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Problem Flashing ROM, where none existed before

I have an O2 XDA Mini (Magician) which I picked up in Germany. It originally had a German ROM. I accidentally tried to upgrade the ROM on the device with an English Language Himalaya ROM. All it succeeded in doing was wipe the original German ROM and leaving nothing in its place.
I've urgently been trying to Flash English Language Magician ROMs through the Bootloader ... and the best I can do with a couple of them is get to 6% of Stage Three (Upgrading the CE image). It seems to go through Stages One and Two OK (Radio and ROM) ... but cuts out at 6% of Stage Three. I've been trying o2s 1.12.00 ... WWE_111.132_NoIDmod. With all of them I can only get started using the 'MaUpgradeUt_noID.exe' file to get passed the 'country' and sundry error messages ...
But I just can't get passed 6% of the final Stage ... Stage Three.
Anybody got any ideas?

Upgrading to a non-Magician ROM can damage the unit.

@nietzche: You should try the SD-card-image version. Maybe this can save your unit.

Chatty said:
@nietzche: You should try the SD-card-image version. Maybe this can save your unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recognise that's a possible solution ... but I can't for the life of me find anSD version of a ROM and a means to get it on a card. I see all the time ways to get a ROM from the device onto a card (Backup) ... and play with it ... but can't find a way to use a SD card ROM from scratch.
Would really appreciate finding a WWE SD ROM version etc.

There are no such things as ROM in SD cards but there are tutorials in this forum on how to transfer the ROM image to an SD card and then use the SD card to load the ROM into your unit.

I do truly appreciate the advice ... but all I've been able to gather from this site (and others) is the instructions to get a ROM onto an SD card from the device ... which is something I obviously can't do. If you could help me find advice on how to take a ROM and create a ROM image on a SD card VIA a PC, I'd greatly appreciate it. (In the old Wallaby days there used to be a tool developed here at this developers site that allowed you to 'copy' a ROM onto a SD card ... but there doesn't appear to be anything like that for any later models including the Magician ROMs.)
In the end ... maybe the easiest thing to do is send a SD card to someone who can copy their ROM onto my card and get it back to me ... any takers?

There are tools to write that SD image to a file which can be sent via internet - so no need to ship SD cards around the world. Unfortunately I use a localized ROM so I can't help you with that.

The SD card is used only if BigStorage ROM is desired. To install a ROM in a normal way, just dock your unit via USB and disable the USB setting in ActiveSync. Extract the ROM and replace the file MaUpgradeUt.exe with MaUpgradeUt_noID.exe which can be found in the ftp. Finally double click on the file MaUpgradteUt_noId.exe and it should start installing.

Thanks Zerimar ,,, but as noted in the first post of this thread, I can't seem to succeed in getting passed Stage Three of the installation through the bootloader. That's the reason I need to try and load a ROM via the sd card. Is it possible for someone to upload a WWE SD image?

Sorry for that nietzche :wink:, it seems that my eyes are failing me.
I'm not so sure anymore but I think the ROM must be somehow specific to the device for a standard ROM upload. What you can try do is make a BS ROM out of any shipped ROMs or download any of the BS ROMS. There are also guides written by Ampda and Oltp on how to make a BS ROM, what tools (software) you need in this forum.

Is there any way to update my Himalaya Using SD Card ???!!!

Hi
Is there any way to update my Himalaya Using SD Card ???!!!
like Qtek 1010 opening device in bootloader then inserting the card that contain the rom
is there any way to do the same thing to update Himalaya to 2003se or 2005 ??!!!
Thanks for your help

my question is, why you didn't use your PC ?

