I’ve done it, I’ve just ordered a T-Mobile MDA Vario, it should be here tomorrow, I cant wait!!!
I’m new to this forum and new to the world of Windows Mobile Devices, however I am far from a novice with SmartPhones.
I have been a big fan of SonyEricsson for many years and am currently looking for a new phone, but lately have lost my feel for SE and have discovered then marvel that is the Wizard!!! Wow, I’m so much going to have one of them!!!
I’ve been reading through this forum and well what can I say, what a fantastic resource, well done!
But what I really want to know is: software? I know the MDA Vario is T-Mobile branded, but what restrictions do they impose on you?
I’m a great believer that hardware developers know what they are doing and Phone Network Operators should leave the software well alone. I have read about unlocking the phone and moving Cab files etc, but what I would really want is to flash it with its “pure” software, is this possible and easy to do and how do I then set up my MMS and GPRS setting?
And am I correct in understanding what I’ve read, that, an out the box MDA Vario wont run ActiveSync?
Thanks in advance
Nick
Nick, an excellent choice of name, and an excellent choice of device
The units ROMs all seem to be largely the same, it's the extended ROM which is different.
T-Mobile's extended ROM installs a load of customisations such as wallpapers, GPRS settings, etc... Nothing seems to hinder you particularly badly , however if you don't want it, hard reset then do a soft reset before it installs the customisations. You then have a virgin machine
The only lock is a simlock, which means that you have to use a T-Mobile SIM with the device. Lokiwiz, a free unlocker, gets around this nicely with thanks to Machinagod, and all those whose work he improved
Oh, and activesync works fine with it, providing you haven't got any weird firewalls running
Welcome to the world of windows mobile
I have had my Vario for about a week and a half now.
If you used the P910 like I did, you will miss the jog wheel utility desperately. A brilliant device that was only let down by the lack of symbian (UIQ) development (it's harder to program.
I used to have a compaq 2210 and ran Pocketinformant. I've just reloaded it on my unit. It's brilliant, you give up a lot for the jog wheel but you welcome back the world of 'drag and drop' and 'double tap'.
If you use a PIM then Pocketinformant cannot be beaten.
Incidently make sure you load activesync 4.1 on your pc, providing you set your catergories in your outlook master list to the same as your device, syncing is superb.
good luck :lol:
I've just switched to Vodafone with an expansys contrct deal after four years with T-Mobile. They (T-Mobile) told me six weeks ago, they'd no idea what a Vario was, and had no information that they were going to get them even though Germany had announced them to the press. Expansys had the 9100 on Voda so off I went. The Vodafone "data" bundle which is SMS or MMS or GPRS out of the same pot is better for me than T-Mobile who would only offer web'n'walk *and* a separate SMS/MMS bundle :-(
Vodafone have been fine, but the SMS voicemail alerts that don't activate the little "tape" message waiting icon really annoys me... ;-)
Dox..
I have also gone from a P900 to XDA mini. Its a bit of a transition and can agree - the wheel on the P900 was a luxury I do miss but there are alot moe benefits
Now - just need to try and work out if I can change the whole ROM from the O2 one
Scott
Thanks for all the info fellas, cant wait for it to be delivered…
Excuse my ignorance, but, the ROM, is that the basic OS and the extender ROM is just the individual network customizations?
I will almost certainly, as a matter of principle, do the SIM unlock, but what is the purpose of the CID unlock?
And, if I do the Hard reset Soft reset trick how will I set up my GPRS and MMS?
Sorry about all the questions, but I’m very inquisitive.
Hopefully this will also be helping fellow novices.
Thanks again everyone.
You can enter the settings manually, which if you have them in front of you is fairly simple. If you need to know what they are (I've entered Vodafone's so often for people at work I can do them in my sleep, but don't know the T-Mobile ones), google is your friend. To simplify the whole thing, Raphael over at BeyondTheTech has the cab file with the settings in here for you to download and install as normal.
If you're not going to let the rest of the extended ROM install, put this on a memory card in case you want to run it again after a hard reset..
