HTC Offical Bootloader Unlock Process
So we were all excited about HTC allowing users to have unlocked bootloaders on their Android devices...Well with that comes a little pain - well to me a lot of pain. HTC released on their Facebook page the official process of unlocking your bootloader. Now it may come to a surprise that...
A surprise that HTC is requiring all users that unlock their bootloader to sign away their warranty. See when you make a deal with the devil (HTC) there is always a price to pay. They go on to say in their Facebook page that "all or parts" of your warranty will be null and void. So after you unlock it is all SDK's, device identifier tokens, and unlock keys. What gets me is that HTC is giving us a process that we want, and others are giving us but yet they are taking away all future support.
They did continue to say that the HTC Sensation and HTC Evo 3D would be the first devices to lose their warranty be able to use the unlocking process. Hit my source below to check the full explanation out by the CEO of HTC.
Source: Engadget & TechCrunch
Special thanks goes out to gTen for providing us the news tip - thanks.
© 2011, JasonFieldz. All rights reserved.
Why are you crying about this? If you are going to root your phone, you take on the responsibility of being your own tech support as well as lose the right to utilize the manufacturer warranty. Now, someone is going to retort with, “That’s like buying XYZ product and doing X to it and the manufacturer not honoring their warranty.” You may be right, it may be exactly like whatever scenario you bring up, but that does not mean it is within HTC’s right to do so.
@Scenemaker, It makes a big difference, imagine this, you root your phone only to say “tether” and nothing else..then new version comes out and you load up the OTA and the OTA bricks your phone..is it fair for them to deny warranty?
If your screen begins to show a white dot in the middle of it or screen begins separating from the touch sensor is it fair to void warranty?
It is true that its HTC’s choice what to do..but its also the consumers choice on what product to buy, other manufacturers don’t lock their boot loaders at all…if all manufacturers locked their bootloaders then it would be acceptable, but when others don’t that is another story.
@gTen, Your confusing Root with Unlocking the bootloader….
Rooting does not void the warranty, All it is doing is changing file and folder permissions.
Unlocking the bootloader opensup the ability to flash a custom Kernel (Not to be confused with flashing ROM) which if it’s not done correctly or you flash a bad Kernel can brick the device!
They are smart to void the warranty because otherwise a ton of Noobs would do it, flash the wrong kernel because they didn’t read direction and HTC would wind up replacing 100′s of phone that were not faulty but screwed up by folks who should not have been doing what they did!
@Asphyx, I speak of permanent root..not temp root…the problem is not the locked its the fact that its signed…
i think it’s bs why offer the ability to unlock only to say it comes with a price of losing ur warranty that’s like offering a crackhead free crack and then saying dont get addicted ..
I have a feeling sprint etc will still fix your problems with white dots or bad screen digitizers regardless of rooted or not.
@shatner, Sprint employees are instructed not to fix rooted phones..now if you got a nice person maybe you will luck out and they’ll pretend not to see it..but it is against their policy..
See sprint has 2 ways to go about things…either file claim with Ashuran or send it back to HTC..if HTC won’t accept it, sprint isn’t going to risk costs on themselves. Now it depends if Ashuran gets to share this data or not..if Ashuran does have it, then they can void your insurance..
@shatner, They replaced mine after a few emails to HTC and Sprint and a phone call, it had the so called B-spot(or should i say SPOTSSSSSSSS) all over. but also my account is considered premiere not sure if that helped or not. Just make sure to download shipped software back to the original…
wasn’t it always like this? I don’t see the problem, relock it and then send it in. its what we’ve been doing this whole time.
>>wasn’t it always like this? I don’t see the problem, relock it and then send it in. its what we’ve been doing this whole time.
Yeah really. I’ve never used or even had an HTC warranty before, and I’m doing just fine.
