An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Hello everyone.

I've been following the thread regarding putting Rev-A and GPS on the vogue and have noticed people having problems due to either not following the directions explicitly *tsk tsk shame on you* or having driver/compatibility issues during the flashing process.

I wrote about an alternative way of flashing your device. One that protects you from having to deal with the alltel customization of death and ruu_upgrade crashing causing bricks.

I encourage you to give it a read if you are looking for an alternative method of getting rev-a/gps on your device.

You will need to gather a few files and you will need to have activesync working for the intial flash. Thankfully installing cokeman is pretty failsafe and won't result in any bricks for the most part.

I will try my best to guide you through the process step by step.

Before you begin please make sure you meet the following requirements.

1. You have activesync installed
2. You have a MicroSD card 128MB or larger available (preferably a spare)
3. You understand the risks of flashing your device and are prepared to do so.
4. You take a moment to read this thread http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=24979 and get an understanding of the original method of flashing and the reasons you will be going through the various steps.

I originally posted this on the thread above but it's gotten lost in the thread and sure enough people are still bricking their devices by not explicitly following instructions.

Ok....Now that we got that out of the way let me start by giving a shoutout to dharvey4651 for providing me with the original guide as described in the link above. dharvey4651's tutorial opened up the ability to put rev-a and gps on my device.

Also, i'd like to give a shoutout to JD for his efforts in being a step ahead of our respective carriers when it comes to bringing the latest and greatest to our dated devices.

Ok you ready?

Let's get started!

1. Download the cokeman installer. http://rapidshare.com/files/11019074...r_MFG_2.31.exe
2. Connect your device via activesync and run Vogue_unlocker_MFG_2.31.exe. Carefully read the instructions and follow them to a tee. It's a real easy step but still it will be your most dangerous step in this tutorial so just follow the instructions.

Once you complete step two you're phone should say 2.31 coke as the spl when it reboots. You can check this by holding the power and camera buttons down then do a soft reset while holding these buttons down. The rainbow screen should say 2.31 coke. If it doesn't. Reboot your phone and repeat step 2 again until it displays 2.31 coke.

If you're phone says 2.31 coke pat yourself on your back you just completed the hardest part of the tutorial.

Moving on........

3. Download and install winrar. www.rarsoft.com You want the version for windows ;)
4. Download the alltel flash upgrade file. Save it to your desktop.
5. Download Jd's GPS 2.1 Rom and save it to your desktop.
6. Place your microsd card into your computer and open up your card. If this is your primary card back up the contents and store it on your hard drive.
7. Format your microsd card by right clicking it in windows explorer. Select FAT32 as the format type this will wipe your card and format it clean.
8. Open your microsd drive in explorer by double clicking the appropriate drive leter. It should be empty
9. Right click RUU_Vogue_4350_ALLTEL_WWE_3.04.671.2_Radio_4350H_3 .37.10_Alltel_NV2.00_PRL30008_0331_Ship_withSpecia lNBH.exe and select open with winrar you will see a bunch of files in the archive. move your mouse over the file called VOGUIMG.NBH and hold your left mouse button. Now while holding your left mouse button, Drag the VOGUIMG.NBH file from winrar onto your MICROSD explorer window. (you may need to reposition the two windows so you can drag from one to the other. MAKE SURE YOU SELECT VOGUIMG.NBH and NOT ***special_4350_for_alltel.nbh***
10. You should now have one file named VOGUIMG.NBH on your MicroSD card. Once this file is copied. Remove the card and place it in your phone.
11. Make sure you're phone is charged and connected to the outlet before flashing. While holding the power and camera buttons. Soft reset your phone. It should boot up in boot loader mode with a rainbow screen. Shortly after you should see a Grey box with the word Loading.... on the screen. If you do not see this then 1. you did not install cokeman properly, 2. you did not format the card as FAT32 or 3. you do not have the VOGUIMG.NBH file in the root of the SD card.
12. If all goes well it should ask you if you want to flash the file. It should also say CDMA in the update box. If you just see OS then you did not select the right NBH file from the alltel rom. You need the CDMA update to enable rev-a/gps. When it asks if you want to flash the file, press the button as requested. (on my phone it's power)
13. Wait 4-5 minutes till it completes. It will say Press Power or Enter to reboot. Do not reset. Leave it as is for now. Continue to the next step.
14. Remove the SD card. Place it back in your computer.
15. Open up the SD card on your PC. You should have the VOGUIMG.NBH in the root of the card. Delete this file.
16. Right click the gpstest21 rom you downloaded and click open with winrar.
17. Find the NBH rom file. (every rom varies in name but what you are looking for is a file that ends with .NBH and is generally around 64+Megabytes. Drag this .nbh file to the root of your sd card like you did in step 9.
18. Go back to your SD card. You will find the NBH file there. Rename this file to VOGUIMG.NBH <--just make it all caps cause it's how I did it and I can verify that it just works.
19. Place the SD card back into your device.
20. Repeat Step 11 to put the phone in bootloader mode.
21. Press power/enter when instructed to do so. This time instead of updating the OS/CDMA/etc you are just gonna be updating the OS
22. Press power/enter after the flash is complete.
23. Enjoy Rev-A and GPS.

