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Can Vodaphone v1640 be upgraded to roms with other brand?

Dear elite members of XDA-Developers.com:
I am new to Pocket PC Phone and New to HTC Universal, but cerntainly not new for hot gadgets, have owned various Palm and PPC unite. I've been reading there forums and couldn't come up with an confirmed answer.
My question is, can my Vodaphone be able to flash to ROMs like the Asian Dopod, O2 XDA Exec or I-Mate Jasar? If that's out of the question, am I be able to atleast flash the radio from my current 1.04.10 to the newest? I am also without the exe file to flash the radio file. Can someone kindly provide his compatible version to me here? My main concern is can I still flash the whole rom?
I find it is very trouble to unclock any kind of HTC universal currently, I am asking my UK friends to help me find a local service to see if they can unlock my phone, if that attempt failed, I am gonna give a go to www.imei-check.co.uk, just got their comfirm that they can unlock my phone but for a charge of 50GBP plus 16GBP to mail the unit back to me. Which gonna be quite a bit of money even before adding my cost of shipment to send the unit to them.
Finally, please answer my questions, I did the search but couldn't come up with a confirm answer, thank you very much.
Alex

I'll write some more info later but just so you know flashing all Universal devices from one operator rom to another is not a problem.
We have several V1640's running custom brewed ROMs or the AKU2 iMate ROMs without any issues. You will need to use the "No country ID" upgrade exe and you really would need to check the bootloader (read other threads) as bootloaders pre 1.00 can be a bit funny and most of our V1640's where running really old bootloaders and ROMs.
John

I find it is very trouble to unclock any kind of HTC universal currently, I am asking my UK friends to help me find a local service to see if they can unlock my phone, if that attempt failed, I am gonna give a go to www.imei-check.co.uk, just got their comfirm that they can unlock my phone but for a charge of 50GBP plus 16GBP to mail the unit back to me. Which gonna be quite a bit of money even before adding my cost of shipment to send the unit to them.
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Click to collapse
There is no linkage between the SP lock and the ROM image. Even if you upgrade you will not see any difference in this respect.

Thank you for clearing my irresolute mind. I am feel much safer to flash my rom to a much newer version. Any recommandation? Good news is, I do have a bootloader v1.0, this support by what I saw from the bootloader screen, it has v1.0 at the bottom. :twisted:
Thank you jbn for the the reminder. I've been educated through out these useful forums that there is no charmer to unlock the phone via flashing rom files. Good point yo've brought up that there is no linkage between the SP lock and ROM image. Maybe that's why when I asked www.imei-check.co.uk a question that is sort of vice versa, I asked them after unlocking, can I still flash the phone to a newer software without affecting the unlocked status of the phone, that answer was a firmly 'NO'.
Thank you guys for the answer. By reading the forums, I've got a impression that the only way to unlock this phone without sending the phone out is to contact the provider, which in this case is Vodafone UK. I've called them and they said they need a phone number that come with this phone when it was purchased. I've been trying to work with the eBay guys who sold me this phone to get a phone number. But he seems unwilling to cooperate with me by agreeing to look for on-line unlocking service for me. Which I've already looked.
I am planning to call Vodaphone again see if I can get a unlock code from them without the phone number for a charge. Before I do that, is any of you guys have experience that this will work? Or is there any possibility that you can legally own a vodaphone without owning a phone number (signing contract). Because the guy did mention that he bought the phone without phone numbers, and he's selling whole bunch of them.
Thank you again
Alex

HTC Niki Original Roms & Debranding

Hey guys i need some help,
I'm looking for the latest original roms for my HTC Niki P500 (Touch Dual) on the UK Orange network.
Does anyone know where i can get the latest original debranded roms.
Also where can i get an unlocking code for the HTC Niki.
thanks in advance

Hi there, I used OliPro's Nike Unlocker (which I googled) to unlock my HTC Touch Dual on Orange UK. It cost £5.40 but is well worth it IMO. I now have an O2 sim card in it.
What network do you want to use on the phone? You'll have to let me know how the signal is when using a SIM from a new network.

How did unlocking it go?

Unfortunalty i didn't get it unlocked, but i'm still trying to find official Roms for the device to either debrand or upgrade to WinMo 6.1.
Tried contacting HTC and got no information what so ever and Orange customer services guided me through the process of finding the relevent Orange webpage but the Handset isn't listed.
so i'm back to square one!!
thanx anyway

Hi there Robbiejuk08
I am new to this forum and have never seen a forum like this before for people asking questions and not getting any reply. Anyway as far as I know you need to get phone unlocked first. Then you will need a serial number from a generic htc. In other words one that has came from htc and not orange or any other operators. Then you go to the htc site and you will be able to upgrade phone with the generic serial number. But as I have found out it is impossiable to get generic serial number in the forums as people just are not prepared to give you their serial number.

