Unlocking and Debranding P990i

A little bit of history

I have googled on the legality of phone unlocking and most of the people are saying that it is legal to have the phone unlocked. However, if your contract is still on-going, you may void your phone warranty.

My phone was locked to Orange previously and the firmware was Orange branded. The interface was rather dull and the colors are not attractive too. One noticeable function which cannot be used was the control of the camera sound. In addition, I tried to install Fring and only to find out that I would need to update the firmware to a newer version.

Overall, I just do not like something which cannot be upgraded or have some functions disabled.

Before Erase Lock and Unlock Phone

Of course, you will need the drivers, both Phone Mode and USB Storage Mode. The easiest way to get the drivers is to install Sony Ericsson Update Service (SEUS) program. In my case, my phone was locked to Orange and even if I force the update, it will not debrand my phone anyway.

However, install SEUS now to get the drivers and you will need SEUS later to debrand P990i. When I was unlocking my phone, I was stuck somewhere after erasing the lock. I searched through forums after forums and some suggested having SEMC flash drive. Well, after successfully unlocking and debranding P990i, I can say that the drivers that are installed by SEUS are enough for the system and program to detect P990i.

Unlocking

The unlocking procedure is very easy and it involves only two steps; Erase Lock and Unlock Phone. SEKing Unlocker program is used and 5 credits are needed to unlock a PDA phone. Well, I will not be talking about where you can purchase the credits because just do a search and you will get a list of people requesting and selling SEKing credits. If I remember correctly, SEKing website requires a minimum purchase of 20 credits.

When I first ran the Erase Lock, the program did not detect my phone. By the way, once you have the credits ready, you will have the login details. Input your UserID, password and select PDA as the model. In order to have P990i detected by the program, you need to connect the USB cable and select File Transfer Mode. Then, click Erase Lock and you will be given a set of instruction. If you have played around with Sony Ericsson phones before, you will be familiar with the instruction which is to turn off your phone, press and hold C while connecting the USB cable.

Erase Lock using SEKing does not require any credits.

Problems

When I was unlocking my phone, I could not proceed to Unlock Phone after erasing the lock. The phone was not detected by SEKing. When I powered up my phone, it went into Phone Lock and after that Sim Lock. Then again, I searched through forums and found out that in order to run the Unlock function in SEKing, I would need to flash my phone so that I could change the USB mode to Phone mode which will then be detected by SEKing to perform unlocking.

Certainly, I would not be satisfied to pay additional money to flash my phone in order to perform unlocking. On sudden thought, I ran SEUS again on my phone the other day and amazingly, it seemed that my phone was flashed and I continued to perform the unlock function under SEKing program. Five minutes later, my P990i was unlocked.

Debranding

There are two methods of debranding a P990i where I found in forums. One is very easy while the other is a bit difficult and time consuming if the procedures are done incorrectly.

The first method is to use XS++.

1. Download XS++ from the link below. -At the Resources part-

2. Then download the script package for EPOC smartphones from the same post

3. READ THE README IN THAT PACKAGE!!!

4. Run XS++

5. Tick "Smartphone connect" checkbox

6. Follow XS++ v2.0 instructions

7. Once booted - Go to GDFS page

8. In "GDFS Script" edit field, select your chosen script from the package supplied

9. Run script!

10. Once complete, you are ready to update with SEUS which will detect your smartphone according to the script!

The second method uses Sony Ericsson Update Service program.

Debrand using SEUS

This method works for P990, M600 and W950. Credit to kwanying.wordpress.com who found this method and it is free to debrand.

1. I am sure that you have SEUS program installed. Thus, run the update on your phone. You will be prompted with a message saying that you already have the latest firmware installed (even if you do not have the latest firmware). However, you have the option to continue anyway. So, choose continue anyway.

2. Check your SEUS folder. If you install the program without changing any of the values, it should be on C:Program FilesSony EricssonUpdate Servicedb13740270blob_fs.

3. In my case, there are a lot of files in the folder. In order to know which files are the latest downloaded files, sort all the files by dates.

4. In kwanying instructions, it asked to look for two files; 310+bytes and 410+bytes. Well, I have several of them. After that, replace the files with the generic firmware or whichever version of firmware that you can find.

5. In order to find the exact 310+bytes and 410+bytes files, I used free HEX editor to match the files against the generic firmware. Look into the first seven fields at the start of the file. If they are the same, then it is the file that you should be replacing. Make sure that you backup the files that you are going to replace in case something goes wrong.

6. Update the phone again using SEUS program. After the update, power up the phone and run through the setup wizard. View system information and you should find 2 CDA number.

7. Update the phone once again using SEUS program. This last time should force SEUS program to download and update the phone with the latest CDA.

Sadly, the first method did not work out for my P990i. Thus, I have to resort to the second method. With a little bit of effort, I managed to debrand my P990i.

Verdict

As I mentioned, unlocking is easy and kind of straightforward. However, one mistake will cost you dearly, I suppose. You might want to bear in mind that when erasing lock, the phone has to be in File Transfer Mode while during Unlock, the phone has to be in Phone Mode in order for SEKing program to detect the phone.

Debranding is rather easy to do unless you do not mind to use the branded firmware. However, some users ‘bricked' their phone when they debrand their phone without unlocking them.

Hence, debranding is not unlocking. Unlocking is to set your phone free to use with all networks operators whereas debranding is to remove the branded firmware as customized by the network operators.

Although I am not an expert, but I have successfully unlock and debrand my P990i. Feel free to ask me and I will help if I am able to.

Resources

Debranding using XS++

Download XS++ and Guide

Kwanying Blog to Debranding

Sony Ericsson Update Services

Free HEX Editor Tool

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