[aivere]

Hello all. I've just purchased a 8700V and love it. As I'm on the O2 network here in the UK, I thought that it would be better to have their firmware and so I visited their site to check out what was what. I discovered that the V represented Vodafone exclusivity for that model and so downloaded the 8700G firmware that O2 had available.

I installed the firmware, loaded up Desktop Manager and deleted the Vendor.xml file and it proceeded to update. After confirming that it updated, I noticed that there was the star animation on the screen for a good ten minutes so stupidly I removed the battery and switched it on (I hear that you should leave it for twenty minutes if it has the star animation). Anyway, the animation came up again and I left it this time. Finally, I get the home screen and I have the Vodafone theme applied! I checked the firmware revision on the phone and it was the O2 one - any idea on what could have happened or should it be like this?

Regards,
James.

[JSanders]

Without knowing the specific version numbers you downloaded and installed, it really doesn't matter what carrier OS you use, just use the one that works the best for you.

Your hourglass (star arnimation?) could spin to re-initiliaze for 30-45 mins. As you learned, don't unplug during this phase of the reload.

[aivere]

I see, thanks.

I just imagined that upon flashing the BlackBerry with the O2 firmware, the Vodafone theme would be removed, the phone stripped and the new O2 firmware installed with their own themes and such?

Does it particularly matter if a 'G' firmware is installed on a 'V' phone.

Can you recommend any firmwares that have good, un-branded themes?

[JSanders]

It doesn't matter whether v or g, as long as the OS is for the 8700.

You can choose which themes individually to load or not, by editing the cod files in the OS, see the details here:
How to Add Vendor Locked Themes - BlackBerryFAQ
and here: http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...ee-memory.html

Most of the firmwares (Operating Systems) have the same themes within them, it is only by removing the vendor.xml file that opens up all the themes to be available to you.

[aivere]

Okay, thanks

One last thing, could I edit the Vendor file so that it loads the themes for, say, O2?

[JSanders]

you can edit edit the blackberry.alx file for that purpose or you can remove all other vendor cod theme files from the java folder for that purpose.

See this thread http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...ee-memory.html
for instructions on removing cod files.

[aivere]

Thanks again for all your help - going to go and have a right play about!

Regards.