Flashed wrong EFS image.bin, fixable? - Galaxy Note II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello all.
I replaced my n7100's motherboard with one i bought online. Works pretty well except that it would not register with my local telco. The sim is recognized, including the sim's mobile number and carrier. But no matter what, it won't register and get service. This happens with every sim from different telcos tried. The board was supposed to be unlocked.
Flashing different modems did not help. Neither did flashing different roms (stock and custom, it's currently on 4.2.2 and won't accept lower versions).
Finally i tried flashing an EFS backup i had taken from the old motherboard. Now the IMEI is 00499...
Before flashing the EFS I installed the N7100 EFS tool (from Dr. Ketan) it generated a single file backup (not a folder) and it's only a few KBs in size (while the old backup img was 20mb).
I've searched for solutions to the EFS situation but none worked so far.
Thank you for your time reading this and will appreciate any help that anyone can share.

Related

Restore advice sought re MOBO replacement

Hi Guys,
Some time ago my SGH-i927 turned off and refused to come back on, it was sent to a couple of repair specialists who confirmed it was dead; an ex SGH-i927; it was no more, it had shuffled off it's mortal coil......e.t.c.
....now I have splashed out on a 'for spares showing extreme wear' handset from a well know auction site, supposedly it switches on but because of a broken screen is otherwise unusable. My hope is to swap the innards of the spares into my old phone which has a decent screen in a desperate attempt to achieve a single working handset.
I have backups both NANDROID and EFS from my old phone before it passed away. I've searched on restoring the NANDROID and this would seem to be a workable proposition, however, I have found little on restoring EFS to a 'repaired' phone. There were hints that this might over write the IMEI of the donor with the IMEI of my old phone. The legalities of this would appear to be somewhat dubious. As I presumably own the rights to both IMEI's and there will still only be one phone with it, what are your thoughts ?
My old phone was network unlocked using an unlocking code based on it's IMEI - which of the 'Backups' contains this setting (I'm guessing EFS) ?,
If I just restore the NANDROID would the unlocked status be preserved or would I need the EFS too?
What other issues might I encounter if I try to restore the EFS ?
Your help with these questions would be gratefully received.
requiem_mortis said:
Hi Guys,
Some time ago my SGH-i927 turned off and refused to come back on, it was sent to a couple of repair specialists who confirmed it was dead; an ex SGH-i927; it was no more, it had shuffled off it's mortal coil......e.t.c.
....now I have splashed out on a 'for spares showing extreme wear' handset from a well know auction site, supposedly it switches on but because of a broken screen is otherwise unusable. My hope is to swap the innards of the spares into my old phone which has a decent screen in a desperate attempt to achieve a single working handset.
I have backups both NANDROID and EFS from my old phone before it passed away. I've searched on restoring the NANDROID and this would seem to be a workable proposition, however, I have found little on restoring EFS to a 'repaired' phone. There were hints that this might over write the IMEI of the donor with the IMEI of my old phone. The legalities of this would appear to be somewhat dubious. As I presumably own the rights to both IMEI's and there will still only be one phone with it, what are your thoughts ?
My old phone was network unlocked using an unlocking code based on it's IMEI - which of the 'Backups' contains this setting (I'm guessing EFS) ?,
If I just restore the NANDROID would the unlocked status be preserved or would I need the EFS too?
What other issues might I encounter if I try to restore the EFS ?
Your help with these questions would be gratefully received.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AS i know it would preserv. if not, you wil lbe able to use old unlock code with old imei.
Be sure to backup OLD and NEW efs.
Laws here perevent to mess with radio things, and that means you are forbidden to change your imei.
Manipulating the efs may brick your phone. I would start backup efs, and restore old one, and see what happens.
bubor thankyou for your response, may I ask for clarification
Laws here perevent to mess with radio things, and that means you are forbidden to change your imei.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would restoring my Old 'EFS' to the transplanted / replacement motherboard constitute 'messing with radio things' ?
I ask so as to avoid breaking the law ...UK LAW
Please PM me if you do not wish to publish an answer
Further research would indicate that the WiFi MAC address may also be stored in the EFS folder, if I overwrite the EFS of the donor MOBO with my backup file would the WiFi still work ?
Can anyone confirm if the WiFi component would still work with a transplanted EFS ?
All thoughts gratefully received.

