Ready To Unlock and Flash?

I think the community is split into two groups – those of you that are running cooked ROMs and those of you that want to:) I recently joined the rank of flashers and I’m absolutely kicking myself for waiting so long since the benefits are so high. There’s speed, stability a more personalized feel to the ROMs (which of course lack bloat like trialware) and of course there’s 6.5. If you haven’t unlocked your phone yet it’s probably because you have a fear of flashing. I did and when I took the plunge and realized that it fundamentally came down to connecting a phone to a PC over ActiveSync, running one app from the PC, hitting next a few times and then letting time pass. So, the question gets asked a lot – how do you do it? How do you unlock a Fuze?

Well our fearless leader Doug wrote a tutorial in our forums way back in March that will take you through unlocking your Fuze/Touch Pro with a step by step guide (in fact it’s the guide I followed:)). If you don’t know, you need to unlock your phone before you can flash a new ROM. Of course if you still have questions check out the Noob Q&A flashing  repository in our forums which Chapmeister has been spearheading along with a bunch of other proudly self-proclaimed flashing whores:) I think you’ll see that this is all a lot easier than you presume.

Of course, all of this begs the question as to which ROM to flash to once you unlock your phone. Personally, I find 6.5 very stable and recommend it, even the newer builds. I also want to remind everyone that even the stock ROMs have their glitches (remember that little GPS issue the Fuze had when it was released?). The majority of the Touch Pro/Fuze ROMs are located here on XDA. You should never flash a CDMA ROM (Verizon/Sprint) to a GSM phone (TMobile and AT&T) and vice versa and of course if you’re using a phone with a different keyboard layout (yup, the Fuze’s keyboard is different than the Touch Pro’s) then use a ROM designed for the Fuze or at least one that has a cab to remap the keyboard for you. Feel free to visit our forums to discuss ROMs but if it’s your first cooked ROM you should probably go with one of the old timers like NATF, Da_G  or Energy because they have probably cooked more Touch Pro ROM’s than anyone so they’ve worked out a lot of kinks. Or you can just go straight on to Herg’s ROMs in our forums where you get some apps that aren’t circulating anywhere else so it comes with some nice perks on top of a stable build. Just take a look at the forums and they typically provide a bug log or just go to the most recent posts at the end to see if there are any bugs being discussed.

By the way, if you’re really concerned about something crazy happening to your PC while flashing a new ROM (you know, there’s a lightening storm but you just have to flash) then just read Doug’s post regarding flashing from your storage card.

Good luck – have faith, you too can sync your phone to your PC and hit next a few times without being impatient and then enjoy the wonders of a cooked ROM:) And of course, if you’re a flashing whore please share your advice on a starter ROM in the comments.