Finally.. I was able to gather enough courage to try and flash my firmware from the latest (which was, I think R4ED001) to R4EA031, which is the most common firmware that supports lots and lots of patches and elfs.

Two reasons compelled me to do this, which are:

- my phone is in a sick state already. I mentioned in a previous post that I can’t plug in my headset or any other music accessory for that matter because, it gives out a grounded sound that’s really annoying to the ear. Along with the grounded sound is the screen flickering, which usually happens when I use the Radio. This means.. that it’s actually sick already.. no point feeling sorry for it in case it gets bricked.

- I’ll be buying a new phone in four months, courtesy of a promise my husband made. I told him I’ll get a new phone in four months and he said yes.. I’m taking it to heart.

- most of the patches I want doesn’t work with my phone’s current firmware.

Bottomline: I almost have nothing to lose if this goes wrong. I’ll be getting a new phone anyway, and this one is 80% dead because the whole point of being an mp3 player is gone. If it dies.. i’ll just put it in a pedestal and display it at home and label it ‘My best phone ever, immortalized”.

So..as of this moment (I mean, as of now.. real time.. while writing this post) I am already flashing my phone, firmware, filesystem and cust pack. I’ve been trying more than a few times in the past to install patches and such.. to no avail. I suppose it all goes down to the fact that my firmware is not supported. Either way.. I’m happy to say that the whole flashing procedure was a success and now I have a Generic Main with European FS (why? I only need English). So now I guess I can write more tutorials about how to apply patches and elfs but.. I’ll start with flashing.

Before you proceed, please backup your GDFS first if you haven’t yet. You can do that through XS++ or SETool.

By XS++:

Connect your phone. Under Configuration, click GDFS and click Backup GDFS.

By SETool:

1 Select your phone model from the drop down list

2 click the Read GDFS button on the right side

Flashing your firmware

I assume that you already made a backup copy of your phone’s GDFS. If not, go do that first. If you wanna know why, I’ll tell you later.. just DO IT FIRST.

Good. Now. Before you proceed, download the files necessary:

- MAIN file. This is the MAIN firmware. I suggest that you get the R4EA031 Generic Main instead of another because most patches are made for this firmware. You’ll get maximum satisfaction from it (aheem, like me).

- FS file. Or filesystem. You can get any FS, even if it doesn’t match the firmware version. For me, I got the R4EA001 EUROPE_2 because.. I hate seeing all sorts of symbols (ASIAN).

- optional. Cust pack. This is only if you have a custpack. I didn’t get any for this one. There is a built in custpack for the Europe FS.

- XS++. If you don’t already have this, now’s the perfect time to get coz this is what we’ll be using.

Once you’ve got all the files, do these steps carefully. Be sure, check once or twice before you click a button. Be sure also to back up all your files coz you will lose everything (contacts, files, pictures, everything) in this process.

Here’s a visual so you know what I’m talking about (notice the numbers ok?)

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NOTE: UH OH.. I only just noticed. You should click the Flash radio button, NOT FSX. It should be Flash, OK? Sorry for the error. Won’t happen again..

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- Turn off your phone. Note. It should be 100% charged.

- Run XS++

- Press Connect

- while holding on the C button, plug the USB cable

- wait till XS++ recognizes your phone

- under Configuration, click Flash (1)

- check the checkbox Flash Main firmware and browse to the firmware file (2).

- check the checkbox Flash file system and browse to the location of the FS file (3).

- check the Customize file system checkbox (4). Select the phone model and then choose from the Select CDA and Region. This should be the same as the FS you are going to use. So, if you chose Europe_2 FS, the CDA should be Europe_2 as well.

- double check every value you just entered before clicking the Flash button (5).

- wait till XS++ finishes and tells you that the process is successful and you should disconnect your phone (see image below)

And voila! you now have an unbranded w810i! You can now recustomize everything since it’ll be like it was when you first bought it (along with all the junk and protected files).

Feel free to comment if you’ve got questions.