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HTC Hero ringer delay

Trevor Eckhart — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:01:00 GMT

I've been having issues with my hero taking awhile to start ringing, here are the things ive tried. Ill repost after a day of use to see how things are.

First i took my ringtones off of the SD card and moved them to to the system partition. Even though I have a class 6 card I hope it would make a difference.

First I moved the ringtones to their own folder on my SD Card. After unmounting I dropped to an ADB Shell

# cd /sdcard/Music/ringtones
# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
# cp *.mp3 /system/media/audio/ringtones/
# reboot

Then I stumbled across this issue with android where it seems like location services & google latitude start eating up cpu after awhile. I figure if the OS gets bogged down calls will probably get delayed. Seeing I dont use location I stuck a GPS on/off widget on my homescreen and disabled everything else in Settings -> Location.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3453

Lastly I tried switching my Slot Cycle Index to 1 instead of 2. This should make the phone receive calls 2.5 seconds faster but kill battery a bit quicker. Here was the best explanation i found from here

SCI - Slot Cycle Index - This determines how often a handset polls thenetwork for coverage and incoming packets. The default value is 2. A"Slot" is 1.28 seconds and doubles with each incremental change from 0to 7 (0=1.28, 1=2.56, 2=5.12 seconds, etc). setting a handset to pollmore often may use noticibly more battery if coverage is thin orlacking.

ACCOLC - Access Overload Class - This code determines your priority tomake and receive calls on the network. Higher the number, lower thepriority. Lower the number, higher the priority. Emergency Servicesreserves 0 + 1 (please do not use these) leaving your choices to 2-9.Years ago we began defaulting this code to the last digit of a usersMIN to help assure equal priority seeding.

To do this on the phone dial
##3282# Enter your MSL & Set slot cycle index to 1.

If you dont have your MSL you can get it by using the guide below (blatently copypastaed from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4809013&postcount=8

-------How to get your MSL code---------------

1) download required 3rd party apps

download demo version of CDMA WORKSHOP from
http://www.cdma-ware.com

newest version of qpst 2.7b323
http://rapidshare.com/files/297770360/qpst.zip

download of sprint's official phone as modem (PAM) software
Smartview for Windows
http://www4.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/down ... s_1.16.exe
Smartview for Macs
http://www4.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/down ... c.mpkg.zip

download HTC Sync
http://www.htc.com/us/SupportDownloa...at=3&dl_id=716

2) install the HTC HERO DIAG drivers
http://rs79.rapidshare.com/files/293...AG_Drivers.zip

3)connect your phone via usb cable

4)dial ##diag# (##3424#) on your phone for diag menu, when prompted direct windows to diag drivers listed above

5)run CDMA WORKSHOP, settings at main screen on the right are as follows

com settings (AT mode)
---------------
Port (com#) <--- click port and it should say "HTC DIAG COM PORT"
Baud rate (115200) <--- use this setting

com settings (DM mode)
---------------
Baud rate (115200) <--- use this setting

6) you should now be able to hit <connect> if it was successful you'll see in status bar <connected to com#>

7) now click <read> after a moment all your info will come up on left panel, phone # etc

8) click on security tab change the right panel setting and look for the following block

SPC/User Lock
----------------
Defualt (nv_read) <--- use this setting

9)now click read if done sucessfully you'll see the block below this option flash red and give you a number

10)note the 6 digit number under <SPC/USER LOCK> the one that flashed red, ****this is your MSL number***

HTC Hero 70 app limit?

Trevor Eckhart — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:45:00 GMT

Last night was the second time my phone had committed suicide on me. This time I was trying to set an alarm & was randomly unable to enter text. I rebooted the phone and then started getting forceclose in google.apps & android.phone. Great. After getting ready to throw the phone through a window I found this:

http://androidforums.com/sprint-htc-hero/15011-70-app-limit-hero-sprint.html

Looks like there is about a 70 app limit on stuff downloaded from the market. I removed a few apps, rebooted & everything seems OK now. Now I have no clue WHY this is, I am using App2SD with plenty of freespace left so this shouldnt be an issue, but it is. Anyone else run into something similar?

December 09 Android App Review

Trevor Eckhart — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:19:00 GMT

After using my sprint HTC hero for the past 2 months this is my list of apps that have survived many wipes & reinstalls.