I know this is a lot of steps but please understand i'm trying to guide you as clearly as I possibly can. If for any reason you want to go back to sprints original rom. Just download the original sprint rom from here. and repeat steps 17-22 but replace the .nbh file with the one you find in the original sprint rom.

This also applies for other custom roms you want to experiment with.

No driver issues, no activesync problems, no updates crashing etc. It's a little more work but think of it as insurance.

I hope this was of help! if you have any questions or are lost please let me know and i'll help to the best of my abilities.

it's 1:42am so bear with me if you find typo's or something just doesn't make sense.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

very detailed. so you can revert back to the original sprint rom after updating radio, using cokemans sbl 2.31? and not have any problems?

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

WOW- exactly what I was wondering! Actually I was wondering if I could revert to no2chem's 6.1 update which was very vanilla/Sprint like but with 6.1. Not that I don't appreciate the hard work of many customizers, I just prefer to select what things I put on my phone which may not fit in with what others use.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

This walkthough is great i have never been a fan of doing anything through active sync so i say the less the better, now that i got my phone back from the store ima do this tonight, now if only i can figure out any reason i would want to put the titan radio on my device.


I am like that also becuase i do know exactly the programs i am gonna want to use, however i usually start with a custom rom becuase the creator usually applies numorous registry edits, which is extremely conveinient

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

i'm running OMJs wm6.0 RevA/GPS rom and it has been flawless for a week now. no crashes. i highly recommend it. its in his FTP directory.

there's no APGS (like all the current roms) so gps lock takes about 1-5 minutes initially. no GPS priming is needed, just works. click google maps or windows live search, and wait. sometimes windows live search times out, just tell it to "get gps position" again and it'll lock . turn by turn works great as well.

ftp://up.ppcgeeks.com/Vogue/Users/OM....WM6.0.GPS.exe

its actually more stable than the ALLTEL rom itself.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

so while i was updateing the VOGUIMG.NBH from the all tell rom i got a error message said update failed so it terminated. i continued and flashed the jd gps next but when i booted up it said no radio detected. any reason you know why i would get the error message during the flash of the alltell rom.

i have reflashed the stock rom for now

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

I think it's good to clarify for people that it must be a MicroSD card it CANNOT be a MicroSDHC card. So it probably should read 128mb to 1gb (I forget at what size they become SDHC cards it might be 2gb). Use the 512mb MicroSD card that came with your phone and you should be fine. Very good instructions though. I've been using the memory card upgrade technique for a while since I'm running Vista x64, but all the RUUs run with x64 now except for the unlockers. Sometimes it'll fail, but you just do it again and you're fine. As long as a SPL update doesn't fail you're ok.

Remember whatever Rom you use has to be a rom for the 3.xx radios. So if it's a rom you used before upgrading to the new Radio it WILL load, but it WON'T actually boot. If you loaded a pre 3.xx radio rom you'll be fine because you can use this method to load another rom without the phone being able to boot.

You need to reinstall the AllTel rom. If it failed it didn't finish. You need to do the alltel step again. One other safe way to update to the alltel rom once you've done the 2.31 unlocker is to take your memory card out, boot up to the rainbow screen plug in your USB cord, and now your phone should say USB at the bottom instead of Serial. At this point you can just run the Alltel update and it will detect the phone and upgrade.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Thanks for the info.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

One thing I noticed with windows is that when you are copying a large file to a removable storage device. The copy will often say it was completed before it was actually completed due to the way windows caches some of the data.

What I usually do is copy the file over. Once it says completed I wait 10-20 seconds before pulling the card out because the access light often still flashing on my pc. Once it becomes solid. I give it a 5 second wait then pull out the card.

I hope this is of help.

P.S

You can you use the steps 17-22 to flash the titan radio rom too. You do not need to downgrade/upgrade the coke spl. Just leave it at 2.31.

