How to fix poor GSM signal reception on HTC Touch Cruise (Polaris)

Few days ago I purchased brand new touch phone - HTC Touch Cruise also known as Polaris. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 and provides all mobile technology in slim and light package.

Unfortunatelly it appeared that it has very bad reception of GSM/UMTS signal. In center of city (Wroclaw, Poland) I got single bar (or rather single dot) of signal indicator and sometimes the signal was completly lost. Outdoors it was a little better 2-3 bars of signal.

Finaly I managed to fix the device by replacing its Radio ROM to modified version. The solution came from this post at XDA Developers Forum.

Ok… let’s come to facts…

First of all – warning and scary disclaimer:
Flashing a ROM is a risky operation. You even can end up with broken device! Be sure that you know excacly what and why you are doing. I do not guarantee that this will work with your device and I do not take no responsibility in case of something goes wrong.  You do it on your own risk.

Second… a subject of operation…
Device: HTC Touch Cruise Polaris
Operating system: Windows Mobile 6.0 Polish
ROM version: 1.25.405.1 WWE
Radio ROM version: 1.58.21.23

Now…

To replace Radio ROM it is necessary to remove device’s boot-loader protection for loading non-standard ROMs. I used the Hard-SPL utility provided by Olipro member of XDA Developers Forum. The utility contains modified boot loader and application to flash it into device.

1. Download and unzip Hard-SPL-V2.zip for Polaris from my mirror or from XDA Developers Forum.
2. Remove miniSD card from device.
3. Make sure the battery is charged 50% or more.
4. Connect device via USB and make sure ActiveSync is connected to it - i.e. by checking if you can browse device file system.
5. Run ROMUpdateUtility.exe found in Hard-SPL-V2 package.
6. It will show wizard which will guide through update process.
7. Do not disconnect, turn-off PC nor the device during the process.
8. During the process you will be asked by device to confirm if you would like to run applications. Answer Yes to continue the process.
9. The device will reboot and present four-color boot loader screen. It wil ask you to remove USB and connect it again. When it will ask Replug USB – do so.
10. The upgrade process will continue, finally the device will reboot itself and Windows Mobile will start.

Next you need to verify if your boot-loader is replaced successfully.

1. Press and hold camera button at device (camera aplication will start).
2. While holding camera button press pinhole reset button.
3. The device will reboot and start in four-color boot loader screen.
4. Verify if SPL-2.20.Olinex is written at the screen. If so the process was successfull.
5. Reset the device.

Now it is time to replace the Radio ROM. The modified ROM is called Murata Radio ROM (provided by superduper). For update I used utility provided by udK and called Custom RUU (RUU = ROM Update Utility) which does not format the device.

All of my data was not lost during the update anyhow the backup is recommended since it is risky operation.

1. Download and unzip Polaris_CustomRUU_v1.2.zip from my mirror or XDA Developers Forum.
2. Download and unzip Radio_Murata_PPAS_1.58.21.23.zip from my mirror or XDA Developers Forum.
3. Inside Radio_Murata_PPAS_1.58.21.23 there is a file named RUU_signed.nbh – copy it to folder where unziped Polaris_Custom_RUU.exe is.
4. Remove miniSD card from device.
5. Make sure the battery is charged 50% or more.
6. Connect device via USB and make sure ActiveSync is connected to it - i.e. by checking if you can browse device file system.
7. Run Polaris_Custom_RUU.exe.
8. It will show wizard which will guide through update process.
9. After the update is complete the device will reboot itself and start Windows Mobile normally.

Finish. For me it worked!

I have full strength of GSM and UMTS now!

Some useful links to XDA Developers:

• Bad 3G/UMTS reception after ROM upgrade -> Possible solution
• How to Flash Hard-SPL/Custom ROM/Radio Rom
• How to flash hard-spl (with screenshots)