'jigga') but can't find anything.
-JTT
Hey guys.
I've been attempting this all morning and so far I've had no luck. I have a VodafoneAU Legend which I updated to the official 2.2 yesterday. But now I want to try root.
I've been trying to follow the HBOOT 1.01 guide but there's a few problems. First, I cannot connect to the phone with adb unless it's in htc sync mode. No other mode will work. So when it's time to copy testimage.zip to the card I have to change from sync mode to disk mode, whereby adb loses it's connection. What do I do about this? Is it a driver problem (in Win7 here) or something else?
Thanks,
Dave.
Ok, the first problem were drivers.
Now I can't finish the second guide. When I try using clockwork to install the firmware.zip, the phone just boots to the red triangle. What do I have to do?
Dave.
So I pressed the up button/power combo at the red triangle and get the Android system recovery. Selecting "apply update.zip" says it can't verify. What do I do? Is this guide for my phone or do I need to follow something else?
I don't understand this guys. Anyone help? I'm thinking since this is a step to root the phone, I'm not actually rooted yet so I can't use the clockworkmod? Then what is the guide for? The guides at unlockr don't mention what firmware/hboot they work for so I'm not keen to try them yet.
Read the guide on fake flash. You need the recovery file named "update.zip" in the root of your sd to proceed..
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
whitetigerdk said:
Read the guide on fake flash. You need the recovery file named "update.zip" in the root of your sd to proceed..
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But isn't that what Rom Manager does? Download the update.zip then run it? Man this is getting even harder to understand.
Edit: And this is left out of the HBOOT 1.01 guide because.....????? When I work this out I'll write a PROPPER guide, lol.
Just checked and update.zip is on the card.
So which part of the guide am I getting wrong?
Decided to reinstall phone with the official froyo release and am now ready to try this again. Is there anyone that will walk me through the process? I will write a complete guide if the "gotchas" are still there.
i feel for you ... hope you get it fixed... thats one of the reason i havent dared messing with the phone because i've seen a few post like yours where something didnt go quite as described... for whatever reason... and im sure the answer is out there but just not within the guide instructions... i guess there is no way to gather all gotchas because there are so many environment variables...
good luck
and please share your technique
Just saw gobczak's thread in the developer forum having similar troubles with Vodafone UK phone, getting the red triangle at reboot. I'll keep an eye on his thread and see how he goes with it.
Did you run the stage1 and stage2 bats while in recovery?
dezzadk said:
Did you run the stage1 and stage2 bats while in recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No because the guide didn't say to.
The thing is it seems I'm only stuck on the part where the firmware.zip file has to be flashed. The guide says to use clockworkmod for this. But when I try installing the clockworkmod recovery it gives some file verification error. Isn't there ways to do this via the pc, either through those batch files, adb etc? Or will that fake-flash update.zip file work?
jabbado said:
No because the guide didn't say to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I just posted on the other forum, I think you need to skip that step in guide 2 and go straight onto guide 3 after you have flashed the LEGEIMG.zip, rebooted, and then removed LEGEIMG.zip from the SD card.
Guys I've got to the point of downgrading to 1.31. But when I run the first batch file it just hangs at the "Writing zip" part, with the htc logo on the screen. Is there any way to fix this?
Can someone please explain this part of the guide:
Phone will reboot and find LEGEIMG.zip on your sdcard, copy it into RAM and check it. If you get CID error at this point, then you don't have goldcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, so I don't get an error. I get nothing. The phone just boots to the fastboot screen. If I press the power button it goes to the hboot screen and I can see the messages of loading LEGEIMG.zip. But the guide doesn't say to press anything.
So should I or shouldn't I press the power button? Also, if I try making the goldcard again, at which point in the guide do I start from again? The entire process or just copying LEGEIMG.zip to card then rebooting phone? I mean, will all the other things like flashing misc1-2.img still be there?
Guys I finally got this working.