Dox.
I too like to have a fiddle (I had an original O2 XDA and this site was fantastic for upgrading to later version OS) but so far I can't see any compelling reason not to use the T-Mobile UK custo ROM as shipped.
The only addition I've made is MS Voice with the associated Reg change to allow use with BT headset.
Obviously if there is a superior ROM out there please let us know what is recommended?
Thanks
Nick, check out the wiki which has loads of info about roms, extended roms, radio roms and all that good stuff. Not a huge amount is specific to the Wizard yet, but the information applies all the same.
Has it arrived yet, or are you sitting by the front door like an eager puppy waiting for the postman or newspaper boy (or girl, thank you Stan)
Unfortunately I’m at work today and they would only deliver to my home address
AND they need a signature, so first thing tomorrow morning I’ll be stud outside my local Postal Depot waiting for it to open…..
Oh I hate waiting!!!
Welcome to Vario-ness !
Not coming from a previous PPC platform, you won't suffer the same way i did, by installing all the apps i used on my MDA Compadt some of which may not have been compatable with WM5. That ended up with me having a poor view on the Vario.
Fear not though, i've since seen the error of my ways, thanks to the fine folks on this forum...
I have an XDA II, and would like to update if there is a significant improvement.
I have read from the t-mobile site that the Vario does not have vibrate or voice dialling. Is this true, can Fonix be installed?
The most vital things I use are the outlook contacts, calender, isilo reader and avant go. I guess all standard apps that work on windows mobile 2003 work on 5 right?
How big is the screen?
Thanks for any help.
Well, that just goes to show that T-Mobile don't have a clue, really, doesn't it? I thought you must be mistaken, but sure enough it says that it doesn't support voice dial, and doesn't vibrate either.
It does. On both counts. The vibrate is a lot better than the xda2s in that it almost dislocates a hip when it goes off, and voice dialing works very well. With a quick registry hack, voice dialing works with bluetooth headsets too
Some have found the vario sluggish in comparison to the xda 2; i find it to be comparable to the blue angel (2s) that I had running wm2005 - bear in mind you're reading/writing all files from flash rather than RAM, and that explains the performance.
The screen is 2.8 inches diagonal.
Have any of you got vibrate working on M3000 (Orange)?
I have an M3000 from Orange Switzerland, and cannot get my vibrate to work at all.
Not to get 'off topic' but T-Mobile Czech republic were about to sell me a MDA Vario and at the last moment I noticed a sticker on the box saying it doesn't support character recognizer or transcriber .. anyone know if this FOR ME huge negative can be reversed so I can handwrite sms as MDA II let me .. (perfect solution for me)
kgary said:
Not to get 'off topic' but T-Mobile Czech republic were about to sell me a MDA Vario and at the last moment I noticed a sticker on the box saying it doesn't support character recognizer or transcriber .. anyone know if this FOR ME huge negative can be reversed so I can handwrite sms as MDA II let me .. (perfect solution for me)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both work fine for me on a UK MDA Vario, I don't know why the czech would be different. I must say however that I rarely use them because the slide out keyboard is SO sweet.
On a side note, my brother just picked up the same phone on O2 and personally I like the O2 customisations a lot better than the T-mobile ones. Especially the multiple today screen functionality.
Is it possible to install O2 extended rom and keep t-mobile comms settings? I've only just started to look into this so does anyone with any experience with this have any tips?
Thanks
I've just purchased a T-Mobile UK MDA Vario branded handset along with the bundled CoPilot 6 Live GPS kit.
So far I've been frustrated with its sluggish behaviour all round, and a multitude of problems.
I've currently got the OMPA over clocking app running which improves the Co-Pilot launch time a lot.
However, I keep reading that an AKU2 ROM update is needed. However I cannot find *anywhere* (not just this site) an explination of exactly what improvements this ROM makes to the usability of the HTC Wizard.
I'm not interested in new features such as push email right now. I just want to be able to use the phone without it pausing for a minute and getting confused with too many button presses.
