T-Mobile Vario Unlocked and using Orange! Now to flash ROM?

[leewilko]

Hi,

Thanks to the very clever people over at www.imei-check.co.uk I now have an unlocked T-Mobile Vario.

http://www.imei-check.co.uk/m3000unlock.php

I now wish to know if I can flash my unlocked Wizard with an Imate K-Jam2 flash?

I know there is another post on flashing the the Qtek 9100 with the K-Jam but I dont know if the T-Mobile Vario will pose any different issues or problems.

What I want to know is :-

1) Can it be done, can I flash my T-Mobile Vario with a K-Jam2 ROM?
2) How do I make a backup of my T-Mobile ROM before taking the plunge?

I am a Sony Ericsson P900 convert so please be gentle with me on your responses. I'm no expert but have got this far (Unlocked) by reading these and other forums.

If any of you can help out I would be most gratefull.

Cheers

Lee

[Belgilux]

I have (had) a Vario from T-Mobile Netherlands. I unlocked like you and ran the ROM upgrade utility for Qtek 9100, available for download on :-

http://www.beyondthetech.com/blogs/kjam/

It works fine. My Dutch phone now talks to me in English.... phew!

[arnoldl]

@belgilux

What are the advanges of the qtek rom over the vario ??

[Belgilux]

Niets dat ik kan bespeuren. Enkel is ding dat zijn in WWE - wereld Wijde Engels - dit is good voor mij aangezien mijn Nederlands niet zo goed is. ..

[arnoldl]

ok thanks ,

mijn nederlands is goed , dus hou hem liever in nederlands :D

grtx, arnold

[ingenious]

Hey, guys, I have the same problem - I want to change the OS from a german to en english one. My device is the XDA Mini S from O2 Germany. Do I *really* need to pay for unlocking first or I can just flash it?

P.S. How did you back up the ROM before the flashing?

[arnoldl]

hello ingenious ,

as far as i know , you have to unlock it first otherwise you can't acces the bootloader.

buckup of your old rom can be done (only after unlocking).

you need the program romupdate.exe
disable activesync on usb connection
turn off phone
connect usb cable while pressing camera button
start romupdate
chooice usb connection
enter 'r2sd all' this coppies your phone rom to your sd card (sd card will be erased !!!!!)

next step is to dump the sd card to file to store.
you need ntrw.exe and sd card reader
in a dos box in a dir with ntrw enter 'ntrw read dump.nb1 drive_letter_of_reader:'

that will dump you entire sd card to file.

to restore , but it back with ntrw write .......
reset phone while holding voice an camera button and chooise restore from sd card.

good luck , arnold

p.s. i'm wrinting this out of my memory so forgive me if i have something wrong.

[ingenious]

Hey, thanks very much :)

Just a thing bothers me still... If I unlock the phone (i.e. replace the boot loader) won't I just lose my warranty from O2?

[arnoldl]

mhh that doesn't worry me to much,

officiali it will only void your warrnaty if they can proof that that is the problem.
if not they can not hold it against you (in holland that is) , but you may have to 'fight' for your warranty.

grtx , arnold

[ricky_prayugo]

hi guys,

i wanna ask a questions about run the ROM upgrade from utility for Qtek 9100.
my pda-phone is mda vario, is it possible if i did it without unlock my phone?
because i tried run the ROM upgrade utility for Qtek 9100, but it said that there is an error with my phone while in process. but in that case, i haven't unlocked my phone.

anyone can help me, please
thank u...

[greddy]

reset phone while holding voice an comm.manger button and chooise restore from sd card.

but he boot NOT from the sd card ... where is the trick ?

regards

[tdodd]

I have successfully replaced the ROM on my MDA Vario with a K-Jam ROM and now I want to go back to the original ROM. Following the instructions by arnoldl earlier in this thread I created a backup dump.nb1 file and used ntrw_189.exe in a CMD window to dump this to a file. This took bloomin' ages since I have a 1GB card - very tiresome!

Anyway, I have now reversed that process to copy the dump file back to the mini-SD card but when I hard reset my Vario I do not get a prompt to restore from the SD card. I only have options to restore to original settings or cancel.

I have allowed a hard reset to complete and the mini-SD card does not even register in the Vario. Removing and reinserting does nothing. I've tried a hard reset twice and still no joy.

Assuming I have successfully created a working ROM image on my mini-SD card are there any other tips or options for restoring it to the Vario ROM?

[greddy]

anyone knows the keys to press for restore an image from sd card ?

I have tried all combinatiosn of keys, but nothing are working

regards

[arnoldl]

sorry , it is hold camera and voice comm button while resetting.

previes state must be on!!

grtx arnold

[tdodd]

Thanks for that. I just realised it says hold camera and voice comm rather than comms and voice comm, like you would normally do for a hard reset.

