Database Develop

Help revive my dead Kaiser

I have a big problem which I hope all you Kaiser gurus can offer some advice:
I got my Kaiser two weeks ago, pop in my USA T-mobile sim card (GSM only) and it worked perfectly. I then went over to Taiwan and the device was put in Airplane mode for about 10 days. When I get back to the states, the phone no longer works; all other features of WM6 works except it the phone service.
It cannot find the t-mobile network regardless in auto or manual network selection mode. I tried the SIM card on my other phone and it works perfectly so that rules out the SIM card. I did a hard reset and it didn't cure the problem.
Question is, can the altitude or air cabin pressure somehow killed the phone portion of the unit?
What other diagnostic methods do you recommend?

Hmm I dont know if this is a good idea but emergency services like 911 should still work, even without service. And by that I mean without being signed up for service. So it might help to test 911, then hang up if it rings once. Just to see if your radio still works. If it does, then the issue might be that the phone is not configured correctly to T-mobile.
Now this is only true in the USA. I'm not sure where you are from. But given that the USA has just about the oldest infrastructure in any developed nation, I'm confident it can only be better where you are from.

No, 911 does not work. Does this mean my radio is fried? What can I do?

hmm... this sounds like a bad radio flash gone wrong... and not saying so!

I tried it with my friend's AT&T Sim and it worked perfectly. Does it mean it's the carrier's problem?

it means probably your phone got sim lock somehow. Just do hard spl and unlock it.

I'd get another T-Mobile sim card if your device works fine with an AT&T sim. I realize you said your T-Mobile sim works great in another phone, but that's the only thing that makes sense.

Ok I'll try that. Problem is, I have several other T-mobile lines and I tried those SIMS already and no cigar.
Anyone else can contribute any ideas? HTC is not support me because this is an import phone.

mutantblack said:
it means probably your phone got sim lock somehow. Just do hard spl and unlock it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is MISLEADING info !
Hard-SPL = CID unlock = ROM options
it does NOT unlock the SIM !!

hello all
i got the "no sevice" problem which looks like the same as Valleydog's.
i got my kaiser about 1 month, everything goes very well
today im in class and turn on the flight mode.
when i turn off the flight mode, it cant find the sevice any more,it tells "no sevice"
i cant dial any number including 911,86,110 etc......i swap my friends' cards they couldnt work,too
oh,just a nightmare to me, i flash the htc ship rom(which contains a radio),problem still...
could anybody help me, was it suddenly sim locked? possible?
Why such bad thing happens on me(good person)...........
KAIS130 with hspl v1,flashed many roms without problem,just this problem suddenly scares me
Sheng

This happened to me briefly the other day; running a stock T-Mobiles Vario III with NO rom flashing done to it.
I went to make a call and there was no service. The phone had been in my pocket for a while. I soft reset it and it worked after that, but took about 5 minutes before it picked up a signal... It's been fine since though.

This really sucks... I will head down to the T-mobile store and try out all their SIM cards until I find one that works.
The thing that puzzles me is that the other carrier's SIM (AT&T) works fine

Why such bad thing happens on me(good person)...........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha....im sure its got nothin to do with that....mebbe u dun pray enough

Here's an update...I tried 3 working SIMS cards in T-mobile store on my phone and it still does not get signal.
Very frustrated at this point.

My phone worked intermittently at one point but now it's dead again. What a piece of crap.

This is so annoying, and HTC have no answer regarding this issue.
It is clearly not a hardware fault!!!
I have the same problem & it is so frustrating you guys can't imagine.
I have always loved HTC machines, but I am thinking never again!
Regards
Andre'

saper747 (andre),
Where are you located and what have you done to troubleshoot the problem so far?

Did you call T-Mobile to see if they have something configured wrong on their end? If the phone works with an AT&T sim, it would seem something on T-Mobile's side wasn't right.