.Apps:
-Barcode Scanner- Needed to read any of the QR codes here. Price: Free

- CacheMate - Program clears out caches from hundereds of apps + market history. One click widget for homescreens, great dev who responds quick and constant updates. Only for root users. Price: $1

-SU File Manger & Terminal- Essential file browser for root users. PRICE: $1.99

-Spare Parts - Change transition speeds, see apps consuming battery, etc. Price: Free

-Tone Picker - Gives you more flexibility in choosing ringtones. Should be stock. Price: Free

- Handcent SMS - Full featured SMS client originally used to fix 100% awake time bug on hero before the new update, now the stock sms app just looks so plain. Different layouts including dark/light iphone/android/custom handcent layout. Price: Free

-Autostarts - Shows what applications will execute on many different types of events. Root users can also disable apps. Price: €0.69 (about 98 cents)

- XeekuTweets - Full featured twitter client that supports lists, trends, mentions, everything the regular twitter site does. Price: Free

- XBMC Remote - Currently still in beta not on the marketbut this awesome program already downloads all my movie library info from XBMC on my phone. Works great over wifi as a remote. PRICE: Free Homepage

-Backgrounds- thousands of different background/lockscreen pictures to customize your hero. Price: Free

-Remote RDP - Good for connecting to servers to fix quick isuses. Price: $7.98

-Places Directory - Uses google places to find things to do nearby. Pictures of establishments come up with hours and one press to call. Pretty useful. Price: Free

-ShootMe - Screen Capture utility for Root users. Can do video captures, shake or shout capture triggers. Root users only. Price: Free

-Pandora- Of course this is a necessity, streaming music at high quality anywhere. Price: Free

- TasKiller - One touch taskkiller that allows you to ignore apps such as the HTC Sense programs. Keeps phone running fast. Price: €0.70 (about 99cents) *free version also available*

- WifiTether - Turn your phone into a mobile router (and a spaceheater, seems to get phone hot). Freeking awesome. Not in the market - Root users only - WifiTether Homepage Price: Free

- Shazam - If youve ever needed to know what song is playing this is the app to tell you. Any song ive thrown at it its picked up so far. PRICE: Free Homepage

- Google Sky Map - Uses the phones GPS and compass to tell what constilations your looking at. Right now its too cold to even think about being outside but will be useful in summer. PRICE: Free Homepage

- TTS Service Extended - While it might not be the most fun app this library is required for any text2speach. Price: Free

Games:

- Cestos Full - Multiplayer game where you knock the other players marbles into the abyss. Lots of users online usually, pre lobby chat, overall a good time killer. PRICE: Free Homepage

- ScummVM - Play my old copies of Day of The Tentacle on a touchscreen? sweet. Sometimes hard to hit some of the prompts, you can use trackball but there is no acceleration so its painful sometimes. Love it. For those of you without a legal copy of the games you can always try out some of the games from the ScummVM homepage, beneath a steel sky has got some awesome reviews - Scummvm.org Extras PRICE: Free

- Space War - Pretty cool space shoot em up game. Price: Free

-Bonsai Blast - Fun Snood-ish/Bust-a-Move type game. Price: Free

- Battle for Mars - Great turn based strategy game. Took a bit to get use to but its had me playing for hours. Homepage Price: $4.99 *free version also available*

- Buka - Protect Buka from the asteroids. Fun time killer. Price: £1.50 (about $2.40)

- ThrottleCopter - Old flash game Ive devoted many hours into Price: Free

- Raging Thunder - 3d racing game with pretty good graphics that uses the phones tilt sensors. Price: €3.00 (about $4.30)

- FarmFrenzy - Run a farm feeding ducks to make eggs and cupcakes. Watchout for the bears. Addicting game. Price: £3.00 (about $4.80)

- Hyperspace - Cool game where you use the phones tilt sensor to steer a ball down a 3d pathway through space. Price: £2.50 (about $3.98)

-Speed Forge 3D - 3D racing game like wipeout. Uses tilt sensors to steer. Pretty good graphics. Price: €1.99 (about $2.80)

CDMA Hero Root

Trevor Eckhart — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:26:00 GMT

CDMA Hero Root

Running on ubuntu jaunty. Directions Combined from
forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=26483 andwww.androidspin.com/sectionguidesandtutorials/10-rooting/254-how-to-root-cdma-hero

Opened Terminal:

trevor@64Lappy:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bb4:0c01 High Tech Computer Corp.

