Database Users

rom flash crash

hi folks tried to update special rom and upon where the XDa comes up with upgrading takes 5mins the software crashed out telling me to remove from cradle and do soft reset well did all that but cant get active sync to recongnise the XDA and the XDA is still on that upgraing 5 minute screen HELP

If it will not resume when you restart the upgrade program on the PC, then it's time to upgrade via the bootloader method. You need (access to)an SD-card reader/writer for the PC, and to read around on this forum a bit.

thanxs I guess thats the conclusion I came to however just to make sure do u know the steps involved in installing the special rom I have the download exe file someones put on the forum

****. I cooked a second ROM (based on testing the first one - and removing utils I didn't need)
Flashing started - but this time, ActiveSync dropped out and I was left with the 5 minutes screen.
I have tried hard reset but only the "upgrading' screen appears. Now I'm wishing I had never messed with it.
I can get the Wallaby Boot loader screen to come up (GSM OK) it says.
But I have no clue about this other "bootloader" method mentioned on this page. Can anyone please advise where can I find details of the fix? Is the ROM really wiped out and no longer recoverable?

I have the same problem as the first person who posted.

Then you will need to restore the OS using an SD card. (Min 64mb).
Probably easiest to cook a ROM at Jeffs Kitchen to your taste:
http://cuba.calyx.nl/~jsummers/ROMkitchen/
Save it as .nb1 type (bottom of that page).
Then get XDA Tools (yes I know its starting to sound complicated but its not really). http://xda-developers.com/XDAtools/
That program allows you to copy the .nb1 file you cooked to be loaded onto the SD card.
Once you have transferred the OS (.nb1) file to the SD, stick it in your XDA.
Turn on the XDA pressing simultaneously the on switch and sticking the stylus in the SOFT reset hole.
You should get a white screen saying something like flash ROM from SD. Press the JOG (navigator) big switch at the bottom to start the process.
Make sure you have mains power to XDA during this process.
When it finishes, REMOVE the SD card and press HARD reset.
Should be back to normal!

p.s. It goes without saying that you need an SD card reader !!
p.p.s I hope yours is better than mine. Try to get the latest version with drivers that can deal with big SD card sizes...

It does not say hard reset it say cold reboot to reset. So I did a soft reset and it worked after about 7 tries.
I really like what they did with this ROM Kitchen. I would think that if they can get this really stable then they should offer a service to create your own ROM's allowing the user to select what programs they want to include in the ROM.

Er, if you read other areas on this site you will notice that this is run by enthusiasts, who are making their work available to others.
So a little please and thank you will ease your way.
Rather than... "they should" maybe "it would be nice if...."
:idea: If you really want to DIY - then follow all the instructions, get yourself a Unix platform and MKROM.
Bye
ps sorry I got one detail wrong.
pps Sorry I bothered actually

Ariel said:
Er, if you read other areas on this site you will notice that this is run by enthusiasts, who are making their work available to others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Believe me as the owner of www.pocketpcminds.com I understand this. Back in the days of carrying a Palm OS device there a program that allowed you to add and delete things in your ROM.
What I was suggestion is a service that users could pay for that would inlude a list of Pocket PC programs that the users could choose what programs they want loaded in the ROM. From what I have seen of Pocket PC users each person has a list of programs that they find useful and use regularly.
I onlt suggest this because the people running this need to cover thier cost. Otherwise they may use intrest and stop it all together.

We're all too busy with other things to turn the ROMkitchen into a commercial thing. But if anyone else wants to do so, please contact us.
Pro:
- It would be a great sales platform for software (spb gprs monitor, PIMs, etc.)
Con:
- Available space shrinks as OS grows
- No idea how this works out on XDA II yet

Can't burn the Wallaby Patch to the SD
When I try to burn Wallaby Patch to SD the following error appears
Failed to open device \\.\PhysicalDrive8
Anyone help with this.

hi I did all that but when the XDA is being flashed it finishes but comes with achecksum error now I know I am doing everything right as I managed to reload O2 original .nb1 file and my xda is still as was however I want the forums version rom so can unlock many thanx for the previous how 2 instructions