I've tried a boot with the correct buttons and could see nothing at all on the screen. I now realise there is something but without a backlight it is nigh on impossible to see. Anyway, I spotted that too late and started button mashing to try to get the thing to spring into life. It is now staring at me with a big clear white (lit) screen that dims briefly periodically. I now have no idea what is going on and whether this is the correct behaviour or not.

How long should the reflash take? Will having a 1GB card mean it takes 8 times as long as a 128MB card as it has to read the whole thing? How do I know if this is working OK?There are no progress bars or anything - just a plain white screen.

[arnoldl]

i did say comm and voice , but i just changed that :)

reflash was prety fast when i did it , within a minute i thought (256mb)

[tdodd]

Oh dear :-( Mine's been blinking at me for 15 minutes now.

I just restarted the process and I managed to see a "Format BinFS Success" message and a progress bar at the bottom which I think said "Upload OS" or something like that - too difficult to read properly in today's miserable grey daylight. But I'm now staring at the plain white screen once more.

Maybe my ROM image is fried. Any ideas how to get hold of a clean T-Mobile UK MDA Vario ROM file?

EDIT : Further info......

Bored of the blank white screen I pressed the reset button on its own. The device reset and this time with the benefit of the backlight being on I could see the Format BinFS success message, a couple of checksum checks and something about downloading ROM and extended ROM. This all took only a minute or two, which seems positive. But then I saw a message about formatting FAT (or FAT32?) and while that was being displayed the screen faded/disolved to plain white and has resumed its periodic dimming.

Unfortunately I now have HTC Innovation and imate branding all over the thing so I can't just pop it back to T-Mobile to fix it. I wish they had a full ROM upgrade/replace image in a .exe, like qtek and imate.

[greddy]

hello,

what means "previes state must be on!! "

i have an 512 mb card and no chance to boot the sd. Has anyone
try the qtek german bin on the xda ftp server here ? i write this
image via ntrw on my 512 mb card, press the camera and voice button and also reset, but the sd card want recognize ...

help! I want this german qtek rom on my wizard.

regards

[arnoldl]

hello,

what means "previes state must be on!! "



i only got in this mode when resetting with the buttons pressed when phone was on.
when i first shut it down and then reset it didn't work.

grtx

[tdodd]

Having left the white screen for a couple of hours there is no sign of anything useful happening. I reset the device and now I am dumped directly to the bootloader screen - there seems to be no software on the device now.

So it appears I can only get this thing up and running again with the k-jam ROM (or presumably Qtek) by running the .exe ROM upgrade file. But for me my option to go back to native Vario software seems to have vanished forever. Maybe I'm just really unlucky but this might serve as a warning/caution for others who want to flash their Vario.

[veef13]

Having left the white screen for a couple of hours there is no sign of anything useful happening. I reset the device and now I am dumped directly to the bootloader screen - there seems to be no software on the device now.

So it appears I can only get this thing up and running again with the k-jam ROM (or presumably Qtek) by running the .exe ROM upgrade file. But for me my option to go back to native Vario software seems to have vanished forever. Maybe I'm just really unlucky but this might serve as a warning/caution for others who want to flash their Vario.

Hi tdodd,

Exactly the same happened to me, I could not restore from SD and the only option I had was to boot to the bootloader and reflash with a kjam rom... so thats the end of tmobile warranty until someone can package the original rom, or they release an update... :cry:

Dammit!

Veef13

[tdodd]

Veef13, it is a blow but it might not be the end of the warranty support. Since the Vario seems to be wiped of all software there does not seem to be any evidence of a k-jam ROM on the device. There is an HTC Innovation flash screen but no sign of imate etc.. It is like an empty machine.

I'm just past the 28 day immediate swap period but if yours is less than four weeks old you might be able to do a direct swap if that's what you want. I've just spoken to T-Mobile about mine and they said I have to return it to the shop (didn't buy online) but it will probably have to be sent off for repair so I'm inclined just to stick k-jam ROM back on and wait for T-Mobile to release an update. It's certainly not the end of the workd.

Then again, if it does get sent off the "repair" should be a piece of cake and as I said, there appears no evidence of tampering that I can see.

Ideally some clever xda developer will figure why the restore from SD card fails and come up with a solution, or maybe package the nk.nbf file into an upgrade .exe file just like the Qtek and imate .exes.

[veef13]

Veef13, it is a blow but it might not be the end of the warranty support. Since the Vario seems to be wiped of all software there does not seem to be any evidence of a k-jam ROM on the device. There is an HTC Innovation flash screen but no sign of imate etc.. It is like an empty machine.

