When in doubt, flash your ROM!

I know, it sounds dirty, but it’s clean actually, a clean install of the custom ROM on my EVO 3d.

I was having issues with my phone freezing, and lagging, so I tried everything I could think of. From cleaning and clearing the cache using a bunch of different methods/apps, to uninstalling apps. Nothing seemed to work. I was using Go Launcher, in order to build a custom “desktop” for navigating on my phone, and I had this ICS theme running. My brother +Damien McKinney suggested switching themes, but that didn’t seem to do much. I then decided to flash a new ROM.

Having a rooting droid is great, because you can flash a new ROM at will. The downside however, is potentially losing all your apps and data. So I did a full backup with My Backup Root, which is like the Pro version but is free for root users. I made sure to do a full back up of apps+apks+data, so that everything would be backed up. Also, I backed up my data, like sms, phone log, etc.

Then I proceeded to flash my ROM. First issue came when I couldn’t get it to boot into recovery, and it turned out that the Clockwork Mod version I was running (5.0.1, 5.0.4, 5.05, none worked) has issues with booting into recovery. Luckily I had Root Manager installed, and saw an update for CM Flash Touch, and was able to upgrade to 5.8 (after forking over $5). Then I was able to successfully boot into recovery.

Once in recovery (not like Eminem) mode, I was able to install the new custom ROM (COOL ICS ROM). Of course, all my data was wiped out, and I had to re-setup the device. Unlike the first time I flashed a ROM, I was able to enter the three gmail accounts I use during the setup, so all my apps started to be restored as soon as I accepted the terms in Google Play. Unfortunately, none of the apk data was being restored. So, I went in and did a restore from the My Backup App.

Next thing I know, I’m getting memory warnings, and the system is locking up telling me I needed to clear app because I only had 5 mb of internal memory left. Even though I had 64gb of space on my micro-SD card. I tried to run the memory cleaner app, but the phone froze up before it could finish, so I had to manually reboot back into recovery, and, sadly, flash the new Cool ICS ROM again!

This time, learning from my mistakes, I didn’t enter any Google account info, and went right to the My Backup app as soon as the phone loaded to the home screen. I then restored all my apps and data before associating my google accounts. Now, during the restore, I did get a memory warning again, (I have a lot a freakin’ apps, apparently!), but this time it happened at about 100mb left, so I was able to run the memory cleaner before catastrophic levels were hit.

This whole process took me almost the entire day last Friday, although, I know it should have taken half that time without the learning events.

I like the Cool ICS ROM, it’s very smooth, and very customizable from a menu that’s pre-installed with it.

If anyone is feeling brave, here’s a link to the ROM I used, it’s great.

Link to ROM:

Cool ICS Rom