There are times when you need to change the software on your mobile phone. From this thought, many people stand on end their hair and heart palpitations. And in vain, because in fact it is not difficult to do.
Why flash a mobile phone?
Now is the time for computer technology and flat-panel smartphones with a touch screen. However, contrary to the technological boom, do not discount old push-button mobile phones. Those same "bricks", sliders and "clamshells" that everyone had just a few years ago. Nobody even thought about changing the software on these legendary devices. The question is, why bother to flash them at all?
Phone firmware (Samsung, Nokia, etc.) can be done for the following reasons:
- the device software is out of order or has become worse;
- to get newer software.
Few people saw that such a device flies the system, but this is quite possible, and there are plenty of reasons for this. In addition, official and independent developers release new firmware versions for these gadgets.
Flashing the phone through a computer
Before you install new software, you need to remember a few points.
- First you need to create a backup copy of all the data (contacts, SMS, settings, etc.) of the phone to the computer. This can be done using specialized programs (MyPhoneExplorer and others).
- After this, it is necessary to charge the mobile: not less than 80% of the battery, although it is 100% better.
- It is best for the phone to flash through a computer using a laptop. The reason is that it has a battery, as a result of which, due to an accidental shutdown of electricity, it will be possible to finish the process that has begun. Otherwise, the consequences can be disastrous.
For the firmware, you need the following things:
- by itself, a phone 100% charged;
- data cable (in most cases, USB is used, but some mobile devices require a special data cable);
- firmware file; it must be downloaded from the Internet, but before that you need to carefully read the information, read comments and reviews, and before that you need to find out the version of the old firmware: enter the code * # 06 # on the keyboard (for Nokia there will be a different code - * # 0000 #);
- drivers for the mobile device;
- program for flashing the phone (“flasher”).
Programs
There are quite a lot of utilities for firmware and they are divided into two categories:
- General, which are suitable for all models;
- those intended for one manufacturer (for example, the Phoenix program for flashing Nokia phones).
General utilities can flash almost any model. However, if there is a program that is designed specifically for a particular brand of mobile devices, it is better to use it, since it already contains all the necessary drivers and, possibly, the OS itself. Here is a small list of “flash drivers” for specific brands that will help “cure” the gadget:
- for Nokia - Phoenix Service and the official Nokia Software Updater service;
- Sony Ericsson - PC Companion (updated SEUS), unofficial DaVinchi;
- LG - “flashers” Speedo, GsMulti;
- Motorola - Flash & Backup, P2K;
- Samsung - OptiFlash;
- BenQ - Winswup, Update Tool.
Let's consider the operation algorithm using the example of the Phoenix utility.
Flashing Nokia
Before making the phone firmware, you need to download and install the Phoenix utility (“Phoenix”), which is designed specifically for this brand. In addition to the initial preparations, which are described above, you need to do something else, namely to remove all programs that may in some way be connected to a mobile device (Nokia Software Update, Nokia PC Suite, etc.) and clean the cache after them and register. Otherwise, the firmware of the Nokia phone may fail. Also, for every fireman, it is worth disabling the antivirus.
Now you need to install the Nokia Connectivity Cable Driver and Nokia Flashing Cable Driver drivers. We connect the mobile device to the PC. You can make sure that all the drivers are in place in the “Device Manager”. Open the properties of the computer. After we select "Device Manager" and open the item Wireless Communication Devices. The number of devices should be four to six.
We connect to the computer (select PC Suite mode) and launch Phoenix. In Connection, click Setting. In the window that opens, select Add. Click on the Driver drop-down list , select USB and scan (Scan). Select the device that appears. Click Select. Now from the drop-down list in the Connection item, select the desired device. Next, go to the File \\ Scan Product tab. After scanning, the desired mobile device should appear below. If this happens, move on.
Go to the Flashing section, where you need to click Firmware Update. Now you should select a code. If there is not even the slightest idea which one is needed, then we take any. In this case, one thing to remember: if Russian is desired in the phone, we are looking for the words Russian, Cyrillic or RU in the name of the firmware file. When the Product Code is selected, click on Refurbish. Congratulations, flashing the phone through the computer has started. It will last about 7-10 minutes. At this time, do not touch the phone, cable or the program itself.
Flashtool
If there is no special utility and you need to flash the phone through the computer, the Flashtool program can easily cope with this if you have an OS file and drivers that you need to find yourself.
The operation algorithm is as follows. Turn off the phone, remove and insert the battery. Turn on the Flashtool program. Click on the zipper icon, leave a dot on the Flashmode item. Next, select the downloaded firmware from the list in the left window and click “OK”. After that, instructions should appear for connecting the smartphone to the PC via the USB cable. We do this, and the program for flashing the phone starts to work.
Firmware "Android"
Mobile devices based on the Android operating system often require a change in OS than ordinary mobile phones. The reason for this may be numerous malicious programs downloaded from unknown application sources, etc. However, the most basic and most common reason for the failure of a smartphone is its owner.
The phone is flashed through the computer, but you can do without it (in Recovery mode).
Using pc
First you need to make some preparations.
- Download a special utility for flashing (Flashtool, Bootloader or a program from the official developer - PC Companion for Sony Ericsson, “Update Smartphone Fly software” for Fly, etc.).
- In parallel with this, download the firmware to a specific device model. At the same time, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the characteristics, read comments and reviews. Copy the firmware to the Firmwares folder of the Flashtool program.
- Install the driver on the PC.
- We make a backup copy of the files from the smartphone, and also copy the contents of the flash drive to the computer (flashing the phone through the computer will not leave old marks on the location of the files on the flash card, so it will create new ones on top of the old ones).
- We find the USB cable, and also do USB debugging (go to "Settings", find "Developer Functions", then mark the item "USB Debugging" with a bird).
- We charge the device 100%.
After we open the Flashtool utility and go through the algorithm described above.
Without pc
This is done through Recovery mode. To do this, the firmware file must be downloaded and transferred to the memory card. Now turn off the smartphone and turn on Recovery. To do this, simultaneously hold down a certain key combination (power and volume down, up or menu - the combination depends on the manufacturer). You can find out the combination exactly by looking at the device passport. Next, select the “Apply Update From External Storage” item (the firmware of the Samsung phone and many other Android-based smartphones is the same).
Next, select the firmware file on the flash drive and flash it.
Working on Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile smartphones are much simpler. To do this, you will need, in fact, the gadget itself, a USB cable and the Windows Phone Recovery Tool for the computer. To get started, download this utility from the official website (or from this direct link: go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=522381, downloading will start automatically), install and run. The program will immediately start searching for updates, after which it will ask you to connect the smartphone to the PC.
Now the search and installation of drivers for the connected device will begin. If they were not there, you can click on the appropriate button to search the Internet. When the drivers are installed, a large tile with an image of the connected gadget will appear. By clicking on it, you will start downloading the firmware file. Do not panic if the process takes too long, since the file can weigh about a gigabyte. In addition, if a download is suddenly interrupted, it can always be continued from the moment it is stopped. There is one more pleasant moment: if there is a desire to flash the smartphone again, then you don’t have to download anything, since the OS will remain on the computer.
When the download is completed, the Reinstal Software button appears, clicking on which you will begin the software installation. In this case, it is categorically undesirable to touch the phone, USB-cable, turn on / off the computer, as the results of such manipulations can be pretty disastrous.