Sunday, April 29, 2012

How to unlock Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G I727 with Z3X box

The following is a guide to unlock the Samsung Galaxy S2 4G SkyRocket with Z3X box. I have verified the steps below on Android 2.3.5 (not rooted) and it worked for me. It's not easy to get it right because of lack of information available elsewhere. 

  1. Connect AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 2 Skyrocket 4G to Z3X box with the RJ45 C3300K cable
  2. Dial *#7284# on the phone and select modem for USB
  3. Dial *#9090# and select USB (1)
  4. Reboot the phone
  5. There may be more than one diagnostic ports show up in Samsung Tool 12.1. So try them one by one. One of them will be able to readinfo and unlock. 
  6. Congratulations, now you have just unlocked your AT&T Samsung Galaxy S2 4G Sky rocket !

To verify whether it's unlocked or not, just pop in a sim card from another carrier (for example, t-mobile), and reboot the phone. If the phone is not unlocked, it will prompt you for unlock code upon startup. 

Note:

  • It does not require the phone to be rooted
  • It works on 2.3.5 Android. I have not tried other versions.
  • It works on Samsung Tool 12.1. Samsung tool 12.2, 12.3, 12.5 may have issues showing its unlocked but in fact it's not.
  • If *#9090# code does not work then try the following: 1) power off the phone 2) connect microuart cable and power on the phone 3) now try *#9090# code again it must work 4) select USB diag and reboot the phone

 

Does it work for you? Please leave a comment if this helped you unlock your phone.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Unlock iPhone 4 5.1 with Gevey Sim

Gevey Sim did it once again! In addition to providing the unlock for iPhone 4S, they have another Gevey Sim now to provide unlock for iPhone 4 on IOS 5.1. Here's the link.

They also have GSM or CDMA iPhone 4S unlock Gevey Sim available as well.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

How to unlock iPhone 4 via ICCID and SAM exploit

The following is a guide to unlock iPhone 4. It is a temporary unlock but the phone remains unlocked after reboot or reinsert sim cards. However, you will lose the unlock after restoring or updating the firmware or switching to a different card. The unlocked was originally released on a popular chinese forum. I have not tried it personally. Please try it at your discretion.

Original guide in chinese

Google translate to english.

 

Did it work for you? We would love your feedback.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

How to factory unlock AT&T iPhone 4

Starting April 8th, AT&T started to unlock iphones for accounts in good standing. That is, iPhones that are either not currently in contract or bought out of contract. All you need to do is to call AT&T and provide the imei number of the phone. An email will be sent to you once it's unlocked. 

Here are the steps:

  1. Find out the imei number of the phone (Settings -> General -> About)
  2. Call AT&T customer service line (611 or 800-331-0500), Start an online chat with AT&T customer service rep or email AT&T customer service directly.
  3. AT&T rep will obtain phone's imei from you and ask for your email address.
  4. You will receive an email once phone's unlocked. It typically takes couple days to a week. 
  5. Once you receive the unlock email from AT&T, connect the phone to itunes and restore it with latest firmware. Once the restore is complete, itunes will show a message indicating the phone is offically unlocked.

 

Notes:

  1. Reports have shown that you do not need to have an AT&T account in order request unlock from AT&T. You can even call from overseas.
  2. All iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G can be unlocked this way. However, we have not seen AT&T unlock any iPhone 4S as of yet.  
  3. Any user can unlock up to 5 iphones per account.

 

Are you able to unlock your iPhone 4? Please leave a comment on your AT&T iPhone unlock experience. 

Friday, April 13, 2012

How to unlock Samsung Galaxy S2 T-Mobile T989 with Z3X Box

The following is a guide to unlock the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II with Z3X box. I have verified the steps below on Android 2.3.6 (not rooted) and it worked for me. It's not easy to get it right because of lack of information available elsewhere. 

