Develop Bugs

Purchased used Nexus off Craigslist...what a mistake

Hey guys, So I purchased a used Nexus from a guy locally. I showed up and he had a box with charger, headphones, case, and screen protector. The phone looked perfect and he put his sim in and activated the phone along with showing me data worked along with calls. I bought the phone and took the phone to Verizon and had it activated. It activated fine, so I thought I made out good at this point. However, after looking at the phone further, it appears to have the 1850 Mah battery and the identification sticker under the battery does not have the Samsung logo. It just lists Model SCH-1515 V and shows the serial number and imei number along with STA 02/20/2012 Made in Korea.
I put in a code i found online to check and see if its refurbished and it shows NO for reconditioned. Here is the confusing part, the phone was first activated on 2/28/12 according to the software and has a lifetime call log of 82 calls at around 63 hours. The guy stated he owned the phone since December 17th and he wont return my calls. Do any of you guys know any additional information about this phone that can help me indentify what it is? Also, the phone seems to drop 4G coverage alot and when it first boots and shows the Google logo with a lock logo that appears below it. Does this mean anything? It also has the Superuser icon in my apps list so it appears to be rooted. The software version is 4.0.2 ICS. I feel like an idiot for buying this thing. Maybe I can flash it and fix the radios witha custom rom.

Why exactly are you feeling like an idiot? I still can't understand.
You have purchased the 4G Model of the Gnex, which is called I515:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_nexus_i515-4301.php
This version also includes the 1850mAh battery.
If it's rooted, you can easily unroot and lock your bootloader (the little lock thing will disappear then). Concerning the radio signal, you'll find most 4G users are struggling with the Network reception.
So all in all, unless there's something i missed/did not understand, you bought yourself a normal 4G Galaxy Nexus.

Yeah sounds like you got a unlocked and rooted phone. If you choose to download any roms make sure you download the ones for the Toro, Maguro is the GSM variant. If your reception is bad you could flash the leaked 4.0.4 radios. Check the CDMA development thread for radios, roms, etc. There are some great roms on here and rootzwiki.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

I think I was more concerned about the dishonesty and the date the phone was activated. It just made me doubt my purchase. I mean, shouldn't the phone have a samsung logo behind the battery? I also found an ad where he posted the same phone for sale on 2/28 which is the day the phone was first activated. Thanks for your input!

Dude, it's USED from some random guy ONLINE... expect dishonesty!

AndroidHead05 said:
I think I was more concerned about the dishonesty and the date the phone was activated. It just made me doubt my purchase. I mean, shouldn't the phone have a samsung logo behind the battery? I also found an ad where he posted the same phone for sale on 2/28 which is the day the phone was first activated. Thanks for your input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it should have a samsung logo under the batter that has the IMEI number on it.
i bet you got a stolen phone, but if VZW activated it, call it a good day and forget about it all. if you want a stock phone, go to the dev forums and read how to flash back to stock with the CDMA version.

AndroidHead05 said:
I think I was more concerned about the dishonesty and the date the phone was activated. It just made me doubt my purchase. I mean, shouldn't the phone have a samsung logo behind the battery? I also found an ad where he posted the same phone for sale on 2/28 which is the day the phone was first activated. Thanks for your input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about you post some pictures here so we can tell you? Make sure to hide the IMEI and Serial Number before posting those pics.

Lifetime call log info and activation resets everytime you hard reset or flash a rom

Kind of a weird post. You got GN that you hooked up to Verizon without a problem and it came with a stock battery. What exactly is the issue here?
Anyway, for future if you ever want to buy a used phone locally always make the seller meet you at a Verizon store or whoever you are trying to hook the phone up with so they can check the phone for you in person.

rquinn19 said:
Lifetime call log info and activation resets everytime you hard reset or flash a rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not true. *#*#RTN#*#* will hold you info even through factory resets and flashes. It's not entirely bug-free though, as I've got a screen shot from January showing that I had an incoming call time of 320 hours after only owning the phone for a month, which of course works out to 10 hours of calling a day. In the 7 weeks since it's crawled up to just over 500 hours.
My guess is that it has something to do with Google Voice.

Don't worry about it. Flash 4.0.4 and be done with it! More than likely you will get better reception with the new radios.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

AndroidHead05 said:
Also, the phone seems to drop 4G coverage alot and when it first boots and shows the Google logo with a lock logo that appears below it. Does this mean anything? It also has the Superuser icon in my apps list so it appears to be rooted. The software version is 4.0.2 ICS. I feel like an idiot for buying this thing. Maybe I can flash it and fix the radios witha custom rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "lock icon" on boot means that the phone is already Unlocked, so you dont need to do anything you are ready to flash CWM (if it isnt on there already)... if you want to flash a custom rom you can I would suggest stock 4.0.4. If its dropping 4G may be the crap 4.0.2 radios wait for an update or do it yourself like I said stock 4.0.4 imo is the best way to go you can find it in the Development section.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Is AOKP Milestone 4 a good rom. What is the recommended radio to flash? If I go to stock 4.0.4, will that affect anything as this phone is rooted and unlocked already?

