Stock ROM before custom rom

[grashoper]

Just wondering. Alot of people (if not all) suggest that ya flash to a stock ROM (for your particular carrier I'm assuming??) and then flash to a custom ROM of choice, followed by one hard reset... all sound good so far?
After already running a Custom ROM like myself, i want to try out a new one, and if i don't like that one, back to Stock ROM and then new Custom ROM of choice... Still sound good??
So, my question is this. When flashing back to the Stock ROM, (after the flash has completed) and is booting up for the first time... how far into the setup procedure is necessary, before flashing another custom ROM? Do we have to let the carrier customizations run, calibrate the screen, etc. or can we just interrupt it with a reset, and force a boot-loader screen at some point and flash to custom ROM? Reason i'm asking is purely for time saving. It SUCKS sitting here waiting for all that to run thru before playing with a different ROM. Oh ya... I'm running the CDMA Diamond. On Bell
Thanks for your input.

[basilray]

Originally Posted by grashoper

Just wondering. Alot of people (if not all) suggest that ya flash to a stock ROM (for your particular carrier I'm assuming??) and then flash to a custom ROM of choice, followed by one hard reset... all sound good so far?
After already running a Custom ROM like myself, i want to try out a new one, and if i don't like that one, back to Stock ROM and then new Custom ROM of choice... Still sound good??
So, my question is this. When flashing back to the Stock ROM, (after the flash has completed) and is booting up for the first time... how far into the setup procedure is necessary, before flashing another custom ROM? Do we have to let the carrier customizations run, calibrate the screen, etc. or can we just interrupt it with a reset, and force a boot-loader screen at some point and flash to custom ROM? Reason i'm asking is purely for time saving. It SUCKS sitting here waiting for all that to run thru before playing with a different ROM. Oh ya... I'm running the CDMA Diamond. On Bell
Thanks for your input.

Here's my general rule of thumb:

1. Flash Stock
2. Hard Reset
3. Let customizations run
4. Flash Custom
5. Hard Reset
6. Enjoy!

I always let the customizations run so that my phone was in the exact same state that it came out of the box in. I have never had a flashing related issue. You can probably get away without the customizations running, but I would still suggest a hard reset after the flash back to stock.

[mwalt2]

If you don't want to waste as much time, just flash to shipped ROM of your choice. Once your phone is recognized by you computer (at Screen Alignment), go ahead and flash the custom ROM of your choice. This have never failed for me and many others. I have never heard of anyone having problems with the random hard resets from corruption (reason why flashing to shipped ROM is recommended) only doing this minimal procedure.

[Thurge]

If your carrier doesn't have a "stock" Rom (MetroPCS for instance) should you flash to another carrier's "stock" Rom or do you run the risk of losing your PRL file and other settings?