How To Root The Cricket ZTE Score X500
How to Root The Cricket ZTE Score.
I am actually super new to the whole rooting thing, as I have not really been too keen on voiding warranties on expensive phones.
The ZTE Score, however, is NOT an expensive phone and is a perfect candidate for playing around with rooting if I ever saw one.
I do not have this down to a science, but I am going to share with you what worked for me.
If it works for you, Great!
If you find a way to improve on anything discussed here, leave a comment and I’ll look into it and add it to the discussion if warranted.
NOTE: Do not forget to check out the links at the end of this post for special recovery images, how to go back to a stock rom, specialized roms, and other tools and how-to items.
The Down and Dirty Process
Super One Click actually uses Zerg to root the device through its interface – for some reason or another, this interface through Super One Click works while the Zerg tool itself seems to not be working at the moment on its own. You can get Super One Click at XDA or Shortfuse.org.
The root method is similar – make sure you have the Window’s drivers installed, which you can get straight from ZTE. Put your device into USB Debugging Mode by going through ”menu”—>”Settings”—->Manage Applications—>Development and then select the check box for debugging mode.
You may need to disable your Antivirus auto protect to unzip Super One Click and then run it without the antivirus determining that the Zerg tool is a “hack tool” that is dangerous to your computer. A alot of Antivirus software is designed to auto remove or “fix” these files, and you will need to disable it (or tell it the file is safe if possible) if it tried to auto remove Zerg.
After all this, connect the x500 ZTE Score by USB to the computer and run SuperOneClick.exe.
The one problem I ran in to was that the three times I successfully rooted the ZTE Score during my trials, each time it put the device into a boot loop where it showed the Muve Music banner over and over and over and over. To abort this, I just pulled the battery and disconnected the USB from the computer. This worked each time without any lasting ill effects.
I recommend using “Root Checker Basic” to see if the process was successful.
Happy Rooting!
Things I’ve tried that did not work:
- Gingerbreak
- Z4Root
-Unlock Root
- Zerg’s One Click Permanent Root Tool (the tool outside of SuperOneClick)
Old Method – *No Longer Works*
First, I followed Jon’s advice over at Yahoo Answers to use Zerg’s One Click Permanent Root tool. I had tried Z4root, Gingerbreak, and a few other options, but all of them had not worked
Second, I started the long process (in my case, hopefully not in yours) of getting the computer to install the right drivers for the ZTE Score.
I started by hunting down the official USB driver for ZTE devices and picked ZTE+Android+USB+Driver+for+Microsoft+PC_5.2066.1.8 .
Now, I am NOT sure that this driver was the key to my success at installing the phone driver or not, but I am including this information and the link because I did not have any success before I installed this and I did have success after although not directly related to those files per se.
Third, I put my phone in “Debugging mode” and went to my Window’s 7 “Devices and Printers” menu and right clicked on the ZTE drive that showed up and selected auto run and then “setup”.
After installing the setup the first time, I have been unable to replicate finding this file. This setup took me to a Android driver install screen for the ZTE device.
Window’s kept asking me to format the drive that this program was stored on, and I continually declined it — I’m not sure what that was about and I did not want to erase my phone.
*Note* You can get to “Debugging Mode” from the home screen by pressing “menu”—>”Settings”—->Manage Applications—>Development and in there Debugging is an option.
Fourth, I ran the ZergRushTempRoot.bat file that was inside the zip file of Zerg’s One Click Permanent Root tool. I watched the console go through a bunch of text and then it said it was successful, restarted something, and then bam! it was rooted.
I restarted the phone and I used the app “Root Check” to verify that I had root installed. The ZTE Score comes with Busybox already installed according to the “Root Check”, which is cool.
Final words — As far as I know, there is no backup ROM out there on the internet if you irreparably screw up the ZTE Score. If you attempt to follow in my footsteps – be careful. I will write more about my root adventures as I have them.
Welcome to the jungle!
Rock That Mobile ZTE Score!
Updated Resources List
- Window’s Driver for ZTE Score
- SuperOneClick Home – Downloads
- Stock Pull ZTE – x500 from Android Central
- Flash Stock Recovery for x500 ZTE Score
- XDA Developers’ Forum Zerg and SuperOneClick thread – check this for latest editions.
- Stock ROM Images - Get the links to the stock rom images for the ZTE Score
- Custom Recovery Images - ClockworkMod may not be an option, but this is!