AndroidHead05 said:
Thanks for the suggestions guys! Is AOKP Milestone 4 a good rom. What is the recommended radio to flash? If I go to stock 4.0.4, will that affect anything as this phone is rooted and unlocked already?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Milestone 4 or Axiom are great Roms. Don't see why you would flash a stock ROM, other ROMs are very stable and offer a ton of customizations.

[email protected] said:
Milestone 4 or Axiom are great Roms. Don't see why you would flash a stock ROM, other ROMs are very stable and offer a ton of customizations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help, what radio should I flash with it?

AndroidHead05 said:
Thanks for your help, what radio should I flash with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing about radios is that everyone's experience is different. I use the 4.0.4 CDMA/LTE radios but you'll also find that some people prefer hybrid radios.
I would recommend starting with the 4.0.4 CDMA/LTE radios because that's what I have had the best luck with and I use AOKP Milestone 4 as well.
Just make sure you read the directions carefully when flashing radios.

rquinn19 said:
Lifetime call log info and activation resets everytime you hard reset or flash a rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it doesn't.

ATnTdude said:
That is not true. *#*#RTN#*#* will hold you info even through factory resets and flashes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This code is not working for me. Galaxy nexus EU, is it US only?
Verstuurd van mijn Galaxy Nexus met Tapatalk

No, but its stock rom only (usually).

Zepius said:
it should have a samsung logo under the batter that has the IMEI number on it.
i bet you got a stolen phone, but if VZW activated it, call it a good day and forget about it all. if you want a stock phone, go to the dev forums and read how to flash back to stock with the CDMA version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VZW will not activate a stolen phone.

Cannot connect to network - - have tried all suggestions on forums

Hey everyone, I have a T-mobile T989 being used on the AWS 1700 Mobilicity network in Canada. I just purchased the phone from ebay and I am having difficulty getting any signal. I can connect for about 10 seconds and then it drops signal. I went to a location right by a mobi tower and I did get some signal there, so something is causing my phone to have a VERY weak signal.
It's not a Mobilicity signal issue as my other phones have perfect reception and signal with the same sim put into them. A lot of the time I can't even find the mobi network.
Things I've tried:
1) Installed all radios listed on the forum
2) Checked APN
3) Rooted and tried CM10 plus Jedi knight roms
4) tried a bunch of little random tidbits I've found over searching the forums for the past week (permissions, wipes etc)
5) WCDMA 1700 band selected
Nothing seems to work at all, could this be a hardware issue?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, I've spent day and night over the past week attacking every software related tip I could find, but no luck so far so I'm starting to think hardware. The phone does not have warranty

I have a quick question; did you buy the phone already rooted? When you said you unrooted the phone, you mean you brought the phone to factory stock? Well anyway I have Jedi jelly also, what version are you running, I know 3 doesn't work. All Jedi for me at least won't give me signal for the first five minutes.
From my Bauer seed in minecraft

bravouno said:
I have a quick question; did you buy the phone already rooted? When you said you unrooted the phone, you mean you brought the phone to factory stock? Well anyway I have Jedi jelly also, what version are you running, I know 3 doesn't work. All Jedi for me at least won't give me signal for the first five minutes.
From my Bauer seed in minecraft
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry that was a typing error, I meant I rooted the phone, the phone arrived to me in stock form and wasn't getting signal.
Jedi Mind Trick X3
CM10 4.0 stable
T-mobile 4.04
Those are the ROM's I tried, it's the same for all of them, I have tried to leave the phone overnight to see if it picks up signal eventually, but no luck so far with that either.
Thanks for your response.

did you try to odin to stock and go from there yet?

I'm sorry to say you might have to clam a false item description with eBay and PayPal to get your money back. It sounds like it stopped working before you received it.
From my Bauer seed in minecraft

gulbir101 said:
did you try to odin to stock and go from there yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It arrived to me stock so I didn't try to odin back to stock. Would it have any effect flashing a stock phone with stock again?
I will try it out anyway since there's no harm in trying.
bravouno said:
I'm sorry to say you might have to clam a false item description with eBay and PayPal to get your money back. It sounds like it stopped working before you received it.
From my Bauer seed in minecraft
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got signal in the public library parking lot and could access data aswell at super slow speeds. As soon as I move positions it drops signal.
Looks like my best bet is to just buy another one and avoid the headaches, my only concern is if someone knowingly sold a defective phone they will probably put up a fight when I try to return it.

does the same sim card work fine in other phones?
Can you get a new sim card and try that? If that doesn't work, then I don't know what to try next. Maybe install TWRP and run the superwipe script and flash a new radio and stock rom.

mike-y said:
does the same sim card work fine in other phones?
Can you get a new sim card and try that? If that doesn't work, then I don't know what to try next. Maybe install TWRP and run the superwipe script and flash a new radio and stock rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup the simcard works totally fine in my blackberry. I tried my friends Rogers simcard in the T989 and it did not work either.
I am going to flash an older ROM onto the phone 2.x.x next to see how it goes and then back to stock if that doesn't work.
I caught 3G using UVLE1, but that only lasted about 30 seconds haha.

