If GoldCardTool fails use GoldCard Helper :-)

Hi,

For my HTD DESIRE HD, I tried "GoldCardTool.exe" version 0.0.7 and 0.0.5 as recommended, this failed to retrieve a CID for MMC1 but did for MMC1, unfortunately this (reversed) CID did not work resulting in the "Error [131]: CUSTOMER ID ERROR" message. Of course they wouldn't have wanted to check this earlier in the RUU's execution would they :-(

After proving with a hex editor that "GoldCardTool.exe" was correctly updating the first sector of the sdcard, after much googling I found "GoldCard Helper", this tool gave me two reversed cids, MMC2 and MMC0, unfortunately it would only copy MMC0's which was the same as I'd already tried, so I manually typed MMC2 off the screen, used the website to create the gold card image and then the "GoldCardTool.exe" to update the sdcard and it worked :-)

As I'd seen a different CID reversal scheme which reversed nybbles (characters), I can say that certainly that is not the case for my HTC DESIRE HD and it reverses bytes (character pairs) and changes the first two to "00" (as "GoldCardTool.exe" and does and most other websites specify).

Anyway hope that helps someone else...

HTC Desire HD Boots Loudly and Nightly

I've been noticing that HTC have been doing stealth updates of their "HTC Sync" (and probably sense etc), I think this had fixed my nightly reboots as I haven't had any for quite a while but they are back.

I've been woken up the last 2 nights. I've rebooted the phone as its been 17 days just in case but I'm guessing I'll probably get woken up tonight :-(

SDCARD Unmounts and Android Market Installation Error, Unknown Reason 18

With my new HTC Desire HD I was getting my SDCARD auto-unmounted and with the older firmware there was no way to remount it without pulling the card out and reinserting! This was causing problems with the camera (Please insert an SD card before using the camera) and other apps mentioned the SDCARD being busy or unavailable.

I was originally thinking that it could be a hardware issue but started suspecting the apps2sd functionality in android 2.2+ (aka froyo). Or perhaps some broken "Apps2SD" functionality in some of the market application managers...

Anyway I had the phone repaired for a different reason and it came back factory reset and with the latest firmware and it was still occurring!

However now I was also having a different issue with some apps not installing with an "Installation Error" dialog containing the text "Unknown Reason-18", as this was not all apps (or even most), I suspected that these might be trying to install on the SD card so I started doing some serious Googling...

It was suggested that you run this command in a terminal "rm /mnt/secure/asec/smdl2tmp1.asec", the trouble is that requires root access. In any case this sounds like a temporary solution.

Someone suggested that the solution is to put the sdcard into a card reader and attach to your PC and remove the "\.android_secure" directory (sorry can't remember if this is hidden or not), I did this and can now install the application "memento" and sure enough if you use Android's built in "Manage Application" and click on "On SD card" tab it shows that that application did indeed install on the SDCARD by default.

Hopefully this fix also gets rid of the intermittent card unmounts. I didn't have any apps installed on the SDCARD, if I had of has some then I'd probably have attempted to move them to the phone before trying either of the above.

UPDATE: It didn't fix my unmounting issue (and I just noticed the mount option is greyed out!). Anyway it appears that this is probably a known bug in the "1.72" firmware update! I've also noticed that when the card unmounts the phone loses cell radio signal (NO SIGNAL).

Since I've had the 1.72 firmware my phone has been rebooting overnight (I know as it wakes me up every time), taking a very long time to do so yet not updating the "uptime"...

Like the HTC Desire HD, but that's not to say everythings Rosy...

Its an Android phone and given the powerful hardware and large screen I was always going to like it and in general I do, but listed below are the things I don't like...

