USB Device Not Recognized--Is my Droid2 dead now?

[darksideSound]

When I plug my Droid2 into my PC USB port, I get this message: "USB Device Not Recognized..etc.", and I can't connect. --BAD

When I pull the micro SD card and pop it into a carrier, plug that into a PC USB port, I get a drive assignment that works. --GOOD

There are two possible explanations for this..

One (software): As a Noobie, I rooted my phone and then slaughtered and deleted all the Verizon bloatware with great satisfaction. When I agreed to the upgrade to Gingerbread, I realized too late that this was performed on a rooted, hacked Verizon Froyo. The upgrade failed, leaving troublesome but hard to pin down problems. Reboots were more frequent, but nothing was really obviously broken. The phone just felt wrong.

Two (hardware): My dog raced through the TV room where the Droid was calmly charging on a low coffee table. She caught the cable and whipped the assembly to the floor which was carpeted. Nothing seemed to be broken--the Droid was still charging (light was on), and the mini USB was not damaged. I pulled the plug and inspected the connection. The little plastic insert in the Droid side was still solid and no pins were broken. It still charged with an active indicator light both with the wall wart and the car charger. I assumed this was OK.

Yet now, when I plug the Droid into the XP Pro PC, I get this message: "USB Device Not Recognized.., etc.". I've tried this on another PC with the same results. The micro SD card is undamaged and is usable on the Droid side via FTP and File Maintenance, and it can be removed, mounted, and used in the same PC USB port that rejected the Droid connection. I've tried every setting on the Droid and even downloaded an app that forces a connection. There was no change.

I tested every USB cable I own, from original Verizon/Motorola to generic knock-off with the same results.

Is this software or hardware? Should I allocate a whole day to try to bring this into factory spec, upgrade to Gingerbread, root again, and try to recover all my neat stuff? Or should I bite the bullet and get another phone, moving on to 4G, better screen, multiple cameras, and whatever else is new? I will miss the keyboard, the big third-party battery, and the ability to totally deny power with a battery pull to force a shutdown when something new just doesn't work. Oh, well. New and improved--right?

What do you think it is? Hardware or software?

Any comments are welcome. My phone is still working as a phone. I picked a bad week to give up drinking..

=zz=.

 

[darksideSound]

Here's a good one on me..

Last year, I bought a wall wart from Verizon--actually from their brick store--brought it home and tried it out. It wouldn't charge. I called Verizon, and the rep said I could exchange it for one that worked, and that I could try it out in the store. Well, hearing that made me feel so good, I kept the wall wart and cable and never took it back. Good thing I didn't.

I had tried every cable except that one. It seems that the cables that transmit power well don't transmit data well, and vice versa. Why somebody can't build a reliable cable that does it all is beyond me. This cable couldn't transmit power. Data was its forte. I plugged the Droid in and waited.

I noticed the icons beginning to appear on the PC. No more messages. The file structure of the SD chip showed up and mounted as a device. Holy crap! All this fuss and worry, and my Droid2 was OK--it just needs to be SBF'd, updated to Gingerbread, rerooted, and reloaded with all my stuff. Hmm..

I'm gonna miss the 4G that I thought I'd get with a new machine. *sigh*

Nobody responded here, but I want to leave this up just to show the thoroughness that a user will go to save his Droid. I'm tethered here with PDANet. It's all working. WTF, over.

Bye for now..

=zz=.