  1. Connect Z3X box to PC via USB
  2. Dial *#7284# on the phone, choose Modem for USB
  3. Dial *#9090# on the phone, choose USB Diag and then reboot the phone
  4. Connect T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 2 T989 to PC via a different USB port.
  5. Select model T989 in samsung tool 12.1.
  6. Click read info. There may be up to 3 more serial ports show up in the list in Samsung Tool
  7. Try select one of the serial port and then click unlock. If it does not work, try the next one. One of them should work
  8. If you see "Reading Security... Error Access Denied" when attempting to unlock, try a different serial port. If none of the serial ports work, try root the t-mobile Galaxy S2 Hercules phone with this guide
  9. Congratulations, now you have just unlocked your T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2!

To verify whether it's unlocked or not, just pop in a sim card from another carrier (for example, AT&T), and reboot the phone. If the phone is not unlocked, it will prompt you for unlock code upon startup. 

Note:

  • It does not require the phone to be rooted. I managed to unlock it on both rooted and unrooted phones
  • It works on 2.3.6 Android. I have not tried other versions.
  • It works on Samsung Tool 12.1. Samsung tool 12.2 may have issues showing its unlocked but in fact it's not.

Does it work for you? Please leave a comment if this helped you unlock your phone.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

How to root Samsung Galaxy S II T-Mobile Hercules SGH-T989

The following is a step by step guide to root the samsung Galaxy S 2 from T-Mobile. I have tried it and it worked for me on Android 2.3.6. It's the fastest and safest method to root the phone as far as i know.

  1. Download the root files from here. And extract it to desktop.
  2. Make sure there's a micro-sd card in the phone.
  3. Connect the T-Mobile Galaxy S2 to PC via USB port. Mount it as USB mass storage. 
  4. Copy the su-3.0.5-efgh-signed.zip to phone's sd card.
  5. Reboot the phone into download mode (Hold both volume keys and then connect to PC with USB cable).
  6. Connect the phone to PC via USB. 
  7. Start the included odin software, check PDA and choose the recovery-cwm-hercules.tar.
  8. Click Start. Now it will install the CWM Recovery and reboot the phone after it's done.
  9. Reboot the phone into recovery mode.
  10. Go to CWM Recovery menu and choose install zip from sd card. Now select the su-3.0.5-efgh-signed.zip.
  11. Reboot the phone after it's now. Congratulations! Now your phone is rooted!

Did it work for you? Please leave a comment if you run into any issues or this is helpful.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

iTunes Error Message for iPhone restore

Below is the explanation for iTunes restore error message when you failed to restore iPhone in iTunes. Some of them
contains detailed steps needed to help you fix the error.

Error -1

  • Error occurs when one uses the “last ditch” method for preventing baseband updates on the iPhone 4. The baseband does not get updated using this method. Use TinyUmbrella to kick it out of recovery mode.

Error 1

  • You are attempting to downgrade an iPhone from iOS 5 to iOS 4.x. To resolve,
    use either custom firmware created by PwnageTool/sn0wbreeze or use notcom’s
    FixRecovery utility available on his site.
  • On an iPhone 4 downgrading from iOS 5, use the option in TinyUmbrella to
    allow a baseband “upgrade” to bypass the error and go back to basband 04.10.01.
  • Unable to downgrade. Try changing the USB port (the back one of chassis is
    better) and restart computer.
  • The installed version of iTunes may also be too old. Update iTunes.

Error 2

  • ASR does not exist on ramdisk or is corrupt/not signed. 
  • sn0wbreeze 1.6 Custom Firmware has a ASR patch problem. Use sn0wbreeze 1.7+ or PwnageTool. Device isn’t bootable.

Error 6

Not enter the downgrading mode, change USB port (the back one of chassis is
better) and restart computer.

Error 9

  • Due to asr being patched, the SHA signature is automatically changed and
    after being resigned the kernel will refuse to use it. Therefore proper
    kernel patches are required. If necessary kernel patches are not applied, it
    will fail to load asr and error 9 would occur during restore.
  • Rebooting your Mac or PC may resolve this issue.