The Phone Itself

1. The battery/SIM-SDCARD plastic bits are cheap as sh1t and don't feel solid like the rest of the phone.
2. Really love the big screen. My old 3.7" LCD Milestone looks tiny now :-)
3. CardioTrainer gives me more accurate results so I think it has a better GPS than the Milestone.
4. The contacts (and call log etc) doesn't support Google's "custom" phone number (or other) types! This is EXTREMELY disappointing and means I always have to remember to update the contact online.
5. The "notes" field while editing is one line high so almost impossible to edit. I'm really starting to wonder about HTC...
6. The phone can't edit calendar events! Or at least it can't modify the start/stop dates on repeating events! Not a biggy for me as I try to do most changes from my laptop anyway.
7. The speakers are horribly quiet. A work around for me was to use Audacity to amplify the sound (a lot) for the ringtones. Can't do that with internal ones, I have my own set in any case which I name based on function in any case ("zzCall-WORK.mp3").
8. Average quality alarm/ring tones installed. Milestone had a way better assortment. Be nice if Google ever standardizes this.
9. Swype never works after a reboot (button presses Ok, just won't swype)! You have to alter the input method, then alter it back!
10. Another Swype issue is that HTC's sideways menu bar (for copy/paste etc) frequently ends up overlaying the Swype word choice menu!
11. I gave "HTC Sense" a go but decided its mainly designed to look good while sacrificing functionality and was nowhere near as good as the "LauncherPro" I put on within the first week.
12. The "HTC Friends" is so buggy its unusable assuming I wanted to, I don't, and it can't be disabled without turning off sense which I assume would also prevent the wanted "htcsense.com" stuff working, of course they wouldn't want to document any of this would they? It keeps popping up notifications!
13. Been getting "SD card unexpectedly removed" notifications (Unmount card before removing to avoid data lo | ss ...). This happens intermittently and I managed to capture it in a log (partial extract below). It sometimes occurs immediately after a reboot. It requires a reboot to correct. I think this is software and suspect APPS2SD functionality (Google or HTC's fault?).
14. I am so missing the "pure" google functionality of the Motorola Milestone. I would have stayed with Motorola except they don't supply timely updates (still on 2.1) and have locked the bootloader preventing me from updating it myself (they have forgotten who owns the phone).
15. HTC have devolved the Android functionality, if they wish to change it then they should improve on it. Anyway Gingerbread will force them to rewrite sense (Sense 3.0) and this time do it right.
16. The phone just died (within first month) with green/orange flashing LEDs while charging. This apparently means overheading. As the phone is cold, its a sensor issue of some type (not sure if sensor in battery or phone). For now I'm back on my "tiny" Milestone... Lets see how good MobiCare warrantees are...
17. Battery doesn't last anywhere near long enough (when it was charging, was calibrated to HTC recommendation). You need a charger at work after charging to 100% overnight.
18. I don't think the "turn on USB debugging" workaround improves anything for me.

I just got my wife a Samsung Galaxy Tab (nice), however out of the 3 Android phones I've used that is 3 different Google Buttons orderings with 3 different sets of symbols Drives me crazy, I keep pressing the wrong buttons, Google really need to standardize this.

The htcsense.com website

1. If constantly forgets which country I'm in...
2. Only once has updated my location
3. Making it ring mostly works immediately (or once not at all)
4. Locking the phone doesn't actually do that, it just sets a lock code but it won't immediately lock! If also takes a very long time to apply and once not until a week later!!!!

LOG of SD CARD UNMOUNT

This is a partial log with obviously unrelated messages removed (blog stuffs up formatting...):

