Root MoDaCo or Villain ROM ?

[liverpoolfan]

Hi

What would people's favorite ROM be? MoDaCo or Villain?

I recently rooted my HTC Hero and installed Villain 5.4 on it. However, I've noticed the battery drains quicker than previous Android 1.5 that was on it. I've changed to "GSM only" in phone settings (*#*#INFO#*#*) and also have changed some settings with regard to display timeout etc etc.

Would it be worth trying MoDaCo?

Thanks.

 

[liverpoolfan]

Perhaps SenseHero 2.2 might be worth a try.

 

[bluenova]

Depends really whether you want a rock solid 1.5 ROM or a slightly buggy 2.1 ROM.

You can't go wrong with MoDaCo 3.2 but it's not android 2.1

I would suggest a Nandroid backup then try Villain 5.5 and Sense 2.2 if you don't like them then go for MoDaCo 3.2.

 

[Jaffa]

I can get 12 hours with light use out of my Hero running 5.5, 6-8 hours with heavy use, if that helps you decide

 

[liverpoolfan]

Thanks guys.

Just installed SenseHero 2.2 - seems fairly nice so far. Will see how it behaves over the next week. If not, might give MoDaCo a try.

 

[Jaffa]

Villain 5.5 is worth a go too, there are known MMS and Answer phone icon issues though, hopefully soon to be fixed..

 

[Frust8edHeroUser]

I recently rooted my HTC Hero and installed Villain 5.4 on it. However, I've noticed the battery drains quicker than previous Android 1.5 that was on it. I've changed to "GSM only" in phone settings (*#*#INFO#*#*) and also have changed some settings with regard to display timeout etc etc.
/QUOTE]

I've got Villain 5.5.0

I uninstalled JuiceDefender and installed Auto Memory Manager (free) instead. I autokill Messages with Taskpanel and I use GSM auto (PRL) instead of GSM only.

I've removed News and Weather app.

As I write this my stats are 6:05:32 Uptime and 0:07:51 Awaketime.

Since this boot I've done some web browsing and some talking etc...

I'm now satisfied with the performance .... Not as good as 1.5 stock but better than what came with Villain 5.5.0

BTW I'm with Telus and No Probs so far.


I'll try to keep you informed of my progress.


Frust8edHeroUser

 

[thenoble06]

I rooted recently because of the 2.1 delays and I have tried a couple of 2.1 ROMS (VillianRom 5.4 and Stickman) but I've gone back to Modoco 3.2 as the battery life was not good enough.

I'll give it a month or so and try some 2.1 ROMS again.

Actually - i might have a sneaky look at SenseHero 2.2 and see how that is - but if is is not much better battery wise than VillianRom I'll go back to Modaco 3.2

 

[tojjer]

I must admit, I was considering removing Sense2.2, but I've decided it's not that bad. Prefer it to Villain5.3 anyway, can't comment on 5.5 cos not tried it yet.
Was having problems with the gps on 2.2 but realised that it was only playing up with my golf apps. Uninstalled them, then reinstalled and so far they've been ok. Played a whole round today and never lost the gps signal once. It's also been ok on Orangemaps and Google nav ( which is superb by the way )

All in all, 2.2 is working for me and doing what I want it to do for now. the MMS problem is easy enough to fix if you follow Jaffa's instructions on another thread

 

[liverpoolfan]

Hi

Quick update. Have been running SenseHero 2.2 for nearly 24hrs so far. Moderate use i.e. checking email, news, sending a few texts (no calls).
So far, battery level is 68 which is a lot better than what it was with Villain.

Am impressed with SenseHero 2.2, seems better than Villain, but just my opinion.

I should add I mainly use my wireless router at home or wireless router in work. Outside of that I mainly use as a normal phone i.e. calls+texts. I have disabled a lot of services i.e. apps which sync etc. Or the weather app, unless I manually sync when on wifi, it will only attempt to sync every 12 hours.