The first problem was with the goldcards. For whatever reason formatting them with the win7 format tool just wouldn't work. I had to use the command-line format tool, setting the block size etc manually.
The second problem was the unnecessary steps in the guide. A few people helped me out with this (namely blackbart at the Aus Whirlpool forum), but basically in the second step you can stop after flashing the LEGEIMG.zip. The updating froyo part isn't needed - for my phone anyway.
Then when running the batch files in the third part, for whatever reason the first batch would keep hanging at 'writing zip...' and I needed to remove the battery to unfreeze the phone. flannigan, also from the Aus Whirlpool forums suggested to just go on to the second batch file. This worked!
So my Legend is now finally a true Legend
Anyway, thanks for the help everyone - couldn't have done this by myself.
Dave
Great news, I think we need a new guide focused on rooting for HBOOT 1.01 / Stock Froyo to clear up the inconsistencies in the existing one. It's a minefield for a noob (or a rite of passage!), a revised guide will certainly save a lot of time and frustration for those taking this road in the future.
Sent from my HTC Legend using XDA App
EpicSauce said:
Great news, I think we need a new guide focused on rooting for HBOOT 1.01 to clear up the inconsistencies in the existing one. It's a minefield for a noob (or a rite of passage!), a revised guide will certainly save a lot of time and frustration for those taking this road in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll write one if ya's want. I wanted to include little tidbits like downloading the apps required (visionary, rom manager etc) from the market then backing them up to the card with Astro so if it goes all wrong and you have to start again, you can just install them all from the card Also on using adb to push the files (roms, img's etc) when the guides say "copy this blah blah". Much quicker than changing to disk mode and back. Sound good?
Sounds good! Happy to help and add my 20c worth along the way. The existing guide has got the meaty bits, a new guide would cull the stuff not relevant, help fill in the gaps and alert to the pitfalls we've fallen into.
jabbado said:
I'll write one if ya's want. I wanted to include little tidbits like downloading the apps required (visionary, rom manager etc) from the market then backing them up to the card with Astro so if it goes all wrong and you have to start again, you can just install them all from the card Also on using adb to push the files (roms, img's etc) when the guides say "copy this blah blah". Much quicker than changing to disk mode and back. Sound good?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree... i've done my reading since june of last year but then didnt check for another 4 months... and so many how to's pop up with various ways of doing it depeding on the situation... a lot of those howtos were consolidated howtos which sometimes make intermediate steps unenecessary (may be in some cases causes more head aches since it didnt take into considerations on newer version of hboots...etc)... an updated how to will be much appreciated...
And you're right the most important pre requirement is to have a safety net ... so starting with how to create a back up in case you screw it up is a must!
but im glad it worked out for you!
tl;dr: Interrupted update. cant do jack. tried acer tech support. failed
I grew bored with waiting the two minutes for my tablet to install the new update. so i stood up and hit the power button to put it to sleep like a boss. then i cam back later, the lock screen was unresponsive
i figured out be double tapping the pwr button i was able to unlock the tablet to see the powering down screen (see attachment). I can get to the setting menu, but evrytime i try to mess around in it, the window closes itself.
an interesting note is that the time is wrong, and the battery suddenly went from 100% to 15%
I called acer tech support, and with ther guidance...
pressed the reset button to no effect
powered on holding the pwr & vol- buttons down to get an error (see attachment). then the tablet turns off.
Ive dled some "update.zip" files i found online that are supposedly used to unbrick the tab... but i just got the same error picture(see attachment)
one other thing i tried was to hold the power and vol+ buttons. this cleared a chache, but had no other effect.
I am a noob at droid, but not to tech. i would like to avoid perma bricking, and im unsure about mailing this in. waiting is gay. I would like to restore it to factory settings w/o rooting it etc. as ive never done that before. but im not opposed to installing a CFW if it somes to that...
Im looking for ideas guys here guys. wtf is wrong with this thing?
Haha
Lmao "hit the power button to put it to sleep like a boss", funny ****.
