Hi.
I found this tutorial on the internet that works 100% for those who have Zenfone 5 with fake firmware. In my case i used the last firmware V2.21.40.44 without flashing older version and then Update to the last one. The original tutorial is as below.
I purchased the Zenfone A501CG 16GB 2GB RAM and I am very happy with this phone.
One of the things I like is the dual-sim setup. Besides the obvious dual-sim functions it lets you set which sim you are going to use for data or you can be prompted every time. As the second sim, I popped in a 3 mobile broadband data-only sim and it worked straight away without manually setting up the APN etc.
I have been a Galaxy S series fan for a few years and I was worried about switching to ASUS but the excellent Asus GUI (General User Interface) is very neat and works flawlessly. I was expecting a heavily customised (and buggy) GUI but I am very pleased that it turned out to be very smooth with plenty of features and customisation options.
Now the bad part.
The phone is shipped from China and they advertise it as having a WW (WorldWide) firmware installed prior shipping, which it is in part true.
I want to say that I have nothing against phones from China as most of the electronic equipment is manufactured over there nowadays however the phone firmware is a fake WW.
I don't know how they did it but they managed to install a WW 2.99.40.6 ASUS firmware over a CN sku.
This means that the phone originally was a Chinese handset subsequently converted to WW. The resulting phone is indeed in English (or any language you choose to setup), it has access to GooglePlay store, Gmail accounts and all the rest and it works no problem over here. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great kit. You wouldn't notice anything wrong however one of the major flaws of this particular setup is that it will not update over OTA (or manually).
OTA (On The Air) updates works that you simply click “check for system update” and the phone will connect to ASUS and upgrade itself to the latest version available for your handset (JellyBean, KitKat etc...).
ASUS has implemented an alternative way to upgrade its phones: you go the ASUS website, select you model, region/language etc and you can manually download the system update file.
Save this file on your phone internal storage, next time you reboot the phone Android will see that there is an update file waiting to be installed and it will ask you whether you want to upgrade.
You can download this file directly using your phone or if you are on a strict data usage budget (these updates files are about 700 MB in size) using a computer then copying it over to your phone internal storage by connecting the phone to your computer via USB cable.
OK, that's OTA and manual upgrade covered... this phone with WW 2.99.40.6 however will not update, nor over OTA nor by manually placing the firmware file on the internal storage.
I thought, well... why not simply download the latest from ASUS and install it overwriting the existing one? This way I will have the latest clean official up to date firmware... right?
Wrong, the phone will not update simply because its firmware 2.99.40.6 is “too new”, a firmware from the future...
Confused? Let me explain, this is the clever part: in February 2015 ASUS released the (currently) latest firmware update for Zenfone A501CG which is the 2.21.40.44.
Now let me point out that firmware versions always go up, for example:
1.16.40.7 (that was in 2014)
1.17.40.17 (still 2014)
1.18.40.8
1.18.40.9
2.19.40.18
2.21.40.30 (December 2014)
and the latest 2.21.40.44
You noticed that the numbers go UP with every release.. the highest the newest.
Now, if you look at the fake firmware installed on the phone (2.99.40.6) you will see that the 2.99.40.6 (look at the “2.99” bit), is even higher than the very latest 2.21.40.44 so the phone simply will not “downgrade” from 2.99.40.6 to 2.21.40.44. That's because with these android phones you cannot downgrade, only upgrade.
This is how the sellers prevent you from upgrade your phone. You are simply locked to this firmware... but why???
The only reason I can think of is that the operating system has some spyware, tracker or some advertising bloatware they don’t' want you to get rid of upgrading the firmware. This is the only possible explanation in my opinion.
When you upgrade firmware (from JellyBean to KitKat for example) files are kept, apps and their settings are kept and updated, user settings are transferred over. So all the unwanted pre-installed crapware would pass through the new version anyway so why the need to lock the firmware? Perhaps there is something deep down in the system that has been tampered with and will not survive a firmware update. That's what I think.
At the beginning after receiving this phone I didn't spot the fake firmware right away. As many of us do when they have a new phone, I checked for update via OTA, there was none. Actually, the System Update function crashed every time I checked for updates but I didn't bother looking any further into this matter because I was very pleased with the phone, it looked good and performed well.
Nothing seems to be wrong apart from the System Update glitch and Gallery crashing quite often.
It was after a couple of days of use when I started receiving unsolicited popup messages asking me to install additional apps that I started wondering if there was something wrong with my phone after all. These popups used to come up when the phone was idle, 4 popups at a time and sometimes right after rebooting.
I have been installing on the Zenfone exactly the same apps I had on my Galaxy S2 so I knew how these apps behave and what to expect from them so at the beginning I thought it was the ASUS GUI o some other pre-installed app. No, these popups were an issue related to the new phone.
I immediately thought that a reputable brand like ASUS (I own other ASUS products since 2005 and always been happy) wouldn't (or shouldn't) annoy new customers with these kind of nuisance, this would inevitably drive customers away so I decided to run some virus/spyware checks. Nothing major was found and the popups still occurred at least 3 times a day. That was day 4 on my Zenfone.
Almost forgot: the phone came rooted. Apart from the obvious advantages this also means that any virus scan can be performed deep into the system with administrative privileges. Having your phone rooted also means that it is not covered by ASUS warranty but that's another issue...
At this point I decided that it was time to do something about it. First I did a factory reset but this didn't work as this returned the phone at its original state when I took it out of the box 4 days before.
So I decided that I had to force the phone to “downgrade” to a previous ORIGINAL firmware then re-upgrade it installing the latest firmware from the ASUS website and this is how.
First of all you need two tools:
1) the USB drivers for ASUS phones fro Windows. You can download them from the ASUS website or search the internet for “ASUS Zenfone 5 Windows Drivers”.
2) the ADB package, I used the one provided here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2588979
This one actually provides the drivers too. Feel free to browse the internet and find the appropriate source but you will be downloading more or less the same file.
After you installed these two tools you need something called “Recovery Image”, there are some here:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/cq6wwpya68azb/ZenFone_5_recovery
in my case I used this one: 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img
and finally you need an original firmware from the ASUS website here:
http://www.asus.com/uk/Phones/ZenFone_5_A501CG/HelpDesk_Download/
in my case I downloaded this one: UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip
So what we are going to do here is:
we will downgrade the phone from the current WW 2.99.40.6 to WW 2.19.40.18
then install WW 2.20.40.13
and finally we will perform a OTA update to the latest firmware.
The whole process should take about 1 hour.
Please note that this method only works if:
1) your Zenfone 5 is a A501CG (T00F or T00J).
2) your current firmware is WW 2.99.40.6 but it will probably work with other “fake” firmwares too, you just need a different set of files (please note the “WW” bit is IMPORTANT, if your firmware is CN, CHT or TW this will not work and you will damage your phone).
3) your phone is rooted (if you are still reading this it probably is but check if you have an app called SuperSU with a yellow triangle).
4) USB debugging is enabled (do a google search to see how this can be done, enabling debugging mode takes 20 seconds).
..basically this will work if you have received the same phone I got.
If any of the above 4 points is not clear please run a quick google search. There is plenty of literature out there however not much literature on the internet covers what we are going to do now or if there is it is all scattered around various sites. That's why I am posting this, all info in one place.
Procedure:
Find the ADB folder on your computer and place there the file 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img you downloaded from mediafire.
The UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip you downloaded from ASUS is a ZIP archive, open it, extract the file fastboot.img and place it in the ADB folder.
Put the UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip you downloaded from ASUS in the ADB folder too (do not extract this file, just place the ZIP archive in the ADB folder).
At the end in the ADB folder (apart from the adb files that were already there) you should have the following files:
UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip
2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img
fastboot.img
We start with the phone turned OFF. Make sure it has some battery left (more than 50%) turn your Zenfone on in Fastboot Mode (this can be done by pressing and holding at the same time the power Button and Volume UP buttons... together).
Connect the phone to the computer.