There is nothing wrong as confirmed by T-mobile, the same SIM works on any other unlocked phone except my Kaiser

valleydog said:
saper747 (andre),
Where are you located and what have you done to troubleshoot the problem so far?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am located in Israel I have tried 7 sim cards (2 -cellcom,3 -orange,1 -02 uk& 1-t-mobile ) non of them work on my Kaiser but they do in any other phone!!!
I have done soft resets & hard resets nothing helps.
it all started after I was trying to roam to another country and a day later my battery went dead, the next thing i new it wouldent register any network ,

Loosing network signal

Hi!
After weeks of flawless function my Xperia can not find my carriers phone network.
I have updated the phone to the new ROM but that does not help.
The phone finds the SIM card and asks for the code.
Strangly it can connect to internet through my carrier (Tele2).
But I can not get a connection to the phone network and make a normal phone call.
Is something wrong with the phone?
NO, cause with another carrier (Telenor) everything works pefect.
Then obviously something is wrong with my carrier (Tele2) or the SIM-card.
NO, cause when I put my Tele2 SIM-card in another device (Ipaq 6515) it works perfect.
The Ipaq is not a 3G-phone. Can that have anything to do with it?
I'm getting lost here, all help is appreciated.
(ORIGINAL MESSAGE
Hi!
After weeks of flawless function my Xperia has started to lose it's phone network.
I notice it after I wake my phone up from stand by mode.
It doesn't help to turn the phone option off and on in Comm manager, but it has sometimes helped turning flight mode on and off.
Other times I had to restart the phone.
This happens a couple of times every day, after long times of not using the phone. I have not been able to trigger this problem, so I don't know what causes it or exactly when it happens.
Strangly it can connect to HDSPA while it has lost the phone network.
I have also experienced som freezes when I'm flipping between the panels to much.
All help is appreciated, thanks.

It would be helpful if you could give us more information.
What ROM are you using
Which carrier you have
etc.

mo.ammi said:
It would be helpful if you could give us more information.
What ROM are you using
Which carrier you have
etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using:
ROM 1.02.936.3
Radioversion 1.06.25.29
The carrier is Swedish Tele2.
In Sweden we have GSM-900 and GSM-1800.
Tele2 also provide me with UMTS and HSDPA.

Today the problem became worse.
Even after repeated soft restarts it refused to find the phone network.
Then I change SIM-card to another carrier and it found the network.
I also tried the SIM-card that's giving me problems in another device. Works fine.
So both SIM-cards works. I'm now gonna go with the new carrier during the day to see if the problem come back.
If anyone have any ideas, please help.

krion said:
Today the problem became worse.
Even after repeated soft restarts it refused to find the phone network.
Then I change SIM-card to another carrier and it found the network.
I also tried the SIM-card that's giving me problems in another device. Works fine.
So both SIM-cards works. I'm now gonna go with the new carrier during the day to see if the problem come back.
If anyone have any ideas, please help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All I can say that Xperia sometimes looks for the signal a bit longer it should IMO,
but I also know that carriers have many many problems usually and they're also often responsible for signal drops in some places too.
I know that 'cos I was talking to my carrier many times about it and learned something about it...

have u tried hard resetting the phone or re-installing the software? ..
if u run the sony update software it will give u the option to re-install your phones software - not sure if that has the same effect as a hard reset ..
probably worth trying

Amanox said:
have u tried hard resetting the phone or re-installing the software? ..
if u run the sony update software it will give u the option to re-install your phones software - not sure if that has the same effect as a hard reset ..
probably worth trying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for answering, I have now done a total reinstall and updated the phone to the newest R2... ROM.
The problem remains.
The phone finds the SIM card and asks for the code.
It can connect to internet through my carrier (Tele2).
But I can not get a connection to the phone network and make a normal phone call.
Is something wrong with the phone?
NO, cause with another carrier (Telenor) everything works pefect.
Then obviously something is wrong with my carrier (Tele2) or the SIM-card.
NO, cause when I put my Tele2 SIM-card in another device (Ipaq 6515) it works perfect.
I'm getting lost here, more ideas is appreciated. Tomorrow I will call Tele2 support.