As my MDA Vario is only a few days old I'm told it can be returned if I just can't use it. Because of this I don't want to install any hacked/other network AKU2 ROM at present.
Can any body tell me or point me to some details about changes in this AKU2 ROM update please?
First off, search the forums for info on AKU2 ROM's, each of the ROM's ends up witha discussion of the good the bad and the ugly.
That said, the TMO UK Ship ROM is a pile of nasty stuff, slow, buggy and prone to crashing into one of two states (either the regular reboot or the device is on the lights are flashing but it won't wake up, receive calls or receive email). I'm stuck with it at the moment as I need to run the blackberry software.
The AKU2 ROM's are more stable, don't crash the device when using an SD card, the radio ROM's are faster and connect/reconnet to networks faster and fundamentally better (think Windows XP then XP SP2).
All of the AKU2 ROM's have subtle differences but for my money, if you dont want/need all of the cellular provider branding etc then I'd go with the latest QTEK SHip ROM (check the ftp site). It's easy enough to configure the GPRS, MMS etc for TMo after you've installed the ROM.
Generally, if you're new and it's a new device, read the forum postings, read the Wiki - it's all there though you may have to do some digging around. If all else fails post a query but be wary of posting questions that are on the forums as you'll be begging for a ton of abuse at using people's time to save you effort looking...
Don't give up on the device, once you move to AKU2 and away from that dodgy TMo 1.6 ROM you'll be much happier.
I spent ages reading post after post and not really getting a clear bullet list of what's what. Basically I wanted to know if the sluggish response from the phone would ever be improved.
http://xda.o2.co.uk/xdaMiniSoftware.aspx gives a fairly good (to me) break down of the features in the AKU2 ROM update.
Is upgrading a t-mobile mda pro with another operator's rom workable? I know it's technically possible but before I risk my expensive toy I'd much rather know if someone has tried it out before, and if so, with which operator's rom??
TIA!!!
I do it all the time, only thing is you have to have your operators mms/gprs/utms settings.
ronin
mdaexecfan said:
Is upgrading a t-mobile mda pro with another operator's rom workable? I know it's technically possible but before I risk my expensive toy I'd much rather know if someone has tried it out before, and if so, with which operator's rom??
TIA!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Create a ROM backup before changing to the new one- just in case of any problems or indeed if you had to return the device under warranty.
Is there a rom that's preferable to use? Or are they all the same, hardware support wise?
Please pretty please? I'll settle for knowing which rom you upgraded your tmob mda pro with :-D
And BTW this is my P 100 post
Hi, I have the latest imate rom currently running on my TMobile MDA Pro, it works absolutly fine. TMob do have an AKU2 rom in production, infact it is shipping with newly purchased Pro's but as yet does not seem to be available for existing customers
If you do install the imate rom you can find the GPRS/MMS etc settings you'll need here and full instructions for doing the upgrade can be found in this post over at 4WinMobile.com.
Hello,
I just bought a used qtek 9100 two weeks ago and am now starting to have problems. The previous owner installed windows mobile 6 underground edition, as well as some other updates. Currently the phone is freezing almost once a day, in which I have to take the battery out to reboot. If anyone can help me any suggestions would be greatly apptrietiated. I thought about trying to go back to the original wm5 or upgrading to wm6 does anyone know if that would work?
Thanks for any and all help
Matt
irishmatt12 said:
Hello,
I just bought a used qtek 9100 two weeks ago and am now starting to have problems. The previous owner installed windows mobile 6 underground edition, as well as some other updates. Currently the phone is freezing almost once a day, in which I have to take the battery out to reboot. If anyone can help me any suggestions would be greatly apptrietiated. I thought about trying to go back to the original wm5 or upgrading to wm6 does anyone know if that would work?
Thanks for any and all help
Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried doing a hard reset and then load it back up with your apps? This might clear a bad registry issue. Also the problem could be a 3rd party app that doesn't work well on WM6.