My answer is
my phone socket has damaged , i can't connect to to pc just i can charge
iam using blue-tooth to sync between computer an my XDA II

Well, yes and no, I think.....
MohamedYousri said:
Hi
Is there any way to update my Himalaya Using SD Card ???!!!
like Qtek 1010 opening device in bootloader then inserting the card that contain the rom
is there any way to do the same thing to update Himalaya to 2003se or 2005 ??!!!
Thanks for your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
......there is a way to flash the XDA system rom from an SD card, in fact it is
quite easy IF you have already flashed the ROM via USB in the usual way and
then use the bootloader to dump it to a spare SD card. In fact I tested it and
it works perfectly. Even flashed my XDAII with 3.5b.40CS ROM from SD card
in under 5 minutes and with no connection to PC of course. In fact I took a
silly risk and did it unpowered too (just don't tell anyone - ok)
This means in theory I could dump my WM5 ROM to SD card. Copy the raw
data to a file and give you instructions to make your own SD ROM image to
flash your XDA via the SD socket. but.....
Unfortunately I think there is another catch. I only have one XDA so I can't
test this, but I believe when you dump a system ROM using the "d2s" bootloader
command it sticks a 411 byte header to the SD card. This appears to contain
system/SD card specific info / crc data which is generated by the bootloader
program. I assume this is to stop someone accidently (or purposely) loading
a system ROM from one XDA to another. I'm thinking your XDA would reject
the SD card as invalid (although I don't know for sure)
but...I also think there is a way round this. If you can create an SD dump of
the ROM that is already in your XDA (which you should do anyway as a
precaution) then you could strip the 411 byte header from your SD card image
and write it over the top of the header in the image I give you. Then this
should flash ok (it might fail the checksum at the end, but should flash ok)
BUT (and this is the real problem) If your serial / USB link on the XDA is damaged
I can't think of a way to instruct the bootloader to dump your header + ROM
image to the SD card. We've sort of come full circle. You need to update ROM
via SD card because your USB connection is broken, but you can't get a
SD dump header because you need the USB connection.
The only ways round this would be for someone to dissamble the bootloader code
and maybe write a PPC app to create a valid header record.
Anybody got any ideas?
S_F

sawyer_family said:
BUT (and this is the real problem) If your serial / USB link on the XDA is damaged
I can't think of a way to instruct the bootloader to dump your header + ROM
image to the SD card. We've sort of come full circle. You need to update ROM
via SD card because your USB connection is broken, but you can't get a
SD dump header because you need the USB connection.
The only ways round this would be for someone to dissamble the bootloader code
and maybe write a PPC app to create a valid header record.
Anybody got any ideas?
S_F
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly my problem my serial / USB link on the XDA is damaged
Waiting for help
thanks for your help

sawyer_family said:
......there is a way to flash the XDA system rom from an SD card, in fact it is
quite easy IF you have already flashed the ROM via USB in the usual way and
then use the bootloader to dump it to a spare SD card. In fact I tested it and
it works perfectly. Even flashed my XDAII with 3.5b.40CS ROM from SD card
in under 5 minutes and with no connection to PC of course. In fact I took a
silly risk and did it unpowered too (just don't tell anyone - ok)
This means in theory I could dump my WM5 ROM to SD card. Copy the raw
data to a file and give you instructions to make your own SD ROM image to
flash your XDA via the SD socket. but.....
Unfortunately I think there is another catch. I only have one XDA so I can't
test this, but I believe when you dump a system ROM using the "d2s" bootloader
command it sticks a 411 byte header to the SD card. This appears to contain
system/SD card specific info / crc data which is generated by the bootloader
program. I assume this is to stop someone accidently (or purposely) loading
a system ROM from one XDA to another. I'm thinking your XDA would reject
the SD card as invalid (although I don't know for sure)
but...I also think there is a way round this. If you can create an SD dump of
the ROM that is already in your XDA (which you should do anyway as a
precaution) then you could strip the 411 byte header from your SD card image
and write it over the top of the header in the image I give you. Then this
should flash ok (it might fail the checksum at the end, but should flash ok)
BUT (and this is the real problem) If your serial / USB link on the XDA is damaged
I can't think of a way to instruct the bootloader to dump your header + ROM
image to the SD card. We've sort of come full circle. You need to update ROM
via SD card because your USB connection is broken, but you can't get a
SD dump header because you need the USB connection.
The only ways round this would be for someone to dissamble the bootloader code
and maybe write a PPC app to create a valid header record.
Anybody got any ideas?
S_F
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this Idea. Once, I have tried to back up my WM2003 sistem to my SD card use d2s command using mtty software. Actually in theory I succeed to make back up image in SD Card and if there is something happen, I just flash by SD card. But I have never tried this step, because I succeed to install WM5.
In that time I make image system from my PDA. But in this case, MohamedYousri need such as thing system, not from PDA but from PC. But I don't know how to make image files from PC. If there is somebody can tell how to make it, I agree with you. I think it is possible to flash from SD card.
Another way MohamedYousri should make image from another PDA (with WM5 sistem) and put it in his device

