Many owners of worthy Android smartphones are still waiting for their handsets to be upgraded to the latest version of the platforms operating system, and one of these is the HTC Desire HD but today we can tell you about the right ingredients needed to get the ICS 4.0.3 update now.
Last month we told you about an XDA Developer porting Android 4.0 over to the Desire S and HD, and now an article over at Electric Pig is looking at how to get Android 4.0.3 on your Desire HD now ahead of any official release for it. First off it has to be remembered this is only done at your own risk, and you need to be confident in putting new software onto your device.
First you need to have a Desire HD that is already rooted and it should have S-OFF and with ClockworkMod Recovery installed, and now would be a good time to back up all of your files to SD card. Then you will have to download the Primo-S v3.4 ROM from here that is the port of Android ICS, and once the download has finished connect your handset to your PC and move the file to the devices SD card.
Then the handset needs to be disconnected and turned off before rebooting by pressing the volume up and power buttons at the same time, which will launch the handset in the Recovery Mode.
Then you have to select the ‘Backup and Restore’ option and choose backup, and now you need to wipe everything by selecting the ‘Wipe data/factory reset’ and ‘Wipe Cache Partition’, and then from the advanced menu selecting the ‘Wipe Dalvik Cache’ option.
Now you need to go back to the main Recovery Mode menu and select the ‘Install zip from SD card’ option and obviously selecting the Primo-S ROM. If this is done correctly your handset will start the process of installing Android ICS, and once done click reboot system now. You should now have Ice Cream Sandwich and a modified version of Sense running on your Desire HD.
The Desire HD is essentially the same handset as the HTC One V and this ROM is an almost a direct port of the version of ICS that the One V uses. With this Primo-S ROM you will get Dropbox integration with 25GB of free cloud storage for all your files and photos, but time will tell if HTC realises that you have rooted your device and kicks you off.
There will also be smarter multitasking with the HTC app that shows an isometric 3D line up of screenshots of your most recently used apps, and the ROM will even bring a Beats Audio equalizer to the handset. Obviously this is done at your own risk but let us know how you get on if you do try it on your Desire HD.