Error 10

LLB is missing from the IPSW. The device cannot be booted up. The trick to skip
the baseband update no longer works.

Error 11

  • Removed BBFW file in the firmware folder of an unzipped IPSW. Can also be
    used to prevent a baseband update. The device is bootable, if you set the
    auto-boot to true or use TinyUmbrella and use “Kick Device out of Recovery”.
  • You are trying to update to a custom firmware from PwnageTool 4.1+. You always have to go into DFU mode and restore from there.

Error 13

  • Occurs when you want to install a beta firmware with iTunes for Windows
    (actively blocked by Apple; beta users are developers and therefore must
    have a Mac).
  • USB problem. Check the USB connection and try other direct ports or maybe
    the USB cable is an older one. Device isn’t bootable.
  • The installed version of iTunes may also be too old. For firmwares 4.0 and higher you need iTunes 9.2 or higher. Update iTunes.

Error 14

  • Custom firmware update fail (PwnageTool until 4.0.1). You have to restore
    the device with a custom firmware. Update to a custom firmware isn’t
    working. Device isn’t bootable. ^2
  • USB Problem. Check the USB connection and try other direct ports or maybe
    the USB cable is an older one. Device isn’t bootable.
  • You’re trying to ‘update’ to a beta firmware instead of performing a
    restore. Device is still bootable if you kick it out of recovery mode.
  • Rebooting your Mac or PC may resolve this issue.
  • Root file-system partition size was set too small in the ramdisk’s options plist.

Error 17

  • Device failed to display the applelogo img3 which results in this error.

    One or more of the nand0/nor0 flash images were missing from the IPSW.

Error 18

  • This occurs when the media library on the device is corrupt and cannot be modified or updated.
  • Updating to the latest version of iTunes and then restoring should resolve this issue
Error 20

 

  • Reportedly happens during failed downgrade attempts (iOS 2.0 to 1.1.1, 5 beta to 4.3.3). 
  • Some have seen success afterwards by doing the downgrade from DFU mode instead of the normal Recovery mode.

 

Error 21

  • Custom firmware restore fail (PwnageTool since 4.1). You have to put your
    device into the DFU mode and not into recovery mode. Device won’t boot
    correctly an stuck at the Apple logo after the error. Press and hold power
    and home button until it reboots.
  • Error when using Sauriks server for a restore with iOS 5.x in the recovery mode at least on a A5 device.

Error 23

Cannot restore or update due to hardware problems.

  • In software you have to set default web browser.
  • In hardware, it’s a communication problem. Check all connections, also try
    to change battery.
  • Faulty baseband flash or processor 
  • Happens frequently after water damage. Remove and clean motherboard.

Error 26

  • Values or variables in the options property list within the ramdisk are
    incorrect. 

     

    False version of the NOR flash firmware. Use the correct sn0wbreeze version.

Error 27

  • I got this after I tried to flash iOS5 from 3Gs on a 3G Phone (I modified the restore.plist so it would flash and also exchanged RestoreRamDisk and kernelcache)

Error 28

  • Hardware error. Return your device to Apple if possible. The problem is a
    bad dock connector on the iPhone. Must change the connector.
  • If you have tried almost everything, reset the logic board (leave uncharged for five days or remove battery for half an hour), then pwn and restore. If this doesn’t work, the flash memory/hard drive of your device is damaged.

Error 29

  • See Apple’s discussion thread number 2329795 about this problem. You might need to change the battery.
Error 34

 

  • Hard disk is run out of space when trying to download. Clear space and then continue downloading.

 

Error 37
  • iPod touch 2G LLB patched with the 0×24000 Segment Overflow was used on an
    iPhone 3GS custom firmware. Known on damaged bundles from unofficial
    PwnageTool distributions or bundles.
  • sn0wbreeze 2.0.1 bug, which was fixed in 2.0.2.
  • Recent sn0wbreeze can cause this issue. Deselect all custom boot logos, recreate IPSW. If received on an iPhone 3GS, select “new boot-rom” and deselect all custom bootlogos, then recreate the IPSW.