Can't help you though sorry
ive been around he web, and have seen this exact series of symptoms happen to a handful of other guys... i haven figured out a solution yet, and it is looking more and more like ill be sending it in via warranty
my best guess at this point is i have corrupted a crucial system file. as to why i can do jack in the factorys recovery mode... idk. but then again, idk what the factorys recovery mode should look like or how it would function. youtube only shows CWR... which i dont have
if i believed i could anything reasonably withing my abilities, i would... but voiding the warranty on a long shot seems dumb.
still ANY ideas would be great
I too faced exactly the same problem today.. Dunno why this is happening... I am too worried now... Kindly post the solution as you find them...
Am sure calling tech-support is just waste of time..
Thanks in advance..
IM GOLDEN...
Ive reflashed to the original factory build. the problem was with the "update.zip" files i have been using. i guess they were corrupt.
multiupload<dot>com/WCT2FYLMQC
this is the file i used. I tried several from other guides, etc... a guy on another board told me to use this one. i put it on the root of my SD card, then held the power and vol- buttons until the loader had started. it took awhile, and it looked like it froze during the process...
DONT TOUCH IT
just let it do its thing, and it will reboot itself and run through the setup process like when it was new.
npena said:
IM GOLDEN...
Ive reflashed to the original factory build. the problem was with the "update.zip" files i have been using. i guess they were corrupt.
multiupload<dot>com/WCT2FYLMQC
this is the file i used. I tried several from other guides, etc... a guy on another board told me to use this one. i put it on the root of my SD card, then held the power and vol- buttons until the loader had started. it took awhile, and it looked like it froze during the process...
DONT TOUCH IT
just let it do its thing, and it will reboot itself and run through the setup process like when it was new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How to put this file on the root folder when am not able to switchon the Tablet itself... and how reliable is this file??
stuck on same screen also!
My friend and i who both purchased this Acer Iconia tab are both having the same problem. We both received a message on the tablets to do the update. We both got stuck and have gone thru tech line and there is no remedy. She was able to return hers within the 15 day period; I on the other hand am a week over that so have to mail it to Acer for repair. I'm thinking this is more than a cooincidence and there is a problem more spread... Acer would neither verify or confirm....
buntzmehta said:
How to put this file on the root folder when am not able to switchon the Tablet itself... and how reliable is this file??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He said the root of his SDCARD. You can take out the sdcard and put it in a sd cardreader on a computer and copy the file to it then put it back in the tablet. The file worked for him so it might be worth trying. Just have patience while it is loading as some of these updates take a while to load and sometimes you may not see anything happening but it is. The more patches and roms you load on Android the more you'll learn to just leave it alone and let the updates finish. Its pretty rare for updates to be messed up. Its usually people getting anxious and clicking on stuff.
Good luck
Sent from my A501 using Tapatalk
still stuck on shutdown screen any updates?
Anyone had any luck with a fix? If not --sending it to Acer for warranty repair after the hurricane hits..Sure hope this isn't a wide spreasd Acer issue do to the new download. Wish I could just return the thing all together. Worked well while I had it a whole 3 weeks...... Thanks in advance for any information.
npena said:
IM GOLDEN...
Ive reflashed to the original factory build. the problem was with the "update.zip" files i have been using. i guess they were corrupt.
multiupload<dot>com/WCT2FYLMQC
this is the file i used. I tried several from other guides, etc... a guy on another board told me to use this one. i put it on the root of my SD card, then held the power and vol- buttons until the loader had started. it took awhile, and it looked like it froze during the process...
DONT TOUCH IT
just let it do its thing, and it will reboot itself and run through the setup process like when it was new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot dear npena.. you are simply great.. i was very anxious initially to try your method as no other member here who face the same problem thanked or recommended your suggestion...
I tried it and it worked... I am really very thankful to you...
Cheers..
you are my hero indeed.. thank once again..
