Still no phone

[usib]

So after trying many different approaches, I still don't see a way to get the phone to accept programming. And it won't flash any of the official roms. In fact, it would not flash ANY rom through the "Normal" RUU; only with the NoID RUU. Anyone can link to a page where it explains about all that "model ID" business? What is it, which gets checked by the RUU? (or any other push in the right direction that would get me closer to getting back my service...)

[store2000]

Sorry, I've not followed your history, but did you try flashing it with a radio only image? Failing that, I'd recommend that you visit the store. They have better tools (QPST) to pry into the modem/radio in an attempt to reset it.

Also, try running \Windows\EPST.exe and see if you can read values off the radio's NVRAM.

[usib]

Radio only image? no, didn't try that. See, my problem is I don't understand the relationship between the radio rom and the radio nvr... are they different pieces of memory or what. Radio connection to the network itself seems fine, I can hear their "you've reached Bell Mobility, blah blah blah" voice message. But yeah, I could try to flash just the radio rom.

And yes, I have been to their store. There was some kind of chick who did exactly the same regular programming procedure, that didn't work, she called DATA123, they walked her through the same basics, it didn't work for yet another time, then she told me to go away cause she couldn't help me.

[usib]

EPST does not come up, seems to die immediately on startup.

[store2000]

"Radio" is the Qualcomm MSM6500. That consists of 3 items, the RF hardware, the firmware (to control that HW; f/w written to flash memory) and the NVRAM (that the firmware uses as a long term storage area). Stuff in the NVRAM is what is needed to register your radio with the network (like ESN, CDMA modes, vocoders etc etc).

So again:
A) RF hardware: You bought the phone, with the chip [check]
B) Radio Firmware: If you flash the phone with an image that has a valid radio image, you get this. The official images from venders have the following 3 ..
1) the Win CE image
2) the extended ROM image
3) the radio firmware image
... all in one package. Unofficial images have either all 3 or just some of the above - you should check.

C) NVRAM: This has sections which are factory set as well as stuff "programmed" later on (in the 'field') when a subscriber actually buys a unit. Although we call is 'programming' the phone, the real program is the f/w (item B) and this is really just some data telling the firmware HOW to work (like how a program maintains its settings in the registry or .ini files).

From what it sounds, you need to configure the NVRAM properly. The most powerful tool for this is QPST which is available to Qualcomm and its licensees (eg. your carriers support). You need to supply a .qcn file to QPST which will program the NVRAM properly. Tell this to the carrier's engineers. FYI, the .qcn file is like an image of the NVRAM.

If you can somehow get EPST working you could take the settings from someone elses phone and program it onto your phone. Note that if your carrier uses the optional (and stronger) authentication feature of the A-key (authentication key) then you can't really copy over someone elses A-key since both the network and your unit must agree upon the same A-key (which changes with time too!).

If this is too complex, I think you should simply try to have the carrier fix it for you ("Listen, I can't continue with you guys if your device doesn't let me do so").

[usib]

store2000, thank you very much, this is exactly the kind of explanation I was looking for. stuff is beginning to fall in place now. I'll go digest this info. Right now, there are two questions that are immediately in front of my mind: (1) is the NVRAM space physically in the same flash chip as the program ROMs (or wait, this is certainly answered in the Qualcom spec... I am going to look for and smoke it for a while...), and (2) whether this losing of NVRAM settings has anything common with the "device ID" problem where only the NoID RUU can flash the device...