New(used!) Eris user

[TheEdge]

This forum is such a great place for information. Even if I am late to the party!

I recently bought a used Eris from a co-worker ($30! steal!) to replace my Blackberry Storm 1 and I must say I love it. I suffered through that Blackberry for 2 years thanks to a contract, the phone never worked right. I had so many problems, so many restrictions, it was thick, bulky, sluggish, unreliable, nothing about it ended up going my way ever. Finally the battery crapped out completely, just as my contract ended.

This new(used) Eris is such a breath of fresh air. I've always known what I was missing, but never really got to experience it for myself. Working IT and doing constant setups on all the new I-phones and Androids has been a torturous task to say the least. After having just about every type of phone in my hand at one time or another I finally get a small taste of everyday use.

I bought this Eris to hold me over for a few months because it was such a good deal. As it turns out I'm finding it does just about everything I want, even if it is a little dated(slow) compared to the current phones. I rooted and flashed it before I even activated it, so it is running about as well as it can I imagine.

My only complaint is the little bugger refuses to connect to my Windows 7 machine. I have tried pretty much everything, Windows will just not recognize it. Might be a fault in the phone I guess(?) I've tried 4 or 5 different cables, including the proprietary HTC one. No dice. HTC sync software doesn't see it either. Any suggestions? I tried everything I could find in the troubleshooting forum as well, nothing seemed to help.

When I upgrade to a newer phone, does anyone have any suggestions? I like the small form factor of this phone. Some of the new phones are just too big for what I would want in an everyday-carry-it-everywhere phone.


Thanks!

 

[cableguynoe]

When I upgrade to a newer phone, does anyone have any suggestions? I like the small form factor of this phone. Some of the new phones are just too big for what I would want in an everyday-carry-it-everywhere phone.


Thanks!

My first android was an Eris. Unfortunately they're just not able to make them that small anymore, it seems.
You'll just have to get used to the bigger phones when you leave the Eris. I have the D3 which isn't so bad. But it took some getting used to.

 

[dansamy]

I really liked my Eris. It was my first Android device. And it's a great little pocket sized device. Of course, it's not easy to use if you have big fat fingers.

 

[IzelTokatl]

If you want a small strong phone, check out the HTC rhyme. but they only come in purple.

I still use my eris as a home voip phone.

 

[TeaArra]

The Rhyme is perfect for me especially since I love the color. Great size and it's much faster than my old Eris with a better screen and much better camera. Not 4G or dual core though.

 

[radsboy]

I just got one last week - same way, but for $25! Got an sd chip and a display protector, and new batt, still under $50 total.

It is my first real "pocket computer", using it just as a wifi device (no phone plan) and it is so powerful and versatile I can't believe it.

Best apps so far:
Astro file manager
Kindle Reader (lots of free books)
DolphinHD browser
QR Droid
gStrings guitar tuner (Best ever!)
Google Sky
Winamp

Have fun! I sure am...

 

[mamawm]

it's been a while, but seems to me that when i connected my eris to my vista running laptop, all i ever saw was that a usb flash drive had been connected.

 

[TheEdge]

After using this phone for a solid week I have formed a few more opinions.

First off, I got an otterbox case for it and a new screen protector. The phone looks absolutely brand new, sweet!

The battery life does indeed suck, I got a brand new battery with the phone, and it didn't help battery life much at all. I can live with this as I do like the phone. (the battery is "ok" if I'm constantly in a state of turning things off/on bluetooth/3g etc, but it is annoying to have to do this)

The phone is much too slow to run GB LOL! I tried it for kicks, what a lag fest.

The phone doesn't seem to multitask well. Is this a RAM limit? If I load another app and go back into any internet browser my session is gone. It doesn't "save" so I am assuming the phone is closing it down to gain resources. Is there a way to prevent this? I usually multitask by holding the home button to get to another recent app.

