Database Develop

[Q] i9000M VS Captivate Purchase, Urgent :(

Basically here's the situation, been checking sites for a few weeks on good deals on 2nd hand Android phones. I recently started making contact with sellers and here's the bit.
Seller A - meeting tonight supposedly
Rogers "Unlocked" Captivate
Usb + Charger
$380
Haven't seen pics and the guy says to trust him that the phone is unlocked
Seller B - meeting tomorrow if I back down on Seller A offer
Bell Locked Vibrant (i9000M)
LNIB, bags, all accessories, etc
$370
Seen pics of the phone and accessories. Looks good (even seen it turned on)
I'm on Rogers and was wondering which would be best? I'm fine with either phone. At this point after seeing both for so long/often (researched) they're both on even playing ground...except for some speculations that i9000M (Vibrant)'s battery life is better.
So my question is...Seller A or Seller B? If I go with Seller B I'd have to root/unlock and I've read through threads and forums and seems like loads of people have problems :S More often than the person replying and saying thanks to the creator of the thread/helper and saying that they got it. So I'm having doubts about that. Don't want to mess up the phone!
Also, since this is my first dealings with buying something second hand from a stranger, any tips on things to check for? I heard it's always important to check that the phone can enter download/recovery mode but wouldn't that also reset the phone :S
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

3py0n said:
Basically here's the situation, been checking sites for a few weeks on good deals on 2nd hand Android phones. I recently started making contact with sellers and here's the bit.
Seller A - meeting tonight supposedly
Rogers "Unlocked" Captivate
Usb + Charger
$380
Haven't seen pics and the guy says to trust him that the phone is unlocked
Seller B - meeting tomorrow if I back down on Seller A offer
Bell Locked Vibrant (i9000M)
LNIB, bags, all accessories, etc
$370
Seen pics of the phone and accessories. Looks good (even seen it turned on)
I'm on Rogers and was wondering which would be best? I'm fine with either phone. At this point after seeing both for so long/often (researched) they're both on even playing ground...except for some speculations that i9000M (Vibrant)'s battery life is better.
So my question is...Seller A or Seller B? If I go with Seller B I'd have to root/unlock and I've read through threads and forums and seems like loads of people have problems :S More often than the person replying and saying thanks to the creator of the thread/helper and saying that they got it. So I'm having doubts about that. Don't want to mess up the phone!
Also, since this is my first dealings with buying something second hand from a stranger, any tips on things to check for? I heard it's always important to check that the phone can enter download/recovery mode but wouldn't that also reset the phone :S
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally like i9000M better (looks-wise) and of course, in terms of features, i9000M has a front facing camera which the Rogers Captivate doesn't. I am not sure if Captivate has problems flashing other roms.
As for things to check, you can bring a sim card from another carrier to test if the phone is unlocked. Test the camera, test phone call, check the phone condition and also firmware version (might give you an idea whether the last owner did a lot of flashing).

oooo true true...only thing is I have only 1 sim card from Rogers :S
I'm at the fork in the road right now...I won't be able to test phone call on the Bell one because the Seller B's bell sim is deactivated so he can only turn it on and what not.
Which is the safer bet? Best issue for me is the root/unlocking process. Though there are guides everywhere online and an awesome on here, I still read about many conflicts people have. And the interal SD card corruption (2 weeks after unlocking) I read about scares me
Is this the right code to check firmware?: *#1234# Firmware Version
Also I was told this should work...unless Rogers locked it: *#7465625# = Check the phone lock status

So you are willing to take the risk with possible hardware failure? right?
If so, choose Rogers Captivate.
If not go find a Desire Z or something like that~

xxgg said:
So you are willing to take the risk with possible hardware failure? right?
If so, choose Rogers Captivate.
If not go find a Desire Z or something like that~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DesireZ is nice, but the hinge for "sliding" the screen can break easily.

wait what? Captivate has hardware failure?!?! :S
But THAT'S the one that's unlocked lol

3py0n said:
wait what? Captivate has hardware failure?!?! :S
But THAT'S the one that's unlocked lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can unlock and root the i9000M easily though.

yea but heard lots of horror stories :S so I'm not so sure...and someone reassured me things are okay with the Captivate.

3py0n said:
yea but heard lots of horror stories :S so I'm not so sure...and someone reassured me things are okay with the Captivate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can tell you that rooting and unlocking won't kill the phone. But you will have a high chance if you start flashing different firmwares on it.

