Complete phone idiot. Questions about Gingerbread / ICS?

[JLawL]

Alright, so I just want to start off by saying, while I may be most capable on a computer, I'm a total idiot when it comes to phones. I live in Maine, and my options here have been limited until recently lol.

Anyway. I have a Fascinate, which is running on Straight Talk. I bought it this way from a friend. It is on Android 2.2.2 which I believe it came with or was updated to.

I have another phone, a Sumsung Epic, which is on 2.3.6, and although the technical specs of the phones seem to be identical, the Epic runs amazingly smooth, where the Fascinate is a bit slow at times.

I have absolutely no idea how to upgrade the OS on a phone. I know it needs to be rooted, which I also do not have any clue on where to even begin.

I know I can look guides up to do this. My real questions are these.

1. Does the Fascinate run well with 2.3.6? I would assume it does, but have read a few things about certain functions on the phone not working.

2. How about ICS? I saw this on youtube, had no idea it could be put on a Fascinate.

3. Is there any other reason my Epic could be out performing my Fascinate by so much? When I benchmark them, the Epic is winning by more than 400 points when they are both freshly formatted.

4. This is the big one! Would anyone capable be willing to assist me with getting my phone rooted and upgraded if I were to pay? I have found people that will do this on ebay. I did not want to do it until I knew if it was even a good choice or not.


Any information that may help me would be appreciated. Be it links or facts, suggestions, whatever.

Thanks.

 

[BDogg718k]

dude you dont have to pay anyone. there are plenty of developers around willing to help. thats how we all got started. ill help ya when i get home in 2 hours. I have a rooted fascinate that has been running ICS for months. its a pretty simple process with the right help

 

[BDogg718k]

if anyone would like my help just post. im no pro but im very good with the fascinate.

 

[JLawL]

I would love some help. I just want to be sure that it will be safe for me to do first.

I read somewhere that people using ICS were unable to use their camera at times or something like that...the camera is basically the only reason I flashed a "real" phone to ST rather than just buying an ST phone.

As long as nothing I do is irreversible I will give it a try. If there is any way to remove a pile of the pre-installed Verizon apps I would love that also. Since I am technically not using Verizon's service, just their towers, they do not even work for me.

 

[BDogg718k]

just got home give me 20 min and then ill be around for couple hrs to help

 

[JLawL]

just got home give me 20 min and then ill be around for couple hrs to help

Sweet

 

[BDogg718k]

ok heres the deal...ive had this phone since oct. had it rooted it a matter of hrs . had (with the help of people more talented then myself) ICS on it two hrs later.
Now having said that...if anyone on here wants help rooting their fascinate and getting ICS on there phone i am willing to help. I will posting links to step by step instructions on how to complete each step. these are threads created by other people that deserve all the credit. i will simply be here to answer ?s and guide.
i have gotten pretty good with this phone. had an incredible that i was equally talented on. (my girlfriend id running ICS on hers)
Now as far as returning to stock that is very possible with this phone. Samsung created a program called ODIN that was designed just to flash things to ur phone...pretty sweet huh? Now u can get back to stock...with no superuser permissions(which what being rooted gives you) however I honestly have no way of knowing if they have other ways of finding out. NOTE>ROOTING YOUR PHONE VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY. DO EVERYTHING TO YOUR PHONE AT YOUR OWN RISK..sry I have to say that. however please have faith that I would not have wasted my time to type all this if I was full of #%@&. Ive had many peolpe help me along the way Im just trying to return the favors
So ill start putting together a guide if anyone is still interested? just post so i know:hello:

 

[JLawL]

The only thing you said that makes any sense to me is the rooting. I know what that means other than that no idea -,-

This is not something I even want to attempt doing myself lol. And I have no warranty on this phone, and it is running on Straight Talk which I am not even sure is legal >.> So that isn't an issue.

 

[BDogg718k]

its not a hard process. let me ask u this...have u plugged in to ur comp to transfer music and stuff? If so u have already completed on of the steps. lol What did u want to do mail it to someone let them root it put ICS on it then mail it back? No joking..asking?

 

[JLawL]

its not a hard process. let me ask u this...have u plugged in to ur comp to transfer music and stuff? If so u have already completed on of the steps. lol What did u want to do mail it to someone let them root it put ICS on it then mail it back? No joking..asking?

I know how to transfer files via usb and everything yes. And I don't know. The person who put my phone onto ST did it over teamviewer. I was going to download Odin and try the whole process myself once. Kept getting errors and never got anywhere, so I just stopped trying >.>

If there is a step by step to get from 2.2.2 to 2.3.6 I guess I could try that. Or to Icecream if that is better. I just don't want to sacrifice any performance for features I may not use. I'm pretty convinced that the only reason my Epic beats my Fascinate in benchmarks is due to the 2.3.6 on Epic. As otherwise they are identical phones.

