11 replies to this topic

[slarkins]

Hi Guys,

I just bought two Huawei G300's - one for myself and one for my daughter. Rather wishing I hadn't right now.

They are both running 4.0.3 B944 build. 32GB MicroSD card now inserted with minimal contents on it. I have had to root the phone to load the English dictionary as there was no dictionary included. I used root explorer to move the dictionary apk files to /system/app (after a tricky process of changing file permissions etc). I followed the procedure on http://www.modaco.co...ictionary fix. That seems to work now; but her phone is very prone to freezing and becoming unresponsive. I have had to pull the battery several times. It can even happen when the phone is first booted up when you try to unlock the phone and there is no response. When it's working Memory utilisation seems OK, there is usually around 150MB of unused RAM although she has some memory-resident apps running like Twitter and Facebook which seem to run background services consuming a bit of the RAM permanently.

Attached are details of the phone build/kernel (PNG image screen grab from phone).  Screenshot_2013-02-18-06-44-35.png   56.11K   30 downloads

If it helps she has "The Moron Test" and "Early Bird" apps loaded which she plays quite a bit. Both can freeze.

When the phone is misbehaving pushing the power button brings up the power menu, but you can't select power off as the touchscreen is unresponsive. Sometimes if you wait several minutes the phone starts responding again. Other times a 'battery pull' is needed. This is obviously very frustrating. She is playing quite a few games on it and it does occasionally freeze during game playing too. Interestingly my phone doesn't seem to be as bad, although it has shown these symptoms once or twice.

Any ideas what can be done to fix these issues would be appreciated. I am new to Android and have found it awkward so far. OS updates are not like the IPAD where it is all done for you!

I am technical, but I don't want to risk hosing the phone. If a change of ROM is required, which is the most reliable and should I consider downgrading to GB; although the official GB downgrade on Huawei site does not seem to apply to the B944 build, so using it may break the phone. I am also aware of lots of bugs in earlier versions so I could just end up in a bigger mess! Would a factory reset help? I assume that the phone would then revert to shipped state. Would it then lose the dictionary mods?

Advice appreciated.

Thanks!
Steve

[kyan31]

If you read around the forums, you would know that Huawei's ICS releases are utter s***. They are very laggy, and very crappy overall. If you really need a solid phone, you have 2 options:

Install a custom ROM

Downgrade to GB

I recommend installing a custom ROM, as there are a lot of good ones to choose from. CM10.1 is a REALLY good choice, as it is Jellybean

It is very smooth, has a theme manager, and so much more. Unfortunately there are 2 bugs:

WiFi tethering does not work (WiFi still works however, and USB tethering works too)

Default camera is slow (you can download another one from the play store)

If you need a ROM that has everything working, CM9 is good (still no WiFi tethering) or a B952 based ROM (everything works). Here is a list of all the good B952/44 based ROMs:

Lighting ROM by me (Kyan31)

Infusion by Tillaz

Meija by TheJaimes11

These are the ones I have tried, though there are lots more.

Edited by kyan31, 18 February 2013 - 12:25 PM.

[bladebuddy]

Deleted thought I was answering a text.

Edited by bladebuddy, 18 February 2013 - 01:27 PM.

[galudwig]

Hi,

I bought a second-hand G300 a few months ago and had the same problem with my phone crashing all the time (maybe that's why I paid so little for it).

The solution, as kyan31 said, is to install a custom ROM. The only one I've tried is Infusion, but I'm extremely satisfied with it. It's faster, smoother, prettier and plain better than stock. I still experience a crash now and then, but I've basically been treating my G300 like a top of the line smartphone now.

Make your choice among the top ROMs that are available and look at the 'Explained like you're 5' thread that's stickied on the forum. Installing it takes about half an hour, and pretty much can't go wrong as long as you follow the steps carefully. Once it's done, you won't look back. Good luck.

[Cobble]

Try something based on B952.


The vanilla B952 is great http://www.modaco.co...ne-release-rom/ , but the custom versions will have a few more tweaks and bug fixes. Tillaz's Infusion rom is probably the pick of the bunch http://www.modaco.co...m-features-b06/

Edited by Cobble, 19 February 2013 - 02:43 PM.

