Custom ROM for an old phone

[Zodiark1593]

Soo, my parents decide to upgrade to new phones. I was given an old LG Optimus phone with the Tegra 2 SoC. Currently, I have a kinda poopy Samsung Gravity, so even a Tegra 2 would probably be a huge upgrade.

The problem though is the rather old version of Android currently running on the phone. I think it's Gingerbread, or something like that. Not exactly what you'd call stable. Given the RAM (I believe it's at 256 MB, might be wrong) would it be feasible to root the device and install a newer version of Android, or perhaps another Linux alternative if available.

Basically, I plan on using the device for WiFi internet surfing, and as a portable media player, games are already handled by my 3DS.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Well, here's an interesting problem. When I put the phone under some heavy use (video), a alert pops up saying I have no battery left and the phone will shut down. Looking at the icon, I have 70% left. The phone soon shuts off, and upon reboot, the battery icon comes up saying the battery is drained before shutting down again. I have yet to try it with just light usage.

Also, the batteries in question (both parents had the same phone) were swollen, one barely noticeable, the other, the battery wouldn't even properly stay in the phone. Both batteries were under similar levels of abuse during service, so this indicates a common problem with the batteries, or possibly the phones themselves (poor power management?).

Any similar problems out there or solutions (other than the obvious get a new battery which comes tomorrow)? Google isn't helping me much today.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The batteries are broken. Don't use em

 

[Zodiark1593]

The batteries are broken. Don't use em

Slow edit on my part. I had plans to get a new battery tomorrow. What got me curious is that both batteries are swelling, so I'm not sure if that's normal through use, or if there is another factor involved.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Update:

New battery, and a couple weeks of use. Works pretty well, not the latest, being a Tegra 2 and all, but I don't really expect games anyway especially when I carry a Nintendo 3DS as well. Kept clean, this phone works well enough for internet browsing, videos, and such, though keeping multiple tabs open in Firefox seems to hit the memory pretty hard. Battery life is, unfortunately, kind of a disappointment coming from dumb phones, but gotta feed the power-hungry chips somehow.

All in all, paid $37 for the Optimus 2X (price of the battery), so I'm rather happy with it, and a monumental improvement in every way (save for battery and keypad) over the Gravity TxT I had before.

 

[Daniel Jones]

First of all please be specific about the device you are talking about, old LG Optimus phone will not help anyway.

If officially there is no upgrade you can still root your device and upgrade up to ICS (most probably) but not more than that, not to JB.

Search web for upgrading your device to ICS, you will get all the resources.