Absentmindedly wiped /factory, lost IMEI, what can i do?

So I formatted /factory in clockworkmod before installing a new rom. Now I have no signal and the IMEI is lost. After some research I realized that I erased nv_data.bin from /factory and with new rom install this file was missing and it is needed for the IMEI and thus getting signal and radio use.
Does anyone know of a fix, or can you please send me your nv_data.bin files so I can flash to my phone. I have no backup at all, am I screwed?
Thanks
hshaikh said:
So I formatted /factory in clockworkmod before installing a new rom. Now I have no signal and the IMEI is lost. After some research I realized that I erased nv_data.bin from /factory and with new rom install this file was missing and it is needed for the IMEI and thus getting signal and radio use.
Does anyone know of a fix, or can you please send me your nv_data.bin files so I can flash to my phone. I have no backup at all, am I screwed?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I faced a similar issue with wiping the /factory. Did NOT have a back up. Visited a local mobile service shop (one of those shops in the subway in the city center filled with china make mobiles and lots of noise), he had some sort of a box (SPT may be) and got it repaired for 600Rs. ($35 equivalent)
I suggest you do the same -
The IMEI number is on the back of the phone under the battery
Thanks
Ghanashyam
ghanashyamprabhu said:
I faced a similar issue with wiping the /factory. Did NOT have a back up. Visited a local mobile service shop (one of those shops in the subway in the city center filled with china make mobiles and lots of noise), he had some sort of a box (SPT may be) and got it repaired for 600Rs. ($35 equivalent)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there someone in the Chicago area with a SPT box that can repair my Galaxy Nexus' IMEI?
I've got this same issue. It's a growing problem especially since CWM allows you to wipe /factory. I know of several others that can use help.
The devices used to restore bricked or no-imei phones are called JTAG boxes. There are several different variations, such as RIFF or as mentioned SPT are a few ones you can buy, they are around ~$100 US.
Just google "JTAG box" or "Galaxy nexus jtag box" to get an idea of the ones out there. Amazon and eBay also have some descriptions of them.
You need or find someone with one of these if you accidentally deleted your EFS/Factory/radio/imei partition without backing them up. (mmcblk0p3 on Galaxy Nexus). The JTAG software and device will help restore your phone to the original stock condition. Not everyone has this tool, but a true phone repair shop or specialist should.

