[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] tsugaguy:
Searched high and low, can't find ROM

Before anyone bashes me for asking this, I've searched this forum and many others all evening and through the night and several times previously -- and EVERY SINGLE download link for any ROMs is broken. Can anyone help me locate a WM6.1 ROM that should work on a Cingular (now AT&T) 8525 (HTC Hermes)? By the way I'm no noob, I have successfully flashed ROMs to my HTC Wizard (AT&T 8125) and my HTC Apache and even cooked ROMs for it.

crag345, I'm in about the same boat as having thoroughly researched and being prepared to install a ROM for this thing (except still needing the ROM...hahaha) -- in general your approach seems solid, and those are the steps I've found too for flashing the Hermes from SD card.

Additional steps you might want to take, as found in some forum posts --

0. Make sure you have a ROM version that is compatible with your phone (you probably already did this, but extremely important so worth mentioning).

1.a) scan the SD card to verify integrity. Some have done this using a WM program called Storage Tools (I found Storage Card Tools, I think it is the same they were talking about, for $15). But in the wiki it says you can just use Properties, Tools, Error Checking (I found this on Windows desktop PC by right-clicking the drive letter first - they didn't mention that). I think the point of using Storage Card Tools was this guy had no access to a PC.

2.a) Copy or write down all the settings you can find in the phone, especially MEdia Net (this is from my own experience, after flashing you can't get internet, picture messaging, and similar stuff to work until this is re-entered). You can get there using Settings, Connections, Connections, and under MEdiaNet tap on Manage existing connections (might be called something else if you are with a carrier other than AT&T). Tap Edit, and go through each screen, capturing or writing down the settings.

2.b) Be sure your battery is charged, or phone plugged into charger.

7. Some forums on very similar HTC WM devices also advocate doing a hard reset after flashing a ROM. Not sure how necessary but it can't hurt. Possibly also of interest, if your carrier's ROM includes bloatware, you might be able to eliminate it by RIGHT BEFORE IT INSTALLS their customizations, hit soft reset button. Worked great for me on one phone, but on another phone it failed to stop the carrier customizations.

8. If pic msgs do not work, try going to MMS Options (in Messaging app), Menu, MMS server. (Menu and option names may vary depending on WM version). My notes are for AT&T -- Server name: type in anything. IP address: wireless.cingular.com. Port number: 80. Server address http://mmsc.cingular.com. Connect via: MEdia Net. send limit is 600KB.

---------- Post added at 08:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:13 AM ----------

also, 2.a)1. Obviously, back up any data you have in the phone's internal memory. My Documents, and anything customized you've saved at the \ root level or another subfolder in internal memory. Also back up calendar and contacts -- if you are using Google exchange sync this won't be a problem, it will all come back when you re-establish the account settings and sync -- but if not, you might want to use a PIM backup utility. SK Tools is my favorite.

2.a)2. If you have a registry editor, you might want to use it to export some customized settings for your programs, then you can much more quickly restore those settings after flashing or hard resetting the device. I use an app TaskMgr.exe in the RegEdit screen for exporting subtrees, especially in HKCU, Software. You'll see folders the correspond to apps you've installed. One to not overlook if you customize button settings, is \Microsoft\Shell\Keys. You can inspect items to see if the data is something you care to quickly reinstall. Tap and hold and you can export. This way you can restore PORTIONS of the registry. The new OS will have a registry that is sure to be different in many significant ways so you don't want to export the whole registry and reimport it all. Once you have flashed &/or hard reset a device, you'll need a program that reads .reg files in order to easily reinstall your preferences. If you have SK Tools, even the lite version, once it is installed the system will recognize .reg files.

2.a)3. A few apps don't seem to store their settings in the registry or anywhere that can easily be saved. WkTask (an EXCELLENT task manager and task switcher program) is like this, and also TCPMP (awesome media player). So, look through the various settings and write down how you like it set up, makes restoring much easier later.