Have you tried disabling 3G/HSDPA?
Chance that you have very poor 3G on your phone, whilst the IPAC is picking up ok 2G.

artesea said:
Have you tried disabling 3G/HSDPA?
Chance that you have very poor 3G on your phone, whilst the IPAC is picking up ok 2G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying.
I disabled HSDPA/HSUPA in the advanced network menu. But it didn't help.
I also tried to choose GSM only in the phone seetings menue. But I could not even change the setting. Just got an error message about not being able to change the network (or something similar).
Is there any other setting that might be worth trying?

krion said:
Thanks for replying.
I disabled HSDPA/HSUPA in the advanced network menu. But it didn't help.
I also tried to choose GSM only in the phone seetings menue. But I could not even change the setting. Just got an error message about not being able to change the network (or something similar).
Is there any other setting that might be worth trying?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having worked for several phone companies a few years at customer service I know what the procedure is.
-First thing they do is ask you to do a "crosstest", try your SIM in another phone and see if that works.
-You'll tell them that you did that and everything works fine when you use another phone.
-They'll automatically conclude that there's something wrong with your phone (correctly)
-They'll ask you if you could do a hard reset ( You did that too)
-Then maybe they'll try and reset the network (which almost never works)
Basically they'll have no other choice then for you to return it and have them look at the problem / replace your phone.
I don't think we here can help you with your problem
Good luck and keep us posted

Get a new SIM card. I've seen problems like this before, and an updated SIM card solved it.
The best way would be to test your SIM card in a similar phone, the ipaq not being close because it's not even 3G.

maedox said:
Get a new SIM card. I've seen problems like this before, and an updated SIM card solved it.
The best way would be to test your SIM card in a similar phone, the ipaq not being close because it's not even 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm so confused right now.
Got my new sim card today, problem remains.
I call the carrier support and after they've looked the IMEI-number up they say that the phone is barred by an external operator. They won't tell me the reason and by what operator.
So I call the other carriers support and after they've done a IMEI-search they say that the phone is not locked in any way, by them or any other operator. After have been talking to Xperia support they come to the same conclusion. The phone is not locked but agree to that something is wrong, with phone or carriers, and they want me to try with a third carrier.

Final
I've handed in my phone to the seller and got another one back instead.
The end

Exact same problem
Howdy folks,
I have the exact same problem: My Xperia has worked fine for a month. Suddenly I can't register with Tele2 network (tried another Tele2 card as well that didn't work) for calling but have access to data channel so I can surf. Got told by the Tele2 support that my phone was fu**ed up. Got pissed off. Tried a sim for another provider (Telenor) that worked. Called the Tele2 support again. They noticed that I have an old (2g) sim, so they will send a new (3g) card to test if that fixes this mess. It should arrive late this week or early the next. Can't wait...
I'll keep you posted in this thread (or, if I should instead have made a new thread, a moderator may spank me and I will do better).
/Swedish Dave

Nope, new sim-card didn't fix it. But I have found at least one other xperia-user with this problem...

bad GSM signal
I have a X1
rom 1.03.931.10
radio 1.10.25.18
protocol version 52.56.25.29W
and since from the start I have bad GSM signal I have like 1-2 lines onli and it go up to 5line but onli from time to time (and then it drops again to 1-2line or none but If Itray to call is working or I get called but I can berly hear them bicose of the bad signal) on O2 network and in T-mobile is the same no mather wher I'm in town or outside of town; I'm in UK
is the phone damaged?? or...
sry for my bad english

My phone does the same thing
My x1 has had no problem with phone function or network. However, from the last week, the signal began to be lost sometimes, and the machine turned off automatically. and finally today, there is no signal at all.
MY SIM card works with other phones, so, I thought it might be software problem, and hard reseted with new rom. However, still no signal. It keeps looking. Does anyone have the same problem, and hopefully, solution?

