Psychology of Technology: Fear of Flashing

flashingNo, not that kind of flashing, you pervert. I mean flashing a new ROM onto my WinMo phone (a Fuze in my case).

I remember the first time I heard about this thing called “flashing a ROM” shortly after I bought my Fuze. Just the thought of it made me nervous. It was way over my head. Plus, hearing about “bricking” my shiny new phone sent up a big, red STAY AWAY! sign.

But as I learned more about the Fuze, I began to see that, though a bit nerve wracking, flashing a ROM was doable, even for a noob like myself, and the upsides in terms of performance and aesthetic were big. So I went for it and flashed EnergyROM 1.5. Really so simple and linear. Just follow the directions and it’s over—painlessly—in about 10 minutes. Since then, I’ve flashed four more ROMs (that doesn’t qualify me to be a flashing whore, but more on that in a future post) and, until the one last night, the same easy process and the same great result.

As for last night, I had returned my Fuze for a warranty exchange because of a charging problem (returning to stock AT&T ROM, radio, and HardSPL was easy too) and went to flash back to my latest ROM, EnergyROM 3.0 build 61309. But I couldn’t get my new phone to sync on my PC. I could, however, sync it with my laptop. The problem was that I couldn’t find that build anywhere on line. So, thinking I was such a genius, I copied the 61309 folder to a flash drive and then over to my laptop and went to flashing.

Big mistake! For some reason, the flash got stuck at 58% and I couldn’t get out of it. I tried it several times and still no go. Even worse, I couldn’t get my Fuze off of the tri-color screen. With severe trepidation, I thought, “Brick!” Thankfully, after some feedback from some experts at MobilityDigest.com, I downloaded and flashed build 61209 no problem. I was then able to sync to my desktop and flash 61309 today. A happy ending (of course, now I have to spend the next few hours setting my Fuze back to its previous sweet set-up).

Lessons to be learned:

  • Getting rid of the stock everything is so worth it.
  • Expect to get a little nervous.
  • Trust the experts.
  • Follow the directions.
  • Don’t get creative.
  • Don’t be afraid.
  • Love your WinMo phone.

Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. He has been a consultant to and has provided individual and group training to executives and businesses throughtout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, including the Young Presidents’ Organization

Dr. Taylor is the author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them, The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training, and Applied Sport Psychology: Four Perspectives, the Prime Sport book series, Psychology of Dance, Psychological Approaches for Sports Injury Rehabilitation, and Comprehensive Sports Injury Management.

He has has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend, and the major television network affiliates around the U.S.. He has participated in many radio shows. His research and writings have as been the subject of syndicated sports columns that have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country. Jim has been a columnist for The Denver Post , and has been interviewed for articles that have appeared in The New York Daily News, The Los Angeles Times, The London Times, The Chicago Tribune, U.S. News & World Report, The Christian Science Monitor, The London Telegraph, The Miami Herald, The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, The Baltimore Sun, The Denver Post, Skiing, Outside, and many other newspapers and magazines.

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About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

  • ramon trotman

    and as always, feel free to reach out to any of the MODS or senior members on the site (xda-developers.com.) and what ever you do please read, read and read some more. i myself am always available…”rzanology” is where you’ll find me. happy flashing!

  • daniel

    In my opinion it’s always best to flash via the internal storage (Diamond) or the SdCard.

    It’s way more reliable than USB…

  • http://www.eiluxury.com/ louis vuitton

    Awesome coverage! Thanks!

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