Updating to 1.15.405.4 / Generic'ifying your T-Mo handset

[Guest Karolis]

Does anyone know what the advantge of swapping the t-mobile ROM to a the generic one would be ?

You loose T-Mobile randing + you will receive the updates faster. As far as I know, T-Mo still hasn't released the equivalent of this update for their ROMs.

[Guest irishandrew]

Just to let you know;

Got my Vodafone Desire yesterday; completely unlocked with no voda branding anywhere, however still requires the Goldcard to upgrade using the RUU. My desire shipped with

1.15.161.4, and now updated to the latest 1.15.405.4 without issue.

Thanks Paul.

Cheers,

Andrew

[Guest zippyioa]

Ok, I took a T-Mobile Desire and used Pauls first post to install the ROM he listed.

Everything seems to be a bit snappier now and hopefully I will get future updates quicker too!

The only issue is the noise on boot up - I THINK the phone may have to be rooted to do it as I recall rooting my Hero in order to remove the same sound.

Any ideas anyone??

[Guest h00pyfr00d]

My HTC Desire arrived this morning from T-Mobile running 1.15.405.4 and sim unlocked out the box.

My Orange sim is in it now while I'm waiting for the T-Mobile one to activate.

The only things that seem to be T-Mobile specific are the boot sound and Virgin Media app, which is basically just the browser pointing to VM's homepage.

Chuffed to bits.

[Guest zippyioa]

On the stock ROM I found the battery life was awful! I bought the phone from a T-Mobile store on Monday and charged it most of that afternoon/early evening without turning the phone on. I then spent a lot of Monday night and Tuesday playing. During that time I was discharging and recharging the battery as doing so.

On Wednesday morning I unplugged the phone with a 100% charge. With very little use I reached the 80% mark in around 2.5 hours. The battery life seemed to be disappearing in front of me.

On Wednesday night I switched to Pauls ROM

With very similar use to the stock ROM test from Wednesday I have JUST seen the phone hit the 80% battery drop - however, todays test reached that point after a MASSIVE 11 hours of being unplugged!! What a phenominal difference!!

So, was it the ROM, has the battery reached a better charge state after a few cycles, or is it a bit of both?

If it is the ROM, where did T-Mobile go SO wrong??

Any thoughts?

Zippyioa

[Guest scotch whisky]

I don't think T-mobile did go wrong; I think it was HTC. HTC rushed out a firmware upgrade a couple of days after launch. I understand T-mobile will get the update next week.

The ROM from Paul is the HTC upgraded version.

[Guest scotch whisky]

Following a suggestion from over at XDA developers I have flashed my T-mobile Desire yet again but this time without the SIM inserted. I then took the OTA update (via wi-fi) again without the SIM inserted.

Now every trace of T-mobile/Virgin has now gone.

i.e. Now has HTC boot screen; No virgin icon on home page; Internet home page set to htc and the virgin scene gone.

It is now totally generic.

It's odd that a T-mobile SIM puts the Virgin stuff on the phone. Probably something to do with Virgin actually using the T-mobile network.

Edited April 8, 2010 by scotch whisky

[Guest badgerarc]

Just curious but does the generic ROM give you more control over the Wifi security settings? Been searching many forums looking for a way to connect to PEAP-TKIP wifi, to no avail. Supposedly this was fixed in Android 2.0 but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this on my New Desire.

[Guest kevinblo]

Hi, i'm a really new to android. I received my Desire yesterday from Vodafone UK, with no vodafone brand (I guess cause i don see the vodafone logo when i started up the phone), and the firmware version here is : 1.15.161.4 (I guess). Sorry, i'm really noob in Android, that's why i put the print screen photo here as below:

and here is the questions.

1. Can I use this Gold Card method to update my Desire?

2. Is this generic version of ROM consists of Chinese Input method? If NO, where can I get it?

3. how can I put more Locale in my phone?

4. I prefer to use my phone in English mode, however sometime I will need to type some chinese word in my sms. So can i install some software that make my phone available in two languages (read and write)

Thank alot.

[Guest kevinblo]

Hi Paul, just a question, if debranding a generic handset, do I need a Goldcard? Or just the use the RUU will do?

here is my software information

Sorry for such stupid question

thank!

[Guest Curfish]

if you look at post #28

Just to let you know;

Got my Vodafone Desire yesterday; completely unlocked with no voda branding anywhere, however still requires the Goldcard to upgrade using the RUU. My desire shipped with

1.15.161.4, and now updated to the latest 1.15.405.4 without issue.

Thanks Paul.

Cheers,

Andrew

think this answers your question

[Guest Curfish]

Also just wanted to say thanks, got a tmobile desire now debranded using the above instruction and unlocked using the recommended unlocker.

[Guest yabadaba]

Hi, I have a Vodafone sourced handset, where the only visible branding was a Vodafone' scene'. However, the firmware wasn't the latest generic one and as I always prefer to have truly generic handsets, I did the goldcard update yesterday, as per the instructions.

At first I had trouble creating the goldcard as I kept getting an error when running the SDK via a command prompt to retrieve the long number. I then figured out that 'USB debugging' had to be enabled and that sorted that. The only other issue I had, which was quite worrying at the time, was that after I launched the RUU file it seemed to timeout during the first part, after it first reboots the phone and is saying something like 'waiting for bootloader'. Eventually the program just returned to the start screen so I unplugged the USB cable from the phone, which brought up some kind of 'dos' looking screen. I then put the cable back in and started the RUU again. This time it ran through properly and I ended up with the new firmware.

