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Hi Guys, i need your help i bought a samsung focus s and it is still stuck on demo mode,does anyone know how to take it off demo mode. I've tried holding the camera button,lower volume an power button together but it hasn't made a difference. And i went to the about option and theres no option to reset factory settings. I've even emailed samsung and they told me to contact windows as it is their software. This is really frustrating, because the guy who sold me the phone well he doesn't know what to say they only had the one, I had read (You should return the phone because it seems you have bought a demo device and not a retail device, also another person said, I'm sorry to say that demo devices are loaded with different software from retail devices, so it will not be possible to get the device into a 'normal' mode unless you have the technical skills to flash the 'phone with a fresh ROM (see xda-developers.com). I wouldn't normally suggest this, but it sounds as if your vendor may have (perhaps conveniently for them) disappeared from the picture. Note that if you do flash the handset you must be prepared to lose all support from Microsoft, the 'phone manufacturer, and your carrier. In particular you will get no support here on Microsoft Community) and thats ok I'm with the prepaid thing anyway...Any Help is Good help
Thank You
erc,jns
Nokia Lumia 920, EE UK, & HTC 8X, AT&T: 8.0.10211.204
Samsung Omnia 7, T-Mobile UK: 7.10.7740.16
erc.jns said:
Hi Guys, i need your help i bought a samsung focus s and it is still stuck on demo mode,does anyone know how to take it off demo mode. I've tried holding the camera button,lower volume an power button together but it hasn't made a difference. And i went to the about option and theres no option to reset factory settings. I've even emailed samsung and they told me to contact windows as it is their software. This is really frustrating, because the guy who sold me the phone well he doesn't know what to say they only had the one, I had read (You should return the phone because it seems you have bought a demo device and not a retail device, also another person said, I'm sorry to say that demo devices are loaded with different software from retail devices, so it will not be possible to get the device into a 'normal' mode unless you have the technical skills to flash the 'phone with a fresh ROM (see xda-developers.com). I wouldn't normally suggest this, but it sounds as if your vendor may have (perhaps conveniently for them) disappeared from the picture. Note that if you do flash the handset you must be prepared to lose all support from Microsoft, the 'phone manufacturer, and your carrier. In particular you will get no support here on Microsoft Community) and thats ok I'm with the prepaid thing anyway...Any Help is Good help
Thank You
erc,jns
Nokia Lumia 920, EE UK, & HTC 8X, AT&T: 8.0.10211.204
Samsung Omnia 7, T-Mobile UK: 7.10.7740.16
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry to say my friend but your probably out of luck, there is no ROM for us to flash, official or otherwise, we have no modified boot loader to make our own ROMs and there isn't any update cabs to update you to the correct ROM.
the only thing that I can think of is perhaps some registry entry that can be changed, but you would need to dump your reg and email it over.
but to be clear, I don't know of anyone getting them working, its proabably the same device being passed about, if you got it through ebay I would raise complaint if your unable to speak to the original seller
note that even if you can change the device in to a retail device with the use of a reg entry, you still cant change the ROM version so cant update it
So as of saturday my unlocked TMobile Note 4 stopped working as a phone, and won't let me make calls.
Information:
-Was on Dr. Ketan L3 version of his rom when it stopped working
-Using the N910T on AT&T
-IMEI is fine and not damaged, both numbers match (using *#06#)
-It shows bars, but when I go to make a call "Not Registered On Network"
What I've Done:
-Flashed Stock Firmware via Odin (Autoboot, and F.Time Rest checked)
-Factory Reset after odin flash
-Checked APN
-Set on LTE/WCDMA/GSM
-Searched for Networks, finds them, but when I choose AT&T it takes forever and then finally kicks me out and then in notifications, I get the "Not Registered to Network"
-Did the remove the battery thing, and removed sim
-Went to AT&T and got a new sim, worked for 1hr (sporadically) and then went back to "Not Registered on Network"
-At the store I was on phone with AT&T tech trying to troubleshoot the problem and that is when it was working shortly
-Called T-Mobile and checked to see if they blocked my IMEI number, nope they didn't, couldn't help me out further than that
-AT&T was showing that it was a Note 4 so not having that coming up as a Blackberry issue that some reported, so that's not it
-*#0011# shows service limited, but it is unlocked and everything is fine, the IMEI is good, and all is well but the limited service
-Put it in Airplane mode and woke it back from there after 5+minutes
-cleaned the connectors on the sim (new sim anyways so shouldn't really need them)
I'm running out of options, the only thing I can think of being the problem is that I might have started out using this phone on COD2, and when I flashed a COG2 firmware it didn't like that and so my phone's account settings didn't fully transfer.
