Questions about B10 firmware supplied with newer phones

[Guest g-rasshopper]

Hi,

I've noticed from another thread that San Francisco phones sold in the UK are now being supplied with a different ROM version (V1.0.0B10) that apparently makes the phone slightly harder to root.

Can anyone tell me whether the new phones have had any other hardware or firmware changes applied to them? I'd be particularly interested to know whether the new firmware version has fixed any of the San Francisco's numerous wi-fi connection problems.

Also, do the new phones still have a TFT display, and if so is it of type LEAD or TRULY?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Guest moxon]

Hi,

I've noticed from another thread that San Francisco phones sold in the UK are now being supplied with a different ROM version (V1.0.0B10) that apparently makes the phone slightly harder to root.

Can anyone tell me whether the new phones have had any other hardware or firmware changes applied to them? I'd be particularly interested to know whether the new firmware version has fixed any of the San Francisco's numerous wi-fi connection problems.

Also, do the new phones still have a TFT display, and if so is it of type LEAD or TRULY?

Thanks in advance for your help

new phones are TFT LEAD

[Guest DarrellK]

I bought a "B10" model on Monday, rooted and installed recovery fine using the "easy" instructions (UniversalAndroot etc)

[Guest g-rasshopper]

new phones are TFT LEAD

That's interesting. I'm sure I read somewhere that TRULY was the newer of the two TFT types. I guess that Zte might have reverted back to using LEAD.

[Guest DarrellK]

That's interesting. I'm sure I read somewhere that TRULY was the newer of the two TFT types. I guess that Zte might have reverted back to using LEAD.

Just for info (handset bought 28 Feb)

LCD Info:

IC: NT35580

Glass: LEAD

Resolution: 480*800

TouchScreen Information:

touchscreen module

name :synaptics

i2c address: 0x22

IC type: 2000 series

firmware version: TM1541

module: synaptics+TPK

WIFI Information

Device manufacturing: Atheros

Model Number: AR6002

BT Information

BTS4025

Camera Information

ID 0x2682

Nmae:MT9T112-3.0Mp-AF

Flash Information:

Hynix 4G NAND

[Guest Ron=)]

Is there anyway of finding out what type of LCD I have if I have already installed Custom Firmware??

[Guest Skip Tracer]

Is there anyway of finding out what type of LCD I have if I have already installed Custom Firmware??

Hi Ron

Found this in StevenHarperUK FAQ in the stickies at the top of this forum.

For the info about the screen as posted by DarrellK above can be found using the phones dialler inputting *983*24474636# mine is the same as DarrellK.

Going back to the OP’s original question, I took delivery of a new SF two days ago and can say that I have had no dropped WiFi problems (could just be early days) and have rooted with no problems. I have not changed the ROM yet, just waiting a week or so to make sure everything is working OK before dumping the Orange stuff.

Chris

[Guest xzyk]

+1 as the above two posters. My new SF was also TFT, B10 and LEAD screen.

No problem loading clockwork on there, I did via adb.

What I did was download the stock B10 (same version it came with), removed all the Orange stuff myself (there's a few threads on here on how to do this, and what to safely remove), then loaded 'my' modified B10 firmware. This is probably not going to go down well here, but up till now I've been quite impressed with this 2.1 version. It has some nice apps (the photo one i especially like and find useful) and after removing the unnecessary stuff I have quite a lot of memory left. FYI, I have two other SF, one running JJFS RLS9 and the other CM7, so I do have others to compare with. I may actually leave this Orange on there for a while, it's been quite solid so far.

[Guest ronc2000]

For the info about the screen as posted by DarrellK above can be found using the phones dialler inputting *983*24474636# mine is the same as DarrellK.

Chris

It returned "unknow application"

[Guest Ron=)]

Hi Ron

Found this in StevenHarperUK FAQ in the stickies at the top of this forum.

For the info about the screen as posted by DarrellK above can be found using the phones dialler inputting *983*24474636# mine is the same as DarrellK.

Going back to the OP’s original question, I took delivery of a new SF two days ago and can say that I have had no dropped WiFi problems (could just be early days) and have rooted with no problems. I have not changed the ROM yet, just waiting a week or so to make sure everything is working OK before dumping the Orange stuff.

Chris

That trick only works on the stock rom as far as I'm aware.. =\

[Guest g-rasshopper]

Going back to the OP’s original question, I took delivery of a new SF two days ago and can say that I have had no dropped WiFi problems (could just be early days) and have rooted with no problems. I have not changed the ROM yet, just waiting a week or so to make sure everything is working OK before dumping the Orange stuff.

Chris

Thanks for your feedback.

This presents a dilemma for me. I bought a new SF about three weeks ago and I've been plagued with wi-fi problems. The signal keeps dropping (which might be fixable with a ROM upgrade) and the signal is generally weak. It's the latter problem that concerns me the most as it may well be a hardware issue. I'm really not sure whether my phone is actually faulty or whether it's simply that all SFs suffer from weak wi-fi reception.

