Firmware - cut the confusion please!

[Guest steverose798]

Hi

I am proud owner of a new Samsung i900 Omnia and I live in the UK.

On the whole I am very pleased with the phone but there are a number of things that bother me - mainly the poor battery life.

Looking on the forums and elsewhere on the web it seems that I can fix some of my issues and add extra functionality via a firmware upgrade (I think, looking at my phones settings I am currently on PDA: i900XXHG5/MSGH1 and Phone: i900XXHG5).

I have looked at the pinned thread that talks about the different versions but I am completely confused. Also I would have thought that, like Nokia, Samsung UK would have the latest updates available on their website along with the instructions and tools to download.

I did a web search and found the tools and downloaded the latest ROM from the links in the pinned thread but then had cold feet.

After all, where are these ROMS coming from and the tool is not from the UK site. What happens if I brick my phone - is it still covered considering the fact that I downloaded the files from an unofficial web site?

Am I missing something here - am I looking in the wrong places and, more importantly, am I the only one who is confused.

I tried to email Samsung to ask about firmware upgrades in the UK but I could not see any way other than calling their support centre to email them.

Help! ;)

Edited September 29, 2008 by steverose798

[Guest IZIIZI]

having trouble posting?

[Guest steverose798]

having trouble posting?

Pressed send by mistake - sorted now!

[Guest Massive Attack]

well, comparing it to other firmware upgrade ive done with other phones, i see like 3 at max 4 people here who have bricked their omnia while upgrading, and some of them did recovered from it or have fixed it thru samsung.

[Guest Reuben (MY)]

the most important is will it void your warranty upon self upgrading... check with your telco and if they say it's ok to upgrade, go for what's latest. always backup and sync your device

[Guest markym]

Oops too quick to press button.See below for proper post.

Edited September 29, 2008 by markym

[Guest markym]

Hi Steve,

I live in the UK and received my sim free Omnia on Saturday. Mine had the same firmware as yours and last night I upgraded to DXHI1 which I downloaded from the links in Pauls thread. Followed the advice given in various threads on this forum and the whole thing took less than 15 minutes. Phone works well and battery life seems fine, although to be honest being a glutton for punishment and a sucker for tinkering with phones, I didn't really use the original firmware long enough to be able to comment on any improvement. However everyone else says it is an improvement so that's good enough for me.

I asked my nearest Samsung Service Centre (CPW) whether they could upgrade the firmware for me and they said that it was such a new phone they would have to send it to Samsung and it could be away for up to 14 days. They didn't give me a cost either and were completely unsure as to what the latest official firmware for the UK was anyway.

Personally I'd give it a go. As mentioned before the vast majority of upgraders have no problems and once you've done it once you'll wonder why you were ever reluctant in the first place. It's actually good fun and you feel great when it works. If you need any further help just PM me and I'll be happy to share my limited knowledge.

Cheers.

marky

Edited September 29, 2008 by markym

[Guest steverose798]

Thanks Marky.

I know you say that you didn't play with the original version for too long but do you know what is different now you have upgraded?

Where did you get the upgrade tool from and did you have the "incorrect software version" error that Paul talks about (my worry with this is his fix entails telling the phone it is a Singapore version - does this cause problems)?

My phone is also a SIM free version (purchased from the excellent Mobile Fun site).

Steve

[Guest Unisoldrew]

Steve, if it makes you feel any better, and being a complete novice, i felt just like you with the same concerns.

I have a non-branded phone and started on the same firmware.

I read the threads and eventually took the plunge to upgrade to HH1, then HH3, then HI1 (PDA).

I'm still at HG5 phone as i understand you need to flash the phone using Grandprix which i haven't dabbled with yet.

I can't really advise you to go ahead as, despite noticable improvements especially with screen sensitivity etc, all my upgrades crashed before giving a 'finished' message. This concerns me as i haven't read any other similar reports.

I've also installed the following which makes using the phone a more pleasurable experience .....

SPB MobileShell

SMS-Chat

SMS-FunContact

Batti

PIMBackup

I'm quite happy with it overall and may just leave well alone until an official Samsung update, especially given that some posters reported bricking their phone on 2nd, 3rd? upgrades.

Edited September 30, 2008 by Unisoldrew

[Guest steverose798]

Steve, if it makes you feel any better, and being a complete novice, i felt just like you with the same concerns.

I have a non-branded phone and started on the same firmware.

I read the threads and eventually took the plunge to upgrade to HH1, then HH3, then HI1 (PDA).

I'm still at HG5 phone as i understand you need to flash the phone using Grandprix which i haven't dabbled with yet.

I can't really advise you to go ahead as, despite noticable improvements especially with screen sensitivity etc, all my upgrades crashed before giving a 'finished' message. This concerns me as i haven't read any other similar reports.