Hahaha, I pushed the thank you button for you,
First of all, welcome,
It's great that you are willing to help people, that is the spirit, but unfortunaly this post was more then two years old
But you did it with the right intention so thumbs up.
Have fun,

Changing language and running updates

One problem I always had with my X1 was selecting a different language. I live in France but do not read French. I flashed my ROM with the generic UK and kept my hard keyboard in French. However, I have never been able to run an update as a result. My phone has always worked great, but after a year of no updates it has gotten a little buggy here and there.
I am sure there is a work around but seriously, don't we have better things to do with our time than compensate for SE lack of service?
My question is two fold. First with the x10 will I be able to change the language and keyboard layout of the phone to English? I don't mean flash the ROM either. I mean can I simply go into setting and change the language of the phone? Or will I be forced to flash it in order to have my purchase the way that I need it?
Second, and this is in regards to flashing the firmware. As a long time SE customer (p900,p910,X1) I am well aware of how mad SE will drive you waiting for their site to actually post updates that work (does over promise and under deliver sound familiar?) If I flash the phone will I still be able to run an update via SE update service, or will I have to keep hanging out on this site with you lot? Not that I don't love you all
Finally, if I do decide to un-brand my phone (which I more than likely will want to,, eventually), is there an easy way to find a complete list of the lastest neseccary updates?
Thank you in advance

Unlike the windows powered thing before it, the X10 has international support. Therefore your not required to re-flash the rom for a localized version.
Updates on the X10 can be carried out on the handset, itself! Doesn't need a standalone PC anymore!!

Great News!
Neo, that is great news. I read a few things that eluded to that but nothing better than having a direct answer. So thank you.
I see that everyone and their brothers are flashing anyway. Usually related to d-branding their phone. Do you know if I decide to d-brand my phone will this auto update still work? Or will I get the same error message I get with my X1 (that it has been altered). Does anyone know, has anyone tried this?

fm1776 said:
Neo, that is great news. I read a few things that eluded to that but nothing better than having a direct answer. So thank you.
I see that everyone and their brothers are flashing anyway. Usually related to d-branding their phone. Do you know if I decide to d-brand my phone will this auto update still work? Or will I get the same error message I get with my X1 (that it has been altered). Does anyone know, has anyone tried this?
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Click to collapse
Having absolutely no experience in this field, therefore I can only tell you what I know. From my knowledge most handsets on the market haven't been branded by it's providers (at least not on Vodafone UK) since they come with the standard, if not ugly blue wavy theme.
There's a huge thread on here entitled Debranding X10, maybe you can find more info there?...

UK Vodafone firmware update - JM3 / JM4 - Unwanted apps/issues

Hi all,
I am running the stock UK Vodafone firmware and this morning updated to the latest firmware through Kies.
With this firmware update Vodafone have installed a number of branded applications leading through to their own mobile portals, as well as a couple of trial games.
Some initial issues I have observed are below:
360 Shop - doesnt work
360 Updates - 1 way install of Vodaphone services to the phone, no uninstall option.
Music shop - Fails to connect to the service (later found it does connect but didnt over wifi when I tried it.
Tetris trial & Monopoly trial - Who would want a trial permanently installed on their device?
Web - just another link to the web browser only with the Vodafone 360 login, point exactly?
Duplicated applications in the application drawer.
Note: These applications cannot be installed using the standard package installer. There is an application mentioned on the Voda forums which apparently can remove them http://forum.sdx-dev...34736/#msg34736
This thread is to inform the community about this update, and to call out to anyone running this firmware to voice your opinion on the Vodafone forums and support channels.
This happened to the HTC Desire around a month ago, the community pushed back and Vodafone relented by releasing another update without the additional software.

same old vodafone, they've been pulling this rubbish since the 1st colour phones came out. I've avoided them whenever I can. They know no-one likes the poorly designed interfaces, ugly colour schemes replacing fine designs. Yet because they make money from it they persist.

I half expected that it would come at some point but I hoped they would have learnt from the kickback they got from HTC owners. I guess not.
I tried out their 'Music Shop' app to see if it was any good. It was so badly designed that ended up with an unwanted purchase after about a minute of exploring. I clicked on what looked to be an advert and it started downloading, no purchase confirmation. Terrible.
We had a good laugh about the 14 piece Tetris and 1 circuit round the board Monopoly trials as well.
I know I could mess around with it and debrand, install custom roms etc. But for someone waiting patiently for Froyo from Vodafone, this is a bit of a kick in the teeth.