In the ADB folder on your computer open a command prompt window (called a CMD window). This can be done by pressing (on your PC keyboard) Shift then right-clicking with the mouse anywhere in the empty space in the ADB folder.
Now in the resulting CMD (black) window write the following command (exactly as it is written here):
fastboot flash fastboot fastboot.img
hit Enter. Then write:
fastboot flash recovery 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img
hit Enter and wait until completion.
Do not disconnect your phone and do not close the CMD (black) window on your computer but reboot your phone in Fastboot Mode (there should be a command on the phone screen “reboot fastboot”), navigate up and down with the volumes keys and confirm the selection with the power button).
Once you are back in Fastboot Mode go to Recovery. Now you should see the Android logo with a red triangle, press at the same time the Volume UP and the Volume DOWN keys to reveal a hidden menu (try pressing and holding the + and – keys several times if it doesn't come up the first time).
In this menu you need to go to Upload Firmware from ADB (or something similar) and confirm by pressing the power key.
Now, go back to your computer and in the CMD window type the following command:
adb sideload UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip
and hit Enter.
At this point your phone will start loading the original WW-2.20.40.13 we downloaded from the ASUS website. This will take some time, in my case it took about 45 minutes.
Once this is done you can reboot the phone and you will have a brand new Zenfone 5 with a WorldWide (real) 2.20.40.13 firmware, the one before the last one. Now we want to upgrade to the very latest (which is the best for Zenfone 5 in my opinion).
To upgrade now you have two options:
1) start using the phone right away and upgrade to the latest 2.21.40.44 via OTA or...
2) manually download the 2.21.40.44 from ASUS to your computer, place it on your phone internal storage and let the phone update at the next reboot.
In my case I choose the second option, it doesn't really make any difference however...whichever option you choose after the upgrade to the latest firmware you should perform two final last steps. This is to clean up, optimise and make sure the phone system runs smoothly from now on.
Very quickly...
Step 1: (AFTER you upgraded to the last firmware 2.21.40.44 either via OTA or manually) you should reboot to Fastboot Mode, select Recovery and “Wipe Cache Partition”. Wait until completion then...
Step 2: reboot your phone in normal mode and before starting to register and installing all apps go to Settings, Backup & Reset and do a Factory data Reset. Obviously this will wipe all your apps and settings but, as I suggested before, you didn't install anything yet.
Final tip: if you have an external SD card you already used on another phone or even in the Zenfone before the upgrade I would suggest reformat it before starting using it on your “new” phone. Many apps leave things behind on the SD that newly installed versions of the same apps don't like.
After this last two steps your phone is ready, no more suspicious junk and a 100% original ASUS system.
An optional step would be to root your phone again (upgrading firmware disables root or superuser) and put to sleep some of the pre-installed ASUS apps you don't need.
With root (device administrative) privileges you could un-install them but disabling them is enough.
I personally disabled some googleplay services like books, music, movies, games, newsstand, google+ (I never used them) then the following pre-installed apps: weather, asus backup, cloudprint, drive, feedback, hangouts, myasus, pc link, setup wizard, share link, webstorage, what's next, remote link.
But that's me, I don't use these apps and they have the habit to autostart with the phone and stay in the background eating systems resources and battery juice even if you haven't used them in a year.
Ah... rooting your device also allows you to reach and delete the batterystats file dramatically increasing battery performance.
VERDICT:
My opinion is that THE PHONE IS EXCELLENT, it really exceeded my expectations, the only downside is the fake firwmware which spoils the fun until you learn how to fix it. The original ASUS software is well balanced, polished and smooth and not at all bloated. Plenty of customizations too.
Post Scriptum:
Before buying this phone I checked some reviews and I learnt that apparently the battery was weak and wouldn't last a whole day. After 3 weeks of everyday use I have to say that this depends on what you do with your phone (obviously...).
By default ALL is enabled when you take it out of the box because the manufacturer is trying to give you the best (visual, probably) experience.
Without being conservative you have to find out and disable what is eating up your battery and you don't need.
The trick is to use the phone as it is for a whole charge (say, from 100% to 10% but already at around 50% you get an idea of what's going on) then before putting under charge go to Settings, Battery and check the statistic data.
You will see that that nice weather widget giving you the temperature and the rain forecast is sucking 40% of your juice because it is constantly updating... is it worth it? Push sync of 5 email accounts is really necessary..?? Real time travel updates..?
When you learn how to manage your device and what is running and when you will see that the battery life will stretch 3 times over. This applies to all smart phones.
Reading the Zenfone reviews another issue seemed to be quite common: the wifi would disconnect..! Now, that's an issue...! I wouldn't want to buy a phone with a dodgy wifi.
Truth is that if you enable the Power Saver in Ultra-saving Mode the wifi will cut off when the screen is turned off (this is also written in small letter on the on/off button). Obviously you won't receive any notification during scree-off time and connectivity will resume as soon as you turn the screen on.
Luckily to save extra battery life it's not all-or-nothing there is a Power Saving scheme (the third one) which is called Customized Mode where you can pick what you want to run or stop during power saving mode.
Good Job
Hay, nice info and tutor.. my problem is same with you.
Can you make video tutorial please?
Thanks.
enea009 said:
Hi.
I found this tutorial on the internet that works 100% for those who have Zenfone 5 with fake firmware. In my case i used the last firmware V2.21.40.44 without flashing older version and then Update to the last one. The original tutorial is as below.
I purchased the Zenfone A501CG 16GB 2GB RAM and I am very happy with this phone.
One of the things I like is the dual-sim setup. Besides the obvious dual-sim functions it lets you set which sim you are going to use for data or you can be prompted every time. As the second sim, I popped in a 3 mobile broadband data-only sim and it worked straight away without manually setting up the APN etc.
I have been a Galaxy S series fan for a few years and I was worried about switching to ASUS but the excellent Asus GUI (General User Interface) is very neat and works flawlessly. I was expecting a heavily customised (and buggy) GUI but I am very pleased that it turned out to be very smooth with plenty of features and customisation options.
Now the bad part.
The phone is shipped from China and they advertise it as having a WW (WorldWide) firmware installed prior shipping, which it is in part true.
I want to say that I have nothing against phones from China as most of the electronic equipment is manufactured over there nowadays however the phone firmware is a fake WW.
I don't know how they did it but they managed to install a WW 2.99.40.6 ASUS firmware over a CN sku.
This means that the phone originally was a Chinese handset subsequently converted to WW. The resulting phone is indeed in English (or any language you choose to setup), it has access to GooglePlay store, Gmail accounts and all the rest and it works no problem over here. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great kit. You wouldn't notice anything wrong however one of the major flaws of this particular setup is that it will not update over OTA (or manually).
OTA (On The Air) updates works that you simply click “check for system update” and the phone will connect to ASUS and upgrade itself to the latest version available for your handset (JellyBean, KitKat etc...).
ASUS has implemented an alternative way to upgrade its phones: you go the ASUS website, select you model, region/language etc and you can manually download the system update file.
Save this file on your phone internal storage, next time you reboot the phone Android will see that there is an update file waiting to be installed and it will ask you whether you want to upgrade.
You can download this file directly using your phone or if you are on a strict data usage budget (these updates files are about 700 MB in size) using a computer then copying it over to your phone internal storage by connecting the phone to your computer via USB cable.
OK, that's OTA and manual upgrade covered... this phone with WW 2.99.40.6 however will not update, nor over OTA nor by manually placing the firmware file on the internal storage.
I thought, well... why not simply download the latest from ASUS and install it overwriting the existing one? This way I will have the latest clean official up to date firmware... right?
Wrong, the phone will not update simply because its firmware 2.99.40.6 is “too new”, a firmware from the future...
Confused? Let me explain, this is the clever part: in February 2015 ASUS released the (currently) latest firmware update for Zenfone A501CG which is the 2.21.40.44.