*disclaimer* This is not an endorsement of rooting your phone – and Rock That Mobile takes zero responsibility for anything you do with your phone including attempting to follow the process about to be explained. You may hurt your phone and void your warranty.*disclaimer*
I preciate you mentioning my name and not taking credit for finding it ! *Thumbs Up*
For sure! I’ve been playing around with it all day – It looks like SuperOneClick also works – especially useful for the unroot ability it has.
Johny can you make a video?
I have the same phone, and I was wondering if you got rid of the muve app. I am not interested in that feature and want it to go away, along with some other bloatware. Congrats on being the forst to post something specific on this phone model.
Can you make a video? im confused.
dont think he reads this site very often..
I just bought this phone. I have a Cricket ZTE Score X500. When i do a
google search a get a popup for handwriting when i try to use the
keyboard. How do I turn OFFG the handwriting feature when doing a Google
search?
on the screen above the ?123 button there is a world looking button next to that there is an arrow press that then press the keyboard it should be the next option next to the world.. but you probaly found out by now i mean its been three months but if not or if anyone esle needs this then here ya go
Once rooted, is there a way to enable the use of standard MicroSD cards instead of using the proprietary Muve MicroSD card?
The standard microSD cards work for the phone in general before root, but in both cases, it will not work with MUVE (at least not in my case).
I am not rooted. …yet… .and I just swapped the card. I have a 16GB running no problem.
Once rooted, is there a way to enable the use of standard MicroSD cards instead of using the proprietary Muve MicroSD card?
Mine took a 32gig SD card with no problem. Copied the files off the old one and then transferred them to the new one (apps and everything). You don’t get the Muze bloatware with it, but you get a helluva lot of room. I have several favorite movies stored there to play back when I get bored… The 4 gigSD card that comes with it only has 1gig free – and no reliable way to get the 3 gigs back (I searched the Internet for hours on this one.) After rooting, just delete the Muze app and replace the SD card with something bigger.
stuck on daemon started successfully…
the same thing happened to me, u messed up when installing the driver what youu should do is backup ur computer einstall before u install the driver set the phone to debug then install the driver… WORKED FOR ME!!! insted of reinstalling the computer u can always use a friends computer that does not have the driver installed
I work for cricket and i can tell you at any time you want to use a different sd card you can unless you use the muve music program
I want to know if anyone has been able to remove the muve program after the root was done
I removed it after root.
I did try to remove it and than it came back along with a couple others. Confused me, but I will attempt again when I have time to figure out why.
doesnt work for me. im running winows xp pro
What specifically is not working? I’ll try to help.
I, too, am trying this with Windows XP, and my problem is finding the ZTE driver on my computer after installing it. The directions at the top of this page mentions “Windows 7 devices and printers”. I don’t have that option with XP. For me, from the Control Panel it looks like “Add Hardware”, “Add/Remove Programs”, “Phone/Modem Options”, “Printers/Faxes”, and “System”. Of course, there are other options in my control panel, but these are what seem plausible are are where I’ve looked yet. Please help if you know about WinXP and rooting!
p.s. When I downloaded the USB Driver from ZTE+Android+USB+Driver+for+Microsoft+PC_5.2066.1.8 -the link above- it said it would store it in my “Program Files”, BUT I CAN’T FIND IT!!!! Anyway, I would appreciate more specific directions regarding WinXP…
click start then type in the file name in the search bar it should find it for you
oh btw i have had to replace the phone already. prox sensor oes not work right causes me to hang up on calls.also it shuts off at least 2-4 times daily
crazy….mine shut off a bunch too at first until I turned on mobile data, which you probably have enabled unless you are making wi-fi calls. If mobile data is turned off, it does shut down by itself. It shouldn’t, but it does.
hhow did u do it?
Are you asking how you replace the phone?
Thanks for the information on rooting my ZTE Score. Followed your directions just don’t turn on USB storage.
i just rooted my phone thanks
Awesome! Thanks for reading and keep rock’n!
Awesome! So glad to hear it worked out for you!
startIndex cannot be larger than length of string…but mostly slow,
takes 120 seconds between each pass, i tried a few programs, all the
same, I have no SD Card, or if I do, its disabled, i did do the following:
Can someone let me know if I am missing something here:
Under Device Manager, my ZTE Score 2.3 kernel phone, is set under Disk Drives ZTEMT Mass storage USB
I have tried to install the drivers both XP ways, I do not think i can run anything under this…5.1.2600.0 under USB Mass Storage Device by Microsoft, 2001 Driver tab. I believe this is where I am not getting success, and DEP under WIndows XP is a stellar addition:
SuperOneClick v2.1.1.0
Checking drivers…
Killing ADB Server…
OK 121.03s
Starting ADB Server…
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
OK 121.58s
Waiting for device…
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
OK 121.75s
Getting manufacturer…
startIndex cannot be larger than length of string.
