T-Mobile Pulse / Huawei U8220 FAQ

[pbrennan42]

1. Rebooting Button Presses:

Update Mode: Volume Up + End Call (Red) button held down then tap Power button. Note: Works for official updates only once the "dload" folder has been placed on the root of your SD card.

Recovery Mode: Menu + End Call (Red) button held down then tap Power button. Should get blue screen with very basic recovery options unless RA-pulse-v1.5.2 has been flashed across. Button-press method of getting into recovery mode works with December 2009 Update and later ONLY.

USB FastBoot Mode: Volume Down + End Call (Red) button held down then tap Power button. Should get blue screen with basic phone information on it like thus (with December Update installed):

USB FastBoot:  V0.5
Machine ID:    1007000 v0
Build Date:    Nov 26 2009, 11:05:05

Serial Number: UNKNOWN

NOTE: To get out of USB FastBoot mode you pop the battery. It's the quickest way to do it unless you hook it up to a pc and send a reboot command to it through bash / CMD. It's quicker to just pop the battery...

2. Obtaining IMEI Code:

This is needed to obtain an unlock code either from T-Mobile or a third party.

Fast Method: Go to dialer and tap in *#06# - it will get you your IMEI code from within the guts of your phone.
Slow Method: Launch settings and go to About Phone > Status and then scroll down till you find the IMEI entry. It's a 15 key number.

When making an unlock purchase from either T-Mobile or a third party you also have to tell them what country your phone was purchased in, as the country code + IMEI code together generates the unlock code. To unlock the phone, pop in a SIM from another network and enter the Unlock Code when the device asks for it.

3. Rooting your Device:

Follow the instructions at 21/12 1.5 - Superboot - rooting without a Custom ROM - Android @ MoDaCo

Only make modifications to your phone if you are confident that you know what you are doing. If you brick your phone it is down to you.

4. Adding a Flash Recovery Untility to your phone (RA-pulse-v1.5.2):

Follow the instructions at 14/12 1.5.2 - Installing the patched recovery image on your device - Android @ MoDaCo

Only make modifications to your phone if you are confident that you know what you are doing. If you brick your phone it is down to you.

5. Known ROMs that work on the T-Mobile Pulse:

MoDaCo Custom ROM - Stock T-Mobile Style:

21/12 1.6 - MoDaCo Custom ROM - Stock T-Mobile Style - Android @ MoDaCo

MoDaCo Custom ROM - U8230 Vanilla Cupcake Style:

21/12 1.2 - MoDaCo Custom ROM - U8230 Vanilla Cupcake Style - Android @ MoDaCo

Only make modifications to your phone if you are confident that you know what you are doing. If you brick your phone it is down to you.

6. Secret Keys:

Enter these as phone numbers in the dialler:

*#*#2846579#*#* for phone settings diagnostics
*#*#8255#*#* for gtalk diagnostics

7. Data Suite:

Requires Outlook from Microsoft Office to work. Will only back up address book and any third party non-Google calendar. Not worth wasting your time on, really.

8. Further Reading:

The MoDaCo Wiki entry for the T-Mobile Pulse / Huawei U8220:

Huawei U8220 - MoDaCo

 

[pbrennan42]

Additional: Themes

The T-Mobile Pulse / Huawei U8220 - U8230 is unique amongst Android devices in as much as its desktop is set up in a completely different way to most other devices on the market right now.

Most Android Devices have a set amount of desktops between 3 and 5, which can be easily extended by using an alternative desktop like PandaHome, GDE, dxTop: Home Alternative, or any number of third party themeing software.

The T-Mobile Pulse (and related Huawei models) are unique in as much as it has a user extendible desktop with six screens in a 3x2 grid, with the home bing the top middle desktop. By adding an icon to a screen outside of these six desktops one effectively adds a new row or column of desktops to the total. If one was to drop an icon, widget or wildcard above the home screen, one would create a new row of three desktops above the home row that can then be populated with icons as one sees fit, giving the user nine desktops instead of the standard six.

Due to the unique way desktops are organised on the T-Mobile Pulse, I have found that all other desktop alternatives are incompatible with the T-Mobile Pulse and can cause problems from disabling the devices ability to make calls, forced closes of the desktop software, and even, in worst case scenarios, a full system crash whereby the phone will attempt to reboot and get constantly stuck in a loop. The only way out of this is to have the December Update file on your SD Card and to perform a system update using the Volume Up and End Call buttons during reboot. Alternatively, one can use the Menu and Call End buttons when restarting the phone and selecting the restore to factory settings option.

Both methods effectively wipe the phone and without effective backups made one has lost all ones data performing either of these two actions.

Therefore, I would personally recommend using the RA-pulse-v1.5.2 alternative recovery system to make a full backup of your phone before attempting to use any alternative desktop applications, and making sure that one still has the ability to make phone calls before finalising hte installation of any desktop alternative.

The MetaMorph live theming system might be a viable alternative to bespoke desktop applications, as it works totally differently to the likes of dx:Top and others. It works by replacing files on your system with alternative versions that a 3rd party or oneself have made to replace certain graphical elements within the phones own desktop system.

How to MetaMorph/Theme - xda-developers

Again, I would advise making full nandroid backups of your phone before trying this out, and that using this to alter the guts of your phones system is done entirely at your own risk.

 

[Aaron_Durant]

The pulse is awsome =)