I´m using my X1i with Tele2 as my service provider,but i don´t have any problems with signalstrength.. Works just fine..

speederTM said:
I have a X1
rom 1.03.931.10
radio 1.10.25.18
protocol version 52.56.25.29W
and since from the start I have bad GSM signal I have like 1-2 lines onli and it go up to 5line but onli from time to time (and then it drops again to 1-2line or none but If Itray to call is working or I get called but I can berly hear them bicose of the bad signal) on O2 network and in T-mobile is the same no mather wher I'm in town or outside of town; I'm in UK
is the phone damaged?? or...
sry for my bad english
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know I should've introdouced myself first, and that this is a strange first post, but:
HOLY SMOKES!!!
Xperia has FIVE reception bars????!!!!!
I always thought that 3 is the max value, since it only happened once that it went up to three bars, rest of the time it's maximum 2, usually 1.
I am also on Tele2 carrier, in Sweden that is, and since yesterday, I have no reception AT ALL.
Nothing.
Tried turning off 3G(or whatever it's called), nothing happens.
Tested with 3 other cards (one Tele2, one Telenor, one Telia) - all seem to be working okay. Except that the Tele2 one has slightly lower reception than the others.
Tested with 3 other phones as well - iPhone 3GS, Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, HTC Desire. All of them worked perfectly. Full coverage on that super-fast network thingy(the 3G symbol on iPhone).
Internet is just flowing on other phones - but Xperia is just falling behind in the most important section - reception.
Calls get dropped (2/3 of the calls), I must send same message at least 3 times in order to get it sent, Internet is crappy - if there's any at all.
Any kind of guidance is mostly appreciated.
P.S. A bit of those numbers which seem to be important:
Microsoft Windows MobileR 6.1 Professional
CE-OS 5.2.19608 (Build 19608.1.2.60)
ROM-version: 1.05.936.9
ROM-date: 04/19/09
Radioversion: 1.14.25.55
Protocol version: 1.0.11842.32680

Since all of you seem to have problems with one and the same carrier (Tele2) why don't you simply switch to another one? I once had a problem that was very alike the one described here and after several unsuccessful attempts of the carrier to fix it I simply switched to another one and all my problems were gone.

...really need help, 24 hours to go!

Hello everybody, I'm writing you from UK, where I bought a second-hand G1 (absolutely perfect!!! really good). The phone is T-Mobile branded and factory-default cleaned. Once I got it, placed my italian H3G sim inside, and (of course...) it told me that it was locked. I purchased a key (...I know may I could do without it... but very few time to spend, these days) and it was succesfully sim-free. Then I reebot it, and start the acrivation... that doesn' run!!! I insered the correct APN parameters, I also tried with a UK O2 and Vodafone sim, but, problem is that the gsm segnal level (small icon on the top with 4 vertical bars) is not giving signs of life, and it has a small "cross" on the left side. Of course I can't get the registration... I can't get the line!!!! why does it happen??? all the sims are correctly recognized (ask for the pin and the "no sim" messages and icons are off), but no way to go over...
Please, help me in any way, just 1 more day here, then I'll go back to Italy... far from the shop!!!! HEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!!!

If you type:
reboot
and press enter. If the phone reboots you can have a chance, if the phone does not it means its on a updated version which you will have to downgrade. While downgrading i recommend going up to Rooted versions of android. Although you might not need it.
You should look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=442480
and/or here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=452316
You can get through your problem, if its just the registration. by simply following a few of the instructions in the first link combined with some of the instructions in the second link.