I'm tempted to ask for a replacement but if I do the replacement will almost certainly have the b10 firmware and a LEAD screen. Maybe that's not a bad thing but there's been an unfortunate trend for ZTE/Orange to trim the phone's specification each time a new version is released.

MY phone's screen (which is of type TRULY) is excellent. I'm therefore slightly concerned that the LEAD screen might not be as good. If I'm not careful I might end up with a phone that still has weak wi-fi reception and an inferior screen.

There have also been reports that some SFs sold abroad now only have 256mb RAM. Can someone confirm that the UK b10 phones still have 512mb RAM.

Thanks

[Guest sambartle]

I bought a UK one yesterday (with OUK..B10).. Its got 512MB, not sure of the screen type ( I flashed it before checking and my ROM doesnt support the code to get that diagnostics screen up), but it looks fine to me.

So far (lets hope it stays this way) I've had zero Wifi problems (I use a ZyXel router if that helps), and the GPS and radio are both better than my Hero.

FastBoot appears to be disabled, but I understand I can get that back if I flash the Hungarian TPT image (although in my years owning a hero I never needed it more than once so touch wood I'll never need it)

Hope that helps.

Edited March 3, 2011 by sambartle

[Guest DarrellK]

There have also been reports that some SFs sold abroad now only have 256mb RAM. Can someone confirm that the UK b10 phones still have 512mb RAM.

Thanks

Mine has 512mb. FWIW, I have no wifi problems, so far. Any problems with wifi might be down to drivers - have you tried different ROMs?

There is a B10 TPT image in the "ROMs" thread, but not a zip - if someone can point me to the instructions, I could make a ROM zip file for the stock B10, for those not wanting to go so far as using the TPT, losing recovery etc.

[Guest g-rasshopper]

Mine has 512mb. FWIW, I have no wifi problems, so far. Any problems with wifi might be down to drivers - have you tried different ROMs?

There is a B10 TPT image in the "ROMs" thread, but not a zip - if someone can point me to the instructions, I could make a ROM zip file for the stock B10, for those not wanting to go so far as using the TPT, losing recovery etc.

Thanks. That would be very helpful. It's always been my intention to upgrade the ROM. Indeed that's the main reason why I chose the SF. But I've put off doing it in case something went wrong and it made it harder for me to return the phone. However, I might bite the bullet and have a go this weekend.

sambartle,DarrellK, & Skip Tracer:

Can you tell me how your SF's wireless reception compares to that of a typical laptop? I realise the dropping signal problem might be fixable through a ROM upgrade. But I suspect the poor reception I've experienced might be an inherent problem with my phone.

Thanks

[Guest DarrellK]

Thanks. That would be very helpful. It's always been my intention to upgrade the ROM. Indeed that's the main reason why I chose the SF. But I've put off doing it in case something went wrong and it made it harder for me to return the phone. However, I might bite the bullet and have a go this weekend.

sambartle,DarrellK, & Skip Tracer:

Can you tell me how your SF's wireless reception compares to that of a typical laptop? I realise the dropping signal problem might be fixable through a ROM upgrade. But I suspect the poor reception I've experienced might be an inherent problem with my phone.

Thanks

I've just found this thread http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...ade-stock-roms/ which contains a link to the B10 ROM as a zip file ( http://files.podtwo.com/roms/stock/zte/bla...date_signed.zip ), as well as many other stock ROMs

My wifi signal level seems roughly equivalent to my laptop, which also runs Linux with an atheros wifi chip.

EDIT: One thing I know from using linux on my laptop is that it is almost always worth upgrading to the latest wifi driver, as the open source projects fight to keep up with new hardware from the chip manufacturers, so the Froyo ROMs may well solve any problems you have. (One would expect, though, that in the case of hardware supplied with a linux kernel, like our phones, everything would be debugged and working properly out of the box :(

Edited March 3, 2011 by DarrellK

[Guest sambartle]

My wireless on the phone is worse than on my laptop (which also runs linux), however that's to be expected.. The Antenna is smaller in the phone. It's certainly no worse than any other phone I've owned and better than quite a few.

From what I read (not a lot since mines fine) most of the WiFi problems appear to be resolved by restarting the router not the phone.. which suggests that its a configuration problem (either intentional or accidental) rather than a problem.

Someone mentioned DHCP leases as a possible problem if the lease time is set too low, which wouldn't be a problem for me as I run my own DHCP/DNS and I know its configured ok. Perhaps we need a thread to collect info about the make/model and configuration of routers to try and determine what causes the problem. (I've tried my phone on my Xyzel router, a BT HomeHub 3, a TalkTalk something or other by Siemens and a couple of BT Home Hub 2 and 1's and it works fine for me on all of them, all of which (apart from mine) are configured close to standard with some minor security related fixes by me or people I know)

That is a pretty good coverage (although doesn't include netgear, dlink or buffalo) and I've seen no problems whatsoever.. Its certainly weird.

