"De-Branding" HP 910c...

[gfinockio]

Hello folks,

I'm rather new to all of this, but I've come across a problem I can't seem to work out on my own.

I purchased a second-hand HP 910c, which had WM 6.1 but in French. It is also "branded" with Rogers software as well. I followed the instructions here to "flash" a ROM on the device which worked fine... but as soon as I boot up the device, it says that there are updates available for my device, and doesn't let me do anything else until I install them. Turns out the "updates" are in fact Roger's software installing on my device, and also UNINSTALLING other useful programs!

What I hope you can help me out with is - how do I disable that automatic update? I think it's called "IPAQ CUSTOMIZATION" or something like that?

[Zoltair Wright]

Sounds like you've got some Canuck in your extended ROM! See if this works for you: hard reset, and as soon as you see the "updates available" screen come up, soft-reset. (It won't hurt your device, promise.) If I've guessed right, your device will restart but none of the Rogers software will be installed.

[gfinockio]

I tried that - it still comes up with "HP IPAQ CUSTOMIZATION" upon reboot.

Almost as if there's a file in a "Start-Up" type folder... but I can't go anywhere past that install screen to see...

Any ideas?

[keyx]

i think the only way to disable ipaq customization is to edit the rom initflashfiles.dat under OEM_Lang to take it out from start

[gfinockio]

i think the only way to disable ipaq customization is to edit the rom initflashfiles.dat under OEM_Lang to take it out from start

Is there a tutorial around for that, or to get me started?

Also - I'm loading a ROM from here to change the language... does that matter?

[smishra]

gfinockio .. have you had any luck with this?

[gfinockio]

Yeah, sort of a fluke really. I updated to one of the 6.5 ROMs, didn't like it, so I went back to a 6.1 ROM from HP. That seemed to do it!

I think the key is to do a "full" flash of the ROM. You can't use the SDLoader method, because that just flashes the OS. Using the official update from HP, with the software, should work. There is a package somewhere on these forums that is a "hacked" version that ignores language as well. Take a search (I'd use "minutes" as a key, because that's in the thread!) and keep us updated.

[chan200606]

What happens is the clean boot image has a link to the HP customisation program in the windows\startup folder. The way to avoid this program from running is hence to remove this link from the startup folder.

My way of doing this is to connect the iPaq to my PC before starting the iPaq. When the iPaq starts, the screen asking you to click to start the customisation will come up, but until you click, the program will not run yet. In the background, while you can't see it (the customisation screen won't give way to anything else), other programs including Activesync will still run. You can therefore, from the PC, explore into the startup folder and delete the link to the customisation program, all without clicking on the iPaq and hence before the customisation has a chance to run. You can then soft reset, and with the link removed from startup, customisation will not start.

[gfinockio]

What happens is the clean boot image has a link to the HP customisation program in the windows\startup folder. The way to avoid this program from running is hence to remove this link from the startup folder.

My way of doing this is to connect the iPaq to my PC before starting the iPaq. When the iPaq starts, the screen asking you to click to start the customisation will come up, but until you click, the program will not run yet. In the background, while you can't see it (the customisation screen won't give way to anything else), other programs including Activesync will still run. You can therefore, from the PC, explore into the startup folder and delete the link to the customisation program, all without clicking on the iPaq and hence before the customisation has a chance to run. You can then soft reset, and with the link removed from startup, customisation will not start.

Yeah, I tried that too... but if you flash again (without doing a FULL flash), it might come back on next reset, or for sure on next flash.

The good news is - it IS possible to get rid of it.