Since a few people asked me about sony ericsson unlocking here is a small tutorial.
I hope it will help understanding sonyericsson modding and answer at least some of your
questions.
Terms Unlocking, Firmware upgrade, Decustomization explainedUnlockingPhones are generally sold by a wireless carrier for much less than their actual
retail value. The wireless carrier oftens subsidizes the cost of the phone with
the expectation that they can recover more than this amount throughout the subscriber's
contract. They will try to make sure that the phone can only be used on their particular network,
and thus, locks the phone's software to their wireless network.
Unlocking means clearing the phone's software setting so that the phone can be used on any network.
Firmware upgradeDuring the lifetime of a phone model manufacturer releases improved
versions of firmware. Sometimes you can see quite a bit of those e.g.
T610 was rather popular in this sence.
Decustomization or DebrandingThis removes not only a provider placed lock but also its anoying
logos ( think Vodafone ), predefined themes, images, sounds, locked WAP
profiles and links. Debranding gives your phone a brand new look plus
frees up its memory (if you care).
Model conversionIn some cases different models of a some phone while having identical hardware onliy differ by the main software. This is done by manufacturers to place phones in different marketing or geographical categories.
For example Sony Ericsson V800i to Z800i conversion,
SonyEricsson K750i/D750 to W800i conversion,
SonyEricsson T610 T618 conversion,
and also T610 to T616, T226 to T230, T68m to T68i conversion, etc
How to Unlock Sony EricssonThere are several options. Let's stop at some of them.
1.
Terminator Dongle : Cheap, reliable way to do some modding on sony ericsson models before Sony-ericsson J200, Z600 (all T- models and earlier)
2.
Cable unlocking via remote server[/u][/b] : The least expensive, most reliable, fast and overall my personal favorite.
3. Standalone unlocking hardware : SEtool, Cruiser, Smart dongle etc. This is usually expensive, works for professional unlockers or shops.
4. Free unlocking software : just to be fair I had to mention this option. There is some software floating around on the internet. These are usually hacked versions of legitimate software. The problem with it is that such sofware comes without support and if the phone is damaged for some reason - you are on your own. There is an increasong number of people who try to use free/cracked software, kill their phones and then spend as much as the cost of the phone in order to fix it.
'white screen of death' or message 'configuration error, contact your service provider...'
Terminator Dongle is a piece of hardware that goes along with
software called DIV. The phone you are trying to unlock is connected through the dongle to computer's LPT/Printer port.
It can perform the following functions:
AVR/ARM/GDFS flashing
Firmware upgrade
Debranding
Unlocking as well as Locking to network
Empty board flashing
GDFS area repair and backup
Repair four locks closed
Model conversion
CONVERSION AND BAND CHANGE
Convert T68m to T68i to add MMS support for use with camera attachement
Convert T300 to T310 to improve many phone characteristics including signal reception
Convert T610 to T630 to improve screen contrast issues, adds ability to take pictures in 640 x 480 fotmat
Convert T616 to T610 to be able to add/change languages
Convert T610 to T616 in order to improve signal reception
CHANGE LANGUAGES
This allows you to upload new language packs into your phone. Some
of the available laguage packs are:
English, Indonesian, Malaysian
English, Tagalong, Vietnamese, Thai
English, Simp Chinese
English, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian
English, Czech, Croatian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian
English, Greek, Turkish
English, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian
English, French, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Russian
English, French, Danish, Dutch
English, French, German
English, French, Portugeuse, Spanish
English, French, German, Italian
English, Dutch, Greek, Polish,Spanish, Swedish
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Some of the models supported by Terminator Dongle at the moment:
Sony Ericsson:
Z600, P900, P800, T360, T616,T630, T637, T68, T610, Z200, T61z,
T62u, T226, T237, T620, P802, T100, T310, T310c, T300, T316, T302,
T200, T202, T216, T230, T237, T68i, T68ie, T68m, T68mc, T65, T65s,
T39, T39m, T39mc, T20, T29, R520, R520m, R520mc, A3618, R600, A2618, A2628, A2218
Cable unlocking/flashing via remote server is a more flexible option
in terms of supported models and new features as it's constantly being
improved.
It's working on pay-per-phone basis. Unlocking of one phone costs one
credit.
Remote server can perform the following functions:
AVR/ARM/GDFS flashing
Firmware upgrade
Debranding
Unlocking
Conversion and band change
Language change
Supported phones are:
Sony Ericsson• Sony Ericsson Z and V Series: Z200, Z208, Z300 (Z300i, Z300a, Z300c), Z520i, Z520a, Z520c, V600i, V800i, V802SE (a.k.a. V802, 802SE), Z800i, Z1010i, Z1010c, Z500 (Z500i, Z500a, Z500c), Z520 (Z520i, Z520a, Z520c), Z530 (Z530i, Z530c), Z600, Z608, Z800i
• Sony Ericsson K, F, D and W Series: K300, F500i, K500i, K500c, K506c, K508i, K508c, K510 (K510i, K510a, K510c), K600i, K608i, K700i, K700c, K750i, D750i
• Sony Ericsson W-Series: W300 (W300i, W300c), W550i, W550c, W600i, W600c, W800i, W800c, W810 (W810i, W810a), W900i, W900c
• Sony Ericsson S-Series: S700i, S700c and S710a
• Sony Ericsson J-Series: J200i, J200c, J210i, J210c, J300i, J300a and J300c
• Sony Ericsson P-Series: P800, P802, P900, P908, P910i, P910a and P910c
• Sony Ericsson T-Series: T100, T105, T200, T226, T226s, T230, T238, T226m, T237, T237s, T290a, T290i, T290c, T300, T306, T310, T312, T316, T39m, T600, T610, T616, T618, T62u, T630, T628, T637, T65, T66, T68m, T68i and T68ie
• Sony Ericsson A and R Series: A3618s, R520m, R520mc and R600
PanasonicX60, X66, X68, X300, X400
A100, A108, A210
G50, G51, G51M, G70
SC3, SA6, SA7, VS2, VS3, VS6, VS7, MX7
AlcatelE157, E157, E159, E160, E161, E252, E256, E257, E259
SharpV801SH
V802SH, V902SH, SX813
V903SH, SX833
V703SH, SX313
Samsung• D Series: D100, D410, D418
• E Series: E105, E310, E400, E600, E608, E710
• S-Series: S200, S208, S300, S300m
• P-Series: P100, P108, P400, P408
• Q-Series: Q100, Q105, Q200, Q300, Q400, Z605
• V-Series: V100, V200, V205, V208
• X-Series: X105, X400, X430, X450, X480
NokiaAny DCT4 model
Daewoo DW128, DW138
More info on remote unlocking including required cables, drivers, software etc can be found in
this article[/b]