Now let me point out that firmware versions always go up, for example:
1.16.40.7 (that was in 2014)
1.17.40.17 (still 2014)
1.18.40.8
1.18.40.9
2.19.40.18
2.21.40.30 (December 2014)
and the latest 2.21.40.44
You noticed that the numbers go UP with every release.. the highest the newest.
Now, if you look at the fake firmware installed on the phone (2.99.40.6) you will see that the 2.99.40.6 (look at the “2.99” bit), is even higher than the very latest 2.21.40.44 so the phone simply will not “downgrade” from 2.99.40.6 to 2.21.40.44. That's because with these android phones you cannot downgrade, only upgrade.
This is how the sellers prevent you from upgrade your phone. You are simply locked to this firmware... but why???
The only reason I can think of is that the operating system has some spyware, tracker or some advertising bloatware they don’t' want you to get rid of upgrading the firmware. This is the only possible explanation in my opinion.
When you upgrade firmware (from JellyBean to KitKat for example) files are kept, apps and their settings are kept and updated, user settings are transferred over. So all the unwanted pre-installed crapware would pass through the new version anyway so why the need to lock the firmware? Perhaps there is something deep down in the system that has been tampered with and will not survive a firmware update. That's what I think.
At the beginning after receiving this phone I didn't spot the fake firmware right away. As many of us do when they have a new phone, I checked for update via OTA, there was none. Actually, the System Update function crashed every time I checked for updates but I didn't bother looking any further into this matter because I was very pleased with the phone, it looked good and performed well.
Nothing seems to be wrong apart from the System Update glitch and Gallery crashing quite often.
It was after a couple of days of use when I started receiving unsolicited popup messages asking me to install additional apps that I started wondering if there was something wrong with my phone after all. These popups used to come up when the phone was idle, 4 popups at a time and sometimes right after rebooting.
I have been installing on the Zenfone exactly the same apps I had on my Galaxy S2 so I knew how these apps behave and what to expect from them so at the beginning I thought it was the ASUS GUI o some other pre-installed app. No, these popups were an issue related to the new phone.
I immediately thought that a reputable brand like ASUS (I own other ASUS products since 2005 and always been happy) wouldn't (or shouldn't) annoy new customers with these kind of nuisance, this would inevitably drive customers away so I decided to run some virus/spyware checks. Nothing major was found and the popups still occurred at least 3 times a day. That was day 4 on my Zenfone.
Almost forgot: the phone came rooted. Apart from the obvious advantages this also means that any virus scan can be performed deep into the system with administrative privileges. Having your phone rooted also means that it is not covered by ASUS warranty but that's another issue...
At this point I decided that it was time to do something about it. First I did a factory reset but this didn't work as this returned the phone at its original state when I took it out of the box 4 days before.
So I decided that I had to force the phone to “downgrade” to a previous ORIGINAL firmware then re-upgrade it installing the latest firmware from the ASUS website and this is how.
First of all you need two tools:
1) the USB drivers for ASUS phones fro Windows. You can download them from the ASUS website or search the internet for “ASUS Zenfone 5 Windows Drivers”.
2) the ADB package, I used the one provided here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2588979
This one actually provides the drivers too. Feel free to browse the internet and find the appropriate source but you will be downloading more or less the same file.
After you installed these two tools you need something called “Recovery Image”, there are some here:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/cq6wwpya68azb/ZenFone_5_recovery
in my case I used this one: 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img
and finally you need an original firmware from the ASUS website here:
http://www.asus.com/uk/Phones/ZenFone_5_A501CG/HelpDesk_Download/
in my case I downloaded this one: UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip
So what we are going to do here is:
we will downgrade the phone from the current WW 2.99.40.6 to WW 2.19.40.18
then install WW 2.20.40.13
and finally we will perform a OTA update to the latest firmware.
The whole process should take about 1 hour.
Please note that this method only works if:
1) your Zenfone 5 is a A501CG (T00F or T00J).
2) your current firmware is WW 2.99.40.6 but it will probably work with other “fake” firmwares too, you just need a different set of files (please note the “WW” bit is IMPORTANT, if your firmware is CN, CHT or TW this will not work and you will damage your phone).
3) your phone is rooted (if you are still reading this it probably is but check if you have an app called SuperSU with a yellow triangle).
4) USB debugging is enabled (do a google search to see how this can be done, enabling debugging mode takes 20 seconds).
..basically this will work if you have received the same phone I got.
If any of the above 4 points is not clear please run a quick google search. There is plenty of literature out there however not much literature on the internet covers what we are going to do now or if there is it is all scattered around various sites. That's why I am posting this, all info in one place.
Procedure:
Find the ADB folder on your computer and place there the file 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img you downloaded from mediafire.
The UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip you downloaded from ASUS is a ZIP archive, open it, extract the file fastboot.img and place it in the ADB folder.
Put the UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip you downloaded from ASUS in the ADB folder too (do not extract this file, just place the ZIP archive in the ADB folder).
At the end in the ADB folder (apart from the adb files that were already there) you should have the following files:
UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip
2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img
fastboot.img
We start with the phone turned OFF. Make sure it has some battery left (more than 50%) turn your Zenfone on in Fastboot Mode (this can be done by pressing and holding at the same time the power Button and Volume UP buttons... together).
Connect the phone to the computer.
In the ADB folder on your computer open a command prompt window (called a CMD window). This can be done by pressing (on your PC keyboard) Shift then right-clicking with the mouse anywhere in the empty space in the ADB folder.
Now in the resulting CMD (black) window write the following command (exactly as it is written here):
fastboot flash fastboot fastboot.img
hit Enter. Then write:
fastboot flash recovery 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img
hit Enter and wait until completion.
Do not disconnect your phone and do not close the CMD (black) window on your computer but reboot your phone in Fastboot Mode (there should be a command on the phone screen “reboot fastboot”), navigate up and down with the volumes keys and confirm the selection with the power button).
Once you are back in Fastboot Mode go to Recovery. Now you should see the Android logo with a red triangle, press at the same time the Volume UP and the Volume DOWN keys to reveal a hidden menu (try pressing and holding the + and – keys several times if it doesn't come up the first time).
In this menu you need to go to Upload Firmware from ADB (or something similar) and confirm by pressing the power key.
Now, go back to your computer and in the CMD window type the following command:
adb sideload UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip
and hit Enter.
At this point your phone will start loading the original WW-2.20.40.13 we downloaded from the ASUS website. This will take some time, in my case it took about 45 minutes.
Once this is done you can reboot the phone and you will have a brand new Zenfone 5 with a WorldWide (real) 2.20.40.13 firmware, the one before the last one. Now we want to upgrade to the very latest (which is the best for Zenfone 5 in my opinion).
To upgrade now you have two options:
1) start using the phone right away and upgrade to the latest 2.21.40.44 via OTA or...
2) manually download the 2.21.40.44 from ASUS to your computer, place it on your phone internal storage and let the phone update at the next reboot.
In my case I choose the second option, it doesn't really make any difference however...whichever option you choose after the upgrade to the latest firmware you should perform two final last steps. This is to clean up, optimise and make sure the phone system runs smoothly from now on.
Very quickly...
Step 1: (AFTER you upgraded to the last firmware 2.21.40.44 either via OTA or manually) you should reboot to Fastboot Mode, select Recovery and “Wipe Cache Partition”. Wait until completion then...
Step 2: reboot your phone in normal mode and before starting to register and installing all apps go to Settings, Backup & Reset and do a Factory data Reset. Obviously this will wipe all your apps and settings but, as I suggested before, you didn't install anything yet.
Final tip: if you have an external SD card you already used on another phone or even in the Zenfone before the upgrade I would suggest reformat it before starting using it on your “new” phone. Many apps leave things behind on the SD that newly installed versions of the same apps don't like.
After this last two steps your phone is ready, no more suspicious junk and a 100% original ASUS system.
An optional step would be to root your phone again (upgrading firmware disables root or superuser) and put to sleep some of the pre-installed ASUS apps you don't need.
With root (device administrative) privileges you could un-install them but disabling them is enough.