I don't really know anything about Icecream. All I know about 2.3 is that it has flash support which my 2.2 doesn't. But it seems to be a lot smoother moving around the OS.

 

[BDogg718k]

honestly i have never run gingerbread(2.X) on this phone. I mean for a couple secs when i flash back to stock when ive messed something up(u wont be able to do that..mess things up i mean...by mess up i mean trying to put things on phone that r still in development...I.E. new roms ,themes stuff like that...but that wont be a problem for u)but i got this phone just to run ICS.
Ok so now here is what u do....Follow this post. Just download the ODIN program, the clockwork recovery ,and the SU 2.3.6.1 zip. now if u have hooked ur phone up before u shouldnt need to install the drivers u may want to just in case but really shouldnt be nec. we will know in a matter of min if u need to.
I know it looks overwhelming but it isnt. im here to help.
post back when u have everything downloaded and we will go from there:hello:

 

[BDogg718k]

duh you need a link...lol sry here ya go

http://www.galaxyforums.net/forum/fascinate-rs-guides/1967-how-root-froyo-gingerbread-your-fascinate.html

 

[BDogg718k]

to show im not bs here is my "about phone" screen

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3fqtoxkq822go32/Screenshot_2012-04-24-21-36-19.png

 

[BDogg718k]

BTW the blue droid eye background is something i did. anyone familiar with android sdk dev tool i can teach how to pull/push the right file.

 

[JLawL]

duh you need a link...lol sry here ya go

[HOW TO] Root Froyo or Gingerbread on Your Fascinate

The clockwork recovery...do I need all of those files? I downloaded everything I guess I will give it a try and see what happens lol.

EDIT: Also, doesn't this just root it? Once I root it how do I upgrade? Told you I'm dumb at this =/

 

[BDogg718k]

the clockwork file(s) should be in zip format. Do u not have winzip or 7zip or something like that? Also yes this will just root you phone. there steps in addition to this to get to ICS 2 or 3 steps or so..however not hard. what that lin will do is root your phone and install a recovery system...what u need to flash roms to your phone...I>E> roms like ICS. A recovery system will let you backup ur whole system, let u install different roms..there are a couple different ICS roms out there for this phone all with there own little cool features.
BTW did u see my screen shot?

 

[JLawL]

the clockwork file(s) should be in zip format. Do u not have winzip or 7zip or something like that? Also yes this will just root you phone. there steps in addition to this to get to ICS 2 or 3 steps or so..however not hard. what that lin will do is root your phone and install a recovery system...what u need to flash roms to your phone...I>E> roms like ICS. A recovery system will let you backup ur whole system, let u install different roms..there are a couple different ICS roms out there for this phone all with there own little cool features.
BTW did u see my screen shot?

Yea I saw it. I just want to make sure if I get ICS that everything on my phone will still function. I am also kind of worried that rooting it will somehow mess up the fact that I have basically fooled Straight Talk into thinking that my Fascinate is an LG 220C phone -,-

If I lose my ST service itll cost me 70 bucks to get it put back >.>

 

[BDogg718k]

pk do u have a zip program on ur computer? i have the file i can post it

 

[JLawL]

pk do u have a zip program on ur computer? i have the file i can post it

Yes I have winrar I downloaded the zips at first it was 3 files I didnt see the zip package.

 

[BDogg718k]

i dont use that app myself. however< if u were to look on other websites more geared toward development like XDA.com or RootzWiki.com and u search this phone u will see that not only have people been running ICS on it for awhile but they are starting to theme it. by theming i mean thing look different..battery symbol, signal symbol, the way screens pop in and out..all sorts of stuff. check it out. ill always be here to help. like i said before i know this phone in and out..lol:hello:

 

[JLawL]

Well I guess I will try rooting the phone and then see what I can do from there. Thanks

 

[BDogg718k]

crap forgot my point...lol i see alot of people using that on this phone how they did it or whatever i have no idea. like i said i dont use it. i guess it comes down to how much u wanna root ur phone and put ICS on it. if ur happy w phone now y bother?

 

[JLawL]

crap forgot my point...lol i see alot of people using that on this phone how they did it or whatever i have no idea. like i said i dont use it. i guess it comes down to how much u wanna root ur phone and put ICS on it. if ur happy w phone now y bother?

Because compared to my Epic 4g which has the same exact specs it is incredibly slow. My Fascinate has 2.2.2 my Epic has 2.3.6. All I was really trying to do was upgrade the Fascinate to 2.3.6 so that it would (hopefully) run as well as the Epic.

 

[BDogg718k]

u can root ur phone and not loose anything. u will just have superuser permissions. everything will look and run the same until u put a new rom on it.

 

[BDogg718k]

you can have ur fascinate blow that epic out of the water. my phone runs better than a stock Nexus ...trust me ive tested.