My SGS is from Vodafone, and last week, when I finally got Keis working, I updated to JM1. I checked again today and there are no other udates available, so I hope that this means that Keis is seeing my phone as a non-branded unit, although it is sim-locked to Vodafone.
Does anyone have any thoughts or definate ideas on this?

got my sgs last week and im assuming that this is the firmware it was sent with because i had all that crap ... and also wifi seemed to hang up at "retrieving IP Address" (or something along those lines)
.. voda branding is horrible ... laggy splash screen .. i've flashed it now

For anyone looking to support this cause, here is a link to the main thread on the Vodafone forum

I received my new Galaxy S from Vodafone about a week ago and it had all that stuff preinstalled. Obviously I flashed it with Odin on receiving it, and will do the same when Froyo is released.
I really can't be bothered with Vodafone branding stuff, you want to see how they messed up the Touch Pro 2. Black letters on a dark red background so you couldn't even see how many new mails etc you got properly :sigh:

InkZ said:
I received my new Galaxy S from Vodafone about a week ago and it had all that stuff preinstalled. Obviously I flashed it with Odin on receiving it, and will do the same when Froyo is released.
I really can't be bothered with Vodafone branding stuff, you want to see how they messed up the Touch Pro 2. Black letters on a dark red background so you couldn't even see how many new mails etc you got properly :sigh:
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Heh yeah I flashed my Galaxy S within 1 day of receiving it, Why won't Vodafone understand that customers don't want the s**t Vodafone branding. I have always flashed my mobile's firmware to get rid of the c**p that Vodafone slap on it and I will continue to do so until they stop raping phones with their stupid and slow firmwares! (fat chance of that right lol)

Feckers.
I'll add my tuppence worth. Hopefully enough SGS owners with Voda will do the same and they'll be forced to release an update that removes this tripe, just as they did for the HTC Desire...

The threads have been merged, new topic can be found here.
I received an email from Vodafone last night asking for some details about my handset so they could investigate it. Not entirely sure what thats about.

Geryatrix said:
My SGS is from Vodafone, and last week, when I finally got Keis working, I updated to JM1. I checked again today and there are no other udates available, so I hope that this means that Keis is seeing my phone as a non-branded unit, although it is sim-locked to Vodafone.
Does anyone have any thoughts or definate ideas on this?
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Click to collapse
According to their eforum team they had a batch of non-branded phones when they first started selling them, presumably because their firmware wasn't going to be ready at launch. I got one, and it's not sim-locked either. Are you sure yours is? I've tried mine with VF, O2 and T-Mobile sims and they all work fine.
If you go into settings, about phone, and check out build number/baseband version, that should have XX in the middle. I think the branded ones have e.g. VOD instead.

I'm in communication with the eforum team and they are investigating my case and many others.
The have said that they are only interested in the handsets which were previously unbranded, which have become branded by this recent update which mine was.
I don't know what my previous build number was, but my current one is ECLAIR.I9000BUJM4

Barkotron said:
According to their eforum team they had a batch of non-branded phones when they first started selling them, presumably because their firmware wasn't going to be ready at launch. I got one, and it's not sim-locked either. Are you sure yours is? I've tried mine with VF, O2 and T-Mobile sims and they all work fine.
If you go into settings, about phone, and check out build number/baseband version, that should have XX in the middle. I think the branded ones have e.g. VOD instead.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, my baseband version since I upgraded is i9000XXJM1, so hopefully if I'm careful, I can keep away from the dreaded Voda-bloat.

Somewhere along the line, my phone has crossed over to the dark side.
I think they are identifying those who have been wrongly branded and are going to add them to a special deployment list. Those who were branded already might be another story.

My phone was build number eclair.i9000xxjf3 and now after the recent 2.1update 1 is now eclair.i9000bujm4. Was unbranded now totally branded with vodaphone bloatware.
The updates by kies need to have an update list with them so we know what has changed. BUt why would vodaphone want us to know they are including the bloatware.
I think they are trying to brand all those unbraded vodaphone phones that escaped into the wild.
I got mine in an upgrade from vodaphone online shop at the begining of august.
The more recent phones seem to be already branded.
Fingers crossed for froyo day !!

Android Market Problems

Hey guys,
I have Xperia Arc originally branded to 3 (UK). I just debranded it through the guide provided by XPERIABLOG net....
Followed it carefully, and succesfully debranded my phone, with no Operator Logos, Additional useless apps, I had it all done and working well, until I tried to add my google account to the market. The last step that I had to do following the guide was to allow unknown sources for apps and USB debugging, which makes me think that the firmware provided does not have google certificates incorporated in it. The precise message was that A secure connection could not be established while trying to connect to the Market. It could that my phone has not been provisioned to use the Market or I did not have Data transfer enabled from my operator. Now, both are unapplicable as I had a healthy running market previously, and second, I am not using data , since my phone is sim locked to 3, so I have been using Wifi for a week now.
Has anyone experienced such an issue? Something that may help you identify the problem is that when I tried logging into Gmail.com, the phone said that Google was not one a recognized trusted authority and asked me whether I wanted to accept its certificate. WTF?! This leads me to think that the stupid firmware provided with the debrand tutorial is a piece of cr*p... Now I ended having a sim-locked phone without 3 logos, but without Market or Gmail...... Any suggestions or previous experience would be precious!

Ok.....
Ok I worked it out... Yes the firmware has to be faulty in a way... I used Sony Ericsson's PC Companion and did a Repair of the phone waited for 30 mins to flash whatever they had as a firmware and now I seem to have an unbraded xperia arc (judging by the lack of additional logos/apps) with a working market and gmail... Sorry, for the thread, but it seems that nobody has had that issue before and it would good for new users debranding their arc and ending up with an unusable Android Market...