I personally disabled some googleplay services like books, music, movies, games, newsstand, google+ (I never used them) then the following pre-installed apps: weather, asus backup, cloudprint, drive, feedback, hangouts, myasus, pc link, setup wizard, share link, webstorage, what's next, remote link.
But that's me, I don't use these apps and they have the habit to autostart with the phone and stay in the background eating systems resources and battery juice even if you haven't used them in a year.
Ah... rooting your device also allows you to reach and delete the batterystats file dramatically increasing battery performance.
VERDICT:
My opinion is that THE PHONE IS EXCELLENT, it really exceeded my expectations, the only downside is the fake firwmware which spoils the fun until you learn how to fix it. The original ASUS software is well balanced, polished and smooth and not at all bloated. Plenty of customizations too.
Post Scriptum:
Before buying this phone I checked some reviews and I learnt that apparently the battery was weak and wouldn't last a whole day. After 3 weeks of everyday use I have to say that this depends on what you do with your phone (obviously...).
By default ALL is enabled when you take it out of the box because the manufacturer is trying to give you the best (visual, probably) experience.
Without being conservative you have to find out and disable what is eating up your battery and you don't need.
The trick is to use the phone as it is for a whole charge (say, from 100% to 10% but already at around 50% you get an idea of what's going on) then before putting under charge go to Settings, Battery and check the statistic data.
You will see that that nice weather widget giving you the temperature and the rain forecast is sucking 40% of your juice because it is constantly updating... is it worth it? Push sync of 5 email accounts is really necessary..?? Real time travel updates..?
When you learn how to manage your device and what is running and when you will see that the battery life will stretch 3 times over. This applies to all smart phones.
Reading the Zenfone reviews another issue seemed to be quite common: the wifi would disconnect..! Now, that's an issue...! I wouldn't want to buy a phone with a dodgy wifi.
Truth is that if you enable the Power Saver in Ultra-saving Mode the wifi will cut off when the screen is turned off (this is also written in small letter on the on/off button). Obviously you won't receive any notification during scree-off time and connectivity will resume as soon as you turn the screen on.
Luckily to save extra battery life it's not all-or-nothing there is a Power Saving scheme (the third one) which is called Customized Mode where you can pick what you want to run or stop during power saving mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im stack at the final step
adb sideload UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip
and hit Enter.
then i get
error: device not found.
Any ideas?
plus my device in fast boot has no option reboot fastboot but "reboot droidboot" wich i used...
thnx in advance for everything
I m stuck at status 7 installation aborted....
Related
First of all I would like to apologize for not so perfect English
I have U8650 and i would like to make this topic general topic for it. I know there are few topics but there is no much info in them.
I have made same topic on croatian forum for phones so i think it will be better if its on xda because there are much more people that are good in cooking cracking etc.
So lets begin
Detailed specifications can be seen on the LINK, however, the battery is 1400mAh[/ B] and not 1250 (i have sent email to gsmarena to change it but nothing hapend...)
ROOT and the original ROM
After playing with the phone I wanted too root it, after a good deal of trouble, and around 40 readed topics (without overdoing it) I came up with some knowledge, of course the problem is that the phone is currently on only few markets. (spain, croatia, turkey, australia and china i think)
To root U8650 you should flash it with original Rom, Spanish devices dont need original rom to root dont know why it is but it is
ROM
It is necessary to download an official ROM
LINK
After you download it unrar it and dload folder copy to memory card
Path should look like \ dload \ update
to flash device you need to
turn it off
remove the battery for 5 seconds
put the battery back in
press the buttons "VOL +" + "VOL-" + "ON" (all three keys at once)
and will start automatic firmware upgrade
for 3-4 minutes cell is debranded
If you get error not found firmware that means that you did not put the firmware on the SD card like you should (I got it a few times) just off the device and repeat the procedure.
root
After flashing unbranded firmware we can throw at root
software needed for the root LINK
This is similar to debranding.
download root file
Put it on SD card
turn off the phone
remove the battery for 3 seconds
Press "VOL +" + "ON" (without the vol-)
When you open the "bios like" menu use the volume keys up/down to select the update from memory card called root
after this procedure just reboot the phone and you have rooted phone
UNLOCK
My wife is on vip network so I had need to unlock cell
Recommendation for Tibor Szabo's
[email protected] [/ email]
contact the man, he tells you to pay € 13 at [email] [email protected] [/ email]
Send him mail with the payment for approximately 12 hours with you (he said 2-3 days al always come to 24h)[/SIZE]
if this is forbiden on xda i will remove it
If you have any questions please ask, this all is wrote on xda and some other forums i just put all together
[B]Do not think i am responsible if anything goes wrong I have done in exactly those steps and everything works normally. Everything you do yo do at your own risk.[/B]
So: D after a slightly longer introduction with u8650 came the day to put Custom rom.
Of course, for custom rom you will need root thus described above tutorial.
After puting custom rom phone is like 20% faster
few main features
Integrated flash (load all ads from the flash) loads test flash from Adobe i didnt test it much more because yesterday i put custom firmware
new driver for the camera from turkcell that means 5MP camera resolution
Better battery life
overclock processors at 780MHz (you can set it manualy)
Here is the complete list of modifications that is taken with [URL="http://www.htcmania.com/showthread.php?t=262489"]LINK[/URL]
In principle, this entire tutorial is taken from [B]Zadkyn[/B] and translated becuse he is hard spanish guy nothing is on english he is not very good at answering questions but thanks to him we have custom roms and all the improvements.
list of improvements (in English)
[QUOTE]Overall performance improved a lot (it is also the little battery somprendente Spends now even with the 3G)
-Changed icons graphically and manufactures factory setting, added percentage battery icon factory
-Added adobe flash compatible and running (with the strip overlock well)
-Lower spending on drums (set the minimum cpu for this)
-Restored and changed some other applications (all zipiling passed by lower consumption of RAM)
-GPU rendering enabled
Battery-drain slower, less consumption.
Grate black-on camera to make photo with overlock fixed
Overlock-stable up to 780 (no more restarts) to give to more than 722 problems.
-Added and removed other applications
Overlock-Kernel to 844
Unlocked-Kernel
-Operates any headphones
New menu-configuration, more optimized and icons removed rom China.
Bootanimation custom-added, now you can put your wish bootanimation
-Added run-part BusyBox
-Added Apps2SD
Added bash-shell
Zipalign all-in app
New-look graphic
Huawei-optimized new launcher (and consumed as Zeami or less)
-Fix bootanimation
Init.d-scripts folder added
Scrip-added ramscrip
-Applications optimized to consume less RAM
Boot-unlocked
-Data Applications (to uninstall and market updates)
Root-shell
-Added new root
Application-Acrchivos disassembler (ODEX files only is crap and problems)
Removed sea processes on startup
-Original Sources
-Some of deleted applications including Telstra
-Optimize graphics
New Market-added
New menu-bright
-Back to the white menu
-Implement improvements in order to run 3D accelerated 3D notification bar
Added applications-highly recommended.
-More RAM optimized for removing (less processes on startup)
Optimized sub-mic, and works well, you can check any call recording.
Completely changed-Topic icons like systems.
-Removed garbage Telstra [/ color]
, As implemented VoIP, voice dial ip menu to call.
Configuraccion-optimized menu and changed the color to black.
To-quality photos and video recording improved.
Jpg Image-Viewer improved.
-Pixel camera increased significantly (software, which the Turks have for any)
Best answer-ram and optimization (42m).
-Red 2 g 3g and improved (more coverage)
Energia-saving implemented.
Netfilter-range increased.
Less force-closure errors in some applications as well as more support.
-Some more things.[/QUOTE]
I put 1.5 version because it has corrected a couple of bugs.
Biggest object is that he removed default camera app imho it's not a problem because you can instal lg camera.