selangkahlagi said:
Another way MohamedYousri should make image from another PDA (with WM5 sistem) and put it in his device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean to upgrade XDAII with WM05 and then make an SD image and flash my XDAII ??
Do you think that will work ??!!

MohamedYousri said:
Do you mean to upgrade XDAII with WM05 and then make an SD image and flash my XDAII ??
Do you think that will work ??!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If some body have XDA II with WM5, and then you back up /make an image in SD card. And with that card flash your XDA II, I think in theory it should work. but I never try this way, because my device still work well

There is a development tool by SBP called 'clone'... It will clone identical devices but it is commercial and expensive... but SBP provide a trial version:
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/clone/?en
I hope this help........
Features
* One device is configured, the rest are subject to clone
* The average device cloning time is about 3 minutes.
* Self-extracting and self-executing image file on an SD card
* Assigned location of the target clone image files
* Providing individual names and IP addresses for clones.

sawyer_family said:
......there is a way to flash the XDA system rom from an SD card, in fact it is
quite easy IF you have already flashed the ROM via USB in the usual way and
then use the bootloader to dump it to a spare SD card. In fact I tested it and
it works perfectly. Even flashed my XDAII with 3.5b.40CS ROM from SD card
in under 5 minutes and with no connection to PC of course. In fact I took a
silly risk and did it unpowered too (just don't tell anyone - ok)
This means in theory I could dump my WM5 ROM to SD card. Copy the raw
data to a file and give you instructions to make your own SD ROM image to
flash your XDA via the SD socket. but.....
S_F
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you please give step by step guide how did you dump to the SD card, and how did flash XDAii from SD card?
Thank you

llbasha said:
There is a development tool by SBP called 'clone'...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That clones everything from the location of your first clicks on the Welcome screen up to everything you installed, your data, your settings, your registry tweaks, your skins, you can even select if you want to restore the date and time of the clone or leave the new device's time intact.
But it does not clone the OS or anything in ROM.
After some bad experiences both with Activesync backup and with another commercial backup, I only trust Clone. And next week I'm going to use it to transfer my software and settings to another Himalaya. Disadvantage: I'll have to remove all my personal files (contacts, tasks...) from that other device.

Hello,
So is there any way, how to flash my XDA2 via SD card ? My data connector is broken, so I completely cannot use computer/USB connection. I mean some program, which transfers *.nbf files to SD card in form, that is understandable for XDA2's bootloader etc. Or if some developer like helmi, buzz,... can convert last WM6 ROMs to SD-image form.
Thanks

not that i know of

miniSD card showing strange letters..

Hi all..
I've been using a TwinMOS 2GB x66 cad for 2 months now, and rarely I had the problem of disappearing storage card, but a simple SR or inserting the card again solved the problem.
Since a couple of hours, the symptom has come back, but now nothing solves it I've done a dozen of SR and inserted the card several times, but still the same problem: some folders are empty, and others are written in strange letters. the card isn't actually disappearing at all, ilauncher still shows its correct size, but all folders are corrupted.
I have the feeling that all this happened after installing the free medical program EPOCRATES, since only this program's folder was viewable in the program files folder on the storage card, and all others simply disappeared. Of course uninstalling the software didn't help
Any idea guys???
Thanks in advance.

Did you try to install this cab. It's for the htc p3300 but it's work too for the htc p3600 ...
http://www.europe.htc.com/support/faq.html?id=545&device=htcp3600

Isn't it strange that this patch has been published by HTC only mentionning the pb on P3300 and not ont the P3600 ?
Are you sure applying it on a P3600 is safe ?

