[Q] ROM upgrade help - $50 reward! - Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo ROM Development

Hi guys,
Mods - first time post and im not a regular user so if im breaking the rules i apologise. I have spent hours already trawling the forums, but i am now admitting defeat and I need your help!
My Problem:
I have an x7501 SPL 1.06 0000, WM 5.0, GERMAN OS
I want to upgrade this to WM6.1 ENGLISH
I dont care what the SPL is, as long as it works, is reliable, and wont disable any standard WM functionality
I am not interested in tweaks, hulks, or other (non standard) tricks, i just want to get the device running a stock WM 6.1 rom
That said - if you guys think that going to 6.5 is the best (non beta, no risk) option, then im quite happy to go that route.
$50 reward to the first person who provides the following info IN A FORMAT THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND. im good with computers for a non pro (and can follow instructions , but this is just over my head!
I Need:
1) Link to an unlocker and instructions how to use, that will give me the required SPL (note my SPL is 1.06 - will this require two SPL flash steps??)
2) Link to a stable ROM that retains all windows functionality, and instructions how to use it.
If i find that i used two or more peoples help i will split the reward accordingly!
thanks in advance and keep up the good work!
Alan K

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First you need to download the unlocker from this thread and follow instructions... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=315831
This will give you SPL 1.2
Here is a handy thread with step by step instructions on upgrading your roms you should read through before beginning to flash...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=429013
Unfortunately, the stock-like wm6.5 roms made by michy-prima that ran on spl1.2 are no longer hosted on any sites anymore. I can try to contact him for you and see if I can get a copy directly from him. I will see if I can do that.
Otherwise, you can change your spl to 3.5, which you might as well do anyways, as there are more roms for that spl and even the stock-like michy-prima roms were made in spl3.5 also, so if I can get those, I will get the spl 3.5 versions.
So to then change your spl to 3.5, you must have first used unlocker to make spl 1.2, then the only way that was made to change spl to 3.5 was to flash the Athena Project 4 rom, so go to this thread... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=387409 and download the AP ROM V.4, unzip it, and run the flasher while your phone is connected with active-sync to your computer. This will install the spl3.5 and the AP4 Rom.
Now that that is done, you can choose any SPL3.5 ROM to flash... (make sure to only flash SPL3.5 Roms now... if need be, there is a way to go back to SPL1.2 if you need to, but there really is no reason you would need to.)
Probably the most modern rom with the most features would be the AGB Version 3.00 ROM, The Hulk one (I know you said you didn't want that, but it is the most current rom, and you can easily change the theme and wallpaper on it. This is the ROM I have on my Athena... its a nice ROM.) Here is the thread for that ROM... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=614158
Just unzip the rom after you download it, and like before, hook phone up to computer and let it sync, then run the installer. You can also use the ealier AGB roms, too, if they look better to you, or any rom you come across as long as it is a spl3.5 rom.
And I will try to contact michy-prima to see if I can get one of his old clean wm6.5 roms or his stock wm6.1 roms, but I wouldn't count on me being able to get one from him. Personally I think the newer AGB ROMs are alot better and more recent and updated and would recommend using them.
Also, here is a convenient thread I just found that has links to many different builds and useful tools and guides... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=397518 ... so if you want to try out a couple wm6.1 while you have spl1.2 or even after flashing spl3.5, as a lot of roms are made for both spls. Just make sure you only flash roms made for the spl that you have on your phone.
I hope this helps... if you have any more questions, feel free to pm me and I'll be glad to help. Happy flashing!

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Hi Zarathustrax,
Thanks for the extensive instructions. I will be checking it this week so hopefully ill be sending you some greenbacks by Friday!
Thanks again!
Al

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bigalk said:
Hi Zarathustrax,
Thanks for the extensive instructions. I will be checking it this week so hopefully ill be sending you some greenbacks by Friday!
Thanks again!
Al
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said, if you have any more questions or problems, feel free to ask here or pm me.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

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Also, if you prefer to have a winmo 6.1 ROM over the 6.5 ROM I suggested, there are links to many 6.1 ROMs in that last thread I linked. Here's the link again... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=397518
MichyPrima's roms are no longer hosted, but I have heard good things about Taxists and Sogarths ROMs. You can easily try a rom and then flash another if you don't like it. Just remember, make sure to flash roms for the spl that you have. If you have SPL3.5 and want a spl1.2 rom, there are links to the tool to change back to spl1.2. The only way to go from spl 1.2 to spl 3.5 is to flash the Athena Project 4 ROM, then after that you can flash any spl3.5 you want. Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

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Hi Zarathustrax,
just to let you know - i still havent managed to allocate time to this yet.
I havent forgotten about you, and im not pulling a fast one!
thanks again for your time and effort!
Al

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Hi Zarathustrax,
In the very first step (unlocker link) Olipro says "follow the steps...."
I cant see the steps he mentions anywhere? This is one of the reasons for my original post
any ideas?
Al

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Forget my last question - unlocker has the steps!

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Hi Zarathustrax,
tried twice and i keep getting error 202 - "check cables....... cannot connect to phone"
I have:
1) connected and synced via active sync
2) set active sync not to sync any items except for files
any ideas?
thanks

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Ive tried everything i can. ALL windows updates installed (along with .net 2.0)
AV disabled
Athenaunlocker added to firewall exceptions - im on a work network so firewall is controlled through group policy - so i cant completely disable. do you think this might be the problem?

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bigalk said:
Ive tried everything i can. ALL windows updates installed (along with .net 2.0)
AV disabled
Athenaunlocker added to firewall exceptions - im on a work network so firewall is controlled through group policy - so i cant completely disable. do you think this might be the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... might be. I'll look into this and see if I can figure anything out.
Oh, by the way, sorry I missed your messages until now. I don't check these forums daily, so if you need to contact me quicker, send a private message to me.

