Unable to Re-Purpose my old Droid 1

[kj4wrd]

Hi everyone. I got a new phone last year and thought I would sell of my old Droid 1. So, I did the factory reset to wipe out all account information and get it ready for a new owner so the phone would go back to the "fresh-out-of-the-box" state. Then, I put the phone in a drawer and forgot about it.

Now, I would like to use the phone as a sort of mini Android Tablet. I took the Droid out of the drawer, charged it up, and started it up again. It of course gave me the choice to skip the carrier access and account creation (which I did skip) inodrer to get to the home screen. I then turned off the cell radio and turned on wifi, and tried to add an account to the system. This is where the problem occurs.

The "Add a Google Account" program eventually comes back with the following message:
<begin msg>
Can't establish a reliable data connection. This could be a temporary problem or your phone may not be provisioned for data services. If it continues, call Customer Care.
<end msg>

Okay. So this was a bit frustrating. This is an old Verizon phone that has not been rooted, just blanked for reuse with a new owner/account. I thought that maybe the wifi connection was possibly causing problems, so I went to the preloaded web browser and accessed the internet and it was plenty fast for pulling up web pages, videos, etc.

So I tried again and got the same message. After reading the error message the second (3rd, 4th, & 5th) times the word "provisioned" jumped out at me. (Slap head, Doh!)

Does Verizon provisioning somehow throw some software switch that allows the phone to set up accounts, access the market, etc?
Is there a way for me to get this to enable so I can set up an account on the thing and begin using it as a wifi android tablet?
Is there a way to root the phone without being able to use the market to download programs that most rooting requires?
Am I stuck with now selling the thing for pennies to some other poor slob that broke how new phone or can I salvage this?

Thanks for any help. I realize this is a bit of a unique problem. My kids have all turned their old phones into mini android tablets, but they never wiped out the phone first. They just turned off the cell radio and went exclusive wifi with the old verizon provisioning still in the phone.

BKM

 

[tcrews]

I have factory reset, sbf'd, rom'd and rom'd again my original Droid after moving off it to a Droid 3 then later to a Droid 4.

I use both my Droid and my Droid 3 as "mini" tablets via WiFi connections.

There isn't anything special you need to do. Try another Factory Reset, bypass the setup (touch top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left of the screen in a clockwise motion on the Android setup screen) then go to settings, WiFi, turn it on and add your WiFi credentials. Hit the Play Store or sign in to Gmail and then try again.

All you need is a WiFi connection and your google account.

 

[kj4wrd]

Amazing! I had never heard of the touching the screen in the four corners before. I had previously just touched the icon that the screen tells to to touch in the center of the screen and then move on from there.

So, I did the factory reset and turned the phone back on when it was done.
This time I touched the four corners of the screen (working around the icon in the center it wants me to touch) and the phone and it magically went directly to the home screen without any of the other setup questions. Nice!

I then did the phone app, dialed *#*#4636#*#* and turned off the cell radio, turned on the wifi, exited to the home screen, opened settings/wifi config, selected my home wifi, and connected. (all similar to last attempt).

This time when I went to settings, and add account, it worked. I now have my old Droid working as a mini tablet. I even got the Google Play Store to finally come up.

I don't pretend to understand what kind of magic the touching the four corners does when there is nothing to otherwise prompt one to do it, but it worked (I guess ?!?).

Thanks Tom! Now I have to set about rooting it and picking a new rom so I can get rid of all the bloated apps.

You've been a great help.

BKM

 

[mertinho.sg2]

Can you see my profil foto???? I have a problem with my homescreen what xan i do????