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Droid X Self-Destructs If You Try To Mod

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-that's-evil dept.

An anonymous reader writes with some discouraging news for hack-oriented purchasers of the new Droid X phone: "If the eFuse fails to verify [the firmware information (what we call ROMS), the kernel information, and the bootloader version], then the eFuse receives a command to 'blow the fuse' or 'trip the fuse.' This results in the booting process becoming corrupted, followed by a permanent bricking of the phone. This FailSafe is activated anytime the bootloader is tampered with or any of the above three parts of the phone has been tampered with."

5 of 757 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Who cares by kjart · · Score: 5, Informative

    Someone will find a way around this very quickly

    It's not even clear if this information is real. TFA links to a forum post which doesn't seem to actually contain a source of the information (the OP states it's a mix of "hard information" and "conjecture"). Said forum post then links to the eFUSE wikipedia article, which lists Droid X as having an implementation of eFUSE. However, if you look at the Droid X wikipedia page linked to from there, you'll see the original mobilecrunch.com is what is cited for the eFUSE inclusion bit.

    I'm not saying there is something fishy going on, but this could easily not be true.

  2. Re:So, are there reasons for this? by Microlith · · Score: 5, Informative

    If that were in true in any way, shape, and form, then every other vendor would be doing the same. Only Motorola is taking this stance.

    The code that actually connects to towers, does the signaling etc is well programmed, fairly well tested by the FCC for compliance and then locked up out of harms way with a simple API.

    Which is isolated from the Android environment via serial or USB connection. This lockdown has -nothing- to do with the 3G baseband, which runs on its own processor with its own memory and storage.

  3. Re:I do! by bberens · · Score: 5, Informative

    I would like to take this moment to give a shout out to T-Mobile, which actually offers a bring your own phone plan for less than the subsidize your phone plan.

    --
    Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
  4. Re:Who cares by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Informative

    In fact the "eFUSE" feature is present in a staggeringly common component in many different Android (and other...) devices, so the presence of an eFUSE is not in any way demonstrative of the functionality claimed.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  5. Re:It's the principle of the thing and more. by silverpig · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently this is blown out of proportion: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/07/15/reality-check-modding-the-droid-x-may-not-lead-to-a-bricked-phone/ "This breaking news may not be as dire as many are claiming, as a google search of OMAP3 and e-fuse reveals that current OMPA handset already have e-fuse in place as part of the M-Shield hardware security technology built into TI’s OMAP system on a chip. It is on the very hackable DROID and the not-so-hacking-friendly Milestone, but it is not being used by Motorola to lock the bootloader of the handset. " etc...