New to Sprint & L900. What's the 411?

Okay, so I've been on Tmobile since taking the dive into the wonderful world of Android. I had the S2 for a few months and thdn after becoming infatuated I went out and got me an S3. Recently I decided to move on to Sprint as the coverage I received at work was, well, nonexistent. So, I am completely new to CDMA and my beautiful new Note 2, and after reading through the forums I've discovered that I am bout back to square one. Well, maybe not entirely, but definitely been knocked back quite a bit. Which when considering I've only been involved in the xda community for about 9 months pretty much leaves me with the feeling that I'm stuck in Paris with no map and no translator. So, I was hoping I could reach out to the wise and informed members of xda and ask a broad, but simple, question. What do I need to know so I don't F up my new mistress? I'm not asking for a tutorial on rooting or flashing, nothing generic. Just some helpful specifics. I saw somewhere that they were talking about resetting Wallet before flashing a new ROM or else it may be blocked on the phone, I guess, forever. I'm also unfamiliar with the modems and the updates yall have gotten. Etc, etc. And as I said, not looking for another, what is the benefit of rooting, what is CWM and TWRP, can I get rid of all the darned Sprint apps baloney. I was just hoping to basically just kinda do a crash course intro, a CDMA and/or L900 101 kinda thing so to speak. Any info you can offer up would be greatly appreciated!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
Okay, so I've been on Tmobile since taking the dive into the wonderful world of Android. I had the S2 for a few months and thdn after becoming infatuated I went out and got me an S3. Recently I decided to move on to Sprint as the coverage I received at work was, well, nonexistent. So, I am completely new to CDMA and my beautiful new Note 2, and after reading through the forums I've discovered that I am bout back to square one. Well, maybe not entirely, but definitely been knocked back quite a bit. Which when considering I've only been involved in the xda community for about 9 months pretty much leaves me with the feeling that I'm stuck in Paris with no map and no translator. So, I was hoping I could reach out to the wise and informed members of xda and ask a broad, but simple, question. What do I need to know so I don't F up my new mistress? I'm not asking for a tutorial on rooting or flashing, nothing generic. Just some helpful specifics. I saw somewhere that they were talking about resetting Wallet before flashing a new ROM or else it may be blocked on the phone, I guess, forever. I'm also unfamiliar with the modems and the updates yall have gotten. Etc, etc. And as I said, not looking for another, what is the benefit of rooting, what is CWM and TWRP, can I get rid of all the darned Sprint apps baloney. I was just hoping to basically just kinda do a crash course intro, a CDMA and/or L900 101 kinda thing so to speak. Any info you can offer up would be greatly appreciated!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The worst part about the android community, unfortunately, is the fragmentation of general knowledge. The rooting process for a Nexus is probably identical to a Note 2 but the names of everything and builds and versions are all different, so you have to learn new 'words' like it is a new language. Fortunately you have a great community so you just have to learn how to search for things. Check the general section for android development I think there is a sticky that has a glossory of terms that explains all the acronyms.
I've had mine for 3 months but I would still welcome a crash course as well.

Well I prefer twrp as my custom recovery. Depending on your firmware version you can root without your phone ever going to download mode. I did. I used exynos abuse to get root. Then used mobile odin to flash a new rom. Always reset google wallet if you are reseting or flashing a new rom. Its tempermental. I would stay around only the sprint veraion for now. There is a way to use roms from other note 2 variants. I believe its in the dev section. Recovery is standalone. So swirching roms doesnt change it. You cannot talk on the phone and be on the internet at the same time unless you are using wifi or 4glte. If you like to draw or doodle there is sketchbook mobile which is awesome. Btw ma7 is the most current firmware that I know of. Also you can sideload the google wallet apk with no extra work to get it working. Goodluck and read alot.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
what is the benefit of rooting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need root to do most modifications to your phone. I find that I need root for everyday stuff too (Titanium backup, Stweaks, Root app delete, etc).
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
what is CWM and TWRP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ClockWork Mod and TeamWin Recovery Project. Both have custom recovery pieces. I personally had some troubles with CWM on this phone and just use Odin now. I head TWRP works better than CWM on the Note 2, but Odin is the Tool Samsung suggests. Note that TWRP is MUCH more feature-rich than Odin. You might choose TWRP (or CWM) if you wanted to flash stuff from your SD card rather than from your PC- good for jumping around between kernels on the fly, for example.
Odin and the other two are all ways to flash stuff to your phone. That's all Odin does; the other two have lots more features.
Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
can I get rid of all the darned Sprint apps baloney
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heck yeah! Simplest way is to root it and uninstall everything you don't like (Root App Delete from the Play Store seems to work pretty well; be sure you have a backup before you start blowing stuff away).
If you'd like to take it a step further, get a custom ROM that's been debloated; they normally require a full wipe, so bye bye sprint stuff. (Again, root it and back it up first!)