Also I was messing around with the bands settings (*#2263#) what should they be on? Automatic, LTE/GSM only, or what?
Settings should be on automatic. One more thing to try is go for a drive with the phone, at least 5 miles from your house, and see if it does this when connected to other towers. I had this same issue years ago and it turned out to be a malfunctioning tower by my house.
If it still does it on other towers, then it may be hardware-related
kabuk1 said:
Settings should be on automatic. One more thing to try is go for a drive with the phone, at least 5 miles from your house, and see if it does this when connected to other towers. I had this same issue years ago and it turned out to be a malfunctioning tower by my house.
If it still does it on other towers, then it may be hardware-related
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, yeah it kicks in randomly for like a minute and then dies, I take it to my parent's house (about 10 miles away) and along the way I get a good signal, but then when I reach their house, back to nothing. I was using it just fine the week prior. I partially blame Dr. Ketan, ever since installing his rom, I had multiple issues. I since uninstalled it and tried going back to stock. Any idea on what a good "safe" band setting is? I have that settings set to automatic, but if there was a good "safe" band that would be great. A common LTE tower. Even when I do connect or get connected, I can't register on that network, my phone won't let me. I've tried that. The bars drop to zero. I damaged my antenna wire (white one) and I just replaced it with a new one I purchased, but the hacked together one seemed to be doing the same quality job as the new one is. It shows the signal, but as soon as you try tying it down to a network it rejects it. I was afraid that when I flashed the stock image via odin it removed the unlock, but it was still there. I just hate that now I have a $500 pda, when it was a phone and now i'm relegated to using a f*ing flip phone.
i think your antenna cable is damaged. the only way to know that is be close to a tower, and see if your work or not.
bought and replaced with new ones, I get full bars, in my bedroom, but apparently they're tied to Tmobile since when I try to register it to AT&T they magically disappear, but when I close the app, they come back at the same strength level. I can't register them to Tmo since the sim. Yet my phone is telling me it's unlocked (*#0011#), IMEI = PASS, 1;
I think the prob is due to the different frequencies.
Your baseband would not be tied to a rom(ie Dr Ketan) Unless that rom contains Modem.bin
Your apn needs to be att if that's your Sim obviously.
International version has a different chipset. .. I know it's not your case. .
But it's open to any Sim. ..
I can say this.. I have a N2 unlocked (tmob) I run an Att Sim it works but the sig is really spotty... COD6/ COG2 may not be lining up frequency wise with your att Sim. ..
Try rolling your baseband back even further. .
Flashvetrin
Any clue on to what i should use for best results? Like 850/1900 or 900/2100? What is a good LTE band? Where could I find a map of LTE bands used by carriers, I know how to get to that secret menu and manually change it to see if I get better results?
dcoke said:
Any clue on to what i should use for best results? Like 850/1900 or 900/2100? What is a good LTE band? Where could I find a map of LTE bands used by carriers, I know how to get to that secret menu and manually change it to see if I get better results?
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Click to collapse
Well I would think automatic is out for sure.. the other prob would be after reboot the chipset will search for the default.. but I could be wrong.
I do not know what the numbers would be for band identification.
You may get lucky when calling Att and ask for someone in a higher tier. To give you some numbers for frequincies .
But you have ruled out hardware correct??
By putting a tmob Sim in????
Cuz I know you posted you did antenna work..
And I do know you said you get bars then it fades..
The fact it fades and doesn't lock into even a G band for example. Just leads me to believe the apn can't lock down based on the frequincie and the built in lte chipset...
It would be nice to just flash an att modem wouldn't it?? But don't even think about it.. lol you'll soft brick..
