DO NOT USE THIS GUIDE UNLESS YOU ARE 100% SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! IT IS POSSIBLE TO RENDER YOUR PDA PHONE USELESS AND INVALIDATE YOUR WARRANTY DURING THE UPDATE PROCESS.


Yes!!!!! I have finally being able to flash R55 and return back flawlessy to my original R45 in Spanish. This method will allow all of you to change the language and ROM version too since you can flash any file created by other user!!!

INTRODUCTION

The ROM of our Scoter (MiTAC codename for Mio A701/A700) is composed by an special module and 4 partitions, yes, exactly like a hard drive in a PC:

• G3 IPL module: The G3 Initial Program Loader is the first thing loaded when the device is turned on. It sets up the G3 Disk On Chip storage system and loads the UBOOT. It is stored in a special static RAM aread of the DOC, not in a formatted partition.
• UBOOT partition: also known as bootloader. It sets up basic hardware such as CPU and memory controller, provides basic testing functionality and it also provides an easy ROM management interface.
• MS IPL partition: It loads and executes the Windows CE 5.0 OS image.
• MSFLSH50 partition: The Windows CE 5.0 OS image. It is composed by 4 subpartitions: XIP Kernel, other XIP part, The IMGFS area that stores the OS files and finally an empty pading FAT16 filesystem.
• USERDISK partition: It is a FAT32 filesystem that stores all the installed programs, configuration, personal data and all the files that we can browse using the default file explorer. It is formatted every time the unit is hard reset. It has nothing to do with ROM backup.

I recommend not to update the UBOOT and IPLs with leaked ROMs. You can find a dump of ROM R55 below, it will allow you to update only the OS maintaining the original critical parts. The G3IPL error seems to be related to the defective UBoot R51 that comes with ROM R55.

HOW TO BACKUP

We only need to backup the MSFLSH50 area. Nevertheless this guide creates a set of files with UBoot, MS IPL and MSFLSH50 partitions thus no personal data is dumped. Please follow these steps:

1. Download and unzip the Scoter ROM backup utility to a folder.
2. Soft reset your PDA and connect it to your PC with ActiveSync.
3. Run the backup utility and follow its instructions.

At this point we have 3 files that we can use later for restoring the ROM nevertheless we only need the one that keeps the OS. You can zip the files and upload your dump to www.megaupload.com or www.rapidshare.de . Your dump can help others. Please post in this thread those dumps that do not have a link. You may know that the number that appears in the boot screen sometimes does not match with the real version number. If you want to find your real ROM version, key *#61431188# into the phonepad. You can find here some submitted ROM backups:

ScoterROM56CHS.Zip - Chinese : Simplified (PRC)
ScoterROM55WWE.Zip - English : World Wide (no MUI)
ScoterROM52WWE.Zip - English : World Wide (no MUI)
ScoterROM52CHS.Zip - Chinese : Simplified (PRC)
ScoterROM52RUS.Zip - Russian: Russia
ScoterROM46WWE.Zip - English : World Wide (no MUI)
ScoterROM46NLD.Zip - Dutch: Netherlands
ScoterROM45WWE.Zip - English : World Wide (no MUI)
ScoterROM45CHS.Zip - Chinese : Simplified (PRC)
ScoterROM45CHT.Zip - Chinese : Traditional (Taiwan)
ScoterROM45CSY.Zip - Czech: Czech Republic
ScoterROM45DAN.Zip - Danish: Denmark
ScoterROM45ELL.Zip - Greek: Greece (mirror 1, mirror 2)
ScoterROM45ESN.Zip - Spanish: Spain (International Sort) (mirror 1)
ScoterROM45FIN.Zip - Finnish: Finland
ScoterROM45FRA.Zip - French: France
ScoterROM45GER.Zip - German: Germany
ScoterROM45ITA.Zip - Italian: Italy
ScoterROM45JPN.Zip - Japanese: Japan
ScoterROM45KOR.Zip - Korean (Extended Wansung): Korea
ScoterROM45NLD.Zip - Dutch: Netherlands
ScoterROM45NOR.Zip - Norwegian: Norway (Bokmål)
ScoterROM45PLK.Zip - Polish: Poland
ScoterROM45PTB.Zip - Portuguese: Brazil
ScoterROM45PTG.Zip - Portuguese: Portugal
ScoterROM45RUS.Zip - Russian: Russia
ScoterROM45SVE.Zip - Swedish: Sweden


HOW TO RESTORE

Applying this part of the guide to your Scoter will destroy all your personal data so please backup any important information that you had.

In order to restore the ROM we really only need the OS since the other modules has no effect on it so far. Please follow these steps:

1. Download the USB ROM updater tool.
2. Disable USB option in Active Sync by right clicking on tray icon, Choosing <Connection Settings> and then Unmarking <Allow USB connections> (Do not forget to enable this after finishing the guide).
3. Check that your PDA is not connected to your PC.
4. Enter in the bootloader menu by pressing and holding VolumeUP button + NavigationDown button and then pressing and holding RESET button for 2 seconds and releasing the reset button and then the other pressed buttons.
5. Connect your PDA to the PC through USB and wait a couple of seconds.
6. In your PC Run the ROM updater and press OK.
7. In your PDA select option FlashROM Upgrade > CE img with USB
8. In your PC select the OS file (BDTL0_SCOTERMSFLSH50.bin) that you want to restore as File1 and follow the instructions in your PC and in your PDA screens.

Job Done!!!! The OS has been restored.

The next step will be creating custom WM5 ROMs with built in tweaks, applications and much more. I will need a lot of help.

Thanks goes to itsme for sharing his knowledge and tools on Disk On Chip; Tyringe, Townkat, axbl and LouiS for providing their backups; Machinagod for his RapiUnlocker; adriananton for flashing every file he founds and kinger for providing a home for Scoter.

Saludos
Oki