Flashing WM6.1 to a new Herald

[zeheres]

Hey there,

since I'm new to the community I hope I'm not doing it wrong :)

I will receive my new Herald within the next days and now I'm seeking for all the stuff I will need then.


1. Hard-Spl. I don't get it. What is it? Is it some kind of firmware update or whatever? The ROM's thread says that I would need SPL 4 or later to successfully finish the Update but I can't find that SPL application in version 4+ :/

2. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=437385 - http://www.evolvers.net/Herald_Roms/Version%207.7/ => I'd like to use that ROM. But I'm not too sure whether to use Manilla2D or Omnia.

3. What if I needed to send my device back for warranty reasons. Is there some way to flash back the standard Win Mobile 5.0?


I hope I will get your attention!

Regards,

Chris

[itbmd]

Hey there,

A friend of mine just told me about flashing ROMs literally a few days ago. I did my first successful flash just yesterday and I am very happy that I did. FYI, yes I am using a stock TMobile Wing from 2007.

Rom's are not interchangeable across different phone models as far as I know. So you need to get ROMs made for the wing a.k.a. the Herald. Any Rom for the Herald should work.

Just remember one thing that I forgot to do, make sure that you back up your data. I forgot to do this and lost all of my data. Luckily, I did not have any pictures or music that I was too sad to lose. However, I did lose my contacts. Again luckily, I had an old Sim card from last year that had my contacts on it, so I was able to get back 90% of my phonebook, except for a few people that changed numbers or new contacts. So be sure to save anything you want to keep somewhere else.

I am pretty technically savvy, but I must say that flashing the Rom did take me several hours. The process itself only takes about 10 minutes, but it took hours to figure out what type of Rom I needed and how to exactly flash it. You will see many people trying to tell you that you need to know your IPL and SPL version, and there is no way to know this until you start flashing! It wasn't until I did my first accidental flash that it showed me this information, and this ended up being my first successful flash. After trying for several hours the night before and not succeeding, I guess that's why it slipped my mind that flashing successfully would erase all my data.

The one that actually worked for me was the Canonyang Rom. In the link below please look at post number 216, and you will see a link to download the ROM that worked for me. The file is "HardSpl_WM6".

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=332413&page=22

I tried to flash directly to open touch, and no matter what I tried it was not successful. When I accidentally tried this Canonyang flash it worked successfully the first time, and after that now I was able to flash to any other Rom.

I am currently running open touch light version 6.5 because I read in another thread that it's supposed to be the fastest. I don't need a lot of features so I'm happy with what it has, and it is much, much faster than the stock T-Mobile Rom.

Since you are now getting it, yes, warranty is an issue for you. I am very new to all this, but from what I gather, once you flash, it does void the warranty. Perhaps someone else can answer if there is a stock TMobile rom, that you can flash back to. However, since the roms are digitally signed, I'm not sure that by even doing that, if TMobile can tell you modded it, and therefore elect not to honor your warranty. I guess that's a risk you have to decide if it's worth it or not. IMHO, I found out about rom flashing this week, and my warranty was up last month. However, if I had found out about this during my warranty period, I would have still done it. The Tmobile stock rom is sooo slow, compared to these roms. If you've never used these roms, you'd think like hey, it's got some bugs, but it's not that bad. But if you've used them, you're never going back to stock rom again.

I apologize if there are any typos, as I am using voice to text recognition software that I am testing. I thought I'd help you out by writing this as well as I test it. Good luck and let us know if you have any questions, we're all here to help.

[zeheres]

Hey,

thanks for all the information. Was very helpful. I decided to you the ROM from that link (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=437385). Should work, shouldn't it?

The only thing I don't get is how to get to SPL4+ :/ I heared of different methods of SPLing. Like Hard SPL and USPL. Can you bring light into that cave?

Cheers.

[itbmd]

Hey there,

Your link goes to the Open Touch thread. The link I'm referring to, is this one:

http://rapidshare.de/files/38148213/HardSpl_WM6.rar.html

As I said, I was NOT able to flash directly from stock to OTP. I tried many methods, and Canonyang was the only one that worked for me. After I successfully flashed to CY, then I was able to flash to OTP without issue. But in theory yes, any Herald rom's should work fine.

In regards to IPL/SPL, my wing is from September 2007, and I had IPL/SPL both above 4. I had NO WAY to verify this before flashing. When I initiated the flash for CY, and the wing rebooted, it was THEN I saw my IPL/SPL versions. I'm sure yours will be at least v4.

Actually as I write this to you, I remember a critical step I forgot to tell you. You need to Application Unlock your device as well. This is probably what I was missing in my failed attempts. After I did that, then the CY flash worked. I got that information, from this link:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=356295

So I would suggest following the steps there first, then trying the link earlier to flash to CY, then flash to anything else. This is the procedure that worked for me. Good luck!

[zeheres]

Hey there and thanks again for that bunch of information :)

I'm sure yours will be at least v4.

What does that mean then? I do not have to HardSPL my phone? But still, would you mind telling my step by step (And I really mean step by step^^) how to HardSPL a device? I really do not want to brick my phone directly at the beginning.

Oh and what should I rather be using, SoftSPL or HardSPL?

Cheers.

[itbmd]

Hey there,

Sorry but I just flashed my device less than a week ago as I mentioned. I don't have many of the answers you ask, because I'm asking them myself. I don't know the diff between Hard vs. Soft SPL.

The file I linked you to earlier, is a hardspl, as denoted by its filename "HardSpl_WM6". It hardspl flashes to the canonyang rom. It was then I saw the IPL/SPL versions, and then was able to flash to other roms.

FYI, I was concerned about bricking my device as well. But during the roughly 5 hours I was trying to flash it correctly, every time the flash failed, it did NOT brick. It just errored on the pc, and the Wing itself just restarted and went back to the stock TMobile rom. It never actually bricked. Make sure you do the application unlock though; I think that's a step that people may not do and could cause it to brick. Good luck.