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THL W200 - Info, Root, Custom Recovery and Re-Partitioning.

Guest Frankish

By Guest Frankish
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Guest Frankish

Guest Frankish

Posted
Posted (edited)

Just got my THL W200 yesterday and thought i would create a thread much like my Xiaocai X9 thread which at time of writing has had over 15000 views so i assume it has helped some people. 

 

 

THL W200

 

 


1e2c.jpg

 

 

 

Index

 

 

1. Information

 

2. Root

 

3. Clockwork Mod Recovery

 

4. Re-Partitioning Internal Memory

 

5. Fix Notification LED

 

6. MTK GPS Optimisation

 

69. Thanks

 

 

 

1. Information.

 

1a. I have to say the THL W200 is beautiful although it does remind me of the original Blade with the colour of the back case and the chrome strips on the edges! I ordered mine from DealExtreme for a little under £130 delivered. It took 2 weeks and 5 days to arrive although it was over their holiday period so maybe could have been quicker. Despite what i hear about DX their live chat support were great, quick to answer and they promised they would ship it the next day which they did. Got my tracking number in less than 12 hours from ordering! Feel free to ask me anything you want about this device.

 

1b. Benchmark in Antutu. As you can see it sits just below a Nexus 4 and GS3 which price vs specs wise is amazing. Half the price of a Nexus and a third the price of an S3. Sits above the HTC One X.

 

1cvm.png

 

 

2. Root.

 

This device is currently rootable without even using a PC. You can go to my Xiaocai X9 thread and root using a pc and Motochopper auto root if you want but if you want a simple root all done from the phone then read on.

 

2a. Download the Framaroot apk here. Now install it on your device (make sure Unknown Sources is ticked!). Open/Run it.

 

2b. In the app tap on "Boromir" this is the name of the exploit used to root. It should say su binary and SuperSU installed. Now reboot and you should have the SuperSU app installed. 

 

2c. Pat yourself on the back for the easiest root ever. You can also unroot using Framaroot.

 

 

3. Clockworkmod Recovery.

 

If you're reading this step then chances are you're already rooted which you need to be for this step. 

 

3a. Download ClockworkMod Recovery image for W200 here. Place this file on the root of your sdcard NOT in any folders just directly on the root.

 

3b. Download Mobileuncle Tools from the Play Store or here. Install it, run it and grant superuser permissions when prompted. 

 

3c. In Mobileuncle Tools select Recovery Update option. At the top it should show the recovery file you placed on your sdcard root in step 3a. Choose this and follow the prompts. You should now have a Custom Recovery installed and be able to flash roms and backup your device. 

 

3d. Mobileuncle has an option to boot to recovery but just in case you aren't aware from a full power off you can hold volume up and power on to get into recovery. If you see a Chinese recovery then you have pressed volume DOWN!

 

 

4. Re-Partitioning Internal Memory.

 

4a. First you need to make a Clockwork Mod Backup of your current rom as you have it RIGHT NOW :) Do not skip this step please.
 
4b. Check to make sure you have completed Step 1 ;)
 
4c. Download this .apk file. Install it and open it.
 
4d. You will be presented with some options. Choose whatever suits you best. I went with 5gb /data partition option . Go through with all the confirmation prompts.
 
4e. Select the Reboot to Recovery option in the app. When in recovery select "Wipe Data/Factory Reset". Then you need to restore your Clockwork Mod backup that you made earlier.
 
4f. That's it now when your phone boots if you check storage you should see that your partition sizes have updated. Except your internal sdcard is now corrupted and unmountable... Does it bother you? Keep reading.
 
4g. Unfortunately not a totally pc-less process if you want to use the now tiny internal sdcard partition. Connect the phone to your pc and mount usb storage. If you're on Windows it will pop up a prompt to format the corrupt internal sdcard. 
 
All done!

 

5. Fix Notification LED.

 

For some reason the notification led doesn't work properly on the shipped rom from THL so just flash the update .zip i have made here to fix it. 