So here is tutorial
What you will not learn from linked topic (and I found out by sheer luck) is that you need to install drivers and custom "bios" to be able to put custom rom
So first things first
You will need to do procedure in this topic [URL="http://www.htcmania.com/showthread.php?t=256095"]LINK[/URL]
First download the driver for Windows 7 [URL="http://www.mediafire.com/?3bvp3p42t4iqwt2"]LINK[/URL]
So these are the drivers that you install and run you will have a screen with two options press instal drivers
If you have XP and these drivers dont work download this [URL="http://www.mediafire.com/?20qkr711ceuna0n"]LINK[/URL]
I have W7 so I leave to you if this is working for xp (it should work because no one has yet complained )
The second step is to download this file [URL="http://www.mediafire.com/?k421vgl3xy1fgpa"]LINK[/URL] unzip it and run Instalador.bat
You have fine hacker green screen and bunch of Spanish. luckily it doesn't interest us. Go to the next step and that is putting the phone in Fastboot mode.
The third step unplug the battery cell out/in pressing VOLUME - (or the volume down) and the power button and hold for 10 seconds.
it will show you only the Huawei logo and it should only show you that.
Step Four Connect the mobile phone with the USB cable, wait until computer detects it and after a few seconds go ti fine spanish green screen and press any key
It will flash "bios" of the phone it should be ready in a minute or two there is no hurry.
then reset the cell and you should have a fine new "bios".
Check this by turning off cell battery out / in and press the Volume + (volume up) and the power button for 10 seconds.
It should appear with orange letters like from the picture
[IMG]http://postimage.org/image/2d31ltan8/[/IMG]
After you have fine new "bios" you want to put fine new rom
The first step with this rom download [URL="http://www.mediafire.com/?8qd05qhv5flhips"]LINK[/URL]
The second step is to put the zip in the root of your memory card.
The third step going into the BIOS mod So turn off the cell battery out / in the volume + power button for 10 seconds.
You get orange letter menu now navigate with the volume + and - and with the power Buton you confirm it.
The fourth step choose the factory data wipe, then wipe the cache and then advanced wipe devil cache (not the exact name but you will seen it)
Each time when you choose wipe you need to confirm it, always navigate to yes i want to wipe.
Fifth step Return to start of the BIOS and select the custom recovery and navigate to the zip file called zadkin and select it.
When you choose it will start to flash for me lasted about 4minute when it's finished, reboot the system and if everything went well (and there is no reason why not) you will get the boot menu with zad logo.
For first time cell loaded few minutes so patience.
After that you have a nice Costum rom that is faster and more economical with better battery life stronger processor and better camera
If you have questions feel free to shoot.
The same as in the first part of post you do all on yours risk and I am not responsible for any problems and errors. I did everything according to these instructions and I got what i wanted.
[B]CODES[/B]
codes for the service menu
[B]*#*# 2846579 #*#*[/B]
code for the info on your phone
[B]*#*# 4636 #*#*[/B]
All of this is wroted on few forums and i just wanted to put all in one place on the most visited forum for android (xda)
Also i would very like if someone with more expirience can read this tutorial and suggest something.
one more thing that i left out is RAM limitation and i hope to get some answers about that.
also if this helps someone feel free to thank me
Best regards
just flashed your custom rom without problems. its amazing what people can do..!! it seems based on the yoigo firmware and you have english and spanish as languages. everything you need is included filemanager app2sd etc. i like it very much.. thanks.
edit: could you kindly tell what the flashing of the bios (with pc) exactly is for?! thanks
If you dont flash that bios you cant wiPe devilk cache and you cant instal modified rom so basicly puting new bio is must for moded roms
It will be great if someone else can try this
As for wiping the data, there was only one thing possible to wipe. everything else was just a line of "NO" without option to change it.
I now have like 3 programs running in background thats cool... and of course its cool that many programs are removed that cant be removed otherwise (like documents2go trial)
But thE stock yoigo firmware is good too... It already comes with the possibility to install apps to SD u dont need extra program for that
EDIT :and i just come back to phone.. i left it on charger over night.. and its in the orange BIOS MODE !!!! so it crashed i guess ??? bad
EDIT2: Couldnt access 3g internet even tho i had the right profile .... will test some more
Unofrtunately the custom ROM has still a lot of bugs, be careful :-(
yeah its BS... i am going back to original yoigo at least there i can make it install all aps to SD automatically .... this hacked firmware cant even transfer most new aps to SD..
i hope i will have no problems cos of flashed bios...
thanks anyways both of you
edit: 2 more bugs.. adblock dont work (some java error crash) and the 11mb adobe flash cant be copied to sd or removed at all
out of 27 apps (a few downloaded by me) 7 can be copied to SD and 20 cant
is there anyone who tested cyan mode for this phone ?
this guy
http://translate.google.de/translat...ania.com/showthread.php?p=2880783#post2880783
check that forum out they also have Cyanogen7.2-benru89 [Android 2.3.7] [LEDs] !!
do anybody knows how to make back key to just leave app and not go to home screen
i have instaled cyan 7.2 spartan 1.2 ver and when i enter app drawer and start app lasts say camera i push back key and it lands me in home screen and not in appdrawer.
hope you understand what i am saying
problem
I had a problem when i tried to root my phone. I copyed the zip file into my sdcard but it could find the file.
I got other things in my sd if it matters idont know.
I would be very thankfull if someone could help me!
huawei u 8650 phone is dead
hi ,after installing official firmware ,my phone got brick.i also made backup with cwm recovery,but now my phone only show black screen only alittle blink of light when i push power bottom,how can i solve this problem
I don't understand, if you root your phone yo unlock it from its carrier? I mean, free to use with whatever sim card from any mobile company?
Didnot work on U8652
12/14/11: I tried the rom upgrade on U8652 ATT fusion and received "install error' after unpacking.
Any suggestions?
12/15/11: I successfully installed the 'recoveryclockmod' after finding the proper android usb driver for winXp - 'pulse drivers'
then installed the custom rom. But the phone details on the installed custom rom says its a U8650 model not U8652.
Thanks OP
Thanks OP
I followed your instructions and installed recoveryclockmod and cyanogen_u8650-benru on my U8652. Now I finally have root and a nice ROM to play around with. Thanks OP
Does the root part work on a Huawei U8650 Sonic that came with android 2.3.5 and newer ROM ( U8650V100R001C343B851 ) ?
I need to root it to be able to use reverse USB tethering
dark0153 said:
Does the root part work on a Huawei U8650 Sonic that came with android 2.3.5 and newer ROM ( U8650V100R001C343B851 ) ?
I need to root it to be able to use reverse USB tethering
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try with
http://unlockroot.com/
From lastest version they support huawei U8650. You can always put recovery and custom rom (google htcmania or read first post)
sipe1 said:
Try with
unlockroot.com
From lastest version they support huawei U8650. You can always put recovery and custom rom (google htcmania or read first post)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unlockroot doesn't work, i tried the latest version (2.2) and i get the same error "Failed to get shell root !"
I have fried my U8650
I attempted a firmware update (official)... stage one completed... phone restarted and got stuck with a grey screen (no logo nothing just blank grey screen) all the soft buttons are turned on. constantly.
It wont go in to recovery, a simple touch to the power button turns it on and then it wont turn off unless I take the battery out.
I tried flashing with DC unlocker but my system wont detect it, I have installed the drivers provided at huawei site.
the phone was just a week old and am real pissed.
worst part, i did all that after reading this post
Anyone has any idea, how i can get it to work once again.
friedroid said:
I attempted a firmware update (official)... stage one completed... phone restarted and got stuck with a grey screen (no logo nothing just blank grey screen) all the soft buttons are turned on. constantly.
It wont go in to recovery, a simple touch to the power button turns it on and then it wont turn off unless I take the battery out.
I tried flashing with DC unlocker but my system wont detect it, I have installed the drivers provided at huawei site.
the phone was just a week old and am real pissed.
worst part, i did all that after reading this post
Anyone has any idea, how i can get it to work once again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't try this method and I'm only suggesting it because it sound like you almost bricked your phone.