I wish I had a better solid answer you. You may just start testing those different bands and see if you get closer to a lock.
Flashvetrin
U rock, lol. Thx man
My Tricked Out N910P
But what could have happened that made it crap out like that since it was working just fine beforehand for 2 solid months on custom roms and what not? That's the frustrating part, I've been flashing different modems on my phone, but none have been successful. Apparently there are 3 different N910T, how do you know which ones to play with? I flashed N910T(3) bands, that failed, I did try N910A, obviously failed. Then I lost my IMEI number, got terrified, tried reflashing EFS in TWRP, nothing. Then reflashed COG2 bands, it came back. Is there an app on the Playstore that would definitively tell you if your network chip is damaged? I wouldn't know what to look for.
Have you taken apart the Note 4, what are all those contact points, are those antenna things? One of those were damaged, they're like folded metal spring boards with gold tips (same kind of thing that is used to install a qi receiver, same design). I took my tweezer and fixed it, but could that be the culprit, since on the surface, it seems like the network is fine. Works really well in WCDMA, but not much else. I was able to make calls using GSM only, but my signal was 1 bar and the audio quality was questionable, so I left it alone for 10 minutes on that hoping it would force a reconnect. This is frustrating, since I wasted $500 on this phone and not having it work after two months means now I'm back to a featureless phone.
Thanks for your advice thus far. Flashing different modems hasn't been working out well, I just wished I could remember what baseband version the guy had the phone on when I first got it? I thought it was COD6, it was definitely on Lollipop, but if it's a 910T(2) would I know, how would I know?
How do you flash NON_HLOS and modem.bin at the same time in Odin? I know Modem does bands, but what does Non-Hlos do? I thought i read LTE, so if those aren't in sync and on two different versions could that be the issue? I extracted them from the full TAR firmware files.
dcoke said:
But what could have happened that made it crap out like that since it was working just fine beforehand for 2 solid months on custom roms and what not? That's the frustrating part, I've been flashing different modems on my phone, but none have been successful. Apparently there are 3 different N910T, how do you know which ones to play with? I flashed N910T(3) bands, that failed, I did try N910A, obviously failed. Then I lost my IMEI number, got terrified, tried reflashing EFS in TWRP, nothing. Then reflashed COG2 bands, it came back. Is there an app on the Playstore that would definitively tell you if your network chip is damaged? I wouldn't know what to look for.
Have you taken apart the Note 4, what are all those contact points, are those antenna things? One of those were damaged, they're like folded metal spring boards with gold tips (same kind of thing that is used to install a qi receiver, same design). I took my tweezer and fixed it, but could that be the culprit, since on the surface, it seems like the network is fine. Works really well in WCDMA, but not much else. I was able to make calls using GSM only, but my signal was 1 bar and the audio quality was questionable, so I left it alone for 10 minutes on that hoping it would force a reconnect. This is frustrating, since I wasted $500 on this phone and not having it work after two months means now I'm back to a featureless phone.
Thanks for your advice thus far. Flashing different modems hasn't been working out well, I just wished I could remember what baseband version the guy had the phone on when I first got it? I thought it was COD6, it was definitely on Lollipop, but if it's a 910T(2) would I know, how would I know?
How do you flash NON_HLOS and modem.bin at the same time in Odin? I know Modem does bands, but what does Non-Hlos do? I thought i read LTE, so if those aren't in sync and on two different versions could that be the issue? I extracted them from the full TAR firmware files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heres
A simple method for COD6
And try odin 3.07
I need to think about this some more and get back to you...
This is a partial firmware.. it consists of the modem and bootloader COD6.
Also to rule out damage if you can get a T Mobile Sim put it in the device and see if it locks down a signal....