Mahalo and aloha.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Great tutorial. Thanks. It helped me get it done right the first time! :)

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

i've been reading so many different gps wm6.1 threads, i'm not sure I i've got all of it 'straight' in my head, but i postively hate dealing with active sync, and this seems better to me.

my 'touch' is the verizon version, and AFAIK for me the buttons are the (2) phone buttons on the front plus the 'soft reset' i've done one hard reset after problems persisted from using Poketcm keyboard, and the camera-on combo doesn't work with this device for hard reset

the only thing that confuses me is the step (2) running the unlocker from active sync
that is the step i'm not sure of how to acomplish

i install all programs by using CABS, exe's for install never seem to work correctly ( driver issues ? )

do you drag & drop the file into active sync,

place it on the vogue/touch and execute it ?

yes its a neophyte question, but i would like it clarified please..

and thank you for a well written tutorial

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Theewizard, I'll try me best to answer your questions. please bear with me I'm posting this from my touch.

ok, first. you mention hard resetting. this is not to be confused with boot loader mode. send + end + reset = hard reset.
power + camera + reset = boot loader mode.

if the boot loader combo does not work then maybe verizon blocked it. you will need to install cokeman to get it working.

ok issue two. cokeman. im sorry to say that the only way to install cokeman that I know of is to use that software. you need to kill activesync to allow the installer an opportunity to communicate with the phone to install cokeman. because of the way it disables certain security checks. you cant just make a cokeman cab so to speak. you need to run the cokeman loader by following the instructional on screen when you run it. I hope this is of help. take your time and read as much as you can. rushing will lead to disaster.good luck!

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

thanks for explaining boot loader vs hard reset,

all the talk about active sync when doing the ROM flash, had things confused
I think i understand it now

plug in the touch, kill active sync, then run the unlocker, instructions appear un the PC screen

follow the instructions, when done the cokeman spl will be displayed on the touch screen
and i can continue with 'flashing process' using the card method. Atel rom first for the radio

if I got that right, its just a matter of deciding what ROM to use for the OS from among the many choices

all i'm looking for is revA and fast stable GPS lock, and a stable OS, I don't want to loose the camera or my ICS capabilities, better 1xRF for voice would be a plus.

I guess i'm saying , I don't need an OS with too much removed or added in, the touch has more RAM memory than previous models and i'm like 60% plus on free ram, its nice to have some things like java or google maps, flash player built in , but I don't consider it a necesity, for me 'as a Neophyte' , stability & first time good luck is what i need.

thank you.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

For me, I just like a nice look and feel to the OS itself. I don't need a gazillion programs that i'll never launch. Just give me a nice today screen, nice dialer, a few tweaks to the way I can get around the device and i'm good.

One thing to note though. Take care in how you open your memory card door. I have a friend who likes to just rip it off like an 8 year old kid opening up a wii for christmas.

She's noticing that the rubber material that sockes into the door (not to be confused with the black rubber holding the door to the device) is coming off the glue. This is what keeps the door secured to the device. You don't want to damage this due to the multiple rom changes.... etc.


There are a lot of roms out there to experiment with. So many in fact that I have a hard time staying faithful to any particular one.


Oh there is no need to kill activesync I believe the loader will do that for you. What I did was just plugged in my device and activesync asked me if I wanted to sync etc. I just hit cancel. The circle was green. I then ran the loader and it did the rest for me.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

yeah, thats pretty much what i want, basic with revA & GPS, i'll add in what I want , OS tweaks for Ease & Speed are nice 'as long as its stable'

again thanks

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Thanks DarkFlame. Your guidance is much appreciated. It works flawlessly. I tried the original way, but couldn't get the file to run.

Now I've got GPS locked within 2 mins.

Thanks again.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

actually I should be thanking you guys. you are the ones who are giving others the faith to try a different way of flashing. im greatful you guys took a chance with the guide. I was starting to feel like no one was interested in my guide.

I wanted to repay my appreciation to ppcgeeks for providing a place for so many great minds in the windows mobile scene and
an opportunity to share their ideas.
Mahalo for the support!

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

I have some questions though.

After step 22, when phone was powering up, I soft reset the phone when it tried to customize. Should I let it do the customize? Now my phone looks OK. All function I need is there, except for some missing, like "running programs" when you click on Memory...

Also, today, my GPS is not locking in anymore. I left it still for 5 mins. It did see quite a few sats (sometimes 8-10), but no lock. Yesterday was so good, lock in within 2 mins inside my house.

Is there any way I can do to improve it? Thanks!