The answer of which to choose is simple:
if you want front camera and hard key button go with Bell
if you don't need the front camera, and don't mind having 4 fake buttons go with Rogers

LOLOLOL 4 fake buttons haha jokes
Thanks! I'll go with Captivate and if n e thing goes wrong...or I dont like it...just sell it and grab a Vibrant (i9000M)
Thanks for everyone's contributions.

Got a little sketchy when he wanted to change locations lol wish me luck!! And going with the Captivate.
BOUGHT THE PHONE!
In working order. Thanks for everyone's input!
Just a little bummed about the responsiveness of the "fake" 4 buttons...gotta find the sweet spot when touching them. Or maybe it's just Eclair's fault lol

[Q] Should I get the Captivate?

I am eligible for an upgrade and currently looking at different phones on AT&T network. Either iPhone or Captivate. As I have an iPod touch I am bored with iOS so Captivate is my choice.
But I am wondering that has the GPS issue been fixed? Although I do need the GPS 60% of the time.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

The Captivate has become a great phone because of the support from many people. The GPS really works well! It will work more than 60% of the time for you. The Rom's are really great and we have several so that is positive. But if you haven't heard about the new Moto phone that should be announced at CES in a couple weeks I would check that out. I don't know when or if it is a true or just rumored phone but at least we will now start getting better high end options beside the Captivate.

Is the new moto phone for AT&T?

It is a matter of preference. If you are not one who is going to root your phone and get into custom roms and tweaks the iphone may be best, but as you stated ios is boring, and I will add rigid.
I had an iphone 3g for 2+ years. I am very happy with my captivate, but I am constantly tweaking, flashing roms, etc. there is no official gps fix for stock although some do not have problem with gps on stock. Custom roms have largely fixed the gps.
On my iphone the day I turned it on it looked and behaved the same till the day I turned it off, my captivate changes daily. 2.2 froyo is not available for the captivate, I have been running 2.2 for months through custom roms, I am currently on 2.2.1.
I can not stress enough if you want safe and easy the iphone is great. If you want an adventure and love to F around with things go with a captivate
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

mcord11758 said:
It is a matter of preference. If you are not one who is going to root your phone and get into custom roms and tweaks the iphone may be best, but as you stated ios is boring, and I will add rigid.
I had an iphone 3g for 2+ years. I am very happy with my captivate, but I am constantly tweaking, flashing roms, etc. there is no official gps fix for stock although some do not have problem with gps on stock. Custom roms have largely fixed the gps.
On my iphone the day I turned it on it looked and behaved the same till the day I turned it off, my captivate changes daily. 2.2 froyo is not available for the captivate, I have been running 2.2 for months through custom roms, I am currently on 2.2.1.
I can not stress enough if you want safe and easy the iphone is great. If you want an adventure and love to F around with things go with a captivate
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yes.. I love to F around a lot. I am a total geek and do crazy stuff with my JB iPod and computer all the time. But my current Nokia E71 is dependable but boring at the same time. That is why I want to upgrade.
I might get the Captivate from Ebay as I don't want to get into another Contract with AT&T.

metaldood said:
Oh yes.. I love to F around a lot. I am a total geek and do crazy stuff with my JB iPod and computer all the time. But my current Nokia E71 is dependable but boring at the same time. That is why I want to upgrade.
Should I buy a non AT&T branded - unlocked Captivate from Ebay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not unless it is brand new, why take on someones problem?
It is easy to unlock if you wanted to
Question, windows pc or mac. If you have a mac it will reduce your ability to safely tweak.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

Oh yea... I am looking at new in the box phones on Ebay only. And I am on Windows7 btw.
And how does the Offline GPS work? Is it reliable without network coverage as well?

metaldood said:
Oh yea... I am looking at new in the box phones on Ebay only. And I am on Windows7 btw.
And how does the Offline GPS work? Is it reliable without network coverage as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never use cellular location, only pure gps. Lock in less then 10 seconds, tracks well, turn by turn voice directions.
Once again I am on a custom rom
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

metaldood said:
Oh yea... I am looking at new in the box phones on Ebay only. And I am on Windows7 btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone posted the other day about getting a phone off eBay and the IMEI numbers on the phone and the box didn't match. Buyer beware when it comes to phones and eBay...

metaldood said:
I am eligible for an upgrade and currently looking at different phones on AT&T network. Either iPhone or Captivate. As I have an iPod touch I am bored with iOS so Captivate is my choice.
But I am wondering that has the GPS issue been fixed? Although I do need the GPS 60% of the time.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of late most of the guys here have GPS working. Plus when I got my refurb Captivate with JH7 stock, I got a good GPS lock.
When u go to buy one, turn on GPS and check how it works. If it works, cool, keep it. U could ask the sales rep there to provide u a sim to test it out.

metaldood said:
Is the new moto phone for AT&T?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I read.
http://www.androidcentral.com/rumor-att-announce-motorola-olympus-ces

Nobody can hear me!!