Flashvetrin
That was my next move, not having any real income but disability and little coming from that, I thought that was the next logical step too. I'll get a tmobile to go sim and try it see if it can't lock on to that, and see if that doesn't set it on the right path. Have you heard of other people having COG2 issues on AT&T unlocked? Maybe that was the problem, something there broke the connection. I don't know, but whatever it is, I can't thank you enough, you've at least given me more options to try that I couldn't think of on my own. I'll try that file.
dcoke said:
That was my next move, not having any real income but disability and little coming from that, I thought that was the next logical step too. I'll get a tmobile to go sim and try it see if it can't lock on to that, and see if that doesn't set it on the right path. Have you heard of other people having COG2 issues on AT&T unlocked? Maybe that was the problem, something there broke the connection. I don't know, but whatever it is, I can't thank you enough, you've at least given me more options to try that I couldn't think of on my own. I'll try that file.
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Click to collapse
You are the first of this kind that I'm aware of.. in regards to this issue..
Make sure you read the detail in if your device bootloops, to reboot recovery and flash the Rom.. if you want flash the Rom in the op that I've linked you to.
Wipe sys/dal/cach/data..
And flash it can't hurt.. [emoji16]
I really hope a Tmob Sim and or COD6 gives you results...and good ones at that.. [emoji2] [emoji106]
Flashvetrin
Got the sim card, $65 for that crap, and it didn't work. Called T Mobile customer service, explained my situation and how I was calling on another phone on another carrier and they insisted on calling me back on the broken not working phone. I guess I'm just screwed, and lost $500, which like I said, I can't afford to have. It's just so frustrating. I also tried the COD6 partial firmware, and nothing there also. I'll try t-mobile again. The only and last option I have, if possible, is to try to relock my phone and re-unlock it since there isn't any real way to tell if my GSM is damaged. I think my unlocked status got damaged when my phone upgraded to COG2, and since it's in that weird limbo state I can't use my phone. Do you know how to relock it?
Edit: When I look at my IMEI Number through *#06# it shows that the last two digits (independent of the actual IMEI number, since that matches everywhere) to the right of the "/" as 14, yet through "about device" it shows my imei version as 10. I assume that the 14 in the "06" screen is the version it's reading off the phone, could that be causing the issue? How would you even fix that? I don't know. but thanks again, you've been helpful.
Hello.
A friend of mine worked at a company that closed last week, and they had some demo-based Galaxy Note 8 phone that were unused. So I took one of them, and I'm now trying to make it work with my SIM Card.
I don't looks like it recognize it, phone network isn't available, IMEI is unknown, and Service Menu (that i tried to turn radio on) is blank (I accessed it trough *#0011#). I passed like 5 hours googling, but since it seems to be a very specific issue (the phone was probably locked for Demo puprposes.). I tried a custom ROM, I rooted the phone, but nothing changed.
I'm sorry if my question isn't that accurate and descriptive, got a real headache trying to find an issue tonight. Feel free to ask for precisions.
Thanks for helping, as always.
Demo units will not function as normal legally acquired devices do, no solution will work, get a really working device, xdemo units are exactly that, just for show
Changing motherboard won't do the trick ?
It will, but I would rather get a never opened device, besides, a motherboard will not be cheap
Hi There
Hopefully some insight can be shed on this topic, it would be greatly appreciated.
I've read that all you need to do is use the device in the region of purchase for 5-10 mins of local calls & then the region lock is unlocked to any world wide sim.
- is this still the case with Samsung devices?
- lets say once the device is unlocked (in country of origin) but reset a few months later in another country other than it was bought in, will the region lock be back?
Thanks
antares* said:
Hi There
Hopefully some insight can be shed on this topic, it would be greatly appreciated.
I've read that all you need to do is use the device in the region of purchase for 5-10 mins of local calls & then the region lock is unlocked to any world wide sim.
- is this still the case with Samsung devices?
- lets say once the device is unlocked (in country of origin) but reset a few months later in another country other than it was bought in, will the region lock be back?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so, the question youre asking can be answered in several ways. Firstly, the locks placed on the phones are placed by the carrier, so if your phone is truly unlocked, itll never lock on to a service provider permanently. The process you describe about using it for local calls for a few min to have it grab your carrier is CSC related and more applies to whether you can use SPay and SHealth or not. There are also subsidy locks that make carrier switching impossible without an unlock. These subsidy locks can be in the firmware or even an app that was granted root permissions making it impossible to remove on snapdragon devices outside of Odin.