tpeef said:
You need root to do most modifications to your phone. I find that I need root for everyday stuff too (Titanium backup, Stweaks, Root app delete, etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate you taking the time to go through all that, but I think maybe I didn't explain too well what I was trying to get. I wasn't asking for the general info, just things specific to CDMA and the L900. Like what was replying about. Not trying to be a jerk, but I know there's already a thousand threads on recoverys, ROMs, and rooting. Just didn't wanna do anything to my phone that would be irreversible (i.e. The resetting Google Wallet thing) or something that would cause signal issues (I read stuff on flashing certain ROMs on certain modems may create issues). Stuff like that. Like I said though appreciate the time you took, and any info you may have like that would certainly be appreciated.
Sent from my cellular telephone

Oh I forgot. If you are on ljc expect to not go back to it if you update to ma7. For some reason lots of people have had trouble going back. It would cause slot of problems. Ma7 is just fine for me though. Great battery life and what not. I would say do the update. If you are going custom rom and are currently unrooted just do the ota. Or there is a firmware file around here to flash. I updated firmware before going to ma7. Although I was already rooted using exynos abuse. Ma7 eliminates the exploit. So be prepared to do that before going to ma7. If there is anything I am missing that you still need answers to or don't understand just ask. Its also a good habit to update profile and prl when switching roms or modems.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

patrao_n said:
...If you are going custom rom and are currently unrooted just do the ota. Or there is a firmware file around here to flash. I updated firmware before going to ma7. Although I was already rooted using exynos abuse. Ma7 eliminates the exploit. So be prepared to do that before going to ma7...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I picked up something along those lines from reading around. It took all of 15 minutes out of the box before I got all rooted with new ROMs being flashed after playing around on stock just to get a baseline with all the ROM hoping that was sure to follow. Needless to say I didn't read up on anything modem wise before doing all this as I, admittedly, jumped the gun a little (I was just so excited to have a whole new community with new dev teams and all these foreign ROMs to explore). I used Max's trusty galaxynote2root site to root (love that guy). And used the GalaxyNote2RootSprint.zip to obtain root. Then, went straight into the original development section and immediately flashed the absolutely amazing Liquid Smooth. Now I should say, I did receive a message saying the was an update to the phone through sprint and I did proceed with the OTA while dling the zip and giving root instructions a quick once over. So, I'm guessing that took care of going to ma7 for me? Cuz I'm definitely using the ma7 modem. Now I did leave my beloved aosp as I did want to see if I would actually use all the S pen features that aosp sadly doesn't offer us. I jumped around from Whapasaurous to Venom Ice a d finally to Macks All Star, but I'm assuming that unless it's totally different from GSM that flashing a new ROM has no effect on your modem (but by all means correct me if I'm wrong). So just wanna make sure I went about things the right way here.
P. S. I did use the zip to revert the sd cards file format when returning from aosp so I didn't have to deal with all that "0" and "legacy" nonsense.
Thanks again!
Sent from my Window to the World

P.P.S. I don't really seem to have any data issues so I'm guessing all is well, but I am having an issue where my wifi keeps turning itself on, like multiple times a day. I thought at first I may have been accidently hitting it, but upon further review, nope, not me. Sounds more like a ROM issue to me though, but as it seems like it may pertain I figured I'd bring it up
Sent from my diminishing marginal utility

Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
Okay, so I've been on Tmobile since taking the dive into the wonderful world of Android. I had the S2 for a few months and thdn after becoming infatuated I went out and got me an S3. Recently I decided to move on to Sprint as the coverage I received at work was, well, nonexistent. So, I am completely new to CDMA and my beautiful new Note 2, and after reading through the forums I've discovered that I am bout back to square one. Well, maybe not entirely, but definitely been knocked back quite a bit. Which when considering I've only been involved in the xda community for about 9 months pretty much leaves me with the feeling that I'm stuck in Paris with no map and no translator. So, I was hoping I could reach out to the wise and informed members of xda and ask a broad, but simple, question. What do I need to know so I don't F up my new mistress? I'm not asking for a tutorial on rooting or flashing, nothing generic. Just some helpful specifics. I saw somewhere that they were talking about resetting Wallet before flashing a new ROM or else it may be blocked on the phone, I guess, forever. I'm also unfamiliar with the modems and the updates yall have gotten. Etc, etc. And as I said, not looking for another, what is the benefit of rooting, what is CWM and TWRP, can I get rid of all the darned Sprint apps baloney. I was just hoping to basically just kinda do a crash course intro, a CDMA and/or L900 101 kinda thing so to speak. Any info you can offer up would be greatly appreciated!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you should have stayed with Tmobile and there 70 dollar unlimited because in a few months to a year you would have had lte and hspa+42 &21 as a fall back before you went to slow data. Im making the jump slowly but surely. My wife is getting the S4 on Tmobile and when the note3 comes out ill be going as well im sick of cdma amd the slow data when there is no LTE
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app

Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
P.P.S. I don't really seem to have any data issues so I'm guessing all is well, but I am having an issue where my wifi keeps turning itself on, like multiple times a day. I thought at first I may have been accidently hitting it, but upon further review, nope, not me. Sounds more like a ROM issue to me though, but as it seems like it may pertain I figured I'd bring it up
Sent from my diminishing marginal utility
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprint Connection Optimizer will do that
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
P.P.S. I don't really seem to have any data issues so I'm guessing all is well, but I am having an issue where my wifi keeps turning itself on, like multiple times a day. I thought at first I may have been accidently hitting it, but upon further review, nope, not me. Sounds more like a ROM issue to me though, but as it seems like it may pertain I figured I'd bring it up
Sent from my diminishing marginal utility
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to turn off sprint connection optimizer in setting more settings I believe
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app

budde2 said:
I think you should have stayed with Tmobile and there 70 dollar unlimited because in a few months to a year you would have had lte and hspa+42 &21 as a fall back before you went to slow data. Im making the jump slowly but surely. My wife is getting the S4 on Tmobile and when the note3 comes out ill be going as well im sick of cdma amd the slow data when there is no LTE
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really only made the move due to the fact that T-mobile is the only service provider that gets absolutely no coverage inside my work, and, unfortunately, I work 12 hour days, 4-5 days a week. So, being as my contract was up, I didn't wanna sign up for 2 more years with lte "coming soon." I know you all with Sprint know how that has the possibility of turning out. Plus, just because they were getting lte doesn't mean I'm going to see any improvement at work. Now I'm getting consistent 3g inside work and I'm loving it. Actually typing this inside, infamously, the worst service area in the entire building and still getting an almost constant connection. Occasionally I am getting 4g, not often, but it's happened. Playing around with modems tonight though. Did end up trying LJC after being on MA7,no problems so far, actually seeing improvement. Thanks for the heads up on the Sprint Connection Optimizer, gonna check that out now. Super annoying, especially as I do work 12 hour shifts and with wifi turning randomly on, don't wanna look to see my battery down to nada. That's just the kinda info I was hoping to get here, thanks again!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

Psychotic-Cerebellum said:
I really only made the move due to the fact that T-mobile is the only service provider that gets absolutely no coverage inside my work, and, unfortunately, I work 12 hour days, 4-5 days a week. So, being as my contract was up, I didn't wanna sign up for 2 more years with lte "coming soon." I know you all with Sprint know how that has the possibility of turning out. Plus, just because they were getting lte doesn't mean I'm going to see any improvement at work. Now I'm getting consistent 3g inside work and I'm loving it. Actually typing this inside, infamously, the worst service area in the entire building and still getting an almost constant connection. Occasionally I am getting 4g, not often, but it's happened. Playing around with modems tonight though. Did end up trying LJC after being on MA7,no problems so far, actually seeing improvement. Thanks for the heads up on the Sprint Connection Optimizer, gonna check that out now. Super annoying, especially as I do work 12 hour shifts and with wifi turning randomly on, don't wanna look to see my battery down to nada. That's just the kinda info I was hoping to get here, thanks again!
Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the wifi thing Will kill your battery. Sprint is not as bad as everyone thinks and says I have great LTE in 90% of where I go. I'm thinking of going to T-Mobile because I'm sick of cdma devices we are always are considered last ro none over GSM. If sprint keeps up the good work with the LtE and 3g ill be saying. Glad you hot it figured out for rh the most part.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Upgrade stock 4.1.1 to 4.4.2

My day to day phone is an iPhone 4S, but the camera is disabled on it (work restriction), so I have an SGS III for traveling/ weekends (usually used with no SIM just for pictures).
The SGS III was running a TW-based 4.1.1 ROM, and I want to go back to completely stock. I flashed the 4.1.1 stock AT&T ROM, which works fine, but it can't update OTA or through Kies. I un-rooted the phone, and that didn't help with Kies, so now I'm stuck in some in-between purgatory with a working, but very out of date OS. CWM must still be on there somewhere too.
How do I get out of this? It looks like I need to get back to the stock bootloader and recovery, but how does one do this? I used to be great at flashing ROMs back in the SGS I/Captivate days, but man has it gotten complicated since then! I read a number of threads, but none of them seem to address this particular scenario.
I'd be open to going to a very close to stock ROM if that's easier than going back to a completely stock setup, but I'd prefer to go completely stock.
I'm going on a trip on Wednesday, and I'd much rather have 4.4.2 than 4.1.1 when I swap the SIM over for some blistering fast LTE on my travels.
Plus, my mom has the same phone, and hers was never rooted, so she got OTA updates and now she has a newer version of Android than I do.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2789917

