Since the last couple of o/s updates, my normally trusty Nexus-S has taken a few times to restart with it hanging on the 'Google' boot screen and not rolling on to the 'X' booting screen. Tried re-seating the battery as well as the boot options and a restart with the SIM card removed with some success. Now it just has the 'Google' screen and won't go any further.

How do I do a 'master' reset on the the android beast, back to when it was 'out of the box' new?

Thanks,

NL

You're going to have to grind through XDA Forums...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1245707&highlight=stuck+on+Google+logo

Look for similar threads, read them all before attempting anything.

Can you enter recovery mode (volume down and power at the same time when phone is off, hold until phone enters recovery). If yes, then you will see the Android bot and a warning sign. Press volume up and power at the same time (might take several attempts) to bypass that screen and enter recovery. Then in recovery you can wipe the cache and do a factory reset. You move the selection with the volume keys and commit with the power key.

If not can you get into bootloader mode (volume up and power at the same time in same manner as above). If you can get into bootloader mode scroll down to recovery and press power. It should then reboot to recovery mode. Then do as above.

The latest OTA seems to have soft-bricked a lot of phones. Even a cache wipe and factory reset might not solve your problem if the OTA corrupted the system files.

If you can get into fastboot and not recovery then it gets much more technical and nerdy to fix. It involves unlocking the bootloader, flashing a custom recovery, formatting the system and flashing a new rom. On some Nexus S the bootloader cannot be unlocked due to a firmware bug and that is an entirely different can of worms. That requires Odin to fix, if possible at all.

Good luck.