I guess, what issues are you trying to avoid?
Youdoofus said:
so, the question youre asking can be answered in several ways. Firstly, the locks placed on the phones are placed by the carrier, so if your phone is truly unlocked, itll never lock on to a service provider permanently. The process you describe about using it for local calls for a few min to have it grab your carrier is CSC related and more applies to whether you can use SPay and SHealth or not. There are also subsidy locks that make carrier switching impossible without an unlock. These subsidy locks can be in the firmware or even an app that was granted root permissions making it impossible to remove on snapdragon devices outside of Odin.
I guess, what issues are you trying to avoid?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly thanks for taking the time to respond. ?
So I'm not technical at these things but here's a quick background on my query.
A friend purchased a Samsung from an Asian country now while there & the box said specifically that it is made for use in that region and their sim. He's using it but won't know if it will work here till he returns. He is able to get one for me as it's much cheaper there, hence the research on the topic.
Through my search I've seen on Samsung forums people buying phones from difference regions with some able to successfully use it in their country & others not (comments vary on reasoning as to why but the use of that country local SIM seems common)
When he queried the sticker they said to just follow that calling process (I'm presuming now this is the carrier lock) However I'm not sure if there are carrier locks on the device as through my search, that country normally doesn't practice carrier locks (Service Provider) as the US or Europe does as devices are sold at any shop in Asia. So it's a bit confusing..
From your knowledge, let's say he activates & uses it for a few minutes. When he returns & I reset the device, will the lock revert back for that region or will be opened for any sim? And something that just came to mind, as the Samsung devices are regional, will this affect how updates come through or will it be based on that regional timetable for updates?
Thanks again
antares* said:
Firstly thanks for taking the time to respond.
So I'm not technical at these things but here's a quick background on my query.
A friend purchased a Samsung from an Asian country now while there & the box said specifically that it is made for use in that region and their sim. He's using it but won't know if it will work here till he returns. He is able to get one for me as it's much cheaper there, hence the research on the topic.
Through my search I've seen on Samsung forums people buying phones from difference regions with some able to successfully use it in their country & others not (comments vary on reasoning as to why but the use of that country local SIM seems common)
When he queried the sticker they said to just follow that calling process (I'm presuming now this is the carrier lock) However I'm not sure if there are carrier locks on the device as through my search, that country normally doesn't practice carrier locks (Service Provider) as the US or Europe does as devices are sold at any shop in Asia. So it's a bit confusing..
From your knowledge, let's say he activates & uses it for a few minutes. When he returns & I reset the device, will the lock revert back for that region or will be opened for any sim? And something that just came to mind, as the Samsung devices are regional, will this affect how updates come through or will it be based on that regional timetable for updates?
Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
terrible questions.. i tell ya what..... TOTALLY KIDDING!!
actually very solid questions and its also great to hear people doing this kind of research prior to pulling the trigger. I commend you
Anywho, lets see.
1: What Asian country? Yes, it matters. Or if you can get the model number from the download mode screen, that would be helpful too. If you dont know how to get to the DL mode, power the phone off, hold down the volume down button along with power and itll boot to a warning screen that will say volume up to continue to download mode or volume down to reboot normally. If you cant get that kind of access to the phone (or your friend rather) then its a crap shoot as many phones being offered up like this have been found to be non-us versions or even worse, utter fakes. Buyer beware if you cant get to download mode to at least check that too. Download mode is the hardest part to fake, fwiw
2: Galaxy S devices come in 2 flavors, Snapdragon and Exynos. Well, 3 i guess, the 3rd being fake. Snapdragons are the only ones that can work on CDMA carriers such as Sprint and VZW, Exynos phones work on GSM only. SD phones can also use GSM services, but the Exynos equipped phones are GSM only. SD are not rootable, Exynos are.
3: The part about your friend using it with their SIM and having problems strictly due to that. No. So long as its a legit USA model with no financial locks on it etc etc, you will be just fine. You might have to flash a CSC file in download mode or perhaps even the entire firmware (doubt youd need to do that last part), but if its an unlocked SnapDragon model built for the US market, then youre good to go.