SD card flash - 5 min screen
Ariel said:
Then you will need to restore the OS using an SD card. (Min 64mb).
Probably easiest to cook a ROM at Jeffs Kitchen to your taste:
http://cuba.calyx.nl/~jsummers/ROMkitchen/
Save it as .nb1 type (bottom of that page).
Then get XDA Tools (yes I know its starting to sound complicated but its not really). http://xda-developers.com/XDAtools/
That program allows you to copy the .nb1 file you cooked to be loaded onto the SD card.
Once you have transferred the OS (.nb1) file to the SD, stick it in your XDA.
Turn on the XDA pressing simultaneously the on switch and sticking the stylus in the SOFT reset hole.
You should get a white screen saying something like flash ROM from SD. Press the JOG (navigator) big switch at the bottom to start the process.
Make sure you have mains power to XDA during this process.
When it finishes, REMOVE the SD card and press HARD reset.
Should be back to normal!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a similar 5 min screen, and I tried as told, that is bought a card reader, cooked ROM, downloaded and transferred the nk.nb1 file to sd card using xda-tools, and entered into bootloader. But all I get is WAIT and then GSM OK message. Not the one that gives me option of flashing the ROM. How exactly to transfer the ROM image to SD card?

Rom Flash Crash
Just in case
I found that getting the XDA going initially by putting across the O2 installer programmeA onto the SD card rebootting with soft reset which installs the standard O2 locked phone system however this allows your XDA to be seen by the PC
all I did then was using the Kitchen Rom is double clicked it then goes into install mode through Programme A and does a PC to phone install.
I found I reinstalled twice and the phone now is working unlocked as required
I tried many times to do the soft reset install as instructed on the forum but it just crashed everytime

I guess the WBL version 5.15 does not identify nk.nb1 file as a rom image. it needs the rom image in raw form, the same as it is copied by bootloader that is WinCE to SD. I think the old XDArit writes it in the required format. dont know how the XDA-Tools does it.

ROM flash crash - solved!
It finally worked. With help from ntabikha, a member of this forum, I got it going. I plugged it in the cradle after hard reset. Activesync kept announcing that it can not connect to the device, and I kept clicking "Retry" (perhaps "disconnect com port" might as well have been all right, but I didn't do it. I thought it might disconnect the com port and stop the Program A from connecting to the device).
I then ran the Original Qtek Upgrade installer, and it did not connect on the first attempt. But it asked me to soft reset the device and run the program again. I did so, and whoa! it worked! It worked great! However, I don't understand why the cooked version 3.17 from Jeff's kitchen was installed instead of Qtek Upgrade Version 3.16.52. I care the least though, since I now have a working xda! Thanks to the guidance from ntabikha.

How to install software?

Hi....
New user here and just recently purchased the Qtek.
Been a long time Palm user and this is my first WM PDA.
Need help.
Tried searching....but search comes up with too many posts to go through all of them.
How do I install a cab file? Have a SD card and would like to leave the main system memory alone. Remember reading somebody saying something about it but no explanation concerning how to do it.
Why is there no sticky for something as general as this on this board?
Not that I'm saying that this is not a great forum - found a lot of other resources - but there should be a sticky for all the newbies - like me - that explains how to install software, what are essential software that are required, how to change settings, etc..
Anyway, hopes somebody can explain to me how to install cabs and leave it on the sd card.
Mel
PS. Mad Monkey Rules!

1. Put your sd card into the device
2. Copy the cab to your sd card
3. Use the file explorer on the device to surf to the cab file
4. Double-tap the cab file and follow the cabs installation instructions.
Should be good to go...

It's worth reading the publisher's notes/web-site to see if they advise against installing to SD storage card. Most apps will offer a choice of where to install to, but some publishers will ignore your choice - Thanks TomTom! However, you can often overcome that by manually moving files/folders to SD-card and hacking paths in the registry. If you export those keys, it's a doddle to recreate next time.
By all means test to see if an app will run successfully from SD-card, but there are some apps that don't like being left running from SD when the device powers down. Typically you'll find they've crashed/closed when you turn the device back on, but be aware that you may not realise something is wrong until later. Also remember that WM5 is still new and many programs may not be completely compatible.
Be prepared to spend a couple of weeks (or more) trying different applications, and continually hard-resetting your device, until you've built up your desired suite of apps. Most apps are available on a 10 to 30-day trial period, so take advantage of that. When you're ready, perform a fresh install of everything, preferably noting down the order of install. If your chosen backup program allows it, take stage backups so that you can always return to a specific point.
With the Universal & WM5 there's less of an advantage in putting everything in SD-card, since you can't move the split between program and device storage. However, I tend to put as much as I can in SD-card so that't there's less to lose and recover when I hard-reset the beast.