Yes, i am...I apply it to mine and it's work fine... I didn't have some problems with my mini-sd card but with my sim+ (128 Mo) and now it's more stable !!
And as you can see the link i put is for the htc p3600.
This cab works also with the htc :
- S310
http://www.europe.htc.com/support/faq.html?id=545&device=htcs310
- S710
http://www.europe.htc.com/support/faq.html?id=545&device=htcs710

This has been posted before in various threads, but just to repeat:
The cab mentioned is for the Artemis/P3300. It installs one file to \windows: omap850_sdhc.dll, which is the SD driver for a device with a TI OMAP 850 processor.
It will have no effect, positive or negative, to install it on a device with a Samsung processor, except wasting 42K of space.

So why the support of HTC in this differents links (3600, s310, s710) refers to it ?? And it's fact that my sim+ is more stable now !! Not to bother you ... just to understand !!

shym said:
So why the support of HTC in this differents links (3600, s310, s710) refers to it ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually they don't really. This has also been explained before in other posts, but here goes again:
If you go to www.europe.htc.com and navigate to support for P3300, you can find faq 545, which relates to the 'P3300 SD card enhancement', and when you've found that one, the URL in the address will be: www.europe.htc.com/support/faq.html?id=545
If you now go and add e.g. '&device=htcp3600' to the end of the URL and press enter, then you will get the same faq, but it will look like it's from the P3600 support, which is not really true; it's just a 'less fortunate' behaviour by the web site.
Faq 545, 'P3300 SD card enhancement', really belongs to the P3300 support area, and nowhere else.
shym said:
And it's fact that my sim+ is more stable now !! Not to bother you ... just to understand !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure it's correct when you say so, but if it's caused by putting omap850_sdhc.dll in your \windows directory, then it's nothing short of a miracle.

Okay...thanks !
lts said:
I'm sure it's correct when you say so, but if it's caused by putting omap850_sdhc.dll in your \windows directory, then it's nothing short of a miracle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... We never know... !!

Thanks guys for the replies, but I guess we went a little bit off-topic.
I understand that the patch mentioned above won't work. Is there any other solution to this issue, apart from formatting it again??
unfortunately, I forgot to move my SPB Backup file from the miniSD to my PC, so I lost even that file my bad
I would like to mention again how it happened: most presumably after installing the program EPOCRATES. Can this help??
Thanks again

You are far from being the first to have a problem like this with a SD card on a Trinity, and I'm afraid there is no easy cure.
Did you try and put the card in a card reader and see if it looked OK here?
If you can read it with a card reader, then make a backup (copy) to your PC, reformat it and restore the copy before putting it back in the Trinity, and see how it looks now.

lts said:
You are far from being the first to have a problem like this with a SD card on a Trinity, and I'm afraid there is no easy cure.
Did you try and put the card in a card reader and see if it looked OK here?
If you can read it with a card reader, then make a backup (copy) to your PC, reformat it and restore the copy before putting it back in the Trinity, and see how it looks now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that, but same strange characters are also shown on my PC using the SD adapter. there is even a 4GB eek file in the root directory of the card. everything so strange.

Guess that you will have to do a reformat if possible.
If there is something on the card that you really want to salvage before you do the reformat, then you could try to do this with a file recovery utility.

lts said:
Guess that you will have to do a reformat if possible.
If there is something on the card that you really want to salvage before you do the reformat, then you could try to do this with a file recovery utility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually the Spb backup file would be really helpful Do u recommend any program for trying to recover it??
Thanks

I'm using an old release of WinHex myself.
WinHex is not free, but a trial can be downloaded from here: http://winhex.com/winhex/index-m.html
I'm not sure what limitations there might be in the unlicensed version, but I would recommend giving it a try before looking elsewhere.
I don't have any recent experience with other recovery utilities, but there are a number of them to be found here: http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tg=dl-20&qt=recovery&tag=srch

Great, after trying to recover files with Winhex (unsuccessfully), The device doesn't recognize the card anymore, and now it requires a format I give up.
Is there anything I should make to prevent future problems like this??
First of all, should I format it as FAT16 or FAT32?
should I format it on the device or using a card reader?
should I use a specific program for formatting or the default windows application?
Thanks again

sdsentry
Try this - found from the Artemis forum.
It's a preventive measures - not one that can save your already messed up SD.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=299128&highlight=sdsentry

If you are still looking for a recovery solution, a friend had a similar incident with the 2GB Toshiba SD card on his 818 Pro just last week, and, not counting MP3s stored on the card (which he can restore from his CD library), I managed to recover for him some 90% of the files intact using Ontrack's EasyRecovery Professional.

