If you have a smartphone with a Mediatek type processor, you can flash it using the SP Flash Tool utility, and thus install an alternative ROM, to have a different, improved version, or lite from Android. ROM flashing is an operation that consists of manually installing an Android ROM on your smartphone.

It's about others terms of changing the operating system of your mobile, if you have noticed slowdowns or are looking for special features. By flashing the "Stock" ROM corresponding to your phone, you can restore your phone to its original state at any time. The ROM we are talking about here has nothing to do with RAM, also called ROM (Read Only Memory).

Before we begin, it is important to clarify that flashing a ROM is not a trivial procedure. Only advanced users should attempt this operation. Indeed, an error during the installation of Android can make your phone unstable, or even freeze it.

If your phone is in good working order before flashing, it is advisable to make a backup, with the utility MTK Droid Tools, for example. Also, be sure to read this entire guide at least once before you start flashing your phone yourself.

What are the essential prerequisites?

Several prerequisites are necessary to flash your smartphone with SP Flash Tool:

Step by step

The first step is to check that your computer is ready to communicate correctly with the smartphone. To do this, you must install the PreLoader Mediatek USB VCOM drivers by choosing one of the following two ways.

Then unzip the downloaded ROM archive, in the folder of your choice. Check for a scatter.txt file in the folder when unzipping is complete.

Launch the SP Flash Tool program as an administrator, then click the "Scatter-loading" button to load the scatter file present in the unzipped folder of your ROM. If a notification appears at this time, you can ignore it. Depending on the ROM and processor, the name of the scatter file may be something like MTXXXX_Android_scatter.txt.

Turn off the phone, if possible by removing the battery for a few moments. Keep the phone turned off for now.

Press the "Download" button of SP Flash Tool and connect your phone to the computer via the USB data cable. The ROM flash process will start and a red progress bar will be displayed.

When the red bar reaches 100%, it gives way to a new loading bar, purple this time.

At the end of the loading of the purple bar, a message “Please insert USB cable in x seconds” appears. The download of the ROM to the smartphone begins and can be followed by a yellow progress bar.

At the end of the download, a “Download OK” dialog box with a green circle appears: it indicates the success of the ROM flash.

You can now disconnect your smartphone and turn it on with confidence. It is normal that the opening of the system takes time, the first start of a ROM requiring to initialize a certain number of parameters.