XDA Flame


The XDA Flame is a Pocket PC device first released in May 2007, produced by Arima Communications and originally distributed by O2 Asia Pacific & Middle East. This device belongs to a wide O2 Xda device family, including XDA Atom, XDA Atom Life, XDA Zinc, XDA Orbit, XDA Stealth, XDA II Mini, XDA IIs, XDA II and XDA. It is one of the first Pocket PC device that was enabled with 3D accelerated graphics nVidia's GoForce 5500 graphic processor. XDA Flame is also a 3G enabled phone with VGA touch screen, 2GB flash memory, 128MB RAM, Intel XScale PXA 270 520 MHz processor and integrated FM radio.

Specifications

As of 2010, the specifications are these:

Brief history

In May 2007, O2 Asia Pacific & Middle East released the XDA Flame. O2's cooperation with and allowed this company to advertise their new product easily, because there was a big demand on the market for a 3D graphics enabled PDA, with a lot of internal memory and many additional functions like USB On-The-Go and TV-out. However, at the end of 2007, O2 began to release new products and they stopped supporting this device, passing all copyrights to a new company called Mobile & Wireless Group. MWg has released XDA Flame under its own brand with Bluetooth 2.0. Many Flame owners felt a relief knowing that someone will still support their devices. Yet, after a half year, MWg resigned from further supporting this device on its main site and created where users can still get a support. In the near future Mwg is planning to release a Flame successor called Flame II with probably Windows Phone 7.

Device issues

XDA Flame has several software bugs. From the beginning MWg's support center have not released a new Windows Mobile 6 version since it appeared on the market.
After some time a class action lawsuit page was established to raise awareness of the problem, similar to HTC TyTN II case. In The Point, Tim Osborne wrote:
Battling with the lack of support by MWG and nVidia, community users have repackaged many Windows Mobile ROM images by their own. After several months dealing with some issues, there have aroused stable and fully functionals ROMs including versions with Windows Mobile 6.1 and SDHC., community driven support for the Geforce 5500 GPU is still improving but far from fully functional.

Maintenance

To perform soft-reset on XDA Flame - put stylus in a hole next to a microphone.
To perform hard-reset on XDA Flame - while pressing Camera and Comm buttons soft-reset device. When asked, user should press left soft-key.

OS updating

updating, which is also called flashing, is a process similar to installing a new Windows on a PC.
On PDAs, Windows Mobile "disk image" or "ROM image" is installed in internal flash memory.
XDA Flame OS updating steps:
  1. Micro SD card format.
  2. Creating empty.txt file and renaming it to 1xdtgklo.kez.
  3. Copying created.kez file and diskimage.nb0 to a micro SD card.
  4. Charging device battery over 50%.
  5. While keeping pressed both soft key buttons, soft resetting PDA.
  6. Waiting for the device to finish and soft-reset itself.

    Internal devices

1) Intel XScale PXA270

Application Processor

Vendor: Marvell

Product code: PXA270C5C520

Developer's manual:

Developer's guide:



2) 2 × 64MB Hynix low power SDRAM

Vendor: Hynix

Product code: HY5S7B2LFP-H

Frequency 133 MHz, CAS Latency 3, 4banks × 4Mb × 32, interface LVCMOS

Datasheet:



3) 2 × 32MB Intel StrataFlash wireless memory L18 in stacked chip scale packaging

64MB stacked together into one chip

Vendor: Intel

Product code: 4400L0YTP0

NOR, 1.8 Volt I/O, Individual Chip Enables, Non Mux, x32 Ballout

Quick reference guide:

Resources:



4) mDOC H3

2GB NAND Embedded Flash Drive

Vendor: M-Systems

Product code: MD2533-d16G-X-P

Extensive datasheet:

Brochure:



5) LP3971 National Semiconductor power management unit

Chip sign: VM67RA 71-B410

Datasheet:



6) TSN74AVC16T245 16-bit dual-supply bus transceiver

Chip sign: 61A4R4J G1 WF245

Resources:



7) bq24032A dual-input Li-ion charger

Chip sign: BPE TI 6BK AHL J

Resources:



8) TPS65110 Triple Chargepump for LTPS LCD

Resources:



GSM parts:



Ericsson integrated circuits

A) DB2020 R2A/7

B) DB2102 R1A

C) RF2111 R1A

D) RF2101 R1B

E) RF2001 R1B/3

F) AB2012 R1A

G) Intel Flash Memory 3050L0YTQ2



H) NVIDIA GoForce 5500 GPU with 8MB stacked memory

Core speed: 200 MHz

Embedded SRAM: 640KB

Stacked memory: 8MB

Technical specifications:



I) Wolfson WM9713G Audio and Touchscreen Controller

Resources:



J) BlueCore4 WLCSP Single Chip Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR System

Vendor: Cambridge Silicon Radio

Datasheet:



K) SyChip WLAN6101

Vendor: SyChip



L) Imagis ISE2200 Video Processor for TV-Out

Technical specifications:



M) Si4701 FM Radio Receiver
Vendor: Silicon Laboratories
Technical specifications: https://web.archive.org/web/20070308132512/http://www.silabs.com/public/documents/tpub_doc/dshort/Broadcast/Radio_Tuners/en/Si4700_01_short.pdf

Registry tweaks

Windows Mobile, like any Windows version, has a Windows registry. Tweaking a registry refers to changing registry entries so that many OS functions will work differently. It's commonly used among Pocket PC users to get the best performance from devices and to get to OS hidden settings.
Known tools for Pocket PC registry editing:
WM registry hives:
Editing WM registry steps:
  1. Navigation to the proper registry entry.
  2. Changing its value / creating a new one.
  3. Acceptance of all made changes and suspending device for about 30–40 seconds.
  4. Soft resetting device.
Most registry entries can be changed by using special.cab files. Those can be made with the help of for PC. An option that allows user to uninstall such cab file should be unchecked.
The second option for quick registry entries import is through.reg files. Those are standard.txt files saved in Unicode that can be pasted in Total Commander or imported in Resco Explorer.