Introduction
HTC Desire HD also known as HTC Ace is an impressive, monumental, slimmer, more pocket friendlier which was unveiled on September 15, 2012 in London by HTC Corporation. Several other devices with more advanced systems and impressive features have been launched after Desire HD, however, the users of DHD still believe that they have got the best android device so far.
Hardware
The smartphone has an aluminium unibody design with Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) and HTC Sense installed. On the back, there are two plastic covers, one contains the battery, while the other contains the SIM card and the micro SDHC card. It features a 4.3-inch gorilla glass WVGA TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen, 8 megapixel camera (can record 720p video) and support for HSPA/W-CDMA and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. It is the first phone to use the new 1 GHz MSM8255 Scorpion CPU. This second generation Snapdragon processor uses a low-power 45-nm process technology for higher integration and efficiency, and the Adreno 205 more than doubles the performance of the Adreno 200 GPU. This allows for longer talk and standby times than the original HTC Desire even with a smaller capacity battery.
The HTC Desire HD has 768 MB RAM and 1.5 GB of internal flash memory data storage. There is also a single microSDHC slot, which can accept a microSDHC/XC card with a capacity of up to 32 GB of data storage.
Software
The HTC Desire HD incorporates Dolby Mobile, Sound Retrieval System WOW Surround Sound, DLNA, Adobe Flash 10.2, and DivX/Xvid video playback support, however, not many audio codecs are supported and apps have to be downloaded in order to support more formats.
At launch, HTC unveiled the updated HTC Sense features, including a new web site that allows remote interaction with HTC Sense enabled handsets for backups, security features, and other handset interactions. For example, it can remotely lock and wipe the handset of all sensitive data, while the service also creates automatic backups of contacts, text messages, call history, customizations, etc. HTCSense.com will also send commands to the handset to set the ring volume to maximum volume even if it is on silent mode and give a location on a map. The device came up with Android 2.2.1 Froyo and HTC Sense 2.1 which later updated to Android 2.3.3 and later to Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with HTC Sense 3.0. Although several rumors regarding that the device would obtain Ice Cream Sandwitch (ICS) version of Android, unfortunately, HTC stopped providing other upgrades citing the limitations in the capacity of the device. Nevertheless, the developers at XDA has given the hope by providing several latest custom roms compatible to the device.
Rooting the phone
Android rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets, and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as "root access") within Android's subsystem. Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices, resulting in the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized apps that require administrator-level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible to a normal Android user. Rooting is similar to jailbreaking devices running the Apple iOS operating system. On Android, rooting can also facilitate the complete removal and replacement of the device's operating system, usually with a more recent release of its current operating system. Root access is also required to load USB drivers for some specialized or just unsupported devices.
Steps of Rooting
First, plugin your phone to your computer's USB:
Make sure the mode is set to Charge only.
Also, you need to turn on USB debugging: (Menu -> Settings ->Applications -> Development -> Check USB Debugging)
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Run hack-ace.cmd (as Administrator if you're in Windows).
You will be asked for the pass key. Take a look in the file /tools/txt/CAJUN.TXT and copy the contents of that file to the command prompt.
Now you should see this screen.
7. The toggle flash method should be hbootPD98IMG. If it isn't, press 't' and then enter.
8. Now it's time for the fun! Choose 1 Hack Ace and enter. Watch the magic happen :-) This will take a while, probably 5-10 minutes.
YOUR PHONE IS ROOTED!!
Installing a Custom rom
After the rooting is complete, you should now have a fully working rooted Android phone. Next it's time to install a custom ROM. This is easy.
Download ROM Manager from Play Store. Open the app and choose Flash ClockworkMod Recovery the first thing you do.
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Place the download .zip file in your SD card and don't forget to remember the name of the file which should be located later.
Power off your phone.
Power on by holding power button as well as volume down key.
Select RECOVERY ( Use volume key to to naviagate different options and power key to select.)
Wipe Data and Cache, Wipe Dalvik Cache.
Select install zip from SD.
Now locate the zip file previously stored in SD and select install.
Once installation is completed, reboot.
YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY FLASHED CUSTOM ROM!!
Returning Back to Stock Rom
If you have not back up of your stock rom before flashing custom rom, you need to download the stock rom
Download the full stock version which may be in more than one parts due to file size upload limits. Then download 7 zip to extract the rom. As in case of flashing the custom rom, place the extracted file of stock rom in SD card and follow the same procedure of flashing. Reboot!
ENJOY STOCK VERSION!!
Download Custom ROMs
Here's the list of best ROMs available for DHD.
Jellybean 4.2.x
Jellybean 4.1.x
How to install Unicode fonts
By default, when you open any website that is in fonts like Nepali, Hindi and other several languages, you will see something like composed of boxes. Once your phone is rooted, its pretty simple to solve though issues. All you have to do is install the apps like font-oosh (for devnagari fonts) available in the Play Store. Allow it the superuser permission and install font.
Must have apps for DHD
Most of the apps are available in the Play Store. However, you may have to buy some of the apps in the google Play Store. Downloading such applications from other sources like 4shared, blackmart alpha etc. will save your dollars.
Some of the best apps are:
Adfree (only for rooted devices )
4shared
Blackmart Alpha
Call recorder (pro version available in 4shared)
Music Cloud
Press Reader
Titanium Backup pro (for rooted devices)
Voice translator free
Tubemate
Games
PES 2012
All wings
Ducati Challenge
NFS most wanted
Stick Cricket
Rope Escape
Shine Runner
