Posted on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 9:21 PM
Ever since owning my PDA phone with its useful pull out keyboard I have been annoyed by the terrible performance exhibited of the screen re-render from landscape to portrait and vice versa. Some parts of the screen rapidly redraw in the new orientation whilst others remain stuck in the previous orientation. I suspected that this was down to the O2 today screen system that is overlaid on top of the standard Windows Mobile 5 today screen.
An ex-colleague had done a hard reset and interrupted the installation of any O2 software and configuration with the single purpose of moving the phone from O2 to Orange. He had observed the phone performed considerably better without all the O2 crud that sits on top of the base OS. He had, however, had to discover all the Orange settings so he could use the phone properly (voice mail, gprs, proxies etc.).
I was not entirely sure what to expect from a hard reset and did not relish the thought of having to find every O2 network/phone configuration detail throughout my phone before setting about a hard reset. I did though just in case!
As it turns out, if you are planning to keep the phone on O2 then all you have to do is a hard reset, be patient whilst the full reset takes place, and choose "Basic" from the choice of 3 configurations you are given when the phone finally boots (it is slow). This essentially configures all the O2 specific details and no more; leaving the phone much leaner and far more responsive. Screen reorientation is now brisk and does not get stuck in hybrid orientations and lock up.
I discovered this tip about hard resets which worked for me:
"Hard resets are awkward - hold in the two top side buttons, press the reset and keep holding the top two buttons after you have removed the stylus from the reset hole. About four seconds should do it."