@elmejor: He didn't even mention rooting. His problem is he can't get his phone to associate with the networks on his sim.
@tony_m78: You should probably post what apn settings you are using. Also, this is NOT A DEVELOPMENT ISSUE and should not have been posted in this forum.

thanks gor your answer.... I have been to those links THOUSANDS of times, within yesterday night and today... but I really can't get a solution. I can't go over the "error connecting to server" page :-(
The worst problem is that I really don't have time NOW, but I'll have it at the end of the week; I know I'd get a solution, working on that... but really I can't. But whay do you think about the absence of segnal? is it normal?!?
Tomorrow morning I'll find the way to buy a T-Mobile original sim and try to see what happen. . . . . . but that's strange!!!!!!!! not normal... i insered a correct code (generated from the IMEI), the answer was "unlocked", free for others carriers.... BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!! :-( tic tac tic tac. . . ..I don't have time!!!!!!!! :-( nobody experience this strange problem?!?

jashsu said:
@elmejor: He didn't even mention rooting. His problem is he can't get his phone to associate with the networks on his sim.
@tony_m78: You should probably post what apn settings you are using. Also, this is NOT A DEVELOPMENT ISSUE and should not have been posted in this forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...oooooops... really sorry, I was wrong. Can you link me to the correct place??? I'll move there immediatly...

jashsu said:
@tony_m78: You should probably post what apn settings you are using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...I don't think the problem is the APN, I set the correct one (from Wiki) for H3G Ita and for O2 UK (these are the sim I tried with); the problem is that the segnal is ZERO, like the sim is not present... BUT IT IS, it ask me for the pin and accept it....

Can you manually select the network to connect to? Settings>Wireless controls>Mobile networks>Operator selection

Are you sure radio is working on this phone? Maybe it has some physical problems (like bad gsm chip)... Or - maybe you have sim cards not acceptable in UK.
Try with T-mobile sim first. If not working:
I would try to factory reset device some times, if it don't help I would try to reflashing it (firmware and radio). But in your case I think you should ask about this situation in shop where you bought it (if you have warraty) first.

Data plan?
I had a similar problem when I got my APD1 phone in the US. When I returned to the UK, I put in my Tesco SIM and the phone signal strength icon had an 'x' indicating not connected or no signal. Eventually I used my home wifi to activate the phone. After the phone was activated, the same SIM was able to connect and the signal strength icon worked normally.
BUT, it turned out that all I probably needed to do was to have a SIM with a data plan (which mine didn't at the time) <<BLUSH>>
Have you confirmed that your SIM has data turned on?
Of course ensuring that the APN settings are correct is also necessary. (But it sounds like you did that)

No Network to call but 3g works(Solved by fluke)

Got a new problem with my G1, basicaly I used my phone placed it in my pocket went out then when I next checked my phone I had no signal, I didn't take too much notice of it. When I got home and also there I had no signal, did the obvious rebooting, no joy. Then I did a wipe restarted the phone, still no signal now this is the strange part I had 3g because my phone let me sign in also started syncing my phone contact. I can browse on the net also download from the market but when i dial a number I get the message Not registered on network. So when I went to settings/call settings/network operators/available networks clicked on t-mobile it says Your SIM card does not allow a connection to this network. Then just for fun try it with the other network operators same message. Also my sdcard was reformated.
Then I downgraded to rc7 (dreaming.nbh) rebooted no call signal but can browse and use market so I've updated to android 1.5 ota still no joy any ideas I planing to take to a t-mobile store let them check it also has anyone else had this problem before.

wasuup said:
Got a new problem with my G1, basicaly I used my phone placed it in my pocket went out then when I next checked my phone I had no signal, I didn't take too much notice of it. When I got home and also there I had no signal, did the obvious rebooting, no joy. Then I did a wipe restarted the phone, still no signal now this is the strange part I had 3g because my phone let me sign in also started syncing my phone contact. I can browse on the net also download from the market but when i dial a number I get the message Not registered on network. So when I went to settings/call settings/network operators/available networks clicked on t-mobile it says Your SIM card does not allow a connection to this network. Then just for fun try it with the other network operators same message. Also my sdcard was reformated.
Then I downgraded to rc7 (dreaming.nbh) rebooted no call signal but can browse and use market so I've updated to android 1.5 ota still no joy any ideas I planing to take to a t-mobile store let them check it also has anyone else had this problem before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a problem with your network, not with your phone. Either that, or your SIM card is fried. Assuming you're on T-Mobile from your post, you need to contact them for a new SIM card (you can do this inside any of their stores.)