- 2 Bunny
it wasn’t always like this. if i’m understanding this correctly, when you use the htc process they are logging your phone and it will be visible to both them and the cell phone company that you have unlocked your phone. therefore, even if you were to unroot and relock it they will have a record that it was done at some point. as it stood before, you could unlock it without being on a list of unlocked phones for your warranty to be denied. so if you had a problem then you simply unroot and relock it and they are none the wiser.
@streetracer8605,
Really? How could they possibly know?
- 2 Bunny
@2 Bunny, You have to put your IMEI/ESN in order to get the unlocking procedure, might be some kind of unlocking code algorithm kind of like carrier unlocking on GSM devices.
So they will have your IMEI on file as “do not honor warranty”
My thing is anyone who knows enough to sign on to HTC and officially unlock the bootloader can also find the unofficial unlock here and just go that way. That way if hardware does go bad you can relock it.
I would much rather go unofficial than official in this case or just get an SGS2 or use a phone company who doesn’t lock down their bootloader in the first place.
@orangekid,
Nope. All you need is a USB cable. The software unlocks the bootloader, and then you can flash custom ROMs to your heart’s content.
- 2 Bunny
Ya, sprints kinda iffy.
I bought an htc phone on ebay, but the screen and housing were cracked and scratched so I personally replaced the screen and housing, and now the LCD screen is messed up.
I called a sprint store near here and she gave me the number of the repair center on the other side of town and told me that even if I didnt have warentee or insurance that they would fix it but it wouldnt be free.
When I called the repair center, I told the guy that I bought a phone online and I needed the LCD replaced.
He told me straight up
“Ima clear the air right quick. If you didnt buy the phone in the store or dont have warentee or insurance, we WILL NOT…. touch your phone. Period”
and then he practically hung up after that
@aedon, why should they fix a phone that they didn’t sell? That is the main reason I purchase my phones from the sprint / service center. When the techs pull up your file, see all your phones have been purchased there, that you upgrade every year or two — they will bend over backwards to help. I broke my LCD on my EVO (I never buy insurance), called the service center — they said they couldn’t fix it because they didn’t stock the parts, but if I ordered the parts (available on amazon) they would replace it. I bought a screen for $30 on amazon and they replaced it for free (my phone is rooted, at that time I had deck GB rom, tiamat kernel). Never a question about rooting, roms, bootlocks.
@CtDMonet, because all sprint phones are sold by sprint…you can’t have a sprint phone without it coming from sprint in some shape or form..
@CtDMonet, thats great news for you, but they didnt offer me any help what so ever, I knew they would do it for free, but for the guy to tell me that if I hadnt paid the 3 or 400 bucks instore for the phone that he wouldnt touch it, even if I paid for the parts and laubor, that compleat bull sh*t.
Even if you dont buy the phone instore, its STILL a sprint phone, and they are STILL a sprint service center. They should be able to fix phones that are not under insurance or warenty regaurdless of where the phone is purchased because its a sprint phone wether I get it online or i get it in the store.
They should fix phones regaurdless, sure I dont expect it free because I dont have the insurance but when he gives me the fingure for asking for help, that ses alot about how they run things.
Who knows what people will do to the phone once the bootloader is unlocked, why would HTC take the risk for it.
“The Web tool, which will launch this month, requires that you register an account with a valid e-mail address and accept legal disclaimers that unlocking may void all or parts of your warranty.” [notice the ALL OR PARTS] https://www.facebook.com/notes/htc/update-on-bootloaders/10150305151453084
Sounds fair to me, they’ll uphold hardware warranty if it is a design/manufacturing flaw.
It’s pretty much like car company telling you how to replace engine with a rocket and if you go crashing it than blame them instead of yourself… the car isn’t designed to handle rocket so they shouldn’t be responsible to fix something that they didn’t design it for
@eyeb, no one asked htc to unlock them..they were asked to stop signing them…its obvious if a custom rom breaks it, that can void warranty..but unfortunately based on past trend..I don’t see why HTC would honor a warranty if in their system you are marked as unlocked…and you can argue with them all day they will just hold your phone hostage until you pay them return shipping fees.