Upgrading My Cellphone To Froyo

Are you a person who want to tweak your gadgets to new heights especially if it won’t cost you money? Have you tried upgrading your cellphone by yourself with fear that you may lose it? If your answer is yes, then you are like me. Remember my granted Christmas wish for a smartphone? Well, I got a Samsung Galaxy 5 (Model I5503) which has Android 2.1 (Eclair) as its operating system (OS). The unit is working alright with that OS, connecting perfectly with WiFi and directly to my mobile Internet provider when set to do so. But the techie in me wanted more especially when I read in the net that the next Android Version 2.2 called Froyo is a lot better than Eclair.

My hand never ceased to itch since I learned that Froyo would boost my new phone’s processor performance, have better battery life and possibly get Adobe Flash Player work in it. I was googling everyday for ways to upgrade it to Froyo until I came across a technical forum entitled “Guide – Update Your Samsung Galaxy 5 (I5503 or I5500) To Froyo (Android 2.2)“. After reading the thread thoroughly, I decided to proceed with the upgrade and did the procedure as instructed.

The upgrade process did not go smoothly as I had my phone blacked-out for at least four ( 4) times during the procedure. I did not give up until it rebooted to Froyo but the prompt “Sorry! The process com.android.phone has stopped unexcpectedly. Please try again. [Force Close]” appeared. Clicking “Force Close” would not solve the problem. If left with the prompt, the phone would hang and I need to remove the battery to restart it. Left with no choice, I had to seek help and posted my problem in the referred forum.

While waiting for a reply in the forum, I continued doing things which I feel could solve the problem. At one instance, I removed my phone’s SIM (Subscriber Information Module) before restarting and to my surprise, the unwanted prompt did not show when the phone rebooted.  I performed a “Factory Reset”, put back the SIM and thought that my phone was then fully operational in Froyo.  It was when I tried to connect directly to my mobile internet provider that I learned there is still a major feature missing in my Froyo’d smartphone. This is when my techie son entered the pictured and put back the APN (Access Point Name) data needed for my phone to connect to mobile internet.

What then is the moral lesson in the above story? Tweak your gadgets by yourself if you want to save money but do it only if you are confident that you can do it. If not, better consult a competent technician and let him do it if the price is right.