[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo ROM Development] lakeman:
So you want to try some ROM other than the shipped ROM for your Athena!

What Do you need to know?

Backup

You should also know that doing this will usually wipe all the info off your phone(except the microdrive and SD card)

So it is important that you learn to backup any info that you want to keep.

I suggest using pimbackup and I usually back up MyDocuments by syncing with your computer or even copying it to your SD card.

I do this as a routine everytime I fiddle with my ROM so I can return to the previous state.

I also use Sprite Backup as well.

Remove Sim/Sd card

Next , make sure you remove your SD card and simcard before proceeding to apply Olipros unlocker

Unlock

Well you have to unlock your ppc to accept a new ROM.

I haven't done this for a while , but fortunately the process has been made easy by Olipro in this thread

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=315831

and in german in this thread

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=378216

Check Bootloader Screen

Throughout this forum you will be referred to your SPL.

This is the Secondary Program Language and on your unadulterated ppc it will be 1.1

Olipro's original unlocker upgraded this to 1.1x but the unlocker above will change it to SPL 1.2

You can see if this has already been done by putting your phone into the Bootloader screen.

This is done by holding the camera button completely in and then pressing the reset button.

You will now see a red/green/blue and white striped screen telling you the device id and SPL version.

If you see SPL 1.2 , you are good to go to load any SPL 1.2 Rom.

Activsync/Windows mobile device centre.

You need this program to apply updates to your ROM

There used to be a problem with earlier versions of these programs not recognising WM6 ROMS.

This problem is easily solved by updating these programs

Upgrading Radio

No there is no FM radio on the Athena, this refers to the operating System radio that operates the phone/wifi/gps etc

This is important to know as AP4 needs at least radio 1.50 (and maybe WM6.1roms)

Upgrading the radio proceeds the same way as a rom upgrade

version1.58 is here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=409271

version1.57 is here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=372904

Where to find a ROM

Fortunately Sergiopi has collected and sorted them here

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=397518

Walk me through the Process

1.backup data

2.remove sim and SD card,apply hard reset and wait till full initialization complete before connecting to pc.

3.establish Activsync connection

4.ensure no background program running, antivirus, firewall and etc. before executing flash command.

5 start the unlocker and follow the instructions.

6.reboot phone and make sure you still have activesync

7.**Update the ROM to an SPL appropriate rom according to what appears on your bootloader screen**

following the above protocol

Great!

Now you should have a new ROM to play with!

And play with it you should !

But I want to try an SPL3.5 ROM!

OK if you got this far You should be able to do this.

**First step is to install AP4**

At the moment there is only 1 foolproof way to do this and this is to use the Athena Updater

But first read the upgrade Guide Please Here http://www.htc-hackers.com/uploads/AP4_How_To_1.8.pdf

It is very detailed and I recommend following it exactly !!

This is the link to the athena Updater

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=387409

Now I want to go back to SPL 1.2

Ok. this is possible

see here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=405604

Need to know more or Stuffed the Flash?

Don't worry , nearly everyone here has made a mistake but been able to recover.

Read the wiki and/ or search the forum

If you have any suggestions to change What I have written ,post a reply.