I would suggest you do move back to an original rom if you are having problems. Then you can look at playing with custom roms later when you get a feel for the device. Key thing is you want to get it stable.
Read the following on how to Flash roms:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=298613
Since you are already running a WM6, its likely (if this is a G3) that you are CID Unlocked already (if you are a G4 than its likely you are not CID Unlocked).
You could try a newer WM6 (like XPlore 2.0 or Faria Vanilla from his kitchen) both of which are found in the Wizard WM6 board located here. But I think I'd recommend you just go back to the official carrier rom first.
Thank you
When you say to go back to the original software, where can I get that? I came accross a update on the t-mobile site that said it would remove all data stored on device, is this what you are talking about? I would hate to do something to make this phone incapacitated.
Also has anyone seen the windows mobile vista for a ppc? Does anyone know where to get it? Once I fixe this problem I would like to upgrade to that, unless there is something wrong with it.
Thanks for all your help
Matt
irishmatt12 said:
When you say to go back to the original software, where can I get that? I came accross a update on the t-mobile site that said it would remove all data stored on device, is this what you are talking about? I would hate to do something to make this phone incapacitated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On PPC devices, if you flash a new rom (upgrade, downgrade) it wipes everything on the phone in memory. Sorry but no way around that. After doing it a few times you learn what to keep on your SD card, and you get pretty good at reinstalling stuff fairly quickly (but even then, I plan on about 2 hours of downtime when I'm going to flash my phone. About 15 mins to get some backups (so I can get back to where I was if the new rom doesn't work out), 30 mins to flash an official rom and flash the new rom, reflash the radio to the one I want. Then a good hour to set all of my apps back up (that part of the time is getting shorter).
Also has anyone seen the windows mobile vista for a ppc? Does anyone know where to get it? Once I fixe this problem I would like to upgrade to that, unless there is something wrong with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no Mobile Vista. There is WIndows Mobile 6 and there are Vista style themes for it (heck there are Vista themes for WM5 for that matter).
So back to your original issue... You need to plan on wiping this device one way or another due to the current issues you are having (IMO). So if you want to stay with the Underground version of WM6, then just do a Hard Reset, and then set the phone back up. Otherwise, you need to look at getting the original rom for yoru phone (you can find these on the carrier's websites usually in the support/downloads area) or upgrading to some other custom rom.
Again, read the thread I gave you previously. You really need to read up on how this stuff works before you just start looking at flashing a new rom (official roms are pretty straight forward if you stay with the rom meant for your phone).
Now a different problem
OK, now im trying to get the phone back to the original settings from the company, but am having difficulty. I ran the update from t-mobile and it keeps saying there is a communication error. Im not sure if the previous owner had t-mobile or what carrier he used does this matter?
is there a way to un-grade the phone without a pc?
Im really having a hard time with this, ive been trying for around 4 hours to fix this issue without luck, someone please help im about to start using heavy drugs. Not really but you get the gist of it.
Thanks
Hi,
I currently have the Artemis on T-Mobile UK (MDA Compact 3) and recently I've been getting the annoying going into soft reset loop - these days for no reason - previously, it was due to stray reminders or non-dismissed notifications
Anyway, I think it's time to change phones (this one is 2.5 years old). I was wondering if the Hero has been known to do the same. Should I consider buying this phone, or would any current owners advice on a different handset?
I definitely need Sat Nav (or capability) on the phone apart from the usual apps and functionality
TIA
At this moment i would go for a NexusOne but im a pride owner of a hero...
Been using it for 3 months and had no problems so far
I had an Artemis before and can say that the experience the Hero provides exceeds that of the Artemis by lightyears. I would say go for it. if the budget helps it, then go for a higher spec Android mobile.
Javi said:
I currently have the Artemis on T-Mobile UK (MDA Compact 3) and recently I've been getting the annoying going into soft reset loop - these days for no reason - previously, it was due to stray reminders or non-dismissed notifications
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK, this is a Windows Mobile issue with the old WinMo operating system and it doesn't exist in Android.