I'm just past the 28 day immediate swap period but if yours is less than four weeks old you might be able to do a direct swap if that's what you want. I've just spoken to T-Mobile about mine and they said I have to return it to the shop (didn't buy online) but it will probably have to be sent off for repair so I'm inclined just to stick k-jam ROM back on and wait for T-Mobile to release an update. It's certainly not the end of the workd.

Then again, if it does get sent off the "repair" should be a piece of cake and as I said, there appears no evidence of tampering that I can see.

Ideally some clever xda developer will figure why the restore from SD card fails and come up with a solution, or maybe package the nk.nbf file into an upgrade .exe file just like the Qtek and imate .exes.

hi,

alas, i reflashed the kjam rom so its a long wait for a tmobile rom for me.. luckily tho i did take a copy of the extended rom so can get back the useful updates etc...

Any news on tmobile rom anywhere? update or original?

Cheers,

Veef13

[jacoch]

Same for me. Each time I enter the bootloader (holding camera button), it tells me "Format Binfs". Then success. At the bottom, I get an error1 about the checksum. By pressing power button, I then get into bootloader. If I restart after that, there is no OS anymore on the device (sure, it has been formatted). So doing a r2sd after that won't save the OS. The dump will be empty. Why can't I enter bootloader without getting a format binfs?

[Button]

Hi guys!
I've met a lot of messages like yours in different forums, and I've tried to repeat all by myself..
So, if you made 'r2sd all' dump of your original rom, you can return it back DIRECTLY FROM THIS CARD! It really works!
BUT, if you made an image using 'ntrw read', and then restore it back to SD card (ntrw write) - you get the shit you've wrote.

So, i think, that 'ntrw' is incompatible tool in this case.

[greddy]

Hey Button,

BUT, if you made an image using 'ntrw read', and then restore it back to SD card (ntrw write) - you get the shit you've wrote.

So, i think, that 'ntrw' is incompatible tool in this case.

i think so, that's the reason why the image (german qtek rom) makes
an checksum error at 60%

regards, Peter

[jacoch]

I didn't use ntrw. And this doesn't explain why the device do a "format binfs" each time I try to access the bootloader. If I then try to restart the wizard, there is no information about os version on bootscreen and I get back to bootloader again.

[Button]

I had a simple test:
1. Using 'ntrw read' I've created a file from SD card - dump.nb1.
2. Using 'ntrw write' I've restored SD image from dump.nb1.
3. Again, using 'ntrw read' I've created a file from restored SD card - dump.nb2.
4. I compared dump.nb1 & dump.nb2 checksums, - they were IDENTICAL!!! Now I see, that 'ntrw' is workihg correctly...
But we can't restore wizard ROM after 'ntrw'... Any ideas?

[Button]

That is SPL 1.06 (bootloader) bug!!!!!!!!!! (K-JAM ROM)
To restore your original roms, just install first the PRODIGY ROM (it has SPL 1.01), then insert you SD Card with original image and enter bootloader (camera+SR). You will see the next screen during 3 sec:

'Restore All Image From SD
Press Voice Dial Key To Start Download
Download SD image?'

Push Voice button and have fun! :)

[greddy]

but this Info help not to restore the "german qtek image" here on
the xda ftp.

The Screen with the loader and the press button info is not
the problem, the problem is when the device is loading the
image from sd and when 60% is ready, then the error message come.

I have try Bootloader 1.01, 1.03 and 1.06

Or has the image an error ?

regards, Peter

[Button]

Or has the image an error ?

regards, Peter
I think, yes.
I've got the 'white screen' with spl1.06 and there was no starting info, flashing started without warning and with no backlight! But I successfully install all image with spl1.01... Let's wait for other replies.

[jacoch]

That is SPL 1.06 (bootloader) bug!!!!!!!!!! (K-JAM ROM)
To restore your original roms, just install first the PRODIGY ROM (it has SPL 1.01), then insert you SD Card with original image and enter bootloader (camera+SR). You will see the next screen during 3 sec:

'Restore All Image From SD
Press Voice Dial Key To Start Download
Download SD image?'

Push Voice button and have fun! :)

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, my original rom (orange CH) came with SPL 1.06 too. So I'm afraid I need to get a new dump. Not a problem. Have a friend with another M3000. Will try to get the dump using grab_it or testdump (seen on another post).

[fantasylovevn]

I've back up my Winzard ROM to a SD card, and also copy it to PC.But I don't know how 2 make a ROM file like K-JAM_WWE_1010903_106_10110_ship or Qtek_9100_RUU_Prodigy_10107105_Qtek_WWE_ship.Does any body show me how??? Sorry 4 my bad English.Thank in advance!!!!!!!!!

[rfsolution]

Guy's

If you help me with me request:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=35203&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25&sid=8bb0277426406432c3f8b9f2381fdc7a

I will post you my german image