Thanks guys.
Worked great.

make an image of my ROM

hell guys how can i make an image of my mobile ROm with all the software I have installed so next time I just need to flash again the image I backed up....something like Ghost for PC....do u know anysoftware...better freeware?
thanks a lot
a hope this topic can be hepful for some other newbie
cu

Giordano said:
hell guys how can i make an image of my mobile ROm with all the software I have installed so next time I just need to flash again the image I backed up....something like Ghost for PC....do u know anysoftware...better freeware?
thanks a lot
a hope this topic can be hepful for some other newbie
cu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
You need:
1. SD card (128MB is big enough)
2. Terminal program that can speak through the USB port
3. A CID-unlocked device
Boot to the loader (hold CAMERA while powering on) - the "three color screen". Plug in the phone and kill the wcescomm.exe process on XP (this is the ActiveSync USB driver process)
Start your terminal program and hit return. You should get a command prompt.
Type: "r2sd all"
The phone will dump the enitre ROM, including the extended ROM, to the SD card.
When done it will tell you. Remove hte card and store somewhere safe.
To restore, insert card, hold the CAMERA key and turn the power on. There will be a brief prompt telling you to press the VOICE key if you wish to restore from the SD card. Press the VOICE key.
The phone will restore.
This will work even if you brick it, so long as you can get to the tri-color screen.
Note that it appears NOT to back up the SPL - I just used this to return to the T-Mobile ROM from the new I-Mate one, and EVERYTHING restored EXCEPT for the SPL, which remains at the former level. Not quite sure why..... it should have dumped it all, but that's missing.
However, the restore appears to be fine and it both loaded and went thorugh customization without incident.

great it's very easy actually...but I didnt get it what u mean for terminal program....is there any detail
thanks so much in any case

An ASCII terminal program that can talk out the USB port.
Terraterm (there's a patch for it) is one option; there are several others as well. Basically you need to be able to open an ASCII terminal connection to the USB port on the device.

GREAT THANXXXXXX 8)

SPL`
What is the SPL?

There are two little pieces of code that start up the phone. "IPL" or Initial Program Load" and "SPL" or "System (or software) Program Load"
For reasons I don't quite understand the SPL does not get restored reliably off a SD restore. It doesn't hurt anything, but it does leave you with a changed version number on the splash screen.

Device extremly slow[Solved]

Hi all,
When i used my device this morning i could not start messenger or any other program. The device is also unable to connect with active sync. I haven't got anything installed over the last days.
It just happend. Windows is extremly slow, i don't have contacts anymore, no pim's or anything. The phone did remeber my last calls and such. My email accounts are also missing.
I have done some soft resets and now the device is stuck on the windows mobile splash screen (the green screen with windows logo and name).
I don't know what to do How can i get my device to work again?
Edit
The device has started after 20min at windows screen. Touchflo 2D has not loaded and i can not make calls. I can't start any program, it gives an error that the program can not be started because it has not been signed with a certificate or some component is missing.
Thx in advance for reading.

If you have an SD card inserted I would try removing it and see if that improves things!
I had a similar problem with an Xda Zest which turned out to be a corrupt SD card. Once it was formatted again everything was bach to normal.

I removed the SDcard, tried another one (also 4GB), then used the old one again (formatted) .
But no luck.
I will try again removing some software if the device allows it. Will update.

dont put any SD card in the device
and try
Start/configuration/sistem/Erase memory
and there just put 1234 and press yes
This metod erases everithing from your device leaving it just how it came from the factory

You may also perform a hard reset as you have mentioned to receive a message "some component is missing". Hard reset should fix any software (or Operating system) issues with your phone.
WARNING: Hard reset will erase all your data and the customizations you have made to the phone.
Refer to the following for instructions on how to hard reset:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=453324

I have done a hard reset without the SD & sim card. It solved all the problems. I was able to recover my contacts with ActiveSync.
Thx all for helping