lukekirstein said:
Sounds like a problem with your network, not with your phone. Either that, or your SIM card is fried. Assuming you're on T-Mobile from your post, you need to contact them for a new SIM card (you can do this inside any of their stores.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to prove my sim is working fine I have put my sim in an old nokia and just rung customer service and got my balance this proves my sim is in working nic.
On the G1 I can't call what so ever or send a text just getting 3g coverage.
Thanks for the advice.

wasuup said:
Just to prove my sim is working fine I have put my sim in an old nokia and just rung customer service and got my balance this proves my sim is in working nic.
On the G1 I can't call what so ever or send a text just getting 3g coverage.
Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd probably try wiping and re-flashing.

h.nocturna said:
I'd probably try wiping and re-flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
he did lol read the first post
in fact after doing so, he did a super wipe
Then I downgraded to rc7 (dreaming.nbh)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really may be the SIM card or the SIM card reader in your phone (more likely the SIM card) it may work on another phone
try cleaning the contacts (the ones on the phone, not the ones IN the phone) ?

Call customer service and ask them to take you off whatever tower your phone is now on? suposebly pulling the battery will do it to.. Also get Anycut and make a short cut to phone info an toggle radio on off?

same problem occasionally
wasuup said:
Got a new problem with my G1, basicaly I used my phone placed it in my pocket went out then when I next checked my phone I had no signal, I didn't take too much notice of it. When I got home and also there I had no signal, did the obvious rebooting, no joy. Then I did a wipe restarted the phone, still no signal now this is the strange part I had 3g because my phone let me sign in also started syncing my phone contact. I can browse on the net also download from the market but when i dial a number I get the message Not registered on network. So when I went to settings/call settings/network operators/available networks clicked on t-mobile it says Your SIM card does not allow a connection to this network. Then just for fun try it with the other network operators same message. Also my sdcard was reformated.
Then I downgraded to rc7 (dreaming.nbh) rebooted no call signal but can browse and use market so I've updated to android 1.5 ota still no joy any ideas I planing to take to a t-mobile store let them check it also has anyone else had this problem before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'VE had the same issue, occasionally, I'm fairly certain its the sim card, not the phone. you can take the battery out, pull out the sim card, clean it up (don't use watter or anything that'll scratch it of course) and put it back in, make sure its securely in there, and boot up the phone, however, I've also noticed that sometimes in the middle of the night (like around 2AM to 330AM PST) sometimes cell coverage gives out for t-mobile where I'm at (friends confirmed), if you only just recently recieved 3g in yoru area, they are doing maintenance to get it up and running perfectly, so don't fret too much
EDIT:
Another thing I did was made sure to mess with the APN settings. dont' edit them, just try and change your APN from T-mobile to ATT, wait for it to say "not supported by sim" and then switch back over to T-mobile, that worked for me twice now

I'm having this same problem, only I can't surf the web or use the market. :\ Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Sorry to reply so late but the probem is now solved, this is what I did, I took out my sim card out the phone put it in an old phone to see if my sim had any issues but I forgot to take out the sim and put it back in my g1 went sleep.
Next morning put the sim in my g1 and all is fine got connection and all functions working, then waited a few hours no problems at all.
So I rerooted installed the danger spl and custom rom and the probem has just vanished, haven't got the slightest clue why that happened or what caused it.
The sim is new just under a month old lost my old 1 uk t-mobile charged me just under a £10 for a new 1 even if your on contract thiefs

wasuup said:
Sorry to reply so late but the probem is now solved, this is what I did, I took out my sim card out the phone put it in an old phone to see if my sim had any issues but I forgot to take out the sim and put it back in my g1 went sleep.
Next morning put the sim in my g1 and all is fine got connection and all functions working, then waited a few hours no problems at all.
So I rerooted installed the danger spl and custom rom and the probem has just vanished, haven't got the slightest clue why that happened or what caused it.
The sim is new just under a month old lost my old 1 uk t-mobile charged me just under a £10 for a new 1 even if your on contract thiefs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its probably
A) the SIM got dislodged or
b) your G1 contacts were dirty.
All the above could cause the phone to not read the information on the SIM
Blowing the dust out/wiping the goldcontacts where the sim goes, and tightly inserting the sim might help, grandmegabosses

