vB Easy Archive - handed down 650 needing help

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handed down 650 needing help
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Posted by: reedacus25

ok, so i just got my uncles hand me down treo 650, so i thought i had it made in the shade until i put my sim in. of course, its a locked cingular one. which leads me to my first question: what is the easiest way of overcoming the sim lock. Is it possible to request an unlock code from Cingular of which the device is branded to and unlock it with that, as my friends will let me use there unlocking credit. Also, can i upgrade to unbranded firmware to take away all the cingular on this thing. i have the usb cable. lastly, how would i go about sending my gprs settings to it or will i need to do that by hand?
thanks in advance, and remember: i have never used a treo before so I have absolutly no experiance with something like this.
Thanks

Posted by: johndoe2k4

Hi reedacus25,

I also have a cingular branded phone but use T-Mobile as my phone provider. You asked a couple questions but you will need to deal with each one in this order.

1. You have 2 choices to unlock your phone. Either ask one of your friends who has been with Cingular to call them up and say that they bought a Treo 650 and they are traveling to a country where Cingular doesn't provide service (You need to name an actual country where Cingular doesn't provide service. They will check it out). If your friend is persuasive, they may provide him with it. He will have to provide the IMEI # of the phone which you should be able to find by removing the battery. The other choice is to have it unlocked for $20 and up (Which I recommend because its faster). The marketplace forums on this site (http://howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=63) has a list of companies offering phone unlocking. Personally, I recommend a company called Unlock Cellular. They offer remote unlocking (where you don't have to send in your phone) for $20 using your USB cable.
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first question: what is the easiest way of overcoming the sim lock. Is it possible to request an unlock code from Cingular of which the device is branded to and unlock it with that, as my friends will let me use there unlocking credit.
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Since you have the USB cable, you can get rid of the Cingular specific programs and in fact anything else you want to such as "Quick Tour","Welcome","Bluetooth" or anything else. I will help you do it after you have unlocked the phone. You have 2 choices. You can either customize the cingular firmware that you've already got. You will still have the cingular logo when you boot up the phone though.

There is a better alternative though but it will take a bit longer. When you have cingular firmware, you can only upgrade with cingular specific firmware. What we want to do is upgrade your phone with unbranded firmware which isnt specific to any one cell phone company and doesn't have a cell phone companies specific programs. If you try to download the unbranded firmware update from Palmone's site and update your firmware it won't work because it will detect cingular firmware. What you will need to do is run a special firmware update (which I can send you the link for) which doesn't check to see if you have firmware for a specific cell phone company and results in you having unbranded firmware (although it isnt the most recent one). If you have an SD memory card then its possible and not that hard. I have customized my firmware and removed a lot of unncessary junk.
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Also, can i upgrade to unbranded firmware to take away all the cingular on this thing. i have the usb cable.
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Its easy to set these settings but you have to do it manually
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lastly, how would i go about sending my gprs settings to it or will i need to do that by hand?
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Posted by: reedacus25

wow, that's exactly what i needed. Thanks for all your help. i did do some research on this after i posted this but it all looked very confusing on the unbranding and everything and that wouldn't unlock it. If you wanna do this over IM or email just drop me a PM or look in my profile. Thanks so much. You are the kind of people that make HoFo so good.
Thanks

O and i do have a mmc. wat would be the optimal size as i have a 128, 64, 64, and 16. And i do not have the software that came with the phone, just the charger and usb cable.
Thanks again

Posted by: reedacus25

you are a life saver! listen to this man... he knows a thing or 2...

Posted by: motietreo

[QUOTE=johndoe2k4]... has a list of companies offering phone unlocking. Personally, I recommend a company called Unlock Cellular.

Do you have a URL for "Unlock Cellular"?

Posted by: reedacus25

well im still hopong that my cingy friends will pull thru and pass me off an unlock code from there account but if worse comes to worse i will have to go 3rd party but id like to make that last resort

Posted by: seaniscool

hey johndoe2k4 would you mind dropping me a im at about 1:00 today becuase I need alot of help with my treo and I need someone to help me.He said that you know what your talking about.

Posted by: johndoe2k4

seaniscool,

Hey I wont be available at 1PM (assuming you are on the same time zone as me). PM me with your screen name for MSN/AIM or yahoo and I will try to get back to you later on tonight. Oh and let me know where you are at so I know what time zone you are in.

Posted by: johndoe2k4

motietreo :

Umm have you tried unlockcellular.com ?

The exact link for Treo 650's is:
http://www.unlockcellular.com/Phone...NLOCK-TREO-650/

Posted by: yakky

I used someone else to unlock mine, but these guys have a nice setup: http://650unlock.com/

It will connect to your treo, then see if it can be unlocked. If it can, then you can spend the $15, if not, no money lost and no hassles. Also be sure to disable your palm password under "Security" in preferences. That hung me up for a while before I was able to unlock.

There are some pre built custom roms here:

http://discussion.treocentral.com/s...7&postcount=564

As was posted before you need to unbrand with the 1.23 update first then apply one of the custom roms. Its pretty easy, just follow the directions.

Posted by: johndoe2k4

yakky,

You cant just install unbranded firmware if you have branded firmware (e.g.cingular or at&t) firmware. you have to follow the instructions at http://www.uneasysilence.com/how-to...o-unlocked-gsm/ first to install an older unbranded firmware then install the latest unbranded firmware from palms site (http://www.palm.com/us/support/down...nlockedgsm.html)

Posted by: yakky

Yeah, the 1.23 version is the magic "beta" version that lets you switch from cingular to "ROW" which then lets you upgrade to the "ENA"

Posted by: Laker4Life

Hey guys, are you using the SDUpdate method? If so, please note that any problems in the process and you can permanently brick your phone... If you go to the forums at TreoCentral.com and do a search for Custom ROM, you'll find quite a few threads about a ROMTool that a guy named mmastrac made that allows you to download/upload new ROM's as well as change the tokens in your ROM to allow you to change to an Unbranded ROM. I did this a few months ago and have been customizing my ROM every few weeks quite easily. IMHO this is a much safer route as I've seen/heard of quite a few people losing their phone going the SDUpdate route... If you do end up going to TC and have problems, try and look for these users: mmastrac, jamesgangut, nonobeez, jgm or berdinkerdickle. They are some of the most helpful people I've ever met in a forum...

Posted by: motietreo

Quote:

Originally Posted by johndoe2k4

motietreo :

Umm have you tried unlockcellular.com ?

The exact link for Treo 650's is:
http://www.unlockcellular.com/Phone...NLOCK-TREO-650/

Thanks. I wanted to be sure since the words "unlock" and "cellular" are so common.