[slarkins]

Thanks this is a big help. I am not sure whether my phone has a digitizer fault as the entire touch screen became unresponsive to touch for a whole day. Pulling the battery made no difference. Even a factory reset didn't help as when it came up with the welcome screen "Start" button the touch screen was unresponsive so I couldn't start the installation process. 24 hours later and hey presto the phone has suddenly decided it wants to work again. I now have a working touch screen - works perfectly. Weird!

The guy I bought it off on Ebay suggests trying the official Huawei upgrade on http://www.huaweidev...softid=NDcwMjk= in case the problem is caused by a software issue, so I was wondering whether anyone has tried this official Huawei B952 release? Would infusion be a better choice and if so, could I ask what the benefits would be over the official Huawei 952 release and are there any known bugs on these releases?

Thanks once again.

Edited by slarkins, 20 February 2013 - 08:33 PM.

[slarkins]

Looks like I will be doing an upgrade carefully and after reading the beginner's guides - so thanks for letting me know about the 5 year old guide.

I guess it's a choice between say Infusion and the official Huawei B952 release on http://www.huaweidev...softid=NDcwMjk=
Anyone know what the advantages of the custom ROM would be over this official release? How bad is it?! I see it got 8/10 score, so there must be some issues.

[Maximus9]

slarkins, on 20 February 2013 - 06:58 PM, said:

Thanks this is a big help. I am not sure whether my phone has a digitizer fault as the entire touch screen became unresponsive to touch for a whole day. Pulling the battery made no difference. Even a factory reset didn't help as when it came up with the welcome screen "Start" button the touch screen was unresponsive so I couldn't start the installation process. 24 hours later and hey presto the phone has suddenly decided it wants to work again. I now have a working touch screen - works perfectly. Weird!

The guy I bought it off on Ebay suggests trying the official Huawei upgrade on http://www.huaweidev...softid=NDcwMjk= in case the problem is caused by a software issue, so I was wondering whether anyone has tried this official Huawei B952 release? Would infusion be a better choice and if so, could I ask what the benefits would be over the official Huawei 952 release and are there any known bugs on these releases?

Thanks once again.

Even if bought off ebay, the phone should still be under warranty (2 years). In my opinion you have a faulty screen, and no software update will help.
Try to twist the phone holding it from the edges when the screen becomes unresponsive and see if that has an effect. It worked on mine, just to confirm is the screen, of course I had to return it as faulty.

[Maximus9]

Cobble, on 19 February 2013 - 02:37 PM, said:

Try something based on B952.


The vanilla B952 is great http://www.modaco.co...ne-release-rom/ , but the custom versions will have a few more tweaks and bug fixes. Tillaz's Infusion rom is probably the pick of the bunch http://www.modaco.co...m-features-b06/

But what would the vanilla B952 bring in terms of improvements? It is just the stock ROM.

[slarkins]

The guy I bought the phone from suggested applying the official Huawei B952 release. I tried that first (as I am concerned he won't take the phone back with a custom version of firmware if the screen turns out to be faulty).

However when I try using ClockWorkMod on the official Huawei B952 software package (as a ZIP file on the SD Card), the installation immediately aborts. I am following the "five year old" instructions for a custom ROM. In the Readme PDF file which comes with this Huawei B952 release it is very specific about which versions can be updated and my current B944 version is not listed - that's why I chose the custom ROM installation option. So, it appears that a true custom ROM load is the only option open to me.

Should I try the Infusion release? Is that likely to work without aborting? I.E. is it just the official release which is checking the previous installed version which is causing the software to abort at install?

Important Question: Do custom ROM's invalidate the warranty in which case if my screen ends up as being faulty, am I going to end up with a phone Huawei won't touch?

Edited by slarkins, 21 February 2013 - 08:12 AM.

[Maximus9]

Custom ROMs might create problems with the warranty but there are now instructions on Modaco on how to return the phone to original state.
Provided your screen will still work long enough to allow you to do that.

However, it is safe to say your touch screen is faulty. Think about it this way: the touchscreen should and does work on any ROM, for anyone that tried them.
Why would that particular phone need just a specific ROM to work?

Edited by Maximus9, 21 February 2013 - 12:15 PM.

[slarkins]

Great; thanks.