Tuesday, September 20, 2011

How to Unlock Samsung Galaxy S T-Mobile Vibrant

 

The following is a step by step guide to unlock T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S (Vibrant) to use on All GSM carriers including AT&T. It is fairly long process but I have verified every step and it worked for me. It should work for you too. This is the easiest method i've found and it does not require you type or modify files manually. So it's safest and you will be unlikely to brick the phone.

  1. Check whether your phone is already unlocked or not. Follow the steps here.
  2. If it is not unlocked. Download and install superoneclick to root the phone. A good instruction video below. You can download the tool from here.
  3. Reboot the phone.
  4. After you successfully root the phone and gain super user rights. You will need to clean up the T-Mobile system partition to make space to install busybox. If you do not clean up space, you will not be able to install busy box.
  5. Download and install Super Manager from the market place. Enable root access and go to /system/apps and delete the following directories: Sims 3, Amazon Mp3, Slacker Radio, Avatar. This should clear up more than enough space for you.
  6. Now go to Marketplace download and install the busybox Installer by Stericson. Run it to install busybox.
  7. Now go to Marketplace download and install the app Galaxy_S Unlock by Helroz. Follow the steps in the app to unlock. A good instruction video below:


  8. Now your phone should be unlocked. You can verify whether the phone is unlocked with steps described in #1.

Note: If the anything goes wrong. You may hard reset the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S and start over.

 

Leave a comment if it works for you!

Monday, September 19, 2011

How to hard reset Samsung Galaxy S smartphone

This is a simple step by step guide to hard reset Samsung Galaxy S smartphone including T-Mobile Vibrant, AT&T captivate etc.

  1. Power on the phone.
  2. Go to Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset
  3. Confirm Reset phone

If your phone is stuck and unable to get to the settings page. Try the following:

  1. Power off the phone
  2. Hold volume down button and the power button.
  3. Release the power button once the phone boots up
  4. After a few seconds you should see a menu. Release the volume button
  5. Choose "clear storage" or "delete all user data" with Volume down button to change your selection and power button to select.
  6. Now reboot the phone and it should be restored to factory fresh state.
Note: If above does not work, try hold down the middle of the volume button rather than just the volume down button.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

How to check if T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant is locked

To check whether the phone is locked:

  • Power on Samsung Galaxy S T-Mobile Vibrant
  • Go to phone and enter *#7465625#. If the Personalizatiob Status says the network lock is OFF, Congratulations, you phone is already unlocked and ready to be used with other carriers.

To relocked the phone (for warranty service):

  • Remove sim card
  • Power on Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant for T-Mobile
  • Enter *7465625*638# and relock the phone to another network

Thursday, September 15, 2011

10 Things that you do not know about the iPhone and iPad

I came across the very detailed article about various aspects of Apple's iPhones. May be you can learn one thing or two as well.

iPhone Secrets