Guest Zane_Knight Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Hey everyone. Less than a week ago, I upgraded my phone from T-Mobile and made the leap from a V3 Razr to an MDA Vario. It's like going from a pushbike to a Hayabusa and I'm a little out of my depth. I've been reading a lot about roms. I know i have an OS 1.6.2.4 and that's about it. I know there is a more recent rom out as I've seen the screen shots and it's different from mine. Is installing a new rom as simple as it sounds? I haven't saved anything on the phone so it's not as if I will lose everything but will installing a new rom automatically put all the programs that came as standard back onto the phone or do I have to do that manually by using the discs that came with the phone? My main reason for wanting to upgrade the rom, is because there was something that prevented you from wardriving with the old one. It apparently stored a limited number of points in memory and wouldn't clear them out. Hopefully you guys will be able to explain the new rom thing in noob english! My second question is about GPS. I've figured out that TomTom is a real good one to have and I have now figured out that you need a GPS reciever to use it...I told you I was a noob!!! Can anyone recommend a good GPS at a decent price please? I'm looking on ebay but I'd rather get some expert advice than get stiffed. I'm still a noob with the Vario so please don't flame me to death just yet! Thanks for taking the time to read this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Madeye Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Hi Zane! Yes installing a new rom is as easy as it sounds. Problems can occur but if you follow the instructions and keep your fingers crossed you should be ok! Make sure you get the correct rom for your device, it sounds obvious but I just thought I'd reiterate! Instaling a new rom will put the phone back to the original state with everything it had when you got it. Any applications on the CD will probably need to be reinstalled but I'm not sure what they are from t-mobile. There's plenty of information on here about installing new roms so I'll just let you search in the knowledge that it's really not difficult! As for GPS, the most reliable way is to probably buy the official tomtom that comes with the receiver. However that's also the most expensive. If you have / want to get the software on it's own and buy a seperate receiver then check out this post: http://www.modaco.com/index.php?showtopic=241138&hl= I recommend a device in there that's working perfectly for me! Good luck! Wes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zane_Knight Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Thanks a lot for that Wes. Much appreciated indeed. Can I just bug you for one more thing? Installing the Rom. Is it simply a case of putting the exe file onto the Vario and opening it there or do I have to set it up on my desktop and transfer it? Real sorry to ask such a basic question, but it's the first time I've ever had to do anything like this! I tried looking for a step by step idiot guide but couldn't find one so I guess I must be a touch above brain dead! :) Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest awarner (MVP) Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 I've been reading a lot about roms. I know i have an OS 1.6.2.4 and that's about it. I know there is a more recent rom out as I've seen the screen shots and it's different from mine. Welcome to the site :) The ROM you have on your Vario is the latest one available. We are waiting on an AKU2 update but only Germany has had the privilage of this ROM from Tmobile. There are newer ROMs as such from imate but if you install these you will be invalidating your warrany with Tmobile. The Tmobile update is long over due as they did announce it was going to be released back in March, so only a few months late so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zane_Knight Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Welcome to the site :) The ROM you have on your Vario is the latest one available. We are waiting on an AKU2 update but only Germany has had the privilage of this ROM from Tmobile. There are newer ROMs as such from imate but if you install these you will be invalidating your warrany with Tmobile. The Tmobile update is long over due as they did announce it was going to be released back in March, so only a few months late so far. Thanks a lot for that! You saved me possibly downgrading my rom! I saw a picture of the comms manager screen and it looked different to mine. Mine has 4 options going down in a column. Wi-Fi BT Volume Active Sync The other screen I saw had 5 options in it so I figured it was more recent. I heard that war driving was not possible with the old rom but the new one makes it possible. Is that true? Perhaps you could set me straight on that. Thanks again for your help. It really is appreciated. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest awarner (MVP) Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Sorry I am not sure what you mean by war driving? I have never heard of that before? As for the latest ROM, (just so you can check for future updates from tim to time ) here's the link http://t-mobile.iris-global.com/download_m..._mda_vario.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zane_Knight Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Sorry I am not sure what you mean by war driving? I have never heard of that before? Maybe I got the wrong term, but I thought that's what WiFiFoFum was designed for? ...I get the feeling I may have mentioned something seriously off topic. Apologies to the mods if I have! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zombiefly Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 (edited) hi, the t-mobile roms are buggy and slow. I was using t-mobile and experiencing less than acceptable behaviour from the vario, so i changed over to the i-mate rom, and havent had a single problem since (honestly, its much faster and much more stable) It is true that changing the rom potentially screws the warranty, although if you back up your existing rom etc first, you could always re-apply the t-mobile rom should it need to go back (providing of course that the unit is still working! :) ) its also worth noting that the t-mobile rom doesnt support the 56g band of wireless, the i-mate rom does. see my sig for rom upgrade guide, should you wish to start experimenting :) re: gps, if you want a cheap and cheerful solution, you could get a BT77 GPS unit from ebay (around Edited June 1, 2006 by zombiefly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zane_Knight Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 (edited) Thanks a lot for that! Again, much appreciated. I was also wondering, can I scan for other BT devices with the Vario? I know exactly how to do it with the V3 Razr but I'm kinda lost with the Vario. Any tips appreciated. Just a quick edit, but I was just looking at the BT77 on ebay! You saved me a long search for info. Cheers dude! Edited June 1, 2006 by Zane_Knight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Monolithix (MVP) Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Press the comms manager button on the side of your Vario, then go to BT settings. You can add a new device from the devices tab at the bottom of the screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zane_Knight Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Thankyou! I knew it had to be something real simple. Much appreciated and thanks to everyone who has made a noob feel at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest awarner (MVP) Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 hi, the t-mobile roms are buggy and slow. I was using t-mobile and experiencing less than acceptable behaviour from the vario, so i changed over to the i-mate rom, and havent had a single problem since (honestly, its much faster and much more stable) After installing the new Tmobile ROM and making sure none of the Tmobile junk was installed, which a soft reset before cab files install after a hard reset fixes. I then unlocked the extended ROM and only installed applications I actually needed. Since doing that I do not have any problems lockups or speed etc with my vario. The only issue at the moment which is across devices and not just the Vario is the random soft resets that happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zombiefly Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 After installing the new Tmobile ROM and making sure none of the Tmobile junk was installed, which a soft reset before cab files install after a hard reset fixes. I then unlocked the extended ROM and only installed applications I actually needed. Since doing that I do not have any problems lockups or speed etc with my vario. The only issue at the moment which is across devices and not just the Vario is the random soft resets that happen. ...i tried that before going with the i-mate rom. I was getting random resets etc, at least once a day. I even left the phone as default for a few days, just the t-mob rom on, still it was resetting. Since installing the i-mate rom, i haven't had a single reset, i can now leave the device on for a week or more without a single hitch. I even went as far as restoring the t-mob rom recently to see if the resets came back, can you guess what happened? :) T-mobile need to get their act together with this. Props to them for the web'n'walk tariff, but their hardware dept. seems clueless (well, not quiet as clueless as orange! :) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now