Parameter name: startIndex
FAILED
Do I need the Android SDK tools and platform tools? When I attempt to uninstall the driver for USB, and install the one given for this phone, it says the one given in my example 2001 Microsoft USB driver is the best. Then, i uninstalled, and tried to update it using the drivers manually, or did i?
Update: I have successfully rooted my ZTE using Superuser. Couple things I did wrong, 3 actually:
1) I bought one of those multi-charging USB Cords which does not carry data back to your PC, only charges your phone from USB.
2) After getting a straight shooter USB Cord, my PC detected and installed the drivers, a new Drive Letter appears in My Computer. Here, I did not click on it and click the .exe file to I guess, finish the installation. Once I did this, using Superuser was fast and I had no problems.
3) I bought a Cricket phone instead of Sprint or Sprint’s sister company, Boost Mobile, who do not slow your data transfer. There are some days, I have 1 Kb/s while trying to use Cricket online. But it gets me on Facebook and Email. Go with a different carrier. But, if you are reading this, I guess your stuck with a chirping bug for awhile. I also get the occasional message, I am not allowed to Tether while online, usually when I first connect. So far, they just warn me, but a quick reset of the phone, and I am back in business. I called about their extra $10 they want for Tethering a month, and they said they can only set it up on 2 Brands of Cricket phones currently. I should have gone with a better, more substantial, company that does not throttle bandwidth, or one that would allow the extra charge if I had a different phone model. I am sick of buying new phones with this company! I am sorry I ever allowed that drunk female to steal my last Boost phone (tmi?). I am tackling the next thieven dog, or I might just save me the trouble and go back to Boost on my next phone. Thanks all who helped us with getting my phone rooted, appreciate it greatly while I transition to a new location! Thanks all who helped us getting my phone rooted, appreciate it greatly while I transition to a new location!
Side note: Isn’t that Green looking icon so lame they use for smileys and such, uggh! Its like a Green Grasshopper, yet their name is Cricket, no one wants to look at that retarded stuff. Also, I have uninstalled Superuser and reinstalled, but I am still getting a new message that my su binary is outdated. The Update Fixer did not solve the issue either. I am not sure if I even need to mess with it.
Hey thanks for the updates on your progress! Ever thought of Virgin Mobile?
Got it!
Download file ADB for dummies and thank the developer! ^.°
I then ran everything else and success!
According to ROCK THAT MOBILE method.
Succesfully deleted bloat gameloft, Books, Docs to go,
So glad to hear it!
Hi I have rooted my ZTE X500 following your method without any problem. For root I used “Zerg_Root_OneClick” it did hang at step 6 and after phone re-booted it did continued and finished and at that point phone was in loop of restarting, I unplug USB and restarted phone and it was rooted. I have one question since I am in Canada and will not be able to use Cricket service can I delete Cricket applications without affecting other features, and can the phone be unlocked to be able to use here for Canadian providers. The reason I bought it was because of GPS. For $69.99 and now for ($49.99) I believe it is the best GPS system money can buy, beside GPS you have WiFi, BT and camera. When in WiFi hot spots can access internet.I tried almost all GPS programs for android offered as trial and it works excellent I would recommend to everyone to buy specially when it is now on sale for $49.99. You have a choice to use as GPS only and you can also subscribe to Cricket. I would suggest first buy phone root install what ever you want than call Cricket and subscribe and choose plan of your choice.
Thanks for good tutorial for rooting phone and un-rooting – I did not try un-rooting and can not confirm – no need to un-root in my case.
Thank sagain
Zoki
Thanks for the update and the detail! Its a great “poor man” substitute for gps, ipod touch, etc. Best of luck!
I followed these instructions – didn’t work. I used SuperOneClick v2.2 and it did work. I confirmed I have superuser access, but I’m not able to delete bloatware. I read your instructions for unrooting this phone and I wonder if SuperOneClick didn’t finish the process completely?
Good, I’m glad Superoneclick worked for you. You can root this phone either way, but after several trials, I had more success working with Zerg than with SuperOneClick because of its hanging problem. Thanks for the update! I appreciate the feedback.
