My successful experience in hacking and installing Mods on my UIQ device sometime last year inspired me and gave me the boldness to try out Windows Mobile hacking. I have been on the WinMo platform twice in the past but never dared tweaking, modding or flashing ROMS on my devices.
The big fear of hacking and installing (flashing) ROMs on your device is the possibility of bricking it and rendering it completely useless. In our climes, this fear is bigger because WinMo devices are very expensive and there are no WinMo service centres to fix a bricked device. In my case, I chose to use an old HTC Wizard running Windows Mobile 5 (which I got for free) as my guinea pig.
Following a series of steps carefully outlined on the XDA Developers site (the haven of WinMO ROM flashing), I was able to prepare my device for flashing ROMs by CID unlocking it.
What is CID? CID stands for Carrier ID and devices come with either a carrier or manufacturer’s ROM. To enable flashing of ROMs other than your carrier’s ROMs you have to CID unlock your device with a software.
Thereafter, you can flash your device with several compatible ROMs. There are so many of them to choose from. The beauty of these “cooked” ROMs is that several irrelevant customised programs are removed while better programs are inserted to optimise performance and user experience on your device.
I installed a WM6.1 ROM successfully but when I tried another WM6.1 ROM, I bricked my device. Did I panic? Yes, big time!
For 2 hours, I desperately looked for a cure on the XDA site and eventually got one that asked me to reflash my device with my default ROM since it was already unlocked. I did just that and I got my device working again.
One good advantage of flashing my old device with WM6 ROMs is that it is now possible to install WM6 applications like Facebook on it.
Below are some screenshots of my HTC Wizard powered by Hornet’s WM6.1 ROM.
Homescreen on Hornet ROM
Start Menu on the Hornet ROM
Facebook application running on Hornet
About Page on the Hornet ROM
This post was written by
Brymay Osah – who has written 12 posts on Mobility blog.
Guest contributor, Brymay Osah is an administrator and mobile enthusiast who lives on the net (sort of).
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August 12th, 2009 at 7:17 am Browsing with
Brymay, I was quite tempted to flash my X1 to a WM6.5 ROM, but the possibility of bricking a spanking new device that cost me a fortune is a strong restraining factor.
I’ve got Touchflo 3D running on it by just installing a couple of CAB files. That will do, thanks
Reminds me of my adventures with a Palm 700p I once owned. I’d do it too, under the right circumstances.
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August 12th, 2009 at 9:32 am Browsing with
Yomi, I know you will try it sooner, maybe after the newness of your device wears off and boredom sets in…again.
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August 12th, 2009 at 10:05 am Browsing with
Brym,
You just hit the nail on the head. Geeks can generally predict themselves.
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August 24th, 2009 at 6:34 pm Browsing with
Brym,
I finally got bored today (yes; took just two weeks for your prediction to come to pass). Just completed the HardSPL of my X1. Not sure what ROM I want to flash on it yet, but WM6.5 is out of the question for now. Not quite as stable as WM6.1 ROMs. Downloading a few of those at the moment.
Wish me luck.
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August 24th, 2009 at 8:00 pm Browsing with
Decided on what ROM to try out.
Flashing to Touch-IT_Xperience_v13.2 in progress. So far, so good…
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August 24th, 2009 at 8:03 pm Browsing with
Process completed. Phone rebooting… Did I brick it?
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August 24th, 2009 at 8:07 pm Browsing with
Yipppeeee!!!!! I got a completely new experience on my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1!
And believe me when I say that Touch-IT is superb. Post coming up with screenshots et al.
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