Flashing radio (scary stuff)

[0ge]

Okay, I haven't used my Hermes as a phone (since it's near to impossible to get a SIM-card in Japan), but now I got one and I noticed the battery drain really quickly. I can't even have it one for one day, but I used to have it on for two days before I had to recharge, and then I had beam and bluetooth running. So I need a new radio.
The question I have is, I have CRC's latest stable, flashed on a Swedish device. Can I flash any radio? (That's listed in the wiki) I've flashed ROM's and I figure the procedure is pretty much the same, but I can't find if I can use any radio? My operator i SoftBank if that's any help. Will this affect SoftBanks special text-service? (Mails instead of SMS, a real pain to get it working)
While we're at it, anyone got a recommendation for Tokyo? What I have now is 1.07.01.10.
Thanks for you patience! Please don't kill me, I just don't want to do something bad. :)

[DmytroL]

If you have HardSPL installed, flashing Radio ROMs is pretty safe, provided you do that from an SD card and not via a USB cable. Just avoid 1.54.x radios as they're known to be dangerous to the radio hardware. It's also a good idea to read the corresponding thread before flashing the radio ROM - people frequently provide their feedback as for stability, reception quality and power consumption.

P.S. They say 1.47.30.00 is quite good power consumption-wise.

[ultramag69]

Man, more 1.54.xx.xx bashing... I don't know why its said that 1.54.xx.xx is dangerous, I've been using here in Australia for as long as its been available. Never had a problem with the radio... I have 2 Hermes and they are both running 1.54.30.10.
Maybe it has a problem if the provider doesn't support it...
Anyway, if you know anyone in Japan with a Hermes, see what radio they're running... Unless one of our members knows what radio it is they use over there...

Cheers...:D

[0ge]

Thanks for your replies!
I tried the 1.47.30.00 and it's just as power hungry as the one I used before. Battery is now down at 43 % after 5 hours (completely charged in the beginning) and I haven't even really used it. I have to use 3G since GSM doesn't exist in Japan, which of course is a battery drainer, but come on... This won't last a day! Could be the battery since it's a fairly old phone (a year or two, not sure), but without the phone on it lasted easily two days with music running around 5 hours per day and some other daily use (looking up in dictionary, taking notes, etc).

[ultramag69]

Unfortunately as you said, 3G is a power eater... You might think about getting an extended life battery, 1500Mah or possibly a 3000Mah battery. Just remember though that the larger the battery the bigger the size and the heavier your Hermes gets...

Cheers...:D

[0ge]

Once again, thanks for your reply!
But is this drastical drop off battery time normal? I mean, it has more than halfed! The other normal phones I've had, worked atleast week one a full charge, using 3G, and the last one had a 880 Mah battery.
It's probably more convenient for me to carry an extra phone than using a bigger battery, cheaper and easier to find. >.<

[0ge]

I found an enabled data-connection setting in the Comm Manager that hadn't been disabled before. After a few hours of testing it would seem that the batterylife has greatly improved, but haven't done any real testing yet. Strange thing is, if I disable this Data Connection and leave the Comm Manager open, it will enable itself. But if I quit fast enough it's disable.
But what is it? I'm using a prepaid phone with no possiblities to access an internet connection with 3G, 3G is phone only. (And SoftBanks very strange text service)