help cant connect to network or save proper network or sms settings

a quick history of what I've done so far
Sumsung I897 captivate from ATT unlock and being used on Telus network was working great for about 4 days, then all kinds of problem started cropping up.
Phone came unlocked, I rooted using update.zip from xda, installed rom manager and started removing ATT bloatware, entered SMS and APN info which worked fine.
Yesterday I noticed that where I once got good reception I was now getting nothing and would have to drive down the street before I would get something descent. I thought maybe I'd put it back to stock with rom manager and see if that would help which it did not. It actually made it worse, decided to go all out and use the Odin3 one click downloader just to make sure I was back to stock firmware. This didn't work either but now I can enter the SMS and change the preferred network type but it doesn't save. Preferred network type is grayed out and even though I can change it it never save same as SMS.
Now I can't hold connecting in my living room where my wifes Milestone gets full bars. I tried taking the phone to where I had the best signal and change the preferred network, SMS, and set the network operator but it doesn't save any info, can't find on operator half the time on manual or auto and gave me an error and logged it to #*9900#
I've been at this for 2 days straight and can't figure out how to get it right back to stock, it seems to keep hanging onto the same preferred network and not saving anything I enter.
What can I do to get back to stock, and it has to be something that wipes everything clean, clean, clean, because even the GSM disconnects stay logged under *#*#4636#*#*
***I desperately even tried pulling the batt and SIM card for the night in hopes that would do something.

So, if I'm understand what happened correctly, you bought an unlocked Captivate, rooted it, deleted some bloatware, entered your Telus APN info and everything worked awesome for about four days. Now everything has gone down the hole. Is that right?
If that is the case, then we need to figure out what changed. Using Odin3 would have definitely put you back to stock/unrooted your phone, I don't think you could go back any further than that. If I were you, I would act like I first got the phone. As in, I would do everything you did to it, as if was day one. At one point, everything worked fine. Try to recreate that. You can always look into exchanging it or perhaps Samsung customer support can give you a little more insight to what's going on. Here's the number if you want to try them out.
Samsung customer service - 1.800.726.7864

Thanks, I've gone through the process a few times today from start to finish trying to figure it out ... maybe some of the problems aren't real problems and just limitations that I didn't know where their. I've since flash with odin3+re-partion to the bone stock i897UCJF6 as in not the one click method. It loaded fine but still have the same issue, I can't set preferred network type or get it to keep the number entered into SMSC. I think if I can get passed that I'll be be one the up side of winning. I keep noticing that the log of GSM disconnects never clears or the usage statistics under *#*#4636#*# , I'm thinking its in the same area that other bad data is being held onto instead of being cleared when flash firmware or factory reset.
Is anyone able to change preferred network type? maybe I was never able to change it but I think I should be able too.
I may be wrong in assuming this but I don't think ATT is going to be interested helping me connect one of their handset that I'm trying to use on foreign network, but I could be wrong and is an open option.

*#*#197328640#*#*
debug screen
phone control
network control
band selection
wcdma band
wcdma all
menu->end
used this to lock my phone to WCDMA only so that problem is solved
*** never mind posted to soon it still didn't stick after rebooting
be carefull using the service menu as I have no idea what most of this stuff does

I got the SMS service number issue fix by taking out my sim, swapping in another known working sim from the same network, setting the service number, pressing update and then swapping back. Before every time I tried to update the service number it spit out an "update error" can anybody tell where the SMS config data is stored? on the phone or sim.
The only problem I'm having now is with reception which maybe fixable if I can set the preferred network to WCDMA only. But the button for that option is a light blue colour vs other phones that I can change this setting on. Does the blue mean anything like a locked function or something that set by the firmware as unchangeable?