IMEI null, Service Mode Blank, Baseband Unknown

Hey all!
I have a Canadian S4 (SGH-M919V) from WIND Mobile that my friend gave to me, broken.
I have already tried just about everything I can think of, and everything I read online to repair it.
It has a NULL IMEI (as verified by doing *#06#), and when I enter the Service Mode menu via *#0011#, the menu screen comes up but is just black and blank. The Baseband version displays as "Unknown".
I have tried flashing a few different stock roms (via Odin) for that particular phone, and have even tried AOSP roms (via TWRP), to no avail.
I have followed guides for restoring a blank IMEI, however, all the methods I tried required a working Service Mode, which I do not have.
At this point I'm thinking the problem is either hardware, or, it needs to have the IMEI reset via the JTAG, and I don't have the stuff to do that.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
ess.boyer said:
Hey all!
I have a Canadian S4 (SGH-M919V) from WIND Mobile that my friend gave to me, broken.
I have already tried just about everything I can think of, and everything I read online to repair it.
It has a NULL IMEI (as verified by doing *#06#), and when I enter the Service Mode menu via *#0011#, the menu screen comes up but is just black and blank. The Baseband version displays as "Unknown".
I have tried flashing a few different stock roms (via Odin) for that particular phone, and have even tried AOSP roms (via TWRP), to no avail.
I have followed guides for restoring a blank IMEI, however, all the methods I tried required a working Service Mode, which I do not have.
At this point I'm thinking the problem is either hardware, or, it needs to have the IMEI reset via the JTAG, and I don't have the stuff to do that.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately you are going to have to get your information on fixing this elsewhere.
Discussion about changing the IMEI (even from 0 to a working value) are forbidden on XDA as making changes to an IMEI is illegal in most places in the world. And people use that info to make it easier to steal phones, so we don't discuss it here.
The only thing that I can advise you on is to restore the EFS backup, which includes that devices original IMEI, if one was made and saved to the device. If not, that's no help at all.
I can say that you're on the right track though as far as fixing it. But you need to find your answers somewhere else.
Skipjacks said:
Unfortunately you are going to have to get your information on fixing this elsewhere.
Discussion about changing the IMEI (even from 0 to a working value) are forbidden on XDA as making changes to an IMEI is illegal in most places in the world. And people use that info to make it easier to steal phones, so we don't discuss it here.
The only thing that I can advise you on is to restore the EFS backup, which includes that devices original IMEI, if one was made and saved to the device. If not, that's no help at all.
I can say that you're on the right track though as far as fixing it. But you need to find your answers somewhere else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I realize the issues surrounding changing the IMEI, so I wasn't looking for help with that necessarily (though I would be open to doing so as the phone does have it's own perfectly legal and valid IMEI which I would be using).
I was hoping that perhaps all that was wrong was a corrupt modem, or something along those lines. I have tried to do an EFS restore, but to no avail. Some guides suggest doing a backup of the presumably corrupt EFS and then restoring it, but that didn't help either.
I am probably just going to have to chalk this up to "unfixable", as it most likely is indeed hardware damage.
So unless anyone else has any ideas...
ess.boyer said:
Thanks for the reply. I realize the issues surrounding changing the IMEI, so I wasn't looking for help with that necessarily (though I would be open to doing so as the phone does have it's own perfectly legal and valid IMEI which I would be using).
I was hoping that perhaps all that was wrong was a corrupt modem, or something along those lines. I have tried to do an EFS restore, but to no avail. Some guides suggest doing a backup of the presumably corrupt EFS and then restoring it, but that didn't help either.
I am probably just going to have to chalk this up to "unfixable", as it most likely is indeed hardware damage.
So unless anyone else has any ideas...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have the valid IMEI that is confirmed good it is fixable. But it just can't be discussed here. I wouldn't throw the phone out. (If nothing else it's a GREAT tiny tablet for wifi use.)
Google will help you out.
Skipjacks said:
If you have the valid IMEI that is confirmed good it is fixable. But it just can't be discussed here. I wouldn't throw the phone out. (If nothing else it's a GREAT tiny tablet for wifi use.)
Google will help you out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again. I have an authorized Samsung repair place in town, so I will bring it by there first and see if they can handle it. If not, I'll ask my old buddy Google where to take it from there.

N3N Hex anyone?

Hi, i backed up my efs using twrp anyway and only did the firmware, used the phone only for a week and now the baseband is gone out of blue.
no imei.
i have tried million ways however now i think i've only two options. either i go to some profession (hard to find) to use some "boxes" and fix it for me, i play with nv-data hex file or the imei folder's to make something work!
is it possible? it might be illegal in some countries to touch the nvdata file however, if i'm only replacing my imei, i wouldn't really care if its illegal.
hope someone can help.

I don't know how but I lost my two IMEIs numbers, how to restore them please? Note10+

Hi all,
After I played with some custom roms and get back to the stock rom, I found my Note 10+ N975F without IMEIs number, is there anyway to write them again? I searched a lot on the internet but could't find any solutions.
Best Regards
I recall a mandatory step before flashing roms or tinkering with the OS, it was making an EFS backup, but, in these days I do not know if it is still the case
winol said:
I recall a mandatory step before flashing roms or tinkering with the OS, it was making an EFS backup, but, in these days I do not know if it is still the case
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's still the method used. Without the EFS backup you are left with a lemon of a device if things goes wrong. This will be a expensive lesson for the thread starter. The warranty will not cover this since the phone been rooted. If people only made some research before rooting their phone. Oh well.......
Thanks @winol and @ELMoro752 , I visited a local official Samsung partner and they told me I must change the Motherboard which cost about 350$, then I went to a repair shop, he told me maybe he can fix it from a Server (!?) for 70$ and he told me that the EFS file was deleted which contain the IMEI numbers.
Best Regards
Thanks @winol and @ELMoro752 , I visited a local official Samsung partner and they told me I must change the Motherboard which cost about 350$, then I went to a repair shop, he told me maybe he can fix it from a Server (!?) for 70$ and he told me that the EFS file was deleted which contain the IMEI numbers.
Best Regards

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