Hi , After rooting my phone I uninstalled cricket application with no problem and everything is ok. for removing applications I used “rom toolbox pro”
This phone sucks,i bought this phone not a month ago,and the phone don’t work,i did every thing on reboot the phone,it still don’t i paid too much for a phone that don’t work, my child bought the same phone and hers doin the same thang nothing,i would put this all over the world if i have to,no refund no nothing,
What was it doing? Sounds very frustrating!
I suggest anyone having probs run ADB for dummies first. Fixed all my probs instantly.
WORKED GREAT THANKS A BUNCH
Won’t let me dl any of the required files to root; keeps failing. Might I suggest a different place to dl the files? Also, can this be done through an adhoc instead of usb cable? I don’t have one for this phone… and Im trying to dl the files to my phone transfer them through adhoc.
I do not know about using adhoc – how about bluetooth? I do not host these files myself, but they are on the multi-upload server and you can choose from many different download servers. I had no problem downloading them on my end. Maybe try through a wireless connection.
Got it to work tonight… and sadly the laptop doesn’t hace bt. Wish it did. Still not rooted yet; root verify says no.
Worked on the very first shot. This was my first time rooting and you made it easy as a . … Never mind, we’ll just say EASY!
Thanks a bunch! Hopefully no problems arise or I’ll be using the “UnRoot” method, lol.
Yesterday I rooted my ZTE Score from Cricket. I used Zerg _Root_OneCliick. However I had to use Root Tools and Busy Box Pro Installer from applanet.net to uninstall unwanted bloatware from Cricket. If there is better apps to uninstall applications please let me know.
I think the most commonly used uninstall utility is the Titanium Backup, but it looks like https://market.android.com/details?id=name.dohkoos.rootuninstaller&feature=search_result has a good free version with super high ratings. In general, it is much safer to download apps from the market and not from app planet. If you can find a market app that works for you – I’d choose it first.
Links do not work. Please update?
Hey thanks for letting me know – I’ve updated the links to a mediafire host. Let me know if there are any more problems.
Links are dead
Fixed. Hosted at Mediafire now.
Links are not dead…working fine… I just downloaded the files.
ok so it wont let me download the files that are on here…it keeps saying that the application failed? Any ideas?
It actually says that the application is not found.
Are you talking about the mediafire links? Both just worked for me if you are – maybe their servers went down yesterday for a bit?
WINDOWS SAYS “THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT INSTALL ON 64BIT PLATFORMS???
Worked Great.
Thanks for the feedback!
Step 1: Download the zerg stuff, download the windows driver for CricketZte — unzip and save both of these to your Windows XP machine C: drive, or D: Drive to a folder that you can remember — I used C:AndroidRootingCricketZTE — though it is up to you where you want to put/extract these two download things.
Step 2: Plug in the phone with USB cable to your Windows XP machine. Check that “USB debugging” in your Android Phone Settings under “Applications/Development” is checked on . I also had Unkown Sources checked — though don’t know if that matters
Step 3: After you plugin this Phone to your computer, it will be one of the drive letters in your “My Computer” window. So, in mine it had an icon of a CDRom Drive as Drive E: — but that really was the Android phone, so when I open that, I could see the typical “Autorun” file for a CD program install. I double clicked that AutoRun.exe and then it started a dialog Wizard to install the Windows driver for the Cricket phone. I think this driver comes with Cricket phone – obviously. It asks you to restart Windows XP. Do so.
Step 4: When Windows is back, and your Cricket phone is plugged in with USB cord, —make sure that on the phone screen that you do NOT click the button that says “Turn on USB storage”. Yes, NOT doing that IS a Step.
Step 5: Now you can run the software you downloaded earlier — the Windows USB Driver for ZTE devices: ZTE+Android+USB+Driver+for+Microsoft+PC_5.2066.1.8
.
Step 6: once that is all done following all the steps it said to do…, and still making sure that you did NOT click “Turn on USB storage” button on the Cricket phone screen – check the screen now!! not clicked, right?, good, you are now ready to finally run zerg.
Step 7: Run Zerg. It will go through a few lines..where says sending in zergs. I freaked at this…, but all was well after a few moments when it completed and those zergs did their job.
It says press any key to continue…do so. Reboot your phone a couple of times I think and it voila… Rooted phone. Courtesy and respects to Rock for providing the way to do this.