DocHoliday77 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2789917
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So after a day stuck on 4.1.1, the phone decided that it wanted to do OTA updates to get to 4.3 and then 4.4.2, so now I'm upgraded. The problem I'm having now is that my GPS is completely shot, it will only work once in a while and then flake out. My mom has a twin to my phone that's never been rooted or had ROMs installed on it, and it's GPS works just fine. What gives? It was extremely frustrating have to revert back to my iPhone while traveling. If I didn't have the iPhone, I would have been royally screwed trying to travel without working GPS... I am completely fed up with Samsuck at this point!

GSMinCT said:
So after a day stuck on 4.1.1, the phone decided that it wanted to do OTA updates to get to 4.3 and then 4.4.2, so now I'm upgraded. The problem I'm having now is that my GPS is completely shot, it will only work once in a while and then flake out. My mom has a twin to my phone that's never been rooted or had ROMs installed on it, and it's GPS works just fine. What gives? It was extremely frustrating have to revert back to my iPhone while traveling. If I didn't have the iPhone, I would have been royally screwed trying to travel without working GPS... I am completely fed up with Samsuck at this point!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have a mixed up modem. Make sure you have root and then try flashing the modem zip in cwm recovery. It's the NE4 modern and is listed in the development forum.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

wrenhal said:
Sounds like you have a mixed up modem. Make sure you have root and then try flashing the modem zip in cwm recovery. It's the NE4 modern and is listed in the development forum.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll have to look into that and flash it.
Maybe the modem just didn't get updated? I'm so fed up with the thing, I might just try flashing CyanogenMOD or something to see what almost real Android feel like. TW is even laggier and buggier than I expected... We'll see.
I don't think I have a root right now, but I'm pretty sure that I do in fact have CWM... in that case, can I just go ahead and flash the modem?

Ota would not have worked if you had cwm, it will only work on stock recovery. Your modem is probably fine as well because a mismatched modem/bootloader would cause unknown baseband and no imei issues, not just a flakey gps. There are other threads on fixing gps issues, some codes to enter in the dialer, but since yours comes and goes you may just need to tighten the screws, I've heard that sometimes helps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 running TMS3KK-2.0

Viper67857 said:
Ota would not have worked if you had cwm, it will only work on stock recovery. Your modem is probably fine as well because a mismatched modem/bootloader would cause unknown baseband and no imei issues, not just a flakey gps. There are other threads on fixing gps issues, some codes to enter in the dialer, but since yours comes and goes you may just need to tighten the screws, I've heard that sometimes helps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 running TMS3KK-2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was able to get into CWM, I did absolutely nothing to the phone except let it sit, and a day later it finally let me do OTA. I'll take a look at those and see what I can come up with...

GSMinCT said:
I was able to get into CWM, I did absolutely nothing to the phone except let it sit, and a day later it finally let me do OTA. I'll take a look at those and see what I can come up with...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UCUFNE4?
EDIT: Attachment failed

So your modem is up to date. Try the dialer codes http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53350404
There are also YouTube videos on tightening the screws having an effect on GPS stability
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 running TMS3KK-2.0

Viper67857 said:
So your modem is up to date. Try the dialer codes http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53350404
There are also YouTube videos on tightening the screws having an effect on GPS stability
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 running TMS3KK-2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I actually just did that, and it *appears* to have worked. I'll have to throw GPS on when I'm running errands tomorrow and see if it has actually worked. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

GSMinCT said:
Yeah, I actually just did that, and it *appears* to have worked. I'll have to throw GPS on when I'm running errands tomorrow and see if it has actually worked. I'll keep my fingers crossed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or not. I just went out for a quick errand, and threw the GPS on. Nothing. It must have looked like it was working based on Wifi or something. Surprisingly, it can't even fake it using tower triangulation, which, in theory, should be almost as good as GPS...
I'll take a look into the screw thing. It wouldn't surprise me since I swap between the SGS III and an iPhone, so I pull the phone apart a lot, and it's a cheap plasticky design.

Download 'GPS Status' from the play store...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 running TMS3KK-2.0

Viper67857 said:
Download 'GPS Status' from the play store...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 running TMS3KK-2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not showing any GPS satellite. I'm trying GPS Fix right now, we'll see if that does anything. I tightened the screws, and that didn't help...
I'm about to throw this POS out the window! I only paid $50 for it on contract, so I'm not too upset, but it's highly unlikely that I'll buy any more Samsuck phones after having three Craptivates (they kept breaking and getting warranty swapped), and now this POS.
And I can't seem to sync any music to my iPhone, but at least that has working GPS LOL...

