Logic behind flashing phones multiple times

[f_hugh]

I'm an embedded developer / engineer of sorts, and I wanted to know why so many people suggest that flashing your phone several times with the same ROM will actually end in a better result... seeing as the microcontroller in the phone technically has a limited number of times that it can be flashed (which is well in excess of 100,000 times, conservatively), the same blocks are being flashed every time by any bootloader or programming algorithm, regardless of how many times the phone is flashed with the same ROM.

That said, is there someone here who has information that is definitively to the contrary from some authority (ARM, HTC, other) who can contradict this?

All I know is that if you flash your phone with a crappy ROM more than once, it'll still be garbage, slow, buggy regardless of how many times you do so, and no number of times flashed will make it other than what it was to begin with.

I won't mention names, but over at XDA there are lots of people who suggest that if the ROM doesn't work 'correctly' after the first flash, that you should flash back to a stock ROM, then to the custom one, etc to attempt to clear the air for the custom one that was crappy the first time.

Thoughts?

[Andrewwelton]

I think its a load of crap personally, I've never flashed back to stock, and I've never flashed more than once, and I've never had a problem... Whatever floats your boat.

But the people over at xda, if I remember, one of the people stated (this is as word for word as I can remember) "It is common knowledge that bits get stuck on a ROM chip, so flashing multiple times ensures that all stray bits on the ROM chip are cleared and you have a bug free experience"

But as I said, I think its a load of crap lol.

[f_hugh]

Nice to see that I'm not alone.

There's a car repair shop that I drive by daily on my way to work that likes to put catchy phrases on their reader board outside. The one they have up now states: "Why do the people who know the least know it the loudest?" I think that those who suggest that flashing your phone several times to get 'stuck' bits in flash memory inside of a microcontroller are merely shortening the life of the product, little by little, and helping others to do the same.

Thanks for chiming in.

[Andrewwelton]

No problem, off topic, but I have a similar place nearby where I live too. :P

Glad to see I wasnt the only one that thought flashing multiple times was a "dumb" idea.

[brack21]

Andrew did u get gps working yet.

[Andrewwelton]

Working on it daily
Check your pm's too :P

Also, yay! Over 100 posts now

[Nagrom Nniuq]

Not all ROMs flash all things. I've flashed ROMs that left stuff still in place from the old ROM. So flashing stock is definitely advisable between ROMs. However, I have never flashed the same ROM multiple times, as that makes no sense at all. I've never had an ROM issues other that what I mentioned about some ROMs leaving stuff behind from the ROM before.

[Andrewwelton]

Yeah but thats what the hard reset after a flash is for, to get rid off everything left behind and restore it with the items from the ROM you just flashed.

[f_hugh]

All ROMS have to flash all things that are pertinent to the ROM, or they won't work. For example, it will flash contiguous blocks relevant to itself, and does not care about the blocks in excess of its own use. Since it only cares about (only knows about) the bits that are useful to it, the bits not modified are still of no consequence. As for radio only ROMs, my assumption is that the flash is divided up into regions with boundaries that are known to the developers, including space for the boot loader, main flash, and radio firmware, etc. Flashing back to a stock ROM should do nothing but give you ten or fifteen minutes less useful time while you wait.

[Nagrom Nniuq]

But what if I have a custom ROM that doesn't modify the boot screens and the ROM I had before does modify the boot screens. When I flash the new ROM, I will be left with the old ROM's boot screens correct?