Root the damn phone already. Copy the pictures to your PC before hand. Rooting on the Moment do not erase any SD card content.

Root the phone, and then put a new ROM on it - EB28, Froyo, is an excellent ROM, and you'll love the phone. The stock ROM sucks big time.

I helped a friend upgrade his Moment from stock Eclair to EB28, and after months of frustration, he cannot believe how fast his phone is, how reliable it is, and how responsive it is. He thanks me every time for helping him do that.

Just do it!

 

I know how you feel. I suffered with the stock ROM for months, until I finally got the courage to root my Moment and put a new ROM on it.

It was night and day. With the stock ROM (2.1 eclair), it took 10-15 seconds to open up the phone app. After flashing the new ROM, it took 1-2 seconds to open up the phone app.

Words cannot describe how painful the stock ROM is. It's an utter disgrace to Android and its owners.

Root, put a new ROM (EB28) on your phone, you will be thanking the heavens and me once you do.

The root guide here is a bit outdated, but the new root process is extremely simple:

1. install CL14 Moment updater (links are in XDA)
2. flash to a stock recovery 2.1 ROM (links also in XDA for the ROM) with the CL14 updater
3. Download the EB28 ROM (zip file) and a kernal (recommend the kernal in the EB28 thread link - zip file also), and then place them on your SD card.
4. boot into custom recovery, do a factory wipe, dalvik cache wipe
5. in custom recovery - choose install zip file update. Choose EB28 ROM first, install. Then choose the kernel, install.
6. reboot, profit!!!

 

LOL just got a text from my friend whom I helped do this last week. He can't get over how awesome the phone is now. He just said it's like going from DOS to Windows. He can't believe how awesome the phone is now, and with the Froyo features in EB28.

He is simply overwhelmed with the improvements.

 

i know for a fact that Jewels from MH games isnt causing your phone to crash and die. I also have a Moment and before i rooted it it had that game installes and not a hicc-up. I ended up rooting my phone when eclair got released. i was frustrated that my phone was stuck with 1.6 donut. Many months and roots later.

My Moment runs radioactive froyo ( right now i cant remember the build or kernel numbers) and so far its a completely different phone. I will say this tho. If you dont keep track of how many programs you've opened and how much you have installed on the phone it will start to lag like crazy.

The Moment isnt the best at multitasking apps like most Android run phones. I'm positive that your phone was just at it's limit (internally ... this phone does tend to disregard the SD card as extra space to think in) and it started to >bleep< out just like any piece of technology.

Anyways just like SPSC is saying ... Root your Moment. It's the way to go when you own that phone since sprint and samsung kissed it goodbye and as such you wont have support / updates from them.. in like... never.

There are several roots that are click and boom done... you just have to shop around and see which one is your cup of tea.

P.S. The radioactive froyo i have installed on my moment (not to sling mud in the developers face quite the contrary i thank em for giving me such an easy rom to install) does require you to at least every 2 months to dump your phone on the computer and wipe it... so it can speed up again. Thats in my experience.

 

seriously, stepping up to EB28 is a night and day difference.

it seriously turns your phone into the phone you thought you were buying a year ago.

it is a big step to go from stock to rooting to custom roms, but once you get it in front of you, all of that greek starts to make sense.

feel free to hit me up if you need help. you won't be the first person I've helped root their phone via pm's and e-mails.

 

Here's another vote for EB28 Froyo. Radioactive was pretty good in its time, but Froyo is a big step up.

I've had Jewels from MH Games on my phone since before I started to root, and it never caused the whole phone to lag. It was probably just the last straw - no more room in memory, which is why deleting it and a few other apps sped up your phone again. Something you can do once you have EB28 is move (some) apps to your sdcard, which will allow you to install more apps. You could also move your dalvik cache to free up even more space.

 

Hello and thanks for all the great info. I'm having trouble with my wife's Moment. It is stuck in a boot loop (nothing new installed). I have the current Sprint release (I think 2.1 but cant check). I rooted it with Z4root about a month ago and deleted some stock stuff but didn't install any roms or anything because she was happy. I got her a Samsung Epic yesterday and deactivated the Moment. When I tried to turn it back on the boot loop started. I have tried pulling battery and pulling sd card but can not get it to boot. I can not get the drivers to install because my computers (XP and Win7) wont recognize in 'download' mode. It just lists as an 'unknown device' in the USB list. When I tried Technica's youtube video instructions for installing the drivers it does not work and continues to give me errors (I'm guessing because I can't get to main Android system and cycle 'developer mode'). Please help, I was going to use this phone for my primary and I am stuck.
Is there a way to update or recover from sd card?