Scored Note 3 on garage sale for $50 what to do next ?

Phone was sold as is, it turned on but the battery was drained completely and died soon after reaching home screen. I took a plunge since price was $50 tempting Washingtons :laugh: I was 100% sure something is wrong with this device but **** it i did it. Bought a charger and USB cable on the way home and so far it's charging just fine.
Phone is mostly erased at least manually I think, because somebody left his google account as I can see email in the plays store menu and some apps, or maybe this is all the carrier pre-installed junk I'm looking at ? LOL
I don't have much experience with Samsung devices but it's a SM-N900T model with N900TUVUCNB4 4.4.2. from February 2014 according to this site http://www.galaxynote3update.com/galaxy-note-3-odin-factory-stock-firmware-usa-canada/
My question is do I stay on this Android or do I jump to Lolipop ? Wasn't there some memory issues with 5.0 ? Or maybe Custom builds ?

Your first move is to sell it to me for $5

If I was OP, I would fully charge the phone, do full factory reset and run it few days as is to test if everything works,. Once you start updating, especially custom ROM, things can break and you'll never know if it's software or hardware. If everything works fine, then you could decide for yourself what to do next. My biggest worry would be the phone is blacklisted, since Note 3 in good shape sells for $200-$300.

OK
Phone charged fully I booted it up and after short amount of time it would freeze constantly when bringing up the keyboard (Samsung or google), can't recall which one was first now because I was changing them in settings and nothing helped. Either way it was freezing after typing couple of letters or appear then crash/disappear. All this combined with some crashes from app called Lookout. Google told me to do Volume UP+HOME+POWER and do a factory reset, after that everything works fine now. Changed my sim card and I can place calls with no issues also data works fine but damn there is tons of f***ing poopy preloaded apps in here from Samsung and other garbagio . I think whoever was using this device had no idea what to do with those errors and just stopped using it somewhere around Feb. 2014 because since then basically nothing was updated on it. I'm gonna let it sit for couple of days then probably will upgrade to 5.0 via KIES and maybe replace the battery either way with OEM or maybe something like this ? http://www.amazon.com/Anker-T-Mobile-Compatibility-18-Month-Warranty/dp/B00FF54C8Q/

4xxxxL said:
OK
Phone charged fully I booted it up and after short amount of time it would freeze constantly when bringing up the keyboard (Samsung or google), can't recall which one was first now because I was changing them in settings and nothing helped. Either way it was freezing after typing couple of letters or appear then crash/disappear. All this combined with some crashes from app called Lookout. Google told me to do Volume UP+HOME+POWER and do a factory reset, after that everything works fine now. Changed my sim card and I can place calls with no issues also data works fine but damn there is tons of f***ing poopy preloaded apps in here from Samsung and other garbagio . I think whoever was using this device had no idea what to do with those errors and just stopped using it somewhere around Feb. 2014 because since then basically nothing was updated on it. I'm gonna let it sit for couple of days then probably will upgrade to 5.0 via KIES and maybe replace the battery either way with OEM or maybe something like this ? http://www.amazon.com/Anker-T-Mobile-Compatibility-18-Month-Warranty/dp/B00FF54C8Q/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're planning on keeping it, you'd be better spending the extra $ on one of these mate: http://www.amazon.com/Zerolemon-Zer...d=1453047493&sr=1-1&keywords=ZeroLemon+Note+3
I'm getting 6 days on a full charge outta mine, compared to 1 day with stock battery (course I'm running a custom rom, but when I was back on stock with my ZeroLemon, I was getting 3 days outta it)

4xxxxL said:
OK
Phone charged fully I booted it up and after short amount of time it would freeze constantly when bringing up the keyboard (Samsung or google), can't recall which one was first now because I was changing them in settings and nothing helped. Either way it was freezing after typing couple of letters or appear then crash/disappear. All this combined with some crashes from app called Lookout. Google told me to do Volume UP+HOME+POWER and do a factory reset, after that everything works fine now. Changed my sim card and I can place calls with no issues also data works fine but damn there is tons of f***ing poopy preloaded apps in here from Samsung and other garbagio . I think whoever was using this device had no idea what to do with those errors and just stopped using it somewhere around Feb. 2014 because since then basically nothing was updated on it. I'm gonna let it sit for couple of days then probably will upgrade to 5.0 via KIES and maybe replace the battery either way with OEM or maybe something like this ? http://www.amazon.com/Anker-T-Mobile-Compatibility-18-Month-Warranty/dp/B00FF54C8Q/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually you can root the phone easily, even without tripping knox on kitkat, once rooted you could freeze or kill on start up most apps that bother you, that's what I do and problem solved, phone runs like a dream.

