HTC

[philiplaing]

You'll notice (top left) that i am a relative newbie to this forum but i have owned WM phones, all HTC, for many years and have been fairly successful in customising them to suit my needs, always for free.

Like many other posts i have/am very disapointed with the colours used by Vodafone on the TP2 and whilst i have successfully sorted problems like missing Youtube App etc, i am still a little disappointed by Vodafones insistance on turning me into a walking advertisement for them. Moreso, always keen on having a device that is optimised i am waiting with baited breath for the (rumored) uppcoming release of Win6.5.

This got me interested in various comments regarding Flashing, ROM upgrades and the generally baffling speil on XDA Developers forum. Well, having spent all day on this site i have finally a general understanding of some of these concepts. Not willing to brick (break or otherwise fry) my lovelly new TP2 i thought id have ago with one of my old phones and decided to see what i could do with a T-mobile branded Vario 2 (tyTn, or Hermes)...Success!

So i thought id try to provide an guide from one novice to another on some of the spiel and general procedures required. (care! - i have been successsful but try at your own risk!).

1st - a branded phone is essentially locked from applying such things as Firmware or ROM upgrades direct from HTC (i,e meant for unbranded versions) or any of the otherones cooked up by geeks (no disrespect intended). There are many discussions on this forum around the reasons why but lets just leave it at you cant do it. To overcome this you need to unlock the phone in a way that allows you to load on what you like, be it from HTC or the plethera of cooks (great term) who manufacture their own versions of the operating system. This base system is referred to as the bootloader. For those interested, the way forward is HardSPL (google, XDA forum and read up).

So i took this risk (with the old Hermes phone) and installed this. Having recently updated my TP2 via this very website the software was not completely alien. Im pleased to report that it was very straightforward. It achieved nothing other than updating/cracking the system by which i can now load on any operating system of my choice (care! - this will invalidate your warranty).

job done - from there the hard part is chosing a suitable operating system to add on. I have tried a few today including Windows Mobile 6.5 (thats right! - and bear in mind that this phone was originally running WM5) and a much safer original WM6 from HTC (via XDA forum). I have had no problems although a few points to note:

Warranty voided (5 year old phone so no probs - still debating what to do on the TP2).
although i have not noticed a slowing down of the phone this is reasonable to expect as your loading larger systems, taking up more space etc.
the WM6.5 that someone cooked up did not have all the features etc and was not ideal but hey. Search, search search and you may receive.

So it begs the next question - TP2? I hate the vodafone tampering (no offence to the wonderful mods here whos only job is to help us and much respect to them all for it) and the (expected) delay in vodafone offering WM6.5 upgrades.

Voiding warrnaty aside, and not wanting to apply a non-orignal ROM i am considering installing the HardSPL to open up the phone and then installing the anticipated HTC release of WM6.5. This should do away with all vodafone branding, apply the factory HTC software and apps and importantly back to black colours!.

comments and suggestions welcomed

[robnewton182]

i flashed my touch pro1, touch 3g and diamond2 within days of getting them all & have never regretted it. i even flashed everything on my touch pro back to stock & returned it under warrenty!

if you do go down the route of voiding your warrenty may i recomend checking out energyroms by nrgz28 over on xda, they ran/run fantastic on my tp1 & d2.

[Ben_H]

Hi everyone,

RaoulDuke has given a much simpler crash course if you will in unlocking the phone. Many thanks for the information and especially for pointing out the risks involved. While it will void your Vodafone warrenty, any official software release will still be covered by the manufacturers warrenty themselves. This can be a little more time consuming and costly to arrange than one from the network but you're certainly not prevented from doing so as long as you can accept the liability

Personally, I eagerly await news on the Windows Mobile 6.5 updates across the board, but I know that not every manufacturer will provide updates for every one of their devices. Time will tell as they say!

As an aside, for anyone wanting more information on unlocking their phone, then our http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/index.php?act=...amp;id=51"" TARGET='_blank'>Branding Statement should explain all

Cheers, Ben
eForum Team