ICS on My Desire HD - Bringing new life to an old dog.

Forums › Android › ICS on My Desire HD - Bringing new life to an old dog.

Dingbatt

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#108295 28-Aug-2012 14:19

A recent Engadget article proclaiming "A fully working ICS ROM for the HTC Desire HD" gained my interest and made me pull out my DHD from the drawer it had been languishing in since the arrival of my HOX.
The article pointed to the Blackout ICS V3.0 and said it was fully working despite HTCs recalcitrance to release the required drivers and libs. HTC had decided it wasn't going to upgrade the DHD to ICS because that would involve wiping all the user data to get sufficient operating memory. In effect a 'factory reset' and that would spoil the 'user experience' (man, I hate that phrase).
So, since my DHD was already rooted, with a custom recovery, from the days when I couldn't wait any longer for HTC to provide an update from FroYo to Gingerbread, I dove in and loaded Blackout V3.0. All the functions I use, including the camera (a major sticking point in DHD ICS ROMs), wifi and bluetooth work perfectly well. A major surprise was the GPS, which under GB was adequate but a bit of a dog, that got a navigation lock within a minute from cold and gains hotlock in about 15-20 seconds.
I was also reacquainted with the joys of being able to do a full nandroid backup. So when I also had a dabble with a Jellybean ROM, then decided it wasn't quite cooked enough, I was simply able to recover back to the Blackout ICS I had set up.
To top all of that off I just loaded 'Google Now' for ICS on it, and am suitably impressed!

So here I sit, with my newly reinvigorated Desire HD (tweaked, backed up and with G Now) in one hand and my stock One X in the other. The display, power, camera and looks of the HOX still win the day. But the DHD runs the same live wallpapers without a pause while scrolling, and doesn't have the annoying '3 dot menu bar' in any apps.
I wish HTC hadn't made the unlock, root etc so difficult for the HOX. Having to tether and go through the hassle of reflashing multiple things through fastboot every time I want to try a new ROM is a big turn off.

I have proven to myself there is still life in my two year old phone yet.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

Giggs

252 posts

Ultimate Geek

#678215 28-Aug-2012 15:11

Interesting.

How would you compare the speed with the speed of your old Gingerbread ROM?

Dingbatt

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#678239 28-Aug-2012 16:04

Giggs: Interesting.

How would you compare the speed with?the speed of your old Gingerbread ROM?

?

Hard to get a direct comparison because my old GB ROM was loaded up with about 100 Apps. I took the opportunity to be a little choosy with what I re-installed via Titanium Backup.
The wifi, while it works, is a little flaky in connecting sometimes. But just toggling it does the trick. But from what I have experienced so far it is just as fluid as GB was, and I like the additional features such as a long press on the Home button bringing up Recent Apps.
Happy so far, but I might load up Apex Launcher (which I use on my HOX) and see how it goes on that.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

nzrock

113 posts

Master Geek

#678245 28-Aug-2012 16:21

Hi

What you should try is jelly been on the DHD
I have been running it on my phone for the last couple of months, & it has preformed a lot better than when i was ruining ICS on the phone

If you are interested see the link below

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1778202

Dingbatt

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#678272 28-Aug-2012 17:03

nzrock: Hi

What you should try is jelly been on the DHD
I have been running it on my phone for the last couple of months, & it has preformed a lot better than when i was ruining ICS on the phone

If you are interested see the link below

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1778202

Yep, that was the exact JB ROM I tried. But I'm kinda fond of the HD Widgets I use when I'm (HTC)Senseless, and for some reason they weren't persistent in that ROM and kept disappearing off the home screens. I will certainly revisit JB in the future, but at the moment all my Android devices are on ICS. So if I 'Apex' my DHD then I can set up both my phones and my transformer the same. Awfully 'fruity' I know.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

n4

959 posts

Ultimate Geek

#678291 28-Aug-2012 17:48

Dingbatt: I wish HTC hadn't made the unlock, root etc so difficult for the HOX. Having to tether and go through the hassle of reflashing multiple things through fastboot every time I want to try a new ROM is a big turn off.

A bit OT but if by that you mean lock/unlock every time you want to reflash, then that's not necessary. The only difference is that its a two stage flash instead of one, the kernel via fastboot and the ROM via CWM? Not sure where tethering comes in... unless you just mean connecting via a cable?

Samsung Note20 Ultra, on 2degrees

Dingbatt

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#678361 28-Aug-2012 20:00

n4:
Dingbatt: I wish HTC hadn't made the unlock, root etc so difficult for the HOX. Having to tether and go through the hassle of reflashing multiple things through fastboot every time I want to try a new ROM is a big turn off.

A bit OT but if by that you mean lock/unlock every time you want to reflash, then that's not necessary. The only difference is that its a two stage flash instead of one, the kernel via fastboot and the ROM via CWM? Not sure where tethering comes in... unless you just mean connecting via a cable?

Yes, sorry threw in a tech term that was out of place. Not tethering in the sense of an internet connection. What I meant was the requirement to connect to a PC via USB (and open a CMD line for goodness sake) to achieve the required steps.

The DHD is just so simple. Put the zip on the root of the SD Card, boot into CWM, clear the cache and data, and flash the new ROM. If it all goes wrong, restore the nandroid backup.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996