 

 

6. MTK GPS Optimisation.

 

You hear a lot of bad things about the gps on MTK phones but my Xiaocai X9 was pretty good considering it didn't have a compass infact it worked really well for navigation. Turns out the W200 is GREAT for GPS. What a lot of people miss is a few small tweaks that aid GPS greatly.

 

Press "Menu" then "System Settings". Scroll down to "Location Access". Make sure both checkboxes here are ticked and that the middle GPS button is "On". Now press on the "GPS Satellites" text and it will bring up two extra options both that are off. Tick EPO and then go into the settings and check auto download.

 

Now go back and tick A-GPS. It should have greatly improved stability and TTFF (Time To First Fix).

 

 

69. Thanks.

 

Can't remember where i got all the files but i'll thank anyone that comes forward and says i'm using their work.

 

Thanks to Meteos for the Partitioning APK.

Thanks to whoever upped the CWM Recovery to Needrom.

Thanks to the author of Framaroot. Amazing tool.

Thanks to guys on 4pda for notification fix .so.

Edited by Frankish
Guest Frankish

Guest Frankish

Posted
Posted

Got to do some more formatting but the basic info is there.

Guest Frankish

Guest Frankish

Posted
Posted

Yeah i've seen Banggood mentioned on XDA for cases. Just got to be patient to wait for them i'm not sure i want to add bulk to a phone already so huge. Got to say i draw the line at 5" i'm going no bigger.

Guest zerorpm

Guest zerorpm

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hey Frankish - thanks so much for the guide. I just got my W200 (thought I'd take the plunge as you'd got it going all nice etc...) after about a 2 week wait for delivery. I'm very pleased with it, I feel like Fred Astaire in this -

 

The only comment I can make about the guide is that for part 4e, I had to copy my backup back from my PC as after the re-partitioning I couldn't get to my backup. Is that normal or did I do it wrong? Following from that I couldn't do 4g (reformatting the tiny SD space), I didn't get the popup... maybe its because I have a network drive as D:\ and I find that always makes things go a little funny in XP.

 

As a parting question, what is your opinion about custom roms for the W200? I couldn't find much about it, but there seem to be a few out there. Any worth a shot or do you think stock is pretty optimised?

 

Oh I remembered another question, did you do the firmware upgrade, as it seems from the thl website there is one - http://www.thlmobilestore.com/news/ (search w200 and it's in there, or was)?

 

Thanks again for the guide.

 

---

 

For some reason I did not see the message before mine about the ROM...

Edited by zerorpm
Guest Frankish

Guest Frankish

Posted
Posted

Did you backup to internal memory or something? I failed to mention I did backup to external so that's definitely worth a mention!

I never did update as the stock rom is very good and minimal the update doesn't offer much.

Custom rom wise there is Lewa but translations are not great. The Italian miui is great just a problem with deep sleep but still lasts me the day. It's worth it MIUI is beautiful ha ha.

Guest zerorpm

Guest zerorpm

Posted
Posted

Yeah I backed up on internal memory... I thought to myself this is strange, I better back it up on the computer just in case.

 

MIUI is the one I saw mentioned. What's the story with MIUI, I mean where did it come from compared to CyanogenMod? I feel it may be worth a pop. The deep sleep problem you mentioned isn't in the bug list on the link!?

Guest Frankish

Guest Frankish

Posted
Posted

Deep sleep problem is massively down to Facebook no issues without the app installed. Battery life is still ok with it installed as I do use it.

MIUI is just what has evolved from a similar sort of project to cyanogenmod. Although it's made by the Chinese and closed source mostly. The rom is beautiful though, quite iPhone like on the home screen. The sms pop ups on any screen are the feature I really like. It's worth a look at least.

Guest drdivx

Guest drdivx

Posted
Posted

Hi Frankish,

Just got one of these today, impressive so far, nice device. Antutu score 16444 !!!

It's good to be back with you i remember all the fantastic work you did with the ZTE Blade.

