What are the consequences of flashing a ROM not specific to your device?

[scurvy]

Hey all.

I recently got an HTC Desire 610. It's unlocked through htcdev, rooted, and running a custom kernel. I want to flash a new ROM or at least just a generic version of android KitKat, without all the HTC bloat. Alternately, a different ROM would be cool.

I'm wondering what sort of consequences there could be by flashing a rom that isn't specifically designed for the Desire 610. Are we talking about bricking my phone or something that is for the most part harmless. Would it be pretty much okay to use a rom or RUU designed for another modern/similar HTC device? I'm fairly confident that a rom designed for a Samsung Galaxy isn't going to fly with the HTC hardware, but maybe I'm just missing something.

Any information anyone could give me would be excellent, as I've searched high and low for an answer to this question. I'm a bit of a computer nerd, am fully comfortable using dab command line, etc.

What are my options, what would you guys suggest I do?

Edit: My carrier is AT&T if that makes any difference

Thanks in advance.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums.
If you flash a ROM not meant for your device, at best, you would go into a bootloop until you get a proper ROM flashed. At worst, a bricked device, and that is much more likely to happen.

 

[scurvy]

Would flashing just stock android KitKat cause those problems? I don't care about any fancy schmancy Cyanogen, I just wanna rid myself of the bloat of HTCs Android and have a more "pure" android experience, if that makes sense.

Thanks a lot for the fast response too!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Would flashing just stock android KitKat cause those problems? I don't care about any fancy schmancy Cyanogen, I just wanna rid myself of the bloat of HTCs Android and have a more "pure" android experience, if that makes sense.

Thanks a lot for the fast response too!

Your best bet is probably Cyanogen. They have a wide base of ROMs, more than most other developers. CM is based off of AOSP/pure/vanilla Android, so that is what you would be looking for.