Rock on.
did not work for me stuck on first step
Finally!!! One that actually works! YOU FREAKIN ROCK!!!!!!!
*little dances* awesome! Great to hear!
I am not getting this to work i have the Metro PCS x500 which is just a different name for the score.. This is what i get
C:Zerg rush root>adb wait-for-deviceC:Zerg rush root>adb push zergRush /data/local/304 KB/s (21215 bytes in 0.068s)C:Zerg rush root>adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/zergRushC:Zerg rush root>adb shell rm /data/local/tmp/*shC:Zerg rush root>adb shell /data/local/zergRush[**] Zerg rush – Android 2.2/2.3 local root[**] (C) 2011 Revolutionary. All rights reserved.[**] Parts of code from Gingerbreak, (C) 2010-2011 The Android Exploid Crew.[+] Found a GingerBread ! 0×00016118[*] Scooting …[*] Sending 149 zerglings …[*] Sending 189 zerglings …[-] Hellions with BLUE flames !C:Zerg rush root>adb wait-for-deviceC:Zerg rush root>adb shell sleep 1C:Zerg rush root>adb remountremount failed: Operation not permittedC:Zerg rush root>adb shell mount -o rw,remount rootfs /mount: Operation not permittedC:Zerg rush root>adb shell mount -o remount,suid /dev/block/mmcblk0p29 /systemmount: Operation not permittedC:Zerg rush root>adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/shUnable to chmod /system/bin/sh: Operation not permittedC:Zerg rush root>adb push ./su /system/binfailed to copy ‘./su’ to ‘/system/bin/su’: Permission deniedC:Zerg rush root>adb push ./su /system/binfailed to copy ‘./su’ to ‘/system/bin/su’: Permission deniedC:Zerg rush root>adb push ./busybox /system/binfailed to copy ‘./busybox’ to ‘/system/bin/busybox’: Permission deniedC:Zerg rush root>adb shell chmod 4755 /system/binUnable to chmod /system/bin: Operation not permittedC:Zerg rush root>adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/suUnable to chmod /system/bin/su: No such file or directoryC:Zerg rush root>adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/suUnable to chmod /system/bin/su: No such file or directoryC:Zerg rush root>adb push ./Superuser.apk /system/appfailed to copy ‘./Superuser.apk’ to ‘/system/app/Superuser.apk’: Permission deniedC:Zerg rush root>adb install ./androidterm.apk446 KB/s (92780 bytes in 0.203s) pkg: /data/local/tmp/androidterm.apkFailure [INSTALL_FAILED_ALREADY_EXISTS]C:Zerg rush root>adb wait-for-deviceC:Zerg rush root>adb shell syncC:Zerg rush root>pausePress any key to continue . . .
What am i doing wrong??? please help!!
Just to let everyone kno the newest version of superoneclick works the best for rooting the score
Excellent! Thanks for the update!
im using a windows 7 computer and cant get the zte to root. using superoneclick, it kills adb server. then starts adb server. then just sits. Ive tried everything, zerg, superoneclick, gingerbreak. nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?
This method works great BUT MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT DRIVERS…… you can get them here http://www.mediafire.com/?so5a4mf6v6zzb0j
Superoneclick apk 2.3.3 did work for me. I did it under VirtualBox OSE running under Ubuntu – trick was getting the virtual machine to recognize the USB drives, and then – as noted – getting the right driver. For XP (not Window7) the link is
http://www.zteusa.com/support/index_1101.html#2
New superoneclick incorporates the Zerg material above.
Thanks…worked great the first time. I actually didn’t see your comment under the post saying to make sure you do NOT click “Turn on USB storage”and I had mine turned on but it still rooted using the driver + zerg that I downloaded. The whole process only took about 5 minutes and after that, I used Root Browser app (which I already had on my SD card from my last phone) to delete all the bloatware, and then I downloaded Titanium Backup and moved all my apps to the SD card at once. This was super easy, thanks again for posting this.
For those of you having trouble locating the drivers on you Driod I found them here. Couldnt get back starting dameon before. Now Im stuck at step 7. http://www.zteusa.com/device/201109/t20110920_9107.html Under product support.
why people have to be so stupid for this rooting thing good for nothing!
Wont work !! and im getting angry!
I try to downloading ZergRushTempRoot and it was unsuccessful and i try it like 8 time
I am now recommending using Super One Click instead of Zerg. http://shortfuse.org/
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Twitter: jerrywhyte
ZTE still one of the largest mobile modem manufaturer, great post
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