17 V/WindowManager( 1292): Remove Window{47a8bb40 com.android.vending/com.android.vending.UninstallActivity paused=false}: mSurface=null mExiting=false isAnimating=false app-animation=null inPendingTransaction=false mDisplayFrozen=false
01-01 08:49:39.407 D/WifiService( 1292): releaseWifiLockLocked: WifiLock{NetworkLocationProvider type=2 binder=android.os.Binder@47d053a0}
01-01 08:49:39.407 D/WifiService( 1292): enable and start wifi due to updateWifiState
01-01 08:49:48.287 V/NotificationService( 1292): Battery Full, Charging
01-01 08:49:53.707 D/TelephonyRegistry( 1292): notifyDataConnection() state=0isDataConnectivityPossible()true, reason=null
01-01 08:49:53.707 D/TelephonyRegistry( 1292): broadcastDataConnectionStateChanged()  state=DISCONNECTEDtypes=null, interfaceName=null
01-01 08:49:55.430 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Start proc com.htc.android.worldclock for broadcast com.htc.android.worldclock/.AlarmInitReceiver: pid=17645 uid=1000 gids={3003, 1015, 3002, 3001, 2001}
01-01 08:49:57.140 W/BackupManagerService( 1292): dataChanged but no participant pkg='com.android.providers.settings' uid=10180
01-01 08:49:58.230 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Start proc com.jonasl.gmailnotifier2 for broadcast com.jonasl.gmailnotifier2/.GmailReceiver: pid=17658 uid=10169 gids={1015}
01-01 08:49:58.490 W/InputManagerService( 1292): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: com.android.internal.view.IInputMethodClient$Stub$Proxy@480b76d8
01-01 08:50:00.340 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Process com.jonasl.gmailnotifier2 (pid 17658) has died.
01-01 08:50:11.541 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Starting activity: Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW cmp=com.android.vending/.AssetInfoActivity (has extras) }
01-01 08:50:35.620 D/WifiService( 1292): acquireWifiLockLocked: WifiLock{NetworkLocationProvider type=2 binder=android.os.Binder@47d053a0}
01-01 08:50:35.640 D/WifiService( 1292): enable and start wifi due to updateWifiState
01-01 08:50:40.660 D/WifiService( 1292): releaseWifiLockLocked: WifiLock{NetworkLocationProvider type=2 binder=android.os.Binder@47d053a0}
01-01 08:50:40.680 D/WifiService( 1292): enable and start wifi due to updateWifiState
01-01 08:50:49.570 V/WindowManager( 1292): Remove Window{47936c10 Uninstall application paused=false}: mSurface=Surface(name=Uninstall application, identity=469) mExiting=false isAnimating=false app-animation=null inPendingTransaction=false mDisplayFrozen=false
01-01 08:50:49.580 E/WindowManager( 1292): return in removeWindowLocked
01-01 08:50:49.580 W/InputManagerService( 1292): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: com.android.internal.view.IInputMethodClient$Stub$Proxy@47c88088
01-01 08:50:55.550 V/WindowManager( 1292): Remove Window{47a30ab0 Rate it! paused=false}: mSurface=Surface(name=Rate it!, identity=470) mExiting=false isAnimating=false app-animation=null inPendingTransaction=false mDisplayFrozen=false
01-01 08:50:55.550 E/WindowManager( 1292): return in removeWindowLocked
01-01 08:50:55.560 W/InputManagerService( 1292): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: com.android.internal.view.IInputMethodClient$Stub$Proxy@47a7fdd0
01-01 08:50:57.640 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Starting activity: Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW cmp=com.android.vending/.UninstallActivity (has extras) }
01-01 08:50:57.740 V/WindowManager( 1292): Remove Window{47a7e6f8 Uninstall application paused=false}: mSurface=Surface(name=Uninstall application, identity=471) mExiting=false isAnimating=true app-animation=com.android.server.WindowManagerService$DummyAnimation@479f9550 inPendingTransaction=true mDisplayFrozen=false
01-01 08:50:57.740 E/WindowManager( 1292): return in removeWindowLocked
01-01 08:50:57.920 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Force stopping package com.als.usagetimelines uid=10211
01-01 08:50:58.320 I/ActivityManager( 1292): Force stopping package com.als.usagetimelines uid=10211

01-01 08:50:59.210 D/DirectVolume( 1212): Volume sdcard /mnt/sdcard partition 179:33 removed
01-01 08:50:59.210 I/Vold    ( 1212): Unmounting ASEC com.vp.whiteNoizzz-1 (dependant on /mnt/sdcard)
01-01 08:50:59.230 I/Vold    ( 1212): Unmounting ASEC com.rovio.angrybirds-1 (dependant on /mnt/sdcard)
01-01 08:50:59.241 D/Vold    ( 1212): Volume sdcard state changing 4 (Mounted) -> 5 (Unmounting)
01-01 08:50:59.310 W/MountService( 1292): getSecureContainerList() called when storage not mounted

Migrating from Motorola Milestone (v2.1) to HTC Desire HD (v2.2)

I have recenty bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab (for a phone+eBook) for my wife and now a

HTC Desire HD for myself from MobiCity, I could have got the phones cheaper by importing them myself from the UK, but boy are those guys fast delivering.

Anyway so far:

• The phone is much faster as expected. Not only is the CPU faster and better, it has more memory and 2.2 runs Java programs way faster also.
• I have installed Launcher Pro, I was going to give HTC sense a go, but quickly worked out that its meant to look good and isn't as functional. I can fit way more icons on each screen now.
• I really like Andoid 2.2's wireless hotspot. Very handy. Set it up for WPA2 and my laptop had no trouble connecting.
• Coming from the Milestone I was used to capacitive buttons, but the ones on the HTC don't seem to light up enough (when off power). I think my phone is pending a few updates. I'm not going to update now on as I'm on 3G (on holidays), I'm crossing my fingers...
• The speakers on the phone are very quiet for ringtones etc, again I'm hoping an update improves things otherwise I'll try upping the volume via Audacity...
• What is it with the button order? Google need to mandate the order of the buttons, out of 3 phones I've used I have 3 button orderings...
• I also think that Android needs its own set of standard wallpapers, ringtones and alarms etc, its annoying to move to a new phone and not be able to set up the same ones.
• I'm also hating setting up all the apps and settings etc, hopefully this will improve as apps can now save settings etc in the "cloud" via your Google account.