Completely disable phone radio?

riot1031 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-04-2011, 01:49 PM

Hi! I just got a new phone and I want to give my Touch Pro 2 to a friend. He only wants to use it as a Pocket PC, so I'd like to completely disable the phone portion of the device. This way he can never try activating the phone (he is a special needs individual so I can't be sure he won't try to activate the phone). Is there any way to disable the phone and continue using it as a Pocket PC? Thanks!

**boredandtattooed** · #2 (**permalink**) 02-04-2011, 02:22 PM

so he's just gonna use it as an organizer sort of thing?

you can put it in airplane mode, but that easily undone..

Dont think you can flash it to have no radio, though i dunno...

why cant he activate it? its not like itd be in your name.... unless you did something sketchy and the ESN is bad and therefore cant be told to a CS agent because theyll see the block... hmmmm.. if this is the case theres nothing you can do from him calling in and still trying, thus giving up the ESN to the carrier, maybe getting you caught.. radio disabled or not...

if your worried because you did soemthing wrong? dont give him the phone..
if your only worried about him activating it, i find it hard to belive he'll pass a credit check and such to get it activated

you can also try varying levels of bricking the radio, but certainly risk bricking the device entirely

**horndoctor** · #3 (**permalink**) 02-04-2011, 04:45 PM

Wirelessly posted (htc Pocket PC: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint MP6950SP)

Quote:

Originally Posted by riot1031

Hi! I just got a new phone and I want to give my Touch Pro 2 to a friend. He only wants to use it as a Pocket PC, so I'd like to completely disable the phone portion of the device. This way he can never try activating the phone (he is a special needs individual so I can't be sure he won't try to activate the phone). Is there any way to disable the phone and continue using it as a Pocket PC? Thanks!

You could do this:

1. Open Registry Editor - Go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\OEM\EPST - DWord entry PreferMode = 4 (Automatic)
2. Change Value to 10 (HDR Only)
3. Exit Registry editor
4. Turn Airplane Mode ON
5. Turn WiFi On

This will disable the phone radio and allow WiFi connection for internet access. If the radio is re-enabled then only an EV connection can be used so no calls or texts can be made.

**Mojary** · #4 (**permalink**) 02-04-2011, 06:51 PM

OP...it seems like even though your friend is a special needs individual, he's normal enough to know how to operate a pocket pc. with that said...with any registry tweaks that you do on the phone prior to giving it to him, a hard reset will bring it back to factory settings. if your friend is able to use your tp2 as a pocket pc, im pretty sure at one point or another, he'll figure out where the hard reset icon is...or even figure out the 3 finger twister hard reset.

riot1031 · #5 (**permalink**) 02-04-2011, 09:07 PM

Great stuff guys, thanks for the replies!! I didn't do anything wrong with the phone, the ESN is clean. I'm worried that he could dial *228 and activate the phone, removing my number from my phone and placing it on his. Maybe it doesn't work that way though. I just got a new phone, and all I had to do to transfer service was the *228 thing, so I assumed he could dial that and move the number back to that phone. horndoctor, that seems like exactly what I want, though Mojary has a good point. He did have an iPaq that he hard reset a few times that I'm aware of, and that would undo the reg tweak. But if someone can confirm that *228 won't steal my phone service and place it on his phone, then I'm not really worried about disabling the phone radio.

quick99si · #6 (**permalink**) 02-04-2011, 09:30 PM

He cannot activate that TP2 without adding the ESN to your account (for which access isn't easy to get). The reason why the 228 activation worked for you is because the ESN was already added to your wireless account.

I would try to get the MSL of the phone and look through the programming menus. Maybe changing the MDN and other number to 0's will work. The only way around this is to add that ESN to your account (via telephone or on MySprint) and then manually program it for activation.

Or you can sell your TP2, buy one with a bad ESN, and never worry again.

riot1031 · #7 (**permalink**) 02-04-2011, 10:25 PM

Wouldn't that ESN be on my account though? I just upgraded from that phone to a Droid Incredible. Does Verizon automatically remove the old ESN from my account?

quick99si · #8 (**permalink**) 02-04-2011, 11:40 PM

Yes, only one ESN can be active on the line at any given time. If by some very weird chance he activates that one, you will not be able to use your phone the second it happens (voice and text won't work, but data may work for a while). Bottom line, I wouldn't worry too much.

riot1031 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-05-2011, 12:40 AM

Thanks for the great input guys, much appreciated!

**Mojary** · #10 (**permalink**) 02-05-2011, 04:02 AM

Yeah don't worry about it too much. unless your friend has all of your account info, he won't have any success in activating the phone on your account. He'll be able to activate it on his account though if the two of you have the same carrier...but not your problem anymore if he chooses to activate it on his account.

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