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bigalk said:
Hi Zarathustrax,
tried twice and i keep getting error 202 - "check cables....... cannot connect to phone"
I have:
1) connected and synced via active sync
2) set active sync not to sync any items except for files
any ideas?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been reading through the forums trying to find an answer... at what point does it show this error? Is it right away? Does the x7501 change screen at all or do anything? I think I remember having problems like this when I unlocked it years ago... but can't remember exactly what I did. Does the x7501 go to it's tricolored bootloader screen at all? It maybe is having problems installing usb drivers while it's in bootloader mode if it changes into bootloader mode when you get that error. Let me know asap so we can get this solved. Also, have you tried using another cable at all?

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Putting phone in usb Mode
Try installing Enablerapi.cab before using the olipro unlocker.

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Are you still on this
When you run the unlocker there are 3 steps - these are three separate buttons that appear on the flasher each time.
Can you indicate at which step you get this error? Go to this link
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=378216
...IT IS IN GERMAN...but it gives very nice pics of the process...using google translate you can get some idea. BUT if you can indicate which step you were able to complete.....we can help better !
Also, what windows operating system?
bigalk said:
Ive tried everything i can. ALL windows updates installed (along with .net 2.0)
AV disabled
Athenaunlocker added to firewall exceptions - im on a work network so firewall is controlled through group policy - so i cant completely disable. do you think this might be the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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chappatti said:
When you run the unlocker there are 3 steps - these are three separate buttons that appear on the flasher each time.
Can you indicate at which step you get this error? Go to this link
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=378216
...IT IS IN GERMAN...but it gives very nice pics of the process...using google translate you can get some idea. BUT if you can indicate which step you were able to complete.....we can help better !
Also, what windows operating system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm kinda thinking he gave up or something.... I've pm'ed him and have been trying to get more info on his problem for a couple weeks. I think he was having the problem on the first step... and the enablerapi will probably solve his problem.
But doing all this reading and trying to solve this problem has got me to pull out my old athena and start playing with it again... it's been a couple years since I've used it... I'm on the HD2 now, dualbooting WP7 and android.... but I've gotten an interest in getting my athena set-up and working again. The athena was way ahead of it's time.... if we could get devs interested in it again and get a good android build ported over, it would make an awesome tablet/phone. I think I'm gonna try to play around with getting android booting on it, but my knowledge of linux and low-level kernel work is limited to none. The best I can do is try to put together a build with what kernels/tools are already out and working on the athena, which isn't much. I think they had it booting and got touch screen working, but not much past that.

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Hi zarathustrax,
no i havent given up . was checking in regularly to see if i had any response from you but never even looked at the pms. sorry.
i have a few hours to crack into this now so ive set up on a new machine (different av and firewall) and im going to have a go.
will report back - thanks for all the additional info my man!
al

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ok - so i unlocked successfully but i think i may have fcked up. when i read olipros unlocker thread its says that only step 1 is necessary, ("but if you do step 2 you must also do step 3")
as i was trying to get to spl 3.5 i presumed that i didnt need to do step 2 or 3. this might have been a bad choice.
heres what happened:
ran unlocker step 1, it worked, phone rebooted. i finished there as i wasnt sure if i needed step 2 or 3
loaded bootloader screen to check spl. spl said olipro 1.2. i though cool - rebooted phone and now its a black screen. i can get into the bootloader screen whish says:
ATHE100
IPL-V1.00
ATHE100
SPL-V1.20. Olipro
have been reading up on next steps, or how to get rid of blackscreen but no conclusive answer.
its friday so im off home - battle lost but the war aint over!

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Well. I'm not an expert (my Ameo was unlocked as I bought it) but if I understand, the black screen is because the ROM on your device dont match the new SPL you have. Try to flash a new ROM (SPL 1.2, right?) should help.

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bigalk said:
ok - so i unlocked successfully but i think i may have fcked up. when i read olipros unlocker thread its says that only step 1 is necessary, ("but if you do step 2 you must also do step 3")
as i was trying to get to spl 3.5 i presumed that i didnt need to do step 2 or 3. this might have been a bad choice.
heres what happened:
ran unlocker step 1, it worked, phone rebooted. i finished there as i wasnt sure if i needed step 2 or 3
loaded bootloader screen to check spl. spl said olipro 1.2. i though cool - rebooted phone and now its a black screen. i can get into the bootloader screen whish says:
ATHE100
IPL-V1.00
ATHE100
SPL-V1.20. Olipro
have been reading up on next steps, or how to get rid of blackscreen but no conclusive answer.
its friday so im off home - battle lost but the war aint over!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just replied to your pm before checking this thread, so I see that you can still get to SPL bootloader screen. So, what you should be able to do now is get your phone to bootloader screen and hook it up to pc like that. Then let any drivers that are installing finish, and where it says "serial" at the bottom should change to "USB".
At this point, you can now run a custom rom installer and flash a new rom. Since you want to change to SPL3.5, you should install the Athena Project 4 ROM.
Or if you want to leave it at this SPL for a while and test out a couple WM6.1 ROMS that use this SPL, just flash one of these. Here's a good thread that lists almost every ROM available with links and says what SPL they're for... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=397518
I'll do a little more research also about the screen not coming on to make sure it's not some other problem, but it probably is just the current rom isn't compatible with the new SPL.
I'm sending this post to your pm too.

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Also, make sure you have the SD card and sim card removed when doing flashing. And check what radio you have on your phone... you must have atleast radio 1.50 or higher to use Athena Project 4 or most WM6.1 or WM6.5 ROMS.