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

I have a question. Does this also have the radio install built into it or do I have to download and install that seperately? If not and everyone is having this success w/o it, do I really need to update the radio? If all of this goes through successfully, could I just use any rom or do I need one that has rev-a/GPS in it.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

IF you read the LONG name of the ROM you see it says radio 3.37

this is the updated radio with GPS, some ROMS have the 3.35 radio with GPS

some users like one version other like the other version

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Everything seems to have installed properly, Radio is 3.37.10, WM is 6.1 (although browser version says MSIE 6.0). Phone works. Internet does not connect. Is there a simple fix to restore this. Also, is there supposed to be an actual GPS icon or button for configuration? I realize I'm a newbie, but any help would be appreciated. Bell Touch in Toronto.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

you will have to re-enter your internet connection data using the comm manager

if you did NOT copy it down, you will need to get it from another BELL user

check the various BELL pda forums

for my verizon phone the connection number is #777, and the ID is my cell number@vzw3g.com

your bell system is possibly something similar

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

I managed to get 2.31 , and th Alltel ROM installed, but when I initially booted the renamed GPStest nbh from microsd it just said "loading" briefly, and went back to the rainbow screen. Because I didn't see anything indicating failure, I rebooted, and ended up letting Alltel customize.
F***! I reformatted the microsd again and was able install gpstest. Have I screwed this thing up permantly. WM 6.1 seems pretty stable, phone works, but internet won't connect via cell. Can I reflash Alltel & GPStest ? How do I activate or configure GPS, is there supposed to be a configure menu? Any advise? I'm on Bell in Toronto.
Thanks.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Go to this Thread.

Follow the instructions "DOWNGRADING AND REVERTING BACK TO ORIGINAL SPL" and "RESTORE THE 1.33.003 PRI"

This will get you back to stock. From here it's up to you if you want to attempt the upgrade again.

I think you might have skipped a step somewhere when dealing with the custom rom. It should have asked you to confirm the flash using power button.

If you didn't get a confirmation then you probably forgot to rename the file.

Try giving Dharvey4651's thread a good reading. He actually wrote a good tutorial on how to recover your device in case something went wrong.

Good luck and please keep us updated.

Oh when he says to use the sprint rom. You want to use your original bell rom ok? :)

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

The link for Jd's GPS 2.1 Rom is not working. Does anyone know where to get it or could I use a different ROM.

I don't know if anyone answered but does this have this have the radio in it or does that have to be installed seperately? Also, do I have to download the sprint ROM (go back to OEM) then install this. I already have the OMJ non-gps installed. Thanks for your help

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

You can use any rom you like as long as it's a rom based on the 3.x radio. Usually they are labeled as "GPS/Rev-A Rom's". The radio upgrade that unlocks the GPS and Rev-A abilities is actually in the alltel upgrade. This is why you need to upgrade using that rom before upgrading to a custom rom.

Most all custom roms actually just update the image portion. The alltel rom updates the OS as well as the Radio (CDMA) portion of the phone.

Once you go to the alltel rom it is advised that you do not return to the stock rom due to possibile incompatibilities.

I may sacrifice my vogue in a tutorial on going back to stock if it is needed but given how well things have been going thus far I prefer to just stick with 3.x

The 3.x radio / 2.31 cokeman combo has fixed all the freezing issues i've been having with the 6.1 roms lately so i'm lovin it.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

I thought i had the GPS test.rar but thefile i had, was incomplete and currupt, i am unable to Dl any JD's file or OMJ files, this sucks

I do have the altel file and the ghettoryders vista generic reva gps 700 rar and cokemans 2.31 unlocker
and one called the xv6900 RUU signed rar, which might be the dump of the verizon ROM

now i'm not sure what to use, since i don't have JD's gps test file

i guess i'll try ghetto's vista generic it has the gps in it if I don't change my mind, dang it more reading

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

The GPS test rom was well basically.............................A Gps test rom lol. It was an attempt to get gps working and it did. Since then a lot of people have made custom roms.


You'll want to look into using astrogps or some type of program to prime your gps.

I've had great results using astrogps. It doesn't matter what type of rom i've used. They all pretty much worked with astrogps.

You'll get stories about how some took 10 minute to lock, then they tried another rom and it only took 2 minute to lock.

Then the whole world goes Oooooooh! and they all jump on ship...Then tomorrow you get 25 new threads about how last night it took two minutes, today it's taking forever again.

Then someone posts "I used to have two minute locks now it takes forever but then I tried this rom and I got two minute locks again!" Ooooooooooh! then everyone jumps on ship and tries another rom etc.

GPS is GPS. You have cold starts, warm starts and hot starts.

My GPS logger in my motorcycle is the same. If I turn it off and leave it to cool down then power it up again, sometimes it finds a lock in a minute...sometimes two....sometimes if never finds a lock unless I turn it off and turn it on again. In which case it'll lock in within 30 seconds.