BuntZ
Friends, who face this problem you must try it... it just takes few mins b4 you can get your acer tab to work again beautifully without loosing any settings or installed apps... they remain intact...
Yay!
Glad you got it running again - had a similar problem when doing a ota update myself, was so worried I bricked the tab, went thru about 7 update.zip files until I found one that magically worked, letting me get back into the system and flash the correct rom for my region
hi! i have the same problem with my a500. I write a guide to solve this problem. Problem in firmware. here is the gude http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1572622
Evening all,
I have a DHD that is stuck in HBOOT/FASTBOOT, or at least that and the stock recovery program is all I can get to.
I tried an AAHK, and it basically tried to do a downgrade and has left the phone with no data, still at s-on, and I can't find an operator RUU(three uk) to flash it back to a useable state.
Is there a three RUU available?
I'm running around in circles as I can't make a gold card, due to not having another DHD available to retrieve the MMC2. All I need is a goldcard and then I can flash a WWE, but I cant find anywhere to make one without the phone or a similar one.
I dont think it turned the microsd properly into a gc, before it tried to downgrade. Is their anyway I can test to see if the memory card has been successfully goldcarded?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
James
This might help
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=29203392
Sent from a dream.
Teichopsia said:
This might help
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=29203392
Sent from a dream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine has a lot of those symptoms to be honest. If I vol down/power to get to Hboot, it sits there with no keys being able to be pressed, just highlighted blue FASTBOOT and not even checking for files on memory card
If I just turn it on, it sits at the three splash screen, which i assume is the equivalent of the HTC one for branded phones.
I have now turned it on and left it on as per those linked threads, in the hopes the sd is a proper gold card and it is just slow. Fingers crossed.
Thanks for the pointer
James
There are many threads for your problem, do a search, check what it might be. I believe in the second page of that link has another link, check it out. Find out what is wrong before trying anything. If you have any questions, let us know what are the symptoms, what you have done and so on.
Sent from a dream.
Teichopsia said:
There are many threads for your problem, do a search, check what it might be. I believe in the second page of that link has another link, check it out. Find out what is wrong before trying anything. If you have any questions, let us know what are the symptoms, what you have done and so on.
Sent from a dream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well what I did, was follow the AAHK instructions, cleaned up my environment etc, went through the install. When it asked to do the downgrade, I said yes, then it asked about wiping and was I sure, so I said yes. It then rebooted the phone and it is now as it is. I pulled the battery and tried vol-down/power, which brings up HBOOT, but it doesnt let me do anything, vol keys and power do not work and it doesnt start looking for image files.
From that thread, it was mentioned it just could be going very slow, and people have just left it overnight. This is what I have done now, and will see if it has accessed the files on the memory card and downgraded properly in the morning.
Thanks
James
Have you tried looking for the RUU here?
Last I remember when aahk downgrades, you will be asked to reboot to basic recovery twice
Panic over, thankfully! Not my phone, you see!
It was so easy to root my S2 and the X10 before that, and the iP3G before that(and custom winmo, and nokia etc etc), I said give it to me, i'll sort you out with some ICS rom action.
Then it all went wrong as explained in my previous posts.
2 days later, i finally found the H3G RUU I needed to get an system on it. Silly branded phones. Took 4 hours to download as it was on a throttled download service(my 100MB leased line usually eats 300MB in seconds, but not this time)
So long story short, into FASTBOOT USB, ran the RUU and it completed and put froyo on the phone, and as a happy coincidence it was at a level that didn't need a downgrade, so AAHK ran through like a trooper, busybox installed and hey presto, ENG S-OFF. IceColdSandwich installed through cwm and one happy mate, who then proceeded to ring his wife and tell her to rent a film, as he would be tinkering with the phone all night lol
It was getting to the point I was going to have to give him my S2, and as I've just taken possession of a Sony SmartWatch, I didn't want to do that!!
Thank for everyone's help and pointers, not sure what went wrong the first time(probably a memory card/incompatibility/goldcard problem), but all sorted now.
James