Now, for various reasons, I want to run the RUU again to reinstall the firmware and was assuming I wouldn't need the goldcard anymore as it would now see a generic handset and not a Vodafone one and let it proceed. But when I tried running the RUU with my standard card inserted I got an error message.

So, is it correct that I've got to create a goldcard again, to reflash this firmware?

Also, I had that 'waiting for bootloader' timeout issue happen again...any idea what could be going wrong there?

[Guest scotch whisky]

You have to use the Goldcard again. The one you created earlier you don't have to make a new one.

The phone is still "CID" locked. i.e. Vendor locked. The Goldcard allows you to bypass this lock in bootloader mode rather than remove it.

Edited April 12, 2010 by scotch whisky

[Guest battletank]

Is anyone else on the latest Rom finding Android market to be lacking a few key apps? I see no Google Earth or Doodle Jump for example.

[Guest battletank]

*deleted* double post

Edited April 12, 2010 by battletank

[Guest yabadaba]

You have to use the Goldcard again. The one you created earlier you don't have to make a new one.

The phone is still "CID" locked. i.e. Vendor locked. The Goldcard allows you to bypass this lock in bootloader mode rather than remove it.

Okay thanks. I used the goldcard again and the firmware reinstall went fine. Is there any way to remove the CID lock then?

[Guest irishandrew]

Okay thanks. I used the goldcard again and the firmware reinstall went fine. Is there any way to remove the CID lock then?

Not sure about that yet. On the hero you could create superCID with a cable hack (which I did with mine). Haven't tried the same on Desire, mostly because I imagine it's protected a little better than the hero judging by Paul's experiences so far, and I don't have an adaptor to port the ExtUSB mini usb plug of my cable to an equivilent microUSB version for the Desire.

Anyone tried yet?

-andrew

[Guest kdub87]

PLEASE help iv been trying all night to do this, made gold card, ran the ruu but it stops and says error 171 usb connection happened about 10 times now please help

[Guest Hands0n]

PLEASE help iv been trying all night to do this, made gold card, ran the ruu but it stops and says error 171 usb connection happened about 10 times now please help

The clue is to make sure that HTC Sync is installed before you run the RUU installer. I've posted my own experiences over here http://www.talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?799...ing&p=38631 - it didn't start out as a de-branding thread but morphed into one over the past couple of days ;)

Thanks to Paul on here for his excellent links and short article. It was absolutely invaluable. My lad bought his HTC Desire on contract from Orange - against my better advice ;) - and was horrified at how much damage the Orange branding had done.

Once de-branded the "new" HTC Desire runs like lightning, has recovered some 58MB of memory, has GTalk and so the other Google apps work properly now (like Maps), and all the crappy Orange apps have gone, the Programs panel is now uncluttered.

He's like the dog with two danglies ;)

[Guest kdub87]

The clue is to make sure that HTC Sync is installed before you run the RUU installer. I've posted my own experiences over here http://www.talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?799...ing&p=38631 - it didn't start out as a de-branding thread but morphed into one over the past couple of days ;)

Thanks to Paul on here for his excellent links and short article. It was absolutely invaluable. My lad bought his HTC Desire on contract from Orange - against my better advice ;) - and was horrified at how much damage the Orange branding had done.

Once de-branded the "new" HTC Desire runs like lightning, has recovered some 58MB of memory, has GTalk and so the other Google apps work properly now (like Maps), and all the crappy Orange apps have gone, the Programs panel is now uncluttered.

He's like the dog with two danglies ;)

think im talking to u on that other forum lol, iv installed and reinstalled htc sync, restarted computer, tried to install the ruu from modaco and still no luck, tried with both htc sync running and not running, running out of ideas :S

[Guest solapollo]

Hi, I've got some terrible problems when I flash the Rom. It appears "ERROR [131]: CUSTOMER ID ERROR" and then my phone restarts to the original rom. the phone is a T-Mo contract phone.

I've read the instruction, noticed all the points, tried different microSD cards, use Admin to run the HxD, select physical disk etc.

However, I find that when I get the .img file from the web, it appears that it only has contents between line $000 to $100(incl.), so when I copy and overwrite the disk file, it only covers line $000 to $100. Not sure if that's the reason.

Please can anyone help...

[Guest irishandrew]

Hi, I've got some terrible problems when I flash the Rom. It appears "ERROR [131]: CUSTOMER ID ERROR" and then my phone restarts to the original rom. the phone is a T-Mo contract phone.

I've read the instruction, noticed all the points, tried different microSD cards, use Admin to run the HxD, select physical disk etc.

However, I find that when I get the .img file from the web, it appears that it only has contents between line $000 to $100(incl.), so when I copy and overwrite the disk file, it only covers line $000 to $100. Not sure if that's the reason.

Please can anyone help...

That shouldn't be the case - the overwrite in the HeX editor should only be covering the very start of the image file. Sounds like you need to resubmit you details to get another Goldcard image file - and start over. Good luck! Oh - if you're anywhere near midlands and can't get it to work I can certainly try and help.

Regards,

Andrew.

[Guest kdub87]

i finally got the rom on, but now my phone cant find my city anymore! it finds smaller surrounding cities but not mine! before i put this rom on it found it automatically now i cnt add it or find it! fix one thing break 10

[Guest insomaniac]

Thanks a lot for this, got rid of the horrible horrible mess Orange made of my Desire, only problem now is I dont have orange maps anymore and cant download it because its supposed to be embedded on the phone