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I’ve been a proud owner of a T-Mobile Dash (a Windows Mobile SmartPhone) since they first came out in late 2006.  However, once I upgraded the phone to Windows Mobile 6 last year, I began having a problem that has been nothing less than almost continually annoying.  Whenever I restart the Dash, there is the high probability that it will go into endless reboot loop unless I remove the microSD card.  This anomaly does not just occur on the Dash, it has been reported on a number of WM6 devices.

1. When I initially updated to WM6, here’s what happened:
   1. I Flashed to WM6 with no microSD card in place
   2. after one successful boot, I replaced the card and tried to reboot.
   3. the Dash would not stop rebooting unless I removed the battery and the microSD card.
   4. placing the card in place after a boot allowed the card to function properly.
   5. after backing up the MicroSD card, I reformatted it in FAT32, place the card in the Dash and it rebooted properly exactly one time. Thereafter the rebooting resumed.

My primary microSD card was a Sandisk 2GB MicroSD, but the problem was the same with an off brand 512MB MicroSD.

When I reported the situation to T-Mobile Customer Care, I was advised to re-flash with the microSD card in place.  It made no difference.

I called T-Mobile Customer Care back and they offered to ship me a replacement phone. I had two choices: $10 for ground shipping or $15 for expedited shipping.  I chose the latter even though I didn’t think that the problem was a hardware related as my device ran perfectly with WM5.  However, my Dash was one of the very first devices released in December 2006.  Hmmmm… 

I surmised that the problem was not a device issue or a microSD (TransFlash) card problem, but rather a software issue with WM6.  As I learned much later , that’s exactly what it was–it is a device driver problem.

When I received the replacement phone, it came with WM5. I flashed it to WM6 (without the microSD card in place) and the endless reboots occurred on the replacement phone too.  I tried re-flashing with the microSD card in place and got the same results.  This was getting old and I contemplated going back to WM5, however I stuck with it. 

After a lot of trial-and-error experimentation, I thought I’d solved the problem–no thanks to T-Mobile Customer Care.  I began successfully running WM6 without the constant rebooting with a microSD card in the slot.  Here’s the procedure that worked (at least for a while) for me:

1. turn the device off.
2. remove any microSD card.
3. follow the Dash hard reset instructions here.

PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY that simply clearing the memory using the Start/Accessories/Clear Storage application is NOT the same as a "hard reset" for the Dash.

The above solution worked for a while, but the problem came back. Since I had the replacement Dash from T-Mobile, the solution worked as long as I did not replace my SIM card (I had put it in the other device during my testing). As soon as I inserted the SIM card and tried to boot the device, the endless reboots resumed.

I then tried using the SIM card from another T-Mobile phone and the problem went completely away!  Putting back my SIM card made the reboots resume. In short, the two phones exhibited the exact same conditions:
1. old SIM card with either of 2 different microSD cards caused the endless reboots.
2. new SIM card with either of the microSD cards in either of the phones, no reboots.

I did not re-flash or master reset either phone between switching the SIM cards.  Seemed like an OS problem that got triggered differently when making contact with the T-Mobile networks.

I went to a local T-Mobile Company store, explained the situation, got a replacement SIM card and the problem went away again.  The rep at the store verified both my problem and that the replacement SIM card fix worked.  I did not get charged for the SIM card replacement at the store, bit would have if I got it from Customer Care. 

Since I got the replacement SIM, the problem has recurred periodically, but not consistently.  One reason was that I usually try to put the device in "flight mode" before powering it off and resetting the phone. 

That was until the past couple of weeks.  I had left the country on vacation, but had forgotten to put the phone in "flight mode" before I turned off the phone on the plane.  When I landed, I could not get out of the constant rebooting in any way at all!  I tried removing the SIM card, then the MicroSD card, then both–nothing worked at all, even after I returned home!  After a couple of days, I took the plunge to do the hard reset again.  I had procrastinated making that choice since there were a few data changes on the phone since its last full backup.  The hard reset worked again!  Restoring my most recent Sprite backup got me up and going PDQ with just a few data losses.  However, I’m still looking for a permanent solution as I really do like the T-Mobile Dash for so many other reasons.

My research in the last few days has turned up a non-T-Mobile ROM for the Dash directly from HTC that is available here.  Comments that I’ve read about the ROM say it fully supports SDHC MicroSD cards (currently available up to 8GB) and that the reboot problem has been solved with this new WM6 ROM. 

I skeptical, but may take the plunge.  If I do, I’ll report back.

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Rich Bilancia (23 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Rich, a former IT executive and managerial accountant, is enjoying retirement in northern Colorado. He remains an active civic volunteer and a passionate technologist.