How To Update An Epic 4G to Gingerbread With Leaked ROM

So you're tired of waiting around for Sprint to push out Gingerbread to your Epic 4G, huh?  I don't blame you one bit.  It's pretty much absurd that it takes the carriers as long as it does to push out new versions of Android to our phones.

Well never fear, because I've got everything you need to update your Epic 4G to the leaked version of Gingerbread.  Be advised that since this is a leaked ROM, and not the final build that will push out to our phones, there may be some bugs in it.  However, after extensive playing around with it for the last couple of days, I've only found a single minor issue.  When the phone synched my contacts from my Google account, they did not appear in the contact list until after a reboot.

Having said that, if you want to give it a shot, head on past the break for download links and instructions.

IMPORTANT: As with any operation where you are updating firmware on your phone, there is a certain amount of risk involved.  Proceed at your own risk.  Robot Briefs is not responsible for anything bad that may come of your attempt to load firmware that has not been sanctioned by the manufacturer.  Also note that this may void your warranty.

The first thing you need to know is that this process is going to completely wipe your phone (NOT your SD card though), so you will need to redownload apps, etc., and you will lose your saved SMS messages.  Also, make sure you know the gmail account and password that you originally set your phone up with.

First you will need to download a couple of files.  Note that if you've previously installed the Windows drivers for the Epic 4G on your PC previously, then you don't need to download that.

Windows Drivers for Epic 4G

Leaked Gingerbread ROM

1. The first step is to install the Windows drivers on your PC.  You do NOT need to have your phone hooked up to your PC to complete this. 
2. Extract the Gingerbread ROM file to somewhere on your PC that's easy to get to, such as your desktop.  If you don't have an archive utility installed that will handle .rar files, you might give 7-zip a try.  Inside the .rar file there will be a directory will a few files in it.
3. Power off your phone and connect it to your PC via USB cable
4. In the directory where you unzipped the ROM, there is a file called Odin3 v1.81.  Double click this file to launch the Odin software.
5. Once Odin is started, click on the PIT button.  Select the victory_8G_100528.pit file in the dialog box that comes up.
6. Click on the PDA button.  Select the SPH-D700-EF02-8Gb-REL.tar.md5 file in the dialog that comes up.
7. Now comes the finger gymnastics.  Turn your phone on while holding down the 1 key on the slide-out keyboard.  The screen on your device should say Downloading.
8. The Odin software should see your device and tell you what "com port" your device is connected to.  Once you see that appear, you're ready to begin.
9. Up until now, we've done nothing permanent, so now is your chance to back out if you don't want to go through with it.  You will need to pull the battery on your phone to reboot it.  Otherwise, let's continue...
10. Click the Start button.  IMPORTANT: do not pull the battery, or disconnect the cable, or shut down your PC until the process is completed and your phone has rebooted.  Doing so will leave you with a bricked phone.  A progress bar on the phone should appear and will give you an indication of how far along the process is.  It should take about 3-4 minutes to complete
11. Once the new firmware has been flashed, your phone will reboot.  Breathe a sigh of relief and start enjoying Gingerbread goodness!

Comments

[white rabbit]

NOTE: The refferenced download requires a password for extraction.
The password is listed below:
samfirmware.com