I have followed your advice for rooting & installed CWM all went well. thankyou.

 

One note, when using framaroot method i could'nt see a SuperSu App installed in my app drawer but

Rootchecker said i was rooted...WTF?  I installed supersu pro app myself so all ok.

 

Question for you.. when i am going to repartition should i perform a nandroid backup to my external sdcard?

Thanks mate.

Guest Frankish

Guest Frankish

Posted
Posted

Yes as internal storage may be reduced to smaller than your backup so you would lose data. Always best to backup to external card.

  • 3 weeks later...
Guest sam tyler

Guest sam tyler

Posted
Posted

Sorry to ask, but will your light notification fix work on the thl w100 as well?

Guest davidca

Guest davidca

Posted
Posted

Hi everybody I had a big problem when I tried to restore my backupfile. Until that moment the mobile was working well but since that the mobile is not starting again and just appear the THL logo at the beguining. The only thing that I can do now is enter in the clockworth recovery, but i can't install anything from a SD card I did also a factory reset but this didn't do anything and neither can access in the chinese recovery.

 

Please I don't know what to do, can somebody help me please?

 

Thank you

Guest davidca

Guest davidca

Posted
Posted

Finally I can solve the problem. I put here the solution because maybe somebody is also going to need it.

I the steps of the following link:

 

http://blog.geekbuying.com/index.php/2013/08/03/thl-w200-latest-firmware-released/#.UpycsuKbAXg

 

But using this firmware:

 

http://www.thlmobilestore.com/news/thl-w200-firmware/

 

Thank you very much Frankish now I have my internal storage bigger, it's very usefull :-)

  • 1 month later...
Guest tomkay

Guest tomkay

Posted
Posted

Hello,

 

I just followed all your steps got my phone rooted and also the internal memory was partionated.. however now my simcard is not recognized anymore (I dont mean my memorycard, i mean my simcard)... i tried both slots but its seems to not work anymore..

 

Any Idea how to fix this?

 

Secondly I think its quite stupid to mention this memorycard corruption that late... are my datas on it lost now after this repartioning? If would be great if you mention this before that the card need to be reformatted...

Guest Sargos

Guest Sargos

Posted
Posted

Format your internal storage and then mount again your sf card, it should work

Guest tomkay

Guest tomkay

Posted
Posted

sdcard is working again... my simcard is still not being detected what now makes the phone nearly useless...

Guest tomkay

Guest tomkay

Posted
Posted (edited)

you mean to remove the simcard and clean it? I did actually but i can try again...

 

//edit: Not working at all.. also not with other simcard which i tried just now

Edited by tomkay
  • 1 month later...
Guest deksman2

Guest deksman2

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hey guys.

I got myself the THL W200 in late January.

I repartitioned the internal space and everything is working fine on my end.

No issues with SIM card reading or whatnot.

Software works good, and I also learned that MediaTek apparently released the source-code for out MT6589T months ago, which means that Cyanogen will probably follow suit pretty soon.

But, if I'm not mistaken, THL stated (or was at least hinting) that they will release the KitKat update for our W200.

 

I kinda wish I waited a bit to get the octa-core version (THL W200s), but I didn't know it was in the works back when I ordered it... and at any rate, this will be more than enough for my needs.

 

Battery capacity on the other hand is not something I'm too happy with (THL got stingy on this one - should have been at least 2000 mAh, or 2500 mAh), but they stated that they might release a bigger capacity version (I guess we shall see)... still, the phone is capable of making it through about a day or two with relatively moderate usage (if you are not gaming of course).

 

Any news on Cyanogen options for this phone?

I've been searching info on it and there are some indications of it probably coming soon, but nothing substantial to be honest.

Edited by deksman2
  • 1 month later...
Guest Kostikas

Guest Kostikas

Posted
Posted

Hello to every one here. I have buyed  the W200S , i;ve tried the farmaroot but it dont work , any one any idea. ?

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