You could try installing ClockworkMod recovery using fastboot (here is a guide for that androidforums.com/sonic-all-things-root/476263-root-guide.html just follow 1-9 ) and then flash the original rom for your phone (I found a list of stock roms here android.modaco.com/topic/350367-huawei-u8650 )
Dont forget to wipe data/cache before flashing the new rom ( this might be the cause for the state your phone is in now )
Update:
Got the drivers by installing hi space and letting it search for appropriate drivers. Worked real smooth.
Now Computer detects phone. But the instalador.bat keeps on searching for device :S
Stuck and stumped once again.
I want to believe but all I see is darkness... or a mildly lit lcd with greyness to be precise. thoughts, ideas anyone.
Thanks man. A ray of hope finally.
Only one problem.
My system won't detect the phone. When i plug it in via usb, it turns on. I mean all the buttons turn on, screen turns dark grey from dead black. But that is it. Computer wont detect it. I am running on windows 7.
Another system detected it which was running on XP but it wouldn't accept the drivers.
Hope you can help me - I am desperate to halt the OTA update for my galaxy s4 -
based on everything I’ve read, Samsung did a really bad job on this update, 4.4.2, and they are currently rolling out 4.4.3 and 4.4.4, but of course, the s5 is getting it well before we are.
anyway,
I have been “happily” running 4.3 and just dealing with the bluetooth issues, found enough hacks/fixes for the wifi issue that i have been ok with it since getting 4.3 in November.
There are just too many unworkable issues of battery drain, overheating, losing apps, pics, etc etc etc for me to risk the update to 4.4.2.
HERE’S MY PROBLEM - Somehow, altho i'm fairly technical, the update finally got on my phone (after having kept it off for months) and for the past month or more, I've just been
dealing with the notification, putting it off for 24 hrs at a time.
I guess it finally decided not to allow me to do that any longer, and started the installation without permission. i stopped it by pulling the battery, but when i try to start in recovery mode just so i can clear cache and hopefully reboot without actually installing the new os, I cannot - it goes through (some of) the motions but when i let go of the power button as i should when it's running normally, and would get the options of factory reset, clear cache, et al, it just brings up the android bot and shows that it is continuing to install where it left off. I’ve done this numerous times.
Tried different methods of button-holding and other trouble-shooting based on massive searching, but always get the same result. and I can only pull the battery to stop it.
Am I stuck? Do I have to install now at this point?
I do not want to perform factory reset, guess I'd rather install the 4.4.2 s/w. (altho I can't even get to that option at this point)
Sincerely hope someone out there will respond – I've posted to multiple sites, and no one is responding - gonna have to turn my phone back on at some point soon...
Thanks in advance!!
Roxanne
rkohlin said:
Hope you can help me - I am desperate to halt the OTA update for my galaxy s4 -
based on everything I’ve read, Samsung did a really bad job on this update, 4.4.2, and they are currently rolling out 4.4.3 and 4.4.4, but of course, the s5 is getting it well before we are.
anyway,
I have been “happily” running 4.3 and just dealing with the bluetooth issues, found enough hacks/fixes for the wifi issue that i have been ok with it since getting 4.3 in November.
There are just too many unworkable issues of battery drain, overheating, losing apps, pics, etc etc etc for me to risk the update to 4.4.2.
HERE’S MY PROBLEM - Somehow, altho i'm fairly technical, the update finally got on my phone (after having kept it off for months) and for the past month or more, I've just been
dealing with the notification, putting it off for 24 hrs at a time.
I guess it finally decided not to allow me to do that any longer, and started the installation without permission. i stopped it by pulling the battery, but when i try to start in recovery mode just so i can clear cache and hopefully reboot without actually installing the new os, I cannot - it goes through (some of) the motions but when i let go of the power button as i should when it's running normally, and would get the options of factory reset, clear cache, et al, it just brings up the android bot and shows that it is continuing to install where it left off. I’ve done this numerous times.
Tried different methods of button-holding and other trouble-shooting based on massive searching, but always get the same result. and I can only pull the battery to stop it.
Am I stuck? Do I have to install now at this point?
I do not want to perform factory reset, guess I'd rather install the 4.4.2 s/w. (altho I can't even get to that option at this point)
Sincerely hope someone out there will respond – I've posted to multiple sites, and no one is responding - gonna have to turn my phone back on at some point soon...
Thanks in advance!!
Roxanne
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you rooted?
SiVisPacemParaBellum
OderintDumMetuant
stvn2569 said:
Are you rooted?
SiVisPacemParaBellum
OderintDumMetuant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for responding stvn2569!
Nope, not rooted.
But based on all my searching I sure wish I was and likely will the next phone.
Stock Verizon Galaxy s4 - 32gb - model # SCH-I545
(Sorry, should have put this in orig message)
THis summarizes some of the reason I don't want to update the OS - -
ack - can't post links - will have to type it out if you are interested in all the bugs Samsung saddled us with -
(most egregious is the battery drain, but others are quite serious and hard to live with too)
www(dot)androidpit(dot)com(slash)samsung-galaxy-s4-update-to-android-4-4-2-littered-with-bugs
rkohlin said:
Thanks for responding stvn2569!
Nope, not rooted.
But based on all my searching I sure wish I was and likely will the next phone.
Stock Verizon Galaxy s4 - 32gb - model # SCH-I545
(Sorry, should have put this in orig message)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll need to root the phone to stop the OTA notifications, it's all very easy.
Go to settings > security > allow installations from unknown sources, check the box
Go to www.towelroot.com
Click on the lambda, download and install the towelroot.apk
Click on "make it ra1n", reboot
Download "SuperSU" from the play store
Upon opening the app, it will prompt you to "update binaries". Do this using the "normal" option
Then download "Root Explorer" from the play store
Navigate to the system and system-priv app folders
In one of those folders you'll find "FWupgrade,apk" and "SDM.apk"
Delete those apk's and no more OTA updates:good:
joshm.1219 said:
You'll need to root the phone to stop the OTA notifications, it's all very easy.
.......
:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Josh, I appreciate your trying to help, but if you read the original post -
I CANNOT TURN ON THE PHONE, hence couldn't get to settings if I wanted to, BUT - -
It is not the notification that is the issue -
the phone has finally downloaded the OTA update and IS INSTALLING IT. (every time I turn it on)
I DO NOT WANT THIS UPDATE INSTALLED. (see prior post for the reason - it's terribly buggy update - worse than what I have)
I have to figure out how to halt it - when I try to start in "recovery mode", it doesn't give me the options
it normally would - I won't start in a normal recovery mode.
It continues the OS update.
I noted all this in the original post - I completely understand how to get rid of the update notifications.
One doesn't even have to root the phone to do this, you can just rename the SDM apk (like add .bak or something)
Do you have ideas how to stop the installation? How I can turn phone on in recovery mode?
(note the steps I've taken to do that are also in the original post)
I know there are many people out there smarter than me about this - hoping you guys can help...,
rkohlin said:
Thanks, Josh, I appreciate your trying to help, but if you read the original post -
I CANNOT TURN ON THE PHONE, hence couldn't get to settings if I wanted to, BUT - -
It is not the notification that is the issue -
the phone has finally downloaded the OTA update and IS INSTALLING IT. (every time I turn it on)
I DO NOT WANT THIS UPDATE INSTALLED. (see prior post for the reason - it's terribly buggy update - worse than what I have)
I have to figure out how to halt it - when I try to start in "recovery mode", it doesn't give me the options
it normally would - I won't start in a normal recovery mode.
It continues the OS update.
I noted all this in the original post - I completely understand how to get rid of the update notifications.
One doesn't even have to root the phone to do this, you can just rename the SDM apk (like add .bak or something)
Do you have ideas how to stop the installation? How I can turn phone on in recovery mode?
(note the steps I've taken to do that are also in the original post)
I know there are many people out there smarter than me about this - hoping you guys can help...,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad, I would suggest booting into download mode and flashing the mk2 tar file with odin (3.09 recommended).
