Nexus One with a broken power button[Solved]

I have a Nexus One with a broken power button! No matter what you do, the phone will not turn on..So I had the following options

1) Return the same to HTC is the phone is under warranty and you are in the United States.

2) Get it repaired from a HTC service center in your country.

3) Use a different button on the phone to perform the same set of operations as the power button.

For me 1) was out of question, 2) was way expensive (Rs 4000/ 80 USD for a phone which is not worth that price).

3) was the most easiest and the most non intrusive of all three options and involved the following steps.I utilised the volume buttons and the the scroll wheel to wake the phone and other options which were served by the power button.


Common Instructions

If you need to restart the phone, its impossible to do so, since the power button is broken.In such a scenario, follow this

a)Connect the phone to a charger/USB.
b)Remove the battery from the phone once you see the charging light on the phone
c)Insert the battery and keep it there until you see the charging light again.
Continue doing steps b) and c) until the phone boots (Phone normally boots in 4 attempts).

[Update]
It is required that the phone be fully charged in order to complete the steps correctly.A phone shutting off in between an upgrade/flashing due to low battery is sure to brick
Thanks Angelo for this quick tip!!

Warning- The steps mentioned below will void your warranty and possibly lead to a bricked phone is not followed correctly.You have been warned!


1)Downgrade the phone to Android 2.2 from 2.3.4 or 2.3.6

This step is required as Google has plugged the exploit in the 2.3.X versions which allow rooting the phone.

Its is the best idea to upgrade your contact information, SMS, MMS, Images, Videos and anything you deem important to either Google by syncing or to a local disk on a computer.The data is irrecoverable right after now!


Download the 2.2 Shipped ROM from the link.

The name of the zip archive is Passion_Google_WWE_2.16.1700.1_FRG33_MFG_Shipment_ROM.zip.

Make sure the size of the file is roughly 84 MB.A lower value suggests the file is corrupted and has the highest chance of bricking your phone.

Once downloaded, extract the zip inside the zip file, and rename the file as PASSIMG.zip (please note the case, only the filename PASSIMG.zip will work)

Copy this file to the root of the phone SDCard.

Turn your phone off, by removing the battery.

Keep the Volume(-) button pressed, try to power up the phone following the common instructions mentioned above.

Once the phone boots, release the volume button and wait for the HBOOT to recognise the PASSIMG.zip file.

It will ask for permissions to upgrade, select yes using the appropriate volume buttons.

The phone will boot automatically once the upgrade is done.

Steps available here.

Once you have downgraded the phone, make sure you create your Google account setup on the phone as some steps will require downloading apps from the Android Market.

2)Rooting the phone

Download SuperOneClick on your desktop, extract the zip archive, and run the application.Connect your phone to the computer and hit the "Root" button.You need to put your phone in USB debugging mode from Settings >Applications > Development > Enable USB Debugging. You will also need the Android SDK installed to complete this step.

SuperOneClick is pretty straightforward, and you will have root permission with ease.

Reboot your phone.



3)Install ROM Manager

Download the latest stable build of CyanogenMod for Nexus one from here.

Rename this downloaded file as update.zip and copy it to the SD card.

Search for ROM Manager on the Android Market, and install it.The free version will suffice for this entire task.

When you will run ROM Manager, a prompt will ask if you would like to assign SuperUser permissions to ROM Manager.Select yes.

When ROM Manager loads, select the option that says "Flash ClockWorkMod Recovery"
This will flash the Recovery tool on your phone.

After the recovery is installed, select the option "Install ROM from SD Card".Select the update.zip file, and for the options to be selected, Backup Existing ROM,Wipe Data and Cache, Wipe Dalvik Cache, all need to be selected.

Once the Cyanogenmod is installing, do not interrupt the process and let it happen.It takes a good 10-15 minutes for everything to complete.

[Update]
You need to install the google apps package, because CM7 does not come bundled with these.Download the gapps file , rename as update.zip, and copy to root of SD card. Open ROM Manager and repeat steps above, select the update.zip and then let ROM manager do its awesome job!

This was the final step!


Congrats! you have completed rooting and modifying your Android phone with a custom ROM.

Once the phone has booted completely, make sure you go to Settings > CyanogenMod Settings > Input >Trackball Wake[selected]

Install Quick Boot from the Android Market, and create a shortcut on your phone to reboot.

Install the battery calibration app from the Android Market and re-calibrate the battery with the app instructions.

If by chance you phone hangs, you need to restart, it is necessary to have a charger or a USB cable to jump start the phone.Follow the same guidelines as described above to start the phone.