Thread: How to Flash your Rom with a custom Rom!! (Quick, Fast & Easy 10/15mins)

So, a couple of people were asking on one of my previous posts which was very lengthy detailing how I installed certain software and tweaks and had my X1 running better than the day I got it, for me to let them know my results once I had flashed a new rom which appeared on / around about the same time as I made my guide >>

How I Made My X1 Not Lag Anymore Just With Software No Rom Updating

And eventually after having backed up my original rom I was prepared to go ahead and try one of the custom roms available >>

Want to Flash your Rom? First Backup your stock rom....the how to, here!

And so I went ahead and flashed my rom with this custom rom >>

Touch-IT Xperience v2.2 - now UC supported

Please note that I flashed mine with v2.1, both v2.1 and v2.2 are the same except for some .cab files which are not installed in v2.2 by default but can be later installed if you want to....I decided on v2.1 as I did want all of the options offered on it, below are the differences between the two versions >>

v2.2:
30.12.08
-Removed opera
-Removed Blackstone keyboard (install by cab)
-Small corrections on registry
(if you are happy with 2.1, there is no need to flash this one)


So lets get to it....The How To Flash Your Rom in 10/15mins!

Backup all your data that you want to, messages/emails/contacts and with this method of flashing either have an empty memory card or copy all your data off your current memory card and delete everything on it, (Make sure show hidden files is turned on, so that you ensure you delete all hidden system files which may be on your memory card)

Make sure your phone is charged over 50% battery should be just fine.

You dont need to hard reset before you flash your phone.

Preperation:
1. First lets download all that you will need in order to flash your rom.

Hard_SPL_X1_V1-
And of course download any custom rom made for the X1 of your choice...that is all you will need!

2. Extract the HardSPL somewhere on your pc, you might aswell extract the rom file somewhere on your pc too.

3. Connect your phone via activesync to your pc

4. When you are connected, (I let it finish synchronising one last time, to ensure all of the data on my pc was up to date with the current data on my phone), you then go to where you extracted "X1_HardSPL.exe" and you run it...

5. Follow the instructions at some point it should say something like "Image Version: 1.02.111.7" to "1.00.X1"
When asked, press "Yes" on the X1

6. - Now a Tri-color screen should show up, showing some version Information
After that, a progressbar screen will be shown and the phone will reboot when finished
Click "Finish" on the PC

(To check if you succeeded, turn the device off (long power button press). Then hold the volume down button and turn the device on again, still holding the volume down button until the Tri-color screen shows up. It should read something like:
KOVS110
SPL-0.72.OliNex
MicroP1-787
MicroP2-707)

Remove and reinsert the battery to exit bootloader mode

You completed the first step and are now able to flash any ROM you want to your X1! (Well, at least any ROM made for the X1 of course ;-))

Steps 2-6 need only to be done once...from here on forward should you wish to flash another rom you do not need to install HardSPL again as it is already on your phone.

Flashing your Rom (The fun begins):
7. Rename the rom file you downloaded from whatever.nbh (usually it is ruu_signed.nbh) to Kovsimg.nbh (you can rename it on your pc or on your phone once you have transferred it over)

8. Start up the phone normally, if you have not already done so...then connect it to your pc...(at this point you can connect it without activesync, just as a memory card reader so that you can copy over your rom faster)
Copy your rom into the root of the memory card.
(You can also use any external memory card reader/writer connected to the pc and copy over the file)
Remeber to make sure all files have been deleted off your memory card.

9. Insert the memory card into the phone (You never know somebody might forget to do it :-S )

10. Turn off the phone completely, not standby mode (USB cable must not be attached)

11. Remove and reinsert the battery (This step can be skipped if you made sure you turned off the phone in step 10, this is just in case somebody put the phone in standby instead)

12. Hold down the volume down button and press the power button while still holding both of these buttons until the tri-color screen pops up.

13. Follow the onscreen instructions (It should install the rom +-5mins)

14. When you see the screen say "Succesfully updated", you can then go ahead and remove the battery and reinsert it.

Getting ready to see results (one last step):

Do not skip this step!!! This may result in errors!!!

15. Do a hard reset : Hold down the two silver buttons directly under the screen, while holding them down push the power button, you should then be presented with a screen that asks you to press "R" to reset your device....so go ahead and flip open the keyboard and press "R", when it completes it will ask you to press "Spacebar" to restart the device...go ahead..

16. You are done!

You have now flashed your rom....after it restarts please note the first time it starts up again will take longer than normal, you will be presented with all the normal setup's as you first did when you got your phone...

Like stylus setup and time and date etc...

With this particular rom that I flashed approximately 3/4mins after getting to the today screen a notification came up asking me to choose my operator and it then installed all the necessary connection settings for me....

