vB Easy Archive - moto e815: flexed a skin, hosed the phone

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moto e815: flexed a skin, hosed the phone
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Posted by: awakebutnot

hey guys...

i managed to screw my phone's display by flexing it with a new skin. i can still send/receive calls and do voice commands, but my screen is distorted and basically useless. it clearly looks like some kind of skin problem.

i've reviewed my phone's directory structure in the skins directory, and i've made sure everything is the way it was supposed to be there.

i never messed with the deadly "Moto" skin.

anyway, i'm looking for any kind of advice here.

ONE THING I WOULD LIKE TO TRY IS GOING THROUGH THE MENU AND SELECTING A DIFFERENT SKIN..

problem is, i don't know my way around the menu without seeing the screen. could someone with an e815 please tell me what the sequence is to access the skin customization menu?

i have the initial menu setup so that it is in list format, numbered (i don't think that is the default)..

any other help would be appreciated too... thanks all! this is a great community.

thanks again,
Austin

Posted by: awakebutnot

bump

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Posted by: Flying h4x0r

i used to have a e815..
i think it was Menu > 7 > 1 (personalize) > 3 or 4 (for Skins).. and push ok, and then push ok again to choose Moto...

hopefully someone else on this forum cna confirm this..

Posted by: Sephious

It's Menu -> 7 -> 2 -> Down, Down, OK -> OK again to select the MOTO skin.

Posted by: awakebutnot

thanks a ton guys for responding. i've read alot of your stuff on the forums haxor and i'm flattered to have got your attention. thanks sephios for your specific reply.

unfortunately whatever the flexing did, not even changing the selected skin is fixing it. i've got verizon to ship me another phone (under warranty) after taking it into a center and showing them my "weird broken" phone.

they didn't ask any questions, just fedexed me a new one. hopefully when i send this one back my changes won't be obvious. i'm wondering if maybe there are hidden folders in my Skins directory that are somehow screwing it up. but i don't know how to see the hidden directories...

anyway, thanks again guys...
- Austin

Posted by: awakebutnot

and for reference, these are the notes i made:

press 7) settings
press 2) personalize

(do not press the "ok" button on your phone after pressing
the numbers above. all you need to do is press the number)

your phone would display the following (if you can see it):
* Home Screen [selected]
* Main Menu
* Skin
* ...

(so down, down, ok) to select Skin

(ok again) for Moto
down, then ok) for Scarlet
down, down, then ok) for Techno

(these above are assuming that no new skins have been installed. if they have, it is in alphabetic order)

- Austin

Posted by: RyZR

What skin were you trying to add?

Have you tried using Bitpim or P2KCommander to put the originals back on?

Posted by: awakebutnot

i never removed the originals... i just flexed on more (i used some custom tool to make a flex that i read about on the forums). this flex made my screen all weird, so i could only really see the top part of the phone (which shows reception, battery, ect). when i used voice command, i could see that screen. and the web browser. but i couldn't see, for example, caller ID.

i still have the old phone (i haven't sent it back yet), so i might try to tinker with it some more.

i tried removing the directory using P2K commander (so i removed all of the files in it). when i removed all of the files, the folder disappeared in P2k. didn't help... so i tried flexing my phone using a skin flex that /someone else/ created. that didn't help, so i deleted the files (they were installed at the ROOT of the skins directory for some reason, instead of their own folder).

i deleted that 2nd flex's files, and i think that's when my phone started working properly again.

so i got up the guts to try installing another preexisting skin, since i now /thought/ i knew how to handle potential problems.

i flexed my phone with i think a counterstrike skin (or maybe it was the KDE skin). at that point the same functionality occured.

i tried deleting the files and some other things with no luck.

i never touched the original Moto, Scarlet, or Techno skins (esp. not the Moto). Later i tried moving scarlet off and back on, and some other stuff just to see what would happen. i left Moto alone.

so now i think i might try to copy the moto, scarelet, and techno from my new e815 onto my PC, then onto the old e815. probably won't make any difference since they all appear to have the same files there, but w/e.

if you have any ideas, let me know.

by the way, i never could get BitPim to work (in under an hour anyway), so i just used other progs.

- Austin

Posted by: RyZR

Where did you get the skins from?

Posted by: awakebutnot

from the e815 skin sticky:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=711213

the counterstrike one.

keep in mind, though, i don't know which one did this. i should have been more meticulous in recording what i was doing.

the problem first surfaced when i used an unofficial (but popular) utility for making skin flexes. the utility specifically stated that it supported the e815, and others on this forum have used it successfully. i can't remember the name of it now, but it comes up as a little box where you first create like a "flex" or something, then you "attach files" to it. it then saves the flex, and you use the file from PST.

I remember PST complaining once, saying the flex couldn't install or something. i tried a second time and it worked.

that may be where the issue is, i don't know.

the problem is frustrating enough that i'm pretty sure i'm not going to try to reskin my new model e815.

i'm beginning to think i should just wait until there are some good smartphones that are the e815's size, without all of these ridiculous restrictions. my roommate has a great verizon PDA using Windows with an unlimited data plan, and that sounds very lucrative.

imagine... VOIP over your CELL phone (= no more minutes...

the ultimate would be a linux based phone for verizon.

Posted by: awakebutnot

i also got another flex from some random place on google (for e815 though) hoping that somehow that would restore my phone. perhaps i need a "Moto" flex?

i also reflashed my phone (using the # + * + powerbutton sequence to get to the bootloader). everything went through fine (according to the log messages and my phones indicator), but reflashing doesn't appear to have an effect on the skin portion of the phone, since the problem remains.

Posted by: SteelBluePT

awkaebutnot- I think I have a similiar problem- but my screen is messed up and it doesn't connect to the Verizon network either...

My question is- where did you find the file to reflash the phone? I desperately need it! Thanks!