Restore original ROM?

[Guest D_2]

Hi there! First post on these forums.

Anyway, very soon, I'm looking to buy the HTC Hero from China. Unfortunately, all the HTC Hero's here are running a custom ROM preinstalled from www.hiAPK.com.

Basically I'm looking to get rid of this custom Rom (OS? Firmware? What is it exactly?), as its half in Chinese, and half in English. Not very pleasant to use.

I have a few questions and would really appreciate if you guys took the time to answer them:

1. Are there any risks in flashing the Hero ROM, especially when it comes preinstalled with the www.hiAPK.com ROM? This is quite important as I don't want a very expensive brick after less than a week of usage.

2. I've read a lot from these forums, but I'm completely new, all this ROMs, Radios, etc, I can't get my head around, could anyone please post some step by step instruction on doing what I want to accomplish.

3. Could anyone provide download links to anything I need to download.

Basically, I just want to keep it simple, get rid of this custom firmware, and install the official one. I have no idea about rooting, etc etc, no idea what they are or if they are necessary for what I want to accomplish. A full step by step guide would be really great, I'm not sure what I need to do, I'm completely new to this.

Thanks for your help!

EDIT: Some quick info on the custom ROM, not sure how relevant it is;

Kernel Version

2.6 27-8dd6deee

[email protected] )

Build number

1.79.482.3 146733 Cl#49365 release-keys

Software version

www.HiAPK.com 1.0_g3_sense

Edited November 30, 2009 by D_2

[Guest Nazgulled]

You can probably find most of your answers here:

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero...-flashing-roms/

[Guest D_2]

So much reading to do, I hope I'll be able to work it out.

Theres so many things that are possible to do, Rooting, downgrading, goldcard, radio, I'm not sure what they all do and which ones I need to do.

So as far as I know, to go from my Custom ROM to the latest rooted ROM, I need to take these steps?

1. Goldcard

2. Replace recovery Image

3. Flash Rooted ROM

4. Flash radio

Is that all? and in correct order?

[Guest cTn]

So much reading to do, I hope I'll be able to work it out.

Theres so many things that are possible to do, Rooting, downgrading, goldcard, radio, I'm not sure what they all do and which ones I need to do.

So as far as I know, to go from my Custom ROM to the latest rooted ROM, I need to take these steps?

1. Goldcard

2. Replace recovery Image

3. Flash Rooted ROM

4. Flash radio

Is that all? and in correct order?

yes, well u can also skip step 3 and 4, and just root your current rom via adb, but i wont suggest that for "noobies" no offence, and also if i am correct, isn't gold card method used to allow downgrade of firmware ?

in this case it would be

1. goldcard

2. flash old room

3. replace recovery image via flashrec (fast and easy way i think)

4. flash custom/rooted rom

5. flash latest radio

[Guest D_2]

Which is the Old Rom that I need to install? I'm planning on doing the HTC Sync thing first to get my Hero on a legit untouched latest official ROM.

[Guest Nazgulled]

So much reading to do, I hope I'll be able to work it out.

Theres so many things that are possible to do, Rooting, downgrading, goldcard, radio, I'm not sure what they all do and which ones I need to do.

No pain, no gain...

You want to learn what are all those things? You want to understand what you need/want to do and what not? You want to be able to restore to the original ROM in case something goes bad (or any other reason)? Well, you have to read... There's no point in expalining everything all over again, I'm sure that almost all your questions are answered in that topic. It covers rooting, flashing, radio, backups (for restoring the whole thing) and downgrading.

My post even links to most of the topics you'll need to get necessary tools/files.

Then, all your new questions that are not answered there, ask them here, I'm sure someone will be able to help you.

1. Goldcard

2. Replace recovery Image

3. Flash Rooted ROM

4. Flash radio

I'm not sure you need the goldcard thing, I didn't need it, maybe you won't need it either... That's easy to test though, just boot the recovery image and try to upgrade a rooted ROM. That's it. If it works, you know have the latest rooted ROM and no goldcard was needed.

You flash the radio in the same way, but only if you want to, it's not required for a custom ROM.