Error 40

    • Hacktivation bug in Sn0wbreeze 2.0.1, which was fixed in Sn0wbreeze 2.0.2.
    Error 46

    ?


    Error 1002

    Error when restoring.

    Error 1004

    This is caused by a failure to match the Baseband Nonce currently in memory to
    the nonce returned in the Baseband Firmware SHSH blob. This happens if you
    edited the hosts file (Saurik’s Server) or you are using TinyUmbrella. Use
    TinyUmbrella and “Kick Device Out Of Recovery” to boot. ^1

    Error 1011

    This is caused by recovery mode being in userland (1.1.1 firmware). The file
    iTunesMobileDevice.dll is damaged or updated.

    Error 1013
    • iPhone 4
      o This means that the baseband did not get updated. Either remove the
      gs.apple.com entry from your hosts file and let the baseband upgrade or
      if you want to preserve the baseband just jailbreak at this point to
      boot it up.
    • Other Devices
      o Restart computer; change computer; reinstall system, if the device is
      always in restoring mode: XP users can jump from restoring mode with
      ibus; MAC users can use iNdependence. (usually on the iPhone 2G with
      1.0.2 firmware downgraded from 1.1.1)

    Error 1014

    This occurs when you try to downgrade your device’s baseband.

    Error 1015

    This error is common when downgrading iPhones and 3G-enabled iPads. The problem
    occurs when the device’s baseband has a higher version number than the baseband
    in the firmware you restored to. Just set auto-boot true in iRecovery or use
    iREB/TinyUmbrella/RecBoot.^1 In case this is not working use Pwnage Tool to
    create a custom firmware WITHOUT the iPad baseband, put your device in pwned DFU
    mode and restore via iTunes.


    Error 1394

    When Spirit2Pwn flashes parts of the boot chain on iOS 4, the device may crash
    into DFU Mode.[1]

     

    Error 1413

    Restart computer; change USB port; reinstall system. See also Apple’s Knowledge
    Base article number TS1927.

    Error 1415

    Restart computer; change USB port; reinstall system.

    Error 1417

    Restart computer; change USB port; reinstall system.

    Error 1418

    Restart computer; change USB port; reinstall system.

    Error 1428

    Restart computer; change USB port; reinstall system. (downgrade from
    www.iphonebus.com)

    Error 1050

    Bad response from gs.apple.com OR need iREB for preparing the device for
    restoring to custom IPSW


    Error 1600

    • Custom firmware can’t be restored on a device with DFU Mode. The software of
      the iPhone isn’t patched. Using iREB, sn0wbreeze, redsn0w, or PwnageTool, you
      need to enter a pwned DFU Mode. During that process the software gets patched
      and the custom firmware should run without any problems.
    • APTicket problems if you try to restore to iOS 5.x in the DFU Mode.

       

    Error 1601

    See also Apple’s Knowledge Base article number TA38633.

     

    Error 1602
    • Restart computer; change computer; reinstall system.
    • If this error occured during an Apple TV restore, then unplug the Apple TV
      from the power cable, after you entered the recovery or DFU mode, and then
      try it again.

    Error 1603

    False kernelcache patch. Known on damaged bundles from unofficial PwnageTool
    distributions or bundles. See also Apple’s Knowledge Base article number TA38604

    Error 1604

    Device was not pwned (signature checks were not blocked). Custom firmware can’t
    be restored. Can also happen when there’s a problem with the IPSW.

    Error 1611

    iTunes tried to enter the Restore Mode, but the device turned back to the
    Recovery Mode. This can happen when updating an iPad 2 jailbroken with Saffron
    gets updated to iOS5. In this case simply retry, as it is in Recovery Mode then
    anyway.