Created the following file containing:
trevor@64Lappy:~$ sudo pico /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"

notice the bold section and modify as needed. now do:

trevor@64Lappy:~$ sudo chmod a+rx /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
trevor@64Lappy:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart

Now at this point I downloaded SDK from developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

I turned on debug mode on my phone under system -> applications -> dev

Now i verified ADB can see the device:

trevor@64Lappy:~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./adb devices
List of devices attached
HTxxBHFxxxx0 device

Nowto root I downloaded AsRoot2 and placed it in the tools folder in SDK.You can download it from -forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=244212&d=1257621154

I now ran

trevor@64Lappy:~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./adb push asroot2 /data/local/
trevor@64Lappy:~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/asroot2
trevor@64Lappy:~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./adb shell
/data/local/asroot2 /system/bin/sh

mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd /system/bin
cat sh > su
chmod 4775 su

You are now rooted!

--This is how to flash the recovery image and the modaco custom rom.

I then exited the shell & pushed the new recovery image, the rom + enhanced pack to the sdcard.

trevor@64Lappy:~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./adb push recovery-RA-heroc-v1.2.3.img /sdcard/

trevor@64Lappy:~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./adb push 1.1-update-heroc-modacocustomrom-core-signed.zip /sdcard/update.zip

trevor@64Lappy:~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./adb push2.9-update-hero-modacocustomrom-enhanced-signed.zip/sdcard/enhanced-update.zip

then enter a adb shell:

./adb shell

jump to root by typing: su

and flash & reboot to recovery

# flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery-RA-heroc-v1.2.3.img
# reboot recovery

Now that you are in recovery mode run a nandroid backup. After thatapply update.zip & power your phone on. Everything should lookexactly the same but with more toys on the backend. If you go tosettings ->about phone you should see the new rom version there withyour root password. It will also tell you if you need a reboot.

Now i wanted to get Apps2SD working. I shut my phone off, held thehome button in and booted to recovery rom. I choose partition sdfat32/ext2/swap. Now i booted and installed all my apps. It should justdo it seemlessly when a ext2 partition is detected. From here on out DO NOT REMOVE SD CARD or you will get FC issues.

--Removing Stock Apps:

i got sick of looking at amazon MP3 and such so figured out how toremove this bloatware. the IM program and sprint garbage was allstarting up on boot too so removing this im sure helped something.

Go back to adb shell

trevor@64Lappy:~/android-sdk-linux/tools$ ./adb shell

now run the following command or you wont have write access:

# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

now change to the app folder and make a backup directory

# cd /system/app

# mkdir bkup

Now I moved out the garbage i didn't want. be careful some will break your phone. I did

# mv Sprint_Nscar* bkup/
# mv Sprint_NFL* bkup/
# mv amazonmp3* bkup/
# mv DCSStock* bkup/
# mv HtcFootprints* bkup/
# mv IM.* bkup/

*note* make sure to do IM. removing IMPlugins causes senceui to loop. If you break something you can go into bkup and do

mv appname* ../

if you feel confident you can delete this folder after.

Hero 100% Awake

Trevor Eckhart — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:14:00 GMT

Hero 100% Awake Fix

How to tell if you have the problem:

Menu < Settings < About Phone < Status < Awake Time

Bothof ours have an awake time of 100%. According to other Android users,the lower this number is the better your battery life. So basicallythis is saying that even when the phone is off, it's not asleep. It isfully awake 100% of the time. Up time should not be the same as awaketime.

Using an app called Spare Parts (Spare Parts) you can dig a little deeper.

Spare Parts < Battery History < Partial Wake Usage < Since Last Unplugged.

Myphone is showing that the dialer has a wake lock for 16h. This appearsto mean that the phone can't sleep because the dialer has locked it.

You can also check under "Other Usage." I have "Running", "Screen on", and "Phone on." Running says:

Time spent without sleeping: 16 hours (100%).

Workaround:

Abug has been found in the HTC sms app. For some reason when you SEND atext message it puts a lock on the dialer app. This lock prevents thephone from ever going to sleep, even when the screen is off. This iscausing a HUGE drain on battery life because the CPU is still awake.The current workaround is to disable the internal sms app and use oneof the free ones from the market instead. The current tworecommendations are ChompSMS and HandCent. I personally use HandCentbecause you can give it the hero look and feel. ChompSMS forces you touse bubbles.

I've been asked by several people how todisable the internal sms app. Just open it up, press menu and go tosettings. Turn off Auto-retrieve and Notifications. Now remove it fromyour homescreen

Source - http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/23043