 

[dkelley]

I can tell you that I rooted my phone two days ago (on telus here in canada).

after trying several roms for cdma I finally tried a gms rom and it works - funny - telus was always cdma, but I guess they're gsm now for the hero at least.

anyway, villain 5.5 was first try, worked great!

then wiped, put on sensehero 2.2 (whatever latest stable build is) and liked the UI changes (purely cosmetic I think though) but missed all of the cool extras built into villain 5.5 like the keyboard hacks and tons of other settings additions. I used sense 2.2 until about 10pm last night and found it SLOW, irritatingly slow, unresponsive, and frustrating. was really disappointed - maybe I had a unique usage case or something. but it was pretty basic, installed some of my favorite apps, but it sucked compared to villain right from the start as far as performance goes.

went back to villain 5.5 last night after a wipe (and oddly the htc widgets weren't there any more, first time I installed villain 5.5 the htc widgets were there out of the box?? ran the "get more htc widgets" link which kept saying it couldn't connect (yes I'd setup adb etc by then, that wasn't the problem) but turns out that it actually did connect and did install the missing htc widgets (yay!). so I was ready to go wtih villain again and yes, it really is dramatically faster than sensehero 2.2. Still using it now. in some ways faster than 1.5 telus stock, in some ways slower, don't know about battery yet but I'm sure it's using more so far (will start messing with hacks to improve battery life though).

so for me, villain wins by a ton. was really disappoined that sensehero was SO unresponsive on my phone compared to villain, but both times I installed villain 5.5 it proved to be much faster in performance.

So your mileage may vary though...

note: yes it's my first post here - hi everyone, name's Don, happy hero owner. will be leaving my wife's hero unrooted for now to see if/when telus comes out with a 2.1 release officially for it though... don't want to screw anything up on her phone LoL.

PS: are there any other useful alternatives to villain and sensehero for 2.1?

 

[Xyro]

SlideVillain. It's awesome

I found clearing HTC Sense's data got my HTC widgets back when mine disappeared.

 

[Jaffa]

SlideVillain. It's awesome

I found clearing HTC Sense's data got my HTC widgets back when mine disappeared.

What ROM are you running atm mate, and for how long?

 

[02keilj]

Im on SenseHero 2.2 and although it seemed slow at first, once i adjusted the phone the way i wanted it is really only slow after a boot up and if i have been running multiple apps that really slow it down.
As for battery life its not too bad for me, getting a good 8 hours from a charge easy, with light use, could get more if i cut down on some widgets and apps that i dont need running, but they are what makes the phone cool

 

[daveybaby]

I can get 12 hours with light use out of my Hero running 5.5, 6-8 hours with heavy use, if that helps you decide

I get 2-3 days running modaco 3.2 with light use, and at least a day and a half with moderate-heavy use. Also everything on my phone works perfectly so i dont have to keep updating the firmware every other day.

If that helps you decide.

 

[Jaffa]

I get 2-3 days running modaco 3.2 with light use, and at least a day and a half with moderate-heavy use. Also everything on my phone works perfectly so i dont have to keep updating the firmware every other day.

If that helps you decide.

Its a good point :-D

 

[mez]

I get 2-3 days running modaco 3.2 with light use, and at least a day and a half with moderate-heavy use. Also everything on my phone works perfectly so i dont have to keep updating the firmware every other day.

If that helps you decide.

Im getting less then 24 hours on mcr 3.2, light/mod use, 20 mins a day on the phone, maybe send and received 50 sms. i use the internet quite a bit tho usually on lunch breaks. and a couple of games.

wifi/gps is off all day and spareparts says its mainly only android system that drains me. i still think that MCR is way better in terms of battery then the versions of 2 that ive seen so far (not tested any myself) just what ive been told.

 

[Xyro]

I get 2-3 days running modaco 3.2 with light use

Im getting less then 24 hours on mcr 3.2, light/mod use, 20 mins a day on the phone, maybe send and received 50 sms. i use the internet quite a bit tho usually on lunch breaks. and a couple of games.

I think this shows just how subjective the difference between light/heavy use is.

Can't argue that 3.2 is pretty much perfect though.

 

[MarDoubleT]

Just flashed to MoDaCo the other evening - it's FAST!

Tried SenseHERO 2.2 today but sense and android itself kept f/c-ing when I tried to flash on the friend stream add-on.

I will likely try Villain 5.5 and SlideVillain soon (nandroid back to MCR 3.2 is running perfectly after all), but I don't have high hopes for tolerating the split SMS and voicemail notification issues until they've been fixed.

So, for now, MoDaCo for me.