 

dtchiz,
This thread at sdx forums has instructions and everything you need, or at least download links to everything you need, to root once you get the usb worked out:
How To Root Your Samsung Moment (2.2.2 Froyo)

In step 4, it says to create the /sdx/zip folder, but the Recovery 3.1.1 should automatically create that. Just FYI.

In step 5, pay attention to where it says to reboot into Recovery after applying EB28. If you try to boot into the system before applying the kernel you'll bootloop.

supesazpd,
Have you tried unistalling everything Samsung on your computer? It's probably easiest on the XP system, as everyone seems to complain about Win7. Uninstall the updater, anything else that shows up as Samsung under Add/Remove Programs, and install a program called USBDeview and use it to remove any remaining Samsung usb drivers. Then try installing the updater again.

If that doesn't work and you can get into recovery (Volume down/Send/End) do a Wipe/Factory Reset. In Recovery 3.1.1, it's under Advanced Options. That will return the phone to stock factory presets, deleting all installed apps and personal settings. Basically like reinstalling.

A more extreme method is flashing "good enough for sprint". It's like a flashable version of of the software updater, but has some issues. Here's a link:
http://www.joeyconway.com/moment/stock-custom/Good_enough_for_Sprint.zip
If you can boot into recovery, you should be able to flash this. I don't really recommend it, and it should be your last option.

 

Thanks for the help Headless, I didn't know how to get to recovery and I can enter it but doing a wipe did not help. You said the 'good enough for sprint' was a last resort, do you know where I can find another update.zip that would be a better option? What with the good enough file do? I plan to root and install kernel/rom on this phone, will the good enough prevent future updates?

 

Here's an update, I tried the good enough for sprint and it didnt work.
When I boot into recovery this is what it says:
Android system recovery <2e>
Samsung Recovery Utils
- for BML -
reboot system now
apply sdcard:update.zip
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
# MANUAL MODE #

When I try to install good enough for sprint it says the following:
-- Install from sdcard...
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Verifying update package...
E:failed to open /sdcard/update.
zip (no such file or directory)
E:signature verification failed
Installation aborted

I tried renaming the file (Good_enough_for_sprint.zip) to update.zip and it listed the same error as above except for the no such file or directory.
I have also tried several other files with the same results:
joeykrim-sdx-a2.1-root-v7.zip
deo3.zip
deo3+3.1.1.zip
crap22_noled.zip
m900-eb28-v1.1.zip

I probably shouldn't be trying files willy nilly but at this point nothing is working so I figured it couldnt make it much worse...please help.

 

Ok, I scrubbed all of my old drivers and started over and I am now rooted and operational. Thanks all for a wonderful source of information, and thanks especially Headless, I wouldn't have thought to start over on them.

 

Glad you got it working finally. Are you now on EB28?

 

Does this EB28 still break GPS and some of the other features? I tried to read through some of the release notes from several of the different ROMs and it sounds like more things are not working than are. I guess I'm just lucky since my phone is pretty slow and I'd like to get the newer versions, but I actually have decent enough GPS, no problems with force close, no data lock-up, not much of the "other" issues reported on the Moment. Thanks, Scott

 

The Moment is one of the most perplexing phones ever, because what works for one person doesn't work for another, or breaks something else!

When I moved from 2.1 to 2.2 (DL05) I lost GPS. When I moved to EB28 GPS mysteriously came back. There are certain "fixes" in the 2.2 section of sdxforums if it stops working for you. The only one I hadn't tried before moving to EB28 was physically taking my phone apart (didn't know about it then, but I am still considering it to get a faster lock).

Other than the GPS gamble, I think EB28 is better than 2.1.
My phone feels faster than My Wife's rooted 2.1 Moment, and will run a couple of apps that hers won't (like Angry Bird Seasons).
If you use wifi at all you definitely want 2.2, because the wifi data lockup is completely gone.
Many people have reported better battery life, but mine is about the same as 2.1.
You also have to use "SHIFT" "," to get a comma instead of the "FN" key on the physical keyboard. I think there's also a smiley workaround, but can't think of it at the moment.

If you're happy enough with 2.1 stick with it and check the forums to see if there are any more updates. My Wife's perfectly happy with hers.