You may also be asked to restart the device once more after the initial startup of the new rom, this is because upon first start up the rom may install some additional programs / cabs / tweaks which the "cooker" has cooked into the rom....

I cant think of anything more at this point, I tried to be as detailed as possible with this guide and use as much lame-man's terms as possible to make it clear and understandable....

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to post under this thread and I will answer to the best of my knowledge...

Once again thanks to XDA-Developers from whom I have learnt all of the above....

And thank me if you find this post usefull ------------------------------>

Something I forgot when i originally posted this is as follows >>

9/10 times should you ever wish to return your phone to the stock rom it came with, you can just connect your phone to pc and run Sony Ericsson Update Utility and it will put the old rom back on your phone...and viola warranty = unvoided

Latest Update 10/01/09

Thought It would be best to add this here as I should have actually added this to the guide.

So some people been asking what if I need to return my X1 back to SE and they see HARD_SPL on it....well here is the how to install the original Stock_SPL so that there is no trace of you messing with your phone...

Remeber 1st to install your original Rom (The one you recieved with the phone) while HARD_SPL is still on the phone and then go ahead and follow the following steps to install your Stock_SPL

This is ONLY for warranty reasons. i.e. the device needs repair and you have to send it to SE to get it serviced. Or if you plan to restore hardspl then don't even bother flashing this stock package.

1. download the stock spl here >> Stock_SPL
2. download X1_HardSPL_v1 too, if you dont already have it from above, here >> HARD_SPL_V1
3. Run the hardspl package, but do not press Next button i.e do not go ahead with flash yet.
4. At this point, take the extracted stock_SPL you downloaded above, and copy the RUU_Signed.NBH file from the stock spl package, and overwrite the RUU_Signed.NBH in hardspl package.
5. Continue with the RUU (or if needed, run SSPL-Manual.exe manually, then run RUU when it goes to tricolour screen with 0.52.OliNex version), it goes to 100%, reboots, done.

Good Luck and Have Fun

So from this do you reckon you can flash other OSs to the X1?

I have not seen any other OS's cooked into a rom for the X1 as of yet, but as some people are messing around with getting "Android" to run on the X1...we might just see some eventually

i did it the easier way:

download: hardspl, install it (as above)
download the rom from above (that is RUU signed) and just connect the phone and run: ROMUpdateUtility.exe that is provided with the rom... that is all.... much easier
than do a hardreset just to be sure..

no need to use the memory card, so when it is full of music as mine did you do not have to remove it..

nice post - I'm running 2.1 works waaay better than the stock rom -

Originally Posted by madhijs

i did it the easier way:

download: hardspl, install it (as above)
download the rom from above (that is RUU signed) and just connect the phone and run: ROMUpdateUtility.exe that is provided with the rom... that is all.... much easier
than do a hardreset just to be sure..

no need to use the memory card, so when it is full of music as mine did you do not have to remove it..

Reason I chose the Memory card method is as follows :

By adding a pc / usb cable / software to the process you subject yourself to various errors that can happen at any point during the update of the rom...

For example...your pc could bluee screen in the middle...you could open an app that causes the update utility to hang....you could by mistake bump the cable and disconnect the phone....you get the idea...the likelihood of some of the above happening is minimal...but everyone's computers are different, and at any point somehting could go wrong...

Whereas with this method you are solely (other than installing Hard SPL which is quick) using your phone and as such you eliminate the chance of any software / hardware problems from your pc....

Its all personal preference, you choose

Only takes 2/3mins to empty memory card to pc (by using the phone as memory card reader and not with activesync method) and also the same amount of time to transfer all your files back....so not much of an issue as i see it

Originally Posted by kheavy

nice post - I'm running 2.1 works waaay better than the stock rom -

I have to agree completely...

nice and detailed post, well done and thank you.. I'm almost tempted to take part.

But, what is it about the new ROM that you like, how is it an improvement, what things are taken away from the original, and what elements are added in?

and also, do you know what the warranty issues are if you change the ROM? are you covered if the phone goes wrong for any other reason?

Hi guys,

So what does this HardSpl actually do?

Originally Posted by kuztardd

nice and detailed post, well done and thank you.. I'm almost tempted to take part.

But, what is it about the new ROM that you like, how is it an improvement, what things are taken away from the original, and what elements are added in?

and also, do you know what the warranty issues are if you change the ROM? are you covered if the phone goes wrong for any other reason?

I second all these sentiments, I was wondering all these things myself. this thread and its links make it possible for me to flash the ROM, I am sure, but I am curious what the main reasons for doing so, is it just the lag issues?

And warranty wise, I imagine I would use the ROM as a stop-gap until SE makes a newer firmware available via its update service. I am guessing it wouldn't allow you to go from an unofficial rom to the new one, meaning you would have to reflash to your backup before using it?

Thanks for the help!