Every tom you test is gonna pretty much be the same in terms of GPS. This because whatever was done to the radio to activate the gps was done when you upgraded the alltel rom and unlocked the CDMA gps portion.

Everything else is left to implementation via the OS. Some GPS roms set some regedits, some borrow from others etc....there's only so much you can do really.

When it comes to roms. Go for the look and feel. The GPS stuff as long as it's embedded within the rom should be able to be tweaked with time and patience.

Don't get cought up in the whole AGPS hopes and dreams. Just and use it like a GPS was designed to be used and start off with a clear view of the sky.

Good luck!

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

yeah, i have already DL astoGPS, GPSviewer, and something else i can't remember

I don't do GEO caching, and i generally know where i am, but having the gps function with google maps, when i'm going some place unfamilar is all I need.

I understand about lock times, ghettos generic seems a little large at 80+ mb, and vista themed, but people seem to like it.

so all i need to do is pick the RUU_signed.nhb from the xxxx.exe and rename it for the second step. just choose one i want to try

I know 'do not run customization on the altel flash'

what about after the second flash with the img ROM ? which is the wm6 or 6.1 and associated OEM stuff. do I run the customization or NOT, or does it make any difference, I realize i'm not getting the Verizon addons in any way shape or form, thats OK, I just want to make sure i do things correctly, i really prefer to have it work correctly on the first try, or i'll be using my laptop from a wifi hotspot, to ask my fixit questions

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

@Darkflame808

This tutorial is great! Now I can experiment with unlocking my vogue from within a virtual machine (the only place windows xp will work now...WTF!!!). I'll post again when I've succeeded or failed in this lame attempt to unlock my vogue.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

my touch is now a BRICK, its stuck on the tri-color screen, cokeman unlocker won't find it, active sync won't find it, and nothing resets it..

got to go find the unbricking thread

one problem with these directions ,

they don't tell you, that DOS window is oging to say one thing, the RUU window is going to pop up at the same time and tell you something else,

and the screen on your PPC is going to display some other instructions

just saying follow the instructions on your PC screen, and there are (2) windows with instructions

now i'm screwed

I did something out of sequence, push the wrong button.

I think instructions should say 'ignore everything, but ????'

BTW I never got to loading the rom, this thing bricked during the unlocking stage, there never was any alignment or customization

it came up saying vogue spl 2.01, never got to cokemans unlocker, tried reset , its stuck on the tricolor vouge spl screen
reset, reboot, hard reset, remove battery , same results, it comes back to the tri-color screen

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Sorry I haven't replied to this thread in some time but I have successfully unlocked my Vogue from my MacBook running the unlocker on Windows in a virtual machine.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

today, i finally made it down to my local vzw corp store, ( same one i always goto )

they were Busy with tech problems, seemed like a lot of BB problems today

anyway after a LONG wait a young man waited on me,

i told him about the 'authentication problems' i had previously and the last time it happened i did a 'hard reset' and got this

then i put the battery in and showed him the tricolor screen, told him i had called in and switched back to my voyager, and this was the first chance i had to get into the store

he took one look and said " how about I give you a new one"

after the usual checking of account status, notations, verify serial numbers etc

I walked out the door with a brand new TOUCH fresh out of the box

IF vzw ever gets on the stick and makes the $30 data plan available for this phone, i will activate it.

for the time being i will keep using my voyager and just play with this one

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Hi,

Just tried this, successfully unlocked my phone, the rainbow boot loader now displays:

"
Vogu100 MFG
SPL-2.31.CoKe
CPLD-3
"

However i cant continue to the next stage! I have gopied VOGUIMG.nbh from the exe onto my micro sd card, chucked it into my phone, gone into the boot loader and nothing! it just stays on the rainbow screen. no grey loading screen nothing. Ive reformated the card to FAT32 twice now ive definatley got the right file and the phone appears to be be unlocked just fine! any suggestions? Doews the capacity of the card matter? i only have a 4GB card, do i need something smaller?

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

I believe the 4GB card you are using is an HD (or high density). The card you use for this process needs to be a standard density. Something like 2GB or less. I could be wrong, but I'm thinking that is your problem...

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

Yes. The card is a HC card. I shall purchase a 1gb tomorrow and give it a try. thanks for that.

Re: An safer alternative way to get Rev-A/GPS
 

does flashing this remove your current rom and os?
i installed NFSFAN's rom which i LOVE - but don't have the newest radio, i have 3.37.78 ...

or do i have to flash to something to upgrade radio and then flash again and load back nfsfan's or any other rom?