4: make sure it doesnt have a FRP lock enabled. As long as your friend can boot it up and get past the login screen, you should be fine.
5: The last bit about the SIM again, as long as its a legit G973U with no locks and FRP inst on, you should be good to use it on any USA carrier no matter where it was initially used.
6: updates are issues out in order of IMEI batches. Being physically in a country outside of the one that the firmware is for can and often does impede updates, but thats not a worry as updates can be easily flashed manually and once the phone is on the correct CSC and physically in the right country, then updates will go on as normal.
7: youre welcome
Youdoofus said:
terrible questions.. i tell ya what..... TOTALLY KIDDING!!
actually very solid questions and its also great to hear people doing this kind of research prior to pulling the trigger. I commend you
Anywho, lets see.
1: What Asian country? Yes, it matters. Or if you can get the model number from the download mode screen, that would be helpful too. If you dont know how to get to the DL mode, power the phone off, hold down the volume down button along with power and itll boot to a warning screen that will say volume up to continue to download mode or volume down to reboot normally. If you cant get that kind of access to the phone (or your friend rather) then its a crap shoot as many phones being offered up like this have been found to be non-us versions or even worse, utter fakes. Buyer beware if you cant get to download mode to at least check that too. Download mode is the hardest part to fake, fwiw
2: Galaxy S devices come in 2 flavors, Snapdragon and Exynos. Well, 3 i guess, the 3rd being fake. Snapdragons are the only ones that can work on CDMA carriers such as Sprint and VZW, Exynos phones work on GSM only. SD phones can also use GSM services, but the Exynos equipped phones are GSM only. SD are not rootable, Exynos are.
3: The part about your friend using it with their SIM and having problems strictly due to that. No. So long as its a legit USA model with no financial locks on it etc etc, you will be just fine. You might have to flash a CSC file in download mode or perhaps even the entire firmware (doubt youd need to do that last part), but if its an unlocked SnapDragon model built for the US market, then youre good to go.
4: make sure it doesnt have a FRP lock enabled. As long as your friend can boot it up and get past the login screen, you should be fine.
5: The last bit about the SIM again, as long as its a legit G973U with no locks and FRP inst on, you should be good to use it on any USA carrier no matter where it was initially used.
6: updates are issues out in order of IMEI batches. Being physically in a country outside of the one that the firmware is for can and often does impede updates, but thats not a worry as updates can be easily flashed manually and once the phone is on the correct CSC and physically in the right country, then updates will go on as normal.
7: youre welcome
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Click to collapse
Firstly apologies for the long delay in response, just been crazily busy and was doing research on what you said soon I am up to scratch to what you said.
1. It is from India, and yes I am aware of fakes so any purchases will be from reputable seller's. I'll have to do some research on that because I'm sure the different Samsung models will have their own codes.
2. I believe for that region they get Exynos variants.
3. From looking at some of the Samsung models online I see the product code ends with "INS" which I'm pretty sure relates to India and that country only so probably I will have to follow the DL mode you explained for my region in changing the CSC
4. I never knew about this.. How does one make sure its not enabled? Is this in the process that relates to no.3 during the CSC change?
5. Not from the US but good to know lol
6. Perfect lol
7. Thanks again, appreciate it :good::good:
antares* said:
Firstly apologies for the long delay in response, just been crazily busy and was doing research on what you said soon I am up to scratch to what you said.no worries mate, life happens. I just hope all is well in your part of the universe
1. It is from India, and yes I am aware of fakes so any purchases will be from reputable seller's. I'll have to do some research on that because I'm sure the different Samsung models will have their own codes. booting to recovery will generally tell you if its fake or not. you cant fake knox
2. I believe for that region they get Exynos variants. i believe so too. Id just get pretty much any F variant of the phone model you want and youll likely be able to get it working from there
3. From looking at some of the Samsung models online I see the product code ends with "INS" which I'm pretty sure relates to India and that country only so probably I will have to follow the DL mode you explained for my region in changing the CSC. just stick with the F models, you can flash whatever carrier stuff you need after you have it in hand
4. I never knew about this.. How does one make sure its not enabled? Is this in the process that relates to no.3 during the CSC change? Itll show you this in the download mode screen. Itll say FRP: on or FRP: OFF
5. Not from the US but good to know lol
6. Perfect lol
7. Thanks again, appreciate it :good::good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
always glad to help bro!
