gator likes to go around saying that you shouldn't reflash. As far as the hardware is concerned, it's all luck of the draw. It's pretty clear HTC has cut some corners in production to save a dollar. While the quality is generally improving, things like raised home keys and defective earpieces which were extremely common on the early phones are all but gone now. The newest wave of problems seems to be keyboards becoming disconnected, and the screen's ribbon cables becoming worn out by the slide mechanism.

These are things HTC will address and fix, I'm sure... they just need time to get to them. They really aren't anything a ROM has any say in.

I'm on my fourth TP, with one hardware failure (keyboard stopped working). First had a bad earpiece... you couldn't understand what the other person was saying. Second - keyboard stopped working. Third - data stopped working and Sprint offered to replace instead of correcting the issue.

Apart from this final one most definitely being a software issue, the others have NOT been ROM related.

I was still using the stock ROM when the hardware keyboard failed on my second TP and had never reflashed or unlocked it. In fact, after I called to send it back, that's when I decided to try reflashing it to see if it would fix the keyboard. My first TP was replaced so early, there were no custom ROMS.

Just something to think about.