Friday, August 24, 2012

How to unlock HTC Sensation 4G

The following is a step by step guide to unlock HTC Sensation 4G. It requires the phone to be rooted first. Please see my other guide
to root HTC Sensation 4G. 

  • Install Android Terminal Emulator from marketplace.
  • Install busybox from marketplace.
  • Start the emulator and enter "su". 
  • enter "strings -n 8 /dev/block/mmcblk0p6"
  • It should have the unlock code above the imei number in the last few lines. If it shows a date instead, go to next step.
  • Download PG58DIAG from here.
  • Copy the file PG58DIAG to SD card root folder.
  • Reboot to hboot. Place the phone horiziontally when asked to.
  • Press Power button to choose "Clean S58 Data".
  • Take out the SD card and reboot the phone. Delete the file PG58DIAG from SD card.

 

Did it work for you? Please leave a comment.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

How to root HTC Sensation 4G

The following is a step by step guide to root the HTC Sensation 4G from T-Mobile. I've tried it and it worked for me. 

1. S-OFF the Sensation

  • Boot to hboot by pressing volume down and power button at the same time. It will show whether it's S-ON or S-OFF on the first time. If it's S-OFF, go to step 2. It also shows the hboot version. Note it as well.
  • Visit revolutionary.io. Download the revolutionary.exe and get the beta key from the website. Run the application and follow instruction to S-OFF the phone

2. Install ClockworkMod Recovery

  • Download the recovery from here.
  • Copy the PG58IMG file into the root folder of the SD card.
  • Boot to hboot and accept the update when it prompts so.
  • Reboot the phone and delete the PG58IMG file from the SD card.

3. Permanently root the phone

  • Download the root file from here.
  • Copy the zip file from the SD card root folder.
  • Reboot to hboot and choose recovery to start clockworkmod recovery.
  • Backup the room first.
  • Choose "Install zip from sdcard" select "su-2.3.6.3-efgh-signed.zip" to install
  • Reboot the phone and it should be rooted

Leave a comment whether it works for you as well.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

How to restore HTC Sensation 4G to stock rom

The following is a step by step process of restoring the HTC Sensation 4G (T-Mobile) to stock ROM. Sometimes a factory reset does not fix the issue with the phone. You will then need to perform a restore to stock ROM to fully recover it. Or if your phone is bricked during flashing, restoring to stock ROM may also fix the issue. I have personally tried the below steps and it worked for me. 

  • Make sure HTC USB driver is installed on your PC
  • DownloadHTC Sensation 4G T-Mobile stock rom on your desktop
  • Connect the phone through USB port. Run the RUU file and follow its step to update the HTC phone.
  • If you run into error 155 during the process, do not exit the program. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\(User name)\Local Settings\Temp and find a folder created several minutes ago with a name starts with "{". There should be a large file (about 370MB) called rom.zip in its subdirectory. Copy it to desktop and rename it to PG58IMG.zip
  • Connect the HTC Sensation phone through USB port. Turn on USB mass storage mode. copy the PG58IMG.zip file to the phone's sd card root directory
  • Reboot the phone into hboot by restarting the phone while holding down volume down button and power button.
  • hboot menu will prompt you on whether you would like to start update. Choose Yes by pressing volume up button.
  • Sit back and wait for the process to finish. Phone may reboot itself during the process. It will indicate "Update Complete... Press Power to reboot" once it's done. Now press power button to reboot
  • Congratuations, now you just flashed the phone to stock ROM (Android version 2.3.3)  

 

Note:

Here's a list of other error codes from RUU restore and possible resolutions:

Error 110 (File Open Error): This error message indicates that the RUU lacks some specific files or they are damaged, so the RUU cannot continue with the update. You have to get the complete RUU package and try again.

Error 120 (Main Battery Power): This error message will appear when the Android phone’s battery power is not sufficient (Batter power should be more than 30%). Although RUU will instruct you to plug in the AC adapter, it will still need to make sure that your Android phone has enough power to complete the update. (The Android phone cannot charge the battery when it is connected to the PC while installing the RUU).

Error 130 (Model ID Error):
Error 131 (Customer ID Error):
One of these error messages will appear when you use the wrong RUU to do the update. The RUU will check if the Model ID and Language ID are compatible with the Android phone. Make sure you use the correct RUU to update.

Error 140 (Bootloader Version Error):
The rom update utility cannot update your android phone. Please get the correct ROM update utility and try again.
You will get this error if you're installing an older/differently branded firmware to what your phone's bootloader identifies itself as. It refuses to downgrade. You need to first downgrade the firmware, change bootloader.

Error 155-159 (Image Error):
One of these error messages will appear when you use the incorrect RUU to update and the image file size is larger than the Flash ROM size. In this case, download the correct RUU version and try again.
Alternatively (in some cases) right click on the file and choose "Run as Administrator".
Or use the rom.zip -> PG58IMG.zip flashing method.

Error 170 (USB Connection Error):
This error message will appear when the Android phone is not correctly connected to the host PC. It might be a USB connection problem or a PC USB driver problem. Make sure the Android phone is connected to the host PC correctly and/or check if the PC driver matches the Android phone. 

 

Leave a comment if it works for you!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

How to check if HTC Sensation 4G is rooted

Method 1:

  • Download Root Checker from MarketPlace
  • Run Root Checker. If it says "the device does not have proper root access", it's not rooted. 

Method 2:

  • Download Android Terminal Emulator from MarketPlace
  • Run Android Terminal Emulator. Type "su" in the console. If it says "su: not found", it's not rooted
  • Type exit to "exit" the app.