I have a Samsung At&T Captivate, rooted and running 2.2 (updated via kies) and during calls people can barely hear me, and sometimes I cut out altogether. I can hear them alright... any suggestions??

mmm try a different modem?

I would first recommend flashing roms to see if it is solved.
If it still doesn't work properly then then it into at&t for a new one
Sent from my Galaxy S captivate

Maybe your microphone didn't work test out by calling *#0*#
Sent from my captivate running firefly!

I can't return it to At&t as I bought it off ebay and am using it on the Canadian Rogers Network. I don't have the original receipt for it so returning it is out of the question.
I tried the *#0*# and it didn't give me an option to test the mic...?
I'm a little unsure about flashing roms as I don't entirely understand the mechanics of it and from what I here if you don't know exactly what you're doing you shouldn't try it. Plus I've got the phone working the way I want it (all the At&t crap is deleted, all the apps I like are installed).
This is not the only problem I've been having with this phone. I've owned it since August 2010 and experienced random shutdowns two months in, as well as crappy battery life. Since Froyo there has also been a lot of lag... I don't know why. I hard reset the phone before I updated and hard reset it after I updated as to make sure I was starting with a clean slate. The sound problem has only been since Froyo, I think.
I started a thread over at Android Forums in the Samsung Captivate Forum... it's about murdering my Captivate =P

estefana said:
I can't return it to At&t as I bought it off ebay and am using it on the Canadian Rogers Network. I don't have the original receipt for it so returning it is out of the question.
I tried the *#0*# and it didn't give me an option to test the mic...?
I'm a little unsure about flashing roms as I don't entirely understand the mechanics of it and from what I here if you don't know exactly what you're doing you shouldn't try it. Plus I've got the phone working the way I want it (all the At&t crap is deleted, all the apps I like are installed).
This is not the only problem I've been having with this phone. I've owned it since August 2010 and experienced random shutdowns two months in, as well as crappy battery life. Since Froyo there has also been a lot of lag... I don't know why. I hard reset the phone before I updated and hard reset it after I updated as to make sure I was starting with a clean slate. The sound problem has only been since Froyo, I think.
I started a thread over at Android Forums in the Samsung Captivate Forum... it's about murdering my Captivate =P
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you get a good price on ebay? If you did I know why, it has the shutdown issue that a lot of early Captivates had. Buying electronics off ebay is dicey at best.
Added: It probably has a modem that doesn't work good on the Rogers network. Suck it up and try flashing a new one to see if it fixes your problem. Modem Sticky

Anyone else have any other ideas about a quick fix for this problem?

Att lte hard brick help

qhsusb_dload is all I get. Buttons no work. Doesn't vibe or anything. Soft reset doesn't work. Any help or am I screwed. I flashed overcome 8.9 wiped prior and wiped dalvik after the reboot and black screen since.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

I'm really sorry but your device is done. The skyrocket people haven't been able to fix this yet by using a jig or qualcomm tools.
Reading and researching is really important. You can't flash any p73xx rom to the i957, it will brick.
This is exactly why I have tried to get a separate forum for the i957, but that hasn't worked yet.
Hope you are under warranty or that is an expensive mistake.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

I did the exact same thing you did. It is very confusing (Well not really, I just did'nt take my time to read). I was exhausted because I was very happy to have my new skyrocket and new lte tab. I researched and researched. I rooted, installed custom rom and kernel on my skyrocket. I then rooted my tablet and it was great. I then installed a custom rom for a 7300 on my i957 and Boom, gone. Luckily I was within my 30 day return policy. Everything in my home is either jailbroken, rooted, homebrewed, w/e. so I have somewhat experience.
But the combination of tiredness, excitedness, and what ever else comes along with getting new gadgets, I didn't pay attention and blew up my tablet.
Even with my experience and never bricking anything before, I bricked my tablet. I took it back to the store and making believe I never even heard about rooting, jailbreaking, homebrewing; the sales people tried starting it up and eventually they couldn't get it to start up. I got a new tablet, I told them I left the tablet charging overnight and left it charging when I went to work, because I forgot to disconnect it. When I got home from work it just didn't turn on.
Eventually they gave me a new tablet and said do not charge it for more than 8 hours. They said I was the first customer to ever return this tablet because it was defective (This tablet is a beast). I told them sure I learned my lesson.
When I went home, I rooted it lol and installed the oc kernel. Remember there are no roms for the 4g model.
Before I went back to the store where I purchased my phone&tablet, I found that there is a youtube store that fixes bricked phones and tablets (He has videos of him fixing them) but when I emailed him, he said their program does not support in unbricking the lte tablet. This was about a month ago so you can check to see if they support it now. I think to unbrick phones it was like 50-100 dollars (I forgot)
You are not alone, I made the same dumb mistake. Never do important stuff when you are tired or excited or anxious. Sorry man, good luck.

