Confused about whether unlocking is necessary...

[Doobla]

You're a lifesaver man. Thanks so much. I got the Verizon phones running on the Alltel network and all is good.

[PDAPhoneJunkie]

Originally Posted by Doobla

You're a lifesaver man. Thanks so much. I got the Verizon phones running on the Alltel network and all is good.

Verizon and Alltel are now one in the same. Are there still Alltel customers centers open?

[drewcam888]

glad you got it working. What did you actually do to fix the problem?

[Doobla]

Originally Posted by PDAPhoneJunkie

Verizon and Alltel are now one in the same. Are there still Alltel customers centers open?

Yes, while they are technically the same company now, they are still operating independently in many ways. They have separate billing systems still and it wasn't until two days ago that Alltel customers could call Verizon customers for free. I have been told that in June perhaps my area will be completely transitioned.

[Doobla]

Originally Posted by drewcam888

glad you got it working. What did you actually do to fix the problem?

I followed GaMedic's step by step thread at http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=33857 exactly . I was confused at first because I thought that the radio upgrade they mentioned was a hardware change which was a bit intimidating.

I also learned through a bunch of forum research that placing any ROM on a microSD card of 2GB or less and renaming it to TITAIMG.nbh will allow the phone to upgrade to that ROM directly from the SD card when put into boot loader mode. This is the method I used primarily because I run OSX and flashing through VMWare and a USB cable was inconsistent and frustrating.

Here's what I did exactly:

1. I downloaded the updated boot loader from GaMedic's thread. I went with OliPro because of my USB connection issues.
2. After installing HARD-SPL-MFG.exe I pulled Hard_MFG_SPL_2.40_RUU_signed.nbh from C:\ttn240mfg and copied it to my SD card as TITAIMG.nbh and upgraded my phone.
3. Upgraded the radio to 3.42.40 by downloading the zip file from GaMedic's thread which only contained a TITAIMG.nbh file. Copied i to my SD card and upgraded my phone.
4. Downloaded the BuildOS kitchen and cooked an Alltel ROM
5. I then copied RUU_signed.nbh from C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\hIq Inc\PPC-BuildOS\9.05.3.0Temp onto my memory card and renamed it TITAIMG.nbh and upgraded my phone's OS
6. Downloaded a PRL file from corolada.com. At first I was unsure which to choose until I realized that the numbers were revision numbers. So I grabbed the latest from Alltel under EVDO phones which ended up being 30034. (May not be 100% correct because there is a special devices section that could have applied as well but it seems to have worked.)
7. Copied the SPL file to my SD card.
8. Dialed ##778# to enter EPST mode.
9. Selected Edit from the menu that appeared and entered 000000 for the unlock code.
10. Selected the View Info menu and then PRL
11. The first item in the list was the PRL. I pressed and held over that item and a context menu came up with the only option being Edit, which I selected.
12. I browsed for the PRL file on my SD card and selected it then hit OK until it asked if I wanted to save my changes, which I did and the phone reset.
13. I called Alltel and explained that I had a new phone but the web site was not allowing me to enter the ESN number. The operator asked me what phone I had and when i told her she said that she was unable to change ESN's to smartphones on the web site. I gave her the new ESN and she changed my account over and had me dial *228 and choose number 3 which then activated the phone on the Alltel network.

Other than all of that I spent a lot of time recooking ROM's because of software conflicts with the software I was including from the kitchen. All seems well though. The only problem I haven't resolved is that I thought this phone had GPS built in and yet even with the upgraded radio it still looks for an external GPS radio or something. Haven't gotten it to link up with a satellite at all.

Thanks again for your help. Without it I would have been trying to find and manually change each EPST setting because I didn't even know about the PRL files that were available.

[drewcam888]

Do you know what version of Verizon rom you had below you went custom. If you had MR1 then gps is locked out. So you have to downgrade back to a nongps stock Verizon rom. Then flash custom again. What program are you using to test gps I use gpsviwer or htc gps tool. Make sure the gps settings are correct and location is on.

[Doobla]

I have no idea what version it was. I bought these off of ebay where I think the original owner had bought them together from a Verizon store or something because the ESN numbers were only 2 away from each other. Nothing custom was ever done to them that I could tell and I was only ever concerned about getting off of Verizon so I didn't look for where they were at originally, nor would I have even known how to be honest.

I'm a bit confused why you would say for me to downgrade back to a nongps Verizon image and then flash custom again. What would that do for me exactly?

As for the program I used, I tried the VisualGPS one (or whatever that was called) and the htc gps tool and one other one. I just ran them and tried to figure out how to get a lock. I don't really know enough yet about GPS on the phones because I have never owned one that had GPS on it so I don't know what to do to make sure the GPS settings are correct and the location is on as you suggested.

[drewcam888]

Well I know there is a alltel gps thread here so check that out. I say you have to downgrade because the new version pri blocks gps. So downgrading to a old pri removes the block and then you can reflash the new gps radio and rom.

[Doobla]

Ok, I didn't realize you were talking about the PRL when you said ROM. That was my confusion point. I understand what you mean now. I'll check out the other thread in a bit. This has all been such a big ordeal I am glad to just have a working phone on my account again so I can get some work done. I do want to get GPS working at some point though so I will update this thread as I learn more.