I didn't suggest renaming the file because it doesn't always work. Told my brother to do that on his Note 3 (no root method at the time) and it start downloading an OTA upon reboot one day.
joshm.1219 said:
My bad, I would suggest booting into download mode and flashing the mk2 tar file with odin (3.09 recommended).
I didn't suggest renaming the file because it doesn't always work. Told my brother to do that on his Note 3 (no root method at the time) and it start downloading an OTA upon reboot one day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Josh!
When you say "boot into download mode" - you mean safe/recovery/download mode right?
(like when one holds (for this model) VolumeUpButton+PowerButton right?)
If that's the case, it doesn't allow me to boot that way. When I do that, it just skips right to
"Installing system update" (with the droid bot)
That's my problem.
Cannot access anything (without allowing the install). :crying:
Have also tried VolumeUpButton+PowerButton+HomeButton. Same.
Drat.
Looks like I may have to accept this OS.
Others I know that have deal with terrible battery drain issues (from 10 hrs heavy use on charge down to 2 hrs)
rkohlin said:
Thanks, Josh!
When you say "boot into download mode" - you mean safe/recovery/download mode right?
(like when one holds (for this model) VolumeUpButton+PowerButton right?)
If that's the case, it doesn't allow me to boot that way. When I do that, it just skips right to
"Installing system update" (with the droid bot)
That's my problem.
Cannot access anything (without allowing the install). :crying:
Have also tried VolumeUpButton+PowerButton+HomeButton. Same.
Drat.
Looks like I may have to accept this OS.
Others I know that have deal with terrible battery drain issues (from 10 hrs heavy use on charge down to 2 hrs)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is Power button click and hold volume down....
rkohlin said:
Thanks, Josh!
When you say "boot into download mode" - you mean safe/recovery/download mode right?
(like when one holds (for this model) VolumeUpButton+PowerButton right?)
If that's the case, it doesn't allow me to boot that way. When I do that, it just skips right to
"Installing system update" (with the droid bot)
That's my problem.
Cannot access anything (without allowing the install). :crying:
Have also tried VolumeUpButton+PowerButton+HomeButton. Same.
Drat.
Looks like I may have to accept this OS.
Others I know that have deal with terrible battery drain issues (from 10 hrs heavy use on charge down to 2 hrs)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like he said, download mode is Power+VolumeDown, press and hold.
UPDATE:
Well, never could get into download mode, so had to accept the OS update to KK 4.4.2
Guess I'm one of the lucky ones, (I do have a fairly new model S4) and I didn't lose apps or contacts.
however,
The Battery Life is TERRIBLE after the 4.4.2 update! Some WiFi issues too.
Seem to have fixed WiFi (for now anyway)
Been searching around and recalibrated my battery, am trying a battery life extender app,
turned off a huge bunch of Samsung and Google apps that evid constantly "ping" and use battery.
It's been a little better, but not a lot.
Hope for 4.4.4 to be available soon (heard 4.4.3 is not a good variant either)
Dear Experts,
Months ago my 2y old XZU on 4.4.4 (6833, towel rooted, locked, CWM recovery) started to fail on init of LCD, when coming out of standby. LCD init not only fails when device gets waked up by "power" button, but also when power is applied (Dock connector or USB). So I guess in fact it is a firmware issue (not a defective power button or the like).
It gets worse and worse; when device is warm it sometimes needs 30 or more off/on cycles.
When LCD init fails, the screen either stays black (only backlight) or colored lines show up shortly and fade away. But in fact the device is running - only LCD is not working.
But when init is successful, the XZU can run nicely for hours (as navi).
I hope that a android FW update might help!?
Unfortunately OTA doesn't seem to work on routed devices even with still locked boot loader.
Is there a way to update directly to 5.1.1 available now? Is it possible to update in two steps?
I would not mind to loose root, but loosing the possibility to write to external SDCARD!
Any help/ideas? THANKS A LOT!
Thomas
Sounds like SOD, or Sleep Of Death. The Ultra had some issues with it back on Jelly Bean, but I hardly read about it being an issue on KitKat, but yeah, it's probably a software issue, so an update to 5.1.1 might just cure it. You have a couple of options here:
1. Update the official way by installing Sony's PC Companion app on your computer and updating it that way
2. Update it in a little less official way by updating it manually yourself with Flashtool on your computer
3. Update by flashing a customized version through a recovery system on your device (like CWM or TWRP)
I would personally update it through PC Companion if I were you, since I guess you're not that technical when it comes to flashing and troubleshooting things. PC Companion should notify you about the update as soon as you plug your Ultra to your computer. If it notifies you about the 5.0.2 update, then I guess you'll have to update to 5.0.2 first, and then you'll be able to update to 5.1.
Flashtool allows you to manually download a FTF, or the ROM file from XDA and then flash it yourself. It's a lot quicker than PC Companion, but also a lot more complicated for people who haven't used it before.
Flashing through a recovery is mainly for people who already are used to flashing and stuff like that, and know what they're (mostly) doing.
Any other questions?
Thanks for your very valuable hints!!!
I'm really curious if it will work with PC comp (vs. OTA) and if I will loose write access to SDRAM (introduced in Android 4.4 and regained by root and SDFix).
Currently the download is running..
Will post results
zamzon said:
Thanks for your very valuable hints!!!
I'm really curious if it will work with PC comp (vs. OTA) and if I will loose write access to SDRAM (introduced in Android 4.4 and regained by root and SDFix).
Currently the download is running..
Will post results
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OTA will only tell you to connect to the computer to update. And regarding SD-card, that won't be an issue. Android will ask you to grant permission to the SD-card in some cases, but I haven't had any issues with it. Most if not all file explorers works just fine, and you won't experience any issues with the SD-card.
The update worked (no error on PC), but device seemed dead afterwads
After a reset and numerous power off/on cycles, the LCD init worked and I could see the result. :laugh:
Root was gone, of course. Recovery system and write access to SDCARD, too. Therefore Sygic app (navi), which had been moved to ext. SDCard. could not run anymore and moved itself to .android again.
But worst of all: the init of LCD now works even more seldom!
It does not even work when device has been shut down before, cooled down and is then switched on.
As far as I read, the SOD is different, cause my device in fact is "awake". It runs fine - only LCD is not working and not displaying anything.
I have no idea how to fix this. I can not imagine any hardware defect, causing such behavior (and I designed embeded systems with gfx controllers, myself).
Thomas
zamzon said:
The update worked (no error on PC), but device seemed dead afterwads
After a reset and numerous power off/on cycles, the LCD init worked and I could see the result. :laugh:
Root was gone, of course. Recovery system and write access to SDCARD, too. Therefore Sygic app (navi), which had been moved to ext. SDCard. could not run anymore and moved itself to .android again.
But worst of all: the init of LCD now works even more seldom!
It does not even work when device has been shut down before, cooled down and is then switched on.
As far as I read, the SOD is different, cause my device in fact is "awake". It runs fine - only LCD is not working and not displaying anything.
I have no idea how to fix this. I can not imagine any hardware defect, causing such behavior (and I designed embeded systems with gfx controllers, myself).
Thomas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But that does sound like a hardware issue. The final thing you can do, before you'll have to send it in for repairs, or get a new device, is to do a full factory resetting and see if that finally helps. You just updated now, but there's still a lot of crap left over from the previous version, that might screw things up.
So my advice would be to do a wipe, check if it help, and if not either send it in for repairs or get a new device. It's not a software issue if the issue travels over several OS versions with you. It may be a faulty display connector.
[email protected],
just bought myself an Ulefone T1 from aliexpress and I am wondering if there is any lineageos development out there for this phone? Is anybody planning to develop for this?
cheers
JohnnyT
Stay tunned. The phone is new and development will yet. Dont worry is a great phone and Ulefone is better than yesterday.
https://www.needrom.com/category/ulefone/t1-ulefone/
It will hardly receive official updates, let alone custom ROMs (same fate as the 96% of MediaTek devices out there).
any update . i just bought this phone from banggood. my asus zenfone 3 wifi is failing. so needed something to fill the gap
Finally received my t1 after 11 weeks of waiting!!