    Error 1618

    Missing system files or corrupt data in iTunes installation. Try to uninstall
    iTunes, restart computer, install again. This error also occurs for iTunes in
    Windows 8 for reasons currently unknown.

    Error 1619

    iTunes is too old and couldn’t read the iPhone in Recovery or DFU Mode. Please
    update iTunes and try it again.

    Error 1644

    IPSW was moved during prepare with iTunes. Try it again and don’t move the IPSW.

    Error 1646

    iTunes expected the device to be in a different state (Example: booted into iOS
    rather than jumping to iBEC).

    Errors 20xx

    Errors 2000-2009 (from Apple support): If you experience this issue on a Mac,
    disconnect third-party devices, hubs, spare cables, displays, reset the SMC, and
    then try to restore. If you are using a Windows computer, remove all USB devices
    and spare cables other than your keyboard, mouse, and the device, restart the
    computer, and try to restore. If that does not resolve the issue, try the USB
    issue-resolution steps and articles listed for Error 1604. If the issue
    persists, it may be related to conflicting security software.

    Error 2001

    • The Mac OS X kernel extension “IOUSBFamily” that was bundled with late 2008
      / early 2009 MacBooks, as well as the 10.5.6 update, has a bug where it
      fails to properly recognize an iDevice in DFU Mode. It can be resolved by
      updating to 10.5.7 (or later), or using a USB hub.
    • Close limera1n.

    Error 2002

    iTunes can’t connect because another program is using it or it’s disconnected
    during the Apple Server check.

    Error 2003
    • Connection problem; change USB cable and check USB port.
    • sn0wbreeze failed to restore IPSW; unplug and plug iDevice and try again

    Error 2005

    Problem connecting. Probably a hardware failure.

    Somebody reported that reinstalling the USB drivers fixed the problem.

    Error 2006

    Replace the USB cable with a newer one and/or disconnect all other USB devices,
    then retry.

    Error 2009

    ?


    Error 3002

    • Update to an older firmware isn’t working, because Apple is no longer
      handing out SHSHs for the device/firmware combination.
    • Or a timeout checking Apple server – retry later.
    • This error also happens if you try to /Update/ with a local TSS server
      (TinyUmbrella tool) and probably also when connecting to Cydia Server. Use
      /Restore/ instead.

    Error 3002 

    represents no update ramdisk when pressing Shift+Check for updates.

    Error 3004

    • No internet connection during the firmware restore.
    • iTunes can’t connect to gs.apple.com. Maybe Port 80 and Port 443 is blocked.
      Open it on your router.

    Error 3014

    • Bad hosts file. The SHSH request couldn’t be completed. No connection to the
      Apple Server, Cydia Server or localhost (for TinyUmbrella.
    • iTunes can’t connect to gs.apple.com. Maybe Port 80 and Port 443 is blocked.
      Open it on your router.

    Error 3123

      Something dealing with movie rentals.

      Error 3191

      QuickTime may be corrupted. You must reinstall it before iTunes will work.
      Windows users, also try turning off Compatibility Mode for QuickTime.

      • Right-click on “C:\Program Files\QuickTime\QuickTimePlayer.exe” (“Program
        Files (x86)” for 64-bit Windows) and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
      • In the Properties window, click on the Compatibility tab. Deselect the
        checkbox labeled “Run this program in compatibility mode for.”
      • Click Apply.
      • Close the Properties window

      Error 3194

      Occurs when trying to install an old firmware and Apple’s server disallows the
      installation. The only solution is to have SHSH backup and modify the hosts file
      to point to Saurik’s Cydia Server where they are backed up (or localhost if you
      have it yourself).

      Error 3195
      • There is no SHSH for the firmware. 
      • This is the same as “This device isn’t eligible for the request build.” but with an cache error.

      Error 3200

        You are trying to /update/ to iOS 5, when infact, the IPSW file has only a
        Restore Ramdisk.