Hello all.
I got myself an used SM-N950U originally from Verizon and sold as unlocked. Now my problem is I cannot connect to/use my sim with it. Originally I thought it was locked since there's an app that says "not a Verizon sim", but then I realized this app is an userspace app so to say, part of the Verizon bloatware and doesn't mean the phone. I know specially since with that phone I also got an S10+ from a friend, also from Verizon, which does see and use my sim right and which also has that same message from the same app. But works well.
Now, I don't really have the option to return this phone, since it was shipped outside the US, and shipping back would cost me half as much as what the phone cost. So I'm on my own.
At least I'm resourceful, but not that knowledgeable so that's why I come here for help.
The phone diagnostics, for the network, says in a status line "Radio off". and no info on the network. and if I try to manually select a network on connection settings, I immediately get an error. This happens wether I'm using my local sim, the old deactivated Verizon sim from my friend, and no sim... since the phone should be abe by law to make emergency calls, and it should be able to see visible networks even if not to join them, it's my guess that rather than locked, it has the radio turned off, which in some web pages says can sometimes happen "for various reasons".
My problem is, as far as I know, I have no way to turn the radio off and on again to see if that boots it up. Since this VZW Pie from has no service codes available via dialer. Not even the most basic *#06# service menu.
I see there's supposedly a way to flash the firmware back to Nougat, and root that from, on This thread. I'm guessing if I can make that work (I hope it works) I can access the service menus somehow, with it being an older rom, and having root I can probably use "Phone INFO" to get to them and try to reset the radio.
But before I do all that, and since my firmware downloads, to update to a new firmware via odin (given the warning on the root page to not use a v8 bootloader that was updated from v7 to v8 via OTA but rather something with v8 flashed directly via Odin, to avoid a possible brick). and to install the rooteable nougat will take me days to download at my speeds, I take this time to ask for help on wether there's ANY way to check and flip the radio without having to go to Nougat and root (I think I can even be happy without root on Pie for a short while.)
Ok, I'm starting to think the power connector board got damaged or the connector partially disconnected during the shipping or something.
I've installed first a N950U1 xaa rom, to make sure the v8 was installed via odin and not OTA. Then loaded a combination from and rooted as per the root post shared in the first message. This one can use service codes with the factory time (I've not installed a normal rooted nougat rom yet, as I want to do tests beforehand and try to make the radio work).
Inside *#0011# My IMEI shows as passing, but I get an ASM MIPI DEVICE FAIL:
ASM MIPI DEVICE FAIL
DEVICE MOD=0x217 , PID=0x081
Non-Fatal MIPI DEVICE FAIL
DEVICE MOD=0x217 , PID=0x081
ASDiv : NOT SUPPORTED
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried running the Samsung Mipi Repair Tool, it detects the info, I hit repair, says it's repaired and that it'll open a menu, which does NOT open. Yet, if I open a menu with *#27663368378# and then rebuild NV with: 2. Ue Setting Info-->1.Setting-->2.System-->3.nv rebuid-->3.all, and then turn the phone off (Factory doesn't seem to have reboot) and on, still the same MIPI issue.
So I'm guessing either the board around the charge port got damaged somehow during the trip (my friend tested the phone before shipping it to me from the US), or the connector for it got loose. Anyway, I'm worried I'll have to open the phone myself (I haven't found a trustworthy tech in here. Last time I took a phone to a "recommended" tech, they stole the OEM screen from my dad's J8. So, no more techs for me unless I can find one I can befriend, and trust). If the connector to the board is not lose (I'll reseat it) I'll have to look for a new board, either abroad or here, probably not oem and with a lousier usb-c port, and swap the boards... sigh.
Anyhow since this will take time, if anyone knows of any other program or procedure I can use to test things, please let me know. I will keep the factory rom on the phone, either as the sole one or in a rom slot in safestrap, so that I can keep doing tests.
I appreciate any hints or help anybody could provide.