Is the Sense launcher worth using? If I dumped it for another launcher/vanilla android, would it free up operating RAM? Anyone have a launcher that they recommend for this phone? (I'm currently using the xtrasense, but I have a flash for the nonsense as well)

*EDIT*
Also, not being able to connect the phone to a PC is so annoying I can't even begin to complain about it. It just does NOT work, isn't recognized by any OS I have tried.

Thanks!

 

[doogald]

First off, I got an otterbox case for it and a new screen protector. The phone looks absolutely brand new, sweet!

I have a two year old Otterbox on mine still, with a nice crack on the back showing where it survived a couple of falls. I was thinking about painting stitches on it like Gerry Cheevers.

The battery life does indeed suck, I got a brand new battery with the phone, and it didn't help battery life much at all. I can live with this as I do like the phone. (the battery is "ok" if I'm constantly in a state of turning things off/on bluetooth/3g etc, but it is annoying to have to do this)

Expensive, but the Seidio 1750 was worth it, for me: Amazon.com: Seidio Innocell 1750 mAh Battery for HTC Droid Eris/Droid Incredible - ADR6300: Cell Phones & Accessories

Is the Sense launcher worth using? If I dumped it for another launcher/vanilla android, would it free up operating RAM? Anyone have a launcher that they recommend for this phone? (I'm currently using the xtrasense, but I have a flash for the nonsense as well)

If you want to try another launcher, xtrROM is probably a better choice than xtrSENSE, as it leaves out the sense launcher part altogether but is otherwise similar. I don't love Sense myself; LauncherPro and ADW are reasonably fast on the Eris. I hear good things about Zeam, though I never tried it. Go Launcher EX is great, but I'm not sure it runs well on the Eris. It's free for the try, though. (ADW EX is what I use now on my Droid 3 - it seems to have the performance and stability that the others seem to lack.)

I think that xtrROM's download disappeared from where it was hosted, but I have a copy on my dropbox public folder: http://db.tt/PsHlcG52

Also, not being able to connect the phone to a PC is so annoying I can't even begin to complain about it. It just does NOT work, isn't recognized by any OS I have tried.

Try another cable; that is often a problem. Some cables are able only to charge and not carry data.

The Mac and Linux will connect without a special driver install (though you have to open the notification that pops up and change from charge only to disk drive to get it to connect the micro SD card to the computer as a removable drive.)

Windows needs the driver here: HTC Mobile Phone Support - DROID ERIS by HTC (Verizon) - Downloads

 

[doogald]

The battery life does indeed suck, I got a brand new battery with the phone, and it didn't help battery life much at all. I can live with this as I do like the phone. (the battery is "ok" if I'm constantly in a state of turning things off/on bluetooth/3g etc, but it is annoying to have to do this)

One thing more, since you are running xtrSENSE (and this works with xtrROM): both of these install an app called GScript and include some basic scripts that can change the clockspeed of the phone. You can try to lower the minimum clock speed to 19.2 MHz - that may save some battery when the display is off.

See here, in the xtrSENSE first post, under the GScript setting: [ROM][GPL][3/15/2011] xtrSENSE5.0.1 [cache2cache,apps2sd,oc,jit]-HTC Sense - xda-developers

To setup your GScripts complete the following steps:
1. After opening GScript press the menu button and select "Add script"
2. A new window will open.
3. Press the Load file button
4. Select a script from the list (each is obviously named as to its function)
5. Ensure Needs SU? is checked
6. Now select "Save" and you have added your script
7. To run just select it from the list in the main GScript screen
8. You may be prompted to reboot the phone for the change to take effect.

The script that changes the minimum cpu speed to 19.2 is named set_cpu_min_19200.sh.

I'm not sure it will make a dramatic difference, but worth a shot. You can always load and run another script to change it back if it messes things up.

 

[TheEdge]

I'm pretty much giving up (for now) on getting the phone to connect to the computer. I have tried all the cables (4 different ones) that I have as well as installing the HTC software. The computer just doesn't see the device. It doesn't come up as unrecognized or anything.

Sometime later today I am going to re-flash to the plain xtrROM and give it a go. I'm hopeful that it will free up some memory by ditching sense.