Everything works fine apart from the battery usage which is a round 10% per hour on standby with no usage!!
FOLLOW-UP
Following lots of research found that Whatsapp was still trying to verify the phone thru SMS and was draining the battery. Uninstalled and re-installed Whatsapp and verified by manually entering SMS pin.
Now appears to running okay at just over 2% per hour battery drain with bluetooth and GPS set on.
i think i got a thud. reboots when connected to 5g wifi and sometimes when doing stuff on the phone. what a POS phone. never again ulefone!
I am very happy with my T1. High performance, loads of RAM and storage in a decent looking dual SIM package for a very reasonable price tag. First official OTA update yesterday. Also there are rumors about 8.0 upgrade till end of the year.
JohnnyT
Alicklee said:
i think i got a thud. reboots when connected to 5g wifi and sometimes when doing stuff on the phone. what a POS phone. never again ulefone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine does occasional reboot. I think its when my mail app is in 'recent apps'. When I clear recent apps. The phone seems more stable, but it's early days.
If anyone finds a fix, please post to the group.
I had my first ota update so that was a plus although it didn't solve the rebooting or activate the 'so called' second camera.
Pickles871 said:
Mine does occasional reboot. I think its when my mail app is in 'recent apps'. When I clear recent apps. The phone seems more stable, but it's early days.
If anyone finds a fix, please post to the group.
I had my first ota update so that was a plus although it didn't solve the rebooting or activate the 'so called' second camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have yours rooted and your bootloader unlocked? I am getting the update prompt but being unlocked and rooted I'm not sure it will take the update. Some phones tend to brick. Also all of a sudden I am having an issue with "android process.media has stopped" Can't figure out what's causing it but since it started the device has become quite laggy
Mine is not rooted. Its still as out of the box. I have rooted previous phones but find that some of the apps I want to use won't run on rooted phones, like certain banking apps. I don't know if the restarts are an Android 7.0 symptom or hardware/software based. There are so many different views on this it's almost impossible to figure out the causes. For me I keep trying different app and phone settings in the hope that something eventually solves the issue. Maybe a future firmware update will sort it. I live in hope (but don't hold your breath). More likely a new phone will be acquired at some point!
by any chance any of you have gps problems in waze or maps????
Pickles871 said:
Mine is not rooted. Its still as out of the box. I have rooted previous phones but find that some of the apps I want to use won't run on rooted phones, like certain banking apps. I don't know if the restarts are an Android 7.0 symptom or hardware/software based. There are so many different views on this it's almost impossible to figure out the causes. For me I keep trying different app and phone settings in the hope that something eventually solves the issue. Maybe a future firmware update will sort it. I live in hope (but don't hold your breath). More likely a new phone will be acquired at some point!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you need to proper root with magisk. and only use magisk, not other super user apps.
with magisk hide you can cheat banking apps or any app thinking the phone is not rooted.
nieXas said:
you need to proper root with magisk. and only use magisk, not other super user apps.
with magisk hide you can cheat banking apps or any app thinking the phone is not rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats useful to know. Many thanks
Made Lineage 14.1 work on my Ulefone T1 (adb shell hacked)
Hi everyone,
i've been digging around for the last few weeks on my T1 and now i've finally made it boot. I dont know exactly what is working and what not but i can tell WLAN is NOT working for now! The kernel repo at my github was not working so i used the stock one. You may download it as well as the TWRP recovery i made alongside the ROM. But you need to wipe /data partition so all user data is lost in the process. Also while TWRP needs a reboot after wiping /data step 2 & 3 may need to be repeated once. For now i was not able to flash and boot the recovery (working on it) but it can be booted into as follows (when booted into the stock system):
UPDATE: Made it work - it's booting without hacking via ADB-Shell. The parts marked --- obsolete --- are not needed any more.
1.) Disable OEM-Lock in Developer-Options (google if necessary how to do that)
2.) Reboot and keep the upper volume button button pressed until it booted into recovery. If the "no command" screen is displayed, press the power and upper volume button together once again and you shuld reside in the stock recovery. Use it to reboot into fastboot (bootloader).
3.) In fastboot mode, while beeing in the same folder as the downloaded files, type the following:
Code:
fastboot boot recovery.img
4.) Wait for TWRP to boot up and enter the following (within the same folder):
Code:
adb push lineage-14.1-*-UNOFFICIAL-t1.zip /sdcard/
5.) Finally you may flash the Lineage zip file in TWRP (if you have wiped your /data partition at least i needed to)
----------------------------------- obsolete -----------------------------------
6.) Let it reboot into system and while displaying the Linage bootanimation (for now) i had to execute a few commands on adb shell. So, with adb installed, you need to enter the following commands in a common linux/windows shell:
adb shell /vendor/bin/nvram_daemon &
adb shell /system/bin/nvram_proximity &
adb shell /vendor/bin/nvram_agent_binder &
adb shell /system/bin/agoldnvram &
adb shell /system/bin/audioserver &
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if they are all needed but afterwards my T1 bootet up correcty (more or less). Unfortunately a few drivers are missing as it seems while WLAN is not working for now.
http://d0ndroid.janeiskla.de/lineage-14.1-20180928-UNOFFICIAL-t1.zip
and the recovery
http://d0ndroid.janeiskla.de/recovery.img.
----------------------------------- obsolete -----------------------------------
After fixing another few things the only remaining things i found not working are fingerprint & RIL but I'm looking into that right now. The current builds will always be uploaded to:
http://d0ndroid.janeiskla.de/
The sources i used besides the default Lineage ones are on github:
https://github.com/d0n?tab=repositories
Have fun! And let me know if you make progress on your own
Greez,
d0n
Hi d0n22, are you still working with this rom?
Hello, I write from Italy, where I bought an Honor 9 in December 2017.
I never tampered with this phone: no root, nor flashing, nor whatever fancy trick, as in fact I'm not really exactly good with smartphones.
The night between the 20th and the 21st of April 2019, after being prompted by my phone to install the new EMUI 9 update [ STF-L09 9.0.1.162(C432E2R1P5) ], I accepted and let it install overnight (note that the update was downloaded, probably automatically, 1 or 2 days before, but I didn't accept the prompt to install it yet, because I needed my phone for a 15-hours long car trip, and so I figured I wouldn't risk it by installing the update just before my trip - LUCKILY apparently, because otherwise I would have had to stay with this eRecovery thing the whole day without a computer).
I woke up this morning (21st of April) to find it was on eRecovery, giving me the following choices:
(some message I don't remember, probably "Serious problems occurred when the device boot etc. etc.")
Download latest version and recovery
Wipe data/factory reset
Reboot
Shutdown
I did the "Download latest version and recovery" option at first: after clicking it, it searches for WiFi around, and after writing my router password and connecting it to my router, it downloaded the 3941 MB (if I recall correctly) update; however, I left my phone downloading only to find it like this (I was away while it was downloading because I have a bit of a slow internet, so I don't exactly know what happens after it finishes downloading):
(some message I don't remember, probably "Serious problems occurred when the device boot etc. etc.")
Wipe data/factory reset
Shutdown
So I did "Shutdown" and I restarted the phone shortly after, and it restarted itself twice (one was my restart, but after that it restarted itself automatically), then always finishing on the eRecovery with 4 options like I wrote before. I did the "Download latest version and recovery" option again, and I had the same result.
What should I do? I really wish NOT to delete all my internal data, even because after reading some other threads I understood it might even be useless. Do you have any counsel?
Thanks in advance guys, I'm really going crazy and have no idea whatsoever about what to do, please help me!
P.S. I believe I found some other people with my same problem (or atleast similar) on the Huawei UK community site (I'm not allowed to post links yet as I just created this account).
The only way to recover this is download the update completely with pc in install to memory in dload folder after it finishes then boot to download mode and hopefully should work again it sounds like you have faulty update hope this helps
Try to update with HiSuite, if it doesn't work just grab your files with HiSuite and update using dload. If it still doesn't work, warranty claim.