pete4k said:
If I was OP, I would fully charge the phone, do full factory reset and run it few days as is to test if everything works,. Once you start updating, especially custom ROM, things can break and you'll never know if it's software or hardware. If everything works fine, then you could decide for yourself what to do next. My biggest worry would be the phone is blacklisted, since Note 3 in good shape sells for $200-$300.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is actually an easy way to not worry about the blacklisted issue before you ever buy a phone from someone. You can go to www.swappa.com/esn and check the status of the phone by entering it's IMEI. We buy and resell phones a lot and this is how we check them. You can check up to 10 phones free every 24 hours on the site.
4xxxxL said:
OK
Phone charged fully I booted it up and after short amount of time it would freeze constantly when bringing up the keyboard (Samsung or google), can't recall which one was first now because I was changing them in settings and nothing helped. Either way it was freezing after typing couple of letters or appear then crash/disappear. All this combined with some crashes from app called Lookout. Google told me to do Volume UP+HOME+POWER and do a factory reset, after that everything works fine now. Changed my sim card and I can place calls with no issues also data works fine but damn there is tons of f***ing poopy preloaded apps in here from Samsung and other garbagio . I think whoever was using this device had no idea what to do with those errors and just stopped using it somewhere around Feb. 2014 because since then basically nothing was updated on it. I'm gonna let it sit for couple of days then probably will upgrade to 5.0 via KIES and maybe replace the battery either way with OEM or maybe something like this ? http://www.amazon.com/Anker-T-Mobile-Compatibility-18-Month-Warranty/dp/B00FF54C8Q/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you did get lucky and come across someone who wasn't tech savvy at all, and had no idea how simple it was to fix. But hey... that's their lose and your gain.
If you do decide to root it at some point and want to run a custom ROM, click on the top banner in my signature and check it out. I think you might just like it.
kevp75 said:
If you're planning on keeping it, you'd be better spending the extra $ on one of these mate: http://www.amazon.com/Zerolemon-Zer...d=1453047493&sr=1-1&keywords=ZeroLemon+Note+3
I'm getting 6 days on a full charge outta mine, compared to 1 day with stock battery (course I'm running a custom rom, but when I was back on stock with my ZeroLemon, I was getting 3 days outta it)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah man, there is an awesome custom ROM out for this phone. I can't remember the name right off hand, but I'm sure you've heard of it. Haha
pete4k said:
Actually you can root the phone easily, even without tripping knox on kitkat, once rooted you could freeze or kill on start up most apps that bother you, that's what I do and problem solved, phone runs like a dream.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can freeze them, but in my opinion if you've gone to the trouble of rooting it, you might as well completely remove the bloatware. If all you do is freeze the apps, they are still there needlessly taking up the internal storage. There are a few lists on here that tells what is safe to remove without fear of messing the phone up.

problem with deleting "bloatware" is two fold: some programs are interdependent and deleting one you don't want may break another you need. Also, I don't know about others, but I changed my mind in the past and reactivated some applications I never thought I'll be using before.
As far as space goes, the whole system uses 4 GB maybe, so you could save 1 GB, if you're aggressive deleting files, probably couple min of 4k video worth. I got 128 GB sd card, problem solved. Maybe different story with Note 5, but that's one of main reasons I never upgraded.
Either way I strongly suggest at least freezing apps and testing before deleting it.

TimboMachimbo said:
Your first move is to sell it to me for $5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lmao

Still been using the device to watch stuff on wifi @ home and **** Can't use it as my daily driver it's just to big :0 anyway the other hidden issue that I found out about it is that the charging port is kinda beaten up especially on the left side. Sometimes you can plug the cable in and it won't charge until you apply little pressure on the connectors left side it's time to do this http://www.amazon.com/Charging-Ribbon-Connector-Samsung-T-Mobile/dp/B00H3DZRXC/

Alliance Rom
4xxxxL said:
Phone was sold as is, it turned on but the battery was drained completely and died soon after reaching home screen. I took a plunge since price was $50 tempting Washingtons :laugh: I was 100% sure something is wrong with this device but **** it i did it. Bought a charger and USB cable on the way home and so far it's charging just fine.
Phone is mostly erased at least manually I think, because somebody left his google account as I can see email in the plays store menu and some apps, or maybe this is all the carrier pre-installed junk I'm looking at ? LOL
I don't have much experience with Samsung devices but it's a SM-N900T model with N900TUVUCNB4 4.4.2. from February 2014 according to this site http://www.galaxynote3update.com/galaxy-note-3-odin-factory-stock-firmware-usa-canada/
My question is do I stay on this Android or do I jump to Lolipop ? Wasn't there some memory issues with 5.0 ? Or maybe Custom builds ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash Alliance 5.0 Lollipop ...best rom for note 3
http://forum.xda-developers.com/not...-alliancerom-n900t-uvufob6-v1-online-t3055309

Replaced the charging port with the $5 one I bought via Amazon... charging worked great but the voice recording and mic in general sounded garbled had to put the broken one back lol :S