I may have put this in the wrong area it was late last night and I was frustrated. I tried putting a 7300 ROM on a 7300. I didn't try anything fancy lol. But I appreciate the responsses. You think I'll be able to take it back and see what they can do? Maybe they'll exchange it as if it was a defect? I'll take it there today. See if they will exchange.lesson learned for me. Lesson being wait for updates from Samsung. As slow as they are. Lol thanks for the input if anyone has the capability to fix this
Hit me up.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

A 7300 rom on a 7300 should only soft brick. Can you get into download or recovery?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

If you try to turn on your tablet and your screen turns on you can try to install the stock rom through odin again and it will work. There is a thread in this forums that explains how. If it is off and you turn it on and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING happens and it just stays with the black screen, no vibration or anything then it is hard bricked.
If it is hard bricked you can try to take it back and act dumb, not sure how long ago you purchased the tablet. If you are still within the 30 days you should be good because the sales people I took my tablet to did not have the machine to see how many times my device was flashed. If you are outside the 30 days they will tell you to send it to a samsung repair dealer (which I think they will see how many times the device has been flashed). Once you rooted your tablet it voids the warranty and they either do not have to fix it or will charge you an amount equal to your tablet. I did hear of cases where people with rooted tablets just returned it and they fixed it for free. I guess it dpeneds on anything else in life (How lucky are you?)
Yes you did put your question on the right place since this is for all the 8.9 tablets. (Thats the problem I came across with, I wish they make two forums for both tablets because they are in fact different.

Posting from my mobile so I didn't read your post again.
It is extremely rare but sometimes this can happen. Did you have repartition checked in Odin? If so that's bad.
There is something called qpst - qualcomm product support tools - that people are trying to get to work to fix hard bricks.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

No prob man. I'll look that up. I'm gonna seems it in to Samsung see if they can fix it. It's under warranty. Anyone done this before?
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda premium

mobiletechvideos now has support for hard bricked tabs! finally! just sent the payment today and i will send out my tab once i get home from work. ill keep yall posted on how it goes.
here is the link: http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/samsung-galaxy-tab-8-9-jtag-brick-repair/

Thanks for updating us.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

Samsung captivate - hard bricked

My samsung captivate had never given me any problems(in the very short but good few months I've had it) until I tried to downgrade from Gingerbread(2.3.5) to Froyo about 4 days back.
While using Odin 1 click (and the phone was rooted) to accomplish what I just said, the process seemingly carried out perfectly, the "passed" message appeared in Odin and it looked like it was a success, but instead of rebooting as usual after flashing, my Cappy just went completely blank, and has stayed like that ever since. :crying:
I have tried every button combo there is, and since Jigs are for soft bricks, I guess there's no use.
The only remedy that I haven't gone for yet, is Jtag.
Can someone, anyone, PLEASE help me here!?
Hoping someone gets it working here..

Yep. If zero signs of life...even when wall charging, then sounds like hard brick.
Which Odin did u use to downgrade ??
Just curious...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium

4-2ndtwin said:
Yep. If zero signs of life...even when wall charging, then sounds like hard brick.
Which Odin did u use to downgrade ??
Just curious...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I've used Odin 3 v 1.8.5 and even Odin3 v1.7 many, many times and it's all run perfectly, but this one was Odin 3 One Click v 1.00
I've never bricked a phone ever, and yeah this one's a badass hard brick for sure.
ANY help would be really appreciated, all!

Can you provide a link to the thread you dl'd from?

mrhaley30705 said:
Can you provide a link to the thread you dl'd from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731989
As you can see, it's from here. That's the Odin I used, but I don't think there was anything wrong with the file(at least I hope not)
It completed the process, gave the "passed" message, and then the phone went blank, like immediately.
Any thoughts on how that may have happened? 'Cause I thought it may have been bricked due to Odin crashing, but it did go through till the end, seemingly successful.

