Guest MHAD Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 Hi everyone I have taken the plunge and ordered an HTC Diamond off ebay. Whilst I'm sitting waiting for it to arrive, my list of stuff to do is starting to grow... and I have some newbie questions... Unlocking - I've found various websites offering unlock codes etc for GBP1.99, 2.99 etc. Do any of these actually work? What are people's recommended way to unlock? The phone, I'm told, is an Orange handset, whereas I'll need to use it on Vodafone. ROMs - blimey, this looks confusing. I don't know which ROM will be on the handset when it arrives, an Orange one obvioulsy. My main concern is that I want to minimise lag, get the best usability out of the handset. I'd like to stick with the HTC colour scheme, touchflow interface etc for now until I get used to fiddling about. I've seen, in passing, the word HardSPL but I have no idea yet what that means. What ROM would people recommend I flash to to start with? And do I need to unlock the phone before hand, afterwards, or doesn't it matter? Many questions will follow I'm sure - thanks for your patience ! Cheers :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SSR Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 Unlocking - I've found various websites offering unlock codes etc for GBP1.99, 2.99 etc. Do any of these actually work? What are people's recommended way to unlock? The phone, I'm told, is an Orange handset, whereas I'll need to use it on Vodafone. Sorry, not sure on this as I bought an HTC version. ROMs - blimey, this looks confusing. I don't know which ROM will be on the handset when it arrives, an Orange one obvioulsy. My main concern is that I want to minimise lag, get the best usability out of the handset. I'd like to stick with the HTC colour scheme, touchflow interface etc for now until I get used to fiddling about. I've seen, in passing, the word HardSPL but I have no idea yet what that means. What ROM would people recommend I flash to to start with? A lot of people seem to use Dutty's, which has various configurable options and appears to be the best for speed. Personally I've stuck with HTC's 1.93 ROM for the moment. HardSPL is some software that modifies the phone to allow non-standard ROMs to be uploaded. And do I need to unlock the phone before hand, afterwards, or doesn't it matter? Probably best to wait until after unlocking, just in case it restores the lock somehow. Hopefully someone else will know for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Neil5459 Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 As far as I'm aware, the only relaible SIM unlock codes are those available from Olipro/Olinex on the XDA-Devs site. Steer clear of any for sale on Ebay etc- some of these were based on beta code from Oli are are not reliable. Hard SPL is needed to flash any non Standard ROM. You may get away with flashing the official HTC ROM without Hard SPL, but I'm not sure. You can unlock the SIM before or after instaling a new HardSPL or ROM- once unlocked it stays unlocked. I agree with SSR- Dutty's ROMs seem to be the most resilient, and the Full versions are just like the HTC Stock ROMs but with the speed improvements and latest apps from Diamond and Touch Pro devices already built in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jimbouk Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 I have an orange HTC Diamond. It was sim unlocked via Olinex's unlocker and is now running Dutty's latest rom. It is all dead simple to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kaushj Posted August 26, 2008 Report Share Posted August 26, 2008 Good Rom upgrade tutorial for noobs There is no perfect rom. All the Rom Cookers are doing a great job making these cooked roms ,faster and with better usability. :D You can download the whole lot and flash each one and see which one suits you. There are lite versions which have fewer apps aswell. The link above will take you to a tutorial which will guide you all the way. Its very easy,and doesnt take long. Go to Xda-developers it will answer all of your questions. Hope this helps. :D Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MHAD Posted August 27, 2008 Report Share Posted August 27, 2008 Thanks for the replies everyone ! Phone arrived today. My Orange Just Talk SIM is in the phone now, and it's great. Right - off I go to unlock and flash to Dutty's latest ROM then ... fingers crossed ;o) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MHAD Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 Just thought I'd let you guys know how I got on. The phone arrived and I ordered an unlock code from Oli - came in 24 hours, very impressed and grateful ! Whilst I was waiting for that, I had a go at some ROM stuff. I had problems with my work laptop, the RUU kept saying that it had lost the connection to the handset. So to avoid bricking so early on I used a Vista machine with all security stuff turned off and no internet connection - did the trick. Updating to HardSPL was fine. Then I checked dutty's site, and the new 1.8 ROM had come out that day. Bingo... so I had a go at that, all went fine - so I was very pleased with myself. Next up came the unlock from Oli, which, it turned out, wouldn't play with my Diamond unless I flashed the Radio ROM to the one that came with the unlock RUU. No problem, did that, unlock went fine. I was now on Voda. I left it there for a week or so - dutty's 1.8 ROM but with the Radio ROM from Oli. I installed TomTom7 with the free map (had to download the .cab to PC though rather than to the Diamond, wouldn't work otherwise), then once I was happy that it was useable and I could ditch my modded Navman iCN520 (running TomTom6), I went off to tomtom and bought the Western European maps. All good so far. The only other thing I've done since then is re-flash the Radio ROM to 1.00.25.05 this morning, in the hope that I can eek some more battery life out of it. Happy bloke so far. Thanks again for the links to the tutorials etc. So ... what else can I do to tweak.... ? My only gripe at the moment is a usability one - the screen turning off too quickly during a call. This causes a few problems when listening to voicemail - when needing to, for example, press 7 to save the message, I have to wake up the Diamond screen with the power button, launch the kaypad, then press 7, hoping the voicemail hasn't timed out and moved to the next one - I don't know 'cos I haven't got the phone to my ear as I'm pressing stuff ;o) Anyway, thanks for a great forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest estechco Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 So ... what else can I do to tweak.... ? My only gripe at the moment is a usability one - the screen turning off too quickly during a call. This causes a few problems when listening to voicemail - when needing to, for example, press 7 to save the message, I have to wake up the Diamond screen with the power button, launch the kaypad, then press 7, hoping the voicemail hasn't timed out and moved to the next one - I don't know 'cos I haven't got the phone to my ear as I'm pressing stuff ;o) Anyway, thanks for a great forum. If your stylus is out when you start your call this doesn't happen (it assumes you're going to make notes?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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