Tag: cooked rom

Upgrading the Hard SPL on the ATT Tilt

As told on my previous post about being introduced to ROM flashing, I did things backwards. Before deciding on what ROM I wanted to install and thereafter finding out the ROM recommendations, I installed the standard SPL version from the newbie faq and kept the radio on my ATT Tilt phone. As a result, I suffered performance issues on my ATT Tilt which could be attributable to not using the recommended SPL versions and/or Radio. In my attempt to rectify the situation (i.e. upgrade the HardSPL to the cooked ROM’s recommended version), I suffered a temporary setback but thankfully, was able to fix the issue and get down to the business of enjoying the new software on my phone. *phew* That was a mouthful. This post will about my switch to a different ROM (painless) and how I was able to upgrade my SPL version to that recommended by this new ROM as well as my Radio. 😛

As I found out, the first cooked ROM you flash isn’t always the best. You are encouraged to try out different flavors because as I’ve intimated earlier, the first flashing is always the hardest/scariest. 🙂 The TPC Elite v11 Mega ROM I settled on was loaded with a quite a few apps I didn’t care for and I wanted to try out something differend. YMMV, but I discovered that I didn’t care much for several of the utilities that are baked into quite a few of the mega ROMs out there. If you want a lightweight ROM based on Windows Mobile 6.5, I recommend ahmen fikry’s ROM (v23551) with the HardSPL v.3.56 and Radio version 1.71.09.1. Those are the current versions on my phone and I recommend you follow the Noob’s guide to Flashing, but using these versions.

I found out from my first flashing accident that the instructions for upgrading the HardSPL via microSD card (as written on the Newbie guide to Flashing) did NOT work for me. In fact, this issue was the root cause behind my near brush the the TriColor Screen of Death so if you have tried upgrading your HardSPL via the microSD method and it didn’t work for you the first time, attempting it 2 or 3 times thereafter is not the smartest thing to do. 🙂

So, what do to? Well, I essentially had to pretend that I was flashing my ATT Tilt for the first time! I backed up my phone’s data with the excellent freeware PIM Backup software, copied the .pib file to my computer AND made sure my phone had more than 80% of battery life left. Then once again, I followed the Newbie’s guide to ROM flashing:
(edited for my version of HardSPL and culled almost verbatim from XDA Developers website)

  1. Copy JumpSPL1.56-KAIS.exe to your device memory. You can do this while your phone is connected via USB cable to the Windows Mobile Device Center. Please don’t copy this file to your storage card.
  2. Pull out the battery and reinsert it (this step IS important). Do NOT turn phone back on yet.
  3. Remove your SIM and microSD cards!!
  4. Turn phone back on and let it boot back into your operating system
  5. Connect your phone to PC with a USB cable and wait until it syncs with your PC
  6. Run JumpSPL1.56-KAIS.exe on your device and run it (If this version doesn’t work for you, try the others suggested in the guide).
  7. Click “Continue” on phone when prompted
  8. After a few seconds the tri-color screen will appear on the phone and “USB” will be displayed at the bottom
  9. Unplug the usb cable for 30 seconds and then Replug (phone will not re-sync but still say “USB” on the screen)
  10. On the Windows Mobile Device Center (I’m running Windows 7), go to “Mobile Device Settings” and then click “Connection Settings”. Make sure you deselect “Allow USB connections” and click “ok”
  11. Run the KaiserCustomRUU.exe file on your PC that should be in the same folder as the HardSPL .nbh file and follow instructions (ticking boxes and clicking Next). Do NOT re-enable USB Connections in Activesync.
  12. Update will go to 100% (should take less than a minute. Seriously, more like 20s in my experience, the Congratulations screen will be displayed on the PC and the phone will restart
  13. Unplug USB cable from phone and replace with SIM and microSD card
  14. Restart phone

    15. After doing, I needed to find out if my SPL version was indeed upgraded and you can check this by pressing the “Camera” button and using the stylus, hold the soft-reset key until you see the tri-color screen and 3 lines of the text on the top-left corner of the ATT Tilt screen. This is the bootloader screen. The second line should tell you what the SPL version is.

    Upgrading your radio is pretty straightforward and exactly like the newbie guide to flashing says. 🙂 Cheers and I welcome comments or observations from anyone who has done this too!