Strange Crash

I　ｈａｖｅ　ｂｅｅｎ　ｒｕｎｎｉｎｇ　ｄ－ｔｗｏ＇ｓ rom for a while now and it is working great for me. Last night I tried to connect to live messenger and it went a bit crazy. Now it will only get to the today screen and then it hangs. I am looking around the site for a solution but I just wanted to ask here as well..
I know a hard reset will get me going again, problem is some text messages from last night that I really really dont want to lose.
I think it may be relatedto xpuscaler, but I dont really know. Activesync will not connect
The ideas I think may help me are:
1. can i use something like tty to get into the machine and either take the sms and contacts file or remove xpuscaler from the startup?
2. Can i use the clean registry without the format storage option from the hard reset menu? would this destroy my contacts and sms?
Please help

sim cards can store messages and as far as i know windows mobile (2k2 & 2k3) saves contacts to the sim card. check it in another phone if the stuff is stored there and if it is HR or reflash your unit.

1. as far as i know, there is no way to access files or folders remotely unless the device is fully booted, so, no mtty, no accessing in bootloader mode
2. yes you can use that option, that is a pretty good idea actually, because while the registry might contain startup information, it does not contain your sms or contacts.
another thing is, always keep your contacts synced, so they can never be the issue, and for sms, i recommend either to sync them too, or regularly make a backup with pimbackup, of course, this advise does not help you right now, but it might avoid issues like this in the future. since we are not carrying around normal phones like nokia, SE, ... and play around with custom roms, we must always be ready to perform a hard reset.
but back to the topic, unfortunately, the BA offers no "Safe Mode", as known of windows pcs, so avoiding the startup. you can try tricking the BA to do something else first, if the registry clearing does not work, you could put an extrom to your SD card and maybe the extrom startup will be first. maybe an extrom containing the same or a newer version of xcpuscalar will uninstall the current version and install the new version with the standard settings, and since the extrom shuts down everything else, it might just work.
and kind as i am, i actually built an extrom for you, just unzip and copy to the sd card, if it does not work, rename the folder from EXTROM to 2577 and it will work.
here you have the download link, it's pretty small: http://rapidshare.com/files/335389705/EXTROM.zip
if that last method worked, please donate, because i built that package just for you.

Thanks Chef,
I am having a go with your extrom now..
In the time since last post I have been able to get it working at the today screen but nothing will load.. maybe 520mhz made the processor die? have been running at full speed for a few weeks now..
You are right about the backup, I usually have pimbackup automated to backup to my sd everyday, but I hadnt got around to it since I installed this ROM. Typical luck! I wouldnt really care but I have some important sms that I need to recover..
@ares93 unfortunatly I dont save to my sim card as I have too many contacts to do that. And I dont think my sim could store my four years of sms that I seem to still have...
Will post more as it goes...

Well unfortunately the extrom didnt help so I bit the bullet and did a registry clean from the hard reset menu. It now boots and I have removed lots of apps to try to get rid of any clashes.. at the moment It appears to be completely normal until you try to run anything. mshome is working smoothly, the start menu is working, some settings panels will load, but I cant get it to run anything..
anyone seen this before?
Does anyone know if i can take a complete image of the device at this state and restore it later after i start really messing with things
Does anyone know if i can take a copy of the files on it and just restore the entire sms database after a hard reset?
I will think about how I can donate, its about time i did...

In the end a hard reset didnt work, so I reflashed and its all running smooth, lost some important documents, but it was all i could do.
lesson learned, remember to schedule back ups for everyday to sd

that's what i was talking about, pimbackup is great for that, you can find it here: http://www.dotfred.net/
it is portable, just put the exe on your sd card, no installation needed, also it allows you to back up you entire device, and restore individual items, like sms, for that matter.
if you want to make a full backup that would completely restore your device after a hard reset, with all settings, programs...
you should try SPB backup. there is a trial version at http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/backup/ that lasts for 14 days, that should be enough for your matters now. the only thing you need to know about spb backup is: you cannot restore a backup on another rom because it also saves the entire windows folder and that varies from rom to rom.
pimbackup, however can make universal backups that can be restored on other roms, other windows mobile versions from wm2003 to wm6.5.3, even other windows mobile based devices.