See here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=296800
Since I installed the official HTC GPS upgrade ROM I have had no problems anyway.

Syncing HTC Touch Pro - MAC/Flash new ROM

Hi, I've just bought a MAC, and I want to Flash to a new ROM with the MAC.
And to flash a new rom you need a stable connection via ActiveSync or WMDC.
How do I get this same stable connection on mac. (Without installing Windows OS on Mac!)
Thanks.
(I did search, sorry if I did it wrong )

http://www.google.dk/search?source=ig&hl=da&rlz=&q=pocketpc+mac+sync&btnG=Google-søgning&aq=f&oq=

he said to flash a new rom. and for gsm phones if you have hardspl you can copy rom files to an sd card and just flash the phone without a computer. i dunno how it works with cdma (sprint/verizon). htc rom tools and activesync is a windows only deal. if you can do sd card flash thatll be your bet.

The Jack of Clubs said:
he said to flash a new rom. and for gsm phones if you have hardspl you can copy rom files to an sd card and just flash the phone without a computer. i dunno how it works with cdma (sprint/verizon). htc rom tools and activesync is a windows only deal. if you can do sd card flash thatll be your bet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something free out there?
Also, this Flash from SD.. How does that work?

I recently got a macbook for my birthday and had the same problem. The best solution I've found so far is to use the SD card to flash. I've been doing that for a little over 2 months now without any issues at all (except for syncing contacts/calendar, but SyncMate solved that problem), and have heard rumors that if you run windows in bootcamp you can flash that way too, but I haven't tried that option yet.
see this post for the flashing guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=448008
see this post for SyncMate (trial/demo should cover basic syncing needs)
http://mac.eltima.com/sync-mac.html

Thanks! I've never noticed that Flashing from SD card column.! Thnks

i know you said you don't want to install Windows but thats what i did and have been doing for a while
I have windows 7 currently installed via VMware's Fusion and haven't had a single issue. Can flash roms, install apps, sync with outlook, etc.

The best and perhaps the safest way to flash

Dear Users
After a tragic experience with flashing my Polaris using activesync connection and a power failiure in the process which caused me a lot of trouble and a defective USB on the device it self. I have decided to share the best way to flash with all other novice users like myself. The procedure can even HardSPL provided you have the relevant nbh file.
In my humble opinion one should not use activesync /computer to flash for many reasons.
This procedure is very simple.
1. Take a MicroSD or SD card appropriate for your device and format it.
2. Put the ROM file you want to flash on the root of the SD and rename it POLAIMG.nbh
3. Put this card into your device and press camera + power+ hard reset (hidden button) and let go the hard reset, the device will go into bootloader and automaticlly start flashing the rom image.
Thats it you are done and no problems getting stuck into bootloader or problems related to activesync and different OS versions.
I have even flashed my old HTC Atom using same technique only the file name there is not PLOAIMG
Enjoy, Respects to all the chefs and other developers
T_Malik

great but isn't it
POLAIMG.nbh
Just some may how to say get stuck on the wrong name

Absolutely right POLAIMG.nbh
Regards

t_malik said:
Absolutely right POLAIMG.nbh
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it only works with non-SDHC cards. I tried with my 16 GB card and it didn't read the .nbh

I have tried 3 different MicroSD cards and it seems that its the best if the card be a 256 MB in size and only containing the required POLAIMG.nbh file in root.
On the ATOM model the card was a standard SD card 1GB in size and it worked fine as well.
Respects and regards
Tariq