I've also installed the following which makes using the phone a more pleasurable experience .....

SPB MobileShell

SMS-Chat

SMS-FunContact

Batti

PIMBackup

I'm quite happy with it overall and may just leave well alone until an official Samsung update, especially given that some posters reported bricking their phone on 2nd, 3rd? upgrades.

Right Chaps:

I was having a look around the forum last night after my last post and found this from Paul (you really are the man and deserve an OBE):

The OFFICIAL Samsung i900 Omnia DXHH1 update: LEAKED!

This has the loader for all the various bits of firmware installed and so, I installed the Samsung Mobile driver onto my PC (the link is on the thread) connected the cable, ran the DXHH1 upgrade, poured myself a large whisky and pressed the reset button.

15 mins later my phone is now fully flashed to DXHH1 with the haptic feedback on the keyboards, new rotation animations - the lot.

I don't think I actually breathed for the 15 mins but I have to say - it was painless. Yes it wipes the internal memory of the phone but most of my stuff is on an external (internal) 8GB card so all I have to do now is reinstall any applications I had (Route 66 being the main one and the CAB to remove the threaded SMSs).

I did an active sync as soon as I could so that my contacts and calender are back and I had used the MITs Wizard to back up my SMSs and MMSs so I will restore those later.

So, apart from losing a few years of my life in worry - I am happy and will report on this thread in a day or so to let you know if the battery life has improved.

I would still like to see if others think that Samsung should be more like Nokia and make their updates more easily available (especially to us Brits) so please continue to post to let me know).

Steve

[Guest]

Yes it wipes the internal memory of the phone but most of my stuff is on an external (internal) 8GB card so all I have to do now is reinstall any applications I had (Route 66 being the main one and the CAB to remove the threaded SMSs).

I was under the impression it wipes your internal storage but not the 'My Storage' area? Or is this what you meant anyway? ;) I do agree though that the Samsung ROMs are confusing (coming from a HTC user of many years).

[Guest markym]

Well done Steve, told you it wasn't too bad an experience. Are you going for the DXHI1 or 2 firmware now you've got the taste?

[Guest steverose798]

Well done Steve, told you it wasn't too bad an experience. Are you going for the DXHI1 or 2 firmware now you've got the taste?

I think i'll stick with DXHI1 (but saying that what benefit is there for going to DXHI2?

[Guest thegoodly]

it needs to be done, i started with HG5 like your selves. unbranded 02. i put it off for 2 weeks, after reading various reports, but finaly plucked up the courage to do it, to HH3 at the time. went like a dream although HH3 was terrible, now armed with the confidence, flashed again to HI1, and now to HI2. and never looked back, to get the best out of your phone, you need to do it!!

[Guest]

Well I plucked up the courage to update my Omnia (UK unbranded XXHG5) and used my Vista laptop (with XP VMWare machine). Now on DXHI2 and will be having a play to see the differences.

One question....I took a full backup prior to update with Sprite Backup and restored after the update completed - all my apps and data back. Is this the best way to go about it or Hard Reset and manually reinstall everything?

[Guest scoobyimprezza]

Hi guys - I've done a lot of reading into this Omnia updating stuff.

Mine's doing my nut in - and I'd really like to update it on the hope that some of the annoying little things like, it doesn't play tones when I receive a text message (and yes...I've checked each option is enabled), get fixed. My concern is...it is BRANDED to ORANGE!!! It's menu is horrible - compared to unbranded phones I've seen.

Can anyone give me some advice on this? My Version is i900 XXHG8/BVHG8 - I searched Google - not a lot came up...I'm not massively happy at the moment.

All the topics I've read - people are stating that their phone is UNbranded - I don't know what will happen if I give it a try. I bought the thing on ebay...so it is not insured either.

Just a thought for others that got theirs properly - if you have insurance and "brick" it - smash the screen and demand a replacement phone.

Edited October 1, 2008 by scoobyimprezza

[Guest Unisoldrew]

Just a thought for others that got theirs properly - if you have insurance and "brick" it - smash the screen and demand a replacement phone.

I think they'll be able to tell why it died so not a good idea.

[Guest steverose798]

Hiya

Just thought I would update you all as it have been a couple of days since the upgrade.

My main problem was battery life and it is MUCH better now. Yesterday I spent all day getting my phone back how I like it (apps installed, contacts set up, ring tones assigned AND I spent at least an hour with GPS on as I reconfigured Route 66 and there was still a bar left on the battery meter at 23:30 (phone came off charge at 07:00 and was only connected to the PC for 20 mins while I copied my CAB files back).

Today I am still on full bars after a 1hr phone call and a 15 min YouTube video so......... problem solved!

Steve

Edited October 2, 2008 by steverose798