What you could try is using JuiceDefender from the market, as it can control WiFi in order to save battery life, so it turns it off and on with the screen, which would perhaps help.

[Guest Skip Tracer]

That trick only works on the stock rom as far as I'm aware.. =\

Just could not wait, updated the ROM today too JJ r9 and found that you are correct in that the keypad number input does not work.

I got the same as ronc2000 above.

Just to add, my Wifi still working OK with the JJ update, its on par with all my other Wifi connected stuff.

Edited March 4, 2011 by Skip Tracer

[Guest flickflack]

This presents a dilemma for me. I bought a new SF about three weeks ago and I've been plagued with wi-fi problems. The signal keeps dropping (which might be fixable with a ROM upgrade) and the signal is generally weak. It's the latter problem that concerns me the most as it may well be a hardware issue. I'm really not sure whether my phone is actually faulty or whether it's simply that all SFs suffer from weak wi-fi reception.

I'm tempted to ask for a replacement but if I do the replacement will almost certainly have the b10 firmware and a LEAD screen. Maybe that's not a bad thing but there's been an unfortunate trend for ZTE/Orange to trim the phone's specification each time a new version is released.

MY phone's screen (which is of type TRULY) is excellent. I'm therefore slightly concerned that the LEAD screen might not be as good. If I'm not careful I might end up with a phone that still has weak wi-fi reception and an inferior screen.

There have also been reports that some SFs sold abroad now only have 256mb RAM. Can someone confirm that the UK b10 phones still have 512mb RAM.

Thanks

[Guest xzyk]

This presents a dilemma for me. I bought a new SF about three weeks ago and I've been plagued with wi-fi problems. The signal keeps dropping (which might be fixable with a ROM upgrade) and the signal is generally weak. It's the latter problem that concerns me the most as it may well be a hardware issue. I'm really not sure whether my phone is actually faulty or whether it's simply that all SFs suffer from weak wi-fi reception.

I'm tempted to ask for a replacement but if I do the replacement will almost certainly have the b10 firmware and a LEAD screen. Maybe that's not a bad thing but there's been an unfortunate trend for ZTE/Orange to trim the phone's specification each time a new version is released.

MY phone's screen (which is of type TRULY) is excellent. I'm therefore slightly concerned that the LEAD screen might not be as good. If I'm not careful I might end up with a phone that still has weak wi-fi reception and an inferior screen.

There have also been reports that some SFs sold abroad now only have 256mb RAM. Can someone confirm that the UK b10 phones still have 512mb RAM.

Thanks

Have two SFs one I bought about 3 weeks ago took off the oange crap straight away and installed r12: MoDaCo Custom Froyo ROM works a dream

bought the other one 3 days ago did the same works a dream no wi fi issues with either and my router is 3 floors up from where i am normally using he SF

The only issue that i can think of is that I can not work out how to set the SF up to detect Hidden SSID

download a free widget from the market called 'Wifi Manager'. One of its options is to set up a wifi with a hidden SSID. It always worked for me on all roms I loaded and it has a nice widget which enabled toggling wifi and displays picked up IP, all from the homescreen.

[Guest g-rasshopper]

It's encouraging that so far no one here with a B10 phone has experienced any significant wi-fi issues. Perhaps Zte have finally fixed the problem.

However, I still have some lingering doubts over the new TFT display type. Has anyone had the chance to do a side by side comparison of the LEAD and TRULY displays, and if so which is best? Also, has anyone experienced the blue-tint problem that apparently affects LEAD display phones when they're flashed with a custom ROM?

Thanks

[Guest DarrellK]

It's encouraging that so far no one here with a B10 phone has experienced any significant wi-fi issues. Perhaps Zte have finally fixed the problem.

However, I still have some lingering doubts over the new TFT display type. Has anyone had the chance to do a side by side comparison of the LEAD and TRULY displays, and if so which is best? Also, has anyone experienced the blue-tint problem that apparently affects LEAD display phones when they're flashed with a custom ROM?

Thanks

No problems here re blue tint, I'm using Jellyfish, but have also had a look at Modaco and FLB.

[Guest Android-Fan]

I have b10 and have wireless problems :(

[Guest maltloaf]

my san francisco is only a few days old and came with the B10 build. I have unlocked, rooted and installed clockwork and the Japanese Jellyfish rom and have had no Wifi issues. Also my SF is rock solid overclocked to 760MHz

[Guest mvheuver]

I have b10 and have wireless problems :D

Me too, wifi doesn't work at all, B10 bought today in Argos. Will return soon as I suspect it is a hardware fault (when you switch on Wifi no networks are found, it just keeps hanging at "turning on". On my other older Blade no problems whatsoever in the same room). Tempted to flash a new ROM to see if it solves the problem but I guess better play it safe.

[Guest youngsta2010]

I have B10 also and keep losing my wifi, when the phone's been asleep for a while it always loses it and also occasionally just random dropouts, have to keep going into settings and re-connecting. I have B20 software version as well so very latest do you guys think i should take it back?