Hey guys Im looking into flashing to either an updated(official froyo) or custom rom as my phone keeps dieing when in areas with poor reception, or does the whole comatose thing when I go to an HSPDA enabled area (I'm on Virign mobile so that would be when I work in Pretoria from time to time) which are really negatively impacting on my opinion of the phone (I get less than 6 hours of standby, with cell standby using around 50% of the battery). Now I've tried apn droid and similar apps to get it to stop using the mobile internet to save battery, but they dont seem to work. Its extremely frustrating to not have a phone towards the end of the working day when your unable to leave it charging. Now I have been doing some reading into flashing and the rest, but just have a couple questions and also some help as to not end up bricking the device (difficult as I can get into 3 button recovery mode, but still possible).
So firstly some questions:
-Will I have to manually set up my 3g/edge settings after the flash?
- What kind of data and settings will I loose flashing, and where possible how can I avoid this?
- For custom roms - Which is the most functional easy to start with? I assume Doc's - JPO due to how popular it seems in this thread.
The flashing process:
-Bare in mind I will be flashing from a stock version of the phone, details below. The phone has never been rooted and thus had no lag fixes installed.
-So my question is where do I start? For the vanilla foryo from samfirmware do I just flash in the order shown and is XWJPO the correct version to flash?
-For a custom like Doc's:
-Whats the correct order to install everything? I have read through the instructions but they seemed more geared to someone who has already flashed to froyo or another custom rom.
- For instance, do you first install the clockwork recovery or do you do the file system fragmentation fix that is linked(is this not more risky without a proper recovery)?
- How long does the process take? I need to know how much time to set aside to avoid a late night.
-Are there any big no nos? (besides the not checking if you can enter into recovery mode)
My Phone Details:
-PDA : I9000WJM3
-Phone: I9000XXJM2
-CSC : I9000XXJM2
I know this has been explained time after time, but I have tried looking through the posts and can't find anything beyond refer to XDA forums, which is where I'm getting confused about the order. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.
The first thing you should check is if your GPS and Wi-Fi are on. GPS will kill your battery in no time. Put it off when not needed.
For a stock Froyo rom, wait for it to be released here. The upgrade through Kies will keep all your apps and settings. If you choose this option, install One Click Lag Fix and root and apply the lagfix to your stock eclair phone. It really does make a difference. Remember to undo the lagfix before flashing to the official Froyo or any custom roms.
As far as custom roms go, my experience goes as follows:
1. Search the market for an app called One Click Lag Fix (or OCLF) and install it. Now you can click the button to root your phone. You should not actually apply the lagfix because you are going to flash a new rom.
2. Now that you are rooted, back to the market with you and get an app called Titanium Backup. You will need root access to use this app. This is the app I use for backup and restoring of apps and settings. Backup all apps and system settings.
3. Before any flashing is done, be sure your 3 button fix has been done: Follow the super simple guide here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=821698
Scroll down in the first post to after he welcomes his kid into the world and start following those instructions.
4. So you've now rooted and backed up everything. Go back to the market and get an app called ROM Manager. You can use this to make a backup of your entire rom, or install a new rom (haven't tried installing a rom through this app though). You don't have to make a backup, but rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
5. Go get the rom you want and throw it on your phone. Ultimate is unbelievably fast and has some REALLY cool features (Faster/smoother than iPhone 4. I have both devices and I compared), but you lose lots of the samsung apps that came with the phone. Nothing that hinders the phone in any way though. DocROM JPO is very cool and has a lot of the original apps that came with the phone, although I must say it seems slower than Ultimate (it's still fast though). I still need to try Darky's. Probably will do that today.
6. Because I don't use that "install a new rom" feature in ROM Manager, I would suggest opening ROM Manager and clicking "reboot into recovery". This should put you into the ClockworkMod Recovery boot menu. Use your volume buttons to scroll down to "Install zip from sdcard" and press the home or power button to select. Go through the folders until you find your rom and select it. One or two confirmations and it will now start the installation.
* Always read the installation instructions/warnings on the rom thread
7. Once you're up and running, go get Titanium Backup from the market and restore your apps.
Once you've done all of this once, to flash a new ROM is just steps 5 and 6.
Set aside about an hour to do all of this for the first time because it'll be new to you. After your first flash, you flash a new rom in about 15 mins.
Unless you buy the Titanium Backup app, you're going to spend a while restoring because you have to click install for every app.
Hope this helped. Let me know if you need any more help or I left something out.
Yeah, like Matt said, try it first before doing a factory reset. I've had loads of data corruption issues when flashing a new ROM. Not immediately upon flashing the ROM, but after using it and rebooting the phone after a day or two. I always make a backup of my app data and homescreen settings before flashing a new ROM or rebooting the phone after a fresh flash, just because I know the agony involved in setting everything up exactly as it was again.