Anup7 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731989
As you can see, it's from here. That's the Odin I used, but I don't think there was anything wrong with the file(at least I hope not)
It completed the process, gave the "passed" message, and then the phone went blank, like immediately.
Any thoughts on how that may have happened? 'Cause I thought it may have been bricked due to Odin crashing, but it did go through till the end, seemingly successful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=841512
^ ^ This jig, is it for a hard bricked captivate or a soft bricked one? 'Coz although I'm definitely not confident with tearing up a micro USB cable, I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow. Heading to Radioshack first thing in the morning. Last shot God dammit :/

^
Jig won't do anything for a "Hard" Brick...only J-tag and/or Unbrickable Mod.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium

Anup7 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731989
As you can see, it's from here. That's the Odin I used, but I don't think there was anything wrong with the file(at least I hope not)
It completed the process, gave the "passed" message, and then the phone went blank, like immediately.
Any thoughts on how that may have happened? 'Cause I thought it may have been bricked due to Odin crashing, but it did go through till the end, seemingly successful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something had to go wrong when the jf6 bootloaders were flashed, obviously. If u did not close that Odin yet (unlikely, i know) u could scroll through the log and see what it says about the boot.bin and sbl.bin.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium

Well Odin was closed, as expected. So that's not an option obviously.
Is Jtag doable by users, like could I get instructions on how to go about it? Or would I have to send it in?
And any other ideas?

Regardless, i recommend mobiletechvideos.com for the fix.
Respected and reliable !!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium

How long have you had the phone?? Only three months?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app

Anup7 said:
Well Odin was closed, as expected. So that's not an option obviously.
Is Jtag doable by users, like could I get instructions on how to go about it? Or would I have to send it in?
And any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here are some threads from the dev forum...
Developing methods to recover bricks without JTAG
The Captivate Development Platform mod AKA UnBrickable Mod
[HOW-TO]UnBrick the UnBrickable Captivate
....or like I said before, check out mobiletechvideos.com

Anup7 said:
Well Odin was closed, as expected. So that's not an option obviously.
Is Jtag doable by users, like could I get instructions on how to go about it? Or would I have to send it in?
And any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude if nothing works and you have had the phone for less than 1 year call at&t tell him you had your phone plugged into your computer over night charging, you woke up and the phone won't turn on now. And yiur house lost power and regained and there must have been a power surge around your area. You don't know what happened but it won't respond to anything....also do you know if your tripped the flash counter at all? Or did you reset it? P.m. me if any help needed I just went through this with my note....if all else fails p.m. me I have another fix but it isn't free but its cheaper than buying a new phone outright...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app

No flash counter with the Captivate.

4-2ndtwin said:
No flash counter with the Captivate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I thought of that too, but then there's a problem. I actually bought this phone from a friend, a couple months ago, since I wasn't sure how good of a model this was and I didn't want to go get myself a new Cappy just to be let down and want another one, you know?
Still, spent 160$ on it.
Anyway, he doesn't have the receipt, there's no way I can get att to replace it like you suggested.
And just a side note, the phone was in mint condition, never even been rooted before it got to me, lol!
Btw nope, no flash counter.

Huh? Att will not ask for a receipt when doing a warranty exchange...I've never had an issue with people not having receipts for a manufacturer defect....you will be fine as long as the phone was purchase less than a year ago
This Public Service Announcement brought to you by a pimped out At&t gNote rocking *The Collectives* AOCP CP1...

Kflan22 said:
Huh? Att will not ask for a receipt when doing a warranty exchange...I've never had an issue with people not having receipts for a manufacturer defect....you will be fine as long as the phone was purchase less than a year ago
This Public Service Announcement brought to you by a pimped out At&t gNote rocking *The Collectives* AOCP CP1...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought they'd need it as proof, but thanks!
I'll head over to ATT in a couple hours and see what they say.
I'll let you know.

FYI - the return may have a hiccup in it. Since you bought it from a friend and not from AT&T (or an authorized reseller), they don't have any proof of how long you've had it. There's no way for them to know whether you got it yesterday or 2 years ago, so they may put up a fight about honoring the warranty.
This is just speculation, but I just wanted to throw it out there that it may not go as smoothly as we would all like it to go for you.

jmtheiss said:
FYI - the return may have a hiccup in it. Since you bought it from a friend and not from AT&T (or an authorized reseller), they don't have any proof of how long you've had it. There's no way for them to know whether you got it yesterday or 2 years ago, so they may put up a fight about honoring the warranty.
This is just speculation, but I just wanted to throw it out there that it may not go as smoothly as we would all like it to go for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the heads up though!
Any suggestions on how I should go about it then? Should I even tell ATT that I got it from a friend? Instead I could say I got it from ATT but lost the receipt...maybe a loophole somewhere.

If the phone had been activated for less than a year and its not a refurbished unit, they should replace it.